Quick Review: Mortal Suns

Title: Mortal Suns

Author: Tanith Lee

Themes: family, love, royalty, fate, blessings, deformities/disabilities, hard work, incest, death

Rating: ***

Plot: Horrible screams pierce the night air as the Daystar, Queen Hesta of Akhemony, wrestles with the delivery of the King's child, beautifully formed except for one heartbreaking deformity -- she is born without feet. Consigned immediately to the world of death, the lame infant is dispatched to Thon, the underworld temple, and baptized Cemira -- "snake" -- the name she will bear throughout a lifetime of darkness. It is only at the behest of Urdombris, the Sun Consort, that Cemire is wrested from te temple of death, renamed Callistra, and restored to her rightful place in the kingdom.

My Thoughts: Basically, I think this blogger sums it all up nicely. I recommend checking it out for a quick and easy review of Mortal Suns.

• Another typical Lee protagonist and plot-very beautiful and slightly off heroine with a love/lust/obsession for someone powerful (and usually blood related, to be frank). Enjoyable, but familiar if you have read much of Lee's work.
• A vaguely alien Egyptian world, a different planet, but the court life and sun worship just strikes me as Egyptian for whatever reason.
• A diverse and well made mythos. Lee provides not only a complete official pantheon within the story, of well fleshed gods/myths/superstitions/rituals but also gives the world a bit of depth by showing that there are competing mythologies in her world.
• This story is essentially the first half of the narrator's life, and by the conclusion, you will feel something is missing-namely what comes next! Although I wouldn't necessarily call it a cliff-hanger.
• Political intrigue and shifting alliances take up the majority of the plot, our narrator is merely a powerless player.

Recommendation: I enjoyed Mortal Suns quite a bit. It has Lee's excellent world building, if also her typical protagonist/plot outline. I felt the narrator had a strong and distinctive voice, but it did not really connect to the main character (herself) as described. In the end, I would recommend this to any fantasy lovers out there as a fun and intriguing read.

Similar Reads: Heroine of the World by Tanith Lee,

Random Quote: "From the smoke, maybe, the moon blushed rosy.

In his tent hung with crimson, Nexor dined with a meager scatter of sycophants.

They heard the songs.

Over the valley of two miles, the Ipyrans heard them, too. A joyous bridegroom sings before his marriage day, they said, in Ipyra. They listened to the joyous bridegroom singing, and wondered if marriage would mean, for them, something else. (p. 201)"

Lee, Tanith. Mortal Suns. Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 2003.

Quick Review: Heart Beast

Title: Heart-Beast

Author: Tanith Lee

Themes: werewolves, curses, love, lust

Rating: **

Plot: After the killing of his brutal father, golden and handsome Daniel Vehmund has sought refuge in an exotic faraway land. But his contentment is shattered when a fabulous diamond is pressed on him by a sinister graverobber. From that first fatal contact, Daniel is doomed each night of the full moon to become something else ... something dark and powerful and savage. And nothing that originates on this earth can destroy him

Laura, a beautiful redhaired farm-girl, lives with her two awful sisters and her selfish grasping parents in the remote English countryside. Apparently condemned to a life of drudgery, all is transformed when she is wooed and wed by a wealthy local squire. But this gilded existence is threatened when a travelling magician persuades her besotted husband to buy for her a very unusual diamond. For this gem is "The Wolf," the diamond that had so transformed Daniel Vehmund's destiny. And when he himself returns at last to England, his fate and Laura's are devastatingly intertwined ...
Meanwhile some dark, malignant presence continues to prowl the woodlands and hedgerows ... and seemingly nothing can curb its unquenchable bloodlust.

My Thoughts:

• This is definitely one of Lee's more gruesome tales, with lots of (literal) gut-spilling and savage cruelty. While it does suit the theme and nature of the tale, of a sort of beastly possession, it can be a little overwhelming at times.

• Another (I think) common Lee element also comes into play; the protagonist, female lead is more symbol than character. She is largely passive and "swept away" into larger, unfolding, events and eventually seems to represent values or emotions rather than motives or personality. This is especially true in Lee's Volkhavaar, if you are interested.

• Yes this is a werewolf romance, but NO it is not like any popular titles I've seen out there. This is a surreal, gory, and violent story filled with gruesome murders, betrayals, and fear. I think it's safe to say that the romance could better be described as a bizarre compulsion/attraction that spells a doom for most of the book's cast.

