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Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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I am a big Hunger Game fan so I was really looking forward to yet another prequel. It’s fun to get a glimpse into how Panem got to where it was at the start of the original trilogy, and also when it comes to the evolution of the Games themselves. I was even more excited to get some backstory on Haymitch. He wasn’t a mystery necessarily, but having been a victor in the Games, and be forced for over 20 something years to watch children die, you want to know how he got there. What kept him going? Well, now we kind know. And its even worse than we thought.

SPOILER WARNING: I am assuming that you have read Sunrise on the Reaping of course and I am also assuming that you have read the original trilogy. I am not going to get into specifics about plot, however. You’ve been warned!

I’m not going to get into a recitation of the entire plot, but I will give some info on events in the beginning of the book. This is the story of the 50th Hunger Games- the Second Quarterquell. Twice as many tributes were reaped, so two boys and two girls from each district were forced into the Games. This we already knew from the original trilogy. What was interesting was that Haymitch wasn’t originally reaped. Woodbine Chance should have gone, but he ran, and was gunned down. Haymitch, trying to help his Covey (!) girlfriend Lenore and gets reaped instead. And it’s Haymitch’s birthday! Right from the start, it’s tragedy. From there, things go downhill of course, but a long the way we get a lot of fan service. We see younger versions of some of our favorites, which I won’t spoil, since I think that is part of the little bit of fun we get in this book, but they will be major and minor players in the original trilogy. We also re-visit some characters from A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I appreciated the tie in not only to the original trilogy but also to Ballad. It makes the story feel like one continuous story where we are just dropping in at different times, rather than keeping everything isolated.

On a re-read, I will probably feel like the fan service with old characters was a bit forced, but on my first read through, I was just happy to see familiar characters. And they were not the same people they are in the original trilogy, and you do get to see, in some ways, how and why they are who they are.

And I think that is a large part of what this book is about. Why are these people the way they are? How deep are the wounds they suffered? This is a tragic story that we know has hope in the end, but the road to that hope was bloody and violent. The oppression and cruelty of the Capitol is on full display, but we get to see the seeds of the rebellion. The small sparks that will eventually turn into fire.

The story has lots to say about propaganda and how its used by the powerful to maintain that power. There are parallels between this story and the original trilogy when it comes to propaganda, and you can see how the use of propaganda become perfected by the time of the 74th Hunger Games. I’ll let others dig deeper on that. Its fascinating stuff.

There are other parallels that touch on the hijacking of Peeta and a similar fate of a character in this book, how Haymitch and Katniss’ readings are similar, and also how the face of a rebellion is (or is not) chosen.

This review has been a bit all over the place, but without spoilers, I will say that as a fan of this series, I was really happy with the story and the callbacks to characters and situations from the original series and Ballad of songbirds and Snakes. There are some connections that fans have been speculating on that sort of get answered in this book, along with some other surprise connections. Haymitch’s story is a tragedy, but it’s also the story of a survivor. Being a survivor doesn’t mean that you go back to the way you were, but you are changed forever, and sometimes surviving is just being able to make it through the day. Haymitch made it through decades, but only barely. His journey is bittersweet, but more bitter than sweet. I enjoyed going on this part of his journey with him, and I think you will too.

Lilypad Rating: 4 out of 5

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

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I did not know anything about this book until I saw it in Barnes and Noble. I’ve read The Magician’s trilogy by Lev Grossman, but hadn’t read anything else by him. I had actually just finished doing a re-watch of the SyFy tv show based on the Magicians (I have very mixed thoughts about that tv show). But, I’m a sucker for a King Arthur story, so I was interested right off the bat. This is not a retelling of the traditional King Arthur stories (LaMorte d’Arthur, Once and Future King, etc.), but it’s a story more so of the Knights of the Round Table, and not the ones that typically get all the attention (Sir Gawain, Sir Galahad, Sir Kay, Sir Percival, Sir Tristan, etc.) This is the story of Sir Bedivere, Sir Dagonet, Sir Palomides, and others. The old favorites make appearances (Galahad, Lancelot, Gawain, etc..) but they are not the focus. It makes the tale seem more like untold stories. Which I think is a nice take on Arthurian legend. I don’t know how unique it is, but for fans of Arthurian legends, it’s a nice change of pace.

