My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Volume 1

I found the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic graphic novel at work awhile ago.  I've only seen a couple of episodes of the show, but I was curious so I flipped through it a bit.  I came to a page where Pinkie Pie was instructing everyone on how to be a zombie and I knew I had to read this book.


I did have a bit of trouble when I first started reading it though.  The book was referring to Queen Chrysalis, who was recently defeated.  I thought that maybe this was a later volume in the series as a result.  But no it isn't.

The story starts out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders (the little sisters of three of the main ponies who are trying to find their flank markings) getting kidnapped by Queen Chrysalis.  The next day, the main ponies realize something is weird about all the people in Ponyville (and that the three younger ponies are acting extremely weird, too).  Recognizing the other ponies to be changelings brought on by Queen Chrysalis, they set out to rescue their town.  Unfortunately, the three little ponies are missing.  Queen Chrysalis gives our heroes three days to reach them before she destroys them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Zombie Walking Incident

I'm not going to lie: the highlights of this were almost all thanks to Pinkie Pie.  From the zombie walk which first attracted me to the "I'm Sorry" cake she carries around with her, almost everything she did brought on a laugh. For that alone, this book was definitely worth the read!

Geist

Geist was one of the books I bought from the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto.  I've never heard of Philippa Ballantine's series before, but it sounded really good so I decided to give it a shot. 

Geist is the story of three people: Sorcha Faris, the most powerful Active Deacon, her new young partner Merrick Chambers, and Raed Rossin, the Pretender to the throne.  In their world, Otherworld creatures, called Geists, possess and attack humans; it's up to the Order to stop them.  Deacons are put into pairs, with one Active, who actually fights the Geists, and one Sensitive, who sees the Geists.  After a disastrous Geist attack, Sorcha's husband and partner is injured.  The Arch Abbot of the Order assigns her a new partner and sends the two of them off on a mission to an isolated village called Ulrich.

Also heading to Ulrich is the Pretender.  Raed is the heir of the old ruling family.  His family has been ousted and a new Emperor was brought in from a distant land.  Raed's ship needs repairs, and so he is on his way to the isolated village. But in Ulrich, all is not as it seems.  The three find themselves drawn into the middle of a horrible conspiracy that spans the Empire. 

Geist was a really good read. I loved all three characters, and really liked this world where the Otherworld presses so closely to the living.  I'm looking forward to reading more about Sorcha, Merrick and Raed.

Gilgamesh

Last week while in Toronto, I went to see the ROM's Mesopotamia exhibit.  As part of the exhibit, they had a piece of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet VI).  When we got to the exhibit gift shop, in the books they had Stephen Mitchell's New English Version of Gilgamesh, which I bought and promptly started reading.

When I read a book like this for the first time, I usually skip the introduction until after I've read the actual work.  I don't want to be biased when reading (and honestly just want to avoid spoilers if I'm unfamiliar with the story).

Gilgamesh is credited as the oldest recorded story.  Its title character is a king who is 2/3 divine, 1/3 mortal.  He goes on adventures, ultimately searching for the secret to immortality.

I'm not going to lie, when I first finished reading it, I wasn't a big fan.  It was entertaining enough, but overall the story just seemed okay.  So I am really glad that I went back and read the introduction at that point.  The introduction made me appreciate the poem a lot more than I did after initially reading it (including the ending, where I kind of missed what exactly had happened!)

So overall, I enjoyed reading it, but mainly because of the introduction.  Without that, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much.

The Emperor's Soul

I saw The Emperor's Soul go by at work awhile ago.  I thought it sounded interesting, so I bought it for my Kindle.  It's taken me a bit, but I decided to read it on my trip (I decided to just bring my Kindle with me, rather than any physical books).

The Emperor's Soul is the first book by Brandon Sanderson that I've ever read.  And I really, really enjoyed it.  The Emperor's Soul is the story of Shai, a forger.  She was caught while trying to steal the Emperor's scepter and is given an intriguing offer: she needs to reforge the Emperor's soul or else she will be killed.  Shai jumps into the challenge, deciding that rather than just building a forged thing, and by extension making a puppet emperor, she will attempt to make the new soul as authentic as possible.

The Emperor's Soul was a short read, but it was one of the best books I've read in a long while.  I liked it so much that I went to The World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto and bought Elantris.  I'm really looking forward to reading more books by Sanderson.

Soul of Fire

So after reading Laura Anne Gilman's Heart of Briar, I couldn't wait for the sequel, Soul of Fire.  I preordered it on my Kindle, and was super excited to get the book a week earlier than expected from Amazon.  I dove right into the story, eager to see what happened to Jan and company.

