Review for The Fault in our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Published by: Dutton Books ®

Summery:

[From Inside Flap]

Despite the tumor-shrinking miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Introduction:

Many people know John Green through either his books or the YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers, he has with his brother Hank. I first heard about him on a book-tube channel when that person reviewed The Fault in Our Stars. I then watched one of the Vlogbrothers’ videos because this book-tuber mentioned that the author had a channel on YouTube. I didn’t think much of it after that. But then many more book reviewers were saying amazing things about this book, and after seeing one in particular from CassJayTuck (who is my favorite book-tuber), I convinced myself that I would buy it. Well, I didn’t get it for a long time after that. I was afraid that all the hype was just because John Green has many loyal followers on YouTube. I started to watch the vlogbrothers videos, just to see what kind of person this John Green was, and I soon became quite a fan. I quickly subscribed to many of John and Hank’s channels. They seem like really awesome guys. They’re funny, smart, and never dull. And that is what finally convinced me to by The Fault in Our Stars.

Characters:

Hazel Lancaster is 16 and living with terminal cancer and has to have a continuous flow of oxygen to her lungs. The story starts with her at Cancer Support Group, which meets at a church. She meets Augustus there, who came because his friend, Isaac, brought him. Augustus previously lost his leg to cancer, but is now cancer free. He’s good-looking, buff, and athletic, even though he has a prosthetic leg, and he’s immediately interested in Hazel. At first, she fights her growing feelings for him. Since she’s dying of cancer, she doesn’t want to get close to him, but then wind up hurting him later when she dies. Augustus changes her mind about that, finally, because he is this wonderfully perfect guy, who does some amazing things for Hazel just because he loves her.

I do have a few problems with these two however. Both of these characters are in their mid-teens, but neither of them spoke like teenagers would. Most of their “witty banter” seemed really forced and plotted out way too much. None of it seemed to flow naturally like real conversations do. Then, the personalities of these characters were very, very bland, and they just seemed very much like crafted people cut out of plain cardboard. I could never feel a connection with either Hazel or Augustus; it was so easy to remember that they were just story characters. There was very little believability in their personalities. The characters that I could identify with, however, were Hazel’s parents, who were both very natural and believable. It was easy to feel for Hazel’s father when he cried, or to understand why Hazel’s mother would do anything for her daughter. The love was easy to feel there. Isaac, Augustus’ friend, was also easier to believe in. The poor guy, he went through some hard things, and seemed to handle it more like a teenager would.

My Thoughts:

Because I consider myself a fan of John Green, I really wanted to like this book a lot, and feel the extreme emotions that I’ve heard that other people experienced whilst reading it. A really enjoyable thing about it was when I opened up the book and started reading, because I could instantly tell it was a John Green book! The narration was so him, even though the book is told from Hazel’s point of view. John Green’s voice is very distinct. Watch a number of his videos and then read one of his books and you’ll be able to understand what I’m talking about. A lot of authors struggle with having a distinct “voice” in their narration and their words come across as sounding robotic and bland. Not so with John Green! He is a very good writer. Unfortunately, his characters didn’t meet my expectations and fell short of seeming real. I wanted to like this book so much because I like the author so much. I kept reading it and telling myself, “Hey, it’s John Green! He’s awesome! His book HAS to be awesome too.” But it wasn’t. No matter how much I wanted to like this book, get invested in the characters, and cry at the end (like I’ve heard so many people have), I couldn’t. I feel terrible about that. I wanted to love this book so bad! However, because it’s John Green, I’m planning on getting another of his books and giving it a chance. Maybe this just wasn’t the book for me. It is very different from the books I normally read, since there’re no fantasy elements in it at all. I don’t usually read contemporary fiction, so maybe I just need to read more, and get used to them. My preference is for books that are fantastical. I mean, I live a contemporary life, why would I want to read about someone else’s contemporary life? That’s just personal preference, and has nothing to do with my opinion of the book’s or the characters’ quality.

Warnings:

There’s some language in this book, and there’s a brief, but not really descriptive sex scene, as well. What else do you expect from a Young Adult novel? Other than that, there isn’t any violence. It is a book about people with cancer, so some death is also to be expected. (I don’t think I would consider that a spoiler alert, I mean, considering the book’s content, would anyone expect anything else?)

My Age Rating: 14 and up. I think it’s quite appropriate for the age group it’s marketed for.

~Cya!

 

 

Review for Serena

Serena by Ron Rash
Publisher: Ecco, An Imprint of Harper-Collins Publishers
Summery
[Back Cover]

The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattlesnakes, even saving her husband’s life in the wilderness.

Together Serena and George ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of their favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage begins to unravel, and the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.

Introduction:

When one signs up for a literature class in college, they must be aware that they are going to read a number of different kinds of books. Good ones, bad ones, ones that make you think, and ones that make you want to forget. Yeah, there’s quite a variety. This book, Serena, is the first novel my class was assigned. We have been covering Southern Gothic Literature, and this book definitely fits in that category. There are a few reasons why the teacher chose this book, I think. One is that it’s set in North Carolina, which is the state where I live. The second reason is probably because the author came to my college a year before to speak and sign books. My English teacher at the time required my entire class to go to this author talk by Ron Rash. He spoke on growing up in North Carolina, and about his many short stories. He even read one to the audience, and while I found the whole talk interesting, that little sample of his work convinced me that his writing wasn’t something that would interest me. I probably saw Serena on his book table afterwards, but it didn’t leave an impression on me. None of the books seemed to be anything I’d read actually. When my literature teacher told us we’d be reading this, I was kind of surprised to find out that I knew of the author.

Characters:

The main characters are the Pembertons. They are two lumber company owners who come to North Carolina to cut down the trees in the mountains. (I’ve been to these mountains before, and I really don’t know why anyone would want to cut down the forests there. They are beautiful.) Anyway, Serena and George Pemberton are newly married when they come to the camp, and their arrival starts a string of killings and murders. While Pemberton seems to be a tough man who isn’t afraid to shed blood, Serena is cold and ruthless. My literature teacher describes her as very practical, and I do have to agree. If anyone gets in Serena’s way, or does something she doesn’t like, she won’t mess around, and she’ll have them killed. That stops anyone from coming around and bothering her again, for sure. She is what I have dubbed “murder-happy.” One little mistake and she’d do away with anyone. No one is an exception; any one of the characters could be her next target. Her husband seems very similar to her, but in a way, he is more human. The man feels some of these murders are unnecessary, and when Serena has her sights on Pemberton’s illegitimate child and its mother, Pemberton starts to feel sort of protective for the child. I had a feeling Pemberton would have been a better man if he never had met Serena. She influenced him in almost every aspect, and as some of my classmates have said, “She’s the one who seems to wear the pants in the family.” I’m not too sure about that statement, it did seem that Serena swayed Pemberton on many issues, but I don’t know if she was the dominating one in their marriage. It’s more like they shared everything equally.

