October Review Round Up

A few days late, I know, but I've been distracted by NaNoWriMo (which isn't going as well as I'd hoped it would. I'm only 3300 words in on the third day).

Anyway, these are the books I read and reviewed during October:

The Fiery Cross
Diana Gabaldon

A snippet from my review:

Diana Gabaldon has a knack for description of all sorts, be it clothing, settings, behavior or any number of facets of life. She's got the details down. I can't say if they're all accurate, but the characters and the way the live in the late seventeen-hundreds "feels" right to me.

In Celebration of Lammas Night Created By Mercedes Lackey
Editor: Josepha Sherman

A snippet from my review:

If you're a fan of Mercedes Lackey or Andre Norton you'll find that In Celebration of Lammas Night is filled with familiar names: Ellen Guon co-wrote the books of Bedlam's Bard with Mercedes Lackey. Josepha Sherman, the editor of this book, worked with her on A Cast Of Corbies. Holly Lisle co-wrote When The Bough Breaks, one of the Serrated Edge series, and also worked with Marion Zimmer Bradley. Susan Shwartz has written with Andre Norton in the past. The list goes on. It's full of authors I recognized: S. M. Stirling and Jody Lynn Nye are two other well known authors who have stories in this anthology.

Bad Moon Rising
Sherrilyn Kenyon

A snippet from my review:

Although this is the story of Fang Kattalakis, its also just as much the story of Aimee Peltier, the lone daughter of the bears who run Sanctuary. That meant that rather than the scattered references to Sanctuary and how it was run, we really got a good view of the running of the bar. Kind of neat to see that different view on the Were-hunters and their lives. I also liked the greater insight into how the Were-hunter women factored into their society. So far, nearly all the Were-hunter main characters we've seen had been male.

Defenders of the Scroll
Shiraz

A quote from my review:

This is in many ways an absolutely spectacular book. Each page is set on the background of a rolled scroll, which is a little detail I've never seen done before. And yet, despite the darker background, the text is still clear and easy to read. Also spectacular are the full page illustrations of the events and adventures the characters go through.

Geisha, A Life
Mineko Iwasaki and Rande Brown

A snippet from my review:

Geisha, A Life was an interesting read, and I may have to go hunting for more books on the subject. Memoirs Of A Geisha caught my imagination, and this book has only whetted my interest even more. A world where an adult can get by without any of the normal skills? Money and it's value? Cooking (the disasters Mineko manages to create are just plain amusing), etc.

I know very well, that although this is a world I find interesting to read about, I wouldn't want to live in it. Mineko lives a life of privilege, but from the start, she's been at the top of her society. How different was it for less fortunate Geisha? That's one thing this book (and, for that matter Arthur Golden's novel) doesn't really go into.

Defenders of the Scroll - Shiraz

Defenders of the Scroll
Shiraz
iUniverse
Copyright Date: 2009
978-1440144776

The Amazon.com description:

A teenage boy.A dark wizard.A mystic scroll. And the fate of a world hangs in the balance. . . When Alex "the Axeman" Logan is pulled from his world to help young princess Dara save her kingdom from the Shadow Lord, he thinks there has been a mistake. He's a teen guitar player close to failing 11th grade, not some defender of the realm. All he has are some school books, his wits, and his love of fantasy movies. Overnight his life is history. Alex must confront the Shadow Lord and his minions when he is thrust into a land that has changed from a magical paradise to a barren, hopeless, helpless realm invaded by a dark army. But Alex is not alone. He has the help of Dara, a magic scroll, and a band of unlikely companions drawn from his own history books: a hardened Roman Legionnaire, a swift Japanese Samurai, a mighty African Warrior, a fiery Amazon Archer, and a spirited Shaolin Monk. Can Alex become more than he believes and lead his small band of Defenders to the Hall of Shadows, the birthplace of the Shadow Lord? The fate of the realm and everyone in it rests on him.

This is in many ways an absolutely spectacular book. Each page is set on the background of a rolled scroll, which is a little detail I've never seen done before. And yet, despite the darker background, the text is still clear and easy to read. Also spectacular are the full page illustrations of the events and adventures the characters go through.

I said that I thought the book was marketed to the Young Adult segment of the population when I first got it. Now, having read Defenders of the Scroll, I'd like to revise my guess a bit. It's definitely geared to teens and young adults, but also, I think, to the nine to twelve year old set.

The characters are an interesting mix, even though some of them felt fairly stereotyped at the beginning of the book. They soon develop (mostly) out of that though, and start to become their own characters. I like the way Alex becomes more aware of reality (despite the fact he's in a fantasy realm). I think he becomes a better person for it too.

Some of the characters are definite surprises, making you think one thing, while something entirely different is going on.

This book does have a sequel, something that wasn't even hinted at anywhere (until the last page), and as a result, leaves the story and many questions completely unresolved. Despite this, I found Defenders of the Scroll to be quite a good read, and I think the book deserves the many awards it has won. It's certainly the most original fantasy I've read in a while.