Recommendation: Despite the surreal and surprising nature of this stand-alone novel, I am still on the fence about it. I would recommend for werewolf *horror* fans, of course to fans of Lee, but I am not sure of any other niche that this book would fit nicely into. If you have it and the time, go for it.

Similar Reads: Vivia by Tanith Lee

Random Quote: "So the village packed the church with its black and its sweat. They stared at Daniel, the stranger who had been away.

They agreed he was foreign, might have come from the tents of some desert tribe, or the gaudy bazaars (p. 204)."

Lee, Tanth. Heart-Beast. New York: Dell, 1992.

Cloaked

Title: Cloaked

Author: Alex Flinn

Themes: fairy tales, love, friendship, responsibility, commitment, quest, magic, money, duty

Rating: **

Plot: I'm not your average hero. I actually wasn't your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all.

It all started with a curse. And a frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn't a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I've ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Keys.

Don't believe me? I didn't believe it either. But you'll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got cloaked.

My Thoughts: Cloaked is a mash up of fairy tales Flinn believed to be underrepresented in literature and film, which is an exciting premise! She takes elements from: The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Frog Prince, The Six Swans (Juliet Marillier's Daughter of the Forest is an excellent retelling btw), The Golden Bird, The Valiant Tailor, The Salad, and The Fisherman and His Wife.

My first thought is that...that's a lot of obscure (well, unless you like fairy tales) stories to mash up and still have a cohesive representation of each. In fact...the only one that really shines through is The Frog Prince, arguable the most well known of the bunch. My second thought was that Flinn's epilogue explaining all this really should have been a prologue.

Flinn writes a believable and likable male lead (in all three of the novels I've read this is true...now that I think about it), most side characters are fairly flat and one-dimensional but that actually works in the stories-since the protagonist is pretty self-absorbed. In fact, he's so self-absorbed that he can't figure out the obvious romantic feelings a certain girl has when the reader knows it from page one (oh wait, is this a YA trope?). Or apparently recognize obviously dodgy behavior in others...but I guess it keeps the plot moving.

Johnny's adventures take him from Florida to the Keys then across the nation and into a vaguely defined European country with the aid of a magic cloak. But capturing the frog he's after requires a bit more than a cloak that can transport you where ever you wish to go. In fact it requires the aid of six swans, a fox, a rat, a magical ring, a best friend, and a surprisingly lax mom.

Nevertheless Johnny's trials reveal his own ambitions and emotions while giving him a clearer sense of self and self-worth...which he uses to become a celebrity of sorts by the books conclusion.

Cloaked suffers just a bit from Harry Potter Syndrome...the conclusion just takes it too far and wraps it up too completely to make it a satisfying read.

Recommendation: If you are a fan of fairy tales and fairy tale retellings I would give it a go. If you like whimsical YA you may enjoy Cloaked. However, it's certainly not the best of either category and suffers a bit in the character development and conclusion.

Random Quote: "I'm in. I won. I don't need the fox or the inn or anything. I'm not going to get shot at. I just have to catch the frog, something any little boy can do. For once in my life, something is easy! (106)"

Similar Reads: Beastly and A Kiss in Time both by Alex Flinn, My Mother She Killed Me My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer, The Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block

Flinn, Alex. Cloaked. New York: HarperTeen, 2011.

Quick Review: Troubled Waters

Title: Troubled Waters
Author: Sharon Shinn
Themes: change, power, love, family
Rating: **1/2

Plot: Bestseller Shinn (Quatrain) carries readers away into a vivid new fantasy world where the five elements control everyone's lives. Alone and in shock after the death of her father, Zoe Ardelay is invited to the capital to become the king's fifth wife and create a much needed numerological balance both politically and at court, where the four queens vie to promote their children for the role of heir to the throne. Then Zoe learns she is the new prime of the Lalindar clan, which saves her from the marriage, but thrusts her into a world of dangerous political scheming, secret agendas, and an increasingly risky attraction to royal adviser Darien Serlast. This entertaining and suspenseful story is full of lively characters, and the intriguing new system of magic and politics provides plenty of potential for sequels.

