Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

OK, OK, I know these books by Eoin Colfer are written for teens, but they are so much fun, that I could not resist grabbing this the last time I was in the library (see also my blogs for Artemis Fowl,  The Eternity Code, and The Arctic Incident). I grabbed a handful of teen books including the last two installments in Michael Scott's "The Immortal Life of Nicholas Flamel" series and Code Name Verity. I just reviewed the "companion volume" to Verity, titled Rose Under Fire for Children's Literature Database. It was a powerful novel about women's concentration camps during WWII, so wanted to read Verity as well.
Anyway, back to Artemis, the 12 year old criminal mastermind, who is, in this book (the 7th in the series), now 15 years old and seemingly having a change of heart. He wants to save the world from the effects of global warming with a machine he has created to blanket the world's ice caps with an artificial reflective snow. Unfortunately, not so benevolent forces are at work, namely Turnball Root, brother to now deceased Commander Julius Root, former head of the LEPrecon force (that's short for Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit). Turnball is supposed to be safely ensconced in the Atlantis prison deep under the ocean, but he has turned his jailer into an unwitting accomplice and been able to mastermind a plan of his own--one that will free him from the prison and destroy his "enemies."
Adding to the problems created by Turnball--who has sent minions to destroy not only Artemis, LEPrecon police captain Holly Short, and Artemis' bodyguard Butler--is the fact that Artemis' close association with fairy magic has triggered a psychosis called the "Atlantis Complex." He is paranoid of everyone, counts everything in units of five, is afraid of anything associated with "4's", and has even developed a split personality. It is only through the combined efforts of Foaly the centaur, Holly, Butler and his sister, and dwarf Mulch Diggums with his unique talents, that the end of the world as we know it is averted. So much fun!

The Darkest Road

This is the final installment in Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (see blogs re Book One and Book Two). Action packed and relentlessly paced, I dove in and did not surface except for absolutely necessary chores. The big unknown remains the child born as a result of Jennifer's rape by Rakoth Maugrim, the Unraveller. Jennifer refuses to try and determine the Darien's path, although everyone else is trying to steer him toward the Light and away from the Dark. The child, now in an adolescent's body, interprets her hands off approach as rejection and so decides to go to this father and find acceptance there, taking a magic dagger crafted in ancient times by the Dwarves.
Saved by the chanting of the Paraiko when she descended into Maugrim's dark thoughts, Kim has gone to free them from their captors in the caves at Kath Maigol. She calls upon Tabor and his flying unicorn to decimate the dark hordes that imprison them. Then Kim hurries west to try and intervene with Darien and then on to Lisen's tower to warn Jennifer/Guinevere of what she has done. Everything with Darien seems to drive him further toward Rakoth. Diarmuid, Arthur, Paul, Loren, Matt, and now Lancelot are saved from a watery death when Paul once again calls on the sea god, and then they are ferried to the front lines of battle by a ghost ship captained by the original First Mage of Fionavar, Amairgen. Meanwhile, Kim has taken Matt and Loren to the realm of the Dwarves to try and reassert Matt's sovereignty as King and bring them back to the side of the Light. They succeed in the nick of time, turning potential enemies into allies. Rakoth pulls out all the stops and throws every evil being he can command at the united forces of the High Kingdom. In spite of several powerful mortal and magical interventions, it truly seems that all is lost, until Darien gains audience with his father, and uses the lore of the dagger to stop Rakoth. Loves as well as lives are lost and gained. In the end, only two of the original five will return to this world. There is a summary of books one and two at the beginning of this 3rd volume, but don't even think of not reading the first two books.

