The Darkest Part of the Forest (Holly Black)

The Darkest Part of the Forest
Holly Black
Little, Brown
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: In a glass coffin deep in the wood sleeps a horned prince. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, but it's quite real in the small modern town of Fairfold - like the faeries themselves, tricky and often deadly beings who prey on tourists and the odd careless local. Like generations of children before them, siblings Ben and Hazel told themselves stories of the prince, how they alone must be destined to wake him and how he'd save the town, and themselves, forever and ever. For a time, they even hunted monsters in the woods, playing at heroes... but, as all too often happens, childhood dreams fall behind through the years. Ben turned away from his music, Hazel gave up on delusions of heroism, and life stretched on before them as it had for everyone else growing up in the small, strange town: dull and dark and devoid of hope.
Then the coffin is shattered and the prince disappears... and a dark terror, a monster from the darkest part of the Fairfold woods, stirs. The town needs a hero to save it - but Hazel can't even save herself.

REVIEW: Black draws off elder lore to create this modern-day fairy tale, one where the heroine carries a cell phone and a changeling attends high school alongside the human boy he was intended to replace, where the rest of the world scoffs at magic even as tourists come to snap selfies with the sleeping prince (whose grove is also a popular drinking spot for bored small-town teens.) Her faeries, are capricious beings, not necessarily amoral (well, not all of them), but operating on a very different sense of right and wrong and reality itself, as doubtless they would given their immortality and deep ties to the mysterious forces that manifest as magic. I found it a rather intriguing mixture, most of the time. The characters, though, particularly the nominal heroine Hazel, grew rather irritating, especially when she can't even help herself and often actively works against her own best interest, let alone those of her friends and the town. Some of this can be explained by a rather rough upbringing and sacrifices made on behalf of others - sacrifices that, in the manner of most such things when the Fair Folk are involved, went sour. (Indeed, everyone in the book has been touched by fae magic at some point... and even the most well-intentioned gift often becomes a curse.) At some point, though, it crossed the line, making Hazel less an intriguingly flawed character and more an annoyance to be tolerated for the sake of the story. She also takes far too long to work out vital clues because she's too busy beating herself up. It didn't help that the plot often felt jumbled, jumping around in time and to other characters without warning, with events not always connected in a particularly logical or sensible manner. There's fairy tale logic, and there's just plain confusion... Hazel and her companions trip and frequently stumble along a twisted forest path of a storyline, traveling through strange and dark and occasionally surreal terrain, eventually arriving at a conclusion that didn't feel entirely earned. It was satisfying enough to (somewhat) ameliorate my earlier frustrations, but I couldn't quite justify a full Good rating. It just isn't my cup of cocoa, I'm afraid.

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Darth Vader and Son (Jeffrey Brown)

Darth Vader and Son
Jeffrey Brown
Chronicle Books
Fiction, YA? Comics/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Darth Vader: disciple of the evil Emperor Palpatine, lord of the Sith, master of the Dark Side of the Force... and single parent to a four-year-old boy named Luke. Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown imagines the life Luke could've led, and the father Vader could've been.

REVIEW: This fun little collection is clearly the work of a dedicated fan, riddled with references to the first six films and the pre-Disney franchise as a whole. (At one point, Vader offers his picky-eater son C-3P0's breakfast cereal, a real tie-in product.) Vader does his best, though he faces some awkward moments as Luke does what kids do best: irritate his elders. It's enjoyable, and short enough not to overstay its welcome.

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Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke)

Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke
Del Rey
Fiction, Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: In the 1980's, the Cold War between East and West is abruptly halted by the arrival of visitors from beyond, great silver ships arriving over Earth. Mankind's many squabbling nations find themselves abruptly and unarguably under new management as the Overlords initiate a new era, one that could see the species flower - or see its extinction.

REVIEW: Like many older sci-fi classics, this book presents some interesting ideas that are inevitably (and likely unconsciously) tainted by the era in which it was written. Here, the Western world and its science (not to mention distinctly Christian symbols) are the great gifts to the rest of the savage world, even as the story relies on metaphysical ideas that seem more in line with ancient Eastern tradition... and, naturally, it all comes down to Homo sapiens and our brilliant minds being such divinely blessed and potentially powerful things that our future is a magnet for interstellar oversight and/or meddling. On the smaller scale, men are the doers and darers, while women are just there to warm beds, be somewhat soft in the head, and ultimately find more fulfillment cooking and washing laundry than pursuing science or art. The general flatness of most of his characters, particularly the humans, doesn't help on this front. But, glaring as these issues are now, it's not precisely fair to fault Clarke for them sixty years after this tale was written... and doubtless modern works will have their own generational and cultural hallmarks that will make future readers roll their eyes at our flawed 21st-century worldview. His ideas and imagery are still somewhat interesting, as Clarke follows what turns out to be (for better or worse) the final century or so of humanity's planetary existence. It's not a bad book, and I'm glad I finally read it, but it ultimately isn't quite my cup of cocoa.

