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Thursday, January 29, 2009

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Wonderful book! Glad that I have this in a one book set, because I'm not sure I'd do well waiting to find the next book. :) Mckillip always writes well. And in a way that there are a number of layers to her writing and stories and characters. This book is no exception, although it is one of her earlier works. Morgon of Hed is sent on an adventure that covers the entire length and breadth of known lands .. and beyond. His circle of acquaintances grows, as does those who he trusts and those who trust him. Hed is a quiet, peaceful island where most of the people are farmers who live simply. But his journey takes him far from all of those things. A journey filled with land-rule .. the High One .. his harper .. music .. riddles .. learning .. endurance.

This time around, I really enjoyed the land-rule. Morgan is a land-ruler, and when he is tormented by Ghisteslwchlohm he loses that land-rule. Like losing a layer of himself. But .. over time .. he learns that he knows how land-rule works. And eventually, this means that he forms a set of connections similar to land-rule without taking it from the rulers already in place. Of course, they feel what he is doing, and allow him to do so .. but he learns the intricate details of every place across the land. Each kingdom has specific characteristics. Hed, where he is from, is sown with a deep peace and quietness that is reflected in the people and their ruler. Herun, a land full of dangerous marshes, has a ruler who is highly perceptive and can see into people and beyond mountains. She is quiet but with a deep awareness of everything around her. An is a land with a history full of fighting, so the land-ruler is powerful and must keep all of the old spirits in check. The land is hard and somewhat ferocious, ready to fight for what matters. Osterland is in the north, a land of gentle snow beasts and harsh conditions, so the people and the ruler know how to endure and are full of strength. Isig is a mountain, and the ruler is steadfast and secure. How beautiful .. that each of these lands brings something specific and unique and beautiful to their people. So it is with humans .. each person is meant to be themselves, and in so doing, can reflect an amazingly beautiful diversity.

Title:The Riddle-Master Trilogy
Author: Patricia A. McKillip
Date published:1976/1999 (in one book)
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Riddle-Master
Number of pages: 571
Notes: Repeat reading. Gift from Larq

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Saturday, January 24, 2009

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This author and his books are highly respected and talked of, and this was indeed well written. But also hard to read. It's so full of despair. Once I finally reached the end, there was some hope .. but a few times I had to force myself to pick up the book .. knowing I would most likely read something deeply saddening. Mariam is a young girl when we first meet her, in a house a few kilometers away from a small city in Afghanistan. We follow her through her life and in the process see pieces of the history of Afghanistan that one might not wish to have seen.

Mariam is born to a unmarried mother, and has a father who is rich but will not marry her mother. She adores her father .. until she discovers that he does not wish to acknowledge her existence in public. After her mother dies, Mariam is quickly married off to the first suitor. Who happens to be much older than her, not physically handsome, and overweight. As a young teenager, she takes over the duties of a household, cleaning and cooking and of course sexual relations. Mariam has little to look forward to in life, and simply tries to get through each day. war becomes part of their daily lives, and the daughter (Laila) of the next door neighbors ends up an orphan, and is 'kindly taken in' by Mariam's husband as a second wife. There is rivalry .. but eventually these two women become friends as they face a common enemy. And Mariam, who has had little hope since childhood suddenly finds herself with hope. Laila has two children, and these two women value them and nurture them. Even Rasheed, their husband, is human again when he is with his son. Laila's childhood sweetheart who she hoped to marry, named Tariq, is a strong man who has seen evil and still come out gentle. May there be more men such as him!

This book is full of sadness. It's about life during war. A number of wars. Evil is clearly depicted. Men who want power, men who tell lies, what death can do to people, what living under fear does, how boundaries can change .. stories that can be hard to read. But for this story .. there are millions of other stories with similar pieces. That are true. Despite the overall sadness and weight and pain in the book, the end is actually hopeful. Not amazing or perfect or wonderful, but there is some light. In the places where darkness has reigned so long, there are people choosing to value each other, choosing to not only survive but work to find the beauty in life. And, by the grace of God .. that is strangely possible in life. Even in the darkest places, God made humans to find reasons to delight in simple pleasures and to hope.

