Archive for the ‘Book reviews’ Category
Just Reviewed Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s “Night Calls” at SBR
Folks, today’s review of Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s NIGHT CALLS is up over at Shiny Book Review (SBR for short) and it’s something special.
You might be wondering why that is. Well, today is the ninth anniversary of my beloved husband Michael’s death. It’s not easy for me to do much of anything on days like this, so if I feel strong enough and competent enough and capable enough to review a book, right there — in and of itself — you should realize I feel very strongly about it.
But more to the point, NIGHT CALLS is a heartwarming book that should delight all lovers of fantasy. It features a strong, capable young woman in Alfreda Sorensson who’s no one’s plaything; unlike the meek and mild female characters in Stephanie Meyer’s conception, Alfreda does for herself, thank you. And in taking on responsibility slowly, we can see how Alfreda grows and changes and learns . . . all good, all life-affirming, all an excellent message if you need one, but done in such a way that it’s subordinate to the story itself.
To write a novel that’s more than the sum of its parts is very difficult. Now, I’ve reviewed four of Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s novels, and all four have been able to do this to one degree or another, in two different genres, no less — an outstanding record that I’ve rarely seen out of anyone not named Rosemary Edghill. And best of all, to my mind, is this — NIGHT CALLS is a comfort book in that there’s so much good in it, so much meaning in it, that it’s something that I can see myself turning back to read and re-read many times over the years — just as I’ve done with Rosemary’s TWO OF A KIND and MET BY MOONLIGHT and all her shared work with Mercedes Lackey, not to mention Rosemary’s excellent “Hellflower” series (written as eluki bes shahar) and her three novels in the “Twelve Treasures” series.
That’s the highest praise I can possibly give.
Now, why would I want to write all this on one of the most difficult days of the year? Well, it’s simple. Michael and I both loved to read young adult novels. We found them to be interesting, in the main, because seeing a coming of age story done well is, in and of itself, life-affirming. If you can do it with some humor and heart — as Patricia C. Wrede did in CALLING ON DRAGONS, say, or as Diana Wynne Jones did in her “Chrestomanci series” — so much the better.
And trust me, Ms. Kimbriel did exactly that in NIGHT CALLS.
It was reading books like Ms. Kimbriel’s that inspired me to start writing ELFY in the first place. Which is why I’m very glad to be able to read and review her work, even though until this last year I hadn’t a clue it was available. The good part about that is that I’ve read four of her excellent books this year, and all four of them — the three in her “Chronicles of Nuala” series and NIGHT CALLS — are likely to be on my “best books of 2013” list.
This makes me wonder how many other excellent writers are out there that I don’t yet know about. (“More writers left to explore?” I say. “Whee!”)
And it also gives me some hope that my own writing career is not yet dead, even though my health this year has been terrible and I’ve been slow off the mark to get things done despite all the good will in the world due to that.
Anyway, that’s why I reviewed Ms. Kimbriel’s excellent NIGHT CALLS today. For hope. For inspiration. For the belief that despite bad things happening, good people can still win out.
And I think that if you give Ms. Kimbriel’s work a try, you, too, will be favorably impressed.
A Guest Blog by Stephanie Osborn, Author of the ‘Displaced Detective’ Series Featuring Sherlock Holmes
Folks, I feel like that guy on the José Cuervo ads (the most interesting man in the world): I don’t often have guest blogs, but when I do, I feature the most interesting, passionate writers writing today.
Case in point is today’s guest blog for Stephanie Osborn. She’s previously discussed her “Displaced Detective” series here at my blog, but wanted to discuss the origins of her excellent series today, especially as her book THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL is on sale right now over at Amazon for ninety-nine cents (yes, only $.99!) in e-book form.
In case you haven’t read her wonderful novels yet, here’s some links to my reviews of THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL, THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: AT SPEED and THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: THE RENDELSHAM INCIDENT over at Shiny Book Review. (Because I’m now a Twilight Times Books author, I cannot review the fourth book, THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS, via SBR as it would be a conflict of interest and we frown on such things. I do plan to review it soon here at my blog and over at Amazon.)
