"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang

I have been interested in Ted Chiang’s science fiction stories ever since I watched the movie “Arrival” that is based on his “Story of Your Life”. The movie and the original story examine the human concept of time. Chiang uses Fermat’s principle from physics to posit that time can be perceived in non-linear manner. Read the story – it’ll definitely mess with your mind.

Overall, I am very glad I finally picked up this collection. There are eight stories total, and at around 270 pages, it is a pretty short book. However, all stories are meticulously researched and have intricately developed worlds and characters. It is hard for me to pick a favorite. They were all really good. I did enjoy the three that had biblical/mythological undertones slightly more. There is a story about the tower of Babel, a story inspired by the Book of Job and a story based on the Jewish folklore about golems. If you like sci-fi and want to read something intellectually stimulating, this is a great book to pick up. I also appreciated the author’s notes in the back where he explained how he got ideas for each of the stories or what prompted him to structure them a certain way.

A very enjoyable and thought-provoking book. 5 out of 5 stars.

"The Rules of Magic" by Alice Hoffman

The Rules of Magic is a prequel to Practical Magic, which I reviewed in my previous post a short time ago. The Rules of Magic just came out yesterday, and it being an Alice Hoffman novel, it did take me a bit longer to get through it. As I mentioned before, her writing is quite descriptive and tends to have few dialogues. She is, however, a master of creating very vivid and atmospheric settings.

In The Rules of Magic we learn the backstory of the Owens aunts, Jet and Franny, whom the girls in Practical Magic come to live with in Massachusetts. We get to see Jet, Franny and their bother Vincent since the time they were little kids growing up in Manhattan and up to the point when the story of Practical Magic begins.

One thing I noted immediately especially since I read Practical Magic right before the prequel is that The Rules of Magic does not have the same dreamlike and mystical atmosphere. In addition, unlike the heroines of Practical Magic, the three Owens siblings in this book recognize their magic abilities early on and start experimenting with them. We also get a more detailed backstory on their ancestor Maria Owens who built the house on Magnolia Street and in many ways began the family legacy. Moreover, Hoffman finally places Maria in Salem. She still does not mention the town, but she does name the judge – Hathorne and there are numerous references to his famous literary descendant Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The overall theme of being true to oneself is strongly present in this novel. In addition, the Ownes children struggle with the curse which was supposedly put on all family members by Maria Ownes, and according to which something terrible will happen to the person they fall in love with.  Franny, Jet and Vincent are all scared of being in love for this reason. But slowly they do find the cure. The novel ends with: “Know that the only remedy for love is to love more” – I just love this idea. Loving more could mean taking chances, being brave and not being afraid to look like a fool. It can also mean loving someone enough to let them go and be happy with someone else, i.e. loving selflessly. It is a powerful idea.

Another quote that I underlined in my e-version of the book warns against knowing one’s fate. It reads: “Life is a mystery, and it should be so, for the sorrow that accompanies being human and the choices one will have to make are a burden, too heavy for most to know before their time comes.”

5 out of 5 stars. I received an e-ARC of this novel from Netgalley.

"Practical Magic" by Alice Hoffman

I read Practical Magic in preparation for Alice Hoffman’s newest release called The Rules of Magic, which is said to be a prequel to the original story. Practical Magic was published in 1995, and having now read two of Hoffman’s newest novels I can definitely see the difference in her writing. Practical Magic is very atmospheric, slow-paced, more character- rather than plot-driven. The story begins in a small town in Massachusetts where two orphan sisters have come to live with their strange aunts. The girls can tell that their family is not like everyone else in town. For one, the aunts wear black all the time. They also grow herbs that they use for healing and warding off all sorts of evil. Finally, the townsfolk visit the aunts late at night and seek remedies for issues of the heart. The aunts can bring wayward husbands home and turn an unrequited love interest into a passionate lover.

