This was a very interesting book. I can see why it won so many awards. It is beautifully written and has a well crafted world that brings you in. That being said, I did find it hard to get into at first. I think it had to do with the sort of complicated world the characters inhabit and having three different narrators that seem to living in the same nation but not at the same time. As one is living at the end of the world, while the other two are not. Once I was able to grasp that the timelines of the three narrators were different, it made it much easier to enjoy the storytelling. The story begins as Essun, is mourning the loss of his son who was murdered by her husband for being an Orogene. Orogenes are powerful beings that can derive power from the earth but are feared for this power because it’s unpredictable and can destroy as easily as it can save. Damasaya is also an Orogene, who has been locked in her families barns after she was discovered. And finally Syenite, a powerful orogene who has been given two different assignments that involve the most powerful orogene in the world. Each narrator is different. Damasaya is young and unsure of her future as she is afraid of who she is while Syenite is the opposite. She knows exactly who she is and how good she is. She is confident in who she is and ambitious to boot. Essun is definitely a woman who has seen and knows way too much. She is strong but even the strongest of us breaks. When her husband kills her son and possibly her daughter she is at a loss. Soon revenge becomes her only motivating factor. Essun’s story is also effected by the beginning of the Fifth Season. Every so often the Earth turns against the people and sets off catastrophic natural disasters. Some season’s last years while some last decades. It’s clear to Essun that this season is going to last centuries. So she sets off to find her husband while knowing the world is ending soon. Syenite and Damasaya are not experience the same end of the world troubles that Essun is and at first this was confusing since both were headed towards or living where the disaster had occurred. This was what made me think that the narratives were not all happening at the same time. The narrators do not seem to have much in common beyond they are all women and orogenes but it when it’s revealed what there relationship it was a gut punch. I didn’t see it coming. I think that is because it’s so well written. You could literally get lost in the writing as N.K. tells these women’s stories. They all have such hard struggles as they live and work in a very rigid society. People of this world are separated into different Comm names and it defines who they are what they do. If you don’t fit in a Comm you are in trouble when the seasons come. They all must try to do their best to find their own voice while still playing by the rules and of course there are far more rules for women. So even though it’s a fantasy novel, it’s still very much set in real life too.
Review: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
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Ms. Marvel is every fan girl or boy who has ever wrote or read fan-fiction or squeed over their favorite celebrity. She is everyone who has every suffered from self doubt but still fought through it. She is everyone who still sees the good even though she has seen some pretty awful things. Ms. Marvel is a hero. I love her. She is beyond funny. She is smart. She is brave. She is relatable. She is everything you want in in a hero. Why isn’t she in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet?
There are so many times you can do the whole “I thought you were dead” thing before you know it loses it’s dramatic punch. The first couple of times it worked because this is a series that has not been afraid to kill of characters. True so far all those killed have been mostly secondary characters but still this series has really high body count but you wouldn’t expect anything less from the “Game of Thrones” of YA now would you? Crystal Storm is book for in the Falling Kingdoms series and like George R.R. Martin, Morgan Rhodes’ pen is deadly. (Thankfully she writes faster then George does) It’s full on fantasy with a huge cast of characters in a warring set of nations. The main characters of Cleo, Magnus, Lucia and Jonas have been through a lot. They have lost and won, made alliances and broken them, cheated death (for some more then once) and of course fallen in love and out of love and back in love. You know how it goes. Kyan the fire god had a temporary set back when Lucia destroyed his corporeal form but he’s not going to go down easy. Neither is the King of Blood who should have died and yet isn’t. He married Amara, who is now Empress because she killed the rest of her family, so they are surrounded by enemies and facing a enemy with extraordinary powers. Like the previous books there are as many twists and turns as there are pages, keeping the reader on their toes. I’m not sure I agree with all the drama but it is a YA novel so there has to be some teen age angst. I just hope that in future books characters either die or live. No more of this, “I thought you were dead” thing.
The Hogfather, the Santa figure in Discworld, has gone missing on his most important night of the year. It is up to Death, his assistant and his granddaughter to save the day. 
I didn’t realize that Samantha Shannon published two novella’s in connection to her Bone Season series. I was delighted that one of was Jaxon Hall’s infamous pamphlet. On the Merits of Unnaturalness. Fans of the series will be familiar with the title as it is bases of the clairvoyant community and what made Jaxon a major player in the syndicate. Under the pseudonym of the Obscure Writer, Jaxon goes through all the different types of Clairvoyance there is and grouped them in seven different orders. This also created a hierarchy among the community by ranking orders by difficult and by rare each gift is. I feel like this is a must read for fans of the books because it really clears up a lot of the different gifts that the characters have and how they relate to each other. It also explains why some are treated with more reverence then others. We understand that Paige’s gift of dreamwalking is rare but not only that, it’s part of the seventh order so it makes her even more powerful among the community and having her in his gang, it makes Jaxon more powerful too. It also cleared up more as to why the “vile augurs” were so despised and exiled to Jacob’s island. I feel like I have a better understanding on the syndicate and Paige’s life after reading this.
