Book Review: Liberty Frye and the Sails of Fate

Liberty Frye and the Sails of Fate
by J.L. McCreedy
(to be published May 2, 2016)

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Back in 2013, quite by chance, I happened to come across a  children’s/YA book entitled Liberty Frye and the Witches of Hessen. I wrote a review of it for my blog which I also published on Amazon.  As I felt the story left a door ajar for sequels, I have actually been checking for that a few times. So when recently I received a surprise email from the author, offering me to read an advanced review copy of the second book, I was of course happy to accept! (The request was based only on the author having read my previous review. I don’t know her personally.)

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Just like the first book, I find Liberty Frye and the Sails of Fate to be a pacy, inventive and well written children's fantasy story – also enjoyable for adults like myself, who might recognize references to various other books within that and related genres.

My guess is that The Sails of Fate could also be read as a stand-alone story; but it does refer back to characters, events, objects and ideas from the first book. And I think it now also hints strongly to letting the series continue to become at least a trilogy.

In the first book, Liberty Frye and the Witches of Hessen, Libby's parents took her on a trip to Germany to visit her mum's family there; leading to the rather unnerving discovery that her favourite book, a collection of fairy tales by the famous Brothers Grimm, turned out to be more closely related to reality than she had ever suspected.

Some characters from the first book that reappear in the second are Libby's pet goose Buttercup; her friend Ginny; her dad’s Uncle Frank (inventor of various fantastic machines, including a robot by name of Esmerelda); and an old friend and contemporary of Frank's who used to be a pilot back in World War II. Other ingredients we recognize from the first book are a special tree and its fruit; and a mysterious amulet.

As implied by the title, The Sails of Fate involves a sea voyage. The book starts out with Libby's family (safely back home in the US after the adventures in Germany; and now also officially including Ginny as Libby's foster sister) taking her on an outing for her 11^th birthday. Libby herself is in a rather contrary birthday mood - connected to her finding out in Germany that she is supposed to have inherited supernatural powers, but still not feeling at all in control of that.

The goal for the birthday party turns out to be the seaside (Biloxi Bay, Mississippi), where a large sailboat by name of Liberté is found waiting; with Uncle Frank and his old friend aboard, ready to take the girls on a tour around the bay (while Libby's mum and dad go to buy some things for a picnic).

Aboard the ship, uniquely refurbished by Uncle Frank, he also has another birthday surprise in store for Libby – a special invention, that he has been working on for a long time, and now wants to put to a test in honour of her birthday.

What Frank has forgotten to take into account, though, is the unpredictability of what might happen if you accidentally happen to add magic to a scientific experiment...

While some connections from the first book seemed to grow clearer for me in this one, other threads now seemed to be teasingly left dangling at the end instead. However, as the series seems to be meant to continue, I suppose it may all still be neatly tied up in the end! So I shall reserve judgement on that point for now (and will be looking forward to the third instalment).

For the most part, I think the author manages to keep a good flow throughout the book, with a good balance between elements like suspense, depth, unexpected turns of events, and comic relief. I also like the way she describes Libby's struggle with coming to terms with her magical powers; reflecting the general struggle of growing up and getting to know oneself that we all go through, while learning how best to make use of whatever powers and possibilities we have, in the circumstances where fate happens to take us.

Teaser quote: ”I've been so caught up in what I'm supposed to do or be, that I haven't paid attention to what I already can do, to what's already open to me.”

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I’ll be publishing this review also on Amazon and Goodreads,
with a 4-star rating.

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Linking this post to

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesday

 

‘But the really significant thing was the inscription on the tomb. Rex Arthurus. Britannorum Rex.’

He looks expectantly at Ruth, who is frantically working out the Latin.

Elly Griffiths – Dying Fall
(#5 in the Ruth Galloway series)

Teaser Tuesday (March 31)

Book Review: The Crossing Places

In a comment to my Booking Through Thursday post last week (March 19), Janet mentioned Elly Griffiths as one author whose books might send her running to the bookstore.

