Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

Gasp, I actually managed a post! I guess in the whole hubbub of the holidays I lost the rythm, and since we'll be moving back to Texas in about a month, I'll probably lose it again soon. So, no promises as to regular posting, but I'll try!

I first read this book about ten years ago, before I was an Orson Scott Card fan. At the time I was slightly uneasy with the book's apparent religion = bad, magic = good conflict and not quite sure where it was going in that vein, so I didn't go out of my way to pursue the series any further. Now that I'm a big fan of Card and more familiar with his personal philosophy, I'm not at all worried that it'll turn into something like His Dark Materials.

Overview
Seventh Son is the first book in the Alvin Maker series, which takes place in an alternate-universe colonial America. In this world a large number of colonists possess 'knacks' or minor magical skills that earned them heavy prosecution in a puritan England. These include everything from the inborn ability to dowse or start fires to a skillful use of hexes and charms. The time is roughly equivalent to 5-10 years after the Revolutionary War, and anyone with a basic knowledge of American history will run into plenty of vaugely familar names, places and events.

Into the mostly-untamed wilderness of the Susquehanna valley comes Alvin Miller, his pregnant wife and their thirteen, very-soon-to-be fourteen children. We learn that if the coming child is a boy he will not only be the family's fourteenth child, but the seventh son of a seventh son and destined to be a Maker (whatever that is).

I hope it's no spoiler to point out that he is indeed born, and throughout the rest of the book we learn more about this strange alternate world and watch young Alvin as he begins to discover his power, potential, and the great dangers that threaten him.

Recommended for: Fantasy fans of all ages.

Parental worries: One violent death and one very serious injury, along with the aforementioned religious tension (which is less based on theology and more on the personalities involved).

Audiobook comments: Read by a cast, with a different narrator for each character's point of view. The reading is beautiful, and it really helps set the tone for each character. My only complaint is that one character who hails from Scotland only picks up his accent when the point is actually brought up in the story.

Ramblings:
In the book's afterward, Card explains that his original motivation to write the story of Alvin Maker was jealousy of the rich tapestry of myth and legend that England and Europe have inherited over the centuries. In this series he attempts to build a similar backdrop for America, and with the obvious admission that no one man or one work could come close to rivaling centuries worth of legend and mythos, it's off to a pretty impressive start. He paints a vivid, exciting picture of early pioneer life and builds his alternate-history America in tantalizing bits and pieces. (or maybe it just seems that way without the maps that I'm assuming accompany the actual book)

There's something about the phrase "The sword that cut off George Washington's head" that sends a chill down the spine, and Card uses it to great effect. The twisted history has a haunting, bittersweet feeling--there are several changes that we could wish had been part of our real history, and several that we're glad never took place.

Card also has an amazing ability to bring characters to life, and since my early American history is slightly fuzzy, it felt like every other character I met could turn into someone straight out of a history book (either one of our history books or one belonging to the alternate world). Which I guess is another way of saying it manages to pull off the feel of an epic very well :-p

Girl Genius by P Foglio, K Foglio, and C Wright

It seems like I've been reviewing a lot of graphic novels lately, but Girl Genius should be the last one for awhile ^_~ And to be honest, it's only kind of a graphic novel. I read it as a webcomic, but it was originally published in graphic novel form and I'd love to get my hands on the volumes at some point.

Overview
Our story takes place in an alternate universe Europe where the clothing is vaguely Victorian and the technology is Frankenstein meets Jules Verne. Political power rests in the hands of Sparks, people of extraordinary genius who invent, build and control all of the world's technology (some of which involves biological constructs and completely new races).

In a time briefly before the story begins, Europe was more or less united under the Heterodyne Boys, a pair of adventurous brothers who attained fortune and saved the world at least a couple of times before apparently disappearing, leaving behind fame and a set of legends to rival King Arthur.

The prominence of these enigmatic figures leaves no doubt that they and their legacy will be very important in the story, so it's no surprise to find that our bumbling young heroine Agatha is connected to the Heterodynes. This discovery launches her on a crazy course of adventure, excitement, romance and intrigue.

Recommended for: Adventure, fantasy and comic book fans ^_^ I recommend reading only the completed volumes, because reading the story one page at a time is a little excruciating and tends to highlight weaknesses in the art style. (I don't follow this advice myself, however; every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning finds me obsessively checking the newest page before leaving for work ^_~ )

Parental Warnings: I think the comic is deliberately written at about the PG-13 level. There's plenty of innuendo, a bit of running around in underwear and the occasional 'suggestive' scene along with a hearty (but not excessive) helping of violence.

Ramblings: (Spoiler Threat: Very Low)
I was skeptical of this comic at first--the art style takes a little time to grow on you and the first volume isn't colored, which makes things a bit cluttered. But it didn't take long for me to become completely hooked. The world of Girl Genius is complex, well-fashioned and just familiar enough to tantalize the imagination. The characters are lovable and hilarious, the dialogue is witty and the plot is engaging and rich.

If it sounds like I'm trying to sell something :-p maybe I am. This is the kind of story I'd love to see as a movie or tv series at some point--the comic's pacing and flow makes it seem a natural fit.

