strange and random happenstance

A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Harlequin MIRA
Publication Date: April 23rd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."

- Walt Whitman

With her latest scandal, another husband dead, this time via suicide, and a fight for his inheritance of the Volkonsky jewels arising, Delilah Drummond's family has convened in Paris to discuss her exile from polite society. She must remove herself from public scrutiny or face being cut off forever by her Grandfather back in New Orleans. The imperial "they" have decided that she will hide herself away at her ex step father's house Fairlight, in Kenya. Delilah doesn't have much of a say and agrees to the arranged banishment, knowing full well that as soon as the allotted time is over she will be back in Paris, or New York, or whatever city will have her, probably not New York... that pesky Volstead act kind of puts a kink in ones cocktails. Arriving in Africa with her "devoted" cousin Dodo as her chaperon, Delilah doesn't quite know what to make of her situation. Kenyan society is made up of the outcasts of respectable civilization, meaning people Delilah already knows. It's quite a shock to be relocated yet still surrounded by those who were a little too outre for everyone else.

There is a part of Delilah that feels at home, and not just because she picks back up where she left off before getting married to husband number two with the artist Kit Parrymore, located near at hand on the Fairlight property. The dinner parties hosted by Rex and Helen Farrady, as the reigning King and Queen of Kenya are just the kind of social occasions Delilah is used to with booze flowing and witty conversation larded with innuendo. Though Helen's private parties are another story... But soon Delilah is fighting not just her new found love for Africa and the exiled life she has reluctantly embraced, but she's also fighting her attraction to Ryder White. Ryder, that great white hunter. The man of contradictions, who believes in the preservation of Africa and it's animals, while also leading Safaris for those who are willing to overpay him. For the first time Delilah isn't giving in immediately to her fleeting fancies... but that could be because Ryder rankled her with placing a bet that he would be the first to bed her. Is it wrong that she took delight in sleeping with Kit so fast just to make him lose? Yet how long can she deny that she has stumbled into everything she's ever needed?

Like the Whitman poem the book takes it's title from, there's a freshness, a freeness to Deanna's Africa with its overt sexuality that makes this book an addictive and delicious read. While I feel that this is the best Raybourn book I have read I have a feeling that the rawness and sexuality might deter other readers, whereas I felt that it perfectly captured the time and the place epitomized in the character of Delilah. Raybourn is able to take old tales and stories from the Happy Valley Days and inject a new life to them. Helen's bathtub, and in fact Helen herself, with nods to Idina Sackville, doesn't feel heavy with the baggage of multiple retellings. Deanna was able to incorporate aspects and anecdotes of the time without making it feel like you've heard it all before, which is a true gift after all the books on Africa I have read. Deanna made Africa feel new to me and I don't think there are many authors or books I can say that about. Delilah had so much life that, while we do get a mystery buried deep down, A Spear of Summer Grass is more a character study than a whodunit, and I didn't regret that for a minute.

Of course I have a soft spot for Kenya that I think might be a genetic disposition. My mother throughout my childhood was obsessed with books and films on Africa. Her studio space was actually influenced by African safaris. And while we might disagree on the literary merits of Out of Africa, we can come together and agree on our love of Kenya. Therefore this book gave me great joy in seeing someone else, albeit a fictional someone, fall in love with a country she viewed as a punishment. It's weird to think of a place you've never been having such a magnetic pull on you. I'd never want to live in Kenya, but I do want to visit. But the Kenya I love is the Kenya of the past. And there is that tendency to romanticize a time and a place, and British Kenya is such a time and a place. Yet the society is the exact opposite of the society I crave in real life, which would be preferably quiet and bookish. Therefore Kenya is an escape for me, a look into a life that calls to me but would never be mine and therefore A Spear of Summer Grass is the perfect escapist read. It was everything my heart wanted but knew I would never embrace in my own life. IE, a perfect book.

That perfection is achieved on so many levels, yet they all have one thing in common, and that's taking something you thought you knew everything about and making it fresh again. The most refreshing aspect though was that while Delilah had the Great War baggage and the night terrors and all the typical signs of PTSD, we are not forced to dwell on this. As I have ranted before, so many modern books belabour this point and make more of it then what it is, not a part of the character, but something that is bigger than the character and becomes a separate entity weighing down the whole book. Delilah is damaged, but everyone in Africa is damaged in some way according to Ryder. Blessedly Deanna handles this balance just perfectly and I didn't have to read about guns in the distance causing flashbacks, yet again. And this isn't to diminish people who do suffer no matter how it presents itself, just to state that stereotyping PTSD does the disease a disservice. Everyone battles it in their own way and it's nice to see someone understand that and write about it.

