Once Upon a Bookshelf

Druid’s Sword is the fourth and last book in The Troy Game series by Sara Douglass. The series is loosely based on the Labyrinth from Greek Mythology, where the Minotaur who was kept in the center of the Labyrinth was killed by Ariadne’s lover, Theseus. At the beginning of the series, Genvissa (one of Ariadne’s descendants) attempted creating a new Labyrinth in what is now London, England, with Brutus (a descendant from Troy). The Labyrinth never got finished, and the main characters in the series are cursed to come back life after life until the Labyrinth is finally completed.

You know, I don’t think I can even explain more as to what’s been happening in this series so far, because there is just SO MUCH that has been going on. So many characters that have had so many different roles in the series. It doesn’t come across as confusing when you read it, but I don’t think I could possibly give it any justice just summarising it.

So with that … Well, this fourth book takes place during WWII. The evil at the center of the Labyrinth (which parades as a young girl called Catling) has been destroying the land for many, many years, and has been growing ever stronger. The main group of people involved are trying to find a way to distroy the Labyrinth, instead of completing it, as completing it would give the Labyrinth dominion over the land and Faerie.

I have to admit that something about this book rather surprised me. I’m so used to absolutely loathing the main male characters in Douglass’ books, that it shocked me that I loved Brutus-reborn in this book. Over the thousands of years that this series has taken place, it’s really nice to see that the characters have actually grown into characters I love - with only two exceptions, where I now rather am annoyed at the two characters that I had first started out liking, boo to that!

I’m going to have to spend a couple of hours in the next week going back through the previous books in the series. One thing that I really enjoyed about The Troy Game was the way Douglass has written it so it’s all tied together. As well as having the same characters come back life after life, she’s added snippets of their life from the fourth book interspersed in the other three books (though we do learn that they’ve been dreams that Brutus-reborn has been having).

All in all, I’m quite happy with how this series turned out, and am even happier that I don’t have to wait another year to get the next installment (ah! closure is a wonderful thing!). And I swear that the story isn’t that confusing if you’ve read the series from the beginning.

Prosper and Bo are orphans; their aunt wants to adopt Bo and put Prosper in a boarding school where the brothers will only be able to see each other a few times a year - if that. The kids decide that this idea really sucks, and run away to Venice where they meet up with a group of kids, headed by The Thief Lord. These kids live in an abandoned movie theatre, and live off the money they get from selling stuff that the Thief Lord steals.

Of course, Prosper and Bo’s aunt and uncle don’t just let the kids run away and not look for them. They find themselves in Venice as well, hiring a detective to hunt down the kids for them. During the time when the kids are avoiding their aunt and uncle, the Thief Lord is hired to steal something - a great big wooden wing that is the last piece missing from a magical merry-go-round.

I’ve been meaning to read something by Funke for years. I’ve picked up her books I don’t know how many times, but there have just been so many other books that I’ve wanted to read as well. It took me realizing that this book had been made into an adorable movie before I actually got it from the library, though.

I have to admit that at first I was a little worried that this story was going to be so anti-grown ups that I would get annoyed, but thankfully it wasn’t like that at all, and some of the adults actually turned out to be pretty cool.

I really should have known that to start reading this book at 10:30 at night would be a very bad idea and result in my having about 3 hours of sleep that night. It would appear, however, that I didn’t even think about that when I picked it up. Ah well.

It was a cute book; not quite as good as the first book, Enchanted, Inc., but still quite enjoyable.

In this installment, Katie’s parents decide to come to New York for a visit, and Katie discovers that her mother is as immune to magic as she is. Only problem is that Katie is losing her immunity. This, obviously, is quite a problem as she works at a company that deals with magic, and the reason they had hired her was because of her immunity to it. And of course, things start to go drastically wrong when Katie finds a pair of red stilettos that she simply HAS to have; what she doesn’t realize is that they are enchanted and now that her immunity to magic is gone, she’s under the spell put on those shoes.

Ah, the things that happen when her parents are in New York. Katie had to attempt to explain them all away, and I can imagine that was not an easy task. But my favourite part? Katie and her mother are having lunch, and everyone in the restaurant other than the two of them and one other wizard start doing a chorus line. Seriously, that would so be a dream come true for me - eveyone being all normal and then all of a sudden, Bam! They break out in song and dance. Or in this case, just dance, but still.

When Napoleon first came into power in France, Amy and her mother escaped to England to live with Amy’s cousins. Years later, Amy is returning to France to live with her brother, and she has one plan in mind - to find the Purple Gentian and join his league. What she doesn’t realize is that she’s already met the Purple Gentian and hates him with a passion.

I think my friend must be psychic. Or maybe she just knows me too well, because she lent me this book about 2 weeks ago, right before I got back into my obsession with all things related to this time period. And so, when I was craving something with Napoleon in it, I didn’t have to search far at all.

Overall the book was pretty good. It wasn’t stunning, but it wasn’t a bad read either. A couple of things annoyed me about this book - how long it took Amy to figure out who the Purple Gentian was (even though she knew Richard’s voice when he wasn’t in disguise), and the fact that Amy’s 20 and she’s still throwing tantrums. Silly girls are all well and good in small doses (look at Lydia in Pride and Prejudice) but as the main character, it’s a bit much for me.

Flying Colours starts off where A Ship of the Line finished. Captain Hornblower has surrendered his ship to the French, is now a prisoner on his way to Paris (along with Bush and Brown) to be tried, and Napoleon wants him dead. Flying Colours is the story of Hornblower’s escape from France to England where he knows a court martial awaits him. Their escape is aided by a most unusual ally - a mayor of a French town - at whose house the group abides for the winter and until Bush’s amputated leg heals.

It amuses me that I always seem to forget how emotionally involved I get with the Hornblower books. My love for Hornblower and Bush (and consequently my love for Paul McGann - what a wonderful job he did as Bush!) has grown considerably in the past few days.

There are a lot less characters that make an appearance in this book - less people Hornblower has to deal with on a day-to-day basis, which I thought was absolutely wonderful as it gave Bush more time in the story (I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love Bush, and it’s almost as much as I love Pellew). I love how we get to see more Bush, and get a better idea of the relationship between the captain and his first lieutenant.

I am however, starting to feel really bad for all the women in Hornblower’s life. They all fall in love with him, and yet he can’t love any of them back, because he’s already in love with Lady Barbara. Pfft. Those poor, poor women.