There’s also a man named Galloway and his future-telling mother. They both become prominent in the story, and are feared almost as much as the Pembertons. Galloway is a very threatening character, of the kind you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, or anywhere else for that matter.

Of the good characters, there’s Rachel and her son, Jacob, who is also Pemberton’s son. Rachel goes through a very rough time, from the moment her father is killed, to the time she has to start running for her son’s life. She’s a hard working girl, and doesn’t wallow in self pity, though she has many reasons to. The other good characters in this story are the Sherriff McDowell, who I would say is the hero of the story. I was rooting for Rachel, Jacob, and McDowell through the whole thing. I didn’t want to see anything happen to the baby, or to his mother. A few of the other characters mentioned, but not main characters, were Joe Vaughn, who is a friend of Rachel’s, and the lumber crew.

My Thoughts:

This is one of the few books told from the point of view of the villains. I’ve wondered why there weren’t more stories that give us that point of view, but after reading this, I can honestly say I don’t like it. I want a book told from the hero’s perspective and with a battle between good and evil. I’ll be looking through my To-Be-Read stack for something that I know will be like that. I need a story about a hero after reading Serena. This book has been compared to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Serena’s character to that of Lady Macbeth. I do see the similarities of the two stories, and the main difference between the two leading ladies is Lady Macbeth’s guilt about her wrong-doings. Serena never regrets anything. If her killing ways weren’t enough to make you dislike her, then maybe it’s her lack of personality. In telling my family about this book and Serena, I’ve described her as “an evil, cardboard cutout”. She has no personality, she falls flat, and the way she spoke really distracted me. It didn’t sound natural, and seemed more forced than the voices of the other characters. In the author interview at the end of the book, I found out that Ron Rash stated he had Serena talk in a “loose iambic pentameter.” So, that’s what was wrong! I really don’t think he should have done that, because it was a source of irritation for me.

Another thing about this story was the writing. Many reviews I read on Goodreads say how great Ron Rash’s writing is, and I guess it’s not bad, since this book was nominated for a Pen/Faulker Award, but a few sentences confused me. I found the way he worded some of them hard to understand, since the punctuation was weirdly used, so I had to unravel the meaning sometimes. Other times he didn’t even use quotation marks for dialogue, but had it the same as the narration. I’d read the paragraph, and not know one sentence is actually one of the characters talking, until I got to the “So-and-so said.” I don’t understand why he so loosely used the quotation marks, or why he didn’t always put different characters’ dialogue on separate lines instead of in the same paragraph. Some of these are rules that are stressed in grammar lessons, but for some reason Ron Rash seemed to ignore them whenever he felt like it.

The biggest gripe for me, however, was the way Serena’s evil deeds went unpunished. That woman gets away with murder, and becomes very successful because of it. No one can touch her, and the only one who tries dies for it. I just think that in fiction, good should be rewarded and evil should be punished. Even if the bad guys do get away with their schemes for a while, there should be a resolution at the end where good finally triumphs. It may be realistic for people like Serena to get away with their deeds in real life, but in a book, I think there should be hope and justice. Isn’t that why we read books? To escape from real life? To learn a valuable lessen, maybe? This book holds nothing like that. Unless the whole reason  for it is to try to make readers despise the main character and shock us by showing her get rewards for her ways. Maybe I’m just over sensitive. What do you think?

There’s also a movie coming out eventually. It starts Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as George and Serena Pemberton. I personally don’t want to see this movie, but it will be interesting to see how it is received.

Warnings:

This isn’t a book written for teens, but adults. It’s very mature in places. There are quite a large number of scenes with sexual content, violent deaths happen often, though many of them only the aftermath is shown, and there’s also swearing. It actually isn’t as bad as Across the Universe is with the inappropriate content, but it’s mostly just the story I have a problem with.

My Age Rating: 16 and up.  

~CYA!

Review for Across the Universe

Across the Universe Trilogy: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Published by the Penguin Group

Summery:

[Back Cover]

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends—and planet—behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed’s scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.

Someone tried to murder her.

Now, Amy is caught inside a tiny world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed’s 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest’s rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship’s cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

Introduction:



This is the cover I got.

This book, oh, this book. Where should I start with this? First of all, the cover was beautiful! Not the one I ended up getting, which was actually quite ugly, but Wal-Mart was selling it cheap so I took it. The original cover looked so graceful and the colors were just lovely. That was what drew me to pick it up in the first place. Then the description sounded so exciting. It was a mystery story, in SPACE! How cool is that premise? Very cool, I’d say. I went in expecting a romance/murder mystery story, but what I got was something that shouldn’t have been put to print. Seriously, I don’t understand any of the positive reviews on this book. For one thing, the romance was nonexistent. It was just a bunch of lusting from the male character and pretty much nothing from the female character. Another thing was the slow pacing and the characters’ ability to forget about the cryogenically frozen passengers who are getting murdered. Really, it would seem like they would forget for a long while, and then suddenly remember that those people were there and then do a little more thinking about the situation, never moving on the figuring out the connections which were staring at them and blaringly obvious. Expect this to be the harshest review I’ve ever done. I usually try to find something good about a book, but it will be hard to do with this one.

Characters:

We’re first introduced to Amy when she and her parents are being put in the cryo chambers. That scene was intense and vivid, I’ll give it that. It grossed me out, and I felt sorry that her family had to go through that. For the good portion of half the book, Amy is in the cryo chamber, dreaming or thinking. The chapters are usually short, and didn’t really add much to the story or her character. I guess it was to show that Amy wasn’t completely out of it. She could sense the passage of time in a way, but never know just how long she had been in the cryo chamber. Once Amy is let out, she immediately starts to act with no thought to the consequences to her actions. She awakes to a ship that is mono-ethnic, and the people have never seen anyone with pale skin and red hair. She completely stands out, and she is told to stay in the hospital to avoid any trouble. What does she do then? She goes for a run outside around the ship. Yup, smart move. She nearly gets in big trouble. The leader of the ship, Eldest, threatens her, but she continues to go on and do things her way. Now, when it’s because she’s trying to find out who tried to murder her and is trying to murder the others, I can see that, because he’s a suspect. But for a good portion of the book, she does nothing but complain that she ever came in the first place. She kept complaining that the way things were on the ship were wrong, but never did anything to explain why they were wrong. Poor Elder was probably so confused by her. The girl barely did anything.