But since this is a review, I've got to fit some critiques in here somewhere. Possibly the biggest drawback is the art. It's very effective at illustrating the story and getting its point across, but every now and then the characters are drawn strangely--not very . . . pretty? appealing? I'm not good with art, so that's about the best I can do, sorry :-p

Another drawback is that many of the characters are just barely on the sane side of genius and occasionally make brief forays onto the other side. The mad scientist element is intentional and part of the fun, but sometimes instead of 'mad scientist' the impression is forced and comes off as merely bipolar or hyperdramatic.

But even with these drawbacks, it's still an excelent comic. I highly recommend reading it, and since it's free and available online you have no excuse not to :-p

Sagas of the Norsemen by L. Auerbach and J. Simpson

I've been trying to read up on Norse mythology without being quite sure where to start. My first two attempts from a university library yielded a kind of reference book, with gods and heroes listed in alphabetical order, and the first volume of Jacob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. The former had plenty of good information, but I was looking for something to read straight through, not a reference book. The later is apparently a very important and influential work on Norse Mythology, but it's a scholarly work, very heavy reading, and not exactly a book for beginners.

I was looking for something lighter than Teutonic Mythology, but more in-depth than D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, which I read back in the 3rd grade. Using a public library this time, I found Sagas of the Norsemen.

Overview
Sagas opens with a bit of archaeological background, pictures of relics, and an account of funeral customs. Then it delves into a description of the pantheon, with a few brief stories of the gods' various adventures and hijinks. The next section describes the provenances summarizes some of the more famous sagas. I didn't know any of them well enough to judge the accuracy of the summaries, but the story-telling left a bit to be desired. The last section of the book describes the cosmology of the Norse world, the creation of the world, and Ragnarok, the end of the world.

Recommended for: Meh, there's got to be better Norse mythology books out there. Sagas is part of a series called Myth and Mankind that covers the mythologies and legends of cultures around the world. They look pretty cool, but if Sagas is a good representation of the series, I probably won't bother with the rest.

Parental worries: The Norse gods and heroes got up to some pretty weird stuff, but this book has a fairly clinical approach. If you'd like to err on the side of caution, check out D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths for the young ones (or even the old ones :-p it's been awhile since I read it, but it's probably a better book)

Ramblings:
I always feel bad after giving a book a bad review :-p it may be better than I'm giving it credit for, or maybe I just had the wrong expectations going into it. Sagas approaches mythology from the wrong angle, I think. It doesn't tell a story, doesn't create a world, merely presents the beliefs of a long-dead civilization. For example, who in their right minds puts the creation myth at the end of a book of mythology? It makes no sense! I realize that Norse mythology is nowhere near as well organized as Greek and that it doesn't follow much of a chronology, but that's not much of an excuse. It throws off the whole narrative, to wade into a bevvy of gods, goddesses, and giants with no notion of where they came from, how they're related, etc.

To it's credit, the book does have tons of good pictures and photographs, and the archaeological background is pretty nifty. It also takes the time to discuss the most important sources of information for the myths and sagas it relates, an angle that helps to show the somewhat disjointed nature of Norse mythology.

So, my third attempt turned out to be only slightly better than the first two. Does anyone have other suggestions? I should probably just stop mucking around and just pick up the translated sagas :-p

The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky

A couple of years ago this graphic novel was made into a movie starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. I didn't bother seeing the movie when it came out 'cause it looked like the weirdness would outweigh the starpower, but I wasn't quite right. Turns out it's visually stunning, the acting is quite good (insofar as I'm any judge) and although the plot is just as weird as promised, it makes just enough sense to be really good. Good enough that I jumped at the opportunity to read the original graphic novel.

Overview
The plot consists of three different arcs that seem completely random but are eventually all connected. The three stories interweave and float around in time, so you have to wait until halfway through to start piecing things together. The 'central' story takes place in the present, where Tommy Creo, a research oncologist, is racing the clock to find a cure for his wife Izzy's brain cancer. He finds hope in a strange compound from a tree in Central America that promises to have remarkable abilities. Several hundred years earlier, conquistador Tomas Verde, on a mission from his Queen to find the Tree of Life, attacks a Mayan temple in the hope of reaching his goal. And finally, in the year 2463 a man named Tom floats through space in a golden globe on his way to the dying star Xibalba, accompanied by a giant gnarled tree and the ghosts of his past. (Xibalba is the Mayan underworld, and the Mayans actually identified a particular star as the location of their underworld. Turns out it's a dying star :-p Interesting coincidence, huh?)

Surprise surprise, in the movie all three Toms are played by Hugh Jackman, although it took me awhile to recognize him under the Conquistador's beard and the space traveler's shaved head.

Recommended for: I'd recommend the movie to anyone (with the warning that it does require a bit of thought, not a mindless fun flick), but the graphic novel . . . only to artsy types or graphic novel enthusiasts. The art style is so very stylized that it manages to make the story even harder to understand, and I enjoyed the movie much more.

Parental Warnings: Plenty of nudity and an intimate scene or two. The movie is rated PG-13, but it puts clothes on all the nekkid people.

