Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Michelle Smith

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+

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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.

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner: A-

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From the front flap, edited for spoilers:
When Eugenides outwitted the Queen of Attolia, she lost face. To restore her reputation and reassert her power, the Queen of Attolia will go to any length and accept any help that is offered… she will risk her country to execute the perfect revenge.

Eugenides can steal anything. And he taunts the Queen of Attolia, moving through her strongholds seemingly at will. So Attolia waits, secure in the knowledge that the Thief will slip, that he will haunt her palace one too many times.

Review:
The Queen of Attolia is the sequel to The Thief, set in the same world but without the same narrator. Strenuously avoid reading the description of this book on Amazon, for there is a spoiler right there in the first sentence. I was its victim, but thankfully, the event it describes happens fairly early on so I didn’t have to spend the whole book wondering when it was going to occur. Suffice it to say, Gen does a lot of growing up in this book.

He’s still as likable as he was the first go around, but with this volume, I’ve also grown to like the Queen of Eddis quite a bit. A rational, competent, female leader in trousers who spurns offers of marriage and earns her court’s loyalty by ability rather than by scheming, Eddis (the monarchs go by the names of their countries) is an excellent character.

Although I enjoyed The Thief, The Queen of Attolia is much better, in my opinion. It’s become more of a game of political intrigue, and I prefer that sort of story much more than one with lots of traveling. Essentially, there’s a power struggle between three countries in one part of the world, and they need to get their acts together to avoid being overrun by an Imperial power from another coast. Although Gen’s is primarily the main point of view, there are passages in each of the countries allowing us to get a glimpse of the motivation and rationale of all parties.

The Queen of Attolia is fast-paced, clever, and entertaining. I especially found Chapter 16 to be amusing. I am really quite surprised that my local library is shelving it in the Juvenile section rather than YA, as I’m not sure very young kids could really grasp the importance of, say, buying up a whole bunch of surplus grain as a political maneuver.

The one downside I could give it is that sometimes the story jumps forward to show Gen doing something, having made a decision he was struggling with previously, but without showing how he finally came to make his choice in the matter. In most cases, the story manages to loop back around and give a bit of explanation, but it can leave one in a state of not understanding his motivations for a time.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: A

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From the back of the book:
In the first chapter of this haunting novel, 14-year-old Susie Salmon looks down from heaven and describes the horrifying events of her murder. As time goes on, Susie continues her curious observations while her family struggles to cope with the pain of her death. Her younger sister grows tougher and more mature, her mother goes to desperate lengths to ease the suffering, and her father begins a perilous quest to bring the killer to justice.

Review:
This book starts out absolutely stunningly. Susie’s murder and the aftermath progress evenly and fascinatingly for about a year after her death. After that time, however, events speed up and soon whole years are glossed over within a sentence. It became a real “Drop in on X and see where they are now. Okay, next character!” cycle. And it isn’t that these little snapshots weren’t interesting; it just really felt rushed.

Thankfully, this doesn’t last too very long before the story wraps up in a more linear fashion. The ending may be a bit too tidy for some, I suppose, but I loved it. The author manages to be thoughtful and evoke imagery without being pretentious or writing so densely as to require strong effort to decode for meaning.

The Lovely Bones is unique, a trifle flawed, but wholly unforgettable. I’ll remember this story for a long time.

Rurouni Kenshin 26 by Nobuhiro Watsuki: C+

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From the back cover:
If there’s one thing tough-as-nails street brawler—and ex-Sekiho Army cadet—Sagara Sanosuke can’t stand, it’s hypocritical, loudmouthed braggarts who talk the talk but are incapable of walking the walk. Finding himsef in the middle of a provincial squabble between an old man and the local yakuza, Sano returns to his old “fight merchant” ways and agrees to do some ad hoc butt kicking for pay. But the old man he’s hired to tangle with might be his strongest foe to date.

Review:
The majority of this volume involves Sanosuke fighting to help protect a town from some yakuza creeps. It’s pretty durn boring. There are a couple of out-of-character references by the characters to the fact that they’re in a manga, which I didn’t find too amusing, and Sano seemed to be going a little haywire with the “giving people nicknames” deal. It does, however, introduce the character of Ota, who is totally lovable, even though he doesn’t say a single word. I’d like to see what becomes of him someday.

