The Traitor Queen (09/10/14)

The Traitor Queen gripped me straight away, I did have a couple of pages where I was slightly confused but that was more to do with it having been a very long time between me reading this book and the previous books. However it didn’t take long for it all to come back, and for me to remember what was happening, who was who and what I thought was going to happen. Throughout the book I felt so connected to all the characters, even those I hadn’t previously liked.

As this is the last part of a sequel trilogy there were a number of characters to follow. Obviously Black Magician Sonea, who was the main character in the previous trilogy still has an important role and is travelling to Sachaka for diplomatic purposes, accompanied by Lord Regin. Lord Regin and Sonea’s relationship had developed greatly over the six books and I have to say I liked where his story lead to, from being a horrible, manipulative, spoilt character to a dignified, understanding and very likeable character. There is also Lord Lorkin, Sonea son, who has returned to the Sachakan capital after living a number of months with the Traitors, the outlaw band of black magicians that live in the mountains of Sachaka. He has had to leave Tyvara, the woman he has fallen in love with and doesn’t know if he will see her again. He knows at some point he will have to choose between her and the traitors and his home in the allied lands. Also back home is Lilia, Anyi, Cery and Gol who are undertaking in a completed different story line that is equally dramatic and important to the development of allied lands. All the characters storylines climax in devastating amazing ways.

As this was the end of long series if you include both trilogies I have been able to see full character developments, share their losses, see how that has changed them. This has been a brilliant series and one I have enjoyed immensely. I will say I think over all I preferred the first trilogy more, but only because I felt it was more raw and emotional. This trilogy, using the same character base, I found that I connected most with the characters I already knew and never truly warmed to new additions. However it was nice to be able to see these characters I knew grow up and change. Would highly recommend, if you enjoyed other YA books like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Tales of the Otori etc; I would imagine you would love the original series and this one.

Jurassic Park (02/10/14)

Jurassic Park is the first book in a two part saga written by Michael Crichton, it become one of the most iconic films of the 90’s. Those who have seen the film know that the story revolves around a biotechnology company experimenting with genetics and DNA reconstruction to create dinosaurs in the modern world. On an island off of Costa Rica, these Dinosaurs are being contained in what is being heralded as the zoo of the future. The scientists have managed through DNA extraction and reconstruction to produce 15 different species of extinct Dinosaurs. To test out the park some renowned academics including Dr Grant, palaeontology, Dr Sattler, palaeobotany and Ian Malcom a chaos theory mathematician, are invited to the park. This obviously ambitious leap in technology and questionable ethics runs into some trouble and obviously this has catastrophic consequences.

Never, have I ever, put off reading a book so much as this one. At the very beginning of the year I decided to randomly choose books to read to really push me out of my comfort zone. But, every time I looked at this list I had created I would choose something else. I was avoiding this book, not only because the film was so iconic to my childhood but also I didn’t know if it would be the sort of book I would enjoy to read.

All I can say is, bravo. This book was brilliant. I honestly didn’t want it to end. I loved everything. I didn’t even mind Malcoms rants on chaos theory, I actually rather enjoyed them and found them thought provoking. I really liked that it was close enough to the film that I could follow what I already knew. But there is so much more to this story. There are obviously fictional elements included regarding the behaviour and activities related to the dinosaurs, but there was obviously a lot of research undertaking when the book was written so I believe the artistic license is warranted. I loved the differences and I will definitely now read the sequel and these books will be placed into my exclusive re-read rotation.

The Woodcutter (25/09/14)

What would happen if you tried to put as many fairy-tale characters and plots into one book? Wouldn’t everything get a bit confusing? Wouldn’t you only be able to take snippets of these fairy-tale to try and work them into a bigger plot line? Well that’s pretty much what happens in The Woodcutter.

The Woodcutter, is a retelling of a number of fairy-tale through a many story line revealing around ’The Woodcutter’. A man, one with the trees and the wood in which he lives, setting off on a journey to protect and serve his forest. Along the way he discovers the fae are being captured, princesses are being murdered and generally happy ever afters are being ruined. He must use his wits and his Axes to fight off the evils and right the wrongs he comes across.

