Love and Fiction – A Book Blog

While on vacation in South Bend last week* I had a chance to finish two books, One For the Money, by Janet Evanovich, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Both were a bit of a stretch for me, meaning I had plenty of ideas what I was getting into, but no idea how I’d feel about them. I enjoyed both quite a bit.

Since being home, I’ve managed to fit in a couple of books, too:

The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, by Kage Baker, was recommended by JRob, and turned out to be a very quick, rather fun read. Hind’s Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hunard, was an exceptional read. The writing was not as smooth as it could have been, but for an allegorical tale, it worked wonderfully. I found myself submitting more to Christ, which is what the author intended.

Those four July reads aside, I am now facing the dilemma of what to read next. Here are my plans thus far:

Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown – with the goal of reading The Da Vinci Code this year. We were given these two from a friend during our vacation, and I’ve had The Da Vinci Code on my reading list for a little while.

The Supernaturalist, by Eoin Colfer – we bought this awhile back, because it’s Eoin Colfer, and I haven’t gotten around to reading it.

Two for the Dough, by Janet Evanovich – I picked this up (along with the third in the series and the next book on this list) at the used bookstore today, lured in by a sale.

The Vampire Diaries (The Fury and Dark Reunion), by L.J. Smith – I loved Smith as a young teen, and her novels have held up surprisingly well now that I’m an adult. I think it’s too funny that these beloved books have been recast as a TV series.

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow – We picked this up at some sale or another, knowing I loved Little Brother and hoping I’d love other books by this author.

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld – I just checked the library web site and found out that Leviatan, which I’ve been waiting on since I’m guessing March, has been shipped. It will be ready to pick up within a week at my local branch. Yay!

Those books should round out my next five weeks of reading. Of course, with my schedule shifting a bit this summer, who knows how fast I’ll read. That may just last me a couple of weeks. This is an extremely light list, and after this, I’ll be ready to dig into some heavier non-fiction and classics.

twyls

*OK, so one doesn’t technically vacation in South Bend. JRob and I were there for a family reunion.

I read the first two Mouse Guard books in an hour or so sitting in my favorite coffee shop – La Vida Java in Louisville, Kentucky. I breezed through the first book thinking I could take my time with the second one. How was I to know that I would want to devour the both in one sitting, like so much delicious espresso?

JRob has covered the first of the books in his review of Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen. I’m here to take a look with you at Mouse Guard: Winter 1152. When JRob gave me the choice of which to review, I jumped on the chance to take this one.
Winter 1152 takes place just where Fall 1152 left off. From the introduction to Chapter One:

“The Fall of 1152 left the Mouse Territories unprepared for winter. The malcontent, Midnight, raised an army to breach the gates of Lockhaven and kill Gwendolyn, the Guard’s matriarch. As the seasons changed, underlying problems with food and medicine threatened the Mouse Territories themselves.”

The book opens with Kenzie, Saxon, Sadie, Lieam, and Celanawe, who are on a mission to Sprucetuck, another Mouse city, and back to Lockhaven, the home of the Mouse Guard. They fight the snow and a nasty predator – a vengeful owl – to return home, but are separated when Saxon, Sadie and Kenzie fall into a tunnel. The book takes turns following the two groups as they face struggles to return to Lockhaven, with brief glimpse of the troubles within the Mouse Guard safe hold.

The great promise of this book comes with the characterization of the mice. Particularly endearing (to me as well as JRob) is Lieam, who shows potential to be a great hero in this series. Also promising are the story questions brought up in Fall 1152. Is Celanawe the mythical Black Axe? If so, how has he survived so long? And what are his real motives?

Weasel cities, bat hordes, ice storms and another traitor in Lockhaven all served to keep me sipping coffee from the start of this book to the finish. The seamless combination of literary and artistic story-telling make Winter 1152 a delight to read through. The writing is tight enough to keep an entirely serious, life-or-death tone to the story. I can see that this would be tricky, given that the book is, after all, about mice. The art is atmospheric and textured. I particularly enjoyed the ice storm scenes, where I could feel the weight of the glittering ice pulling down on the characters.

