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This book was recommended to me once when I attempted to describe Connie Willis' delightful To Say Nothing of the Dog-- another literary, time-travelling, mystery, genre-bending book (which both sapphire and I have read and love). It's taken me a while to get a hold of a copy to read, but it was just as entertaining as promised. Thursday Next, a veteran of the interminable Crimean war and survivor of the disastrous charge of the light armored brigade, now works in the Literary division of SpecOps, in an alternate history version of England where people seem obsessed with art and literature-- so many people have had their names changed to that of famous writers that they have to be registered and numbered to keep them straight, and there are rallies and mobs on the street about clashes between different periods and views of art. In the midst of this, a seemingly unstoppable villain named Acheron Hades has stolen an original Dickens manuscript and kidnapped Thursday's eccentric inventor uncle and aunt; as an act of terrorism and to demonstrate his power, Hades removes and kills a minor character from Dicken's Martin Chuzzlewit (and since it is the original, all copies of the book are affected), and when he isn't taken seriously enough, he steals the original manuscript of Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jane suddenly goes missing from her own book.

Thursday lives in a delightfully strange version of England. She has a pet dodo named Pickwick (cloned extinct animals were all the rage for pets), her father is a rogue chronoguard (another division of SpecOps) who can stop time and apparently time-travel at will. He drops in on his daughter every now and then and stops time and everyone around them so he can talk to her, and among other things, he apparently also works to fight the French revisionists who are literally rewriting English history. In one particularly delightful visit, he stops by to show Thursday a new, nutritious fruit that comes in its own "hermetically sealed biodegradable packaging" and mentions his plan to go back three thousand years-- after he leaves, Thursday realizes she has just learned about the invention of the banana, named after the woman who engineered it. There are also recurring arguments throughout the book about the real author of Shakespeare's plays, a mystery which Thursday's father resolves in a rather unexpected way.

In Thursday's world, there is also some permeability between the real world and books of fiction. As a child, Thursday once actually entered Jane Eyre and met Mr. Rochester when visiting the Bronte house, and once Acheron starts on his devious plan, she learns that there are other cases where characters have wandered out of the books they belonged in. It's mentioned more than once in the book that people generally found the ending to Jane Eyre unsatisfying and wondered why Jane didn't end up with Mr. Rochester but instead goes off with her missionary cousins. As soon as I read this, I figured that Thursday was somehow going to change this-- in the process of saving Jane from her villainous kidnapper, she would also end up changing the ending to the one that we, in our world, are familiar with. Of course she does, but how she gets there-- and the response from all of Bronte's readers-- makes for an entertaining and satisfying ride.

Thursday is a strong female character, and part of her eventual success against Acheron is a result of the way she sticks to her guns and helps other people out. When she starts working in Swindon, she meets Spike, the one-man SpecOps-17 team who handles werewolves and vampires. When a call for help comes across the wire that all the other SpecOps agents have gotten used to ignoring, Thursday goes to his aid. And one little memento from that encounter turns out to be instrumental later on.

There's also a bit of a love story, and in the end Thursday gets some help via Mr. Rochester and a couple of other grateful characters from Jane Eyre, who help set things right with her former fiance and end this book the way comedies traditionally ended-- with a wedding.

Title:	The Eyre Affair
Author:	Jasper Fforde
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Alternate History / Fantasy
Series:	Thursday Next
Number of pages:	374
Notes:	recommended by Tavishi and others

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A story of a young woman who chose to follow God to Eastern Europe, almost immediately after Communism fell. She moved to Romania for a year with 3 other teammates, living, studying, and evangelizing among college students. Because things were so unsettled, life was indeed very interesting. But God showed up in some astounding and beautiful ways. During that first year, she felt God asking her to stay longer, so she stayed another 4 years. After that, she spent another 5 years living in Hungary and traveling around a number of countries throughout Eastern Europe. because the countries in this part of the world had been so closed, when Communism fell, the hunger for God and truth was immense. Hearing the story of someone who was part of God's answer to that hunger and search is encouraging and refreshing.

Because I currently live in Romania, I understand some of what she speaks about .. the culture, the language, the history. Things have changed dramatically in the almost 20 years since Communism fell, so my time here has been less dramatic and exciting than hers was. And I think I'm glad for that! God is still working here .. perhaps a bit less dramatically, but still powerfully and wisely. I am glad for those who have gone before among these people and this culture, planting seeds and watering them. God's Kingdom is always a work in progress, and it's a joy to take part in any of it!

Title:	We Wait You: Waiting on God in Eastern Europe
Author:	Taryn Hutchison
Date published:	2008
Genre:	Autobiography
Number of pages:	219
Notes:	Given by my parents

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A young boy is growing up in an Arab family in Palestine, with a father full of pride and anger toward the Jews who will not give them their land. This young boy is very good at surviving, although he doesn't always keep his pride. Because he does well on a test at school, he is given the opportunity to attend a Jewish boarding school and receive excellent training. He doesn't want to go, but his father won't let him back out. So he goes to the Jewish school, but to survive he ends up working to blend in. He can fade into either culture, and does so throughout his life. But .. as with anyone who lives in two cultures .. the question then becomes if he belongs in either one.

Kashua gives a wonderful picture of Arabic life. Narrative-style .. not by explaining or show and tell .. but simply by putting the reader in the room with events as they happen. Enough is explained to understand something very 'other' from what I know, but not so much that one is ever bored. The stories are told vignette style, with pieces and chunks missing. But everything flows together beautifully. I remember Larq talking about how fantasy or science fiction works when authors have so crafted the respective world or culture that slang and expectations about how life works. These rules or expectations are taken for granted, in a way. Which is true of Kashua's writing as well. Things which he has experienced, growing up in similar places to the main character, make some things 'commonplace' for him that I have never experienced in my life. The reader is given a gift in this glimpse into daily life. Not just important events or big stories .. but family relationships, village etiquette, violence, religious rituals .. this book is worth savoring, both for the writing style and the cultural learning to be gained simply by reading a story.

Title:	Dancing Arabs
Author:	Sayed Kashua
Date published:	2002
Genre:	Fiction, Cultural
Number of pages:	227
Notes:	Given by Jude

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An entertaining, if all too brief, escapade with the crew of Serenity. Presumably set sometime during the days of "Firefly," when all the characters we know and love are on board, this story finds the crew pulling off a heist and being the first guinea pigs to come up against a new, sophisticated, automatic anti-theft/crime-prevention device. They do manage to outwit it, and when they go to sell what's left of it, the cache they are sent to retrieve as payment ends up being far more money than they ever expected. So, interspersed with the rest of the story, as they are being chased down by the makers of the anti-crime machine and Mal or Zoe is being tracked down as a "dust devil" terrorist after the war ended, we also get to see the various dreams of how the different crew members would like to spend their share of the money-- sometimes serious, sometimes joking just to get a reaction, and sometimes downright strange..

The artwork is generally gorgeous but I found it a little uneven, because there were a few points where I wasn't quite sure for a moment or two who a particular character was supposed to be-- usually it was a matter of context or not enough detail, and I eventually figured it out from the story or dialogue-- but it made me realize [again] how much you lose, when you go from actors who all give life to their characters with their voice and bearing, in addition to the way they look.

The "dream" sections when the various characters are telling what they'd want to do with the money are all pretty entertaining, and it seems like it probably gave the artists some more interesting things to portray than they might otherwise get to draw in the serenity-verse. River's fantasy, particularly, is quite strange-- but what makes it fit perfectly is Zoe's wry response (I can just hear her saying it) that now her idea is taken.

The other interesting detail is that somehow, by the end of the story, the money has somehow been stolen. The only one who catches on is Inara-- she notices that Mal never shared what he wanted to do with the money, and guesses that having his crew leave him is the last thing he wants. It's well-written and subtle, but quite clear and insightful into Mal, at the same time.

Title:	Serenity: Better Days
Author:	Joss Whedon; art by Brett Mathews, Will Conrad, and Adam Hughes
Date published:	2008
Genre:	Science Fiction / Graphic Novel
Series:	Firefly/Serenity-verse
Number of pages:	80

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Perhaps the best of all of Mary Stewart's many suspenseful romance novels. Linda Martin has been living in England for the last 10 years, ever since she was orphaned. She returns to France (where she was born and spent her childhood years before her parents died) to take a job as a governess caring for the nine year old Comte de Valmy, Philippe. Her employers are Philippe's aunt and uncle: the beautiful but cold and distant Heloise, and the virile, forceful Leon-- a handsome, powerful man who was crippled in an accident years before, and since then has devoted his great, wheelchair-bound energies to running the Valmy estate. Because Linda is so set on getting back to France and away from her dismal life in England, shes conceals from her employers that she is half French and speaks the language quite well, and she tells herself it was just a silly impulse; but when things start to go wrong around her young charge, the situation begins to seems more sinister, and she wonders if her instincts were right.

There are lots of literary allusions throughout the text, and even the title is a reference to a line of poetry (where a young woman is being seduced by riches and luxury, but is hurrying "to the devil"). The allusions that are woven into the text don't seem as out of place as they might, though, because they are a part of the main character and narrator. At one point, Linda reflects to herself,

"I was sharply grateful to Daddy for making poetry a habit with me. ... Daddy had been right. Poetry was awfully good material to think with."

This is part of what makes the novel work so well: Linda and Leon are both aware of the similarity of their situation to that of Jane Eyre, and Leon suggests to others that he is a fallen angel, Milton's devil.

Soon, Linda meets and then falls in love with Leon's son, Raoul. Like his father, he is dark and handsome and powerful, and can turn on his immense charm at will. The relationship between Linda and Raoul (and people's perceptions of it, the servant's gossip) plays perfectly into the plot of the book, and become part of the plots against Philippe. The most difficult thing for Linda is that, she doesn't know if she can trust the man she loves. She still loves him, and if it were only her, she would take the chance, but when she tries to look at events and the evidence she has heard objectively, she sees that it could be read either way, and she dare not risk a child's life on the impulse of her own love. How she deals with this struggle and the outcome of her decisions is believable and touching.

It occurred to me after finishing the book that all the main characters are orphans, to some extent. Linda and Philippe are obviously so: their parents are dead, and they have to be cared for by people who don't care about them (or maybe even hate them and wish them harm). But Raoul is also a kind of orphan-- his English mother died long ago, and his crazy, hurtful, megalomaniac father may be worse than no father at all.

I don't think I noticed it before, but the chapters of the book are grouped and labeled as coaches, starting with the first and working up to the ninth. As far as I can tell, each of these sections actually does have a significant "coach" or car ride: Linda's taxi ride in Paris to see the old apartment where she had lived with her parent, the silent ride from Paris out to the country and Valmy, the fateful first meeting with Raoul on the mist-covered bridge, the outing with Raoul, the nerve-wracking car chase in the dark, Linda's final meeting with Raoul on the same bridge in a scene that echoes their first encounter perfectly. This structure perfectly plays out the title and its reference to a young woman being hurried to the devil.

This is my mother's favorite of all Mary Stewart's romance novels (maybe of any of her novels); I think it is probably the first one I ever read.

Title:	Nine Coaches Waiting
Author:	Mary Stewart
Date published:	1958
Genre:	Mystery/Romance
Number of pages:	342
Notes:	repeat reading; gift from Jane

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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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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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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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