Red Spikes - Margo Lanagan

Red Spikes is a collection of short stories from Australian fantasy author Margo Lanagan. Dark and unyielding, these are bizarre, other-worldly tales, brought forth from the depths of a truly astounding imagination.

Nothing I write here could possibly do this collection justice. These stories are unusual, not likeable exactly, but they are so believable, Lanagan's writing is effortless, convincing us of their truth. With beauty, wonder and true horror, each tale has elements of familiar fairy-tales...tales of warrior queens, guardian angels, gods, witches and heroes...but reworked and reimagined.

Highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy and fans of Lanagan's fiction.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K.Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the last in JK Rowling's fabulous Harry Potter series. Whether or not you enjoy the series, I defy anyone to not fall for Stephen Fry's narration!

Portraying each of the characters in these unabridged audiobooks, Fry embues his own vitality, his own personality, while maintaining the characters that the world has come to know and love. My particular favourite is Fry's take on Hermione Granger, and his whimsical rendition of the strange but likeable Luna.

Still convinced that this was the (almost) perfect ending to a truly excellent series (I'm still somewhat heartbroken over one character in particular), this audiobook has given me a new appreciation to Rowling's storytelling, and enhanced my admiration of the indomitable Stephen Fry. Not to mention making the constant DIY in my new house almost bearable!

Thank you Jo Rowling and thank you Stephen Fry!

Historical weekend frolics

During yet another prolonged absence from my blog, this time due to work and DIY on my new house, I took a well-deserved weekend break with two friends. Over the weekend we visited Hatfield House, Blenheim Palace, the Rollright Stones, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.

Hatfield House was the home of the son of Elizabeth I's advisor, Robert Cecil. I visited the house last year for Folk by the Oak and again two weeks ago for the annual Living Crafts Fayre.

Blenheim Palace was a gift to the first Duke of Marlborough to celebrate victory over the French during the Wars of Spanish Succession. Perhaps the most famous resident of Blenheim was Sir Winston Churchill, who was both at the Palace and spent much of his childhood there. Over the years the Palace has undergone numerous transitions, but is still the home of the current Duke of Marlborough and is now classified as a World Heritage Site.

The Rollright Stones consist of three Neolithic monuments, The Whispering Knights, The King's Men stone circle and The King Stone standing stone. The monuments date from around 3,500 and were built of natural limestone boulders found at the site. The King's Men stone circle was likely a gathering place, while the Whispering Knights are probably the remains of a Neolithic burial chamber. The name “Rollright” is believed to come from “Hrolla-landriht”, the land of Hrolla. Legends say the stones ae knights plotting against their King before a witch turned them to stone, and that the Knights go down to the brook in the valley to drink on New Year's Day or when the bells of Long Compton are heard. I am very drawn to the ancient neolithic monuments and stone circles of Britain, and consider them an important part of my heritage. This out of the way and secluded stone circle was particularly magical for me, all the more so with the fading light and peace of the evening. I could have stayed there all night, but sadly, we had places to be and family to visit!

Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town in , over 800-years old and best known as the birthplace of the great bard and playwright, William Shakespeare. We were lucky enough to visit the town on the hottest day of the year so far, and spent the day visiting Shakespeare's birthplace, his final home (Nash's House and New Place), his final resting place (The Church of the Holy Trinity) and the home of William's daughter and her doctor husband (Hall's Croft). Stratford is also home to the Royal Shakespeare Company, though sadly we did not have time to take in a play.

Warwick Castle has been in the hands of the Earls of Warwick since Henry de Newburgh in 1088. The original rampart was built in 914AD by Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfred the Great, and developed into a fort by William the Conqueror in 1068. Today, the Castle is an example of how life would have been like throughout the ages and is very very well done. We visited during the Easter holidays, so the Castle abounded with characters from history, some historical (Henry VIII, Elizabeth I), some fictional (King Arthur, the plague-victims!), and numerous events were on offer, including falconry displays and the firing of the fully functional trebuchet (oh yes...with fireball!!). The most pleasantly surprisingly highlight however, had to be the musical performance of the plague victims themselves...possibly the hardest I have laughed in a long time. We also visited the new Dungeons exhibition, which was highly entertaining, though certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, and very much in need of another holiday! Hopefully I will catch up with some of my reviews, but in the meantime I leave you with some photos of our trip..

