Tag Archives: Magic

Spoiler Edition: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5)

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Synopsis:
Tyrion becomes a slave, Dany pines for Daario while marrying someone else, her dragons eat children and incinerate a prince, Jon Snow upends 8000 years of tradition, a couple of no-goodniks get baked into a pie, Stannis can haz teh dumb, Theon Greyjoy lives the worst version of a Lifetime movie thanks to the Bastard of Bolton, Arya kills time, Ser Barristan the Bold displays mad skillz, Davos is not dead, Victarion rows his boat, Asha picks the wrong fort to defend, Cersei and Jaime don’t get back together, everyone eats something called “neeps” and Bran turns into a tree.

Review:
My second read of A Dance with Dragons was the audio version, narrated by the no-longer-incomparable Roy Dotrice. Unfortunately, he turned Daenerys into a ninety-year-old Irish crone and gave Cersei almost the same voice as Tyrion. But I forgive him because he still brings incredible thespianship to his reading and I was definitely excited to take any chance I could get to listen.

Many have complained that Dance is just A Feast for Crows part two, complete with aimless wandering and annoyingly resurrected characters. However, I forgive Martin, too. I am too invested in this world to give up now. When we get to the end is when I’ll decide if it was worth it. For now, I’ll just assume that it is.

Oh, and I am in love with A Podcast of Ice and Fire.

Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead (The Pendragon Cycle, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
A princess of Atlantis flees to ancient England where her paths cross with a mage-in-training whose parentage is unknown.

Review:
I was drawn to Taliesin (which I desperately want to be an anagram of Atlantis, but it’s not) because it’s a retelling of the King Arthur legend with historically accurate place names and details, and with the Christianity an important, unoppressive element. Several major characters are converted to Christianity in episodes that are emotionally and spiritually powerful, but Lawhead doesn’t make that the happy ending. He understands that the Christian life is filled with drama and conflict, both inner and outer, and Lawhead doesn’t let his Christian characters have all the answers.

Where I disengaged from the book was with the character of Charis. Charis was proud, fierce, headstrong–all character qualities I normally love–but I think Lawhead romanticized her too much and made her inaccessible. All the men worshipped her but he didn’t give her any qualities that let me identify with her as a woman.

I really liked the character of Lile, the pagan wife to the king of Atlantis. She was a very nuanced character, set up to be the “evil stepmother” but proving to be both friend and enemy to Charis. I really appreciated that aspect. I’m hoping that her daughter Morgiane doesn’t end up being one-dimensional.

As for Taliesin, the bard/mage discovered in a river as a baby, I’m not sure how I feel about him. He’s certainly heroic, but like with Charis I experienced some distance from him. I think he was put on a pedestal by Lawhead and I couldn’t totally connect with his struggles.

I will definitely give the next book a try because these criticisms could just be first book issues. I’ve never read a memorable King Arthur telling so I’m keen to see this one through.

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 3)

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Synopsis:
With the power of Ruin unleashed and the power of Preservation nowhere in sight, fearless allomancer Vin and the remains of her thieving crew are the ones who must save the world.

Review:
While I have been continually disappointed by the cardboard characters and flat dialogue in the Mistborn trilogy, I was thoroughly satisfied by the mindblowing revelations in the final book, The Hero of Ages. The action is incredible, the world-building up to the highest standards, and there’s even some fascinating theological angles. The introduction of a new kind of magic adds a horror element that I really dug. I’m really glad I stuck with this series!

The Ale Boy’s Feast by Jeffrey Overstreet (The Auralia Thread, Book 4)

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Synopsis:
The breathtaking conclusion to The Auralia Thread.

Review:
Magnificent. To say much more about The Ale Boy’s Feast would involve an ungraceful unstitching of the intricate world and story Jeffrey Overstreet has created in the series begun in Auralia’s Colors. If you want to read a fantasy series that will expand your mind, challenge your perceptions, awaken your emotions, and make you ache for all that is possible, then please, get started on this series right away. I can’t wait to share these with my girls when they’re big enough.

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She’s Dead by Christiana Miller

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Synopsis:
A down-on-her-luck Los Angeles witch comes into an unexpected inheritance, a house with a previous tenant who just won’t leave… even after death.

Review:
Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She’s Dead was a tremendous amount of fun to read. Christiana Miller‘s background in the TV industry shows in her confident, imaginative plotting and idiosyncratic characters that leap off the page with the power of their intention within the story.

