OSC: Ender's Game
Even though I had never read any of his novels previously I knew Orson Scott Card was an amazing writer. I had bought two of his creative writing help books (Elements of Writing Fiction - Characters & Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing)
Surprisingly they had the two other books we needed to complete the original quartet. I devoured Ender's Game. I absolutely love the way Orson Scott Card writes. You simply join in with the story from a couple of different angles. One view is Ender himself, another view are the people who brought him to the Battle School hoping he is the Earth's salvation and then you get to see what's going on with his family, specifically Valentine and Peter.
The way the story goes you root for Ender to overcome his obstacles, you hope he doesn't crack and go insane under the huge amount of stress that is put on him during his years in the Battle School. He is separated from the group by just a few statements from the man that brought him to the Battle School and ends up being friendless for awhile. He does what needs to be done, what is required of him to accomplish and attempts to make friends. Everytime things get better for him they uproot him and force him to start all over again.
Finally he is given a short reprieve and returns to Earth for a few months. The officers use his sister to convince Ender to go on, to save the Earth, although she does love her brother, she also sympathizes with what he's going through. They are as close as brother and sister can be. Ender goes on to the Command School in order to learn how to command the fleet that will take out the Buggers and eliminate the threat they pose to humans.
This is where I will stop regarding Ender's Game. If you want to know more, simply grab a copy at Borders or order it from Amazon (Ender's Game
July 2, 2008
Books to Review
So here is a list of books that I have read that need to be reviewed:
Ender's Game
- Speaker for the Dead
- Xenocide
- Children of the Mind.
- Detailed reviews for World of Time series
So you can see that there will be a lot of posts coming soon. Thanks for being patient!
June 16, 2008
RJ: Wheel of Time
I've got to admit that I had to start over reading the Wheel of Time series when I bought the newest installment Knife of Dreams because when I started reading it I couldn't remember anything from the previous book. When I decided to try re-reading Crossroads of Twilight, again that happened. So I went back to Winter's Heart. When I had issues remembering from there I decided to reread the entire series. I am currently on Lord of Chaos.
It's odd how when I start to reread a series that I remember everything from the beginning but not from the most recently read books. I don't understand how that works, but that seems to be the way of it for me.
The Eye of the World starts you on a journey with four young people from Emond's Field and takes you on an adventure with them. Another from home joins them on the journey, completely unexpected by them, but needed by the Pattern. There are dangers from every shadow and every turn of the page. In this book, people who thought things were myth learn otherwise and meet fantastical creatures and their worst nightmares. At first it's simply a battle to be able to return home and becomes so much more, a battle for sanity, a war against darkness.
The intricate details with the people involved in the book it's amazing. You truly get to know the characters you are reading about. Not just their strengths and weaknesses, but you also learn their fears, their loves and their needs. It's the absolute strength of will that keeps them from being swallowed by the Shadow and engulfed in darkness.
It's easiest to read such a long saga like this one straight through as much as possible. I have always had problems waiting for the next book to come out because by the time it did I would have to reread the previous one.
There is even a role-playing game that has been created for this series for those who wish to experience this fantastic world in another way. I've personally never played it but I know those who have. If you enjoy the saga and enjoy the different characters, you should look into it and find a group with credibility. Enjoy!
May 9, 2008
The RiftWar to the Serpent War and More
I started reading the Feist books again while back, which is why I haven't been around and posting as much. I decided to start again from the beginning after reading the latest book in the long series because every now and then I learn something new. I literally read each book within three days (24 hours if you want to talk hours not including breaks and sleeping) and doing so has renewed my interest a hundredfold.
Following Pug through his trials as a boy in Crydee to becoming the most powerful magician on a foreign world and bringing the Greater Path magic back to his homeworld is amazing to say the least. The RiftWar Saga itself has 9 books. Three from the Midkemian side, three from the Kelewan side, and then I also include the 3 Legacy books that start 10 years after the RiftWar even though they aren't exactly during the RiftWar. There are things that happened which caused them to be linked to the RiftWar itself and having those three books puts everything into perspective.
