Saturday 15 April 2017

Spellslinger

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Book Title: Spellslinger
Author: Sebastian de Castell
Series: Spellslinger #1
Date Started: April 10th 2017
Date Completed: April 15th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to Netgalley for this ebook for review ◆

If you'd asked me within the first half of this book what I thought about it, I would've gushed about its brilliance. I haven't had as much fun reading a book since Six of Crows came out. Unfortunately, it took itself a little too seriously towards the end and lost me a little bit, but it wasn't enough to make me think badly of the book. Spellslinger was a very enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Spellslinger had an interesting magic system - and world system in general actually. The ideas of different disciplines is pretty standard but it was the politics around sparking the bands (achieving magical skills) and what happened if you weren't able to was what made it click. Especially when you extend that past Kellen's people and onto how they interact and look at the peoples that don't have magic. I loved the idea of Ferius' cards having some sort of magical properties and being a part of this magical world, but not having to be a form of magic itself to be important. There are weapons outside of pure magic for the people that aren't mages.
What carried this book through for me was the quick-witted dialogue. De Castell knows how to tailor a speaking style to a person, and keep it consistent, not to mention a lot of his characters have a humour I can relate to. There are some characters in here that would have annoyed me from just being around had they not had their place in the narrative through their dialogue.

I wouldn't say the plot itself is really what you're focused on in the story; it's more of Kellen's personal journey and development. And quite a bit of setting him up for what's to come in the series I suspect. We get quite a few details that weren't really relevant to this story on its own: the shadowblack and war politics with the peoples outside of the oasis didn't really relate to the mage's trials or war for clan prince, though I'm sure they're going to be a big thing in the future. Having said that, I'm not even sure those particular plot lines are very important either. They were just a bit of a time-absorbing distraction for now to move us along Kellen's story - an enjoyable distraction, I admit. Overall, most of the things that didn't quite fit with this book were still fun to read.
Something that completely went over my head was the western genre. I wasn't even aware I was supposed to be setting it as a western in my head until I did some reading around the book and saw someone mention it. I was actually getting a lot more eastern vibes than western - probably with the terminology of 'oasis' with its pillars and fountain and the magic system and palace. None are things that I'm familiar with being included in westerns.

In terms of characters, there's two sides to it. De Castell's protagonists are well thought out and crafted, consistent and unique from those around them. But his side characters become caricatures of themselves very early on. His female characters, for example, were great to start with, but within 100 pages the novelty wore off and they just became stereotypes of themselves. You can have someone be bold and arrogant, or brash and confident, or even meek and nervous in one situation, but when everything around them changes and they don't they're not a convincing character anymore. And because the women were so obviously supposed to contrast expectations the book set up they were all the more noticeably off.
On the other hand, when de Castell focuses on one character for a big part of his story it pays off. Strange as it sounds, having a protagonist who was genuinely a bit useless at everything he was expected to do was really cool. We all like an underdog narrative but it's all very well having people who are supposedly untalented, and then discover halfway through that they're actually more special than everyone else, but it doesn't ring very true and these days we're tired of it. But Kellen really is useless with magic, but through understanding that (though definitely not accepting it), he ran into other things he could use and take advantage of. It's a bigger thing in Spellslinger because his people are so hell-bent on effectively punishing you if you aren't skilled with magic, so for Kellen to not make it but turn his back on their expectations and find something else that worked for him, it made quite the interesting story.

I'm ultimately more interested in Kellen's adventures from here on out but I did have a lot of fun reading this first book. Its little twists of originality gave it a nice kick and de Castell's writing is definitely fiery and slick enough to keep you engaged. Thoroughly enjoyable and worth the read.

Monday 10 April 2017

The Handmaid's Tale

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Book Title: The Handmaid's Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Date Started: April 1st 2017
Date Completed: April 10th 2017
Genres: Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

Reading The Handmaid's Tale in 2017 was both a bizarre and scary thing. Dystopian fiction it definitely is, but it doesn't take too much effort to recognise the things everyone can compare to the fear spreading across the globe at the moment - or has indeed existed for a long time. It deserves its place amongst most people's top feminist reads, and I think calling it admirable is too small a word.

I've only read one other book by Atwood, but something that carries over both is her ability to balance tones and contrast them at the best time. You expect to feel uncomfortable at a lot of points in this book, but it's the flashes of animalistic violence amongst docile people, and genuine love and affection which catch you off guard. You can feel the desire and the hopelessness when the extremes are put next to each other. I was definitely getting echoes of Shirley's Jackson's 'The Lottery'.

The Handmaid's Tale wasn't what I expected; it's actually a very quiet story, which makes it all the more powerful. It's about the human experience, particularly of our protagonist and those around her, more than the messed up society. Of course, the world building is a massive and integral part of the story, but at the heart of it this is a book about characters and how their situation has warped them and the way they treat others. It's terrifying because it doesn't need to stretch the imagination too far, it's already believable and because Atwood chooses to take us on such a personal story within this world everything takes on as much gravity as if we were inside it as well.
Something that makes the story even more outlandish - but arguably real - is just how clinical it all is. If you aren't aware (I'm sure you are) The Handmaid's Tale looks at a post-nuclear-accident society where the few fertile women are 'given' to high ranking couples to produce a child with the husband. The immediate thing I was expecting from that was the epitome of sexualisation in every way, but the women in this story aren't sex slaves, they're just identityless machines of reproduction - and somehow that's just as disturbing, if not more.
The 'epilogue' of the book - that I almost missed after its title of 'Historical Notes' - is the most important part, because it makes it seems like just a story again. After everything you've read, witnessed and learnt from Offred and her experiences, it's put into words by a bunch of ignorant futuristic professors in a way that makes you detach from it, just like we do with terrible things that have happened in our past. It's made humorous, flippantly questioned and pointlessly analysed, and for no conclusion at all. It demonstrates so perfectly why complacency and forgetfulness is dangerous.

