Series

Sally Lockhart Trilogy by Philip Pullman
I recently read Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart trilogy: The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, and The Tiger in the Well. The Tin Princess is a related title; I have it on Mt. TBR. Set in Victorian England, the books tell the story of Sally and her various adventures as an independent woman. Chock full of mystery, they offer murder, kidnapping, and an occasionally happy interlude.

The Sally Lockhart books aren't nearly as good as the His Dark Materials books. I'd been told as much and came prepared. I did, however, think The Ruby in the Smoke was a promising start to a series. When I started The Shadow in the North I was disappointed. I didn't like the huge gap between the stories. I wish that Pullman had given his readers a look at Sally's life in those intervening years. While following Sally set up her business and grown into her own woman might not lead to page-turning suspense, it would have been a welcome respite from the gloom and doom of the mysteries as written. The same goes for the gap between books two and three.

Study books by Maria V. Snyder
On another note, while I was away on my mini-vacation I read the first two Study books: Poison Study and Magic Study. They came to be highly recommended and I was not disappointed.

Poison Study is Maria V. Snyder's debut novel and it is fantastic. Set in a fantastical world, it follows Yelena, a young woman who becomes the food taster for a military dictator after being sentenced to death for a murder she did in fact commit. A journey of discovery, Poison Study offers magic, mystery, and suspense (with a side of romance). Best of all, we continue to learn about both the Snyder's fantastical world and Yelena herself in Magic Study.

While the books are on the violent side, one can't help but become completely invested in Yelena and her personal struggles. The third book in the series, Fire Study, is out now and I hope to pick up a copy soon.

my daemon

I'm not crazy about having a spider as my daemon, but I took the test twice (once when I first heard about the test and a second time when a friend told me about the cool change-your-friend's-daemon feature) and ended up with a spider both times (my first one was named Inachus) and it seems that it's meant to be. Feel free to see if you can't change the daemon to better suit me.

If you haven't read my comments on The Golden Compass, check out this post.

book clubbing in March

This month my book club discussed The Golden Compass, the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

The Golden Compass is a young adult book that can definitely appeal to adults as well. Everyone in my book club enjoyed the book, even those you generally shy away from fantasy and young adult books.

I think one of the things that sets The Golden Compass apart is how Pullman is able to present this wonderfully complex world, one that is very much not our own, but that bears enough resemblance that things feel familiar. One of Pullman's best inventions is the daemon, a physical manifestation of each character's soul in animal form (when the characters are children their daemons are continually changing form, at puberty the daemons set for life).

The Golden Compass includes a wonderful array of characters -- including witches, child-stealing "Gobblers", armored bears, absentee parents, evil scientists, and ship-going gypsies -- and an interesting plot.

The novel is a page turner and readers quickly become invested in protagonist Lyra and her quest. Once I read The Golden Compass, I had to continue the series so I also read The Subtle Knife (definitely the second book in a trilogy, somewhat disappointing) and The Amber Spyglass (a good conclusion to the series, satisfying).

If you haven't read these books, I'd encourage you to pick them up. They're not perfect, but they are good reading. I don't want to say too much more for fear of giving too much away (I had to zip my lips a bit at the book club meeting precisely because of that). A few more descriptive words should suffice: unique, subversive, enchanting...