Showing posts sorted by date for query The Last Apprentice. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query The Last Apprentice. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Friday, May 02, 2025

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review Subseries 1: The Farseer Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

Subseries 1: The Farseer Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

Last week, I did an overview of Robin Hobb's The Realm of the Elderlings series, which has multiple subseries within it. This week, I'll review the first subseries, The Farseer Trilogy. 

 

In this first trilogy, FitzChivalry Farseer is the illegitimate son of a prince (Chivalry, the King-in-Waiting until Fitz's birth forces him to abdicate the throne). Chivalry willingly steps aside and moves away from Buckkeep, the royal castle, to live a quiet life away from what was once his legacy. Meanwhile, Fitz is shuffled around in his early life. As the story and subseries progresses, Fitz learns he possesses two forms of magic. The Skill is an ability that mainly only the royal Farseer line tend to have, though there are "wild strains". With the Skill, a person can reach out to another's mind, no matter how far away, and read thoughts and influence thinking and behavior. An even older magic is the Wit, in which humans feel such a kinship with animals, they share thoughts and behaviors, sometimes becoming so bonded that they themselves become little more than beasts. The strength of the bond can also lead to performing powerful attacks. The Wit is looked upon with scorn and fear by most humans. 

In Assassin's Apprentice, Book 1, Fitz is a six-year-old boy when handed off to his father's most loyal servant, Burrich, who currently tends the animals within the castle keep. Fitz doesn't know his own name or origins and remembers little of his upbringing, only that nothing was ever home and he was always hungry. Burrich provides Fitz with both, though at first Fitz doesn't see his guardian as much more than a hard (though never cruel) caretaker. Burrich tries to stamp the Wit out of Fitz from an early age, with only mild success. (Why he did this was obvious to me from the first.) Later, Burrich becomes the one Fitz trusts most. 

Burrich determines that Fitz must take his rightful place within the royal family. Though he's only a bastard, his life must be made to serve, and early on King Shrewd determines Fitz will become his secret weapon in exchange for allowing him to live in the castle and partake of its bounty. Eventually, Fitz is trained as an assassin as well as formally instructed in the Skill by a jealous, ruthless teacher who damages young Fitz far more than he ever helps him. Also, the King-in-Waiting, Verity, is the oldest son of Shrewd, and has given himself over almost entirely to the Skill in his relentless attempts to circumvent the Red-Ship Raiders, while his fashionable, frivolous, and scheming youngest stepbrother Regal seeks to usurp his brother's rightful place on the throne. Quickly, Fitz becomes the King-in-Waiting's man instead of King Shrewd's, but political machinations within the royal family inevitably and always become honest and good Fitz's downfall. 

In this first Farseer title, we learn little more than that Elderlings and their ancient cities and settlements are found throughout the Six Duchies. However, almost nothing is written down or known about them so they've become as obscure as fables that no one living is entirely sure were ever true. As barely a mention in Assassin's Apprentice, it's said that in the olden days of King Wisdom, Elderlings came to the aid of the Six Duchies in the deadly sea raiders' war against the people of the land and promised to return in the future if help is ever again needed. 

Royal Assassin, Book 2, continues almost directly after the previous story, with Fitz initially little more than a cripple after circumventing his uncle's botched attempt to claim a birthright that doesn't belong to him. Fitz is a teenager but also a grown man. He dreams of the girl he'd met when he was a child--a lowly candle maker, the only daughter of an abusive drunk. Molly has become a maid in the royal household, and when Fitz realizes it, his heart wants nothing more than to marry her and live with her in a way that proves impossible. As a bastard, an assassin, a fumbling Skill user who's unable to tamp down on his Wit abilities with a wolf he rescued, his life is complicated, to say the least. There are secrets he can't share with anyone, least of all the woman he loves. Shrewd already has plans to marry Fitz off to someone with a desirous position, influence, and wealth. 

Meanwhile, the Six Duchies are in turmoil with increased raids and the jealousies of a spoiled younger prince that again puts Fitz in the center of the worst of it. While his father's health is ailing, no doubt part of Regal's renewed, ruthless efforts to become ruler, Verity's focus has been on building massive ships that, with his Skill, he can now send out to the sea and meet the Red-Ships head to head. He charges Fitz with being his protector (to that end, Burrich begins training him in earnest for combat) as well as his physical eyes and hands in dealing with the enemy on the high seas. In this way, Verity begins re-teaching Fitz the Skill. However, their efforts aren't successful in turning the tide against the raiders. The court Fool, a being who in later trilogies becomes androgynous seems to have Farsight, investigates the Elderlings' promise to help them with future raiders. Soon, Verity decides he must go himself to seek Elderling aid before the battle against the Red Ships is lost once and for all. He leaves behind a pregnant queen wife who hasn't been fully accepted by the people, let alone by his devious younger sibling who's intent on regicide and deposing his older brother through any means necessary. Fitz again stands between selfish ambition and the destruction of the Six Duchies until the King-in-Waiting, hopefully, returns with help enough to save them. 

