Phillip H. Tang's Books Review Blog

Elizabeth Loraine - Lillian: A Vampire Tale

2011-06-16T13:49:00.000-06:00

Lillian: A Vampire Tale is a short story about a female vampire based of Bertena Varney's role playing character. It's about a rich English woman who falls in love with a vampire.

I have some concerns regarding this story. The two main characters of the story, Lillian and Alex, have no face or physical features!! Ok, not literally, but the readers don't know what they look like.

........ the tall, dark stranger whispered.

Lillian was captivated instantly by this man. He was…beautiful. His smile made her knees weak and her stomach tighten.

This is all the description you are going to find for Alex. I think there is a contradiction there too as the author also mentions later that Alex was pale, like all vampires, because he avoided the sun. Lillian's description is even more lacking as she was simply described as "beautiful" by the men in this story. All characters were either beautiful or handsome.

There were other little tid bits here and there that I didn't like, but I won't mention them here as it didn't really detract from the story.

The story itself was...........odd. I guess maybe I have to be one of Stephanie Myers many Twilight fans to fully appreciate the story. The whole dynamics of the story just didn't make sense to me. The situation felt phony. Lillian, as a character, did not seem to make real life choices at all.

The story did not advance the vampire lore any. I guess you would call it a romance, but where was the romance? After the initial hellos they become “inseparable”. I apologize to the authors but the story just didn’t work for me.

The story can be read or downloaded here http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66049 for free!!

Brooks Olbrys - The Adventures of Blue Ocean Bob: Blue Ocean Bob Discovers His Purpose

2011-06-01T18:07:00.000-06:00

Blue Ocean Bob is a young boy trying to find his place in the world in this book named after him, The Adventures of Blue Ocean Bob: Blue Ocean Bob Discovers His Purpose. He searches out some friends to find out how to be truly happy and content.

This book has an amazing flow that is helped by the rhythm and the rhyming. This book is definitely meant to be read to an audience.

There were a couple sentences that I found odd that kind of broke up the flow though:

Perhaps if I look for - and find - the right guide.
His closest friend, Xena, a well-meaning bird.

Those commas and hyphens, although grammatically correct, kind of stop the flow of the sentence and verse completely. And every time the name Xena came up it just seemed so forced to try and get it out while maintaining the flow. I just think the sentences could have been reworded, but of course, there is a reason why I am simply writing this review and not having a review written about the book I wrote.

The illustrations were nicely drawn and coloured, but in truth, I was too absorbed in the flow of the story to really take notice of them and that was still true after reading it a number of times as I prepared for this review. The illustrator was Aleksandra Beaucher.

I believe this book is most age appropriate for the grade 5-6 level, about age 11-12 even though the vocabulary is about a grade 3 level. The younger students would enjoy the rhythm and rhyming of the story, but won't really understand the content. The junior high students would just laugh and be like "ha ha, yeah, whatever it's a picture book" (at least that's how my junior high students were when I tried to read this to them).

All in all, great read. This is the type of poetry I enjoy.

John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

2011-05-31T11:53:00.003-06:00

Being forced to read a book in school for novel study and reading a book for fun is certainly different isn't it? This was definitely the case for me when reading Of Mice and Men again, this time as an adult with no obligation to do so.

Of Mice and Men centre around two main characters, Lennie and George. Both are young men trying to make a living in the world bayling hay and finding work wherever they can. They are constantly bouncing from job to job because Lennie is always getting into trouble. Lennie claims it's never his fault and certainly he never means it, but "he isn't very bright" and basically acts like a kid. Only he is a little kid in a big, grown man's body.

Here in the 21st century we have all these fancy diagnostic labels for someone like Lennie: FAS, learn disability, and so on, but when this book was written - early 1900s - none of those existed. Back then someone like Lennie was simply seen as not very bright.

An overwhelming theme in Of Mice and Men is that of loneliness. All the characters in this book are lonely, except Lennie and George. Every time Lennie gets in trouble, George goes on about how he would be better off if he didn't have Lennie to take care of. This of course isn't true. George would become just as lonely as the rest of the characters in the book.

Now for the fun part: what does the title Of Mice and Men mean? I'm sure everyone has their own interpretation. Personally I think it shows the parallelism of the two species, mice and men. Men, as big and complicated as they seem, are at heart simpletons like mice. Lennie is a clear example of this. All he wants to do is follow his dream.

Here is a little excerpt from a poem that gave this story it's title written by Robert Burn:

The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft agley [often go wrong]
And leave us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy!

Must read for all.

Beowulf (translated by JNO: Lesslie Hall)

2011-05-29T02:58:00.000-06:00

Beowulf is an epic poem written by an unknown author. This particular version, the Gutenberg version (pre-loaded on my Kobo), is translated by JNO: Lesslie Hall. The translator tried to keep the structure of the original poem as close to the original Anglo-Saxon structure as possible. For each verse the translator also gives a short (one sentence) prose summary of what the verse is about.

Well I'm not very good with poetry because, in truth, I'm just not smart enough to understand poetry. Had I not watched the Beowulf movie and had the translators own notes, I most likely would have been more lost than I was. Those little translator notes in particular were great. At the end of each chapter there are also little footnotes about certain translations and why the translator chose a certain word over another, which I ignored.

Since Beowulf is a poem, there isn't the character development or in depth descriptions of the setting that you'd typically see in a story. That's neither good nor bad; it's just a characterstic of poems. I'm sure there are translations out there where the entire poem is translated into prose. I probably would have understood the story more, but it just wouldn't have the same feel to it I suppose.

There were some formatting issues that I didn't like, but that has to do with the e-book and how it displays on the Kobo so I won't comment on that here.

Despite some difficult to read passages, it was still a nice and quick read. It's not considered a classic for no reason. I've also read somewhere that Beowulf is an extremely influential person in Tolkien's works.

Terry Brooks - The First King of Shannara (Sword of Truth book 9)

2011-05-28T15:15:00.000-06:00

The First King of Shannara is a one book prequel to the original Shannara trilogy. The first war of the races has passed and Bronna, the Warlock Lord, is gaining power once again.

Bremen, a now rebel druid, is the only one who believes that Bronna is still alive; he tries to warn the Druid High Council, but he is ignored and sent out of Paranor for good. Two druids, Tay Trefenwyd and Risca, along with a druid apprentice, Mareth, join Bremen and his companion Kinson Ravenlock as they take measures to defeat Bronna.

We had already been introduced to this time in Shannara history in the original Shannara trilogy but obviously the exact events are now spelled out in The First King of Shannara. In case you need a reminder, Jerle Shannara is the first king and the original wielder of The Sword of Shannara. The book chronicles how the sword was forged and how the Black Elfstone was found.

Great great book.

Now I suppose the most logical question would be, "should I read The First King of Shannara before The Sword of Shannara trilogy?" I would say no. The Sword of Shannara trilogy really sets up this entrie journey of good vs. evil and all the build up work has been done in that trilogy. The First King of Shannara reads smoothly because of The Sword of Shannara.

Now all I need is the original old world history and the history of the first war of the races and I will be completely satisfied.

Terry Brooks - Heritage of Shannara (book 5,6,7,8 of Shannara Series)

2011-05-21T11:30:00.000-06:00

300 years after the death of the Allanon, his shade returns and has new quests for the next generation of Ohmsfords. Did any of that sentence surprise anyone? The Heritage of Shannara consists of 4 books: Scions of Shannara, The Druid of Shannara, The Elf Queen of Shannara, and The Talismans of Shannara.

The Scions of Shannara are Par, Walker Boh, and Wren. Or so we think at least. Par and his brother Coll are charged to find the lost Sword of Shannara, while Walker Boh is told to find the black Elfstone and restore Paranor and the Druids, and Wren is asked to find the Elves. Each one of these tasks are dealt with in their own book.

The death of the Druids have left a void on the Four Lands. Where once was magic is now being replaced by Science. Magic is being banned by a powerful group known as the Federation. They send out seekers to capture any who are caught using magic. The elfs have been forced into hiding and the dwarves are imprisioned by the Federation.

The first three books in this series moved a long at a nice leisurely pace. All of it lead to the final book in the series, The Talismans of Shannara. I must say one thing, Terry Brooks really knows how to finish a series. The last book was quite awesome. I also do believe that this is the first book in the who series that Allanon doesn't appear even once. Though Walker Boh is here, so who knows. It really feels like the entire Shannara series should end with that book but as we know, it doesn't.

The title, Heritage of Shannara, was a bit odd though. When I hear the word heritage, I immediately think of something in the distant past. But in the case of the Shannara series, heritage refers to generations in the future.

Whenever we have 2 series's like this, Sword of Shannara and Heritage of Shannara the question of "which is better?" always comes up. I want to say Heritage of Shannara is better because Brook's writing seems to be more refined, but at the same time Heritage of Shannara would not be so good without the backstory of Sword of Shannara. With that in mind, I guess I'll call it a draw. If you are going to read one, you might as well read them both.

R.A. Salvatore - Immortalis (Demon Wars II book 3)

2011-04-29T11:58:00.000-06:00

The entire Demon Wars saga ends with this 7th book, Immortalis, book 3 in the Demon Wars II trilogy. The much anticipated meeting of Brynn and Aydrian takes place in this book as well the grduge between Pony and Marcalo De'Unnero is finally settled again. Lastly, it answered the question of why Father Abbot Markwart reformed right at the end of his life. Really well thought out in my opinion.

The only bad thing about this book was that it followed Transendence which, if you remember from my review, was simply brilliant. Instead of going into great detail about this book, rather I'll talk about the entire series as a whole.

Demon Wars I was so so. Not so good but no so bad either. The entire concept of the magic gems kind of threw me off. Basically anybody who had the gems and knew the know how of them could use them to various degress of course, but they could use them. So what makes them so special?

I did not like how Salvatore started each part with a rather long monologue by one of the characters. At first I thought it might be the so called oracle, but it turned out that even those who were not elven trained were able to "talk to themselves". There are definitely more subtle ways to show the feelings of a character and impart lessons on the reader.

Mortalis was a necessary bridge gap between Demon Wars I and Demon Wars II, but it was too long for what it was. Having the information in an epilogue of The Demon Apostle, the last book of the Demon Wars I trilogy would have sufficed.

Demon Wars II was brilliant. Action packed from start to finish. Salvatore's development of the Behrenese culture and Chezru reigion were awesome.

R.A. Salvatore - Transcendence (Demon Wars II Saga book 2)

2011-04-26T15:08:00.000-06:00

Transcendence is far away the best book in the entire Demon Wars I and Demon Wars II saga so far (with one more I have yet to read). As much as I enjoyed book 1, book 2 is even better!!

