Born of Defiance -- Review

I've been reading The League series for the last couple of years and generally they are great fun. Science fiction/Romance, if the Star Wars franchise did a Harlequin crossover, these could be them. If Star Wars did a series where it discussed how each of the couples of the Rebel Alliance came to unite. Only, in this case, we swap out Rebels for the Sentella, and Empire for the League. So when I saw that my library ebooks centre had this one available for borrowing, I snatched it up and settled in for an afternoon of losing myself in a galaxy far, far away. However, while I did enjoy the book, it wasn't quite up to the standard of the last few books in the series. 

There are a few problems with this one -- primarily the setting. This is book 8, and up till this point, all the books have been happening chronologically, beginning with the tale of how Nykirian, one of the main badasses running the Sentella, and Kiara come together. The seventh tale ended with hints that it will be Fain and Galene's story, leading from situations that end that story. With this book, however, we get a suspension of this chronological order. It really should be situated between the first and second books in the series, not eighth --- and it takes some doing as a reader to figure out what has happened to the time frame. It was so confusing that, following along with the details as they had been revealed, it seems like  Talyn Batur,the main male protagonist, is his own grandfather or something. The constant "when the heck are they? " really brought me out of being fully immersed in the book several points in the tale.  

The next problem to deal with is a rather annoying trope. It's the "I couldn't possibly tell him/her" trope. In this case, it has to do with the parentage of Talyn. On Andaria, the lineage is fiercely matrilineal and very status-defined. Preservation of a bloodline is worth more than gold -- and marriage deals are made to increase your family's status by linking to a higher-status family.
Personal status is defined by where on the social hierarchy you are, with different families having different ranks. At the bottom of the ranking are those that have been ejected from their families by their matriarchs. Only one level up from that are those that are unacknowledged by their male parent's family --outcasts. Talyn is a member of the unacknowledged ones,  and this fact shapes his whole life, making his social life and workplace hell. His life is restricted in so many ways (some spoilery) - and why? Not because  his father rejected acknowledging him in the first place --- because his mother refused to tell the father about the pregnancy in the first place. And it's not because the father was abusive or otherwise harmful. Just didn't wanna. GAH! This has gone on for twenty some-odd years. You've seen the impact it has had on your kid, now a man, you know your society is majorly prejudiced in this fashion. Yeah, you're a strong military woman, but you are also an idiot. Suck it up buttercup. (And in addition, they keep mentioning how  much he looks like Fain. No one puts two and two together and sends the guy an email?)

The final issue I have with the book is with the amount of times the book tries to prove how much the cards are stacked against Talyn and Felicia -- and yet some of the saves in the book are a little too providential. Probably the greatest is when Felicia  contacts her brother, Lorens,in order to get help pull Talyn out of a certain military situation. They haven't talked ever as adults, he always treated her like crud when they were kids because she is his half-sibling . Conveniently, however, he happens to be high up the military chain of command and can swing this matter -- and takes very little convincing to do so.  It was difficult to buy how easily the pair jump into easy familiarity and trust. He later comments that he cashes in a lot of favours to do so. Maybe I'm cynical, but if I were Lorens, I would be making Felicia jump through a lot more hoops before I cashed in all my markers --even in a society where the males main role is defense of the females.

Would I read this book again? Yes. Just like all the other League books,  it is very entertaining, and in this one you get a lot of hints at backstory of other characters that aren't the focus of the narrative. Would I buy it full -price from the store? No. Thank goodness for libraries.

Dewey's II -- or, a great way to survive a bout of influenza.

I started this blog with the last (first) Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon. When I went on Youtube and saw a favourite vlogger talking about it coming around again, I figured, why not?

Then I got the Plague that has been going around the office. Luckily, I posted a restricted book list last night--only two books. The ones I wanted to get through were (1) The Looking-Glass Wars by Frank Beddor - a current book club item- and (2) A Geek Girl's Guide to Murder by Julie Anne Lindsey. Done! and Done!

