Self-imposed isolation, day 6

I may have spent all day in a single room (not counting bathroom visits!), but in my imagination and/or virtual life I have been to the 17th century Amsterdam and on a voyage to Batavia (reading ”The Company Daughters” by Samantha Rajaram) as well as Germany (30 years war – although I also talked to a rather more contemporary friend there 💙). A short trip to Thailand:

And I started a virtual visit to the British Museum (looking for Celtic artefacts from around 50-60 AD) and… somehow managed to get completely lost within a few minutes! 😄

Autumn Equinox

Happy Autumn Equinox! As the nights grow darker, so does my taste in books, apparently... (The Finnish novel is titled "Raven Women", the other one promises to be "sexy, spooky, stylish" - we'll see.)

Autumn Equinox happens to be the birthday of one my literary crushes favourite characters, Valerius from Manda Scott's Boudica series. This day always reminds me of that character. Today, I think I'll even bake a cake to celebrate. 😉 Something with apples...

This song, "The Old Ways", by Loreena McKennitt fits my Autumn Equinox mood perfectly.

Review: A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica's Rebellion

Boudica.
You've heard her name. Of course you have. Everyone has. And when you've heard it spoken, you've heard the hushed awe of her admirers or the grudging respect of her enemies. You've heard her legend.
Because she did not fight merely for lands or even for freedom. She fought for the humanity and the dignity of her daughters. Because of that, her name will always serve as a rallying cry for those who seek justice. 

- Stephanie Dray, A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica's Rebellion

Those who know me know that I'm one of the admirers of Boudica, the Iceni queen and warrior who raised a rebellion against the Romans. The first novels I ever read about my beloved heroine were the four “Dreaming...” novels by Manda Scott. I fell in love with these books. They became so much more than books to me. Since then, Scott's Boudica has been my Boudica, her story the story of Boudica to me. This, however, hasn't stopped me from enjoying other takes on the same subject.

So, when a dear friend (yes, another Boudica fan!) let me know about “A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica's Rebellion”, I immediately added it to my TBR list and, a while later, bought the book... and couldn’t wait but started reading right away.

The novel is actually a sort of anthology consisting of seven stories by seven authors who all – as far as I know – have experience of writing fiction set in the period in question: Ruth Downie, Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Vicky Alvear Shecter, S.J.A. Turney, Russell Whitfield and E. Knight.

What's different from a typical anthology where stories may focus on the same theme or take place in the same world or be otherwise more or less loosely connected is that the seven stories actually tell one tale, i.e. although the main characters and narrators vary, the stories form a (mostly) chronological, consecutive whole. It may be possible to read only some of them, but I'd say you need to read them all to get a proper picture of what happens.

What I like about anthologies is that you get different stories and different voices in one book. As I may have mentioned, I like variety. Another reason I like anthologies are the bite-sized stories; sometimes you just are in the mood for something quick. That's also their drawback, however; if you really enjoy a particular story, it will end much too soon. That, in turn, leads me to what I think is the very best feature of anthologies: they can serve as an introduction to new authors. You get a good sample of the work of different contributors and maybe find something you like and want more of.

This anthology's writers include some authors whose work I've been meaning to sample, some I'd not heard of before and only two (Russell Whitfield and Kate Quinn) whose books I've actually read. Therefore, I was very interested in this collection and potential new favourite authors I might discover.

Now, one thing I have to point out: this anthology is called “A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica's Rebellion”. Note that it is a novel of Boudica's rebellion. It is not a novel about Boudica. The stories are narrated from the point of view of other characters while Boudica herself remains a rather distant figure. This was something of a disappointment to me, but then, I should have realised this before buying the book… not that it matters; I'd have bought it anyway. It's close enough. ;)

As a whole, the novel is fast-paced, well written and the feel of the period authentic. There were some scenes that failed to maintain my attention and I found my thoughts drifting away from the book, but these scenes were fairly few. The many main characters and thus the different points of view – queens and slaves; warriors and druids; Britons and Romans – guarantee variety. This, however, also meant that the main characters disappeared for long periods of time, and even if some of them reappeared, they were (often) supporting characters in someone else's story. I suspect that this is why I did not find the book as emotionally engaging as I had hoped.

I'm not going to go into individual stories here, but I will mention that I particularly enjoyed Stephanie Dray's “The Queen”, which not only made an interesting, sympathetic character of Queen Cartimandua but was also written in a beautiful language; Russell Whitfield's “The Tribune”, which mixed brutality of battles, humour and even some light philosophy into a very enjoyable read, and Kate Quinn’s “The Warrior” with its lively dialogue and the poignancy with which it handled both bloodshed and relationships, especially the often painful ones between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.

I'm definitely going to take a look at other works of some of the authors here, and was pleased to discover that they have collaborated on a similar novel before, titled “A Day of Fire: Novel of Pompeii” (now on my TBR list).

Five questions (and answers, too)

I received these questions from a dear friend of mine over at the Almond Valley – check out her blog if you want to revel in gorgeous pictures of flowers, landscapes and all things beautiful. That blog is pure eye candy!

