Get Lost in Literature

"And then in the silence, he heard a sound: not a sob, or a scream, but a laugh." In the first book, there are 4 Londons, located in four parallel universes. Kell who lives in Red London, is a powerful magician who can travel between realms. Lila Bard is a common thief in Grey London, a magicless London. There's Black London, the doomed London. And there's a White London, the London trapped between life and death. If book one was Kell's story, then consider this the Lila Bard show. She joins the crew of Captain Alucard Emery, privateer, and runs amok on Red London's high seas, finally fulfilling her dream of becoming a pirate. She's content to be the best thief, until she hears about a dangerous game being played in Red London, and Lila doesn't love anything more than she loves danger. Kell is now the one yearning for freedom, as he becomes trapped between the family he won't ever be a part of and his societal obligations. The setting is fabulous. ...

"Kell was not sure if it was a promise or a threat, but he had no choice regardless, and so he stepped forward into the serpent's nest." A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab There are four worlds and in each exists a London. Red London, Gray London, White London, and Black London. Kell, one of the last magicians capable of traveling between worlds, has taken up the hobby of smuggling. Resident of Gray London, Lila, a cutthroat pickpocket spends her time dreaming of piracy on the high seas. When Kell accidentally smuggles a dangerous artifact the two meet and adventure ensues.  The first thing that stands out to me about this book is how the characters complement each other. Both characters are prone to breaking the rules, but where Kell wants somewhere to belong, Lila wants to stand out. Kell is a prince by adoption and is the royal family's messenger between worlds. Lila too is an orphan, but she led the other  orphan lifestyle, alone and fighting for survival. I lov...

"... there would always be darkness. But as long as you kept a light burning, it would be okay." After the coup to steal Daevabad, Ali and Nahri find themselves powerless in Cairo and desperate to get home to save their loved ones. Banu Manizheh finds herself the tyrant ruling a broken world, with Dara trapped at her side.  Unlike the second book, the finale of The Daevabad Trilogy is an action-packed adventure, which is really good news considering the book is just shy of 800 pages. It's super fast-paced, with dramatic plot twists. Magic and murder, djinn and Gods, and pirates. That's right, this one's got pirates. Chakraborty's writing is richly descriptive creating settings and characters that are vivid and beautiful even at the most brutal of moments. And there are plenty of brutal moments because Manizheh's worse than Ghassan - I honestly don't know why she wouldn't marry him; they were perfect for each other. I think my favorite parts of thi...

"Dimly, distantly, I realize three things: the wind has come up so strongly that the small Meade tent that J.C. and I have been crouching in is flapping and banging like wash hung out to dry in a hurricane (I'd thought the noise was only in my throbbing skull)..." -Dan Simmons, The Abominable Jacob Perry is embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. After four mountain climbers go missing, he and his friends contact the mother of one of the missing men and promise to bring her son home, alive or dead. Their true goal: be the first climbers to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.  Let's start with what I liked about it.  The book was very very detailed. Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about mountain climbing is in this book... and probably some things you didn't care to know. Dan Simmons wrote this adventure in such a way that you'll feel like you are hanging off the face of a mountain, trekking waist deep in snow, and struggling for breath in the...

  "What if? Maybe those two words were the first steps out of any swamp." This is the story of Dan Lambert, a Vietnam veteran, suffering from a bad combination of PTSD, poverty, and a brain tumor. When he accidentally kills a man he must go on the run, heading south he looks for a place he can disappear. He meets a women named Arden, who is desperately and obsessively searching for a faith healer. The two are pursued by the strangest of bounty hunters, parasitic twins Flint and Clint Murtaugh and their apprentice, Elvis impersonator Pelvis Eisley. I thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end. It reads like a mystery, but thriller is probably more accurate a description given that we already know who the killer is. It was a fast-paced adventure through the bayous, being pursued by all manner of strange and morally gray individuals, which brings us to... The characters. They were so quirky and weird, it made no sense, and yet it worked seamlessly with the plot. A parasitic t...

