rid the red book

I'm not Scared

2011-12-21T02:32:00.000-08:00

by Niccolo Ammaniti
translated by Jonathan Hunt
20/12/2011 app 6-7 hours read

This book was a really good read. It kinda reminds me of ToKill a Mockingbird, which is one of my favourite book.

The book was told from a first person view of a boy, whosename is Michele. He lives in a very small town in Italy, named Acqua traverse.It all started on a hot summer day, where Michele and his friends were playingaround when they found an abandoned house. Michele went through the house as apunishment for losing a race and behind the house he found a body of a boylying in a hole on the ground. He kept it a secret but the secret was biggerthan he thought.

There is not much to say about the plot without giving itaway. The storyline is very smooth, although it may not seem so to otherpeople, because the story usually describes certain feelings comparatively toan event. An example to that is when Michele told out the secret, he related anoccasion where he ate too much peach and felt sick, before puking it all out,which he compared to spilling out the secret. I like this kind of storytellinga lot but I know some people who don’t like it. The story however doesn’t gooff the tangent so I don’t imagine it being annoying.

Meanwhile the character acts illogically sometimes especiallythe children but come to think of it, children are like that most of the time.The writer managed to write and capture the feeling of a child, when the worldwas new. I even felt an ache when SPOILER STARTS one of the character, his bestfriend, Salvatore, trade him out just so that he could have a try at drivingthe local bully’s car.I mean, what kind of friend, does that? Just for a ride? And to add to that, Salvatore was my favourite character up to that part. SPOILER ENDS.

Words used are easy. Pleasant reading. Quite surprised this was a translation.
Recommended for teens and above. There's a naked scene where michele's mom was fighting and tore her clothes, but nothing raunchy.

Anyway, I recommend this book.

Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel

2011-12-21T01:55:00.000-08:00

by Gail Carriger 17-20/12/2011 app. 11 hours reading

A disclaimer up front, I am never a fan of twilight or inother words, I hated the book. I read the first book under ‘recommendation’ (morelike harassment) of a friend. She said it was good and I must read it, which I did and didn’t like. After that I am alwayswary of any books that have a vampire theme in it. Therefore it was quite asurprise to me to found this book, The Soulless lying around among my unreadbooks. It seems that I have bought this book during one of those late-nights onAmazon(the website) where my mind wasn’t so clear. I remember liking thepreview/snippet of the book when I bought it but let’s just say, you can’tjudge a book by just one chapter.

The Synopsis

The book started with the protagonist, a woman who has comeupon a vampire while slipping away from a ball/dance. Acting on self defense,she(Alexia Tarabotti) managed to kill the vampire with the help of her neutralizing ability whichcan turn supernatural such as vampire and werewolf back into human when touchedby her. Later a biro that regulates the supernatural, led by a Lord Maccon whois a werewolf, came to the scene and proceeded to determine why the vampire hadattack the woman, which is a crime. As in all book, there’s something sinisterworking behind the scene, which unfolds later on.

Story base

Premise wise I think the book has a very unique background,where it is in portrayed in the height of the commonwealth, which during thetime hackney coach and corset was still in style. The twist to this is thatsupernatural (listed in the book as vampires, werewolves and ghosts) hasintegrated into the society where they are also regulated by law and held underthe Queen’s administration. This is not to say that everyone liked thesupernatural but the society has come to tolerate them, up to the point thatsome are given high position in the government such as the dewan(werewolf) andprotante(vampire) who act as advisors to the Queen in military and domesticaffairs respectively. It is a beautiful concept actually and feels plausible,something that hasn’t been done before. Theconcept was beautiful but the book, the book has some styles that annoyed me.

Writings' style

Firstly, the book started with the scene where the main character(accidentally) killed a vampire. The book tried to put humor in it, such aswhen the vampire died and fell upon a treacle pudding, which the character sayswas a lost since she really liked treacle pudding and had loved to eat it. Thiswas funny the few early paragraphs but after a while the humor gets tiring. Itdoesn’t also help that the society in the stories are in the Victorian erawhere the morals and etiquette are annoying and has long been outdated. Suchexamples are how woman above certain age who didn’t get married becomes aspinster, woman cannot study or exert themselves but should have frolic aroundinstead , and how the lords are above the working class and such. Halfwaythrough the book I have come to terms and accept that this is simply what theera was, dancing around in words, much like in Jane Austen’s. The writer didsay Jane Austen had influenced her writing. Anyway, another thing that I don’t quite like about the book is that thewriters tend to use too many bigwords and synonyms, that it’s hard to follow sometimes.

