The Lost Metal

The last book in the Wax and Wayne series in the Misborn world of the Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson. 
 

It's now been six years since Elendel's world has been opened. Meeting the people from the south and trying to keep political schisms at bay has proved difficult, but somewhat doable. Wax and Steris have taken more control of the political sides of their lives and grown their family, while Wayne and Marsi work as constables as partners. But happenings happen and they find out that Wax's sister has big plans with her secret society which includes blowing up Elendel with equivocally a nuclear bomb. Why would Telsin want to do this? What would this "protect" the rest of the world from? And how much bigger is the cosmere than they think?

I can only be okay with the ending, because HE was okay with the ending. That is all I'm going to say about it. 

I loved that Brandon brought so many more worldhoppers into the series. They introduced so much more than we even have in the Cosmere books to begin with. Seeing some of my favorite characters, not just Hoid, in more of their glory than we ever had before makes me so happy. 

It was fast paced and constantly moving forward while still letting things be explained. It took me a while because I knew what was coming (stupid spoilers) and I didn't want it to happen, but it never felt like it was bogged down. 

I love the characters. All of them. They make me happy. I don't know how to say more. 

The books in this series are smaller comparatively so they are easier to binge and love over and over again. Which means I probably will do that sooner rather than later. 

The Ruins of Gorlan

 Book one in the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. 

Will is an orphan and Ward in Castle Redmont. He has dreams of becoming a knight, like he believes his father was--though who and what his father was is only in his dreams too. But when he is called up to become an apprentice, he is denied from battle school because of his stature. When Halt the Ranger gives the Baron a note and doesn't divulge what it says, Will has to find out and sneaks into the Baron's office to sneak a peek at it, only Halt and the Baron catch him as if they knew he was going to do it. With Halt's commendation, Will becomes the Ranger's Apprentice where he learns to be more sneaky and archery and tactics of being a ranger. His other Ward mates become apprentices to cooks, diplomates, scholars, and Horace goes to battle school. Horace struggles with battle school bullies. Bullies aren't going to be the only problems. Morgarath, an enemy to the crown who's been hold out on in the mountains, has sent beasts to kill leaders. It will be Halt and Will's job to stop them. 

This series is a long series of 16 books. Previously I've read the first four, so this will be an adventure reading the other ones. This has the same kind of feeling as Revenge of the Witch but with far less hibi-jibi's and more friends, which I find I like better. 

It's a very basic story, which can be nice. There is plenty of world building in a basic "medieval" world which makes it different. Different peoples and cultures, though they share some similarities with history-ish. There were some times when it was a little long, going through the plains was maybe a bit unneeded. 

My son really liked that the bullies got beat up. I was glad that it gave us an opportunity to talk about bullies and that it's important to let adults know what is going on, that "hazing" isn't okay either. 

We can kinda tell that it is a debut novel. There is a handful of repetitive words that were weird or alliteration that was off that probably should have been caught by an editor, but somehow didn't. 

I'd Tell You That I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You

I just couldn't do it. I couldn't finish it, because... ya know... junior high was bad enough. I don't wanna go back. 

Cammie is the daughter of the head master for Galligher Girl's School. What everyone else in the world doesn't know is that it's not just some prestigious girls school for the smart and rich, instead it's a school that teaches those smart girls how to be spies. Cammie has become an expert at not being seen and blending in due to her upbringing, so much so that it's become a detriment to any social life that she could possibly have, not that the girls get out much to socialize in public spaces much in the first place. But on Cammie's first "mission" out at the nearby town carnival, she's actually seen by someone. And not just anyone. A boy. With the "help" of her friends, she now has to figure out if he's just some small town boy who just thinks she's cute and wants to get to know her, or if there are ulterior motives that could put their national security at risk. 

I'm sure the story is fine, that's why I would have given it three stars. It probably has a great story, I just couldn't finish it. I don't think this aged well as the slang in particular is so heavy. I know I talked that way and heard may kids talk similarly to the way they do in the book, but ya know I don't need flash backs to the acne, boys, and hard time junior high school actually was. 

Ally Carter, you did a great job at your research, possibly too well for me. I'm sorry. 

I also think the characters were a bit stereotypical. Goth girl rebelling against her rich, snobby parents. Poor but brilliantly book-smart girl who gets on by scholarship. Amazing at everything and anything girl who still is super awesome and best friend to main character. Everyone has everything except stealth and blending in, which our MC has. They all seem fairly like Mary Sue's to me and it makes it hard to relate in the first place. This is why I dropped it to two stars. 

Ella Enchanted

 Another retelling of Cinderella. 

Ella was "blessed," more like cursed, when she was a baby by a fairy named Lucinda to be Obedient, therefore she must do everything someone, anyone, tells her to do. She tries to fight against the curse going at it slowly or obnoxiously, but eventually she has to give in to whatever someone says. After her beloved mother dies, she is forced to go to finishing school with two nasty girls (who'd eventually become her step sister). On her way there, Hattie figures out that Ella has to be obedient and starts making her life miserable. She runs away, trying to find Lucinda to take the curse away (with the help of her own fairly godmother) but things don't go as planned. 

