Castle Waiting vol. II by Linda Medley

This.

Yes.

This is good.

You should read it.

Okay, clearly I loved this. But actually I must as a provision to that recommendation. If you read Castle Waiting (vol 1), then yes, you should definitely read this.

The premise is this: After Sleeping Beauty was awakened by her Prince, she left to go be his wife in his kingdom. But who was supposed to rule her old land? And what happened to the castle she left behind? This graphic novel set attempts to answer those questions, filling the castle with a unique and wonderful mix of new characters, some giving us glimpses into a fairy tale world we are familiar with, but generally enriching it with new stories.

It's fabulous. It's funny: I laughed out loud often while reading this (vol 2), causing my attempting-to-nap husband to give me dark looks. If you aren't very into graphic novels, this is a good one to try. It's not terrible cartoony: the artwork is simple, elegant, and clear.

I suppose I should say that it's also powerfully a women's story, but to me that seems kind of silly. There are strong and well-rounded male and female characters, and isn't that how the best stories should be? I think this is one of the best stories, and I do hope Ms. Medley will continue.

The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines

The more I read of Jim Hines work, the more I love his writing. If you are a regular reader of this blog, PLEASE do yourself a favor and read his Princess series. You will not regret it!

This is the fourth (and final) installment in the series, and it was good. Really good. Amazing. I was not expecting to laugh out loud, or to cry, and I did both. (Really my eyes just misted up for a moment... I swear.... >.>)

I don't want to tell you too much of the plot, in case you haven't read the previous books. Let me tell you a bit about the characters, instead.

Danielle (Cinderella) is the princess of Lorindar, married to prince Armand. She had a glass sword which never cuts her, the legacy gift of her mother. She knows how to use it. She has a son and the powerful love she has for her family shines through her actions. She is totally the brains of the operation. She still cleans a bit around the palace, out of habit.

Talia (Sleeping Beauty) is gifted with fairy beauty, grace, and charm. And she despises the fairies for it--after all, those gifts lead to the downfall of her family, her 100 years of sleep, and her rape by the prince who "rescued" her. Now she's a fighter, fiercely loyal to her friends, and stubbornly resistant to the use of magic. And she's lost her heart to someone who can't return her love.

Snow (Snow White!) is a powerful sorceress who uses her mirror magic to light their way, see far away places, and more, though the toll of her magic is more than she admits. She is sensual and sexy and sassy, by far the most glib of the three. She has a more serious side, and the effects of her broken heart (her mother killed the one man she really loved) follow her through her more carefree years with Danielle and Talia.

The three of them together form a sort of kick-ass/Charlie's Angels-esque secret agency for Queen Beatrice, and they stop the truly awful magic and political attacks on the Kingdom of Lorindar. Though these books are funny, I would hesitate to call them lighthearted: Hines gives the princesses real stakes, and the consequences for their failures follow them through the series. There is no "and everything went back to normal" at the end of each installation. And because of that, they are more powerful, and will get to you, more than you expect!

As much as I love the cover art (and I do!) I think the covers are a little misleading. You might look at them and think: "Here are some hard-core chicks! All right!" And that's true... but there is a lot of depth to the stories as well, and I'm not sure the covers quite nail just how... good!... these books are.

Unlike perpetual series (which Hines admitted on his blog was his original conception for the Princess novels) which can drag on in a state of limbo, each book in the series gets better. I loved his use in this one, not only of The Snow Queen, but also of Snow White and Rose Red, in a most unexpected manner. The character development and plot were perfect, making the quartet of books one of my all-time favorite fairy tale adaptations. These aren't retellings, per se--most of Hines's books deal with the aftermath of the stories we know. Just what does "Happily Ever After" mean? More trouble, usually--and I think that's part of what makes them more enjoyable that the average retelling.

Please read these! You'll be glad you did, and if you ever have a little girl who is obsessed with Disney Princesses, here are three amazing, charming, and fabulous princesses you can introduce her to, as well.

Sleeping Beauty by Cannon Movie Tales

Another entry in the Cannon Movie Tale collection, Sleeping Beauty takes a loooong look at the difficulties of giving birth to a princess. In fact, the buildup to the princess being born, and the Christening/gift-bestowing, take up the majority of the movie, leaving about 20 minutes for Rosebud, age 16, to prick her finger, fall asleep, and get rescued.