I could not recall reading anything by this author, but when I looked her up, I seemed to vaguely recognise one of the titles – The Crossing Places. When I checked my Kindle collection, it turned out I already had it there; among the many that I have downloaded for free (or very cheap), and then after a while forgot why…

As the weather turned back to cloudy with icy winds this weekend, it seemed a good time to just stay in and curl up with a good mystery book. So I did!

The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway #1)

The background setting is Norfolk on the east coast of England and the main character is Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist at a local university. She is often called in to help the police when old bones are found – and sometimes the other way round, i.e. archaeologists having to call in the police. There is a lot of archaeological digging going on in the area, and it is often hard to determine at first glance exactly how old finds of human remains may be.

So among the background characters we also get to know some of the local police (especially Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson), and other archeologists and university staff, for example.

Many of the crime scenes and finds of archaeological interest named in the books are fictional, but as they are more or less based on similar places and things, the overall impression is realistic, and there is a lot of general information about history, traditions and folklore etc included as well.

In The Crossing Places, an archaelogical find in a saltmarsh becomes intriguingly linked to a modern time missing person case.

Quote from the author’s website:

The Crossing Places is about layers. Layers of time, history and memory. It is set in Norfolk, an area of Eastern England that has been inhabited for over 6000 years by, variously, Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlers. It was also, until 10,000 years ago, physically linked to Scandinavia. Thus, the Norse or Viking influence is strong is Norfolk. Perhaps because of its history, it is also a place steeped in superstition and folklore. Norfolk is famous for its ghosts.

Ruth Galloway, the heroine of The Crossing Places, lives on the edge of desolate marsh land known as the Saltmarsh. The name is fictional but the area is very closely modelled on the North Norfolk coast, places like Holme-next-the Sea where the real Seahenge was discovered.

Iron Age man considered marshland sacred. They saw it as a bridge to the afterlife – neither land nor sea, life nor death. It is thought that this is why they often buried bodies (who may or may not have been murdered) on the edge of marshland.  ---

In general I’m no big fan on police novels with a lot of forensic detail; but in these books it is a bit different, as the focus is on archaeology. I also think that the author has managed to put together quite an interesting mix of characters – some of them almost bordering on caricature, but in a kind of good-humoured way.

I read this book pretty much in one swoop… And then of course when I found the second one in the series also available cheap, I could not resist the temptation to straight on to

The Janus Stone (Ruth Galloway #2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In The Janus Stone, some of the background relationships from the first novel continue to develop; but the crime/mystery focus this time arises from two different excavations: One made in connection with an old Victorian mansion (for a period of time in the past also used as a children’s home) being torn down to make room for a new block of flats. The other of a Roman villa in the countryside. In both cases, the skeletons of children are found buried underneath.

Janus, referred to in the title of the novel, was the two-faced Roman God of doorways – the God of endings and beginnings.

…

It’s no doubt good business strategy of Amazon to lower the price of one or two books at the beginning of an interesting series… The third one not free or extremely cheap, but still only a “click” away… Who can resist??

Quote for Teaser Tuesday

“Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson is sitting by a pool with a glass of beer in his hand, thinking dark thoughts. It is evening and fairy lights, strung in the trees, are twinkling manically in the still water.”

The House at Sea’s End (Ruth Galloway #3),
chapter 2 (= where I am right now…)

Teaser Tuesday

“Then we had talked for about an hour about politics and God; for men always talk about the most important things to total strangers. It is because in the total stranger we perceive man himself; the image of God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of the wisdom of a moustache.”

G.K. Chesterton
The Club of Queer Trades/ Chapter 5

…

The Club of Queer Trades is a collection of six short stories by G. K. Chesterton, first published in 1905. Each story is centered on someone who has invented a new and quite unique way of earning their living (a “queer trade”).

Linking to Teaser Tuesday

Book Review: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)

 

Gilbert Keith (G.K.) Chesterton (1874-1936)

is perhaps best known for his detective stories about Father Brown, a Roman-Catholic priest. However, Chesterton was also a poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, lay theologian and Christian apologist; and another one of those authors that influenced and was highly praised by C.S. Lewis.