Finally, in the last few chapters, we return to Kenshin and the others in Tokyo, with the conflict with Enishi just about to come to fruition. Except, right at the end, it doesn’t happen! In fact, it doesn’t even not happen! What I mean is, something gets in the way between the gang and Enishi, and then we don’t see that fight because it’s going to happen in volume 27. I’d be more frustrated by this if I didn’t already have 27, courtesy of Waldenbooks getting theirs in crazy early.

Please Save My Earth 16 by Saki Hiwatari: A

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From the back cover:
Mokuren’s perspective on the moon base tragedy is vastly different from Shion’s. Though she seems to be an ethereal goddess, she has her own insecurities and frustrations. She’s troubled by her lack of female friends and aggravated by men who are only interested in the rarity and celebrity of her Kiche, the mystical mark of their god, Sarjalim. When she learns of the opportunity to join the research team on the KK moon base, she eagerly applies for the position, over the protest of the Lim Lians. Her wish to join good-looking men on the team is fulfilled when she meets handsome Gyokuran and Shion—but will either one quench her desires?

Review:
Doesn’t that read like the description for the first volume of a series rather than the sixteenth? We continue with Mokuren flashbacks in this volume, up through the early days of the moon base. A couple of the scenes from volume nine, which were then presented from Shion’s perspective, are retold from Mokuren’s point of view. It’s interesting to see what she was really thinking at the time. The insights into her character that this volume provides really answered for me the question of why someone seemingly so angelic and perfect would be interested in someone as infuriating as Shion. There are some cute moments in this, too, where he is very goofy and/or embarrassed.

There isn’t a lot of plot advancement here, and only about three pages of the modern-day characters. Hajime (Alice’s brother) watches over her as she sleeps (I’ve totally forgotten why she is sleeping so much or if she’s sick) and briefly wakes before submerging into the moon dreams once more. I am happy to get to know the real Mokuren, but I hope that soon we’ll get back to the current tale and what’s going on with Rin. There are only five volumes left, after all!

The Xander Years 2 by Jeff Mariotte: B

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From the back cover:
Most teens have trouble finding themselves now and then, but when you’re living on a hellmouth, “trouble” is an understatement—especially if you’re Xander Harris. He has never been very popular, and has never had much luck with women, but he is uniquely Xander.

After a Sunnydale High field trip to the zoo, Xander becomes obnoxious and aggressive. Giles thinks it’s typical adolescent male behavior, but Buffy knows better. And when he finally scores “cool” points by making the Sunnydale High swim team, he’s thrown into the middle of something, well… fishy.

Still, once Xander is excluded from the Slayer’s most recent anti-apocalyptic campaign, he finds himself battling his own private evil—and saving Sunnydale High from a fate it never imagined.

Review:
Continuing the alliterative trend from volume one, the three episodes picked for novelization in this book (“The Pack,” “Go Fish,” and “The Zeppo”) are billed as three tales of transition, transformation, and transcendence. Um, okay. I didn’t really think Xander was that affected by donning skimpy swimwear. It’s interesting to note that in all three of these episodes, the villainous baddie ends up getting devoured.

I am happy to say that Jeff Mariotte does a better job conveying the thought processes of the characters than his predecessor from volume one, though frankly, that wouldn’t be difficult. Sometimes they’re covered in a simple paragraph, and I didn’t have any specific problems with those, and sometimes, when it’s something the character would’ve said in their mental voice, they are italicized. It’s the italicized thoughts that are more prone to being irritating, and occasionally, downright jarring. A little setup for this snerk-inducing example from “The Pack:” Xander is prowling around with the other hyena-possessed kids, feeling all wild and hungry. They’ve just sampled the hot dogs of some students, spurned them, and have now caught a whiff of something more appetizing.

The scent grew stronger as they stalked the halls, headed directly toward their prey. Something weak, something that could be brought down by the pack.

Or rather, the Pack, Xander thought, suddenly realizing that it should be capitalized.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have an episode title!

Seriously, this is so stupid! There was just a scene where Xander was too affected to be able to comprehend geometry properly, but here he is contemplating the abstract significance of his little group and how it should thusly be conveyed in writing? How very primal a sentiment! *eyeroll*

Other than that, and noting that once, in “Go Fish,” the names of two swim team members were confused, I have nothing to complain about. Again, the major reason this is entertaining is because the original episodes were. Mariotte neither added much of value nor fouled them up.

