The Scourge Between Stars
Ness Brown
Tor Nightfire
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Generations ago, colonists left an exhausted Earth to establish a new home in the Proxima star system... and failed. Now, their descendants are coaxing the worn-out generation ships back to the cradle of humanity, though whether anyone will still be alive when the ships get there is anyone's guess. Food supplies are dwindling, equipment is aging beyond repair, citizens are growing discouraged and mutinous, and periodically they find themselves battered by "engagements", random explosive byproducts of what appears to be an interstellar war on a scale that makes the humans seem like insects. Over the years, communication between the ships in their ragtag flotilla has deteriorated, until the Calypso might as well be traversing the black alone. Perhaps that's why the ship's official captain has gone into hiding in his cabin, leaving his daughter, Jacklyn Albright, the acting commander of a vessel and crew on the edge of collapse.
And things are about to get worse.
When people and supplies start disappearing, Jacklyn at first thinks it might be faulty sensors, or maybe one of the more rebellious factions acting out. When she hears the ominous bangs and thumps in the walls, it might easily be the Calypso's aging conduits. But when she finds the dismembered body, she can't rationalize it any longer. Something very dangerous is aboard the Calypso, something that may not have originated on Earth.. and that "something" has decided humans are its new favorite prey...
REVIEW: A quick glance at the description likely brings to mind a popular sci-fi franchise or two, where an exhausted crew isolated in deep space has to cope with an entity that seems, against biological probability, to have evolved solely to stalk and consume bipedal mammalians from an entirely different star system. Though The Scourge Between Stars tries to dress it up with some interpersonal conflicts and a subplot about a scientist abusing an android with emotions, ultimately it doesn't bring too much new to a very familiar table.
Jacklyn is a middling at best commander, saddled by numerous personal problems and insecurities yet forced into the position because she's the captain's daughter and because, even in an emergency, nobody really puts much effort into actually trying to get the real captain out of his self-imposed exile - not even when an alien monster is known to be picking off people in isolated places. She has a sometimes-girlfriend on the bridge and a crew that's mostly loyal to her, though to be honest characterizations aren't generally that deep or memorable, mostly filling roles in an expected storyline. It takes far too long for Jacklyn to put two and two together and arrive at the obvious four of "something very bad is happening on this ship", and when she does things go as they almost always go in these stories: small groups with guns stalking dark corridors while shadowy things jump out at them (along with the requisite false starts). Some of these incidents do a decent job building tension, but there's a sameness that settles in, and a sense of stretching once the premise is clear. Other subplots - the mutiny, the breakdown of various vital systems on the ship, some personal frictions, and more - become story clutter once the invasion takes center stage, never developed enough to care about or resolve in a satisfactory manner. The climax and resolution feel forced, and the wrap-up feels far too convenient and neat given the state of the ship and crew after the incidents involved. There are also some logic holes and hiccups, and more than one instance where revelations are drawn out too long. I wound up dropping it below a flat Okay rating for a sense of irritation that settled in by the halfway point, and also because the fact that it felt compelled to shoehorn in a sexual abuse subplot involving an intentionally feminized android as a helpless victim really felt manipulative.
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Retrograde (Peter Cawdron) - My Review
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Friday, January 17, 2025
Abeni's Song (P. Djeli Clark)
Abeni's Song
The Abeni's Song series, Book 1
P. Djèlí Clark
Starscape
Fiction, MG Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The twelfth harvest festival of young Abeni's life was supposed to be a great day - her last as a girl in the village, before starting the rites of womanhood. Instead, it became the worst day of her life. First, the wise old woman who lives deep in the forest turned up, the first time anyone could recall her setting foot among the huts, with a dire warning... just before dark clouds gather in the clear sky, and warrior women with flaming eyes and terrible swords attack. Only Abeni and the old woman remain, sole witnesses as the village burns, the adults are taken captive, and a wicked man in a goat horn mask pipes the children away with a terrible, beautiful song.
As deep as her grief runs, Abeni finds an even deeper well of anger and determination to see that the Witch King, he who sent the warriors and the Goat Man and destroyed her people, will pay. But before she can exact vengeance, she has to find her family and friends - and before she can even do that, Abeni discovers that she has much to learn about the world, about people, about the spirits of the land, about the temptations and dangers of magic, and most of all about herself.