  "The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." Frank Herbert, Dune Please forgive my lackluster review, this one is not current, written in 2020. As you know, 2020 was a trying year, Covid-19 sucking the life out of most people, myself included. I can see why this book touched so many and I enjoyed reading it for the most part. I think some of the plot devices were a tad bit lazy: every oh-so-convenient moment that fell in line with The Prophecy, for example. But the characters were delightful in their schemes. The setting was great. Plot would probably have been better for me if I wasn't overthinking on overdrive, stress makes me cynical. I maybe think the world building and vocabulary could have been improved upon, just a bit, but I might also be reading this at the wrong age. I liked the touches on environmental and ecological issues. I liked that he addressed political and theological conflicts, and the void between the ruling class...

  "All the best plans are a bit risky..." Gulo the Savage, ruler of his homeland in the hard and cold North, is searching for a relic known as the Walking Stone, which has been stolen by his brother Askor. The titular character Rakkety Tam and his best friend Wild Doogy Plum are given the task of bringing the stolen royal banner home to the King and Queen in exchange for their freedom. Meanwhile in Redwall Abbey, Sister Armel has had a vision of long dead Martin the Warrior, who tells her to take his sword and deliver it to Tam, who in turn vows to protect the Abbey from those who would threaten it. When I was young, I thought the Novels of Redwall were some of the best advanced-reader children's novels on the market. They have all the hallmarks of a good children's novel. Always including poetry, songs and riddles, Brian Jacques was the master of rhyme. The characters are all talking animals, stereotypically cast again and again in predictable roles: we know mice, s...

  "No rest for the wicked, Julie Mao said in his mind. No peace for the good." XO Jim Holden, soon to be Captain of the Rocinante and his crew, answer a distress call from a seemingly abandoned ship. Detective Miller is put under contract to find rebel Julie Mao and transport her home to her family. Disaster strikes and they become the only people standing between humanity and annihilation. I loved the world building. There's Mars and Earth and the Belters, and sure that's kind of cool all on its own. But true to the series name "The Expanse," the author left me feeling overwhelmed at times by the endless expanse that is our universe; colonies of humans spread across the planets, but never having reached the stars... When I picture the space stations built on rocks, floating lightyears from anywhere, and spaceships built like cities traveling across the empty sky, it makes human connection seem so much more important and yet... Mars, Earth, and the Belters a...

"For a long time there is only darkness and the sound of distant thunder and the hazy sensation of falling." And so we finally have it, the last book in Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series, The Desolations of Devil's Acre . The war between good and evil has come to Peculiardom with Jacob and Noor at its center. The last couple of books in the series, I reviewed negatively. I mean, come on, you have to know where you're going to get there, and the books aimlessly waffled. In this book, Ransom Riggs knows exactly where he's going, and he showed me the way with the quirky characters I've come to love and expect. This was an action-packed, fast-paced finale, with stakes that have never been higher for the cast of peculiars. There's a moment near the end, where the characters are losing hope of victory and then - plot twist. The plot twist makes Jacob's seemingly useless relationship with Noor have a use, and makes me think Mr. Riggs knew what he...

The Mongoliad (Book 1) by  Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, E.D. deBirmingham, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo "Boys who had been brandishing wooden swords a moment ago were suddenly armed with long steel." I don't know why, in my head, I thought this story was going to be a fantasy. Not that it wasn't fantastic, it was just surprising to find this is more along the lines of historical/speculative fiction. And there's a lot going on this book. Mongol's have taken over Europe and Asia. Cnan a Binder--a Binder is someone who helps people find their paths--is sent to guide a small band of knights on their quest to overthrow the Khan of Khans. Gansuhk, is a mongol warrior, ordered away from his comforts of roaming the steppes on horseback to the court of the Khan of Khans...Why? To control the Khan's drinking habit. I admit, I'm not familiar with any of the authors of this book, so I have the luxury of not being able to pick out one author...

