Precy Larkins--YA Author: Fantasy

Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts

Book Spotlight: THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern

Hello, hello! It's September already, can you believe it? Soon it will be Christmas, and then 2013 will come rushing in. Yes, I know, it's too early to say such things. But really, in the Philippines, people start putting up Christmas trees and lights in September. No kidding. If you go to the mall, chances are, you'll be singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer along with the music blasting from every corner. Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas is the most anticipated holiday.

A-nee-way, that's not what I came here for. Not to talk about Christmas, but BOOKS! (Man, I'm such a scatterbrained mama. That was the worst intro to a book spotlight EVAH. Forgive me. I only get a few hours of sleep each night.) Since I can't do much (read: any) writing these days, I've been reading a lot of books. See, it's doable. When I'm feeding the baby, I only need to get the book propped up just so and voila! I'm reading. Hooray for efficient multitasking! I believe I have read about 21 books since baby boy was born a month and a half ago. Not bad for someone whose life is soooo crazy at the moment.

Blurb and image from Goodreads:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Author:

Erin Morgenstern is a writer and a multimedia artist, who describes all her work as "fairy tales in one way or another." She grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts with two very fluffy cats. The Night Circus is her debut novel.

You can visit her website at http://erinmorgenstern.com/

The Book: Adult Fantasy

I absolutely enjoyed this book. I first heard of it from the Golden Eagle of The Eagle's Aerial Perspective when she posted a teaser about the book on her blog. It caught my attention and I quickly jotted down the title and author's name on my TBR list.

Things I loved about this book:

~the otherworldly atmosphere
~the prose
~the multiple, varied POVs (which added to the atmosphere. No, really. It worked beautifully.)
~the magical feel of the circus
~the sense of mystery

I'm a sucker for books with atmospheric, unusual settings. The circus itself is very much a character in this story. There's magic, there's love, and there's a game with deadly consequences. Really, a must read. :)

What have you read lately? There's always room in my TBR list, so fire away the recommendations! I'll post more book spotlights. I've read so many good books lately, it'd be a shame not to share.

W is for Worldbuilding

Unlike movies, we don't have CGI-created visuals to accompany us when we're reading a book. We have to rely on our good, old noggins to supply us with images. Especially when we're reading Sci-fi/Fantasy, or anything that falls under the Speculative Fiction genre.

The thing with worldbuilding is that it's all too easy to fall into the old info-dumping technique. You're the Creator of your world, and of course you want to acquaint the reader with its grandeur so at the very first instance, you bombard us with several long paragraphs detailing every hill, castle, and hybrid creatures existing in your creation.

Um, not good. You'll run the risk of putting your readers in snooze town.

Or you can go the other way: You skimp on the worldbuilding descriptions to allow for a fast pace read.

Erm, not good either. If we find ourselves scratching our heads, then it means you've lost us. How the heck are we supposed to know what a kipa is, and why does your character keep saying "sika!"? (Those are actual words found in my MG Fantasy WIP. :D )

There has to be balance. The aspects of your world should be interwoven within the scenes and around your characters' actions. A sentence here or there explaining certain things will not bore your reader (as opposed to huge blocks of descriptive text).

Here's an excerpt from my MG Fantasy WIP:

Ascan opened his eyes too fast and stars blinked in and out of his periphery. Seagull wings flapped overhead in frenzied beats as a couple of fishermen hauled in their half-empty net. Men groaned even as they began to haggle for prices.

“Pan! Pan de sal!” This came from a pudgy man carrying a woven basket on his shoulder. Ascan had only been in Dagatur for a week but he’d already learned a few necessary words in the strange, lilting language of the fishing folk. Pan was bread. Not gutted fish, not slimy octopus legs, not bitter sea kelp.

Real doughy bread. Ascan’s mouth watered.

A horn tooted, signaling the arrival of another ferry boat. A boy, half Ascan’s size, scampered by him. The beggar kids who’d been busy harassing the fishermen for a centi all morning long scattered and disappeared, sweeping the docks clean of their filthy rags. Ascan squinted at the incoming boat, noting the insignia fluttering in the wind. A W encased in chains.

The Watchers.

Ascan crept toward a group of buyers vying for a bucket of pint-sized squid. He would be safe enough in a crowd, if no one notices him. And lately, no one had noticed him—his ghostly hollow self flitting around the docks on wobbly legs. It had been three days since he last ate a stolen meal.

In Dagatur, the slave trade flourished where the fish did not. Stowaways washed over the harbor with every tide, and stowaways usually meant orphans. A long time ago, it was said that the Watchers cared for the orphans during the great War, housing them in sanctuaries, and teaching them so they could be brought up in useful trades until they come of age. But the War had long ended, and now, the only trade they were brought up for was one that involved scrubbing rich fat men’s backsides, serving them their meals, and blubbering yeses like flustered hens.