The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Pub date - September 2010.

Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, Han Alister journeys south to begin his schooling at Mystwerk House in Oden's Ford. But leaving the Fells doesn't mean danger isn't far behind. Han is hunted every step of the way by the Bayars, a powerful wizarding family set on reclaiming the amulet Han stole from them. And Mystwerk House has dangers of its own. There, Han meets Crow, a mysterious wizard who agrees to tutor Han in the darker parts of sorcery - but the bargain they make is one Han may regret.

Meanwhile, Princess Raisa ana'Marianna runs from a forced marriage in the Fells, accompanied by her friend Amon and his triple of cadets. Now the safest place for Raisa is Wien House, the military academy at Oden's Ford. If Raisa can pass as a regular student, Wien House will offer both sanctuary and the education Raisa needs to succeed as the next Gray Wolf queen.

Everything changes when Han's and Raisa's paths cross, in this epic tale of uncertain friendships, cutthroat politics, and the irresistible power of attraction. (book back blurb)

Like The Demon King, The Exiled Queen is chock full of fantastical awesomeness. Chima has a way of writing that makes the Seven Realms both sit in the background yet be full and lush, enveloping you into its world. Like Sab (YA Bliss) said in her review, I want to live in this world. It just feels so real, like something that could exist on an alternate plane that if you could just tilt your head the right way, you'd see it.

The relationships between Amon, Raisa, Han, Dancer, Cat, Micah and Fiona are flourishing, some for the good and some for the bad. They're multidimensional in this book compared to the last. I feel like what I got in TDK was just a scratch in what these characters really are. And I'm so rooting for Han and Raisa. I can't wait to see just what happens between them in the next book. And Raisa and Amon for that matter.

Speaking of, I think one of my favorite parts of these books is the way Raisa views courtship and romance. She really is a helpless romantic but the facetious way she talks about kissing this boy and that boy and this other one, and then this one in dark corners, it's just a relief. There's no guilt. No one chastises her for how she acts. It's just normal. I guess it's refreshing seeing how normal Raisa is in her dating life considering everything going on around her.

The issues between Han and Micah are coming to a head and man, I'm just waiting for it to burst. But I truly pity Han. He's stuck in a difficult spot and is basically nothing more than a tool for people to use. It's hard not to think that they're using him not only for his talents but because of the very fact that he rightly has nothing left. No one will miss him should he get gone. But really, that's not true.

I just can't help but absolutely love the world that Chima created. The more I read her books, the more the world just fits into my normal. It's both intricate yet understanding. You can feel the dangers that the cadets face traveling to Oden's Ford. The way she wrote about the mist reminded me of some horror story where the mist was alive. And it might as well been here. I feel the pain and anguish and joy and love and hate that every single character feels; from Raisa herself right down to Cat, who, right now, is little more than a blip on the greater radar. You can feel the grime that covers them, feel how tired they are, the pain they feel after training. It's such an exceptionally written book that it's hard not to get sucked in completely.

It's funny because the book is a little long. I'm sure it could have been chopped down, that some parts were overdrawn. But if you ask me what could be cut, I couldn't name a single thing. I loved it all and every sentence in the book now makes it all the richer. I really can't say much more about The Exiled Queen without completely fangirling it and I really don't have any complaints so I'm going to end this here. Just read it and join me in my pain of waiting for the next book.

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Published October 2009.

Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for himself, his mother, and his sister, Mari. Ironically, the only thing of value he has is something he can't sell. For as long as Han can remember, he's worn thick silver cuffs engraved with runes. They're clearly magicked - as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off.

While out hunting one day, Han and his clan friend Dancer catch three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. After a confrontation, Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to ensure the boy won't use it against them. Too soon, Han learns that the amulet has an evil history - it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece so powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana'Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, has her own battles to fight. She's just returned to court after three years of relative freedom with her family at Demonai camp - riding, hunting, and working the famous clan markets. Although Raisa will become eligible for marriage after her sixteenth name day, she isn't looking forward to trading in her common sense and new skills for etiquette tutors and stuffy parties.

Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea - the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But it seems that her mother has other plans for her - plans that include a suitor who goes against everything the queendom stands for. (book back blurb)

I've always been a little hesitant about reading high fantasy because of the detachment I tend to feel while reading. The books that I've read seemed to be more concerned about dumping every little piece of the world the author created onto the reader instead of focusing on the plot. Things that functioned like normal pieces of our world were renamed and lacked context so I spent more of the book trying to figure out what was what instead of what was going on.

Not so with The Demon King. At first the entrance into this new world was a little jarring. New terminology and things can do that to a person. But after about a chapter and a half, I zoomed right into the plot and I didn't want to stop. I didn't want to stop so bad that I plowed into the next book in the series, The Exiled Queen, because I just had to know what happened next. Which only means I'm going to have to wait extra long for the next book. At least I have The Warrior Heir in my TBR pile to tide me over.

The realms that Chima created is both wholly fantastic in its new self and at the same time grounded enough in our reality that I could stay connected to the story while reading it. The bits and pieces of the world that made it unique to itself blended seamlessly with the story. There wasn't any lingering on a single piece of anything to infodump. Anything that needed to be known about anything was woven into the story itself. Everything was a part of everything else and no single piece stood out any more than the rest. There was just enough newness to the world that I felt immersed in a whole different place as I was reading but the characters, their actions, their circumstances and their surroundings held me in place for how real they were. I felt that despite the fantasy land, it could have existed.

Raisa is probably one of my favorite YA heroines I've read yet. She's so strong-willed and opinionated but not obnoxiously so. She knows her place and yet at the same time somewhat (and not-so-somewhat) works quietly to fight against that. She strives to better herself. As much as she loves her mother, she doesn't want to be an ignorant or weak queen. She pushes people to push her because it'll make her that much stronger.

And I love just how blatant her sexuality is. Usually when you end up with any kind of king/queendom type of setting, there's an air of propriety attached. While she's not allowed to have boys in her room or anything, she speaks of kissing a multitude of boys as if it were nothing. She's not a slut but she's certainly not prudish, either. She has her limits, she knows them and she sticks to them. I love it.

And one can't help but love Han. Man, did he get the shit end of the stick in life. And while his and Raisa's paths cross pretty briefly in the overall length of the story, they remain with each other. Except Han doesn't know who's crossed his path. He's not matching the girl he's thinking about to the girl he loathes in the high tower. I'm anxiously awaiting the point when he finds out the two are one and the same.

I loved the history of this world that skimmed just under the surface of the plot and subplots. It made me want to know more. There's a political divide there; treason, treachery, hatred. I'd love to grab one of Speaker Jemson's history books and just sit and read for a while. Or even listen to old Lucius since he knows the real history of the Breaking. I also love how the revolt from on high is taking place so underhandedly. Sneaky bastards, those wizards!

I just can't say enough good about The Demon King. I really can't. The world is so vivid that I could dive right into it. The characters are so real I could almost touch them. The story pulled at me so strongly that at points I wanted to yell out to help the characters and I even got misty-eyed at a few other moments. Most importantly, The Demon King has me so excited for high fantasy that I'm totally jazzed to keep working on my own manuscript and dear god, I hope it can be at least a tenth as good as this is. Even if high fantasy isn't your thing, you need to read this one. The plot alone will suck you in. The world is just a gorgeous added bonus.

Blog Tour - Merlin's Harp by Anne Eliot Crompton

First published in 1995, re-published March, 2010 by Sourcebooks.

Nivienne never thought she'd be in direct contact with barbaric Humans - let alone help them. She's only heard stories of the evil that occurs outside the forest. But her dear friend Merlin has brought word that Arthur's kingdom - where Humans dwell - is threatened by the Saxons. If Nivienne doesn't help it, it could be the end for her own peaceful home. Nivienne must now learn to trust the Humans and her heart. Even more difficult than going to war alongside your enemies is discovering you are falling in love with them. (book back blurb)

Well this was, um . . . not good. Really, at all. I don't think it's ever taken me so long to read a book so short. Like wading through snow up to my hips. It's so overwrought and drowning in such flowery language that it's hard to connect to anything that's going on in the story. I often found myself having read a page without really reading it and only skimming it when I went back over it.