Speaking of understanding more about Paige’s life, the second novella is the The Pale Dreamer. It chronicles the early days of Paige in the Seven Seals. She has only been in the gang for three months and so far on desk duty. Aching to prove her worth, Paige gets a chance when a Poltergeist is set loose in London. We see that even three years before the action of the Bone Season, Paige was already brave, a little brash but a quick thinker. Her powers are still raw but you can see the glimpse of her strong she will become. This is also shows us why she goes by The Pale Dreamer. It was the name given to her by Jaxon himself. It was the events depicted in the novella that lead her to becoming his Mollisher. At the time the Seven Seals is only Jaxon, Nick, Eliza and Paige so we get the glimpse of their early relationship between these characters. Also it lays the groundwork to the future conflict between Paige and Jaxon but also not that surprising as to why Nick and Eliza chose Paige over Jaxon at the end of The Mime Order. It’s definitely worth a read for any fan but not necessary to enjoy the series as a whole as it doesn’t really add to the narrative. It just fills out the world and Paige’s backstory a little more. With a little less then a month before the release of The Song Rising, it’s a good read while you wait.
A Study in Charlotte was a very fun read. It’s new take on the Sherlock Holmes stories. This time it’s the descendants of Holmes and John Watson. In this world, the famed detective and his assistant were real. Watson chronicled Holmes’ cases and well fictionalized them. The Holmes family continue to solve crimes and being eccentric, while the Watsons continue to be normal. Here we catch up with the latest generation of Holmes’ and Watson’s when Jaime Watson starts at a new boarding school. Jaime meets Charlotte Holmes, the girl who is full of mystery as anything else. (For some reason I thought Jaime was a girl and I was a little disappointed to find out that he isn’t but I got over it.) There are little sprinklings of the originally stories throughout the novels and the nastiest parts of the stories like Holmes’ drug use. Charlotte is just as impossible as the original Holmes or Benedict Cumberbatch’s. Shortly after Holmes and Watson meet a fellow student is murder in a way that is reminiscent of Holmes’ stories. Of course, they are the prime suspects. They have to work together to clear their names. They story goes through many twists and turns that will keep you guessing all through the story. You don’t have to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes to love this book. You just have to enjoy a good mystery with interesting characters and you’ll be set.
You don’t need to be a girl, Muslim or a superhero to identify with Kamala Khan. She’s your typical teenage girl living in the world of social media and SAT’s. She wants to fit in with the kids at school but also please her family. She wants to be her own person and not be defined by her gender, race or religion. She wants to make a difference and help people and when she is given that chance she jumps right in. Kamala lives in Jersey City, NJ and loves the Avengers. She even writes fan-fiction about them, which I would really love to read. Are those anywhere online? Like all parents, her parents want the best of her and to them that means that she follows her Islamic teachings and listen to her parents. Kamala is a girl fof both worlds, she is a Muslim but also an American teenager. She wants to go to parties and do normal teenage things. One night she sneaks out of her house to go to a party when a mysterious fog rolls in. Soon Kamala is having a vision of Captain Marvel and she finds out that she has morphed into Carol Danvers old identity of Ms. Marvel. A not so nice girl from the party is in trouble she saves here. When the brother of his best friend, Bruno, gets into some big trouble Kamala uses her new powers to help. Bruno is also a genius and just so happened to developed a new compound that makes her clothes stretch when she does. To say that Kamala is likable would be an understatement. When she gains her powers she doesn’t shy away from them but embraces them. Just like her heroes, she doesn’t hesitate to help those in need. Even when of those is the girl that just made fun of her earlier in the evening. I’ve already bought the other volumes in this series. I can’t wait to read them.
I knew this before but my Mom has good taste because this book was delightful. Charley Davidson is not just a Private Investigator, she’s also a Grim Reaper. Sorry, not just a Grim Reaper, she’s THE Grim Reaper. Which isn’t such a terrible job one might imagine. She just helps the departed cross over to the other side. Also being the Grim Reaper and a PI, she is also her detective uncle’s secret weapon when it comes to solving crimes since she can see the dead and you know, ask them who killed them. It sort of cheating but whatever. When we meet Charley, she’s been called by her Uncle Bob to help her with a new homicide. It soon develops into more then just a simple triple homicide but something all together. Too complicate things even more, Charley has been having these super realistic dreams that may not be something more supernatural. Charley now in a race of time to solve a mysterious deaths of her dead clients, figure out her dreams and stop people from trying to kill her over and over again. Charley is smart, funny and sarcastic. My kind of person. The cast of characters are fun and fill out the story but Charley is the real star of the story. She is strong and independent but still carries the scars of years people thinking she was crazy but it doesn’t stop her from keep trying to help people, dead or alive. There is one case in here that is truly sad and heartbreaking and you really feel for not only Charley who truly felt she was helping but for her client as well. Sadly, just like in real life not everything turns out the way we want them too. That said, I’m really looking forward to the next book. If anyone is on the fence about this one, I say just jump in! Especially fans of Sookie Stackhouse. There may not be Vampires, Werewolves and such but fill of supernatural beings, colorful cast of characters and wonderful female protagonist.
2 Women, So Many Books 