Blenheim Palace

Spring at Blenheim

The King's Men, Rollright stones

The Whispering Knights, Rollright stones

Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon

Hall's Croft, Stratford-upon-Avon

The Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon

A watchful gargoyle overlooking the graveyard

William Shakespeare's grave

Warwick Castle

Walking along the castle ramparts

King Arthur

View from the ramparts (spot the trebuchet!)

Posing with the plague sufferers..."Milly Molly Manky", "Nostrildamus" and baby "Cillit Bang"!!

The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell

Read for: Arthurian Challenge; A Tournament of Reading

I wanted to include both the original cover (left) and the new cover of the copy I own (right) for this review, as I really like them both.

Certain bloggers (who shall remain nameless) have been telling me to read Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles for longer than I can say. Well, I can finally say that I have made a start and finished the first book, The Winter King. And oh boy am I glad I bought all three the same day!

The Winter King is the tale of Britain after the death of Uther Pendragon. This Britain is less a tale of magic and myth, and more one of war and politics. The throne of Dunmonia is reserved for Uther's infant grandchild, Mordred, with several of the senior warlords pledging an oath to protect the child and his kingdom until he comes of age. Arthur, Uther's bastard son, and the most loved warlord in Dumnonia and beyond, makes the pledge and so begins the long struggle to govern and protect the kingdom without a king.

The trilogy tells Arthur's tale, through the eyes of his follower, friend and fellow warrior, Derfel Cadarn. The Winter King introduces us to the elderly Derfel, a monk living in a monastery in Wales, who spends his days chronicling the years of Arthur for his young Queen, Igraine. It is this tale that we get swept up into, brutal and unforgiving. Derfel was a young orphaned boy, adopted by the Druid Merlin, and raised in his home on Ynys Wydryn. Derfel witnesses betrayal of the child king's guardian and his attempted murder, and escapes with the king and some of the survivors. From that moment on, Derfel is plunged into a world of warriors, honour and lies. He becomes close friends with Arthur, who's ultimate aim is to unite the British Kingdoms against the Saxon (Sais) invadors. But peril and intrigue follow them at every turn.

I doubt very much that The Winter King could have been better written. I was hooked from page one and would have been mortified to find myself at the end, had I not already got books two and three in my possession. This is by far my favourite of the Arthurian fiction I have read so far, and I was so excited to read the next book, Enemy of God that I have not been able to write this review until finishing the series! To describe more of the events in this series would likely cause confusion and I imagine would put anyone off reading such a complex tale. So you'll have to find out for yourself...

Other familiar characters making an appearance in this series, include Nimue, Morgan, Lancelot, and Guinevere. Rather than a complete retelling of the Arthurian legends, this is more a reworking, with some of the older legends intermingled with newer ones, focussing more on the power struggles in the aftermath of the Roman exodus from Britain, and on the conflict between the old pagan religion and the new christian one. Sometimes hard to stomach, this book was always gripping and exciting. Thoroughly recommended for anyone interested in Dark Age and Arthurian fiction.

A Fine and Private Place - Peter S Beagle

Wow, Nymeth and Chris...you were so right. This book caught my attention after their fabulous reviews, and I began the hunt for this particularly beautiful edition.

A Fine and Private Place is a book to be savoured, ready slowly, absorbing its subtle nuances and lyrical prose. The plot is an unsual one. The protagonist, Jonathon Rebeck, is a former pharmacist who, after a big night, wakes to find himself in a graveyard, one which he does not leave...for nineteen years. His only regular companion is a talking raven, who supplies him with food and the odd luxury item, like a book. But far from being a lonely experience, Rebeck spends his time greeting the newly dead as they wake to their new existence...that is, before they forget.

The dead in Beagle's world do not move on to an afterlife, or haunt the living. They remain bound to their mortal remains, as they slowly forget their lives and ultimately fade away. Rebeck takes it upon himself to greet these people, spending time with them in conversation, and occasionally a game of chess. It is in this quiet life of Rebeck's, that we meet Michael Morgan. Angry and bitter about his death, being poisoned by his beautiful wife Michael is determined to hang on to his ghostly existence and resist fading away. Michael and Rebeck then meet Laura Durand, killed by a truck and resigned to her new existence. Laura and Michael begin an unusual friendship, threatened all the time by their fading memories, especially Michael, who clings onto his former life, all the while losing the true memory of it.

