Monday 12 January 2015

The Spiritglass Charade

22398523

Book Title: The Spiritglass Charade
Author: Colleen Gleason
Series: Stocker and Holmes #2
Date Started: January 11th 2015
Date Completed: January 12th 2015
Genres: Mystery, Historical, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

I enjoyed The Spiritglass Charade as a continuation of the this series, but I have to admit I did find it disappointing compared to the first book. For me, it had lost some of its fun, whimsical atmosphere that had stopped things from being too far fetched before.

After solving the mystery surrounding the Clockwork Scarabs, Mina Holmes and Evaline Stoker have been called to assist royalty once again. But this time the idea of clairvoyants and voices from beyond the way are a step too far into the supernatural for Mina's logical mind, and Evaline has other problems to worry about as her family heritage is called into play as the UnDead start to prowl London's dark corners.

I do really like the personality of the characters put into the inner-thoughts of the narrative that really push the characters Gleason wants, though the exact style doesn't really differ per perspective. Another issue I do have with the writing is that continuity is basically thrown to the wind. You'd have Mina noticing something and thinking it's important, then never being mentioned again; Evaline solving something and then being clueless about it later. In the grand scheme of things, since this series is really about entertainment, it doesn't really matter too much, but it did stand out to me as I was reading.

I wasn't completely convinced by quality of the mystery in this book, but I was happily prepared to go along with it since the other elements tend to be entertaining enough. And while there were some nice scenes along the way, it was the lost details that really got to me this time. There were lots of things that were written like they were going to be very important at some point in the series, yet they were quickly and conveniently solved here: [slight spoilers] Evaline's sudden ability to fight vampires after her panics last time etc.
The biggest problem that arose was the difficult balance between the mystery, action, character plots and romance throughout the story. The former of these I've mentioned, but the romance, while sparse, was very cheesy and worthy of more than a few eye-rolls. Though I think these issues were present in The Clockwork Scarab, there was definitely an air of excitement that cancelled it out that just wasn't there for me this time.
Though the climax was a bit rushed for me, I did love the twist right at the end. I didn't see it coming and I'm really interested at what implications this is going to have on the characters in future adventures.

I do still have a fondness for these characters, but the smaller period of time we saw a lot of them was sad for me: we barely saw any of Grayling and literally no Bram (who are a personal favourites of mine), and I'm not sure what happened to Dylan for most of it, despite the fact he seems to need to become a main character.
But Mina and Evaline's partnership is definitely one of the best features of these books. They just have such a great dynamic when they're together, despite the fact they are far from friends and continually make each other's lives harder. The problem is Mina refuses to let anyone else have some limelight, and Evaline just doesn't seem to have a brain most of the time, but at the points where they're forced to work together it's just great. Mina is still my favourite, and Evaline does irritate me regularly, but I hope that they start to work more closely in future books because their joint scenes are the best ones.

I think this book was a bit rushed, and I can see lots of places where things could've been developed. The mystery itself wasn't as focused on working things out as the previous one was; much more moving from place to place as the story went on. But really, it was the lack of significant development in the characters and their relationships that got to me: Mina and Evaline may have become vaguely closer, but other than that I can't see any big difference from where the characters were at the end compared to the beginning of the book.

I would recommend this series as a whole for something nice and entertaining for a break between harder reads. It's really good fun, and it has some nice genres and characters that you don't see put together that much. It's not the most sophisticated book out there, but I absolutely love the era and well-known characters combined in this whimsical - if sometimes ludicrous -  universe.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22398523-the-spiritglass-charade

Sunday 11 January 2015

Written in Red

15989350

Book Title: Written in Red
Author: Anne Bishop
Series: The Others #1
Date Started: January 6th 2015
Date Completed: January 10th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

I enjoyed Written in Red, but I have to say I'm not running out to get the next book in the series - despite the fact the story seems to be dependant on several books to get its point across. The book also contains what might be triggering to people with self harm backgrounds, though I have to say its use in the world was very interesting for me.

