Book Review: Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood

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I was given a free review copy of this book in exchange for this review.

This book is a first person narrative revolving around a female character named Ilan. She is a young magicker and unfortunately the Praetor has ordered their cleansing. As such Ilan loses her parents and she has to travel to another village to be with others like herself. On the way there the cart Ilan is travel in is attacked by bandits and she is the lone survivor of the attack. Ilan grows up with the bandits, but since they don’t possess magic Ilan has to figure out her magic on her own. During her time there Ilan inadvertently discovers a traveling magicker who offers her a chance to learn about her powers and to develop them. But to do so she has to leave her bandit home, a choice that would lead her to be hunted by the bandits themselves and killed before she could tell of their hiding places.

The book is short and feels like the beginnings of a much larger book. There are other books planned to follow, but part of me wishes the next book could have just been added to this one. Still the descriptions the author uses in this book are wonderful. There’s just enough to help you picture the world without it being overwhelming.

I didn’t realize that Ilan’s true birth name was never mentioned in the book. It took a re-reading to confirm this fact, a testament to the author’s skill to word things so I didn’t take note of it at the time. (The name Ilan is given to her by the leader of the bandit camp, since she refused to speak and give her name.)

Ilan makes some mistakes in the book that made me wince. I’m not sure if it’s because of her personality, or some bout of rebelliousness brought about during her teen years. However it was refreshing to read a character making mistakes and having the face the consequences of them.

I have always loved a good medieval fantasy book and this quenched my appetite very nicely. I’m eager for the next book to see what happens next. The magical bow presented at the end seems like a very interesting concept that I’m looking forward to the author expanding on, along with finding out what Ilan’s magical abilities will fully become.

In summary it’s a very good start of hopefully a longer story. ★ ★ ★ ★

Book Review: Soulbound by Heather Brewer

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This review is based off an advance reading copy and thus an uncorrected text version of this title. The ACR was given to me in exchange for this review.


Soulbound book cover		 ISBN: 9780803737235
Publisher: Dial Books
Length: 394 pages
Release Date: Jun 19, 2012
Genre: Young Adult

Story:

It is the world of Tril. In this world exists the Unskilled (normal people) and the Skilled, their ‘worlds’ intentionally kept separate. Among the Skilled are Barons and Healers. Barons and Healers are soulbound to each other upon birth. They are born at the same time, and take their first breath at the same time.

A war has been raging in Tril, brought on by King Darrek. Twice a brutal battle took place in Wood’s Cross, each of these battles twenty years apart. Barons lost their soulbound Healers, the pain of this breaking leaving emotional scars on the Barons. Some Barons are re-bound to a new Healer. Two problems exist though: One, bound Healers can’t heal as well as their soulbound counterparts. Two, several Healers have died, mostly in thanks to the monsters known as Graplars that are trained to hunt and kill Healers. Many Barons still go around without a Healer bound to them, soul-wise or not.

Kaya Oshiro was born a Healer. Her parents are both Barons. Unfortunately in the world of Tril it is forbidden for a Baron to have a relationship with another Baron. So Kaya has been raised near an Unskilled village, her family blending in with the population, hoping to escape notice from the Barron-run Zettai Council. Her world is thrown into chaos when her friend is killed from a Graplar and a letter from the Zettai Council arrives at her home. Kaya is welcomed to Shadow Academy, a school for both Barons and Healers. She has no choice but to accept and report at the school in three days, or the Council will ensure that she attends by punishing or perhaps killing her parents for their forbidden relationship.

Upon arriving at the school Kaya discovers a mentality from both the Skilled’s overall Protocol and attitudes of some people at the school that is dismissive towards Healers. Healers are there to stand by if their Baron needs their healing assistance and not much more. And Healers are forbidden to learn how to fight. But Kaya wants to be able to defend herself and her loved ones against Graplar attacks. Kaya has no choice but to learn how to fight in secret. The only choices are Trayton, the Baron she is bound to (Kaya’s soulbound Baron has unfortunately died.), or Darius, the Unskilled man who teaches the Barons how to fight at Shadow Academy.

Meanwhile somehow Graplars are getting into Shadow Academy, a school surrounded by a wall and gates protected by Barons. Kaya gets attacked by a Graplar late one night, and one of her friends gets attacked another night. While Barons look for weaknesses on the outside of the wall, Kaya decides to search the inside for a weakness. She tries to figure out how the Graplars are getting inside before someone inside the school grounds gets killed.