Stephanie’s written mystery, fantasy, children’s stories, hard science fiction, soft science fiction, speculative fiction — in short, she’s a writer. She’s also been a rocket scientist, which makes her novels about Sherlock Holmes as brought to the modern day by hyperspatial physicist Skye Chadwick all the more realistic.
Stephanie’s novels deserve a wider audience, which is why I’ve again turned my blog over to her.
Now, without further ado . . . here’s Stephanie Osborn!
*************** Drum Roll Sounds Here **************
A note from Stephanie Osborn: It is my great pleasure to make another guest appearance in the Elfyverse. Barb is an amazing writer and editor, and I am so happy to have made her acquaintance through her review of several of my novels; she has become a special friend. We’ve been able to help lift each other up at times when things were down, and that’s so much better than trying to haul oneself up by one’s own bootstraps! I hope you enjoy my little cameo.
The Origins of the Displaced Detective
By Stephanie Osborn,
The Interstellar Woman of Mystery
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
I suppose the first thing you should know about me is that, well, I really AM one of those rocket scientists you hear about. With degrees in four sciences and subspecialties in a couple more, I worked in the civilian and military space industries, sitting console in the control centers, training astronauts, you name it; and I lost a friend aboard Columbia, when she broke up over Texas. So yeah, I’m the real deal.
The second thing you need to know about me is that I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan… aficionado, whatever word you prefer… since I was a kid. Someone gave me a copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles for my birthday one year. I was in, what, third grade? With a hyperactive imagination. Scared me to death when I read it. But I loved Holmes immediately. If I could have done away with the scary story about the Hound, I’d have adored that book even then. It’s one of my favorites now.
By the time I was in high school, I’d discovered that big, single-volume compendium ― you know, the one with the rust-and-mustard dust jacket? If you’re a Holmes aficionado, you know the one I mean. If you don’t, go find it! I read it cover to cover. Wagged it around to every class with me, and every time I had 2 consecutive spare minutes, my nose was in it. Oh, I was devastated when I read The Final Problem. No, really: I went into mourning, like I’d lost family! And I could have turned handsprings for joy when I read The Empty House! Many years later, I acquired that same rust-and-mustard volume and placed it on my own shelves, where it has been read cover to cover many more times. I picked up what are known as “pastiches,” too, efforts by other authors to carry on the adventures, or create entirely new ones, or fill in gaps. (What did Holmes and Watson do when the Martians invaded? What about Jack the Ripper, and why did Watson never chronicle an adventure about him? Didn’t Holmes go after him? What really happened with the Giant Rat of Sumatra?) I watched television and movies ― to this day, I watch the BBC’s Sherlock, and CBS’ Elementary, and even the Guy Ritchie film franchise starring Robert Downey, Jr. And I have the complete set of the Grenada series starring Jeremy Brett, and a bunch of the Basil Rathbone films. Good, bad, or indifferent, they’re all Holmes!
Now, back in Arthur Conan Doyle’s day, they didn’t have all the breakdown of literature into genres that we have today. Today we have science fiction (or SF, with its many subdivisions), fantasy, horror, and such. But all those, in the Victorian era, were lumped together and considered speculative fiction, or “specfic” as it’s known today. As it turns out, many if not most of the Holmes adventures would be considered as specfic ― and I started thinking…
…Other people have “done” Holmes in Victorian-era science fiction…
…But I want to be different. If I write Holmes, I want to do something that’s never been done before…
…Aha. What if, somehow, I could manage to drag Holmes into the modern world to go adventuring?
How to do it…how to do it…
I researched and I studied. And then it hit me.
What if I use the concept of alternate realities, which more and more scientific data indicates are real, and I combine that with something called M theory in order to be able to access them…
…And I was off!
I already had several novels written but unsold by that point, and there was publisher interest in my first one, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. (Yes, I like to mix science fiction and mystery. It seems to come naturally to me; I’ve always thought a good SF story has a distinct element of the mysterious. That’s why I got dubbed The Interstellar Woman of Mystery by certain media personalities.) So I knew about writing novels: See, it isn’t about page count, it’s about word count.
