Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Title: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Christopher Healy [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Illustrator: Tod Harris
Standing: First in a series, but can be read as a stand alone.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published: May 1st, 2012 by Walden Pond Press
Format: Kindle edition; 419 pages
Source: ARC from publisher via Edelweiss.
Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge

Prince Charming is afraid of old ladies. Didn’t know that, did you? Don’t worry. There’s a lot you don’t know about Prince Charming: Prince Charming has no idea how to use a sword; Prince Charming has no patience for dwarfs; Prince Charming has an irrational hatred of capes. Some of you may not even realize that there’s more than one Prince Charming. And that none of them are actually named Charming. No one is. Charming isn’t a name; it’s an adjective.

For anyone who’s ever thought:

• Why is ‘Prince Charming’ such an ambiguous title?
• Does it really have to be ‘true love’s kiss’, or would any old kiss do?
• Why’s it always the damsels in distress?
• Why aren’t there enough fairy tales staring the men?
• Beavers have the potential to be truly terrifying.  Okay, maybe this last one is just me, but ever since I learned that there were six foot beavers back in the day, I’ve been much more leery of the animal in general.

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy is the book for you! 

Welcome to the League of Princes!  Princes Charming that is.  Not to be confused with Prince Charmings.  Prince is the noun, after all, it’s what gets pluralized.  Like Attorneys General or Culs-de-sac.  Actually, the later is French and I sucked at French for the one semester I took it, so I can’t tell you if ‘cul’ is a noun, but I can tell you that the plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac and not cul-de-sacs as is often said.  *Sigh.*  *Removes Grammar Nazi hat.*

Ahem.  Anyway.  The Princes Charming, as you know them, are better known in their own circles as Frederic (that’s Cinderella’s prince), Gustav (that’s Rapunzel’s prince), Liam (that’s Sleeping Beauty’s prince), and Duncan (that’s Snow White’s prince).  Unfortunately for them, the bards didn’t give two licks about their fame, and composed the songs all about the ladies, completely leaving out any identifying markers and causing the ambiguous ‘Prince Charming’ title.  They’re all a bit put out about it (and rightly so), but they each have some bigger issues to contend with.  Frederic is afraid of, well, everything, Gustav is always one to fight first and ask questions later (or never), Liam’s head is getting a bit big what with all the hero work and praise, and Duncan is, for lack of a better term, weird.

Ella (that’s Cinderella’s real name) wants adventure, Rapunzel wants to help people, Briar Rose wants to marry her Prince Charming (but she is absolutely horrid and needs to learn that you can’t always get what you want even as a princess), and Snow White just wants some ‘me’ time.  Thus, feeling alone, cast out, or on the run, the Princes Charming come together to save the day and put names to their fame.  Of course, this means battling the evil witch Zaubera, destroying her Supreme Scheme for Infamy, and putting a stop to her Grand Finale of Doom.

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is about as much fun as anyone can or should have reading a book.  The villains are dastardly, the heroes are flawed, and quite frankly any author who pushes foreshadowing on over into the spoiler territory gets a win in my book.  It’s not quite like Shakespeare flat out telling you how Romeo and Juliet is going to end, but it does paint an interesting picture when you’re starting out. 

All of the characters in The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom are wonderful.  I loved them all.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Okay, I hated Briar Rose, but I loved Zaubera (I mean come on people, she has a thesaurus spell so that she can insult people more creatively), The Bandit King, and Reese.  I love that Healy points out (repeatedly) how silly the notion is that you could love someone you’ve never even met, that his damsels are not in distress, and that his hero’s heroics are questionable.  Ella, Rapunzel (I’m hoping to see more of her in the next book!), and Lila (Liam’s little sister) are all strong young women who aren’t afraid to save themselves.  The princes, with the exception of Liam, are all victims of circumstance more than anything else.  Liam, the one true ‘hero’ among them, isn’t perfect either, he has a lot to learn about utilizing others’ assets and diplomacy.