I am missing one book still, A Shadow of a Dark Queen, because I had left it over at someone's home and when I went to retrieve it they told me it wasn't there and they'd never seen it. I was pretty darn sure I had left it on the coffee table, but never questioned them and never saw the book again. Eventually I'll buy a copy so that I can have a complete set again. People find it strange that I reread books! But when an author spends as much time on such an epic like this you end up having to sometimes. I've reread these books at least three or four times over the years as more books are written and added. I end up loving them more and more each time.
The SerpentWar Saga takes you on a journey to another part of the Midkemian world that no one knew was there, they have to travel by ship for several months to reach this other portion of land and because of it being such a long trip and most ships can't hold enough supplies to go that long without land, it's never been found or never proven to exist.
This new land, Novindus, is completely different from what the people of the Kingdom know. Instead of being ruled as the Kingdom or the other known lands it is more of a City-State system and whoever has the most money to pay for mercenaries stays in control of the land they've taken. Novindus never knows true peace and there is constant suffering.
The books in this series will take you to new heights in realism. You learn about the people from the nobility to the common, you learn their ways and thoughts, they have dreams and trials. You ride with them into battle and come out with bruises. The story brings you into it and you learn to love and hate throughout the story. You become entwined with the good and the evil, get upset when someone you enjoy following doesn't live to see another day and mourn their passing with the others in the story.
With so much detail provided in the books you feel as if you could close your eyes and be there with the people you're reading about. If you enjoy a good adventure story, these books are for you. You don't even truly have to enjoy fantasy, but that's always another plus. The worlds within are much like our own world during medieval times. So take a look at Magician: Apprentice and see if you wish to continue to follow Pug and others as their lives unfold, as they fight for the world they love, as they simply wish to live day to day in peace.
April 2, 2008
The Dark War Saga - Into a Dark Realm
Sorry that I haven't been around to post regarding the books I've been reading lately. I have been slowly getting through Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. It's very good if you're deep into science fiction, for me, it's a bit much so I'm taking it slowly. I do play the game that was based on the book on occasion, Anacreon, and recently there was some kind soul who updated the game (neurohack, thank you) and although it isn't much more than it was, it's a lot better than looking at a few blips on the screen in DOS. Anyway, onto the Dark War Saga.
I have been working my way through the books by Feist regarding his world, Midkemia, for years now. I absolutely adore his way of writing. Midkemia is coming up against another huge war and Kelewan is involved now as well (the Tsurani home world). Pug and the Assembly of Magicians are working together in order to prevent the 2nd plane of existence from invading the first, which they live on. Pug, his son Magnus, Nakor and a new member of the group, Ralen Bek, are on a pilgrimage of sorts to the capital of the Dasati race in order to try and prevent this war from occurring. I don't know exactly what they plan to do and Pug sending himself messages from the future is a bit disconcerting regarding this in itself. Yes, that's right. Pug is sending himself messages from the future.
I also wish to mention that Macros the Black is back in the picture. I will not tell you where or what or how. Just that he is and you'll have to read the saga in order to find out why he is and what is going on with him. Turns out he got his just desserts, though.
This book is the second of this part of the Saga. So there isn't as much information as I would like. A lot of different people doing things and their stories being told. We've also been following someone on the Dasati plane to learn about him and that, of course, takes a very interesting twist as well.
So now, with all the information I have gained on what the Conclave, Pug and his travelling band, and the Dasati are doing I wait patiently for the next book to come out. Flight of the Nighthawks is the first book in the Saga and the next book is Wrath of a Mad God. It's really best to have read the entire series before delving into these books. It probably isn't entirely necessary, but you'd be better off knowing the entire story instead of starting somewhere in the middle of it.
February 8, 2008
NR: Morrigan's Cross - The Circle Trilogy
I'm finally ready to start the second book. I started this book several months ago, possibly June of last year, perhaps May. I had a really hard time reading this book and I don't know why. I haven't read romance in a long time and this book is considered a romance yet there's a possibility to classify it as fantasy or thriller, too. I put it under fiction.
