Bethany Fletcher (17 KP) rated Beyond a Darkened Shore in Books
Jun 25, 2018
The book opens straight up with a raid. This is great as it shows us Ciara’s abilities and lets us get a feel for the story to come and our characters in general. But then it didn’t live up to this great introduction. There are plenty of action sequences, battles for Dubhlinn, battles with giants, battles with sea serpents, battles with gods, but they were all so short. Seriously almost every battle was over in about three-four pages. It felt like the author had all these great ideas and then didn’t know how to execute them.
The mythology. I was excited for this book as it was a mixture of Celtic and Norse mythology. It definitely had these elements but maybe too much? There were gods and goddesses, fairy tunnels, each-uisch, giants, magic, the wild hunt, sea serpents, Valhalla, these would have all been fine if they had a purpose. Most of these things appear for 5 pages and then are never mentioned again. It read like the author was trying to throw all of the mythology she knew at us and was trying so hard to prove, Look! Magic is real in this world. It wasn’t all necessary.
The characters. I loved Ciara. She stood up for herself, she didn’t care what anyone else thought, she was strong and independent.
Leif. I liked him to start. He was sassy, sarcastic, he stood up for those he thought were getting mistreated. But then, he did some things that made me seriously question his judgement. There is a scene where Ciara cannot sleep so decides to go and find the Viking mage. When she walks into the room full of drunk Viking men on of them attempts to rape her. Leif does help but then blames her for it saying she shouldn’t have put herself in a dangerous situation. Ciara immediately calls him out and says it’s not my fault I almost got raped because I am female. He quickly tries to backtrack but she is having none of it. This made me love Ciara more and start to question Leif.
Another questionable scene is after Ciara finds out something drastic about Leif’s family. She is understandably upset and leaves. Leif proceeds to chase her, threaten to break down her door and then forces himself on her when she opens it. Again Ciara shuts him down asking how her dare kiss her at that moment. He simply wanted her and didn’t want her to be angry. HOW ABOUT DON’T FORCE YOURSLEF ON HER THEN IDIOT?
The ending. The ending felt so rushed. Seriously we fight the giants and goddesses, sail all the way back to Ireland, have another battle and get established back at Ciara’s home all wishing about 50 pages. It was so rushed. Like the writer was nearing a page count and couldn’t go over or something.
Having said all of this I did really enjoy reading the book. It didn’t take very long was a pleasant reading experience. If it sounds like something you would like then go check it out.
Set in present day, it follows Jon Keller, an American Historian, and his fellow guests at a hotel in Switzerland, following a nuclear war. Pretty much every major city in the world has been bombed. The majority of guests have left, trying to get back to their homes even thought the media has advised them against doing so (no aeroplanes, no public transport). Jon and a small group of other guests decide to stay and make the best of it.
Whilst checking water supplies in the roof storage tanks, they find the body of a child, and Jon decides to investigate.
The book is written in Jon's voice as he writes a diary, a history, of his and the other guests survival, and his investigation.
I really liked this. It wasn't sensationalised, it all seemed so reasonable, and in our current worldwide political climate, so plausible - which is what made it really scary. It did have a bit of the "Huis Clos" (a play by Jean Paul Sartre) feeling about it: a feeling of being trapped with the same day coming around again and again, no escape, stuck with the same people that you neither particularly like or trust. And I liked that about it.
By the way, in the advent of a nuclear holocaust, Switzerland would seem to be a pretty civilised place to be 'stuck'.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for the copy of this book to read and review!
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ClareR (5854 KP) rated The Wolf in the Whale in Books
Aug 18, 2019
Omat lives in 1000AD, a young Inuit Shaman, and neither male nor female (actually, she took on her fathers soul at birth and is raised as a boy - a hunter and a shaman). There is loads of detail about how life was lived by the Inuit at the beginning of the last century(and I loved this detail), and I learnt so much about their spiritual lives, their Gods and the expectations of men and women. When Omat menstruates for the first time, it heralds the end of her life as a man and a shaman. She is married off to another Inuit who is passing through and promises to help her tribe. The thing is, he has two other wives, and he’s just not a nice person. When a group of Vikings wipe out the group of Inuit that she has married in to, Omat survives and realises that they have captured her cousin. She vows to find and free him. On her journey, she rescues three wolfdogs and saves the life of a Viking who reluctantly joins her on her quest.
I was so immersed in this wonderful story. I loved the style it was written in, I loved Omat’s voice. The magic and beliefs were fascinating, and my heart was in my mouth during the hunting scenes (men catching and killing huge Caribou and whales using flint weapons!). And the ending was just right.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this wonderful book to read and review honestly.
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