My Thoughts: For some reason I totally had Avatar: The Last Airbender in mind the entire time I was reading this fun little adventure/romance by Sharon Shinn. In Shinn's new world every person has a tie to an element which determines their character to a large extent. The whole elemental connection/magical power thing definitely followed the traditional modes of thought (i.e. "fire" people were hot tempered and ambitious, "stone/earth" people are stubborn and unmovable...etc.) concerning elemental personality attributes. I think this is always a fun way to order a fantasy universe/people, despite the fact that it's been done countless times before. Shinn adds an extra element by providing an elaborate "blessing" system that occurs at birth, where the new parent asks three random people to pull blessing coins from the temple for their newborn child. These coins contain words or phrases such as "beauty," "power," or "industrious" and are believed to truthfully characterize the newborn through their life.

Zoe is a likable, yet very flawed (and rather slow), protagonist with a strong sense of right and wrong - but an ambiguous relationship to power and any means to gaining power. While the romance was a bit predictable and staid, and the elemental philosophy a bit overemphasized and redundant I found this novel to be a fun little jaunt into another of Shinn's fantasy worlds. Zoe faces many obstacles, gains and loses power, and finally comes to a self-awareness she lacked at the beginning of the novel.

With most of Shinn's works I find the plotlines to be a bit...overextended, with events just piling up and no apparent reason for it all. While it makes for a fast and exciting second-half of a book it does come across as strained to me. It just seems like a bit too much. Just one of these issues or events could make a satisfying and exciting read...for instance the Soechin infatuation with youth was disturbing and frighteningly familiar and the entire book could have been written about the possible marriage between the two kingdoms.

Recommendation: A staid read with predictable romance and a familiar elemental personality system...yet the details are fun and the world building is excellent. I would recommend to anyone looking for a light read, especially if they are a fan of Shinn's works.

Similar Reads: Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn, Chalice by Robin McKinley

Shinn, Sharon. Troubled Waters. New York: Ace Books, 2010.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Trends

10 Trends I'd Love to See More/Less Of

From The Broke and the Bookish, a weekly meme of top tens! This week was really fun as I love to bs about trends in books. Unfortunately I could only think of six trends I wanted more of, and two that I wanted less of!

I want more:

1. Books covers like this:

Or like this:

I like the stark, simple color scheme and the decorative borders...love.

2. Creative narrative styles...and I am thinking of an older book here, Jane Yolen's Sister Light, Sister Dark. Ballads? Anthropology essays? Yes please include them in my young adult fantasy.

3. If paranormal romance in young adult novels must continue to dominate I want to see more variety! Vampires and werewolves (and fairies) have been done to death. I wouldn't mind some mummies, zombies, selkies, hobgoblins, or whathaveyou. Maybe they aren't as "sexy" as a sparkly vampire or buff werewolf, but they would be novel.

4. New Weird.

5. More fairy tale retellings! Mythology can fit in here too. I know there is a YA retelling of Persephone (Abandon by Meg Cabot) that's calling to me. Am I the only one who isn't sick of this trend?

6. Illustrations in "grown up" books, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Leviathon. I LOVED the illustrations. I fully support this trend.

Less of:

1. Young adult "paranormal romance" in the vein of Twilight....once was enough. While some are quite good, most are merely capitalizing on a newly realized market and...suck.

2. Beheaded bodies on book covers. I don't get it, and find it mildly disturbing.

The Foreigners

Title: The Foreigners

Author: Maxine Swann

Themes: travel, escape, divorce, sexuality, manipulation, cruelty, ambition, independence

Rating: **1/2

Plot: Buenos Aires is a city of Parisian affections and national anxiety, of amorous young lovers, seedy ports, flooded slums, and a dazzling social elite. Into this heady maze of contradiction and possibility enter two women: Daisy, an American divorcée; and Isolde, a beautiful, lonely Austrian. In Buenos Aires, Isolde finds that her blond European looks afford her entrée to the kind of elite, alluring social world she never would have had access to in her home country, but her ascension also sets her up for a long, surprising fall. Meanwhile, Daisy joins forces with Leonarda, a chameleonic Argentine with radical dreams of rebellion, who transfixes Daisy with her wild effervescence. Soon, Daisy is throwing off her American earnestness and engaging in a degree of passion, manipulation, and risk-taking in a way she never has before. Buenos Aires has allowed her to become someone else.

