C.A. Gray's Blog, page 52
February 14, 2020
Interview with Romance writer Julie Wright
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today’s podcast is an interview with romance writer Julie Wright. We discuss her book Lies Jane Austen Told Me, as well as several of her other books. Check her out on her Amazon page here!
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February 11, 2020
Review of Interview with the Robot
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This was great! Really original. The story is told in a series of interviews between a police officer and an ostensibly 12-year old girl named Eve, though we find out pretty quickly that Eve is actually a very advanced AI. Eve explains her history in the course of the interview, but they’re told to us in flashback format. We see her history, starting out as a box with a microphone and no voice, progressing all the way to passing for human and even superhuman. She “grows up” in a laboratory called Eden (ha, see what they did there), with no one but the 12-year old son of the C.E.O. for company, as he is “home schooled” by AI tutors. Emory, the boy, has no human friends, and decides to befriend Eve. Through her interactions with him, she hones her social skills and develops empathy and emotions. We learn early on that Emory’s mother died in a car accident, and her loss seems to be a driving force for his father David.
Emory, meanwhile, longs to know what is behind one particular door to which he does not have access. He and Eve concoct a scheme to get them inside… and what they find is straight out of West World, though I don’t think it was a ripoff. There are some really great twists and turns for a story so short, and it held my interest until the very end. I also loved that the main character was an A.I., and you identified with her more than with the humans. Very unique and highly recommended!
My rating: *****
Language: none
Sexual content: none
Violence: none
Political content: none
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February 7, 2020
Lost and Found by Orson Scott Card
This week’s podcast review comes from this blog review of Lost and Found.
The post Lost and Found by Orson Scott Card appeared first on C.A. Gray.
February 3, 2020
Review of A Tale of Beauty and Beast
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I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings as a general rule. I know they’re a fad at the moment, and I already know what’s going to happen, but I don’t care. I love them anyway. I did try the first book in this series (a retelling of the dancing princesses), but rolled my eyes at the concept of a Princess Tourney and gave up. The only reason I read this one was because they were both free on Kindle Unlimited. While this book referenced events that occurred in Book 1 quite a bit, I could piece together enough and still got far enough along to get hooked.
Sophie, apparently the winner of the Princess Tourney in book 1, goes to the land of Palinar to collect her “prize”: the cursed Prince Dominic, aka The Beast. A few twists rendered this retelling different from the Disney version, aside from different names of the characters. First, Sophie has an identical twin sister, Lily, whom I gather was the lead character in Book 1. The two of them share a mind connection that enables them to hear one another’s thoughts. Second, the curse on the castle servants doesn’t render them live inanimate objects, but rather shifts them sideways into a new dimension, which I thought was clever. But Sophie’s connection with Lily enables her to hear the servants speak as well. Also, the Beast’s curse renders him unable to speak, but because Sophie can hear the servants speak in her mind, she can hear the Beast in the same way.
Other than that, the story plays out very much like the original. I like Sophie’s character–she’s got spirit without being brash, and I think her relationship with the Beast is believable. One issue I always had with the original story was the idea that the Beast isn’t just an ugly man. He’s actually an animal, yet she falls in love with him. Hard to suspend my disbelief on that one. This story sort of straddled the line there–she calls him Beast, and he’s big and has a misshapen jaw, yet she can see his pallor and things like that, which implies at least he has skin. She also comments that despite the curse, at times he looks rather handsome, which I assume implies that he looks human to some extent too. The climactic scenes were well paced and mostly well done, with the exception of one suuuuper cheesy line. 
January 31, 2020
Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
This week’s podcast comes from this blog review of Peter Pan.
The post Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 30, 2020
Review of The Queen’s Poisoner
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I’m pretty sure I tried once before to read the e-book version of this and stopped because I lost interest. This time I listened to the audio version, and it kept my interest the whole way through.
The story follows 8-year old Owen, but it’s not an early reader book–it reads more like YA, or middle grade at the very least. Owen’s parents betray the king of the realm, and as punishment they are made to part with one of their children. Owen is the youngest and a miraculous birth, but his parents believe he will be the safest of their children, so he goes to live as the “king’s ward,” but really as a hostage, at least at first. He spends his time at court plotting how he will escape–until he succeeds, and the king, who turns out to be Fountain Blessed (their way of saying endowed with supernatural gifts), uses his mind control to coax Owen to return with him. Shortly thereafter, Owen meets a playmate, Elysabeth Victoria Mortimer (who for some reason is always referred to by all three names until toward the end when Owen nicknames her Evie), and later meets the queen’s poisoner — whom I thought would be the person who killed the queen, but no, apparently Queen’s Poisoner is a court position, and Ankarette holds it, though everyone believes her to be dead.
