Library Book

The King of Attolia

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The King of Attolia

By Megan Whalen Turner

Greenwillow Books

ISBN: 0-06-083578-8

4 stars

There will be spoilers so if you’re not interested in knowing how this one turns out, you might want to look away.  It’s the third in a series and I can’t figure out how to write this without giving at least a few tidbits away.  I think this is the best in the series so far and the longer this story goes on, the more I love it.

Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, is now the King of Attolia.  He has what he wanted, the Queen of Attolia as his wife, and something he doesn’t want, the crown of Attolia.  The court hates him, believing him to be a petulant child, and don’t understand why the Queen married him.   Political schemes are hatched, there’s open talk of death threats on the King’s life, and his attendants do all they can to make him appear foolish.  A young, naive guard named Costis, after openly stating his contempt for the King and physically assaulting him, ends up in the center of the political storm, and for the first time, actually seeing and understanding his new King.

In this book you really get to see Gen’s character, and if you play close enough attention, you see the rouse Gen is playing.  It’s a good show and sets up numerous plot lines for the next book.  It was nice to see the relationship between Gen and the Queen develop as well.  These two dance around each other a lot and sometime you do wonder if it’s all for show, and other times, if they actually like each other at all.

I love books full of court intrigue and this one has a lot of it: unhappy barons, scheming courtiers, a King and Queen who seem to loathe each other, a threat of war, and numerous back stabbing people looking to make their fortunes on the fate of others.

I always find it hard to write reviews for books in a series because I have to give something away in order to make it work.  I knew that would be the case with this one especially since Whalen Turner seems to be building up to something.

Each new book in this series has been filled with political schemes and intrigue and it’s only getting deeper and more complex with each book.  Gen’s character has been revealed with each successive book and he’s a character I’ve grown to love.  I’m looking forward to A Conspiracy of Kings.

If you’re interested you can read my reviews of The Thief and the Queen of Attolia.

Teaser Tuesdays

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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.

I’m starting The Mosaic of Shadows by Tom Harper today.

“It was evening when the axe-wielding barbarians arrived at my door.  The sun was sinking behind the western ramparts, casting the sky and all below it in copper.” (1)

What are you teasing us with this week?

Howl’s Moving Castle

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Howl’s Moving Castle

By Diana Wynne Jones

Greenwillow Books

ISBN: 0-06-029881-2

4.5 stars

Howl’s Moving Castle has been on my list of books to read for a long time, too long in fact.  I finally got around to reading it and found a lovely story complete with fantasy, magic, and wonderful characters.

Sophie Hatter lives in a small town called Market Chipping in the land of Ingary.  Market Chipping is not far from the land of the Witch of the Waste, a very spiteful and mean witch, and Wizard Howl’s moving castle which roves around the mountainside outside of town.

Sophie is the oldest of three daughters of a well to do family that owns a hat shop.  Sophie knows that as the oldest she will be the one to fail first and is happy to see her sisters seek their fortunes instead of herself.  When their father dies many things change for the small family, and with her sisters set up in safe places where they will be able to find happy futures, Sophie stays to work at the hat shop.  She unknowingly sells a hat to the Witch of the Waste who turns out to be an unhappy customer and returns to turn her into an old woman.  Disgusted with her new situation, she decides to set out and seek her fortune.  As an old lady she figures she has nothing left to worry about.  With Wizard Howl’s castle in her sights, she chases it down and settles in making herself indispensible to Howl, his assistant, and the fire demon that inhabits and powers the castle fireplace.

When I started this book I was a little put off by Sophie who was content to be last and willing to believe that she shouldn’t have a good fortune awaiting her.  She’s down on herself, has no confidence, and while talented when it comes to designing and decorating hats, she thinks nothing will come of it.  Being an old lady makes her drop all inhibitions and she begins to speak her mind, take chances, and look for opportunities.  She becomes infinitely more likable when she’s old.  Howl is also an interesting character and not at all what everyone thinks but the most likable character for me was the fire demon Calcifer who Sophie befriends, mostly by bullying him into doing what she wants.

Howl’s Moving Castle is a great warm-hearted fantasy.  There are characters to get attached to and the story of these people thrown together and tormented by the Witch of the Waste, all for different reasons and all unaware of the others’ problems, is a good tale.  In the end, everything that Sophie thought she could never have because she simply didn’t feel herself worthy, changes for her and she sees herself, her family, and her friends in a whole new way.  Happy endings sometimes are the best.

I’m a repeat reader of authors that I like and Diana Wynn Jones will become one of those authors that I repeatedly re-read.

The Thieves of Manhattan

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The Thieves of Manhattan

By Adam Langer

Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks

ISBN: 978-1-4000-6891-3

4 stars

Ian Minot is an author; an author that works in a coffee shop to pay the rent and stares at a blank computer screen on his writing days.  His girlfriend is a gorgeous, Eastern European woman and a much better writer than he is.  He expects her to dump him at any moment.  He wants to write the truth, but unfortunately for him, his life isn’t the stuff great books are made of.  He struggles looking for inspiration becoming bitter with his chosen career wondering if it might be better for him, and any potential readers he might acquire, to quit now.

