REVIEW: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson

The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1)
M. T. Anderson
Kindle Edition (borrowed from library)

Goodreads synopsis: It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy’s regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians’ fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson’s extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.

I tried hard to get into this book.  In fact, I read over 40% of it.  But I just couldn’t do it.  I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. At first I thought it was weird that some people were called by numbers, but as their leader explained, they’re just the background, it doesn’t matter what their names are, and after that explanation, it actually made sense: they are conducting the experiment, their names do not matter, only the subjects matter.

In one part of the book they talk about weighing Octavian’s poop (they measure everything, the weight of what he ate and then the weight of his poop to see how much waste there was).  It reminded me of Augusten Burroughs’s Running With Scissors (a book I didn’t enjoy).

Octavian is a gifted violinist.  But they way he describes how he plays just didn’t make sense to me:

The second movement, a more lively one as written by Signor Tartini, somewhat a dance, I played like the kicking of a turtle-headed spawn in a woman’s womb.

What?

The language was kind of weird, as if the author was trying too hard to be the language of the time. “Spake” (spoke) and “sate” (sat) were used a lot.  There was a lot of description, some of it unnecessary (reminiscent of Moby Dick, though I don’t know how accurate my comparison can be since I’ve only read the first 100 pages of Moby Dick…)

So, all in all, this was a disappointment, but I have two other Kindle books that are available from the library that I’m very excited to read.

REVIEW: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

 11/22/63
Stephen King
Hardcover edition

Synopsis: Jake Epping is a Maine high school teacher in 2011.  A friend of his shows him a “rabbit hole” to 1958 and encourages him to jump into 1958 in order to prevent the assassination of JFK in 1963.  Jake would have to stay in the past (“The Land of Ago” as he calls it) as George Amberson for 5 years to complete that task, but when he returns to 2011, only 2 minutes will have passed but he will have aged 5 years (a quirk of the rabbit hole). Every time he comes back through the rabbit hole and goes through again, a “reset” happens and he goes back to the same day in 1958. 11/22/63 covers Jake’s 5 years in the past, with all the obstacles he needs to overcome in order to succeed in his mission.  But when that mission is over, what will the future look like?

This is a loong book, clocking in at 849 pages.  But of course, we all know King is extremely well-known for the length of his books and the attention to detail he includes in them.  There were a LOT of details in this book and so much happened over the course of the 5 years, that when Jake/George mentions/notices a similarity to an occurance much earlier in the book, I didn’t always remember it right away.  Or the names seemed vaguely familiar, but until Jake/George specifically mentioned it, I wouldn’t remember exactly what part of the story I had heard that name before.  Overall, this was a good story and I read the book in about a week. I thought the premise of the story was a good one, having been intrigued by time travel and how it would affect the traveler’s present day/future for a long time now.

During my reading, a number of questions were raised: If Jake decided to stay in the past, what would happen when it was time for him to be born?  Would he still be born and then there would be two Jake Eppings in the world?  Did everything Jake do have a direct effect on how the future changes?  Obviously, he meets a bunch of people, so does meeting those people change the course of history? (nevermind his objective, because clearly saving the president’s life is a huge game changer).  Can one person, making even a small change (like buying a car for example), have a significant effect on history and thus the future?

Some of these questions are answered by the end of the book.

I thought the ending was kind of disappointing, but it made sense. I thought it could have gotten a little too sci-fi towards the end with the explanation of the rabbit hole (I know, I know: how can I complain about “too sci-fi” when the book is about time travel?), but it made sense, too.

One thing I hope never to hear again though, is that “the past is obdurate” or that “the past harmonizes”.  I wish I had read this on my Kindle just so I could see how many times both of those sentences were said, it was seriously getting on my nerves.

I definitely liked this book more than Under the Dome, but not as much as IT or The Eyes of the Dragon (two of my favorite SK – and all-time – books).

REVIEW: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Kindle edition (borrowed from library)

Brief synopsis: It’s 1946 and World War II has just ended.  Juliet Ashton wrote a column for a local newspaper to help people get through the War; making them chuckle (or even outright laugh) during a time that no one thought any happy emotions would survive. When Juliet is offered a 3-installment “article” for the paper about the effect reading has on people, she is stumped what to write about.  Then she receives a letter in the mail from Dawsey Adams, a man from Guernsey who reached out to her when he found her name and address in a book he bought.  From there they begin a correspondence and she learns much about him and his friends on the island.  Moreover, she learns about their “literary society” and  she discovers a strong and close-knit group of people who survived the Occupation.  She travels to Guernsey to meet these people, wanting to learn more about them, and along the way learns more about herself.