In the second book of Farseer, Hobb described Elderlings very briefly: "Of stone were their bones made, of the sparkling veined stone of the Mountains. Their flesh was made of the shining salts of the earth. But their hearts were made of the hearts of wise men. They came from afar, those men, a long and trying way. They did not hesitate to lay down the lives that had become a weariness to them. They ended their days and began eternities, they put aside flesh and donned stone, they let fall their weapons and rose on new wings." Elderlings were said to live beyond the tallest mountains of the Mountain Kingdom. The only explanation I can think of why Hobb describes these creatures as humanoid (those men from afar) in this passage is because of what happens at the very end of Book 3 between Verity and the Elderling he awakens. 

Assassin's Quest, Book 3, spends nearly three-fourths of its length dealing with issues that came up in the first two books. As necessary as it was to address the critical plot threads that were left dangling, the thrust of the book--and almost my sole focus at that point--was on the last quarter of the tale and the trilogy. Finally, finally, in this last installment, after Verity is thought to be lost, Fitz and his friends go on a quest to find the king. In the process, they also discover the nature of the Elderlings--stone dragons that can only be woken by carving them out and filling them up with everything the person of Skill has and is. So the dragons are also "men" in the sense that they have a Skilled man's entire being--memories as well as the tangible--incorporated into their beings. 

In this final book, we also learn that Regal long ago stole everything written about instructing those in the Skill (and maybe also in the use of Wit), which is necessary to truly wake these Elderlings. We also find out that a companion that made the journey with Fitz to find Verity and the Elderlings was once a powerful Skill user during the time of King Wisdom, having used her abilities (as was common at that time) to make herself young and all but ageless. Though it was assumed that Verity had the most Skill of anyone alive up to this point, it becomes clear he doesn't know enough to do what must be done to awaken the dragons. Able to use Skill and Wit magic, Fitz must utilize both to do what seems impossible. 

~*~

These three books that make up the first trilogy are very introspective and slow-moving tales. Despite the inherent clichés of the basic theme of the stories, Fitz is a singular character and introducing him to readers at such a young age allowed me, for one, to grow to care for him. Despite all that he's made to do, he remains innocent, if a bit naïve and childishly reckless, unwilling to do harm where it isn't warranted. He's taught by the court assassin Chade to never assume but to follow every single lead until you're absolutely sure you know everything before you act, and Fitz does that. Though as a "king's man" he's forced to do what he's told, he always has a mind and a conscience of his own that direct his actions. I was deeply drawn into his story in Book 1 and moved by his successes but mainly his failures, as those seems to be more prevalent in his lamentable life. In a review, the Los Angeles Review of Books stated, The Farseer Trilogy offers "complete immersion in Fitz's complicated personality." 

That said, I can't deny that by Book 2, my interest was waning. I desperately wanted to find out more about Elderlings, and so much of Books 2 and 3 of this particular trilogy aren't really about that. Additionally, I became very frustrated with all the characters because it seemed like there was a trend in everyone to make the stupidest decisions possible in whatever came about as a result of the plots and conflicts. For instance, in Book 2, Regal's mad schemes to gain power should have made everyone--especially the older brother Verity--wise to his ways. Instead, after nearly killing their father, Verity, Fitz, and Burrich, what happens as a result of this megalomaniac's grab for power? Basically nothing. Regal continues on with his plans without punishment, let alone restraint or confinement, and, gee and golly, what happens in Book 3? Yup, you guessed it! Regal attempts to kill his king father, his brother, Fitz, while trying to seize the throne. He does this all but unfettered. It was senseless on the part of everyone. Not one of them ever learned the lesson of not trusting Regal. Locking him up and throwing away the key might have been the best course of action here, but illogically no one ever thought to do that. In one particularly moronic situation, Regal orders every last horse in the Buckkeep stable to be sent away. What possible reason would he have for doing that, other than nefarious purposes? Yet everyone follows his orders, letting the castle be plundered while Regal sets up his own keep somewhere else in the ultimate goal, of course, of ruling the land from there. It was hard to escape the everybody's-too-stupid-to-live assessment of the trilogy after that point. 

One other thing that bothered me about The Farseer Trilogy was that Fitz's Skill abilities seemed a little too convenient. For most of the trilogy, he didn't know what the heck he was doing, his training was abysmal (which makes a lot of sense), and yet when he most needs to use the talent, suddenly he's able to do all but impossible things with it (which doesn't make a lot of sense). This reminded me of Terry Brooks' Shannara Series. In that, those from the Shannara line would be called upon to utilize magic without any idea how to go about doing that. There were fits and starts, some success, a lot of failure, and eventually confidence grew as the user and the magic within whatever the instrument of power was (a sword, a stone, a song, etc.) melded into one--a scary proposition that frequently led the users to put magic as far from them as possible once the immediate danger was past. In some ways, it's logical that someone who comes from a lineage of magic users wouldn't necessarily know how to use it effectively themselves. It's like learning a language. At first, nothing makes sense; it's all Greek. But, as the learning process continues, things start to gel as understanding and adeptness grows. But Fitz's Skill advancement felt a bit too contrived as the trilogy progressed, too convenient to whatever the plot needed it to be at the moment of direst need. 

