Chaos, death by the magical Ash Blood plague and by monstrous beasts have consumed the country of YstFinal review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Chaos, death by the magical Ash Blood plague and by monstrous beasts have consumed the country of Ystara, killing all who remain within its borders. The last survivors, holed up in a cathedral, speculate that this disaster must have been caused by a “ferociously single-minded” young mage, Liliath, whose unprecedented power to call on angels, particularly the archangel Palleniel, has somehow led to things going catastrophically awry.
One hundred thirty-seven years later, Liliath awakes from her magical sleep in the temple of Saint Marguerite, in the neighboring country of Sarance. The weakened angel who awakened her informs Lilith that there are now suitable candidates for her plan — though only four rather than the hundreds she envisioned. But four will do.
Liliath’s targets are four young people who have met in Lutace, the capital of Sarance:
۩ Simeon, a very large black young man who is an intelligent and dedicated doctor-in-training; ۩ Agnez, a brand-new Musketeer cadet whose talent with the sword is equaled by her reckless courage; ۩ Henri, a lowly redheaded clerk with a talent for numbers and a hope for finding his fortune; ۩ Dorotea, a gifted icon-maker whose unusual ability to quickly sketch icons that angels will answer to leads to her imprisonment in the Tower of the Star Fortress at the hands of Captain Camille Rochefort.
Still beautiful, still age nineteen to all appearances, Liliath renews her quest to be physically united with Palleniel, the angel she loves. She gathers new followers from the Ystaran refugees living in Sarance, but they are weakened by their inability to tolerate the touch of angelic magic, which turns their blood to ash or even turns them into one of the feared beastlings. The Ystarans or “Refusers” are treated as untouchables. Liliath’s leadership offers them new hope … but where is she leading them, and why?
Garth Nix’s latest fantasy novel Angel Mage is a four Musketeers type of tale set in a somewhat gritty fantasy world, an analogue of seventeenth century western Europe. In the map that appears at the beginning of the book, Spain is called Ystara and France is Sarance, with Lutace taking the place of Paris. The name changes and physical differences between Angel Mage’s map and the real western Europe drive home the point that one shouldn’t expect simply a retelling of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Angel Mage has its own unique plot, focused on Liliath’s stunningly self-centered scheme.
Although Simeon, Agnez, Henri and Dorotea all become Queen’s Musketeers, for three of them it’s mostly just a courtesy title. Their characters don’t really track the original four Musketeers in any meaningful way, except that a deep friendship and loyalty develops between them, despite their differences. Several characters from The Three Musketeers do appear in Angel Mage, although they are generally older and play supporting roles. Dartagnan, for example, is a 40-year-old woman who’s now the captain of the Musketeers (and yes, it’s Dartagnan without an apostrophe here).
Angel Mage is loaded with racial and sexual diversity; society in this world is fully and unquestioningly accepting of different races (of our four heroes, three are darker-skinned), genders, and sexual orientations. Most of the powerful characters are female, including the Queen of Sarance, Dartagnan, Cardinal Duplessis (which was the real-life name of Cardinal Richelieu), and Captain Rochefort. Two of the four musketeer friends are female, including Agnez, by far the best fighter. Not to mention the arch-villain and “Angel Mage” of the title, Liliath, who (in a move that will tickle Musketeers fans) is occasionally called Milady. Certainly Liliath is the kindred spirit of Dumas’ Milady, though their motivations and schemes are entirely different. At the same time, her name Liliath also evokes Lilith, the mythical femme fatale.
Nix’s magical system in Angel Mage is pleasingly complex. The angels in this novel are more secular than religious in nature, essentially winged spirits from another dimension. Angels are summoned by icons (usually in the form of rings or other jewelry) to exercise their magic for the benefit of the person holding the icon. Interestingly, calling on angels carries an often-steep price: you lose days, months or even years of your life, physically aging your body each time you use the icon, depending on the power and standing of the angel and the scope of the request. Liliath, however, has found a highly dubious way to avoid the aging effect, making her even more dangerous.
