Re-Read Review: The Diamond Throne by David Eddings

" Slowly Sparhawk raised his eyes to his Queen.  She was beautiful.  There was almost luminous perfection about her countenance.  Her pale blonde hair was long and loosely framed her face.  She wore stately robes and the heavy gold crown of Elenia.  Her slender hands lay upon the arms of her throne, and her eyes were closed.  But now she was locked in the semblance of death, embedded in a transparent crystal hexahedron, like a bug frozen in amber.

Then he heard and felt it, a regular thudding sound, growing louder by the moment as it announced to any who might enter the throne room that her heart was still beating.

Sparhawk sank to one knee in a move of profound respect, his eyes suddenly filling with tears. "I'm here now, Ehlana," he murmured.  "Somehow, I'll make everything right again."

The heart beat grew louder, almost as if she had heard."

Title: The Diamond Throne
Author: David Eddings
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: June 13, 1990

Synopsis: Sparhawk, Pandion Knight, and Queen's Champion have returned to Elenia after ten years of exile, only to find young Queen Ehlana trapped in a block of ensorcelled crystal. As Sparhawk sets out to find a cure for Ehlana, he discovers that only he can defeat the evil plots that threaten her rule....

Stand Alone or Series: Book 1 of the Elenium Trilogy

Why I originally picked this book up: In my early twenties, a friend of a friend found out that I was a fan of fantasy books and lent me a couple of series by an author I had never heard of.  This was one of the books.  While I had been reading fantasy since my early teens, I had not read many that would be considered "High Fantasy".  Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is probably the most famous "high fantasy" series in the world and as blasphemous as this may sound, I have never been able to make my way past the mid point of the first book.  "High fantasy" usually focuses on a quest of some kind and grapples with the idea of good versus evil.  Because of my lack of experience with the genre, I was leery to try again, but agreed to give it a shot.

Why I kept reading it:  David Eddings is a wonderful world builder!  While his characters could be considered "types' and his story elements "cliches", his characters are very relatable and I find his dialog to be engaging.  But mostly, I am a sucker for a well crafted world.  While the world in this one is not as finely detailed as the one in his other major series (which I will probably review when I get around to re-reading it) it is interesting and has several cultures, which is always a bonus.  I also liked the characters a great deal and enjoyed spending time with them.

As the first in a trilogy, it does not have a huge pay off in the end and would never be able to a stand alone, it is obvious that it was always intended to be a trilogy and has enough of a small pay off to not feel cheated.  If you decide to read this book, do yourself a favor and make sure you have them all on hand for ease.  Since this book is over 20 years old, that is not hard.  Del Rey even combined them into a single omni edition, but the writing is VERY tiny.

Why I am re-reading it:  In the 20 years since I first picked up this book, I can't even tell you how many times I have read it, but I do re-read the entire series every two years or so.  It is usually my bedtime reading while I am reading something else during the day.  Picking this book up is kind of like spending time with old friends.  I have read it enough times that I can read it in fits and spurts (depending on how tired I am when I get into bed) and not lose the thread of the story.  I can just spend time with the characters and relive what I love best about them.

4 1/2 Stars

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Review - Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

 

"On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family’s tent to see the dawn. She buried her toes in the sand, cold from the night, and she wrapped her father’s goatskin cloak tight around her shoulders. She had only moments before everyone would wake."

Title: Vessel

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry

Publication date: 9/11/2012

Format Read: Bought for Kindle





Synopsis:  In a desert world of sandstorms and sand-wolves, a teen girl must defy the gods to save her tribe in this mystical, atmospheric tale from the author of Drink, Slay, Love.

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyana’s goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate—or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone

Why I picked this book up:  In the first place, I started to hear good things about this author in general and this book in particular before it was even out, mostly by YA bloggers.  The idea of desert tribes and mythology really intrigued me as very different and something that I might want to pick up.

Then I saw the cover.  Yes, yes, I know the old saying, but look at that cover!  It is gorgeous and different!  They had to have photographed it just for this book.  There is no way that this is a stock photo.  I absolutely love it and how it really conveys the atmosphere of the book!

Why I kept reading it:  This is the first book by Sarah Beth Durst that I have read and I must say, if her other books are even close to being as good as this one, I may just have to pick up more.  One of the things that can make or break a fantasy or sci-fi book for me is world building.  Durst excels at this.  For a book that takes place almost exclusively in a desert, Vessel has a lushness that can only come from characters that truly inhabit and love their surroundings.

Liyana is a wonderful main character.  She is strong, intelligent and devoted to her family, tribe and way of life.  Even knowing that, to become the vessel for her goddess, she must give up her own life, she goes willingly because it is what she believes is best to protect those she loves.  She is a fully formed character from page one and continues to grow and change in response to what she encounters on her journey.

Korbyn fights change, but being a trickster god in a human body, it is much harder for him than for the humans he encounters on their quest.  He is not always a likeable character and often his godhood causes him to make mistakes that a human might not have, but he is always interesting.  When he does change, it is natural and hard fought, not merely for the sake of the narrative.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the mythology.  At no time did I feel that the author was cheating by taking an existing mythology and merely changing the names to protect the innocent.  Yes, it does have a somewhat Native American feel to it, as well as elements from a couple of other pantheons, but it is unique and well established.  The use of fables throughout the story allows the reader to learn about the tribe's beliefs without ever becoming preachy or falling prey to the dreaded info dump.

Unfortunately there are two place where I believe Vessel falls down.  The first is in some of the side characters.  The first step of Liyana and Korbyn's quest is to locate the other vessels.  I liked that the reasons that vessels had for going through with what they were doing were all different (pride of being chosen, unquestioning rightness of religious obligation, even forced into it by the tribe), a couple of the vessels seemed to be a little two dimensional.  I would have liked to see a little more fleshing out of two or three of the characters.

The other place that was a little weak was some of the romance elements.  Some seemed to occur in a very organic fashion, others seemed a bit forced by the author because that is where she wants the characters to go whether they agreed or not. 

All in all, despite the few flaws I have pointed out, I throughly enjoyed this book!  I wanted to talk about it as soon as I was done with it and was sad when no one else in my acquaintance had read it.  I will most definately read it again soon in order to really soak up this rich and complex world!

Who I would recommend it to:  First, I would recommend it to Ehlanna, Ari, Kat, Heather and Gaia, because it is a great example of positive female role models such as we were discussing last summer.  I would also recommend it to Gabby as she shares my love of YA literature and mythology.

4 Stars



Let's try this again

Ok.  So this is the second time that I have said that I was going to be better with this blog and I really want to make a go of it this time.  My goal is to post something at least 4-5 times per week and at least two book reviews a month.  Sometimes the daily post will be a link to something else or just a few words to say that I am alive, but at least it will be something.  Hopefully I will be able to keep this up.  Maybe someone will actually read what I write.

Let's do this!

Review : Old Man's War by John Scalzi

 

I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army

This is the first line of Old Man's War by John Scalzi. How can you not be intrigued by this?   In the future, people go into space one of two ways ~ as colonists (which are chosen exclusively from Third World countries) and joining the Colonial Defense Force, which can only be done after your 75th birthday.  With his wife 7 years gone, John Perry has nothing else tying him to Earth, so he decides to join up.

First stop ~ youth.  How can you protect the Earth's interests against the scum of the Universe with a bad back and weak bladder?  After being transferred to a better than new young body, John and his fellow recruits begin to bond and create a family.  But in a war with a 75% mortality rate, what hope do the front line fighters have?

WHY I PICKED UP THIS BOOK ~ I have been reading John Scalzi's blog, Whatever, for about a year and thought that since I enjoyed his writing so much, I should probably actually read one of his books.  He  announced recently that Old Man's War has been optioned for a movie and this also intrigued me.

WHY I KEPT READING IT ~ The first third of the book, I was absolutely entranced.  John Perry, the main character, is a wonderful first person narrator!  He is intelligent and interesting.  He asks all the questions that the reader wants answered, but does it in such a way that there is no sense of overly long exposition.  Sometimes his humor is appreciated by those around him and sometimes, not so much.  I can relate to that.  The supporting characters are well established, without distracting from the story flow.

I got to a point in the book that I realized I wasn't enjoying it as much as I had been, but it is really my own fault.  When I started to get into the battle scenes, what did I expect from a book with war in the title?  But I did enjoy it more than any was story I had ever read.  Some of the science was a little over my head, but stretching my scientific knowledge is one of the things I like about reading hard sci-fi, and Scalzi does a really good job of it.  There were two big plot twists, one I expected pretty early on but had a really nice pay-off and one that I never saw coming and loved!

All in all, I really loved this book and I look forward to reading more of John Scalzi's work.  (I am already reading another one)  He is articulate and crafts a really good tale.

5 STARS

WHO I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ~ My dad, who likes war stories, though not so much Sci-Fi; people who like Robert Heinlein, who is a big influence of John Scalzi

FORMAT ~ I bought and read this book on my Kindle

BOOK INFORMATION ~

• Publisher: Tor Books; 4th edition (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765315246
• ISBN-13: 978-0765315243

What to expect...

Now that you know the purpose of this blog, maybe I should give you some kind of idea what you may find here.

"But you already said that you were going to write book reviews"

Yes, gentle friends, but how do you know if you want to return here without knowing what kind of books I am likely to review?  So what kind of books will you find reviewed here?  I have absolutely no idea.  Helpful, ain't I?  My reading tastes are all over the map, but I tend to read "genre" fiction.  Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mysteries, Horror, Young Adult, etc.  But I also love to get suggestions from others and may branch out even from those extremely wide parameters.

When you do read a review, I will try to make sure I always have certain information ~ title, author, publisher, publishing date, link to purchase, why I picked it up, why I kept reading, who I would recommend it to, what form I read it in (book, kindle, owned or borrowed)

Hopefully I haven't left anything out.

First Post...

If you are one of the 3 people reading this post (Hi, Mom!) you might be wondering what this is all about.  If you don't know me, you might want to know why I am doing this.  The short answer... because I can.  The long answer is not nearly as succinct or as easy to identify, but I will give it a shot.

 In 2009, I took the 50 Book Challenge to see if I could read 50 books in one year.  I did it with very little problem.  So this year, I thought I would try to read 100 books.  I was doing really well with 15 books in the first two months of the year.  I enjoyed posting the titles on my Facebook and getting feedback from my friends.  Then I started realizing that I wasn't enjoying what I was reading.  If what I was reading was short, I felt like I was cheating.  If it was usually long, I might decide to not to read it.  No matter what I was reading, I was more worried about how many pages I read than in how much I was enjoying it.  And if I didn't like it?  I kept up with it just so I wouldn't mess up my numbers.

About the only thing I was really enjoying was when my friends commented on my Facebook posts.  I love discussing books.  So I decided to change my focus from reading to reviewing.  Mostly this blog will be book reviews and occasionally blog reviews.  Every now and then, sometimes more than that, I will be posting about whatever floats through my brain.  I hope you enjoy and comment.  This will be a much more interesting experiment if I am not alone with it.