The Magician

The Magician by Lev Grossman

Hello, it's been a while since I wrote a revie-w,not because I haven't read since last December but simply because I didn't felt the need to share my readings, i. e. do a review. So what changed? Well this book did.It had played with my emotion so much so that I found myself laughing at times and feeling so sad at others. I will explain more later but this book made me feel excited again reading books AND telling / recommending it to others.

About the book.
The book seems similar to Harry Rotter at first. You have a teenage /young adult who got accepted to a magical school. The similarities ends there. When in Harry Potter the story ends as school ends, the part that Isee as the core of the book begins after school. So if you expected adventures where kids go around outsmarting adults like in the Rowlings like me,then you are going to be disappointed.

But the book doesn't disappoint. It later moved on and told the story of the man (boy?) after graduating, love lifes and emptiness of purpose that even plagued magicians. Just as his life was is in stagnant, he and his group came upon a powerful relic. Then they begin their adventures like in, Narnia and LOTR. As George Martin (author of Game of Thrones) said, this book pays homage to lots of classics.

What I really like...
about the book is that the story unfolds unlike your expectation. It is not to say the book is totally unpredictable, only that it has twists at the right moments. For example the protagonist did not have some uncontrollable power that somehow comes out at times of need and conveniently moves the plot, but instead he acted cowardly at times. If you are someone who hates unheroic hero like me (because face it, who wants to read about boring duds who sleep or runaway all the time) don't be. Why? Because this is a fantasy book, there's always redemption..
I mentioned earlier about love lives, and normally what follows is betrayal. What I really liked about it was that the drama actually moved me. Your experience really might differ, and even mine it I were to read it again. Anyway there were times that I felt really sad and it occurred to me that the emotions would be lost if it were turned into a movie because fantasy movies nowadays are all about shimmers and sparks. "This is why I read books!" was the thought that came to me.
Another major thing that I like about the book is there are unexpected situations that made the possibility of existence of magic seems higher since the reaction seems unscripted and real. An example was when the protagonist was to release his demon, it was such a letdown that I laughed out loud .

The Language.
The book is American but most of the words are lost to me. The words are not a' bombastic or enigmatic like say Tolkiens, but somehow the words are disorienting. After awhile I ignore words I do not know like I always do, only for this book, .at a higher rate. In other words, the language is a bit hard.

Recommendations
A fantasy book. Clever plots and interweawing storylines. There are some adults scenes but not so vividly described.
Overall I would recommend this book to people who have read the fantasy classics and wish them to be retold in less child - like manner.
Try it. There's even a sequel that I am going to try and get my hands on soon.

Thanks for reading.

The Underland Chronicles

The Underland Chronicles


written by Suzanne Collins. Approximately 4-7 hours each book.
It seems lately that I have been only reading Suzanne Collins books since the reviews are back-to-back. That is not true. I have read a few other books in between this reviews but since I have not the mood to a review, hence this state. I'll review more often in the future.

Synopsis
The story is about a boy who fell through a hole in his laundry room and into another whole world down under, appopriately called Underland. He then proceeds to solve quest and discover adventures in this fantasy world.
In the first book, Gregor the Overlander, the boy named Gregor discovered about his father location, who was until then had been missing for two years after his sudden disappearance. Other than that, Gregor also discovered that he is viewed as a warrior by the people of the Underland(Underlander) due to his circumstances matching an ancient prophecy.
In Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor discovered he had to go back down again in order to save the Underland, also due to a prophecy. In fact, all the books in the series deal with prophecies: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Mark of Secret, Gregor and the Code of Claw. Basically that's why I lump them altogether because the chronicle is one continuous adventure conveniently chopped into parts.

