A series matter

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I suppose it shouldn't come as any surprise that as I've started to read more widely in genre fiction (historical mysteries, kid lit, etc.) in recent years, I've found myself delving into series far more than I used to. In the last week I've read two series installments: Sea of Monsters, the second in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for kids and A Murderous Procession, the fourth and latest in Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series. Both of them are available at the Key West Library. In both cases, I liked the books the best of the series so far (OK in Riordan's case that's only two) but I was pleasantly surprised because I enjoyed but wasn't wowed by The Lightning Thief, the first in that series. As is becoming usual, my respect for J.K. Rowling grows every time I read another magical/fantastical book meant for young readers. And I am realizing that a lot of the time I struggle with the first-person voice in kid lit. Suzanne Collins pulls it off in The Hunger Games -- but it really limits the perspective of the narration and means the writer has to really nail an authentic voice for a kid. Both tough conditions, but I think Riordan is improving at least based on reading two of the books. Sea of Monsters gets an AB.

Ariana Franklin's books are pretty popular and I'd like to think it's more than a case of CSI-meets-Lion in Winter. Our heroine, Adelia Aguilar, is a Sicilian physician who winds up in Henry II's England (both Henry and my old favorite Eleanor of Acquitaine make appearances in the series -- though I'm fond of them not from the scenery-chewing A Lion in Winter but from E.L. Konigsberg's superb kids' book A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver). Anyway, Aguilar is called into the king's service as an investigator to determine how people died -- the 12th century equivalent of a coroner, or Mistress of the Art of Death. In the latest installment, she's not supposed to be investigating murders but safeguarding the health of Henry and Eleanor's daughter, Joanna, on her way to Sicily to marry that island's king. Naturally, murders occur en route and lots of other adventures, too. I have just about no historical knowledge of the time period and imagine purists cringe at some of the events in the book, not to mention the dialogue but it would be hard to write (or read!) a novel in authentic 12th century speech supposing we knew what such a thing was. What matters to me is that Franklin tells a good story with some interesting subjects to think about along the way (the nature of love between independent adults, the role of the Church in medieval society). And she did a good job distracting me with a red herring for the villain, which is always nice. (No Scooby-Doo moment, either!). Best of the series yet and I hope she writes many more. A

Judging a book by its title

The other day I finished reading The Queen's Lover by Vanora Bennett -- which I mentioned finding serendipitously on the library shelves. I enjoyed Bennett's previous two works, Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Figures in Silk, quite a bit. This one the least of the three -- and I have to say I am irritated beyond reason at the decision to change the title from the UK version, Blood Royal, to The Queen's Lover. That's probably not Bennett's fault but paired with the extremely Philippa Gregory-esque cover art, it just smacks of bandwagon jumping and Bennett doesn't deserve that in any sense. I'm not slamming Gregory -- I've enjoyed some of her books and I'm all for anyone keeping Tudor Trash on the bestseller lists. But honestly. Blood Royal really captures the importance of this story -- that of the French Princess Catherine of Valois, who married Henry V and then married a nonroyal, Owain Tudor -- that match made them grandparents to Henry VII, founder of the dynasty. But royals didn't just marry nonroyals back then so and this was a pretty tumultuous time in European history -- Agincourt! Joan of Arc! Wars of the Roses! OK, rant over. I have to admit I kept going in this book mostly because I didn't really know how all the characters fit into my understanding of English history -- I knew the Tudors were upstarts of some kinds and I'm pretty good from Edward IV on, but the back story was new to me. So that definitely kept me engaged. The lifelong love story between Owain and Catherine, not so much. I could sympathize with an intelligent, compassionate young woman caught in a warring family and between warring countries. But I didn't care, on a gut level, what happened to these people, which is too bad. So I'm going to give it a B. I hope Bennett goes on to write more and maybe more about common people -- that was one of the attractions of Figures in Silk, was its merchant's-eye view of the goings on of royalty.

