Sword Mountain by Nancy Yi Fan

Sep19

Nancy Yi Fan was eleven years old when she started writing the first novel in her Swordbird series, entitled Swordbird. I haven’t read Swordbird, nor have I read the second novel in the series, Sword Quest. And I had no idea that Ms. Yi Fan was a teen author until I finished reading Sword Mountain and read the author blurb in the back. Nancy Yi Fan’s writing matches that any adult fantasy author, and her deft handling of story, character, and theme outdo many authors with far more experience than she has.

Sword Mountain is the ancestral of the Golden Eagles, and as the story opens exiled musician Prince Fleydur is returning home to the Castle of the Sky as a hero. He and his brother, Prince Forlath, and their Eagle Army have defeated the archaeopteryxes and saved the kingdom. Unfortunately, not all of their enemies have perished, and not much has changed at the Castle of the Sky in Fleydur’s absence. The Iron Nest, the tribe’s ruling authority, still holds to tradition and a rigid social hierarchy, and Queen Sigrid is still enmeshed in her own selfish ambitions for her son Forlath. And nobody understands Fleydur’s love for music nor his compassion in rescuing an orphaned valley eaglet named Dandelion and bringing her to the Castle of the Sky to associate with the eagle nobility.

Dandelion becomes the heroine of the the story as she struggles to find her place and identity in a very rigid, rule-bound society. Fleydur is good, but a bit clueless, thinking that everybird, including the villains of the piece, means well and only needs a taste of music to make them understand the beauty of equality and freedom.

I liked the way this one was written. I liked the aphorisms at the beginning of each chapter. I liked the anthropomorphic birds who felt like characters from a human fairy tale, only with flying. I liked the strong, female protagonist who did the rescuing instead of being rescued. I liked the centrality of the two books, The Old Scripture and The Book of Heresy. I liked the themes of “hope and change”, slow, sure hope and change. I liked it all well enough that I’m hoping to go back and read the first two books in the series when Cybils season is over.

Sword Mountain is eligible to be nominated for the 2012 Cybils Awards for Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy. Nominations open October 1, 2012.

Cybils: Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy

Sep17

Bring it on! I am so excited that I get to be on the Round 1 judging panel for Cybils Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy. What are Cybils, you ask?

The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles. Nominations open to the public on October 1st. Anyone may nominate one book per genre during the nomination period. We post an online form from Oct. 1-15 every year. Any books published between the end of one contest and start of another are eligible. For 2012, that means books released between Oct. 16, 2011 and Oct. 15, 2012. This year, we are also accepting nominations for book apps for iPad, Web or computers.

What that means is that I get to read probably over 100 middle grade science fiction and fantasy books published this year on a search for the cream of the crop, five or six books that will go on a shortlist from which the second round judges will choose one book to win the Cybil Award in our category. I’m participating as a judge for Cybils for the seventh year, but this is the first time I’ve judged in this category. I love magic and science fiction and utopia and dystopia and weirdness, so I think it’s going to be a blast.

I’ve already put the following books on hold at the library:

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy.

Ordinary Magic by Caitlin Rubino-Bradway.

The Second Spy by Jacqueline West.

Sword Mountain by Nancy Yi Fan.

More suggestions? Nominations open October 1st at the Cybils blog, but I see no reason why you can’t tell me the titles of books you’re planning to nominate for Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy (or the books you think will get nominated by someone). That way I can get a head start on all that luscious reading about other (imaginary) times and places.

What are your favorite middle grade science fiction and fantasy books published since last October 16, 2011?

Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St. by Peter Abrahams

May16

In most books, Magic always follows rules. You can only get into Narnia under certain circumstances, with Aslan’s permission. In Half Magic by Edward Eager, you always get exactly half of what you wish for. The One Ring (Tolkien) works in a specific way to do specific things and can only be destroyed in one, very specific place. Harry Potter has to go to school to learn the rules of Magic in his world.

In Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St., Magic shows up, but it’s an unpredictable, capricious sort of Magic that only seems to have rules. The children involved in this magical adventure never do figure out the rules of when the “magic power” will appear, much less how to control it. It seems to have something to do with injustice: Robbie and her friends, Ashanti, Silas, and Tutu, receive magical help and powers whenever there is injustice to be righted. But, as Robbie notices, the world is full of injustice, and the magic only shows up sometimes, following its own rules that are unfathomable both to the reader and to Robbie and her merry band of outlaws.