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom can teach anyone a lot about fairy tales, and a lot about life.  It’s fun, adventurous, and informative!  I highly recommend it to middle grade and fairy tale lovers of any age.  I also have to say that the art is wonderful, but unfortunately, the e-galley copy that I had only had art for the first few chapters, so I can’t say much about it other than that I liked what I saw!  I loved the cartoony look, and the reality that the princes were not all handsome, and the princesses were not all perfect.  I do plan on purchasing a hard copy so that I can reread and view to my heart’s delight!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: I cannot wait for the sequel to this one!  Healy mentioned it in a video interview for Fairy Tale Fortnight on The Book Rat and I am all over that!  Also the entire time I was reading this I kept thinking ‘this book needs a movie deal…omg somebody please make this into an awesome animated feature!’ and I totally called it!  Fingers crossed, I so hope they do a good job with this one, it has the potential to be amazing (I’m thinking like How to Train Your Dragon awesome here).

Recommended for: I want to start shoving this book into so many kids’ hands, and kind of want to have a baby and instantly age them to an appropriate age that I can read this to them.  That’s a justifiable reason to have kids, right?  Any fairy tale fans will love this one, particularly if you also enjoy middle grade and some light, adventurous fun!

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  I just have to say that Walden Pond Press is quickly becoming one of my favorite imprints.  After reading this, Neversink, and Breadcrumbs, I am beginning to wonder if they can put out a book I don’t love.

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Salute Your Shorts: Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr–The non Wicked Lovely edition.

Salute Your Shorts is a weekly (ish) feature here at Bunbury in the Stacks highlighting and reviewing short stories and novellas. Everyone is welcome to join at any time, just grab the pic above and shoot me a link in the comments so that I can include your post in a roundup.

Title: Faery Tales and Nightmares [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Melissa Marr [Website|Twitter]
Standing: Stand alone anthology, BUT half the stories are in the Wicked Lovely universe (I’ll discuss those stories in a later post).
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Published: February 21st, 2012 by HarperCollins
Format:  Hardcover; 418 pages 
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge

Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments dark and light by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from beneath the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.

From the gentle tones of a storyteller’s cadences to the terror of a blood sacrifice, tales of favorite characters from Marr’s Wicked Lovely novels mix with accounts of new characters for readers to fall in love with...or to fear.

Lush, seductive, and chilling, Melissa Marr’s stories revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.

Welcome to the non-Wicked Lovely edition of Salute Your Shorts: Faery Tales and Nightmares!  I’ve decided to split my review of this anthology into two posts so that those of you who haven’t read Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series can know what this book has in store for you, without forcing you to skip the spoilers!  This works out quite well for everyone since of the twelve stories included, six have nothing to do with Wicked Lovely.  That means you can enjoy half this book!  Here’s what we have to offer:

Where Nightmares Walk

This very short story works as somewhat of an introduction into the book, and lets you realize right off the bat that it will indeed be as much about nightmares as about faery tales.  It’s a chilling intro that will make you fear the night.

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Winter’s Kiss

This short story evokes the image of a traditional fairy tale, but one you haven’t heard before.  It tells the tale of a princess who has the curse of icy breath, and the snow bear that would see it as a gift.  Winter’s Kiss is charming, beautiful, and a reminder of perspective.

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Transition

Eliana has been getting weird and uncontrollable headaches.  She loses time—she can’t remember hours of her life.  She’s stopped talking to doctors, they just think she’s crazy, and she’s begun to self medicate with drugs of another sort.  When she ends up in the graveyard with the boy she’s currently seeing, she can’t get her mind off someone something else, and she can’t help feeling as if the statue is watching her.

Transition is a chilling vampire story about the circle of life (or death…or undeath<—see what I did there?) in which Melissa Marr puts her own tale into a fairly traditional (and thus sexy and gory) lore.  This type of story right here is the reason people love vamps, and not the sparkly kind.

