Ahsoka

After finishing watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars with a friend, he recommended that I read Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston before we start watching Star Wars: Rebels.  Luckily the library had a copy, so I picked it up after the holidays.

Ahsoka takes place a little after The Clone Wars.  Ahsoka has been doing her best to hide on the Outer Rim, but the Empire keeps creeping farther and farther out, making it harder and harder to stay hidden.  After leaving yet another planet, she makes her way to Raada, a small farming moon.  But the Empire decides that Raada is the perfect place to raise a deadly crop that will completely ravage the soil, and so follow her there.  But this time, rather than flee, Ahsoka decides to stay and help the farmers fight back.

Ahsoka is a fairly fast-paced read. I liked the various characters and their motivations - like the farmers who manage to make things worse for themselves on Raada by failing to listen to Ahsoka - it's completely understandable why they did so.  I also liked how Ahsoka grew - she found her path after Order 66, in large part thanks to the friends she made along this journey.  It was also really neat to see the changes to the galaxy the Empire has wrought - from purposefully occupying a place specifically to use it and decimate it, to the way they were stripmining the planet where the Jedi used to find their lightsaber crystals (super glad I watched Clone Wars for this brief part of the book - I had more of an appreciation for the loss of this world).

While overall I really liked the book, I did find parts of the ending to be a bit of a let-down.  An Inquisitor starts tracking Ahsoka after she reveals herself on Raada.  The book builds the Inquisitor up to be a worthy adversary, but when he finally faces Ahsoka, he is no match whatsoever for her (she defeats him without using lightsabers - he has a double one)..  How Ahsoka got her new lightsaber crystals was a neat idea, but seemed far too easy.  The book kind of felt like it wrapped up a bit too quickly after all the set-up. And there were a few weird in-between sequences (I don't know how else to describe them - there were brief interludes spaced throughout the book) that dealt with characters who were not otherwise in the book (and honestly didn't need to be).

But despite these few flaws, Ahsoka was a really good read.  And now I'm looking forward to starting Star Wars: Rebels with my friend!

Where the Crawdads Sing

My parents read Where the Crawdads Sing a couple of months ago. I decided to jump in and read it sooner rather than later so I could talk to them about it when it was still fairly fresh.

Where the Crawdads Sing is the story of Kya, who is abandoned by all of her family by the age of 10. First her mother walks out of her abusive relationship, then slowly her siblings leave until she is left alone with her father. He stays for a few years before leaving her too. Kya grows up with the marshlands as her family, learning to survive and thrive thanks to the skills she picked up from her family before she was abandoned. 

The story takes place between two timelimes: Kya's past, and 1969, when she is grown up and accused of murdering the town's star high-school quarterback. The first timeline is overall rather depressing as people leave her, or are prejudiced towards her, with a few notable exceptions, like Jumpin', the black man who sells Kya gas and takes care of her as best he can, his wife, Mabel, and Tate, a boy a few years older than Kya who befriends her and teaches her to read. In 1969, the story mostly follows the investigation of the death of Chase by the sheriff and his deputy, until the two timelines merge. I found the story got a lot more interesting once the timeliness merged (it was enjoyable before that, but fairly depressing, and a lot more meandering; it became a lot more focused once Kya was on trial). I also didn't see the ending coming, which was a fairly nice surprise, and elevated the book in my opinion.

While at times I had a hard time coming back to read the book (I started it before Christmas), overall I found it ab enjoyable read. I also enjoyed reading the back pages (the interview and note from the author).

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

I've had Clive Woodall's One for Sorrow, Two for Joy for a very long time (I suspect at least 15 years). I was going to read it several months ago, but for some reason never actually started it (though the bookmark I was going to use was still in the book!) So a few days ago (after reading a decluttering book that I didn't write about here), I decided to actually start reading it, otherwise I was going to send it on its way. Luckily I was hooked within the first few chapters and decided to finish it.

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy is split into two books (kind of like how Dune was split into three). The first one tells the story of Kirrick, the last Robin in Birddom (which I believe is England). Kirrick escapes the genocidal magpies and makes his way to the wise old owl, Tomar. Tomar has a plan to stop the magpies, but he is too old to make the needed journeys. But young Kirrick is brave and undertakes the dangerous quest on the owl's behalf.

I really liked the first book of One for Sorrow, Two for Joy. I really liked Kirrick, and was routing for him to succeed. I also enjoyed the villain Traska hunting him down (though Traska was at times far too brutal, like how he would hurt and maim others when he was upset). The narrative felt really focused and fairly tight, even when moving between the characters. Sure, there were aspects I wasn't fond of, like how quickly Kirrick fell in love (he seemed to very quickly forget his mate who he had literally just seen killed at the beginning of the book). But overall I found this to be an interesting and fairly enjoyable story (again, minus some of the more violent aspects).

Unfortunately, everything sort of fell apart in the second part. After the defeat of the magpies, Birddom needs to rebuild. Specifically they are in need of new songbirds after the annihilation many species suffered at the wings of the magpies. So they send an emissary to Wingland (I think that's Europe) to try to convince some songbirds to relocate now that Birddom is safe again. Meanwhile, Traska has slunk off to Ireland (I think) in search of new allies. Traska's son, Venga, (born from a magpies he raped and raised for a single purpose - to kill his father) is hunting for him. And Tomar is watching over the two children of Kirrick. These four narrative strains feel rather unconnected (though they do eventually come together) and overall they're really unsatisfying. I found this was most true of the Venga storyline - this could have been cut and the story would have lost nothing (except a few unnecessary violent events). But even the quest to Wingdom was fairly uneventful and boring - while in the end, presumably songbirds wouldn't have returned to Birddom without the emmissary's quest, it really felt superfluous. 