Robbie Forrester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St. tells the tale of a group of four young teens who become friends in spite of their differing backgrounds and talents and join together to “rob the rich and give to the poor.” The villains in the piece are greedy capitalist land developer, Sheldon Gunn, his fixer/lawyer, Egil Borg, and a nasty little arsonist named Harry Henkel. The rob-the-rich and capitalists-are-evil subtext bothered me a little bit, but the story was well-paced and fun. Sheldon Gunn really is an evil capitalist who goes so far as to try to put a soup kitchen out of business (isn’t it always a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter?), and the kids are purely good, never even thinking about keeping some of the money they “steal” for themselves. There’s not a lot of nuance here, just old-fashioned good vs. evil with some temperamental magical help along the way.

There are questions raised in the book, about Ashanti’s family, about Tutu’s future, about the possible reappearance of the magical powers, that are not resolved. It looks as if we’re being set up for a sequel, or maybe this book just doesn’t follow the rules for a magical fantasy.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

May8

When I was growing up as a kid of a girl in West Texas, all of my friends loved horses. They were all planning to grow up to be veterinarians. Not I.

I think my horse-loving friends would have liked The Scorpio Races, a fantasy horse novel for young adults that’s been all the rage over the past several months. I’ve seen lots of positive reviews. And I can see why. However, I had trouble getting into the book, partly because of all the horses. And there are not only lots of horses, but they’re sort of monster horses, called capaill uisce, that eat raw meat and drink blood. The horses come from the sea, and they’re killers. Either that idea is intriguing to you or it’s repellent. I’ll let you guess which category I fall into.

So, if you’re in the “more horses, please” camp, check out the reviews linked below. If you’re just not sure, I will say that the story was good, based on Irish and Scots legends of kelpies and water horses. I do like novels based on fairy tales and legends, and the writing was evocative of a wild setting for wild hearts. It’s just that this one in particular was a little too horsey for my tastes.

The Allure of Books: “The island becomes a living breathing thing â€“ perhaps the strongest of the characters. I felt pulled into the magic of the capall uisce, the deadly horses from the sea.”

Rhapsody in Books: “This enchanting tale spun from Irish mythology puts you right beside the sea, tasting the salt water in the air and the honeyed goodness of ‘November cakes,’ feeling the grit of sand on your feet, and seeing dark shapes in the crashing surf.”

A Patchwork of Books: “Wildly exciting, yet beautifully written. I was completely enthralled with both Puck’s and Sean’s stories, frantically flipping pages in order to learn what would happen next. The mythical aspect was woven into the story without pause and left me wanting to research more on these water horses.”

Breadcrumbs by Anne Orsu

Apr14

“I believe that the world isn’t always what we see. I believe there are secrets in the woods. And I believe that goodness wins out. So, if someone’s changed overnight—by witch curse or poison apple or were-turtle—you have to show them what’s good. You show them love. That works a surprising amount of the time. And if that doesn’t save them, they’re not worth saving.”

Breadcrumbs is a surprisingly expressive and meditative tale in the tradition of the Chronicles of Narnia and of Rebecca Stead’s Newbery award-winning When You Reach Me. The story teeters on the edge of despair, and as in the ending to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, not everybody necessarily lives totally and completely happily ever after. There is a price to be paid for the rescue of a soul from the clutches of cold and darkness, which is what this particular story is all about.

Ten year old Hazel has a friend named Jack. Hazel and Jack are best friends. But one day Jack rejects Hazel, and then he goes off with the White Witch/Snow Queen into the woods and into the far North. The story echoes Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and it also picks up on other Andersen tales such as The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, and The Wild Swans. The story also makes allusions to A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, the fantasy novels of Philip Pullman, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and other fantasy classics, comic books, and fairy tales.

Ms. Orsu’s novel is rife with points for discussion and even argument. How does Hazel keep going on her quest to rescue Jack when she has no hope, no inner strength, and thinks she is literally “nothing.” Where does Hazel get the strength to escape from the snares placed in her way by the world of the woods while others are entrapped forever? What does it mean that Hazel is willing at the end of the story to make new friends and let go of Jack to some extent?

I liked the novel very much, and I liked the questions it raised. Older children and young adults who enjoy thoughtful fantasy/science fiction, such as A Wrinkle in Time and the fairy tale novels of Donna Jo Napoli, will probably like this story of love, friendship, and perseverance.

