Kristen Britain - Green Rider and First Rider's Call

    First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain is the second book in the Green Rider fantasy series.  I read the first book, Green Rider, in July 2011, but did not review it.  I'm not sure why, I think it is because I was not in a writing mood at the time.  I wish I had, as ever since, I've been recommending Green Rider to everyone I know who reads fantasy and hasn't read this series yet. I am really enjoying this series. So, to make up for this oversight, here is my review of Green Rider, and following, First Rider's Call.
                                 

The world of Green Rider is developed well, set in the land of Sacoridia. Karigan G'ladheon is the heroine, a merchant's daughter, who is expelled from her school, and on her way home, discovers a man dying on the road.  He has been shot with two black arrows, and begs her to deliver the message he carries in his messenger back, to the king, for him.  She agrees, and he dies, and off she goes.  That is not the end of him, however, as the black arrows are poisoning his spirit, and drawing him to the evil that lurks over the wall dividing the land from where ancient evil resides.

   Karigan is young, and some readers might be put off by this, but this is not a young adult fantasy.  There are adult themes in this series, and Karigan has to grow up in a hurry.  Karigan hears the call of the Horn, that calls people from all over Sacoridia to answer, to come be a Green Rider and carry messages for the King to the provinces and their leaders, all over the land. She has a horse, Condor, and discovers that she has her own talents as well. It's a thrilling ride, with ghosts, evil spirits, and a background of war from a thousand years ago, and Karigan discovers that the legacy of that war lives on in the world around her, in a continuing fight of good vs evil.  The other Riders are all different ages and from different nationalities, there are different provinces under the king, that have very different origins.

Unfortunately, I have lent my copy of Green Rider to a friend so she could try the series, so I can't refer to the book for my review. I remember how much I enjoyed it, and wondered why it had taken me so long to read it.   Here is a link to the Amazon.ca book reviews.   I know that after I read it, I went out and bought the second one shortly after.
                                                       
 This past weekend, I picked up my copy of  First Rider's Call,  and I read it in 2 days.  I just could not put it down.  I stayed up late, and read until my eyes were blurry the next day and I had to take a break.  There is something about her writing and the pacing of this series that makes it hard to put down. There is a breathless quality that is wonderful and refreshing.  I enjoyed the adventures, the different storylines, and the exploration of the magical gift or talent that each rider gets when they accept to be a rider.   We get to know more about some of the characters around Karigan as well. First Rider's Call opens a year after the events in Green Rider.  Karigan has gone home, rejecting her role of Green Rider, but the Riders aren't finished with her yet. When she returns to court at long last, she finds that the riders are feeling weakened and diminished, as is her own magical talent - something is changing how the magic works for the Green Riders. And at the wall that divides Sacoridia from the Black Forest, something is stirring when the wall breaks at one point.  An old evil, from back in Sacoridia's history.  One that threatens the land if it breaks free.

The title also refers to the legendary creator of the Green Riders, Lil Ambriodhe, the First Rider, who plays a fairly large role as a ghost  in this book, still trying to round up her Riders for the fight to come.  Karigan has a link with her through the brooch she wears,which turns out to have been Lil's brooch when she was a Rider. Each brooch is handed down, choosing the rider each time, and then when the rider dies or leaves the Green Riders, the brooch goes back into a chest until the next rider for it comes along.  There are a few hundred brooches, so it's not like Karigan only had a few to choose from.  The magic of the brooches is one of the fantasy elements I enjoy in this series.

     It's a delightful series, and I am really enjoying it.  It's solid high fantasy, with a well-developed world and history, with all kinds of fun stuff in it.  And deadly danger.  In both books I ended up crying because someone died.  Being a Green Rider is a serious business, and dangerous as well.  I highly recommend this for anyone who is looking for pure escapist fun fantasy to read.  It has an engaging style and a fast pace, and I do like Karigan very much.  She is an interesting heroine.

So fun that when I received my mother's Day gift card for books, I promptly went out and bought book three, The High King's Tomb, with it.   I am now happily reading it tonight.  Book 4, The Black Veil,  is also  in my birthday box I am busy filling for my birthday next week.

I read First Rider's Call for Once Upon A Time 7.  And The High King's Tomb will be, too.

New Books in the house update:  

Yes, the spending spree continues!  I am making up for the read your own books challenge, most certainly.   I have been buying books for my birthday, though I will save those for next week when I can officially open the box.  In the meantime, I received a lovely Mother's Day book giftcard from my family, and I have spent it already:
High King's Tomb - Kristen Britain (reading already!)
The Last Policeman - Ben Winters (amazon linked)  - I am really excited to find The Last Policeman.  I had heard about it last year.   It's an end of the world dystopian fiction. If the world was going to end in 6 months, what would you do?  What's the point of solving murders if we are all going to die?  Hank Palace is the only cop who cares......


and just because I've been wanting to re-read it for some time now, I bought tonight:
Salem's Lot - Stephen King  - I can hardly wait to re-read this one.  Certain scenes in here are powerful and haunting for me, and lots of vampire deaths.

Other reviews of Green Rider:
Read-Warbler
Errant Dreams

First Rider's Call:
Errant Dreams
SF Site

and here is an interview with Kristen Britain from 2007, just before Book 3, The High King's Tomb was released, over at Fantasy Book Critic.

If you have reviewed either novel, let me know and I'll link to it.

