Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

I hated Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr.

(Phenomenal cover art, isn't it?)

A little background. As I wrote in this post, I borrowed this book from the library with two misconceptions: that it was the first book of the series, and that it was interesting. I found that the first did not hamper my reading of the book at all (in fact, the characters that are prominent in the first book play a highly secondary role in this book) but the second, obviously, hampered my reading of this book quite a bit. I did in fact manage to finish the book, though I found it disturbing and not at all enjoyable, and it has taken me over a week to analyze just why this book was so repulsive for me.

I don’t often hate books. Why did I take such an intense dislike to this one?

I think the problem was the character motivations. The basic plot of Ink Exchange is this – Leslie, a human, by choosing to get a special tattoo done, inevitably ends up doing an Ink Exchange with Irial, King of the Dark Court, who wants to use this to be able to feed upon the darker emotions of mortals and therefore sustain his court. However, Ash, Leslie’s best friend and Queen of the Summer Court (a fact that is established in the first book, Wicked Lovely) will do anything to prevent this. She has Niall, a fairy from the summer court, guarding Leslie. However, Niall has feelings for Leslie beyond those that anyone considers safe (and a fairy-power that will make him irresistible to any mortal) and a long history with Irial.

One of the fundamental problems with this book was Leslie. Through most of this book, Leslie is attracted to Niall, mostly because he’s made irresistible through his magic (a concept which I find highly problematic in itself) and she’s also attracted to Irial because of the Ink Exchange (another example of slavery-through-love in this book) and with the combined influence of the two of them, most of this book is about her doing stuff that she doesn’t want to. This gives a surreal effect that disconnects you from Leslie, and since most of this book is from her perspective this can really take away the pleasure from the book.

Other, minor characters also have pretty stupid motivations. If Keenan (King of the Summer Court) and Ash knew what was going on, why in the world didn’t they true to stop Leslie from getting the tattoo done? (After all, there was a way, as Niall established later.) If they knew what was going on at her home (lets just put it this way – a dysfunctional family does not begin to explain Leslie’s family) why didn’t they, as her friends, ever try to save her? Through most of this book we have Ash and Keenan saying, “We’re your friends, Leslie,” but not really doing anything which proves that they are really her friends. (And frankly, I was left unsure of whether or not Keenan is a villain. I thought so, reading the description of the first book, and the second book left me thinking that Keenan was a horrible guy.)

Irial, frankly, is the only compelling character in this book. He knows what he’s doing and why. He’s ruthless, dark, and not afraid of it at all. He’s doing the ink exchange because it’s the only way to save his court. Other minor characters that appear during his chapters are also better – Gabriel is quite interesting, and more of the characters are unapologetic and devoted to what they think is right, which is refreshing. This book is Irial’s story, and frankly Irial is the reason that I even finished this book. He’s the ‘villain’ of the book, I guess, but frankly he’s the only likeable character out of the whole bunch, and even here I’m left in doubt as to why he falls in love with Leslie in the first place. (I didn’t understand whether this was because of the ink exchange or because of some other, unexplained reason, but either way it didn’t gel).

The writing, frankly, is not horrible, but it’s not all that compelling either. The book is written is a way that makes you feel like you’re floating above the characters and you never really get a chance to know them the way you want to. The novel, in my honest opinion, is also a little too adult for the target audience (which in my mind is the 14-16 year old) and though I’ve read far more graphic descriptions (Song of Ice and Fire series, among others) I found it mildly disturbing in this book, mostly because of the lack of free will.

Final thoughts: If the idea of a fairy-human romance really appeals to you, if you can deal with ideas of being forced to love someone, and if you can handle characters so gray that you often have no idea who the real hero of the story is, then you might like this book. Everyone else can just give this book a miss.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things is an odd book.

I knew it was going to be an odd book the moment I picked it up. The point was whether it was going to be a good kind of odd or bad kind of odd.

It turned out to be a good kind of odd.

A little background. I had heard of Neil Gaiman, mostly in connection with George R. R. Martin. I was planning to read a book by him sometime, especially because he's one of the few fantasy authors whose books come in the book store here. Of course, my buying this book would have involved days of research, days of reading reviews, and days of deciding whether this was the best book to start with. However, what ended up happening was this: I saw the book, with its shiny white cover, lying on the bookshelf. It called to me. I picked it up, read the back. I was intrigued. I sat down to read to read the introduction.

I was hooked.

The book called to me, and I'm so glad I replied.

Fragile Things is a book about, well, Fragile Things. Like Neil Gaiman puts it in the book - "It seemed like a fine title for a book of short stories. There are so many fragile things, after. People break so easily, after all, and so do dreams and hearts."

But for a book that is about transitory things, Fragile Things is still a very hopeful book. As a book, Fragile Things seems to be celebrating the beauty of all the soap water bubbles in the world that are so beautiful and so easy to break. At its heart, Fragile Things is a book about hope, and fairy tales, and about writing that lives longer than the person who wrote it.

There are many strange stories and poems in this collection, from a story about a boy who makes friends with a ghost that is told by the months of the year, to a poem about what to do when you're in a fairytale, to a story about Susan, from C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, the dismissal of which Gaiman (and I, incidentally) found very problematic and irritating. There are stories which don't make sense immediately. There are stories which leave you thinking. There are funny stories, sad stories, scary stories. There is some 'upsettling' stuff in this novel, as well as some extremely sad stuff.

