Book review 'Mainspring' by Jay Lake

Steampunk is a genre which has caught my interest so with my last trip to the library I got hold of a few steampunk novels.  Steampunk is a sub-genre within speculative fiction.  It creates a world, generally based on Victorian times, with machines and automatons powered by steam.  It takes steam-powered machines and takes them to the next level.

 

This curiousity of steampunk as a genre led me to reading Jay Lake’s “Mainspring”.  Lake creates a universe with a clockwork Earth, made of cogs, gears and a mainspring in a hidden location.  The main character Hethor Jacques is a clockmakers apprentice who is visited by the Archangel Gabrielle and given the task of finding the Key Perilous and re-winding the mainspring as it is winding down and the Earth is slowly stopping.  The equator is made up of a vast wall with gears at the top which rotate the Earth.  The idea of a clockwork Earth fascinated me and the literal interpretation of God ‘creating’ the Earth was a great idea for a novelist to explore.  But although the ideas and the potential of a clockwork Earth and a clock-maker God appealed I did not enjoy the book at all.

Lake tried to cram too much fantasy into the book.  Over the equatorial wall there was a world full of ‘winged savages’, giant automatons, furry Neanderthal like people, sorcerers and other monsters.  There was just too much.  The writing style did not sit well with me either as it felt like he was trying too hard to be epic by using phrases that were far too over-descriptive.  Lake also took much from the bible made unoriginal changes like the ‘Brass Christ’ who rewound the world many years ago and taking passages from the bible and just adding a word here and there about gears to make it fit to his world for example the below rewritten prayer

“Our Father, who art in Heaven
“Craftsman be thy name
“Thy Kingdom Done
“Thy plan be done
“On Earth as it is in Heaven
“Forgive us this day our errors
“As we forgive those who err against us
“Lead us not into imperfection
“And deliver us from chaos
“For thine is the power, and the precision
“Forever and ever, amen.”. 

Also I must admit the interspecies sex made me pretty squeamish.  The only time I enjoyed that part was when my friend drunkenly read out the passages while wearing a monkey costume (this actually did happen).

So although the idea and creativity behind this clockwork Earth was great ‘Mainspring’ did not live up to its potential.  Two out of five stars from me.  Please let me know if you disagree with this I would love to know what people liked about this book.

Wrap-up Book Buying Ban in September

The Book buying ban has finally come to an end.  I managed to stand strong although I have had a couple of major temptations.  The reason I wanted to participate in this ban was because my spending on books was getting completely out of control.  I finished my degree in February and after six long years of reading mostly legal texts I went on a buying and reading spree.  Books in New Zealand are expensive and e-readers have only just come onto the market here so it was not strange for me to spend $100 on books in one week.  With an upcoming wedding to save for I decided I needed to get my spending under control.

Even though I need to cut down my spending long-term and shorten my to be read list I would not participate in a book buying ban again.  Banning leads to binging.  History has shown us this time and time again.  Temptation drove me to concocting arguments in favour of me failing the ban.  The most prominent argument was that since prohibition didn’t work, a book ban couldn’t either.  After much thought I decided that there are many similarities between books and alcohol...

The ways that books are like alcohol:

•       They are both highly addictive;
•       You can read or drink for pleasure;
•       You can  read or drink to escape from reality;
•       They can both lead to headaches if over used; and
•      If over used they can lead to a break down in communication between family and friends.

Prohibition in North America only lasted for a short time as bootlegging (rum-running) became widespread and organised crime took control of the distribution of alcohol.  Prohibition generally came to an end in the late 1920s or early 1930s in most of North America and Europe, although a few locations continued prohibition for many more years.  Therefore, because alcohol and books are so similar, prohibition or a book buying ban is not going to work in the long run.  Luckily I did not have to book smuggling or bootlegging in order to get hold of something to read.

The ban has been a good thing in its own way, it encouraged me to put together a to be read list and gave me a chance to focus on the books I had at home rather than the new and shiny ones in the shops.  However I am going to control my spending in other ways in the future, like being patient enough to wait for library reserves to come in.  I am also going to try to get hold of second hand books or only buy new when they are on sale.

