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Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult Main characters: Kendra and Seth Sorenson Time and place: somewhere in the US (Connecticut?), 2006 or so First sentence: “Kendra stared out the side window of the SUV, watching foliage blur past.” Summary: When their parents leave them with their paternal grandparents for a few weeks Kendra and Seth can do nothing but complain. What will they do all that time in the middle of nowhere? Not to mention their grandfather didn’t seem much pleased to have them either. Little do the kids know that they are about to embark in the adventure of a lifetime. “Drink the milk”, a book that Kendra has discovered says. They drank and, under their amazed eyes, all the wonderful butterflies roaming the grandfather’s estate turned to fairies. ‘Cause this was no ordinary estate but Fablehaven, one of the few magical creatures preserves in the world.

General impression
I know that after reading The Iron King a few days ago I concluded I had to take a break from YA, and yet here I am, just having read yet another YA book. Unfortunately the result is the exact same: I found it boring to tears, despite it being very appreciated by the rest of the word (4.10 on Goodreads, about 4 sequels to date). A major sign that I really really really have to give YA up for at least a while.

This being said, I may be considered extra picky, but just look at the first few sentences: “Kendra stared out the side window of the SUV, watching foliage blur past. When the flurry of motion became too much, she looked up ahead and fixed her gaze on a particular tree, following it as it slowly approached, streaked past, and then gradually receded behind her.” How can trees blur past and yet slowly approach at the same time?? Is this a promising beginning for a book?

Characters
This is my major problem with the book actually, the characters. Their lack of interesting traits for one thing. The fact that every time I read the name Kendra the only other Kendra I ever read about came to my mind didn’t much help. The fact that Seth seemed to have a profound inability to follow the rules didn’t much help either (on the contrary, he must be the single most annoying character I “met” in recent years; I get the idea that boys like adventures and breaking the rules, but this Seth guy managed to push the limit farther than far, including in life and death situations when he, fascinatingly enough, firmly believed he knew better than anyone else, and acted accordingly; not only that but he never learns from his mistakes, despite his grandfather’s always explaining him things in no uncertain terms). Looking at the bright side, Kendra was almost his very opposite, always thinking before she leaped, and so on. Which means that she didn’t annoy me as her brother did, although unfortunately I didn’t find her particularly interesting either. Overall I was way too annoyed at Seth’s behaviour to care about what happens to him or anyone else, a thing that naturally enough brought my enjoyment of the book to 0.

A character I did like was Lena, the naiad-turned-human. She was quite interesting, not in the least because of her abilities (but does anyone actually believe in the possibility of her sketching a paint-by-numbers with more than ninety colors? And then an amateur, like the children were, being able to mix the paints to match all the ninety samples?)

Also, can I say I loved Viola the huge cow? I know that she hardly does anything throughout the book, but still, it is a huge cow, I simply had to like her :)

Relationships
Although one of the kids mostly annoyed me, while the other was interesting but not interesting enough, I have much enjoyed reading about the relationship between them. They always banter with one another, and it’s the very kind of banter that I love seeing in books and that I think very few writers can actually write (Yasmine Galenorn will probably always come to my mind when it comes to this kind of banter done wrong). The relationship between siblings at that age I think is wonderfully drawn, and it’s definitely one of the fortes of the book.

Plot
The plot seemed to me to be rather thin, since very few things actually happen (or so it seemed to me). It’s kinda hard to care about the plot when you don’t care whether the characters live or die, so… meh. The plot was probably there, I couldn’t care less, that’s about all I have to say about it.

Although now that I think about it there was sort of a detail that has somewhat bothered me: all the praise the grandfather heaps on the children for being able to solve his puzzle and discover his fairies. Also, it felt rather weird for the grandfather to change his version of events almost daily — “don’t go to the woods ’cause there are ticks”, “well, I lied, don’t go to the woods ’cause there are dangerous animals there”, “no, I lied, don’t go to the woods ’cause there are all sorts of magical creatures”. Not a very good example, is he? And the puzzle, really? Was that even a puzzle, having to find three keyholes and a book??

Speaking of the puzzle, and “drinking the milk”, am I the only one who found it a bit strange when Kendra, told that the milk was essentially “a bacterial stew” and not daring to drink it herself, convinced her brother to take a sip? At that moment in time, with the knowledge she had then, it felt almost like making him drink poison to see whether he’ll feel sick afterwards. And to think I earlier commented on the great relationship between the two.

