Synopsis: Callously ravished by the man she hoped to love, an 11th Century Norwegian woman shapes her life around dreams of vengeance. Review: Gunnar’s Daughter is an early novel from the Sigrid Undset, author of the Nobel Prize-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and it is no less of a powerful, shocking work not just for a book set in medieval Norway, but for a book written at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Synopsis: Now married to the cursed Sultan Azak, Princess Inos finally heads to the capital city to plead her case in front of the wardens, as stable boy Rap rushes to meet her and embrace his destiny. Review: (Is that like the worst cover you have ever seen? Seriously.) Emperor and Clown is the final installment in Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word series, and a most satisfying conclusion indeed. The overall story is a rich, satisfying adventure full of political machinations and romance,…
Synopsis: Rap the stableboy joins a merchant crew still intent upon rescuing Queen Inosolan, who is crossing a haunted wasteland in order to appeal her case to the four wardens. Review: Perilous Seas is the third book in Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word series, and again I’m impressed at the skill with which Duncan crafts his narrative. He continually places his characters in severe jeopardy, taking the kinds of risks that fantasy authors so often fear. It’s almost as if the work it…
Synopsis: Inos might be queen of Krasnegar, but she’s been magicked to the other side of the world, and the same magic has sent stable boy Rap, the goblin Little Chicken, and boy thief Thinal to the land of Faery, where Rap discovers that Inos is a pawn in a deadly game between powers greater than any army or king. Review: Faery Lands Forlorn is the second book in Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word series, and it’s clear that none of these books…
Synopsis: The lives, romances, and fortunes of 3 prominent Russian families play out against the backdrop of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Review: It’s absurd to blog about War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy’s sprawling behemoth of a novel. The title alone is ludicrous and unfathomable. People laugh when you say you’re reading it, not because they think it’s not worth reading, but because of its reputation as one of the longest books ever written. Nevertheless, I, the Superfast Reader, who read this book for the Summer…
Synopsis: As her seven sons grow to manhood in 13th Century Norway, Kristin finds her marriage tested by long-simmering resentments, and struggles with her passage into senescence. Review: This might be my favorite of all three Kristin Lavransdatter books, because I think Undset is operating at the peak of her narrative powers. She really brings to life a time in Kristin’s life that isn’t as readily appealing as Kristin’s passage into womanhood, and the novelty of Kristin and Erlend’s life together has worn off. In…
Synopsis: When a troubled teen on probation for vandalism is falsely accused by a fellow student, he comes face-to-face with the demons raised by his troubled family life. Review: My love for Laurie Halse Anderson’s books knows no bounds, and Twisted is just as good as her astonishing debut Speak. In Twisted, she steps inside the head of a young man for the first time, and she gets it dead-on, not shying away from all the things about teen guys that are icky and messy…
Synopsis: After the death of the tortured aunt who edited her grandmother’s best-selling diaries, a second-generation Danish-British woman seeks to find out the truth of her aunt’s parentage, which may be linked to an infamous murder case. Review: The complexity of Anna’s Book (originally published as Asta’s Book) is reminiscent of A Dark-Adapted Eye, and both books are now tied as my favorite of the books crime novelist Ruth Rendell has written as Barbara Vine. Both books deal with a tangled family history as revealed…
Thanks to the marvelously kind & wonderful Hevan Chan, my site now has the most amazing banner EVER! He is incredibly talented, obviously, and I’m so appreciative of what he’s done for Reading is my Superpower. Thanks, Hevan! I’ll miss working with you every day…
Synopsis: Now married to her beloved Erlend Niklausson, Kristin takes up her new life as the mistress of Husaby, fearful that the child that grows inside her will expose her secret shame and cause her father to reject her. Review: I didn’t think it was going to be possible for Undset to outdo her achievement The Wreath, book I of her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy set in Norway in the 14th century. I feared that marriage wouldn’t suit Kristin, that her vitality and inner fire would…