Elder is the only teenager aboard Godspeed (I’ll explain why later), and he is to be the next Eldest. Elder is introduced in the second chapter, and is the reader’s link to how the ship thinks. He’s also the romantic interest for Amy, such as it was. He sees her in the cryo chamber and can’t help but think how different and beautiful she looks, and how much he wants to kiss her, and other things. When she is unfrozen, he tries to get to know her better, while also trying to please Eldest, who is teaching him how to become the next leader. He had doubts about if he would make a good leader, which was believable. He also seemed to have unwavering faith in Eldest at some points, and then be completely distrustful of him the next. He battled with the things he used to know, and with the truths he was coming to learn. All in all, he would have been a believable and maybe even likable character, but there was no personality, nothing to distinguish him, and he seemed kind of wishy-washy in my opinion. He was also very disrespectful to the idea of God and laughed when Amy mentioned it, saying believing in that was ridiculous. The only reason he seemed to like Amy was so he would have a special someone to experience the Season with. I don’t want to get started on that, but I must if I am to do this review right. But I’m not going to talk about it now.

The only character I enjoyed was Harley. He was Eldest’s best friend who lived in the hospital because he was supposedly insane. He was an artist, and was quite enthusiastic about it. Creative people are those I can understand and relate to more. He was also very kind and caring, and took good care of Amy when Elder was off with Eldest. I actually would have preferred Harley to be the romantic interest. If I never understood the term “chemistry” before I read this book, I do now, because Amy and Eldest had none! Harley and Amy had more chemistry together and they didn’t even have feelings for one another! It’s strange how supportive characters seem to be the better people in books or movies. I don’t know why it seems to be like that.

My Thoughts:

Ok, so here’s the part where I usually talk about what I liked about the book. Well, I can’t really do that now, because I just mentioned Harley above, and he was the only highlight of this book for me. In reviews I’ve read for this book, people would go on about how well-written it was, and how poetic it sounded, and how great the plot was. Um, did we read the same book? This is actually the first book that I’ve made marks in the margins. Not only for the grammar and punctuation errors, but for odd situations that came up, or the use of the wrong word in a sentence. It was not well-written in my opinion. And then there was the use of made up words that annoyed me to no end. Yes, I get it, it’s almost three hundred years into the future, so there are bound to be either new words, or old words with different meanings, but seriously, the substitute swear words were just cheesy. I’m glad the author didn’t use the real thing instead, since it seemed to be Elder’s favorite word, but still, why make one up? Another word often used by Elder was “brilly” and I couldn’t really get what the meaning was supposed to be. Was it supposed to be a positive word or a negative? Because I think the author used it for both. There were more words that were made up, but I think just mentioning those two will be enough. It was annoying and silly sounding. The overuse of them either made me laugh or groan.

Then there was the blaringly obvious plot twist. For the entire book, the characters are trying to figure out what Amy and the other victims had in common. They even made a list and drew lines connecting similar aspects, but never seemed to grasp it. To me, it was so obvious that I was able to see it without the use of their chart. Why couldn’t the characters see the connection? I won’t say what the connection was, because if someone decides to read this book after my review, I don’t want to spoil anymore of it than I have to. But really, the clues the author placed in the book for the reader weren’t cleverly hidden, and they just made the characters seem either dumb, or uncaring about what was happening. And then the shocking twist about the villain. Gasp! I didn’t see that one coming. -_-  (Hear my sarcasm there?)

The absolute worst part of this book? Every scene that had something to do with the Season. To keep a regulated population, every person went through the Season. Elder is the only teenage aboard because he was born to be the next Eldest, who is supposed to be older than the generation he rules. The Season had the entire ship’s population going about acting like animals in heat. It was extremely inappropriate for a Young Adult audience, and was the most graphic, terrible, and perverted majority of a book that I’ve ever come across. There was absolutely no point in putting such a nasty thing into a book that could very well be read by some young teenager that does not need to read something like this. Where’s a fire when I need it? This book ought to be burned.

Warnings:

Pretty much everything one could warn about is in this book. Language? Yes, both the real thing, and made up substitutes. Sexual content? For many chapters it’s talked about and described. Suicide? It has that in there too. Violence? Some, but not bad.  

My Age Rating: 20 and up. (But if I were to be truthful, it’s not appropriate for anyone of any age. It’s just rubbish.)

~Cya!

Review for Airborn

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Publisher: Eos (An imprint of HarperCollins® Publishers)

Summery:

[Back Cover]

Matt Cruse has the life he has always dreamed of as a cabin boy on the Aurora, a luxury passenger airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean.

Then one night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies who are completely real and utterly mysterious.

Introduction:

Airborn is my first taste of steampunk. I don’t know if it can be called true steampunk, but since it uses airships and not so realistic, yet old-fashioned, flying machines, that’s what I think I can classify it being. After reading a very positive review of this book, I bought it, and fully expected to have it read within a few days. It certainly started out interesting enough; just read my comments on it on Goodreads. The first portion of the book was full of excitement and beautifully written. I seriously wanted to climb aboard an airship and fly across the Pacificus with Matt, the main character. Once I hit the middle portion of the book however, things started to get very dull and the writing became monotonous. Once the final stretch came around, the book finally started to pick up pace and it felt like important stuff was finally happening. I finally began to enjoy the characters and their situation.

