The Magicians and Mrs. Quent

Galen Beckett
Fantasy
Grade: B, B-

Be warned, the Magicians and Mrs. Quent is a novel only for those who like classic English literature. If you are otherwise inclined, as in wanting action and hair raising adventure in your books, you will wind up despising this novel.

The first half of this book is a what if novel. Specifically, it asks the questions:

What if in Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth's father was indisposed and Mr. Darcy's still alive?

What if Magic existed side by side with genteel society?

In that case Elizabeth would be Ivy Lockwell, a lovely, practical young women whose father was made ill by a spell gone wrong and whose mother is slowly bankrupting the family by insisting upon living in the house she inherited, which the family can in no way afford. As Ivy tries to make payments on the home and do what she can to keep the family together a most unexpected surprise falls into their midst. Her cousin, Mr. Wyble, meets Mr. Rafferdy at a party and invites him to join him on a visit to the house he will someday inherit. Mr. Wyble is in raptures when Mr. Rafferdy assents (he is half asleep listening to Wybles fawning and agrees before he can stop himself)and so Mr. Rafferdy (and a friend he enlists as backup) find themselves spending an enrapturing afternoon tea with the lovely Lockwell sisters. Mr. Rafferdy finds himself going quite out of his way to run into the lovely Ivy thereafter and the two strike an unlikely friendship in which her mother begins to pin her hopes.

In the meantime, Altania, the land in which they live is facing a growing rebellion within and a magical problem of some magnitude, though no one seems to pay attention but a select few. The ancient and original trees of Altania are alive and much like Tolkien's Fangorn Forest they are alive with a menace which bodes no good for the humans who tangle with them.

I have told you only the barest beginning of the book. Ivy, Mr. Rafferdy, Mr. Quent and the others all begin a journey to save Altania which I trust will take many books to reach fruition. That fact and the rather long winded why in which the tale is told made it a B for me.

Tea: A nice cup of Earl Grey for this Regency England meets magic tale.

Hunger, A Gone Novel

Author: Michael Grant
Genre: Sci-Fi, YA
Grade: C, C-

In the first book, Gone, we meet the kids (15 and under) of Perdido Beach, CA. They have a unique problem: in the blink of an eye every person over 15 vanished from their little town. This was big enough but then other problems began -- kids started developing powers like telekinesis, teleportation, hands that shot blasting bolts of light -- and the list went on. Then the animals around them began to mutate -- snakes that could fly (ick!), coyotes much smarter than they should be. . . .

In book two we are about to meet part of what is causing all the problems. It doesn't solve things in the FAYZE, as the kids call their new world, but it will clarify some things for us. Also in this issue we will deal with the troubles kids have with setting up their own government and running things on their own.

It is this second point in which the book really failed for me. I was disturbed at how the kids seemed to arrange themselves. My own son is pretty helpless in a lot of ways (I have to constantly remind him of basics.) But he can cook, he can read, he would have some common sense when it came to taking care of himself. And politics literally bore me and much of the book was about establishing a government not in the form of running things but with an underlying hint of politics (something they did at the end of the last book but felt the need to reiterate.)

One major squabble I had was that the author insisted on two basic ideas: 1) that humans don't work without money 2) that if you don't establish a monetary system the lazy will live off the hardworking. Finally, he went to pains to say being "rich" is more than OK, it is human nature to want the best for ourselves and the best way to deal with humans is to accept the idea that some are going to work to be rich. I had all kinds of problems with this. First, even children know that the rich aren't always the hardest working among us. I am "rich" compared to my ancestors but those people worked ten times harder for what they had. Someone in Africa could work like a fiend and not reach what I have. This is like the idea that bad things only happen to bad people, it's what many people feel should be but it isn't. If it were, CEO's would often live in card board boxes while missionaries handed boxes of food out the front door of their mansion.

But what really got me was that these kids weren't establishing a survival government. They were establishing a government more like a political government that runs a nation than a "we're a group and we're gonna survive this" type government. That second option is what I thought kids would do in this situation. Just my .02 but it didn't seem to me that a 15 yr. old who had suddenly lost every adult in the world who had ever cared for him would be all concerned with how he could earn more but would rather be concerned with how he could survive. I am probably doing a bad job of describing it all but I just felt that there was an underlying tone of propaganda that was inappropriate to the whole issue of survival.

That tone jarred enough that it didn't turn into a great read for me.

Tea: I am all about Celestial Seasonings "Candy Cane Lane" right now. Very Christmassy!