The previous 12 reviews are now archived and cross-linked on the main site.
(In other news, if anyone knows what happened to the first half of 2015, please let me know... I know it can't have been that long since the year started.)
Enjoy!
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
Meditation and the Art of Writing (Chris Kunego)
Meditation and the Art of Writing
Chris Kunego
What The ?!? Publishing
Nonfiction, Spirituality/Writing
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Learn to overcome writer's block and increase creativity and productivity through meditation.
REVIEW: This short book misrepresents itself. Rather than discussing writing and offering practical meditation advice, it mostly talks about the general benefits of meditation, then gives a rather vague overview of different forms of meditation - which the reader will have to investigate elsewhere if they want specifics or exercises. There's a little bit on writing, but it's so vague that I'm not entirely sure whether the author does any writing himself (aside from self-help titles), and it really isn't the point of this book. Cut that minimal information out, and it wouldn't affect much. If you're looking for a basic overview of meditation, this might be a decent starting point, but if the author keeps referring you to other books on the subject, why not skip the middle man and go straight to better resources?
You Might Also Enjoy:
Spiritual Traditions (Timothy Freke) - My Review
Words to Write By (Elaine L. Orr) - My Review
Chris Kunego
What The ?!? Publishing
Nonfiction, Spirituality/Writing
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Learn to overcome writer's block and increase creativity and productivity through meditation.
REVIEW: This short book misrepresents itself. Rather than discussing writing and offering practical meditation advice, it mostly talks about the general benefits of meditation, then gives a rather vague overview of different forms of meditation - which the reader will have to investigate elsewhere if they want specifics or exercises. There's a little bit on writing, but it's so vague that I'm not entirely sure whether the author does any writing himself (aside from self-help titles), and it really isn't the point of this book. Cut that minimal information out, and it wouldn't affect much. If you're looking for a basic overview of meditation, this might be a decent starting point, but if the author keeps referring you to other books on the subject, why not skip the middle man and go straight to better resources?
You Might Also Enjoy:
Spiritual Traditions (Timothy Freke) - My Review
Words to Write By (Elaine L. Orr) - My Review
Friday, May 22, 2015
Forever His (Shelly Thacker)
Forever His
(The Stolen Brides series, Book 1)
Shelly Thacker
Summit Avenue Books
Fiction, Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: A year ago, Celine Fontaine thought she'd be celebrating the end of 1993 with a new husband and possibly a baby. Instead, she's recovering from both panic attacks and a bullet wound, legacy of a failed carjacking that landed her in the hospital and lost her her faithless fiance. It also left a bullet fragment lodged in her spine... a fragment that's moving dangerously close to a major artery and could kill her if not removed. Though she's scheduled the surgery, she doesn't want her family to know; they already see her as the Fontaine failure, the one drifting black sheep in a family of hard-driven successful go-getters. The one thing she wanted - a family - is the one thing she can't seem to get. Celebrating at the ancestral Fontaine home in France only makes her feel more lost and lonely than ever. Will she ever find her knight in shining armor, or should she just give up on her dreams?
In 1300 France, Sir Gaston de Varennes's rivalry with the scoundrel Duc Alain de la Tourelle - a conniving liar who murdered Gaston's father and brother under guise of a tourney, then stole their lands, plundering and raping his way through the peasantry - draws the ire of King Phillip the Fair. He needs a united northern border on his kingdom, not one divided by petty squabbles, so he decrees a settlement by marriage to Tourelle's nearest available female relation, one Christiane de la Fontaine. Gaston would sooner bed a viper than a relative of Tourelle - he'd have a better chance of waking alive. Besides, marriage is something a man does to gain land or power, and this offers little of either, nor does it get him any closer to the vengeance he craves. But the king's word is final... at least, unless Gaston can prove treachery by Tourelle or by the so-called innocent Fontaine girl. So long as he never consummates the marriage, an annulment will be easy enough to obtain.