Everything in this book, even the PTSD, has to perfectly fit the character because this book is more a character study than a plot driven narrative. If there was one little character trait or quirk out of place it would have stood out more than in other books. The originality and the connection between these characters are what made me devour this book. While I do really really like Ryder as the hero and his luscious Han Solo Harrison Fordness which was tailor made for the fair Princesses among us, he wasn't the big draw for me. I know, shocking! But if you really want more Ryder, and I can't really blame you because Han Solo was it for me as a kid, you should check out his little prequel novella, Far in the Wilds. I quite enjoyed it. Moving beyond Ryder, the two characters I connected with most are Ryder's best friend Gideon and his little lame brother Moses, who are native Masai. The way Gideon becomes Delilah's best friend and how they bond over just talking about the simplest of things, like the Masai words for plants, made him far and away my favorite character in the book.

To me Gideon was so real that he walked right out of the pages and into my heart. Likewise his younger brother Moses. To not only have a connection because of his being a sweet boy with a lame leg who doesn't speak, I mean, how could you not love the little Tiny Timness of him? But to then have that couched in the language of what these disabilities really mean within Masai culture, and how his disabilities mean that he is not only different, but that because of this he can't get cattle to raise and if he doesn't get the cattle then there is no way he can afford a dowry and without that he will never marry and have a fulfilled life, according to his upbringing, just pulls at the heartstrings. The fact that Delilah hires him, that this simple gesture means that Moses could have a real and full life because he is now able to contribute, makes you have the feels all the more. I would even go so far as to say that because of Deanna's integration of characters and culture that you are reading a deeper book than most of the books on Africa out there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Spear of Summer Grass, Africa, Deanna Raybourn, Dodo, Far in the Wilds, Han Solo, Happy Valley, Harrison Ford, Idina Sackville, Isak Dinesen, Kenya, Masai, Out of Africa, PTSD, Ten Years, Tiny Tim, Walt Whitman, WWI

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Published by: Pocket
Publication Date: 1987
Format: Paperback, 306 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
 
Richard MacDuff is overworked. He's a computer geek for the genius Gordon Way. He has so much work in fact that instead of doing it he spends all his time trying to figure out how his new couch got wedged in his stairwell. It's a physical impossibility. Another side affect of being overworked is forgetting to pick up his girlfriend, Susan, Gordon's sister, for their dinner engagement with Richard's old professor, Reg Chronotis. Reg's dinner is far from relaxing, seeing as there's a horse in Reg's bathroom after dinner and on his way home Richard sees the ghost of his boss, whom was killed in a freak accident just a short while earlier. Upon getting home Richard freaks out and breaks into Susan's apartment to steal her answering machine's tape which might incriminate him by scaling the outside of her building. In other words, he totally overreacts. He is caught out in this by a very odd old classmate of his, now going by the name of Dirk Gently.

The fact is, everything has gone to hell in a hand basket and Richard turns to the basket case Dirk to help him out. Yet Dirk doesn't investigate things in a normal manner. He's a holistic detective, meaning, he'll follow up on things that strike his interest that may seem totally unrelated to the job at hand. But Dirk is convinced that because of everything's interconnectivity, it will all work out, he's very new age is Dirk. By working with the old adage of Sherlock Holmes; "once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," leads the duo to a time machine, ghosts of long dead aliens inhabiting people, and the answer as to how Richard's couch ended up defying the laws of physics. There might have been a temporary door where there shouldn't have been. But that's the least of their worries.

The first time I read this I was on a train. This was my first big trip from home without the family and I was going to California with my two best friends. I was in the midst of Douglas Adams worship. I had always known who he was but I was never much of a pleasure reader when in High School. That all changed once I left High School. I devoured the who Hitchhiker's Trilogy, all five books, as fast as I could. I thought, traveling away from home without the parents was a new adventure and I'd re-read the first Hitchhiker's book. It was this whole journey theme I thought was appropriate at the time. I can at least confirm that trying to bathe in a train sink does make you abundantly aware of needing to know where your towel is. Yet I never got around to re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, instead I picked up a new to me Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. From LA to Chicago, for 57 hours I just devoured the book, blind to the dusty winter landscape outside the windows.

Re-reading the book years later I realize I remembered next to nothing of the plot. Really, if someone where to ask me, before now, what happened in the book I would have said it has something to do with Dodos, I think, and Dirk doesn't show up till half-way into the book. Shameful that I could remember so little. Though there's this weird problem I seem to have that anything I read on a train I can't retain. Yes, I'm totally blaming Amtrak for my failing faculties. Yet I could have rattled on and on about the history of the book and how it was originally a Doctor Who episode that was only partially filmed and those scenes were later used in another episode but the original conceit then became this book and now there is a book about the Doctor Who episode, it is all very wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, and I'm sure Douglas would love that. Even my book, which I bought way before his death, says "The Dazzling Bestseller by the Author of The Salmon of Doubt." The Salmon of Doubt came out in 2002 and this paperback is from 1988... so could someone please explain that to me?

