Surfacing

No, not the famous book by Atwood. I've been gone a while (more details can be found at in my personal journal - check my profile), but I'm coming back. I hope.

I haven't been reading as much as usual the past couple of years, but there is still a rather large back-up and I very much doubt my ability to actually catch up. But I do intend to at least list the books I've read, maybe say a few words about the ones that cry out for something to be said and I will be glad to enter into discussions with anyone who wants to post a comment about a particular book on I've read.

So be prepared for a lot of lists, after which I may actually resume writing about books as I read them,

2009: Mercedes Lackey

So ,to get back in the groove, some light writing about some light but enjoyable reading.


The Gates of Sleep, Mercedes Lackey

Another in the Elemental Masters series, and quite obviously a recasting of the basic situation of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, this was an enjoyable read, although I did not like it quite as much as the other book I've read in this series, The Serpent's Shadow. Aside from the basic plot in which the princess, er, young sorceress must be hidden away in an attempt to save her from a curse and later on must call on both her own powers and her friends to escape the evil plans of her wicked stepmother, er, aunt. I particularly liked Lackey's social critique of the conditions of child factory workers.



Foundation, Mercedes Lackey

Back to the beginning in Valdemar! Set well before the first Valdemar novel, Arrows of the Queen, the protagonist is (of course) an abused and unloved child who is saved from a miserable life and possible untimely death by one of the Companions, the magical white horses who select the incorruptible Heralds of Valdemar. Off to the newly founded Colliegium they go, for training, lots of intrigues, and hints that the littlest Herald-trainee may be more than he seems. A standard Valdemar tale, but that hasn't stopped me from reading the last couple dozen, and it probably won't stop me from reading as many more as Lackey writes in my lifetime.



And Less than Kind, Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Geillis

Alas, the last volume in the series that fulfilled two of my reading fetishes at once - Elizabeth Tudor, and elves, all in one. Darker than the previous volumes, in the series, this follows Elizabeth and her elven lover/protector through the bloody reign of Queen Mary, while Underhill, the forces of the Dark Court are resurgent. Of course, we all know that it ends in the Glory that was Elizabethan England, but seeing how we get there in this faerie-filled version of history is engaging.



The Phoenix Endangered, Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

The middle volume in the Enduring Flame trilogy, it is, like many middle volumes, all about getting from the early exposition of the situation and the initiation of the protagonists to the final crisis and resolution. The main protagonists in this case, two young mages of very different traditions (one with a dragon companion and the other being assisted by a unicorn), do a great deal of travelling, learning, being tested, and finding allies, while the antagonist gathers forces, becomes a major threat, and causes a great deal of injury and death. Solid work, a decent read, builds well toward the conclusion.

2009: Historical Fiction

Here Be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman

Sharon Kay Penman is one of my favourite writers of historical fiction, and not just because she writes well, remains reasonably faithful to what is known about her subjects, and breathes into her characters a sense of life and truth. in addition to all of that, she seems to have a gift for picking out the people and periods of history that I find fascinating. Here Be Dragons is the story of the relationship between Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, Llewelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and unifier of much of Wales, and Joanna (or Joan), the natural daughter of King John of England. I have read this book, and the others in Penman's Princes of Wales trilogy before, and was delighted to find that it was just as enjoyable on re-reading.



Nefertiti, Michelle Moran

I have always been fascinated by the Amarna period in Egyptian history. There is so much that is known, and yet so much that remains tantalizingly unknown about the family of Akhenaton, and this leave open a great deal of space for a writer to present her own theories about the family relationships, about who married who and who died and was buried when. Moran has some interesting ideas about the court of Amarna in this, her debut novel, but I found that she stretched the boundaries perhaps a bit too much, leaving me sceptical of her choices in some places. However, I enjoyed the looking at one vision of the story of Nefertiti, told from the perspective of Mutnodjmet, historically the wife of Pharoah Horemheb, and in this book presented as being the same person as Nefertiti's sister Mutbenret. I look forward to following Moran's growth as a writer.




Lady MacBeth, Susan Fraser King

A well-written and well-researched debut novel about a character who is barely known to history, but famous in literature as the ambitious wife of the Scottish lord who claimed the throne of Scotland - in Shakespeare's version, through treason and murder, but then, Shakespeare was writing for an audience that included the royal descendant of people who opposed MacBeth. Not as daring an interpretation of history as Dunnett's King Hereafter, this is all the same a realistic visualisation of what it could have been like, and Gruach - Lady MacBeth - is presented as a strong, if not always admirable, woman who survived and wielded power in dangerous and troubled times. Looking forward to King's next novel.

2009: Two by MacAvoy

Opening note: I love MacAvoy's work. Hence these two books are marvellous in my eyes and well worth the reading.


Twisting the Rope, R. A. MacAvoy

The sequel to MacAvoy's masterpiece, Tea with the Black Dragon,, this continues the story of Celtic folk musician Martha MacNamara and ancient dragon in human form Mayland Long. These two books are really some of the finest urban fantasy ever written, from a point in the development of the genre when nothing had become codified.



Lens of the World, R. A. MacAvoy

The first volume of one of MacAvoy's less well-known works, set in a refreshingly original pre-industrial society, it is, like many of MacAvoy's works, relatively slender but packed with great characters. engaging narrative and fine detail. I know this is all very vague, but MacAvoy is hard to describe because her work is deceptively simple and astoundingly complex at the same time. She approaches what would in another writer's hands be commonplace stories and themes, but gives them such a fresh perspective and such a wealth of undertones... oh hell, I loved the book. If you enjoy MacAvoy and haven;t read it yet, I recommend that you remedy this oversight as quickly as possible.

The Way of Thorn and Thunder: Books II and III

In late 2008, I read Kynship, the first volume in a trilogy by First Nations author Daniel Heath Justice. It captivated me. In 2009, I read the concluding volumes n the series, Wyrwood and Dreyd.

These two volumes continue to show, in painful detail, the ways that a colonised people can be treated by a powerful invading people. There are many things which will be familiar in theme and shape, if not in precise detail, to colonised peoples anywhere, and to those members of imperialist/settler cultures who have made the effort to learn something about those impacted by colonialism and imperialism.

It is, I think, an important work that gives voice to perspectives too often unheard, even silenced. It's also a good read.