It’s rather episodic, now that I think about it. Owen learns courage from Evie, and learns about the intrigues of the court and how to make himself indispensable to the king from Ankarette. The king also doesn’t turn out to be the heartless villain we’re led to believe he is at first–he’s been lied about and misunderstood, and doesn’t know who he can trust.
An original story that held my interest to the end, at least this time around, and had a happy ending. I might read on in the series.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Sexual content: none
Violence: minor, fantasy violence
Political content: none
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January 24, 2020
Review of Lost and Found
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Orson Scott Card just became one of my favorite authors, I think. Such an incredibly creative idea!
Ezekiel is one of a number of high school kids with a “micro-power,” or an unusual and apparently useless gift. In his case, the gift is that he finds lost objects, and inherently “knows” who they belong to and where that person can be found. The problem is, of course, if you return lost objects to their owners with no explanation for how you found it or knew it belonged to them, they’ll invariably leap to the conclusion that you stole it in the first place. Ezekiel learns to resist his gift after a number of run-ins with the police, but still has the reputation of a thief. Then Beth, a 10th grader who, as a proportional dwarf, looks like she’s about six, catches up with him and essentially forces him to walk her to and from school. She claims this is for protection: no one will bully her, as long as she’s inside of Ezekiel’s ostracism bubble. They become unlikely friends, very much against Ezekiel’s will.
Then a school guidance counselor matches Ezekiel up with a group of kids with other micropowers attempting to learn about the limitations and benefits of their gifts. And through this, a police detective finds and approaches Ezekiel with the case of a missing little girl. He asks Ezekiel to use his gift to try to find her. Ezekiel resists at first, not sure he can do it and also concerned that if he does, he’ll be accused of being in league with the kidnappers. But with Beth’s influence, he decides he has to at least try. It turns out he finds the girl without a lot of difficulty. I was surprised that this came as early in the story as it did, but this was just a setup for the real story. I won’t spoil it, because I really didn’t see it coming. It becomes a bit of a supernatural crime thriller, I guess, but a “micro”-supernatural thriller–totally different from your usual X-Men type of story.
Despite some of the darker ideas in the story, it definitely has a happy ending. I also love the characters. Card has a very recognizable narrative voice, having also recently read “Enchantment”– very dry and sarcastic, and yet poignant and compelling. (I read “Ender’s Game” years ago and also liked it, but can’t remember it well. I’ll probably have to check it out again.) Will be looking at his backlist for sure!
My rating: *****
Political Content: none
Language: none that I can recall — in fact he had some perfect opportunities to throw some in and didn’t
Sexual content: none, though there were some disturbing images in the crime section that were sexual in nature, though not gratuitous
Violence: present in the crime section, but not gratuitous
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Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley
This week’s podcast review comes from this blog review of Scarlett.
The post Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 17, 2020
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog post review of Gone with the Wind (containing both of my reviews in one).
The post Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell appeared first on C.A. Gray.
January 14, 2020
Review of Peter Pan
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I can’t believe that I’d never actually read the original Peter Pan before! Such a delightful story, and a wonderful retelling, with a full cast and sound effects.
The British children (Wendy, John and Michael) during the WWII siege of London were reminiscent of the Chronicles of Narnia. That was apparently a very fertile time and place for children’s literature. Like the Penvensie children, the Darling’s mother Mary intended to send them to the countryside to get away from the bombing. Mary had told them stories all their growing-up years of Peter Pan, whom she had met as a girl and who had invited her to run away with him, but she had declined. This captured especially Wendy’s imagination, and she decided to write him a letter inviting him to visit her. Little did she know, he already came to visit her nightly. Instead of going to the countryside, they fly through the window to Neverland with Peter–despite the jealous Tinkerbell’s attempts to harm Wendy.
Once in Neverland, they meet the Lost Boys, who are so hungry for a mother that they decide that Wendy, herself a little girl, should become the mother they are missing. Peter is then appointed as their father, and while we never find out how old Wendy really is, it’s implied that she falls for Peter romantically. Peter, meanwhile, only thinks of her as a “dutiful son.” (Now I understand better where the term “Peter Pan Syndrome” comes from, for men who never want to grow up and are unwilling to commit!) The Lost Boys, Peter, Wendy, Michael, and John go on a number of adventures, interacting with the Lost Girls (led by Tiger Lily), the mermaids in the lagoon, and of course, Captain Hook and his pirates.
A story like this has an unresolvable conflict: the Darlings cannot both stay in Neverland and also return home to their frantic mother. And Peter, being Peter, cannot choose to return to the ordinary world where he no longer belongs, no matter how he might feel about Wendy (and it’s sort of implied that he has feelings for her too, though he doesn’t seem to know it). So the ending is bittersweet. But as children’s books don’t include a great deal of introspection, the sadness is minimized. It’s mostly just a fun, lighthearted adventure.
My rating: ****1/2
Political content: none
Sexual content: none
Language: none
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