Raven's Shadow

I just finished yet another excellent book by Patricia Briggs (At this rate, I'm going to run out of novels by her to read and it'll be like Terry Brooks - I have to wait each year until the next one comes out!) This time it was Raven's Shadow that I just read. Raven's Shadow is in a completely different world from the Mercy Thompson series and the Sianim books.

Raven's Shadow is the story of Seraph, a Traveller Raven mage. After her clan is killed by plague and her brother killed by townsfolk, she is saved by Tier, a soldier returning home after war. Seraph decides to remain with Tier, becoming his wife and forsaking her Raven duties of protecting the world's people from a long ago evil. But everything changes when Tier fails to return home one winter. With the help of her children, Seraph goes to find her husband and finds that his fate is tied up with the ancient evil that is stirring once again.

There were some aspects of Raven's Shadow that confused me a bit. For example, it took me a long time to figure out what exactly a Raven was. I knew that the Ravens were mages, but it is a bit more than that; to use an example from Dungeons and Dragons, a Raven would be similar to a sorceror, while a non-Traveller mage would be like a wizard. This isn't the perfect analogy, but it works. Ravens are one of six Orders within the Traveller clans, with the other five being Owl (Bard), Lark (Healer), Falcon (Hunter), Cormorant (Weather Witch) and Eagle (Guardian). Not all of the Travellers are Order-bearers, but the Orders are almost always found within the Traveller people. From what I could gather, the Travellers are similar to gypsies, but they have blonde hair.

All in all, I thought Raven's Shadow was an excellent book! It seemed a bit harder to get into at the beginning than Briggs' other works, but I really enjoyed it and can't wait to start Raven's Strike!

A Companion to Wolves

Originally I was going to read Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear's A Companion to Wolves right after Steal the Dragon, but then Camelot's Blood showed up. So as soon as I finished reading that, I went on to A Companion to Wolves. I originally discovered it on Bear's website, where she said they were planning on having it be a novella satirising the whole animal companion genre, but it took on a life of its own. And so, intrigued, I decided I had to read it. And it was definitely worth reading! A Companion to Wolves is a beautiful book about the interspecies relationship between a man and his wolf.

Isolfr is the son of a nobelman who is tithed to the wolfmen who defend the people from trolls and wyverns. He falls in love with the puppy Viradechtis, who is destined to be a wolf-queen. It is the story of their growing up and growing into the roles destiny has cast for them, amongst the threat of a war against the trolls. But it is also a book about sacrifices, and the sacrifices that both must make in order to stay together.

My biggest complaint about the book was the names. All of the characters have Norse, Anglo-Saxan and Germanic names, which can be a bit confusing because many are rather similar. But to make matters worse, all of the wolf brothers take on a new name once they bond with their wolves! For instance, the main character is Njall for the first while, and then becomes Isolfr. It gets very confusing, and about half way through the book I decided that if I couldn't remember who someone was, then they weren't worth remembering! But other than that, I really enjoyed it.

While I absolutely loved A Companion to Wolves, I cannot recommend it to everyone. There are aspects of the book of a sexual nature that not everyone will want to read. It is definitely for mature audiences.

Camelot's Blood

Earlier today I finally finished Sarah Zettel's Camelot series with the final book, Camelot's Blood. I bought the book from Ebay right after finishing Under Camelot's Banner; when I found out the final book was Laurel's story, I just couldn't wait for it! I was a bit sad that it was only published in Britain for some reason, as the cover art is different from the other three (my copies of the other three are all from Luna books).

Camelot's Blood was a bit different from the other three books in a few ways: this was the only book that featured a girl who was previously introduced (Laurel is Lynet from Under Camelot's Banner's sister), and this is the only book of the four in which they (in this case Laurel and Agravain) are married at the beginning (marriage was a reward at the end of the other three books).

Camelot's Blood picks up after Under Camelot's Banner. Laurel was named queen of Cambryn, but abdicated in favour of Lynet. At Arthur and Guinevere's request, Laurel agrees to marry Sir Agravain, knight of the round table and heir to Gododdin. But during their wedding night, news arrives that Agravain's father is dying and Gododdin is going to be attacked by Morgaine's armies. And so Laurel and Agravain hatch a desperate plan to save Gododdin and at the same time restore its lost honour.

I loved Agravain. I knew he was going to be tough to match with someone (seeing how he was always angry and very closed to other people), but Laurel was a good match for him. Beneath his composed exterior was a very complex character, intelligent and caring.

I thought Camelot's Blood was a really good read, but I thought the ending could have been a bit better. There were a few loose ends that were never really resolved; when all was said and done, it seemed to end a bit abruptly. But otherwise, Camelot's Blood was a great read, and a good ending to the whole Camelot series.

