Hello folks! Since I am always scouring publisher catalogues for upcoming releases for work, and finding far more interesting titles and ARCs than I could ever possibly have the time to actually read and review every month, I thought it might be fun to share a list every month or so, of new releases that caught my eye, even if I haven’t actually had a chance to read them yet.
So, without further ado, here are some new and upcoming releases for January and February 2021 that I have not read yet but which I thought sounded cool and which I had considered at some point or another as a possible option for my work at Fox & Wit.
January:
Persephone Station by Stina Leicht (5 January): this one is a space opera with a space-western vibe, marketed as being for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop, and it sounds AMAZING
A Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner (12 January): queer historical fantasy about a woman thief who gets a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious rich young woman, and proceeds to fall for her fellow bodyguard (queer women bodyguard romance FTW!)
The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick (19 January): dark political intrigue fantasy from authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms (under the pseudonym M.A. Carrick), and the first of a new trilogy
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (19 January): Nnedi Okorafor is one of the best science fiction/fantasy writers out there right now, she writes Africanfuturism and this new novella about the daughter of death sounds AMAZING
February:
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (2 February): this one, from debut author Everina Maxwell, is a queer space opera (can you tell I really love space opera?) about an arranged marriage that leads to love in what the publishers are calling Red, White and Royal Blue in SPACE
History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel (2 February): new novel from Sylvain Neuvel (best known for his Themis Files series), is a alt-history scifi-thriller look at the space race in the 40s, and a first-contact story all in one!
Amid the Crowd of Stars by Stephen Leigh (9 February): oh look! Another space opera! Who would’ve thought!? This novel is a grand scale philosophical examination of the implications of interstellar travel, alien contact, and the evolution of the human species
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard (9 February): a new novella from highly regarded Vietnamese fantasy author Aliette de Bodard gives us a romantic fantasy the publishers call a cross between The Goblin Emperor and Howl’s Moving Castle
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (16 February): Sarah Gailey moves away from fantasy for this new tech thriller novel about a woman and her clone, their dead cheater of a husband, and what it means to be a PERSON
Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh (23 February): somewhat of an outlier from the rest of this list, is the new mystery novel from Nalini Singh, I love a good mystery/crime thriller, though I haven’t had a chance to read one in awhile, and this one about a mother everyone thought had stolen half-a-million dollars and disappeared until she suddenly turns up dead, sounds particularly twisty
Title: The Councillor Author: E.J. Beaton Release Date: 2 March 2021 Source: ARC provided by publisher Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
I had meant to get this review written and posted nearly a week ago, but alas, life… But anyway, here we go, and OH BOY, folks! I am so excited about this new release novel! It is already a strong contender for my favorite book of the year! (Yes, I know, it’s only January and I have a lot of books to read this year, but it’ll definitely be making the shortlist at least!) The Councillor is from debut author E.J. Beaton. It’s being marketed by the publisher as “machiavellian fantasy” which is a very good description actually. It is political intrigue fantasy at its best; it gives Game of Thrones a run for its money. This debut author is arriving on the science fiction/fantasy with a bang, and we love to see it! They pack more world-building and suspense into this book than you could possibly hope for, and it’s fantastic!
So here’s the basic premise: the story takes place in a country that seems somewhat vaguely inspired by medieval Italy called Elira, where Queen Sarelin Bray rules over a country that is separated into five city-states (Axium, Rhime, Valderos, Pyrrha, and Lyria), each with its own city-ruler. The country is in a state of uneasy peace, some twenty years after an enormous war against the White Queen, leader of a group of people with magical abilities called Elementals. Having defeated the White Queen, Sarelin made Elementals illegal and routinely executes them; people are not even allowed to speak of them. Our main character is Lysande, an orphan, a scholar, and the handpicked protege of the warrior-queen Sarelin. When Sarelin is assassinated leaving no heirs, an ancient tradition dictates that the queen’s appointed Councillor choose a new king or queen from among the city-rulers. When Lysande, a commoner rather than nobility, is shockingly assigned the role of Councillor, and given the task of choosing a new ruler from among the nobility of the surrounding city-states, she is thrust into a world of political machinations, alliances, betrayals, and death she feels woefully unprepared for. Add in the fact that the White Queen, long-thought dead, may be returning to conquer the realm, and Lysande’s secret drug addiction, and it seems things could not get more complicated. Until they do.
This novel delights in thwarting reader expectations, seeming to be one kind of story before transforming into another about a third of the way through. You go in thinking the whole plot will be about Lysande trying to decide who is the best ruler from among the city-rulers, but then it flips on its head and becomes another thing entirely. There is a large cast of characters, each with distinct developed and fascinating personalities and motives. The various city-rulers are all amazing in different ways, and the various people who support Lysande throughout the story are complex and fantastic!
