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lady_schrapnellNo, the Magic or Madness isn't the award idea - that's an award without stress! Seriously - this 'award' is to generate a list of great coming-of-age books (children's/YA/adult -but-works-as-YA), written whenever. No deciding which one book you'd like nominated, no agonizing to get a list of your 5 (3-10-whatever) 'bests' of the year. Just head on over to Chasing Ray and tell Colleen some books in this category you love.
And if that doesn't make you cheerful enough, you can head over to MotherReader's and get your 'BACA off kids' lit!' bumper-stickers. I'm just going to leave that one unexplained, so your curiosity is piqued... Except to say that a recent forwarded write-up for the upcoming Bath Festival of Children's Literature went through some of the Big Names who'd be there - and on the 'headlining guests' list was 'Lucy Hawking, daughter of Stephen Hawking, who has collaborated with her father on a new children's book, also published in the Autumn.' Honestly. The bumper stickers are well needed, clearly!
So, over in this corner, I've just finished Magic or Madness - yes, the book, by Justine Larbalestier. Nothing but the most minor of spoilers, but I'll still put it behind a cut.
The book opens as 15-year-old Reason Cansino is being taken, very much against her will, to her grandmother's house in Sydney. She's spent her life in the bush in Australia with her mother Sarafina, running away from her grandmother, who's a witch. Except not a witch witch - Sarafina has always told Reason there is no such thing as magic, but that Esmeralda had done evil things because she believed she could do magic. Such evil things that Sarafina ran away at 12, telling Reason in great detail everything about what Esmeralda did, what her house is like - so that she'd be able to escape if ever caught by Esmeralda, and would know why she must.
Well, I can't imagine it's any kind of a spoiler that the 'there's no such thing as magic' line turns out not to be true, given the title. And the fact that this is fantasy.... But the best part of the book for me was this continuously shifting perspective - the increasing uncertainty about what was true, and who could be trusted. Soon the POV switches to Tom, who lives next-door to Esmeralda, or Mare, as he calls her, and has a totally different take on her nature. Tom and Reason are both interesting characters (if a tiny bit over-consciously gender-stereotype bending, just possibly!) and I found the book lagged a little when there was yet another POV shift, to Jay-Tee, in New York City.
Funnily enough, the treatment of the two settings, Sydney and New York, both appealed to me enormously, and finally seemed a bit heavy-handed. I mean, the sections described through Reason's and Tom's perspectives use Australian slang and spellings, while Jay-Tee's use American - what a great idea. As someone who has often complained about changing everything that's in any way British in a British book for a US audience (or v.v., of course, though it does seem to happen less drastically that way), I couldn't but love this device. And Reason has reason for being so culture-shocked at finding herself - not only instantaneously transported to New York, but also suddenly forced into the realisation that magic is real. (And the cold and the door-lag...) But it did feel as if there was a lot too much of Jay-Tee's confusion, annoyance, and general issue-making over Reason's different language and all, given that Jay-Tee was a life-long resident of New York City, surely one of the most international cities in the world.
The pace picked back up when we met the witch who seems to possess Jay-Tee in some way - a male witch, who felt very similar to Changeover's Carmody Braque to me - possibly intentional homage, or possibly just a temporary aberration on my part. And picked up more pace (quite literally - though the scene with everyone racing off through the snow and *character* being carried over the shoulder of *other character* at a full gallop seemed to go a bit too far in that), in the most suspenseful way - with an apparent (temporary) resolution for the end of this book ending in a potentially shocking way.
As I said, I loved that sense, carried through right to the end, that perspectives were all partial and fluid and never secure. And I loved the way certain conventions of the genre were broken: the fact that magic is found most strongly in cities, for example. Refreshing change! I also loved the fact that magic costs - though if it costs all the magic users as much as it is set up to do now (use it and die very young - don't use it and go mad), it'll make for a pretty damn bleak ending to the trilogy. Occasional heavy-handedness (as mentioned above, and Reason's use of slang*, which seemed to increase significantly when she was talking to Jay-Tee) didn't spoil the much good for me, and I'll be looking forward to reading Magic Lessons and Child of Magic (out in March, I think).
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emmaco (or anyone else) would her slang have been meant to be recognised by Australian teens as rather out-dated? It didn't seem like any of the other Australian YAs I've read, really, and that made me wonder how she'd have picked up teen-speak anyway, living out in the bush with her mother.)
And if that doesn't make you cheerful enough, you can head over to MotherReader's and get your 'BACA off kids' lit!' bumper-stickers. I'm just going to leave that one unexplained, so your curiosity is piqued... Except to say that a recent forwarded write-up for the upcoming Bath Festival of Children's Literature went through some of the Big Names who'd be there - and on the 'headlining guests' list was 'Lucy Hawking, daughter of Stephen Hawking, who has collaborated with her father on a new children's book, also published in the Autumn.' Honestly. The bumper stickers are well needed, clearly!
