True For You, Not For Me: Bird of the River

I've really enjoyed Kage Baker's fantasy stories; reading The Bird of the River was bittersweet since it is the last. Although set in the same world, all the characters are new, although they mention people involved in the other books. It's on a bit of a smaller scale; the story stays with the boat sailing up the river, concentrating on Eliss, the orphan finding her place in the society on the boat. Eliss learns to see clearly, first because of her role as river observer, trained to identify any snags under the water, but she also looks at Krelan, another new hire with a dubious background, at the captain, who is certainly more than he looks like, and with effort, at her younger brother, whose needs and home may be different from her own.

The setting and characters are still wonderful and delicious, although I did miss a giant blow-up at the end.  There is still a climax, but it is local to our characters.  A-

Dead or Canadian: Evolve

Remember the good old days, when the weather was better and we all played wholesome, character-building games along with our favorite disk-jockeys?  Like "Dead or Canadian"?  Today's kids just don't know what they are missing.  Also, they should get off my lawn.

I grabbed Nancy Kilpatrick's Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead from the library because I'm a big Tanya Huff (Canadian) fan and I really like her stories about Henry Fitzpatrick, vampire and romance writer.  Her story was the last one in this set, and it was fine, although it was about some of his friends, not him. But the book is a collection of Canadian authors, so it felt very exotic and mysterious to me.  Most stories were very short, so even the dull ones didn't drag too much, and either had a fun twist or a good world-building idea.  And of course, I got to play an old childhood game with exuberance -- "BOTH" I'd chortle when I spotted the vampire in each selection.

Book 6: Peter and the Starcatchers

ABCABC -- I have detected a pattern! I read a real adult book, then a SF book, and then a kids book.  Since I've repeated this twice, it is now a tradition, so it will be painful to change.  Hmm.  This may help me pick my next book.

I just finished Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.  They wrote this as a prequel to Peter Pan, so it explains how he gets his powers and his fairy and his peers the pirate, the savages, and the mermaids.  Which is all fine and a decent standard boy adventure story, complete with lack of mortality (I prefer the corpse littered stories of Joan Aiken, but I understand some men are squeamish about such things), but the unexamined misogyny really disturbed me.  Females are few and far between in this book; there is the useless and fat governess, the intrepid girl heroine who credits Peter with saving the day, and the mermaid.  Which stuck out like a sore thumb was the instant hatred the girl and the mermaid have for each other, supposedly because of their jealousy over Peter.  Because of course the only thing that matters for females is their connection with the alpha male; tiny issues like saving the world pale behind such primal instincts.  By the way, it never occurs to any of the other boys to even consider resenting Peter's special relationship with the girl; after all, the boys are friends and it's impossible to imagine them squabbling over a girl.  They barely even mention her, in fact.  Humph.

Take 5: A Hob's Bargain

I'm back to finishing up books already started (from page 200), to bring down the towers on my bedside table. Patricia Brigg's The Hob's Bargain was written before her current popular Mercy Thomson series; it's fantasy, not urban fantasy. It shows Briggs strengths of interesting characters and competent world building, but also her weaknesses of idealized boyfriends for her women. It's been a fun book to dip my toes in for the past few months, and a perfect book to read at the park to get some benefit out of the wonderful weather that showed up just in time for this book challenge.

Book 3: A Kiss in Time

Alex Flinn's retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story A Kiss in Time
was the first book I started and finished in the Reading Challenge.  It hits the main points of the story -- Talia, the princess, does fall asleep for three hundred years and Jack wakes her with a kiss.  It hits the main point of a YA story -- Jack's parents seem to neglect him, and he's a bit of a loser, but it turns out that everyone loves each other and has been misunderstood.  It's a fairly lightweight story that doesn't really ring true, but it moves along nicely and makes for a nice fluffy read.

Grrl Power: Tortall and Other Lands

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales (Beka Cooper) by Tamora Pierce provides a set of stories featuring primarily young women struggling to assert their power.  Often their society restricts females in particular, leading to quite a few male disguises.   Most of the stories take place somewhere in Tortall, sometimes using characters from previous books.  I like the action and the clarity; even murky situations have a comforting clear resolution.  My sixth grade boy also enjoyed the book.

In "Elder Brother", my favorite part was watching the (disguised) girl's double-take on learning that Qiom's self-identity as an ex-tree is not a metaphor, but a literal history.  Reading "Nawat" I was left mainly with the impression that Pierce hasn't been near infant twins, let alone triplets, but I doubted whether my son even noticed the baby care anomalies.  And "Lost" features a mathematician heroine, which won my heart despite the standard plot.  Recommended mainly for fans of her existing series, the stories don't break new ground but provide good landscaping for familiar territory.

Cat Saves World: Plain Kate

I've seen Plain Kate by Erin Bow on book store shelves and in library branches, and while it looked possibly decent I didn't bother picking it up until the Cybils Young Adult Fantasy finalist list made it a challenge book.  Once again, I want to thank the Cybils committee for leading me to a good read.

