What all of them have in common are spell-binding stories that captured not only my imagination, but my heart, that flighty thing called love.
THE IRON FEY SERIES
Now, this has been an ingenious concept from the start. The phrase "Iron Fey" itself is an oxymoron, because fairies (faeries in this case, I suppose) in general have one and only one true weakness: iron. When I first came across the Iron King, I thought that the story would either work, or be a glorious mess. In the latter case, I would have been suitably disappointed because darn. There goes the idea. Even if the concept was repackaged and written into another book, I would have been reminded of my introduction to it.
Luckily, that's not what happened. It's not just the concept, but the execution as well. Julie Kagawa pulled this off wonderfully. Sure, there are a few tropes in there: 1) ordinary down on her luck girl finds out she's special, and gains special powers; 2) knight in shining armor (seriously, in book 4) comes to save her; 3) love triangle, two love interests fighting over her etc. I think what is the key here is that Julie respects the old myths. She doesn't disregard certain segments of the world to give a 'modern rewrite' of the fae. The Iron Fey series is like a tribute to the old, and at the same time, everything's given just enough of a twist to seem fresh. This, in my eyes is the perfect blend of stories.
The mythology and world-building is just thorough. Trods, anyone? Oberon and Titania squabbling, which results in chaos and death for everyone else. The family dynamics and relationships between the characters have great depth to them, layer upon layer of meaning. Meghan comes off as a wonderfully emphatic character, and Ash as the main love interest who's a little cold actually wins me over, and causes me to question my allegiance to Puck. This is a rarity, because I go for the friendly, approachable, charismatic guy, who usually suffers from Second Male Lead Syndrome.
THE DEMON'S LEXICON SERIES
Magic, mayhem, mystery. The three key words that sum this up. What pulled me to this series was again, the concept. It is dark in tone, light in conversation and just steeped in goodness all around. I don't know what to tell you, except that everytime I think of this series, I feel warm in my heart.
There's just an air of greatness surrounding it. I knew the first book was going to be great. Was it Nick, who is first introduced to us with his sword under the sink, a scene of such contrast between the normalcy of the act and the oddity of the placement? Perhaps the urban fantasy line, because I am an absolute fan of magic in plain normal everyday sight.
Sarah Rees Brennan wove a story that stood by itself, with its own mythology and history. I can imagine the universe outside of the books. The Goblin market around the corner, magicians across the street, demons in dances. The blend of light and dark is particularly compelling, whether it's humor in deathly situations, Nick with Alan, magical street fights. I can talk a lot about the characters, but the two that truly stand out are Alan and Nick, whose brotherly bond will never be broken, despite the perils that they enter. That bond was what kept me going from book to book to book, and that is what keeps me coming back.
THEATRE ILLUMINATA SERIES
Ah! I am so fond of this series. Nothing but good fuzzy feelings come when I think of it. It's of a class of it's own. Lisa Mantchev, oh what imagination she has! I am continuously blown away, page after page. This is a mishmash of the best Shakespearean tales. I am not only entertained by the end of the books, but I feel more knowledgeable in Shakespeare's plays, the behind the scenes of the theatres as well as getting to meet the cast and crew of the book. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have read this book.
The concept is of a theatre where the players come to life, the players being the characters of the plays which are performed on the stage. That is just the basic idea, but interwoven within that is the story of a girl who is lost, who has friends that she has made into family, but not any family that she has known yet. This is the journey of a girl who goes to find who and what she is outside of her life, outside of her work and the theatre, who goes to find herself. And I am here, feeling all breathless at the thought of her adventures, yet wanting to join them too. The audience is not really part of the books, but it's like I'm the audience, and part of the theatre itself. It's like watching your favourite drama and getting to know not just the characters and the stories, but meeting the actors, getting to know them inside and out and invited to their homes.
The magic! It is just amazing. It is a magic that I've never encountered before, a magic with its own history and rules, but magic that seems to exist only within the theatre and the pages of the series. Has this cultivated in me the desire to watch plays? Why yes, yes it has.
TRICKSTER SERIES
I have loved Tamora Pierce's books since I was ten, but it was more of a "I've known you my whole life. We like each other so let's get married" kind of relationship. The Trickster series, consisting of only two books (Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen) have brought my love to a whole new level, that of "I've never seen this side of you before. I LIKE. Let's get married. Now."
The books features Aliane, she of the cool name I want as my own, and daughter of the Lioness Alanna. They introduced to me the concept of political intrigue. Before, the only political intrigue I knew was from Sidney Sheldon books and some Hollywood movies. I did not imagine that it could be packaged in such a way that was not only exciting, but also innocent in nature. While it had its moments of dirty acts and horrible events, the emotions of the characters was not hidden. Their motives were clear, by which I mean that whether it was full of deceit meant to hurt someone, or just to go out to party, there was the sense that this was befitting the characters.
Another reason why I am particularly attached to this series is because it uses the language of my Mother Tongue, which is Malay. Time for a bit of history lesson. Here in Singapore, we have our first language English, followed by our Mother Tongue, primarily Malay, Mandarin Chinese or Tamil. We were effectively bilingual from the moment we knew how to process words. I could be wrong, but the snippets of language in the books could have been Bahasa Indonesia, the national language of Indonesia, which is extremely close to Bahasa Melayu (which is Malay for "Malay Language"). To our well trained ears and eyes, of course, there is a heckload of difference between the two, which I shall save into another post if you'd like. I'll have to do some Googling on that.
Furthermore, if I have to jump to conclusions, I can see certain parallels between the world in the Trickster series and here, where I live. Racism is dealt with practically in the books, and I felt like I recognised with the characters. I felt for them, and I felt that I knew of their issues and their motivations.
Also, the idea that perhaps Tamora Pierce conducted research on our region for the books just makes me go squeee.
Wonderful, wonderful books. I'll have to re-read again and see if I find any more hidden gems.
Special mention:
HARRY POTTER SERIES
No explanation needed, yes?
Next up in the Series Support lineup: Bad First Impressions
0 comment(s):