Anyway, out of the time vortex, the reason I picked this up again was because there is, or was, a tv show based on the books. It was awesome but, now since the idiots at Channel 4 have cancelled it, it's now past tense referenced, but isn't Channel 4 only online now anyway? So Channel 4 is kind of past tense itself. There where three episodes including the pilot. All about an hour with Steve Managan as Dirk, who most people will probably know from the Matt LeBlanc show Episodes. The show was so marvelous and loony and perfect, the pilot with the cat made me cry and cry, that, obviously, before I knew it was cancelled. Of course, in the way of the world of Douglas Adams where his work is constantly being re-interpreted we are on the cusp of an American version of Dirk produced by IDW staring the lovely Samuel Barnett. But who knows how that will turn out. Eight episode and then cancelled? The new series points to the fact that the world, and in particular me, need more Dirk immediately. Also I never did get around to reading the sequel (still haven't) and as I've said, I remembered nothing of the book,

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is everything that is wonderful about Adams, blending absurd aliens with classical poetry. Past, present, and future all commingling with an element of the supernatural while still being hilariously funny. In other words, if there was one writer whose work embodied the essence of Doctor Who it would be Douglas Adams. It wasn't just that he wrote for the show, he had a comedic understanding of the pitfalls of time travel wherein a missing cat case that Dirk was working on ends up being irrelevant because in the new timeline they've created the cat never went walkabout. I wish they hadn't cancelled the show and I wish Adams was still alive to write more about Dirk and his adventures... but at least I still have the next book to look forward too... it's time for The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Though perhaps I'll go back and re-read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency again... I seem to have a recurring problem of never quite remembering the whole plot. Could this be some wibbly wobbly, timey wimey of Adams's own making wherein I will forever be re-reading his books? I won't object if it is.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Dodo, Douglas Adams, Episodes, Richard MacDuff, Steve Managan, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, The Salmon of Doubt, Trains

A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Harlequin MIRA
Publication Date: April 23rd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."

- Walt Whitman

With her latest scandal, another husband dead, this time via suicide, and a fight for the his inheritance of the Volkonsky jewels arising, Delilah Drummond's family has come together in Paris to discuss her exile. She must remove herself from public scrutiny or face being cut off forever by her Grandfather back in New Orleans. The imperial "they" have decided that she will hide herself away at her ex step father's house Fairlight, in Kenya. Delilah doesn't have much of a say and agrees to the arranged banishment, knowing full well that as soon as the allotted time is over she will be back in Paris, or New York, or whatever city will have her, probably not New York... that pesky Volstead act kind of puts a kink in ones cocktails.

Arriving in Africa with her "devoted" cousin Dodo as her chaperon, Delilah doesn't quite know what to make of her situation. Firstly, Fairlight is in far worse shape then she was led to believe. Secondly, she is now a part of Kenyan society. A society made up of the outcasts of respectable civilization, meaning mainly people Delilah already knows. It's quite a shock to be relocated but still surrounded by those who were a little too outre for everyone else. There is a part of Delilah that feels at home picking back up where she left off before getting married to husband number two with the artist Kit Parrymore, located near at hand on the Fairlight property. Also the dinner parties hosted by Rex and Helen Farrady, as the reigning King and Queen of Kenya, are just the kind of social occasions Delilah is used to with booze flowing and witty conversation larded with innuendo. Though Helen's private parties are another story...

Soon Delilah is fighting not just her new found love for Africa and the new world and experiences she has reluctantly embraced, but she's also fighting her attraction to Ryder White. Ryder, that great white hunter. The man of contradictions, who believes in the preservation of Africa and it's animals, while also leading Safaris for those who are willing to overpay him. For the first time Delilah isn't giving in immediately to her fleeting fancies... but that could be because Ryder rankled her with placing a bet that he would be the first to bed her. Is it wrong that she took delight in sleeping with Kit so fast just to make him lose? Yet, how long can she deny that she has stumbled into everything she's ever needed?

Like the Whitman poem the book takes it's title from, there's a freshness, a freeness to Deanna's Africa with its overt sexuality that makes this book an addictive and delicious read. While I feel that this is the best Raybourn book I have read I have a feeling that the rawness and sexuality might deter other readers, whereas I felt that it perfectly captured the time and the place that was epitomized in Delilah. Raybourn is able to take old tales and stories from the Happy Valley Days and inject a new life to them. Helen's bathtub, and in fact Helen herself, with nods to Idina Sackville, doesn't feel heavy with the baggage of multiple retellings. Deanna was able to incorporate aspects and anecdotes of the time without making it feel like you've heard it all before, which is a true gift after all the books on Africa I have recently read. Deanna made Africa feel new to me, and I don't think there are many authors or books I can say that about. Delilah had so much life that, while we do get a mystery buried deep down, A Spear of Summer Grass is more a character study then a whodunit, and I didn't regret that for a minute.

The most refreshing aspect though was that while Delilah had the Great War baggage and the night terrors and all the typical signs of PTSD, we are not forced to dwell on this. As I have ranted before, so many modern books belabour this point and make more of it then what it is, not a part of the character, but something that is bigger then the character and becomes a separate entity weighing down the whole book. Delilah is damaged, but everyone in Africa is damaged in some way according to Ryder. Blessedly Deanna handles this balance just perfectly and I didn't have to read about guns in the distance causing flashbacks, yet again.

