Fiction

The Good Thief

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The Good Thief

By Hannah Tinti

Dial Press

ISBN: 978-0-385-33745-8

3.75 stars

The Good Thief is a good story, although, it took me a little while to find it. I wasn’t sure of this book for the first few chapters but decided to keep reading and found an interesting tale of family and survival.

Ren is 12 years old. He’s an orphan who is missing one hand, and without that hand, he has no hope of being adopted. He knows nothing of his family, he has no idea how he lost his hand, and only knows that his future is bleak. When a man shows up claiming to be his sibling, the brothers at St. Anthony’s Orphanage for Boys send him on his way with Benjamin Nab without asking too many questions as if they know this is Ren’s only chance to escape his sad future. Benjamin is a conman with plans for Ren and his missing hand. With nothing to his name, no family, and nowhere to go, Ren finds himself in an uncomfortable position. A good little thief himself, Ren throws his lot in with Benjamin and finds a home, a family of sorts, and friends.

This book is sort of gothic, some of it is dark, and some of it is morbid. I liked Ren though and I think that kept me in the story. Honestly, I found some of it unsavory, and while I truly didn’t dislike any of the other characters, I found their actions unlikeable. This unfortunately made my attention flag a bit. Short aside here — I can’t really tell you what I found so unlikable since I’ve read and liked books with much worse in them. There was just something here that made me flinch a bit and I honestly don’t know what that was. So there you have it, a completely unsatisfactory explanation. Sometimes like and dislike can’t be explained fully, it’s just is.

This book has been on my list for a few months, and though I think I can say that I enjoyed this book in the end, I didn’t love this book like I anticipated. At one point my husband asked me what I was reading and what it was about. After a brief description, he promptly asked why I was still reading it. Maybe my short redux was showing my dislike early on I can’t say. I will admit that my description was rather on the morbid side though. I don’t know if I became strangely fascinated by but what I was reading or what but I did finish and in the end was rewarded with a good little tale about New England scam artists, grave robbers, murderers, thieves, and a bit of adventure.

Ren does get answers to many of his questions about his life, finds out what loyalty means, and ends up with a family. It does come down to a satisfying conclusion, and I don’t always need a happy ending, but sometimes I think it helps. This was one of those times. Ren’s a pathetic, one-handed orphan who steals, but I felt some sympathy for him and had to follow him to the end, if only to make sure he got there all right.

My Favorite Reads – Dusk

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Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and this week my pick is…

Dusk by Tim Lebbon.

From the back cover: It is the Year of the Black 2208, and magic has been dead for three centuries. Since the Cataclysmic War, which drove away the Mages, civilization has regressed to a more savage time. But magic is about to be reborn…

Kosar the thief senses that Rafe Baburn is no ordinary boy. After witnessing a madman plunder Rafe’s village and murder his parents, Kosar knows the boy needs help. And now, for a reason he cannot fathom, others are seeking the boy’s destruction.

Uncertain where to begin, Kosar turns to A’Meer, and ex-lover and Shantasi warrior whose people, unbeknownst to him, have been chosen to safeguard magic’s return. A’Meer knows instantly that it is Rafe who bears this miracle of magic. Now Kosar and a band of unexpected allies embark on a battle to protect one special boy. For dark forces are closing in — including the Mages, who have been plotting their own triumphant return.

My thoughts: While this book is fantasy, there is a real horror element to it and parts of it are downright disturbing and disgusting. I know that is probably not the best way to go about adding my thoughts to this one but I wanted to address it first and get it out of the way. This is not a book for everyone, even fantasy lovers may have an issue with the amount of blood and gore in this one. If you like fantasy though, this is a great read, just be warned that the horror element is very strong.

Warning over, let’s get on to why I picked it this morning. The world building, which is so important in fantasy, is phenomenal here. Noreela, the world mages and magic have abandoned, is dark and utterly terrifying and you get sucked in and don’t want to leave even when you’re so disturbed by it you almost want to put the book down. I say almost because there were times when reading this book that I started to skim finding it a bit hard to digest but I was so captivated by it that I ended up going back to read those passages. There’s something about Noreela that I couldn’t escape. In this world that magic has abandoned, all of Noreela seemed to be waiting for something to happen to either make the mages return or destroy them all. I wanted every detail.

