The Bear and The Nightengale

Title:  The Bear and The Nightengale
Author: Katherine Arden
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Source Library Book: Hardback
Rating: 4 out of 5


Amid the Russian wilderness, winter seems to last forever.  Vasilisa spends her time huddled around the fire to listen to stories told by her nurse, her favorite being about Frost; the winter demon who appears in the night to claim souls.  Soon after her birth, Vasilisa's mother passes away and her father goes to Moscow to find a new wife.  Her new step mother forbids the family and the rest of the estate to honor the house, yard, and forest spirits and honor the Christian God instead.  But Vasilisa personally knows these spirits are real, and the family rituals are more important than others realize.  Soon enough crops begin to fail, and creatures of the forest venture closer to the homes.  Her stepmother and the new priest combine their efforts to force the young girl into either marriage or the convent, but Vasilisa will have nothing of it and escapes into the sanctuary of the forest.  What she finds will change her forever.

This book came up as a recommendation because I loved reading Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and I was skeptical of the comparison.  While this book doesn't have the same theme or idea as Night Circus, it still spun a spell around my mind and soul and Katherine Arden's talented writing drug me deep into her tale. The book was enchantingly dark, darker than I expected but I loved it, couldn't get enough of it.  Arden has been able to craft a world that lingers on the fence between the seen and unseen and pokes at the mystery of the beyond. She has transformed this Russian folklore into something magical and fresh.


I have always enjoyed reading books based on folklore, especially folklore that I am not accustomed to and this novel was the perfect opportunity to introduce myself to something outside my realm of knowledge.  I appreciated the fact that while Vasilisa honored the house/yard/forest spirits, she also did not discount the faith of her step-mother, priest and brother.  She seemed to respect them and simply asked the priest to respect her own beliefs and allow her to practice as she has always done.  This was a powerful aspect of the novel as we are reminded that she is a young woman not 16 yet (I believe by the end she is 14 or so). Vasya is a strong-willed independent character who continues to grow into herself and the things she believes in.  There is a lot to be said in her character not being willing to sacrifice herself to fit what everyone else wants her to be.  That's powerful in and of itself. 


I loved how Arden uses some traditional Russian words, it helped put me into the setting and made me want to learn more about the language.  There is a glossary at the end as well as an Authors Note about the terms that help the readers understand the usage of these terms.  She has a very lyrical writing style which is perfect for this kind of a book as it really makes the story feel like a folklore/fairy tale.  She does a great job in showing the relationship between good and evil as well as the transition between old beliefs and new and how it could become a battle ground of faith and self preservation.


I highly enjoyed reading this novel and plan on checking out the second book in the series The Girl In The Tower.  This book had everything I was looking for in a read, magic, some adventure, and folk lore.  It was the perfect choice for my vacation last week.  If you enjoy novels like fairy tale retellings and spinning of folk lore, give this book a shot I'm sure you might like it.


Check out some other reviews of The Bear and The Nightengale:


Arlene's Book Club

Ready Player One

Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Genre: Fantasy/Sci Fi
Source: Paperback
Rating: 4 out of 5


The OASIS is a virtual reality world, where you can do basically anything your heart desires.  One of the world's creators placed an Easter Egg within the realm and has clues leading players to the egg.  It has been 5 years since the first clue had been release and no one has found it yet.  Until Wade (user name being Parzival) figures out the first clue relates to a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon.  Once he figures it out and competes for the first key, he discovers he is not the first person to figure out the clue, but the first person to defeat the first boss.  From here it is race with other "gunters" and an organization named IOI, who want control of OASIS, to find the remaining keys and enter the gates to find the Easter Egg.  Along the way Wade makes some friends, as well as some enemies.  He finds the game not only challenges his nerd knowledge, but also challenges his strengths and weaknesses.

I was already interested in this novel, but was encouraged to read it quickly to see the  movie, I am glad I did.  While it was slow to start and seemed a little slow moving throughout different parts of the book, it was well written and interesting to read.  Being an 80's nerd, I loved all the references and understood every one of them.  He does describe some things a lot, but then some things he doesn't as they are typically things the general public would understand such as movie or television show references.

I have always enjoyed the idea of virtual reality (VR), and enjoy seeing how other people interpret the idea such as this novel or shows like Sword Art Online.  The idea of this book is that people basically live their lives in the alternate universe, almost like people who get pulled into the world of MMOs like Everquest and World of Warcraft, but Ready Player One takes it farther with working, shopping and going to school through this VR world.  Cline does a great job at describing the world, how it works, how people interact, as well as continues to show a class difference even inside the OASIS.  The way he presents the game, challenge, quest whatever you want to call it is rather interesting, and I almost expected it to get harder as it went on, but it didn't seem as that was the case, the clues were harder to decipher, but the gates themselves seemed rather easy.

Wade was an interesting enough character of a typically nerdy fellow down on his luck.  He does grow into himself and learns about his strengths and weaknesses as well as the importance of being able to rely on those around him.  I liked how Cline incorporated that idea into the story as well, the importance of teamwork as well as healthy competition between friends.  Art3mis was interesting as well, I kind of wanted a little more from her perspective and the competition between them and Aech rather than the romantic aspect of her and Wade.

Overall it was a good perfect for those of us who love the 80's and all things considered nerdy.  I am excited to see what the movie will be like, hopefully I can catch it in theaters.  If you are a fan of sci-fi, virtual reality, and 80's nostalgia pick up this book and dive into the OASIS.



Steel Maiden

Elena would do anything to escape the Pit and establish a new life for her and Rose, even stealing from the Temple of the Sun priests.  She thought she was able to do it until she went to sell it to the buyer, and he betrayed her.  Now the priests has forced her to join a race for a magical stone with the promise of releasing her and Rose unharmed.  There is a secret to Elena that no one else in the race knows about, she has magic and possibly the power to overcome the priests.  Soon Elena finds herself in the middle of a rebellion against the priests and struggle for power.  All the while coming to terms with her new-found gifts and accepting who she has to become in order to accomplish her task.

This was a fairly easy book to read as it basically gives the reader a play by play of what is happening.  The sentences are very short and sequential.  "I shifted nervously.  The wound at the back on my neck throbbed.  The pain was increasing as we neared the city."  While this makes the book easy to follow and understand, it makes it feel like the reader is being spoon fed information.  This happened and then this happened and then this....Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this book, I think there were ways to accomplish the same thing without it feeling completely laid out. Elena is an interesting character in that her magic is different from what have seen in other fantasy novels.  She has the ability to weld any weapon and is immune to other magic.  Richardson does a good job at bringing that ability to life in her character and the misunderstanding some of the people have towards magic-users.  I liked how she showed prejudice through this, once the other members of the race found out she was a magic user they reacted to her differently treated her worse than they did when they thought she was just a peasant woman. 

There were times when it felt like I had already read this book, the idea of a woman being chosen to be the king/priest's champion to capture a magical relic and discovers magic within herself.  It felt like it's been done before.  BUT, Richardson takes that idea and creates something new and unique with it. Some things were a little predictable like Mad Jack being a part of a rebellion within the Pit or Prince Landon betraying her, but any reader could see these things happening as we begin to feel like we are inside Richardson's head with this book.  We can see clearly her intent with the storyline and what she was doing.  There was no room for confusion.


I think she has a great beginning novel with Steel Maiden.  It gives the readers enough story to help launch their interest and keeps them wanting more from the story.  I know I am eager to find out what happens in the next book and where Richardson's story will lead readers.   Overall I will give this book a 3.5 out of 5 rating because There were strong and weak elements, Richardson could have taken the Steel Maiden thing so many different places and I hope she does so in the next novels.