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Love Struck

Every once in a while, I feel like I get as much out of a short story as I do out of a full-length book.  This is one of those times.  Love Struck was a beautiful love story and fairy tale, about selchies.  Selchies!  I’ve been enamored with Selchies since The Secret of Roan Inish, and have been craving more.  I mean…who wants mermaids when selchies are about, really?  At least you don’t have to question the logistics of their anatomy quite so much… 

Alana is chosen to be the mate of Murrin, who intends to court her, but instead he accidently traps her as has been done for generations.  She holds his Other Skin, is compelled to hide it, and she cannot return it unless he finds it himself.  Alana doesn’t want to break her own rules, she doesn’t want a relationship, and certainly not one with some guy she barely knows.  She’s convinced that it’s the selchie magic drawing her to Murrin, and is deeply torn between wanting to be with him and wanting freedom for both of them.  Love Struck was a beautifully rendered tale, and I adored it.  It was the non-Wicked Lovely story in this collection that I was looking forward to most, and it did not disappoint!

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The Art of Waiting

This title made me think of the poem One Art by Elizabeth Bishop.  It’s the story of a small hamlet of a town, that is incased in snow and ice each winter that melts to beauty in the spring.  A man and his daughter come to the town, and the townspeople wait to see if they, like so many others, will leave.

This short is perfect for anyone who lives in a quaint little town and loves it.  It’s hard for people to understand this mentality, but those who live there wouldn’t have it any other way. 

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Flesh for Comfort

A disturbing tale about what we are willing to go through for beauty.  A poor girl in a mountain town knows she will never get out.  She is not rich enough, or attractive enough.  But when a mysterious creature offers to make her beautiful, she is tempted, knowing if she were attractive enough she could trade flesh for comfort and escape.

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These six stories range in length from about 3 to 60 pages, and are all very worth reading!  I particularly enjoyed Love Struck, and the most disturbing award goes to Flesh for Comfort.  Enjoy!

Audio Review: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Title: Princess Academy [Academy|GoodReads]
Author: Shannon Hale [Website|Twitter|Facebook] 
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published: November 1st, 2007 by Full Cast Audio (First published January 1st, 2005 by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books).
Format: Audio; 7 hrs, 30 mins. Read by Laura Credidio
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Award Winning Reads Challenge

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

Unfortunately, Princess Academy is one of those books for which my enjoyment suffered because of the format I chose.  Now, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy Princess Academy, I most certainly did, but I would also almost certainly have enjoyed it more had I read it.  The audiobook of Princess Academy was produced by Full Cast Audio, and like their name, they use a full cast to read their books.  Instead of a book narrated from different perspectives using various narrators (which I am fine with), Princess Academy had a main narrator for the text, and then each character had a different cast member voicing them.  The main narrator, Laura Credidio was fine, but I was uncomfortable with the structure of the dialog.  I’ve never listened to a book like this, and was trying to push myself out of my comfort zone.  It wasn’t terrible, but I’m happy to retreat back to what I know I like.

I think where the full cast structure hit me most, was in my ability to like Miri.  The girl doing her dialog made her come across as very whiny.  As such, I wasn’t really able to root for her the way I normally would such a character.  I did think that most of the other voice actors did a good job, this was just clearly not the format for me.

Princess Academy was a very cute and touching non-traditional fairy tale type story.  It was funny, when I picked it up, I was actually thinking that the premise sounded a bit like the forthcoming book The Selection.  However, Princess Academy panned out nothing like The Bachelor, for which I was quite grateful.  I loved that the academy gave these girls a chance to come into their own, and find meaning and purpose in their lives beyond what they had expected or what was planned out for the girl selected for marriage by the prince.  In fact, the prince was such a menial part of this story, it was very little romance and a lot of girl power!