Kosar isn’t supposed to be a likable character. He’s a thief and a man not overly concerned with anyone but himself, but he’s ripe for a bit of redemption. And, this book, as a lot of fantasy books are, is a quest. So, man needing a place and quest say hello. The magic here is dark, powerful, and addicting but oh so gratifying. There’s no wand waving fun spells here. The magic is meant for destruction and there’s more than enough of in this book.

If you’re looking for some dark fantasy that’s a little different, take a look at Lebbon.

Dusk is followed by the sequel Dawn.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Last Tuesday I slept late and missed the teasing so this week, it’s TWO teasers. And, since I’m reading a non-fiction book and I like the fiction teasers more, I thought I would do one from my current read and one from my next read.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

First up, The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare.

“Perhaps it is because I was nearly born underwater.

A day or so before my mother was due to give birth to me, she and my father visited Portsmouth’s naval dockyard, where they were taken on a tour of a submarine.” (1)

Next on the ever voluminous TBR, Kraken by China Miéville.

“The sea is full of saints. You know that? You know that: you’re a big boy.” (10)

What are you teasing us with this week?

Fire

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Fire

Fire

By Kristin Cashore

Dial Books

ISBN: 978-0-8037-3461-6

4 stars

Fire is a companion novel to Cashore’s Graceling. My review of Graceling is here.

Fire is the last remaining human monster. She is stunningly beautiful with hair the color of flame and the ability to read minds and control a person’s actions. She guards her power knowing how easy it would be for her to take control of others having seen her father, a true monster, do just that to too many people. She has no need or want to be cruel and having too many secrets of her own, doesn’t want to know everyone else’s. Her own pain is enough for her to endure.

She lives in a turbulent time, the king is barely holding on to his thrown, war is coming, and Fire is called the help the kingdom by uncovering a plot against the king. Skeptical at first, Fire finally relents and agrees to use her power to save the kingdom of the Dells.

I was expecting something different with this book, something more along the lines of Graceling I guess. I thought there would be more adventure and action and this one doesn’t have that in the same amounts as Graceling. It’s there, but in an entirely different way. In Fire, we’re introduced to a new world but one just as interesting. The monsters, great and small, roam the Dells, and Fire, ever conscience of her own status as one, does her best not to act like one. Her powers are legendary but she’s never willing to overstep which makes it hard to really look at her as a monster. There’s just too much self control on her part. Fire has her secrets and times she despises herself, especially those moments when she’s truly a monster, and you begin to see just how important her self-control is to her and why.

Fire has more of a romantic aspect to it than Graceling and develops at a slow pace, which with everything else going on, makes sense. I liked the fact that Cashore talked about love, sex, and birth control though. Two people become pregnant and Fire, not wanting children, takes a potion to ensure she never has children believing the world should have no more monsters like her but she suffers when she see her friend’s children, even knowing that her decision was the right one for her. The topic is not dumbed down and in a YA book I can appreciate that. The characters are frank and open about their actions and feelings and the consequences are discussed in a manner that shows nothing is insignificant.

I like Cashore’s writing style, and as I’ve said before, she has an amazing imagination. The world she created for Graceling felt fresh and vibrant and the same can be said for Fire. While all the characters are new there is one that makes an appearance from Graceling. I won’t say (it’s not Katsa) but it adds some missing back story you didn’t get in Graceling. There is supposed to be a follow up to Graceling later this year and I think I’ll be reading it to see what Cashore comes up with next.

Deliver Us From Evil

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Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil

By David Baldacci

Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Books

ISBN: 978-0-446-56408-3

3.5 stars

Evan Waller is a monster. A sadistic and ruthless killer, he cares for nothing and no one. His business practices are cold and methodical; money being his only goal. He traffics in women, children, and nuclear weapons and people in the world believe he should be brought to justice. One such person is Reggie Campion, a member of a secret vigilante group. Her group has an agenda and that is to hunt down Waller, show him his deeds, and bring justice. She intends to kill him. Unfortunately, she is not the only person hunting Waller. Shaw, a mysterious operative from an unknown government agency, is also out for Waller. When Waller, Reggie, and Shaw all end up in Provence, the hunt begins.

