Tagged: masq1
River God by Wilbur Smith
(Cover picture courtesy of Scroll of a Modern Scribe.)
Ancient Egypt. Land of the Pharaohs. A kingdom built on gold. A legend shattered by greed. The Valley of the Kings lies ravaged by war, drained of its lifeblood as weak men inherit the cherished crown.
In the city of Thebes at the Festival of Osiris, loyal subjects of the Pharaoh gather to pay homage to their leader. But Taita, a wise and formidably gifted eunuch slave, sees him only as a symbol of a kingdom’s fading glory. Beside Taita are his protégés: Lostris, daughter of Lord Intef, beautiful beyond her fourteen years; and Tanus, proud young army officer, who has vowed to avenge the death—at Intef’s hand—of his father, and seize Lostris as his prize. Together they share a dream—to restore the majesty of the Pharaoh of Pharaohs on the glittering banks of the Nile.
I believe accuracy in historical fiction is important, but usually I let things slide if a writer changes a few things around as long as the essential facts of the period are right. In River God, however, there are things that literally made me snort with derision; this takes the worst of Hollywood perceptions of Egypt and makes it out to be reality. To anyone familiar with Egypt, the idea that the Pharaoh’s son would be nicknamed “Memnon” (a Greek nickname bestowed upon the colossi of Amunhotep III)…well that makes you question the events described in the rest of the book.
To prevent early high blood pressure, let’s just say that the most basic elements of River God are true, mainly the Hyksos invasion, and leave it at that. Truly, that’s about all that’s mostly accurate, so don’t use this as a history textbook. If you like this book, you can use it as a starting point for learning about Egyptian history. Now, moving on…
Taita is a frustrating character because there are times he has some semblance of depth and other times when he is a complete Gary Stu. He seems to be absolutely perfect, what with the fact that he designs many of the inventions in the novel himself, navigates politics impeccably and is extremely good looking. The only thing that sort of redeems him in the end is the fact that he doesn’t get your classic happy ending. Even then, it doesn’t really save his character all that much.
The one thing that redeems River God is Wilbur Smith’s writing style. It slowly draws you in until you are hooked and have no choice but to finish it. Smith has wonderful descriptions of all the exotic settings and characters, yet he maintains a decently paced plot, something that few authors can manage. Now if only he would put in the effort to do proper research…
I give this book 2/5 stars.
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years–leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.
Together with one of Linden’s servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?
(Summary courtesy of Amazon.)
A friend of mine was absolutely gushing over this novel, so she and I did a book exchange. I lent her my copy of Timeless by Alexandra Monir and she lent me her copy of Wither by Lauren DeStefano. As it turned out, it was a pretty good book exchange in which both of us got excellent new reading material.
The premise of the novel sounded quite promising to me: because of genetic modification, kids are now perfect, but have decreased life expectancies. Severely decreased, as in 25 for men and 20 for women. So, in an attempt to both live life to the fullest and carry on the very existence of the human race, wealthy men are now polygamous. Which, of course sets up the plot of Wither: Rhine, a sixteen-year-old girl is taken from her only family, her twin brother Rowan, to become one of the new wives to Linden Ashby, a twenty-one-year-old man whose first wife is dying. Rhine is chosen because of her heterochromia, her two different coloured eyes that her parents who were geneticists gave her and because she looks like Rose, Linden’s dying wife.
I bet you think you can predict the ending. But with that said, I bet you’re wrong, at least partially. I know I was.
Of course Wither includes what seems to be a staple of YA novels nowadays: a love triangle. It certainly seems like it’s your stereotypical love triangle at first, but it is Rhine’s choices throughout the novel that keep it from being predictable. Instead of accepting her fate as one of three wives and falling in love with her husband, she resolves to escape and to stay true to herself and Gabriel, the boy she really loves. Rhine Ellery certainly deserves to be called a memorable character.
My only real complaint is that for science fiction, there is a definite lack of science. We know that each person has a genetic time bomb because of scientists messing around with everyone’s genes, but it doesn’t get much more in depth than that. Then again, most YA science fiction would be classified as ‘soft science’ anyway. Still, I’d like to know a lot more about the science behind this mysterious genetic time bomb.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
(Cover picture courtesy of Whatcha Readin’, Books?)
Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community.
When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it’s time for Jonas to receive the truth.
Okay, start writing your hate mail. I’m about to criticize what many laud as a literary masterpiece above questioning.
Here we have yet another popular novel that we have to ask ourselves about: Is it really worth all of the hype? In a word, no, but it’s not as simple as that. One of the main things that’s made this book popular is the fact that it’s studied by middle school students. In fact, I studied this book in grade 9 and having read it in grade 6, was incredibly bored. I remember telling my teacher that this wasn’t really a grade-appropriate novel, but it’s actually in the grade 9 curriculum in Saskatchewan, if you can believe it. Reading it years later, I thought I might get something new out of it, but I think I got the message the first time around.
