As we were going away for the weekend, it was looking as if I wasn't going to be able to achieve my goal of reading and blogging 100 books before the Second Cannonball Challenge ended. I've actually read 145 books and reread 23 book since November 1st, but I've mentioned before why I decided not to blog about all of them.
It sadly looks like there may not be another Cannonball Challenge next year, or if there is, it won't start tomorrow. They've stopped posting book reviews on Pajiba, and there is no mention of another challenge starting soon. Of course, most of the 100 participants don't appear to have even partially completed their reading assignments, or if they have, they've not been blogging a lot. We shall see, if they do another challenge, I shall participate. If they don't, I'll set my own challenge for next year.
Still, I've completed not only the 52 required books, but the 100 books set in the first Cannonball challenge, and I will try to keep going. I doubt I will number the rest of the books this year, though. I'll more likely start a new count after New Year's, to see what my tally for 2011 ends up being.
I've also got myself a new hobby that I may blog a bit about. Not being able to knit anymore, as it really aggravates the tendinitis in both my wrists, I have taken up crocheting instead. It is to quote my husband the "open g tuning of handicrafts", i.e. it looks as impressive as knitting, but is much faster to learn and way easier once you know what you're doing.
Sunday, 31 October 2010
CBR2 Book 100: "Victoria" by Knut Hamsun
Page count: 140 pages
Rating: 1 star
Date begun: October 16th, 2010
Date finished: October 31st, 2010
Johannes is the miller's son, pining for Victoria, daughter of the local estate owner. The book starts when he is 14 and she is 10. A lonely child, Johannes wants to play with the rich children, but is normally only called upon to wait on them and row them around when they have guests from the city visiting. He spends most of his time alone, using his fertile imagination to invent solitary games and adventures.
When he is 18, and returns home from school in the city, he hopes he has finally been noticed by Victoria after he rescues a young girl from drowning, in front of Victoria and her rich friends. But she still seems more taken with Otto, a young soldier and friend of the family, and once again his hopes are dashed.
Johannes goes to university, and becomes a poet and a writer. After publishing several poems, he moves on to novels, all the while dreaming of Victoria. He is aware that they are from different social classes, but pines for her nonetheless. As his literary fame grows, he is accepted into higher layers of society, among them the home of the girl he rescued from drowning. He also sees Victoria again, but she appears to be engaged. Still, one evening, when he walks her home, she professes his love for him.
Knowing that her family would never accept his suit, Johannes writes several angsty romantic novels and moves abroad. When he finally returns, years later, he arrives back in time for Victoria's engagement party to Otto. Victoria's family are in great need of money, Otto's family have lots. Camilla, the girl he rescued is also there, and nearly 18, she is very infatuated with him. The romance between Johannes and Victoria seems more impossible than ever.
Victoria was written by Hamsun in 1898, and is apparently considered not only one of his most popular books, but one of the most beautiful and well known love stories in Norwegian literature. If so, the state of romantic literature in Norway before 1898 and since, is deplorable. While I understand what Hamsun was trying to do with his tragic romance, it is just not very effective. Mainly because Johannes is a total weenie and Victoria is given as much personality as a wet rag.
Why should Hamsun bother infusing the object of Johannes' affection and love with any sort of personality or character? The more important thing is the development of the young man and HIS feelings. Also, the lyrical descriptions of the Norwegian country side, those are important. This is period literature, and as a former lit student, I know I shouldn't be upset that writers who lived a 150 years are misogynistic or write only from the POV of the gender they know.
It's not like Jane Austen writes anything but the female point of view in Pride and Prejudice. But at least there is some substance in her books. In Victoria, the whole romance seems based on the characters interacting a few times when they were kids, then pining a whole lot for each other and constructing elaborate fantasies about the other party, a few short meeting as adults, where they have no chance to get to know each other more closely, a lot of angst from Johannes' side, then the book ends.
I read this mainly because we (the Norwegian teachers at the school where I work) are forcing the 10th graders to read the book so they have a literary classic to analyze for their final exam in the spring. I suspect that most of them are going to find the book both boring and deeply uninteresting, and I can't say that I blame them. This is the second Hamsun novel I have read now, and while his descriptions of the Norwegian nature are stunning, his plotting and so called romances leave a lot to be desired, and I don't know if I will read any more of his books unless forced.
