The Archived

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The Archived
Victoria Schwab

Goodreads Blurb:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

It’s rare that as a writer, I’m left breathlessly wordless, but I’ve been waiting to write this review for a few days now because I couldn’t quite figure out how to describe how much I loved it.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:  after reading this book, I will forever be classifying Schwab with Neil Gaiman in my mind.  They both manage to create these dark, haunting worlds that somehow manage to capture hope and love in ways that are truer that one can usually see in real life.  They embrace the creepiness of a dark hallway and the echoes of humming and yet the way each of the characters clings to the importance of life, it adds that tiny flicker of light that makes the story enthralling.  In some ways this book reminds me a little of The Graveyard Book, in that she took this place that can be really quite scary and made it into a place where people live at least part of their lives.

Now, to the reason for why exactly this book is so thoroughly compelling:  Schwab has this uncanny ability to write protagonist who are heart-wrenchingly endearing.  She writes them so well that it won’t matter if you can relate to them on a meta level, whether you’ve lost a sibling, because you’ll be able to feel what they’re feeling.  It’s not hard to imagine the compulsion to keep things that were important to the brother you lost.  I’d prefer not to because it’s far too painful to imagine my life without my goof of a brother in it, but Schwab made it so that I didn’t have to.  She wrote it so that the pain was there on the page so that I didn’t have to look inside myself to figure out what the character was experiencing.  Oddly, the icing on the cake, the one thing that made wish she was real, was the fact that she can read the history of any place, so she, of course, would read the history of her room.  That one moment of curiosity made her into a real human being for me.   If you could see all the people who had lived where you live, wouldn’t you?  I know I would.

Chiaroscuro by Caravaggio. From here.

Schwab, of course, wrote this book in the same way as The Near Witch, by which I mean that it’s vibrant and evocative.  She really does use words as if they’re paint.  I compared The Near Witch to a Caravaggio painting, but after reading The Archived, I realize that this is the book that more aptly resembles the master.  You see, Caravaggio was the first to use chiaroscuro, which is the use of light and dark to create high contrasts.  In The Archived, Schwab does this to sublime effect.  Whether it’s in the Narrows, where the only light comes from the cracks around the doors or when her mom’s cleaning the floor and you get the contrast of the brilliantly clean and sparkling inlaid rose against the dust clogged marble surrounding it, Schwab has no problem using contrast to bring an her work to life.  These images all stand out in my mind still, a week later because they’re so incredibly easy to see.  Schwab creates this vibrant tapestry on which her characters play and it feels more like watching a movie than it does reading a book because I’m not reading everything and imagining it.  No, I’m watching it happen and it’s amazing.

This book will be coming out on January 22, 2013 and you really should pick it up.  It’s entirely worth it.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension:  4.5 Dresdens
Worldbilding: 5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery:  4 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

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I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce #4)
Alan Bradley

Publisher’s Blurb:

It’s Christmastime, and the precocious Flavia de Luce—an eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for crime-solving—is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to ensnare Saint Nick. But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ decaying English estate, to shoot a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern. Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening’s shocking conclusion: a body found, past midnight, strangled to death with a length of film. But who among the assembled guests would stage such a chilling scene? As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, Flavia must use every ounce of sly wit at her disposal to ferret out a killer hidden in plain sight.

After the last book, I was actually a little reticent to pick this one up, which wasn’t something I ever expected to happen.  I’m very happy to report that my concerns were entirely unfounded.  This book returns to the well constructed yarns that Bradley is so well known for.  It feels like it picks up where The Weeds that Strings the Hangman’s Bag left off.  In fact, I would have considered the series complete with just Books 1, 2 and 4.  However, before I devolve into another tangent about how much of an outlier Book 3 is, the point of this little exercise is to discuss this book.  I don’t know why I didn’t guess it, but an actress with a similar interest in crime and grisly murders is exactly what Flavia needed, a sort of mother figure without the inconvenience of evil step mothering.  She seemed a perfect fit for Flavia.  Finally an adult who could commiserate with her and help her solve crimes.  However, I would have liked for Wyvern’s cruelty to Bun to be explained in some way instead of simply throwing it in there to add another suspect to the list.

