Tag Archives: fiction

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (book review)

And so A Song of Ice and Fire series continues with the third installment, A Storm of Swords. I finished this book in late August / early September and—without going bit by bit through the novel—let’s just say I enjoyed it. It was a strong book and, page count alone, it is about 200 pages longer than A Clash of Kings. Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival and Uncle, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister Sansa hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. . . . But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others–a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, [...]

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The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay (book review)

“I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart.” So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a young child, Moth’s father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from her forever. The summer she turned twelve, her mother sold her as a servant to a wealthy woman, with no intention of ever seeing her again. These betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes, where eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as “The Infant School.” Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are “willing and clean,” and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth. Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a female physician, Moth learns to question and observe the world around her, where her new friends are falling prey to the myth of the “virgin cure”–that deflowering a “fresh maid” can heal the incurable and tainted. She knows the law will not protect her, that polite society ignores her, and still she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There’s a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street. From the publisher, Knopf Canada The Virgin Cure is Moth’s story but narrated by Dr. Sadie [...]

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The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott (book review)

The Little Shadows will be published on September 27, 2011 but is already receiving a ton of buzz (including the Giller longlist Reader’s Choice). And I have to say that the praise is well-warranted. Gentle prose, quiet plot, and enticing characters are all present in Endicott’s latest novel about three sisters beginning a career in vaudeville. The Little Shadows revolves around three sisters in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. We follow the lives of all three in turn: Aurora, the eldest and most beautiful, who is sixteen when the book opens; thoughtful Clover, a year younger; and the youngest sister, joyous headstrong sprite Bella, who is thirteen. The girls, overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama, are forced to make their living as a singing act after the untimely death of their father. They begin with little besides youth and hope, but Marina Endicott’s genius is to show how the three girls slowly and steadily evolve into true artists even as they navigate their way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary characters – some of them charming charlatans, some of them unpredictable eccentrics, and some of them just ordinary-seeming humans with magical gifts. From the publisher, Doubleday Canada (an imprint of Random House). I was lucky to receive an ARC from the publisher and read The Little Shadows a few months ago. I was looking forward to it because I really enjoyed Marina Endicott’s novel, Good to a Fault—which was part of [...]

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A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (book review)

A Clash of Kings is the second book ins George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka The Game of Thrones). After becoming absorbed in the first book, A Game of Thrones, I picked up a copy of the second book and (nearly immediately) began reading. My favourite chapters followed either Tyrion or Arya… and I know that this probably means that George R.R. Martin is going to kill them (no spoilers). It seems that whenever you get attached to a character, or they have a redeeming moment or characteristic, then Martin kills them off. And when he kills them, it’s never dramatic or emotional, it’s blunt, quick and horrible. It’s actually more like real life than fiction or fantasy, but a little disappointing as a reader. In this eagerly awaited sequel to A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has created a work of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination. A Clash of Kings transports us to a world of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare unlike any you have ever experienced. A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here [...]

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A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (book review)

The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I picked up this book when I heard about the series HBO was producing and the guy at the till said “your friends won’t see you for weeks.” Confused, I asked why. “You’ll need to catch up on the entire series.” A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin is the first in an epic fantasy series—A Song of Ice and Fire—and the fifth book will be released this summer. A Song of Ice and Fire series will have seven books in total. Within the first chapter of A Game of Thrones, I was completely drawn in. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different character, which allows the narration to jump locations easily. The chapters left me wanting more—in a good way—yet felt complete like a scene in a play. George R.R. Martin writes tightly crafted prose that rumbles with power, emphasis and forethought. Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and [...]

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