J's Pages

by Robin Hobb 

So I succumbed to the temptation of a proverbial "bag of books" from the Library. I asked for some science fiction/fantasy and was given a stack of three. I wasn't expecting to like this one. As characters, assassins hold no appeal for me. I mean, if you talk about a character with cool skills in stealth and weapons, I think of the 1970's era Batman who was able to defeat his opponents without killing them. (Or even hurting them much, but I digress.) Fortunately Ms. Hobb really hasn't written a tale of an assassin in this volume. This is the tale of a boy--an illegitimate child of a prince and a commoner--who is abandoned by his mother and her family and dumped into the lap of the royal family. The father, the heir apparent, also forsakes the child, leaving him to the care of his stablemaster while he abdicates his position and goes off to reside in exile with his wife. The boy, Fitz, grows up in the royal community at the keep. At first he's mostly ignored, but later is selected by the king to be trained in secret as an assassin. As Fitz grows, life swirls about him. People drop in and out of his life; troubles occur in the kingdom. By the time he stepped into his disagreeable role, I was hooked by the characters and world Ms. Hobb created. It's a book definitely worth checking out. 

LibraryThing link

Labels: CheckItOut

// posted by John @ 2:54 PM 0 Comments

by Frank O. King 

At this stage in the series, Drawn & Quarterly should start naming these reprints Skeezix & Walt. By 1933, the focus of Gasoline Alley had changed from Walt Wallet and his fellow auto aficionados to the antics of Skeezix and his pals. As such, the road trip story lines from previous years give way to tales of youthful clubs, capers, and investigations. It's still amusing and still offers a peek into another time. 

Check it out
LibraryThing link

Labels: CheckItOut, FrankKing, GasolineAlley

// posted by John @ 11:00 PM 0 Comments

by Rivers Solomon

On one level, this book is a tale of a multi-generational starship that is essentially a slave plantation in space. On another, it's a tale of people who don't conform to society's norms, showing how they make their way through a confining culture, enduring the pressures to fit into the roles defined for them. It took me a little while to get into the story, but once I did I found it compelling. The main character is Astra, a healer from the lower decks. When she's not laboring in the field decks or stuck in her quarters under curfew, she's usually doing research in her botanarium. But the mysteries that really occupy her thoughts are the mystery of her mother's madness and eventual death years ago, and the mystery of her relationships with the people in her life. Check it out.

LibraryThing link

Labels: CheckItOut

// posted by John @ 9:08 PM 0 Comments

Labels: CheckItOut, FrankKing, GasolineAlley

// posted by John @ 9:03 PM 0 Comments