Other reviews of Breadcrumbs:
Amy at Hope Is the Word: “Replete with literary allusions and even archetypes, Breadcrumbs hovers on the edge of meaningâ€“growing up, friendship, selfhood, itâ€™s all in this story, but itâ€™s right under the edge. I think much of this might be lost on its target audience; I struggle with identifying it all myself.” (Me, too. I think it’s reflective of our times that the author was hesitant to spell out the exact meaning of the story. Andersen ended The Snow Queen with a verse from the Bible. One can hardly imagine a modern author doing the same and actually appealing to a broad audience.)

Sprouts Bookshelf: “Hazel never wavers from the notion that Jack, the real Jack is still in there, and that he needs her now even more than he ever has. Quite a commentary on growing up but not away, this one.” (Maybe that’s the key: it’s a novel about identity and friendship and hanging onto both. To rescue someone you have to know who you are and who he is and who the two of you are together.)

Bekahcubed: “Their friendship might not last through this adventure. Jack might be changed. Hazel might be changed. When Hazel sets out to rescue her friend Jack, she has no promises that life might return to usual. She might be able to rescue Jack, but she has no illusions that sheâ€™ll be able to get her friend back.” (Yes, this aspect of the story really spoke to me. Even fairy tales, maybe especially fairy tales, don’t always work out exactly the way you want them to, the way you had planned in your mind. Andersen’s tales in particular are sort of sad and not very happily-ever-after. But that’s the way things are in this world, and the world of fantasy and fairy tale isn’t really a different world at all: it’s only a reflection of the fallen world where we all live.)

Interview with Anne Orsu at Little Willow’s bildungsroman.

Interview with Ms. Orsu at The Reading Zone.

Once Upon a Time . . . We All Believed in Marriage

Feb9

The urchins and I have been watching the new TV series Once Upon a Time, and it’s been a good experience. It’s not LOST, but it does remind me of some of the best parts of that now-classic TV series. (Sometimes the reminders are intentional on the part of the writers, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, who also wrote for LOST. Lots of Lost Apollo candy bars turn up in Storybrooke, Maine, the setting for Once Upon a Time.)

So, as I said, it’s a good show. The premise is that a bunch of fairytale characters have been transported by the Evil Queen to Storybrooke in our world and have lost the memory of who they really are. Only the Evil Queen, who is the mayor of Storybrooke, knows who the people really are and that they’re under her evil curse. Sort of. Mayor Regina (Evil Queen) has an adopted son, Henry, and he spends his time trying to figure out who the people of Storybrooke really are in Fairyland and persuading his birth mother, Emma Swan, to “bring back the happy endings.”

The show alternates scenes between fairyland and the real world in Storybrooke (which isn’t really the Real World because it’s under a curse, if you see what I mean), and that’s where the fly in the ointment comes in. Without getting into too much detail or spoiler territory, there’s this one character, call him P.C., who has amnesia, even in Storybrooke world, and he has a wife he can’t remember at first. And it turns out he “has feelings” for M.M., who is his real wife and love from fairyland. But he doesn’t remember fairyland either, and neither does M.M. (Get it? If not, you’re not alone. It’s complicated.) Anyway, my kids and I are sitting here in front of the TV rooting for this amnesiac to leave his wife, who isn’t a very likable character, and get together with his “true love”, M.M. And I don’t like the way we’re being manipulated.

In its most recent issue, WORLD Magazine references a 2008 University of Chicago General Social Survey: “In it 81 percent of Americans responded that it is ‘always wrong’ for a married person to have sex with someone other than his or her spouse.” (P.C. and M.M. haven’t had sex, just kisses . . yet . . . except in fairyland . . . where they’re married to each other.) You see, we know what’s right and wrong, except when it comes down to cases. What if “his or her spouse” isn’t a very nice person? What if he’s found his True Love and he can’t control his feelings for her? What if she married young and made a mistake? What if husband and wife both want a new life, both want to find a new love or return to an old flame? What if the “married person” in question isn’t “someone out there”; it’s me, and I’m tired of being married to this person. My situation is different, doesn’t fit the normal rules. I should be allowed to find my own happy ending.

I don’t know where the writers of Once Upon a Time are going with this storyline. There’s a possibility that amnesiac P.C. isn’t really married to the annoying blonde he’s supposed to be married to, and then he would be free to pursue M.M. Nevertheless, I’m old-fashioned enough to agree with another fictional character, Jane Eyre, who had her own “hard case” of love and marriage to sort out: â€œLaws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be.â€

100 Valentine Celebration Ideas at Semicolon.

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Feb9

I can’t count this one for my North Africa Challenge, but the geography and culture of this fantasy world sort of felt like North Africa–or the American southwest: desert winds, adobe houses, camels, cowls and robes, a language related to Spanish or Portuguese.

