The Philospher's Flight - Guys and Gals, you have to read this!

The Philosopher’s Flight

By: Tom Miller

Genre: Fantasy, Revisionist History

Rating: 5 stars

Reader Advisory: For my more gentle readers, this does have many instances of four letter language and sexual encounters

Summary:

Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy—an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service—a team of flying medics—Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.

When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women. 

Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers—and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it.

My Thoughts:

I read this book too early. I can’t believe that the sequel isn’t coming out until next year! Faster please Mr. Miller!

I rarely win things in my life. This is one of the things that I won from a Goodreads Drawing and I’m supremely glad that I did. The cover art is wonderful and fits in with the period of the piece and I loved the revisionist/alternative history this story presents. This of course is a free and honest review – thank you goodreads for giving me the chance to read this.

Ok, now that disclaimers are over:

This was fascinating. I feel sorry for my coworkers because I started it during a quiet moment at work (should I have been reading…probably not but it was the end of the day and I was tired of dealing with the ins and outs of account maintenance) and after the prologue I was already telling me reading buddies “YOU HAVE TO READ THIS!”

What a wonderful concept, to have a sort of magic, it of course is science/alchemy, that allows you to fly, to transport, make things grow or to utterly destroy. Then take that one step further from our views of the world by making it a power that typically only women can wield. Sure, there are men who can do it with a bit of success, but the true power lies with the ladies. This sets up a lot of politics that is an interesting contrast to the world at the time (this takes place at the beginning of the 20^th century) and can be a study in contrasts with certain cultures and industries that are around even until today. And because it’s looked at through a lens that is so incredibly alien to what we see today it is made that much more striking.

Robert does not have an easy go of it at Radcliffe. He faces harassment, misandry and all sorts of terrible actions done to him simply because he is a man who has the nerve to enter into a woman’s world. The Radcliffe women are an eclectic bunch. Robert though lucks out into finding some other fliers who instantly take him under their proverbial wing, and while it doesn’t stop the attacks on his person and his progress, he does have friends who stand up for him. It was a good School type of book, these are young students who are coming into their powers as sigilists and who are still growing up themselves. 

With all that going on there is also the Trencher movement that has become more active and more deadly. Trenchers are the Anti-Philosophers. A group that wants women back where they belong and to know they have full control again. (I imagine it’s hard to put a woman down in a world where she could, with almost no effort at all dissolve your bones where you stand so that you die in a puddle of your own organs) This group has been pressing for more and more Anti-Philosopher Legislation at DC, has been doing random lynching’s of women and their families. Robert’s mother has been known to pick of more than one Trencher in her time and Robert needs to determine how he is going to face the political battles of his parents generation that are now a part of his own.

And there is a lovely and, in my opinion, real story of a relationship that blooms between him and Danielle Hardin. A heroine transporter who had saved the lives of countless men at war overseas. She is also African American and not at all what one would imagine a leading lady to look like nor act like. I loved them. Their story wasn’t first and foremost in the plot. It wasn’t the end goal, it simply happened, and the story was richer for it.

This just recently came out. I recommend it highly. It presents an interesting look at class warfare, gender warfare and the next book I am fairly certain will be looking into the actions taken in war and their consequences.

Read it, tell me what you thought. Let’s chat about it because I thought there is much that can be discussed.

The Bear and the Nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale
By: Katherine Arden
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5 stars

Summary:
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind--she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.
As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed--this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales. 
x

My Thoughts:
I have been lucking out with this round of Reader's Choice books at my library. I have loved all of the ones I have read thus far and each has been vastly different. So good on you Salt Lake County Librarians! Keep the good recommendations coming.

Oh what a wondrous fairy tale. Perfect to bring out on a cold winter night and take yourself to far away places. I often imagine myself reading books to my future children at night, and this is definitely going to be one of those. 

