Shattergrave Knights

This was a book I read on Kindle, because it kept popping up on my suggested list.  At first I didn't think I'd like it because it was set in a totalitarian world - those sort of books are usually disturbing.  This one was disturbing in parts - there is a witch hunt for traitors and innocent people get hung.  Overall

Jack and Olive are teenage twins living in a small town.  Early in the book we are given a history lesson in the form of a pageant that Jack is forced to participate in.  Basically there was an evil guy called Maxander who was supported by his Shattergrave Knights and goat-headed creatures called Tautho.  He was defeated by the Protectorate, the current religious totalitarian government.

A very nasty witchfinder is sent by the government to investigate an old woman who may be a witch.  The witchfinder starts convicting people of treasonous activities on flimsy or no evidence, and hanging them in the public square.

Jack and Olive find out they are the descendants of one of the Shattergrave Knights, and are given some magic items, just as the witchfinder decides to investigate them.  They are forced to flee, along with their newly discovered aunt and her friend.  Their destination is a city ruled by a dragon where the Protectorate has no power.

The book then becomes a journey style novel as the four of them head for the dragon's city.   They use ruses and magic to escape their pursuers.  They get into bad situations and escape them in surprising ways.  They pick up some unusual companions who end up helping them.   All of this is very enjoyable.  

After an interlude in the city they must go back and rescue their parents from a mind control prison situation and carry out rebel type activities on the Protectorate.  This is where the book feels a little choppy.  The journey to the city was covered in detail, down to what the characters are feeling and the vegetation of the terrain they are travelling on.  Then all of the sudden for the second journey - bang!  There they are at the destination.  I guess we are just supposed to imagine that a bunch of stuff happened, like the first trip but different and they got there ok.  This was not a major problem with the book though, I just felt like it could have been handled a little smoother.

This is a spoiler free review so I'm not going to talk about what happens next - it's pretty much what you would expect if you read a lot of fantasy novels, done in an entertaining fashion.

I was surprised how much I liked this book.  I hope there will be a sequel or other books set in this world.

A few things that worked well:

Most people have pretty common names in this book.  The main characters are Jack, Olive, Daniel, Prudence and Zanzibar.  Ok, the last one is a little unusual.  But there's no one named A'athurun or Emmyldr or anything like that.  The author doesn't need to constantly remind us that we are in a fantasy world by using made up names.  

I liked the system of magic a lot.  Magic is mostly done by speaking a special language which lets you overwrite reality.  You have to be very careful with pronunciation.  There are magic objects too, such as the magic circlet Jack was given which whispers to him the best way to destruct anything and anyone around him.  Very handy!

I hope there are sequels to this book, I would definitely read them.

Over the River by Sharelle Byars Moranville

This book brings to mind a word that I hate to use. It's one of those words that I aways see in book or movie reviews and gag a little bit and turn away. And I liked this book! Yet when I turn this book over in my head, that is the word that keeps popping out. The word is heartwarming.

This is the story of a little girl with a few mysteries in her family. Her father is gone - still alive but never came back from the war after WW2. She lives with her mother's family, who really hate her dad and don't want her to talk to any of his relatives.

It's not exactly hard to guess that Willa Mae's dad comes back and eventually takes her to live with him. They go to a city and even though she enjoys part of it and likes to help her dad with his business, she misses her family and school.

Mostly I enjoyed the descriptions of rural life in the 40s, cooking big Sunday dinners, deciding whether or not to get hooked up to the new electricity coming their way, decorating the graveyard on memorial day, sewing dresses, going to the general store. The author grew up in the time period and are she writes about and does a great job of conveying the atmosphere.

There are differences in the families, for instance her mother's family are very religious teetotalers and her father's family likes a little homemade wine with their meals. I kept expecting some big pivotal fight about this but none came.

I would recommend this book to the younger end of the young adult reading spectrum and to adults who want a quick enjoyable happy read. I think it would also be a good movie.

Amazon Link:

Over the River

Spell Book Of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty

I didn't take to this book at first. I stopped reading halfway through the second chapter. It's one of those books where the point of view keeps switching around from person to person and I found it confusing. Plus as it was set at least partially at a school and with teachers and students and it's in England, I thought it was going to be one of those Harry Potter inspired books, you know that don't have much substance beyond Look it's Wizards! In a school! You know with Spells and stuff.

