C.A. Gray's Blog, page 50
April 20, 2020
Review of Lovely War
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What an incredibly creative way to tell a story!
A frame story pitches the Greek gods, particularly Aphrodite and Ares, against Aphrodite’s jealous husband Haephestus, who has caught the two in a tryst. He tells Aphrodite that he intends to put her on trial for her adultery, but is stymied when she admits plainly and with no shame that yes, she was having an affair. But then the conversation devolves into a discussion of the value of her of “work”. Aphrodite herself takes the stand, and to defend herself, tells a story of two couples.
The couples meet and fall in love during WWI. At first, James and Hazel’s story was so stilted and predictable that I almost gave up, but I’m so glad I didn’t! That was just the setup. Later, Hazel meets Collette, a Belgian girl who lost everything when the Germans invaded her town and killed her sweetheart. She later meets Aubrey, an African American soldier with a tremendous talent for jazz, and finds a second chance at love. But the couples are each plagued by various trials. As a black man in the war, racism plagues Aubrey, especially for his relationship with a white woman. When another soldier in his regiment is killed in his place by a white American soldier, Aubrey is forced to vanish into the night–leaving an already traumatized Collette to presume him dead. Meanwhile, war injuries nearly tear James and Hazel apart, several times: first his, then hers.
Throughout the story, Aphrodite calls other “witnesses” to tell their portions of the story: Apollo, the god of art and music, as Hazel is a pianist, Aubrey is a jazz musician, and Collette turns out to be a singer. (We get to hear strains of music in the audio version, which is a great touch!) Ares, of course, when war tears them all apart. Hades when various characters die and reach the Underworld. Several times I feared I might not get my happily-ever-after, but I did: not only for the two couples, but even for the frame story too! Very clever and well done.
My rating: ****1/2
Sexual content: none
Language: none
Violence: present but as mild as can be expected in a story that partially takes place in the WWI trenches
Political content: historical only
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April 17, 2020
The King’s Traitor, by Jeff Wheeler
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog review of The King’s Traitor.
The post The King’s Traitor, by Jeff Wheeler appeared first on C.A. Gray.
April 13, 2020
Review of The King’s Traitor (Kingfountain Book 3)
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Every installment of this series just keeps getting better and better!
I was pretty distraught at the end of the second one, when (spoiler alert) Evie marries Iago and leaves Owen desolate. I admired them both for their determination to remain loyal to King Severn, but the king’s orders made no sense to me, and he was also becoming a tyrant. Eventually Owen gets fed up with this too, hence the title of Book 3 here.
The story opens with Owen still heartbroken over Evie, though she has clearly moved on, loves her new husband, and has two children with him. So, there went the idea of any sort of reconciliation between them. But I also no longer wanted there to be a reconciliation, because Evie was so cold in her choice to obey Severn and so harsh toward Owen in telling him that it was her choice to marry Iago instead of him. One who so easily changes allegiance is hardly worth having, or at least that’s how I felt.
Meanwhile, in his bitterness, Owen sees himself becoming more and more like the twisted Severn. Little by little, disappointment by disappointment, Severn had become that monster after all, and Owen fears that the same fate also awaits him. The theme of types and shadows repeating themselves throughout the ages echoes throughout the story, and it was one of my favorite parts: it made this feel so much bigger than just a story about these particular characters in this particular time. At Severn’s bidding, Owen goes to propose marriage to Sinia, the Duchess of Brythonica, never expecting her to accept: in fact, the whole point was to insult her to the point of provoking her to war. But she turns out to be nothing like Owen expects. She is so good, so wise, so powerful in Fountain magic, that she ends up winning him over. But not before he has the chance to betray her in the most intimate way–following the pattern of a story that has played out many times in history.
This sounds like the story is mostly about romantic dynamics, but it definitely isn’t. There is so much going on–so many Arthurian allusions, so many intricacies. I guessed a couple of the biggest plot points, but none of the details of how they would come to pass. And I love that Wheeler has set up the next book to follow King Drew, who is essentially the Arthur character. In the epilogue, King Drew, with Owen’s help, frees the Merlin character from his imprisonment. Can’t wait to see how this plays out!