Steal the Dragon

When I first started reading Patricia Briggs' Steal the Dragon, my first thought was, "This is the difference between a good book and Tim Lebbon's Fallen." Right off the bat, I was interested in the characters, and genuinely wanted to know what happened next.

Steal the Dragon is about Rialla, an ex-slave who escaped her master in Darran and became a horse trainer. The Spymaster of Sianim asks Rialla to return to Darran with her friend Laeth, posing as his slave in an effort to gather information and hopefully stop an assassination. But things go from bad to worse when Rialla encounters her old master, and Laeth's brother is killed and Laeth is framed for the murder! It is up to Rialla, with the help of the healer Tris, to try to clear Laeth's name and find the real culprit.

I really liked the main characters. They were very well thought out (and wow do I feel sorry for Rialla - being a slave, then returning by choice into slavery - but at least it WAS her choice!) The plot was fantastic, with so much going on that it kept me wanting to figure out who was behind everything. Another great book by Patricia Briggs that I recommend to everyone who likes fantasy or just wants a good read!

Fallen

Fallen by Tim Lebbon was one of the books I bought from Chapters during their awesome sale. I saw it sitting on the shelf during a previous Chapters visit, and thought the story sounded intriguing. So after finishing Dust, I was going to read something else but then decided to give Fallen a try; I've never read anything by Lebbon before, and was ready to try something new.

Unfortunately, Fallen was not what I expected. Yes, it was a quest story. And yes, as the back of the book states, this quest does become a race between the two main characters. But I could never shake the feeling that the main characters were so petty. And as the story went on, the other characters, whom I liked, became less and less believable. Sure, they were warriors from a culture where every day is a struggle to survive. But they seemed to lose their common sense the further the story progressed.

I started writing this review when I was only about a third of the way through the book so I didn't forget anything I wanted to mention. And the first thing that bothered me was that Lebbon is not very good at writing dialogue. During the beginning of the book, it just never seemed to flow right (or at times it didn't make sense within the context of the conversation). Once the group of characters split up, the dialogue seemed a bit better; I now think Lebbon just isn't very good at writing dialogue for a larger group of characters. And as I mentioned before, the main characters seemed rather petty and dumb. Ramus, the scholar, did seem human in his pettiness, but he did nothing to make me like him or feel sorry for him. Nomi was a jerk, and even though she financed the whole fiasco, didn't seem like the type of character to get involved in this sort of thing. This was a turn off, but at least the other characters (the Serians, who were protecting the other two on the voyage) seemed alright.

But I do have to admit that I was entertained. The story itself, while often a bit strange (I think this is mostly due to the bizarreness that is Noreela) was interesting. I found myself wanting to know what was up on the Great Divide, and I was curious who would make it there first (although I still think that most of the Serians in Nomi's group probably should have left her when Ramus did. Not that I think they should have joined him. I just think they should have left the whole fiasco and gone back to Marrakash).

And then the ending happened. Events of the third part of the book got really weird, and I kept wondering how they would get out of it. But then the ending happened, and it felt somewhat lacking. I'm sure that things will continue, maybe not as a direct sequel, but in a future Noreela book. But I'm not sure that I really care.

And that is how the whole book felt. Yes, it was entertaining (I managed to read it in three days), but at the same time it was hard to care about it. I didn't really care what happened to Ramus and Nomi. I didn't really care if they got to the top of the divide. And I didn't really care once the book ended. I kept reading to see if my attitude toward the book would change, but it never did. And so I don't care if I ever read one of Lebbon's books again.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel

I was extremely surprised to find that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a graphic novel. I discovered it while at my local used bookstore, The Bookshelf.

I'm sure almost everyone is familiar with the story, or at least the just of it. A boy is born as an old man, and as he ages he gets younger and younger. I really liked it as a graphic novel; the pictures really aided the words. But overall, I thought the story was just okay. It progresses in a very linear, predictable pattern, and so is nothing really special (although I really liked the art).

Bigfoot: I Not Dead

Back in the winter, I went to a bad poetry reading/contest. While there, one of the MC's read passages from Graham Roumieu's Bigfoot: I Not Dead. So a few days later, I tracked the book down and bought it. Originally I was only going to read it a bit at a time, in order to savour it. But today I decided that since I own it (and many other anthologies which I will in fact savour), there was no need. So I read it.

Bigfoot: I Not Dead is hilarious! It is filled with Bigfoot's musings on life. From sad times to fitness, Bigfoot's experiences and thoughts will make you laugh! This is definitely going to be a book I turn to when I need some cheering up!