Lysander herself is wonderfully complex and flawed. She worships the memory of Sarelin and must struggle with the fact that her glorious queen’s treatment of Elementals was oppressive, cruel, and unjust. She has developed a growing addiction to an illegal drug made from chimera scales, a drug that keeps her calm and numb and helps her deal with the stress (and downright terror) of being the Councillor, but is having increasingly painful side-effects. She, like the readers, cannot determine who is to be trusted in the labyrinthine machinations of court politics and continuously trips up as she tries to navigate the diplomacy necessary. She also begins to grow a taste for the power that comes with her new position. At the same time, however, she is brilliant and studious and brave, and desperately wants to do the right thing both for herself and for the entire population of the country she loves. In addition to all of this, Lysande is like the DEFINITION of “disaster bi,” and she harbors long suppressed BDSM leanings that slowly emerge in various relationships throughout the novel. She has several different possible love-interests over the course of the novel, and there are a handful of sex scenes, though they are not explicit (in case you’re the kind of person who is concerned about that kind of thing).
It is so full of well-plotted, but shocking plot twists that you will not be able to catch your breath from beginning to end. I was routinely completely shocked by various developments and revelations, in the best way possible. I am trying to talk around several absolutely STUNNING revelations because I really don’t want to ruin them for potential readers. The whole last third of the novel, in particular, had me breathlessly sitting on the edge of my seat, trying to figure out who was betraying who and how the hell it was going to end! While the ending was satisfying, it absolutely left plenty of room for a sequel, and I really need everyone to go buy this book (pre-order it even!) so that the author and publishers feel compelled to give me a sequel as quickly as humanly possible, please and thanks!
Title: Hall of Smoke Author: H.M. Long Release Date: 19 January 2021 Source: ARC provided by publisher Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC of this book from the publisher, through my work, and WOW am I glad I got to read this! Hall of Smoke, from Titan Books, is the debut release for author H.M. Long. This standalone novel is epic fantasy vaguely inspired by Norse/Germanic cultures, featuring a kickass heroine and gods who literally walk the earth. The basic premise is this:
The world has fallen into chaos as gods wage war against each other, using their human followers and acolytes as pawns and weapons. In the distant past, the new gods had emerged and defeated the old gods, caging them away. These new gods walked the earth, calling their chosen peoples to follow them. But now the old gods have escaped, and all people may perish in the wake of their rage. Caught in the middle is Hessa, a priestess for the goddess of war Eang. When she is exiled by her goddess for disobedience, Hessa unwittingly becomes the only surviving member of her order, her home temple having been attacked and ravaged by invaders from the mountains. Now she is on a quest to fulfill the orders of her goddess and kill a man she has already failed to kill twice. On the path of this quest, she will encounter people from an empire with armies more numerous than the stars in the sky, face down gods old and new, and learn to question everything she has ever been taught about the gods and her place in the world.
It is difficult to discuss why this book is fantastic without getting too spoilery, but I shall attempt it. The main character, Hessa, is powerful and intelligent, complex and flawed, pious and full of doubt. She makes mistakes. She contemplates giving up. She is forced to question and reconsider everything she has ever believed. The entire novel moves with breathless, relentless intensity as Hessa encounters setback after setback. I swear she could NOT catch a single break. The people she encounters are by turns compassionate, brutal, and cunning. The people who tried to help her usually failed or died, or ended up betraying her. And yet she never gives up. She keeps pushing forward. And it was so amazing to witness.
The world-building is rich and textured, with an enormous pantheon of petty, violent, vengeful gods. As I mentioned, the cultures are at least vaguely inspired by Norse/Germanic tribes, filled with blonde and red-head, axe-wielding warriors, and mountain men, and earth-worshipping nomadic tribes. One of the main antagonizing forces (one of several) also appears to be based on the Roman Empire: they are invading from an outside land, with an empire that is far more vast and powerful than Hessa had been able to imagine (bigger even than she had assumed the WHOLE WORLD to be), they have an all-powerful emperor under a uniting government, with a highly skilled and regimented military. So yeah, very Roman. But that is not to say that H.M. Long just plopped a carbon copy of these cultures into her book with different names. She has clearly done her research (I believe she is a historian who specializes in Norse culture?) but she also gives it all her own spin, her own creative world-building twists. And it works very very well.
On top of all that, the intensely-driven plot packs all the excitement, drama, and bloody fight scenes you could possibly hope for. The fight scenes are extremely well written, with all the visceral edge-of-your-seat brutality you might expect from the finest of action films.
I really enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good epic fantasy in the vein of Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan, and especially if you want a good epic fantasy but need a break from the giant sprawling series that won’t be complete for another ten or fifteen years. And I cannot wait to see what H.M. Long writes next!
