Saturday 2 March 2024

The Cat Who Saved Books


Book Title: The Cat Who Saved Books
Author: Sōsuke Natsukawa, Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
Date Started: February 26th  2024
Date Completed: March 1st 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Contemporary
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:

Sarcastic cats leading humans on adventures, magical bookshops and morally challenged individuals remembering what lies beneath their misguided efforts? Someone please put this book in front of Miyazaki, it's a Ghibli adaptation waiting to happen.

Sometimes The Cat Who Saved Books is a bit on the nose with the story it's trying to tell - why books are precious despite the way some may use them for money, power or status in the modern world - but it's incredibly heartfelt. It feels like it could only be told this way against the landscape of Japan and its people's temperament, with their unique grasp of crippling modernity and intrinsic tradition.

While this story is absolutely universal, it feels quintessentially Japanese in its simplicity, adoration of feline souls and thoughtful philosophy that in itself says stop overthinking so much and recognise where you are right now. Where it critiques, it also says look beneath the surface; everyone's trying their best but some just need to be reminded to correct their course.

I also really enjoyed the translator's note from Louise Heal Kawai both in her recognition of the terms that remained in Japanese and the journey of translation itself. The love for books is palpable in both her and Natsukawa's writing, and Kawai highlights a fitting inspiration as the labyrinths Theseus travelled through to find the Minotaur in Greek mythology. Despite my background in mythology, I hadn't even spotted it while reading and that in itself is a testament to how this novel tells its own transformative tale that appreciates the history of storytelling, but proves that there is still endless magic they offer the modern world.

Monday 26 February 2024

Mortal Gods


Book Title: Mortal Gods
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Goddess War #2
Date Started: February 7th  2024
Date Completed: February 24th 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three Stars
Review:

The Goddess War series has such a fun concept. Placing these immortal figures in a place of complete vulnerability in the modern world as they slowly die to the things that used to give them power (Athena chokes on owl feathers, Ares begins bleeding from every cut he ever lived through, Artemis is hunted by her own hounds) is such an original idea that plays with these characters in a way beyond the shallow and loose interpretations I’m used to in contemporary reimaginings. This year, I’m working to finish some of the series I started as a teenager - but only the ones I care enough about. The Goddess War trilogy is firmly in that category.

While this book is mainly filler, the filler itself is engaging enough. There are a lot of ways these kinds of retellings can fall apart, and the main one is dependant on how much the author actually understands the source material they’re working with (not just the stories and the names, but the nuance of culture, honour, how different Ancient Greek values were to our modern ones - the stuff that thematically pulls everything together to feel real). It’s so refreshing to be able to say Kendare Blake really knows her stuff. Her background knowledge is adept, but so is her characterisation and where she grows it.

The characters are the really fun thing, and this book is basically just about them ahead of what I expect will be a more action-packed finale in Ungodly. I personally find the mortals more interesting as they grapple with their previous reincarnations starting to blend with their current lives and destinies. The gods who are slowly becoming mortal are often more intriguing in concept than their actual actions on the page. This was also the series that made me love Cassandra of Troy as a historical figure. I’d really hoped she’d get a little more screen time and development in this book considering she’s the pivotal anchor for the plot, but forward progression was slow in general. I’m willing to wait for her arc to resolve in the final book.

Not a lot happens in Mortal Gods - suspect this could’ve just been a duology like Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood series - but it’s fun and a real show of creativity around the ideas of myth, immortals, pain, legacy and new beginnings. I’ll happily be paying to get an out of print copy send over from the US and hope that a UK publisher will rediscover this little series and bring it back here.

Saturday 10 February 2024

The Warm Hands of Ghosts


Book Title: The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Author: Katherine Arden
Date Started: January 25th 2024
Date Completed: February 8th 2024
Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Mystery
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

War fiction isn’t generally a genre I’m interested in, but I’ve been homesick for the magic of Arden’s historical fantasy so didn’t hesitate to jump headfirst into this one. Her magical realism elevates any story and while The Warm Hands of Ghosts is far more rooted in reality than her other novels, the book balances both well to tell a story quite unique.

My one reservation about this novel was how slow it was to start. Arden takes real time to build depth in her characters beyond the typical war time portraits, but it’s more than a third of the way through before we get some actual fantasy. What becomes an almost timeless saga, seeing more sides to the war than trenches and hospitals, takes quite a lot of lead in time to grow in new directions.

