For The Most Beautiful by Emily Hauser

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: October 3, 2016

Three thousand years ago a war took place that gave birth to legends - to Achilles, the greatest of the Greeks, and Hector, prince of Troy. It was a war that made - and destroyed - both men, a war that shook the very foundations of the world. But what if there was more to this epic conflict? What if there was another, hidden tale of the Trojan War that had yet to be told? Now is that time - time for the women of Troy to tell their story. Thrillingly imagined and startlingly original, For the Most Beautiful reveals the true story of true for the first time. The story of Krisayis, daughter of the Trojans' High Priest, and of Briseis, princess of Pedasus, who fight to determine the fate of a city and its people in this ancient time of mischievous gods and mythic heroes. In a novel full of passion and revenge, loyalty and betrayal, bravery and sacrifice, Emily Hauser breathes exhilarating new life into one of the greatest legends of all - in a story that has waited millennia to be told.

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Logios Hermes

I have mixed feelings about Emily Hauser’s For the Most Beautiful. Parts of it worked beautifully, but others fell flat in my eyes. I enjoyed the time I spent with it and can honestly say that I’d recommend it alongside A Song of War and Helen of Sparta, but there were weak points in the narrative and I wasn’t thoroughly sold on the final product.

Hauser approaches the classic story from the joint perspectives of Krisayis and Briseis. I thought the idea original, but I wasn’t drawn to either heroine and that reality went a long way in defining my experience with the narrative. I found their backstory stories interesting enough, but I never connected with either character and wasn’t particularly invested in discovering how their experiences played out.

That said, I was highly amused by the antics of the Gods. Most of the mythic fiction I’ve encountered has downplayed the celestial cast, written them out of the action entirely, or regulated them to vague supporting roles. Hauser bucks the trend and I caught myself laughing out loud over the drama that played out in the heavens above the battlefield.

Long story short, I found the book entertaining in its way and would recommend it to enthusiasts, but I'm not sure it'd be the first adaptation I’d throw out to other readers when asked for recommended myth based fiction.

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He cocks his head, his excitement rising, like the foaming crest of a wave before the shore. He can almost hear the sharpening of the weapons – the delightful scraping of bronze on stone that means the mortals are at it again. Definitely time for a war, he thinks. It’s getting far too pastoral around here. A little blood to stain the plain, a few heroes fighting and dying, a couple of cities burnt, the columns of soot and ash curling up to heaven, like the smoke of a sacrifice...

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Neverhome by Laird Hunt

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: January 21, 2015

She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. Neverhome tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause. Laird Hunt's dazzling new novel throws a light on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind. It is also a mystery story: why did Ash leave and her husband stay? Why can she not return? What will she have to go through to make it back home? In gorgeous prose, Hunt's rebellious young heroine fights her way through history, and back home to her husband, and finally into our hearts.

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Laird Hunt’s Neverhome has received much acclaim and that is wonderful, but that said, I feel the time I spent on the book well and truly wasted. My apologies to fans of both the author and his work, but I found very little of this narrative appealed to my particular tastes. 

Personally, I found it very difficult to relate to Ash and had a hard time manufacturing empathy for her trials and circumstances. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t care if she survived her journey home and that fact made it impossible to appreciate the hurdles she faced over the course of the narrative.

Hunt’s tone is dark and ultimately rather depressing and while I’ve nothing against his style or themes, I can’t say his effort packed the punch I’d anticipated. To be perfectly blunt, I felt the pacing slow, the action monotonous and the ending abrupt and uninspired. 

At the end of the day, I’m definitely disappointed at having wasted my time on Neverhome. There was a lot of potential in the idea, but I don’t think Hunt rose to the occasion and wont be recommending it forward. 

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That was something to think about. How you could rifle a man down was looking at you and you at him but never see his face. I hadn’t figured it that way when I had thought on it back home. I had figured it would be fine big faces firing back and forth at each other, not threads of color off at the horizon. A dance of men and not just their musket balls.

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Tristan and Iseult by J.D. Smith

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Kindle Library

Read: February 15, 2015

In a land of fog and desperate tribes, Tristan fights to protect western Briton from Saxon invaders. In the wake of battle, he returns to Kernow bearing grave news, and the order of power shifts. As Tristan defends the west, his uncle, King Mark, faces enemies to the east beyond the sea: the Irish Bloodshields. Mark is determined to unite the tribes of Briton and Ireland and forge an alliance that would see an end to war and the beginnings of peace. Iseult, the daughter of Irish kings and a woman of the blood, resigns herself to her inevitable fate: marriage to Lord Morholt. A bloody duel changes her course, and she finds herself stranded on the coast of Kernow bringing with her the possibility of peace. But when she loses her heart to one man and marries another, her future and that of Briton flutters grey. Three people and a hope that will never fade, this is a story of promise; the legend of love. 

