Faeries of Dreamdark: Silksinger

I absolutely loved the first book in Laini Taylor's Faeries of Dreamdark series (Blackbringer).  I loved it so much that I bought a copy of the second book, Silksinger, right away.

I waited too long to read Silksinger.

I read Blackbringer over two years ago.  Way too much time has passed, and I barely remember the story now (besides that it was awesome!)  So it was rather tough to get back into the series.

But that was ok.  By the time I was halfway through Silksinger, I was once again in love with Dreamdark.

Silksinger is the story of several faeries.  Once again, Magpie Windwitch is here with her family of feathers (crows) and her friend Talon.  They're hunting for the remaining Djinn, to awaken them and return them to Dreamdark.  Talon, a scamperer (he has wings that are too small to fly with), has knit himself a pair of feathered wings.  Together, he and Magpie find the Ithuriel, before going in search of the Azazel.

A continent away, Whisper's family is attacked by a swarm of devils.  Both of her grandparents die fighting them off, leaving Whisper alone to protect the Azazel.  Whisper is the last of the Silksingers, a faerie clan long thought to be dead.  Their voices allow them to manipulate the Tapestry; they were famed for their flying carpets, which haven't been seen by others in millenia.

Whisper manages to make her way to an outpost, where she stows away on a caravan heading to Nazneen.  There she meets Hirik, a lad with big dreams and even bigger secrets.  Hirik longs to find the Azazel, to become the Djinn's champion (especially now that the Djinn are awakening and Magpie has become one of their champions already).  But he is a Mothmage, a clan also believed to be dead.  As legend goes, the great warrior clan sat idly by while the last dragon, Fade, was destroyed.  The Silksingers, who were not warriors, bravely flew to Fade's side on their carpets, only to be slaughtered along with the dragon.  The Mothmages were exiled and presumed dead in the aftermath of that battle.  But in truth, they are not dead.  And neither were they the cowards everyone believed them to be: the Mothmages were ensorcelled by a ruby left there by their greatest enemy.

I will admit, Silksinger was somewhat predictable, particularly concerning Whisper and Hirik.  But it was still a fantastic read.  I am sad to know there are currently no more Dreamdark novels written.  But hopefully Taylor will get back to the series (especially since Silksinger ends on a bit of a cliffhanger - I need to know more!!!!)

Halo: Blood Line

I don't have a whole lot to say about Halo: Blood Line.  I've had this graphic novel for several years now (I think I got it around the same time I got Helljumper and Uprising).  Blood Line is the story about Spartan Team Black, a team of Spartan-IIs I've never heard of before. They're sent on a covert operation to kill some Covenant when their ship crash lands on a moon.  At the same time, a Covenant ship also crash lands.  Both sides are attacked by an unknown enemy, which captures members of both teams.  So the survivors (both Covenant and Human) band together to rescue their comrades.

Blood Line is also the story of family.  Team Black has become its own family through its history of growing up together and working together.  On the other side, a pair of Elites are brothers.  The strongest one, Ship Master Thon, has always looked after and protected his much weaker brother, Reff.  Blood Line is about what both kinds of families will do for each other (and also what family means in both contexts).

Finally, Blood Line is the story of how Iona, the AI of UNSC ship Long Time Coming ended up part of Spartan Team Black.

It's a little hard to follow all of the action, but overall Halo: Blood Line is an excellent read.

Phule's Company

A friend at last year's 4th Street Fantasy suggested I give Robert Asprin's Phule's Company a try. This spring I found it at a local used bookstore. It sounded really funny, so I decided to give it a try after finishing both the Bone: Handbook and Rose.

Phule's Company is about multimillionaire Willard Phule, the heir to Phule-Proof Munitions. Phule joined the Space Legion, where he was going to be thrown into jail for accidentally attacking a peace ceremony. But because of who he is, the Legion decides to put Phule in charge of an Omega Company. An Omega Company is a company where the Legion sends all of its misfits. Basically the plan is to give Phule command of an impossible group of people, with the hope they will drive him to quit the Legion.  But Phule has other plans. It's his intention to take the company and turn them into an effective fighting force. 

Besides, he's got experience doing this sort of thing with businesses. How hard can it be?

Phule's Company was pretty hilarious all the way through. The antics of Phule's Legionnaires (and even Phule himself) were pretty great. Phule was a very unorthodox commander, which worked wonders for bringing his bunch of misfits together (and even seeing them through to a tie against the regular army's crack troop squadron).

One thing I wasn't fond of was the book's blurb though. It set me up to expect something much bigger than what the book actually delivers. The blurb says Phule's Company is mankind's last hope. But I'm not really sure why. I mean, the final encounter was against a bunch of peaceful aliens. No one was in any danger at all (especially not all of mankind). It's possible that statement refers to something later in the series (which may or may not have been alluded to), but that's about it.

So that was Phule's Company. I enjoyed it, but the end was kind of a let down. For that reason, I'm not sure if I'm going to look for the other books in the series.

Bone: Rose

I'm not going to lie: Bone: Rose was my least favourite book in the Bone series.

Rose is a story about Gran'ma Ben's past.  Before she was
Gran'ma Ben, she was Princess Rose Harvestar.  I was super excited to read about Gran'ma Ben's past, because she's a hilariously awesome character in the main Bone saga.  