Being a book that is more a character study, it was the originality and the connection between these characters that made this book get devoured by my eyes. While I do really really like Ryder as the hero and his luscious Han Solo Harrison Fordness which was tailor made for the fair Princesses among us, he wasn't the big draw for me. The two characters I connected with most are Ryder's best friend Gideon and his little lame brother Moses, who are native Masai. The way Gideon becomes Delilah's best friend and how they bond over just talking about the simplest of things, like the Masai words for plants, made him far and away my favorite character in the book. He was so real that he walked right out of the pages and into my heart. Likewise his younger brother Moses. To not only have a connection because of his being a sweet boy with a lame leg who doesn't speak, I mean, how could you not love the little Tiny Timness of him? But to then have that couched in the language of what these things really mean within Masai culture, and how his disability means that he is not only different, but that because of this he can't get cattle to raise and if he doesn't get the cattle then there is no way he can afford a dowry and without that he will never marry and have a fulfilled life. The fact that Delilah hires him, that this simple gesture means that Moses could have a real and full life because he is now able to contribute, makes you have the feels all the more. I would even go so far as to say that because of Deanna's integration of characters and culture, that you get to read a deeper book them most of the books on Africa out there.

But if you really want more Ryder, and I can't really blame you, you should check out his little prequel novella, Far in the Wilds. Now I must go listen to some music, because if there is only one flaw in the book, it's that now I can't get Tom Jones's Delilah out of my head...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Spear of Summer Grass, Ashford April, Deanna Raybourn, Dodo, Han Solo, Happy Valley, Harrison Ford, Kenya, Lauren Willig, Masai, PTSD, Tiny Tim, Tom Jones, Walt Whitman

A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Harlequin MIRA
Publication Date: April 23rd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

"Picture it. May of 2011. Two writers having drinks in the lounge of the Yale Club after a tough day signing books at Book Expo America.

Then picture two glasses of prosecco simultaneously sloshing over as Deanna and I discovered that we were both working on books set in 1920s Kenya. Around the same group of people. At the same time. Well, maybe not exactly the same time: Deanna’s was 1923 and mine was 1926. But close. Our characters had come from the same sorts of background and found themselves in the same milieu. Once we got our jaws back in place—and ordered some more prosecco—we were both bouncing in our chairs, chattering a mile a minute, comparing notes and sources, so delighted to have someone working in exactly the same world.

We tried to get Tasha Alexander to start writing 1920s Kenya, too—just so we could all keep going on tour together—but, sadly, she resisted our blandishments." - Lauren Willig

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."

- Walt Whitman

With her latest scandal, another husband dead, this time via suicide, and a fight for the his inheritance of the Volkonsky jewels arising, Delilah Drummond's family has come together in Paris to discuss her exile. She must remove herself from public scrutiny or face being cut off forever by her Grandfather back in New Orleans. The imperial "they" have decided that she will hide herself away at her ex step father's house Fairlight, in Kenya. Delilah doesn't have much of a say and agrees to the arranged banishment, knowing full well that as soon as the allotted time is over she will be back in Paris, or New York, or whatever city will have her, probably not New York... that pesky Volstead act kind of puts a kink in ones cocktails.

Arriving in Africa with her "devoted" cousin Dodo as her chaperon, Delilah doesn't quite know what to make of her situation. Firstly, Fairlight is in far worse shape then she was led to believe. Secondly, she is now a part of Kenyan society. A society made up of the outcasts of respectable civilization, meaning mainly people Delilah already knows. It's quite a shock to be relocated but still surrounded by those who were a little too outre for everyone else. There is a part of Delilah that feels at home picking back up where she left off before getting married to husband number two with the artist Kit Parrymore, located near at hand on the Fairlight property. Also the dinner parties hosted by Rex and Helen Farrady, as the reigning King and Queen of Kenya, are just the kind of social occasions Delilah is used to with booze flowing and witty conversation larded with innuendo. Though Helen's private parties are another story...

Soon Delilah is fighting not just her new found love for Africa and the new world and experiences she has reluctantly embraced, but she's also fighting her attraction to Ryder White. Ryder, that great white hunter. The man of contradictions, who believes in the preservation of Africa and it's animals, while also leading Safaris for those who are willing to overpay him. For the first time Delilah isn't giving in immediately to her fleeting fancies... but that could be because Ryder rankled her with placing a bet that he would be the first to bed her. Is it wrong that she took delight in sleeping with Kit so fast just to make him lose? Yet, how long can she deny that she has stumbled into everything she's ever needed?

