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Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Uprooted – Naomi Novik
Mild spoilers for the entire novel.
What do trees dream of? Is magic a science, rule-based and reproducible? Or is it intuitive and experimental like art? Can nature recover and reclaim the space human civilisation walled away and built upon? What is the source of evil in the world? How do you learn to let go?
These are some of the questions Naomi Novik’s novel, Uprooted proposes to answer,…
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Lycidas read 4. – "Die Uralte Metropole*"
Lycidas read 4. – “Die Uralte Metropole*”
What happens The party consisting of Micklewhite, Wittgenstein, Emily and Aurora head to the nearest subway station to enter the Ancient Metropolis. They go though a door that looks like a place used by homeless people. They find themselves at an old, out of use subway station and a few minutes later an old subway car arrives. They get off at Ravencourt, a marketplace ruled by the Raven Earl and…
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Lycidas Read 3. - "Mysteriöse Geschichte aus der Stadt der Schornsteine*"
Lycidas Read 3. – “Mysteriöse Geschichte aus der Stadt der Schornsteine*”
What happens Wittgenstein and Micklewhite have a surprise for Emily: they have rescued Aurora and her teddy bear from the orphanage. The girls are ecstatic to be reunited and the gesture goes a long way for cementing Emily’s trust in Wittgenstein. Aurora is less willing to trust anyone except Emily. With some instruction from Wittgenstein Emily tries to see with Mara Mushroom’s eyes. She feels…
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Sarah Waters - Fingersmith - Non-spoiler review
Sarah Waters – Fingersmith – Non-spoiler review
I went into reading Fingersmith from Sarah Waters thinking I’m up for a delightful f/f romance book with a simple girl meets girl plot. I was in for a surprise. Fingersmith is a cat and mouse game set in the 19th century England, slowly building up to harrowing and beautiful ending. I loved the writing style and the non-flinching portrayal of the misogyny of the 19th century society, so often…
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Lycidas read 2. - "Wittgenstein"
Lycidas read 2. – “Wittgenstein”
What happens Emily takes the subway to the Notting Hill tube station. Exhausted, she falls asleep on a bench. She wakes up to find Larry, the werewolf standing in front of her. He taunts her and tries to grab her when the speaking rat (Lord Brewster) arrives with some reinforcements: more rats. While the rats attack and distract the werewolf, Lord Brewster takes Emily to the Charing Cross Road…
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Lycidas read 1. - "Dombey & Son"
Lycidas read 1. – “Dombey & Son”
What happens Emily lives in an orphanage in London that is managed by a Reverend whose second name should be Austerity. Life is not fun around him. The orphans all work for their keep, Emily for instance is the cook’s assistant. By assistant I mean she does almost everything. One day, to spice things up (pun not intended), a speaking rat appears and asks Emily to keep an eye on a new baby, Mara…
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The books that made me – 5. It is tempting fate to try to say anything new about the Lord of the Rings, but I'd like to include it in this list because it was a huge influence and I still re-read it every other year.
The books that made me - 4.
The books that made me – 4.
The Harry Potter books were the companions of my teenage and young adult life. I grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. The books followed me through my High school and early university years. I learned English properly and discovered fantasy as a genre during that agonising wait between The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix. I once forgot to get off a bus and ended up in the middle of…
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The books that made me - 3.
Knowledge is indeed power.
Reading The Count of Monte Cristo was the first time I pulled an all-nighter because of a book. I was thirteen and I read it (when else) during the summer holiday. My grandma kept coming in and telling me to switch off the light so I ended up reading in the corridor with a torch. Spoilers ahead. I simply could not put it down. I was at the end of the prison sequence and I had to know if Edmond…
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Carina Mueller - Gefunden
Gefunden, the first book in Carina Mueller's Moonlit Nights trilogy is a sweet young adult romance with just a dash of paranormal danger.
Gefunden*, the first book in Carina Mueller’s Moonlit Nights trilogy is a sweet young adult romance with just a dash of paranormal danger. Spoilers ahead. The story is told from the first person POV of Emma and the narrative voice walks the fine line between being a sweet ingénue and a sassy teenager. I loved how Emma goes through the phases of mild disgust, terror, excitement and yearning of…
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The books that made me - 2.
