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<![CDATA[Patrick added 'The Gathering Storm']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72166196
to: The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time, #12; A Memory of Light, #1)byRobert Jordan bookshelves: reviewed A Surprisingly Competent Addition To The WOT Sequence
As with most fans of Jordan, I was apprehensive to read this "re-telling" of one of the most wonderfully complex, intricately-imagined, deeply emotional works of fantasy I've ever come across in all my... quarter century years of reading. Minus the 5 years it took me to learn how to read. And the 2 years I stopped reading after they invented the Playstation.
It is definitely NOT Jordan (well, the parts that weren't specifically written by... which was a lot but eh), and if you've re-read the WOT as many times as I have, you'll just know that it isn't. But Sanderson has done a fantastic job of showing us a world created by someone else, through his own perspective. And an incredibly observant (thank god) perspective at that.
Once you get over the sucky fact that it isn't Jordan's distinct voice, trust me you'll become so engrossed in the experience of FINALLY learning what's happening next that you won't care. Well, maybe you'll care, but it won't bother you so much. And granted, it's not as detailed or as thoughtful as I wanted it to be, but think of Sanderson as someone who's been witnessing the WOT events from a purely external perspective (like us), who is suddenly thrown into the thick of it and asked to first learn and then explain all the psychological intricacies behind these world-changing events. He's still getting the hang of it in this novel, but man is he doing a brilliant job of it. Did I mention that I heart Brandon Sanderson? ;)
In any case, it's a great verisimilitudinous WOT novel; can't wait for the next installment. James Oliver Rigney - we are thinking of you.
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<![CDATA[Patrick added 'The Summer Queen']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78907310
to: The Summer Queen (Paperback)byJoan D. Vinge bookshelves: reviewed More Fantastic Scifi At Its Organic Best!
Okay, sounds like I'm talking about alfalfa... or bean sprouts. But I'm not!!!
The Summer Queen is Vinge's fabulous sequel to Snow Queen and continues the saga of Moon Dawntreader, sybil and newly-crowned Queen of Tiamat's Summer reign. Moon has taken up the task of encouraging technological progess independent of the Hegemony, now that the interstellar Black Gate has closed taking with it every bit of advanced tech Tiamat was able to acquire during its 150-year-long Winter. Unbeknownst to the Hegemony's manipulative government, Moon knows the true nature of sybils, as well as the secret of the mers purpose on Tiamat, a purpose that, should it be known, could change everything for her world and the advanced civilizations of the Hegemony. It could also spell destruction for all of them if the mers are hunted into extinction. Because the Hegemony is returning, long before Summer is due to end. It's a race against time to prepare Tiamat for that early return.
Even more intricate and complex than its predecessor, The Summer Queen is an exciting mystery, a heart-wrenching tragedy, and an uber satisfying adventure that nicely ties up all of the sparkly threads that Vinge has so skillfully spun.
I'm sad there isn't a sequel. :(
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<![CDATA[Patrick added 'The Snow Queen']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78905580
to: The Snow Queen (Paperback)byJoan D. Vinge bookshelves: reviewed Lovely, Organic, Classic
Snow Queen is a beautifully written and absolutely amazing piece of science fiction. I'm not a fan of "hardcore" scifi novels that read as though technical manuals had been taken and turned into stories. Yes, I enjoy descriptions of a story's technological aspects, but not to the point where it becomes the story, and the characters merely its automated operators.
Vinge has melded science fiction, drama, and poetry in a way that breathes life into the worlds she's created, filled with real people with real problems where technology is as organic as they are, and is both problem and solution in the grand biological scheme of things.
I love fairytale-inspired books, some of my absolute favorites are Deerskin and At Spindle's End by Robin McKinley, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. What these writers have done is taken the heart of some of the oldest tales and transplanted them into a whole 'nother body, one that moves and sounds familiar, but looks completely different (in a really crazysexycool way).
Into the Wild isn't a bad book, I just didn't find much to enjoy. First of all, I found Julie, the protagonist, daughter of the famous Rapunzel (or Zel, as she is known now in the "real" world) to be a clueless prat. She's a realistic character (we all know kids like her) but she's not the kind of kid I want to read about. She's not very bright, she's a bit of a whiner, and she doesn't really have any endearing qualities about her except... well, there are no exceptions, she really is a boring speck of a person.
