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 This review contains spoilers for the entire Chaos Walking series. Don’t read this, read them!
War makes monsters of men, and Todd and Viola are discovering just how true that saying is. Separated once again, Todd has remained with the mayor to keep him calm while Viola has gone with the Answer and her new shipmates to broker a compromise. Into the mix we’re thrown a third character with his own perspective on events, set to radically change both the way Todd and Viola think about their new world and their strategy for the forthcoming war.
Everything about this book is basically awesome. Patrick Ness has taken on enormous issues in this series and executed them perfectly, without a hitch, sending out clear anti-war themes but at the same time showing just how humans are so susceptible to dictatorships and strong personalities.
First of all, what struck me as so eerily true to life is the way that Mayor Prentiss can simply take charge, how he can twist reality to suit himself without ever suffering any flack for it. It reminded me most of the way that the media can twist things as they wish, but most people don’t bother to research (or watch more than one TV channel) so they’ll never know the truth of the way the world works. Even Todd and Viola know vastly more than they’re told, but they still find it easier to settle into the same grooves they’ve known their whole lives. Todd himself finds it easiest to dehumanize the Spackle because they aren’t exactly the same as him even though they are thinking, speaking beings like he is, just because he’s committed atrocities against them and needs a reason to do so. The introduction of the third character throws a wrench into those plans, both for readers and for Todd.
Throughout the book my heart ached most for Todd and I simultaneously feared for him. He gets far too close to the Mayor and is convinced he’s acting for good, but I knew he couldn’t be, that the mayor was a force for dissent and fear. But as we learn by the end, even that’s not entirely true. The worst character in the series is himself multi-faceted with surprising reasons for how he works, which don’t excuse him but help us understand him. Each and every character with page time in this book is a complex human being with believable motives and actions. It’s a genuine work of art.
The entire book is sobering in its depiction of war, especially as Todd is growing up in the midst of it. It’s evident from both his actions and even from the text itself as the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors slow down drastically in this third installment. He’s becoming a man, but how I feared he wasn’t going to live to get all the way there. The constant battles and struggles speedily mature him, so much so that it was easy to forget his true age. Not all that much time has passed since he first discovered Viola, that pocket of silence amidst the Noise. And I keep talking about Todd, but it was Viola who became my favorite character, for her strength and reason and love.
I wish I was talented enough to articulate clearly the many ways Monsters of Men – and the rest of the series – made me think and feel. I borrowed this book from the library but I know it’s one that I’ll need to own and reread in its entirety. It’s incredibly powerful in so many ways and I truly think is literature at its finest; it’s a series with a lot to say about the world, not only Todd’s but our own, and with a fantastic story to go along with it. What more could any reader ask for?
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
 This review contains spoilers. Read the books first!
Todd and Fiona have arrived in Haven only to discover that it’s not a haven at all. It’s New Prentisstown and Mayor Prentiss has now declared himself the president of the entire planet. Fiona is seriously wounded and whisked from Todd’s view to heal, used as a threat to get Todd to cooperate. Todd himself is locked up with the old mayor of Haven, forced to spend time with Mayor Prentiss’s son Davy and commit ever more horrible acts against the Spackle during the day. When rebellion begins, Todd and Fiona begin to wonder who the Answer are and what is going to happen to New Prentisstown.
This is going to be a short review because I read this and Monsters of Men right after each other. I have quite a lot to say about the third book, but this one has somewhat blended in with it, so my observations are less clearcut. Still, I thought they each deserved their own post.
While I wasn’t so crazy about The Knife of Never Letting Go, I thought it was worth reading the rest of the series to see what happened with Todd and Fiona. This book was the perfect follow up for me because it took a step back, slowed everything down, and really fleshed out the world and the story. I’m not a huge fan of breakneck, breathless books, and so this was a breath of fresh air as Todd and Fiona stay in one place for the most part. They learn more about what happened in the past and they start to take strides towards changing the future. Their bond still remains very strong even though they’re apart for most of the book.
I can easily say the high point of this book for me was Todd’s relationship with Mayor and Davy Prentiss. I loved how the relationships gradually changed and were fleshed out as well as how genuinely true to life they were. Davy strives for his father’s approval but has never had Mayor Prentiss’s extreme, if cruel, strength of character, so he’s always going to be a failure. Todd does have that strength, and as a result Davy is almost naturally drawn towards him even if they’re enemies at first. It’s a fascinating dynamic and all of their emotions rang beautifully true for me.
