Kushiel's Avatar

by Jacqueline Carey

I'm actually sad to have finished this trilogy. I absolutely love Phedre as a heroine. Despite the fact that I knew I could have given myself a longer break between the second book and this one, I really didn't want to. Not least of which because there are A LOT of characters and I've already had trouble keeping them all straight. I think it took me until this book to really get a good idea of who's who.

I'm not normally a fan of first-person narration but it's the dominant style these days so I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it. I actually really like the way it's used in these books. Phedre is a kick-ass heroine, but she doesn't seem to realize it. Yet at no point does she come off as sounding naive. For example, every time Katniss got all self-deprecating I was like, "Really? Where are you getting this from?" ("The Hunger Games" is one series that really should not have been told in first person).

Everything Phedre thinks and does is totally believable. I found myself thinking about her the same way she thought about herself until another character told her how remarkable she is. Then I had to step back and go, "Oh, yeah. That was pretty awesome." But because Carey's writing is so in-the-moment, I had to consciously step back from Phedre's mindset in order to see it.

I also love the way Phedre matures. By the time this book ends she's approximately 20 years older than she is at the start of the first book and she believably sounds like it. She looks back on things she did and thought as a child and thinks, "Was I really that bad?" and I had to go, "Oh, yeah! You were a total brat!" However, at no point did I wonder how she got from that obnoxious, self-absorbed child to the mature, responsible woman she is in the second and third books. After all, throughout the series, she has a number of adventures which force her to grow up real fast. And she does so.

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

Okay, so I initially didn't want to read this book. I read the synopsis and thought "Nah, not really for me." Then everyone and their mother started reading and raving about it. So, of course, conformist that I am, I had to read it, too.

I'm really glad I did. I loved it! It was brilliantly written. I'm going to try to talk about the things I loved without spoiling too much because, if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. One of the characters is brilliantly manipulative but, in order for her to pull it off, Flynn had to be brilliantly manipulative. The switches she makes between characters, even within characters, is nothing short of masterful and it left me in awe.

The whole book is a battle of wits between a husband and wife and I loved it because, while rooting for one, it kind of seems inevitable that the other will win (I won't tell you which or why in case your opinion differs). But it was fun in all the ways that mind games are always fun to read about and then some.

The only part I really had a problem with was a woman convincing her husband (and other people in her life) that she was deadly afraid of blood. How stupid are these people? Don't they know that women have to deal with blood every month? How exactly would a woman manage to deal with that unpleasantness every month if she could't stand the sight or smell of blood? I've heard of men who can't stand the sight of blood, but never a woman.

FINISHED!

It's over! National Novel Writing Month has officially moved on to Christmas month which means we can all move on from our respective writing projects to buying presents and eating lots and lots of sugar!

So here's what I did: In terms of attaining my goal of spending at least one hour a day researching or editing there was only one day where I did neither and there was one day where I only spent half an hour researching. On the other hand, there were other days where I spent more than an hour (sometimes two hours) doing either research and/or editing. So, all in all, I definitely spent more than 30 hours working on my 2 projects and, personally, I consider that to be pretty good.

I also attained my goal of finishing the one book I was using for research and moving on to a new book. The new book is borrowed from the library so I am continuing my pledge to do at least a little research every day until I have to return it. At that point I will return it to the library and forget about it until the holidays are over.

Speaking of which, one of the things I will never understand about National Novel Writing Month is why it takes place in a month that also includes a major holiday. In the past I have been known to spend all week baking for Thanksgiving. This year, I had to get up at 6am in order to get my editing/research done and all of my baking (somehow I got put in charge of all the pies for my family. Still not sure how that happened). So trying to write a novel and get all that baking done would never happen. I would probably have to pull an all-nighter and that will never happen because sleep is actually a #1 priority for me!

How did you guys do? Are you as glad as I am that it's all over?

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?

National Novel Writing Month

Alright, I'll be honest, here's my two cents on the idea of trying to write a novel in a month: I think it's one of the dumbest things ever conceived. I wrote a novel. It took me a full year to come up with 75,000 words and at the end of that year I was really cranky because all I did was work and write. I felt like I had no time for me and, when I did sneak some quality alone time, I felt like I was cheating. I felt guilty for not writing.

So, when I think of trying to crank out 50,000 words in a single month, I wonder why on Earth I would ever attempt such a thing. It cannot be done (maybe if I were still unemployed - thankfully that's not the case). I would just be setting myself up for failure and why would I do that to myself? (I am merciless when I don't meet the goals I set for myself.)

Considering how much I hate the first draft of that novel it took me a year to write, I can only imagine the crap I can pull out of my butt in a single month. The amount of re-writing required would be enormous and, again, I don't know why I would want to do that to myself.

That being said I do kind of want to participate, if only because half the people I follow online are writers and they're all getting geared up for this. So here's the deal. I currently have two novels going (sort of). One is in the final editing stages, while the other is in the research stages. So, in the spirit of National Novel Writing Month, I will commit to spending at least one hour per day working on one of these stories. As far as a final goal for the month, I want to be finished with the research book I'm currently using and move onto a new one. I have been working through this book for much too long and, if nothing else, I can use this month to motivate myself to finish it and move on. As far as the novel that is currently in the editing stages, it's a one-chapter-at-a-time deal with an online writing circle, so there's no way that's going to be done by the end of the month.

That's all for me folks! See you in a month!

Kushiel's Dart

by Jacqueline Carey

It had been awhile since I had delved into a good fantasy series and this book had been sitting on my shelf, patiently waiting for me to get around to reading it, for WAY too long! I'm so glad I finally dove in to this one and I wish I had done it earlier! I really enjoyed. I really really enjoyed it.

For those of you following along on this blog, this was the book I was reading for Readathon 2012. Although I didn't get through as many pages as I had hoped to in 7 hours of reading, it was the kind of book where I could easily sit for most of a day and lose myself. It's completely absorbing and very suspenseful. The action is pretty much nonstop. I don't think there was ever a moment when I thought, "Okay, can we get on with the story already?"

My favorite thing about this book is the world-building. It's something I've never managed to master in my own writing, so I admire it all the more when other people succeed at it. Carey has an entire continent with different countries and states and people. It's obvious where her inspiration comes from for each area, but I don't think that necessarily makes it any less impressive. The city we start out in seems to be largely based on France. Most of the names and titles are either French or very similar to French, with a difference of just a letter or two. La Serenissima and its prominent families are clearly Italian, the Skaldi are reminiscent of Vikings without the ships, and the Albans and the Dalriada are obviously Celtic. There are even more, but those are the prominent players. I did wonder about whoever drew the map, though. As Phedre traveled all over, I found myself constantly referring to the map drawn at the front of the book, but what I saw didn't always quite match up with what I was reading.

My one complaint would be that it runs a little long. It's almost exactly 900 pages and, after about 700, my interest in a book dwindles and I become anxious to get to the end already. Fortunately the second book is closer to 600 pages so, after a short break, I can get back to this series. That's good because there are so many characters and intrigues that I feel like, after too long of a break, I would have a hard time remembering who was who and which character double-crossed whom.