I have to say, I was rather disappointed in Gilman's Soul of Fire. Having finished it, it reminded me of the way I felt after reading Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife: at the end of The Golden Compass, Pullman could take the story literally anywhere.  Unfortunately the place he chose to go with it was so boring I was extremely disappointed.  While Gilman wasn't in the same boat as that (Heart of Briar wasn't nearly as open-ended as The Golden Compass), I still feel very unsatisfied with how the story played out.

I'm going to give a spoiler alert here.  I want to talk about this book in more detail.

A good part of the problem, in my opinion, with Soul of Fire was similar to my issue in Matt Forbeck's Brave New World: Revelation.  There were a lot of characters introduced, many of whom were minor characters, making it hard to keep track of who was who, especially when supernatural creature names were thrown into the mix, often without a real explanation of what they looked like.  To make this even worse, many of these minor characters were killed off (like the cops who went missing), reminding me an awful lot of Darth Maul, Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves (which is not a book you want to be reminding me of).
With a whole mass of characters, it is hard to give the ones I actually cared about (mainly Jan and Martin) enough screen time.  On top of that, it took a while for Jan to actually start doing something (reminding me of Katniss' daze in Mockingjay, even though she wasn't actually dazed).  And then when she, Martin and Tyler go off against AJ's express orders, they end up hanging out with the missing Preternatural Queen for awhile while almost everyone else seemed to be doing more.  Now don't get me wrong, the Queen was interesting, but overall this part of the book seemed to slog on.

The book ended with a couple of big fights (which Jan was mostly not a part of because she doesn't really fight), then with the Queen agreeing to go back to her Court.  The book kept insisting that there needed to be a balance between the Preternaturals and the Earthlings, so the Queen pretty much just left with little fuss in order to restore the natural order of things.  After that, a shell-shocked Jan is left trying to move on with her life as best she can.  All in all, this wasn't a very satisfying ending.  Especially since Jan didn't end up with either Tyler or Martin.  Yes, I was biased; this novel was published by the Harlequin Luna Books imprint, so I was expecting something a bit more than "well, Tyler left.  The end."  (And yes, I realize ending up with a kelpie might not be great news for Jan, but Martin did seem to be a love interest of sorts.  And one who was interesting and really seemed to like her.  I won't lie, I was hoping they'd end up together).

So yes, I found Soul of Fire rather disappointing.  Which is too bad, because I like the world, many of the characters, and the creatures who inhabit Gilman's Portals duology.   

Heart of Briar

When I was at work, a lady brought back several fantasy novels. Laura Anne Gilman's Heart of Briar caught my eye, so I took it home and started reading.

Heart of Briar is the story of Jan. Her boyfriend, Tyler, goes missing and she sets out to find him. But the supernatural world finds her first. AJ, a lupin, and Martin, a kelpie, save her from a gnome's attack. It is they who inform her that Tyler was taking by elves, preternatural (not from our world) beings who periodically steal humans. The gnome was sent to kill her because Jan, Tyler's lover (or leman, as they say), is the only one who can possibly save him.

To make matters worse, the preternaturals are coming much more often now; they've found some way to open their portals wherever and whenever they want. AJ and the other supernatural need Jan's help to discover how they're doing so (and hopefully find a way to stop them).

With Martin's help (despite the fact that he is a kelpie), Jan attempts to trap the prefers in their own game (they're using internet dating sites to snare their prey). But time is running out for Tyler.

Heart of Briar is unfortunately the first book in a series. And the second book isn't out yet. But I really did enjoy reading it, and can't wait till the use one one comes out on Kindle (I pre-ordered it).

Erfworld Book 1: The Battle for Gobwin Knob

A friend of mine lent me Erfworld, Book 1: The Battle for Gobwin Knob.  I had absolutely no idea what I was in for.

Erfworld is the story of Parson Gotti (aka Lord Hamster), a game master from our world who is summoned to Erfworld.  There he is designated the Chief Warlord of Stanley the Tool.  Parson has to defend the Tool's last remaining city against an army that outnumbers them by 10 (or more accurately 25) to 1. 

Erfworld is an interesting place, full of gwiffons and dwagons and the like.  The world itself is like a giant strategy game, where everyone has a stat associated with them (which the warlords and royalty can see).  Parson needs to learn the system's rules quickly in order to exploit every thing he can to keep his side alive.

Erfworld: the Battle for Gobwin Knob is a quirky read, poking fun at gaming.  I don't have a whole lot to say about it, but I did enjoy reading it.