The girls, Miri in particular, show their ingenuity by applying the facts and information they learn at the academy to better the lives of their townspeople, and their own lives in learning.  The magical element in Princess Academy, quarry speak, is so unique and wonderful I absolutely loved it.  The concept was that workers in the quarry had this method of communicating non-verbally with one another to invoke memories that elicited messages or warnings.  Miri, who has never worked in the quarry, has felt as if she were lacking and not really a part of her community.  With determination and perseverance she is able to better understand and manipulate quarry speak, allowing it to play an important roll throughout the girls’ story.

Princess Academy was a charming story about finding one’s place, following one’s heart, and the power of relationships.  Certainly a recommended read, and surely an enjoyable audiobook for those who don’t mind this unique narrative structure.  Maybe it’s better for kids who might otherwise have a difficult time keeping the characters strait by voice?  I’m not sure.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: I did like Princess Academy, but I didn’t love it.  I’m planning for my next Shannon Hale read to be The Goose Girl, as that is the book that gets talked about the most highly about the blogosphere.

Recommended for:  People who like this narrative style, anyone who enjoys non-traditional fairy tales and a focus on female relationships, friendship, and family.

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Waiting on Wednesday: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcomign releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There – Catherynne M. Valente

October 7th, 2012 –Feiwel and Friends

September returns to Fairyland to reunite with A-Through-L, Saturday, and Gleam, and to confront her shadow-self, who has become the queen of Fairyland-Below, the upside-down world beneath the Fairyland of the first novel, filled with creatures of water and shadow, tales of ancient Fairyland before the human world was born, and not a few hungry buffins, blind birds of ice and moonlight. The yearly revels of Fairyland-Below climax in a mysterious rite September must avert or else lose her shadow forever.

Did you guys see this?!  Did you?!  Last week, the cover for the upcoming sequel to the beloved The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making was released and I just about died.  Died I say!  I adore the art in this series so so much, and I am happy to see that this cover is at least as gorgeous and breathtaking as the first.  I like that it’s a bit more creepy!  I cannot even express my excitement at seeing this book come out, and I wait impatiently for the day that it is in my hands.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Fairy Tales

Top Ten Tuesday is a weakly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  They love lists as much as I do, so it's only fair to tip my hat.

So this week’s ‘official’ topic is tips for new book bloggers, but get this friends, I am a new book blogger!  I feel like giving advice when I’ve been blogging for 3.5 months would be a tad pompous of me, so instead I’m going to do something else I think is totally wonderful and fun.  The Book Rat and Basically Amazing Books are hosting a Fairy Tale Fortnight for these last several weeks of April!  I love fairy tales, as I know many of you do as well, so you ought to go over and check out the festivities!  There are lots of wonderful posts, chances to participate, and giveaways for all.  Yesterday I posted my review of Shadows on the Moon, a fabulous retelling of Cinderella set in a fantasy world much like feudal Japan.  Today I’m going to share with you some fairy tales and retellings that I adore most, or want to read desperately.

Fables by Bill Willingham

Okay people, if you call yourself a fan of fairy tales, and you haven’t read the marvelous Fables by Bill Willingham, you really need to drop everything and do so.  Stat.  It tells the story of fables in exile after they’ve escaped their homelands to live in our own world, a refuge from the evil adversary that has destroyed their worlds.  I adore this series so much, and think that any fairy tale fan should read it, even if they’re not usually into graphic novels.



Cinder by Marissa Meyer: My review here.  I adored this futuristic Cinderella as a cyborg story, and cannot wait for the rest of the series which promises to draw on other favorites, like Little Red Riding Hood.
Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen: My review here.  I realize Robin Hood is more of a folk legend than a fairy tale, but I’m going to have to argue that that’s a very fine line, and since this is my list I’ll include what I want!
Stardust by Neil Gaiman: If you held a gun to my head and made me choose a favorite author, I’d probably say Neil Gaiman.  I love everything this man does, but Stardust was its own unique fairy tale esque story that shouldn’t be missed.

