(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

 Some "possibly to check out later" results of a brief random fit of restlessness and access to amazon.com, pretty much to remind myself to check them out at some point, though any opinions are always welcome(why do you think I always post book lists?)  Mostly upcoming YA fantasy.

Fate - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Golden - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Abhorsen Trilogy Box Set - Garth Nix
The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares, Book 1) - Lisa Shearin
Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception - Maggie Stiefvater
Book of Shadows: Book One (Sweep) - Cate Tiernan
In the Serpent's Coils (Hallowmere) - Tiffany Trent

*also notes that the MMPBs of the second and third of Michelle Sagara's Elentra books just came out*

Also, has anyone seen Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day?  it's one of those I meant to catch in theaters but never did, and I don't remember anyone ever commenting on it.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I read Golden a while back. It's a pleasant read but not one that really sticks with you, if you know what I mean.

I have the second book in Lisa Shearin's series. I'll send that to you once I can sort out my packaging issues for the Package of Doom^TM.

The one I'm really looking forward to is Forest of Hands and Teeth, which has a great title and a great cover. :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's about what Golden sounded like to me, too. I think what caught my attention was that the sequel is from what sounds like the spoiled rival's POV.

*makes note to acquire first soon, then*

Packaging issues?

The title for Forest of Hands and Teeth is one of those that really catches you. The concept sounds like it could be really awesome, or really...not.

[the_rck]

I read most of Magic Lost, Trouble Found. I haven't logged it because I keep thinking I'll finish the last little bit. It's not bad. It's also not great. Fun but not memorable.

I really love parts of the Abhorsen Trilogy. Other parts irritated me or bored me. I think I was more interested in the world shown in the first book than I was in the characters. I found myself trying to fill in all the bits that weren't shown. I liked the female lead in the second book but found the male lead really annoying. Books two and three were really one book chopped in half, so the wait between them irritated me.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

the Shearin actually sounds like some of the fantasy I've been looking for lately.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I really love the first Nix book in that series, Sabriel, enjoyed the next one but not as much, and haven't read the rest. But the first one is def. worth the reading, even if you don't go any further.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I have heard nothing but good about MIss Pettigrew Lives for A Day, and have to see it myself, plus get the book which I hear is also great.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Didn't realize there was a book.

The previews look absolutely perfect.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

The only one out of that list that I've read is the Old Kingdom stuff by Garth Nix. However, I'd recommend it wholeheartedly, and coming from someone who tends to bounce hard on a lot of high fantasy written in the last thirty years, that really says something. chomiji and redbrunja are both big fans of the books, if you want more perspectives on it.

Sabriel is more self-contained; you could read it and put it down and feel the ending was nice and complete. Lirael and Abhorsen, OTOH, you'll be glad you have the box set because the first one leaves you with a lot of plot threads open that will send you scrambling to the next for resolution. (Across the Wall, if you're wondering, only has one self-contained story set in the Old Kingdom, and the rest of the pieces therein are not set in that universe. It's a cute story, but unessential reading, for completists only I'd say.)

I enjoyed all three of them very much; I deeply appreciated that the world-building was not the sort of third-generation blurry Xerox of Tolkien filtered through D&D that turned me off the genre years ago, and that the language did not put me right out of it by feeling too contemporary to strike a faintly mythic tone, nor too faux-antiquated in the way that often seems to happen when modern writers try and fail to give a feel of Ye Olden Days without having the linguistic chops to make it feel seamless. The magical system, monsters, and races of this world are original and interesting, and the world-building is nicely understated; there's enough to give you a sense that this world has a long history of it's own, but it's never unnecessarily info-dumped in that sort of "Tolkien had appendices so I'm gonna throw in a whole lot of stuff, too" way.

I get the impression that the first book is generally the more popular of the two -- I liked it a great deal, and it is much more of a classic heroic-fantasy sort of narrative, but personally I found Lirael (both the book and the character) to be much more deeply emotionally resonant.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The boxed set is pretty well priced...Amazon's discount has it at about $16, so not much different from a single HC.

I think what people forget about Tolkein is that the appendices were actually...interesting. And largely had important info.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yep...and at the same time, they were at the back of the last book for a good reason: you don't HAVE to read them to make sense of what's going on. If you're the nerdy sort who loves digging in deep to the history and languages and family trees, they're there and you can have fun with them, and they add more depth and enjoyment to it all -- but if that's not your sort of thing, you can just wade into the text and anything that's truly essential is explained there. And this is one of the many things that a lot of the bad Tolkien imitators don't seem to get -- they seem to think that people are reading for world-building and that means they have to have lots of made-up words and complicated genealogies and timelines, and then they try to smack you in the face with MY WURLDBILDING, LET ME SHOW YOU IT.

[luckychan.livejournal.com]

I think what people forget about Tolkein is that the appendices were actually...interesting. And largely had important info.