What a charming and delightful cast of characters!  All were so well written and full realized.  I didn’t think any of them were flat.  Witty and smart Juliet, shy and caring Dawsey, loopy and eccentric Isola, sweet and sincere little Kit, lovely Amelia and the rest of the cast were just terrific characters.

The book is written through letters, which can be difficult, but it works here. After reading this, I want a pen pal again! (I had one around the time I started high school.  She was from Zimbabwe and we wrote back and forth for almost 5 years, sending each other little trinkets: pictures, puzzles, etc. I bet I still have all of her letters somewhere…

These people are so sincere and care a great deal for each other.  The story can be quite humorous (I almost always had a little smile on my face when I read a letter from Isola, or a scene in which she appeared.  For example, she got a book on phrenology and started “reading” the lumps and bumps on people’s heads. After reading Juliet’s head, she wrote a letter to Juliet’s dear friend – and publisher - and told him: “I told her it was a wonder she wasn’t married, with such great mounds.” – I don’t think she even realized what she was saying..)  But there were also some very serious, and very sad parts (I won’t lie, I may have teared up in a few places), when talking about the Occupation and how it affected people: parents sending their children to England and being separated for 5 years, deaths, concentration camps, starving, being kicked out of their homes by the German soldiers.. the list could go on.  Despite all of that against them, the members of the Literary Society persevered, stayed together and helped each other through this tough time when they had absolutely no contact with the world beyond their island.

Their Society introduced reading to an audience who hadn’t read books beyond school, or rarely did so.  It brought them distraction in the best sense of the word. They learned to love certain stories, authors, genres and loved to talk and argue and discuss things with each other.  People who had been merely neighbors became good, lifelong friends.

I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it.  It’s a quick read (I think that’s due in part to the letter format but also because of the story).  The ending is a bit predictable (maybe not how it gets there, though), but that didn’t take away from the story for me.

 

REVIEW: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
Kindle edition (borrowed from library)

Goodreads Synopsis: click the picture for the synopsis.  It’s really long and I didn’t want to take up a lot of space on here.

Having been a student of Latin for 5 years, I’ve heard, read, and/or translated a lot of the Greek/Roman myths and legends.  I learned about many of the gods and goddesses and the epic tales.  However, Achilles was never one that I learned a whole lot about.  I knew the gist of his story, and that he was one of the “bad guys” in the Trojan War (of course, it all depends on which side you were on!).  Maybe I would have learned more about him if I had taken Greek in my last year of high school (instead of not taking any language…but I digress.)

Miller says she was influenced by Homer’s Iliad rather than other versions of Achilles’ myth (for example, we are probably most familiar with the “Achilles heel” and that only his heels were vulnerable and thus his downfall; this was not how Homer wrote him, so this was not how he was portrayed in this novel).

Patroclus narrates the novel and it’s a very interesting voice.  I never really knew anything about this character, so I was glad this was from his point of view. In that time, he would have been considered a coward, and in some instances, perhaps he was.  Maybe having Achilles’ strength and lack of fear around him made him a stronger person in other aspects of his life.  But he was a good man, even if he wasn’t a fighter.  He was smart and caring. While Homer barely hints at the whisper of a romantic relationship between the Patroclus and Achilles, Miller leaves no room for doubt.  It was a touching relationship.  This story, their story, was one of love, strength, death and most importantly Fate.  Can Fate be thwarted? (or I guess in this case, can the Fates?)

I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it.  It was a quick read and there weren’t really any dull parts that I just wanted to get through. Many of the names were familiar (like Menelaus, Agamemnon, Hector, Paris, Helen, Priam, etc.) but it was interesting to see them from the Greek side instead of the Trojan side of things.  (However, in the Trojan war battle scenes, I kept picturing Brad Pitt from the terrible movie adaptation, Troy, as he was leaping through the air to attack his enemies…gosh that was an awful movie, I can’t believe I saw that in the movie theatre… nerd problems?).

I think it’s safe to say my reading of the finalists in the Tournament of Books is off to a good start!

