Review: EVERY HEART A DOORWAY by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway by  Seanan McGuire
(Fantasy; Tor, 2016)

5/5 Stars

Eleanor West’s boarding school helps adolescents returned from portal worlds, from Nonsense to Logic and from Wickedness to Virtue. The carefully constructed haven and its inhabitants face a trial more dark and disturbing than anything they’ve seen in this world or others.

Writer Brain: 5/5. It’s hard enough for some writers to build one world well. McGuire manages to build several. There spheres of rules within greater spheres of rules. Not everything is possible, and the limitations of individual portal-worlds are seamlessly introduced within the greater limitations of the book’s world. And since each character has lived in a different portal-world, each character abides by a different set of rules and is in a different state of acceptance/denial/rebellion. As a reader, you feel that there is so much more than you see on the page, than you need to know to follow the plot and empathize with the characters. You see the tip of the iceberg McGuire has crafted, but you’re not overwhelmed with information you don’t need. To do this in a book of this diminutive size is remarkable. There are authors who can’t manage worldbuilding this complete in a book five times this length. For this alone I’d return to the book as inspiration. But there were plenty of other reasons to love it.

Editor Brain: 4.5/5. I only had one issue. Early on in the book, there are a few paragraphs on narration that read, at first, as though Eleanor was the narrator. But this didn’t appear to be the case later on. Instead, the books spends most of the time in a close-third person POV behind Nancy’s story, and it’s compelling and engaging and everything it should be. The paragraphs in question, plus a brief change of POV later in the story, just pulled me out of the read. I’d never recommend a writer leave those types of switches in any genre except in cases of extreme need. And maybe that’s the case here: the rest of the book is so enjoyable and well crafted, that I’d believe it and am willing to excuse it as something with which I just didn’t connect. If I missed something super obvious, let me know in comments. I’d love to not be in the dark!

Reader Brain: 5/5. The experience of reading this book was simply delightful and deep. I found myself wondering which door I would have found, which door my husband would have found. I wanted to know more, but trusted McGuire to lead me where I needed to go. I laughed. I gaped. I held my breath with Nancy more than once. I wanted to share so many lines on Goodreads and didn’t for fear of giving away the best bits. I got really excited when I saw that there are two more books planned in this world. And then I went and ordered two print copies of this one: one for myself and one for my little sister (Tess, if you’re reading this, act surprised when you open it).

Et cetera: Every Heart a Doorway releases today! Happy book birthday!

Disclaimer: I received a free digital ARC of Every Heart a Doorway from Tor via NetGalley.

Review: THE GRACE OF KINGS by Ken Liu

(If you aren’t familiar with my template, I’m sharing my thoughts from my writer, editor, and reader brains, because sometimes they feel very differently about the same book. No spoilers, I promise!)

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
(Fantasy; Saga Press, 2015)

4.5/5 Stars

Amid decades of political intrigue, turmoil, and boldfaced war, a few lead the many in pursuit of a better life. But is a king better than an emperor? A thief better than a king? Gods and mortals struggle for purchase in this intricate tome.

Writer Brain: 4.5/5. There’s so much to unravel here. The prose is somehow stylized but not affected, reserved but never stilted. The magic, tech, and belief systems are instantly believable and not overdone. The cast is huge, but every person has his or her purpose. There are no throwaway people, even when they get thrown away.  (Insert writer “gah” of joy and envy here.) And I especially loved that the “bad guys” are often people who, in their own mind and moral code, are actually really good guys. This is not the cast of The Song of Ice and Fire series, either. The POV always feels much more formal, much more distant. While that worked, I wanted more dialogue–so much was a story being recounted rather than played out. And combined with the huge cast (with few characters getting lots of “screen time”), I felt I needed convincing to continue past the first third. And then I got convinced fast and read the last two-thirds like a madwoman. Take-away: The care taken in crafting this book is visible from every angle and on every page. But the downside of such a sweeping plot with such monumental implications for the characters may mean a lot of time spent on getting things going, which can be rough on the reader.

Editor Brain: 4.5/5. What Writer Brain said. Take-away: Sometimes Writer Brain knows what she’s doing.

