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fireunI grew up on Patricia C. Wrede. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles ate up more of my free time than I can honestly remember. My copies are battered and loved almost past recognition. Seven Towers is a book I can still, years upon years later, recall full scenes from. Mairelon the Magician is where I picked up my habit of measuring time in songs.
So it was to my absolute glee that I was able to get my hands on a copy of Thirteenth Child, Patricia's new book due out in April. All other reading was abandoned. House cleaning fell to the wayside. Coworkers avoided trying to talk to me while I was on break.
I honestly cannot recommend this book highly enough to do it justice.
The seventh son of a seventh son (referred to as a double-seven) is a force enough to be reckoned with. His twin sister being a thirteenth child, with all the stigma attached to that number, adds an interesting kink to the equation. The setting is a fascinating mix of Little House on the Prairie and a more familiar dangerous fantasy. It is an well done alternate history. It isn't obvious all the time, the little hints point out the time and place, and every now and then there will be a reference to a historical figure in such a fascinatingly unique context that I find myself grinning.
It is a neat book. I was just as interested in learning how magic was being used to combat the danger of the untamed west as I was in waiting for the next mishap growing up would inflict upon the protagonist.
I am, personally, fascinated with magic being used for mundane things. Reading a book where there were spells to get clothes to dry faster and to keep flies out of the house appealed to me. I adored reading about days at school, the way classes were laid out. Magic study sounded very similar to the misadventures I remember fumbling through in my own science classes. There were distinct schools of magic, and listening to characters discuss theory and practice had me recalling my own Philosophy classes. The antics of a very large family had me smiling and missing my own clan.
Its a well done book that has so much to offer for the reader to relate to. Its a coming of age story, and a grand adventure. And the final crisis the book hinges on is so effortlessly perfect that I couldn't believe it was over, even as I turned that last page.
It is a beautiful book that will appeal to everyone, no matter how old or young they may be. It is a lot of adventure, it is a lot of growing, and it is impossible to read it without taking something positive away. As the book points out, somehow its all in how you see something that defines just what it is, and definitions are not as static as we all assume them to be.
So it was to my absolute glee that I was able to get my hands on a copy of Thirteenth Child, Patricia's new book due out in April. All other reading was abandoned. House cleaning fell to the wayside. Coworkers avoided trying to talk to me while I was on break.
I honestly cannot recommend this book highly enough to do it justice.
The seventh son of a seventh son (referred to as a double-seven) is a force enough to be reckoned with. His twin sister being a thirteenth child, with all the stigma attached to that number, adds an interesting kink to the equation. The setting is a fascinating mix of Little House on the Prairie and a more familiar dangerous fantasy. It is an well done alternate history. It isn't obvious all the time, the little hints point out the time and place, and every now and then there will be a reference to a historical figure in such a fascinatingly unique context that I find myself grinning.
It is a neat book. I was just as interested in learning how magic was being used to combat the danger of the untamed west as I was in waiting for the next mishap growing up would inflict upon the protagonist.
I am, personally, fascinated with magic being used for mundane things. Reading a book where there were spells to get clothes to dry faster and to keep flies out of the house appealed to me. I adored reading about days at school, the way classes were laid out. Magic study sounded very similar to the misadventures I remember fumbling through in my own science classes. There were distinct schools of magic, and listening to characters discuss theory and practice had me recalling my own Philosophy classes. The antics of a very large family had me smiling and missing my own clan.
Its a well done book that has so much to offer for the reader to relate to. Its a coming of age story, and a grand adventure. And the final crisis the book hinges on is so effortlessly perfect that I couldn't believe it was over, even as I turned that last page.
It is a beautiful book that will appeal to everyone, no matter how old or young they may be. It is a lot of adventure, it is a lot of growing, and it is impossible to read it without taking something positive away. As the book points out, somehow its all in how you see something that defines just what it is, and definitions are not as static as we all assume them to be.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 03:34 am (UTC)And oh, yeah - EVIL TWIN IS EVIL TWIN! (or...morally neutral twin? Or something? XD)
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Date: 2009-03-05 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 12:44 pm (UTC)heh. you named a cat fiddlesticks *glee*
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Date: 2009-03-05 05:05 am (UTC)I usually don't end up actually paying heed to book recs even though I always mean to, but I'l definitely exert myself to get my hands on this one!
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Date: 2009-03-05 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 05:58 am (UTC)If you like historical fiction/fantasy-ish stuff then I suggest you try out Cynthia Voigt's Kingdom series - especially The Wings of a Falcon. Well, it's a lot more fantasy in style, but there's no magic or fay creatures involved - just a complex and epic adventure and some insane world-building and the like.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-05 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 05:09 am (UTC)I was fortunate enough to hear Pat read the first couple of chapters at Worldcon in Denver, which left me yearning for more. Pure torture!
She's a lovely lady, as friendly as she looks. I was so excited to see her I was completely tongue-tied and only managed to say "love your books".
no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 03:55 pm (UTC)Heh, I am sure if I ran into Pat in person I would fumble through something that sounded at best vaguely like English before blushing myself to death.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 12:10 am (UTC)Thirteenth Child: Frontier Magic Book One
Date: 2010-01-01 09:13 pm (UTC)Re: Thirteenth Child: Frontier Magic Book One
Date: 2010-01-01 09:28 pm (UTC)From looking at Ms. Wrede's blog as well as bookselling resources, she is working on book two, but there is no release date, or a title, that I have managed to come across.