Plain Kate is about loving and losing family, making choices, saving the world even when it hurts, and sometimes saving a little bit of grace as well. It takes its young characters seriously enough to let them suffer damage when the risks they take don't pay off; it respects betrayal and death in ways that many modern texts don't.  All this and an awesome talking cat make for a powerful story.  I hope I can get my sixth grader to read it; the cover has an appropriate tone but doesn't really have anything to do with the story and won't be a selling point for him.  A-

(He wouldn't try it. Humph.) (The Amazon link is for the Cybils committee, I think.)

Bad to the Bone: Blackout

Rob Thurman writes an urban fantasy series that I haven't been reading. The latest installment, Blackout (Cal Leandros, Book 6), is clearly an attempt to lure in readers who usually hesitate to start in the middle. Since I am a reader who delights in starting in the middle, I figured I'd encourage authors to encourage this by reading the book.

The gimmick worked for me; Cal Leandros wakes up on a beach with amnesia, and starts trying to figure who he is and what he does. His frantic brother finds him quickly, but his memory returns very slowly, giving him most of the book to interact with his former friends, peers, acquaintances, enemies, and lovers. Thurman doesn't bury the current story with backstory; in fact, Cal's family deliberately lets him rediscover most of his background instead of pushing forward with their memories of him. This gave me a slow and fun introduction to the setting and characters, which is important since both have some rough edges that might put me off. I'm off to get the first book in the series now, because I want to see if Cal was right about who he was, and what his brother does for him.

Cops and Demons, Working Together: Secrets of the Demon

Diana Rowland writes the fun kind of urban fantasy -- regular person with a regular job is trying to get along, but they have this other stuff. Angst level kept low, action level high.  In Secrets of the Demon (Kara Gillian, Book 3), Kara is working hard to make it as a cop in her small Louisiana town, but she makes time for her family hobby of summoning creatures (demons) from other dimensions.  This has led to complications.

Some of the complications come with benefits, as is traditional for female protagonists.  In the previous book Kara promised to bring over a major player, a Demon Lord, every month in return for the life of the man she's been considering as a boy friend.  MEANWHILE, There's a new case involving several murders and several petty crimes, all centered around a small group of people.  Kara and her task force (including the possible boy friend) work on figuring out how they connect while Kara also struggles with her relationship with the gorgeous creature she's been summoning.  The sex is great, but she's not sure whether she's just imagining a friendship growing as well.  And should she stop the great sex in case her human friend wants to move to the next level? Nothing too earth-shattering, but readable prose and a lack of pretension makes this a good book for a lazy afternoon or a relaxed vacation.  B

Sulky Selkie: The Folk Keeper

Franny Billingsley has a new book coming out that has a lot of people excited.  I had never heard of her before, so instead of waiting for the new book I ordered up the older The Folk Keeper so I could see what the fuss was about.  I do like it when the world arranges things so I don't have to wait.  Books are like pots; they should wait for me, not me for them.  At least I think pots are like that; I heard my sister say something like that once.

The Folk Keeper is the perfect book for a school library; interesting, with the focus on the main character, youth-oriented, with little ambiguity about the adults because all the moral issues are left for the adolescents, and short, thin enough to read in one day so you can go back the next morning to check out more books.  Corianna, the main character, is self-absorbed enough to miss a lot of clues around her, allowing me the smugness of figuring stuff out first.  I knew why lying is dangerous for her! I knew her true nature! I knew which boy liked her! (But everyone knew that, so it wasn't such a big deal.)

The end disappointed me a bit, because most of the high prices the characters paid were refunded to them, which cheapens things. I'm the type that leaves the little mermaid walking on knives, even if I relent and let her have the prince.  B

Family Ties: River Marked

In River Marked ,Patricia Brigg's next installment in the life of mechanic Mercy Thomas, the part-time coyote, full-time professional mechanic marries werewolf Adam and explores her old family as she works on building her new one.  The love between Mercy and Adam is a bit cloying but leavened with maturity; it's nice to have paranormal heroes emotionally in their thirties instead of the late teens.  They test the bounds of trust and faith in each other -- how much risk can they tolerate the other accepting? What limits are fair?

Meanwhile, Mercy looks backward to her mother and her father.  The beginning of the book plays with the mother/daughter bond in the ridiculous wedding Mom threatens, and then the middle of the book concerns itself with Mercy's unknown father, and the Indian cultures he comes from.  Mercy has always felt alienated from her father's people, since her dad died before even knowing her mom was pregnant.  She never found anyone to help her with the more unusual parts of her ancestry (the whole turning into a coyote thing).  Now she finds people who expect her to value her father, and to know more about her heritage.  It's a good combination of fun characters, active combat, and rich themes --all this discovery takes place while a giant river monster threatens everyone in contact with the Colombia River.