Setting
Well, at least Fablehaven is a great place to be in. I must say I would have enjoyed visiting there for a few days (while, of course, keeping away from the woods, and the ponds, and every other dangerous place) :P

Thoughts on the title
I love it :) I love both the word and the idea it depicts. I don’t imagine a better one could have been found.

Thoughts on the ending
I don’t quite know what to think of it. First of all because by then I was almost skimming the pages, just to see the book over with, already. I do admit it was quite nicely done though, probably the best one in the circumstances (although I very much disliked the part with getting blood from my precious Viola), and I would probably have enjoyed it had I actually cared about the characters :|

show spoiler

What I liked most
I loved to imagine the fairies :)
The author has chosen to make almost all fairies look different from one another (one with wings patterned like a ladybug was my favorite, and another with the wings looking like stained glass), and imagining how each of them might look like was definitely the thing I enjoyed most.

What I liked least
Since I have already listed all sorts of details I did not like, there’s nothing much that remains to be said here. I will just mention the cover — the reason why I started reading this book is that the cover depicts a friendly old lady, a green one, with playful eyes and a knowing smile, daring the reader to enter her world. A green lady whom I was looking forward to discover and get to know, so you probably imagine my disappointment when I realized there was no such friendly, mysterious lady in the book (quite the opposite actually).

Recommend it to?
As usual, given the fact that lots of people love this book, I recommend to everyone who loves YA to at least give it a try, despite my huge list of “meh” elements found in it.

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Genre: Fairytale Main characters: Talia Time and place: Once upon a time :) First sentence: “The booted feet stopped before me as I sat on the ground, hugging my knees.” Summary: The princess that will remain in fairytale history as the Sleeping Beauty has just been born, and has just been cursed. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so her distraught parents order the destruction of all the spinning wheels in the kingdom. A thing that brings Talia’s hopes for a better future to an end. Without her spinning wheel there is no way for her to earn her bread, much less to gather a dowry. Without a dowry, she cannot marry her betrothed. Her only consolation is her plan to have a child by him, a little girl to chase away solitude, a little girl whose name’s already been picked. But after a while it becomes obvious that Thalia cannot have children, so she tries to quench her thirst for love into the arms of a string of men, all having something or other in common with the one she has, ages ago, been in love with.

General impression
A cute take on a fairytale we all know and love. A bit more sex than I expected, but a lot less than it could have been (there are sex scenes but there are not very many details about any of them). A fast read, with a bit of darkness added in for good measure (after all, we can never properly appreciate true happiness unless we’ve seen sorrow, right?).

Characters
The main character, Talia, is an interesting one: she is rather on the ugly side, complete with warts on her face, and yet men find her sexually attractive, which means she must have something about her. Despite the hardships she endures (and the fact that she seeks consolation, without finding it, in the arms of many men), she is essentially a good person, and one is sorry to see her being so miserable and alone. Luckily this is a fairytale so it must end well, right? :)

Relationships
I happen to very much like the love stories where ordinary-looking people fall for each other, and as such I loved reading about Talia’s meeting Willard, and their marriage plans. Sure, at first they didn’t seem to care that much about one another (their decision to be married being based on both of them’s certainty that no one else will ever want them), and I wasn’t that interested in them either, however after a while, when their feelings developed and crystallized, I … well, I wasn’t able to root for them, since by then Willard was already at a monastery, but I kept thinking fondly of what might have been. An interesting thing, to become invested in a relationship after it has already run its course; but Talia kept thinking about him fondly, and, as I was right beside her, so did I.

Plot
There’s relatively little plot, since this is a novella and all. Interestingly enough though, most of it was unexpected for me, going into a whole other direction than I thought it would have. A pleasant surprise, of course :)

Setting
I am not entirely sure how believable the setting is. Don’t get me wrong, the medieval rural life is okay enough done, but the thing that puzzled me a bit is the fact that royal heads seemed to be walking among ordinary people a bit more often than I thought they would be. A thing that detracts a tiny bit from the credibility of it all (but then again, we’re talking about a fairytale here so no one expects 100% credibility, right?).

