LibraryThing Review: Seer's Blood

Author: Doranna Durgin
Genre: YA
Pages: 310
Warnings: Death, torture
Rating: 3/5

Doranna Durgin's novel "Seer's Blood" follows feisty mountaineering outcast Blaine who follows enigmatic newcomer Dacey on a daring coming of age journey to save her family and her home. Blaine has been haunted by troubling dreams when she sees a large group of strangers camping out near her family's homestead. Not too long after a curious man, Dacey, brings warning of an ancient enemy. Blaine, armed with the incomplete knowledge of the long-lost seers, eventually allies with Dacey and his frankly awesome dogs, they learn, grow, rally their strength and lead an epic ass-kicking charge.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. It had a shadowy, possibly novel magic system, a straight up awesome villain, a solid heroine and a good dynamic between the two main characters. It had dogs, written well! So much potential, and instead of doing anything revolutionary Durgin meandered through the plot. Which is to say the climax was well done, but I was a little upset because it could have been so much more expansive in scope.

Like I said, there were things I liked a lot. The most fantastic part for me was the realistic portrayal of the rural setting. Durgin wrote about collecting greens several times in this story and the attention to detail (use of an herb garden, references to the greens wilting in less than a day, etc) was excellent. I felt confident that she either knows exactly what she's talking about or has a fine eye for detail. I felt the same way about the characterization of the dogs throughout the book, and especially the mutual affection between Dacey and his pack. It's realistic and adorable. I also liked how the main characters, Dacey and Blaine, built a richer relationship organically over the course of their adventures. I personally struggled a little with the local dialect all the characters spoke in, but I think that worked effectively to make the setting in the story distinct and believable. In fact, most of the character interactions in "Seer's Blood" both felt real and effective in moving forward the plot.

My biggest frustrations with this book were what I saw as missed opportunties. This book has several elements of solid storytelling, and a premise ripe with mystery. There's an extremely non-standard villain type with a novel form of consciousness, for cripe's sake! So, here we have the makings for a truly epic showdown between two ancient powers, like "Return of the Kings" epic. However the finale for this story was (no spoilers provided herein) good, but commensurate with "The Fellowship of the Ring". I read the ending and was so convinced that it was part of a series I googled "Seer's ring trilogy", and only after about the third website confirmed this book was stand-alone did I accept it was true.

Additionally, and I admit this is just me, I wanted to see more made of the villain. The Annektah are a multi-minded being that can exist without physical form, but prefer to override body's consciousness and experience it's host's emotions. I was really hoping that Durgin would take advantage of the opportunity to create a legitimately alien mind, kind of like the Oankali from "Liliths' Brood" (a good round-up of the themes and a description of the Oankali here). Instead the Annektah come off as incomprehensible to humans, not because they have a foreign ethical system, but because their cruelty reaches mustachioed kidnapper levels.

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.

LibraryThing Member Giveaway Review: White Hart

Author: Sarah Dalton
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 220
Warnings: Violence/Character Death
Rating: 3/5

"White Hart" is the story of Mae Waylander, a mysterious young woman with the power to control nature and her faithful companion Anta. However her powers are in high demand, and when a local girl Ellen is kidnapped after pretending to wield Mae's powers, she reluctantly accepts the help of  Prince Casimir and they follow her into the Waerg Woods. Along the way they discover the woods just as dangerous as they've been warned, and there are more secrets hidden behind the trees than they could have suspected.

This is a good story with several emotionally complex, interesting characters. Mae, Casimir and Sasha are all a good blend of strong and able to depend on other people. All three of them are capable of some very badass action, but they also all have some internal struggles that makes it hard for them to respond to all threats. I appreciate the sense of realism that lends to the story, especially since despite everything else, they are all pretty young. In addition, there's a small amount of romance in the story, but it takes a major backseat to the action, which I was fine with.

In general I thought this was a solid YA fiction story. They plotline slows down a little in the middle of the story, but picks up again after Mae does some soul-searching. Most of the individual action scenes were well-written, and they carried the story well. It was a nice, easy read, but it kept me interested. However I don't think it would appeal much to someone who doesn't already enjoy YA fiction and magic.

