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Title: A Calculus of Angels
Author: J. Gregory Keyes

Thoughts: It was with this book that I realized that this quartet was not as engaging as other books I have read in the past. I only vaguely care about the characters and honestly, the plot is not pulling me in at all. Oh, it’s not that the book is horrible, it’s just boring and tedious at points.

Yes, I was bored by it. Sometimes I wonder if the reason I keep reading this quartet is to see if Adrienne and Crecy finally end up declaring their love for each other since there’s a lot of tension between those two. I like Crecy and she doesn’t appear nearly enough in the book. She just plays second string to Adrienne and I just want to know more about Crecy and her past because any woman who can fight and pass as a man in a time where it was rare is an awesome woman to me.

The only other character that I’m certain that I like is Red Shoes because I’m curious about him and his view of the spirit world. I guess I’m also curious about the beings of the aether as well. It’s just that the information is only given a little bit at a time and for the most part, it’s hard to understand. I know that’s likely deliberate to keep people reading, but it still is annoying to one who wants to know things. In fact, sometimes there’s a huge info dump and then nothing for an extremely frustrating long time. I just want to know, much like Adrienne in the book.

It took me forever to read this book, mostly because I’m kinda addicted to playing World of Warcraft as of late and this book just didn’t pull my attention enough to get me off of the computer to read it. It just didn’t give me a “must finish” vibe as I often get with books I like.

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Title: Newton’s Cannon
Author: J. Gregory Keyes

Thoughts: This book reminded me a lot of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, in that the alternate history and science feels very similar to Lyra’s world (now, I speak of the books only - I have not seen The Golden Compass). They both have the same feeling of an era that shouldn’t have the technology it has yet it does. Also, both have angels involved, but I’m not quite sure yet what role they will play in this quartet.

It’s such a strange story because it uses historical figures that many have heard of, yet the situations are so very different from what the truth is in our own history and it feels so very out of sync with things to me. This dissonance made the book interesting, yet it really bothered me on some level because I know Benjamin Franklin’s life did not go the way that it does in this book and while I probably do need to brush up on my knowledge of 17th and 18th century Europe, things feel off there too. Of course, I think that’s the point, but I’m a history major and I tend to like historical fantasies that kinda follow the events that we are familiar with in our own history, just with magic working in the background. I just don’t like playing so fast and loose with history. I would rather create my own world instead.

In this novel, alchemy is often referred to as a science, which as a concept I find interesting (an anime that I like does this as well). However much of the “scientific” talk was confusing as they did not use the scientific terms we use here. Often, instead of trying to understand what was being said at times, I sometimes just end u skimming the whole thing. It would’ve been useful to have a sort of glossary in the back of the book, saying what terms corresponded to our terms or what were the various contraptions mentioned in the book.

In all, an enjoyable novel, albeit a bit confusing at times.

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Title: Deep Secret
Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Thoughts: I love Diana Wynne Jones’s work and this book was no exception. What I liked the most about this book was that a significant portion of it takes place during a SF convention. I wonder if maybe some of the people and/or events at the convention are exaggerations of things that the author herself has witnessed. I imagine that there can be author rivalries or just crazy shenanigans going on in general at these things. I’ve never been to any convention, so I can’t vouch for any of this, but I would still like to attend one some day.

I also liked the use of the “To Babylon” nursery rhyme (it made me also realize that this is likely also the inspiration for the Babylon candles in Neil Gaiman’s Stardust). Also, I found Andrew and who he eventually turned out to be incredibly amusing. In fact, I found the entire book to be rather amusing and engaging.

I identified a lot with Maree in someways and really, I was rooting for her the entire time because in the end, she turned out to be more awesome than what Rupert first thought upon meeting her, especially once you start reading the parts written from her point of view.

There’s likely a lot more I can say about this book, but I think I’ll end here.

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Title: Tahn
Author: L.A. Kelly

Thoughts: Now, I would usually not read a book such as this one as I do not make a habit of reading books that are overtly Christian. It’s a genre that I usually do not find appealing. I don’t mind stuff that has covert Christian elements as I love C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. I’m just not used to reading stuff about God’s forgiveness in a fictional context (ironic considering that a novel I’m working on, my main character actually has similar feelings to Tahn and his Christian faith helps him out in end, but I don’t plan on having Christianity as much in the forefront as this book does).

However, despite the overt Christian theme (which I did know of from reading the author’s note before reading the book), I liked the book. I’m basically a sucker for redemption stories, I just usually don’t read them within this context. I also like the pseudo-medieval setting. I tend to read a lot of fantasy novels and a significant number in that genre take place in such settings, so it’s a type of place I’m familiar with even if this is not a fantasy novel (as evidenced by it’s lack of magic, dragons, and willowy elves). I don’t know what genre this is, but I wouldn’t say it’s fantasy because it doesn’t have the typical aspects that would categorize something as fantasy nor is it historical fiction as the author herself says. The best that I could describe it as is that it’s Christian fiction.

I did not find reading this book to be a waste of my time as it has given me some things to think about when it comes to my own writing, particularly one of my planned novels.

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