Book Review: Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Pros: fun characters, lively story

Cons:

Evie loves healing people and her favourite patient is her best friend, Wormy. But at 15 she thinks they’re both too young to marry, so when he proposes she says ‘no’. They’re both shocked when an angry fairy turns Evie into an ogre because of it. Now Evie has 62 days to find true love or she’ll remain an ogre forever.

This book takes place in the same worlds as Ella Enchanted, one generation before the events of that novel.

I loved Evie. She’s smart and determined. And she has a lot to learn about people, and love, and not much time in which to learn it all. The book is fast paced and lively.

I enjoyed learning more about the ogres and how they interact with each other.

I was a little sad seeing Lady Eleanor, considering how her story ends, though I thought the author handled her inclusion well.

As an adult I would have liked some commentary on how using a love potion or persuasive magic to get someone to fall in love with you is morally wrong (and won’t bring you happiness as you’ll always be afraid of the effects wearing off).

On the whole it was a fun read.

Shout-Out: Cogheart by Peter Bunzl

Thirteen-year-old Lily Harman always dreamed of adventure. A strong-willed girl, Lily felt trapped in a life of Victorian stuffiness at her prim boarding school. But after her father-a famous inventor-disappears on a routine zeppelin flight, Lily's life gets turned upside down.

Now cared for by her guardian, the heartless Madame Verdigris, Lily is quite certain that she's being watched. Mysterious, silver-eyed men are lurking in the shadows, just waiting for their chance to strike. But what could they possibly want from her?

There are rumors, Lily learns, that her father had invented the most valuable invention ever made-a perpetual motion machine. But if he made such a miraculous discovery, he certainly never told Lily. And all he left behind is a small box-with no key, no hinges.

With the help of a clockmaker's son, Robert, and her mechanimal fox, Malkin, Lily escapes London in search of the one person who might know something about her father's disappearance-and what he left behind.

Shout-Out: The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray by E. Latimer

Bryony Gray is becoming famous as a painter in London art circles. But life isn't so grand. Her uncle keeps her locked in the attic, forcing her to paint for his rich clients . . . and now her paintings are taking on a life of their own, and customers are going missing under mysterious circumstances.

When her newest painting escapes the canvas and rampages through the streets of London, Bryony digs into her family history, discovering some rather scandalous secrets her uncle has been keeping, including a deadly curse she's inherited from her missing father. Bryony has accidentally unleashed the Gray family curse, and it's spreading fast.

With a little help from the strange-but-beautiful girl next door and her paranoid brother, Bryony sets out to break the curse, dodging bloodthirsty paintings, angry mobs and her wicked uncle along the way.

Shout-Out: Voyagers

It's nice to see more middle grade science fiction coming out.  Hooking kids on reading when they're young is important if we want a robust future SF/F readership.  This is a series of 6 books, each written by a different author.

The first book Project Alpha, came out last year:

The entire future of our planet will soon be in the hands of four kids. Sure, they’ll be the best in the world . . . but can they save the world?

Earth is about to go dark. Without a new power source, life as we know it will be toast. A global competition is under way to determine who will join the secret mission that might just save us all. The Voyagers will venture to the far reaches of space, farther than anyone’s ever gone before, and they must be prepared to face anything.

Anything.

But first the Voyagers team needs to be chosen. Project Alpha is a competition of physical challenges, mental puzzles, and political alliances. The battle is fierce, and only four will make the cut...

The last book, The Seventh Element, was released earlier this month.

In addition to books, the series has an interactive website with a quiz, several games, bonus content, and more.

Blast From the Past: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien

Before I started reviewing books online I loved rereading my favourite SF/Fantasy books.  Since I don’t have time to do that anymore, this column is a trip down memory lane, where I’ll rave about books I love to read.  And then read again.  These aren’t reviews, as I won’t necessarily mention criticisms, they’re my chance to fan girl about books I love and hopefully garner some interest in some older titles.

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I always remember the book by the the title they used for the animated film that was based on the book, The Secret of NIMH.  Though I like the film it’s a hard sell for modern children, being fairly slow and low key.  The film also added an element of magic that the book didn’t have.

Mrs. Frisby is a young field mouse whose husband has recently died.  It’s getting close to the time when the farmer who owns the field she lives on will plough it, meaning she and her family need to move, and soon.  But one of her children is deathly ill, and the chill in the air will likely kill him if he’s moved.  It turns out, however, that her husband kept a secret from her.  He was once a prisoner of a place called NIMH along with some rats.  Those rats - and the knowledge they gained due to experiments that were performed on them - may know a way to save her son.

Mrs. Frisby is a woman (well, mouse) willing to risk her life for her children, and though she asks the rats for help, she has to do most of the dangerous stuff involved in making their plan work (both in the film and the book).  The most harrowing scenes involve an owl and a cat.  

The rats are amazing, as is the home they’ve build for themselves under the ground.  For years after I read this as a child I wanted to name one of my kids Jeremy Nicodemus after two of the rats. 

