Otherworld Tales 2: Demon Invasion by C.T. Markee

Posted by melydia on January 10, 2014 No comment

Otherworld Tales 2: Demon Invasion by C.T. Markee: Irish and Streak are joined by Irish’s cousin Frost as they search for their friend Huff in the wilds of Mount Shasta. This is the second of the Otherworld Tales series, but reading the first one is not strictly necessary, as Irish and his friends don’t remember the events from that book anyway. There’s less Celtic mythology this time around but far more adventure as our heroes fight monsters and the elements. I liked the cranky dwarves (are there really any other kind?) and the snooty giants. There’s nothing especially unpredictable here – you know that Huff will eventually be rescued and evil will be vanquished – but I think this is a story that would be enjoyed by most children who like fantasy and adventure.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Posted by melydia on January 7, 2014 No comment

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (unabridged audiobook read by Jennifer Ehle; 15.5 hrs on 13 discs): When Tessa travels from her native New York to London to meet up with her brother, she is greeted by the Dark Sisters, strange women who hold her captive, forcing her to master a talent she never knew she possessed: shape shifting. She soon finds herself in the company of shadow hunters, those half-angel humans who uphold the law among the supernatural. Unlike the modern Mortal Instruments series, this takes place in Victorian times. There’s a bit of a steampunk vibe, what with clockwork critters and all that, but it’s not overbearing or overly unrealistic (for a story with demons and warlocks, that is). I like Tessa; she’s smart and confident without being reckless (using “character is too headstrong and doesn’t listen to reason and gets herself into trouble” as a plot device is a pet peeve of mine). The shadow hunters are also pleasantly individual: surly Will, kind Jem, prissy Jessamine, determined Charlotte, flighty Henry. I liked that I couldn’t predict where everything was going, but also never felt like things were plucked out of thin air. I don’t know if I would be enjoying it as much if I hadn’t already been introduced to the shadow hunter universe through the Mortal Instruments series, though I do feel the characters and story are much stronger here. The book ends on a slight cliffhanger, but that’s okay because it’s the beginning of a trilogy. Game on.

A note on the audio: When only a couple of the characters are American, it is best to get someone who can pull off a decent British accent. This reader, alas, cannot.

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Posted by melydia on January 3, 2014 No comment

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (unabridged audiobook read by Wendy Dillon; 7 hrs on 6 discs): Lina and Doon live in Ember, the only city in existence. The sky is black; the streets are illuminated by huge floodlights. When the lights go out, the entire world is plunged into impenetrable darkness. All supplies come from the cavernous store rooms. This is how it has been since the beginning of time, but lately there have been fewer supplies and more blackouts. As a reader, you know that this city is most likely in a cave or underground, the power produced by a hydroelectric generator, but of course the characters have never known anything different. It is, truly, a fascinating idea. One day Lina finds a set of instructions, partially destroyed by her baby sister. She and Doon embark on an adventure as they attempt to decipher it. This is not an overly complicated story, but I really enjoyed all the subtle differences that living in such a place would imply. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

A note on the audio: Dillon’s character voices were excellent. I could have done without the rather loud sound effects, though. The rush of the river was especially distracting.

Year-End Book Wrap-up: 2013

Posted by melydia on January 2, 2014 No comment

Here we go again. Almost-but-not-quite reached triple digits again this year. Just 4 books short.

