The Water Mirror
(The Dark Reflections trilogy, Book 1)
Kai Meyer
Simon Pulse
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***
DESCRIPTION: Merle's young life, since being found as a newborn floating in a canal of Venice, has been spent mostly at a dismal orphanage, but she's about to leave that life behind. The elderly mirror maker Arcimboldo, expelled from his guild for rumors of dark magic, has taken her on as an apprentice, and even a master of such dubious reputation has to be better than where she's been. Not that Venice itself is the great city it once was: for thirty years, it has been cut off from the outside world, surrounded by the resurrected Egyptian Pharaoh's army with its mummy soldiers and flying, sun-powered skybarks, against which even Venice's stone lion guardians are as good as helpless. Only the mysterious Flowing Queen, a force alive within the very canals and linked, somehow, to the mermaids of the nearby seas, has kept the army at bay, but even that protection cannot last forever. Shortly into her apprenticeship, Merle stumbles across a plot by some of the city councilors to betray the Flowing Queen and sell Venice to the Pharaoh. The mystery of Arcimboldo's enchanted mirrors, the question of her own past, and the riddle of the Flowing Queen catch Merle up in an adventure that shake the very foundations of what she knows as reality.
REVIEW: Meyer presents a unique and magical version of turn-of-the-century Venice, in a world where stone lions are bred to serve city guards, mummies and priestly sacrifices power a malevolent Egyptian army in its bloody march across the known world, and Hell is not only a known subterranean nation but sends demonic emissaries regularly to court the populace with promises of protection. In truth, he presents perhaps a few too many ideas to track here, piling mystery atop conundrum atop riddle and enigma, angling not just to create an alternate Earth but to call into question the very nature of Heaven, Hell, and Reality itself. That's just a bit too much to pile on one's plate, even if he has three books to play with, but then I tend to recoil from any book which purports to unravel the Meaning of the Universe. Some of the concepts in The Dark Mirror cannot help but be so grand as to seem less like knowable elements of the story and more like tricks the author can pull out of his hat when needed to either move the tale along or snarl it up. That said, Merle's tale picked up fairly quickly and - for the most part - kept moving, though I never once lost sight of the fact that it was only the first third of a larger tale; I knew most of the mysteries she found would simply be questions left hanging without hope of an answer, which grew a bit wearisome. She proved a decent enough heroine nonetheless, not particularly outstanding but adequate for the task at hand. I might consider reading the next part if I find it deeply discounted, as I found this volume.
You might also enjoy:
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - An angry boy's act of vandalism plunges him into the invisible war between London's statues and gargoyles)
The Thief Lord (Cornelia Funke, YA Fiction - Two runaway orphans come to Venice, join a band of young thieves, and become part of a hunt for a magical artifact)
The Piratica series (Tanith Lee, YA Fiction - A headstrong teenage girl in an alternate-history world sets out to become an honorable pirate queen)
The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman, YA? Fiction - A girl in alternate-world Oxford discovers a church-led conspiracy and hidden evidence of other universes)
The Death Gate Cycle (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Fiction - Long ago, a great race of wizards split the world into elemental realms; now, their rivals, hardened by generations in a living magical prison, seek to claim them)
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Bloody Jack
(A Bloody Jack Adventure, Book 1)
L. A. Meyer
Harcourt
Fiction, YA Historical Fiction/Adventure
*****
DESCRIPTION: In 18th century London, when young Mary Faber's family died in a plague, she was left to fend for herself on the streets of London, joining a gang of displaced children who lived by begging, theft, and selling corpses to ever-eager doctors looking for dissection practice. But Mary has plans, and using her luck and the little book-learning her late teacher father handed off before his death, she makes a bid for freedom on the open seas as "Jack," a ship's boy on the HMS Dolphin. For two years, she'll be hunting pirates, visiting exotic ports-of-call, making friends and enemies... and trying to hide her gender. It was hard enough with just the sailors and the officers, coupled with her own fiery temper, but it becomes complicated as her body matures - and she starts to notice James, a well-born fellow ship's boy, more than "Jack" ought to.
REVIEW: At first, the grammar threw me. Meyer writes Mary/Jack's story first-person with a fair degree of period street slang, but as the story progressed I got the hang of it, and Meyer eased off on the worst of it. Mary has some fine adventures and a fair bit of snap to her story, managing to lift it above the somewhat stereotypical girl- as-a-sailor tale which it could've so easily become. There's a dark undercurrent to some of her tale, as well, fitting the dismal life of a street girl in London and a sailor hunting bloodthirsty pirates on the high seas; a fair bit is implied without unnecessary detail, and I expect some readers will overlook it altogether. The ending, however, feels exceptionally awkward; I suspect that it was cropped by the editors unnaturally for the sake of the sequel. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and hope I can find the second book in paperback someday, if only to find out what happens. (I've seen the third book out, and the fourth in hardcover, but the local Barnes & Noble seems bound and determined never to stock the second one when it knows I'm coming to look.)
