Librarything Member Giveaway: Eye of the North Wind

Author: B. Y. Yan
Genre: (High) Fantasy
Pagecount: 391
Warnings: Quality Snark, Mutilation, Death
Rating: 3.5/5

"Eye of the North Wind" is the story of several entertaining characters living in the land of Immortal Linberry. You start off following Sir Boors, the steward of the kingdom, who seems to stumble from one scheme to the next while always just barely keeping his head above water. However the bulk of the action takes place while you follow Sangor, a canny sword-for-hire  past his prime who is making his last attempt to enter the elite Yulin Hundred by going on a quest of great import.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember about this novel is that it's broken into two pieces stylistically. The first portion, in which Sir Boors is the primary character, is about the surprisingly competent administrator, despite him being outwitted by several other characters. He is a charming combination of weaknesses to bribes, pomp and an unapologetic acceptance of his limitations. I didn't laugh out loud while reading this portion of the book, but I alternated between a grin and a smirk almost the entire time, a little like "A Confederacy of Dunces".

The second portion followed Sangor, wherein we made the transition from moderately sardonic social commentary on bureaucracy to a fairly standard medieval romance. Which means, of course, that there is a Quest, a Fair Maid and no small amount of Villainy to Defeat. This section I also enjoyed as its own story, because does a good job hitting the traditional elements for medieval romance classics. Again I found myself amused by the schemes of the nominal hero of our story, and how well Sangor managed to keep said hero from getting his butt kicked.

My gripe with this book is not when but how the transition between styles happens. I was settling down to a pleasing book within the city of Immortal Linberry when suddenly I found the novel following a different character introduced in passing while Sir Boors was in charge. It wasn't jarring so much as I was sent a little adrift while the switch happened, which took some time to recover from. In addition some of the characters that wind up being very important are thrown in at the end when they could have been introduced more fully into the Boors-led introductory portion.

Overall I liked this story, but I'm sure it's for everyone. I loved that Yan skillfully tells a story and lets his readers in on the joke; that is, the absurdity of medieval romances. He clearly loves these types of stories but also knows how silly they look from the outside. However not everyone likes this deliciously tongue-in-cheek tone, and the less skillful combination of genres will frustrate some readers.

Review: Threats of Sky and Sea

Author: Jennifer Ellison
Genre: YA
Pages: 263
Warnings: Death, sparkles, tropes
Rating: 3.5/5

"Threats of Sky and Sea" by Jennifer Ellision is about Breena Rose, a secretly talented, feisty and gorgeous young woman on the cusp of adulthood who is being seriously underutilized as a barmaid. She has a run-in with some unsavory folks and discovers her daddy has been hiding her away from the world these last 16 years, and now she is to return to court and learn how to be a lady, kick ass at magic, meet a handsome prince all while trying to free her father. I gotta say, the lady keeps busy!

So before I say anything else, I have to state that I had fun reading this book. It was cute like a little puppy. I am going to see about getting the second one on my own steam.

As I have seen it mentioned, this book hits several YA adult tropes. That's accurate, it's plot points in bullet form read like a lot of other YA fiction. However these are feel-good story elements that are repeated so often because people like them. For example, the young woman in peril who takes charge of her own destiny is a trope I can get behind, no questions asked. Puberty being a time when magic blossoms and destinies are discovered sounds way cooler than the average high school experience. What's more notable to me are the tropes not taken. Ellison slips right around creating a love triangle, which makes me so happy words can not express. She also puts together her own magic system, to which I have a major weakness. Plus she doesn't shy away from killing off a character or two, which is a requirement for me to respect a book.

She also maintains an air of suspense around some of the major plot points. There's a lot left unexplained about the world, the magic system, and (to a lesser extent) Breena's past. It's likely this is a result of this being part of a several book long series, but regardless of the reason it's important to leave readers wanting more in any story. Ellison delivers in this respect. I don't just want to know what happens next, I'm curious about Neridium and the factors that determine one's magical element (crossing my fingers it's like how amphibians determine sex).

I do have a few less than complimentary points I want to raise though. Ellison spends more time explaining things that should be left to the reader to figure out. My impression is that the inexperience of the main character, Breena, is a convenient mechanism to enable explanations about the setting to the readers. It means we get paragraphs describing things like how the magic system works in the abstract in Breena's internal narration, as well as how Breena feels about it. To a lesser degree it means she acts as a stand-in for the audience to express confusion as to why things are the way they are. It makes everything feel a little flatter than it could. I would have liked to see more effort made to teach readers about a world the same way they learned about this one: through context and a certain amount of sassing one's elders. I chalk that one up to Ellison's inexperience as a professional writer, which means I look forward to seeing how her writing will mature.

Like a said, cute like a puppy. It's a nice story with accessible prose and I'm interested in seeing how everything develops.

Member Giveaway Review: Tempest

Author: Holly Hook
Genre: YA Fiction
Pages: 190
Warnings: Ahoy Plot Holes, Spoilers
Rating: 3/5
Series: 1/?

"Tempest" by Holly Hook is a YA fiction book, the first in the "Destroyers" series. It follows the main character, Janelle, after she moves to Florida and strange stuff begins happening. Janelle and basically everyone she knows or is related to is a Tempest, a strange sub-group of humans that become hurricanes once in their lives, and can do that really cool thing with their eyes that's shown on the book cover.

Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that the premise of this book is freaking awesome. I cannot stress that enough. I don't pretend to understand that people who can turn into hurricanes any time they fall in salt water only do so once in their lives, because if I could turn into a hurricane, look out coastal cities! I did some research, and was a little annoyed to discover the named hurricanes that the WMO picks repeat every six years, but I stick like the concept that Tempests have a government mandated role call. If you've already read the book, feel free to follow the same wikipedia/google trail I did and be disappointed there is no Hurricane Adriana (although there have been several Adrians) or Hurricane Janelle in the real world. I am not against fiction books that borrow part of their information from reality, but I guess I was a little surprised by how easy it would have been to incorporate real hurricanes and give the book more of a "hidden world within a world" feel. Even though the ability to become some of the scariest, most powerful tropical storms is just fantastically cool, I would have preferred Hook had either completely veered off into a fantasy setting or maintained a more accurate representation of where the Tempests could have fit into our world.

I also really appreciated the characterization of Jenelle, Lucas and Greg in this book. I am crushed when I read books where the teenage characters sound and act more like some adults ridiculous caricature of teens, or characters that jump right from being pre-pubescent to being adults. Hook breathes life into Janelle, and into that awkward place where teenagers reside, which I loved. The developing relationship between Greg and Janelle was especially believable, not to mention cute. I am a suspicious person by nature, but their stolen  moments warm my heart. I got very caught up in those scenes, and the transparency of Janelle's reactions. In general I think Hook has strong talents when it comes to portraying teenagers, and teen interactions.

However I didn't feel the depth of characters extended to some of the the adults (ex: Adriana, Mr Deville). I can't tell if the lack of well developed personalities because they weren't main characters, their actions were more plot than personality driven or if it was a conscious effort to help illustrate Janelle's snap judgments. It would be really cool if they were a result of some method writing, but I'm not comfortable assuming that. Sometimes this bothered me, but certainly wasn't a deal-breaker.

I am a stickler for internal consistency in a story, so I take umbrage with a few of the plot points. I realize how silly this may seem to someone else, but it frustrates me that not all named tropical storms are Tempests. I don't understand why it was mentioned in the book. Additionally it makes little sense that there is a magical system that knows when when it's someone's turn to become a Tempest (and can halt all the other Tempest's ability to become hurricanes) down to the day but none of the actual Tempests seems to know even what month they should become a hurricane. It's also odd that there was very little about Tempest culture explained, but somehow Adriana knows how to brainwash the Tempest subconscious. I wouldn't normally bring up all of this, but the crux of the issue was that all of these plot devices could have been incorporated reasonably well, but at the time they all felt too convenient to me. Janelle would never kill people on purpose? Suddenly, Adriana can control her subconscious by playing only one tape while she's asleep for an hour (while back in reality brainwashing of an unwilling participant can take years under special conditions). That is just an example of the frustrating plot holes in this book. Said plot holes dragged me out of the book to complain, which is not an ideal reading experience.

It may look like I have a lot of complaints, but I really did like this book. I'm just kind of pushy. So while I have a few complaints about the deus ex machina style plot devices creeping into Hook's novel, they did not overshadow the excellent characterization and straight-up awesome premise. I was definitively entertained, even though I usually prefer to avoid YA. If you are a teen or just like reading teen fiction, I would strongly recommend this. Jump all over it!

Review: Ember and Ash

Author: Pamela Freeman
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 498
Warnings: N/A
Rating: 2/5

I don't have a strong endorsement of this book. There were some wonderfully entertaining qualities to her prose, particularly the well-developed setting, probably because this book is a one-off of her Castings trilogy. However the characters were a real weak point for me. I had trouble distinguishing their personalities, and I didn't care too much for any of them aside from Martine (Ember's mother).

Freeman's setting is top-notch. The environment created by the local gods who oversee matters local matters like death with the Powers who function as the Elements at their most animated was lovely. I appreciate the depth that went into them, as well as the myriad of people who communicate, worship and work for them. I got the feeling Freeman created a complete world and only showed us the bits we needed to see, which I love.

However, there were some really annoying aspects of this book that I want to caution readers about. There is a host of side-characters, and it's really obvious they have a sub-plot created especially for them with no real value to the Ember/Ash storyline. The sense of urgency created by the sub-plot involving Arvid (Ember's father) was just unnecessary. I was also irritated by the scene where Ember, Ash, Holly and several unnamed guards left the Last Domain's capital. It seemed sloppy to me that anyone reading that scene knew the "unnamed" guards were going to die, and soon, to emphasize how dangerous it was. I completely respect an author who's willing to kill off characters, but this was so obvious a plot point I couldn't take it seriously. Mean as this sounds, if Freeman can't bother to introduce the readers to a set of guards, why are we supposed to care if they're hurt? Altogether, I didn't see the same attention to detail in the smaller plot points of "Ember and Ash" that I so enjoyed in the setting.

I have to reiterate that the characterization in this book wasn't top notch. I expect a lot from my fantasy books, and interesting, believable characters are a big part of that. While some of the characters in "Ember and Ash" were likable enough, but I couldn't tell their internal monologues apart. On a much more personalized note, I thought the separation of Ember and Ash was ill conceived and story ended just when things were getting sexy.

I thought this was a reasonable bit of fluff-fiction, and I'm interested to see what else Pamela Freeman writes in the future. It was a fun read while it lasted, so if you've got the time and you like elementals, I would suggest this book.

Things I'm curious about: Did anyone else hate Arvid? Is there any saucy Ember/Ash fanfiction, hidden away in a dark and dusty corner of the internet? Can anyone explain what was up with Ice? I know the assumption that elements are mercurial was worked into the plot early, but still.