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Tristan and Isolde by Hugues Merle

Retellings are an interesting subgenre. The writing and tone are exclusive to the author who put pen to page, the plot is borrowed, and the characterizations, atmosphere and theme an odd combination of both the familiar and authentic. The best retellings strike a balance. They are built within the framework of the original material, but bring something new to the table, something surprising and/or unexpected.

I give J.D Smith a lot of credit, her telling of Tristan and Iseult is true to the tragic romance, but she makes it her own in a way I not anticipated. I admire that and feel the double take I experienced while reading her work speaks to her skill as a storyteller. Like other readers, I was impressed with what she achieved in only 220 pages, but I admit I wasn't as enchanted with other aspects of the narrative. 

I didn't like Smith's decision to write in the first person. I realize I'm in the minority here, but I found Smith's tone bland and monotonous. I felt Tristan's voice and personality difficult to differentiate from that of Iseult and that bothered more than I care to admit. I also felt it took a long time for things to get interesting and confess it wasn't until the appearance of Cunedda's second youngest daughter in the final chapters of the novel that I found myself genuinely engaged in Smith's story. 

There were moments, enough to make the time I spent with Tristan and Iseult worthwhile, but Smith's wasn't the breathtaking tale I'd hoped for and while I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, I can't help doubting its ability to hold its own again other adaptations. 

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It occurs to me now that Mark's decision did indeed come after. That is why I am to fight the Irish Lord. To prove my worth as a man of Kernow, as the nephew of a great king. Or perish at the hands of a more skilled warrior.

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Severed: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Dax Varley

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: December 4, 2013

Katrina’s still haunted by her encounter with the Headless Horseman - the night he beckoned to her. Now he has risen again, slashing heads and terrorizing the quiet countryside. Her only joy during this dismal darkness comes when Ichabod Crane, a gorgeous young man from Connecticut, moves to Sleepy Hollow and their attraction turns to romance. When the Horseman marks Ichabod as his next victim, Katrina, despite dangerous efforts to save him, sees no other choice than for them to flee. But the Horseman awaits. Now it’s up to her to sever the horror and alter the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

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Ichabod Crane by William J. Wilgus

For those who haven't read it, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow isn't quite as sexy as popular culture suggests. Katrina is a shameless flirt, Brom is a street smart and mischievous man's man, the Horseman is a local legend in a community with a firmly established belief in the supernatural, and Ichabod is a haplessly awkward, self-serving and superstitious wimp. The reader is not offered a clear explanation of events and much of the story is in fact left open ended. 

So what does this have to do with Dax Varley's Severed? Not a lot. The underlying structure of the story bares a certain resemblance, but the characterization and themes of this young adult retelling have a lot more in common with the television series starring Tom Mison and Tim Burton's 1999 big screen adaptation than Washington Irving's 1820 classic and is something this purist found rather disappointing.

Replicating the spirit of the original was obviously not Varley's intent, but conforming to the values and expectations of eighteenth century society proved yet another challenge for this author. Katrina and Elise have far too much freedom and hold very modern ideals for individuals born in the late 1700s. Ichabod's principles are also rather avant-garde and I think that both aspects undermined the integrity of the story as it meant to be a period piece.

I will admit Varley's attempt at misdirection in the final chapter of the story is quite creative, but by comparison, I have to say I found Irving's twist much more provocative. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow concludes on an ambiguous note, leaving the reader to come to their own conclusion and personally I found the inherent uncertainty of that far more enticing than the carefully crafted explanation offered readers in Varley's finale. 

The language and flow of Severed are not bad for a young adult piece and I'm sure many will find its trendy motifs quite enjoyable, but for me, Severed missed the mark and was definitely not what I was looking for in a retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

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I rested my head onto my arm. “They’re going to hang me.” He reached in and brushed back my hair. “Not as long as I’m breathing."