Books Read in 2013:
1. Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman
2. The Devil and His Boy by Anthony Horowitz
3. The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle
4. The Burning Time by J.G. Faherty
5. What Cats Teach Us by Glenn Dromgoole
6. The Ghosts of Nagasaki by Daniel Clausen
7. Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfeld, Devin Grayson, and Steven Cummings
8. The Manual of Aeronautics by Scott Westerfeld and Keith Thompson
9. Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles by Ron Currie Jr.
10. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
11. Marbles by Ellen Forney
12. The Dark Lady by Mike Resnick
13. English As She Is Spoke by José Da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino
14. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
15. There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
16. Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines
17. The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
18. Mrs. T’s Bedside Book
19. How to Make Your Man Behave in 21 Days or Less Using the Secrets of Professional Dog Trainers by Karen Salmansohn
20. Thwonk by Joan Bauer
21. Seahorse in the Sky by Edmund Cooper
22. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
23. Harley Loco by Rayya Elias
24. God’s Gift by Lucie Cave
25. Home Protection: How to Make Your Home a Safe Place by 55DSL.com
26. The Two Kings by A.J. Jacobs
27. It’s Nothing Personal by Kate O’Reilley
28. Leave of Absence by Tanya J. Peterson
29. Outside the Spotlight by Sophie Weeks
30. Movies in Fifteen Minutes by Cleolinda Jones
31. Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper
32. If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster
33. Reader by Erec Stebbins
34. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
35. American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
36. The Ghost from the Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke
37. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
38. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
39. Mr. Obvious by James Lileks
40. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
41. The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
42. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
43. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
44. I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
45. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
46. Night Film by Marisha Pessl
47. The Book of Times by Lesley Alderman
48. The Hand of Osiris by Jim Mastro
49. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
50. BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara
51. French for Cats by Henri de la Barbe
52. xo Orpheus edited by Kate Bernheimer
53. Otherworld Tales: Demon Invasion by C.T. Markee
54. The De-Textbook by Cracked.com
55. Standing Up by Marion Grodin
56. Solomon the Peacemaker by Hunter Welles
57. Broken Allegiance by Mark Young

Books Listened to in 2013:
1. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
2. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
3. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
4. Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
5. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
6. Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
7. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
8. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
9. The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
10. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
11. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
12. Blue Moon by Alyson Noel
13. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
14. Every Day by David Levithan
15. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
16. Blackout by Connie Willis
17. All Clear by Connie Willis
18. Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman
19. Dragons of the Dwarven Depths by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
20. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
21. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
22. Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey
23. And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer
24. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
25. Gulp by Mary Roach
26. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
27. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
28. Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen
29. The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
30. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
31. Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
32. Feed by M.T. Anderson
33. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
34. City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
35. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
36. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
37. People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
38. Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
39. Undead by Kirsty McKay

Books Started but not finished:
* Mr. Darwin’s Shooter by Roger McDonald (could not follow)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (bad translation)
* Wearing Dad’s Head by Barry Yourgrau (not my style)
* The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (didn’t interest me)
* Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Muller (boring)

Previous years: 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | Review Archive

xo Orpheus edited by Kate Bernheimer

Posted by melydia on December 27, 2013 No comment

xo Orpheus edited by Kate Bernheimer: I did not have high hopes for this, as I’d only read books by two of the authors, and didn’t like either one of them. Still, this is a decent (though overlong) collection of stories inspired, however vaguely, by mythology from all over the world. Like all anthologies, there are some fantastic tales (The Sisters by Sabina Murray and The Last Flight of Daedelus by Anthony Marra are particular favorites), some truly dreadful ones, and a bunch that are just okay. The trouble with anthologies is that so many people who write short stories forget to include the story part: it’s just a bunch of descriptive passages with nothing ever actually happening. I would not have complained had the selection here been trimmed down a bit, but I understand the appeal of a nice round number like fifty. I also question the decision to order the tales by myth, meaning for example that all the Icarus tales were next to each other. Of course, this was not consistent: the story inspired by Demeter & Persephone was near the beginning, while the one just about Persephone came much later. I most appreciated the afterwords provided by each author or translator, explaining the connection to their chosen myth (or with mythology in general, as some chose to do). In short, I found this to be an interesting literary experiment, if not to my particular taste. Do not pick it up expecting modern retellings of classic myths. Instead, think of it as a general anthology with mythological elements thrown in.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Posted by melydia on December 20, 2013 No comment

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (unabridged audiobook read by Kirby Heyborne; 12 hrs on 10 discs): I’ve been meaning to read this for some time now, but when I saw on the cover that it had been blurbed by both Neil Gaiman and Scott Westerfeld, well, I decided I simply could not wait any longer. When San Francisco is attacked by terrorists, Marcus and his friends find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and immediately detained by the Department of Homeland Security, where they are interrogated and tortured. This terrible and unjust treatment motivates Marcus to try to beat the system, creating a separate and untraceable internet using a fictional XBox network. There’s a lot of discussion of how much privacy and freedom one can sacrifice in the name of security, and a lot of questions are raised about how many of these intrusive security measures actually make us any safer. I can see some folks dismissing the whole tale as far too paranoid, but I think it’s still an important book to read, if only as a starting point to a conversation about the larger issues of liberty and security and terrorism. I do not have any answers, but I appreciate any book that makes me want to learn more about the world around me.

