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Ouran High School Host Club 5 by Bisco Hatori: A

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From the back cover:
Haruhi’s top ranking falls and she is in jeopardy of losing her scholarship at Ouran. Each member of the Host Club scrambles to become her tutor, but Haruhi picks a female student, Ayame, to help her. Haruhi’s time is now spent with Ayame, who can’t stand Tamaki. Can Tamaki charm his way into Ayame’s good graces so the Host Club can spend time with their favorite member?

Review:
The synopsis above relates only to the first chapter in this volume, which I liked, but it’s the chapters taking place in Karuizawa over summer vacation that are truly wonderful. Not only is the story just cute in general, the twins get a lot of fleshing out, both how they operate together when alone as well as their individual personalities. I never disliked them, but now I’m far more fond of them than before. And more than that, I’m appreciating each one as a distinct, separate character rather than as a unit. Nifty nifty.

The final chapter is alright, I suppose. I didn’t like the little girl at all and actually, when this bit was animated I suspected it might be random filler invented for that purpose. It’s that ho-hum, and is only really worth it for Tamaki and Nekozawa. Now I’m a little worried about what volume 6 will bring. This manga has demonstrated its ability to be awesome; keep it up!

Lastly, I must mention the cute little side panels about the Host Rangers, assigning each club member a color and silly special attacks that they can perform. My favorite: the twins’ “Irresponsible Beam!”

Party Princess by Meg Cabot: B+

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Book description:
This spring, Mia’s determined to have a good time, despite the fact that the student government over which she presides is suddenly broke. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) Grandmère has an elaborate scheme to simultaneously raise money, catapult Mia to theatrical fame, and link her romantically with an eligible teen bachelor, not her boyfriend. It’s no wonder that Michael, the love of her life, seems to think she’s a psycho, or worse: not much fun.

Is it possible that Mia, soon-to-be star of the stage, president of the student body, and future ruler of Genovia, doesn’t know how to party?

Review:
There were a few annoying things about this book (like the references to Netscape as if it were a website, and Mia’s consistent worrying over something very stupid) and a few obvious plot happenings, as well, but even with that, I really enjoyed this installment in the Princess Diaries series. Like, much more than I remember liking number six.

The chief reason is because Mia seemed to be nudged out of her self-absorption mode and started to grow up a little. Oh, still plenty spazzy, but she really did seem to be figuring out some fairly essential stuff. It leaves me hopeful that Meg Cabot is going to build on this and allow Mia to grow within the course of the series, not condemning her to stagnate in a fifteen-year-old mindset forever.

If you thought the quality in the series drooped a bit in recent books, give this seventh one a try. It might give you hope.

Original Sin by P. D. James: B+

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From the inside flappydoodle:
Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of baffling complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm’s fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies—a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of whom apparently killed herself a short time before. Yet Etienne’s death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike again and again.

Review:
I wouldn’t rank this as one of P. D. James’ best. The writing and characterization are excellent as always, but I had terrible trouble getting into the story at first, on account of her “let’s spend some time on the victim and each suspect before the crime occurs” approach. She’s used this in at least one previous novel that I can recall and I don’t dislike it, necessarily, but in this case it made for slow going. A revelation at the post-mortem provided a much needed injection of excitement, thankfully, and the second half went by much more swiftly.

I was a little disappointed in the conclusion of the case, both so far as motive and some subsequent events were concerned. I am also very confused about the timeline of these novels. Each seems to be more or less set in the year that it was published, but Dalgliesh appears to be rather consistently in his late forties/early fifties. One character states it’s been nine months since an event that occurred two books ago, which means the events of the immediately preceding book, Devices and Desires, took place only weeks before this one. Perhaps I should give up trying to puzzle this out exactly, but it’s irksome when everything else is so tidily done.

Fushigi Yûgi 4 by Yuu Watase: B+

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From the back cover:
To save her newly adopted country of Konan, Miaka must scour the nation for the remaining three of the seven Celestial Warriors who will help her in her quest. But the search takes her into the lair of bandits, and to a plague-cursed town where she has to die to survive!