Review:

I enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to get into and just as easy to get hooked into it. It was one of those books that I had a hard time of putting down. I kept looking forward to breaks at work or free time at home to delve into the world to Tril again. And it ends with one heck of a scene that left me wondering what will happen next. (I must read book two.)

I liked the soulbound concept between Barons and Healers, it was the reason this book caught my eye. Since there is a war going on, most of what the reader observes about this link is Barons who have lost their soulbound Healers and still years later suffer anguish over it. Even one of the main characters, a Baron named Trayton, lost his soulbound healer. Trayton fell into a depression over her loss. His family is hoping that binding Trayton to a new Healer (Kaya) will help him recover. Trayton does develop feelings for Kaya, however I wonder if Trayton truly loves Kaya, or is he actually still going through the motions and unconsciously fools himself into believing he’s in love.

I had a few minor issues with the book. I wish there wasn’t such an oppressive attitude towards Healers. If a war is killing Healers, especially a large amount in the vicinity of the school, you’d think at least the people at Shadow Academy would appreciate them more. Why does this mentality against Healers exist? Especially since Barons seem to go through a lot of mental anguish when their soulbound Healer dies. While I understand this is written here to give something for Kaya to protest against, I feel the reasons behind why aren’t explained beyond outright discrimination. I guess this just bugged me a bit, but I still loved the story regardless. I’m hoping as I progress through future books that this all gets explained more.

Another issue I had was a couple of times in the beginning of the book that it dipped into what I’ll call modern day teenage speak. For example using the phrase, “which I totally was.” It yanked me out of the immersion of the story and perhaps could have been adjusted. Another even more minor was when Kaya thought, “Um, duh” in response to a character saying the obvious. That wasn’t so bad, but still it felt a tad out of place. Those are the only times I recall being a bit jarred out of the story. The rest of it flowed nicely and I still have many mental images in my mind still floating around. I can quickly recall images of Kaya’s and Trayton’s rooms, the dining area, and Kaya taking care of the roses.

One last minor complaint is that I wish this book had some maps. A map of the area where Kaya grew up, of Shadow Academy, and of the world itself, would have been nice. Perhaps they’ll be in the next book, I hope?

To sum up despite my issues mentioned above, I would very much enjoy re-reading this book and walking through the world of Tril again. There’s some romance in it, but it isn’t the overall theme. There is a bit of a love triangle going on, however it’s not the sort that Kaya obviously has a crush over two guys. If anything it seems like Kaya is trying to sort out her feelings over just one of them. The other guy is involved in part of her life but not in a romantic way. Kaya thinks the other guy is good looking, but they verbally clash when they’re together.

It will be interesting to see if Trayton’s viewpoint on Protocol evolves and expands over the series. I wouldn’t want him to be too by the book as the story progresses, especially with people around him going counter to it.

I hope the next book expands into the details of the war. I would like more information about King Darrek and his army. I also hope more details about the world, about the reasons behind the rules of Protocol, and so on are flushed out. ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodbye rabbit and good riddance.

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“Well, we’ll not risk another frontal assault. That rabbit’s dynamite.” King Arthur from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

When I heard the Year of the Rabbit was going to be a slow year, I immediately had my doubts. When have you ever heard of a rabbit being slow? And I was right..

As I type this I’m dealing with a terrible stomach bug that I’ve had since Thursday. I’ve restricted my diet in hopes that will help it out. So it’s saltines, apple sauce, rice, and jello for me. Yay..

In this Rabbit Year I’ve had the worst head cold of my life. I also had a wisdom tooth removal that didn’t heal well. Wonder why I stopped blogging about it? Because the next day (7?) when I returned to the oral surgeon, one area of my gum had swelled shut and had to be reopened so it could be rinsed out. It was a level 10 pain, a level of pain which I had previously reserved for broken bones and childbirth. I told what happened to another oral surgeon and watched him visibly wince. You know it’s bad when someone in the profession winces.

I’ve still been having sinus issues. Lately I’ve been having jaw pain on my left side by the jaw joint and left ear pain. I’ve been grinding due to stress and have some gum receding going on so quite a few of my teeth are extremely sensitive right now. Tomorrow morning I’m due to have 3 fillings done. I have no idea which teeth or where in my mouth. Three fillings is enough information for me. It won’t be fun. I always get completely exhausted later in the day. I don’t know if it’s from the anesthesia, the trauma, or both. Hopefully though it’s the last of the filling work that I need to have done. At this point I just want it over with. On Tuesday afternoon I go to see an ENT again about my facial pain for further examination. Since I always get sinus issues on my left side anyway, this will hopefully prove informative as to why and what I can do to prevent these issues.