Like Stardust, these next three are more modern fairy tales.  None of them were written down by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, but that doesn’t mean they don’t share that magic!  Love them all:
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle


Anything by Shannon Hale: I’ve just started reading Shannon Hale this year, and so far as I’m concerned with her MG work, she can do no wrong.  She writes wonderful fairy tale esque books that  any fairy tale lover will adore.

Anything by Robin McKinley:  I need to read these retellings in a bad way.  McKinley doesn’t only wright retellings or fairy tales, but I have heard absolutely amazing things about those she does, and plan to read some asap.

Anything by Juliet Marillier: Another author that weaves together her own fairy tales with retellings of those well-known.  I picked up Daughter of the Forest recently, and plan on reading pretty much everything else she’s written as well.

Review: Shadows on the Moon by Zoë Marriot

  Title: Shadows on the Moon [Amazon|GoodReads]
  Author: Zoë Marriot [Website|Twitter]
  Standing: Stand alone novel.
  Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, PoC
  Published: April 24th, 2012 by Candlewick Press (first published July 7th, 2011).
  Format: Kindle edition; 465 pages.
  Source: ARC copy received from publisher via NetGalley.
  Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge

Love comes like storm clouds
Fleeing from the wind,
and casts Shadows on the moon.

On Suzume’s fourteenth birthday, the men come for her and her family.  Accusing her father of treason, he and her cousin who is as a sister to her, are struck down.  Suzume escapes, revealing a power she did not know she had—the power to shadow weave.  She cultivates her talent, learning to bend the world around her, create mantles of light and shadow that hide her from sight.  She is able to manipulate her features so that others see only what she wants them to see.  For it is only this mask, showing her as meek, that saves her life.  Taken in by a family friend, Suzume’s mother remarries a man her daughter suspects of being cruel and desirous, the type who always wants that which he cannot have.  Suzume treads lightly, finding solace and friendship in those who can see beyond her mask, namely, the strange foreigner Otieno.  When presented with the only possible opportunity to exact revenge on those who destroyed her family, Suzume knows she must take it, regardless of what it means she will lose.

Shadows on the Moon by Zoë Marriot is a beautifully constructed fantasy retelling of Cinderella, which takes place in a realm called the Moonlit Land. The Moonlit Land is heavily influenced by feudal Japan, with many cultural aspect and terms from this time and country (along with some from China as well) creating the scaffolding of Suzume’s tale. I was fascinated by Zoë Marriot’s choices for her Cinderella story, and seeing her put her iterations of the evil stepmother and horrid stepsisters, the handsome prince, and various incarnations of the fairy god mother, was one of the most engrossing parts of the story. I will say though, that I would have loved Shadows on the Moon just as much if it hadn’t been such a clear nod at the classic tale. It was unique, lyrically written, and culturally rich. The world Zoë Marriot built with shadow weaving was foreign, and yet familiar, and I found it beautiful.

Suzume is a wonderfully heartbreaking lead. One of those characters you learn to love and respect, despite the fact that they themselves are certain they are unworthy of such regard. The book is split into three parts, each a reiteration of Suzume as a person, each an important part of her story in which she breaks free from a former life. The only consistency she has from one identity to another is Otieno, and only Otieno sees through the masks she wears, even the ones she shows herself.

I knew going in that Shadows on the Moon would deal with some subjects you don’t see in your usual Cinderella story. I knew it dealt with self-mutilation (warning to those readers who have a difficult time with the subject of cutting), and that it focused on revenge. I was hoping for something a little Kill Bill meets fairy tale, but that wasn’t what Shadows on the Moon ended up being. Shadows on the Moon was a much more subtle, character driven book than I had expected, and I ended up liking it as much as I had anticipated, but for different reasons. The all PoC cast was wonderful to see, especially when Zoë Marriot weaves in the Japanese terms and customs effortlessly; the language is delicate, and extremely fitting to the point that it almost feels translated. If I hadn’t known the author to be a little blonde woman before reading, I might have supposed she was Asian herself.

