Goldenhand by Garth Nix

The Superman of the Old Kingdom. 
Awesome powers. Maybe a little bland?

Garth Nix's latest book Goldenhand is difficult to review.

On the one hand, it has well-rounded characters, expands on the world-building of the Old Kingdom series, and ties up loose ends from previous books. I feel comfortable recommending it, both as a book and as appropriate reading material for teenagers.

However because its predecessors were so incredible, it suffers by comparison. Sabriel was a brilliant immersion into a dark world, Lirael was about living up to the demands of legacy, and Clariel was the tragedy of a young woman crushed by an unsympathetic culture. Whereas it's hard to say with Goldenhand because it never settles on any particular theme.

It has two storylines running side by side; Nick and Lirael's quest to understand Nick's abnormal magic, and new character Ferin's desperate journey to deliver a message to the Abhorsen. Both are good stories in their own right. Nick and Lirael's awkward romance was an entertaining exploration of two cultures while Ferin's quest was an intense race for time. But their different themes never quite form a coherent whole, leaving the book with a haphazard feeling. As much as I hate to say it, Lirael's storyline should have been shelved for a later installation and the focus shifted entirely to newcomer Ferin.

Why Ferin you ask? Because she has two things Lirael doesn't.

No powers. Totally kickass.
Basically the Batman
of the Old Kingdom Series.

First, she offers a perspective we've never seen before. Her culture uses Free Magic rather than Charter and Ferin herself is not magical in any way. She's not a Seer or Builder or Abhorsen, just superbly well-trained in survival. Which makes her job that much harder when she's trying to deliver a message to her sworn enemy...in a land where the dead walk...while wounded...being pursued by a relentless enemy...and she does it all without a single solitary second of angst! That's a thousand times more exciting than Lirael and Nick's stilted courtship.

Secondly, Ferin is a foil to the villain. Like Clorr's former self, she was forced into a role she didn't want and that would ultimately have destroyed her. Given Clorr's hand in her suffering, there's also an underlying theme of cyclical abuse just waiting to be tapped. A showdown between the two of them would have carried so much emotional weight - far more than Lireal's vague, well-meaning sympathy.

As much as I love Lirael, this story should have belonged to Ferin. It would just be admitting what's already apparent, because Ferin completely steals the show. She's a fantastic character that could easily carry her own book and hopefully will get the chance oneday.

Regarding the villain Clorr, I don't entirely approve of the series' handling of her (making the only asexual a tragic villain is supremely dodgy) but I'm saving it for another day because I only have so much time to commit to this post. Suffice to say, I appreciate that she was such a well-rounded character, but felt Nix unintentionally fell back on unpleasant storytelling tropes.

I guess my feelings for Goldenhand are the same; I'm of two minds. While its various elements never quite gel together satisfactorily, each element on its own is excellent. Had the book focused on a single story-line and character, I'd be rating it much higher. As is, I recommend Goldenhand purely for fans of the original series. Which is everyone, right?

A Dark Winter by Dave Luckett

In hindsight, he probably shouldn't
have laughed at the Prince. 

A Dark Winter by Dave Luckett is one I've mentioned before. It was a young adult novel released in 1998 that won an Aurelis award and was nominated for another. It distinguished itself from its peers with a business-like approach to swords-and-sorcery.

Take its approach to characters for example. The typical hero is usually someone that initially appears unimportant (like Frodo, Rand Al'Thor, or Harry Potter), but is eventually revealed to be "the most talented, most interesting and most extraordinary person in the universe", to borrow a phrase. And there's a reason for that; being special is a powerful fantasy. People (especially teenagers) want to identify with Captain America kicking ass, not the Shield agents cleaning up after him.

But the protagonist of A Dark Winter starts out ordinary and stays ordinary. Noble blood is never revealed, nor is a gift for magic, nor a convenient prophecy. Willan is just a guardsman who insulted the wrong noble and was sent on a dangerous journey to the frontlines of a magical war.