Both were really great  -- Looking Glass was a little better than the other, but that's simply because it had more tricks and turns. I had figured out who the main suspect truly was with the mystery novel early on --cozy mysteries have long been a favourite of mine. Getting the characters from the beginning to the end and seeing how it was deconstructed was entertaining. And just like Looking Glass, this one has openings you can see the future novels using as launching off points. I enjoyed the protagonist quite a bit -- quirky, smart, introverted and can handle herself. She reminds me very much of a friend of mine. The main character, Mia Connor,  has a family that is just as decent and bizarre as that of Stephanie Plum's in the Janet Evanovich series -- but not so carbon copy as to get annoying. It's a danger with any writer of a quirky cozy mystery heroine to avoid being a Stephanie Plum knock-off --but so far this one seems to avoid that trap. And best of all, it does geekery accurately.

I'm going to try to avoid spoiling Looking-Glass Wars for anyone reading this. Which is difficult because I really want to discuss the plot points on this with someone - I already have theories about some of the characters identities! Essentially this is a fairy-tale with a twist -- the author has taken Lewis Carrol's well loved book and turned it slightly on its ear. It predates Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland by 4 years but there are some strong echoes of this book in that movie, particularly in the role of the Mad Hatter. Probably the strongest resonances, however, are simply due to the fact that this book reads like a movie. The pacing, the visual imagery, the world building -- all would make this a cinch to translate to the big screen. If you are a person that dislikes slow books, read this one.
Now I have to go online in search of books 2-4. Oh, and if you do take my advice and bring this to the big screen, I deserve at least a credit in the film, eh?

There's a couple more hours left in this readathon, but I think the Plague is going to keep me from continuing on any further. Bleaugh.

Cheers, friends and fellow read-a-thoners. And here's to doing my third Dewey's readathon in next April! Maybe I will actually get time to do a lot of the events next go round.

Never Judge a Book By Its Cover

So, I was in the library grabbing books to read, in a bit of a rush. Picked up the holds I had waiting, collected a few more of the Y: The Last Man series, and was looking for something to round out the stack of volumes I was about to borrow. I saw this book on display in the "New Books" section.

No time to read the back cover -- it looks like a food book. And addressing organic food --maybe ths is something like what Michael Pollan writes, I thought to myself. Or book in the same vein as "Can You Trust a Tomato in January," by Vince Staten.  Needless to say, I was expecting a bunch of foodie wisdom and rants.

What I got was the joys and travails in the life of a stay-at home mom. Quite the dramatic content shift!  Or to quote Obi-wan..

Although this wasn't what I would probably have picked up for myself, it actually turned out to be not that bad a book. It reminded me a lot of Jenny Lawson's Blogess series, but kid-focused. The author, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, doesn't pull punches and she uses humour to take issue with the state of parenting today. In a world where the mere act of sending a lunch to school with a child is promoted by Martha Stewart and her ilk as an opportunity to get creative with ingredients and presentation, producing little bento boxes of cuteness, she doesn't hold back from telling the world:

She also takes the world of "everyone's child is a special snowflake and/or genius" to task, and gives parents of the world the sad fact that no, their child most likely isn't a genius/ the next Picasso/ insert superlative here. And really, how could they be? The whole idea of everyone being exceptional leads to no one being so. The book covers a wide variety of other topics as well, from finding a new BFF that can relate to your status as a new mom to how not to get sucked into the black hole of being an unappreciated volunteer at the local PTA (in other words, avoiding Mean Girls part II), to reviews of children's books that are a bit problematic when you think about what they are actually saying. (I liked that she agreed with me on The Giving Tree by Sheldon Silverstein being abused by the little boy.)

Overall, I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5. Some of the humour fell a little flat for me, and some of the content was stuff I had heard quite a bit before. But overall, it was good. I would probably recommend this book to my friends with little ones.