Happy New Year!
Despite having skipped a month, I’ll keep this brief. Unfortunately, there’s not to much to update readers on, despite my lofty goals for the end of 2024. Turns out having a second kid turned my whole schedule upside down. In my mind, I’d envisioned getting heaps done while on leave . . .
Regardless, I am back at work on Gaea revisions, so Mani will have a sequel in early 2025 (I apologize for continually pushing it back). I can’t wait to get it out and into readers hands, but . . . I want to get it right. There are a lot of delicate pieces in the continuity and worldbuilding that have to align, not to mention proofreading. It might not show, but it took me an embarrassingly long time to get things compiled right in Mani, and that was a much simpler book.
Another challenge has been trying to improve my characterization, because that has always been my weakest point. I think most who have read Mani would agree. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s not my opinion that matters.
While I’ve been reading all sorts of things lately, these are a couple I actually finished in the month of November:
5/5 Stars
I’ve been excited to read this novel by Nadine Brandes ever since I heard about it. Wishtress is Christian fantasy at its finest. Finally a captivating story that is as complex and well-told as it is solid in morals and symbolism. Seriously, for a 400-odd-page YA novel, this tale is intricate, weaving and twisting with every chapter. I never knew what to expect. There are no less than four villains, each with their own role in the story, their own motivations, and their own influence on the main character.
Myrthe is the Wishtress, a girl whose tears have the capacity to grant any wish. Her grandmother has abused her gift for years, and now she is old enough to choose her own way. She is a fairly typical teen female protagonist, similar in role to Alina Starkov from Shadow and Bone . . . in fact, the whole novel feels like Shadow and Bone only actually good. Maybe someday I’ll break down why I think that book is such a mess. What my least favorite YA novel got wrong in character, rooting interest, pacing, morals, and—don’t even get me started on the ending—Wishtress absolutely nails.
I really don’t like sappy books, and this is exactly that. Myrthe is so easy to sympathize with, and yet so flawed. I think what makes this book shine is that Nadine manages to highlight the flaws of her main characters and side characters (without making them unlikeable) and let them choose their own actions. Their choices often hurt them, and they don’t simply recover by believe-in-yourselfing out of it. Also, as mentioned above, the plot is shockingly dense with tons of unexpected turns. The worldbuilding is solid, just magical enough to lend it charm while being just grounded enough to work.
While I didn’t necessarily agree with every point the author was trying to make (though the book is more contemplative than dogmatic), it wasn’t enough for me to dock it any stars. The ending almost threatened to drag, but it was bombastic enough that I was having fun the whole way. I will say there were a couple of somewhat adult references and heavy themes that would kick the book up to older teen in my book rather than younger teen, but that’s up for debate.
Five out of five stars, what can I say? I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s a near-perfect novel.
4.5/5 Stars
Book Two in The Faithful and the Fallen series by John Gwynne, which I’m still loving (almost done with Book Three). Valor definitely takes things from YA to very heavy YA or adult, depending on one’s standards. The lighter atmosphere and optimism that stayed through most of Malice are entirely gone, and while I would not call it grimdark, there are definitely precious few warm moments in this installment.
Overall, the character work and storytelling is impressive. Things start off with a bang and the pacing never even shudders. I don’t know how he weaves in as many characters and storylines as he does while managing to keep total cohesion. As with the first book, my only issue on that count would be the occasional hesitation when I got to a new chapter from a more minor character’s viewpoint and had to remember who in the world they were. I’d chalk this up to me listening to it on audiobook, though the large cast can certainly be daunting.
One complaint . . . I’m going to be honest. I don’t understand Gwynne’s fascination with including so many warrior women characters. This is the reason I dropped his newest series. It was fine in Malice, but there were a fair number of warrior women characters either introduced in Valor or reappointed as warrior characters in the story. Individually, they’re all great characters, it just feels . . . odd. He’s so detail-oriented regarding the medieval history, nations and technology that inspired these books that it just feels so out-of-place when eeeevery culture that is not the main character’s happens to be so egalitarian.
Four and a half stars. I’m excited to see where the last two books lead.
Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Let’s see what the new year brings!
— Jacob Gamber