Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Michelle Smith

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner: A+

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From the front flap:
There is a new king in Attolia. Attolia’s barons seethe with resentment, the Mede emperor is returning to the attack, and the king is surrounded by the subtle and dangerous intrigue of the Attolian court.

When a naive young guard expresses his contempt for the king in no uncertain terms, he is dragged into the center of the political maelstrom. Like the king, he cannot escape the difficulties he makes for himself. Poor Costis knows he is the victim of the king’s caprice, but he discovers a reluctant sympathy for the man as he watches the newly crowned king struggle against his fate.

Review:
Eugenides is being his usual brilliant, lazy, bored, self-mocking, others-mocking, and occasionally hotheaded self in this book. He’s such a great character; I could read a whole book just about him reacting to things. In fact, in the first hundred pages, there isn’t a lot of plot, just setting the scene of life at the Attolian court and how the also likable Costis has been snagged into the service of the king. “Poor Costis,” indeed.

And then the intrigue starts, and the character development, and the little revelations behind what the public perceives and… it’s just so well done! It’s hard to describe too much, as I am determined to avoid spoilers.

I’ve enjoyed every book in this series, but it’s been this one that’s really cemented me as a devotee and left me impatiently awaiting Gen’s future exploits. Each has been better than the last, but The King of Attolia is perfect. Do yourself a favor and read these books!

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: B+

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From the back cover:
The cast: an un-ordinary king, and an extraordinary princess, a couple of kooky giants, an overzealous magician, a loyal and helpful witch, and a host of evil and dangerous wizards.

The instruments: a broken-down magic carpet, a leaking magical sword, and a few buckets of soapy lemon water.

The problem: dragon-napping and magic-stealing.

And so the story begins, one fine day while King Mendanbar is taking a casual stroll through the Enchanted Forest…

Review:
It’s interesting that the plot can have some glaring “duh, obvious” elements (the identity of the villains, who Mendanbar will eventually marry, etc.) and yet function perfectly well. I think it’s because it doesn’t hinge on those elements for its success. They’re there, but you’re not expected to be surprised by any of them. Overall, I quite liked Searching for Dragons, but not as much as the first in the series. This is mainly due to the following:

1) It’s a bit repetitive. Here’s what Cimorene and Mendanbar do over and over: Journey a little bit, encounter a fairy tale denizen who behaves a little like his ilk typically do in fairy tales but with a twist, listen to his tale of woe, dispense advice that solves all his problems in an instant, move on, journey a little bit, etc. Maybe I was supposed to appreciate the twists more, but they were only mildly sort of cute, and I was much more interested in the main plot than these side diversions, even if they ultimately helped to further the main story along.

2) Telemain. I think Wrede’s take on magicians is interesting. They’re sort of magic nerds or mechanics, who get into exactly how the magic functions and can diagnose why things are going wrong. Interesting concept aside, Telemain himself is incredibly annoying. Probably, he is more tolerable in print, but in this audio version, he has the most nasally, grating voice that I have ever heard. It literally made me cringe every time he spoke.

Still a worthy series and pleasantly diverting, but I hope for a little change-up from “the villains from book one are behind it all again, surprise” business in the next one.

Fushigi Yûgi 1 by Yuu Watase: B+

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Book description:
Miaka Yuuki is an ordinary junior-high student who is suddenly whisked away into the world of a book, The Universe of the Four Gods. In a land reminiscent of ancient China, she becomes the priestess of the god Suzaku, and is charged with finding all seven of her Celestial-Warrior protectors, including dashing mercenary Tamahome and wannabe empress Nuriko. Only then can Miaka summon the power of the god Suzaku, find her true love, and get home safely.

Review:
Fushigi Yûgi was the first shoujo anime I ever saw, and the first with rampant bishounen and gender fun, etc. So, even though it has its flaws, I’m still fond of it. It’s been a while since I saw the series, so I decided to revisit it in manga form.

The art style surprised me. I’ve read a couple of Watase’s later things, and this earlier style is actually reminiscent of Rumiko Takahashi in spots. I prefer it to her later, more stylized approach. It’s more comical and the characters don’t look as similar.

