Today we bring you the latest installment in our feature, “What She Said…” in which we both review books that the other has already read and reviewed. The idea arose because of the dilemma that if one of us reads and reviews a book, the other can’t really post again about it, right? WRONG! Hence, “What She Said…” was born. For those books that we REALLY want to read after the other has reviewed – and gushed – about it.

For today’s post, we take on Hero by Perry Moore, and Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves.

Hero by Perry Moore
Disney, August 2007, Paperback, 432 pages

Original Review: May 2010
Original Rating GASP! Thea gave it a 10!

What Thea Said:

I am in love. I am in love with Hero

Hero is, in this reader’s opinion, a perfect book in every way. Rousing, heartening and inspiring, Thom’s journey is one that is applicable to everyone. I cannot recommend this book enough – and it’s easily at the top of my list of favorite books read in 2010.

What Ana Says I HAD to read this book. Not only because of Thea’s awesome review but also because of her emails to me when she was reading it. I don’t think I ever received emails from her before with such an emotional response to a book – at least just not like that. It is a running joke in our headquarters that I am the emotional smuggler and it is a fairly regular event to have me emailing her with me being extremely enthusiastic about a book to the point of dramatic TEARS!DESPAIR!JOY! I often envy Thea for being able to be very enthusiastic about a book without the added drama like yours truly; but when she DOES, then I know she has found something special. She is like that when reading Juliet Marillier for example and that was what prompted me to pick her books up and guess what, she was totally right. So, going back to the start: I HAD to read this book.

And yes, Thea was right and I too, am in love with Thom and Hal Creed and their difficult relationship. THAT is what made the book to me. More than the world-building (which I think is fine, but wasn’t particularly impressed by it), more than the fighting sequences and all the action (which were cool), it was the relationships, between Thom and his father, between Thom and his absent mother, between Thom and his friends (especially Scarlett and Goran).

Thom is the teen narrator and his father Hal used to be a hero but without superpowers and it’s been a while since a law has banned non-powered superheroes from the league. Hal is a bitter yet proud man dealing with both very public failures and very personal ones. Thom both admires and fears his dad and that fear comes from being a budding superhero with real superpowers and from being gay.

And here is what I think is the genius of this coming of age novel: that inasmuch as Thom has a very real uphill struggle with the public side of being gay (his father is homophobic, his friends in school are bullies), he is actually very much secure about who he is. There is no discovery or realisation because the book starts with Thom being well aware of being gay and being fine, about it on a personal level. I love how he dreams of finding someone to love and how he has this mad crush on one of the big league super-heroes. He is much more insecure about being a superhero for example, how to use his powers, how to address his peers, etc which I think is a fine, brilliant way of addressing his story.

There are moments of despair (and I so despaired with Thom) and there are moments of utter joy and I fist pumped all alone in my living room in triumphant, compassionate happiness every time Thom got over one of the obstacles in his way. And OMG the romance is awesome!

Although I don’t think I loved every single aspect of it as Thea did, I did love Hero very much and highly recommend it.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Simon Pulse, January 2010, Hardcover, 464 pages

Original Review: January 2010
Original Rating: 10 – Perfect!

What Ana Said:

Bleeding Violet is one of the best Young Adult novels I have ever read. The writing is lovely, the story is hands down amazing and the characters are everything I could have hoped for. Every time I open a book, I wish for the sort of all-encompassing experience that this book provided me.

and also:

I think it is testament to this writer’s ability (and perhaps fondness for her characters) that in spite of all the aforementioned violence and darkness, Bleeding Violent ends on a definite, unmistakable and believable high note. And as of now, this book has a secure spot on my top reads of 2010.

What Thea Says: Well, how could I resist an endorsement like THAT? Yes, Ana tends to be a little more…exuberant and generous with her affections for books (when it comes down to top 10 of the year time, there’s something like 50 books on her list! How awesome is that?!), and I am in awe of the emotional rollercoaster she goes on every time she reads. More often than not, Ana finds a new author/book/character to passionately love/despise/etc – I have the emails to back it up. I kind of feel like this month’s “What She Said” is bizarre – because Hero seems like much more of an Ana book, and Bleeding Violet more of a Thea book, and yet we had them flipflopped the first time around. But I digress. Because of Ana’s emphatic endorsement, because of the irresistible blurb (and that gorgeous cover may have had something to do with it, too), I eagerly scooped up this book. Hell yes.

And you know what?

Bleeding Violet is pretty G.D. awesome.

It features a truly messed up cast of characters – bipolar, hallucination-embracing, affection-starved Hanna; the coldly beautiful Rosalee; the irritating (if intriguingly different and handsome) Wyatt. From the get-go I fell in love with Ms. Reeves’ prose and characterizations – Hanna, in particular is delightfully manic. Her surreal brand of psychosis (when we first meet her she is speaking to her dead father, mentally) may be a bit strange or hard to get into for some readers, but for me? I loved the dream-like quality her perspective-filtered, unreliable narrative provided. I also loved that she is biracial and comes across as genuine (as a biracial mutt myself, I am all to familiar with the ubiquitous “What ARE you?” question), her emotional issues and psychosis are also well-handled and ring as true. Her desperation for her beautiful mother’s attention and love is also particularly moving. Of course, the other characters are similarly textured and believable – Rosalee in her fragile frigidity, wanting nothing to do with the daughter she had the mistake of having, Wyatt in his tangled emotions and obligations. I loved them all – and Ana is absolutely right in her review, because stripped of the glamour and bizarreness of the plot, this is at its heart a character-centric novel.

That’s not to say that the plot is deficient – because it’s not. Portero is a town full of worldly portals and bizarre monsters – creatures that live in glass, that lurk, tentacled and monstrous in the shadows. And you know what? I LOVED IT ALL. Ms. Reeves’ writing style is beautiful, freeflowing and irresistible.

I have to chalk this one up to a truly successful What She Said – I am one happy camper! While I don’t think Bleeding Violet is perfect, I do think it’s damn awesome and one of my favorite reads for the year, absolutely.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Title: The Ghosts of Ashbury High (US)/ Dreaming of Amelia

Author: Jaclyn Moriarty

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (US) / Macmillan Children’s Books (UK)
Publication Date: June 2010 / April 2010
Paperback:(UK) 400 pages / HC (US): 496 pages

This is the story of Amelia and Riley, bad kids from bad Brookfield High who have transferred to Ashbury High for their final year. They’ve been in love since they were fourteen, they go out dancing every night, and sleep through school all day. And Ashbury can’t get enough of them.

Everyone’s trying to get their attention; even teachers are dressing differently, trying to make their classes more interesting. Everyone wants to be cooler, tougher, funnier, hoping to be invited into their cool, self-contained world.

But they don’t know that all Amelia can think about is her past — an idyllic time before she ran away from home. Riley thinks he’s losing her to the past, maybe even to a place further back in time. He turns to the students of Ashbury for help, and things get much, much worse.

Stand alone or series: It is part of a series of books set at Ashbury High/Brookfield schools but can be read as a stand alone.

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: It called to me. Honestly. I had not read any reviews, nor any of this author’s previous books. I saw the cover and the title and IT WAS LIKE DESTINY CALLING MY NAME.

Review:

It was a dark and stormy night (when I started reading The Ghosts of Ashbury High). The rain fell torrentially and the trees outside rattled against my window occasionally. The house was silent and I was all alone. The lights in the street were out and I was reading by candlelight (ok, not really, but just go with the flow…). Reader! Hear the truth of my words! I had a strong sense of foreboding and a feeling of impending DOOM right after the first few pages and I felt I could faint at any moment.

And why, do you ask? The ghosts?, were you scared of the ghosts? Yes, Ghosts!!!! I say. I was too scared of the ghosts but no!!!! That sense of impending doom came upon the realisation that this book is INCREDIBLE and that I would have to go and buy Jaclyn Moriarty’s entire backlist, even if that made me bankrupt!! Even if I had to walk the miles to the bookstore in that DARK AND STORMY NIGHT!!!!!!

You know, gothically speaking.

It is the last year of High School for the students at Ashbury High and most of the story takes places during an HSC (High School Certificate in Australia) English exam on the topic of, yes, you guessed right, Gothic Fiction. The students have been asked to write a personal memoir which explores the dynamics of first impressions, drawing on their knowledge of gothic fiction. Thus, the majority of The Ghosts of Ashbury High’s narrative is via that exam question but also with letters, minutes from the school boards’ meetings, IM transcripts, blog entries (another assignment: write about Your Journey Home) interspersed throughout. Most of them alternate between the same four kids’ writings: Riley, Emily, Lydia and Toby and it mostly involves Riley and…Amelia.

“The first time I saw her I knew that my Amelia was a ghost”

Riley

Riley and Amelia are new at Ashbury High, a private school for rich and privileged kids, recently transferred from the neighbouring Brookfield public school on scholarships. From the get go Riley and Amelia take over everybody’s imagination with their aloofness, their mysterious comings and goings and their complete, obsessive involvement with each other at the expense of everybody else. Soon, they are excelling at everything: swimming, essay writing, arts. But there is just something not quite right about these two kids…….

I love epistolary novels. I LOVE them, in fact one of my all time favourite books is Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. Jaclyn Moriarty made me remember why exactly I love this form of narrative with this excellent novel. Starting with infusing these letters and essays with so much character and voice that it would be easy to recognise which of the characters is writing what even if it wasn’t stated at the beginning of each part. The mysterious, dark Riley; the reliable, deep Toby; the almost serious yet spoiled Lydia; the drama queen Emily.

“It was the first day of Year 12.I had set out that morning with trepidation. I did not, in all honesty, see a crow, a raven, or any other black bird on the way to school that day. And yet! I was trepidatious.”

Emily

BUT!!!!!

Those are first impressions dear readers. Because this book is terminally clever: as the kids write their memoirs and starting with their first impressions of Riley and Amelia, we, as readers, are doing the same with the kids. And by the end of the book, none of them are left standing – within the book or within the reader.

It starts very, very light, hilarious even with each of them writing in what they think a Gothic narrative should be (complete with excess of exclamation points!!!!) and because of that, the reader never knows if what we are reading is true or not. Yes, epistolary narrative always has a degree of unreliability because we are wholly dependent on whoever is writing and whether they have chosen to write the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

BUT!!!!!

Even what a narrator chose to leave out of its narrative is important. And because there are four distinct narrators, a certain degree of truthfulness always end up making its way into the story. Sometimes they narrate the same event even, from such a completely discrepant point of view and yet both have got to be true somehow.

“There was the first time I saw this exam question. It happened just now. (…) my first impression of this question is that it sucks. Nothing has happened so far to change my mind.”

Lydia

As the story gains momentum and the plot thickens, I could not turn the pages faster. The story is almost like a farce, definitely gothic (ghosts!), a lot of comedy and so much heartbreak and character growth that I don’t even know how or when it happened but all of a sudden I am not reading the book I thought I was reading when I first set out.

This is a story about rich kids, poor kids, how their surroundings influence and the parenting that each has, shaped their present and possibly the future. About the opportunities the State and life give them (or not), and about abuse and about turning a blind eye to abuse and how adults sometimes suck so much (I could sucker punch the school’s principal if I could after a conversation he has with Emily) and how friendship and resilience and smarts can help with changing things.