Angel Mage is more deliberately-paced than quick moving, but I enjoyed the world-building, the intriguing details relating to angelic magic, and the appealing characters. Nix’s unusual take on the legendary Musketeers and their encounters with the lethally dangerous Liliath is worth taking the time to savor.
P.S. This book has one of my favorite covers of the year.
Initial post: A hardback copy of this book just unexpectedly landed on my doorstep today, courtesy of the publicist, Wunderkind PR. Garth Nix's latest! How cool is that? And it's a fantasy inspired by the Three Musketeers!...more
Starting off October with an Edgar Allen Poe detective mystery! "The Purloined Letter" is one of Poe's more memorable stories, featuring his amateur dStarting off October with an Edgar Allen Poe detective mystery! "The Purloined Letter" is one of Poe's more memorable stories, featuring his amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin, who could give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.
This story is more analytical than adventurous: Dupin and his friend, the narrator of the tale, sit in a dimly lit library, enjoying their pipes and their company, when the prefect of the Parisian police comes in with a tale of woe: Reading between the lines a little, the Queen of France has received a love letter that would compromise and ruin her if it became public. The letter was stolen by an unscrupulous minister, who is now using it to blackmail her. The prefect (motivated in part by a huge reward for finding the letter) has secretly searched the minister's home every night for three months, using the best searching techniques, and can't find it. Everyone agrees that the letter MUST be in his home somewhere. But where? Dupin gives a hint right at the start of the story, but the prefect doesn't pick up on it (in fact, he ridicules it).
There's some delightful characterization and humor in this story. There's also a bit too much abstruse and tedious talk about logic and deduction (after trying to wade through these parts for a while, I gave up and skimmed). I have to say I'm not entirely convinced by the logical underpinnings of the story, despite all the fancy reasoning.
But (other than the tedious bits) it's a fun detective story with a really great conclusion. You can read this 1844 story online many places, including here: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/POE...
Bonus: Translations of some of the Latin and French phrases in this story: - "Nil sapientiae odiosus acumine nimio" (Seneca): "Nothing is so hateful to wisdom as an excess of cleverness". - Non distributio medii: the fallacy of the undistributed middle (a logical fallacy). - "Il y a a parier que toute idee publique, toute convention recue, est un sottise, car elle a convenue a plus grand nombre": you can bet on the fact that any idea and convention that is widely accepted is wrong, for it is simply convenient to the greatest number. - "Facilis descensus Averni": descent into hell is easy. "Averni" translates to "Hell" because Lake Avernus was believed to be the entrance to the underworld. - "Un dessein si funeste/S'il n'est digne d'Atree, est digne de Thyeste": a scheme so hateful, if it is not worthy of Atreus, is worthy of Thyestes, or alternatively: "So grievous a plan, if not worthy of Atree, is dignified by Thyeste." (Atreus & Thyestes were feuding twin brothers in Greek mythology. Thyestes sleeps with Atreus' wife; Atreus gets revenge by killing Thyestes' children and serving them to Thyestes in a stew which Thyestes eats. Thyestes then gets revenge by consulting an oracle, which advises to have a son who would then kill Atreus.)
In this 1958 novel by Rumer Godden (one of those once well-known authors that I’d never heard of before I started han4.5 stars.
[image] Greengage plums
In this 1958 novel by Rumer Godden (one of those once well-known authors that I’d never heard of before I started hanging out online with GR friends who love older books), five English children, ages 5 to 16, are taken by their mother to France for an educational vacation - touring the battlefields of France so they’ll have more appreciation for the sacrifices of others. The kids will get a life lesson, all right: it’s just not the one their mother intended.
Their mother is bitten on the leg by a horsefly just before the trip and winds up in the hospital; the children end up living largely unsupervised at their hotel for a few weeks. A gentleman who’s sleeping with one of the proprietors of the hotel takes them under his wing, at least to some extent, but it’s clear from the start that he has his own reasons for keeping them around.
The Greengage Summer is a coming of age story, narrated by 13 year old Cecil (a girl), that starts out very languid and slow-paced, but then the tension starts building as they realize something is very off with one of their friends at the hotel, and (view spoiler)[some horrifying events happen (hide spoiler)]. I couldn’t put it down for the second half.
The greengage plums used in the title have an interesting symbolism: they're so sweet, but these phrases and words were typically used in connection with them:
"we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages" "as if the first greengage had been an Eden apple, I was suddenly older and wiser" "There were a few, on the trees, overripe in the sun but still firm under the leaves; I ate both kinds and they added to the chaotic feeling in my stomach." "Greengage indigestion!"
This summer was a definitely a loss of Eden experience for the Grey siblings.
It’s a rather sobering look into human nature and our weaknesses. The characterization is excellent, subtle and with depth, and sometimes disturbing. If you like I Capture the Castle, give The Greengage Summer a read.
Well worth reading, but there’s a ton of mostly-untranslated French in it. Good thing the Kindle has a translation feature! I used it constantly.
January 2019 group read with the Retro Reads group.
Content notes: some adult material, though not explicit, including lots of swearing in French that mostly went over my head because the Kindle translated it into pretty innocuous words. 😂...more
I'm tickled to say that this 1922 horror short story by H.P. Lovecraft doesn't use the word "eldritch," not even once. It does, however, have insane vI'm tickled to say that this 1922 horror short story by H.P. Lovecraft doesn't use the word "eldritch," not even once. It does, however, have insane viol playing, the "blackness of space illimitable," and a strange, narrow street in Paris that, even though the narrator once lived there, can never be found again.
I'm just a dabbler with the horror genre generally and Lovecraft in particular, but this was a creepily enjoyable story. Read it free online here at the H.P. Lovecraft website.
The adventures of the gallant-hearted young heroine Arabella Ashby continue in Arabella and the BattlFull review, first posted on Fantasy Literature.
The adventures of the gallant-hearted young heroine Arabella Ashby continue in Arabella and the Battle of Venus, David D. Levine’s warmhearted melding of steampunk, retro science fiction à la Jules Verne, and the Napoleonic wars. In this sequel to Arabella of Mars, Arabella receives a battered letter from fiancé Captain Singh, regretfully informing her that he and his ship, the Diana, along with all his crew, have been captured by the French and are being held as prisoners of war on Venus. Though Captain Singh insists in his letter that Arabella remain on Mars, Arabella is not one to accept a bad situation without trying to do something to help … especially once her investigation reveals that Napoleon’s cruel and bloodthirsty minister of police, Fouché, is heading to Venus and will be the chief gaoler over Captain Singh and his men.
So Arabella gathers all the funds she can and leaves her Mars plantation to go to Venus. Accompanying her, at the insistence of her brother, is a chaperone, the widowed Lady Corey, who tries with limited success to instill more ladylike behavior in Arabella. They fly to Venus on the ship Touchstone, captained by the attractive Captain Fox, whose flattering attentions to Arabella might just give her second thoughts about her plans to marry Captain Singh.
Unfortunately, once the Touchstone gets close to Venus, Arabella’s heroic plans run into some major roadblocks. Now she has to deal with French captors, their Venusian servants and slaves, and a prison camp where life is brutally harsh and dangerous. At least she’s in the company of Captain Singh ― but his behavior, though distantly affectionate, is oddly elusive and secretive. When Napoleon Bonaparte himself shows up with his wife Marie Louise, everything Arabella and the other British prisoners are trying to accomplish is threatened.
Arabella and the Battle of Venus is, like Arabella of Mars, a cleverly conceived and executed novel. Levine spins a story incorporating elements from both early science fiction and actual history, weaving in real people from the Napoleonic era. It’s not only major players like Napoleon and Admiral Lord Nelson, but also less well known historical figures like British Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, the American inventor Robert Fulton (who did spend some years in France, designing steamboat engines, submarines, and torpedoes), and the merciless police minister Joseph Fouché. Sailing ships ― with a few tweaks ― function as spaceships in this universe.
Arabella and the Battle of Venus is, at the same time, a grimmer story than Arabella of Mars. While the element of nautical adventures in space still plays a role in this tale, a large chunk of the story takes place in a muggy, gloomy French prison camp on the surface of Venus, where death and permanent injury are a constant threat, and prisoners of war are routinely treated inhumanely by their captors. It’s a claustrophobic time, lightened only by the element of intrigue. It’s a distinct breath of fresh air when the action finally returns to space.
The green-skinned Venusian aboriginal natives are derogatively called “froggies” by many characters, echoing the slur the British used for the French themselves. But the Venusians’ more important role is to put a face on the problem of slavery. The problem is not just the French enslaving the Venusians, but some tribes of natives enslaving others. The natives’ physiology and culture turn out to be more complex and advanced than Arabella initially realized, and she and others come to appreciate and even need the Venusians.
Captain Singh is a paragon ― Arabella thinks of him as “the most intelligent, the bravest, and the most honorable” man she’s ever known ― but their relationship feels a little distant. That may be a deliberate function of Levine’s nod to Regency era manners in the style of writing and the proper behavior of … well, at least some of the characters. Levine effectively captures many of the mannerisms of the Regency era, while giving the story its distinctive retro SF spin. But he’s able to combine that with a more modern, enlightened point of view towards colonialism, slavery and sexism. Arabella and the Battle of Venus is both enlightening and a gripping adventure!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review. Thank you!!...more
[image] I've always had a thing for books that use the Scarlet Pimpernel trope: the intelligent, capable person who hides behind a mask of inanity. So [image] I've always had a thing for books that use the Scarlet Pimpernel trope: the intelligent, capable person who hides behind a mask of inanity. So Emma Orczy gets extra points from me for popularizing this secret identity plot device in her 1905 book The Scarlet Pimpernel.
It's 1792, the early days of the French Revolution, and the Reign of Terror is at its peak: thousands of French aristocrats, men, women and children, are sent to the guillotine, regardless of actual fault. But a group of brave English noblemen, led by the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, are rescuing many of the condemned French aristocrats and spiriting them away to England. French authorities are outraged.
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Meanwhile, Marguerite St. Just, a lovely French actress who inexplicably married the slow-witted, foppish but extremely wealthy Sir Percy Blakeney, is having issues in her marriage: she thought her rather foolish husband adored her, but they've drifted far apart, ever since she confessed to him that her accusation against a French noble family resulted in their deaths, while being too proud to explain the whole story to him. She's not quite sure why, but now she finds she misses the adoration of the big galoot.
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But Marguerite has worse problems: the French envoy to England is blackmailing her into spying for him, so he can find out who the Scarlet Pimpernel is and make sure he dies the next time he sets foot in France. If she doesn't cooperate, her beloved brother Armand will be guillotined.
This is an old-fashioned adventure/romance novel, not all that well written and not terribly deep, but an easy, enjoyable read, for a hundred year old book anyway. It frequently gets high on the melodrama (I about lost it when Sir Percy passionately kisses the places Marguerite's feet and hand have touched, half-crazed with frustrated love) and it's incurably pro-aristocracy, though Baroness Orczy reluctantly admits that some of the French nobility had caused much suffering for the common people. And Marguerite, for a person who's supposed to be the cleverest woman in all of France and England, sure got smacked hard on the head by the Oblivious Fairy's wand.
But the exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel and his merry band are well-plotted and exciting to read, and the romantic relationship is unusual: can two married people who don't really understand each other and have become estranged, ever work things out?
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I totally got sucked into it and was all, d'awww! at the end. Good times!...more
I'm not the target audience for straight-up YA romances any more, but I probably would have adored this book when I was younger. It's a charming storyI'm not the target audience for straight-up YA romances any more, but I probably would have adored this book when I was younger. It's a charming story. There's a little too much teenage relationship drama for my taste, but Stephanie Perkins did a great job evoking the world of an international, posh boarding school set in France. That, and her skill in drawing realistic, flawed but sympathetic characters, are what really set this book apart from your standard teen romance novel.
Anna Oliphant is a high school senior from Atlanta, Georgia, forced by her father to go to the "School of America in Paris" ... even though she speaks no French. In her first couple of days at SOAP, she makes some new friends, a very varied and interesting crowd, including Étienne St. Clair, a short but very attractive guy, who's in a long-term relationship with a former SOAP student who's now graduated. The book follows Anna through her year at SOAP as she deals with friendships, an almost-but-not-quite romance with St. Clair, and learning to appreciate living in Paris.
The main characters have a hard time communicating clearly about important things and give each other SO MANY mixed signals, though that's actually not hard to believe with high school-aged characters. There's some emotional relationship cheating involved that's troubling; I could have done without that plot element. But overall, definitely a worthwhile read for me.
Content note: high school relationships with sex. It's realistically done, and there's nothing explicit, but not for "clean reads only" readers....more
3.5 stars. This is a dual-timeline historical fiction novel, about the arrests of Jewish families in France during WWII and their terrible experiences3.5 stars. This is a dual-timeline historical fiction novel, about the arrests of Jewish families in France during WWII and their terrible experiences, focusing on the actual historic Vel' d'Hiv' roundup in July 1942, and a modern journalist's investigation of that event and her search for some of the people involved.
[image] The inside of the Vélodrome d'Hiver bicycle stadium, demolished in 1959
In the 1942 timeline, in Paris: a 10 year old girl is arrested with her Polish mother and father in the middle of the night. Her 3 or 4 year old brother, terrified, hides himself in their secret hiding place, a hidden cupboard. Sarah locks him in, assuring him that she'll be back in a few hours. Instead her family is taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver, a bicycle stadium, where they and thousands of other Jewish families, including many children, were held in deplorable conditions, without enough food, water or sanitary facilities, for 5 days before being sent on to prison camps. The family, frantic to get their little boy, plead with the police, but nothing is done.
In the other timeline, the year 2002, also in Paris: Julia Jarmond, an American journalist married to a Frenchman, who has lived in Paris for about 25 years, is asked to write an article about the Vel' d'Hiv's roundup on its 60th anniversary. As she investigates, she finds that her husband's family home is where Sarah's family lived before they were arrested. Julia feels compelled to investigate this particular aspect of the tragedy, and gets involved deeper and deeper, despite resistance from her husband and others.
This book had a major impact on me, and when I first finished it I thought it was an easy 4 stars, despite some significant weaknesses in characterization and what felt like author manipulation. But in the cold light of morning those things are bothering me more. The characters, especially the present-day ones, are mostly stereotypes: the suave, cheating French husband, the wise-beyond-her-years daughter, the over-eager nurse at an abortion facility, people hiding old secrets with a stiff upper lip. It's pretty well written, but they're still thin. It's also an emotionally manipulative book, from Sarah's experiences to Julia's love life. I felt like the author was too obvious in pushing the reader to feel in certain ways.
But there were a couple of unexpected twists for me in the plot, and the Vel' d'Hiv' plotline is truly compelling. It brought tears to my eyes. I don't regret reading it at all, if only because I'm glad to know more about this tragic historical event. ...more
Helen MacInnes' 1963 Cold War spy thriller still packs a pretty good punch.
Bill Fenner, one of those competent amateur sleuths/spies that MacInnes isHelen MacInnes' 1963 Cold War spy thriller still packs a pretty good punch.
Bill Fenner, one of those competent amateur sleuths/spies that MacInnes is fond of, is a drama critic and an ex-journalist, and also an ex-operative of sorts. He travels from New York City to Paris, I think to write a play and vacation? Anyway, neither of those things happens. He starts with an accidentally traded raincoat in a fortuitous airport mixup, finds a major surprise hidden in the other person's raincoat, makes contact with some embassy folks, and it all kind of goes wild from there. Oh, and there's a girl, another amateur spy of sorts. She's quite competent as well, with some allowances for 1960s culture.
I was rather bored by the first half and was having some trouble keeping all of the players straight, but once our main characters jumped on a train going from Paris to Venice and more pieces of the conspiracy were disclosed, everything started coming together for me. I couldn't put this book down while I was reading the second half.
2 1/2 stars for the first half but 5 for the second half. And now I really want to travel to Venice. :)
4.5 stars for this swashbuckling historical novel, written in 1921 by Rafael Sabatini, set during French Revolution times in the late 1700s. Andre-Lou4.5 stars for this swashbuckling historical novel, written in 1921 by Rafael Sabatini, set during French Revolution times in the late 1700s. Andre-Louis Moreau is a young lawyer of unknown parentage, but has a protective godfather, Quentin de Kercadiou, a local lord in Brittany, France. Andre-Louis is very fond of de Kercadiou’s niece Aline, so when he finds out she’s planning on accepting a proposal from the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr for practical reasons, not love, he’s deeply disappointed. Things get worse when the Marquis, accosted by Andre-Louis’s best friend Philippe for having his gamekeeper shoot a poaching villager and leaving the villager’s family destitute, picks a fight with Philippe and ends up killing him in a duel with swords.
One thing leads to another, and soon Andre-Louis is on the run from de la Tour d'Azyr’s vengeance, with revenge in his own heart. We follow his adventures through the next few years, including taking up with a group of traveling theater players and learning to be an excellent swordsman. As a player, his chief role is as Scaramouche, a clown character who’s also a schemer. It fits his actual character extremely well. The hand of fate keeps bringing Andre-Louis back into contact with de la Tour d'Azyr until the tension-filled finale.
I enjoyed Scaramouche more than I expected: It’s a quick-paced story, and Sabatini manages to combine adventure and romance with some truly insightful writing. And as a bonus, I got Bohemian Rhapsody stuck in my brain for a few days!
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So this happened.
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This novel was first published in 1921, so it's free on Project Gutenberg. Mamma mia!
3.75 stars. This is a less well-known historical novel by British author William John Locke, with pretty good writing and some unexpectedly insightful3.75 stars. This is a less well-known historical novel by British author William John Locke, with pretty good writing and some unexpectedly insightful twists and turns in the main character's road toward the end that bumped my rating up from 3 stars. It's rather long-winded at times, but that kind of goes with the territory in most of these older novels. :) I didn't love this novel as much as a couple of my GR friends, but I don't regret the time spent with Paragot and his two followers, the London urchin Asticot and the stolid, plain peasant girl, Blanquette, who develops an unrequited love for the much-older Paragot. Paragot, though, is nursing a broken heart from many years ago, for Reasons, and gave up his prior life and position to become a wanderer (and more often that not, a drunkard, drowning his sorrows in alcohol). The book got much more interesting for me once Paragot's past catches up with him and he has some decisions to make about his life.
Content notes/TWs: I'm not sure if Paragot is an alcoholic, but he definitely abuses drink. There's also a (major spoiler here)(view spoiler)[a romance between a world-weary man who's maybe around 35-40 and a worshipful girl who's about 19 or 20, which was probably a lot more acceptable when this was written over a hundred years ago (hide spoiler)].
Original post: I pulled up this 1906 novel by William John Locke yesterday and started reading it (based on a strong recommendation from Hana). It's a historical novel about a rather eccentric wandering philosopher and musician who adopts an urchin and a teenage girl who are at loose ends, and they go tramping around England and France as itinerant musicians. But it's clear that the musician has A Past, and it looks like that's catching up to him ...
It's making for an interesting change of pace from my usual types of reads. :)...more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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