[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Editing the Podcast ]
One of the challenges I have set myself this year is to read outside my comfort zone. As part of this, I have turned to awards lists for inspiration. This book was nominated for a Giller Award and Governor General’s award here in Canada. It was also frequently featured on CBC radio.

Author Annabel Lyon gives us an interesting look at life in ancient Macedonia in her novel The Golden Mean. Telling the story of the time Aristotle spent tutoring Alexander the Great, she gives us an intellectual who is clearly smarter than most and, therefor, slightly withdrawn from the world. Lyon has peppered this novel with tidbits about both the way in which the Greeks lived and what they believed in, while giving us some interesting characters.

And it is with the characters that this novel shines, as it is really low on plot. Although this book purports to be a fictionalization about the student/teacher relationship between Alexander and Aristotle, it is far more about Aristotle. Cast as the absent minded professor who seeks to place the world into the order he believes, it is through his eyes we see what action there is. We are also treated to flashbacks to various points in his life. All other characters are also seen through Aristotle’s eyes. His long suffering wife, Pythia, is a child-bride who puts up with his moods and absences. Slave Athea is upity and rude. Alexander is a complex young man who starts out as a spoiled brat, but moves slowly into being an intellectual young man who heads up a nation of warriors. Phillip is a king, used to getting what he wants.

This is a slow, moving novel that while interesting for its meticulously researched details, failed to grab me.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: About to get the boy into a bath ]
I have become quite a fan of Diana Wynne Jones. She has a body of work in the children`s fantasy relm that is rich and imaginative. She is an author who is not afraid to use main characters from previous books as spear carriers in later ones. This is true of House of May Ways.

Charmain is the only child of a baker. She is doted on, spending her days in books rather than helping around the house. That is until the day she is volunteered to look after her Great Uncle William’s house while he is away being treated for a mysterious illness. This flies in the face of her dream to work in the royal library.

Once at her uncle’s house, Charmain discovers a magical world where doors don’t always lead to the same place twice. She has to learn to navigate this world in order to help the King and his daughter find the missing Elfgift, something so important that the king has called in the famous Wizard Howl to help. Unfortunately, Howl has not come, but instead sent his wife Sofie in his place.

Charmain’s world quickly devolves into chaos as a dispute with the Kobbolds leaves dishes piling up in the sink and the laundry pile of laundry bags magically doubling overnight. She also has run-ins with insect like parasites bent on world domination and the mysterious, reclusive elves. To top it all off, a boy by the name of Peter arrives, announcing that he is that he is Uncle William’s new apprentice, threatening to dislodge Sophie from her newly earned independence.

Author Wynne-Jones has returned us to the world of Howl’s Moving Castle. This, like Castle in the Air before it, is less of a sequel and more of a revisiting of a universe where some former main characters play supporting roles. Think the Chronicles of Narnia. While not as good as the first book, House of Many Ways is much better than its immediate predecessor. Most readers will enjoy this book, but it would be a good idea to refresh your memory of the first two so you can better enjoy the cameos.

Most likely in an upcoming After Harry.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Listening to My son watching Bob the Builder ]
The urban fantasy genre has exploded in the last few years, leading to tens, if not hundreds of new authors entering into the genre. Not all of them are Jim Butcher or Kim Harrison. Many are like the book below, good ideas, poor execution.

Dawn Madison is a stuntwoman who has returned to LA to find her estranged father, a PI who went missing during an investigation. In order to do so, she teams up with his firm, Limpet & Associates. In doing so she finds out that there is a whole other part to LA, one filled up with vampires, psychics and invisible forces. Dawn must learn to navigate this new world if she is to find her father in time.

Author Chris Marie Green has created a very confusing book. The bones of this story are very good. Our angry heroine who is the less beautiful daughter of a famous, and tragically dead, Hollywood starlet. There is a very interesting (and someone unique) system of vampire creation. The boss of Limpet and Associate is a very mysterious voice who can do amazing things. I particularly like the three portraits that could act as guardians.

The problem is how Green brings all these individual details together. There is something missing. Maybe it is because the author has a very sparse style. Which can be nice, because it leaves a lot to the imagination, but it is also troublesome because you don’t have all the details. Maybe it is because she leaves so many questions unanswered, clearly setting up for the next book. The problem with that is there are story threads started that she doesn’t finish. Maybe the problem is her story telling speed. Dawn just meets the mysterious boss, and the two are doing it before the end of the book.

Overall the book felt rushed, like the author was running us from exciting moment to exciting moment, in order to get all her great ideas into the book. In doing so, she left out the gentler story telling bits that usually weave the exciting bits together. Had she chosen to do less this book or been given another hundred pages, she would have had a much stronger book,