Brynn Dharielle is the elvin trained ranger who was the peer of Aydrian Wyndon. Unlike Aydrian though, she actually became a full fledged ranther. She was trained in order to return to her home of To-Gai-Ru and free her people of the oppressive Behrenese.

The Behrenese are a strange lot that follow the Chezru religion that believe in the God Voice. It is believed that the Chezru Chieftain, Yakim Douan, is transcended (basically reincarnated) each time he reaches a certain age and the new infant keeps all the memories of past Chieftains. It is later found out near the end of the book that Transcendence is a big lie and as a result the whole Chezru religion turns to shambles. I always criticize authors for introducing new cultures without going deep into it, but this is not the case in Transcendence; the entire culture is develoepd quite well.

What I really enjoyed about Transcendence is the war between To-Gai-Ru, lead by Brynn, and Behren. To-Gai-Ru are completely outnumbered so they must rely on hit-and-run, stealth like tatics with the help of a beastly ally. For those who read The Sword of Truth, you may remember Khalan's battle with Emperor Jagang, well this battle in Transcendence is much more detailed and just oh so much better.

Ok I kind of cheated and finished the last book, Immortalis, before finishing this book (review to come shortly) so I can definitively say yes, Transcendence is the best book in both sagas.

R.A. Salvatore - Ascendance (Demon Wars II book 1)

2011-04-07T15:07:00.000-06:00

Awesome. Simply awesome. No other adjectives are required to describe Ascendance, book 1 of the Demon Wars part 2 saga. Already I am liking part 2 more than part 1.

The Demon Wars part 2 saga takes place once generation after The Demon Wars part 1 saga ends. Ascendance has a bit on the daily life of Jilseponie as the new queen of Honce-the-Bear, but by in large it follows Aydrian Wyndon. Uh oh, did I give away too much about his parentage?

Aydrian is a ranger in training in Touel'alfar. It is clear he has the potential to be the greatest ranger ever because of his prowess with the blade and the magical gem stones. What shall he do with his powers? Read to find out.

There is one thing I didn't like about this book though. Aydrian was locked in a fight to the death with a certain enemy when suddenly both men dropped their defenses and weapons at the same time and came to the same realization that they shouldn't be enemies. How exactly does that happen?

Ending could have been longer to. Such a big build up for such a short ending.

Good series so far. I want to say you could actually skip The Demon Wars part 1 and start right at part 2 since I didn't like part 1 too much. You probably could since Ascendance gives you a pretty good summary of what happen in The Demon Wars part 1. Some might still feel they are missing something though.

David A. Adler - Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the Circus Clown #7

2011-04-04T15:22:00.001-06:00

Cam Jansen is a grade 5 girl with a photographic memory. Her real name is actually Jennifer, but all her friends call her Cam, short for Camera, because of the clicking sound she makes as she takes mental photographs of people and places. She uses this photgraphic memory in a series of detective novels with the seventh one being The Mystery of the Circus Clown.

Cam is at a circus with her friend Eric and Aunt Molly. Aunt Molly realizes her wallet has been taken out of her hand bag when she wants to buy ice cream for the children. It just so happens that Cam took a mental picture of the exact moment when the wallet when missing. Now it is up to Cam and Eric to find the thief.

Considering the children are in grade 5, I imagine the book is intended for grade 5ers but really, it shouldn't be. The reading level of this book should be grade 3 and possibly grade 4. The vocabulary is basic and the sentences are short and choppy. I can already imagine what some of the comprehension questions would look like if this The Myster of the Circus Clown was a novel study book; none of the questions would involve any inferences except maybe "what do you think happened to Aunt Molly's wallet?" right at the very beginning. A lot of the students would probably be able to guess.

As far as mystery novels go, this one was pretty weak in my opinion. I would definitely not recommend collecting the entire series of 31 books. 31. Wow!! I guess they appeal to certain people.

R.A. Salvatore - Mortalis (Demon Wars I book 4)

2011-03-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

In Mortalis, it is up to Jilseponie Wyndon and a young generation of monks to clean up the mess left behind by the Demon Dactyl, Bestesbulzibar. In this book they must fighte the Rosy Plague.

Since almost all the hand-to-hand combat fighting has finished in the series, Salvatore was able to focus on the politics in Mortalis. A new father abbot needed to be appointed as well as lesser abbots and a baronness. Everybody wants Pony to take those jobs.

Pony, however, was too lost in grief and had the Rosy Plague to fight. There was apparently no cure for the Rosy Plague until some random insight came to Pony. I didn't like the supposid antecdote one bit.

But despite that, I must say that Mortalis is by far the best book in the entire series so far. I didn't much care for all the fight scenes in the previous books that Salvatore is famous for anyways. The pacing of the book was awesome. I loved all the jostling for position and power.

Though I must say this entire book seemed kind of like an epilogue to The Demon Wars I saga. A necessary transition book into The Demon Wars II saga no doubt though.

Terry Brooks - Indomitable (Sword of Shannara book 4)

2011-03-15T17:30:00.000-06:00

Indomitable is a short story by Terry Brooks in the Legends II collection. It takes place 2 years after book 3, Wishsong of Shannara. A remnant of the Ildatch has survived and it is up to Jair Ohmsford to destroy it.

Do you know how I know Terry Brooks didn't have the entire series in mind when he wrote Shannara? He keeps making stuff up as he goes along!! In book 1 The Sword of Shannara was the only magic available that could accomplish their task. In book 2 you could only use the Elfstones. In book 3 you could only use the Wishshong, but what happened to the all mighty and powerful Sword and Elfstones? And now in Indomitable, only Jair Ohmsford can destroy the remaining Ildatch page. Why? Why couldn't it be Brin like it was last time? I understand Brooks has been writing Shannara books for the last 30 years, but please doesn't just give us different characters each book with newer and more powerful powers.

Well anyways, I wasn't a big fan of this short story in the context of the whole Shannara series. It just seemed like some haphazard bone Terry Brooks threw at us to keep us interested as we await the next book. The short story itself would make no sense as a standalone short story without any of the history or story in book 3, so I guess it's just not very good.

The rest of the Shannara series are prequels and such so it doesn't seem like we have to worry about the whole "I just invented a new magic power that is stronger than the rest" issue. Now if the prequels have some kind of amulet that has even more power than The Sword, The Elfstones, or The Wishshong, I am going to rage. "Book 5" is a graphic novel, so that should be interesting.

David Eddings - The Saphire Rose (Elenium Trilogy book 3)

2011-03-14T22:51:00.000-06:00

The Saphire Rose is the 3rd and final book in David Eddings's trilogy, Elenium. Everything is wrapped up in the book.

Well let me start by saying The Saphire Rose was a lot better than The Ruby Knight. For the first half of The Saphire Rose it was all politics; I loved it. There was even a whole bit on what you need to win in a proportional representation vote. As a Math person myself, all the calculations being made were great.

As you may know by now, I really like quotes. Here is one I really liked in this book,

You're in politics and I in theft. I'll leave it up to God to decide which is more dishonest.

The similarities between "Blue Rose" and The Orb in The Belgariad and The Malloreon are too great to ignore. They are exactly the same object with the same personality and the same powers. I wish David Eddings would have did something about that.

The series itself was ok I suppose, though book 2 really ruins the whole thing for me. All the parts where the characters are journeying weren't too interesting to me. I can now see why The Elenium does not have the recognition of Eddings's previous 2 works. The characters will be starting a new adventure in Tamuli, but I don't forsee myself reading it now or ever.

David Eddings - The Ruby Knight (Elenium book 2)

2011-03-13T01:23:00.002-07:00

The Ruby Knight is book two of the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings. Sparhawk and his neighbours found out that the queen has been poisoned and they also know what the only known antidote is. And thus they set off on a journey to get it.

In my review of book 1, The Diamond Throne, I hinted at this series being comparable to David Eddings's other series' The Belgariad and The Malloreon. I take that back. Book two has really dropped considerably compared to book 1. All the political scheming that I enjoyed so much in book one was completely gone in The Ruby Knight .

If it's possible to steal from oneself, then David Eddings definitely stole from his own series' The Belgariad and The Malloreon. The blueprint was pretty much the same: journey to retrieve some powerful talisman, having some magical guide who includes a young child with mysterious magical powers who turns out to be a god.

The queen doesn't have a lot of time and yet her champion and his friends go off on random tasks that doesn't move them towards getting the antidote.

No good. No good at all.

David Eddings - The Diamond Throne (Elenium trilogy book 1)

2011-03-06T15:35:00.001-07:00

10 years after his exile, Sparhawk, the Queen's Champion, has returned. The Pandion Knight has returned to protect his queen who just ascended the throne because her father had died from sickness. And thus begins the Elenium trilogy with book 1, The Diamond Throne.

Sparhawk returns only to find that his queen has fallen ill. The only thing keeping her alive is some magic that has encased her in a diamond prism. The magic only works as long as the 12 knights and Sephrenea, the Styric tutor, remain alive. Somebody seems to be speeding up the process of the Queen's death by killing off these knights. It is then discovered that Ehlana, the Queen, has not simply fallen ill but has been poisoned.

Magic is not predominant in the series and there really is only vague references to what it can do. Even the people who can use magic are very limited in it. The most important aspect in this book, and probably series, is political life. Politicians are scheming to gain status and rise in rank.

Just as in The Belgariad and The Malloreon, The Diamond throne does not have a clear cut ending; the queen is not cured by the end of the book. I no longer care whether that is a good thing or bad thing; it's just David Eddings's thing

From my understanding The Elenium trilogy does not have the recognition that The Belgariad or The Malloreon has and I'm not too sure why. Personally I find it great. It's more mature than either The Belgariad or The Malloreon.

If you needed confirmation on how good this book is know that I finished the whole book in less than a day. For a book a little over 400 pages long, that's quite an accomplishment for me. That's how good this book is.

edit: I just finished book 2 of this series. The review can be found here: book 2: The Ruby Knight review. The series turned bad in a hurry. I suggest you DO NOT read this series.

David Eddings – King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda, Sorceress of Darshiva, The Seeres of Kell (Books 2-5 of The Malloreon series)

2011-03-04T19:30:00.002-07:00

As I’ve mentioned many times before, David Eddings does not have separate climaxes and endings to each book in his series’, including the Belgariad series which I previously reviewed. So I’ve decided to lump the final four books of the Malloreon series in one review. The books in the Malloreon series are as follows,

Book 1: Guardians of the West
Book 2: King of the Murgos
Book 3: Demon Lord of Karanda
Book 4: Sorceress of Darshiva
Book 5: The Seeress of Kell

Belgarion and company continue on their quest to find Zandramas and rescue Belgarion and Cel’Nedra’s son. They have to travel through all of Mallorea to find the sorceress (of Darshiva) which ends up being all for not as they all ended up in the exact place and time written down in prophecy anyways.

