Discussion: Classics and Epic Fantasies

I keep thinking I should make some sort of resolution to read books that I have trouble picking up. My favorites are by far urban fantasies, young adult, and middle grade fantasy. I still do like to read other things though. It just gets tough to prioritize them. Two things that I love to read, but rarely do, are epic fantasies and classic literature.

I am trying to commit to read more of these two things. So once a month I will try to do the following
- Classic Review: Any book old or new that could be considered a classic
- Epic Review: An epic fantasy book

The above are always tough for me because they just take more time to read. For those of you that are curious I have the following books in these categories waiting for me to read them (these are the ones I can recall off the top of my head):

Classics
- Jane Eyre
- Treasure Island
- David Copperfield
- Great Expectations
- The Kite Flyer
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Epic Fantasies:
- The Coldfire Trilogy by C. S. Friedman
- The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
- The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Caravan (not strictly epic but kind of)
- The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
- Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
- The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
- The Godless World series by Brian Ruckley

I am going to challenge myself to read one of these in each category once a month. So this should give me a good start on getting through some of these books. For February I already read "The Picture of Dorian Grey" for a classic and I am finishing up "First Lord's Fury" by Jim Butcher for my epic fantasy.

What about all of you out there? Do you have books that you want to read, but never seem to get to? Do you have certain genres that are harder for you to commit to reading than others?

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain (3/5 stars)

I was leery about reading this book.  Was it going to be yet another Twilight knock-off?  Still the synopsis intrigued me and the cover was beautiful, even better the reviews were saying it was really good.  So was it?  I have mixed feelings about it.  I listened to this on audio book and the audio book was very well done.

Grace Divine (yes she is a preacher's daughter) is the perfect girl with the perfect brother and a wonderful family.  The only event that scars there their family is something that happened one night three years ago.  This event left her brother with physical scars and drove her best friend Daniel away...no one will tell her what happened.  Three years later Daniel shows up in her art class.  Her brother makes her promise not to associate with Daniel, but Grace can't help it she is drawn to him.  As people start turning up dead and small animals are found mauled in the streets, people have started whispering about a monster that lurks in the streets.  The question is what does this all have to do with Daniel's re-appearance if anything?  What does it have to do with that fateful night three years ago?

I actually liked this book in the beginning.  The setting is, of course, high school and Grace is a good girl who tries to do what's right.  She has a sharp sense of humor at times, but it is inconsistent throughout the book.  Daniel, of course, is the dark and dangerous type.   I also liked how Despain dealt with the pressures of being the preacher's daughter and how trying to set an example for the whole community was a strain on the family.  I liked that Grace's whole family is involved in the story and that Despain didn't try to separate Grace out somewhere (like boarding school, which is what a lot of these types of books do).  It was great that Daniel and Grace actually have a past and reason to love each other, the whole love at first sight thing kind of drives me crazy.  The ending was very good, it resolved most of the main threads neatly but wasn't completely fairy tale happy.  Despain's writing style is very dreamy and mysterious, people who are set on good crisp action scenes should stay away.

Overall this story is very much another girl and boy love each other, boy says girl can't love him because he's dangerous, but girl will find a way to fix all his problems no matter the cost to herself or her family.  Once we got into this mode the eye-rolling began.  Where the plot was initially mysterious and gripping, half-way through the book it became very predictable.  Despain tried to mislead you with foreshadowing, but even that wasn't very misleading.  About one third of the way through the book I could have predicted almost everything that happened in the end; I thought the deal (I won't say what) with Grace's brother was extremely transparent.  Also half way through the book Daniel feels a need to get all emo and walk around spouting his contradictions of emotions at Grace; I am glad Daniel likes to share his feelings but it was overdone.

Then there was Grace's wishy-washiness.  First she hates Daniel and tells him to leave, then she loves him and begs him to stay...then she is all like "I hate you Daniel, get out of my life" then a couple chapters later she is all like "I love you Daniel, please don't leave."  Personally if I was Daniel I would have left because Grace was one confused girl.  Having a change of heart once or twice is understandable, but I kid you not this sequence of events occurred at least three (if not more) times throughout the story.

