Avalon by Anya Seton

Avalon by Anya Seton(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

This saga of yearning and mystery travels across oceans and continents to Iceland, Greenland, and North America during the time in history when Anglo-Saxons battled Vikings and the Norsemen discovered America. The marked contrasts between powerful royalty, landless peasants, Viking warriors and noble knights are expertly brought to life in this gripping tale of the French prince named Rumon. Shipwrecked off the Cornish coast on his quest to find King Arthur’s legendary Avalon, Rumon meets a lonely girl named Merewyn and their lives soon become intertwined. Rumon brings Merewyn to England, but once there he is so dazzled by Queen Alrida’s beauty that it makes him a virtual prisoner to her will. In this riveting romance, Anya Seton once again proves her mastery of historical detail and ability to craft a compelling tale that includes real and colorful personalities such as St. Dunstan and Eric the Red.

As I do often, I picked up Avalon in a store because it had really cool cover art. Also, the setting I thought was pretty interesting.

Now, this book is categorized as historical romance. Normally I don’t read romance stories, but I do read historical ones, and when I got it I didn’t even know it was defined as romance anyways; its cover art looked cool as already stated, and the side panels on the interior of the book showed it had a setting I enjoyed, although if you get the book, I’d recommend you don’t read much of those, as they tell virtually the entire plot bar the end. I saw where these mischievous panels were going and just started reading the book instead.

This book took up a lot of my time initially. I was engaged in the time period, the characters, all of it.The plot does not span a small time-span; it follows two characters, Rumon and Merewyn, over the course of decades — from the late 10th century through the 11th — and weaves through many locations, such as southern Britain, Iceland, Greenland, and even a small portion of the Americas. It takes all these different historical events and characters of those times, and uses Rumon and Merewyn to fling you along and through them.

A lot happens in the plot, and it has a unique structure somewhat because of what it spans. I never felt like it was just slogging me through back- or sidestory too much, but for me it was very suspenseful, occasionally wishing Rumon would move a little faster because a lot depends on it and I am way into this plot.

I don’t want to spoil ending, but the book does a good job at not going where you think it will go. It stubbornly sticks with this until the end, and even though it probably isn’t where you thought it would end up, I can’t fault the book for that. I instead believe that it gives a suitable ending, that fulfills, just not in the way you were hoping.

Also, the ending sets up the events that happen after the considerable span of the book. In this way, I think the book, albeit an old one at this point (published first in ’65), does a masterful job of placing a personal story and plot inside the major history, without conflicting, and in fact using both to support each other. So I’d like to give my compliments to the author, who wrote that book so long ago.

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Happy 3rd Blog Anniversary!

Happy 3rd BirthdayThree years ago, around 5:30 pm I started The Mad Reviewer.  I was half asleep and exhausted after work but had been planning to start a blog for a solid two weeks or so.  I had all of my first posts typed up to post right away and my first review was The Iron King by Julie Kagawa.  It was rough and not very well written I must admit, but I like to think I’ve gotten better after three years and 600 more reviews as practice.

So here I am, three years, 600 reviews and 200,000+ views later.  On my first day ever, my blog got 18 views whereas now I average anywhere from 150-200 views per day, depending on what I post that week and any holidays that are currently going on.  It’s been an incredible journey.  I’ve made so many friends and met so many interesting people (as much as one can make friends and ‘meet’ people online) and I’ve learned a lot.  Here are just some of the things I’ve learned in three years of writing nearly daily:

1.  Even though not everyone sticks around for long, you do build up a core section of regular commenters.

People follow and then unfollow your blog; that’s just the way the internet works.  But over time, blogs build up communities of sorts where a few people will comment pretty regularly on your posts.  It’s gratifying to see that community build and change over the years and although I love all of the comments I get, the comments from you regulars always mean so much to me.  It shows me that even when my writing is not necessarily my best, you’re still willing to give it a read and leave your thoughts behind.  That’s a pretty incredible feeling and I like to think we’ve had some pretty interesting conversations and debates over the years.

