Russian Winter: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a while. The story was lovely in its simplicity, every description dripping with meaning without being overly sentimental or pedantic. The whole way through I marveled at the language. Despite its length, the book moved at a swift pace. The plot was not one of action, but still I hardly wanted to put the book down. This is masterful writing.
The portrayal of Nina's past in Soviet Russia was fantastic. I have studied the Soviet Union quite a bit, particularly through the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Kalotay did a good job portraying the way Soviet citizens likely felt about their lives. She shows the reverence for Stalin, even in the worst times. Never once does Nina see him as anything but a savior; the problems come from others and he does not know. Shocking though that may be, anything else would probably have been inaccurate. The faith that she had in the country and the small things that lead her to question that are done well. Kalotay confronts rough issues with subtlety, with no overarching need to make her point clear by bashing you over the head with it.
I recommend this one extremely highly (in case that wasn't clear from the above). Do yourself a favor and read this.

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The Black Prism (Lightbringer) Review

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(More customer reviews)Excellent book. While I had issues with the Night Angel series (assassins were essentially supermen in that world), the plot, plot twists, and some of the characterization was good enough to add him to my list of authors to read.
The Black Prism, well, is even better. Fantastic world building, good magic system, and amazingly good plot. Best high fantasy novel I've read this year, hands down. Some parts of the plot figuratively floored me, and he definitely doesn't move the characters OR the plot in the direction that you anticipate after the first 150 pages. In this regard, it's similar to the Night Angel series: the reader builds up an expectation of how everything is going to pan out, and then he shakes it all around, and beats you over your head with your own expectation. It's frustrating not being able to talk about it here, but I hate people that blow spoilers for me.
I think it accomplishes a light-based magic system better than the one used in Brandon Sanderson's Warbringer - though that novel had an appeal all of its own as well.
Highly, highly recommended.

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The Wake of Forgiveness Review

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(More customer reviews)"This is the bloodlust of brothers, the vengeful rage of the father, all of it born out and somehow flawless in its wickedness, like some depraved reenactment of Genesis staged solely for the amusement of reprobates." -The Wake of Forgiveness
Every once in a great while you come across a book that does all the things you want a book to do. Prose so sumptuous you hold your breath through whole sections because breathing - even breathing - would disrupt the amazing way a thought is unfolding. A plot with absolutely no holes, that steps surely through event after inexorable event leading you through a story as deep as any Greek or Shakespearian classic. The Wake of Forgiveness is one of those books. It's a Texas- lean epic novel. The story of a Czech family led by a patriarch as cruel and driven as Ahab, and a family of boys physically and emotionally twisted and misshapen by the hard labor and rigid disciplines their father forces upon them.
The Wake of Forgiveness is about hard men with broken hearts, and intentions that may seem evil but are born out of harsh lives in a harsh environment. It is also about the only gentling agents in the environment - women and children. It's about how forgiveness can catch us in its wake, and bring us a little closer to shore, and most importantly, it's about what I think every great work of fiction is about - redemption that rises against all odds from soul breaking struggle.
Against what would seem to be all possibility Bruce Machart writes of these men with great affection because their actions, both gentle and monstrous, are motivated, and even seem necessary considering what has befallen them.
I'm going to re-read this one right away, and it's going to live on my shelves, handy for readings in the future.

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The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg Review

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(More customer reviews)A magnificent collections by one of the most diverse and gifted minds in American literary history. As a high school English teacher, I often teach the "dark" Sandburg: "Killers," "Grass," "Iron," and other pessimistic works by Sandburg. This volume takes that pessimism and puts it into a much more realistic context, dealing with World War I, the Great Depression, and an era of American History to which few of us today can relate. Sandburg's poetry is virtually prose in sections, reading very fluidly. It is fascinating to watch his evolution as a writer and as a man throughout the poems he wrote. I rarely sit and just read poetry, but I recommend this volume to my students--and to anyone else reading/listening--for a couple of hours when a novel just doesn't seem right. Some of it is dark, depressing, and mildly disturbing, but he sheds a ray of light often enough to keep one reading. There's something in Sandburg's work for everyone!

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The definitive edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection. "A marvelous prosody, a perfect ear for the beautiful potentials of common speech, something he learned from folk song, but mostly he learned from just listening" (Kenneth Rexroth).

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