Some books, like some songs, have everything I'd want in them. What the writer wanted to happen aligns perfectly with what I was hoping for. A whole wSome books, like some songs, have everything I'd want in them. What the writer wanted to happen aligns perfectly with what I was hoping for. A whole world, perfectly made, between the beginning and the ending of the song, or the book, within the little work of art that is so contained and so itself, and is yet so big, so expansive. No notes!
Doe, a deer, a female deer Ray, a drop of golden sun Me, a name I call myself Far, a long, long way to run Sew, a needle pulling thread La, a note to follow Sew Tea, a drink with jam and bread That will bring us back to Do
'Pascal's wager' is a philosophical argument by Blaise Pascal which "posits that individuals essentially engage in a life-defining gamble regarding the belief in the existence of God." Believe, because why not? It will only help you in the end if your belief happens to be true. It can only help you along the way to your end. Is there really an end?
This book is its own sort of Pascal's wager. A perhaps pagan version, but still a wager.
I've been wondering for a month about how I'd write a review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. What could I say other than I loved it completely? And now I give up! This is the rare perfect book for me....more
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, off to work he goes, the Sorcerer's Apprentice!
Preussler takes the timeless tale of naïve boy versus sinister master and keeps it dark, makes it stranger, keeps it kid-sized, makes it a fable for adults and kids alike. 'Tis an often dull adventure indeed that has young Krabat always drudging away with his (mainly) friendly fellows in a mill, the same-ol' same-ol' day-in & day-out. Plus magic lessons! Magic is enough, for a little while, to keep a boy's attention focused on the good times rather than on the dreary drudgery. Magic is like a bright & shiny bauble that allows boy to turn into raven, to work without tiring, to project his astral self to spy, to send his shy thoughts to the girl he loves. Magic is fun! But crack open the glittering bauble and inside is Satanism; Satan himself is a featured guest in this tale. Fortunately for all, except for the Master, except for the Master's master Satan, there is a power at least as strong as Evil. Let's all say it together: the power of love. Ah yes. Should have been a too-sentimental way to fight Evil but in the case of this classic book, the sentiment is perfect. Fits just right. There is a place that comes before an idea becomes cliché, a place that exists as an original template rather than a tired trope, and this book lives comfortably in that place. Krabat & the Sorcerer's Mill is a re-telling but not a reconstruction. What was the original source code for this book, published in 1972? One would have to consult the long-dead folklorists who once told this tale to their children, hoping to fable them into goodness.
As noted in the WSJ article I linked to above, of particular interest to adult readers is this book's take on the surveillance state. The Master sees all, including into your head. Best not to think, if you come to live at his mill. Best to just enjoy your little rewards, then get back to work!
review for the story "Santos de Sampaguitas" by Alyssa Wong
this is my sixth story by Alyssa Wong and I think I have a good idea of her frame of mind: review for the story "Santos de Sampaguitas" by Alyssa Wong
this is my sixth story by Alyssa Wong and I think I have a good idea of her frame of mind: she is a mythopoetic writer: dedicated to the making and reading of myths as a path to self-understanding. her tales are about legacies of the past, transformation, difference and outsiders, and how to survive with (alongside?) trauma. her prose is impressively layered, nuanced, original. and poetic, of course. what a find!
this one spoke to me on a personal level, as it has to do with Filipino culture and mythology, including Filipinos of the servant class, well outside of the bourgeoisie but dependent on them for their livelihood. I experienced some pleasurable frisson upon learning that a fearsome but kinda relatable manananggal was the entity to blame for the narrator's troubles. mom used to scare me with tales of that creature!
Fantasy author Tanith Lee drains all of the fantasy out of her retelling of Snow White. An impressive feat! The setting is not specific, other than meFantasy author Tanith Lee drains all of the fantasy out of her retelling of Snow White. An impressive feat! The setting is not specific, other than medieval, existing in a place where pagan ways are coexisting with Christianity, albeit surreptitiously. The wicked stepmother is Snow White's real mother and yet not: mother has cut those ties and is barely conscious of her daughter. And mother is also a traumatized sociopath, consumed by an overwhelming narcissism and wrestling with new and confusing feelings of love. A lunatic, but one rendered as fully three-dimensional, the raped captive bride of a warlord, frozen at the young age when she was first kidnapped, trapped in a prison not of her making. Snow White herself is given all the dimensions as well, as are the Seven Dwarves, one of whom becomes her true love. And Prince Charming? The last quarter of the book is his, this insane and sadistic monster, and it makes that final portion particularly grueling. Fortunately, SORRY THIS IS A SPOILER, there is hope at the end.
