booksbythewindow's reviews
97 reviews

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2021/08/04/the-beast-player/

Summary:  The Beast Player is told primarily from the perspective of Elin, a young girl whose mother is sentenced to death after the serpent-like creatures she was looking, the Toda, after mysteriously die. Escaping far away from her hometown, Elin grows up and discovers her love for caring for creatures but feels particularly drawn to the Royal Beasts, winged creatures that are the most dangerous in the land. After being given the opportunity to care for wounded Royal Beasts, she realises that she is able to communicate with them using a small harp. Yet this revelation pushes her into the centre of a conspiracy and political power struggle, in which both the Toda and the Royal Beasts play an important role.

Overall Thoughts:  One of the aspects of The Beast Player that I really admired was the way that it is paced. It seemed unusual to me, even for a children’s novel, for the inciting incident to happen in the Prologue but this set the pace for the rest of the book.  Yet despite the fast pace, the character development and intrigue never feels rushed: even characters with which the reader is given little time, such as Ialu, Shunan, and Seimiya, are depicted clearly so that the reader is aware of their motivations, for better or worse.  The world of The Beast Player is vibrant and interesting, with Uehashi slowly revealing more information as the narrative progresses.  Overall, I really enjoyed The Beast Player and I think it will appeal to those who enjoy the younger end of Young Adult fantasy, but I also think it could be enjoyed more generally by those who appreciate different fantasy worlds and creatures. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/05/11/the-beast-warrior/

Summary:  The Beast Warrior follows Elin, Ialu, and their son Jesse, who have been trying to live a quieter life since the events of The Beast Player. Elin has made a name for herself as the only one who can control the Royal Beast and is firm in her resolution not to allow her ability to be weaponised. As she is asked investigate a case of Toda deaths similar to the case which led to her mother’s death, she starts to discover more about the history and biology of the Toda which in turn reveals more about why she has had such strong warnings about controlling the Royal Beasts. Her investigations take place in the shadow of a coming war with a neighbouring country they know little about, and it isn’t long before she is given a choice: either use the Royal Beasts in the war or spend her life running with her family.

Overall Thoughts:  Unfortunately, I did enjoy The Beast Warrior as much as The Beast Player, although I did appreciate the nuances that this sequel was trying to convey. I understood the point that Uehashi is making as she takes the time to draw out the political, ethical, and moral issues that surround the use of these creatures in war, but I could not help feeling that these issues could have been drawn out more succinctly. I am not generally someone who needs a fast-paced narrative to enjoy a novel, in fact I tend to prefer character development over action, but it did not feel as though the character development for Elin and Ialu was as strong as it had been in The Beast Player.  In the midst of this, there were definite elements of The Beast Warrior that I enjoyed, particularly the middle section of action and the ending. The middle section, as Ialu and Jesse are forced to leave their home is by far some of the most interesting, with Jesse coming to understand more about his father’s past.  I would definitely still recommend The Beast Player for younger fantasy readers, and I think The Beast Warrior does answer an important question raised at the end of that book, but it is definitely not as strong as the original novel. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/05/25/spin-the-dawn/

Summary:  Spin the Dawn follows Maia, the daughter of a tailor who dreams of becoming the imperial tailor. When she is mistakenly given the opportunity to take part in a competition at the emperor’s palace, she does not hesitate to disguise herself and enter, trying to win the job that she has always dreamed of as well as the ability to send money back to her family. However, the competition puts her in the middle of political tensions as well as bringing her to the attention of the emperor’s Lord Enchanter. The events that follow eventually set her on a journey that will prove to change not only Maia’s life but the lives of all those in the emperor’s palace. 

Overall Thoughts:  Writing the summary for this novel proved to be difficult as, truthfully, it is only the first half of the narrative that follows the actual competition with the second half of the narrative delving much more deeply into the politics, magic, and darkness of the world that Maia is discovering. Although I enjoyed the first half of the narrative, it was the second half that really stood out to me and had me absorbed in the action.  Maia was an engaging protagonist and first-person perspective character. Whilst her motivations at the start of the novel might have seemed a little predictable, her growth in understanding and the way that her perspective changes throughout the narrative was enjoyable to read and she became an easy character to root for.  Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and found the characters and plot to be very engaging. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/06/01/ghostways/

Summary:  Ghostways is a collection of two prose poems from Robert Macfarlane, along with illustrations from Stanley Donwood. The first, ‘Ness’, is an exploration of Orford Ness, an island off the coast of East Anglia that was used in the past for secret weapons tests. The prose poem moves back and forth between an eerie, ghostly scene of a weapons test, and the natural elements surrounding the island that are gradually taking over the place. ‘Holloway’ is a shorter prose poem, following the journey of Macfarlane, Dan Richards, and Stanley Donwood along the Marshwood Vale, a path that Macfarlane had previously walked with a late friend.

