(Book) I spy with raven's eye...Odin's Shadow

Random Fact: Ravenreviews references Huginn (Thought) and Muginn (Memory). There are the names of Odin's ravens who observe the world and report back to him.

I love Vikings. I think their bloody history and way of life is both fascinating and freaking awesome. The fact that their women fought alongside them was pretty badass.

To read a book about romancing a viking? I was super excited.

Little did I know that I was getting sucked into a world of lust, bloodlust and utter chaos!

The story follows a young Irish woman who has yet to be married off to a suitor. Upon sneaking away from the house to a market, she runs into a Finngall, or what the Irish called Vikings.

Later on, she is whisked away to the cold, harsh land of Norway.

Can she survive berserkers, demons with human faces and the truth about her origins?

This book was an absolute delight to read. It sucks you into a world that is both beautiful and brutal. Ms. Riley pulls no punches in the George RR Martin style of description. It gets pretty hairy in there.

I loved how the characters were well rounded and felt human. They're were likeable, but like us were capable of horrendous things.

The descriptions of both locations and characters was well understood. I wasn't overwhelmed detail and it was well balanced by the flowing story.

Reading how the characters spoke was fascinating and the protagonist's learning of the language was a nice touch. The mistakes in language are purposeful, but are enough that you know that she is a quick learner.

I loved how well researched Odin's Shadow was. Accuracy is important and knowing that Viking helmets weren't horned and slaves being called thralls, amongst other things, are nice touches.

Finally and most importantly, if nothing else, read this book for the twists. You never see them coming. I was totally blown away by the revelations that occurred in this book.

An amazing, rollicking read. A Viking romance that roars in the face of adversity.

5 stars.

You can find the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Odins-Shadow-Sons-Odin-Book-ebook/dp/B00UXNMWGO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445467086&sr=8-1&keywords=Odin%27s+shadow

(Book) Growing Pains...A look at Chasing Shadows Everywhere

This book advertised itself as, 'Catcher in the Rye meets Fight Club.'

I'll be completely honest. I ate this book up.

As a young man, I identified with Holden Caulfield very much so. I had a hatred for things that were, 'phony' and I spent so much time trying to be real.

While I never identified with the characters of Fight Club, I understood how the status quo of society made the life seem pointless and repetitive and set up an expectation to exist rather than live.

In this mashup, we witness a young man named Jake trying to find his way in the world. He's a coward and a decent enough kid, but he wants to be more.

Enter his cousin Nick. To Jake, Nick is a guy who gets what he wants because he fights for it so savagely.

I found the stream of consciousness to be both informative and entertaining. Jake rarely makes light of the situations he ends up in, but his raw honesty is refreshing and makes it easy for you to identify with the character.

Observing Jake try to survive the status quo, the dreams he has and the anomalies that he faces can at times be jarring, but that's what makes the book so fascinating.

What I got from Chasing Shadows Everywhere is going out and getting what you want, instead of waiting around for future events to take place.

The book is worth reading and analysing. Finally, it is also worth rereading.

5 stars.

(Book) A look at the Collector by John Fowles

This book was incredibly tough to review.

It's like cutting down a tree, except the rings inside are multi-coloured.

In 100 pages, Fowles has included political undertones, Shakespearean references and metaphors upon metaphors. One could read this book 100 times over and still find something new to take from it. 

While brilliantly thought out, it is incredibly messed up. 

Throughout the book we follow the interactions between Fredrick Clegg, who represents the masses and his victim Miranda Grey, who represents the elite.

Shared from both perspectives, this book shows that their points of view are starkly different from one another, communicating in a language the other cannot understand. It almost becomes a game of sorts. One tries to manipulate the other, but both are unwilling to budge, forever at an impasse.

Miranda refers to Clegg as Caliban, a nod to Shakespeare's the Tempest. Caliban in that tale is a demon who is obsessed with Prospero's daughter who is Miranda's namesake.
Clegg refers to himself as Ferdinand, after the man who wins Miranda's (the Tempest version, not the Collector version,) affections. Whether this is intentional of Clegg or not is unknown.

Clegg is an etymologist. He collects butterflies and preserves them. Due to his loneliness and lack of social skills, he believes he can 'collect' Miranda, preserving her in a small room in the countryside.

What he neglects to understand is that when you try and keep something isolated in a cage, it doesn't last long. This applies to animals, plants and people.

If you love something, then it must be free. If you try to keep it to yourself, it suffocates.

Oddly, Clegg's character does not really develop, in that he doesn't learn from his experience, even going so far as to say that he plans to capture another girl.

I enjoy books that make me think. While this book was a device to understand social constructs, (In that people who represent the masses need to be taught out of their false sense of inferiority and the elite need to understand that their status is a responsibility, not merely a state of existence.) it was profoundly disturbing and learning that Clegg didn't learn from his mistake, nor really felt any remorse for what he did made me feel wrong, as though something inside myself had been distorted and bent out of shape.

As a debut novel, it was brilliant. Though I cannot abide lack of character development.

4 out of 5 stars. 

(Book) Blender Level = 1. A look at the Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer

As I sat down to write this, I felt it very important to make something very clear.

'I don't like biographies.'

The only other biography I have read in my life was an unofficial one on Jackie Chan.

For me, biographies tell the story of a life. It could be a politician, a musician, a movie star, a sports hero. Whatever.

Personally, though it's released for the public to read, the book feels too personal, or in some cases, too grandiose or obnoxious.

To read a biography would be the equivalent of walking in on said person while they're having sex. Having done that a couple of times in the past, it never gets any less embarrassing.

So, I don't like biographies. If I can, I avoid them.

