The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain (2003) [A3]

I planned on reading this next novel in the Green Rider series back in August, after I'd finished our sixth and final Book Club book, but fate was not on my side and the weirdest situation unfolded...

I had pulled The High King's Tomb out of my 'to be read' pile, opened it and started reading.. only to figure out that is was the WRONG BOOK! It was actually the second book First Rider's Call on the inside! It had the correct cover and everything but it was a MISPRINT on the inside! I immediately jumped on the website and tried their online help chat to see what I could do. So, at 11pm my time, here I was chatting with someone from website based in the UK. We discussed the problem and I even had to send pictures, supply the order ID and everything. Finally it was decided that my case had to be escalated and I would hear back via email in 24 hours or less.

So I waited.

As stated, less than 24 hours and I had a response, but there was nothing they could do for me because I had ordered the books (I ordered the whole series, up to book six, all at once) more than 6 months ago. I was a bit disappointed, but was more concerned that this would or wouldn't happen to someone else. Regardless, I got on the UK site and ordered another copy, because really, I want to read this book more than I was mad that nothing could be done for my case.

Fast forward a couple days and good Samaritan-me decides to email the author's publicist to let them know of the problem. I got a quicker response from them than I ever expected thanking me for bringing it to their attention and that would check the print-run to make sure there were no other errors. I was finally heard and my concern validated.
Now I just had to wait until my re-ordered copy arrived so I could finally read it! But, like I said, this was the most bizarre thing that had ever happened to me regarding a book!

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Now on to the book review!

The High King's Tomb came out in 2003, the same year as First Rider's Call. So fans of the series got two books in the same year back when they first came out. As a later addition to the fandom, I get to read all the way up to book six without having to wait for a new one to come out until #7. Lucky me!

First, the most important thing I enjoyed about this book was the slower pace it had. The first two books were very "jump right in and get messy" right from the first few chapters. So, I liked that this one had a slower burn. There is about a two to three month gap in time between the end of the second book and the start of the third. The events of the previous novel have had time to settle in for the characters, and so throughout The High King's Tomb we see the aftermath of those situations and how everyone is moving forward.

It of course still follows Karigan, our sassy heroine, for most of the novel, but I did like that you also got to learn what was going on with some of the other characters as well. (The second book also does this, so I relished that the third book kept up with that device.) You learn how things are going for Alton at the wall. Dale is recovered and joins him there to help. Some chapters let the readers in on the life, thoughts and world of Estora, the future queen of Sacoridia, and how that soon-to-be reality is effecting her and Karigan's friendship. We get some more insight and details into the new big bads, the Second Empire, followers of Mornhavon the Black, that were introduced in the last book. Karigan also has new Rider-in-training along with her on her mission in HKT. This makes for some interesting challenges for her, but also helps with her character growth throughout the story as well.

King Zachary and Karigan's relationship, or lack thereof now, takes less precedence in this one than the previous. Karigan has basically resolved to the fact that nothing will ever come to fruition and so takes a lengthy message errand to distance herself from him and all the wedding fuss. Captain Mapstone also has a hand in this "distance-taking" as she sees the risk the relationship might pose. She is the one who gives Karigan the long errand, and makes sure that all attempts for King Zachary to contact her are thwarted. I know Mapstone has no right to get in the middle of it, but in her defence she is thinking most directly about her King and country. Sooo... not sure if I'm too mad about it.

While on her errand, we get an insight into Karigan's internal thoughts and values when a stay in a brothel (unintentionally, might I add) causes her to review her perspectives on love, relationships and  her sexuality. I found this part very interesting because there hasn't been anything like it before from the author in the two previous novels. Karigan has a internal 'talk' with herself while observing the patrons and workers of the brothel about her views on virginity and casual sex that I thought was very intriguing! She mentions the opportunities her fellow riders have had to engage in such casual encounters and how it is 'not for her.' The scenes in the brothel also spark an argument she has over her father's character, and I wonder if it will come up later in the series or not.