My sister read this trilogy and she said it took her a long time to read the first book as well but she had flown through the other two books. I am hoping that will happen. The first book is hard to get through because it has a slow beginning, then the excitement is pretty well spaced out with the 6 chosen getting to know each other through arguing, fighting, and rare conversations.
In order to know the background of each of the people involved I knew I had to finish the first book and now I have so I can start on the second. In this book you follow 6 chosen people who are to fight a war on another world to save all worlds. The timeline span thousands of years. Love is found, family is lost and found again, new things are learned by those who lived hundreds of years previous to the current time. Magic is involved intensively and some of it I find quite improbable. The magic I find unbelieveable is at the end of the book and has to do with online shopping. If you can't make it that far, flip to the last couple of chapters.
If you have read this book and would like to give a better review of it, please feel free to contact me to do so at chelle @ sweetly-evil.org.
February 5, 2008
The Hero and the Crown
The Hero and the Crown is an older fantasy book, published way back in 1984 when Fantasy and Science Fiction were thrown into the same category because the books were so extremely rare. They were also such a tiny genre of the publishing industry that the publishers would pretty much take anything they could get because they knew there was a guarantee that it would sell, and it did. There were a set number, around 40K, of people who would buy fantasy and science fiction, and they'd buy anything they could get their hands on. Every now and then this number grew as more and more people became fascinated by the worlds these authors created. Now the genres are explicit, the lines are drawn, and it's no longer considered simply 'speculative fiction'. It's still fairly easy if you have a good start with magazines and short stories to get published in SciFi or Fantasy, but once you are in, it's extremely hard to get out and try new things.
The Hero and the Crown was a good story. The problem with me is that it wasn't well written. I stumbled over a few things through the book. The timeline was quite irritating as it would start out one place and the heroine would start thinking of another and the author would then enter that time. The book is short, only a mere 227 pages yet it took me forever to read it. I've read other books three times as long in a much shorter time period.
I think it would be amazing if someone actually was able to take this story and rewrite it. Give it more depth, more color, more of a streamlined approach. Music artists re-do each other's songs, why not have authors rewrite older fantasy and science fiction novels to give them a better go around the second time? I can see a huge issue regarding copyright and so forth, but what if the author (or the author's descendants) gave permission as long as they received some form of compensation for rewriting the story? There's another book that was written before this that does have to do with it, called The Blue Sword, but I highly doubt that I will ever bother to read it. If the writing in that book is anything like The Hero and the Crown then there's no way I'd bother to read it.
I do understand that fantasy and science fiction writing back that long ago was new and exciting, but that doesn't mean you should make up words for the heck of it, causing some people to pause and attempt to think as what you are attempting to describe. Unless, of course, there's a description to go with it. In fantasy, maybe people think of Medieval Times, so it would be msuch easier to refer to food from that time period if you were discussing a meal. Sometimes it's easier to go with what is known rather than to create your own words for (at the very least) food to get the story moving. It's very rare that a meal is so important that you have to create a whole new type of food anyway.
I can understand creating different words for creatures, but to me a wolf is a wolf and a bear is a bear. Makes things that much easier and you can always concentrate on other things going on in the story. Make the creatures or monsters that your main character is fighting against the fantastic things that can't possibly be real. Then I can believe it.
Besides, in the story a dragon was a dragon, so why couldn't a wolf be a wolf and a mountain lion be a mountain lion? Perhaps now you understand my point.
January 29, 2008
Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith
Honey kept telling me that I had to read this book, that I would like it. In a way I did and in other ways I didn't. The story kept you going because you wanted to find out the details of what was really going on and you wanted to find out who the killer was. When there are many suspects and nothing specifically pointing to a particular one, you may end up getting yourself killed.
This book was like that. It wasn't a fast read for me until I was halfway through and I wanted to get through it so I could know who killed her and why and who was she really. Martin is a good writer from what I read in this book, he provided sketches of two of the ships in the book as well, which helps when going through the motions with the inspector.
