Fantasy – MostlyFiction Book Reviews We Love to Read! Sat, 28 Oct 2017 19:51:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.18 RAISING STEAM by Terry Pratchett /2014/raising-steam-by-terry-pratchett/ Sat, 05 Apr 2014 13:11:27 +0000 /?p=26043 Book Quote:

“… the man to whom you refer is a master of every martial art ever conceived. In fact he conceived of most of them himself and is the only known master of the de’ja’ fu*. He can throw a punch into the air and it will follow you home and smack you in the face when you open your own front door. He is known as Lu-Tze, a name that strikes fear in those who don’t know how to pronounce it, let alone spell it.

* A discipline where the hands move in time as well as in space, the exponent twisting space behind his own back whilst doing so.”

Book Review:

Review by Bill Brody  (APR 5, 2014)

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett is a book in his marvellous Discworld series. As in all the books of this series, Sir Pratchett spins an immensely readable yarn centered on the impact of an idea, an invention or the like into Discworld society. The ideas he’s tackled include the introduction of paper money; the post office; telegraph; deity, religion, and the corruptible priesthood; warfare rooted in ages-old history; terrorism; and in Raising Steam, the introduction of the steam locomotive. His characters are satirical and humorous, often takes on historical and literary icons, from Machiavelli’s Prince to LoTze to Don Giovanni. Discworld is unlike our own on the surface, but seen through Pratchett’s satirical lens, the reader finds hilarious commentary on our own world and its foibles. His impressive social intelligence and wicked sense of humor make for an engaging read.

Raising Steam is about the invention of the steam engine and the attendant implications in Discworld society. The inventor is Dick Simnel, a young man, clearly modelled on a Scots engineer, impenetrable accent and all, who employs a rational and disciplined process to create Discworld’s first steam powered locomotive. Dick goes to the capital to seek funding from Harry King (king of night soil and other smelly endeavors), a wealthy entrepreneur with a history of getting things done, legality be damned. The whole prospect of change engages the interest of Lord Vetiari, a professional assassin and machiavellian lord of the country. Vetinari is a tyrant, but he requires that all the different species (dwarves, trolls, goblins and so forth) of his country be treated alike as sapient creatures. Lord Vetanari engages Moist von Lipwig, his manager of the Post Office, the Mint, and the State Bank to manage the new enterprise. Moist von Lipwig was chosen by Vetanari because his gift for larceny makes him uniquely capable of managing it in others. Lipwig is managed by Vetanari by threat of torture and because he really enjoys living on the larcenous edge under impossible demands. Moist is the central character to this story.

The train becomes a successful enterprise. A cabal of dwarf rebels is trying to bar the entry of dwarves into the larger society. They want to literally derail the train as it makes its first trip to the land that is home to the vampires, one of whom is Vetinari’s lady love. The dwarf cabal sound suspiciously like fundamentalist religious terrorists in our world. Dick is continually improving on his beloved steam engine, Iron Girder. Moist resolves one impossible demand from Vertinari after another with wit, subterfuge and beguiling dishonesty.

There are goblins (a smell that is unbelieveable, but you stop noticing after a while, and they are marvellously good at coding and decoding as well a very handy with all sorts of metalwork) , dwarves (only a dwarf can tell the difference between a male and a female and they both have long beards) , trolls (one of whom is a lawyer, and others are on the police force), werewolves (one of whom is on the police force as a gesture to diversity), vampires, golems and more. All these creatures of fantasy are intensely human, filled with human flaws and foibles with surprising depths of warmth, loyalty and sometimes cruelty and evil.

As with all the Discworld series, the premise entails taking an idea to its logical and absurd conclusions in the setting of a fantasy world that reflects on our own. Raising Steam takes on the Industrial Revolution and does an admirable job of it. Pratchett is a true master. He writes with elan and great skill. His ideas are gut-busting funny and trenchant satire on our world. He is an antidote to prissy and snobbish “art” writing. The work is intelligent, and totally readable. One small quibble; I wish the author had focused on a more limited cast of characters in this novel, rather than bring in so many from the richly imagined Discworld. Regardless of this, I strongly urge you to read him and then go out and read some more.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 191 readers
PUBLISHER: Doubleday (March 18, 2014)
REVIEWER: Bill Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Terry Pratchett
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

The Disc World Series:

Other Books:

For Young Adults:

The Tiffany Aching Series- For Young Adults:

More Young Adults;

For Children:

Johnny Maxwell books:

Collaborations:

]]> THE GREAT NIGHT by Chris Adrian /2011/the-great-night-by-chris-adrian/ Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:38:46 +0000 /?p=17579 Book Quote:

“…they prepared a feast, chocolate cocks and mashmallow pussies set upon a table…They started to sing as she approached..until she [Titania] grabbed one of the smallest of them, and ignoring its cries, reshaped it, molding its head into a pair of lips a little larger than human-sized and pulling its body into a hollow tube. She made it a pair of wings and…said, ‘You are made to a purpose.’”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn  (APR 25, 2011)

In this phantasmagorical tale, Chris Adrian reshaped “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” into a mammoth, messy, tilted, erotic, meandering reimagining of Shakespeare’s comedy into an elaborate feast of faeries and monsters, Lilliputians and giants, demons and derelicts, heart-broken humans and a group of outspoken homeless people who are staging a musical reenactment of Soylent Green. And that is just a segment of the odd and atavistic population of characters that you will meet in this multiple narrative tale of loss, love and exile. As you enter San Francisco’s Buena Vista Park during this millennial summer solstice, the moon shines eerie and luminous over creatures large and small, and a thick wall of fog sluggishly spreads its fingers during the celebration known to the faerie kingdom as the “Great Night.”

Adrian’s visionary epic expands on his short story, “A Tiny Feast,” centering on King Oberon and the ruthless Queen Titania and their changeling son, Boy, who suffered from leukemia. At the start of this novel, Titania is inconsolable after the death of Boy and the subsequent departure of Oberon. She unleashes a malevolent force of magic by removing the controlling constraints of Puck, thereby allowing his demonic urges to run rampant through the park.

Meanwhile, three heartbroken people with doleful memories of forsaken loved ones are lost and trapped in the park on their way to a summer solstice party. The tangled backstories unleash the bitter coils of pain and loss, and the mortals and immortals eventually interlock with loose springs. Molly grew up in a pious, gospel-singing family, fuel for unresolved trauma that preys on her like a ghost, and she remains stuck and heartsick over the suicide of her lover, Ryan. Will is a tree surgeon who was dumped by Carolina, the only woman he has ever loved. Henry has a black past with memory holes; he was abducted as a child and has forgotten the terror of those years. Meanwhile, his obsessive cleaning and hand washing, which serves him well as a physician, has cost him a relationship with pediatrician Bobby, the man of his dreams and now ex-boyfriend.

Adrian flashes backward into the lives of the mortal three and alternates that with the captivity at the park and the faerie kingdom tale. There were shades of John Crowley’s Little, Big, as both books use some similar unrealistic elements and fantasy to enhance the realistic elements and emotional heft. However, Crowley’s faeries are more subtle and subconscious, and don’t violate the moral codes of humanity as wickedly as Adrian’s. Crowley also combines a Carrollian and Dickensian wit and artistry that would have been welcome in Adrian’s story.

The essential problem I had with this book is that the fantastic elements were crowded with too much symbolism, and I had difficulty getting a purchase on the concepts. The visual surrealism, rather than taking me seamlessly to a deeper consciousness and serving as a metaphor or counterpoint, began to pile up and distract me. I was often bewildered with the action and commotion of the faeries. Rather than surrendering to the story, I had a more cerebral and exhausting experience. I lost control of the narrative—or did Adrian?

I was taken with his scuttling energy and the peering furtive faces; I felt the oppressive weight of the shadowed victims. But I was also dizzy, blindfolded and drugged by too much screwball humor adjacent to tragedy, and the clarity I was seeking was etherized. Adrian’s prose is rich and layered with raucous, ribald wit and multiple motifs. It was eventually difficult to identify the core of the story. The fate of Molly, Will, and Henry was subverted by an anticlimactic ending amid black humor and zany twists of immortal madcap magic and erotic mayhem.

However, the story resonated with me at many turns. There is a bizarre and churlish glee to the prose and a willingness to take the reader to unknown zones of scary emotional wilderness. Despite the novel’s flabby focus, I shall inevitably look for more of this esteemed “20 under 40” writer’s works in the future. He captured me with his perversely baroque and insane merriment.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 1 readers
PUBLISHER: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (April 26, 2011)
REVIEWER: Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia page on Chris Adrian
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Not reviewed… but another take on Midnight Summer’s Dream:

Magic Street by Orson Scott Card

Some nod’s to Midsummer Night’s Dreams:

The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner by Giles Waterford

Welcome to Higby by Mark Dunn

Bibliography:

]]> LUKA AND THE FIRE OF LIFE by Salman Rushdie /2010/luka-and-the-fire-of-life-by-salman-rushdie/ Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:40:42 +0000 /?p=13657 Book Quote:

“You of all boys should know that Man is the Storytelling Animal, and that in stories are his identity, his meaning, and his lifeblood. Do rats tell tales? Do porpoises have narrative purposes? Do elephants ele-phantasize? You know as well as I do that they do not. Man alone burns with books.”