The restricting culture of feudal Japan is prevalent in Shadows on the Moon. Honor is of the utmost importance, and one knows their place, and does not show extreme emotion openly. This cultural impact is one of the reasons Suzume’s relationship with Otieno is so wonderful, but potentially heartbreaking. Suzume feels restricted by her lot in life, knowing she could be happy doing a variety of things, unconstrained by her gender role in her culture. She admires Otieno’s country and people for their open and easy ways, and lack of reserve. She longs for the ability to show her feelings openly, particularly those of the happiness that she feels with Otieno and the mourning that she feels for her family. Suzume’s plight is so troubling because she feels that for honor’s sake that she must exact revenge. To do so, she is willing to deprive herself of any modicum of happiness to the point that fury and sorrow and the desire for justice consume her beyond anything in her present situation.

Because Shadows on the Moon has such a unique spin on Cinderella, and because it is split into three distinctly important portions, I hesitate to talk any more about the story, plot, or characters involved lest I spoil anything. Suffice it to say that this story was rich and cold and desperate with longing in the most recommended and beautiful way possible.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Oh goodness yes!  I’ve wanted to read Daughter of the Flames and Frostfire ever since I saw their beautiful covers (yeah, I’m easily won over by pretties), and will hopefully be doing so soon (well, the former at least, not sure when I’ll be able to get my hands on a copy of the latter).

Recommended for: Readers who enjoyed Chime, Cinder, or Memoirs of a Geisha.  Anyone who likes fairy tale retellings, good multicultural books, and historical fantasy.

Get a second opinion:
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Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Marissa Meyer [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: First in the new Lunar Chronicles quartet.
Genre: Young Adult, Sci Fi, Retelling
Published: January 3rd, 2012 by Feiwel and Friends
Format: Hardcover; 390 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Debut author challenge.

Cinder has spent her years since becoming a cyborg (and an orphan, and a second-rate citizen) laboring to provide for her overbearing stepmother and stepsisters.  Her stepmother never wanted to accept Cinder into their home; she feels Cinder is to blame for her husband’s exposure to the plague that caused his death, and only keeps her around as a source of income.  Cinder is, after all, the most talented mechanic in all of New Beijing.  While working, Cinder finds herself approached by an ‘inconspicuous’ Prince Kai, asking her to fix an outdated android that holds some important information.  She’s happy to be of assistance, but helping the Prince becomes increasingly difficult when her younger stepsister, Peony, is infected with the plague and her stepmother opts to volunteer Cinder for treatment research.   

The cyborg draft had been started by some royal research team a year ago.  Every morning, a new ID number was drawn from the pool of so many thousand cyborgs who resided in the Eastern Commonwealth.  Subjects had been carted in from provinces as far-reaching as Mumbai and Singapore to act as guinea pigs for the antidote testing.  It was made out to be some sort of honor, giving your life for the good of humanity, but it was really just a reminder that cyborgs were not like everyone else.  Many of them had been given a second chance at life by the generous hand of scientists and therefore owed their very existence to those who had created them.  They were lucky to have lived this long, many thought.  It’s only right that they should be the first to give up their lives in search for the cure.

I have to admit that Cinder was so much more than I was expecting.  I feel books rarely live up to their hype, and to me, Cinder was one of the most hyped up YA titles of the new year.  So I lowered my expectations, but I have to say, for me this one totally lived up to the hype.  Cinder had all of the elements of a great retelling.  It was true to the structure of the well-known Cinderella, but managed to completely reimagine the details flowing into that structure to support it, and to do so in a way that was completely unique.  

Cinder lives in a future after WWIV, where the world has divided into large territories whose leaders work together regularly.  The moon, colonized hundreds of years previously, has become Earth’s biggest threat where Queen Levana sits the throne as a powerful and manipulative dictator hungering for more.  Prince Kai must deal with dangerous negotiations to maintain peace, while at the same time desperately searching for a cure for the plague, lumotosis, that has ravaged the Earth for around fifteen years.