One complaint -- they camp on the Washington side of the river, which means I can't really claim this as an Oregon book, despite the restaurants they visit over there.  B+

Book Club Pick: Tooth and Claw

In honor of Jo Walton's new book, Among Others I talked our book club into reading her old book, Tooth and Claw. (We are a library using book club, so we often check wait lists before selecting new books. We were contemplating the Henrietta Lacks book until we saw the triple digit wait list, for example.)

Most people enjoyed it, except for my sister, who is blind to the charms of Walton. I don't think she's ever forgiven Suzien's rape in the first pages of The King's War, so all other books are treated with suspicion. I hadn't read it in years, and my copy has disappeared so I bought a new one, which had a disappointing white cover instead of the elegant red dragons on the paperback I remembered.

I mostly remembered the lawsuit, but forgot all the gender politics, which this time were my favorite parts of the book. I loved the parallels between dragon society and ours, both present time and in the England the book recalled. Tying wings, cannibalism (and not just of Irish children), women's reputations being ruined by a man's momentary carelessness or aggressiveness, train travel, it was all good.  A

Heredity: The Widow and the King

John Dickinson, author of The Widow and the King, is the son of Peter Dickinson, who is married to Robin McKinley.  That's the main reason I pick up his books, actually.  He writes well enough to be read in his own right, but that's a big shadow he stands in.

Both title characters in this book are there because of their parents.  Even as children, men follow them from loyalty to their family.  It's a good book to look at the nature of hereditary aristocracy with; why should power pass to children?  The boy has some claim to magic talismans, perhaps magic affinity, but the girl has only her parentage.  Is that enough?

Dickinson tackles big issues; loyalty, betrayal, courage and what to do when it falters, responsibility to one self and to others, religion, feudalism.  His characters start out weak and immature, even for their ages.  That was hard for me, since I do tend to prefer characters I admire, and I don't get many of those in this book.  The boy doesn't listen to his mother, which makes things very hard for him, since (of course) she was right.  ALWAYS.  The girl stays selfish and blind about love; she never questions whether she has the right both to the loyalty of those around her and to pick her lover only for her own pleasure.  By the end both kids have grown up and faced some tough decisions and responsibilities, and the magic of the world addresses these issues directly and spookily.  I'll be looking for the third book in this series, as the writing and depth of character are enough to make me push past my rather childish wish that the characters I want to like be better than they are.  B

Free Fable For My Nook: The Princess and the P----

I got a Nook! My sister gave it to me for my birthday, because she is super nice. She's my favorite sister.   brought it home and admired it and called it George. Well, actually I called it Rose winner, after my sons' middle names, but the feeling is there.

I'm also cursed with an awful cheapness, because I couldn't get BN.com to recognize my membership, which means I wouldn't get the 10% off. Horrors! I can call tomorrow to fix it, but in the meantime I browsed the free books. When I saw the title "The Princess and the Penis" I remembered it getting a favorable review from somewhere. So I grabbed it. At 91 pages it seemed a good short book to practice reading my Nook. The story follows a princess kept pure of all knowledge of birds and bees (or the frogs and the flies) who starts sleeping badly because of a bump in her rump. The nocturnal nudging (the book delights in any sort of cheap wordplay) is caused by a phantom phallus that challenges her father's beliefs about what girls should know and what is really important in a husband. It's like a combination of The Princess and the Pea and the Princess and the Frog.  Only, you know, with a penis.

Despite the title, the book is more wink wink nudge nudge than racy, certainly far less graphic than most romances. I wouldn't give it to my sixth grader to read; the inner twelve year old of a twelve year old is far too close to the surface.

Done Sci-Fi, Now Fantasy

Well, I did Stainless Steel Dropping's Sci-Fi challenge, and now I'm signing up for the matching one, the Once Upon a Time fantasy challenge.  This one is a bit more elaborate, with actual goals to sign up for.  He divides up the section into fantasy, fairy tales, folklore, and mythology.  In the higher levels, you have to promise to read in them all, but since I'm all about the easy path I'll go in at Quest the First, where I'll just try to read five books that fit somewhere in there.  The challenge runs through June 20th, so I have almost three months left, which should be easy enough.

There's also a third quest, which is to read or watch or listen to A Midsummer's Night Dream sometime in June, which I hope I also remember to do, but that's a long time from now.

I just started the first book, so I'll go ahead and commence the list:

1. River Marked, Patricia Briggs (folklore/mythology)
2. Kings of the North, Elizabeth Moon (fantasy)
3. The Princess and the Penis (fairy tale)
4. Mirror, Mirror, Marilyn Singer (fairy tale)
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus (folklore)
6. The Widow and the King (fantasy)
7. Plain Kate, Erin Bow (folklore)
8. The Folk Singer, Fanny Billingsley (folklore)
9. Secrets of the Demon, Diana Rowland (folklore)
10. Blackout, Rob Thurman (folklore)
11. A Kiss in Time (fairy tale)
12. Peter and the Starchasers (fantasy)