The writing is clean and crystalline. The feminism is very dark, sometimes hopeful, always realistic. Tanith Lee turns this fantastic fable into a completely unsentimental portrait of women coping and trying to survive in a world of men. Her story is hard to read, especially for any reader hoping for escapism. An austere and entirely impressive achievement....more
three mythopoeic fantasies from an author incapable of ironic distance from his topics. which is an admirable trait to me. Swann writes sparkling talethree mythopoeic fantasies from an author incapable of ironic distance from his topics. which is an admirable trait to me. Swann writes sparkling tales of myths and legends with a special kind of purity and a definite lack of winking at his audience. he's all-in, fully enchanted by the worlds he's created. the first two novellas in this collection were wonderful and the third rather less so; all three are lovely creations. "Where Is the Bird of Fire" recounts the story of Romulus & Remus through the perspective of the faun Sylvan, devoted to the kindly Remus and aghast at the brutish Romulus. "Vashti" is about the adventures of Ianiskos, an adult healer in the body of a boy of 6 years, as he follows Xerxes the Great's wife to her homeland - exiled due to suspicions of her being a supernatural jinn. these two stories are lovingly crafted creations, delicately blending earthy characterization and airy imagery, wry wit and soulful melancholy. the lesser "Bear" concerns the ambitious druidess Deirdre, eager to make a new home in Rome, far away from her chilly woodland, by bespelling a crass Roman merchant; her servant and her familiar become unlikely hindrances to her mission. it was all a bit too broad for me....more
synopsis: a young girl becomes a brave hero who rescues a forlorn gentleman in distress.
judging from reviews, this is apparently DWJ's most challenginsynopsis: a young girl becomes a brave hero who rescues a forlorn gentleman in distress.
judging from reviews, this is apparently DWJ's most challenging novel. whether it is the layers of references to myths and folk songs, the hallucinogenic final battle, a potentially uncomfortable scenario in which a 10 year old girl finds a connection with a grown man and later falls in love with him, or even the surprisingly casual, minor note quality of the ending... many readers find this to be a confusing and disappointing experience. all of that sounded fascinating to me, especially after loving the Chrestomanci series. and so I dove in, ready to be wonderfully perplexed by the strangeness of it all...
synopsis: in 80s London, a child grows up and a man gets a life.
...and yet this was not a discombobulating experience for me, nor a disturbing one. DWJ has that enviable skill of being able to weave the magical with the mundane in a way that does not take a reader out of the book, but further in. into the realism of the relationships, into the ambiguous magic that comes out of nowhere. Polly Whittacker is an admirable character and also a completely normal human being, as often wrong as she is right, full of pride and insecurities, acting exactly how I could see myself acting at her age. Polly's admiration for Thomas Lynn becomes an intense, one-sided crush, but one of the great things about this book is how it shows the reader Polly's whole world, not just that part of her: we live with her family & friends & how she grows up & how she deals with untrustworthy parents & how she forms her identity & how she views herself and the world around her. Thomas is only a part of that world, sometimes the most important part, but more often not. and the same is true for Thomas. Polly is very important to him but Polly is not his whole world. they may be each other's spur to move forward, but neither is the other's reason for being. nor is the upper crust world of icy villain Laurel - complete with sinister Faerie Court and literally mind-bending magic - remotely Polly's world, so she sees them through her own mortal perspective. which made the hallucinatory ending where Tom is enmeshed in a magical confrontation fairly straightforward to me...
synopsis: a sidekick is mentored by a hero; together they have adventures. in time, the hero himself needs rescuing by his former sidekick, now a hero.
...the battle is won because Polly lets it all go. Laurel has made it clear that the rules are both basic and reversed. Tom can only draw on what is truly his, his own physical self; and his many strengths will be as weaknesses. and so Tom can rely on no one but himself, he can receive no aid; his skills and belongings are of no help; Polly herself must renounce him so that he can survive. faeries are tricky! fortunately, Polly understands the phrase "If you love someone, set them free" - and perhaps its second half as well, "if they come back to you, it was meant to be.” and so Tom wins, because of Polly. and so Tom comes back to her, at first in a very dramatic way but finally, at the very end, in a very nonchalant and realistic way as well. the danger is over, they are back in their world that is both banal and magical. I wonder if Polly will even end up with Tom. that's also a part of the magic of this book: Tom will always be a very important person in her life, her first mentor and her first crush, but she doesn't need to be with him to love him, she doesn't even need to be in love with him to love him. my money is on Polly ending up with Leslie.
