Dellamonica, A.M.: Blue Magic
Blue Magic (2012)
Written by: A.M. Dellamonica
Genre: Modern Fantasy
Pages: 382 (Trade Paperback)
Series: Book Two (Astrid Lethewood)
Disclaimer: won in a giveaway at Starmetal Oak
Why I Read It: Dellamonica's debut, Indigo Springs, made my Top Ten list back in 2009. Ever since, I've been chomping at the bit for the sequel, because I couldn't wait to see what Dellamonica did with the world she'd created. The only reason I didn't buy the book ASAP was because I wasn't sure if I wanted a hard copy (to match my hard copy of Indigo Springs), or if I just wanted to download the Kindle version. But when Starmetal Oak posted a giveaway, I figured it was worth entering, just for giggles. If I won a copy, great. If not, I'd figure out my format later. But since I won, I moved Blue Magic to the top of the TBR, because again, I couldn't wait to see what the sequel had in store.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: This powerful sequel to the A.M. Dellamonica's Sunburst Award -- winning contemporary fantasy Indigo Springs starts in the small town in Oregon where Astrid Lethewood discovered an underground river of blue liquid -- vitagua -- that is pure magic. Everything it touches is changed. The secret is out -- and the world will never be the same. Astrid’s best friend, Sahara, has been corrupted by the blue magic, and now leads a cult that seeks to rule the world. Astrid, on the other hand, tries to heal the world.
Conflicting ambitions, star-crossed lovers, and those who fear and hate magic combine in a terrible conflagration, pitting friend against friend, magic against magic, and the power of nations against a small band of zealots, with the fate of the world at stake.
Blue Magic is a powerful story of private lives changed by earthshaking events that will ensnare readers in its poignant tale of a world touched by magic and plagued by its consequences.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. My own thoughts on the book are a wee bit muddled in my head, so I'm going to talk more about my reaction to the book as a whole and less about particular plot points, though there will be TINY spoilers in this regard. However, if you're in a hurry, feel free to skip to "My Rating" and you'll be in good shape.
2009 doesn't really feel that long ago, but in truth, it really is, especially when you're reading a book that's an immediate sequel. There was a time, when I was younger (and I'm only 31 now), when I could remember the most minute of details of a story, of a series. Nothing would get past me, so I never felt the need to re-read the previous books of a series just because a new installment came out. I already remembered everything.
I'm starting to understand, though, why people re-read those previous installments. Partially to get re-immersed back into the world, partially to dust off their memory, and partially just to enjoy a damn good book they liked the first time around. I wonder, if at some unknown point in the future, when the TBR pile is next to nothing (ha!), if I might have that same luxury of re-reading past installments before the new installment comes out. And if it's a long series, at least re-read the book prior. Because I'm finding, and I'll talk more about this at a later date, that I'm consistently having a much harder time reading second installments of a series. How much of it is my faulty memory? How much of it is my tastes and needs evolving? How much of it is the author's fault? I have, at this time, no solid answers.
I didn't love Blue Magic. I wasn't enchanted by it. It wasn't a bad book, but the joy of discovering and the sense of wanting and needing more with every page was utterly absent in this book, and I'm trying to decide if my response is because the shiny newness of Indigo Springs has long since faded and the world just isn't, well, shiny and new anymore, or if it's because my memory's faulty and I can't quite get myself up to speed because I'm expected to remember everything, or if this book simply isn't as engaging as the first.
Again, I have no real answers. And I'm not sure there's a right answer. But let's talk about my personal response and what I liked and what tripped me up.
For starters, the book works back and forth between the trial of Sahara Knax and spreading of vitagua by Astrid Lethewood. This, in and of itself, was not a bad thing. One might think the trial chapters would be boring, but I warmed up to U.S. Marshal Juanita Corazón quite quickly. I liked her straight-forward, no-nonsense way of looking at the world, the inner conflict to do what was right, despite the things she cared about being pitted against each other. I knew immediately she was an important character in the overall scheme of things, especially when Gilead, a Fyreman, spoke of a particular prophecy, thinking that Astrid Lethewood was the fulfillment of that prophecy. I'll admit to doubt, wondering if I'd forgotten something from Indigo Springs, but I was stoked when the prophecy turned out to really be about Juanita. For all of her mistakes, she was one of the most relatable characters in the book.
