Georgette Heyer
Fiction, Romance
Heyer is a master of the period romance, tales that revolve around society, entanglements that usually consist of someone being engaged to the wrong person (a very serious matter when an engagement was a verbal contract), and well-defined characters that were often a little more spirited than custom of the time properly allowed. In The Masqueraders, she introduces us to Prudence and Robin, two siblings who are dressed as the opposite gender, with the taller Prudence becoming Peter, and the diminutive Robin known as Kate. Naturally, they both fall in love while in their adopted roles, and just as naturally, their somewhat checkered past means that revealing their true identities is out of the question.
Compounding their distress is the fact that their father, the architect of many of the wild schemes they've taken part in, has come to town with proof that he is a long-lost lord... and they have no idea of how much trouble such a claim could be. The machinations spin out of control (his presumptive lordship claims it is because his children don't follow his instructions exactly), leading, inevitably, to happiness and engagements all around at the end. This is, after all, a romance, and they tend to end most felicitously.
This is an entertaining tale, and one that is no more romantically inclined than many of the "regular fiction" bestsellers of today. Given its publication date of 1928, one can also admit that any book still in publication more than seventy years after its debut obviously has many things going for it. If you don't mind a somewhat wild premise - that two siblings can so convincingly pose as the other gender that they can not only fool the town once, but again as they later appear with their real identities - this book is surely worth your time.
****.5/*****
Monday, August 07, 2006
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Maskerade
Terry Pratchett
Fiction, Fantasy / Satire
This Discworld novel is loosely based on the very popular Phantom of the Opera, in that there is an opera house with resident Ghost, enormous flooded basements, divas in training and curious incidents, sometimes deadly ones. However, as with all of Pratchett's novels, the plotline is an excuse to examine the human condition and examine how people behave.
Agness Nitt of Lancre has come to the city of Ankh-Morpork in order to become something other than what she is. She tries out for the Opera House - under the name Perdita - and is hired on account of her incredible voice. Alas, Agnes is fat, and so plum parts go to Christine, a sqeaky-voiced skinny girl who happens to be related to one of the major funders for the opera. Agnes is to stand behind Christine and "ghost" her voice.
That is not the only ghost, of course, and accidents and murder start happening, making everyone very nervous. The arrival of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, two witches from Lancre, doesn't make anyone less nervous, particularly when they start cutting to the heart of the mystery and making sure that people can't fall back on their comfortable preconceptions. Add some jewels, some singers who turn out to be other than they pretend, and a few pornographic recipes from Nanny Ogg's wildly successful Joye of Snacks, and you're in for a spectacle that goes in all manner of unexpected directions.
And, alas, a few all too expected ones, such as the fact that Agnes will never get the recognition she deserves because, well, she's fat. And Christine is not.
****/*****
Fiction, Fantasy / Satire
This Discworld novel is loosely based on the very popular Phantom of the Opera, in that there is an opera house with resident Ghost, enormous flooded basements, divas in training and curious incidents, sometimes deadly ones. However, as with all of Pratchett's novels, the plotline is an excuse to examine the human condition and examine how people behave.
Agness Nitt of Lancre has come to the city of Ankh-Morpork in order to become something other than what she is. She tries out for the Opera House - under the name Perdita - and is hired on account of her incredible voice. Alas, Agnes is fat, and so plum parts go to Christine, a sqeaky-voiced skinny girl who happens to be related to one of the major funders for the opera. Agnes is to stand behind Christine and "ghost" her voice.
That is not the only ghost, of course, and accidents and murder start happening, making everyone very nervous. The arrival of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, two witches from Lancre, doesn't make anyone less nervous, particularly when they start cutting to the heart of the mystery and making sure that people can't fall back on their comfortable preconceptions. Add some jewels, some singers who turn out to be other than they pretend, and a few pornographic recipes from Nanny Ogg's wildly successful Joye of Snacks, and you're in for a spectacle that goes in all manner of unexpected directions.
And, alas, a few all too expected ones, such as the fact that Agnes will never get the recognition she deserves because, well, she's fat. And Christine is not.
****/*****
Saturday, August 05, 2006
The Golden Key
Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, Kate Elliot
Fiction, Fantasy
Through art, one can live forever.
This book, set it a vaguely Medditeranean locale named Tira Verte (I felt it most like Italy, but others have cited Spanish and Portugese references), is centered on the actions of Sario Grijalva, a member of a family of talented painters who are shunned by most of the families for having chi'patro - bastard - children in their ancestry. In fact, the animosity goes so far as to accusations of dark magics, magics which turn out to, in fact, exist.
Sario is a painter of ambition. He wants to be Lord Limner - the official ducal painter who paints treaties, which are in symbolic paintings rather than the written word. At the start of the novel, that position is held by a Serrano, a member of the family that most wants to bring the Grijalvas down. (Two other prominent Serranos are the duke's mistress and the Premia Sancta, the female head of the local religion. Because of her influence, the Grijalvas have been banned from public worship.) His biggest fear, however, is not these outside influences, but the family itself, because though they have powerful magic, they also have means of controlling those who do not bend to their wishes.
Even worse is the fact that those with the Gift - the magic - die young, often barely reaching forty. They are also sterile, a sin in the local religion based on fertility. He only has a few years in which to make his influence known... until he meets an old man of the Tz'ab, the tribe that stole and raped his ancestors. The magic Sario learns from him, coupled with the training for his Gift, is enough for his to avoid his family's control and start on a path of treachery whose effects last for centuries.
The rich detailing of this novel is particularly interesting when compared to our art history; one can easily see the parallels to our own world. And in the end, as in all good tales, it is hubris that brings Sario down, the belief that he and he alone is worthy of fame, of art, and of reverence.
*****/*****
Fiction, Fantasy
Through art, one can live forever.
This book, set it a vaguely Medditeranean locale named Tira Verte (I felt it most like Italy, but others have cited Spanish and Portugese references), is centered on the actions of Sario Grijalva, a member of a family of talented painters who are shunned by most of the families for having chi'patro - bastard - children in their ancestry. In fact, the animosity goes so far as to accusations of dark magics, magics which turn out to, in fact, exist.
Sario is a painter of ambition. He wants to be Lord Limner - the official ducal painter who paints treaties, which are in symbolic paintings rather than the written word. At the start of the novel, that position is held by a Serrano, a member of the family that most wants to bring the Grijalvas down. (Two other prominent Serranos are the duke's mistress and the Premia Sancta, the female head of the local religion. Because of her influence, the Grijalvas have been banned from public worship.) His biggest fear, however, is not these outside influences, but the family itself, because though they have powerful magic, they also have means of controlling those who do not bend to their wishes.
Even worse is the fact that those with the Gift - the magic - die young, often barely reaching forty. They are also sterile, a sin in the local religion based on fertility. He only has a few years in which to make his influence known... until he meets an old man of the Tz'ab, the tribe that stole and raped his ancestors. The magic Sario learns from him, coupled with the training for his Gift, is enough for his to avoid his family's control and start on a path of treachery whose effects last for centuries.
The rich detailing of this novel is particularly interesting when compared to our art history; one can easily see the parallels to our own world. And in the end, as in all good tales, it is hubris that brings Sario down, the belief that he and he alone is worthy of fame, of art, and of reverence.
*****/*****
Friday, August 04, 2006
The Dragon Star Trilogy
Stronghold
The Dragon Token
Skybowl
Melanie Rawn
Fiction, Fantasy
I have chosen to review these books together because they form a cohesive narrative, the story of an unexpected war from an unknown foe. Whereas the first trilogy set in this world took place over years (and each individual book took months or years in itself), this entire trilogy takes place in a matter of months - less than a year all told.
The series begins with portents and preparations. Andry, Lord of Goddess Keep, has been drilling the Sunrunners in preparations to combat the war that visions have shown him is coming; more troubling is his refining of the scriptures of faith, particularly those which are based on his belief that sorcerers are, by definition, evil - unless they are trained to obedience by Sunrunners. The Isulki natives of the desert have their own portents, but none are as troubling as the message from a dragon that he has seen dragons as ships - an assertion he is very angry to have contradicted.
And then the dragon-carved ships land in a simultaneous razing of keeps; several major towns are burned to the ground in a single night, with princes and commoners alike fleeing.
The setting for this event is critical; without High Prince Rohan's endeavors to bring peace to the princedoms, the horrors of this war would not have such an impact. At first the enemy is merely an unknown bringer of horrors with no discernable motivation, well-planned horrors that threaten to cripple the response. While isolated pockets of resistance crop up, the overall strategy still has to be determined. Prince Pol is critical of his father's efforts; as several major keeps are lost, he finds his father's tactics lacking.
The buildup in the war is long and brutal; several sympathetic characters are killed or wounded, entire families are wiped out, and even our "good guys" are not always admirable. Moreover, the animosity between Pol and Andry has grown no less in the interim between the last series and this; they both realize that cooperation is needed to defeat the foe and they still can't get along. The issues spiral beyond the war, touching on faith, fear, freedom, and what it truly means to have power. There are many narratives to keep track of, and yet each one draws the reader further into the story, presenting an overall picture that shows a multifaceted portrait of what war truly can be.
My one note on the trilogy is that it has a plethora of similar names, due to the world's practice of naming children after admired people. Therefore, you have Sioned's namesakes Sionell, Siona, and Sioneva; Rohan's namesakes Rohannon and Rihani (and a close cognate, certainly not named after him, Rinhoel); and characters named Sorin and Saumer, who are not the same people as those in the last trilogy. While it is not nearly as bad as a Russian novel (Ivan Ivanovich, called Peter), the similarity of names might cause some confusion on the first reading.
*****/*****
The Dragon Token
Skybowl
Melanie Rawn
Fiction, Fantasy
I have chosen to review these books together because they form a cohesive narrative, the story of an unexpected war from an unknown foe. Whereas the first trilogy set in this world took place over years (and each individual book took months or years in itself), this entire trilogy takes place in a matter of months - less than a year all told.
The series begins with portents and preparations. Andry, Lord of Goddess Keep, has been drilling the Sunrunners in preparations to combat the war that visions have shown him is coming; more troubling is his refining of the scriptures of faith, particularly those which are based on his belief that sorcerers are, by definition, evil - unless they are trained to obedience by Sunrunners. The Isulki natives of the desert have their own portents, but none are as troubling as the message from a dragon that he has seen dragons as ships - an assertion he is very angry to have contradicted.
And then the dragon-carved ships land in a simultaneous razing of keeps; several major towns are burned to the ground in a single night, with princes and commoners alike fleeing.
The setting for this event is critical; without High Prince Rohan's endeavors to bring peace to the princedoms, the horrors of this war would not have such an impact. At first the enemy is merely an unknown bringer of horrors with no discernable motivation, well-planned horrors that threaten to cripple the response. While isolated pockets of resistance crop up, the overall strategy still has to be determined. Prince Pol is critical of his father's efforts; as several major keeps are lost, he finds his father's tactics lacking.
The buildup in the war is long and brutal; several sympathetic characters are killed or wounded, entire families are wiped out, and even our "good guys" are not always admirable. Moreover, the animosity between Pol and Andry has grown no less in the interim between the last series and this; they both realize that cooperation is needed to defeat the foe and they still can't get along. The issues spiral beyond the war, touching on faith, fear, freedom, and what it truly means to have power. There are many narratives to keep track of, and yet each one draws the reader further into the story, presenting an overall picture that shows a multifaceted portrait of what war truly can be.
My one note on the trilogy is that it has a plethora of similar names, due to the world's practice of naming children after admired people. Therefore, you have Sioned's namesakes Sionell, Siona, and Sioneva; Rohan's namesakes Rohannon and Rihani (and a close cognate, certainly not named after him, Rinhoel); and characters named Sorin and Saumer, who are not the same people as those in the last trilogy. While it is not nearly as bad as a Russian novel (Ivan Ivanovich, called Peter), the similarity of names might cause some confusion on the first reading.
*****/*****
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Under the Banner of Heaven
A Story of Violent Faith
Jon Krakauer
Nonfiction, History/Faith
The author of Into Thin Air here takes on the roots of a horrible murder in the Utah backwater, a murder undertaken by relatives of the deceased. He examines the founding of the Mormon faith, and how its unique properties lend themselves to the dangerous kinds of fundamentalist sects that lead followers towards violence. (This is primarily due to the decentralized nature of the faith and not any specific tenets, BTW.) But mostly, Krakauer delves into the history that the leadership of the LDS church would rather keep private - the unsavory occurrences of the Latter-Day-Saints' early years, and the notion that it was okay to lie, cheat, and steal from outsiders - non-Mormons.
Krakauer recounts the early history of the church, from its inception to the present day, in a tale interwoven with the lives of the murderers. The doctrine of personal revelation - the concept that God speaks individually to each person, if they wish to hear it - has led to splinter sects, those who believe that the mainstream church's renunciation of pologamy is wrong, and that it is each man's duty to wed multiple times, to many young women. (One such believer abducted a girl who would become nationally famous - Elizabeth Smart.) Further, many of these sects have their own doctrines and beliefs, separate from the main church, and any who do not follow those doctrines are shunned.
When one family turned toward polygamy, one wife had the courage to speak up, and assist her sisters-in-law who wished to escape the suddenly oppressive marriages. This angered two of the brothers, who later believed that it had been revealed to them that the woman should die, along with her infant daughter. Even now, decades later, the one who actually wielded the knife believes that God approves of his actions, and that he did the right thing.
Krakauer does not have any easy answers, though he suggests several reasons why the brothers may have believed as they did. However, this compelling narrative is not about reasons, but about a history of an American faith, a history few know.
****.5/*****
Jon Krakauer
Nonfiction, History/Faith
The author of Into Thin Air here takes on the roots of a horrible murder in the Utah backwater, a murder undertaken by relatives of the deceased. He examines the founding of the Mormon faith, and how its unique properties lend themselves to the dangerous kinds of fundamentalist sects that lead followers towards violence. (This is primarily due to the decentralized nature of the faith and not any specific tenets, BTW.) But mostly, Krakauer delves into the history that the leadership of the LDS church would rather keep private - the unsavory occurrences of the Latter-Day-Saints' early years, and the notion that it was okay to lie, cheat, and steal from outsiders - non-Mormons.
Krakauer recounts the early history of the church, from its inception to the present day, in a tale interwoven with the lives of the murderers. The doctrine of personal revelation - the concept that God speaks individually to each person, if they wish to hear it - has led to splinter sects, those who believe that the mainstream church's renunciation of pologamy is wrong, and that it is each man's duty to wed multiple times, to many young women. (One such believer abducted a girl who would become nationally famous - Elizabeth Smart.) Further, many of these sects have their own doctrines and beliefs, separate from the main church, and any who do not follow those doctrines are shunned.
When one family turned toward polygamy, one wife had the courage to speak up, and assist her sisters-in-law who wished to escape the suddenly oppressive marriages. This angered two of the brothers, who later believed that it had been revealed to them that the woman should die, along with her infant daughter. Even now, decades later, the one who actually wielded the knife believes that God approves of his actions, and that he did the right thing.
Krakauer does not have any easy answers, though he suggests several reasons why the brothers may have believed as they did. However, this compelling narrative is not about reasons, but about a history of an American faith, a history few know.
****.5/*****
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Candyfreak
Steve Almond
Nonfiction, Food
Candyfreak is the story of one man's obsession with the goodness that is known as candy, ruminations on the exact palate keys that make a candy a favorite, and an ode to those candies that no longer exist or are being driven into the underground because they are unable to pay the slotting fees that would bring the candy to your local supermarket. (These are often upwards of $20,000 - pennies for Mars or Hershey but death to candymakers who average in the hundreds of pieces a day rather than thousands or millions.) Almond speaks of the specific nature of taste that allows a person to tell the difference between their favorite brand and a knock-off, the joy of discovering a new, perfect, confection, and of the hoarding that takes place when a favorite goes off the market.
I didn't know that Mars bars were gone. Instead, we have "Snickers Almond", an attempt to play off the recognition of the nation's most popular candy bar.
In the book, Almond gets to visit the factories of small producers of iconic candies such as Valomilk and Idaho Spud. This is partly because the big manufacturers do not allow tours - due to industry spying - but also gives Almond the chance to understand the candymaking process at a hands-on level, as well as getting fresh-off-the-line samples. Along the way he is both hopeful and pessimistic about small candymakers' futures... hopeful because they are so enthusiastic, and pessimistic because they seem doomed to inevitable squashing beneath the big players' heels.
Almond rhapsodizes about candy memories, inserts the odd bit of liberal guilt (I found the political ruminations odd, but they were obviously tied up with his candy interactions), and eventually shows us the truth that candy is the bit of home that is all that some of us allow ourselves.
****.5/*****
Nonfiction, Food
Candyfreak is the story of one man's obsession with the goodness that is known as candy, ruminations on the exact palate keys that make a candy a favorite, and an ode to those candies that no longer exist or are being driven into the underground because they are unable to pay the slotting fees that would bring the candy to your local supermarket. (These are often upwards of $20,000 - pennies for Mars or Hershey but death to candymakers who average in the hundreds of pieces a day rather than thousands or millions.) Almond speaks of the specific nature of taste that allows a person to tell the difference between their favorite brand and a knock-off, the joy of discovering a new, perfect, confection, and of the hoarding that takes place when a favorite goes off the market.
I didn't know that Mars bars were gone. Instead, we have "Snickers Almond", an attempt to play off the recognition of the nation's most popular candy bar.
In the book, Almond gets to visit the factories of small producers of iconic candies such as Valomilk and Idaho Spud. This is partly because the big manufacturers do not allow tours - due to industry spying - but also gives Almond the chance to understand the candymaking process at a hands-on level, as well as getting fresh-off-the-line samples. Along the way he is both hopeful and pessimistic about small candymakers' futures... hopeful because they are so enthusiastic, and pessimistic because they seem doomed to inevitable squashing beneath the big players' heels.
Almond rhapsodizes about candy memories, inserts the odd bit of liberal guilt (I found the political ruminations odd, but they were obviously tied up with his candy interactions), and eventually shows us the truth that candy is the bit of home that is all that some of us allow ourselves.
****.5/*****
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Tourists Are For Trapping
Marian Babson
Fiction, Mystery
It's back to the firm of Perkins & Tate for this third book in the series. The clients this time are a tour group whose European trip turned into disaster when one of the members died unexpectedly. To make matters worse, the lady committed suicide... but the group is acting more as though they believe it was murder. Doug Perkins has to do everything in his power to soothe the group, eventually resorting to such tricks as pub crawls and bringing his cat along. And then a second member turns out to be missing - not just visiting relatives - and he seriously has to consider that one of the group might be a killer.
Like most of Babson's mysteries, this is a quick read, simple and entertainng.
***.5/*****
Fiction, Mystery
It's back to the firm of Perkins & Tate for this third book in the series. The clients this time are a tour group whose European trip turned into disaster when one of the members died unexpectedly. To make matters worse, the lady committed suicide... but the group is acting more as though they believe it was murder. Doug Perkins has to do everything in his power to soothe the group, eventually resorting to such tricks as pub crawls and bringing his cat along. And then a second member turns out to be missing - not just visiting relatives - and he seriously has to consider that one of the group might be a killer.
Like most of Babson's mysteries, this is a quick read, simple and entertainng.
***.5/*****
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