Jane had the same attitude towards pointless rules as I did and I felt justified in feeling frustrated by having to obey them.
I first read Jane Eyre when I was twelve during the summer holidays. The book got me hooked because I loved that the protagonist was a girl asking questions and questioning the status quo (I could identify with that very strongly). Jane had the same attitude towards pointless rules as I did and I felt justified in feeling frustrated by having to obey them. The book also started my never ending…
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The books that made me - 1.
The first major book influence I had is a Let's play with words, a Hungarian book about rhymes, puns and the creative use of language.
Vargha Balázs – Játsszunk a szóval! The first major book influence I had is a Let’s play with words, a Hungarian book about rhymes, puns and the creative use of language. I’ve mentioned the book before, because it had a huge impact in sparking my interest in language and literature. These two influences shaped my life in unexpected ways into what it is now. I read Let’s play with words during a…
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Claudia Toman - Goldprinz
Claudia Toman – Goldprinz
In the last book of the Olivia Kenning trilogy, Olivia goes on a quest to find Adrian and save the world from fairy tale drugs, a conspiracy, witches and the Devil. Despite the abundance of interesting ideas, it is dissatisfying read. The mystery is solved by info dumps, Olivia is still insecure, there is no romantic chemistry to speak of, all pretty women are evil and this is all a dream again,…
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Claudia Toman - Jagdzeit
The second book in Claudia Toman's Olivia Kenning trilogy takes the female lead on a psychedelic ride with magic, myths, fairy tales and too much Poppy cake. It has all the ingredients to make is compelling yet it is a frustrating read. The setup promises romance, mystery and humour but doesn't deliver satisfyingly on any of it. The romance plot line is nothing but an afterthought in the third part and it is inadequately set up to be believable. The mystery is solved in an infodump in the Epilogue and a major clue is found only by accident. Olivia is characterised with all the negative stereotypes that I ever had to fight against as a woman and this is intended as comic relief. Spoilers after the text break. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Despite my dissatisfaction with the book, there were a few details I liked and whished were better developed: 1."Something is wrong with this village" trope. The description of the village as Olivia arrives expertly sets an uneasy mood. I was on Suspicion alert immediately. 2.The Little Red Riding Hood and wolf visual references are entertaining all the more that they are not called out directly. 3.Chapter titles and the three part structure which is a change compared to Hexendreimaildrei. I loved that the chapter titles played with the forest witch's questions. 4.The witches only move the strings in the background in this book and I hope this is a clever setup for the final one. 5.The moon, menstruation cycle and wolf/werewolf references were a nice atmospheric touch although I thought they will have more significance. 6.The new POV character Adrian Alt was a relief. I liked his characterisation best in the Epilogue, but he was always a welcome respite among the nonsensical Olivia chapters. The things I didn't like (I *may* have rolled my eyes a few times at), going from smaller to bigger issues: 1.At the beginning of the book I thought that I accidentally missed a book in-between. At the end of Hexendreimaldrei we left Olivia waving goodbye to the Pianist and intending to go to London. I guess that didn't happen? 2.The chapters zigzag through the two parallel timelines of each POV character. The result is confusing and it doesn't make the book more exciting to read. It is necessary for a trope that I didn't like and will expand on a bit later. 3.We never learn what happened with Olivia's blind date or who he was in the village. Was he also part of the hunters? He could have been used for the poisoning plot or to make the danger feel more personal. 4.The romance plot is a huge missed opportunity. Olivia is rude to Adrian in every single interaction except the last one, where she is suddenly in love with him. She practically hates him until the Epilogue because she thinks that he called her fat when he tells her to watch what she eats and drinks. This was a misunderstood warning because of a suspected poisoning attempt. In the Epilogue she wakes up in a hospital, she doesn't know where she is or what happened, the guy she hates for calling her fat is sitting next to her and suddenly she feels not only attracted to him but in love with him. The worst part is that in the Epilogue they do have chemistry and their banter is fun to read. The whole book would be much better if there was more of Adrian-Olivia banter instead of Olivia's insecure and sexist internal monologues and her trying to get back at the guy. Give me a snarky detective couple-to-be and a good mystery any time of the day. 5.The “this-all-was-just-a-dream” trope. Again. It is all the more frustrating because the entire magic well in the forest plotline could be removed and the story would be better for it. Imagine Adrian and Olivia investigating at counter-purposes at first, together in the end. Uncanny villagers, suspicious accidents, clues everywhere and a growing sense of menace. 6.The narrative's internalised sexism. Olivia is characterised as incompetent, insecure, overly emotional, badly-prepared, and her sole focus is herself and her looks. Her only achievement in the story is finding a major clue completely by accident and then getting herself poisoned. Adrian on the other hand is seen as observant, rational, competent and heroic. He achieves to get the second major clue and to save himself and Olivia from the hunters. The book feels like when you cook and you can't decide which spices to use, so you use all of them in your kitchen and the result is a cinnamon-thyme-anis-paprika fudge. Less would have been more.