There is one thing I need to say right off the start with this book — Waller is a great bad guy. He’s cruel, disgusting, scary, cold, calculating, and just so good at being bad that you honestly want him to be dead. And you don’t want his death to be a pleasant or easy one, the guy should suffer. So when two people do try to kill him, you find yourself cheering them on. OK, so I was a bit disturbed by the fact that I was cheering on two characters to take the life of a third but he was that bad!

While it’s an engrossing and fast read, there are a few corny lines and some “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” moments in this book. And it’s a, “I’ve got your back do you have mine?” line that is the culprit I’m hinting about here. Some of the dialog felt odd, old, and a bit bumbling, but this didn’t ruin it. While those hokey lines take you out of the story for a breather, there is enough to pull you back in quickly. This is a story about people out to murder a murderer, and there are a few torture scenes that I could have gone without reading, but they did fit so I can’t say they were too much.

The ending, I feel I must address it. No, don’t worry, I won’t be ruining it by telling you any more than this — for me it felt predictable. I think I was expecting more from the bad guy. Up to this point in the book he had been much more creative and while it’s a fast paced ending, I felt as if it had been done before. There is one more thing that bothered me about the ending but in the spirit of not giving it all away I will say no more than it was just too easy.

Now, you will be entertained by this book, if you like thrillers like this, but once the book is done, you’ll move on to the next easily without lingering. I don’t think this is a bad thing as there are a lot of books out there that I don’t find myself thinking about after I turn the last page. It’s just a warning from me and how I felt, you might have a completely different reaction so feel free to ignore this. If you’re looking for something to keep you busy on a plane or at the beach, it’s not a bad pick.

Benighted

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Benighted

Benighted

By Kit Whitfield

Del Rey

ISBN: 0-345-49163-7

4 stars

Lola May Galley is human. When the moon rises, she does not go lyco. Instead of growing fur and howling at the moon, she sets out with others from the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity (DORLA) to catch stray lycos and criminals who haven’t locked themselves up properly. She is a human in a world run by werewolves. She is looked down upon for being born non-lyco (considered a disability by most in her world), and like all others with her disability, she spends her days and nights working for the lycos in a lyco run world.

During a full moon, a friend loses a hand when a lune goes bad and then he ends up murdered before the attacker is brought to trial. She finds herself wrapped up in a case that runs much deeper than she thought with societal implications that leave her terrified and almost numb.

I know vampire and werewolf stories are starting to run thin, and even I myself, who happens to like stories with these creatures, am getting a bit tired. Yet, after reading In Great Waters, I found I liked Whitfield’s writing and wanted to read more. I found Benighted and became entranced with her world. She takes the normal werewolf story and turns it upside down. It is now the humans living in poor conditions, fighting prejudice at the hands of a world run by werewolves, and living degrading and horrifying lives. Being born a bareback (the negative term given to those children born head first and human) means living a life only to attend to lycos. They are given no other choice and for them it is a sad, scary, dangerous, and mostly short life.

Lola was the only non-lyco born in her family and she lived her entire life wondering what it would be like to turn with the full moon. When she finds herself in a relationship with a lyco, she ends up finding answers to questions that she never thought about. The devastating consequences make for a good, and sad, story. There are some, more like many, disturbing moments in this book. When Lola talks about her childhood I felt like she shared a bit too much and I wished she would take some of it back but it was already on the table at the point. It took me a while to like Lola even though I felt for her from the start. She does things that she hates, and begins to hate herself with good reason. It’s unfortunate that she feels, and in many cases is right, that she has no other choice. For someone in her position, it is only a life of servitude and nothing more even if she is made to feel free. It is the life she was born into and nothing will change her. She becomes more hardened against the outside world and that’s just to keep herself sane.

Whitfield is a good writer and I enjoyed this one much more than In Great Waters. Even if you’re tired of werewolves, I’d say give this one a chance. It’s an interesting, if sad and disturbing, world to get drawn into. There are a lot of themes at play, many of which I haven’t even touched on here, that leave you wondering more about societal ramifications than actual werewolves. It’s a dark world to get drawn into.

The Crystal Cave

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The Crystal Cave

The Crystal Cave

By Mary Stewart

William Morrow and Company, Inc.

ISBN:0060548258

4.5 stars

I have a soft spot for any book that features King Arthur as a character or even, as in the case of The Crystal Cave, as a future character. This story here is all about Merlin, the sorcerer, prophet, and friend of the future High King of Britain.