Different genres define book length by different word counts. YA is relatively short, say 50,000-80,000 words. The romance genre generally defines a novel at roughly the same word count. But SF and mystery, for instance, consider a novel to run from about 80,000-110,000 words, maybe a smidge more. (Think about the thinness of a typical Harlequin Romance as compared to, say, a Baen military SF novel.) There’s an arcane formula that ties word count to final page count, and another that determines the list price from the page count. So these are important numbers, these word counts.
Now that’s not to say that you can’t go over; you can… provided your last name is something like King, Weber, or Rowling. Because publishers know those names will sell books regardless of length. Everybody else? Don’t be too short OR too long.
So I sat down to write The Case of the Displaced Detective, the first story in what has become my Displaced Detective series, described rather aptly as, “Sherlock Holmes meets the X-Files.”
Two months ― yes, you read that right, months, not years ― later, I’d completed the rough draft… and it stood at 215,000 words. Writing that manuscript was kinda like tryin’ to hold a wide-open fire hose all by yourself. I ate at the computer. I all but slept at the computer. That story just came pouring out. I couldn’t stop until it was all written. By the time I’d polished it, it had ballooned up to around 245,000 words, and I managed to whack it down to about 230,000.
But it was too big for a single book. And nobody could figure out how to cut it down without cutting out essential parts ― not me, not agent, not editor, not publisher. See, it was really two stories in one: it was an “origin story” of sorts, how Holmes came to be in the 21st century, AND it had a mystery. It needed all of those 230,000 words to tell the story properly.
In the end, my publisher and I decided to make two volumes of it. That’s why, when you look at the covers, you don’t just see The Arrival, or At Speed. You see The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival, and The Case of the Displaced Detective: At Speed. There’s not a hard and fast break between the origin story and the mystery; in fact the mystery starts within days of Holmes landing in the 21st century in The Arrival, and he is still trying to come to terms with everything in At Speed.
Then I went on to write the next story, The Case of the Cosmological Killer.
And durned if the same thing didn’t happen! Only this one took a smidge longer, because it was interrupted by an illness. All told I think it took about a year or so. And so books 3 & 4 are The Case of the Cosmological Killer: The Rendlesham Incident, and The Case of the Cosmological Killer: Endings and Beginnings.
I swear they’re not all going to be two volumes! In fact I just turned in A Case of Spontaneous Combustion, and it’s one volume only! I’ve started on book 6, A Little Matter of Earthquakes, and book 7, The Adventure of Shining Mountain Lodge, is mostly finished and awaiting the publication of 5 & 6. And I’m planning for adventures beyond that.
So in a manner of speaking, I suppose I’m still adventuring with my old pal Sherlock Holmes… only now he’s investigating mysteries that are more on MY turf! And I plan to do so until we both retire to the Sussex downs to keep bees!
* * * * * * * * * * * * (Insert hearty round of applause here.) * * * * * * * * *
Once again, thank you, Stephanie. I greatly appreciated your second guest blog, and I hope it will help you find a few more readers for your excellent books.
And if you haven’t read Stephanie’s books yet, take a gander at chapter one of THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL, chapter one of THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: THE RENDELSHAM INCIDENT, or if you’re just not in the mood for Sherlock Holmes today, take a look at the first chapter of BURNOUT. (Then, for heaven’s sake, go buy her books.)
Just Reviewed “The Lady Most Willing” at SBR
Folks, I was busy this past evening-into-morning, as along with my earlier blog about Johnny Weir and his anti-Sochi boycott stance I also wrote this review of THE LADY MOST WILLING . . . , a comic English historical romance written by three authors — Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway — over at Shiny Book Review (SBR for short, as always).
Since I’m pressed for time, all I want to say right now is that I enjoyed THE LADY MOST WILLING . . . very much. If you’re in the mood for a fine and funny English historical romance with more than a few moments of outright farce — and really, who isn’t from time to time? — you will enjoy THE LADY MOST WILLING . . . , too.
