Once Upon a Bookshelf

Medalon is the first book in a series by Jennifer Fallon.

The first thing I noticed about this book is that it reminds me of a cross between Sara Douglass and Marion Zimmer Bradley; the second thing was that I was enjoying it a lot more than I had expected to. I had picked up the second book in the series at one point and thought it sounded fabulous, but as I hadn’t read the first book, I couldn’t very well read that one. Problem was, the summary of the first book just didn’t sound interesting at all. Luckily for me, the book was a lot better than what I had been expecting.

The Sisterhood is the government of Medalon. R’shiel was raised to be a member of the Sisterhood – her mother, Joyhinia, is one of the Quorum (the head of the Sisterhood), and Joyhinia has a lot of ambition to become the head of the Quorum. R’shiel has never really liked the Sisterhood, and when she discovers that Joyhinia isn’t really her mother, she leaves the Sisterhood for good. She and her brother soon become outlaws and get mixed up into the rebellion that is threatening the Sisterhood.

Of course, things aren’t simply that simple either – R’shiel has to accept that she is the “demon child” and was created to distroy the god of a neighbouring country.

I suppose it’s only to be expected that I go on the following train of thought at the present time, what with the Canadian election just happening and all, but politics are always so much more interesting – and make me so much less angry – in books of this kind then they do in real life. I suppose because Kings and Queens and religious orders ruling kingdoms seems so much more romantic than a Prime Minister and government and all that stuff. But even parts of this book got me angry. There’s always manipulation of people and all sorts of crazy ambition to become the leader or a people, but Joyhinia went much further than other characters I’ve read – to the point of blackmailing and bribing absolutely everyone around her, disowning her children, and even trying to kill them. It’s disturbing.

Fallon was very smart in making me want to read more though – the end of the book feels like the end of a chapter. I felt like I should be able to turn the page and just be able to continue reading on. Now I have to wait until I can get a chance to pick up the next book in the series.

Narnia and the North!

Every six months or so, I have an urge to pick up one of the Narnia books. These were my favourite books growing up, and they still hold a place dear to my heart. (Perhaps moreso than Anne of Green Gables, if you can believe that!)

I had been craving King Edmund as an adult lately (not sure if that’s a result of everyone saying that the grown-up Edmund in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe movie, but it’s a possibility), so The Horse and His Boy seemed a likely choice. Oddly enough.

This has always been my least favourite of the Narnia books; it never really excited me like the other ones, so it’s been YEARS since the last time I read it. Nevertheless, I was craving Edmund, and I can’t say no to him. (Why is it always the kids who start out as total and complete brats that I adore?!) I have to say, though, that I enjoyed this book much more thoroughly than I normally do.

The Horse and His Boy was the fifth of the Narnia books written and published, though it’s actually the third book in the series – and yes, I’m one of those who prefer to read it in the chronological order of the world as opposed to the order they were published in. It is also the only book that doesn’t centre around children from our world finding themselves in Narnia.

Shasta is living with a fisherman in Calormen. He’s just overheard that the man he calls “Father” is about to sell him to a rich man as a slave. The rich man’s horse, Bree, convinces Shasta to run away with him to Narnia where men and beasts are free.

I have to wonder, if this was the first time I had ever read any of these books, if I had no clue that Lewis was a Christian, and if I didn’t know how he wrote them as an allegory type of book, would I realize it? Would I be able to pick up the hints, or would I just conclude that this book, like so many others, was based on bits and pieces of different mythologies? Sometimes it just is so obvious to me – in this one, what stands out is when Aslan and Shasta are walking through the mountains that divide Archenland and Narnia, when Shasta has just discovered that there had only ever been one lion on the journey, Aslan, and he had done the things he had to make sure they work out the right way in the end. But does everyone pick up on those moments?

Although L.M. Montgomery is my favourite author, I can’t claim to have read all of her stuff – yet. There are still quite a number of short story volumes that I haven’t made my way through, mainly because, as I’ve said before, I don’t normally enjoy short stories. Of course, there are always exceptions.

The langauge Montgomery uses; the way she describes things! Ah! If she wanted me to, she could make me feel sympathetic with a rock. And then the stories she tells, whether they are stories of family, friendship or romance, there’s always such innocence and beauty that completely draws me in.

Across the Miles was put together by Rea Wilmshurst, the stories originally being published in various magazines and newspapers. Most of the stories revolve around correspondence between people, and the results of the correspondence.

I have to say that my favourites in this book were Cyrilla’s Inspiration, A Fortunate Mistake, and The Growing Up of Cornelia, such sweet stories. The first one deals with girls in a boarding house keeping busy on a rainy day by sending out letters to the other people in the boarding house. In A Fortunate Mistake, one girl is sick and her sister accidentally invites a very shy girl over to keep the invalid company. The last one is about a girl who doesn’t want to grow up, but can’t quite figure out why she doesn’t like one certain man calling her a child.