Review:
A lot happens in this volume, keeping with the very fast pace mentioned this far. Sometimes it seemed like more time could’ve been spent on certain elements, especially on places where I think the anime did an episode break, but overall I’m still a fan of keeping things moving.

There are all kinds of cute bits in this volume, especially Hotohori and Nuriko in the bandit’s lair. Plus—Tasuki! He really adds something significant to the group (besides fangs). Mitsukake shows up too, but almost as an afterthought. I wonder whether he’ll be any more interesting in the manga than the anime, but somehow I doubt it.

Miaka was only mildly stupid in this volume, and at least one of her crazy actions seems to’ve actually had some thought behind it. Shokku!

Ship of the Line by C. S. Forester: A-

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From the back cover:
His Majesty’s Ship Sutherland—of two decks and seventy-four guns—is a humdrum ship of the line. But in command is none other than the heroic Captain Horatio Hornblower and, with his crew from the Lydia, look set (sic) to take on commando raids, hurricanes at sea and the glowering menace of Napoleon’s onshore gun batteries—which Hornblower must deal with as he sails his ship to the Spanish station.

Review:
I absolutely loved both the beginning and ending of this book, the latter especially. I am going to have to check out the sequel far more quickly than I had planned. The middle section dragged a little bit, however, and I think it part of the problem was because during that section, Hornblower wasn’t able to command his ship in independent action. (He’s, like, the Jack Bauer of the Napoleonic War when left to his own devices.)

This volume was a lot more gruesome than the last, but I didn’t think it was excessive, just a very grim reality of war. There’s also more about the internal structure of command, now that Hornblower has to work in concert with some other ships. The introduction of Admiral Leighton adds an interesting dynamic, though I want to smack him soundly.

I must note that Hornblower, with his ability for mental calculation, could very easily tread into too-perfect territory if not deftly written. Thankfully, it’s abundantly clear that he is thoroughly and genuinely miserable and self-conscious, and thus can be sympathetically regarded as a hero.

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh: B

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From the back cover:
When Sir Hubert Handesley invited his well-to-do friends to his country estate for an amusing weekend, no one suspected it would turn into a deadly ordeal. But one of the participants in the supposedly playful Murder Game turns up dead… and Scotland Yard’s inimitable Roderick Alleyn must find out who spoiled the fun.

Review:
I’ve seen Ngaio Marsh compared to Agatha Christie a few times, but the writing is much more like Conan Doyle, complete with the occasional disdainful remark about or depiction of foreigners or poor people. Alleyn’s methods of detection are rather Holmesian, and the subplot would not be out of place in a tale of Sherlock’s exploits.

The mystery is decent, and the method of the crime quite unusual. In addition, Alleyn makes some choices that I’ve not seen a detective make before, as they’re very non-standard procedure for the Yard. While the in-character basis for these is suspect, they do at least succeed in keeping a) things lively and b) the closest thing to a protagonist involved in the story.

My major complaint is that I am still left with almost no impression of Alleyn as a person. Perhaps the author has rendered him deliberately enigmatic, as he is primarily seen through the (not too bright) eyes of one of the guests at the estate, but his behavior is so changeable that his real personality cannot be known.

There were enough good things here to warrant a look at the next one in the series, but if they’re all like this, I can see myself tiring of them quickly.

Ouran High School Host Club 4 by Bisco Hatori: B+

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From the back cover:
Curious about Haruhi’s standard of living, the Host Club members barge into her personal life by paying her a visit at home. While the guys do their utmost to be polite, everything they do seems to backfire, especially for poor Tamaki! On top of it all, he trips and lands on top of Haruhi—just in time for her father to catch them in a compromising position….

Review:
That’s a rather poorly done description of this volume, since the tripping incident happened at the end of the last volume and is where this one begins.

This volume was a little hit and miss with me. I liked episode 13, which concludes the visit to Haruhi’s house and has tons of cute Tamaki bits, and episode 16, with some nice Tamaki/Haruhi interaction. Episode 14 is all about a cavity Hunny gets, and is pretty dumb really, and episode 15 puts the cast in Alice in Wonderland. Although it’s better than I expected, it still breaks the fourth wall and doesn’t have much narrative purpose.

