Book Reviews: Mortal Fire, Knox; Deep Dark Fears, Krause; The Broken Kingdom, Jemisin

[juushika]

Title: Mortal Fire
Author: Elizabeth Knox
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 450
Total Page Count: 262,805
Text Number: 850
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A mixed-race girl in the South Pacific, in search of something more, discovers it while on summer break with her step-brother. The nearest comparison I can make is to Diana Wynne Jones's Fire and Hemlock, for the way it sets coming of age against a larger magical world, for the whirlwind ending suffused with bittersweet loss and self-acceptance, and also for the remarkable transcendence, a numinous quality that knits world to theme. The key difference is the protagonist. Her race adds to the world and her character; the interior vs. exterior view of her is a clever way to build depth; and I adore her, I cherish her mind, her affinity for patterns and her search for the Extra, a unique combination that develops an engaging magic system with consistent, unique internal logic. The interweaving of character to concept is masterful. The pattern of the plot, the tonal changes that come with the headhopping, are somewhat less even, and I'm not entirely on board with the narrative function of disability/terminal illness—but while I can quibble, honestly I loved this—the experience of it blew me away, it's an original and distinct and intelligent work, and easily one of the best books I've read this year. I can't wait to reread it.


Title: Deep Dark Fears
Author: Fran Krause
Published: Ten Speed Press, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 145
Total Page Count: 262,950
Text Number: 851
Read Because: fan of the comic, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 101 short horror comics about fears. Most are four-panel, single page comics, but there's some flexibility and a few marginal doodles—it's probably more striking in the print edition; digitally, it's unremarkable. The comics have been cleaned up from their online publication, particularly the text. Klaus's vibrant, rough style and thoughtful touches (especially in the final panels) pairs well with the micro-horror. I'm surprised how much I liked this, given that I'd read the vast majority of it on the blog—reading it in bulk reinforces the atmosphere, instead of wearing it out as some collections do. The brevity lends well to fridge horror; there's top-notch body horror, existential horror, and healthy collection of doppelgangers and monsters. The more comedic strips aren't to my personal taste, but they work surprisingly well, breaking up and contrasting the tone without overwhelming it. This is very short, there's not a ton of content exclusive to the book, but it reminded me why I love this comic series so much.


Title: The Broken Kingdom (Inheritance Book 2)
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Published: Orbit, 2010
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 385
Total Page Count: 263,335
Text Number: 852
Read Because: continuing the series, book borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Ten years after the previous book, a woman encounters Itempas as a mortal man. It takes a full third of the book for the protagonist to figure that out, and the plot which follows is a series of mistakes and failed escape attempts (the death of Madding is especially grating for being ridiculously over-telegraphed). This could work: the protagonist here stands external to the previous book's conflict, exposing the world's scale and the complexity of its political and religious systems. But to have the reader forever running pages ahead of the protagonist removes tension and substitutes it with frustration. I still enjoy the way that Jemisin writes character dynamics and female protagonists (although I am not enamored of the use of magical disability—it's not near as awful as it could be, but still isn't great), and the end is, at least, better than the first two thirds. But I didn't like this near as much as—well, any other of Jemisin's books.