Review: Stories of the Raksura, Volume 1 by Martha Wells

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Date Read: February 9 to 11, 2015
Read Count: 1
Recommended by:
Recommended for:

The cover artwork for this series is just stunning. I love them all.

We return to the Three Worlds with this volume of four adventure-filled short stories (actually two novellas and two short stories) featuring characters from all three previous books and with special guest appearances by Indigo and Cloud.

 

“The Falling World” takes place after The Siren Depths, and it’s about Moon coming to Jade’s rescue. Now with powerful alliances like Opal Night and Emerald Twilight, the Indigo Cloud court is moving up the Raksura social ladder, with many other courts around the Reaches vying for their attention.

On a mission to visit a smaller court, Jade takes five of her warriors to discuss a trade deal, but on the day she’s due back, a young queen from that court comes to Indigo Cloud asking to speak with her. This causes a stir among the Arbora and Aeriat, and since no one has heard from Jade or the warriors since they left, Moon, Stone, and Pearl suspect she must have ran into trouble on the way there. Moon and Stone, along with a group of Arbora hunters, set out to find her and the others.

 

“Tale of Indigo and Cloud” goes back to a time before Indigo Cloud got its name and the colony tree was filled to capacity, with Aeriat and Arbora all over the place.

According to rumors, Indigo “stole” Cloud from a young queen at the Emerald Twilight court. But according to historical accounts, she did not. This story is about what really happened and how two courts almost went to war if not for some clever maneuvering on the part of a reigning queen. Since the courts came close to going to war, we get to see how courts prepare for or initiate war, and as usual, it’s a whole production, complete with nuances and posturing.

Best part though is seeing Stone as a little fledgling.

 

“The Forest Boy” is about Moon as a child. He had just lost Sorrow and his Arbora siblings to a Taft attack, and had been hiding out in the forest near the edge of town when two orphaned children found and brought him back to their foster parents’ house. The family was poor, but they took him in anyway and he lived with them for awhile. But he could not stay when one of the orphans saw him in his Raksura form.

A bittersweet story, told from the POV of an orphan boy. Makes you wonder how Moon’s life would turn out if he’d been raised in a stable home with decent people who cared for him, instead of bouncing from village to village.

 

“Adaptation” takes place shortly before Moon’s arrival, and it’s about Chime’s transition from Arbora mentor to Aeriat warrior. Life with wings is a challenge, both physically and mentally. For Chime specifically, though, becoming an Aeriat means losing his mentor and reproduction abilities, as all warriors are sterile and have no magic. It takes him a long time to adjust to the transition–and even now he’s still struggling with it–but with Balm’s help, he’s able to fly and the experience is unlike anything he’d ever imagined.

 

These stories are great, but too short. I need more. Good thing the second volume of short stories is coming out in a few days!

 

Just thought this is really cute.

(Jade & Moon by Pentapus)

Review: the Books of Raksura by Martha Wells

I’ve been sitting on this review for the past couple of months, not because I don’t have anything to say but because all I have to say is how much I love this series (I love it so very much). I went into the first book The Cloud Roads expecting to like it, but I wasn’t prepared for how much I enjoyed it. All three books are simply amazing, and they remind me of the fantasies I loved when I was younger, particularly the Earthsea Chronicles and the early Pern books.

Simply put, the Books of Raksura are such satisfying reads and so satisfyingly different from what you’d expect of high fantasy. It doesn’t take long for you to be fully immersed in the setting and adventures. It took me only a few pages to fall into the Three Worlds completely. I mean, how could anyone resist? There are flying islands, many of them now in ruins used to belong to long dead civilizations. The more you learn more about the Three Worlds, the more you want to live there, and I didn’t want to leave. I mean I literally could not put The Cloud Roads down and ended up breezing through the whole series, short stories and all, in a matter of days. It was a whirlwind experience, and it’s been a long time since a series sucked me in so completely that way. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise though. Martha Wells is an amazing storyteller.