One last thing I have enjoyed noticing about all the books so far, is that all the Green Rider horses are named after birds! You have Condor, Night Hawk, Plover, Crane, and others. This detail just makes me so happy! Oh! And in The High King's Tomb you learn about where the Rider horses come from and Karigan even goes there! I have to say, reading the chapters where Karigan is at the horse merchant, Damian Frost's, farm were some of my favourites during this book. (I love horses, fyi.)

I could go on and on about this book and my speculations for the remainder in the series so far, but I feel like this post is already TL;DR... Which I hope you all read anyway! I'm planning on tackling the second book in The Vagrant series next, The Malice.

NOTE: I like to take breaks between the Green Rider books because it allows me to digest them a bit more than just diving right into the next one. Plus, I get more excited to read them when I've taken a break in between; I end up devouring it in a short period, which is always fun.

Transgalactic by James E. Gunn (2016) [C2]

Yay! I finished another Extended Reading Challenge book! I don't know why this one took me so long to get through... But... I do; I was cross-stitching too much. The book was not a long one, and it was science fiction, so of course I enjoyed it.

Transgalactic (2016) by James Gunn is the sequel to Transcedental (2010), which I read back in April. So, it has been a while since I was first introduced to Riley and Asha, the aliens of the Galactic Federation and the new fad-religion of transcendentalism sweeping the spiral arm of the galaxy.

I purposefully did not spoil the ending of the first book, but in order for this post to make any sense, I have to write:

"Transcendence was an accident."

Basically, transcendentalism was an accident stumbled upon by Asha and her previous crew when they ended up on the Arachnoid-world and used the Transcendental Machine as a means of life or death escape. The machine is a matter-transmitting device built by a millennia-old civilization that destroys, transmits, and then rebuilds the occupant with none of their old imperfections. Thus creating a "better" human out of Asha and Riley when they go through. 

Transgalactic follows Riley and Asha's separate journeys as they try to get back to one another after they are both transmitted to different worlds; thousands upon thousands of light-years apart. Each has to overcome different planets, its inhabitants and whether or not the dominant native species has even achieved interstellar travel.

Riley ends up re-materializing in an ancient pyramid on a tropical-like planet inhabited by a mostly-intelligent dinosaur-esque species. The pyramid, he determines, was made by the Transcendental Machine builders. While on the planet and looking for a way off, Riley starts to experience all the enhancements that Asha obtained and described to him: the ability to track the passage of time in his head, enhanced reflexes, strength and reasoning, now able to influence other and computers to his will and the ability to learn the language of locals in little to no time at all. When he finally discovers a way off the planet by means of one of the machine-builders ancient spaceships (see the book cover - a giant red sphere), he also gains a ride-along dino-buddy he names Rory.

Asha, on the other hand, ends up on a civilized world inhabited by humanoids. She is treated well, but also forced into a weird coupling ritual with a local "man" because they deem her a god due to her coming through the machine. Asha had been through the machine before, so unlike Riley, she is not discovering her talents, just continuing to use them, but also not too much to draw attention to herself. She uses the discovery of a federation ambassador on the Squeal-planet to facilitate her get-away and heads right to federation central space in search of Riley.

While Asha and Riley search for each other across the galaxy, they also learn more about themselves and what "trancesdentalism" really means for the human race and human condition. There is a lot of philosophical exploration on what it means to be human and what the transformation in the machine could mean to human evolution.

They also begin to speculate who the really enemy is, and it is not the Galactic Federation as they had assumed. Each has a run in with someone from their past, which changes their outlook on the events to come and what they believe must be done. But the need to find each other, despite all the hardships they face in trying to do so, does not stop either Riley or Asha from laying the foundation, in their own ways, to help humanity rally together, fight against and overcome the threat only Riley and Asha can see coming.

