Tagged: masq1
Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
(Cover picture courtesy of Val’s Random Comments.)
The land of Terre d’Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good…and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.
Phèdre nó Delaunay is a woman pricked by Kushiel’s Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Her path has been strange and dangerous, and through it all the devoted swordsman Joscelin has been at her side. Her very nature is a torturous thing for them both, but he is sworn to her and he has never violated his vow: to protect and serve.
But Phèdre’s plans put Joscelin’s pledge to the test, for she has never forgotten her childhood friend Hyacinthe. She has spent ten long years searching for the key to free him from his eternal indenture, a bargain he struck with the gods—to take Phèdre’s place as a sacrifice and save a nation. Phèdre cannot forgive—herself or the gods. She is determined to seize one last hope to redeem her friend, even if it means her death.
The search will bring Phèdre and Joscelin across the world, to distant courts where madness reigns and souls are currency, and down a fabled river to a land forgotten by most of the world.
And to a power so mighty that none dare speak its name.
What a great end to a great trilogy!
In Kushiel’s Avatar we finally see what happened to the east in Jacqueline Carey’s alternate Medieval era. Not only has the kingdom of Akkad not fallen, Egypt has not fallen either because in this version, Cleopatra beat Rome (called the Tiberian empire). But of course there’s a purpose to all this travel and it’s really twofold: Melisande’s son Imriel has gone missing and Phèdre has promised her she will do anything she can to find him.
What both poor Imriel and Phèdre endure at the court of the Mahrkragir is horrendous and it’s not temporary either. Even later in the book, both characters are wrestling with and trying to come to turns with what happened. I won’t go into more detail than that, but I think you can guess what happened to both of them. However, this is an important part of Imriel’s characterization and it adds a new dimension to Phèdre, who is settling down now that she is older (about 32 at the beginning) and taking less and less assignments. The dynamic between Phèdre and Joscelin has changed and it seems they have come to terms with Phèdre being Kushiel’s Chosen. Joscelin is quite a different character in the beginning of Kushiel’s Avatar and his character arc certainly is complete by the end of the book.
The plot involves, of course, a lot of travelling, but that is generally expected in fantasy/alternate history. There were times it was a little slow and things were sort of bogged down in Menekhet, but overall I was quite pleased with the pacing. It was definitely more character-driven than plot-driven, so it’s a good thing Phèdre can hold my attention as a character. I thought the ending wrapped things up a little too nicely, but I think all the characters deserve such an ending after all the suffering they went through. As I said, it’s a great ending to a great trilogy and I look forward to the spin-off trilogy about Imriel.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves
(Cover picture courtesy of 10Thirty.)
Claudius has survived the murderous intrigues of his predecessors to become, reluctantly, Emperor of Rome. Here he recounts his surprisingly successful reign: how he cultivates the loyalty of the army and the common people to repair the damage caused by Caligula; his relations with the Jewish King Herod Agrippa; and his invasion of Britain. But the growing paranoia of absolute power and the infidelity of his promiscuous young wife, Messalina, mean that his good fortunate will not last for ever. In this second part of his fictionalized autobiography Claudius—wry, rueful, always inquisitive—brings to life some of the most scandalous and violent times in history.
To be perfectly honest, until I finished I, Claudius I had no idea there actually was a sequel. The first book has definitely overshadowed its own sequel, which does tend to happen to classic books. I was lucky to even find a copy in the bookstore, which I took despite absolutely hating the cover. Whoever designed it goes by the maxim ‘sex sells’, you can be sure of that. But I digress.
In some ways I enjoyed Claudius the God more than I, Claudius. One thing I really did like was that poor Claudius finally does get to be the good emperor we all know he would be. In fiction I can be a sucker for tragedy, so the inevitably of his death upped the tension for me and since Robert Graves wrote this as a memoir, we have Claudius dropping little hints about his fate. This is especially true when he talks of how much he was in love with Messalina and didn’t discover her betrayals until much, much later. Thus the subtitle “and his wife Messalina” in some editions of the book.
At the same time, I wasn’t as emotionally invested in Claudius the God as I was in the first book. Perhaps it was Claudius’ eventual change from idealist who wants to restore the Republic to cynical Emperor who does not fight fate when it comes to Nero taking the throne after him. Of course Graves had to stick to history, but I would have liked to see Claudius care a little more about what would happen after he died. His friendship with Herod Agrippa was interesting and certainly played a huge part in the story, but I also felt it got more page time than it should have. The backstory on Herod was absolutely necessary, but it did slow the action to a crawl for the first part of the book.
I had a hard time getting through parts like the Herod backstory, but Robert Graves more than made up for it in the sheer attention to detail. We learn so much about Roman life and get a sense of how the Romans really viewed the world around them, including their conquered territories and provinces. The interactions between the different power players of the day (Vitellius, Messalina, Narcissus, Agrippinilla and many more) were pretty much the best part of the book. And you can’t help but love poor Claudius, despite his flaws.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
(Cover picture courtesy of Lauren Oliver’s website.)
They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them. Until now.
Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.
And now since opera usually says things best, here are some lines from Verdi’s La Traviata:
Love is a heartbeat throughout the universe,
mysterious, altering,
the torment and delight of my heart.
It sounds better in the original Italian, but you get the point. Love is important; it’s in our everyday lives and it is one of two main forces that motivate people’s actions. (The other is greed.) But what happens if you remove one of those forces from the entire adult population of a country? You get Delirium, that’s what.