This series, and The Belgariad were great. Every book in the series’ were short so even though there ended up being 10 in total, it probably would have been about 3-4 of the “normal” sized adult fantasy books.
The books were well written and easy to follow. The characters were witty and all had their unique style. The story line was wonderful. Still a little too straight forward for me to call epic though.

I had a few issues with the books. The will and the word seems to have no limits. If you could simply will something to happen, how could you not do anything? Sure you can’t use the will and the word to unmake something, but just as Beldin did with a certain set of ownership papers, you could simply burn the thing you want destroyed or even translocate it to another place. One reason that is constantly given for why the will and the word aren’t used to accomplish things is that it would “make too much noise”. So what? So what if every golem knows where our heroes are? They’d easily be able to dispose of them anyways with their superior sorcery.

I completely missed the whole point of the choice the Seeres had to make. Why did she have to make a choice? It seemed to just suddenly pop up during the last book.

A little minor issue I’d say is with politics. There were SO many races and cultures in the series that I couldn’t even keep track of them all. That wasn’t the issue though. The issue is that the politics of the world wasn’t flushed out very well. Compare the people in The Belgariad and The Malloreon with say The Seanchen or The Aiel in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (yup, another shameless plug) and you will know what I mean.

All in all I’m going to have to say this is a must read series. I know there is a new age of fantasy, but these traditional sword and sorcery fantasies are still great.

Katherine Paterson - Bridge to Terabithia

2011-02-13T11:01:00.001-07:00

Bridge to Terabithia is a story of two friends who create a magical world out of imagination. Jesse Aarons has been practicing all summer to become the fastest runner in the 5th grade. It looked as though he was going to achieve that coveted title until a new student, Leslie Burke, makes her way to the running track and beats all the boys.

Leslie is the new kid in town and has a hard time making friends, though that didn't seem to bother her as her and Jesse became great friends. With Leslie's imagination the two friends imagine their own secret world, Terabithia. They are the king and queen of Terabithia and they fight off countless [imaginary] foes to defend their territory.

Leslie becomes busy renovating their new house with her dad and Jesse just can't seem to find the magic of Terabithia without Leslie.

The spring months come around and the entrance to Terabithia is completely flooded. The only way to get in is to swing across the creek on a rope. Leslie, an expert scuba diver, shows no fear in swinging over the current. Jesse on the other hand is very scared, but is afraid to admit it to Leslie. Just as Jesse was about to tell Leslie that he didn't want to go to Terabithia anymore a freak accident occurs.

Jesse is left to try to revive the magic of Terabithia on his own. What will he do?

Katherine Paterson is a Newbery award winner for children's literature for Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Jacob Have I loved. I reviewed Ther Great Gilly Hopkins about a year ago here: The Great Gilly Hopkins review . She also has many more novels and awards under her belt.

Larry Peterson - Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes

2011-02-04T10:23:00.002-07:00

Willie is a young boy with slippery feet. His feet were so slippery that even his shoes would slip off his feet. There were special shoes designed specifically for Willie, except there was only one problem: they were ugly.

Willie went to school with his new ugly shoes. All his classmates laughed at him. Even the principal and his teacher laughed at him. He was too embarrassed that he went home from school.

On his way home he noticed that the school building was laughing at him. Even dogs and cats and birds were laughing at him. He got home and even his mom was laughing at his ugly shoes. The whole world was laughing at him.

................Then he woke up and realized it was all a dream. When he went to school nobody laughed at him and actually thought his shoes were pretty neat.

First and foremost the illustrations are excellent. I love the paper and pencil sketches with pencil crayon coloring. It is very appropriate for a children's book.

I'm a big fan of alliteration. They are fun to read and flows very nicely off the tongue. This particular one was used very effectively:

Willie just slipped, slid and spun all over the place

The whole "it was all a dream" thing kind of bothers me. If the author wanted to show that Willie was imagining things he could have shown that the people were actually laughing about other things. Not a big deal.

Although this book is a picture book, or more accurately a book with pictures, you would still want an older audience of say 6-8 years old reading it. It is in paragraph format and at times goes on with a full wall of text before the next picture. It would be too difficult to read for the younger ages on their own and too long to keep the attention of the kids if being read to.

Here is a short advertising promo about the book.

If interested, the book can be purchased from the author's website in many formats including hard cover, ebook, kindle, etc. at http://slipperywillie.blogspot.com/

David Eddings - Guardians of the West (Malloreon book 1)

2011-01-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

The Malloreon is David Eddings's next series following the Belgariad Series. There is a new set of prophecies for Belgarion and company to decipher in Guardians of the West, book 1 in the Malloreon series.

A new child of the dark has emerged and inevitably it is up to Belgarion to defeat him. There is no longer an orb to chase, but now it is a race to save a child. No no, it is not Errand, though he does play a mysteriously significant role.

Right away I can already tell The Malloreon series is going to be better than the Belgariad series. At the moment it's hard for me to say why, but I just really like the pacing and style of Guardians of the West. The 2nd half at least is action packed. It really is just more of the same, just better for some reason.

There are some series that, despite taking place in the same world, can be read in any order. This is not the case with Guaridans of the West or the rest of the Malloreon series. You must read the Belgariad series first.

R. A. Salvatore - Sojourn (Dark Elf trilogy book 3)

2010-12-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Sojourn is the 3rd and last book in the Dark Elf trilogy. Drizzt Do'Urden must find a home on the surface.

Unlike in the previous 2 books, Homeland and Exile, there is no identifiable enemy for Drizzt to fight except trying to fit in society. Drizzt and his panther Guinevere are trying to searching for people who will accept them.

I wasn't a big fan of this particular book. There was no evil monster to fight. Based on this book, I can already tell I'm not going to like the Icewind Dale trilogy; there will probably be more of wondering around looking for groups of goblins or orcs to fight. I would love for someone who has read the series already to tell me I am wrong. I'll still read it eventually, just not excited about starting it anytime soon.

R.A. Salvatore – Exile (Dark Elf trilogy book 2)

2010-12-08T22:29:00.004-07:00

Exile begins a decade after Drizzt runs away from house Do’Urden. Drizzt has been merely surviving in the Under Dark.

Simply being alive and surviving is no longer enough for Drizzt; he seeks companionship, but he knows he can no longer return to Menzo Berinsow. He thinks he finds a home with the Deep Gnomes only to find out that he is being hunted by a very powerful foe which will put any friends he has in danger.

Well I certainly can’t say that Exile was better than Homeland or even as good, but it did continue the story which was good. Is R.A. Salvatore known for creating annoying says or what? It was “Ho ho what!” in Demon Wars and now “Magga camara” in Dark Elf trilogy. So annoying!!

I only noticed it slightly in Homeland but the shifting points of view in Exile was very noticeable. It just doesn’t make sense how we, as the reader, don’t know anything because we are following a character that doesn’t know anything just to have the narrator take over and give us every piece of information and more.

Anyways at the end of the book Drizzt makes a decision that I think we were all expecting since the very beginning. Read the book to find out you are probably right.

Oh oh oh, I almost forgot (good thing I take notes while reading). There was a very profound thing that was said in this book; since Drizzt has forsaken the Spider Queen God, the God has no power over him. I’ll just leave that statement here and let you interpret it as you will.

R.A. Salvatore – Homeland (Dark Elf trilogy book 1)

2010-12-07T21:42:00.002-07:00

Homeland is book 1 in the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore and a prequel to the Iceland Dale Trilogy. We follow the trials and tribulations of one Dark Elf, Drizzt Do’Urden, as he learns what it means to be a Drow.

I was a bit worried at the start of the book as Salvatore right away starts with Daes Dae’mar – Game of Houses (shameless Wheel of Time plug). I was completely lost and not knowing what was going on, but I powered through the opening and was glad I did.

Drow, or Dark Elf, society is very cut throat – kill or be killed. The only rule when attempting to execute an assassination of a person or house is to not fail. Everything hinges on whether one has the favour of the Spider God or not.

At a very early age Drizzt has an innocence that only he and his weapon’s master, aka his father, has. This puts a big target on both their backs. The head of the Do’Urden household, Matron Malice, gives each an ultimatum – become a ruthless Drow warrior or die.

The main theme in Homeland is that of tolerance; tolerance for customs and beliefs of others.
Great book. Great book. Short review because of a short book.

Megan McDonald - Judy Moody Goes to College (illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds)

2010-12-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

Judy Moody is a 3rd grader who is struggling in Math in Judy Moody Goes to College. Her parents send her to a tutor who is a college student.

In college Judy learns that there is more to Math than just worksheets and flashcards. Her tutor, Chloe, is a free spirit and Judy tries to mimick her. Judy ends up loving Math. As a Math teacher I could only wish it was that easy to get kids into Math.

The length and vocabulary of this book is very appropriate for a 3rd grader - beginning chapter novel. I don't think it was all that exciting though. Every book needs a purpose in my opinion - be it entertainment or educational. I don't think this book served either purpose. No way a 3rd grader is going to pick this book up and suddenly fall in love with Math after reading it. There really was nothing in the book that was suspense worthy or make the reader want to continue reading.

Judy Moody is a series published by Scholastic but there are definitely better books out there.

David Eddings – Enchanters End Game (Belgariad book 5)

2010-11-29T18:38:00.003-07:00

The Belgariad series ends with book 5, Enchanters End Game. The long anticipated meeting between The Child of Light and The Child of Dark finally happens.

Well all the complaining I made about only having one plot line and one central group of characters to follow in the previous four books changed in this book; Polgara and Ce’Nedra’s army fight Torak’s army as Belgarath, Belgarion, and Silk try to sneak up on Torak.

The dry voice inside Belgarion’s head is starting to annoy me. He says Belgarion does all the work, but he doesn’t. This dry voice, whoever or whatever he is, does everything for Belgarion. Nothing more about the dry voice is revealed, but hindsight being 20/20, we know there is a sequel and you can expect reviews coming up.

There is more I want to talk about but it’s kind of hard without giving away spoilers. So here is my spoiler warning *****do not read the rest of this review until after you’ve read the book *****

Ok so Durnik dies and everyone is all sad. But in a previous book, Durnik was revealed to the other characters and readers that he is The Man with Two Lives. Why did nobody bother with it at the time and why did they suddenly forget about it when he died?

All this reviewing of books must be increasing my analytical skills because I knew there was a problem with Polgara only being able to marry Durnik if they were equal but Belgarion was able to marry Ce’Nedra. So what does that say about Ce’Nedra?

Not the best series, will finish with the sequels and prequels but would not read again. Oh and what is with the series title Belgariad? I guess I will have to read some David Eddings interviews to find out but hopefully there won’t be too many spoilers.

The story continues with the 5 book series The Malloreon.

