Category Archives: Book Review

What makes an excellent fantasy story (Part 2)

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Hi again, Fluffsters!

Sorry for leaving you off after only two points yesterday. But I’m feeling lazy, and there’s enough here for multiple posts, so I may as well. (Aren’t I nice like that?)

Anywho. On to more of what makes excellent fantasy stories!

3) Good plot. This also is clearly important. That’s part of why some of Lewis’s Narnia series are better than others. Lewis has wonderfully consistent characters, but not all of his plots are as strong. That’s also part of why Dragon Champion wasn’t bad. The plot was there. Something happened. That’s also, as I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons why Sorcery & Cecelia wasn’t fantastic.

Granted, plot consistency and neatness is preferred. But even then, it’s not always entirely necessary. Real life, after all, isn’t always the most coherent.

4) “Real” setting. What I mean by this, is that the setting feels real, or like it could be real. There seem to be rules that are followed, like with the real world. Even if the rule is “there are no rules”, it’s consistent. Of course, it’s a lot better to have consistent rules, not lack thereof. Rich details are very helpful for this. Eddings is one of the masters of this. The cultures in his books are fantastic. The Arends, for example, (from the Belgariad) are very… impulsive. Any Arend you meet in the series is not going to be particularly brilliant, but will be brave to a fault. At one point, he describes one of the sub-groups of Arends as, without too much persuasion, likely being willing to declare war on a rising tide. (Or something along those lines.) Again, it was quite consistent, and quite delightful.

And once again, I’m going to leave you after only two sub-points. I hope you don’t mind.

Tomorrow will have the final installment of the list, though, (at least of what I have so far!) so come back tomorrow! I hope you have a great Friday!

What makes an excellent fantasy story (Part 1)

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Hi, Fluffsters! Happy Thursday!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a bit of a fantasy fanatic. There are few things better than curling up with a good fantasy novel. (Except possibly for curling up with a good fantasy novel and a mug of hot cocoa on a stormy night, under a nice fuzzy blanket.)

The trouble, of course, is finding a truly excellent novel. There are lots of fun books out there. Some of them are fantasy. But some fantasy books are not that great. Unfortunately.

But good fantasy, oh, that’s highly addictive. Excellent fantasy novels can transport you to a different world or time period for a while. They spark the imagination.

There are a few things that all good fantasy novels have in common.

1) They need to be not-poorly written. That’s pretty obvious… And the better written they are, the more likely they are to be good books. C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series and J. R. R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, for example, are two examples of well written fantasy. They also have other good things going for them, which contributes to the serieses being good fantasy.

2) Strong characters. At the very least, the characters need to be believable and consistent. This will potentially make or break the story. Inconsistent characters are just confusing and detract strongly from a story. Some books, however, can be completely saved by strong characters. Now, that’s not to say that characters can’t change or grow. On the contrary, they almost need to. But the characters should do so naturally, for the setting.

The book “Sorcery and Cecelia”, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, for example, was a delightful work of fantasy. It didn’t have too much of a plot, but it had great characters. It was actually kindof like a Jane Austen book, but set in a fantasy world. It was really fun. Its lack of plot made it good, not excellent.

As an alternative, Dragon Champion (by E. E. Knight) did not completely succeed at this. Don’t get me wrong- it was a fun book. But from what I remember (it’s been a bit since I’ve read this book) some of the characters were not entirely consistent. That detracted from the tale. Especially since I remember there being some inconsistencies with the main character. (Again, don’t ask me for specifics.)

Well, I’m going to pause here for right now. Tune in tomorrow for the next part of what makes excellent fantasy!

Book Review: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

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Hello again, Fluffsters! Happy Saturday!

Today, I’m going to once again be reviewing an extended version of a famous fairy tale. This one is

Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine (spoiler alert)

This story is a retelling of Cinderella. I really love it.

What makes this story particularly delightful is that Levine provides an explanation for why Cinderella is a wuss, and doesn’t fight for better living conditions, etc.

So, here’s the situation. Ella was enchanted by a traveling fairy (not her fairy godmother). She was “blessed with the gift of obedience.” She magically will follow every order that she is given. This could be from anything as stupid as “clap your hands” to anything serious like “kill yourself” (or a different person.)

This “gift”, of course, makes Ella a very strong willed person. She just can’t do what she wants to do if given a direct order.

The book is written from the first person perspective, which adds a great deal of depth. Since Ella is the main character, and a lot of the issues that arise are personal, it’s great from the story perspective to be inside Ella’s head.

