Book Review: Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama

by Fiction

This book had me absolutely hypnotised and staying up way past my bedtime on the two nights it took me to read it (working full time is really cutting into my reading habits!). I’m going to have to find a copy of the Samurai’s Garden by the same author just to see if it’s as well written.

The story is about Hana, who suffers from Werner’s syndrome and is growing old before her time. It’s also about her mother, Cate, who is terrified of having to let her beloved daughter go. It’s also about Josephine, the daughter of Hana’s childhood friend, who isn’t sure where she fits into the world anymore. The begins alternating from Hana to Cate, sharing small, intimate details of their lives and histories. The story is slow and delicate, almost as fragile as Hana herself and is beautifully woven and poignant. Eventually Josephine takes up the tale and you can see she is an angry young girl who is just trying to keep the threads of her live from unraveling any further. It’s a stark contrast to the sorrowful but strong Cate and the accepting and wistful Hana.

What I found most beautiful about this book is the simple, pure love between mother and child. Cate is unwavering in her devotion to Hana. It’s strange that Hana appears older than her mother and yet in Cate’s eyes, she is still a little girl, long-legged and laughing on the beach. And Hana loves Cate equally – she knows what Cate has given up to care for her and she knows that some day she is going to die and leave Cate alone and the thought terrifies her.
And there is much more love in the book – Max, Hana’s deceased father, features in nearly all the memories that Hana and Cate relate. Laura loves Josephine and Camille with the fierce protectiveness of a lioness. Even Dr Truman is secretly in love with Cate and longs to help Hana live longer.

This book is soft and quiet and sweet and beautiful and the echoes of all the love in it will follow you for long after you’ve finished. This is a short review because you should just go and read it for yourself – it’s a little slow to start, but well worth the build up.

Book Review: The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

by FantasyFictionWarning: Violence

Don’t run away yet, I promise this is a fantasy novel and not something dogmatic!

The left hand of god is about a boy called Thomas Cale, who was raised in an eerie and violent monastery to become a weapon against the unfaithful. Beaten, humiliated and punished often without warning, Cale is a brutal and unforgiving child, an expert in combat who feels no fear and can predict any move an opponent makes. So when he sees a young girl about to be grotesquely murdered by a redeemer priest, no one is more surprised than Cale when he risks his life to save her. He is forced to go on the run with two other acolytes and the girl, escaping the Sanctuary and making their way across the treacherous scablands to the city of Memphis.

Accused of murder and imprisoned, Cale quickly proves his skill as a warrior and tactician, becoming a vital player in the political battles of Memphis. He falls in love with the Marshal’s daughter, Arbell Swan-neck, embarrasses the pride of the Materazzi army and befriends the out of favour half brother of the Lord Chancellor. His devil may care attitude and dour reticence mean Cale (and his rather unwilling friends) are constantly in trouble, but when Arbell is kidnapped by the Redeemer army it is only Cale who can bring her back alive. But maybe it’s not Arbell that the Redeemers are really after.

This book is gritty, bloody and in some parts so witty that it made me laugh out loud. Richard and I have been discussing pain in fantasy and how some authors (cough Ian Irvine cough) dispense punishments and pains to characters that couldn’t possible survive it. We are fragile creatures after all (And no, I will not be reviewing any of Ian Irvine’s books any time soon, I did read them, but they are far too gory for me).The left hand of god is different – yes, the characters suffer excruciating pain, but only the ones who have been conditioned to harshness (those who grew up in the sanctuary and IdrisPukke who has spent years running, hiding and being shot at) actually survive it.

I also liked the scene where Cale battles Solomon Solomon. As a duel, it’s much more realistic than many I’ve seen, where the author wants to give the character a fluffy, merciful side. Cale has no softness. Even his feelings towards Arbell are tempered with violence, confusion and pain. Cale does not know mercy, because he has never seen it. When he does something, there is always more motivation than just doing the right thing – when he saves Simon from the boys in the yard, it’s more because he hates the boys than because he feels pity for Simon. When he pulls Conn from the battlefield, even Cale cannot say why he’s done it. Even when he rescues Arbell from the Redeemers, he is expecting a hero’s welcome and great recognition on his return. Cale is not a nice boy. He is not honourable or merciful or even good. But he is not bad either.

This book has some horrific moments. If you are at all squeamish, I suggest you miss pages 368 – 372. But if you do read it and decide that such a scene is too horrible to be realistic, I’ll remind you that a nearly identical method was used by Turkish troops during the Armenian genocide to wipe out the entire population of villages – human beings can be just as terrible as anything you’ll find in the left hand of god.