REVIEW: I have yet to be disappointed by anything P. Djèlí Clark has written, and this middle-grade fantasy is no exception. Set in a fantastic Africa full of wild beauty and dark dangers and spirits of all shapes and sizes and dispositions, it presents some familiar elements but in pleasantly original ways.
Abeni is a girl eager to grow up and become like her strong, intelligent mother and aunts, even experiencing her first tingles of puppy love for a boy in her village; if she doesn't dream of a bigger future or larger world, it's because everything she needs or wants is right there in her happy forest village, so why would she even imagine another life? The arrival of the old woman, often rumored (in whispers) to be a witch, follows on the heels of a peculiar dream shared by the children of the village, an omen quickly followed by the devastating attack. Abeni tries her best to protect her loved ones, but is too weak, too young, and too overmatched by an enemy she does not understand; whisked away by the old woman (who is, of course, much more than she seems to be, though the term "witch" is scarcely adequate to describe her true nature), she stews in her grief and anger until it becomes a diamond-sharp determination within. But even when her new guardian agrees, finally, to help, Abeni finds she has much to learn and a long way to go, in more than one sense, and even her new mentor cannot protect her from every bump in the road; indeed, all too soon, Abeni finds herself without the protection she came to take for granted, forced to rely on her own incomplete training and some cryptic clues and warnings. She stumbles more than once, and not every obstacle can be easily surmounted, but she learns from her mistakes. In the nature of these sort of stories, she gathers companions in her journey, each with their own personalities, flaws, and strengths, to help her on her way, but she must ultimately earn her own victories. This being the first book in a series, there remain more challenges and adventures ahead before Abeni confronts the ultimate baddie, and she has much more room to grow by the end. It makes for an enjoyable adventure with wonders, perils, and multiple strong women and girls. I'll be watching my library for the next installment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi) - My Review
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The Abeni's Song series, Book 1
P. Djèlí Clark
Starscape
Fiction, MG Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The twelfth harvest festival of young Abeni's life was supposed to be a great day - her last as a girl in the village, before starting the rites of womanhood. Instead, it became the worst day of her life. First, the wise old woman who lives deep in the forest turned up, the first time anyone could recall her setting foot among the huts, with a dire warning... just before dark clouds gather in the clear sky, and warrior women with flaming eyes and terrible swords attack. Only Abeni and the old woman remain, sole witnesses as the village burns, the adults are taken captive, and a wicked man in a goat horn mask pipes the children away with a terrible, beautiful song.
As deep as her grief runs, Abeni finds an even deeper well of anger and determination to see that the Witch King, he who sent the warriors and the Goat Man and destroyed her people, will pay. But before she can exact vengeance, she has to find her family and friends - and before she can even do that, Abeni discovers that she has much to learn about the world, about people, about the spirits of the land, about the temptations and dangers of magic, and most of all about herself.
REVIEW: I have yet to be disappointed by anything P. Djèlí Clark has written, and this middle-grade fantasy is no exception. Set in a fantastic Africa full of wild beauty and dark dangers and spirits of all shapes and sizes and dispositions, it presents some familiar elements but in pleasantly original ways.