To Crompton's credit, she stuck very closely to faerie lore which is to her benefit but even greater to her disadvantage. Because she stuck so closely to the lore, I felt nothing for Nivienne. Faeries are traditionally heartless and don't emote as humans do. That certainly came through in the reading but at the same time it also made me not give a crap about Nivienne. And so help me if she said, "I, Nivienne," one more time, I was going to put my hand through the pages and slap her. I get it goes with the tone of the writing but it's overwritten so, to me, it was just annoying.

Plus Nivienne constantly refers to herself as brown. Maybe my eyes aren't working correctly but fish lips on the cover is a white girl. And can I say how much I hate it when people purposely push out their lips in a vain attempt to make them look fuller? The Olsen twins do it all the time. Makes me want to throw things at them and see if I can get them to stick.

But more to the story, the whole Saxon war I felt was glazed over. I was three quarters of the way through the book before I realized that we'd already moved beyond that. For me, the focus of the story wasn't quite right and what was being talked about was secondary to the greater problem going on in the background. The characters just kind of glided through their surroundings as if they were inconsequential and didn't matter to their greater scope of things. The urgency of the Saxon threat in the blurb is unfounded in the story and barely appears to make a dent in the consciousness of the characters.

It didn't help that the text was, within chapters, non-linear. Nivienne kept having these sort of flashbacks where she'd go off on tangents about what happened in her past because something in the present reminded her of it. It started to ebb towards the end but it was really prevalent in the beginning. I often found myself having to read back a few paragraphs because I'd realize that I had missed a time jump. Very jarring and interrupting. That's one of the motivating issues I had with getting into the story aside from not connecting with Nivienne.

The best part was the last few chapters where Arthur and Mordred got into it. It's really the only part that's not completely glossed over with insubstantial nothing. I think if that part of the story was more played up, not only would Nivenne have become a more well-rounded character, it would have made the story stronger. I got to see facets of Nivenne in those few scenes that were absent the entire story (presumably because of her Fey nature) that I really liked. But too little too late, really.

Overall, I really appreciate that Crompton kept so close to the lore even though it was detrimental to the success of the main character. I liked how she played with the King Arthur legend and made it her own. Other than that, I think the writing style is trying too hard and what story is there is drowned by it. The MC isn't human and thus I couldn't connect with her for 95% of the story because, for all intents and purposes, she remained emotionless. I think if the writing weren't so flowery and the story were told from someone else's perspective, or Nivienne was allowed to emote a little more, it could have been much better. As it stands, I couldn't rightly recommend this one. Read Le Morte d'Arthur. Much better.

My apologies to Paul at Sourcebooks.

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1956.

Narnia . . . where you must say good-bye . . . and where the adventure begins again.

The Unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia when Narnia is stirred and upset. And Narnia is in trouble now: A false Aslan roams the land. Narnia’s only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land. Their task is a difficult one because, as the Centaur says, “The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do.” Who is the real Aslan and who is the impostor?

This one officially comes in a close second to THAHB. I was going ‘oh no’ for a good half of the book when the shiesty ape came into power and enslaved all the talking animals and, essentially, destroyed Narnia. But all good things must come to an end, right?

The will of the king and the children to fight in the face of adversity is provoking and encouraging. To stand up for what you believe in when so many people are ready to slaughter you for it is beyond bravery.

What kept this book from being my favorite was one pretty minor thing towards the end of the book. Aslan states something along the lines of the good in the world is answered by him and the bad is answered by Tash, the nasty bird-headed god of Calormen. Yeah, not liking that “I’m the best god in the universe and all the rest of them are shit” statement. Yeah, yeah, at least he doesn’t make that god nonexistent but seeing as Aslan makes himself to me the only “good” god, that didn’t sit right with me and my non-church self.

I also spent a good part of the book trying to connect the allegorical dots. Now my education when it comes to all things churchy is pretty much nonexistent. I know the basics and that’s about it. Who are the Calormens supposed to represent? I’ve wanted to say those of Islamic faith since THAHB but considering the animal-headed god, I also want to say Egyptian but the clothes and actions aren’t necessarily matching up.