synopsis: The Faerie Queen enchants a musician; to his rescue comes a mere mortal, crossing space and time and all the spells cast against her, armed only with her courage, her memories, and the sensible advice of her grandmother.
my edition includes an essay by the author on The Heroic Ideal and how that ideal impacted her own growth, and how she used it to layer different heroic odysseys and heroic templates into this realistic, contemporary story of a young girl growing up. the essay is fascinating and after reading it, I was even more impressed by the book. but not because of those layers and subtleties and symbols. rather, because her story is understandable and resonant and completely absorbing without even knowing how loaded the story is with mythopoeic meaning. I did love learning all about how complex this novel truly is, how intricate its construction. but in the end, I don't need to know all about the different pieces of a person's history or about their inspirations in order to appreciate a person. or a book! the complexity and the care taken in creating Fire and Hemlock is readily apparent, without explanation....more
synopsis: various Englishmen, an Englishwoman, and a lively Englishboy are embroiled in a murder mystery, a sort of treasure hunt, the nefarious goalssynopsis: various Englishmen, an Englishwoman, and a lively Englishboy are embroiled in a murder mystery, a sort of treasure hunt, the nefarious goals of various occultists, and a diverse array of paranormal happenings; unsurprisingly, they barely bother to acknowledge let alone comment on the spiritual and supernatural aspects intruding violently upon their lives, no doubt because they are English and such immoderate declarations of the obvious would certainly be considered a trifle unseemly.
I love how this offbeat novel espouses that there is a kind of mythic transcendentalism within the nature of Anglican Christianity - quite a new perspective to me. Never would I have imagined adding the Church of England to my list of Favorite Christian Faiths - but make room Quakers, Religious Scientists, and Swedenborgians! There's a new faith that will now be sharing your space in my head.
Charles Williams was of course one of the Inklings, that storied crew of literary enthusiasts and visionary Christians that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I guess he was the odd one out, or - as I'd like to imagine - the eccentric brother who they had little in common with but still admired because of that eccentricity. Despite his idiosyncracies, Williams was no Iconoclast: the Christian vision within him was strong, and this story features one of the most important Christian icons of all: the Holy Grail. Indeed, it is the iconoclastic villains in this novel that seek to misuse or destroy this holy item.
One of the things I appreciated most about Williams' storytelling, and his take on the Anglican value system, is that he is not strident about his religion. The author does not make a big fuss about anything, including matters of faith. There may be a beautifully dreamlike and transcendent miracle that happens in a church at the climax, but the author is never pushy with his faith. The protagonists include a range of nice but uninteresting individuals with varying levels of spirituality, and there is no dull speechifying about what constitutes Right or Wrong Behavior. The evil villains are fascinatingly malicious and spiteful, urbane and erudite and amusing, callous and cruel just to be cruel, and they feature deadly magicians and a cynical, mean-spirited author... but their wickedness comes from who they actually are, their personalities and intentions, their outlook on life - and not from their specific ideology, or lack thereof. They are not villains because they move against Christianity, they are villains because they are heartless assholes. The rot came from within.
Another thing I appreciated: the inclusion of the legendary Prester John as an in-person deus ex machina. This Prester John, despite being a force for ultimate good is... scary. A smiling, ruthless, you simple-minded terrestrial villains are but interesting little insects to me, barely worth my time kind of scary. Yay for scary good guys! There's too few of them.
The book is dry, the humor so low-key it nears invisible, the pacing veers back and forth between being too quick and choppy to being too gently meandering, and it often doesn't bother explaining itself very clearly. It is a metaphysical book but the feel for the most part is mundane, corporeal, rooted in the day-to-day of office and family life, work conversations and polite, passive-aggressive banter. Open drama is kept to a mininum, as is the expression of blatant emotion. When the fantastic elements intrude and the mystical visions take over, it felt like I had turned the page and entered another book entirely, so based in reality is the majority of the story. This is a hard book to recommend. But I loved it, including all of its idiosyncracies; it is an excellent gateway into Charles Williams' unusual world view. I look forward to reading more of his strange adventures....more
Of course this is trash, but it was so creepy and absurd at times that I feel like I should give it more than 1 star. The so bad it's good-ness of it Of course this is trash, but it was so creepy and absurd at times that I feel like I should give it more than 1 star. The so bad it's good-ness of it all was kinda fascinating. This was a top YA novel a decade ago? Wow, that's wild.
synopsis: what happens when a boy stalker finally "reaches out" to the girl he's stalking, and also wants to kill, and it turns out she can be a stalker too, and then a third stalker tries to get between them and then all of a sudden there's a fourth stalker who's been there all along?
one of them is a fallen angel, another is a death angel, a third is a descendant of angels, and the fourth is having what's known as "trouble with angels". you figure out who is who, no spoilers allowed!