The Queen (Morgan Fairchild) is so sad that she can't have a child, until one day an troublemaking elf, determined to redeem himself, conjures up a fertility potion (which the King almost drinks because the Queen won't tell him what it's for). After much rigmarole involving the gathering of ingredients, and with a nod to Rip Van Winkle and other fairy tales, the princess is at long last born. The King and Queen invite everyone in the land to come celebrate their daughter's birth, but when the cook goes to prepare the meal, he discovers that there aren't enough golden plates for all the fairies, so they knock the Red Fairy off the list (cause nobody's ever heard of her).

Everyone gathers, as you would expect (except the wisdom fairy dawdles for some reason, which of course turns out to be for the best). I have to say--the wealth fairy? What a rip off. The King and Queen are already rich. That's the fairy they should have dissed.

So then the Red Fairy shows up, all fiery and devil-like, and curses and cackles. Then the White Fairy gives her gift, the modification of the curse, and takes off without answering any questions, in spite of the king calling after her for help. The elf who helped the queen get pregnant whispers to her to burn all the spinning wheels. Which they do, in the hope that it will help.

Fast forward 16 years (at an hour into the production) and Princess Rosebud is in the garden, singing about flowers. Her nursemaid comes and finds her and lets slip that although the kingdom is in tatters now, they used to make cloth! For some reason, nobody has the idea to trade for any kind of clothing until Rosebud suggests it. So the king and queen go off on an expedition for cloth, leaving Rosebud alone with her nursemaid and all her guards and the elf to watch over her.

She immediately gets into all kinds of trouble:

And pricks her finger, falls asleep, the White Fairy puts the castle to sleep, and a random wandering prince shows up and rescues her, 100 years later. The end.

I had, ahem, a couple issues with the pacing of this version of Sleeping Beauty: a whole lot of build-up for very little character development, particularly of Rosebud and the... prince... Prince... somebody. Even so, it's good light entertainment if you want something to watch with the kids or something that doesn't require your entire attention. It's fun to watch for the occasional reference to other fairy tales, and although none of the musical numbers are particularly strong, they aren't bad, either.

The DVD isn't currently available in Region 1 formatting, although you can get it in Region 2 formatting on amazon. However, you can watch it for free on hulu, and most things are worth watching at that price!

The Wide-Awake Princess by E. D. Baker

The Wide-Awake Princess is just so fun. I don't even know another word for it. Well, "good" is another word that describes it pretty well, but it doesn't really tell you anything.

Princess Gwendolyn is, as we all know, cursed to prick her finger and die on her sixteenth birthday. And of course, the curse is modified, so the story goes. But when her parents have a second child, their attempt to prevent any more curses has an unexpected result: Annie's fairy gift is that NO magic can touch her, good or bad.

So when the castle population does succumb to the curse, Annie is left, wide-awake, with the threat of 100 years of sleep not sounding too good, if she wants to spend any more time with her family. Instead of waiting around for a prince to show up and kiss her sister, Annie sets out on a quest through the neighboring kingdoms, with the help of a guard who was running errands when the fateful finger-pricking occurred.

I loved the magical-gifts-run-amok in Ms. Baker's world: all the nobility in the land was so fairy-blessed they couldn't do a thing without their magic. Annie's view of the world without magic was startling and funny, as she saw things that others had hidden by means of magic. The collection and variety of princes she collected was entertaining, as well.

This was a quick and, dare I say it again, fun read, aimed at middle-grade readers, but with enough references and humor to be amusing to fairy tale lovers of any age. I will definitely be checking out Ms. Baker's other books.

Check out E. D. Baker's site and other works here.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Wyrd Sisters: Or, Terry Pratchett's Macbeth.

Honestly, I am not sure who I'm recommending this to, other than anyone, everyone, who hasn't read it. While it is a retelling of a famous story, it's a retelling in the loosest terms. Yet as I reread it recently, I couldn't help but notice how much fairy tale tropery Pratchett uses--and turns on his head.

For lovers of fantasy and folklore, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a Discworld novel, and this is a great starting place. If you're not familiar with the series, the first book is The Colour of Magic. However, the series is made of subseries, and Wyrd Sisters is the first one featuring my favorite character, Granny Weatherwax, an extraordinary witch and headologist.