This could have easily backfired into boring, but Willan's very ordinariness is what injects tension into the story. It feels like here's a real chance he might die. Add in his cynicism and crisp outlines of violence, and we have a swift-moving story about ordinary people existing in a world of magic. If they're skilled, careful and lucky, they might survive the monsters and zombies long enough to reach the hordes of goblin soldiers.

Willan's not the only one either. All the characters feel as if they're at sea in a world beyond their control. Silvus is haunted by a gift he doesn't want, Ruane is tangled in the schemes of his political rival, and Hrudis is caught in a cruel struggle where even her enemies are brainwashed victims. In a very real way it's a deconstruction of high fantasy's obsession with magic and war. They're not glorious or awe-worthy. They're a pain in the ass at best, and ugly death at worst.

A Dark Winter is a grounded, surprisingly logical story set in a fantastical world. Ultimately perhaps that's why it wasn't as popular as it deserved; it's a little too grounded in reality while being constrained by its target audience (Think Game of Thrones without the carnage and sex). However it's still a great book for teenagers and won't shame an adult to read. I'm certainly going to read the sequels.

Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell

I just had a revelation. Specifically, about The Silver Brumby books that were a childhood obsession of mine. (And an adulthood obsession, going by my Ebay history.)

They were written between 1958 and 1979 by Elyne Mitchell, who was frustrated by her ten year old daughter's lack of interest in books. Taking inspiration from her daughter's interest in horses and her own love of the native landscape, she wrote a series of short novels around a lineage of wild horses in the Snowy Mountains.

The initial book follows the birth and early life of Thowra, a rare wild "creamy" brumby whose colouring is a disadvantage in the bush. He has to be smarter and faster than any other horse to survive and remain free. The sequels follow his descendants and later adventures.

These were some of the earliest Australian literature to really strike a cord with me, for reasons I struggled to articulate. It wasn't the narrative, as the plots were either simplistic or meandering. Nor was it the characters, as there's a limit to what you can do with non-anthropomorphic animal characters.

Then on the weekend while I was driving, thinking about nothing in particular, it suddenly hit me. The Silvery Brumby books aren't about the characters. Sure, the characters are there, but they're not the focus. The real soul and center of the books is the landscape. Or more specifically, the characters' relationship with the landscape.

For them the mountains are an enemy that can kill with flood, fire, starvation and a hundred other awful ways. But they are also a wondrous home, offering beauty, shelter and freedom. The flowing prose is almost worshipful, detailing sunsets, bird cries, and storms with almost poetic terms. The reader exists within the characters' reaction in a place where goals and motivations are almost superfluous. Everything is at the mercy of the world around them.

These aren't perfect books by any means. My housemate called Thowra a Mary Sue for entirely justified reasons and the female characters exist mostly as objectives to be obtained (based on real life horse behaviour). Not to mention, the series is very inconsistent on whether the horses can actually 'talk' with one another or not.

However it's one of those rare instances where the flaws are part of the magic. Like the mountains, their imperfection is what makes the books beautiful.

"Through the bush he went, a proud-stepping beautiful stallion, in the prime of his life, cream and silver, dappled by light and shade as pale shafts of sunlight from the cloudy sky fell on to him through the grey-green gum leaves." 

Song of the Summer King by Jess E. Owen

Xenofiction can be misleading, can't it? To look at the covers of The Dorset Squirrels or Duncton Wood, you'd think they were about fluffy cute rodents and their gosh-darn adorable troubles.

(To give you a hint; not fluffy, not cute, and not adorable by any stretch of the imagination).

However, I'm happy to report that I've found a book about sentient animals you can give to your kid and not worry about those years of therapy. I picked up Song of the Summer King at Supanova, and while dealing with some serious themes, it can be safely enjoyed by young teenagers.

Oh yeah, and it has griffins! Who doesn't love griffins?

The premise is a young griffin named Shard coming of age in his pride. The pride is composed of two elements; the Vanir griffins native to the area and the larger Aesir griffins who took the territory by force a generation earlier. Shard is the only surviving male of pure Vanir blood, making him a figure of interest to pretty much everyone. He has to choose between the ways of the invaders and the ways of his forebears.