Review 'Heart's Blood' by Juliet Marrilier

Heart's Blood
Juliet Marrilier
Published in 2009 by Pan Macmillan

A haunted forest. A cursed castle. A girl running from her past and a man who’s more than he seems to be. A tale of love, betrayal and redemption…

Juliet Marrilier’s ‘Daughter of the Forest’ was a book I picked up randomly when I was 14 and it started my love of fantasy as a genre.  I have continued to read her books and ‘Heart’s Blood’ is her latest offering.  ‘Heart’s Blood’ is based on the tale of beauty and the beast.  It is an interesting interpretation of the fairytale with Caitrin (beauty) fleeing from an abusive cousin and her son.  Caitrin is a trained scribe and hears of work at Whistling Tor, a crumbling fortress on the top of a forested hill.  Nearby villagers warn Caitrin away from Whistling Tor speaking of a curse put upon the chieftain that lives there and speak of evil and otherworldly things that roam the forest near the fortress.  This advice is ignored by the young scribe and she encounters the chieftain Anluan (the beast) who is weakened and deformed from a stroke at a young age.  He has strange ties to the otherworldly beings that roam the forest and frighten the nearby villagers.

Marrilier is a beautiful writer, the story flows beautifully with lovely imagery and language throughout the tale.  Once again Marrilier creates a strong female lead, who was a little annoying at times, but overall I enjoyed following her journey in gaining courage to face her personal demons.  I also appreciated the fact that Anluan was suffering from a physical rather than supernatural affliction.  There was no beast that magically turned into a beautiful man, just a flawed man who had been through hard times.

While I enjoyed the book as a whole I could not help comparing ‘the host’ in the book to the ghosts from the Paths of the Dead in Lord of the Rings.  Both books have ghosts tied to a human with violent pasts and must fight for release from the ties that bind them to the earth.

Heart’s Blood is a little more romantic and easy to read than I normally go for.  However Marrilier has consistently put out well written novels giving life to old tales and mythology.  It was a pleasurable book to read.  Three out of five stars.

Short story collection review - 'Father Brown Stories' by G. K. Chesterton

 I am generally not a lover of classics.  My taste tends to lean towards contemporary fiction, as the flowery language and the representation of women in classic literature (by this I mean pre 1920) do not appeal to be.

Every once in a while I attempt to read something by a classic author and almost always I do not enjoy it.  My latest attempt at reading a classic was G K Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown Stories’. 

The blurb outlines that: “A small, disorganised, ordinary priest, Father Brown is an unlikely genius when it comes to piecing together strange and mysterious clues.  Yet his ingenuity and intuition are unsurpassed, and his gift for deduction raises him to the top rank of investigators”.

I, surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories.  Father Brown is a great character and I really appreciated his powers of deduction.  It was refreshing to read a detective story containing actual detective work.  With the growth of technology forensics has taken over crime writing.  It was great to go back to the basics.

One of the other reasons I enjoyed these stories was that the endings were different.  Most of the stories ended with Father Brown walking off with the criminal in discussion or repentance.

To satisfy my interests there was even a vaguely steam-punk short story titled “The Invisible Man”.  In this story a man who became rich through the manufacture of robotic servants was found murdered.  I loved the way Chesterton described the automatons and the thought provoking and witty way he wrote.

“One of the high-shouldered hooks that served the thing for arms, was a little lifted and Angus had suddenly the horrid fancy that poor Smythe’s own iron child had struck him down.  Matter had rebelled, and these machines had killed their Master.”

I would definitely recommend for enjoyable detective stories that take you back to basics and enthral you with the beautiful and clever prose that Chesterton demonstrates.  Four out of five stars. 

Graphic Novel Review: Death the time of your life Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham and Mark Pennington

Neil Gaiman has a wonderful gift of taking the profane and giving it life.  I have been slowly making my way through Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels thoroughly enjoying the rich and mystical world he has created.   

One of my favourite characters in his series is the Sandman’s older sister Death.  Other personifications of Death have been of a man in a dark cowl carrying a scythe.  Many stories about Death are of how the Grim Reaper was outwitted, as death is something to avoid, escape and cheat.

As he has done time and time again Gaiman takes the myth and turns it on its head.  Gaiman’s Death is a perky, optimistic and loving woman.  She dresses like a goth but does not have a gothic temperament.  Instead of being menancing she welcomes you into death with a loving embrace and a smile.  It is odd to describe the character of Death to be as full of life but she is

The Time of your life is a spin-off from the Sandman comics focusing solely on the character of Death.  Foxglove and Hazel, other characters from the Sandman comics, appear as well.  In this issue Foxglove has become a famous rock-star and Hazel is a stay at home mother, pretending to be Foxglove’s secretary rather than her lover.  Hazel's tries to make a deal with Death to extend a life and Foxglove travels to the shadowlands save Hazel.  This issue takes the reader through a journey of life, death and dreams.  It is explained that there is no balance to death, no taking of one life for another, as death is inevitable.

The graphic novel is illustrated beautifully and it is easy to see how Gaiman and his team have created a series that is widely praised and timeless.  I thoroughly enjoyed the deeper exploration of Death’s character with an issue to herself and no Sandman.  Four out of five stars.