When I read the blurb for this book, it seemed like my cup of tea completely. I love retellings of fairy tales such as Fables and the TV series Once upon a time. So I go into these types of things knowing things are not going to be exactly like the fairy tales I knew as a child. That’s what I love about them. But with this book, well, I can’t say that I wasn’t disappoints to begin with. I felt like so much more could have been done with it. 

It does pick up and the last 40% of the book was really quite good and really came together and gave me some ‘wow’ type moments. But even then I felt I could put it down at any point to make a cup of tea, and in reality when I get to the last half of a book I should be glued to it, as if I can’t honestly wait a couple of minutes to make my tea and not be reading the book. Overall, a pretty average read, but mostly I felt it could have been given more depth and back story. There were so many times something was brought up and I would think, ‘wow that would be a brilliant place for a flash back’. Due to the lack of back story and depth it was difficult to really warm to the main character until pretty late in the book.

Oryx and Crake (19/09/14)

Oryx and Crake is a dystopian style post-apocalyptic novel which for the majority focuses on one character, Jimmy, otherwise known as Snowman. The book centres on his life before the fall of a modern civilisation as well as how he move through life afterwards. This world (before the fall) is a perverted but in my opinion not too farfetched realisation of our future. The rich live in compounds with access to all sorts of medications and rejuvenating procedures to lengthen youth and help them remain beautiful. The poor live in the pleeblands, which appears to be not to different from the world we live in now. Food production has been streamlined with scientists creating ‘chicken’ style life forms that have no head/legs as these are not necessary, they just exist in a basic form with no brain function other than to grow. Also in this would entertainment has taken a leap and reality style TV has been twisted so much that it is almost incomprehensible that anyone would watch these shows. It is on one of these shows that Jimmy and his friend Crake first come across Oryx as a young girl. Jimmy and Crake grow up, go to different Universities and begin very different careers. Crake is an enigma, never really part of the human race, although he really does seem to be Jimmy’s friend. He is a genius and begins to develop science in leaps and bounds that could be the end of everything.

This book really got my mind asking questions of myself and science. Often at times it also made me feel anxious and tense in a way not many books have. I don’t see this as a negative, on the contrary I believe it was a positive element to the book. I personally am not a fan of reality shows, and the way entertainment is shown in the book doesn’t seem like a far stretch from what we are currently doing anyway. How many people only watch these shows to see people come to blows? When something horrendous happens on the news, how many people go and try and watch the act online? I am not say in the next few years I expect to see live executions on the TV, but it doesn’t seem like it could never happen. Which is more than worrying. The animal/food production element also doesn’t seem too far off, we can already grow meat in a lab, so how long till we can produce a chicken style organism like in this book. How long till science tries to combine different genes from animals to create new ones.

This is one of the best books I have come across this year and I fully intend to carry on the series. Fully entertaining, fully engrossing, horrific in an addictive way. There is no way to read it without questioning it. I would highly recommend.

Manga: Okane Ga Nai & Crimson Spell (04/09/14)

So I was recommended a couple of series of books. I have been meaning to read more manga/graphic novels for a long time, and I’ll admit I’ve had a bit of a splurge. So I am going to do this a bit differently and review the series to the point I have read it too starting with Okane Ga Nai (No Money).

Books 36. - 43.

This series will definitely not be for everyone. This a fairly graphic and explicit yaoi. Yaoi deals with romance in general but tends to lean to the gay side of things. This doesn’t bother me in the slightest as a younger reader I read my share of fan fiction and this was no worse than that. Nor, in my opinion was it anymore graphic than the imagery I made when reading 50 Shades.

This series deals with the character of Ayase who is being sold at auction to pay of his cousins’ debt. He is bought by Kanou which is an act which both saves him and enslaves him. Havoc ensues as you would expect and there is a deeper story line involving Ayase and Kanou meeting previously but Ayase is unable to remember this. I really enjoyed reading this, there is more to this series than sex but I would imagine it is an acquired taste.