It is also (spoiler alert!) the January adult book option for the Fox & Wit book subscription box service (which is where I work, fyi). We might have a few copies left for pre-order here: Fox & Wit Adult Book Subscription.
Title: The Name of the Wind Author: Patrick Rothfuss Release date: 2007 Source: owned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The Name of the Wind is one of those enormous epic fantasy books that gets talked about a LOT. It’s on a lot of people’s lists of best fantasy novels. And there is always a certain amount of awe and trepidation involved because the book is SO DAMN LONG. It’s been on my list of books I really need to get around to for AGES, and when I set up my reading challenge for 2020, and I knew that this book would be one I read. But of course, I ended up saving it for last. Literally. This was the last book I finished to complete my 2020 “Storm the Castle” Reading Challenge.
I suspect most people who would be interested in reading this book have already. I feel I’m pretty late to this party, but I will still try to avoid spoilers, just in case.
The Name of the Wind is told through a framing device: an innkeeper of the Waytstone Inn, in a remote village, is approached by a Chronicler and asked to tell his story. For, you see, this simple unassuming innkeeper is in fact the great adventurer and hero Kvothe, in hiding for reasons unknown. There are many rumors and myths about him, but the Chronicler wants the REAL story, and after much cajoling, Kvothe agrees to tell it. The entirety of the book takes place in a single day, as Kvothe begins to tell his story. But, of course, the story covers years of his life, beginning from early childhood through his teenage years at the University.
Kovthe, red-haired and a genius by all accounts, comes from a clan of traveling musicians and performers, but when his entire clan is slaughtered in a mysterious event, he finds himself homeless and alone living on the streets for years. Eventually, he makes his way to the great University where he intends to learn everything it is possible to learn, and become an Artificer, who wields magic. Along the way, he is reviled and beaten, heralded as a prodigy, makes friends and enemies, and falls in love with a very cryptic and mysterious girl.
As Kvothe in the present tells the long, winding story of Kovthe of the past, it becomes increasingly clear that he is now a broken, despondent man, who has given up and is merely waiting for death. But how and why he has come to this is a riddle that we do not solve in the first book (there is a sequel called The Wise Man’s Fear, and a mythical third volume that has yet to be released).
The world-building in this novel is ASTOUNDING. It is rich and detailed and complex and fully embodied. The characters are similarly developed. Obviously, Kvothe himself is enormously complex and fascinating — equal parts endearing, awe-inspiring, and infuriating. I cannot count the number of times I pulled my hair out in frustration while thinking “no, don’t! Stop!” But the other characters are often just as developed and interesting. Kovthe’s main love interest, Denna, is an equally fascinating character. Occasionally, Rothfuss drifts toward the “temptress” cliches, but for the most part she is a fully-developed personality all her own, who is NOT by any means, merely a damsel in distress, or a lovelorn girl waiting for her hero to return to her. She is complex and cryptic and has her own motives and plans, thank you very much. In addition, many of Kvothe’s friends are equally interesting and endearing. I particularly love Kvothe’s most devoted friend/servant, Bast (who is not human and who would absolutely kill for Kvothe without a second’s hesitation). And one of Kvothe’s teachers, Elodin, is strange, hilarious, and clearly insane (or perhaps not?).
I have this book both in print and in audiobook form, and I jumped back and forth between the two for awhile, before finally sticking with the audio so I could “read” while I worked. It took me two months to get through this book. Partly because it is just so long, but also because I was reading four or five other books off-and-on at the same time. But the length of time it took me to read it is NOT a bad indication of its quality. It is an absolutely amazing book — beautiful and breathlessly exciting. The prose is GORGEOUS. The sentences carefully wrought by a writer who clearly knows what he’s doing and is very deliberate in his word choice and cadence. And I got through the last five or six hours of the audiobook in one breathless rush because I needed to know what would happen next. (I would also add the the narrator of the audiobook, Nick Podehl, is EXCELLENT.)
I will definitely be reading the sequel, though I don’t know exactly when. I am a little concerned about the fact that people have apparently been waiting for years for the third one and there has been no news in a very long time. So if you have never read this book before, and want to, I would caution you about. You may be waiting for the third book for a long time. Some people have speculated that Patrick Rothfuss has just quit writing, and disappeared off the face of the earth, leaving us all with cliffhangers and unanswered questions for the rest of our lives. But he did release a novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things (and what an awesome title is that!?), back in 2014… so he was at least still writing six years ago? However, the novella is a companion story about one of the side characters from the novels, so who knows?
In any case, I really enjoyed this novel. If you are a fan of epic fantasy in the vein of Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson, I would highly recommend this book. (Though, again, you have probably read it already. I’m pretty late to this party!)