Book Reviews......

I have so many books from my reading this year to review.  I have read some wonderful fantasy books for Once Upon a Time, and some excellent mysteries through the year so far.  I will be doing these as I can, as I do want to get back into at least putting my thoughts on what I've been reading, down here.

Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel - RIP

          Do you like psychics?  Have you ever been to a psychic fair? or had your palm read, or tarot cards done, or wondered if you have a spirit guide? If you believe the line of most new age spiritual books, everything is happy and light, and all we have to do is believe in love and happiness and it will be that way.  I myself have (and continue to do them every day) read tarot cards, and own some crystals, I've been to psychic fairs, had my palm read, and most importantly, I believe that life is a mix of good and bad things, and what I can control is my reaction to them. I've met some good psychics, and had the wonderful fortune to have as my spiritual teacher someone who could hear spirits on the other side. He never foretold the future, he was much more interested in getting people to heal and be responsible for themselves, which I thoroughly agree with. Still, I love the idea of getting a glimpse of the future, though any time the phone rings or the doorbell and I know who it is, or I have a dream that comes true, I do get  a shiver.  The uncanny is just that, and always will be, for me.

             
     The heroine of Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel is a psychic - or as she and the other psychics in the book call themselves, 'sensitives'. Alison Hart is the real thing.  The reason why I asked above if you have ever been to a psychic fair or know anything about psychic ability, is because there is alot of hocum and charlatans out there, some of which is discussed in a very amusing way in Beyond Black.  Most of all though, this is a book about Alison, and a journey into what it is really like to be psychic, and how this does not let you lead anything other than a typical life - except that you know things about others, that they don't know or understand.  And the ability to see the future, but because it comes in pieces, even to someone who is as gifted as Alison, there is never knowing all the pieces of the future.  Where would the fun be in that?  Even when we go to see a psychic, we don't really want to know everything that will happen to us. Alison never sees it all, she only gets bits and pieces, so she can't say it all much of the time, though occasionally she can see things through and through, and that is fascinating when that happens. 

Beyond Black is much more than just that.  Alison had a very unusual childhood, none of which gave her her gifts, but which she has had to overcome and escape .  She has had to create herself and her life as soon as she is old enough. Her mother is a piece of work.  There is no other word for Emmeline.  Probably one of the world's worst literary mothers. She horrified me.  All her neglect of Alison has left Alison exposed to the seedy underbelly of life. The worst part of it is, Alison's guide comes from this part of her life.  Because her guide attached to her early in her life, well before Alison had any idea she was sensitive, she had no choice.  Part of Beyond Black, is Alison exploring what she believes, and how her actions - for good or bad - have consequences.  Partly because of her awful early life, she tries to be good, in the hopes she can escape her hideous guide, Morris. And he is possibly the warning that people should be aware of when they dabble with opening themselves up to spirit and asking for guides to come - a very real danger that the guide you get, is not someone who walks a path of light. Who isn't easy to be around, dead or alive.  Isn't that scary?

Alison knows a group of sensitives that she does psychic fairs with, and it's fun to see them relate to one another, and talk behind one another's backs, just like any other group of people who have similar interests.  I know I've made this sound a heavy book when it isn't; there are moments that are really funny, and when her group of sensitives get together for their many shows together, it's hilarious how they backstab each other, and talk about one another. I also enjoyed how often many of them change what they do  in their quest to make money from New Age teachings. Alison is the most gifted of them, and they know it, even if they don't admit it. 

Part of the novel is about her relationship with Colette, who she meets during a psychic fair, and offer her a job to be her manager.  They live together for 10 years (as friends, and they have a funny moment as they sort this out too), at first idyllic, and then it begins to crumble.  The astonishing thing is the problem is Colette.  She is not a nice person, not kind, and it's only by the end of the book that I realized that Alison is trying to do good, to balance all the bad in her childhood - to balance the dark with light.  She is the unlikeliest of heroines, fat, soft-hearted, spoils herself, but as the layers of her life are revealed, it becomes the least of the things she can do for herself.  She is kind to everyone around her, and this becomes the light in the book.

 Colette is a possible sensitive, but she is unable/unwilling to open herself to it.  She is the polar opposite to Alison. Alison is willing to learn about herself, and see how her past has impacted on her, and take steps to fix it. Colette can't see the truth about anything, although she is a very good manager and organizer, what surprised me was how mean she was. She never learns, and it becomes amusing to see how she doesn't see things about herself .  The scenes between Colette and Alison, their relationship and how they talk to one another, are really well-done.  It's at the heart of the book, this relationship, and it's only at the end that I saw how Colette fit the picture of what Alison is trying to free herself from.  I really liked the ending to this book, what happened to them each, and how true it was. 

It is one of the truest accounts of being a psychic I have come across, a very good novel complete with spirits, ghosts, hauntings, spirit guides, and a look at what it means to be be a psychic, how vulnerable you really are.  Everyone wants to know, but who gives a thought to what it's like to always be open to spirits?  To feel them around you, always pressing to talk, no matter where you go?

I really enjoyed how the tarot cards are used and described, too, how Alison cares for them.  There is an amusing scene with Colette trying to read them, and how she can't.

I love how Alison frees herself, finally.  There is real evil here, real darkness, and she finds her way past it.  It's how she does it that gives this book it's heart and soul.  It's quite a journey, and quite a book.  Highly recommended, especially for anyone interested in psychic life, or is experienced in it, and for anyone who wants a good satisfying novel for RIP.  It is sufficiently creepy enough that you will never look at mediums and their guides in the same way again. 

