Review: Strands of Bronze and Gold

By Jane Nickerson
Available now from Knopf BFYR (Random House)
Review copy

Sophia Petheram grew up poor but happy with her three siblings.  When their father dies, she is invited to live with her wealthy godfather Monsieur Bernard de Cressac.  Thus she goes to live in Mississippi, far from her home in the North, to live with a man she only knew through his extravagant gifts.

Sophie is initially charmed by Monsieur Bernard, who offers her a life of luxury and indolence.  She loves the pretty dresses and excellent food.  However, there is a darkness lurking in Wyndriven Abbey.  There are Monsieur Bernard's many former wives - all redheads like Sophie.  There's his need for control and his temper.  There are the slaves, something the daughter of an abolitionist finds intolerable.  Eventually, Sophie cannot ignore her instincts and she begins to investigate Monsieur Bernard's secrets and assert her own personality.

At first, STRANDS OF BRONZE AND GOLD didn't have much to interest me aside from the setting.  I love the fairytale "Bluebeard," but it seemed like the novel was moving so slow.  I loved the descriptions of Sophie's new world and how well Jan Nickerson's prose evoked the oppressive heat of Mississippi, but it felt like nothing was happening.  When a visitor comes to town and helps Sophie find her resolve, STRANDS OF BRONZE AND GOLD clicked into place for me.  Suddenly, the novel was working.  Shortly after that moment, I fell completely in love with STRANDS OF BRONZE AND GOLD when something happens to make Sophie realize the difference between idly crushing on Monsieur Bernard and having him return her affections.  It's a creepy, quiet evil in a novel full of more theatric, Gothic evils.

I cannot praise the setting enough.  Nickerson manages to make the pre-Civil War South fairytale romantic and dreamy, but the sort of romance that has edges and dreams that turn to nightmares.  Fitting, since "Bluebeard" is one of the most menacing fairytales I've ever heard.  Nickerson does not pave over history to make the story work, but instead weaves the two together.  Sophie would free all the slaves escape if she could, but she's mostly ineffectual.  She's unfamiliar with the area, has no real power at Wyndriven Abbey, and there's no reason for anyone to trust her when she claims to want to help.  And her efforts for one individual often make things worse for others.

For those familiar with "Bluebeard," STRANDS OF BRONZE AND GOLD will hold few surprises.  Yet it's a story that always has the power to startle because it's so macabre.  And Nickerson does a wonderful job of bringing something new to the tale.  Sophie is not innocently curious, but haunted by her glimpses of Monsieur Bernard's evil and her strange kinship with his wives.

I'm eager to see Nickerson complete her trilogy and transform more fairytales.  STRANDS OF BRONZE AND GOLD will appeal to fans of Sarah Rees Brennan's UNSPOKEN and Donna Jo Napoli's BREATH.

Movie Monday: Prometheus

I've heard less than stellar things about Prometheus (although Claudia Gray seems to like it), but I still wanted to see it.  The trailers were fantastic and I love both Alien and Aliens.  I haven't seen the other films in the series, due to that hearing less than stellar things thing.

I think Prometheus had one major problem: it's philosophy isn't that interesting.  There is lots of listening to people talk about why humans were created and what their purpose is which is a question many people care about, but it's irrelevant to reality when the movie is proposing the answer lies with giants in space.  Plus, the scientists have zero evidence for believing the aliens are benevolent creators, rather than people who just happened to visit Earth.  And yet that plot takes up almost half of the movie.

Many people forget the pacing of Alien, how long it takes before a facehugger appears and then a guy gets his chest busted open.  The fault in Prometheus is not that the aliens don't appear soon enough, but that what happens before the aliens appear is pseudoscientific nonsense and pseudophilosophical babble.  And Prometheus does improve exponentially once the aliens appear and people start worrying more about survival than the origins of humanity.

The casting is fantastic.  Noomi Rapace is beatific and miles away from her fierce, star-making role as Lisbeth Salander.  Michael Fassbender is strangely inhuman and quietly furious at his own creators.  Charlize Theron manages to make herself a plausible villain despite doing nothing truly villainous and being one of the most competent people in the movie.  (Everyone in Prometheus makes at least one dumb, out of character mistake.  Why is the geologist who maps the cave and can pinpoint his coordinates the one who gets lost?)  And Idris Elba is fantastic as always and injects some real personality into the Prometheus's crew.

Prometheus could be much, much worse.  But as sci-fi horror goes, it is no Alien.  It does not live up to the promise of its trailer.  However, I can fast forward through the worst babbling scenes to enjoy the true scares the second half of the film delivers.

Review: The Culling

Book One of The Torch Keeper
By Steven dos Santos
Available now from Flux (Llewelyn)
Review copy

I like THE CULLING.  I am going to read book two of The Torch Keeper series, no question.  But I'm not going to recommend it unreservedly.  This is a brutal, brutal book.  Sympathetic characters have terrible things happen to them, including death, and they do terrible things as well.  It's violent, gruesome, and there are references to past rape and child abuse.

THE CULLING is, quite often, not a pleasant read.  At the same time, it's a fast-paced thrill ride that doesn't give you much time to dwell on the moral and ethical questions posed by the story.  The pleasure that comes from reading a well-crafted action novel can create quite the dissonance with the deliberate unpleasantness of The Establishment and the government's awful recruitment practice.

Lucian "Lucky" Spark is chosen as a Recruit after being betrayed by someone he trusted with his life.  Recruits must compete to become part of the military and only one can join the Imposer task force.  Failing also means death for two of the Recruit's loved ones - in Lucky's case, his four-year-old brother's life is on the line.  But winning means causing the death of others, many of them no older or even younger than Cole.

THE CULLING has been frequently compared to THE HUNGER GAMES.  And yes, there are undeniable similarities.  But one of the major differences is that much more time is spent getting to know the game's players.  None of Lucky's competitors are wholly unsympathetic, even if one of them does end up playing the role of the villain.  In fact, they're generally likeable people.  And in the case of Digory, Lucky falls in love.

I appreciated that Steven dos Santos didn't try to soften THE CULLING.  Even the novel's most obvious antagonist is a traumatized young man who perceives himself as the betrayed one.  The Establishment is obviously over-the-top evil, but the characters are wonderfully nuanced.  The fight to keep their free will when faced with an ordeal that tries to turn them into emotionless automatons, cogs in a machine.

THE CULLING is a terrific choice for fans of THE HUNGER GAMES looking for something aimed at a slightly older audience.  It's also a good choice for any dystopian fans who are looking for a series without a love triangle.  (There are potential love triangles in THE CULLING, but the romances is all about Lucky and Digory.)  If it's not too brutal for you, it's a good story.  And I'm serious, it was almost too much for me.  I finished THE CULLING very conflicted between how much I was disgusted by some parts and how much I enjoyed other aspects of the novel.

Review: The Summer Prince

By Alaya Dawn Johnson
Available now from Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic)
Review copy

June lives in Palmares Três, a city in a futuristic Brazil that considers itself the most beautiful city in the world.  It's ruled by matriarchs, with a ceremonial king elected every five years to reaffirm the queen with his death.  June and her fellow young citizens aren't entirely happy with their government.  But the young have even less power in a world where people live to be hundreds of years old.  Enki, the new Summer King, wants to use his death to make a difference.  June wants to make art.

THE SUMMER PRINCE is not a perfect novel.  Gil is June's best friend and Enki's lover, making him pretty darn important to the emotional arc of the novel.  But he simply looks pretty and dances.  His character is never shaded in. Then there's the fact that June's art often seems pretty lame to me.  I have to admit, performance art is not my thing, and June leans to the performance side.  Things like her tree of light, pictured on the cover, and a portrait of her stepmother come to life in my mind, but some of her more important works seem more laughable.  Then there's the fact that Alaya Dawn Johnson is balancing a lot: art, family, friends, class, politics.  THE SUMMER PRINCE can swing wildly in focus.

But I really, truly enjoyed THE SUMMER PRINCE.  It has a lot in common with the dystopian trend, but it's more closely aligned with science fiction.  There's hacking, robots, genetic modification, and debate about how much is too much when it comes to blending man and machine.  Johnson clearly thought about the details of how her world worked.  She does manage to make it at least somewhat plausible that a city would practice regular blood sacrifice.  (And that is no mean feat.)  There's also a nice blend of familiar and unfamiliar social mores.  Some people are rich, some aren't.  Teenage pregnancy is even more ostracized.  Bisexuality is no big thing.

June is a terrific main character.  She's got a long way to go, as some of the other characters point out.  She's self centered and arrogant, although her experiences help her to think more about her world and empathize with other people.  She's consumed by her passion for art, but often out of touch with her own motives.  At the beginning of THE SUMMER PRINCE, she's a brat.  But working with Enki and being thrust into politics forces her to mature.  I did like the brief glimpses into Enki's point of view, though I found them confusing at first.  (I read the Netgalley Kindle ARC and the formatting was atrocious, so those bits may not be confusing at all in the final book.)

I think THE SUMMER PRINCE will satisfy science fiction and dystopian fans.  THE SUMMER PRINCE is filled with vivid, sensuous images and the inescapable tension between young and old, progress and tradition.  June lives in Palmares Três, a city on the brink of rebellion, and she may be the person to push it over the edge.

Review: The Holders

Book One of the Holders series
By Julianna Scott
Available now from Strange Chemistry (Angry Robot)
Review copy

Becca's younger brother Ryland hears voices.  She doesn't believe he's crazy and has spent a great deal of time and effort protecting him from being committed.  When another offer comes from a special school she's prepared to ignore it.  But St. Brigid's is a school for other gifted people, known as Holders.  Becca decides to let her brother go, as long as she can also attend in order to protect him.  The only catch is that the headmaster Jocelyn is the father who abandoned Becca and Ryland when they were babies.

I enjoyed how debut author Julianna Scott developed the magic system of her world.  The Holders are not all powerful and often have one, small ability.  All Holders have a weakness and none can control their magic without training.  I enjoyed how well thought out the magic was, although I felt THE HOLDERS slowed down a bit too much at times in order to explain how everything worked.  There is, of course, a chosen one and there's little surprise who that chosen one is.

THE HOLDERS feels very much like the first book in the series.  There is a lot of set up and not much action until the climax.  There's no chance of the Big Bad making even a brief appearance and his only minion on the scene is fairly minor.  That doesn't mean the action at the end isn't suitably exciting, but some might be disappointed that very little of THE HOLDERS is driven by magical hijinks.  Most of the conflict stems from Becca's relationship with her father and her growing attraction Alex, one of the teachers at St. Brigid's.

I'll admit that I was slightly uncomfortable with the central romance.  Alex isn't that much older than Becca, but it's a significant set of years.  Plus, he's very much her teacher.  Becca's currently between college and high school and can thus focus on learning about magic and Alex is the one to teach her.  I don't feel that Becca was manipulated into the relationship or that she's too immature for it, but I definitely wasn't into it.

I was absorbed by THE HOLDERS when I read it.  I'll always love detailed magic systems and magic schools.  I can forgive any number of faults for those qualities, and Scott's writing is more than adequate.  There are a couple of scenes where the sensory description if off-the-charts amazing, most notably when Alex is using his power.  I'm sure to be back for book two.