Strike the Zither

Book Title: Strike the Zither

Author: Joan He

Series: Kingdom of Three #1

Date Started: January 28th 2023

Date Completed: February 11th 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

The mandatory 'thank you NetGalley' line is above this, but I feel like an extra thank you is required for introducing me to the powerhouse of a writer that Joan He is. With each book, I'm more enthralled with her stories. This time she makes the transition from stand-alone novels to a series (and perfectly executed as well), and it's just as clever and utterly absorbing at her other books.

I found Zepher's narration a bit hard to get into at first, but it's purposefully written to be aloof and pedantic for further character development later on down the line. It still made this a little harder to get into, but worth the wait. Zepher's character in general is worth the wait of her build-up - and something He wrote in the afterword has stuck with me. Before being a strategist, a warrior, a god or anything else, she wanted to write Zepher as a person. In a lot of authors' afterwords, the intention isn't necessarily essential or tangible to the book you've just read - but here it felt significant.

Plot-wise, Strike the Zither is perhaps the most twisty and turny from He yet - and that's saying something when her midpoint twists are always quite something to behold (this edition, of course, doesn't disappoint). But I loved that so much attention was given to expanding the worldbuilding and constructing a YA romance that didn't give in to sickly cliche temptations. Like the classical poems the story is adapted from, it felt like everything was so perfectly orchestrated, pre-ordained in events and relationships in a godlike way. And yet the characters were so desperately pushing for their own agency within it - that's what makes them human. And that's what the whole book is about.

Strike the Zither definitely made me want to go away and read the Three Kingdoms itself, but I'm not sure if I want to spoil myself on the potential ending ahead of this book's sequel. I'm sure He has retold a lot of things in her own way, and will still have a staggering finale ready for us next time.

For The Throne

Book Title: For the Throne

Author: Hannah Whitten

Series: For the Wolf #1

Date Started: January 22nd 2023

Date Completed: January 28th 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I had a lot of fun with For The Wolf, finding the creative inspiration of various fairy tales really satisfying while appreciating how it gave itself plenty of creativity to create its own story. It's at times a little cliche and angsty, but For The Throne was still an enjoyable read to close off the tale.

You can get away with a lot if you have good characters, and the Wilderwood duology is a good example of that. The ensemble wanes from falling into tropes, and while it's apparent effort is made to make them their own thing, it often does slip in favour of the angsty moments. But in those moments that might have me rolling my eyes in other circumstances, I'm happy to let go when there's a connection between characters. I have a lot of love for Neve in particular so was happy to see she got to take centre stage this time around. What I really wish was that there was a bit more adventuring in the series as a whole, to spend more time building these characters and relationships up to make them really move me, over just being cute. (The romantic ones not so much, but the platonic friendships that are so deeply routed in this story, but often aren't given the limelight.)

For The Throne was particularly cool in the worldbuilding department. Last time we had the Wilderwood, but now we get to explore the underworld, which is both creepy and spectacular. In the first book I was fascinated by the religion, customs and tradition and how it moved the characters and their stories (Neve was so intrinsic to this theme and was what made her really stand out to me). This is lost a bit in the sequel, but the imaginative landscapes are still a strength, and so much of the events of the book first map out the arcs that are finalised here.

Overall, these books have been very enjoyable, if a little more predictable having seen where the first one went. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun with For The Throne, and am eager to see what Whitten has brewing up next (and I'd be more than happy to visit this world again, as its cast are so well set up for a spin off).

The Firebrand

Book Title: The Firebrand

Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Date Started: October 15th 2022

Date Completed: January 22nd 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

Kassandra has always been my favourite classical figure, and now this is undeniably my favourite retelling of her story. Not only is it a creative, feminist, kickass way to tell it, but it brought new things even to my own knowledge. I genuinely didn't know the inspiration for the ending existed.

You can tell that the book was made with such love for the original myths - and every corner of the Ancient Greek world and beyond we get to visit in its pages. The Firebrand is such a humanising but imaginative way to retell this story that has been told a thousand times over. These characters I know so well are materialised so vividly. Myths are designed to be elevated, spectacular, and slightly other. And yet Bradley makes everything flow so neatly, the relations are built from emotions as well as blood, the places our heroine visits are truly part of a sprawling map rather than fragments of some long forgotten, fantastical landscape.

What really makes this novel click, in a way that many retellings don't quite achieve, is the ability to recentre a seasoned story around a different character than traditionally told through, and the skill to change where the agency of the tale comes from. Especially in the current era of myth retellings we're experiencing, I'm always disappointed when a myth is retold from another character's perspective (very often a woman's) but they are an observer to the classical story, grieving for their lack of power in a history already written (yes, we all understand the meta-narrative, we get it). The Firebrand, despite everything, is Kassandra's story. And she is firmly in charge of it.

For the Wolf

Book Title: For the Wolf

Author: Hannah Whitten

Series: For the Wolf #1

Date Started: October 3rd 2022

Date Completed: October 15th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

For the Wolf starts off slow, predictable and frankly eye-rollingly cliche, but somehow I have to admit that the second half was really compelling and went in new directions. The main crux is a typical YA romance (and, honestly, the first half is the same scene of the Wolf reluctantly saving Red six times over); it's the outside threads that make it worthwhile. And the sickly unfaltering dedication from certain characters remains, but the plot finally grows into something really quite interesting, beckoning whatever's ahead while still resolving this novel's story well enough to be satisfying for now.