When a man named Blade publishes a gritty memoir detailing all the crime, prison time, and retched things he’s done in his life, Ian takes offense telling anyone who will listen than the guy is a liar and the whole book is a fraud.  When his girlfriend gets a book deal, life gets even worse for Ian.  That’s when the confident man walks into his life with a proposition that will change his existence — together, the confident man and Ian, will pass off the confident man’s fiction novel as Ian’s memoir and wait for the cash and critical acclaim to roll in.  With nothing to his name and no coffee shop job left, Ian agrees to the scheme and finds out that the truth is not always what one believes.

The Thieves of Manhattan is a wry look at the publishing industry and the problems inherent in the industry, as well as, the silly stereotypical people and behaviors that inhabit it.  I found the first part of the story a bit slow.  Ian is a complainer and not all that easy to like which seems to be the way he likes it, but once the confident man steps into the picture, it picks up and takes an interesting turn.  You see it coming but Langer writes in such a way that makes it fun to read even when see (or think you see) how it will all end.

Langer makes up a lot of terms and uses industry jargon and includes a glossary in the back of the book.  At first I thought it was amusing, but quickly found it annoying and pretentious.  He uses the terms too freely and too often and they lose their entertainment value early on.  At least this was the case for me, could be different for others.

Overall, it’s a great quick read that lambastes the publishing industry for all its problems and all the crap that it publishes.  The main character doesn’t hold himself up as some honest, wonderful writer, and even though he goes along with the scheme he manages to get himself involved in, he doesn’t ever think of himself as better.  Just someone that broke into the system by fraud and found a way out of using the same corrupt system that got him in.  It’s an interesting read.

Teaser Tuesdays

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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.

I’m currently reading Life in Medieval France by E.R. Chamberlin, and while interesting, it’s more like a textbook and not really good for teasing.  Instead, I’m going to share from a book I’ll be reading later in the week — The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier.

“The first thing I noticed was the clarity of the air, and the sharp green colour of the land.  There was no softness anywhere.” (1)

What are you teasing us with this week?

Teaser Tuesdays

/ justbookreading / 8 Comments

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.

Today I’m starting Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch.

“My brother Vernon went on ahead.  I woke up and felt for him but the bed was dry and my brother Creed was already up.  He had his overalls on and he was telling me that I had to get up too because it was after four-thirty and the cows wouldn’t wait.” (3)

What are you teasing us with this week?

The Queen of Attolia

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The Queen of Attolia

By Megan Whalen Turner

Greenwillow Books

ISBN: 978-0-06-084182-9

4 stars

I read The Thief, the first book in Whalen Turner’s series, back in March of this year.  I liked it but wasn’t blown away at the start.  The more I thought of it though, the more I liked it which was what make me want to read The Queen of Attolia.

Eugenides, the Queen of Eddis’s royal thief, is caught once more, this time by the queen of Attolia.  Captured sneaking out of her castle, he’s thrown in prison, and as punishment, she cuts off his hand and returns him back to his queen.  Thrown into a depressive state over the loss of his hand, and essentially his livelihood, he hides from everyone and everything.  When he finally manages to pull himself out of his stupor, he finds his country at war with Attolia, and several other neighboring countries threatening war, and he feels he must finds a way to bring peace.

Megan Whalen Turner is very good at weaving an intricate tale that allows you get lulled into a story only to be taken aback by a small confession from a character.  Yes, it was probably something I should have seen coming, but I was content to ride this one out waiting patiently to see how it would end, which is very odd for me.  To be honest, there’s not a lot of action in this book even with the wars going on.  There’s a lot of strategy talk though but there’s something interesting about it that I when I got to the end I wanted to pick up The King of Attolia right away.  While it may not be a huge cliff hanger at the end, it’s enough that you want to know how things will be working out.

What I really enjoy about these books are the stories within the story.  Characters tell tales, mostly about their gods and goddesses, but I find these fables so wonderful.  It provides great background for some of the actions of the main characters and you do see the stories mirroring each other in some places.  Whalen Turner brings a nice balance to the religious aspect and while it isn’t overt, it’s interesting to see how each character deals with their beliefs.  I don’t usually care for religion in my fiction but it’s subtle and so well blended that it feels more a part of the story rather than an add on.

I’m reading The King of Attolia and will be hoping that my library has A Conspiracy of Kings, the fourth book in the series.

Teaser Tuesdays

/ justbookreading / 6 Comments

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.

Today I’ll be starting The Thieves of Manhattan by Adam Langer so let’s all take a look at the first page shall we.

“To tell you the truth, I’d have noticed the guy even if Faye hadn’t pointed him out to me.  He was slicker than the usual Morningside Coffee crowd — off-white linen suit, black silk shirt buttoned to the throat, Jonathan Frazen-style designer glasses — but what made stop wiping table and look just a bit longer was the fact that he was reading a copy of Blade by Blade.” (3)

What are you teasing us with this week?