Cinder made an excellent example of the issue of prejudice.  Cinder finds herself the victim of being considered less than human because of her cyborg status.  She struggles to be accepted into society, insistent on her humanity, while at the same time harboring incredible prejudice against Lunars (those people who inhabit the moon).

I also very much enjoyed the treatment of emotions in Cinder.  This was not an overly emotional book.  There’s no pining, no insta-love, but still the characters come across as very real.  I wish more books out there would realize you don't have to be melodramatic to be genuine! Prince Kai is very kind and down to earth, yet very aware of his duties and sense of responsibility to his people even (or especially) with the trying reality of plague in his own family.  Cinder is, quite frankly, the coolest mechanic since Kaylee of Firefly.  She’s a tough chick who has to wade through pools of crap, but doesn’t sit around moping or even sharing her hardships with those around her.  This definitely can be a fault when it comes to her friendship with Kai, but I still respect the girl for it. And the bad guys? Man...they are evil! You get not only your evil stepmother but also your evil queen, and both have my all encompassing hate in the best way possible.

Cinder's ‘major twist’ was predictable, but in a way that I appreciated.  I don’t feel as if readers were written down to in this case, we’re supposed to get it, and for once I wasn’t banging my head against the wall wondering when the characters were going to figure it out already.  I did have a slight problem with some of the dialog.  It occasionally felt a little off-kilter given the setting, but this was fairly minor.  Finally, some of the sci-fi aspects of the book seemed to be dipping over into fantasy a bit. As the story states, it is not magic, but the explanation still seemed a bit fanciful to me. This aspect didn't reduce my enjoyment though. Overall, I loved this book, and it’s certainly one of my favorites of 2012 thus far.

You can read the first 5 chapters of Cinder free!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Absofreakinlutely!  This is the first book I’ve read this year that I closed and immediately starting bouncing my legs in ancy anticipation for the next installment.  

Recommended for:  Firefly fans. It's not just the Kaylee thing either, with its mixture of Chinese and English influences, Cinder could take place in a similar environment. Anyone who loves a good fairy tale retelling, and chicks that aren’t delicate and won’t apologize for it dammit!

Real life repercussions of reading this book: Omg I can’t decide which of Cinder’s awesome abilities I want most, can you?  I do really like the whole lie detector bit...At any rate, who didn't have this song in their head with all the Iko love?

Shorts: Glitches by Marissa Meyer

Glitches by Marissa Meyer is available for FREE here.

If you’re debating whether or not the extremely hyped, Cinder, is for you, I suggest checking out Glitches!  Glitches is a short story that takes place approximately 5 years before Cinder.  It tells the tale of Cinder, and 11 year old orphan traveling to New Beijing to meet the family that has agreed to take her in.  Cinder’s parents have recently perished in a hover crash, and she herself is lucky to be alive.  After substantive surgeries, Cinder now exists as a cyborg, her most notable features being a new metal hand and leg.  Cinder must learn to adjust to her new ‘features’, like what does that orange light indicate, why can she no longer seem to cry, and what use might she be to the world?  Are the physical traits that alter her humanity glitches?  Knowing she is unwelcome, particularly by her new stepmother, Cinder works to find her place of belonging so far away from everything she has known.

You don’t need to read Glitches to enjoy Cinder, but it will give you a bit more information about Cinder’s backstory, and understanding of how she came to end up where we find her at the beginning of the novel.  Cinder definitely grows up a lot in five years!  My only complaint about Glitches is that while the art is awesomely beautiful (is that a cybornetic cherry tree?!), Cinder’s lost her left limbs, not her right.  But that’s just me being OCD.