I wanted to write a book review for The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. But I find that as I think and talk and write about this book, I am also thinking and talking and writing about a handful of other books, so you’ll have to forgive me for being more scattered than usual. Because, you see, I loved this book. I loved this book madly. And I loved this book for some of the same reasons I have for some other books I also love madly. And so they have all become a bit tangled in my brain now.
The House in the Cerulean Sea came out in March, and my friend and employer, Mary, read it and recommended it to me. I put a hold on an audiobook copy at the library, but the waitlist was ENORMOUS and I waited over three months before I finally received it this past Thursday. The audiobook is approx 12.5 hours long. I listened to 3.5 hrs on Thursday evening. I finished the last 9 hours in one go on Friday. I DEVOURED this book, my friends. I adored it.
Having said that, let me backtrack a tad, and talk about myself a tiny bit. I do not feel like a main character. Not in my own story. Not in anyone else’s. For the most part, people like me do not tend to make it as main characters in stories, but every once in awhile I read a book or a see a movie (but it’s usually a book), and I see myself. At least a bit. There are some characters that I feel so much kinship with that it is mildly embarrassing, and that usually means I will end up loving that book like a piece of my own soul, because in these books this person who looks and feels like me somehow actually gets their happy ending.
Characters like Anne Eliot, from Persuasion by Jane Austen. Like Bastian from Neverending Story. Lirael from Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series. Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. And now, Linus Baker from The House in the Cerulean Sea.
These characters are intelligent, and honorable, but they are quiet, and painfully shy; they are awkward, or bullied, or ignored, or invisible; they are sad and gray and desperately lonely, and resigned to their fates.
And perhaps it is melodramatic to say that that is also me. But something can be a tad melodramatic and also be true.
I see these characters like me, who live quietly desperate routine lonely lives with no hope of being or doing anything special, and then I see these characters GET TO LIVE and to LOVE. The adventure finally comes. The world finally sees them. Love finally finds them. And it gives me hope. (Though I’ll admit that often, once I finish a book with this character, I also find myself weirdly depressed, as I reflect on the fact that I am not likely to ever get a similar happy ending. I am more like these characters at the beginning of their stories, when they are sad and lonely and resigned, than I will ever be like them at the end of their stories.)
So, to return to The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune.
Book: The House in the Cerulean Sea Author: T.J. Klune Release Date: March 2020 Source: borrowed from the library Rating: 6 out of 5 stars (can I do that? Guess, don’t care! Just did!)
The House in the Cerulean Sea follows main character Linus Baker: Linus is overweight and out of shape, he’s forty, he’s desperately lonely, and resigned to his fate. He is a case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, because in this version of Earth (it IS Earth, they have computers, and record players, and Linus’s favorite music is oldies like The Big Bopper and Sinatra), magical beings exist. But these magical creatures are heavily monitored; they have to be registered and they are not allowed to hold positions of power or authority (in other words, they are a hugely oppressed minority). Linus inspects orphanages for magical youth (not all magical children are orphans but many of them are), but unlike most case workers, Linus really cares about the welfare of the children, and looks for problems like Masters who abuse or take advantage of the children under their care.
With a reputation for being objective, keeping distance from the children, and very thorough, Linus is brought before Very Upper Management, and given a top secret case: to go visit and live at a top secret orphanage on an island, run by a man named Arthur Parnassus, who has six children under his care. Linus is supposed to look for any issues, because Very Upper Management has “reasons for concern.” It seems pretty clear from the get-go, however, that they are just looking for an excuse to shut it down.
Linus arrives at the orphanage to discover that the children there are unlike any other magical children he has ever seen or heard of. These children are: a female garden gnome with the beard and everything!, a Forest sprite more powerful than any other he’s met, a wyvern (whom people used to think of as animals, but do in fact have intelligent and complex emotions and language, just not human language), a tall shy black kid who is a were-POMERANIAN!, a green blob named Chauncey whose greatest ambition in life is to be a BELLHOP, and a six year old boy who is the literal Anti-Christ.
And then there is the Master of the orphanage, Arthur Parnassus, who is very charming and cares deeply for the children under his care. Linus, unsurprisingly, immediately develops a crush on him.
And folks, it just gets more adorable from there!
This book is funny, and charming, and quirky, and delightful in ways I cannot begin to express! It deals with deeply emotional issues like child abuse, and racial (or in this case, SPECIES) prejudice and oppression, and despite this it manages to be one of the happiest, most hopeful books I’ve read in YEARS. I smiled like a madwoman through the whole thing. And when I finished the audiobook from the library and returned it (and saw that there was now a six month wait on the book!), I immediately bought the ebook AND audiobook so I can read it again.