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Havisham by Ronald Frame

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: August 27, 2013

Catherine Havisham was born into privilege. Spry, imperious, she is the daughter of a wealthy brewer. But she is never far from the smell of hops and the arresting letters on the brewhouse wall—HAVISHAM. A reminder of all she owes to the family name, and the family business. Sent by her father to stay with the Chadwycks, Catherine discovers elegant pastimes to remove the taint of her family’s new money. But for all her growing sophistication Catherine is anything but worldly, and when a charismatic stranger pays her attention, everything—her heart, her future, the very Havisham name—is vulnerable. In this astounding prelude to Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations, Ronald Frame unfurls the psychological trauma that made young Catherine into Miss Havisham, and cursed her to a life alone roaming the halls of the mansion in the tatters of the dress she wore for the wedding she was never to have.

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Arguably one of Dickens' best known characters, Miss Havisham has intrigued readers since the release of Great Expectations. I'm not a fan of the book itself, but even I am not immune to the eerie mystic that clings to the tattered remnants of her dilapidated mansion and decaying wedding dress. Like the novel or not, it's hard not to wonder how one could end up as psychologically grief-stricken as the mistress of Satis House and while we'll never know the full extent of her history from the pen of her creator, author Ronald Frame has given readers the next best thing in Havisham.

All things considered I don't think there are too many surprises in this piece, but at the end of the day we already know where this character ends up. The question is how she got there and in that regard I think Frame did an admirable job fleshing out her story. Using Dickens' work as a foundation Frame recreates her tragic history and draws his readers into her struggles. 

What I wasn't expecting was the light Frame shed on Estella's character. She is who she is, Frame doesn't alter her in the least, but watching her cold personality take shape under the bitter influence of her guardian was much creepier from this perspective than the hinted at chain of events we see in Dickens' work. 

A little slow in places, but all told Havisham is an enlightening and elegantly written companion to the much revered classic. 

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Look at me, in my train and veil. Tell me what magic you see. This is the awful damage men do. And still the foolish virgins go on believing. Look at me. Let your blood run cold at the sight. Take heed. Beware. Or you will suffer just as I have suffered. Love, devotion, married bliss. They're dizzards' dreams, that vanish with the dawn.

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Steampunk Darcy by Monica Fairview

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Author

Read: September 11, 2013

William Darcy is obsessed with his ancestors. So much so that he intends to rebuild Pemberley (destroyed during the Uprising) stone by stone, and he wants to employ reconstruction expert Seraphene Grant to help him. Or does he? Seraphene wasn’t born yesterday. She can smell a rat, particularly when it stinks all the way up to her airship. She knows Darcy is hiding something. But with the Authorities after her and her other options dwindling by the moment, the temptation of genuine English tea and a gorgeous Steampunk gentleman are very difficult to resist. But what if Darcy’s mystery job courts nothing but trouble? What if Darcy is harboring a secret to kill for? When kiss comes to shove, will Darcy’s secret destroy Seraphene, or will it be her salvation? Join us on a romantic adventure like no other in this whimsical Pride and Prejudice-inspired tribute, featuring Wickham, Georgiana, dirigibles, funky fish, and swash-buckling pirates.

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Traditionally a combination of science fiction, fantasy and history, steampunk is a fascinating genre that allows authors a practically limitless degree of freedom. There are no concrete rules dictating what an author may or may not do which is why I wasn't exactly shocked to discover author Monica Fairview had used the genre to re-imagine Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

On the surface, Steampunk Darcy appeared to fall right up my alley of interest, but I must admit the final product left me somewhat underwhelmed. While I like the idea at the heart of this piece, I couldn't help feeling the adaptation lacked the depth of Austen's masterpiece as well as the detail I've come to expect when reading steampunk. 

Be it a modern adaptation such as Shannon Hale's Austenland or a period spin-off like Karen Aminadra's Charlotte, I open Austen inspired lit hoping for something that emulates the spirit of the original. Pride and Prejudice touched on arrogance, pretension, discrimination and partiality and while I don't expect modern authors to tackle the same subject matter, it is my hope that they approach their work with the intention of exploring some facet of human nature. I didn't see that here. Fairview took names and roles, twisted them around and presented a light romantic comedy and though I appreciate that this type of story works for some readers, I must admit it is a hard sell for me particularly.

Let's talk steampunk for a minute because it is more than a few clockwork gadgets and a skyline doted with streamlined airships and dirigibles. What draws readers to this genre is without doubt the atmosphere. The world these characters inhabit is an amalgamation of old and new, reality and fantasy. No two authors interpret it the same way which makes each new title an adventure in and of itself, but I personally feel the most successful writers are the ones who give life to their setting in the same manner they do their characters. I truly feel Fairview is on the right track with this piece, but I can't help feeling she didn't go far enough. I wanted to be wholly immersed in this imaginative world, but there just wasn't enough detail for me to get there. 

