I actually read a good few more books than I had anticipated, which was a pleasant surprise. Some were good, most were okay, and one was downright awful. And here they are, all six of them, in order from worst to best.
6.
The White Mists of Power, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Completely dreadful. I mean it. The reason why I decided to try it out is because a bard is a main character, and because the first chapter or so was excellent. I still stand by that evaluation: The beginning was good. Too bad the entire rest of the novel was horrible. Insipid characters, dull plot, ridiculous names, sexual content that doesn't even pretend to have anything to do with the story itself, and . . . I could go on and on. I thought at first that one of the characters was quite good, and found myself liking him--until I suddenly realized: He is a green-eyed, inept wizard, with self-doubt issues and a tendency to accidentally burn himself, and he looks younger than he is. Sound familiar? (If not, please go read 'The Last Unicorn' pronto.) Bottom line: Not even a pretty good plot twist could save this mess. Don't read it.
Notable Quote:
'"Pain is the price we pay for knowledge, Highness," she said softly.'
5.
The Last Siege, by Jonathan Stroud.
Stroud is one of my favorite authors, and I'm a devout fan of his Bartimaeus Trilogy, so I was pretty excited when I found this at the library. I'd never heard it advertised before, and so didn't previously know it existed. Now I know why: it's not really as good as his other works. Not that it's horribly bad; it just didn't stand out to me as anything special. Perhaps I just had too-high expectations. The plot seemed a bit too thin to sustain a full novel; I think it would have been better as a short story. What enjoyment I got out of it was mostly on a personal level: the story involves children (teens, I suppose) secretly spending nights in a castle, and when I was in year three I went on a fieldtrip in which my class stayed at a castle for about a week, sleeping there and everything. So I know what it's like to be in a castle with your friends at night, imagining history alive around you, and Stroud captures the feeling well. Still, if you want to sample his writing, I recommend the Trilogy--Amulet of Samarkand, Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate--or Buried Fire instead.
Notable Quote:
'"What I'm saying," Emily said, "is that after a fight like this there's nothing dishonorable about surrendering when you're down to your last two men. What is dishonorable is running away from the enemy."
4.
Dragon's Bait, by Vivian Vande Velde.
Pretty much standard Velde. A slightly quirky, affectionate, playful fantasy with a serious edge. It's a quick read (I read most of it on a bus trip from school back to my apartment), but an enjoyable one. Basically: Girl is falsely accused of being a witch and tied to a stake as dragon fodder as punishment. Dragon turns out to be capable of shape-shifting into a very attractive male teenager, and ends up becoming Girl's friend. Girl decides to use her new ally in taking vengeance on all the people who wronged her by naming her a witch. Fantasy fluff. Except that Velde very cleverly seduces the reader's conscience as the story goes along: When the protagonist first revealed her desire to take really harsh vengeance on people, I felt a bit uneasy about it, but Velde lulled me into accepting and then actually wanting the girl's plans to work out, so when Alys finally realizes that what she's doing is wrong, I was shocked back to my senses, too. Some deceptively perceptive musings on the nature of vengeance and good and bad are woven into the story, which in the end made it worthwhile for me. Oh, and I always love reading about magical beings in distress, though the sexual humor resulting from the dragon transforming into a naked man was tiresome.
Notable Quote:
'The only way Alys could work it out was that people couldn't really give up their souls. They only acted as though they didn't have one until, eventually, they forgot what it was like not to be soulless.'
3.
Sabriel, by Garth Nix.
A relatively original fantasy set in a relatively original fantasy world, which already gives it bonus points. Some elements, like the Paperwing with its painted eyes, were excellent. The soldiers preparing to use guns and tanks against an invasion from the magical world reminded me pleasantly of UNIT. But the story was still just ho-hum and nothing special to me until the character of Touchstone showed up. The moment Nix mentions that Touchstone wears a KILT . . . I decided I rather liked the book after all. I love kilts and anything Scottish, and since I already had UNIT in mind, now I also had a 'Sabriel-universe' representation of Jamie to read about, heh heh. (UNIT and Jamie McCrimmon are both from "Doctor Who", in case you were bemused.) The spirit-cat named Mogget is an excellent character, except for being a cat (I'm not really a cat person) and for being named Mogget. But on the whole, it was a good read. My only warning would be that necromancy and stuff like raising the dead and entering the underworld are integral parts of the story, which might be off-putting for some readers.
Notable Quote: N/A (Sorry, I forgot to select one before I returned the book to the library . . .)
2.
Dune, by Frank Herbert.
This story was more impressive to me as an imaginative work, not as a story. I loved most of the concepts, invented customs, and cultures in the story (water being so precious that spitting at someone is a sign of respect, for example, and the story's exploration of the idea of fate), but the story itself wasn't that impressive to me, I'm not sure why. My favorite characters actually were pretty minor: Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, Yueh, Keynes. Especially Yueh, Idaho, and Keynes; I liked them so much, I felt short-changed when they weren't really in the book that much. Paul Atreides himself didn't really hold my interest. I heartily enjoyed anything and everything in the story about the Fremen culture; I wish the book had gone a bit more in-depth in its exploration of that culture, but what was there, I liked. I also really enjoyed the political intrigue in the first section of the book. I know Dune has been commonly named the best Science Fiction Story Ever. Do I agree? Well . . . it's definitely worth reading, definitely special, but I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoy, say, Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. Something's just missing. But anyway, it's a worthy read, and Dune itself is a fascinating world. Again a warning: there's a bit of sexual content (not graphic) and a hint of homosexuality in the character of the Baron.
Notable Quote: 'This is the climax, Paul thought. From here, the future will open, the clouds part onto a kind of glory. And if I die here, they'll say I sacrificed myself that my spirit might lead them. And if I live, they'll say nothing can oppose Muad'Dib.' (Many more notable quotes, but this one was special for its interesting twist to how prophesies are fulfilled.).
