Emilie and the Hollow World, Martha Wells

Vintage, £7.99

   It's been a really eventful few weeks. One bookselling job ended abruptly last week; another stretches out in front of me (after a couple of weeks off, yay!). I've had more time than usual to read, but circumstances have conspired to make me want to enjoy the comfort of some re-reading. I re-loved Jasper Fforde's 'One of Our Thursdays is Missing', and of course my ultimate comfort-reading - some Harry Potter. I got hold of a couple of Fred Vargas titles, and picked 'The Three Evangelists' to read first. I've unfortunately since discovered that this title is the first in another series of novels the French author has written around the main characters of the titular 'evangelists' - Matthieu, Marc, and Lucien - as opposed to one featuring her most famous character - Parisian detective Commissaire Adamsberg. I enjoyed it despite its Adamsberglessness, and luckily didn't find it as disturbing as I often find her novels (they usually disturb me because the slightest hint of menace or freakishness in her clear prose cuts straight to the most terrified part of my cautious soul).

   My main read during this past week has been another advance copy I received from the

Strange Chemistry, £7.99

generous folk at Strange Chemistry - 'Emilie and the Hollow World' by Martha Wells, released on Tuesday April 2nd. Look how pretty the cover is!

   Emilie is a smart, brave teenage girl with ambitions beyond the small provincial town in which she has been brought up by relations after her mother ran away The story opens as Emilie attempts to stow away on a ship on its way to the city, where she hopes to attend school. Her plan quickly goes awry, and Emilie ends up on a mysterious round vessel called The Sovereign, where she gets caught up in the adventure of a lifetime. You can read Chapter One on the author's website here. 

   Emilie could have been a very clichéd 'plucky teenage girl' character, but Wells deftly avoids that pitfall and has created a really likeable girl - inexperienced, but brave, intelligent, and resourceful. Her relationships with a female mentor and new friends of various species in the course of her adventures are believable and affecting. I'd certainly recommend this one. It's a fantastical adventure in the spirit of Verne and (my favourite) Stephen Hunt, author of 'The Court of the Air' and 'The Kingdom Beyond the Waves' (while perhaps not rising to the heights of that modern-day master). If you enjoy this one, you should definitely try Hunt next. 

HarperCollins, £12.99

    Another book I'd been eagerly anticipating and finally read recently is 'The Daylight War', the third book in Peter V. Brett's acclaimed Demon Cycle series. For some reason, I had the impression (I think from early publicity around the preceding books) that this book was to be the conclusion of a trilogy. As I read, I was confused as to the lack of resolution and the pace, which didn't seem to suit a dramatic finale of epic proportions. Of course, when I reached the end of the book, I realised that this was in fact not a conclusion at all. It made for a strange reading experience, and I've resolved to do more research in future before diving into any book. Given that there shouldn't have been any change in pace or any appearance of full resolution, 'The Daylight War' was an entirely satisfying read. While I feel that neither this book nor 'The Desert Spear' (book 2) reached the potential hinted at in 'The Painted Man', the amazing first instalment of the Demon Cycle, it once again delves deeply into the backstory of one of the most intriguing characters of the series, as well as bringing the story to new and exciting places with information on the corelings 'hive' at the Core. If you haven't already read one or all of these books... I just don't know what kind of rock you must have been hiding under for the last few years, but it's time to come out now!

   The next few reads I have lined up are 'The Lives of Tao' by Wesley Chu (released May 2nd by Angry Robot), 'Reviver' by Seth Patrick (released June 20th by Pan MacMillan), and 'The Dragons of Ordinary Farm' by Tad Williams and Deborah Beale (one from my 'Books About Dragons' list!). 

Deathless

Constable & Robinson, £14.99

   When 'Deathless' arrived into the shop in November, I bought it immediately. It's one book that I may well have bought purely for it's attractiveness, but as it happens I'd read Valente's 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making' - one of the best books I read last year (you can read my review here). I read 'Deathless' over the last few weeks, and can now officially announce that Catherynne M. Valente is my new favourite author. 