Plot

The plot wasn’t really new but unfolded in its time. Thelove story inside it was typical and I had to encourage myself to read further,convincing that there’ll be a twist or something to compensate for the mushystuff. Sadly, I was wrong. The book went sappy till the end, what with thegossiping and buying gloves and hats peppered throughout the book.

Vocabs

As stated earlier, the words in the books are not that easyto understand. They are not as hard as a Jane Austen’s but big words tend tocrop up too often, unnecessarily. You can guess most of the meaning but it doesdisrupt the flow of reading.

Reading age/recommendation

WARNING: this book has suggestive scenes and I would notrecommend it to young reader. If you have read a Mills&Boons, this book isslightly ‘milder’ than that.

Conclusion

I’ve realized the review is a bit harsh on the book buttruthfully the book is quite okay and is a very light read. Nothing tooserious. I am just disappointed that the unique concept (to me at least, as I’venever read something like this) was not written in a style that I think is moreappropriate to it. Something like Jonathan Strange, maybe?
If you like twilight AND Victorian Era, you’ll probably like this. As for me,although the concept of the book intrigued me, I doubt I’ll buy the sequel.

Ps. Plus, I am wary of writer who wears white gloves whiledrinking tea.

The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

2011-11-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

by Stieg Larsson

translated by Reg Keeland

read within:
The Girl Who Played with Fire 19/10/2011 - 2/11/2011
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2/11/2011 - 8/11/2011
probably 35 hours straight reading, or less.

BANG, BANG, BAM!

If I were to described the books in three words, those would be them. These two books are full of action all the way and have a faster pace in comparison to the first book. However the style of writing is still the same, where I wrote in the first review, that it's similar to Mario Puzo's.

Synopsis.
The book continues approximately a year after the first book and recaps what happened to the main character, Mikael Bloomkvist and Lisbeth Salander as they follow their separate ways. The action began when the Millennium, the company Bloomkvist worked in, was approached by a journalist with a story on prostitution and sex trafficking in Sweden. It was a sensational piece, which Millennium decides to publish. As they work to finalise the story and was about to finish it, the journalist and her wife were killed. Salander's character came into play when the police found her prints on the crime scene, hence the chase began. What happened afterwards was a multitude of event that risk to uncover a 30 year old secret and Salander's background.

Sounds cliché? Well yes, I felt the same after rereading my synopsis and I must apologise as I don't do the book justice. Anyway the book might have a similar outline to other thriller/investigations but what I like about it that it has a few different view/narration such as the journalist, the police and the genius hacker who is the victim. The story also unfolds very fast and rarely have slow moments, yet the investigations seem detail enough to be logical. I could hardly find events or circumstances in the book where they appear incredulous, you know when the author feels lazy and introduces some miracle, though the book does have improbable moments but not impossible ones. In short, the books seem believable.

The language of the book is intermediate with a few new vocabs but they are unobtrusive. Again, the translations was very good that I feel as if I was reading an original book.
As for the young readers, the books contain adult scene and reference which are not explicit. There are gore but the writer only tells as they are needed and didn't dwell on them, a note for the weak-hearted readers. Other than that, I think the books will appeal to any readers.

The books were fast and I had read them back-to-back, which helps since the third book follows seconds after the second book, hence I lumping the review of both books into one. In my opinion, the writer would have also bundled them together, other than the fact the second would then become double the size of the first book. Plus, a trilogy seems much cooler, I think.

Buy the books.
Get them in three, much cheaper.

The Ambassador's Mission

2011-10-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

by Trudi Canavan. Book one of The Traitor Spy Trilogy

28/9-29/9/2011. Approximately 18 hours continuous reading.

This book is from a sequel trilogy of The Black Magician Trilogy: So it would be a bonus for a reader to read the previous trilogy first before reading this book. However if you directly 'jumped' into this book, the author does explain the premise of the whole story at the beginning of the book. Much like what Rowling does with Harry Potter in every book and likewise, this book drags a bit at the beginning since it has to set up all the characters and plots.

The story continues 20 years after its predecessor, with its previous main character, Sonea, taking a less focused role, while the story gives more spotlight on her son. Turns out his son became a magician and her mother retain the title of The Black Magician. Another prominent character is Sonea's old friend, Cery, an infamous Thief. Yes, with a big 'T' since he is a leader of thieves, one of the big bosses in the city. Apparently the city became worse since the last book, as the people are somehow becoming addicted to a drug caller Roet. Meanwhile a rogue magician is rumored to be roaming the city and killing other Thief. Later in the book, Sonea's son, Lorkin, decided to became an ambassador to Sachakan, the land full of black magic and where his father's murderer came from.