Now onto the best part of the Three Worlds: Raksura. These are shapeshifters who have two forms: groundling, which is a humanoid form and the one they’re often in, and Raksura, which is a winged or wingless reptilian gargoyle-like form and the one they take when they fight or hunt. Winged Raksura, called Aeriats, are divided into three castes: queen, consort, and warrior. Wingless Raksura, called Arbora, are divided into four castes: mentor, teacher, hunter, and soldier. More about each individual caste here. Their functions and distinctions in Raksura court and society are a big part of the story, and I find their dynamic fascinating, so different from the usual Medieval European-like court politics of most high fantasies. And just their day to day lives are a treat to read about.

(Raksura by Jessica Peffer)

The antagonists of the Three Worlds are the Fell who are also shapeshifters, but they’re more like warped perverse versions of the Raksura. The Fell are also divided into castes and have some kind of society and pecking order, but they’re altogether much more medieval and bloodthirstier than the Raksura. They feed on other groundlings, are responsible for destroying civilizations all across the Three Worlds, and brutalize their own. Even Raksura fear them. But the interesting thing is it’s believed by some Raksura scholars that the Fell and Raksura once shared a common ancestor. When you look at the two races with that in mind, it adds more depth to the story and you begin to see their innate hatred of each other more clearly. Later books and stories expand more on this idea, but only a little bit at a time.

(The Fell by Jessica Peffer)

Beautiful fan art. I had a hard time picture the line grandfather and major kethel until I saw Jessica Peffer’s versions.

Basic premise (and some spoilers)

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Date Read: January 30 to February 2, 2015

The Cloud Roads begins with a solitary Raksura named Moon, who had been living among various groups of groundlings for most of his life. He’s never been able to fit in anywhere and doesn’t even know what he is. At the start of the book, he’s been living for quite some time in a groundling village before inevitably getting kicked out again. This time, though, it leads him to find another Raksura (Stone), or rather Stone found and rescued him.

With nowhere to go and a desire to learn about Raksura, Moon decides to trust Stone and follow him back to his court, Indigo Cloud, which is only a few days’ flight away. On the way there, they stop by another court, but unfortunately not before it was completely destroyed by the Fell, which have increasingly become a menacing presence in these parts of the Three Worlds. Stone brings Moon to Indigo Cloud not only out of his goodness of his heart but for an ulterior motive, which is to help the court fight off the Fell.

As expected, Moon has a difficult time fitting into yet another group of people who view him with suspicion and sometimes distaste, but Jade, the young queen, takes an interest in him and he seems to like her too. However, all of that is put aside as more pressing matter arise and the Fell attack. Moon must decide if his place is to help the Raksura or leave because it’s not his fight. He decides to stay.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Date Read: February 3 to 5, 2015

The Serpent Sea takes place after the fight with the Fell. Moon is now a member of the Indigo Cloud court and takes his place beside Jade as her Consort. He’s settling into his new role and has even made a few friends, but before he could get comfortable, new trouble finds its way to the court.

The survivors of Indigo Cloud decide to pack up and leave their pyramid mound. Too many bad memories there for them to stay, and like Stone said, the colony is too hard to defend from Fell attacks. So they head to the court’s original territory in the Reaches, the forest of their ancestors where Raksura originated. The journey is uneventful and they reach the colony tree in a matter of days. Once there, though, they discover the tree’s seed pod is missing and that the tree itself will die gradually if the seed isn’t recovered. Moon, Jade, Stone, and a number of beloved characters from the previous book head out to find the seed, and the journey takes them across the Reaches and into the Serpent Sea.

Reading this book is like going on the journey. There are so many awe-inspiring things to mention: an ancient leviathan with a city on its back magically enchanted to stay afloat, the city on its back, the museum in the city on its back, flying boats, the vastness of the Reaches, and last but not least the colony tree itself. It’s like a multi-level city-sized tree house complete with running water, pools, and platforms for farming. The world building and details in this series is mind-blowing and gets better and better with each book.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Date Read: February 5 to 9, 2015

Now that the Indigo Cloud court has settled into their new home, Moon and Jade focus their attention on starting a family, but conceiving proves to be more difficult than either had anticipated. Meanwhile, a powerful court with a powerful reigning queen on the other side of the Reaches makes a claim on Moon. She thinks he is the son she lost during a Fell attack on her colony many years ago. These events line up with Moon’s age and vague memories of that time and Sorrow, the Raksura he thought was his mother. According to Raksura law, if a consort hasn’t fathered a clutch yet, then his birth court still has claims on him. Once a “feral solitary” with no known ties and a muddled bloodline, Moon now has two courts that want him.