   This novel is a retelling of the classic Russian myth of Marya Morevna, Ivan Tsarevitch, and Koschei the Deathless, which I admit to only having read after finishing this book. Even without being familiar with the main characters of the myth, enough familiar characters, settings, and tropes appear in the novel that it seems like a more universal myth, albeit with a strongly Eastern European feel. 

   'Deathless' opens with the story of Marya Morevna, a young girl growing up in the earliest years of the 20th century in St. Petersburg (Leningrad, as Marya keeps forgetting to call it). She sits in her window sewing, observing the street outside. When she is six, she witnesses an extraordinary event: she sees a rook fall from a tree onto the pavement - when he gets up again he is a handsome young man in a black uniform. He knocks on the door of Marya's house, and announces that he has come for the girl in the window. Marya's mother presents Marya's eldest sister, and the bird-man agrees to marry her, having realised that Marya is not meant for him. Three times this happens - when Marya is nine her next sister marries a plover, and when she is twelve her third sister marries a shrike. So Marya continues to sit at the window, and while she sews she daydreams of the bird who will fall to the pavement and come to take her away to be his wife. 

'Kashchey the Immortal' by Viktor Vasnetsov

   In the long space of time that elapses, Marya meets the domovoi, spirits of the house. Marya has been brought to report her finding that the house has grown larger and to find out whether the house will impede on the neighbouring ones -
   '"Child", said Comrade Zvonok in a patient tone, "we are not architects. We are imps. We are goblins. If we could not make a little room on the inside without budging the outside, we would not be worth our tails. After all, we have been making our little homes in the walls for centuries."'

Fan art by fuckyeahdeathless on Tumblr

   One day when Marya's eyes are closed, an owl falls to the pavement, springs back up as a darkly handsome young man, and comes to the door to announce himself as Koschei Bessmertny. Marya packs her bag and leaves with him without a backwards glance. In the car, Koschei kisses her:
   "Koschei turned, gripped Marya’s chin, and kissed her—not on the cheek, not chastely or unchastely, but greedily, with his whole, hard mouth, cold, biting, knowing. He ate up her breath in the kiss. Marya felt he would swallow her whole.”
   As the story goes on, many mythical characters appear - firebirds, a leshy, wizards, and the inimitable Baba Yaga, her house on chicken legs transformed into a car with chicken legs for her entrance. She and Marya clash - 
   '"Comrade Yaga - "
   Baba Yaga whirled on her, the tails of her fur coat whipping around. "Don't you call me comrade, little girl. We aren't equals and we aren't friends. Chairman Yaga. That comrade nonsense is just a hook by which the low pull down the high. And then what do you get? Everyone rolling around in the same shit, like pigs." 

Ivan Bilibin illustration, 1900

   The characters feast on caviar and vodka, beets, pirozhki, and black tea. Marya goes to war on her consort's behalf - Koschei is Tsar of Life and is locked in permanent war with his brother Viy, the Tsar of Death. Marya is told that this "war is always going badly". The relationship between Marya and her kidnapper/lover/tsar Koschei is an extremely complex one, full of strange savage passion and deep feeling:
   "I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Marya Morevna; I have looked for your face in the patterns of the ice. In the dark, I have pored over the loss of you like pale gold.” 
   This is a miracle of a novel - universal myths of love, war, and death told in prose that is sharp, clear, and as burning cold as the Russia it describes. Valente's writing will give you goosebumps. 

Tiny People

The Borrowers: illustration by Beth and Joe Krush

   My current preoccupation is with books about tiny people. I'm remembering books I have read in the past, researching which books I should read next, and fantasising about being tiny myself. Depending on just how tiny I was, I think I'd like to live under the floorboards of a nice house - much as the Borrowers did. We were having this conversation in work at the weekend, and a colleague said that she'd like to live in a doll's house, especially since so much lovely doll's house furniture is available these days. For myself, I have always found most of the attraction of the Tiny People story to be in the use of 'borrowed' objects as household items - note the clothes pins being used as clothes line in the illustration from 'The Borrowers' by Mary Norton. In 'The Rescuers' by Margery Sharp, I seem to remember Bernard using an old matchbox as his bed - and very cosy it looked, too!

