This week I have decided to combine the April wrap-up and the Top 10 Tuesday topic of books I recently read. It was a busy month, unlike March, with many hits and misses.
Tag: #Mythothon
I had vague memories of the first 3 books of The Queen’s Thief series, which I read way back in 2006. I think I’d listened to the audiobooks, which I hadn’t liked very much, because the narrator made the characters sound too old.
When Mythothon #4 came up, I realized that this 6-book series would manage to chop off several prompts from that challenge. And that’s how I started off on this clever and wonderful adventure. A strange, miraculous thing about this series is that each book can be read as a standalone, but when the books are read together, the sum becomes greater than the whole.
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Chalice by Robin McKinley
Chalice… is an unusual book. I can’t recall any other book about a cup-bearer to the gods, or in this book’s case, to a circle of land-magic wielders.
Mirasol, the local beekeeper and caretaker of the woods, has been chosen as the next Chalice for Willowlands’ land magic. She hasn’t been trained, so she hopes that Liapnir — i.e. the next Land Master (or just, “Master”) — will ease her way as Chalice.
But Liapnir is returning to Willolands after 7 years of seclusion as a Fire Priest. He has forgotten what it is to be a land-tied human. The ruling circle at Willowlands is not pleased either; they want the land to settle down with greenery, not seethe with earthquakes due to an incompetent Master.
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Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip
Book: Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip
Published: 1997
Book Trope: Tam Lin
Rating: 8.5 of 10
The Plot:
Rois is the herb-woman of the village, knowing the woods in-and-out. Her elder sister Laurel is the practical one, caring for the family. Come spring, she will marry her childhood sweetheart. But autumn is here first. It brings back Corbet, the long-forgotten heir to the Lynn estate bordering the woods. A disastrous love affair follows: both sisters fall for Corbet, who seems to be under a generations-long curse.
My Thoughts:
Trust McKillip to take the old Tam Lin legend, and turn it on its heel, give it a makeover unlike any other version! Almost, almost, the suspense is unbearable. In fact, it’s a choke-hold: What is the true nature of Corbet’s curse? Why is he back? Which sister does he really love? Can Rois save Corbet? Will she want to save him, even if he doesn’t love her back and has literally destroyed her family? There were moments I grew to hate Corbet. Corbet is helpless against the tide of the curse, against the pull of the fey woods. I understood that, and I pitied him, but I also hated him.
The other thing that McKillip does so well is to mix these supernatural elements with the daily ordinary, so that it all becomes entirely too possible. It’s possible to fall into an other world and think it a dream. It’s possible to find odd marks on the grassfloor and think it the pawprints of a magical creature. It’s possible to lose your way in the forest and call it sleepwalking. You will never know the whole answer, and it will keep you wondering long after the riddle is forgotten.
That’s McKillip for you.
The wood darkened; the winds poured from every direction, not wintry yet, still carrying scents of ripe apple, blackberry, warm earth. But they sang of storm and bare branches and cold, shriveled days. They were the harvest winds; they came to carry away the dying, sweep the earth for the dead. I had never heard them so clearly before; they seemed to have their separate voices, each wind its separate shape. I huddled in the leaves beside the well, watching the world darken, the moon rise slowly above the trees, leaves flying like flocks of birds across it.
Books 1 & 2: Goblin Moon / Hobgoblin Night by Teresa Edgerton
Genres / Tropes: 18th Century Alternative History, Fantasy, Alchemy, Search for Atlantis and Philosopher’s Stone, Zorro-like Vigilantes
Published: 1991 / 2015
Similar Books: Sorcery & Cecilia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Books by Georgette Heyer, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater, The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells, The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Rating: 10 of 10. Highly Recommended.
The Plot:
Two alchemists try to raise a dead magician who may know how to make the Seramarias Stone. Two women try to flee a vengeful fairie halfling and her troll minions. A secret glassmakers guild plans to raise a submerged Atlantis-like island. A half-mad, sleepdust-addicted Zorro-like vigilante risks all to expose black magic cartels and the slavers’ trade. And no one can make sense of the homunculus and the golem out in the world. Clearly, a lot happens!
Book: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (Series: Vorkosigan Saga)
Published: November 2012 (Baen Books)
Audiobook Narrator: Grover Gardner (Blackstone Audio)
Genre/ Trope: Space Opera, Humor, Meet the Family
Rating: 9 of 10 / Highly Recommended
A perfect feel-good read for a lazy summer afternoon! I was chortling my way through this book about Captain Ivan Vorpatril, a rather laidback bureaucrat in the intergalactic Barrayaran Empire. The good news is that the book can be read as a standalone, and is a very good gateway into science fiction.
Ivan Vorpatril is the scion of a powerful political family in Barrayar, but he isn’t very ambitious. He would just rather stick on at his comfortable government job and enjoy his bachelor’s life. His meddlesome cousin Byerly asks him for a favor to check-in on two immigrant women living under fake identities — and poor Ivan can say goodbye to his uneventful life!
I really wanted to give this book a 10-rating, to put it in my Top 10 of 2021 list later in December. Unfortunately, while The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was interesting and certainly novel, I just couldn’t fall in love with this book.
The Plot:
Aiden Bishop finds himself trapped at Blackheath Manor, where he has been invited to attend the homecoming party for Evelyn Hardcastle. It should have been a happy occasion. But night after night, Aiden finds his “spirit” transmigrated to the body of a different guest at Blackheath — all on the same day. If Aiden can figure out who wants to kill Evelyn, he can escape this repetitive time-loop. Trouble is, Aiden has “competitors” in this game, and only one victor can escape Blackheath.
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Mythothon Round 4
I found a fun reading challenge that starts off today, Mythothon Round 4, which is all about Arthurian adventures! It sounds wonderful, even if a bit complicated, so see if you want to give it a try. I hope I’m not too late in telling you about it!
I’m not sure how much of the required reading I’ll actually do myself. But it got me thinking, and I do think Mythothon makes for an awesome book tag for any existing TBR.