Abeni is a girl eager to grow up and become like her strong, intelligent mother and aunts, even experiencing her first tingles of puppy love for a boy in her village; if she doesn't dream of a bigger future or larger world, it's because everything she needs or wants is right there in her happy forest village, so why would she even imagine another life? The arrival of the old woman, often rumored (in whispers) to be a witch, follows on the heels of a peculiar dream shared by the children of the village, an omen quickly followed by the devastating attack. Abeni tries her best to protect her loved ones, but is too weak, too young, and too overmatched by an enemy she does not understand; whisked away by the old woman (who is, of course, much more than she seems to be, though the term "witch" is scarcely adequate to describe her true nature), she stews in her grief and anger until it becomes a diamond-sharp determination within. But even when her new guardian agrees, finally, to help, Abeni finds she has much to learn and a long way to go, in more than one sense, and even her new mentor cannot protect her from every bump in the road; indeed, all too soon, Abeni finds herself without the protection she came to take for granted, forced to rely on her own incomplete training and some cryptic clues and warnings. She stumbles more than once, and not every obstacle can be easily surmounted, but she learns from her mistakes. In the nature of these sort of stories, she gathers companions in her journey, each with their own personalities, flaws, and strengths, to help her on her way, but she must ultimately earn her own victories. This being the first book in a series, there remain more challenges and adventures ahead before Abeni confronts the ultimate baddie, and she has much more room to grow by the end. It makes for an enjoyable adventure with wonders, perils, and multiple strong women and girls. I'll be watching my library for the next installment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi) - My Review
Raybearer (Jordan Ifueko) - My Review
Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor) - My Review
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Lord of the Fly Fest (Goldy Moldavsky)
Lord of the Fly Fest
Goldy Moldavsky
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Humor/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The hottest ticket of the millennium is Fly Fest, a star-studded week of models and music and nonstop parties on a private tropical island, where even the cheapest accommodations cost two thousand dollars - almost every penny Rafi Francisco has in savings. Unlike the vast majority of attendees, the hardcore fans and influencers and other internet-famous phonies, Rafi is a serious (if small-time) podcaster, and Fly Fest will be her best (and likely only) chance to corner Aussie pop sensation River Stone and ask him the question no interviewer or police detective has ever apparently dared to ask: did he kill his first girlfriend in the outback? Oh, everyone knows the sob story he tells, how she abandoned him on a camping trip and broke his heart (and inspired the songs on his chart-topping debut album), but Rafi's own investigations are enough to tell her that River's story holds less water than a thimble. If she can get him to confess, she can not only bring a killer to justice, but maybe her podcast will finally break into the big time.
She should've known it would all go wrong.
When the boat arrives at the private island, they're greeted by nothing but a half-built dock. There is no stage. The closest thing to the promised villas is a collection of cheap survival tents. The only food is a crate full of cheese sandwich-shaped items that may or may not actually be edible. There isn't even a single Fly Fest staffer on hand to explain what's going on. The only celebrity who showed up is River Stone himself. And, worse, there's no wifi. Rafi is still determined to get her interview and her confession, but the longer everyone is stranded, the worse the situation becomes... especially when she can't be sure whether or not they're stuck on an island with a serial killer.
REVIEW: As the title implies, this is a satiric homage to William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies, only instead of marooned English schoolboys degenerating into violent anarchy in isolation, it's a group even less prepared to confront a survival situation: a gaggle of internet-addicted wealthy elites who wouldn't know how to recognize unfiltered, hashtag-free reality if it cracked them on the skull like a coconut.
Rafi starts out convinced of her own moral superiority even as she can't help but feel inferior; she sees herself as a serious investigator, not a vapid spewer of meaningless fluff and unattainable beauty standards like most everyone else stranded on the island, and her lack of a six-figure bank account makes her more grounded, yet being surrounded by such impossibly perfect and inexplicably popular people - people who almost seem to be another species altogether, inhabiting a world that only tangentially connects to the planet Earth - can't help but remind her, second by second, how small her voice truly is, how little she even belongs at Fly Fest (the planned mega-festival or the actual fiasco both). The only reason she's initially noticed at all is that she's mistaken for a staffer due to an ill-advised decision to wear festival merchandise to the festival itself; that, and she's so nondescript that nobody else can conceive of any other reason such a drab, ordinary person could possibly be in their presence. Various characters offer fun-house-mirror versions of characters from the Golding classic (I'm sure I would've caught more parallels had I read the book more recently than high school), as most of them stubbornly refuse to believe the reality of the situation (and the fact that they've all been duped and abandoned) and instead - as they do in their normal lives - create an entirely fictitious idea of Fly Fest, trying to replicate their Instagram-worthy personas on a deserted island via increasingly hilarious stunts and extremes. Despite her determination to remain aloof from the madness and pursue her own agenda, Rafi finds herself drug deeper and deeper into the delusions, even as she discovers an unexpected connection with the object of her obsession, the maybe-killer pop star River Stone. When an influencer disappears, River is her immediate prime suspect, but her tendency to latch onto conspiracy theory thinking becomes her own form of the insanity that sweeps the rest of the crowd, for all that she's among the few who fights to remain aware of what's really going on and the trouble they're all in. Along the way, she learns just how much she has in common with the people she swore she'd never have anything in common with... and how dangerous a person can become when their worldview come under threat.