Offred was a particularly good protagonist for this book because she's so human. Atwood has a knack with writing believably strong but flawed characters. Offred falls victim to both the physical and mental attacks and conditioning of Gilead, and isn't always able to rise above them. We can't all be spunky reckless rebels, but what Offred teaches us is that failing because the system has designed itself so that you fail isn't a finality; you can't beseech these women who start to conform because they want to preserve their life and sanity, but for those that try and continue for justice things aren't hopeless. All round, I think the way the different female perspectives were shown really tied everything together, especially through Offred's eyes since she's very aware of her own downfalls in judging other people. The fact that the times she managed to scramble alliances and friendships with other women were when she was the strongest and the most hopeful was also very important as well.

A book like this is so notorious it makes you think you know the whole story before you open to the first page, but of course there's always more the something than you think. Atwood made something between a moral tale and a horror story create unity in a huge community across the world, and I think reading it in itself is just as strong a stand as anything. Call it fiction, call it potential fact for the future, The Handmaid's Tale is an important and accessible book studying the human experience and corruption when it's controlled by fear and austerity.

Saturday 1 April 2017

Northern Lights

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Book Title: Nothern Lights
Author: Philip Pullman
Series: His Dark Materials #1
Date Started: March 10th 2017
Date Completed: April 1st 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

His Dark Materials was, like to many others, three of the standout books of my childhood. As with rereading anything I loved as a kid, I'm quite apprehensive it isn't going to be quite the same. And Northern Lights wasn't exactly how I remembered, but to be fair I've seen, read and heard so many iterations of this first book that haven't gone anywhere that it's getting unfairly predictable because I know what happens so well. So, while it might not quite have lived up to my expectations, I'm very much looking forward to reading the later books in the series with a greater understanding of the symbolism and politics that I think I'm only just starting to notice properly.

The big thing that I wasn't expecting from this book was how everything was told to me, instead of shown. Recently this has been something that's become a lot more noticeable for me since I'm studying how to make films, but even in books it's been somewhat of a lazy technique to be avoided. But, in all fairness, Northern Lights is a children's book and just because Pullman was telling us a lot of the relationships and feelings of the characters, there's a hell of a lot you have to work out for yourself in the symbolism and meaning.
Speaking of which, what was special about this reading of the book was how much I noticed the political and religious elements in the story. If you know anything about the series, you'll know it's so key to everything that's happening, but of course as a child almost all of it went straight over my head. Dust is significant and not necessarily evil, but the Church are determined to prove otherwise, but it means so much more when you can contextualise it within our society. Aside from how genius it is, the way it's communicated is utterly beautiful, with many concepts almost magical realist in the way it's presented - if it wasn't a very fantastical and whimsical world to start with.

About a third of the way through rereading Nothern Lights I started to get really scared because I really wasn't enjoying it. As much as I liked the characters and the world, everything felt quite stagnant despite the fact I knew it was going places. Again, these days we're used to fast-moving plots where everything that happens in a key part of the story, and honestly I feel very comfortable in that. As much as I love world building, something was feeling slow here and the more unsure I became the more disappointed I was. Luckily, once we finally left Mrs Coulter I started to fall much further into place and I began really enjoying myself again. I can't tell if it was the structure of the book or the pure fact that I really, really dislike Mrs Coulter, but once the story had moved on from her I found it so much better. It's one thing to appreciate the place a character has in the story, it's another to enjoy things when she's around.
I think what I'm going to leave this book with is the awareness that it's about exploring the world. Not so much establishing everything for the rest of the series - it's very much a strong novel on its own - but our main focus is to learn about Lyra's world and explore its cultural temperament before (slight spoilers) we pass forward into the other worlds for the rest of the series. When I frame it like that in my head I'm suddenly so much happier about my experience rereading this book, and it makes me want to read the rest of the series even more. The mastery of detail and imagination in the cultures, creatives, politics and relations in Lyra's world are immediately recognisable as what elevates Pullman ahead of so many others, and still fills me with so much wonder after so many years.

Of course, for a world to be magnificent it has to have likewise wonderful characters. And Pullman does not disappoint.
It was a funny seeing Lyra at such an early stage again. She's very unique and I honestly don't think any version she's been embodied in since (play, film, radio drama) has quite captured her as the same person as in the novel. She's a very unusual and brilliant character. Somewhat the perfect mix between all the various ways a child can go at that age - which is part of what makes her the ideal protagonist for such a sophisticated children's book as this. But damn, she's a handful. It makes me feel old saying that (I'm only nineteen, come on), but I felt for all the people trying to juggle with her, but steadfastly letting her take her own path. I think there are a lot of adult role models in these books as well as child ones.

You don't need me to tell you that His Dark Materials is a classic trilogy for children and adults alike. It may not have been exactly as I expected after so many years, but it doesn't dent its wonderful reputation. I think particularly at a time when so many things are turbulent in our own world, our younger generations could do with hopeful tales of a similarly turbulent world, with the welcome addition of some fantasy.