The premise of A Darker Shade of Magic is pretty perfect. There are parallel worlds with corresponding versions of London in which magic exists or existed to varying degrees, and they are aware of each other’s existence (or at least the rulers are). In this universe, a few people with special powers exist who can travel between dimensions. These people with particular magical ability are called ‘antari’, and Kell is one of the last known. Kell has named the various versions of London “Red” (his […]
Indiana Jones Meets the Babysitters Club
I’m not a huge consumer of graphic novels, but I enjoyed Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona, so I decided to check out her series Lumberjanes (a co-creation with several others). I also couldn’t pass up something in which volume 1 is titled “Beware the Kitten Holy”. I was simultaneously disappointed and relieved that in the end this turns out to be less than literal. In the opening sequence the heroines encounter some wolves; as they are getting their tails kicked, one of the wolves mutters “beware the kitten holy”. By […]
“Oh, well. Marmalade has to make its own way in life, like the rest of us, she thought.”
This is all terribly confusing. It started out confusing and never really resolved. The Alice in the title is referring to Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We basically alternate between Ada, Alice’s friend, and Lydia, Alice’s sister. Ada has slipped her governess, Miss Armstrong, and has continued unescorted to bring a jar of marmalade to her friend Alice’s family. Ada has stumbled into Wonderland and goes on a search for her friend. Wonderland is as it always was, confusing yet sometimes profound. Our Lydia […]
What a delightful little book.
This sneaky little book is a sneaking sneakster. It sneaks right up on you, and you love it before you realize what’s happening. I actually read this book way before I meant to. I realized on my drive to Phoenix a couple of weeks ago that I was quickly going to run out of Pride and Prejudice audiobook, and I didn’t have a replacement on deck. Good old public library and OneClickDigital had this puppy featured, and I wanted to read it anyway, so why […]
Rick Riordan does his thing.
I guess I don’t really have much to say about this book, except that it was exactly what I was expecting it to be, and that ended up being an okay thing. I have come to accept that Riordan is now a one-trick pony. He just happens to be very good at that one trick. You pretty much know all the beats of this story ahead of time if you’ve read his other demigod books, but that doesn’t stop you from enjoying yourself anyway, and […]
Not quite what I was expecting, but I like!
I’ve been meaning to read this series for yearrrrrrs, and I finally got around to it. It was . . . not what I was expecting! I mean, right away it’s pretty hard not to notice it’s in first person POV, which is still incredibly rare in epic fantasy, and I think dangerous because it’s so hard to pull off. But I quickly adapted to it, and think it works well here. I still think a nice third person POV lends a storyteller quality that […]