Book Review:

Review by Roger Brunyate  (NOV 18, 2010)

What a father Salman Rushdie would make! Imagine being read to from a book that opens with “a boy named Luka who had two pets, a bear named Dog and a dog named Bear.” And then to learn that the former “was an expert dancer, able to get up onto his hind legs and perform with subtlety and grace the waltz, the polka, the rhumba, the wah-watusi, and the twist, as well as dances from nearer home, the pounding bhangra, the twirling ghoomar (for which he wore a wide mirror-worked skirt), the warrior dances known as the spaw and the thang-ta, and the peacock dance of the south.” For Rushdie is a wizard with words, taking us in a sentence from ordinary to exotic and back again. This is a book for children to hear with wonder and for adults to understand, for Rushdie’s range of reference (and fondness for erudite puns) is immense.

Luka Khalifa is the much younger brother of the title character in Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Rushdie’s earlier fantasy for the child in all of us. His father, the great storyteller, the Shah of Blah, is in a coma and Luka must journey into the Magic World to steal the Fire of Life before his being is sucked away by the spectral Nobodaddy, who becomes more and more visible as he empties the dying man of his substance. The quest involves the assistance of elephant-headed Memory Birds, a shape-changing dragon called Nuthog, and the benevolent but fierce-speaking Insultana of Ott, who provides a magic carpet to take Luka much of the way to his destination. But Luka is no shrinking violet himself. He started the whole chain of events by cursing a cruel circus-owner so effectively that the animals revolted, and he can hold his own in a battle of riddles with a terminator-blasting Old Man of the River, or in a rigged trial presided over by the god Ra, who speaks only in Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is not a book to read in a single sitting; the point is less the journey than the encounters along the way, each chapter having its own atmosphere and treasure-trove of wonders.

Here, for a quieter interlude, is part of Rushdie’s description of the Lake of Wisdom: “Shining schools of little cannyfish could be seen below the surface, as well as the brightly colored smartipans, and the duller, deepwater shrewds. Flying low over the water’s surface were the hunter birds, the large pelican-billed scholarias and the bald, bearded, long-beaked guroos. Long tendrils of the lake-floor plant called sagacity were visible waving in the depths. Luka recognized the Lake’s little groups of islands, too, the Theories with their wild, improbable growths, the tangled forests and ivory towers of the Philosophisles, and the bare Facts. In the distance was what Luka had longer to behold, the Torrent of Words, the miracle of miracles, the grand waterfall that tumbled down from the clouds and linked the World of Magic to the Moon of the Great Story Sea above,”

I don’t know if I was simply in a more receptive mood, or if it is actually the better book, but I enjoyed this a great deal more than its predecessor. I remember thinking that HAROUN suffered from being too close to a video game such as Mario Brothers, but here the connection is quite explicit and oddly enough it works even better. Luka is a modern boy, quite at home in the electronic world; he is hardly surprised to find a life-counter in the top left-hand corner of his vision, and he knows which objects to punch to replenish his store. The modernity helps to anchor the book, to bring the vaguely Indian setting closer to home — as does the fact that Rushdie is no longer confined to his own mythology, but freely references Greek, Norse, Japanese, and other cultures as well. Indeed this is the point: in a modern world, where the old deities no longer wield their power, stories are the only means of giving them life. As Luka explains to the dilapidated deities in their broken-down pan-cultural Olympus: “Listen to me: its only through Stories that you can get out into the Real world and have some sort of power again. When your story is well told, people believe in you; not in the way they used to believe, not in a worshipping way, but in the way people believe in stories — happily, excitedly, wishing they wouldn’t end.” He might have been describing his own book.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 63 readers
PUBLISHER: Random House; 1 edition (November 16, 2010)
REVIEWER: Roger Brunyate
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:

 
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

 

Bibliography:

Children (of all ages):

Other:

]]> THE DRAGON KEEPER by Robin Hobb /2010/dragon-keeper-by-robin-hobb/ Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:58:29 +0000 /?p=7823 Book Quote:

“Alise was astonished. She had expected the Elderling to declare her undying devotion to dragons and to beg Alise to do all she could to protect them. Instead, she continued, ‘Don’t trust them. Don’t think of them as especially noble or of a higher morality than humans. They aren’t. They are just like us, except they are larger and stronger, with potent memories of always having their own way. So, be careful. And whatever you learn of them, whether you find Kelsingra or not, you must record and bring back to us. Because sooner or later, humanity is going to have to coexist with a substantial population of dragons. We have forgotten all we ever knew about dealings with dragons. But they have forgotten nothing about humans.'”