The Xander Years 1 by Keith R. A. DeCandido: B-

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From the back cover:
Unfulfilled crushes. Awkward first conversations. A date who wants you… dead.

Having a Y-chromosome in Sunnydale is never easy. But Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s friend Xander Harris seems to find more than his share of trouble with the opposite sex.

At first Xander is happy being the teacher’s pet—until his schoolboy crush brings out her true animal instincts. Then his whirlwind romance with the exotic foreign exchange student falters when she demands the ultimate sacrifice.

Some members of the Slaying squad might say that dating Cordelia Chase could kill a guy. But Xander’s relationship with the high-maintenance Cordy actually seems to be working out—until she decides he’s seriously harming her social standing. His crafty plan to win her back may earn him more love than one guy can handle.

Now, collected for the first time, are three stories from the hit TV series chronicling Xander’s search for love on the Hellmouth.

Review:
This book includes novelizations of the teleplays for “Teacher’s Pet,” “Inca Mummy Girl,” and “Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered,” hailed on the front cover as three tales of danger, duplicity, and desire. Alliterative! Framing these is a little piece where Xander has been to The Bronze, had his clothes criticized by Cordelia, made out with her, and now has returned home to compare all his various romantic experiences. It doesn’t strike me as particularly Xander-like, but at least it’s brief.

I think it’s cute that the font for chapter headings and page numbers has little blood dribblies. I guess it’s cheesy, but for some reason it amuses me. Also amusing, but in a sad way, are the typos that made it through an evidently lackadaisical editing process. Examples: in “Teacher’s Pet,” the real Mrs. French wears a “cardigan sweather.” In “Inca Mummy Girl,” when Willow goes to dissuade the delinquent kid from mucking about the museum exhibit, she heads off to “soothe the savage breast.”

Some of the invented thoughts for the characters are entertaining, like Xander’s revelation that, when five, he once retaliated against Cordelia by dumping a bowl of ice cream on her head. Spike’s are pretty decent, but I think that’s because Spike doesn’t do a lot of self-filtering before he speaks, so his thoughts are most like something he’d actually say. Most of the rest are either:

1. Lame – Like the very generic desire to see the world ascribed to the real Ampata (foreign exchange student in “Inca Mummy Girl”) before he gets mummified. His supposed last thought? “Now I’ll never see Paris.” Groan.

2. Unnecessary – Xander, after loudly declaring Angel to be an attractive man in front of some jock types, thinks:

Bad enough Blayne’s dissing my studliness, the last thing I need is everyone hearing me talking about attractive men.

Way to overexplain the joke, dude.

3. Just plain wrong – (Dingoes Ate My Baby is unloading their equipment for a performance. Devon is slacking and talking to Cordelia.)

Of course, had Oz actually been upset, it probably would’ve been more due to the fact that Oz didn’t have a girlfriend of his own to be distracted by. It’s not like Devon ever carried the heavy stuff anyhow.

Does that sound even a little like Oz thoughts? Not to me.

Of slight canonical interest is that the photo of Xander, Willow, and Buffy in 10th grade that’s seen several times in the series is declared twice to have been taken by Willow’s mom. Except Willow’s mom canonically shows zero interest in her life until the episode “Gingerbread,” which aired January 1999. This book was published in February 1999, so probably couldn’t have been changed once Sheila’s general disinterest in her daughter had been established. It was also published before the whole “who exactly sired Spike” thing was cleared up, since Spike specifically mentions Angel siring both he and Drusilla.

By far, the best reason for reading these novelizations is the dialogue from the real episode that couldn’t be fudged with. Even though “Inca Mummy Girl” isn’t one of my favorite episodes, I’d forgotten that it has several great quotes in it. The best one (in my opinion) looks rather flat on the page, but when I hear Xander actually saying it, it still evokes a giggle: “What he lacks in smarts, he makes up in lack of smarts.”

Overall, it’s an okay book, but that’s entirely due to the original writers of these episodes. Without their actions and dialogue, I don’t know whether this author could portray these characters at all convincingly.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner: B+

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From the inside flap:
The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested only in the thief’s abilities. What Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

Review:
That description makes this tale sound dull and full of theological tales, but really, there are only 3 or 4 of those. The real story involves Gen being recruited by the magus to help steal a stone that supposedly imbues the owner with immortality and proclaims him or her the rightful ruler of a country called Eddis, a neighbor to the country Gen and his companions are from, Sounis.