REVIEW: Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow by Juliet Grey

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow
Juliet Grey
Kindle Edition – 399 pages

Goodreads Synopsis: A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen.

Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty.

From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep away the French monarchy forever.

This is the second book in a trilogy about Marie Antoinette (I’m going to call her MA throughout my review). I read the first at the end of last year (aka last week).  This installment takes place over the course of MA’s middle years, from late teens to her early thirties.

As in the first book, the one thing that was kind of annoying was the use of both French and English.  Obviously, all the conversations would occur in French.  But the author would write a phrase or sentence in French and then write it in English, so it looked like the people were repeating themselves a lot.  I understand it’s for the benefit of people who don’t understand French (myself included) but it was kind of annoying nonetheless.  At the end of the e-book I saw that there was a glossary of the French terms, which was nice, but I didn’t realize it was there while reading.  If that was the case, I would have referred to it (and it would have been nice if the ebook allowed the reader to click on the French word to be taken to the glossary.)  If she felt the need to write some of the conversations in French, perhaps she should have included the English as footnotes, so it didn’t look so repetitive. (Does that make sense?)

A third person narrator appears in this book.  MA narrates the majority of the story, but certain sections were narrated by the third person; mainly because the author wanted us to see certain happenings where MA wasn’t included.  I wonder if this is setting up a narration style for book three?  Cleary, the entire third book cannot be narrated by MA because I’m assuming we will see her beheading.  I suspect that book three will have a similar narration set up.

In the first book, I was getting really frustrated with MA as she got a bit older and should have realized what she was going.  This frustration made its way through about half of the second book, up until she had her first child. Up until that point, she just didn’t seem to try to understand that she was spending tons of money on stupid things (and those hair-dos….seriously????).  I think she refused to see how extravagant her spending and gambling really were and how she was affecting the monarchy.  It was almost as if she was taking advantage of Louis’ love for her in order to get more money, though she truly did have a genuine affection for him, so I feel like she may not have realized she was taking advantage. All she could do was complain about how the people saw her; damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.  I mean, eventually this was true, she couldn’t do anything right, and the people really were getting out of hand and were “picking” on her excessively, but she could have set a different tone from the get go.  The reality: she was far to young to become a Queen (as was Louis).

This novel ends shortly after the Bastille is taken, at the precipice of the Revolution.

Honestly, I feel bad for Louis.  This novel depicts him as someone who takes the crown with a reluctant heart.  He was never meant to be king and he would prefer to be with his locks or hunting.  And he would have been better suited. I feel bad for MA too.  They were both thrust into a situation neither had any control over.  But when they finally did have control, they didn’t know what to do. Everything was working against them.

It makes you wonder how different things could have been had Louis’ elder brother not died.  Would MA have remained in Austria?  I know Louis would have been much happier if he didn’t have to be king. Would a Revolution ever have occurred?  Would he have helped the American rebels?  How much would the course of history diverge if a different person sat on the throne?

A novel I really enjoyed about the French Revolution is Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran, told from the point of view of another real person in history but not a royal, the titular character. I was curious to see this point of history from a different point of view, which is why I picked up Becoming Marie Antoinette (book 1) in the first place. (and the fact that I needed a book to read for my commute home one day.)

REVIEW: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

The Island of Dr. Moreau
H. G. Wells
Kindle Edition
Challenges: Historical Fiction

Goodreads Synopsis: A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then “beastly” in ways they never were before–it’s the stuff of high adventure. It’s also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), and a bloody tale of horror. Or, as H. G. Wells himself wrote about this story, “The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now and then, though I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, and I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation.” This colorful tale by the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds lit a firestorm of controversy at the time of its publication in 1896.

Scary stuff.  I’m never really any good at digging to find a deeper meaning, whether philosophical, political, or otherwise.  I tend to read just for the story, and if I manage to see it as a metaphor or allegory or whatever, it’s a bonus.  But I don’t usually read to look for those things.  Clearly by the synopsis above, straight from Wells’ own mouth, this story is more than just a horror story about mutilated creatures but rather a very well crafted metaphor for the world as he saw it.