My rating: *****
Language: none
Violence: fantasy only
Sexual content: none (despite many opportunities for it–I’m convinced the author omits it deliberately, and I like him all the more for it!)
Political content: none; in fact there are explicit positive values espoused, especially forgiveness of one’s enemies. Very family friendly
The post Review of The King’s Traitor (Kingfountain Book 3) appeared first on C.A. Gray.
April 10, 2020
Review of Second Star
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This was an enjoyable and creative retelling of Peter Pan! It reminded me a bit of Cinder, in that it was a sci fi version of the well-known classic. Peter is a mechanic on a space ship called the Jolly Roger, captained by James Hooke. The “Lost Boys” are kids who became his indentured servants. Tinc is a nanobot Peter programmed himself. Wendy, meanwhile, is a captain in a fleet sent to rescue the vanished Jolly Roger and Captain Hooke, and her “brothers” are two of her fellow crew members and best friends, Johns and Michaels. This by itself was so clever that I was quickly hooked.
A few things I’d have changed, though: there was a lot of exposition. Peter and Wendy (and their respective crews) don’t even meet until about halfway through the book, and the stories lagged a bit until then. When they do finally meet, at first the chemistry between them is amazing, but it quickly became too much. I could have done without about 2/3 of the blushing and heart skipping and longing gazes. I did like the fact that it was mutual, though: in the original Peter Pan, Wendy fell for him (though they were both clearly kids) and Peter seemed to feel the same but he was unaware of his own feelings. Then, toward the very end, there’s a curveball love triangle all of a sudden that wasn’t set up at ALL and seemed very out of character.
Those complaints could have been fixed with one more pass of editing, really. They took me out of the story a bit, but did not keep me from enjoying it overall. I’d definitely recommend!
My rating: ****
Violence: none
Language: none (Peter says “shyte,” which I find endearing).
Sexual content: none (unless you count one sappy make-out scene)
Political content: none
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Second Star, J.M. Sullivan
This week’s podcast comes from this review of Second Star.
The post Second Star, J.M. Sullivan appeared first on C.A. Gray.
April 3, 2020
The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien
Today’s review comes from this blog review, The Fellowship of the Ring.
The post The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
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Review of The Fellowship of the Ring:
Of course this is one of the all-time classics, and one of my favorite movies. Yet this is only the second time I’ve read (this time listened to) the book. I remember why: The Lord of the Rings are more atmospheric than anything else, I feel like. The stories are long, much longer than they need to be, and filled with lots of redundancies or unnecessary additions. I could certainly do without all the songs, and there’s so much encountering and running away from various types of danger that I could (and did) tune out a number of times and then tune back in without missing anything. I don’t typically read high fantasy set in alternate worlds for exactly that reason: I find the genre overall to be all atmosphere with very little characterization. But I love the atmosphere conjured by the Lord of the Rings so very much. It feels so much like something from my childhood, even though I read it for the first time as an adult. I think some of that is because I did read the Chronicles of Narnia as a child, and I can see how much either C.S. Lewis influenced Tolkien, or vice versa. I can just picture the two of them sitting in front of Lewis’s fire and taking turns reading their works in progress to one another, each of them chuckling when they saw moments where the other had stolen from him. What an experience that must have been!
My rating: ****1/2
Political content: none (it’s a classic)
Sexual content: none
Language: none
Violence: present but minor
Review of The Two Towers:
The whole LOTR trilogy really does read like one continuous story that’s so long it has to be broken up into three books. There isn’t too much of a separation from one to the next.
One thing that delineates The Two Towers from The Fellowship of the Ring, though, is the separation of the characters. Unlike the movies, which integrate the story of each of the companies by jumping from one to the next, The Two Towers follows one set of characters for an entire “book”. One story follows Merry and Pippin as they escape from the orcs, and then as they meet up with Treebeard the Ent, master of the trees. Lots of songs get interspersed once again that I could have done without, but they do make Middle Earth feel more like its own culture.
Another storyline follows Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas as they attempt to pursue Merry and Pippin. They first encounter the semi-resurrected Gandalf again, which is a fun reunion. Aragorn meets the lady Eowyn, which gets a lot less screen time in the book than in the film–but she’s at least set up as a love interest, whereas Arwen never really was in the first book.