CBR2 Book 99: "Storm Glass" by Maria V. Snyder
Page count: 512 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: October 28th, 2010
Date finished: October 31st, 2010
Opal is a young glassblower who can infuse small glass statues with a spark of magic, allowing other magic users all over her homeland of Sitia to communicate with each other over long distances. As long as someone with magical abilities holds a glass animal she made, they can talk to another magic user holding another. Despite years of lessons at the magic academy, however, Opal doesn't appear to have any other powers whatsoever, and this causes other students to tease her and avoid her. Her role in helping Yelena Saldana (the heroine of Snyder's first trilogy) save the country from rogue evil magicians is well known, but she is disappointed that she seems unable to do more with magic than make communicator devices for mages.
Opal is charged by the academy's Master magicians to go to the Stormdancer clan and discover what is breaking their glass orbs and killing their dancers. The Stormdancer magicians can control the weather, and channel the energy from storms into special glass orbs that are then used as a type of battery. But if one of the orbs break, the dancer using it will die instantly. So far, two have died, and Opal and the youngest of the Masters, Sitara, have to figure out what is causing the orbs to break before more Stormdancers die and the storms in their area of Sitia run out of control.
Despite being doubtful of her abilities to help, Opal solves the mystery of the brittle glass and earns the respect of the Stormdancers, including the brooding Kade, whose sister was one of the dancers killed when an orb broke. On their way back from the Stormdancer clan, Opal is kidnapped. A group of renegades want to learn the Stormdancer secrets and are prepared to torture her to get them. She manages to escape, and discovers that she can channel another magic user's power into an empty glass orb while she is fleeing a magical attack.
Back at the Academy, the Masters are very interested in studying Opal's new powers. It is quite obvious that she is not the "one trick pony" the other students have been accusing her of being. But she is still in danger since she is one of the few who know the Stormdancer glass secrets, and she has to figure out her feelings towards two men, Kade the Stormdancer, and Ulrick, a young man from her home village who's come to the Acedemy to see if he too has magical abilities connected with glass.
I was a big fan of Maria V. Snyder's Study trilogy, especially the first novel, Poison Study. The other two books in the trilogy were neither as exciting or gripping, but Snyder created a fascinating cast of characters, especially Yelena and Valek, and the books were entertaining enough. Opal is a supporting character from the first series, and unfortunately, she is not as engaging a heroine as Yelena. She survived a pretty horrible ordeal in the previous series, and this has obviously affected her, but she seems rather stuck up and self pitying, and instead of being grateful for the magical abilities she does have, keeps wanting more and being sulky. She is also a bit of a pushover, and too easily led by others.
This does change a bit during the course of the book, but she still has a lot of growing to do as a a a character to stop being annoying. The vague love triangle in the book just did not hold my attention at all. Kade is interesting enough, tortured and broody, and with some very cool powers. But Ulrick was clearly just a whiny jerk, who while he'd been treated badly by his family was not really sympathetic at all, but overbearing, controlling and like a walking list of danger signs in a potential boyfriend. Even Opal doesn't really fancy him, just seems to settle on him because Kade isn't available to her.
Some of the supporting cast are good, but others are frankly as annoying as Opal's non-romance with Ulrick. Her sister Mara, in whose shadow Opal has always grown up, is supposedly pretty and talented and someone admired by everyone, but she just irritated me, and some of her advice to Opal was dreadful. The youngest Master Magician was promising as a supporting character, and I'm hoping that Opal may be developing a few friendships that can go good places, so that there is more of an appealing supporting cast in the sequels. Opal does discover some pretty cool powers, but the set up for the next book (which will be all about Ulrick the douche) didn't exactly fill me with excitement. Still, I bought the whole trilogy in a 3 for 2 sale, so will read them all. But probably not right away.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
98: "First Truth" by Dawn Cook
Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: October 23rd, 2010
Date finished: October 26th, 2010
Alissa has never been accepted by the people around her parents' foothills farm, as her mother is from the plains, and her father from the foothills. There is fierce rivalry and much prejudice between the tradesmen of the plains and the farmers of the foothills and intermarriage between the peoples is frowned upon, and the offspring of such unions are treated as outcasts.
Alissa's father has been missing since she was five, and now, at nearly twenty, her mother is sending her away, claiming she needs to find the mystical Hold and learning to use her latent magical powers. Alissa doesn't believe in magic, and is crushed, but has no choice but to set off. She has to make her way through the mountains before the first snows fall, and see if the mythical Masters and Keepers of the Hold can shed some light on her father's disappearance and her own supposed heritage. Accompanying her is Talon, her tiny kestrel, who guards her fiercely despite her diminutive size and warns her of dangers.