I identified so strongly with poor, put-upon, lonely dumpy Linus — who is finally given the opportunity to show how honorable and good and kind he is while staying at the orphanage — that it is mildly embarrassing. And I fell in love with Arthur and the children right along with Linus, the whole way through. I am a sucker for quirky odd funny characters, and found family tropes, and this book gave it to me in SPADES. I think this might end up being my favorite book of the year. (Unconquerable Sun held that honor a few months ago, and that is still definitely near the top as well!)
I have a handful of books that I love dearly, and will go around used bookstores buying up paperback copies just so that I can hand them off to people I love, whom I want to share my favorite books with. I don’t do this with some books I love that are so well known, I have no doubt most people have at least heard of them, if not read them (so for instance, I don’t generally do this with Dune or Watership Down, even though they are my favorite books of all time, because most people are already familiar with them). Instead, I do this with books I adore that have not gotten quite the same circulation. Books like Sunshine by Robin McKinley, and Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, and Neverending Story by Michael Ende (though the movie is so well known, not nearly as many people have read the book!). I can guarantee that as soon as the paperback version of House in the Cerulean Sea is released next year, this book will definitely be added to that prestigious list. In the meantime, since I cannot buy every single one of you a copy to read (I’m poor, people! Or I totally would!), please please please go do yourselves a favor and GO BUY IT NOW! Or borrow it from the library! Either way, just READ IT!
Edit at 4:20pm: I bought the ebook and audiobook for House in the Cerulean Sea, but I SWORE to myself that I wouldn’t read them until after I finish the other three books I’m SUPPOSED to be reading right now (those being: Name of the Wind, The Arrest, and Hall of Smoke)… but… that resolve may end by tonight… I just LOVED IT SO MUCH FOLKS!
Book: Clariel (Book 4 of The Old Kingdom series) Author: Garth Nix Release Date: 2016 Source: owned Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
I’ve been working my way back through the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, as I have read the original trilogy several times, but never got around to reading the prequel (Clariel) or the sequel (Goldenhand) or the two short stories collections that include a couple Old Kingdom stories. So I decided to work through these as part of my “Finish the Series” 2020 reading challenge.
I knew I loved the first three books – Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen – and I trust Garth Nix implicitly, so I went into this book with high expectations. And for the most part, I was not disappointed. I noticed online that some people did not like this book as much as some of his others, but I disagree with most of the criticisms. Is it my favorite book in the series? No, of course not. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.
To give a brief description: Clariel takes place approximately 600 years before the events of the original trilogy, so as far as prequels go, it went pretty far back! The main character, Clariel, is a distant relation of both the King and the Abhorsen (and for those familiar with the books, you understand why this is important), but she wants only to become a “borderer” who monitors and protects the great forests of the kingdom, and to be left alone. Her family and political forces behind the throne have other plans however. Dragged against her will away from her home village to the capital city, she is forced to learn how to be a “proper lady” while the governor manipulates events in an effort to marry her to his son, depose the king (who has gone slightly mad and relinquished most of his responsibilities to the governor), and make her his puppet queen. At the same time, forces loyal to the king and the line of succession try to use Clariel to lure a dangerous free magic creature helping the governor out of hiding, and hope to make her a regent in a temporary effort to protect the royal line. (And folks, it just gets more complicated for there!)
Throughout all of this, Clariel discovers she is a Berserk (she goes bloodthirsty with rage when under threat or in high-stress situations) AND she has an affinity for free magic – which is considered highly dangerous and antithetical to human society. While trying to avoid all these political machinations that are attempting to control her, and while trying to find a way to escape back to the forest and the only place she has ever been happy, Clariel slides deeper and deeper into a life of violence, death, and bad decisions.
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!
It is difficult to talk about why this book is so interesting and unique to me without getting into some spoilers. Some of these spoilers will not be a surprise to people who have read other books in the series, but I still want to give you plenty of warning!
Ready? Ok, here we go into spoilers.
In the original trilogy, there is a character – a villain, one of the people working for the main antagonist – named Chlorr of the Mask. I suspected from the get-go that Clariel was going to end up BEING Chlorr of the Mask. I think anyone who comes into this book with some knowledge of the series would also suspect this. And we would all be correct.
So, what makes this book so interesting is that it is literally the descent of a main character into, perhaps not evil exactly, but amoral self-serving behavior that she manages to rationalize to herself for most of the book. It is a villain origin story. In some ways, it reminded me a bit of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, as we watch Anakin Skywalker, through both manipulation and a series of bad decisions based on fear and anger, fall into darkness and evil. Some online reviews have argued that Clariel’s descent was too quick and not sufficiently developed, but I disagree. I think it was very well done. In fact, I think it was done in a much more believable manner than that of Anakin Skywalker. Her motives, and the ways she is manipulated and tricked by outside forces, were well-written and developed, and fit the character and the world very well.
And, of course, the prose was beautiful and powerful, as Garth Nix’s writing always is.