Brambly Hedge: illustration by Jill Barklem

    Roald Dahl's 'The Minpins' is another classic, and I particularly loved the idea of tiny people inhabiting a tree as a town. Jill Barklem used this idea in her lovely Brambly Hedge series, in which a colony of mice live inside various hedgerow trees. When I used to read these to my young sister, I enjoyed them as much as she did, and especially the beautiful cutaway illustrations showing the tree dwellings of the rustic mice. One of the books that has emerged as the frontrunner of my To Be Read in the 'Books About Tiny People' category is Timothee de Fombelle's 'Toby Alone'. This shares the tree setting of 'The Minpins', promising an ecological allegory as well as a coming-of-age adventure for the young hero.  
   In the course of my research, I've also discovered that the current deplorable fact that I've never read Terry Pratchett will have to be remedied in the course of my catch-up of books about Tiny People. His first ever book, 'The Carpet People', tells the story of the Munrungs, tiny people living deep inside a carpet. The Bromeliad trilogy ('Truckers', 'Diggers', and 'Wings') tells the story of the Nomes, a race of - you guessed it - tiny people. These ones are from another world and now live hidden among humans. 
   For my birthday, could you please get me a Time-Turner so that I have a few more hours to read all of these?

The Holders

  '17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother – from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland’s “problem” and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.

   She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid’s is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together information about their family’s heritage and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they’ve been waiting for—but, they are all, especially Becca, in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.'

Strange Chemistry, £7.99

  Julianna Scott's Young Adult debut, 'The Holders', will be released on the 7th of March from Strange Chemistry, Angry Robot's Young Adult imprint. Amanda in Strange Chemistry very nicely sent me an ARC a few weeks ago when I expressed interest in the Irish setting!
   Ryland Ingle is a boy who hears voices in his head, which turn out to be the thoughts of people around him. His sister Becca has spent her life protecting him, so is understandably annoyed when she arrives home from work one evening to find that their mother is entertaining two guests who claim to have the solution to Ryland's problem. They tell the family that Ryland is not mad, that he has a special ability, and that they would like to bring him to their specialist school to train him in using his ability. Sound slightly familiar? The bad guy in all of this is a former associate of the school, a man also possessed of amazing abilities, whose aim is to subjugate the portion of humanity who do not have these powers. Not familiar yet? The masters of the school suspect that this bad guy needs Ryland's power in order to fulfill his mission of domination, and believe that he is in immediate danger of being kidnapped. It seems a pity that such an obviously talented writer hasn't noticed how similar the plot of this novel is to a certain hugely-successful movie franchise.  
   The Holders, of whom Ryland is one, are an ancient group of Irish people with amazing abilities, which is why their school is in Ireland and why Ryland and Becca move there. The whole novel is infused with elements of the Irish language, Irish mythology, and the Irish countryside. Since it's such a huge element of the novel, I was disappointed that a little more time had not been put into ensuring that these were correct. The location of St. Brigid's Academy is given as 'Clare County, Ireland', which should have been 'County Clare, Ireland' - a tiny difference which perhaps betrays the decisions made to be appealing to American or Australian audiences rather than to be accurate. Most of the words and phrases translated into Irish are incorrect to some extent, which is unfortunate as I don't think it would have taken too much time to have an Irish speaker proof-read the dozen or so words and phrases.
   'Dubh Inteachán' (dubh = black, inteachán = iris) is given as the Irish for the Black Iris, a powerful artefact at the school. This breaks one of the first rules of Irish syntax - that an adjective is placed after the noun it describes (Inteachán Dhubh would have been correct).
   The baffling sentences 'Is breá liom tú ró, mo lómhara. Tá tú gach rud a dom.' appear three quarters of the way through the book, and they're a bit of a mess. Let's break them down:

Is breá liom = I love (but is used to describe strong feelings for a movie or foodstuff, definitely not correct for telling someone you love them!). The correct word for describing romantic love is grá, so the phrase should be 'Is grá liom'.
tú = you
ró = too (but means 'in excess' rather than 'also': ró-tabhachtach means too important). The correct way to say 'also' would be 'chomh maith' (directly translates as 'as well').
mo lómhara = my precious (hilarious, but not incorrect)
Tá tú = You are (not incorrect, but 'Is tusa' would be nicer)
gach rud = everything
a dom = this is intended to mean 'to me', but 'dom' is a prepositional pronoun which by itself means 'to me'.