Like the Whitman poem the book takes it's title from, there's a freshness, a freeness to Deanna's Africa with its overt sexuality that makes this book an addictive and delicious read. While I feel that this is the best Raybourn book I have read I have a feeling that the rawness and sexuality might deter other readers, whereas I felt that it perfectly captured the time and the place that was epitomized in Delilah. Raybourn is able to take old tales and stories from the Happy Valley Days and inject a new life to them. Helen's bathtub, and in fact Helen herself, with nods to Idina Sackville, doesn't feel heavy with the baggage of multiple retellings. Deanna was able to incorporate aspects and anecdotes of the time without making it feel like you've heard it all before, which is a true gift after all the books on Africa I have recently read. Deanna made Africa feel new to me, and I don't think there are many authors or books I can say that about. Delilah had so much life that, while we do get a mystery buried deep down, A Spear of Summer Grass is more a character study then a whodunit, and I didn't regret that for a minute.

The most refreshing aspect though was that while Delilah had the Great War baggage and the night terrors and all the typical signs of PTSD, we are not forced to dwell on this. As I have ranted before, so many modern books belabour this point and make more of it then what it is, not a part of the character, but something that is bigger then the character and becomes a separate entity weighing down the whole book. Delilah is damaged, but everyone in Africa is damaged in some way according to Ryder. Blessedly Deanna handles this balance just perfectly and I didn't have to read about guns in the distance causing flashbacks, yet again.

Being a book that is more a character study, it was the originality and the connection between these characters that made this book get devoured by my eyes. While I do really really like Ryder as the hero and his luscious Han Solo Harrison Fordness which was tailor made for the fair Princesses among us, he wasn't the big draw for me. The two characters I connected with most are Ryder's best friend Gideon and his little lame brother Moses, who are native Masai. The way Gideon becomes Delilah's best friend and how they bond over just talking about the simplest of things, like the Masai words for plants, made him far and away my favorite character in the book. He was so real that he walked right out of the pages and into my heart. Likewise his younger brother Moses. To not only have a connection because of his being a sweet boy with a lame leg who doesn't speak, I mean, how could you not love the little Tiny Timness of him? But to then have that couched in the language of what these things really mean within Masai culture, and how his disability means that he is not only different, but that because of this he can't get cattle to raise and if he doesn't get the cattle then there is no way he can afford a dowry and without that he will never marry and have a fulfilled life. The fact that Delilah hires him, that this simple gesture means that Moses could have a real and full life because he is now able to contribute, makes you have the feels all the more. I would even go so far as to say that because of Deanna's integration of characters and culture, that you get to read a deeper book them most of the books on Africa out there.

But if you really want more Ryder, and I can't really blame you, you should check out his little prequel novella, Far in the Wilds. Now I must go listen to some music, because if there is only one flaw in the book, it's that now I can't get Tom Jones's Delilah out of my head...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: A Spear of Summer Grass, Ashford April, Deanna Raybourn, Dodo, Han Solo, Happy Valley, Harrison Ford, Kenya, Lauren Willig, Masai, PTSD, Tiny Tim, Tom Jones, Walt Whitman

The Unicorn's Tale (Nathaniel Fludd Book 4) by R.L. LaFevers
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
ARC Provided by Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: April 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 160 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
There's nothing Nate wants to do more than hunt down his odious cousin Obediah. He needs to find out if this feeling he's having, this hope that his parents are still alive, is justified. Beasts don't matter when he might get his parents back. But what does Aunt Phil do? Pack them all in her little plane, grumbling Dodo included, and head to France to deal with a Guivre! A little water spitting eel like creature that has quickly developed a fondness for soaking Nate. While wrestling with the wee beastie, Aunt Phil gets an urgent message from a Mr. Sylvan that the Unicorn he is the caretaker of is behaving oddly and he needs her help right away. So once again, instead of going back to England and trying to find out where Obediah has secreted himself, Nate is off to tend another creature with his Aunt. Luckily they are close by, and despite Nate's misgivings, Unicorns are pretty cool, especially when they are cared for by fauns! The torso of a man and the legs of a goat. Their arrival is rather later than the worried and harried faun would have liked... but after a good night's sleep they are all up at dawn and trekking into the forest to find Luminessa.

Aunt Phil quickly sees that Luminessa might pose a problem, that's until the unicorn recognizes the little Gremlin Greasle as a fair maiden. Maidens and unicorns go together like bread and butter, even if the maiden could use a bath. Also for the first time ever Phil realizes that perhaps Greasle is of use... diagnosing the unicorn is far easier with the calming influence of Greasle. They make a wonderful discovery and just as they are about to leave the forest to gather supplies, the odious Obediah appears. It is quite convenient to have your enemy show up when you've been wanting to have a bit of a chat... having that enemy show up on the doorstep of a rare and magical beastie... not good at all. Obediah has a deal to strike. Either they comply and not everyone looses, or they resist and he will make all suffer. Working against the clock they have 48 hours in which to foil Obediah and keep all mystical beasts safe from this madman and come out of this with the most precious of prizes.