Fully one-third of the volume is a side story called “Love Egoist.” While I was a little annoyed at first by how much space it occupied, I ended up really liking it. It’s kind of a continuation of a side story that was in volume 2, though the main characters are different. Hopefully there’ll be more.

All in all, the good stuff was good enough to outweigh any disappointment caused by the not-so-good stuff, which really wasn’t all that bad.

Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forester: A

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From the back cover:
In Beat to Quarters, it’s June 1808 and a still young Hornblower is captain of the 36-gun frigate Lydia. He sets his course for Spain and Nicaragua in his ongoing quest to cut Napoleon’s lines wherever he crosses them.

Review:
There are two ways one might choose to read the Hornblower series. The first is to read them in order of publication, in which case one starts with Beat to Quarters, and the second is to read them in chronological order, in which case one starts with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. After some consideration, I opted to take the former path, with the notion that the first novel written would contain the most by way of introductory material.

It is, therefore, without reading any of the adventures Hornblower has in his earlier days, that I first encounter him as a thirty-seven year old captain, self-doubting and self-conscious, complex and fascinating. He hides behind a gruff exterior, so aware of how he is seen in the eyes of his crew that he stifles himself on many an occasion. He’s… well, he’s almost Darcy!

Even though I know nothing about naval matters, I had no problems following the action in the book. Forester doesn’t merely focus on battles, though they’re not neglected, but also on more pressing yet unglamorous affairs of sailing life, like obtaining sufficient provisions and making necessary repairs. Moreover, he manages to make all these things interesting. I also loved how all of the crew’s successes are due to experience, training, and a great deal of hard work, not some random deus ex machina.

Lastly, the character of Lady Barbara, while not fully fleshed out in and of herself, is used as a catalyst to challenge some of Hornblower’s preconceived notions about women (he likes “clinging incompetence”), and all the bits concerning their interaction are great. I hope we see her again in future books.

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: A

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From the back cover:
Jane Finn is Missing. Where is she? The mere mention of her name produced a very strange reaction all over London. So strange, in fact, that Tommy and Tuppence decided to find this mysterious missing lady. And once those two determined sleuths made up their minds, nothing could stop them—not international espionage, kidnapping—or even murder.

Review:
I haven’t read much Christie yet, and wasn’t prepared for something so… sprightly. The tone of the novel is rather breezy, and it’s quite funny in places, as well. Tommy and Tuppence are both great characters, and I would absolutely adore to see a BBC production of this novel.

Christie delivers plot twists and red herrings aplenty, as well as a very satisfying ending. I found the book to be instantly engaging, and especially liked the unique motivations that started the pair on their sleuthing path. If one had the time, this would be an easy book to read in a single sitting.

Lastly, a note on slang. There’s a good bit of it, including some I’d never heard of. My favorite was when one man casually described another as “pretty cute.” It seems to mean something like clever or capable instead, but it does give one slashy ideas!

The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James: A-

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From the back cover:
An intriguing assignment, Cordelia Gray thought, and not a particularly arduous one. The poison pen messages to Clarissa Lyle were to be stopped—or at least deflected—until after the performance of The Duchess of Malfi at Ambrose Gorringe’s private theatre on Courcy Island. It soon becomes apparent however that Clarissa Lyle’s enemy is on the island with her, and Cordelia finds herself trapped in an atmosphere of fear and violence—a violence that is to culminate in a brutal murder…

Review:
I really liked the vast majority of The Skull Beneath the Skin. The atmosphere is similar to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, in that a limited number of suspects are staying together on an isolated island, complete with a married pair of somewhat eccentric servants. There were enough creepy or mysterious details to keep the plot moving interestingly, and the characters were well fleshed out, precisely as one would expect from P. D. James. Plus, mysteries with just a few possible killers with whom the protagonist must continue to associate after the act are fun.

Some time after said brutal murder occurs, the narrative focus shifts away from Cordelia to that of the detectives from the town on shore who’ve come to investigate. It’s interesting to learn some details from their interviews, and also to see the way in which they view Cordelia, but I found it a little odd that the protagonist should be absent for such a significant period of time. Eventually, she does regain the spotlight.