Celine wakes to find a naked man in her bed - a man who claims that not only does he own her family home, but that it's nearly seven centuries in the past. Worse, he accuses her of being part of a plot to seduce and murder him; he doesn't believe her mad tales of time travel. Everyone here seems to think she's some woman called Christiane, and nothing she says can change their minds. Thus, she finds herself married to a handsome knight at last... but this knight doesn't believe in love - especially not with her. Still, something about him fascinates her, something deeper than his looks. Even if she does manage to thaw his heart, though, that bullet fragment still lurks in her spine, a ticking time bomb that no medieval doctor can possibly defuse.
REVIEW: I'm coming off a string of disappointing books, so I figured a nice, straightforward romance - albeit one with a fantasy twist of time travel - would be ideal. Thankfully, this book delivers just what it promises: two wounded hearts, various obstacles and misunderstandings, an undeniable building passion, and plenty of steam amid medieval intrigue. Celine's a throwback in a family of progressives, but she still has plenty of spirit and only rarely does her spine fail her. Gaston's a product of his time, but also a product of a hard life with little room for love; he blames his brother's unbridled love for his wife for "softening" him and making it easier for Tourelle to murder him and his father. There's also some personal insecurity, as his path from former Crusader to mercenary to land-owning knight wasn't entirely above-board. The two make a good, fairly believable match. The romance sizzles with sexual tension, which explodes more than once and proved suitably steamy, if occasionally a little drawn out. As for the plot, it moves at a fair pace, with advances and setbacks and challenges for both characters as they struggle to reconcile their feelings with the seeming impossibility of their situation. Along the way, Thacker adds a little local medieval color, somewhat sanitized for modern readers (though not entirely cleaned up), and naturally takes a few historical liberties to facilitate the plot. (Forever His is billed as a romance, after all, not straight historical fiction; the average reader isn't looking for a lecture or strict academic accuracy, here.) The time travel element's a little plot convenient,and perhaps the weakest part of the story on the whole, but it actually plays into the plotline as more than just an excuse for a modern girl to meet her French knight in shining (or, in Gaston's case, somewhat tarnished) armor. For being what I expected and living up to its promises, not to mention luring me into a two-day reading binge to finish it, I give this title a solid four stars, though I expect history buffs (or more discerning romance readers) may find more nits to pick than I did.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Inscription (Pam Binder) - My Review
Broken Wings (Sylvie Kurtz) - My Review
Time Treasure (Sheila Raye) - My Review
(The Stolen Brides series, Book 1)
Shelly Thacker
Summit Avenue Books
Fiction, Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: A year ago, Celine Fontaine thought she'd be celebrating the end of 1993 with a new husband and possibly a baby. Instead, she's recovering from both panic attacks and a bullet wound, legacy of a failed carjacking that landed her in the hospital and lost her her faithless fiance. It also left a bullet fragment lodged in her spine... a fragment that's moving dangerously close to a major artery and could kill her if not removed. Though she's scheduled the surgery, she doesn't want her family to know; they already see her as the Fontaine failure, the one drifting black sheep in a family of hard-driven successful go-getters. The one thing she wanted - a family - is the one thing she can't seem to get. Celebrating at the ancestral Fontaine home in France only makes her feel more lost and lonely than ever. Will she ever find her knight in shining armor, or should she just give up on her dreams?
In 1300 France, Sir Gaston de Varennes's rivalry with the scoundrel Duc Alain de la Tourelle - a conniving liar who murdered Gaston's father and brother under guise of a tourney, then stole their lands, plundering and raping his way through the peasantry - draws the ire of King Phillip the Fair. He needs a united northern border on his kingdom, not one divided by petty squabbles, so he decrees a settlement by marriage to Tourelle's nearest available female relation, one Christiane de la Fontaine. Gaston would sooner bed a viper than a relative of Tourelle - he'd have a better chance of waking alive. Besides, marriage is something a man does to gain land or power, and this offers little of either, nor does it get him any closer to the vengeance he craves. But the king's word is final... at least, unless Gaston can prove treachery by Tourelle or by the so-called innocent Fontaine girl. So long as he never consummates the marriage, an annulment will be easy enough to obtain.
