Welcome To the Cedar Grove

Every colour, even the sombre grey of the rocks, seemed as bright and glowing as jewels. Whenever they came to a clearing or a mountain meadow, the sun poured over her like water; she could swear that she felt it dripping and running down her arms.
Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood by Katherine Kerr.

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so this is likely to be shortish and sweetish.

Reading this book reminds me why I loved this series so much the first time I read them, and I don't think I got much further than this the last time. I remembered some of the events in this instalment but not all, so it's possible that I didn't get to the end last time. The Bristling Wood continues the tale of the exiled prince, Rhodry, and his lover, the Silver Dagger's daughter, Jill, (a silver dagger in her own right), and their watchful 'soul mate' Nevyn - and if you wonder, yes, that is a play on words, since Nevyn means 'no one' and that's the way the old Dweomer-man considers himself.

The book continues its presentation of the elves of this land as being something slightly less regal than those you might find, say, in Lord of the Rings, a little more adventuresome, not quite as wholesome, but fun none the less. Salamander features very much in this novel, which also starts to unfold more of the deep complexities of the politics of the many demesnes, and the racial differences and rivalries. However it does this in a way that doesn't bog you down in the boring side of the politics of it, and by the end of the book there's so much going on it leaves your head spinning.

There's a resolution of sorts at the end of the book, of course there is, but it does leave you hungry for more, and to find out just how the characters are going to 'get out of this one' as it were. Well worth reading, but do start that the beginning of the series. Trust me. It's worth it.

Talon was once a Celt Warrior cursed by his ancient gods. Following the murder of his sister, the dying Talon had made a deal with the goddess Artemis. He had been given one act of vengeance against the clan who betrayed him, in exchange for his soul and his eternal service as a Dark-Hunter.

Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I think I have to echo what I said about the first of this series of books that I read. The perfect book to read if you want to switch off your mind and enjoy a little bit of 'fluff.'

Talon is interesting as he's the moody 'immortal' protector type... and is quite well written in that respect. In fact this book did have a little bit more substance to it than the last one, and the characters did seem to have developped some thought the course of the series. Funnily the one that grabbed my attention was not the one the book was written about, though I see that the latest hardback novel by Kenyon is titled, and probably all about, that particular character. If the character development has continued, that will probably be worth looking at.

Fin-Kedinn sighed. "All you need to know is that there was a great fire, and the Soul-Eaters were scattered. Some were badly wounded. All went into hiding. We thought the threat had gone forever. We were wrong." Fin-Kedinn to Torak in Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.


From Amazon book review:

From extensive research about how the people of Northern Europe may have lived more than six thousand years ago, Michelle Paver has fashioned a remarkable debut novel for children. Wolf Brother, the first instalment of her six-book Chronicles of Ancient Darkness sequence, takes its readers back in time to an atmospheric world of snow, hunter-gatherers, tribes, clans, mountains, forests, bears and unearthly superstitions. For humans then, life was hard and Paver’s narrative taps wonderfully into all the sensations they must have experienced living amidst such an unforgiving landscape.

I read this book to my children. It's perhaps the only time I saw them sit, enthralled, without a sound, just begging me to go on when I had to stop. The book is /very/ atmospheric, even creepy in places. It follows many of the conventions of the mythical quest adventure and truly is very difficult to put down. Meant for readers age 10 and older it's an excellent introduction to the series. If I had to have any one criticism it's that Torak can, at times, come across as somewhat whiney... but if you can get past that and not let it bother you, you feel for Torak and his 'wolf brother' (called wolf) whom he adopts and is adopted by at the beginning of the book. The end had me in tears - not that it takes much to do that - not that it was a sad ending, just one of those bittersweet ones. Will I get the second book? Perhaps so, but without anyone to read it to, I'd have to keep it to myself.

"Jarred, recently come of age, is leaving the sun-scorched desert village that has always been his home. He sets out with a band of friend to explore the world, to see the mighty and beautiful kingdom of the north - and to seek out the truth about his father, who came to the village a stranger and departed when Jarred was ten, never to return." From the blurb of The Iron Tree by Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

When it's been three months and you're still on page 83, and have read another book in that time, I think it's time to decide if you're actually going to finish the book. You've probably guessed by now that I decided that I'm probably not. 83 pages and the book hasn't moved on at all.. I call that slow. Those whom the blurb lead us to believe are the two main protagonists of the book have only just met... in what can only be described as plagurism from West Side Story - You know the scene where Maria and Tony Meet..?

TONY: You're not thinking I'm someone else?
MARIA: I know you are not.
TONY: Or that we've met before?
MARIA: I know we have not...
TONY: I felt, I knew something-never-before was going to happen, had to
happen. But this is-
MARIA: My hands are cold. [He takes them in his.] Yours, too. [He moves
her hand to his face.] So warm. [She moves his hands to her
face.]
TONY: Yours too...

Well then consider this...
"Lady, pardon me," he said breathlessly, "I saw you looking and I wondered... that is, are you perhaps thinking we have met before?"
She made as if to speak, hesitated, then said, "We have not met before."
"Are you perhaps thinking I am someone else?"
"I am not thinking you are someone else..."

"Methinks your hands are trembling. Are you cold?"
"Oh no, tis warm I am."
"I too," he murmured...

That was just about what canned it for me. I'd been struggling with it, and the affected language... if you can plough through that you're a better man than I. Seeing that just made up my mind to put away the book for another time. Not one I would recommend.

Every light casts a shadow. So does the Dweomer. Some men choose to stand in the light; others in the darkness.
From Darkspell by Katharine Kerr

Feels like I've been reading this book forever. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. I did... just sometimes it had me wondering how many times can you tell the same story with different players and only slightly different outcomes. But then isn't that life, if we don't learn the lessons we are given, don't we face them again in a different package at a later time...?

After a while the 'archaic' language starts to either get to you or draw you in... it did both to me in turn and turn about fashion, I guess depending on the mood that took me at the time of reading the book, but on the whole I'm just jealous I guess. Kerr winds the elements of the story together to build a very tangled web indeed. I guess it has to be tangled as there are at least six more books in the series. Of necessity she's going to have to resolve some of the things through those books, and soon, before that "how many times can you tell this story?" question becomes a bore. I wonder what she'll put in their place. She's bound to do something.

Of course that's a question that won't get answered for some time... taking a break from Deverry now to head into the Cotswolds... at least as far as reading is concerned.

"...'I was raised to believe that all humans are odd, mishapen creatures, so the two of you seem perfectly normal to me,'..."
Elphame's Choice P.C. Cast

The book confused me a little bit as I couldn't decide whether it was meant for children/teens or adults, at least not until near the end of the book where the sex scenes reared their ugly heads. It's a book that kind of explores Celtic legends a bit with the idea of the Formorian conflict, Centaurs and such... It's written in a very simplistic way (hence my confusion initially), and at least for me, took a while to engage my interest. It read fairly quickly, probably because it's simplistic, and by the time I got into it, it was over. I think the end is a little sudden, I'm not sure. It just seemed that way, but of course there's a sequel, though I don't think I will be wanting to read it. The book was an interesting diversion from traffic jams on London Road, but that's about all it has going for it.

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