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

Apparently I’m taking the week off…

Wow, I have no idea how, but I’ve been told that it’s Wednesday.  Followed closely on the heels of that realization was the fact that I haven’t posted anything this week.  After I peeled my head off the desk, I went off and found this for you:

And the reason why I’m taking the rest of the week off: it took me two hours of strolling through the internet to get that and I have things to do.  If I turn on my computer, I’m toast.  Fair warning, although this film has been released in the UK, there is no US release date as of now.  Sorry guys.

Reviews will be back next week, with the usual wibbly wobbly schedule.

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

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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

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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

Clockwork Prince

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Clockwork Prince
Cassandra Clare

I was a little trepidatious about starting this book.  I’d seen a few things in the Goodreads forums that would normally have made me pick a different book to read, but having already read the first book I trudged forth and turned the first page.  And then the second…and then the last, because once you turn the first page you won’t be able to put it down until you finish. I’m not entirely sure how Clare achieves such a complete level of buy in, but good gracious me, I was addicted.  Literally any time I had a second to read, I would pick up this book.  I read this one in half the time it took me to read the first one.  Between the action and the fate of the Institute and the mystery and the romance, everything swirls into this heart stopping tale that had me flipping pages at the rate of a minor hurricane.

Publisher’s Blurb:

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

In the past I’ve avoided books that center around a love triangle.  This is the primary reason why I still haven’t read the Twilight books.  What I didn’t know is that if it’s done right, it can make for one incredibly compelling story.  I didn’t know about the triangle until I scrolled down on Goodreads and saw a ton of artwork about Jem and Tessa and I was prepared for the sappy, mushy, will-she-won’t-she, that I’ve always associated with the genre.  I am both surprised and more than a little pleased to say that although I couldn’t tell you whether I would prefer for Tessa to have chosen Jem or Will, I never once gagged on any excessively sappy platitudes.  The romance bit of the novel is tempered pretty significantly by the action that is constantly putting the characters in harm’s way.  The fact that the entire book is borne in an odd state of contention makes the romance something to look forward to.  Of course, it helps that Clare has written such amazing characters and given them each a heart that I couldn’t stand to see broken.  All in all, I actually quite enjoyed watching Jem and Tessa grow together.

However, the rest of the book, outside of the romance (whether it be the triangles or any of the other romances) was pretty frakking amazing.  The pacing held just the right amount of urgency so that the words disappeared before my eyes, but I never got burned out on it.  The characters are vividly wrought, though at this point in reading Clare that’s to be expected.  The more fantastical elements of the story, whether they be werewolves or warlocks, were brought to life in a believable and realistic way.  In fact, Clare went further than simply making them realistic.  She made them into Characters in the sense that there were a few in particular that invariably ended up making me smile at their adorable idiosyncrasies.  It’s nothing short of wonderful when the author applies the same care and attention to the werewolf lordling’s ring as she does to the family ring of one of the main characters.

In the end, this book will hold your attention until the very last page, at which point you’ll look up the release date for Book 3.  It’s currently set as March of 2013, incidentally.  Trust me, I checked.

4.5 ink bottles.
Character Believability:  5 Buffys
Character Investibility:  5 Doctors
Pacing/Urgency/Tension:  4.5 Dresdens
Worldbuilding:  4.5 Snyders
Language:  4.5 Feegles
Mystery:  3.5 Sherlocks

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:  (*Caveat* I sincerely debated whether to include the book trailer or not.  I’ve watched it a few times and it doesn’t exactly represent the book or at the very least it thoroughly misrepresents several scenes from the book.  If you’re waffling on whether to read the book or not, I wouldn’t suggest deciding off of the trailer.  *End Caveat*)

Clockwork Angel

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Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1)
Cassandra Clare

This book is one of those books that reminds me of exactly why I used my spare time the way I do (e.g., pretty much always for reading).  It’s steeped in tension and magic.  In an industrial 19th Century London, Clare brings to life a world of angels and demons, warlocks and vampires, but it’s more than that.  She throws in clockwork automatons, a random goblin, and so many other things to the point where I’m pretty sure that I’ve forgotten a few.  This book combines the best of the speculative fiction genres.  You have the glittering coppers of steampunk combined with the transmogrification of fantasy.  It makes for this whirling tale that’s somehow simultaneously set in the realism of a gritty smog-filled London, but steeped with the surrealism of having a main character who can transform into literally anyone simply by holding something that belongs to them.  Really, it makes for a tale that will fly by.  I’m glad that I already had Book 2 when I finished, because I needed to know.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