It was a really good book. The ending was nice and well-rounded but I don’t understand the reason for Susan’s outcast. So, essentially, all of them went to Narnia after they died (heaven) and Susan gets left behind because she likes lipstick? She lost faith in Narnia? She doesn’t get to heaven because she thought it was all a dream? Granted I was upset to read that she’d switched her beliefs in the land but did she not serve as she was supposed to? Apparently that’s just not enough. Aslan’s an all or nothing type of lion. And the more I think about this, the angrier I get. As if Lewis is saying if you be a dumb little girl and get caught up on boys and make-up, you'll be denied entrance to heaven. Nice. Not liking that one either.

And one thing that’s been really bugging me, what the deuce is up with thirst and these books? The characters are always thirsty and looking for water to drink, even in the most inopportune moments. Here Eustace was in the middle of battle and complaining to himself about how thirsty he was. Why? I don’t get the significance and why it’s so prominent in all of the books. It got to a point where I thought it was just filler, something else for them to do but I have no idea. It was just so prevalent and at the same time so pointless.

It was a nice end to the series, though, despite its flaws and religious lessons. By this book you’re so entrenched and feeling for Narnia that when it’s destroyed you feel its loss as well.

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1953.

Narnia . . where owls are wise, where some of the giants like to snack on humans, where a prince is put under an evil spell . . . and where the adventure begins.

Eustace and Jill escape from the bullies at school through a strange door in the wall, which, for once, is unlocked. It leads to the open moor . . . or does it? Once again Aslan has a task for the children, and Narnia needs them. Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, they pursue the quest that brings them face to face with the evil Witch. She must be defeated if Prince Rillian is to be saved.

Redemption! Yeah, this one was good. Still not as good as THAHB but definitely much better than PC and VotDT combined. Aslan kept himself to a minimum and the children were thoroughly tortured by the elements, giants, another witch and a slew of other things. Fun!

My inner feminist reared her ugly head at the whole “witch is the snake that corrupts man” homage but I just kept thinking that it was of the times. Biblical references. Calm down. Still, the insinuation irked me. As is Lewis’s ability to let women stand by and let men do all the fighting. *breathe*

Anyway, this fairy tale was much more fleshed out, no deus ex machina that I can remember and I really enjoyed it. I saw the issue with the giants at the first mention of “they’d love to have you for the Autumn Harvest” but that’s really the only thing I saw in advance. I’m not one of those perceptive people that sees things like that. At least, I don’t actively look. So if I see something like that, I think I’m being beaten over the head with it. But that’s just me.

The thing with reviewing series, unless there’s a big dip in writing style or some drastic change, the reviews start to get redundant unless I focus on the story itself and even then it’s either I liked it or I didn’t. So, I’m pretty short on things to say aside from “go read nao.” Oh, I cried at the end. Very sad. I was hoping the old friends would see each other one last time. And the very end, back at the school, a little strange and a touch contrived but it was so minor I really didn’t mind. Loved the underground world. That was probably my favorite part.

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1952.

Narnia . . . where anything can happen (and most often does) . . . and where the adventure begins.

The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, their cousin Eustace, and Caspian to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan’s country at the End of the World.

Eh. I was nonplussed with this one. A cool story but it was kind of scattered and I’m really starting to see the deux ex machina moments that Lewis uses via Aslan and his actions in the stories. All it seems the children have to do is wish upon an Aslan and something comes along to help them out. It’s getting a little tiresome.

I understand the story is supposed to be scattered all over the place since the children are island hopping but I think because each incident at each island was rounded out so nicely that it was more noticeable for me. I guess I just wasn’t as enchanted with this story as I was with the previous ones. THAHB is still my favorite in the series at this point and I think Eustace really irked me to the point of not enjoying this one and wanting to drown him in the ocean they were sailing on. He was a pain in the ass. I would have liked to seen him change (character, not shape) as opposed to getting told he was a different person after the dragon thing but such is this and the rest of the stories.

And Aslan appearing to the children as a lamb . . . even I think that’s getting beaten over the head with the Jesus references. Not to mention him saying that he’s known by another name in our world and the children will have to know him by that name. Hmmm . . . is it Horatio? Not that that’s a bad thing but the religious references are becoming more and more obvious as the series goes on.

Eh is what I have to say about this one. I guess every series is going to have its lulls.

