Book Review- Ward against Death by Melanie Card

Title: Ward against Death

 Author: Melanie Card

Series:  Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer #1

Published:  August 2011 by Entangled Publishing

Length: 306 pages

Warnings: kissing, fantasy violence, 13+

Source: Library

Summary : Twenty-year-old Ward de’Ath expected this to be a simple job—bring a nobleman’s daughter back from the dead for fifteen minutes, let her family say good-bye, and launch his fledgling career as a necromancer. Goddess knows he can’t be a surgeon—the Quayestri already branded him a criminal for trying—so bringing people back from the dead it is.
 But when Ward wakes the beautiful Celia Carlyle, he gets more than he bargained for. Insistent that she’s been murdered, Celia begs Ward to keep her alive and help her find justice. By the time she drags him out her bedroom window and into the sewers, Ward can’t bring himself to break his damned physician’s Oath and desert her.
 However, nothing is as it seems—including Celia. One second, she’s treating Ward like sewage, the next she’s kissing him. And for a nobleman’s daughter, she sure has a lot of enemies. If he could just convince his heart to give up on the infuriating beauty, he might get out of this alive…

Review: Edward “Ward” de’Ath (I love the name so much) is trying to start his career as a necromancer. This fails when his relatively easy task goes wrong and the dead girl (who he’s just risen) is dragging him out to the sewers, demanding they find justice for her murder. Celia (the girl) is insistant she's been murdered, and they go on an adventure through sewers and towns and all sorts. One thing's certain for Ward-something that should be simple, won't be, and something that should not be deadly, will be.

The fantasy setting of The Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer is amazing. It's easy to imagine, and get the feel of the place as everything from the layout of the sewers to the social hierarchy to the religion of the place is described. The only downside to this historical/fantastical new world is the fact that some names of things are long and hard to remember.

Ward and Celia are two strong characters. I think Ward developed most thoughout the novel, from being an unexperienced necromance semi-experienced necromancer who is a lot more confident than when we first find him.

The side characters were nice additions to the story too, but I never really cared about them throughout. They gave a good idea of possible characters to appear in later books though.

The romance was done nicely. It was interesting that Ward obviously felt for Celia in a romantic way, but (unlike most teenagers in YA fiction of today) also managed to remember that his love interest is dead.

I loved the plot. Completely original and very fun, it was paced well and had a few subplots not focussing on Celia, which was nice. I wasn't expecting the narration to be in the third person, but it flowed well with the occasional parts  that made me really laugh out loud.

Overall:  Strength  4 tea to a fun adventure/mystery with a great setting.

Links:  Goodreads | Author website | 

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Japanese YA Week review- Battle Royale by Koushun Tamaki

Title: Battle Royale

 Author: Koushun Tamaki

Series:  N/A

Published:  2003 by Viz. First published 1999.

Length:623 pages

Warnings: Nearly 40 deaths, almost all in graphic detail. Profanity. A few suggestive situations.

Source: Library

Other info: It has an M rated manga published once by Tokyopop and two films based on it.

Summary : Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan - where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller - Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language

Review: This is probably the only one of the week you’ve heard of before now. In it there’s elements of Lord of the Flies, and the Hunger Games , and lots of other things. Even the title is used to mean a huge fight. So, maybe you have heard of this. Or maybe you haven’t.

A class of forty 15-year-olds are knocked out with gas on a school trip bus, and wake up in a strange classroom with collars around their necks. Then a relatively cheerful looking man tells them they have to kill eachother, gives them a few rules as to where and where not they can go, and sends them out with food, water and a weapon. Weapon meaning anything from a machine gun to a sickle to a fork. Shuya Nanahara and Noriko team up with mysterious Shogo, and 35 other students work out their own ways of playing THE GAME.

The premise is one that shocked readers when it first came out. It’s also one on which there have been a lot of variations. There’s a lot you can do witht hte kill or be killed idea, and Koushun Tamaki has taken just one route with it.

My favourite thing is the character depth. Almost all of the characters get a long backstory (what did you think the 600+ pages were full of? Thirty deaths in great detail won’t fill all of that!), some of which are funny, some are intriguing and some tragic. With that, and the actions of the students in the game, they all become real flesh and blood people, before they become just flesh and blood.

It’s very fast paced. People betray everyone left, right and centre and it’s really amazing to see what will happen to  people once they’re put into a situation that they weren’t expecting but s till have to fight for survival.

One really helpful bit about this is the fact that at the end of every chapter, it say “X students remaining.” With the X being the number of students remaining. Seriously, if it wasn’t for that, I would have lost count within the first few chapters of the game.

Overall: Strength 5 tea to a fast paced thriller with many many full characters. Can’t wait to see what Tamaki has next. Which is apparently in progress, if the author bio is to be believed.    

Links:  Goodreads

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