Chamber Four

Author: Austin Grossman

2008, Vintage Books

Filed Under Literary, Fantasy

In Soon I Will Be Invincible, the world’s greatest villain, Dr. Impossible, has once again escaped from prison and the diabolical genius is about to embark on his latest scheme to take over the world. As usual, standing in his way is a league of superheroes, in this case the Champions. Nothing terribly original so far, right?  Wrong.

Austin Grossman does nothing short of re-invigorate the superhero story and takes great strides in legitimizing the comics genre as a subject worthy of literary pursuit. Grossman greatest achievement is adding depth and richness to his characters in an arena where characters are usually reduced to superficial props that set a stage for epic battles and the showcasing of ludicrous powers. As is evident in the title of the book, and the chapter titles within, such as “Riddle Me This,” “Welcome to My Island”, and “But Before I Kill You”, there is a good deal of playfulness and send-up at work, but Grossman’s use of comic book clichés is more an act of celebration rather than of subversion. …
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Author: Lord Dunsany

Public Domain, 1912

Best ebook deal: free

Filed under Literary, Fantasy, Short Stories

It’s always great when a book turns out to be nothing at all what you were expecting, and all the better for it. I’d never heard of Lord Dunsany (aka Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany) before, but apparently he’s a big deal in fantasy. This collection is ecclectic and creative, with stories that delve into many wonderous locales and involve a wide spectrum of characters and situations. Though there are centaurs and man-eating gibbelins and fantastical locales such as The City of Never, the fantasy Dunsany presents is not of the sword and sorcery variety I expected to encounter. …
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Author: Neil Gaiman

Harper Collins, 2002

Best ebook deal: ebooks.com (only $3!)

Filed under: Young Adult, Literary, Fantasy

Neil Gaiman has a real knack for macabre young adult fiction. His characters are fleshed out and idosyncratic, his settings unique and vivid, and his plotting and pacing pitch perfect. This is the second of his novels I’ve read in two weeks, and this description holds true for both. They both won Hugos amongst other awards as well, so I’m not alone in thinking this.

Though it isn’t a direct adaptation like The Graveyard Book is, Coraline is a wonderful amalgamation of Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel with a substantial amount of creative originality stirred in. It is a short and marvelous story that at times channels Tim Burton and Roald Dahl, and at times surpasses them. …
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This book has been chosen as a Great Read.

Author: Neil Gaiman

Harper Collins, 2008

Best ebook deal: Sony eBook Store

Filed under: Young Adult, Literary, Fantasy

I guess I chose a pretty good time to read and review this book, as it was just awarded the Hugo Award (to compliment the Newbery and Locus awards it already has won), making this as good a time to talk about this great novel as ever.

As you might infer from the title, The Graveyard Book takes its inspiration from Kipling’s classic children’s’ novel, The Jungle Book. Nobody (Bod) Owens is an orphan raised in a graveyard by its otherworldly denizens. One of Gaiman’s greatest achievements with this novel is the cohesive and enthralling world he creates. He quickly establishes the different lore and hierarchies within the world of the dead, and never once was I confused about the rules of this fictional world that very early on felt as robust and immersive as that of Rowling’s Harry Potter series. …
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Author: China Miéville

Del Rey, 2009

Best ebook deal: Sony’s eBook Store

Filed under: Fantasy, Mystery

On the one hand, The City & The City is a straightforward mystery about a murder that has (of course) ties to larger forces at work. On the other hand, it presents the mystery of the world in which it takes place. This second mystery has the potential to be philosophical, allegorical, and richly entertaining in the grand tradition of the best magical realists. Unfortunately, Miéville barely scratches its surface, and so the whole novel feels unsatisfying and frustratingly unrealized.

The two cities of the title are Besźel and Ul Qoma, city-state neighbors roughly somewhere near Eastern Europe in an alternate history version of the approximate present. At some point, evidently, something happened, and now there’s a stringent set of absurd fascist laws that make life tricky to say the least.

I’m not saying more because it feels like I’m giving too much away―and that’s not good. Evidently, Miéville requested that reviewers not spoil the “twist” of the novel; the problem is that that twist is actually the premise, and once you figure out what’s going on, there’s nowhere else to go, nothing further happens.

The real mystery of this world should be how these circumstances were established in the first place, and why the citizenry puts up with such an admittedly ridiculous way of life. Those are questions that Miéville doesn’t have answers for. If he had made the psychology of these people intrinsic to the murder mystery, this book could have been brilliant.

Unfortunately, the mystery doesn’t rely on or care why this odd relationship between the cities formed, only that it formed. The result is a Jerry Bruckheimer-ish novel: an interesting world wasted as merely a backdrop for a formulaic story.

…
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Author: Nahoko Uehashi, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano

Arthur A. Levine, 2009

Best ebook deal: Not Available

The first Moribito had all the trappings of a great YA adventure story. I bought it on a whim and found myself quite surprised at how good it was. A lot of the things that Moribito did well, relatively deep political undercurrents, strong characterization, quick action and sprawling adventure, its sequel does well too. Yet something feels a little off. Not unlike Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Moribito II feels like a story with familiar characters who are forced to be somewhere they shouldn’t. The story works, but it doesn’t feel as organic as the first, and the structural supports its predecessor so nicely blended and wove here show through and draw the reader out.