Language
I think it's only a little bit higher than Enid Blyton's book. In other words, the language for the book is really simple. I do think the sentences structure are a bit weird and abrupt but I think they are so, because the books are meant to be short

Storytelling
Plot is also simple. Heroes comes, read the prophecy and then saves the day. There are other plot where the hero/reader are guessing a character real intention and such but other than that, it's pretty linear.
My main complain with the book is that it relies too much in prophecy. Problem with that is I do not believe in them and I find them annoying. There are also a lot of part where the prophecy are repeated in order to understand the 'meaning' behind them, so I end up finishing the book quite fast since I glance over those part.
Suzanne Collins did manage to make the Underland believable tho. The species(Rats, Spiders, Humans, Cockcroaches etc) are given a lot of thought and the main character are pleasing enough.

Recommendation/reading age
The book theme seems about peace and war, and how to go about it. It is something that I wouldn't think appropriate for younger teens but then again the language are a bit too easy for older teens. Since you would be preached on difficult themes, why don't you try a book with a more complex story and enriching prose?
So in the end I think this book is for adults who want to have some easy read, like me!, where a hero goes on adventure to kill bad guys, with the theme of peace and war thrown in just for zest.
An easy read. For your free time.

On a previous note, try to read Hunger games if you haven't, instead of this.

Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel

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

A disclaimer up front, I am never a fan of twilight or in other words, I hated the book. I read the first book under ‘recommendation’ (more like 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 always wary of any books that have a vampire theme in it. Therefore it was quite a surprise to me to found this book, The Soulless lying around among my unread books. It seems that I have bought this book during one of those late-nights on Amazon(the website) where my mind wasn’t so clear. I remember liking the preview/snippet of the book when I bought it but let’s just say, you can’t judge a book by just one chapter.

The Synopsis

The book started with the protagonist, a woman who has come upon 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 which can turn supernatural such as vampire and werewolf back into human when touched by her. Later a biro that regulates the supernatural, led by a Lord Maccon who is a werewolf, came to the scene and proceeded to determine why the vampire had attack the woman, which is a crime. As in all book, there’s something sinister working 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 the time hackney coach and corset was still in style. The twist to this is that supernatural (listed in the book as vampires, werewolves and ghosts) has integrated into the society where they are also regulated by law and held under the Queen’s administration. This is not to say that everyone liked the supernatural but the society has come to tolerate them, up to the point that some are given high position in the government such as the dewan(werewolf) and protante(vampire) who act as advisors to the Queen in military and domestic affairs respectively. It is a beautiful concept actually and feels plausible, something that hasn’t been done before.  The concept 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 as when the vampire died and fell upon a treacle pudding, which the character says was a lost since she really liked treacle pudding and had loved to eat it. This was funny the few early paragraphs but after a while the humor gets tiring. It doesn’t also help that the society in the stories are in the Victorian era where the morals and etiquette are annoying and has long been outdated. Such examples are how woman above certain age who didn’t get married becomes a spinster, woman cannot study or exert themselves but should have frolic around instead , and how the lords are above the working class and such. Halfway through the book I have come to terms and accept that this is simply what the era was, dancing around in words, much like in Jane Austen’s. The writer did say Jane Austen had influenced her writing. Anyway, another thing that  I don’t quite like about the book is that the writers tend to use too many big words and synonyms, that it’s hard to follow sometimes.

Plot

The plot wasn’t really new but unfolded in its time. The love 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 mushy stuff. Sadly, I was wrong. The book went sappy till the end, what with the gossiping and buying gloves and hats peppered throughout the book.

Vocabs

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

Reading age/recommendation

WARNING: this book has suggestive scenes and I would not recommend it to young reader. If you have read a Mills&Boons, this book is slightly ‘milder’ than that.

Conclusion

I’ve realized the review is a bit harsh on the book but truthfully the book is quite okay and is a very light read. Nothing too serious. I am just disappointed that the unique concept (to me at least, as I’ve never read something like this) was not written in a style that I think is more appropriate 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 while drinking tea.

The Ambassador's Mission

  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.

Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon

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

Jonathan Strange &Mr Norrell

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.

The Earthsea Quartet

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.

Alice through the Looking Glass

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