Gen’s traveling companions are interesting, though not quite as fully fleshed out as they could be. The evolution of the relationships throughout the course of the book is subtle and well done, as Gen is simply viewed as a tool to start with. Gen himself is a very entertaining narrator, clever and trying to be as annoying as possible at first, which is amusing.

The author is good at evocative descriptions that aren’t too wordy, but I would have liked to have had a map so as to better visualize their travels, particularly in the last couple of chapters. Although this was shelved in the Juvenile section of the library, she doesn’t noticably oversimplify things for the benefit of a younger crowd. Overall, the traveling portions are less boring than I usually find and were enlivened by the interactions of the companions, but towards the end, do get a little repetitive. Thankfully, the end itself is not dull.

The Pearl of the Soul of the World by Meredith Ann Pierce: A

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From the back cover:
All the world’s wisdom and magic reside within the iridescent depths of a small white pearl. “All my sorcery,” the Ancient Ravenna had said to Aeriel. “It is left to you to save the world.” But is the pearl powerful enough to enable Aeriel to defeat the White Witch? Aeriel’s people have assembled an army and are soon to attack the Witch and her darkangel sons. But their cause is hopeless unless Aeriel can unravel the riddle of Ravenna and unlock the mysteries of the pearl—and of her own destiny.

Review:
Rather than starting precisely where the second book left off, this concluding volume of the trilogy picks up some time after, where some mysterious circumstances have befallen Aeriel. She’s quickly discovered by some duarough, a race that lives underground, and so there aren’t long, dull passages where she’s traveling around by herself, which were the bane of book two. Eventually, around page 60 or so, some of the blanks as to what have happened in the meantime start to get filled in, and we find that there was a bit of wandering, but it was summed up in a single sentence. That makes me wonder whether there was some criticism similar to mine after the second book was released, and the author took steps to avert a similar slow start. Whatever the case, I found it immediately easy to get into this volume and the momentum carries through to the end without lulls.

I like the depiction and development of Aeriel’s romantic situation very much. Her feelings seem to make more IC sense now than previously, and I like how there aren’t easy fixes to things.

There’s a little more annoying inconsistency in this one, like some lines of the prophetic rhyme in book two being changed when sung by a couple of different characters with no IC reaction from Aeriel as to this not being correct. And the witch was stealing water? I remember that a river wasn’t at its full glory back in book one, but not much was made about the witch’s big evilness being that she was stealing the water until this last book. Before it was just that she was responsible for creating the darkangels. Oh yeah, and there was hardly any Roshka! These things almost earned the book an A- instead.

The ending, however, is great. That’s all I’m going to say, there, but it’s what brought the score up to a full-fledged A. There’s really some scope there about seeing how far these characters have come since the beginning, although I do wish some of the secondary characters could’ve been fleshed out a lot more.

Ultimately, this trilogy is recommended, though I’m not sure whether I will be buying my own set (I’ve had them out from the library) as I don’t know whether there’s quite enough here to merit a reread. This author has another YA series about unicorns, but I am not really feeling the urge to go investigate it at this point.

A Gathering of Gargoyles by Meredith Ann Pierce: B+

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From the back of the book, with edits for spoilers:
Aeriel may’ve done something interesting in book one, but the Witch is far from defeated! Her evil vampyre sons continue to blight the lands, defeating even the warders created by the Old Ones to protect them. There is but a single hope for the Witch’s defeat—solving an ancient, mysterious riddle.

So, Aeriel sets off to solve the riddle, sailing across a sea of dust and straight into the worst of the Witch’s terrors. But if Aeriel is to save the world, she will have to overcome the Witch’s darkangel sons and ultimately confront their terrifying mother face-to-face.

Review:
My enjoyment of this book was stymied by a few annoying things right off the bat. First, in the first book in this series, there wasn’t any mention of people with weird-colored skin. I’d swear, although I don’t have the first book to consult, that Aeriel was described as having a tan/rose complexion before the sun bleached her more fair. Now, they say she’s white, but it’s clear she was once mauve. And there’s all these blue and green skinned people and stuff.