I found the whole sequence of events in the conclusion to be somewhat disappointing. A side trip for more nuggets of information bogs down the story, and then some elements of what follows are predictable, though I admit to being surprised by others. It’s not a poor ending, exactly, but for something that started so strongly it’s a bit anticlimactic.

Please Save My Earth 17 by Saki Hiwatari: A-

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From the back cover:
Mokuren yearns for friendship, but she keeps overhearing the members of the KK research team bad-mouthing her. Handsome Gyokuran treats her with kindness, yet Mokuren is instead drawn to bad-tempered Shion, since he’s the only one who can see her as a fellow mortal. When the team learns that their star system has been destroyed, Gyokuran turns to Mokuren for a miracle, not understanding that she is just as emotionally devastated and powerless as everyone else.

Meanwhile, in the present world, Jinpachi and Issei learn how to see Alice’s dreams, but she’s reluctant to visit the painful events of her past…

Review:
Volume seventeen is almost entirely Mokuren memories, but contains more of the present day than the previous volume. The repetition (four times) of Mokuren overhearing a conversation about her got a little annoying, but I really liked how much more is learned about Enju, Shusuran, and Gyokuran here. Not only more about their personalities, but also their interactions with other members of the team. Shusuran’s development particularly stood out. I wouldn’t say that I like her personality, but I like her as a character, and especially seeing her and Enju together.

I caught something here that I didn’t previously—that the team seems to think Shion wants their passwords to use the base to act as God over KK. Perhaps we were supposed to think that was possibly Rin’s true ambition all along, and I am coming to the realization late.

The volume ends before Alice can dream about the rest of what happened when Shion was in confinement or any of the events afterwards. The concluding chapter takes place in the present day and really worked to build suspense for what will happen when she has seen everything. As if I weren’t impatient enough to see some progress in the present day story!

The Other Side of Silence by Margaret Mahy: B+

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From the back cover:
In her brilliant but argumentative family, Hero is different, because she chooses not to speak. Instead, she prefers to escape real life at home for her true life—climbing in the thick trees far above the stately old Credence mansion and letting her imagination fly. But the real and the true intertwine when Hero starts to do odd jobs for Miss Credence, an eccentric woman who weaves strange fairy tales around Hero as she works, and who is hiding a shocking secret high up in the tower of her house…

Review:
I’ve only read one other book by Mahy, Changeover, but I liked it, so when I saw this one languishing near the Marsden in the library, I picked it up, not knowing anything about it. I find it interesting that it’s the second YA book about someone who doesn’t speak much that I’ve read recently, and both in the first person.

The Other Side of Silence is pretty short at 170 pages, but Mahy does an excellent job capturing the current state of Hero’s family, and most of its members are well-developed, particularly her mother and two oldest siblings. Hero’s younger sister, a hip-wiggling sex-mentioning pre-teen, reminds me of a character from Alere Flammas. The treatment of Miss Credence is also well-done. At first she comes off as merely somewhat batty, but as time progresses, she starts to become downright creepy.

The best element, however, is Hero’s growth as she deals with the balance between real life and true/fantasy life, making discoveries about others, some not so pleasant, some merely unexpected, and incorporating them into her perception of the world around her.

The way the plot line wraps itself up is satisfactory, but I did not like the epilogue (of sorts) very much. Some actions were taken without sufficient motivation, and it was irksome. Still enjoyable overall, however.

Fushigi Yûgi 3 by Yuu Watase: B+

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From the back cover:
Miaka Yuuki is an ordinary junior high school student who is suddenly transported into the world of a book, The Universe of the Four Gods. Surrounded by enemies with mystic power, she can only rely on her Celestial Warriors and a mysterious monk, a disciple of the oracle, to help her fulfill her quest! Miaka’s best friend, Yui, also enters the book, but suffers a fate much crueler than Miaka’s.