My experience with Russian literature is not extensive, the 3 Russian pieces that all American’s seem to read – War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Crime and Punishment are the extent of my actual Russian exposure. But that was enough to make me love it. The cadence of the stories, the blend of the Christian, the Pagan and the Human, and he rich sentence structure (yes it was translated and I know that language itself is lost in the translation but there is just this feel in Russian writings that I don’t really find anywhere else)

I found this here. Yes the author is from the US, but she did spend time in Russia and studying Russian literature and at least to me it is reflected beautifully here. I loved the power and depth of the characters. I love how other worldly it felt. I want to learn more about Vasilisa  and her powers. And I’m very excited that we will get to do so.

She is so incredibly strong, yet also fragile. Fiercely loyal to her family, but also to the truth she knows to exist. She trusts herself and will not be swayed by the insistence of others, yet she balances her fierce spirit with a respect for the beliefs and lives of others. She is a character I wouldn’t want to sip coffee with, she is that fairy tale heroine who you look upto but could never touch. She is a wood-sprite, with a spirit part of me wishes to have and a freedom that I think everyone secretly or not desires. There is dignity and power to her, she isn’t immortal, the danger she faces is real Highlight for spoiler: and I never assumed that she would end up surviving the whole book. (Yes, I know there are sequels, but when Death is one of your characters really anything is possible)

And can we look at the Priest for a minute. He is such a complex mess of human follies. He has many talents, his painting and is voice are a siren’s call – there is magic in him that simply isn’t viewed as such. He is set on a path of grandeur while young and thrown from it without any say in the matter. He is prideful rather than pious, he is so far from the God he professes to serve that it is no wonder how he ended up.

I need friends to read this! I want to talk about it. To go over the characters, the story, the themes. To speak of bravery, loyalty - to self and to family, and of owning your destiny. Would I recommend this book? Most definitely. It is for those who are finally old enough to read fairy tales again, those who like the feel of Russia but don’t necessarily want to spend the eternity it takes to read War & Peace and for those who want a story with a strong female character that isn’t bogged down by romance.

Once you have read it, let me know – we can go out for a hot chocolate and discuss. I can’t wait to chat with you.

Gregor the Overlander Series

Gregor the Overlander Series
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Rating: 4 stars

Summary:

When Gregor follows his little sister through a grate in the laundry room of their New York apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland beneath the city. There, humans live uneasily beside giant spiders, bats, cockroaches, and rats--but the fragile peace is about to fall apart.

Gregor wants no part in this conflict, but again and again, he and his family are drawn into the Underland. Gregor must find his place in the frightening prophecies he encounters, the strength to protect his family, and the courage to defend against an army of giant rats.

My Thoughts:

I have been listening to this series for the past month or so while doing some overtime at work (the reader is great one of my favorites) and I gotta admit, this isn't the kind of book I should have been listening to. I would be IM'ing my co-workers with "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" or "Baddie is gone!" or "If this person doesn't die soon I am going to lose it." I have always been an emotional reader so bringing books into the workplace has always been a risk, but this was a very fun one to take.

These books were recommended to me by a friend years ago. She worked with 6th graders and helping them read and this series is right in that ball park. Suzanne Collins is much more widely known for her Hunger Games novels, but in all honesty I loved these ones so much more. They help young children explore themes of prejudice - like with Gregor's acceptance of Twitchtip in book 2, of how far should one go to win a war (book 3 on basically), the need for self control - Gregor and his Rager abilities and, of course, the importance of family. They do read more juvenile with some of the lessons being hit a little bit over the head (book 4 veers straight into knock-you-over-the-head Holocaust allegory) but they are good lessons to explore. I feel like Collins conveyed these themes much better with this series than she did with Hunger Games. I liked Gregor much more than Katniss and there was no stupid love triangles...because the kids are 12.

I have fallen in love with the strength of the various characters - everyone needs a Mrs. Cormacy in their lives, Boots is the little sister/niece/cousin who we all grew up with, and who wouldn't want a huge bat like Aires who could fly you around.  I found this to be a fun series, it is one that I will have on my shelves when I have children/nieces&nephews/god-children because it is a fun adventure with lots of growth mixed in.

Thank you Suzanne for this marvelous adventure.