The book seems to take much longer than the previous ones, albeit I noticed that this is not much thicker in comparison. I attribute this to the beginning of the book where the story keeps changing from one plot the another, before finally joining them in the middle where the pace begins to pick up. This annoys me a bit and I know some people might be put off by this. Another thing about the plot is that there are quite a lot monologues in the book. I can't remember if the previous trilogy had the same fault but this book seems to be so. Sometimes those monologues felt to me to be excessive since they highlights things that can already be read in between the lines.

The language in the book is very simple, quite too simple I may say. Still, I found out that I like it since my mind doesn't have to work that much. However I must say that the book lingers around (homo)sexuality that I wouldn't recommend it to my nieces or nephews.

All in all this book is a bit slow -understandable since it's the first- with simple story line that is suitable for a quick read. The aspect of fantasy in the book is not so interesting, less than the previous book, and the fighting scene are scarce and short. Much of the book tells about journey and background of the Sachakan country.

However, I would still probably buy its sequel in order to see how the story proceeds. And of course, write a review for the whole trilogy.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011-07-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

by Stieg Larsson

Read in 5 days. Probably 15-20 hours straight reading.

Its storytelling is almost as good as the Godfather. For those who haven’t read the Godfather, let me elaborate later.

The story in its core is mainly an investigating story, a thriller, as described on its blurb. I haven’t read a lot of thriller and certainly not a fan of one and if it wasn’t for the fact book-turned-into-movie, I doubt I’ll read this book. Anyway I’ve read it and I have a high opinion of it.

The language of the book is concise and has a quite large vocabulary, which seems like a surprise to me because translated book normally have long sentences and a bit boring. The book was translated from Swedish and although the book retains some foreign word, it never disturbs the reading nor does the translation feel unfinished. Kudos to the translator, Reg Keeland.

Although the book is not explicit but it does have adult scenes and without giving out the story, let me say the book deals with crime so you should expect some violence. This is not a warning, only a reminder to the faint-hearted. Altogether combined with the slightly challenging language of the book, I would probably not recommend this to young teens, though the story and knowledge that could be gain would be very useful.

Anyway the story involves three totally different main characters, Bloomkvist, Vanger and Salander. Vanger is a millionaire obsessed with the lost of her grand-niece and decided to hire Bloomkvist to look into the 30 years old mystery. Through various circumstances, Salander were pulled to help Bloomkvist solve the mystery, which like all thrillers/mysteries, unravels in the end. However unlike normal crime/mystery books, the story is told with a slight different where they are told with less drama and seems more plausible, almost how it would happen in real life. What I like about it is the realism. I do however find the story could have ‘spiced’ up some parts where the characters discovers something but that would then be less realistic. I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

The story is told in 3^rd person view yet the characters are deep that I could sometimes think their dialogue before even reading them. That may be an exaggeration but the characters do develop. What I said earlier about similarities with the Godfather is the way the characters are introduced.
I give you a made up example;

Ahmad looks at the clock near his bed. He pulls the chair he is sitting on towards the desk, puts the newly brewed cup of tea on the armchair and swivels himself towards the screen. He pushed the power button on the monitor and the machine began to whir into life. The monitor blinks before he pushes the buttons on the keyboard, when the login screen disappears as he can finally read his email.

The above is an example I wrote up, where the character just wanted to read his e-mail but the descriptions that leads to it are so elaborate that they make the character sounds real that it entrenches into the story. This is the quality that I'm referring to in this book and the Godfather. Of course my example is merely an example and nothing to be compared to them. Personally I think the Godfather is better in this aspect than this book but I have to read the other two books of the Millenium first to really judge it.

Yes, this book is a trilogy, which is a positive I think. If you like the first one, you’ll probably like the rest of the series. No hassles for you to find new interesting writers. On the other case that you don’t like them, you’ll have two more books out of the gazillion in the world to be crossed out of your reading list, just like what I did with the twilight series. Thus I encourage you to read this book, better before the films comes out.

“Why read when you can watch the film?” someone would ask.
Why do you go and eat at mamak, when you can tapau and eat in the car?

Haha, nonsenses aside, this is a good read.

Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon

2011-05-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

by Jonathan Stroud

took 3 days, approximately 8 hours continuous reading.

