C.A. Gray's Blog, page 58
August 9, 2019
The Odyssey, Homer
This podcast review comes from this blog post, Review of The Odyssey
The post The Odyssey, Homer appeared first on C.A. Gray.
August 6, 2019
Review of The Great Hunt Duology
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Review of the Great Hunt:
I love Wendy Higgins! While I’ve never yet read a series by her that rivals the “Sweet Evil” series, this was still quite engaging, and I ripped through it quickly.
In a fictional country that’s nevertheless basically medieval Ireland (the words are Irish, the main characters are redheads, and most of the characters are read with Celtic accents), 17-year old Princess Aerity (great name!) is pledged in marriage to any man who can kill the unknown savage beast stalking and murdering their people. Aerity of course had dreamt of marriage for love, but she understands that as the princess, she must do her duty. Men from all over the lands come to join the hunt. In order to inspire the men, Aerity’s father the king wants her to interact with them while the palace grants them hospitality during the hunt. Aerity is immediately intrigued by the hunter Paxton Seabolt (also a great name!), but unlike all the other men trying to curry favor with her, Paxton is distant and almost rude to her. But we later find out that this is because he has a secret.
“The Great Hunt” is a romance with some action–I’m surprised that Higgins managed to draw the hunt out for an entire novel, and yet it didn’t grow tedious. There’s also a fantastical twist: in this nation, magic workers are known as the Lashed, because whenever they work magic, they get telltale purple stripes across their fingernail beds. People fear what they don’t understand, so the Lashed were mostly banished or killed by the time the story starts, with the exception of the royal healer. Any discriminated people will resent those in power, of course–and the storyline of the Lashed and the beast intertwine at the end of the story. The way in which this occurs feels a bit like a cheat though… without too many spoilers, I’ll say it annoys me when the main bad guy turns out to be a character we’ve never even met before. I like to feel like I could have guessed the ultimate outcome because the clues were present well in advance, and in this case we didn’t have the information so we couldn’t have guessed it.
Still, “The Great Hunt” held my interest to the end, and I’m listening to the second in the duology now. It ends, and not on a cliffhanger, but there’s no actual resolution to the characters’ stories in this one.
My rating: ****
Review of The Great Pursuit
“The Great Pursuit” jumps right back into the action. At the end of “The Great Hunt,” we last left Princess Aerity engaged to Leif (a rogue whom she doesn’t love), and her Lashed true love Paxton on the run because magic is outlawed. Paxton meets up with other Lashed, and particularly their leader Rosaria, whom we met at the end of “The Great Hunt.” She’s bitter because of the way the kingdom has treated her people, and she doesn’t merely want justice–she wants revenge. She wants her people to rule, and to subjugate all others. And she’s created an army of hybrid magical beasts in order to cow the kingdom into submission.
I think the first half of this book was better than the second half–the action held my attention. But the second half honestly just started to get a little too cheesy and convenient. I’m all for happy endings, but I want them to feel believable. I’m not sure why it instead felt so contrived here–perhaps because everything got wrapped up with a nice neat little bow? I expect there to be *some* casualties, even if it’s just peripheral characters. Or I expect, when venturing greatly, that the main characters will still suffer *some* loss, even if it’s relatively minor. *Some* characters won’t be perfectly selfless. But in this one, that’s exactly what happens: all goodness and sacrifice is richly rewarded, convenient kindnesses early on turn out to be their deliverance in the end. Everyone gets paired up and gets their happily-ever-after. I just wasn’t buying it, and this took me out of the story.
But I still finished the book very quickly. It’s entertaining, and clean for the most part… just not especially memorable.
My rating: ***
The post Review of The Great Hunt Duology appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of The Great Hunt
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I love Wendy Higgins! While I’ve never yet read a series by her that rivals the “Sweet Evil” series, this was still quite engaging, and I ripped through it quickly.
In a fictional country that’s nevertheless basically medieval Ireland (the words are Irish, the main characters are redheads, and most of the characters are read with Celtic accents), 17-year old Princess Aerity (great name!) is pledged in marriage to any man who can kill the unknown savage beast stalking and murdering their people. Aerity of course had dreamt of marriage for love, but she understands that as the princess, she must do her duty. Men from all over the lands come to join the hunt. In order to inspire the men, Aerity’s father the king wants her to interact with them while the palace grants them hospitality during the hunt. Aerity is immediately intrigued by the hunter Paxton Seabolt (also a great name!), but unlike all the other men trying to curry favor with her, Paxton is distant and almost rude to her. But we later find out that this is because he has a secret.
“The Great Hunt” is a romance with some action–I’m surprised that Higgins managed to draw the hunt out for an entire novel, and yet it didn’t grow tedious. There’s also a fantastical twist: in this nation, magic workers are known as the Lashed, because whenever they work magic, they get telltale purple stripes across their fingernail beds. People fear what they don’t understand, so the Lashed were mostly banished or killed by the time the story starts, with the exception of the royal healer. Any discriminated people will resent those in power, of course–and the storyline of the Lashed and the beast intertwine at the end of the story. The way in which this occurs feels a bit like a cheat though… without too many spoilers, I’ll say it annoys me when the main bad guy turns out to be a character we’ve never even met before. I like to feel like I could have guessed the ultimate outcome because the clues were present well in advance, and in this case we didn’t have the information so we couldn’t have guessed it.