Nathanial Fludd keeps growing on me. It's not just the message it sends about the preciousness of life and the danger of extinction. But it's the way Robin presents these lessons in a way that is a fabulous narrative with a heartwarming message at the center that is not beat into us or told to us in a condescending manner. I will admit, I did, when younger, have a weakness for unicorns. You can't fault me, I'm a child of the 80s and what with the Serendipity books and rainbows and Pegasuses being everywhere. And yes, there was a short time when I thought that if I wished hard enough I'd get to meet one. Here Robin brings us unicorns in all their glory! And rhinos are unicorns! This made me so happy and brought a smile from ear to ear. The classification of rhinos as unicorns made this a five star book hands down. Though I will admit, that Mr. Sylvan is a close second. He is a wonderful little nod to Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He has a jaunty red scarf and when it says he has an umbrella stand near his fireplace I actually held my breath a little, but of course he keeps forks for roasting bread over the open fire there, not a little umbrella. In the end though, these little joys aren't what make this book the best. What does that is we have significant plot movement on the odious Obediah and the disappearance of Nate's parents. Though it's going to be a painful to wait for the next installment, I want the confrontation with the nasty nanny to be now... but with everything Robin writes, it will be worth the wait.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Aunt Phil, Beastologist, Dodo, Mr. Sylvan, Mr. Tumnus, Nathaniel Fludd, Obediah Fludd, R.L. LaFevers, Rhinos, Serendipity Books, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Unicorn's Tale

The Wyvern's Treasure (Nathaniel Fludd Book 3) by R.L. LaFevers
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: October 5th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 160 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Nathaniel Fludd and his Aunt Phil have cared for a Phoenix and helped recapture an escaped Basilisk. All in a days work for a Beastologist, except that there's this niggling doubt that perhaps they've been set up. How did that Basilisk escape? Also what of the sightings of a red haired man at both sites? Rushing back to England to solve these mysteries and perhaps answer a few relating to Nathaniel's parents disappearance, they find even more trouble. Aunt Phil's house has been ransacked, but luckily Cornelius, her pet Dodo, is fine, even if he might object to the word "pet." He in fact might object to many things, including Nathaniel and his "pet" Greasle, a gremlin, which is very similar to "vermin" in Cornelius's book. According to Cornelius the home invader looked very much like Phil... leading to the conclusion that perhaps the branch of the family that was long ago disowned due to their greed and corruption has returned to wreck vengeance. Octavius Fludd must have passed on his hatred of the other Fludds to his living descendant, Obediah. Hoping that perhaps Nathaniel's parents' lawyer and his ex governess, Miss Lumpton, might have some answers to their problems, they head to London by train, a far preferable means of transportation to Aunt Phil's rickety plane. But the lawyers office is boarded up and heading on to the Fludd homestead in Upton Downs, they discover this house has been ransacked as well and Miss Lumpton's possessions have been cleared out. But they don't have long to consider the ramifications of a second home invasion because a plea comes from Wales. The Wyverns are restless. These glorious dragons were long ago tamed into behavior by a treaty. This Covenant protected not only the people and their crops but helped to hide the Wyverns and keep them happy and secluded. Only a person has broken the treaty by entering their caves. It doesn't take Phil and Nathaniel long to realize that this has to be Obediah's work. If they can only find him before it's too late and the Covenant lies in tatters while the countryside burns.

Nathaniel Fludd and his adventures are a quick little joy to read. They have that nostalgic olde tyme feel with the exploratory gene akin to Indiana Jones. What I loved about this book was the Wyverns. In the two previous installments we had the beauty of the Phoenix, which introduced the glories of being a Beastologist to Nathaniel. In the second book, the Basilisk showed Nathaniel the dangers. But what we get with the Wyverns is something entirely new. They aren't good or evil, they just live by their instincts, but they have an intelligence and an ability to understand and communicate that the others did not. Instead of just observing the beasts, we get more of an inner knowledge as to how they think, how they live and love. Plus, instead of lone creatures, they live together in a community raising their young and forming life long bonds. Also, it never really struck me before about the underlying message of animal preservation. Creatures that were once pests and vermin were hunted into extinction or close to. Now these beasts become rare endangered animals and it's up to the Beastologists to nurture and care for the creatures while keeping them hidden from the outside world who contributed to their depleted numbers. Without bashing you over the head, but showing us these wonderful beasts, Robin is teaching kids the importance of animals, that it's preservation and care not exploitation that need to be embraced. Because as everyone knows, if there are still dragons in the world, we don't know of them anymore, so either the Beastologists are doing a really good job or they were too late. Hopefully the kids reading these books will realize there is a time when it's too late and it's best to start helping animals yesterday.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Aunt Phil, Basilisk, Beastologist, Cornelius, Dodo, Greasle, Indiana Jones, Miss Lumpton, Nathaniel Fludd, Obediah Fludd, Phil A. Fludd, Phoenix, R.L. LaFevers, Reading Challenge, Wales, Wyverns

The Eyre Affair: Thursday Next Novel the 1st by Jasper Fforde
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: January 28th, 2002 US, July 19th, 2001 UK
Format: Hardcover, 374 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