So the story starts off with the narrator talking about her early childhood. Within the first chapter or so, her mother (very sadly) dies. We then meet the other players. Her father is an unloving, ambitious, hardheaded merchant who is frequently away. After Ella’s mother’s funeral, the father sends Ella off to a finishing school with two other girls about her age: Hattie and Olive. Hattie is surprisingly intelligent and very ambitious. Olive is, well, less than brilliant, and very greedy. Hattie discovers Ella’s secret “gift”, and uses it to her advantage.

Adventures ensue.

At about the last half to third of the book, Ella’s father marries Hattie & Olive’s mother in order to try to regain some of the losses that would ruin him. (The three ladies whose family he marries into do not know about this loss; the three think that they’ll be getting a lot richer through this marriage.)

Because of the unexpected lack of change of financial standing, as soon as Ella’s father goes away again, Ella gets demoted to low servant. She works as a kitchen maid.

Stuff happens, and the parents of prince Charmont (who Ella has been corresponding with) throw a ball in honor of the prince. Ella ends up going, re-meets Char, breaks the curse, and lives happily ever after.

I highly recommend this book. Levine, as always, writes with an engaging style. She expands the short story into a full length child-friendly book that is still engaging for adult readers. The land is realistic, the premise charming. I highly recommend this book. It’s aimed at a slightly older audience than The Princess Tales, but it’s still very family friendly. I’d highly recommend this for anyone, oh, age 8 and up. (Many 7 year-olds would probably enjoy it as well, though.)

I hope you have fun procrastinating with all of the books I recommend! If you read any of the books I’ve reviewed, comment about what you thought of them?

Book Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley

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Hello again, Fluffsters! Happy Friday! I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July.

Today, I’m once again going to be reviewing a book. I’m even repeating an author from earlier this week…

Beauty, by Robin McKinley (Spoiler Alert)

I really enjoyed Beauty. I’d give it probably a 17/20. It’s more of a young adult book, similar to Spindle’s End. It’s not nearly as long as Spindle’s End, though; it’s only about 250 pages. (Spindle’s End was a bit more than 400.)

As you may have guessed from the name, this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It’s in the more traditional vein with a few twists, though, rather than the Disnified version.

Setting.

Beauty, whose real name is Honour, has a family: Her father and two sisters. Beauty gets her nickname when she’s a lot younger. She considers it an unfortunate nickname, since she is not considered a great beauty of the land. Her sisters are lovely; she isn’t, per say. They start off as a wealthy merchant family. Within the first chapter, the oldest daughter and the love of her life are engaged, but the entire family loses its wealth. They all decide move to where the two lovebirds will be living: a small town bordered by a magical forest.

The father goes away on a trip. On his way back home, he stops by a mysterious castle. He is waited on by the invisible servants and shown every courtesy. Only when he tries to pick a single rose for Beauty, as she requested he bring her, does the Beast first appear. The Beast then offers a trade: The perpetual companionship of one of the father’s daughters in exchange for his life. The father has a week. Beauty learns of this deal, and takes it. This transfers the setting to the castle.

The castle itself is a wonderfully imaginative location. It too is full of magic. Servants cannot be seen, and a library has every book ever written (in the past and in the future) in the castle.

Characters

Beauty. Beauty is a stubborn girl who loves reading and horses. She is also absolutely devoted to her family.

The Beast. The Beast is simultaneously a beast and a gentleman. He shows Beauty every courtesy, but he does require her to stay with him, as they agreed. He does have a softer side. After the Beast sent the father on his way, he magically filled the father’s saddlebags with all sorts of valuable objects the daughters jokingly asked for. The Beast also uses his magic to help a garden grow.

The family. The family are all very nice, very likeable people.

Villagers. The villagers are also likeable. There is no “Gaston” element. Granted, the villagers are all wary of the monster in the woods, but there aren’t any over-the-top egocentric xenophobes like Disney’s Gaston.

You actually used the words “Egocentric” and “Xenophobe”? I’m impressed, Webmaster!

… Uh, thanks, Fluffy!

As I was saying. All the characters are well written and interesting people. The invisible servants in the palace even have their own personalities.

Overall

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It’s a typical plot, but in a different setting. I like the common use of magic, and I really like the library with Every Book Written in it. The characters are also very real.

Overall, I highly recommend this retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Fourth of July Book Review: American Fairy Tales by Baum

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Thursday! And happy Fourth of July, to all my fellow Americans!