By the time I finished The Ask and the Answer, I’d become a loyal fan of the series and could not wait to start Monsters of Men. I’m surprised by how much the book turned my feelings around, but I’m very glad, because Patrick Ness is a masterful writer and plotter.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Ivy Lockwell is one of three sisters, living in a fading house with her mother and ailing father. Without her around, it’s likely that her family would fall apart, but it’s also essential that the three girls marry; that’s because when their mother dies, their house will go to an odious cousin. Ivy’s father has been ill for some time now, and everyone but Ivy believes it’s due to his excessive magick use. Ivy is convinced that if she can find the spell to reverse the damage, she can cure her father; the little notes that he left her around the house encourage her in her quest. When she takes a job with the mysterious Mr Quent, Ivy begins to realize that the problem with magick isn’t just confined to her family, and that she might have deadlier enemies than she’d ever supposed.
This was such a charming book in so many ways. Ivy and her family are absolutely wonderful characters. Each of them has his or her own distinctive personality and the viewpoint switches around frequently enough that I could get to know several of them. The entire book is pervaded with a nice feel of fantasy, mystery, and at times romance. The plot is nicely twisty and turny for the most part, and even though I wasn’t entirely kept guessing throughout the book, it completely held my attention. I loved the fantasy world, with its variations on daylight and peculiar version of magick; I was really eager to figure out how it all fit together.
What I really loved about it, though, was the fact that this felt to me like a love letter to two of my favorite authors, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Sections of both authors’ books are recalled in a variety of ways, and even the prose style feels like it could very well belong in the nineteenth century in particular. I loved reading the echoes of Jane Eyre in the middle section of the novel in particular. It was like reading a few of my favorite novels with magic included, and to be honest, for me you can’t get much better than that. I have read several reviews which complain that it isn’t original enough, but I’d disagree with that. The rest of the book was enchanting in its own right, and such an homage to the classics simply made it better.
Honestly, this was just another of those books that perfectly suited me. A bookish protagonist, echoes of my favorite authors, a lovely subtle romance, and a wonderful fantasy world to back it all up left me a very happy girl. The Magicians and Mrs. Quent may not be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, which is releasing next month, and I only hope that it’s as delightful a read as this was.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 When Shen Tai loses his father, he finds himself at loose ends, unable to reconcile himself to the required years of mourning which Kitai society demands. Instead, he goes to the site of his father’s last great battle, where thousands of bodies lay unburied and ghosts cry out for peace. Tai spends two years digging graves and laying bodies to rest. When Tai receives a message from a former princess of Kitai, now married to a Taguran in a bid for peace, granting him two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, he realizes that he’s received an incredible gift and his life is in danger. He discovers this in the worst way when an assassin comes for him, killing one of his closest friends; Tai must now head into the heart of the empire, facing guaranteed danger, to discover what his friend was trying to tell him and to figure out what to do with the horses.
Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favorite authors, if not at the top of the list. I own and have loved every single one of his novels, and as such I have been anxiously awaiting my chance to read this. I adore his brand of historical fantasy – cultures I recognize instantly, with just a bit of added magic to make them new and his own. I finally decided I couldn’t wait any longer to read his newest release – especially when I was perfectly in the mood for a fantasy world based on the Tang dynasty in China – and I was not disappointed.
While this probably isn’t my favorite of his works (I don’t think he’ll ever match The Lions of al-Rassan with me), it was nevertheless a beautiful, engaging read that pulled at all of my heartstrings and really captivated me in a way few books manage these days. The book is narrated mainly by Tai, with a few sections featuring his sister Li-Mei and the prostitute he loved before his father died, Spring Rain. I found Tai’s straightforwardness and modesty in a world of political subtlety to be very endearing, while Li-Mei was a strong woman put through things I don’t think many women of the period would have been able to endure. As for Spring Rain, I didn’t quite connect with her as much as the other two, and I think overall she was meant to have more emotional impact on me than she did. I was a bit more in favor of another direction for Tai, one that he eventually chose, and I think that limited her influence on the story. The secondary characters were also well done, particularly Wei Song, Tai’s Kanlin warrior. I loved her alternating fierceness and timidity; she was overall just perfect.