   The corrected version would look more like this: 'Is grá liom thú chomh maith, mo lómhara. Is tusa gach rud domsa.'

   *Rant over*

   Plot aside, or if you happen not to have seen the movie 'X-Men', this is a well-written Young Adult novel. Scott introduces a believable new teen voice in the main character, Becca, and a host of interesting peripheral characters, ideas, and settings. I loved Min, a rare female Holder who teaches at St. Brigid's Academy, and Becca's love interest, Alex, manages to be sexy while avoiding any 'bad boy' clichés with his squeaky-cleanness. It's a fresh new voice and, at the end of the day, that's always a good thing.

   

Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99

   I've half-read a lot of good books this week. I've still got 'The Shadow Rising' by Robert Jordan, part of my on-hiatus epic re-read of the Wheel of Time, on my To Be Read pile. I've added to my half-read burden now with Catherynne M. Valente's 'Deathless' and Justin Cronin's 'The Twelve', and I last night started what is possible the most perfect book in the world for me at the moment - 'The Wisdom of the Shire' by Noble Smith. It's a hobbit-style self-help book, featuring chapters with titles like 'How Snug is Your Hobbit-hole?', 'Sleep Like a Hobbit', 'Eat Like a Brandybuck, Drink Like a Took', and 'The Lore of the Ents'. It's funny as well as touching - in an early footnote, the author notes that 'after losing the One Ring, Sauron could only appear as a lidless eye ringed in fire. The disembodied Dark Lord of Mordor was incapable, therefore, of enjoying strawberries and cream.'
   On that note, farewell!  

Dragons

Tor US, $25.99

   Yesterday I read Marie Brennan's 'A Natural History of Dragons', which is released on Tuesday. As you can see, it's a beautiful volume, or is it just me who's obsessed with dragons? The cover illustration, and those throughout, are by Todd Lockwood.
   While I really enjoyed the premise of the story (intellectually-curious girl in Victorian-type society pursues her dream of studying dragons), the book did not live up to my expectations. The story of Isabella's travels concerned local people, customs, and politics far more than the dragons she had travelled to study. There were, however, some tantalising hints at the climax of avenues for possible further writing - and I see some suggestions online that there may be a sequel(s). It's not one I'd particularly recommend - only for either the dragon-story-completists or those with only a peripheral interest in dragons and an interest in feminism in fantasy. It's well-written in a Victorian style, and let down solely by the weak plot.

Penguin, £6.99

Temeraire cover art, Todd Lockwood

   'A Natural History of Dragons' did have the one benefit of making me think more about the dragons I have loved in books - and there are many of those! My favourite dragon concept is probably that used by Ursula Le Guin in the classic Earthsea cycle. Here dragons are huge, powerful, wise, ancient, and cunning - making it all the more tragic when some have their minds destroyed, turning them into nothing more than huge flying animals. Naomi Novik's concept in the Temeraire series is somewhat more light-hearted. The dragon Temeraire himself is curious, intelligent, loyal, and brave, and the characters of the other dragons are as varied as the personalities of their commanders and riders. 

A-Through-L, by Ana Juan

   Honourable mentions go to the merciless Smaug in 'The Hobbit', Catherynne Valente's beautiful dragon/library cross named A-Through-L in 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making', the last remaining examples of their species in Robin Hobb's new series the Rain Wild Chronicles, the transmogrified Eustace in C.S. Lewis' 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader', and the still-mysterious young dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. 

Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99

   My reading this morning on a very pleasant day off was 'Bookplate Special' the third in the Booktown Mysteries series by Lorna Barrett from Berkley Prime Crime.  For those of you outside the US who are unfamiliar with Berkley Prime Crime, they are a publisher specialising in niche crime mysteries such as the Tea Shop Mysteries, the Embroidery Mysteries, the Pet Rescue Mysteries, and lots more, as well as more contemporary titles from authors such as P.J. Tracy and Walter Mosley. I have read that the niche mysteries fitting into Berkley's 'Cosy Mysteries' genre are its most popular, and these are exactly the ones I'm reading at the moment. They're fantastically fun in their light approach to a murder mystery - the perfect solution for a squeamish soul like myself. 
   My next reads will by John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' for my bookclub, 'Out of the Easy' by Ruta Sepetys, and as a treat, possibly the next in the Booktown series - 'Chapter and Hearse' and 'Sentenced to Death'.