In fact, when it came to the suspects in this particular book they were oddly scarce and Bradley was completely aware of that.  I’m not sure what it says about me that I prefer a book wherein there can at least be someone for me to suspect, even if the rug is ripped out from under me later on, but in this book, I found myself not even bothering to guess.  Though that could have something to do with the fact that there were so many people in the book that it was actually a little difficult to keep them all straight.  You had your main characters and even your minor characters that you recognize from the other books, but in this one, Bradley threw in an entire film crew and then literally half the village.  The village I knew, but I actually found it difficult to keep the film crew straight.  When the final reveal came, I was a little surprised at who is was and actually found it a little difficult to swallow.

However, aside from that one moment of doubt, the rest of the story is downright delightful. Flavia’s scheme to catch Father Christmas (and I do mean catch) reminded me of all the Christmas mornings when I still believed that a man of magic had delivered presents over night.  Bradley’s blizzards actually made me want to be in them because they are the kind of blizzards you survive by hunkering down under a mountain of blankets and reading books until the wind stops blowing.  I cheered when Flavia finally called her sisters on their malodorous malarkey and asked them why they hated her so much.  Bradley’s true genius lies in his ability to capture a capricious eleven year old and make me love her.  I actually mentally reprimanded her sisters when they were awful to her because I knew no one else would and it takes truly good writing to get a reader to parent imaginary characters.  I found his revelation about Aunt Felicity to be marvelous.  It took a fussy old woman and made her into a the kind of strong woman the era is known for and he did it over the course of a single conversation that she spends half of complaining about her old age.

In the end, this book is lovely and delightful in all the best ways.  Flavia is still the chemistry loving child that we have all grown to love.  I only wish that she were real and not just a character because the world could use someone like Flavia de Luce.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 4 Buffys
Character Investibility:  4 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery:  4 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

The Drowned Cities

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The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, Book 2)
Paolo Bacigalupi

Publisher’s Blurb:

Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.

In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man–a bioengineered war beast named Tool–who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

I would like to preface this with the fact that I haven’t read the first book in this series yet (though that fact will be changing in the very near future).  Having said that, this is one of those rare books wherein it’s completely unnecessary to have read the first book in the series. Normally when I discover that I accidentally picked up the second book of a series, I give it about ten pages and then put it down in frustration because I’m clearly missing something huge that’s happened that’s super critical to this plot.  In this book, there’s every indication that huge things have happened, what with the whole war-torn jungle that used to be America, but it doesn’t constantly remind you that you missed Book 1.  I’m actually really looking forward to reading Book 1 now given the deft hand that was evident in this one.

Now, to the story:  it’s amazing.  It combines the horror and pain of Vietnam with Iraq and adds in a sprinkling of Afghanistan, but in a future where science has created a perfect killing machine.  The irony is that even though it’s in the future, it feels like it’s set in the Dark Ages, that period after the fall of Rome when the whole of the world was plunged into chaos and plague.  The sheer brutality of the book was both visceral and compelling.  The truly terrifying part is that about half way through the book, I realized that this is totally plausible.  First one politician accuses the other of treason, and then the other fires back.  It’s easy to see the snowball effect there.  The brilliance of Bacigalupi’s writing is that he gave me that whole history, the accusations followed by the division, followed by the taking up of arms, and then chaos, he gave me all of that over the span of maybe two sentences.  He made me see my world implode with twenty five words (give or take).

And within that world he gives you these characters of unflagging bravery and courage, even when they’re claiming to be cowards.  They live in a world where nothing is sure, but each other and themselves and he makes events turn around them and yet they still put one foot in front of the other.   It’s delightful to read.  When one thinks of the children of war, I usually look on with sympathy at the little ones who have been orphaned and are helpless in the face of wonton destruction.  Bacigalupi’s children of war are so much more than that.  Sure, they’ve been orphaned, but they aren’t helpless.  Mahlia listened to her peacekeeper father’s lessons on The Art of War and little Mouse knows where to forage for food in the jungle surrounding the Drowned Cities.  However, Bacigalupi used the brutality of the book to put his characters in danger over and over again and it made the book enthralling because he had gone to the trouble to make me care for them first.  Even Tool was never the animal that he could have been seen to be.  He was a warrior, albeit a wounded one.