That's true! I normally space out when the needlessly intensive worldbuilding in fantasy epics gets in the way of the real plot, but I actually liked reading the appendices to LOTR. Maybe it's because there were a lot of characters in the trilogy that were hardly explored or were only mentioned in passing, that I only realized after reading the appendices also had very interesting and distinct personalities and stories. ^^

I agree with what they said about the Old Kingdom Trilogy too, and that's what I like about Garth Nix in general, actually. I think he admitted in one of his interviews that he focuses on the plot and characters first, before he really works on the world/universe he set the story in. ^^

I really liked Sabriel very much; I liked Lirael and Abhorsen too, but not as much as the first book, probably because Lirael and Sameth had more...issues than Sabriel, which I sometimes found hard to sympathize with. ^^; But I like the trilogy in general...I liked it so much I even bought Across the Wall And Other Stories, Garth Nix's collection of short stories, just for the novelette Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, which is a follow-up to Abhorsen. ^^;

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I really liked Sabriel very much; I liked Lirael and Abhorsen too, but not as much as the first book, probably because Lirael and Sameth had more...issues than Sabriel, which I sometimes found hard to sympathize with.

*nod* That sounds an awful lot like conversations I had with redbrunja after I'd finished the series. She preferred the first one, because Sabriel is in more the self-confident, ass-kicking heroine mode she loves, whereas so much of Lirael's life was filled with unrelieved emotional misery that while she sympathized, she found it rather painful going at times -- whereas I preferred the second book over the first for pretty much exactly the same reasons! I liked and admired Sabriel very much, but I couldn't really identify with her on a deep personal level. Lirael, on the other hand, hit so many of my own issues that it was really almost scary, so there was a much deeper emotional investment for me. (Although as noted below, Sameth bugged me because, at least until things started seriously falling apart, he didn't HAVE any issues worth whining about, and yet whine he did.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think my general tendency is to like the less complicated character best, but be more emotionally invested in the one with issues, or who are "less cool."

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

I watched Miss Pettigrew and I own the novel. Both are good, but I prefer the book overall.

Which reminds me, I have to get the DVD!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was a novel. I think the question is...book first, or movie?

(One thing I noticed is that the book description says she gets sent to Amy Adams's place by accident, but in the movie, she clearly sneakily snatches the listing after being told she was screwed.)

[(Anonymous)]

Yup! Published by Persephone books, a company I LOVE, because they are dedicated to reprinting largely forgotten and out-of-print novels by women in the 20th centurary. Their back-list of titles makes me DROOL. Miss Pettigrew was one of their big commercial successes and I think it's safe to say that without them reprinting it, the movie would never have been made.

The book and the movie have very different focuses though. The movie emphasis is on the romantic choices and relationships, while the book is much more about the family and close friendships that women development with each other. I tend to like the latter, so I preferred the book. But the movie was very good too.

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

UGH. Forgot to sign in. That was me.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

yeah, the book sounds really good, and the movie like fun fluff.

So, what does their backlist look like?

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head, there's a book on it by the mother of Eva Ibbotson (which I always mean to get, but am putting off, because it does sound a little depressing) and some novels by Monica Dickinson which are fun. You can google them and get the full list. The only problem with the publishing company is that it's based in Britain, and you can't always get all their titles in America.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

I love the Abhorsen Trilogy, and since other people have already explained why it's so great, I'll just say this. Out of all of my books, this trilogy was part of the small selection of books I brought with me when I moved to Japan.

[artillie.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I read Sabriel back in the seventh grade, so I'll third (fourth? fifth?) the recommendation on the Abhorsen trilogy. It's actually original. I mean, original-original, not "Look at me, look at me, I'm so clever, twisting the myths of this world to make something new but still recognizable as being from this world" original.

In Lirael, though, you'll want to give Sameth a good hard kick in the face, just to shake him out of it--whenever I'm re-reading it, I just skip his parts and go straight back to Lirael. He comes round, though.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad to hear someone else had trouble with Sameth! I kept having to try to force myself to stop and thing and remind myself to show a little sympathy -- he's young and immature, it's natural he'd be a little resentful of not getting time with his parents, he's getting all these scary responsibilities shoved onto his shoulders unexpectedly, etc., -- but oh, I had to grit my teeth so much: what I *really* wanted to do was grab him by the scruff of the neck and scream at him about what a spoiled, privileged little brat he was and how incredibly LUCKY he was to have never wanted for anything material and to have two loving parents and he should count his blessings, grow up and grow a spine and STOP WITH THE GODDAMN WHINING ALREADY... And he does get better, as you note.

[artillie.livejournal.com]

I think that Nix knew that Sameth was going to be annoying to readers, which is why he had him get suck dressing up and dancing in the giant chicken suit (you know it was a chicken suit, even if it had a fancy name) and inflicted the scourge of sensibility that is Mogget upon him. Mogget makes Sam bearable.

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

(Heeeey, it's a new layout!)

I enjoy Garth Nix's books quite a bit. Haven't gotten around to reading um... Friday or Saturday of the Keys to the Kingdom books, but I believe that series has one volume left to go (Sunday.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I've had the layout for a week or two.

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

I am shamed. :(