Plus: Macbeth! Shakespeare! And other fairy tale references.

The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines

If this cover art doesn't make you want to pick this book up and read it, well, I don't know what would work for you. And Jim Hines has managed, with exceptional talent, to write a sequel that is as good as the first book in his Princess series.

Following the further adventures of Danielle, Talia, and Snow (respectively Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White), the story picks up as Danielle sails with her mother-in-law on a diplomatic mission to the mermaids--which goes terribly wrong, terribly quickly. The three princesses must race to save their Queen and Kingdom in this fast-paced, exciting sequel to The Stepsister Scheme.

The series is one of the best I've seen at genuinely updating the sensibilities of the characters, making them three-dimensional and feminist, while retaining the fun and whimsy--as well as the darker sides--of the fairy tales they draw from.

I am mentioning this book in its own entry because, well, it's awesome in its own right. I suggest reading the books in order, as there is a lot of character and plot development that's consistent through the series. Hines follows this one up with Red Hood's Revenge, and I am looking forward to the fourth installment, The Snow Queen's Shadow, which should be released next July.

Also be sure to check out Hines's blog for more information on upcoming books and a number of other cool topics.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly

I was really hesitant to read this when I heard about it, because I am wary of books about children that claim to be for grown-ups. Not that that's a recipe for failure, by any means, but it made me set it aside, mentally, until it popped up again in my life in the form of my friend Annamarie.

Annamarie is not a BIG reader. She loves books about horses, and fairy tales where everything comes out okay in the end. I have recommended a lot to her; she had never returned the favor--until The Book of Lost Things. Which she insisted emphatically that I read. And dragged me to a bookstore, and bought it for me, and put it in my hands, and sat me down, and forced me to read the beginning so that I would be hooked and read it right away.

Which I did, nearly in one sitting. And oh my. What an excellent recommendation.

This is the story of David, a 12-year-old boy who's just lost his mother. When his father remarries and has another son, David retreats into his books and fairy tales, but gets much more drawn in than he expected.

And, oh, the references and rewritings. With many stories twisted into new shapes (including a Beauty and the Beast where the Beast is the woman--and the Beauty does not free her from her spell--and a Sleeping Beauty where the sleeper awakens every night and is more of a danger to the princes than any thorns ever were), David explores a new land where the greatest danger will be the ones he calls from his own imagination.

Try to figure out who the villain is before the reveal at the end. (Yeah, I totally did.)

This is now one of my favorites books. (I don't say that too often, do I???) Check it out!

I do recommend the paperback edition with the red cover, as there's a section of notes at the back of the book, with Connelly's thoughts on the fairy tales he used, as well as original versions of the tales.

AND

I know that I say "This is one of my new favorite books!" far too often, especially here where I am talking about my favorite kind of book. But I really want to back that up this time, with this exceptionally good book.

SO.

A GIVEAWAY!

Post a link back to this blog on your blog for 1 entry, or on twitter for 1 entry. (If you have multiple blogs you can have an entry for each blog you post on, but only one entry per blog.)

Be sure to put a comment on this entry so I can see your links!

I'll draw a random winner on Friday, December 3rd, and I'll send the winner a copy of The Book of Lost Things.

Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper

Beauty is a particularly complex fairy tale retelling, touching on Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella, with references to others along the way. From the first time I heard of it, I was determined to read it, but broke. Fortunately I walked past the fiction section at the library and it yelled to me, "Here I am!" from the shelf where it had been waiting for me. True story.

I found this to be a very engaging book, holding my attention through the unusual plot twists. Although Beauty has received some criticism for hosting such disparate elements (from a 14th century princess to a future dystopia) I was utterly captivated while reading. Tepper manages to write an issues book without being preachy (although some readers will disagree with me; I thought the story was in the forefront the whole time, rather than the issues).

Overall, the book was much... BIGGER than I was expecting. Tepper bravely goes to a whole different level with her book. While some feel it's less successful, I have to give her mucho credit for her bold, unique book. It's certainly worth a shot.

Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms Week: The Sleeping Beauty

The fifth book in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, The Sleeping Beauty is new as of this July. Touching on both our major "Beauty Asleep" stories, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, the Godmother Lily is keeping a sharp eye on the Kingdom, trying to figure out which way the Tradition will push things--but it seems to like Princess Rosamund for either version, and before she can figure it out, the Princess is whisked out of her sight.