David Eddings – Castles of Wizardry (Balgariad book 4)

2010-11-29T17:04:00.003-07:00

Prophecies are finally being fulfilled in Castles of Wizardy, book 4 of the Balgariad series.

Castle of Wizardy is by far the worst book in the series thus far. The entire book was basically about Belgarion trying to learn his role as The Raven King and Ce’Nedra as The Raven Queen. Ce’Nedra turned from a whiny little brat to superwoman, not very believable.

This book was even worse for ending at a random spot than the previous 3 books.

I cheated and I already read book 5 of the series; please please do not let book 4 turn you off from the series (if you’ve made it this far) because book 5 is awesome!

Bonnie Rozanski – Todd the Dreamer

2010-11-21T00:22:00.003-07:00

Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer knows they are dreaming. This is the subject of Todd the Dreamer. Todd is a 23 year old with a crappy job, a nagging girlfriend, and a mom who refuses to let him grow up.

Todd the Dreamer is a kindle book, but since I don’t actually have an e-reader the author was nice enough to send me a copy on word document. I wonder if the word document is the same as the kindle version because there were a number of tiny errors like a missing letter here, an extra letter there, etc. Not really a big deal, just something I noticed.

If Todd the Dreamer was a fantasy novel I would say the author didn’t spend enough time on world building, but since it isn’t, I’ll just say that it’s lacking some setting. For example we know the book takes place in Maddison, but where exactly is Maddison? I assume it’s someplace in New York, United States, because of some references to the Mets and Giants (the baseball team and football team respectively) near the middle of the book. I would have also liked to see some more description of the characters. Mary Beth is supposedly the love of Todd’s life, but all we know is that she has blond hair and is prettier than his girlfriend.

One thing I found extremely odd was Todd calling his “Ma and Pop” by their names, Esther and Sam. The entire book was written from Todd’s point of view, so it was rather inconsistent for the narrator to be calling Todd’s parents by their first names. Here is an example of this inconsistency,

“His father would be somewhere in the back of the house. Sam couldn’t stand Kahlua anyway; a shot of whiskey would be more his style”.

In my opinion a lot of scenes were way too short. The author relies heavily on dialogue to get through the scenes and through the story; not necessarily a problem in itself, but it did make for some real short scenes. There would be instances where a scene ends and then it is picked up again ten minutes (book time) later. Those were instances were I think exposition would have come in handy to “pass the time” so to speak.

Alright so enough about the negatives of the book and onto some positives. Though this is only a guess, but I assume the author did her research and all her talk of EEG, REM, limbic systems, etc. were accurate. There is enough scientific jargon in this book for anyone interested in the workings of the brain, but at the same time you don’t need to know it to enjoy the book.

I’m sure we have all had that dream where we fall off some tall building and wake up just before you spill your brains out on the concrete floor below. If you die in your dreams do you die in real life? According to the author, you can’t hurt yourself in a dream because your body is paralyzed, but only if you don’t know it’s a dream. So what are so good about dreams? Well in a dream you could do anything, even go on dates with girls who normally would not go for you.

Todd the Dreamer moves away from lucid dreams to out-of-body experiences. Are they also another form of dreaming? Follow Todd’s life to find out.

I am one of those readers that don’t go looking for symbolisms in books unless I am smacked directly in the face with it. Had I been, I may have noticed all the references to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

If you’ve ever wondered what dreams are, why we dream, or imaged that dreams are better than reality, then this book is for you. The kindle version can be obtained here. Thank you Bonnie for sending me this free copy to read and review.

David Eddings – Magician’s Gambit (Belgariad book 3)

2010-11-20T16:28:00.002-07:00

In Magician’s Gambit, Belgarion and co. are hunting Ctuchik who has the orb of Aldur. They must go into the the Angarak sorcerer’s own fortress, Rak Cthol, and battle the disciple of Torak.

Belgarion is finally starting to understand The Will and The Word. You just will something to happen and it happens. In my review of Pawn of Prophecy, book 1 of the Belgariad series, I said that I wish Belgarion, Garion at the time, was older because Eddings could go deeper into the topics he brings up. For example in Magician’s Gambit, Belgarion brings a cole back to life from the dead; his grandfather and aunt’s response was simply “that was dangerous”. What about the dangers of being able to will something to happen? That’s not discussed either. Eddings also introduces a priest to talk about sins, but that never materializes.

Ce’Nedra finally admits she is in love with Belgarion in case you needed more convincing that Belgarion is The Raven King. She’s so annoying, a stereotypical spoiled princess.

Again the book follows a single plot line with the entire group moving together. Getting kind of boring. I guess this is what happens after Wheel of Time – everything else just doesn’t compare.

Hind sight being 20/20, I know the series is not over yet but it feels like it should be. Yes yes, the prophecies haven’t all been fulfilled yet, but it took 3 books to get the orb back. So if the orb is retrieved, shouldn’t it be over? It goes back to what I said in the reviews of book 1 and book 2, the books were too short. All three of these books should have combined to make 1 book. Ah well, I guess I can just pretend it was all one.

Robert Jordan / Brandon Sanderson – Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time book 13)

2010-11-16T18:34:00.003-07:00

Tarmon Gai’don is upon us. The last battle with The Dark One is here. I know, I know, it’s been coming for at least 3 books now, but truly, it’s here. Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson is book 13 out of 14 in The Wheel of Time series.

In Towers of Midnight, Perrin’s ongoing conflict with the Whitecloaks and his Wolf Dreams get settled; the Moiraine saga finally comes to a conclusion. To be honest, I didn’t very much care for Perrin and his issues (I actually completely forgot about the Whitecloaks). Odd because Perrin is probably my favourite character in the entire series. Anyways, his fight in the Wolf Dreams was breathtaking and made everything else worthwhile. The authors of this book did a masterful job in narrating three battles that happened simultaneously.

What I felt was handled particularly poorly were two events that “went back in time”. Basically something happened from one persons point of view and then the events were retold from another person’s point of view later in the book. I don’t remember this being an issue in prior books so I’ll have to go back and see how Robert Jordan, and other authors, deal with his situation. I believe another character just tells other characters in the past tense rather than the present tense.

I was not satisfied with the conclusion of the Moiraine saga. I feel like more attention needed to be paid to this plot because of the amount of build up to it.

Aviendha showed up twice in the book and both times I felt her presence was forced. The first time she met some random Aiel woman on the road and they started talking philosophy. The sole purpose of that random woman was so Aviendha can talk philosophy with her. Then the 2nd time she was shown the future of the races many generations after the last battle. So that tells us

who won the last battle and
who survives

it was also so out of place that I found the entire piece excruciatingly long (even though it really wasn’t).

Not much more I can say about the book. Towers of Midnight did what it needed to do: wrapped up some loose ends and prepared us for Tarmon Gai’don. Let’s be honest here, if you made it to this review and this book in the series, you very well are going to finish the series. Just read it and enjoy, but keep in mind, out of the last 3 books, The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light, Towers of Midnight has the most original Brandon Sanderson material (based on interviews).

David Eddings – Queen of Sorcery (Belgariad book 2)

2010-11-07T11:59:00.002-07:00

The quest to retrieve the stolen orb continues in Queen of Sorcery, book 2 of the Belgariad series; the dry voice inside Garion’s head makes itself known and Polgara becomes even more assertive.

A little bit more about Garion’s past is revealed to him in Queen of Sorcery. I have an issue here; pretty much everyone in the book knows that Garion is The King of Riva except him. Why? Well pretty much everyone except Garion knows about the prophecies related to him, except him. This is probably the reason why his Aunt Pol never taught him how to read. But come on now, I mentioned in my review of Pawn of Prophecy, book 1 of the series, how Garion was stupid, but really? THIS stupid??

Apparently the dry voice has always been with Garion but it wasn’t that of Asharak. And yet both managed to evade the detection of Polgara, probably the 2nd most powerful sorcerer behind Balgarath at this point? It doesn’t really seem to make sense. And then when Polgara finds out about him she doesn’t appear all that concerned.

Well the title Pawn of Prophecy was clearly about Garion so I suppose the title Queen of Sorcery is about Polgara. She does show just how powerful she is with sorcery. Garion himself begins to show what powers he possess.

Once again the book follows one central group of characters from beginning to end with a couple members of the group going off on their own. Those members meet back up. The book ends before Polgara and company are able to extract the story of where they were and what they did.

Just like with Pawn of Prophecy, I feel like the book came to an arbitrary ending simply to make the book shorter, perhaps easier to read? Ah well, got to keep reading to find out what becomes of Belgarion. Oops, did I just give away a spoiler?

David Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad book 1)

2010-10-29T21:33:00.002-06:00

Pawn of Prophecy is book 1 of the Belgariad series. It is a high fantasy along the lines of Tolkien. Eddings creates his own races (actual human races) and cultures.

A very powerful orb has been stolen and must be recovered. A small party is formed to try and retrieve it. A seemingly young and ordinary boy gets somehow involved. Needless to say he was no ordinary boy.

Eddings’s name for people and places are borderline unpronounceable - none of the main characters, but every one and everything else. This especially becomes a problem when the characters start talking about history and politics because I find myself not able to follow in depth.

Eddings has a real straight forward writing style. He does not get bogged down by too much “fluff”. Even the story itself only has one real plot line; it only follows one group who stays together the whole time. That may or may not be good depending on what you like.

I feel like the book should have been longer. Believe it or not, that’s actually a compliment. I enjoyed it so much I wanted more. The ending to this book was rather unsatisfactory. It almost seemed like a larger volume was broken up unceremoniously. Even the title of the book, Pawn of Prophecy, and the lack of any real reference to it suggests the book was indeed intended to be longer.

I also feel like the main character, Garion, should have been older. Eddings brings up such fascinating topics of discussion but can’t quite explore them properly because the main character is too young and stupid. Yes, I said stupid. Again that is a compliment because Garion is supposed to be young and stupid. Though with hindsight being 20/20, I know the series is a rather lengthy one was maybe the author will get to exploring those topics in more detail.

All in all, good book. Going to start the next book, Queen of Sorcery, right away.

R.A. Salvatore – The Demon Apostle (Demon Wars I book 3)

2010-10-23T19:26:00.002-06:00

The Demon Apostle by R.A. Salvatore is book 3 in The Demon Wars Saga part 1. The demon has complete control over his host body and that man is starting to take over the world.

Truthfully I don’t even know what to write in this review. It seems as though I have reviewed this book twice already and have said everything I wanted to say. In reality I’ve only reviewed the previous 2 books in the series, but nothing new is presented in The Demon Apostle. I mentioned before how there doesn’t seem like the characters are only moving from one event to the other and the trend continued. Elbryan killed a few more goblins and had a few more fights but nothing more.

Even Salvatore himself in The Demon Apostle said that Avelyn’s trademark “ho ho what!” saying was annoying. I wonder if he meant it to be all along or just wrote that into book 3 because people like me also complained about it back when the books first came out.

