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Books 2009: 19-20
19. Kristin Cashore, Graceling.
I admit, there are some sorts of books that are just about guaranteed to make me love them. High drama and heroism coupled with journeys of self-discovery and a protagonist with a sense of humour, competence, and grim determination, will pretty much do it just about every time.
Graceling's protagonist, Katsa, is a sixteen-year-old with the Grace - an extraordinary skill - of killing. When the book opens, she's living under the thumb of her uncle the king, killing at his bidding. But when she meets a foreign prince, Po, Graced with combat skills, things begin to change. They change even more when she and Po discover a terrible secret about yet another king, and together, have to act.
There might be a few too many kings and nobles here, but the characters are compelling, and even the epic trek over the mountain pass (a section that could have easily become boring) held my attention admirably. It's well-paced, and well-balanced. The prose is clean and unobtrusive rather than especially elegant, but this is YA, and I wasn't expecting especially beautiful prose. Perhaps the ending feels just a little too tidy, but I'd have a reach to find another complaint.
non-fiction:
20. Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins, The War For All The Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo, (London, 2006).
It was, I admit, pleasant to read some history that had nothing to do with the Romans or the Greeks. This is a very readable, non-specialist history of the Napoleonic Wars at sea, with a digression on the Anglo-American War of 1812. It has, however, several flaws, notably the lack of footnotes, but also, sadly, its lack of analysis.
The primary focus is on the English navy. It would have been a better (although undoubtedly much longer) work if it had devoted more time to the perspectives of the other navies, and more analysis of how they functioned, failed, and succeeded, and how the average sailor viewed the war: the emphasis is heavily, almost exclusively, on the British officers' view of the war and actions. Understandably so, perhaps, but nonetheless, slightly disappointing in a book whose title implies comprehensiveness.
I enjoyed it, and I now know a bit more about the sea actions of the Napoleonic wars than was hitherto the case. Still, it could've been a better book.
19. Kristin Cashore, Graceling.
I admit, there are some sorts of books that are just about guaranteed to make me love them. High drama and heroism coupled with journeys of self-discovery and a protagonist with a sense of humour, competence, and grim determination, will pretty much do it just about every time.
Graceling's protagonist, Katsa, is a sixteen-year-old with the Grace - an extraordinary skill - of killing. When the book opens, she's living under the thumb of her uncle the king, killing at his bidding. But when she meets a foreign prince, Po, Graced with combat skills, things begin to change. They change even more when she and Po discover a terrible secret about yet another king, and together, have to act.
There might be a few too many kings and nobles here, but the characters are compelling, and even the epic trek over the mountain pass (a section that could have easily become boring) held my attention admirably. It's well-paced, and well-balanced. The prose is clean and unobtrusive rather than especially elegant, but this is YA, and I wasn't expecting especially beautiful prose. Perhaps the ending feels just a little too tidy, but I'd have a reach to find another complaint.
non-fiction:
20. Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins, The War For All The Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo, (London, 2006).
It was, I admit, pleasant to read some history that had nothing to do with the Romans or the Greeks. This is a very readable, non-specialist history of the Napoleonic Wars at sea, with a digression on the Anglo-American War of 1812. It has, however, several flaws, notably the lack of footnotes, but also, sadly, its lack of analysis.
The primary focus is on the English navy. It would have been a better (although undoubtedly much longer) work if it had devoted more time to the perspectives of the other navies, and more analysis of how they functioned, failed, and succeeded, and how the average sailor viewed the war: the emphasis is heavily, almost exclusively, on the British officers' view of the war and actions. Understandably so, perhaps, but nonetheless, slightly disappointing in a book whose title implies comprehensiveness.
I enjoyed it, and I now know a bit more about the sea actions of the Napoleonic wars than was hitherto the case. Still, it could've been a better book.