BUT!!!!

That is not all. Somehow in the middle of it, Moriarty manages to go all historical as Toby’s narrative is actually him telling a story of an Irish convict who is sent to Australia when it was still a penal colony. Tom Kindaid’s story intermingles with the other narratives and is as interesting as the rest of it all.

“I have just noticed that the exam question asks for a personal memoir. So you want to hear from me – Toby Mazzerati – not some Irish convict dude named Tom Kinkaid who lived here in 1804. Hence, please disregard the above, and I will start my answer now.Thanks for your time”

Toby

And also: BLACK HOLES!!!!

And if you think for a moment that all of this is too much, please trust me when I say this. It is not! I can’t stress that enough!!!! With extra exclamation points!!! It is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that I get this point across!!!!!! All is flawlessly linked and you only realise that in the EXTRAORDINARY ending when every.Single.Plot.Line comes together and my head exploded (gothically speaking) with the sheer brilliance of this book.

It is imaginative, poignant, heart-warming AND heartbreaking. Hilarious too.

PLUS!!!!

It has awesome GIRLS. Who talk to each other about many, many things other than boys. Although boys are involved and for example, the romance between Lydia and Seb which we see happening via Emily’s narrative (because she is a “student of love”), is amazing. But not as amazing as the girls themselves and how smart, talented yet flawed they are and what they will do for each other and how afraid they are of the future because this is what this book is all about: the future and how to get there and how terrifying that moment between the end of your teenage years and the beginning of your adult life is.

Above all though, this is a book about second chances (for everybody. And I do mean, EVERY SOUL) and how without them there is NO future.

I can’t think of a single thing that does not work in this book and I loved it with every bit of my being (brain and heart!) and I re-read it before writing this review and still it managed to evoke this feeling of greatness and warmth and it is awesome and I URGE you to go and read it. Your life may depend on it!!!!! You know, gothically speaking.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

There was also the first time I saw them. It happened in roll call, the first day of the year.

He had a pair of swimming goggles slung over his shoulder. She
had bloodshot eyes. He sat on the window ledge, facing the room.
She turned and pressed her forehead to the glass to look out.
They were talking to each other.

I remember he called her Ame. Like aim. Like a command. And I
thought that her bloodshot eyes were looking out the window for a
target.

I remember she called him Riley, like his name could not be touched.

They both had wet hair, only hers was brushed back into a long
ponytail. From behind, I could see that the ponytail was leaking:

Thin watershadows formed on her school shirt.

As I watched, he rubbed his hands over his head. He was friendly
and rough with his head, as if it were a dog. Now his hair stood up in
spikes.

And then something happened.

She reached a hand toward him and he reached his hand toward
her, but his eyes found the eyes of strangers in the room. Their hands
almost touched but did not.

I saw cobwebs in the slender, empty space between those hands.

* * *
Later, at lunch, I told my friends about them.

“There’s two new people,” I said — and a storm rattled the windows
of the room.

I said they’d been together for years. I said they were swimmers. I
said they trained every day, and that swimming was her passion but he
went along just to swim beside her. I said she had a secret that was
breaking his heart.

Everything I said was based on my impression of Amelia and Riley
at the window in the classroom.

But nothing has happened so far to change my mind.

Additional Thoughts

Jaclyn Moriarty has written three other books in The Ashbury/Brookfield series – all of them epistolary novels, be still my heart:

The first (which I already read and it is GREAT too) is:

Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the fridge. On top of everything else, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the “Joy of the Envelope,” a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else.

But Elizabeth is on the verge of some major changes. She may lose her best friend, find a wonderful new friend, kiss the sexiest guy alive, and run in a marathon. So much can happen in the time it takes to write a letter…

The second one, also has different titles in the US and UK/Australia

When Lydia, Emily, and Cassie are assigned pen pals among the thugs at Brookfield High, they respond in characteristic style:

Cassie: “I always think it’s funny when a teacher tries to be cool. I want to sit them down and say ‘It’s okay, you’re a grown-up, you’re allowed to be a nerd,’ and they will look up at me confused but also relieved and teary-eyed.”

Lydia: “I am a fish. You wouldn’t think so to look at me, what with my uniform and the hair on top of my head and all that. But it’s true. I am a fish.”

Emily: “Don’t get me started about chocolate! My nickname might be ‘Em,’ but sometimes it’s also Toblerone! I think this is an angiogram of Thompson, which is my last name.”

And their pen-pals? Sebastian is an artist, a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, and a major hottie. Charlie is utterly gullible, a car expert/occasional thief, and a really sweet guy. But Matthew is…well, he’s either a psychopath or a figment of Cassie’s imagination, neither of which is a good sign. And what starts out as a simple letter exchange leads to secret assignments, false alarms, lock picking, legal drama, mistaken identities, Dates with Girls, and all-out war between the schools . . . the biggest challenge Lydia, Cass, and Emily’s friendship has ever faced.

And the third:

The Motive
Bindy Mackenzie is the most perfect girl at Ashbury High. She scores in the 99.9th percentile in all her classes. She holds lunchtime advisory sessions for her fellow students. She keeps careful transcripts of everything said around her. And she has been Kmart casual Employee of the Month for seventeen months straight.
No wonder somebody wants to kill her.

The Suspects
Bindy is horrified to learn she must take part in the Friendship And Development Project – a new class meant to provide a “life raft” through “the tricky seas of adolescence.” Bindy can’t see how airheaded Emily Thompson, absentminded Elizabeth Clarry, mouthy Toby Mazzerati, malicious Astrid Bexonville, silent Briony Atkins, narcissistic Sergio Saba and handsome, enigmatic Finnegon Blonde could ever possibly help her.
(Well, maybe Finnegan could.)

The Crime
But then Bindy’s perfect life begins to fall apart. She develops an obsession with the word “Cincinnati.” She can’t stop feeling sleepy. She fails an exam for the first time ever. And – worst of all – she just doesn’t care.
What could be the cause of all these strange events? Is it conspiracy? Is it madness? Is it . . . murder?

The Truth
Lots of people hate Bindy Mackenzie – but who would actually kill her? The answer is in Bindy’s transcripts. The detectives are the members of her FAD group. But Bindy has made every one of them into an enemy . . . and time is running out.

I shall read them all and review them soon.

What about you: are you a fan of her books? Which one is your favourite. And WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME ABOUT HER BOOKS BEFORE?

Verdict: The Ghosts of Ashbury High is stupendous. Engaging, clever narrative and with the amazing characters. The plot itself doesn’t let go and the ending is….perfect. Straight into my top 10 of 2010 it goes.

Rating: 10. TEN!!! It is as perfect as only an Ana-Book could ever be.

Reading Next: My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

Title: Behold the Man

Author: Michael Moorcock

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Gollancz
Publication Date: New Edition 11 Nov 1999 (First edition 1967)
Paperback: 128 pages

Karl Glogauer is a disaffected modern professional casting about for meaning in a series of half-hearted relationships, a dead-end job, and a personal struggle. His questions of faith surrounding his father’s run-of-the-mill Christianity and his mother’s suppressed Judaism lead him to a bizarre obsession with the idea of the messiah. After the collapse of his latest affair and his introduction to a reclusive physics professor, Karl is given the opportunity to confront his obsession and take a journey that no man has taken before, and from which he knows he cannot return. Upon arriving in Palestine, A.D. 29, Glogauer finds that Jesus Christ is not the man that history and faith would like to believe, but that there is an opportunity for someone to change the course of history by making the ultimate sacrifice.

First published in 1969, Behold the Man broke through science fiction’s genre boundaries to create a poignant reflection on faith, disillusion and self-sacrifice. This is the classic novel that established the career of perhaps contemporary science fiction’s most cerebral and innovative author.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: Browsing my loval Waterstones, I saw this displayed alongside several SF and Fantasy novels. The cover and title grabbed my attention, the blurb did me in.

Review:

Warning! This review contains spoilers. HOWEVER, given as how the blurb itself spoils the most important FACT about the book, my own spoilers which are necessary for the discussion of the book, are inconsequent and do not, I believe spoil the EXPERIENCE of reading the book.You have been warned!

Behold the Man was originally published in 1967 in the New Worlds magazine, winning the Nebula Award that year and published on its own in 1969 with several new editions throughout the years. It is simply put, a brilliant piece of fiction and one of the best novellas I ever read with an extremely flawed, unlikeable-yet-sympathetic protagonist and a potentially explosive subject.

But I am ahead of myself. That’s what a truly awesome book will do to me.

It begins as Karl Glogauer stumbles out of a broken time machine (a womb-like sphere filled with a fluid that leaks, rendering the object useless) in 28 AD. He is rescued by followers of John the Baptist and nursed back to health amongst this group of Essenes, who believe him to be a magus who will lead them against Rome. Eventually Karl breaks away from the group in order to search for Jesus Christ as his impending crucifixion is the event he has come to witness. When he finds the man, he is shocked to see that Jesus is a blabbering, mentally incapacitated hunchback who lives with his mother Mary (who is so not like a virgin) and his “father” Joseph (a bitter old man) and his brothers and sisters. Karl then does the only thing that a self-aware time traveller can ever do: he takes upon himself to play the role of Jesus Christ, determined to pull it off till the bitter end.

But things are never ever as simple as one could hope them to be and this is where the beauty of this book lies. It has so many layers I don’t even know where to start. I can only say that peeling back, or rather observing and absorbing each one was an adventure and a privilege. There is plot, character, writing, format, themes and ideas to consider and all of them come together beautifully.

Karl is one of the most messed up characters I have ever had the pleasure to come across. Moorcock alternates the happenings in 28AD with short flashbacks to Karl’s life in the 20th century. From a problematic childhood which includes paedophilia and abuse at an early age to an adulthood overwrought by neurosis including a tendency to stage suicide attempts, masochism, repressed homosexuality, a messiah complex (of course) and a very fucked up view of religion which he associates with sexuality (a silver cross = women; wooden cross =men). We observe several of his relationships, especially one with girlfriend Monica (God, Karl, what you’ll do for attention) with whom he talks about myth, religion and psychology. Karl admires the work of Psychologist Carl G. Jung and hopes to become one, one day but this attempt at becoming something or doing anything with his life is thwarted by another aspect of his own personality , a certain avoidance of reality as it presents itself mingled with self-doubt. Karl is not really a religious character but his obsession with Jesus Christ, and his self-sacrifice is what propels Karl to become a time traveller (well, that and the need to prove Scientific minded Monica wrong).

Mind you, the time travelling per se is not really important. We never learn the specifics and the mechanics of how it is even possible but this matters none at all (which quite possibly makes it less “Science” fiction than it ought to be). However, in another stroke of genius, the author does play with the ideas that are often associated with time travel. As any self-aware time traveller will tell you, it is very important to stick with the facts and let history run its course.

