Neversink by Barry Wolverton

Oct29

Near the Arctic Circle lies a small island called Neversink, home to a colony of auks including a puffin named Lockley J. Puffin and his wife Lucy Puffin. The colony also includes, rather incongruously, a walrus named Egbert and a hummingbird named Ruby. The auks live a happy and uneventful life until Egbert in a fit of misplaced hospitality and a bid for popularity invites the owls from the nearby island of Tytonia to come to his birthday party.

“These are birds who happily spend much of their time at sea, eat fish, fly underwater, and are not to be confused with penguins. On Neversink auks could nest safely in the nooks and crannies of the island’s ice gouged rocks, far away from the perching birds of nearby Tytonia, protected from predators by a girdle of ocean, safe from most threats other than old age and an unpredictable sea goddess named Sedna.
So it had been since the Age of settlement. And so it would have remained, many believe, if Rozbell (the owl) had never tasted Lucy Puffin’s fish smidgens.”

I enjoyed my visit to the island of Neversink. Rozbell the Owl is a suitably evil and crazed villain, and Lockley, Egbert, Ruby and the other auks of Neversink are valiant and at the same time reluctant to start a war even in the face of tyranny and mistreatment from the owls. The main thing the book lacked was much of a theme. The plot and characters carry the story. Maybe the theme is “insane, evil, power-hungry owls must eventually be opposed—and deposed?”

Anyway, the auks and owls and Egbert and Ruby all work out their relations and government over the course of the novel, and in the meantime, there’s some witty commentary, fluent description, and decent dialog.

A few examples:
“Lockley had never been so happy to see his large friend (Egbert). He would have given him a hug, except that it is physically impossible for a puffin and a walrus to embrace.”

“The lamentation of swans exploded from the ground and took to the air, graceful and powerful in flight in a way Lockley knew he could never achieve.”

“‘Actually, I meant that rhetorically,’ said Ruby.
‘Rhetorically?’
‘It’s a word I learned from Egbert. As best I can tell, it’s just a way for creatures who love to hear themselves talk to keep talking.'”

I kept picturing this story as an animated movie in my mind. I think Disney or Pixar or Dreamworks could definitely do something with Neversink. It’s got the characters and the plot, as I said, and they could stick in a moral underpinning about faithfulness and peaceful resistance.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Oct28

I can see why people are all gaga over Ivan, the gorilla who’s the star of the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan is a sympathetic character, an artist, something of a stoic, and a good friend to Stella, the elephant, Bob, the stray dog, and Julia, the daughter of the night janitor for the mall. Ivan lives in the moment, takes life as it comes, and doesn’t worry over much. However, when he makes a promise to a dying friend, Ivan is determined to keep his word, no matter what.

I really enjoyed getting to know Ivan. And I had sympathy for his plight, a lonely gorilla who has nothing to do but watch TV and draw pictures to be sold in the mall gift shop. Ivan doesn’t feel sorry for himself, even though he has been living without the company of other gorillas for most of his life, the last twenty-some odd years. (The One and Only Ivan is based on the true of a gorilla named Ivan who lived for twenty-seven years in a circus-themed mall in Washington state and who now lives in the Atlanta Zoo.)

But honestly the whole “animals are people, too” theme was distracting to me. I think the author could have made us sympathize, even identify, with Ivan without beating us over the head with the philosophy that we’re all great apes, and animals are just like people (only they’re not really, are they?). The insertion into the story of animal rights rhetoric was intrusive and unnecessary. Animals are animals and people are people. People have a responsibility to treat animals with care and respect, and Ivan shouldn’t have been caged alone without other gorillas and without a natural habitat for over twenty years. The story of Ivan’s “emancipation” is a good one, even if Ivan is anthropomorphized a little too much. How else could he tell his own story?

The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards

Oct27

As Scheherazade tales go, I prefer Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher. In fact, Betsy-Bee (13) just re-read Shadow Spinner for her medieval history and literature class, and I couldn’t help but compare this story to that one.

The Book of Wonders tries to include too many stories: all of the stories of Sinbad, some Aladdin and Ali Baba, and Scheherazade’s own story are all packed as episodes into this one book, which is obviously the beginning of a series or trilogy or something. (Warning: the ending is less than resolved.) I could have used a little more breathing room within and between adventures.

Yet, at the same time, I found the book easy to put down and hard to maintain interest in. Zardi and her friend Rhidan are likable enough as protagonists, but I didn’t really get into the whole girl looking for adventure and to save her sister from death and orphan foundling boy looking for his father and his heritage plot. Oh, and the orphan boy, Rhidan is also probably a magical chosen child of specialness, and Zardi is a roguish but courageous girl, skilled with the bow and full of spunk. Stereotypes abound.