I could gush about this book for ages, but there’s no need for that.  Pick up the book.  I really can’t recommend it enough.  It’s a gut wrenching tale that will grab hold of your brain stem and won’t let go.

4.5 ink bottles
Character Believability: 4.5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  4.5 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4.5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery:  4 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

The Enchantress

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The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Book 6)
Michael Scott

Publisher’s Blurb:

The two that are one must become the one that is all. One to save the world, one to destroy it.

San Francisco:

Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel have one day left to live, and one job left to do. They must defend San Francisco. The monsters gathered on Alcatraz Island have been released and are heading toward the city. If they are not stopped, they will destroy everyone and everything in their path.

But even with the help of two of the greatest warriors from history and myth, will the Sorceress and the legendary Alchemyst be able to defend the city? Or is it the beginning of the end of the human race?

Danu Talis:

Sophie and Josh Newman traveled ten thousand years into the past to Danu Talis when they followed Dr. John Dee and Virginia Dare. And it’s on this legendary island that the battle for the world begins and ends.

Scathach, Prometheus, Palamedes, Shakespeare, Saint-Germain, and Joan of Arc are also on the island. And no one is sure what—or who—the twins will be fighting for.

Today the battle for Danu Talis will be won or lost.

But will the twins of legend stand together?

Or will they stand apart—

one to save the world and one to destroy it?

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this story, given the number of parallel plotlines that we left off with in Book 5.  And while I can’t say that my socks were completely knocked off, I will unreservedly say that this is my favorite book of the entire series, hands down.  Josh isn’t whiny at all, you guys.  In fact, he’s kind of awesome, but that’s not what makes this the best book.  No, in this story, Scott uses the parallel plotlines to build tension.  Everyone in one place is about to die? Yeah, let’s jump over here to this other place where other important things are happening.  And something important is happening everywhere.  Every page of this book feels like a dead sprint.  The characters are constantly moving with every ounce of their strength and being and it makes for such a compelling tale.

However, it’s not all hair-raising action.  Scott wove in humor here and there and it ratcheted to book up from really good to great.  The redshirts reference had me grinning from ear to ear and the fifteen year old in me laughed out loud at the thought of hearing the Imperial March when parents walk into the room.  Also, you don’t often get Sci Fi references in Fantasy, but after this, I want it to happen more often because it works.  Boy howdy, does it work.

The time travel dimension to the story had a part of my brain working overtime.  I realized at one point the number of decisions Scott would have had to have made in writing this book given the complexity of having people from the present going in the past, interacting with people they had known and loved in the future.  You see, even that sentence is muddled.  I would give you an example, but I don’t want to spoil anything.  Rest assured, where my writing is failing, Scott’s came through with flying colors.  There was never a doubt of who was where and with whom.  It’s astoundingly clear and without the use of any qualifiers.

The one thing I take issue with is when an Elder says that humans are essentially good.  While I’ve always hoped for that to be true, I know it isn’t universally true.  Stalin was not essentially good.  There’s no doubt in my mind that he thought what he was doing was for the greater good, but the truth is that you cannot be “essentially good” and be responsible for the brutal deaths of millions of innocent people.  It’s a nice sentiment, to imagine that we as a race are essentially good and I still like to think that the majority of human beings are, but the reality is that there are outliers.  It’s just too big of a generalization.  It exceeds the truth.

In the end, however, this story is a fast paced roller coaster ride of action, magic, and monsters.  I highly recommend it.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  4.5 Buffys
Character Investibilty: 4.5 Doctors
Pacing/Tension/Urgency: 4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4 Snyders
Language: 4.5 Feegles
Mystery: 5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

A Red Herring without Mustard

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A Red Herring without Mustard (Flavia de Luce #3)
Alan Bradley

Publisher’s Blurb:

In the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune—never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

This book, out of all the books in the series, really highlights the dark undertones of Flavia’s world.  In the end, I felt sorry for her.  The aunt in me wants her to have a more wholesome environment in which to live.  A place where she wouldn’t have to live in anticipation of being kidnapped, bound, and left in the cellars by her sisters.  In fact, it struck me as particularly hateful and mean spirited that this treatment came at the hands of a sister who at the age of 17 I would have thought too old for those kind of antics.  Increasingly, I really want to know what happened, aside from their mother’s death, that would have caused this absurd level of animosity.  Several times while reading this book, I stopped and wondered at Flavia’s fierce determination in the face of her sisters’ consistent efforts to disenfranchise her.  Her father’s distant mild approval of her actions seems a pittance compared to the systematic warfare of her sisters.