The plot is a bit complex, full of court intrigue and carefully planned interactions, but I thought was done quite well. I loved the political turmoil that Kitai was thrust into over the course of this book and its eventual consequences. For me, everything held together really well, and had me very interested in the actual history that took place over this time. I wondered how closely Kay stuck to known history and I’m really looking forward to reading some of the suggestions he gives in his author’s note to find out a bit more about the facts of the time.
Kay’s writing as always is gorgeous and lyrical. I regularly wish I could write like him every time I read one of his books. He’s truly masterful at getting across emotion and making scenes of carnage and death seem both beautiful and tragic at the same time. This one didn’t quite have the effect that some of his other books have had in the past, but it’s impossible not to get swept away by the stories that Kay tells.
While Under Heaven doesn’t quite rank as my favorite by Kay, he is an amazingly gifted writer and this is a historical fantasy well worth reading.
I am an Amazon Associate. Nymeth sent me this book when my blogger secret santa didn’t come through. Thanks again!
 The Radleys live on a perfectly normal street in the perfectly normal town of Bishopthorpe in Yorkshire. In fact, they do everything in order to be normal; they go to school, they go to book clubs, they even sometimes attend church. But the secret is that the Radleys aren’t normal, but it’s such a secret that their children don’t even know. They won’t be without that knowledge soon, though, and when they find out what they really are, they’ll struggle to keep it a secret for long.
The Radleys has been moderately hyped over here in the UK, so I was a little concerned as to how I was going to react to it when I finally got to read it for myself. Luckily I really enjoyed it, and I found it both an interesting fantasy novel and a critique of modern middle-class British life. The Radleys are vampires from a famous vampire family, but they choose to be abstainers. Peter, the father, has been a vampire his whole life, whereas his wife Helen was only converted after she fell in love with him. The two children, Clara and Rowan, start the novel with no idea that they’re vampires. They don’t know why they’re excessively pale and always wear sunscreen, are always tired during the day, or suffer from migraines on a regular basis. Then, Clara is attacked, and everything changes.
I liked that this book was an urban fantasy which is completely different from the rest – the world is the same except for vampires, but the story doesn’t center on a pretty girl. Instead, we have this middle class family who really struggle to have normal lives, except for a wayward relative who comes along to mess everything up every now and again. The beginning almost reminded me of Harry Potter, with the family trying desperately to be normal and even the children trying to pretend that they’re not something out of the ordinary. Of course, the stories are nowhere near the same in terms of plot, but that’s the closest comparison I could think of.
I not only appreciated the story for itself, but I thought it was a very British, very humorous take on middle class life over here. By being so very typical, the Radleys made me wonder what other “typical” middle class families might be hiding, and why we really need to put up that front of normalcy when we might all be just a little bit weird (though we’re clearly not vampires). It’s quite a clever book and undoubtedly I didn’t catch all the little jokes that Haig made, but I enjoyed it a lot when I did find them.
Overall, I would definitely recommend The Radleys and I’m glad it’s been picked up for a film version – I think it would make a great one. For more information and sample chapters, check out the Facebook page.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from a publicist for review.
 This book is the sequel to Dragon Keeper. The books are virtually one story, so read that one first (and before you read this review!)
The dragons and their keepers continue their slow and perilous journey up the Rain Wilds river. As they journey closer to the land they hope is fabled Kelsingra, the secrets that the small society has kept from each other are finally coming clear. Thymara is astonished to discover that her fellow marked Rain Wilders are blatantly defying the rules of their society back in Trehaug and for the first time realizes that she can be more than just a strange-looking girl who should have been killed at birth. She also grows closer to Alise, former Bingtown lady, who also has a few uncomfortable truths about her life to face on the journey.
Robin Hobb is one of my favorite fantasy authors. I really enjoyed Dragon Keeper but I was disappointed that it ended so abruptly – it was pretty clear to me that the two were truly meant to be one book. So I wasn’t surprised that this picked up exactly where the last left off; it followed through really well and successfully concluded this story and in turn the story of the dragons which had really begun in the Liveship Traders trilogy. This is perfectly understandable even if you haven’t read that trilogy, though; it’s just a matter of added depth and richness to Hobb’s world.