Wikipedia tells me the next book in this series is coming out soon. It’s called The Last Four Things. I’ll probably read it and it will probably haunt me for a few days like this book has. But it’s worth the reading – Paul Hoffman‘s style runs on and on, never stopping and never slowing and when he does backtrack, it’s deftly woven into the storyline so you don’t feel like you’ve lost time or track in going backwards. The violence is unforgiving and the politics are… well, political and if you like that kind of thing then you’ll enjoy it and if you don’t then your eyes will glaze over a little bit like mine did. Same with the battle tactics. Both (politics and battle tactics) are well researched, but not my cup of tea. The only other problem I had with this book are the obvious lines leading to a sequel. I like to be surprised by reapperaing characters in sequels – ones that pop up and you go ‘oh! Wow! I’d completely forgotten about that guy!’ In this story, characters like the boy who survives the village massacre are simply turned loose and you are left thinking ‘gee, I wonder how long before he turns up again’. But apart from these small irks (and it’s mostly me being picky), this book is a good read that is a bit like a car crash – horrific, but you can’t turn away from the page!

437 pages. Published in 2010 by Penguin (Michael Joseph).

PS: I found this, which I think is a really clever way of using visual media to advertise a book.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmeDvY7s2F0&w=560&h=349]

Review: A Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss in 2 parts

by Author LoveFantasyFiction

How do you tell if something you are reading is a good series? What criteria do you put on good? What criteria do you put on completely awesome?

My criteria is something along the lines of

a) I try to read it slowly so it lasts longer, but it still only takes 2 days

b) I curse and weep if I have to wait longer than 2 weeks for the next instalment

c) I try to stalk the author on twitter and wonder if they are secretly reading my reviews and smiling a little. Or wanting to marry me. Either or.

So how often does this happen?

Well, it happened the the Liveship traders series by robin hobb, which luckily I only started after she’d finished all three books.

It happened again with Peter Brett’s Demon Trilogy (apparently the painted Man is going to be turned into a movie soon. I hope they do it justice). And it happened with Pamela Freeman’s Casting’s trilogy, ever book that Jacqueline Carey ever wrote and numerous other books. I didn’t want to read The Name of the Wind. Every fantasy fan I knew (and i was working in a bookshop when it was released, so that was lots of people) said it was the most awesome debut novel ever. Usually ‘awesome debut novel’ translates into “good for a first go, but shit compared to anything an experienced writer has written”. But then i got bored and I had a battered reading copy right there and I thought why not.
Next thing I know, i was ignoring customers and reading it under the counter. And at traffic lights on the way home. And while cooking dinner. I ignored my children. I ignored my friends.

The Name of the Wind is an engrossing book. I never wanted it to end, so imagine my shock when the next six months went by and there was no sign of the sequel.
I left the bookshop and had a baby – still no sequel.
I looked in every bookshop and told everyone that the author was an asshole for making me wait so long – still no sequel.
After 3 years, I gave up all hope – and suddenly, there was book 2!

The Wise Man’s Fear jumps you straight back into the story (which after a 3 year hiatus, is starting to blur slightly). And the story jumps and leaps and bounds and drags you along for the ride. Kvothe is still at university, still battling against the nasty Ambrose, dancing around the lovely Denna and attempting to stay one step ahead of the devious moneylender, Devi (excuse the pun, if you would be so kind). He drinks and plays and gets in strife and learns a new trick of two.

The first half of the book builds on the learning Kvothe is doing, as well as developing his character. In such a lengthy and detailed story, it’s hard to keep track of the fact that the guy is still 16. Telling a biography within a story has allowed Rothfuss to remain with Kvothe for the entire book, but it doesn’t get stale seeing everything from one point of view. And it also limits the jumping around that often happens in novels of this size (think Katherine Kerr, J V jones or Robert Jordan) – Kvothe’s tale is told sequentially and if he misses large segments, he at least glosses over them or admits that there is a hole in the timeline.

The second half of the book is more adventurous and Kvothe leaves the university to seek the patronage of the Maer, a rich ruler of superstitious Vinta. Kvothe saves the Maer from poisoning, helps him woo his lady love and then sets off to kill a group of bandits robbing tax collectors on a lonely stretch of highway.
On the way back, Kvothe and his company stumble upon the beautiful but lonely fae Felurian and that is where I will leave it for tonight – more in Part 2!