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A Pair of Cybils Reviews

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Since I can’t discuss Cybils finalists before the winner is announced, I like to revisit the titles a little while later and give some brief thoughts. Today I’m discussing a couple of titles that I didn’t personally love, but will no doubt speak to others.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope by Ian Doescher
This book is a fun little literary exercise by Doescher – the first Star Wars movie re-imagined as Shakespeare would have told it. Doescher really committed, writing it all in full iambic pentameter, five acts, the whole shebang. (Even R2D2’s speech is written in iambic pentameter.) He also slips in a lot of in-jokes for Shakespeare fans – references to Hamlet, that sort of thing.

This would be a treat for mega fans of Star Wars and Shakespeare, though that audience is probably quite narrow, as those readers would also have to want to see two of their favorite things mashed together (and not everyone likes that). Still, this is a fun novelty item. It’s interesting to see how Doescher makes it all work.

Shadows by Robin McKinley
I really wanted to love this one, but it was not to be. McKinley’s latest is a combination of fantasy and science fiction, set in a world where magic has been outlawed and strange shadows cling to Maggie’s new stepfather. Maggie knows that something is off about Val, and not just because of his shadows.

Most of my dislike of this book stems from the writing style. Maggie narrates her own story, and her narration is circuitous and tangent-prone and not very organized. It’s not quite stream of consciousness, but nearly. I’m not opposed to this technique in general, but Maggie’s constant asides just aren’t particularly interesting, and by the time she returns us to her original point, we’ve forgotten what it was in the first place. They also don’t do much to help the reader understand her world, which is one of many. She lives in Newworld, and Val is from Oldworld. Plus, there’s Midworld and Southworld and Farworld. I’m all for world-building that develops via discovery instead of infodumps, but we’ve got to understand what the heck is going on before half the book is up. I didn’t. I was confused and bored for much of it.

A Cybils Retrospective

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I’m deep in my reading for the Cybils, which means a lot of what I’ve been reading lately can’t be discussed (at least not yet). I thought it might be fun to revisit some older Cybils titles, particularly some SFF finalists from the years before I got involved as a judge. One of the things I like best about Cybils finalists is they almost always include a few books that flew under the radar; I love that the Cybils can help these books find a larger audience. Unless otherwise stated, links lead to my reviews.

2012

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst was a finalist in 2012. I loved this unique desert-set fantasy which featured creative world-building, beautiful writing, a living religion, and a complicated, three-dimensional person of color as the protagonist. (Much less importantly, the cover is gorgeous.) Read my full review here.

2011

This was my first year as a judge for the SFF category, which means I’ve read all the titles. I enjoyed Blood Red Road, our winner, quite a lot, but Karen Healey’s The Shattering holds a special place in my heart. It demonstrates the tremendous ability fantasy has to reveal truths about our own world. Highly recommended and will make you want to read everything Healey has ever written.

Misfit by Jon Skovron was a wonderful surprise this year. It’s a paranormal fantasy with a little extra bite to it, a book that pushes the boundaries a little, which I always appreciate. The secondary story featuring the teen protagonist’s parents is heartbreaking, too.

Red Glove by Holly Black introduced me to the world of magical mobsters, a mini-trend which still seems to be going strong in YA fiction. Black’s series deals in very real terms with the consequences of magic – which is, of course, representative of the consequences of our actions in general. The idea of magical “blowback” is well-done and used creatively. I highly recommend this series for fans of contemporary fantasy.

2010

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry is a book I can honestly say I would never have picked up if it weren’t for the Cybils. This is a zombie story done right: it focuses on the human characters while also giving us some high-stakes thrills. Benny’s voice is spot-on teen, too, which isn’t always the case in apocalyptic stories, where our protagonists often sound older than their years. This was the winner in 2010.

I read Plain Kate by Erin Bow without knowing it was a Cybils finalist. Many readers loved it, but I was pretty tepid toward it. Even now, I have a hard time even remembering what it was about. I do remember that Kate was always referred to as Plain Kate, rather than just her name – Kate – and that irritated me. Not all books will be winners for everyone. Jen reviewed this title and obviously liked it quite a lot more than I did.

2009

Lips Touch is the book that got me hooked on Laini Taylor’s writing. I don’t normally go for short stories, but this collection featuring three stories/novellas about magical kisses (and not necessarily nice ones) looked so darn beautiful (with illustrations by Jim DiBartolo), I had to give it a shot. I’m so glad I did. The writing is gorgeous, approaching the feel of poetry. I never reviewed this one here, but I did on Goodreads: “Contrary
to a few of my friends’ opinions, I thought the third story was the
strongest (I loved all three). And the artwork rocked.” 

2008

I listened to Airman by Eoin Colfer on audio and it was excellent. Lots of adventure, a bit of humor, some fun accents – what’s not to love? The protagonist is a boy who was born in a hot air balloon while being shot at from the ground, and that sets the tone for the entire story.

