Book Review: Six of Crows

Photo source: sffbookreview.wordpress.com

By: Mary Wetterer, Staff Reporter

This week one of the books I read was Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Of course I had to reread it for the umpteenth time and needless to say, it’s still a wonderful read. From the catchy repetition of “no mourners, no funerals” to the incredibly complex character development (which, in case you were wondering, only gets more complex in the sequel, Crooked Kingdom), this book has something for everyone.

Let’s introduce the crows, shall we. Let’s start with the description on the back of the book:

“A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.”

Kaz Brekker. “A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.” Bastard of the Barrel. Dirty Hands. The man who is whispered about like a spindle-fingered monster that hides under children’s beds. Does he have claws for hands or are they perpetually covered in blood? No one knows, he always wears gloves. But he certainly has his hands dirty, and that’s something everyone knows. (and I have a charm of him hanging from my purse!)

Inej Ghafa. “A spy known as the Wraith.” Inej is the moral compass of the crows, or Dregs as they’re known by mostly, she has an amazing personality that is unique and inspiring. She is who we all should strive to be. (I have a picture of her hanging on my wall!)

Nina Zenik. “A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.” And the perfect introduction to the amazing magic system of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse! She is a pure and utter icon. That’s it. She’s amazing. Read the book. If you read it while eating waffles Nina would approve.

Jesper Fahey. “A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.” He is such an icon, also. He’s a gambler but it’s not treated as a “wow how cute and quirky” it’s treated like an actual problem and gets dealt with accordingly. His personality is fun and flighty and overall he’s someone I’d love to be friends with.

Wylan (last name not included for spoiler reasons). “A runaway with a privileged past.” The cute soft boy who is also a complete murder boy. Described by Kaz as someone who "looked like a child—smooth-skinned, wide-eyed, like a silk-eared puppy in a room full of fighting dogs." When I first read the book I ate that description up, and I still love it.

Matthias Helvar. “A convict with a thirst for revenge.” He is a very interesting character, one of the most complex yet entirely simplistic characters I’ve ever read about. His story arc mainly consists of him overcoming his prejudices and coming to terms with who he’s become. Even though Inej is the actual moral compass, Matthias likes to think of himself as the moral compass.

With the combination of these six developed characters and the rich world of the Grishaverse, this book is simultaneously character and world driven. But wait there’s more! It’s also plot driven! For the first chunk of the book, Kaz is gathering his team to take on the previously quoted “impossible heist.” Why, you may ask, is he doing this? Money, of course. If you need to know one thing about Kaz it’s that he loves money. There’s a bit of Kaz in all of us, I think. Especially with the overbearing college debts. The world is well-developed and begging to be explored. If you enjoy complex worlds and characters with intense backstories.

Bardugo gave her characters believable traits that made them feel real, thus further immersing the reader into the story and giving them the opportunity to connect with the characters. I never want to leave this world and these characters have affected my life in many ways.

For example, throughout this duology the inclusion of mental illness is not cast in a negative light as it often is. Within our society, there is demonization, over-exaggeration, and even fetishization of mental illnesses, especially within movies and media. However, Bardugo crafts realistic characters that go through realistic symptoms of trauma. The fact that, even while most of them are killers, Bardugo never fell back on the classic “mental illness is just like that, man” attitude. This should be something regularly practiced in society but the fact that it is not causes me to give fantasy authors that do this All The Props.

Six of Crows gets twenty out of ten flowers. And Crooked Kingdom (which I have also read multiple times) gets a preemptive infinity out of ten flowers.

A science fiction filled Christmas

(Photo courtesy of Connie Willis)

By: Andrianna Veatch, Staff Reporter

On Saturday evening, November 11th, 2017, the Tattered Book Cover on Colfax hosted a book talk and signing by Connie Willis.  Connie Willis is a Grandmaster of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, eleven-time Hugo award winner, and seven-time Nebula award winner, and authoress of over thirty books.  Her newest release, titled A Lot Like Christmas, contains all of the stories from her previous Christmas title, Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories, as well as five previously unpublished works.  Full of fun, flights of fancy, and solid science-fiction, the book is a pure delight for the holiday season.

