Archive for adventure

Sea butterfly

July 9, 2009 at 15:38 · Filed under adventure, books, young adult ·Tagged ,

girlatseaGirl at Sea by Maureen Johnson
Clio Ford, 17, lives with her mother but gets stuck with her father and his crew for the summer, exploring the Mediterranean in search for an artifact. There’s her father’s new professor girlfriend Julia and her teen daughter Elsa, Julia’s research assistant Aidan, and her father’s friend Martin.

In close quarters on a luxury yacht, forced to share a bedroom with Elsa, Clio has been given cook duty. Her father tells her it’s not a party cruise, it’s a working vacation. Clio befriends Elsa, mourns the loss of her planned summer which included her art store-working crush Ollie back home, and grapples with her feelings for Aidan, who Elsa has declared will be her summer fling. There are a few flashbacks that reveal what the artifact is and Clio eventually discovers what exactly they’re searching for, a huge archaeological discovery.

We also find out how Clio’s parents separated and get glimpses at Clio’s earlier childhood, which included a hit board game that she co-created with her father. Overall – a fun read, good for summer. The humour and sarcasm worked for me and it went by quickly.

4/5

A dialogue teaser:

Everyone aboard gets assigned a com device and a number.

Clio pulled the tiny orange com from her pocket and looked on the back for Aidan’s number.
“Number Four,” she said. “You’re needed upstairs.”
Silence. Then a crackle and Clio’s father’s voice. “Number Five? Did you need Number Four?”
“Uh, yeah. Copy that,” Clio said, looking at Elsa and shrugging. “We need Number Four. He has something of Number Six’s. We have Three approval. Over?”
Elsa tumbled to her side and laughed into her pile of clothes. Clio held up a hand to quiet her.
“Okay, Five,” her father said. “Four’s on his way.”
“Roger, One. Over and out.” [pp. 83/84 hardcover]

HarperTeen, 2007

Maureen Johnson’s site

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Gaudi and Barcelona

October 9, 2008 at 10:33 · Filed under adventure, books, historical ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Gaudi Key by Esteban Martín and Andreu Carranza

Because of the Barcelona setting, I was optimistic going into this book. I’ve been fortunate to visit Barcelona once, and I’ve seen some of architect Antoni Gaudí’s work in person.

Just before he dies, Maria’s grandfather, the grand master of the Knights of Moriah, passes on a family secret that involves an ancient relic she must now find. There’s a good feel for the city, as Maria and her boyfriend Miguel race around Barcelona under a deadline, visiting various Gaudí works to find what they’re looking for. They are pursued by members of the enemy anarchist group, also intent on finding the relic. If you’ve read Dan Brown, it’s not hard to spot the similarities (secret societies; a secret passed down to a female relative; the secret having to do with Christianity – check, check, and check). Some of the exposition, usually through Taimatsu’s character, I found dry and it didn’t really hold my attention that well. I liked the flashback parts to Maria’s grandfather’s past more than a lot of the contemporary parts. It was a so-so read for me. Unless you have a particular interest in Gaudí, his architecture, and/or Barcelona, you may want to pass on this.

2.5/5

inside cover blurb excerpt:

In the early twentieth century, Barcelona basks as the center of the high-spirited Modernist movement that has captivated Western thought, art, and architecture. Yet while the city’s surface is aglow with creativity, its darker underworld hides a multitude of secret societies—those that support and those that seek to undermine the architects of the city’s newfound splendor.

When the death of the Grand Master of an ancient religious brotherhood seems imminent, a decision must be made as to the fate of a sacred object whose existence has been a guarded secret since the early Christian era. The Grand Master passes on the relic to a prominent member of his order, a man named Antonio Gaudí—already a celebrity in his own right. The great architect thus inherits a dual mission: to do all he can to protect the artifact from the covetous hands of those who seek to do evil and to preserve its secrecy by passing it on to a worthy person of his choosing—in this case, his young apprentice.

Almost a century later, María, the granddaughter of the apprentice to whom Gaudí passed along his secret, is charged with finding the relic. But after the mysterious death of her grandfather, María doesn’t know what the relic is, where it is located, or what she needs to do with it after she finds it.

The Gaudi Key by Esteban Martín and Andreu Carranza
translated from Spanish (La clave Gaudí) by Lisa Dillman
William Morrow, 2008
isbn: 978-0061434914 or 0061434914

Barcelona is definitely a unique place to visit – go, if you have the chance. Here’s a few of my own photos of Gaudí designs plus links to additional photos. These places are featured in The Gaudi Key.