Characters:

The main character, Matt Cruse, is not what I’d call a likable character. He first started out that way. When he was up in the crow’s nest and spotted the sinking balloon and the old man, and then he became relatable when the job he was hoping to get was given to Bruce Lunardi, the son of the man who owns the Lunardi line of airships, of which The Aurora is a part. One could understand how he felt overlooked and unfairly treated. Bruce was a likable guy though, he wasn’t a snob, nor did he rub his job in Matt’s face. He was actually my favorite character in the book, not Matt, the main character I was supposed to sympathize with. Matt became annoying and whiny. He would continuously talk about his ship, The Aurora, and how much he loved her, how much he loved flying, how wonderful his amazing sense of direction was. I wanted to shout at him, “I get it! You can move on now.” Then, after the shipwreck, he wouldn’t quit whining about how terrible he felt on land, it was suffocating him, closing him off, he wasn’t flying, it was so terrible! Again, I wanted to yell at him, “You survived the crash, everyone is all right, shouldn’t you focus more on keeping it that way instead of how miserable solid, unmoving Earth is?” I didn’t like Matt at all. I almost wished The Aurora would turn out to be landlocked forever. That might be mean to wish on the main character, but he really annoyed me that much about it.

Then there was Kate, our other main character. She was intent on discovering the mysterious creatures her grandfather found just before he died. He was mocked for it, so she wants to prove her grandfather was right. A noble thing to do for her grandfather, so that’s why she boards the airship in the first place. After they’re marooned on the very island where her grandfather discovered the flying creatures, she enlists Matt to help her uncover evidence of them, and that’s when she got annoying. She didn’t seem to understand that Matt had duties he couldn’t just abandon, especially since the ship needed repairs. She got him in trouble a number of times, but never seemed to understand why. She thought everyone was being a pain and unfair. A number of times I wanted to tell Matt to just leave her alone. Finding the flying creatures wasn’t as important as getting everyone off the island safely.

Both of the main characters seemed to have one-track minds about their respective interests. But when the villain finally showed up, the characters started becoming less annoying, because then, they were forced into situations that caused them to act in the ship’s and the crew’s best interests. Finally, they both stopped thinking only of their precious obsessions and did something.

My Thoughts:

This book did start out exciting and attention holding, but that was only the first one-fourth of it. The next two-fourths were boring, filled with ship talk and description of every little detail of the airship and its workings. Some parts almost felt like a manual. Then there were pages of Matt groaning about him and his ship being on land, and how it was so terrible. I felt like I read the same things over and over again when the focus was on Matt.

When the final fourth of the book came around, things picked up again and I really enjoyed it. It once again became exciting, suspenseful, and the characters were once again put in interesting situations. If you can get through that tedious middle portion of the book without giving up, this book is a great read. I’d recommend it, but warn whoever I’m lending it to about the slow and almost pointless middle. Even if the main characters were annoying, the supporting cast was great and the situation was thrilling.

And speaking of pointless, the flying creatures were such an odd addition to this book about airships and pirates, I felt they were out of place. Sure, they were the reason Kate showed up in the first place, but I’d much rather read the book without them there. I was nearing the end, and the flying mystery creatures had yet to do anything productive to the story. In fact, they were practically pointless even in the end. I think the author included these creatures because of his previous books in The Silverwing Trilogy. They’re about bats, and apparently, this author has a great interest in flying things. They felt like a forced element in what would have—in my opinion—made a much better pirate/castaway type story. Especially since the pirate captain was very interesting and a complex character. He wasn’t the stereotypical bad guy pirate, which is why the last fraction of the book was so awesome. I won’t deny that the creatures in this book were interesting, but they just seemed to be in the wrong book.

The writing was good, if wordy and littered with unnecessary descriptions, and half the book was just plain awesome. Just watch out for that middle chunk. People who really enjoy reading a very involved book will probably enjoy this.

Warnings:

There was some language, but not that much. It was typical of what is found in other YA books. There are fight scenes going on, but nothing excessively violent. It had some blood and some death.

My Age Rating: 13 and up (Because it’s a more tedious read than a lot of other YA fiction.)

~Cya!

Review for Dragon's Milk

The Dragon Chronicles: Dragon’s Milk by Susan Fletcher

Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks ®

Summery:

[From Back Cover]

 

“You must go to the dragon. You must leave tonight.”

Before she even hears the words, Kaeldra already knows what she must do. She must search out the mother dragon whose draclings have just hatched and somehow get some of her precious milk. It’s the only way to save her foster-sister’s life. Kaeldra would rather not go. It’s much too terrifying, much too dangerous. But Kaeldra also knows that she’s the only one who can do it. For she is the only one who can actually communicate with dragons.

But little does Kaeldra know what she’s getting into. She’s about to begin a journey that will entwine her fate with that of three little draclings and one would-be dragonslayer. A journey that will become a struggle for life.

 

Introduction:

I’m the kind of person who has always been fascinated by dragons, huge, fire-breathing lizards that just scream power. There’s a part of me that wish they were real, and then there’s the sensible part of me that tells me that’s a bad idea. I don’t want to get crispy fried by one. But stories filled with dragons have always been my favorites. If there’s a dragon mentioned in the description, or pictured on the cover, it immediately catches my eye and causes me to pick the book up. I didn’t pick this book because of the cover that’s on the copy I own though. I was on the website called DeviantArt, and I was looking through an artist’s work, when I came upon one with a girl and three little dragons. The artwork was beautiful and so detailed. When I read the description, the artist said they had painted this for the cover of a book called Dragon’s Milk. I thought it was an odd name, mainly because dragons are lizards and lizards don’t give milk. So, because of the title, I searched for the book. I didn’t find it for a while. Granted, I didn’t look too hard for it. It was a mild curiosity that had me looking for it at all. But then one day, my library was having a book sale, and I came across the book. It didn’t have the beautiful cover art that first got me interested in it, but the cover is still nice. I got the book, sat it on my shelf at home, and then forgot about it for a year or two. The only reason I picked it up now was because I had challenged myself to read a certain number of books this year, and since the year is almost over, I picked out a short one so I could meet my goal. (I finished with one day to spare. Yay!)

Characters:

So, the main character is a girl named Kaeldra. I don’t remember if the book mentioned her exact age, but she seems to be in her late teens. She is an oddball where she lives. Everyone around her is shorter than her, and they have brown eyes and straight, black hair. Kaeldra, however, is taller than all of them, has wavy, blonde hair, and mysterious green eyes. She lives with her step-family, Granmyr, Ryfenn, Mirym, and Lyf. Ryfenn, the mother of Mirym and Lyf, doesn’t really like Kaeldra, and calls her a farin. I was never able to determine what the characters meant by farin. There was no explanation, so my only guess was fair or fairy, since the words sound similar. There are no fairies in this book, so I still don’t quite know the meaning. Granmyr, which means Grandmother, is the one who brought Kaeldra into the family after her mother died. Mirym and Lyf love Kaeldra as a big sister. So, Kaeldra has a pretty loving family besides Ryfenn.