Meg Corbyn is hidden in the Courtyard: a town full of the Others, the supernatural creatures that humans having been living with since Namid created the earth. But even acting as the human Liaison for the Lakeside Courtyard won't stop the people she belongs to coming after her. And as the Others start to suspect her true identity, things can go wrong for Meg very, very quickly.

The writing was a little less easy than YA, which was nice for a change, but I still got through this book reasonably quickly and it wasn't hard to read several chapters at a time with the slow yet gradually developing storyline. The world itself is the typical supernatural idea with equivalents to werewolves and vampires and shapeshifting animals etc, but with a more original twist: these creatures have always been here and humans have always had to grudgingly get on with them. The one problem I had was that the concepts of these creatures and the society they lived in hadn't completely convinced me by the time things started getting frankly a little silly.

I did have a few issues with the plot, but I do think it was reasonably well thought-out  and has a lot of space to develop in future books. The main problem I had was that there was no real continuity as to why all these dangerous Others were taking care of her. It was sweet, and it was definitely vital to move the plot forward, but there just wasn't any reason at all why the whole Courtyard fell in love with her and were willing to break the anger they had at the humans since literally the dawn of civilisation. However, the Others were still definitely a threat despite their friendliness, and it was clear that the humans were well aware of this and weren't going to act like idiots just to get a few dramatic moments for the plot.
The ending, purely because numerous hints were dropped throughout the story that something else was going to happen, really disappointed me, While in hindsight it was a satisfactory ending, because of the practically obvious direction the plot was going, the conclusion just became anticlimactic when it turned out this was something that's going to happen later in the series.

I really liked the majority of these characters, though I didn't really see what some of them contributed to the story just yet. I'm sue they'll be more important in future books, but it was a little annoying that some of the many names I had to learn in a reasonably short space of time weren't really important.
Meg was a nice protagonist, though I think Bishop fell into the trap of having everyone worship her for no particular reason that happens a lot in these fantasy books where the protagonist has a special power of some kind. However, I liked gradually learning about Meg and her story; especially how she was pretty fierce under her friendly demeanour.
Simon was nice, and I liked the way he didn't turn out to be the troubled bad boy and stayed the moody leader of things (it's better than I make it sound, promise). But to be honest his relationship with Sam was the most affectionate thing about him.

Overall, I really liked the slow development of the story and its characters, however when I was reading the book it did sometimes annoy me that nothing really important was ever happening. This is really why the novel reminded me of a contemporary book, because it was all about how each day played out one after another and how relationships were built etc. But, for a fantasy 'thriller' that I expected when I started, this confused me.

I think Written in Red is a good adult urban fantasy, though it's maturity wavers at times - despite the possibly triggering content. I also wouldn't recommend going into this series if you don't want to have to read all of the books to understand what's happening in the grand scheme of things. However, it is an enjoyable read that reminded me of a contemporary-style fantasy and I'm interested to know how things continue.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15989350-written-in-red

Tuesday 6 January 2015

The Walled City

24070160

Book Title: The Walled City
Author: Ryan Graudin
Date Started: January 3rd 2015
Date Completed: January 6th 2015
Genres: Adventure, Action, Dystopian, Romance
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

The Walled City is a brilliant book that surprised me with its crazy storyline and rougher subjects, but when I think about it there was just something missing that kept it one step from blowing me away.

Jin Ling is masquerading as a boy in the Walled City. Every day she runs from thieves, steals from stalls and hides from the Brotherhood. She'll stay there until she finds her sister. Dai is stuck in the Walled City. He has eighteen days left for his mission, eighteen days to infiltrate the Brotherhood's headquarters and eighteen days to prove his innocence. Mei Yee is caged in a Brotherhood brothel, desperately searching for an escape, for peace, for freedom. They are all connected to help each other, but they can be torn apart in a second.

I really like Graudin's style of writing. It flowed well and had a good balance between the character's narration and the actual events that were unfolding before them. It was also cleverly arranged to control what information we knew at certain times.
Having said that, there wasn't much distinction between the three narrator's voices and the differing lengths of the chapters did get on my nerves when I was waiting for news of a specific character - though this could be seen as a positive since it kept me reading really fast.

