Prince Corwin of Amber has escaped his brother and finally has healed enough to begin planning the overthrow of his brother, Eric, who he believes has stolen the throne from him. He makes his way through Shadow to reach the places he remembers, to gather the tools he needs, and finds that Amber and the Shadows are under siege by an enemy never seen before. The source appears to be a mysterious black road. As Corwin unravels the mystery of the black road and begins moving against his brother, he realizes the welfare of Amber is at stake, and that takes precedence over who sits in the throne.
Impression: One thing about the Amber books, they read fast. They're short, not very complicated, and very focused on the main plot arc. So the plot is very straightforward: Corwin wants to be the ruler of Amber because he thinks he has more of a right to it than his (half) brother, Eric. The black road is something of a secondary plot, but it doesn't affect Corwin's goals until near the end of the novel, even though he thinks he knows where it came from and that he'll have to deal with it eventually.
Perhaps my one complaint is that the characters overall are too simple, too one dimensional. Corwin has some depth, and his brothers seem to have a little less so, but the other characters don't have any complication to them at all. This might change in future volumes as more comes out about each character, but in the story as written, they all seem to be more plot supports than real people: this man gives a chemical Corwin needs with little difficulty, Ganelon is the supportive follower even though Corwin exiled him and he originally hated Cowin for being a "devil" (though the exile was for a just cause), and so on. There is no hint of anything else in these characters. In fact, Ganelon just accepts the abilities that made him think Corwin was a devil before, even before meeting the brothers who have the same abilities. The advantage is that the plot remains uncomplicated and straightforward; the disadvantage is that the characters aren't believable.
The book was okay, overall. The characters being so simple can almost be overlooked as this was definitely more of a plot driven story than a character driven story. The books are fast, easy, and generally non-offensive. The writing is fairly clean, if a bit dry, and the story is engaging even if the characters (other than Corwin) are not. I can't list the book as being among my favorites, but I can recommend it if you're looking for an uncomplicated, fast read. If you can, you may want to pick up the individual Amber books rather than the 10 book omnibus. The omnibus is just a bit much to manage sometimes.
Robert Langdon, a renowned scholar in religious symbology, is in Paris to meet with the curator of the Louvre Museum. On the night they are to meet, the curator is killed, and along with the curator's granddaughter, Sophie, Langdon is thrown into a race to find the answers to the curator's death and the riddles he left behind, riddles that include the Holy Grail and the secret society charged with protecting it.
Impression: While the story itself is fine, I'm not getting why the books was such a phenomenon. It could have been cut by at least 100 pages just by cutting unnecessary and boring flashbacks, science babble that most readers probably don't care about and maybe found their eyes glazing over at, and unnecessary words and repetitions. And there were a lot of unnecessary words and repetitions. All of this bogged the story down. I ended up skimming far more often than I like to when reading.
But when you take out all that excess verbiage, the story itself is fine. I did (and still do) have some skepticism over a number of the points made by characters in the story, but my belief in their ideology wasn't necessary to enjoy the story itself. The characters seemed fairly well rounded, though I would have liked less head-hopping so I could actually get to know them better. I don't usually have a problem with changing point of view characters, but it happened way too frequently in this book, and often at points where it was pointless—it didn't add anything to the story and didn't give any real character development.
Even with those problems, the story action was fairly believable, and the description and setting details were enough to bring the reader in. as long as a reader doesn’t buy into all the hype (and thus get disappointed when reading) or expect the movie's excitement and conciseness, it's an okay read. Not spectacular, but not bad.
I didn't post a review for everything I read this past year because there were a few repeats and it was otherwise a hell of a year. So, my 2009 reads look to be pathetic. In reality, I read 17 books:
My goal for 2010 is 18 books. And I'm going to try to post my reviews of them as soon as I've finished them instead of letting them build up and then getting forgotten.