1.
The Winter Prince, by Elizabeth Wein.
Now that I've managed to offend all the science fiction fans out there by not giving Dune my number one spot, I reveal my pick for best read of the month, which in itself is already controversial, even to me. I also feel, however, that it is definitely the best of the bunch this month, and liked it enough to check it out from the library again just a week after I returned it.
The Winter Prince tells the story of Merdraut, the illegitimate son of an incestuous relationship between King Artos (who was ignorant of the fact that the woman was his sister until it was too late) and Morgause, the terrifying and manipulative queen. Sound slightly familiar? Well, it should, as this is by-and-large exactly how the story goes in traditional Arthurian myths: King Arthur is duped into sleeping with his malicious sister, who bears a child, calls him Mordred, and raises him to be his father's destruction. But read on further, and we have a twist: Artos' wife is not childless, but instead has twin children about eight years younger than Merdraut: Lleu, a sickly, legitimate prince, and Goewin, the strong-willed princess. Merdraut both loves and hates his father's legitimate children, most especially Lleu, who although sickly, young, and often childishly proud is named the king's heir due to the fact that he is legitimate, despite Merdraut being much more capable. Still, he manages to control his growing jealousy and even love his half-siblings, determined to make a better man of himself than what Morgause tried to twist him into. The only problem is, about half-way through the novel Morgause herself shows up at King Artos' court, intent on shattering the royal family--and, in the process, Artos' very kingdom--once and for all. The man she plans to use as her tool is Merdraut. And here is where the story really gets interesting.
The overwhelming strengths of the story are not only the intriguing, well-executed plot, but also the beautiful style itself. Wein's descriptions are very much after my own heart--poetic, beautiful, and--when needed--absolutely haunting. It was extremely refreshing. In addition, the story is very deftly told in second person, which is a style so extremely rare in literature, mainly because it's so hard to make it work. It definitely works here. Wein tells the story from Merdraut's point of view, but Merdraut is telling the story to the birth mother he hates and fears, which adds another level of interest to the narrative that I found quite good.
Another excellent strength of The Winter Prince is the characters themselves. There are not many, but those that there are are very well written. Goewin is a strong female character of the kind that I like: strong, intelligent, and although she is dissatisfied with her limited role in medieval life she does the best with what she has and manages to impact all the characters pretty significantly. Lleu is both a sympathetic and aggravating character, and his development over the course of the story from asthmatic weakling to expert swordsman and prince is not only convincing, it's also really entertaining and his dynamics with Merdraut are wonderful--both not quite at ease with the other, with tension building throughout the book. Artos is good as the father and king who loves all his children, but he plays a relatively minor part. The real stars of the story for me were Morgause and Merdraut himself.
I hope you have read The Once and Future King. If you have, you will know how TH White portrayed Morgause of Orkney: charming, terrifying, beautiful, manipulative, enigmatic, unsettling . . . One of my favorite scenes in all literature is the whole unicorn sequence, culminating with a tearful child Gareth bringing his mother flowers to apologize for the beating she gave him, and she choosing on a whim to accept them, hugging him and kissing him so that he is delighted, but all the while not really thinking of him, but instead admiring how wonderful she looks in a mirror. Well, I am guiltily happy to report that this version of Morgause is very much the same version in The Winter Prince, and her shadow lies over the whole novel, even when she is not physically present. She's a really frightening and daunting adversary for Merdraut and Lleu both, and I congratulate Wein on her portrayal of the Queen. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
Merdraut himself is a wonderful protagonist. His whole personality and character is filled with conflicts, which reflect his main conflict of being torn between his mother and his father, between love and hatred. He is the healer who is also a deadly warrior. He is a master marksman with crippled hands. He is Lleu's elder brother and lesser subject both. His narration of the story is really engrossing and excellently written, and his whole personality is like a riddle being unravelled throughout the course of the book. He's a very vivid character, and definitely not one that I will be forgetting any time soon
Now, the controversial part. This story is extremely dark, mostly due to the warped, ambiguous relationship Merdraut and Morgause have. There is no graphic objectionable content that I can bring to mind, but the author definitely implies more than once that sometime before the story begins Morgause briefly took her son--willing or no is not made clear, but the narrative seems to lean towards unwilling--as her lover, which is in keeping with her traditional character, but is also rather disturbing and downright creepy. In addition, Merdraut towards the end of the novel subtly threatens his half-brother with similar abuse, which is pretty much as dark as you can get. Again, the book is not graphic, and is even rather subtle when it comes to these darker elements of the story, but ultimately they are there, and could be problematic for some readers.
I personally recommend the story anyway. The selection out there of Arthurian fiction is as vast as it is mostly garbage, and it's really rare to find a good Arthurian story. In fact, apart from The Once and Future King, I haven't found any. Even rarer is good writing done about Mordred. I've read both The Book of Mordred and I Am Mordred, books I heard good things about, but I found them, to my great disappointment, to be pretty much fiascos. I Am Mordred has interesting ideas, but ultimately the plot never pulls itself together; The Book of Mordred destroys the character of Mordred by writing him off as a saintly and misunderstood hero. The Winter Prince, with its beautiful style, excellent characterizations, gripping plot, and 'realistic' setting of Medieval Britain, blows all other Mordred fiction out of the water. I love this Mordred, and I love this book.
Notable Quote: 'While I stood staring hopelessly you echoed my silence: your lean fingers closed firmly around mine, your blank eyes like fields of slate the perfect reflection of my own. Mother and son, flame and shadow, image and opposite--witless I stood before you and let them all see how alike we are.'
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