Granmyr also has a type of magic where she can see things when she works at her clay wheel. It’s pretty interesting, the clay works into different shapes that show Granmyr many things she wouldn’t know otherwise. Granmyr is also the one who knows the meaning of the storm and earthquake that suddenly came upon them at the beginning of the book. She knew it meant that there was a dragon hatching. She’s also the one who sends Kaeldra out on her journey.

There’s also a young dragonslayer who comes up after Kaeldra finds the dragons. His name is Jeorg Sigrad, and he’s similar in appearance to Kaeldra. He’s tall, his hair is slightly darker than hers, and he has blue eyes. He’s there to slay the dragon, and when Kaeldra leaves with the draclings, he gives chase, and they always have to be one step ahead of him. I enjoyed his character in the moments he was there, and wish that the author had included him more than she did. I only got glimpses of him until the very end of the book.

My Thoughts:

I don’t really know if I enjoyed this book or not. There’s such a mixed up jumble of good and bad in it. The story is interesting, but it starts out fast, and by fast, I mean hardly any buildup. Kaeldra’s youngest sister, Lyf, gets sick out of the blue, and I have no idea how she contracted the disease. It wasn’t until later that the author mentioned that the year before someone else had gotten the sickness and died from it. Going by the description on the back of the book, I thought that Kaeldra would have to go on a journey to find the mother dragon to get the milk which is the only cure for Lyf’s disease (How convenient a dragon shows up just before the girl gets sick). Kaeldra finds the dragon almost immediately, and gets the milk, but has to return again to watch the three draclings so the mother can hunt. After the little sister is getting better, Jeorg Sigrad shows up, saying he’s been sent to kill the dragon. Kaeldra doesn’t tell him anything about the draclings and their mother however. Eventually, Kaeldra has to leave with the draclings to keep them safe. There’s a place where she can get them where they will be protected from people who want to kill them.

The writing in this book is juvenile, that is because it’s a book for younger readers, but even so, there are many sentence fragments, and confusing narration. The author kept throwing new things in the story that were never foreshadowed. Like the reason the bad guy wanted to kill the dragons. Apparently, there was a war brewing against some country that wasn’t mentioned before. Seriously, something that major to the plot and you’re not going to mention it until the last chapter when everything is unraveling and the dragons and people are fighting for their lives? And also, there was a romance thrown in there at the end as well. I thought, “Hey! Where’d that come from? There was no build up and these two characters have barely talked to each other!” I did see it coming from the moment this character was introduced, but still, there was no buildup or hardly any interaction between the characters. At the beginning of each chapter, the author included quotes from “The Bok of Dragons” which is a book about the slaying of dragons, and also letters and wise sayings from the world in this story. That would have been neat normally, except each quote told what was going to happen in each chapter. Seriously, I’m not kidding. I’d read one of them and know that something was going to happen to this character, a traitor was going to be revealed in this chapter, some character is going to die this way, or this person shouldn’t be trusted because he wants to do something similar to what the quote is talking about. So basically, the book was giving spoilers away. I didn’t like that aspect at all, and I do believe the author should have left those out. They didn’t add much to the story, and only summarized each chapter.

The baby dragons were cute to begin with, but as they got older, they only got annoying, disobeying Kaeldra at every turn, and causing unnecessary problems for her. I also couldn’t quite understand how big these draclings were supposed to be. The author mentioned they were as big as wolves, and yet, they could all fit in Kaeldra’s lap. Either wolves in this world are the size of foxes, or Kaeldra is a lot taller than I originally thought. It just seemed like they were as big as what was convenient at the time. Also, the way the book described their flying was so odd. The baby dragons inflate and float like balloons! Kaeldra would even have to tie them to the ground to keep them from floating away in their sleep. To come down, they have to release a burst of flame to descend. It’s almost like a hot air balloon in reverse! The image of puffed up baby dragons floating around was hilarious and seemed like something out of a silly cartoon instead of a fantasy book.

The ideas were interesting and the journey Kaeldra and the draclings had to go on kept me reading. The characters were likable, and the draclings were even enjoyable when they weren’t being disobedient. But there was just so many weird things, like plot points thrown in without any explanations before or after, and just too many convenient occurrences for Kaeldra that the journey seemed way too easy. Even so, I think I enjoyed it, even though half of the book annoyed me and didn’t make much sense. This book is the first in a trilogy, but I won’t be checking out the rest of them, not if they’re written like this one.

Warnings:

There isn’t much in this book that could be considered scary, there are some scenes when the dragons are attacked by wolves and then another scene when one is attacked by a dog and the dragons retaliate with fire. The book was written for children, and is a decent read. There are a few mentions of “the gods” being angry at the people, so it isn’t a Christian book, and some parents of young children may not feel comfortable with multiple deities. It’s actually just a brief mention, and then never brought up again, so I didn’t see much of a point in it in the first place.

My Age Rating: 8-10 year olds will probably enjoy it, any older than that and I don’t think they’ll care for it too much.

~Cya! And I hope all of you have a very Happy New Year. :-)

Review of Precisely Terminated

The Cantral Chronicles: Precisely Terminated
By Amanda L. Davis

Publisher: Living Ink Books®
Summery:
[From back Cover]

With Microchips implanted in their skulls at birth, the slaves of Cantral and Cillineese have labored under the tyrannical rule of the nobles and their computers for centuries. Monica, a noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding. She lives with the slaves inside the walls of the Cantral palace, pretending to be one of them while the slave council plots a way to use her chip-less state to destroy the all-powerful computers that strike down any hint of rebellion.

The fate of millions rides on Monica’s shoulders. As the only chip-less person in the world, she must find a way to destroy the computers and free Cillineese from the nobles’ iron fist before they strike with the ultimate punishment—death for everyone inside the city walls.

Introduction:

Amanda L. Davis is the daughter of Bryan Davis, the author of Dragons in Our Midst, and Echoes from the Edge. I reviewed the first book in the Echoes from the Edge series earlier on this blog. Bryan Davis is one of my favorite authors, and I do keep up with the books he is working on, though there are so many, I haven’t been able to buy them all or read them all yet! I heard through Facebook that his daughter, Amanda, had also published a book, and I wondered what it would be like. Would it be filled with dragons like her father’s books? Would it be a fantasy world? So, I looked up the book, and saw the title, Precisely Terminated. How cool is that title, by the way? I also heard it was a dystopian. They’re very popular right now, but the only one I’ve read, besides Amanda Davis’ book, is The Hunger Games. So, it’s not a genre I know too much about. I’m more of a fantasy/adventure reader. This is also the first dystopian by a Christian author that I have heard about. There may be more, but so far I haven’t come across any.

