The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas — 2940000952726 — ****

Genre: Fiction
Time to Read: 43 days

Short Summary:
Young D’Artagnan has long dreamed of becoming a musketeer. When he decides it is time for him to join the king’s men, his father sends him with a letter of introduction to his friend, the captain of the king’s Musketeers. Along the way, the young upstart loses his letter of introduction, finds an enemy of the worst sort and has his heart captured by the beautiful Constance Bonacieux. He also finds himself the companion of three musketeers known as the inseparables: Athos, Porthos and Aramis. The four men become close friends, watching out for one another and getting into trouble together. As the Duke of Buckingham is preparing to wage war on France, the four uncover a plot dreamed up by Cardinal Richelieu that could ruin the king of France and mean life or death for many, D’Artagnan included.

A novel filled with sword play, intrigue, humor and love, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas is an exciting read through and through. I’ve been vaguely familiar with the story for a long time, but there is so much more to it than I ever imagined! I didn’t expect to read this book, I must admit. It was on my list of books to read, but it was floating loosely among the ranks as a “maybe I’ll get to it someday, maybe I won’t” addition. I just happened to find it for free on my NOOK Color at a point in time when free was just the right price. After reading the first sentence, I was hooked, and The Three Musketeers became my “reading now” title.

It did take me a very long time to get through, partially because I was reading it during one of the busiest points in my year, so I only had 20-30 minutes at a time to read once or twice a day and partially because I started planning my NaNoWriMo novel and got a little carried away. I expect that, if I’d had the time to read, I would have gotten through it much faster just because it was such a good book that, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have been able to put it down.

There is a chunk of it maybe 3/4 of the way in that slowed down the plot a good deal, and by the time I was nearing the end, I was ready to move on to my next read, so it seemed to drag a little more slowly than I like, but it picked up again and ended with a whirlwind of plot twists and excitement. I would certainly recommend The Three Musketeers to anyone looking to read more classics since, as far as classic novels go, this one is more fun than challenging.

(As a side note: I started reading this before I knew there was a Three Musketeers movie coming out and, after reading the book, I probably won’t be seeing the movie, because the book is amazing, and the movie looks to me as though it will be a bit of a farce with its airships 160+ years too early.)

Learn more about Alexandre Dumas’s life and works here.

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The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe — 9781401341336 — ****

Genre: Historical Fiction/Fantasy Fiction
Time to Read: 6 Days

Short Summary:
Connie Goodwin–a Harvard student of Colonial History–is in search of a unique source to base her dissertation on when her mother asks her to clean out her deceased grandmother’s long abandoned house in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Despite her reluctance, Connie agrees, only to discover that the source she has been looking for was once on the bookshelves of the very house her mother has asked her to prepare for sale. An antique key with the words “Deliverance Dane” on a tiny piece of paper rolled up inside of it fall out of her grandmother’s bible, sending her on a quest for answers. Realizing that Deliverance Dane is the name of a woman who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s, Connie begins to dig into the past, learning about herself in her quest for Deliverance Dane’s long lost book.

I was a little uncertain about this book at first. The opening, during which Connie takes her oral examination at college, is a little mind boggling, and she does a lot of jumping between 1991 and the 1680s and ’90s before she settles into a good pattern. Once I grew accustomed to Katherine Howe’s writing style, however, I found that the book grew exponentially better as it progressed until I had 100 pages left and wanted to know the ending then and there.

The history in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane feels amazingly well researched and is quite fascinating. Connie’s research is both historical and genealogical, and the added magical element is very well done. Katherine Howe did an excellent job with the herbalism that is the root of the magic, and she shows a great deal of respect for the wiccan religion, skirting the stereotypes and sharing a modern and realistic point of view of the hysteria in Salem. A modern witch will appreciate her tact, a history enthusiast will be pleased with her care and a lover of books with seemingly real magic with be pleased with her story as a whole.

There is also a romantic element in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, but it doesn’t overpower the main story. It just flows along with the plot, enhancing it without changing it. As an anti-romance book reader, I appreciated its subtly.

Over all, this is an excellent book. I would recommend it to anyone with an appreciation for history, magic and realistic characters and plots.