And that is exactly what Karl tries to do but it opens up the possibility for a glorious MESS of Biblical (hee) proportions. The Crux (hee –sorry so many inevitable puns) of the problem here is thus: because the historical Jesus proves to be an idiot who never did what he was supposed to do, Karl takes upon himself to do what historical events he knows to have happened. But did they really happen? By making the events effectively real – he picks up the 12 apostles, he engineers his arrest and eventual death – he might in fact have changed them all by making then factual rather than symbolic and possibly removing any and all real meaning from it all.

And from this comes another layer to be exposed, the difference between myth and religion and beliefs and fact. The absolutely fascinating discussion with his girlfriend Monica about how the myth is unimportant and that the impulse that creates it is the important thing. In this scenario, it is proved by what he has come to witness: Jesus, the historical figure is not the important thing, but how the creation of this myth (because if he never did what he did, then he is most definitely a myth) is fuelled by people’s need to believe in the idea of compassion, of love and forgiveness. Because then the myth of Jesus is less than an individual and more of a collective NEED perhaps stemming from archetypes (which links beautifully with Jung, by the way). It points to the idea that Jesus as a man, doesn’t need to have existed at all, as long as the ideal of Jesus can live on.

I find this absolutely beautiful. I have no doubt that to some this idea is completely blasphemous but to me (mind you, I am not religious at all, that needs to be taken into account) organised religion and deep seated belief do not necessarily go together (although they are also not mutually exclusive, obviously).

One of the most striking aspects of the book though is how everything is open to interpretation: none of the things I have said so far are exactly final. Karl might or might not have fulfilled a needed historical event or he might or might not have changed things. I also think that what I see as repressed homosexually and connection between religion and sexuality (as he is dying in the cross – a wooden cross mind you – he gets an erection) could probably be the result of trauma as he was sexually abused by men who were connected to the church. Hey, I would even say that Karl is so messed up that maybe, the entire story happens only inside his head. I don’t care, what is important here is the fact that with this short novella Moorcock opened up a dialogue between fiction and me, which made me think, consider, theorise, relate, sympathise and mourn.

I have considered and re-considered and found myself unable to find anything remotely resembling a problem or a fault with this novella. Although I am sure they exist because no book can ever be perfect because we are all after all, only humans (behold, the man) subjectively speaking, to ME, the reading experience this book provided, is as perfect as it gets.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: At one point, Karl finds himself lost in the desert and has to fight his demons (or Monica, inside his head). Which you know, is exactly what the historical Jesus was meant to have done – so…playing events? Creating them? or living them? Does it matter?

YOU DECIDE.

Additional Thoughts:

Behold the Man is part of the SciFi and Fantasy Masterworks collection that Gollancz has been publishing throughout the years. And now a group of intrepid, awesome bloggers took upon themselves to read and review them all.They even created a blog: Science Fiction & Fantasy Masterworks Reading Project has gone live recently – go and check it out.

Also, one of my favourite bloggers, Paul Charles Smith of the excellent Empty Your Heart of Its Mortal Dream is organising a month long event (date to be confirmed) dedicated to Michael Moorcock with contributions s from Jeff VanderMeer,China Mieville, amongst others and Moorcock himself. I can’t wait and will make sure to mention it again once I know more.

Verdict: Brilliant and thought-provoking, Behold the Man deserves many acolytes, and a place in my keeper shelf.

Rating: 10 – Perfect

Reading Next: City of Ruin by Mark Charan Newton

Title: Hero

Author: Perry Moore

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Superhero, Young Adult, LGBT literature

Publisher: Disney (Hyperion)
Publication Date: August 2007
Paperback: 432 pages

Thom Creed is used to being on his own. Even as a highschool basketball star, he has to keep his distance because of his father. Hal Creed had once been one of the greatest and most beloved superheroes of The League–until the Wilson Towers incident. After that Thom’s mother disappeared and his proud father became an outcast.

The last thing in the world Thom would ever want is to disappoint his father. So Thom keeps two secrets from him: First is that he’s gay. The second is that he has the power to heal people. Initially, Thom had trouble controlling his powers. But with trail and error he improves, until he gets so good that he catches the attention of the League and is asked to join. Even though he knows it would kill his dad, Thom can’t resist. When he joins the League, he meets a motely crew of other heroes, including tough-talking Scarlett, who has the power of fire from growing up near a nuclear power plant; Typhoid Larry, who makes everyone sick by touching them, but is actually a really sweet guy; and wise Ruth, who has the power to see the future. Together these unlikely heroes become friends and begin to uncover a plot to kill the superheroes.

Along the way, Thom falls in love, and discovers the difficult truth about his parents’ past. This is a moving, funny, and wonderfully original novel that shows that things are not always what they seem, and love can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: I have had Hero on my TBR for aaaaaaaaages. Originally, I planned on reading and reviewing it last year for YAAM (Young Adult Appreciation Month) as part of a YA superhero novel day – but just couldn’t squeeze it in the schedule. So, this week, when I found that I had a break in my reading schedule and could read ANYTHING I WANTED (OMG! This hardly ever happens!), Hero was the book I immediately picked up.

Review:

I am in love.

I am in love with Hero – with the brave, forthright narrator that is Thom Creed. With his physically and emotionally strong father, the downtrodden but ever-unbroken Hal Creed. With the mysterious Goran. With the moments of triumph, heartbreak, embarrassment, pain and pure joy. I am in love with this remarkable, rousing book.

Hero is truly heroic.

Thom Creed is a driven young man: avolunteer, a hard worker, a star basketball center, and a loyal son. During one heated basketball game, however, Thom develops a unique ability – he can heal things with his hands, as he does to Goran, the star player on the opposing team after he is flagrantly fouled by one of Thom’s teammates. Thom’s powers come at a cost, both physically and emotionally – physically, he goes into convulsions after straining his powers. Emotionally, his abilities weigh on Thom because he must hide his powers from his father – the formerly beloved (but fallen so far from grace) superhero Hall “Major Might” Creed. Years earlier, Hal’s failure at the WIlson Towers killed thousands and ended in Hal’s public disgrace and disbandment from the League (an official syndicate of superheroes), culminating in the law that non-superpowered heroes, like Thom’s father, could never again don a cowl and call themselves heroes. Ever since, Thom’s father has borne his public shunning with calm restraint and has tried to raise his son, even after his wife left Hal and Thom behind. Thom knows there’s one line that he cannot cross – no talk of superheroes, or of the League. Ever.

So when the League invites Thom to try out for the team and he actually makes it as a probationary member, he must guard that secret from his father. But that’s not the only secret Thom keeps from Hal – there’s one truth that he cannot bear to have revealed: Thom is gay. To Thom’s traditional, old-fashioned and opinionated father, an admission of Thom’s sexual orientation can only end in disappointment, revulsion, and pain.

But when Thom is the only one that can exonerate a wrongly accused person by declaring the truth to the world, he must decide what it truly means to be a superhero.

I don’t think I can sufficiently explain how much I loved this book. From the first page to its bittersweet ending, I found myself enthralled by Perry Moore’s breathtaking coming-of-age novel. The brunt of the story rests on Thom’s tried shoulders – self-aware, emotional, honest, flawed Thom. As our protagonist, Thom is a beautiful character that rouses and inspires as he struggles with self-perception, with his relationship with his family, with his standing as a hero, and his attempts to find a place in a world that seems to despise and revile him for being “different.” Hero broke my heart when I read along with Thom as he was ostracized and ridiculed for being gay – it’s a running joke here at TBS that Ana is the “emotional Smuggler” – but let me tell you, dear readers, I was emotional as hell reading this book. Hero runs the entire gamut of emotion through the father/son dynamic, struggling with truth and identity, finding and losing love, and living with regrets and making peace with the past. That’s not to say Hero is preachy or emotionally exploitative – because nothing could be farther from the truth. Hero hits all the right notes, painting Thom as a sympethic protagonist without patronizing or condescending, and the hardships Thom faces as a gay teen never feel contrived or melodramatic; Thom’s struggles range from humorous (one scene involving internet porn, for example) to touching (Thom’s first hookup), painful (Thom’s public declaration and his father’s reactions) to triumphant (well, I’ll leave that unspoiled for now). Mr. Moore writes a truly heroic character in Thom, and I found myself moved to the point of tears following this inspiring young protagonist.

While Mr. Moore captures Thom’s struggles within and with the outside world perfectly, he also creates a compelling, complicated relationship between a father and his son. Just as Thom is an inspired protagonist, Hal “Major Might” Creed is also one hell of a character. He’s not a perfect dad by any stretch of the imagination as he’s deeply hurt by his public failure and his wife leaving him. His relationship with his only son, the only family he has left in the world with Thom is a complicated one, filled with its soaring highs and crushing lows. And yet, despite Hal’s old fashioned beliefs, he’s first and foremost Thom’s dad. I loved that Mr. Moore does not write simplistic two-dimensional characters – he includes the good, the bad, and the ugly in this father-son relationship especially, creating an almost unfathomably awesome reading experience.

And these are just two characters that I’ve touched on! Suffice to say that every character in Hero is brilliant in his or her own way, just as every scene written into this book is necessary and integral to the story. There is no wasted space, no repetitive filler in Hero, and I could probably go on forever about each of these characters, so I’ll just mention my favorites: the mysterious Goran and his role in Thom’s life. Justice’s calm understanding of Thom’s outsider-status and his own tangled past with the Creed family. The League’s members – Uberman (object of Thom’s fantasies) and Warrior Woman, in particular. Thom’s teammates – the lovably crass, clairvoyant Ruth, the curmudgeonly Scarlett and her own dark secret, the snidely condescending Golden Boy, the sadly isolated Typhoid Larry.

In terms of writing, the plotting for Hero is similarly superb. Hero is very much a coming-of-age story, but it’s also filled with dark secrets, revelations about his past and his family, and – of course – a central conflict culminating in a battle sequence on an epic scale. Deftly plotted, cinematic in its execution, Hero’s story rocks, plain and simple. And the action! While the draw to the book is the emotional and character driven story, the action sequences don’t hurt any. Mr. Moore’s writing is never lengthy nor awkward, zipping this story along and tying everything together in a cohesive, tight package.

Finally, how can I review a superhero book without addressing the world-building element? Mr. Moore creates an entirely new universe with Hero, taking a world similar to our own but injecting superheroes into every day life. It’s worth pointing out that Thom’s world is not one that is versed with our own DC/Marvel heroes (i.e. there are no awkward “Captain Victory was just like Clark Kent with his disguises!” sort of drops), and I dig that. That said, the superheroes in Hero are familiar (in an homage/poking fun kind of wa) – for example, Warrior Woman bears the obvious resemblance to a certain Amazon Princess from Themyscira, Justice is an intriguing blend between Superman and Martian Manhunter, the League of superheroes itself is very much a new version of the JLA. It’s clear that Mr. Moore is an avid comic book fan, and Hero encompasses themes from some of the great work out there – a bit X-Men, a bit Watchmen (especially in the case of Thom’s father), and even a bit of Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come (and Irredeemable). But that’s not to say that Hero is a poor copy-cat or rip-off (as was my impression with The Iron King recently). Rather, Hero uses these foundations and builds something completely new, beautiful, strange and unforgettable. It has earned its place in the comic book canon.

