Richelle Mead - Thorn Queen (Book Review)

"THORN QUEEN" (Amazon: UK, US)
by RICHELLE MEAD
Format: Paperback, 480/384 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books / Zebra Books (August 2009)

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About a year ago, I read and reviewed the first book of Dark Swan series, Storm Born, which came as a pleasant surprise. Naturally, I was excited to hear that the sequel was coming out this year and when I got the book, I started reading it as soon as I could find some time. Sadly, I have to say that it wasn't worth it.

The beginning once again introduces us to Eugenie's everyday (which I found pretty nice since I'd forgotten most of what has happened in the first book). This time around, Eugenie spends most of her days in Otherworld, since she is now the Thorn Queen there. Her country, being magical, has changed to suit her, but the inhabitants of Thorn Land have some hard time adapting to the climate changes. Eugenie is distraught and wants to help them, but by doing so, she has to put her talents to use, learn some more magic and decide on where her loyalties lie.

The plot is promising and pretty well-written, even if it seems that we've heard it all before. It's too bad that Mead doesn't leave it at that, but instead proceeds to throw in the element of paranormal romance – quite a lot of it. It seemed as if every chapter ended with a long scene of Eugenie and Kiyo having wild, rough sex. These love scenes are not even good, and after reading two or three of them, I simply started skipping them, because they were all the same. It was pretty annoying, not to mention being a really obvious filler for when Mead got out of ideas or simply wanted to prolong the book (without the sex scenes, it would've been shorter for at least a half) – I can't even say that she wanted to spice things up a bit, because it was all so utterly boring.

The humour, which I enjoyed quite a lot in the first book, has now faltered as well; in Thorn Queen, dialogues seem watered down and uninteresting. I admit I was under a lot of stress at the time of reading this book, so that might have influenced my views a bit, but I still think the fault lies mostly in Mead's writing. There was some lack of research on her part that did nothing to improve things – I could hardly laugh at Ladyxmara72 (a girl who met Eugenie in person and insisted on being addressed with her World of Warcraft character name), when I find it almost common knowledge that WoW characters can't have numbers in their names. It's a very silly, not to say sloppy mistake, but it destroyed that character for me, rendering her completely unconvincing. You can't submerge yourself into plot that way, not when such mistakes make you aware that the characters are just a product of an author that did not do her research well enough and don't, by any chance, resemble real people. And I always thought geeks were the easiest characters to write, because there are so many stereotypes about them that are actually true in plenty of cases. Meh.

Thorn Queen is a huge step backwards from what we've seen in Storm Born. The plot is all but put on the sidetrack and the whole book mostly revolves about Eugenie's sexual life, when it should be the other way around. Thus, Thorn Queen firmly sets itself into the sub-genre of paranormal romance, and will probably appeal to fans of Twilight and the like. Too bad, really – the plot had much potential, but has become more of an excuse for sex scenes.
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~Trin~

Stephenie Meyer - Breaking Dawn (Book Review)

"Breaking Dawn" (Amazon: UK, US)
by STEPHENIE MEYER
Format: Paperback, 768 pages
Publisher: Atom (August 4, 2008)

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WARNING! HERE BE SPOILERS!

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Though I’m probably late to jump on the bandwagon, I feel I must warn you, the unsuspecting masses, of the atrocity that is Breaking Dawn. While I was less than pleased with the hype around Stephanie MEYER’s Twilight saga (read Trin’s review of Twilight here and New Moon here), I do admit that the series is addictive. I found myself waiting impatiently for the release of the much awaited fourth installment of this young adult vampire series, but then it ended up sitting on my shelf for around four months before I decided to pick it up and get my moneys worth.

My God, what a waste of twenty dollars.

I was appalled at the ridiculousness of it all. What was supposed to be a thought-provoking, intelligent romance ended up being something a twelve year old fan girl with some writing skills could have conceived, I found myself re-reading almost every sentence just to see if I read it wrong, telling myself no author would allow a novel to get so outrageous. Apparently, STEPHENIE MEYER finds herself exempted from the lines of logic.

