26 Apr

Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles

Cinder

If we could judge authors by the sound of their names, Marissa Meyer would get big points for her similarity to Mercer Mayer, who wrote and illustrated many delightful children’s books, including my favorite ‘What Would You Do With A Kangaroo?’ But I don’t necessarily pick up on author’s names until I’ve read more than one of their books, and when I picked up ‘Cinder’ it was for two reasons: first, it was reportedly a Cinderella retelling involving a cyborg; second, it started as a Nanowrimo project. Read More

03 Apr

Death and Rebirth of Gods

I’m in a period of pleasure reading right now — as opposed to research reading — and have been making a little progress in my quest to catch up on contemporary sci-fi and fantasy. Coincidentally, three of the recent books I picked up all dealt with the death and resurrection of gods. It seems appropriate to be reading these in the spring time. I’ve been watching the buds pop out on the trees and reveling in the appearance of crocii and cherry blossoms in my neighborhood. Plus, despite the secular life I’ve chosen as an adult, I still have a childhood nostalgia for Easter. I even found myself considering dyeing eggs, even though I never eat hard boiled eggs.
However, you won’t find much in the way of Christian symbolism (or Christian-flavored paganism) in these books. Read More