Comfort Books

The top shelf of one of the many bookcases in my bedroom back home is crammed to bursting with some of my all-time favorite novels.  Sometimes, when I’m mopey or just bored I’ll take one down to re-read part or all of it.  The following books are some of the most frequently re-read from that shelf.*  They all have some measure of fantasy (you may have noticed a trend in my media habits) and are also all rather dark.

 

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

A story about several werewolf packs/gangs in Los Angeles and the people caught in between.  Mostly it focuses on the people (including the werewolves) as their loyalties shift and their worlds collapse.  The take on werewolves is fairly fresh and well-considered.  Oh, and did I mention it’s written entirely in absolutely gorgeous free verse?  Yeah.

 

Maledicte by Lane Robins**

This is a tale of love and revenge.  There are also lost gods, nasty politics, lots of intrigue and gratuitous violence delivered with hauntingly beautiful prose.  The characters and their problems are frighteningly believable, despite the fantastic nature of the story.  Bonus points for an interesting pantheon and continuously sending chills down your spine.

 

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Possibly my first real introduction to urban fantasy as a genre, certainly the first time I read an urban fantasy that had something more than vampires in it.  Granted, there are vampires, but there’s plenty of other stuff, too.  It’s been a while since I read it, but I recommend it whole-heartedly.  I mean, it’s Robin McKinley, for crying out loud!

 

Tithe:  A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black (YA)

Like Sunshine in that it was a milestone in my consumption of urban fantasy.  The first book that had faeries in a modern setting.  Take some old-school scary faeries and drop them in the middle of New Jersey.  Now toss in an outcast teenage girl who’s far too clever for her own good.  There’s beautiful imagery, fascinating (and terrifying) faeries and a quest for self-discovery (with a detour toward romance).  I also heartily recommend the author’s graphic novel series The Good Neighbors.

 

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (YA)

Another book with teenage girls and really scary faeries.  I found this one when it first came out (working in a book store at the time) and I ate it up.  Awesome imagery, interesting use of relatively obscure folklore and throughout all the magic and politics you never lose sight of the characters.  I particularly appreciate that Melissa Marr’s characters have some fairly unique problems in the rapidly-expanding arena of faerie-related YA.

 

Happy reading!
Phantastic Student

*Not included, but also freqently re-read is Vivian Vande Velde’s The Book of Mordred which I adore.  However, being Arthurian in nature it didn’t seem to fit with dark urban fantasy cast of the rest of the list (Maledicte maybe be set in a period similar to the Regency/Victorian eras but you can’t tell me it’s not urban fantasy).  So I’ll talk about it another day.

** When I recommend a book from a series I am recommending the whole series unless I specifically say otherwise.

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Update/No Review

Sorry for the lack of review this post.  Haven’t got a copy of River Marked yet and I’m having trouble coming up with a coherent list of webcomics.  So instead I’ll mention some cool stuff and a toss out a half-hearted promise to add an OMG-READ-THIS list of my favorite books.

So.  Caught up on this season of BBC’s Being Human the other night (very moving finale) and started watching Sherlock (which is amazing but which I won’t review until I’ve seen the full season).  Must catch up on the last few episodes of Fringe (Fox and Hulu both load really slowly).   I might watch some more stuff on Netflix Instant-Play if I can find anything good.*

In other news:

Reading:  War and Pieces (that is, Fables volume 11)

Watching:  BBC’s Sherlock (see above)

Listening:  Maroon by the Barenaked Ladies (I already knew the album, but I’ve been living without it a while – the thing was playing in my head all day at work)

Also, it’ looks like I might get class credit for writing a comic script, so we’ll see how that goes.

Later.

Phantastic Student

*I watched all three seasons of Veronica Mars in a week.  It was fun, but now I seem to be having trouble finding other stuff.  I’ll probably end up watching the last couple seasons of Heroes or starting up with Dark Shadows.

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(A Very) Late Eclipses Review

I just got back online after midterm break with a late review of Seanan McGuire‘s Late Eclipses.  The book arrived a couple days before I did and I started in on it Monday afternoon and finished it at about three o’clock in the morning on Tuesday.  So about twelve hours, including numerous breaks to bounce about the house with sheer giddiness.

Late Eclipses is the best of the series so far.  The mystery is more urgent and more personal, the character relations are tight and functional (though I admit Quentin got less air time this book) and Toby is finally realizing just how deeply immersed she is in Faerie.

What’s best about this book, I think, is the flow of it.  Usually, when I’m reading a book I’ll use Post-It flags to mark my favorite character quotes* and bits of prose I find particularly well-crafted or moving.  Late Eclipses only has four flags.  Not because there isn’t a lot of awesomeness in this book, but because the whole book is so good that only a few things stand out above the rest.  From the very beginning to the very end, this book has the usual rises and falls in pace and excitement, but it’s consistently good.  There are only four places that really stand out and say “hey, re-read this!” on their own, because everything else fits so seamlessly that I can’t reread it without rereading the entire book.**

After An Artificial Night I thought McGuire was getting better and more comfortable in her world but I was afraid to hope it would last.  Now that I’ve read Late Eclipses I’m convinced that, if it’s even possible to make a better Toby Daye book, the next one will surpass the others.  It’s really growing as a series.  So now I’m dying for September and the release of One Salt Sea*** because I know it will surpass the others.  McGuire will deliver some of the best urban fantasy around.  That said, if you have any interest in UF, you should be reading this series.  If you don’t, you should buy it anyway and give it to someone who does.

 

Eagerly awaiting the next installment,

Phantastic Student

 

*I am a bit of a Tybalt fan.  He’s snarky and he’s gorgeous and his conversations with Toby are always hilarious.  For example, my copy of A Local Habitation is bristling with flags, the vast majority of which highlight Tybalt quotes.

**Which is why I left it at home when I came back to school.  If it were here, I’d reread it constantly instead of doing any work.  This is, in fact, the only reason I’m not listing the four flags by page and line number (I could probably type up the actual quotes from memory, but then there’d be spoilers).

***I had to force myself not to read the excerpt at the back of  Late Eclipses to retain what little remains of my sanity.  I already can’t wait for September and the next book because I know that if there is any possible way to make a better Toby Daye book, the next one will surpass the others.

 

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