To further complicate things, Prince Siegfried wanders into the kingdom with his own sleeping beauty problems--this one being his aunt, with whom he's supposed to fall in love with, ick. As you might imagine, he's doing all he can to avoid his Traditional fate. This throws another wrench in the works for Godmother Lily, who must do all in her power to persuade the Tradition to work for her before the kingdom's enemies, on all borders, come crashing in.

With a clever plan, and a bit of luck, they all might find a happy ending. Okay, okay, this is a Lackey book... of course they'll find a happy ending, and it won't be entirely outside the realm of predictability, but we're just here to enjoy the ride, right?

Once more, I wish Lackey would stop having her characters explain things to each other, after she's had them think about things to explain them to us. BUT having said that, this is a clever weaving of stories. I especially like the third sleeping beauty aspect, from Norse/German tradition. In her introduction, Lackey recommends checking out Anna Russell's routine, "Ring of the Nebulungs (An Analysis)".

So when I was a couple chapters into the book, I got distracted by the internet (more a reflection on my personal habits than on the book), and decided to look it up. Personally, I recommend watching it before you read the books, if you aren't familiar with Siegfried's story. (If you are familiar, it could go either way.) I'll include it here (three 9ish minute youtube videos) for ease of reference:

(The routine is hilarious. I add my recommendation to Ms. Lackey's, for what it's worth!)

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

Let me just start with: Awesome.

This is the first book in Jim C. Hines' Princess series, featuring a Cinderelle, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty who will have you completely rethinking your Disney versions. These ladies are based on their original prototypes--that is to say, Cinderella (Danielle) can talk to birds, and Snow White's (Snow!--don't ask her if you can call her by her real name!) nemesis is her own mother, not a stepmother. And you probably know what happened to Sleeping Beauty (Talia).

I was beyond impressed with this. It's fast-paced, funny, and interesting, without losing sight of the characters and giving all three of these girls a lot more depth that they usually get. If you haven't read it, please give yourself the opportunity to enjoy it!

Jim C. Hines also has a blog that's great reading.

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on a spindle and sleeps for 100 years. Then she's awakened by her Prince's kiss and falls madly in love with him at first sight, and is carried off to his palace to be his bride.

So what happens to the castle? The kingdom remnants have slipped away... there's nothing much left to rule, but here is this castle and the servants who were asleep with the princess for 100 years. What are they to do?

Linda Medley explores the question in her beautiful graphic novel, Castle Waiting. This collection brings together the first 12 issues of the Eisner Award-winning series. This is one of those books that you can just immerse yourself into, the drawings as compelling as the writing, the story spun slowly out so that even as the action moves on, the character's past is revealed in tantalizing tidbits. With engaging nested stories (for those who like that style), this book ends up including multiple tales, all with fairy-tale flavor, feminine empowerment in a range of forms, and some wonderful offhand references to other stories.

The artwork is gorgeous and creative, a far cry from the "cartoony" feel of some comic books, so if you haven't read any graphic novels before, this might be a good one to try. Altogether, Medley portrays her story well, both in words and images, for a delightful exploration of Sleepy Beauty's castle. I'm looking forward to Volume 2.

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

I quite enjoyed Alex Flinn's Beastly, so I was excited to pick up her take on Sleeping Beauty, A Kiss in Time. (Which, by the way, great title, incorporating the time of the spell, the kiss to break the spell, and just a hint of an allusion to sewing, evoking the expression "a stitch in time," which of course ties into the whole spinning/thread/sewing aspect of the original story and Flinn's retelling.)

This tale was a little lighter than Beastly, which I think explores a little more of the dark nature of humanity as the Beast struggles to understand himself and his situation. A Kiss in Time is definitely more about the nature of romance and love, and while the characters do go through some personal discoveries, there's definitely more humor (as a girl whose been asleep for a hundred years discovers the modern world!)

Definitely recommended if you're looking for a light, fun read. The nice thing about this is that, with the original tale, and quite a few of the retellings I've read, there seems to be some idea that the world hasn't changed that much during the time Sleeping Beauty is asleep. But when you think about how many changes there have been in the last 100 years.... Alex Flinn's tale is well worth reading.

Check out more of Alex Flinn's books and adaptations at her website: http://www.alexflinn.com/