The setting is the obvious selling point for this book, but I have to admit it wasn't exactly what I expected. That's not exactly a negative comment - this dystopian-feeling poverty-stricken community just outside of the wealthy city was brilliantly made and perfect for the story - but it did catch me off guard. But it's also brilliant for slowly introducing the characters and revealing their connections to each other and their backstories by reflecting aspects of the place in the narration.
I really like the darker subjects focused on in the plot, but I felt at some point it just hit a development wall that the story refused to push though. This was fine, but I was preparing myself for things to get a lot more twisted, since the story starts off so bleak and has major conflicts every few chapters. The biggest annoyance for me though, was the tagline that seems to be heavily pushed for the novel having basically no impact on the story. 'Run fast, trust no one, always carry your knife,' sounds like it's going to create some conflicts in the story, but it's broken within literally the first few chapters and has basically no consequences in the entire novel.
The progression and storyline of the book really impressed me. It wasn't the typical 'try once and fail to stop it from being too easy, then try again and win because we've learnt so much from this one defeat' set-up: things failed again and again for the characters, but they just kept going on anyway. In fact, there wasn't even a point that comes to mind when any of them gave up; this is their life and this is what they want to get back. They're going to keep trying until they can't anymore. This definitely got my approval for breaking the success vs failure rate of most YA out there.
I really liked the climax and how the characters thought on their feet as they went through, and built their strength in a short space of time. The ending tied together a little too nicely for what started out quite dark - note this is a personal thing - but it was satisfactory enough for me to be able to walk away from this book happily.

Each central character is this book stood out as an individual and thought for themselves: so much so in fact that they ended up messing each other's plans up more than once. And even the minor characters each had a personality and purpose in the story.
Jin Ling, though being a brilliant main protagonist, did have a fairly repetitive story when she was on her own, and though things got darker each time, it wasn't communicated through the narrative as well as it could have been. However, Jin was the driving force for the whole novel and brought her own power to the role of the 'strong' female.
Dai is basically a better version of the typical self-hating hero in almost every Young Adult story. But, emphasis is needed on the 'better'. The story is set up so that you start caring and understanding Dai before the sob story is brought in, so you can actually like his character before feeling you have to like his story.
Mei Yee's story was the most interesting for me, and I think she definitely went through the most character development. Though her perspective of events happening was very limited because of her situation, she still seemed to hold her own plot line solidly and had an impact on the progress. I actually felt pretty proud of her by the end of the story.

The pacing at the start was good in slowly introducing the reader to the setting, the characters and the context. As the book went on, it got better since I felt like there was going to be a climax every few chapters, and each plot development felt like a big deal because of the balance  of recognition and consequences either side of it. The only slight problem I felt was that the climax felt like it dragged on for such a long time, and was then it was done and we moved on incredibly swiftly.

The Walled City pleasantly surprised me, despite being quite different to what I had been expecting. Yet another book that doesn't quite fit into any category, it's definitely a book driven by characters and twists in the plot line. There's a dystopian-like atmosphere, but a very modern side to the story that really brings the poverty that exists around the world to the reader's attention. It's an action adventure a tad romanticised, but it makes a solid change from a lot of YA.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24070160-the-walled-city

Saturday 3 January 2015

The Clockwork Scarab

18487177

Book Title: The Clockwork Scarab
Author: Colleen Gleason
Series: Stocker and Holmes #1
Date Started: January 2nd 2015
Date Completed: January 3rd 2015
Genres: Mystery, Historical, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:


I'm not usually a huge fan of half-hearted novels that aren't really serious and are supposed to just be entreating to read. I get bored. But for once, the silliness actually clicked for some reason and this book was just so fun to read. The strong links to some of my favourite cultural topics from around the world probably helped, mind you.

Upon receiving a mysterious letter requesting their attendance at the British Museum Miss Evaline Stoker and Miss Mina Holmes meet and are pulled into a dangerous investigation surrounding the suicides of young girls around London. But it isn't until they stumble upon another body within the museum itself and find a strange boy that doesn't belong in 1889 that they realise this is more than just another case for Scotland Yard.

