THE RUNAWAY KING by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Review)

(2.5/5, but I'm feeling generous and rounding up.)

STATUS: Second book in The Ascendance Trilogy

AUTHOR: Jennifer A. Nielsen

GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure

PUBLISHER: Scholastic

LOVE TRIANGLE: Yes--sort of. Jason's clearly in love with Imogen, but feels honor-bound to marry Amarinda. 

PAGES: 350

Basic Plot: The continuing adventures of Prince Jaron of Carthya. After an "old friend" delivers a threatening message to Jaron in the form of a fake assassination attempt, Jaron believes the only way to save his kingdom is to "flee his throne." Facing dual threats from the King of Avenia and a band of pirates (in league with Avenia), Jaron must infiltrate the pirates and find a way to defeat them. Along the way, Jaron crosses paths with a band of thieves, allowing him to re-adopt his alias, Sage; with the help of their oddly moral leader (Erick) and a plucky young thief-in-training (Fink), Jaron makes his way to Tarblade Bay where his courage and nerve are tested.

*sigh*

I feel like this book not only suffers from "middle-book-in-a-trilogy" syndrome, but also exists because Jennifer Nielsen really wanted to write about pirates. (But even then, if you like pirates, you may not like this book. More on that in a moment.)

One of the aspects of the first book that worked really well was Sage-as-Unreliable-Narrator. Throughout The False Prince you pretty much knew Sage wasn't being completely honest with you -- there were little snarky asides, vague accounts of where he had gone, and little breadcrumbs to the reader (e.g. Sage insisting that he could read -- if the material was worth reading about). But the problem with unreliable narrators, combined with first person POV, is that, once "the gig is up," you can't use that device anymore. That is, once Sage reveals himself to be Jaron, the curtain is up, and up for good. Once Jaron starts telling the story, the mystery is gone and if Jaron doesn't reveal everything, he reveals much more than Sage did. He's also quite annoying...he's not nearly as flippant (an aspect of Sage's persona) and witty, and we see more of his internal struggle, which means more frustration, more uncertainty, more doubt. Sage's mask is much more compelling than Jaron's truth.

And yet...for some reason, I couldn't not read this book. Every time I picked it up, I'd read about 50-60 pages, and still want to know what happened next -- even if I was frustrated with it the whole time. Hence the three stars. For all its faults, The Runaway King tells a good story and keeps the action moving, so I appreciate that.

I do have to say: I like Imogen. She's one of the few female characters in this series, and she doesn't have an easy time of it. In a way, I kinda feel like she's the Hermione to Jaron's (inferior) Harry/Ron hybrid. For much of this book, Jaron is moping around, angry at everyone for really vague, undefined reasons. I feel like Imogen rolls her eyes at Jaron's antics a lot and, to be honest, if Imogen wasn't around, Jaron would be pretty screwed. Whereas in the first book it seemed like they both were always one-step-ahead of everyone else, here, it's just Imogen. She plants the flowers and hides the knives before Jaron has even made it to the pirate camp. She knows him, and what he'll do, and does her best to protect him. And while that can be a bit of a depressing role -- girl who does nothing but enable her love to succeed -- Imogen's a feisty pistol. She does what she wants, takes risks, and knows her own mind. Plus, when Jaron goes all Edward Cullen on her and says clearly fake hurtful things to her, she accepts it; but then, unlike Bella, she FIGURES IT OUT. Fairly quickly, she realizes that he's just being an ass to "protect her," and she doesn't lie around moping. (Also unlike Bella, she doesn't go throwing herself into dangerous situations because, you know, these pirates are pretty chillax.)

But there was still way too much that frustrated me about this book:

THE FALSE PRINCE by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Review)

STATUS: First book in The Ascendance Trilogy

AUTHOR: Jennifer A. Nielsen

GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure

PUBLISHER: Scholastic

LOVE TRIANGLE: Not yet. Give it time. 

PAGES: 352

If I could, I'd rate it 3.5 stars -- but I can't, so I have to round down -- because of the first 250 pages. Disclaimer: if you can make it to Chapter 41, that's when things get really interesting.

