Parsifal’s Page by Gerald Morris

(Cover picture courtesy of Better World Books.)

Piers, watching from the door to the shop, gaped with awe at the night.

Piers is desperate to escape the dirty, tedious labor of his father’s blacksmith shop.  So when a knight shows up and says he’s on “the quest,” Piers begs to go along.  Surprisingly, his father lets him, and soon he is off on a series of adventures he never dreamed possible.  However, Piers’s knight quickly runs into difficulties and is slain by an odd character named Parsifal, who is on his own quest.  Piers has no other choice but to join him.  As their journey continues, Piers begins to realize what being a knight really means.

Apparently the legend of Parsifal is quite famous, although I have only heard of it through the title of Richard Wagner’s opera, fittingly called ‘Parsifal‘.  And no, I had not even watched the opera, just heard of it.  My only encounter with Parsifal thus far was briefly when Gawain wrestled with him in the Other World.  However, I’m glad Gerald Morris saw fit to bring Parsifal to the front of the stage.

This story is not told by Parsifal himself, but rather by Piers, his page.  Piers was raised to believe knights should follow a strict code of courtesy and that questions were impertinent.  It is this latter belief that gets both of them into trouble and in the end Piers’ views of knighthood are drastically altered.  Since this fourth book in The Squire’s Tales is told from the point of view of Piers, we do not get to see Parsifal’s thoughts, which is a real shame.  I personally would have liked to learn more about Parsifal’s motivations and his life in the Other World, but Piers is a decent enough narrator.

Once again the story is not so much about Terence and Gawain, although they appear in it and definitely challenge Piers’ views of the relationship between squire and knight.  While Parsifal’s Page is not my absolute favourite book in The Squire’s Tales, it’s certainly a good book and a fitting retelling of yet another popular Arthurian legend.  Sometimes authors lose their steam by the third or fourth book in a series, but this is certainly not the case for Gerald Morris.  He has attacked the legend with all the enthusiasm you would expect and delivers a heartwarming tale of friendship and love.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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Authors: The Following Information Should be Obvious

In my capacity as a book reviewer, I have worked with many authors.  Most of them have been absolutely amazing, kind, considerate people.  But it’s the other (small) part, the one that moans, nitpicks, gets ‘smart’ and thinks the world owes them something that makes my job quite unpleasant at times.  That is why I have compiled this list for future references.

Authors, if this information seems blatantly obvious to you, great!  Thank you for realizing book reviewers are human beings.  If this information is completely new to you, then don’t waste my time by submitting your book for reviewing.

1.  I am not your editor.

If there are mistakes in books, I will make notes of them as I read and include a few examples in my review.  In my emails to authors I will often mention them and include some page numbers as examples.  If there are only a few mistakes, I will list all of them.  But sometimes this information brings up the question if I could go back and re-read a novel to find all of the mistakes, which brings me to the title of this point: I am not your editor.

If you are traditionally published and there are mistakes, it is not my problem that your editor did not do their job.  They are obviously lazy or incompetent or both and should be fired.  If you are self-published and hired a freelance editor but there are still mistakes, it is also not my problem.  You got duped; it’s sad, but still not my problem.  And, finally, if you are self-published but did not hire an editor, it is most definitely not my problem that you cannot match the quality of a real editor.

In short, bad editing is not my problem and I am under absolutely no obligation to tell you where all of the mistakes are.  If you ask nicely I might, depending on how busy I am at the time and how much effort you are asking me to put in.  If you want me to catch every little mistake and do content editing…well that’s a whole different ballgame.  Hint: the answer is ‘no’, unless you’re willing to pay the proper hourly fee according to the EFA plus a little more since editing is above and beyond the call of a book reviewer.  Basic copy-editing will cost you $50 an hour and my rates only go up from there.  Hint: You can find cheaper rates out there. Continue reading →

What Makes You Stop Reading a Book?

I came across this article by author Terri Ponce via her Twitter feed about what made her put down a book.  With her permission I decided to shamelessly steal borrow her great idea for my own article.

