Review: Court of Fives by Kate Elliott

Title: Court of Fives

Author: Kate Elliott

Information on series: First in Court of Fives trilogy

Audience: Teens, though some adults will enjoy as well

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being highest): 4

TL;DR: A novel about presumptions, prejudice, and incredible athletic feats (think Ninja Warrior). A good mix of action and character-development that should appeal to dystopian fans, despite it's fantasy setting.

Longer review: If you love action-packed dystopian novels, especially those featuring rebellious teens in a battle against repressive societies, but you're feeling burned out on futuristic wastelands, this might be the book for you. Court of Fives is set in a world based in part on the societies of ancient Egypt, the Aztec empire, and ancient Rome. This is Elliott's first young adult novel, but she's written several popular series for adults.

I loved the setting, and the complex relationships between the different cultures. The city of Saryenia is ruled by a rigid class structure, where the elite are conquerors from a foreign empire (or refugees from an empire shattered by Civil War) and the commoners are the remnants of a once powerful, darker skinned native society. Intermarriage between the two groups is strictly forbidden, which puts the main character's, Jessamy's, family in a precarious position. Jessamy's father is an accomplished military commander, and her mother is a low born commoner, placing Jessamy and her sisters somewhere in between.

The story is told from Jessamy's perspective, as she struggles between her love for her family and her dreams to be a champion at the Fives, a dangerous sport similar to Ninja Warrior. If you're not sure what Ninja Warrior is, I recommend checking out this video. The fact that we see Jessamy's world so tightly from her perspective sets up some nice surprises later in the novel as we learn that Jessamy's assumptions about her sisters and their goals were not always based on truth.

There is a romantic sub-plot to the novel, and of course it is a forbidden romance. Some readers will enjoy the lack of a love triangle (at least in this first volume), but I found that the love story added a layer of distraction to a fairly packed plot. It's likely that, were I still a teen reader, I would've loved this element of the book, but as an adult, I was rolling my eyes.

Read alikes:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: The big name action-packed dystopian novel, with a capable female lead on a quest to save her family.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Seraphina's incredible musical talents bring her to the attentions of the royal palace as murder and political intrigue threaten to collapse the fragile peace between humans and dragons. SPOILER ALERT: Everything becomes even more complicated as Seraphina realizes she is the child of a forbidden romance between a human and a dragon.

~Sarah, Carnegie-Stout Public Library

Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Title: Uprooted

Author: Naomi Novik

Information on series: Not part of a series

Audience: Adult, though with appeal for some older teens

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being highest): 5

TL;DR: A character-driven fairy tale with Eastern European influences that explores the ideas of home and forgiveness (and just a touch of steamy romance).

Longer review: I’m not surprised that Uprooted was the top pick for the May 2015 LibraryReads list (Publication Date: May 19th). In fact, I was one of the librarians who recommended it for the LibraryReads list after I lost most of a weekend reading it. A colleague had picked up an ARC at the 2014 ILA Conference, and passed it on to me with high praise when she finished.

Naomi Novik has been on my radar for several years because of her Temeraire series about an alternate history Napoleonic war with dragons. Many readers have told me how much they’ve enjoyed a recommendation for His Majesty’s Dragon, but somehow it’s never made it off of my TBR list. After reading Uprooted, though, His Majesty’s Dragon has moved up the list.

Uprooted is a coming-of-age fairy tale with a charming first person narrator and detailed, but not overwhelming, worldbuilding. Novik draws on the myths and legends of Russia and Eastern Europe, an influence that helps to differentiate this story from the more typical Celtic or Scandinavian fantasy settings. The story is set in a distant valley of the fictional Polnya near the border of hostile Rosya and the dangerous Wood (a forest filled with aggressive danger).

This is a story of self-discovery and forgiveness, and though it is very character-driven there is a fast moving plot. Agnieszka, our narrator, is 17 years-old and nothing about her is particularly special, though her family loves her. Perhaps her family loves her even more because she is such a failure at sewing, cooking, and almost any activity other than getting into messes outside. Agnieszka’s best friend Kasia, on the other hand, is a paragon of perfection and beauty, much to everyone’s despair.

