itibaren Kohler, WI, USA itibaren Kohler, WI, USA

No fear here! Since I read this book I have overcomed my fears and everytime another fear tactic tries to raise it's ugly head. I remember that God has not given a Spirit of Fear but of Power, Love, and a Sound Mind.

I haven't even cracked the cover on this book, but I was so happy to find it on my doorstep yesterday (hardly a find to rival the Rosetta Stone, but it was a far less arduous search.) I just returned home from Egypt and was stunned to find the Ancient Egyptians covered every blank surface with hieroglyphs -- which I can only assume the mostly illiterate Ancient Egyptians found as illegible as I did. It's like the Thomas Wolfe school of architecture.

Raised in a forest by the hermit Trevisant, Terence has grown up outside of the concerns of men. But one day, a strange green face leads him through the trees to stumble on a young knight named Gawain, and nothing in Terence’s life will ever be the same. He joins Gawain on his journey to Camelot and King Arthur’s court, and beyond that on a great quest that leads through this world and the Other. On his adventures, Terence will learn a lot about courage, strength, beauty, and the best and worst that man has to offer. I can’t even guess how many times I’ve read this book. I must have been ten or eleven the first time I checked it out from the library, and I’ve read it over and over and over, several times a year, because this is one of the books that changed me as both a reader and a writer. In fact, this book spawned my first fanfic. Which, let’s face it, I am so SO glad I never put up online because it was awful. But this is a book I talk about all the time, a book I really wish more people knew, and I realized I hadn’t ever actually talked about why. As a kid, I grew up on stories of knights and damsels and quests, on the golden age of King Arthur, and all of that. I remember more than a few afternoon “quests” where I hunted down the evil Mordred to slay him before he could take down the great king. That being said, though, I didn’t actually know too many of the stories. I knew about Tristan and Isolde, about Lancelot and Guinevere, about Sir Kai and the Round Table. I’ll admit that my first knowledge of Sir Kai came from Disney’s The Sword in the Stone. And then this book. Even the narration made it different than any other books I’d ever read. This is a story, told in the tradition of the bards and minstrels that weave so well through the setting, so it’s not afraid to play with the poetry of its descriptions. It doesn’t go overboard like most of the bards it gently pokes fun of. The thing that made me absolutely fall in love was the honesty of the emotions. It’s not like the characters don’t have filters, because they do- they know what is or is not appropriate to say in court, for example, and they know how to be polite (i.e. lie)- but they’re not afraid to be honest and cmofortable in their emotions. These are men and boys who cry when they feel sad. It seems like a little thing, right? Males crying? But keep in mind how old I was when I first read it. Ten was the age when boys and girls were really getting separated. Girls could fall on the playground and bawl their eyes out, but boys were supposed to get over it with nothing more than a sniffle. It was reinforced in classes, at the playground, at parties: girls were allowed to cry and boys weren’t. And I HATED that. Mainly because I hated crying and got irritated by adults telling me “It’s okay to cry” whenever I skinned my knee but my boy friends were told “you’re okay, you’re fine”. And there was this book where these amazing things were happening, and people were getting injured or insulted, people were learning these incredibly painful things, they were getting their hearts stomped on- and these men were allowed to cry without there being anything shameful about it. I was hooked. But it was so much more than that. Their adventures were amazing, ranging from the Huge- fighting a war for the sovereignty of all England- to the Small- helping two people in love find happiness. But every step along the way gave something to learn. It’s not a moralistic story, but at the same time it’s full of valuable life lessons that made me look at things in a new way. And the characters! Terence is sweet and innocent, loyal, open to learning new things, and rendered entirely wide-eyed by this wide world from which he’s always been sheltered. He starts out a very young fourteen, but though only a few months pass, his experiences make him mature in thoroughly expected and lovely ways. Gawain starts out as a teacher but along the course of their journey becomes a friend, even a brother. He’s sometimes grouchy and overbearing, but he’s young, and he learns even more than he teaches. He learns that being a knight is much more than a title and a shiny suit of armor, and that chivalry isn’t just a word. The friendship that forms between the two is wonderful and inspiring. Arthur is the king you’d give anything to follow, wise and compassionate, a true leader of men who’s able to put the well-being of his people before his own personal happiness. There’s Tor, hungry to improve himself, and Plogrun, the grouchy, overbearing, opininiated squire he obtains. There’s characters you love to love, others you love to hate, and some you kind of can’t help but cheer for, even when you’d really rather not. The setting is comfortable and casual. We’re in the early middle ages, no doubt about it, but it doesn’t strain or force the point. The historical details are effortlessly dropped in- clothing and food and weapons and armor, even bigger picture world events (in a general sort of way)- but they’re never done in such a way as to sidetrack us from the story. And the story continues. One of the things I love about the series that follows is that it doesn’t always directly follow Terence and Gawain. We’re introduced to a wonderful, wide cast of characters that weave in and out of the story, that we revisit at times, like a reunion with old friends. I was heartbroken when this series ended, but also so gloriously happy because it was brilliantly done. I reread these books every year, usually more than once. This is an amazing story to read on your own, with family, with a classroom, a gorgeous balance of humor, sorrow, adventure, triumph, setbacks, and just plain fun. The Squire’s Tale, by Gerald Morris, one of my favorite books of all time. Until next time~ Cheers!

I had to read Black Powder War very fast, as it was due back to the library today and I only finished the previous book in the series yesterday. It wasn't a chore, though. The pacing was better than the second book in any case, and it's very easy to just sink into it and enjoy the world. There was one stretch where it did drag a little, and I took a break, but considering I read it in three stretches of about 100 pages each, that's not saying much. That part was a bit too concerned with the military side of it, which I don't enjoy as much, prioritising that over the characters. For the most part, though, I loved it. I like that Novik doesn't rest on her laurels at any point: having introduced a new theme, she keeps with it, and throughout this book Temeraire continually brings up the idea of dragons having freedom, even though there can be no real resolution to this right away. And new things are always introduced, with Laurence and crew having to transport the dragon eggs. I was very pleased to see Granby rising in the world a little, although I shared Temeraire's qualms about it all of a sudden. I hope we don't end up seeing less of him now that he's risen in the world somewhat. I also enjoyed the introduction of Tharkay and the feral dragons, and I certainly hope we see more of them. We didn't learn that much about Tharkay, and it'd be a shame to waste such an enigmatic, useful character. I don't know precisely what Novik can do with him from here, but I hope it's something! Arkady and the rest of the feral dragons were fun characters, and I hope they weren't simply dei ex machinis. It doesn't seem like Novik's style, but we'll see. One thing I did feel the lack of in this book was strong female characters. With Captain Harcourt and Jane Roland, the first book had some strong females, and they were present at the beginning of the second book at least, but in this third book, I don't think there was any real female intervention. Emily Roland isn't mentioned much, if at all! Of course, there's the woman who brings British gold from the treasury to show the British, but she has barely more than a token appearance: strong actions as a woman, especially considering the context, but still not much of it. I hope there are more female characters again in the next book. Something I enjoy about the story as a whole is the focus on realism. Which is really odd, given that it's speculative fiction, but I enjoy the worries over the harness, the worries over the crew, the fighting conditions, the little things that make it that bit more real. And things like dragons being longer-lived than humans, and the captainship being hereditary. It's also interesting that dragons need crews much like ships. I don't think I've ever read a book where dragons had more than one rider. Another good thought, considering the supposed size of them, which shows this is more than just "yay dragons!" and actually a book that's had a lot of thought put into it. I also enjoy the alternate history angle, and I get the sense it's been well thought out, although of course, I know very little about Napoleon and the problems of those wars. What I do know comes from War and Peace and/or Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell! Not something I really have much factual knowledge about, though War and Peace isn't to be sniffed at, with all the references it made to the war part of it and this treaty and that battle... It'd take a better history scholar than me to tell you about the accuracy of the elements that are similar, but it feels right to me -- aside from the dragons, of course.