It starts off well enough, with Bella’s anticipation of her upcoming wedding to the over-perfect Edward Cullen and worrying about Jacob Black, who ran off at the news of hers and Edward’s engagement. When the wedding does arrive, and Jacob comes to visit, she lays out the big business of her and Eddie getting horizontal on their honeymoon. Needless to say, Jacob is less then pleased.

A bit of angst, conflict, and some feuding can be turned into some pretty good literature. My hopes were raised. Perhaps some character development will happen. Perhaps this will go beyond Bella’s utter uselessness. Perhaps this fourth installment will find its way into my best of ‘08 list. Sadly, these hopes were quickly crushed.

Where do I begin? Ah, how about at Isle Esme, where Bella suddenly switches into her fresh temptress skin. She does not just ask Edward for sex. She sits there and begs for more and more sex, even after the first time, which left her pretty bruised up. Edward initially refuses, but when Bella insists … well, he’s only a man, right? (The question of how pops into my mind, though – all bodily fluid supposedly dies out when vampires are created, blood included, so …?)
Needless to say, Edward has even less personality than in the previous books. His life - as usual - revolves around Bella, and Bella can think of little else on their honeymoon than getting it on. Edward and Bella’s relationship in a nutshell: Bella watches Edward sparkle, Edward sparkles, they get married, sparkle some more.

The main twist follows shortly: surprise, surprise, Bella gets pregnant (with the whole tidbit on immortal children in the first two chapters, having nothing to do with the then-plot direction, it was in fact pretty predictable). I won’t even go into the logic of this and I’ll ignore the aforementioned fact that Edward is devoid of bodily fluid (sperm included). Instead, I’ll provide three words that express my feelings: JUMPING THE SHARK! I’ve come to the conclusion that STEPHENIE MEYER was so completely out of ideas that she went on to some fan fiction website, chose the most ridiculous plot possible, and wove a tale around it. I am not pleased, Ms. MEYER, not pleased at all. Thankfully, that is the end of Book One of Breaking Dawn, and we move on to the saving grace of the series; Jacob Black.

For a lovely portion of the novel, we are brought into the heavily sarcastic cynicism that is Jacob’s mind. It is possible that, in these four hundred or so pages, MEYER has written the best she has ever written in any of her published works (The Host included). I love Jake’s dark humor, and the way he is so conflicted between his love for Bella and his devotion to the pack. I love how he also hates her and what she does to him, and how he hates everything she’s chosen to do with her life. It all would paint the picture of a real relationship. When Bella’s with Jacob, she sparks something resembling a personality. They have playful fights and kid around and don’t always bow to each other’s whims. It’s something real, not this desperate, obsessive, controlling fight for power that Edward and Bella have. All in all, I love Jacob. I also enjoyed the pack’s transgressions, and I LOVED Leah. She’s tough, but she has semi-normal worries, such as that, being the only female werewolf, she believes she is destined to die alone. Plus, as a pack member, she is forced to see and hear her ex-boyfriends loving thoughts about Emily, the woman he imprinted on while he and Leah were still dating. She has no choice in the matter. It’s brutal, yeah, but in the greatest way.

Jacob’s narrative still doesn’t make up for the incredulous plot: Bella is not the least bit frightened of an unnatural being that has taken up camp in her womb – even more, she calls Rosalie to help her protect the thing (as though it needs it). I guess that by now her being only eighteen doesn’t matter anymore, or perhaps the birth scene is supposed to scare off any potential fan of hers who’d wish to follow her footsteps – it’s best described in one word: ewwww! Think Rosemary’s Baby combined with Dracula, add a bit of Blood and Chocolate and then just take every single female scream from every single movie ever made, and play it all at once.
Here’s the kicker--Jacob imprints on the baby. And that’s the end of his narrative. How awkward can you get?

Then, alas, we are back to the melodramatic insight of Bella. She wakes up and finds her daughter, whom she has named Renessme, appropriately nicknamed Nessie. That’s the only thing marring her first steps into a life of an immortal, though – she’s utterly perfect once she becomes a vampire. She’s able to control her bloodlust and doesn’t have to give up anything; it’s like she’s missing out on the whole vampire experience. She gets a perfect little ending, even after she’s made the dumbest choices anyone could possibly make. What’s that saying to young girls who are reading this? It’s OK to give up everything in your life for a high school boyfriend, ‘cause eventually it’ll all cool over.