Art by Jennifer Miller

This could easily have been a very black-and-white story, but I think Owens has managed some real nuance in how she explores cultural imperialism. While the Aesir did some awful things she takes care to show they are not an inherently evil race. They're just people... or griffins... with the usual mix of good and bad. And Shard has known them his whole life, so his struggle to choose a side feels real and heartfelt. The standout character for me was Shard's nest-father, whose gruff relationship with his mate and adoptive son was surprisingly sweet. In fact, the entire book was respectful of both blood and adoptive families, dismissing neither and giving due weight to both. This is how you handle adoption, peoples.

Outside of Shard's nest-father, however, the characters are kind of two-dimensional. It's not a fatal flaw in a young teenage novel, but this book is definitely not Sabriel, which can be enjoyed by young and old alike. It's like I could see what kind of characters were being portrayed, but their motivations didn't always make sense. They were just doing what they were doing because the plot demanded it.

For example, Shard didn't have any real reason to learn the old ways. He'd already got what he wanted; he'd succeeded at the hunt, was granted the right to stay in the pride, and was best bros with the Crown Prince. No one risks all that to 'make the pride stronger' unless they're already at risk of losing it all anyway.

Art by Jennifer Miller

What might have worked better was if the order of events was switched around. If the hunt had taken place in the middle of the novel instead of the beginning, that would have given Shard a concrete goal to strive for and a damn good reason to break the rules. It's outright stated that he's the skinny runt of his generation so the old ways would be his way of compensating. Ie. 'If I get caught learning the old ways I'll be exiled, but if I fail the hunt, I'll be exiled anyway, so I might as well take the risk'.  

Other than that, I have no complaints. It's clearly meant for young adults, so me and my nitpicking are not the target audience. I'd recommend it to teenagers in the 12-14 range. There's some violence, but it's not explicit, and sex is only vaguely referred to. The animalistic body-language was nice and I'd have liked to see even more of the descriptive language of the landscape. I'm also hoping for a cross-species romance between Shard and the young wolf Catori in the sequels, but that might just be my weirdness talking, not any real possibility of it.

Song of the Summer King can be ordered in paperback from Booktopia or Book Depository, or in electronic form from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

And if you love the cover art, like I do, check out the artist on her website or Deviant Art. All the art I've used in this post is hers, simply because she does such gorgeous work.

Signed books by John Flanagan

If you're looking for a Christmas present for child reader, Booktopia is selling signed copies of the fifth book of John Flanagan's Brotherband series.

(No, not that guy, this guy)

I haven't read his series, but they're fairly popular and seem a bit like Deltora Quest, which I enjoyed even as a young adult. So long as you order it before December 10th, you can get them in before Christmas.

I do not remember this many cool books being available for kids when I was young. I was stuck with stuff like Enid Blyton. Ever wish you could time travel, but have the things that kids nowadays have?

Clariel by Garth Nix

I'm finally going to review Clariel by Garth Nix. I actually wanted to review this two weeks ago when my copy (signed by Garth Nix!) arrived in the mail. I finished it all in one sitting and had all these thoughts running around my head, but I needed to let them all settle first.

Clariel is a prequel set very far in the past of Sabriel's world. Clariel, granddaughter to the Abhorsen and cousin to the king, is brought by her parents to the city Belisaere. Once there, she finds herself the unwilling center of a conspiracy to usurp the monarchy.

I'll say this straight up. Before I read this, I was concerned that this would be a retread of Sabriel or Lirael.

It's not. It's really not.

There are definitely similarities to the other books, but only enough to give you that familiar taste while building a completely different situation. Like Lirael, it could be seen as a variation on Sabriel's journey, but where Lirael asks 'what if I have a dream that I might not be capable of fulfilling?' this one asks 'what if I am prevented from fulfilling my dream?' It's a biting rejoinder against every call to adventure that summoned unwilling farm boys away from home.