My only real gripe about the story is the part wherein Tessa tries to make Will’s extreme mood swings and frequent rude behavior towards her okay because that’s what the Darcys and the Heathcliffs of the world do.  While I understand as a girl who has read more than her fair share of books that it’s sometimes easy to draw parallels from the book to your life, whenever this one, in particular, happens I usually end up getting shouty about it.  Here’s the deal:  sure, Darcy turned out to be a genuinely good guy in the end, but in real life, you really can’t bank on “saving” a guy from himself or being the one to change him for the better.  Sure, you might have a wonderful affect on his life and the way he treats other people, but if he starts out being a bit a rude asshole who treats you like shit chances are that he’s going to stay that way. That’s not to say that every guy’s a lost cause. To be clear my complaint here isn’t necessarily Will’s behavior because he seems to have a whole lot of underlying issues that the author hints at, but doesn’t address seemingly purposefully.  My complaint is using a fictional depiction to rationalize subpar treatment from anyone.  Annnddd, the shouting ends…

All of that being said, the one thing that Clare does remarkably well is her characters.  They have life and a tenacity that’s rare to find.  Sure, a few of them are a little one dimensional (Henry, for one), but I think that has more to do with the fact that they are surrounded by so many characters that are so vividly wrought.  Between Tessa’s struggle to figure out what she is and her one-minded mission to find her brother, Clare did an excellent job of creating a character that was steadfastly strong and yet simultaneously conflicted to the core.  And Will? Yeah, it’s pretty clear the whole time that there’s something going on and that Clare is building to it, but she does it in such a way that you feel his anguish and see his ripping himself apart and you want to do something about it.  His interactions with Jem are really where you see him become a true human instead of just a character.  You know, now that I think about it, it seems to me that it’s really the interactions between the characters that makes them come to life to such a delightful extent in this book.  They don’t just stand up from the page and walk around.  They stand up and then start bickering over the dinner table.

In the end, this story is an addicting action packed tale of love, families, and the magic that comes from places unseen.

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

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

Book Trailer:

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The Ash Born Boy

Holy Announcement, Batman!

As you all know, The Near Witch was one of my favorite books of last year.  You can find the review here.  If you haven’t read it yet, the paperback comes out today.  You’ll want to go get that now… I’ll wait.  *stares at watch for thirty seconds* Everyone back?  Awesome, because to celebrate the release of the paperback of The Near Witch, “The Ash-Born Boy” is finally up at Disney*Hyperion.

What is “The Ash-Born Boy”, you ask? It’s a free story that Victoria wrote as a thank you to her readers and to answer one question:  ”Who was Cole before he came to Near?”  You can find it here and you’ll want to go read it.  It’s written in the same evocative prose as The Near Witch and it gives you back story on Cole.  You know, the back story that you wanted the whole time you were reading The Near Witch, but instead you sat on your hands and watched all the things unfold.  Yeah, that back story.

Here’s the awesome thing, even if you haven’t read The Near Witch you can still read The Ash-Born Boy.  There aren’t any spoilers.  If anything it’ll just make Cole’s character in The Near Witch that much more compelling.  If you want to wait to read The Near Witch first, however, the story will stay up at Disney*Hyperion’s website, and if it ever comes down, Victoria will carve out a space for it on her own site. It will always be available somewhere, and it will always be free.

You guys, I’ve read the story and I love it.  It’s not every day that an author gives readers a gift, particularly not one this richly woven.  I can’t recommend the story enough.  It will make you smile and will tug on your heart-stings.  Victoria uses the same chiaroscuro brush strokes to bring her characters to life and the action is stomach clenching.  As far as the usual platypus rating for this book, it’s 5 ink bottles easily.

Help Victoria celebrate today and go get the paperback of The Near Witch because it has more goodies in it.  You’ll find the first chapter of Victoria’s next book, The Archived, in the back.  I can’t tell you how excited I am for this book.  I’ve had it on my Goodreads to-read shelf since I finished The Near Witch and  I. Can’t. Wait.

