Book Review: Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy
Kiersten White

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.



Star Rating:


Review:
This actually has nothing to do with the book itself, but as I was typing up the summary, I realized that Kiersten White spells it "faeries" and not "fairies" which makes me incredibly happy, as I've always done the same. ... Ahem. On to the review.

My approach to Paranormalcy, as a reader, has been different than any other book I have ever read. I bought it because I accidentally stumbled on to Kiersten White's blog and was immediately charmed by her vivacity and quirky sense of humor. I bought her book because I respected her as a person and enjoyed reading her posts everyday. This is the only book I've sought after "meeting" the author, as opposed to seeking the author after enjoying the book.

The first thing I latched on to was Evie, and her voice as the narrator. I am anything but a girly girl, and so, I didn't love her character (personal taste - no attack at all on the writing style). What I did love was her energy - Evie is full of life. High on life. Even in the darkest times, she's one of those people that seems to find a glimpse of hope to bring her happiness, to help her move forward. It's not the raw determination and vengeance sought by so many protagonists - it's innocence. I loved that about her.

However, despite the pleasure I found in the mood of the book, I did have to keep reminding myself - "This is YA Urban Fantasy. YA. Yes, the characters are going to be immature. They are written to appeal to a younger audience than myself." They were shallow and impulsive and downright silly at times, but I've worked with high schoolers long enough (and been one recently enough) to remember that level of innocence and the "drama llama" that comes with it. And adult reader cannot go into this book expecting a mature cast and serious story. This book is pure fun.

That said, there seems to be an underlying layer of seriousness - darkness - with the faeries. I very much enjoyed those characters, because of how mysterious they were. Even at the end of the book, you got the impression they were still hiding something, a clever trick to maintain interest for the next book.

White also gets brownie points for unique fantasy creatures, mixed among the usual choices (vampires, werewolves, mermaids). If I said what they were, though, I'd ruin the book.

Ultimately, I will be picking up Supernaturally at some point in the future. I think that even though the series is definitely intended for teenagers (and the young at heart), White accomplishes everything she intended to with the book.

Book Review: The Power That Preserves

The Power That Preserves
Stephen R. Donaldson

Twice before Thomas Covenant had been summoned to the strange other-world where magic worked. Twice before he had been forced to join with the Lords of Revelstone in their war against Lord Foul, the ancient enemy of the Land. Now he was back. This time the Lords of Revelstone were desperate. Without hope, Covenant set out to confront the might of the enemy, as Lord Foul grew more powerful with every defeat for the Land....



Star Rating:


Review:
After a long period of waiting for something to happen, I finally find myself liking a book in this trilogy. It took until the middle of the book, granted, but then I flew right through it. The pace picked up, the characters gained interest. It was good, but I'm sad that it was so long coming. However, saying that, I must emphasize again that Donaldson's style is a much vaguer, slower-paced style than I prefer to start with, so those who like that type of writing style will have probably liked this book from the beginning.

Donaldson leaves a lot unexplained, right from the beginning. A great deal of the start of the book leaves the reader following Covenant around in a short of delusional stupor, and later the reader will see glimpses into certain perspectives that are truly irrelevant to the story - or, if they are relevant, Donaldson did not clearly explain how.

I made a note to myself after about the first hundred pages pending an incident: "Given any sort of logic, we'd never see Triock again, but even though many of Donaldson's side-exploits seem to be pointless and end in people dying, people don't seem to die. But they still seem pointless." A little harsh, perhaps, but it remains true. It's said that "if you don't see the corpse, they are not dead," and that prove true of several characters in the trilogy, so many that it was becoming predictable, and a bit disappointing. I think perhaps that the point was that Covenant's ghosts were coming back to haunt him, but I'm not certain.

Ultimately, I didn't love the trilogy, but nor can I say I hated it. Much of my opinion on the book, I am consciously aware, has to do with my preference in books, and not the shortcomings of the writer. He has many fans, and has them for a reason.

Book Review: The Illearth War

The Illearth War
Stephen R. Donaldson

Thomas Covenant found himself once again summoned to the Land. The Council of Lords needed him to move against Foul the Despiser who held the Illearth Stone, ancient source of evil power. But although Thomas Covenant held the legendary ring, he didn't know how to use its strength, and risked losing everything....



Star Rating:


Review:
The Illearth War is just more of the same.  Whereas in my previous review I excused Donaldson for being tedious because it was the first book in the series and required a certain amount of introductory information, he has thusfar failed to add any level of excitement.  The reader's feeling of "leaving the story just as soon as something interesting has happened" becomes stronger, and more disappointing.

Some things felt too obvious, and perhaps it was intended to be that way, in order to let the reader feel like they know something about the book, only to throw them off later.  Things such as the High Lord's lineage, which are not stated immediately, but are obvious to even the casual reader.  As the reader, I kept waiting for there to be some sort of immense, plot-shattering surprise, and was frustrated when I did not find one.

A new aspect in this book that was not present in Lord Foul's Bane was shifting perspectives.  Despite being called "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever," the reader finds herself sucked into a new character's mind for the majority of the story:  Warmark Hile Troy.  While Troy is not incredibly unlikeable, his side of the story is nothing more than a grueling marching pace - literally, the reader spends half the book watching the Land's army march.  I found it to be draggy and unexciting, and perhaps this is a reader's fault, since I have been raised in the world of instant gratification and over-dramatacism... but the lengthy descriptions of Troy's inability to come up with a sufficient battle plan and the struggles of the army to march fast enough without dying becomes tedious.

There are some aspects of the book that are more interesting than in the first in the trilogy.  For example, instead of giving a long speech to explain an event, there is a point where Donaldson chooses to use a flashback.  This flashback is considerably more interesting than the alternative (and, unfortunately, a little more exciting than most the rest of the book).

Once again, as the reader, I found myself disappointed as, at the end, the action was only just beginning, but Covenant was being sucked back into his world and the book had ended, just as the "good part" was starting.  No resolution, yet again.

Book Review: Lord Foul's Bane

Lord Foul's Bane
Stephen R. Donaldson

He called himself Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever because he dared not believe in the strange alternate world in which he suddenly found himself. Yet he was tempted to believe, to fight for the Land, to be the reincarnation of its greatest hero.



Star Rating:


Review:
I didn't hate this book.  My thoughts on it almost all the way up were negative, but I didn't hate it.  This is why:

I am a character writer, and by association, a character reader.  Meaning that I am incredibly judgmental about the depth and quality of characters in the books I read.  I loathed Thomas Convenant.  He was - to me - the epitome of a despicable character.  From a writer's perspective, though, I understand that he wasn't supposed to be likable.  However, needing to follow him through the Land and listening to his constant whining became a tad intolerable for something who prefers her protagonists to be just a few steps away from Gary Stu (okay, maybe a couple bounding yards.  But definitely not several miles).  That said, here are my continuing thoughts on the book.

After this point, there will, inevitably, be a few spoilers.  Not book-wrecker spoilers (I don't think) but read at your own risk.

Firstly, I was very well tolerating Covenant in his own world, although I thought he was whiny and his walk to town was impossibly long and draggy.  It was the moment that his got hit by that car and summoned into the Land that his character clashed so heavily with all the good there.  The first moments of his encounter with Drool and Lord Foul are just fine - good pacing, clear enough character:  you know that this part is supposed to be foggy.  But then we find Covenant on Kevin's Watch with the delightful Stonedowner, Lena.  I like Lena.  I thought she was charming, dreamy.  Again, I do believe this is by design, because if you love Lena, then you really despise Covenant raping her.

It was the rape that unfairly set my mind against the book.  I hate rape.  Who doesn't?  But even within the first hundred pages, it just wasn't classy.

And it is after the rape that I think Covenant becomes truly despicable.  He lacks any element of empathy, a lack-of-trait which drives me mad.  He spends the entirety of the next hundred pages whining about his condition and complaining about how this whole thing is a dream.  For me, this would be tolerable except I find Atarian, his guide and Lena's mother, to be weak and depressing, therefore leaving us with two characters for just less than a quarter of the book whose woes take up more time than the beauty (and evil) in the surrounding Land.

As a reader, in this 100-page stint, I turned my attention to the Land.  Donaldson has crafted his world beautifully, an accomplishment that I envy.  I can imagine the changing scenery perfectly, and you can feel the impending shiver as evil stretches out and corrupts it.

Once Covenant is dropped with Saltheart Foamfollower, the pacing becomes a littler quicker (thank goodness!) and the characters around Covenant become much more interesting (even while Covenant himself remains intolerable).  Foamfollower is a particular favourite of mine, because I felt his character was very well-rounded and he was a changing character; the developments you see around Foamfollower are slightly heartbreaking.  He is the character with empathy, the one who tries so hard to make Covenant see.

Donaldson has crafted a few very interesting species in this story, as is expected in any epic.  I particularly like the Bloodguard and Ranyhyn.  Bannor's character (a Bloodguard) is wide open, yet shut tight.  I think that paradox makes him a enigma, and an interesting character.

Once the Questers left the remnant of Woodhelven, I found myself enjoying the book, and wanting to read it.  I won't spoil the ending, but I am happier, now, picking up the second book than I was in the first half of Lord Foul's Bane.

I will say that Donaldson's pacing bothers me a little - but I also have problems with that in The Lord of the Rings and therefore I am inclined to believe that it is my own problem with epic fantasy.  The slows are very slow and the fasts are so quick, I needed to go back in and read them several times to understand what had just happened.