A whimsical, interactive foray into the history of storytelling and morality in medieval Armenia.
Fables of both medieval and contemporary Armenia come together in Kamler’s collection of stories.
The history of fables and storytelling in Armenia stretches even further back than the creation of the language’s alphabet in the fifth century. This is a collection of morality tales, some of which transcend time. “The Lion and the Fox” is about the dangers of hubris, while others seem far removed from modern sensibilities, such as “The Mule,” where patriarchal attitudes seep in to declare “rule and everything else should be according to the father’s lineage and not the mother’s.” Kamler explores all of these themes through the translation of 205 medieval Armenian folktales and 11 stories written by the editor that pay homage to the originals and are set in medieval times. Often they contain animal characters, princes, or warriors, and virtually all of them are less than a page long. Despite this brevity both the translated medieval tales and the contemporary stories feature some instructive messages. Kamler’s physical arrangement of the volume encourages the reader to think deeply about the fables as literature as much as enjoying them for their historical detail. Space is left every so often throughout the book for the reader to record their own feelings in response to the fables, which are often commentaries on personal character and grounded in religious thought. This could make for a jarring experience at first but becomes a pleasant surprise that encourages pause and reflection. In particular, the contrast between the collection of medieval folktales and modern offers the most material for contemplation: Here Kamler emphasizes the contemporary resonance of fables by using similar language and characters as the medieval stories. For example, his “The Squirrel and the Woodpecker” uses animals to teach about the bounds of human understanding, like Vardan Aygektsi’s “The Monkey and the Fisherman.” The collection as a whole, by exploring fable conventions and the medieval storytelling of writers such as Mkhitar Gosh and Aygetski, offers some unique insights into the history of thought in Armenian culture.
A whimsical, interactive foray into the history of storytelling and morality in medieval Armenia.Pub Date: June 18, 2023
ISBN: 978-1738835249
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Dudukhouse Inc
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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