As stated, I liked the idea of this piece and applaud Fairview's creativity, but at the end of the day I think Steampunk Darcy is best suited to those readers who look for and appreciate lighter lit. A fun and amusing read in its own right, but one that might have difficulty alongside the works of Scott Westerfeld, Emma Jane Holloway and Felix J. Palma. 

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What price was too high to pay? Was he prepared to himself and everyone he loved those he had hired to help him - everyone, in short, on the ship - be killed to wipe out all evidence that the machine had ever existed? 

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A Touch of Scarlet by Eve Marie Mont

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: April 3, 2013

Emma Townsend is back at prestigious Lockwood Prep, but her world has altered immeasurably since her tumultuous sophomore year. The best change of all: her boyfriend, Gray. And though Gray is leaving for Coast Guard training, Emma feels newly optimistic, even if the pain of her mother’s long-ago death still casts a shadow. Yet Emma isn’t the only one who’s changed. Her friend and roommate, Michelle, is strangely remote, and old alliances are shifting in disconcerting ways. Soon Emma’s long-distance relationship with Gray is straining under the pressure, and Emma wonders if she’s cracking too. How else to explain the vivid dreams of Hester Prynne she’s been having since she started reading The Scarlet Letter? Or the way she’s found herself waking in the woods? As her life begins to echo events in the novel, Emma will be forced to choose between virtue and love. But can she forge a new future without breaking her heart?

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Hester and Peal atop the scaffold

It is safe to say I wasn't particularly fond of Eve Marie Mont's A Breath of Eyre, but I honestly think my experience with book one helped me to better enjoy the time I spent with book two, A Touch of Scarlet.

For one thing, I came to this book knowing it wouldn't be a traditional retelling. That Mont would utilize elements from the classic fiction, rather than the entire plot, as platform to explore concepts and ideas that pose difficulties to modern teens. In this case, Mont dissects Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to examine both sexuality and social acceptance. The result? Well, it isn't Easy A, but it isn't all that bad either. In point of fact the creativity Mont exhibits here, as well as the subject matter as applied to her target audience, were probably my favorite parts of the book.

The Scarlet Letter

Another thing I learned was not to reread the original. Let's flashback to A Breath of Eyre. Knowing exactly how much of the original was left out, the extent to which Mont butchered one of my favorite classics for her own gains, really upset me. I means really upset me. Not wanting to repeat the experience, I decided to forgo revisiting Puritan Boston and relied solely on my memories of Hester's story. Ultimately I was still disappointed, but here again I was much less annoyed as I wasn't constantly holding to an unrealistic expectation.

Without a doubt, keeping an open mind and relaxing my attitude towards Mont's premise helped me better appreciate her work but taking the story for what it is rather than what I'd hoped it to be didn't work entirely in her favor. New aggravation took form in Lockwood's study abroad program. I get that the final installment will be set in France and I'm trying not to shudder thinking what revisions are being done to Leroux's masterpiece, but I am not particularly pleased that book two of the Unbound series placed such emphasis on what is essentially the groundwork for book three. This needed to be a story in and of itself but it came off as more of a stepping stone between points A and B.

My conclusion? I think these books have a specific target audience and present that audience with a lot of interesting material. As for me though, I found this series while looking for creative retellings and in that sense I am still only partially satisfied.

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The Scarlet letter was going to kill me. Over the past week, I'd been trying to get through its 375 pages of densely packed text, and all I had gained for my efforts was a newfound hatred for nineteenth- century prose. Hawthorne never used seven words where twenty-seven were available. And so far, Hester and Dimmesdale's forbidden romance wasn't setting off any fireworks.

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Medusa, A Love Story by Sasha Summers

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Local Library

Read: February 7, 2013

It's said love can change a person. Medusa wasn't always a monster... Medusa is ruled by duty, to her Titan father and the Goddess Athena. She's no room for the tenderness her warrior guard, Ariston, stirs. When Olympus frees her from service, her heart leads her into the arms of the guard she loves... and curses her as the creature with serpent locks. Ariston goes to war with a full heart... and dreadful foreboding. He learns too late of the danger Medusa faces, alone, and a Persian blade sends him into the Underworld. But death, curses, nor the wrath of the Gods will keep him from returning to her. Poseidon will use Greece's war to get what he wants: Medusa. He does not care that she belongs to another. He does not care that she will be damned. He is a God, an Olympian, and she will be his.

