“We had magic before the crows came. Before the rise of the great villages they so

roughly carved on the shores of our inland sea and named with words plucked from

our tongues—Chicago, Toronto, Milwaukee, Ottawa—we had our own great

villages on these same shores. And we understood our magic. We understood what

the orenda implied.”

These are the very first words you read in The Orenda.  There is something menacing in the tone, something tragic.

I read The Orenda in October of 2013 and since that time, I have found it difficult to separate my love for this book from my objective responsibility to customers when recommending books for to them.  Thankfully, this is the rare case that it doesn’t matter.  I can comfortably say that The Orenda is the best book released in 2014.  I can tentatively say that The Orenda is one of the best book ever released.

Okay, enough gushing.

The book takes place in 17th century America.  It follows a missionary, a young girl, and a great war bearer.  Joseph Boyden uses each of these expertly fleshed out characters to provide depth and clarity over the course of many years.  More than a year removed from reading the book, I find myself thinking of them.  I wanted more time between the pages of this world.  I’ve read the book twice now, and I can’t wait to read it again this year.

If I seem to be rambling, it’s because I can talk about this book for the rest of my life and still have so much left to go over.  Nothing is wasted in this novel.  Every chapter, every page, every word is vital to the story being told.  There is a candid cadence Boyden demonstrates that left me breathless.  The real treat of this book lies in its ability to be a literary classic and a page-turner at the same time.

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden is the 2014 Lemuria Fiction Book of the Year.

Written by Andre

Up on the porch, Ophelia’s head jerked around, as if she were afraid someone might be sneaking up the back. But there were only carpenter bees, bringing back their satchels of gold, and a woodpecker, drilling for grubs. There was a ground pig in the rumpled grass, and the more Ophelia set and stared, the more she and Fran both saw. A pair of fox kits napping under the laurel. A doe and a fawn teasing runners of bark off young trunks. Even a brown bear, still tufty with last winter’s fur, nosing along the high ridge above the house. While Ophelia sat enspelled on the porch of that dangerous house, Fran curled inward on her couch, waves of heat pouring out of her. Her whole body shook so violently her teeth rattled. Her spyglass fell to the floor. Maybe I am dying, Fran thought, and that is why Ophelia came here.

…

Fran hesitated. “I don’t know where they come from. They aren’t always there. Sometimes they’re…somewhere else. Ma said she felt sorry for them. She thought maybe they couldn’t go home, that they’d been sent off, like the Cherokee, I guess. They live a lot longer, maybe forever, I don’t know. I expect time works different where they come from. Sometimes they’re gone for years. But they always come back. They’re summer people. That’s just the way it is with summer people.”

When the story ended, I asked myself, “Self? Do you ACTUALLY want to meet the summer people?” I want so badly to know more about them, but it feels like the kind of knowledge that would come at a price. Like, if I knew the secrets of the summer people, I would have to become one of them, or they would tie me up in ivy and bury me in the basement of their rickety house.

It can be excruciating when an author writes too thinly for what feels like the sake of being “literary”; so it’s like finding a diamond in the rough when I stumble across a sparse narrative that begs no further explanation. When it comes to spelling out the premise of the story “The Summer People” from Kelly Link’s new collection, Get In Trouble, I come up empty handed- it is not just a story; it’s an experience. Leading with the strongest, the stories in this collection weave in and out of normalcy. A vampire and woman break up. A hotel holds a conference for superheroes in one room, and dentists in the other. Rich young girls have their parents build them pyramids while hired actors become their public “faces”. A ghost boyfriend slips through the fingers of an eager young lover.

Exploring themes of love (new and fizzled) and a new generation busy getting in trouble, Link’s new collection is truly a force to be reckoned with. Perfect for readers who love Karen Russell, Kevin Wilson, and George Saunders.

Written by Hannah 

FICTION

NONFICTION

CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS

YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

For fans of The Hunger Games, Star Wars, and the Ancient Greeks.

WARNING: Spoiler alert. Read ahead at your own peril of series induced craze.

Darrow is a Helldiver in the underground mining colony of Lykos. He spends his days drilling into the core of Mars for helium-3 to terraform the surface to make it suitable for the people of Earth to inhabit. Life, if not extravagant, is good. Darrow is the best at what he does, he has a beautiful red-haired wife named Eo, and he thinks any day he will win the Laurel for drilling the most helium.

Up to this point, I admit that I was concerned that I was just reading another space book set on Mars. Well, it is set in space, and on Mars, but it is definitely not just another sci-fi book.