There’s nothing even remotely worth mentioning about Breaking Dawn other than the plot: character development is zero to none. If you’re really into the series, you might like to read it just for some kind of closure, though I guarantee it will be messy. I don’t know, maybe you’ll love it. Maybe you already love it. Maybe you’ve read it multiple times. Debate is welcome. I’m curious as to what others think (that is, others who aren’t blinded by the beauty that is Edward).

Now, if you’ll just excuse me, I’m going to go read my Batman comics and attempt to cleanse myself of this nonsense.

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~Dannie~

Richelle Mead - Storm Born (Book Review)

"Storm Born" (Amazon: US, UK)
by Richelle Mead (Homepage)
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books

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You might have noticed that I'm the only member of RoSF review staff who reviews urban fantasy. There are several reasons for this:

• the other three prefer reading epic fantasy and space-opera tinged SF, and while I’m not the biggest fan of urban fantasy, I have no prejudice that would keep me from reading it

• I’m the youngest of the four (which is a rather silly reason, but on the other hand, it’s true that urban fantasy books usually aim at younger and less demanding audience)

• my girl-friends are avid fans of urban fantasy, so I’m, in a way, 'obliged' to keep track of this sub-genre
  

• and the most important reason, which is in a way related to the previous one: I’m the only female reviewer at RoSF and it’s a fact that urban fantasy is being written predominately for young women, since it’s mostly about young women with extraordinary powers who, in most cases, fall in love with equally extraordinary (and often non-human) young ‘men’. These elements of paranormal romance genre are often present up to the point where almost no actual ‘fantasy’ is left (e.g. Twilight), but however cheap that may sound, it usually works.

The problem is mostly that while I can enjoy well-written romantic elements in books I read, I still prefer them to remain only additions to a good plot and not, as it too often happens in urban fantasy, the other way around. That’s why I usually find urban fantasy easy to read and even easier to forget – but Storm Born came as a nice surprise and made me reconsider my opinion on the genre.

Meet Eugenie, a young woman whose life has never really been an average one. Introduced to a world of demons and fay at an early age, she’s been trained by her stepfather to become one of the world’s best shamans, known as Odile. Everyday routine has made her profession almost as ordinary as any other one, but all of a sudden, things start to go wrong. Every demon she is asked to banish seems to know her real name, the mysterious, sexy Kiyo is messing with her head and there seems to be a prophecy predicting she will bear the descendant of the Storm King, a powerful and feared ruler whose ability is to control weather. So, in a way, a client asking her to find his sister in the dangerous, gentry-inhabited Otherworld, is a good thing …

The plot struck me at first as eerily similar to the “Abhorsen” trilogy by Garth Nix – the most obvious of the elements they share being the banishing of evil creatures into a hidden, underlying world. It soon became obvious, though, that Storm Born’s Otherworld is nothing like Abhorsen’s Death, being much more like a colorful fairyland from folk tales, not to mention that finding a person in Otherworld takes much more time and labor. In other ways, Storm Born resembles Bloodring, with all the powerful gems, Eugenie's way of living and (sometimes rather demonical) visitors from Otherworld. As far as elements of paranormal romance are concerned, it's far from both previously mentioned books - it plunges boldly into sexuality, which (at least for me) is a welcome change form an adolescent naivete, especially after Bloodring, where the main protagonist does a lot of thinking on the subject but little else. In Storm Born, Mead introduces the super-sexy Kiyo very early in the book and there are whole chapters dedicated to whatever action he and Eugenie get involved into, be it lovemaking or solving their personal problems. Not to mention the decadent Otherworld palace of Dorian, a wise but rather bored gentry king, who tutors Eugenie and provides many comical moments.

As already mentioned, the first impression of the Otherworld being a rather dark and grim place falls away swiftly when we are introduced to a jolly and colorful land of the gentry. We follow what at first looks like a classical tale of The Chosen One's training, power-gaining and such, but it is brimming with very innovative ideas and twists. The characters we encounter are funny, witty, cynical, sexy and in a few cases rather obscure - in a way, they represent the book itself. The final twist is, for once, not exceedingly obvious, and it succesfully turns things upside down, leaving a reader wishing for more.