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Medusa by Bernini

I have such mixed feelings about Sasha Summers' Medusa, A Love Story that I hardly know where to begin. The piece hit the ground running so I started fairly optimistic. Unfortunately the book lost steam somewhere between points A and B and ultimately left me wanting. Don't get me wrong, I love how Summers adapted the mythology to her fiction, but the telling of it threw me. In the end, I feel most comfortable awarding three stars.

The myth itself is fairly common knowledge. Medusa was punished by the goddess Athena who erased her elegant features and transformed her beautiful hair into a tangled hissing mass of live serpents. Her altered appearance was so terrifying that anyone who looked on Medusa turned instantly to stone. Many attempted to defeat her, but it was the hero Perseus who found a means to her undoing.

Alone the legend is pretty cut and dry but Summers adds flesh to the bare bones, gifting the cast a degree of substance. She has absolutely no trouble breathing life into the myth, I didn't feel she dug as deep as she could have. Summers' characters are believable, but lack the complexity I look for.

My second concern was the pacing. The narrative slows so frequently and for such lengths that I often found my mind wandering. I don't like having to force myself through whole passages and though I appreciated the story as a whole, I can't say Summers' style of writing was quite in line with my personal taste.

While I didn't enjoy this one as much as I thought I would, I am still optimistic about the series and hope book two, For the Love of Hades, is more satisfying than its predecessor. 

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"The love I have for you gives me breath and strength. You will always hold my heart. Let it give you strength to do what must be done. For you will be my lady forever."

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A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Local Library
Read: January 6, 2013

In this stunning, imaginative novel, Eve Marie Mont transports her modern-day heroine into the life of Jane Eyre to create a mesmerizing story of love, longing, and finding your place in the world... Emma Townsend has always believed in stories-the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates. Perhaps it's because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn't come close to filling the void left by her mother's death. And her only romantic prospect-apart from a crush on her English teacher-is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma's confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre... Reading of Jane's isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane's body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she's never known-and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane's story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own...

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North Lees Hall, the inspiration behind Thornfield Hall
Image by J147 (CC-BY-SA-2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

I have a love-hate relationship with retellings. I find them a fascinating sub-genre, but concede they have as much potential to impress as they do to vex. Sometimes I am fortunate enough to cross paths with immensely satisfying reads such as Jax Garren's How Beauty Met the Beast, Elizabeth Bunce's A Cruse Dark as Gold or Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness. On the other end of the spectrum I have had titles that left me bitterly disappointed such as A.G. Gaughen's Scarlet, Alex Flinn's A Kiss in Time, or Steve Hockensmith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Knowing where a book will fall is absolutely impossible which is why I tried to keep an open mind as I began Eve Marie Mont's A Breath of Eyre.

For the record I love Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. In point of fact I reread the classic in conjunction with this novel in hopes of better appreciating Mont's work. Unfortunately I feel the decision actually detracted from the novel as it brought to light exactly how much of the original was sacrificed in its creation.


Jane Eyre Illustration by F. H. Townsend, 1868-1920

For instance, one of the primary themes in Bronte's work is that of forgiveness. Jane excuses the mistreatment she suffered as a member of the Reed household as well as Rochester's indiscretions and past wrongs. This idea is eliminated in the cross over portions of the retelling as the Reed family does not even make an appearance and Emma deviates significantly from Jane's path by ultimately refusing to overlook Rochester's actions in order to promote Mont's perception of feminism.

I say Mont's perception because I feel she imposed her modern sensibilities on Bronte's cast, something I feel entirely unjust for what is in part historic fiction, and in Jane's case, wholly unnecessary. For her time, Jane is the very definition of a feminist. By and large, Victorian women were not raised to value education nor were they expected to make decisions regarding their own futures. Bronte's Jane does both. She is a strong woman who defied the stereotypic roles to which society regulated her nineteenth century counterparts. In contrast, Mont uses Jane as a foil for Emma, allocating her to the role of doormat in order to promote Emma's 'superior' version of feminine independence.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

To say I was disappointed to see one of my favorite classics treated this way is something of an understatement. Mont's re-imagining of Bertha, her superficial recreation of Bronte's work as a period romance, the subtle alterations she made to Rochester's make-up... I don't mind retellings that deviate from the originals, but I feel the best ones are those that can emulate or at least compliment the work on which they are based. I didn't see that in A Breath of Eyre. Yes, Mont borrows Bronte's characters and certain events from their story, but I can't help feeling her work trivializes the merits and spirit of the classic.