Reader Brain: 4.5/5. Last year I read a bunch of dark-but-funny, swashbuckling epic fantasy, so coming over to this court-intrigue/war epic fantasy was much different. I told my husband it was like reading a Crane Clan courtier novel with several Scorpion Clan lawyers thrown in to gum up the works (please forgive these dorky Legends of the Five Rings comments from Reader Brain). I was stuck in Writer Brain and Editor Brain for a long time and then Princess Kikomi…wait, I promised no spoilers. Anyway, there was plenty that left me breathless and excited and awestruck. The tech–some have dubbed it silkpunk–is just awesome. I mean battle kites? Come on! And the divination! Oh, and the GODS. Ahh. Just stop me before I tell you all the good things in monosyllabic utterances.  Take-away: I think you’re very likely to read something that makes you want to keep going even if you’ve felt that the going is tough.

Et cetera: I openly wept on public transportation when I read Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie” a few years back. There I said it.

The Quarterly Review(s) – Winter 2016

If you asked me ten minutes ago how the past three months had gone, you probably would have gotten a ragged sigh and a request for more coffee before I said anything more. But, let’s look at the numbers.

• Writing: I’ve written 35,000+ words since January 1. It should be more. I’m angry at myself that it’s not. But THINK ABOUT THAT. I’ve written 35k words. That’s really not that shabby. And that includes a 7k day, a 5k day, and four 2k days. Really. I shouldn’t complain.
• Editing: My freelance job-in-progress has been great. More than 130,000 words edited for this outdoor memoir and it returns from the copyeditor on Monday. Also, I’m this month’s voice of @EFAFreelancers on Twitter. Come chat about problem projects tomorrow at 3pm EST via #EFAChat.
• Reading: Eight books read (more on that in a minute) and a whole list to enjoy.

In fact, all this reading has been so refreshing and rewarding that I’m really going to boost my book-chatter a bunch. Plus, I think it will help me as a writer and editor to really hone in on what I’m getting from each book, and since I have this blog, I might as well tell you.

And here’s my format:

• Intro: 50 words (or less!); no spoilers
• Writing Brain: ?/5 stars; what craft points really shine (or don’t) and what other writers can learn from the read.
• Editing Brain: ?/5 stars; lessons to be learned for an editor from the book, including things that can be applied across genres, things that made my editor brain shudder, etc.
• Reader Brain: ?/5 stars; my gut and visceral two-cents
• Et Cetera: Other things, if it’s worth including them.

My goal will be to keep everything under 500 words. If I really need to expand something because I think it’s worth it, I’ll write a separate post.

So here’s a freebee because I want to give it a shot:

Heirloom by Eleanora Brownleigh
(Historical Romance; Zebra, 1983)

1.3/5 Stars

Interior decorator Thea heads to Mexico to spy for President T. Roosevelt. She can handle herself just fine, but society expects that she’ll need a man. Will her hero be her sham of a husband? A brooding military beau? What is she really getting into?

Writer Brain: 1/5 stars. So this is what too much exposition does to a story! I keep looking for the dialogue, and when I found it I was unimpressed. There was no tension beneath the paragraph after paragraph after paragraph of exposition. Take-away:

Editor Brain: 1/5 stars. Oh the back and forth! The story is told from two perspectives, which I had no idea to expect until I got to the second one. And Thea’s story had just started to get interesting! Nowadays, I’d expect those stories to be woven together chapter by chapter, rather than getting part 1, jumping back five or ten years for part 2, and then coming back to mix the perspectives for the rest of the book. It was like starting all over again from the beginning. Take-away: chronology can be the difference between someone continuing to read your book and putting it down because you give them a very convenient out.

Reader Brain: 2/5 stars. I mean: I finished it. All 687 pages. If you like dress porn (read: lengthy descriptions of fashionable dress) or similar effusive detail about high-end interior design, then this might be your romance novel. But I just wasn’t thrilled with the romance itself, and the other two parts of my brain were screaming in pain the whole time, so it was–at best–a 2/5. Take-away: my reader brain really might be the sum of my writer brain and my editor brain if you don’t give me anything else to enjoy. Take-away: I’m just not likely to recommend it to you.

Et cetera: I found this on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books; I’m sad that I didn’t like it as much as its devoted fans seem to. Also, I really love the author’s name.

And that’s a wrap. Expect more reviews as I finish writing them (seven more in the queue already!) and a look back at how things are going every few months or so!