Bookish Thoughts

In Summer Knight , Harry Dresden's past starts to catch up with him. There have been hints in the previous three books that Harry's past is not so pretty. He was orphaned at six and taken in by a wizard who trained him in magic. He fell in love with his foster sister* and, when the wizard turned out to be a practitioner of black magic, killed them both in a fire. Then he struck a bargain with a rather powerful faerie and has been trying to get out of it ever since. This was all peering in at the edges of the previous books, but now it becomes far more important. The faerie Harry had initially struck a bargain with ends up selling her end of the deal to the Winter Queen, Mab. Mab uses this influence to convince Harry to investigate a murder in Faerie and prove her own innocence. If he fails, the two sides of Faerie (Summer and Winter) are likely to go to war with each other. The wizards are also on his back to succeed so that they can procure Winter's help wi...

The third book in The Dresden Files is equal parts ghost story and vampire story, with some faeries thrown in for flavor. There's even a brief cameo by a dragon. I really like that Butcher's getting more comfortable with the supernatural and is willing to throw so many things into the mix. He does a good job of delineating the various creatures, giving them their own social and political structures, desires and abilities. For everything that's in this book it never feels too cluttered. The mystery is also really well constructed. I didn't quite solve it before Harry did, but as soon as he figured out who it was I saw all the clues I'd missed during my read. I hope I get better at figuring out who the bad guy is. Then again, I appreciate that these books do a good job of keeping me on my toes. My only complain about this book is the way Butcher introduces some new characters. Grave Peril  takes place over a year after Fool Moon  and in that time Dresd...

In the second book of The Dresden Files , a werewolf is on the loose in Chicago and appears to be targeting the local mafia. Meanwhile, Dresden is on the outs with his cop-friend, Murphy, and the tension between them doesn't make solving the case any easier. Like the first book, this one had plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing. I didn't quite solve the mystery before Dresden, but as soon as the book gave me the answer I saw how all the clues added up. I think that definitely speaks to a well-constructed mystery, and I'm looking forward to more of this. Dresden continues to be rather sexist. He hides behind his chivalry to excuse a lot of his behavior. Sometimes the text seems to be calling him out on this. For example, Harry has a tendency to withhold information from women "for their own good" or "to protect them". But this almost always backfires and he realizes that he should have been more forthcoming from the beginning....

I've been meaning to read The Dresden Files  for a few years now. I remember a friend of mine in high school being very excited when one of the books was released. In the time since then, I've been hearing more and more about the series, and it always seemed like something I'd be interested in. When a member of my book club suggested a book from The Dresden Files for our meeting next month, I was excited to for a chance to check out the series. Unfortunately, the book he picked is the thirteenth in the series. When I realized this, I decided to go ahead and try to read the series through the 13th book in time for the book club meeting. Which gives me five weeks. That's doable, right? Considering that the first book only took two days to read, I definitely think I can meet my goal of reading the next twelve before May 28th. In the meantime, this blog is going to get a bit Dresden Files heavy, though. This series, written by Jim Butcher, follows a wiz...

The Other Wind is the final (for now) book in the Earthsea series. And it is easily the best. The plot moves along at a good pace and is satisfactorily resolved. There are a ton of characters with interesting relationships that shift over the course of the novel. LeGuin even managed to devote an entire chapter to sailing without boring me. On the contrary, that time was used quite well for the development of various characters and the history of Earthsea. This book manages to pick up plot threads I'd thought long abandoned, like the dismal afterlife, and make them relevant again to the lives of both new and old characters. Many of my disappointments with the earlier books were addressed and resolved in this one. As rocky as the series has been, it honestly may have been worth it just to get to the end. The series as a whole has, unfortunately, left me wary of LeGuin's other work. I'll probably read The Left Hand of Darkness at some point, but I'm not s...

Emma Donoghue's Room isn't the kind of book I normally gravitate towards. But after hearing Kevin's mom rave about it, and then finding it for a mere $1 at a used book sale, I decided to take a chance. And I'm really glad I did. This book is intense and disturbing and almost impossible to put down. It's a pretty quick read, partly because the language is very simple and straightforward and partly because it's such a page-turner. The story is narrated by five-year-old Jack, who has lived his entire life in an 11 x 11 square foot room. The room is set up like a studio apartment, with a bed, toilet and bathtub, and a small kitchenette. Jack's only exposure to the outside world is through the television. But as far as he's concerned everything outside of Room is a fantasy. Room is his entire world. Jack's mindset has been aided by his mother, a twenty-six year old woman who was abducted seven years earlier. She does her best to shield ...

In Tales From Earthsea , LeGuin departs from the novel format to tell a collection of short stories set in various places and times in Earthsea. Although short stories is, perhaps, a generous term. Two of the five stories are closer to novellas in length. Overall this book was more successful than LeGuin's previous Earthsea novels. The shorter length gives her writing a focus it definitely needs. There are no lengthy passages about sailing, no extended diatribes about the differences between men and women. Instead we get some neat character studies, woven together with some history of Earthsea. The Finder is the longest of the five stories, taking up over 150 pages in my book. It tells the history of the wizard's school, how it was founded and why. And although I'm not quite sure I understand why the men decided to force their female peers out of the school, or why the women let them, it was fun to see this bit of Earthsea history, and to see what the wor...

A Local Habitation follows Rosemary and Rue to continue the ongoing October Daye series from Seanan McGuire. It's a bit of a step down from the first book but is still a mostly enjoyable read. The thing I like about these books, and McGuire's writing in general, is how well thought-out her worlds are. This series takes place in a San Francisco that has Faerie peering in at the edges. There are several different kingdoms contained in the city with many different races of Fae and the complicated politics that go along with that. Toby has to navigate this confusing world with the added difficulty that she is only half-Fae, resulting in a much-reduced status. As in the first book, the world in which this story takes place is well-realized. The surrounding characters are distinct and interesting. Overall, the book is a fun, light read. The problem is the plot (and I've been assured that this is the weakest book of the series, so there is that). Toby is sent...

Tehanu is the fourth book in the Earthsea cycle and another example of how up and down this series is. It's not quite as good as The Tombs of Atuan was, but it is significantly better than the other two books that came before it. Tehanu was written nearly three decades after the first two books, and it takes place in the winter of Ged and Tenar's lives. Ged has stepped down as archmage and is somewhat lost throughout the book. Tenar is a grandmother now, and trying to redefine herself again since her children have moved out of the house and her husband has died. She adopts a young girl, Therru, who was abused and is disfigured. The bulk of the book is pretty slow. It's mostly musings on feminism and how to start fresh when your life is mostly over. I liked the slow, meandering pace of the book. Although parts of it got preachy and, like Atuan , there were parts that made me wonder if LeGuin lives in the same world as I do. She talks at length about a woma...