NEXT WILL BE SPOILERS but honestly who cares - if this is your kind of book, you should have read it already. and if you haven't by now, that doesn't matter either because the book is 10 years old and Young Adult years are like dog years so it has basically been around for what feels like 70 years and so you know all about it anyway.
I have so many parts of this book lodged up in my mind that I'm still dumbfounded by, I just don't know if I can list them all. I could go on and on about the worst best friend ever - I mean this girl doesn't just continually humiliate our heroine in public, she calls in a bomb threat to the high school to enable her buddy's stalking, and later tries to force her to go camping with some dude that just physically assaulted her (not the hero this time, and not even a stalker, just the third point on the love triangle) by excusing it as "he was just drunk" because LOL isn't that a great excuse! but I not only can't stand that character, she's not even a stalker either, so I'm not going to waste more time on Worst Best Friend. although I think I just wasted a lot of time on her.
instead I will just treasure the memory of that one stalking scene (so many to choose from) where the heroine goes from a booth in a restaurant to the bathroom to change into what appears to be a hooker outfit so that she can question a bartender at the same restaurant. that was definitely some creative stalking investigating and the hooker outfit was um completely necessary.
the hero has - in addition to chiseled abs, dangerous eyes that you can get lost in, and apparently a body that smells like a combination of mint and cigars (not joking) - quite a lot of mysterious powers. these powers include telepathy, which allows him to cheekily and sometimes sexily enter her mind to read her thoughts and sexually harass her and of course eventually save her life and - in another moment I will always treasure - help her do better at baseball.
I know that the other big controversy about this book besides the stalking is the hero's tendency to invade the heroine's personal space and get super handsy and say dirty things to her, often in the middle of class with the teacher egging him on, but I'm not going to critique that, because even though the heroine says she doesn't want him to do that she often realizes she loves it and then she often realizes she hates it because he's scary except that she actually loves it, he's so hot, except no she actually hates it, he's a predator, no he's her protector, except that he literally said he planned on killing her, except she thinks he can't possibly mean it, so she loves it, except she actually feels she hates it, except she actually loves it, no she hates how he chases her around the parking garage, well she may as well get a ride home from him after that, go ahead and invite yourself in and there are some knives you can wave around at me that's not threatening at all because he's just making tacos, no she hates it no she loves it no she actually doesn't appreciate being locked in a motel room with him, no she loves it, oops all of her clothes are soaked and there's only a towel to wear, oops his t-shirt is soaked better take it off, no she hates it, no, really, she loves it, so I guess it's all okay and consensual, and after all, he does love her! love wins!
fun fact: did you know there is a whole subgenre of erotic fiction devoted to "mind control"?
well everyone has their kinks, so I'm not judging. oh yes I am. Becca Fitzgerald clearly loves this subgenre. poor weak-minded Stalker #2 (our heroine) gets mind-controlled so hard and so long by Stalker #1 (hero) & Stalker #4 (final boss) that it goes from weird to confusing to uh oh am I reading about a fetish that the author accidentally decided to tell the world about? at first, it's relatively harmless mind control, like making you think your seat belt flew off and causing you to almost fall out of a roller coaster but you don't, LOL he's just messing with you, he doesn't really want to kill you, except he does. but at the *cough* climax, it's no longer just illusions anymore, boyfriend psychically enters girlfriend's body to literally control how her body moves, and it's just so literal I was like Author! c'mon! and of course it's to save her life so no harm no foul, that's kind of an assumed consent, right? make that body move bro, she loves it. oops, now she's dead. but don't worry - he also has the power to raise that hot teen body from the dead!
a happy ending: of course all's well that ends well because our hero levels up into a "guardian angel" (for real) and so now he gets to literally stalk her forever. and maybe a little mind control too, to keep things fresh?
Sometime in late 2011, after my great experience reading Catching Fire, I went on a giant Young Adult buying binge because I realized I had fallen wildly in love with the genre. Although that love eventually turned into more of an earnest and realistic friendship, I am still very fond of YA.
Anyway, here's what I've read and what I still need to read:
She sings a song to God, who listens. God in return gives her pain, sadness, loneliness, and above all else, love. God cherishes the martyrs and MarieShe sings a song to God, who listens. God in return gives her pain, sadness, loneliness, and above all else, love. God cherishes the martyrs and Mariette walks the martyr way, a thorny path and a bloody one. She sings a song about her love for God, and some of her sisters listen while others turn away, or seek to silence her song. She will sing on, relentless, to believers and disbelievers, true and false friends alike. She cannot help herself: she embraces her ecstasy, her martyrdom. Perhaps she was born to sing, to suffer, and so transcend.