A simple, very fanciful retelling of the traditional story, it "fixes" a few of the things that modern audiences have problems with. Why didn't Cinderella leave? Why does she have to do what she's told? Why would the Prince marry her at the end without even knowing her? Historically, those questions wouldn't have mattered. Arranged marriages happened all the time and not being able to leave your home or position was obvious. But it gives our modern eyes reasons and explanations. 

I enjoy Ella and Char as a characters. I like the way their relationship is friendly and develops over the course of the story. Often we don't get that in a Cinderella story (which is why I think it is retold so much and why we get so many versions of it, the romance is open ended). I think their relationship is what makes this story. Yes, Ella goes on an adventure, but them together or their letters to each other is what really draws us through the story. 

Sapphire Blue

 The continuation of Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier happens two seconds after the conclusion of the first one. 

Gwen and Gideon get themselves and their fancy clothes back to the House of the Guardians, but Gwen's head is still spinning because he kissed her! and there is a new gargoyle hanging around who won't leave her alone. Maybe he can be of some use, though, when he's not making fun of her. Things are becoming more chaotic and confusing as her world shifts and sways with the new information Gwen keeps getting. Lucy and Paul are trying to get in contact with her, but she's constantly being told that they are dangerous, but are they or are the Guardians or the Count hiding things they don't want her to understand? Then there is Gideon who keeping flip flopping on if he's going to kiss her or scorn her and look the other way. Gwen is only 16, how is she supposed to deal with all of this? 

I enjoyed this one more than the first. Probably because we were more into the story and got a few more answers. I also enjoyed meeting Gwen's grandpa--makes me miss mine. 

I'm intrigued by the bad guy of the series. His motives are understandable and he seems cunning enough to almost get it done. Obviously he won't succeed, at least for long, but I want to know more about this ingenious, charismatic, narsisistic man. 

I can also understand why some people in their reviews give this series a bad time. Gwen, being sixteen, doesn't know what she's feeling and does get led on. She's not the "eat my dust," "all boys suck," "I can do everything myself" kinda girl which is getting shoved down everyone's throat. The "girl power" here is lacking and I think that makes it more believable. I remember being sixteen and seventeen and how windswept you can feel when you find out a boy loves you and kisses you. I remember needing "blowy-upy movies" for a bit after the first break up. It's hard and it's confusing and I think it's portrayed realistically here.

One reviewer in particular hated how Gwen forgave so easily and how she still fauns over Gideon, but didn't we all back then? We want that first love to be real so much that we do stupid things? The fact that everyone keeps commenting that they can see her affection for Gideon so boldly on her face is proof that she doesn't quite know what she's doing, because she has no idea how to hide it! I do believe *SPOILER* Gideon is being manipulative at the start, but I think this is more the romantic troupe of "it started out that way, but then I actually fell in love with you and it's real" like in How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days or other ones like that *end of spoiler.* 

I can't give this one a perfect 5 stars because it's ending was so abrupt again. I think it would have worked better as a single volume instead of three separate books. It would flow better I think. 

Ruby Red

 Originally published in Germany, Ruby Red is a book about modern time travelers, which is something I wouldn't have expected coming from this front cover. 

Gwen lives in a family of time travelers. Not everyone can do it and everyone is waiting for Charlotte, Gwen's cousin, to pop out of time at any moment. What's not expected is when Gwen suddenly finds herself on her own street corner in the early 1900's instead of the early 2000s she pops back to her own time quickly, but it's not supposed to be her that's the time traveler. Charlotte is the one who did all the studying on curtsies and dates of fires and earthquakes, not Gwen. Charlotte is the one who everyone says is perfect for this job, not Gwen. Charlotte is the one everyone is expecting, not Gwen. And everyone lets her know that. Now Gwen is in the middle of a very old, secretive society who still believe that girls are good for nothing except in the kitchen and making babies, as if they don't have a head on their shoulders and brains between their ears. And an 18 Century duke is most interested in Gwen and whatever magic she possesses for his own uses. 

Time travel isn't what I was expected from this book at all. Fellow librarians had suggested I read it ages ago, and it's only now gotten high up enough on the "To Be Read" pile that I was actually able to look at it, or hear it at any rate. I do appreciate the boundaries that are put in place fairly early on when it comes to time travel. I think that if there aren't some form of boundaries, stories get a little too wishy-washy and there are more loopholes than should be "allowed." 

I also think Kerstin Gier did a good job at giving us the information we as readers needed without info-dumping too much on us. "Show don't tell" was well done, for the most part. There are many facets to this story that could make it extremely complicated, what with ghosts and time travel and secret societies, but it's done clearly over all that we don't get too bogged down and are lost. 

The characters are thought out well. There are a bunch of them who seem a little unneeded (particularly kids from school) at this point, though I'm unsure if they will be "needed" farther on into the story. Gwen and Leslie, Charlotte and Gideon, the Count and Mr. George, and Gwen's grandmother and aunt, and even some of the side-side characters were well developed and seem to be their own people. I think the people are what carry this story along the most as they seem naturally like real people. Obviously time traveling and figuring out secrets pushes the plot along, but the story is pushed by the people in it. 