I have read the Father Brown stories in the past – and last year also watched an enjoyable BBC drama series based on them (set in the 1950s, although the original stories were written 1911-1935).

Now I decided to have a go at a novel from 1908 with the intriguing title

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

 

Just like my last read, this book too turned out to be one of those not easy to categorize. I knew very little of it beforehand; and as I think that is really the best way to read it, I in turn don’t want to reveal too much. So rather than give away plot details, I shall try to just share how I felt about it. 

Right from the start it struck me as a rather creepily up-to-date read from the aspect that one of the major themes has to do with anarchism/ terrorism and a bomb threat to a major European city.  It also crossed my mind quite early on (from a certain scene), that this might well be another one of all the books from which J.K. Rowling picked some inspiration for Harry Potter. Anyway, in spite of the serious (and indeed, as the title suggests, nightmarish) background, and some deeply moral and philosophical discussions – this story does not only keep up a high degree of suspense, but it also includes a lot of unexpected twists and turns and a good deal of humour. (Sometimes I even laughed out loud.) I found it very hard to put down – I just wanted to keep on reading to see what happened!

A quote for Teaser Tuesday

“They were a balconyful of gentlemen overlooking a bright and busy square; but he felt no more safe with them than if they had been a boatful of armed pirates overlooking an empty sea.” (p. 66)

Teaser Tuesday (Feb 10)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

“I wish to God the Diamond had never found its way into this house!” I broke out.
Sergeant Cuff looked with a rueful face at the three chairs on which he had condemned himself to pass the night.
”So do I,” he said, gravely.

Wilkie Collins – The Moonstone (1868)

Teaser Tuesday (Feb 3)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

“The rails themselves had already been lifted, and were laid along the side of the track awaiting collection. There was a sad sense of abandonment about the place, haunted by the imaginary ghosts of all the passengers who must once have passed this way, the distant echo of forgotten steam trains lost in the mists of railway history.”

Peter May – Runaway

The setting of Peter May’s new novel shifts between 2015 and 1965; the scene above is from 1965.

This is a postcard I recently received from a friend in England, which  came to mind when I read the quote above – an old station and railway no longer in use…

The novel and the postcard both connect to my own memories from holidays in Britain back in 1969-1974. My dad was a railway and steam trains enthusiasts, and every family holiday, whether in Sweden or Britain, always included various abandoned dilapidated old stations, as well as steam train museums…  Peter May manages to bring those memories (and others) to life without using photos! I’ve not yet finished the book – will probably be back with a review when I have.

Teaser Tuesday (Jan 27)

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

“She found it absolutely necessary to speak to him instantly. She did not care in the least what nonsense it might make, or what dislocation it might inflict on the narrative.”

Virginia Woolf – Orlando: A Biography

I’m enjoying this classic a lot more than I thought I would. Not very far to go to finish it now (35 minutes or so, my Kindle suggests).

(Because I’m reading on Kindle, I pick the teaser from just about where I am in the book, rather than open it to a ‘random’ page.)

Teaser Tuesday

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

. . .

   ‘It was dark and she was two door doors down, so what she actually saw was…?’
   ‘Silhouette of a tall figure in a cloak, carrying a holdall.’

Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) – The Silkworm

. . .

“One day he was adding a line or two with enormous labour to ‘The Oak Tree, A Poem’, when a shadow crossed the tail of his eye. It was no shadow, he soon saw, but the figure of a very tall lady in riding hood and mantle crossing the quadrangle on which his room looked out.”

Virginia Woolf – Orlando: A Biography

. . .

… As I mentioned yesterday, I’m reading Orlando because it was referred to in The Silkworm (recently finished) …

Teaser Tuesday: One Lane Bridge

“Around that bend he would come upon either a wide, two lane crossing with low concrete sides or a large, old-fashioned steel-trestle one lane bridge. He was prepared to be shocked either way. And he was.”

From One Lane Bridge: A Novel, by Don Reid

Found this book temporarily free for Kindle yesterday. It seems still to be free today… Started reading it yesterday evening, got quickly drawn into it… Involves time travelling, but I have no idea yet where exactly it will be taking me!