***Edited to add: This was my third book read for RIP VII.  I'm having fun with this challenge this year.

Ghosts and Fringe

Here is such a cool post:  Neil Gaiman interviews Stephen King.  It was for the UK's Sunday Time Magazine, but because the paper is locked, Neil kindly posted the full interview on his blog.  How could anything be better than two of the favourite writers of our generation sitting down to talk writing, fame, and family?  I have to read Stephen's new book 11/22/63, which is coming out in paperback on July 5. 

Here are some reviews from bloggers so far on 22/1163:
Caribousmom
Becky's Book Reviews
Book Den
Rhapsody in Books
Bibliophile By the Sea

Continuing the theme of horror:
Ghosts......Emily over at Telecommuter Talk has a lovely post on the kind of ghost she likes to find in stories she reads. It got me to thinking, because I loved Caspar because he was a friendly ghost and Emily didn't, about the nature of ghosts and what we want in our ghost stories.   I write ghost stories too (like Emily),  as well as read them voraciously.  So, what she wants to know is, do you like your ghosts malevolent, or friendly?  Let Emily know.....For myself, I love a ghost story.  The scarier the ghost, the creepier the setting, the better the chill and the goose-flesh feeling.  It's very difficult to write a good ghost story, and while Emily quotes MR James (I am in the midst of reading a collection of his ghost stories), I myself think The Haunting of Hill House (by Shirley Jackson), The Shining (Stephen King), and The Woman in Black (Susan Hill) are three of the most frightening novels featuring ghosts ever written. They each came close to inducing a real state of fear in me, so much so that I had to keep checking that the doors were locked and no one could get in.  Stephen, in the interview above, talks about writing a sequel to The Shining, called Dr Sleep.  Danny Torrance, all grown up, and still with the shining.   Let me tell you, I don't care if it's in hardcover and weighs 20 pounds, I will find some way to buy it the day it comes out and get it home, and lock myself in my house to get it read uninterrupted. Then there's Joyland, about a serial killer in an amusement park. That one is creepy just to think about!  Oh, I can hardly wait!  So I have to say Emily is right:  malevolent ghosts make the best horror stories. 

I do have to say that I love sad ghost stories too.  I think I just love ghost stories, period.  If you like ghost stories, is there a kind that you prefer? Victorian?  Modern?  Angry ghosts, vengeful ghosts, sad ghosts?  How about haunted things?

Some recent books featuring ghosts that I really enjoyed are:
The Secrets of Pain - Phil Rickman (Oh, I haven't reviewed this one yet, bad me, this was so good and eerie and one of the best sense of being haunted books I have read recently)
Maureen Johnston's The Name of the Star (this was particularly frightening and riveting, I loved it, still have to review it)
Dark Matter - Michelle Paver - this was terrifying and fabulous and yet another to review.  Go read it if you haven't.
Anya's Ghost - Vera Brosgol  (graphic novel, the ghost is not who you expect, very good)
The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville - modern thriller with an ex-soldier of the IRA haunted by the ghosts of the people he killed.  It was much more moving than I would ever expect.
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestly  Oh yes, this was another good novel of ghosts and hauntings and shadows that move......
Tamsin - Peter S Beagle- that judge!!!!  talk about malevolent!  a wonderful ghost story

There is something vulnerable that I think ghosts make us feel.  They penetrate our fears and reveal that death does exist.  I don't like when madness is linked to horror, as if the mind has to break down before it can see the other side, or see things here that a normal mind can't see.  It makes me wonder who is making the rules up, who has decided that ghosts don't really exist?  And why is it more sane to not see them?  less scary, yes, but isn't it the scariest when the person is sane, and see ghosts?  I think so.

What are some of your favourite ghost stories?  Let me know, and Emily, please.

And now for something completely different:
Fringe is renewed!  Yaaaay!  For 13 episodes only, though it does let the writers wrap up my favourite show on tv.  Friday's episode saw a tear or two when they had to close the bridge to the other world.  I am constantly amazed and surprised by Fringe, even after 4 years, even when I think the episode is slow, or the story is familiar, there is all the delights of watching variations of our characters in other worlds, and how they are different.

RIP VI round-up - 4 novels of thrills and chills, and one fairy tale

Happy late blogversary to me!!
I am dismayed to see that it has been two weeks since I last posted.  I am chagrined, since I meant to post more often these past few weeks, and get back into some semblance of regular writing here.  However, my life is beyond topsy-turvy this year, it is whirlwind of change. And somehow, I have passed my anniversary again!  Every September I get ready to celebrate blog cake and drink with you, and every mid-October I suddenly realize it's gone past, slipped by in the annual frenzy that is October for us.   For today, happy late 4th anniversary to me!  October 1, 2007, was my very first blog post, here.  I've come a long way since then, and not so far, either.  I've made some very good friends, I've learned about Christmas customs around the world thanks to Kailana and Marg's annual Christmas Advent Tour, and most of all, I've discovered that the love of books is indeed the world over. This love of reading, and sharing the books we love, talking about and discussing ideas that books hold, is what I cherish the most - our book blog community.  So even if my posts are a bit far between, it's not because I love you any less, my dear book community, it's that so much is occurring in my personal life that I am not able to come here to talk about books as often as I would like right now. 