In honor of the day, and the theme of the week, I’m going to be reviewing a slightly older book:

American Fairy Tales by L. Frank Baum (Spoiler Alert)

(Yes, the same L. Frank Baum who wrote Wizard of Oz, etc. )

American Fairy Tales is a collection, well, fairy tales located in America, with a very American feel to them.

One of the best parts of the stories are the morals. But the stories themselves are also quite charming.

The first one tells the tale of a girl who meddles in affairs that do not concern her. She therefore accidentally releases a band of thieves her uncle had kept locked in a chest in the family attic. Through quick thinking, the little girl makes the situation. But the moral of the story is “not to interfere with matters that do not concern us.” After all, if the little girl had refrained from opening the chest, she wouldn’t need to return all the items the thieves stole from her own house.

One of my favorite “morals” occurs after a story with lots of trickery and generic not-good-moral-character-stuff. (All G-rated if it were a movie, though.) The author writes “I suppose [one of the characters] is there yet, and am rather sorry, for I should like to consult the wizard about the moral to this story.” Clearly, the author just wrote a fun little story, but at the time all short stories “needed to have a moral.” It’s charming little turns of phrases like this that make American Fairy Tales so much fun to read.

There are about a dozen stories in this collection. Some of them are a bit politically incorrect, but then, they were written in a different time. I don’t remember anything truly offensive in them. I recommend reading them. They’re a fun collection of American-style short stories, and very child friendly. Except maybe for the last two stories. But I digress.

I hope you enjoy them! They’re a fun way to procrastinate, and the collection is out of copyright, and so is therefore available from Project Gutenberg. (Free reading! Yay!)

Happy Fourth of July! I hope to see(?) you tomorrow!

 

Book Review: Snow White and Rose Red by Wrede

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Wednesday!

Today’s book review is on

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede. (Spoiler alert.)

As I’ve mentioned, Patricia C. Wrede is one of my favorite authors. She writes in an amazingly compelling way that’s very well done.

Her book “Snow White and Rose Red” is a retelling of a Grimm fairy tale of the same name. It is not the tale of “Snow White.” Instead, it’s a tale of two sisters and their mother.

Unlike most fairy tales, the mother actually lives for the entirety of the fairy tale, and they have a good relationship with each other. The original is relatively nice, and not actually as gruesome as many original fairy tales.

Wrede takes the fairy tale, and expands it beautifully. She sets the story in old England. The language use is beautiful, and the dialogue is written with “thees”, “thous”, and other flowery things that just sound pretty.

The human main characters are devout Christians who live on the edge of Faerie, and so also do a bit of magic. (So, very different universe.) They’re not witches, they’re not evil, and they mostly restrict themselves to using herbs for healing. Later in the book they learn how to do a bit of magic, but again it’s for healing purposes. Mostly. It’s slightly complicated.

Wrede did an amazing job. The fairy tale is fairly straightforward. Wrede takes the tale and adds about 3 subplots that interact with each other, and still fit the fairy tale. I can’t describe it well enough to do it justice. So pick up a copy for yourself and read it, ok?

And have a great rest of your week!

Book Review: Spindle’s End

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Tuesday!

I hope your week is going well, and just continues to get better! I’m continuing the Book Review series. Today’s is

Spindle’s End, by Robin McKinley (spoiler alert)

I really liked the first 5/6ths of this book. The setting is great, the characters are compelling, and it’s a fun retelling of the classic story of Sleeping Beauty.

It starts off with a description of the land. It’s a land that is thick with magic. Like, literally thick. It “settled over the land like chalk-dust.” It would also do random things like spontaneously transform loaves of bread into ivory thimbles that stayed around for a few days, before crumbling away to dust. Fairies are relatively commonplace, sort of. And the provide a very useful role in society: They help keep the magic manageable.

The first few chapters examine the life of the royalty, before switching over to one of the main characters of the story: A fairy named Katriona, who kidnaps young princess Briar-Rose for her own safety, and raises her as her own niece. For another interesting twist, McKinley gives the young princess the ability to talk with animals.

Most of the book is about the princess’s first 16 years. Then the last bit of the book is about what happens after she finds out she’s the princess. And that’s where it gets confusing. I’ve read the book several times, and I’ve yet to fully understand the last sixth of the book, or so.

This book is written for the young adult crowd, rather than the younger crowd. I recommend it, but not as strongly as the other books. McKinley’s ideas are creative and fun, but come across as really confusing in certain areas.

Have a great week, Fluffsters! Talk with you soon!

Book Review: The Ordinary Princess

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Hello, Fluffsters! As I’m sure you remember from yesterday’s post, I’m going to be doing a book review each day this week.

