C.A. Gray's Blog, page 48
August 13, 2020
Review of The Magician’s Nephew
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I listened to the version that was read by Kenneth Branaugh… such a fantastic voice for this!
I’m listening with new ears now that I’m writing my own chapter readers for the same age group. Action-packed, whimsical, and while the characters are good for the age range, they’re not the central focus. This is the true origin story of Narnia, a retelling of Creation in Genesis–but not a perfect retelling. God is Aslan, the lion who later represents Jesus in the rest of the stories. I felt like I truly understood God as a kid when I read Aslan: C.S. Lewis managed to capture the character of Jesus from the gospels so, so well. Just incredibly beautiful and compelling. He sings creation into being, rather than speaking it, and then all creation as it is formed sings with him. The serpent is played by Jadis, who later becomes the White Witch in “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.” The two main characters, Diggory and Polly, bring her into Narnia right at its inception, because Diggory broke the spell that bound her in a dying world out of sheer curiosity and spite. There is an apple that serves as both good and evil (as in Genesis it’s called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil), and sort of a garden, but not exactly. There’s just enough that’s different that it doesn’t feel like a straight retelling.
It’s up there with my favorites in the series, might be my favorite! (Technically it was book 6 of 7 but it’s a prequel so I read it first this time around.)
My rating: *****
Language: none (though he says ‘dem’ in lieu of damn a number of times)
Sexual content: none
Violence: none
Political content: none (it’s a classic)
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August 7, 2020
Silverswift by Natalie Lloyd
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of Silverswift by Natalie Lloyd.
The post Silverswift by Natalie Lloyd appeared first on C.A. Gray.
August 6, 2020
Review of Agent 355
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A quick, interesting listen made far more compelling because it is (loosely) based upon a true story! I loved the author’s note at the end.
The story follows Elizabeth, loosely based on a possible candidate for the Revolutionary Wartime spy, Agent 355 named Betty. She is a well-to-do daughter of loyalist parents, but on accident she meets up with a rebel named Robert who recruits her into a spy ring designed to leak intelligence of the British plans to General Washington. The real Agent 355 was involved in leaking the identity of the turncoat, Benedict Arnold, before he could take Westpoint which might have had grave consequences for the Americans. It’s a short story, so the inevitable romance between Robert and Elizabeth gets sped up to the point of being cheesy–but it really did have to happen, since the real Robert ends up with a son of his namesake just as Agent 355 vanishes from history.
The story doesn’t end happy, but it’s realistic, and a solid assumption of what likely happened in real life.
My rating: ***1/2
Language: none
Violence: it’s pretty gruesome at the end but not in a gratuitous way
Sexual content: it’s on their wedding night and the story fades to black
Political content: none
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July 31, 2020
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Barry and Pearson
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of “Peter and the Secret of Rundoon,” by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The post Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Barry and Pearson appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of Silverswift
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A delightful middle grade fantasy! I was bound to love it because it’s about mermaids (that always gets me).
The main character, Eliza, is a pre-teen with a close relationship with her grandma, Nana Mora, who lives on a remote island, tells eccentric mermaid tales, and runs a little shop by the sea where she sells mermaid trinkets and maps to the Mermaid Cove, where supposedly the mermaids go to sing every Winter Solstice. Nana Mora invites Eliza to spend the Christmas break with her on the island. All Eliza’s life, she has told her stories of the mermaid called Silverswift, but she has never told her the ending before. Now, as her eyesight is dimming, she wants to go with Eliza to the Mermaid Cove this Winter Solstice so she can see it one last time, and so she can tell Eliza the end of the story. Eliza’s mother Jocelyn is the main antagonist–she is very practical, and fears that her mother is losing her reason and encouraging Eliza to believe in fairy tales. Eliza manages to convince her mother to let her come anyway though.
The story interweaves Eliza’s journey with Nana Mora, and a young man about her mother’s age named Ellis, and Mora’s tale of Silverswift, which we get to hear from the beginning. Silverswift was a mermaid princess. In this version, mermaids live hundreds of years, but they each get a “season” of one year during which they get a silver stripe in their hair to indicate that for that year, they can choose whether to go up to the land, or stay in the ocean. Once the window closes, they never again have the opportunity to have legs… but if they choose to stay on land, there they will remain. Silverswift deeply loves the ocean, and she’s the fiercest and most courageous of the mermaids… but she falls in love with a human.
You can probably guess where this is going, and why Nana Mora has told the story to Eliza all her life, but never told her the ending. I guessed it too, though there was a red herring in the story that led me to believe my initial guess was wrong for awhile. It wasn’t. The obvious device took me out of the story a bit, but it was still a heartwarming tale of love and redemption.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of Silverswift appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 24, 2020
The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar
Today’s podcast comes from this blog review on The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar.
The post The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of Peter and the Secret of Rundoon
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I still really enjoyed this tale, though it did feel a bit like more of the same… it’s starting to get hard to differentiate one book in this series from the next. This might have been because Lord Umbra was also the villain in this book, though he significantly upped the ante: this time his goal was literally to reverse the Big Bang, making it so that in the blink of an eye, the entire history of the universe would reverse, and the world never would have existed in the first place. That’s a pretty darn ambitious goal! I also enjoyed the fact that Captain Hook and the Starcatchers had to work together in this one, and back on Neverland, the rest of the pirates and the Mollusk warriors also joined forces against a much more fierce tribe of natives. Molly and Peter team up again, and the love triangle between Molly, Peter, and George resumes, though it’s clear now that Molly is growing older while Peter is staying the same age. Molly irritated me a little in the last book, but more in this one, when she stubbornly refused to listen to her father’s good counsel in order to perpetuate the plot. I don’t think I’ll be too sorry if we skip ahead in time in the next book and finally introduce Wendy, sure to be Molly’s and George’s daughter.
Still a fun story, though at this point I may or may not read on.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: none (fantasy only)
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
The post Review of Peter and the Secret of Rundoon appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 17, 2020
Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Ridley and Pearson
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review, Peter and the Shadow Thieves.
The post Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Ridley and Pearson appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of The Flight Girls
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This story follows Audrey, a female pilot during WWII whose job it was to test planes which would be given to the men fighting in the war. She’s a well-to-do Southern belle who nevertheless longs for adventure, and for rather flimsy reasons, has sworn off men. Of course this doesn’t last — in fact, a good chunk of the book is spent mooning after first Lt. James Hart, and then once he is apparently out of the picture, Carter enters to keep the romantic tension alive. Probably the first 2/3 of the book is really a romance that’s merely set in WWII. Audrey’s protests against love and insistence that James is just a friend when it’s absurdly obvious he’s more stretches belief. There are also episodes of adventure too, though: Audrey and James meet in Hawaii and are there at when the Pearl Harbor attacks occur. Audrey loses a number of friends to various flight accidents. And later, when James is missing in action, Audrey takes it upon herself to do everything in her power to find him.
The story is engaging, despite some weak character moments that seem to have been fabricated for the purpose of perpetuating the tension.
My rating: ****
Sexual content: one episode of premarital sex, but not gratuitous
Language: a small handful of swear words
Political content: it’s historical but I do detect a few minor political agendas. Nothing too in-your-face, at least I didn’t think so.
Violence: it’s war, so present but not gratuitous
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July 10, 2020
The Blight of Muirwood, Jeff Wheeler
This week’s podcast review is from this blog post, The Blight of Muirwood.
The post The Blight of Muirwood, Jeff Wheeler appeared first on C.A. Gray.