Tweeting with Margo Lanagan and Neil Gaiman

I just had to share this with everyone.  I love that some of my favourite writers are on twitter and respond to my tweets.  Here is a fun little conversation I had with NEIL GAIMAN and MARGO LANAGAN two of my favourite authors.  It was also a book-geek squee moment for me!  I talk about 'Red Nose Day' in my previous post.

Neil Gaiman
From the tweets coming in, it's amazing how many people are scared of clowns. Sometimes clowns are scared of people:http://bit.ly/bzI1bz


Gem
@neilhimself tell them to read Margo Lanagans "Red Nose Day". Clowns being snipered. Gold! 


Neil Gaiman
@gemzina Ah, but @margolanagan is a genius.


Margo Lanagan
@neilhimself @gemzina Oh, you guys. *pops red nose on, fluffs up fluoro curls around tonsure*

Short story collection review - "Black Juice" by Margo Lanagan

I continue my exploration of short story collections with Black Juice by Margo Lanagan who is an Australian writer that came to Wellington earlier this year as a part of readers and writers week.  Unfortunately I did not get to see her speak but I heard a radio interview which can be found here that inspired me to read her books.  Black Juice is a two-time World Fantasy Award winner for Best Collection and Best Short Fiction.

The blurb on the back explains that:

“Each tale offers glimpses into familiar, shadowy worlds that push the boundaries of the spirit and leave the mind haunted with the knowledge that black juice runs through us all”.

I found this a fascinating and disturbing read.  Unlike “The Last Wish” (reviewed earlier) each tale was set in a different world with different characters.  The only similarity was that there was a feeling of otherness throughout the stories.

This collection is comprised of ten short stories of which two stood out to me.  The first being ‘Red Nose Day’.  This story creates a world in which clowns (performers) are at the top of the class system.  It alludes that these clowns abuse their social standing and destroy many young lives.  It follows the work of a sniper and his colleague and their sense of achievement in taking down these menaces.  This is a must read for anyone who has a childhood fear of clowns or just finds them plain creepy.

Another story that stood out was ‘Singing my Sister Down’ this short story has been published in magazines and collections a number of times.  It has also been made into a play.  It is the heartbreaking tale of a young women’s execution by tar pit.  This is a long and drawn out execution as it takes many hours for ‘Ikky’ to sink and suffocate.  The heartbreaking and heart-warming part of the story is that her family join her, spread out on planks so they do not sink, and picnic and sing until she goes down.  It is an interesting exploration of the psychology behind public executions and the idea that public executions are a form of entertainment.  This story can be read online here and I highly recommend it.

This collection of stories is not for the faint hearted.  I found that I got something different out of each story and although the were some stories that affected me more deeply I enjoyed all ten of them.  They are horrific and disturbing at times and explore the darker side of human nature.  But they also show the tenacity and resilience that is also a part of human nature.  That is why I loved this collection as it shows our darker side but also explores the way we can be strong and endure. I have already picked up her novel ‘Tender Morsels’ and I am thoroughly looking forward to reading it.

Four out of five stars from me.

Book review "The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski

Last week I toddled along to the annual book fair being held in Wellington, NZ.  There I got some fantastic books.  The only book I purchased that I had never heard of was titled “The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowski.  The main reason I picked it up was the review on the back: ‘Like a complicated magic spell, a Sapkowski novel is a hodgepodge of Fantasy, intellectual discourse, dry humour and economics’ – Time.

Economics seemed so out of place in a Fantasy book that I had to read it.  Honestly, I did not find a lot of economics in the book but I did find a unique and beautifully written collection of stories.

The main character Geralt is a witcher a highly skilled and magical slayer of monsters.  He encounters dark and twisted versions of characters from our favourite fairy tales.  Including a deadly Snow White, a bloodsucking Belle and a destructive genie. 

Although Sapkowski‘s source content is not original as he has taken his narrative from fables and tales , the way the stories have been put together is utterly unique. 

I was not aware that it was a collection of short stories when I began reading the book, I actually only figured it out after I had finished.  There are seven main short stories in this collection.  However instead of them remaining separate and linear, one main story about Geralt recovering from injury is spread throughout the collection.  It appears that Geralt is reminiscing on his past adventures and seeing his victories and failures while he is recovering from a nearly fatal wound.

I would recommend this book as it was a new and refreshing way of putting a short story collection together.  It was beautifully written with many dark twists and turns.  I look forward to more of Sapkowski’s work being translated from Polish to English.  Four out of five stars.  

Decisions

I am someone who loves to read and I have been a bookworm all my life.  This blog is a way for me to review and comment on books I have devoured as well as working on my writing.  I decided that it was time to take action rather than just thinking about the things I would like to be doing.

So wish me luck!