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.

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.

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.

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.