This is a book I was thrilled to sink my teeth into. I love living in Robin Hobb’s worlds and I could have happily spent way more than 500 pages immersed in this one. The characters are always so interesting and engaging and that’s especially so in this one. Their disputes really come to a head and all secrets from the first book are finally revealed and even developed further.
This book is really about the women; Thymara and Alise each find their freedom in different ways. They’re equally trapped by society before the embark on their journey; Thymara is so heavily marked that she’s forever an outcast, forbidden love, children, or a normal life and considered an abomination. Alise, on the other hand, is stifled by fitting in perfectly, by marrying a man she did not love and who did not love her but who was an excellent catch nonetheless. By traveling with the dragons, both women find themselves and embrace their freedom to be who they want to be, not who society says they should be.
Robin Hobb continues to produce writing that is genuinely amongst the best in epic fantasy today. Honestly, I wish I could read all of her books over again for the first time. Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven together make up a wonderful duology and one that I will happily recommend to all who enjoy fantasy.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the Amazon Vine program.
 This is book four in the Kate Daniels series. For the first book, check out my review of Magic Bites.
Nothing ever goes right for Kate Daniels. Not only has Curran, the Beast Lord, stood her up after an agonizing wait, right when she thought she might be ready to surrender her heart, but her family connection is finally coming back to haunt her. Facing down a relative is Kate’s worst nightmare, especially when her shapeshifter friends prove especially vulnerable, but with every step she begins to realize that her father might find her and destroy everyone and everything she cares for.
The husband and wife writing team of Ilona Andrews didn’t slack at all with this book. It truly feels like the series is building up to a climax – Kate’s confrontation with her father, the famed Roland. The battles are ratcheting up in intensity as Kate learns what she can and can’t do and similarly what her famed family can do to make her life miserable. The intensity and epic feel of the book still surprised me; for a slim volume, it truly does feel like Kate is battling for the world, which is something I enjoy greatly in fantasy especially.
I loved the romantic angle in this one as well. Kate and Curran have been alternately at loggerheads and in lust for some time now and I think all fans of the series are eager for something to happen between these two. The initial setup here has the couple again opposing one another, as they both believe different stories about what happened on their designated date night. What happens after that I won’t spoil, but in this aspect as in so many others, Magic Bleeds is far from a let down.
There is plenty more to love about this book, like Kate’s wicked sense of humor, numerous cultural and literary references, the fantastic and well-described world (with a few more details about the mythology here), the exceptional and realistic character growth of all the characters, and so on. Probably the only thing I’d say wasn’t perfect was the sheer number of fight scenes, but it fits in with the mythology and with the previous books, so it’s hard to complain. This is now by far my favorite urban fantasy series – something I’d never have predicted with the first book.
If you enjoy urban fantasy, you should be reading this series.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 This is a novel in three parts, all about women. The first part is the story of a woman and her elderly mother, whose faculties are starting to flee in the face of age. The second delves into the lives of three older women on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a spa in a totally different country. The last section embarks on a fictional literary analysis of the first two stories and ties them in with the traditional Baba Yaga myth.
This book was really difficult to get into. I have never actually read any of the Canongate Myths series despite intending to for a good long time now. This was to be my introduction, and unfortunately the fact that the first two segments had almost nothing to do with Baba Yaga put me off to a certain extent. They were all about older women and while I could see how they tied into the myth slightly, it was often frustrated to feel like I just didn’t know enough to “get” the book the way I wanted to get it.
I’ve said before that I’m not a short story fan and that hindered my appreciation of the book as well. Just when I got interested in the first story, it switched over, and the second story was a bit peculiar. I actually found the literary analysis section quite interesting because while I knew a little about the myth from learning Russian, I didn’t know anywhere near what the book told me. It was all really fascinating. And then to my surprise, I found the last five pages amazingly powerful. The end is almost brutally about women’s rights – about how wrong it is that women are so often the witches and the subjects while men who wear fancy hats decide our lives for us – and I almost wanted to stand up and cheer for Ugresic.
The last section also cast the book in a whole new light. I’d almost like to read it again just to pick up what I knew I was missing the first time, but the analysis was so good I’m not sure I need to – I was reminded of literature classes, but in a good way. It was a bit slower going but it really made the whole book an intriguing intellectual exercise that I felt was rewarding despite the initial frustration.