I think it's impossible to read this book and NOT compare it to (1) Megan Whalen Turner's "The Thief" and (2) Victoria Aveyard's "The Red Queen." Both feature thief-protagonists --

Sidebar: Are thiefs the new vampires? It seems so.

--who eventually fulfill royal roles. Turner's Gen is a similarly unreliable narrator -- although I think she pulls off that unreliability a bit better. Even at the end, you're still not quite sure where you stand with Gen. Aveyard's Mare is a similar-but-notably-different character -- perhaps because she's female? -- more reliable (you never feel like you can't trust her; in fact, the story works because Mare's uncertainty and precariousness mirror the reader's uncertainty) yet VERY unwilling to fill the role she has to play. But the thing with Mare is that she does whatever she has to in order to survive: readers learn through her internal monologuing that she despises the role she has to play, but, in the end, she goes along with it. (Mare also has a family, whereas Sage does not...here, gender stereotypes seem to be at play: the boy gets the "luxury" of being an unencumbered orphan whereas Mare's desire to protect her family forces her to accept the "unthinkable." Hmmm. Must meditate more on that.)

SHADOW SCALE by Rachel Hartman (Review)

(I think my Goodreads review is 2/5, but the passing of time has only made me angrier.)

STATUS: Sequel to Hartman's stellar debut, Seraphina; also, the end of the series. NOT a trilogy.

AUTHOR: Rachel Hartman

GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Dragons, Adventure, Court Intrigue, Psychological Thriller

PUBLISHER: Random House

LOVE TRIANGLE: Yes—of a most unorthodox (and unexpected) kind

PAGES: 608 pages

From Publishers Weekly:

"...a worthy and wholly satisfying continuation of Seraphina's tale."

From Booklist:

"...the intricate plotting, clever surprises...and lovely prose make this a worthy conclusion for all of Hartman's big-hearted characters."

**DISCLAIMER: I quote the above reviews only because I'm about to vehemently and wholeheartedly disagree. What follows is quite possibly the least detached review I've ever written: it is the passionate reaction of a fan who fell so deeply in love with Seraphina that she eagerly sought out and devoured the sequel, only to be so frustrated in the end, it hurt her heart.**

** spoiler alert ** This was, hands down, one of the most frustrating and disappointing sequels I have ever read.

**Warning: Spoilers Below**

First of all, I have to say, I loved Seraphina. Devoured it. Stayed up ridiculously late reading "just one more chapter." And I love those kinds of books -- they usually inspire an undying loyalty to the author. But in this case...I'm more than a little angry. (Which is not a good thing to be at 3:00 in the morning.)

Where to start?

Perhaps with the pacing. Seraphina took a while to get into -- but then, so did The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In both cases, it took about 100 pages -- those first 100 seemed to drag on interminably, but then, it was like a switch was flipped and things just took off, racing steadily towards a perfectly timed climax.

In the sequel -- and, I will admit, I had NO idea that this was a two-book series; I honestly thought it was a trilogy and everything that Hartman was setting up seemed to reinforce that -- the pacing was just...off. I anticipated a slow start and thought that things were starting to pick up about a 1/3 of the way through, with the (re-)introduction of Jannoula. That's when things started to get interesting.

But most of the first half of the book was Seraphina journeying places. She went to Ninys and then to SamSam and then to Porphyry and then, eventually, to Lab Four. And all along the way we met brand new characters, had to establish a clear setting (which, ultimately, didn't matter, because we never went back to that country!), and forge new relationships. Not much happened -- or, at least, what did happen fell into a quickly established pattern: Seraphina arrives somewhere new. She meets new people. She searches for ityasaari. She attempts to befriend them only to find out that Jannoula has already gotten to them. EVERYONE falls for Jannoula, leaving Seraphina pretty much alone and miserable for the majority of the book.

Gone is my strong, witty, sensitive heroine. Gone are her relationships with her family, with Orma, with Kiggs, with Selda. Gone is the court intrigue, the suspicious characters, the MUSIC. (The first book dealt SO much with music and now...it's just gone.)

And as long as Seraphina is journeying places, not much happens. Even when things do happen, Seraphina seems to be sidelined for one reason or another.