Claudia Toman - Hexendreimaldrei
I read Hexendreimaldrei, the first part of the Olivia Kenning trilogy from Austrian author Claudia Toman as part of my German reading challenge. The book was published by the Diana Verlag in 2009 and is only available in German. I have very mixed feelings about the book. It was a weird ride where moments of fun and intriguing details alternated with shock over the sexist generalisations, annoyance over poorly solved plot difficulties and eye rolling over the clumsily used plot device characters. The story doesn’t work for me because I could not emotionally connect with the Olivia, or understand her motivation for half of the things she does in this book. The narration gives you coincidence upon coincidence to solve the plot problems. The lack of foreshadowing removes the fun part from the detective/investigation quest: the guessing and dissecting the text if an offhand remark contains a clue. Spoilers after the text break. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The things that I didn’t like (or annoyed me a lot): 1.The “this-all-was-just-a-dream” trope 2.The pop culture references that do not add value to the story. It already has a strong fairy tale and classic literary influence, heaping the pop culture references on top is an overkill and creates a cheapo gimmick-y effect. 3.The classic literary references work better, but I had the feeling they were just included randomly to fill the plot holes. It bothered me particularly in the last conflict scene with the main antagonist where Olivia defeats Lady Grey by citing from a Shakespeare play. 4.Explaining how a seemingly insurmountable problem can be easily solved by jumping back in time and explaining that a secondary character who is Olivia’s friend happens to be an expert in the field that is necessary to solve it. The readily available sodoku and literary expert friend? Randomly talking to the hotel receptionist who happens to be a Shakespeare specialist-slash-amateur-actor? Walking into the first esoteric shop and just telling a complete stranger something that a. sounds insane b. could get you in trouble with the organisation you are trying to infiltrate? Build these up first, often a few lines or comments in advance are enough. 5.The frequent jumps between the different timelines make the story difficult to follow. This is made even worse by the above-mentioned issue with jumping back in time to provide explanation that is needed in the present timeline. 6.The plot is based on the idea that a woman, on the wedding of the man she is love with makes a wish that surprisingly becomes true: the man is transformed into a frog. The fact that anyone in a such situation would wish exactly that is not plausible for me (Wish that he marries you instead? Wish that you are not in love with them?). I realise this is the “This is magic, silly!” moment where I should suspend my disbelief. I’m trying, I promise but it’s hard. 6. The protagonist is completely sure that the Pianist (or the Prince as the text often refers to him) is Mr Right for her based on the following three factors: • He has emerald green eyes • He composes and plays music that the heroine finds deeply touching • He is a foreigner and “frenchy” I find it alarming that Olivia becomes so quickly so obsessed with the Pianist because they barely speak a few words at all before she decides to marry him at the earliest possibility. I know this book is heavily influenced by different elements of the Princess and the Frog fairy tale but even so. At least give us a few scenes where we see them bonding. I can’t care about the relationship that is just built on a few sketch-like scenes from the Sex and the City and sweeping generalisations. It made me sad that Olivia went through so much pain to please the Pianist and it’s clear the aside from being physically attracted to him, she doesn’t have a good time in his company. She is constantly worried about her appearance. She even prepares topics and interesting things to tell him. This is not a romance book; Olivia and the Pianist prince don’t end up together. Yet, seducing and getting back (rescuing) him is the one and only motivation for Olivia in the entire story. 7.The ”Get a life already woman” syndrome. There is an entire chapter where Olivia doesn’t do anything else than waits for The Pianist to call. When does she work? Is there really nothing else in her life? There is a point where the narrator refers to being single as an “unfortunately fashionable thing lately”. Olivia is characterised as a stereotypical single woman who has a cat, a few female friends to order take out and sip prosecco with and who is desperate to find a partner. This is so sexist and limiting that I cannot even… Which brings me to the next two points. 