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A happier ending, at least for me, to the story I reported in my previous entry, on the 16th.
As was crossposted today at The Mike’s Comics Livejournal – http://mikescomics.livejournal.com - I have in my cold little hands [and am about to put into my lovely stockroom] a healthy stash of autographed paperback copies of Michael A. Burstein’s first collection of short stories, titled I REMEMBER THE FUTURE and published by Apex Book Company.
This is a delicious smorgasbord of selections, appealing to my preferred tastes in science fiction – science fiction that actually deals with SCIENCE. My personal favorite story is “Time Ablaze”.
Please get in touch with me and I’ll be happy to sell you a copy.
—pmc2
While I get caught up on some other matters in my offline and my online life, please welcome Crystal L. Woods as a guest reviewer here at Bookseller By Night. She’s graciously consented to take some of my NEIBA swag off my hands, while I work through my backlist of reviews owed [and you Gentle Readers know who you are... quit it with the voodoo dolls! (grin)].
Without further ado.
——-pmc2
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Title/Author: Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin
Publisher/Publication Date: Orbit US/ Hachette Book Group, October 2007
ISBN: 0-316-02046-X / 978-0-316-02046-6
Price: $12.99, Paperback
Strengths: A strong, believable heroine and cast of characters that instantly draws you directly into the world of the main character. It is humorous, sometimes tragic, fast-paced and a book that anyone looking for a good vampire novel will not easily put down.
Review: Vampire fiction/fantasy is very common, which also means at this point I have come to expect a great deal from anyone writing in the genre. This book I found to be exceptional among them as the protagonist, Jasmine Parks, is a heroine who is both sassy and tough, but also vulnerable and quite human; which makes her not only accessible, but someone who is fun to read. When I began, I placed it somewhere between Anita Blake meets James Bond, and the story is well executed without any overly risque scenes – which is one of my main objections to anyone writing vampires with that as their main hook to the audience. My only real worry is that it may date in ten or so years due to pop culture and historical references. Beyond that, however, I place this as a wonderful debut novel and am eagerly anticipating the two further novels yet to follow.
Jasmine – Jaz, as she refers to herself – Parks, works for the CIA doing Special Ops work dealing with vampires and other preternatural phenomena. She is an ‘assistant assassin’, and after being transfered from a Helsinger unit, she is now working with an enigmatic, over 300 year old Romanian vampire named Vayl. What starts as a simple assassination of a terrorist sympathizer brings them not only closer as a team, but into a situation that will not only bring them both face-to-face with their own individual pasts, but into a deadly maelstrom with more far-reaching repercussions and higher stakes than they ever could have imagined.
My rating for this book would be an 8.5 out of 10.
Despite it not necessarily being of the most enduring quality, it is one of the best vampire books I have read in a long time. Though targeting adults, I would handsell this to older teens as well, as I believe they may appreciate not only a great story that immerses you from page one, but may well be able to identify with the fallible and jaded Jaz Parks.
Title: Darkhenge
by Catherine Fisher
Publisher & Imprint: Harper Collins/Greenwillow Books
Pub Date: March 2006
Price: 15.99
ISBN: 0-06-078582-9
Primary audience: ages 12 and up, lovers of mythology, art, and subtle magic
Notable aspects: language, sensitivity, shifting points of view, plot, interesting setting
Review: “The tree branched like a brain.” I was hooked from the very first sentence by this “imported” author. DARKHENGE originally appeared in Great Britain in 2005, but this book is accessible to well-read American readers.
It seems to start out as a tale about Rob, a student in his late teens with an artistic streak, who carries the burden of a family tragedy. We are led through a day which seemingly blends the ordinary with the magical….. his bike goes off the path in precisely the place that his younger sister had her horseriding accident. As Rob picks himself up, a horse passes him on the path, its rider seemingly his sister Chloe. That, however, is patently impossible, since his sister is lying in a hospital in a coma several miles away….
The story itself branches outward like the limbs of a tree. An archaeological dig led by a professor with an agenda, a man who literally appears from underground, Rob’s parents in their separate grief and avoidance of same, Rob’s godfather [a priest with some highly nontraditional views], and Chloe herself…. all have their tales to tell in this novel which leans equally heavily on Welsh mythology and the Celtic tree calendar, but which has at its heart the issue of self-perception and communication.
The language in this book is glorious. When we are seeing things through Rob’s eyes, we are given solid descriptions which involve the richness of colors, invoking his gift and training as an artist. When it shifts to Chloe’s point of view, words seem to matter more, since she aspires to be a writer, but they are slippery and not easily grasped, since she is younger and more tempestuous.
There is a happy ending, but it does not come frivolously or without cost.
Reviewer’s name & bookstore: Patty Cryan, Mike’s Comics, Worcester, Massachusetts
Rating: 9
Title: The King of Attolia
by Megan Whelan Turner
Publisher & Imprint: Harper Collins / Greenwillow Books
Pub Date: February 2006
Price: $16.99
ISBN: 0-06-083577-X
Primary audience: lovers of medieval fantasy, fans of intrigue
Notable aspects: plot, characters, strong ending, sensitivity
Review: I have to admit that I’ve not reread The Thief since its original publication, and I’ve never had the opportunity to read The Queen of Attolia. Even so, I am delighted to report that this sequel needs neither to support it as a splendid book in its own right. In fact, my lack of knowledge of the characters of the King and the Queen was not dulled in the slightest, because this time around we are seeing them through another’s eyes.
Those eyes are those of Costis, one of the Queen’s guards who is biased against the King, who he perceives to be an interloper. Due to an incident where Costis is disgraced, he is assigned to personal duty to this new King, whom he first despises, then is confused by, with the final result being respect and devotion.
The long-term reader of Megan Whalen Turner’s books *knows* that the King and Queen are Gen and Irene, *knows* that they truly love each other despite the courtly games they play. Costis, and thus the first-time reader of this novel along with him, does *NOT* know these two in the guise of mind-mates. Seeing the King and Queen through his eyes, and watching the court intrigue unfold and flow around them, makes for a dramatically different story than the usual fantasy tale.
This is a very mature story with subtle themes; although traditional “mature” material such as marital relations is not explored here, there is much in the dialogue and descriptions that will go over the heads of younger readers, not because of “inappropriate content”, but because of a lack of life experience. The dialogue, especially between characters who must speak in code to one another for fear for their lives, is *so* realistic, with so many undercurrents, that it requires multiple readings to truly “get it”.
That being said, this book is a marvelous whirlwind, extremely rich in characters and descriptions, and one that I will not only treasure reading again and again, but which is prompting me to seek out the first two books to see the “other” sides of Gen and Irene.
Reviewer’s name & bookstore: Patty Cryan, Mike’s Comics, Worcester, Massachusetts
Title: Poison Ivy
by Amy Goldman Kross
Publisher & Imprint: Roaring Brook Press
Pub Date: March 2006
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 1-59643-118-0
Primary audience: Advanced middle readers and young teen girls
Notable aspects: Characters, authenticity, child-connected, humor, significant underlying ideas
Review: This book presents an idea which has been done before – the notion of “the popular clique” being put on trial for bullying, even though it’s “only” in the setting of a Government class assignment.
What makes this different and fresh is the diary approach used in narration, and that the “victim” is not shown to be particularly likeable or laudable…. not even in her own writings about herself. Nor is the teacher who sets up this experiment any kind of hero.
The voices of the “prosecutor”, the “defendants”, and the “jurors” are very well drawn, and multidimensional. It’s a good realistic book worth at least one read.
Reviewer’s name & bookstore: Patty Cryan, Mike’s Comics, Worcester, Massachusetts