The ‘some people cannot create, they can only use and destroy’ motifs are the real polish for me. While thematically it sometimes gets battered about, it is undeniably the core of a dazzling crescendo, and a very long thread tying each person and each story together. The narrative takes place over about a year or so, but far less consistently than we tend to be used to in modern novels - that thematic truth of nature is what marries it all together.

Laura herself is a great character to anchor the sweeping story, time period and ensemble cast. It could have been so easy to fall into stereotype but the brusque nurse doesn’t drown out the emotional person underneath - and likewise her logic is always there for Laura to fall back on in defence. Her identity, and her companions’, are crafted so well the story can be political without derailing the narrative for a moral high ground. Beliefs and actions are consistent because they align with the characters we are falling for.

I really do love Arden’s bittersweet style of storytelling. Everything always feels so rich and grim and exciting all at once. The Warm Hands of Ghosts harkens to so many references from folklore, to poetry, to music, to history and on and on. But her story feels uniquely original and new - and that’s hard to come by.

Friday 26 January 2024

Incurable


Book Title: Incurable
Author: John Marsden
Series: The Ellie Chronicles #2
Date Started: January 18th 2024
Date Completed: January 25th 2024
Genres: Action, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:

These books really are a saga, all the way from Tomorrow When the War Began to where we are now. While the story only takes place over a few years at most, this series has been with me for most of my life thanks to a dear family friend. I wish it got more traction outside of Australia because it really is one of the best book series for young adults out there.

For a story no longer taking place during a war, there sure is a lot of drama and action. If you had to assign a genre I’d probably go for ‘slice of life’ - but the most exciting kind imaginable. I’m finding it incredibly freeing to follow the aftershocks of the war and Ellie and her friends’ experiences. And especially since living through the Covid epidemic, I have a newfound appreciation for epilogues and what comes next.

Reading John Marsden book is always a joy because no one writes action like this. I get through a fair amount of action-intense books across various genres, but none have this clear-headed processing and absolute petrifying chaos in their execution. Ellie and her friends find themselves in life threatening situations chronically frequently, but every time, it’s just as tense and inescapable and hugely satisfying to watch them finding their way through.

And wow, how amazing is it to see a genuinely clever female character kick ass. I love a lot of YA fiction and heroines, but Ellie is just so instinctively intelligent, it never gets old. The witty one liners aren’t her thing, nor are the elaborate gotcha plans running in the background; but adrenaline pumping survival instinct? No one does it better. She’s such a good example of a protagonist being the person who swoops in and saves others, rather than being agency-less and only ever experiencing things as a result of being caught unawares - Ellie really takes charge of situations and feel the strain it of course takes to do it.

I think I would probably read anything by John Marsden after this series, regardless of the genre or even synopsis. I expect I said this in my last review but, who knew farming could be so intrinsic and actually interesting in a war story from a teenager? How could so many ‘will they, won’t they’ relationships just be a small part of a much bigger human story? How could a protagonist who literally never seems to win be so rewarding to follow along? I still don’t really know the answer, but I definitely enjoy the ride.

Saturday 20 January 2024

House of Many Ways


Book Title: House of Many Ways
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Series: Howl #3
Date Started: January 12th 2024
Date Completed: January 18th 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three Stars
Review:

My personal goal for this year is to finish a bunch of book (and TV) series before I start any more, including some that have been waiting since childhood. Diana Wynne Jones' classics were of course introduced to me by the Ghibli adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle, though you can see her works' influence across so many more films than just that (the little magical dog Waif must have influenced Heen in Miyazaki's Howl).

Overall, this is a fun trilogy, with an innovative way of exploring a whole world and its characters by moving the narrative perspective to different strangers falling into Sophie and Howl's path. And Wynne Jones is so good at writing flawed protagonists that have tactile learning journeys throughout the story. We all know Howl's vanity and Sophie's short temper, but Charmain has to learn how to be an adult herself even in perhaps less dire circumstances.

There is a certain whimsical nature often missing from contemporary children's books in these older stories. Whether it's from a time without such cheap technology (though the first book does indeed include an 80s TV). The fantasy may be less 'high' but more self-assured in introducing new elements and worldbuilding without pages of explanation. Maybe that's saying something about modern storytelling sensibilities, but it is often nice to dip back into this style every now and then.