All that said, finally having the Elderlings "realized" in this trilogy was thrilling, though I felt like it came far too late and also, once they appeared, the story wasn't focused enough on the actual battle of Elderlings driving back the Red-Ship Raiders, nor on the in-depth information I wanted about these majestic, powerful creatures of legend. I wanted much, much more of that. I hope to get it in reading further subseries, though I do need to take a break from The Realm of the Elderlings. This first trilogy was intense and complicated, to the extreme. I do intend to review the rest of the offerings in The Realm of the Elderlings series in coming months, though at this point I'm not sure what order I'll do that in. Stay tuned. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/


Friday, April 25, 2025

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Series Overview Review: The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Series Overview Review: The Realm of the Elderlings 

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there are spoilers in this review. 

Megan Lindholm and Robin Hobb are both pen names for Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, an American author of speculative fiction. As Lindholm, the stories tend to be shorter and less detailed in a variety of genres. As Hobb, characterization, settings, and conflicts are deeper and wider, producing much larger works. Hobb is best known for her The Realm of the Elderlings fantasy stories, and that's how I became a fan of hers. I'd read the novella "The Homecoming", which is connected to The Realm of the Elderlings in that it's set in the Rain Wilds positioned at the far west edges of the Six Duchies. Within this umbrella series, she's written five subseries and numerous short stories including: 

The Farseer Trilogy

Assassin's Apprentice, Book 1 (published 1995)

Royal Assassin, Book 2 (published 1996)

Assassin's Quest, Book 3 (published 1997)

 

The Liveship Traders Trilogy

Ship of Magic, Book 1 (published 1998)

(The) Mad Ship, Book 2 (published 1999)

Ship of Destiny, Book 3 (published 2000)

 

The Tawny Man Trilogy

Fool's Errand, Book 1 (published 2001)

Golden Fool, Book 2 (published 2002)

Fool's Fate, Book 3 (published 2003)

 

The Rain Wilds Chronicles

Dragon Keeper, Book 1 (published 2009)

Dragon Haven, Book 2 (published 2010)

City of Dragons, Book 3 (published 2011)

Blood of Dragons, Book 4 (published 2013)

 

Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

Fool's Assassin, Book 1 (published 2014)

Fool's Quest, Book 2 (published 2015)

Assassin's Fate, Book 3 (published 2017)

 

Note that these series have appeared in numerous formats (ebook, audio, mass market and trade paperbacks, and hardcover editions) under slight variations to the trilogy titles. 

Timeline and reading order logistics: The Farseer, The Tawny Man, and The Fitz and the Fool trilogies follow the story of the main character chronologically, so should be read first. Liveship Traders and Rain Wilds entries take place in different faraway regions and feature different characters, so can be read independently of the others. All the short stories are standalones told by different characters than any in the longer subseries installments, set in various locations around the Six Duchies, so they're only connected by the overall universe and events that enrich the context. 

"The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" (published in 2013, this nearly 200-page long prequel novella relating to The Realm of the Elderlings kingdom origins hundreds of years before The Farseer Trilogy) 

“The Homecoming" (a novella set in the all but uninhabitable swampland near the mountain ranges hundreds of years prior to The Farseer Trilogy but otherwise unrelated to any of the subseries; published in Legends II in 2003 and in "The Inheritance & Other Stories" in 2011). I covered "The Homecoming" in the Legends II review previously on the Alien Romances Blog. 

"The Inheritance" (a short story set in Bingham, in the far southwest of the Six Duchies; taking place between The Farseer and Liveship Trader series; published in "The Inheritance & Other Stories" in 2011). I went over "The Inheritance" in my review of The Inheritance & Other Stories previously on the Alien Romances Blog. 

"Cat's Meat" (a short story set in Buck, close to the Forge, which is a pivotal setting in The Farseer Trilogy, and taking place hundreds of years prior to that trilogy; published in "The Inheritance & Other Stories" in 2011). I discussed "Cat's Meat" in my review of The Inheritance & Other Stories previously on the Alien Romances Blog. 

"Words Like Coins" (a 10,000 word long story taking place "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to read either before or after Book 2; published in A Fantasy Medley Anthology in 2009 and as an individual story in 2012) 

"Blue Boots" (a short story taking place "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to read either before or after Book 2; published in Songs of Love and Death Anthology in 2010, then in Songs of Love Lost and Found ebook collection in 2012) 

"Her Father's Sword" (a short story that takes place during the early years of the Red Ship Wars and forging with Fitz visiting the setting within the story as a secondary character; set "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to be read either before or after Book 2; published in The Book of Swords Anthology in 2017) 

~*~

The Realm of the Elderlings is a world where magic can be used to murder and danger lies all around. All the books in this series are placed in the Six Duchies, a federation of former commercial coalitions ruled by the royal Farseer lineage, four of them being coastal, two inland. 

Hobb has said that her motivation in developing Farseer and perhaps The Realm of the Elderlings as a whole was based on a question: What if magic were addictive, and that addiction destructive or degenerative? 

