Review: Midnight Never Come, Marie Brennan

Midnight Never Come (2008) by Marie Brennan [US] [UK] is the first book of The Onyx Court series. The books (so far Marie Brennan has signed a contract for four books) in this historical fantasy series are set in my favorite town, London, and cover different periods of English history. The title of the book is derived from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlow [Free online read].

"Now hast thou but one hower to live
And then thou must be damnd perpetually:
Stand stil you ever moving spheres of heaven
That time may cease, and midnight never come!"

The Setup

Earth, England, London, Elizabethan Age. Elizabeth I, Virgin Queen, Gloriana rules England. She holds court in Hampton Court Palace in south west London and her "spymaster" Sir Francis Walsingham suspects a conspiracy against the Crown. To be honest this story also fits neatly with other non-fiction works, such as Sir Francis Walsingham: A Courtier in an Age of Terror (2007) by Derek Wilson [US] [UK] and Elizabeth's Spymaster (2007) by Robert Hutchinson [US] [UK].

But it is only half of the setup. Marie Brennan introduces us to a second court. The Onyx Court is beneath London and there Queen Invidiana rules. She is a... FAERIE. Both courts are connected by secret bounds and it is up to Michael Deven, a young man who must attempt to serve both Queen Elizabeth I and Lady Lune, a faerie, to both solve a dangerous riddle and reveal a dark betrayal. Two Queens, two courts; one shines bright in the daylight while the other exists in the shadows. "But a great light casts a great shadow" This is the prelude to a superb story...

My Take in Brief

I won the book at a giveaway in May 2009 and read it during my holiday in July as part of my summer reading list. So the stasis time on my bookshelf has been short compared to unread books I bought up to two years ago.

The story alternates, letting us see both through the eyes of Michael Deven and Lady Lune. Right from the beginning we are rewarded by Marie Brennan's extraordinary writing style, which manifests itself with stunning world-building and characterization; she pampers readers with her prose. The more the plot unfolds, enriched as it is by sumptuous detail -- can you imagine how a human tastes to a faerie -- and supported by memories and flash-backs, the more you loose contact with the real world. You may think now that there is no action in the book, but I promise you there is plenty, and more than enough people die or are tortured to satisfy even the most physical of readers. Sadly though, the depiction of violence is nothing compared to other books like The Ten Thousand (2008) by Paul Kearney [US] [UK] -- which is a powerful read where depictions of battle are so realistic you will find yourself ducking at sword thrusts.

The use of magic is well proportioned and it is refreshing to read about beings with magical abilities who don't manifest themselves as supernatural entities. The whole book is like a hot bath in winter -- but not an ordinary hot bath -- it is bath where soft music plays in the background, a glass of champagne sits next to you, and the water is foam-flecked and generously seeded with your favorite bath salts. Bathe your brain in Midnight Never Come... but beware, once you open the book you can't escape.

Bona Fide's Book Oracle

I can't deny it any longer, I must confess that I am an Anglophile. I like the country, the history, the language, the pubs, the beer, the castles, and even the fog, but most importantly, London. I am vulnerable to books which are set in England, and especially London. You should know this already since you read Bona Fide: The Magic of London.

Uh oh, my alter ego Bona Fide is mumbling in the background: "Stop this senseless yammering and drink two pints of ale. Maybe that will loosen your tongue, and you can finally praise this extraordinarily well written book. Beware, for if the ale doesn't work, I will have to call Gog and Magog. They will give you a good kick in the pants which will surely speed up your thoughts. Now, tell your readers about this brilliantly woven historical fantasy, how it accurately integrates fact and faery myth. Indeed, so well is the feat achieved, so subtly does it suspend disbelief, that one might easily classify the book as a History. You can easily recommend this book to all those who enjoy a superb mix of history, myth, romance, fantasy, politics, with intrigues and riddles woven throughout. Damn you, you woeful reviewer. Use my thoughts and write!" My answer:"Shut up, you have clouded my thoughts! How shall I concentrate with such an annoying voice in my head!" Dear reader, please accept my apologies for the interruption. Of course I have my own opinion about this book. I highly recommend Midnight Never Come to anyone who loves the Elizabethan Era; who is still fascinated by faeries and their myths; who wants to read historical facts masterfully interwoven with fantasy in well written prose; who wants to uncover the price that must be payed when you fall in love with immortals.

Links

For more information please check out following sources: Marie's Live Journal blog and Marie Brennan's homepage. Don't miss the The Stories of The Onyx Court section which contains free reads and a novellas. The idea of the Faerie Queen has been inspired by the epic poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, written in praise of Elizabeth I.