Miaka is certainly just as stupid as I remembered, and has already done quite a few dumb things and fainted a few times for incredibly goofy reasons. Tamahome… doesn’t… love me?! *swoon* Three of her Celestial Warriors are introduced here, found essentially under her nose: Tamahome, Hotohori, and Nuriko. I’m definitely reading more for these side characters, the latter two more so than Tamahome. He doesn’t really do much for me. I do like the story, and the manga seems to be a little clearer on certain elements of the logistics involved.

Fushigi Yûgi is a shoujo classic, but is also recommended if one simply wants a bit of fun fantasy.

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: A

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From the back cover:
Take one bored princess. Make her the seventh daughter in a very proper royal family. Have her run away.

Add one powerful, fascinating, dangerous dragon.

Princess Cimorene has never met anyone (or anything) like the dragon Kazul. But then, she’s never met a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird, or a stone prince either.

Princess Cimorene ran away to find some excitement.

She’s found plenty.

Review:
I’ve read a lot of YA Fantasy featuring unconventional or improper princess heroines, and at first Cimorene seemed like just another one of them, but ended up distinguishing herself from the others. Alianora is also amusing. The unabridged audio I listened to had different voices for the different characters, and hers was especially good. This also enabled them to do a neat trick – they could overlap lines of dialogue to portray times when people speak simultaneously or interrupt. It was nifty!

The plot of the book is clever, and more especially than that – well explained. I loved that characters were always explaining to others exactly what happened, and that the plot didn’t hinge on misunderstandings or people deciding to stay quiet for no discernible reason. That’s what you do when you have a big problem – give all the facts to everyone to mull over! The end result was that almost all behavior in the book was not only believable, it was logical. There weren’t any moments where I wanted to smack anyone.

I also really liked the portrayal of the dragons in the book, especially their interesting take on gender roles. There was some great voice acting work for the dragons, too, especially in the scene where Kazul has guests for dinner, so if you ever listen to it, remember that I said the voice of the “thin dragon” rocked. This reminds me that if I were pressed to voice a complaint, it’d be that the stone prince doesn’t get named. Hopefully he’ll appear in later books and it will be revealed.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: A-

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From the back cover:
From her first moment at Merryweather High, MJSordino knows she’s an outcast. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops—a major infraction in high-school society—so her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t know glare at her. She retreats into her head, where the lies and hypocrisies of high school stand in stark relief to her own silence, making her all the more mute. But it’s not so comfortable in her head, either—there’s something banging around in there that she doesn’t want to think about. Try as she might to avoid it, it won’t go away, until there is a painful confrontation. Once that happens, she can’t be silent—she must speak the truth.

Review:
Speak does an excellent job capturing the voice of a clever, angsty ninth grader. A lot of the things she says (it’s first person, but whether it’s a journal isn’t clear) are overly melodramatic, and sound much like the sort of symbolic crap that I once wrote in my journal. This is occasionally a little annoying, but since the same could be said about most ninth graders, it worked for me. I listened to an unabridged audio version. The girl who read it, Mandy Siegfried, was awesome. Very authentic voice for a fourteen-year-old, and she (or someone) even made up tunes for the little snippets of the school cheers that are included, which was amusing.

It’s not a real surprise what’s happened to MJ, but even so—when the details are finally revealed, they still carry impact. Despite the blurb up there about the painful confrontation being the catalyst, I found her change to be a gradual one, which I liked, so there wasn’t exactly one single event I could point to that brought about an end to her silence. Although MJ’s muteness and mental retreating are frustrating, the wry analysis of high school and her other various experiences makes her a likable character. Now that it’s over, I find that I’ll actually miss hearing her. Kind of ironic, given the whole point of the thing.

Speak is a Printz Honor book. It’s good. Check it out.

Ouran High School Host Club 2 by Bisco Hatori: A-

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From the back cover:
The school-wide physical exam has thrown the members of the Host Club for a loop. How can the doctor not discover that Haruhi is a girl?! And once the female customers learn the truth, Haruhi can kiss her job goodbye. But then life at the club will be unbearably boring if she leaves! So the guys wrack their brains for a solution…

Review:
This volume corresponds with episodes 3 and 5-7 of the anime. I thought some bits of 7 might’ve been anime-only filler, buuuut turns out they weren’t. I didn’t like this volume quite as much as the first, because it felt like it was getting a little gimmicky. I don’t like manga where things like panda mecha or cages or alligators just randomly appear out of nowhere. The interesting characters and art that’s beautiful and cute in just the right proportion make me a little more forgiving in Ouran’s case, but I hope it doesn’t become a trend.