Just Reviewed “The Great Partnership” at SBR
Folks, this morning I was pleased to be able to review a very different type of book by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, THE GREAT PARTNERSHIP: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning over at Shiny Book Review (SBR for short, as always). Sacks’ thought is clear, compelling, and extremely interesting . . . but some of what he says will almost certainly annoy you as well.
That’s the main reason I call this a very different type of book, because religious scholasticism very rarely is either this understandable or with as many points of contention. Sacks explains things so well that most readers should get the gist of what he’s saying, but of course this particular book will work best for scholars of comparative religion and/or people who believe science and religion are far from incompatible.
Mind you, as I said in my review, Sacks is not the first to make many of these arguments. The author of many of them as revised for 20th Century thought is Mircea Eliade, who died in 1986. But Sacks is the first to do these ideas justice in a way that many people will find comprehensible, as Eliade’s thought processes are sometimes so opaque that other religious scholars and philosophers (as Eliade was both, just as Sacks himself is both) are still arguing over it all these years after Eliade’s death.
But Sacks is the first to make the argument that some of the odd dichotomies in the Christian New Testament are due to one thing: that the thought behind the New Testament was obviously Hebraic in origin (from the Hebrew language, in short), but the New Testament was actually written and popularized in Greek. What that means in the shortest form possible is this: Anyone who reads the Christian Bible In English (or any other contemporary language) is reading a translation of a translation.
For that insight alone, you should read Sacks’ THE GREAT PARTNERSHIP.
But be warned: Sacks does not like many aspects of contemporary life, and he’s not shy about saying so. Sacks is against same-sex marriage. He’s against what he persists in calling “abortion on demand,” a highly inflammatory statement. And he’s against assisted suicide, even if done by doctors on terminally ill people, calling it “euthanasia.”
Still, this is an important book that allows people who believe in science and religion to feel good about their beliefs. And as such, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Now, will you please go read my review? Then, if the book intrigues you, go to the library and get it. (Or better yet, buy a copy, as it’s now out in paperback.)
And do let me know what you think of it, once you’ve read it. (Either one.)
Just Reviewed Lackey and Edghill’s “Sacrifices” at SBR
Folks, if you don’t regularly read my book reviews, I’d be really astonished. (Well, those who aren’t following me simply for my insights, often trenchant, on the Milwaukee Brewers, that is.) That’s the main reason I try to post something here when I write a new one.
Anyway, I’m very short on time right now, but I did get up a book review this evening for the excellent young adult urban fantasy by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill, SACRIFICES. This is book three in their Shadow Grail series, which deals with Arthurian myth (I called it “neo-Arthurian” as this series fuses the best of what’s great about urban fantasy and the best of historicity, in case anyone’s wondering how I came up with that) along with self-sacrifice and a whole lot of other interesting concepts.
If you love urban fantasy, mystery, Arthurian legend/history, or just admire the writing of Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill, you want to read this book, soonest. (Trust me.) Not your typical “middle series” book by any means, this book is a non-stop thrill-ride (unfortunately, as I’d already used that term for another of their books, DEAD RECKONING, I didn’t think I should use it in the review, variety being the spice of life and all that) that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.
So I figured that before I went off to tonight’s rehearsal with the Racine Concert Band (for Sunday’s free concert at the Racine Zoo; I’m playing alto saxophone), I’d get something up for the review, then write a very quick blog post about it.
Anyway, go read my review, then go grab the book!
Just Reviewed Lee and Miller’s “Dragon Ship” at SBR
Folks, it’s really tough for me to write a negative review, especially when I truly enjoy the writers in question. Yet when a book comes in that I find lacking, regardless of who writes it, I have to give my honest assessment.
Such is the case with my review for Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s DRAGON SHIP over at Shiny Book Review tonight. I praised the writers, said I enjoyed the way they told the story for the most part — but I just didn’t get behind two conscious author’s decisions that the pair of authors made. And because of that, I just couldn’t like or recommend this book even though I have liked and/or appreciated what Lee and Miller have written in every other case. (Yes, even the dark fantasy duology comprised by DUIANFEY and LONGEYE. There I knew going in that there would be some aspects of the story that would disturb me due to the genre, and was not put off.)