Piqued Your Interest?

For you who will read until the end of the post I will beg on you to open your purse and buy copies of Midnight Never Comes and In Ashes Lie (2009) [US] [UK] the second book of The Onyx Court series. Don't worry, I am only just one step ahead of you because a copy of In Ashes Lie is whispering to me from my shelf: "Read me, read me, read me..."

Reading Chills, That Lovin Feeling

The expression is a fairly common one, but it is also often overused to note a scary or creepy moment. "That gave me the chills" is however, not necessarily a negative. The kind of chill I am talking about in this post is the rare and illusive one, the white whale of chills. It strikes like lightning when the reading is so good your brain has no other way to express its pleasure; when the intensity of the scene demands a physical reaction that you refuse to produce because you don't even want to blink for fear of missing the next word.

Chills, to me, are the ultimate stamp on great writing. I can count the major Chills I have had on one hand, and still remember the scenes I was reading when they occurred. I have googled high and low, and have been unable to find any medical explanation for the phenomenon. My first Chill that I can remember came from reading the story of Manetheren (starts at p. 111) in The Eye of The World, the first book of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Even rereading it now brings on secondary chills, like the aftershock of some great earthquake.

Now, I can't even be sure that Chills are a generalized occurrence, they could in all honesty just be some rare chemical reaction that is unique to my physiognomy. They feel like someone strummed a cord in my brain--it starts out sharp and intense, and spreads throughout the body, diminishing in pitch until your are tingling everywhere. That, as best as I can describe it, is the Chill with a capital "C". I obviously know what other physical occurrence this sounds similar to, and it is indeed similar in some respects, but they are worlds apart.

Now, if I am totally off my mark here, I apologize for sharing the peculiar workings of my brain. I am, however, incredibly curious to see if any of you have experienced a Chill before, and if you remember what scene brought it to life. Obviously, a Chill is context specific and, in a lot of cases, highly personal, so don't feel pressured to share if you don't want to. If you are interested though, leave a comment briefly describing the feeling and the scene, or go ahead and share it with your readers on your own blog (but let me know so I can link to it).

Review: The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie

"The characters are so rich I almost had a heart attack."

- Anonymous

The Blade Itself (2006) [US][UK], by Joe Abercrombie, is the first book of The First Law trilogy, and what an amazing beginning it is. There are few debuts that have appealed to me more than this marvelously gritty collection of unassuming heroes.

The Setup

Every good fantasy prologue, at least in my book, involves a fair amount of action, if not outright bloodshed. Mr. Abercrombie delivers both in a stunning first chapter, while simultaneously introducing one of his would be heroes, the barbarian Logen Ninefingers. However, far from engaging in some heroic act of noble intent, we witness Logen's fear and resignation as he prepares to plunge to his death. The scene sets the tone for the rest of the novel where the will to live is balanced on a blade's edge, surrounded on both sides by death and surrender. I don't know whether or not our first encounter with Logen on the cliff is a metaphor for Mr. Abercrombie's 'plunge' into a writing career, but I am eternally thankful that he took the risk.

As the story unfolds, we are introduced to a deformed torturer and a vain nobleman who is quick with a sword. The first, Glokta, is embroiled in a plot to overthrow a powerful political group, while the other, Jezal, struggles to prepare for the yearly fencing Contest. Both are unpleasant men whose motivations are anything but righteous. Oh, let me not forget the all powerful wizard Bayaz, whose return to politics after centuries of self-imposed exile hints at the awakening of a great evil.

My Take in Brief

You have heard me say, again and again, how I love the books I review here, and this one is no exception. Mr. Abercrombie must go outside every morning and rub dirt into his hands, because I can't think of any other way an author can be so excellent at conveying gritty realism to his readers. Some of the reviews I have read criticize the novel for its slow pace, and I could not disagree more adamantly; the pace is exactly where it needs to be. The originality of the characters demands a certain degree of buildup, and denying them the opportunity would be tantamount to asking for flat and lifeless talking cliches.

The Blade Itself is an unassuming Fantasy which repudiates many of the genres eccentricities while managing to appear humble. The most intriguing part for me is the way in which the characters all seem to personify some internal contradiction. Usually, such constructs tend to come off as unbalanced or slightly deranged, but Mr. Abercrombie shows us that good is not necessarily perfect, and that the perfect are not necessarily good. Only by following such endearing and complex characters through their respective journeys can one truly be impressed by the moments in which they put their lives on the line.