The Wandering Fire: The Fionavar Tapestry: Book Two

So much happens that I won't even try to summarize this second installment in the The Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay (see also the blog for Book One). Let me just say I am well and truly hooked and having a hard time tearing myself out of this book to go do the mundane tasks of life--like fix dinner!
When Book One closes, Kim has used her power to pull all five of them out of Fionavar and back to present day Canada, primarily to save Jennifer, who was being raped and tortured by Rakoth Maugrim and his minion,  Blöd , one of the dwarves who betrayed Fionavar and freed Rakoth from under the mountain. Seven months later, Jennifer is carrying Rakoth's child in defiance of his last order, which was that she not be allowed to live; she believes he knew of the child and that it would be a threat to him. Kim is awaiting the Seer's dream that will take them back to Fionavar and the war between Rakoth and the rest of Fionavar. Finally it comes and she recalls The Warrior, King Arthur, from the grave. Paul and Jennifer have already returned to Fionavar because Galadan has crossed over and is hunting them. The passage brings on Jennifer's labor and the baby, Darien, is born and given up to a woman in the village whose son, Finn, has been called to the Longest Road.
Fionavar has been paralyzed and is beginning to starve under the weight of a bitter and unnatural winter, even though it is approaching Midsummer. Loren has made it his task to find out how the winter is being created, but Kevin, the member of the original group who has felt most useless in all the events up to now, beats him to the punch but pays the highest price of all. Loren, Matt, Paul and Diarmuid set out across the sea to find the treacherous former First Mage and stop his machinations. In the final battle between the two mages, Magren is killed but Loren and Matt's bond is irretrievably broken, leaving Fionavar with only a single Mage. With winter gone, Rakoth looses his dark armies and victory is barely snatched from defeat by the release of The Wild Hunt, a group of ghostly dead Kings led by Finn.

Califia's Daughters

Boy I do not know how I missed this for so many years, but am grateful once again to the book blog from Powell's Bookstore in Portland for bringing it to my attention! This is Laurie R. King, writing as Leigh Richards, and she is simply a wonderful story teller, whether it is the slightly fanciful Mary Russell/ Sherlock Holmes mysteries, or her darker contemporary novels. The title is taken from the name of the Amazon queen, Califia, in Garci  Rodríguez de Montalvo's multi-volume tale, translated as The Labors of a Very Brave Knight  Esplandián.

In the latter part of the 21st century, the population has been decimated by the inadvertent release of bio-agents when terrorist groups opposed to technology started burning libraries and bombing labs. Another unexpected consequence is that one of the viral pathogens attaches itself to men only and is passed along generation to generation. As the book opens, 90% of the population is women. Men are protected and hidden like precious commodities. Outside of a few recreated cities, people live largely as they did in the 1900's with very basic machines (wind mills, etc.) and rely on farming and trading to survive. It is a largely lawless country and you travel at your peril and are always wary of strangers. So when a couple of covered wagons, accompanied by a guard of a dozen women, and carrying the "gift" of a man and boy come to the secluded Valley in south central California, they are initially greeted by just a few of the 100+ people living there. The travelers are asking permission to move their community south from Oregon because the radiation is poisoning the rivers, and an aggressive woman named Queen Bess is moving relentlessly south from Portland to take over every community that cannot fend off her army.
Dian, head of security for the Valley, begins to fall in love with their newest arrival, Isaac, and so it is harder than expected when she leaves to covertly investigate the group from Oregon before the Valley community offers final acceptance. The journey north is full of surprises starting with an abandoned female infant found at a crossroads. She is ambushed, badly wounded, loses her beloved wolfhound Culum, but is rescued by a man, Robin, living alone in the woods, disguised as a woman. When he is kidnapped by Destroyers, she is forced to go to Ashtown to find him and repay the debt of life she owes. This tale is realistically wrought, fast-moving and so well-developed that you will be looking for these characters after you close the book.

The Summer Tree: The Fionavar Tepestry: Book One

I am a big fan of Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay --see reviews for The Lions of al-Rassan and The Last Light of the Sun. I borrowed this trilogy from my even more ardent reader sister-in-law, Joan, and have finally gotten around to reading the first installment. Five Canadian university students, Kim, Jennifer, Paul, Dave and Kevin, are persuaded --with a little help from magic-- to accompany a mage and a dwarf to another world, Fionavar. Thinking they are going for a short visit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the High King on his throne, the five have no notion of the key roles they will play in events to come--one will become the official Seer, another will be touched by the Gods and brought back from death, and a third will be kidnapped as an opening move in a challenge to war. Fionavar has been at relative peace for some decades after a pitched battle between the forces of good and evil. The evil power is Rakoth Magrim, aka the Unraveller, Sathain, or the Hooded One. Through the unified efforts of the various tribes of Fionavar, he was thrown down and imprisoned under the mountain Rangat, although he can never be killed. Touchstones are distributed to the five peoples and should any of them turn from blue to red, Fionavar is warned that Rakoth is trying to regain power. But one of the tribes has betrayed Fionavar, freeing Rakoth, who has flung down the gauntlet.  Rich development of characters, place, peoples, and history are characteristic of Kay's writing. A map and cast of characters in the front material are essential accompaniment to comprehensive reading. Although it takes a bit of time to become fully immersed in this world, it is well worth the investment.