RIP reviews:  books I really enjoyed
So, because despite my wish to talk about each book I read in its own post, in order to get these reviewed in this last week of Carl's RIP VI challenge, here are five more books I have read for RIP this year:
Winter House - Carol O'Connell            
   Long-time readers of this blog will know of my love for Detective Kathy Mallory, fictional police detective in the ongoing Mallory series by Carol O'Connell.  Mallory is a detective unlike any other.  She was kidnapped as a child and sold to a child snuff video maker.  She escapes, but what this has done to her, has made her into a beautiful, feral person, completely amoral, and yet with her own sense of right and wrong.  She is also highly intelligent, and the way O'Connell writes about her, surprisingly vulnerable as well as loyal.

Now onto the book - Winter House is a gothic mystery.  Winter House is the name of the house where a most famous massacre in NYC history took place.   The Winter family, whom of most were massacred nearly 60 years ago, consisted of   9 children and  2 adults, plus two servants (a cook and nanny).  Only 4 children survived, two of whom disappeared shortly after.  They were all killed by an ice pick stabbed in the heart.  The case is unsolved though generally believed that one of the surviving children, Nedda Winter, who was 12 at the time, and one of the ones who disappeared, is the killer.  Winter House opens with the discovery of a burglar who is dead in Winter House, stabbed through the heart with an ice pick, and the discovery that Nedda Winter has been found and brought home secretly by her niece, for a reconciliation with her two surviving siblings. Kathy Mallory picks up on the case because it is set in such an infamous locale, unsuspecting that Winter House is more than just a house darkened by its tragic past.  This is a case that will threaten her and her friend Charles Butler's sanity.  Is Winter House haunted?  Maybe.  It's a house where nothing is what it seems, where no one appears as they are, where murder is only the worst of the crimes committed on and by the Winter Family.  It's a very good mystery, though a bit convoluted in how Nedda Winter goes undiscovered for so many years.  Tarot cards play a part, as does jazz, and a bird.  Very very gothic mystery, and perfect for RIP. 4.5/5

Tricks - Ed McBain
 I just finished this mystery last night.  I am really glad I read it, after putting it on my RIP list for the past 2 years.  This is a pure police procedural.  It is set in New York City also, like Winter House, and is one of many books in the 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain.  It takes place in a 12 hour period, on Hallowe'en night,  covering  the different crimes that take place for the evening shift of the 87th precinct.  There's a cut-up corpse whose body parts are found in different locations of the city; there's the police set-up to try to catch a serial rapist/murderer, and there's a gang of children raiding liquor stores and shooting the owners.  I really enjoyed this mystery.  I liked the blunt cop talk, the realism of policing the streets, of working with partners, of talking with civilians, of trying to solve crimes in the midst of facing dangers, and of the risks and payouts men and women of the badge take and face every night.  There are several deaths in this novel, most by gun, and a chilling cat-and-mouse game between the policewoman set up as a decoy for the serial rapist, and the rapist.  Good plain policeman's work, and little bit of luck: very enjoyable novel to read, and sets the mood for Hallowe'en next week.  4.5/5 
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley    
I have been on a reading spree this weekend, as I suddenly realized October was almost over and I was nowhere close to my goal of 80 books read by the end of this month.  That will leave me 10 books each for November and December to make my 100 books read in a year.  Luckily it's a break in between birthdays and seasonal events, and cloudy enough outside that I don't feel guilty AT ALL staying to read as much as I can.

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror is absolutely delightful.  It is a young adult novel of ghostly terror tales, told by Uncle Montague to his great-nephew (or great-great, or even further back, no one knows for sure) Edgar, in his great old dark house all by itself in a corner by some woods.  Edgar goes to visit him when he is home from school, to hear these ghostly tales of eerie horror, even though the woods slightly frighten him, even though his Uncle lives only with the mysterious Franz who Edgar has never ever seen, even though the house is so dark and so cold, that Edgar goes - and has seen only - the study, where they spend all their time in front of the fire drinking tea and eating biscuits, and the lavatory for when Edgar has had too much tea. In this darkly thrilling house - because I don't know about you, Gentle Reader, but I would love to see this house, and go into it, because of the ghostly presences we become aware haunt it.  The tales themselves are everything good ghost stories are:  filled with all kinds of children who never quite fit in with their surroundings, who find mysterious girls and boys appearing to them, who lead them to danger, to horror, and sometimes to death.  Haunted trees, paintings, macabre items, and terrifying glimpses of madness and horror - these stories have them all, told delightfully by Uncle Montague to lonely Edgar.  When we finally reach the ending, as Edgar starts his walk home through the same forest that still makes him uneasy, Uncle Montague reveals his terrible secret, and it is so satisfying.  This is one of the best ghost story novels I have read in a long time. I can hardly wait to read it to my children.  The illustrations are eerie and fabulous, reminiscent of Edward Gorey - down to the pen and ink black lines and off-kilter subjects - and I am totally in love with both. 5/5

Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs - retold by Randall Jarrell from the Brothers Grimm, illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert                
I put all that down for the author/illustator, because they are both important for why this retelling of Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs is so enjoyable.  Many of you know that while I read the Disney versions of many Grimm tales as a child, I am not a big fan of Disney.  I discovered this edition of Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs sometime this year, in a second-hand bookstore.  I picked it up because the illustrations are lovely.  I really just grabbed it without looking at it closely, because of the pictures.  I didn't know that Randall Jarrell was a poet, and I didn't know that he kept the original ending of this fairy tale. I was shocked, thrilled and a bit disturbed by the ending which is what a fairy tale is really supposed to do to us. The Evil Queen Stepmother is made to put on a red-hot iron pair of dancing shoes and dance until she dies. I was disturbed in part because I think of this ending as the ending to the Red Shoes, and shocked because I still think it is too good a death for the wicked stepmother.  That got me thinking to what Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs might really be about: beauty.  In some versions of Snow White, she is kind, so kind and soft-hearted and sweet that the Huntsman spares her life, that the animals love her, that the dwarves love her, etc.  What this retelling - and I have to go back and reread the original Grimm, too - makes clear, is that it is Snow White's beauty that affects how everyone treats her.  Several things occur to me here:  where is Snow White's father, the king?  Nowhere. This isn't a story about parents and children (because he doesn't look for her either, does he?  Does he even notice she's gone? what kind of father is he?); it's a story about women and beauty.  From the opening lines when her mother asks for a daughter as beautiful as the red blood on the snow when she pricks her finger:  "a daughter as white as snow, as red as blood, as black as the wood in her window frame."
Nothing about her character, her personality, nothing about being good or pure or kind or loving.  It's about looks.   Snow-White - named because she looks as pure as white snow, another image of purity and beauty-  is shaped by her looks, from her name, to why she is cast out (jealousy), to why the huntsman saved her , to why the prince falls in love with her, to why the dwarves don't stone her or drive her out: her beauty. It is the making of her doom, and also her future happiness, with the making of her place in the world beside the prince, because she is beautiful.  As an illustration of how we judge others by how they look, this book is perfect.  As a book about how Snow White's goodness outshines her beauty, we see this by how the animals don't eat her, and how she bargains with the dwarves for her livelihood : not through sex, but through keeping house. It is fortunate for her that she is a child, and not a teenager, when she is cast out!  It is why I love fairy tales too, and having read this version, I am reminded that the best fairy tales are dark, and about the good and the bad in the human heart. I loved this version, and can see myself rereading it many times in the future.

The illustrations are superb.  The dwarves, wonderfully, magically, are not rendered boyish or non-sexual, but are true dwarves, each with their own face and body, short men. Each with their own personality and character clearly designated - not happy, or sleepy, or another stupid name like that, but real people.  I wonder if the dwarves serve a deeper purpose in this tale than I ever suspected, in that once they get over her beauty, they tell her she must do - she must earn her keep.  It is this that makes this fairy tale so magical for me, not just that the animals love her so, but that she makes her way willingly in the world and earns her way not through her beauty, but by working.  I love the fact that in this version, the dwarves are there at the end, making music in the castle as the prince and princess (because Snow-White is a princess after all) marry.  The other picture I absolutely love, is the one of Snow White fleeing in the forest:  all the animals have come to watch her, drawn to her beauty, and they are partially hidden in the drawing, so it draws your eye in to the scene. It's a lot of fun picking out all the animals, all rendered true to their forms, too.  Wonderful. 5/5

Poltergeist - Kat Richardson
The final book I have read for RIP VI so far - because I am reading two more this week, I hope - is the second in the Greywalker series.   My review for the first in the series, Greywalker, is here.  I read it last year for RIP 5.  (and look, I missed blogging about my anniversary last year too!) Poltergeist is about just that, a poltergeist.  It's not so simple though, as it is also the result of collecting a group of assorted people for a psychological project on what happens when you gather a group to see how far the group will go when they believe they have created something for which they are not responsible for the subsequent actions of.  In this case, paranormal research:  if you create an entity from scratch, a personality, will it begin to have a life of it's own?  What if someone in the group does have latent psi skill of some kind?  And all the members are carefully chosen for their strength of will or suggestibility? What if they do pool their collective mental and emotional energy, who is responsible for the entity?  It's a fascinating premise.  PI Harper Blaine is recommended to come examine if there is something 'fishy' with the experiment, as there is more poltergeist energy than the coordinator things there should be, and he is wondering if someone is sabotaging the experiment.  One person involved in the experiment dies shortly after.  PI Blaine is not your usual private investigator, though.  She died for two minutes, and ever since she can see spirits, talk to ghosts, and walk in the world between this world and the next; the gray world where vampires, zombies, the undead, the ghosts, hang out. She's also smart, and wary, and soon comes to the conclusion that she is being set up to take the fall for the experiment if it fails or more people die.
I really like Harper.  She is still coming to terms with being able to see the dead, the undead, and everything else, and what it means for her life. The series is set in Seattle, and the author, Kat Richardson, uses some real settings - houses, streets, events - to ground this series in the here and now.  I love how the supernatural affects - intersects - with reality, with how Harper has to learn how to ignore the supernatural around her, because they are everywhere.  This novel also involves theories about what causes poltergeists, and hauntings, and how people can be the agents allowing them in, and how this would work. There is a groundedness to this series that makes it viable - she has a ferret names Chaos, who when is let loose in the house, creates pandemonium and chaos much like a poltergeist would. She has a few friends, who give her space and who also have their own unique talents - like calling to like, as it were. I really enjoyed the theory about how ghosts can seem to walk through walls - its because for them, they are stuck in their time period when they lived, where most likely there wasn't a wall or door there. In other words, ghosts walk and see what they know from their lifetime, not from what exists in the now.  I enjoyed this book a bit more than the first, as I like the supernatural  a bit more than sorcery which the first book featured.  Highly recommended, a lot of fun, and very good. 4.7/5

This is also an eerie series, with encounters with the undead, the supernatural, evil, filling both books in the series so far.  I've run out and bought the next two, Underground and Vanished. I hope to catch up soon, as Labyrinth, the one from last year, has a lot of good reviews.