Having fallen into a ravine looking for water, Alissa is saved by Strell, a wandering minstrel who has is trying to make his way to the coast. Strell is from the plains, and has been travelling for years, collecting stories and music. He discovers that his entire family has been wiped out in a flood five years earlier, and no longer has any true home or connection. At first, he is suspicious of the clearly half-blood foothills girl, and he and Alissa get off to a bad start. As they are going the same way, however, they decide to travel together and quickly become friends.
Alissa is unaware that the Hold is nearly empty, with only one crazy former Keeper having sent all the Masters on a pointless quest far away, and killed the other Keepers. Only one Master is left, trapped in the dungeons. Bailic, the ex-Keeper is an old friend of Alissa's father, and wants a legendary magic book, First Truth, which was given to Alissa's dad by his teacher. Bailic has dreams of world domination, and quickly realizes that one of the two strangers that show up to the Hold can help him find the book he needs to achieve his goal. But he is unable to figure out whether it's Alissa or Strell who have the latent magical abilities. Alissa and Strell need to try to find the book before Bailic gets to it, and stay safe during the winter, hoping Bailic doesn't kill them too.
I had read both of Dawn Cook's Princess books (The Decoy Princess, Princess at Sea) before I discovered that the author is also Kim Harrison, an author whose paranormal fantasy series I've been reading and loving for years. As far as I can tell, she started writing traditional, vaguely romantic fantasy and did OK, but never became particularly successful. Then she created her paranormal series under the pen name Kim Harrison, and became a several times bestselling author. Ace has recently republished her Truth books pointing out that the authors are one and the same, but the new covers are absolutely awful, and I'm glad I was able to get the classic covers.
The first book (in a series of four) is mostly setup, and the friendship between Alissa and Strell is slowly developing into something more romantic, but anyone wanting a passionate love story, should possibly pick something else. Nor is this a very epic fantasy story, but a nicely paced little adventure tale. I'm looking forward to reading the next three.
Friday, 22 October 2010
CBR2 Book 97: "Princess of the Midnight Ball" by Jessica Day George
Page count: 304 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: October 21st, 2010
Date finished: October 22nd, 2010
The country of Westfalin (basically like 18th century Germany) has finally won a long and costly war against the neighbouring country of Andalousia (bits of Spain). Galen is the son of a soldier, whose mother was an army laundress. He grew up following the army, and lost his father, mother and little sister during the war. On his way to the capital, hoping to find his mother's sister, he meets an old lady and kindly shares his meagre provisions with her. She thanks him and insists on giving him three presents as thanks. He is given two balls of wool, one black "and strong as an iron chain", one white "like a swan, floating on water", as well as a magical cloak that can turn him invisible. He tries to refuse, but the crone claims his need is greater than hers.
When he arrives in the capital, it turns out that his uncle is prosperous, having made money during the war taking care of the late queen's precious garden. Galen is trained as an under-gardener, and soon meets the twelve princesses of the kingdom, who all love the garden too. While his uncle detests gossip, several of the other gardeners and palace servants tell him of the great mystery of the princesses' dancing slippers. Every third day the princesses are found in their rooms, exhausted, while all their slippers are worn through. Even though their bedroom doors are locked and guarded and they have maids in their rooms. The king is distressed at the extra expense of constantly buying his twelve girls new slippers, but none of his daughters will tell him why the slippers get worn out.
The first time Galen meets Rose, the eldest of the princesses (all named for flowers in the garden that Queen Maude loved), she nearly falls into a fountain, and gets rather wet. He is embarrassed at first, then distressed, as the princess falls ill, first with a cold, then with pneumonia. One by one, her sisters fall ill as well, and even when they are all sick, their slippers end up worn through. It takes the girls months to recover, as they are clearly exhausted by their late night dancing, yet none of them will tell anyone what they do at night.
At his wit's end, King Galen invites foreign princes to his kingdom, offering to let them solve the mystery of the princesses' midnight adventures in return for the hand in marriage of one of the girls. Yet one by one, the princes fail, get infuriated, leave Westfalin, and shortly after die in horrible accidents. As the months go on, and more princes die, the neighbouring countries start accusing the princesses of witchcraft. Galen, who has gotten to know all the girls, and who has befriended and then fallen for Rose, is determined to help the girls, and solve the mystery, before the country is plunged into another war, which would devastate the country.