My overall impression of The Giver is that it’s good, but it’s not the greatest thing since paper that educators seem to praise it as. It does have meaning and wonderful messages that make readers debate comfort versus freedom, but it feels as if Lois Lowry was trying too hard to make sure readers got this message. The phrase beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-stick-obvious comes to mind, which was even my impression when I first read the novel. The Giver was somewhat unique in its own time, but now with the explosion of YA dystopia, it is one novel among many that does not even stand out particularly well.
The main character Jonas is good, but he is not memorable. He rebels against the society and sees what’s wrong with it, but only after The Giver shows him quite a few memories of the freedom of the past. Before then, he’s hasn’t really questioned the society, which makes the novel start off fairly slow, but as Jonas acquires more memories, he does change for the better. He becomes angry and frustrated with his society, pining for freedoms he never knew he wanted. While Jonas has a lot of depth, but since emphasis is placed on controlling emotion, we don’t feel his emotions as well as we should.
The world of The Giver is well built, but it is nothing exceptional. What is interesting is the sheer amount of control the leaders have over the Community, which hammers home the “complete comfort at the price of freedom” message. One of the things that bugged me the most was that although this is classified as science fiction, we never really learn about how The Giver passes the memories of the past on to Jonas. There is no technology involved and it is only hinted at that The Giver and Jonas are special because they can See or Hear Beyond.
So in conclusion, The Giver actually is a good novel and a decent read, but it really felt like Lois Lowry was trying too hard to hammer the message home. Generations of kids have grown to dislike this book because teachers try to over-analyze the novel as well and I honestly can’t blame them.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sean is a washed-up child actor reduced to the lowest dregs of reality television to keep himself afloat.
His life was a downward spiral of alcoholism, regret, and failure…until he met Dagmar Shaw.
The world of Dagmar Shaw, however, is rarely straightforward. People tend to die around her, and now she wants Sean for something. A movie, she says, but who’s to say what her real game is?
I was introduced to The Fourth Wall by reading Walter Jon Williams’ Big Idea essay over at Whatever. Intrigued by the idea behind the novel, I bought it on pure speculation, as I seem to do quite a bit when I read The Big Idea articles. After all, it’s how I found out about Feed, to name one of the best examples. And much like Feed, The Fourth Wall has a killer opening, which is not entirely appropriate for all readers.
“When you spot someone sitting at the beach wearing a headset for Augmented Reality, or wearing AR specs on the bus, or smiling quietly in the back pew of the church with his video glasses on, what do you think?
I’ll tell you what you think. You think he’s watching porn.“
This sets the tone for pretty much the whole novel: cynical, witty and a bit dark. It’s also hard to classify this novel because just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the plot takes a sharp turn and you’re left mystified once more. You really won’t be able to predict the ending either, which stays true to the dark, cynical atmosphere that Williams maintains throughout the novel.
Sean Makin is a washed-up child actor and even though The Fourth Wall is set in the future, he offers a lot of insight into the cutthroat world of Hollywood. You see both the glamorous side and the incredibly dark side that no one wants to talk about. Sean is the perfect character to tell a story like this because of his dark past and his highly cynical attitude towards life and acting. He has a very sad past that adds a lot of layers to his character, making him a wonderfully three dimensional character. There is no doubt in my mind he is a memorable character.
After enjoying The Fourth Wall so much, I have a feeling I’ll be reading and reviewing a lot more Walter Jon Williams novels in the future.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of Tower Books.)
After his last run-in with the fairies, Artemis Fowl had his mind wiped of his memories of the world belowground. Any goodness he had grudgingly learned is now gone, and the young genius has reverted to his criminal lifestyle.
Artemis is in Berlin preparing to steal a famously well-guarded painting from a German bank. Little does he know that his every move is being watched by his old rival, Opal Koboi. The evil pixie has spent the last year in a self-induced coma, plotting her revenge on all those who foiled her attempt to destroy the LEPrecon fairy police. And Artemis is at the top of her list.
Once again, it’s up to Artemis Fowl to stop the human and fairy worlds from colliding—only this time, Artemis faces an enemy who may have finally outsmarted him…
As I’ve mentioned before, I was a victim of moderate bullying for about five years and the memories of those incidents haunt me to this day. If you had offered to wipe all those painful memories from my mind only a year ago, I would have said yes without a second thought. Now, however, I’m not so sure because as a human, I am nothing more than the sum of my memories. Like it or not, those memories are a part of who I am today and I would be a much worse person without them. So with that in mind, consider what wiping all of Artemis’ fairy memories would do to him.
Well, in The Opal Deception, we find out and it isn’t pretty. Without even the scraps of goodness Holly Short and the other fairies taught him, Artemis has reverted to his default setting: evil criminal mastermind. Did this actually come as a surprise to anyone but the LEP? Probably not. And thanks to their brilliant idea to wipe Artemis’ memory, they are in even worse trouble when Opal Koboi escapes, bent on revenge.
Unfortunately, one of my favourite characters is killed off in this book in a very touching death scene. The plus side is that we get to see more of the eccentric centaur, Foaly, and the kleptomaniac dwarf, Mulch Diggums. Both Artemis and Holly go through significant character development as they join forces once again to stop Opal Koboi, becoming friends again along the way. With a well-paced plot and a satisfying end to the novel, fans will love this fourth installment of the Artemis Fowl series.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.