8. The clumsy, whiny, self-deprecating to the point of self-abuse female lead is desperately (and irrevocably) in love with the mysterious and perfect male lead she spoke with twice when they exchanged like 10 words (Bella Swann syndrome). The clumsiness is used as device to advance the plot and get the male lead’s attention: Olivia falls over, knocks down, drops or loses things, gets drunk and is incapable to use simple tools and devices. The same incapable and helpless character doesn’t even break a sweat why infiltrating aa secret organisation of dangerous magicians. 9. Most characters are the caricatures of themselves: the coffeeshop owner, the hotel receptionist, Olivia’s both friends even the Pianist. They just embody a few generalisations (some of which are sexist and heteronormative) and any other characteristic that the plot needs. 10. Revealing one of the characters is a ghost by the ghost sending a letter to Olivia thus providing all the hints she needs to solve the last hurdle before the climax of the book. 11. Johnny Depp references. The book was published in 2009 so the author could not have known but it is still unpleasant. An additional reason why I’d leave out the contemporary references. They don’t tend to age well anyway. 12.Shakespeare statue / ghost. Each time it appeared it had different abilities: 1. triggered in the Leicester Park with the ring and by Olivia directly addressing him 2. telepathic communication between Olivia and the ghost (or ghost animated statue) 3. the statue just comes by on the Picadilly Circus to give a magic object to Olivia It irked me that it was just there to give you a Shakespeare quote and whatever else served the plot. 13.Every single time I thought the book cannot get any weirder it just did. To be honest this wasn’t always unpleasant. Like I said, I have very mixed feelings. There were a few golden (pun intended) moments and details that I liked (and a few I loved): 1.The idea of the Everycat and everything about the Everycat. 2.The boss-witch Hekate looks like Olivia’s older version. This is intriguing enough that I want to read the second part of the book just because of this (and the Everycat). 3.Hathor’s characterisation and unflappableness (totally a word, I looked it up). It would have been even more intriguing if she is not the Greatest Magician but some proxy of hers who will lead to her in, say, the next book? 4.I’d have liked to see Noel’s character in action. I mean magic action. I understand the authorial intent was to remove a mentor figure so Olivia could go her own way, but still. Now that he is outed as ghost I’m afraid we will never see him do anything exiting. And what did Shakespeare do to piss of the witches? 5.The Frog-prince-pianist was so whiny and mansplained and always assumed the worse. I’m not sure if that was the intent, but I found it hilarious. The frog-ness getting worse with time was also a good touch. 6.Witch rules: every witch must have a cat and witches cannot love. Both are interesting choices and have consequences in the worldbuilding that I’d like to know more about. How did Hathor get out of it? She used to be a witch but she is not a one anymore. How do you un-witch yourself? What if you are allergic to cats? 7.You can only find one golden ball in your life. It makes me wonder what will happen with the golden ball in the next books. It sounds like destiny or fate calling. How will Olivia end up being Hekate (is it her from the future?). 8.The reveal that Olivia is a witch (guessed it when she first looks into the mirror in Hathor’s shop) but it was still cool. I would have liked if her reaction to the news is explored more in detail, if the narrative shows if she thinks about it later. 9.The first scene is Olivia sitting on a toilet in a church. Quite an unusual choice and it was a good way of immediately setting the reader into the “head” of the character. All in all: I would recommend the book if you enjoyed the Bridget Jones books/ movies and the Da Vinci code. The narrative contains sexist elements and negative stereotypes of single women so if this is something that disturbs you, give it a pass. I will very likely read the remaining two books of the trilogy out of curiosity, but I would not re-read this book. Ideal present for: *That* aunt that always asks when you are going to get married.