Book thirty-nine: Ironside

Ironside* (2007)
Holly Black

Rating: 4.5/5

Really interesting plot, great characters and excellent writing as always.

In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben’s coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure only of one thing--her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to him, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can’t see or speak with Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn’t exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth—that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother’s shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben’s throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

I was very wary of the start of this book, I was worried that it was going to make one of the most common mistakes of sequels of separating all the main characters just to separate them. But, I should have known better.

The thing I liked most about this book was how it bought together characters from Tithe and Valiant and continued on with their stories rather than repeating them.

I wonder if there is going to be more? I hope so!

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* Finished: 2/5

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Book four: Valiant

Valiant (2005)
Holly Black

Rating: 4.25/5

Wow. Okay, she can write real good.

I don’t think there is much more I can say about just how good it is.

I enjoyed this a lot, but not as much as the first. I’m not sure if it was because my expectations were higher, but I think it was mostly because I liked the story in Tithe more.

Part of it though, was the dreaded Blurb Syndrome. You know, when you read the back of the book and it tells you too much about the plot to the point where you’re just like ‘hurry up already.’

Well, the back of this book tells you too many details. I wasn’t so much with the ‘hurry up already,’ because I was enjoying getting there, but I think it would have been more suspenseful if the back didn’t summarise most of what happens in the first half (or in my opinion anyway).

It’s really only the third paragraph that ruins it, too.

Black continues to completely ignore the divide between what ‘should be in a YA book’ and ‘what should be in an adult’s book.’ And I don’t think any of it is just for shock value either, everything that happens in the book feels realistic for the characters and the situation.

I really enjoyed the subtly and complexity of the relationships that develop between the characters, and that is something she did so well previously too. The emotions that develop seem so much more real than reading 200 pages of someone obsessing about whether or not the ‘boy’ likes them.

Although I do have the same complaint I had with Tithe: I want more.

I want to know more about what happens to Val. As with Tithe, Black has set up a really interesting premise at the end of the book. In this case, much more interesting in my opinion, than where they were at the beginning. I want to know what happens next.

I’m not sure if we will hear anything more about Val and her friends, but I can say that now I really, really, really, really, really, really don’t want to wait until May until the next one.

I think I shall have to track down The Spiderwick Chronicles* ASAP.

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* The Spiderwick Chronicles were created with Tony DiTerlizzi (who I believe is the illustrator?). They are: The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree and The Wrath of Mulgarath.

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Book three: Tithe

Tithe (2002)
Holly Black

Rating: 4.5/5

There is no other way of describing it: I want to eat this book.

It was so good.

So, so good that I am almost scared to read the next one. I know that the next book does not follow on from this one, but while Kaye’s story was exciting and suspense filled and all those good things, the writing was the best thing about it.

All books should be this well written. It really should be a rule.

You know when you are reading something, and you can just, I don’t know, feel the words in your head or something? On your tongue, like they should be read out loud? Like the words are in the exact right order, and you don’t even have to concentrate to see the whole thing playing out in your head? It just flows.

I don’t know how to explain it, but this book has it.

I also loved it because it was a YA book, without the YA sugar coating. I hate that. I don’t want the world to be covered with a sickly sweetness, with characters that deal with problems that aren’t really problems and have resolutions that aren’t really interesting. I want it to be realistic.

For example, approximately 97.8 percent of teenagers swear… but not in books. I knew I was going to love this book the moment Corny thought, “She couldn’t understand that the age of guerrilla engineering was at a close, that being a motherfucking genius wasn’t enough. You needed to be a rich motherfucking genius.” (p.16).

Finally, a teenage boy, who sounded like a teenage boy. Gasp!

I did find it funny when I bought it that it had “Advisory Adult Content” on the back. I do remember when I was at school, that a friend of mine’s mother used to read any book she was given as a present and then decide whether or not it was suitable for her to read. Hmmm, ye-as, that was worthwhile, because a fifteen year old girl wouldn’t have known about sex, smoking, drinking, or swearing unless she read about them. No siree!

I do wonder though if this wasn’t a fantasy novel if they could get away with that sort of thing? I mean, how tight are the censorship guidelines on what can and can’t be printed in a YA novel? Or is it just the publishers not wanting to risk scandal?

Either way, I don’t care. This book was brilliant and there should be more like it.

In fact, I may overcome my trepidation and read Valiant tomorrow. Thankfully my sister already read both last year, so it is in the bookshelf waiting.

The next book in the A Modern Tale of Faerie series, Ironside, is to be released in the U.S. in May of this year.

...and it is about Kaye. Okay. I admit it, I lied, I want to know more about her… I was just willing to let go of the hope, if there wasn’t going to be anymore.

Because, the only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it was too short. I just wanted it to go on a little longer… to see a little more of the outcome of what happened. And now I can… only I can’t. I have to wait.

Damn it all. I just read the excerpt on the author's website. Now I really, really, really want to read it.

Impatient, much?

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