Ramblings (Spoiler Threat: Low)
I am not a fan of the art style in the graphic novel. I'm sure this just shows how uncultured I am, because it's probably supposed to be new and groundbreaking and enlightened, but to me it just looks unpolished and ugly. Having said that, I really like the story. The basic theme is the acceptance of death, and that death is only a path to immortality. This startlingly Christian theme is presented in a secular setting, with no trappings of religion other than those of the long-past Mayans. (Actually, it may be just generically religious/spiritual, more than Christian--I still prefer it to the materialistic, nihilistic vein of so much modern stuff.)

One of the differences between the movie and the graphic novel that sticks out to me is in the characterization of Tomas Verde's Queen Isabel. In both versions she eventually sends her Captain off to find the Tree of Life in an attempt to gain power over the dark forces of the Spanish Inquisition. However, in the graphic novel she originally questions the wisdom of such a move, mentioning that it is a heresy to attempt to gain eternal life. In the movie (if I remember correctly) the head inquisitor makes this point. That's an important switch. It's a valid point, in line with the main theme of the story, and yet putting it in the mouth of the grand inquisitor instead of the queen automatically turns it to ash, because the man liberally uses the accusation of heresy to justify torture and murder. Difference #2 is that while the movie only gives glimpses of the relationship between the Queen and her Captain, allowing the viewer (if they wish) to assume a chaste, courtly love between the two, the graphic novel leaves no room for such naive illusions. This bugs me, not only because I happen to like my naive illusions on this score, but because it presents two conflicting versions of the Queen. Either she's an intelligent ruler who recognizes and tries to avoid heresy when she sees it but is also involved in a sinful and scandalous affair, or she's a chaste but power-hungry and vapid ruler. >_< Why'd they have to split it like that?

Housekeeping

Yay, I finally did something with my tabs! I've added archives pages and cleaned up the labels to just genre and series.

I've also decided that two posts a week just isn't going to happen :-( so in the interests of keeping a reliable schedule, I'll stick to one a week, probably Wednesdays. Maybe if I build up enough of a cushion of scheduled posts, I can give twice a week a try again :-p but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Hm, I usually try to come up with a witty opening section, but I've been sitting on this review for far too long as it is :-p So without further ado, we have the next book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

Overview
It's a busy time for the Watch, now that they've expanded from night duty to 'round-the-clock City Guard. One result of this is the opening of CSI: Ankh-Morpork. (Okay, so maybe the new forensics division consists of a single dwarf who managed to blow the Alchemist Guild sky-high one too many times, but it's a start) And it turns out that they need all the extra hands they can get, because someone is poisoning Vetinari and someone else is killing harmless old men. It looks like a golem is responsible for the murders, but these fantasy equivalents of robots aren't allowed to hurt people, so what's going on?

Recommended for: Everyone :-p It's not a bad place to start, if you're new to Discworld, but if you've got a choice, Guards! Guards! or Men at Arms might be better.

Parental Worries: Hmm, minor language and violence? I can't remember exactly, so probably not much. A bit of religious spoof, if that's your idea of a bad time.

Audiobook Comments: Read by Nigel Planer, who does a wonderful job as usual.

Ramblings
Three books into Discworld's Watch sequence, and various schemers in Ankh-Morpork are still trying to put a king on their ancient (and rotting) throne. Everyone seems to want a king, and if a willing candidate does not appear, they're ready to make one out of the commonest materials.

Since we've spent the last two books listening to why Vimes doesn't like kings (and you still get a bit of that, don't worry), it's interesting to finally get Carrot's side of things. Why hasn't he stepped up to claim his obvious birthright? (other than the threat of Vimes, that is) The most forthcoming answer is that the desire for power is completely against Carrot's character, a subconsious thing that ironically makes him even more suited to the throne. But assuming it's all subconsious does Carrot a bit of a disservice--as Angua points out in this book, you have to be very complex to appear as simple as Carrot. It's quite possible that he's been avoiding the crown for his own sanity; it appears that kingship tends to drive people mad, and just in case the idea hadn't occured to him before, this little adventure provides a very good demonstration.

An interesting point that I just discovered: According to The Annotated Pratchett, (which is an excellent guide to all the little historical, literary and popular references in the books) golems originated from Jewish legend, which is why they all have Yiddish names and speech patterns (at least in this book, I don't think that's kept up in the golem's later appearances).

Quotes!

"Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk [...]"--Carrot, quoting Vimes

"I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. I TURN UP ONLY ONCE."

"People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they´re standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don´t look quite like real science.(That is to say, the sort you can use to give something three extra legs and then blow it up) But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity."

"'Is It Frightening To Be Free?'
'You said it.'
'You Say To People "Throw Off Your Chains" And They Make New Chains For Themselves?'
'Seems to be a major human activity, yes.'"
- Dorfl the golem tries to understand human nature

Not Dead Yet!

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I promise! I'm in the middle of a job search right now, and nothing saps the will to be productive like endless searches and applications >_< I should have a new post up by next week though.

Incidentally, anyone in the San Antonio area need an environmental engineer? :-p