Review:
Miaka is only a little stupid in this volume, running away like an idiot just once, and for at least a reason, if not the best one ever. Chichiri is introduced, and immediately brings value to the team and also helps impart some lessons of responsibility and strength to Miaka.

One thing I particularly noticed is that the little dramatic moments, scenes of angst and stuff, really don’t last very long. There are a few pages where Miaka tries to squash her feelings for Tamahome so she can focus on her task, and then… gone. It makes the overall mood a bit flighty, I suppose, but it’s better than wallowing overlong.

Things are starting to get very interesting, now that we are on the “collecting constellations” arc rather than the “I wanna go home, now back, now home again” phase of the story. I hope Tasuki shows up soon. Then all my favorites will be accounted for.

Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: C+

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From the back cover:
Always be polite to dragons! That’s what Daystar’s mother taught him… and it’s a very wise lesson—one that might just help him after his mom hands him a magic sword and kicks him out of the house. Especially because his house sits on the edge of the Enchanted Forest and his mother is Queen Cimorene.

But the tricky part is figuring out what he’s supposed to do with the magic sword. Where is he supposed to go? And why does everyone he meets seem to know who he is?

It’s going to take a particularly hotheaded fire-witch, a very verbose lizard, and a badly behaved baby dragon to help him figure it all out. And those good manners certainly won’t hurt!

Review:
Back to audio for this concluding volume. Although I recently praised Random House Listening Library for their production of Feed, I’ve overall been disappointed with their work in this series. The biggest irritant, aside from Telemain’s voice, is that emphasis is often placed on the wrong words. This happens all the time, and none of the dialogue sounds truly natural as a result. Here’s an example: Morwen comments on Daystar’s sword, “Parti…cularly since you still haven’t learned to use it properly.” It sounds like she’s calling him a slacker, when he’d only been given the thing the day before.

Regarding the actual content of the book, I wasn’t particularly annoyed by anything, aside from the continued incompetence of the villains. Neither was I particularly interested by anything. Talking to Dragons is boring. Daystar spends the entire book trying to discover what most, if not all, of the readers already know, and when he finally succeeds in getting some answers, the plots of the previous books are explained again. I wonder how likely it is that someone will just pick up book four of a series and start from there. Not very, I’d think.

Maybe for new readers, it would be some big reveal moment, but for everyone who started from the beginning, it’s a total yawn banquet. We know exactly what’s happened and exactly what Daystar is supposed to do, and what he’ll learn when he does it. Earlier books in the series had their share of obvious plot elements, but at least they led to new developments in the story rather than retreads of what’s gone before.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P. D. James: A-

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From the back cover:
Handsome Mark Callender did not die the way a well-brought-up young gentleman should. He was found hanging by his neck, a lipstick stain on his mouth and a picture of a nude girl nearby. The official verdict was suicide, but his aristocratic father suspected murder, and hired fledgling detective Cordelia Gray to investigate. As this determined young lady followed a twisting trail of guilty secrets and shameful sins, she soon reached the conclusion that the nicest people do the nastiest things—in a case that proved at every shocking turn to be An Unsuitable Job for a Woman.

Review:
One of the most enjoyable things about P. D. James’ books is that she’s amazing at character snapshots, evocative yet economical, and able to reveal personality even when only discussing their physical attributes. The technique is used more with minor characters—a temporary typist, a curious neighbor—while the history of the detective herself is meted out more gradually.

Cordelia herself is a great character: sensible, resourceful, and focused while still retaining some youthful vulnerability. She cares very much about fulfilling her obligations to her client while also doing right by the victim, for whom she feels strong empathy. Various people remark throughout the book that her occupation is an unsuitable job for a woman, though there is never a moment where Cordelia herself considers this to be so. The last sentence of the blurb above, therefore, is misleading.

There were moments in the story where I thought the investigation was proceeding a little too neatly, that those questioned were persuaded to divulge their information a little too easily. The moments of suspense did not always foster the proper level of concern for the character’s fate, but that may be due in some part to Cordelia’s level-headedness. The actual facts of the case, however, were suitably clever and original, and I enjoyed the book very much over all. It’s a pity that James has only written one other novel featuring Cordelia.