The two plot twists that really bothered me were these — making Captain Theo Waitley irresistible to anyone of either sex (including AIs) really wasn’t necessary. And putting a male lover, a female lover, and a male AI lover on the same ship with Theo being basically oblivious to all of them, much less the trouble they could get into if they ever fully realize that Theo’s not truly in love with any of them, doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.
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Warning — major spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Now, back to our original post.
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The whole idea of Bechimo the ship wanting to fully unite with a human (or in this case, half-Liaden) captain, to the point that Theo ends up being nearly forced to submit to a procedure that will give Bechimo full access to her thoughts, her soul, and her very being, also is deeply disturbing. That Bechimo, the person, wants to unite with someone on a deep level is not disturbing, of course — most people of any types want this, if they’re honest. But that he’d actually want his lover the captain to submit to such an invasive procedure and not realize that it’s akin to mental and soul-rape is also incredibly disturbing.
And Bechimo the person being obviously naïve despite his many centuries of life and roaming the galaxy does not even begin to excuse this.
So, we’re left with a young woman, Theo, who’s basically married in all the ways that count to Bechimo the person at the end of DRAGON SHIP. But she still has both her male lover and her female lover serving aboard the ship. Theo’s not worried about them, or anything else, and seems to be floating in the way most newlyweds do — excepting one thing: she never, ever consented to this level of invasion in her personal life, because she couldn’t have possibly understood this is what Bechimo (the ship) meant by “needing to be served by a full Captain.”
All of that really bothers me, to the point that I could not in good conscience recommend DRAGON SHIP even though the writing is as stellar as ever.
As to the other problematic plot point, bringing a long-dead character back to life — or even attempting to do so — is really difficult for any author or authors to pull off. It can be done, sure. (Stephen R. Donaldson has done just that with his character Thomas Covenant, and of course the original Star Trek brought back Spock.) But it has to be done carefully, and with planning.
Otherwise, it just doesn’t work.
That’s why even the thought of bringing back Aelliana Caylon, by far my most favorite of all the wonderful characters Lee and Miller have ever written, bothers me so much. (Even though she’s been around as a ghost for years, and even though she obviously takes an interest in what’s going on all around her, bringing her back in a new shell — a new body — does not seem right.)
Those two conscious author’s decisions are why I don’t like DRAGON SHIP and am most unlikely to ever re-read it. And it’s why I delayed writing my review until I had a full handle on exactly why I didn’t like this book despite my admiration for the writing pair of Lee and Miller and for their creation the Liaden Universe in particular.
Hopefully, I’ve done a good job in conveying the pluses of this book (the writing, the writers, the skill they take in their craft, etc.) and the minuses — the plot and the two author’s decisions that completely perplex — in a way that show I didn’t intend to bash the writer or their creation.
I just didn’t like it, that’s all.
And before anyone else says it — yes, I realize that someday, someone’s going to dislike my books, too. (Maybe many someones, though I hope more of these “someones” will like my writing and my books than not.) I just hope that they’ll be polite about it when they criticize, as I can handle that.
Whereas outright rudeness is much tougher to swallow, which is why I tried hard to avoid that in tonight’s review.
Just Reviewed Karen Myers’ “To Carry the Horn” at SBR
Folks, I’ve been sick for quite some time, as most of you know. This is the main reason I got way behind on my reviewing.
At any rate, I read Karen Myers’ fantasy TO CARRY THE HORN, the first novel in her Hounds of Annwn series, several times during the past month or so. It’s an intriguing mix of Welsh mythology, the Otherworld of the Fae, and fox hunting. (Well, hunting with the Hounds of Hell doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be hunting foxes. But the thought mostly still applies.)