  

The Explorer and Between Two Thorns

HarperVoyager, £12.99

  Last October, I received an advance copy of James Smythe's 'The Explorer' from the very kind people at Harper Voyager. In what can only be explained as a relapse into a depressed sort of inactivity, I have only just managed to read it. It's not a huge book. It's not dense prose. I had only just finished Smythe's previous book 'The Testimony', so I had a very good idea of the style of the book before me, and I remained frozen. Well, it's now the New Year: the book is in the shops and resolutions have kicked in - I read it last week.
   It's a thrilling and unsettling read. Cormac Easton is a journalist who has been chosen to accompany a remarkable new expedition into space. As a precursor to a manned mission to Mars, the purpose of this expedition is simply to see how far into space it is possible for the current technology to get, and come back with lots of new data. In order to get as far into space as possible, new propulsion systems have been introduced to make the initial take-off many times faster and more powerful than any previous launch. The only way for the human body to withstand the pressure this creates is to place all of the crew into hypersleep for the launch. The first problems of the trip arise when the First Pilot fails to awaken from his hypersleep - he is dead, and has been for many days by the time the crew wake to find him. After that, and all in the first chapter, the rest of the crew follows 'one by one, falling off like there was a checklist', until only Cormac remains alive. What follows is a claustrophobic and suspenseful psychological portrait of a man driven to desperation by a terrifying sequence of events. The sparse prose perfectly suits the location, and the first-person narration (meaning that we only know as much as the main character - not very much) really contributed to the pervading sense of imminent doom and/or madness. 

HarperCollins, £7.99

   While I'm here, it's worth also recommending Smythe's first book 'The Testimony'. I read this in one sitting one surreal night last summer, feeling as if I was reading a news story instead of a novel. It seems to be due out in paperback this month. It has an fantastic concept - here's the blurb: 
   
   "What would you do if the world was brought to a standstill? If you heard deafening static followed by the words 'MY CHILDREN, DO NOT BE AFRAID'?
   Would you declare it an act of terrorism? Turn to God? Subscribe to the conspiracy theories? Or put your faith in science and a rational explanation?
   The lives of all twenty-six people in this account are affected by the message. Most because they heard it. Some because they didn't."
   

Angry Robot, £8.99

   My next read this week was Emma Newman's forthcoming 'Between Two Thorns', due in March from Angry Robot. The novel is set in a world where humans (mundanes) live unaware of a connected mirror world (the Nether), inhabited by immortals with the patronage of various Fae Lords, who live in Exilium. Catherine Papaver is a rebellious immortal who has run away from her life of privilege in the Nether to live as a student in Mundanus. The novel begins as she is tracked down by Lord Poppy, the patron of her family, and ordered to return to her life in the Nether to marry. However, she returns in time for some unexpected disruptions to the society calendar, and soon she is working alongside a sorcerer and an Arbiter to find her uncle, the Master of Ceremonies of Aquae Sulis, the mirror city of Bath where the story is set. 
   I was briefly unconvinced by the story at the very start as it seemed too similar to other stories I had read recently, but I was very quickly captivated by the brilliant characters and fast pace of the story. Cathy is a fantastic character to read as she contemplates her forced return from the freedom of Mundanus to the repressively old-fashioned society of the Nether. There were lots of really enjoyable touches (the Arbiter has a gargoyle containing his dislocated soul for a sidekick, Fae Lords are attended by tiny faeries with dragonfly wings, the impossibly long-limbed brothers Thorn) and I particularly loved the mysterious Shopkeeper, with his shop full of artefacts and charms - no two alike and not displayed in any obvious order. It's the first book in a planned series 'The Split Worlds', and my only (small) complaint about this one is about its ending, which I felt was not quite satisfying enough for a stand-alone novel. Luckily, the two sequels both have planned releases for this year, so it won't matter for long!
   I'm off now to read 'A Natural History of Dragons' (yay, dragons!) by Marie Brennan, and 'Bookplate Special' (Booktown Mysteries #3) by Lorna Barrett. I shall report back!