As I mentioned above I did like the ending.  There was one thing that happened that I didn't predict ahead of time and it was a pleasant surprise.  It does look like this book will be left open for a sequel, because a couple things were unresolved.  Overall I thought this was just another mediocre entry into the young adult paranormal romance category.  If you like the House of Night series or the Evernight series, you might like this book.  I personally think both of those series are mediocre for both writing quality and story, but this book is similar.  To be honest I am a bit disappointed that there aren't more exceptional books in this area.  Try out Holly Black's Modern Fairy Tale series if you want a great series with some heart, some humor, some action, and a great plot.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

 

Waiting on Wednesday - 2/24

Okay "Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week my WoW book is "Discord's Apple" by Carrie Vaughn.  Another Carrie Vaughn book, this one is supposed to be a stand alone adult urban fantasy (separate from the Kitty Norville series).  It sounds good to me and I am excited to read it!

Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn
Pages: 304 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: July 20th, 2010

Synopsis (from Paperbackswap.com):
"When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope’s Fort, Colorado, is not the only legacy she stands to inherit. Hidden behind the old basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe until they are needed again.

The magic of the storeroom prevents access to any who are not intended to use the items. But just because it has never been done does not mean it cannot be done. And there are certainly those who will give anything to find a way in. Evie must guard the storeroom against ancient and malicious forces, protecting the past and the future even as the present unravels around them. Old heroes and notorious villains alike will rise to fight on her side or to undermine her most desperate gambits. At stake is the fate of the world, and the prevention of nothing less than the apocalypse."

Teaser Tuesday - 2/23

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
 
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser is from "Lips Touch Three Times" by Laini Taylor.

Here it is: "The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood.  The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else." Pg.13

Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor (4.5/5 stars)

This book consisted of three stories; each had something pivotal that happened because of a simple (or not so simple) kiss.  The stories were very well written, all the characters were engaging and very interesting.  Taylor has a beautiful writing style and uses very creative imagery.  Overall this was an excellent book and made me want to read more of Taylor's books. 

The book is formatted in an interesting way; and in itself the book is a beautiful book.  At the beginning of each story a series of beautiful pictures tells the prelude to the story.  The pictures are absolutely stunning and really fit the mood of the book.  The book is written in a classic fairy tale type way, think dark fairy tales though, not Disney.

I was a bit surprised that this was classified as young adult.  The last story especially deals with rape, torture, stealing souls from children, etc.  I thought the stories were immensely creative and very engaging, but all of them are very dark and a bit disturbing.  I personally don't mind that in a story, but some people might find it uncomfortable.   The stories are never dealt with in gory detail, but the imagery is there.

Below I touch on each of the three stories:

Goblin Fruit - About a girl who wants nothing more than to be someone else.  She is tempted by a Goblin to eat their fruit and waste away to nothing.  Beautiful story.

Spicy Little Curses - The ambassador to Hell and a demon curse an Indian baby so that the baby can kill with her voice.  Things work out until the baby grows into a young woman and falls in love and is then tempted to use her voice.  Another enchanting story.

Hatchling - This is the strangest and longest story of the bunch.  About a girl Esme who is daughter to a woman named Mab.  Mab was raised as a pet to an immortal race but escaped to free Esme.  Unfortunately Esme is tied to this immortal race in ways Mab could have never guessed.  This is a very creative story and the world is well-built; it is definitely an odd story too.

Overall it was an excellent and creative collection of stories.  I would have given it 5 stars if the writing had been a bit more polished.  At points the written can get a bit choppy, if the writing flowed a bit better these stories would be masterpieces.  I will be checking out Taylor's "Faeries of Dreamdark" series in the future.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

 

Mailbox Monday - 2/22

 Mailbox Monday can be found at: The Printed Page

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Okay this week is crazy for Mailbox Monday.  I had a whole bunch of audible.com audio book credits to use so I ended up getting four audio books: Greywalker by Kat Richardson, The Dark Divine by Bree Despain, Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

I actually found The Final Storm (Book 3, The Door Within Trilogy) by Wayne Thomas Batson at half price books for really cheap.  I have been trying to get this book cheap for a while, so I bought it.

Then wb32 reads sent me a heads up the Quirk Books was giving away free copies of "Dawn of the Dreadfuls" to book bloggers!  So thank you to wb32 reads!  I got my copy of Dawn of the Dreadfuls just yesterday.

