Elijah David

With their best captain gone, Talos steps up to lead the Rebellion’s fighters. First objective: take out the Labyrinth. Only problem? No one can find its key. Koralia thinks she can find it, or at least an alternative. She didn’t count on uncovering secrets that could rock the galaxy to its core. Now she’s rushing to find a solution before everything blows up in their face. If they don’t destroy the Labyrinth soon, the Rebellion, the planets they protect, and an entire race of people are all doomed. Greek Mythology meets Star Wars in this retelling of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. I remember seeing Arielle post hints and snippets of this book last year when she first began writing it. I loved the concept (Greek myths AND Star Wars? It was meant to be.) and couldn't wait to get my hands on the finished product. Here we are almost a year later and we have just that. Okay, okay, you say. But is it good ? "Is it good?" No. It's am...

Three years ago, I had the pleasure of helping introduce Mirriam Neal's second published novel, Paper Crowns , to the world (see here for my interview with Miss Neal about redeeming myths and here for my review of Paper Crowns ). Today, I'm heralding her third. Like many in Miss Neal's social circles, I have heard a lot about Dark is the Night  and its cast of grumpy, broken people over the years. So when she announced a few months ago that it would be published this year, I was more than happy. I was ecstatic to finally get my hands on this book. Short enough to read in a weekend, Dark is the Night  isn't short on one-liners, explorations of faith, and characters battling demons both internal and external. Now let's dive into it, shall we? South Carolina gave the term 'God-forsaken' an entirely new meaning. If that isn't an opening line to grab you, I don't know what is. From the opening howls of predatory werewolves to the growing bloodl...

I often talk about specific books and series that I love, but I've never broken down (for myself or others) just which fantasy series  I love more than all others. So I decided to work out what my top 10 fantasy series of all time are, based on the following criteria: I have to love the themes, the magic, the characters, and so forth (themes of hope, light conquering darkness, etc. being preeminent); how complete is my reading of the series; and how many re-reads have I completed, if any. The Elemental Masters The least completely read series on this list, Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters wins a place by virtue of its unique blend of fairy tales, magic, and historical romance. Every time I read a new book in this series, I remember how much I love the world Lackey has created. The Dresden Files I'm all caught up on this series barring the newest short story collection, Brief Cases  (which is in my ever-growing to-read pile). This series has it all: magic...

I've been doing a chunk of reading in the last few weeks, along with finishing "Paper and Thorns" (if you need a refresher on this fairy tale novella, click here for all the snippets and behind-the-scenes posts). If you're interested in being a beta reader for "Paper and Thorns," leave a comment with your email (all comments are moderated, so if you don't wish to have it be public, just say so and I'll delete the comment after sending the story your way). On to the reviews! Bridge of Clay The long-awaited next book from the author who wrote  The Book Thief , Bridge of Clay  is the story of the five Dunbar boys following the return of their estranged father, Michael. He wants them to build a bridge with him, and all of them refuse, except for Clay. As Clay and his father work on the bridge, the oldest Dunbar boy, Matthew, narrates the stories of Michael, Penny (their mother), and their family. We're given insight into the histories of in...

A while back, I got the audio adaptation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's graphic novel series Locke and Key  as part of a promotion on Audible. I haven't delved into it yet, and when my local library picked up the whole series I decided to check out the source material before diving into it. Before I go into the story, let me be frank: this is not a series for younger readers. It's probably not for a lot of older readers, either. Joe Hill is Stephen King's son and it shows in everything he writes, for better or worse. This series deals with graphic violence, alcoholism, death, murder, and creatures called (for lack of a better term) demons. Extreme profanity and vulgarity pepper the dialogue throughout. Proceed with caution and discernment. That being said, there are some good bones in this story. As the title suggests, my first impression of this series (volume 1 pictured above) was that it was N. D. Wilson's 100 Cupboards  if Stephen King were writing i...

When I was in fifth grade, my teacher read a number of books to the class. Stuart Little. Maniac Magee. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Number the Stars. But one that sticks with me the most is Louis Sachar's Holes. Though I remember the other books being part of that year, Holes is the one I remember whole passages being read in my teacher's voice. When the movie came out, I remember loving that the story was presented so faithfully (something I attribute to Sachar's screenplay more than anything). This story has fixed itself firmly in my imagination like few other books from that period of my life. Recently, inspired by some posts raving about the movie adaptation, I picked up Holes  again and reread it for the first time since it was read to me almost 20 years ago. (And if you want to feel old in a hurry, just realize that a book you thought you hadn't read for 10 years is really from 20 years ago. Not that I speak from experience or any...