But I was wrong. When I went back and started reading again I realized the book is set in Australia, so I had to switch around the accents in my head as I was reading. Secondly, though it's got spell book in the title, it's not really your average fantasy novel at all. I would say it's just a slight bend in reality. And lots of unlikely and outrageous stuff happens. But I was thinking it was going to be a book about witches and magic, and I was wrong.

No, it's a book about adultery. At least that is one of the major themes running though it. It's also a book about adults. Only one of the major characters is a young adult, Alissa "Listen" Taylor and she does not play a main role. The book centers on two sisters in the Zing family,Marbie and Fancy, and Fancy's daughters second grade teacher. Also on their relationships with men. Oh, and their parents as well. Plus early hot airballoon inventors. Whew! It's a complected book. But I did find it worthwhile to persevere, and soon I was unable to put it down.

I liked the part where Fancy was complaining about her husband, about the little things he does that bother her. I read that part to my husband and naturally he took the husband's side.

The part with Listen is about her starting Junior High, and being ostracized from her group of friends in that cruel random way that kids of that age have. It's an interesting thread of the novel which does weave in well with the rest of the plot. In your average young adult novel this would be the main story and the rest of the book with all the adultery and adult stuff would be going on in the background. A most unusual book this is.

The Zing family secret is one of the other themes of the book. Let me just say that it was not what I thought it was going to be. Not at all! Each Friday night they meet in the garden shed behind Fancy andMarby's parent's house. The secret is revealed to us in tantalizing bits and pieces, until it is all explained near the end of the book. The secret is silly and unlikely, but fascinating. So is the rest of the book, so it fits right in.

After I finished to book I looked it up on the net . I was surprised to find out it was a rewrite of one of the author's earlier books for adults, which was called I Have A Bed Made Of Buttermilk Pancakes. They took out the swears and moved a few things around, and bingo - it's a young adult novel. Huh? Why? It seems like a perfectly good adult novel. But then I found the author's explanation on her own blog. Now I'm curious to read the first book. And also the author's other books I will read because I did like this one very much.

Amazon Links:
Spell Book Of Listen Taylor

I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes

Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan

This is a young adult book which alternates chapters between our world and the world of Faerie. Until of course, the worlds meet up.

The main characters are Harry from our world and and Pyrgus from the other world of Faerie.

Harry lives in modern day England, and his family is having problems pretty typical of the type you find in YA novels, but with a kind of a surprising twist. He finds solace with his friend Charlie (a girl, but not a girl friend) and by spending time working for an old man, cleaning his house. The old man is quite a character who believes in all sorts of conspiracy theories and has a house full of junk.

When we first meet blank he is being pursued through the world of faerie by some thugs and the book becomes action packed quickly.

The world of faerie has a cool combination of science, industry and magic. It has a steampunk feel to it. There are portals to get between Faerie and earth and the description of how these were discovered and then improved upon was really imaginative. I loved the orange dwarf with the poisonous bite who has a slot to put an information card in his head. Where can I get one of those?

There is more sickening violence in this book than in most YA books I read. The demon prince gives quite a description of what he is going to do to one of the heroes of the book. I did skip a half page or so when I was at the part with the glue factory and I figured out what was going on.

The glue factory owners were fun, in a very bad way. With Brimstone, the main glue factory owner, it almost seems a little stereotypical bad rich man (oh noes, he enjoys evicting widows) but I did like what happened to him.

Blue, Pyrgus' sister is a more interesting character than he is. Their father seems kind of bland and unbelievable. The part where Blue has uncovered evidence of a plot to kill Pyrgus and her father insists on just throwing away the evidence just doesn't ring true at all. His son has been poisoned and diverted to another world and he is concerned that his daughter has stolen a journal from someone who had been trying to kill his son and sends his daughter to bed without the book, which will be returned to it's rightful owner? Yeah sure.

What I didn't like - light faeries vs the dark faeries and the dark ones are evil. Could there not be some other way to differentiate between types of mythical creatures that are good and evil besides dark and light? I guess maybe it's just the classic way but it seems so ham handed.

I would have liked to have seen Charlie, Harry's friend, either have more of a presence in the book or just be taken out. The part with her in it almost seems like a false start.

However, there is a whole series of these books and it's entirely possible that she will turn up as a stronger character in the next one.

I did enjoy this book and will look forward to reading at least the next in the series.

Amazon Link
Faerie Wars