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All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot)

All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot
Open Road Media
Nonfiction, Animals/Autobiography
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: In the late 1930's, an eager young vet leaves school with a new degree and a dream of practicing small animal medicine in some nice city or town... only to end up treating farm animals in Yorkshire. Here, he recounts his first two years of practice alongside senior vet Siegfried Farnon, Siegfried's slacker brother Tristan, and the many peculiar characters (two- and four-legged) of the countryside.

REVIEW: Growing up in an animal-loving household, it's amazing that I missed reading these books myself before now, but a recent e-book reissue of the first three titles allowed me to correct this oversight. Herriot's tale remains a classic, doubtless launching countless careers (or attempted careers - veterinary medicine's not the easiest path) even as it captures a fleeting time precariously balanced between the old ways and the new, in medicine and the world at large. James starts out a wet-eared city boy who never intended to stay in the countryside, up to his armpit in the wrong end of a cow in the wee hours or dealing with stubborn Yorkshire farmers clinging to old lore (such as the oft-repeated rumor of a "worm in the tail" that's to blame for all manner of cattle ailments.) Had jobs not been notoriously scarce for new graduates, he never would've even made the drive out to Siegfried Farnon's practice. Through the course of the book, the countryside's charms, not to mention the unexpected challenges and rewards of the job, slowly work their magic, a fascination that shines clearly in Herriot's writing even in the most frustrating cases. No small part of those frustrations stem from Siegfried, a competent and cheerful fellow with oddly convenient memory lapses, and Tristan, who dedicates himself to a playboy bachelor lifestyle with almost maddening single-mindedness, not to mention other characters. Despite hints that the "omnibus" American edition has been trimmed (disappointing, if true), I enjoyed this, and will undoubtedly be reading more of Herriot's work soon.

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The Falconer (Elizabeth May)

The Falconer
(The Falconer trilogy, Book 1)
Elizabeth May
Chronicle Books
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Since the day young Aileana Kameron was found kneeling by her mother's gored body, mute and covered in blood, Edinburgh's rumor mill ran wild with speculation that the unnatural child had done the deed. But the truth is far more dangerous, and more unbelievable: the culprit was a faerie woman. In 19th century Scotland, with science and mechanical wonders on the rise, few believe in the fae anymore, and even fewer can see them - making for a banquet of perfect, ignorant victims. Aileana has devoted herself to revenge, using her engineering talents to devise a range of clockwork weaponry and training with the traitor faerie Kiaran. It isn't until one of her victims calls her by a strange name - Falconer - that she learns of her lost heritage... and a terrible fate for the whole mortal world should she fail to embrace her destiny.

REVIEW: May creates an interesting setting, mixing steampunk technology with old Scottish faerie lore, for this story of vengeance and fate and the pain of loss. Aileana's a decent heroine, if somewhat exaggerated: I lost track of the number of times she rehashed her Great Pain about the lost innocence of her youth and the life she might have led (personified by her best friend, the proper, sweet society girl Catherine), not to mention struggles over her thirst for vengeance and addiction to the rush of power that comes with killing faeries. At some point, it stopped adding depth and simply became numb repetition. Naturally, despite numerous mentions of how she should never trust the fae and how the death of her mother scoured away all soft emotions such as affection from her being, she develops feelings for her mentor Kiaran - which I rather expected from the moment the character first appeared, not so much out of true chemistry but because the story has a distinctly familiar, trope-based structure that requires Forbidden Passion and Star-Crossed Love. He even has the requisite Dark Secrets that complicate things. Numerous fight sequences liven things up, but even these grow tiresome after a while. Still, I enjoyed the imagination and the fast paced plot (when it didn't bog down in angst)... until the very ending. Now, I knew it was Book 1 of a series when I started it. That does not excuse a cliffhanger ending quite literally dead in the middle of battle, a brick wall I hit so fast I'm surprised I didn't bloody my nose. It felt less like a legitimate ending point and more like a deliberate, last-minute twist designed to drag me into another book. It hacked me off enough I nearly dropped it a full star, and only on further consideration raised the rating to a flat Okay. There's some nice imagery and interesting ideas, but ultimately I just didn't care for the excessive angst and that cheap trick of a final line. I've read too many disappointing stories lately to easily forgive that.

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