It’s also possible that I’m just being cranky, and if you really have a predilection for the Arabian Nights and stories that take off therefrom, The Book of Wonders might be more wonder-filled for you than it was for me.

Jasmine Richards’ website.

Other voices:
Charlotte’s Library: “The Book of Wonders is a good title for this–like the Arabian Nights, once things get going, the episodic adventures fall one after another like beads on a string, and just when seem things settled, another perilous encounter appears! If you are a reader who delights in one magical, dangerous, imaginative adventure after another, this is a book for you.”
The HappyNappy Bookseller: “What I loved best about The Book of Wonders is the author never tries to do too much, simply lets the story unfold. The author has written a wonderful story that is inspired by Middle Eastern folk tales.”
The Book Cellar: “I am now curious for book 2 – as the story cut off at a really high action time. I wanted a few more answers to be revealed before this book was tied up.”

Saturday Review of Books: October 27, 2012

Oct26

“The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.” ~Thomas Carlyle

Still true in the 21st century.

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Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones

Oct26

It’s possible that I kept thinking of Pippi Longstocking when I was reading this book by Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl’s Moving Castle and many other fantasy favorites, because Paul Zelinsky’s illustrations reminded me of Lauren Child’s pictures of of Pippi. Maybe it’s just the electric pigtails that both Pippi and Earwig share. It’s also possible that Earwig is a cross between Pippi and some random wizard. Someone left Earwig at St. Morwald’s Home for Children with this message pinned to her basket: “Got the other twelve witches all chasing me. I’ll be back for her when I’ve shook them off. It may take years. Her name is Earwig.”

Earwig likes her life at the orphanage, but when she is chosen to go live with Bella Yaga the cruel witch and a terrifying man with horns who doesn’t like being disturbed, Earwig makes herself at home and tries to work a deal: housecleaning help in return for witchcraft lessons. Bella Yaga doesn’t want to teach Earwig anything, though, so Earwig must decide how she’s going to cope with her new life and make it suit her in spite of the lack of cooperation from her foster “parents.”

Earwig and the Witch is an early chapter book, and as such it’s not really too scary or too complicated. The scary parts involve worms and some swirly-smoky demons. The plot has Earwig doing just what she wants to do in spite of those who might try to thwart her desires. The theme seems to be” “If life hands you witches and demons, make lemonade. Or cast spells.” This one is appropriate for beginning readers, unless you don’t care for the whole witches and spell-casting thing. It might have been meant to be the start of a series, but unfortunately, Ms. Jones died last year (2011).

Snow in Summer by Jane Yolen

Oct25

Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All by Jane Yolen.

The mountains of West Virginia are the setting for this disturbing, yet riveting, retelling of the story of Snow White and her wicked stepmother. (The cover, by the way, is beautiful, but it doesn’t look like West Virginia, c.1949 at all, does it?) In this version, Snow in Summer is known as Summer to her mother, her cousin Jane, and the rest of her family. But her new stepmother, the witch, calls her Snow. Suffice it to say that this story won’t do anything to repair the reputation and public image of stepmothers in general.

The entire book walks just on the edge of plausibility. Could all of episodes in the book be real events, just sometimes interpreted by Snow in Summer as evil magic? Are a talking mirror and a bewitched father just too much to attribute to anything but sorcery and witchcraft? The story also includes a snake-handling, strychnine swallowing religious cult, green garden “magic”, and a murdering lecherous boy named Hunter. It’s reminiscent of some of the stories that take place in Storybrooke, Maine on the TV show Once Upon a Time, mostly just this side of magical, but tipping over into the inexplicable and downright creepy every so often.

I’d recommend the book for girls ages 13 and older who like a good fairy tale rendering. There’s too much “girly-stuff” in the book for most adolescent boys, and the book includes scenes of abuse and attempted assault (not graphic, but very real and scary) that might be disturbing to younger readers.

Crossed by Ally Condie

Oct24

I read Matched, the first book in this planned trilogy, in 2011, and I had this to say about it: “Matched by Ally Condie. There’s not so much action and adventure in this book, but more romance and thoughtful commentary on the pros and cons of a ‘safe’ society bought with the price of complete obedience to an authoritarian government.”

In this second book, Cassia goes to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky, her chosen match and true love. Ky is already in the Outer Provinces where he is trying to survive in a government-controlled “war” that is designed to kill all who are forced to participate. Can Cassia find Ky? Will Ky survive long enough to be found? What will the two of them do once they have been reunited?

If Matched was about safety and freedom, Crossed, is more about trust and the lack thereof. A lot of romance and dystopia novels these days take the theme of trust and develop it as a prerequisite to a real lasting relationship. Of course, without trust there is not real relationship. However, I would say that trust develops as both partners in a relationship are given reason to trust one another by the daily sacrifices of love that are required in marriage or even any other family relationship or a long-term friendship. So beginning a relationship requires a “leap of faith”, maybe a small leap, but a hop nevertheless. Then that trust is rewarded with reciprocal trust and faithfulness, or it’s not. If not, the relationship needs mending and forgiveness and eventually another leap, or else it dies.