I had a whole heck of a lot of stress due to my mother’s failing health. On my birthday she had a breakdown and had to be hospitalized for 2 weeks. They would only let her go to an assisted living facility. She’s that bad. Depression, anxiety, and paranoia. Which explains why she would frantically call my husband and I when she couldn’t get a hold of my brother who lived near her. And why every time it was an emergency that she needed help with NOW. And she calls someone who is a 10 hr drive away.. She couldn’t understand that I couldn’t really help. I can’t do anything in an emergency. Of course later it was discovered it wasn’t an emergency, it was her panicking. My brother was there most if not every day of the week tending to each ’emergency’ she had. Before the breakdown my mom went to the ER 3 or 4 times in 1 week. *sighs* Even now it’s difficult to describe the pressure my mother put on us and stressed us out. My health took a huge tumble and I started having nightly anxiety attacks myself. Fortunately that’s stopped and I’ve been attack free for weeks. *Knocks on wood.*

And that’s why this year’s resolution is simply more “Me” time. Last year I was sideswiped way too many times. Blows came at me like I was playing dodge ball and Fate always had possession of the ball. WHAM! Something unexpected happen. I try to plan for things to not get hit again. WHAM! Hit by something I didn’t expect. WHAM! Hit by something else I couldn’t have possibly expected. And so on. I started to wonder how long this was going to keep going on and how many times could I pull myself up again. I got a bit depressed myself because things kept happening pretty much every weekend, every other if I was lucky. I didn’t get much of a break to get any sort of breather. Eventually you get tired of playing and I wanted to just be left alone for a good while.

During this time I took a class in Fundamentals of Website Design. I got an A+ in the class. Don’t ask me how the heck that happened. I worked my butt off relearning HTML and learning CSS. I’m proud I did so very well, but I’m taking a breather from any other classes until my health finally resolves and I get some major recouping time.

So yeah it hasn’t been a good year no matter what calendar I look at. All I hoping for is that the Year of the Dragon holds some promise of things getting better. I would like to see things turning around in my life soon. I’m tired of being sick, tired of doctor appointments, tired of reworking my schedule to make up lost time from those appointments, tired of burning through the very little that’s left of my sick time since I ate so much of it up last year. I just want to be healthy, happy, and get my quiet life back. Though right now I’d take the healthy so I can finally start getting in some much needed exercise and get stuff done.

Ding! Life Level 34

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhMQ0zsMpGk&w=420&h=315]

Fair warning: contains much ranting.

The thing with my birthday falling near the end of the year is that I get to reflect on how this year has been. And it’s been the equivalent of a Hell Level. Looking back I see all the things I wanted to accomplish, and all the things I just didn’t.

The major problem this year was illness, either illness I had or illness in the family.

I got really sick the beginning of this year, which lead me to finally get those wisdom teeth yanked out. Well that didn’t go well so I was knocked out with that. Add various illnesses and so on.

My father had back surgery last year and the recovery didn’t go well. This year it was my mother getting ill. The problem is she complains to me and asks for my help and I live a couple of states away. Least to say I can’t give any help except advice. The problem there is my mom isn’t taking the advice, she’s complaining about it. My brother who lives near her has to force her to appointments and he likens it to “pulling teeth.” And even when she gets there.. well.. the latest one she refused to take a test she needed and was required by her doctor to do. As for meds, if she gets any reaction she associates it with the medicine and stops taking it. So she’s refusing to do anything to help herself really get better and there’s nothing we can do. That’s especially true for me, and I’m having to come to terms with that. If she wants to drive her health into the ground, sadly I fear that might be literally, I can’t do anything about it.

I tried to go for a Japanese Language class this year at the college where I work. I went through all the admission steps and kept striving forward. However the pace was just.. woah. by the end of the 2nd week of class the teacher was to have the first test in Katakana. Plus we had to start going to a language lab to record ourselves repeating oral practices in Japanese.

Now I have a long commute, and an hour lunch. So with all that I’m gone from home literally 12 hours a day Monday through Friday. And I have to make up time I miss for class and do that on the day I have class. So least to say my free time weekdays is very little. To be able to study, practice lessons in the book, learn Katakana, AND go to a language lab on campus to practice (again and make up the time I miss at work).. Yeah that’s not going to happen.