Rebeck too forms an unlikely relationship, with the widowed Mrs Klapper, whom he meets as she visits her husbands grave. Rebeck is afraid to admit the truth to his new friend and what that might mean for his life there. But soon a greater threat emerges, as memories are forced to the surface and truths are revealed.

An unlikely story of friendship and the nature of living and dying, A Fine and Private Place is truly that. A quiet space in which the reader can be totally absorbed, with a delicate story, fragile characters and eerie yet charming location. Beagle's writing is just delicious, simple but elegant. A couple of passages really stayed with me:

"Man searches constantly for identity, he thought as he trotted along the gravel path. He has no real proof of his existence except for the reaction of other people to that fact. So he listens very closely to what people say to one another about him, whether it's good or bad, because it indicates that he lives in the same world they do, and that all his fears about being invisible, impotent, lacking some mysterious dimension that other people have, are groundless. That's why people like to have nicknames."

"I am tired , he thought. Maybe the heat is doing it, but I have sat through a good many summers here and never felt like this. I am tired of being helpful. I am tired of being comfortable. Why this should be I do not know, but my image of myself as an understanding old man, floating in kindness like a cherry in a sugared liqueur, is beginning to curl at the corners. I wish something would happen to me, something that would show me exactly how cruel and jealous and vengeful I can be. Then I could go back to gentleness because I chose it over brutality for its own sake, not because I didn't have the courage to be cruel. I might even like cruelty. I doubt very much that I would, but I ought to find out."

What makes this work an even greater feat is that Beagle wrote it while only 19 years of age. An absolute joy to read, this is a ghost story with a difference. Whole-heartedly recommended to all. I cannot wait to experience more of Beagle's writing.

Other blog reviews:
Rhinoa's Ramblings
Stuff as Dreams are Made On
Things mean a lot

Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve

Read for: Arthurian Challenge; A Tournament of Reading

Picked up purely off the back of Nymeth’s review and because I’m having a bit of an Arthurian (and other mediaeval/middle ages/historical literature!) year, Philip Reeve’s Here Lies Arthur did not disappoint.

This tale of the legendary Arthur shies away from glossy cliché, portraying him as a brutish and not particularly intelligent warlord, who travels around the country with his thuggish band of fighters, ravaging villages, seizing gold and land, and generally taking whatever he wants.

The tale is told by Gwyna, a slave and one of the victims of such attacks, who flees in terror from her burning village and escapes by diving into a frozen stream. She is rescued by a mysterious man, who turns out to be none other than Myrddin, Arthur’s bard, who soon factors her into his mischievous plans. Myrddin explains that what others see as magic, are simply tricks and stories weaved from half truths, into something far grander, the stuff of legends. He uses Gwyna to help him weave the tale of the lady in the lake, passing the sword Caliburn (Excalibur!) to Arthur, who himself falls for the trick. Myrddin is then forced to hide Gwyna in plain sight, dressing and passing her off as a boy, Gwyn, who spends several years working for the bard and learning to live as a boy. She finds the life far better than that she had known, and becomes accustomed to male ways, until she is forced to experience the reality of war firsthand. Soon though, she becomes too old for Myrddin to hide her as such, and she is forced to rediscover her womanly ways, in a life she finds boring in contrast.

To say much else would begin to give away some of the fabulously creative ways that Reeve has incorporated the other characters from Arthurian myth. Most notably Guinevere, who is recognisable as Gwenhwyfar, a middle-aged widow, but whose fall from grace is not entirely the tale you will remember.

Although aimed at children and young adults, Here Lies Arthur is incredibly realistic and astute, dealing with the horrors that children of the age would indeed have experienced. Reeve treats his young readers with maturity and respect, and in return creates something I found to be a joy to read. It is work like this that can inspire so many young people to read, especially in this age of videogames and television. This maturity also makes the novel a fantastic read for adults and I found myself completely absorbed in Gwyna’s tale.

