The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Nelson Doubleday, 1946

(no ISBN; hardcover book-club edition, movie tie-in trilogy compilation.)

Individual titles of the series: The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot, Out of Time's Abyss.  Originally published in 1918.

I love the Barsoom books, and Tarzan is just fun, but somehow I never got around to these, so when I saw this absolutely awesome yellow and red hc published to promote the film (which I also want to see now, because I like hurting myself) I just had to have it.   (again, props to the Greenville Really Big Book Sale!)

Somewhere near Antarctica, there's a giant cliff-walled island.  Inside that undiscovered country is the freakiest weird-ass version of evolution I've ever seen in science fiction.  I won't spoil it, but it's seriously weird, and really impressive as a world-building conceit.  I have to give the guy props for going there in 1918 - I have neighbors in South Carolina in 2013 who can't deal with the concept, so it's a little dizzy-making to think about how ahead of the curve Burroughs was. 

Usual quibbles apply - the men are heroes, the women are victims (but at least once in each book they save themselves temporarily, or serve more of a function than looking pretty or delicate) and the villains are villainous.  The one scene with the cowboy "taming" a wild horse made me flashback to Jean Auel and my eyes near about rolled out of my head, but otherwise it was fun, fast, and seriously weird.  

The writing and plotting is about on the same level as the Barsoom series, but a little more manageable due to the length differences.  This is like a nice evening meal, that is more like an enormous southern Thanksgiving.  Either way, you're going to be eating good for a while.   

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope.  ISBN: 0590460579

Read September 4, 2013

YA: Newbery Honor.  Bloody-Mary-era England mysterious castle and well-built fae.

Picked up a slightly-damaged paperback at the 10-for-$2 table at the Greenville Literacy Society's Really Big Book Sale.

 

I somehow missed this when I was younger, and I'm sort of sad that I did.  It's very Willow/Labyrinth/Dark Crystal feel, and the fae are beautifully done.

Kate and her sister are handmaidens to the Princess Elizabeth in exile while Bloody Mary rules, until Kate's impetuous sister writes a letter to complain of their treatment.  The sister gets dragged into Mary's court, but Kate (blamed for the complaint because she's not the pretty one) is exiled even further, to the Perilous Gard, all the way out near the Irish border.  

The castle is eerie and filled with servants who seem to have a divided loyalty.  The village is filled with traumatized peasants.  The forboding woods are filled with ancient oaks.  The lord and his younger brother are hiding a sad, dark secret.  Headstrong, stubborn, logical Kate is determined to find out how they're all related, even if it gets her kidnapped Underhill.

Really truly very good.  If I had been younger when I first encountered it, I have a feeling it would end up in the supreme favorites who-can-do-no-wrong list with The Hero and the Crown and the Alanna books.  As it is, as an adult, I notice the seams, so it downgrades to merely extremely solid. 

Saving Grace, Julie Garwood

Saving Grace, Julie Garwood.  ISBN: 0671744224

Read September 3, 2013

Romance: medieval. Traumatized English girl marries burly Scottish laird due to politics.

Read this one because it came up on the internet, and sounded so familiar to Warrior's Promise which I read just a bit earlier.

I don't read romances very often, but both of these were quite readable.  I like this time-period, and I don't know enough about it to be bugged by the (inevitable) screw-ups of period and language and action.

Comparing the two, I'd say that this is slightly more realistic and interesting as a read, it has a more complete secondary cast because it's in a single location, and is a bit more serious than the other.   Warrior's Promise is more of just a fun romp. 

Plot: 

Her first marriage was to an emotionally and physically abusive monster, and she's delighted to hear that he's dead, even though she doesn't quite believe it.  

Despite her uncertainty, politics, and a certain bit of information regarding Prince John, has her shipped off to the highlands to marry a Laird trying to consolidate two different clans into one peaceful settlement.  

He thinks she's delicate and needs to be protected.  

She thinks that she's going to die of boredom if she doesn't get to do something soon.

Foiled, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro

Foiled, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro.  ISBN: 9781596432796

Read August 28

 

YA Graphic Novel, urban fantasy, fencing heroine, first of series? 