Still, “The Great Hunt” held my interest to the end, and I’m listening to the second in the duology now. It ends, and not on a cliffhanger, but there’s no actual resolution to the characters’ stories in this one.
My rating: ****
The post Review of The Great Hunt appeared first on C.A. Gray.
August 2, 2019
Spell or High Water, Scott Meyer
Today’s book review comes from this blog review of Spell or High Water.
The post Spell or High Water, Scott Meyer appeared first on C.A. Gray.
Review of Esther: Royal Beauty
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I’ve always been intrigued by the biblical story of Queen Esther, so it was really neat to see it brought to life in this novelization. The story in the Bible is pretty short, so the author necessarily had to take license in order to pad it out in novel format, but everything added seemed consistent with what we are told in the original text. I was really impressed with how Hunt managed to make the story feel like it was set in BC Susa, and yet told with modern language that somehow didn’t feel anachronistic.
That said, the story dragged a little in the middle. Again, I can’t really fault her for this, since we’re told nothing about Esther’s life between the time that she marries the king and the time when she has to plead with him for the lives of her people. She could hardly invent a new dramatic plot line to fill in the holes.
But overall, it was an interesting and entertaining read, and I even felt like I learned a little bit about the time period.
My rating: ****
The post Review of Esther: Royal Beauty appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 26, 2019
Missing Molly, by Natalie Barelli
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog post, Review of Missing Molly.
The post Missing Molly, by Natalie Barelli appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 24, 2019
Review of Missing Molly
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I’m not usually a big crime drama fan, but this one sucked me in right away with a unique and intriguing premise. Rachel Holloway works at a floundering newspaper with the bright idea to boost readership by starting a podcast focused on a true unsolved crime story: what happened to little Molly Forster, the 12-year old only survivor of the massacre of her family twelve years earlier? Rachel panics, and does everything she can to sabotage the podcast, because she has a secret: she is Molly. And she’s been hiding ever since, terrified that the killer would finish what he started.
I had a few minor logical issues with the story–like why run rather than go to the police? why not at least tell the people closest to her who she was?–but most of those were resolved as the story went on. Totally gripping!
My rating: *****
The post Review of Missing Molly appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 19, 2019
The Selection Series, Kiera Cass
This week’s podcast is on the Selection Series by Kiera Cass.
The post The Selection Series, Kiera Cass appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 15, 2019
Review of Spell or High Water
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I wasn’t planning on reading ahead in this series after “Off to Be the Wizard,” probably because while the concept was super original and therefore highly entertaining, I already knew it. And while the characters are all hilariously tongue-in-cheek, I couldn’t identify with any of them because they were all caricatures, and therefore I didn’t really care what happened to any of them. But then I found out that this one was set in Atlantis. My next series involves Atlantis, so I had to read on.
“Spell or High Water” still follows Martin and his former wizard mentor Phillip, who (by means of the Shell, a computer program that controls every person and every object in the known universe, as well as time) are invited to a summit in Atlantis of all of the wizards who have discovered the Shell throughout all ages of history. Atlantis is a matriarchy, constructed by a woman named Britt. Britt exists twice in one time period, as Britt the Elder (who built Atlantis) and Britt the Younger (who has yet to build Atlantis, and who is sullen and irritated about the fact that Britt the Elder patronizingly predicts her every move. Phillip is particularly sensitive about this, since he has issues with anything that smacks of Determinism–which makes for a witty dialogue on the philosophical concept of free will.) But it appears that someone is trying to kill Britt the Younger… which again, brings up the whole time paradox: don’t we know they’ll fail, since Britt the Elder exists? Or is the plan to eliminate Britt the Younger and if that occurs, Britt the Elder will also vanish and Atlantis will cease to exist?
While Martin and Phillip try to unravel all of this, Martin also attempts to court the very reticent Gwen, whom he met in medieval England but who decided to move to Atlantis (as do nearly all women who discover the Shell, since no other time period in history is particularly pleasant for a woman with magical powers. You know, witch burnings, drownings, hangings… etc.)
And finally, thousands of years in the future, the wizard called Jimmy (aka Merlin, previously banished and stripped of all access to the Shell for attempting to wipe out an entire medieval village and kill all the other wizards in his attempt to recreate Middle Earth) manages to find his way back to medieval London. This basically sets up the next book in the series.
I still really didn’t get into the characters and therefore didn’t become emotionally engaged in the story. But I laughed out loud quite a few times, and for that alone, it’s a worthwhile read. I just love the tongue-in-cheek humor!
My rating: ****
The post Review of Spell or High Water appeared first on C.A. Gray.
July 12, 2019
The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer
Today’s podcast review comes from this blog post, Review of the Twilight Saga.
The post The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer appeared first on C.A. Gray.