A note on the audio: Heyborne is fantastic. That is all.

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Posted by melydia on December 17, 2013 1 comment

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix (unabridged audiobook read by Alyssa Bresnahan; 5.25 hrs on 5 discs): What happens after the glass slipper fits and Cinderella is whisked away to Prince Charming’s palace? In this story, “happily ever after” doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Ella, having spent so much time as a servant, is having trouble adjusting to the tight-laced bureaucracy of palace life. Worse, her regular meetings with Prince Charming are stilted and awkward, with no one showing any interest in her beyond her beauty. I liked this one. I liked Ella’s determination and practicality. I liked the lack of a fairy godmother or any other magical elements. Definitely one to pick up if you like fairy tale retellings.

A note on the audio: Besnahan was very talented, but sounded a bit too old to be 16. Admittedly, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed had the book been told in third person instead of first.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Posted by melydia on December 13, 2013 No comment

Feed by M.T. Anderson (unabridged audiobook read by David Aaron Baker; 5 hrs on 5 discs): In a future America where the internet is inside everyone’s head, Titus and his friends are regular teenagers just looking for a good time. At a club on the moon during spring break, they meet Violet, a homeschooled outsider hoping to experience regular teenage life. After their feeds are hacked by dissidents, Violet’s feed begins to malfunction, and Titus must choose between this interesting girl he’s just met and his longtime but shallow friends. I’m not going to lie to you: Titus is not a good or admirable person, but he’s actually pretty realistic. He’s self-absorbed and wishes bad things would just go away and not bother him. I’m sure many of us have wished an inconveniently ill person could just “get over it” but unlike Titus, we readers have a moral compass reminding us that their trauma is not about us. This is a dystopia clearly inspired by the inanity of the internet; most of the characters talk like they’re on Tumblr. I found it an interesting and worthwhile read, but if you need to have some level of fondness for the main character in a book, this story will likely be pretty hard to take. If nothing else, it reminded me of the importance of empathy and kindness.

A note on the audio: I am so glad I listened to this one. The entire thing is written in dialect that would surely have driven me mad in print, but isn’t so bad to hear. (It helps that Baker is an excellent reader.) Also, the feed ads are done just like radio ads, which brings some extra realism to the story. I was kind of confused when they first cut in, because I thought maybe my CD player had switched over to radio accidentally or something, but a lot of the content is actually quite absurd and funny.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Posted by melydia on December 10, 2013 No comment

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex: I admit it: I judged this book by its cover. With a title like that, how could I not pick it up? And I was not disappointed. A girl named Gratuity and a cat named Pig meet an alien named J.Lo and journey across America to find Gratuity’s mother. It’s a pretty ridiculous story all around. The illustrations are fantastic and the whole thing is really funny. It’s also a not-so-subtle allusion to the story of the Native Americans, a rare work of effective satire that loses neither its humor nor its message. Good stuff.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

Posted by melydia on December 6, 2013 No comment

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged audiobook read by Geoffrey Sherman; 16 hrs on 14 discs): Well, that was a real downer. People die, noble plots are thwarted, good men are sent to prison. The title is a little misleading, because surprisingly little of the book is about said man – the brother of the king, whom Aramis tries to install in his place from the very first chapter. I still love all four Musketeers, but this story seemed less about them and more about French politics. I think. To be honest, I had a lot of trouble following it. I kept confusing people, especially since most of the noblemen had two or three names each. It was nice to rejoin Athos, Aramis, Porthos, and d’Artagnan, but I would have rather spent the time with them off on adventures, and not as old men who barely see each other anymore. I suppose it’s not a bad way to round off your Musketeer collection, but definitely don’t start here.

This translation was not so great. I’m not convinced, even in Dumas’s time, that people would say “What does that signify?” instead of “What does that mean?” or “Do you comprehend?” instead of “Do you understand?” It made everything sound stilted and weird.

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