2.  Blogging can be exhausting and that’s normal.

You will eventually get burned out.  That’s just the way blogging goes, like so many other creative pursuits.  You’ll be posting daily and regularly and all of a sudden something awful will happen in your real life that completely throws everything off.  Or maybe something happens that isn’t all that dramatic and you just lose the ‘shiny new’ feeling you get when you blog.  Either way, every blogger will hit a slump.  Mine was just recently after my beloved boss/mentor/role model died in May.  It was really bad in July and August but this January my resolution has been to move on and write daily like I used it.  So far so good and it’s such a relief to get back on a schedule.  It just makes me feel better about the whole thing.

That’s why my main advice for new bloggers is this: you will burn out eventually.  But when you do, take a break and get back on that horse.

3.  Some posts will be surprisingly popular; others will not.

If you write articles with popular internet buzzwords like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘nude’ (preferably in the same sentence), you’re going to get a lot of views.  42% of my traffic last year came from a post with just those words and most of those views were from search engines.  Rants like the aforementioned rebuttal are satisfying to write if only to let off some steam and it’s also satisfying to look back on those rants and see that they’re still popular.

But I’ve got some bad news for new bloggers: the articles that you generally will care the most about and put the most effort into will not be the most popular.  (Especially if you’re a book blogger.)  In general, what you like to write about and what your core group of loyal readers loves will not be as popular with the general public.  I love to write about obscure historical figures in my Forgotten Figures series but the problem with writing about obscure historical figures is that they’re obscure.  Not many people search them out.

Of course you can love to rant about popular topics and get views from those, but don’t be surprised when articles you put your heart and soul into don’t get the number of views that are proportional to the effort put into them.

4.  There are some bad times, but there are mostly good times to be had.

Sometimes, just like in real life, people can be assholes online.  This shouldn’t be news to anyone who has ever been online.  Sometimes those assholes will attack you.  It’s just a fact of life on the internet, particularly if you’re female (then you get all of the bonus sexual harassment in addition to regular harassment!).  And if you’re a book blogger like me, it’s inevitable that an author will go ballistic at you for doing something ‘wrong’.  Whether it’s rejecting a review request because your requests are closed or not being totally 100% happy and completely positive in your review of their work, you’re going to get attacked by an author.  You need to develop a thick skin and deal with it, unfortunately.  They’re not going anywhere.

Those are the low points of being a book blogger.  They’re rare, but they are there.  Fortunately, most of the times will be good.  Your posts will be read by at least a couple loyal readers a day and you’ll meet some amazing people in the publishing industry, be they editors, bloggers or writers.  You’ll get to share your love of books and that’s really what book blogging is all about, at least for me.  The good times have definitely outweighed the bad here on The Mad Reviewer.

Forgotten Figures: Imhotep

No, this Imhotep is not the priest from The Mummy (1999).  Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian man who took a simple enough idea that had developed over the centuries and turned it up a notch to create what was then the world’s largest stone building.  He is forgotten by all but Egyptologists and amateur enthusiastic historians but in his own time and for centuries afterward, he was a legend as an architect and healer.  Eventually, he would become a god.

Imhotep at the Louvre

One of the few images of Imhotep, currently housed at the Louvre.

Background

Imhotep lived and came to prominence in the reign of Djoser, which happened circa 2650 B.C.  His origins are largely unknown but classical historians put his town of birth at Gebelein, which was south of ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt.  Still others put his birthplace at Ankhtow, a suburb of Memphis in the north (Lower Egypt).  So I think we can safely say that no one has any firm idea where this man came from.  What we do know is that Imhotep was born into a fascinating and complicated time.