The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1951.

Narnia . . . the land between the lamp-post and the castle of Cair Paravel, where animals talk, where magical things happen . . . and where the adventure begins.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are returning to boarding school when they are summoned from the dreary train station (by Susan’s own magic horn) to return to the land of Narnia - the land where they had ruled as kings and queens and where their help is desperately needed.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked this book. I really did. But compared to the others I just found it kind of lackluster and a little unfocused. The book is called Prince Caspian but the emphasis didn’t seem to be on him; it was on the children and how they saved the day. I was expecting something a long the lines of the life and times of Prince Caspian, or something like that. The history that we do get of him is passively told for a couple of chapters (which was interesting nonetheless) and everything else was about the re-emergence of Old Narnia.

Prince Caspian was definitely more of a secondary character than the focus of the book. It almost seemed that he was just fodder for another adventure for the children which was kind of irritating. I was sad at the end, however, when we’re told that Peter and Susan were getting too old to travel back and forth between the real world and Narnia. Very Peter Pan moment right there.

Overall I guess I wasn’t as impressed with this one as I was with the others. It is a little disheartening to go into something thinking you’re getting one thing and get something else. Like I said, it wasn’t bad by any means. It’s still a fantastic story but I think the power of a title comes into play here. If the title of the book is Prince Caspian, I expect him to be the main focus of the story, not a secondary plot line.

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1954.

Narnia . . . where horses talk and hermits like company, where evil men turn into donkeys, where boys go into battle . . . and where the adventure begins.

During the Golden Age of Narnia, when Peter is High King, a boy named Shasta discovers he is not the son of Arsheesh, the Calormene fisherman, and decides to run far away to the North - to Narnia. When he is mistaken for another runaway, Shasta is led to discover who he really is and even finds his real father.

This is my favorite book in the series so far. I loved the imagery and the story that’s being told here and the will that this this weak little boy (because that’s what he really is) does have. I can picture almost an Egyptian-like feel to the world that Shasta’s in, and I really don’t think that’s unintentional.

As someone that’s as nonreligious as they come, even I picked up on the Moses in the reeds homage this story paid. I knew going in that CS Lewis had some heavy Christian themes in his Narnia series. I guess it goes right along with write what you know, right? At least he did something different with it. He was given an image to color and it looked like one that everyone else had. He just used different crayons.

I would have liked to have seen some more of Bree, though. He seemed to have a pretty big conflict towards the end of the story, with his dignity and walking back into his land a relative stranger. The story certainly hops around enough that that could have been a possibility to have in there instead of just a passing mention of what he did with his life at the very end. That part just seemed to be left hanging and, really, it was the only part that left me a little unfulfilled.

I liked the integration of the original children (well, the LWW children, anyway) into this very different tale. Being someone that’s pretty unfamiliar with The Chronicles of Narnia, I like how they’re used as sort of fishing wire to string the stories together, even at the very end of The Magician’s Nephew (although that would be only if you were even remotely familiar with LWW).

Overall, an excellent book and I can’t wait to keep plowing through the series.

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1950.

Narnia . . . the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy . . . the place where the adventure begins.

Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor’s mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever.

You know, I can’t help but question whether a book like this would be published today. There’s a lot of telling, not so much showing, a lot of action is skimmed over and it’s very obviously a religious allegory (not that that would make it ineligible for publication). I couldn’t help but think that as I read it but at the same time I couldn’t help but think just how magical the story actually is.

Compare the circumstances to other works now and you don’t have all that much that is original but then, back in 1950, this was the epitome of original. There was nothing else like this story except for facetious fairy tales that carried very little depth. This was the basis for portals and other worlds and magical creatures that authors today either consciously or subconsciously pull from for their own stories. So no, it’s not original today but it is the very reason it’s not original today, because it was so original and magical then that it was bound to spurn derivatives.

This is a classic fairy tale despite the obvious Jesus references (if I could find that YouTube video, I’ll post it, with Aslan as Jesus). It’s light and airy and the kind that, obviously without me saying it, will stand the test of time for many more years to come. The children are eternally relatable , their wishes are forever there in the reader, to escape to a magic land and become king or queen. There’s nothing in there that couldn’t appeal to anyone, at any time, reading it.