You might also enjoy:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi, YA Fiction - A highborn young lady on a trans-Atlantic voyage is accused of murder)
The Dragonslayer's Apprentice (David Calder, YA Fiction - A girl is determined to become a dragonslayer)
The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series (Elizabeth Haydon, YA Fiction - In a magical world, a boy who yearns for adventure gets more than he bargained for)
The Piratica series (Tanith Lee, YA Fiction - A headstrong teenage girl in an alternate-history world sets out to become an honorable pirate queen)
The Song of the Lioness quartet (Tamora Pierce, YA Fiction - In the magical land of Tortall, the girl Alanna poses as a boy to train as a knight)
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - A headstrong princess in a fairy-tale world gets tired of being "proper" and runs away to live with dragons)
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The Curse of the Blue Tattoo
(A Bloody Jack Adventure, Book 2)
L. A. Meyer
Harcourt
Fiction, YA Historical Fiction/Adventure
****
DESCRIPTION: Mary “Jack” Faber, known to her mates as Jacky, escaped near-certain death on the streets of London by posing as a boy aboard the HMS Dolphin. Found out at last after the pirate captain LeFievre tried to hang her, Jacky was put ashore in Boston. Her share of the prize money for the notorious pirate’s capture now pays her way at the prestigious Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls, where the well-to-do send their daughters to learn the fine art of ladyship. Though she still dreams of running her own shipping company, Jacky always thought it would be nice to be a lady – and her future fiancé, the ever-so-well-bred Midshipman James Fletcher of the Dolphin, would naturally expect a refined and proper wife – so perhaps this detour in her life is for the best. At least she has a roof over her head, clean clothes on her back, and three meals a day in her belly, which puts her miles ahead of her old hardscrabble life in London. Of course, becoming a lady isn’t nearly as easy as she thought it would be, especially when her own headstrong ways and rebellious whims land her in trouble almost from the start… but “Bloody” Jack Faber is nothing if not resourceful.
REVIEW: A slight ratings dip from the previous book, but I still enjoyed it. Jacky proves a force to be reckoned with, by high society and Bostonian lowlifes alike, but her plans in all levels of society seem to go wrong for her at least as often as they go right. The ongoing correspondence (or lack thereof, as those on both sides of the pond who disapprove of their match persistently interfere with mail delivery) between Jacky and “Jaime” Fletcher feels more like padding than plot; James seems inexplicably dense, the more I read of his letters, and I found myself thinking that Jacky ought to cut him loose and find someone more suited to her lifestyle and personality. The fact that she proves herself an incurable flirt who keeps running into potentially better matches make Jaime’s obtuseness more glaring. Overall, I though Meyer brought in a few too many threads and left them tangled or hanging at the end – which, of course, sets up Bloody Jack’s next adventure. I have the third book on hand, and hope to start reading it soon.
You might also enjoy:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi, YA Fiction - A highborn young lady on a trans-Atlantic voyage is accused of murder)
The Dragonslayer's Apprentice (David Calder, YA Fiction - A girl is determined to become a dragonslayer)
The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series (Elizabeth Haydon, YA Fiction - In a magical world, a boy who yearns for adventure gets more than he bargained for)
The Piratica series (Tanith Lee, YA Fiction - A headstrong teenage girl in an alternate-history world sets out to become an honorable pirate queen)
The Song of the Lioness quartet (Tamora Pierce, YA Fiction - In the magical land of Tortall, the girl Alanna poses as a boy to train as a knight)
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - A headstrong princess in a fairy-tale world gets tired of being "proper" and runs away to live with dragons)
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Help is On the Way
(A Basic Instructions collection, Volume 1)
Scott Meyer
Dark Horse Books
Fiction, Comics
*****
DESCRIPTION: Grown-up life in this modern world is so much more complicated than it ought to be, presenting numerous conundrums that can stump even the wisest and most educated adult. How do you deal with an unwanted gift? What's the best way to console a friend? How do you apologize when you didn't do anything wrong? What can the laws of physics teach you about your relationships? Former comedian Scott Meyer answers these questions and many more, in this compilation of Basic Instructions comics.
REVIEW: I've been reading these online at Meyer's website for a while, and was thrilled when he finally released a book. Very funny stuff, here, and all too true (like the best of humor,) though definitely geared towards an adult audience. I hope sales justify further volumes; some of my favorites don't appear to have made the cut for this one.
You might also enjoy:
Predictably Irrational (Dan Areily, Nonfiction - A study explaining the well-known fact of human irrationality and its less-well-known costs)
Thank God for Culture Clash: A Candorville Collection (Darrin Bell, Comics - A sharp strip that skewers politics, media, social trends and more)
Duh! The Stupid History of the Human Race (Bob Fenster, Nonfiction - Dumb moments in history, stupid laws, botched quotes, and more, plus a discussion about why we're so often stupid and what to do about it)
Hey, Idiot!: Chronicles of Human Stupidity (Leland Gregory, Nonfiction - Stupid humans in truth and urban legend)
Welcome to Jesusland! (Formerly the United States of America) ("Landover Baptist Church," Fiction - From the popular satirical website, articles pointing out the hilarious hypocricies of the ultraconservative American right)
The Darwin Awards (Wendy Northcut, Nonfiction - Stories of humans who selflessly remove themselves from the gene pool to prevent their stupidity from spreading to future generations)
The Pearls Before Swine collections (Stephan Pastis, Comics - A danged funny comic strip unafraid to poke fun at morons)
Close Encounters of the Worst Kind: A Brewster Rockit Collection (Tim Rickard, Comics - Clueless hero captain Brewster Rockit and his dysfunctional crewmates protect humanity amid inanity on the orbital station R. U. Sirius)
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