Review: Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love by Chris Roberson

Title: Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Chris Roberson (Writer) [Website|Twitter] and Shawn McManus (Artist)
Additional Credits: Lee Loughridge (Colorist), Todd Klein (Letterer), Bill Willingham (Consultant), and Chrissie Zullo (Original Series Covers)
Standing: 1st installment of a Fables (created by Bill Willingham) spin-off.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fairy Tale, Spy
Published: August 10th, 2010 by Vertigo
Format: Paperback; 144 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Spoilers!:  This review contains some minor spoilers for the Fables series, as does the book itself.  Chronologically, this story takes place after Fables: War and Pieces (#11).  So go read those first!

I know what you’re thinking people...This is all very From Russia With Love. And you’re right! Cinderella has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...and she’s all out of bubble gum.

Cinderella is Fabletown’s #1 bad ass spy.  She’s so skilled in skulduggery she makes Bond look like an amateur.  Recruited by then sheriff, Bigby Wolf, shortly after escaping the Homelands with Prince Charming, Cinderella has had mundy (that is mundane--aka us boring humans) lifetime’s to perfect her skills.  She operates under Bigby’s number one rule of combat:  Being the unarmed opponent in a fight isn’t necessarily a disadvantage...and if you really need a weapon, the other guy’s got one you can have.

To the average Fabletown citizen, Cinderella is the jet-setting owner of “The Glass Slipper”, the local shoe shop.  She spends far too little time there working, and far too much gallivanting across the globe spending money she doesn’t seem to have.  To a select few, she is Fabletown’s top off the books spy, called in when situations are too big or too delicate to be handled by the Tourists (the on the books spies).  

After hundreds of years, the good Fables residing in the mundy world have defeated the evil adversary and are no longer at war with the Homelands, but the resulting upheaval has brought up its own share of problems for Fabletown.  Unregistered magical goods have been popping up around the globe, and are falling into mundy hands.  Astoundingly dangerous, one magical cookpot used wrong, and the whole world could drown in oatmeal (um...yuck!).  Cinderella is sent to investigate; she sets off with some magical goods of her own, and along the way teams up with another rags-to-riches Fable-turned-spy looking out for the interests of his own city (can you guess who?).  Meanwhile, back at The Glass Slipper, there’s something very “Red Shoes” going on if you know what I mean.

If you enjoyed Cindy’s previous Fables exploits in “Cinderella Libertine” (issue 22), “Big and Small” (issue 51) and “Skulduggery” (issue 71-72), then you’ll love Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love.  I’m so happy to say this spin-off was a success!  I’m always wary of spin-offs, and have avoided Jack of the Fables like the plague since Jack is by far my least favorite Fables character.  Roberson manages to give Cindy (and others) a tone so similar to Willingham’s treatment, you hardly realize it’s a different author.  McManus’s art is his own, but in a way that easily evokes the images off all the characters we know and love.  Cinderella doesn’t have the depth of the original Fables, but for the full-on addict that I have become, it was just the thing!  Wrapped up in a neat little package, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love is an excellent read for Fables fans.  Plus there’s hotness.  Did I mention the hotness?

I don’t believe in Happily Ever After.  Not anymore.  

But if the best I can do is Happily For the Moment, then it’ll have to do.

Hey, it beats sitting in cinders and ashes, right?

I’ll say.  

Finally, every Fables fan I know has a total crush on the cover art of James Jean.  Well hold onto your pants kids, because Cinderella comes complete with a new cover artist, Chrissie Zullo, ready to fight for a place in your heart.  Considering Zullo lists Jean among her influences, I’m feeling a steamy love triangle coming on!

Are these not gorgeous?!  I love the complete lack of strait lines and the largely monochromatic schemes.  I would buy the next trade to see more of Zullo’s covers alone!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Cinderella: Fables are Forever, the follow up in this series is set to come out in April, and I’ll be at the front of the line.  

Recommended for: Fans of Fables, Bond, and bas ass chicks.  Those who don’t believe in Happily Ever After, but do believe in themselves.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  I need to start working out now if I’m going to perfect that kick move in this short mundy lifetime.  Also--anyone know who you need to contact to get a hang gliding skirt?