When comparing this book to something like Stardust by Neil Gaiman, I think the voice of Narnia just stands out. This was Lewis’s voice. He was born to write these types of fantastical stories in the style of an age-old fairy tale. While Gaiman’s idea for Stardust was on the level of awesome, the voice just wasn’t right. There was a sort of force there, a trying too hard. I use Gaiman as an example because (aside from the fact that I can’t think of any other authors that have tried to write like this) he’s a magnificent writer and writes amazing stories. Stardust was an experiment for him, not his usual voice so it’s not chalked up to him not being able to write. That old timey style voice of fairy story telling is bestowed only on a select few. Lewis was one of those few.

These stories are capable of transcending time with ease and are written in such a way that they’ll never go out of style. Sure, you’d have to be either really damn good or someone of Gaiman’s status in the publishing industry to get something like this published now, and even then there’s no guarantee of equivalence, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Narnia was published, does exist and will continue to exist for generations. There is a classicism about these stories that just can’t be erased and just can’t be mimicked unless you’ve been bestowed with the voice to do it.

Yes, there is so much that could be expanded on in Narnia but what’s already there on the pages is amazing. Perhaps it is because it’s the epitome of a fairy tale and someone who’s much more critical than I can might be able to see how empty of a plate it might be but to me, there’s just enough there to trust the reader. It’s not bogged down in worldbuilding infodumping or unimportant backstory or research masturbation on the part of the author. All that’s there is what’s important to the story at hand, and nothing else. It goes from point to point seamlessly and with little to no fat and, for me anyway, makes the experience of the read that much more enjoyable.

The world misses fairy tales like this, in all their simplicity but I don’t think there can be much more than what there is now without an inundation which would only devalue what’s already available. Let’s hope the world never has to know what it’s like to live without Narnia.

The Seventh Tower - Aenir by Garth Nix

First published in 2001.

The dream world Aenir is not a safe place. One wrong step can lead to danger, entrapment…or death. Tal and Milla must fight their way through this shifting landscape. They are searching for the Codex, a magical object that will decide the fate of their worlds. Many creatures stand in their way–from the cloud-flesh Storm Shepherds to a swarm of venomous Waspwyrms to a horrifying figure named Hazror. Tal and Milla cannot leave Aenir without the Codex. But finding it might endanger them more than they’ve ever dreamed… (www.bn.com)

This book is by far the best out of the three that I read. The writing shifted away from focusing on the world and pushing the world and started focusing on plot and action and ‘are they going to make it out alive?’ About halfway through the book I remember thinking, ‘now we’re getting somewhere.’

So long as Tal doesn’t think because he definitely is a little on the pansy side, not to mention that superiority complex comes back into play every now and then. I don’t like reading about that because without Milla, Tal would be vulture food and he really hasn’t seen that yet. However I’ll give him points for pushing himself more than he ever has, especially with Hazror and the Codex, where he was essentially carrying a door with a dislocated shoulder out from under a mountain that was falling on them. I’d probably do the same thing without crying as much as he was but good for him for reaching beyond his comfort zone, at least physically.

While Milla is still pretty two dimensional, I’m liking her even more just because of how strong of a person she really is. Stubborn as all hell but strong nonetheless. The best moment for her is seeing her in her prime, fighting at the castle. She really is a warrior (not that I doubted that before), not to mention a real leader in a dire situation. Again, without her, Tal would have been captured because he never would have left his brother behind without Milla’s insistence. She really is a great character and is my favorite in the series.

And I really like the Geico gecko in Aenir. He’s something like a Kushkar (I believe that’s the name), this little talking, fighting, walking history book of a lizard. I want one. I wonder if he can save me money on my car insurance. I don’t know if he’s supposed to look like a talking gecko but that’s the image I immediately got from him.

There were a few things that bothered me about this one. There were a few instances of keyboard mashing here, especially with the lizard’s name and his language. It took me as long to sound out the name of his language as it did for me to read a page. Is that necessary? There were less conveniences in this one but they were still there in the shape of the Storm Shepherds and the Codex (although the Storm Shepherds were sometimes more detrimental than they were helpful so they get a partial pass). And some of Tal’s revelations just seemed kind of contrived. Like the guilt he had for taking Milla’s shadow. It’s only when he hears her name that he’s like, ‘oh yeah, I feel guilty about that.’ It just didn’t sit right with me.