The Siren Depths is about lineages and bloodlines, of both the Raksura and the Fell, and they’re explored through Moon, his birth queen, their court, and what happened to their home in the East all those years ago. In short, Moon finally knows where he came from. Revealing any more would spoil the rest of the story, but I will say that it’s a great story full of surprises. It had me glued to each page; a few meals were missed and phone calls went ignored. Moon’s birth mother is such a great character (so great!), and her court and her side of the story are an intriguing addition to the narrative and Moon’s arc. They not only add interest and tension, but a whole heaping amount of history and heritage and so much more depth to an already rich vibrant series.

I will never get tired of rereading these books or singing their praises. They are, hands down, my favorite kind of fantasy and exactly what I had been looking for at the time to revitalize my love for the genre. If you’re tired of the same old fantasy books and want to try something new and different, give this series a go. Martha Wells never disappoints, and these books will take you on an unforgettable journey.

[ETA]

A post by Martha Wells (about Stories of the Raksura, Volume II) is featured on John Scalzi’s blog Whatever.

In many ways, the Raksura books are the books I’ve always wanted to write, it just took me writing a bunch of other books to figure it out.

Also on Whatever by Martha Wells:

• The Cloud Roads
• The Siren Depths

* * * * *

Still captivating, still beautiful. These books bring my fantasies of flying and living in trees to life–well, as close to reality as possible.

This is my third reread and I still find this world and these characters as interesting as when I first picked up this series and read it in a matter of days.

Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Date Read: May 19 to 26, 2015
Read Count: 1
Recommended by:
Recommended for: anyone who hasn’t read it yet

Like the Daily Telegraph quote on the cover says, “compulsively readable,” which sounds too casual for this book. So I’ll add: striking prose and imagery, a memorable POV, and a story that stays with you for a long time. The overall effect of this book is meant to do that–stay with you. Margaret Atwood chose her words carefully to weave this tale.

Finishing this book left me in a strange mindset that lasted for days. Speculative dystopian fiction tends to do that. What’s different about this book, though, is I can easily–too easily–imagine a theocratic regime, like the one in the book, taking over society after the country experience a crisis on the national level. I suppose this is due to Atwood’s superb writing. It’s hard not to imagine such a world. After finishing the book, I went back over a select passages and was amazed how realistic the descriptions of each scene were, still. These images are meant to stay with the reader. And perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to imagine life as we know it devolving into such a state. But perhaps it’s because many aspects of society has already began to devolve, bit by bit every day.

Offred, the titular handmaid whose name is literally “of Fred,” speaks of her current existence and explains many aspects and nuances of her life in this post-nuclear meltdown society where a theocratic government (“The Sons of Jacob”) has taken control.

My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day. I think of this name as buried. This name has an aura around it, like an amulet, some charm that’s survived from an unimaginably distant past. I lie in my single bed at night, with my eyes closed, and the name floats there behind my eyes, not quite within reach, shining in the dark.

The new social order is set up according to the Old Testament. Women’s roles are restricted to those that concern the household and raising children. They can’t own property or work outside the home; they essentially become property again. These changes didn’t happen overnight though, but gradually over a short period of time, following a period of unrest after the new theocratic regime took control.

Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it really isn’t about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn’t about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.

Birth rates have decreased dramatically due to radiation poisoning. So to help raise those numbers, handmaids are “indoctrinated” and dispersed. For a few select men in power called “Commanders,” a handmaid is provided for their households. The handmaid’s singular role, like in Biblical times, is to breed. The belief is that in a few more generations this “handmaid system” will become accepted as part of the functioning society, and that “wives and handmaids will live together under one roof in harmony.” But the unfortunate thing for Offred is that she is a handmaid of the first generation and she, as well as every woman forced into acquiescence, still remembers how life used to be before the collapse. In her former life, she was college-educated and had a job; she was also married and had a daughter. Following the collapse, she was sent to be a handmaid, and what became of her husband and daughter is revealed later in the story.

There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.

