The Final Empire - a new world to explore!

In case regular readers may have thought I had fallen off the edge of the world ... do not fear, I am back! I have not been blogging for the last few weeks due to my reading two very long books, and I have finally finished one of them. The Final Empire is the start of the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (originally a trilogy, but has been added to subsequently). This book is set in a world that has been terrorised for a thousand years by the divine Lord Ruler, who wields absolute power over two distinct peoples. There is the nobility, who have all the wealth, and the Skaa who are subservient to the nobility, and are their slaves. Some of the nobility have extraordinary powers and are called Mistborn. These people have the ability to utilise a range of metals to enhance their strength, hearing, etc - each metal having different properties. Into this unhappy and unhealthy world comes Kelsier - a man who is half-Skaa, half nobleman, and, most importantly, is a Mistborn. Originally a thief of extreme skill and notoriety, events have led him to try to lead a rebellion against the Lord Ruler and bring an end to the slavery of the Skaa. He comes across a young thief called Vin, he recognises a fellow Mistborn - something she is completely unaware of. He takes her under his wing and begins to train her and she becomes a vital part of his plan. The world the author has created is so detailed that you can almost feel, touch and taste it. The characters are flawed and damaged people, yet they have hope and humour and they really do get under your skin. There are some great set pieces where the Mistborn skills are really expanded upon and come into their own (I could visualise lots of lingering slow motion sequences in a film adaptation!) There are secrets, first loves, tragedy and despair ... and quite a hefty body count! There are surprises along the way as the story unfolds and takes you to places you were not expecting. I really enjoyed this book and became invested in the characters and their fates. If you haven't delved into fantasy before, this might be a good place to start as it is a rollocking good tale of good versus evil,, with lashings of derring do! Highly recommended. My only negative is that this is the beginning of another series for me ... and I still have so many others to finish ... what was I thinking?

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 669 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.99.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, unabridged audio CD, ebook.

Silence - brutally thought provoking

Silence, by Shusaku Endo, follows the physical and spiritual journey of Father Sebastian Rodrigues, a Jesuit priest who sets sail for Japan in 1640. The first missionaries had initially received a warm welcome and Christian communities sprung up and flourished, however, for some years now, a new regime has brutally oppressed anyone found to be following this religion, and many priests have been murdered. Father Rodrigues is determined to provide help and support to the ever decreasing Christian population, as well as try to find out what has happened to a priest he once knew and admired, who, it is rumoured, has rejected his faith. Forced to hide and perform any duties in secret, he soon witnesses the reality of the dangerous situation he is now in. He tries to keep one step ahead of the authorities but is finally betrayed and captured. He awaits his martyrdom, which he has already prepared for. However, the authorities know it will be more effective in suppressing Christianity if they can get a priest to deny his faith, rather than martyr. So, they torture and kill faithful Japanese people in front of him, telling him that he can stop all of this from happening if he denies his God. This is a book of vivid imagery and deep emotion. The spiritual dilemma for the central character, as well as those around him is powerfully described, and it is very difficult for the reader to remain detached. Heartfelt prayers seem to be answered by silence, and Father Rodrigues wonders where God is in that silence. I found this very tough to read due to the subject matter. Light, it is not. It is definitely a book that makes you think and I am still mulling over it over a week later. It is a book I think I would read again as I find myself reflecting on many of the questions and feelings that it has raised. Not a book to enjoy maybe, but definitely a book that might help one to meditate on some of life's big questions. The version I read was ably narrated by David Holt.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 288 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.99.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio CD, unabridged audio download.

