Review: The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
Audiobook narrated by Susan Duerden
Publisher: Hatchette Audio
Science Fiction
Purchased from Audible

Synopsis

Myfanwy Thomas awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, her only hope of survival is to trust the instructions left in her pocket by her former self. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization and this person wants her dead.

As Myfanwy battles to save herself, she encounters a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and an unimaginably vast conspiracy. Suspenseful and hilarious, THE ROOK is an outrageously inventive debut for readers who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime.

Have you ever wondered what you would get if you took Men In Black, The X-Men and MI-5/Spooks and mashed them all together? Then Daniel O'Malley's The Rook is the book for you. O'Malley created a world where occasionally people are born with special skills, such as one person's consciousness sharing four bodies, or the ability to don a protective skin. These people are trained to use or control their abilities, and a secret agency (The Chequy) helps to control and end any hazardous threats that may be caused by people with unique abilities. The world is a blend of your favorite espionage stories with your favorite science fiction tales.

Myfanwy is one of these people with special abilities, but we learn things at the same time as Myfanwy, who recovers her past through a series of notes and letters left by herself, before she lost her memory. The result is being dropped into the middle of the action, however I found some of the letter chapters a little slower than the present. By the middle of the novel, the use of the letters drops of dramatically and the pace really picks up.

I really enjoyed entering this world O'Malley created in The Rook and would love to read or see more set in this world.

Review: Kindred by Octavia Butler

Kindred by Octavia Butler
Publisher: Beacon Press
Science Fiction-Time Travel, Historical Fiction
My own purchase
4 stars

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

I first was introduced to Butler's writings when one of my college English classes assigned her Parable of the Sower to the class. Although we never got to reading it for class, I read it anyways, and I loved it. I've been on the look out for more of her books ever since. Kindred has the same easy to jump into writing that I remember from Parable of the Sower.

Butler is known for being a science fiction writer, but this book is fairly light on the science fiction aspects. The only science fiction aspects is going back and forth in time, and worrying about whether something she does in the past will change the future. The vast majority of the novel takes place in antebellum Maryland, so it very much reads like historical fiction. If you like historical fiction but aren't big on science fiction, this would be a good book for you to try.

The depiction of slavery in this is a bit unusual, when compared to a book like Gone with the Wind for example. Rufus's father is not a rich man. Nothing is said as to just how many slaves he owns, but the house is described as modest sized. And neither are the Weylin men exceptionally cruel masters, or treated their slaves like one of the family. Rufus's father takes a rather Machiavellian approach- making the punishments for disobeying significantly harsh so other slaves would fear disobeying. Its not a portayal I am used to seeing. Especially since the slave experience is seen through the eyes of someone living as a slave.

I really enjoyed the novel, and couldn't stop reading it.

Quick reviews: Audiobooks

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
This young adult takes place on a spaceship. Amy and her family have been cryogenically frozen for a 300 year space flight to a new planet where Amy's parents are apart of a team preparing it for settlement. Except somehow Amy got woken up early. Through Amy, we see how the society on board the Godspeed has been changed from what Amy remembers on Earth. Its an interesting twist to the dystopian genre, with a real dose of science fiction. Lauren Ambrose and Carlos Santos were the readers on this and both did a great job. My only thing with this audiobook was I kept picturing Lauren in her Torchwood: Miracle Day role (Jilly), and her voice sounds older than I imagined for the 16 year old Amy, so I had trouble believing her in the role of Amy. 4 Stars

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
This was a fun, steampunk alternate history of World War I. The book follows Aleksandar, son of the slain Archduke Ferdinand as he flees those who murdered his parents; and Deryn Sharp, a girl who disguises herself so she can join the British Air Service. Its a fun story, narrated by the brillant Alan Cumming. I was disappointed that my libraries didn't have the other two in the series available on Overdrive yet. 4 Stars.

Tithe by Holly Black
Kaye Fierch grew up with faeries as friends until she and her mom start bouncing around following Kaye's mother's rock career. After one too many of her mother's bad boyfriends, they move back to Kaye's grandmother's house. Back at her childhood home, Kaye finds herself pulled into the happenings of the Seelie and Unseelie courts, and the unconnected fae. An early observation I had about Tithe was that for something described as a young adult novel, there are quite a few f-bombs in the novel. I think this had the most, for an adult or young adult novel that I've read. And since it was an audiobook, these stood out even more. This also reminded me a good bit of Wicked Lovely. Both have a teen girl, who has had a rough growing up and can see the fae; both find themselves caught between the kinder and rougher fae courts. I enjoyed Wicked Lovely, but I didn't end up liking Tithe quite as much. The story seemed to go on a bit too long, and the language got to be a little off putting for me. 3.5 stars

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
This is described as a retelling of The Scarlet Letter, but it is more than that. This is a Dystopian novel, and Jordan has developed so rigid and infuriating, that had I been listening at home, I would have been yelling at it. It is also an unusual type of dystopian to many of the ones I've read. Given the current times, it is a very plausible world that Jordan created. I really enjoyed this one.4.5 stars

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
The cover caught my attention when I was looking for books for my nephews. Calpurnia is the only daughter of seven children. Her grandfather, retired from the running of the family farm, has become an amateur naturalist. Through Calpurnia, we learn about how to be a naturalist and scientist, as she questions the typical womens roles expected for a girl in turn of the century Texas. I could really relate to her. I'd recommend this with anyone interested in science, especially evolution and biology. 4 stars

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this, other than it was getting good reviews in a YA blogs. Karou lives in a gritty world, going between art school and errands for her chimera adoptive family. Taylor created such a vivid world, and it is wonderfully read by Khristine Hvam. It is technically a YA story, but it is strong and complex and if a few small things were different, it would easily cross into adult fantasy. I would highly recommend this one, in either format. 4 stars

Review: The Converted

The Converted by C.R. Hindmarsh
Received from the author for review, Via Library Thing's Member Giveaways

Synopsis from Goodreads:

With his patients dead and his genetic research in tatters, Dr. Anton Springmann fled his homeland as a fugitive, taking a one-way diesel ship to New Alania. But within hours of his arrival, screams ring through the night. Hordes of gray, humanoid creatures--devils, to the townspeople--attack Anton's new home. Among the dead, Anton finds a single survivor: a young girl, Elisa Pierce. Her skin grows cracked and she begins to mutate. She's becoming a devil. Anton's seen it before. Tormented by past sins, Anton struggles to save Elisa before the change takes her completely. But old enemies have pursued him across the seas, and now Anton is being hunted by more than just devils. Redemption doesn't come cheap in New Alania.

Thoughts:
I am a big fan of the Firefly television series, and this seemed to have similar elements so that drew me to it. But this didn't have quite as much of the science fiction aspects as I was expecting. The science fiction aspects- the genetic research, mutations, etc.... are important to the climax of the story, but it reads more like a western novel. The setting and characters are ones that could come from any western movie or novel. The novel has a good pace, and the author teases out the history of what brings Dr. Springmann to New Alania in the first half of the novel, so just learn a little bit of it at a time. The author does use the F-bomb several times through out the novel. A few times, if it suits the genre, I can take that, but there was one scene where it was used about as many times as it was in the whole rest of the book, and that just seemed excessive.

Overall, it was a good read. A good diversion, but not a great read. I gave it 3.5/5 stars.