Jack London: The Call of the Wild and White Fang

• ISBN-13: 9781593082000
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 6/1/2004
• Pages: 336

Jack London's two greatest novels, The Call of the Wild and White Fang - originally intended as companions - are here compiled into one volume.
 The Call of the Wild centers on Buck, a dog bred for a life of ease on a Californian estate, who is kidnapped and sold to Klondike gold hunters. To survive the biting cold and his ruthless masters, Buck must listen to the Call and learn the ways of his wolf-ancestors who guide him from within. White Fang tells the story of a half-wolf, half-dog nearly destroyed by the vicious cruelty of mankind. Brought to the very brink of his existence, White Fang is lucky enough to experience the one thing that can save him - human love. Slowly, the ferocious White Fang grows into a creature capable of bravery, loyalty, and affection. 
 Adventurer and activist, philosopher and alcoholic, Jack London was a man of great contradictions and greater talent. Both The Call of the Wild and White Fang are written in London's simple, direct, and powerful style that decades of readers have admired and that subsequent writers, including Ernest Hemingway, have imitated.  

 While I read one or the other of these (can't remember which) when I was in 6th grade (I've always been a very advanced reader), I didn't really fully grasp the greatness of these works. Now, though, I can fully say that White Fang might be one of my favorite works ever. The Call of the Wild is pretty damn good, too.
 In The Call of the Wild, poor Buck is taken from a fairly easy life in sunny California and thrust into the harsh reality of a sled dog. Tossed from owner to owner, he must adapt or die. Luckily, as you might have guessed, he does adapt, although the process is arduous and painful. In my, somewhat vindictive, opinion, the best moment in the novel is when he loses a few of his owners. I'll let you figure that one out.
 White Fang hits all of my buttons. Great writing, great story with a happy ending, and an epic protagonist. That's right, an epic protagonist in the form of a part-dog mostly-wolf wanderer. I can't quite describe why you end up liking White Fang so much - after all, he's basically a cranky POW-returnee. At least, that's how I think of him. London's brilliance lies in his simple understanding of human nature, which he translates into an equivalent animal nature. And because you can relate, White Fang is sympathetic and the reader begins to feel that if this animal were real, the two of them would be best friends. Even though that's extremely unlikely. Plus, like I said, he gets his well-deserved happy ending and the reader can safely leave him without worrying because he has finally received what he deserves - love. Sorry that got mushy there at the end, but I don't care.
 Overall: A+
 I don't ever really give out A+'s, but London's writing style, despite its at times simple nature, is quite beautiful. It strikes a chord in the reader, and I found myself often wanting to go out in nature and just spend time alone. Also, the plot of the stories, while centering around a character that lacks the ability to speak, loses nothing for that fact. The stories themselves aren't so different, but since they were written as companions, that kind of makes sense. They have an amazing symmetry: Buck goes from being a tame dog to being a king of the wild, while White Fang finds himself tamed at last with a new master far from the wilds of his youth. Wonderful.

Brent Weeks: Beyond the Shadows

• Mass Market Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-0316033664

 Logan Gyre is king of Cenaria, a country under siege, with a threadbare army and little hope. He has one chance - a desperate gamble, and one that could destroy his kingdom.
 In the north, the new Godking has a plan. If it comes to fruition, no one will have the power to stop him.
 Kylar Stern has no choice. To save his friends - and perhaps his enemies - he must accomplish the impossible: assassinate a goddess.

 And the finale. The wrap up. The fin.
 This book falls in the same classification of those recently published "epic" fantasy novels. They're published at the rate of about one novel a month, and they're pretty thick, but that is in large part due to the large print on the pages. So, what is meant to be an "epic" is actually a pale reproduction of Tolkien, Terry Brook-esque caliber. However. That doesn't mean that they aren't bad. Just that they aren't AMAZING.
 Brent Weeks started off his saga fairly well. Those are obviously words for another time and another review. This novel - the final in the trilogy - had its moments. My overriding issue, an issue I had with the series at large, was Weeks' attempt to tackle way too many characters and way too many plotlines. And, as I said before, his books have the thickness of those huge epics, but the print whittles down the story to realistically half the size of the book itself. Therefore, he's fitting in essentially the story of five or so countries vying for power in a book and a half. That is simply not enough time.
 In this novel, we have defeated the Khalidorans (who conquered Cenaria and then were expelled all within the space of the last book), but the country is still not at peace. I appreciated this as, realistically speaking, a country's story doesn't end with victory. That is just the beginning of a long climb to rebuilding and recovery. While Kylar thinks his job is done, he actually has to put the rest of the world back together. But wait, he has help. From everyone. The problem being that none of these characters are very good at communication, so we have them all coming at the issue and trying to solve it in their own way and stepping all over each others toes in the process. This makes for a complex story that, honestly, I at times felt I did not quite have the grasp of. There were moments when I felt like I was missing some major points of explanation. A character makes a decision or reveals information based on the movements of other characters that I don't recall. And I don't think that's entirely due to the space of time between novels. The point is motivations are lost in translation.
 Another problem with the space restriction of the novel and having way too many characters walking around at once is that we miss out on a lot of characterization, another factor that detracts from our understanding of motivations. One might argue that we've had three books to get to know these people, but it just didn't feel like enough. If it doesn't feel like enough, it probably isn't.
 Despite it's weaknesses in structure and narrative organization, there were some genuinely beautiful moments. The final few chapters were well written and moving. If I say too much, I'll spoil it. I just felt that - after enjoying the novel while still struggling with the elements above mentioned - it was a great way to wrap everything up. Everything has its place, several mysteries are solved, and the reader feels hope that that world has a bright future.
 Overall: B-
 The elementary space and time issues kind of toyed with my enjoyment of the novel, and I feel like he would have benefited from more time spent in constructing the novel and fewer restrictions. However, for all that, it was an enjoyable story with some great elements and some interesting and definitely worthwhile messages. Also, some major cool concepts.

Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

• ISBN-13: 9781593083021
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 3/1/2005
• Pages: 352

Widely regarded as the father of modern science fiction, Jules Verne wrote more than seventy books and created hundreds of memorable characters. His most popular novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, is not only a brilliant piece of scientific prophecy, but also a thrilling story with superb, subtle characterization.
 The year is 1866 and the Pacific Ocean is being terrorized by a deadly sea monster. The U.S. government dispatches marine-life specialist Pierre Aronnax to investigate aboard the warship Abraham Lincoln. When the ship is sunk by the mysterious creature, he and two other survivors discover that the monster is in fact a marvelous submarine - the Nautilus - commanded by the brilliant but bitter Captain Nemo. Nemo refuses to let his guests return to land, and instead takes them on a series of fantastic adventures in which they encounter underwater forestsm giant clams, monster storms, huge squid, treacherous polar ice and - most spectacular of all - the magnificent lost city of Atlantis!
 
 This was strangely unlike what I was expecting. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that the only thing I knew about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was the version of Captain Nemo from A League of Extraordinary Gentleman and giant octopi. That was absolutely not what it was about. Well, a little, but no.
 First of all, it was less a work of fiction and more a catalog of the flora and fauna of the sea. "And then we were here...and then there....and we saw this...and OH BIG FISH...and Captain Nemo has angst." Yes, that was the second point of the novel - Captain Nemo is this really cool, really smart guy that has an amazing ship that, for some unknown reason, has an extreme aversion to land and all men. Pierre Arronax, Messieur Point-of-View, is thrown overboard with his faithful servant and a seaman from his ship and is brought on-board the Nautilus, where he is informed that he is doomed to remain the rest of his days because he has actually discovered the secret of the vessel - the secret being that it exists. Oops, hope that didn't spoil it for anybody.
 We are then taken on a journey through the many waters of the world - and even under some. I was confused because I thought they were literally twenty-thousand feet under the water (having no idea what a league's measurement actually is) but I was wrong - twenty thousand is the distance they traveled i.e. all around the world. Verne obviously read a lot and had a lot of knowledge about the ocean and its many inhabitants. Which makes for an interesting read - if you know what all the scientific terms are. I had no idea what kind of fish he was seeing, so those passages were a bunch of nonsense for me, but you definitely get a feel for what kind of amazing things are happening down there. And there are some very interesting things going on with the strange creatures they meet and landscapes they discover. I should qualify that by saying they aren't actually discovered since Nemo found them and is only showing them to Arronax.
 Overall: B
 If you're looking for an entertaining book that's all fun all the time, this book is not for you. There's a lot of hurry up and wait going on and in the end we still don't find the reason for Nemo's seclusion. It is never revealed. (By telling you that I'm not revealing anything - see that?) The plot of the novel is based around scientific fact that you can't necessarily understand, so that detracts from the enjoyment of the novel. However, as I said, there are some really excellent moments of adventure, and the occasional humor we get between Arronax and his manservant make up the rest.

Julia Quinn: The Viscount Who Loved Me

• ISBN-13: 9780380815579
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 7/28/2006
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 384

"1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, This Author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry.
And in truth, why should he? When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it better..." - Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1814.
 But this time the gossip columnists have it wrong. Anthony Bridgerton hasn't just decided to marry - he's even chosen a wife! The only obstacle is his intended's older sister, Kate Sheffield - the most meddlesome woman ever to grace a London ballroom. The spirited schemer is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal, but when he closes his eyes at night, Kate is the woman haunting his increasingly erotic dreams...
 Contrary to popular belief, Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands - and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. Kate is determined to protect her sister - but she fears her own heart is vulnerable. And when Anthony's lips touch hers, she's suddenly afraid she might not be able to resist  the reprehensible rake herself...