As to the story of this book, it’s not quite a straightforward as Book 1 and 2 of the series.  It reads more like a Dan Brown novel than Alan Bradley with shapes rising out of the amorphous fog at surprising and unexpected times and not universally to the plot’s benefit.  In mystery, one expects a certain amount of smoke and mirrors, but in this book, it really felt like it was nothing but smoke and mirrors right up until Flavia’s famous exposition at the end and even then, not all of my questions were answered.  Flavia’s actions seem more helter skelter in this book.  She rarely had a reason to go places, she just set out as if it was a high adventure and she was Alice in Wonderland.  I found her willingness to sneak Porcelain into her bedroom to be a bit strange and even further I found the family’s reaction to Porcelain’s dinner clothes to be somewhat false.  The appearance of the murdered body was quite bizarre to me in that it came out of nowhere and played second fiddle to the rest of the plot for the entire story. You’d really think discovering a body hanging from a sculpture in your backyard would leave an indelible impression on a person, but Flavia keeps on forgetting about him.  Even for an eleven year old sleuth who’s used to finding dead bodies around her house, you’d think she’d spend at least a significant portion of her time thinking about him.  It’s baffling.

However, all of that aside, this is still a Flavia de Luce story and she still shines in all of her adorableness.  From her verbal conversations with her bicycle to the fact that she has dry cleaning solution in her personal chemistry lab, she’s still the same precocious eleven year old that we’d left off with in The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag.  She still roams about, unchecked, and wiggles information out of people that the police would never have a chance at procuring.  It cracked me up when Inspector Hewitt politely asks her father to keep her at home since she keeps showing up at crime scenes and discovering important pieces of evidence that they missed.  You know he’s doing it for her protection, which is incredibly endearing, but the way she acts subsequently is nothing short of delightful.  Bradley’s portrayal of the 1950’s English countryside is both bucolic and exciting.  It’s simultaneously idealized and realistic.  You have the simplicity of village life juxtaposed with the complexity of estate law and it’s done marvelously.  Bradley has created the perfect world for Flavia to exist in and I can’t wait to read the next book.

4 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  4 Buffys
Character Investibility: 4 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension: 3.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 5 Snyders
Language: 5 Feegles
Mystery: 3.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce Book 1)
Alan Bradley

Publisher’s blurb:

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Adorable.  I know that Flavia, would cringe at my use of the word to describe her, but it’s the perfect one to use.  She is adorable.  The stereotype of the plucky Brit has always struck me as endearing and Flavia is the concept of plucky embodied.  Everything about her made me want to smack her dad in the head and tell him what an amazing kid he has.  Item the First, she’s a massive chemistry nerd.  She uses archaic names of chemical compounds to calm her nerves (“Butter of Antimony…Flowers of Arsenic”).  I’m not going to lie, if I’d been able to learn about chemistry the way Flavia does, I would have a whole different viewpoint of the topic. Item the Second, she uses “scissors” as a curse word.  Any eleven year old in the world who uses the word scissors as a curse word gets an automatic amazing award.  Item the Third, she named her articulated skeleton Yorrick.  Do you see what I’m getting at now?  I wasn’t this cool when I was eleven, but retroactively I totally wish I had been.  If the Doctor were to ever show up in Flavia’s life, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.

As to the story, it’s surprisingly compelling.  It falls along the lines of a typical Agatha Christie novel (and not just because of the time period in which it’s set).  There’s a minimal amount of gore.  The plot centers almost entirely upon intrigue and Flavia’s progress in wading through it, with a small subplot regarding a fantastic prank she played on her sister.  (Seriously, if I had been half as clever as Flavia, I would have gotten away with so much more stuff.)  Like a cozy mystery, the cast of characters that revolve around Flavia are both eclectic and marvelous.  Throw in the fact that you’re in Britain in 1950 and the fact that the oddball histories of the characters are all marred by WWII, and you find there’s an odd sort of realism to the story. The tension and urgency of the story are wrought almost entirely by Flavia’s persistence.  Her tenacity is downright charming and it certainly goes far to keeping the story moving along at a reasonable clip.

