The Voice – Anne Bishop

Sometimes you read a story which changes the way you view your world and how you feel about who you are. A message jumps out of the narrative and axiomatically smacks you in the face leaving you in stunned silence as you turn the last page. Not to be dramatic or anything here but this is exactly what happened to me while reading The Voice by Anne Bishop.

Though I have not read one of Anne Bishop's books in years, the last one was Belladonna, I am a huge fan. If asked for my top five authors Ms Bishop would definitely get a mention, the original Black Jewels trilogy would make the list of greatest things I have ever read. I'm not wanting to sound all fangirl or anything, rather I am trying to honestly admit I was always going to like Ms Bishop's novella The Voice and give it a favourable review.

No one writes dark fantasy quite like Anne Bishop, gritty and not always pleasant the truth is not hidden from the characters who find themselves traversing her inner worlds, nor is it obscured from the reader. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and bad people alike, a fact Ms Bishop has never sugar coated in any of her work I have had the pleasure of reading.

The Voice delivers exactly what I expected it too when I made my purchase, reading it was like watching a sad movie, I knew I was going to cry way before the first tears filled my eyes. For me there is something cathartic about immersing myself in fiction which allows real emotions to bubble to the surface.

There are times I don't recognise the need to release negative feeling until afterwards, other times I will seek out a tear jerking movie or book (Thelma and Louise saw me through a lot of teenage angst) chasing the euphoria of emotional release. This euphoric release is exactly what The Voice gave me. It is a more a fable than a story, an engrossing lesson in the need to deal with our darker emotions and not just let them fester inside or worse still foist them on others.

In a small village, Nalah is taught to feed her sorrow to 'The Voice', a poor mute orphan who was in fact the recipient for the entire village's unfavourable emotions. Upon a visit to the city of Vision Nalah is shown a better way to lance her soul of its sorrow, this is where the plan to escape a toxic life and save those who can be saved begins to form.

The morals of this fable are clear, nourish your body with food rather than punish it, acknowledge and then deal with your pain without inflicting it on others and lastly, one of the most important messages for me personally, one person may not be able to save the world but if they try they may just save one person from the world.

The Voice is a story about purging ourselves of toxicity, letting our anguish out and moving on. You see Nalah lance her own soul of sorrow and help her friends and 'The Voice' ameliorate their noxious feelings as well. It would be impossible to read Anne Bishop's novella The Voice without Lancing your own soul of some of its sorrow. Definitely (and obviously) the whole 5 teabags for this one, a perfect cup of tea I know I will be tasting again.

What books have changed the way you view the world?

The Many-Coloured Land – Julian May

Sci-fi novels are a bone of contention in my household, Mr Saunders loves them, I do not. Now and then he will go on and on about a book I should read, he tells me, “it is different from other sci-fi you have read”,“you’ll love the story line”, “it isn't really 'strictly speaking' sci-fi”. Every time he gets that excited about another one of his favourite authors or series I just know I will end up with it on my kindle and this is exactly how I came to read The Many-Coloured Land by Julian May.

The novel is done in three parts, part one was full of character set up, giving a new character to every chapter. It was all very wham bam thank you ma'am, a lot of information to take in and frankly by the time I got to part two I had forgotten a lot of who was who and needed to work it all out again anyway. I found the chapters centred on a single character disorientating and at times a little too brief giving virtually no real character building. I’m not the kind of person who skips parts of a book, but if I was I probably would have skipped huge sections of part one.

For me the story got better in part two, finally the antagonist is introduced to the unlikely heroes, who I kind of, maybe remember a bit about. The problem for me with The Many-Coloured Land was not the plot, the story-line quite enjoyable once I got into part two and I especially enjoyed the clever supposition of Celtic mythology into a story about the Pilocene era. For me the problem was too much scientific description for my taste, which is quite a common issue I have with many sci-fi books.

I love watching sci-fi and I really wished I liked reading it but I just can't stomach all the long winded descriptions about how various gadgets work. Every now and then I struggle through all of the technological lingo to read a sci-fi book, but it is a battle I fight hard to win. I broke reading The Many-Coloured Land up with other books in between. Finish part one reward myself with another book before continuing on, another reward for finishing part two and then I was on the home ward stretch.

Honestly this is not an awful story, being published in 1981 it has stood the test of time as an outstanding example of well received science fiction. Personally I'm just not a fan of heavy scientific descriptions or historical geology and The Many-Coloured Land is full of lengthy paragraphs dedicated to describing the Pliocene epoch in meticulous detail.

As much as I found the plot enjoyable I am not sure I will be continuing on to any of the other books in the series. Julian May is a much loved author and The Saga of The Exiles has been highly praised by many people through out the thirty plus years since it was published, I am only going to give it 3 tea bags however as it is definitely not my cup of tea.