Celine wakes to find a naked man in her bed - a man who claims that not only does he own her family home, but that it's nearly seven centuries in the past. Worse, he accuses her of being part of a plot to seduce and murder him; he doesn't believe her mad tales of time travel. Everyone here seems to think she's some woman called Christiane, and nothing she says can change their minds. Thus, she finds herself married to a handsome knight at last... but this knight doesn't believe in love - especially not with her. Still, something about him fascinates her, something deeper than his looks. Even if she does manage to thaw his heart, though, that bullet fragment still lurks in her spine, a ticking time bomb that no medieval doctor can possibly defuse.
REVIEW: I'm coming off a string of disappointing books, so I figured a nice, straightforward romance - albeit one with a fantasy twist of time travel - would be ideal. Thankfully, this book delivers just what it promises: two wounded hearts, various obstacles and misunderstandings, an undeniable building passion, and plenty of steam amid medieval intrigue. Celine's a throwback in a family of progressives, but she still has plenty of spirit and only rarely does her spine fail her. Gaston's a product of his time, but also a product of a hard life with little room for love; he blames his brother's unbridled love for his wife for "softening" him and making it easier for Tourelle to murder him and his father. There's also some personal insecurity, as his path from former Crusader to mercenary to land-owning knight wasn't entirely above-board. The two make a good, fairly believable match. The romance sizzles with sexual tension, which explodes more than once and proved suitably steamy, if occasionally a little drawn out. As for the plot, it moves at a fair pace, with advances and setbacks and challenges for both characters as they struggle to reconcile their feelings with the seeming impossibility of their situation. Along the way, Thacker adds a little local medieval color, somewhat sanitized for modern readers (though not entirely cleaned up), and naturally takes a few historical liberties to facilitate the plot. (Forever His is billed as a romance, after all, not straight historical fiction; the average reader isn't looking for a lecture or strict academic accuracy, here.) The time travel element's a little plot convenient,and perhaps the weakest part of the story on the whole, but it actually plays into the plotline as more than just an excuse for a modern girl to meet her French knight in shining (or, in Gaston's case, somewhat tarnished) armor. For being what I expected and living up to its promises, not to mention luring me into a two-day reading binge to finish it, I give this title a solid four stars, though I expect history buffs (or more discerning romance readers) may find more nits to pick than I did.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Inscription (Pam Binder) - My Review
Broken Wings (Sylvie Kurtz) - My Review
Time Treasure (Sheila Raye) - My Review
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Sheepfarmer's Daughter (Elizabeth Moon)
Sheepfarmer's Daughter
(The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy, Book 1)
Elizabeth Moon
Baen
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Paksenarrion Dothansdotter, born to a humble family of northern sheepfarmers, has dreamed of a soldier's life ever since a cousin returned from service with tales of glory and the wonders of the world beyond the pasture fences. Now eighteen, with her father demanding she marry a local pig farmer, Paks decides to stop dreaming and follow her heart. She runs away from home to sign on with Duke Phelan's mercenaries, one of the more honorable units operating in the realm. As childhood dreams of war collide with the hard drudgery of a soldier's life, a greater threat grows over the land - one that will draw this sheepfarmer's daughter deep into its heart, where dark powers and unexpected miracles await.
