Category: Book Review
Books into Movies: Eragon
If, for whatever strange reason, someone had been tracking my thoughts as I watched Eragon the movie, they would either by impressed or offended at my ability to swear in several languages. I’m not a person that swears often, but when there’s nothing else to say I make an exception. And believe me, Eragon the movie was an exception.
I have a lot of bones to pick with the movie adaptation, so I’ve divided it into different categories, each with its own score.
Lord help any warriors that went into battle in real life with armour like this.
Characters: 1/5.
I don’t think they could have possibly gotten the characters any more wrong. It just doesn’t seem possible. Murtagh, Angela, Brom and Arya…they were all so different from what they were like in the novel. Okay, I get that they can’t put every little detail from the book into the movie, but they can try to get the character’s personality right. Right?
Well, it seems like they didn’t even try. Murtagh was cheerful and eager to go to the Varden, in stark contrast to the moody, tortured warrior Murtagh in the novel. Garrett Hedlund was about as believable a warrior as my little sister would be. Arya wore a dress and actually seemed to like Eragon in a romantic way. In the novel, Arya was a strong warrior who never wore dresses except in her homeland; she wore men’s clothes because they were practical. She was a practical and, at times, ruthless character. And she certainly did not warm up to Eragon very much throughout the whole cycle, let alone the first novel. I think one of the problems was that the filmmakers decided to put too much emphasis on the ‘sexy’ aspects and in doing so, did not stay true to the characters. They didn’t even really achieve ‘sexy’ either.
The one character I did like was Saphira. Rachel Weisz did such an excellent job with her voice and by extension, her personality. Since we cannot directly see her thoughts as we did in the novel, the few lines Saphira did have were so important and Weisz nailed them, in my opinion. Continue reading
Small Medium At Large by Joanne Levy
Image Courtesy of Goodreads
Synopsis: Lilah is your average Seventh Grader…until she is struck by lightning at her mother’s wedding. While Lilah is thankful to be alive, she’s in for a surprise; she can hear ghosts. Specifically Bubby Dora is always in Lilah’s ears, enlisting her help to find Martin (Lilah’s dad) a new girlfriend.
How on earth is a Seventh Grader supposed to help her dad get back into the dating world, crush on Andrew Finkel and talk to dead people? Lilah is about to find out…
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
(Cover picture courtesy of Redditor’s Choice.)
In The Chrysalids John Wyndham takes the reader into the anguished heart of a community where the chances of breeding true are less than 50 per cent and where deviations are rooted out and destroyed as offences and abominations. The narrator of The Chrysalids is David, who can communicate with a small group of other young people by means of ‘thought shapes’. This deviation from a cruelly rigid norm goes unnoticed at first. But sooner or later the secret is bound to be discovered, and the results are violent, horrific…and believable.
The Chrysalids is one of those few high school novel study favourites that actually doesn’t talk down to students. Heaven forbid they read an age appropriate novel that has practical messages about life in it! Well, the reading level is far below what I would consider high school, but it’s definitely a case of content making this a high school book. Incest (between half-cousins), sexuality, torture and death are some of the things students will encounter in The Chrysalids. By grade ten, which is when it is usually taught here in Saskatchewan, I would hope that fifteen and sixteen-year-olds are mature enough to handle such things.
The Chrysalids is a very short novel that covers a fairly large time period and there were times I was confused as to what the heck was going on. However, John Wyndham generally managed to keep the plot on track while developing his characters decently well. David won’t win any prizes for greatest male lead ever, but he’s not a bad character and you really do feel for him and his predicament in Waknuk as a telepath in a society that banishes ‘deviations’ to the Fringes.
My favourite part of The Chrysalids is how John Wyndham constructed the Waknuk society. It’s heavily implied that many centuries ago a nuclear war wiped out the ‘Old People’ (us) and the people of Waknuk are still dealing with the nuclear fallout. How do they deal with it? By turning to a warped version of Christianity and a book called Repentances written during the time of Tribulation (the nuclear war) that reflects the fear of the new radiation-induced deformities. While I won’t get too much into religion, let’s just say that the version of Christianity preached by the community leaders is not the version that I saw when I read the Bible and leave it at that.