What was especially interesting to me from a gender representation perspective is that even though women were overrepresented in the main characters (2:1), the overall gender breakdown was still slightly more in favor of dudes (11:15). There weren't a lot of characters in this story because most of the book is set in the middle of a forest. Therefore the disparity could be a coincidence, but I'm not entirely convinced. Maybe if I find a considerable amount of books that go the other way?

On another note, several of the characters were significant to the plot but weren't given names, so I kept track of all characters, regardless of how well they were named. I also kept track of any character that had a name even if they didn't appear in the story, like Mae's mother, who while dead during the book played a significant role in the main character's upbringing. Either way the ratio was quite similar, so I'm going to try and follow my previous standard, characters that are named (even if not with exact names, anything more complicated than "the woman"), alive or dead.

Graphs, motherfucker. Do you read them?

Member Giveaway Reivew: The Terran Gambit

Image taken from www.goodreads.com

Author: Endi Webb

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 235

Warnings: Character Death

Rating: 2.5/5

Endi Webb’s “The Terran Gambit” follows the All-American space jock Jacob “Shotgun” Mercer as he fights for the Rebellion to free Earth from the imposing clutches of the Corsican Empire. There are several battles between the primarily Terran rebellion forces and the empire in space, and the scope ranges from ground combat between marines, gunfights between two-man fighters and crushing conflict between gigantic warships. The story shifts between several points of view, primarily the hero Mercer, his friends Megan “Grizzly” Po and Ben “Manuel” Jemez, as well as Captain Titus, following the terrifying antagonist Admiral Trajan.

I’m of two minds about this book. I found the overarching plot to be entertaining, but while I loved following the villain I struggled to care about the protagonists. In the beginning of the book an earth-let rebellion is crushed when their major spaceport is leveled by a nuclear warhead. I enjoyed reading about the tactics used by rebel and imperial forces to position themselves for a final conflict. I also thought the pace of the action was excellent, as the plot starts on a high-intensity moment, dips during the bombing then steadily builds to an action-packed climax. I liked that the book incorporated a lot of cutting-edge theoretical physics (which admittedly went way over head) and showcases them very effectively during the space combat.

As a result of the gradual ramp in energy there was a lot of time to get familiar with the characters. I think Webb chose to be expedient by having his characters tell the reader their backstories in big chunks, but it sacrificed a lot of realism. For example, there is a paragraph where Jemez is walking down a corridor, and starts summarizing his childhood and early adulthood (1). It ripped me right out of the story. I can’t imagine a human doing that, besides which it doesn't actually tell me much about Ben Jemez. Is he happy that he learned all these things, or proud of them? Why doesn't he brag? And if he’s modest, why not introduce this information while Mercer is chatting up Jemez’s more impressive physical qualities as his wingman? Po and Anya Grace also divulge their painful histories in a page of densely packed information to relative strangers, which feels more like Webb is crossing off a column labeled 'backstory' than writing people. Therefore I was not interested in their triumphs or worried about their struggles, because they felt more like cardboard cutouts.

However I believe Webb is very capable of writing characters well and slowing revealing who they are through their actions. Mercer is described as a talented, cocky, space jock. Within the first two chapters he exhibits impressive flying skills, comes up with clever tactics, says some crazy stuff (2) and flies a spaceship towards nuclear warheads against direct orders, showing me he is all of those things. He’s also apparently catnip to the ladies, but since he sleeps with one person and she’s the one who picks up him, I’m going to assume that’s his overconfidence speaking again. Another good example is Lieutenant Alessandro Bernoulli, who has the best introduction line in the book (3). Admiral Trajan is my personal favorite, and I was actually cheering for him in the last battle. That man starts out scary and somehow manages to get more terrifying until you want to run away every time he shows up. Trajan notably has a section where he talks for a page or so about his own history but because he’s using it to hint to a subordinate he killed his own father at sixteen, shit. That is a well-written character. Even though I didn't like all of these characters, they had a well-enough written personality that I had an opinion about them.

Another thing I felt was lacking is an internally consistent setting for the story to take place in. There’s a lot of lip service paid to an empire and rebellion that spans at least one galaxy (4), but very few characters aren't from earth and those that are never reference a heritage or even differences in their lifestyle and cultures as a result of growing up somewhere not earth (5). In addition very few recent events are mentioned by anyone, including Trajan, which is especially surprising as he knows a great deal about earlier history (6). Did nothing happen between 2014 and 2675? The most frustrating part is probably the huge gender disparity present in “The Terran Gambit”. Po and Grace are scoffed at for their discomfort regarding women in the military or even noticing that there are very few women around, implying everything is is rosy in the world of gender equality (7), (8). However of the 46 named characters in “The Terran Gambit”, 7 are women (9). That’s either the definition of a boy’s club, or everyone is in serious denial about a huge re-population problem on the horizon. These discrepancies between what the story says is happening and what is shown create a world doesn't hang together.