Although primarily an excellent spin on the Arthurian legend, the subplots of gender identity and the lines between what makes a story legend or truth, make this tale that bit more unique. But it is Reeve’s writing and storytelling that make this particular tale something special. Highly recommended.

Other blog reviews:
Things mean a lot

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Sadly, in my busy state of affairs over the last few months, I have not kept up with my reviews. I finished Her Fearful Symmetry months ago and thus am unable to give this particular book the review I wanted and that I felt it deserved.

After, like most of the female population of the UK at least(!), absolutely falling for Niffenegger's first novel, The Time Traveller's Wife, I rushed out to purchase the hardback of her second full-length novel, something I try not to do! Although this review is not too spoilerific, I have mentioned some details that some readers may rather not know before reading the book...you have been warned.

Her Fearful Symmetry is literally a story of life and death, and is a slow book from the start. We are introduced to Elspeth Noblin, a successful 40-something living in an apartment overlooking London's Highgate Cemetary, and dying of cancer. It is Elspeth's death that is the catalyst for the story and she remains ever-present throughout. Her will is executed by her younger neighbour and lover, Robert, a PhD student writing a thesis on the cemetary where Elspeth is eventually buried. The estate passes not to Elspeth's estranged twin sister Edie, but to her American nieces, Julia and Valentina, also twins. The slow build to this book is the introduction of these characters, and the eventual arrival of the twins in London. We are not early on given the reasons behind the estrangement of Elspeth and Edie, although the answers are in Elsepth's diaries, bequeathed to her lover Robert, who cannot bring himself to read them.

The tale begins afresh with the young girls' arrival and subsequent meetings with Robert, the house-bound obsessive-compulsive neighbour Martin, and eventually Elspeth herself. For this is indeed a ghost story...the story of Elspeth, bound to her apartment, her former life and a new set of rules. She has no corporeal form nor indeed a voice, but must find a way to communicate with the new inhabitants of her apartment. She lives in a drawer, finds ways to build up her strength and even manipulate dust on a table into words. However, although the tale is Elspeth's, it is the twins that are the heart of this story. Polar opposites, the wilful and domineering Julia and the timid, fragile Valentina are inseparable, though their new life in London begins to drive a wedge between them. Valentina is stifled by Julia, unable to begin the life she truly desires, and it is her discovery of Elspeth and her burgeoning romance with Robert that drives much of the book.

Her Fearful Symmetry is certainly not as instantly gratifying as the more commercial Time Traveller's Wife. This however, felt more like a labour of love, with the author obviously spending a great deal of time researching in London, feeding every detail to the reader. The story builds slowly, allowing us to become accustomed to the characters, their lives, and their intricacies before allowing them to meet each other. Although this makes for a more satisfying understanding of the characters themselves, little appears to happen in the first part of the book, which was a time a little tedious. Becoming darker and more complex in the second half, the story suddenly turns towards the end into something quite sinister. But then it is all over too quickly and I for one would have liked that sinister Gothic feeling to perhaps have lasted longer.

Niffenegger's characterisation is top-notch however, with the heart-broken Robert, the dreamy Valentina, and the defiant Elspeth. I could not bring myself to care for Julia, though that was likely the desired reaction, but the relationship between the house-bound Martin and his wife Marijke was so delicately handled that I often wished it was more their story than Elspeth's. Rather than a pointless subplot, which it could so easily have become, the love between the fiery Marijke and the damaged Martin felt so real and beautiful, with hope for their future equally gained and lost as the story developed. It is the atmosphere of the cemetary itself that I completely fell for. With enough personality to embody its own character, the cemetary is so integral to both the joyful and the sad parts of the story. Unfortunately I have lent my copy to a friend, so cannot include here any of the passages that I was particularly enamoured with.

Without giving too much away regarding the darker side of this story, it is ultimately one of love and loss, both romantic and familial. As a novel, it is mature, artistic and complex, with a level of creativity I had not expected Niffenegger to reach in only her second novel.

Other blog reviews:
Stuff as Dreams are Made on
Stainless Steel Droppings (spoiler review)
Stainless Steel Droppings (non-spoiler review)