This is kind of a prequel to the trilogy Bartimaeus. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, it hasn't been turn to a movie, yet. As all the books from the series, the stories are related to a djinni named Bartimaeus as it toils to its bidding when summoned by a human. The stories are mostly told through Bartimaeus' perspective, full with sarcasm and boasts, which lends the series its characteristic. The Ring of Solomon took place centuries ago in Jerusalem, which is a bit dull compared to the trilogy which took place in London. As the title suggest, this book follows all the predecessor in which there is powerful artifact in the centre of the point, which is in this case, the ring.

The ring contains power and with it, comes problem. Queen Balkis who refused to marry Solomon (in the story), sent one of her guards to kill Solomon and steal the ring in order to avoid destruction to her country. The story then follows the guard, as she carries her mission. Yes, a she who can somersault and throw a dagger with accuracy up to 40 yards. Her path and Bartimaeus eventually crosses each other.

This book follows the predecessor in almost every aspect but the problem is the time taken for their path to cross each other is too long. I was a bit bored waiting for the pace to speed up. Compared to the trilogy, where the protagonist meets Bartimaeus almost in the first chapter, the Ring of Solomon has a much too long intro in my opinion. Other than that, the book is charming with its jokes in almost every pages, mostly in the footnotes where Bartimaeus adds something to his narration. If you have ever read Terry Pratchet, you'll like understand what I mean. Though I must say the jokes are not that hard to understand.

Language wise is quiet simple, with only a few bombastic vocabs in the beginning as adjectives opening. That said, I had recommended the Bartimaeus trilogy before this to a few people but they somehow found it not to their likening. I guess it must be due to the style of writing which may seem to some people as 'jumpy', with its footnote and two different point of views, a third person and a first person view(Bartimaeus).
Therefore I suggest people who wish to read The Solomon Ring, to read the trilogy first. You won't miss a lot if you skip to this but let say Dumbledore says its better that way.

A good read for teenagers, clean of graphics description and raunchy scenes. Most probably will appeal to Harry Potter's fan

The Ghost Writer, previously published as the The Ghost

2010-09-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

by Robert Harris

took 3 days of September

A book is almost always interesting,if you can read it anywhere. Either that or it has some very raunchy scenes.
Well The Ghostwriter is certainly from the former. The story is about a ghostwriter, someone who writes on other people's behalf, mostly autobigraphies, who landed a job writing Memoirs for Britain's ex-Prime Minister. Unperturbed by the mysterious death of the previous ghostwriter, the protagonist took the job and it was not long before the mysteries and dark secret surfaces and he began to question his decision.
Uuu..scary, isn't it.

I am not fond of thriller,most of all.And the cliche secret blablabla mumbo-jumbo would normally turn me off but being the fact that the book was turned into a movie, I flicked the pages and gave the book a chance. Plus Ewan McGregor was on the cover(which almost means instant buy). Master Jedi, I am happy to see you.

The book proves to be entertaining from the start regardless of my impression above. The story was fast and there was hardly any lull or part where the book slowed down. I think the writer tried to show the writer was in a hurry,which succeeds, correspond to the end. I even had to look into the book to see the name of the main protagonist, the ghostwriter,which I can still not find. The book even doesn't emphasize the characters details that much, which I think is important for a thriller in order to keep the pace.

The book is full action. Not action in which there's lots of fighting but rather the pace. If I were to make a metaphor, it's like you're hosting a party where you see all the events and has lots of things on your hand but when asked to describe it afterwards you will say, "It's like a party." In a way the book is deceptively simple. There is a bit of twist in the end but other than that there is nothing mind-boggling. However that is not to say the book is not what it is, a fine story telling, but I would categorize it as a light read.

Language is easy enough and the jokes although are not wide apart, are not to hard to understand as most British jokes are. I wouldn't think any young readers would read this book but if they do be advised that it has some tiny adult scenes. Really tiny, nothing to compare to my previous post, Empress Orchid. Other than that I would recommend this to anyone, anytime

Empress Orchid

2010-07-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

by Anchee Min

28/7-31/7/2010

The story is told from a person view of the last Empress in the Chinese history. The language is a bit simple for a fictional autobiography. Caution in recommendation is suggested for young readers though.

The premise of the story is how a woman who came from a very unlikely background reached high status in life after overcoming difficulties after difficulties. Sounds familiar? I thought so after reading the blurb on the back, which reminds me of the Memoirs of a Geisha. I was at the Borders when I read a few pages and thought the book is interesting enough. To my disappointment the book prove to fall a bit short of my expectation.