Today’s is another twist-on-fairy-tales story:

The Ordinary Princess, by M. M. Kaye (spoiler alert.)

I love this book. It was one of the first twisted fairy tales I came into contact with, and it was wonderful. It’s just over 100 pages, but the book is slightly larger than the Princess Tales. So I think it might have a higher word count, but I’m not sure. (If anyone can tell me where to find the wordcount on any of these things, I’d love it.)

This book is not a spoof of a particular fairy tale. Rather, it’s a spoof on all fairy tales. What would happen if a princess in the realm were not the most beautiful creature in all the land, but was, instead, ordinary? That is the premise of this book.

Princess “Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne” starts off as a “normal” princess; blond haired, blue eyed, exquisite, well tempered, etc. At her christening, however, one of her fairy godmothers arrives and grants her a gift- the gift of ordinariness. From that point on, she behaves exactly like ordinary children, and is known as Amy.

A number of events cause her to leave her home, work as a drudgery-maid in another castle (just like Carrie Woodengown!), meets her prince, falls in love, gets married, and lives happily ever after. (Spoiler alert.)

As I’ve mentioned, I love that book. It’s charming, well written, well illustrated, and absolutely wonderful fluff. So, I highly recommend it. I hope you get it and enjoy it!

Book(s) Review(s)! The Princess Tales

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You know one of the best things about summer? Time. Time to read. And do other stuff, but time to read is a wonderful thing.

As I’ve said, I’ve read a lot of fantasy. So I think that this week, I’m going to try to do a book review each day on some of my favorite books.

Today, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite Fluff collections:

The Princess Tales, by Gail Carson Levine (spoiler alert)

The Princess Tales books are basically re-told fairy tales for younger children, but anyone who still enjoys fairy tales will enjoy these.

They’re small books, the sort that can fit in your pocket. The age range is about 8 and up, but I could see anyone who’s starting to read chapter books loving these. There’s pretty much nothing scary in any of them. Alright, so you have a couple of traditional fairy tale elements, such as an evil fairy cursing Sleeping Beauty, but that’s mostly it.

In general, the tone of the books are very lighthearted and truly fluffy. Levine does an excellent job of taking traditional tales and tweaking them in a charming way.

Sleeping beauty, for example, is the smartest person in the world, doesn’t sleep before she pricks her finger, and researched “dwindling unicorn habitats” before the age of 6. The Prince and the Frog is combined delightfully with Rapunzel. Sortof. Not quite. (It’s called “For Biddle’s Sake.” You should read it.) And the tale of the Princess and the Pea? That’s just the “final exam” in a long serious of tests for whether someone’s truly a princess.

Levine writes in a charming, easy to read, funny manner. I highly recommend her books, and The Princess Tales especially, for anyone who has ever enjoyed fairy tales.

Book Review: DV136ZB Digital Video Camera Instructions

I came across an absolute gem today: An instruction manual for a video camera.

Sounds thrilling.

I know, right? It’s amazing what technology can do!

Anyways, what’s particularly interesting about this one, is how it’s written. Here’s the first sentence: “It is able to use the camera for a digital photo of maximum 3.1 mega pixels picture, and is able to shoot AVI short film.”

Also, “zoom” isn’t “zoom”. No. It’s “focusing function.”

Actually, here’s a list of some of my favorite bad-translation/grammar moments from this book: (All emphasis added)

  • “…The water, sand drop, dust, or salty component may damage the camera…”
  • To install the battery: “…put 3 pieces of AAA (7#) batteries in…”
  • For adjusting the (velcro) wrist belt length: “1) Pull the magic sticker on the wrist belt. 2) Pull the nylon strap stuck on the magic sticker. 3) Adjust the bending length of the wrist belt. 4) Fasten the nylon strap on the magic sticker. 5) Fold and nip tightly the magic sticker.”
  • And: “The camera LCD will display ‘Memory full’ if the memorizer is full.”

There was, of course, an abundance of generic “bad-grammar” throughout the entire instruction manual. But those were the highlights.

You really do idolize people who use bad grammar or write poorly, don’t you?

…I don’t think I can answer that one.

Anyways, do you want to know the sad part?

…Those weren’t the sad parts?

No. Heavens no.

The sad part is that the instruction manual was actually better designed than the camera itself.

Please. Tell me you’re joking.

Not even slightly. Fortunately, the camera itself was a freebie. But even so, the joke goes that we still paid too much for it. The instruction manual was totally worth it, though! I love “magic stickers”, don’t you?

Anyways, happy Thursday, everyone!