This was the early period of ancient Egypt, before all the famous pharaohs like Ramses II and Tutankhamun.  No, those people lived in the 19th and 18th Dynasties respectively while Djoser is considered the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty.  These people lived more than a thousand years apart and Egypt was not yet the powerhouse it would become in the New Kingdom.  Narmer had united Upper and Lower Egypt circa 2900 B. C. so the country was fairly new when you compare it to what it would eventually become: a three thousand year long relatively successful regional power.  The art compared to the Middle and New Kingdom art was basic and architecture was just in its infancy but Imhotep would help bring along a sort of renaissance that we would call the Pyramid age.  That’s still a little farther off in Egyptian history than we’ll cover today, however.

Continue reading →

Lazy Sundays: I Have a Weird Kitten

Part of being a book lover seems to also mean I love cats, which I of course do.  So like the crazy cat lady I am, I’m going to talk about my cat on this lazy Sunday while I brainstorm for my next Forgotten Figures article.

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I know that all cats have unique personalities and quirks, just like people, but I think my little Tyrion is weirder than most cats.  Here are just some of his odd quirks:

1.  He has a favourite toy that used to look like a squirrel until he ripped its tail and arms off and tore its front up so bad I had to sew on a patch.  (This squirrel is a pretty sad-looking critter, I’ll admit, but Tyrion would go ballistic if I just threw it out.)  The odd thing about this is that he takes it everywhere, even to bed, just carrying it around in his mouth.  He’ll go up to his scratching post (which has a bowl shape at the top for him to sleep), bringing his squirrel and set him down between his front paws.  Then he’ll bathe both himself and the squirrel, occasionally making prrrt sounds at it like he’s talking to it.  It’s just plain weird.

2.  He likes fruit.  Specifically, strawberries, oranges, pineapple and blueberries.  I thought cats weren’t supposed to like citrus?  Like, at all.  So how on earth does this crazy cat harass me whenever I cut up strawberries for myself until I just give in and give him a couple small scraps?

3.  Ever since I brought him home when he was seven weeks old, he loves to stand up on his back legs.  Usually it’s when he hears a sound and wants to see what’s going on, but sometimes it seems to be for no good reason.  Apparently, in addition to liking fruit he thinks he’s a meerkat.

4.  Finally, he sticks his tongue out a lot.  When he’s sleeping, when he’s awake, when he’s playing/play-fighting with me, etc.  It’s like he forgets to stick it back in and when I touch it to remind him he has a tongue he gets annoyed.  My old cat did that sometimes but I think that’s because he was getting senile; Tyrion is as sharp as a whip but he still leaves his tongue out.

 

So, how about you guys?  Do your pets do weird things that aren’t really typical for the species?  Does anyone but my cat have a favourite toy that’s sort of like a comfort blanket?

Meet the 2015 Reading Challenge Participants!

The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge 2015Well, The Mad Reviewer Reading & Reviewing Challenge for 2015 has officially started off (although any reviews from January 1st onward of course count).  Here are the awesome people who signed up to participate in the challenge as well as their goals.  If you haven’t signed up, see this post here for the rules and comment on it with the required information.

That’s enough preamble, though.  Let’s meet the participants this year!

1.  Myself of The Mad Reviewer; Mad Reviewer

2.  Sadie Forsythe; Mad Reviewer

3.  Author Unpublished; Mad Reviewer

4.  Naila of Reading Authors; Mad Reviewer

5.  Jazmen of This Girl Reads a lot!; Mad Reviewer

6.  Chelsea of To Each Their Own Reviews; Mad Reviewer

7.  Spectacles of Spectacle Aglow; Crazy Reviewer

8.  Diantha of DJ’s Book Corner; Crazy Reviewer

9.  Elena of Elena Square Eyes; Crazy Reviewer

10.  Jemima Pett; Crazy Reviewer

11.  Margie of Margie’s Must Reads; Crazy Reviewer

12.  Danielle of Stories Unfolded; Slightly Sane Reviewer

13.  Lorn of pakwanstripes; Slightly Sane Reviewer

14.  The Daily Opine; Sane Reviewer

15.  Megan of Life’s Unfiltered Ramblings; Sane Reviewer

16.  Kristelle of Amiabooklover; Sane Reviewer