Though I can’t be certain, but I believe there was a glaring inconsistency in this book. Did Pony fire a lodestone or magnetite at Markwart?

Well anyways, the trilogy ends with obvious future books to follow.

R.A. Salvatore – The Demon Spirit (Demon Wars I book 2)

2010-10-11T20:06:00.002-06:00

The Demon Spirit by R.A. Salvatore is book 2 in the Demon Wars I Saga. The demon has returned without a physical body.

The Demon Spirit introduced some new characters which were quite lively and was nice for the book. The author also briefly introduced the history of the Order and it appears there will be more to come. That I enjoy

Remember in my review of The Demon Awakens I said the monks don’t seem to have anything to do with the story itself? Well in The Demon Spirit, Salvatore made an arbitrary connection that appeared rather forced just to give the monks a role. In book 1 he set the scene up having the Demon Dactyl pictured on the doors at St.-Mere-Abelle, but nothing more came of it.

I think my biggest issue with this book is the lack of a well defined goal. The characters go from one event to another but the events are not related. Even when the book ended I was like, “really, that’s what the whole build up was? That was kind of dumb”.

And what is up with Elbryan speaking with his Uncle Mather? Salvatore might as well put in bold, “hey look, these are my thoughts on life that has nothing to do with the book I am writing, but I had to get my philosophy in somehow”.

So disappointed. Maybe I should give Salvatore’s Dark Elf Trilogy before I give up on him.

R.A. Salvatore – The Demon Awakens (Demon wars I book 1)

2010-10-02T19:22:00.002-06:00

I’ve always been aware of R.A. Salvatore; kind of hard to miss when he has an entire section all to himself near the fantasy section of bigger bookstores. I decided to start with the Demon Wars saga rather than the Forgotten Realms books because of a recommendation to read them. The Demon Awakens is book 1 in the Demon Wars Saga part 1.

Elbryan and Jilseponie aka Jilly aka Jill aka Pony have just reached adulthood, age 13, and realized that they love each other; the girl realized it first of course. The two love birds have just shared their first passionate kiss and their fathers have just returned home from a successful hunt. All seems well in Dundalis except the hunting party also brought back the corpse of a goblin. The dead goblin was brought back as a…………trophy? Anyways, it is said that goblins always collect their dead.

All in one night thousands of goblins and giants sack Dundalis and burn it to the ground. Only Elbryan and Jill survive.

Many years later the goblins are on the move again. This time with even more help. But neither Elbryan nor Jill are the same kids playing adult games as they were those years ago and they even have their own friends to help. Battle ensues and Elbryan, Pony, and Avelyn (a strange monk) are left fighting the Dactyl, the demon controlling the armies.

I’ve heard that R.A. Salvatore is the best in describing fight scenes, but quite honestly I didn’t see it. Not that he did it poorly, but I didn’t see how it was any different from other authors.

One character that I found extremely annoying was Avelyn. He was barely acceptable at the beginning but by the end after he left the monastery of St.-Mere-Abelle and came up with the annoying saying, “Ho ho what!” he was unbearable. Actually the whole concept of the monks does not make sense to me. Seems the only real reason they are even in the books is because they possess stones that can be used for magic.

What I really like in this book is the Elves. R.A. Salvatore’s Elves have such a playful manner they might more accurately be known as fairies. The best part about them in my opinion is their sing song like language.

Okay read. I’ll reserve my judgment after more books until I decide whether the series is good or bad.

Terry Brooks – Wishsong of Shannara (Shannara series book 3)

2010-09-24T14:50:00.003-06:00

When I got a little past the halfway point of Wishsong of Shannara and I started thinking about what I would write in this review. That’s when it occurred to me that this books is actually pretty good. It’s not that it took till that point to get good, but I didn’t have high expectations for it because if you will remember from my review of the 2 previous books in this series – Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara – I haven’t been too impressed by the series. As I was reading Wishsong of Shannara, I was already looking forward to the new series I would be reading after I finished. I wanted to finish just so I could say I read an entire Terry Brookes trilogy.

20 years after Wil Ohmsford helped Amberle replant the Ellcrys’s seed, his children developed Elvish magic because of their father’s use of the Elfstones. Can you guess who their mother is? Anyways, the magic they were born with was the Wishsong. The Wishsong allows people or objects to bend to the singer’s will.

Of course Alanon knows of this magic and of course he has use for it. There is a particular book, the Ildatch, that turned Brona into the Warlock Lord. The book was lost after Brona died. Alanon couldn’t find it because Brona’s followers had taken it and turned them into the Mord Wraiths after approximately 60 years of studying the magic within. How the Wishsong is needed to destroy the Ildatch is pretty ridiculous, but the adventures of Brin, Jair, Rone, and friends are better than the reason they went on the adventures.

So what makes Wishsong of Shannara better than its predecessors? Well, I think Terry Brooks did a better job of making his characters lifelike and he had more characters to do it with. There still isn’t a lot of substance to the book and hence my lack of anything to talk about in these past 3 reviews so I’ll wait a bit before I read more Shannara books.

Terry Brooks – Elfstones of Shannara (Shannara Series book 2)

2010-09-19T15:16:00.002-06:00

50 years after the events of Sword of Shannara end, the grandchildren of the central characters from that book have their own adventures in Elfstones of Shannara. The titled Elfstones are the same ones Shea Ohmsford used to help him defeat the Warlock Lord 50 years earlier. They have been passed onto his grandson, Will. Drawing a quick mental family tree shows that Wil is only 1/8th elf. Is that elf enough to use the stones?

The Ellcrys, a tree from “another age” has been the prison warden of demons for ages. Now the tree is dying and the demons are escaping their prison. It is up to Eventine Elessedil’s granddaughter Amberle and Shea’s grandson Wil to replant the tree’s seed and again imprison the demons.

Elfstones of Shannara really only has 2 plot lines: one following Amberle and Wil and the other following Ander, Eventine’s youngest son. Ander’s role is to lead all the races of the four lands in defense against the demons.

In hindsight we now know Sword of Shannara is a trilogy and a little part in a multi multi part Shannara series. Though if I had to guess, I doubt Terry Brooks even had this book 2 in mind. Or at least he wasn’t sure his first book would be published or gain the success that it did. I say this because there doesn’t seem to be a cohesiveness between book 1 and book 2. Brona, the Warlock Lord from book 1, doesn’t show up in any form in Elfstones of Shannara. The Shannaran sword that was so vital in Sword of Shannara and the name of this trilogy is only mentioned once at the end as one of the characters notes that everyone during the Sword of Shannara times are either dying or dead. Everyone except Alanon who (again) threatened to go off and die at the end of the book. Does anyone actually believe it anymore?

I now understand why the whole Shannara Series is made up of so many trilogies and duologies: the stories are all fragmented and the only thing linking all of them are certain characters like Alanon. Strange you could say the same about a series like Chronicles of Narnia, and yet they seem more connected than the Shannara Series.

I mentioned in my review of Sword of Shannara that the series doesn’t seem quite as advanced as other epic adult fantasies and now I am more convinced than ever of this. Knowing what I know now, I wish I never started this series; it really isn’t all that good. Well, the Sword of Shannara trilogy anyways. Hopefully the other books are better because I still have 20 odd books to go to finish.

Terry Brooks – Sword of Shannara (Shannara Series book 1)

2010-09-15T16:00:00.002-06:00

Since I already read Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth and all the published works of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time at the time of writing this review and quite enjoyed both works, I thought it would be time to start my next epic fantasy, Shannara Series. If I was going for chronology, I should have read Terry Brooks’s series first. This series, started in the 1970s with Sword of Shannara, was the first work of fantasy to appear on New York Times Bestseller list and is widely considered the first great work of modern fantasy.
The series starts with a mysterious stranger heading towards a small village in search of an adopted son who is of vital importance. Sound familiar? This is practically word for word how Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time starts. Well a story has to begin somehow and there is nothing wrong with starting like this.

Shannara is the family name of a line of Elvish kings. The Sword of Shannara is a mystic weapon that is centuries old and is useless to anyone except the heirs of Shannara of whom there is only one left. The sword itself has another secret that you will have to read to find out on your own. Personally I think the secret and how the sword was used was pretty dumb but it doesn’t take away from the rest of the story.

There are five races central in the Shannara realm: Man, elves, dwarves, trolls, and gnomes. The history of Shannara is quite interesting and I’ll let Terry Brooks himself explain it in Sword of Shnnara. What I will say is that there is a loosely post modernism allegory. Millennia before the setting of Sword of Shannara, the inhabitants of the world raced against each other to see who could advance the sciences the faster. This eventually lead to wars and ultimately the loss of all advanced technology. As primitive societies re-evolved, people tried to regain the knowledge of their ancestors. Some of the teachings had been lost and as a result Science lead to mystic powers and sorcery. The founder of this deformed Science was Brona, the Dark Warlock lord who was no longer of mortal flesh.

Two lines in the book I didn’t like were

He focused on putting one foot in front of the other

He knew he was dead

I didn’t actually count and if I had this book in ebook format I’d have a more accurate count, but I do believe both these quotes or some slight variation of the quote were used at least ten times each. The lines themselves are fine, but they get boring when overused as they were.

Well it’s only been book 1 so I should be careful not to make over sweeping generalizations, but it seems clear to me that the series is not quite as “advanced” as Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time or Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth. These two series came after the Shannara Series, so I guess it makes sense that they have opportunities to improve on Brooks’s work. At the time of writing this review, Terry Brooks is still writing, more than 30 years after Sword of Shannara was first published, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he himself improves as the books go on.

Note: this book is also known as book 1 of the Sword of Shannara trilogy. The entire Shannara Series is made up of many trilogies and duologies that are interconnected. For sake of clarity, I will label the books 1,2,……,n based on the order the author suggest we read the books in.

Susan Cooper – Over Sea, Under Stone (Dark is Rising Sequence book 1)

2010-09-08T22:06:00.002-06:00

Over Sea, Under Stone relies heavily on clichés. Young siblings stay in an old house filled with books on their vacation. They have a very mysterious Great Uncle who knows more than he leads on. The kids find a treasure map in the attic of this old house which turns out to be a map to a holy Grail holding the secrets of King Arthur. Some strangers befriends the kids and their family only to turn out to be bad people who want the treasure map and the secret hidden at the end of the map.

Personally using clichés does not bother me as much as some other people. Maybe it’s because I am a teacher and get constantly told to “not reinvent the wheel”. Anyways, there are far bigger problems in the book than the use of clichés. Probably the biggest problem is the non-chalantedness of the three children. Young they may be, but they should still be able to guess that their lives are in danger. And yet time and time again their actions seem to suggest they just consider it a game. Then you compound this problem with the Great Uncle who most definitely knows the dangerous situation the kids are in and still chooses to let them carry out this mission instead of doing it himself or finding someone more suitable.

