Daughter of Smoke and Bone - read it!

This is such an unusual book - the blurb on the cover compares it with the Pan's Labyrinth and Northern Lights - but I am not sure that mash-up does the intricate tale justice.  Certainly you will need to have your imagination in full working order to truly enjoy this tale of portals into other worlds, chimaeras who have animal attributes and human features mixed and angels/ seraphs as vengeful warriors.  The language is descriptive without being heavy, incredibly romantic in places and at others the banter is witty and current. I found it easy to embrace the heroine of Karou, a 16 year old art student who feels lonely and incomplete most of the time - I wanted her to find love and understand the story of her past, and plenty of you will want to BE her before book #1 is over!  (not sure I could carry off the long blue hair!)

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone  by Laini Taylor

I am eagerly anticipating the publication of the second book, Days of Blood and Starlight, due to be released on 6 November 2012.

















Before I settled down to read the above fantasy novel, I had a delightful trip to Shakespeare's Globe  with my Father.  Last year he and I took our first trip to this wonderful theatre - stunning in its authenticity - to see one of Shakespeare's comedies.  This year my Father recommended we watched "any play Mark Rylance was acting in".  Richard III it was then!

There has been a big "hullaballoo" about Mark treading the boards at the Globe - and no wonder!!  He was fantastic!  I like to prepare a little before I watch Shakespeare, I usually read a synopsis of the plot so that I will get the gist of the dialogue and action, even if I am struggling to grasp the meaning of all the olde english language.  I promise you, it was as if the other actors were speaking the words Shakespeare had written, and Mark - as the evil but charismatic Richard III - was speaking in modern day english, his delivery and acting was such that it was no trouble at all to keep up with his dialogue, He had the audience laughing at his audacity and wicked little asides to us about his plotting and scheming to eliminate or win over anyone on his fast-track to become king.  My Father and I highly recommend this play - not stuffy at all!