50 Book Review: 2010
Yes people, it is finally here. Months after I promised reviews of all the books I'm reading this year, the first entry is up. Yay! There's lots more I could say but who really wants to hear that?
I’ll begin by admitting up front that summaries are not my forte. And I’ve never written a book review before so I don’t know if there’s a right way or a wrong way of going about this, and if there is, I hope my attempt is passable, if not the most useful or enjoyable.
JANUARY
Deerskin - Robin McKinley
It’s always nice to start off the year with something by your favorite author. I’m actually writing this on hindsight after reading 8 other books, and it just reinforces how amazing an author Robin McKinley is. Sifting through so much other tripe has me jaded where authors are concerned so it’s nice to know that there are always those you can fall back on when everyone else fails you. McKinley has been my favorite ever since reading The Hero and the Crown all those years ago in 7th grade. Since then I’ve found very few writers I’ve liked just as much - if her name’s on it I’ll read it Deerskin is a character driven story, like many of McKinley’s other works, in which the focus falls squarely on the protagonist with little light shed on peripheral characters. Princess Lissla Lissar grows up a daughter of the Most Beautiful Woman in Seven Kingdoms and the shining prince who married her. After her death of her mother and her father’s subsequent mental breakdown, she continues to lead her life in the shadows, her only companion her dog, the faithful Ash. Everything changes for the worse when she turns 17 culminating in a tragedy that causes Lissar and Ash run away. The rest of the story chronicles how Lissar comes to deal with her past trauma with the help of Ash and the mysterious Moonwoman, learning to move on and accept herself.
This work will definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea due to its dark subject matter (incest and rape). The book is slow paced with plenty of focus on detail such as feeding puppies and spending weeks upon weeks in an abandoned house. For those who have read other McKinleys I’d say this book is most similar to Rose Daughter in style. The prose is beautiful and works really well with her approach to its encounters with the darker aspects of human nature and the long and hard path to healing, which, she acknowledges, may never really be complete.
The Foundling and other Tales of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
A companion of short stories to the masterpiece that is the Prydain Chronicles, this book includes eight stories of various characters in the Prydain timeline. These tales serve fill out events alluded to in the series: Dallben’s childhood; the story of Eilonwy’s mother; Coll’s rescue of Hen-Wen; how Awran Death Lord stole the secrets of men; how Fllewder Fllam acquired his harp; Doli; Kadwyr the rascal crow; and Dhyrnwyn’s tragic history. All in all it’s an enjoyable read and I encourage those who are a fan of Prydain to definitely give it a go.
The Sea of Trolls - Nancy Farmer
I’m not sure what to say about this one. I was expecting a bit more considering the author has previously won a Newberry Honor and has some popular books out. However, The Sea of Trolls ends up being a superficial book of unnecessary length that with some pruning, could have been a lot better. As a YA fantasy it’s got an interesting setting, taking place in northern Europe with a mix of Norse mythology involving Vikings, Saxons, magic and, well, trolls. Jack and his sister Lucy are taken captive by a group of Vikings raiding their village. But since Jack is an apprentice bard, he and Lucy are spared being traded at the market and somehow make their way as part of the Chief Viking’s crew/family. And there are quests…and stuff.
Honestly that’s as far as I remember because it’s been like eight months since I read it. There’s a lot of action and adventure, and possibly fun characters but I never felt for any of them and found most of them annoying. It added to the lack of emotional connection I felt with the story - I really didn’t care if they made it out of one of their scrapes because I knew they would. There was never a sense of urgency or danger, or sadness or anything. Things just moved along in a zippy pace, adventure after adventure, bam bam bam. That said it’s not a horrible story, just not my cup of tea. It does have some good points, in that the characters, though not suited to my taste, will probably appeal to a large audience, and the world-building is wonderfully done. Farmer has a lot of detail about customs and mythology and that plus a being a fairly easy read made it an interesting enough to get through. I can’t say I’ll be picking up the sequel any time soon though.
I’ll begin by admitting up front that summaries are not my forte. And I’ve never written a book review before so I don’t know if there’s a right way or a wrong way of going about this, and if there is, I hope my attempt is passable, if not the most useful or enjoyable.
JANUARY
Deerskin - Robin McKinley
It’s always nice to start off the year with something by your favorite author. I’m actually writing this on hindsight after reading 8 other books, and it just reinforces how amazing an author Robin McKinley is. Sifting through so much other tripe has me jaded where authors are concerned so it’s nice to know that there are always those you can fall back on when everyone else fails you. McKinley has been my favorite ever since reading The Hero and the Crown all those years ago in 7th grade. Since then I’ve found very few writers I’ve liked just as much - if her name’s on it I’ll read it Deerskin is a character driven story, like many of McKinley’s other works, in which the focus falls squarely on the protagonist with little light shed on peripheral characters. Princess Lissla Lissar grows up a daughter of the Most Beautiful Woman in Seven Kingdoms and the shining prince who married her. After her death of her mother and her father’s subsequent mental breakdown, she continues to lead her life in the shadows, her only companion her dog, the faithful Ash. Everything changes for the worse when she turns 17 culminating in a tragedy that causes Lissar and Ash run away. The rest of the story chronicles how Lissar comes to deal with her past trauma with the help of Ash and the mysterious Moonwoman, learning to move on and accept herself.
This work will definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea due to its dark subject matter (incest and rape). The book is slow paced with plenty of focus on detail such as feeding puppies and spending weeks upon weeks in an abandoned house. For those who have read other McKinleys I’d say this book is most similar to Rose Daughter in style. The prose is beautiful and works really well with her approach to its encounters with the darker aspects of human nature and the long and hard path to healing, which, she acknowledges, may never really be complete.
The Foundling and other Tales of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
A companion of short stories to the masterpiece that is the Prydain Chronicles, this book includes eight stories of various characters in the Prydain timeline. These tales serve fill out events alluded to in the series: Dallben’s childhood; the story of Eilonwy’s mother; Coll’s rescue of Hen-Wen; how Awran Death Lord stole the secrets of men; how Fllewder Fllam acquired his harp; Doli; Kadwyr the rascal crow; and Dhyrnwyn’s tragic history. All in all it’s an enjoyable read and I encourage those who are a fan of Prydain to definitely give it a go.
The Sea of Trolls - Nancy Farmer
I’m not sure what to say about this one. I was expecting a bit more considering the author has previously won a Newberry Honor and has some popular books out. However, The Sea of Trolls ends up being a superficial book of unnecessary length that with some pruning, could have been a lot better. As a YA fantasy it’s got an interesting setting, taking place in northern Europe with a mix of Norse mythology involving Vikings, Saxons, magic and, well, trolls. Jack and his sister Lucy are taken captive by a group of Vikings raiding their village. But since Jack is an apprentice bard, he and Lucy are spared being traded at the market and somehow make their way as part of the Chief Viking’s crew/family. And there are quests…and stuff.
Honestly that’s as far as I remember because it’s been like eight months since I read it. There’s a lot of action and adventure, and possibly fun characters but I never felt for any of them and found most of them annoying. It added to the lack of emotional connection I felt with the story - I really didn’t care if they made it out of one of their scrapes because I knew they would. There was never a sense of urgency or danger, or sadness or anything. Things just moved along in a zippy pace, adventure after adventure, bam bam bam. That said it’s not a horrible story, just not my cup of tea. It does have some good points, in that the characters, though not suited to my taste, will probably appeal to a large audience, and the world-building is wonderfully done. Farmer has a lot of detail about customs and mythology and that plus a being a fairly easy read made it an interesting enough to get through. I can’t say I’ll be picking up the sequel any time soon though.