Our protagonist is Collum, a young man with a sad past who has dreams of being a Knight of the Round Table in service to King Arthur. Collum makes his way to Camelot, and finds that Arthur is dead, and the Knights of the Round Table are in shambles. The story continues as Collum and the remaining knights set out on a journey to rebuild Camelot and come to terms with how the beloved King Arthur could have possibly been defeated. There are some new twists on old favorites and it wouldn’t be an Arthurian legend without some quests for holy objects and visits to the faery world. The main narrative is broken up by interludes that give us the backstories of the remaining Knights of the Round Table. The story is therefore not linear. Arthur is always a presence, even when he is not depicted in the backstories.

My overall thoughts are that the story is entertaining. I do think it might be a bit long. There are points in the story, particularly in the middle, where it seems as though the backstories are becoming the focus, rather than propelling the main story forward. Side quests are a staple of Arthurian legends, but with several chapters devoted to backstories, I think it is more important to be able to get back to the main story to keep things moving. There’s a twist to the traditional Lancelot, Arthur and Guinevere love triangle, which I enjoyed, but it took us a while to get there. I do recommend The Bright Sword, particularly if you enjoy Arthurian legends. I would not recommend this book as an entry point to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Read the more traditional tellings, first, and then come back to this one for some fun and intersesting twists to the tale.

Lilypad Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

The Navigator’s Children by Tad Williams

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I finished this book before Christmas, but I’ve been ruminating on it since then. I know that this is the last book in the Last King of Osten Ard series, and I believe it’s the grand conclusion to our adventures in Osten Ard as whole. We started with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, and then continued with the Last King of Osten Ard, intermixed with a couple side novels (The Heart of What Was Lost and Into the Narrowdark). So we have quite the compilation of stories with Simon, Miriamele, Jiriki, Aditu, Isgrimnur, and all of our favorite characters. So, as with the end of any era, it’s bittersweet.

This is a spoiler free review.

It took me a while to read. I started on November 13, 2024, the day it came out, and didn’t finish until December 22, 2024. It’s not that I wasn’t interested or invested in the story, it’s that Tad Williams packs a lot into his stories. He uses a lot of words, and the language is very rich. For me, this makes me read slower, because the content is not meant to be devoured quickly. Some people can do that, but for me, I needed to take my time.

The first few chapters are clearly set up and moving people to get them where they need to be for the climax of the story. It was nice to see those pieces coming together and it didn’t feel too rushed. Once we get everyone where they need to be, that’s where things got a little wonky for me. We have the big battle with the Norns vs (almost) everybody else, and it ends. Great. But then we still have about a third of the book to go, and we still have another antagonist to battle. Taking them one at a time makes sense, but in doing that, there were characters that were just missing for basically the whole middle of the book. We had some characters fighting only one of the antagonists, and then our main protagonists were fighting both antagonists. And then you had the actual navigator’s children plot to wrap up after all that. It was a lot going on and it was handled in a pretty methodical way. My feelings are all over the place about this, so it’s hard to say it was good or bad. It was just different and unexpected.

I don’t like to give too many spoilers, but there is a character that reappears and its kinda anti-climatic. The reveal seemed to come out of nowhere and honestly I almost missed it. It should have been more powerful and dramatic than it was. It just happened. This could be reader error on my part, but, that just means I’ll need to do a re-read! Anyway, the ending was left a bit open. The story continues for these characters, but we still have questions left that we may never get the answers to. For example, we may or may not have seen the Last King of Osten Ard…what we get is more of a “here’s the plan and so you may have seen the last king, but maybe not”. It’s an interesting way to end a sprawling and epic series like this one, and it definitely left me wanting to know more. But the characters continue to live their lives. We only get a piece of their story. Maybe one day we’ll get a little more.