While violence plays a central role in the novel--indeed, Logen can be seen as its deadly personification--it is balanced in equal measure with political intrigue and deceit. In retrospect, the first novel in The First Law trilogy reveals little beyond the history of its characters, setting the stage for an epic journey and conclusion, but I promise that you won't feel the loss while reading. I certainly didn't. While we get a brief look at the power and potentiality of magic, it does not play a central role in the book. Mr. Abercrombie rightly chooses to focus on the physicality of violence and the raw energy of unrestricted combat.

Piqued Your Interest?

Mr. Abercrombie's website is an excellent resource for diving into past interviews and book news. The tone of postings is wryly humorous and extremely entertaining, so make sure to have a gander. I discovered Mr. Abercrombie only recently with the release of his latest book, Best Served Cold. Not being one to start at the end, I promptly went to the bookstore and dug into The Blade Itself. I was back in the book store two days later, in tears, when I discovered that they did not have the second book in stock. Don't make the same mistake I did, get the whole trilogy right off the bat and save yourself the anxious wait for the mail man. To be noted, The Blade Itself [US][UK] comes as a very sexy trade paperback.

Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup #32

Hello and welcome to the first Roundup after my vacation. On Tuesday I returned to work and got a nice surprise from my colleagues. Just read Bona Fide: My Amazon gift coupon and me. When you look at the books I ordered you will detect that most of them are written by female authors. Normally I don't care about the gender of an author, but I thought I would point it out given the current debates raging across the blogosphere. Enjoy the Roundup!

Books

There is one book which just missed my gift coupon order. And, of course, it is once again written by a female author. I am speaking of In Great Waters, by Kit Whitfield [US] [UK]. Paperback will be released in October 2009.
"During a time of great upheaval, the citizens of Venice make a pact that will change the world. The landsmen of the city broker a treaty with a water-dwelling tribe of deepsmen, cementing the alliance through marriage. The mingling of the two races produces a fresh, peerless strain of royal blood. To protect their shores, other nations make their own partnerships with this new breed–and then, jealous of their power, ban any further unions between the two peoples. Dalliance with a deepswoman becomes punishable by death. Any “bastard” child must be destroyed.
This is an Earth where the legends of the deep are true–where the people of the ocean are as real and as dangerous as the people of the land. This is the world of intrigue and betrayal that Kit Whitfield brings to life in an unforgettable alternate history: the tale of Anne, the youngest princess of a faltering England, struggling to survive in a troubled court, and Henry, a bastard abandoned on the shore to face his bewildering destiny, finding himself a pawn in a game he does not understand. Yet even a pawn may checkmate a king." [Source]
Maybe the synopsis does not explain in detail why I want to read this book. I have been diligent in my research though and therefore you are only one click away from several insightful reviews [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

Blogosphere

As a book lover I also have a soft spot for libraries. One of the largest and most famous libraries was destroyed a long time ago: The Library of Alexandria. Other libraries like the Vatican Secret Archive are closed to the public, but there are a lot of other impressive libraries around the world. You want to know more? Then I recommend you check out Belle's Library. This is a weakly feature over at Jo's In and Paper. A must for book lovers....

Of course I would like to have my own private library. This is my dream: Jay Walker's library

Movies

Even though I'm an "old crock" I still enjoy animated movies. And in October (UK) and November (US) 2009 another movie based on a book by Roald Dahl will hit the cinemas: Fantastic Mr Fox [US] [UK]. Enjoy the gorgeous trailer below:


Reality - Fantasy

A lot of elements that we find in fantasy novels derive their origin from reality. This is not unusual. But when we can see, smell and touch things in reality it helps us to imagine. In a lot of fantasy novels you find pubs, taverns, inns or whatever you like to title the building where you go to consume alcohol. Most of them have a sign. And where else are you going to find so many imaginative pub signs, each with its own back story? You want to know more about pub signs and view a couple of them? Then I highly recommend a look at Britain’s Colourful Pub Signs, Part 1 Don't know what to expect? Then have a gander at the following picture - click for full view:

Quotes

Pubs, pub signs ... that leads me to ... alcohol! And alcohol is a topic with which quotes are very familiar. Cheers!

"All right, brain, you don't like me,
and I don't like you,
but let's just get me through this,
and I can get back to killing you with beer."
Matt Groening, The Simpsons

"Bacchus hath drowned more men than Neptune."
Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
British physician (1654 - 1734)

"My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses.
Drinks right out of the bottle."
Henny Youngman, US comedian (1906 - 1998)