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alobearYesterday, I finished two books, one in audio form and one in print.
Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz:
I've just looked back through over a year of this journal, trying to find my review of the first book in this series, but it seems I didn't write one. It's a fairly standard fantasy premise, with conflict between humans and the Deryni race, who have forbidden magic and pose the threat of not being understood. The first book was quite action-packed, mostly following the fourteen-year-old prince of the realm and his contested succession to the throne after his father's assassination. It was written on a grand scale, with lots of politics and global conflict.
The second book in the series was very different in tone and focus, centering pretty much on just one character - Aleric Morgan, the half-Deryni duke who commands the young king's armies but faces personal tribulations when he is excommunicated from the church and hunted by a religious fanatic bent on destroying all Deryni. It was an interesting change, and a fairly welcome one, as Morgan was my favourite character in the first book, so I didn't mind spending most of the second one with him. The story was book-ended by sections involving the young king and the global conflict, so the narrative did not lose sight of the bigger picture.
The only drawback to the book was the introduction of two entirely new and lovely characters purely for the purposes of killing them horribly towards the end, just before their wedding. This was sudden, unexpected and rather upsetting - but perhpas the reasons behind it will become more evident in the last book in the trilogy, which I will definintely be listening to despite this turn of events.
As ever, the dulcet tones of Jeff Woodman made even the more distressing parts of the book a joy to experience, and I wondered again whether I would have liked the book as much if I had just read it in print - probably not.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer:
This is the best book I've read in quite some time, and also the saddest.
The sections narrated by Oskar, the protagonist, are basically a geeky, issue-riddled, nine-year-old's brain on paper. He is utterly fabulous, and reminds me an awful lot of Dave, though he wouldn't thank me for saying that as he doesn't like people saying he reminds them of other people. "Why can't I remind people of me?"
The author is very clever, as I think a book entirely of Oskar's narration would get quite wearing after a while, great though he is, so the sections about the grandparents are effectively intermingled, not only to give a very different perspective, but also as relief from Oskar's mental onslaught.
It's one of those books that's birlliantly funny at the same time as being desperately sad, as Oskar's entertaining personality quirks are juxtaposed with his struggle to come to terms with his father's death at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The grandparents' story is actually stranger than Oskar's and it did cause my avid interest to dip slightly in places, but still provided an intriguing counterpoint to the main plotline.
The resolution of Oskar's quest to find the lock that fits the key in his possession is both wholly unexpected and highly satisfying.
The only drawback to the book, and the reason why I'm not buying loads of copies so that everyone I know can read it all at the same time, is that there are two or three extremely unpleasant sections, describing the aftermath of various bombings, which certainly add impact to the narrative, but also provide horrific images that it's difficult to forget about.
Still, an extremely good and incredibly emotive book - highly recommended if you can stomach the intermittent ick.
Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz:
I've just looked back through over a year of this journal, trying to find my review of the first book in this series, but it seems I didn't write one. It's a fairly standard fantasy premise, with conflict between humans and the Deryni race, who have forbidden magic and pose the threat of not being understood. The first book was quite action-packed, mostly following the fourteen-year-old prince of the realm and his contested succession to the throne after his father's assassination. It was written on a grand scale, with lots of politics and global conflict.
The second book in the series was very different in tone and focus, centering pretty much on just one character - Aleric Morgan, the half-Deryni duke who commands the young king's armies but faces personal tribulations when he is excommunicated from the church and hunted by a religious fanatic bent on destroying all Deryni. It was an interesting change, and a fairly welcome one, as Morgan was my favourite character in the first book, so I didn't mind spending most of the second one with him. The story was book-ended by sections involving the young king and the global conflict, so the narrative did not lose sight of the bigger picture.
The only drawback to the book was the introduction of two entirely new and lovely characters purely for the purposes of killing them horribly towards the end, just before their wedding. This was sudden, unexpected and rather upsetting - but perhpas the reasons behind it will become more evident in the last book in the trilogy, which I will definintely be listening to despite this turn of events.
As ever, the dulcet tones of Jeff Woodman made even the more distressing parts of the book a joy to experience, and I wondered again whether I would have liked the book as much if I had just read it in print - probably not.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer:
This is the best book I've read in quite some time, and also the saddest.
The sections narrated by Oskar, the protagonist, are basically a geeky, issue-riddled, nine-year-old's brain on paper. He is utterly fabulous, and reminds me an awful lot of Dave, though he wouldn't thank me for saying that as he doesn't like people saying he reminds them of other people. "Why can't I remind people of me?"
The author is very clever, as I think a book entirely of Oskar's narration would get quite wearing after a while, great though he is, so the sections about the grandparents are effectively intermingled, not only to give a very different perspective, but also as relief from Oskar's mental onslaught.
It's one of those books that's birlliantly funny at the same time as being desperately sad, as Oskar's entertaining personality quirks are juxtaposed with his struggle to come to terms with his father's death at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The grandparents' story is actually stranger than Oskar's and it did cause my avid interest to dip slightly in places, but still provided an intriguing counterpoint to the main plotline.
The resolution of Oskar's quest to find the lock that fits the key in his possession is both wholly unexpected and highly satisfying.
The only drawback to the book, and the reason why I'm not buying loads of copies so that everyone I know can read it all at the same time, is that there are two or three extremely unpleasant sections, describing the aftermath of various bombings, which certainly add impact to the narrative, but also provide horrific images that it's difficult to forget about.
Still, an extremely good and incredibly emotive book - highly recommended if you can stomach the intermittent ick.