The unfortunate part of this story is how alone Prendick feels at the end; that he can never really and truly trust other humans after the island.   And I felt a little sad about his dog-creature.  Really, I pitied the creatures: they were just unfortunate enough to be selected for Moreau’s morbid curiosity.  Then they were pretty much slaves to Moreau and they feared him.  They were never going to be able to live their normal animal lives once Moreau got his hands on them.  Poor creatures.

I haven’t read much by H. G. Wells, only this and The Time Machine (I’m in the process of reading The Invisible Man, though I don’t think I ever put it on Goodreads…let me check…nope, not on there.)   Anyway, I think I like his writing.  I think I’m partial to H. G. Wells because I really enjoyed the character in Palma’s Map of Time (review here).  It gave a personality to this author and whether it’s true to life or not, I did enjoy him.  (And I may also like the idea of a female version of H. G. like in the SyFy show Warehouse 13…side note, I hate that SyFy is spelled that way now, SciFi made much more sense…but I digress).

 

Have you read this?  Thoughts? What do you think Wells was trying to tell us about human nature and the universe?

REVIEW: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Kindle edition

Goodreads Synopsis: The gripping novel of a London lawyer who investigates strange occurrences surrounding his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the misanthropic Mr. Edward Hyde. The work is known for its vivid portrayal of a split personality, split in the sense that within the same person there is both an apparently good and an evil personality each being quite distinct from the other…

Though I’ve heard this story, (or the general idea anyway), I had never read it until this weekend.  The description calls it a novel, but I’d be more ready to call it a novella, since it is so short.

Since I knew the general plot of the story, I was waiting to finally see what no one else knew yet (similar to how I felt about Dracula.  Vampires were a new concept when the book was written so I could understand people gripped in suspense, but to me I knew exactly what was going on and was waiting for the characters to catch up.  But I digress…)

It was a short and entertaining read and makes one ponder about our “other selves.”

 ”man is not truly one, but truly two” (p 78)

It is easy to see how this can be a scary story of good and evil because, let’s face it, we’ve all felt that there is a darker side to our beings, haven’t we?  (Not necessarily to the extent of murder but still another side that may have chosen the “wrong” path when faced with a situation but our morals overcome those thoughts…am I making sense?)

It is always interesting for me to read “science fiction” like this written back in the 1800s.  It’s really incredible to see what the imaginations of these authors were like way before any of the technology we have today.  And for some of the things to still be unavailable to us at this day and age is even more remarkable.  Just look at anything by H. G. Wells or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for example.

One thing I was disappointed in was not returning to Utterson after he read the explanations from both Doctors Lanyon and Jekyll.  He was the main character from the get-go, well the main point of view for the whole novel, so I expected to see some kind of reaction from him at the end. I guess I expected there to be more to the story.  The length was surprising.  It is such a popular and lasting one that I expected it to be much longer.  Though the last line is a really great, but sad, one.

REVIEW: The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss

The Twelfth Enchantment
Author: David Liss

Goodreads Synopsis: Lucy Derrick is a young woman of good breeding and poor finances. After the death of her beloved father, she is forced to maintain a shabby dignity as the unwanted boarder of her tyrannical uncle, fending off marriage to a local mill owner. But just as she is on the cusp of accepting a life of misery, events take a stunning turn when a handsome stranger—the poet and notorious rake Lord Byron—arrives at her house, stricken by what seems to be a curse, and with a cryptic message for Lucy. Suddenly her unfortunate circumstances are transformed in ways at once astonishing and seemingly impossible. 

With the world undergoing an industrial transformation, and with England on the cusp of revolution, Lucy is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy in which her life, and her country’s future, are in the balance. Inexplicably finding herself at the center of cataclysmic events, Lucy is awakened to a world once unknown to her: where magic and mortals collide, and the forces of ancient nature and modern progress are at war for the soul of England . . . and the world. The key to victory may be connected to a cryptic volume whose powers of enchantment are unbounded. Now, challenged by ruthless enemies with ancient powers at their command, Lucy must harness newfound mystical skills to prevent catastrophe and preserve humanity’s future. And enthralled by two exceptional men with designs on her heart, she must master her own desires to claim the destiny she deserves. 

The Twelfth Enchantment is the most captivating work to date of a master literary conjurer.

So that is kind of a long synopsis of the book!  I finished reading this a couple of weeks ago but am only now sitting down to write the post.  It was a decent book and fairly predictable in some areas.