The hit-or-miss characterization and the weak setting worked together to make this a rocky reading experience for me. I probably only finished it because I promised to review it, and I would not be interested in reading the sequel.


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I apologize if the pages numbers are off, I was working from several digital copies that had conflicting page numbers. I am assuming 235 pages for the sake of this review.

(1) And so he devoted himself: not just to his academic studies as his parents demanded, but to every skill imaginable. He spent the hours he should have been wasting as a free-spirited teenager at the gym, or learning parachuting, or bow-hunting in the wilderness with the local young rangers group, or target practice at the shooting range with his neighbor, a retired Marine general and expert marksman. He insisted that his ever accommodating, upper-class parents pay for an increasingly pricier range of classes, usually private instruction from one of North America’s premier masters of martial skills or craft. Kickboxing, karate in all its forms, wrestling … he did it all, developing a lean, muscular physique other teenage boys would have killed for, but as it was they ignored him—he seemed too self-assured, even cocky, for their tastes. (pg107)

(2) “He would not lose this fight, dammit.” (pg 1)

(3) A man with exactly one half of a mustache. (pg 96)

(4) Not to mention the ongoing conquests of the Corsicans. By last count, they had recently conquered their six hundred and twelfth planet out of the thousand or so settled worlds.
And over sixty years ago, Earth was the five hundredth—almost like an anniversary prize for the Corsican Emperor on his golden jubilee. (pg 5)

(5) “An Old Earth term, Captain.” (pg 133)

(6) “When Gioachino Rossini died, you know Rossini, right?” Titus nodded—how could he not know the composer of the William Tell Overture? “When he died, Verdi submitted a proposal to the greatest Italian composers of his day to collaborate on a Requiem Mass to honor him. The others agreed, and Verdi quickly busied himself with his contribution. But it soon became apparent that the effort was becoming mired in bureaucracy and politics, and rather than see his contribution languish, he wrote the entire mass himself. He then rededicated it to the also-recently-deceased poet Alessandro Manzoni. Now, Manzoni wrote many things, yes, but perhaps his most important work was the novel The Betrothed, which later became a symbol for the Italian Risorgimento—the political movement that sought to establish one unified Italian kingdom over the petty states that made up the peninsula at the time. When Manzoni died, the Kingdom of Italy had been made fact, and Verdi wanted to honor him, and by extension, Italy. Captain, am I boring you?” (pg 120)

(7) “Let’s just say I go to some interesting parties with the gal-jocks on our girls’-night-outs.”
Gal-jocks? Ben rolled his eyes at her anachronism—sometimes she seemed stuck in the twenty-fourth century. (pg 63)

(8)“Look, if you want to survive in a fighter squadron, if you want the boys to take you seriously, you’ve got to be not only better than them, you’ve got to own them. Overwhelm them. If I didn’t do this, none of them would take me seriously.”
Po turned and regarded her, wondering if she was serious. “You think that?”(pg 140)

(9)

I made a graph breaking down character gender. In times of great stress, I make graphs.

Pop Review: Prey

Author: Michael Chrichton

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 258

Warnings: Character death
Rating: 3.5/5

Prey is a science fiction drama that answers the question “What would happen if a self-sufficient, violent AI went rouge?”

Crichton’s story answers while delivering a plot that keeps you busy in a bold, engaging style. I found it to be a fun read to finish in one or two sittings. In addition you can consider some of the cool implications of distributed computing and nanotechnology while you read.

However if you’re looking for a story that challenges your observational skills or tests your philosophical inclinations, back off. This book is basically just action. The characters are simplistic and the only thing I was worried about was who would survive (other than the narrator).

On the other hand, not all novels are about in-depth characterization, so if you liked other Crichton or Clancy books, pick this up and prepare to enjoy. If you’re going on a long airline flight this is also a good choice. Have fun!

Edited: Cross-posted at LibraryThing and Amazon.