It’s a book that holds up well for adults (though I last read it years ago after I finished university).  I’m not generally a fan of talking animal books, but when done right…  

There was a sequel, though I don’t remember much about it, having only read it once as a kid.

I just finished one of O'Brien's books that I didn't hear about as a kid (and probably wouldn't have liked then) Z for Zachariah.  I only heard of it because of the film that recently came out.  It's a YA novel about a young woman living alone in a valley after an apocalyptic event.  When someone arrives in the valley everything changes.  I'll be posting my review of it on Tuesday.  It's also a great read, short but compelling.

Shout-Out: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.

So he tries his best to do his worst - and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .

Book Review: The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton

Pros: fun dream challenges, imperfect characters 

Cons: espouses some traditional and Christian beliefs

Eleanor and Edward’s large house in Concord is under threat of foreclosure unless their Aunt Lily can make up the owed money by giving piano lessons.  When they discover a mysterious attic room with a series of riddles on the window, riddles that talk of treasure, they start a treasure hunt.  But they also start having mysteries, dangerous dreams.

Published in 1962 this is a fun children’s book that involves two children in a series of dream adventures.  Not only is there a wider purpose for their adventures - to help pay off their family debts, the adventures become increasingly more dangerous for them.

The characters aren’t perfect.  Their uncle was once a brilliant man who was changed by a tragic event and is at times in the book threatened with being sent to a mental institute.  Similarly, Eleanor wears glasses to deal with her poor eyesight and astigmatism, sometimes requiring Edward to report on what he sees.

It’s a fun book, though at times the author espouses some traditional gender and Christian beliefs.  Even without the more overt references, there are some great morals being taught, like ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’, and about making the right choices in life.  There’s a fair amount of poetry quoted as well.

Ultimately it was a pleasant read, the kind of children’s book that reaches beyond it’s intended audience.

Author Interview: Benedict Jacka

Novels: 
Fated
Cursed 
Taken

To Be A Ninja / Ninja: The Beginning
Ninja: The Battle

Website: benedictjacka.co.uk

> What is your Alex Verus series about? 

Fated, Cursed, and Taken are the first three books of an urban fantasy series set in London. Magic is real but most people don't know about it, and the rulers of the magical world are the Light and Dark mages, human beings who can use one particular type of magic like air or life or fire. The protagonist is Alex Verus, an ex-Dark mage who runs a magic shop in Camden. He's a diviner, able to see the future, which makes him very good with information but not so good at brute force, which is a problem given his habit of getting into difficulties with other mages, who usually have access to a very large amount of brute force which they're more than happy to use.   

> What drew you to writing about a diviner and is this an ability you'd like to have?

Basically it was a writing decision.  I'd written four previous novels in the Alex Verus setting, but the main characters in all of those books used elemental magic like air or ice.  A problem I kept running into was that I found it difficult to write interesting conflicts using elemental magic:  too much of it just came to force on force.  So at some point (I'm not sure how) I came up with the idea of a character who's magic couldn't affect the physical world at all, but could only provide information.  It kind of snowballed from there.  

I've never thought about whether I'd like to have the ability or not.  Different perspective I guess.  :)

> What made you want to be a writer?

I never particularly wanted to be a writer.  I just started doing it one day!  

> If you could, would you change places with any of your characters?

But then who'd write the stories for them?

> What were your literary influences for the Alex Verus series?

Jim Butcher, Diane Duane, and Agatha Christie, along with lots of less literary influences like RPGs, movies, and video games.  

> What's the first novel (published or unpublished) that you wrote and how long did it take to write it?

A children's fantasy story set in Cornwall with a Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe feel.  Took about a year and ended up over 100,000 words long.  I haven't looked at it in the best part of a decade because I'm sure I'd find it cringe-inducingly terrible.  First novels always suck.  

> What was the hardest scene for you to write?

For which book – Fated, Cursed, or Taken?  Can't remember – writer's block-inducing scenes occupy me completely while I'm doing them but I forget about them afterwards.  I can tell you which scenes have been the hardest for the book I'm working on right now though (which is Alex Verus #4) – it's the ones set in Elsewhere.  They've been driving me crazy.

> When and where do you write?

On my bed, and irregularly.  

> What is something you didn’t know about the publishing industry before you had your first book published?

How slow it is!  Don't expect anything to be done quickly, ever.

> Do you have any advice for hopeful authors?

The first thing to understand is that it's very unlikely that you'll ever make a living as an author (as in VERY VERY unlikely – we're talking 1000-to-1 odds against).  Do it because you love it, not because you're expecting to make your fortune.  

> Any tips against writers block?

It happens and there's not much you can do about it.  Either you just force yourself to write anyway, or you do something else until you figure out a way through the problem (in which case you'll need to work twice as fast later to pick up the slack).  

> How do you discipline yourself to write?

Having bills to pay is a pretty good motivator.  :)

> How many rejection letters did you get for your first novel or story?

Surprisingly few – I think only 4.  This was because I only sent it to 4 agencies.  By the time I started taking submissions seriously I'd finished writing my second book, so I was sending that out instead. That one got more like 40 rejections.