I continue to appreciate the moments where Tamaki succeeds in engineering happiness for someone the club has encountered, and especially enjoy seeing Haruhi being stunned by Tamaki’s brief flashes of perceptive kindness. “I like good deeds,” one of his thought bubbles declares, as he smilingly observes another success. I like Haruhi and Mori a lot, but at this point, Tamaki is my favorite character. I hope to see more insight and depth for him in the future.

Haunted by Jeff Mariotte: C-

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From the back cover:
Cordelia’s getting her first big break—as a contestant on yet another twist on “reality programming.” The catch? She has to spend five days and four nights in a so-called haunted house. Not a problem for a girl who lives with a ghost and works with a vampire (and even managed to graduate from Sunnydale High School in one piece). She’s a shoo-in.

But there may be more going on behind the scenes than Cordy anticipated. On her first night, she’s wracked with a vision—and it’s of one of the applicants who didn’t make the final cut. Through subtle on-air clue-dropping, she manages to communicate the scenario to Angel and Co., who are instantly on the case. But as Angel, Wesley, and Gunn seek the missing actress, paranormal activity in the house heats up. Once Wolfram & Hart is added to the mix, Cordelia has to wonder which she would rather hold onto—her ticket to certain stardom… or her life…

Review:
Haunted takes place during the second season of Angel, some time after the episode “The Thin Dead Line.” Y’know, the one with the zombie cops. That’s actually episode 14, so towards the end of that season, after all the Darla angst.

This book is pretty freakin’ lame and boring. It features Cordelia, and so I mistakenly thought it might be fun, and now I’m bummed that I’d saved this one for last. It only cements my decision to lay off the Angel books for a while. The B plot mystery, regarding the applicant who didn’t make the cut who Cordelia has a vision about, is completely dumb. By page 113, it’s abundantly clear what is going on. Sustaining interest in it for 200 more pages is not possible. Trudge would be an apt description of my progress through these segments. How plots A and B ultimately intertwine is the epitome of flimsy.

So, in addition to a lackluster story, the editing is pretty horrid, too! There’s one scene in particular, where six contestants are left in the haunted house. The book names them. There are clearly six. Then the host says, “There are five of you…” And then he reads the results of the eviction vote and they total seven! No sneaky ghost has cast a vote, either, because no one reacts to the incorrect tally. In another scene, when only three contestants are left, Cordelia’s lounging on a couch while ‘several of the other contestants’ are hanging around, too. Eh? Two does not constitute several, and it would still be weird if they’d said ‘a couple of the other’ because these two have been referred to by name many times before and are again in the next paragraph. It’s like saying ‘Harry encountered a three-headed-dog and a couple of other students were there, too.’

The writing’s not as good as the others by Mariotte, either. Some thoughts and dialogue don’t seem entirely in character, nothing actually amusing happens… I could go more in depth, but enduring ’til the end has sapped my strength. I’m eager to put this one behind me.

Hikaru no Go 7 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata: A

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From the back cover:
Hikaru is horrified to find that he’s losing all of his games at the insei school! The Young Lions Tournament is just three months away, and the insei who qualify will play against rookie pros, including Akira. Hikaru sees his chance to impress his rival, but can he turn his losing streak around in time?

Review:
It’s hard to articulate why I love this series so much, but I really do. The plot is not a new one in shounen manga, but the characters are so endearing, and the art so great, that it still feels fresh. Hikaru is your typical boy, thoughtless at times, but still with the occasional sweet moment when he is determined to do something good for Sai. And, of course, Sai could not be prettier and/or cuter. I particularly like when all that’s in his thought bubble is a little heart.

It’s also pretty unique how far we’ve progressed so far. A little over a year has passed since Hikaru started playing, several months are covered in this volume alone, and I think the story is somewhere over the halfway point of the anime series. With 16 volumes after this one, it makes me think there’s tons of story that wasn’t animated, and since I have remained unspoiled on it, it’s quite a lovely prospect.

In this volume, I liked that Sai is able to diagnose why Hikaru keeps losing, and actually do a bit of instructing that nudges Hikaru’s skill level up some. Plus, the stylized representations of their games as parrying swordplay was a pretty cool way of illustration his progression. The other insei are more interesting than his former clubmates back at his junior high, because they’re better skilled and less worshipful of his abilities, and with this volume, he’s just getting into playing against a couple of characters that I quite like.

