Elijah David

Well, it's finally happened, friends. We have reached the (current) end of the Queen's Thief/Attolia series. Now, since Megan Whalen Turner is already working on book six, this isn't the final conclusion, but it's the furthest we can read for now. Thick as Thieves continues Turner's trend of opening up a new perspective on the world of Attolia with each new book. This time, we're treated to a Mede perspective--specifically that of Kamet, slave and secretary to former Mede ambassador Nahuseresh (antagonist of The Queen of Attolia ). Kamet is recovering from his master's response being passed over for a small governance in the country when an Attolian soldier appears offering him an escape from the empire. Kamet, ever the proper slave, laughs in his face and decides the Attolian doesn't know him well at all. Then his master is poisoned; Kamet is the obvious suspect, so he flees, hoping to get out of the city before he's caught. He runs in...

I can remember when A Conspiracy of Kings was gearing up for release. Everyone I knew who'd read the first three Attolia books was on tenterhooks because we were finally getting Sophos back into the story after two books and lots of unhappy hints in The King of Attolia . Sadly, this is the last of these beautiful covers, since Greenwillow changed the styles for Thick as Thieves . Then the book came out, and we all felt a little let down by it. Not that the story wasn't good; it just felt a little flat after the brilliant intrigue novel that was KoA. On this reading, I went in knowing that it was a slower book. A book that wasn't meant to be filled with court politics in the same way as its predecessor. Instead, ACoK is a character novel. Not a character novel in the sense of many "literary" novels that follow a character's "growth" and generally bore the public to tears (something they'd never admit to their book clubs). A character no...

After finishing The Queen of Attolia last week, I picked up its sequel, The King of Attolia almost immediately. The twists and turns of QoA's finale left me craving more, and boy does KoA deliver more. The King of Attolia picks up where its predecessor left off: with the marriage of Irene (Queen of Attolia) and Eugenides (Gen, Thief of Eddis, now King of Attolia or Attolis). After offering glimpses of the wedding night from various parties within and without the Attolian capitol, the story moves to Costis, a young squad leader in the Queen's Guard. He's in trouble, you see. He punched Gen for baiting Teleus, the Captain of the Guard. By rights, Costis should be executed. But Gen has other plans. He makes Costis a lieutenant and assigns him to be Gen's personal guard and sparring partner. It makes Costis' life difficult, but his brothers in arms support him in his trials. No one in Attolia likes Gen, except his wife. Everyone sees him as a buffoon...

I've previously written about my love for Dan Wells' John Cleaver books, specifically the third in the series, I Don't Want to Kill You . I finally picked up book 4 (after saying recently that I probably wouldn't get to it till later this year; my reading muse is a fickle beast) and let me tell you: Dan Wells (still) isn't pulling any punches. After reading the novella/short story "Next of Kin" that (sort of) bridges the two John Cleaver trilogies, I wasn't expecting this book to pick up where it did. John has left Clayton to work with the FBI in tracking down the Withered -- the demons of the previous books -- but life isn't all that great. He doesn't actually get to kill the Withered, which means that his usual routine of getting to know a Withered's weakness and then put them down is disrupted, providing him with all of the build-up and none of the release. What's more, his teammates don't exactly see him as trustworthy,...

Last week I picked up a book I'd heard about but never looked into for myself: A Monster Calls . I'd recently bought a copy at our local used book store and after some rousing recommendations from friends I decided I wanted to read it sooner rather than later. Reader beware: SPOILERS abound. It's the movie cover, but it's gorgeous and it's the copy I read. A Monster Calls has one of the best opening lines I've read in a while: "The monster shows up just after midnight. As they do." (Apparently, this is something of a trope in stories now; follow-up a sentence about extraordinary things with the statement "as you/they do" as though it's perfectly normal. I've heard it used that way in real life, but this was the first time I encountered it in fiction.) From there we're introduced to Conor, a 13-year-old boy with a cancer-stricken mum (this is the UK after all) and a recurring nightmare whose ending he won't even l...

