Recent Reads {The High House}

This fantasy novel, the first by James Stoddard, was recommended to me by someone at The Homeschool Lounge, is one of my new favorite books!! I'm so glad I decided to read it.  It's a wonderful story, with fairy tale and allegorical qualities, and I found it very hard to put down any time I was reading it.  If I hadn't felt the need to turn out the light so my DH could sleep, I probably would have finished this in two nights.  But there were other things to read (book club deadlines!) and so I limited myself a little bit.

The book introduces Carter Anderson as a young boy, living in a very unusual house.  When his life is threatened, his father sends him to live with friends.  Carter is summoned back to the house as a young man, his father having been missing for some time and assumed to be dead.  Carter and some faithful servants and friends have the responsibility of saving the house and the kingdoms within it.  The story takes many twists and turns as Carter seeks to restore balance between Chaos and Order, defeat the Anarchists, and become the Master of the House.

I did find one copy in our inter-library loan system, and of course will now have to return it, but I do plan on buying myself a copy of this book and its sequel, The False House, as soon as I can find them.  This is a book I highly recommend! And I would like to have my own copy so that I can offer it to my boys to read.

Recent Reads {Emerald Magic}

I finally finished this book several nights ago.  It was my MOMS Club book pick for March, but we had all kinds of scheduling issues with the discussion, so we decided to hold over the book for April as well.  So naturally, I paused reading it so I could read other things.  LOL  Our discussion on this will be tomorrow, although a couple of us have already compared notes as to which stories we liked and which we didn't care for.  Will be interesting to get together and see how similar our tastes really are!

 

The cover of Emerald Magic states that it contains "Great Tales of Irish Fantasy" by a collection of authors.  The book is in two sections, the first is "The Little People" and the stories are all about Irish mythological creatures (faerie, leprechauns, banshee, etc); and the second section, "Literary Fantastics," contains stories based on Irish authors or literature.  Authors that contributed short stories to this book include:  Tanith Lee, Elizabeth Haydon, Ray Bradbury, Andrew M. Greeley, Peter Tremayne, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and Morgan Llywelyn. 

 

As expected with any collection of stories, some I enjoyed and others - not so much.  A couple of these stories left me saying "Huh???" and wondering if there had been a point to the story at all.  The very first story in the book was one of these, which made it hard to continue reading! The stories I particularly liked were:

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  Speir-Bhan (Tanith Lee)
  
  


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  The Merrow (Elizabeth Haydon)
  
  


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  The Butter Spirit's Tithe (Charles de Lint)
  
  


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  Banshee (Ray Bradbury)
  
  


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  The Lady in Grey (Jane Linkskold)
  
  


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  A Drop of Something Special in the Blood (Fred Sabergaen)
  
  


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  For the Blood is the Life (Peter Tremayne)
  
  

Overall, an entertaining read - the nice thing about collections of short stories is that if you come across one you don't like, you have the option to skip it entirely without affecting your enjoyment of the rest of the book.  The stories I did like balanced the ones I had to slog through.  And fortunately, in most cases, the ones I didn't care for were mercifully short.  The stories in the "Literary Fantastics" section even prompted me to look up a little more information about two of the Irish poets and authors they referenced - William Butler Yeats and Bram Stoker.  I must admit that I did not know that Stoker was Irish.  The result of that discovery is that it prompted me to read his Dracula.  Sometimes I think one mark of a good story or a good book is that it prompts me to read something related. 

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to discussing this book with my friends tomorrow!