Everyone needs to read a bit of shounen tournament-style manga every once in a while, to experience its awesome addictive power. Hikaru no Go would be an excellent choice.

Solitary Man by Jeff Mariotte: B

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From the back cover:
Widow Mildred Finster is a life-long fan of “cozy” mystery novels. She decides at the tender age of seventy-one that she’d like to become a real private detective. She finds a card for Angel Investigations and thinks the name sounds very sweet. After all, she loves angels. What could be more perfect?

Angel and the gang are hip-deep in their own personal problems, so when Mildred offers her services, they don’t have much time for her. And when a truckload of antiquities from a local mission is stolen, they don’t get too worked up over what they think is a simple theft. But the arrival of some ruthless killers from overseas finally gets the gang’s attention.

Now they are being followed at every turn by a well-meaning old lady, fighting off attacks from poltergeists, and trying to set their personal differences aside to defeat a supernatural foe before a centuries-old mystery reaches its final chapter.

Review:
Yes, another Angel book! I checked out 4 at once, and now they’re all coming due, so I’m hastening to get them read. Solitary Man takes place early in season four, at least after episode six, “Spin the Bottle,” in which the team reverts to their high school personas and Cordelia regains her memories. I think there’s a timeline error, however. In that episode, Wesley’s got some spring-loaded blades up his sleeves, but in Solitary Man, he’s still waiting for them to be delivered. I don’t see why he’d need two sets of these things, so I am assuming they’re the same ones. It seems like an attempt of Mariotte’s to get in an esoteric reference to them in particular, but it doesn’t work with non-amnesiac-Cordelia.

In general, Mariotte writes the Angel crew well. I really liked his analysis about Wes and Lilah’s relationship. It’s never implicitly stated on the show, but I think that he got Wes’ motivations absolutely right. He also does well in showing what Fred and Gunn are each thinking after what happened with her former professor. This is a period in the show where people are keeping a lot to themselves, so it was neat to get some perspective on what they might’ve been thinking. Another thing he does well is describing the action in a scene so that it’s immediately easy to envision it playing out on screen. I find I really like being able to picture exactly how Angel got into the offices of the trucking company, for example.

My only complaint with the writing itself is that Mariotte seems to have a penchant for the lame simile. This also manifested itself in Sanctuary (review). The first example to catch my notice was this little gem: “…her footfall soft as the beat of a butterfly’s wing.” Another: “…with remnants of advertising posters clinging to them like bad memories that can’t be shaken.” I don’t know whether to snicker, groan, or make gagging sounds. Oh, and the spelling of magic with a K abounds. I definitely need to get my hands on some scripts and confirm that Whedon-tachi did not use this variant. I will be so depressed if they did. But Giles didn’t own the Magick Box, did he? No, he did not.

So, good characterization and dialogue aside, the plot of this one is kind of dull. Some artifacts didn’t make it to a mission renovation project, some weird old dude is involved, some comatose park ranger living in a house with a poltergeist is involved, some little old lady follows the crew and gives progress reports to her cat, Pookie. (I am not making this up.) The end was a little dumb, too. Mariotte provides another quick, easy read, enjoyable almost solely for the people populating it, and pretty bleh otherwise.

Sanctuary by Jeff Mariotte: B

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From the back cover:
Angel and Co. are enjoying a rare moment of relaxation at the karaoke bar Caritas when a loud explosion draws the gang—and the rest of the bar’s patrons—outside. A building across the way is on fire, but the conflagration is nothing more than a diversionary tactic to distract people from a drive-by shooting! And when the smoke clears, Fred is missing.

It’s obvious she’s been kidnapped, so Angel, Lorne, Cordy, Wes, and Gunn set about questioning everyone within the immediate radius. At least ten demons were direct eyewitnesses. One problem, though: Each tells a different story of what he, she, or it saw. It could have been gang warfare—monster style—or Fred could have wandered home without saying good-bye. One thing quickly becomes clear: Demons don’t make for the most reliable sources…

Review:
Sanctuary takes place in season three, before the episode “This Old Gang of Mine,” in which Gunn’s former vampire-hunting buddies wreak some havoc in Caritas. At the time the story is set, Lorne has just finished renovating the club after it was damaged by the gang returning through the portal from Pylea in Angel’s car. Fred is still in her skittish, writing-on-walls stage and no romantic turmoil has disrupted the camaraderie of the group.