Against the throbbing backdrop of this shimmering and decadent city- almost a character in itself-Maxine Swann has created a stunning narrative of reawakened sensuality and compulsive desire that simultaneously explores with remarkable acuity themes of foreignness, displacement, and the trembling metamorphoses that arise from such states. From the award-winning, critically celebrated author of Flower Children, The Foreigners is a startlingly bold and original, unforgettable next novel.

My Thoughts: Like Swann's previous novel, The Foreigners is sultry and exotic for it's strangeness in a familiar context. For some reason I classify them both as "summer" stories. They both seem to resonate oppressive summer heat and humidity, and the lethargy of a hot summer day...it's illogical but I thought I would share.

In The Foreigners a recently divorced American woman (Daisy) is fortunate enough to live freely in Beunos Aires in exchange for a study of waterworks. The novel revolves around a colorful cast of both natives and fellow ex-pats. She walks along touristy and homey streets, she flits through parties and her run down apartment, but the protagonist seems to delve deeper and deeper into some inexplicable madness after befriending Leonarda-who manipulates and torments others.

In an attempt to broaden her horizons and embrace life as she couldn't back home, Daisy instead seems to spiral out of control and instead begins mimicking the cruel and unreasonable acts of Leonarda. Swann tiptoes into the absurd as the novel progresses. By the end of the book The Foreigners feels more like a surrealist dream sequence than a travel story-and one closes the book with a vague sense of repulsion.

While not all of the characters or sub-plots were equally fleshed out or connected, The Foreigners was an absorbing and entertaining book. Overall, this was an interesting study in depravity and the absurd but I much preferred the more realistic and heart-felt characters and plots from Swann's previous novel Flower Children.

Recommendation: If you are a fan of travel narratives, especially located in Latin America, this fictional account of a divorcee's experience in Buenos Aires may be right up your alley. I found this novel lacked any sort of (positive) character growth or conclusions (at least believable ones), so if you prefer those elements you may wish to avoid The Foreigners. I was entertained and challenged by this short novel, and so recommend it with some hesitation.

Similar Reads: Flower Children by Maxine Swann, The Lover by Marguerite Duras

Swann, Maxine. The Foreigners. New York: Riverhead Books, 2011.

Weekly Geeks 2011-18

I thought this week, I'd give you two activities. You may do both activities OR you may choose one over the other.

Option 1: Write a post (or leave a comment) with suggestions for future weekly geek topics! Share as many ideas as you'd like! Be as creative as you want. Or if you can't think of any "new" topics of your own, consider listing your top five topics from the past, from our archives.

Option 2: Write a post about your genre prejudices or your genre allergies. (I tend to be allergic to westerns, for example.) Are there genres that you haven't read that you avoid at all costs? Are there genres that you don't take seriously? Would you be willing to try something new? (Or someone new!) Consider asking for recommendations and challenge yourself to get outside your comfort zone a bit. Alternatively, you may want to write a post about one of your favorite genres and recommend titles to newbies. Which books would you recommend to those readers who are new to that genre?

Option One: My Top Five Fave Topics from the Past!
1. 2009-45
A christmas wish-list! I know it's simple and straightforward, but I love reading wish lists...it gives me ideas.
2. 2009-35
A discussion about your reading "plan." Oooh, very interesting.
3. 2010-6
Romancing the tome. Romantic literature...I especially liked reading about blogger's favorite literary couples and the necessity of sex in literary romances.
4. 2010-10
Literary tattoos. This should be obviously awesome. I'm far too indecisive to have one of my one.
5. 2011-3
Female authors were the focus of this WG, even I (feminist reader) read largely male authors, so it was wonderful to see everyone's thoughts on this topic.

Option Two:
Genre Allergies:
I admit that I am very prejudiced when it comes to three genres in particular: romances, westerns, and mystery novels. I just can't get into it...I don't know why but they just seem so formulaic and episodic...

If anyone can recommend a mystery, western, or romance though...I would be willing to try it out.

Genre Loves and Recommendations:
I LOVE fairy tale retellings. Which I know I've talked about before.

So...I also love YA dystopian novels, and would recommend

• The Knife of Never Letting Go (although I still despise the protagonist) by Patrick Ness,
  
• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff,
• The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, and
  
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury,
  

I'm currently reading Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, which might be included on this list later.