We meet Merlin as a child. And, while he may be young, he understands enough about the world around him to know that survival skills will be necessary for him. He’s small and fighting doesn’t suite him, but being a bastard child with a family that would be ready to call his life forfeit at any time, he finds ways to garner information, and knowledge, that will keep him safe. His mother, a daughter of a local lord, has steadfastly refused to tell anyone the name of Merlin’s father. It’s caused her constant grief but she has remained true to the story of Merlin’s conception and birth that she has always told — he is the child of the Dark Prince, a spirit neither human nor ghost that roams freely in the world. It is this story that keeps him alive as a child and as an adult.

Growing up, Merlin does his best to take in every ounce of knowledge he can find, devouring books, and learning secrets from a close friend who lives outside of regular society. This friend and teacher shows Merlin things he never thought possible and opens a new world to him that includes magic. When the small village he lives is in attacked, Merlin makes his escape and finds himself in Less Britain at the feet of a man he never thought he would meet — his father. Ambrosuis, the man planning to conquer and rule the British has known of his existence but for his own sake has left Merlin be. With the help of his father, Merlin rises to great heights and becomes known throughout the country as the greatest magician and prophet known to man.

This was a nice change of pace in my Arthurian legend reading. Usually the stories are focused solely on Arthur but to be taken in to the world in Merlin is fantastic. He is a character that changes so easily with each story — in some he is all magic, in others more human. This one tended toward the more human, rational, and knowledge based Merlin. There is some magic, or the talk of magic, but even Merlin finds he has trouble believing what is said about him and his works.

Stewart is a wonderful writer. I was taken in right from the beginning and found moments where I had to pry myself away from the book. I don’t want to say this book isn’t full of action because in many ways it is, but it’s a different action. Following the life of one person instead of everyone in it, makes for a more intriguing story. While the action takes places around Merlin, he stays fixed and for some reason that made his story more compelling for me.

This book was originally published in the 70s and there is an entire series that I now get to work my way through. It’s a complex tale, and even though it’s one I’m familiar with, I’m looking forward to this series. Her first book was so rich in detail and the story telling wonderful that I plan to track down the rest of the series. It may be a while before I get to these books though. I’ve read a lot of Arthurian books this year and I think it might be time for a break so I don’t tire of the story. This one is a good book to end on for a few months.

Graceling

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Graceling

Graceling

By Kristin Cashore

Harcourt

ISBN: 978-0-15-206396-2

4.5 stars

Katsa was born into a world where people with extreme skills, or Graces, such as hers are to be exploited, feared, worshiped, and sometimes reviled. Her Grace is killing and she is used by the King of Middluns, her uncle Randa, to exact revenge, payments, and torture at his will. Katsa hates what her Grace allows her to do but knows of no way to escape.

On a mission, she meets Prince Po of Lienid who is Graced with fighting and combat skills. When he turns up in Randa City, she thinks she may have met her match, and for the first time in her life, finds a true friend unafraid of her Grace or reviled by her or her past deeds. Po has a way of getting to Katsa and in many ways her inability to trust interferes with their friendship. When Katsa makes a decision about her life, Po is the one that leaves Randa City with her and she becomes grateful for his friendship and understanding.

There’s a lot to like about Graceling. The world Cashore has created is wonderfully believable and the idea of Graces adds a fascinating element to the story. The true nature of a person’s Grace becomes almost synonymous with who and what he or she is. For Katsa, everyone with the exception of a few people close to her, fear her and what she is able to do. There is no one like her and with the knowledge that there should never be another, she makes the decision to not marry or have children. When Po appears in her life, her opinions don’t truly change but they do take on new meaning. The love story between Katsa and Po doesn’t feel thrown together even though I did have to stop myself from the eye roll when I saw it coming early on. The nature of the relationship between Katsa and Po changes, but she doesn’t, and they both grow and mature as the dynamics of the relationship become much more complicated.

While reading Graceling, I found myself a few times unable to put the book down knowing that some new challenge would be thrown at Katsa and I couldn’t help myself, I wanted to know how it would end. I read ahead, an odd habit I acquired as a child when I wanted to know how things would play out, and I employed that readily here when I wanted to know if a character would survive. No, I’m not going to tell you. This is one you need to read yourself.

Fire is the stand alone companion novel to Graceling. I’ve got Fire in my TBR and will be anxiously waiting for the third novel.