I had a little trouble getting into this one, initially. Not that it has any problems with timeline or canon; it was just a little dull. However, once I got more interested in the world-building going on via Lorne’s interviews with potential witnesses, the pace picked up. I liked that some attention was paid to what Lorne actually sees when he reads those who have sung for him. And it was pretty cool how Mariotte was able to reference the events of some early episodes as explanation for why some patrons of Caritas might have grudges against Angel. Like, remember some demon called Griff who menaced Doyle for unpaid gambling debts? Me, neither. But sure enough, he’s a real character in the Angel episode “Rm w/a Vu,” and his brother happened to be in Caritas the evening in question.

There were a couple of clunky lines of writing (example: “… caused the pain to come roaring back like a hungry lion released from its cage”) but not too many. The writing was in-character and often very amusing. There were lots of lines and scenes that I ccould totally imagine happening on the show, which is exactly what one wants from a novel of this sort. Like Angel wistfully remembering his evil days when confronted with an irritating convenience store clerk, and a whole lot of giggle-worthy moments between Cordelia, Gunn, and Wes, including a particular gag involving some demon goo on Wes’ hands.

All was going well until the last chapter or so, when a tremendously huge plot hole left me staring at the book and going, “Um…?” Despite this, I quite enjoyed the book and recommend it as a fun, light read. I’ve been pretty impressed by the two Angel novels I have read so far, and the local library has quite a few, so I will be reading more of them.

The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg: A-

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From the back cover:
Why was Mrs. Olinski’s sixth grade academic bowl team so successful? And why had Mrs. Olinski chosen them in the first place?

Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian call themselves The Souls. Each has a story to tell, and within each of their stories is part of the answer. Listen to Noah’s tale of life in Century Village, Nadia’s story of turtle walks, Ethan’s account of high tea at the bed and breakfast inn, and Julian’s story about a dog that becomes a stage star. Taken together, their stories answer the first question, and when intertwined with the story of Mrs. Olinski and their astonishing academic bowl victories, they answer the second—and tell you much, much more.

Review:
I listened to The View from Saturday in unabridged audio format, and the makers of this one attempted something a little different than the norm. Instead of one narrator for the entire thing, there were five. One for the frame story, in which the kids are competing in the finals of an academic bowl competition, and then one for each of the kids, as they tell their respective first person stories. The only problem is—these narrators sound too old for sixth graders! Noah’s sounds about 16, and Nadia’s sounds like a throaty 35-year-old! If you’re going to make an effort to provide distinct narrators, as if they are really representing the characters, at least get ones that fit the part! Casting issues aside, however, I do think Nadia’s story benefited from the audio treatment, since the strange, Data-style contraction-free dialogue doesn’t come across as unnaturally as K encountered with the print version.

Now, the book itself. There’s not so much of a plot, necessarily, but more of a gradual introduction of the members of the team, and then finally showing how they interact together. The first story just features one member, the next features two and mentions a third, etc. The stories I enjoyed most were the third and fourth, those of Ethan and Julian, both because those characters are not annoying, and because the whole group has assembled by then. Incidentally, for some weird reason, I keep thinking Ethan’s name is Chris. It should be, dangit!

The connections between the four and their homeroom teacher and coach, Mrs. Olinski, are multi-layered, and though it’s a little bit much at times, reasonable explanations are supplied. I particularly liked that the young narrators often end up discovering some things about other people in their lives aside from their teammates. Nadia’s dad comes off pretty unfavorably in Noah’s tale, but in her own, he gets some depth and earns sympathy. Nadia at first thinks Ethan’s grandma is a meddler, but then is forced to revise her opinion. Each member of the team has his or her own quirks and flaws, and though I really wanted to smack Noah and Nadia at times, I concede that there are undoubtedly 12-year-olds in existence who are as irritating as they are.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and definitely intend to recommend it for kids I know in this age range. There aren’t many books that focus on smart kids, and the team is at least somewhat diverse, so the “all kinds of people can be smart” message is clear. So is the “mean people suck” message. And the “be courteous” message. Which ties into one of my two complaints: the lessons imparted are kind of heavily handled, but since they’re good lessons, it’s hard to be too bothered by it. The second is that some of the questions in the competition are awfully open-ended. I participated in these sorts of contests myself in 10th and 11th grade, and I never heard any that had more than one possible answer. “Name an accomplishment of ____,” for example.

