Well-Woven Fantasy

This week I thought I'd review the first book in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series: Sandry's Book. While the book may seem like an odd choice for number of reasons, I feel compelled to explain. Let me get it out there now - the book is fantasy, aimed towards younger readers and is generally if unofficially held to be "for girls". It also came out when I was in grade school. To address those potential attacks on the legitimacy of this book, I will begin at the beginning and work my way down. Firstly, I like fantasy, and science fiction, wild, speculative fiction of all sorts - I think the human imagination is a priceless treasure, and its expression in literature of impossible worlds and realities is a superb treat. As for the age thing, I've always had a penchant for fairy tales and the stories of my early youth. Unlike virtually every other book aimed at "young readers", however, I remain enamored of the powerful language, well-crafted characters, and sensible maturity of Tamora Pierce's books - they in no way talk down to, grossly simplify, or otherwise demean their readers in any way. And I admire that - it is rare that a book that captures your imagination at a young age can age well alongside you. Finally, the book may be (wow, really?) a decade old at this point, but it is the only the first book in a series, which has stretched into two cycles of four books apiece, with a two new novels, The Will of the Empress, and The Melting Stones, which seem to constitute the beginning of a new, third, "The Circle Reforged" quartet, so that the Circle world, although it began somewhat a while ago, stretches into quite recent fiction.
And while I can't speak for every book of every cycle, only just now re-reading the first four, and having only dipped into the second cycle, I will say that I am thus far extremely satisfied with my decision to go back to the beginning in order to read the Circle series from start to finish, including all the ones outside of the primary cycle, eventually. Sandry's book is, as I have already mentioned, very sensibly-written and engrossing young adult fiction, with deeply interesting, if seemingly "ordinary" fantastic elements. The book begins with the rounding up of four troubled youths from all over the unnamed land, to a temple called the Living Circle, where the protagonists, a thief-boy saved from hard labour, an orphaned and exiled girl of the gypsy-like Trader tradition, a tempestuous, bookish merchant girl abandoned by her family, and the orphaned scion of a royal house, are forced to learn to work out their differences with each other and the world, discovering in turn that they are all possessed of deeply magical powers of an unusual bent - unlike the spell-mages of their world, their magic is the stuff of smithing, growing things, weaving, and weather. Under the tutelage of watchful adults, the four begin to develop a (no pun intended) circle of friendship, and to begin growing up, as well as into their formidable powers.
The thing that gets me about these books - huh. What one thing? I suppose above all, the one thing that gets me is the characterization. You have four deeply interesting, layered heroes, to whom things happen, who change and grow and evolve over the course of these books. They don't just have conflicted thoughts and feelings, they develop them, and are left profoundly changed at the end of the book, which is, well, really interesting to watch, especially as each of the four characters, with his or her own specialty, background, outlook, and adopted parental figure, grow and react in such vibrant, separate ways.
Beyond that, the world of the book is sound and interesting, borrowing transparently but tastefully from real-world cultures, and the plot, driven mostly by character, is nonetheless sufficiently full of action and developments to hold your attention. All in all, I am relieved to find that this book is as much of a joy to read today as it was ten years ago, and I look forward to getting all the way caught up (and I'll be sure to say whether it stays good).
4.5/5

Pleasing, But Dense As Maths

Iain M. Banks is an author whose works seemed to crop up in interesting places during my stay in London, so upon my return to the States and a state-wide library borrowing system, I looked him up - I was intrigued to learn that he is a prolific writer of both speculative and novel fiction, dropping the M.iddle initial when writing regular prose. He seems to have picked up quite a number of accolades in both literary subworlds, and the synopses and reviews of his works piqued my interest. I began with one of his prose works as Iain Banks, The Steep Approach to Garbadale, and very much enjoyed it; being a Bay Area-bred Silicon Valley boy that I am, I decided to try his science fiction next. As one of my favourite places in Cleveland to read and have a drink is the Algebra Teahouse in Little Italy, I happened to pick Hugo-nominated The Algebaist.
The choice was, I have to admit, not entirely satisfying. Banks has a curious non-linear approach to narrative, eschewing long-winded formal exposition in favour of dodging about in short, immersive "scenes". This keeps you thinking and guessing and forces the reader to read actively, and it's certainly interesting, but the terminology, history, indeed the entire World of the Algebraist is so dense, so complicated, that I'm sorry Mr. Banks, but you really can't spin character for three chapters off of backgrounds rooted in Wars that you won't explain for another eighteen chapters. It's fantastically immersive and dense, a work that you can easily lose yourself in; however, you are also in danger of losing the work itself, as well. Too much goes on, it all happens rather too grandly, and at each major point throughout the book, I found myself thinking, well this is very well-written, and that's very funny, but why on Earth or Nasqueron or 'glantine am I still reading this? Selling itself as Space Opera, I was instead confronted, in the characters, with more of a... Space Urban-Noir feel. There were a lot of colourful yet dingy characters, frustrated and jaded by anticlimactic fights and fruitless searches, a great sense of loneliness and time and being lost in an empty search for meaning. In time, the story picks up speed, especially once you pick up some damn wheels a hundred pages after you start rolling, and it develops interestingly. I was rewarded for playing Banks' logic games, and for scrupulously keeping up with his unrolling timeline, snarled as it was. In the end, however, I was left wanting more - what closure I received was rushed and erratic, and even with an Epilogue, I felt that while the book had had definite threads, it had failed to achieve an arc. Interesting, thought-provoking, and certainly a good book to dive into; not, however, a story I will cherish through the ages.
Rating: 3.5 / 5