In the opening of the first subseries, the Six Duchies find many of their towns under assault from raiding enemies dubbed "Red-Ship Raiders". The first place hit is called Forge, a small coastal village known for their rich metal ore deposits, which has been raided, its citizens captured. The villains' message is a strange one, to be sure: Either a ransom is paid to them or the citizens will be returned. If they're returned, loved ones become violent and ravenous, little more than rabid zombies who care nothing for family or home and only want to feed. Nothing can be done to help the inflicted. They become like a plague to everyone in the kingdom and are dubbed Forged Ones, or the escralled. 

As I said, my first experience with The Realm of the Elderlings was in "The Homecoming" in which the characters find the evidence of a fascinating dead civilization in underground ruins where an extinct people once dwelled and their music was still heard--haunting the living and drawing them hypnotically toward a kind of death as they're lost to the ages along with the Elderlings. This story confused me as to what "Elderlings" actually are, and it wasn't until the last book in The Farseer Trilogy that I found out that Elderlings are actually dragons! Therefore, the lost civilization within the Rain Wild ruins probably weren't necessarily Elderlings but might be something else entirely. I suspect I won't learn the truth until I read The Rain Wilds Chronicles, if even then. 

Thus far, any mention of the Elderlings and their magic in the stories I've read has been as elusive as a butterfly. I suspect (hope) it's the overarching theme of every story in this wide-ranging series, and I admit it was the part that I was and am most looking forward to. 

Incidentally, there's a fan site for The Realm of the Elderlings you might want to check out for much more detailed series and individual story information, complete with maps, character studies, and an in-depth, clickable index that, while not exhaustive, really helped me find available data quickly: https://robinhobbelderlings.fandom.com. 

Finally, comic book counterparts to the series have been made, but, as of 2018, no television or film rights have been sold. I'd like to see a movie or TV series involving The Realm of the Elderlings. Honestly, though, I think a video game would be the most intriguing and do this series much more justice. 

Next week, I'll review the three books in The Farseer Trilogy, as there's really too much here to cover in a single post. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/


Friday, September 06, 2024

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Complete Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Complete Spiderwick Chronicles

by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

There are a number of young adult fantasy series that feature children who discover a hidden world of supernatural creatures all around them--Fablehaven (Brandon Mull) and The Last Apprentice (Joseph Delaney) are two of my favorites, but you could include many others like Twilight Saga, The Immortal Instruments, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and on and on. Regardless of how often it's been done before, that doesn't necessarily make it any less enjoyable. 

Another of this type that had me enthralled when the first came out in 2003 was The Spiderwick Chronicles that was said to be written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, though the Wikipedia page confusingly states a quote by DiTerlizzi (who tends to always be listed first) that "due to the collaborative effort he and Black put into the books, there is no individual credit as to who did the writing and who did the illustrations." Whatever that means. I get the feeling there's a deeper story there I'm too lazy to sniff out. 

In any case, the first set of Spiderwick stories had five entries with the first three released in 2003, the last two in 2004, including The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgarath. A spinoff series called Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles came out in 2007, 2008, and 2009 with the three stories: Nixie's Song, A Giant Problem, and The Wyrm King. Additionally, companion books were published in 2005-2007, and these include Arther Spiderwick's Notebook for Fantastical Observations; Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You; Care and Feeding of Sprites; and A Grand Tour of the Enchanted World, Navigated by Thimbletack

In the original series, after their parents' divorce, the Grace family, now headed by the mother Helen, is forced to move to the decrepit Spiderwick Estate where the children's long lost great-great-uncle disappeared. Simon and Jared are nine-year-old twins while their older sister Mallory is thirteen. Their first night there, a dumbwaiter that goes to the secret library on the second floor is discovered but later a door to the library is found in a hall closet. In an attic trunk, Jared finds the handwritten, illustrated field journal of Arthur Spiderwick that contains information on the various types of supernatural creatures, especially fairies, that live in the estate's surrounding forest. A brownie named Thumbtack is roused to anger by their meddling and punishes them by trashing rooms in the house and assaulting the children. But, once they realize what who and what he is and what they've done to his home, they make amends. From that point on, he aids them, though he wants Jared to destroy the field journal because he knows what happened to Arthur--and could easily happen to them as well--if Mulgarath, an ogre who wants to rule the world, finds out about them. 

The characterization pulled me into this book from the first. Jared is angry about the divorce and he's gotten in a lot of trouble lately because of it. So it makes sense that he's blamed for the problems Thumbtack causes in retaliation for them destroying his nest inside the walls of the house. Simon is the bookish one of the two, the opposite of his twin, and loves animals. Mallory starts out the story in the usual way you'd expect of a teenager girl who's relied on by parents to care for her younger brothers--and also feeling the sting of what her cheating father did to their mother. She's crabby, judgmental of her brothers, always assuming they're causing trouble without justification. Whenever she gets a rare moment to herself, all she wants to do is practice her fencing. Despite the first impressions we get of her, she learns to become a caring, protective sister and her role in the events that follow is pivotal. In the course of the story told through the first five books, we also eventually meet Arthur Spiderwick and his daughter Lucinda, finding out through the twins' and Mallory's investigations what caused the trouble in the first place. Thumbtack is initially disgruntled, and he does often seem amusingly in a bad mood. He's a complex being, one the Grace family couldn't have survived without. 