The Chrysalids can be enjoyed on many different levels. Some could see it as a crusade against religious fundamentalism and the role of fear in keeping citizens obedient. It could be seen as social commentary on the hypocrisy of people’s fear of anything “Other”, especially when the New Zealand woman calls David’s people ‘primitive’ for not embracing telepathy. It can even been seen as a story of forbidden love between two half-cousins, if you’re so inclined. I’m not, but it can still be interpreted that way.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.
That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for.
Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.
My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.
(Summary courtesy of Goodreads.)
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
Well, as of today it’s one month until the release of The Lost Prince, the first book in the new Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten Trilogy. One of the only downsides to obtaining a book on NetGalley is that you read it earlier than everyone else and as a result, have to wait even longer for the next book! I honestly can’t wait for the next book, which will be coming out in 2013. Anyway, on with the review!
You shouldn’t read this book unless you’ve read all four of the previous books in the Iron Fey series. It contains major spoilers and you will definitely be left wondering how the heck certain things happened unless you read all the previous books in the series. With that said, if you have read the rest of the series, The Lost Prince is an amazing add-on book. It focuses on Ethan Chase, Meghan’s little brother who was kidnapped by Machina in The Iron King. Only now, he’s eighteen years old and about as emotionally scarred as you would expect from his experiences with the cruel, remorseless faeries. It doesn’t help that Meghan left him at a young age to become the Iron Queen with Ash as her Prince Consort.
It also doesn’t help that Ethan has The Sight and, as a result, gets noticed by Them a lot. He’s paranoid (with good reason) and refuses to get close to anyone for fear that the faeries may hurt them to get to him. That’s why Mackenzie (Kenzie for short) St. James, a school reporter determined to dig up his past, becomes such an important character. Although she may seem one dimensional or even just plain crazy, we learn that Ethan isn’t the only one with huge secrets.
An amazing plot, reappearances of old favourite characters, three dimensional new characters and a larger picture of the fantastic world of the Nevernever…what more could you ask for? Iron Fey fans will love the fifth installment in the series, so go ahead and pre-order it if you haven’t already! It releases on October 23, 2012.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Troy by Adèle Geras
(Cover picture courtesy of Winter Park Public Library.)
The siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years.
Inside the walled city, food is scarce and death is common. From the heights of Mount Olympus, the Gods keep watch.
But Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is bored with the endless, dreary war, and so she turns her attention to two sisters: Marpessa, who serves as handmaiden to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world; and Xanthe, who tends the wounded soldiers in the Blood Room. When Eros fits an arrow to his silver-lit bow and lets it fly, neither sister will escape its power.
After reading The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough, Troy by Adèle Geras just pales in comparison. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. It just means it isn’t the best book about Troy.
Troy follows the story of Marpessa and Xanthe, two sisters trying to live their lives during the last months of the Trojan War. They’re both three dimensional characters with interesting backgrounds and we get to see them through other characters’ perspectives, but they’re not really all that memorable. There’s nothing that really sets them apart from other characters in fiction, so in my mind, they will always be good characters, but not great ones. For those of you hoping to see the traditional legendary heroes of the Trojan War, you’re going to be disappointed. Achilles, Hector and Odysseus receive practically no page time. However, if you want to read about the lives of those who were forgotten, the lives of the background characters, Troy is perfect for you.
The plot isn’t exactly fast-paced because Troy is more of a character-driven novel, but it isn’t boring either. Adèle Geras has certainly done her research about the Trojan War, but I wouldn’t say that there were any exceptional historical details. Just like in The Iliad, the gods come down from Olympus and interfere with the war, but what’s really annoying is the fact that their warnings are pointless since mortals forget meeting them anyway. What’s the point, besides to foreshadow what most people already know? As I said before, it is a good book, not a great one.
I give this book 3/5 stars.