Mission Statement: A Year of Reviews

Hello Robowebs! This is a declaration of intent to partake in the 52 Books in 52 Weeks project. I'm inspired to do this by my reading-crazy family, and especially by my Mom, Catherine F. Coe, whose own 52-blog can be found at http://msfin.wordpress.com, and has been ongoing for some months. I myself am Fin Coe, a senior THTR/ENGL undergrad at Case Western Reserve University; my current jetsetting exploits can be tracked over at my Travel Blog, but during the school year, I study, act, do improv, and perhaps most pertinently, work at my campus library, and come in contact with (and subsequently devour) a lot of books. I figure, why not go ahead and work on my writing skills by articulating my thoughts and feelings on some of these books? I don't know if anyone will actually read this, so I won't imagine that this will necessarily benefit anyone, but hey, maybe.

A rundown of my Current & To-Read Combined List:
C.S. Forster: Admiral Hornblower - the final book of the series!
Tamora Pierce: The Circle of Magic - Reread, I think I have all four.
Pierce: The Circle Opens - I have, and have read, about half.
Pierce: The Will of the Empress - The Culmination (I believe) of this Pierce series.
Pierce: The Circle Reforged - ??? I don't know quite how this ties in to the above, or where it goes chronologically.
Garth Nix: Across the Wall - Now that I've finished the Abhorsen Trilogy, I'll round it out with the associated short story collection.
Jack Kerouac: On The Road - Reading Now.
Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises - Just about done...
Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife - I got about two-thirds of the way through a while back, but I reckon that "my copy" is also my Mum's copy, and therefore sitting on my bookshelf back in Cleveland. Hmm. I think I'd need to start from the beginning again anyway.
Robin McKinley: Chalice - Seeing as how I enjoyed Sunshine so much, and there is, heh, definitively not going to be a sequel (although I can also hope for something more, if not continuous, from that nifty universe), I figure I should check out her newest. The premise (and the language used in it - I love made-up/retroarchaic terminology) sounds very cool indeed.
Joss Whedon: Serenity Comics - I should really see if I can get ahold of the various comics that have carried on the Firefly/Serenity Storyline. I remember reading that one graphic novel that bridged the series and the show, but I'd like my knowledge to be a bit more complete.
Tolkien and Son: The Silmarillion - Glorious, started it in the Winter, can't wait to finish it.
Iain M. Banks: The Algebraist - Reading now. Hugo Winner? Banks is such an interesting chap. I think I prefer his non-M. (i.e., no scifi) fiction, but we'll see where the Algebraist takes me.
Shakespeare: All's Well That Ends Well - The grads are doing this in the Fall, and I'm auditioning for it.
Wendy Wasserstein: The Heidi Chronicles - We're doing this in the Fall. That said, I can probably read Leah's copy over the summer.
Alfred Uhry: The Last Night of Ballyhoo - We're doing this in the Spring, but it can't hurt to read it now.

So for the purposes of this blog, and considering I have to go pack light for a trip I leave for tomorrow morning, let's prune and try to prioritize this:
The Algebraist
The Sun Also Rises
Across The Wall
On The Road
Admiral Hornblower
The Silmarillion
The Circle of Magic

So I'll read/finish those over the course of the next few weeks. In the meantime, whether I'll have the Internet access to weblish or not, I'll be writing reviews of my most recent reads.

fin