The way Amanda L. Davis came up with the idea of this story is quite interesting. I’ve heard her story from the videos she posted from the book tour she and her father went on. She said that she actually dreamt the whole first chapter, names for the characters, and title of the book one night. That is quite amazing. It’s like the story was given to her!

Precisely Terminated is the first book in a trilogy. The second book is called Noble Imposter, and the third is Viral Execution, but is still in the editing stage.

Characters:

The main character in Precisely Terminated is a sixteen-year-old named Monica. She was born a noble, but at the age of four, was taken away and hidden as a wall slave in Cantral. The town where she was originally from, Cillineese, was gassed, and everyone, including her birth parents, were killed. Hidden in Cillineese, however, is the secret to shutting down the computers and ultimately, the chips implanted in everyone there. These chips control them, and if anyone steps out of line, they are terminated by electrical shock! Only Monica is without a chip, and since she is invisible to the all-powerful computers, she is able to go places that no one else can. So, she is instrumental in the plan to free the slaves and end the tyranny. Monica has spent her life as a wall slave, and they live within the walls of the palace, doing work like cleaning up after the nobles, repair work, laundry, or working the furnaces. They are considered so low in rank that they are not to be seen by the nobles. That is why there are passages hidden in the walls for the wall slaves to navigate the palace. They are treated like vermin, and the nobles and computers have no qualms about terminating them. One minor slip up could spell their doom.

There are several minor characters, because in Monica’s journey to find the computers, she is helped or hindered by many different people. One is Simon, the old, grumpy librarian Monica eventually meets. He’s also invaluable to locating the computers. He is a Seen, which is a slave that is allowed to work in the house, and be seen by the nobles. It’s a bit better than a wall slave, but the same rules apply. If you make a mistake, or are caught trying to help a rebellion, you are terminated.

My Thoughts:

This book was quite exciting from the get-go. The first chapter did an excellent job setting up just how dangerous these computers can be, and what the risks of trying to stop the tyranny are. It’s not only the slaves that have to worry about termination though. The nobles may get more freedom than most, but even they have fear. Everything came to a head at the end of this book. It was so exciting and action packed, and everything depended on Monica succeeding, even though for a while it looked like she wouldn’t. When books start getting really exciting, I sometimes have a problem reading them too fast, just because I want to hurry up and find out how the characters are going to make it out of their certain circumstances. It happened with me for this book. I had to keep stopping and going back over what I had just read, and force myself to slow down. I kept telling myself, “Stop! Read this, or you’re not going to understand what happens.” Not many books can build up the adrenaline so well that I have this type of problem reading them, but I just couldn’t read this as fast as I wanted to!

There’s also something very unique about this book. It doesn't include something that is usually the main focus in Young Adult fiction. There is no romance! Yes, seriously, Monica doesn’t meet a romantic interest. Usually, books written for this age group always have a love story, and I’ll admit, I do enjoy a sprinkle of it in books. I don’t usually enjoy it as the main focus though (Sorry romance lovers.). But it really makes sense that Monica doesn’t fall in love in this book. She doesn’t have the time for it! I thought it was unnecessary in The Hunger Games, I mean, they’re fighting for their lives, why get involved with anyone when either of them could be killed at any moment? It’s a breath of fresh air to see a book not include romance. Now, that’s not to say that Amanda L. Davis won’t add it in any of her other books, but if the situation changes during the second one, Monica may have the time for romance. We’ll see.

Unfortunately, Monica did get annoying at times. She would complain about the slave council controlling her and always telling her what to do and risking her life over and over. Living in constant fear of getting caught will probably cause one to hate their lot in life, but she’s the only one who can help free the slaves. No one else can do it because they all have the computer chips implanted in them. Think of all the good you can do, Monica! She just seemed like she had a spoiled attitude and wanted things done her way. This seemed a bit weird to me considering she’s a slave. She should be used to not getting her way, I would think. It didn’t get too bad though, and I do believe she learned some very valuable lessons throughout the book, so she will probably have a better understanding of her position in the next one.

The book is very well written, which is what I’d expect from someone whose teacher was Bryan Davis. Amanda L. Davis was homeschooled, so her parents taught her. She also states on her acknowledgements page that she had a difficult time learning to read, she thanked her parents for never giving up on her. Really, you can’t tell someone who had difficulty learning to read wrote this book. She overcame that obstacle and writes very well. I have a lot of respect for her, her father, and the rest of her family as well. They seem like good people.

I’m still looking forward to getting the next book, and I’m anticipating the release of the last one.

The second book: Noble Imposter

My Age Rating: 12 and up. There are a lot of character deaths. So, the readers need to be able to handle that. There are some instances of violence, and Monica gets some nasty injuries. Also, the tone of the book is kind of dark, since the story is set in a dystopian world. There is some hope in the end, though, so it’s not all gloom and doom.

~Cya!

Review for The Hobbit

The Hobbit By J. R. R. Tolkien

Published by: Ballantine Books®

Summery:

[From back cover]

Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse, unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo—alone and unaided—who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside….

This stirring adventure fantasy begins the tale of the hobbits that was continued by J. R. R. Tolkien in his bestselling epic The Lord of the Rings.

Introduction:

If you have read my previous reviews, you’ve probably seen me mention The Lord of the Rings and J. R. R. Tolkien before. In my opinion, Tolkien is the greatest author of all time, and The Lord of the Rings, is the greatest story of all time. I first found out about Middle-Earth with the release of Peter Jackson’s film versions. They caused me to read the trilogy and The Hobbit as well. I even tried reading The Silmarillion twice, but never got any further than the halfway point both times (I do believe I need to try reading it again). I was eleven when I read The Hobbit for the first time. I remember enjoying every minute of it, but for some unknown reason, I never read it more than once. I don’t know why, since I read The Lord of the Rings so much that the spines of the books are now quite worn. Perhaps I should blame it on Legolas, my preteen self was in love with him. However, just because I only read it once, that didn’t stop me from wanting a film adaptation of The Hobbit. But as the years passed, I started to believe that the only film version I would ever see was the old cartoon. I would actually recommend the cartoon versions of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King to anybody who enjoys the stories. They’re…interesting to watch. Anyway, after ten years, The Hobbit has come to the big screen! In anticipation to see it, I picked up my old, dusty copy and started reading it again. My plan was to have it read before I went to see the movie, but alas, college finals got in the way and I was forced to leave Bilbo and the dwarves on the side of the Lonely Mountain, looking in through the hidden door. That didn’t stop me from going to see the movie on that Friday, and I did finish the book afterwards.

