City of Ice, by Laurence Yep

[mrissa]

Review copy provided by Tor.

I read this book with the full knowledge that I was doing something I try not to do: reading a series out of order. But my logic was as follows: 1) they didn't send me the first book in the series; 2) the library doesn't have it; 3) I don't want to go out and buy and read a book just to read another book when I don't even know if I'll like either one; 4) it's a YA, and a lot of kids end up reading series out of order because of the vagaries of the library system, their aunts and uncles' gift-giving tendencies, or whatever. So reading this one out of order is not inappropriate for what it is.

This is extremely thoroughly the second book of a trilogy, not a stand-alone work. And yet I got caught up remarkably quickly--interesting, since I started another second book right after finishing it, how much more utilitarian children's/YA authors are willing to be at the "these are the characters and what they've been up to" part--although it probably helps that this is the "character as role" version of YA adventure characterization, with one character as The Comic Relief, another as The Soul Of Honor, etc.

That sounds lukewarm, and in fact it's not. I liked this book, and not just because it was filled with Inuit spirits and Arctic animals. (Although I am easily bought that way.) I've gone and added the first one to my list even though it sounds like it's set completely away from happy snowy things. It's an alternate history that is not fixated on all the historical figures coming out the same way as they do in our universe or making cameos; it's a completely syncretist approach to mythology, but in a way that's more selective than just sticking stories in a blender and pressing a button. This is very middle-book, so the characters' struggles are not completely resolved, but they do struggle, and they care about each other, sometimes in difficult ways, and there are lots of fun bits of imagery.

Possibly I am just a sucker for giant shapeshifting polar bears.

Comments

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Giant shapeshifting polar bears? Awesome!

[kchew.livejournal.com]

I really liked the first one (City of Fire). I'm looking forward to the second, and am glad that you liked it! More reason to look forward to it.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

...WHY did it never occur to me that the man who wrote Dragonwings would also have written OTHER BOOKS? My third-grade self is kicking me right now. Hey, good thing I'm teaching ESL now, I have a super-duper-good reason to investigate this fully.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, I am now trying to figure out where to start, because our library has severalmany, and Dragonwings is all I've read, too. I mean, it looks like he's got all sorts of stuff that's relevant to my interests, so there's probably not a bad place to start.

I had not noticed how "relevant to my interests" and "relevant to teaching ESL" had started to overlap. Huh, interesting.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Everything in the world is possible teaching fodder!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Everything in the world is possible story fodder, too! Is a big part of why I'm a writer.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Fantasy-wise, Dragon of the Lost Sea; I really like that quartet.

Non-fantasy-wise, my favorite is Child of the Owl, which is the 1960s-Chinatown-in-San-Francisco-with-enjoyable-girl-protagonist part of the Golden Mountain Chronicles. The Golden Mountain Chronicles are Yep's saga of one family's descendants between China and the U.S. over a couple of centuries; the continuity is sufficiently loose that it has multiple entry points and sometimes you can't tell the books are related unless you know. Dragonwings is actually one of those, so in Child of the Owl we are dealing with I think a granddaughter, although it isn't obvious.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Dragonwings is the only one I've read, too. I read it to my kids, as one of our chapter-a-night-after-tucked-in-bed books, many years ago. We all loved it.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I did read the first one, and I have been waiting for this one quite impatiently. It sounds even more fun than I had hoped.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I suspect you would also be a sucker for tiny shapeshifting polar bears.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This is entirely correct.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

...I want one. Immediately.

[vcmw]

Oooh, I loved City of Fire, and have already put in a request, months ago, waiting for City of Ice at the library. I think that the Dragon of the Lost Sea book and sequels were in my, oh, top 5 or 6 kids fantasy series when I was a kid. He's also quite good at short stories, and I remember liking a collection called, I think, The Rainbow People.