I cannot think of a thing wrong with this book. It is brilliant, beautiful, from beginning to end. I laughed, I cringed, I cried. Hero made me fall in love with reading all over again – but more than that, it inspired me, as I’m sure it will inspire countless teens and readers. Recommended for everyone.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

I NEVER THOUGHT I’d have a story worth telling, at least not one about me. I always knew I was different, but until I discovered I had my own story, I never thought I was anything special. My destiny began to unfurl during my very last game at school. What started with an accident on the court ended with the single most devastating look I ever got from my father. And it made me want to die.

At the game, I’d scored twenty-two points, which already topped my personal best by a basket, and I showed no signs of slowing down. Every time I sank the ball, I could hear a lone deep voice begin to cheer a full second before the rest of the bleachers chimed in. Dad’s voice was hoarse from screaming, but I could still tell it was him, because no one else there would bother to remind me to follow my shot or get my hands up for defense.

I ran down to the other end of the court and posted up under the basket, and I caught him out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting in the remote upper lip of the bleachers, in his usual spot, away from everyone else. The crowd was sparse up there, which he said gave more room for a man of his considerable size to spread out, stand every few minutes, and stretch his back. The truth was that the extra room also made it harder to tell that people were uncomfortable sitting close to him.

I was surprised to see a young couple sitting near him that night. The husband would occasionally turn around to agree with my dad on a call or congratulate him when I made a shot. They were probably parents of one of the freshmen on the team. Didn’t recognize my father yet.

But I got the feeling they found something about him familiar. Like someone they’d seen on TV, in a movie, a local politician, or someone vaguely famous. They would have recognized him right away if he’d been wearing his mask. My guess is he’d probably saved their lives at some point. Dad always ran into people whose lives he’d saved. I could tell because his left jaw would clench, just a smidge, a bicuspid ground
into a molar—a telltale sign that he was either going to be ignored, maligned, or dismissed by someone who was only still breathing by the good graces of my father’s actions. He never wanted me to see it, but kids aren’t stupid. Even if Dad had ever possessed superpowers, invulnerability wouldn’t have protected him from the shame of having people look down on him in front of his own son.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: A few things. Firstly, in addition to being an amazing novelist, Perry Moore also is a hotshot Hollywood type – best known for his involvement in the Chronicles of Narnia films. As an openly gay man producing one a staunchly Christian series of books to film, I cannot express how freaking awesome I think this is. You can read more about Perry Moore, including a great interview with the author, on his website.

Also of interest on Mr. Moore’s website is a list – a primer, if you will – of gay characters in comics, and how they have been treated over the years. From “WHO CARES ABOUT THE DEATH OF A GAY SUPERHERO ANYWAY?:
A HISTORY OF GAYS IN COMIC BOOKS”:

In 1999, comic book writer Gail Simone compiled a notable list of female comic book characters who had been injured, killed, or de-powered in various superhero comics. The article, “Head In A Refrigerator,” made waves, and fans encouraged the comic book industry to change their treatment of women in the medium. The result has been positive, as the ever-increasingly popular world of comic books and graphic novels have yielded some of the most powerful and respected female heroes in literature since the list’s publication.

The following list is a similar catalogue of the treatment of gays in the medium. The goal is to facilitate discussion and awareness, that fans expect and deserve better treatment of lesbian, gay, and transgendered characters. The very fabric of our society is defined by whom we choose to venerate as our heroes. Things are beginning to change, but for every step forward – and there are some very good ones — the comic book world has taken some giant leaps back. Most gay characters, even in their small numbers, still remain primarily as villains, minor characters, and victims who are tortured, maimed and killed. Is this a fair representation of LGBT characters in the medium? That is left for you to decide. Yes, bad things do happen to all people, gay people included. But are there positive representations of gay characters to counterbalance these negative ones? Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?

It’s an eye-opening piece, and I wholeheartedly recommend everyone go forth and check it out.

(After you read that, if you can stomach it, go forth and read about the kerfluffle in which Mark Millar responds rather disingeniously to Perry Moore’s outrage at the death of Northstar at Wolverine’s hands in 2005)

Verdict: Hero is, in this reader’s opinion, a perfect book in every way. Rousing, heartening and inspiring, Thom’s journey is one that is applicable to everyone. I cannot recommend this book enough – and it’s easily at the top of my list of favorite books read in 2010.

Rating: 10 – Perfection

Reading Next: Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Title: Bleeding Violet

Author: Dia Reeves

Genre: YA/ UF

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: January 2010
Hardcover: 464 pages

Love can be a dangerous thing….Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna’s tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of a new home.

But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she’s far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe.

Stand Alone or series: Stand alone

Why did I read the Book: I saw this around the Internet last year and was intrigued by the blurb.

How did I get the book I requested a review copy from the publisher.

Review:

You are not welcome to Portero, Texas, unless you have a thick skin and you are here to stay. With hidden doors that open to other worlds (the Latin word for door: Porta) spread all over town and with all sorts of creatures (like leeches with tentacles for example and ghosts that live in the river and grant wishes if you can manage to breathe underwater enough to make the wish) crawling out or sucking you into them , Portero is definitely Weird Central of America. Its residents have all accepted their reality, living life to the best of their ability, under the Mayor’s authority and the hunters of Mortmaine’s protection. Everybody wears black as to not attract attention except for the Mortmaines who wear bright green; and if you stay long enough you are entitled to a key. This is how you know you belong.

Enter Hanna Jarvinen, first person narrator of this story and one of the most fascinating characters I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Half Finn, Half African American, Hanna is a biracial, bicultural, with bipolar disorder and violent tendencies, prone to hallucinations and who ran away from her aunt’s house before she was sent back to a mental institution. With her Finn father dead (although when she is not taking her pills, she talks to him in her head) all of Hanna’s hopes rest on her mother, Rosalee. Even though she has never seen her mother since she sent her father and her away when she was a baby, she fantasises that Rosalee will not only welcome her but accept her, weirdness and all. All her dreams come crashing down when she arrives in Portero. Rosalee is cold and unwelcoming. She means to send Hanna away, back to her aunt, to the mental institution, anywhere but Portero. She does not want anything to do with Hanna and is absolutely convinced that she will not adapt to the harsh reality of Portero:

“Let me get this straight: You want me to leave because you don’t think I can adapt?”
“I know you can’t”
Was she serious?
I was biracial and bicultural. A walking billboard for adaptation.

As much as Rosalee is unwelcoming, Hanna is unmoving and they are both forces to be reckoned with and so they strike a deal. If Hanna is not freaked out in the first two weeks, she gets to stay with Rosalee. On the very next morning Rosalee sends her to school where she is welcomed by the weirdest happenings and she realises that maybe Portero is weirder than she expected after all. Then, when she fully expected to fit in from day one, after all she was always able to use her looks and her personality to captivate men and women, she is ignored and scorned by the in-crowd lead by Wyatt, a Mortmaine. Hanna is a Transy, a Transient, someone who is just passing by and porterenses are used to see those leaving or dying too soon. But after she witnesses Wyatt using powers he is not supposed to when vanquishing a threat to the school, they become close. Now, Hanna thinks that the perfect way to impress not only the porterenses but above all her mother is to go on a hunt with Wyatt. When she comes back from the hunt, exhilarated, and unscathed, it is when things get really complicated.

Bleeding Violet is one of the best Young Adult novels I have ever read. The writing is lovely, the story is hands down amazing and the characters are everything I could have hoped for. Every time I open a book, I wish for the sort of all-encompassing experience that this book provided me.

I have read several reviews of Bleeding Violet around the internet and most of them focus their attention on how the story is weird , crazy and surreal. Yes, it is. To the point where I would say that the novel would definitely appeal to fans of QuentinTarantino and Vertigo’s graphic novels.

But although Portero is indeed an incredible setting and the situations that happen in this novel are really surreal, to me more than that surrealism, more than anything else what leaps from the pages are how REAL the characters are. Regardless of any gimmicks happening around them, or the way they might react to those situations, Bleeding Violet is extraordinarily realistic at a very basic level.

Take away the doors and the creatures (as fascinating and cool and vivid and creative as they are) and the book is a character-centric novel in which every.single.thing is character-driven. Everything that happens is because of these characters’ emotions and actions. Hanna is the main propeller of the plot, her emotional estate and that of those that surround her is what matter and what is at centre stage here.

Her need for motherly love and acceptance, to fit in start a sequence of events (which in turn re-set something that started a long time ago – but again, THOSE events wore also consequences of deeply felt emotions that converged in one horrible moment in time: greed, grief and fear). The way she speaks, thinks, reacts was …I don’t know. Awesome. I fell in love with Hanna from chapter one. She is so confident but at the same so lost. She has so many issues that need to be addressed and a definite mental illness that needs to be treated.

But Hanna is not the only character who has issues and deeply felt emotions: her mother, as cold as she was, was the result of a horrible childhood. Wyatt, had his own issues with authority and with heritage. This triad of characters and Hanna relationship with both and with herself are the meats and bones of the novel. On the romance side of things, how refreshing and realistic to see a couple starting off as any couple, dating and then having sex (because it is good and natural) sharing a connection and laughter without having to promise to be together- forever- and- ever- amen- because-they-belong-together. It is all the more believable when the two have to work through issues like still having feelings for an ex-girlfriend or not having feelings for any of the guys you had sex before. Or how Hanna sees the world in a confusion of colours and Wyatt tends to see it in black and white.

There are so many threads intertwined in the novel: deception, greed, power, sadness, death, acceptance, what is like to be biracial, what is like to be compassionate when you need to be ruthless, what is like to be young and have new ideas in the face of Tradition, what is like to love a mother who does not love you back. And it makes for a memorable, unique, fascinating, unapologetic, profoundly moving story.

Be aware though that this not a wholesome story. It is dark, gory, sensual, and violent. There are no definite, clear cut, simple answers. And it is certainly not for the squeamish ones: mental illness, teenage sex, a suicide attempt are present as well as moral ambiguity and not a few violent scenes.

I think it is testament to this writer’s ability (and perhaps fondness for her characters) that in spite of all the aforementioned violence and darkness, Bleeding Violent ends on a definite, unmistakable and believable high note. And as of now, this book has a secure spot on my top reads of 2010.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: My copy is replete with earmarks. I picked these two sequences as they contain the least spoilers at the same time that they reveal a lot about Hanna. The first shows how Hanna is weird in her way of looking at things. The other is an interaction between her and Wyatt.

“It wasn’t made for you. Don’t you dare get attached to that room.”
“You said I could stay”
“For two weeks and that’s -” Her spoon clattered to the floor.”You took my armoire?”
“I needed a place to store my clothes.”
“I had all my books in that armoire!”
“I saw.” Hundreds of books, several in German and Dutch, and endless stacks of bound manuscripts had crammed the armoire; I’d sweated through my chemise removing them all.
“I stacked them neatly on the floor,” I said, so she wouldn’t think I was a slob.
Rosalee pushed away from the table, chair legs squealing angrily against the tile. I thought she was going to go into her office to see what I’d done with her books, but she went up to my room instead and she did a slow 360-degree turn.
“Why is everything purple?”
“It was Poppa’s favorite color.”
“You painted my armoire purple!”
“It would have clashed otherwise.” she was making me feel like I’d murdered her best friend. “Why don’t we go finish that stew, hmmm? Before it congeals?”