In the end, this story is a perfectly lovely tale of murder and the plucky eleven year old who sets out to solve it.  I can’t tell you how thankful I am that this whole series is out so that I can pick up the next one tomorrow.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pace/Urgency/Tension:  4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4 Snyders
Language:  4.5 Feegles
Mystery:  4.5 Sherlocks

Book Links: Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

The Serpent’s Shadow

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The Serpent’s Shadow (Kane Chronicles, Book 3)
Rick Riordan

Author’s Blurb:

When young magicians Carter and Sadie Kane learned how to follow the path of the ancient Egyptian gods, they knew they would have to play an important role in restoring Ma’at—order—to the world. What they didn’t know is how chaotic the world would become. The Chaos snake Apophis is loose and threatening to destroy the earth in three days’ time. The magicians are divided. The gods are disappearing, and those that remain are weak. Walt, one of Carter and Sadie’s most gifted initiates, is doomed and can already feel his life force ebbing. Zia is too busy babysitting the senile sun god, Ra, to be of much help. What are a couple of teenagers and a handful of young trainees to do?

There is, possibly, one way to stop Apophis, but it is so difficult that it might cost Carter and Sadie their lives, if it even works at all. It involves trusting the ghost of a psychotic magician not to betray them, or worse, kill them. They’d have to be crazy to try. Well, call them crazy.

With hilarious asides, memorable monsters, and an ever-changing crew of friends and foes, the excitement never lets up in The Serpent’s Shadow, a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the Kane Chronicles trilogy.

It’s taken me a long time to get around to writing this review because this is the first time I’ve ever been even remotely ambivalent about a Riordan book.  Ordinarily I eat them for lunch, but this book was a little slow to get rolling.  And by a little slow, I mean I was more than a little surprised when the action started.  So many Important Plot Points in this book seemed to be arbitrary and accidental.  The most compelling plot line was Sadie’s quest to re-call Bes’s ba, but this plotline was mired down by the other plotlines all of which were comparatively tedious and seemingly pointless in comparison.  While these stories typically have multiple plotlines that only coalesce in the end, this one seems more like a torrent of chaos (no pun intended) that makes it hard to glean the golden plotlines in the center.

The love interest plotlines were galling to a certain extent in that, while I remember a fair portion of my teenage years being spent mindlessly thinking about boys, I do remember that there were other cogent thoughts going through my head at the time.  Riordan reduces his characters to lovelorn simpletons and if they’re not pining away for professed loves then they are drowning in doubts with regards to their ability to save the world/humanity/their loved ones, etc, etc, etc. I will grant you that it’s important to build a bit of weakness into a character, but the amount of time Sadie and Carter spend doubting themselves is a little ham-handed.

HOWEVER, that being said, while the first half of the book is mired in toil, the second half is more typical Riordan fair.  It moves at a pace that certainly qualifies as break neck.  And although I’m more than a little wishy washy on the way in which Carter and Sadie save the day, I still enjoyed reading it, which is saying something.  The bickering between Sadie and Carter was still endearing and periodically comical, though I’ll stop short of saying hilarious.

You know, this is really coming off as if I hated the book and that’s not accurate.  I enjoyed this book, but I’m left with this feeling of disappointment that can’t be entirely explained away with the fact that it’s the last book in the series.  I do mean it when I say that my favorite part of the story is Bes’s subplot.  It was charming and endearing to know that Sadie would try to do a small act of good in the face of an overwhelming one.  It made her more human in a very real way.  Outside of this storyline, however, this book failed to truly connect in a way that I’ve grown used to with Riordan books. I know that the majority of fans will be willing to look past it, but I’m finding it difficult to do so.

I’ve heard that his next project will be Norse gods and I can’t lie, I’m excited about that.  I’m just hoping that whatever was missing from this book goes into that series because I kind of love Norse mythology and I’m very interested to see what Riordan does with it.