Given that these books aren't really intended for those over 12 years old (I read what I want, regardless of limitations), they're not really scary. They just skirt the edge of frightening. The movie and videogame released in 2008 based on the first five books are both slightly scarier than the books, and apparently the April 2024 RokuChannel TV series is supposed to be much, much darker than either. 

The spinoff Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles gives a glimpse of former characters but mostly follows a new protagonist, 11-year-old Nicholas Vargas, accompanied by his stepsister Laurie and big brother Julian in brand-new adventures with supernatural creatures. In a bit of unprecedented, crazy self-insertion that I'm reluctant to call genius but also can't help chuckling about, the three meet up with the authors of Spiderwick Chronicles, DiTerlizzi and Black, at a booksigning. Tony and Holly don't believe their wild tale, but not long afterward they meet Jared and Simon, who agree to help them. 

Thanks to how fast the five books in the original series came out, I read them equally fast, purchasing them as soon as they were published in hardcover. I also read Nixie's Song, but the next two books took a long to come out, comparatively (releases were spaced apart by about a year each). I admit I wasn't as enamored of the first entry in the spinoff series and never purchased the final two, something I intend to rectify with the promise of the TV series coming out soon (at the time of this writing). I'm not sure I will like Nixie's Song any better this time or if the two books that followed will make a difference in my initial impression, but I do know I thoroughly enjoyed the film made of the original series and the idea of a reboot as an ongoing series is equally exciting. 

Whether you read this series at the height of its popularity or if you've never before read it, now might be a good time. Don't let the reading age recommendation intimidate you. Whatever your age, if you're a fan of supernatural literature populated with a wide range of complex, fantastical creatures, this has everything you're sure to love. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Friday, March 22, 2024

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney


Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney

by Karen S. Wiesner

After I finished my last writing reference, I'd started to hear about a trend going around writing circles. In direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught in my writing series about the crucial need to go deep with characters, writers were being told that it's best not to include more than basic information about main characters, not even providing last names for them--this supposedly allows readers to fill in the blanks with their own details, making the characters whatever they want them to be.

In my mind, this is a big mistake. How can character development be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Ultimately, characters that have no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

I want a good balance of character and plot development in the stories I'm willing to invest myself in, and I'm not getting it with most of the new stuff coming out. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney is said to be a tangential installment of his wonderful The Last Apprentice Series (reviewed here: 

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Last+Apprentice), and it's clear by the language that it's set in the same world. Billy Calder may well have become an apprentice of the Spook John Gregory in another life, but in this story he's simply a 15-year old orphan boy who seizes the opportunity to gain independence from the Home for Unfortunate Boys by taking a job as a castle prison guard. He's given almost no training. After waking up late for his first shift, he rushes to the prison from the orphanage. His supervisor isn't pleased. Beyond that, night in the prison is anything but boring, given the number of supernatural prisoners that have to be tended to. An illness removes his boss and leaves Billy in charge, forced to take over horrifying duties he doesn't have the experience or skills to handle.

This short tale published just before Halloween in 2013 is intended for 4-7th graders, but don't let that stop you. Why should they have all the fun? This story is one that anyone who loves a good chiller will enjoy just as much as I did. Billy is a plucky Pip-like kid who doesn't give up or give in easily, even when it might be wise to just run for his life and not look back. Scott M. Fischer's black and white sketches all through the book are perfect accompaniments to the fun, suspenseful text. This is a story filled with a well-developed, brilliant personality that allows you to share directly in Billy's conflicts and root for him to triumph.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/


Friday, June 16, 2023

Read What You Love, Part 3 by Karen S. Wiesner

            Read What You Love, Part 3

by Karen S. Wiesner

In this three-part article, I talk about what conditions, if any, cultivate or discourage a love of the written word as well as about the importance of reading what you love, regardless of your age, the genre or content appropriateness, your gender, or what's considered your "level". In the last two segments, I'll also review two of my favorite Young Adult book series that any fan of the supernatural should love as I much as I do.

In the first part of this article, I talked about how, in the general sense, people should read what they're interested in. It doesn't matter if someone else dubs it above or below your proper reading level, too mature or immature, if it's in a genre that social convention says adults or kids shouldn't be reading, or if it's something most people think of as gender specific. A love of the written word transcends any boundaries. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Read what you love! In the second article, I provided an in-depth review of Brandon Mull's phenomenal Young Adult Fantasy series Fablehaven and its sequel Dragonwatch.

In this final installment, I'll review Joseph Delaney's Spooksworld, which is, in my opinion, the best Young Adult Fantasy multi-series in existence. Many people may have heard of this series based on the film adaptation that came out in 2015 called The Spook's Apprentice, which was adapted as a play script originally by the author's son. The film featured Ben Barnes playing Tom Ward (he also played Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia film series), Jeff Bridges as John Gregory, Julianne Moore as Mother Malkin, and Kit Harington (yes, John Snow from HBO's Game of Thrones) as Billy Bradley, among many others. My opinion (which may not mean a lot) is that this movie didn't even come close to capturing the magic found in the books. I find it difficult to watch, honestly, because it was such a poor adaptation of what could have been nothing short of amazing, had the books been followed much closer.