Thoughts on the title
I don’t remember there being any sevenfold spell in the original fairytale (nor was I certain what the idea of a sevenfold spell actually entails), everything becomes clearer in the last third of the book. So yes, it’s an okay title I guess.

Thoughts on the ending
The ending was, of course, worthy of a fairytale. “And they lived happily ever after”. I loved it, of course, especially as it was a tiny bit unexpected :)

What I liked most
The very reason why I picked this book up, and the thing that I enjoyed most, was the whole idea behind the book, about what happens to the ordinary girls in the kingdom when someone sets a curse on the princess. A novel perspective if there ever was one, I think.

What I liked least
There’s nothing that has actually bothered me (although to be honest I didn’t quite get why the mother’s words became a spell, but since it was a rather cute addition to the story I will not protest that much).

Recommend it to?
Anyone in the mood for a quick light read. Fairies, spinning wheels, and a happy ending await you :)

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Genre: Young Adult Main characters: Meghan Chase Time and place: about 2010, mostly Nevernever (a land of magical faeries) First sentence: “Ten years ago, on my sixth birthday, my father disappeared.” Summary: On Meghan Chase’s 16th birthday she came home to find her little brother vastly changed, for the worse. “He is a changeling”, Robbie, her best friend told her, and from then on the world around her started to make sense less and less. Turned out her real brother was kidnapped by faeries, her real father was Oberon, the king of faeries himself, and Robbie’s name was actually Robin Goodfellow, the Puck mentioned in Shakespeare’s A Midnight Summer’s Dream.

General impression
It seems to me that now would be a good time for me to stop reading Young Adult books, because it seems like none of the hyped books of the genre appeals to me. This happened with Shiver (everyone loved it, I didn’t much like it), with Graceling (everyone loved it, I didn’t much like it), and now it’s almost happening with this book too (everyone loves it, I plodded through it). Bummer.

Characters
This is one of the reasons it took me quite a while to finish this book: most of the time I didn’t much care for Meghan. OK, she did care for her younger brother, I’ll give her that (and loyalty may well be her major flaw, as another character said of her). Other than that though she simply wasn’t that interesting to me, she didn’t stand out at all (sure, she does have quite a brave moment somewhere near the end, but most of the time everything interesting happens to the people around her, and she’s more being led from one place to another rather than actively doing things). Luckily the rest of the cast were a bit more interesting, starting with Puck, whom I found rather annoyingly and irresponsible at times (but who also had a very interesting strategy when it came to fighting — he could turn various bits of nature into copies of himself). My favorites were Grimalkin the cat sidhe, (mostly because he was a cat, but also because he knew what he was doing, without being annoying like Puck was) and, quite predictably, Ash, the Winter prince himself, because he was the only character with a hint of complexity. Not to mention he looked pretty cool too :)

Oh, and let’s not forget the little junk collecting creatures, the chittering gnomes collecting all sorts of stuff on their backs — I found them to be amusing and quite a nice touch.

Relationships
For the most part I think the relationships between the characters were believable and well described. The relationship between Oberon and Meghan seemed to be a particularly well drawn one, as she is initially upset to discover she has such an unusual dad (while the man that she called father was nothing to her), and he does care for her, but in a rather distant way (a natural way to act towards a daughter you know nothing about, I suppose). The love story was rather cute, especially as it was sort of a late arrival, happening only in the last third of the book (not that it wasn’t rather predictable, mind you; I liked it nevertheless, it’s one of my favorite parts of the book).

At the other end of the believability spectrum we have show spoiler

Plot
This is a plot-based novel, but if you asked me the plot didn’t amount to much: girl, looking for her brother, gets caught into various skirmishes, the end. A thing that could have had lots of potential to keep me on the edge of my seat, if only I cared about the main character. Since I didn’t, it all became boring rather quickly. “Oh, another fight, there goes the prince swinging his ice sword again, yawn”. Sure, to give credit where credit is due, the author has imagined various situations, various enemies, and various reasons to fight, but unfortunately my not caring who lived and who died ruined them all.