Ouran High School Host Club 1 by Bisco Hatori: A+

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From the back cover:
One day, Haruhi, a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School, breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to the “Host Club,” a mysterious campus group consisting of six super-rich (and gorgeous) guys. To pay back the damages, she is forced to work for the club, and it’s there that she discovers just how wealthy the members are and how different the rich are from everybody else…

Review:
I’d had the first few volumes of this series for a while, but after seeing how fabulous the anime is, I’ve finally been prompted to read them. I think I’m liking the characters even more since I can imagine mannerisms and voices and all that. Even though he’s such a dork, I totally love Tamaki. He is everything adorable about Ayame and Shigure rolled into a Yuki Eiri-ish package.

Haruhi is an interesting heroine, as well. A little reluctant initially to undertake host duties, she eventually takes to it naturally, with paying off her debt as the prime motivation. She is not as traumatized by her charade as other shoujo leads have been, and has some interesting quotes that illustrate her perspective. For example: “Can’t say that I fully appreciate the perceived differences between the sexes anyway” and “I kinda enjoy having the girls hassle over me. Guess I’m a little bent that way.”

I haven’t done any in-depth comparison to the anime, but things are pretty much the same in the manga. There’s the jealous customer of Tamaki’s, the girl who likes teacups, and the crazy Renge, who I don’t like very much. One interesting tidbit about Haruhi’s family is mentioned that hasn’t cropped up in the anime yet, but I shan’t say more in case they decide to mention it in the future. The best part, of course, is the characters, how they take Haruhi under their wing in their misguided detached-from-reality-rich-boys kind of way, and how they earnestly try to make their customers happy. Could not possibly be more highly recommended.

Checkers by John Marsden: A-

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From the back cover:
Tonight before I started writing this, it was me confronting Jack. It was so real I could smell it.

Suddenly, according to my imagination, I’d be on my feet, screaming, “Why didn’t you leave us alone? Why did you have to drag us in? You’re scum, filth. I hate you. Go away. You deserve everything, everything, you understand? Everything that you get. It’s not my fault. IT’S NOT MY FAULT.”

She has everything going for her: good looks, a nice school, friends, and a silly dog to remind her not to take life too seriously. But suddenly her life spins out of control. Nothing seems to make sense anymore. It takes confinement in a hospital—and a lot of time to think—before she can once again get a handle on life.

Review:
If I had read that description (and seen the creepy goth girl staring at me from the cover) without any prior experience with John Marsden, I’d probably have gone, “Ooookay” and put it back on the shelf. Since I have, however, read the excellent Letters from the Inside, I knew that most likely, it would turn out to be good.

The main protagonist is a high-school-age girl from a well-to-do family, and is keeping a sort of journal while she’s in the Adolescent Unit of a psychiatric hospital. We never learn her name. The narration alternates between description of life in the hospital, the staff, and the other six teens in the unit (one of whom reminds me a lot of Luna Lovegood) and her life before, her easily stressed, perfection-seeking mom, workaholic dad, materialistic brother, and the family dog she adored, Checkers. She’s a voluntary patient at this place, and it seems is using it as a bit of a hideway, unable to face something mysterious and terrible that has happened.

It’s a short little book, but isn’t lacking for impact. In fact, I would say it is downright disturbing. The story is still a good one, and it’s definitely unforgettable, but once all the secrets are revealed of why this girl is where she is… Let’s just say that I think I’d probably be there, too, were I in her place.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King: C-

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From the back of the book:
What happens when Sherlock Holmes—a pompous, proper Victorian gentleman—takes an outspoken American woman as his apprentice? Edgar Award-winning author Laurie R. King reveals the answer in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, an absorbing novel steeped in exquisite understanding and charming intelligence.

In 1914, a bold young American named Mary Russell meets a retired beekeeper in the English countryside. His name is Sherlock Holmes. And although many years have passed since he astonished Watson by solving Scotland Yard’s most baffling crimes, the Great Detective is no fool. He instantly spots a fellow intellect in Mary. When his greatest enemy returns with a fiendishly resourceful plan for revenge, Holmes knows he faces the case of his lifetime—and that he needs Mary’s help to solve it.