What a freak! What an amazing and marvelous freak!
Hope brightened his face as he studied my expression. “You don’t think it’s weird?”
“It’s beyond weird,” I assured him breathlessly. “Beyond cool, even.”
“Only another weirdo would think that was cool.”
“Busted.”
“Bullshit. What’s weird about you?” He looked me over. “Besides your fixation with purple.”
“It doesn’t matter. Compared to what you can do, I’m boringly normal. So what are you?”
He put his half-finished sandwich on the tray as though he’d lost his appetite. I thought about what I’d said and immediately felt bad.
“I’m sorry. I can’t believe I asked you that. I hate it when people ask me that.”
He lifted his eyebrows, bemused.”Why would they ask you?”
“Because I’m biracial. People look at me and can’t figure me out, so they ask, `what are you?` Like I’m a whole other species. But you…are you another species?”
He did some more thinking. “You had to accept a lot today. I don’t wanna blow your mind.”
“It’s already blown”
“You think it is. I could vaporise it if I wanted to. But I don’t. Especially now that you know about me. And it doesn’t bother you.”
He crossed his legs in front of my feet, leaned forward, and rested his chin on my bare knee. The underside of his chin was sweaty, but I didn’t push him away; he was so cute, like a little boy, looking up at me. The late afternoon sun burned in his eyes, letting me see all the way inside him, but not in a spooky lure way. This was something else.

I also URGE you to go here and read the first chapter. It is AWESOME. And it got me hooked as soon as I finished reading it.

Additional Thoughts: Following the recent fiasco with the Whitewashed cover of Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore it is great to see a beautiful, accurate cover such as this. Kudos to Simon Pulse.

And as Bleeding Violet was written by a POC and has a POC as a main character, I am counting the book as my first entry in the POC Reading challenge!

And on a side note: Dia Reeves is writing another book set in Portero, Yay! I simply cannot wait. The potential, folks. THE POTENTIAL.

Verdict: A memorable, extremely well-written, character-driven novel with a fascinating and appealing narrator, against the backdrop of a surreal story. Dia Reeves debuts with a bang: a story that is certainly not for everyone but for those who dare, a guaranteed poignant, different, unique experience. Highly, HIGHLY recommended.

Rating: 10. A resounding one with a standing ovation – what else? This may not be a perfect book for everyone, but is certainly, a perfect book, a perfect fit for me.

Reading Next: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jemisin

Welcome to the first Guest Dare of 2010! For those new to the feature, our Guest Dare is a monthly endeavor in which we invite an unsuspecting victim to read a book totally outside of their comfort zone. You can read all previous Dare posts HERE.

This month’s victim is Renee – prolific blogger of Renee’s Book Addiction and reader of all things Romance, Romance, YA, M/M, Mystery , etc. When we contacted her for a guest dare, she came back to say she hasn’t read many Epic Fantasy – not even, gasp, Lord of the Rings. We immediately created a list which included not only Tolkien but Rothfuss, Sanderson and others. Her first choice was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, but after much nagging from her significant other, she caved and decided to read The Lord of the Rings.

Ladies and gents, please give it up for Renee!

________

Title: The Fellowship of the Ring

Author: JRR Tolkien

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Ballantine (This is the edition I read, but there are many publishers.)
Publication Date: July 29, 1954 (UK)
Paperback: 527 pp

Stand alone or series: The Lord of the Rings, Part One – The Fellowship of the Rings

Why did we recommend this book: It is an Epic Fantasy classic and one our Favorite books of all time.

Summary:

Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power except one — the One Ring that rules them all — which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task when Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

Renee’s Review:

From the outset, high fantasy was one of the genres I suggested to Ana and Thea when we first discussed this guest dare. The Fellowship of the Ring was mentioned by Ana, but I blew off the suggestion, being far too intimidated by taking on such an icon of fantasy lit. Also, I tried reading The Hobbit a couple of times in my teens, and couldn’t get through it. When I told my husband about Ana’s suggestions, he said I was going to have to give back both my lit major card (we were both lit majors in college and met in a literature class) and my geek card if I didn’t remedy the fact that I hadn’t read this classic.

Typically, my reading tastes are varied, mostly enjoying romance of all flavors, YA, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, and other kinds of spec fiction. However, high fantasy has never been a genre that I have been interested in reading. I think of knights and wizards and trolls, and my eyes glaze over. (Movies, especially The Lord of the Rings trilogy, are another matter, for some reason. I love these movies to death.) In fact, I often think I’d be interested in a high fantasy book, buy it, and then reality sets in and it just sits on my shelf, unread.

Since I consider myself a self-respecting book-geek, I rose to the challenge, and took on The Fellowship of the Ring.

Most people are familiar with the story of The Fellowship of the Ring, either the book or film, so (for the most part) I’m focusing this review on my experience reading the book, rather than reiterating the plot points.

The Prologue: When I first started the book, I was really stressed out by the Prologue. The history and backstory set out in it was complex, and the number of names, events, and dates felt really overwhelming. I also worried the entire book was going to be like this. However, I was reassured that I didn’t need to memorize everything, and that the Prologue’s style was more to give a sense of entering a complete world. So, I relaxed and kept moving forward.

It took me well over a week to settle in to the book. It was frustratingly easy to get distracted by tv, my kid, the fact I had a cold, or conversations going on around me. I found that my mind would wander while I was reading, and I’d have to keep bringing my attention back to the page.

However, as I pushed on, something gradually changed. It was a shift of my mindset. Typically, I’m a fast reader, and usually have a couple of books going at any given time. I generally read books that have lots of fast paced dialogue or action. However, The Fellowship of the Ring is just not that kind of book. While many things do happen, they unfold slowly, and the action builds as the book progresses.

In the Shire: At first, I was impatient, waiting to get from plot-point to plot-point, as I remembered them from the movie. Yet, it felt like not much was happening. I’d glance at the page number, thinking, “I can’t believe they still haven’t left the Shire!” Part of what gives The Fellowship its slow pace is that each scene is crammed with an incredible amount of detail: physical detail—how the building looked, what was on the dinner table, what the weather was like; historical detail— who the characters are, how they are related, what this event’s significance is in the scheme of things; and, character detail—what each character said, did, or thought. The result is an amazingly vivid book that, once I allowed myself to slow down and enjoy the ride, began to come to life.

Awesome quote, describing Gandalf’s fireworks at Bilbo’s party:

There were rockets like a flight of scintillating birds singing with sweet voices. There were green trees with trunks of dark smoke: their leaves opened like a whole spring unfolding in a moment, and their shining branches dropped glowing flowers down upon the astonished hobbits, disappearing with a sweet scent just before they touched their upturned faces.

I loved learning things about the hobbits, like Sam’s impulsive and adventuresome nature. The beautiful interlude with Tom Bombadil and Goldberry was an unexpected surprise, since (inevitably) I kept comparing the book with the movie.

At The Prancing Pony, where they meet Strider (Aragorn): About halfway through the book, I realized what the experience of reading The Fellowship of the Rings was like for me. To use a food analogy, this was the literary equivalent of a “slow food” dinner. One where I needed to savor the words, the descriptions, and the songs. The point was not to get to the book’s climax, but savor the journey. This isn’t always a natural state for a goal-oriented person like me. Yet, even the songs (which I tend to skim over in most books) became enjoyable. I once had a lit professor tell us to read things like sermons and poetry out loud since they were written to be heard. So, in an effort to get into the swing of things with the songs in The Fellowship, I’d sing them to myself. (Greensleeves, Amazing Grace, and Scarborough Fair worked especially well!) This made a vast difference in my enjoyment of them.

Rivendell, at the Council of Elrond: This was my favorite part of the book! While it wasn’t the book’s climax, it really felt like the book comes together here. It’s funny, because often we talk about how a book needs to “show not tell”, yet to me I was so excited to get everyone’s story. It was like fitting a puzzle together, where before you only have a few of the (hobbit) pieces. Part of it the reason this “telling not showing” works is because the dramatic tension has been built slowly. The hobbits go through so much to finally get to Rivendell, and Frodo is so relieved, thinking that his adventure is near its conclusion. Yet, I (the reader) know that all this changes here at the Council. Frodo’s journey is just begun. The path for the rest of the trilogy is set down at this point and we get to see what must happen —the ring must be detroyed, the people of Gondor must be aided, Sauron must be defeated— and get to hear from the key players (the hobbits, men, elves, dwarves, and wizards).

Moria and Lothlórien: For me, this part of the book became more about the big events. The tragedy in the mines and meeting Galadriel were parts of the story which I had been dreading and anticipating (as the case may be). However, with both these sections, again Tolkien’s vivid writing make them wonderful. The “doom, doom doom” drumbeats of the orcs foreshadow what eventually happens in the mines as well as adding an auditory layer to the scenes in the mine. The unreal beauty of Lothlorien and Galadriel are such a contrast following the events in Moria.

Awesome quote #2, when Frodo asks Galadriel to take the ring:

‘In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!’

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illumined her alone and left all else dark. she stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful.

*chills*

The Breaking of the Fellowship: This part felt mostly like a set up to The Two Towers. I read about the events of Boromir and Frodo, and Frodo’s decision to break up the group with anticipation for the next part of the adventure. By now, I knew I was in it for the rest of the story. I will be definitely be finishing the rest of The Lord of the Rings.

It’s impossible to ignore the movies’ impact on my reading experience. While the movies gave me some very clear referential images, and helped me in understanding some of the more complicated historical relationships, I sort of regretted that I had seen the LotR movies first. I wonder what it would have been like to experience Middle Earth for the first time solely through JRR Tolkien’s words. (That being said, though, you know what I’ll be watching this weekend.)

I don’t usually grade my books at my place, but from about halfway through the book it was clear that The Fellowship of the Ring was a “10″ for me. Not because of its classic status, but because of Tolkien’s success in creating the incredibly ambitious world of Middle Earth. The magnitude of his scope is breath-taking, and once I allowed myself to slow down and enjoy the ride, I was rewarded with a truly memorable reading experience.

Thanks, Thea and Ana for daring me to take on The Fellowship of the Ring. I know I wouldn’t have read it without the extra little push.

__________

And thank you, Renee for saying yes, to the dare! And we are delighted that you enjoyed the book!

Next on the Guest Dare: Jeff one of the folks from Alert Nerd, reads a Romance Novel: The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran

Until next month!

Title: The Left Hand of Darkness

Author: Ursula K. LeGuin

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Publisher: Ace (US) / Orbit (UK)
Publication Date: 1969 (US) / November 2009 (UK)
Hardcover: 272 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Review copy from the publisher (Orbit UK)

Why did I read this book: The Left Hand of Darkness is a book that I started and attempted to read in high school – but it’s one of those books that I’d never finished. So, when I received a copy in the mail courtesy of Orbit to celebrate the book’s 40th anniversary, I decided that there was no better time to dive in and finally finish this classic science fiction novel.