Despite my ill-regard for this imprudence and the presentation of forgiveness as one of her own creations,  I did appreciate Mont's attempt to address some weightier subject matter, particularly as it applied to her target audience. Mental disorders, teenage romance, drug use, sex, alcohol, suicide... Mont covers all these subjects and more. I've never come across young adult fiction that covers these topics in such realistic tones and I couldn't admire the manner in which handled them more.

At the end of the day, A Breath of Eyre isn't something I would recommend as a retelling, but I think it fits the bill for those looking for intriguing young adult lit. For my part, I haven't given up on the Unbound series, the trilogy promises to incorporate elements from two more beloved classics, but I think my experience with the first installment will serve as something of a guide in the formation of my expectations from here on out.

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I feared what I had done to Jane's fate in coming here. But my curiosity as Emma far outweighed any sense of loyalty I felt to Jane's story.

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Jane by Robin Maxwell

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Local Library

Read: December 8, 2012

Cambridge, England: 1905. Jane Porter is hardly a typical woman of her time. The only female student in Cambridge University’s medical program, she is far more comfortable in a lab coat, dissecting corpses, than she is in a corset and gown, sipping afternoon tea. A budding paleoanthropologist, Jane dreams of travelling the globe in search of fossils that will prove the evolutionary theories of her scientific hero, Charles Darwin. When dashing American explorer Ral Conrath invites Jane and her father on an expedition deep into West Africa, she can hardly believe her luck. Rising to the challenge, Jane finds an Africa that is every bit exotic and fascinating as she has always imagined. But she quickly learns that the lush jungle is full of secrets—and so is Ral Conrath. When danger strikes, Jane finds her hero, the key to humanity’s past, and an all-consuming love in one extraordinary man: Tarzan of the Apes.

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Never having read Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books, I suppose I am at something of a disadvantage when it comes to reviewing Robin Maxwell's Jane. Still, I can't help feeling that there is value in my thoughts, that perhaps my unfamiliarity with the originals might present an alternative point of view for those readers like me who have never encountered the classic. Be warned, there are spoilers ahead.

I really liked the idea of Jane sitting down with Burroughs and relating her adventures, thus inspiring the books that made him famous, though I am not altogether convinced Burroughs' contributions were entirely necessary or appropriate. Would it have been so awful if the man merely admired her adventurous spirit? I guess I don't understand why Maxwell thought that relationship needed to include sexual undertones.

On the same note I wasn't a fan of Jane's preoccupation with sex. Though convenient for the story Maxwell wanted to tell, for a woman of Jane's era it seemed altogether wrong and for me personally, this aspect of her personality undermined the presentation of her character as a female academic of independent mind. Not to say that one can't be both, but on paper and in fiction it seemed a contradictory combination of motivations for a single cast member to possess.

While we are on the subject of things I didn't understand I suppose I should tackle the "New Egypt" story line Maxwell created. I'm going to be honest and tell you I found it ridiculous, but I also felt it in poor taste for a novel set on the west coast of Africa. Call me crazy, but why not give a nod to the native culture? Here again, I found myself both confused and disappointed.

Disappointment seems to have been something of a theme during my experience with this book, case and point being the way the story seems to emasculate its leading man. Did Jane really have master life in the jungle so quickly? It took Tarzan a lifetime to master these skills. Tarzan's accomplishments, the strength and fortitude necessary to his very survival is lost under Maxwell's pen. Not having read the original I don't know exactly how much damage is done to his character, but I can't imagine the story would have endured if its protagonist lacked the magnetism and charisma emulated in more than eighty Hollywood adaptations of Burroughs' work. I guess I don't understand why it is necessary to sacrifice one character's talents and triumphs when retelling their story from another's point of view.

There were things I liked. Jane's personal growth was a particularly satisfying aspect of the book and I also enjoyed Maxwell's writing style. It has been years since I have sampled this author and perhaps my memory is tinted various shades of rose, but the fact remains that I expected much more going into this book than I found between its pages.

*Addendum: While discussing this review with a friend, I was informed the Egyptian elements of the story are directly related to Burroughs' original works. I do not want to retract the portion of my review that addresses this plot element, it remains an accurate description of my feelings upon finishing the novel. Still, I want to note that my confusion and lack of appreciation is a byproduct modern day sensibilities and lack of familiarity with the classic works.

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But to hell with them! None of the other girls at Newnham had a fraction of the ambition that I did. I was going to make something of myself. Leave a mark on the world. And that was that.

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