Check out Katherine Howe’s website!
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Sun Going Down by Jack Todd

Sun Going Down by Jack Todd — 9781416550488 — ***

Genre: Western
Time to Read: 32 Days

Short Summary:
Sun Going Down is an epic western novel that starts off on a steamboat on the Mississippi River in 1863 and ends in Nebraska in 1933. It follows Ebenezer Paint and his decedents through their lives out west, beginning at a time when the cowboys were real, cattle-drives were a way of life, Indians still rode free and life was quieter and simpler. America grows as the Paint family struggles and thrives through history. Based in part on letters and memoirs of the author’s own family, this novel is true-to-life, its characters are real, and their struggles and triumphs capture the heart and the imagination.

How to review a book that is sometimes impossible to put down, and other times difficult to resist throwing across the room in frustration? Sun Going Down is nearly impossible to summarize because it covers so much ground that you risk giving parts away in order to summarize others. It covers a lot of topics and spans four generations. Sometimes I loved it, sometimes I hated it, but over all, I liked it. But not. Let’s just say I have mixed feelings about this one, but mostly catch myself saying it’s a good book.

The thing that frustrated me the most while reading it was the change of main characters. Obviously, it has to happen in a book that spans 130 years, but the way Todd does it (in some instances) drove me crazy! The first change from father to sons was good, but from son to granddaughter bothered me, and when it went from granddaughter to great granddaughter with only 40 or so pages left, I wanted to scream!

His treatment of his characters also got to me. He waits until you develop an appreciation for them, then he turns on them and puts them through the worst hardships! You would expect as much when taking the time period and their way of life into consideration, but sometimes it seems like they can’t catch a break, and even when they do, it’s not as good as you think!

It is a very slow read, but not in a bad way. Leisurely, I guess you could say. The first third felt like a prologue, and the final quarter felt like a drawn-out summery of a conclusion, but the meat of the story, the main middle portion, was excellent. I caught myself wishing he had written it as a trilogy. Perhaps if it was broken up into three separate books, I would have enjoyed it more, because I would have been able to put it down and take a bit of a break, then go back to it. Then again, it was so slow going that I might not have picked up the second book. At least not for a very long time.

All that being said, it is a good book. It’s very rich with history, the characters walk off the pages (spurs jangling) and tell you their stories, and you fall in love with them, cheer them on, hate them, and want to hold their hands and help them through. Western isn’t my usual genre, so a regular reader of books of this nature will probably appreciate it more than I did, but I did enjoy it, and I would recommend it to someone who can tolerate a story line that is brutally realistic with characters living difficult lives in difficult times.

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In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D’Amato

In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D’Amato — 9780525950516 — *

Genre: Science Fiction
Time to Read: 24 Days

Short Description:
The year is 2011, and the countdown to December 21, 2012 is well underway. Despite his Maya heritage, Jed DeLanda doesn’t believe in the 2012 doomsday prediction, but millions throughout the world do. One day, the stock-market-made millionaire is on his computer adding to his fortune when he comes across an article that catches his eye. A college professor, with whom he once worked with on a special project based around an ancient Maya game that was used to predict possible future events, has been working on decoding a recently discovered Mayan codex that holds clues to the upcoming apocalypse, and the sacrifice game is part of the project. His ego bruised (He’s using the Sacrifice Game without the best living player on board?), Jed contacts his former mentor and inserts himself into the project. A visit to Marena Park, the woman who has her hands on the pages of the Codex that talk about the sacrifice game that predicted the 2012 doomsday, solidifies his involvement. His task is to use the sacrifice game to try and discover the nature of the person they believe is behind the upcoming disaster. The problem? The sacrifice game’s proper method of play was never written down, and they need to learn to use the same nine-stone game that originally predicted the 2012 disaster to discover who is behind it so he can be stopped. The solution: The team that has been working on the game has also been working out a way to send someone back to 664 AD to learn the game first-hand from its first player. All they need is a volunteer. Jed begs his way into the “time machine,” which will send a copy of his consciousness back to the chosen date and into the body of an ancient Mayan king, which he will take over and use to learn the game. Only, things go horribly wrong, and Jed finds himself in a struggle to survive long enough to learn the game and bury the clues so his friends back in 2011 can dig them up and use them to save the world.

*Please note that this review is one person’s personal opinion. An internet search will reveal several reviewers whose feelings about this book differ from my own. If you wish to read this book and form your own opinion, I encourage you to do so!*

–Spoilers may follow–

In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D’Amato sounds like it should be an excellent book. It should be exciting, full of interesting historical information, and downright awesome, like Michael Crichton meets Dan Brown. The prologue was exciting: A great jump-off point for what is touted as a historical science fiction thriller. I have to say, I was extremely disappointed.

