Princess of the Silver Woods

by on June 20, 2015 at 12:59 pm
Posted In: Books

Jessica Day George’s final Westfalin book does not drop the idea of being a fairy tale retelling—except as a practical matter. Technically, this is a Little Red Riding Hood retelling, and there’s enough elements that you can see the relationship, but that’s it.

It is a very nice continuation of the themes of the first two books in the series, however. Specifically, it is in many ways a direct sequel to the first book, Princess of the Midnight Ball (though it’s been several years), and deals with the King Under Stone again.

Because of the ties to previous books, I wouldn’t recommend starting here, though it should make sense on its own. On the other hand, if you enjoyed the previous ones, you’ll certainly enjoy this. The cast is a bit large for the size of book in this one; some people are important early, and hardly get a mention later. And then you get entirely too many people in the action at once for it to be handled well, except by keeping some solidly in the background. I also missed Prince Christian from the second book, who was entirely off-screen this time. But other than that, the pacing flows well, and while it is obvious that something is up, and certain people should be treated with a lot more suspicion, exactly who is the cause of problems is not obvious.

At any rate, while this series isn’t my favorite by her (that’s still Dragon Slippers), it’s still an enjoyable early-YA read.

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The Ottoman Age of Exploration

by on June 13, 2015 at 11:22 am
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Everyone knows of the Age of Exploration, and the Portuguese efforts to find a sea-route around Africa to India. If you know a little more history, you know something of their efforts related to controlling trade in India and the Indian Ocean.

What is even less known is the efforts the Ottoman Empire expended in controlling the Indian Ocean. We mostly remember the Ottoman Empire as a land power. But it controlled the bulk of the Mediterranean for quite a while, mostly during the 16th Century, and the celebrated defeat at Lepanto was celebrated because it was in the face of heavy naval superiority, which Lepanto did not affect. What almost no one remembers is that the Ottoman Empire gained control of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf during this period and challenged Portugal for control of the Indian Ocean.

Part of this might be because both powers were operating far from home at the end of administrative and logistical support. There’s not a lot of huge conflicts here—there are some important ones, but the size of the forces involved tends to be much less than we are used to thinking in terms of. Casale’s book is a very enlightening look at this entire situation from the Ottoman point of view.

The main focus of the book is a group that he calls the “Indian Ocean Faction” in the Ottoman government. I think he presents them as a more coherent and unified group (partially through use of that name) than I guess they really were, but it looks pretty evident that they did help and promote each other as they could, and were a legitimate faction. In general, Casale covers the Ottoman “discovery” of the Indian Ocean (an area that they didn’t know much more about than Western Europe for some time) through an attempt to draw the eastern Muslim world into the Ottoman political orbit, policy changes, and the end of both Ottoman and Portuguese efforts at taking the entire pie.

As if politics, war, negotiations, and trade aren’t enough, Casale also talks about maps and mapmaking. After reading The Fourth Part of the World this was very welcome, and also well handled, though I think there a need for better analysis.

One thing I wish, is that the book tied in events elsewhere better. Lepanto is mentioned, and conquest of Cyprus, but other major events, such as the siege of Malta, are not mentioned, nor is their possible impact on other projects examined. Still, this is a very important book for gaining a better appreciation of the period from 1512 to 1589.

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The Thirty Years War

by on June 6, 2015 at 11:30 am
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This is the second book I’ve read recently about the Thirty Years War, both of which have the same informative, if unimaginative, title of The Thirty Years War. Cicely Veronica Wedgwood’s history is considered a classic English-language history of the war, and with good reason. Also, my copy was published as part of the New York Review Book Classics line, and is a very solidly put together paperback.

I must note that for a history of a war, it is by no means a military history. Only the very most prominent of battles are given any description at all. There is a fair amount of armies marching around, and recruiting, and looting. Past that, the book is almost entirely given over to politics. Considering that the Thirty Years War was a conflict of multiple parties and agendas, and there were very few periods where there was not some serious attempt to find a peace settlement, this is a sensible way to proceed.

As a one-volume overview, it is very good, and a very good place to start (better than Gardiner’s The Thirty Years War, but mainly by dint of being at least twice as long), though it never gets very far past the flow of events. You get some sense of the major actors, like Ferdinand I, but no detailed understanding. At the same time, it does not leave me desperately wanting more detail on any particular subject.

The end of the book does not only cover the end of the war, but the peace that followed. There were a large number of mostly mercenary troops to discharge, and the process was as complicated as modern disarmament talks.

I can only assume that the scholarship is still fairly current, as I’ve heard no concerns that subject. But while this volume is mostly a work of synthesis instead of research, there is a reassessment of just how much damage the war did to Germany that it would be nice to get an update on.

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Princess of Glass

by on June 1, 2015 at 3:25 pm
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Jessica Day George’s sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball is every bit as good as the original, and in some ways more interesting.

The book successfully juggles two main point-of-view characters, Poppy (the ‘roughest’ of the twelve princesses), and Prince Christian of Danelaw (the setting is a vague Europe-inspired world, seemingly around the Napoleonic era; history seems to have gone differently here…). Both are visiting Breton as eligible princes and princesses are being fostered abroad after the (off-camera) deaths of nine princes in the previous book in the name of international politics.

This feeds into a Cinderella-retelling that is unexpected in direction. The name “Cinderella” never comes up, and there’s no evil step-sisters or step-mother. There are glass slippers, and a magical godmother (or so she claims), and a maid who has a propensity for leaving ashes behind her. Akin to the previous book, the plot revolves around a number of likable characters, who fight against a dangerous enchantment as it ensnares Prince Christian, and a number of bystanders.

There are some problems. The big reveal about the villain is just that: a big expository lump near the end of the book. It makes sense of certain things, but isn’t really foreshadowed, nor does it seem to flow out of the rest of the book. (Also: it really seems like the cost of using lots of magic in this universe is to get turned into a force-of-nature style villain.)

In all, it’s an enjoyable book, another ‘Disney princess’ style tale, and a very enjoyable one, despite the structural problem.

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Princess of the Midnight Ball

by on May 18, 2015 at 9:47 pm
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I actually don’t know much of fairy tales past the ones that Disney has engraved on popular culture, but I actually ran into “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” in the webcomic Erstwhile a year or so ago, which was just long enough to forget some of the details before reading Jessica Day George’s more romantic adaptation.

There’s an honest soldier, and a strangely helpful witch, and a mysterious curse, and all the other hallmarks of a classic fairy tale. There’s also enough room to develop some characters, and a well executed plot. While fairy tales have a habit of things ‘just happening’, that isn’t the case here. George has thought the story out, and it all hangs together with a fairly rigorous logic. (With one exception. And she presumably knew more than she was telling.) This is a around a late grade-school level book, and is still a fairly simple story, but still novel length and engagingly written. It’s also a… nicer version than the traditional ones, as it uses an external villain in place of the princesses. In a way, the story has been ‘Disneyfied’ by this treatment, but I have to say it also makes more sense this way.

I first discovered Jessica Day George just about a year ago, and this book is another reason why I’m happy I did.

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