Review: Raven Rise (Pendragon Book Nine)

Raven Rise by D.J. MacHale

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
In the ninth installment of Bobby Pendragon's quest to save Halla from the clutches of Saint Dane, things go from crummy to worse. Mark and Courtney don't know what to believe when Saint Dane tells them that Bobby has given up the fight, don't know what they've started when Mark loses his traveler ring, and don't know what to do when they return to a Second Earth where nothing is as it once was.

These books are really interesting to me on a craft level. On the one hand, the plotting is top notch; with most of this series, I think I see the final twist coming, I usually predict one right, and then WHAM! Something comes flying in out of left field that I never anticipated. But it doesn't feel like a cheat. It's just really excellent story telling.

On the other hand, I find myself pretty much constantly annoyed with some of the actual writing. D.J. MacHale is a perfect example of telling instead of showing. What he normally does is show us something and then tell us about it. Several times. For example:

"Welcome back," he said warmly, as if he actually meant it. "I was afraid you'd miss the festivities. Close your eyes; I'll put some lights on."

What a courteous guy! He didn't want me to be uncomfortable when he flicked on the lights. How thoughtful. I'd have thanked him if I hadn't wanted to hurt him.

MacHale is trying for the easy conversationalism and sarcasm of Bobby's internal monologue, but really, he just succeeds in telling us the same thing twice. And he does it over and over and over again throughout the book. The tome's 544 pages could probably have been trimmed by a third by an editor with a canny eye. As it is, I spend a lot of time skimming with these books.

Also, his tenses bother me. Everything Bobby writes in his journals is in the past tense. Everything. Even things that are still true. If he means, "I love Coke," as in, he still loves it even when he is writing the journal, he will nevertheless say "I loved Coke," as if the love had passed. I know, it's a grammarian thing, but it bugs the heck out of me and has for all nine books.

But that's the interesting part. I still love the story. I'm still coming back for more. And I'm still REALLY disappointed that the last book of the series isn't out yet so I can run out and read it.

Definitely good for guys, especially guys who like a series they can sink their teeth into. But girls will probably like it just as much. Hooray for female characters who kick ass!


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2009

New year, new resolve to work on the book! I'm headed back to basics this month to fill in some gaps. Started out by re-reading James Smith's You Can Write a Novel, and I'm working through his basic steps for setting things up, starting with character cards.

You know what's hard? Fatal flaws are hard. I know enough from fan fiction to tell you that one sure sign of a Mary Sue is if her biggest flaw is that she's too pretty, or too nice; stupid flaws that aren't really flaws are the mark of an amateur. Fatal flaws should be, well, possibly fatal. But it's really freaking hard to come up with them.

What would your fatal flaw be if you were a character in a book? I'm not even sure about my own...

Hooray for books!

The New York Times Book Review does it's annual Children's Books Special Issue! Go find something to read!

Currently Reading:

Or, about to start reading, at any rate. I've heard great things about this book, and I've had a hold on it at the library for AGES, and it finally came in! WOO!

The Hound of Rowan

The Hound of Rowan by Henry H. Neff

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I realize that there have been stories about magical schools since long before Ms. Rowling picked up a pen, and that there will be similar stories long after, but as I was reading this particular addition to the pile, I couldn't help being stunned by the similarities. The details were all significantly different, but many of the tropes were exactly the same. Enter a magical school that likes to play tricks on its inhabitants (moving staircases?), unusual magical pets, a reformed ogre employed by the school with a soft spot for the protagonist, a big bad believed to be vanquished all these years, a magical sport the protagonist excels at… I could go on and on.



Another similarity to the first Harry Potter book is that the story didn't really get going until nearly two-thirds of the way into the book. Even then, however, I found myself having trouble really enjoying it. Every dozen pages or so, I would find myself so astounded by the audacity of the similarities to the Harry Potter books that I'd have to stop reading.



Sorry, Mr. Neff. I bet I would have loved this book a lot — if it had come out 11 years ago.


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Currently Reading:

Gurl lives in an orphanage in New York and is one of a rare few "leadfoots" who cannot fly. Not even a little bit.

But she can do something else.

When she finds a rare cat on a midnight excursion (or does the cat find her?) Gurl discovers her hidden talent.

Bug can't remember where he was before he was at the orphanage, but he knows one thing. The cat he found in the hallway chose him, not Gurl, and he wants to get it back.

Booklust

When I was a kid — I guess we'd call me a "tween" nowadays — I read voraciously, adictively. I would lock myself in a quiet place for hours and hours on end. I distinctly remember my mom chiding me one time, telling me to come out of my room and "be a person" for a while.

Probably there aren't TOO many moms who have that problem with their teenagers. ;) At least, not addicted to books.

I've been rediscovering my addiction passion lately. I've been reading the "Uglies" series by Scott Westerfield, and I CANNOT. STOP. READING.

I spent three hours yesterday finishing "Specials," the third in the series, and I went to the library today to get the fourth.

I read sixty pages when I got home, and then put it aside. I need to be a person for a while.

But it's still sitting in there.

Waiting.

Thoughts and Books

It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that I don't write when I'm unhappy. I don't do much of anything I'm "supposed" to do (exercise, eat right), but it seems particularly hard to force writing.

This past week has been something of an unhappy week for me, for various reasons. I turned to journaling to help me through it, but I didn't do much of any writing on my project.

And maybe that's OK. It seems worse to force it. It seems like it would only make me feel worse to write crap, and have to deal with the subsequent self-doubt that would emerge. I'm much better at dealing with crap when I'm feeling generally positive about the rest of my life.

~*~

On a lighter note, I finished "The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney" last week, and quite enjoyed it. It was a library read, and not something I would normally have picked up, but I am trying to broaden my horizons.

Now I'm working on "Specials" and man — why didn't I pick this up sooner? It's everything I love about scify, and well written to boot. So yay for that.