Detective Nikki Heat has a high profile murder to solve: that of a real estate tycoon who was pushed to his death from his 6th floor apartment. It would be a lot easier if she didn't have Jameson Rook, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, riding along and not only trying to play detective but also distracting her with his charms or a record breaking heat wave in the city. As they follow a twisted trail of clues, suspects, related crimes, and death, Nikki and Rook uncover the secrets of a wealthy man going broke and their own attraction.
Impression: Despite the problems with the writing itself (and there were some), I enjoyed Heat Wave, but I suspect that had a lot to do with the TV series from which it came, Castle. The book itself is written in a tone very similar to the show, and the characters are undisguised copies of the characters from the show. Anyone who watches the show will see Beckett in Nikki (which makes sense since Heat Wave is supposed to be Castle's new novel based on Beckett) and Castle in Rook. It's these characters, following the formula that has worked so well for the series, and the plot itself that make the novel work. There's some nice twists and turns in the mystery, and I have to admit I missed half the mark on the who dunnit. The writer did a very good job of taking the obvious and obscuring it, so the ending works, but you don't necessarily see it coming.
My one complaint is the quality of the writing itself, which seemed sloppy to me. While, thankfully, there didn't seem to be much in the way of editing or technical errors (which can drop me out of a story because I am a very visual reader), there were places where it seemed the writing was padded with extra words just to give the book a higher word count. While it isn't a long book, the writing itself needed some cleaning up.
However, I would still recommend this book to adult readers (there is a sex scene that makes it inappropriate for younger readers) who are looking for something fun to read—and I rarely recommend books where the writing is an issue, so for me that means it was well done. It's all fluff, but sometimes you just need a little light, humorous reading that doesn't require a lot of thought or analyses. This is definitely one of those books. And fans of Castle will definitely enjoy Heat Wave. It will be interesting to see if they give the ghost writer of this work more Castle books to write.
Harrowing The Dragon is a collection of short works by award-winning author Patricia McKillip. Among the stories are tales of dragons, bards, princess, witches, and more. She reinvents fairy tales, offers up original stories, and even gives fresh eyes to the classic Romeo and Juliet. The collection includes 15 stories of magic and reshaped standards of classic fantasy.
Impression: I've yet to read a McKillip book I didn't like, and Harrowing The Dragon is no different despite my tendency to be impatient with short stories. McKillip's shorts are much like her novels: rich with detail and in their use of language and beautifully written. I particularly liked "The Lion and the Lark" which uses "The Beauty and the Beast" as a foundation for a new tale of love that goes beyond the boundaries. I also enjoyed "A Matter of Music", the story of a young bard who releases two lovers with her music; "Lady of the Skulls", a tale which reveals that not all treasure is silver and gold; and "Star-Crossed", an exploration into the investigation of the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Not all her stories were a hit with me–I wasn't particularly fond of "Transmutations"–but they were all rich and beautifully written. I highly recommend Harrowing The Dragon.
The story of Hikaru Azuma and his family continues in the fourth installment of the With The Light: Raising An Autistic Child manga series. As Hikaru enters the later elementary school years, his family begins looking for more ways to increase his independence and to help him get ready to become a working adult. Initially the family's difficulties are compounded by Masato's transfer to a dead end job in a hard to reach location. However, the family perseveres and Masato is eventually transferred back because of some ideas that stem from their search into options for Hikaru's future.
Impression: I enjoyed this new volume in Hikaru's journey, partly because we're at the stage in my house where we need to start looking into my son's future and he is expressing a desire to go to work. But the volume also gave the reader a wider look into the lives of Hikaru's friends, and while not all the revelations were pleasant, it was nice to see beyond the family and into other character's lives. There was also some setting up for what I expect to be issues in future volumes: Hikaru's current teacher is getting ready to retire and it will be interesting to see if she retires first or Hikaru moves to a new school first. Either will provide challenges for the family, but having the teacher retire first and then Hikaru being promoted will, if Hikaru is typical, be more challenging as autistic children have difficulty with changes and this would be two changes practically one on top of the other. In general, this book is a bit of a lull for Hikaru as the greater stress is on his family and friends. And this too is a part of the autism puzzle.