Recent Reads {Pendragon Cycle Book Three - Arthur}

I actually finished Arthur well over a week ago, but I have not been keeping up very well with my blogs.  This is the third book in Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle and as the title suggests, it focuses on the life of Arthur - his rise to the position of Dux Brittanica and eventually to High King.  This book is, oddly, the darkest in mood of the three I have read so far.  Despite Arthur's victories in battle and his great successes, there is a sense of foreboding throughout most of the book.  Of course, the character Merlin speaks of his own sense of a fateful day coming; and as a reader I am familiar with the Arthurian legend and know that his glorious Kingdom of Summer eventually comes to an ignoble end.  It doesn't happen in this book, but there are some near misses; and anyone who has any knowledge of the Arthurian stories has a pretty good idea that it won't necessarily end as neatly and "happily ever after" as we might like.  The story is told in three narratives - first, that of Pelleas, Merlin's steward. Lawhead's Pelleas character bears little resemblance to the one described in the article!  The second narrator is Bedwyr (or Sir Bedivere, as we're more likely to know him) and I have to admit that I didn't figure out that Bedwyr was the Welsh version of Bedivere until I looked him up!  The third narrator is the poet Aneirin - a historical figure that, as far as I know, is not usually associated with Arthur.  The character comes into the story as a young boy apprenticed to Merlin.  Towards the end of his story, he tells how Arthur was seriously wounded in a battle, and the effort to save his life.  Merlin takes the ailing king secretly to Avallon - which in this story is a mysterious island where the Atlantean king Avallach and his daughter Charis (mother of Merlin) and their people are living.  Queen Gwenhwyvar and some loyal knights attempt to keep the kingdom intact while Arthur recovers.  But Merlin and Arthur do not return when expected, and when Aneirin leads Gwenhwyvar and the knights to Avallon, it has disappeared.  We are left with this mystery, and a very odd and mournful epilogue which is signed as being written by Gildas.  I read it assuming it was the final lines of Aneirin's story, only to discover it signed by Gildas in the last sentence.  Gildas was a Christian monk, and one story does credit him with an involvement in the Arthurian tales, but I found it an unsettling end to the book.    Good thing there is a sequel!! 

 

I don't know how soon I will be reading the next book, Pendragon.  It will depend on how quickly I get through the (at least) 4 other books on the "reading, and to-read" pile on my night table.

Recent Reads {The Pendragon Cycle Book Two - Merlin}

 

Merlin tells the story of the legendary bard and wizard in a very interesting way.  In this story, Merlin is the son of Taliesin.  Lawhead combines many elements of the legendary figure of Merlin to create a complex character, and as in Taliesin there is a strong underlying theme of the power of God and the influence of Christianity.  This Merlin finds his strength, purpose, and power in serving God rather than in following paganism.  What an interesting take on the legend!  Another intriguing twist is that the people that escaped Atlantis are still major players in this fantasy story - the Atlanteans have a much longer lifespan than the Britons and Celts, and as a descendent of an Atlantean, Merlin's life is long indeed, spanning several generations.  By the end of this book, we have also been introduced to Arthur and events have been set in motion for his eventual kingship.  I loved this book - it was at times very dark and brooding, yet the hope of a coming "kingdom of summer" and the triumph of good over evil kept it from becoming too depressing.

Recent Reads {The Pendragon Cycle Book One - Taliesin}

I've been thinking that there are likely hundreds of books out there titled Arthur, and after a recent online conversation, I've realized that there may be another series of books out there titled The Pendragon Cycle.   For the purposes of this blog entry, I am referring to The Pendragon Cycle of books written by Stephen Lawhead.  I am now the proud owner of the first four of the five books in this series, as well as some other Lawhead titles.  I'm becoming quite a fan of his.

 

The first book in the set is Taliesin.  Maybe I was not well-informed, but I didn't know there was a historical figure named Taliesin.  I thought of it only as a place, and that only recently, since we visited Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which was the summer home and studio of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  I knew he'd chosen the name from something related to his own Welsh background but that was all.  Well, there was a Welsh poet and bard named Taliesin that lived around 534 - 599.  Little is known about him, but he is the earliest Welsh language poet whose work has survived.  Legend surrounds other aspects of his life, but he was present in the courts of at least three Celtic British kings.  In this book, Lawhead weaves a fascinating story around the legends, and adds another interesting twist - some survivors of the Lost Island of Atlantis make it to the shores of the Island of the Mighty (as they refer to Britain) and the stories of the two groups of people are intertwined.  In Lawhead's tale, Taliesin also finds the One True God and is a player in bringing Christianity to the Britons and to the surviving Atlanteans.  This was a wonderful book, combining as Lawhead does so well the snippets of history with legend and fantasy, into a story that I didn't want to put down. 

 

Thankfully, when I finished reading it and had to put it down, I had the second book in the series ready to start so that the story didn't have to end.