Secondly, there’s the revisiting of scenes from book one and suddenly including some conversation that we never saw before, or a tidbit like, “Oh yeah, she gave those things names.” It makes it seem like the author wasn’t planning ahead. I would’ve preferred to have seen those conversations within the context of the scenes as they were taking place, then one could reflect back later and go ‘Ahh, I see’. I know this is YA, but c’mon. J. K. Rowling does it just fine!

Thirdly, after a bit of an angsty beginning, Aeriel goes off alone. This part is so dull, just a description of the landscape she’s passing through. At least the concept of time was more clearly portrayed this time.

It took me ages just to get to page 100. After this point, however, she gets some companions and the story picks up and its enjoyment value greatly improves. The annoying elements were primarily confined to the beginning of the book, and I eventually managed to stop being irked about the skin color thing. I read from page 100 to the end (333) in a day.

The overall plot is pretty predictable. I mean, obviously, she’s gathering gargoyles from the title, but their significance is incredibly obvious. It’s a little much to believe that while Aeriel acquires them she is ignorant of this. Still, I look forward to seeing more of certain characters in book three, and now that I’m two-thirds through the series it’d just be dumb to drop it now.

The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce: B+

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From the back cover:
Aeriel is kidnapped by the Darkangel, swept up into his dozen black wings and carried to his distant keep. There she is to serve his brides—thirteen pitiful creatures who were once beautiful, before the Darkangel drained away their souls. Aeriel would free them, but now that she, too, is one of the Darkangel’s captives, she can do no other than obey—even while she knows she must destroy him.

For when he has found his final bride, he will come fully into his sinister powers. Aeriel must kill him first, even though deep within him is a spark of goodness that makes her love him—a spark that could redeem even his evil.

Review:
I realize now that I never actually read the back of the book before starting this. It sure makes Aeriel seem kind of… flighty. Oopsie, got kidnapped, now I take orders and swoon over Mr. Tall, Winged, and Evil. This really does her a disservice.

The beginning of the book was good and moved quickly, though in the middle section things dragged a little bit for me. Thankfully, the action picked up again at the end and events moved swiftly on to their conclusion. There were a few plot elements that were sort of obvious to me, but which might not have been so for a YA reader. They were resolved satisfactorily for the most part, though perhaps with a little too much convenient magic at hand. One further quibble is that I never really got a handle on the terms used for the passage of time, so I could never be quite sure how long things were taking, which was pretty annoying.

I’ve got the other two in the trilogy courtesy of my local library, so will be launching into them forthwith. I’ll have to think of my own description for the next one, because the back of it is super spoilery for The Darkangel.

Fray by Joss Whedon et al.: A-

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From the back cover:
Hundreds of years in the future, Manhattan has become a deadly slum, run by mutant crime lords and disinterested cops. Stuck in the middle is a young girl who thought she had no future until she learns she has a great destiny. In a world so poisoned that it doesn’t notice the monsters on its streets, how can a street kid like Fray unite a fallen city against a demonic plot to consume mankind?

Review:
This trade paperback combines all eight chapters in the story of Melaka Fray, futuristic slayer chick (Joss writes in a prologue how excited he was that the futuristic setting allowed him to use flying cars). The story is good, with its share of surprises, and the dialogue is clever, silly, and everything one expects from Joss Whedon. Fray talks rather like Faith, and is a thief, so that gives you a bit of an inkling of her personality. Her motivation seems to be “my life is hard and I want to kick some butt.” I really liked the character of Urkonn, the “sarcastic goat-thing” demon who informs Fray she’s a slayer.

What I didn’t particularly care for are some of the panels of art. Fray’s facial proportions and hair length seemed to change constantly, and I didn’t feel like I’d really gotten a handle on what she is actually supposed to look like. The best pic is the title page to chapter five. Of course, I had to like her blue/pink/green hair. She also had a spiffy weapon that looks much like the one Buffy acquires in season seven of the TV series. Speaking of which, I think this story was written prior to season seven, as Urkonn says there’s been “always one” slayer, so that’s a bit conflicty.

The Morning Star by Nick Bantock: D

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From the inside flap:
Plunged into an otherworldly maze, Matthew Sedon and Isabella de Reims are stretched to the limits of love, of certainty, and of their belief in the powerful guidance of Griffin and Sabine. Isabella is drawn into her predestined journey to Egypt, a journey that forces her to explore a world beyond her imagination. In Alexandria, challenging his deepest fears, Matthew makes his own compelling discoveries in the fertile fields of both archaeology and the human heart.