W is for Wasted

It has been ages since I read one of Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series, although I have them all and have read them all. Kinsey Millhone has aged slightly but it is still the late 1980's when we encounter her in this book. Her PI business has been going well enough that she is not worried about the fact that nothing new is coming in the door right now and she can kick back a little. Then she is contacted by the Coroner's office who inform her that a recently deceased homeless man has her name and phone number on a card in his pocket. Kinsey can't identify him, but as she seeks to identify him, she is shocked to find he is related to her on her father's side and that he has left her his entire estate--almost half a million dollars--and disinherited his three children. Since she has been named executor of his will, it is up to her to deliver the bad news to the children who do not take it at all well.
A seemingly unrelated death of a somewhat sleazy PI Kinsey had known is tied into the whole complicated mess when former lover Dietz shows up at her door claiming he is out $3 K after working for the dead PI and that it was Kinsey who sent the job his way. The deaths of both the homeless man, now known as R. Terrence Dace, and the dead PI, Pete Wolinsky, are eventually tied back to a drug study at the university that the lead researcher, Dr. Linton Reed, will do anything to protect.  The usual cast of characters, Henry, William, and Rosie are all here as is a new addition, Ed the cat. Grafton never fails to entertain, and, in this case, provoke.

Indian Killer

I also read this book by Sherman Alexie because he was recently a speaker on the "Author, Author!" series from the public library. A mystery of sorts, this is a bit of a departure from his typical work. Native American John Smith was taken from his mother at birth and given to a well-to-do Caucasian couple on Mercer Island, Washington. He never knew where he came from, what tribe his mother or father had been. Who knows if that is the factor that tipped him into schizophrenia. His adoptive parents doted on him, sought to expose him to Native American culture in many forms--books, movies, pow-wows, museums, time with a Native American Jesuit priest. But John never connected to his parents or his culture, except he was convinced he wanted to work the "high iron" as had the Mohawks who built skyscrapers in Manhattan.  At some point, John simply steps over the edge, metaphorically, when he starts killing people he believes have wronged Indians, and eventually he steps over the edge, literally, and plunges to his death. Other well-developed characters populate this book as well: a young university student and activist who takes on the professor of a Native American literature class, a local PI who is an Indian wannabee, and a bigoted radio show host who stirs up hate crimes in response to John's killings. I'm not sure what the message was here. Should Native American children never be adopted outside their tribe or by anyone of another ethnicity? Unlike  some of his other writing, and unlike his talks in person, in this book there is no humor (biting or otherwise) to relieve the understandable bitterness about the Native American genocide.

Wild

Cheryl Strayed is coming to Bend as part of the "Author, Author!" series put on by Deschutes County Public Library. So I vowed to read the book before she came. This is one of those amazing memoirs that will leave you bowled over by her incredible determination, but also slightly uncomfortable for all the personal revelations. It's a little like seeing someone without their clothes on to have their emotions and most intimate behaviors laid out before you. In this combination of feelings, I am reminded of the memoir by Storm Large, Crazy Enough. Cheryl loses her mother from cancer when the woman is in her early forties and it just tears her and her family apart. Her father was long gone, but her step-father immediately got involved with another woman, and her brother and sister just withdrew. She had no real home, no real family and she subsequently embarked on a course of self-destruction that shattered her marriage as well.
She decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) — by herself — to "find herself" or who she wants to be. She is ill-prepared physically, having never backpacked in her life, and starts off with a pack that she cannot physically lift off the floor, eventually nicknamed the Monster. Even though other hikers eventually help her lighten the load by shedding non-essentials, it remains bigger than packs carried by others because she is alone and must carry everything, instead of sharing--her own tent, her own stove, etc. She starts out with hiking boots a size too small, and though they are replaced with larger ones halfway through the 1,200 mile trip, her feet never recover the entire time, and she loses 6 of her toenails and walks with constant blisters and open sores on her feet. She has almost no money, encounters rattlesnake, bears, mountain lion tracks, unpassable stretches of snow and ice, and at least one pair of hunters with bad intentions. Nevertheless she also finds  good camaraderie among the other PCT hikers she encounters and eventually reaches her goal. It is a moving account and you have to admire — and occasionally shake your head at — her sheer stubbornness. It is well written, and her connection to nature shines through.