Summary: (from Orbit UK)
Genly Ai is a diplomat of sorts, sent to observe the inhabitants of the snowbound planet of Winter. But the isolated, androgynous people are suspicious of this strange, single-gendered visitor. Tucked away in a remote corner of the universe, they have no knowledge of space travel or of life beyond their own world. So, bringing news of a vast coalition of planets they are invited to join, he is met with fear, mistrust and disbelief.

But also something more. For Genly Ai, who sees himself as a bringer of the truth, it is a bittersweet irony that he will discover truths about himself and, in the snow-shrouded strangeness of Winter, find both love and tragedy…

Review:

Genly Ai, an Envoy of the federation of human worlds called the Ekumen, documents his experiences on the cold, alien world of Winter (or “Gethen” to the local people) in The Left Hand of Darkness. For the first two years of his mission in the kingdom of Karhide, Ai is met with suspicion, disbelief, and overwhelming fear. The people of Gethen are not only mistrusting of what they perceive of as tall tales of ships that fly and worlds beyond their own, but they are also nervous as to Ai’s physiology too. Every person on Gethen is an androgyne, without an assigned gender save for once a month when they enter kemmer (in a hormonal cycle similar to a female’s monthly period) – and in kemmer, a Gethenian can assume either the female or male gender at complete random (i.e. someone who was a female one month can be a male in the next monthly kemmering). Genly Ai, with his single, permanent male sexuality is branded as a “pervert,” or an anomaly. On the most basic, fundamental level, neither the people of Gethen nor Ai can understand each other.

When the King of Karhide brands his advisor Estraven, the person who has been introducing Ai to Karhide society, as a traitor, Ai’s diplomatic mission is in serious jeopardy. Bitterly unsuccessful in convincing Karhide to open their world to Ekumen’s benevolent mission, Ai turns to the more bureaucratic nation to the north, called Orgoreyn. There, he meets once again with Estraven, and once again is rejected and met with resistance by the corrupt, ambitious Orgoreyn leaders. When Ai is betrayed and thrown into an Orgoreyn prison camp, however, he is rescued by Estraven – who, against all odds, believes in Ai’s message about worlds and technology beyond the starry void. Together, Estraven and Ai travel across the Gobrin Ice (a vast glacier of frozen cold) to reach Karhide once more, so that Ai can try yet again to convince the kingdom to join Ekumen. Along the way, Ai finally learns to trust and to see the Gethen people, through Estraven, for who – and what – they really are.

Reading The Left Hand of Darkness forty years after its publication is an enlightening experience. There is no denying that this is an important, seminal work of fiction – especially in the science fiction arena, as it challenges human notions of gender, gender roles, and sex. What happens when sex is completely removed from the equation? In a world where gender is a fluid, ever-changing feature, where prescribed gender roles do not exist, what remains? We struggle with Genly Ai as he attempts to understand how Gethenians are both male and female at the same time, just as we struggle with Estraven as s/he tries to understand Ai and his Ekumen ways. It’s almost impossible to truly review this book without delving into some in-depth essay – such is how incredible, how much of a paradigm shift The Left Hand of Darkness is to a reader’s mindframe. From a pure literary standpoint, the novel is written beautifully (if somewhat confusing and requires a lot of its readers), with a deceptively straightforward plot. Interspersed throughout the main storyline (which alternates between Ai and Estraven’s perspectives) are other stories: tales from Gethen myth and field records from Ai’s predecessor. Each tale and each analysis provides invaluable insight to the novel, adding another layer of color to an incredibly well-researched and well-developed world. There are fireside tales about doomed lovers and future-seers, and there are postulations about the origins of the Gethenians and human genetic experimentation. The sheer scope of ideas that The Left Hand of Darkness encompasses is…mind-boggling.

That said, The Left Hand of Darkness is not an easy book to read. Ms. LeGuin’s prose is descriptive and graceful, but requires a high level of concentration and memory to understand and keep straight the different peoples and customs throughout. At less than 300 pages, The Left Hand of Darkness is nevertheless full to the brim with challenging ideas, themes, and concepts – not only is gender examined at length, but so too are political systems, religion, and the facets of human nature itself. This is a challenging book, and one that could spark a number of essays and in-depth analyses. It might not be sensational or easy to pick up and read in a single sitting (because, let’s face it – there is a LOT to digest here) – but that’s not a bad thing. Some books are meant to be savored, over time, in doses.

The Left Hand of Darkness is the kind of book that can only get better upon a second, third, fifteenth, reading. It’s a product of its time (published in the same year the Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon), but more impressively, it stands the test of time. The Left Hand of Darkness is just as important – if not more important – today as it was in 1969. Revolutionary, insightful, and thought-provoking, this remains a classic novel in the SF canon for good reason. This is a novel to be read, cherished, discussed, and dissected by all.

Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read full excerpts of Chapters 9 & 10 online at Ursula K. LeGuin’s website, HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Now, a bit about the 40th anniversary edition of the book. This edition of The Left Hand of Darkness is probably the ONE to buy – it includes an insightful foreword from Ursula LeGuin, the Gethenian calendar and clock, a Karhidish glossary and songs from the domain of Estre, the related short story “Coming of Age in Karhide,” and maps of Gethen itself. If you’re a sucker for extras – as I certainly am – this is the edition for you.

Verdict: If you haven’t read it, you should. If you have read it, you should read it again. This Hugo and Nebula award winning novel is an incredible feat of storytelling; it is a classic.

Rating: 10 – A Classic. Could it be any other way?

Reading Next: Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding

Today we bring you the latest installment in our new feature, “What She Said…” in which we both review books that the other has already read and reviewed. The idea arose because of the dilemma that if one of us reads and reviews a book, the other can’t really post again about it, right? WRONG! Hence, “What She Said…” was born. For those books that we REALLY want to read after the other has reviewed – and gushed – about it.

For today’s post, we take on Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier, and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
Roc (US)/Tor (UK), November 2008, Hardcover 416 pages

Original Review November 2008
Original Rating: 9 Damn Near Perfection

What Thea Said:

There are very few books that I have read this year that have left me dreading each turn of the page–not out of fear or distaste with the writing, but out of a passion to keep reading the book. Out of the knowledge that once the last page turns, that inevitable ache of loneliness will settle in–because the book is just that damn good.

Such is Heir to Sevenwaters.

This is a beautiful tale of family, courage, and–most importantly of all–love. I finished this book and was urged to flip back to the beginning just to read it again. I can only hope that Ms. Marillier plans on revisiting Sevenwaters again. And hopefully very, very soon.

What Ana Says: Oh my sweet baby Jesus – this book is made of awesome. Thea was absolutely right about it, this is the sort of book I love to read with its wonderful, perfect blend of Fantasy and Romance. Under Juliet Marillier’s expert writing, I am nothing but a puppet having my heart’s strings pulled. I laughed, I cried, I sighed more times than I can count. At one point, I thought I was going to drown in my own tears only to be rescued a few pages later by a scene that put a huge smile in my face. And this, THIS is what makes her books so damn good, the ability that this woman has to write amazingly emotional, romantic stories.

As with Daughter of the Forest, the author takes her sweet time with the setting of her story. It is not until way over page 100 that the plot gets moving but it doesn’t matter. Because the first 100 pages are the insight into the lives of the characters that you need in order to care: this is where you learn everything about Clodagh, the narrator of the story.

About her dedication to her family and to her family’s stronghold, Sevenwaters. About the family’s connection to the Good Folk who inhabit the forest around Sevenwaters. About how important is this moment in time, when her mother is pregnant once again, at a dangerous age, in the hope of giving birth to a son, who will be Heir to Sevenwaters. Everything is building up to that moment and it is a though things are suspended in time, waiting to see what is going to happen. Her father for example, has to deal with political complications stemming from Clodagh’s sister marriage but can’t concentrate on the matter. There are also visitors staying at Sevenwaters including the current Heir, Johnny and his band of warriors. Amongst them, there is one man who might be Clodagh’s sweetheart and his best friend, Cathal who is rude and distant.

This suspense affects Clodagh as well, who is in charge of the house, doing what she does best: organising the day to day life of Sevenwaters. Because they don’t know if the mother or the baby will survive, Clodagh has to put away plans to maybe one day get married until further notice. Then the baby is born and to everyone’s relief both mother and child, a boy, are well. Then something strange happens. One day Clodagh is taking care of her little brother when Cathal, mysterious, obnoxious Cathal, shows up at her bedroom to say goodbye and kisses her. When she is back inside the room the unthinkable has happened: the baby is gone and in his place, a changeling was left, a baby made of twigs and leaves. With Cathal gone at the same time, suspicions fall on him and on the possibility that the kidnapping was carried out for political reasons. No one thinks that there might a different explanation; expect for Clodagh who is the only one that can hear the changeling baby’s cries. She is convinced that this is not a mere kidnapping and that her brother’s survival is connected to the changeling’s survival; and because she is the only one that can see that he is alive, she is the one that has to make sure that he remains so, because no one will believe her. She is sure an exchange needs to be made soon and she takes the changeling baby in a journey to the Otherworld. She knows that the journey is full of dangers and she might not survive but on the way there, she is joined by Cathal who offers his help. And this is only the beginning.

After those first pages, I was completely INVESTED in Clodagh’s story. Understanding her need to save her brother AND the changeling’s life; compassionately feeling her frustration that one will believe her and her relief when Cathal can too, hear the baby.

All of Juliet Marillier’s protagonists are women, quietly strong and capable of sacrifices and Clodagh is no different. She has a capacity for compassion towards the baby made of twigs and faith towards a man who at first comes across as undeserving and these two traits, compassion and faith are what keep her going, fuelling this amazing woman ‘s actions.

And then there is Cathal. I can not dwell too much on him because I might spoil part of his mystery but let me just say that Cathal is one of those characters who grow on you little by little, as layer upon layer is disclosed to the reader and to Clodagh. But once you see who he is and how much he cares for Clodagh (like in this one scene, when he thinks she is gone and when he realises she is safe, he does something that is completely, totally aw-worthy, sigh-inducing and heart-warming) he is revealed as a Hero of the highest calibre.

Even if I don’t take into consideration the several aspects that make this book an excellent read: the lovely writing, the fantastic elements of Irish folklore, the politics involving the different chieftains around Sevenwaters, and concentrate only in the story, at its purest form and on the characters, it would be enough to put this in my keeper shelf.

There are several twists and turns, revelations and surprises to the point where by the end, the book you find yourself reading is not the book you thought you were when you first started. It also happens that the Fantasy elements are of the variety I most like: there is a Quest (a There and Back journey) with dangerous, scary threats; High Sacrifices; a trickster that needs to be tricked and tasks to perform. But in the end, this is a book about fighting for one’s True Love and Clodagh and Cathal’s story is one of the best love stories I ever read: full of loyalty and passion.

After reading three books by this author, I can appreciate Thea’s devotion to her books and I have now joined the ranks of devoted Marillier’s fans. Heir to Sevenwaters granted me that perfect reading experience and put me on a Book High. This is definitely a M.F.A. (Made For Ana) book and one that I wholeheartedly recommend to Fantasy and Romance readers alike.