A bit more time spent at the novel's beginning establishing three-dimensional characters could've also turned around the opening acts. I ended up liking many of them by the final act, and I want to know what happens to them next, but they were paper archetypes at the start more from a desire for the angst than an initial equilibrium. I wonder if the desire to echo the fairy tale (which seems more Beauty and the Beast/Snow White and Rose Red than Red Riding Hood) was a bit distracting to begin with, before the story took its own roots.

I'm actually really looking forward to this novel's follow-up (which is already in my library), as I trust the story has come into its own now and can continue in this new and exciting direction, fleshing out the side characters even more as they become more integral to the story.

While I Live

Book Title: While I Live

Author: John Marsden

Series: The Ellie Chronicles #1

Date Started: September 4th 2022

Date Completed: October 3rd 2022

Genres: Adventure, Thriller

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

For once, I'm so happy there's a sequel series to an original. The Tomorrow series was incredibly influential to me as a teenager, and remains one of the best explorations of war, survival, friendship and bravery I've ever come across. It's such a shame it isn't as well known outside of its native Australia. The Ellie Chronicles, taking place (spoiler) after the end of the war that fractured the protaginst's existence over the course of seven books, follows the endlessly conflicted and clever Ellie trying to work out what to do with her life next. 

I'm always a bit mystified how Marsden can make the everyday, however grim the circumstances, compelling and immersive. Ellie spends most of this book at home trying to work out how to balance her finances while looking after her cattle and getting into arguments with people trying to help. It's so far removed from my usual preferences, but it felt like visiting dear friends.

Ellie is one of the few protagonists that's ever felt truly real to me - and that goes for all of Marsden's characters. She's written to be so human, to the point where she's really vindictive sometimes and the narrative doesn't lay any judgement on her at all. She's constantly pissed of and tired and trying and that's the closest thing I've ever related to with fictional characters. Don't get me wrong, we don't have to feel like we are a character to relate and love them - but it's something special when it does happen.

I think part of this comes from the fact that Ellie is only as strong as her relationships, and the other people in her life are so influential and important to her growth. The familiar faces from the original series are so naturally featured, without being shoehorned in for a quick reference. The friendships are so tactile and precious; characters don't have to be joined at the hip and speak every day to be close, as I think the representation often becomes. Months go past without Ellie speaking to dear friends, and when she does see them it can be awkward and hesitant. But they're still so close, and that's something that so many struggle to translate to the page.

A Magic Steeped in Poison

Book Title: A Magic Steeped in Poison

Author: Judy I. Lin

Series: The Book of Tea #1

Date Started: August 17th 2022

Date Completed: September 4th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Historical

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

A Magic Steeped in Poison isn't the best but enjoyable enough. I found it very predictable, had seen it all before, but the magic system, while patchy in places, was really interesting to learn about. who doesn't love the idea of tea being literal magic?

Overall, I just wasn't very convinced by the plot. The court politics was flimsy, with power dynamics that weren't totally believable, though served their purpose in the story. The competition part of the story felt a little obsolete as Ning was clearly written as the best to the point where it seemed silly no one else noticed. There was a lot of angst, very little threat. It suffered from the typical 'you just almost died but let's have a completely unrelated casual conversation immediately after' YA trope.

There were also moments when I didn't fully understand what was happening on the page. Things would happen and people would appear and, from the set-up and staging, I thought it meant one but then a few lines later, I would be told it meant something else and wasn't as significant as I'd expected. It made things hard to follow at times and also missed out on a fair few opportunities for drama.

I really hate cliffhangers, especially if they happen without finishing off the initial story at all. Unfortunately, I think I'll leave this series not knowing how the story ends since it decided to essentially cut off in the middle, and I didn't enjoy it quite enough to read the second book when it arrives.

The Farthest Shore

Book Title: The Farthest Shore

Author: Ursula Le Guin

Series: The Earthsea Cycle #3

Date Started: July 24th 2022

Date Completed: August 17th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, 

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

These books are just magic. Ursula Le Guin is suitably lourded and regarded, yet it seems like no one reads them these days. This series is such a moving, thoughtful and boundlessly imaginative creation of a fantasy world, so vivdly realised and explored. And one word, for this one in particular: dragons.

This is pure, classical adventure at its best: a quest that travels our heroes across many a land and sea, encountering strife, evil and beauty until they reach the last place any can go. It echoes Homer, Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and others, but it is intrinsically original.

The Farthest Shore is probably the story I'm most familiar with in the series before reading, as many aspects seem to have been the foundation for the Ghibli adaptation. Goro Miyazaki's films pulls from several of the books in the series but the heroic figure of Aren, the evil Cob, and much of the travelling and exploration of cities seems to be lifted directly from this novel. That didn't make reading it any less enjoyable; I couldn't help but picture many things as they were in the animation, but my imagination could ran rampant at the points that remained only on the page.

What makes these novels most memorable and distinguishable, I think, is Ged. The wise archmage at the centre of its tales, though whose story is often explored through other protagonist's journies. I rarely feel like I relate to fictional characters but, somehow, Ged feels familiar to me in a way many characters don't.

Le Guin's afterword is especially poignant, and I recommend reading it; learning about how thought processes enriches the world massively. I've been reading from the massive illustrated omnibus version (Charles Vess' illustrations are absolutely wonderous) so the afterword might be specific to that edition, but having recently listened to a collection of Le Guin's non-fiction writings, her thoughts are always interesting and enriching to an understanding of her stories.