A Typical Week of Mystery and Fantasy 🧩🧞‍♂️

 

    The River of Silver by S. A. Chakraborty is related to The Daevabad Trilogy. This book contains chapters that didn't make it into the orignal and contains more back story or further adventures. I found the Daevabad Trilogy books  a sumptuous feast and The River of Silver to be a leftover crumbs. It less satisfying than the trilogy, but it you love the characters, and I do, some is better than none. 

Here are my reviews of the The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Daevabad 

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    Robert Thorogood's cozy murder mystery The Marlow Murder Club feels like a cousin of The Thursday Murder Club in that it is British and exceedingly entertaining. It features four women, each from a different generation, coming together to solve a series of murders in their town of Marlow. Thorogood combines the women's skills and speciality knowledge to catch the murderer. One is a dog walker who knows where everyone lives and is connected socially. Another is a young vicar's wife who is internet savvy and highly organized. A young female detective challenged to "figure it out" on a shrinking budget gives access to the forensic and background information. The ringleader is a 70-year-old eccentric who has a job setting crossword puzzles and has a masterful mind for mystery and odd clues. It is the first book of the series, and I'm looking forward to reading more. It is pleasantly diverting.

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Terrific Book Week!

    The three authors I read this week took me into places I would never see: an imaginary kingdom. Daevbad, the life of a classical violinist and a Chinese immigrant. Every book this week was superb.

 

    The greatest trilogy of all time, really no debate, is The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. However, I would put S. A. Chakraborty's The Daevabad Trilogy in the top five and maybe, number two. It's so very good. The final book was everything I'd hoped--thrilling, true to the characters, and satisfying--a balanced ending. It didn't tip over into sentimentality or betray the story. Instead, it had a good sense of an authentic finish.

   I found Chakraborty's ability to describe action--fight scenes, chases, banquets--easy to track and vivid. With many characters and locations, it could have been easy to lose track.  Chakraborty's willingness to sacrifice her darlings gave the book gravitas and tension. I didn't know if all the main characters would survive. 

    I have wondered about Chakraborty's heritage. From her trilogy, it is clear she is knowledgeable about Islam and Muslim lands and respects their many cultures, myths, and fables. I assumed she was an American Muslim woman, and she is, but it's complicated. Here is a link to an interview with her: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/s-chakraborty/ and here is an excellent article discussing her being touted as an Arab writer, which she is not, and doesn't claim to be: https://www.themarysue.com/the-significance-of-s-a-chakrabortys-name-adjustment-in-upcoming-book/. 

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    The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb is an intense mystery. It vividly describes racial abuse. At times it was difficult to read because I liked the main character. Ray McMillan's love for his grandmother, perseverance in his art, and his striving to be respectful and kind to others in the face of mistreatment made me root for him. Ray has the talent to become a world-class violinist and an exceedingly valuable violin. Right before the most significant opportunity of his life, his violin is stolen. There are many viable suspects, and Slocumb keeps them all plausible and me guessing till the end. The book has a good-hearted center that makes it hopeful. 

“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” 
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

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    When I worked in a bookstore, I thought Lisa See's covers were eye-catching, with dazzling colors and beautiful women. I finally read one, Shanghai Girls, this week. It is historical fiction about two sisters living in Shanghai in 1937. Pearl and May are glamourous models depicted in ads for everything from baby food to champagne. Disaster after disaster leads them from China to Los Angeles, CA, and from carefree young women to becoming wives in arranged marriages with strangers. As a historical novel, I learned about the Angel Island detention center, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the dissolution of the USA's partnership with China after World War II by seeing it through the eyes of those experiencing it. My favorite way to learn history is wrapped in an absorbing story. Lisa See's ancestors immigrated from China to the USA. This book had depth and vibrancy springing from careful research and from participants' accounts.

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I Start Another Good Trilogy--Mistake

    Of the many personalities that inhabit my brain, today I'm angry at the one that started me reading this captivating fantasy, The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. I've had this best-selling book reserved for a while, but I was intimidated by its length: 532 pages or 20 hours on audio. Finally, I succumbed, and I'm glad I did. A scrappy woman, Nahri, from the streets of Cairo, navigates a complex, hostile world. However, she's more than what she seems. Using her previously unknown magical ability, she accidentally summons a fierce Djinn, who takes her to a magical city of brass where she is hailed as a fabled healer. I'm hooked! About two-thirds of the way through the story, I wondered how Chakraborty could resolve all the story threads in the time she had left? The intricate plot is told from various points of view, each voicing its own problems and insights. Answer: she can't; it's part of a trilogy. I put the second book on hold, and it might become available in the next six to ten weeks.

 

    I need a break from trilogies or switch to only reading uninteresting ones, making me not want to continue. Hmmm.

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    I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy kept popping up in my recommendations. The title is provocative, but it didn't look like a trilogy, so I read it. It is a memoir by a child actor about her toxic, narcissistic mom. If you are triggered by abuse, this book is not for you. McCurdy showed that personal growth is not linear and takes time and support, especially in her struggle with eating disorders. McCurdy writes believably in the voice of her younger self. Depictions of her insights, moments where she sees things realistically, are earned and moving. McCurdy shares explicitly about her life. I could have been satisfied with fewer descriptions of destructive sex. However, McCurdy's memoir was ultimately hopeful. I wish better things for her. 

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    I read Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson in a day. One reason it's short, under two hundred pages; another reason is it's so stinking good, and lastly, it's about being a teen in the 1970s. I was a teen in the 70s, and the music she references, and the emotions it stirred felt familiar. In the present day, August returns to Brooklyn for her father's funeral and accidentally sees a former teenage friend on the subway. She's pulled back into her life growing up in Brooklyn with her four girlfriends. It was rough with White Flight, prostitutes, drug users, and poverty. There are many adjectives to describe Another Brooklyn: complex, dense, poetic, and tragic. August is fighting grief and loss with denial. She is caught between being sexually exploited and also having sexual desire. There is a lot packed into this verbally economical, powerful book.

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Good Week for Trilogies!

 

    Here is my review of the first book in the trilogy, A City of Brass.

 https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-start-another-good-trilogy-mistake.html

    The middle is the most challenging book to pull off in a trilogy. The author has to move the plot forward, solve enough of the conflict to feel satisfying, but keep enough mystery to bring people back for the final book. The characters created in the first book must retain their essence, but also evolve. The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty is fairly successful. My biggest disappointment is how it ends on a cliffhanger, and I still have ten weeks until the final book is available to borrow! But at least it's out there, and I may get it sooner. 

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    Chakraborty made the bold choice to move five years into the future, and I liked it. The characters had gained experience and skills. It made sense. Chakraborty uses Middle Eastern folktales and myths as the scaffolding for her tale. This gives her book a blended feel of mystique and reality. The engine driving the plot is a love triangle between Nahri, Prince Ali, and a Djinn named Dara. Chakraborty continues the tension skillfully, and even though the book is long--532 pages--it goes quickly. 

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Here are my reviews of the first two The Cursebreakers series books:

A Curse So Dark and Lonely beauty-and-beast-retold-and-ancient.html

 A Heart So Fierce and Broken  lots-of-villainy-villains.html

    The second hardest book of a trilogy is the final one. I have invested hours, literally, into the characters and story, and I want a rewarding ending! A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer mostly delivers. I perused some reviews, and not everyone agrees with me. Kemmerer is excellent at plotting and unanticipated twists. She explores the psychology behind her main characters, Rhen, Harper, Grey, and Lia Mara deeply, but doesn't sacrifice action. Harper questions staying with a man who can have a friend whipped for information. Rhen feels like a poster child for the aphorism, hurt people, hurt people. Lia Mara wants to not be like her mother, but doesn't know how to be strong and kind. Grey lacks flaws other than he needs to trust himself. I wonder if Kemmerer has a therapist in her life that she bounces ideas off of. It makes sense that Harper is examining things through the lens of 21st-century sensibilities, but the others have grown up with different influences. I like that the ending wasn't everything solved, and they all lived happily ever after. It felt genuine to the characters.

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