In short, if you enjoy the idea of myths and literary analysis, I think Baba Yaga Laid an Egg will work for you. It also would be a fantastic choice for feminists, just for those five pages alone.
Anyone out there have a suggestion for another Canongate Myth for me to try? I have a PDF of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, I just need to figure out how to get it on my phone for easy reading.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 This is book five in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and as such there may be spoilers for the first four books. Check out my review of Moon Called, the first book in the series.
The fae are possessive and secretive. So when Mercy Thompson’s friend, who is slightly fae but mostly human, loaned her a book, she probably shouldn’t have accepted it. But she did, and now he’s disappeared and a faery queen wants that book from her. Meanwhile, her dear friend and former love Samuel is losing his will to live, letting his wolf take over (a dangerous situation for any werewolf) and she’s still trying to navigate the murky waters of her new and uncertain mate bond with Adam, the alpha of her new werewolf pack.
I’ve said it on every single review of these books but I love them! I think they’re fantastic and Patricia Briggs has a great story in every book. She never goes too far, it’s always just the right mixture of plot and character development. In each book, the main plot wraps up but the overarching plot keeps developing – the characters grow and change over the whole series. This book isn’t an exception. I loved returning to her world and picking up the same characters’ stories.
In this particular volume of the installment, I really appreciated where the characters’ relationships went. I have always totally loved Adam and I’m so encouraged by his relationship with Mercy. It was fantastic that there was more of him in this book. And Samuel – I may not like him as much as Adam, but I was still very captivated by what was going on with him in this book. I liked how she wove in aspects from her other Alpha and Omega series, too, because I also like Charles and Anna.
I liked the plot, too. I didn’t remember the person who lent Mercy the book, but I thought enough was explained that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t entirely suspenseful because I didn’t think anything particularly bad was going to happen to the characters (although I have been shocked by that in other series) but I was definitely intrigued by what happened. In fact, the book captivated me enough that I could read it in the space of three hours while sitting in a noisy van moving furniture. Yes, it’s that absorbing.
In short, I still love this series! And now I have a really, really long time to wait for the next installment. But when it comes out, I’ll be reading. I highly recommend Silver Borne and the rest of the Mercedes Thompson series to anyone who likes urban fantasy.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 The Nameless One is stirring, gathering huge armies that are going to threaten the city of Avendoom. It’s up to Shadow Harold to stop them, because only he is talented enough to steal something which could change the course of history. But first he has to thwart the demons he created out of his own curiosity, explore the forbidden interiors of his own city, and prepare to save everything he knows.
I so wanted to like Shadow Prowler! I’ve seen positive reviews of it elsewhere and as I mentioned on Sunday, I’ve really been looking for the book that will make me crave epic fantasy like I used to. Unfortunately, this book is not it. I thought the story itself was fairly interesting. I like epic quests to save the world. In this case, it was the execution rather than the plot which really let me down.
First off, it takes so long for Harold to actually leave. We learn about his mission and the issues in the first few pages of the book, so my summary isn’t giving anything away. It opens well, with a theft in progress. But after that the book just seems to drag painfully because it takes so long for him to get going on the quest. By the time the little party set out, I already had lost interest and forgotten what happened in the beginning.
I also just plain didn’t like the way the story is told. This is actually quite strange because initially I thought it felt very Russian and I liked that, just in the way Harold approached his life. My appreciation diminished quickly because I got tired of the main character’s stupid jokes and info dumping. Moreover, there was absolutely no build-up of suspense. In short, it didn’t feel epic, even though it’s meant to be. Nothing was serious even when Harold’s life was in danger. I want to be moved, not roll my eyes. I just never cared about what was happening.
I also had the nagging feeling that this book had been done before. A hero quest is absolutely nothing new, the different races are nothing new, but I think it can be done in interesting and exciting ways. Sadly not much about this book feels fresh. I love that Russian fantasy is now being translated into English – I’ve had my eye on the Night Watch trilogy for a while now – but not if it’s just more of the same with a different attitude.
I honestly couldn’t tell you if I’ll continue to read this trilogy or not. I did enjoy some of the flashbacks and I think the past and present could merge in interesting ways in the next couple of books. But it will most definitely be a library choice, not a purchase.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
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Stephanie
bermudaonion (Kathy)
zibilee
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