All in all, Storm Born is funny, full of sex-appeal, but it sometimes deals with the serious side of life, too. It balances the contrast between Eugenie's everyday problems and her Otherworldly adventures perfectly, not shying away from sexuality but never overstepping the treshold of vulgarity. It might not be an astonishing book, but is nevertheless a very good one - the best urban fantasy book I've came upon lately and one whose sequel I'll not only gladly read, but also actively seek out.





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~ Trin ~

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight (Book Review)

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is currently one of the most popular books around here. All of a sudden, every girl who used to rave about Harry Potter (and, in some instances even about the pervy HP fan fiction) and is now a bit older started hyping Twilight. They even call it their 'brand of heroin'. Before now, whenever I talked with my girlfriends, they peppered me with disbelief...

"You haven't read it yet? OMG!".

Not to mention the usual...

"That Edward guy, he's so hot! <3."

So what was I to do but go and buy the damned thing? If nothing else, I got it cheap and it has a really nice cover. (Maybe it's even nice enough for one of Thrinidir's "Eye Candy Covers" articles?)
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The first thing I noticed when I started reading was that Twilight is not a fantasy book by any means - or at least, not in any conventional way. The plot is as simple, predictable and straightforward as with any of the stories that have a high-school girl which moves to a new town for a central protagonist. Isabella (Bella) has to deal deal with a major change - she moves from a big city (Phoenix, Arizona) to a small rural town (Forks) in the middle of nowhere to live with her father. She has no friends upon arrival and she feels miserable about it - we are all familiar with this narrative setting. However, the book had an exceptionally beautiful prose from the start on, so I kept reading despite the prosaic themes (and without a hint of any 'epic' elements, that I got used to expect when picking up a book labeled as fantasy). That said, Meyer's prose is probably the best feature of Twilight - no matter how implausible, predictable or just plain silly things are, the author still knows how to make them interesting to read about. It is a big and important bonus to the book.
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If I haven't made it clear enough before - Twilight is a book intended for girls (I'd say teenage girls, but Twilight is well-liked by older and presumably more mature women as well), especially for those who prefer an engaging and a beautifully told story above the quality of its contents. I wouldn't recommend this book for guys and those individuals who don't appreciate romance for what it is and what it can offer. Why?
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Twilight is almost completely without any discernible plot or action scenes, even the fangirls admit that. What little plot there is it revolves around a typical high-school romance, and the sole fantastical element I could find were the vampires (that's what determines this novel as urban fantasy, right?). Our protagonist is a seventeen-year-old Isabella Swan and she has to deal with the common problems of a teenager, the most prominent are (1)how to fit in and (2)being in love (awakened sexuality and every nuances that come with it). The real catch comes with the latter - Bella is in love with a vampire, the gorgeous Edward, and their problem is how to handle their relationship so not awaken Edward's desire for blood. Otherwise, everything evolves mostly around Bella's feelings and, of course, how incredibly sexy Edward is.
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Believe it or not, Meyer manages to pull the lackluster story through with flying colors. The plot itself is virtually unexisting and it hurts to think about it, but the ever-popular love theme and a sublime writing style are obviously the things that do the trick here. Nevertheless, this doesn't change the fact that the whole thing is still nothing more than an entertaining goodnight story that bursts with romantic sentiments - but it somehow manages to avoid being completely cheesy and it keeps you turning the pages. Twilight does not do deep revelations or hidden meanings, but it offers a great example of what can be done with abundance of style and a good idea of what to offer to your audience (a dazzling beauty & the beast vampire relationship).
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I have to admit that I enjoyed the book, but I don't think I'll read the sequels. They only reiterate what has been done here, or so I've heard, and while it was interesting this time, it would probably annoy the hell out of me the second time around. I've had my share of Edward and Isabella; I'll leave the sequels and re-reading to fans and those who have nothing better to read.
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To sum it all up, I'd recommend this book to girls who enjoy a stylish, hip and easy read that teems with (c)overt sexual tension. It's a very involving book and it hits the exactly right spots of its core audience, but otherwise has no literary merit whatsoever.
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~ Trin ~