The story starts by telling how Orchid's father died and how the family was thrown into hardship. The beginning was told realistically with stark details such as "our family was not poor but I knew that my neighbour ate worms for breakfast". The story continues but after a while I sensed something amiss. I was expecting to read a book that is similar to Memoirs of a Geisha but that is where the difference is. Although the book has similar storyline, this story lacks the metaphors that is widely used in the Memoirs of a Geisha. It is told in somewhat a direct way. The writer did try at parts of the story but it doesn't seem so smooth.

Much part of the story is about how Orchid longs for the Emperor affection and how the whole kingdom bows to the Sun of the Son, another name for the ruler of China. These depiction of Orchid and how the people behave quite puzzled me as they seem to think that the Emperor was no mere mortal being. I agree and respect that is their culture and certain scene in the book reminds me of what used to be told about our own monarchy in the past. However the part where Orchid tells her pain of being ignored by her husband icks me, but perhaps that is the nature of a woman.

The story then picks up itself at the last quarter where Hsien Feng, the Emperor, died hence leaving Orchid to fend herself and her son from the greedy advisers and danger. This part of the story tells the cunningness of Orchid and her will to protect themselves. However just as the action and conspiracy began to thicken, the book deviate into telling the feeling of the widowed Orchid for a general. The book suddenly ends there, with a conclusion that the general loves her too, and a hint that they somehow continue their affair secretly.

So the book language is a bit lacking in its beauty but I guess the writer did try her best to reconstruct history into a novel without adding too much. It is said at the end that the characters are all real but if you have any intention of learning the history of China seriously, I don't think a novel would be a good place to start. All in all I am a bit disappointed with this book and hard to recommend this to anyone. If you want a suggestion, you should already know what my answer would be. It's plastered all over this post. ;)

Mandela's Way; Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage

2010-07-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

by Richard Stengel

7-27 July, 2010. 245 pages.
What took so long for me was because I kept postponing and only reading it between waiting time for KTM and LRT etc. Though if read continuously I assume it would take around 4-5 hours.
Language is easy to understand with a few difficult words aptly used, without actually interfering with the flow of reading. Fonts are big and easy to read, which is a good thing for a semi-biography.

Like what is written on the title, the book is about "lessons" that the writer, Richard Stengel, understood after spending three years in the company of the ex-leader of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. This book is not a biography of him, rather insights into his characteristic and way of thinking.

If to put it bluntly, the "lessons" are all mostly known to us or even regularly preached by parents, teachers and others. However I personally feel that the book really managed to convey its message solely because the person that the book is modeled upon really practices it. Lesson no 13 for example, "Quitting is leading too", where Nelson Mandela resign from the office after around 5 years of service. This is not something easily done for let us imagine if we were to be elected as the prime minister, would we really relinquish the title when the time comes. Well, he did. And that makes all the sense for the book.

Truthfully before reading the book I only have a vague knowledge(now only slightly better) of the history and situation of South Africa. I did watch "Invictus", a film about how Nelson Mandela used rugby to unite the country, but other than that what I knew about apartheid was that it is abolished and the system abused the natives. This book fortunately fills the gap, as the writer narrates a "lesson" by referring to Mandela's action in some part of his life, which thankfully helps readers like me(or you) to understand his background and also the history of the country.

All in all, it's a good book despite quite short but the messages came across quite clearly I think due to the subject of the book. Thank you to person who gave me this book, for I wouldn't read if I were to choose it myself. Thank you!

Jonathan Strange &Mr Norrell

2010-04-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

by Susanne Clarke
5-12 April 2010, 1006 pages.
One thousand pages in one week, though I assume the time taken is only around three hours if read continuously.
The language borders on a bit difficult.
However don't be discouraged by the above, as the book is worth the length.

The story revolves around two magicians, Norrell and his pupil Strange, who were destined to bring magic back to England, Based in the Napoleon(Victorian?) Era, the book follows the magics, opinions and differences between these two magician in their attempt to restore magic back to its glory of the Aureate Era.

Why I read the book?
I was blog-hopping and the blogs were on the subjects of Pet Society when I happen to read this post. It struck me that if a book can leave such a deep impression which someone can visualize it like in the post, then the book must have great qualities. Plus I've heard about the book for a while though the dull cover did stop me from picking it up a few years ago.

About the book:
It is as if Charles Dickens wrote a book with the thought that magic is normal in everyday life.
What I like about it:

The characters are rather eccentric and each of those mentioned, plays big role up till the end, event an African butler named Stephen Black. One might argue the main characters do not even add to ten but considering how all of them are woven together in 1000 pages and without boring the readers, is an exceptional feat.