Overall Thoughts:  It took me a while to be engaged in ‘Ness’ but once I had reached the second ‘In the Green Chapel’ chapter, the piece began to come together for me. There was something about the rhythm in the speeches of the characters in the chapters in the chapel that drew me in, particularly with the pararhymes throughout some of the dialogue. ‘Holloway’ appears to be the more well-known of the two prose poems in Ghostways, and it is cited as a generally strong example of the genre. There is obviously a great deal of emotion and reflection through this piece, brought from the re-treading of a path previously walked with a friend who has passed away. Macfarlane is clearly able to convey his emotions to the reader simply in his description of his interactions with the world around him as he walks the path with Donwood and Richards, invoking a companionable, reflective time with friends.  This was a really interesting introduction to the world of prose poetry and Macfarlane’s work. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/06/08/homegoing/

Summary:  Homegoing is a massive inter-generational narrative which follows two characters from each of the seven generations descended from two half-sisters. Effia and Esi are the initial half-sisters that Homegoing opens with; unaware of their connection, they find themselves in two very different positions with Effia being married to a slave trader whilst Esi is sold as a slave. From there, each subsequent generation has different struggles and narratives to tell, whilst still remaining part of one over-arching narrative that finds if not fulfilment, at least some sort of catharsis in the final chapter.

Overall Thoughts:  One of the most impressive aspects of Gyasi’s writing in Homegoing is that she is able to write fourteen protagonists in one novel and each one feels as real as the next. There was never really a point at which I felt that I was missing one of the previous character perspectives with each chapter able to engage me with that character’s perspective and story within a couple of paragraphs.  Each character navigates their particular context in a realistic way, piquing the reader’s interest whilst also giving them enough information about the period and place that they are able to understand what is going on. It is a fine balance to keep, but one that Gyasi navigates extremely well. This was engaging and fascinating to read, as well as being very impressively written. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/08/03/the-housekeeper-and-the-professor/

Summary:  The narrative of The Housekeeper and the Professor is told from the perspective of the unnamed housekeeper as she remembers the time she spent looking after the house of a mathematician whose memory only lasts eighty minutes. As she adapts to the situation, she and her son, Root, develop a friendship with the Professor and he teaches them about the depth that numbers can hold.

Overall Thoughts:  The Housekeeper and the Professor is a quiet narrative, with more emphasis placed on the characters and their relationships than a heavy plot. Each character, from the Housekeeper, to the Professor, to Root, is fully realised and sympathetic, with the reader easily able to engage with them.  The way in which Ogawa writes all the small details of the every day workings of these friendships and the routines they put in place to help the Professor with his memory are understated and yet contain so much depth.  I really enjoyed The Housekeeper and the Professor and particularly  the way in which Ogawa wrote the friendships within the narrative. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in literary fiction, and even those who perhaps don’t usually read the genre but would enjoy a quieter, more character-focused narrative. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2019/10/02/one-hundred-years-of-solitude/

Summary:  One Hundred Years of Solitude follows the generations of the Buendía family who were involved in the establishment of the isolated town of Macondo where they now live. A family full of poor mental and physical health, largely as a result of incest, the reader is taken through both family dramas and external dramas as the Buendías are faced with tragedies again and again. Although there are multiple characters moving in and out of the focus of the narrative, it is the matriarch Úrsula who is the constant throughout the narrative, the only Buendía to remain in the family home. 