Lastly I got two books from the library: Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor and Chasing the Dragon (Quantum Gravity, Book 4) by Justina Robson.

You can see more info on all these books below!  I hope that you have a great week and wish you all Happy Reading!


The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

First Sentence: "Blood fills my mouth."
From Amazon.com: "Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.
The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.
The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul."

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
 
First Sentence: "Lisbeth Salander pullled her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose and squinted from beneath the rim of her sun hat."
From Amazon.com: "Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption."

Greywalker (Greywalker, Book 1) by Kat Richardson
 
First Sentence: "I'd been surprised when the guy belted me."
From Amazon.com: "Harper Blaine was your average small-time P.I. until a two-bit perp's savage assault left her dead for two minutes. When she comes to in the hospital, she sees things that can only be described as weird-shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring.
But Harper's not crazy. Her "death" has made her a Greywalker- able to move between the human world and the mysterious cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift is about to drag her into that strange new realm-whether she likes it or not."

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
 
First Sentence: "Those who saw him hushed."
From Amazon.com: "Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.
Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal."

The Final Storm (THe Door Within, Book 3) by Wayne Thomas Batson
 
First Sentence: "Aidan searched fro Gwenn's image in the thunderclouds."
From Amazon.com: "Still staggering under Paragor's relentless attacks, Alleble's remaining allies flee from the four corners of The Realm to safety within the Kingdom's walls. But there is little time for Alleble to mourn before Paragor, the Wyrm Lord, and the deadly Seven Sleepers unite against the followers of King Eliam. As Alleble begins to lose hope, Paragor unleashes The Final Storm. Will anyone survive to see the dawn?"

Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Prequel) by Steve Hockensmith
 
First Sentence: "Walking out in the middle of a funeral would be, of course, bad form.  So attempting to walk out on one's own was beyond the pale."
From Amazon.com: "With more than one million copies in print, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was the surprise publishing phenomenon of 2009. A best seller on three continents, PPZ has been translated into 21 languages and optioned to become a major motion picture.

In this terrifying and hilarious prequel, we witness the genesis of the zombie plague in early-nineteenth-century England. We watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naïve young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. We laugh as she begins her first clumsy training with nunchucks and katana swords and cry when her first blush with romance goes tragically awry. Written by acclaimed novelist (and Edgar Award nominee) Steve Hockensmith, Dawn of the Dreadfuls invites Austen fans to step back into Regency England, Land of the Undead!"

From Library:
Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor
 
First Sentence: "There is a certain kind of girl that Goblins crave."
From Amazon.com: "Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses: A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.

Hatchling: Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?"

Chasing the Dragon (Quantum Gravity, Book 4) by Justina Robson
 
First Sentence: "Cold winds blew off the north shore and gave Lila a burning slap as they snatched foam from the rim of her coffee cup and flung it into her face."
From Amazon.com: "Lila Black returns in the fourth volume of high-octane, high-magic, high-tech adventures.  Ever since the Quantum Bomb of 2015 things have been different; the dimensions have fused and suddenly our world is accessible to elves, demons, ghosts and elementals and their worlds are open to us. Things have been different for Special Agent Lila Black too: tortured and magic-scarred by elves, rebuilt by humans into a half-robot, part-AI, nuclear-fueled walking arsenal, married to a demon and in love with a recently-deceased elf. It was confusing enough before she was catapulted fifty years into her own future.

Returning to the life of a guns-blazing secret agent, Lila finds herself having inherited all of her former boss's old offices and whatever mysteries they contain, as the elf has done a runner some fifty years previously. Appointed head of the new android division, she can see all too clearly what lies in store for her if the growth of the alien technologies in her cyborg body continue unchecked.

But there are more immediate concerns. Like resurrecting her lover, Zal. And her husband, the demon Teazle, is embroiled in a fatal plot in Demonia, and her magic sword is making itself happy as a pen whose writing has the power to affect other worlds. The world is off its rocker and most everyone is terrified of faeries.

And all the while, she hears the voices of the machine material projections of an immaterial form, The Signal. The Signal talks constantly if only she knew what it meant."