Book Review: Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn

Lynda Williams of Okal Rel Universe fame has written this book review.

Lynda Williams Reviews Summer at Castle Auburn

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn is a charming tale of disillusionment and romance set in a classical fantasy setting with some unique touches.

I picked it up second hand for the sake of the endorsements from Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, and I wasn't disappointed.

Image used with permission.

It's a gentle story, although the protagonist has to live through discovering the ugliness behind her rosy childhood vision of the courtly relatives. I enjoyed the fey species called the aliora, prized as slaves for their unfailing kindness even in captivity, and the many well integrated subplots.

Like many strong-minded heroines in medieval fantasies, the heroine Corie gets away with more than might be historically justified, but not so much that her choices are easy ones. Corie's training in the healing arts of her grandmother, a village wise woman, makes her independence more believable.

A manageable read for young lovers of romantic fantasy and entertaining for adults, also.

by Lynda Williams
Author Okal Rel Universe

More About Sharon Shinn

Sharon Shinn's website lists this book in the novels section where it is described as, "Named to the ALA list of Best Books for Young Adults."

Sharon Shinn writes fantasy for adults and young adults alike. On her website she lists 5 novels and 1 short story written specifically for young adults. Among these, 3 deserve special mention.

• The Safe-Keeper's Secret, first published in 2004, "was named to the ALA list of Best Books for Young Adults."
• The Truth Teller’s Tale was "named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age and made it onto the 2006 Bank Street Children’s Book List."
• The short story "Wintermoon Wish" was published in the young adult anthology Firebirds Rising 

I enjoyed exploring Sharon Shinn's beautiful website and reading the extremely interesting descriptions of her books. Who knows, maybe I will begin to read more fantasy, a feat that I currently do on a limited basis as I am such a die-hard hard SF fan. Am I mellowing as I age? Of course, I have always loved a good romance novel!

Thanks, Lynda, for this introduction to another spec fiction author.

~Valerie

Book Review: Krysia Anderson's Misfit Leaves Home

Princess Victoria is barely old enough to leave home, but her sense of identity is not what her family desires it to be. So she frequently slips out of the house to sneak off to the spaceport to watch a world beyond her reach. One afternoon her trip to the ports lands her in a brawl and introduces her to a prince who both complicates her life and offers her a chance to travel to another planet and become the person she dreams of being.

Teen author Krysia Anderson perfectly captures the emotional intensity of the confusion, sibling-rivalry, breakdown of inter-family closeness, social awkwardness, and everyday frustrations of a young adolescent in this pre-coming-of-age novella. The action is swift, the emotions real and intense; get ready to relive teen angst when you read this. Along the way, social issues like class and race are touched on and treated with humanistic sensitivity, all taking place in another time and another universe, constructed beautifully with a few deft descriptions and references.

Anderson writes in the Okal Rel Universe of author Lynda Williams. I chose to read this short novella before reading any of Williams' books. Yet I found myself comfortably inhabiting a world not Earth among a people not my own of a societal structure not quite like ours. Still there was just enough allusion to the complex Okal Rel Universe constructs to make me want to read other books in this series. I want to read them not to explain this one, it needed no additional background to be understood; but because the characters and world-building were sufficient to make the Okal Rel Universe come alive and become a place I now want to visit.

Personally, I am impatient to read the promised sequel(s) of this storyline. Krysia Alexander is a gifted storyteller, with just the right mix of human motivations, frustrated emotions, comic relief, and goal-oriented action that overcomes setbacks. I truly believe the middle school and young adult audience will enjoy this one.

Teachers, this book, being 71 pages, is most useful for a book report for those students who like short books yet rich enough to provide thought-provoking questions on motivation, customs, social issues of class, social expectations and friendship. There is mention of genotyping and space flight enough to provide stimulus for a few science questions on genetics, the ethics of publishing personal genotypes, and space flight compared to atmospheric flight. These topics are part of the story, but the science is only marginally part of the book. In all cases, a lesson on one of the topics might be introduced by referring to the instances in the book.

For more information about the Okal Rel Universe as well as any other stories and books by Krysia Anderson in the series, visit the website of Lynda Williams.

This book is a bit hard to find. I had to order it from Amazon.com. The major book stores Barnes & Noble and Borders will order it for you, but probably will not have it on the shelf.

Reviewed by Valerie Coskrey. 
Valerie Coskrey's Classroom Tools and Ideas and
Valerie's Soapbox

Previous mention of this book was made in another article of this blog.
Krysia Anderson can be visited on Facebook.