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RYO Review: Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
A collection of short stories that feature the weird and wonderful, mixing fantasy and magical realism with a touch of horror and the supernatural, Magic for Beginners is a good mix of humour and dread that at times made me regret my commute wasn’t longer (something that doesn’t happen very often at all).
From the turns of phrase to the worldbuilding, the stories in the book are at times, incredibly sad, very humorous, and full of a deep longing for normality. The stand outs for me, by far, were Stone Animals, Magic for Beginners and Lull, but I figure I could provide a few words about each. It’s not a long collection, and some stories are shorter than others, so it makes for some fairly quick reading.
WoGF Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Alexandra P. (everythinginstatic) was first introduced to sci-fi by her father, at the age of 14. Although it took 3 years and 2 attempts to finish Foundation, she hasn’t stopped reading sci-fi since, branching out into fantasy and speculative fiction as well. Her biggest passions are reading, tea and photography, and she hopes that 2013 will be the year she finally revisits Hari Seldon. You can read more of her reviews on her blog Wanderlust.
When I first started Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, I was worried. It’s a pretty big book, you know? I might not like it. After all, my last run in with rival magicians (namely, The Night Circus) went down terribly! And yet, I started this novel (with some trepidation), and the next thing I knew, I was neck deep in magic, Regency England, the Napoleonic Wars and Mad King George III. And it never once felt boring, or like it dragged on without any resolution. There was never a part where I genuinely felt the 1,006 pages weighing heavily on me.
From the library at Hurtfew to Venice, over the King’s Roads and through mirrors, this story of the revival of English magic never pauses to preach or pass judgement. The main characters, Strange and Norrell, are complete opposites: one is an extrovert, constantly striving to make magic practical, while the other is an introvert, for whom magic is the study of spells, not the senseless dive into the unknown. Naturally, the two views collide, and a rivalry of sorts develops.
WoGF Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Alexandra P. (everythinginstatic) was first introduced to sci-fi by her father, at the age of 14. Although it took 3 years and 2 attempts to finish Foundation, she hasn’t stopped reading sci-fi since, branching out into fantasy and speculative fiction as well. Her biggest passions are reading, tea and photography, and she hopes that 2013 will be the year she finally revisits Hari Seldon. You can read more of her reviews on her blog Wanderlust.
What happens when you take fairytales, add in a nod to Alice in Wonderland and more than enough of the myth of Persephone, all filtered through a bright writing writing style that tips its hat to the Victorians? You get Catherynne M. Valente‘s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, a beautifully woven tale full of mystery, intrigue, a seriously well developed cast (and a female lead!), and a world that I want to get lost in over and over again. There is a brightness to the story (despite its dark moments), and this is a book that appeals both to the incredibly misleading “young adult” label, as well as actual grown ups.
September is a girl of 12, who longs for adventure, so it comes as no surprise when the Green Wind takes her away to Fairyland. From there, it’s an Alice in Wonderland meets Persephone, in a Fairyland under the control of the cruel Marquess, a place that still longs for good Queen Mallow. It’s a charming, if dangerous place, filled with wyverns and Fae and Marid, and Valente makes sure that we don’t fall for its charms quite as easily as September.
WoGF Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Alexandra P. (everythinginstatic) was first introduced to sci-fi by her father, at the age of 14. Although it took 3 years and 2 attempts to finish Foundation, she hasn’t stopped reading sci-fi since, branching out into fantasy and speculative fiction as well. Her biggest passions are reading, tea and photography, and she hopes that 2013 will be the year she finally revisits Hari Seldon. You can read more of her reviews on her blog Wanderlust.
The circus arrives without warning. So begins Erin Morgenstern‘s novel about an unusual circus and the magical challenge within it. My previous encounter with a circus-based story was Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, which really did very little for me on a storytelling level, partly because the characters were so damn unlikeable.
The Night Circus comes with hefty recommendations, which is why it’s so doubly disappointing. I went in, expecting a tale of magic, circuses and a shadowy challenge. Instead, I got a thinly-plotted novel that really wanted to be something big, but could only muster a weak romance. The setting is Victorian England (for the most part), and I swear Morgenstern picked it just so she could write about bowler hats and big dresses, because there is nothing remotely Victorian in the characters’ behaviours, they act like modern men and women. The aesthetics are kind of there, but that’s about it, and it seriously irritates me, because you either go full in, or you just don’t specify the time-frame.
WoGF Review: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Alexandra P. (everythinginstatic) was first introduced to sci-fi by her father, at the age of 14. Although it took 3 years and 2 attempts to finish Foundation, she hasn’t stopped reading sci-fi since, branching out into fantasy and speculative fiction as well. Her biggest passions are reading, tea and photography, and she hopes that 2013 will be the year she finally revisits Hari Seldon. You can read more of her reviews on her blog Wanderlust.
Oh, I do love modern fables. There’s always something refreshing about different takes on the same stories that, to me, form part of the collective unconscious. Karen Lord takes a tale of redemption that, to some extent, we are all familiar with, and turns it into an enchanting story about resilience and the power of the human spirit. I found it, by turns, funny, sad, and absolutely exhilarating. For a first novel, it’s certainly a very strong effort and there are only minor quibbles with the overall thing that keep it from a full five star rating for me.
Redemption in Indigo is the story of Paama, the wife of the gluttonous, foolish Ansige, who one day leaves him and returns to her village of Makhenda. Her husband tracks her down and attempts to try and convince her to return, only to blunder his way into trouble, leaving Paama to deal with the consequences (mostly shame). This leads to her acquiring the Chaos Stick from the djombi, or undying ones, and the quest of one such spirit to retrieve all this power for his own gain. What follows is a wonderfully spun web of redemption, understanding and love through the mythical savannah.