Our hero, George Talbot Traherne, owns a small computer company and is the whipper-in of the Rowanton Hunt in present-day Virginia. When one day he follows a white stag, he ends up in the Fae Otherworld, just in time to help out his previously unbeknownst Elven grandfather, Gwyn ap Nudd. Gwyn’s Master of the Hunt has just been murdered, which is very, very bad as the Wild Hunt must come off in two weeks no matter what.
For those unfamiliar with fantasy, the Wild Hunt usually features demons along with captive souls hunting other souls in peril. Wisely, Ms. Myers doesn’t take that course; instead, her hounds of Hell are mostly half-dog, half-demon (with a few purebred hellhounds mixed in, natch), while those tending and aiding the hounds are doing so because they want to, not because they have to.
In George’s case, he quickly comes to love the hounds and immerses himself in this new world. And if hunting isn’t enough to draw you into Ms. Myers’ world, there’s also some good political infighting going on between the rather long-lived Elves, just a hint of magic, shapeshifting, and perhaps even a God taking an interest in His people — that being the Celtic God, Cernunnos.
Now, I couldn’t really discuss the magic at my review because I felt that would give far too much of the plot away. But I did point out that Gwyn has enemies — the fact that Gwyn’s huntsman gets murdered not three pages into the plot should give the reader a clue — and that the Otherworld itself is a rather interesting, quasi-medieval place. (I say “quasi” because female Elves have more choices than the nunnery or marriage, which is about all high-ranking women had to choose from during the medieval era.)
There’s some fine characterization here, a nice, solid plotline, and an excellent setup for future adventures, all good. But there were some minor stylistic things that threw me — for example, quoted thoughts are usually italicized for ease of reading, yet Ms. Myers did not do this. (The older conventions didn’t use italics in this way, granted. But for at least the past fifty to sixty years, quoted thought is usually italicized.) And Ms. Myers uses the word “alright” rather than making it two words, which can be really jarring as George is a well-educated urban professional. (Seeing “alright” in inner monologue was what really threw me; in dialogue, it sounds the same way so it doesn’t tend to bug me as much. In general, if you’re using “alright,” your character should be a kid or possibly someone who has very little education or polish about him — and even there, I’d try to use it only in dialogue.)
Anyway, I’m glad I was finally able to get up the review for Ms. Myers’ TO CARRY THE HORN. Because if you like fantasy and have been looking for something that’s original, inventive, and will keep you reading until the very last page, this book is for you.
Just reviewed K.E. Kimbriel’s “Hidden Fires” at SBR
Folks, I was very pleased to feel well enough to review Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s HIDDEN FIRES, the only book I’d not yet reviewed over at Shiny Book Review (SBR) in her excellent Chronicles of Nuala series. HIDDEN FIRES continues the story of Sheel Atare and his wife, Darame the former free-trader (consummate con-artist) and introduces several new characters, including the naïve young would-be free-trader, Garth Kristinsson, his love interest, Lucy of Dielaan, and the next head of the powerful Dielaan family/clan, Rex.
Now, if you’ve already seen my review, you know I gave this book a slightly lesser grade than the two others, as I gave HIDDEN FIRES an A-minus. (FIRES OF NUALA received an A-plus. FIRE SANCTUARY received a solid A.) I loved this book, thought the writing and world building and plot were great, loved most of the characters (and really, most is all you get in any book), but considering the other two were so exceptionally good . . . and even considering that in many ways I enjoyed this one the best of the three, particularly because of the romance involved (two good romances, even), I just didn’t feel right giving it a full A.
It’s weird, sometimes, how I grade books. There are books I absolutely adore that aren’t worthy of A grades at all (not an A-plus, A, or A-minus) . . . for example, one of my favorite comfort books is P.C. Cast’s GODDESS OF SPRING, which has a great heroine in forty-three-year-old Carolina “Lina” Francesca Santoro, and a fine, sexy, brooding and misunderstood hero in Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Lina is a baker from our world who’s in trouble; her newest bakery is failing despite her many talents, and she needs help. She prays to Demeter, finding a prayer in an old cookbook, and ends up being exchanged for six months with Demeter’s daughter Persephone. In that short span of time, she meets up with Hades, falls in love with him, but knows she cannot stay — and it doesn’t help when Demeter fails to realize that Hades truly is in love with Lina, either.