The story itself reminded me of Dune, not just the desert setting but also the political intrigue and war strategy. Dune is, if you’ve read it, a bit more sophisticated than this book, but then again while author Frank Herbert (Dune, Dune Messiah, and many sequels) overdid the philosophical and political complications to the point of farce, the world of Girl of Fire and Thorns feels more believable and down to earth, if one can use that term in reference to a work of fantasy.

Our protagonist, Princess Elisa, second daughter of King Hitzedar de Riqueza of Orovalle, feels fat, useless and unloved. Then, when she is rushed into an arranged marriage with King Alejandro of the neighboring country of Joya d’Arena, she feels even more disregarded and unappreciated. Alejandro won’t even announce their wedding in his own kingdom for some reason, and the marriage remains unconsummated. Elisa carries the Godstone, the special gifting that only comes into the world once in a generation, but her special gift doesn’t mean anything when she doesn’t know what her service is supposed to be or how to find out.

Religion plays a big part in this story, another aspect reminiscent of Dune. Elisa prays and receives answers to her prayers, assurance of God’s presence through the Godstone which turns warm in the midst of prayer and praise and icy cold in the face of danger. The religious practices and tenets in the world that Ms. Carson has created for her debut novel are not really like any one religion that exists in this world, although the “Sancta Scriptura” that is quoted sounds a lot like the Hebrew psalms in English translation. Anyway, it’s good to see religious practice integrated into a fantasy novel instead of its being jettisoned in favor of a modern, evolved consciousness or vague spirituality.

The moral dilemmas and the coming of age of the main character are all a part of the novel, too, making it a classic fantasy with the usual themes. But Girl of Fire and Thorns is fresh and compelling. Without its becoming a feminist tract, the novel has a strong female protagonist who deals with her own weaknesses without becoming dependent on a man for her salvation and her growth as a character. Elisa is a well-rounded character, sometimes weak and self-indulgent, but finally reaching within herself and looking to God to find the strength she needs to carry out the task assigned to her for the sake of the people of her country and of her world.

The final plus for this novel is that it’s self-contained. It has a perfectly adequate ending, and although I see the wiggle space for the sequels in a planned trilogy, I didn’t feel cheated or teased by a cliffhanger ending. I appreciate that kind of respect shown by the author for her readers, and I will reciprocate by reading the next two books in the series, if they’re anywhere near as good as this one.

100 Valentine Celebration Ideas at Semicolon.

The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead

Jan10

I read The Skin Map, the first book in Stephen Lawhead’s Bright Empires series, in 2010 when it first came out because Mr. Lawhead is one of my favorite authors. I found it confusing and somewhat unsatisfying because it’s one of those “first of a series” books that doesn’t stand alone and ends in an abrupt cliffhanger way.

Still, I was interested enough to request a review copy of the second book in the series, The Bone House. I found it confusing and somewhat unsatisfying because it’s one of those “second of a series” books that doesn’t stand alone and ends in an abrupt cliffhanger way.

THe books remind me of Connie Willis’s Blackout and All Clear, my favorite two-volume book from last year. However, I kept the time travel and the multiple story lines straight (mostly) in the Willis books, and I couldn’t remember who was whom in these books. Nor could I remember what happened to one character in the last chapter about him when his story was separated by several chapters about other characters in other times and places. Yeah, confusing. It didn’t help that I read The Bone House on my Kindle. There are many things I like about my Kindle, but being able to go back and remind myself of something that happened in the earlier part of the book isn’t easy or intuitive for me on the Kindle. In fact, I can’t do it.

So, I think I should read confusing books with multiple stories that change times and places and characters from one chapter to the next . . . in print. And I think I should wait to read series books until the entire series has been published. Of course, that means that I will be the last one to read some really good series of books. But at least I’ll enjoy them. And I can always go back and read classics and all of the book I missed in past years and all of the books on my TBR list while I’m waiting for those series to be completed.

So, maybe I’ll re-read Stephen Lawhead’s Bright Empires series, in print editions if those are still around by then, in a few years when all of the books in the series are available. And if you enjoy and recommend them now, just don’t tell me.