Reading this book first reminded me of a genetics class I took in college. The professor was so knowledgeable about the topic that we would ask him questions and he couldn’t understand our questions because he couldn’t comprehend the fact that his students weren’t grasping the information. He’d re-explain, making things worse, them move on. Only, Jed (the main character who also narrates the novel) doesn’t do it in the kindly teaching-manner. He’s snarky as he explains the Sacrifice game, comparing it to Go and Chess, and not bothering to clarify it for people who don’t play Go or Chess. As though he thinks–knows–that he is better than anyone who doesn’t play highly mathematical or complicated games, so it isn’t worth trying to explaining it all to amateurs, anyway. He just throws out pages of mathematical equations and scientific information that I, a person with a good grasp on science, can’t comprehend, and continues on with a mightier-than-though attitude that no one wants to deal with in reality, never mind in a work of fiction they are reading for enjoyment.

Still, I read on, hoping things would get better.

Then I came across the Ashley issue. There are three characters in this book, all by the name of Ashley. Jed refers to them as A₁, Ashley2 and Ashley3 respectively. I’m not quite sure which one is which, aside from Ashley2,who seems to have a bigger role than the other two. One of the Ashleys might have been a man, but I wasn’t quite clear. I may have gotten him/her confused with Lindsay, who was definitely a man.

Still, though it annoyed me, I figured that the author was trying to add a little reality to his book. I know a few people named Ashley. Of course, I can distinguish between them, since I know what they look like, their personalities, etc, but it isn’t uncommon to run into a few people by the same name in the real world. In a book, things get difficult, and it may have been prudent to give them nicknames instead of numbers, but, in the whole scheme of things, it was a minor issue. Sort of. I kept reading: The prologue was good, and I still wasn’t to the going back in time part…

Which turned out not to be actually going back in time. Jed sat in a chair. Marena asked him some questions. He revealed a painful memory from his childhood. The scientist in the other room said: “That’s enough. The information is transmitting.” He got out of the chair, they went to find the information the copy of himself buried for them. He had no memory of what happened when “he” went back in time. He had no connection to the copy of himself. The real Jed was never in any mortal danger.

Of course, it is a little more exciting than that. Upon transmission, the reader gets to follow Jed2 back to 664 AD and watch his ordeal unfold. It’s even almost exciting. It would have been awesome, if it hadn’t been so drawn-out.

Redundancy is one of my pet peeves. That is, I hate it when a writer repeats himself. What I mean by that is, it drives me crazy when an author keeps saying the same exact think over and over using different language, as though it adds to the impact, but really, it just washes everything down and makes me, the reader, frustrated. Brian D’Amato is the master of redundancy. I’ve never come across the term: “As I think I said before” so many times in one book. In fact, I know I have never come across it before. That is, no writer I have ever read has felt the need to repeat himself over and over throughout his entire book. In other words: Generally, authors seem to assume their readers were paying attention the first time they said it and won’t re-state unless there is a real need (foreshadowing in the beginning revisited at the end, for example). Brian D’Amato, as I think I said before, seems to enjoy repeating himself unnecessarily. Throughout the entire 679 page tome. It drove me crazy…as I think I said before.

Despite all of this, there were a few redeeming qualities to the book. A few parts here and there that were genuinely exciting. None as good as the prologue, unfortunately, but the good parts came in waves. The prologue was good, things went down hill until I almost put it away, then things slowly improved to a point, then fell, and so on. At first, I kept reading because I hoped it would get better. Then I got to the point where I was reading it to see how it would end. Then I was reading it in hopes that the main character might die at the end. The ending, however, was on one of the downgrades.

Usually, when I finish a book, I feel some sort of satisfaction or excitement. Something. Even if the rest of the book was kinda blah, the ending redeems it a little. Not so here. The ending of this book dragged worse than any other before. The main character was literally detached from the action, watching it on windows-turned-TV-screens. He never confronts the bad guy. He doesn’t involve himself in the excitement. He just…watches. But the book doesn’t end when the bad guy is caught. They have to move forward a few weeks, first so the girl he likes can tell him he’s not the settling down type she needs and he can spout his own personal philosophy on the 2012 doom they have supposedly avoided. Or have they?