REVIEW: This started fast, establishing Paks as a strong-willed young woman who, instead of pining for glory and whining about her harsh life with an abusive father, sets off down the road to make her dream come true. Unfortunately, that's about all there is to her, and the story. She wants to be a solder, then within two chapters, she's a recruit. Problem solved. This is followed by long chapters of training and marching here and there across Moon's fantasy landscape, a journey in which Paks is usually little more than a pair of eyes for the reader to peek through (and a pair of ears to receive long lectures explaining the world, its geography, its politics, and its myriad gods and saints, among other infodumps.) Paks quite literally has no other purpose in this world, no other ambition or want save being a soldier, and nothing stops her from fulfilling it. Yawn. Naturally, she's uncommonly talented at it - she's not a prodigy by any means, but she quickly moves to the head of the new recruits, and her inexperience doesn't keep her from succeeding at pretty much every task she's assigned. It isn't until round about the halfway mark that things start to go wrong, and further still before any great threat arises... but, then, this comes with a revelation (denied repeatedly, and bordering on ridiculously, by Paks herself) that divine will may be guiding her destiny. So, not only is she the perfect soldier, but she's quite literally blessed. No wonder she can't fail. After this, and a few pointless sidetracks into other characters, it ends on an awkward half-finished note - but it's the ending that finally made me understand the snail's pace and grinding, infodump- and battle tactic-heavy tedium of the preceding story: Sheepfarmer's Daughter is not a book per se, but merely one-third of a longer story, The Deed of Paksenarrion. Even though I'd almost, finally, possibly formed some manner of interest in Paks by then, I was so ticked off to realize that I'd been duped this way that I don't foresee myself following her any further. Besides, I'd long since reached my limit on random names - people names, city names, god names, saint names, and more - that I couldn't begin to keep straight anymore.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain) - My Review
Alanna: The First Adventure (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
On Basilisk Station (David Weber) - My Review
(The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy, Book 1)
Elizabeth Moon
Baen
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Paksenarrion Dothansdotter, born to a humble family of northern sheepfarmers, has dreamed of a soldier's life ever since a cousin returned from service with tales of glory and the wonders of the world beyond the pasture fences. Now eighteen, with her father demanding she marry a local pig farmer, Paks decides to stop dreaming and follow her heart. She runs away from home to sign on with Duke Phelan's mercenaries, one of the more honorable units operating in the realm. As childhood dreams of war collide with the hard drudgery of a soldier's life, a greater threat grows over the land - one that will draw this sheepfarmer's daughter deep into its heart, where dark powers and unexpected miracles await.
REVIEW: This started fast, establishing Paks as a strong-willed young woman who, instead of pining for glory and whining about her harsh life with an abusive father, sets off down the road to make her dream come true. Unfortunately, that's about all there is to her, and the story. She wants to be a solder, then within two chapters, she's a recruit. Problem solved. This is followed by long chapters of training and marching here and there across Moon's fantasy landscape, a journey in which Paks is usually little more than a pair of eyes for the reader to peek through (and a pair of ears to receive long lectures explaining the world, its geography, its politics, and its myriad gods and saints, among other infodumps.) Paks quite literally has no other purpose in this world, no other ambition or want save being a soldier, and nothing stops her from fulfilling it. Yawn. Naturally, she's uncommonly talented at it - she's not a prodigy by any means, but she quickly moves to the head of the new recruits, and her inexperience doesn't keep her from succeeding at pretty much every task she's assigned. It isn't until round about the halfway mark that things start to go wrong, and further still before any great threat arises... but, then, this comes with a revelation (denied repeatedly, and bordering on ridiculously, by Paks herself) that divine will may be guiding her destiny. So, not only is she the perfect soldier, but she's quite literally blessed. No wonder she can't fail. After this, and a few pointless sidetracks into other characters, it ends on an awkward half-finished note - but it's the ending that finally made me understand the snail's pace and grinding, infodump- and battle tactic-heavy tedium of the preceding story: Sheepfarmer's Daughter is not a book per se, but merely one-third of a longer story, The Deed of Paksenarrion. Even though I'd almost, finally, possibly formed some manner of interest in Paks by then, I was so ticked off to realize that I'd been duped this way that I don't foresee myself following her any further. Besides, I'd long since reached my limit on random names - people names, city names, god names, saint names, and more - that I couldn't begin to keep straight anymore.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain) - My Review
Alanna: The First Adventure (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
On Basilisk Station (David Weber) - My Review
Sunday, May 17, 2015
The Unwanteds (Lisa McMann)
The Unwanteds
(The Unwanteds series, Book 1)
Lisa McMann
Aladdin
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: In the harsh land of Quill, where barbed wire stretches across the sky and great walls defend against jealous enemies, only the strong survive. Every year, High Priest Justine and her Governors conduct the Purge, eliminating thirteen-year-old Unwanteds lest they become a disruptive influence and a drain on dwindling natural resources. Though both twin brothers Aaron and Alex Stowe committed the creative crime of drawing in the dirt, only Alex is shackled and sent to the Lake of Boiling Oil beyond Quill's gates. Alex doesn't want to believe his own brother reported the infraction, but there were no other witnesses... though it won't matter for long, as the dreaded Death Farmer awaits him and his fellow Unwanteds.