One of my favorite pages comes in the epilogue, but it typifies why I love this series. As Gwendolyn recounts the winter in a journal, we see scenes of the summit in a room with a large table and a huge stained glass window behind. The stained glass depicts a mouse in armor plunging a sword into a snake’s jaws. Such a seemingly insignificant detail created such an awe in me. The artist may have simply needed something to fill in the background, but it seemed like a gorgeous bit of world-building that could have been overlooked by a quick scan of the story.

Overall, Mouse Guard as a series deserves a coveted five stars from me. I only give five stars to books that I sincerely wish were in my library and that I hope to read again. I would recommend Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 to mature comic readers who appreciate a well told story where all the elements work together seemlessly.

Many thanks to Beth, who mentioned the series just often enough to pique my curiosity and send me looking for it.

Recently, twyls picked up a pair of interesting books from our local library – Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mousegard: Winter 1152 by David Petersen (actually, I should say two graphic novels). Since I share twyl’s affection for rodents of all kinds, and I’m always looking for good comic book stories, I decided to read them too. We both liked the series so much we chose to do another split review. Since I picked the first book to review, so I will get things started.

This story, Mouse Guard: Fall 1152,  was originally published by Archaia Studios Press in 2006 as  a six issue series. While several characters are introduced throughout the book, I will outline the the three main protagonists. First up is Kenzie (the gray-furred one) – the mature, thoughtful leader of this particular Mouse Guard patrol. Next up is Saxon (the brown-furred one) – a brash but brave soldier who often clashes with Kenzie. Finally there is Lieam (my personal favorite) – the youngest member of the Mouse Guard and still learning the ways of the world.

What starts out as a routine missing person mission winds up getting the trio involved in a dark plot to overthrow the current leadership of the Mouse Territories. Along the way they meet Celenawe, who claims to be the legendary hero known as The Black Axe. The rest of the story is a race against time as the rebel army advances on the Mouse Guard headquarters, Lockhaven. And, of course, there’s the climatic battle scene at the end. While the members of the Mouse Guard defeat their adversaries, that does not mean that all ends well. But I’ll let twyls will fill you in on the rest of the story…

I have to admit, at first I didn’t think I would like this book. I’ve read plenty of stories with anthropomorphic characters, and dropping mice into a sword and sorcery tale seemed a bit too silly for me.  After reading it, however, I fell in love. The simplicity of the world is endearing. There’s no magic or grand backstory; it’s just a stalwart group of mice fighting against nature to survive. And you really get such a good feel for the characters that you almost forget they’re mice. The artwork is clean and straightforward, also, and the design elements are simple but evocative. The entire production has a timeless quality. Naturally, I’d highly recommend it for kids of all ages and anyone else who is young at heart.

P.S. – Interestingly enough, this is not the only comic book to featuring sword wielding mice. Another series, entitled Mice Templar, debuted just months after this one came out.  It’s published by Image Comics and created by Bryan Glass and Michael Avon Oeming. So if you can’t get enough of cute, little rodents acting like Conan the Barbarian you should check out that series as well. Let me know how you think it compares to this one.

It’s time for another joint book review. This time around, JRob and I both read The Angel of Darkness, by Caleb Carr. This book by Carr is the second in a hopefully longer series that began with The Alienist. Set in the late 1800s, it follows Dr. Lazlo Kreizler and a group of fellow detective misfits. I call them misfits because each of the characters lacks a distinct place in New York’s crime-solving world. Starting with Kreizler himself – a psychologist, called an alienist, who helps hurting children and is called in to solve a murder, though most of society doubts his science – to the Jewish brothers who are not taken seriously on the police force, mostly because of their wild science that includes such out-there techniques as matching hairs under a microscope (shock!) to fingerprinting (gasp!) to taking notes at the scene (the horror!). Then there’s Mr. Moore, a newspaper man who wants the scoop, even if it means showing up to help; Sara, a secretary turned private eye; Cyrus, Dr. Kreizler’s loyal and respectable black servant, and, of course, Stevie.

In The Angel of Darkness it is Stevie who gets to be our narrator. At first this change in narration from the first book (penned by Mr. Moore’s hand) annoyed me. As I grew accustomed to the new voice, the book took off for me. In the end, I had a very strong, very emotional attachment to young Stevie. Rescued from a cruel fate in the New York prison system by Dr. Kreizler, Stevie flourishes as his personal servant. He proves a useful asset to Kreizler’s group of investigators.