The only thing I have a problem with is the climax. The ending didn't even seem like an ending to me. I was expecting the audiobook to go on much longer and have more at steak than it did--maybe I'm to use to "Sander-lanches" where the endings are grand and have such high steaks that this one fell flat for me. 

EDIT: After reading the other books, I think if they had been one big story instead of being split into three it would have worked better story-wise. Though for marketing purposes and the fact that they are YA books might have meant that they needed to be a trilogy instead of just a larger volume, which would have been more fitting. 

The Scarlet Letter (Manga)

I've never read this classic and when scanning through the comic section of my library, I came across it and finished it in a day. 

1642, Hester Prynne is married to a man in England whom she doesn't love and has a baby with another man. She won't say who this man is and lets the blame fall completely on herself. She is given a scarlet letter to put on her chest so that everyone in town knows of her sin and will treat her with the distain she deserves. Her husband makes arrives in town but tells her now to reveal who he is and they can go about their business, an ever present demon as he seeks to find who is the baby's father and take his vengeance on the man's soul. Hester raises her daughter, Pearl, on her own and tries to do her best to receive redemption for the sin she committed. As the years go by and by her good works in her community, the letter on her chest starts to represent her "ability" to do good as opposed to the "adultery" she is convicted of and she creates a good name for herself although her sin is never far from people's minds. 

This was a very interesting book. My friends were forced to read it in school and many didn't like it (who does when it's mandatory reading?). So I didn't know what I was really getting into. The fact that it's a manga and the pictures helped illustrate what the metaphors in the story were trying to convey what was going on much better than I think I would have gotten the first time through on a normal book read. My brain is kinda like that. Roger Chillingworth becoming more demonic as time goes on and the amount of guilt that radiates from poor sickly Arthur Dimmesdale is very well portrayed, along with how the town slowly changes their opinion of Hester as she proves that one mistakes is what makes her up as a person. 

The overarching theme of how guilt can impact people is extremely interesting and probably why it is a classic. The fact that because Hester's sin is in front of everyone and that her guilt is boldly on her chest for everyone to see, as opposed to Arthur, who is looked up to greatly by all of the community, hides it and becomes sick because of the gnawing guilt of it all; and the way it compares the two, their reactions and that of the community, and how freeing it can be to... forgive themselves...? Is that what it is? To let the guilt be lifted and how freeing that can be. 

The artwork in here was extremely well done, as was the "summary" of the story. Obviously it's not all of it. I'm sure many of the conversations and sermons were shortened or no in there at all which is fine. From the other "Manga Classics" that I've read, they do a very good job at portraying the most important things of the story without missing as much as you thing. 

Key's to the Demon Prison

 Slow in reviews it seems... 

My son and I finished this back in the beginning of April. As the final book in the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull, we enjoyed the somewhat ribbon tied ending. 

Kendra and Seth go to another hidden sanctuary in hopes of getting the last artifact to stop the Sphinx's schemes of opening the demon prison. The get there and find that The Evening Star is already there and are ready to bite their heals. Finding the last artifact and getting out prove extremely difficult. Seth and others get captured with Kendra and very few actually escaping. Seth, while in prison, makes new acquaintances and makes a deal with the Sphinx, while Kendra and others make a plans for a jail break. But when Seth gets out and the others become captured, thing get more complicated when Seth makes another deal with a demon and finds just how poorly those can end. Now with more demons on the loose, with new allies yet still in prison, and the list of true keys to the demon prison dying Seth, Kendra, and their comrades need to find means of stopping armies of demons from taking over the world. 

There was so much going on with this book. In looking back, there was so much jumping around from place to place that it if you weren't paying enough attention you could get lost. But I think, because it was the culmination of everything it was fitting. I do find it interesting how many final books (in series) end with a treasure hunt. Where people have to run around like crazy in order to stop the big bad because they don't have all the things they need yet. It ends up becoming a treasure hunt more than anything else--I'm looking at you HP. I while it works gathering up these odds and ends, it does get a little crazy. Also then to have the big bad finished off "fairly easily" and by two kids is kinda odd -- I get it's young YA and they went through a lot to get there, but still. 

I enjoyed the character progression over all for Kendra and Seth, though Seth had much more than Kendra did--hers I felt was lacking. I liked at the end of the book how there were questions from the author about how different Seth was in the beginning (opening windows during a solstice) to now (still getting bamboozled by a demon). He still makes mistakes, but owns up to them; and how these mistakes and his reasoning behind them changed over the course of the series. I do think it would have been nice to have Kendra need to abruptly learn new things and change for the better, but I honestly can't think of a when she did. She seems to stay the same throughout the whole series. 

I liked being able to see the different sanctuaries and fairy shrines and other important places that we get to travel. Brandon Mull has an interesting imagination to come up with some of the crazy traps and strange situations that he's able to create in the story. From Australia to Turkey to Norway. Teleportation helps a lot in order to do that. 

My son was happy with the ending and letting the world of Fablehaven chill for a bit. It was a long time reading these books. Now we're off to other worlds and adventures, but we'll probably not be too far away from Mull's other works in the future.