Setting
The setting, I would say, is the forte of the book. There are three parts of Nevernever, each with its own decor, and the author has done a great job imagining and describing them. I almost saw the colors of Summer, shivered in the Winter, and felt the desolation of Machina’s kingdom. The world came to life, and naturally enough, I liked it :)

A quote, one of my favorite descriptions in the book, about Queen Mab:

“She wasn’t tall, like Oberon, or willowy-thin, like Titania, but her presence drew every eye in the courtyard. Her hair was so black it appeared blue in places, and it spilled down her back like a waterfall of ink. Her eyes were of the void, of a night without stars, a sharp contrast to her marble skin and her pale mulberry lips. She wore a dress that writhed around her like shadow incarnate. And, like Oberon and Titania, she radiated power.”

On the other hand, something I didn’t much like, quite the opposite, was the fact that the magic system was not clearly defined, a thing that really affected the believability of the world in my eyes. We are never told what faeries can or cannot do and, although many brag of power throughout the book, most of the time the matters are settled in the old fashioned, sword-in-hand way — something that seemed to me rather pointless, since using magic would have been a way more expedient way to finish off one’s enemies. The most annoying example of this is at a banquet where the most powerful faeries participated (including Titania who earlier has turned Meghan into a sort of deer, so she did have magic powers). A monster makes a surprise entrance and starts killing off whoever’s in his path — now, the logical thing to be done would have been for someone able to use magic to at least trap it somewhat, right? But no, everyone sends a small army to defeat the monster the ordinary way, and then they even complain that some of their people died in battle! So why didn’t they put a stop to it first? At least if there would have been an explanation, something like, I don’t know, faerie magic only works on faeries, anything, it might have made more sense, but the way things were handled it just didn’t.

Thoughts on the title
I like the title, particularly the sound and the strength of it. Although I would have liked it a lot better if the word iron would have been replaced with metal in the book; this way I wasted too much time trying to discover whether an iPod really has iron inside it or not — it sure has metal, of course, but iron? Most knives I don’t think have iron in them either. Are bullets made of iron?
… and so on and so forth. Everything would have been easier for me had the author just said metal, and leave it at that (though I agree that iron sounds a lot better, ha).

Thoughts on the ending
I think it made me discover a new pet peeve: I really really don’t like books that end with a forced cliffhanger. Various hints have been left throughout the book (some of them quite interesting, as what has really happened to Meghan’s father? I’m quite curious about that), and it was obvious that there was going to be a sequel, did it really need to close in that particular way? I really don’t like it when author do things like that, closing a book just as the reader is getting involved in a particular matter, as it seems to me a strategy that screams “I want to make money so bad I don’t care about your experiences as a reader, so I will frustrate you enough to buy my next book”. Blech.

What I liked most
The whole theory surrounding the existence of the Iron King, and the Iron Fey:

“[...] the fey were born from the dreams of mortals [...]. Well, what if these things [...] are born of different dreams? Dreams of technology, and progress? Dreams of science? What if the pursuit of ideas that once seemed impossible — flight, steam engines, the Worldwide Web — gave birth to a whole different species of faery?”

All the more so since it seems like new characters appeared with the technological advancements: at first the ruler was Ferrum, iron itself, and then, as technology progressed, others like Virus, Glitch, and the bugs were born. I so like the idea of an iron horse (it looks very cool the way I imagine it), as it probably has something to do with horsepower, and engines. An interesting idea if you ask me :)

But. Much as I love the idea behind the iron fey I sense somewhat of a plot hole here: show spoiler

What I liked least
Some of the names. Nevernever for one. Like Neverland but not quite it. I’m not fond of the idea, not only because of its lack of originality but also because I don’t see a reason why faeries would name their land like that, “never” being a misnomer since they do exist right there and then.

There’s also a twig-like creature named Twiggy (very distinguished, right?) and an iron horse named Ironhorse (a bummer, since he was majestic enough to be given any warrior-ish name).

On an unrelated note, why did one of Machina’s Knights look like a doppelganger of Ash’s?

Recommend it to?
Sigh. The book has a rating of 4.13 on Goodreads, which means I should encourage anyone who enjoys YA books and faerie stories to give it a try.