Parc Güell

Like a gingerbread house

- More photos from Barcelona and links

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The Outlander: awards

October 1, 2008 at 22:26 · Filed under adventure, books, historical ·Tagged , , ,

I can’t remember exactly when I read The Outlander by Gil Adamson – it was either late 2007 or early 2008, but it’s one of my favourite reads of the last year. Great prose, well paced (I stayed up till the wee morning hours to finish it), action, suspense, and just an overall enjoyable read. Young widow Mary flees across the provinces, with her twin brothers-in-law in hot pursuit.

I’m pleased to see that Gil Adamson just won the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award – congrats! I don’t really follow book awards but upon further investigation, The Outlander also won the 2008 ReLit Award and the 2007 Hammett Prize for Crime Writing. It was also shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize / Best Book category, and shortlisted for the 2008 Trillium Book Prize.

You can read an excerpt from the book at Gil Adamson’s site.

House of Anansi Press, 2007, 978-0887842108 (Canadian hardcover)
House of Anansi Press, 2008, 978-0887848285 (Canada Reads 2009 paperback below)

blurb:

theoutlandercr

In 1903 a mysterious, desperate young woman flees alone across the west, one quick step ahead of the law. She has just become a widow by her own hand.

Gil Adamson’s extraordinary novel opens in heart-pounding mid-flight and propels the reader through a gripping road trip with a twist — the steely outlaw in this story is a grief-struck nineteen-year-old woman. As the young widow encounters characters of all stripes — unsavoury, wheedling, greedy, lascivious, self-reliant, and occasionally generous and trustworthy — Adamson weds her brilliant literary style to the gripping, moving, picaresque tale of one woman’s deliberate journey into the wild.



USA cover (Ecco, 2008) and UK cover (Bloomsbury, 2009)

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moderation and tai chi

September 10, 2008 at 11:05 · Filed under adventure, books, historical ·Tagged , , ,

Everything Under the Sky by Matilde Asensi

An adventure in 1920s China with an Indiana Jones vibe. (When I read the blurb for this, I thought it was a contemporary book). Elvira, her teenage niece Fernanda, Biao the young servant and translator, Lao Jiang the antiquarian, and monk Master Red Jade dodge the Green Gang in their quest to put together three pieces of an ancient map directing them to the first emperor’s tomb and treasure.

Released in August, while the Olympics were hosted by China, it’s a timely read. It’s excellently researched and I thought the exposition was done fairly well – the reader learns about things like concepts of Taoism and feng shui. Chinese culture, beliefs, language and history are woven into the story and into the puzzles. I liked the challenges of getting through the multilevel underground tomb in particular. I felt the setting and puzzles were the strongest and most distinguishing parts of the book. Elvira, while a changed woman at the end, I didn’t find too endearing a protagonist. She was just too… screechy for my taste. Of the group, Biao and Master Red Jade were my favourite characters.

There are some endnotes, about 50 of them. Personally, I would have preferred footnotes because I’m lazy with having to flip pages back and forth.

3.5/5

inside jacket blurb:

After receiving word of her husband’s death, Spanish painter Elvira De Poulain travels to Shanghai to claim his body and put his affairs in order. Prim and straitlaced, Elvira feels out of place in this exotic city teeming with unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells. She longs to return home to Paris as soon as possible. Her charming but dissolute spouse has left her with massive debts, thanks to his fondness for gambling, prostitutes, and opium, and she has no idea how she will repay the enormous sum.

As it turns out, her ailing husband did own something of extraordinary value, and was mysteriously killed by thugs who wanted it for themselves: a beautifully crafted box that holds clues to the location of the remains of China’s First Emperor—and the unimaginable riches buried alongside him.
Joining forces with a colorful Irish journalist, a wily local antiquarian, and a brilliant orphaned servant boy, Elvira is swept up into the journey of a lifetime as these mismatched partners embark on an arduous trek to find the sacred site—with assassins in relentless pursuit.

Despite the ever-present risk, Elvira gradually acclimates to China’s language, culture, and geography, while the grueling physical challenges and complex intellectual puzzles required to locate the tomb test her strength, her courage, and her smarts in every possible way.
One of the most successful historical thriller writers of her generation, Matilde Asensi outdoes herself while focusing on a country and culture that, to this day, remain shrouded in mystery.

Everything under the sky by Matilde Asensi
translated from Spanish (Todo bajo el cielo) by Lisa Carter
Harper, August 2008
isbn: 978-0061458415 or 0061458414
available at amazon.ca

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Diana Gabaldon sneak peek

September 4, 2008 at 18:57 · Filed under adventure, books, fantasy, historical ·Tagged , , ,

Outlander series fan? Get over to Diana Gabaldon’s blog, where an excerpt for the upcoming An Echo in the Bone (book seven) has been posted. I’m sort of glad I didn’t discover this series until a couple of years ago. I glommed the first five books in a one month period. Patient? Not so much.

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