Magic at Wychwood
Sally Watson, illustrated by Frank Bozzo
ISBN: 0394914686 (library binding)
Read May 27, 2016
Juv Classic Fantasy. Very similar in feel and spunk to the more recent Tuesdays at the Castle.
This was a cute little short read, again found while helping a patron find an old childhood read. This one is about a royal family, in particular the youngest daughter: spunky, redheaded, un-ladylike Princess Elaine, and their various adventures concerning magical happenings in and around the castle. Extremely laid back, no real peril (people do get changed into animals and inanimate things, but everything always comes right in the end). Elaine is a delightful hero, and her big brother Arthur takes the stage a few times also, and he is determinedly chivalrous and delightful in his adherence to the Code, especially when everyone else in the family is being much more sensible.
Very cute, and a great choice for bedtime serial readings - each "chapter" is a self-contained story that only slightly builds on the ones before it, up til the very end when everything gets tied off delightfully.
Showing posts with label magic gone bad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magic gone bad. Show all posts
Friday, May 27, 2016
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Magical Western: Wake of Vultures, Lila Bowen (Delilah Dawson)
Wake of Vultures
Lila Bowen
ISBN: 9780316264310
Read January 31, 2016
Nettie is half-black and half "injun" and she's been treated like a slave all her life, but that all changes when she stakes a lecherous vampire one night.
First off, Lila Bowen is actually Delilah Dawson, who I've had the pleasure of meeting a few times, and also have read her YA books HIT and Servants of the Storm. With this pseudonym, she heads out into slightly (only slightly) grimmer territory with the magical western story of Nettie Lonesome, who discovers that the black and white "facts" she learned from her disreputable and abusive "adoptive parents" don't match reality all that well.
The night Nettie dispatches a fearsome predator in the back yard, her eyes are opened to the wild and demanding magical world. She'll have to stretch and grow and learn a whole lot to make it through to the classic western showdown.
I sadly can't say a whole lot about this book without giving bits of it away, but I have to say that having Nettie so backwards and isolated and fundamentalist in her thinking gives Bowen a great way to "tell" about the weird west that she's created without it being an "as you know, Bob" situation. Nettie truly doesn't know a damn thing, but she's been tasked with a terrifying mission, and if she doesn't figure out what's going down pretty quick, she's sunk.
The supporting characters are believable and most are carefully drawn to be at least somewhat three-dimensional, given limitations of space. No one (with the positive exception of a mentor, and perhaps unsurprisingly the negative portrayal of the "adoptive parents" and big bad at the end) is presented in an unremittingly good or bad light - people have their positive and negative traits without those traits becoming shorthands for identifying white or black hats. Nettie herself finds her prejudices and stereotypes challenged and countermanded constantly through the book, and other characters have their own assumptions shattered as well. Sometimes they react positively, occasionally not. Despite the grim nature of the quest narrative, the overall sense of the character base is supportive and caring, which I figure is probably the most magical aspect of the whole story, but I'm not going to complain too hard, because it really becomes necessary to balance out the grim and gruesome evil that Nettie is forced to confront.
Also, can I say how forever grateful and happy I am that this is the first book in a series, but the storyline is totally and completely resolved. There IS a cliffhanger, but it's one that I don't actually mind. You'll have to read it to get the joke. :)
Lila Bowen
ISBN: 9780316264310
Read January 31, 2016
Nettie is half-black and half "injun" and she's been treated like a slave all her life, but that all changes when she stakes a lecherous vampire one night.
First off, Lila Bowen is actually Delilah Dawson, who I've had the pleasure of meeting a few times, and also have read her YA books HIT and Servants of the Storm. With this pseudonym, she heads out into slightly (only slightly) grimmer territory with the magical western story of Nettie Lonesome, who discovers that the black and white "facts" she learned from her disreputable and abusive "adoptive parents" don't match reality all that well.
The night Nettie dispatches a fearsome predator in the back yard, her eyes are opened to the wild and demanding magical world. She'll have to stretch and grow and learn a whole lot to make it through to the classic western showdown.
