Kathryn Troy's Blog, page 4

A Journey into the Spirit World as Told by an Observer, or, What Dreams May Come

I saw the film adaptation of Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come  years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But I didn't at all expect when I read the book to be met with something approximating a fictional version of all the research I had done on Spiritualist beliefs. I say approximate, because Matheson says in his preface that he believes these celestial spheres to exist just as the Spiritualists and Theosophists described them in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

I couldn't not see those similarities, and in that way this book lost a lot of the luster the film carried for me. Additionally, the plot and its pace were plodding - the scene of Chris dying and realizing that he's dead were as good as I expected them to be, but that's where the wonder ended. All of the plot points in the film that make the story so poignant - the premature death of his children and the connection to his living wife through her painting, are absent here. There's no mention of paintings whatsoever, and even the circles of hell that are described don't convey the same visceral reaction of the film's aesthetic. Without that sense of urgency in the plot, there's not a whole lot happening in this book, which just makes it a lot more like all those other Spiritualist books and pamphlets I've read, except not, because it's kind of parading as some weird blend of fiction and nonfiction. I just don't know what I was supposed to get out of this that I wouldn't have potentially gotten out of reading one of the sources he'd used during his research.

K. Rating: 1/5

Solid Sequel: The Great Hunt

I know I'm in it for the long haul with The Wheel of Time series, and there's a real risk with the length of each of these books to become bored if the story is drawn out and the pace drags.

Thankfully, none of that is true for the second installment, The Great Hunt . The book picks up relatively where the first book leaves off, with Rand Al'Thor continuing to refuse to acknowledge that he can channel the One Power, and is very clearly the Dragon Reborn. A male who can channel can also break the world, again, so it makes perfect sense that Rand is terrified of this and refuses to use the power even though its call to him gets stronger and stronger.

This book did not lack for urgency, as the magical Horn of Valere that will bring back the heroes of the ages to fight for whichever side blows the horn is stolen, along with the dagger from Shayol Ghul that Matt is tied to and will die without. So dragon or no, Rand has to help his friends with all their current perils while also trying to figure out who he is, what he wants, and how he can avoid being strung along by the secretive/manipulative Aes Sedai Moraine. Which is hard, since he doesn't know what she wants, or how far below the surface her actions and words go.

The introduction of more Aes Sedai, who all feel differently about the Dragon Reborn and what should be done about him, added another layer of conflict and interest, as did the addition of new and powerful Darkfriends. All in all, this was a very tense volume, right up until the dramatic battle in the sky at the end, which is going to make it next to impossible for Rand to continue to insist that he is not Lews Therin come back to battle Shai'tan. You'd think that the Dark One being inside Rand's head while he dreams would be enough to dispel his doubt, but Rand is stubborn - a fine quality in a hero.

K. Rating: 5/5

Compelling, Authentic Mystery: The Anatomist's Wife

The Anatomist's Wife , the start to the Lady Darby series, has been on my to-read list for a while. But other mysteries have gotten in the way, and she nearly got lost in the shuffle. I finally brought myself to read it, and I'm kicking myself for not having picked it up sooner.

In terms of setting, The Anatomist's Wife has everything I would ever want in a mystery. It's set in a castle in the Scottish highlands, and the Kiera Darby is the widow of one of the world's first . So of course she is reviled for having unnatural tendencies for being forced to assist her husband in his dissections by creating the illustrations for his medical book. This kind of history is right up my alley, so I really loved seeing this period and this particular moment in medical history and people's fascination with the unnatural and with body-snatchers in a really authentic way that was also organic to the plot. Because without Kiera's keen knowledge of the inner workings of the human body, the murder of Lady Godwin on her sister's estate might never have been solved.
Kiera herself is suspected of the murder by the castle's other guests because of their perception of her sadistic proclivities. So to clear her name she must work with Gage, a self-professed rake. I liked their interactions very much. They complemented each other well during the investigation, because Gage's charm was disarming to the potential suspects they interviewed, and Kiera's approach to attempting to be invisible, along with a sharp, unique mind, allowed her to see things others didn't, and ultimately led to the solution of the mystery. But she wouldn't have gotten that far without Gage at her side because of the limitations of her reputation. Although I did figure out the mystery before the end reveal, the investigation itself was deeply suspenseful, and even with a hint of the gothic. Who doesn't love that?
The romantic tension between them worked especially well too - it was all subtle and all about tension, rather than the release of that tension the way a historical romance would have. And given that they cross paths again in the series, this works out quite well.
All the characters are believable, but Kiera's sister is downright unlikeable, because she is so controlling, and you can see in the family dynamic how she steamrolls her sister, giving insight into why she has led such a passive, quiet life, up until her husband's infamy is revealed and her reputation is in tatters.
I put it off for much to long to begin with, but I know myself, and I know that the next Lady Darby book is going to find its way into my hands much quicker than the average series.
K. Rating: 5/5