The end of book one? That ended in more of a let-down than a cliff hanger. I think I’ll skip book two.

I think it goes without saying that I don’t recommend this book. If you want to try it, anyway, kudos to you! But if you find yourself 1/4 of the way in and reading in hopes that it will get better, put it down and walk away. It isn’t worth it.

Visit Brian D’Amato’s website here.

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The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter — 9781439199084 — ****

Genre: Thriller
Time to Read: About one week
Publication Date: 8 March 2011

Short Summary:
The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter is a story about a legend passed down through time. The Altar is said to be a fountain of youth that has been guarded by women of the same family for generations. The quest for the altar and its promise of unending youth has been the obsession of many. It has caused betrayal, heartbreak, assassination and conspiracy almost from the beginning. Now, a young woman has discovered that her bloodline flows from the generations of keepers of the Altar of Bones, and her estranged grandmother has tasked her with protecting it from covetous hands. Her quest takes her from America to Paris, then on to Budapest and beyond, running from the Russian mob, the KGB and an American “kingmaker,” all of whom covet the secret that she has been charged with keeping.

First off, I have to say that this is an amazing book! I must admit that it took a little while for me to really get into it, because it jumps around a bit in the beginning, from the present day to the 1930s and back again, changing characters and generations before seeming to settle on one character, then jumping again and finally introducing the main character. Once I got passed that point, however, I really got caught up in the story.

The Altar of Bones by Philip Carter is one of those books that are very difficult to put down. It is chalk-full of adventure and excitement. Car chases, gun battles, spies and betrayals. There is a crazy but beautiful female assassin (who somewhat reminded me of Xenia Onatopp from the James Bond movie GoldenEye), a greedy old mogul who has been declared an American Kingmaker, an assassination cover-up, and a race to find this fountain of youth in order to protect it from the Russian mob, the KGB, and other covetous hands. It also takes a few pages out of history, providing flashbacks to a presidential assassination, the tragic end of a doomed movie starlet, and a harrying escape from a Russian labor camp.

The two main characters are easy to admire. The friendship between them develops naturally throughout the story, instead of being forced upon them, and while they are both slightly “super” human, they aren’t so over-the-top that they seem fake. The “bad guys” have enough human traits to be realistic antagonists, instead of just purely evil villains. The magic behind the story feels like folklore, which I find gives it more believability than your typical magical sub-plot. When added together, this makes the entire story easy to get lost in, and to believe, at least on some level.

I would recommend this book to any fans of the genre. It is exciting, rock ‘em sock ‘em at its very best. There were a few points where I, as a woman, said to myself: “This is clearly written by a male author,” which isn’t something I generally run across (sometimes I find that a book is clearly written by a female, but generally books feel gender-neutral to me when written by either men or women), and some female readers may not enjoy this one, especially if they select it to give the genre a try for the very first time. Over all, however, Philip Carter’s The Alter of Bones is an exciting, mile-a-minute page turner that any action fan is bound to enjoy.

(I should note that this review is based on a proof copy of the book. It will be on store shelves on March 8, 2011. This is Philip Carter’s first novel, so I cannot refer you to any of his other works while you wait, but please add it to your list for the spring and keep on reading!)

Check out Philip Carter’s author site at Simon & Schuster!

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The Eight by Katherine Neville

The Eight by Katherine Neville – 9780345366238 -*****

Genre: Fiction/Historical Fiction/Adventure
Time to Read:  Eleven Days

Short Summary:
Katherine Neville’s The Eight follows three women on parallel quests two hundred years apart.

In the 1790s, novices Mireille and Valentine are sent out from the Montglane Abbey with pieces of the Montglane Chess Service–a legendary chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne and that is said to have a mystical power. Charged with keeping the pieces out of the hands of those who would use that power for evil, Mirelle and Valentine flee to Paris and find themselves in the midst of the French Revolution.

In the 1970s, Catherine is sent on a business trip from New York to Algeria. Her firm sends her to work with the newly formed OPEC, but a friend has charged her with finding pieces of the Montglane Service that are believed to be hidden there. On her quest for the pieces, she learns that there are some who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the mythical service and finds herself in a game for her life.

Katherine Neville’s The Eight is exciting and addictive.  It is full of action and danger, rich with historical facts and myths and splashed with historical figures, from a young Napoleon Bonaparte (before his famous campaigns) to the poet William Wordsworth. I have to admit, I will never look at the game of chess the same way again.

