Kushiel's Chosen

by Jacqueline Carey

If you read my post a few weeks ago about the first book in this series, then you probably have a pretty good idea of how much I loved this one. The first book ended on a cliffhanger so I could only allow myself a short break before diving into this one. I was not disappointed. This book hit the ground running and didn't stop until maybe twenty pages from the end at which point they all have a big glamorous party to celebrate (btw, I SO want to go to one of those parties!)

The only thing that irked me about this book was how often Phedre had to tell us about her training. "I can do such and such because I was trained to do it." "In the Night Court, we were all trained to do this." "Fortunately, Delauney had drilled me for hours until I had perfected blah blah blah!" I got pretty sick of it pretty quick. Yes, you're awesome. The perfect agent/whore because of all the mentors you had when you were growing up. We get it. Now can we please get on with the story?

That minor annoyance aside, Carey comes back to this book with a vengeance. It's exciting, there's more adventure, intrigue, all sorts of double-crossing and back-stabbing, and characters that come off the page. As many characters as she has, I love each and every one of them ... even when I can't keep track of them all. Even minor characters who only stick around for a few chapters shine with their own brilliance and make me wish we could see more of them. Overall, it was an excellent read and I highly recommend it to all fantasy-lovers.

Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

I really liked this book! I hesitated for quite some time before reading it. People were all over it a few years ago but I didn't think a book about a boy and a tiger trapped on a lifeboat could be all that interesting. In hindsight, I wonder why on earth not? Then (of course) I saw the trailer for the movie and got all excited and decided that I absolutely needed to read this book right away!

I was right. Of course, boy + tiger + boat was the sum total of what I knew of this book before reading it. So you can imagine my surprise when I read the first 3rd of the book (31% to be exact. Can you tell I read this one on my Kindle? I can't give you a page number, but I can give you an exact percentage.) before there was any sign of a boat. Unfortunately, that may have had a negative effect on my enjoyment of the first third of the book, which is really too bad because it's an excellent section. We get a great introduction to our main character, the life of a zoo-owner, and some generalizations on animals. We also get some fascinating discussions about religion which I very much enjoyed. It's another one of those where the similarities between the different religions are celebrated, rather than the differences and I am always all for that!

The rest of the book, the part that actually happens at sea, is also quite fascinating and that is quite a feat! With a few exceptions, most of the time they're just out there floating in the ocean, not really doing much of anything. And I still wanted to keep reading! That is impressive! I can honestly say that I was never bored while reading this book.

Some of the exceptions to the sitting around doing nothing include our main character, Pi, training the tiger, Richard Parker. I found it fascinating! I have no idea how much of it is true/believable (my exposure to tigers has been limited to the safe side of the glass in zoos) but I was certainly convinced. Of course, as I said, my understanding of the book pre-read was very limited. I was under the impression it was one of those soft cuddly tigers that lived in perfect harmony with a human boy. Not the case. Pi's life is in serious danger here and he never forgets that for an instant. At the same time, the bravery he demonstrates is just awe-inspiring. One could argue that he had no choice but, let's be honest here, how many of us would have jumped right off that boat and taken our chances with the sharks?