Dark Fire

My personal Tudor crime wave continues with the second in C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series, Dark Fire. We don't have the first three in this series at the Key West Library so I've gotten the first two, and now put in a request for the third, via interlibrary loan. If you're an avid reader and you can't afford to buy tons of books, interlibrary loan is the thing for you by the way. More on that in a future post. So this book was good -- better, I think, than the first in the series, Dissolution, as it juggled two mysteries -- what is the titular dark fire, an ancient weapon reputed to put an entire ship on flames in no time, and what is going on with Elizabeth Wentworth, a young girl accused of throwing her bratty cousin down a well? The dark fire has disappeared after the men who discovered it turn up dead. And Elizabeth Wentworth won't talk. And Shardlake has 12 days to solve both puzzles.

The time element feels a bit forced though the book is set in the waning days of Thomas Cromwell's life, as Henry VIII is looking to dump Anne of Cleves and the Duke of Norfolk is using his niece, Catherine Howard, to vault himself into power. As always, these books when done well area useful reminder that most people weren't devout Catholics or committed reformers -- they were just people, struggling with their faith, their livelihoods and attempting to survive in turbulent times.

My only real problem with this book came right at the end when there was one of those terrible scenes that my friend Dave calls the Scooby-Doo moment -- when the villain just has to explain to our heroes exactly what he or she has done and why -- and at the same time our heroes do something that even I knew was a Very Bad Idea. So even though I'm along for the ride on these books, that one stretched the plausibility envelope a little too much. Still, an enjoyable well-crafted read. AB

And on to the next ... though I have lots of books I should be reading for lots of reasons I came across a new one by Vanora Bennett, one of my favorite of the newer historical fiction writers, on the library shelf yesterday. The Queen's Lover recounts the story of Catherine of Valois and the founding of the Tudor dynasty. I very much enjoyed two of her previous books, Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Figures in Silk. And the coolest thing about this, because it's becoming relatively rare for me, is that I wasn't on the lookout for this book, I just stumbled upon it while shelving new fiction. These days I read so many book reviews and other promotional materials that just finding something I am pretty sure will be up my alley is lovely. I suppose that's what's most endangered by digital publication -- and I hate to join the Luddite faction because, on the whole, the Internet and its variations have brought me so much information and access to great reading. But a nice find was a good feeling that I hadn't realized I missed.

The other March Madness

Yes, yes, it's not like Wolf Hall needs more accolades -- Man Booker Prize, National Book Critics Circle, overall winner in the megalist put together by the Williamsburg Public Library -- but still, I was delighted to see it triumph in The Morning News' extremely entertaining and often enlightening Tournament of Books. I'd seen references to the Tournament for the last couple years but hadn't bothered to investigate -- but this year book reviewing/covering goddess Laura Miller of Salon gave it a push so of course I had to check it out. Though I was sorry to see my man John Wray go down to book club favorite The Help in the first round, I was still psyched that Wolf Hall made it all the way through -- and reading the finals when it was a real back and forth against Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, I felt actual suspense. Nice job, folks.

It's about time

Yesterday I finished The Time Quake by Linda Buckley-Archer, the final novel in her Gideon trilogy about some kids who stumble upon the time-travel machine built by the father of one of them and find themselves back in the 18th century. Then some bad guys use the machine to go to the 21st century. And back and forth a few times. I really wanted to like this series. I'm fond of time travel stories -- I'm a minor Star Trek geek from way back and loved Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. A cover blurb from Entertainment Weekly promised it would appeal to kids who loved Harry Potter. I'm not a kid but I liked Harry Potter a lot. Unfortunately, this series mostly made me realize how good J.K. Rowling is. I was interested enough to finish three books -- but I just couldn't care all that much about what happened to any of the characters. I haven't read enough in this genre to gauge how it stacks up to other fantasy novels aimed at the grade school level -- other than my old favorites, Lloyd Alexander's Taran series. I imagine if you had a kid who liked that kind of stuff this might be worth a try. We do have all three books in the library collection. BC