The writing was not the best. There was a bit of unbalance between dialogue and then description; there were long sections of narrative, then fleeting conversations. Both character's dialect and how the narrator communicated their narrative seemed to switch between old-fashioned and modern stylings a lot which wouldn't have bothered me so much normally, but since there's a character from modern times mixed in with the 19th century characters, I would've liked to see more of a consistent difference between how they spoke.

The thing that made this book brilliant for me personally was the mix of stuff in it: not only was there a huge span of genres it was crossing over and a lot of different influences over the place, but it tied in with Egyptian mythology, the 19th century and old-fashioned crime-solving. These just happen to be three things I really enjoy learning about, and having them mixed together was really lovely. But there's a lot more thrown in than just that, we've got secret societies and fancy balls, underworld gangs and romance between the classes. The great thing about this was that there was so much to get interested in no matter what you specifically find interesting, and the consistent atmosphere for the 19th century murder mystery was really strong so kept everything related. However, when trying to involve so many different things, you're going to run into a few issues. The main ones for this book being the continuity and the little flaws dropped along the way that just took away from the story being serious (though that didn't matter too much) and started to edge towards it being too far-fetched to ignore. At the same time, the romance was kind of silly and predictable, but actually I did find some of it sweet and it didn't become the main focus for either heroine.
The ending was kind of anticlimactic, but just as enjoyable as the rest of the novel. I really love how everything isn't completely worked out: the main mission is over, so we aren't sat asking what all of that hassle was about, but at the same time there's a lot of opportunity for the next book to turn in a lot of directions, both with the character's development, and some of the mysteries left over from this time.

The characters, whilst reflecting the rest of the book through not being entirely solid, were still really good, and I ended up really rooting for them. Their gradual development throughout the story was what really won me over though, I felt like I was really travelling with these characters.
The main problem with Mina was that she was arrogant. Intentionally, of course, so that she would have some need of Evaline, but at times she was a bit too arrogant. Having said that, Mina was my favourite of the two heroines because I do feel she was more actively involved in the investigation, and was ultimately helping more people as she went along the way.
Evaline got on my nerves at times, I won't lie. But her complex of being a vampire hunter but her limitations within that affecting her outside was well tied into the plot, and she definitely did both learn and teach things to Mina throughout the story. Obviously, both of the girls are clearly made to have obvious flaws so that their impact on each other stands out a lot more. That isn't entirely clear just yet, but I don't think it would hard to achieve in future stories.
Dylan was a really good addition to the team, and one that I wasn't expecting. However, you would expect a boy transported more than a century into the past and left stranded there would be more of a central focus that it ended up being.

I thought the pacing was really good in this book. We're thrown right in at the start of things, and we're given pieces of information as we go through the story. Gleason didn't fall for the typical trap in a mystery story of dumping too much information at significant points in the plot, and so the reader can actually make some of their own deductions amongst Mina's if they want to. I also thought that actually the relationships between all the characters built solidly throughout the book, but still weren't entirely fixed by the end: this was important for me because it added some sense of realism when most other aspects were very imaginative and crazy.

The Clockwork Scarab is a brilliant read if you're looking for something entertaining, but something different too - it's not often you get a historical, time-travelling murder mystery with two strong heroines and hints of the supernatural. It only look me 24 hours to read, so it's a fast-paced adventure as well. If you're not quite sure whether the premise sounds a bit silly (I fully admit it, I thought that), then maybe look at some other reviews or try reading a sample - but it really clicked for me, so it might for you.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18487177-the-clockwork-scarab

Friday 2 January 2015

Steelheart

17727802

Book Title: Steelheart
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Reckoners #1
Date Started: December 31st 2014
Date Completed: January 2nd 2015
Genres: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

Brandon Sanderson isn't one of the quiet names fantasy fiction, but this is the first novel I've read of his. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I am glad that I read this not-quite-fantasy, not-quite-sci-fi, not-quite-dystopian.