Yesterday's prompt for the April Fae art challenge was Portal. Since I've been doing a poem a day this month as well as the art challenge, I started brainstorming what a portal poem might be like -- and what portals have been special to me over the years. The tendency in fantasy movies and shows like Once Upon a Time is to have a swirling vortex as the gateway between worlds. (I'm not immune to this image. In fact, the main method of inter-world travel in the Non de Velai books is a shimmering silver pool, though it often appears between two trees.) But the portals that appear in fiction are often more varied than that. The first portal stories I can remember seeing were The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland . The portals in these stories are naturally occurring phenomena: a tornado/twister/cyclone (whatever term you prefer) and a rabbit hole. While tornadoes weren't common where I grew up (outside of hurricane season), holes in the ground were common enoug...

Beautiful People is a blog link-up hosted by Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In . This is the last edition (for now), and it's all about favorites! 1. Favorite genre to write in? Fantasy for sure. I occasionally write something sci-fi-ish or horror, but fantasy is where I belong. 2. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading? Mortimer should probably read Uprooted . Merlin would benefit from Narnia. Bryn should probably read The Book Thief . 3. Favorite piece of dialogue you’ve written? You mean I have to choose? Robin's conversation with Vivienne from Albion Academy is probably at the top of the list. It's one of the earliest snippets from that book and really helped me define their characters. 4. What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become? Merlin wanted to be anything but a wizard. I don't think that's working out for him so far. Br...

With the musicals post last week, I'm sure some of you were wondering if I was still reading. The answer is yes, and I have two books to talk about today: Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse and Joe Schreiber's Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick . The Little White Horse I picked this one up because I wanted to compare it with the film The Secret of Moonacre . While it lacks some of the book's characterization, the film does a surprising job of keeping the themes of pride and repentance. However, the main story is still vastly different. The quarrels in the book are over much smaller and meaner things (like the use of pink geraniums) than in the film (which uses family feuds and heritage to a greater extent). I enjoyed some of the humor of the story and the character of Robin a great deal. Robin is like a Puckish version of The Secret Garden 's Dickon, and his determination that he'll marry Maria is endearing only because she agrees and thei...

As I mentioned in last week's post on The Hunchback of Notre Dame , I've been listening through some of my favorite musicals again lately, along with favorite musicals suggested to me by others. Two of those musicals are inspired in whole or in part by Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera : Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and his maybe-sequel (he can't seem to make up his mind about that) Love Never Dies . I want to look at what's good (and not so good) in these musicals. The Phantom of the Opera Phantom is one of those musicals that everybody seems to know about. At the very least, they've probably heard one of the show's more popular songs like "Music of the Night" or the title number. If you're unfamiliar with the story, it's the tale of an up-and-coming opera singer named Christine Daaé and her lover, a young nobleman named Raoul, as they are swept into the machinations of the mysterious Phantom of the Op...

I've got a couple more book reviews for you today: Hellboy Vol. 5: The Conqueror Worm  and Lockwood and Co.: The Whispering Skull . Hellboy Vol. 5: The Conqueror Worm After two volumes of short stories and vignettes, Mignola returns to the larger story of Hellboy's personal journey. Hellboy and Roger (the homunculus from Vol. 2) are sent to investigate the astonishing results of a WWII Nazi experiment: a spacecraft launched in 1939 is returning to its place of origin. During their adventure, they confront a still-living Nazi scientist, Mr. Head-in-a-Jar himself, Herman von Klempt. Von Klempt intends to finish the experiment begun by his compatriots 60 years previous: to bring one of the ancient evil beings called the Ogdru Hem into this plane. The story exhibits Mignola's pulpy action-adventure style to great effect and weaves in Hellboy's moral character in new ways. Departing from the previous emphasis on his choice not to embrace his "destiny" of ...