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Genre: Epic Fantasy Main characters: Rand al’Thor, Egwene al’Vere, Nynaeve al’Meara, Elayne Trakand, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Faile ni Bashere t’Aybara (to name but a few) Time and place: the Wheel of Time Universe, around 1000 NE or so (I think)(according to the Glossary, Moiraine has started her quest to find the Dragon Reborn in 978 NE; she’d been searching for about twenty years when he found him, and a few years have passed since). First sentence: “Demandred stepped out onto the black slopes of Shayol Ghul, and the gateway, a hole in reality’s fabric, winked out of existence.” Summary: With Tarmon Gai’don looming closer and closer, Rand is doing his best to prepare for it, by gathering around him as many men who can be taught to channel as he can find. Wanting to get rid of the responsibility he has for both Cairhien and Andor, as he is now the ruler of both, he sends Mat to track down Elayne, the rightful heir. However, she has other plans, ending up in Ebou Dar, together with her usual companions (Nynaeve, Birgitte, Thom and Juilin), plus Aviendha. The Aes Sedai in Salidar also make plans for the future, electing a new Amyrlin and getting ready to attack Tar Valon. They also send an embassy to get the Dragon on their side, an embassy that reached Andor and Rand about the same time the one from Tar Valon, come with the very same purpose, did.

General impression
“Boy, that is one long book”, was my dominant thought while reading, followed closely by “Another character? How am I expected to keep track of them all??”.

So this was book six, the one where all but the most valiant fans of the series are said to abandon the quest. Well, I cannot quite blame them, especially as for me each of the books has been a little less captivating than the one before (yes, the first one is still my absolute favorite of them all). If only there weren’t that many characters… at times I simply lose track of who’s who and my interest in the story plummets. I have this problem with almost every large group of people (I can’t tell the Aiel from one another, with few exceptions, which makes me very uninterested in almost everything regarding them; I can’t tell the nobles from one another, with few exceptions, which makes me very uninterested in almost everything regarding them; I can’t tell about half of the Salidar Aes Sedai from one another… etc).

Characters
Did I mention there’s plenty of them?

One character I find promising is Mazrim Taim: always in control, never afraid. Speaking of which, I am also fairly curious about the way Logain will develop from now on. Gawyn too is beginning to show some promise, if only he weren’t a Whitecloak (those Whitecloaks being the bunch of characters I couldn’t bring myself to care about almost from the very beginning)
As far as the female characters are concerned, I tend to agree with the people who say that they all act as one, and they are all spending too much time acting superior, or offended, or both. I don’t remember any of them smiling for a while now, a thing that’s particularly disappointing when it comes to Elayne, whom I initially thought had a good sense of humor. Luckily there is one exception to the rule, and that’s Min (my current favorite character). show spoiler

Plot
In a perhaps funny turn of events, the book dragged on for so long that by the time I was nearing the end I couldn’t be actually certain what events have happened in this book and which of them in the previous one (I had to go check out the Wikipedia article in order to write the summary). There wasn’t much plot as I see it, a thing that probably is tightly connected to the way the book seemed to be dragging on endlessly at times. At least this “detail” is corrected sometimes near the end, when Rand (previously too strong to be even threatened, much less defeated) falls into a trap. From that point on I actually started getting interested in what I was reading, making the remaining pages (about 20% of them) fly by. So yeah, there is a plot, but one has to be really patient to get to it :)

Setting
I love the world that Mr. Jordan has created. I love the way magic is done here, with the flows of different elements, that have to be woven in different ways and so on. I love the way every land has its different customs and clothing styles. Sure, I am getting a bit confused by the geography of it at times, but other that that I am quite fond of it :)

Thoughts on the title
I love it. I find it a perfect metaphor for what Rand is: someone who polarizes people either with or against him. The battle at the end (where Aes Sedai fight against Aes Sedai and Aiel against Aiel) is the perfect illustration of the idea.

Thoughts on the ending
I liked the ending so much I even had a surge of enthusiasm, wanting for a short moment to pick the next book right up to see what happens next. Did I mention I like Mazrim Taim?

What I liked most
Mazrim Taim and his Asha’man at the end. Such flawless control (“Asha’man, do this! Asha’man, do that!”, and they all acted as one), wow.
Also, the fact that Loial may well have found his chosen one, I’m looking forward to see how this part develops :) (oh, and Mat is getting closer and closer to his Daughter of the Nine Moons too, ha! I’m so very looking forward to that too :) ).