Title:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Date published:2007
Genre: Fiction,
Number of pages: 367
Notes: Given by Birgit

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Sunday, January 04, 2009

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cover of Acacia: The War with the Mein

Acacia is a peaceful, prosperous kingdom made up of the provinces of the known world and has been ruled for 22 generations by the Akaran family. What is kept as much of a secret as possible is that their prosperity is built on slavery-- extensive mines are worked by slaves, who are kept pacified by a mist drug which is in turn bought with a Quota of child slaves each year. These facts are exposed when a Meinish assassin kills King Leodan and Hanish Mein leads a quick, brutal attack against Acacia. Leodan's four children are sent away to for safety, and where they end up has a profound effect on who they become and how they try to take the kingdom back from Hanish.

Only one of Leodan's children ends up exactly where Leodan planned. The oldest, Aliver, is sent to a chieftain among the dark-skinned tribes of Talay, and as he grows up he is trained as a Talayan warrior and hunter. However, the guard who was supposed to take care of the oldest daughter, Corinn, turned out to be a greedy opportunist who betrays her to Hanish Mein for a position of power in the new empire. As an "honored guest" (but really a prisoner) of the new leaders of the empire, beautiful Corinn becomes manipulative, selfish, and hard. The younger daughter, Mena, ends up in the islands of Vumu and because of her strange appearance on their beach, she is chosen by the priests as the human representative of the angry island goddess, a Sea Eagle named Maeben. The youngest, Dariel, becomes a sea raider and learns to be a clever fighter and a leader; but he was so young when he was separated from his siblings that at first he doesn't want to remember who he really is.

One particularly interesting aspect of this book is the place of their legends and mythology, not least because they turn out to be true (at least to some extent). The Meins practice what seems like a form of ancestor-worship they call the Tunishnevre; they were cursed by the first king of Acacia who exiled them to the north, and the curse has not allowed the souls of the dead Mein warriors to depart. so there are 22 generations of angry Meinish warriors whispering to their leaders and wanting to be released.

But the Acacian myths turn out to have some truth to them, too. Aliver seeks out the Santoth,the ancient sorcerers who were exiled by Tinhadin. They are called "God-Talkers" because they learned the language that Elenet stole from the Giver who sang the world into existence. But because humans cannot speak the Giver's language perfectly, their magic is corrupted and imperfect.

If the language of the Giver all those years before had been one of creation, and if that act of creation had been a love hymn that sang the world into being on music that was the fabric of existence itself and that was, as the legends held, most wondrously good to behold ... if that was so, then what the Santoth released was its opposite. Their song was a fire that consumed the world, a hunger that ate creation, not fed it.

In some ways, this book reminded me of Dune: the brutal politics, people motivated by revenge and greed; the drug trade that is integral to the society; the idea that harsh climates make fierce warriors while the prosperous get soft; even the leaguemen, the go-betweens for the drugs to the unknown and feared Lothan Aklun, reminded me of the space navigators in the world of Dune. Some of the warfare, especially early in the book, is quite brutal and disgusting. The Meins are aided by a fierce northern race who ride some kind of war-rhinos, and the Meins even make use of a crude form of germ warfare. The politics are believable, too-- Hanish Mein discovers, when he takes over the running of the kingdom, that he can't fix any of the problems or the injustices that he despises, and he rationalizes this with the consolation that at least now his people are not the victims. At many points, Durham seems to purposely upset typical fantasy conventions. The hopelessly outmatched heroes get destroyed, sometimes almost casually run over by the rampaging armies. If everything goes just right, the good guys just might possibly be able to come through and good will win out-- but then a deadly betrayal comes from someplace you don't expect it. It makes for good reading. It took me a little while to get into the book (maybe the first 100 pages), perhaps because there were so many characters and so much going on; but after that, I couldn't wait to read more because I was so interested in what was happening with all the different characters.

Reviewed by Nancy Pearl on her KUOW podcast (review link no longer available, but listed under Pearl's Picks for December 2007). The book was also brought to my attention by an interview with Durham on ScifiWire. Durham was previously known for historical fiction, and he's posted an open letter on his website explaining why he decided to write fantasy.

Title:Acacia: The War with the Mein
Author:David Anthony Durham
Date published:2007
Genre:Fantasy
Series:Acacia
Number of pages:753

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