David is the only one who has seen Steelheart bleed. Everyone else thinks he's invulnerable, the most powerful Epic, and they cower in fear from him. No one tries to fight back, no one tries to save themselves or the city. No one except the Reckoners. They kill Epics. They fight for their freedom. And David is going to find them and help them take down Steelheart.

I could tell that Sanderson normally writes high fantasy because the world building was one of the strongest elements of this novel. As you go through the book you gradually pick up more and more about the history and current state of the city, without always being told it directly and with no information dumping.
Overall, I liked the writing. I expected the have to take my time with Sanderson because of his reputation, but actually his style flows really nicely and lets you work through the pages pretty fast. There was a nice balance of humour and description, action and dialogue, and often a mix of different things at the same time.

When I started reading Steelheart I was slightly worried at how typical it seemed to be for a urban fantasy adventure, but as I read more and more I started imagining it much more like a sci-fi. Which then presented the issue of the phones and more mundane items feeling out of place. But then you have the high-tech items like vaporising gloves (not what they're called but close enough) and armoured robot suits. I'm not sure if it was just me getting confused, but I found it very hard to consistently picture what was going on.
However, the story itself and the character's did pull it back. Though it was clearly written from a man's perspective, the slow build-up of relationships between characters wasn't rushed, and was still questioned by the narrator himself towards the end. It was quite predictable, but was written in the way that it didn't become boringly typical. Furthermore, the big twist was very good in my opinion, and I was kind of annoyed at myself for working it about because it didn't make the end as exciting as it might of been. But, the cliffhanger left enough things hanging to keep me interested - and not in the frustratingly unanswered way I'm used to from Young Adult fiction, but instead with most questions fulfilled, but new ones opened wide up.

There were some really nice characters and good relationships in this book, but the main problem that took away from the whole book for me was the lack of attachment I had to any of them.
I did like David as a protagonist once he started to get involved. At the beginning his blatant focus on getting into the Reckoners got a bit old and didn't do well to introduce his character positively. However, he did get a lot better later on, even though it was a bit too convenient that he knew everything about every Epic they wanted to target.
Megan's cold demeanour worked at first, but again got a bit old. As the main two protagonists, their stories didn't move a whole lot forward, but the way it was intertwined with the plot made it almost unnoticeable (until I sat down and thought about to say, but that's beside the point). I might have not loved this book because it involved a lot of revealing character's backstories for future events, rather than for what was currently going on: filler book syndrome.

I think this book was paced really nicely, and I flew through it after the first few chapters. The way it's structured to show the progression of the plot also stood out to me as being very well suited for the speed of the story: you could tell the time was passing in the narrative, and the characters naturally flowed along with it.

I would recommend Steelheart to YA sci-fi fans, but anyone who enjoys a mix of genres would enjoy it: it's not disastrous enough to fit neatly into dystopian, not mundane enough to be urban fantasy, and not whimsical enough to be exactly sci-fi. But it's definitely got the excitement and pace to keep fans of any of those entertained, and the beginnings of a very good storyline.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727802-steelheart

Thursday 1 January 2015

2015 Book Resolutions

I've never really been one for making resolutions because I'm very aware that it'll last three days and then I'll feel terrible when the next year comes for not doing any of them. But I've noticed some things that I've just started to change naturally, so I thought I'd encourage them and get another blog post done in the process since I haven't posted a review in...a while.

1. Read More Adult Fiction
Classic fiction is starting to be pushed more onto me from school anyway, but I've noticed that I'm mostly enjoying the adult fiction I read more than the YA. Quality aside, I basically subconsciously assumed that older fiction was going to be more complicated and tiring to get through, but pretty much every preconception I've had have so far been proven wrong. This isn't necessarily about becoming more mature in my reading tastes, or branching out from what I'm used to: I've just started to enjoy the writing style, characters and story lines more in adult fiction.
Having said that, I do still want to keep reading YA because in my experience there's a more active community around it, which makes the after-reading enjoyment better, and there are definitely still very good quality stories out there.