As always, the mystery resolves itself rather sweetly, though it did feel like Charmain had less to do with it than the previous heroes of the series. I think I certainly enjoyed it less than I imagine a younger reader would find it. But, as Neil Gaiman says, Dianna Wynne Jones is simply the best at writing magic, and it's nice to have her iconic trilogy off my reading list.

Friday 12 January 2024

Tehanu


Book Title: Tehanu
Author: Ursula Le Guin
Series: Earthsea Cycle #4
Date Started: January 4th 2024
Date Completed: January 12th 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Five Stars
Review:

Ursula Le Guin's stories are truly something else. Engaging and exciting, even with such an unconventional plot structure, Tehanu continues the Earthsea Cycle (written several years after the original three books) in a confident sweep of grand and yet quiet magic.

The first three books are wonderful (particularly the Tombs of Atuan, which of course meant this revisiting of Tenar's story would be magical), and yet Tehanu is poignantly distinct. We've had epic odysseys and dramatic battles of good versus evil, but what comes after? When the hero is wounded, who do they go to to heal? And perhaps that person they go to is the hero all along. This fourth instalment is a most beautiful, thoughtful and fierce feminist piece - which acknowledges various points of view and doesn't pass judgment, but finds some universal balance and equality that so many flail trying to construct and therefore miss altogether.

As a contemporary reader, having experienced the waves of feminism through literature in my life, there is a whispered might in Le Guin's storytelling. She doesn't have to say Tenar is just as powerful as Ged on the page, or even have Tenar so self-assured of it herself. Her actions, her history, and her day-to-day strength when even the great archmage is cowered make the reader know it.

Old-fashioned epic fantasy has such a good grasp of time and space - making villages and adventures and creatures like dragons feel truly giant and life-size to the reader. As fantasy, particularly high fantasy, has evolved I feel it's become richer in descriptions and deliberate worldbuilding (we'll give a pass to Tolkien and his obsession with every damn tree in a forest), but has then started to lose this assumed suspension of disbelief. Le Guin doesn't need to describe how anything magical fits into her world because it just does, it only needs a passing comment. Furthermore, Tehanu's ties to the earlier books enhance the vividity of the story but also goes to show how vast Earthsea as a world is. This story is so far removed from the original three and yet is playing out somewhere in the distance. Such diversity and distinction exist in the real world, they don't have to be meticulously tied with perfect strings to each other as modern readers have come to expect.

As an afterthought, I also want to mention the Complete Illustrated Edition I'm working my way through. Not only are the illustrations from Charles Vess desperately beautiful, but this edition also comes along with commentary from Le Guin looking back on her novels. The novels themselves are great, but her afterwards are really something else. Her retrospective reflections on what she was doing, what was motivating her, and even the world's reactions, are so poignant and enhance the whole experience of reading the stories. In such a down-to-earth way, the mother of fantasy takes her biggest bow.

Friday 5 January 2024

Sisters of Sword and Shadow


Book Title: Sisters of Sword and Shadow
Author: Laura Bates
Date Started: December 31st 2023
Date Completed: January 4th 2024
Genres: Historical, Adventure, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Five Stars
Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I was caught off guard by how much I fell head over heels for this book. It's an epic tale of adventure and belonging, going places you don't expect but are perfectly conceived, almost sidelining as a spin-off to Arthurian legend. While it's seemingly targeted at a younger audience, it's still massively enjoyable for older readers.

While the main narrative focuses on Cass and her journey to becoming a knight, the side plots are the real bursts of colour in this tapestry. Whether it's her relationship with secondary characters, coming to terms with her past, the relationships of the sisterhood's leaders, the politics of land ownership and more, it paints this whole story with so much more detail. But it never, even in moments of drama or angst, do they overwhelm the main story being told or the backbone of the heroine. Cass remains Cass the whole way through and everything else just makes it more vibrant.

Some may argue that the themes explored aren't suitable for a younger audience, but I think the tough things are done in such a responsible way. Obviously, misogyny was going to be core to this story, but Bates also touches on things like sexual violence, classism and mental health sensitively and without being graphic. She also focuses on the emotional experiences surrounding them, and how to move on with a support system.

I actually hadn't realised the author was Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism project until I got to the acknowledgements at the end. While I'm not overly familiar with that book, it went a long way to explaining how this book had managed to be so exciting and fun, but accessible, political and brave. With so much detail, fun exploration and representation, it was awesome. To put it simply, I would've been obsessed with it as a child, and it was a pretty great ride as an adult too.