Second, I did think the idea of "The Wild," the world of fairytales, having been defeated and resigned to the dust-bunnied dark under Julie's bed a bit interesting. But then mixing all of the different characters together, "freed" as they are from the Wild and living the lives they chose, didn't strike a realistic chord with me. They still, for the most part, remained the one-dimensional characters they are in their original stories (albeit with a few potentially interesting quirks and bits of backstory that could've made characters like Goldilocks, or the seven dwarves, really breathe, but ultimately didn't because that's all they are, quirks and bits and pieces). Not much is ever fully explained, and when things are, it's done so with all the excitement of a growing squash (unless you find squash amazingly interesting).
So definitely one that the kiddies might like, but not for me *shrugs*. Luckily it only took me about an hour and a half to read, so no big.
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<![CDATA[Patrick added 'Dreamfever']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77409899
to: Dreamfever (Fever, #4)byKaren Marie Moning bookshelves: reviewed A Painfully Protracted Chapter Of A Book
Sadly, it seems like publishers (and writers) are beginning to degenerate to the point where they are now publishing really long chapters as complete yet utterly unsatisfactory novels!!!
The only reason why I haven't kicked this "chapter" to the one-star curb is that I think Moning's Fae mythology is so interesting. It really is, and it's a shame, because that's pretty much all this series has going for it. The rest, like the inane, almost-too-sporadic-and-vague-to-be-followed first-person narrative, the ghost of a plot, and the horrible cliff-hanger endings (with, in this installment, what I now consider the worst cliff-hanger ending in the history of cliff-hanger endings) are all good reasons to have the entire series burned at the stake.
Nothing really happens except for our protagonist (who's not the literary world's brightest bulb in the box) participating in some vaguely-described sexual Olympics (which could've added some cheap enjoyment, had it been a teeny bit more detailed, so why even bother), running around aimlessly (similar to other books in the series, which only emphasizes its overall chapter-like progression), and then ending her report of events so abruptly, so horribly at the wrong moment, it made me glad that I hadn't bought the sucker, 'cause I'd've been forced to take out my ninja gear and.... well, it wouldn't have been pretty, nope nope nope.
The diabolicism, the sheer bollockry, the omg-lessness of it - an excruciatingly long chapter of a not very well-written book, presented as a complete novel - oh, the shame, the SHAME!!!
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<![CDATA[Patrick added 'The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76175148
to: The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness (The Black Jewels, #1-3)byAnne Bishop bookshelves: reviewed Sensual, Dark, Complexly Imaginative
It seems like people either absolutely love the Black Jewels books or they (if not hate them) are supremely unaffected by them. I'm one of the former. Generally, I find excessive eroticism and romance in fantasy or science fiction distracting from the main plot because, come on, be honest, sex, hormones, and emotions are always very distracting in any context. In the case of the Black Jewels, Anne Bishop has expertly woven the erotic with the unusual, the disturbing with the intriguing, and the unconventional with the original, creating a fascinating, complex story.
Gender roles have been flipped so that men are the weaker and more subservient (but willingly) gender (in terms of Power, which is indicated by the color of a person's Jewels, gems that give them access to the Darkness, a psychic soulscape from which spiritual and magical essences originate). Women serve as the conduits of the most volatile of the Darkness' energies, the lands (separated into three parallel Realms) ruled by females who are born genetic Queens of races gifted with the ability to wield the Craft. The races are referred to collectively as the Blood.
But as human fallibility leads to the corruption of even the most honorable of the Blood, the Darkness calls from the Blood itself a Queen, one whose arrival has been prophesied by those who weave dreams in tangled webs and blood, women of the Hourglass Coven, the Black Widows. Witch herself, embodiment of all the dreams of the Blood, human and non-human, whose Jewels are darker even than the rare Black, most powerful Jewels of all.
But what if Witch has already come, what if she is less than expected, but more, so much more than could have been imagined? What if Witch is still a child, who can't even perform the most basic Craft, but has the Power to bring kingdoms to their knees?
What if Witch can be killed before she becomes Queen?
Amazing world-building from the dark dreams of Anne Bishop, the Black Jewels is a fantastic, original tale of justice, family, and magic. Look beneath the skin...
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