Equal Rites

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Equal Rites (Discworld #3)
Terry Pratchett

This is where Pratchett starts to sound like the Pratchett that causes me to gush in fangirl glee.  It’s highly entertaining, lovely, and perfectly endearing (particularly towards the end).  Because my introduction to Discworld was through the Tiffany Aching books, I completely nerded out when I realized that the main character of this story was a much younger version of the only female wizard that Tiffany runs into in I Shall Wear Midnight and I was quite pleased to find that Granny Weatherwax was in this book as well.  There are tiny differences between the Granny of this book and the Granny of the Tiffany Aching books.  It’s, admittedly, not entirely fair to compare one Granny to the other, since it’s just two points in a single character’s development, but with Pratchett’s characters they feel more familiar than that.  More like people you remember from childhood, but haven’t seen since you moved away.  The differences in the slightly younger Granny only made her more endearing.  This book is light and entertaining, as all of Pratchett’s books are and it’s all due to Granny’s involvement in the plot.  Everywhere she turns up, something hilarious is bound to follow.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Terry Pratchett’s profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.

In Equal Rites, a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son, who is just at that moment being born. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is discovered just a little too late.

I’ve always been fascinated with the way Pratchett brings pretty high level theoretical physics into fantasy books for the younger crowd.  In this book, although vague, he manages to describe how the fabric of the universe can be delineated through numbers.  Now, I’ll admit that I have a rudimentary understanding of theoretical physics at best.  I get the general basics of string and quantum theory, but that’s really as far as it goes and if you asked me to explain it I’d probably mutter something about quantum states and then refer you to Richard Feynman.  Pratchett, however, somehow manages to encapsulate these huge ideas within these fantastic worlds and every time I notice it I get this dopey smile on my face that would be weird if I lived someplace with a subway system.

But that’s not why these books are so amazing.  No, they’re amazing because Pratchett takes characters that you love and puts them in eminent danger, but gives them sentient wizard’s staffs and a cantankerous Granny who also happen to be a witch to help them out and the plucky nerve needed to face down the danger.  He puts them in a world that is set on the backs of four elephants who stand on a giant turtle who is flying through outer space.  It’s a world drenched in magic and light, filled with characters who are odd and lovely and hilarious.  Really, it’s everything you want in this kind of book.

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

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher

The Light Fantastic

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The Light Fantastic
Terry Pratchett

I’m not going to lie, every time I picked up this book, I heard Sam Rockwell saying “let’s trip the light fantastic” from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Totally unrelated to the actual book, but it couldn’t be helped.  Aside from that, I enjoyed this story more than I did the first book of Discworld (The Color of Magic).  I was oddly thrilled to discover that Rincewind and Twoflower were still our leading characters and, I have to say, the addition of Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan was both welcome and highly entertaining. A hero with no teeth that pronounces every “s” as a “sh” had me laughing out loud (particularly when he’s talking about sitting by the fire).  It’s very rare to find such a combination of humor and fantasy, but Pratchett always combines the two into the perfect recipe.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Terry Pratchett’s profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.

In The Light Fantastic, only one individual can save the world from a disastrous collision. Unfortunately, the hero happens to be the singularly inept wizard Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the world.

It kind of stuns me the way Pratchett can talk about huge big ticket items while keeping his books light and clever.  In this book, he covers religious intolerance in a big way without bogging down the story.  I mean, they basically have a witch hunt on the Disc (though in this case, they’re hunting for wizards) and Pratchett does a marvelous job of subtly weaving in the impulsions that can drive a group of people to clamor for death without clouting me over the head with it.  I don’t know if he actually had Group Think or mob behavior on the mind, but he built it in and highlighted it in stark relief.

Aside from the heavy stuff, which actually manages to feel light when you’re reading it, Pratchett once again did a delightful job of crafting an entertaining tale.  I love that the one person who can save the world is the most inept one on it.  I love that he resolutely refuses to believe that the trees are talking to him because if they are then he’s finally gone around the bend.  Pratchett paints his world in every sense available.  From the scent of Ankh-Morpork to the syrupy golden light of the Disc’s sun, Pratchett creates a vividly realized world and he populates it with things made of magic and imagination and everything that’s good in fantasy.  With every turned page, I smiled at some other tiny fact Pratchett included.   More people could take a page out of his book.

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

Book Links:  Goodreads, Publisher