Teaser Tuesday: The Year After

“In many ways Anne and I had been two unrelated planets, separately orbiting the fiery star of the Stansburys.” (p. 25)

“We were all so busy longing for the war to be over that we never stopped to think how things would be when it was.” (p. 41)

Martin Davies, The Year After {Kindle}

Set in Britain after WWI, this book is very different from the previous two that I read by the same author (The Conjuror’s Bird and The Unicorn Road). Those two in turn were not like each other either. I find it very interesting (and promising) when an author is capable of such breadth in his writing.

I’ll be back with a review when I’ve finished it.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser Tuesday: The Secret Keeper (3)

“Without his camera he didn’t see the small poetic vignettes of war, he saw the whole God-awful mess.”

From The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
(2012)

Just realized that this is the third Tuesday I’m quoting from the same book. Two weeks ago I had just started it, now I’m getting close to the end (85% on my Kindle, the printed book is about 600 pages).  I’m still finding it a very intriguing read, the story keeps taking unexpected turns. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out… Something turns up to slightly change the picture.The quote above was my last highlight before I put the book down after a rather long reading session this afternoon. I think it may be significant. It’s so easy to think a frozen moment (like a photograph, or a couple of sentences we happen to overhear) tells the whole story… But does it really?

As amateur photographer, I also see the truth in this quote… So often I focus my camera on a detail; and in blogging I do the same in words. Cropped, enlarged, blurred or sharpened… The reality I present on my blog is ever the tweaked version. Even straight-out-of-the-camera shots are never “the whole picture”.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser Tuesday: The Secret Keeper (2)

I’m still reading Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper…

Jimmy sat up suddenly and dug out his faithful Brownie from his haversack. ‘How about a picture?’ he said, winding on the spool of film.

How about that. It was only two weeks ago that another book made me look up Brownie.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

Teaser Tuesday: The Secret Keeper

“Later, Laurel would wonder if it all might have turned out differently had she gone a little more slowly. If, perhaps, the whole terrible thing might have been averted had she taken greater care.”

From The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
(2012)

I’ve just begun reading this book (on the Kindle), the quote is from only a few pages into the story. I liked Kate Morton’s three previous novels very much, so am hoping I will find this one a good read too.

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

Teaser Tuesday: Castles, Cameras and Brownies

I assure you that nobody would have known that the black and grey muddle on Elfrida's paper was meant to be a picture of a castle. Edred's was much more easily recognised, even before he printed "Arden Castle" under it in large, uneven letters. --- "There!" he said at last, "it's ever so much liker than yours." "Yes," said Elfrida, "but there's more in mine." "It doesn't matter how much there is in a picture if you can't tell what it's meant for," said Edred, with some truth.

From The House of Arden (1908)
by Edith Nesbit (1858-1924)
(Chapter VIII)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

…

Critical of their attempts at drawing the ruins of the castle, the children come up with the idea of taking a Brownie (camera) with them back into the past. I don’t know yet how that turned out, because I haven’t read that far yet. I had to pause right there and go for a little (Wikipedia) excursion of my own. (Children? Camera? 1908?)

The first Brownie, introduced in February, 1900, was a very basic cardboard box camera with a simple lens that took 2¼-inch square pictures on 117 rollfilm. With its simple controls and initial price of $1, it was intended to be a camera that anyone could afford and use, hence the slogan, "You push the button, we do the rest." The camera was named after the popular cartoons created by Palmer Cox.

… Palmer Cox (1840 – 1924) was a Canadian illustrator and author, best known for The Brownies, his series of humorous verse books and comic strips about the mischievous but kindhearted fairy-like sprites.

(Click the image to read the book as html-file from www.gutenberg.org)

Okay, I think I’m getting a suspicion where Edith Nesbit may have got some of her inspiration from… (Rhymes, by the way, are also important in The House of Arden.)

Myself I’m getting more and more fascinated with my own time-travelling (by books as well as old family photographs and postcards) into the early 1900’s…