So, she's given me five questions and I'm to give five answers to each of these questions. Interesting! Here goes:

1. Where do you see love in the world?

It's

in family and friends

in the beauty of nature

in music that moves me

in words of compassion

in random acts of kindness

2. Your favourite flower – explain why.

Oh, there are so many, I can't pick (hee hee) just one! Good thing I'm allowed to name five. :)

As long as I remember, I've been partial to forget-me-nots. They don't seem to mind so much where they grow, they're small and modest, but that blue...! It's one of my favourite hues. (To illustrate, a picture from puutarha.net.)

Lilacs. Simple reason: the scent. One of my favourite scents (I do have many, true).

Lily of the valley. This is like the two of the above in one: small, fragile, but has an amazing scent.

Twinflower (Linnaea borealis). Small, fragile (anyone see the pattern here?). To me, this is the flower of poetry: to my ear, their Finnish name (vanamo) is phonetically pleasing and they feature in some iconic Finnish poems (image below from peda.net).

And finally, the stereotypical, boring choice... dark red roses. Can't help it. They're gorgeous. They're the classic. They're drama. They're romance. To illustrate: a picture of my rapier and a red rose:

3. Your secret dream/wish?

If I tell you, it won't be a secret, right? ;)

All right. Confession time. I guess this counts as a secret since I never talk about it, except with a few trusted friends (you know who you are, you poor things who have to put up with my blather). I'd love to learn to write well.

Four more... I'm going to be greedy and list the things I want (either more of or to keep what I have): love, health, time, passion.

4. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Some home-made muesli (I make it myself so I know what goes into it – anything you buy from a store contains heaps of refined sugar and other useless stuff... and I like mine with plenty of dates) with skim milk. A big mug of coffee. Black, no sugar, nothing. Just coffee.

Wait. That's only three things. Erm... a glass of water. A small handful of pills: vitamins and my AS meds.

5. A book that gives you strength?

Any book I'm reading at a given moment. That should count for at least five, but as a bonus, I'm going to actually name one:

Manda Scott's Boudica books. Boudica is definitely one of the best characters in the “strong female character” category, and the books are about small tribes standing up against Rome, the superpower of its time. Imagine the courage and resilience and heroism and sheer stubborness that demanded!

I love Boudica (or Breaca), and her brother is one of my all-time favourite characters. All right, one of the major fictional character crushes I've ever suffered (suffered???). To me, his story is about whether we can live with the consequences of our actions and the remorse; whether we can find forgiveness and whether we can forgive ourselves. It's heart-breaking but encouraging.

Alone with your feelings?

Does this ever happen to you? If it does, how do you cope?

That image on The Bluestocking Review's Page in Facebook reminded me of how, when you've read a truly great book, you want to talk about it so badly. Yes, even a total introvert like me gets that urge! You're bursting with thoughts and feelings and impressions, and yearning to hear how others experienced the book...

These days it's rarely a problem. There's Goodreads and book forums and Facebook sites and everything. You can read reviews and follow discussions (there may not be an exact fandom, but there probably are people who have read the book). A good discussion about a thought-provoking book is a wonderful thing, but, amazingly, it can also lead to other things.

I read Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' many years ago, and then, over a decade ago now (I had likely read the next book or two in the series by then), I started looking for others who had read it. I found my way to a fan site titled 'Ladies of Lallybroch' where I posted an introduction. I soon received an email from another reader, who said that something about my post just made her want to write to me. We started writing emails, and realised we had almost eerily much in common. She doesn't live in Finland, but we've met a couple of times, and our DHs also got on very well.

Some time later, I fell in love with M. C. Scott's Boudica series. After finishing the fourth and final book, I had to find someone to talk about it with. I discovered the author's discussion forum. It might not have been the biggest online community, but it was lovely, with people brought together by their love for the books and the characters and with an ability to engage in both serious discussions and completely crazy chitchat. I met two of my friends there, again people who live in different parts of the world from me, but people I feel very comfortable 'with' (I've met only one of them in person, but distance doesn't matter).

So, what began as a need to talk about a book led to wonderful friendships. We still sometimes talk about THE books, but mostly, now, about other things. I have shared much with these friends, and I'm very grateful that they're in my life. These books will always be special for me for that reason.

I'm also very lucky in that my husband loves reading. When I get that urge to talk about a book, there's someone who listens and understands (and doesn't think you're crazy when you rave about fictional characters and their lives). And I get to hear about the books he finds interesting. The best is when we read the same book and can talk about it (we both just finished 'The Hunter from the Woods' by Robert McCammon, and we love it – lycanthrope lore! An action-packed book with warmth and depth! And... actually, just read my husband's review). The first such book was Guy Gavriel Kay's 'Lions of Al-Rassan', something my husband, then my boyfriend, used to entice me to read fantasy. And he knew me well then already (must've been over 14 years ago): I loved the book and still count it among my favourites. Once I had read it, we sat at the dinner table for about three hours and talked and talked...