Book Review:

Review by Jana L. Perskie (FEB 14, 2010)

A “tangle” of sea serpents, (as in a pod of whales, or a litter of puppies or kittens), made their way from the sea, fighting to move up the Rain Wilds River in the perilous journey to their ancient cocooning grounds. These sickly serpents, the first of their kind in generations, were led by the dragon queen Tintaglia, in the hopes of preventing the race of dragons from dying out. The serpents were too weak to make it to their intended destination and stopped, out of necessity, in the Rain Wilds, where the river’s acid waters and thick, impenetrable forests is a hard place for any to survive, let alone hibernate and hatch into healthy “dragonlings.” It was in this unhealthy environment that they spun their wizardwood cocoons and went into hibernation. Unfortunately, when the newly hatched dragons emerge they are stunted, malformed, weak, and unable to hunt for themselves. Not one of them can fly.

Tintaglia made a deal with the Traders of Bingtown and the Rain Wild people to protect them from their enemies, the Chalcedeans, in return for their help in assisting the serpents migrate upriver, keep them safe and care for them when they hatched. But Tintaglia has disappeared. She has miraculously found a mate in a world where she believed she was the only one left of her kind. With the dragon queen gone, the deformed hatchlings become too difficult for the population to care for. Their behavior can be vicious and unpredictable. Titaglia is no longer present to enforce the pact, and the people are weary of the work and expense of tending their useless and every demanding charges. It is finally decided that the dragons should move even farther up the treacherous river to Kelsingra, their ancient, mythical homeland, the legendary city from the extinct Elderling civilization, where the dragons and magical Elderlings co-existed. But no one, especially not the dragons, are sure where this place is or if it even exists. The location is locked deep within the dragons’ ancestral memories, which are far from clear.
The Traders and the people of the Rain Wilds select an unlikely group of young people to serve as escorts and caregivers for the dragons on the voyage. All these youths are damaged or deformed in some way themselves. They are expendable. And one in particular, Thymara, (a major character in the novel), is only sixteen years-old. She was to have been exposed at birth because of her “deformities,” but was rescued by her father to live a solitary life. Her mother has never taken to her, and refuses to forgive her husband for saving the infant – not a happy home. But Thymara has an instinctual ability to communicate with the not-so-mythical beasts and is captivated by their beauty, deformed as they are.

Another major character is Alise Kincarron, daughter of a Bingtown Trader. She was a spinster and is the foremost theoretical expert on dragons and their former world. She married for convenience, and soon discovered that her situation with her husband is almost unbearable. As part of the marriage contract her husband must allow her to go upriver to the Rain Wilds to study the dragons, their habits and actions. Once she arrives, she chooses to accompany the motley group of caregivers to Kelsingra, or to wherever their adventure may lead them…even to death. There is no certainty that anyone will arrive at their destination or return home alive.

The author, as always develops her characters extremely well. Amongst the secondary folk who people her novel and play significant roles are: Sedric Meldar, who is Alise’s husband’s secretary and Alise’s unwilling chaperone on the trip. He has a secret itinerary of his own; Leftrin, the uncouth but kind captain of the Liveship Tarman who has his own interest in the hatchlings; the diverse group of young people who are the dragon keepers, including Tats, Greft, and Rapsca – all with their own motives, goals and secrets; the young dragon Sintara, perhaps the strongest and wisest of her tangle. She seems to have the clearest dreams and in this unconscious state remembers many things about the dragons’ past; and then there is the Chalced ruler, the Satrap of Jamaillia. His health is failing and only dragon parts – their scales, blood, teeth and flesh – can be made into elixirs to cure him.