I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs more about this book and the plot, the characters, the development in each and all the questions they pose about their existence... BUT I'M NOT GOING TO. I left the post about Transcendental kind of vague until I had to spoil it for this one to make sense. So if you want spoilers about Transgalactic, you're going to have to wait until I read the final installment, Transformation.

Now, a while ago, before I started reading Transgalactic, I had planned to read The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain after the last book club choice in August. However, after a very bizarre set of circumstances (I will detail these in the review post), that did not happen, so I had to move on and wait for that one. I now have a readable copy and will be reading that next. I feel like it's been forever since I last rode a horse alongside Karigan and the Green Riders. So excited to continue on that adventure.

Book Club: May's Choice - Beren and Luthien

I'm working my way through the outstanding Book Club books! Next up is the May Choice of Beren and Luthien (2017). A bunch of us girls in the club are big nerds, and we all particularly agree that we love The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so this choice was right up our nerd-alley.

 

One of our book club members sent us all a note saying that the actual Tale of Tinuviel didn't start until about page 50 and the whole start of the book was notes and background detail compiled by Christopher Tolkien. So for those of us who only wanted to read the tale, that made things easier. I on the other hand, wanted all of the introduction information. And I honestly found all of it a little more intriguing than the actual story.

Christopher gives excerpts and details into some of JRR's letters and notes about the tale and how it had evolved over time. There is information on the Eldar Days, and how much depth there is to the time between the Eldar days and the Lord of the Rings. Example: Elrond is a descendant of Luthien and Galadriel used to hang out with Luthien's mother, Melian. Basically, yeah, elves are immortal.

He also warns the reader to expect things to be slightly unorganized and for characters names to change and "evolve" with the story. This is due to the fact that The Tale of Beren and Luthien is spread throughout the twelve volumes of "The History of Middle Earth." This novel finally brings the story into a cohesive narrative for readers.  

The Tale of Beren and Luthien is one of the three Great Tales of the Eldar Days, along with The Children of Hurin (2007) and The Fall of Gondolin, which came out on August 30, 2018.

The Tale of Tinuviel

First off, Tinuviel is Luthien and Beren's name never changes throughout the story. Those are important points to note if you read the tale.

The plot of B&L is pretty straight forward and it was nice that there weren't too many characters names that you had to learn. There was also no millions of pages upon pages of poems and singing, so that made the story nice and compact. I'm sure a more lengthy version would have had all that in it. The plot is also very simple: Boy sees beautiful girl, asks her father for her hand, is denied and sent on an impossible mission to win it. Boy is captured, girl is sad and goes to rescue him. She succeeds and they defeat the bad guy. However, **SPOILER** it does not have a happy ending.

The thing that struck me the most was the actual ending. Not the end of the tale, but the actual ending when it turns out it is a group of travelers telling the Tale of Beren and Luthien amongst themselves! They each have a different version of the ending that they prefer, which differs from the way the reader just read the ending. So, it is very tricky at that point... One of the group says "that the kids know the tale and it's deeds and values, but she does not yet get it." So this begs the question: Is the Tale of Beren and Luthien just a moral story told to children about love, friendship and sacrifice? Or is it an actual story depiction of people from Middle-earth history?

It's hard to say, and rather confusing, because there is all the relations and connections made to Elrond and Galadriel and that Aragorn and Arwen are supposed to be reincarnations of Beren and Luthien. It is not clear. Also! If Elrond is a descendant of Luthien, is that why Aragorn and Arwen are considered the reincarnations of her and Beren? Is there some sort of immortal elven-blood connection going on? So many questions, not enough answers!

Overall, the tale was entertaining and not overly hard to read or follow. That was nice. It also involved giant magical cats. So, that was a bonus for sure. I would recommend this read for those who want all the possible information obtainable about all things Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Middle-Earth. 

I'm going to try and finish an Extended Reading Challenge book next, and squeeze in a post about that before I continue with the Book Club posts! Happy reading all!