At the beginning of her talk, Willis read a section from her short story “All Seated on the Ground,” a hilarious account of an alien ‘invasion’ occurring at Christmas time, and humanity’s attempts to communicate with the aliens.  The piece manages to capture a vast cast of characters and mindsets, from the tired-sounding but funny main character to a bunch of little choir girls who help solve a mystery; all throughout the story is entertaining and layered with irony.

A good story, according to Willis, contains irony, which she described as “…the gap between what you expect and what is.”  The Christmas Story—the birth of Christ—is rich in such irony: the Magi expecting to honor a king, and finding only a kid; Herod getting backstabbed by the Magi when he requests their help in locating this king-kid. It is this irony that serves to make the Greatest Story Ever Told so satisfying.  This topic of discussion soon led to a writing tip pertained to good endings:  a happy ending needs to feel deserved—or else it becomes contrived, shoehorned in for convenience.  There must be suffering which leads to rewards; otherwise, readers will become cranky.  Willis revealed another important writing tip:  Readers care about the most simple details; in one of her earlier works, Willis mentioned in passing a “Molasses Swamp” card for the Candyland game, and soon received an irate letter from someone explaining that there is NO “Molasses Swamp” card for the Candyland game.  No matter what the subject, topic, or detail is, somewhere out there, somebody will care genuinely about it, so solid research is an excellent ingredient for successful writing and satisfied readers.

Future projects to look out for from Willis include a novel about a rollicking road-trip to Roswell, New Mexico, and another addition to her Oxford Time Travelers books.  And no, she has never been kidnapped by aliens.

Cuddle with a Tormal: Retro writer for winter reading

(Photo: Virgil Finlay)

By: Andrianna Veatch, Staff Reporter

Murray Leinster, the pen name of William F. Jenkins, is the man behind many of science fiction’s most commonly known themes, especially “first contact” and parallel universes.  Born on June 16, 1896, he quickly became one of the most prominent sci-fi writers of the twentieth century, and he produced hundreds of works in his fifty-year career.

This career of prominence began with The Runaway Skyscraper, published in 1919, though it was by no means his first foray into the writing world.  Indeed, a short story titled My Neighbors was published under his Christian name in The Smart Set magazine of Misters H. L. Mencken and George G. Nathan in February 1916.  While he genuinely established his name as a science fiction writer, Murray also produced works in other genres, including mysteries, adventure tales, pulp-staple westerns, romance, and movie scripts.

Leinster is mainly known for his Med Ship Saga, chronicling the adventures of Calhoun and his tormal, Murgatroyd, as they battle plagues, poisons and other planetary medical disasters aboard the spaceship Aesclipus Twenty (or just Esclipus Twenty, depending on publication year and magazine).

The old saying goes, and modern readers can afford a chuckle at some of Leinster’s outdated  1900s technology: the spaceship navigation computers in “Ribbon in the Sky” are programmed with punched cards, and every story of the Med Ship series mentions the Aesclipus Twenty’s background tapes and overdrive-breakout tapes.  These were not books written just to entertain, but also to foster questioning and thinking in their readers.  There are not rare moments where Leinster deals with genuine issues:  Pariah Planet discusses the horrific generational effects of racism and fear; The Mutant Weapon reveals a carefully crafted plan for mass genocide.  

Leinster’s father died when he was only thirteen, successfully squelching any hopes the boy had about becoming a chemist, but what was denied him in one future delivered in another.  He was the father of the “first contact” concept so popular in alien-themed movies today, and his story “Sideways in Time,” published in 1934, first introduced the idea of parallel universes.  At the heart of it all, his work has withstood the test of time, and readers willing to delve through the technology of yesteryear will not be disappointed in the solid stories told therein—plus, Murgatroyd will steal your heart