So while I enjoyed the first half of One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, I really wasn't fond of the second half. The second half was a slog to read, and felt like an unneeded add-on to the more interesting first part. There was also a surprising amount of unnecessarily graphic violence, which also, for me, detracted from the book as a while.

Dune

I bought Dune many years ago, having heard that it's an excellent science fiction book. But it's really long - about 800 pages - so I kept putting off reading it because I can read like 2 or 3 books in the time it will take me to read it. So Dune languished on my shelf until a month and a half ago, when I finally took the plunge (mainly because someone wanted to watch the new movie with me, lol. I didn't want to watch it until at least attempting to read the book!)

Dune is the story of a noble family, the Atreides, who is betrayed after their Emperor asks them to run a desert planet called Arrakis. While Duke Leto is captured and killed, his son, Paul, and concubine (the woman he loves but never married), Jessica, manage to escape and disappear among the native Fremen of Arrakis.

I found Dune to be an interesting read. It is a bit slow-paced in order to set up the story (for example, it takes about 200 pages for the betrayal to happen, even though it tells you from the very beginning that the betrayal is going to happen). But it has a really rich setting, and is full of a lot of really fun political intrique. Overall I enjoyed reading it, though I doubt I'll be reading any further in the series.

Namwayut

I've been trying to read a book for Canada's National Day of Reconciliation in an effort to educate myself on topics pertinent to the day. This year I found the perfect book at work: Namwayut: A Pathway to Reconciliation by Chief Robert Joseph. It took me a bit of a long time to read it (I started it on October 5th, a few days after the National Day of Truth of Reconciliation, and finished it today, November 4th). While Chief Joseph's writing is very engaging and overall enjoyable, he does share some of his history with the residential schools and the racism he encountered, making this a more difficult read that takes some time. I loved how his overall tone is very hopeful for the future - he shows how far Canada has already come on our path towards reconciliation. I do hope to one day reread Namwayut - it is the kind of book that I feel I will get more out of with subsequent reads. It's also the kind of book that is worth rereading, much like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, for the hope and incredible spirit of the author.

Magical Boy: Volume 2

 After a several month wait, Magical Boy: Volume 2 was finally released!  I was very excited to see it - I couldn't wait to see how the story ended!

Magical Boy: Volume 2 starts off where Volume 1 ended: the third gate is open!  But all is not lost - Walnut tells Max and company that they have a chance to close the gates still.  Unfortunately, Max's mom starts really freaking out on him for going against the family's traditional magical girl heritage, blaming that for the opening of the third gate.  

Max isn't the only one dealing with disapproving parents.  Pyper's family hauls her into church where she is publicly disowned for admitting her truth.  And Sean has to deal with his own father thinking he isn't good enough.  But with the demons feeding off negative emotions to bring their leader through the gate, all this hate and sadness is definitely working against our heroes!

Once again, I enjoyed Magical Boy.  The story was brought to a satisfying conclusion and I enjoyed learning more about our heroes!  I look forward to reading future releases from The Kao. :)

The Poppy War

 My mom and I went shopping earlier this month, and I bought a few books that sounded really good.  The first one was The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang.

The Poppy War tells the story of Rin, a war-orphan who has set her sights on attending Sinegard, her country's best military academy.  After acing the entrance test, she quickly discovers that getting in was the easy part - remaining at Sinegard will be more of a challenge, especially when the other students and some of the teachers do not believe she belongs.

I was fully on board with The Poppy War through this beginning part.  I thought it was really interesting being along with Rin's struggles and fight to remain there, how she accidentally opened herself up to a God, and ended up pledging Lore after her first year, rather than Strategy like she planned.  I loved her quirky teacher, Jiang, and really enjoyed their interactions as he imparted his wisdom to her in his unique way.

But then parts 2 and 3 of the book happened.  Rin's country, Nikara, has long been threatened by the Federation of Mugen, a neighbouring island nation that was hellbent on conquering Nikara.  When war breaks out, Rin and her classmates quickly find themselves drafted into the army.  Rin is given to the Cike, a small division made up entirely of shamans (people connected to the gods).  

These sections of the book get progressively more and more difficult to read.  Rin's commander seems to slip more and more into madness from his god, while also under tremendous pressure to succeed.  He is angered that Rin isn't calling the Phoenix (both their God), despite her having done so before. He ends up hitting her in a very uncomfortable scene, which makes her call forth the fire; he then remarks "So that's what it takes."  This is made all the more uncomfortable because Rin seemed to have feelings for him.

But that didn't prepare me for the massacre of Golyn Niis (Chapter 21).  I had no idea it was coming.  I've since read that it is based off of a historical event where the Japanese massacred a Chinese city in much the same way.  

After getting through that chapter, I honestly thought I was going to stop reading.  But the book has good reviews, so I hoped it would get better.  Besides, I had already made it through about 400 out of 500 pages.  So I decided to persevere.

Unfortunately, while not as rough as that one chapter, I had a very hard time with the remainder of the book.  Along with the very uncomfortable situations that Rin found herself in, I also could not longer connect with her as a character.  She made some very terrible choices at the end of the book that I did not like reading about.  

In the end, I found that The Poppy War was not the book for me.  I will not be reading the rest of the trilogy.