book reviews

I'm on the fiction section of my to-be-read cycle (too complicated to explain). So I've read Ender's Shadow, Lost, and am now reading Manassas, the first volume in a series covering the major Civil War battles.

Ender's Shadow (sequel to the book Ender's Game, but plotted in parallel) was a fascinating read. At first blush it might seem boring to read the same events from a different character's perspective, but the character was so well-realized and the book remained so completely true to that character's perspective that in some ways I found it a more enjoyable book than the original. Despite the fact that the character in question was not entirely likable—a bit of a cold fish, and definitely somewhat arrogant.

Lost is my latest foray into the fiction of Gregory Maguire. Let me start by saying I LOVE Maguire's novel Wicked. Love it. I also hated Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I thought it was as boring and banal as Wicked was fresh and intriguing. I had high hopes for Lost because it was supposed to be on the lines of A Christmas Carol, which is one of my all-time favorite books. Sadly, "supposed to be" isn't always what is. Maguire tried to run together Christmas Carol and Jack the Ripper plotlines, plus added the device of inserting excerpts from his protagonist's "novel", and did justice to none of it. Throughout the book, there were hints—sly winks and nudges—of dark histories for the characters that really made me feel like the author was patting himself on the back for his own cleverness. By the denouement, I was so tired of seeing the carrots dangled in front of my nose that I frankly didn't care anymore. And the ending ... well, I'm still waiting for it, and I finished the book two days ago. I have Maguire's next book, Mirror, Mirror, in queue, but unless it's a tour de force to match the genius of Wicked, I think my relationship as reader to Mr. Maguire's authorship may be over.

Finally, Manassas. Since it's my own ambition to write Civil War novels based around the experiences of one or more families, I was of course fascinated to begin this one. Even more so because the author's blurb identified him as having written several books in the Wagons West series (published under the name Dana Fuller Ross). Those, while not a peak of literary greatness, were definitely a good read if a bit trashy. So I had high hopes. So far, unrealized hopes (I'm only about 100 pages in). Reasoner (the author) seems to be aiming for a higher level of literary excellence than the Wagons West series, and in the process has jettisoned the soap opera-esque elements of that series (at least so far). Which means this is a novel caught betwixt and between—not serious lit., not good trashy fun. Neither boring nor bad ... but not particularly fun or good, either. I'm hoping it has yet to hit its stride. After all, it's the set-up for a 10-book series, so maybe there's just too much exposition being crammed in at this stage.