In a world similar to our own, but not quite, books are revered with a fanatical devotion, Dodo's are a common re-engineered pet, the Goliath Corporation covertly controls most of England, cheese is exorbitantly taxed and the Crimean War still rages on. The Special Operations Network, dealing with the unusual, takes care of what is deemed too bizarre for the regular PC plods. There are 30 departments, the functions of most departments being shrouded in mystery. Our heroine, Thursday Next, works for SO-27, the Literary Detectives, who police everything from forgeries to theft, all within the parameters of books. And in a society devoted to the written word, it's a demanding job. We join Thursday as she's heading out to Gad's Hill, the home of Charles Dickens, where, despite extreme security measures, the manuscript for Martin Cuzzlewit has disappeared, yet again. Only there is just one man who could have pulled off this crime, neither appearing on camera or setting off securing alarms... Acheron Hades, a man who can lie in deed, thought and action. He doesn't appear on film, he can hear anytime his name is spoken within a certain distance and he and Thursday have a history. Of course the history is more her turning him down when he was her professor then anything lurid... but this is a first, someone who can say no to Hades and knows what he looks like. But the question everyone is asking themselves is, why does Hades want this book?

Thursday is approached by SO-5 to help in their apprehension of Hades. What happens is a fiasco. All the Special Op agents are killed, except Thursday, who was saved by someone matching the description of Rochester from Jane Eyre. But a fictional character saving her life is not the biggest concern when she faces questions from SO-1, internal affairs, and a future version of herself appears to her and tell her to transfer to a LiteraTec job in Swindon. She listens to herself and heads to Swindon, even if the job is technically a demotion and she's avoided the town since a) she grew up there b) her family still lives there and c) Landon. Her family is complicated, seeing as technically her father doesn't exist because he's been written out of time. A Chronogaurd in SO-12 he jumps back and forth in time and when he went rogue he was eliminated, but somehow he still had three children and shows up every morning for breakfast. Her Uncle Mycroft and her Aunt Polly live with her mother, where Mycroft has made some of the most fascinating inventions, even a portal into the written word! But the complications of family are nothing to Landen. The man she fell in love with while serving in the Crimea, the man she was to marry, the man she left when he sullied her dead brother Anton's memory saying that he caused one of the worst fiascoes in the history of the Crimea.

Of course Landon will have to wait when Mycroft, Polly and Mycroft's Prose Portal are kidnapped by none other than Acheron Hades. Seeing as he now has the Cuzzlewit manuscript and a way into said manuscript... things are not looking good. Everyone's suspicions are confirmed when one of the minor characters, Mr. Quaverly, turns up in a trunk in Swindon, permanently excised from the book. But even after Spec Ops and Goliath try to trick Hades, Martin Cuzzlewit seems safe... of course they didn't count on Mycroft destroying the original manuscript to save the book. The lack of his ransom and the betrayal of Mycroft leads Hades to his most heinous crime yet... he kidnaps Jane Eyre. One of the most beloved books of all time, Jane Eyre, without Jane's first person narration ends abruptly once Jane is gone. It's up to Thursday to save her family, get her man, end a war, save a classic and perhaps get happy endings for everyone.

This book is written for bookworms who have read all the classics and will get all the little jokes and asides. The parallel world Fforde has created is beyond fascinating. The devotion of this world to the written word makes rock stars out of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen, which I heartily applaud. While it takes awhile to get used to the small differences that ended up creating major differences in our timelines, many of which are played for laughs, it's the moments within the literature itself that shines. As for the bureaucracy, politics and technology, I find it diverting, but not integral. From the short passages with Polly trapped within Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", to Thursday's prolonged sojourn within Jane Eyre, it's the books within the book that I adore. Ironically the first time I read this book I had not yet read Jane Eyre, a fact which has since been rectified. But the fact then remains that it was actually Fforde and his interpretation of Jane Eyre that became my first introduction to the classic. Of course I'd seen all the adaptations so I knew what the plot was and was able to appreciate the fact that in Thursday's world the ending of the book is wrong, what with Jane going off to India with her cousin. But it was Fforde's description of this world, his representation of Rochester as a heroic and self-sacrificing man that I then took with me back to the original. So in a way, my introduction to one of the most famous literary figures in history came about in a very Nextian way... watch an adaptation, read a book about the characters taken out of context, then read the original. But the thing that kept me reading late into the night is that once Thursday is ensconced at Thornfield, it's the waiting, the knowing that somehow she will right the book to end it like it does in our world that keeps the pages turning. How will she rectify the wrong? Because this is one of the greatest love stories ever told and it can't end like it did!

