Cal Stephanides, narrator of Middlesex, tells the story of the past three generations of his family. He begins with his grandparents' incestuous escape from war-torn Asia Minor, through his parents' all-American courtship, and then through his own childhood. Cal was born Calliope Helen Stephanides, believed by everyone to be a girl until adolescence began to reveal the truth. Cal intersperses the epic of his family's story with updates on his adult life working for the embassy in Berlin, commenting on the world's view of him, and meeting someone to whom he finally might be able to tell his secret.
I read Middlesex for school. In the past year, I have read five books for fun and eleven for school. If you follow IWMCW regularly, then you've probably noticed... But I actually enjoyed Middlesex and have had to do only a bit of work with it so far, so I haven't yet wrung it out. When I had to pick my novel for summer reading, I was down to this one and Cider House Rules by John Irving. My mom said that she thought I'd really enjoy Jeffrey Eugenides' writing style, so I got Middlesex (also, it was the slightly shorter one).
Cal Stephanides, narrator of Middlesex, tells the story of the past three generations of his family. He begins with his grandparents' incestuous escape from war-torn Asia Minor, through his parents' all-American courtship, and then through his own childhood. Cal was born Calliope Helen Stephanides, believed by everyone to be a girl until adolescence began to reveal the truth. Cal intersperses the epic of his family's story with updates on his adult life working for the embassy in Berlin, commenting on the world's view of him, and meeting someone to whom he finally might be able to tell his secret.
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I'm trying a new thing on my reviews: a read more button! From now on, you'll get to the end of my plot/subject matter description/blurb thing and see that there is no more review. To get to that, click the little teal "Read More" link on the bottom right (I'm annoyed that Weebly won't let me make it more visible...) and see the rest of the review! I'll also implement the button in my old reviews. I'm doing this to make it easier for you to find the reviews you want to see. It's so much broader than looking in tags, but doesn't force anyone to scroll through a huge, great post after determining from the blurb (how I hate that word) that they are really not interested in that particular book. It might also make my site load faster, with less text per page. Let me know in this review's comments how you feel about the button. Does it help you find what you want to see? Does the page load faster? Is it hard to find the button? Do you feel discouraged from reading further? Do let me know!
Now. Onto the book that this is actually about. Since Behemoth is the second book in a series, I'd recommend you check out Leviathan first--the review for context, and the book itself to avoid spoilers. Prince Alek and Deryn Sharp are now aboard the Leviathan together, and they are headed for the Ottoman Empire--Istanbul, specifically. This land at the edge of Asia and Europe has so far stayed out of the war, but can it last? The Clanker Ottomans are furious after a ship promised to them by the British was snatched up before delivery by a nervous Churchill. However, Dr. Barlow claims that her mysterious mission will somehow keep the Ottomans out of the war. Of course, nothing can possibly go that smoothly. From the beginning, diplomatic excursions are plagued by disasters--and there's the small matter of Alek's tutors feeling the need to escape the airship ASAP. Behemoth introduces new places, new people, and new creatures for the next installment of Deryn and Alek's adventures in an alternate WWI universe where countries fight with genetically engineered creatures or huge, moving machines. Didn't I say I was going to review A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? Well. When I have to write about a book for school, I tend to feel less inclined to review it after, I find. I'll give you my In Short anyway: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is weird. The internal monologue is insane in a great way; the character evolution is also quite wonderful. It's dense and takes a lot of thinking. It's a straight white guy book, but it's still worth it if you've got the time and energy.
But! Leviathan! I haven't read a good fantasy-ish bit since February (The Lazarus Gate does not quite qualify as "good", I'm afraid). And it hasn't been an adventure since January or so. I've enjoyed everything I've been reading lately but how I have missed this stuff! After his royal parents are killed in Sarajevo, Aleksandar finds himself piloting a mechanical walker through the forest with a small band of men who will tell him nearly nothing, trying to outrun the forces of his own country who pursue him. Meanwhile in England, Deryn Sharp vies for a place in the Air Service, hoping her disguise as a boy will fool all the boffins, middies, and bosuns and keep her in her home, the sky. War is coming to Europe, and tensions between the mechanical-engineering Clanker countries and the bioengineering Darwinist countries are worsening. But aboard the huge airship Leviathan, Darwinist Deryn and Clanker Alek are both pursued by Germans and must ally to save themselves and their countries. I've been reading Origins by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, but I had to put it aside partway through to do my summer reading for school... So it's been a while. But here's the first of my summer books. Ordinarily I don't review books that I'm assigned, but I thought I could make an exception for this one.