This has been a very rambling review, but I’m not sure if I will ever have concise and coherent thoughts about it. I enjoyed it, and I think that if you love the world of Osten Ard, then I would definitely recommend this series. I would also recommend that you reread it. I think rereading will help answer some questions and probably pose some new ones as well.

Lilypad Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

Wheel of Time Season 3!

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On December 7th, The Wheel of Time tv show had a panel at CCXP in Brazil. On that same day, we got our first teaser trailer. It was about a minute long and served as an introduction to what we’ll see in season 3.

SPOILER ALERT! Season 3 of the Wheel of Time will cover roughly parts of Book 3 (The Dragon Reborn), most of Book 4 (The Shadow Rising) and may cover parts of Book 5 (The Fires of Heaven, specifically the ending). I have read the series (multiple times!) so there may be spoilers through book 5 and definitely spoilers for the first two seasons of the show. You’ve been warned.

I have had very mixed feelings about the tv adaptation so far. The first season was pretty rough for me and I had some issues with certain adaptation choices, for example Perrin having a wife and how she dies directly at his hand. I feel as though there were points where things just went a step too far. I also understand the challenges of filming during COVID, a cast member leaving unexpectedly midway through season one, and that had a huge impact on the season and caused certain decisions to be made that they otherwise wouldn’t have done. Especially the unexpected departure of a castmate in season one had ripple effects all the way into season 2. I don’t want to rehash all that because I do believe that the show did the best they could with what they were given. There are plenty of other places on the internet that have done deep dives into all that, so a quick google search can bring up those sources if you choose to go down that rabbit hole.

All that being said, the season 3 teaser looks really good. It is more recognizable as the Wheel of Time and there are some fan favorite and classic scenes that look like they will be amazing. Rand and Moiraine in Rhuidean, glimpses of Rand’s journey through the glass columns… and it looks like we will actually get to see Moiraine’s journey, which we didn’t get in the books. That segment looks fantastic and I’m looking forward to that.

I’m also looking forward to Mat getting back to being the Mat we know from the books. He has some great iconic scenes coming up from the books that I hope have made it to the screen. Elayne, Egwene and Nynaeve we didn’t get to see too much of in the teaser, but from what little was there, it at least looks like Elayne and Nynaeve will be in Tanchico. Seems like Mat may be there too but we will probably see more of that in the final full trailer. This is mostly based on fan speculation of course. But that’s what’s so fun!

Anyway, I am probably most concerned about Perrin. I really want him to become the Perrin that he is meant to be when he goes back to the Two Rivers. It’s hard to imagine how Perrin will get to where he needs to be. I think that having him be the person who actually kills his wife, accident that it was, is just so much to overcome. The timeline on the show is condensed of course, so I’m afraid that his new romance with Faile will seem rushed or unrealistic, given how things with his wife played out. I’m reserving judgment of course, but I hope it makes sense within the confines of the show.

Overall, the teaser does have me excited for season 3 because I think the show will finally get on solid footing- no production issues, COVID, writer’s strike, departing cast members. That’s a lot to overcome and keep the storytelling consistent. Looking forward to season 3 and returning to old favorite characters, the departure of some favorites, and meeting some of the awesome new characters we’ve got coming! If you know you know! (wink wink).

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

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Hello strangers! It’s been awhile and I’m back. Fresh perspective and a new commitment to try to get more consistent. But enough of that. I’m a little rusty, but let’s get to the book review!

Nettle and Bone is a standalone novel about a young woman who has a score to settle. There are tinges of fairy tale, horror and fantasy that are woven into a very close story. This is not a quest to save the world, to avert the apocalypse or prevent the evil from triumphing. Its about a woman who wants to save her sister and punish the man who abused her. As a huge epic and big fantasy fan, this was a refreshing break. The story stayed small and intimate, which made the stakes feel even more intense and personal.