The world Darrow lives in is Red. He is at the absolute bottom of the caste system. There are Browns, Pinks, Violets, Greens, Blues, Oranges, Grays, Obsidians, etc. You are born into your color and you will die in your color. Golds rule the planet.

Darrow the Helldiver and Eo are not meant to last long in Lykos. After trespassing in a garden forbidden to them due to their color, they are sent for punishment. Eo sings a song of death and lament, forbidden by the Golds, and she is sent to the gallows for her zealotry.

“On Mars there is not much gravity, so you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.”

Darrow will hang, too, for burying his wife’s body. He is not supposed to wake after his execution, but he does, and he is now in the hands of the revolutionary Sons of Ares. Ares himself has a mission for Darrow. The Sons show Darrow what Mars actually looks like above ground; a planet that sparkles in dazzling Technicolor in contrast to the rust-covered underground colony of Lykos. Mars has already been terraformed. There are whole cities built above the surface. Darrow has been lied to his entire life; he was not a pioneer for mankind, but a slave. In a way, it must have felt how Dorothy feels when she finds herself in Oz after being in Kansas.

At this stage in the story, the light switch flipped, and I realized all I was reading was Greek Mythology. And if there’s one thing I really love, it’s a good, old-fashioned epic.

So let’s do a little analysis:
Lykos is Greek for wolf (which comes into play later on). It is also the name of a Libyan king in mythology who sacrificed strangers to his father, Ares. In Red Rising, Eo sacrifices herself for the Sons of Ares, and becomes a martyr known as Persephone. Darrow is delivered into the hands of the Sons of Ares to complete a mission for the greater good of Society, and he is our Epic Hero. Ah, Pierce Brown, you are sneaky.

The Sons of Ares have a mission for Darrow. He is to become a Gold, and infiltrate their society and rise to the top, just like a proverbial Trojan Horse.

So, is this just another geeky space book set on Mars? Yes, but it is also full of loyalties and betrayals, alliances broken and forged, grav-boots and a ragtag group of friends. The second book is, if at all possible, even more action-packed, but that’s another blog post for another day.

Written by Clara 

Faithful Lemurians, REJOICE! (maybe)

Earlier this year, Crown re-published the 2011 hit by Andy Weir, The Martian. This introduced protagonist Mark Watney to a readership much larger than Weir ever expected, and propelled the book into the hands of readers all over the world. FOX purchased the rights for a film adaptation and fans preceded to lose their minds. I chose to reserve my hype levels until more information came out from the studio.

Over the past few months, I’ve been following the development of the film and, let me tell you, the hype can not be satiated. FOX is bringing out the big guns for this movie. Ridley Scott has signed on to the direct the film, and Matt Damon will reportedly star as Watney.

Let me explain why I’m a little apprehensive about these two choices. While Ridley Scott may be responsible for some of the best sci-fi films ever, (Alien, Blade Runner) he has also directed one of the worst (Prometheus). Obviously, this is all subjective, but Alien and Blade Runner could both be described as brave filmmaking. Uncompromising in their tone and scope and films that existed to do more than make a studio a boat load of money. Readers of the The Martian will undoubtedly see some similarities in that past statement. The Martian wasn’t written to make money (Weir originally tried releasing the book for free but had to charge something in order for Amazon to place it in their inventory), and what Weir achieves in the book may be at the expense of alienating (heh) some potential readers. For example, Watney goes on page-long math problems that can at times, seem excessive. The point isn’t to prove how great he can be at writing out math equations as exposition, but to immerse the reader in Watney’s struggle. Alien did the same thing with moviegoers in 1977. The film was steeped in atmosphere. Segments of the film were intentionally vague and disorienting to match the emotions of the characters with the viewers. Prometheus chose to use the BUAAAAAAAMMMM sound that every movie uses to inform readers that something is about to BUAAAAAAAAMMM happen. The Martian should also be lighthearted to an extent. Can the guy that directed Gladiator and American Gangster do a space MacGyver?

Matt Damon.

He most certainly has the chops to pull this off, but why Chris Pratt wasn’t cast for the lead seems just plain irresponsible. Instead of going on and on about this oversight, I will say that Matt Damon is a great pick. His work with Kevin Smith in Dogma proves he can make fun of himself, and I’m certain nothing more needs to be said for his dramatic roles. Damon is handsome, smart, and endearing, but can he nail the everyman role that stumbles into a spaceship and gets trapped on Mars?

Let us hope they don’t ruin this film, because it has the story, characters and soul to resonate with audiences all over the world. The cynic in me says don’t get too excited, but the hype in me is over 9,000.

Why wait? The Martian is available now at Lemuria Bookstore, and online at lemuriabooks.com

Written by Andre