In Crossed and in other stories I’ve seen or read lately (Once Upon a Time), the characters seem to be saying, “You must trust me blindly with all your secrets and insecurities, and if I give you reason to doubt my faithfulness and trustworthiness, you must ignore those reasons. Otherwise it’s not True Love.” It doesn’t exactly work that way, does it? You commit to the relationship, and then you grow it little by little. And you remember that your partner is human and prone to sin just as you are, so betrayal of trust in some ways is inevitable. And the cycle of trust, reciprocal trust or betrayal, and forgiveness begins again. But repentance and forgiveness are just as necessary as trust and faithfulness are because we live in a fallen world.

The only one who is completely trustworthy, who will never leave you or betray you, is Jesus. Our human relationships are all imperfect and incomplete, no matter how fulfilling and trusting they may be.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series, and I will eventually be reading the third book, Reached, which comes out in November.

Website for the Matched series by Ally Condie.

Peaceweaver by Rebecca Barnhouse

Oct23

First of all, I really like the concept of a “peaceweaver.” In this book set in a sort of mythical medieval Saxon culture, Hild wants to use her womanly influence to become a peaceweaver, someone who persuades the men of her honor-based culture to make peace, to forgive, and to overlook slights and small insults. Yet, Hild herself is a product of her own culture. She sees herself as too good, too “honorable”, to associate with slaves and people from another land who do not follow the same customs as her people. She wants to be a peaceweaver, but she finds herself embroiled in violence over and over again throughout the course of the story. It’s a fascinating dilemma, and the story of Hild and her journey through the wilderness to find her own honor and peace is a magical read, both literally and figuratively.

Hild is not only a girl who wishes to become a peaceweaver; she is also what the people of her country call a “far-minded woman.” To be far-minded means to be able to see far, into the future, but also into the minds and hearts of others. Hild uses this far-mindedness to defend others, or perhaps she is possessed by it as many of her own family believe. She must decide for herself whether her gift is good or evil, and she must also decide where her true home is and what true honor means.

Rebecca Barnhouse is a medieval scholar, and her erudition shows as she weaves Norse gods, Saxon mythology, and a coming of age story together to make a novel that will appeal to anyone who is interested in any of the above. I doubt this book will be flying off the shelves, and I do have a couple of quibbles (Why does the book introduce Hild’s older sister, Sigyn, in the first chapter and then never mention her again? And is Hild’s escape from the monster really credible?). However, if it doesn’t become a bestseller, it should find a niche with those readers who are interested in all things medieval and Norse and even feminist, in the best sense of the word.

By the way, if you want to know about honor-based cultures, at least where I got my introduction to the concept, look here in this post by Lars Walker at Brandywine Books and at this article by Jonathan Rauch called Pride Goeth Before a Brawl.

Rock of Ivanore by Laurisa White Reyes

Oct22

Book One of The Celestine Chronicles.

Ms. Reyes says that this book, or series of books, started out as a bedtime story for her son, Marcum. It’s high fantasy, owing certainly something to Tolkien and to Star Wars, as most of this kind of fantasy does. Marcus and five other boys from his village, Quendel, set out on a Great Quest to find the Rock of Ivanore. Marcus takes with him a magical key and a walking stick named Xerxes. If the boys succeed, they will be heroes; if they fail they will return to disrespect and menial jobs in the village for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately for the boys, they have no idea what the Rock of Ivanore is or where to find it.

Marcus is an orphan, of course, and he has daddy issues. The other boys, including Kelvin, also an orphan and sort of a secondary protagonist, are described and take part in the action, but I never could pin down what made any of them tick. Why is Kelvin so prickly and distrustful of strangers? Why does Marcus steal something that belongs to Kelvin and only return it when forced to do so? Why does anyone follow Jerrid, the mayor’s son? The other three boys are mostly inconsequential afterthoughts; they sometimes play a part or have a bit of dialog, but they’re not very memorable.

More interesting as characters were Jayson, the half-breed Agoran, part cat and part human, and Xerxes, the talking walking stick that only Marcus can hear. I wanted to know more about them and understand them both better. King Frederic of Dokur is a wimp and a whiner, but his son Arik makes an adequate villain.

At 350 pages of fairly large print, this book might satisfy fantasy adventure fans who are looking for something a little easier and/or shorter to read than Tolkien or Rowling. But it left me a bit cold. I couldn’t get too interested in the characters, their stories, or their fates until about three-quarters of the way through the book. I can, however, see the potential for improvement as this series continues.

Ms.Reyes’ blog: 1000wrongs.blogspot.com