Hansen sang his own song when writing this pristine novel. Each bride of Christ is given their moment, each moment is given its due. Their humanity is on display, small moments and large ones, generous gestures and mean ones, all are small pieces of the larger whole. The natural world is on display as well: the land and the seasons, the blooming of flowers, the coming of frost. Hansen exults in the minutiae - no act or thought or bloom or blade of grass is too small.
That is the lesson I took from this book: the living world is as alive with meaning as the spiritual world. And just as vital. Not a battleground, but a staging ground, or a testing ground. A journey as important as the destination. If our world is a consequence of God's will, an enactment of God's plan, then this world is as holy a place as God's land beyond....more
This is a story of a woman out of sorts with herself and with the world around her. The depth of characterization A SHELVING CONUNDRUM!
Literary Shelf?
This is a story of a woman out of sorts with herself and with the world around her. The depth of characterization and the high quality of the writing are incredibly impressive. All of her fears, her pride, her self-loathing, her idiosyncrasies, her need to be alone and in nature, her inability to relate to other human beings let alone mainstream society... all there, on the page, and explored with subtlety and compassion by an author who understands. The novel is a character study of a self-wounding iconoclast and offers much to consider, in particular for those of us who are insular, introverted, and often disdainful of the company of normies. Beyond that character study, Cloven Hooves is about relationships, about marriage and the bargains and insecurities constantly made and hidden, about motherhood, about the fragility of self and how challenging it can be to achieve balance and well-being during times of change, challenge, and loss. It is also a portrait of loneliness and what it feels like to be an outsider. This is a sad and very real book.
Nature Shelf?
The glorious descriptive passages illustrate its Alaskan and Washington State settings with a painter's eye and a nature lover's heart. Lindholm's prose is dazzling - if you not only love nature, but love reading about nature. Otherwise, I fear you may be quite bored, quite often. Cloven Hooves is a novel that celebrates the natural world in all of its beautiful, dangerous, ever-changing aspects. This is a book that marvels at forest, stream, and mountain.
Mythology Shelf?
The faun or satyr exists throughout many mythologies, but it is in Greek mythology where it most likely found lasting fame, where its cloven hooves and curling horns and randy nature were celebrated. And feared. The god Pan is of course the root of the word "panic". This is a book about Pan.
Fantasy Shelf?
Megan Lindholm is best known as "Robin Hobb" - author of multiple award-winning and popular fantasy series. She is noted for her realistic perspective and the sadness at the heart of many of her stories. I have seen her series described as anti-epics. Cloven Hooves is about the relationship between a faun and a human. The faun's nature is completely described, including its sexuality and its life cycle, its special abilities that set it apart, that protect and endanger it. It is clear that this creature, this person, is no human off-shoot. As realistically as Pan is portrayed, Pan and his ilk do not exist in our world. This is a fantasy novel, after all.
Romance Shelf?
Evelyn and Pan have loved each other since they were young, roaming around in the forest behind her childhood home in Alaska. Time marches on, and Evelyn finds herself married with a child, and now in Washington State at the mercy of uncaring, high-handed relatives who do not know how to deal with an awkward, quirky person like Evelyn. The loneliness that is at the heart of her, a loneliness that had been briefly hidden away by marriage and motherhood, resurfaces. And so Pan returns to her, in the nick of time, their love rekindling. Their love moves forward, from innocence to maturity, from carefree runs through the woods to explicitly described carnality to a partnership needed to survive the elements, to a caring and responsible family unit, when baby Pan arrives. The relationship is incredibly moving. This is a book about love, its changing nature and its constancy.
Donation Shelf?
My God, Evelyn drove me up the fucking wall! I could not stand her. Rarely have I met a character who was so incessantly frustrating with her whining and passive-aggressiveness and her inability to stick up for herself. Her mulish stubbornness and complete disinterest in genuinely connecting with anyone besides her child made this an often unpleasant and, at times, unbearable experience. I literally yelled at the page multiple times and often wanted to tear the book in half, I was so frequently aggravated. Despite Cloven Hooves' many virtues, I would rather be punched in the face than spend time with Evelyn again. This is a book that will be placed on my work's donation shelf....more
I thought this was beautifully written (no surprise there, given the author) but sad to say, it is my least favorite by McKillip so far. there was a kI thought this was beautifully written (no surprise there, given the author) but sad to say, it is my least favorite by McKillip so far. there was a kind of lifelessness to it, and the repetition of actions by the protagonist Rois became hard to bear. go to the forest and well; go to the brokedown mansion; go to the apothecary; go home. so circular.
and yet the circular actions and even the static lifelessness of the plot, when combined with how intense McKillip gets with her prose and all of the hallucinogenic imagery, made the experience a hypnotic one for me. despite not loving it, I didn't dislike it either. a frustrating but still fascinating book. this is a chamber piece where the chamber is very small and enclosed, but man the gorgeous design of the chamber itself still impresses.
