My Favorite Reads: Archangel

My Favorite Reads is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books.  You simply blog about books you read and loved before you started book blogging!

The book I chose this week fits into the theme I've set for the month, angels.  It's not only one of my favorite books, but the standard by which I measure all books about angels.

The book:  Archangel by Sharon Shinn



Archangel takes place in another world called Samaria.  There, humans live with angels in a bit of an uneasy partnership:  angels are the governing body, more or less, and since their songs and prayers to Jovah keep Samaria running--bringing water, sunshine, even manna from heaven if they ask for it--humanity is fairly reliant upon them.  And the angels in turn generally feel pretty superior.

The highest-ranking angel in all of Samaria is the Archangel.  As the book opens, the young Gabriel is preparing to take over this post from his predecessor, Raphael.  He knows that in order to rule he must find his Angelica, the human woman (angels are only allowed to marry humans) destined to be his wife.  And when I say destined, I mean Jovah's got his hands all over this world:  most people in Samaria have stones inbedded into their arms at birth that flare when they meet the man or woman they're supposed to marry.

Unfortunately for Gabriel, his Angelica, Rachel, is not inclined to be singing to save the planet or making babies with one who is winged.  In point of fact, she's a slave.  Yes I know--you would think a world ruled by angels would be utopic, but it's not.  There's a nomadic race on Samaria that is considered fair game for slave traders.  The angels look the other way because the nomads don't rely on them to sing prayers--they sing their own prayers, and the angels kind of hate them for it.  Rachel's entire tribe was wiped out in a raid, and now she's a slave in a wealthy household.  And she remembers it was angels that attacked her tribe.  So girl's got some issues.

Nevertheless, Gabriel carries her off to his aerie, and Rachel tries to train for the changing-of-the-archangel ceremony on the Plain of Jordan and learn how to fit into the angelic community.  And she also gets to know her husband, sexy sexy Gabriel.  Yum.  With the wings and the shirtlessness, and the dark looks and leather pants (because angels HAVE to wear leather pants, that's like a rule or something...).

What I love most about this book is the absolute believability of the characters and the setting of Samaria.  I can see most of the locations in my mind--to this day--as if I'd visited them myself.  Shinn really does a great job of transporting you to another world as you read the book.  Rachel and Gabriel I got to know as if they were friends, but even the secondary characters are wonderful.  I was totally pissed when the second book in this series didn't take up where this one left off so I could find out what happened to them after laying awake for nights on end wondering.

Plus, the music--this novel bleeds music.  At the aerie, there's someone singing constantly, and the angels live and breathe music.  Being able to sing is also a pivotal part of Rachel's personality and how she heals herself emotionally from the trauma of being a slave and seeing all her family and friends murdered.  I can't imagine reading this book without mentally trying to set it to music.

Archangel is a brilliantly written novel that has all the themes I love to read about--not just love (I did mention this was a love story, right?), but equality and freedom and even the importance of faith.  I can't recommend it enough.

Powered by ScribeFire.

My Favorite Reads: Guilty Pleasures

My Favorite Reads is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books.  You simply discuss a book you enjoyed before you started blogging!  In my last post, I mentioned that Laura Lee Guhrke has written at least two of my favorite romances.  Here's the earlier of those two:



Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke

This has got to be one of best romance novels I've ever read.  You know how you come to expect certain things in genre books, so you're anticipating all the plot points before they happen?  Well, in Guilty Pleasures, LLG defied all my expectations and gave me a practically perfect romance.  It's full of great characters, true love, adventure, and mystery that add to the story.  (I know you're thinking the cover sucks, but it actually makes sense once you read the book.)

The shy and bookish Daphne Wade has been in love with the Duke of Tremore for years.  Of course she's in love with him--he's intelligent, handsome, dashing, and rich.  What's not to love?  Daphne, meanwhile, is a "spinster" and so poor she's actually employed--as a restorer for some of Tremore's ancient artifacts.  This part at the very beginning of the book was, in all honesty, somewhat annoying.  But fear not!  Daphne soon overhears Tremore declare she's completely unattractive, and then she's pissed.  Naturally, it's immediately after she decides she never wants anything to do with him that he starts to notice her.

Guilty Pleasures has a sort of Cinderella-esque charm to it, although I wouldn't call it a Cinderella story exactly.  The romance between Daphne and Anthony (Tremore) is so wonderful because they're likeable, believable characters; and I loved the secondary characters as well.  If you like historical romance and you haven't read it yet, get thee to a bookstore and buy Guilty Pleasures.  NOW.

Powered by ScribeFire.

My Favorite Reads: The Wind Singer

My Favorite Reads is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home with Books.  You just talk about one of your favorite books from before you started blogging!  Today I'm talking about The Wind Singer, a YA novel by William Nicholson.

The Wind Singer takes place in a dystopian city called Aramanth.  Aramanth is organized by an extremely strict caste system, where what family you're born into determines practically everything in your life.  The main character is the precocious Kestrel, who stages a rebellion against the caste system in her school that sends her entire family to the lowest rung of the social ladder.  But Kestrel doesn't let that stop her from her vision of righting what she sees as the wrongs in Aramanth!  When she hears about The Wind Singer--a person who will restore harmony to Aramanth through the power of his/her voice--she sets out on a dangerous adventure outside the walls of Aramanth and into the desert territory of the evil Zars to find him or her.  Tagging along are Kestrel's brother, Pinpin, and their classmate and friend, Mumpo (who was my favorite character in the book).

Before writing novels, Nicholson was a screenwriter and wrote several blockbuster films, like Gladiator.  This is definitely reflected in The Wind Singer; you're plunged immediately into the world of Kestrel and Pinpin, and the action is pretty much non-stop until the end.  Although this is a long book, it goes by really fast.  I think I read all 500-ish pages in a day.  I literally could not put it down.  Plus, I loved all of the main charaters and was fascinated by the world of Aramanth. 

Essentially this is a great, fun, easily digested novel with a strong female lead that deals with themes of justice, equality, magic, and courage.  I can't recommend it enough!

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Silver Metal Lover

My favorite Reads is a weekly meme hosted by Amy from At Home with Books.  You simply feature a favorite book that you read before you started blogging!  In honor of Kill the Dead, which I read this week (see the review here), I decided to feature one of my favorite Tanith Lee books, The Silver Metal Lover (this one's actually still in print).

Here's the cover from Amazon:



But one of my friends went to a book sale once and ran across the original hardcover, which she bought for me.  This is what my copy looks like:



Isn't it so, so '70s?  I love it.

Anyway, back to the point--The Silver Metal Lover is loosely based on the fable of Demeter and Persephone, and is about a lonely young woman named Jane who doesn't have a lot of confidence and lives at home with her controlling mother.  One day she's wandering around her city (set in the distant future), and she sees a presentation for nextgen robots.  They have acrobats, dancers, concubines, and musicians for people's entertainment.  Jane is immediately attracted to a robot named Silver (which is an acronym for Silver Ionized something-or-other), who is a minstrel.  Since Jane's family is extremely wealthy, she's able to purchase him then and there.

Silver is programmed to act like a human, and lonely Jane quickly falls in love with him, much to her mother's horror (human-robot love ist verboten).  It's part of Silver's programming to reflect Jane's emotions, so it's merely programming when Silver seems to fall in love with Jane, too--or is it???  Is Silver just a machine, or does he have a soul, too?

I should warn you ahead of time that this tale does not have a happy ending.  I don't really remember if I cried at the end or not, but since this is me we're talking about, I probably did.  However, I think it had a very satisfying ending, in that the story had a powerful conclusion and Jane is a better person for the time she's spent with Silver.

The Silver Metal Lover is a love story, but it's also a coming-of-age story for Jane (who is only 16--did I mention that?), and a fable about what makes us human.  It's widely considered one of Lee's best novels, and I definitely recommend it.

The Silver Metal Lover also has a sequel (which I haven't read yet), called Metallic Love.

Powered by ScribeFire.

My Favorite Reads: The Broken Sword

My Favorite Reads is a weekly meme that asks you to blog about your favorite books from the past, hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books. I'm probably posting this on the wrong day, but... oh well (I know; I'm such a rebel ~_^).


The Broken Sword by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy

I read this book when I was senior in high school. My mom got it for me (one of her many attempts to get me to stop reading romance novels), and I expected it to be super-boring. Instead, it was super-awesome with a topping of OMG best book evarrrrrrr.

The story is about the Once and Future King, aka Arthur, who's been reincarnated and is a fourteen-year-old boy living in the present (circa 19... um, when I was in high school). Since he's an orphan, he's being looked after by ex-FBI agent, Hal (Galahad reincarnated), and Taliesin (Merlin). The book opens with a bang, literally, as a bazaar in Morocco fills with gunfire and explosions. A young, blind girl named Beatrice touches a cup, and suddenly she can see again! And there's a whole bunch of other people chasing after the cup, too. And the Knights of the Round Table cross time to appear in the present, and Lancelot is INSANELY sexy!

One thing about this book that you should know is, it is a follow-up to The Forever King, which I hadn't read. I think that actually worked in the book's favor. I had no idea what was going on--but I wanted to find out. Being totally in the dark about the history of the characters at the beginning helped make their backstories more mysterious and the reveal more rewarding, and let my imagination fill in the blanks. Plus y'all know what a fan of the wtf I am.

I loved the world of this book. It took me a day to read the last fifty pages because I did not want this book to end. I just wanted to live in it forever and have tiny little book babies with it. I felt like I was friends with all the characters. The action is pretty non-stop, so it's a fairly quick read; but it's getting to know the Knights of the Round Table and all their personalities that really makes this book enjoyable.

My mom was gratified I loved a non-romance book so much. Little did she know this book is chock full of the love story of Lancelot and Guinivere, and Hal and another woman (no, Guinivere is never reincarnated--I think she's suffered enough). Good try, though, Mom. :)

Powered by ScribeFire.