Book Review: The Siren Depths by Martha Wells

The Siren Depths is the third in the series and I think it’s probably my favorite in the whole series. It might be confusing without reading the previous books.

The word is gorgeously described and very, very imaginative, just like in the first book. And it just keeps getting better. I love it.

I love the characters, too. The main character, Moon, finds the family that abandoned him when he was born. Apparently he’s the spitting image of his father.

Moon was born a consort in a winged, matriarchal race. Consorts are the only males that can breed with a Queen. There are rules to govern the behavior of Consort. But Moon, having grown up in the wild, never learned any of the rules. Indeed, he never knew the name of his race until half way into the first book.

Because of the rules governing the life of a consort, Moon is forced to go back to his family. The relationship rules are kind of complex, IMO. But explained because Moon is an outsider. (I think trying to explain the rules to the reader if the main character were not an outsider would very, very difficult.)

Because of the life Moon had (he has been wandering the world ever since he was a child, always hiding, always ready to move on) trust is difficult for Moon. Very, very difficult. There is lots of action, lots of drama, but Moon’s insecurity about his place always pops up. He even says something like that to his new-found mother: if the Fell treated me well and told me I belonged with them, I would have.

The Fell are the enemy, and very, very different from his own people. Any physical similarities are misleading. It highlights how Moon felt in the first book and though he has learned to trust a little, he still has a long way to go.

The one thing that is clear to me at the end of this book is that Moon will never, ever be like a normal consort of his people. He can pretend for a few hours maybe, but in the end, he will always do something no other consort would ever do.

His Queen accepts that, which is just as well.

I don’t know which is my favorite scene in this book. There are so many good ones, I just don’t know. Nothing stands out for me right now.

Definitely worth reading, but after the first two in the series. I am pretty sure I will re-read this again. I will figure out then which scene I like best.

Best Reads of 2012

I’ve read so many books this year I don’t remember all of them. So many books that reading interfered with the writing. Which is not okay, but I can accept it.

So these the best of the books I do recall reading. If there is one thing this list is based on, it is how memorable the books are, how much I liked it, how much I re-read each book. That list bit, re-rereading, probably puts a basis on books from the beginning of the year, since there’s been more time to re-read a book from January than the book I finished last week. At the same time, I am more likely to recall the book I finished yesterday than the book I finished in January. I figure that evens things out.

So in no particular order:

1) A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

I read A Natural History as an ARC, it comes out on February 5, 2013, and I still have to do a review on it. But let me just say it’s fabulous. It’s written as a memoir of a old lady who had the most fantastic adventures in her youth. She studies dragons, falls head long into danger and apparently does something for the cause of feminism. She also gets her husband killed, which leaves me wondering how she acquired the title Lady Trent. I like the matter-of-fact way this is written. I can almost believe this is a real memoir. It’s very different (and also much better IMO) than previous Marie Brennan books.

2) Goblin Quest by Jim Hines

Funny, full of adventure, and also has goblins as I never pictured them before. Fun to read and I cannot wait to get started on the next Goblin book.

3) Men Under the Mistletoe by Ava March, Harper Fox, Josh Lanyon & K.A. Mitchell.

This is an ARC from last Christmas, one I only got around to reading in January of this year. But it’s one I’ve re-read again and again and again. I said in the review that Winter Knights Harper Fox is the best story, but I keep re-reading the Lone Star by Josh Lanyon. I don’t actually understand why.

4) The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells

This is another book I’ve re-read a few times. It’s good. I love love love the world and the main character. I want more books in this world. I don’t think Martha Wells has come close to plumbing the depths. Even if she chose a different main character, I wouldn’t mind, I love this world so much. It’s beautiful and magical and really vivid.

5) Imagine by Jonah Lehrer

This is probably the only non-fiction book on this list. It’s about imagination and creativity and how it all works. Very interesting.

6) Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux

I don’t know how many times I’ve re-read Stars & Stripes. A lot. I don’t know what it is, the romance, the ridiculous danger or the characters. This one is special is because the main characters come out to their family, act openly like a couple for maybe the first time. There is even talk of children. Next, they need to come out at work.

7) Bridge of Dreams by Anne Bishop

I don’t know how long I waited for Bridge of Dreams to come out (ever since I heard about a new Anne Bishop book probably). It’s worth the wait and explores the word in far greater detail, has far more bizarre creatures than I dreamed even Anne Bishop to come with and make work. I loved it, and yes, this too is a book I’ve re-read a few times.

8) Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard

I’m pretty sure Servant of the Underworld is a first novel and it is amazing. It doesn’t feel like a first novel at all. I can quite decide if this fantasy or urban fantasy or something in between, but whatever it is, this book pulls you in.

9) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to include this in a Best Reads list, but even though I never really re-read, it is still worth reading and not a book I am likely to forgot anytime soon so . . .

I don’t know what else to add. 9 are probably enough. But in case they are not, here are some honorable mentions:

1) Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold: I love Lois McMaster Bujold and I wanted to add this just for that, but I don’t think it stands out quite enough for a Best Read novel.

2) Cake by Derekica Snake

I feel that Cake could have been stand-out, but it’s missing something. I don’t know what. It’s a disturbing and exciting all at once, but it needs something.Memorable, though, if only for how disturbing it is.

3) Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Finished this just yesterday and fun fun fun read. Fun!!!! Also, quick. Took only a few hours to finish reading.

4) Black Sun Rising by CS Friedman

I love the setting, the system of magic. Very imaginative. I like the anti-hero. Very nice. But I am not sure about this one yet. I need a little bit more time to digest, I think. It falls in some bizarre science fantasy category, though I put it on my fantasy shelf.

Covers to come later!

Book Review: The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells

Love that the main character is a flying creature!

Blurb from Goodreads:

Moon, once a solitary wanderer, has become consort to Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud court. Together, they travel with their people on a pair of flying ships in hopes of finding a new home for their colony. Moon finally feels like he’s found a tribe where he belongs. But when the travelers reach the ancestral home of Indigo Cloud, shrouded within the trunk of a mountain-sized tree, they discover a blight infecting its core. Nearby they find the remains of the invaders who may be responsible, as well as evidence of a devastating theft. This discovery sends Moon and the hunters of Indigo Cloud on a quest for the heartstone of the tree — a quest that will lead them far away, across the Serpent Sea.

The Serpent Sea is a fantastic fantasy. It’s world-building is original, the most original I’ve seen in a long time. The characters are good.

I love that the characters and their society are clearly inhuman, but just human enough to understand them. It’s a good balance.

The Serpent Sea is a sequel to the Cloud Roads and it’s not the kind of sequel that’s easy to read without reading the previous book.

In the last book, Moon, our hero, an orphaned young man, has spent his life going from one groundling community to the next, always hiding, always trying to fit, never revealing that he shift forms. Then he discovers he is Raksura and born into a high caste. Moon is born a consort. (Consorts are fertile males with black scales.) Shenanigans follow, including the sister queen claiming Moon as her consort.

The matriarchal nature of Raksura society is clear in the last book. It is even more obvious in The Serpent Sea. In fact, consorts are like trophy wives. I didn’t realize this in the last book. But Moon’s consort status was less prominent in it.

That is Moon’s personal conflict. He is who he is. He’s taken care of himself for long as he can remember. He doesn’t like fights, but he’s doesn’t back away from them, either. He’s likes hunting and apparently consorts don’t usually hunt. Fight, either.

He doesn’t know how to behave like a consort. He hasn’t been trained to it; he didn’t grow up in a colony and he’s never really known other Raksura. He knows nothing about their society, about the hierarchy and the roles of different castes.

Consorts don’t challenge queens, which he does while visiting another court. She insulted him; he insulted her right back.

In fact, that was my favorite scene. Jade, his queen, had to fight the other queen. The other queen said something like, I will take you after I defeat her. He was all: You try, I’ll rip out your guts. The other queen was stunned, because consorts just don’t say things like that. I loved it.

And it’s not even because he spent a lot of time among the more patriarchal groundling races. That’s just who he is.

One of the other characters is also a solitary male and he’s an example of why everyone is wary of Moon. Most solitaires are apparently are odd and not to be trusted. Truthfully, I felt the other solitary male could have been better explained. But this isn’t a huge weakness. Him and his actions are a plot point and sometimes it felt like the plot was the only reason he was there. Still. It’s not huge.

There are external, quite exciting conflicts, too. The part where they are eaten by a leviathan is really nice.

The end feels complete. There is supposed to be a third book next year, The Siren Depths, but it might star a different character. Maybe even a different race. This world is complex enough to write dozens of books, each featuring different characters, different races, a different element of the world.

Also, I got this book as an ARC. If you couldn’t tell, I loved it.

NaNWriMo Update and Kindle ARC issue

I am really behind on my NaNo word-count. It’s currently 10418 and as of yesterday, I should have reached 21666 words. So, yeah. Realllllly behind.

The NaNo stats thing tells me I am averaging 744 words a day and I need to write 2329 words everyday if I am going to finish on time.

Part of that is because I spent a couple of days unable to get to a computer at all. So 0 words for a couple days the first week and the last couple days weren’t much better. I wrote about 600-700 words before I had to stop.

Still the site thinks I am averaging 744 a day. Probably my two or three really good days are throwing it off. And by good I mean I managed to write 2000+ words. I am still writing more than I usually manage. I mean, more than 10000 words in two weeks!  For me, that’s fantastic.

So . . . kindle ARC issue. Yesterday I went on netGalley and asked for an ARC of The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells. I got it immediately and I clicked the button to send it to my kindle.

Normally I download netGalley ARCs to my computer, but I don’t have my own computer on hand. I am using someone else’s and I really

didn’t want to go to the trouble of  downloading/installing/authenticating the Adobe Digital Editions software on it. It’s too much trouble.

So I sent it my kindle.

First, the book took forever to arrive.

Second, the formatting sucks. Only a few paragraphs are indented properly. Most paragraphs are not and that is just really really annoying. Also, sometimes it has page numbers and odd symbols (a box with a question mark inside).

Really! It’s so hard to read. I’ll probably have to wait until I have my own computer here to read it. Sucks.

I was going to use reading the ARC as a reward for finishing my word-count. Now I can’t.

I am never sending netGalley ARCs to the kindle again. Never never never!

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