Book Review: Dies the Fire

Title: Dies the Fire
Author: S. M. Stirling
# of Pages: 573
Published: 2004
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 4/5

Summary:
Michael Havel was flying over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers when the plane's engines inexplicably died, forcing a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. As Mike leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated occurrence.

Juniper Mackenzie was singing and playing guitar in a pub when her small Oregon town was thrust into darkness. Cars refused to start. Phones went silent. And when an airliner crashed, no sirens sounded and no fire trucks arrived. Now, taking refuge in her family's cabin with her daughter and a growing circle of friends, Juniper is determined to create a farming community to benefit the survivors of the crisis.

But even as people band together to help one another, others are building armies for conquest.


I really enjoyed this book when I first read it a few years ago, and I still really liked it now. The premise is really cool (what would happen if all the technology in the world simultaneously died) and I feel that the author does an excellent job of exploring the scenario. I will admit that early on in the book there are few less than likely coincidences that allow the characters to survive but hey, if they didn't happen there wouldn't be a book.

Anyways, interesting premise, you have some really solid and interesting characters and the story moves along at a really good pace. Totally worth reading.

Night

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
# of Pages: 115
Published: 1958
Genre: Biography
Rating: --

Summary:

Night is Elie Wiesel's autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.


As most of you can probably tell, this far from what I would usually read. In fact, the only reason I picked up this book initially is because it's required reading for a religions class that I am taking in school. I don't want to say that the book was a pleasant surprise, or that I enjoyed reading it because it wasn't and I didn't. However, this book is beautifully written and extremely powerful. We are all taught in school about the Holocaust, but it is one thing to be told another to read about it in such a way as to make it real for you. As I remarked to a friend last night, crematoria had to be one of the most frightening words in the English language, when put into the context of the Holocaust.

So, no. I didn't enjoy reading this book, as parts of it made me feel decidedly uneasy and others downright disturbed. I am, however glad I did read it, because it speaks of a time that needs to be remembered, if only to ensure that nothing like it can ever happen again. I'm not rating this book - I give rating to books to provide a concise picture of how much I liked a book, and as I said, I didn't like this book. I do however believe that it is not only well worth reading, but is something that should be read.

Shalador's Lady

Title: The Shadow Queen
Author: Anne Bishop
# of Pages: 496
Published: 2010
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5

Summary:

For years the Shalador people suffered the cruelties of the corrupt Queens who ruled them, forbidding their traditions, punishing those who dared show defiance, and forcing many more into hiding. Now that their land has been cleansed of tainted Blood, the Rose-Jeweled Queen, Lady Cassidy, makes it her duty to restore it and prove her ability to rule.
But even if Lady Cassidy succeeds, other dangers await. For the Black Widows see visions within their tangled webs that something is coming that will change the land-and Lady Cassidy-forever...


This book is the continuation Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy, and Tangled Webs as well as being the direct sequel to the Shadow Queen.This book delivered exactly what I thought it would when I rushed out to buy it: an entertaining, quick read, with lots of lovely romance. The plot was fairly simplistic and I guessed the ending about a quarter of the way in, but I liked the characters and enjoyed watching them grow and change throughout the book. It was worth reading, but I'm not sure that I'll pick it up again.

Top Five Books of 2009

I like reading, which will come as no surprise at all to anyone who knows me even a little. If I don't have an actual book on me, I have about fifty or so on my iPod touch to keep me occupied in case in I ever feel like reading. Over the course of 2009 I made a point of writing down which books I read, as I was curious as to how many books I would read in a year. Despite being in university for a good chunk of this time I managed to finish 64 books, 62 of which were for fun. These books averaged anywhere from 300-1300 pages in length and the vast majority of them were in the fantasy genre. I thought I'd post a list of my five favourite books that I read over the year.

Top Five

1. The Virtu by: Sarah Monette
It probably isn't fair that I'm including this book, as it's been my favourite for well over a year. But, I did read it in 2009 and I still think it's amazing. It's the second book in Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinth series and follows the story of two brothers: Felix and Mildmay. My favourite thing about this book would be these characters; they're stunningly written, and are anything but cookie cutter. I'm pretty sure Felix would be cast as the villain in any other story, and rightly so. He's awful and I hate him. Mildmay however is my favourite literary character ever. The world is fantastically detailed and I love how ever single character has their own unique voice.

2. The Gargoyle by: Andrew Davidson
This book is a bit of a departure from what I'd usually read, but it's definitely one I really, really liked. I had seen the book around work (Chapters) and loved the cover, and the description on the back while it was still in hardcover, but couldn't rationalize spending the thirty bucks on something that I might not end up enjoying. So, when I saw it finally in paperback, I figured I'd pick it up.

The prose in this book is great. The book is told from the first person point of view of our (unnamed) protagonist. He spends the first portion of the book confined to his hospital bed in the burn ward, contemplating suicide and briefing us on his life up to this point. We get a lot of interesting information from here, including a whole bunch of random, but interesting facts on everything from burns to the physical structure of hell. I have a huge weakness for interesting information, so I found these meanderings fascinating. However, it was when Marianne entered the story that things got strange.