Beyond the walls of Quill, however, Alex and the others find something quite unexpected. The "Death Farmer" Mr. Today is no monster, but a wizard. He created the colorful domain of Artimé as a haven for Unwanteds, teaching them the forbidden arts of singing, dancing, and more - along with powerful magic channeled through their talents. Everything the children thought they knew about the world and Quill turns out to be wrong... but the danger of discovery is more real than ever, and the magic they learn may well save their lives when the Quillians who wanted them dead come to finish the job.
Meanwhile, Alex's twin Aaron's future in Quill seems secure, his rise through the ranks swift. If only he could forget about his brother - and his strange, haunting dreams that Alex is still alive...
REVIEW: The cover likens this series to The Hunger Games meeting Harry Potter, a not entirely inaccurate summary, though for me it falls a little short of the mark. Quill seems modeled on modern-day North Korea more than Panem, with an isolated dictatorship actively encouraging citizens to rat each other out for the glory of the state (and personal survival, as water supplies continue to dwindle), while many aspects of Today's realm of Artimé feel sillier than anything Rowling concocted for Hogwarts. Perhaps the silliness is meant as a counterweight to the grimness of Quill (and later sections where actual death is on the table, not the faked version of the Purge), but it starts to strain credulity in too many places. One of the core main characters, Meghann, was branded Unwanted over an infraction for singing and dancing... but how would she even know what either was in Quill, where all forms of artistic expression are outlawed? This isn't the only thing the kids seem awfully familiar with that they really shouldn't be, given their origins. The narration, perhaps to skirt around such flaws, tends to drift into omniscient, despite often hopping into a character's thoughts (then zooming out just so the audience isn't privy to important conversations.) Maybe it's because of this style, but I had a hard time connecting with McMann's characters, whose motivations sometimes seemed to come and go out of the blue. Alex in particular seems bound and determined to be stupid and mess things up, and I grew increasingly exasperated by his inability to figure out very simple things. Aaron, on the other hand, quickly establishes himself as a cunning social climber, every inch the ideal Wanted in Quill. The two sides of this story - the whimsical Artimé, with its talking statues and its flying tortoises and its "squirrelicorns" (squirrels with unicorn horns) and "platyprots" (rather useless platypus/parrots) and obnoxious sapient blackboards, and the bleak Quill, with its barbed-wire sky and paranoia and obsession with killing off its own populace - just never quite seem to click together like they should. A climactic confrontation at the end becomes a mess, wherein it's hard to figure out just who resolved what issues, though at least it's not entirely clean-handed - there is death dealt out here, not always by the enemy and not always on what one may deem honorable terms. Since this is the first in the series, though, certain characters are guaranteed safe passage, even if all of them (even the bad guys) are not the same people as they were at the start. (I also took issue with the misleading cover: the statue Simber is described in the text as a winged cheetah, and the cover quite clearly depicts a lion. There's no mistaking a cheetah for a lion, even in stone. And the fact that this bugged me shows just how irritable I was growing by the end.) Overall, despite some promising pieces and an interesting setup, I just plain felt disappointed by the execution here.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Among the Hidden (Margaret Peterson Haddix) - My Review
Sandry's Book (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
Magyk (Angie Sage) - My Review
(The Unwanteds series, Book 1)
Lisa McMann
Aladdin
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: In the harsh land of Quill, where barbed wire stretches across the sky and great walls defend against jealous enemies, only the strong survive. Every year, High Priest Justine and her Governors conduct the Purge, eliminating thirteen-year-old Unwanteds lest they become a disruptive influence and a drain on dwindling natural resources. Though both twin brothers Aaron and Alex Stowe committed the creative crime of drawing in the dirt, only Alex is shackled and sent to the Lake of Boiling Oil beyond Quill's gates. Alex doesn't want to believe his own brother reported the infraction, but there were no other witnesses... though it won't matter for long, as the dreaded Death Farmer awaits him and his fellow Unwanteds.