In The Morning Star, the mystery that began with an enigmatic postcard from Sabine Strohem to Griffin Moss reaches its dramatic conclusion.

Review:
Lie! It does not reach a dramatic conclusion! It reaches an enigmatic one, with nothing more clarified than before, though I still believe I’m right about the MPD theory.

Anyway, I sum up the book thusly (warning, spoilery):

Griffin-personality: Isabella, go see Matthew. But be sure to mosey.
Isabella-personality: Matthew, I’m gonna mosey your way.
Matthew-personality: (to Isabella) Rock on! Btw, I totally love you. (to Sabine) Hey, I snuck in and felt up the funky statue. It had an orb on its head.
Sabine-personality: That’s the Morning Star. It somehow represents the different planes we all exist on. Or something. Watch out for sneaky personality.
Matthew-personality: (to Isabella) I can now draw like Sabine. Wanna draw you nekkid!
Isabella-personality: (to Griffin) Hey dude, check out my completely wacked out vision where I munch on some flowers.
Matthew-personality: (to Sabine) I’m bored. No chicks to bang and sneaky personality dude got my dig shut down.
Griffin-personality: (to Isabella) Good job moving slow. Follow the cat.
Isabella-personality: (to Matthew) Hey, sneaky personality sent some thugs after me but samurai protector dude vanquished them. I love U 2 OMG! I’m totally gonna put out next time I see you.
Matthew-personality: (to Isabella) OMG, I get to sexx0r a badass. I’m not worthy.
Sabine-personality: (to Matthew) One time I went into a waterfall nekkid. And you totally need to chill about this “not worthy” thing.
Matthew-personality: (to Sabine) I went out and dug a hole to make sneaky personality think I’m up to something.
Isabella-personality: (to Griffin) This time I had a vision where I’m riding on a cat amidst a war of birds. OK, bye~!
Griffin-personality: (to Isabella) I think everyone shares the same dream. Keep following the cat. Btw, hope you like this postcard with the chicken watching some chick get groped by a disembodied blue hand alongside a snippet of a chinese checkers board.
Matthew-personality: (to Isabella) Sneaky personality accosted me about the statue or something. I totally still love you and all these body parts (see attached list).
Isabella-personality: (to Matthew) I feel sorry for the Minotaur. The wind smells like you.
Griffin-personality: (to Isabella) OK, cease moseying! Get thee hence to Egypt!
Matthew-personality: (to Isabella) Hey, I think we might not be real, but we’re all in that one dude’s head like swanjun totally thinks is the case. Oh, p.s., I love you and your hot bod!
Sabine-personality: (to Matthew) She’s coming, dude! I’ll shut up so you can get busy without distractions.
Isabella-personality: (to Matthew) Some shadow of a fig tree just tried to ravish me, I think.
Matthew-personality: (to Griffin) We totally did IT! Y’know, IT. Sneaky personality tried to get in, but the cat and samurai were all, “No way, man.”
Sabine and Griffin personalities: (to Matthew and Isabella) Good job, you little horndogs. Now sneaky personality’s plans have been foiled and the membrane between our planes is dissolving. Or something.

Alexandria by Nick Bantock: C-

by

From the inside flap:
Intrigue turns to danger and romance turns to passion as Matthew Sedon and Isabella de Reims, lovers separated by continents, struggle to make sense of a world beyond experience. Only the guidance of Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem—experienced navigators of myth and reality—can keep them safe. In Egypt, mysterious forces vie to keep Matthew away from his archaeological dig just as he is about to make a vital discovery, one that may explain his increasingly strange and strong connection with Sabine. In the boulevards of Paris, under Griffin’s tutelage, Isabella learns to trust her own powerful instincts.

Review:
The book starts with a page that reads, “… some revelation is at hand.”

“Yeah, right,” I think. “I’d like to see it.”

Are revelations at hand? Not in the kind of revelation-that-makes-stuff-make-sense sort of way. I now think everything’s transpiring in the head of one loony with MPD.

I suppose there’s a bit more action in this one. The sneaky personality menaces some of the other ones or something, and there’s a funky statue at an archaeological site, and some chick sees visions with baboons coming out of hills that are really lion’s bellies, and… Um.

At least there’s only one more.