Princess of the Midnight Ball is a retelling of the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. In an interview included in the extras in the book, Ms George says she always wondered about this tale, thinking that if the girls danced their slippers through every single night, they must be exhausted and weary, and from this speculation, her story developed. Even with twelve different princesses, aged between 17 and 6, the various girls have distinct personalities, and it's rarely difficult to keep them apart.
Rose may be a princess, but she is troubled by the burden of taking care of all her younger sisters after their mother's death. While she would prefer to be carefree, she still shoulders the responsibilities given to her, acting as hostess for her father at social functions and surrogate mother. She is helped by her eldest sisters, but none the girls don't have it easy, forced to dance in the court of the King Under Stone first every third night, then every night, even when they are sick to death with flu. If they try to tell anyone what is going on, they are either unable to speak or spout silly nonsense, even when the situation gets serious and the clergy accuse them of witchcraft.
Galen may be of common birth, but he is loyal and resourceful and kind to those around him. As a true fairy tale hero, he is rewarded for his kindness with magical gifts, and these prove instrumental in helping save the princesses from the curse. He is fully aware of the impropriety of an under-gardener being friends with a princess, let alone loving her, but can't help himself, and becomes more and more fond of all the girls the longer he works in the garden. He decides to help the princesses not in the hopes of the king's reward, as he is convinced no king would want his daughter marrying a gardener, but he cannot stand to see the girls suffer any longer, and possibly get excommunicated and convicted of witchcraft.
The story has a mystical quest, helpful old people, an evil villain in a sinister underground kingdom, determined that the Westfalian princesses will marry his half-human sons. It has a brave hero who knits his own socks and scarves and is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and twelve lovely princesses cursed by the foolish decisions of their now-dead mother. I was delighted by Jessica Day George's last fairy tale retelling, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, and this one was also excellent. It's also the first book I've read that contains knitting patterns in the back. I am very much looking forward to Day George's take on Cinderella, currently out in hardback, and will buy and read it as soon as it's out in paperback.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
CBR2 Book 96: "Maybe This Time" by Jennifer Crusie
Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: October 20th, 2010
Date finished: October 20th, 2010
Andie Miller is about to get married to a nice, reliable writer, the complete opposite of her ex-husband North Archer. She just needs to sever any remaining connection to him by handing back all the alimony checks she's received since their divorce ten years earlier. Then she can get on with her life. Of course, seeing North again brings back all sorts of memories, and he's a very hard man to say no to.
North Archer is responsible for two young children. His cousin died two years ago, and the kids were orphaned. Once their aunt died, the kids were left alone in a huge mansion in the countryside in Ohio, with only nannies and an elderly housekeeper to take care of them. The third nanny just quit, claiming the house is haunted. She tried to take the children away from the house, but the little girl had a near-psychotic break and the boy was expelled from boarding school for setting fires. He needs someone sensible, stubborn and capable to sort out the children, get their grades up to scratch, and convince them to move in with him. Who better than his ex-wife Andie, who could always sort out anything? That this will take her away from her fiancee for an extended period of time is really just a bonus.
As North offers her ten thousand dollars to spend a month in the old house, Andie really doesn't feel she can refuse. She starts to wonder if she shouldn't have asked for more money once she sees the house and meets the inhabitants, though. The house is an old Victorian mansion, moved brick by brick from England, with furniture and brickabrack included. The driveway is falling apart, the garden is overgrown. The housekeeper is absolutely ancient, has lived there for most of her life, clearly drinks too much and refuses to listen to a thing Andie says until she hears the name Archer, forcing Andie to pretend she is still married to North. Carter, the little boy, barely speaks. Alice, a tiny, scrawny waif is more like a wild creature than a girl, and carries a mouldy, creepy doll with her everywhere. If Andie tries to make her do anything she doesn't want to, she screams hysterically at the top of her lungs.
While Andie finds Archer House unnerving and creepy, she is a practical and educated woman, and refuses to believe in any ghost nonsense. Even when she keeps seeing things out of the corner of her eye, Alice is clearly talking to someone in her room at night, when the rocking chair by Alice's bed seemingly rocks by itself and she keeps hearing voices as she drifts off to sleep at night. She also can't stop thinking about North all the time, and being in the run-down house means she keeps having to contact him for help. Then, just as she seems to be making progress, an unscrupulous reporter arrives on the doorstep with her ex-brother-in-law and a cameraman in tow, wanting to make a news feature on the "haunted house" and the poor, terrified orphans who live there.