So how is your RIP VI reading coming?  Have you been enjoying this challenge?  Are you in a mood for Hallowe'en in a week's time?  I can't believe it's only one week away.......

Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz

If I am going to be honest here, and that is one of my goals with my blog, is that I am honest about books I like and dislike, then I have to take a deep breath, and very quickly say: I hated this book. Ok, hate is too strong. It is badly written in places. And I so intensely disagreed with what Odd did - moving the body of Robertson to the desert? C'mon! Not going to happen. I wanted to like this book. I really was looking forward to it, since so many other bloggers count it among their favourites. But it's poorly written. Now, I'm not sure if, because the main character who is 'writing' this story - his is the only view point given, and he is writing down the events to please his old writing mentor, and so he doesn't forget the events that happened - he has 'writing potential', he was told by this same writing mentor, and so the overblown descriptions could be the author showing how desperately the main character wanted to write. Here's an example: "Pale, puffy, his watery gray gaze floating over store windows, looking almost as bemused as an Alzheimer's patient who has wandered out of his care facility into a world he no longer recognizes, Fungus Man carried stuffed shopping bags from two department stores." That's an opening paragraph, one long run-on sentence that my English teachers at university would have ripped to shreds with red ink everywhere if I had dared to submit that as a descriptive paragraph. What is a watery gray gaze? Are his eyes watering? How does the main character know from across the mall that the man's eyes are gray? and don't get me started on the Alzheimer's bit - I'm sorry, 'bemused' is a terrible expression for someone who is slowly losing every sense of himself and the world around him. They aren't bemused, they're angry, and afraid.

The thing is, I can almost get the image Koontz is trying to convey. The terrible descriptions - and the book is filled with strange things put together, kept pulling me out of the story. I dislike intensely any writing that throws me out of the story I am reading, that reminds me I am reading a story. That's bad writing, and Koontz is too experienced a writer to be doing this.

The thing is, the story itself is good - Odd is psychic, and the things he sees during the events of this novel are creepy - I had problems going to sleep last night, thinking of the Bodach, the black slinking shadow creatures that presage violence, that Odd keeps seeing around his town. All the secondary characters are fantastic, and the ghost of Elvis haunts this book, a very sweet touch. It's not all bad, this book. But the descriptions don't work: "Nonetheless, time was running out for me. My watch was digital, but I could hear my opportunity for action tick-tick-ticking away." I know some of you would think that was cute, but I don't. It's self-conscious and verbose, when if Odd and Koontz were trying for a cool noir tone, this novel could have worked, amazingly. Instead, Odd is annoying. There, I said it. He won't touch his girlfriend, 'saving himself' because they are perfect together. Ok, in my world, once upon a time 30 and even 20 years ago that was still acceptable (not done, but thought about as possible, once!) but today? He'd be beyond freaky, and while he keeps saying he is 'different' and uses the word freak for himself, I just got annoyed at his innocence, which was a cover for fear of everything that could go wrong in love and in a relationship. The thing between his mother and himself - when he finally reveals it (and I know at least one of you, my dear Bloggers, hasn't read this yet! so I'm not revealing much here!) I got mad and that no one, but no one would go through a life of what his mother did to him and not fight back once. so I lost all respect for him too, even though as a character, he is interesting. See, it's a difficult book to write off completely, which is why I keep reading the occasional Koontz in the hope it will be a better read than the previous book. He has such great horror ideas, and terrible execution - but then again, we do live in a world where Dan Brown is a bestseller, and his dialogue makes me shudder. I've only managed one of his books, and I could read it only because the story was good enough to drag me yelling to the end....oh no, now I sound like Dean Koontz here! I'm going to go away now, and hope Tamsin by Peter Beagle is better written.

It's been a very bad week at work so maybe I've been a bit hard here, but I don't think so. Will I read any more in the series? Maybe, if only to know what happens to the secondary characters - Little Ozzie and Chester the cat, the chief and Karla, Terri the Elvis lover - they are people I'd love to have in my life. I just wish Odd wasn't so prissy, and was more human, but then seeing dead people does do strange things to one. I do believe psychic ability exists, and to accept the gift and how it makes you different does make the psychic person different. I guess Odd has no sense of humour, and that's what has gotten me through my life, so I'm not sure he and I could ever be friends.

It is an interesting story filled with ghosts, and good people, but it's not a well-written book, so I can't really recommend it as anything more than an airport book.

I'm so glad I read Lonely Werewolf Girl before Odd Thomas. LWG sustains me now. When I encounter a badly-written book, at least I know there are great ones out there, that are what perfect reading and perfect books are all about. It's been a few weeks now since I read it, and I keep coming back to it in my mind, replaying my favourite parts, thinking about the characters. LWG is quickly moving from my list of favourite books this year, to the list of the best books I've ever read. I think some friends and family members might find this one under the Christmas tree this year...I also love The Woman in Black, and find after letting it sit for 6 weeks in my mind, that it is still so creepy that I won't let myself think about the book for too long in case I start getting scared again. Now that is a ghost story.