Repetitive and a Little Dumb: Brazen and the Beast

Sarah Maclean's Wicked and the Wallflower was not as bad as one of her other books I've read, so in the interest of being open-minded I gave the second volume of her Bareknuckle Bastards series, Brazen and the Beast , a try.

I liked Whit fine as a male lead who grunts more than he speaks, unless it comes to the Amazon-inspired Hattie. Now she made no sense, because she was spinsterish and chatty, but also described as pleasingly large (not plump, large. And wide). I get being body positive, especially in romance, but being positive about it is in part due to positive language choices, and they just weren't here. They were god-awful. I can't tell if it's worse than the title, the cover, or the ridiculous names of the characters. It's a toss-up.

This was exacerbated by the fact that almost every interaction between Whit and Hattie was worded just like every other encounter. So if it was terrible once, imagine what it's like dozens of times to hear the same internal monologues over and over again. This story didn't really go anywhere in terms of building an emotional connection, and it was hard to see how two such people would have chemistry at all. Especially given that Hattie's characterization is rife with internal flaws.

On the bastard/criminal side of the plot, the book made even less sense, as people who have reputations for killers don't kill anybody. And the somebody that they should be killing is their arch-enemy who is threatening mortal harm. So, no. That makes no freakin sense. When you have your enemy at knifepoint, you knife them. End of story. But of course that's not what happens here, because the readers are expected to swallow this arch-enemy as the romantic lead in the third installment. The object of his love? The woman he tried to murder. Because I know that when I fall in love, it's always with someone who tried to kill me, and just didn't succeed. And this is female-forward! Riiiiiight.

So. Done. For Real. Deadso.
K. Rating: 1/5

Courtly, but Slightly Less Than Magical: Arthurian Romances

I've been dogging for a while to read good solid classic Arthurian fantasy. That seems hard to come by these days, as we continue to push fantasy forward in new and diverse directions. I'm all for that, but sometimes I need a little Lady of the Lake. So instead of going down the low-end fantasy rabbit hole, I decided to go to the source, and picked up the collection of Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes.

These are the tales of the well-renowned knights of Arthur's round table - Lancelot, Perceval, Yvain, Cligés, and Erec. Each story is brief, and packed both with thrilling battle sequences told in great detail, along with wardrobes described in great detail. The romance elements of these are primarily courtly, but extremely well executed to get an idea of the loftier aspects of love (and lust) in this period. The tales themselves have a hint of the gothic which is to come, in some interesting turn of events like long-lost siblings, intrigues that leave princesses locked away in towers or buried alive, and those things kept my interest. But what I came to this book for - the more mystical elements of Arthurian tales, was not something that Troyes focused on. Rather, it was taken for granted that some people were sired by magical personages or wore charmed/enchanted jewelry. I would have loved to see that treated with as much detail as had been given to the shape and quality of a halberd.

I'll keep reading the rest of the Arthurian canon at some point, but let's just say I'm still missing my Lady of the Lake.

K Rating: 4/5

Sordid, Not Supernatural: The Reaping

I've been really excited by the covers for Valancourt's paperbacks from hell series, inspired by the Grady Hendrix's book of the same name, but after picking up another one of those titles, this time, The Reaping , I have to say the text doesn't live up to the gorgeous outside.

The back cover promised a strange house with a strange request- a commission of a portrait from a little-known author being paid lots more than he should. The letdown for me, though, was that the painting had nothing to do with the plot at all. It was just a way to get Tom through the door. Tom is struggling with his love interest, and becomes entangled with the subject he's meant to paint (obviously), but the whole structure of the plot as genuinely weird (not scary) things happen to him read more like an episode script for Law and Order: SVU than a classic horror story. The things that happen are weird, yes, but not in the creepy sort of way that keeps you up at night. There's some supernatural/occultish stuff literally thrown in at the very end, but when that happens after hundreds of pages of Tom shrugging off strange and unsettling behaviors, the elements that help categorize this book as horror feel forced, rushed, and out of place. I sped-read the mundane bits that felt like melodrama to see what the ending held, and it just made no sense. No sense.

I was hoping for something a little bit more like A Cure for Wellness blended with "Pickman's Model," and maybe even "The Dreams in the Witch House," but what happened was very very far from that. I mean, c'mon. How do you have nuns on the cover and not utilize them to all their creepy gothic potential?

K Rating: 1/5

Grim Thriller: The Dry

Once again, I am pleasantly surprised by a highly-acclaimed book actually earning those kudos. This time, it's Jane Harper's The Dry . Detective Aaron Falk was such a well-developed, interesting character, and I read this book ravenously as I watched Falk investigate a very gruesome family murder in a town that he'd been run out of as a child, for an equally heinous crime.

The layers of small-town animosity, conspiracy, and secrecy were woven together so perfectly, that the plot was flawless, all the way to its conclusion. All of the characters were well-fleshed out, in the past and well as the present, and I cared equally about the death of Falk's childhood friend as I did about the family murder he is asked to look into. And that tragic scene is not something cozy and cerebral that you can tuck away as you try to figure out whodunnit - it is hauntingly real, and that's something you don't see every day. Harper's ability to disturb and to stick with me makes this book worthy of its praise.

All stories have settings, of course, but the backwoods Australian town struggling to survive in the wake of El Nino was very fresh, and very alive, and made the town feel like a veritable volcano ready to explode. Especially at the daring conclusion, which threatens utter destruction for everyone, it was intimately tied to both plot and place. Nice.

Anyone looking for a great crime thriller/mystery will not be disappointed by this title, and I am eager to read the next installment of Aaron Falk in Forces of Nature. Another series to latch onto- a fine day indeed!

K Rating: 5/5

Much Better, Much Darker, and then...Blazes!: Crown's Fate

I wasn't sure that I would want to continue reading Evelyn Skye's YA fantasy series Crown's Game , because the first title was so derivative, but her characters did stick with me, so I gave it a second shot.

Crown's Fate was a much better story. Much darker, much more violent and sinister, but not so dark that you can't see the hope and maturity emerging from Vika, the Imperial Enchanter for this make-believe Russia, and Pasha, the soon-to-be-crowned tsar. The stakes of the magical competition between Vika and Nikolai are higher than ever as he escapes the dream-realm with his evil monster of a mother's help, absorbing all her hatred and viciousness along the way. This causes Nikolai to do some pretty outrageous things out of anger and revenge, even as he struggles with his sense of betrayal and loss.

I liked that throughout the book, there seemed like there was nothing Nikolai wouldn't do to hurt the people who've hurt him, and that you (and Vika/Pasha) struggle to understand and gradually accept that the introverted Nikolai they knew is gone. Much of what he does put him beyond redemption, even despite Vika's strong magical connection to him, and the fact that he's not acting of his own free will.

All of this was fine, right up until the very end. Not to spoil anything, but with all these fatal stakes, there seems to be no reckoning for Nikolai's behavior. Instead of being torn to shreds to see what havoc he has wrought, he just says "Blazes...what have I done?" That's it. No real regret, anguish, or torment, and everyone's happy to forgive him in the end, just because? Sorry...no. I was on the hook right up until that moment, when this character who did still wish for these things, even under a stronger influence, is basically able to escape all responsibility for his actions. And given the setting, where the actions of tsars and princes affect the lives of thousands, it puts that bad taste for royalty in your mouth that has coated the tongues of millions across the globe and throughout the centuries. So the resolution didn't exactly endear me to anyone. Everyone, especially Nikolai, having to come to terms with the consequences of his actions, and the extreme conclusion of his emotions, would have been a fine setup for a third book, even if this one had ended on a grimmer note. That would have been infinitely better, and more in keeping with the tone of this volume.  And the waving away of the Russian people's fears and anxieties with a royal proclamation or two? No. We already saw that didn't work inside the plot, so why the hell should that work at the conclusion of the book, when things have gotten worse than they were before? Once again, just like in the first book, the proto-revolutionary body of Russians is given short shrift here, which is a shame. This story was ripe for a third book, but I guess we'll all have to settle for the neat-and-tidy-even-if-it-doesn't-make-sense happily ever after we've been given.

K. Rating: 3.5/5

Solid, yet Tropey: The Eye of the World

Maybe I'm late to the game for the Wheel of Time series (there are like a million installments, after all), but I couldn't help thinking while I read the first title, Eye of the World, that as much as I liked it, I wasn't surprised by it.

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The start of this truly epic fantasy series starts in a small farming village that is invaded by Trollocs, monsters who won't stop coming until they've captured the three young men of the  village their evil sorcerer/god master wants, because they can unlock the key to his destiny and taking over the world.

So to save their families, and the world, a band of untried young men set off into the world for their first taste of adventure, with a powerful Aes Sedai sorceress (whom they don't trust) to help them understand their own destinies. And each of the men will discover things about themselves that have been laying dormant for years, or even centuries.

All that sounds great. And it was. There was lots of adventure in this first title, and lots of genuinely interesting and different elements of magic that kept a sense of variety within the text. Some of the highlights were dream powers, animal bonding, and an accursed dagger. Jordan is also really good at describing different places and magical activities, so that I could very vividly imagine the story in my mind without having to fill in the gaps myself. This has not been true for a lot of recent books on my fantasy shelf, so that was refreshing. And I certainly did feel the scope of the evil the world is up against, and was intrigued by the revolving chronological cycle (the Wheel of Time, duh), that is set up to have recurring ages of myth and legend that may be so long past that they are forgotten. I love awakened heroes, maybe even more than I love enchanted forests. It's a tie. And I really liked seeing the interplay between fate and human agency, and how these men are "weaving a new pattern," so that you don't feel like you're plodding along toward some inevitable conclusion.

That being said, there was nothing truly unexpected in this book. No major plot twists or shockers, and nothing that I haven't seen before in the grand scheme of fantasy literature. But that could be a chicken and the egg conundrum; that Jordan has been so influential that I've unwittingly read many books inspired by him before reading the source of the inspirations. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but it did lack that sense of novelty, and of suspense. Part of this impression was compounded by some imbalances in pacing. Yes, it's an epic, and so we get every detail about every thing, but there were certain segments that did drag, because the description was a bit too precise and leaned toward long-winded. I shouldn't get bored when reading a chase scene because it takes to long to explain, you know? That's one of the things I wish all fantasy writers could work on doing to uplift the genre - better balance between immersive details and heft, and stuff that weighs down the pace of a story.

I will be back for more, and I'm excited to see this adapted for the screen, but: all the same, the nagging corner of my mind that says "I'm not all that impressed" is discreetly making itself known.

K. Rating: 4/5

Solid Second Installment: A Conspiracy in Belgravia

Despite shying away from the glut of Sherlock Holmes pastiches out there, I've grown attached to the Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas. The second book in the series, A Conspiracy in Belgravia , was a solid contribution. That's always a good thing for me, because far too often that sophomoric slump rears its ugly head-secondary books have to stand on their own two feet with compelling plots of their own, since the characters have been previously established.

This book did that, with a new (set) of cases and intrigues that focused not only on all the ways that Charlotte is a sleuth of impressive skill, but it also drew the narrative net tighter around the characters we already knew - Charlotte's sisters, the "fallen" women who take her in, and the wife of her childhood friend Lord Ingram - the one who "got away." In that way, we get to see a character that was greatly demonized in the first book for the cold relationship between her and her husband. The growth of this character dynamic between the married couple with Charlotte intimately involved is promised to continue in the third installment (I won't spoil it now, but I can't wait for that). Along with that you get a good dose of the sinister, suspicious, and criminal that you expect of any Holmes story, and that sits very close to home.

All in all, nothing incredibly new about this new mystery, but that clearly wasn't the point - it was more about looking at the characters that Sherry has built more closely, and that was an excellent choice. Full steam ahead.

K. Rating: 5/5