Overall Thoughts:  I picked this classic novel up in a second-hand bookshop earlier this year as it is always recommended as a great book in a genre that I do not have much experience reading. Whilst I am glad that I finally know what this novel is all about, I found myself struggling through the majority of the book and overall, I did not enjoy it.  I found much of the narrative to be just beyond my capacity to cope with the weird and disturbing, and often was found reading it with a frown on my face as I tried to figure out what was going on. I can see that there are multiple layers to understanding Márquez’s writing, especially as the themes of isolation and repetition come through, and I think it would maybe have been an interesting book to study as I am sure there is are many aspects of the narrative that I did not pick up on. However, as a novel to read in my free time, I found the narrative much too confusing.  

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/the-house-of-the-spirits/

Summary: The House of the Spirits follows one family through different generations with a particular focus on the women, although the reader sees through the eyes of the male narrator, Esteban Trueba. Writing the story of his family from a place of old age, Esteban takes the reader through his first encounter with the del Valle family, with an engagement tragically cut short to their daughter Rosa. Using the childhood notebooks of Clara, he retraces the events leading them to get married and start their own family, with a focus on their daughter, Blanca, and granddaughter, Alba. With Alba growing up in an increasingly politically unstable world, and Clara, the clairvoyant, dead, the narrative at the close of the novel shifts to focus much more on the physical that surrounds the family. 

Overall Thoughts:  I found the women in the narrative to be the most interesting characters, particularly Alba, whose story closes out the novel. However, I was having to fight through my extreme dislike of the narrator to enjoy the rest of the characters.  He may be the only character to have seen all these generations, but I would much rather have read the same story through the eyes of other characters. The narrator aside, I found some of the characters to be interesting and complex and I enjoyed reading the nuances to their stories. Personally, I found some of the magical realism elements to be a little too strange for my tastes, preferring the more political aspects of the narrative that come in towards the end. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/kapla-imperial/

Summary:  In many ways, using the word ‘novel’ to describe Kalpa Imperial doesn’t seem quite right: a short story collection would maybe be a better description, but again that doesn’t quite cover it. There is a through-flow in Gorodischer’s narrative in the idea that the reader is listening to the storytellers as they divulge the interesting tales from the Empire’s past. Just as someone growing up in an Empire with such a long and rich history would have these scatterings of stories from the past with perhaps little context around them, so the reader becomes a child, listening to these stories and piecing together the importance of their history.

Overall Thoughts:  In Kalpa Imperial, Gorodischer has created one of the most intriguing fantasy novels that I have ever read, with impressive world-building that spans centuries and yet never feels overwhelming. For a relatively short read, made up of relatively short instalments, the tales told by the storytellers bring to life a vast empire that is constantly changing.  There is an interesting focus on power in the book, with the storytellers mainly sharing tales of Emperors, Empresses, and those with military power.  Overall, Kalpa Imperial was an absorbing read that took me completely into another world: the Empire that Never Was. I enjoyed the storytelling aspect of it, which reminded me of the oral tradition seen in folk and fairy tales and created a realistic world in which there just happen to be sorcerers in an empire that never existed. It was a fun and engaging book which I would definitely recommend. 

For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/08/10/trafalgar/

Summary:  The eponymous Trafalgar is a travelling merchant, journeying to far off planets and solar systems to sell things from Earth to whoever he happens to come across. Trafalgar is comprised of a series of short stories, each of which involves Trafalgar telling one of his friends all about one of his many adventures. The narrative is told from the perspective of one of Trafalgar’s friends, probably from the perspective of Angélica Gorodischer’s self-insert character, although this aspect of the novel was never particularly clear to me. The narrator is often retelling encounters with Trafalgar which she was not present for, sharing stories which have clearly been told and retold by the friends of Trafalgar who are so fascinated by him.

Overall Thoughts:  There were some elements of Trafalgar that I enjoyed, but for the most part I found this short novel to be a slow read with characters that I could not connect or sympathise with.  The character of Trafalgar is in no way sympathetic: a womanising attention-seeker who seems to have little respect for the different people and cultures that he meets along the way, particularly the women who he sees solely as sexual objects. I disliked the character of Trafalgar from the very first story and my opinion of him only worsened as the novel continued.  There is no doubt that Gorodischer is a strong writer, and there were definitely elements of Trafalgar that I enjoyed, the final chapter and final lines in particular. Gorodischer’s descriptions of each planet, through Trafalgar’s words, paint a really clear picture of the different cultures and societies, with each feeling completely distinct from the others.