What I liked least
(something that goes for the series so far on the whole)
show spoiler

Also, is it me or the vast majority of the words in the Old Tongue contain apostrophes? At first I loved seeing an apostrophe now and then, making a particular word look more exotic, but these days I think the Old Tongue is suffering for a sort of apostrophe overload :(

Recommend it to?
Anyone who has a great deal of patience and is curious what happens next. Take heart, there’s only a few more books left :)

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This book is a sequel to:
The Eye of the World | The Great Hunt | The Dragon Reborn | The Shadow Rising | The Fires of Heaven

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Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Main characters: Teagan “Tea” Wylltson, Aidan Wylltson, Finn MacCumhaill Time and place: contemporary Chicago + Mag Mell First sentence: “Please, Teagan Wylltson’s fingers curled in American Sign Language as she spoke.” Summary: Teagan’s life was a fairly normal one, split between school and her part time job at an animal clinic. One day Tea’s cousin Finn puts in an appearance, coming to live with Tea’s family as they are his closest relatives. And that is when the lines between real and impossible start to blur, as Finn comes followed by all sorts of creatures straight from the pages of Irish mythology books.

This is the second book I got via NetGalley and boy was I glad I did. Even more so since I started reading it straight after The Secret of Ka (a book I did not quite like, to say the least), and I was happy to see that this book scores in every single aspect that one failed to deliver. Let us consider the dialogues for example, I absolutely loved the lines the characters had in this book (the light banter between Teagan’s parents was a favorite part of mine), making me actually stop and wonder how is it that some writers (like Ms. Hamilton here) can write enjoyable, authentic-sounding lines, while others simply can’t. It is then very appropriate to say that this book was an encouragement to me, and a breath of fresh air (in an “phew, enjoyable books do still exist” sort of way).

The characters were quite interesting and easy to like. Teagan is a teenage girl who loves animals (a trait I love seeing in books) and who has her future already planned out, as she works her way towards a scholarship at a very prestigious school. She is very little prepared for the strange things fate starts, all of the sudden, to throw her way, but she does the best she can to handle the situation, while also trying to protect everyone around her. Her little brother, Aidan, is five and right now one of my favorite kids in literature, as he is smart, and brave, and (in his own words) awesome :) I loved the way he was very opinionated about Elvis Impersonators (in his mind calling someone an EI was one of the worst insults ever, as he considered them pathetic because they were unable to create their own music :) ). As for Finn, he is the Mac Cumhaill, a responsibility he shoulders diligently, and of course I liked that (how could I not?). Despite having spent some years on the streets, he has been lucky enough to meet some very good role models, so he has grown up to be as close to perfection as possible. Needless to say I loved reading about him :)

The supporting characters were colorful and, too, a pleasure to meet: Abby the Italian, whose family “knows some people”; Abby’s cousins, nicknamed the Turtles because they happened to have the same names as the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Raynor Schein (“rain or shine” :) ) and his beloved car Brynhild; Lucy the sprite; Ida, the grandmother with a direct line to the Almighty, and more.

The plot is fast paced and interesting, and plunges the reader in a world that I for one knew nothing about. Mag Mell, “the plain of joy”, the former home of one Fionn Mac Cumhaill, hero of legends. I very much enjoyed the descriptions of that place, as, without being too wordy, they managed to evoke very well the feeling one got while being there (or so I thought). The frogs with little vests and long walking sticks were a nice addition too. :)

The relationships and interactions between people were also well written and believable. My favorite part regarding that is the bond that develops between Finn (the ragtag teenager who lived on the street) and Aidan (the still-innocent five-year old), because I simply didn’t expect them to go so well together (for some reason I expected Finn to feel awkward around a small kid), and this particular development was one I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, the author has chosen to manage the love story (or is it stories?) in the book in such a way that the relationship felt romantic and vibrant. The tension between the characters is easily felt, despite the lack of any mention of anything sexual. I loved the way this part was written, and I rooted for the protagonists all throughout the book.

A quote I liked (from the Irish prayer of the Wylltson family):

“I do not ask for a path with no trouble or regret. I ask instead for a friend who’ll walk with me down any path.
I do not ask never to feel pain. I ask instead for courage, even when hope can scarcely run through.”