 It would seem that every Bridgerton novel (well, thus far - it's not really fair to lay claim to all eight) is going to have a severely dysfunctional character who suffers from some irrational fear. In the first, it was Simon's fear that his child would have a stutter like he did, and his desire to deny his dead father the legacy he so wanted, which led to his refusal to have children. Here, we have Anthony suffering from the conviction that, since his father - the most amazing man he knew - died from a bee sting at a young age, he, too, was going to die young, being unable to surpass his father in any way. What? Yes. While it seems unrealistic, it really isn't. Everyone has irrational fears, and several are convinced they're going to die at a certain age. When I smashed my finger and lost almost a knuckle's worth of it in a boating accident, I was terrified of boats. Even big ones when I was nowhere near the edge. Rational? Not at all. The first time I was forced back on the boat that caused the accident, I couldn't leave it because my legs were shaking so bad. I was half-pulled out, sobbing hysterically. After that - boats, no problem.
 Wow, that was a megalith of a sidetrack. Anyway, I have to say, Quinn writes a good romance. There are some authors who just start using sex as a crutch for a lack of plot, but she does not fall back on that. Thank Jesus. We actually have some character development, and the characters have much deeper relationships than the purely physical. She also takes time to give her supporting characters personalities, which is wonderful. It also allows for some extremely well-times humor and a chance for the characters to get out of their own heads. Quinn also has a pretty good grasp of the time period, when that factor does come into play (not often).
 Are Anthony and Kate my favorite couple? No. I've read more compelling stories from Quinn. But that doesn't mean that they aren't lovely in their own ways. I, personally, feel a connection with Kate and her self-image issues. I have never, in my 22 years, thought I was pretty until recently. And I sympathize with someone who's sister/best friend is prettier and gets all the attention. So, while not my favorite, definitely relatable.
 Overall: A-
 At times Kate and Anthony's "witty banter" wasn't all that witty, though they seemed to think it was. And sometimes the plot devices seemed a little forced. Mostly it was just a lovely love story, that I would (and have) read again.

Keri Arthur: Moon Sworn

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Dell (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-0440245711

 Shape-shifting werewolf and vampire Riley Jenson is through with death - causing it, solving it, surviving it. Her soul mate, Kye Murphy, is dead - and at Riley's own hands. Not even the seductive embrace of her vampire lover, Quinn, can fully ease her mind, for she has begun questioning everything that makes her Riley - including her job at the Directorate.
 Now the ritualistically slain bodies of ex-cons have started turning up. Reluctantly, Riley takes the case, but something even worse is waiting in the wings. A vicious enemy from her past is determined to strip Riley of everything that gives her life meaning: her lover, her brother - and even her own identity. Can Riley survive this ultimate assault? All she knows is that she must fight one last time to find answers, before everything goes dark forever.

 Ah, the end of an era. For me, anyway. I picked up Keri Arthur's first novel in the Riley Jenson series way back when, when I was first getting into the paranormal novel field. I bought up several new authors at the same time (YOLO) and she was one. I greatly enjoyed her first novel. It was original and impressive and complicated. Over the years, the writing has gotten less...well, good...but that doesn't mean that her story isn't there. As the last few books wind down, we have less and less to focus on and think about as all the other plots are tied off. Now, we're down to two - the mystery of the novel, and the questions that have been ongoing through the entire series: Riley doesn't want to be a Guardian, and, oh yes, the leader of her former pack is hell bent on ruining her life even further. By the end of the series, we will have solutions to these problems, although they are not necessarily the ones we expected. And that's not a bad thing.
 In this novel, we have some pretty gory and gruesome murders, but about a third of the way, they take a backseat to Riley's major problem - she doesn't remember who she is, and someone out there (well, we know who) is messing with her mind. While she's dealing with that, she's also solving the case, which is, quite frankly, multitasking at its finest. I have never been so proud of Riley. She has truly grown into her badassery. On the other hand, while Quinn is still pretty awesome, the fire has kind of gone out of their relationship for me. It used to be so full of angst (I like that its not anymore) but there was always something interesting going on. Now, they've settled down into that old couple mentality, which is definitely not a bad thing - I just think Arthur went a little far in de-clawing Quinn.Also, after so much build up, the final fight scene was slightly anti-climactic. It just ended a little too easily for my taste.
 All that aside, the plot was developed, our characters have reached fruition and will achieve their HEA, and we have come to the end of a series.
 Overall: A
 A pretty good wrap up overall. Not as good as some in the series, better than others. Definitely nice to see an author take care of a character's life and not completely destroy her in the end, especially after all the growing up she had to do.