With many snicker-out-loud moments, the story presents some clever commentary on our social media obsessions and cultural tendency to elevate ideas of reality over the actual experience of reality itself, and how none of us are as immune as we like to think we are to the trends and mindsets surrounding us. The ending feels like it loses its chain of thought, though it's not quite the disappointingly (and pointlessly) abrupt ending of the original Lord of the Flies, almost costing it its full fourth star. Lord of the Fly Fest might've done better to break more fully from the source material (and indulge in the darker side it teased but never quite committed to). In the end, I found the story fun enough overall to keep the Good rating intact.
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Beauty Queens (Libba Bray) - My Review
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Goldy Moldavsky
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Humor/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The hottest ticket of the millennium is Fly Fest, a star-studded week of models and music and nonstop parties on a private tropical island, where even the cheapest accommodations cost two thousand dollars - almost every penny Rafi Francisco has in savings. Unlike the vast majority of attendees, the hardcore fans and influencers and other internet-famous phonies, Rafi is a serious (if small-time) podcaster, and Fly Fest will be her best (and likely only) chance to corner Aussie pop sensation River Stone and ask him the question no interviewer or police detective has ever apparently dared to ask: did he kill his first girlfriend in the outback? Oh, everyone knows the sob story he tells, how she abandoned him on a camping trip and broke his heart (and inspired the songs on his chart-topping debut album), but Rafi's own investigations are enough to tell her that River's story holds less water than a thimble. If she can get him to confess, she can not only bring a killer to justice, but maybe her podcast will finally break into the big time.
She should've known it would all go wrong.
When the boat arrives at the private island, they're greeted by nothing but a half-built dock. There is no stage. The closest thing to the promised villas is a collection of cheap survival tents. The only food is a crate full of cheese sandwich-shaped items that may or may not actually be edible. There isn't even a single Fly Fest staffer on hand to explain what's going on. The only celebrity who showed up is River Stone himself. And, worse, there's no wifi. Rafi is still determined to get her interview and her confession, but the longer everyone is stranded, the worse the situation becomes... especially when she can't be sure whether or not they're stuck on an island with a serial killer.
REVIEW: As the title implies, this is a satiric homage to William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies, only instead of marooned English schoolboys degenerating into violent anarchy in isolation, it's a group even less prepared to confront a survival situation: a gaggle of internet-addicted wealthy elites who wouldn't know how to recognize unfiltered, hashtag-free reality if it cracked them on the skull like a coconut.
Rafi starts out convinced of her own moral superiority even as she can't help but feel inferior; she sees herself as a serious investigator, not a vapid spewer of meaningless fluff and unattainable beauty standards like most everyone else stranded on the island, and her lack of a six-figure bank account makes her more grounded, yet being surrounded by such impossibly perfect and inexplicably popular people - people who almost seem to be another species altogether, inhabiting a world that only tangentially connects to the planet Earth - can't help but remind her, second by second, how small her voice truly is, how little she even belongs at Fly Fest (the planned mega-festival or the actual fiasco both). The only reason she's initially noticed at all is that she's mistaken for a staffer due to an ill-advised decision to wear festival merchandise to the festival itself; that, and she's so nondescript that nobody else can conceive of any other reason such a drab, ordinary person could possibly be in their presence. Various characters offer fun-house-mirror versions of characters from the Golding classic (I'm sure I would've caught more parallels had I read the book more recently than high school), as most of them stubbornly refuse to believe the reality of the situation (and the fact that they've all been duped and abandoned) and instead - as they do in their normal lives - create an entirely fictitious idea of Fly Fest, trying to replicate their Instagram-worthy personas on a deserted island via increasingly hilarious stunts and extremes. Despite her determination to remain aloof from the madness and pursue her own agenda, Rafi finds herself drug deeper and deeper into the delusions, even as she discovers an unexpected connection with the object of her obsession, the maybe-killer pop star River Stone. When an influencer disappears, River is her immediate prime suspect, but her tendency to latch onto conspiracy theory thinking becomes her own form of the insanity that sweeps the rest of the crowd, for all that she's among the few who fights to remain aware of what's really going on and the trouble they're all in. Along the way, she learns just how much she has in common with the people she swore she'd never have anything in common with... and how dangerous a person can become when their worldview come under threat.
