Mary Bennet by Jennifer Paynter : a review

I enjoyed this quirky tale which so delightfully fitted in with the original Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Mary Bennet is a character we know so little about and often find ourselves disliking from the little the original book (or movies) reveal of her character. She seems the odd duck in the family of Bennets and here she has her chance to show her true nature and the background to who she is.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I admire Jennifer Paynter for taking on this character and revealing her beauty and individuality as she has done.

3/5 stars (I liked it) - as reviewed on Goodreads

The Rogue by Trudi Canavan : a review

When I first started the Australian Women Writers challenge for 2014 I'd planned on reading ten different authors but after stumbling across The Rogue by Trudi Canavan and having enjoyed the first book in this series so much I simply threw that idea out the window.

The Rogue is book 2 of Trudi Canavan's Traitor Spy trilogy and follows on from the events of The Ambassador's Mission. The story will conclude in book 3: The Traitor Queen. 

It's interesting the approach you take to reading a book which you know will be incomplete as far as the story goes. I expect less of a middle book than I do of the first or last book in a series. The Rogue cleverly puts all the characters in place for the final book, introducing a few new characters and events which will obviously impact upon the conclusion of the story. Given that The Traitor Spy trilogy is built around already existing characters from The Black Magician trilogy and may perhaps lend itself to another series, I'm also not expecting book 3 to be an ultimate conclusion. It's a fantasy series. Worlds are built which constantly change and the scope for new characters and new stories which inhabit those worlds is never-ending - Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a classic example of this.

I like this series. I find the characters interesting and the worlds they inhabit equally so. I am also impressed by the way in which Canavan deftly builds these worlds and cleverly twists the events surrounding characters so that you know there's going to be a confrontation. By the end of this book the reader knows that there are some serious issues to be addressed. There is political intrigue, assassination attempts, drug use, black magic, murder, mayhem and mystery. Underlying the entire story is the question of black (or higher) magic and how all the cultures of this world approach its use and application. When young Lilia accidentally learns black magic through reading a book, the belief that this form of magic could not be learned from books is turned on its head. When she also determines how to unblock her magic it additionally brings into question everything that has been considered as true in regards to magic itself. The Guild has a lot of questions they can no longer ignore nor deny. And about time too.

I keenly await reading book 3 now. I'm happy with the questions Canavan has posed to her characters and interested to see how the various pieces will tie together. I enjoy her writing style and have adapted well to the constant flow from character story to character story to characters story within the same chapter. It adds to the sense of the passage of time and shows how each character is developing in relation to the others. While The Rogue brings the new magician character of Lilia to the forefront of the action in Kyralia and focuses less on Cery, you know he is still there in the background and will continue to have a major role to play in the story. Learning more about the Traitors, the Sachakans, and the Duna adds to the overall landscaping of this world. Each small piece of information adds to the whole and establishes the footings for the following book.

This is solid fantasy writing. Trudi Canavan is an Australian writer of great skill and definitely a voice to pay attention to within the Fantasy genre.

4/5 stars (really liked it).