Reading through The Hobbit again was like returning to a childhood home. It was so full of nostalgia, and even new discoveries that I didn’t remember after all these years. On front cover of my copy of The Hobbit this is written: “The enchanting prelude to The Lord of the Rings,” and that’s the only word I can think of to describe it. Enchanting. You might say awesome, or amazing, but enchanting just fits this book so much better. The way Tolkien wrote it, the narration comes across as having an ageless voice, and it seems like an ancient story, but it also fits perfectly in this modern age. The tone is different from LotR, it’s more lighthearted, but it doesn’t make light of the dark and sad moments. I guess you could say that I think this book is perfection. It’s so easy to believe in these characters and their cause, almost like this really happened. It’s just a beautiful book. I can’t say it any better than many people have already said it. I really want to share this book with others. I think it’s something that everyone should read, young or old.

Characters:

Many people are probably familiar with the characters, but just in case someone who reads this isn’t, I’ll talk a bit about them. Firstly, there’s Bilbo Baggins, who many will remember from LotR as Frodo’s uncle. He is a peaceful, and a well-respected hobbit in the Shire. He never does anything unexpected or has any adventures. All that changes for the poor hobbit, however, when Gandalf the Grey shows up. He’s the wizard who gives Bilbo a little nudge out of the door, and starts him on his way. Gandalf is also there throughout the story, coming and going as he pleases, after all, he is a wizard, he does what he wants. The leader of the dwarves is Thorin Oakenshield. He is decendent of the King Under the Mountain, and vows he will reclaim the dwarves’ home, and take back their treasure from the evil dragon Smaug, who has been guarding it in the Lonely Mountain for many years.

Other characters to note are the other twelve dwarves in Thorin’s company. Let’s see if I can name them all without looking it up. First, there’s Balin, then Dwalin, then Fili and Kili, Bifur, Bofur, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, and then Bombur. Hey, I did it! Not all of these dwarves have the spotlight put on them. Of course, Thorin gets many lines, Balin gets a number of lines in the book too, Dori gets a few as well, then the rest may get a line or two. It’s a shame that there wasn’t chance to get to know the rest of the dwarves, but then again, thirteen dwarves is quite a lot to deal with.

The evil characters include goblins, led by the Great Goblin, wargs, and icky giant spiders! If I ever saw giant, man-eating spiders in real life, I would probably die of fright. The small ones are bad enough. But of course, the main villain, always looming in the back of the characters minds, is Smaug the Terrible! Their quest will eventually lead them to have to face him, and somehow regain their home and treasure from him. Smaug is a monster of a dragon: greedy, selfish, vain, and extremely dangerous. It will take a lot to get rid of him.

My Thoughts on the Movie:

I guess from the introduction one can tell I really enjoyed this book and have a very high opinion of it. I don’t know what else to add about it. So, perhaps I will speak a little of the movie adaptation that so recently came out. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, is the first of three movies based on The Hobbit. Many people are worried about the book being split into three parts, since Peter Jackson is adding a lot of info and extras to the story. Most of it is coming straight from Tolkien’s notes on the story however. If you open a copy of The Return of the King, you will find near the end the appendices, and this is where a lot of this extra material has come from. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit before he started on The Lord of the Rings, so, at first it was a story meant to stand alone. When he wrote more of Middle-Earth later on, he wrote more connecting his beloved children’s book to the trilogy and lore of Middle-Earth. Peter Jackson is just adding that extra stuff to the story, I believe in a way similar to what Tolkien would have done if he rewrote The Hobbit. Of course, Jackson has added a few things of his own invention. If you haven’t seen the movie, I don’t want to spoil anything for you. Usually, small changes wouldn’t annoy me. It’s a movie, not the book, so it can’t be completely like the book in every aspect. Major changes irk me, however. For example, for those who have watched the LotR trilogy, Jackson changed Faramir’s part in the movie slightly from the book. I never liked the change he made, and wished he had left it the way it was in the story. It showed a difference between Boromir and Faramir, and that’s what I really liked. In The Hobbit, Jackson makes another change, concerning an orc named Azog, and makes it a key plot point. That did annoy me, but it’s the only gripe I have with the movie. It was amazing in all other respects. Sure, there were differences from the book, but there are also so many things that they followed faithfully. Like my absolute favorite quote from Gandalf when Bilbo wishes him a good morning, ‘”What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”’ I really want to use this quote sometime. :)

I think it’s a well thought out movie, full of excitement, humor, and wonderful characterization. Bilbo is amazing. I’ll echo what I’ve heard many reviewers say about Martin Freeman; he is a perfect Bilbo Baggins. There could not have been better casting there. Richard Armitage as Thorin is also amazing and perfect casting. From the previews I wasn’t too sure about him, I guess it was because he didn’t look like Tolkien described him in the books, but I was so glad to see that this Thorin is great. I think I prefer the movie version to the book version.

Warnings:

When it comes to warnings, my opinion differs between the book and movie. In the book, there are some scary scenes where Bilbo and the dwarves get into trouble. (The spiders in Mirkwood are totally icky. If I were little, they might have scared me.) The difference with the movie is that all these scary scenes are portrayed in full, vivid glory, which might make it scarier for the really young. When it comes to the movie, I would judge it by the rating it was given: PG-13. Though, some children younger than that might be able to handle it. I watched The Lord of the Rings when I was eleven, and absolutely enjoyed it and wasn’t scared one little bit. The book can probably be read by younger audiences, since it’s only as graphic as they imagine it. Tolkien didn’t write the book in gruesome detail during any of the fight scenes. In fact, Bilbo is unconscious or doesn’t experience them, so most of the fighting is told in retrospect.

My Age Rating (for book): 9 to 109 (It’s not just a children’s book, anyone can enjoy this.)

~Cya!