Beyond the walls of Quill, however, Alex and the others find something quite unexpected. The "Death Farmer" Mr. Today is no monster, but a wizard. He created the colorful domain of Artimé as a haven for Unwanteds, teaching them the forbidden arts of singing, dancing, and more - along with powerful magic channeled through their talents. Everything the children thought they knew about the world and Quill turns out to be wrong... but the danger of discovery is more real than ever, and the magic they learn may well save their lives when the Quillians who wanted them dead come to finish the job.
Meanwhile, Alex's twin Aaron's future in Quill seems secure, his rise through the ranks swift. If only he could forget about his brother - and his strange, haunting dreams that Alex is still alive...
REVIEW: The cover likens this series to The Hunger Games meeting Harry Potter, a not entirely inaccurate summary, though for me it falls a little short of the mark. Quill seems modeled on modern-day North Korea more than Panem, with an isolated dictatorship actively encouraging citizens to rat each other out for the glory of the state (and personal survival, as water supplies continue to dwindle), while many aspects of Today's realm of Artimé feel sillier than anything Rowling concocted for Hogwarts. Perhaps the silliness is meant as a counterweight to the grimness of Quill (and later sections where actual death is on the table, not the faked version of the Purge), but it starts to strain credulity in too many places. One of the core main characters, Meghann, was branded Unwanted over an infraction for singing and dancing... but how would she even know what either was in Quill, where all forms of artistic expression are outlawed? This isn't the only thing the kids seem awfully familiar with that they really shouldn't be, given their origins. The narration, perhaps to skirt around such flaws, tends to drift into omniscient, despite often hopping into a character's thoughts (then zooming out just so the audience isn't privy to important conversations.) Maybe it's because of this style, but I had a hard time connecting with McMann's characters, whose motivations sometimes seemed to come and go out of the blue. Alex in particular seems bound and determined to be stupid and mess things up, and I grew increasingly exasperated by his inability to figure out very simple things. Aaron, on the other hand, quickly establishes himself as a cunning social climber, every inch the ideal Wanted in Quill. The two sides of this story - the whimsical Artimé, with its talking statues and its flying tortoises and its "squirrelicorns" (squirrels with unicorn horns) and "platyprots" (rather useless platypus/parrots) and obnoxious sapient blackboards, and the bleak Quill, with its barbed-wire sky and paranoia and obsession with killing off its own populace - just never quite seem to click together like they should. A climactic confrontation at the end becomes a mess, wherein it's hard to figure out just who resolved what issues, though at least it's not entirely clean-handed - there is death dealt out here, not always by the enemy and not always on what one may deem honorable terms. Since this is the first in the series, though, certain characters are guaranteed safe passage, even if all of them (even the bad guys) are not the same people as they were at the start. (I also took issue with the misleading cover: the statue Simber is described in the text as a winged cheetah, and the cover quite clearly depicts a lion. There's no mistaking a cheetah for a lion, even in stone. And the fact that this bugged me shows just how irritable I was growing by the end.) Overall, despite some promising pieces and an interesting setup, I just plain felt disappointed by the execution here.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Among the Hidden (Margaret Peterson Haddix) - My Review
Sandry's Book (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
Magyk (Angie Sage) - My Review
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