Sushin is the biggest issue I have with all of the books. Even at the end of this one, with the reader getting an inkling of what he actually is, he just seems like a character there for no other purpose than to give Tal these struggles and journeys. He’s the antagonist but for no reason that we know. I want to find out what his problem is but at the same time I really don’t because I’m afraid it’s going to be something insubstantial. He’s nothing but a piece of motivating force for action at this point and I’m getting kind of aggravated by it. I like to know why my villains are the way they are. I don’t like just seeing them being evil without a point or used as a catalyst for plot in the stories.

If you can make it through the first one, I’d actually recommend reading these because they do get better as they go along. I’m not about to run out and buy the next book in the series to find out what happens (although finding out about the history of the wars and The Forgetting is pretty damn intriguing) but when I get a chance (who knows when that’ll be with the size of my TBR pile), I wouldn’t mind finishing them. I’m just not in a rush to do it.

The Seventh Tower - Castle by Garth Nix

First published in 2000.

I’m having issues finding a synopsis for just this book instead of the entire series and the book I have is a three-in-one so that’s not all that helpful either. So I’ll try and sum this one up for you.

Tal has bound himself to Milla, and vise versa, in order to get himself back to the castle. In exchange for his safe return, he must get Milla a Sunstone in order for her to take it back to the Icecarls. Getting back into the castle, since Tal hasn’t heard of anyone actually doing it, proves much more difficult than climbing up a mountain. He’s pushed to the physical and mental limits that even he didn’t know he had, not to mention he starts to question his own standing in life. When Tal and Milla are captured by henchmen of Sushin, Tal’s mortal enemy for unknown reasons, he has to figure a way out of the mess he’s in and help Milla because it is his fault, after all, that she ended up trapped in his world and incarcerated in the Hall of Nightmares.

I have to say, this one is much better than the first, not only in writing style but in exposition as well. I think it had a lot to do with it shifting back and forth between Tal being someplace foreign and Milla being someplace foreign so there’s a lot more explanation going on which helps to develop the story in my head a little better. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments of ‘what is that?’ because it just gives you a name without a basis for comparison, but it’s quelled a lot.

By the end Tal gets over his “Milla’s barely a step above Underfolk” superiority that he carried for a large enough chunk of this book that it was still annoying. The girl saved his ass time and time again yet he saw her as beneath him, in some fashion or another. Product of his upbringing, I know, but usually, when someone stops death from taking your life, you’re grateful, not expectant that that’s how it should be regardless. Granted Milla isn’t exactly a daisy to be around but at least she doesn’t have the caste mind that Tal has.

I was getting pretty annoyed with all of the conveniences that seemed to surround Tal to help him out of otherwise futile situations. The more I see and understand these Spiritshadows and shadowguards, the more I see them as deus ex machina pieces that serve to make the journey easier for the MC, to help him out of situations he’d otherwise get stuck in. A security blankie. The things just proved too useful.

As did Uncle Ebbitt. Aside from the fact that his “wacky” demeanor felt contrived, at best, he always seemed to appear at the most opportune moments to help Tal along. When he was in the Pit, that was supposed to be an illegal holding cell. You’d think it’d be under better guard and an Underfolk with a hacksaw in a cake wouldn’t be able to get by and give it to Tal. Or how Ebbitt comes in to save the day just at the moment Tal’s able to get out of the Pit.

I did like Milla’s ability to thwart Fashnek and his crystal globe of nightmares. That, to me, made sense because she’s not of that world. She holds powers that they don’t know of so to see her exhibit something that was otherwise unfamiliar was almost expected. The execution of relaying why she had that power seemed a little forced, but the power itself was pretty cool.

With Tal leveling out and doing things for the greater good instead to protect his image, not to mention the stilts of the story getting shorter, the books are getting more tolerable. It’s decent but I’m still leaning towards this kind of high type of fantasy to not really be my thing. It’s a little much, especially when the emphasis is on the world instead of the characters, the situation or the plot.