“It was not that he was feckless, more that he had simply not been around the day they handed out feck.”― Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys Charles Nancy is an unlucky sort of fellow; he prefers to be called Charles or Charlie but everyone calls him Fat Charlie, whether he likes it or not because that was the name his father gave him. With a wedding on the horizon, Rosie thinks it's time for Fat Charlie to start mending those old embarrassing bridges and invite his family to the wedding. Unable to say no, Charlie reaches out to Mrs. Higgler, a family friend who might know how to contact his old man... But he's too late. Mr. Nancy is dead and Mrs. Higgler's got news for Charlie. His father wasn't just a trickster, he was trickster God and Charlie has a long-lost brother who communicates through spiders... This book started out laugh out loud funny. I loved the glimpse into what an ancient God's idea of parenting would be, and those parenting skills then topped by the peculiar...

"His first instinct was to leave without being seen, and this puzzled him. He was a federal agent with the full authority of the United States government. This meant people had to do what he said. Even nurses and doctors. They didn’t want him to leave? Tough shit." Special Agent Ethan Burke of the US Secret Service, wakes up in the woods outside of a quiet little town called Wayward Pines. He's been in an accident and he's having trouble with his memory. He knows he needs a hospital and somewhere to stay, but he can't find his wallet... or a working telephone. The longer Ethan stays in Wayward Pines, the more he realizes the town's got a secret, and the residents will kill to protect it. I know this book was big when it came out. I downloaded a sample from Amazon and passed judgement the same day; the writing was simple, and quick to the point. This was light reading dressed up as horror. There's nothing wrong with that, but at the time I'd want...

"'Destiny’ is the state of perfect mechanical causation in which everything is the consequence of everything else. If choice is an illusion, what’s life? Consciousness without volition."  Joe Spork has walked the straight and narrow his whole life, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, working as a clockwork repairman. He's been trying to hide from the legacy left to him by his father, Matthew, who lived his life at the head of organized crime; Joe doesn't want to be his father's son. But when a friend brings in a strange mechanical book for Joe to repair, strangers start taking an interest in the horologist. And when that mechanical book triggers a hive of mechanical bees to take flight, someone frames Joe for terrorism, making him flee from the life he's lived to the life he tried to hide from. Ever hear the expression "show, don't tell," with regards to writing? This book was fabulous, in that respect. Nick Harkaway does...

Charles Nancy is an unlucky sort of fellow; he prefers to be called Charles or Charlie but everyone calls him Fat Charlie, whether he likes it or not because that was the name his father gave him. With a wedding on the horizon, Rosie thinks it's time for Fat Charlie to start mending those old embarassing bridges, and invite his family to the wedding. Unable to say no, Charlie reaches out to Mrs Higgler, a family friend who might know how to contact his old man... But he's too late. Mr Nancy is dead and Mrs Higgler's got news for Charlie. His father wasn't just a trickster, he was trickster God and Charlie has a long lost brother who communicates through spiders... This book started out laugh out loud funny. I loved the glimpse into what an ancient God's idea of parenting would be, and those parenting skills then topped by the peculiar circumstances of death. And its a nice mirror of reality; it sometimes seems like parents' job to embarrass their children ...

Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #2) by Ransom Riggs “I had come to the island to solve my grandfather’s mystery, and in doing so I had discovered my own.” Hollow City picks up right where the first novel ended. Jacob and his peculiar friends are trying to take rowboats across the sea to the mainland, having just survived an attack by wights. Their time loop has collapsed and Jacob is stuck in 1940 until a ymbryne can send him back home. Miss Peregrine can’t do it; she’s sick, stuck in bird form, and if they can’t find another ymbryne soon, she will be lost to them forever. So Jacob must help the peculiars evade capture while trying to find the last free ymbryne. This book has inspired me to invent a new adjective: creepadore -- when a thing is creepy and adorable at the same time. As in, “This book is so creepadore!” LOL. As with the first book, this story pits the expected innocence of YA child-heroes against the horror of unseen evil forces and comb...

"Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish." Ian Malcolm, presumed dead at the end of Jurassic Park , is alive and giving a lecture on Chaos Theory and Extinction when overzealous paleontologist Richard Levine shows up. Levine is tired of studying bones; he’s heard rumors about strange animals in Costa Rica and about Ian Malcolm’s extended stay there. He wants to put together an expedition to locate a “Lost World” where animals survived extinction and are still living in seclusion. Malcolm says no such place exists, but he’ll be happy to help if it’s ever found. As Levine begins to track down the last known rumored site of his Lost World he realizes he’s being monitored and all his careful planning means nothing if he isn’t the first one there. Lewis Dodgson is back and he wants what he paid for: dinosaur eggs. Levine rushes unprepared into the Lost World, forcing Malcolm to organize a rescue party… This was...

"...you cannot make an animal and not expect it to act alive. To be unpredictable. To escape. But they don't see that." Before I say anything about the book, I need to say Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park: The Lost World, are probably two of my all time favorite movies so I can’t really help but compare the books to the movies. I’ve probably watched those a thousand times. The movie were perfection and set the bar high; I never read the book because I was afraid it would suck and then how would I view the movie? Alternatively, what if the book was better and then the movie suddenly sucked? The third movie was a total disappointment. It would be a long time before I figured out the third movie had no book to support it, and I would then attribute the bad plot to the fact that the story had been nothing more than box office fan fiction. Now with advertisements for a fourth Jurassic Park , and a second fan fiction, I found myself once again intrigued and captivated b...

Dust (Silo #3) by Hugh Howey “Our actions, you know? They last forever. Whatever we do, it’ll always be what we did. There’s no taking them back.” In Wool we’re introduced to the world of Silo 18; people have fled an inhospitable environment to live underground. They’ve forgotten the world they come from and anyone who dreams of returning to it, is forced out. Shift introduced us to the world of corrupt political heads who are willing to get what they want by any means necessary, as well as the survivors of failed Silo 17. Dust brings us back to present time in the Silo Saga universe, with Juliette as the newly elected Mayor of Silo 18. Juliette is determined to dig ; she wants to expand the Silo 18 and claim 17,  she wants to rescue her new friends and prove to everyone else that she isn’t crazy. Lukas is torn between his love for Juliette and his duties to the Silo as the new head of IT; he’s worried the Juliette is creating too much fear and that the Silo is headed...

Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking #3)  by Patrick Ness "He is worse than the others, I show. He is worst of all of them. Because-- The rest are worth as much as their pack animals, I show, but worst is the one who knows better and does nothing." Spoiler Alert. Patrick Ness is a bastard. Just so you know ahead of time, there will be no mercy. Book 3 began exactly where Book 2 left off: The army of New Prentisstown is at war with the army of The Answer and Mayor President Prentiss is talking his way out of being overthrown by Todd. The Spackle forces are attacking and Viola's racing to intercept her incoming scout ship before Mistress Coyle can get there. The story once again expands by adding yet another point of view, that of 1017. 1017 is essentially the one that got away... and proceeds to plot vengeance. He was a Spackle slave in New Haven, who watched his one in particular,  die to keep him safe. Forced to work under Prentiss's command and brand...

The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2)  by Patrick Ness ***Spoiler Alert*** If you haven't read Book 1 and hate spoilers, do not read this review!  There is absolutely no way to review Book 2 without mentioning the events and characters in Book 1. If you really want to know: Read on. ---------- “We are the choices we make. And have to make. We aren’t anything else.”  The Ask and the Answer is a little bit different than The Knife of Never Letting Go...The story pretty much starts where The Knife's cliffy lets us hanging... Viola's life hanging in the balance and Todd facing down evil Mayor Prentiss with no hope in sight. But in part 2 of Chaos Walking, Viola and Todd become separated, and so the story is told from two perspectives. His and hers. Through Todd we learn Haven surrendered to Mayor Prentiss, who then changed Haven's name to New Prentisstown and declared himself President of the New World. Mayor Prentiss is a sick tw...