The book is steeped in real witchcraft, of the Los Angeles Wiccan variety, and while the spells are beautiful to read, I did get weirded out by all the anti-Christian stuff in there. If the book weren’t so well written I probably would have stopped reading after the beginning, but I just had to find out what happened to Mara. Miller takes the story to crazytown–and I mean that as a good thing! She’s completely unafraid of embracing all the possibilities of her premise, and I was truly impressed by the end result.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

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Synopsis:
Now a king in the magical land of Fillory, Quentin still fights with the demons of depression and purposelessness, so he goes on a quest and risks losing Fillory forever.

Review:
You have to understand what Fillory means to Quentin to truly understand his position at the outset of The Magician King. He has literally gotten everything he has ever wanted–he is a king in the magical country from the books he loved as a kid. It’s as if you grew up loving Narnia, found out it was real, and then got to go sit on those thrones at Cair Paravel.

But it’s not making Quentin any happier than he was at the beginning of The Magicians. He’s aching over the loss of Alice, his girlfriend who died hating him for cheating on her in a sordid threeway with Janet and Eliot, now also sitting on thrones in Fillory.

And he can’t figure out what’s wrong with Julia, a girl he loved in high school who was denied entrance into Brakebills, the magical college that Quentin attended, and was forced to learn magic on the streets. Something is really, really wrong with Julia, whose eyes have gone totally black and who seems disconnected from reality.

So Quentin decides to head out on a quest, and that turns out to be pretty boring, too–until he turns the wrong key and gets kicked out of Fillory, along with Julia. He can’t get back to the land he loves, and his only choice is to trust Julia, who takes him through the magical underground in the hopes of finding a way back.

I loved the character of Julia. She’s edgy and fierce, a total loose cannon. The magical underground was just as fascinating as Brakebills, and I’m desperately hoping that Lev Grossman intends to write another book. That ending can’t be the ending… it just can’t…

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

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Synopsis:
Plucked from Brooklyn to attend an elite college for magicians, Quentin hopes that his life will be an adventure like those he read about as a kid, but the drama of real life and his own penchant for melancholia keep getting in the way.

Review:
The Magicians was almost crazy-making thanks to Lev Grossman’s unmatched talent for letting emotional suspense simmer behind the already awesome plot. I was so caught up in the drama of Quentin’s love life and friendships that I wanted as much of that as I did of the magical elements.

I feared that this book would be just a novelty–Harry Potter with cursing and threeways–but thankfully Grossman delivers the fantasy aspect as well. He does not back away from anything and I was truly impressed by the twists and turns the story took.

More than anything, it reminded me of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, only with magic. So fabulous. I’ve already started the sequel!

Enchanted, Inc by Shanna Swendson (Katie Chandler, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
An ordinary New York City girl gets recruited by a magical agency precisely because she is immune to magic.

Review:
Cute, light, and fun, Enchanted, Inc. was exactly the palate cleanser I needed after gorging on A Dance With Dragons. I especially loved that Shanna Swendson didn’t feel the need to make Katie klutzy or ditsy. She wasn’t afraid to have Katie be outspoken and assertive. She was my kind of girl and I really enjoyed spending time in her head.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 2)

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Synopsis:
Mistborn Vin and her lover the scholar-king fight to carve out a new society in the wake of the end of the thousand year reign of the Lord Ruler, but enemy armies amass on their city, and Vin herself becomes haunted by an ancient prophecy.

Review:
I honestly don’t know why I like these books so much. Brandon Sanderson is a pretty terrible writer and his characterizations are pretty thin. But I really love what he has created in Vin, a street urchin with the ability to burn metals inside her body to give her extraordinary powers. Even though she’s pretty much a superhero, she’s not invincible or invulnerable, and Sanderson does a good job of conveying what her efforts cost her.

Well of Ascension ends with a cliff-hanger that pretty much guarantees that I’ll be listening to the next book when it comes out.

Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man, Book 3)

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Synopsis:
As Fitz accompanies Prince Dutiful on a quest to lay the head of an ice-encased dragon on the hearthstone of the Narcheska Elliania’s mothershouse, he betrays his dearest friend and brings his own bastard daughter into grave peril.

Review:
Fool’s Fate is a thoroughly satisfying conclusion not just to the Tawny Man trilogy but to the entire tale begun in the Farseer trilogy and developed in the Liveship Traders. Hobb is after full-bodied resolution and she sure delivers. Everything is wrapped up and no thread, either physical or emotional, is left hanging. This doesn’t mean that she short-circuits a full emotional experience. She takes the characters as far as they can go, and then beyond that, showing that she has a deep understanding of the dramatic force of peripety.

I got lumps in my throat, both happy and sad ones, and I feel so satisfied, just as much as the first time I read these books. I can’t wait for my girls to be old enough to read them. I think they would be good for any middle or high schooler undaunted by length.