Rating: I will see Thea’s 9 and raise it to a 10. This book, it was a perfect read for me.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Daw (US)/Gollancz (UK), March 2007 (US)/September 2007 (UK), Hardcover 662 pages

Original Review May 2009
Original Rating: 10 and I quote: “A solid, perfect 10 which just set the bar higher for everything I read henceforth”

What Ana Said:

If I had any talent for poetry I would write an Ode. If I could compose songs, I would make one for the lute and call it “The name of the Wind knocked my socks off”. But I don’t. As it stands, the ONLY thing I can do to convey how much I love this book, is to write this review, hoping against hope that it will be enough, and say that whenever Patrick Rothfuss takes Kvothe next, I will follow, blindly and willingly.

And I will finish by saying the following: I don’t want to run into any rushed declarations but The Name of the Wind may well be the best book I read since The Book Smugglers’ inception.

What Thea Says:

This installment of What She Said is a tall order – both of the books that Ana and I read were among our favorite reads of 2008 and 2009. In my case, with The Name of the Wind, there’s a little history. See, I bought my copy back in early 2008. I even told Ana about the book. We were SUPPOSED to do a joint review of the book. But then, one day in March, I start getting these emails from Ana, in which she is squeeing over the wonder that is The Name of the Wind! (That hussy, she betrayed me! She and my book were cheating on me!) And wouldn’t you know it – she absolutely loved it. LOVED IT. I’m talking drooling, crying, cradling it near her body when she sleeps at night, obsessed with it. And it is partially out of this situation that “What She Said” was born – because Ana loved this book so much, and I was desperate to read it and review it too.

THUS, “What She Said” was created. And now, seven months later, I finally had the opportunity to read The Name of the Wind…

And I finally see what all the fuss is about – because The Name of the Wind is one damn fine novel. So far as first novels go (not only as the first novel in a fantasy series, but as a debut novel, mind you), The Name of the Wind is undeniably, absolutely, positively brilliant.

This is the story of the innkeeper Kote – Kvothe that was. This is the story of the fabled, revered and simultaneously feared Kingkiller; a man who has done incredible things in his life, and still is not yet thirty years old. He has stolen princesses, fought demons, and slayed dragons. He has defied Kings, and mastered magic and music alike. He is A Hero. The Name of the Wind tells Kvothe’s story as he shares it with Chronicler, the finest story recorder in the land. Though Kote is hesitant to tell his long story, he agrees to let Chronicler transcribe it over the course of three days – The Name of the Wind is the first day.

What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said? Mr. Rothfuss’s debut effort is a gorgeously work, written in rich, almost musical prose. This is a story to be savored, as it unfolds slowly, following Kvote’s life as a happy child in a troupe of legendary performers, to wretched, impoverished life on the streets after the murder of his family. It is an epic Hero’s Journey, encompassing a childhood full of love and cruelty alike, as Kvothe grows into a brilliant young man. Kvothe is perhaps too good to be true – he’s literally a genius as well as a master musician and an unparalleled talent with sympathy and his other university studies (“sympathy” being the arcanists’ magic in this world). He’s also charismatic, charming, and, judging from the ladies’ reactions, a looker too. He could easily have been an exhaustingly Mary Sue as a character, but he wasn’t, thanks to Mr. Rothfuss’s sure hand. Kvothe’s voice is that of a true performer, and he – through Mr. Rothfuss – knows how to tell a story. A dash of healthy arrogance throughout, Kvothe keeps Chronicler and Bast enthralled as he pours his heart out, and all his impressive accomplishments seem the results of a carefully constructed reputation as well as the fruit of very concentrated efforts. In short, Kvothe isn’t pretentious. I loved him and his story.

To this accomplishment, add the fact that the other characters were solid all around, if a tad predictable and less developed than Kvothe (but, being honest, this is Kvothe’s story, and he is the one we care the most for as readers). The world building, complete with an entirely new mythology and opposing religions was awesome, on a re-interpretive level reminiscent of Jacqueline Carey’s alternate world with the stories of Elua and his companions. The University too was a fabulous new location, where Kvothe learns his magical craft (though perhaps too much time is spent on his monetary woes and inability to enter the mysterious archives). I also loved how Mr. Rothfuss subverts fantasy tropes subtly – taking familiar settings and characters, and spinning them. The entire novel is, in fact, a tale in a tavern. He takes the tavern trope, the tales within a tale, the grand adventure, the Great Hero and makes them all his – as Ana would say, he “takes the mick out of them.”

In terms of shortcomings, there were only a sparse few – my biggest complaint (if you could call it that), is that not much happens in the story. While Kvothe goes through a lot, this first novel barely scratches the surface of Kvothe’s legacy. The promise made at the beginning of the book with Kvothe’s adventures and accomplishments are barely seen in this novel – in a way, it’s a whole lot of set up for action that hasn’t yet come. Also, as far as stories go, Kvothe’s tale is surprisingly mundane, taking a day to day look at his young life. While most fantasy novels that I’ve read spend some time on childhood and move on, jumping even, to the hero’s adult life, Mr. Rothfuss takes his time and shows everything – which is both admirable and infuriating. The way that the trilogy is set up, book 2 is where the great action, where the real meat and potatoes of the story comes in. The Name of the Wind is an amuse bouche, tantalizing the tastebuds with the promise of more to come…and I, along with the rest of fantasy-fandom, am hungry.

This is the greatest strength and curse for Mr. Rothfuss – how damn good this debut novel was, because now we are ravenous for more. I cannot wait to read The Wise Man’s Fear. I need to know why Kvothe became Kote, the reason for the lines on his face and his faded vibrance and lost magic. I want to know what these demon spider creatures are that are invading the land.

I cannot wait.

Rating: 9 – Damn Near Perfection – and it can only get better from here…

Reading Next on What She Said:

Ana: Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore

Thea: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Literary Fiction

Publisher: Faber and Faber (UK) / Vintage (US)
Publication Date: March 2005 (UK) / March 2006 (US)
Paperback: 304 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel.

How did I get this book: Bought.

Why did I read this book: I’ve read Mr. Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and loved it, but since have not returned to his literary pasture. I picked up Never Let Me Go on a whim in the bookstore, craving a meaty, substantive, speculative fiction read, and I hoped that this book would deliver. Plus, I’m shallow in that I saw the cover and the catchy title, and was instantly intrigued.

Summary: (from amazon.com)
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

Review:

Kathy H. is a thirty-year old carer and a graduate from a secluded, elite academy called Hailsham. In an alternate 1990s England, Kathy prepares herself for the next stage of her life as a donor and reminisces about her past as a student and her childhood friends Ruth and Tommy. Written in a deceptively direct and uncomplicated narrative, Mr. Ishiguro writes a haunting, elegiac tale about the meaning and mystery of life. The subject matter of the novel and plot is straightforward, as bluntly simply as Kathy’s narration: three young friends grow up in an idyllic school in the English countryside, where they are encouraged to create works of art while they learn about the world and their place in it. The book is split into three different parts, each representing a stage in Kathy’s life. Part one begins with her time as a student at Hailsham, where she befriends Ruth and Tommy, and part two follows these three friends as they graduate and move to The Cottages to live with other alumni from similar academies across the country. In part three, Kathy has become a carer, and she, Ruth and Tommy cross paths once more. All this reminiscing leads up to an ultimate, haunting fourth act (Kathy’s transition from a carer to a donor), but it is one that we do not read on the page. As Kathy’s memories and the truth about her childhood coalesce into a larger, sharper picture, Never Let Me Go becomes a heartbreaking fictional memoir that asks resounding questions about the nature of humanity, and the depths of the human soul.

The only other book I have read by Mr. Ishiguro is his Booker Prize winning novel The Remains of the Day, in which a butler named Stevens blindly and proudly absorbs himself in his profession, to the extent that he alienates the woman he loves, his father, and is blind even to the tendencies of his Nazi sympathizing employer. In Mr. Ishiguro’s sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, he explores similar territory with his characters that are so consumed by the subtext and minutia of their cliques and daily lives that they never notice the larger picture – but the readers do. And what an ominous picture it is.

Never Let Me Go is a book about characters, but it also treads into the realm of dystopian speculative/science fiction. I won’t spoil exactly HOW this novel falls under the SFF umbrella (even though it becomes suspect from even a few chapters in); suffice to say that it does, and Never Let Me Go does it in the tradition of Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy – but sans any literary pretentiousness. And, like the best works of the dystopian cannon, the strength of the novel lies not just in some catchy premise or flashy plot techniques, but rather in the strength of its characters. This isn’t M. Night Shyamalan, where the impact of the story relies on one huge twist; rather, the beauty of Mr. Ishiguro’s work is in quiet revelation and thought-provoking subtext.

As such, Never Let Me Go is a character driven novel. Built entirely on the first person narrated memories of Kathy, this is a book that is breathtaking in its subtlety. Each of the three friends are gorgeously drawn in Kathy’s memories and Mr. Ishiguro’s direct prose. Ruth, the forceful, outgoing ringleader of the girls at Hailsham becomes Kathy’s best friend, and their relationship is stretched and tested as they grow up. Tommy is an outsider at the academy with his fiery temper and unpredictable tantrums, but he too becomes Kathy’s good friend and confidante, as she reaches out to him. Kathy herself is revealed to be the quiet member of the group, not as strangely angry as Tommy nor a leader like Ruth, but keenly observant. Kathy’s entire narrative is constantly preoccupied with the small subtleties of her friendship with the domineering Ruth, her social standing at Hailsham, and her initial worry for Tommy. At first, it seems that this novel is much ado about nothing, taking place entirely in Kathy’s mind with her myriad perceptions of the nuanced power politics of female cliques. But as Kathy’s narrative progresses and the characters gain more color and the backdrop of Kathy’s world comes into focus, significant, impossible to ignore questions about the nature of the human soul are raised. Are Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy’s interactions “normal”? Why wouldn’t anyone in their situation simply try to run away – or is it simply human nature to accept what limitations and rules you are taught from birth? There are many interpretations possible with this novel, which is part of its beauty. Add to this the sparse, forthright and unconsciously gorgeous writing of Kazuo Ishiguro, and it’s easy to see why this novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Never Let Me Go is easily one of the finest novels I’ve read this year, of any genre. Even better, in my opinion, than The Remains of the Day. This is what reading is all about.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

My name is Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years. That sounds long enough, I know, but actually they want me to go on for another eight months, until the end of this year. That’ll make it almost exactly twelve years. Now I know my being a carer so long isn’t necessarily because they think I’m fantastic at what I do. There are some really good carers who’ve been told to stop after just two or three years. And I can think of one carer at least who went on for all of fourteen years despite being a complete waste of space. So I’m not trying to boast. But then I do know for a fact they’ve been pleased with my work, and by and large, I have too. My donors have always tended to do much better than expected. Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as “agitated,” even before fourth donation. Okay, maybe I am boasting now. But it means a lot to me, being able to do my work well, especially that bit about my donors staying “calm.” I’ve developed a kind of instinct around donors. I know when to hang around and comfort them, when to leave them to themselves; when to listen to everything they have to say, and when just to shrug and tell them to snap out of it.

