Avalanche of Book Reviews!!

So . . . Due to various circumstances, some out of my control, some not, I've been very lackadaisical about my book reviewing for the past, um, five months. Lackadaisical is a good word. Use it in conversation today.

I'm going, therefore, to attempt to play catch-up for those five months in this single post, which means that this one post contains twenty-three books. I'm so sorry about that. As a result, my reviews will have to be a bit short so I don't kill my fingers and/or your eyes, so my apologies for that. There's a huge variety of books to review, some of them beautiful, some of them gloriously wonderful, some of them vaguely disappointing, and yes, some that just stunk. But in any case, here they all are in varying degrees of lateness, and I hope you read the good ones some time and avoid the bad like the plague ;)

I'm going to go by author, alphabetically. It'll be easier for me to organize my thoughts that way, as I cannot remember which month I read which book in necessarily. But books-of-the-months will get special treatment, never fear. I do play favorites when it comes to reading.

Leviathan 99, by Ray Bradbury
Actually, this was the first Bradbury work that I wasn't blown away by. In fact, it was rather disappointing. Basically it's a space-age retelling of Moby Dick--Queequeg is a telepathic alien, Ahab's bent on chasing a mysterious white comet, etc. But despite the clever idea, it falls flat. I can't help but compare it as I read it to Melville's original, and the real "Moby Dick" with all its depth and grandeur and peculiarities is one of my favorite books ever, and Bradbury's short story just feels immensely shallow and even boring in comparison to that. What a pity. Just watch the film he wrote with Gregory Peck as Ahab, because it's a much better tribute to Melville.

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, by Stephen Crane
A short novella, but very enjoyable. I read it before class one morning, so it's a fast read, but really compelling. Jimmie, the brother, was in a way even more interesting a character to me than Maggie; the story sums up Maggie's life, but at the end I'm still wondering about how Jimmie's story will end. The jump from childhood to adulthood was unexpected and rather unique. Recommended.

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
I was interested in this because it won the Newbery and because it was by Gaiman. It's a really good read, with some very quotable stuff, and typical Gaiman word and story play which goes effortlessly from poignant to terrifying to comical and back again. I really enjoyed this one, and didn't even realize that the whole story is a riff on 'The Jungle Book' until I read the afterword, despite the giveaway title. This, as opposed to Bradbury's 'Leviathan 99', is a tribute to a classic that is well crafted, creative, and excellent enough to stand on its own. I'm hoping for a hinted-at sequel.

The Sandman Vol I-VI, by Neil Gaiman
I'm not usually one for graphic novels, but I'd heard a lot about this, so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm a bit wary about recommending it--it's often quite horrific, some of the art is quite, um, graphic, and there's language and gruesome violence all over the place--and yet I somehow enjoy it. It's creative and often poetical, and there's really interesting concepts as well as some really beautiful art here. So it's a mixed bag. Definitely an adult read, though. Oh, and bonus points to Gaiman for putting 'The Lost Road' on Dream's bookshelf and featuring GK Chesterton as a benevolent manifestation from the Dreamworld! And for the several Milton shout-outs.

All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Bright and Beautiful, by James Herriot
I don't dislike animals, but I don't adore them either. Books like Old Yeller just don't have any effect on me, and I've never been one to get all gooey when I see a pony or a little kitten. So I was a bit skeptical about reading these, as they're memoirs of a vet and all. I was, however, smitten and won over completely before I even finished the first story. Every episode in each book is very short, little snapshots of life as a country vet, but Herriot skillfully uses each episode to a purpose, whether to muse on life, or showcase his eccentric friends and acquaintances, or laud the farmers he helps, or make you laugh out loud at some ridiculous happening, or make you cry when he has to euthanize a lonely old man's elderly dog and only companion and leave the poor fellow alone in his empty house. Some writers write stories that transform life into art, but Herriot simply shows that life itself already is art, you just haven't been looking. These are beautiful stories, beautifully told, and you need to read them. And then watch the classic television show with Peter Davison as Tristan ^_^

The Letters of John Keats
By Keats, obviously, ranging over, if I remember correctly, the last five years of his life or so. These were amazing to read, I filled a notebook with quotations taken from his letters. It's interesting to get a sense of the very young man and the poet behind such favorites of mine as "Robin Hood", "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and the ever-lovely "Ode to a Nightingale". He seems like he was a fantastic person, which makes his inevitable death even harder to deal with, and his letters are full of personality.

Strongbow, by Morgan Llewellyn
It had a promising beginning, and then a very lackluster middle and dull end. Ultimately could have been an interesting story, but with a length of only about 100 pages it felt more like the outline for a story to be written later. I can't even remember half the plot, it was so blah. Something about Queen Aoife and medieval politics in Ireland.

Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier
Another book that started well, and then got dull and lifeless and dwindled to a half-hearted end. Which is a shame, since this is after all a retelling of my favorite fairy tale, that of the Wild Swans. I would recommend the original fairy tale, not this version. There's some good drama and dynamics and writing early on in the story, but once the princes are changed to swans, the story just . . . dies. Too bad.

The Copper Crown, by Patricia Kennealy Morrison
I actually loved this book! Or at least heartily enjoyed it. Basically the premise is that Ancient Celts, being voyagers, figured out space travel in the second century AD or so, and left earth to colonize a whole new system of planets, and are now this futuristic Celtic society, telepaths who live in castles, fight with horse-drawn chariots and electric swords, and sail spaceships around. And now that a futuristic mission from earth has found them, earth will soon learn of their existence after thousands of years of not knowing. Oh, and there's an immense space-war brewing between the space-Celts and their galactic neighbors who seem to be channeling Ancient Egypt. There's also treachery, heroism, magic, romance-without-immorality, and even a ceili dance or two all rolled up in a very entertaining package of beautifully-styled writing that is deliberately archaic in its flavor. Yes, it's a kooky, bizarre read, but so very enjoyable I don't care. I don't know if I'll hunt down the sequel or not, but I did enjoy this.