This is a book that I love, yes, but it gets a solid B from me (maybe a B-plus on a good day) for several reasons. One, there are some really odd editing things going on in that book — stuff Ms. Cast probably couldn’t do anything about when the book first came out, but in the many reprintings since should’ve been addressed. Two, I hate to say it, but I did not buy Persephone’s transformation at all. While we do see some of Persephone in our world, she never once throws a hissy fit at being exchanged against her will by her mother Demeter — because, you see, Persephone did not consent to this whatsoever — and really, I would’ve expected at least one. (Wouldn’t most people be upset if they were in their youth and first blush of beauty one minute, and in a forty-three-year-old body the next?) But rather than being upset, Persephone insists on “upgrading” Lina’s body by exercising, dieting, and revamping Lina’s wardrobe.
Huh?
Another book I’ve read again and again is by Linnea Sinclair, GABRIEL’S GHOST. This, too, is a fine B-level effort by Ms. Sinclair rather than an A, mostly because there were elements of the plot that didn’t seem to fit as well as in other novels by Ms. Sinclair (such as the excellent AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS or even THE DOWN-HOME ZOMBIE BLUES). Here, I loved the main characters, hated the characters Ms. Sinclair wanted me to hate, and enjoyed the rousing action-adventure — yet there was something in this book that left me feeling unsettled.
This, my friends, is the difference between an A-level of any sort and a B-level of any sort.
So what you see in my review tonight of Ms. Kimbriel’s HIDDEN FIRES is that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, plan to read it many times in the future, and will never forget the characters nor the situations they’re in nor the world in which all this action takes place. I thought the characters were great and did what they were supposed to, and felt that the returning “mains” — Sheel and Darame — were solid characters that felt real in every possible respect. And I believed that the other two “new mains,” Lucy and Garth, were realistic, honestly written characters that were probably damned difficult to deal with due to Lucy’s rather odd self-abnegation (during most of HIDDEN FIRES, I kept wondering, “What does Lucy want? Not what Rex Dielaan wants — not even what Quin, the good Dielaan wants — what does Lucy want?” But Lucy, herself, never once asked that question of herself.) and Garth’s obvious naïveté while thinking he’s a big-time man of the worlds.
As a writer, these were Ms. Kimbriel’s characters. They make perfect sense, in context. And I believed them, in context.
But as people, they don’t completely make sense to me. Even on Nuala, it seems to me that most of the women are very strong individuals whether they’re healers, Ragärees, or are farmers way out in the Ciedärlien, so why Lucy has so little sense of self — it’s not even a lack of self-esteem so much as seeing Lucy, herself, as important in the cosmic scheme of things (or at least in the microcosmic scheme of things) — is worrisome.
Granted, Ms. Kimbriel couldn’t go there in HIDDEN FIRES because it wasn’t Lucy’s story, exactly. Lucy was a pawn, not a queen, and certainly not a Ragäree — she knew she’d been raised as a glorified “brood mare,” resented it, and wanted more for herself, but — spoiler alerts beyond this mark — backed the wrong horse.
Big time.
And Lucy needed to back that wrong horse so we’d see her eventual redemption, an arc done particularly well by Ms. Kimbriel as Lucy, once again, is a character where very little of who she actually is comes out in anything she says.
While Garth needed to be exactly who he was — a naïve man, yet fundamentally honest enough in his own, twisty way to figure out how to keep Rex Dielaan from hurting everything (including Lucy), even if it meant joining forces with Darame Atarae in the process.
Anyway. This book is exactly what it needs to be, but those two characters were difficult to root for in certain respects despite Ms. Kimbriel’s charming way of writing them. (Not her fault Lucy wouldn’t talk with her, after all. Characters are funny that way.) That’s why even though I adored the book, and thought it’s in many ways the strongest of the three — particularly in the romance department — it received an A-minus.