Our protagonist, Mara, is not a super hero. She is not a chosen one who is set to fulfill a prophecy. She is introduced as the youngest daughter in a family, that we only later come to realize is an important family (trying to be little vague for spoilers). As we move through her life, we come to realize that something isn’t right with her sisters. So, Mara embarks on a journey to stop the cycle of abuse that has been happening. Along the way, we get more fairy tale and fantasy character tropes- the fairy godmother, the witch and the valiant knight. Together, they form a small but mighty band of warriors to help Mara on her quest.

Overall, the story was well paced and was sparing on the long descriptions of scenery, and there was just enough exposition to give us just what we need to understand character motivations and to support the decisions the characters make. There’s magic and creatures and a dog made of bones! It’s low on action, but there’s plenty of adventure as the group travels to a far northern kingdom to save its queen.

As a standalone novel, this story has the right amount of set up, character development and a proper beginning, middle and end. I find that sometimes a standalone fantasy novel can either feel incomplete, or feel rushed and shallow. This one definitely feels like a complete story with all the depth that you want in an epic fantasy tale.

Lilypad Rating: 1/2

Book Review Roundup

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Hey Folks! This is a quick review of the books I read in March and April. No lilypad ratings here, just a quick blurb!

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This was definitely a break from my usual sci fi/fantasy reads. Its the story of a family in Shaker Heights, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) and the drama that ensues when a free spirited artist and her teenage daughter move into a rental home owned by a prominent Shaker Heights family. There’s secrets, lies, interracial adoptions, and more! I really wanted to read the book because of the interracial adoption angle, but the story is less about that and more about the examination of a dysfunctional family. Since that’s not really my thing, the story, while interesting, didn’t seem to have a resolution. I think I need a concrete problem or issue that needs to be solved by the end. Even something as straightforward as a “will the couple break up or stay together?”. I understand why the book has received the accolades it has. It was very well written, just not what I was expecting.

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

I was disappointed by this book. It kept showing up in my Amazon recommendations, so I caved in and gave it a try. I also got the audiobook to help me get through it. It just never clicked for me. It was definitely a break from the medieval fantasy and dystopian stories that I usually enjoy, and that’s a good thing. I could never really connect with the main character, and I wasn’t able to invest in the world. Maybe the stakes were not high enough, I’m not sure. I read it and promptly forgot about it. I wouldn’t say it was bad, it just wasn’t engrossing. Not very helpful, I know, but my overall feeling was…meh.

Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey

This is the 8th and penultimate novel in The Expanse. I really enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if I had re-read Persepolis Rising, which is book 7. The action starts right up, without much review or exposition about what went down before. I gradually remembered stuff, but re-reading really would have helped. Plus, as usual with The Expanse, I was so caught up in the plot and the characters that I love, that I probably read it too fast! I highly recommend the series as a whole. I also recommend the Amazon Prime TV show, The Expanse, which is based on the book series. You can watch all three season in preparation for season 4, which is due later this year.

A Time of Blood by John Gwynne

This is the second book in the trilogy, Of Blood and Bone. I liked this one more than the first book, A Time of Dread. There were a few more callbacks to the events in the original series, The Faithful and the Fallen. You don’t need to have read The Faithful and the Fallen to enjoy this series, but its nice to get the real stories behind the legends. If you enjoyed the first series, definitely get your hands on this one. Now the long wait for the conclusion!

So that brings you up to date. The next book on my list is Empire of Grass, by Tad Williams. The book comes out on Tuesday, May 7th. Its the second book in The Last King of Osten Ard series. This new series takes place roughly 30 years after the end of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Can’t wait!

Happy Reading!

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

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This book has been popping all over the place. The level of hype was closer to what you would get for a movie or tv show, rather than a debut novel. Does it live it up to the hype? Mostly yes.