With many snicker-out-loud moments, the story presents some clever commentary on our social media obsessions and cultural tendency to elevate ideas of reality over the actual experience of reality itself, and how none of us are as immune as we like to think we are to the trends and mindsets surrounding us. The ending feels like it loses its chain of thought, though it's not quite the disappointingly (and pointlessly) abrupt ending of the original Lord of the Flies, almost costing it its full fourth star. Lord of the Fly Fest might've done better to break more fully from the source material (and indulge in the darker side it teased but never quite committed to). In the end, I found the story fun enough overall to keep the Good rating intact.
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Beauty Queens (Libba Bray) - My Review
Nation (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend (MJ Wassmer) - My Review
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Holes (Louis Sachar)
Holes
The Holes series, Book 1
Louis Sachar
Yearling
Fiction, MG Adventure/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Stanley Yelnats didn't steal the shoes; they literally fell out of the sky in front of him. How was he supposed to know they belonged to a celebrity ball player, and had just been swiped from a homeless shelter where they were supposed to be auctioned for charity? Of course, the judge and prosecutor didn't believe him. Bad luck like this has plagued the Yelnats family for generations, ever since an ancestor stole a pig from the wrong old woman and brought a curse down on the whole line. Given the choice between traditional incarceration or 18 months at Camp Green Lake, he opted for the latter; Stanley always wanted to go to camp, though his parents could never afford it. Unfortunately, what he finds in the deep desert is nothing green, nor a hint of a lake. The warden's idea of reform is setting each boy in her custody to digging a hole every day, five feet wide by five feet deep, under the punishing Texas sun. In addition to the heat, there are rattlesnakes and venomous yellow-spotted lizards - plus no water for countless miles around, should any boy be foolish enough to run away. But there's more going on at Camp Green Lake than meets the eye, and Stanley inadvertently sticks his shovel straight into a century-old mystery.
REVIEW: This modern classic came out well after I passed the target age (and after I left high school), but it had such a devoted following I was always intrigued by it. In the tradition of the best literature for younger readers, Holes doesn't write down to its audience, tackling some thorny issues and meeting young readers where they are, without sugar coating life or the frustrations that come with so often being powerless over one's own existence.
Since childhood, Stanley has learned to blame his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" when things go wrong, even though he and his father don't really believe in curses or magic or the peculiar family story passed down through the generation to explain why the Yelnatses so often end up on the wrong side of luck; it's just something to say, a thing to point to when one's best efforts and intentions fail to convince the universe to give them a break... or is it? An air of magic realism hangs over the story, a slightly surreal edge, where one can't completely dismiss the idea of curses or miracles, for all that people are ultimately accountable for their own actions. Curse or not, there's no denying that Stanley's had a run of ill fortune to end up at Camp Green Lake, thrown in with other boys convicted of a variety of crimes. He makes some tentative friendships among his new bunkmates, even as he learns all too quickly about the hierarchies and the flow of power at the camp. He also has to deal with the grown-ups, particularly the casually cruel warden who paints her nails with rattlesnake venom and is as likely to lash out at the adults as the kids, backed up by henchmen who may at first seem friendly but ultimately serve one master. During Stanley's monotonous days, the story flashes back to Stanley's ancestor and to the long-lost Texas town of Green Lake - back when there really was a lake - and a tale of bigotry and intolerance that eventually ties into one of the more infamous instances of the Yelnats "curse". It goes without saying that there is an ulterior motive to the unusual punishment doled out at the camp, and even without intending it, Stanley winds up in the thick of it... which puts him on the wrong side of the warden and others. Along the way, he deals with issues of racism and abuse of power and learning to take control of his own seemingly out of control life. It's a solid story with some interesting depth and complexity, well deserving its reputation.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Benefits of Being an Octopus (Ann Braden) - My Review
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The Holes series, Book 1
Louis Sachar
Yearling
Fiction, MG Adventure/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Stanley Yelnats didn't steal the shoes; they literally fell out of the sky in front of him. How was he supposed to know they belonged to a celebrity ball player, and had just been swiped from a homeless shelter where they were supposed to be auctioned for charity? Of course, the judge and prosecutor didn't believe him. Bad luck like this has plagued the Yelnats family for generations, ever since an ancestor stole a pig from the wrong old woman and brought a curse down on the whole line. Given the choice between traditional incarceration or 18 months at Camp Green Lake, he opted for the latter; Stanley always wanted to go to camp, though his parents could never afford it. Unfortunately, what he finds in the deep desert is nothing green, nor a hint of a lake. The warden's idea of reform is setting each boy in her custody to digging a hole every day, five feet wide by five feet deep, under the punishing Texas sun. In addition to the heat, there are rattlesnakes and venomous yellow-spotted lizards - plus no water for countless miles around, should any boy be foolish enough to run away. But there's more going on at Camp Green Lake than meets the eye, and Stanley inadvertently sticks his shovel straight into a century-old mystery.