I sadly can't say a whole lot about this book without giving bits of it away, but I have to say that having Nettie so backwards and isolated and fundamentalist in her thinking gives Bowen a great way to "tell" about the weird west that she's created without it being an "as you know, Bob" situation. Nettie truly doesn't know a damn thing, but she's been tasked with a terrifying mission, and if she doesn't figure out what's going down pretty quick, she's sunk.
The supporting characters are believable and most are carefully drawn to be at least somewhat three-dimensional, given limitations of space. No one (with the positive exception of a mentor, and perhaps unsurprisingly the negative portrayal of the "adoptive parents" and big bad at the end) is presented in an unremittingly good or bad light - people have their positive and negative traits without those traits becoming shorthands for identifying white or black hats. Nettie herself finds her prejudices and stereotypes challenged and countermanded constantly through the book, and other characters have their own assumptions shattered as well. Sometimes they react positively, occasionally not. Despite the grim nature of the quest narrative, the overall sense of the character base is supportive and caring, which I figure is probably the most magical aspect of the whole story, but I'm not going to complain too hard, because it really becomes necessary to balance out the grim and gruesome evil that Nettie is forced to confront.
Also, can I say how forever grateful and happy I am that this is the first book in a series, but the storyline is totally and completely resolved. There IS a cliffhanger, but it's one that I don't actually mind. You'll have to read it to get the joke. :)
Friday, May 29, 2015
YA Fantasy: The Orphan Queen, Jodi Meadows
The Orphan Queen
Jodi Meadows
ISBN: 9780062317384
Traditional "western european" YA fantasy sets a young exiled princess against a conquering kingdom and a murderous magical incursion. First in a projected series, with a GIANT CLIFFHANGER ENDING!
First things first: I read this immediately after devouring two other fantasy series back to back, by absolute masters of the craft, and THEN I read another very similarly plotted book immediately afterwards, which was flat-out one of the best fantasy-fairy-tale adaptations I've ever been blessed to read. So I'm going to be a little sharp here, and it really is unfair of me, because this book was not bad. It wasn't even mediocre, it just - wasn't at the very top of the heap, and that's where everything else this week was, so this suffers unjustly by the comparison.
With that in mind: a decent start-up to a series, with a Hunger Games inspired cliffhanger for the ending. Sadly, I wasn't invested enough in the characters to actually care one way or the other about said cliffhanger, and I won't be particularly looking out for the next in the series. Now, if it happens to come up, or cross my desk, I'll certainly read it - it was an interesting set-up, and I'm curious to know where things will go - just, more in an academic sort of way.
List of unfortunate things:
Character names don't make any damn sense. This is a stereotypical white western european fantasy medieval/Victorian setting. Please just pick a real medieval kingdom to pretend the characters are from, and choose names from there: France, Germany, Poland, wherever! Just don't name one girl Wilhemina, another Quinn, another Teresa, and yet a different girl Paige, and expect me to not slip a few gears.
The "spy ring" was not so great. Naming yourselves (and identifying as such to potential enemies or informants, and wearing clothes embroidered with the representation of such) after the heraldric creature of the fallen kingdom is sweet, but it's also stupid dangerous when living in enemy territory. My desire to think of the main character and the group as a whole as competent and formidable was straining against this the entire book. My opinion was also not helped by the main character's utter uselessness at an infiltration that had apparently been planned for quite some time. I know they're all kids, but they're all trained and espionage-hardened kids, or at least that's what they're supposed to be.
The rationale behind going to the "mysterious location" in a totally different kingdom was really stretched. When the character was explaining her motives to another person, I could just see the author explaining the reasons to an editor, who just nodded with a glazed look under the torrent of words. Set up your plotting better, so decisions and events are actually important to the character's stated goals.
Have you ever seen Zorro: The Gay Blade? If not, go see it, I'll wait. Back now? There's a very "Zorro" character here, and it was super obvious, and a little forced. While I liked the masked version of the character, I had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes otherwise. Cute, decently executed, but so very obvious.