Speaking of the Fyremen, what a piece of work. I sadly have forgotten most, if not all, of their details from Indigo Springs, and this sequel only did a bit to jar my memory. The rest of the time, I was left asking questions like a noob who hadn't read the previous story: where did Fyremen get their power? Why were they so angry all the time? Dellamonica thankfully gives us backstory, and my, oh my, aren't they the real villains of the piece? That said, I found myself with still more questions at the book's resolution, and it's one of those cases where I'm not sure if I've forgotten important information from the first book, or if I just wasn't paying close enough attention while reading this book (or if I didn't care), or if the author didn't quite tie it up as neatly as I would like (for example, and this isn't a spoiler: why can't they just re-start the chant?).
I never really bought into the relationship between Will and Astrid. Maybe I would've had an easier time of it had I read this book soon after Indigo Springs. But the whole predestination thing didn't quite sit well with me. The problem with those "fated" love stories is that usually, the characters don't do anything to earn the love story. They're like, "Oh, we're going to fall in love!" and it just magically happens or whatever. And while Will and Astrid didn't quite fall into that trap, I feel like the only reason they hooked up was because the grumbles said it would happen (again, this isn't a spoiler: this is revealed early on). It's kind of like any prophecy: when you know it happens, you immediately do things to make it happen, whether you mean to or not (just look at -- I know, horrid example -- the case of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith).
More to the point, I think the bigger problem I had with this book was scope (I had a similar issue with Saints Astray, but that book was far more problematic). One of the reasons that Indigo Springs was so fascinating to me was how place was so integral to the story itself. It was tight, compact, with far-reaching mythologies and implications. But here in Blue Magic, everything is happening on a world-wide scope, and as a result, the story loses some of that narrative cohesiveness that made the first book such a page-turner for me. I'm not saying Dellamonica should have changed her narrative either, nor made it more compact. Given how Indigo Springs ended, I'm really not sure it would've been possible. However, the result of that story was that everything felt a little bit dilluted, or as Biblo Baggins would say in the film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, the story felt "thin. Sort of stretched, like . . . butter scraped over too much bread."
And yet, despite the story feeling stretched out, the book itself was quite dense. It wasn't a bog of a read, but it definitely wasn't an addictive, page-turning one. It was one of those cases where I could put the book down in the middle of a high-action or high-tension scene and not be mad about it, you know?
But I really feel I would've gotten more out of the sequel had I read it soon after Indigo Springs. There was so much I've forgotten. The Unreal and the Roused and the rules there. I think I would've appreciated the WTF reveal about Teoquan a lot more had I been still processing all the little clues from Indigo Springs. As it was, Teo came off like a two-dimensional asshole. It's not to say his points were valid, but damn, dude, be reasonable! Made more sense by the end why he wasn't, but still, if I'd still had all those clues from the first book, things that might've made me look at the Unreal and the Roused and Teo in a new light, I might've been more appreciative of that subplot.
The writing of the book, despite some action scenes being a bit fuzzy, and despite some character's sections being all moping and little to no action, was actually very good (with a notable exception: one "mouse magic" was introduced to Astrid's POV, things got messy). Here's one of my favorite lines (page 302):
This was the right path. But the bright certainty she had felt in the beginning had dulled, worn threadbare by the doubts of others, by setbacks and losses.
My Rating: Worth Reading, with Reservations
This is a slower read than Indigo Springs. My experience was handicapped by the fact that I read the first book back in 2009 and I've forgotten a lot of uber-important detail, and while Dellamonica does a good job keeping my head above the water, my lack of details meant I was dog-paddling to the end instead of making any solid headway. The addition of U.S. Marshal Juanita Corazón was awesome, whereas Astrid wore on my nerves. The trial scenes were quite interesting to me, though the scenes where Astrid is trying to stave off the "Small Bang" weren't as engaging. Yet it all comes together in a shockingly intense climax, one that had me glued to the book. The resolution is solid, but I do hope that this installment wraps up the overall story. It feels as though that should be the case. Overall, I'm happy with Dellamonica's work, despite this book not wowing me as much as Indigo Springs did, but I'm eager to see what else the author has in store.
Cover Commentary: Like the story itself, I don't love it as much as I loved the cover for Indigo Springs. There is some continuity that I appreciate, like the lines running through the art and the same fonts on both covers, but this cover is more of a doctored photo, whereas the previous cover was an actual painting. Don't get me wrong, the cover works quite well with the story, but it's no where near as compelling nor enchanting.
Next up: Fables: The Deluxe Edition: Book Four by Bill Willingham