Modern fantasy, but without cutting apart fantasy to fit it into the modern world. All the classic things from scary faerie tales, a magnificent plot, and characters to adore. The progression is natural, smooth, believable, and some faeries manage to be decent without being human. The main character is not a changeling, as in most faerie stories (I plead somewhat guilty to writing about changelings(elves, though)). Instead, she is part faerie.
Everything about this book is quite original, while playing off of classic, non-Tolkienian fantasy.
I absolutely adored this book. Absolutely. Highly recommended to any lover of fantasy, or to anyone who wonders about it. Wonderful book.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - by Douglas Adams
These books are hilarious, bizarre, and wonderful. They are a sort of comentary, describing the ways things are done on different planets through the misadventures of some intergalactic hitchhikers. Only hilarious. Witty, sharp, and ironic, these books create there own reality so unbelievable it sounds like truth.
Not for absolutely everyone, but if you don't mind some sci-fi once in a while, this is a fabulous way to go.
Not for absolutely everyone, but if you don't mind some sci-fi once in a while, this is a fabulous way to go.
Catching Fire & Mokingjay (sequals to the Hunger Games) - by Suzane Collins
I've read fantasies about war before. I'll review them some time, but to my main point. When war books end often I'm left with the feeling that perhaps it's not better. Perhaps the war was better. People got perspective. No matter how well the war was described I could not help but think stopping it really didn't matter.
Authors have a fear of killing off main characters and the people main characters love. Of going all the way. Of destroying half the world and all the main character's family with it. (I know because I am an author, but more on that later).
Not Suzane Collins. No. The world goes down in fire. They try there very best to keep everything peaceful, but it just doesn't work. And so they fight. They fight, and they win, but at such a terrible price and with such incredible tragedy that no one could argue that it was a good thing. From the first book a tone of tragedy is set, but it escalates untill it's unbearable, and then the characters she makes you fall in love with die, and die and die.
And in the end, out of the ashes, life goes on. And it's so beautifully done that it will never occur to you that perhaps it was better before. And it's pulled off so smoothly that anyone could seee there was no other way.
Breathtaking books. I don't care what you like, these books are incredible.
A little violent, a little morbid. For a teenage audience.
Authors have a fear of killing off main characters and the people main characters love. Of going all the way. Of destroying half the world and all the main character's family with it. (I know because I am an author, but more on that later).
Not Suzane Collins. No. The world goes down in fire. They try there very best to keep everything peaceful, but it just doesn't work. And so they fight. They fight, and they win, but at such a terrible price and with such incredible tragedy that no one could argue that it was a good thing. From the first book a tone of tragedy is set, but it escalates untill it's unbearable, and then the characters she makes you fall in love with die, and die and die.
And in the end, out of the ashes, life goes on. And it's so beautifully done that it will never occur to you that perhaps it was better before. And it's pulled off so smoothly that anyone could seee there was no other way.
Breathtaking books. I don't care what you like, these books are incredible.
A little violent, a little morbid. For a teenage audience.
Night World (book 1) - by L. J. Smith
I'm not really one for vampire books. Or tragic romances. But this book blows everything else out of the water.
It's really well written. In the beginning, I didn't know if I was going to finish it, but by the end I couldn't put it down. It's not annoying about vampires, and it's not only about vampires, and the tree stories are never formulaic; each is it's own individual thing. The characters are interesting, and hte line is drawn very finely and very well between human values and night people values. They all work out, in one way or another, but not always in ways you could have anticipated. Even when you can tell what's going to happen how it happens is so interesting it doesn't matter.
The pace is unusual, and the mood transitions perfectly from light to heavy and back again. Recommended if you've never read a vampire book you like.
It's really well written. In the beginning, I didn't know if I was going to finish it, but by the end I couldn't put it down. It's not annoying about vampires, and it's not only about vampires, and the tree stories are never formulaic; each is it's own individual thing. The characters are interesting, and hte line is drawn very finely and very well between human values and night people values. They all work out, in one way or another, but not always in ways you could have anticipated. Even when you can tell what's going to happen how it happens is so interesting it doesn't matter.
The pace is unusual, and the mood transitions perfectly from light to heavy and back again. Recommended if you've never read a vampire book you like.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Unwind - By Neal Shusterman
The first thing I will say about this book is that it's bizarre. It really, truly is. The second thing that it's magnificently written. Thirdly, there is something of an opinion in there. An poinion on weather abortion should be legal. But more than an opinion for one side or the other I think he's saying nether way is pretty.
The book is magnificently written, with honest characters who change over the course of the book, and in doing so cause ripples. The book's three hundred pages, a respectable length, but I didn't want it to stop. The back cover will tell you the plot, but it doesn't quite go the way you would expect it to. If you can get over the part of how gross the whole unwinding thing is then the bookk just becomes remarkable.
Recomended if you don't mind something dark and winding. You won't be able to put it down.
The book is magnificently written, with honest characters who change over the course of the book, and in doing so cause ripples. The book's three hundred pages, a respectable length, but I didn't want it to stop. The back cover will tell you the plot, but it doesn't quite go the way you would expect it to. If you can get over the part of how gross the whole unwinding thing is then the bookk just becomes remarkable.
Recomended if you don't mind something dark and winding. You won't be able to put it down.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)