The Elephant Keeper - touching relationship between man and beast

Tom Page is a young groom working on the estate of a wealthy landowner in Somersetshire during the 1770s. When his employer purchases two young elephants, Tom is given the task of caring for them ... and so The Elephant Keeper is born. Everything is new and exciting to Tom and, indeed, the elephants. They slowly find their way together, building trust and understanding. Tom names them Timothy and Jenny, and seems to be able to communicate with them in a remarkably intimate and gentle way (not a bit Dr Doolittle). When the elephants are split up, the relationship between Tom and Jenny deepens further. Not everyone is a fan of Jenny, and cruelty and tragedy share the same space as wonder and comfort. Tom tries to protect Jenny and she tries to return the favour. Their deep dependency on each other cannot help but affect Tom's relationships with family, friends, lovers and employers. This is a touching tale that really pulls at the heart strings. The story follows the pair over many years, as the elephant is passed from one owner to the next, with Tom always accompanying her. There may not be a clear ending, which normally annoys me in a book, but I was more than happy to be left "hanging" in this case. I found myself so invested in Tom and Jenny that I didn't want it to end, and it kind of didn't! Thank you Christopher Nicholson for your moving story that will definitely stay with me ... now, could I make room in my garden for an elephant?

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 292 print pages.
Price I paid: 50p.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, unabridged audio CD, ebook.

11.22.63 - The hazards of time travel!

Jake Epping, a high school teacher from Maine, is moving forward with his life following a messy divorce. While at his local diner, Al, friend and owner, reveals that he is terminally ill, and asks Jake to complete a mission he has been working on for many years. This mission is to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, 1963. Al believes if he can prevent this, then the world would be changed for the better and would not be in the state it is currently in. Nice theory, but that was 50 years ago! Not a problem it would seem, as Al's diner is sitting on a time bubble which, when you step through, takes you back to exactly the same time, place and date in 1958. Al has spent years in the past, planning and investigating ... to make sure that the conspiracy theorists are all wrong, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed a lone gunman. Jake is finally persuaded when he realises he can also save someone he knows from a dreadful fate that happened to them during the same time period. He steps through the bubble and we enter a new world with Jake as our narrator. But the past doesn't want to be changed and it begins to fight back in ever increasingly brutal ways. 11.22.63 is a fantastically complex and thought provoking novel, with great characters, especially Jake and his love interest, Sadie (big up for school librarians). It feels exceptionally well researched and the passages set in the 50s and early 60s are full of details which evoke a time and place that could almost be a different planet. Author Stephen King gives the reader a masterclass in this time-travelling fantasy which reads like an historical thriller. It will take up many, many, MANY hours of your time reading it, but it is definitely time well spent. I read the audio version, narrated by Craig Watson, who must have been exhausted. And if you take one lesson from this book, it's Don't Mess With History, you might not like the result! The only other thing left to say is READ IT!

My STAR rating: FIVE!

Length: 1120 print pages.
Price I paid: £3.36 (bargain for a book of this magnitude, thanks Audible!)
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, MP3 CD, CD-ROM, ebook.

When Will There Be Good News? - soon I hope!

In this third outing for Jackson Brodie, fate seems to have turned against the former soldier, policeman and private detective. Having inherited a great deal of money from a former client, he had previously "retired" to France, but got a bit bored. Now back in the UK, and still in the honeymoon phase of a brand new marriage following a whirlwind romance, Jackson hops on a train heading for London. However, he is on the wrong train and just as he realises he is heading for Edinburgh, the train crashes. His life is saved by local girl, Reggie, who is wise beyond her 16 years. She has no family, except for a wild brother, but has found happiness in the home of Dr Hunter, whose baby she looks after. When Dr Hunter and the baby disappear without a word to Reggie, she does not believe the story told by Mr Hunter that his wife has gone to visit a sick aunt. She tries to involve the police in the form of Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, a former colleague of Brodie, who starts to investigate. When Monroe realises that Jackson is back in Edinburgh, unresolved feelings begin to surface. Despite his injuries, Jackson becomes embroiled in the case, and he and Reggie head off to find Dr Hunter. And can it be a coincidence that she disappears at the same time as a newly released convict, whose heinous crime 30 years ago left a mother and two of her three children dead, with the third, a six year old girl, traumatised for life after what she witnessed that day? There are so many threads to this novel, with lots of characters to keep track of, that you may find yourself flicking back a few pages just to make sure you've got things straight! The writing of Kate Atkinson flows easily and there is a rhythm to the story that, once you are on board, will take you for a most enjoyable ride. It is messy, and things are not necessarily tidied up in a nice neat bow by the end of it, but it feels more real for that. This is not your typical investigative crime story, as there isn't much investigating going on. It's more about the human condition, and how we all continually get things wrong, but just have to keep going. The title is one of the most appropriate ones I know, as so much happens to poor Mr Brodie that you do really wonder When Will There Be Good News? That's not say that there aren't funny moments too! I really hope, for his sake, that in the last book (to date) in the series, Jackson's luck might turn just a little bit in his favour. An enjoyable read with great characters who seem to come out fully formed almost as soon as they hit the page - no mean feat!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 480 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from library.
Formats available: print, abridged audio CD, unabridged audio download, ebook.