Marianne, a schizophrenic patient in the hospital, claims that she has known our protagonist since the 13th century Germany. From Marianne we get to hear the intriguing history of their life in Germany, as well as other historical stories set in Iceland, Italy and Japan. At the end of the novel it is left up to the reader to decide whether these stories are a hallucination of Marianne's or whether that maybe, just maybe, this actually happened.While I will admit that I didn't quite like the ending, this was a fabulous book that I highly recommend. Plus, the author is Canadian, which is always nice.

3. Fool's Fate by: Robin Hobb
Loved this book, and loved the entire 6 book series leading up to it.

4. Warbreaker by: Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson is generally good for three main things: an awesomely creative magic system, cool characters and some nifty plot twists so it's no surprise that this book had them all. The book is centred around three main characters: Vivenna, the Idrian princess who has spent her entire life being groomed to marry the Hallandren God King, her impulsive and loud sister Siri, who actually ends up marrying said God King, and Lightsong. Lightsong is the reluctant God of bravery who enjoys being useless and witty. The gist of the plot is that these three work to prevent a war between Idris and Hallandren, with varying degrees of success.

Have to say that I didn't really care much for Vivenna, but Siri and Lightsong more than made up for it. The book was interesting, and kept me entertained throughout. Although I bought the hardback, Brandon Sanderson has put an entire copy of novel online here.

5. The Lies of Locke Lamora by: Scott Lynch
I really, really enjoyed this book. Not only was it witty and entertaining, but more than anything else this book was clever. The twists and turns of this book were fantastic, and there were times where I was honestly in fear that we would be left without a main character. (well, as in fear as I could have been knowing that there were two hundred odd pages left, and a sequel, but still). The characters were also really great, and quite believable

Book Review: Men of the Otherworld

Title: Men of the Otherworld
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Number of Pages: 384
Year of publication: 2009
Genre: Supernatural
Rating: 4.5/5


Summary

"As a curious child, Clayton didn’t resist the bite—he asked for it. But surviving as a lone child werewolf was more than he could manage—until Jeremy came along and taught him how to straddle the human-werewolf worlds, gave him a home…and introduced him to the Pack. So begins this volume, featuring three of the most intriguing members of the American Pack—a hierarchical founding family where bloodlines mean everything, and each day presents a new, thrilling, and often deadly challenge. For as Clayton grows from a wild child to a clever teen who tests his beloved mentor at every turn, he must learn not only to control his animal instincts, but to navigate Pack politics—including showing his brutal arch nemesis, Malcolm, who the real Alpha is..."

Ahaha, so the end of that summary sounds a little lame, but the book itself is fantastic. While this is not the type of book I would usually read, I have a soft spot for supernatural books. Prequel to Kelley Armstrong's 'Women of the Otherworld' series, this novel gives some insight into Clayton's life before Elena came along. I've read it three times now since purchasing it in January and have throughly enjoyed it every time. Clayton is an interesting character, and his narration is humourous and very self deprecating. I'm not usually a huge fan of the werewolf/vampire genre, but this book and the entire series, is well worth the read.


Excerpts

"At the time, it seemed to me that Jeremy was spending a lot of time with a piece of plastic pressed against his ear, talking to himself. Which was fine by me. We all have our eccentricities. Jeremy liked talking to plastic; I liked hunting and eating the rats that ventured into the motel room. Or, at least, I did like hunting and eating the rats, until Jeremy caught me and promptly kiboshed that hobby. Some of us are less tolerant of eccentricities than others."

"Nick had managed to make it down from the tree easily enough. The trouble was finding his way out of the forest. You'd think that anyone who had been visiting Stonehaven since he was old enough to toddle would know his way around the woods there, particularily when that someone had werewolf blood, but Nick often had trouble finding his way out of the forest at his own house.
He obviously needed more practise, but no matter how often I abandoned him out there, his sense of direction never seemed to improve. That, of course, only increased my resolve to keep leaving him there. What are friends for, if not to help you overcome your weaknesses?"

Book Review: The Way of Shadows

Title: The Way of Shadows
Author: Brent Weeks
Number of Pages: 668
Published: 2008
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5

Summary:

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.


I really, really enjoyed the first half of this book. It was well paced, and the story was different enough to keep me interested. I found the second half lost me a little though (probably because there was a substantial gap between reading that first half, and then finishing the book due to Christmas/working). I'll be the first to admit that the big epic fight scenes in books usually bore me, and that's pretty much the gist of what the last couple hundred pages of this book were. There were a few good plot twists, but there were also a couple others that I felt were almost unnecessary?

Overall though the book was worth the read, and I'm hoping to start the second one tonight.

(On a side note, I loved the acknowledgements in this book - it made me laugh. I can usually judge how much I'll like a book by how awesome the acknowledgements are, and yes I realize that makes me weird, but I love reading them)