The main character, Lena (short for Magdalena) lives in a world where love is called amor deliria nervosa and is the only recognized mental illness anymore. That’s why when people turn 18 they must get an operation to ‘cure’ them. After that, they are safe from love and all the nasty consequences that usually come around because of it. But they never get to feel the ecstasy it brings either.
You can probably guess where this is going, right? You’d be right if you said that Lena will fall in love with a mysterious boy who is originally from the rebel movement but snuck his way into the city. Yes, I totally saw that coming as I was reading Delirium, but there are a few plot twists and Lauren Oliver at least tells the story well.
She does rely on the forbidden love factor a little too much if you’re reading this as an adult, but teens will love it. Lena is going through her first love, which is both awkward and amazing at the same time. For a teen that just experienced love for the first time or has yet to experience love, this is the perfect description of what it is like. So although I rolled my eyes at some parts of Delirium, on the whole it’s a well written story. It’s well written enough that I’ll be reading the sequel, Pandemonium, at any rate.
And for those of you that forget what love is like to the young, go see what Mozart says about it in his classic opera Le Nozze di Figaro:
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris
(Cover picture courtesy of Rainbow Resource Center.)
Riding through the great courtyard ringed with the banners of the Round Table knights, Luneta felt very alone and uncharacteristically shy.
Luneta is tired of living in dull Orkney with her mother and father. She would much prefer the rich pageantry of court. And Luneta prides herself on always getting what she wants, so when the opportunity presents itself to stay at a family friend’s castle near Camelot, she jumps at the chance. her handsome cousin, Sir Ywain—a young knight seeking adventure—arrives just in time to escort her. Along the way they pick up Rhience, a young man living as a fool for a year.
Together, they are about to step into a web of love, betrayal, and more than a bit of magic.
It’s nice to finally have an idea how much time has passed since The Squire’s Tale and it’s also shocking to hear that it’s been twenty years since the first book. Remember Lady Lynet from the second book? Yes, Luneta is Lady Lynet’s child and she’s not even really a child, but in her teen years. How times flies!
The Lioness and Her Knight sounds like a typical girl empowerment book with Luneta kicking plenty of butt and being generally ahead of her time. That’s not exactly true and I’m glad it’s not. Luneta is ahead of her time because of her tendency not to mince words, but she never physically kicks any butt because her talent is getting people to do what she wants. She is a terrible manipulator when she thinks it’s for a good purpose, but throughout the book learns that maybe it’s better to leave people to their own devices. She’s a great main character and despite how my description of her sounds, Luneta is sympathetic.
As for Rhience, where do I start? He’s very witty, but also very subtle about it. Oh no, you actually have to think about his jokes! He has such an interesting backstory that you can’t help but at least feel sympathetic for him, but he’s also a great ‘fool’. Thank goodness he gets so much page time because he was my favourite character in the whole book! Rhience is certainly not just comedy relief, but also a good character in his own right.
Gerald Morris, unlike many authors, seems to have never encountered a writing slump in his series and he hasn’t struck out yet. I’ve loved every book in the series for its own unique qualities, something that is incredibly rare. The Lioness and Her Knight presents a very cynical view of people like The Ballad of Sir Dinadan does, but it’s also full of love and hope. You can’t really ask for more in an Arthurian legend, can you?
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Curse of the Ice Dragon by Tara West
(Cover picture courtesy of Guerrilla Wordfare.)
Born with mark [sic] of the Mighty Hunter, Markus saves his village from the brink of starvation—for whenever he releases an arrow, his aim is true. But despite his skill and strength, Markus is unable to confront his tyrannical father. Shamed by his cowardice, he distracts himself by needlessly shooting the forest creatures.
When Markus takes no heed of the village prophet’s warning that his actions will attract The Hunter’s Curse—for every animal Markus kills, his loved ones will suffer the same fate—the Sky Goddess unleashes her ice dragon. Now, Markus must flee the dragon without killing it…or his beloved brother will be the next to die.
[Full disclosure: Tara West sent me a free print copy of her novel in return for an honest review.]
When I started Curse of the Ice Dragon, I was expecting the plot to follow the traditional Hero’s Quest format. That’s not an altogether unreasonable assumption in most of the high fantasy I read. Yet my assumption was proved wrong! In some ways it did follow the Hero’s Quest format, but I absolutely love the unique spins Tara West put on old clichés to make the plot exciting and at times unpredictable.
To be perfectly honest, I hated Markus at first. He was cruel, selfish and completely unsympathetic, but that didn’t last for long. Markus goes on quite the character arc and by the end of the novel, he’s a completely new person and I’m looking forward to seeing how he changes throughout the rest of the series. He’s not the only character that stood out, though. All of the characters were three dimensional and had realistic motivations, but Ura particularly stood out for me. She’s concerned about her brother who left to go topside while at the same time must ward off Bane’s advances and keep her father company. Ura is definitely not your typical fantasy heroine and her character arc is just as interesting as Markus’, if not more.
I was rather skeptical about the world-building because it seemed like a typical fantasy world based on Norse mythology. Things couldn’t have been more far from the truth, which was yet another pleasant surprise. Readers will recognize a few typical fantasy elements, but Tara West never strays into the realm of hopelessly cliché. There are so many new things and such an exciting plot that you won’t be able to put Curse of the Ice Dragon down. Personally, I can’t wait for the next book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.