List of enjoyable things:
Wil was an awesome lead, despite being utterly useless at most of her life choices. She made her decisions, stuck to them, and mostly (despite one glaring plot-rail) had in-character reasons for them. She had agency, personality, and an interesting background conflict.
The growing relationship and partnership with "Zorro" was meet-cute.
The plot concept was nifty, and has potential for interesting developments through the series. The "magic gone bad" concept is sort of hot now, but this version also has intro-country political repercussions (slim and plot-dependent, but actually acknowledged) of the magic problem, and attempts to solve it in earlier years.
The lead friendship was very well drawn.
The "mysterious location" was, on reflection, one of the best parts of the book - it was supremely creepy and paced well.
All in all, a fun way to spend an afternoon.
Jodi Meadows
ISBN: 9780062317384
Traditional "western european" YA fantasy sets a young exiled princess against a conquering kingdom and a murderous magical incursion. First in a projected series, with a GIANT CLIFFHANGER ENDING!
First things first: I read this immediately after devouring two other fantasy series back to back, by absolute masters of the craft, and THEN I read another very similarly plotted book immediately afterwards, which was flat-out one of the best fantasy-fairy-tale adaptations I've ever been blessed to read. So I'm going to be a little sharp here, and it really is unfair of me, because this book was not bad. It wasn't even mediocre, it just - wasn't at the very top of the heap, and that's where everything else this week was, so this suffers unjustly by the comparison.
With that in mind: a decent start-up to a series, with a Hunger Games inspired cliffhanger for the ending. Sadly, I wasn't invested enough in the characters to actually care one way or the other about said cliffhanger, and I won't be particularly looking out for the next in the series. Now, if it happens to come up, or cross my desk, I'll certainly read it - it was an interesting set-up, and I'm curious to know where things will go - just, more in an academic sort of way.
List of unfortunate things:
Character names don't make any damn sense. This is a stereotypical white western european fantasy medieval/Victorian setting. Please just pick a real medieval kingdom to pretend the characters are from, and choose names from there: France, Germany, Poland, wherever! Just don't name one girl Wilhemina, another Quinn, another Teresa, and yet a different girl Paige, and expect me to not slip a few gears.
The "spy ring" was not so great. Naming yourselves (and identifying as such to potential enemies or informants, and wearing clothes embroidered with the representation of such) after the heraldric creature of the fallen kingdom is sweet, but it's also stupid dangerous when living in enemy territory. My desire to think of the main character and the group as a whole as competent and formidable was straining against this the entire book. My opinion was also not helped by the main character's utter uselessness at an infiltration that had apparently been planned for quite some time. I know they're all kids, but they're all trained and espionage-hardened kids, or at least that's what they're supposed to be.
The rationale behind going to the "mysterious location" in a totally different kingdom was really stretched. When the character was explaining her motives to another person, I could just see the author explaining the reasons to an editor, who just nodded with a glazed look under the torrent of words. Set up your plotting better, so decisions and events are actually important to the character's stated goals.
Have you ever seen Zorro: The Gay Blade? If not, go see it, I'll wait. Back now? There's a very "Zorro" character here, and it was super obvious, and a little forced. While I liked the masked version of the character, I had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes otherwise. Cute, decently executed, but so very obvious.
List of enjoyable things:
Wil was an awesome lead, despite being utterly useless at most of her life choices. She made her decisions, stuck to them, and mostly (despite one glaring plot-rail) had in-character reasons for them. She had agency, personality, and an interesting background conflict.
The growing relationship and partnership with "Zorro" was meet-cute.
The plot concept was nifty, and has potential for interesting developments through the series. The "magic gone bad" concept is sort of hot now, but this version also has intro-country political repercussions (slim and plot-dependent, but actually acknowledged) of the magic problem, and attempts to solve it in earlier years.
The lead friendship was very well drawn.
The "mysterious location" was, on reflection, one of the best parts of the book - it was supremely creepy and paced well.
All in all, a fun way to spend an afternoon.
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