REVIEW: This modern classic came out well after I passed the target age (and after I left high school), but it had such a devoted following I was always intrigued by it. In the tradition of the best literature for younger readers, Holes doesn't write down to its audience, tackling some thorny issues and meeting young readers where they are, without sugar coating life or the frustrations that come with so often being powerless over one's own existence.
Since childhood, Stanley has learned to blame his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" when things go wrong, even though he and his father don't really believe in curses or magic or the peculiar family story passed down through the generation to explain why the Yelnatses so often end up on the wrong side of luck; it's just something to say, a thing to point to when one's best efforts and intentions fail to convince the universe to give them a break... or is it? An air of magic realism hangs over the story, a slightly surreal edge, where one can't completely dismiss the idea of curses or miracles, for all that people are ultimately accountable for their own actions. Curse or not, there's no denying that Stanley's had a run of ill fortune to end up at Camp Green Lake, thrown in with other boys convicted of a variety of crimes. He makes some tentative friendships among his new bunkmates, even as he learns all too quickly about the hierarchies and the flow of power at the camp. He also has to deal with the grown-ups, particularly the casually cruel warden who paints her nails with rattlesnake venom and is as likely to lash out at the adults as the kids, backed up by henchmen who may at first seem friendly but ultimately serve one master. During Stanley's monotonous days, the story flashes back to Stanley's ancestor and to the long-lost Texas town of Green Lake - back when there really was a lake - and a tale of bigotry and intolerance that eventually ties into one of the more infamous instances of the Yelnats "curse". It goes without saying that there is an ulterior motive to the unusual punishment doled out at the camp, and even without intending it, Stanley winds up in the thick of it... which puts him on the wrong side of the warden and others. Along the way, he deals with issues of racism and abuse of power and learning to take control of his own seemingly out of control life. It's a solid story with some interesting depth and complexity, well deserving its reputation.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Benefits of Being an Octopus (Ann Braden) - My Review
Ghost (Jason Reynolds) - My Review
The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead) - My Review
Friday, January 10, 2025
Once Upon a Marigold (Jean Ferris)
Once Upon a Marigold
The Tales of Marigold series, Book 1
Jean Ferris
Harcourt
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Edric the troll never meant to become a father, let alone a father to a human boy. But one day, as he was roaming the woods looking for various odds and ends to add to his collections, he and his two dogs found a child hiding in a berry patch. Young Christian hasn't been abducted or abandoned; he ran away, tired of his parents' endless rules and how they get mad at him for his many messy, often nonfunctional inventions. Furthermore, he steadfastly refuses to go back home - not that he even remembers which way home is anymore, or who his parents are other than "Mother" and "Father". The troll decides to take him back home to his cozy cavern, but just for one night... which becomes two, which becomes ten years. Now a young man, it's time for Christian to set forth and find his way in the world - and he knows just where to go.
For a long time, Christian has been watching the royal family across the river from his woodsy home. He watched as the shrewish queen and doddering but kindly old king married off their beautiful triplet daughters, then turned their attention to the shy, bookish youngest girl... a girl who makes Christian's heart feel strange and fizzy when he looks at her through the troll's spyglass. When he works up the courage to send her a p-mail - via carrier pigeon - he is thrilled when Princess Marigold writes back. Thus begins a friendship that becomes the center of Christian's young world, and the reason that his first destination upon leaving Edric's cave is across the river to the castle itself, to find his first job. Even though he knows, as a commoner, he'll never truly be her peer, he can't wait to meet Marigold in person. But, though Edric taught him well, even instructing him in etiquette and manners, it's been a very long time since Christian lived among people - and he couldn't have picked a worse time to show up at the castle. Queen Olympia is determined to marry off the stubborn princess to get her out of the way for her own impending ascent to the throne. And if Marigold still refuses to marry, well, there are other ways to get rid of pesky heirs...