 

Aliera Carstairs (excellent name, by the way) is a fencer; foil, not saber or epee.  But, she's not a rich fencer.  So when her thrift-store-obsessed mom finds a 2 dollar practice saber with a gaudy enormous gem stuck to the end, she's delighted to have it.  She's a little more conflicted about Avery - the new boy in school, and her lab-partner for frog dissection.  He apparently likes to stab and slice things.  (About the time of that revelation, the alert reader may also notice some interesting happenings with crows.)  The action here is pretty slow, mostly introductions to Aliera's regimented life, lofty goals for her foil-fencing, her conflicted feelings about Avery, and her relationship with her disabled cousin.  The end picks up dramatically, with a complication regarding Avery (which I really really like) and the resulting introduction to a colorful world that Aliera (and perhaps her cousin?) will be spending future installments learning about and adventuring in.  

 

The only quibble I have with the art is the occasional side-profile where people (especially their mouths) look just odd.  I also thought that the grey-scale went on for just a smidge too long.  I understand why it was done, and think it's really a powerful and clever application, I just was getting a bit dreary when faced with all the unremitting grey for so long.   

Goose Chase, Patrice Kindl

Goose Chase, Patrice Kindl.  ISBN: 978-1439515938

Read August 27

Juv-YA fantasy: Goose-girl embarks on a journey to escape marriage to either a stupid Prince or a murderous King who both supposedly want her for her recently-bestowed magical gifts of diamond tears and gold-dust that wafts from her hair.

Not amazing, but funny enough.  I especially liked the transition of the Prince from a stupid oaf to a sensitive and somewhat needy 15 year old boy with no mother or father.  That's not something done well or often with this age-category book, and it was refreshing to see.  I also particularly liked the sections with the Ogresses.  It could have done with a smidge tighter plotting, and some of the characters' motivations were a little unclear (especially the Baroness, at the end) but it's a fun romp through fairy-tale princess tropes, with a strong and stubborn main character who refuses to give in to her continually-dire although always-changing circumstances.

An Amish Garden, Laura Anne Lapp

An Amish Garden: A Year in the Life of an Amish Garden, Laura Anne Lapp. 
ISBN: 978-1561487929

Read August 26

Oversized photo-journal of Amish gardening practices and thoughts on life.  Photos by Jeremy Hess.

 

I liked this, and was interested in how many of the photographs showed the children's faces - apparently the not-being-photographed stricture is more for adults?  I also liked that the author was straightforward about her personal likes and dislikes, although I thought it was interesting that such an averred "bad gardener" would be so interested in doing a book about gardening. Apparently she likes flower-gardening better, but there was very little mention of flowers throughout the year's narrative.  Perhaps this is a cultural disconnect - with her insisting that she's "bad" at gardening to counteract the hubris of writing a book about it?  It was an odd note.

 

I was interested in the little ways that Amish lifestyles and culture slipped through the cracks of the story - mentioning that their house was designed for both Amish and English people, the eldest boy heading off to school on his scooter, the casual mention of eating on the porch because the house is hot during the summer (no electricity means no AC) and other little bits that just flit by without emphasis.

 

Interesting look at a part of Amish life that hasn't gotten much attention (that I'm aware of) so far.

A Warrior's Promise, Donna Fletcher

A Warrior's Promise, Donna Fletcher.  ISBN: 978-0062034663

Read August 26

 

Romance: Medieval Scottish Pseudohistory.

 

Charlie is really Charlotte, and she has to save her unworldly father from the usurper king who is convinced he holds mystical powers or alchemical abilities.  But she's just a young girl - what can she do alone?  Enter a huge brawny stereotypical Scottish berserker, who is totally flummoxed by this chit of an outspoken and educated and warlike girl.

 

The backstory is part of a 4-book series, of which this is the 3rd.  Honestly, it didn't much seem to matter.  Other characters were broadly hinted at having interesting backstories or character arcs, but they didn't interest me.  This was fun, but not enough to hunt down the others.

 

I had hoped that Charlie would spend a bit more time being Charlie, but even as a girl, she was fearsome and a fearless fighter.  Being the type of book that it is, I have to say it wasn't exactly realistic on the points of fighting or the damage sustained by fights, but I do give the author props for not being afraid to bruise up her heroine's face.

 

Amusing and diverting.