Odd Thomas finishes that section of the 888 challenge for me; I've completed two sections now, and have two more sections I hope to complete in November. So I'm not going to complete the whole challenge, but I have read 44/64 books so far in the challenge, which is a very good achievement for me. I've also now read 11/4 books in the RIP3 challenge! With Tamsin now, and Northanger Abbey or Thirteenth Letter, I haven't quite decided what to end the challenge on, I will have read 13 books for the challenge, which is a very appropriate number to end the challenge on Hallowe'en with!! (Carl, do I get any bonus points for this?)

PS note to Koontz fans: Please don't write and tell me I will go to Book Hell for dismissing your all-time favourite horror writer. I already feel badly enough that I didn't see what was so great in the book, when everyone, and I mean everyone, has only had good things to say about it. I'm back in that group of one again!

Sunday Salon - It's all about Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things, Coraline, The Graveyard Book.

I've decided to do a post about one of my favourite authors, in honour of RIP3 challenge, AND that these three books fit this time of year, spooky and ghost-filled. I know that for many of you, my Gentle Readers, you also love Neil Gaiman. I thought I would try to show some of what I admire and love in his books, and his writing. Most of all, it's as if he pierces my heart, but instead of ripping it into shreds, he gently puts it back together with love and hope and faith.


Fragile Things

I read Fragile Things earlier this year. I didn't post on it because I got caught up in other things, but it never left the side of my computer where I pile the books I really want to review. I am in awe of this writer. Fairy tales, fantasy, gothic, and horror, all with a touch of melancholy about them. Even the poem about Bluebeard, The HIdden Chamber, isn't straightforward, instead mixed with doom - unlike the fluttering butterfly he (the writer) sets free, this is what will happen to his new love:
If you are wise you'll run into the night,
fluttering away into the cold
wearing perhaps the laciest of shifts.
The lane's hard flints
will cut your feet all bloody as you run,
so, if I wished, I could just follow you,
tasting the blood and oceans of your
tears. I'll wait instead,
here in my private place, and soon I'll put
a candle
in the window, love, to light your way back home.
The world flutters like insects. I think this
is how I shall remember you,
my head between the white swell of your breasts,
listening to the chambers of your heart.

The horror, the real horror, is that even if she escapes, she will come back again. He - the writer, Bluebeard - understands the secret to a woman's heart, that even if she senses danger, she has to know all the secrets: "You'll see/the heartbreak linger in my eyes, and dream/of making me forget what came before you walked/into the hallway of this house."
And he is right! It's a play on Harlequin novels, gothics, that sense that the right woman will heal a man. Wise, and heart-breaking, the collection of stories and poems in this book are all like this. Some succeed more than others - in past posts, here and here, and here , I've referred to my favourites: October in the Chair, A Study in Emerald, The Problem of Susan , and my favourite poems of all: Instructions and Locks.

If you are looking for short stories to read before Hallowe'en, I highly recommend this book. It is magical and fantastical, creepy, unsettling, spooky, funny, everything that is good in fantasy and horror writing today. It should be in every serious reader's library.


Coraline

I read Coraline over the past three days, mostly because I kept getting interrupted. I finally finished it late last night. It has to be one of the scariest books for children I've read, and I really wish it had been around when I was a kid. I would have loved it! I would have read it over and over! My children are just a little bit too young for it - I think the 'other family' would confuse them, and the horrible button eyes and the other mother creating the world, is for children about 7-8 years old. I can hardly wait to read it to them, though! Coraline is the spunkiest, bravest heroine ever. I mean it, I'm not sure I could have survived the other world. I was possibly holding my breath during the last 50 pages of the book. It was awful, in the awe-inspiring sense that real terror can take. And beautiful, because she makes it right in the end, and the sense of relief was palpable to me, at least! I was able to get to sleep last night. I think if Coraline hadn't gotten out and back into her world, I would have nightmares about her being trapped, for a very long time. That is how real Neil makes his characters, and how real the story is. Especially as I live in a semi-detached house, though thankfully there are no doors between our houses, in the wall!!

I think one reason Neil Gaiman is so popular a horror/fantasy writer is because the underpinnings of his writing is love, and faith, and hope. This is what saves his characters. It is a real treat in today's world of endless bad SAW movies (I haven't seen one and never will) and stupid slash and gash horror movies where fatalism means no one escapes, that there are writers who deal with the mysteries, the ghostly and ghastly, with the emotions and characteristics that make us our best as humans. No matter the danger, or the eeriness, it all comes down to the heart. Whether Bluebeard's uncanny understanding, or Coraline's bravery, most of Neil's characters are on human journeys of finding love, recapturing love (several of his short stories deal with both these topics), or surviving love. He explores the dangerous pathways of the world, in myths (American Gods), folktales, children's stories, the underground literally in Neverwhere, horror in Coraline, and in my next book to review, The Graveyard Book, and in all of them, he never loses sight of what makes people human, good or bad, and he lets his heroes and heroines be brave. And if any of you have had to face real nightmares in the world, as I have, you know that bravery and courage are needed as much today as ever. He's writing to you, to me, to his children, to the world, telling us the stories we need to hear to survive. To me, Coraline is one of the best heroines for girls to ever be written. It's a truly good horror story for kids that deserves every award it received. And the illustrations are truly creepy and delightful and my kids will pore over them. They are the stuff of nightmares. Most excellent!


