Book #1: Awakenings (Restoration Book 1), Faith King and Laura Josephsen

[grav_ity]

Do I need to mention that just typing my subject has made me smile like a dork? sache8 and laura_josephsen WROTE A BOOK!!!!

Technically, I read this book for the first time in 2008, when Faith asked me to and I met Laura and volunteered to drive to Ohio and draw them a map if they didn't have one (they did), but since I can actually HOLD IT IN MY HANDS now, I'm counting it as Book #1 of 2011.

action, adventure, inspirational, girls with swords, boys with swords, handmaidens, pixie fairies, Epic Destiny, cute animals and so on.



I really love this book, you guys. I'd forgotten some of my favourite smaller bits (like the part about it being lucky to find a wind-torn banner from Montressa), and I was pleased to discover that my favourite scene is still the same one (the one where Xari jumps out of the Eyries).

Now I need to talk about Anathriel. Because she is awesome. It's funny, because she's totally obnoxious at the beginning, and I kind of love her anyway. Because she's AWESOME. She gets them out of Montressa, she insists on being a skirty, she heals people she doesn't necessarily like, she USES HER BRAIN, and she gives up the one thing she's always wanted in order to give everyone else what they want. On, like, NINE DIFFERENT LEVELS.

I really, really don't like Zeth. I am pretty sure that my feelings about him are directly the result of my feelings for Anathriel, because he basically got on my "bad" list in his very first scene by being needlessly mean to her. I'm sure I'll warm up to him eventually, but mostly I spend Book One skimming his scenes. It's not a writer thing (she hastens to add, since she really does love the character just not the character), but for some reason...yeah.

XARI IS THE BEST. Her faith, her swords, her determination, her always saying the right thing, and then EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT HER. And that's just my review of her character in Book 1, peeps. I am keeping you all spoiler free. :)

Immen and I also got off to a bad start, because of how he didn't like Anathriel, but he made it up to me by falling in love with my favourite character, who is probably a better match for him anyway. I love how he approaches his talks with Xari, and the way we see his faith begin. He has, I think, one of the great tragedies in the book, because he loves Zephyr a lot, and he'll never get to hear her talk.

Ashe cracks me up, Jesper is possibly my favourite "best friend" of all time, Heron just makes me SO SAD, and Flute! Oh, FLUTTERMOUSE YOU ARE ADORABLE, NEVER CHANGE! She is just so earnest, and it would be silly and patronizing if it wasn't so HONEST. The scene where she defends the Master to the shvri just makes me tear up every time, and the part where she's Zeth's Guardian will probably go a long way towards making me like him.

I think my favourite part of Awakenings is that the Master calls people who don't believe in Him (yet). Anathriel has the apathy thing going on, and Zeth has Deep Personal Scarring (yet another reason I'm probably slow to warm up to him...), but that doesn't stop Him from reaching out to them, and I kind of love it. The best example (uh, besides the part where Anathriel actually says the words out loud), is when Anathriel prays (sarcastically) for guidance, and then Xari appears out of nowhere and tells her exactly what she needs to hear. It's subtle and pretty, and just AWESOME. I love that it's always "Xari's Master" (both in internal monologue and out loud), and I can't wait to watch it shift.

In closing, the part on the back where it talks about "dangerous liaisons" will never stop being funny, and I am giving it a 9 out of 10, because I know (some of) what's coming, and I'll be needing that 10 later. ;)

(If you would like, you can purchase Awakenings on Amazon, here.)

Comments

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recc... I've put it on my 'to check out' list :)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

It's the first book in a fairly lengthy series, so quite a bit of it is set up, but it's still a really strong story, and the characters are great.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, when it comes to genre books I'm okay with extended set-up as long as the characters are strong and there's some semblance of rising action/problem/solution :)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Then you should be okay. There's no Voldemort or Sauron-type villain, but there is a lot of movement.

[laura-josephsen.livejournal.com]

Plus, there's not one villain throughout the whole series. All of the books go into each other in some way, but some of them are more...standalone-ish? Books 1 and 2 are like one giant story arc, but book 3 is set apart. The others all tie into those. The first three books pretty much set up everything.

[sache8.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!! I love that you love the book. *GG*

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

*hearts*

[laura-josephsen.livejournal.com]

Do you have any idea how giddy it makes me to read this? Because, like, I got any first impressions about Awakenings from you via Faith, since I didn't know you at the time. I remember you saying you'd come make us a map if we didn't have one, though! :D :D :D That had totally slipped my mind until I read it.

I always find it awesome and fascinating to see the different characters/aspects that different people like/dislike about the book, because they're all SO different. As the author, I had a hard, hard time warming up to Anathriel and I liked Zeth instantly, for various reasons, but I think because my perspective on it was Anathriel being unnecessarily mean to Zeth. ;) Which makes it that much more interesting to me that you see it the other way. (Seriously, I think if Anathriel hadn't started off her conversation with him going "Does your master know you're here, slave?" he would have been much nicer to her.

Also, I love character perspectives and exploring them--like Xari's perspective on her childhood and, erm, other certain people's perspectives on it--and most of Zeth's scenes are shown through Anathriel's biases toward him. They just did not hit it off. I hope to sway you toward Zeth in book 4, but if not...you'll have book 5 to look forward to for other people. :p But I love your perspectives on all of these characters and seeing what YOU see in them. I love that you love Xari and that you love the inspirational subtleties, and FLUTE and Jesper and everything else.

Oh, Immen. *rubs hands together* Faith and I despaired because we did not want him to be the Perfect Character and...well, let's just say that comes around to character perpsectives, too. *shifty eyes*

Thank you SO SO SO SO SO much, for this review, for your years of support, for SO MUCH MORE that would take me pages to talk about.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

"Does your master know you're here, slave?"

Admittedly, not her best moment. But she was really stressed about things! And...you know!

:)

[laura-josephsen.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I sure do. ;) Zeth didn't know, though, and it kind of went downhill from there.

I'm so excited that we've started really writing book 4. :D

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

ME TOO!

[smor.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with all that you said. And I still love that Fluttermouse's nickname is Flute. :D

[dm-lunsford.livejournal.com]

You know, in the back of my mind while I was reading I did wonder what it was like for you, having been privy to this story from way back but only now being able to make certain declarations publicly. So I'm glad this day has come for you, as well as for the authors. :)

I enjoyed it very much. And will at some point attempt to make my own thoughts known in my LJ.

I will say that I think, on some level, Immen might actually have stood out as my favorite character overall. Well, perhaps it's a toss up between him and Flute. Because how can anyone not ADORE Flute?

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Oh, just you wait until Book Three! ;)

Flute is SO AWESOME. I launched the ff.net page with a ficlet about her that I've been DYING to write (which was an entirely surreal experience for me, let me tell you!)

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!