There are footnotes all over the book (like in Wikipedia), with reference to this and that, as if there are really real. These footnotes are sometimes funny while other times sound academic, though all of them generally add to the magical atmosphere of the book.

The languages are fun to read; there are jokes that are thrown once in a while, not jokes that will make you laugh out loud but rather the ones that make people chuckle and smile.

The book introduce reader to magic in stages, from solemn and only theatrical, to practical magic with technical applications, and later fair magic with its cunningness and in the end to simply magical magic. I’ve never read book like this, for books either tend to be fairy like or practical from start to the end.

For those who like illustrations, there are some accompanying the story every few chapter. Though personally I don’t quite like them as they seem charcoal drawing and the very dark silhouette quite disturb me.

I only have two small qualms, one at the beginning and one at the end. The first is that the book is has not wide enough for a book with its number of pages. It annoyed me that I took the liberty to flex the spine, which I don't like to do since it leaves marks across the spine.

The crack on the spine. Oh well, small matter anyway.

The other thing that I would like to say is that the ending is a bit abrupt and quite unexciting compared to the rest of the book. I'm not sure if we share the same view but it's worth mentioning Neil Gaiman commented and it was a blurb on the book, "Closing Jonathan Strange&Mr Norrell after 800 pages, my only regret was that it wasn't twice the length."
*Neil Gaiman probably read another printing.

All in all, a book recommended for readers who like Charles Dickens AND magic.
There's an official website for the book: Jonathan Strange&Mr Norrell which also features its sequel,The Ladies of Grace Adieu.
Surprisingly this Jonathan Strange is the first of Susanne Clarke, which I'm sure will be followed by more in the coming years

Flatland - A Romance Of Many Dimensions

2010-04-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

by Edwin A. Abbott
Read between 28/3/10-3/4/2010
It took me a week although if it is read continuously, the 82 pages wouldn't take more than 4 hours.

A very interesting book, one that can be inferred from the unique title.
Language is a bit hard but all in all, a fun read.

The story tells from the first person view of a square; his life in Flatland, the community and civilization in Flatland and all it's history.

My say
The premise of the story is already an exciting one and the writer's further exploration of the idea doesn't fail to interest the readers. It follows the monologue of a square, a mathematician in Flatland, who describes the nature of Flatland, the history and also the people.

There are about 4 tiers of society in Flatland and they are categorised by their shape and degree. The degree represents somewhat the intellect of the people, while the shape represents their place in society.

The triangle is the lowest tier in the society. Isosceles that has the smallest angle i.e. sharp angle, is regarded as the most stupid. They are usually employed in army due to their dangerous nature.
The middle class consist of equilaterals. The most perfect of equilateral has 60° degrees, and they normally will give have children of squares.
The professionals consist of squares and pentagons.
The highest in the pyramid is the Circle, or to be exact, polygons that have too many sides that it appears as a circle.

So the book is funny, as it creates new concept from existing known things to us and the represents it in a different idea. It then tells how the shapes live in Flatland, how they went to work, the young ones study and such. The concept and description are in detail and very creative, though not without flaws. The writer(square) kept saying it doesn't have time to explain about certain things such as how they cook, build their house and such, though in the end the square only spent his time in prison doing nothing. Clearly that contradicts.
Another thing is the book seems to have a very low view on woman. It was written in 1884 so I assume it didn't cause much a protest from the woman of that era compared to the reaction it would get in this days. I am saying that because the woman at Flatland are depicted as mindless beings that hardly can learn anything. As a man, I find the depiction(albeit fiction) of the other sex in the book a bit harsh.

After describing the background, the square then tells it encounters with Lineland, Spaceland and Pointland (1 dimension, 3 dimension and 0 dimension, respectively. Square have dialogues with Sphere, a being from Spaceland, a mind-opening experience for both him and the readers. He later converts(?) to the Sphere disciple and began preaching to the Flatland's inhabitants before he was later imprisoned as some kind of heretic. Poor Square.

*******
The book is simply a good analogy in defining time travel, is it not?
4D=Time

The Earthsea Quartet

2010-03-25T05:10:00.001-07:00

by Ursula K. Le Guin
read between 26/2/2010-18/3/2010
The books are made of four individual stories in the saga and I stopped for quite a while after the 3rd book. However I assume each book takes 10 hours to be finished, since I managed to read half of the 2nd book(The Tombs of Atuan) on a 6 hours ICE-train journey.

An excellent fantasy read with interesting concept of magic. Very dynamic characters and the plots are more driven by them..
A bit difficult on the language, not recommended for casual readers.

