Book Review: ROYAL STREET

Author: Suzanne Johnson
Publisher: TOR
Date Published: April 10, 2012

Drusilla Jaco is a wizard, empath, and junior sentinel for New Orleans. Her job is to help protect the city from any beings that might cross over from the preternatural world, though to her chagrin she is delegated to mixing potions and research much more than she would like. When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans with crashing force, it not only unleashes torrents of floodwater and devastation, but creates breaches between this world and the next. Now the undead are loose in the city, people are being murdered and strange symbols are appearing at the crime scenes.

To top it all off, DJ's boss, Gerald St. Simon, is missing, DJ has infuriated the undead pirate Jean Lafitte and he's out for revenge, and the wizard Elders have assigned DJ a new partner who thinks all problems can be solved with a gun and a grenade. The search for Gerry and the serial killer unravels secrets that threaten to destroy DJ and shows her where love and friendship are truly found.

This is a book I would not normally pick up, because I prefer stories that take place in fantasy worlds rather than urban fantasy. However, I know Suzanne Johnson from her website, so I thought I'd give it a try (plus, the cover looked pretty cool). I was pleasantly surprised by the creative ideas and world building in this book. The author has seamlessly fused historical details with story, and we see the likes of pirate Jean Lafitte, Louis Armstrong, and Marie Laveau make appearances along with the wizards and shapeshifters. The sadness and devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought is dealt with respectfully along with the horror of the preternatural world released into ours.

I enjoyed reading from DJ's perspective as she is spunky, irritable, a bit sarcastic, and totally human in her actions and desires. Her drive to find her mentor and father-figure, Gerry, and her stubborn belief that he is still alive despite evidence to the contrary is the heart of this novel. She struggles with her own abilities and emotions while battling the undead and uncovering secrets. I was worried that the romance between DJ and her partner Alex would take over the story, but it remained appropriately in the background.

One thing I wished for was a little more tension and excitement from secret-reveals. There are certain things that DJ learns through dialogue that I wish she had discovered on her own. She could have become very angry or upset about certain things that would have increased tension between characters, but instead she takes them pretty calmly and the story moves on. Also, several parts of the book are very slow and it takes a while for the story to get moving.

I love the small taste of elves we get in this story through DJ's elvish ancestry and the magic staff she discovers. The staff isn't just a prop, but allows her to do magic she couldn't normally do on her own and seems to have powers she is yet unaware of. I am hoping we learn more about it and DJ's connection to the elves in the next books.

Overall, an enjoyable read for urban fantasy fans filled with adventure, mystery, and secrets uncovered.

Back from Romania!

Wow, it feels like I have been gone much longer than two weeks! To give you a brief recap, I was in Romania working with an organization in a couple orphanages there. Because of a corrupt government that has only recently come out of communism and a bad economy, the country has been left with thousands of abandoned children. Romanian history is fascinating, and I had no idea that the Romanians themselves didn't know that there were thousands of orphans in their country--many of them still don't.

Many of the larger organizations have pulled out of Romania because it is expensive to be there and complicated to register as a volunteer organization there. The organization I worked with is one of the few still there, and they are there to stay. It was wonderful and encouraging to see the work they are doing. Because of the groundwork of trust and relationships the permanent staff have created in these orphanages, the kids just leap into your arms when you arrive, ready to love and be loved in return. This is so different from working with kids here at home, because these orphans are starved for love and attention. It was sad to see them in this condition, but they didn't need pity; they needed love and respect and friendship, and we tried to give them these things during our two weeks there.

The organization I worked with is small, so they rely heavily on these short-term mission teams coming in to help them, which is good as it is not like I was going on a vacation; I was there to serve (though I did have a fabulous time and grew along the way as well!).

I could go on about events and the fascinating differences between Romania and North America (might I just say that driving there is CRAZY. Driving laws and things like stop signs appear to be just suggestions. Also, another odd thing was it is not rude to stare there, so you'd get blatantly stared at a lot when you were out in public, which felt weird.). But I'm just going to close with a few pictures.

I'm not going to put up photos of the kids on in case of privacy concerns, but here is a taste of some beautiful Romanian scenery from our day off of visiting the orphanages. We went up into the mountains to see a castle in Transylvania, and it was just amazing.

Those two weeks were enough to create a special place in my heart for Romania, the orphans and staff at the organization, and I hope to someday go back.

Happy April and Blog Break

I am having a great time perusing all the A's and B's of my blogging buddies for the A-Z Challenge, and I'm sure all of you are enjoying it too! I would love to participate, but I'm not because I'm heading to Romania to do volunteer work in orphanages for a couple weeks. So I will be disappearing from my blog for most of the month of April.

Stay tuned when I return for another countdown. I realize I haven't been posting much about video games, even though it says right up there that this blog includes video games in its subject matter, and goodness knows I play them enough. So when I return I will initiate the Top 10 Video Game Countdown. Care to guess what's on my list? (Well, you can get at least one of them from my profile picture.)

Now go, be merry, and enjoy visiting all the awesome blogs posting alphabetical subjects this month!

Book Review: NINE PRINCES IN AMBER

by Roger Zelazny, published in 1970

Amber, the one real world, wherein all others, including our own Earth, are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne. From Arden to the blood-slippery Stairway into the Sea, the air is electrified with the powers of Eric, Random, Bleys, Caine, and all the princes of Amber whom Corwin must overcome. Yet, his savage path is blocked and guarded by eerie structures beyond imaging—impossible realities forged by demonic assassins and staggering horrors to challenge the might of Corwin's superhuman fury. (Summary from Goodreads)

This book begins with a man waking up in hospital with no memory of how he got there. His legs are in casts and he's covered in bandages, but he is able to get up, break the casts and walk out. He doesn't remember who he is, but he intuitively understands that it was no accident that injured him and brought him to that hospital, that something important is going on, and he must figure out what.

Thus begins the Amber Chronicles, a series about the magical land of Amber and the nine princes competing for the throne. Amber is the real world, and all other worlds are shadows of it. Princes of Amber can manipulate these shadows and travel through different worlds, but it is Amber that lies in their hearts and souls, and it is Amber they wish to inhabit.

Unfortunately, after their father's strange disappearance, Corwin's brother Eric has declared himself king and has taken over Amber. This book details Corwin's struggle to return to Amber from shadow Earth, to regain his memory, to gain the loyalty of his other brothers, and to take the throne from his arrogant brother.

Zelazny creates a complex and vivid fantasy world--yet at the same time his prose is simple and not layered with thousands of detailed descriptions like a lot of epic fantasies are. He gets to the point and leaves room for your imagination to do its thing. I love the unique ideas in this book--the vast number of worlds, the trumps that allow the royal siblings to communicate with each other, the ability to manipulate shadows. I recommend this book to readers who like Robert Jordan, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin and Orson Scott Card (though none of these comparisons are quite right because Zelazny's writing is unique). Corwin's journey is fascinating, and I will be re-reading this series for years to come.

Doctor Who's New Companion

The companion for the next series has finally been revealed! Jenna-Louise Coleman, actress from Waterloo Road, Emmerdale Farm, and Captain America, is stepping up to the plate. Of these productions she's been involved in I've only seen Captain America, and I don't really remember her in it, so I don't know her very well. It sounds like she will be a good match for Matt Smith though, as producer Moffat commented: "when we saw Matt and Jenna together, we knew we had our girl. She's funny and clever and exactly mad enough to step on board the Tardis." You can read a longer article here.

Jenna will be replacing companions Karen Gillan in her role as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. I've never been much of a fan of Amy, so I won't miss her very much, but Rory REALLY grew on me, and now he is one of my favourite characters. He started out as a character I thought would just show up for a few episodes and then disappear, but he ended up becoming an integral part of the show and I will miss him.

So will Jenna be able to fill the holes of the past awesome companions? I don't think so, but I think she will carve out a space of her own, and am looking forward to watching the chemistry between her and the Doctor. What do you think? Are you going to miss Amy and Rory? Looking forward to the new series?

Here is the BBC interview with Jenna about her new role as the Doctor's companion:

The Lucky Meme Award

So my blog is experiencing a lot of love these days! This is my third award this month. Thank you so much, awesome people. Thanks for tagging me, Tyrean! If this keeps up, I may have to stop accepting them for the sake of keeping my regular blog posts up, but this one is a lot of fun, so I'm going to participate. I'm not going to tag anyone else though, cause I know these things are spreading like wildfire.

For this award, I am to go to page 77 of my current MS, go to line 7, copy down the next 7 sentences or paragraphs and post them as they're written. No cheating. Here goes:

From page 77 of Black Star:

            Taren went over to the console to check. It was dead. He pulled the power cells out of the panel below, to find them shattered from the impact. He pulled his helmet back on and accessed the comm channel. “Black Star, do you read? Black Star, come in.” There was nothing but static on the other end.

            “Maybe they’ll send a rescue,” Marcus suggested, hope glinting in his eyes.

            “Maybe,” Taren said, pulling off his helmet. “But maybe whoever sabotaged the ship thought of that, and took measures to prevent it.”

            Marcus shoved him against the hull, and Taren was too surprised at the move to avoid being slammed against the metal with Marcus’s hand pressed against his windpipe. His leg hit the bench, sending the message of pain to his brain.

            “I don’t want to die here, Dreav,” Marcus breathed.

            “You’re not… gonna die,” Taren gasped out. “But you might… wanna let up if… you want… my help getting back.”

            Marcus released his grip and Taren slumped down to the bench.

I haven't done any revisions on this first draft yet, so I am cringing at leaving some of these lines as they are. Oh well, "no cheating" it is.

Computers Not Covered for Space Invasions

News has been spreading across the web about an interesting clause in Asus's warranty for their computers: the warranty does not apply when "There is damage caused by natural disaster, intentional or unintentional misuse, acts of war, space invasions, abuse, neglect, improper maintenance, or use under abnormal conditions." You can see a longer article here.

So, Asus owners, if those aliens come tomorrow and zap your computer, you're on your own. Just thought I'd warn you.

Apparently Asus caught wind of the ridicule spreading across the web, and took the clause out, which in my opinion is a shame; it certainly made my day!