Finally, we follow Sam, Frodo, and Golem. I was wondering if they’d ever even come into the book as they get the last third of it. Boy, I love Sam! He’s such an endearing character. Even Frodo is less weak and annoying in the books than he comes off in the films.
Aside from the order in which the story is told, Two Towers is really quite similar to the film. Not much to say about it, but like with The Fellowship of the Ring, mostly what I appreciate is the atmosphere of the story. It’s such a well-imagined world. You can easily get lost in it.
My rating: ****
Political content: none (it’s a classic)
Sexual content: none
Language: none
Violence: present but minor
Review of The Return of the King:
One of the most satisfying endings ever.
While The Return of the King is just as meandering and verbose as the first two, and I could still tune out for awhile and come back without missing much of anything, I still just love how this series makes me feel. All the description and detail is just the best. Also, I love Sam!!! He’s just so stout-hearted and good and selfless and simple. Easily my favorite character.
One thing I think the movies did better was the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen. It was just nonexistent in the book. She was mentioned in passing in the Fellowship of the Ring, and then she shows up dressed for the wedding one day at the end of Return of the King. That’s it; that’s all we got. I was happy to know (or remember) that Eowyn marries Faromir, though. She’s sitting next to him at the end of the film version but we never got any details on that story. I still kind of think Aragorn should have ended up with her, though. She’s such a badass.
I appreciated how the final installment wrapped up ALL the loose ends… there were hours left of the book after the climax, some of which I probably could have done without, and some of which the filmmakers did decide to cut. I always thought it was sad how Frodo ends up sailing away at the end and leaves Sam, Merry and Pippin behind, but it’s a realistic look at how life probably is for anyone who has a truly grand adventure. Where do you go from there? It sort of spoils everyday life for you, I’d imagine. Not for Sam, though; he finds joy again. He would, though: he’s just that sort of character.
Periodically when I heard similarities between the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles and Narnia, I pictured C.S. Lewis and Tolkien as Tolkien read his manuscript aloud, and Lewis would say, “Oh, you should do this!” I wish I knew which parts were his ideas.
Such a great read.
My rating: *****
Political content: none (it’s a classic)
Sexual content: none
Language: none
Violence: present but minor
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March 27, 2020
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
This week’s podcast review comes from this blog post, North and South.
The post North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of North and South
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At first I was very excited to find what I thought was a hidden gem in the canon of classics: like a new Jane Austen or a Bronte, just by a different author. The writing style and the initial intrigue of romance led me to believe this was what I was in for.
Alas… not really. The story was boring for the most part, filled with political discussions of strikes during what I gathered was the Industrial Revolution in England. The only way I got through the story at all was because it was audio, and I could tune out for long stretches of time and then tune back in again without missing much. Also, unfortunately the only person I consistently liked in the entire book was Mr. Thornton, who for the vast majority of the story was the rejected lover of the heroine, Margaret. For her part, I found Margaret haughty, self-righteous, and not just opinionated but disdainful of everyone else’s judgement save her own, though the author clearly admired her. Her father was weak and sweet, but impossible to respect. Her mother was negative and hypochondriacal at first, and later horribly selfish. Her cousin Edith was feather-brained and pretty but self-absorbed. Mr Thornton’s sister and mother were both also self-centered, and the sister judgmental and weak. His biggest detraction is his determined love for Margaret, when she’s done absolutely nothing to deserve it.
Why did I bother finishing the story, you ask? I almost didn’t a number of times, but there was just enough intrigue between Margaret and Mr. Thornton that I wanted to see how it ended, even though I could see it coming from a mile away. I felt like Gaskell was attempting to rewrite “Pride and Prejudice” in a sense, as Thornton was the great man with a closed mind at the beginning, while Margaret was supposed to be the cheeky poor beauty who opened his mind to the world. She eventually does become more tolerable. Can’t say I’d recommend it, though.
My rating: ** 1/2
Political content: historical only, though I find a lot of Margaret’s rationale annoying and one-sided
Sexual content: none
Language: none
Violence: none
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March 20, 2020
Bruiser, by Neal Shusterman
This podcast comes from the blog review, Bruiser.
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