I am a huge fan of Robin Hobb, and along with my mother and sister, have  read her three trilogies: “The Farseer Trilogy,” “The Live Ship Traders Trilogy,” and “The Tawney Man Trilogy,” back to back!! That’s nine books where we all lived in Ms. Hobb original, creative worlds with some of the most well developed creatures imaginable. I cannot remember a boring moment throughout. So I was thrilled when I discovered that the author had come out with a new duology – “The Rain Wilds Chronicles.” Dragon Keeper is the first of two books. And like the other Hobb novels, I found myself immersed in the storyline almost immediately. Once again I met many beloved characters from prior novels along with new exciting ones. There is, however, one major downside —  it finishes with a huge and very abrupt cliffhanger.

Apparently, Ms. Hobb intended this book to be a single volume but the first draft was considered too lengthy. Thus a decision was made to split the book. Therefore, in Dragon Keeper we only get half the tale and a rushed ending – there is no logical stopping point. There are people and events that make little sense in book one, although the reader suspects that their purpose will be explained in book two. An example of this are the small chapters, in italics, interspersed between the primary chapters. They reveal the text of messages sent between bird keepers. These sketches/chapters may provide a third, objective view of some events, but overall, I don’t know who the bird keepers are or why their part in the novel is important.

Dragon Keeper is 533 pages long, and I guess that it would have been an enormous undertaking to publish the entire manuscript as one book. On the other hand, I did love Gone With the Wind,”and that weighed in at 1472 pages. So, if I had my druthers, I would have preferred one VERY long book, or 2 books published at the same time. I really do not want to wait months for the swecond book, well after the flavor and suspense of the first have worn off to some degree.  The second book will be out in May, thus my advice is to wait closer to that time to read the first book.

Meanwhile, I cannot wait to read the conclusion.

IMPORTANT for first time Hobb readers: Although Dragon Keeper is related to the three trilogies I mention in the first paragraph, especially to the “Liveship Traders Trilogy,” this is a stand alone novel and can be read easily by newbies to Ms. Hobb’s work.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 277 readers
PUBLISHER: Eos; 1 edition (January 26, 2010)
REVIEWER: Jana L. Perksie
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Robin Hobb
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS

Farseer Trilogy:

The Liveship Traders Trilogy:

Tawny Man Trilogy:

Rain Wilds Chronicles:

Other Elderlings:

Soldier Son Trilogy:

Other:

]]> SHADES OF GREY by Jasper Fforde /2010/shades-of-grey-by-jasper-fforde/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:40:07 +0000 /?p=7106 Book Quote:

“I looked into the darkness and tried to visualize where Travis might be. Although I couldn’t see anything, the road in front of me led past the flak tower, through the empty grassland, past the bridge and, beyond that, to the linoleum factory.

And then I heard him. A series of short cries as the night terrors began to take hold. No one was immune, not even the wisest prefect or sagest Colorman. We all knew what it was like – even indoors the absence of light has an effect upon the senses that brought forth a multitude of terrifying apparitions. But only if you panicked, and let the terror get a hold. Once you were in the grip of a night terror, it would take nerves of steel to get you out.

Without thinking, I slipped off my shoes and socks and felt the warmth of the Perpetulite on my feet. If I didn’t stray from the roadway, I would have nothing to fear.”

Book Review:

Review by Ann Wilkes (JAN 1, 2010)

Reading Shades of Grey requires a shift in perspective. In this fantasy world of Jasper Fforde’s one’s place in society is based on their perception of color and which colors they can perceive. People wear a small badge or “spot” to indicate their hue perceptivity.

The Word of Munsell, or the Rules, governs everything in this grey world. Even what you wear, how you tie your tie, what you may say, where you may go, etc. They also forbid, without explanation, counting sheep, making new spoons and using acronyms, among other crazy things. The Previous, the people who lived before the Something That Happened left their technology behind, but none of their history survives intact. The Collective of the Colortocracy is ignorant of its own history. Every living creature is bar-coded – even the people. Much of the technology from before the Something That Happened gets “Leaped Back,” or rendered unusable because it doesn’t fit into the new order for reasons the Colortocracy doesn’t explain.

The protagonist, a young man by the name of Eddie Russet is sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census to learn humility after playing a prank on the prefect’s son. His swatchman father is invited to fill in for East Carmine’s swatchman so accompanies Eddie to that village in the Outer Fringes. Instead of doctors, this backward future Earth has swatchmen who heal their patients by showing them a swatch of the prescribed hue for their particular ailment.

On the way to East Carmine, Eddie and his father happen on a man in a paint shop who dies while wearing the wrong color spot and Eddie meets and takes a fancy to Jane who will later leave him for dead, hanging upside down over the maw of a man-eating plant.

