Review- Discord’s Apple by Carrie Vaughn (4/5 stars)

I got a copy of this book through Librarything’s early Reviewer program.  I love Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series and also enjoyed her young adult book “Voices of Dragons”.  This book was an enjoyable read, but very different from other things that she has written.

This book follows the story of Evie and Sinon the Liar.  Evie’s story is set in an alternate future, close to modern day.  She returns home to help care for her father who is dying of cancer.  While there she discovers that the storage room in the basement is a magical place, it is a place that stores magical items for people until the people need them again.  Evie’s story alternates with Sinon’s story which starts out during the Trojan War. Sinon’s the guy who convinces the Trojans to bring the Trojan horse into Troy.   Sinon is captured by the god Apollo and forced into slavery for him; basically sentenced to immortality.  As political catastrophes envelope the globe Evie will need the help of Sinon and many famous others to try and keep the Goddess Hera from plunging the world into further chaos.

This work was different that Vaugh’s previous works.  It is a much more complex story, with a complex world and uses a more mature writing style.  It is very creative and intriguing but because of the complexity of the world the characterization is a bit weaker than in previous novels.  Partly this is because the story line switches between so many viewpoints: between Evie and Sinon, and then sometimes to Hera or others.

What is amazing is how Vaughn blends Greek mythology, with Arthurian mythology along with other classic fairy tales to create a novel that is both compelling and all-encompassing.  She manages to connect all of these stories, histories, and myths to one place with Evie’s magic storage area.

The story is very engaging and easy to read.  I enjoyed it a lot.  Readers should beware though that this takes a little more effort to read than the Kitty novels because it is more complex.  More time is spent on a complex story than on fleshing out individual characters.  That is the only thing I found a bit disappointing; I never really felt drawn to or really cared about the characters all that much.

Overall it was a very good book.  Very interesting and creative with an incredibly interesting world.  I loved the blending of different stories and myths into one history.  Characterization was not as strong as her previous book because more time was spent on developing a believable and complex story.  I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading her next book Steel.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– The 100+ Book Reading Challenge