Anyway, I’m not making any big claims for myself. I know carers, working now, who are just as good and don’t get half the credit. If you’re one of them, I can understand how you might get resentful—about my bedsit, my car, above all, the way I get to pick and choose who I look after. And I’m a Hailsham student—which is enough by itself sometimes to get people’s backs up. Kathy H., they say, she gets to pick and choose, and she always chooses her own kind: people from Hailsham, or one of the other privileged estates. No wonder she has a great record. I’ve heard it said enough, so I’m sure you’ve heard it plenty more, and maybe there’s something in it. But I’m not the first to be allowed to pick and choose, and I doubt if I’ll be the last. And anyway, I’ve done my share of looking after donors brought up in every kind of place. By the time I finish, remember, I’ll have done twelve years of this, and it’s only for the last six they’ve let me choose.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Never Let Me Go is currently being adapted to film. And, since it’s a bigger UK movie, it’s predictably starring Keira Knightly as Ruth *gags* In the protagonist role of Kathy is Carey Mulligan, from Public Enemies, and Tommy is portrayed by Andrew Garfield, from Lions From Lambs. Alex Garland, whose resume includes The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and the upcoming movie adaptation of Halo, pens the screenplay. And, at the helm as director is Mark Romaneck, whose work mostly comprises music videos and the sole movie One Hour Photo…

The movie has already begun filming, with a release date of 2010. I’m more than a little iffy about the whole thing. Alex Garland’s screenplays – while good, action-packed fun – lack the subtlety and emotional gravitas that makes Never Let Me Go such a beautiful book, and while One Hour Photo was a decent film, it doesn’t quite convince me of Mark Romaneck’s directorial skills.

I strongly urge everyone to read the book, PLEASE, before seeing the movie.

Verdict: I loved Never Let Me Go. It’s a book that resonates long after you finish it, and makes you remember why you fell in love with reading in the first place. Absolutely recommended.

Rating: 10 – Perfection

Reading Next: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

Title: Ark

Author: Stephen Baxter

Genre: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalypse

Publisher: Gollancz (UK)
Publication Date: August 2009
Trade Paperback: 416 pages

Stand alone or series: Book 2 in a duology, following Flood.

Why did I read this book: Despite a slow start and a strange sense of complete detachment, I ended up loving Stephen Baxter’s Flood, the first book in this apocalyptic duology. I loved it so much, in fact, that it is on my shortlist of favorite books of 2009. So, when I found out that Ark was being released in the UK this August, I was thrilled – and immediately begged Ana to procure me a copy. And she did. Good Ana. Gooooooood Ana.

Summary: (from amazon.com)
As the waters rose in FLOOD, high in the Colorado mountains the US government was building an ark. Not an ark to ride the waves but an ark that would take a select few hundred people out into space to start a new future for mankind. Sent out into deep space on an epic journey centuries, generations of crew members carry the hope of a new beginning on a new, incredibly distant, planet. But as the decades pass knowledge and purpose is lost and division and madness grows. And back on earth life, and man, find a new way. This is the epic sequel to the acclaimed FLOOD; a stirring tale of what mankind will do to survive and the perfect introduction for new readers to one of SF’s greatest tropes; the generation ship. Written by one of the most significant SF writers of the last 30 years, a man considered to be the heir of Arthur C. Clarke as a writer with a unique ability to popularize science and science fiction for the largest possible audience FLOOD and ARK together form a landmark in modern SF.

Review:

I have discovered a new “autobuy” author this year, and Stephen Baxter is his name. I cannot quite explain what it is about his writing that simply works for me. Objectively, I can see that his work is rather verbose and bleak, and at times very dense which can put off many readers. In fact, this often puts me off many authors. But there’s something about his books that hit all the right buttons for me. Perhaps it’s the scope of his writing, blending human elements with the harder elements of science fiction. Perhaps it’s the cool – almost cruel – impassivity he shows his protagonists. Perhaps it’s some mystical, perfect blend of the two that I find irresistible. The point is, I have become a full-fledged fan. Ark, along with Flood easily makes the shortlist of two of my favorite novels of 2009.

Overlapping and following the events of Flood, the first book in this duology, Ark tells the story of the birth and culmination of a top secret project to send a genetically diverse, brilliant group of young humans away from the flooded and dying Earth, to travel that final frontier of space – to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. In a long-shot hope to save the human race and rebuild on an as of yet unknown planet, Ark is the story of how the Ark One was conceived, how it left Earth, and the fate of those on board. While Flood is a dramatic apocalypse novel documenting the systematic flooding and the end of the world by water as a subterranean sea reservoir covered all the land on the face of the planet, Ark is a science fiction story about humanity’s last ditch effort to prevail. Following two main characters, Grace, a dejected, tired and hopeless woman whom readers will remember from Flood, and Holle, groomed since childhood for a chance to get on Ark One, Ark is a visceral, intelligent, tragic, and ultimately hopeful novel about the end of the world, and how humanity endures.

As with Flood, and as I suspect might be indicative of all Stephen Baxter’s work, Ark is a story with an incredible sense of scale and scope. Beginning with a six-year old Holle who makes it to the Colorado Rockies with her father in the year 2025, Ark spans fifty-six nominal years and a distance of over one-hundred light years, to the fate of the remaining members on the Ark in 2081. When a small group of far-sighted and very wealthy men move to Denver as the last stronghold of high land in a flooded America and water-logged world, they learn that the water will not stop rising and decide they have three options for survival: build habitable environments on Earth that will thrive beneath the ever-rising global ocean; build habitable environments on Earth that will survive afloat on the ever-rising global ocean; or leave Earth entirely for a new world. And, when some members (Nathan Lammockson, as you may remember from Flood) pursue the Earth-bound options, a smaller contingent begins diligent work on building a last-ditch honest to goodness spaceship, training children in physics, astronomy, and highly technical and theoretical coursework, while attempting to scan the skies for likely candidates for Earth II. The Ark has a lot working against it – predictions of the exponential water rise say the project must launch by 2041, leaving the scientists and later military less than fifteen years to not only accomplish all this building, but also to create a superluminal warp drive (a way to travel faster than the speed of light, which actually has scientific merit by the use of a “warp bubble,” or Alcubierre Drive) in order to reach a suitable distant planet in the first place. From these technical limitations, Ark follows the actual launch of Ark One, and its journey through space, and all that which befalls the humans on board – encompassing political strong-arming, a revolution, and hopes crushed and reignited.

But beyond the science and technicalities – which are wonderful, informative, and completely believable – Ark is a story about characters. Holle, who has been in the candidate program for the Ark since her childhood, a girl who has studied astrophysics since the ripe age of twelve and military survival protocol at the same time, is our main protagonist. We know Holle intimately from her time as a child and young woman on Earth; her hopes to get on the Ark, her fears that she or some of her fellow candidates might not make it, and the pain of having to leave her father behind. We also see her grow as a character, from a young hopeful idealist to a tough woman who will do what is necessary to keep the people on Ark One, and thereby humanity’s chances for survival, alive. It’s also the story of Grace, who is put on the Ark due to Lily (protagonist of Flood)’s maneuvering and manipulation. Grace too grows from a shell of a woman who cares for nothing, to a loving mother and invaluable member of the Ark crew in their many cold years in transit. Nothing is simple or cookie-cutter here; there is love and friendship, but also bitterness, backstabbing, and passion, all in a roil of human emotion that is compelling and genuine. Stuck on a spaceship for decades, with children born in transit who have never seen Earth or the sunlight who are resentful of the elders’ uncompromising command, things aboard the Ark are messy and destructive. And when they finally reach their destination, other tough decisions must be made.

I loved this book. I loved this book. I’m not exactly sure how else to say it. From the compelling characters, to the science fiction elements, to the balance of hope and despair in equal measure, I loved Ark. I loved Holle and Grace’s narrative, just as I loved the detailed and genuine secondary characters both on the Ark and back on Earth, especially the character of Kelly (ruthless, ambitious leader of the ship), Venus (astronomer and theoretician), and the broken Zane. I loved the hard science aspect, with the development of the warp bubble, the day to day life on the ship, the observations of other star systems and viable candidates for a new home. I loved the writing, the blend of physics, hard science fiction, and compelling plot lines. I loved the emotional turmoil, the self-destructive nature of humanity, and the messiness of survival.

Simply put: I loved this book.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

Grace had spent most of her life on the road with Walker City, fifteen years walking with her home on her back, like a snail or a crab. The time before that, when she was younger than five years old and a pampered prisoner of her father’s family in Saudi, was a blur, unreal, as were the years she had most recently spent as another kind of prisoner on Nathan’s liner. Now here she was yet again passed from one stranger’s hands to another.

Only the walking was real, she sometimes thought. Past, future, the vast cataclysm humanity was suffering – none of it mattered if all you could actually do in the world was put one foot in front of another, day after day, kilometre after kilometre. She could just walk away now. Walk off with nothing but the clothes on her back, just as it had been with Walker City. But she had her baby growing inside her, a baby she hadn’t wanted by a ‘husband’ she loathed, but hers nonetheless. She didn’t want to manage the pregnancy on her own.

Gordo said, “They’re lifting.”

The wind from the rotors battered Grace’s face. Lily Brooke leaned out of the chopper and stared down at Grace. She mouthed what looked like, “Forgive me.” Then Thandie pulled her back into the machine, and the bird lifted smoothly.

“Are you OK?”

Grace was angry with herself for showing weakness, angry at Lily for her manipulation and abandonment. She snapped, “What do you think?”

Gordo shrugged. “They left you behind to give you a shot at getting into Ark One. A Chance of a better life than any of them face now, especillay if they’re right that their boat has been sunk.”

“I don’t even know what Ark One is.”

“You’ll find out.”

“I’ll never see any of them again.”

“I guess not.”

“Once again I’m alone, with strangers.”

He sighed, pushed back his peaked cap, and scratched his scalp. “So are we all. The whole world is screwed up, kid. At least here we got something to do.” He looked around. The last dust from the chopper was settling now, and the homeless were pushing back to recolonise the space they had cleared, like water pooling in a dip. In a few minutes there would be no sign that a chopper had landed here at all. “Well, that’s that. Come on, let’s get you out of here.” He released her arm and set off back through the town, towards the waiting cars.

She followed, having no choice.

Additional Thoughts: Stephen Baxter is the author of a number of science fiction novels, including The Time Ships, the Hugo Nominated sequel to H.G. Wells’ classic The Time Machine.

So far, I have bought this and Evolution, and plan on reading both very soon. Are there any other Stephen Baxter – or otherwise wonderful science fiction books – anyone would care to recommend?

Verdict: While Ark might not be the perfect book for everyone, it was the perfect book for me. I loved it from beginning to end, I couldn’t put it down, I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I finished it. With that said, I give it the highest rating possible – and my first and so far only “10 rating” for 2009. Bravo, Mr. Baxter. Bravo.

Rating: 10 – Perfection

Reading next: Triumff by Dan Abnett