“The last time you smiled at me I found myself under a yateveo.”

She laughed. The sound was lovely – yet quite out of character. It would be like hearing a fish sneeze. “Honestly,” she said, “are you going to drag that up every time we meet? So I threatened to kill you. What’s the big deal?”

“How can you not think it’s a big deal?”

“Okay, I’ll demonstrate. You threaten to kill me.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Come on, Red, don’t be such a baby.”

“All right: I’ll kill you.”

“You have to say it like you mean it.”

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

And she punched me in the eye.

Once in East Carmine, Eddie’s curiosity, his desire to improve things, his ambition to marry up the color wheel and his love for Jane lead him into one adventure after another.

Fforde’s wit and unmatched talent for satire make this first book of his newest trilogy another winner. Layers upon layers of intrigue and betrayal move the story toward revelation after bizarre revelation. I will miss Eddie and his grey world, but I wish Fforde had not left so many new questions unanswered in the end. I will, of course, pounce on the next volume as soon as it’s available.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 121 readers
PUBLISHER: Viking Adult (December 29, 2009)
REVIEWER: Ann Wilkes
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Jasper Fforde
EXTRAS:
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Thursday Next series:

Nursery Crime series:

Bibliography:

Thursday Next Series:

Nursery Crimes:

Colors Trilogy:

The Dragonslayer Series:

  • The Last Dragonslayer (2010 UK; October 2012 US)
  • The Song of the Quarkbeast (2011 UK; 2013 US)
  • The Return of Shandar (2012 UK; 2014 US)
]]> THE MIDNIGHT CHARTER by David Whitley /2009/the-midnight-charter-by-david-whitley/ Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:15:50 +0000 /?p=4395 Book Quote:

“Very well, sir. I take it Mark will be helping you.”

“As soon as he is well enough, Lily. He’s my first full recovery,” the doctor said with a touch of pride in his voice. “I’d better be careful.”

Mark smiled. He didn’t know what was happening, but whoever these people were, they were going to keep him.

“And . . . ,” Lily’s voice drifted down, “does he know yet that his father sold him?”

Book Review:

Review by Kirstin Merrihew (SEP 1, 2009)

In a nod to the harsh realities for children in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, the magic in the Harry Potter series, and the kind of society-building of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem and Bernard Beckett’s Genesis, David Whitley presents a superbly paced novel about two children whose brooding, plague-infested city puts a price on everything, including human life.

In The Midnight Charter, Agora is a walled metropolis that seems rooted in the eighteenth century in terms of its level of industrial development, but is simultaneously clearly outside of our known history, much as is Harry Potter’s magic school. Agora is run by the reclusive Director who commands an army of “receivers” whose job it is to collect and monitor every single contract citizens make. Barter runs the city’s economy for everything from food to feelings.

After coming down with the gray-spot plague and being sold to a doctor by his father, a boy named Mark reaches his twelfth birthday, his “title day,” and is given the coinciding right to make his own contracts. Becoming an apprentice to the city’s most famous astrologer, he decides to work inside the system to gain security and respect. Meanwhile, Lily, only a little older than Mark, has other ideas. She begins the tale as a servant of that same great astrologer, Count Stelli, and living in his dark tower — where she and Mark first meet — but, when the opportunity arises, she leaves for a less certain life out among those who barely subsist. Lily wants to prove that charity, not profit, ought to be the basis for a good and healthy society. Although she and Mark live by polar opposite world views, they maintain their connections over the next couple years as the secretive and ruthless Powers-That-Be in Agora manipulate their lives, and those of their friends, and force them to make fateful decisions. Can this young pair change dystopian Agora forever? Can they see things more clearly than their elders? And can they hope to gain the lives they want for themselves?

The Midnight Charter is supposedly meant for readers ages 11-14, but it will likely appeal to people of all ages who enjoy fantasy with finely-etched characters, a constantly moving plot, clear-eyed and focused writing, and some thought-provoking ideas about the extent to which commerce ought to dominate a society (a fitting topic for us twenty-first century folk living through some serious economic “adjustments”). This novel kicks off what will be, one assumes and hopes, a series of adventures for Mark and Lily. I’m already chompin’ at the bit for the anticipated sequel…..

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 20 readers
PUBLISHER: Roaring Brook Press (September 1, 2009)
REVIEWER: Kirstin Merrihew
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: David Whitley
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More fantasy, presumably for kids:

Bibliography:

The Agora Trilogy

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