Spooksworld began as a dark fantasy novel saga written by Joseph Delaney. Three separate series comprise this "arc" that includes Thomas "Tom" Ward as a central character in each. In this fictional world, the seventh son of a seventh son (and sometimes the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter) is a unique being equipped above all other humans to sense the supernatural and become a defender against "the Dark", which can include all manner of beasties like ghost, witches, boggarts, and demons. Such a fighting master is referred to as a "Spook".





Before I dive into this unique world, I'll point out that Joseph Delaney is a British author and all of the Spooksworld books were originally published in the UK by The Bodley Head division of Random House Publishing (which is now Penguin Random House). That said, it'll make more sense to explain that the three separate Spooksworld series have different names (for pities' sake, sometimes more than one for each!) in the UK and the US, and that includes the titles in the differing series names also being changed. So I'll start with a basic listing of the original series name and title differences between the UK and the US. You can find out more at the author's website: https://josephdelaneyauthor.com/.

In the United States, the original series that began with Tom Ward being apprenticed to the County Spook John Gregory is called The Last Apprentice Series, with the following titles available:

Revenge of the Witch (Book 1)

Curse of the Bane (Book 2)

Night of the Soul Stealer (Book 3)

Attack of the Fiend (Book 4)

Wrath of the Bloodeye (Book 5)

Clash of the Demons (Book 6)

Rise of the Huntress (Book 7)

Rage of the Fallen (Book 8)

Grimalkin the Witch Assassin (Book 9)

Lure of the Dead (Book 10)

Slither (Book 11)

I Am Alice (Book 12)

Fury of the Seventh Son (Book 13)

In the UK it's called The Spook's Series and the individual titles are shortened considerably to:

Apprentice (Book 1)

Curse (Book 2)

Secret (Book 3)

Battle (Book 4)

Mistake (Book 5)

Sacrifice (Book 6)

Nightmare (Book 7)

Destiny (Book 8)

I Am Grimalkin (Book 9)

Blood (Book 10)

Slither’s Tale (Book 11)

Alice (Book 12)

Revenge (Book 13)

Just to make this as confusing as possible, this same series has also been referred to as The Tom/Thomas Ward Chronicles or The Wardstone Chronicles. In French, strangely, it's called L'apprenti L'Épouvanteur, which means "The Scarecrow's Apprentice". Either that's poorly translated or "Spook's" is simply not a word that can be grasped in the French language. Go figure.

In any case, there are also several interconnected offerings to this original series that are occasionally included with further (seemingly conflicting) book numbers in the series. These include: A stand-alone story called Seventh Apprentice, which is an introduction to the series that has an earlier apprentice, Will Johnson, left to fend for himself while his master is away. Bestiary (also called The Guide to Creatures of the Dark), which is a practical record of dealing with the Dark and features John Gregory's personal account of "the denizens " he's encountered, combined with his lessons learned and mistakes made. Short stories are also combined with different stories with varying titles in the UK and US in collections, namely Grimalkin's Tale, Witches, The Spook's Tale and Other Horrors, and A Coven of Witches. Finally, a fun little scary story set in the same world is called The Ghost Prison.

Tom Ward is just a boy when John Gregory comes to claim him as an apprentice. Tom's mother promised her seventh son of a seventh son to the local Spook, who's more than a little cranky and irascible. Though Tom isn't sure about being apprenticed to a hard man like this, he dutifully leaves with the Spook, resigned to being apprenticed by him. Soon, he discovers that most of the man's previous apprentices failed, fled, or were killed in the process of learning the ropes of fighting the Dark. Not surprisingly, Spooks are feared and shunned everywhere…you know, up until ordinary people have need of their unique abilities.

Everything Tom faces as the plot progresses from one book to the next makes for chilling conflict and soul reflection. The uncertain but morally grounded boy grows into a young man changed not only by those he meets, the creatures he fights, and the mystical skills he possesses but by his own convictions about his place in the world.

Seeing Tom mature and become powerful, embracing his role of responsibility to the County he serves, his master, his family, and the world at large was a fascinating byplay of shades of gray. On the surface, as this saga progresses, a hero could easily be a villain while just as easily a former monster may end up becoming an ally. Light and dark coexist, and no one is really what they seem here. My favorite characters can't really be short-listed because there are so many intriguing ones, but those that stand out to me would include Tom first and foremost; his master; his parents and family; Alice Deane, the young witch Tom is warned early on not to trust; the former apprentices of John Gregory who serve in other parts of the world, Bill Arkwright and Judd Brinscall; Grimalkin, the Malkin witch assassin who has many faces, and her apprentice Thorne; and finally Meg, John Gregory's former lover, who lives in his winter house.