This is not the first or only book to feature an evil origin story. But I do think such stories are outside the norm, especially in YA (and especially when this book was released in 2016). And I appreciate that Garth Nix did something a bit different and unique, in writing a character that we can totally sympathize with, and even like, while also recognizing that many of the decisions she makes are wrong. That, to me, is the sign of a well-written and complex character.
One other characteristic of note about Clariel is that she is, I believe, written to be asexual/aromantic. And that is EXTREMELY unusual in any fiction, especially in YA. There are many points in the book where Clariel explicitly states that she has no interest in romance, or falling in love, or sex. At one point, she says she isn’t interested in boys, and her aunt suggests maybe she’s interested in girls (which is totally fine to these characters!), but Clariel says, no. She isn’t interested in any of that. At another point, she explains that she experimented with sex a couple times and simply did not understand the appeal. And one of the characters throughout the book expressed romantic interest in her, and she rebuffs him every single time. At no point does the story imply that she just needs to be won-over, or that she hasn’t find the right person. This is just who she is. And I really loved that.
Clariel is not, I think, quite as well-plotted, or as beautifully written, or as emotionally impactful as the original trilogy. But I think it holds up with the rest of the series very well, and I really enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to anyone who has read the first three books and was undecided about whether or not to continue.
My book buying habit has been a bit out of control recently, and so I have a bunch of recent acquisitions to share. So! A catalogue of recent book purchases that have been added to the TBR pile:
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (a new book by one of my favorite authors! I received an ARC of this through work, but never got around to reading it, and I knew I wanted to buy a copy anyway, so here we are!)
Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro (I have not read Mark Oshiro’s other work, but this book sounds really interesting and unique, and I watched a virtual book tour talk he gave, and he seemed really cool too, so I bought it!)
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini (I have had this book on pre-order for MONTHS. I was so excited when it finally showed up!)
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh (I ADORED Allie Brosh’s blog, and I bought her first book and loved it with a fiery passion. I was shocked and delighted when I found out she was releasing a new book after 7 years! I ordered it immediately!)
Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First-Person by Anna Mehler Paperny (this title, and the subject of this book, is something I understand deeply, and struggle with on a daily basis, so… yeah.)
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (I got this as my August Book of the Month book, and then kinda just forgot about it. But it looks amazing and its definitely on the TBR list!)
The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem (I received this ARC through work, the book comes out in November. I’m about 1/3 of the way through so far, and I really like it. I’ll do a full review of this one later!)
So that’s my recent acquisitions. In addition, I wanted to drop a very quick short mini-review for a book I did not finish. I received an ARC of Midnight Bargain through work, but…
The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk Release Date: October 2020 Status: DID NOT FINISH
I only got about 1/4 of the way through this book, which is a shame because I really tried to like it. It’s basically a second-world version of a Victorian fantasy romance, which I usually love. And the basic premise is, if a bit derivative and well-worn, was enjoyable enough. The basic plot is this: in a world reminiscent of Regency or Victorian England (but not), where magic is real, a young woman named Beatrice wants to be a sorceress. Both men and women are capable of magic, but only men are allowed to practice it, and women are barred from it once they become married because of fears of danger to an unborn baby. Beatrice doesn’t want to get married though, she wants to practice magic, and she is willing to make a deal with a mischievous spirit in order to make that goal a reality. Unfortunately, for her, she just happens to meet a charming man who seems to actually SEE her for who she is, and the romance that threatens to blossom between them, could undue all her ambitions.
It’s not a bad plot. Like I said, a bit well-worn, but certainly capable of being made interesting, entertaining, even compelling in the right hands. But the characters were very one-note, especially Beatrice. The love interest has a tad more personality and could be a very swoon-worthy leading man, but the very SUDDEN nature of his romantic interest was… hard to swallow no matter how much “suspension of disbelief” I threw at it. The dialogue was clunky and inauthentic, and the narrative prose was… not great. I was surprised because C.L. Polk’s other books (Witchmark, etc) are very highly regarded, so I was expecting this to be better. But overall, I was just unimpressed and uninterested. I’m a little worried it might just be ME, that I’m missing something, or being too critical, but… *shrug* There are too many books, and time is too limited to keep pushing through something that is clearly not working for me.
Ironically, I am currently also reading Clariel by Garth Nix – it’s the fourth book in the Old Kingdom series – and it has a somewhat similar plot to Midnight Bargain, and does it SO MUCH BETTER. The main character, Clariel, comes from a family with distant connections to the king, and a series of political machinations mean to marry her off, put her on the throne, and make her a political puppet. But Clariel has no interest in marrying anyone (I think she’s written to be aromantic/asexual even!), she has no interest in the throne, or magic, or the city: she just wants to go be a solitary hunter/border patrol in the great forests, and she’s willing to do some questionable things to get what she wants. Like I said, somewhat similar plots, but the difference in writing is ENORMOUS. All the characters in Clariel are much more real, flawed and complex and interesting. And the prose is just WORLDS AWAY better. It’s been a very apt comparison, and its pure coincidence I happened to be reading them at the same time, to make that difference in quality so much more apparent. But here we are.