REVIEW: This story is exactly what it promises to be: a light, humorous, once-upon-a-time fairy tale with all the requisite trappings and a generally goodhearted nature. This isn't the sort of story where one can expect lots of character depth or plot intricacy, but rather one where there are good people worth rooting for, bad people worth hissing at, some setbacks to overcome and lessons to be learned, and no spoiler for guessing things end on an upbeat note (save a little hook for the sequel). Everyone has just enough personal quirks to differentiate them on the page, just enough of a goal and a personality to drive them through their roles in the plot (including the dogs) and add some small wrinkles or complications to the story, though a few of these felt like setups to payoffs that were forgotten or brushed off the page, and a couple developments came across as a little contrived and convenient even for a children's story. (I also felt that, even for a simple fairy tale, Queen Olympia was rather one-note as a villain, and could've used a little more justification/rationalization for the extreme measures she took toward her goals.) Still, this is a generally enjoyable tale, even if it's hardly breaking new ground in the "fractured fairy tale" subgenre.
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The School for Good and Evil (Soman Chainani) - My Review
The Legend of Hobart (Heather Mullaly) - My Review
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia C. Wrede) - My Review
The Tales of Marigold series, Book 1
Jean Ferris
Harcourt
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Edric the troll never meant to become a father, let alone a father to a human boy. But one day, as he was roaming the woods looking for various odds and ends to add to his collections, he and his two dogs found a child hiding in a berry patch. Young Christian hasn't been abducted or abandoned; he ran away, tired of his parents' endless rules and how they get mad at him for his many messy, often nonfunctional inventions. Furthermore, he steadfastly refuses to go back home - not that he even remembers which way home is anymore, or who his parents are other than "Mother" and "Father". The troll decides to take him back home to his cozy cavern, but just for one night... which becomes two, which becomes ten years. Now a young man, it's time for Christian to set forth and find his way in the world - and he knows just where to go.
For a long time, Christian has been watching the royal family across the river from his woodsy home. He watched as the shrewish queen and doddering but kindly old king married off their beautiful triplet daughters, then turned their attention to the shy, bookish youngest girl... a girl who makes Christian's heart feel strange and fizzy when he looks at her through the troll's spyglass. When he works up the courage to send her a p-mail - via carrier pigeon - he is thrilled when Princess Marigold writes back. Thus begins a friendship that becomes the center of Christian's young world, and the reason that his first destination upon leaving Edric's cave is across the river to the castle itself, to find his first job. Even though he knows, as a commoner, he'll never truly be her peer, he can't wait to meet Marigold in person. But, though Edric taught him well, even instructing him in etiquette and manners, it's been a very long time since Christian lived among people - and he couldn't have picked a worse time to show up at the castle. Queen Olympia is determined to marry off the stubborn princess to get her out of the way for her own impending ascent to the throne. And if Marigold still refuses to marry, well, there are other ways to get rid of pesky heirs...
REVIEW: This story is exactly what it promises to be: a light, humorous, once-upon-a-time fairy tale with all the requisite trappings and a generally goodhearted nature. This isn't the sort of story where one can expect lots of character depth or plot intricacy, but rather one where there are good people worth rooting for, bad people worth hissing at, some setbacks to overcome and lessons to be learned, and no spoiler for guessing things end on an upbeat note (save a little hook for the sequel). Everyone has just enough personal quirks to differentiate them on the page, just enough of a goal and a personality to drive them through their roles in the plot (including the dogs) and add some small wrinkles or complications to the story, though a few of these felt like setups to payoffs that were forgotten or brushed off the page, and a couple developments came across as a little contrived and convenient even for a children's story. (I also felt that, even for a simple fairy tale, Queen Olympia was rather one-note as a villain, and could've used a little more justification/rationalization for the extreme measures she took toward her goals.) Still, this is a generally enjoyable tale, even if it's hardly breaking new ground in the "fractured fairy tale" subgenre.
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