Once Upon a Bookshelf

I first stumbled upon Cassandra Clare (at that point I knew of her as Cassandra Claire) while waiting for J.K. Rowling’s Order of the Phoenix to be released. I had just taken a dive into the Harry Potter books, devoured them all, and was at a bit of a loss of what to do next. So, I took what seemed like the next logical step at the time - I started reading fanfic. Have you ever tried looking for good fanfic? There is a very low percentage of enjoyable stuff when compared to the total amount of fanfic out there. Cassandra Claire’s Draco Trilogy was one of the few I enjoyed. When I heard that she had some original fiction that was going to be published, I was thrilled.

City of Bones is the first in a trilogy by Clare. The book starts with Clary, a fifteen year old girl, witnessing a murder at a night club in New York. Except it’s no ordinary murder, as the victim seems to fold into himself and disappear right before her eyes. Also, there’s the fact that no one else can see the three people who murdered this guy. Soon, Clary is flung into a world she didn’t know existed - where Shadowhunters hunt and kill demons; where werewolves, vampires and warlocks exist; and where a man by the name of Valentine has seemed to raise himself from the dead in order to lay claim on the Mortal Cup - a cup that could potentially raise an army of Shadowhunters.

I have to admit that deep down I was a little bit worried that this book was going to be strictly fan service for those who loved the Draco Trilogy and the Very Secret Diaries. I can happily say that it isn’t - while there were a few mentions that fans of her previous writing would get, it was done rather subtly, in my opinion. (And I have to admit that I giggled when I read that Clary had a pin that proclaimed “Still not king.”)

While I loved the characters, and found the book riveting, I think one of the things I liked best about this book is that at times I doubted my dislike for the bad guy. There were moments he had almost convinced me that he had done the right thing, that he wasn’t a bad man…

Cassandra Clare has definitely put herself into the same league as Holly Black, Libba Bray and Stephenie Meyer with this book. I have a feeling that this is going to be my favourite new YA and/or urban fantasy series this year. It made me laugh, made me squirm a little bit at points, and made it very difficult for me to actually put the book down. I look forward to the next installments in the trilogy.

I’m joining Carl V’s Once Upon a Time challenge, in hopes that I do better with this than I did with the From the Stacks challenge. I normally read a lot of fantasy, but haven’t read nearly as much as I used to, and a lot of what I have read in the past few years has disappointed me a little bit. I’m hoping this will help me get back into the genre and perhaps give me a new book or author to adore. Thus, my choices for this challenge are:

1. Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.
2. Robert Holdstock’s The Iron Grail: Book Two of the Merlin Codex.
3. Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora.
4. Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand: Book One of The Bartimaeus Trilogy.
5. Orson Scott Card’s Enchantment.

I am going to attempt to fit in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, because it will always hold a spot dear in my heart. It was the second Shakespearian play I had ever seen at Stratford. Actually, it was the second Shakespearian play I had EVER seen, period. I saw it twice that season, and Colm Feore was in it. Ah, how lovely! (And it is quite possible that was one of the defining moment leading to my becoming a fangirl.)

Depending on how I’m feeling, I may substitute some books for others - I have too many fantasy books lying around here that I haven’t read yet. Enchantment is a re-read, but I feel it fits in with the fairy-tale part, as it is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, and also includes references to various Russian folk-tales apparantely. I was also debating adding Beowulf in there for more of the folklore bit, but really, I feel that with that poem and Malory… well, I wouldn’t get through it all. I mean, Le Morte d’Arthur itself is like five million 900 pages long. There’s no way I’d get everything else done too if I attempted Beowulf.

I was also going to add Cassie Clare’s City of Bones, but let’s face it, I’m about 50 pages from the end at the moment so that would be cheating. I will most likely be posting about THAT book tomorrow. LOVE.

Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later – no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget – we will return.

The Shadow of the Wind is the story of two men - Daniel, the boy who discovers The Shadow of the Wind in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, and Julian Carax, the man who wrote the book. This book becomes the first book Daniel really falls for - and it drives the next few years of his life. He is determined to find out information about, and read more books by this author, only to discover that he has the last copy of The Shadow of the Wind in existence. All the rest have been bought/stolen and set on fire. In fact, it seems that all of Carax’s other books have met with the same fate, and it appears that it’s being done by a man by the name of Lain Coubert. Lain Coubert also happens to be the name the devil goes by in Carax’s book. While trying to protect the book, Daniel is also trying to piece together what happened to the author - some say he died in a duel Paris, while others claim that he was shot in Barcelona a few days after said duel, but it appears that no one is telling him the whole truth about the author.

In true gothic fiction fashion, this book has a lot of atmosphere - I could practically feel it seeping out of the pages of the book - and enough twists to keep it suspenseful. Although I had a feeling I knew what happened to Carax (and in the end I was right), the way things played out in order for the ending to come about the way it did wasn’t how I expected.

I have a feeling I’m going to be craving more gothic books now, and may have to revisit some of my older favourites… but that’ll have to wait until the end of the fantasy challenge which I think I might have to participate in, considering all of the unread fantasy books on my shelf at the moment.

Bonaparte’s been defeated, and Hornblower is now Rear Admiral, and has a command in the West Indies (or, the Caribbean). Even though it’s peace-time, that doesn’t mean Hornblower has an easy job - there are still plenty of adventures for our favourite naval character to get into. Pirates, a group of people who want to rescue Bonaparte and reinstate him as Emperor in France, intercepting slave ships, hurricanes … it’s like the adventure never ends.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as previous books, but it was a good ending to the series (novel-wise). Each chapter stood on it’s own making the book feel like a collection of short stories, very similar to Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. It was, however, somewhat disappointing that the only characters that we really knew from previous books to be in this one were Hornblower and his wife.

I don’t really have much to say about this book. I’m somewhat mourning the fact that this is the last book in the series. I always get that let-down feeling at the end of a good series.

Although I had been handed this book in Chapters and told I must read it, I hadn’t planned on reading Poison Study for a while. In fact, there were quite a few books before it in my TBR pile. But after hearing so many people saying how good this book was, it managed to get bumped to the front of the line.

Yelena is awaiting execution for murdering a General’s son when she is given a choice - an immediate death, or the chance to work as the Commander’s food taster, where death could always be hovering just around the corner. Like any normal person would, she chose not to be executed, but being the food taster brings problems of its own. She has to learn how each poison tastes and smells - thus subjecting herself to deadly poisons which could potentially kill her. Then, of course, the General isn’t happy with the fact that Yelena has escaped execution and is trying to kill her himself. Because, really, how good can a book be without at least one attempt at the hero’s life? ;)

This was an enjoyable book - one of the better ones I’ve read that Luna Books has published. And I did have a hard time putting it down. It was a bit predictable, but the characters were enjoyable. I loved Valek’s role in the whole book, and Yelena was enjoyable, but how I loved Ari and Janco.

The story also could pull you in. While it’s not taking place in a king’s court, it still has that feel to it. And there were so many different things going on - attacks on Yelena, Yelena pretending to escape, as well as her discovering magical abilities…

I may read the second book in this series; I am undecided at the moment.