Thoughts on the title: To be totally honest I am not sure what the title is about. It clearly references a poem of William Blake’s (The Tyger), a poem that is recited at one time by one of the characters as a warning. A thing I take to imply the dark, and mysterious things that haunt the book. “Reader, beware” and so on. I kinda like that :)

Thoughts on the ending: Oh lovely ending :)
I loved it and the particular way it implies there is going to be more to the story later on. The last page was particularly endearing for some reason (but hey, why did Thomas grow feathers? I’m dying to know :) )

What I liked most: show spoiler

What I liked least: There was a particular scene I was not fond of (show spoiler

Recommend it to? Anyone who likes YA books :)

Buy this from amazon.com | Buy this from bookdepository.co.uk | Kersten Hamilton’s site | “The Tyger”, page from Blake’s book, printed c. 1795 (pretty!)

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Genre: Fantasy Main characters: Sara Sashee Wilcox, Amesh Demir Time and place: contemporary Istanbul First sentence: “An entire summer in Turkey alone with my father.” Summary: Sara’s summer seems very boring, spending her time alone in a foreign country, until the day two wonderful things happen: first, she meets Amesh, a boy she almost instantly falls in love with, and second, she discovers a magic carpet. The three of them (Sara, Amesh, and the carpet) set off in search of adventure, finding it on a mysterious island inhabited by djinn.

This is the first book I got via NetGalley, and I am very sorry to say I hated its guts. While I do know it is a children’s book and I shouldn’t have too high expectations from it, I was nevertheless thoroughly disappointed (and I very much enjoy well written children’s books so I do think I came to it with the correct mindset).

The premise of the book was rather exciting: young girl finds magic carpet and has a series of adventures, it sounded pretty cool and somewhat original (it’s been a while since I read a book with a magic carpet as character). The execution though was unfortunately far worse than I would have expected from such an established writer like Mr. Pike.

For starters, the characters are anything but constant, their behaviour radically changing from scene to scene. Sara is at times wise beyond her years, at others acting like an incredibly silly schoolgirl. Amesh… well, I kinda very much disliked Amesh so I am not sure I’m doing him justice here, but he was so very annoying most of the time: first he complained about everything, plus felt jealous of anything regarding Sara and the carpet; afterwards he acted in such a rough and silly manner I wanted to smack him; then his thirst for revenge clouded his judgement, and so on, only to have him transform miraculously in a perfect mate for Sara later on. A less than believable change if there ever was one.

The relationship between the characters also felt very contrived: they’ve known each other for two days, most of whom Amesh acted like the jerk, and yet Sara is so foolishly in love with him she is making a huge sacrifice in order to save him in one particular instance (possibly endangering the very fate of mankind), shrugging things off by saying something about her love for “a certain Turkish boy”. The same boy who treated her bad not half an hour before and was threatening to kill her own father at that very moment. Does that give a good example to young girls?

The plot itself is rather shaky at best: a good idea, but all the details were rather hastily set together. Including one of my pet peeves, the fact that sometimes Sara just knows things out of the blue (a thing I absolutely hate in books). The psychological impact of any revelation is vastly ignored, making the characters lose even more depth and believability (show spoiler

Thoughts on the title: Having just finished the book I can confess I have no idea who Ka is (he’s been mentioned, but only vaguely) and what exactly his secret is. While Sara does get to find out a lot of unexpected things throughout the pages, I am not sure which of them is the secret that’s so important the book was named after it. “The Carpet of Ka” would have been a far better title IMHO.

Thoughts on the ending: I am fairly certain the ending is paving the way for a sequel :) “Oh Sara, there are many things that need to be done” and so on. Other than that it was enjoyable, but not overwhelmingly so.

What I liked most: Some of the details were nice :) show spoiler

What I liked least: I thought that most of the dialogues were pretty unauthentic-sounding :( A pity since a huge part of the book consists of them.

Recommend it to? Children and children only.

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Genre: Fantasy Main characters: Alyss Heart, King Arch, Homburg Molly Time and place: Wonderland/19th century England First sentence: “Bibwit Harte, most learned albino in the land, tutor and adviser to four generations of Heart queens, bustled along a path on the grounds of Heart Palace.” Summary: With Imagination in Wonderland being extinguished, both Alyss and Redd are turned powerless. It’s time for King Arch to step up — and he does, naming himself King of the former queendom of Wonderland. When WILMA’s effect wears off, and the imagination is back on, Arch finds help in a most unexpected quarter: the caterpillar oracles themselves come to him, with advice on how best to get rid of Alyss Heart.