But this is a story set before Gran'ma Ben was hilariously awesome.  Here she is a somewhat naive princess.  Her and her sister are sent early to complete their test to become Dream Masters (although Briar, her older sister, has a blind dreaming eye, and so wonders why she's being sent).  

In a dream, Rose frees a small river dragon from a river.  The next day she finds the same dragon, who is in reality much bigger.  After fighting, the dragon leaves to go and terrorize the nearby village.

In the middle of all this, Briar, who in fact has a strong dreaming eye (she's been hiding it from everyone for years) is working to free the Lord of Locusts and unleash nightmares on all the world once again.

Okay, I admit, I'm not entirely sure if that's what the Lord of Locusts was planning on doing.  But that's what happened when he originally took over the dragon queen Mim.  Plus it sounds cool.

I hope I made the story sound exciting.  Unfortunately, I found it to be a rather bland read and I'm not entirely sure why. But the artwork of Charles Vess is gorgeous, and that's why I gave this book 3/5 stars instead of 2 on Goodreads.

Bone Handbook

When I bought the Bone Handbook, I honestly thought it was another graphic novel like Tall Tales or Rose. So imagine my surprise when I picked it up off my shelf about an hour ago and realized it was a guide book to the whole Bone world?

Along with having some info on the characters and the world, this guide book also has little trivia tidbits and interviews with both Jeff Smith and Bone colourist Steve Hamaker. 

The Bone Handbook was a super quick read and a great refresher of all things Bone. I'm a bit worried it spoiled the Rose graphic novel for me (although the main Bone story may have done that already), but other than that possibility, I was glad to read it! (Especially since it's been almost four years since I read the main story and only vaguely remember most of it!)

Howl's Moving Castle

A friend at 4th Street Fantasy recommended Diana Wynne Jones this year.  So when my brother and I were coming home and found Howl's Moving Castle, I decided I had to get it.  I saw the movie years ago and remember liking it.  But other than remembering that the castle was much smaller on the inside than it was on the outside, I don't remember anything else about the story.

Howl's Moving Castle is the story of Sophie.  Sophie is the eldest of three daughters, which everyone knows means she is destined to fail at everything.  Sophie gets cursed by the Witch of the Waste, who turns her into an old woman.  And so Sophie sets out on an adventure in the hopes of getting the curse reversed.

Her adventure takes her straight to Howl's Moving Castle, which has been seen from her village moving around in the hills.  Sophie strikes a bargain with Calcifer, the fire demon who moves the castle.  If she can figure out how to break Calcifer's bargain with Howl, Calcifer will remove the curse that is on Sophie.

Howl's Moving Castle was a super cute story.  I am so glad I read it, and I really am looking forward to reading more of Jones' books (...especially since Goodreads tells me there are more stories in this series!)

The Martian

Geeze, what have I been doing for the last month?  Apparently not reading much!

I can't honestly remember when I started reading Andy Weir's The Martian.  I bought it while I was in Minneapolis for 4th Street Fantasy.  And I know I started it not long after that. 

Well, whatever.  It's a month since I finished Fledgling, and I have now finished The Martian, too.


The Martian was recommended to me by someone at work about a year ago.  It's been on my reading list since then.  A few people at 4th Street Fantasy also recommended it to me.  And with the movie coming out this fall, I wanted to make sure I read it before then.

The Martian is the story of Mars astronaut Mark Watney, who is part of the third manned mission to Mars (Ares 3).  Watney finds himself stranded on Mars after his mission abruptly ends due to a Martian super high-wind storm.  The rest of his crew abandons him because they believe he is dead.  But he survives, and has to figure out how to continue surviving, especially since his mission was only supposed to be 30 days long.  He's left alone for several months because everyone on Earth believes he's dead, too (and they don't want to take satellite images of the Ares 3 sight in case his body is visible).

It's a super interesting story as Watney "sciences the shit" out of the Hab in order to survive.  (Sorry, that's a quote from the movie trailer that made me laugh.  He doesn't actually say it in the book).  He even finds a way to get potatoes to grow in the Martian soil.  Eventually he gets back in contact with NASA by recovering the Pathfinder probe and using its radio (his radio was destroyed in the storm, and the backups went with the rest of his crew off of Mars).  The scientists of NASA work around the clock to help him survive and ultimately come up with the plan to get him home again - he has to drive to the site of the future Ares 4 mission and use some of the gear that's already there to rejoin his crew, who end up flying back to Mars specifically to pick him up again.  And all of this happens while all of Earth watches, completely unable to help the crew recover him (during the actual launch and flyby).

But I'm not going to lie, about half way through it, I started to lose interest in The Martian.  I think it was at the point that I realized everything that could go wrong was going to go wrong, but somehow Watney would still survive.  I guess it got a bit boring in its predictability.  Which was a real shame. 

I'm not a super science-literate person, but I was impressed by how accessible Weir made the science in this book.  I also thought Watney was hilarious (and I admit, I did lose interest during the chapters and sections of the book that weren't from Watney's perspective).  So all in all, I did really like the book; I just had a bit of a hard time finishing it once I started to know basically what would happen.