Read this book if you're not afraid to try something a little different. Read this book if you can deal with (or relish) a little bit of oddness. Read this book with an open heart and mind. Read this book without thinking about any 'fantasy' that you may have read before, because this book is not going to be like any of that. Read the introduction of each story/poem right before reading the story or poem because it will really add to your appreciation of the poem or story. Read this book if you're in for something new.

Don't be put-off if you read many unfamiliar names in the introductions. I can assure you that I did not know about 90% of the authors mentioned in the introductions, and that did not stop me from enjoying the book at all, though now I'm tempted to read all the authors mentioned and hear all the songs mentioned. I'm sure that a knowledge of the mentioned literature adds richness to the book, but it is not a prerequisite to reading the book.

This book is great (and quick) way to know whether or not you like Gaiman's style of writing. My verdict? I definitely want to read more. Maybe American Gods.

Last words: Read this book only if you're fine with things being a little bit out of the ordinary. Don't judge too quickly. Read it with a sense of humor. And get ready for a few hours of pure fun.

The Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

The Song of Ice and Fire series is one that has changed my life.

In this review I will be considering the first four books of the series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows. As of this date, these are the only published novels in the series.

A little backstory on how I came across this book. At that point in my life I was quite young, though I was beginning to discover my love for fantasy. At this point in my life my favorite fantasy book series was the Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind (my opinions on this book have changed vastly since, but that's a review for another day). Anyway, all I knew about the book can be summed up in a nutshell through this review, which was the most influential review I read, even though it was not the only one. At that time, however, I did not want to read books with gray characters, and characters who could die. I wanted a hero to root for. So, I dismissed the book, even though all reports agreed that Martin was a masterful writer.

Then, as it happened, I went to the 'fantasy' section of my local bookstore. And saw 'A Game of Thrones.' Now, note that I don't generally find quality fantasy books in the local bookshops here, and definitely not the ones I read about online. I usually have to specially order those from America. So, overjoyed at finding the book and not wanting to miss out on a chance to read it (after all, it might disappear anytime from the bookstore) I just bought it on an impulse.

It is said that it is seemingly simple moments that change your life. So, so true.

Remember how I mentioned above that a lot of people had said that George R.R. Martin is a masterful writer? Well, they were all completely right. I was hooked on from the first page of the prologue, which, unlike most prologues, puts you right in the middle of the action. Before I knew it, I was on a ranging mission at the end of the world. George R.R. Martin is amazing at the use of point-of-view. He can, in a span of a few pages, make you see things from the flawed world view of a character. His narrators are unreliable. They lie. They often see things the way they want to. They are wrong. They make mistakes. They have to face consequences.

They are, in short, completely human.

George R.R. Martin gives you a medieval world, full of warring families. At the start of the book, owing to the large number of characters from the Stark family who are narrators, you get the false impression that these are the heroes of the story, and that nothing bad can happen to them. Boy, are you wrong. George R.R. Martin puts you in the world of a million different characters, some nice, most horrible, and makes you walk a few hundred miles in their shoes, and leaves you supporting a hundred different characters on different sides of a brutal war. You are put right in the middle of the action, without a word of explanation, and forced to experience the world of these characters.

And that world is not at all like earth.

Martin builds a world that is both cruel and beautiful. Westeros has a rich, developed culture, full of legends and art and religions. It is not a place where I would want to live. It is not even a place I would want to visit. It is a hard place, full of hard people, and winters that can last ten years, and dead people coming walking in the night. But it is a real, breathing world, and through the pages of this book you can fall into it. Martin does not write about large faceless armies. Martin writes about people. People you have seen living, and people whom you would mourn to see dead.

This is not a book for those who are weak. It is full of violence, and cruelty, and about all the darkest facets of a medieval world. Martin will not talk about brutality done to faceless peasants, he will put you in the shoes of that peasant and let you watch his friends and family die. Characters you love will die. It will seem like its only the bad guys who are winning. You will start to lose your faith in human nature as you watch worse and worse things happening. You will start to feel some despair as good people become bad in order to survive the horror of what is happening.

To some it up best is a quote from the book - "In the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

But from the midst of this despair will come one more shining hero. You will be put into the perspective of another character and you will start to see him or her trying to do good, and you will rejoice. You will see some of the bad guys get what's coming to them. You will start to feel hopeful again. You will start rooting for some of the people again, hoping for a happy ending, hoping for some happiness to come to all your favorite characters.

That is, of course, until Martin kills another character.

Read the Song of Ice and Fire series if you like fantasy. Read it if you dont. Read it if you like conventional fantasy or brutal fantasy. Read it whether or not you have ever read anything like this before. Read it to expand your horizons, to find something new, and to get the experience of your life. Read it so you know just how good it can really get. Then re-read the book. Expect to find something new on your first (and third, and twenty-third, and seventy-fifth) re-read. Then read some crackpot (and some very interesting) theories on an online forum and then re-read the books again.

I guarantee that the Song of Ice and Fire series will change your perspective on your life.

Last words: No matter what kind of books you like, you have to pick up at least 'The Game of Thrones'. Because otherwise, you'll be forever depriving yourself of something both beautiful and touching.

Some great links: A Blog of Ice and Fire (a fan reading the books offers funny insights into each of the chapters...loads of fun to read while you're reading the books yourself); George R. R. Martin's 'Not A Blog' which tells you more about the author; Details on the HBO show based on this series.