The Graveyard Book

I read this today. I couldn't put it down!! I love this story! I thought it could be good, the premise is certainly interesting - little boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts - and this story is everything I hoped for, and more. It is enchanting. How I can say that about a book that involves murder, ghouls, vampires, werewolves, witches and ghosts, is almost a mystery, but it's not - it's Neil, so it's heart-breaking even as it's beautiful and haunting and funny. It's a ghost story for families. In case you are one of the 10 readers left on the planet who haven't read the book yet, I am not going to give the plot away here - I'm just going to give you how I felt reading this book, and why I think everyone can read it. First of all, it's not scary, even the opening, even my most faint-hearted, sensitive Gentle Reader can be assured that no matter how it starts out, you will not have nightmares. Yes, it's scary in places. Have you ever spent a night in a cemetary? Me either. Nor do I want to. Why? Because the dead walk at night. I don't care what anyone says, they do. I love the melancholy beauty of graveyards, I think about the people gone before and try to imagine their lives as I read the headstone inscriptions, but I would not spend a night in a graveyard. Well, The Graveyard Book is about a boy who lives in one. And how he does, and how the ghosts help him, and what wonders befall him - make this book truly worth reading. It is a magical tour through the world of a graveyard. Not necessarily the land of the dead, mind, just the world here of the dead. And yes, I cried at the ending. I hate change, even though I know it's necessary, I hate loss of people, change in relationships, and the loss here in this book is inevitable, and piercing.

Of all the amazing characters that people this book, the one I love is the Lady on the Gray Horse. Much is made of Neil's remarks at the back of the book to Rudyard Kipling and The Jungle Book, how there is inspiration from that book in this one. I've never read The Jungle Book, but I have read John Keat's poem The Belle Dame Sans Merci, and seen the Pre-Rahaelite painting of the same name, and that is who the Lady on the Gray Horse reminds me of. When Bod Owens (the main character) first meets the Lady, this is his impression and what they end their conversation with:
"There was a woman riding on the horse's bare back, wearing a long grey dress that hung and gleamed beneath December Moon like cobwebs in the dew.
....."Can I ride him?" asked Bod.
"One day," she told him, and her cobweb skirts shimmered. "One day. Everybody does."
"Promise?"
"I promise."

Every time I read those lines, I get a lump in my throat. She is Lady Death, and isn't she a better figure to come carry us away, than the Grim Reaper Spectre with th scythe that we are more familiar with?

For a book about death and ghosts, it is filled with whimsical moments and ideas like this. So it's not a scary book. It's filled with love and humour, and ghosts and graveyards, and I think it is perfectly wonderful. As soon as my kids are old enough - I think sometime in the next year Holly-Anne at least will be able to listen to the story being read (albeit with 5,000 questions in between!) - I will be reading this to them. And the illustrations, of course - line drawings that leave the mind to fill in the gaps, setting the tone, and I've forgotten until I read Coraline and The Graveyard Book how much I enjoy drawings with my stories!

Recapturing childhood wonder, somehow that seems to be the essence I get from reading these two books. So I recommend them highly, as marvelous work that must be read. Come, take Neil's hand, and let him show you how to survive the night, and face the dawn, and live to tell the marvelous frightening tale.......

*sighs happily, contentedly*

I hope your ghostly reading is taking you to fantastic places today, too!

Other reviews:
Bart's Bookshelf
Nymeth
Stuff as Dreams are Made On

Stainless Steel Droppings (Carl)
Eva (A Striped Armchair)

Book nightmares

Ok, so I was over at Naked Without Books (I love this title! Who doesn't feel naked without a book in her hand??) and Bybee was writing about her recent nightmares that involved books, here. Whew! I'm not the only one having book nightmares then. Because Wednesday morning I woke up from a nightmare that I still can't think too hard about, or I'll have difficulty going to sleep:
I dreamt that I was in a house, with my dream family. We were in a haunted house, and we lived there. The house was a house from both Shirley Jackson's Hill House (Book: The Haunting of Hill House), and the house from The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. **spoiler alert: avert your eyes now: they both have haunted nurseries. **End of Spoiler alert.
In my dream I know the nursery is haunted. The house moves when we aren't looking, things change, and we - my siblings and I - can't be left alone in a room or things happen. There are 4 or 5 of us kids, and our parents. I'm walking down the hall with my mother and we are nearing a bedroom where the other children are, and I'm realizing my parents bedroom isn't even in the same hallway. It is down the hall and over on another corridor. I start saying this is stupid, and they are too far away, and the wall between the corridors should be knocked down, or at least a doorway put in so we can reach their room more quickly. But I have to be speak quietly because the house is listening, whatever malevolent intelligence in the walls and floors that is everywhere and always watching us, it also knows when we are talking about it. There are ghosts in this house too. I wake up as I finish speaking and stand in the doorway of the bedroom. There was no sounds from the nursery yet, but sooner or later I knew we'd hear sounds, and most of the hauntings originated from there.

I woke up feeling very relieved that the knocking/banging sounds hadn't started yet from the nursery, but even in our bedrooms the sense of being watched was everywhere.

Very very creepy dream. And how have your dreams been lately, has RIP3 Challenge been affecting your dreams?