The most interesting thing about the book is the structure. The story of Kihrin, our main protagonist, is told in a fragmented form by two narrators. Kihrin narrates the more recent events of his life, those events that lead us to the jail cell where we first meet him. Another narrative (I won’t give that away), tells Kihrin’s story from further back in his past. There is also a third narrator, who will eventually pick up the story, who provides insights throughout both narratives in the form of footnotes. I wasn’t sure how I would like the narrative structure, but once I got used to it, I quite enjoyed it. It did make a good plot better.

The plot itself was intriguing, but at times there seemed to be plot twists for the sake of plot twists. One of those twists was the parentage of one of the characters. It kept changing, to the point where I was not sure what was true anymore. Now, that could very well be the point, the narrators are not entirely reliable, but it was still a bit more twisty than I thought it needed to be. The plot was already compelling, I didn’t find the additional twists to be necessary. On its surface, the story revolves around Kihrin finding his true destiny and saving the world, but there is a nice sort of twist at the end, that really sets up the other books in the series. That was a twist I appreciated and felt was earned.

A very special shout out to the audiobook. There were three different performers used to wonderful affect. I found myself wanting to listen to the book more than reading it.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. The story isn’t completely unfamiliar to anyone who has read a lot of fantasy, but the narrative device gave it a fresh feel that I really appreciated. I will definitely read this before the next book in the series comes out, since I do feel like I may have missed a few connections on my first read through.

Lillypad Rating: 4 out of 5

2019 Expectations!

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Its been awhile but I’m back. Happy New Year! I feel like January was just an extension of 2018, so the new year is really kicking off in February!

There are lots of new releases coming in 2019. Here are some of the ones I am most looking forward to (in no particular order):

  1. Lady Smoke by Laura Sebastian (February 5)
  2. Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons (February 5)
  3. Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey ( March 26)
  4. Empire of Grass by Tad Williams (May 7)
  5. Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi (June 4)
  6. Age of Legend by Michael J. Sullivan (July 9)
  7. Winds of Winter by George R. R.  Martin (??) Yes, I know this is unlikely, but it always goes on the list. 🙂

There are some other books that I’d like to read this year. Here are few that I didn’t get to last year, or when they were first released, but I’d like to add to my list for 2019. Again, in no particular order:

  1. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jessamyn Ward
  2. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
  3. City of Bones by Martha Wells

I finished A Time of Dread by John Gwynne a few days ago. This is a trilogy that takes place about 100 years after events at the end of The Faithful and the Fallen Series. It took me a little bit to remember the events and characters of Faithful and the Fallen, but once I re-oriented myself, I found myself deeply emerged in the world all over again. The characters from the first series are long dead of course, but we do get glimpses of what happened to them, and how those events have shaped the world today. Definitely recommend it . Lilypad Rating: LilyPadLilyPadLilyPadLilyPad

I am currently reading King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist. It has been a long time since I’ve read anything from Mr. Feist. I happened to see this on an Amazon recommendation list, and I was excited to dive back into his works. I am enjoying it so far. The world building is almost too detailed. That is quite a bit of info dumping in these early chapters, but I’m invested enough at this early stage to keep going.

What’s on your list for 2019?

 

An Ember in the Ashes (Series) by Sabaa Tahir

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This review will cover the first three books in the Ember series (An Ember in the Ashes, A Torch Against the Night and A Reaper at the Gates). The fourth and final book in the series is due in 2019.

This is the story of Laia, a young woman in a slave class that finds her world destroyed, and ends up in a band of resistors who are looking to finally free themselves of the Martials, who are the ruling class of the empire. There is also Elias, who is student at a military school, which trains the best and the brightest to become Masks, an elite fighting force that serves the empire. Eventually, Laia and Elias’s stories intertwine, and we begin our grand adventure to destroy the empire. But of course, the threat is much deeper and our “heroes” discover a threat that is bigger than anything they could have imagined. The fate of the world is at stake!

The story is full of the familiar tropes that we all know; the bastard of a powerful family who wants out; the unrequited love of a best friend; the conspiracy that is bigger than first thought, etc. It makes some plot developments predictable, but, there are enough plot twists that are not conventional, that really elevates the story from being typical fantasy cliches to an interesting story that doesn’t always go the way you’d think.