This time around, the team has to find out who has kidnapped the young child of the Spanish diplomat. More may be at stake than the young girl’s life; since the book takes place on the cusp of the Spanish-American War, the tension between the nations is high. The chase quickly leads them to their villain. Libby Hatch is a particularly nasty bit of woman, and she proves remarkably difficult to catch. The story weaves from the chase to the trial and beyond. I couldn’t get enough of either the characters or the plot. Here, in conversation style, is a bit of question and answer from JRob and msyelf:

twyls: Who was your favorite of the main cast of characters?

JRob: I guess Stevie, the narrator. He was a much more likable character than John the newspaper reporter from the last novel. The slang he used also injected more of a personality to the story.

twyls: And your favorite of the characters unique to this book?

JRob: The Filipino midget assassin, of course, because he came out of left field. Who do you think was the scarier villain and why?

twyls: Libby Hatch, hands down. I just didn’t feel like I cared much about the villain from The Alienist. I mean, I wanted him stopped, but other than that? Eh. I just wanted more of the protagonists. Libby, though… she was special. I spent a portion of the story feeling sad for her and most of the time wishing she were already behind bars. She made me very uneasy. There is a scene in the beginning of the book where Stevie and Moore are talking about Libby with severe discomfort. By the end of the book I found I was sharing in this unease, as if she could pop out of the story and come after me next.

What were your impressions of Libby Hatch as a villain?

JRob: I love how she was so much different from the last villain. She was more cerebral, just as pitiable, but even more deadly. One of the things I love about Carr’s books is that the villains are so well fleshed out, instead of serving as cookie-cutter monsters for the hero to handily banish at the end of the book. Do you like the insertion of historical figures in the narrative or think it detracts from the story?

twyls: I like the historical figures, and I think they add to the story. Of course, I could easily be swayed by a character that I feel is depicted poorly in a future book, and I do feel that it can be overdone. I don’t think it’s quite crossed that line, yet.

JRob: Did you think this book was faster or slower paced than the first one?

twyls: It was definitely a different book. To be honest, I don’t remember a lot of the details from the first book. From my indistinct impressions of each book, this book felt faster paced. I think this can be directly explained by my expectation of the story, though. This time around I fully expected the immense amount of character building that goes into a Carr book, and wasn’t as surprised. That alone made the book feel faster. Also, I really, really wanted to know how this one ended. Do you think there will be a sequel? Do you want one? They hinted at a story by Sara.

JRob: It’s probable that there will be a sequel; it’s a very good and very popular series of historical thrillers. The author writes a lot of other stories in the same vein as these novels (notably the further adventures of Sherlock Holmes). I think he’s doing a good job of spacing the novels out and not burning out on the characters too fast. How do you think the Dr. Kriezler stories compare with Sherlock Holmes, since they were both active during the same time (late 1890s)?

twyls: I think the Kreizler stories are much more character oriented, in that the characters are sympathetic. You want more of each story, more time with the characters. I feel like I want an entire book where things are going well for them, just to keep up with these old friends as they dine and gossip. Holmes, however, is all about the story. You want to know how he does it. I think fans of either series will enjoy the other, so long as they go in expecting a different feel.

One of my favorite things about the Dr. Kreizler mysteries are the subplots that end up intertwining so beautifully with the main plot. Did you think there were too many things going on in this book?

JRob: No, I didn’t have any trouble following it. I usually like plots where there’s a lot of things happening at once. It keeps my interest better that way.

twyls: I want to talk about the cover. It evoked such a strong reaction in me after getting to the heart of the book. What do you think of the cover? Would you have preferred something different?

JRob: No, I think the covers for this series are pretty awesome. That’s one of the first things that drew me in. They’re so stark, but evocative of the story. They do a good job of transporting you to that time period with just one picture. Has reading these books helped you get interested in the history of that era (New York City, Spanish-American War, etc.)?

twyls: I hate to say it, but not really. It’s inspired interest in the people of that era, though. I find I want to know more about Roosevelt, the Vanderbilts, and even Clarence Darrow (though Angel of Darkness left me feeling like I can’t say his name without a peculiar taste in my mouth.) This goes back to the story being character based.

And there you have it, folks. Are second ever joint book review. Feel free to check out either The Alienist of The Angel of Darkness. I definitely give them both five stars, which means I would read them again and they have a secure place on my bookshelves.

For both of us,

twyls