Ever since I wrote up my ThrowBook Thursday post on Dear Wormwood , I've been somewhat obsessively listening to the entire oeuvre of The Oh Hellos (their Christmas album notwithstanding, because it's Lent/Easter season and I probably won't be back into Christmas/Advent music until at least June). Going through two full albums and three EPs has convinced me of two things. First, I have not given the Oh Hellos' first EP and album enough love in the past. Second, their body of work feels like an extended story that turns back in on itself with new insight. (Before I get any further, you should check out this handy examination of the Oh Hellos' work by Rachel at Let All Be Wick. She does a fine job summarizing the ideas of each album, and her belief that Boreas will be the next "4 Winds" EP matches mine, but with lyrical support.) The Oh Hellos EP The four songs in this collection serve as a sort of prelude to the full album that follows. "...

I've been listening to the Audible full cast production of Dracula  (each narrator in the novel has a different reader, with Tim Curry as Van Helsing and Alan Cumming as Dr. Seward)   on my commute lately, and I'm noticing things I haven't caught in previous readings. Why do modern versions never keep the mustaches? For instance, there's a bench in Jonathan Harker's early entries that the locals call "word bearer." I assume that's where visitors would stop to share the news. But the loftiness of that phrase started my wheels turning. I know Stoker isn't always the most careful with his details in this book (for example, Lucy's hair changing color after she dies) but this seems like an odd bit of trivia to be throwing in with all of Jonathan's other exotic travel experiences. The very phrase "word bearer" conjures up something grand, important, and even imposing in its own way. If you move out from the obvious meaning I ment...

Yep, I finished another Dresden Files book. No, I'm not jumping into the next one right away, much as I'd like to. I need to feed my brain something different for a bit. In any event, on to the review! SPOILERS AHEAD Ghost Story  picks up immediately after the end of Changes , setting out to resolve the ending that Butcher insists is not a cliffhanger. It follows Harry through his ghostly attempts to solve his own murder. Like Changes ,  Ghost Story  revolves around a mystery, but spends more time on character development and world exploration than the mystery itself. I'm not sure if this is representing a change in the series' focus or Butcher's writing style or both. If it continues in Cold Days  and Skin Game , I'll have to start thinking of Changes  as more than the midpoint of the series. I liked seeing the ramifications of Dresden's actions and his death in Changes , especially in how both affected Murphy and Molly, among others. I'm ...

Since I've failed to get my usual Monday Musings and Watercolor Wednesday posts up on time, I'm doing a combo post. First up, the art news. I finished the second in the 100 Myths series, after many failed attempts to get a sketch worked out. Presenting Jill Flame, a fiery counterpart to Jack Frost. And here's a side-by-side view. As a side note, my wonderful wife got me a Faber-Castell brush pen for Valentine's Day, and I'm itching to try it out. You'll probably see some drawing with this in future art posts. A quick run-down of some books I've read since the last review roundup: Hellboy Vol. 2-4: Volume 2 is a solid follow-up to the first, and in many ways serves as a sequel to the first volume. The third and fourth books are collections of short stories (some as brief as a few pages, and some the length of a regular issue or two) that are scattered through Hellboy's history, from early youth (like the comical "Pan...

I recently finished two books in the Dresden Files series: Changes , the 12th novel in the series, and Side Jobs , the first anthology of Dresden short stories. Below are my brief reviews of them, and the review for Changes is spoiler-lite (any spoilers you see are those contained in the blurbs and back cover copy for the book). Like its predecessor, Turn Coat , Changes hits the ground running, with Harry learning that he has a child, a daughter, who has been kidnapped by the Red Court of vampires. Rescuing her involves reuniting with Harry's old love, Susan Rodriguez, and putting himself and many of his closest friends and allies on the line. The question at the heart of the story is how far will Harry go to save his little girl? Changes is perhaps the only title in the series to not have some sort of play on words or double meaning in it. It is straightforward, and the story inside is what it says on the tin. Everything changes with this book. Butcher has said on multip...