Here, There Be Dragons, by James A. Owen
This was also a bizarre read, but unfortunately not nearly as well executed. Basically--a young JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis and Charles Williams are for a confusing and somewhat vague reason transported into a magical world which is depicted in the Imaginarium Geographica, a mysterious book they possess. This world is nothing less than the world of, well, imagination! So every story ever created exists in this world, with all its characters and locations, alongside every other story ever created. And it's very random. I mean, the Green Knight is Charles Darnay? Um, logic behind that, please? In the end it's like a severely watered-down "Silverlocke", which is a shame considering two of my favorite authors are cheekiliy not-so-subtlely made protagonists. If only the talent matched the concept.

Dragonspell, by Donita K. Paul
I liked it, but I didn't fall in love with it the way I wanted to, perhaps because I don't really like furry creatures, and I think there are a lot of furry characters? I read this a while ago, and so can't remember. I still mean to look up the sequel, though, and I really liked the wizard, I forget his name. Ugh. I think I need to re-read this one.

Rosemary Sutcliff
I read a lot of Sutcliff books, so it'll serve best to group them all together, otherwise I'll be typing until my hands drop off. I could rave about each book individually, but again, that might get monotonous. So here's the list of Sutcliff books I devoured over the course of the past few months:

Eagle of the Ninth is about a young Roman soldier who, with the help of a British warrior he rescues from the arena, ventures into the wilds of Britain to find the fabled lost Eagle of his father's doomed regiment; Knight's Fee tells the story of a poor boy in Normanized Britain who thanks to fluke and fortune and an enigmatic jester is set on the path to becoming a knight; The Lantern Bearers is back in Roman-occupied Britain again, about a young Roman whose life is torn apart in the first few chapters and spends the rest of the novel growing up and growing old and still trying to come to terms (or trying to not come to terms) with the trauma of that catastrophe; The Mark of the Horselord I cannot even describe here because the epicness is too much, and so I will defer my review until later as befits a very deserving Book of the Month; The Shield Ring would have been Book of the Month if "Horselord" had not squeaked past it, and is the story of two Viking youths growing from childhood to adulthood: a spirited girl adopted into the village and her best friend, the son of the village bard who is haunted by the fear that if he were captured by the Norman enemy and tortured as many men before him have been, he would be the one to break and betray his hidden home; The Silver Branch is back again in Roman-occupied Britain, although at a later, more decadent period of the Empire, and is filled with political intrigue, brilliant characters, wisdom, heartbreak, and triumph; and last but absolutely not least Sword at Sunset is a purely breathtaking work of art and the best Arthurian epic since "The Once and Future King", in addition to being the sequel to "The Lantern Bearers". And also a Book of the Month, so I'll be reviewing it later, peeps. Bottom line: If it has 'Sutcliff' on the spine, you had better read it.

The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti
The description on the back was interesting--orphan with one hand, resurrectionists, con men, mystery, all romping around in 1800's New England--so I thought I'd give it a go. The characters are very Dickensian by nature, but the Dickens quality of narrative is lacking, and although that makes sense considering Tinti is not Dickens, it still left me feeling irrationally disappointed. As though I picked up a chocolate cake mix at the grocery store and upon baking it discovered that it actually makes vanilla cupcakes. Vanilla cupcakes aren't by definition BAD, but when you're expecting chocolate cake, it feels like false advertising and it makes you unhappy. There are some very good parts, and it's not really a bad book, but the ending was absolutely ridiculous. I left this book rather disappointed; it could have been a lot better.

The Witch in the Wood, by TH White
Speaking of "The Once and Future King", this is the first version of what would later become Book Two of OaFK, "The Queen of Air and Darkness". I'm going to keep this short and sweet because my fingers are starting to ache and because nothing more needs to be said: Stick with "Queen". "Witch" is peculiarly unimpressive and bland and has none of the terrifying power, poignancy, or foreshadowing of the later version found in OaFK.

Michael Faraday, by L. Pearce Williams
I actually borrowed this from the library to get some information for a research paper last semester, and so only needed to read one chapter, but I was so enthralled by that one chapter, I had to read the whole thing. This is a big deal for me, as I typically A) Don't like biographies, B) Don't like science, and C) This book was over 500 pages long, small-print, and I was in the middle of midterms. But it's very well-written, and Faraday is now my favorite scientist and one of my heroes. He has a very inspiring and interesting life-story, though it ends somewhat sadly. Strongly recommended.

Dragon's Blood, by Jane Yolen
I found this story entertaining, if not scintillating, and original, if not overly compelling. The idea of a society on another planet built on breeding dragons to fight in arenas is an interesting one, but as I said before, I'm not really an animal book lover apart from "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "Watership Down", and so the cute dragon-and-boy bonding and all didn't have much of an impact on me. I don't think I'll continue this series.

And I'm done! Now we're all caught up until February! March reviews look like they'll be fun though, because as of this typing I have no less than fourteen books checked out of the library by authors as varied as Chesterton, Gaiman, Pratchett, Lovecraft, and Bradbury. It's shaping up to be an escapist sort of month, and that can mean only good things.

Keep Reading!