I have a biography on Zelda Fitzgerald I have yet to read at the behest of someone I love dearly. I'm sure I'll get around to it.....eventually.

I spent the better part of a week after buying this book wondering what to expect upon reading Amanda Palmer's -since she wrote it herself- autobiography. Would it be Hunter S. Thompson-esque and involve a room full of people acting out a football game? Would there be dragons?

I was so unsure.

I met Amanda Palmer once. She handed me a flower that I gave to a fellow fan later on. I later sent Ms. Palmer a message on facebook explaining to her that I was so full of words that I didn't quite know how to explain how much I enjoyed her music.

That connection was important in reading this biography.

It felt like we were sitting down, having coffee as she told me about her life, what she'd gone through in order to get where she is.

It was honest, raw and everything I had come to expect from a conversation with a drunk person at 3am, where people are usually at their most honest.

Amanda has successfully created a book in which you are not only taken on a journey, but you're looking right over her shoulder. You're experiencing it with her.

It's like a hardwire direct to her brain in all its colourful chaos.

Amanda has made a book that takes her honest and unadulterated connection to her fanbase and solidifies it into something tangible. Magic that you can hold in your hands.

'Please see me. I'm Real.'

I see you Amanda Fucking Palmer. You're so real it hurts.

And I love you for it.

5 stars.

(Book) A look at Filth, by Irvine Welsh

What a strange thing it is when a book affects you so heavily that you don't really want to go outside. That it eats away at you from the inside until you feel horrid and in mighty need of a shower or five.

That is what it was like to read Filth.

The book follows the stream of consciousness (Thoughts direct from the person's mind,) of Bruce Robertson, a Detective Sergeant of a Scottish police department. We follow his misadventures as he journeys down the proverbial rabbit hole, sleeping with just about anyone who says yes (Or requires some persuasion,) snorts cocaine and is an all 'round asshole to pretty much everyone he meets.

Now, while this book will invariably eat away at you, the writing device used within this novel is ingenious. This involves a tapeworm that is overlaid in the text throughout the book and the more the story progresses, the more the tapeworm eats away at Bruce. What's brilliant about this is that you feel as Bruce feels. It puts you in the headspace of a man who feels so much anger towards people he meets that when you finally understand why, you don't look upon Bruce with judgement, but with pity.

Spirals of destruction must have an end and the book ends in such a way that leaves you feeling emotionally wrecked, but at the same time, like you've undertaken a great emotional release. You've learnt something from it. You identify and yet you judge with this deplorable human being who is just as filthy as the reader is.

Though our actions are different, we are all Bruce Robertson. Broken, relatable and on our own path of destruction.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Worth the read not only for the writing style, but for the very fact that it makes you feel something, which is what good books do.

Now, excuse me while I go take a shower for the 5th time today.

(Book) A look at the Wave, by Todd Strasser.

Never in my life would I expect to read something that would have changed my perspective so drastically. How looking at something one way can actually look completely different when you look at it differently.

The book is a fictionalised account of true events based around a social experiment from California.

Ben Ross is a history teacher who wants to show the students of his high school an in depth insight into Nazi Germany. He creates a cult type society that presents itself as equal, but like its namesake, it becomes to big for itself and, like the Third Reich it is based on, must crash and fall.

The style of writing, though simple, makes its point and that's what makes the overall message hit so hard. It draws you into the idealism that is at first presented. You are hooked within the first ten pages and seeing it through to the end has its emotional payoff.

This book is a perfect example of the corruption of idealism. How taking equality and distorting it can have disastrous effects on not only your immediate friends and family, but on a larger scale too.

I have rated this book 4 and a half stars out of 5.

It's available for e-download and in bookstores, both independent and not.

(Book) A look at 'The Slow Regard of Silent Things' by Patrick Rothfuss.

This is my first ever blog review and I have to say I'm pretty excited to be writing it.

This is partially due to the fact that I love writing.

But the main reason is that I'll be reviewing a book by an author I highly respect.

The story follows Auri and the days leading up to a meeting with 'him.' If you have read Mr. Rothfuss' previous works, 'him' requires no such introduction.

I must admit as I picked up the book, it felt heavy on an emotional level. This small, 30,000 word novella was so FULL to bursting with secrets and hopefully a few answers.

Before I go any further, I want to establish that Auri is my favourite character and as such a story purely about her was more than enough motivation for me to go purchase the book.

When I got home and opened it, I found myself somewhat discouraged.

The first sentence I read from the author is,'You might not want to buy this book.'

I found myself at war with my feelings to continue further. Who in their right mind tells you that you might not want to buy their book? That's either an incredibly dangerous marketing gambit or the author doesn't have a lot of faith in his work.

But as a writer myself and general troublemaker, I ignored his advice and kept reading.

and I am so very glad that I did.

This book can be summed up with a perfect (albeit paraphrased,) quote from Sherlock Holmes.

"The little things are infinitely the most important."

Rothfuss has taken a character who is seemingly unknowable and put her in a story that in any other book, would not quite work.

He has taken a broken character and tilted her at a different angle to show the audience that she is not less because she is broken, but more.

I also feel that, through her beautiful and bizarre understanding of the world, which feels like an mixture of Alchemy and Feng Shui, she betters understands herself.

and it works.

I'm giving this book 5 stars.

Not because I respect the author and not because I kept reading even though I'm usually prone to getting distracted.

Originally, I was going to give it 3 and a half for the self deprecating author's note at the beginning. (Seriously though, please don't do that again. It felt wrong. Like an out of tune piano or an unfinished piece of music.)

But because he has taken something broken (or what I believe he thought was broken,) and poured gold into the cracks.

Making it more beautiful as a result.

So thank you, Mr. Rothfuss. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Auri.