Americans and Russians working together is something that happens, the joint venture was good for both sides and just because of that you knew someone had to screw it all up. Someone wanted to play spy, another was a killer, some were drug smugglers. You didn't know who was reporting to the KGB, you didn't know who was going to support the inspector.
All in all, it may have taken me a bit of time to get into the book, but it was definitely worth the sit down.
January 23, 2008
Sagas
If you've ever read any of the authors that I am currently featuring here, then you already know what the term Saga means. Sagas start out as a single novel, usually with no indication that there is going to be a next novel. This also depends on the history of the author. Have they written trilogies before? Have they created an outline that can be continued into several more books? These are important things when writing stories that are going to be drawn out over a period of several novels, some of which are almost 1000 pages long.
It's not easy writing a novel, let alone several that link to each other intricately. I do however quite enjoy them. When you are reading a Saga you learn about the characters, you end up loving or hating them, but you always need to know more of the story, about what is going to happen to them next and are they going to save the world or will it all fall down and crumble around them?
There are a few Sagas I have read that started out as Trilogies. If you have read Raymond E. Feist, who a friend got me interested in many years ago, he started out with a simple orphan boy who ended up becoming a savior to a princess, then he became a slave, and after all of his trials became one of the most powerful magicians in the known worlds. This entire saga started with one book, called Magician Apprentice. I've read the book several times, I have all but a couple of books for the entire Saga, including the Kelewan based trilogy.
I love reading Sagas because you keep in touch with those characters you first meet. The world grows around them, they confront enemies who are trying to turn everything into chaos, they find allies in one of their enemies, loved ones die and new ones continue to defend the world they know and cherish.
The best thing about Sagas is that everything is based in the same world, or worlds in the case of Feists' Magician books, and there is always something going on that catches you, pulls you in and keeps you hungry for more.
You don't have to read fantasy in order to get a good Saga. You can get an excellent saga out of the Anita Blake and Merry Genty books by Laurell K. Hamilton as well. Nora Roberts wrote a trilogy, but I haven't finished reading it yet and I don't know if there are more books to it at this time. I also enjoy Catherine Coulter's FBI thriller books. Best to be read in order but they can stand on their own as well. These are the types of stories I love to read. Sagas keep you enthralled for years, watching characters grow, live, and die, then to watch their children to do the same.
January 8, 2008
LKH: The Killing Dance
Anita is on the run in this book, when Edward calls her up and tells her that he just received a contract on her head. After your heart starts beating and you can breathe again he tells her he has turned the contract down. He's decided that since he tends to kill more people around Anita he'd rather keep her alive than kill her and that means he needs to get himself to St. Louis in order to protect her from whatever the man with the money finds to replace him.
Anita almost gets taken out twice. Once in her apartment before the call from Edward, a second time at the new dance club owned by Jean-Claude, Dance Macabre, and again later on in the story by someone she put her trust into and genuinely liked.
Anita survives, so read the book. She sees Richard with his pack, becomes officially his Lupa without becoming a shapeshifter after proving herself to two of the wolves that she is dominant to them. Anita promises to protect them and they return the favor by trying to watch her back during the time of the contract.
Jean-Claude gives his protection to Anita and makes her a guest at the Circus so she will be underground and protected, surrounded by both wolvs and vampires. No hitman would want to go through that many bodies to get to anyone, especially when they all have supernatural strength.
The bond between Richard, Jean-Claude and Anita becomes magical, and not just metaphorically either. They create a triumvirate for the first time in this book between them. Anita becomes closer to Richard and has convinced him to kill Marcus instead of letting him live. She knows Marcus won't back down and will try to play dirty in order to kill him this time around.
There's another triumvirate in town, but I can't give you too many details, as that would give a lot of the story away. Gabriel, the scary were-leopard and Raina, Marcus' Lupa, both make a very horrifying appearance as well. The pages keep turning, the action is non-stop whether Anita is running for her life or falling in love.
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