Hideyuki Kikuchi: Tale of the Dead Town

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse Books/Digital Manga Publishing; 1st DH Press Ed edition (December 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-1595820938

When vampires attack a floating city, only one man can save paradise.
The City, a tiny metropolis of a few hundred sheltered citizens floating serenely on a seemingly random course a few feet above the ground, has long been thought safe from the predation of marauding monsters. It seems like a paradise.
A paradise shattered when an invasion of apparent vampires threatens the small haven. While the Vampire Hunter known only as "D" struggles to exterminate the scourge, a former denizen of the city, the attractive Lori Knight, and the brash John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII seize control of the city, lurching it onto a new and deadly course. D's travails are just beginning.
 Well, that sounds ominous, doesn't it? And not entirely accurate, but I won't spoil it for you...
 Kikuchi has an incredibly ornate writing style, to say the least. Lots of adjectives that people rarely use. I'm not sure what he thinks the effect is, but in English I don't think it's quite the same. While slightly amusing, it doesn't detract too much from the story once you stop noticing it.
  The plot: D's at it again, saving people that aren't too terribly thankful. It's a fact of humanity: what they don't know or understand scares them, and rather than look beyond their own prejudices, they will lash out with violence, if necessary. Or unnecessary as the case may be. But D is D, so he doesn't really give a flying rat's ass about a bunch of petty, stupid humans. He's going to save them because it's his job.
 This wasn't my favorite entry in the Vampire Hunter D universe, if only because there didn't seem to be a lot going on, and it got somewhat repetitive. There were also a couple of random things that happened that didn't really have a larger connection to the story and seemed to just be there for the horror of it all. I was extremely pleased to see a mention of one of D's past adventures though - it was my personal favorite thus far, and it was nice to see that the story is over but not forgotten and that these characters do continue on (if they're alive).
 As far as characterizations go, Kikuchi did a pretty good job with this one. The only person that drove me nuts was Pluto VIII, but that had less to do with skill in writing and more to do with the fact that I just hate characters like him. Ambiguous at its best. I guess that says something positive for Kikuchi's writing.
 Overall: B-
 It had some good elements, but overall I think it was kind of a rush job.

Georgette Heyer: Death in the Stocks

• ISBN-13: 9781402217975
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
• Publication date: 10/1/2009
• Pages: 314

 A moonlit night, a sleeping village, and an unaccountable murder....
 In the dead of night, a man in evening dress is found murdered, locked in the stocks on the village green. Unfortunately for Superintendent Hannasyde, the deceased is Arnold Vereker, a man hated by nearly everyone, especially his odd and unhelpful family members. The Verekers are as eccentric as they are corrupt, and it will take all Hannasyde's skill at detection to determine who's telling the truth, and who is pointing him in the wrong direction. The question is: who in this family is clever enough to get away with murder? 

Georgette Heyer does it again. I don't think I've run across a Heyer novel that I don't like, although some occasionally stray into TMI territory. Not TMI in a bad way, just too detailed and a little boring. But she always pulls it out. What makes her detective/mystery novels so great are not necessarily the intricacy or originality of the plotlines, but rather that which always makes Heyer stand out - her great characters. She creates characters that are humorous and sympathetic, and she does not disappoint in this entry in her canon.
 When Arnold Vereker is murdered, suspicion turns to his immediate relatives and those close to them, a development they seem in no hurry to avert. Rather, Kenneth courts suspicion and seems to take great pleasure in foiling the police and seeing how far he can push them, while discussing how he would theoretically murder his half-brother with his sister, Antonia, the other half of the suspected Vereker pair.They continue to play this cat and mouse game to the dismay of their counsel, and cousin, Giles Carrington. As the story progresses, suspicion turns from one sibling to the other, then to their respective fiancés, and they continue to speculate on how they each could have committed the murder. Not that they did, of course. 
 It's almost amusing how ineffectual Hanasyde is in this novel. Normally he's right there, solving the cases, but this time he seems to just be sort of helplessly swept along by the force of Giles' investigation and the Vereker's personalities. You sort of feel sorry for him, really. The end is a little surprising, purely because you knew that the culprit was going to be one of the cast of characters as that is how Heyer operates - she doesn't pin the murder on a random passerby that isn't introduced to the novel until the final chapters. But that is all I will say on the matter. Scouts honor.
 Overall: A-
 The mystery wasn't there as much as it has been in previous books. The investigation seemed to loose its steam several times along the way, although the reader was suitably distracted by the developing relationships, so they didn't feel the loss of a cogent plot.