As a book reviewer I like to think I have two great perspectives: one is the average reader and the other is a critical eye for dissecting the elements of a plot, world-building and characters.  I used to think I would be a fiction writer so I have read just as much, if not more, than many authors about how to structure a plot, how to build unique fantasy worlds and create believable characters that people can relate to.  The fact I am also an enthusiastic amateur historian (very amateur) definitely helps in dissecting historical fiction.  At the same time, I am also reading for entertainment and generally know what the average reader will and won’t enjoy.

So what makes me stop reading a book?  A lot of things, as it turns out:

1.  Unrelatable characters.

This is a personal thing, but characters make the story.  I can sort of forgive a terrible premise if the characters are amazing, but I cannot forgive an amazing premise with terrible characters.  Characters generally drive the story forward and although it’s not so bad in third person, bad characters in first person are agonizingly painful.  Why?  Because you’re stuck in their heads with no chance of escaping.

By terrible characters I mean Mary Sues or Gary Stus.  In female characters it means they’re absolutely gorgeous (but don’t know it) so everyone falls in love with them and in fantasy they will have all of the awesome powers or abilities no one else does.  They are basically vessels for the author’s wish fulfillment and it really is tiresome.  As for Gary Stus, think James Bond: beds all of the women, is supercool, always has a witty comeback and knows everything. Continue reading →

Look What Just Arrived! (#5)

Well, I went book shopping in Ottawa and was extremely lucky because Chapters had a sale where you could buy three books and get the fourth free.  I bought eight books there, four of which were Christmas presents.  Anyway, here are the books I bought in the store:

  • The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
  • Pillars of Rome by Jack Ludlow
  • Claudius the God by Robert Graves
  • World War Z
  • Antony & Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough

The Crystal Cave is a book I just happened to stumble across and picked it up because it is about Merlin.  As you are probably well aware by now, I love the Arthurian legends.  Pillars of Rome by Jack Ludlow is also a chance find but I picked it up because I love ancient Rome.  Claudius the God by Robert Graves was certainly not chance and it was hidden so well that I actually had to ask one of the clerks to help me find it.  I found it and would have liked to find a more…tasteful…cover but that was the only version they had.  Since I’m desperate to hear of Claudius’ years as Emperor, I wasn’t too picky.  And lucky me, I stumbled across a bunch of Colleen McCullough’s books!  I picked up Antony and Cleopatra because the first book in her Roman series wasn’t available.

Now you’re probably wondering where World War Z fits into all of this.  Well, I was sitting in the airport and noticed that my plane was going to be delayed so I immediately headed for the nearest bookstore.  I hadn’t brought any of the books with me because they were too large to fit into the pocket of my laptop case.  That’s why I bought World War Z: It was long enough to keep me occupied on the long flight back home, but not too long as to be bulky to carry around.  Also, one of my friends who loves zombies recommended it.  He doesn’t recommend books often, so when he does you know it’s good.

So what are you reading now?

Home Sweet Home

I’m back from a hectic week in Ottawa.  Wow!  The architecture was impressive, Question Period was a bunch of preschoolers arguing and the book shopping was great.  But now I’m exhausted, so here are some pictures:

This is Notre Dame Cathedral in Gatineau, Quebec.  Gatineau is right across the river from Ottawa, for those of you who don’t know.  It was built by the Irish and French Canadians, which explains both the opulence and the shamrock over one of the doors leading into the cathedral.  They built this in their spare time, which is rather depressing for us lesser mortals who like to read or watch TV in our spare time.

Also: No, there is no real gold.  All of the carvings are actually wood with gold coloured paint.  Still, this is a very impressive cathedral and my picture hardly does it justice.

And this, of course, is Parliament.  I took the tour, drooled over the library and nearly slept through Question Period.  Sometimes I think preschoolers are better behaved than our representatives, but I am quite the cynic.

I also went to the enormous Chapters bookstore near Rideau Hall (yes, it was amazing!), but I have no pictures of that.  Needless to say I just finished my Christmas/birthday shopping for the year and have a lot of new reading material.  More on that later, after I get a decent night’s sleep.

So what’s new with you guys?