Mariam is a harami--a bastard child. When her father, rich city-dweller Jalil Khan, found out that his maid was pregnant with his child, he cast Mariam's mother away, to the outskirts of a nearby village. Mariam spends her childhood anxiously waiting for weekly visits from Jalil, who gives her gifts, tells her stories, and teaches her to fish. Nana, by contrast, speaks harshly to Mariam and warns her that Jalil is not the god Mariam thinks he is. But when tragedy destroys her family, teenage Mariam is shipped off to Kabul to marry Rasheed, a middle-aged, foul-tempered shoemaker. Everything changes. Laila is a well-educated Kabuli girl with friends, a crush, and two loving parents. But the absence of her two much older brothers, who went to fight for the jihad, leaves her mother bedridden and listless most days. And as the war intensifies and the fighting factions keep firing on Kabul, everyday life becomes ever more dangerous. People leave the city. Her friends all leave the city. And when disaster comes for Laila's family, she is brought together with Mariam, Rasheed's reclusive wife down the street. A Thousand Splendid Suns follows these two lives as they come together amidst war after war in Afghanistan--from the Soviet invasion in the 1970's to the bombs dropped by Bush after 9/11 and the scattering of the Taliban. Struggling to survive in intolerable circumstances--on the street and in the home--Mariam and Laila must become friends if they are to claim their right to happiness and love. Well, okay. I was at Powell's and wandering through the fiction section, and came across this book--I think not even in the right place--on a shelf. It looked interesting, and so I bought it.
Yeah, well. Interesting is one word. I really wanted to like this book. I mean, secret societies, alternate universes, and mysterious pasts? I'd like to read about that! Except it utterly flops when the person doing the writing does it badly. I read it quickly to get it over with, I think. In 1890, Captain John Hardwick is finally released after years of captivity and interrogation in Burma. He returns home to London (in a rather John-Watson style, I noticed), confused and addicted to the opium that his torturers used on him as part of their evil acts. But the hope for a quiet civilian life, possibly as the writer he never was able to become before, is squashed when John receives summons to the Apollonian, a gentleman's club. There, John is informed that the anarchist bombings that have been happening all around London for the past several months are something much more sinister--and John, with his exceptional military skills and the endurance demonstrated during his captivity, must find out the truth and stop the explosions. Wow. Okay. I've been reading this book for a long time (like nearly two months), and so I had plenty of time to think about what I would write for this review.
I randomly picked up this book at Powell's Books in the fall. (The cover is beautiful.) I didn't get around to starting it until late February or early March, because my to-read stack is always so massive... I noticed the profusion of praise on the covers, of course, but I had no idea that Hild would be so amazing. This book isn't thick, but it's heavy--heavy not with ink and paper, I'm sure, but with the story. It's the seventh century in Britain, and a three-year old girl's childhood ends when her mother's companion, Onnen, comes into the woods where young Hild and Onnen's son Cian are playing. Onnen announces that Hild's father--Hereric, the aetheling (potential heir)--is dead. And then Hild is being groomed to be the seer of the king, Edwin, her great-uncle. For a child, she is brilliant. For a child, she has a huge amount of responsibility. One misstep, one "vision" that doesn't come true, one wrong friend, could lead to the loss of everything and everyone she loves, including her own life. Matters grow more complicated when the bishops and priests of the new Christian religion start arriving at Edwin's halls and weaving themselves in the political and religion fabric of the island. Hild is the story of the early life of Saint Hilda of Whitby, drawn from the very slim records of history and Nicola Griffith's brilliant imagination. After sitting at the bottom of my to-read stack since last Christmas, I finally decided in November to stop saving this fantasy epic, bound between its misty blue covers, and read it already (after all, it's a book. Books are meant to be read).
I must say I can't remember how I read series when I was in elementary school and series were pretty much all I read. A lot of what I read was Warriors by Erin Hunter, and so I believe that I mostly read through that incredibly long series while slipping in other books when I had something else, and not another Warriors. Anyway, I've been reading series totally broken up in the past few years. Not only that, but I've been reading books by the same author not part of the same series! Shadowmarch here is an example. I'm halfway through Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and yet I interrupt it with a different story by the same person! Not my favorite thing to do. Good thing I can keep stories straight, or else I'd be a bit confused upon starting To Green Angel Tower Part I. Well, Shadowmarch had to be read, and I am glad. I was excited to see what Williams had done after he'd had some more experience with writing. In a stony keep, surrounded by ocean, royal twins Briony and Barrick Eddon have somehow found themselves in charge of Southmarch. With those who should have ruled before them imprisoned or dead, the teenagers are pressed onto the throne to oversee the troubles of their lands at a time when the lands have never been more troubled. In the very near north, hidden by enchanted mists, the strange fae Qar are stirring. They are no longer content to hide behind the defenses they constructed the last time they tangled with mortals... The centuries of waiting in their cold, gray world are over. They want their old homeland back from the sunlanders. Yet it seems that the Qar are not the only thing that should be worrying Briony and Barrick. Powerful human forces from the south press in, not to mention betrayal from within. I apologize for taking so long to both read this book and write a review for it (eek, more than two months!) but I have ben very busy discovering exactly how my high school drowns you in homework.
Anyway, I read Stone of Farewell, and now I have a bit of time to write about it. If you haven't read The Dragonbone Chair, the first book in this series, go do that. The Dragonbone Chair left Simon, Binabik, Jiriki, and Sludig on a freezing mountain, and the suriviors of Naglimund wandering the woods of northern Erkynland. Miriamele had just embarked with Cadrach on a voyage to Nabban, hoping to convince Duke Leobardis to ally with Josua, not realizing that she was already too late. When we return to Osten Ard, Williams picks up right where he left off. Binabik and Sludig are being held by the trolls under sentence of death. Simon is slowly recovering from his fight with the dragon Igjarjuk, and Jiriki's torn between speaking for his imprisoned companions and returning to his home to perform final rites for An'nai. Meanwhile, Josua's tiny kingdom of survivors flees Norns and Bukken and tries to recover from injuries with no treatment. And over it all, King Elias and Pryrates continue to do their best to destroy world order and replace it with the Ineluki's. But when Simon collapses during Binabik's trial, he receives a strange vision from Valada Geloe, and she tells him that their only hope lies in the Stone of Farewell, or Sesuad'ra, a Sithi landmark of great power and history. I actually read this one before Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which you might have gathered from the huge gap between the reviewing of a little book like Equal Rites and something I read in a day. But I reviewed Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe before The Name of the Wind since, you know, a book that one reads in a day is a book that one has a lot of enthusiasm about. I finished The Name of the Wind two weeks ago now (keep an eye out for a review of the second book of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn!), and I nearly gave up on writing a review about it. It sat around on my desk and I did not write about it. I actually put it on the shelf. But it's rare that I just don't review something (so far, that's only happened with The Help, which I'd already analyzed far too much since it was for school, and besides, you can find about eighty million reviews for it elsewhere), so here's my opinion on The Name of the Wind for you...
An obscure inn sits in a world ravaged by war and unholy creatures. Name anything, and it's "bad." But Kote, the red-haired proprietor of the Waystone, brings in a small crowd of regulars every night. The men eat, drink, tell stories, and complain about the state of the world while, behind them, Kote polishes bottles and his assistant, Bast, sweeps the floor. Even the late arrival of a regular who has been attacked by a strange, spider-like monster barely disturbs the inn's peace. But one night, a new man shows up at the Waystone. His name is Chronicler, and he claims to know who unassuming Kote really is--Kvothe, the legendary hero. Chronicler offers to take down the story of Kvothe's life, to get the real version out there and dispel the rumors that have flown around the world for years. And so we learn the truth of the humble Kote--how he was born the son of travelling actors, began his training in sympathy with an arcanist met on the road, moved on to the great University, and started to become the hero known by many names. Tad Williams.
If you're a fan of massive fantasy-adventure epics and you have never heard the name, you are missing so much. I first came across Williams three years ago, when I read Tailchaser's Song, which is about cats and clearly influenced the Erin Hunters of Warriors. Tailchaser's Song amazed me, but I wasn't very proactive in finding other books of his (too enraptured at that time by Deeper by Roderick Gordon, perhaps). But about a year ago, I started searching for more Tad Williams books, and I found quite a lot. He hasn't written as much as Terry Pratchett, but Williams' books are all far longer. (Example: My copy of The Dragonbone Chair is 766 pages long, not counting the various introductions and forwards and the appendix with character lists, place names, things, creatures, pronunciation guides, translations...) Now, I may disappoint by admitting that my experience of Tolkien is basically nonexistent. No, I have not read The Lord of the Rings. Yes, I read The Hobbit--half of it--before being so utterly bored that I could not go on (which almost never happens to me). But I feel like Williams' books are probably like TLotR, since so many people say that they are. Besides, I may not have read the classic fantasy series, but I do know a little of it, so infused with it is our culture. Maps! Languages! Dragons! Elves! Adventures! Trolls! Lots of people associate those words with Tolkien. They should also be associated with Williams--at least The Dragonbone Chair. My introduction may outdo the rest of the review in length, so I shall shut up and get to the summary soon. As a last word, this is only my second Williams, so my style of praise may seem weird--like I've actually read everything he's written, which I absolutely have not. But I can't imagine him writing a bad book, so...I'm justified. Osten Ard. The known world. The huge empire united and ruled by King John Presbyter when he was still a young man. It is a land of many countries and people: To the south is Nascadu, Wran, Thrithings, Nabban, and Perdruin. To the north, Hernystir, Rimmersgard, and Yiqanuc. John rules his vast empire from the Hayholt, an ancient, ancient castle in Erkynland. The Hayholt has had several mortal kings, but before that, it was called Asu'a, and ruled by the Sithi--Osten Ard's elves. But, humans being as they are, the Sithi were slowly wiped from their lands--Asu'a fell to a Rimmersgard king, and both the Sithi and their Hernystiri allies suffered great losses in battles during the Sithi's last great days. Now the elves are in hiding; some say that they are gone altogether. But Osten Ard is happy and perfect under John's rule. How could a man who killed the terrible dragon Shurakai and saved his people not rule well? Unfortunately, John is dying. He has lived to an absurd age, but his time has come, and soon the great Dragonbone Chair will be passed on to the eldest of his two sons, Elias. Simon is a castle scullion, fourteen years old, uneducated, and dreaming of a soldier's glory. Under the watchful eye of Rachel the Dragon, Mistress of Chambermaids, he's frequently caught being idle, and consequently beaten. Simon loves going to see old Doctor Morgenes, a man who Simon just knows is a wizard of some sort, and, hardly able to believe his luck, Simon ends up apprenticed to Morgenes--spending most of his time learning to read (not doing magic). But with John's death comes terrible change. Elias takes over as High King, bringing with him his homesick daughter, Miriamele, his eerie "priest" companion, Pryrates, and a host of bad decisions. Elias taxes to poverty not only other countries of Osten Ard but also baronies of Erkynland. His younger brother, Prince Josua of Naglimund, ends up in the dungeons for seemingly no reason at all. Day and night, Pryrates seems to be whispering in his ear. And, topping off everything else, the Storm King--Ineluki--of the Norns, a strange race dwelling in the far, far north, is, after five hundred years, rising again... Circumstances throw Simon from everything he knows and out into the forest, embarking on an adventure of which he scarcely understand the meaning, meeting Binabik and Qantaqa, troll and wolf of Yiquanuc, along the way, and even encountering Jiriki, a Sithi prince. Meanwhile, war roils throughout Osten Ard, with kings and princes and dukes and duchesses dying and being imprisoned left and right, and the Storm King grows stronger. But hope can be found, even if in the strangest of places. |
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AuthorI am Fiona, a 16-year-old person. I write reviews of books that I read. I love reading, writing, spoonerisms, word jokes, accents, In Which chapters, parentheses, long dashes, et ceteras, and acronyms. Categories
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