Series Review: The Binding of the Blade

The Binding of the Blade Series by L. B. Graham

Publisher: P&R Publishing®

Summery:

[From the back cover of Beyond the Summerland]

Forged to kill and wielded to survive, the blade has bound them all…

It was foretold after Malek’s first fall that twice more he would bring war, and that the last time, the very waters of the sea would obey him and fight for him. If this be so, then I cannot imagine how Sulare will escape his wrath…

Introduction:

Since classes have started back, reading has been pushed to the back burner, so to speak. I’m currently reading three books, and I plan on reviewing at least one of them, but I have no idea when I’ll finish. So, I decided, since I don’t want to have a huge gap between updates on this blog (or longer than what I usually have), I will review some of the books on my shelf that I read quite a while back, maybe even years back! There are many great books on my shelf, and a lot of my favorites are not very well known. Which is a shame, because they were awesome, amazing, and epic! I figured this time, I would review one of my absolute favorite series back in my early teens. The first one was published back in 2004, and last one in 2008. It seems like such a long time ago, doesn’t it? I found the first book, Beyond the Summerland, in the local Christian bookstore maybe a year after it came out. Back then, I was obsessed with The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Dragons in our Midst, and pretty much anything else that had to do with fantasy and dragons. Reading the description, this seemed like something very much like The Lord of the Rings, and back then, I compared everything to Tolkien’s trilogy. No, nothing ever matched up to it, which is why I stopped comparing and started judging books for themselves. When I started the book, I was completely absorbed into the world L. B. Graham created. It wasn’t like LOTR really, there were no elves, dwarves, or hobbits to be found, but the grandeur of the story reminded me of Tolkien. This isn’t a light read, since the books are 400-500 pages long, and packed with detail, story, and characters. The other books were harder for me to find. I searched in vain for them at every bookstore I came to, but never found them. I then had to order them from the Christian Book Distributers website. That experience is why I hate ordering anything online. My copy of Bringer of Storms, the sequel, has a tear in the binding, and the bottom of the cover looked like it had been smashed. I was very upset when the book arrived in that condition, but I immediately went to reading it. The rest of the books, Shadow in the Deep, Father of Dragons, and All My Holy Mountain were also ordered from CBD, but fortunately arrived in better condition.

Characters:

There were so many characters in these books, both good and evil. However, I will only discuss a few of the main ones, since trying to write about all of them would take almost forever. And I think I’ll just discuss those in the first book, since most of them are still major throughout the series. Firstly, there’s Joraiem, who is a young man of the Novaana, which are like the ruling class of people in this world. He is also skilled in using his bow, which he calls Suruna. (Archers FTW!) Joraiem is the main character, and the story follows him as he leaves his home to head for the Summerland, where young Novaana go to train and prepare for the time they will have to lead and make decisions for their people. He meets a man named Aljeron, who is also a Novaana. He has a mysterious past, which is evidenced by the three large scars on the side of his face. Aljeron also has a tiger friend, named Koshti, who is always at his side and helps him in battle. And seriously, who’d want to mess with a guy with a tiger? I loved Koshti though. He was actually one of my favorite characters, even if he wasn’t human. While in the Summerland, Joraiem also meets Wylla, who is the princess of Enthanin, the country in the east, and Rulalin, who becomes another good friend of Joraiem’s. There is a problem however, because both young men fall in love with Wylla! Talk about tension, and this leads to something unexpected later. There is also a blind prophet named Valzaan. He is a lot like a wizard actually, except he speaks Allfather’s will. Allfather is the god of this world.

My Thoughts:

I was literally obsessed with this series growing up, and I know a few people who would testify to that. It had the scope of LOTR that I was looking for, and a clear Christian message that added the extra depth to it. A person can learn a lot about sacrifice and faith by reading these books, and a lesson like that is something that will stick with you for all time. One doesn’t have to be Christian to enjoy this however, there’s still a marvelous world to explore with amazing people and creatures. Yes, this world is populated by more than just humans. There are dragons, giant talking bears (who are original to anything I’ve ever read before or since), and evil creatures like giants and Malekim, which could give an Uruk-hai a run for its money. Also, there is a giant snake, which you can see on the cover of the third book. That scene is exciting and tense, especially since it involves my favorite character out of the whole series. There is also the most unexpected and shocking of all plot twists at the end of Beyond the Summerland that probably has ever been in fiction. Seriously, L. B. Graham, I never thought something like that would happen! There are a lot of tense and sad moments, so if you’re one who easily cries, I would suggest keeping a box of tissues with you. You won’t know what will happen, or who will live or die during this war. I love that sense of uncertainty in stories.

Not all my thoughts on this are positive, however. Reading the book can get tedious, just because it is so detailed. If you can read stuff like The Lord of the Rings, you probably won’t have a problem with this then. I had read LOTR before this, so it kind of prepared me, and it’s actually an easier read since it’s written for young adults. Another thing about it that I didn’t care for was how the characters talked. The book has this fantastical setting, exotic names, many fantasy elements, but then you get characters speaking like they’re from modern day America. It doesn’t have an old world feel to it when they speak. They don’t say things like, “dude” or “cool” or “Hey, s’up?” but it’s still too informal. I was eventually able to look over that though, even though it still felt odd to me. There are parts when it seems to get bogged down, especially when Valzaan lead this religious ritual that involves a lot of talking and a lot of repeating what was said. Doing it one time was ok, it showed a part of their culture, but when it happened a second and possibly a third time in the series, it grew very boring and I found myself skimming over it. Aside from those three points, not much else to complain about, unless you want to say something about hard to pronounce names, but there is a glossary in the back of the book, so you can breathe a sigh of relief there.

There is this one other thing I didn’t like about the series: All My Holy Mountain. I can’t say what I didn’t like about it because it involves spoilers, major spoilers, but the last book was definitely the worst book in my opinion. Disappointing for me since I thought each book was better and better. My favorite being Shadow in the Deep! There was so much about that book that I thought was awesome, but again, I can’t say because of spoilers. ;)

Warnings:

No language, no witchcraft, no adult themes. It’s completely decent in those respects. These books do have descriptive violence though. It’s a war going on, so there’s lots of blood and people getting hurt. It’s not terrible, but appropriate for teen to adult readers.

My Age Rating: 13 and up (Teenagers would probably enjoy this more than adults, but I’d still recommend it to them no matter their age.)

 

Sorry there are no pictures in this post. I couldn't upload anything. If you want to see what the covers look like, check out the site below. It's the main site for the series.

http://www.bindingoftheblade.com/

~Cya!