I am not a chess player, and was a little concerned that I would get lost because the book is written around the adventures of people trying to secure the Montglane Chess Service and several of the characters are chess players, themselves. Thankfully, though the chess theme remains throughout the novel, Katherine Neville explains the relevant rules of the game very clearly, and only describes parts of one chess game through the eyes of a person who doesn’t play chess, herself. Once I discovered this, it was beyond difficult to put the book down.

My only frustration is that she follows the lives of people two hundred years apart and I often found that when she switched from one time period to the other, I wanted to continue following the first plot and by the time she would change back, I’d want to keep on with the second. I was even almost tempted to read the 1970s plot, then go back and read the 1790s plot. As difficult as it is to read in order, I encourage those who decide to read this book to read it as written. The plots compliment each other, and if you read one then the other, you will miss out on some parts, and other things will be given away by one plot before you can read them in the other.

I very highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure and appreciates history, mystery, danger and a hint of romance. If you liked Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code, you will love this book (Keep in mind that The Eight was written fifteen years before DaVinci Code. I would not be surprised to learn that Dan Brown is a Katherine Neville fan.). Just don’t skim or skip–as attempting as it may be–or you’ll miss something important.  This book is definitely worth taking the time to enjoy, though you may not find putting it down an option.

(Note: The Next book I will be reviewing is The Fire, the sequel to The Eight)

Check out Katherine Neville’s web site!

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Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne — ISBN 9781435115552 — ****

Genre: Science Fiction
Time to Read: Six Days

Short Summary:

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a book about three men who attempt the impossible. It is set in 1863, Germany. One day, the eccentric professor Otto Lindenbrock discovers a note in an old journal that once belonged to the celebrated scientist Arne Saknussemm. After translating the note, he learns that Saknusseumm once found a path that lead to the center of the Earth. Thrilled with his find, and with the prospect of discovering the way and documenting it for science, Herr Lindenbrock drags his more cautious nephew (and the narrator of the story) Axel to Iceland, where the extinct volcano that is to act as the gateway waits. There, they meet Hans, the stoic Icelander, who agrees to guide them to the volcano then assist them on their journey. Together, the three men face great adventure and peril as they journey to the center of the Earth, Professor Lindenbrock taking scientific notes and readings, Hans keeping the exuberant Otto out of harm, and Axel wondering all the while if they will ever return to Germany, where his beloved fiancée Graüben awaits his return.

First off, I have to admit I was a little unsure about my decision to read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. I always loved the old 1959 movie as a child, and was vaguely familiar with the story and excited to read it as Jules Verne had written it, but I wasn’t confident in my ability to enjoy reading a book that was published in 1864. The language in older books isn’t always something I enjoy, and the fact that to original manuscript was written in French made me even less certain. It did take me a few chapters to grow accustomed to Jules Verne’s style of writing, but I truly did end up fully enjoying the book. The chapters are extremely short (average 3 pages in my copy, which is actually a compilation that also contains Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea), so it’s easy to read a chapter or two, then set it down. As someone who hates putting a book down mid-chapter, I fully appreciated this. The 1st person narration was conversational and easy to follow. I could easily picture Axel telling the story to me. The description is excellent, but not over done, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the characters, especially Lindenbrock, who I came to think of as the Nutty Professor. There is a lot of old science included, which I can see as a potential turn-off to some, but it’s not so overly technical that it’s difficult to follow (though much of it has been disproved since 1864).

Over all, I enjoyed reading Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was very easy to get caught up in the story, especially since Axel is so easy to connect with as he tells his account of the events of their journey. I can understand how a person who is uninterested in geology, or who is so interested in modern science that they would be driven crazy by the defunct old science within the book, might not like it, but it is otherwise an excellent read. Maybe not as easy as some of the other books I have reviewed so far, but worth picking up.

[A warning to any students who might think they'll try watching the 1959 movie instead of reading the book for class: Don't bother trying. The differences between the movie and the book are huge. I could probably write a whole paper on them. The movie is great, if a little hokey, but it adds characters to the story and leaves out quite a bit and changes much of the rest. For example, there is no duck named Gertrude in the book. Don't let the fact that this is a classic intimidate you. Journey to the Center of the Earth really is a great read.]

Check out more Jules Verne books on his official publisher page!

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