Kiwiria's September Stories

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Happier at Home - Gretchen Rubin*, 4.5/5, 320 pages
Figured it was a fitting time to reread this :)


To Love a Witch - Debora Geary, 4.5/5, 74 pages
Adorable short-story that I would have loved seen extended into a full novel :)


Once a Witch - Carolyn MacCullough, 3/5, 292 pages
A quick read, which in the end turned out to be nothing like what I had expected from the first few chapters. I liked it well enough and was interested in seeing it to its completion, but despite the cliffhanger'ish epilogue I feel no real compulsion to read the sequel. I wavered a long time between 2.5 and 3, but ended up with 3 stars because it did manage to throw some twists and turns my way that I hadn't expected. It wasn't bad... just average.


Shangriman - Peter Sonne, 4/5, 156 pages
A fun children's fantasy novel in the style of Astrid Lindgren's "Mio, My Son" and "Brothers Lionheart". Peter Sonne writes well, and despite being "too old" for the target group, I was still taken in by the story. Obviously the first in the series, but still a better ending than "Brothers Lionheart" ;)


His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik, 4.5/5, Audiobook ~10hrs
"His Majesty's Dragon" is one of those books that I've had on my to-read list for AGES, but have never gotten around to. I think I first had it recommended to me in 2009 or 2010. I picked up the ebook version of it once or twice, but for some reason never got past the initial fight scene and had a COMPLETELY wrong impression of it.

Last week I finally decided to download the audio version of it. Several of my friends rave about it, so I figured it was about time... and I was hooked immediately! I loved the story, loved Laurence and - most importantly - loved Temeraire. The idea of combining the Napoleonic wars with dragons was pure genius and gave a fascinating setting to what could otherwise have been a rather run-of-the-mill fantasy story.

In style it reminded me of a mix between "Harper's Hall" by Anne McCaffrey and Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb - both among my favourite fantasy authors.

I've already uploaded the next book to my mp3-player.


To Have and To Code - Debora Geary, 4/5, 364
Adorable novel, but definitely more about the romance than the magic. That's okay - I liked that it focused on Nell-the-person rather than Nell-the-witch... Or rather how they were one and the same and one shouldn't take a back seat to the other.

But why does nobody in Berkeley even ever blink an eyelid at somebody being a witch? Okay, Daniel was more surprised than most, but he was the only one... seems slightly too good to be true to me.

Ah well, minor nitpick, and I did enjoy this glimpse into Nell's past and her interaction with her family of origin. Not to mention I'm pretty sure we saw a recurring character from one of her short stories - but I'm too lazy to go back and check the names ;)


Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik, 3.5/5, Audiobook ~12hrs
Unfortunately I wasn't quite as blown away by this sequel as by the first book in the series. It was still good, but somewhat repetitive. Guess I prefer their English exploits to their Chinese ones. We'll see where the next book takes us.


An Imperfect Witch - Debora Geary, 4.5/5, 250 pages
I've long since realized that the plot of Debora Geary's books really doesn't matter at all (well... that's probably an exaggeration, but it matters very little), because what really drives the book are the characters and their interaction - it's just so refreshing to read a series where people are generally kind and generous towards one another for once.

What struck me while reading this installment of the witch series is that though easily overlooked, Debora Geary has an amazing way with words. I'd constantly find myself paging back to reread some sentence of another. She's a poet in the truest sense of the word, putting together sentences such that the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. An ability very rarely seen, and undeniably a big reason why her books resonate so with me.


Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis*, 4.5/5, Audiobook ~6.5hrs
I first read this one as a teenager, and have been fascinated with the idea of not only life on other planets, but religion on other planets ever since. But then, why should the Earth be the only planet God ever revealed Himself to? If indeed there is life on other planets, wouldn't it make more sense that God revealed Himself there too, rather than that he didn't? It's a brilliant book, and the descriptions of Malechandra wonderfully other-world'ly. It's the first in a trilogy (the two others being "Voyage to Venus" or "Perelandra" (depending on the version) and "The Hideous Strength"), but IMHO by far the best of the three.


Book of the month: His Majesty's Dragon. Of course I loved all the Debora Geary books as well, but I'd expected that. This was an undiscovered treasure :)
Biggest disappointment: None, fortunately :)