The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, Book One) N. K. Jemisin, 2010 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read the first book in a series by a person of color Premise: Shortly after her mother’s death, Yeine is summoned to the city of Sky, the city of the ruling Arameri family, the city and family her mother rejected and abandoned. She was brought up to be a local leader and a warrior, but if she hopes to survive her scheming high-born kin, she’ll need knowledge and allies that are both in short supply. I love it when a book is worth the hype. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an exquisitely crafted novel. It explores culture, cosmology, theology, and morality in a gripping, personal story about one woman, her past and future, and her place in the universe. The world is made up of countless kingdoms, but they are all under the ultimate rule of Sky and the Arameri, because the Arameri have an advantage granted them by the Skyfather, Itempas. I don’...

The Waterborn (Children of the Changeling, Book One) Greg Keyes, 1996, New ebook edition 2015 New ebook release! I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for review. Premise: Perkar lives in a land full of gods: the little gods of things, the gods of places, the bigger gods of the old places that bargained with his ancestors. Hezhi lives in a city with one god. The River controls the city, controls the priesthood, controls the rules that govern Hezhi’s royal blood. They each set forth to change their fate, and so may change the fate of many more. I really liked this. It’s been a decent while since I’ve read such a strong fantasy novel. It’s long without dragging, although if it were written today, it would probably be broken up into two books. Both Perkar and Hezhi’s societies are explored carefully, and the differences are stark. I want this book to be a movie or a miniseries. Casting it would make some people’s heads explode. You see, it features a young man who...

Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 1: Cosmic Avengers Brian Michael Bendis, Steve McNiven, Sara Pichelli, et. al., 2014 Premise: The Guardians of the Galaxy, plus fan-favorite Iron Man, are up against a coalition of galactic powers with ambiguous goals. One goal is clear, though: Quill's father, lord of the Spartax Empire, wants him home... or dead. Collects Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1, #1-3, GotG: Tomorrow's Avengers #1 I enjoyed reading this, but only a few days later, not much of it stayed with me. The art is nice, modern comic art. Sticking Iron Man into the story feels more than a bit like an obvious marketing ploy, although his snark adds a fun dimension to the book. Issue #0.1 is a retelling/revamping of the origin story for Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord). It’s fairly well done and probably the most interesting bit of the book. The main plot of the book concerns King J-Son and a council made up of rulers of all the major galactic powers. They discuss the jurisdi...

The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett Nathan Ward, 2015 New Release! I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Everyone familiar with Hammett’s writing knows it was inspired by his time as a Pinkerton Detective. But what does that actually mean? Nathan Ward attempts to reconstruct Hammett’s pre-writing career and its impact. I enjoyed reading this book, but it’s trying to fill a very specific niche. It’s not a complete biography; it’s not much about the later part of Hammett’s life. It is mostly an attempt to reconstruct where and when he worked as a detective and the people or kinds of people he worked with. There is very little confirmed material to work with, so the author has to rely on third-party recollections or examples from similar operatives and/or operations. He questions the truth of some of the more impressive stories Hammett told about his time with Pinkerton, but replaces the whiz-bang tales with a more groun...

Another year is on the wane, and like so many, I find it a good time to look back and look forward. This year I read more books than I blogged about. Most of the ones I skipped writing a full review of were fun but not exceptionally strong or weak reads, unexceptional sequels to books I did review, books outside of my normal genres, or re-reads. I also quit reading a decent handful of books this year, which is unusual for me. I have become more protective of my time, and I am less willing to waste it on books that don’t grab my attention. This was a really strong year for comics and graphic novels. Half of the books I rated 5 stars this year were graphic novels; three of those are the first in a new series and one is a prequel: Lumberjanes Jem and the Holograms Bitch Planet Sandman Overture As far as comic books that I’m collecting in issues, everyone should be reading The Wicked and The Divine  and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl . Also if you like dark fantasy, che...

The Raven in the Foregate (Cadfael Series) Ellis Peters, 1986 Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas This is book number twelve in the Cadfael series, but I jumped ahead to it because it's set explicitly at Christmas. Premise: In 1141, a new priest comes to the town outside the abbey. He is harsh with the people and quickly makes enemies. The woman and young man who came into town with Father Ailnoth are not who they say they are, and all mysteries must come to light after a violent death on Christmas Eve. I've very much enjoyed all of the Cadfael books I have read, although this one seems to retread some ground. Cadfael's friendship with and patronage of the young couple particularly, is a repeated thread in more than one of these stories. It's still an enjoyable yarn, with the final solution to the mystery held secret to the end, despite how steadily pieces are revealed. Cadfael, as usual, keeps his own counsel and works only for what he thinks is the ...

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Barbara Robinson, 1972 Crossposted for Mainlining Christmas I have been seeing this book on lists of favorite Christmas books since we started the Mainlining project. But reading the back cover blurb made it sound entirely like a cheese-fest, overly religious, or otherwise sanctimonious, so I'd been putting it off. I have to admit, though, for an eighty-page book written for young readers, this is impressively subversive. Although, it probably seemed less so in 1972. The plot regards a group of unruly siblings who take over the Christmas pageant in a small town. In doing so, they force the townspeople to confront the reality behind the rote recitation of the myth. This may come as close as any religious-ish story ever has of evoking actual emotion in my cold, dead soul. The most interesting thing is the narrator. The story is told in the first person, by a young girl. Her opinions and asides add color, humor and context. The narrat...