One final thing about grades, though: Recently at SBR I’ve read a number of books that have been wonderful. This is not always the case, as long-term readers of my book reviews already know. For a trilogy to get no lower than an A-minus out of me for all three books is astonishingly good, and might even be a first.
And the series, as a whole, is a solid A. Which rarely, if ever, happens.
So the upshot is this: Aside from Stephanie Osborn’s great Displaced Detective series (book four will be reviewed by me, here at my own blog, in the coming weeks), I haven’t read three books I’ve liked more in a very, very long time.
Really. You owe it to yourself to read what Ms. Kimbriel has written, is writing and will write.
So do yourself a favor. Go buy one of her excellent books. Then settle down to read.
Elsewise, you’ll be missing something extraordinary.
Just Reviewed K.E. Kimbriel’s Excellent “Fire Sanctuary” at SBR
Folks, if you’ve looking for a very good, entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking novel of the far future, look no further than Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s FIRE SANCTUARY, which I just reviewed over at Shiny Book Review (SBR). FIRE SANCTUARY deals with cross-cultural romance, a brewing interplanetary war between the Axis and the Fewhas (with Nuala stuck in the middle), the difficulties of living on a planet that endures much radiation and much, much more.
Again, as with Ms. Kimbriel’s THE FIRES OF NUALA (that “the” may be optional, but I keep typing it over here and not at SBR; weird, huh?), there’s much action, intrigue, drama, and romance. But the stars of the show are the characters, including Braan and Ronuviel of the Atare clan, Moran and Lyte (Axis officers), and Teloa, a planter (a farmer by any other name). And even the minor characters are brimming with life and desires and goals and dreams . . . just a winning effort, all the way around, for Ms. Kimbriel.
As I’ve said before, I believe more people need to read Ms. Kimbriel’s writing. So if you haven’t given her books a try yet, why not do so today? (You’ll be glad you did.)
Just Reviewed K.E. Kimbriel’s “The Fires of Nuala” at SBR
Folks, if you haven’t read any of Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s novels before, you need to go find them and read them immediately.
I don’t often say this. In fact, I’ve said this with regards to maybe two other authors in my entire life, those two being the novels of Rosemary Edghill (in any genre) and the novels of André Norton. These two authors — one extremely well-known and a Grandmaster, the other who should be much better known than she is — are must-reads in any genre.
So far, I’ve read the three books in Ms. Kimbriel’s The Chronicles of Nuala, but only reviewed the first, THE FIRES OF NUALA, this evening over at Shiny Book Review (SBR). (The second two books will be reviewed next week.) What I’ve read has shown me that Ms. Kimbriel knows what she’s doing, as she’s developed a complex world with a mythos all its own and characters who are vital people who demand attention at all times.
THE FIRES OF NUALA came out in 1988. Somehow, I missed it back then. The reissued** version came out in 2010 courtesy of Book View Cafe.
I’m glad I read it now, as it’s a first-rate novel that combines space opera, mystery, romance, epic world building and a complex plot into something that’s even more than the sum of its parts. (I didn’t call it “…a book that should be in every science fiction library as it is complex, engrossing, interesting, compelling, and outstanding” for nothing, folks.)
THE FIRES OF NUALA should’ve won every award there was, as far as I’m concerned, unless the 1988 version was radically different than this one (something I find extremely hard to believe). But due to the nature of the e-book revolution, at least it’s back out there and available to captivate new readers.
Seriously. Read my review, then go read the novel. Then ask yourself, “What happened back in 1988 that I missed this?” (Unless you’re too young, of course, for this to apply. In which case, just go grab the book and save steps.)
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** Upon further review, I’ve been reliably informed by Ms. Kimbriel that THE FIRES OF NUALA that I just read is the very same, exact version put out in 1988. I really do not understand how a book like this one could be completely overlooked by the Hugo and Nebula Awards, but then again, I don’t run in those waters and never have.
However, I do know quality when I see it, or read it. This book is quality with a capital “Q.” So go out and read it, if you haven’t already. (If you have, great! But if you want an e-book, $4.99 for a book of this length and excellence is, as previously stated over at SBR, an absolute steal.)
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