Coming Home - Ann B Harrison

I will start this review with full disclosure, I was given a free copy of COMING HOME with the hope that I would review it. My critique of this book is an honest representation of my opinions and feelings towards the story and is in no way coerced or compensated in any monetary form.

COMING HOME is the second book of Ann B Harrison's I have read. I am quite ashamed to admit this as she is a fabulous author. I also reviewed the first book I read OUTBACK GOLD, an awesome story, which is the reason I ran out and filled my kindle with her other work (which I will find the time to read sometime soon). I loved Outback Gold and hoped I would not be disappointed by Coming Home. I wasn't! It has the same gritty and genuine feel to it, Ms Harrison is a master when it comes to writing realistic and down to earth scenes.

Ann B Harrison writes heart stirring drama every bit as compelling as one would expect from Jodi Picoult. In my opinion Ms Harrison offers her readers a perfect blend of romance and drama, the combination making her stories hard to put down.

I curled up on the couch and consumed Coming home, doing nothing else until I read those final words “the end”. It is the story of three siblings who have been left with emotional scaring from a hard childhood, life is definitely not going well for any of them when they return to the family property after their father's death. The terms of the will are quite harsh and they must stand together or lose it all. The Williams siblings are endearing in their dysfunctional yet faultlessly loyal love for each other. As the reader I found myself rooting for their family dynamics to be restored as much as I was for each sibling to find love.

Coming home was almost like four stories in one and this kept the story fresh and compelling, I loved the concept of following the three of them as they re-found each other, dealt with personal demons and tried to find time for love. It is quite ironic that the same thing I loved about Coming Home is also the only thing I wished was different. I wish there was more time given to each of the siblings, it felt a little rushed in places as Russ, Cade and Rooney all competed for play time.

I like the way Ann B Harrison builds suspense, quite a unique skill in the romance genre, I love the more realistic approach to love stories and the drama powerful enough to tug on the heart strings. I wish however that the story/stories had gone on longer and been filled in a bit more. Rooney's love story is the only one that felt complete when the book ended, I wanted to know more about Cade and Russ, their stories felt incomplete to me. This unfinished feeling is the reason why I only give 4 teabags to Coming Home, it tastes amazing but just seemed a couple of cups short of the whole pot of tea.

Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) -Charlaine Harris

For a long time I resisted reading the Sookie Stackhouse books. I do not like the original covers they seem a little childish, not quite serious enough. I like my vampires dangerous and sexy, from seeing the cartoon covers I never expected the appropriate level of danger and bloody violence. Sookie Stackhouse is also (in my opinion) a ridiculous name, how can you take a heroine with that name seriously?

Then there is Trueblood (which I have not watched because I did not read the books), everyone went crazy for Trueblood and insisted I read the books and/or watch the show. I am not proud to say but the last time “everyone” insisted something was an absolute must read I ended up reading the twilight saga (which I will not be reviewing) and wasting a week of my life I will never get back!

As it happens though a friend whose judgement I trust suggested I read Sookie Stackhouse, and lent me a couple of books from the series. I said sure why not, after all friends would never steer you wrong...right? That’s where things get strange!

I didn't dislike Dead Until Dark, I didn't love it either. I finished reading it and quite happily picked up the second book and continued the series, I am enjoying it, but I don't know why...

I still find Sookie to be a ridiculous name and honestly Bill Compton is quite the ass. A lot of the characters are not developed enough for my liking and I am really not sure about an “Elvis” vampire. In fact Bubba gives me the same deep sighing, eye rolling reaction that I get from the Men in Black line “Elvis isn't dead, he just went home”. The whole Elvis creative trope is a very popular one and in my opinion way too many people find it amusing to explain sightings of “the king”.

The story however is interesting enough to hold my attention, and Eric Northman is everything I imagined a vampire should be, sexy, dangerous, self involved and depending on his mood anywhere between amoral and downright evil. Charlaine Harris is not the greatest writer in the world (I shudder every time I read a sentence with “had had” in it), but she is far from the worst. Reading her work leaves me no where near the traumatised mess I was after subjecting myself to the literary (and I use that word lightly) scratchings of Stephanie Myers.

I didn't curl up on the couch and devour Dead Until dark in one afternoon, but it did give me a few perfect moments with a book in one hand and a pot of tea on the table beside me. Thinking logically I want to give the book (and the series so far) 3 teabags, it isn't great but it is a pleasant and easy read, the fact that I enjoy it enough to keep reading the series bumps it up to 4 teabags. It isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it doesn't taste too bad to me!