Offred lives every moment with the fear of imminent death hanging over her head. At any moment, or at the whim of the Commander or his wife Serena Joy, she could be reported for violating the code of conduct and be sent to the colonies where the condemned are forced to clean up nuclear wastes. Basically, a death sentence, a slow painful death sentence. Everyone in the society lives in fear of the being sent to the colonies, but women, handmaids especially, are most vulnerable. If they’re deemed unfit or no longer of use, they’re shipped off. Each handmaid gets three chances to bring a baby to term. Once a handmaid has given birth successfully, she is exempt from the threat of the colonies. But a handmaid who cannot bear children will be labled an “unwoman” and off to the colonies she is sent. Offred is on her third and final chance.

What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, criscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be.

Although inwardly she fights her role as handmaid and against the social structures that bind her, outwardly Offred appears to accept it and tries not to be a burden on anyone. The power dynamic as portrayed in the book is fascinating and should be explored further; it touches on and echoes many of the struggles we still encounter today. Although the picture painted is one of complete oppression, there are many subtle but well illustrated nuances in Offred’s narration that explore the extent of her subjugation. Another fascinating thing is the set-up of the theocratic society. It looks ludicrous when you first read about it–like, really, how could anyone subscribe to these ridiculous laws??–but then as you get further into the story, it makes sense in an absurd way–like, yeah, now I can see how that would work. What Margaret Atwood get at here is the mindset of the people in power. Offred’s perspective is sympathetic, of course, because it’s her story and she’s the one being held down, but in contrast to that, there’s the people holding her down and the intricacies of their hold on power. Many of the Sons of Jacob aren’t even aware how others suffer because of their will. For this alone, I’d shelve this book as horror.

Atwood’s writing is exceptional, and she juggles nuances with expert control. I especially like the way she transitions from Offred’s current life to her former one and back again throughout the story; the contrasts between past and present are jarring, but at the same time, exquisitely done. What amazes me the most, although it really shouldn’t, is that Atwood not only created such a believable nightmarish society but that she followed through and really delved into Offred’s life and the theocratic society. Everything is laid out, and she leaves no stone unturned. Well, almost no stone. The ending is left to your interpretation.

If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending…
But if it’s a story, even in my head, I must be telling it to someone.
You don’t tell a story only to yourself. There’s always someone else. Even when there is no one.

Although it’s not an easy read, I love almost everything about this book. My only issue is the lack of quotation marks. It’s Atwood’s style, I know, but it makes it difficult to differentiate between thoughts and conversations. Overall though, this is a disturbing story beautifully illustrated.

Review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Rating: ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
Date Read: May 16 to 19, 2015
Read Count: 1
Recommended by: book club’s choice
Recommended for: people who liked the movie?

On the Road meets Walden (the Civil Disobedience edition), but for Generation X, and with a tragic ending.

Which makes this a hard book to rate because, objectively and overall, it’s well written and an interesting read. Jon Krakauer did a lot of research and really delved into Christopher’s McCandless’ past to show what led him to abandon his life for the wilderness of Alaska.

This isn’t so much a review, as it’s a jumble of thoughts and reactions. Here’s a review of just the book.

For me personally though, the subject matter of Into the Wild is…difficult. McCandless’ story is almost exactly what I hate about people who waste their lives. And the fact that he did it willingly but thought he was on a mission or had a higher call was just…ridiculous. As I said in my review of Cheryl Strayed’s story, I can’t stand naive city people who go into the wilderness unprepared, and I absolutely hate the glorification of these people and their journeys. I don’t understand what motivates them to put their lives at risk and I don’t understand why that would bring them closer to whatever spiritual entity they believe watching over them. As an aside, if such a thing exists, it doesn’t care about you, not specifically, but these people believe otherwise, and that’s just absurd, arrogant, and ridiculous. Come on, the universe doesn’t give a fuck about you. (By no means is that a plug for that book. Try Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything instead.)

As the description on the book cover says, McCandless came from a well-to-do family and had a trust fund to fall back on should he fall on hard times, but he gave the money away and went off the grid. What gets to me most about this story is that the time was early 90s and he had just graduated from Emory. He could have done a lot of good with his life and education, instead of wasting both. The opportunities open to someone like him at a time like that were plentiful, but instead he chose to follow Jack Kerouac and went on the road for awhile, and then followed Thoreau and headed out into the wilderness with minimal supplies and no basic survival training. This story could have only ended in death. That is the reality of being ill-prepared in the wilderness. If McCandless had survived, it would have been nothing short of a miracle, and it would have certainly been due to someone–a park ranger, hiker, or hunter–coming to his rescue. But no one did, and so he died alone in an abandoned bus.

In many ways this is how I imagined Cheryl Strayed’s story would’ve ended had she not had the fortune of running into kindhearted experienced hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail. Without their help and expertise, she could have easily ended up like McCandless, as would a lot of people.

I just finished Into the Wild about an hour ago, which is too soon to start a review, but I can’t help wondering about Jon Krakauer’s motivation for writing this book. He’d originally wrote about McCandless in an article and later on decided to expand on the topic and turn it into a book. Why? Why publicize and glorify McCandless even more? Why turn him into a “cult hero”?

“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough , it is your God-given right to have it […] I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale.”

Oh, I see. But if that’s all there is to it, then it’s pretty weak.

To Krakauer’s credit though, he did give McCandless’ family a space where they were able to speak of their grief and bewilderment. But that part, which I think is the most important and well written part of the book, is overshadowed by his sensationalizing McCandless’ “adventures” and featuring long excerpts from McCandless’ journal entries in which he recorded his “profound” observations. Things such as:

“I’m going to paraphrase Thoreau here […] rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth. ”

[…]

“We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.”

[…]

“You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.”

[…]

“It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty…”

How very Thoreau, for the modern era.

All of it seems naive and childish to me, like a temper tantrum but with literary quotes and references thrown in sporadically. And try as I might, I just couldn’t and still can’t take this book or its subject matter seriously. If it hadn’t been a book club’s choice, I would have abandoned it right around the part where McCandless abandoned his Datsun on the side of a road. The writing was good but overindulgent at times, and I already knew how the story ended, so there wasn’t much to motivate me to finish reading but I did for the book club. We rarely agree on anything during our discussions, but for this book, we all feel the same way about what McCandless did.

 

Related articles

It comes as no surprise that this book turned Christopher McCandless into a cult hero. Quite a few people have used it to justify their own “glorious” adventure into the wilderness, which this article describes in some detail. But local Alaskans don’t care for it when these people make their “McCandless pilgrimage” every summer, and park rangers, this one in particular, especially don’t like it.

As a sort of rebuttal and companion to Into the Wild, McCandless’ sister Carine wrote a memoir about that time called The Wild Truth.

Review: Jennifer Love Hewitt Times Infinity by Kevin Fanning

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Date Read: May 11 to 14, 2015
Read Count: 1
Recommended by: found during a bout of spring cleaning
Recommended for: people who like quirky stories

Interesting concept, nice prose. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant.

This collection of short–really short–stories isn’t actually about Jennifer Love Hewitt the actress, but in my opinion, what she could have represented had she turned out to be more famous and/or had more pull in the entertainment industry. Things didn’t quite work out that way for her career, but this book imagines they did. It imagines her as an important cultural icon who’s deeply embedded in our collective consciousness, and for that, I will shelve it as “fantasy.” Kidding.

As you might assume from the title, it’s all about about JLH, but…not really. It’s all about her in the sense that each story features a character called JLH and everything is told from her POV. These stories explore a variety of things, but they’re mostly focused on entertainment, fame, technology, interpersonal relationships, mythology (or rather how we weave mythology), and generally how we shape our lives and how we make sense of them. Which I think is interesting.

The writing would have been just fine without the JLH gimmick. I might have enjoyed it more without the gimmick. But I suppose Kevin Fanning had to do something to set his work apart from other writers who were also experimenting with similar themes and ideas. To me, though, having JLH as the common thread that ties the stories together actually makes the whole collection seem dated, and not in a good way, not unlike the actress herself. All while I was reading I kept thinking about I Know What You Did Last Summer, which led to me trying to recall when it first came out in theaters–it was 18 years ago.

Has it really been that long? Kids born in 1997 are graduating from high school right this minute. Where has the time gone.

I’ll be honest here. I don’t get this JLH gimmick. I mean, I understand the idea behind it and what Fanning did with it, but I don’t see the point of it. Like, why pick a middling actress with a barely remembered career (who has, arguably, no impact on shaping our modern mythologies at all)? Because Fanning likes the sound of her name? Because Fanning wants to make everyone (or me specifically) remember I Know What You Did Last Summer and in turn remind them (me) how much time has gone by (and/or how much older we’ve all gotten since the movie’s release)?

Not ironically, I don’t remember how I came to own this quirky little chapbook. It was probably a gift from awhile ago. I’d probably meant to read it shortly after receiving it. Maybe back then it would have meant something. Now, though, it’s just another reminder of how much time has passed.

 

[ETA] So why JLH, is what people want to know

A friend from book club, Jules, said something interesting yesterday. He asked, “Why not someone more famous? Why not Tom Cruise?”

Then someone else, Emmy, from a different book club who’d overheard our talk said, “Tom Cruise Times Infinity…??”

And all three of us were silent as we pondered the very idea of an infinite number of Tom Cruises.

Jules and I simultaneously had a mother-of-god moment.

Then Emmy said, “See what I mean? Isn’t one Tom Cruise already too much?”

She’s got a point.

Review: My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Date Read: April 17 to 21, 2015
Read Count: 2
Recommended by: found during a bout of spring cleaning
Recommended for: people who like nature

Everything was white, clean, shining, and beautiful. The sky was blue, blue, blue. The hemlock grove was laced with snow, the meadow was smooth and white, and the gorge was sparkling with ice. It was so beautiful and peaceful that I laughed out loud. I guess I laughed because my first snowstorm was over and it had not been so terrible after all.

My Side of the Mountain, written by Jean Craighead George in 1959, is a survivalist story about a boy who runs away from home to live in the Catskill Mountains, and he not only survives but thrives in the wilderness. Twelve-year-old Sam Gribley comes from a large family, and all the Gribleys are crammed together in a small apartment in New York. Sam couldn’t stand living in such a confined space with his parents and all his siblings anymore, so he takes off for his grandfather’s farm in the Catskills. The story begins with Sam already in the mountains preparing his humble tree abode for the first snowstorm. He discusses in detail some of the challenges he’s faced so far and his fear of the storm and not knowing what will happen after. Then gradually, he talks about his life in New York, his family, and how he came to the Catskills.

Sam lives off the land and learns how to be self-sufficient, while skirting the attention of the townsfolk living on the foot of the mountains. It seems everyone he meets is worried about him, everyone but his immediate family, that is. He details his successes and failures and ways in which he learns from both. One of his major achievements is building his house in a tree and another is training a falcon that he names Frightful. The passages where he and Frightful are together are some of the best moments in the book.

It’s not hard to see why this book won so many literary awards and has been a staple on reading lists for children ever since it was published. The writing is clear and descriptive, the adventures are fun and fascinating, Sam is a likable character who adapts easily to the wilderness, and various supporting animal characters are hilarious. They add much needed comedic relief to Sam’s narration.

As much as I still like this book, there are quite a few things I didn’t notice before that bother me now, like

• Sam’s age
• the fact that his family didn’t come looking for him (until later)
• they also didn’t call the police
• Sam’s extensive knowledge of the wilderness (for a city kid, he’s very well versed in survival skills)
• the fact that he didn’t take any books with him
• all the strangers he ran into were kind and helpful

Though none of these things occurred to me when I first read the book. Then again, I was only 9 at the time, so 12 seemed almost grown-up.

Everything came together too easily for Sam. Even some of his biggest challenges were resolved by nightfall. Food was plentiful and easily prepared, supplies were readily available, the weather was mostly fair and mild, shelter was easy to find, storage was easy to built, and no wildlife posed a threat to Sam’s livelihood. No wonder he had such a great time frolicking in the wild. But despite it all, I still love this story and these adventures to this day.

 

I was worried this book wouldn’t live up to my glorious memories of it, and that’s why I haven’t reread it. But after finishing Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, I was in the mood for more survivalist tales. Should have gone with Jon Krakauer instead, someone I’ve been meaning to read for ages now, but I was also in the mood for something easy, upbeat, and fictional. So Krakauer was shelved once again.