The God Of Small Things - dreamlike but unfulfilling

Winner of the 1997 Booker Prize, The God Of Small Things is a book that has been hanging around on the bookshelf at home for some time. After picking it up and putting it back on the shelf a few times, I decided it was finally time to read it. I found this a difficult book to get into, with much flipping backward and forward in time, which, combined with unusual (to me) names and lots of internalising by the main characters, left me feeling a tad confused and nonplussed. Set in Kerala, this is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins who are growing up in the midst of familial and political turbulence. There is a constant feeling of unease within what appears, from the outside, to be very strict rules about how one should live, and who one should love. There are beautiful passages which transport you into an almost ethereal world, followed by harrowing passages of abuse and violence that bring you right back down to earth with a bump. It is all very unsettling, and I found there to be a distinct lack of happiness within any of the characters, which left me feeling glum. There were tiny, desperate glimpses of love, which provided a little hope and brightness, but these were quickly snatched away again. I think I found this a challenging book because of the subject matter, but also, it wasn't until I "got a good run" at the book one morning where I read for at least an hour, that it started to make a bit more sense and I warmed to it. I kind of wish I'd done that from the start - with books of this ilk, I must make a more concerted effort to do so. The quality of the writing by author Arundhati Roy is not in doubt, particularly in the last third of the book, but I found the story just too sad for my own personal taste. Time for something a little lighter maybe?

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 340 print pages
Price I paid: free, borrowed from my husband.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, unabridged audio cassette, ebook.

My Brilliant Friend - what am I missing?

Hailed as a modern masterpiece, I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into My Brilliant Friend, by Italian author, Elena Ferrante. This is part one of a set of four books, which follow the lives of two friends from Naples - Lila and Elena. This first "chapter" takes them from early childhood into their teens and is set not long after the end of the second World War. Lila is the fearless one, and incredibly smart - outdoing everyone at school. Elena is in thrall to this force of nature, and is almost overwhelmed by her when they become friends. Elena then spends almost all of her time trying to emulate her brilliant friend, especially at school - where Lila seems to pick up things really quickly, Elena has to study hard. As time passes, we see how the relationship between the two girls ebbs and flows, and how it is influenced by the large cast of other characters - their family, friends and, in some cases, their enemies in the local neighbourhood. It felt to me that there was almost a love/hate friendship, with Elena (who is the narrator) at turns fascinated by Lila, and the next moment, trying to outdo her. Is that what all friendships are like? When Lila seems to be ignoring her, Elena seems to grow and develop, but as soon as Lila clicks her fingers, Elena just cannot resist and falls back under her spell. Whilst there are some lovely images and moments created, overall, I found the writing style a little disjointed and bare for my personal taste. I found it hard to sympathise with the characters, and I always struggle with a book when this is the case. There didn't appear to be much love on show, and I found the atmosphere harsh and unforgiving, which was how many of the characters came across too. There is a seedy and threatening undercurrent, especially with regard to the treatment of the female characters, pervading every page. This creates a constant state of tension in the book, and I was never comfortable at any time. I feel like I have missed something in this book, as it is so well regarded. I just didn't feel it! A challenging read - most definitely. A journey that I want to continue - not so sure.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from my local library.
Formats available: print, audio download, MP3 CD, ebook.