Holiday Reading

   The Christmas period is so busy for us booksellers that I've had little chance lately to dip into my very-enticing To Be Read pile. Thank goodness, then, for a few days off and less frantic working days. In the last two weeks, I've caught up on my list to the extent of getting five of the must-review titles read. 

Angry Robot, £7.99

   My first read was Cassandra Clarke's forthcoming novel from Angry Robot: 'The Mad Scientist's Daughter'. It's due out for the UK market on February 7th, and I have to say it's probably one I'll be buying to keep and re-read. When Cat is five, her father brings home a surprise for her - a tutor named Finn. She is mystified by his strangeness, and thinks he must be a ghost, but she soon discovers that he is even stranger than that - he is a robot. A billion-dollar perfectly humanoid experimental robot, assisting her father in his laboratory and teaching Cat.  It reminded me a lot of Asimov's 'The Bicentennial Man', a major theme being the politics surrounding a robot which so closely resembles a human being. 'The Mad Scientist's Daughter', however, is a resolutely human story - the story of Cat's life and her relationship with Finn over the next twenty-odd years. It's wonderfully moving, and I'll be thoroughly recommending this one to both science fiction and drama/romance fans. 

Angry Robot, £7.99

Angry Robot, £7.99

   Next up were the first two parts of Anne Lyle's Night's Masque trilogy - 'The Alchemist of Souls' and 'The Merchant of Dreams', both from my favourite: Angry Robot. The trilogy follows the escapades of Maliverny Catlyn, a young ex-soldier recruited by Francis Walsingham ('spymaster' for the Queen) as bodyguard to the new envoy to Queen Elizabeth's court from the newly-discovered Skrayling civilisation of the New World. It's a heady world of politics, intrigue, and xenophobia, and Lyle makes creating a vivid and grimy Elizabethan background look easy. It's a fascinating period in itself, and a great setting for the introduction of the Skrayling species (I possibly have forgotten any more explicit descriptions, but I get a somewhat reptilian impression of them). Catlyn is joined by Coby, a young woman working for a theatre company by disguising herself as a boy, who becomes his valet. In the second outing, their investigation of Skrayling issues takes them to Venice, develops Coby's character hugely, and introduces us to lots of new elements of Skrayling culture. Overall, it's a fun series, and I love any book that can combine my loves of both historical and fantasy fiction. 

Available from the US

Bloomsbury, £6.99

  I read two children's books this month - Philip Reeve's 'Mothstorm' and Lisa Graff's 'A Tangle of Knots'. 'Mothstorm' is the conclusion of a terrifically-fun trilogy of space adventures (the first two were 'Larklight' and 'Starcross') aimed at a 10+ agegroup. (It's the first time I've committed to an age rating here, and it's a half-hearted attempt. There's nothing unsuitable for any age in here, so if they can read most of the words, give it to them!) It's a steampunk space adventure featuring a plucky boy, his goody-goody sister, a multi-species space pirate crew, and a marauding horde of aliens on giant moths. Future classics. 'A Tangle of Knots' is more average fare - a nicely-whimsical story involving a large cast of characters in a world where everyone has a particular Talent, be it running backwards, blowing bubbles, knitting, spitting, or baking anyone's perfect cake. It's a nice read for a similar 9/10+ agegroup.

   Anyway, in between more serious assignments I'm really enjoying re-reading Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series, but unfortunately I started my re-read too late and I'm not going to meet my goal of having the entire series finished before Tuesday, when the final book 'A Memory of Light' will arrive. I'll have to read it to avoid spoilers, and then read it again when I've finished the rest of the series. I'm also FINALLY getting around to reading Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' for book club, and so far I'm enjoying everything except the sheer size. Over the Christmas holidays I started Sally Vickers' latest, 'The Cleaner of Chartres', which I was quite enjoying but which has been put aside in favour of more urgent projects for the moment!