Review: The Highest Stakes

The Highest Stakes by Emery Lee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Highest Stakes is a historical novel set in Georgian England. It is not a romance novel, although a romance is central to the story. It is about greed and ambition, class and the lack of choice for women and commoners. It's about the lucrative and vicious business of horse-breeding and racing, soldiering in the Napoleonic War, and characters attempting to break out of their social status.

I really enjoy historical fiction that doesn't focus on famous people and events because the outcome isn't pre-determined. This is one of those. It submerges you in the time period and makes you feel the struggles of people living there. It doesn't modernize the characters' choices, but is realistic about what happens. It has really great historical detail, making you feel like you're there. I love the details about raising, racing and caring for horses. And the war scenes were not tedious at all.

The reason I only gave it 4 stars is that it reached a point when I realized that nothing was going right for anyone I cared about in the story. There were truly despicable characters who were very well-drawn and I wanted them to come to serious harm. So I loved it because the author was able to engage my emotions, but the emotions evoked were not happy ones. I wish there had been moments of stolen happiness for the protagonists - that they could have had more time together at points along the way. They do spend most of their time apart. This is truly not about their relationship, but about the hope/hopelessness of their love.

There was a point towards the end when I had no idea how in the world everything could be resolved, and I feared it was impossible. The ending is satisfying except for the fact that it's not longer - a little more of that hard-earned happy ending would have been nice.



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Review: The Crown Conspiracy

The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



What a fun sword-and-sorcery style fantasy! There's a good range of characters - thieves and royals, commoners and nobles, monks and wizards, dwarves and elves. There are murderers and traitors, but the twists and turns kept me guessing as to who they truly were. There's violence, but the overall feel is lighter than what I've read lately (Abercrombie). The plot kept moving, too, so I didn't have any of those moments of willing the story to get on with it. Very enjoyable, and I do plan to read the next one.



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Review: The Blade Itself

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The Blade Itself is the first in a trilogy, and it takes its time building up a vivid sense of the setting. It gives us plenty of time to get to know the characters in their current flawed states rather than jumping immediately into the changes they'll go through. Normally, this would sound boring, but Abercrombie's descriptive powers are impressive. He gets you involved at a level that is rare, bringing you close to the characters physically as well as emotionally. This adds depth, giving a feel for the characters and conflicts before the larger story arc really begins to show itself.

I had read reviews calling Abercrombie's style "gritty." Now I understand what that means. It is gritty in the sense that your senses are all evoked in the vivid, descriptive language. Often it's not pretty, and it feels very real. I was disgusted at times, and turned off, but still couldn't help continuing on.

The story is pretty dark so far, but not in the sense of despair, and it's not horror. It's more the darkness of reality - that life sucks, and even the noblest of heroes is human and has pretty serious flaws. Normally I read fantasy to escape the inevitable realities of life. I hope that I won't regret making an exception in this case.

At the end of the first novel, I still have hope that the condition of the characters will improve with the rest of the story. In spite of the gritty reality of each of them, somehow I still hope that nobility will rise up and change will be for the better. The reason I can hope this is that there were one or two moments of light and hope in this part of the story. They stood out all the more for the fact that they were rare glimpses of light in the darkness. It might be foolish, but I'm hoping these are seeds that will grow in the rest of the series.

These are my impressions at the end of what seems like an introduction. I will have to reserve judgement until I see how the series continues and ends. If, as I hope, it is not merely pessimistic and dark and hopeless for the characters I can't help caring about, then the gritty style will have achieved something wonderful. If not, then I will be terribly depressed and will want to throw the book at the end. So we'll see.

Edit 9/27/12: I ended up quitting the series after book two. Really, it's because Abercrombie does what he set out to do very, very well. So well that I couldn't take it. Book 2 lacks any of the hope that I mentioned above. The hope in book 1 is really just Abercrombie setting you up for the typical fantasy heroic overcoming of odds and self, etc., so that he can purposely blow all that out of the water in the rest of the series. It makes for really depressing reading, and his language is so vivid that I can still see scenes from book 2 that I'd rather not remember. It seems to me that this belongs more in the horror genre of fantasy, or at least in the bad dream variety. If you can handle that, I think Abercrombie is a brilliant writer, and you'll be in for some surprises if you read the series. It's just not my thing.