Andie is similar to many of Jennifer Crusie's other heroines. Smart, self-sufficient, curvy, and in no desperate need for children of her own. She works as a teacher, but has never settled long in one place, having moved every year or so since her divorce to North. They got married after one day, and the marriage only lasted a year, before Andie bolted, as North puts it. She claims she couldn't take his neglect any longer, never seeing him because he worked sixteen-hour-days at his family's law firm. Now she is ready to move on, and marry the dependable Will, she just needs to sort out the Archer House mess, as she refuses to back down from the challenge.
North did not want to divorce Andie, and only suggested it because she seemed so unhappy. Still not over her after ten years, he has to acknowledge to himself that he sent her to Archer House to keep her in his life for a little bit longer, hoping that maybe something would happen to keep her from marrying the other guy. He's not entirely sure that Andie will stay with the kids for a whole month, as his experience is that she runs when things get tough.
Maybe This Time is first and foremost a ghost story, inspired by Henry James' classic The Turn of the Screw. Anyone reading it hoping for a fun and light-hearted romance like many of Crusie's other books (which I tend to adore) will be disappointed, as the romance is decidedly secondary to the suspense and ghost plot here. The kids have lived in their creepy house for a long time, surrounded by things that grown-ups don't believe in. They are not happy and cheerful and well-adjusted, having been orphaned, neglected and left to fend for themselves for far too long. There are actual ghosts in the story, and the majority of them are not nice. It's a good book, but in a different tone from most of Crusie's previous work, and I think I prefer her more easy-going romances to this one.
CBR2 Book 95: "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
Page count: 336 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: October 18th, 2010
Date finished: October 19th, 2010
WARNING! CONTAINS A SPOILER FOR THE SEA OF MONSTERS, THE PREVIOUS BOOK IN THE SERIES!
Another year, another adventure for Percy Jackson, demi-god son of Poseidon. He, his friend Annabeth (daughter of Athena) and recently turned back from a tree, Thalia (daughter of Zeus) are at a military academy on the lookout for two half-mortal kids they believe may be in danger. Shortly after finding the two half-bloods, Bianca and Nico, things go horribly wrong. A giant manticore tries to kill them, the goddess Artemis intervenes, and Annabeth falls off a cliff while fighting the manticore.
Artemis travels with a team of eternally adolescent young girls, who have all gained immortality in return for staying chaste and loyal to the goddess of the Hunt forever. Her second in command is a very hostile girl who Thalia calls Zoe Nightshade. Zoe and the rest of the hunters are ordered to go with Thalia, Percy, Bianca and Nico to Camp Half-Blood, while Artemis hunts a legendary monster that may bring about the end of the Gods. But before she leaves, Bianca joins her little crew of adolescent huntresses. Nico is too busy collecting Greek myth trading cards to really care.
The group have not been back at camp long before it becomes obvious that Annabeth is not the only half-blood to have disappeared recently. Percy is convinced she is still alive, as he keeps having dreams where he sees her in danger, just like he saw Grover in danger in the last book. After a few days back, they receive news that Artemis has been captured, and a quest has to be launched to save her. Zoe refuses to have any men with them, but the Oracle claims they have to bring both half-bloods and hunters, or the quest will fail. When at the last minute, one of the hunters can't come, Percy sneaks after the group wearing Annabeth's cap of invisibility. He knows that she is in the same place as Artemis, as he has seen them together in his portentous dreams.
The series really holds up, and is a lot of fun to read. It is clear that if Aphrodite gets her way, Percy and Annabeth are on their way to one heck of a tragic romance, not entirely sure if they want to play into her hands, although Percy is getting more and more taken with his friend. He is certainly very worried when he found out that she was considering joining Artemis' huntresses, thereby swearing off boys forever.
Even more Greek mythology is explored. As well as the manticore, there are pegasi, cow serpents, zombies made from dragon's (well, technically dinosaur) teeth, we find out more about Artemis and Apollo, the Hesperides, their father, and yet again Percy and his friends have to work to save the Greek pantheon and the world from destruction. The books follow a formula, but are enjoyable nonetheless.
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