Though there is one detraction for me. It's the believability of this frenetic society. I know it's absurd and funny as all get out, but could a society really retain this frenzy over this prolonged a period. With the way our attention spans flit from one thing to the next could people's devotion to Shakespeare really last as long as it has? Would people truthfully be changing their names to emulate authors and characters in books? Again, I get the satire, but it's the underlying human nature that I partially question. Of course I am like the characters, I do possess these fanatic tendencies, but I don't think the public as a whole could retain it for such a long period. The Rocky Horror Picture Show nature of the Richard III performances with the audience members being the actors and then also participating in an elaborate call and response routine seems to me fun, but not able to last as long as it supposedly does. Even The Rocky Horror Picture Show couldn't sustain my local theater to stay open, and I know Shakespeare is in an entirely different ballpark, but still... don't get me wrong, I love this book and would love to visit this world, but I have some quibbles, not enough to ever put the book down or to stop me from foisting it one others... but still...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Acheron Hades, Book Review, Charles Dickens, Crimean War, Dodo, Goliath, Jane Eyre, Jasper Fforde, Literary Detective, Rochester, Rocky Horror, SO-27, Spec Ops, The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next

Flight of the Phoenix: Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist Book 1 by R. L. LaFevers
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: September 16th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Nathaniel Fludd's parents have disappeared. Presumed dead, his parents' lawyer summon him and Miss Lumpton to his office. A tidy sum makes Miss Lumpton disappear as well. Nathaniel is then shuffled off to a relative, a Phil A. Fludd, he's never heard of in Batting-At-The-Flies. The precocious youngster with a penchant for drawing and a feeling of being unwanted and left behind arrives at his destination with a heart full of trepidation. What he finds is beyond his wildest dreams...Phil is actually a she and a Beastologist too boot! Whatever a Beastologist is...but it might have something to do with the fact Cornelius, her pet, happens to be a talking Dodo. Aunt Phil says come morning she's off to do her Beastological work so Nate should get to bed nice and early. Nate shuffles off to bed knowing that he'll be left behind again, but this time with a crotchety Dodo and Miss Lumpton's suitcase full of letters and underwear...leave it to Nate to get the wrong suitcase. But come morning he realizes that he is to go with Aunt Phil, which fills him equally with joy and dread.

They hope aboard her little plane and off they go to Arabia, to see the birth of a Phoenix, the first in 500 years! Along the way Nate learns that his family is world renowned for being great adventurers, from map makers to Beastologists, they are without equal. The exploration bug bit the family hundreds of years ago when Sir Mungo Fludd had eight sons he sent to seek out every corner of the globe. Seven sons returned to Sir Mungo and the great family tome, The Geographica, A Map of the World was completed. The final son? They speak not of him...But Phil is worried that Nate was left behind, he should have started his training years ago...coupled with the fact that his parents never wrote (unheard of in a Fludd) and the fact that the book was lost with them is all very suspicious...But there are more immediate concerns. A gremlin is in the plane's gearbox and once they get to Arabia the Bedouin's take umbrage to Phil's presence and take her off to their camp, leaving Nate and his new friend, the Gremlin Greasle to rebirth this Phoenix and then free Aunt Phil, all without being discovered. And if that isn't enough, could the letters in Miss Lumpton's suitcase be the missing Fludd correspondence? And who was that mysterious red head who tried to steal the Fludd Book of Beasts? Could he be a descendant of the eighth son bent on revenge?

I picked up this book because I just adore R. L. LaFevers' Theodosia books. Nathaniel Fludd has a similar air of adventure and exploration akin to The Young Indiana Jones that is prevalent with Theodosia. But whereas Theodosia has the feel of the British Empire and a more Victorian Egypt obsessed society, you really feel the march of progress and the setting of this book being right after The Great War. It's an interesting clash of old and new. How the old ways of cartographers and explorers is giving way to the age of flight and steel and oil. But for this brief period both magic and technology exist side by side. I personally am in love with this trend in young adult and children's fiction wherein we have this distinct time period, be in World War I or Victorian times and then a little bit of magic is overlaid. Just addictive! I felt though this book was too short. Being written for younger readers this is a fairly short and quick read, so for those adult readers out there you will be desperate for the next volume. With all the foreshadowing and unanswered questions, you think you might know what will happen next, but you really need Robin to write it out for us. I really feel this is a great start to a cute new series, which I know I won't love as much as Theo...but it engenders the same feelings!

I also have to just say how beautifully this book is made. R. L. LaFevers must have one hell of a following (me among them) that Houghton Mifflin is willing to go the extra mile to make these books so...I don't really know how to say this...but you just want to admire them for hours and love how they look on your bookshelves. The Theodosia books have amazing cover and interior art, but couple that with the antique map of London under the dustjacket and the slightly deckled edging...heirloom books here. Nathaniel Fludd isn't an exception. The dustjacket is wonderfully done. That feel off an olde tyme journal with the pencil and the feather. But it's the drawing of the belt clasp that makes it just that extra bit special. The endpapers are a magnificent map of the journey in the book with the dotted line, just like Indiana Jones. At first the interior drawing style seemed a bit cartoonish, when compared with the finish of the cover, but I grew to like it. It's as if this were Nathaniel's own sketchbook. Kelly Murphy did a wonderful job and made me stop comparing her to Yoko Tanaka in the end.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:07 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Arabia, Beastologist, Book Review, Dodo, Greasle, Gremlin, Kelly Murphy, Miss Lumpton, Mungo Fludd, Nathaniel Fludd, Phil A. Fludd, R. L. Lafevers, Theodosia Throckmorton, Yoko Tanaka