The girls Gillian and Sally do not show any particular interest in following in the aunts’ footsteps. They certainly understand that their aunts deal with the supernatural, but both in their own way try to distance themselves from that way of life and do everything possible to be “normal”. Hoffman almost never uses the word “witch” in this novel, she also does not mention Salem or spend a lot of time focusing on the witch trials. She skillfully hints at things or mentions things in passing. The readers are left to make their own conclusions and guesses. The novel is fairly short – 244 pages, but it is quite dense. There is almost no dialogue and plenty of long descriptive paragraphs. Still, I was surprised that it took me almost 5 days or read such a short book.

Overall, I liked the story and its message of being true to who you are. Even though Gillian and Sally run away from Massachusetts and distance themselves from their “witchy” relatives, in the end they realize that magic is in their blood. Only by accepting their heritage and coming to terms with it, they start finding peace and lasting happiness. 4 out of 5 stars. A great read for October.

Books to Read in Autumn

Since today is the first day of autumn, I thought I would put together a list of what I call "fall reads". Any day now, the air will feel crisper, bright yellow, orange and red leaves will start crunching underfoot, the days will be getting shorter, the weather rainier and what can be better than curling up with a nice book under a fuzzy blanket while drinking a cup of hot chocolate or tea?

Fall reads to me are atmospheric, mystical, perhaps supernatural - books that make one think of Halloween, colder weather and spooky places. Here is a list of books/series that will definitely create such an ambiance for you:

1. The Cainsville Series by Kelley Armstrong is a five book series set in and around Chicago in modern day. It combines Welsh fae lore with mysticism (omens, visions and other unexplained phenomena). It is extremely atmospheric, fast-paced and addictive. I have a review of the first book here.

2. Uprooted by Naomi Novik is another great fall read. It is based on Slavic fairy tales/mythology and is set in a magical forest. The narrative is slow and very poetic, and the story is gripping and unpredictable. I also really enjoyed the magic in this book. The main character Agnieszka relies on her own intuition rather than formulaic spells. She is deeply attached to her homeland and draws on the power of nature rather than complex incantations.

3. The Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire. I just finished reading the first two books that are currently out in this series. If you like stories about children finding doors into other worlds (similar to Narnia and Alice in Wonderland), look no further. Book 2 in particular is very atmospheric, dark and spooky.

4. If you are looking for a more twisted or macabre tale, I would recommend Deathless by Catheryne Vallente. The novel features Koschei the Deathless and Baba Yaga from Russian fairy tales and is set in the Soviet Russia right before and during World War II. There is an endless war between life and death, or good and evil. But the opposites blur and it is hard to distinguish who is truly evil and what is life if there no death.

5. Finally, I would highly recommend Arcadia by Iain Pearce. It is a stand alone novel so you do not need to commit to a long series. It is partially set in Oxford, and a school setting is always great for fall. The narrative switches back and forth between three different worlds/time periods. We start out in 1962 in Oxford where Professor Henry Lytten starts writing a novel about a world, completely different from ours. A few pages after that, the reader realizes that the world he has invented is real. And a few more pages later, we find ourselves in a distant dystopian future.

Happy Fall, everyone!

"Wayward Children 1 & 2" by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway is the first novel in an adult fantasy series by Seanan McGuire called Wayward Children. It is based on the premise that some kids are able to find hidden doors into other worlds and disappear for a while. Think Narnia or Alice in Wonderland. Characters in McGuire’s book also found hidden doors and disappeared. For some of them, years went by before they returned home. Whereas for their parents, it was just a matter of days or months. The novel explains that these kids are able to find doors to other worlds because something in them calls to that particular world on a deeper level. Some ended up in whimsical settings, others in an underground world filled with ghosts, yet others in a horror story populated with vampires and werewolves.

There is a special boarding school for these children where they learn to adjust to being back in their own world. We learn a bit about several of the characters and the worlds they traveled to. But then unexpectedly, a gruesome murder occurs on the school grounds. Someone out there is hunting for the children.

I must say that this book is way over-hyped on Goodreads and booktube. I had extremely high expectations going into it. In reality, I struggled through it and was mostly bored. The only thing that kept my interest was the murder mystery. I then quickly picked up book two, called Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and I liked this second installment much-much more.