Book: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making Author: Catherynne M. Valente Release Date: 2011 Source: owned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Well hello, all! It’s been awhile (almost a full month to be exact), and I haven’t written a thing since my last blog post. Not a thing! It’s quite horrifying. But I’ve just been so swamped with work and general life nonsense, and any free time I had (which wasn’t much) was mostly devoted to passing out.
BUT, I come bearing a new book review, so I hope all is forgiven!
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente is one of those books that I have been meaning to read for AGES. I started it once, a couple years ago, but only got about 4 or 5 chapters in before something happened — I don’t even remember WHAT — to distract me from the book and I never got back to it. Until now!
I downloaded the audiobook, since lately the only time I’ve had to “read” is when I can listen to an audiobook while I work (which has made getting through my stack of ARCs extra difficult, since those don’t generally come in audio format, more’s the pity). And I “read” the audiobook in like two days flat!
Folks, it was SO GOOD!
I suspect most people have at least a vague idea of what the book is about, since it’s been out for so long already (it was released in 2011!), but BASICALLY: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a portal fantasy in the fine tradition of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, etc. It follows the adventures of a young girl named September who one evening is whisked away from her home in Omaha, Nebraska by The Green Wind (as a dashing gentleman in a green coat, riding The Leopard of Small Breezes). September is a smart, precocious child who hates pink and loves anything orange, who reads a lot, and who is described as being “somewhat heartless” (but our narrator assures us that ALL children are born a bit heartless and their hearts grow as they grow). Her father has gone off to war (the book never says which war, but I get the impression it’s WW1?) and her mother works in a factory building engine parts. September doesn’t want to be in her house, or in Omaha (at one point the narrator says Omaha isn’t a place for ANYONE to be, and I laughed out loud because my best friend lives in Omaha), so she leaps at the chance to go on an adventure with The Green Wind.
But the moment September enters Fairyland she is alone, because The Green Wind cannot get the right visa to be allowed in, so she must travel on her own, with nothing but her own wits and courage to keep her going. In Fairyland she meets witches, a wyvern (who may be half-library on his father’s side) named A-through-L, a a marid named Saturday, and comes face-to-face with the villain of the story: The Marquess, who may or may not have killed the previous ruler of Fairyland, Queen Mallow.
And then the story gets CRAZY.
This story is beautiful and odd and heart-breaking like all the best portal fantasies are. The prose is lyrical and clever and arch, with the narrator often breaking through to speak directly to the readers in ways that are both hilarious and illuminating. The characters and imagery are so strange and unique and fascinating, as they should be in the best kinds of portal fantasy. This story feels like a classic, like it’s been around for decades and decades, not just 9 years!
The backstory of the Marquess (I’m trying not to be spoilery here) made me legit cry, because it is precisely the thing I think about at the end of every portal fantasy, the thing that I fear, the thing that breaks my heart at the end of so many stories. When I got to that scene, I had to stop and cry for awhile before I could continue.
Supposedly, this book (and the whole series) is targeted at the middle grade readers market, for ages 10-14. And it certainly shelved and sold in the children’s sections at most bookstores. But I feel like an adult is actually going to get more out of it than a child will. There are parts, especially some of the things the narrator says, but also things like the Marquess’s backstory, that are almost certainly meant for an adult to read and appreciate and FEEL deeply, in their bones.
The ending was bittersweet and I had to sit back and let it soak in. But I am comforted by the fact that there are more books to read — four more books, in fact, plus a short story prequel! Thank goodness.
As a side note, I firmly believe that September from this story, and January from Alix Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January are best friends in some parallel universe. Just so you know.
If, like me, you kept meaning to read this book but hadn’t yet, consider this your call to action. Go! Now! Read!
It’s been well-established that I love fantasies. Both in written and visual media. And one of my favorite sub-genres of fantasy is the portal fantasy: stories in which a character finds a way to step through a portal/door/passage/etc out of the “real” world and into a fantasy world.
There are many many examples of this narrative in written texts, especially in children’s literature. Some of our best classics are of this genre, including The Chronicles of Narnia and The Neverending Story and The Wizard of Oz. There have been more adult versions of this genre as well, of course. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and more recently Alix E. Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January jump immediately to mind. And there are others that maybe skirt the edge of what does and does not count — for instance, Edgar Rice Burrough’s Barsoom novels (Princess of Mars, etc) are technically part of a sub-genre called Planetary Romance, but because John Carter finds what is essentially a magically means of transporting from Earth to Mars it sort of fits (even though Mars is, of course, just a planet in our same universe and not actually some separate magical universe or dimension).
In any case, there are dozens and dozens, probably hundreds, of examples in literature. But I am trying to come up with a list of examples in FILM, and it is a little more difficult. There are plenty of obvious ones, of course, and most of those are film adaptations of books already mentioned such as The Neverending Story and the Chronicles of Narnia, but I feel certain there are many more films than just the ones I can think of. I’ve tried googling, but it has been less than helpful. If anyone has any suggestions I can add to the following list, I would love to hear from you! Please share!
So, here’s my list of portal fantasies in film that I can think of:
The Neverending Story
The Chronicles of Narnia movies
The Golden Compass (sort of — the portal fantasy element becomes more evident in the later books and doesn’t show up in the movie much)
Wizard of Oz
The Labyrinth
Coraline
Stardust
Alice in Wonderland (all the iterations)
Enchanted
Time Bandits
The 10th Kingdom
The Pagemaster (who else remembers this movie from the 90s!?)
The Flight of Dragons (even more obscure! I seem to be the only one who remembers this movie!)
Neverwhere (surprisingly, this tv movie version came before the book this time!)
Mirrormask (also by Neil Gaiman!)
Spirited Away
Escaflowne
Stargate (not really, of course, since its SF and the portals go to actual planets in “our” universe, but I feel like Stargate is in some ways the SF answer to portal fantasy)
As I said, surely there are more that I just can’t think of! If you know of any good ones, please let me know!
One thing to note: I have not included much anime, other than Spirited Away and Escaflowne, because usually those fall into a slightly different category. A lot of anime (though not all) that sort of fits this category is called Isekai anime, and while they are technically portal fantasies, they follow a very specific formula of characters falling into RPGs — all the way down to containing the usual RPG elements such as classes, guilds, and CP or HP, etc. And these just… feel different to me (and they all start to be exactly the same after awhile – see examples such as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime or Sword Art Online). This type of anime didn’t ALWAYS follow that formula, older ones such as Magic Knight Rayearth and Fushigi Yuugi certainly didn’t. The recent boom of Isekai anime (and manga and light novels) in the last 10 years or so has certainly all been of this type.
Edit made 19 July 2020: I have been reminded of a few more portal fantasy films that I had forgotten about: Pan’s Labyrinth Warriors of Virtue (such a cheesy movie, and several of my colleagues scoffed at it, but I LOVED this movie as a kid!) The Phantom Tollbooth (a classic! How dare I forget this movie!) Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland Jumanji Zathura (Jumanji’s cousin, lol)
Book: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water Author: Zen Cho Release Date: 23 June 2020 Source: ARC borrowed from employer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The novella The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho, published by Tor.com publishing, packs a surprisingly emotional punch in its little body. It has been marketed as wuxia-inspired, and it is definitely that (though there are far fewer martial arts fight scenes and flying about than one might expect if you are at all familiar with Chinese wuxia books or films). Instead this slim book is about inner battles and emotional landscapes.
In a vaguely Asian-inspired country under oppressive rule, Guet Imm, a former nun of the respected monastic order called The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, teams up with a group of bandits who are more than they appear. These bandits are not merely criminals, but political outcasts and rebels, trying to earn money for their cause. The bandits begrudgingly concede to their new companion (when Guet Imm gives them little choice), and accept her help in protecting a priceless religious relic.
Over the course of their journey through forests and mountains, the nun becomes a part of their found family, and inspires one bandit to reconsider the faith he had thought dead forever. And just to keep things interesting, they also have to fight for their lives.
This book is a wonderful meditation on what it means to choose your family and your path, deciding for yourself who and what is important no matter what society has to say on the subject. It is also a beautiful examination of the joys, pains, and contradictions of religious faith – what means to have faith, to lose it, and to regain it. As a lapsed Catholic with a very complicated and ambivalent relationship to religion, I really appreciated and resonated with this facet of the story.
It is full of fun martial arts film tropes, and also features a gay man and a trans man – and neither of these identities is in anyway questioned or rebuked by any of the characters in the book, which is refreshing.
I gave this novella a 4 out of 5 because I genuinely enjoyed it and I look forward to what this author does next, but it didn’t totally WOW me. It didn’t knock my socks off. (And honestly, I would have enjoyed a bit more of that great wuxia staple: impossible flying-about martial arts fights.) Still, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a short fun novella, stories about found families, and/or people who like an Asian aesthetic in their fantasy.
Here is the link to the Goodreads page for this book. And if you would like to pre-order I would recommend either IndieBound or the new online store Bookshop.org (as amazon has been delaying new book releases lately in order to deal with increased shopping for the quarantine situation).
Amanda Haimoto Rudd 