3.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 4 Buffys
Character Investibility: 3.5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension: 3.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 4 Snyders
Language: 4.5 Feegles
Mystery: 2 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

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Spy Glass

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Spy Glass
Maria V. Snyder

Snyder has, once again, crafted a spellbinding story that held me in a thrall until the very end. I couldn’t put it down, you guys.  Sure, Opal is doing her unique version of crashing through life, but she does it with such a genuine heart that it becomes this eloquent tale of heroism in the face of doubt.  In this book, in particular, Opal truly transforms into the person that we all hoped for.  I’m impressed by Snyder’s capacity to both hold all of those loose ends in her mind throughout three books and to tie them up so tidily in this one.  The things Opal has to live through in this book are uniquely horrifying, but she trudges through in typical Opal fashion, which is what makes Snyder’s books so uniquely delightful.  She knows her characters on a level that few are able to reach and it really comes through in the stories.  There are no inconsistencies character-wise.  The characters have flaws, sure, but they’re consistent flaws.

Publisher’s Blurb:

After siphoning her own blood magic in the showdown at Hubal, Opal Cowan has lost her powers. She can no longer create glass magic. More, she’s immune to the effects of magic. Opal is now an outsider looking in, spying through the glass on those with the powers she once had, powers that make a difference in the world.

Until spying through the glass becomes her new power. Suddenly, the beautiful pieces she makes flash in the presence of magic. And then she discovers that someone has stolen some of her blood—and that finding it might let her regain her powers. Or learn if they’re lost forever…

One thing in particular that stuck out for me was how Snyder handled the subplot of redemption that wound its way through the story.    It’s not hard for stories of redemption to fall into the world of sugarcoating and sappy platitudes.  Snyder, unsurprisingly, never allows this subplot to fall into that world.  She holds it up, keeping it firmly steadfast, oddly comforting, and astonishingly resilient.  Never once did I gag on Devlin’s words.  They seem to be spoken in the quiet of the night as if they weren’t expecting to be heard and for me, there’s a strength there that isn’t often sought after or seen, but holds a deeper level of resonance than words shouted into a crowded auditorium.  In the hands of a different author, Devlin could have come off as insincere, overconfident, or too filled with bravado.  In Snyder’s hands, she made him into the character that this story needed him to be and that is the true mark of why this story rings true.

As to the story, it swirls with action and drama, but in typical Snyder fashion, it’s the characters who drive the tension and the urgency, of which there is plenty.  The question of Kade or Devlin comes to a head in this story and I don’t mind telling you that there was still a small part of my brain that was undecided as to which way I wanted it to go when the decision finally comes.  However, that being said, Snyder wraps this series up is the most satisfying way possible, but to get to that wrap up, the things Opal has to go through will set you on the edge of your chair.  I know I’ve said it’s action packed, but the more I think about it the more my brain goes, oh, and then this happened.  And it’s not just generic action, it’s action dipped in magic, sprinkled with diamonds, thrown through fire, and tossed through a hurricane.  Add in the fact that it’s Opal who’s charging through it all and you get an addictingly compelling story of love and loss that will be impossible to put down.

5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension:  5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  5 Snyders
Language:  5 Feegles
Mystery:  5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Sea Glass

Image via Goodreads

Sea Glass
Maria V. Snyder

This is Snyder’s darkest book yet.  The distrust and betrayal sown throughout it makes for a bleak tale, but it doesn’t make for a boring one.  I read this story in record time.  Every time I sat down with the book, I’d look up and another hundred pages would be gone. Once again, Snyder makes Opal so very relatable and human by plaguing her with self-doubt and a certain amount of self-pity and let’s be honest, who hasn’t felt those two emotions at some point in their life?  The men of the story are just as compelling, but it’s Opal who will make you turn the pages.  The story itself is a fast paced, gut clenching tale of action and adventure and I loved every minute of it.

Publisher’s blurb:

Student glass magician Opal Cowan’s newfound ability to steal a magician’s powers makes her too powerful. Ordered to house arrest by the Council, Opal dares defy them, traveling to the Moon Clan’s lands in search of Ulrick, the man she thinks she loves. Thinks because she is sure another man—now her prisoner—has switched souls with Ulrick.