Today we're doing two smaller reviews of recent reads: Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth  and Jonathan Stroud's The Hollow Boy  (third in the Lockwood and Co. series). I picked up The Eagle of the Ninth  because Megan Whalen Turner has mentioned it multiple times as an influence on the Attolia/Queen's Thief series. Marcus's early injury in the story directly inspired Eugenides's story in The Queen of Attolia , and Turner has even said she wrote Thick as Thieves  partially as a reversal of Eagle ; rather than the soldier, it is the slave who tells the story. The quest feel of the latter half of Eagle  also feels very similar to Turner's The Thief . But enough about influences. Eagle  isn't a seat-of-your-pants thriller or even a typical quest narrative. While the seeds for the quest are planted early, the mission to retrieve the lost eagle isn't even introduced until nearly halfway through the book. Instead, we're treated to Ma...

A year and a half ago, I read and fell in love with Naomi Novik's Uprooted , a mostly new fairy tale for adults that draws inspiration from Novik's Eastern European heritage and my own favorite fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast." Last year, Novik released a sister book, Spinning Silver , and I finally got around to reading it. Spinning Silver does not take place in the same universe as Uprooted , but it feels very similar (magic systems aside). The narration is nuanced and varied; each of the ultimately six narrators has their own voice and diction (the audiobook is spectacularly performed by Lisa Flanagan). The story is openly a "Rumpelstiltskin" retelling; Miryem's opening narration brings the story to the forefront and sets it in opposition to her own. The story about the miller's daughter, she tells us, is one that people began to tell to cast the moneylender (a Jew) in a demonic light in order to get out of their debts. Miryem knows t...

In the past, I've made no secret of my appreciation for Dan Wells's John Cleaver series of novels. You can read my reviews of books three and four here and here , respectively. Over Your Dead Body  picks up months down the road from The Devil's Only Friend.  John and Brooke are on the road and on their own, hiding from both the FBI and the Withered. Using the memories deposited in Brooke's mind by the Withered Nobody and information gathered by FBI agents over the preceding years, they have been tracking down Withered one by one. Now, they're down to only a handful of Withered that Brooke (and her myriad personalities that came with Nobody's memories) can lead them to. Their path takes some unexpected twists and turns, including the reappearance of a personality John never thought he'd see again: his girlfriend, Marci. Her memories came to Brooke along with all the others Nobody possessed, and the chance to have her in his life again is a temptatio...

We're back this week with a look at the fourth book in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series. I've mentioned my love for this series before , but I've never done a full review here. It's time to change that. Like its predecessors,  The Wizard of London  retells a classic fairy tale in Lackey's alternate Victorian/Edwardian England. In this case, the tale in question is Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen," although the parallels are scanter than previous books in the series. In another change for the series,  The Wizard of London picks up multiple POV storylines. Whereas previous books have focused on the romantic plot interwoven with the main conflict, usually maxing out at three POV characters, Wizard  uses five main POVs. While some of Lackey's more direct adaptations would have suffered from the added perspectives, Wizard carries the tale forward better for its multiplied leads. The original story was, after all, quite ep...

I'm picking this tag up from Paper Fury , who picked it up from other blogs. Chocolate Chip: Classic Book That You Love Dracula, Treasure Island, Pride and Prejudice, The Hunchback of Notre Dame Thin Mints: A Hyped-Up Book You Want To Read The Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak, the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik Shortbread: An Author You Can’t Get Enough Of C. S. Lewis, Jim Butcher, J. R. R. Tolkien, Naomi Novik, Megan Whalen Turner  Samoas: An Emotional Rollercoaster A Monster Calls  by Patrick Ness, Changes by Jim Butcher, I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells Oreos: A Book Whose Cover Was Better Than The Story The Golden Compass  by Phillip Pullman Gingerbread Cookies: Where The Story Was Better Than Its Cover Till We Have Faces  by C. S. Lewis, The Secret of NIMH/Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH  by Robert C. O'Brien (I have the movie tie-in edition and it's not...

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...

And yes, that is a Tow'rs reference. Go listen . I just finished rereading The Queen of Attolia (only a year after I reread The Thief in hopes of reading the whole series again before getting to Thick as Thieves ). As I plotted out how to do this month's ThrowBook Thursday post (delayed from last week due to a sick Samwise, who's now on the mend), I realized that I'd already used QoA for last year's TBT in May . I'm pretty sure I blinked. Then I laughed. Then I said, "What the heck, let's review it again anyway." Everything I said last year remains true (minus me thinking QoA has multiple myths; it just has the one). But I want to add a few things that I appreciated even more on this, my third time through the book: Eugenides and his sass. "I'll stop shouting, but I won't sit down. I might need to throw more ink bottles." Attolia and everything we learn about her history Ruby earrings (if you've read the books,...

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...