I still highly recommend the series to anyone curious about autism and its affect on families. Readers just need to keep in mind the cultural differences. With the Light is based in Japan, and much of what is done there is either not done here or done differently, and many of the difficulties the book shows being experienced by families with autistic children in Japan are not experienced here. But with those things in mind, the series is an excellent window into the lives of families dealing with autism.
Joanne Baldwin is on the run for a crime she didn't commit: the murder of a senior weather warden. Joanne can control the weather and has been trained to safely tame the weather, but something goes horribly wrong when Bad Bob, a warden known for his temper and his dislike of Joanne, asks her to help him with a project. Bob ends up dead and Joanne has only one option that won't result in her being stripped of her powers: to hunt down Lewis, one of the most powerful wardens known, and get help in removing the demon mark that's trying to work its way into her. Only one of the Djinn he holds can save her. Her road trip takes her across the country and pits her against the other senior wardens, and some of her discoveries along the way are even less pleasant than her confrontation with Bad Bob.
Impression: It's always hard for me to pick out a new (to me) author to try, and more times than not, I end up not being too happy with them. Fortunately, I loved the first in Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series and am looking forward to picking up more when I can. The story opens with Joanne already on the run and there's few dull moments from that point on. The author does provide moments where the reader can catch his or her breath, but keeps the action going through the novel.
The characters are entertaining and have complexity, although I did figure out the "secrets" of two of them, one relatively early after his appearance. The weather work is well detailed and fascinating, and the plot is less straight forward than it appears, and while I saw some of the ending before it happened, there were still plenty of surprises to hold my interest. And knowing some of the ending didn't give it all away, particularly Joanne's fate. However, everything that happens is well set up in the story itself. The story holds a reader's interest, the writing is nice and clean. I would like to see a little more depth in future excursions, but it's a great opening for a new series.
Maddie Temple has put her life back together since the night her father and twin sister died in a car accident when she was a teenager: she's a respected doctor and E.R. specialist and has just started seeing the handsome Jarred Keith. All she needs now is for the nightmares to stop. Nightmares that have her killing another woman, that only become stronger, and start tearing her life apart when she realizes they are not her own. Her sister isn't dead. And that's not the only thing her mother has kept from her. To save her crumbling sanity, Maddie must face her insane sister and the dark secrets of their past and the darker possibilities of their future.
Impression:Dark Legacy was a mixed bag for me. I loved the paranormal/fantasy element, which was what kept me reading; but the romance elements, while they worked most of the time, turned me off when they went to the genre's extremes. I just can't buy that anyone, no matter how much they love someone, will lay there and let that someone stab them with a knife until they are close to death. That's not love/romance, that's stupidity, and I don't care if someone else is possessing the body doing the stabbing. Anyone with common sense and an ounce of survival instinct is going to get out of the way of a knife in the hands of someone who is determined to kill them, possessed or not.
Other than that kind of "romance" extreme (which didn't happen more than once or twice, thank goodness) and the whole idea that falling in love makes a person toss their common sense and ethics out the window, the story was okay. I really liked the use of the tie between the twins and Maddie's need to figure out the mysteries behind her gifts. I did have a problem with Maddie's stubborn determination to see herself as evil, but I can also almost see where it came from and how it would be hard to change those thought processes in just a few days. Outside the romance plot, the story was well-plotted and well written. My issues with characters are generally tied up with the romance elements that didn’t work for me.
So Dark Legacy is a paranormal romance I almost like. If the romance elements had been more realistic for me (and I have to say, at least there was no sense of "Oh my God, my life's in danger, but man you have a cute butte, let's do it!", which would have totally turned me off, so I give the author huge credit there), I would consider the book a really good read. All that being said, I can see how someone who is into paranormal romance (and who doesn't have my issues) would really enjoy Dark Legacy. I can't put the novel into a best reads category, given my issues with it, but I can still highly recommend it to others who like the genre.