My Side of the Mountain was and still is a very special book to me. It introduced me to the beauty of the natural world and made me appreciate nature and wildlife. As a city kid growing up in an industrial working-class community, all I knew was gravel and concrete and the occasional dandelions that grew in between the cracks. I had only seen the Catskills in pictures, but Jean Craighead George’s sweeping descriptions breathed life into those mountains. The sky and trees and streams and even the grass came to life right before my eyes, and everything about the wilderness was just so beautiful, so full of color and life. I hadn’t known it was possible to live off the land and be self-sufficient that far away from the cities; the whole idea was kind of mind-blowing. That was when I started reading more wilderness and survival stories, along with guides and documentaries, and learning all I could so that one day I could have an adventure similar to Sam’s. I haven’t been to the Catskills yet, but I do go camping and canoeing every year in the boundary waters and that’s almost just as good.

It wasn’t until years later that I took an active role in conservation and environmental issues, but it was this book that started it all for me. It made me appreciate the beauty of the wilderness even though I’d hadn’t yet seen it for myself at that point.

7 Deadly Sins of Reading

This tag was created by BookishMalayza on YouTube, and I’ve been tagged by JJ on twitter. I’m doing it here because twitter gives me a headache.

 

Greed
1) What is your most expensive book, and what is your most least expensive book?

My most expensive book to date is probably the History of Botanical Science set. It came with the original text and a beautifully illustrated updated edition. My least expensive books are those I rescued from library and yard sales. They ranged from a penny to a quarter, and they’re all older, out of print SF/F hardback editions.

Wrath
2) Which author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Neil Gaiman. Love his writing, don’t like his stories. Does that even make sense? I like his way with words, but I don’t particularly like how his stories turn out. They always seem to stop short of a full ending, which I have no problem with if the books were part of a series, but they’re not, so that’s a bit unnerving. Before Gaiman came along, this spot used to belong to Stephen King but for the exact opposite reason–love his stories, hate the way his writing drags on.

Gluttony
3) What book have you deliciously devoured over and over again, with no remorse whatsoever?

I rarely reread books, not even ones I love, because of time constraints. But I do revisit books I didn’t like the first time around, just to give them a fair chance. None has wowed me yet though. If anything, I end up taking away a star following the reread. The only books I remember reading more than twice are Wild Seed, Outlander, and The Hunger Games.

Sloth
4) What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?

I don’t neglect books out of laziness but rather a desire to avoid whatever unpleasant subject matter those books contain. Needless to say they’re all nonfictions jam packed with unpleasant politics. Most times my desire to learn win out, but sometimes I have to work myself up to do some prelim research before I start reading.

Pride
5) What book do you most talk about in order to sound like a very intellectual reader?

I…don’t do that, at least I don’t think so. I mean, if sounding “intellectual” was important to me, I’d do what everyone is doing, and that’s bringing up Bret Ellis Easton and Donna Tartt in almost every breath. Or I’d casually drop a reference or two about Infinite Jest that only those who’ve actually read it would understand. But I don’t do it because I’m not an intellectual (read: asshole). 😉

Lust
6) What attributes do you find most attractive in male or female characters?

I don’t…know? I don’t find characters attractive. I mean, I understand when other people say they’re attracted to certain characters or call them their ideal mates or whatever, but that doesn’t happen with me. I “gauge” characters by how believable they are to me, how believable their thoughts and actions are to me, and whether or not I’d like them if they were real people. Does that make sense? Whether I’m attracted to certain characters doesn’t apply into the equation, which is why I have no problem reading about unpleasant or deplorable characters.

Envy
7) What books would you most like to receive as a gift?

One sure way to get me to read a book is to gift wrap it. Usually I have no preference and welcome any book as a gift because, like people say, it’s the thoughts that count. I’m more interested in what the book means to the gift giver and why they want me to read it, than I am in the book itself. But currently I have one book-thing in mind: the hardback editions of Chris Wooding’s Tales of the Ketty Jay, preferably the editions with the original cover art. If anyone has been able to find the complete series and send it to me, I’d appreciate it greatly (and love you forever!).

As you might have noticed, I’m very particular about book editions and cover art, but that’s only when it comes to books I buy for myself. I don’t expect anyone to understand my–sometimes ridiculously specific–book specifications. I appreciate all gift books in whatever shape and form they come in because it’s the thoughts that count.

 

I’m tagging everyone who wants to do this, and I look forward to your answers!