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Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It's really hard for me to pull together my opinion of this one, because I loved it and hated it as I was reading. For me, it was a strange combination of savoring the language and style, and simultaneously being bored with the plot and impatient to get through it.

The style, especially at the beginning, is very Dickensian. The tone, the slow-building plot with seemingly unrelated characters, wondering how they're going to end up being integral to the tapestry being woven, all make for a warm, nostalgic feeling without any regard for the actual story. For the first 200 pages, that was enough to keep me going, even though I repeatedly found myself wishing for new characters and threads to be introduced. Unfortunately, the plot never really did get more intricate; it just kept moving along slowly on one or two tracks, and my primary feeling while reading the first 600 pages was impatience. The next 100 pages began to pick up, and I became hopeful. Then the last 100 pages – finally! – gave me what I was after, and allowed me to rate this book with 4 stars instead of a yawning 3.

I don’t know if it’s because I am a fan of regular fantasy, but I require more magic in a book about magic. I very quickly grew sick of the debates about whether magic should be used or not. I found myself sympathizing with Mr. Norrell's audience who just wanted to see a trick or two of real magic rather than getting a lecture about why not.

I don’t think that’s the whole, however. I enjoy historical fiction on its own, so why didn’t this combination of my two favorite genres satisfy me? On reflection, I believe it’s because I never felt close to the story. It was as if I were viewing the entire scene through a window. Even when something drastic finally happened, I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel the characters felt it. The tone was too distant throughout. The same tone and language that gave me the nostalgic Dickensian feel never gave way to the Dickensian depth of character and feeling that usually follows. The intricate tapestry didn't materialize.

That said, the ending was good enough to bring up the rest of the book to 4 stars. I did enjoy the premise and I thought the story itself was well-conceived. In the end, it was just too long-winded and slow for me. Not enough depth, not enough feeling, and not enough magic.



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Review: Bitterblue

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I loved it. I hope there's more to come, and from the ending, I feel that there will be. Not that there was a cliffhanger ending. I just got the feeling that there's more story to be told.

There are definite differences between this and the previous two books in the series. There is not much romance, for one thing. It just didn't fit within the scope of this part of Bitterblue's story, and it felt complete without it. This is one reason I believe there will be a sequel - I don't get the sense that Cashore is done telling Bitterblue's story.

There is also less magic. Bitterblue doesn't have a Grace, and she's not a monster. She's a queen with a kingdom to rule. So although there is still magic around her, the story focuses more on her political struggles. I also felt this was appropriate, although I did miss the heavier focus on magic, and this was not my favorite of the three for that reason.

Bitterblue is also not adventurous in the same way as Graceling or Fire in the sense that it all takes place in one city. That's to be expected since a queen is not free to go gallivanting from kingdom to kingdom. But the mystery, the danger, and the political intrigue as Bitterblue tries to find her way to being a true queen is adventuresome in its own way. I thoroughly enjoyed it.



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Review: Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was pretty dark, and sad. The lighter aspects of friendship and the pack relationships from book 1 were missing. I hope things turn around in book 3. There's a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end, but luckily the 3rd book is already out.

I've also decided I'm not a fan of love triangles. I guess I prefer the 'one and only undying love' types instead of the 'I can't make up my mind so I'll just keep kissing everyone' types. Somehow that just really annoys me. It annoyed me in Twilight, and it still isn't working for me in this series. Maybe it's because I'm not a teen anymore that I don't enjoy the concept of being in love with multiple people at once. That's not love. That's hormones. I just don't find it plausible or desirable in a story.



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Review: The Cater Street Hangman

The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I struggled to get into this for the first 70 pages. The setup of the family relationships as being over-righteous, stuffy and proper took about that long. Once they finally started to be shaken by the events taking place, characters finally began to take on more depth and interest for me.

I enjoy mysteries in the Victorian setting, and this causes enough suspicion between people to shake things up, regardless of who is really the killer. There were enough surprises to make me want to read more in the series, plus I want to read more about Detective Pitt and his relationship to Charlotte.



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