Elizabeth Bunce’s A Curse Dark as Gold is another that I didn’t love, but got great acclaim from others (including the inaugural Morris award). I found this re-telling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale too slow to really get lost in. In fact, I gave up before I finished it. You can read a somewhat rambling analysis of my dislike for the book here.

This was also the year of Graceling and the Hunger Games, and I’m sure you all know by now my opinions on those books. (Hint: positive)

2007

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale is a book that helped rekindle my love of YA. I read it for a YA class in library school and loved it. It was my first and favorite of Shannon Hale’s books. I love the diary format and that it’s a re-telling of a lesser known fairy tale (Maid Maleen). This isn’t usually high up on people’s list of favorite Hale books, but it’s certainly mine.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher is another book that fell flat for me. The concept – a living, sentient prison – is certainly unique, but the book was just a slog for me. Perhaps it’s my affinity for fast-paced stories that prevented me from loving this one. My Goodreads review sums up my feelings in a very pithy manner: “So bizarre and way too long.”

2006 was the inaugural year, and I haven’t read any of the finalists from the SFF category. This was the year that the Book Thief was a finalist in the YA fiction category, though, so I’d say the awards started off right.

A Quick Break – Cybils Finalists

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I’m a second-round judge for the YA speculative fiction Cybils awards this year. (As an aside, I love the renaming of the category this year, from fantasy and science fiction to speculative fiction. I’ve long felt that’s a better term to describe the kind of stories that I love, and I hope this helps bring it into more popular use.)

The finalists were announced January 1, and I’m excited to dig into them. I’ve listed them all below, but be sure to check out the annotated list created by the Round 1 panelists at the main Cybils website.

Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst
Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
Pantomime by Laura Lam
Shadows by Robin McKinley
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher

Cybils 2012

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I’m thrilled to be a Round Two judge in the Graphic Novels category of this year’s Cybils awards. Last year, I judged round two in the Young Adult SFF category, so I’m excited to be trying something new this year. I hope to be exposed to more great graphic novels, more great blogs and bloggers, and more great literary discussion!

While I’m excited to be a part of the Cybils again, I also want to make sure that the books I end up judging are worthy. What I’m getting at is I want YOU to nominate good books for me to read! Submissions open October 1, and I sincerely hope you will ensure that no good title is left out.

A Pair of Cybils Reviews

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Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Cas Lowood kills ghosts for a living. Well, he doesn’t really make money at it, so I suppose you’d call it more of a hobby, or a compulsion. His father was a ghost-killer when he was alive, and since his death, Cas carries his deadly athame, the tool used to kill the dead. Cas and his mother have just moved to a new town, and Cas is determined to kill the local ghost, Anna dressed in blood, a teenage girl who was murdered many years ago. Only things with Anna aren’t quite what they seem, and Cas slowly begins to not only sympathize with her, but to fall in love with her as well. He also picks up a couple of good friends who learn about his unusual vocation, and they serve the dual purpose of assisting Cas in his quest to kill Anna as well as adding some interest to the story.
I’ve discovered that I’m not the audience for ghost stories, but Kendare Blake’s book made a valiant effort to change my mind. I thought the pseudo-romantic relationship between Cas and Anna was intriguing, and I appreciated that Blake didn’t shy away from high stakes (there’s a nice body count). The climax was unexpected, but made sense in retrospect. It’s a different sort of ghost story than the norm, and it mostly worked for me.
My main problem with the book was pacing: some parts just really dragged. For these chunks of the novel, it seemed like the troupe of characters wasn’t doing anything in particular, just kind of flailing about. It gets a bit dull to read about after a couple of pages. But then it would pick up nicely and I’d be hooked for another twenty pages, until it got a bit dull again. So overall, it’s a good book, but not an outstanding one.
Angelfall by Susan Ee
The angels of the apocalypse have descended on Earth, and teenage Penryn has become caught in the middle of it. Her wheelchair-bound younger sister has been kidnapped by the angels. She must team up with another angel, Raffe, in order to rescue her. Along the way, the duo experience a significant amount of peril and intrigue, plus some romance (naturally).
I’m kind of flabbergasted by all of the positive feedback Angelfall has received, because I was very unimpressed. I think the skeleton of a good story is there, and I dug how gruesome Ee dared to be near the end of the book. But for most of the book, I was doing some serious mental eye-rolling, and it’s mostly due to the writing – it doesn’t pass muster. The book is full of awkward phrasing, clunky sentences, and cliched dialogue. Part of the reason I had a hard time getting through most of it is because it felt like a romance novel with some fantasy trappings for the first three quarters (rather than a fantasy novel with some romance). The dialogue between Penryn and Raffe tries to be clever repartee, but it just comes across as ridiculous. And I say this as a reader of romance. 
Aside from the writing, I had problems with the world-building and development of ancillary characters. Put all of these lacking elements together and you quickly realize that no amount of fast-paced action can save this book.