The book is set in Earthsea, a world where the lands are made of islands (hence the name) and magic is widely used. The story starts with the introduction of Ged and follows his journey becoming Archmage and Dragonlord and his travels across Earthsea
through evil times as the 'balance' of magic has been disturbed.

Why I read it?
I have been reading reviews on Eragon and more than once Earthsea was mentioned in comparison. However the moving point was when I started watching Ghibli productions and soon stumbled on Tales from Earthsea, which was very slow at the first 15 minutes and not really easy to understand. I knew the film was adapted from some book so I decided to read it first.

My say. (spoiler alert)
First and foremost, it is a fantasy.
It deals with magics and dragons, the main ingredients for most books in the same genre. However the book was written in a way different to what I expected, in many ways.

At the beginning it was told that the Ged, the main character will become an Archmage(the leader of all magician in Earthsea) and a Dragonlord (someone who the dragon wants to talk to). It was also known that Ged will perform many deeds and his name will be sung across the lands. In short, the ending of the book is already known or can be guessed from the start. Surprisingly, the book is still interesting. Let me explain by using a corny phrase; in the book, what is important is not the destination but rather the journey. Although it is stated that Ged will become a legend, his journey is told in such a way that sometimes it is hard to believe he will.
The story is told in third person view with comparatively little dialogues. Although the dialogues are few and the story told in narrative, the book doesn't bore, unlike certain books. (Ahem-ahem, deathly hallows, ahem). In fact I feel that the minimal dialogues make those in between to have more weight.
The names are not that weird. As most readers usually know, fantasy books take the freedom and made up all kind of things. Good thing Earthsea didn't. The names was kept minimal and although it was mentioned that there are songs, the book mostly refrain from citing them (where I usually skip if I read Lord of The Rings)

The plot of the story seems simple, though the manner the events unfold is subtle that the readers are lost in it. (At least I was). At one point I looked up while reading and was surprised I am actually reading.

The language in Earthsea is as I stated a bit difficult, difficult than Eragon though much easier than The Lord of the Rings. However I do feel that most readers can easily pick it up without much problem.

All in all, a very excellent fantasy read. Oh! The book also stresses about balance, greed and responsibility; Great values that can be followed as example. A reviewer in facebook once written, "I wish I had read it earlier in life, not like it would be a mind changing thing, but it would have given me more things about life to think about

********

After a moment, he added, "He does have a Gontish accent."
"If I could speak to dragons in their own language," Arren said, "I wouldn't care about my accent."
At that Gamble looked at him with a degree of approval...

Favourite dialogue in the book (Farthest Shore).
Tak kisah la cakap aku, hang, loghat kedah. Yang penting jadi org berjaya...haha

I think the writer's name is very unique and thought she lives in somewhere in Iceland or Norway where the wind is cold and the likely occasion that dragons do exist in the North pole really exist is high.
She was born in America, on the contrary. Though I still think her name is unique. Le Guin! Ursula o Ursula

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I, Robot

2009-11-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

by Cory Doctorow
To be exact, it is only a short story and not the book. The writer did say he was an avid reader of the "I, Robot" written by Isaac Asimov. It was written shortly after the film, starring Will Smith.

Synopsis(wiki):

The story is set in the type of police state needed to ensure that only one company is allowed to make robots, and only one type of robot is allowed.
The story follows single Father detective Arturo Icaza de Arana-Goldberg while he tries to track down his missing teenage daughter. The detective is a bit of an outcast because his wife defected to Eurasia, a rival Superpower.

My say (Spoiler alert)
The scene of the story is set in the future, where robots are widely used. Arturo, the main character is a cop and has a daughter. Her wife left them just after the daughter was born. To be exact, her wife defected to Eurasia, the enemy land where the robots are not governed by the Three Law.
The story expands when one day his daughter went missing and as the adventure follows, he found his wif abducting her daughter and himself. Her wife then explain that Social Harmony (what a funny name), i.e the government is corrupted. Which explains the reason her wife ran to Eurasia.
Her wife invited them to Eurasia but being a robot paranoid, he refuses. Life continues. However a few months later, her daughter was abducted but this time by the corrupted government. Just as he and her daughter about to kill through by the government official, her wife suddenly came and rescued them. Her wife however died.
Which was quite sad actually.
They managed to escape and flew to Eurasia. There they saw how modern Eurasia was and advanced their technology was. And not to forget, that her wife had welcomed them there. Apparently her wife had copies of herself, clones. Three thousands of her.