So, over in this corner, I've just finished Magic or Madness - yes, the book, by Justine Larbalestier. Nothing but the most minor of spoilers, but I'll still put it behind a cut.The book opens as 15-year-old Reason Cansino is being taken, very much against her will, to her grandmother's house in Sydney. She's spent her life in the bush in Australia with her mother Sarafina, running away from her grandmother, who's a witch. Except not a witch witch - Sarafina has always told Reason there is no such thing as magic, but that Esmeralda had done evil things because she believed she could do magic. Such evil things that Sarafina ran away at 12, telling Reason in great detail everything about what Esmeralda did, what her house is like - so that she'd be able to escape if ever caught by Esmeralda, and would know why she must.
Well, I can't imagine it's any kind of a spoiler that the 'there's no such thing as magic' line turns out not to be true, given the title. And the fact that this is fantasy.... But the best part of the book for me was this continuously shifting perspective - the increasing uncertainty about what was true, and who could be trusted. Soon the POV switches to Tom, who lives next-door to Esmeralda, or Mare, as he calls her, and has a totally different take on her nature. Tom and Reason are both interesting characters (if a tiny bit over-consciously gender-stereotype bending, just possibly!) and I found the book lagged a little when there was yet another POV shift, to Jay-Tee, in New York City.
Funnily enough, the treatment of the two settings, Sydney and New York, both appealed to me enormously, and finally seemed a bit heavy-handed. I mean, the sections described through Reason's and Tom's perspectives use Australian slang and spellings, while Jay-Tee's use American - what a great idea. As someone who has often complained about changing everything that's in any way British in a British book for a US audience (or v.v., of course, though it does seem to happen less drastically that way), I couldn't but love this device. And Reason has reason for being so culture-shocked at finding herself - not only instantaneously transported to New York, but also suddenly forced into the realisation that magic is real. (And the cold and the door-lag...) But it did feel as if there was a lot too much of Jay-Tee's confusion, annoyance, and general issue-making over Reason's different language and all, given that Jay-Tee was a life-long resident of New York City, surely one of the most international cities in the world.
The pace picked back up when we met the witch who seems to possess Jay-Tee in some way - a male witch, who felt very similar to Changeover's Carmody Braque to me - possibly intentional homage, or possibly just a temporary aberration on my part. And picked up more pace (quite literally - though the scene with everyone racing off through the snow and *character* being carried over the shoulder of *other character* at a full gallop seemed to go a bit too far in that), in the most suspenseful way - with an apparent (temporary) resolution for the end of this book ending in a potentially shocking way.
As I said, I loved that sense, carried through right to the end, that perspectives were all partial and fluid and never secure. And I loved the way certain conventions of the genre were broken: the fact that magic is found most strongly in cities, for example. Refreshing change! I also loved the fact that magic costs - though if it costs all the magic users as much as it is set up to do now (use it and die very young - don't use it and go mad), it'll make for a pretty damn bleak ending to the trilogy. Occasional heavy-handedness (as mentioned above, and Reason's use of slang*, which seemed to increase significantly when she was talking to Jay-Tee) didn't spoil the much good for me, and I'll be looking forward to reading Magic Lessons and Child of Magic (out in March, I think).
* (
emmaco (or anyone else) would her slang have been meant to be recognised by Australian teens as rather out-dated? It didn't seem like any of the other Australian YAs I've read, really, and that made me wonder how she'd have picked up teen-speak anyway, living out in the bush with her mother.)
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 12:53 am (UTC)Our thoughts on this book are similar - I enjoyed the book, especially the breaking of conventions, but also thought the culture shock aspect was a bit overdone. And yes, very Carmody-esque - I didn't notice that at the time! The second book ended with a shock that I wan't too fussed over, but I am waiting to see how everything works out in the third book before judging!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-11 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-11 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 09:11 am (UTC)Tags... I should so go back through all old entries and add tags, but it makes me weak just thinking of it!
no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 07:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 09:26 am (UTC)Here, since you clearly won't want to read the whole thing - this is part of what Colleen said about them: when the protagonist makes a fundamental shift from allowing events or other people to determine who they are and how they will live, to taking the reins and carving out a life of their own. I included Fire and Hemlock in my suggestions, as it's my idea of one of the best.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 09:46 am (UTC)Нужен совет знатоков
Date: 2008-06-05 09:31 pm (UTC)У меня такой вопрос,кто что интересное подскажет буду признателен.
Мы с друзьями собираемся поехать в круиз по просторам России и ближнего зарубежья месяца на два на своих машинах,но не как не можем согласовать маршрут,если у кого уже был опыт такого путешествия,может,что посоветуете.Девчонок с собой не берем,думаем,что во все городах России с этим не будет проблем,если у кого будут рекомендации и в вопросе отдыха с девушками тоже буду признателен.
С уважением Сеньчик