Lastly, why is this book in the realm of fantasy? Sure it speaks of King Arthur, but that’s about it. Calling one group of people good and one group evil does not automatically make it an epic struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Disagree if you wish, but fantasy is a literary genre just like anything else. You don’t get to get away with putting out mediocre stuff.

Well I knew even before picking up the books (yeah I have the whole sequence) that the popularity of the books was based on book 2, The Dark is Rising, so I will refrain from calling this series ridiculous until I’ve read that one at least.

Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson – The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time book 12)

2010-09-05T21:51:00.003-06:00

Ok I couldn’t wait for the paper back of The Gathering Storm to come out. The Gathering Storm and the planned final two novels in the Wheel of Time series is a combined effort from Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. The original author, Robert Jordan, unfortunately passed away after the first 11 books and prequel was written. His notes and visions for the ending of the series have been passed onto Brandon Sanderson.

One thing that is exciting and at times frustrating for readers is all the plot lines in Wheel of Time. Some plot lines are minor, some are major, and almost all are explored in great detail. The frustrating part is that a lot of times the reader has to wait, sometimes books at a time, to see the next part of a plot line played out. For example I just knew Moiraine wasn’t dead and wanted to hear more of her story, but that will have to wait another book.

Egwene’s final scene, epilogue not included, made me really mad. I can’t really speak on it without giving spoilers of the book, but she sounded way too hypocritical and way too much like she was standing on a high horse.

One reason Sanderson gave for splitting up Robert Jordan’s final book into three was that the book would be too big otherwise. Sanderson felt there was a natural split to end The Gathering Storm, but I don’t like the decision – it doesn’t follow Robert Jordan’s own timeline for the series. It could very well be that Robert Jordan himself would have realized he needed more books to finish the story, but even so, I believe he would have decided to end the book at the end of the incident at the White Tower and everything after that would have been dealt with in the prologue of the next book. That’s just based on my own opinion of how Robert Jordan split up his previous books.

All in all, I was quite pleased with the book. I’m not going to try and sound scholarly by saying I knew which passages were written by Robert Jordan himself and which were not, but I don’t believe anything Sanderson added detracted from the story itself. Obviously I would have liked it all to be Jordan’s work though. Because the series is coming to an end, we don’t have any introductions of new characters, cultures, customs, cities, etc. which allowed the story to flow at a great speed. Even so, only Egwene’s arc, an anime term for plot/story, was finalized.

I’m going to end this review with one of my favourite quotes from The Gathering Storm,

“Dream on my behalf Nynaeve. Dream for things I no longer can.”

This quote from Rand pretty sums up his feelings throughout the entire book and previous ones.

Jonathan Stroud – The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy: book 1)

2010-09-03T16:05:00.002-06:00

The Amulet of Samarkand is book 1 in the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Bartimaeus is a djinni – a magical creature controlled by a magician. Bartimaeus in particular is a very powerful and very old, at least a few thousand years old, djinni. He is unfortunately at the mercy of Nathaniel, a twelve year old boy, who ambitiously summons Bartimaeus to settle some petty insult he had received by the hand of an older, more powerful magician, Simon Lovelace.
By Nathaniel’s orders, Bartimaeus steals the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace. The amulet turns out to be a powerful magical object that is a vital part of Lovelace’s plan. The majority of the book is spent by Nathaniel and Lovelace trying to steal the amulet back from each other.
In my opinion the book failed in so many aspects. The biggest and most glaring failure of the book is the point of views used: third person and first person. Part of the book is told through Bartimaeus’s perspective and the other part is told through Nathaniel’s. When Bartimaeus tells the story, he tells it through the first person What annoys me the most when Bartimaeus is telling the story is that he also talks to the reader in footnotes. That in itself wouldn’t be a problem if he wasn’t already talking to the reader in the body of the text!! In my opinion the footnotes are just the author’s lazy way of putting in background information without having to work them into the paragraph or sentence. In informal pieces of writing you may see brackets, (), used in the same way. For example (I know, not a very good one), take a look at this sentence. Notice how the information in the brackets is vital and yet I didn’t have to make it grammatically correct to fit in the sentence. Some of the author’s footnotes are in themselves paragraphs. So unprofessional.
Another problem with Bartimaeus’s first person point of view is that on occasion he will also refer to himself in the 3rd person!! Example,

Trapped in the orb, the beetle gave a strangled gulp.
"Oh," I said. "Hello."

Bartimaeus WAS the bettle in that orb!! Because Bartimaeus is able to change shape and size at will, the author will do this on occasion, presumably, to help the reader keep track of what shape Bartimaeus has changed into. This is just yet another inconsistency of first person and third person point of view.
Maybe if I was a young teen, the target age group of this book, I’d find it more interested. But since I am not, the humour used in The Amulet of Samarkand just seemed stupid and forced. The good: The Amulet of Samarkand is only part of a trilogy. The bad: I’m feeling inclined to read the rest of the trilogy because I try not to stop reading a book or a series midway. The lucky: I have many books on my “to read” list that I don’t have to read the rest of this trilogy anytime soon.

Robert Jordan - New Spring (Wheel of Time prequel)

2010-08-14T23:29:00.002-06:00

I finally got a chance to read Robert Jordan's New Spring as I impatiently wait for The Wheel of Time's book 12, The Gathering Storm, to come out on paperback. New Spring is 100% Robert Jordan's work as it was written and published before his unfortunate departure. The author himself said you could read New Spring before book 1 of the series, Eye of the World. I do not agree. Eye of the World gives us a lot of background information on Aes Sedai and the importance of the Dragon Reborn. Without this information, New Spring would not make a lot of sense and won't be as exciting. Keep in mind that I have read books 1-11 before this book so many spoilers will pop up. If you haven't read the other books in the series, you may want to skip this review for now.

New Spring has 2 main purposes: shows how the relationship of Moiraine and Siuan formed and how Lan became Moiraine's warder. Throughout the Wheel of Time series we see that Moiraine has a special relationship with the Amyrlin Seat. Turns out the reason why is because Moiraine and Siuan were raised side-by-side to Aes Sedai. Read on to find out what kind of they mischief these two got into before becoming Aes Sedai and how it foreshadows the mischief they get into after becoming Aes Sedai as seen in other books.

Dispersed through books 1-11 are bits and pieces of how Lan and Moiraine met. New Spring gives a full account of how Lan dumped Moiraine into an icy river. I don't think anyone will accuse Robert Jordan of being a romance novel writer, but the little bit that he does throw in through all his books is quite good. Decide for yourself whether it was love at first sight or not.

Say what you want about Robert Jordan dragging the storyline of his last few books, but reading New Spring reminded me of just how good a writer Robert Jordan was. Even more important than The Gathering Storm not being out in paperback yet, I have yet to read it because I'm worried that Brandon Sanderson, the author chosen to finish The Wheel of Time series, will not be able to write the same. Of course I'll still read it and the last 2 just to finish the series off, but maybe after I re-read the other 11 books first.

Thomas Bulfinch – The Age of Fable

2010-07-08T22:47:00.001-06:00

The Age of Fable is book 1 in a 3 book compilation collectively known as Bulfinch’s Mythology. The other 2 titles are The Age of Chivalry & Legends of Charlemagne. I already had a copy of this compilation, but it was an abridged version and I wanted an unabridged version.

The majority of The Age of Fable (~290 out of 331 pages) is about Classical (Greek and Roman) mythology or Pagan mythology as Bulfinch puts it. Right away we see that Roman names for the gods are used which I am not too happy about. For the more popular gods, when they are first introduced, their Greek names are written in parenthesis beside them. I wish this would have been continued throughout the whole book, but I guess it might make it too cluttered. At least have a reference guide at the back with the god’s names but there was none. Sometimes this use of parenthesis is even abandoned such as in the case of Hercules; most people with know this hero turned god as Hercules, but his Greek name is actually Heracles. Oh well, minor details that should not be used to detract from the rest of the book.

The Age of Fable is both in depth and not at the same time. It pulls material from many of the poets of antiquity: Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Virgil, etc. The author, Thomas Bulfinch, takes stories from all these forms and puts them in a very readable format for The Age of Fable. Each story ranges from 1/2 page to 5 pages long which allows the author to fit every single story and god in the book. For example, I think Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey each only occupied about 15 pages in this book. In addition, at the end of each story the author includes 1 or 2 poems from modern (modern being 19th century and earlier) poets referencing these stories. I remember telling a friend from university how I hated poetry and that it just didn’t make any sense to me. His response was,

“you are reading the wrong type of poetry”.

Well it turns out he was so right. I absolutely loved the poetry of these modern poets referencing classical mythology. It was extremely helpful in understanding them with Bulfinch’s brief explanation of each. Back when Bulfinch wrote the book (mid 19th century) with no access to internet and the printing press only beginning to be used, I can’t even imagine how the author managed to find all these references. The abridged version of the book omits all these poems from the modern poets which is a shame in my opinion.

The rest of the book briefly looks at myths from other parts of the world. This section wasn’t done badly, but it’s clear from the amount of pages alone allotted to this section that Greek and Roman mythology is where the author’s interest lies.

The indexing in this particular version is absolutely amazing. Despite the vast amount of stories in the book, all are indexed so you can easily find your favourite stories. This is definitely a book I see myself reading over and over again.

Elena Yates Eulo and Samantha Harper Macy – The Two Sisters’ Cafe

2010-06-24T14:23:00.003-06:00

In my haste to start reading The Two Sisters’ Cafe, sent to me complementary from the authors, I misread the one sentence synopsis on the front cover. I thought it read

An adult fantasy of two magical godmothers, an enchanted Southern Cafe, and the second chance so many of us yearn for

So I geared myself up to read a quest fantasy along the lines of J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, etc. After the first 20-30 pages, it was clear that was not what I was reading. I turned back to the front cover to try and figure out what was going on. Sure enough, I misread the sentence. The synopsis actually reads

An adult faerie tale of two magical godmothers, an enchanted Southern Cafe, and the second chance so many of us yearn for

It seems to me now that the word fantasy definitely doesn’t belong if I had paid attention to the rest of the sentence. As it turns out, I am also a big fan of faerie tales and so read the book just the same.

The book features 2 mysterious fairy god mothers and a young girl, Sarah, who they take to be their apprentice. As the synopsis says, the book is about giving people second chances. There are about 5 or 6 smaller stories and one main story flowing throughout the book of people requiring second chances. In all the cases, the fairy god mothers with the help of their apprentice, through some divine magic, is able to turn back time to allow the characters to redo some major event in their past.

Now let me start with the good I liked about the book: good pacing, appropriate language, and an easy read style. For an extremely slow reader such as myself, all these are very crucial and allowed me to finish the book in a relatively timely manner. Unfortunately, that did not mean I enjoyed the book.

In my opinion, there are structural flaws in the book. Fairy tales, as we all know, always take place in a far off land and their tales happen to people unknown to us. That is precisely part of the magic of a fairy tale. As such, any magic that occurs in tales are a given and understood to be true within the story. Nothing has to be explained. Nobody ever asks where the queen in Snow White got a talking, magical mirror that always told the truth, for example.

In the case of The Two Sisters’ Cafe, it is set in a very identifiable place and time – 1950s in a small town in the southern United States. I don’t believe for a minute that the authors thought there were fairy god mothers roaming around in the 1950s in the United States, so their presence with their magical powers needed some explanation. However, no satisfactory explanation is ever given. We are simply told that the god mothers or the sisters as they are called in the book came from a different world and a different time; this particular stop on Earth was simply one part of their journey.

The magic that the sisters possess and use is definitely not a given because the townspeople are unaware of their abilities. One way the sisters hide their abilities is to make the people directly affected by their magic to think everything was a dream. This is a very lazy way to deal with the situation in my opinion. Also, what about all the other people involved in the lives of these people? If you go back and change an event that happened in the past, how do you account for everything that has happened since that event? Parallel universes where the apprentice herself has no idea she is entering different universe?

That leads me to another flaw of the book: different worlds. Tolkien mentions how primary worlds and secondary worlds should be completely different, but he was referring to fantasies so I’ll leave that discussion out. What I am concerned about is how The Two Sisters’ Cafe mentions all these other worlds but never actually gives us any details about them. On more than one occasion, Sarah enters the Fairy World, but we are never told what the Fairy World is other than there are maybe a dozen fairies living in there with a fairy queen. It’s just like when Sarah describes the fairy queen as “the most beautiful women ever” and yet all we know is that the fairy queen has long hair. Yes I understand this is a convention used by almost all fairy tales, but it’s not very appropriate for a 300+ pages long novel.

Following along this theme of not giving any explanations, one of the most annoying things in the book is evident when Sarah, the apprentice, even says that the sisters, instead of explaining things, leaves it to her to ponder. And then of course the explanation is never mentioned. When Sarah gets confused about certain aspects of magic and she asks the fairy queen, the fairy queen replies, “No further questions. We are running out of time”. The words cop out come to mind.

At times in the book the scene transitions seemed to be sloppy. In one particular scene Sarah was furious with the sisters and refused to leave her bedroom. Suddenly in the next scene, maybe 5 minutes after in book time, Sarah is waltzing downstairs into the kitchen and as joyous and happy as ever. No explanation is given to this change in mood. At other times scenes seemed to be thrown into the mix haphazardly. Like in one particular scene Sarah is a.............squirrel? There did not seem to be any need for the scene other than to show that Sarah knows magic.

One thing of minor importance that kind of bothered me was how the sisters are clearly witches, but they laughed at the idea of having top hats, brooms, and cats. And yet they used wands, cauldrons, and crystal balls.

I understand I may have taken this book and this review too literally, but yeah, the stories told didn’t inspire me as much as it might someone else.

J.R.R. Tolkien – On Fairy-stories

2010-05-23T16:34:00.001-06:00

On Fairy-stories originally started out as a one hour guest lecture Tolkien gave. He later expanded it to a 100+ paragraph essay the size of a short novella.

Right off the bat Tolkien explains that trying to define fairy story is perilous. He does, however, tell us what should not be considered fairy stories: tales that simply involve strange beings, travelers tales, dream tales, and beast tales. Tolkien does say one thing Man tries to do in fairy stories is to have communication with other living things

Tolkien goes on to briefly discuss the origins of fairy stories; he says that they are so ancient that you can trace back one single thread or event in history, but not the history itself. Does that make sense? Well better Tolkien explain it than me. He says Man are like inventors – the same mind that created the adjectives light and heavy also came up with the idea that to make a heavy object fly, you just have to make it lighter.

Tolkien finishes off with a brief discussion on the value of fantasy; he says the value of fantasy is the same as any type of literature. Tolkien was very specific in saying that the only medium that works for fairy story is word – drama and paintings/drawings don’t work with fairy stories.

One thing this essay is not is a how-to guide to writing fantasy as some reviews seem to suggest. If I had to classify it, it would simply be a defense of the fairy story.

J.R.R Tolkien – Leaf by Niggle

2010-05-23T05:30:00.002-06:00

If I didn’t know it before, I know it now – Tolkien’s life was devoted to not only writing fantasy but to the study of fantasy as well. Leaf by Niggle is a short story about a painter, Niggle, who starts out painting a leaf that turns into a tree that is part of a forest and eventually becomes an entire country. Leaf by Niggle is brought together with the essay On Fairy Stories and poem Mythopoeia in this book titled Tree and Leaf.

This process is very much the same way Tolkien views fantasy writing. According to Tolkien and the painter Niggle in the short story, the most miniscule detail, such as that of a leaf, is as important as the whole piece. This can be seen in Tolkien’s fantasies as the origins of all his characters and creatures are given, even if he has to create them himself. He learned from his mistakes in The Hobbit and developed a more refined fantasy in Lord of the Rings.

In Leaf by Niggle, Tolkien suggests that writing fantasy cannot be forced. Some days it will be easier than others; at times, you may even have to leave a piece unfinished; you may not always have the end in mind but it will get developed as other parts get developed; you may even combine pieces from the outside to fit the whole. All of these points which Tolkien considers good fantasy writing is more clearly written in his non-fictional essay On Fairy-stories.

J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter Book 1)

2010-05-23T04:55:00.003-06:00

Book 1 of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, alternatively known as Harry Potter and the Sorceress’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling was my last assigned reading for my Children’s Literature course. It was, of course, my 2nd or 3rd time going through the book by that time.

Harry Potter is the most famous wizard in the world and he didn’t even know it. At the age one one, a very powerful, evil wizard, He Who Must Not Be Named, tried to take over the world. Two people standing in his way were Harry’s parents. Voldemort managed to kill Harry’s parents, but mysteriously the 1 year old Harry lived and it was rumored that he somehow defeated Voldemort, though of course Harry, being only 1, doesn’t remember.

Harry spends the next 10 years with Muggles, those who can’t perform magic, not knowing he is a wizard or anything about the magical world. On his 11th birthday, all this is revealed to him and he is sent off to wizardry school. There he learns a little more about who he is and who and what Voldemort is.

As the rumors suggested, Voldemort, not being fully human, did not actually die when he first encountered Harry at the age of 1. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Voldemort attempts to regain power and once again it is up to Harry, this time knowingly, and his friends Ron and Hermione to stop him
.
I was first introduced to the Harry Potter series when it was already 4 or 5 books into it and by the time I finished book 6, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I did not have to wait long for the publication of the 7th and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was immediately drawn into the story; I had also had a soft spot for stories that involved magic which I now know are called Fantasy. After being fully immersed into the books I started reading book reviews of the Harry Potter series and realized that not everyone found the books as great as I did.

There is a whole unit in my Children’s Literature course devoted to this so called Harry Potter phenomenon. Why are they so popular? Why are people reading these books and not ones previously published? According to the experts, the author, J.K. Rowling, has very poor use of prose in the books; she supposedly uses fantasy conventions instead of creating her own.

I won’t get into points and counterpoints about the Harry Potter books here or say anything about Rowling’s ability as an author; I will simply say that, in my opinion, the books are well worth reading for people of all ages.

A.A. Milne – Winnie-the-Pooh

2010-05-16T14:30:00.001-06:00

My Children’s literature textbook has trouble categorizing Winnie-the-Pooh; is it a toy fantasy or an animal fantasy? I’ll make it easy and simply call it a classic. Children’s classic that is.

Pooh, a stuffed bear, has many adventures with his friends a pig, a donkey, a kangaroo, a rabbit, and an owl. Some of the adventures are rather hilarious such as Pooh getting stuck in a doorway because he is too fat and has to wait a week, when he loses some weight, before he can get out.

Winnie-the-Pooh is the perfect book to introduce young readers to chapter novels. The book is made up of several chapters, but each chapter stands alone as a short story so the reader can still feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing a chapter.

One thing I didn’t like about Winnie-the-Pooh was the first chapter/short story. It was a story that Pooh was telling his owner, Christopher Robins, so instead of using Christopher’s name, Pooh uses the pronoun “you”. To made matters worse, Christopher would keep interrupting Pooh with questions so the “you” sometimes referred to Pooh and other times referred to Christopher. The rest of the book was still Pooh telling Christopher stories, something we don’t find out until the end of the book, but this problem of pronoun usage was fixed; after chapter one, Christopher Robins was referred to as Christopher Robins.

Good book. Very good book.

Beatrix Potter – The Tale of Peter Rabbit

2010-05-15T19:33:00.002-06:00

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a picture book that is a bit longer than your typical picture book for children. It is about a rabbit, Peter, who doesn’t listen to his mother and gets in some trouble; he gets chased by a farmer and eventually gets lost; he does finally find his way home but he is so tired that he does not get to enjoy the supper that his mother made for him and his siblings.

In this particular version, the original and authorized edition, there is one or two sentences on a page and then a picture depicting the action on the adjacent page. The illustrations were fine as they were, but I didn’t really think there was any wow factor. Of course this could also be because I am not of the age this book was intended for.

Quite by accident I found out something about this book – there is no logical sequence. I was thumbing back through the book in preparation for writing this review and I ended up reading it from back to front and strangely, it worked as well as reading it front to back. Then again it could also because the sentence(s) on each page were so short I could remember what is supposed to happen next even though I read it first. Kind of like the movie Memento.

Esther Hautzig – The Endless Steppe

2010-05-15T17:37:00.002-06:00

Esther, author and main character in The Endless Steppe, was a young girl born to a well off Jewish family in Poland. Her world gets turned upside down when she, along with her family, get deported to Siberia during WWII. Most of her belongings are left behind or eventually sold off for food.

Esther’s Russian is poor and initially finds it hard to fit in her new school. Even her mother’s usual optimism starts to dwindle as the family spends more and more time in Siberia. After several years of hardship and not having anything of worth, the war finally ends and she and her family have an opportunity to return home. Only she is considering staying as she started to think of Siberia as home.

The Endless Steppe is a well written story. The amount of description is just enough to put the reader in the appropriate time frame but not too much to bore them. The book is apparently along the lines of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, but I’ve never read it so I can’t comment on that.

Joy Kogawa – Naomi’s Road

2010-05-08T14:19:00.002-06:00

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor. After that day, all Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians were sent to internment camps and all their property were sold. Joy Kogawa was a young Japanese girl at the time. She wrote Naomi’s Road as a sort of autobiographical of her at the time.
Naomi’s Road is about a fictional young girl, Naomi, who was collateral damage in World War II. Twice she is forced to leave her home due to the war. The first time she is forced away from her mom and the 2nd time she is forced away from her dad.

Naomi’s Road is a case where the story itself is far better than the actual writing. The writing was written in present tense and 3rd person the entire time which made it sound very strange. The sentences were choppy.
Being that the main character was a young girl, the story is undoubtedly a children’s literature book but it would definitely require some explanation from an adult. This would probably be a good first novel for young readers read as a novel study in schools.

Rosemary Sutcliff – The Eagle of the Ninth

2010-04-25T11:41:00.002-06:00

The Ninth was a Roman Legion that got lost coming out of northern Britain. The Eagle, a symbol of a Roman Legion, was lost along with the Legion. Twelve years after its mysterious disappearance, Marcus, son of the Legate of the Ninth, set out to find out what happened in The Eagle of the Ninth.

The classification of the book being children’s literature is not a very good one in my opinion. Children from which part of the world is the target audience? Children from North America barely know their own history, so this particular story from centuries ago taken place across the world has no context for them. I don’t even see children from modern Europe caring too much about this story.

Sooooooo, I’m going to review the story as an adult historical fiction. From this point of view, there really was not enough to hold my interest. At no point did I ever imagine myself in the particular time period the story was written in. It wasn’t even the lack of specific period details that bothered me (since we all know I hate lengthy descriptions), it was just the lack of anything happening. All the tribes that were met along the way and their customs really had no impact on me.

I’m usually pretty interested in history too, I guess maybe not this particular time period.

L.M. Montgomery – Anne of Green Gables

2010-04-14T18:54:00.002-06:00

No doubt everyone knows by now that I strongly dislike descriptions in stories. I hate reading paragraph after paragraph about the way a tree branch looks. In fact, I recently received a C- in my creative fiction writing course because I refused to add all these descriptions to my stories. Well anyways, you can probably imagine my dislike of the first 20 or so pages of Anne of Green Gables where the author goes into painstaking detail in describing Green Gables and Avonlea.

Well the story finally picks up when Anne, an orphaned girl, is introduced. Nobody really wants her, they just take her in because they pity her. She went through her first 11 years of life bouncing from one family to another. Finally the Cuthberts end up with her by accident. The best way to describe Anne is summed up in one of the author’s own sentences,

It almost seemed to her that those secret, unuttered, critical thoughts had suddenly taken visible and accusing shape and form in the person of this outspoken morsel of neglected humanity.

The problem I had with Anne of Green Gables is that there was no identifiable problem. Anne is new to Avonlea but she is instantly liked at her new school and by her new foster parents. We are taught from a very young age that every story must have a conflict. Yeah perhaps she could be considered odd with her big imagination, considering the time period of the book, published in 1908 but set at a much earlier date, but that in itself doesn’t cause any real problems except forgetting to do her daily chores. I guess it could be considered a problem novel of a young girl growing up……..

Maybe because of my background in fantasy novels, I am used to everything building up to a climax. I don’t even know what the climax of the story would be. There is no sequence of events leading up to some conclusion. It’s simply a daily account of a young girl growing up in Prince Edward Island a long time ago. Not very exciting in my honest opinion, regardless of whether it is considered a Canadian classic or not.

Gary Paulsen – Hatchet

2010-03-30T18:51:00.002-06:00

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Know how I know I didn’t particularly like a book? When I don’t remember that I’ve read it before. It was not until I got to the end of chapter 1 of Hatchet that I realized I read it before sometime in junior high. I remember reading Lord of the Flies and The Outsiders, but I didn’t remember Hatchet at all.
Well since I didn’t remember reading it, it was as if I was reading it for the first time. Brian Robeson, a thirteen year old city boy, is involved in a plane crash on his way to the Canadian North. All he has with him are the clothes that he is wearing, a hatchet his mother got for him, and whatever is in his pockets. He must learn to survive out in the wilderness.

A hidden meaning, if there is one, in Hatchet is that schools kind of suck for educating. Almost everything Brian knows to help him survive is from what he can recall on television programs. The two notable exceptions are when he remembers one of his English teachers pushing self motivation and self belief and a Science teacher who taught Brian that water refracts light. Oh and somewhere along the way someone taught him that fire needs oxygen.

Perhaps it is my age when I’m reading it, but I found Hatchet pretty boring. Then again, I must have not liked it very much when I was at that age either if I don’t remember it. It could also be that I’m not an outdoorsy, nature loving type of person. If I was stranded in the wilderness, I would definitely curl up and die. No question about it.

Katherine Paterson – The Great Gilly Hopkins

2010-03-21T18:45:00.002-06:00

Oh man. Let me start by saying a book has never been so close to bringing me to tears. If you knew me, you’d agree that is a very big deal. The Great Gilly Hopkins is about an 11 year old girl who has been bounced around from foster home to foster home.
Galadriel “Gilly” Hopkins is a bit of a troublemaker. She is one of those people who wants people to fear her. Her first day at her newest school, she picked a fight with 6 boys and won. She does what she can to terrify her younger step brother. Her step mother was as patient as could be expected.
Throughout the whole book, Gilly is trying to get her biological mother to come and rescue her. Gilly even stole money from her step mother and their neighbour to buy a bus ticket to her mother’s house.
I won’t say anymore about the story since I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. It’s just one of those books that will stay with you for a long long time.

Homer – The Odyssey (T.H. Lawrence translation)

2010-03-19T22:21:00.001-06:00

The Odyssey picks up 9 years after The Illiad left off. If you remember, The Illiad ended with the death of Hector but Troy remained unsacked. Well those of us who know the history know that Troy did fall and The Odyssey recounts that and the adventures of Odysseus.

On his way home to Ithaca where his wife Penelope and son Telemachus await, Odysseus takes a 9 year detour by the hands of the Gods. Odysseus claims to be the most ill-fated man alive because of the trials the Gods put him through, but you will notice that every single ill fat he got came about by his own actions or the actions of his ship crew.

At the heart of The Odyssey, the theme if you will, is a man who seeks adventure. This book could very well be the origins of all adventure stories. Jason Campbell calls these type of stories monomyths and they all follow the same pattern: separation (leaving home), initiation (trials), and the return home. Odysseus leaves his home to fight in the Battle of Troy, faces many challenges, and then finally returns home after 20 years.

Maybe it was the particular translation I have, but I found myself bored at times while reading. It just didn’t flow very well as a novel which is what the translator, T.H Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, turned it into with his prose. The story obviously is timeless and I read it mainly for the story. Eventually I will have to pick up the Richmond Lattimore translation of both books where I understand the style tries to keep the more poetic nature of the originals. It actually works out fine for me as his version of The Illiad is a required reading for a humanities course I want to take on Ancient Greece.

E.B. White – Charlotte’s Web

2010-03-09T19:25:00.002-07:00

Charlotte’s Web is about the friendship of a spider, Charlotte, a pig, Wilburn, and a young girl, Fern. Wilburn is born a runt and the farmer immediately wants to kill it so it doesn’t cause problems. Fern convinces her father not to kill Wilbur.

Wilbur is eventually sold to Fern’s uncle where he is bored and attempts to escape but is too scared to do so. After a failed attempt to escape Wilbur is still bored but at this point he makes a friend, Charlotte. It is later revealed that the farmer who owns Wilbur is trying to fatten Wilbur up so he can turn Wilbur into bacon and ham. Naturally Wilbur doesn’t want to die.

Charlotte has a plan to save Wilbur. Her plan is to write praiseful words for the pig in her spider’s web. She started with “Some Pig”, went to “terrific”, then “radiant”, and finally at the fair she weaved the word “humble”. The young readers, the target audience of this book, may or may not realize it but these slogans, as the book class them, are more representative of Charlotte, the spider, than Wilbur. I’ve read some reviews where they said the slogans are more about Fern. I don’t see it.

Anyways, the book is a very nice transition from the more kiddy books to more advanced books for kids because of the book length, approximately 180 pages, and the topics dealt with.

Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting

2010-03-07T19:17:00.003-07:00

What if we could live forever? This is the question Natalie Babbitt poses in her novel Tuck Everlasting.

Winnie Foster, an eleven year old girl, feels trapped in her life and wishes to be free. She expresses her wishes of running away to a toad. One day she steps out of her fenced cottage and walks into the woods which her family owned. There she meets a boy who is drinking out of a stream. Winnie, feeling very thirsty, wanted to take a drink out of it as well but the boy was very insistent that she didn’t. Eventually the boy’s mother and older brother come and take her away which they claim is for her own good.

Back at the Tuck’s place (Tucks are the family that kidnapped her), they tell her about the story of the stream and how anybody who drinks from it will live forever. That is, they do not grow old and they cannot be physically harmed.

A stranger hears all about this story and has a plan to profit from this spring. The book goes on from there.

At the end of the story Winnie has a choice: does she want to drink the water from the stream and live forever? Read the book and you shall find out.

Mordecai Richler – Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang

2010-03-05T20:11:00.001-07:00

Jacob Two-Two is two plus two plus two years old and has 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 2 brothers, and two sisters. He has to constantly repeat himself because he is the youngest of five children, people only hear him the 2nd time he says something; this constant repeating of what he says gets him in trouble with the “big people” as it puts him in a children’s prison with the warden, a hooded fang, in Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.

Jacob Two-Two is feeling kind of useless because he is always told he is too little to do many of the things his older brothers and sisters can do. One day he is tired of being too little to do things so he asks his father to send him on an errand. His father gives him two copper coins and sends Jacob Two-Two two doors down to buy two ripe tomatoes. At the grocery store, the owner mistakes Jacob Two-Two’s repeating as mockery and signals a police officer to arrest Jacob Two-Two for making fun of an adult. Jacob Two-Two is sent away to children’s prison.

At the prison the warden, a hooded fang, is very evil and mean to all the children captives – over two hundred of them. However, he is unable to force Jacob Two-Two to be scared of him and so decides to execute him. Jacob Two-Two of course becomes very useful in not only saving himself, but saving all the children.

Although a book length novella for kids - ~80 pages with generous spacing – the book is basically just an extended version of a children’s picture book. There are even numerous illustrations to accompany the story. The story of a boy who considers himself useless and then becomes very useful in the end could very well have come right out of a picture book. On the other hand, as my Children’s Literature course suggest, it could be a fantasy book for kids.

This book is very peculiar; because Jacob Two-Two is only two plus two plus 2 years old, the story actually fits that particular age group very well. However, at that age they are not able to read this book on their own. So it would be have to be a bed time story or something a kindergarten or grade one teacher might read to their students. But it’s too long to read as a bed time story and children that age, or any age actually, do not have the attention span to sit through the entire story in one sitting. Like I said, very peculiar.