All in all I think it is a good story with a nice twist. Maybe I was caught in the moment and didn't saw it coming but the rest of the story was futuristically believable. The only complain I have about is that it is too short.

The story is protected by Creative Commons and the writer made it free for anyone to download, read, derive/modify it as long as it is not for commercial use.

Alice through the Looking Glass

2009-11-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

by Lewis Caroll
Read once in the course of ~4 hours over two days.
So the book... is fun but a bit hard to understand.

Synopsis

The book is about Alice's adventures as she step into the looking glass in her living room. There she met multitude of characters but the story mainly about her travel to eighth square, just like in the game of Chess, in order to become a queen.
This book is the sequel to the book, Alice in Wonderland.

My say

Compared to the first book, I was a little bit unprepared. I had watched the Disney cartoon before reading the first book, so I had ideas about the book before reading it.
However I read the second book (Through the Looking Glass) without any preconceived ideas, or so I thought. There's Tweedledee&Tweedledum and the talking flowers. Other than that I think all the characters are new to me and were not in the Disney's cartoon version. So when I read it, it was like a dream because the scene keeps changing and so do the characters. One moment Alice is talking to an egg, the next she is talking to a king, followed by watching a match between the lion and the unicorn. Just like a dream. I wouldn't recommend this as a bed time reading (like I did), as then the story tend to continue in your dreams.

Still it is fun reading it, as there is no need to memorize all kinds of names. Characters come and pass. And the events are weird. Train jumping over a brook/river? Then there's the theme of time, where the Queen
plaster her hands first, then scream her lungs off before it bled and finally pricked by a pin.What madness is that?
Another theme is direction, where in the story, in order to go nowhere, you have to run. And to go to the hill, Alice had to walk away from it, just like what the talking flowers told her. The book plays on these weird ideas which make it's very interesting. The book leaves you a bit fuddled after reading it, but hey, that's fun.

What I like the most is maybe its dialogue. It plays on words. English words. Jokes that could not be translated.

"I beg your pardon?" Alice said.
"It is not polite to beg."

another one,

"I can see nobody in the distance," said Alice
"I wish I had eyes like that, so I can see Nobody....

These are not exact words, only what I remembered.
There are more examples of these, some of which I had not noticed because the book plays on words and sometimes it is very hard to understand. However for me, the fun was when I noticed these and understand, laughing by myself at understanding this.

Due to that I don't recommend this book to people who don't like reading in the first place.

********

Did you know that the Lewis Caroll is the anagram to his real name?
Yes, his. Until around the age of 18, I thought Lewis is a girl's name.

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The Jumper

2009-08-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

by Steven Gould

App. 11 hours, inc sleep,fb etc3
So the book is... Good

It tells the story of Davy, a teenager who escapes an abusive household using his ability to teleport. As he tries to make his way in the world, he searches for his mother (who left when he was a child), develops a relationship with a woman he keeps his ability secret from, and is eventually brought into conflict with several antagonists.

Overview(me/without spoiler):

The story is a fiction of a boy with unnatural powers. The book is nicely paced, well prosed and the storyline doesn't seem so linear like most of its kind. I think it's suitable for teenagers onward and especially for someone wanting of fiction with reality not left to the dump.

Spoiler/review/opinion/whatever-you-say:

The book opens with domestic violence, how the character got abused by his father and runs from home. Or rather jump.
Up to the point the story follows the movie. Correction, the other way around. Then the books merit itself by describing how the antagonist got through his life and nurture his power. It does seem like a bit Catcher in the Rye in the beginning, but it then changes the plot, quite subtly. It's not like there is no climax, but the story is a bit different. The first part was about him getting over emotional turmoil, left by her mother.
Then they reconciled.
Then she died, which was very unexpected.The chase after that seems like normal fiction, until I noticed it's also about reconcilation and those stuff. The good thing is it is not too straight-forward, where the emotional part would otherwise get lame and sticky.

What I like about the story was how it made the 'jump' seem more probable. There are rules to it, and they make the story real. Plus the way how he practices and discovers the powers are described and spaced out nicely. They are not so abrupt and sudden. In short, it doesn't feel manga-like.
The character is evidently smart, and if the fact that a jumper exist, this story can really be real.
Owh and in the story it did touch the theme of terrorism, which I think is handled in a neutral way.
Other than that, the story is told in the first person view, the language is enticing yet not bombastic and the story beliavable.

I really feel sad the movie was bad. Since it was written by the original writer.

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~~haha.gmbr cilok amazon.kantoi~~