I was feeling lazy, so I just copied (and edited) my comment from the great group Beyond Reality. one of the best groups on Goodreads! ...more
the book is serpentine: coldblooded, winding slowly, lengthily, inexorably, its coils as deadly as its sharp poisoned fangs, dry scales colored black the book is serpentine: coldblooded, winding slowly, lengthily, inexorably, its coils as deadly as its sharp poisoned fangs, dry scales colored black and red and green. black for deepest night, red for pulsing blood, green for the leafy woods. it was born in the heart of the forest but slips into places that the warmblooded frequent, searching for prey.
okay I think I've tortured that analogy enough, the book is like a snake, get it? time to move on. but I hope you appreciate snakes, like I do, because otherwise this book is not for you. and now for a synopsis.
synopsis: one character creates a second character and together they create a third character. this third character is the protagonist. so, eventually, is the second. the first character is the antagonist. the third character creates a fourth character. the second and the third characters create a fifth character. the fourth and fifth characters are also protagonists. all of these characters are born and die and are reborn. they turn into each other. they are immortal. they change and die often. confused yet? Tanith Lee doesn't give a shit if you are confused. this is her world and you are just living in it, for now at least.
the book is just that: Tanith Lee's world. I have followed this author since I was a teen and this anti-epic of epic length is the most perfect distillation of her entire ethos that I've experienced yet. her prose is ripely purple; her narrative is hallucinatory; her characters are often eerie ciphers. this book is like entering into her dreams. it makes perfect sense if you can understand its dream logic. you have to submerge your own expectations of what an epic novel looks and feels like to fully enter Tanith Lee's world of dreams and share her fascination with fate and (im)mortality and death and renewal and faith. maybe time for another synopsis now.
synopsis: there are two Gods: the Christus and the Son of the Forest. and so there are two sacrifices: both are nailed to wood, both die in service of humanity, both die to be reborn. both are worshiped, sometimes interchangeably. the ritual of drinking blood is sacred to both. are they the same God? if there is only one God, is all worship therefore to that one God? perhaps, perhaps not. one God wants to save you, the other wants to... well, that God's motivations are unknowable, like the forest. perhaps he wants to eat you?
despite her coldblooded nature, despite the coldness of the book and the uncaring quality of the world she has created, Tanith Lee is still an understanding author. this is a savage medieval world that she has borne and she understands that in such a world, women and the disabled get the shaft, in all variations of that word. this is a world controlled by men (and the women who abet them) who scorn women and who loathe disabilities, men who seldom spare a thought for the women and the disabled that they use as they would beasts of burden. and so she makes her heroes women, she makes them disabled, she makes them the most neglected and abused. this can be a tough world to read about. it can also be a grimly satisfying world to read about, as those that are trodden upon rise up, reborn, sometimes literally, to destroy those that have used them so poorly.
synopsis: the Son of the Forest has been reborn into human shape and takes mortal guise, as a priest of Christ; his powers dark and fearsome and above all, bloody. an elder son falls victim to supernatural forces and becomes misshapen, a joke among men, an easy sacrifice; he will rise again, and again. a woman is created, fulfills a purpose not her own, is discarded, is reborn; she is mother and then nemesis and then unifier. a dwarf is created, a shadow self that creates its own life, a joke that will make a joke of others, a little person that will become big. a daughter is born and then reborn, to live as chattel and slave, to live as slayer and avenger, to be a culmination. time passes, centuries like days, and these characters live on, intent on purposes unknowable even to themselves. such is life!...more
Let's be specific here because enquiring minds want to know:
- White bread - Tinned meat with a pinch of salt - And what exactly is this "Food of Death"?
Let's be specific here because enquiring minds want to know:
- White bread - Tinned meat with a pinch of salt - Cheap Indian tea - Champagne - Food "recommended for invalids" - Milk & borax!
Thus fed, Death arose ravening, strong, and strode again through the cities.
Er... yay? Maybe 'tis not for the best to feed Death. Also, besides the champagne, I can't say I'm a big fan of the Death Diet. Sounds like a recipe for staying hungry.
So these fifty-one tales are prose poems by one of England's great classic writers, the fabulous Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany. He died in 1957 and more than 90 of his books were published in his lifetime. He held the second-oldest title in Irish peerage, lived in Ireland's longest-inhabited castle - Dunsany Castle, of course - and was married to the same lovely lady for the entirety of his life, Beatrice Child Villiers (and thank you very much for all of that, Wikipedia). Here are photos of the charming couple:
Back to the work under inspection. Unfortunately I was usually bored. Perhaps it is the very nature of prose poems that bores me? I dunno. I have loved Lord Dunsany in the past: a big fan in college and, much later, I was fascinated by The King of Elfland's Daughter. He is a gorgeous stylist, his sardonic detachment spices up his dreamy nature, and he spins yarns full of mythic fantasy and ambiguous horror... all of which should make him automatically up my alley. But these fifty-one tales didn't surprise me and often caused eye-rolling. They are mainly little parables about Death walking about, grumpy, and the North Wind winding down, even grumpier, and Pan dying then waking up, probably horny, and various poets mooning over various things, and other similar sorts of fables. The whole collection felt so twee and so obvious. Yes, Man will fall. Yes, Nature is beautiful. Yes, industrialized civilizations are awfully dirty and societies will inevitably turn to dust, as shall we all. Yes, yes, and yes. Got it. Despite the loveliness of his writing style, the obviousness killed me. Fortunately it did not kill my interest in the good Lord, who I will be reading again. One strike does not equal an out.
There were a couple pieces that I rather enjoyed. "Furrow Maker" has two birds discussing the fortunes of that notorious furrow-maker, Man (and his companion, that "nasty fellow" named Dog). And "True History of the Hare and the Tortoise" exhibits a fun mean streak from the author: after being quite impressed that the Tortoise beat the Hare in a footrace, his fellow woodland creatures decide that the speedy Tortoise is best-suited to warn a forest's residents that a terrible fire is approaching. Oops. Not a great call, woodland creatures....more
There is a broken sword and there is a broken thing, a changeling, the story's villain. There is a man and a woman and both shall be broken as well; lThere is a broken sword and there is a broken thing, a changeling, the story's villain. There is a man and a woman and both shall be broken as well; love shall bind them and love shall break them. There are elves that rape their prisoners and trolls that mourn their lost daughters; Odin disguised as Lucifer and Lucifer coming to mock and offer no succor, even to those who swear fealty. There is a White God, bringing change: all shall fear Him. There is a wintry saga, cold and bleak: The Broken Sword.
A witch smiles in joy at her rat familiar, gleeful at the breaking they have wrought. A woman mourns the devastation of her family, longing for death and finding it. A story brings together all the legends and myths and races and gods, and breaks them, binds them, breaks them again. An author writes of grim destiny in words calm and clear and remorseless, finding the poetry in broken things and the breaking then reshaping of the world. A reader read a broken paperback, and marveled at the sublime despair. A book sang, from tattered pages came such sad and terrible songs. Alas!...more
A rather awe-inspiring piece of sacrilege. Had to ignore my status as a God-lover to enjoy it, but hey Beware of Lazarus, he does not bring Good News!
A rather awe-inspiring piece of sacrilege. Had to ignore my status as a God-lover to enjoy it, but hey these are godless times so that didn't turn out to be so difficult. Sorry, God. I will make it up to You later.
The author posits the raising of the dead man Lazarus by Jesus as a return of the living dead. But more than that: the returned Lazarus is not just dead-alive, he deadens those he casts his gaze upon. This Lazarus emits a field of entropy. To meet Lazarus is to be consumed by the realization that life is futile and meaningless; to meet Lazarus is not to meet Death, it is to meet the emptiness of Life, of existence itself.
Profoundly pessimistic and chilling in its disillusionment. A refutation of Christian ideals and goals. All your joys become ashes in the mouth, dust in the wind. There is no escape because there is nothing to escape to. And yet its nihilism does not bore, it excites. This is horror, gorgeously written and beautifully challenging horror.
Examining the often bitter and ultimately sad life of its Russian author, the once highly-praised Leonid Andreyez, considered the father of Expressionism in Russia (thank you, Wikipedia)... one realizes that the man was not simply a fiery or embittered radical, he was an idealist. One who empathized powerfully with humanity's struggles. As are many of the atheists that I know.
“I want to be the apostle of self destruction. I want my book to affect man’s reason, his emotions, his nerves, his whole animal nature. I should like my book to make people turn pale with horror as they read it, to affect them like a drug, like a terrifying dream, to drive them mad, to make them curse and hate me but still to read me and… to kill themselves.”
Oh, Leonid. I know you don't mean that last part....more
an excellent finale for a smashing series. I particularly appreciated how the chapters alternated between magical duo Will & Bran and the resolutely "an excellent finale for a smashing series. I particularly appreciated how the chapters alternated between magical duo Will & Bran and the resolutely "normal" Drew children, showing their differing reactions to the Rising. everything comes together nicely in the end. special shout-out to a superb new villain: The White Rider! *swoon* yes, I'm swooning for an infernal, chaos-loving, completely dastardly Lord of the Dark. The White Rider gave me some wonderful chills, especially during the train ride reveal.
for me: The Dark Is Rising > The Grey King > Silver on the Tree > Greenwitch > Over Sea, Under Stone
different ratings for different books; overall the series is 5 stars. a favorite among all of the series I've read. I found that in my 2nd and sometimes 3rd reread that my feelings about the individual novels have pretty much stayed the same.
there's enough excellent reviews out there for this book that I'm not sure I have much more to say. except one thing, in response to my friend Alex who made a comment on an earlier book's review thread. the comment was basically sharing their dislike of a scene in this book where Will and members of his family stick up for a bullied Indian child and then face off against the bully's smiling racist of a father. the dislike is understandable: Alex felt it was yet another example of white people rescuing poor lil' brown people.
this brown person (tan, really) begs to differ! they are quite far from being condescending throwaway scenes, ones created only to illustrate the Stanton family's essential goodness. in many ways, these scenes are the heart and the point of the whole series. specifically, what is causing The Dark to rise at this point in human history?
we've had hints in prior books about a previous Rising, and in this book we have the whole story: that Rising was the brutal incursion of Vikings and the wholesale slaughter of those that they came across; the whispers of The Dark are behind those invasions, making those particular incursions different from other such atrocities. in that first Rising, the idea is that humans have become inured to slaughtering other humans, and The Dark has taken advantage of that tendency and turned it into a blank apathy or a mindless cruelty. a disinterest in anything besides slaughter.
this modern Rising is different, except for its basic mindlessness and blankness, cruelty and apathy. those things are not necessarily transformed into atrocity. that mindless apathy and blank cruelty instead become a new sort of tool and weapon for The Dark: namely, the complacent and knee-jerk rejection of difference - as embodied by attitudes towards immigrants from exploited former colonial territories - and the tendency to reject that difference without empathy or any attempt to understand those immigrants' context and England's role in creating that context. this is a political point and a comment on human nature that Cooper is explicitly making. it is important to recognize that point if the reader truly wants to understand what Cooper is describing as a modern evil. indeed, this evil is the very source of how the dark is able to spread, and to rise.
all the world's a kitchen! a great steamy kitchen, full of cooks and servers, pluckers and cutters, a head chef and a tray mistress, spit-boys and a pall the world's a kitchen! a great steamy kitchen, full of cooks and servers, pluckers and cutters, a head chef and a tray mistress, spit-boys and a pot scrubber. all the food that is birthed there! so many tasty treats and delicious dishes, made for the lords and ladies and assorted gentry, but enough that can be picked at, pecked at, pulled from the bottom of a pan, enough of those leftovers to feed the loudly bustling world that lives in the kitchen.
a list of characters and events would make this novel sound like the grandest of sagas: full of shape-shifting wizards and doleful ghosts and fearsome enmity; a Faerie Queen in the wood and her stolen husband and daughter, both transformed; a battlefield full of slaughtered soldiers, a monstrous Hunter created by a curse and destined to return and slaughter again; whirlwinds of magic that transform and steal away. despite all of that grandeur, all of the fey and the strange... for me, the most magical parts of The Book of Atrix Wolfe was all of the time our lowly pot-scrubber spent in that world-within-a-world of a castle kitchen.
McKillip is a wizard with the words, as usual. perfectly formed phrases, pellucid prose, ah the elegant loveliness of it all. the novel continues her love affair with words themselves: words as evanescent things that may often define us but are just as often, in the end, unreliable and certainly subject to change - and update! The Book of Atrix Wolfe is primarily concerned with how we should acknowledge our mistakes while still forgiving ourselves and moving on. these are regularly appearing ideals throughout McKillip's works: we cannot run from our past actions, but instead must learn from them; despite how they may reshape us, those mistakes need not define our future. in her own fey, strange way, McKillip is a moralist. although not a strident, cold one that preaches; she is an empathetic and loving moralist, one that teaches....more
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