Cainsville and Age of Legends, Kelley Armstrong

Recently I’ve been tearing through Kelley Armstrong’s books, particularly her fantasy books from the Cainsville and The Age of Legends series.  Previously I’ve read her Nadia Stafford series which is detective series.  I am delighted with everything I’ve read so far.

Cainsville is set in Chicago and an "imaginary" nearby small town, Cainsville (don't go looking for it on a map).  Having spent more than half my life in the midwest it was a very comfortable regional read.  (Those of you following me on Facebook know that I'm starting off retirement with literary tours.)  The Olivia, th main character, suddenly discovers she is adopted and that her birth parents are in prison for multiple murders.  She becomes acquainted with her birth mother's last attorney, a notorious attorney who does what is needed to get his often shady clients off of charges.  

She ends up, accidentally, retreating to Cainsville.  There she takes a job in to local diner (up to this time her adopted family is wealthy and she has lived a committed life as an advocate for homeless and abused women).  There she finds what seems to be a safe and almost timeless community that supports her.  There are the usual small-town characters but overall it is an idyllic retreat from Chicago and the media that has been hounding her.  Here the fun begins.

Armstrong weaves a new view of the fae, the Hunt, and other mythical entities into a very modern setting.    There is a perhaps a bit more sex in the book than I would normally recommend.  It makes it a series that I think prevents it from being a book that teachers could recommend to even high school students.  (I must be getting really old!  I could easily take the sex out, leave the romance, and get on with the story.)

The four books in the series were all well crafted and enjoyable reads.  I think Armstrong has left a possibility for additional books in the series which I would read immediately.  Some critics have criticized the series for being "slow" to unfold the plot and setting.  I did not find this problematic.  As a reader who is exploring a range of mythologies I was not impatient.  My own knowledge filled in the details that Armstrong does not immediately provide.  

In The Age of Legends series Armstrong turns to a more traditional fantasy setting, a "medieval" village, an emperor, and magical/mythical threats.  Twin sisters Ashyn and Moira are the spiritual leaders of their village, the outpost to the wilds where convicts are sent to die, or survive.  If they survive the are recovered after a year having served their sentence.  This series is a young adult series and will capture the attention of many readers.  There is plenty of action (sword fights and evil forces) to keep the attention of male and female readers.  I suspect it will be much more popular with young women.  There is a strong male character, Gavril Kitsune, who will engage young men.  I hope that in the second book that Armstrong develops him further to make the series more attractive to male readers (but there are many books out for them so I won't be disturbed if she does not).  

What I particularly appreciate in this book is the limited knowledge of the main characters, Ashyn and Moira.  In the tradition of "unreliable narrators" Armstrong helps us feel the confusion and anger of young women as they come to terms with the adult realities of their worlds.

Neither series is elevated to "four star" status because they don't rise to "universal truths" but they come close.  Armstrong certainly deals with some the interpersonal tensions of adult life as well as issues of power, politics and "human" weakness. 

Hexed: The Iron Druid Chronicles, by Kevin Hearne

The Iron Druid Chronicles has been one of my reading "accidents."  I listened to "Hammered" first because of a special promotion through Audible.  I enjoyed that book and decided to try a print version of another title from the series.  I expect I will be reading all eight in the series.

The main character, Atticus O'Sullivan, is as suggested a Druid.  In fact, he is the last Druid.  He does have an apprentice in the works and we're all pulling for Granuaile to succeed in her apprenticeship program.  However, given the trouble that Atticus seems to attract, that is not guaranteed!

Atticus has a great group of friends--vampires, werewolves, and a wonderful Irish Wolfhound with whom he can "talk" telecommunicatively. 

Hearne is from Arizona and the geographic connections are fascinating.  He, like Neil Gaiman, Rick Riordan, and Michael Scott; brings a wide range of gods and mythological figures into his books.  I'm enjoying learning a lot about Irish gods and mythology as well as other traditions.  I think I'm going to have to dust off a book about druids that I got long ago and didn't finish.  Now I have a reason to want to dig in more deeply.  Hearne also connects to the Gaelic, Polish and German languages.

I like the entire series a lot and would recommend them to "mature" young adults.  There is occasional reference to sex, but nothing particularly graphic. I think this series would be a good one for readers who like series like The Seven Realms, Chima or Codex Alera, Butcher.

In addition to enjoying the series I also believe in supporting Hearne.  Before he was able to turn to writing full-time he was a high school English teacher. 

Son of Neptune, by Rick Riordan

I am still feeling compelled to read this series.  In this latest book featuring Percy Jackson Riordan has told yet another story with enough plot twists and action to keep readers going.  I especially appreciated his humor in this book.  Riordan has managed to merge contemporary culture, particularly consumerism, with Roman and Greek gods and myths.  I think it can be used to help readers understand the role that these myths played in ancient cultures.

 Recently, with several co-authors, I published an article for teachers on using YA Literature and appropriate nonfiction to make the required study of The Odyssey something that is more engaging to ninth graders.  The various Percy Jackson  books were a large part of this.  (Along with Michael Scott's Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.  Having these familiar and well loved books help young adults understand why their schools place such emphasis on The Odyssey and other classic works. 

I look forward to Riordan's next book in this series. 

The Lightening Thief, by Rick Riordan

It appears that I am on a mythology kick. True! One of the interns I worked with last spring taught a unit on mythology associated with reading of The Odyssey. This book is probably appropriate for younger or less able readers than Michael Scott's Nicholas Flamel series. It is well written and more narrowly focused on Greek gods than Scott's work is. Overall I give it strong ratings. It would make an excellent companion piece to a class exploration of The Odyssey especially for students will reading difficulties. Many of the same quest episodes are paralleled in this book and would allow for discussion of Odysseus's (Ulysses) quests and their meanings.

I will be reading other books in the series. They have been very popular and I am eager to follow up on Riordan's treatment of the epic.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, by Michael Scott

This entry covers two of the three books in the Nicholas Flamel series, The Magician (2008) and The Sorceress (2009). I was immediately caught up in the first book of this series, The Alchemyst. Of course I was eager to read the next in the series. The Magician is as engaging and captivating as The Alchemyst however, I was a bit disappointed in The Sorceress. This later book brings in too many historical characters (Shakespeare, Billy the Kid) and becomes more of a "Terminator" distruction book than a fantasy exploring the lives and actions of mythological characters in present day.

I doubt that most teens/adolescents who are fans of the series would immediately detect the difference in quality. But, I've seen in my own children (now adults) the ability to "sense" when a book is somehow "off." I hope that Scott's next book The Necromancer will return to the more character-based stories of the previous two books in the series.

To fully enjoy any of the books in this series readers will need to do some independent research of their own on the various gods, goddesses, and mythical creatures included in the readings. Scott introduces these from all cultures and time periods. It provides the opportunity for a broad overview of the various mythologies and religions of the world.

Scott is a prolific writer and has many books that have not yet been published in the US. I hope more of them become available as the popularity of this series increases.