2. Read More Books on Kindle
There are three reasons. Number one, it's mostly far, far cheaper and since I'm starting to try books that I wouldn't normally read it means a lot less money wasted if it turns out I still don't like a particular genre etc. Number two, as much as I love the feel, smell, beauty of a physical book I'm seriously running out of room to put them and if they aren't a favourite they often get put on a shelf and don't move for years. If I lent books out more often this wouldn't be such a problem because I'd feel like the books are getting enjoyed enough for it to be worth the space. But unfortunately I happen to be friends with quite a few people that enjoy having their own books. And number three, just from looking at my wall of bookshelves, I am a little concerned about how much paper is being used. Stupid, I know. But the point still stands that a thousand books on a kindle that used fossil fuels to be made is still better in the long run than a thousand print books that were read once and now sit on a shelf.
Obviously, a simple way out would be to just give books away to friends or charity once I've read them - which I also plan to do more of. The problem still stands that I have to get rid of everything I've already got on my shelves at the moment though.

3. Book Buying Limits
No book buying ban because that never works, and no scheme to only read books from the TBR shelf until it's all gone because realistically that would take me a few years and I'd get very bored. But, I do plan to be more logical in what I buy. For the moment, no buying books unless I want to start them right away because there are plenty of things on my shelf that i'm interested to open but sometimes there's just too much choice and I end up buying a new one to make the decision for me. If, later in the year, I've cut down on my TBR shelf and there's something I really think will be good even if I don't want to start it in a second, then maybe. And exceptional circumstances like presents and crazy amazon kindle sales. Because how am I really supposed to resist?

4. More Daytime Reading
Supposedly, I have an hour each day before I go to sleep to read, and maybe a couple extra on weekend mornings. But recently I've just been so tired when it comes to then that I just want to go straight to sleep, or I get three pages in, realise I haven't absorbed a single word and give up. This ends up making me read a whole lot slower and sometimes leads to more hours up on the computer 'winding down' instead of reading. So I want to have more times during the day when I can stop for an hour and read. I do sometimes do this; between essays, after college, when I'm bored and want to get away from my computer. But since starting college it's become one of the last things I think of, because at the end of the day, I do want to enjoy and process what I'm reading, and if I'm bored and half-asleep that's not really going to happen. So maybe between coursework, or in frees at college, or when I get home. I don't actually know yet - a great start, right?

5. Book Preferences
This is a strange one, because I think I've been trying to do this for a long time, but I haven't unite got the hang of it, and honestly I'm not entirely aware of what it is... But I want to listen to why people in the community like certain books that I don't. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but I think because I don't, for example, enjoy contemporary, I turn away as soon as it gets mentioned because it just doesn't interest me, and so I never actually find out what other people like about it. This isn't really something that's going to help me or advance my reading maturity or anything, but I'm just quite interested to find out what things build up preferences on genre, story, setting, narration, characters etc.

*and an hour later I think of something else*
BONUS: Accurate Book Ratings
I've had this idea for how to rate books more accurately for a while because I'm aware I'm not entirely consistent in the way that I rate novels. Sometimes I get caught up in how much I enjoyed the book, or how good the ending was, when the majority of the novel wasn't that great. Or perhaps being unfair towards a certain book because I was disappointed with the final thing compared to expectations. And because of these personal things for me, it makes recommending them to other people a lot less clear. So I going to start a new sort of rating system:
Two five star ratings, and then an average from them. The first rating will be on how much I enjoyed the book and how much I think other people will enjoy reading it, so this is basically my personal opinion. Sometimes I read a technically flawed book, but actually I somehow get really caught up in a twist or a character, and so I end up rounding things up, perhaps unfairly. But, at the same time that's quite an important thing for how well received that book was for me. So the second rating is how technically 'good' the book was. Things like the quality of the writing, the originality of the plot, the realism of the characters and how well the book achieved what it set out to do. These things are really important to me, but I understand that some other people find them less vital. From these two ratings I can add them together and then half the result to get a more accurate rating out of five. I may consequently end up starting half-star ratings, or I might round up or down. We'll see.