My one quibble with the novel is my utter lack of interest in the main protagonist, Laia. Especially in the first book, I constantly found myself getting annoyed with her. She was so indecisive, so naive and didn’t really seem to think things through. Granted, it can be just as frustrating when the main character seems to do everything perfectly, even when its something they have never done before, but this almost made me not want to finish the book. What saved me was the story of Elias. I found his character to be much more compelling. Sure, there are some major tropes going on with him as well, but I just found his journey to be the more intriguing of the two. His inner turmoil about being turned into this amoral fighting machine, fighting for an empire he really didn’t care for, while not groundbreaking, was just plain old interesting. The cast of characters surrounding Elias at the school helped as well, although I wish there was a bit more character development there. They weren’t quite distinctive enough for me to really tell them apart, but I think there would have been more time for that sort of development if the book was focused on Elias, and not Laia.

Another reason for me to continue with the series was the twisting and turning of the plot, which I found made up for my lack of interest in Laia. I won’t reveal those twists of course, but we also get some new point of view characters starting in the second book that really beings to round out the overall story.

I did find that once I finished the second book, I really thought that the third book would be the conclusion. Then I read that this was a quartet and not a trilogy. I really think the story could have been condensed to three books, since there were some plot shenanigans that were going on to stretch out.

I know I seem fairly critical, but I did come to enjoy the characters and the story, especially when the new point of view characters were introduced in book two. I am looking forward to the fourth installment, and discovering the ultimate fate of the characters.

Lilypad Rating:LilyPadLilyPad1/2 out of 5

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

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Dread Nation is an alternate history set in the aftermath of the American Civil War. A civil war which ended in part because of zombies. Sounds like fun!

Well, not quite. Just because the dead aren’t staying dead, that doesn’t mean some form of subjugation and oppression of blacks and Native Americans would go away. It just takes a different form. In this timeline, slavery is abolished, but there are still shamblers to fight. So, former slaves and native peoples are forced into combat schools where they are trained to fight shamblers in order to protect the white population. Our main character, Jane, is a young black girl who has been trained at Miss Preston’s School of Combat to be a shambler fighter. It is supposed to be her greatest hope to be chosen by a white lady from high society to be her “Attendant”.  These “Attendants” are basically body guards for their lady, and are meant to protect them from shamblers. Of course, things go horribly wrong for our heroine, and our adventure begins.

I enjoyed the point of view of Jane, who is not only one of, if not the best fighter at the school, but she is rough around the edges to say the least. She is brash and somewhat unapologetic. Its refreshing to have her as the protagonist rather than being the sidekick.   She is reminiscent of the “charming roguish thief”, that you see in many fantasy series. I liked the characters themselves, but I’m not sure how I feel about the actual plot. I liked it when they were at the school, and when they were able to get out of the school and into the surrounding areas (Baltimore, to be exact), but once the location changes, then I began to lose a bit of the connection I had to the story. I still enjoyed it, but the story was expanding a little too quickly for my taste. I had just gotten into that particular corner of the world, and then I was taken out of it. This is the first book in a series, so if there were going to be other books, I felt more time could’ve been spent in their original location. (I’m being vague because I am avoiding spoilers).

I was also concerned about the timeline. I kept thinking it was closer to the end of the civil war than it was (the story takes place in 1880, the U.S. Civil War ended in 1865). I would read a story about what happened at the Battle of Gettysburg when the dead on both sides began to rise.  Maybe that can be a prequel!

The writing had a sharpness that was appealing, with an economy of words that I think worked well overall. Just enough description, but not too much.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and I encourage others to pick it up. The author also has a list of resources in her “Author’s Note” about the history of industrial schools, and how the United States government sent Native children there to be “civilized”. These schools were the basis for her “combat schools” in the novel.

Lilypad Rating:LilyPadLilyPadLilyPad1/2 out of 5