Sometimes it seemed that the writing tried too hard to be “old”.  By “old” I mean mimicking the writing of books written in the 1800s or so.  It didn’t really detract from the book (as it took place in the 1800s) but I just thought it felt slightly forced.  The characters were fairly well written, some better than others.  The main characters were definitely the better written ones as we were able to “see” them more.

The ending was predictable though there was a slight twist at one point that I wasn’t expecting.

The belief in magic was definitely a lot more prevalent in that time period and a number of historical fiction novels I read had some element of it.  I thought the magic in this book was good.  It was well written and more natural/philosophical than wand waving.  I really enjoyed the following quotation about magic:

“Magic implies some sort of exception from the rules that govern the world, something outside nature, but if these things were magic in that sense, those spells could not be written down. There could be no knowing if a spell would work from one time to the next. But these things you teach me to do – they are governed by laws. A spell cast in the same way, under the same conditions, with the same level of concentration – it will work the same way every time. If that is so, is not magic simply another kind of natural philosophy, though a more obscure one?”

The magic described here makes me think more of alchemy than “hocus pocus”.

The Twelfth Enchantment was fine to read, but I don’t know if I’ll be re-reading it any time soon.

(Full disclosure, I also feel like this is a half-hearted review, since I waited a bit after I read it to write it)

REVIEW: Sorcery & Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

cover art courtesy of Open Road Media

Sorcery & Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Book 1)
Being the Correspondence of two Young Ladies of Quality regarding various Magical Scandals in London and the Country
Digital Edition
Authors: Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Publish Date: 22-May-2012
Publisher: Open Road Media

NetGalley synopsis: Two girls contend with sorcery in England’s Regency age.

Since they were children, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart. As Cecelia fights boredom in her small country town, Kate visits London to mingle with the brightest lights of English society.

At the initiation of a powerful magician into the Royal College of Wizards, Kate finds herself alone with a mysterious witch who offers her a sip from a chocolate pot. When Kate refuses the drink, the chocolate burns through her dress and the witch disappears. It seems that strange forces are convening to destroy a beloved wizard, and only Kate and Cecelia can stop the plot. But for two girls who have to contend with the pressures of choosing dresses and beaux for their debuts, deadly magic is only one of their concerns.

 This ebook features illustrated biographies of Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the authors’ personal collections.

First I’d like to thank Sarah Murphy from Open Road Media for her help in answering my questions and supplying me with the cover art for the book.

It turns out this story was published several years ago, but this is  a digital edition with added information about the authors that was not previously published.

Before I get into my review of the story, I would like to make a few technical comments.  When I downloaded the file from NetGalley to my Kindle, the formatting was off.  It was automatically horizontal and the last line of text on some “pages” was (screen image) cut in half, making it difficult to read.  Since I still have my Sony eReader, I decided to see if I would have better luck with that.  I chose the medium text option, which was a bit larger than I am accustomed to, but the small font was too tiny.  This also had some formatting errors.  Sometimes only a few words or a few sentences would be on one “page” (screen image), resulting in a total page count of 350 (the Kindle version was 320 pages).

Also, I don’t know if it is because I used the Sony eReader, but I didn’t have illustrated biographies of the authors or photos. There was a brief afterward from the two authors discussing how the book was developed from a game.  I loved the idea of a letter writing game and thought it was very clever to turn it into a book.  (The Kindle also did not have any images or biographies, but just the same afterward I read on the eReader).

Hopefully, kinks were worked out and the digital edition now available for purchase is formatted appropriately and the biographies, photos, and afterward are all included. (or maybe the additional sections are only included in the ebook for purchase and not for review?)

Though the digital formatting on the device was a bit annoying, I was still able to enjoy the story, and thought it was a good one.

I really liked that it was set up in a letter-writing format.  I think it made it easier and faster to read.  Though I’m not an historical fiction expert by any means, I thought the language and writing were appropriate (including Capitalizing certain words when trying to emphasize a point – see the subtitle above for a perfect example).  It very much reminded me of books I read that actually were written in the 1800s.