In hostile territory, without proof or allies, Opal isn’t sure whom to trust. She can’t forget Kade, the handsome Stormdancer who doesn’t want to let her get close. And now everyone is after Opal’s special powers for their own deadly gain….

It’s so very easy to empathize with Opal because while you will doubt pretty much everyone else in the book, you will never doubt Opal.  In that regard there is no ambiguity to the story.  Snyder could have written a tale wherein you would doubt the narrator, but she didn’t and that’s wonderful.  Because, you see, if you doubted Opal and her belief that Devlin and Ulrick have been switched then the air of ambiguity would murder the pace of the plot and no one wants that.  By making Opal sure of at least one thing, she makes it so fantastically easy for the reader to invest in Opal.  She made it so that I could wish for the rest of the world to see what Opal sees and that’s part of what makes the pages blur by so quickly.

It’s kind of amazing the number of modern cultural issues Snyder hits on in this story.  There’s the underlying story of whether a human who has perpetrated horrifying atrocities can be rehabilitated in the story of Devlin.  There’s a little bit of xenophobia in the insistence of one of the stormdancers that Kade should be with another stormdancer and not a magician.  There’s the fairly strong commentary of a government’s willingness to delude itself.  Here’s the thing, this book doesn’t feel like a messaged book.  It doesn’t hit you over the head with these issues.  They’re woven in effortlessly and are only noticed if you sit down and think about them for a little while.

The story is fast paced and never lets up.  Just as soon as Opal gets a chance to rest, something happens that propels her forward into the next step and I can’t lie, I love Snyder’s pace.  She subtly builds in character development, but never at the expense of slowing down the story.  It just keeps chugging along.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  4.5 Doctors
Pace/Urgency/Tension:  4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 5 Snyders
Language:  5 Feegles
Mystery:  5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Storm Glass

Image via Goodreads

Storm Glass
Maria V. Snyder

It’s not surprising that Snyder is an award winning author.  She has this stunning way of weaving intricate stories that take hold of my imagination and don’t let go even after I’ve turned the last page.  Vividly written, she makes her places into people and her people into real Human Beings.  It’s wonderful and every time I open one of her books, I can’t help but revel in it.  This story is no exception.  It’s set in the same universe as the Study series, which made me do a little happy dance.  She has crafted this world in such detailed vibrance that a part of me would like to move there even knowing the trials that her lead characters have to fight through.

Publisher’s Blurb (an excerpt can be found at that link):

As a glassmaker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it’s time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan’s glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians. The Stormdancers—particularly the mysterious and mercurial Kade—require Opal’s unique talents to prevent it happening again. But when the mission goes awry, Opal must tap in to a new kind of magic as stunningly potent as it is frightening. And the further she delves into the intrigue behind the glass and magic, the more distorted things appear. With lives hanging in the balance—including her own—Opal must control powers she hadn’t known she possessed…powers that might lead to disaster beyond anything she’s ever known.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to learn that this is Opal’s story.  I remember loving her and her bravery in the Study series.  It’s rare that an author does a full series to follow a character who wasn’t exactly a lead in a past series, but after reading this book, it really needs to be done more often.  Opal shines in her humanity.  The uncertainty she battles made her incredibly empathetic.  She feels familiar already, like a friend you haven’t seen in years and had forgotten how much you missed until you see them.  This is one of Snyder’s great skills.  She creates these women who are incredibly intelligent and strong, but almost never view themselves in that light.

I also loved how she included most of the cast from the previous series.  Sure four years down the line, the characters from the Study series will be more comfortable in the positions and the countries of Ixia and Sitia will have changed a bit, but none of the characters had changed past the point of recognition.  They were the same people at their cores, which added even more depth to the story because these are people that you already know and love.  The story even references the Study series without going into great depth to explain the details.  If you haven’t read any Snyder, I highly suggest you start with the Study series and then move on to this one.  Having the context from the Study series really does make this series richer.  Though I have to say, it’s plenty rich in its own right.

Snyder does an astonishing job of crafting a story that will capture your imagination.  She introduces new characters and allows Opal the room to become truly brilliant.  This is an action packed story that’s nothing short of addicting.

5 ink bottles.
Character Believability: 5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pace/Urgency/Tension:  5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding: 5 Snyders
Language:  5 Feegles
Mystery:  5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher