The Dragon Reborn

The Dragon Reborn
by Robert Jordan

The third book in The Wheel of Time series, and I was just as involved as I was in the first two. In this volume, the characters are on separate journeys, and Jordan does a good job staying with each story long enough to keep the action moving, while still switching back and forth often enough to allow you to keep track of where everyone is and stay involved in all of the separate story lines.

What else is there to say, if you like epic fantasy, The Wheel of Time seems a great series to tackle, at least from my perspective four books in. I suppose it would be foolish to start if you don't think that you want to read the whole series, since the story makes no pretense of ending at the close of each volume, and if you start in the middle, I think you'll miss far too much. It almost seems silly to try to review books in the middle (unless one turns out somehow shocking bad). The epic continues, and continues well and interestingly, but this book was never intended to stand on it's own.

The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt
by Robert Jordan

The problem with the way I read is this: once I get started with a book (or series of books) that I find particularly interesting, it becomes all consuming. An epic fantasy series with 11 existing volumes all over 700 pages long might be a great summer project for me, but I also have to make sure that other things get done, like sleeping, which has suffered since I started reading The Wheel of Time. Such is life.

Anyway, this is the second book in the Wheel of Time series, an epic fantasy tale with all the usual features: a battle between good and evil for the fate of the world, magic, monsters and interesting creatures, a reluctant hero with a number of lovable sidekicks, and a tremendous number of strange names for people and places that will make you truly glad for the glossary at the end of each book (at least, if you are in any way like me, challenged in the remembering of these things). It's a very good book, good enough to suck me in and truly distract me, with a divinely detailed world that holds together and has a tangible realness to it providing the background for an adventure tale that makes 700 pages fly by. It is not The Lord of the Rings, but I can see where the comparison is made, and it is saying a bit that I don't think that Tolkien would roll in his grave at the thought.

But there's no point in recommending it unless you have already read The Eye of the World, and unless you believe that you are going to have the time to read at least The Dragon Reborn (the third book in the series). Jordan seems to make no accomodations for readers that decide to enter the series midstream, so I think that a reader would gain more confusion than enjoyment out of starting here. These are not so much separate books as volumes of one long story, there are no neat endings to make you feel like you completed something when you turn the last page. To be honest, I am grateful for that, I loathe spending my time reading catchup put in for people who didn't read the first book. So yes, I haven't read the whole series yet, so I can't promise that every book is as good as the first two, but I am going to dive right into volume 3, probably tonight, even though it's already 2:00am and I really (really, really) should be sleeping.

So if you have time for 11 volumes this summer (with a 12th forthcoming, and being finished by another author, since Robert Jordan passed away last year) dive right in and join me, if not, I should be getting to something that I could actually recommend to you in about a month.

Right. Obsessed.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

By Douglas Adams

Another book whose story starts with something related to the great and wonderful Andrew Gustav Schneider. He gave this to me during our hours of sitting in JFK airport waiting for our flight to London to take off. A reading from my favorite British author for our trip to Britain.

Of course, I didn't get to read it in Britain because I picked up Edward Ruthorfurd's epic novel London at St. Paul's the second day we were there, and spent the rest of the time buried in that 1300 page wonder. (It's amazing, but not for the faint of heart.) So instead I had a book by my favorite British author to recover from my trip to Britain. Just as good really, maybe better.

Note: Anyone that has not yet read all four books in The Hitchhiker's Trilogy, stop reading this now and rush to your local library, you are missing out on great and wonderful things.

Now, when I first looked at the book, I was fairly sure that I hadn't read it. Then, at some point on the vacation, while Andrew was making fun of the lovely (10 feet of visibility) view that we'd enjoyed from the top of Mt. Snowdon in Wales, he made some joke about the clouds wanting to be close to me. He said that he remembered reading about a character like that, he thought in a Douglas Adams book, and all of a sudden I decided that I in fact HAD read this book and that it was the mystery about the Norse Gods... and that little antidote about the clouds wanting to be close to someone was in this book, something about the rain God...

I was about half right. I did read this at some point in the past, although long enough ago that I had pretty much forgotten it all. It is the mystery about the Norse Gods, but the thing with the guy who the clouds want to be near wasn't in here. Maybe it is somewhere in Hitchhikers. If you know where it is, it would be nice of you to share.

Anyway, this book does live up to the amusement that I expect from Adams on some levels. There is no shortage of one liners or cruel little observations about all the irony in the world to keep you amused. It doesn't have the same glory as Hitchhikers, but really, that would be quite a challenge.

If you are an Adams fan, you've probably already read this, and if not, I suppose you should. If not, I wouldn't start here, instead, read other things first, become an Adams fan, and then read this.

Sad to admit, but one of the coolest things was the fact that things kept happening in places where Andrew and I had been on our vacation (the main character's flat appears to be located on the same street as the car rental place, which was a longer than anticipated walk uphill from King's Cross, leaving me with a feel for the neighborhood.)

Well those places and Asgard, home of the wise and wonderful Gods of Norse mythology.

I do love the idea of Thor walking around frustrated that people don't believe in him anymore... I bet Zeus is pissed too...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

March 10-12, 2007

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling

Sometimes you read a book just to escape the real world, and I must say, that for that purpose, the Harry Potter series has always been very effective for me. The stories are fast paced and interesting enough, complete with little doses of childlike wonder and "WOW, I wish I could do that!" moments. Especially when I am a little overwhelmed with other things, they tend to make me feel a little better about the world (and a little better at procrastination.) This book managed to pull me into and through 600 some odd pages in three days over a weekend where I worked Saturday and Sunday.

I put this on my paperbackswap.com wishlist when I first joined, because while I am a Potter fan, I'm not really the obsessive type that has already preordered the last book (although after reading this one, I am thinking about it.) And it turned up, as these things tend to do in my world, at just the right time.

I do think sometimes that the books rely a little bit too much on me having remembered little details from the past books, which I haven't read for years, so the details are fuzzy at best, but I suppose that the rehashing that would be necessary to bring those less-than-true fans like me up to speed might be really tedious for those who can keep track of all the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!




I was really convinced that Harry was wrong about Snape, I really just didn't think that he was going to end up as the bad guy. I don't know why, but I thought that in the way of children and teachers, they were wrong about him, and that while unlikeable certainly, he was really on the good side. I'm, not sure why I believed that, or why I wanted to believe that, but I did, and so, while I knew that Dumbledore died at the end thanks to the help of some other spoilers, I was totally shocked that Snape killed him. I am very interested to see how she wraps that one up in the end...

Cause the end is coming... and I'm not sure that I buy into Sean's prediction "He's going to die you know..." I suppose that it's possible, but at the same time, that idea seems a little too dark for the world of Hogwarts. I hope that he doesn't. I really like the idea of Harry Potter surviving. Of course, there is always the question: What does one do for a living after defeating the worst kind of evil at age 17? It kind of makes insurance sales seem a little anticlimactic ;-)

I suppose that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these books in the time since I read the last one. When I think back, they have been very useful procrastination tools for me in the past. I do think that I will preorder the final book, (Barnes and Noble will sell it to me, a member with the credit card, for not so much at all). At this point, what I'm debating is reading the others again before the new one comes out, so that my memory is fresh, so that the whole story can come together as one complete tale, which I think is fitting. Probably not the most effective use of my time, but fitting the compulsive side of me, and I know that I will be able to get Jannine to do it with me, which might be fun. Plus, the book is coming out over the summer, so no classes, just work, disc, and God willing, some looming medical school secondaries. Sounds like a wonderful time for some quality escapism.

Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist

Enchantment

Enchantment
by Orson Scott Card
c. 1999
Ballentine Books: New York
415 pages

First of all, it's been a long time. I admit that its been a long time. There are several reasons for this, the main being the depressing enormous looming threat of MCAT (121 days), and the start of my classes, and other crazy business. But I'm back now, and all it took was reading a little to remind me of why it is that I really really like reading, so I am back in the saddle, although the looming MCAT and classes and such should keep me at something of a more moderate level for the coming monthes.

Now for the book. I've read this one before, but I love Orson Scott Card (who is the wonderful man responsible for the glory that is Ender's Game, my all time favorite book.) I picked this copy up at the Strand (which, for those not fortunate enough to have been there, is an enormous, exciting used book store in New York city, which Andrew took me to over Christmas last year. It was an amazing experience that resulted in me finding, for crazy low prices, a number of books that I had been looking for for a while. It's a glorious place, but I suppose that it is fortunate that they keep it far away from me, becuase if I was close, I would have neither money, nor room to move between the books in my bedroom.)

Anyway, this one of those modern fairy tale type things. Ivan finds Sleeping Beauty, whose name is Katerina in the woods of Russia, and after he fights the bear to wake her, he has to go with her into the past to save her kingdom from the evil witch, Baba Yaga. Fortunately, Ivan is equiped to do this, because he is a scholar of ancient Russian literature and fairy tales, so he speaks the language (what a conincidence!).

It's not high art, but I wasn't feeling well when I read it, and it was a nice escape sort a book, a pleasant story with good characters, a bad bad guy, and a nice little love story. Fairy tales have a place, even though I often forget them now that the bedtime story is not really part of the schedule these days, at least not in the traditional sense. It was relaxing and fun when what I needed was relaxing and fun, and that's a good thing.

Peter and the Starcatchers

Peter and the Starcatchers
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
c.2004
Hyperion Books For Children: New York
451 pages

Allow me to start off this entry by saying something very important.

Dave Barry is amazing.

If you don't think that Dave Barry is funny, then I don't know what to tell you. Clearly you have no sense of humor. That is sad for you, but really not my problem. (If you do not think that Dave Barry is funny because you *gasp* do not know who Dave Barry is, go here and you will feel better.)

I got this book off the bargain books rack at Borders a while ago, specifically because Dave Barry had something to do with it, and as we all know now; Dave Barry is amazing.

The book is the back story to Peter Pan, how he found Neverland, Captain Hook and Smee, eternal youth, Tinkerbell and the ability to fly. This kind of story almost always fascinates me. It's good stuff, taking a story that we already know and love and giving the characters a history, making them a little more complex.

Being written for children, Peter and the Starcatchers contained rather less of the patented Barry wit than I was hoping for. But it had shining moments: little lines that reminded me who was, at least partially, behind it all.

Parts of it were a bit choppy. The chapters are waaaaaaay too short, even for a children's' book, even in the culture of ADHD. There is no good reason for a book to have 79 chapters (literally), even when it jumps around between a rather large number of characters. (Especially since I keep telling myself that I am going to stop at the end of the chapter, but then the chapter ends so suddenly and so soon, and I am not satisfied, and decide to read just one more chapter, 77 times or so.)

All that being said. If you have a son/daughter/niece/nephew/cousin/camper/inner child that is in need of a book to read, this is a good one. It's got everything a good bedtime story needs: good and evil, Pirates and Indians, ships and storms, magic, giant flying crocodiles, mermaids, talking animals, and of course, an entirely chaste romance (although, Peter at one point, does start to think that maybe, just maybe, kissing wouldn't be totally gross). The kids are smart and resourceful, the pirates are gross and stupid, and the magic is mysterious and cool.

Plus, you'll be starting your child on the path to an appropriate affection for the work of Dave Barry at an early age, and that is VERY important. Also, it's just the kind of good fat book that a child who wants to be a reader will feel good about. (Come on, who doesn't remember the satisfaction of reading a good fat book? It still feels good once in a while. The Brothers Karamazov anyone?)

But seriously, the book made me wish I had some kid to read to. It's fun like that. Peter Pan is always a cool story, and the book works in introductions to all the good little aspects of Peter Pan's world seamlessly and creatively. Plus it has little bright details that just made me smile. For example: The same kind of magic that is responsible for Peter Pan was responsible for DaVinci, who aside from all this code nonsense was a very cool person. Also, the pirate ship catches up to the super fast British Navy ship using sails made from designs for womens clothing that look like a giant bra. (I'm not even kidding. See page 103 for an illustration.) Good stuff like that.

And of course, we must remember, Dave Barry is amazing.