In this second adventure, Balsa returns to her homeland to clear her adoptive father’s name. He fled the land to save Balsa’s life, allowing his honor to be sullied by conniving and power hungry brothers. When she meets a young warrior and his sister in a legendary cave, she is re-thrust into a political drama set in motion when she first departed the land as a child. The story is strong and well thought out, featuring a plot by nobles to utilize the local spiritual lore in order to usurp the kingdom. …
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Author: D.W. Golden

Eloquent Books, 2008

Best ebook deal: Not Available

I love reading small-run books. I always have the feeling I’m in on a secret when I read a book most readers have never heard of. This feeling is tinged with sadness though, as there are so many good books that just don’t get the attention they deserve. Though they sometimes lack the precise polish of books put through big editing factories, independently published and small-run books are often more creative and original than mainstream fare. There’s also something charming about reading a labor of love that feels more like the author’s uncompromised vision than an attempt at character branding or serialization (as often seems the case with middling YA).

Purple Butterflies is just this kind of book: it is both creative and charming. And you’ve probably never heard of it. …
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Authors: Christine & Ethan Rose

Dalton Publishing, 2008.

Best eBook Deal: Free from Feedbooks

I tend to be skeptical of anything that is offered free without stipulation, especially over the internet. I came across Rowan of the Wood while perusing the Feedbooks catalogue on my iPhone Stanza app.  I was pleased to learn that not only is this a complete book and a not sample segment nor littered with random advertisements, but it’s also a surprisingly good young adult book.

Rowan opens a tad slowly and Harry Potter-y (well, I shouldn’t give old JKR too much credit.  Let’s say convential: Bookish orphan who is often bullied escapes into books until he and his outcast friends find empowerment thanks to a nudge from the supernatural), but soon finds its stride. The authors inject some nice bits of history into the tale that allow the story a fair share of freshness in a genre where books can quickly become stale.

Actually, my biggest gripe with this book is that they didn’t explore the historial elements enough. …
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Author: Salman Rushdie

Random House, 2008.

Best ebook deal: Seattle Public Library

The plot of The Enchantress of Florence concerns a beautiful woman and three young friends whom history remembers: I won’t reveal them here, figuring them out is part of the game.

The real subject of the novel, however, is storytelling, and the power of a narrative, and the lines between art and life.

Rushdie frames his plot with the entrance of a young Westerner who has come to an Arabian Mughal’s (emperor’s) kingdom to tell the Mughal an epic tale.

Nested within that tale are such episodes as the emperor’s imaginary wife, whom he wishes into existence, and also the greatest painter in the land, who disappears into his best painting, to live as he must, as a work of art. …
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Author: Nahoko Uehashi, Translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano

Arthur A. Levine, 2008.

Best ebook deal: Currently Unavailable (disagree?)

Moribito has been a popular and award-winning series of children’s adventure novels in Japan since 1997. The books follow Balsa, a rare woman warrior who lives her life as a spear-for-hire, on adventures around the island nation Yogo, based on feudal Japan. She strives to atone for her past by saving the lives of eight people. As Balsa soon learns, saving a life is far more difficult than taking one, and takes much longer–a lifetime versus a second. It soon becomes clear to the reader however, that despite motivations, heroes are sometimes heroes just because that is who they were born to be.

This book is a quick read. It only takes a couple hours to get through the 200 odd pages. Those pages contain a very sound adventure story and Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit is a great choice for a light read on a Saturday afternoon.

The plotting and characterization are as adept and as gripping as you’d expect from a quality young adult novel. Despite its brevity, the politics explored in the plot are fairly deep, and the tangling motivations behind the different murder plots are satisfying and fuel the pacing nicely. The characterization is strong and it’s easy to see how these characters could remain sustainable for a further nine books. Hopefully Cathy Hirano keeps producing the translations (the second book in the series is due for an English publication in early May). Her writing paces well and from what little I know of Japanese and the practice of coining compound words for names, she seems to do a sound job of retaining the meanings of proper nouns when introducing characters and places.

The greatest strength of this novel is the world it presents. The land is a fictional one based on a fantastical feudal Japan. There are magical elements at work in this story, but not so much to push the novel fully into the realm of fantasy. The magic is muted and controlled, and built upon plausibility and legend put forth by the book, more akin to the Aeneid than The Hobbit.

Finally, the visual presentation is nothing short of beautiful. The book is colorful, with borders printed on the pages and an attractive typeset. There are a few nice illustrations separating the separate segments of the book that look like a cross between Amano paintings and Hokusai woodcuts. The presentation adds a welcome storybook feel to the book that I hope is carried over to the paperback version as well as the ebook if and when it becomes available.

Other books you might like: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Rowling), The King in the Tree (Millhauser), The Princess Bride (Goldman).