Book 2 is a prequel story about the twins Jack and Jill whom we’d met in the first book. We get a closer look at their story: their parents, the kind of house they grew up in, the events that led to their finding a hidden door, the actual journey to another world and their return back. I really enjoyed the fact that this book is set in another world. It felt like a fantasy or a fairy tale. The first book was just too short for the number of characters that were introduced. As a result, we don’t really get to know anyone closely or understand what is happening in their minds. Down Among the Sticks and Bones focuses on just two sisters and their identity struggles and we get a closer look at the world they travel to. I rated the first book 3 out of 5 stars and the second book 5 out 5. Both books are fairly short (under 200 pages), and would make great Halloween reads.

"Funny Girl" by Nick Hornby

Funny Girl is set in the 1960s in England, and follows the life of a young girl named Barbara (who later takes on the stage name of Sophie Straw) as she wins a local beauty pageant in Blackpool, but refuses to accept the title because she decides to move to London in the hopes of becoming a comic actress. Sophie's inspiration comes from the only female comedienne she's seen on TV - Lucille Ball. For a time, Sophie works in a department store and goes to a lot of auditions before finally catching the eye of two television writers who are in the process of creating a new situational comedy for BBC. In fact, during the audition, she impresses them so much that they offer her a starring role on the spot and proceed to write the series specifically for her.

This book is laugh-out-loud funny. It is filled with likable albeit flawed characters who find themselves in a multitude of comic situations and conversations. I listened to it on audio and the narrator does a superb job making the characters that much more real by employing distinctive accents, intonations and mannerisms. The novel offers us a way to look into the minds of these very human characters and the choices they make as they become inextricably connected through the TV series. This is a very enjoyable and entertaining read. 5 out of 5 stars.

"The Last Magician" by Lisa Maxwell

I read Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell last year and really enjoyed her writing. So when I saw her newest novel at my local library, I was immediately interested. This is a YA fantasy novel that includes time travel, several heists, lots of characters with questionable morals, and various cons and deceptions.

Our main character Esta is a thief who lives in modern day New York and has the magical ability (or "affinity") to slow down time around her such that to a casual observer she can simply vanish out of sight or move through space very quickly. With the help of a magical cuff, she is also able to travel through time. I should mention that Manhattan is surrounded by a magical force of sorts called the Brink which people with magical abilities (called Mageus) cannot cross without irrevocable damage to their powers or even death. The Brink had been created by a powerful underground Order whose sole purpose appears to be hunting and eliminating all Mageus and harnessing magical powers through alchemy and other pseudo-scientific methods. Esta's latest and most important task is to travel to 1902 and steal a book that contains the secrets to bringing the Brink down and thus liberating the Mageus trapped in New York.

The narrative (especially in the beginning) shifts between various time periods and is presented from several different points of view. For the first 50 to 70 pages or so, it was quite confusing. However, once Esta arrives in 1902, the novel is much easier to follow and the number of POVs also becomes limited at that point. Overall, the plot is quite interesting, the characters are complex, and the book is filled with intricate plot twists. I also quite enjoyed the relationship between Harte and Esta. I just wish we got to see more of them together.

My only complaint about the book (and the reason for a 4 star rating) is that the Order and the Brink are not very well explained. If Manhattan is surrounded by the Brink and keeps the Mageus trapped inside, why does it only work one way since Mageus seem to be able to arrive in Manhattan just fine? What is the order doing with the Mageus that they kidnap? Nothing is explained about the experiments that are performed in the Mysterium. At 500 pages, the novel is quite chunky and instead of piling up layer upon layer of cons and deceptions, I think she should have spent a bit more time developing the world and explaining the magic system.

I understand this might not be a stand-alone. The ending is certainly very open and begs for a sequel. However, I am not sure I will be able to retain a lot of detail from this book to jump into a sequel a year from now. So this is likely going to be the only novel I read in this series. 4 out of 5 stars.