Book 44. - 47.

Now Crimson Spell, whilst also being an erotic yaoi, is also a fantasy series. I found this much superior to No Money story wise. Although it may be even more graphic, there is a real storyline and much better humour included. This series follows Vald, a prince who has been cursed by a magic sword which he used to save his kingdom from demons. In so doing he now turns into a wild demon beast at night. He seeks out a wizard, Halvi, who ‘tames the beast’ at night without Vald being aware of the night-time escapes. There is also a magic Rabbit and a traveling thief. I definitely enjoyed this series more than the first series I read and I plan to branch out and read more manga from now on, which means next year I will definitely need to up my challenge.

The Lovely Bones (23/08/14)

This is another book I have felt the urge to read after watching the film. I probably would never have picked this book up if I hadn’t seen the film previously. The Lovely Bones is not the easiest story to read, as it is the story of a 14 year old girl, Susie Salmon, being raped and murdered. Told from the perspective of Susie in her heaven watching over her family, friends and murderer as they carry on with their life in the years after her death. The story develops from the initial stages of grief and devastation felt by her family and friends to how the move on and, not forget her, but learn to live again.

This story could be hard work to read due to the subject matter, but in fact it is beautiful in all the right places. It is raw in detailing human emotions, and how people can feel guilty for feeling normal after the death of a loved one occurs. It is a lovely thought, of people moving onto a place where the heaven is what they make of it, that it is different for each person and that they can build upon it and still have the ability to watch over the family they left behind. 

My one bug bear with the book was the character of Susie’s mother, Abigail. I understand that grief affects everyone differently but I couldn’t warm to her due to the actions she took in the subsequent years after her eldest daughter was killed. But I found all the other characters interesting and well developed including in particular Susie’s sister Lindsey, who had to grow up to quickly and Susie’s could have been boyfriend Ray, who didn’t let being accused of her murder destroy him. Even the killers’ character was interesting to read about and whilst I never sympathised with his past history as it is told, it felt important to include more about him than just having him defined by the murder he committed. Probably the most developed and grief stricken character was Susie’s father Jack, the way he dealt with his emotions is more how I imagined a parent would act after losing a child this way. It really pulled at your heart when he had to push down his grief to still try to be a father to his two remaining children, but the whole time feeling guilty that Susie wasn’t there which obviously made it harder for his to let go. I would recommend this book but due to the subject matter, no matter how delicately it is written and dealt with, still may not be for everyone.

Station Eleven (13/08/14)

Station Eleven follows a number of characters affected by the disintegration of modern civilisation and society caused by a mutated flu virus which wipes out around 99% of the world wide population. Flitting back over a series of timelines, including the start of the pandemic to focus on the lives these characters had before the virus, what happened to them after this virus became apparent and beginning the destruction of the lives they knew. The story also skips into the future to see how their lives changed and how they had to adapt to their changing world. There are a number of characters to follow and as the book progresses links form between some of them, but this is not the focus of the story.

I won’t go overly into details about the characters it is best to discover them yourselves. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. Receiving it as an advanced review, I didn’t really know much about the story other than it being based in a post-apocalyptic world. Upon receiving the book I was slightly put off by the blurb stating it was following a group of traveling actors and musicians and that it was trying to show how art still had a place in this post civilisation world. But don’t let this put you off, I’m glad I didn’t. Whilst the story uses the actors and musicians in this ‘Traveling Symphony’ as a point to allow cross country movement and show that some people as trying to survive but also to enrich other people’s lives, that wasn’t really what gripped me. It was the relationships this characters had made, the stories about how they used to live and what they had been forced to do in this changing world that kept me turning pages.

I would recommend this book, and I would probably re-read again and possibly try some of the authors other works. The author wrote beautifully and it never felt pretentious or like they were trying to over moralise things. If like me, you like a good end of the world, dystopian story but want something different from the general, zombies, vampires and hunger games type read, give this ago. It may surprise you, like it did me.