Having absolutely loved The Looking Glass Wars, I simply cannot believe how hard I find it to plod through this one. The fact that there has been more than a year between my reading the previous book and this one didn’t help matters either.

The reason for that I think is that the author has stopped bothering with world-building (and relationships-building, and anything-else-building) a while ago. While the first book was carefully crafted, with all sorts of details and depth, the second one was only riding on its coattails, very few details, if any, being added. As for this one… this book is just a series of battles one after the other (and to be honest I was so little invested in the characters I didn’t much care who won most of the time).

Ironically enough, in the beginning the author does try to add some actual feelings to the book, and manages to do that in the worst place possible: in Hatter Maddigan. The Hatter, whose best assets were his loyalty and his self assurance. Ha bloody ha, just take a wild guess as of what traits of his were affected. Not to mention Homburg Molly becomes such a whiny creature one wants rather to smack her than understand what she’s going through. After this initial outburst, there are no other actual, deep feelings between any of the characters. And the relationship that suffers more is the one between Alyss and Dodge: instead of being lovers, instead of making the reader feel their love for one another, and root for them, they are… not exactly friends but somewhere around there, with no passion being felt between them, no… nothing (very disappointing, especially as I seem to remember the situation was vastly different in book 1). It’s like the author thought this part was already taken care of, and there was no need for him to do more about this couple — oh my, how wrong he was.

Actually, everything good has changed: whereas in the first book I was excited to see Mr. Beddor’s own take on the things we all knew and loved in Alice’s Wonderland universe, in this one there is almost nothing left of that. We still have the same main characters from the first book, but other than that Mr. Beddor is driving the story in a whole new direction. See this quote for example:

He explained that the satchels contained ID badges as well as subcutaneous ID chips, eyeglasses that presented to munitions factory security scanners a complete genetic makeup and 3-D image of eyeballs belonging to those with the highest clearance, and second-skin gloves with vetted fingerprints—all of which were needed to get the queen into his lab at the munitions factory.

… things that aren’t bad in themselves, but have no place in a spin-off of Alice in Wonderland! If I wanted to read a sort of SciFi-ish thriller, I would have, but I was expecting something completely different here: more creative, more colorful, simply more interesting than “let’s all get weapons and beat up the opposing team(s)”.

Oh, and the strange onomatopoeia are still there (“popzzzzlllpipipopzzzx!“), and still too often used. Not to mention the sentences ending with –, this time used seemingly with no sense at all: these sentences used to mean something sudden happened, and I kept imagining a movie where the camera suddenly changes angles to reveal something previously hidden (a rather cool thing, albeit quite overused in Book 2); however in this book some of the –s are there simply for the sake of their being there, nothing to do with actual suspense. show spoiler

Thoughts on the title: So-and-so. As titles go, “Seeing Redd” was a lot better. They tried to make the same thing work here (Arch being the name of the villain and all), but the effect is somewhat obscure and somewhat ruined by the capital E in the middle of the word (which is as subtle as a flying brick).

Thoughts on the ending: Unsurprisingly enough, I couldn’t care less (other that being happy the book was over at last).
show spoiler

What I liked most: It was a surprise to me how few things I actually liked in the book overall (about three or so: the way the imagination on Earth was connected to the one in Wonderland (when one disappears so does the other) (although having imaginative abilities is one thing and becoming completely listless is another); Mutty P. Dumphy’s invention, very similar to a gum/crayon in old cartoons, able to redesign reality as one sees fit (a cool idea but very little exploited + it did seem a bit too much in the context, but oh, it had so much potential :) ); show spoiler

What I liked least: I really don’t remember whether “the imagination eye” was present in previous books, but I don’t think it was, because in previous books things, you know, made sense. In this one each time Alyss/Red have a problem they send their imagination eye and find out anything they need and more. A very convenient manner, of course, but where’s the challenge in that? It’s simply too boring for the reader, especially as it happens quite often. Adding to that the fact that the oracles also pop-in and out of the picture, and they supposedly know everything that is, or was, or will be, the conclusion is that everyone simply knows too much for actual challenges to exist, or actual suspense.

Recommend it to? Whoever has recently finished Seeing Redd (with recently being a very important word).

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This book is a sequel to:
The Looking Glass Wars | Seeing Redd


The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

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