The story was cute. The reader gets to know Kate and Cecelia (affectionately known as Cecy) through their letters to each other. Most of the characters were fairly well-developed (especially when one considers how they were created) and easy to believe. While the “love story” elements were predictable, they didn’t detract from the story.  In fact, for me, it was more like “alright already, just realize you love him”.  I think part of the reason it was acceptable to see the love interest progress so “quickly” during the reading was because time passed through the use of the letters. There wasn’t a lot of  back-story and build up, but I think that was better since this is for young adults.  If this had too much back-story and plot set-up, young adults may lose interest quickly. (To clarify, for this particular book, I think of young adult as around 12 years old or so)

I thought there would be more magic involved considering the title (and subtitle), but it seemed a lot of the magic performed was “off stage”, meaning that the reader didn’t “see” it happen, but rather “heard” about it.  While this wasn’t really an issue for me, I can expect some people may wish to “see” more magic and spells happen.

Sorcery & Cecelia is a fun read that could be done in just a couple of days.  I would consider it a “beach read” or even something I would read while flying to pass the time.

I would definitely recommend this book to young readers, and girls would probably enjoy it more than boys, generally speaking.   I understand that a couple more books were written in this series and I will probably read them at some point.

I would like to reiterate that I was not compensated for my review.

REVIEW: The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

Title: Map Of Time
Author: Felix J. Palma
Translated by:  Nick Caistor

Goodreads Synopsis: Set in Victorian London with characters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history? Felix J. Palma explores this question in The Map of Time, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting–a story full of love and adventure that transports readers to a haunting setting in Victorian London for their own taste of time travel.

I bought this book on my Kindle months and months ago.  I saw it on Amazon and thought it sounded good. Then I never got around to it.  First, until I looked it up on Goodreads,  I didn’t even realize it was a translation.  But let me tell you, it’s a wonderful translation.  I didn’t really notice any odd phrases or parts that sounded as if they had been translated.  It was beautifully done.

Next, I should probably tell you that I love the concept of time travel.  It’s one of those things that piques my curiosity.  I’ve read non-fiction books by Michio Kaku (a prominent string theorist) in which he discusses the possibilities of time travel.  Obviously (but unfortunately) I’ll never see it in my lifetime, but it’s an amazing thought that maybe someday it could happen…

The narrator of the novel was a great character separate from the main characters.  He (or she…but I tended to think of it as male) addressed the reader and made it more of an actual storytelling than just a narration, if that makes sense.  By addressing the reader, I feel that the narrator pulled the reader further into the novel.

Normally, a lot of description in a novel can bore me, but I really enjoyed it all, and I think that was due to the narrator.  Yes, there may have been tangents, and yes those usually bother me as well, but it didn’t.  Strange.  Maybe mixing historical fiction with science fiction is the ultimate genre for me. hehe  Historical novels tend to keep me more entertained, even when the descriptions get long.  I love learning about the past, even though I was never a huge fan of history class.

I can’t say much about the plot (aside from what you see in the synopsis above) without giving certain things away.  There were definitely quite a few twists, and at certain parts I was waiting for some sort of  revelation, and there was a final twist at the end.

Each part could stand alone as its own story, but some characters spill over into the other parts and really give a full wonderful version that really intertwines the lives of people who may never even realize it.  I love that it twists and turns, yet is all connected.  It’s really wonderfully written.

REVIEW: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Told from the point of view of Jim Hawkins, Treasure Island is about sailing on the high seas in search of buried treasure.  Jim recounts the tale of meeting an old pirate, Billy Bones, who stayed at his parents’ inn and getting dragged into pirate affairs.  When Billy Bones dies, Jim is sent on a quest to go after treasure left on an undisclosed island which  Jim refers to as the “Isle of Treasure” and “Treasure Island”.  The crew selected for the expedition turns out to be an unsavory bunch of characters who have other ideas for this treasure hunt.

The reader follows Jim along for a pirate adventure rife with mutiny, battles, and treasure hunting.

This is the first book by Robert Louis Stevenson that I’ve read. I enjoyed it for the most part. There were times where the language and pirate-speak kind of made me zone out but overall I thought it was a good story.   It was fast-paced.  The description wasn’t overly done but there was enough to help me see the events unfolding.  (Though I do tend to have problems with imaging spaces and sizes, so I probably didn’t image the Hispaniola in its appropriate size.)  I tend to prefer description like this where there is more action to follow.  I find that if there is too much description in a novel, especially when there is an event happening in a very short amount of time, the story slows down too much.  I would definitely read another book by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Have any of you read this or any other books by Robert Louis Stevenson?  What are your thoughts?