There’s nothing quite like a Real Book:

Note-blogging Forbidden by Tosca Lee and Ted Dekker

Sep24

I’ve never read anything by Tosca Lee or by Ted Dekker, although my nephew says Ted Dekker is his favorite author. Maybe reading this book for Faith ‘n Fiction Roundtable is a good way for me to get a taste of Mr. Dekker’s writing and see if my nephew and I are on the same page.

Chapters 1-5: Forbidden posits a weird dystopian world in which people have no emotions except for fear. I’m not sure why they kept fear. But some people are drinking some bloody magic potion/poison and regaining emotions—maybe only the bad stuff like jealousy, rage, greed and ambition. There should be a violence warning on the front of the book since two people get murdered in the first two chapters, and lots of blood and gore ensue.

Chapters 6-10: For some reason, this book is reminding me of the Dune books by Frank Herbert. Lots of violence. Some kind of strange hierarchical government. People who act as if they’re on drugs. Maybe they are on drugs. I do think it’s difficult, if not impossible to write about people have no emotions. For instance, Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series was supposedly without emotions, purely logical. However, Spock had emotions, and eventually they had to say that he was only half Vulcan and so had to battle his emotions to some extent. The people n this book are also not completely without emotions (other than fear); they show some sense of pleasure and loyalty and even anger or at least annoyance.

Chapters 11-end : Now this is getting too interesting for me to stop and blog.

So I started out blogging as I read, but I became absorbed in the story and forgot to blog. I suppose that’s a recommendation in itself. Some of the other F’nF roundtable readers found this book to be way too reminiscent of Mr. Dekker’s very popular Circle trilogy, but since I’ve never read anything else by either of the co-authors, it was all new to me. I did think that the central idea of the book was hammered a little to obviously and a lot too often. Some explanation like the following was repeated several times in the last half of the book:

“Yes. I drank some ancient blood and it changed me. If I’m right . . . If the vellum is right, the world is dead. Everyone! But I was brought back to life by the blood.”

The theme is that the lack of emotions and the pervasive fear in this future dystopia are a type of living death, and only a special potion made of blood and then, later, a saviour whose blood is pure and untainted, can reverse the death that pervades the planet and bring new life and feeling to the inhabitants of earth.

It’s a series, so the usual non-ending ending warning is applicable. The series is called The Books of Mortals. Forbidden is available now in bookstores. The second book in the series, Mortal, is promised for September 2012, and the third one, Sovereign, will be available in September 2013.

You can visit the blogs of other Faith ‘N Fiction roundtable members to find out more about Forbidden:

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 7: Queer Lodgings

Jun30

In which we are introduced to a rather alarming character named Beorn.

The name Beorn is actually an Old English word for “man” or “warrior” but it originally meant “bear.” Beorn, the next helper that Bilbo and the dwarves find, is a man/bear. Gandalf calls hims a “skin-changer.”

“At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. He lives in an oak-wood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey. As a bear he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains, and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears: ‘The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!’ That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself.”

Shapeshifting, according to Wikipedia, is a common theme in folk tales and mythology. Sometimes voluntary (as with Beorn) and at other times inflicted upon an unwilling subject by a sorcerer or god (Beauty and the Beast), shapeshifting from man, or woman, to animal gives the shifter both new abilities and new limitations. With Beorn, the advantages of being a bear are emphasized: he can travel far and rapidly in his bear-shape and defeat powerful enemies like the Wargs and the goblins. Gandalf seems to think that the visit to Beorn’s house is both perilous and necessary. Z-baby says that Beorn is a “creepy” character. She said, “What if he got mad and decided to turn into a bear and eat them?” I guess that’s the danger you run when you’re dealing with a bear-man.

Beorn can and does help the dwarves and Bilbo, but he can also be a bad enemy if he is annoyed or crossed.

“A goblin’s head was nailed to a tree just outside the ate and a warg-skin was nailed to a tree just beyond. Beorn was a fierce enemy. But now he was their friend, and Gandalf thought it wise to tell him their whole story and the reason of their journey, so that they could get the most help he could offer.”

At the end of this chapter, Gandalf goes off to other business, leaving the dwarves and Bilbo to enter the forest of Mirkwood by themselves. As he is leaving, Gandalf mentions, in an off-hand way, the Necromancer, an early incarnation of Sauron, the powerful satanic villain of The Lord of the Rings. The enemy that Bilbo and his companions have to deal with, eventually, in The Hobbit is the dragon Smaug, but first they must face the perils of Mirkwood.

A biographical sketch of Beorn.

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

Archives