The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

(Cover picture courtesy of Realm of Words.)

If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal.  Now my life has changed forever and I’m as far away from normal as it gets.  A living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group.  What does that mean?  For starters, I’m a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control: I raise the dead without even trying.  Trust me, that is not a power you want to have.  Ever.

Now I’m running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first.  Or die trying.

Unlike City of Ashes, The Awakening suffers from Book Two Disease, a terrible affliction known to cause frustration, disgust, boredom, and in rare cases, complete alienation.  In my case it was a sense of boredom instead of complete alienation, but second books should improve upon the original story, not make readers question their judgment of the first book.

We learn a little bit more about Derek and Simon’s past, the mysterious Edison Group and why Chloe is such a powerful necromancer at such a young age.  But most of the book revolves around Derek, Simon, Chloe and Tori trying to find a safe place from the Edison Group.  The plot is not nearly as exciting as the first book simply because it puts a lot of emphasis (perhaps too much) on the inter-character relationships.  Like a lot of YA fiction, it revolves around a love triangle.  Some books can pull off a love triangle very well, but this is not one of them.  It just ends up feeling like Chloe is a Mary Sue that every guy she meets falls in love with.

I wish the second book in the Darkest Powers trilogy could have been better because it had a lot of potential.  Sadly, Kelley Armstrong doesn’t take it to the next level and it made me very reluctant to read the third book.  The Awakening is not a bad book on its own, but in the context of the series, it is not a good book.

I give this book 2/5 stars.

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My Favourite Villains

This is the first article in a weekly series.  Today I will be covering my favourite type of character: villains.  Villains are the spice in novels and well-developed villains turn good novels into great novels.  Here I will list my top 5 favourite villains in descending order.  Warning: this may contain spoilers.

1.  Niccoló Machiavelli from The Magician by Michael Scott.

If Michael Scott is good at one thing, it’s creating complex characters.  Machiavelli may be a villain, but he certainly has flashes of good and his backstory is quite sad.  He seems to reluctantly work for Dee and the Dark Elders, but he is also very pragmatic about it.  Throughout the series I have been unable to truly figure him out, although his character does take an interesting turn in the penultimate book, The Warlock.  I really hope to see more of him in The Enchantress because he’s a truly fascinating character.  I guarantee you, he is one of the best villains you will ever see in YA fiction (and regular fiction, for that matter).

2.  Satan from Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Yes, this is probably a pretty controversial choice, but as a character, John Milton’s Satan is a wonderful villain.  Charismatic, powerful and completely evil, he is the epitome of a villain.  He believes what he is doing is right and will do anything to achieve his goal.  After being thrown out of Heaven, Satan goes to Earth and convinces Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge in order to corrupt mankind and spite God.  The only reason John Milton’s Satan is not my favourite villain is because he’s portrayed as pure evil, rather than having any real redeeming qualities. Continue reading →

Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge

(Cover picture courtesy of Pauline Gedge’s website.)

Prince Khaemwaset is a powerful man.  The son of Ramses II and a revered physician, he is respected for his wisdom throughout Egypt.  But Khaemwaset harbours a strong and secret desire—to find the mysterious Scroll of Thoth and receive the power to raise the dead.

When Khaemwaset hears of the discovery of a hidden tomb on the plain of Saqqara, he is quick to break its seal and take its secrets—secrets that he soon learns he should never have disturbed.

Richly detailed with the exotic realities of Ancient Egypt, Scroll of Saqqara is a compelling tale of power, lust, and obsession.

Scroll of Saqqara is one of the few novels that has truly managed to surprise me.  I thought it was going to be another slow-paced novel that chronicles the life of a famous ancient Egyptian, but I was very, very wrong.  Scroll of Saqqara is a relatively fast-paced novel that chronicles the life of a virtually unknown (and fairly unimportant) son of Ramses the Great.

It starts out with Khaemwaset inspecting a tomb that he has ordered opened.  The strange thing is that he himself has been digging in the sacred hills of Saqqara—a resting place for the dead that was already ancient in his time—looking for the Scroll of Thoth.  It is Khaemwaset’s obsession with finding this legendary scroll that will bring a curse on him and his family.

Scroll of Saqqara is an historical fiction novel, but it could also be categorized as a horror novel because of the tense undercurrent running throughout it (especially in the last 200 pages).  Pauline Gedge brings all of her characters to life, especially Ramses, who makes a brief, but memorable appearance.  Each character is very well developed and readers will understand them, if not completely sympathize with them.  Because of its sexual content, I would recommend Scroll of Saqqara for older teens and adults.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

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City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

(Cover picture courtesy of Gripped Into Books.)

A murderer is loose in New York City…

…and the victims are Downworlder children.  Clary Fray and her fellow Shadowhunters have a strong suspicion that Valentine, Clary’s father, may be behind the killings.  But if he is the murderer, what’s his true motive?  To make matters worse, the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, has been stolen, and the mysterious Inquisitor ahs arrived to investigate, with his eyes vigilantly targeted on Clary’s brother, Jace.

Clary will need to face some terrifying demons and even more terrifying family decisions.  No one said that the life of a Shadowhunter would be easy.

It’s rare that the second book in a series or trilogy is better than the first book (see Catching Fire), but Cassandra Clare has managed to pull it off.  City of Ashes has twice the suspense, romance and surprises of City of Bones.

It has many of the clichés of the first novel, but these are given some interesting spins that kept me on the edge of my seat (especially in Chapter 9: And Death Shall Have No Dominion) up until the very end.  City of Ashes may be my favourite book in The Mortal Instruments trilogy, but it does have its flaws.  Clary could still be substituted for any YA protagonist and Jace is still the stereotypical super hot but icy love interest.  The only redeeming thing is that we get to see many other characters’ points of view, which gives them a bit more depth than in the first book.

We see a bit more of Valentine, which I really like.  Many of the villains in YA fiction are neglected and end up having what I like to call Dr. No Syndrome: they’re just evil with no explanation or the explanation is really unbelievable.  No one really thinks of themselves as a villain in real life, so why should it be any different in fiction?  Valentine really thinks he’s doing the right thing and the perverted logic he uses makes it sound like he is the true hero, even if his actions do not match up.  I think many YA authors would do well to study Cassandra Clare’s enigmatic villain.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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Upcoming Reviews

Here are reviews you can expect this week and which days they will be posted:

Sunday: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Monday: Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge (plus an extra article dealing with the YA genre!)

Tuesday: The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Wednesday: Conqueror by Conn Iggulden

Thursday: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Friday: Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Saturday: The Magician by Michael Scott

All of these are by authors I’ve reviewed before, but only 5 of them are the second books in their respective series.  Next week, you can expect a lot of book reviews of Conn Iggulden books since I’ve recently re-read his two series.  I’m also planning something special for my 42nd review.  Fellow geeks can probably guess which book I’ll review that day!