When I discovered the first book in the series, I bought all the subsequent ones in one fell swoop, including the miscellaneous bonus offerings. I read them compulsively over the course of about a week, barely sleeping because I was so enthralled, wanting to know what would happen to Tom and his master John Gregory. While there is a point where the books slow down and things are all moving in one direction (toward the defeat of the arch villain, the Fiend, which I didn't find quite as interesting as previous enemies), I've still read the series multiple times. After completing it the first time and feeling sad that there weren't more books about Tom Ward, I went searching for follow-up and discovered that there was indeed a spinoff series to be had.



With the conclusion of the original series in 2013, the author started a spinoff trilogy in 2014 with The Starblade Chronicles (the UK versions go by "Spook's" with the same individual titles) that follows the continued adventures of Tom Ward. The apprentice is now the master Spook, responsible for fighting the evil threatening the County and the surrounding world. The three books include A New Darkness (Book 1), The Dark Army (Book 2), and The Dark Assassin (Book 3).

Tom is now 17 but he never finished his apprenticeship as a Spook. Nevertheless, the County needs his unique skills more than ever and there is no one else willing or able to do what he can. To further complicate his life, a young girl named Jenny, a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, comes, asking to be his apprentice. Never before has a girl been a Spook, and Tom isn't sure how to feel about it. Yet Jenny has vital information and knowledge that he needs to defeat a new evil threatening humanity. Like it or not, he has to take a chance on her.

Returning to Tom's life after the events of the original series was a thrill for me. I wasn't disappointed, but I was very surprised by a lot of the changes in store that weren't ideal and weren't necessarily what I would have hoped for in a spinoff. However, I enjoyed these books very much, read them just as voraciously as the original series, but I will say I was blindsided by the events in the conclusion. As a tremendous fan of the series, I wasn't entirely happy with the outcome and resolution either. Luckily for me, it wasn't actually the end of Tom's story, though fans of the series did have to wait nearly three years before the author brought back our most beloved Spook.



In 2020, Tom Ward, Alice, and other series favorites returned in a new spinoff series, Brother Wulf, which includes four offerings: Brother Wulf (Book 1), Wulf's Bane (Book 2), The Last Spook (Book 3), and Wulf's War (Book 4, coming 8/17/23).

A young novice monk, Brother Beowulf, is being manipulated and sent by the church to spy on Spook Johnson, who takes Wulf along on his monster battles. After Spook Johnson is captured by one of the very creatures he was supposed to be eliminating, Wulf has no choice but to seek out Tom Ward's help. In this spinoff series, Wulf is the main character, while Tom is the secondary, though still a major protagonist. As with the young Tom Ward in the original series, I was charmed by Wulf, who isn't tainted by the evil that plagues the world around him. He remains pure and determined to do good in a world with so many contradictory players. But Wulf is more than he seems, just as this author's characters always prove to be in the end, and that makes him another hero to root for.

Those new to these books may not realize that Joseph Delaney was battling illness while he was writing the last few books in this series. I'd read all three of the first offerings in it. (Incidentally, I had to purchase Book 3 from Blackwell's booksellers in the UK https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/home because it wasn't available in the US, nor do I believe it is even now.) I went to the author's website to find out when the conclusion to the series would be released, and it was there that I was devastated to learn Joseph Delaney lost his battle. The third story ended on a cliffhanger with no satisfactory resolution. It took a long time to resign myself to the fact that I would never learn the conclusion of such a wonderful saga. But then, while I was researching for this review, I discovered that a fourth book would be released posthumously August 2023, on the anniversary of the author's death. Wulf's War was apparently the last book Delaney wrote. I hope this final book provides an ideal conclusion to the series, though I will be more understanding, given how hard it must have been for the author to write this one.

I've also read Delaney's Aberrations series, another dark fantasy sequence, that currently has two installments. I actually talked to the author several years ago (before the Brother Wulf series was published), asking him if more books would follow in that series. I believe he was writing more, but he said that the publisher hadn't yet committed to releasing the next. I'm strongly hoping this series will also be finished at some point in the future, but I don't expect that will be the case. I'll be devastated, since Crafty and his friends may never defeat the evil mist that brought the aberration monsters to their world. Naturally, I'll blame the publisher. I've written a note to those responsible for the upkeep of his website, requesting information about potential future offerings in the series. We'll see if I get a response.

As I said early in this article series, I discovered Spooksworld as a 30-something year old adult and would have missed it (and been the worse for it) and so many others if I cared a whit about maturity, appropriateness, genre, and level classifications when it comes to selecting my reading material.

Life is too short to read only what's expected of you. Instead, make the most of the remaining years you have exploring an entire universe of wonderful reading material available to you.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, July 06, 2017

Portal Fantasy Aftermaths

"Portal fantasy" is one of my favorite subgenres—tales of people transported to other worlds by magic, e.g., C. S. Lewis's Narnia series, which I've reread countless times. In children's fantasy of that type, the young protagonists usually return to the primary world in the end. At the conclusion of Lewis's PRINCE CASPIAN, Peter and Susan learn they are now too old for Narnia. Their younger siblings, Edmund and Lucy, receive the same news at the end of THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER. Everything turns out fine in the last book of the series, however, when all the characters are reunited in a recreated, eternal Narnia. (Except for Susan, who, as a young woman, has convinced herself Narnia was only a childish game; Lewis hints in some of his letters, though, that she may eventually find her own way back.)

Seanan McGuire tackles the issue of growing "too old" and getting evicted from the faerie realm in her "Wayward Children" series. Two books have been published, with the third, BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY, forthcoming in January 2018. McGuire explores the anguish of this kind of exile as well as hinting at the dysfunctional backgrounds that may lead some children to prefer other worlds over this one in the first place.

What happens to children who fall down rabbit holes, step through wardrobes or mirrors, or otherwise travel through portals to alternate worlds, after they come back to mundane existence? How do they handle the trauma of never being allowed to return to their true “homes”? In EVERY HEART A DOORWAY, McGuire answers these questions. Miss Eleanor West, once just such a child, runs a boarding school for others like herself. The children's parents think it’s a school for emotionally and mentally troubled youth, where the teen inmates will get “cured” of their “delusions”; the students, however, learn the truth as soon as they arrive. Here, they don’t have to hide their true selves. Each one fervently hopes to find a doorway to the place he or she was exiled from, a desire that has hardly ever been fulfilled. Nancy, who cultivates stillness and wears only white and black, spent years in the Halls of the Dead. Her new roommate, Sumi, spent her time away from Earth in a Nonsense world. Miss Eleanor and her colleagues have developed a system of classifying such realms along four main axes, Nonsense, Logic, Wicked, and Virtue. Other residents (comprising many more girls than boys) include Lundy, a backward-aging woman in an eight-year-old body; Kade, a transgender boy, Miss Eleanor’s probable heir, who runs a wardrobe exchange in the attic; Jack and Jill, female identical twins who have lived in a world similar to a Hammer horror movie setting, Jill as bride of a vampire lord, Jack as apprentice to a mad scientist; and Christopher, who spent time in a realm of animated skeletons and retains the gift of playing music to bones. When a murder occurs, most of their classmates naturally blame Jack. It proves to be only the first of three deaths, which Nancy joins with Kade, Jack, and Christopher to investigate. The glimpses of the realms the students visited convey a numinous impression that made me want to read more about those worlds.

The prequel, DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES, gratifies that wish by telling the backstory of twins Jacqueline (Jack) and Jillian (Jill). Their parents have no concept of what parenthood and children will be like. They want living dolls they can show off in order to fit in with their peers. Mrs. Wolcott expects a dainty, feminine, perfectly behaved girl. Mr. Wolcott has his heart set on a son. Jacqueline (whom their parents refuse to call Jack) gets molded into the frilly-dressed, obsessively dirt-averse daughter. Jill becomes a soccer-playing tomboy. At the age of twelve, exploring the attic, they discover a trunk that holds a downward staircase instead of old clothes and costume jewelry as expected. Descending, they emerge in the Gothic world of the Moors. They stumble upon the castle of the Master, a vampire who rules the adjacent village. There they also meet Dr. Bleak, a mad scientist who lives in a converted windmill. Jack chooses to go with Dr. Bleak and become his apprentice, while the Master adopts Jill as his daughter. Their mundane roles reverse: Jill becomes a sheltered, spoiled princess in flowing gowns. Jack wears sturdy, practical clothes and learns hard work. Dr. Bleak truly cares for her, in his reserved way. Jill, eagerly waiting for her promised conversion into a vampire at age eighteen, remains the vampire’s cherished daughter only as long as she obeys the rules of the castle. She grows selfish and cruel. The sisters rarely see each other, and little remains of the love they once shared despite their differences. Readers of the previous novel know they’ll return to their mundane birthplace eventually. If we weren’t expecting that conclusion, the crisis that forces the girls out of the world they’ve come to regard as home would be almost too painful to read.

I haven't seen or read many films or books that confront the issue of how a character adjusts after returning, usually permanently, from a magical world. RETURN TO OZ begins with Dorothy in a mental institution, facing electroshock treatment, because of her insistence that the land of Oz was real; she escapes and returns, however, so she doesn't get permanently trapped in her mundane life. A similar danger faces Alice in the TV series ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND, and she also finds her way back to her magical realm. At the end of PETER PAN, Wendy seems happy with her choice to return home, grow up, and become a wife and mother. The cycle continues with her daughter and granddaughter, who enjoy adventures in Neverland until, they, too embrace adulthood. As for Peter himself, his immortality and eternal youth include an amoral view of the universe, a carelessness about life-and-death situations, and a "living in the present" attitude with a downside of defective long-term memory. (To adult Wendy's surprise, he has forgotten Tinker Bell.) This dark side of PETER PAN is seldom reflected in adaptations for children such as the Disney animated movie. These story elements illuminate the issue of fantasy as "escape." While a character may have good reasons to want to escape from this world, is that choice justified as a permanent solution? In "On Fairy Stories," Tolkien defends the function of "escape" by distinguishing between the flight of the deserter and the escape of the prisoner. When shut up in prison, isn't one justified in thinking about the outside world and seeking release if possible?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt