Category: Reading

As I mentioned in my post about A Fading Sun, I was fortunate enough to receive its sequel, A Rising Moon, to review right around when I was wondering when it would be published. According to Goodreads, A Rising Moon has been out for a couple weeks now, so it’s seems like an appropriate time to share the review I wrote for Booklist.

Remember, in some parts of the world, it’s traditional to give books at the holidays.  But don’t be that guy who gives the first book in a series when it has a cliffhanger ending.  Or that guy who recommends a book where the sequel isn’t even published yet, and then the trilogy expands to … how many books is A Song of Fire and Ice aiming for now?  Oh, seven.  (Yes, it was the same guy.  Yes, we’re still friends.)

NOTE: There are spoilers here for the first book.  Read beyond this line at your own risk.

At the conclusion of A Fading Sun, the Cateni were a conquered but rebelling people, with their mystical leader Voada Moonshadow killed in a battle against the Mundoans, and the Moonshadow spirit searching for Voada’s daughter, Orla. A Rising Moon is the eagerly anticipated sequel, picking up as Orla flees from the aftermath of that battle to the far reaches of Albann Bràghad. In Onglse, she meets Ceanndraoi Greum Red-Hand, the head wizard who both trained Voada and clashed with her. As expected, the Moonshadow spirit joins with Orla, who then follows the Ceanndraoi back to Albann Deas to fight the Mundoans. She quickly proves that she views the war and the Mundoans differently from her mother and the Moonshadow spirits, refusing the wholesale slaughter that they are encouraging. Her stubbornness and idealism put her at risk, with Moonshadow threatening to consume her spirit, just as she has absorbed all of the wizards who have wielded her power in the past. Will she fall to Altan Savas, the Mundoan war leader, as her mother did, or to her own anamacha?

I made a mistake once, giving away books that I would want to re-read in the future.  (OK, I’ve made mistakes more than once… I made that particular mistake once.)  And then they were out of print, so I couldn’t find them.  But the author wrote more books to the series, so they’re back in print, and I found some of them at Powell’s in July.

The series is Anno Dracula.  Not surprisingly, given the name, the series is about vampires.  The first book, Anno Dracula, starts in 1888, as a What If to the original Bram Stoker’s Dracula… what if Dracula had won?  By 1888, he has married Queen Victoria and vampires live openly in London.  The fascinating thing about all of the Anno Dracula books is how Kim Newman combines vampire and other lore with historical – both real and fictional – figures from the era.  Anno Dracula presents readers with a variation on the Jack the Ripper story, where all of the victims are vampire girls, skillfully slaughtered with a silver knife.  Interspersed in the stories are glimpses of classics like Sherlock Holmes, Jekyll and Hyde, and Oscar Wilde.

Continuing in chronological, rather than publication order, the next book is Anno Dracula: One Thousand Monsters, which skips across the world to 1899 Japan where a ship of vampire refugees find a temporary home in ghetto for monsters.  Newman explores a variety of Asian lore, some more recognizable that others, such as the four kappa (anthropomorphic turtles) with martial arts weapons, along with recognizable vampires from other sources, including a nutty psychic named Drusilla and references to the Theater des Vampires in Paris.  Yōkai Town is more of a prison than a refuges, and somebody is pitting the vampires against each other.

The Bloody Red Baron presents terrifying shape-shifting vampires attacking Allied planes mid-air.  Edgar Allan Poe, a vampire living in Germany when the United States joins the war, who in our reality died before the American Civil War, is recruited to write about these flying nosferatu.

Dracula Cha Cha Cha is set in Rome, in 1959, as vampires from around the world flock to Dracula’s latest wedding.  The alliances that were formed to finish World War II are mentioned, including a treaty between Britain and Dracula.  Someone is killing vampire elders across the city, and Kate Reed, a vampire journalist, along with Hamish Bond, the undead British secret agent, get caught up in the mystery.

Lastly – at least for now – is Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard.  Dracula was a prolific parent in his early days, but as his power and fame grew, he let his children turn others rather than making new vampires himself.  Near the end of the 20th century, a vampire boy emerges from the shadows, claiming to have been turned by Dracula himself.  He makes a name for himself in the United States, both in Manhattan and Hollywood, selling a dangerously addictive drug and raising a cult-like following for himself and the Dracula legend.

These books are amazingly well written, which adds to the addictiveness of the series.  I highly recommend them.

 

Every so often, I receive a fabulous book to review that clearly expects a sequel. And, if I’m lucky (which I have been repeatedly, as the editor watches for sequels), I receive the next book to review a while down the line.  That’s what happened with A Fading Sun by Stephen Leigh.  I reviewed it last year for Booklist, and had noticed it on my list recently and wondered if the sequel had been published.

Lo and behold, the sequel, A Rising Moon, appeared in my mailbox.  If you have time before November, I recommend reading the first book before the second one is released.  What follows is the review I submitted last year:

The Cateni are a conquered people, hiding their traditions since the Mundoan Empire overran their land three generations ago. This is easier said than done for Voada Paorach, who sees ghosts and helps them follow the sun-path to the afterlife. She successfully hides her ability well into her adult life until the death of someone close forces her to reveal it. Cast out of her home and torn from her family, a ghost, Moonshadow, who fought against the original Mundoan invasion, leads Voada to Onglse, where the Cateni still openly rebel against the Mundoans. Commander Altan Savas has been sent to lead Emperor Pashtuk’s army in Albann; he reluctantly leads the oppressing army to what he expects, at best, to be a Pyrrhic victory on Onglse.  Voada and Moonshadow move that battle to mainland Albann, where Altan is forced to follow in an attempt to salvage the Mundoan Empire’s hold over this conquered land. Readers will detect a resemblance to Ireland, Scotland, and England during the Roman era. Adults and teens who enjoy this story will eagerly anticipate the sequel.

Two months late, I have finished re-reading Words of Radiance, and am finally starting Oathbringer.  Once again, we follow the stories of Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan, among others, as they strive to rebuilt the Knights Radiant with minimal knowledge on what the Knights could actually do.  As far as the overall plot goes, that’s all I have to say… go read it, it’s fabulous.

As far as individual plot lines go, I found myself drawn to Shallan Davar.  All of the point of view characters are well-developed with riveting plot lines.  In The Way of Kings, Shallan was introduced as a young lady forced out of her comfort zone.  In Words of Radiance, she stretches past that, arriving in the Shattered Plains, meeting her betrothed, and more to her surprise than anybody else’s, develops into a leader.

Her betrothed has a history of failed romances; Shallan has a history of one, which turned out to be with an assassin who almost killed her.  (In his defense, she wasn’t the target.)  Shallan arrives at the Shattered Plains, establishing her own place in the mess of the war camps, seeks out the group that was responsible for the failed assassination attempt, and is generally more snarky than society allows.  In other words, she’s an awesome character that clearly develops across the books.  So do the other characters, I just happen to like Shallan’s snarkiness.

“Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before destination.”

Once upon a Capricon (not to be confused with Once Upon a Capricon, which was a couple years later), I met a gentleman who said I should read some books by Brandon Sanderson.  To be clear, he gave me specific titles, though in the end, it really was just a “read everything he wrote” recommendation.  (He also warned me that Blake would try to sell me books, and here I am, eagerly awaiting the next one in that series.)

Had I planned better, I would have re-read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance before the November release of Oathbringer.  But my fall months were somewhat unusual, and certainly not as I had planned, so here I am, a month after buying Oathbringer, just finishing re-reading the first book.

The danger of getting hooked on Brandon Sanderson’s writing is that he doesn’t have just one good series.  At any given time, he is working on three or four books, updating his website with the progression.  At the moment, it shows a first draft, a second draft, and a release (Oathbringer, yay!) at 100%, and a mystery project at 62%.

In The Way of Kings, we follow the stories of Kaladin (a slave), Dalinar (a lighteyes, uncle to the King), and Shallan (a lighteyes hoping to become ward of the King’s sister).  The world and the characters grow through the book, learning about themselves and making discoveries that could impact the entire world as they know it.   The thing to see, in this and the subsequent nine novels, is what they do with that knowledge, assuming they manage to survive.

Oh, did I forget to mention he’s not even halfway through writing the series?  It’s epic, and totally worth reading (and re-reading).

I read a biography!  That or it was woefully mishelved at Goodwill.  I’m inclined to believe the latter, I don’t think Abraham Lincoln was actually a vampire hunter.

It’s a fascinating concept, taking an extraordinary man and adding a supernatural twist to his life.  The author, Seth Grahame-Smith, clearly researched Lincoln’s life extensively in order to add a vampire element to every tragedy in Lincoln’s life, beginning with his mother’s death when he was nine.

The vampire mythos has also evolved: young vampires experience severe damage in direct sunlight, but older vampires can endure some time outside with appropriate equipment (clothing, parasols, etc.).  They do not, I note, sparkle.  They also play an integral in the Civil War, with opportunistic vampires viewing slavery as an easy food source.  Lincoln’s view of slavery is directly tied to his hatred of vampires, and the Emancipation Proclamation was a strategic move meant to cripple the vamipres’ easy food source.

Despite a minor in history, I don’t read many biographies.  I am tempted to pick up an authentic biography of Abraham Lincoln to see how much reality fed into this book.  Meanwhile, I will look into the author’s other books… Pride and Prejudice and Zombies sounds interesting.

Sometimes you discover a book and wonder why you didn’t read it sooner. In the case of Phantom Limbs, I know why, yet I wish I had read it a year ago so I could justify re-reading already.

Last year, a couple weeks before I was scheduled to close on my house, we went to BookCon.  As you may guess from the name, they were books involved – in large quantities, and mostly free.  With an impending move, almost all of them were promptly packed, where they stayed until I bought (& assembled) bookcases in the fall.  At that point, Phantom Limbs was sorted onto the shelf with other G authors, where it stayed until this summer when I went looking for a book I could put down.  (Cause I couldn’t write a black belt essay in the bath.)

Oops!

As it turns out, it wasn’t that type of book.  It’s more of a stay up late, read snippets at every opportunity type.

After the sudden death of his younger brother, followed by his best friend moving out of state, Otis turned to swimming as a distraction from his grief.  He is driven to compete by Dara, an amputee whose own tragedy prevents her from competing at her former level.  In the midst of training (Dara is convinced he can make it to the Olympics if he just pushes harder), Meg comes back, and the two of them work to rekindle their friendship while addressing their unresolved issues from Mason’s death.

What makes this book memorable is the level of depth Paula Garner puts into each character.  Each of them has issues that are being dealt with – or deliberately ignored – that the others can help them with.  They make mistakes, just like any teenager, that seem like the right choice at the time.  And there are limits to what they can fix.  Most importantly, the main characters evolve throughout the story.