Review:
I had serious trepidations going into this book. I expected Mary to be insufferable, revealing her oh-so-clever deductions to Holmes, who had of course failed to make them previously, leaving him mystified and relegated to Watson’s traditional role. I mean, look at that last sentence up there. That’s cringe-inducing stuff.

I found her quite irksome for the first couple of chapters as she described her mental capacities rather immodestly, though this is certainly something Sherlock’s guilty of himself. I started to maybe kind of like her an eensy bit when she attended university and went about in drag on a few occasions. When they actually started sleuthing together, it was clear that if anyone was relegated to a supporting role, it was Mary. Sherlock was still very much the star, and early on, King does a pretty good job of both maintaining his character as well as providing mysteries consistent in tone and style with those of Conan Doyle. Their first two cases are not bad, and I didn’t want to stab Mary.

That said, about two-thirds through, she does notice something he doesn’t, and goes on in amazement about how she’s rescued him from error and how this causes him angst. Beyond that, by this point it had started to get repetitive. I cannot tell you how many times Holmes attempted to leave her behind, only to be reminded that she did not need to be coddled, and that he had never shown any doubt in the awesomeness of her deductive powers.

Shortly after this, the plot is completely derailed by a pointless side trip to Palestine. Said trip gives Mary the opportunity to start quoting random Hebrew and singing psalms on inspirational hillsides. My head. At least Holmes doesn’t comment on her ‘voice of pure sweetness and light’ or something. Not that he escapes out-of-character behavior here. After he has just agreed that she’s his equal, he envelopes her in his arms and holds her until the lamp runs out of oil. Holmes did this? Eh?!?

Continuing on was not very enjoyable after this point, but I was too close to the end to abandon it. It improves somewhat once they’re back in London, but the revelation of the villain is pretty boring, and the “moving” letter Mary receives at the end had me rolling my eyes. I will not be reading any other books in this series. I’ll actually miss reading Holmes’ bits, but I’ve been spoiled on an event that occurs down the line, and I think I’m better off stopping here and avoiding the risk of aneurism.

Book of the Dead by Ashley McConnell: B+

by

From the back cover:
Wes has been a compulsive reader since childhood. It’s an addiction like any other—he craves books, loves them, can’t live without them. So when his former colleague Adrian O’Flaherty comes to town and invites Wes along to a highly secret auction of rare occult books, Wes can’t say no.

What Wes doesn’t know is that Adrian is looking for more than dusty old tomes at the auction. He’s out for revenge. Before the Watchers Council was destroyed, a man named Rutherford Circe stole a number of rare books from the council’s libraries—and killed the librarian, Adrian’s father, in the process.

At the auction, Wes buys a box of old books that holds one of the most famous books of magic ever collected. The Red Compendium is known for totally absorbing its readers—and Wes, always a sucker for compelling literature, couldn’t put it down if he wanted to.

Note: One spelling of magic with a k was changed because it is lame.

Review:
I freely admit to being a Wes fangirl, and I couldn’t resist a book centered around him. This is my first original novel set in the Buffyverse, and I’m happy to report it’s far superior than the novelizations I’ve read previously. Characterization is very good for all characters, in inner thought as well as dialogue, and evoked no cringes whatsoever. I particularly liked Wes’ reminiscences back to his Watchers (Watchers’?) Academy days. I’m sure it’s like other English boarding schools, but to me it just seems Hogwartsian.

The plot is not the most stellar thing ever, but it’s pretty good. Some bits I could imagine in an episode, though not all of it. It takes place in the fourth season while Wes is still estranged from the others, but at the point where some reconciliation is slowly taking place. The timeline’s a little hard to pinpoint, though, because it’s definitely after Caleb blew up the Watchers Council, but seems to be before Angel turned into Angelus. And Lorne is still running Caritas, which I thought he’d given up by this point in time since Angel-tachi kept wrecking it.

One irksome thing is that the publisher can’t seem to decide which way it wants to spell the word magic. It uses the variant with a K on the back cover, which I dislike. At first, the text used the regular way, then it shifted to the K way, and then back again. I thought maybe it only used the K when it was black magic, but this theory was dashed. On page 118, both are used interchangeably: “death magick amulets” and, a few paragraphs later, “death magic amulets.” After the first appearance of magic with a K in the text, I started keeping a tally box. Here are the results:

Magick: 14
Magic: 12

Despite these little flaws, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anyone looking for some new stories featuring beloved characters.