I used a Tuition Assistance Program (aka TAP) to help pay for the class. The terms of it is though that you can only sign up a week before classes start, and can only withdraw from the class at the end of the first week of classes. By Wednesday the teacher in the Japanese class had warned that if you aren’t keeping up then, you should withdraw. They’ve failed people out of the class. Now I loved the challenge of it, but my work life makes me tackling that pace impossible. So on Wednesday in the first week of classes I switched to a Fundamentals of Website Design course.

The good news is the website design course is just what I wanted. My knowledge of HTML was outdated and I’ve been using depreciated code. My knowledge of CSS was pretty much non-existent. Thanks to that class I’ve gotten better at both things and I’m eager to continue learning more about what I can do with CSS. So while I didn’t learn Japanese this year like I wanted to, my website design skills improved instead. Eh. You win some, you lose some.

So I got a class I enjoyed and plowed away at assignments any night that I had the time. However any breathing time was sucked out by my mother calling and complaining some more and being very needy. I mean it’s gotten really bad. She’s been wishing she could live by me, which I tell her is not possible. When I told her of my time I dedicate to my job her response was, “We’d still have the weekends.” I was floored. Really? Weekends? The only time I get to do anything like oh grocery shopping, laundry, spending time with my husband, unwinding…. Now it’s she wishes we lived in the condo with her so we would be there 24/7, completely ignoring the fact we could in fact care for her 24/7. She doesn’t recognize at all that we have our own adult lives and responsibilities. My mom just sees when people aren’t there for her the moment she needs them and complains.

My health started failing due to all the stress. I got the worst headache in my life, started getting anxiety attacks, etc. I finally sought counseling on campus to help me deal with this. I’ve been learning how to protect myself from the stress. Emotionally protecting myself is going to be the hardest. I also haven’t been emotionally and spiritually taking care of myself and replenishing myself. (Thus the stress and health issues.) So I need to work on that too. (Note: Any recommendations on relaxation music like music set to sounds of the ocean, music to a garden, etc is most welcome right now!)

So in general it feels like my whole year had pretty much been abducted and I wanted it back. I just hope this next year goes a lot better. I think I’ll need to focus on time for me this coming year. Again recommendations on how to do this with such a hectic schedule are most welcome. I’m not taking a class spring semester so at least I’ll have that time back to focus on me.

So, blah! 33 is behind me and I’m shelving it right away. I’m focusing on a new year where I help myself get better in every possible way.

My Life as a Book

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If your life story was a book, what would it be titled? What would its chapter titles be? (Topic from The Imagination Prompt Generator.)

Title: Dreams Deferred

  • Early Christmas gift : a daughter is finally born
  • Sibling ups and downs
  • Childhood friendships
  • Morning coffee routine : the bond between father & daughter
  • Catholic school or how I learned to fear the ruler
  • The bond with grandma & grandfather’s painting legacy
  • Have you heard of Japan?
  • Going to public school : meeting my best friend
  • All the curses I need to know I learned in Junior High
  • Sometimes Akira ISN’T the best way to introduce someone to anime
  • High school is the innermost circle of Hell
  • Dad’s home early. What’s a pink slip?
  • Ronin Warriors : love of anime rekindled
  • College life
  • An anime fansite is born
  • Music Department Work Study
  • Changing majors repeatedly
  • My world is shaken as my grandmother dies
  • Summer school and my first library job
  • Cataloging Student Assistant
  • Mom rejects my new career choice
  • Meeting my future husband
  • A year of Japanese
  • Graduation and moving to New Hampshire
  • Bookseller or yes ALL calendars are on sale
  • First cataloging job out of college
  • 9/11
  • Moving 50 miles away from my job
  • Future husband’s job loss & the start of his diabetes
  • The debt builds & the cursed car
  • The promised land of Georgia
  • Job promises fall through
  • Moving out of New England. At least it’s snowing on my birthday..
  • Trying to get my foot back in the door, and failing
  • Temp work
  • My first full-time cataloging job
  • What is Dragon*Con & JapanFest?
  • The economy tanks, again
  • Heath issues..
  • OMG! Delicious Japanese food, Korean bakeries, & Asian supermarkets. I’m in Heaven!
  • Future husband can’t find a better job because he’s paid too much?
  • Seattle & Sakura-con
  • Marriage : So long and thanks for all the fish
  • Finally my husband gets a good job
  • The head cold & wisdom teeth surgery from Hell
  • Dear Rabbit: I thought this was supposed to be a slow year!!
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