Once every ten years the Dragon, a powerful wizard who protects Polnya from the Wood, selects a 17 year-old girl from the valley to serve him in his Tower. Because the Dragon holds himself apart from the locals, the girls he chooses are isolated for their ten years of service from friends and family, and they inevitably return so changed that they move to the distant capital to start new lives. So it’s obvious to everyone that come the 1st of October, the Dragon will choose Kasia as his servant and Agnieszka will lose her best friend. Of course, SPOILERS!, nothing goes as expected and the Dragon instead takes awkward, clumsy Agnieszka away from her beloved home.

There’s a touch of romance, which is steamy enough that it might be off putting to some readers, but the focus is on how the characters, especially Agnieszka, grow and change. Novik escalates the stakes throughout the story creating the sort of tension that left me reading well into the night. Uprooted is an engrossing fairy tale that I suspect I will be rereading in the near future.

Read alikes:
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik: This is the first title in Novik’s series about an alternate history Napoleonic Wars with dragons.

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder: The first of a fantasy trilogy featuring an unusual female heroine and a darker romance. Yelena is offered a reprieve from her death sentence for murder if she agrees to become the new poison taster for the repressive leader of her country where anyone with magical talent is killed.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: The first book in Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy also features a heroine with unexpected powers and a setting influenced by Eastern European culture. Though this series is intended for a teen audience and has a focus on the currently popular love triangle.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson: This is also the first book of a Young Adult trilogy, though it stands well on its own. The setting is more reminiscent of Spain, but Elisa, the novel’s narrator, is a young woman who has a similar path of growth and self-discovery with a touch of romance that by no means defines her.

~Sarah, Carnegie-Stout Public Library

Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Title: Throne of the Crescent Moon

Author: Saladin Ahmed

Information on series: Book 1 of an intended trilogy

Audience: Adult, with probable YA crossover

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being highest): 5

TL;DR: A fast-paced and character-driven high fantasy adventure in a fully realized non-traditional setting.

Longer review: Ahmed has been very successful at a seemingly paradoxical task: he’s written a novel that is at once accessibly familiar and intriguingly unconventional. This book shows exactly why I hate to read debut novels -- I loved it and very much want to read more of his work but there is no more to be found.

The story is set in Dhamsawaat, the greatest city of the Crescent Moon Empire. It is a city of wonders, dangers, opulence, and poverty. While the poor struggle under to rule of a tyrannical Khalif, Doctor Adoulla Makhslood fights more concrete evils. He is a ghul hunter, the last of his order in the city. He battles ghuls, djenn and other magical creatures alongside a small group of allies: a pious swordsman from a holy order of dervishs, an orphaned nomadic tribeswoman with shape-changing powers, and a magus and an alchemist, both old friends of the doctor’s who’ve tried to retire from the adventuring life. As the story unfolds, a powerful new threat comes to light and the heroes are forced to question their hopes, ideals, and relationships. This is definitely more of a fantasy adventure than an epic fantasy. The plot moves quickly, with frequent action sequences. Ahmed does not dwell on politics, armaments, fashion, or cuisine as Tolkien or Martin might.

The tropes and plot points of this book will be familiar to most readers of fantasy. That familiarity works well here, providing an accessible structure upon which Ahmed can hang his richly detailed world based upon Arabic mythology that is likely to be new to many readers.

The five heroes are very well-imagined, each with their own goals and fears. Ahmed makes the wise choice of switching the focal character with each chapter. This doesn’t generally go so far as to repeat entire scenes from a new point of view, but we get each character’s contrasting views of major plot points and other characters’ actions. Since the characters were such a strong point of the book, I’m happy that Ahmed intends to write more in this world, giving me a chance to spend some more time with them.

As a bit of an aside, I started this as an audio book before finishing it in print. Phil Gigante’s performance was really great and I may seek out more audio books read by him.

Readalikes:

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson: For readers looking to continue with the Arabian setting, this urban fantasy plays with technology and magic against the backdrop of the Arab Spring. Wilson's writing is atmospheric and stylistically complex.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss: Like Ahmed, Rothfuss captures the magic and excitement of high fantasy without the gritty mundanity that sometimes creeps into epic fantasy. Charismatic characters and a compelling writing style keep things lively.

Review by: Andrew Fuerste-Henry, Carnegie Stout Public Library