The main character Clariel shares some characteristics with the characters Sabriel and Lirael. All are teenage girls with very strong ideas about who they want to be. They all have remarkably good sense for teen heroines - when confronted with a charming young assassin, Clariel doesn't upgrade him to love interest, finding his overtures genuinely threatening - and none of them are afraid to go after what they want. However, there's a restrained anger and frustration within Clariel that was lacking in her cohorts, swirling dangerously beneath the surface. While Sabriel tended to be very collected under pressure and Lirael relied more on guile and stealth, Clariel really just wants to break a chair and beat her enemies' heads in with it.

On my second read-through, I was actually kind wishing she'd gone and done it. Because this time I knew what was coming, and I could see how literally everyone else in the book had contributed to create an impossible situation. I won't spoil the ending, but like the best tragedies, there were so many moments that could have avoided an awful outcome. On the surface, it's a relatively happy ending but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the undead didn't lose. They just suffered a setback, and arguably achieved something more than worth the inconvenience. And all it would have taken was just one person had listening to Clariel instead of focusing on their own goals.

The cultural building was interesting, because you get to see a relatively prosperous era in the Old Kingdom, prior to the crapsack world of Sabriel's time. The character Clariel, as a newcomer, offered great insight into the idiosyncrasies of the culture and people. I liked as well that her resistance wasn't her offering up a token protest at being forced to do girlish things; she was genuinely uncomfortable, and every attempt to force her to fit in grated like a square peg being forced into a round hole.

All up, Clariel is a great contribution to the Sabriel world. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it's exactly what I needed. I ordered my copy from Booktopia (see link above), but it's also available at most bookstores in the teen section, online from Book Depository, and can be ordered electronically from Amazon,

Signed books by Garth Nix

How much do I love Booktopia right now? They're offering copies of Clariel signed by Garth Nix, if ordered before 1st October 2014.

I've already placed my order, along with a bunch of other paperbacks I've been meaning to pick up, so now I get to play the letterbox-watching game for the next two weeks. It's like Christmas... if I had to pay for my own presents.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Welcome to Fossick Book Reviews!

To celebrate my first post - and to prepare myself for Garth Nix's new book coming out on the 24th of September - I've decided to review an old favorite of mine; the classic young adult novel Sabriel. Adult readers, don't be frightened off by the 'young adult' label. Sabriel is one of those rare novels that is accessible to teenagers and adults alike.

The story takes place in the Old Kingdom where the outlaw of necromancy is enforced by the Abhorsen, the guardian between life and death. Sabriel, the daughter and heir to the current Abhorsen, is summoned home to assist her father who has become trapped by an ancient evil. She is guided by the ambiguous Moggett and the mysterious Touchstone, each of whom with their own agendas that may or may not align with her own.

In many ways this book is the classic hero's quest; the protagonist is summoned out of the safe non-magical land she grew up in and must journey through a dangerous world to reach her father, developing her skills and knowledge as she goes. However, this relatively simple storyline works perfectly, giving Nix room to expand on the other story elements. He fleshes out a grim world that has its own bleak beauty, with an oppressive atmosphere of ever-present danger. You'll really believe this is a world where the dead can rise and kill you in your sleep.

The character Sabriel is an engaging heroine; uncertain in her experience, but determined to follow through regardless. Her mistakes, when she does make them, are usually based on lack of knowledge and she doesn't waste time angsting over them, just jumps straight to fixing them. This may be a deliberate contrast to Touchstone, who is haunted by a terrible past mistake, and Moggett, who is hinted to have negligible knowledge of regret, if any. The repulsive villain, Kerrigor, is slightly one-dimensional in his drive for power, but this is explitely attributed to the effect of Free Magic and actually works as a reminder of why the Abhorsen's role is necessary.

Teenagers will love this book and adults will enjoy it as well. As it does involve what are essentially zombies there is some violence but it's not over the top gore. Sex is discussed but not explicitly so. While the central theme could be best described as dealing with loss and growing up, this is not a depressing story. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read and ends on quite a hopeful note.

This is still a fairly popular book, so most bookstores should stock it in the young adult section. It's also available online, including Amazon, Booktopia, and Book Depository.