The Seventh Tower - The Fall by Garth Nix

First published in 2000.

Tal has lived his whole life in darkness. He has never left his home, a mysterious castle of seven towers. He does not see the threat that will tear apart his family and his world.

But Tal cannot stay safe forever. When danger strikes, he must desperately climb the Red Tower to steal a Sunstone. He reaches the top…

…and then he falls into a strange and unknown world of warriors, iceships, and hidden magic. There Tal makes an enemy who will save his life—and holds the key to his future. (bn.com)

I. Am. So. Lost. I’ve never read a book and come out this disoriented before. Holy crap. Right from the beginning you’re shoved into this world with weird names being thrown at you, many without any kind of explanation so you’re left to try and figure out just what this something’s supposed to look like but you have no idea because it could rightly be anything. That . . . was a huge turn off for me. Immediately I’m supposed to know what all of this stuff is, what’s going on, why it’s so important to get into Aenir. And I don’t. I’m just told that’s how it is. Therein lies the major flaw.

It doesn’t say why it’s so important to get a Sunstone and be able to get into Aenir. The book just says you have to and it becomes Tal’s life journey from the moment he finds out his father’s missing. He has relatives and this Sushin guy that treat him like a steaming pile of crap without any real reason. Apparently there was some shenanigans between Sushin and someone in Tal’s family and he’s taking it out on him. Mature. As for the female relatives, I have no idea why they’re bitches, but they are. I did feel a little pang of anger at how they were treating him but that was pretty fleeting.

It also seems that young Tal has a bit of a superiority complex, not to mention a huge amount of selfishness. The complex could rightly be a product of his surroundings. It seems that’s just how this world lives. But damn is this kid selfish. He considers leaving behind his guide, a warrior girl that’s really no older than he is (about 13) to die in the cold but decided not to not because he thinks it’d be wrong and she should be saved, but because of what other people would think of him. Commendable, I tell you. O_o The thing is, he seems like a really bright kid who should know better. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to get her a Sunstone so he considers leaving her behind all the while attempting to convince himself that she’s part of the Underfolk, despite the evidence to the contrary, and she should be treated as such. And he’s the head of the family? I just don’t find this likable in a character. I’m hoping for some sort of redemption in the next two.

I’m still trying to figure out how, after the fall, Tal ended up so far away. I understand his shadowguard (which acted like a deus ex machina) glided him down to safety but from what it reads like, it’s like he was hundreds of miles away. And what the *^%^*& is a stretch? Saying it’s almost the length of Tal’s arm doesn’t do me any good because I have no idea how big the kid is. Some 13 year-olds are enormous. So when the tower was 100 stretches away . . . no idea. I could guess but is that really where my energy should be focused when reading a book? Or trying to decipher their units of measure because it’s constantly brought up but never really explained?

If this weren’t one of those three books in one deals, I wouldn’t be reading on. The end of the book ends on what is rightly a chapter mid-book, not the end of the first story which I find kind of annoying. Like how Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed together and the end of the second looked like someone in the editing room with a pair of scissors picked a place and snipped on the reel. That’s how this one ended. Ick. And the thing is, if the book has to come out and force the idea that Tal has grown, he really hasn’t. I didn’t see it although I was told he did.

Sure, it was a really fast read. Really fast. But it’s empty. There’s a fair amount going on but like I said, I’m expected to understand the context of this world without any kind of basis for comparison and that really has me thrown. I understand you can’t take the time to go into great detail about your world in order for readers to get it but for the love of god, just give me something. Anything! It’s a 14 point font with 2 inch margins and 196 pages. I’m sure there’s some wiggle room there. Sure, I get it. I get what a Sunstone is. I get those testing things Tal has to take but it’s like walking into a tribe in Africa and just expecting to know and understand what’s going on. Sure, you’ll get it eventually but on your first day, it’s not going to mean much. And that’s what happened here. It’s consistently my first day in the tribe.

The writing was kind of eh as well. It was kind of high falutin and it reminded me of my own work, the beginning of it anyway, when I was aiming for something that the story shouldn’t have been. Are the stilts really necessary? I’ll read the next two but only because they’re attached to the first. I don’t see any other reason to keep going.