The Art of Being Entreri - David Pontier

During my brief freedom from LSAT studies, I trudged through this trilogy set in the Forgotten Realms world.

The setting is the other side of what regular readers of the Forgotten Realms series are familiar with.  In this area elves live on the fringes of the land, keeping the meager concentration of evil races at bay while humans flourish and expand in a land that is more like Earth's developing history.

Artemis is transported to this land via what I call a Convenient Plot Device.  Not only does this CPD allow for him to escape Calimshan, the city of thieves guilds and whatnot, but it also gives him an unlimited supply of money.  He is now free to explore this new land unfettered by common needs like money for food or whatever - and naturally he gets into trouble.  He is the baddest thing around, and uncharacteristically acts like it.  Pontier characterizes Entreri more like a schoolyard bully than anything else - and the self-possessed assassin has never seemed more childish and impulsive than in his story.

From my understanding, the first volume was originally a lengthy fanfiction piece that the publishers found interesting enough to capitalize on - however, as a connoisseur of fanfiction, I found the first volume particularly unremarkable.  It's definitely not the worst fanfiction I've ever read, but aside from the basic premise, the story is not very good.  It seems to be written very much so by an amateur - Entreri somehow never seems to get into any trouble he hasn't already planned a dozen ways out of - and frankly, I'm kind of annoyed it got published.  But then, Twilight got published too, and that was a trainwreck as well.  The only reason I completed it is because my insistent boyfriend told me it got better in the later books.  People told me that about Twilight too, but I guess I really didn't have anything better to do this time.

Do I recommend this trilogy?  Nooooot really.  If you've got nothing else to read then sure.  Meh overall.

Summer of Study

So little reading for fun, so much study.

Since this past week was my last week home, I've spent it crafting stuff with mom and downloading a few kindle books.

Have I gotten to them yet?

Um, no.  Been packing. :(

I'll get to them eventually though!  Amazon has put some great sci-fi/fantasy series up for free and I snatched em up!  And I surfed a few of those e-book libraries and downloaded a couple of fairy tale books...they all have pictures though so I'll probably thumbdrive the majority and rotate them onto the kindle in order to save my file space :x

Used Bookstore!!!

So the Borders in town closed, leaving thousands of nerds in town bereft of books.  I've seen confused geeks huddled around the meager bookrack in Ross trying to be interested in crockpot recipes, lost ravers wandering the parking lot in front of the building hoping it was all some horrible drug-induced dream - but no.  The Borders has closed, and there is no longer a single bookstore within some 50 to 75 miles that stocks new books that aren't primarily religious or cultural based.

In desperation, my family has turned to the used bookstore that hides near the airport. 

With Borders out of business, the store has actually had booming business.  Which is great, especially with the higher turnover rate of used books.  So I took a trip down there with my mom and we spent the voucher our neighbor had left for us - about 63$ - on wonderful new-to-us books.

I made five purchases, totaling 21$ - really, can't beat those prices.  I found two books I've been wanting to own for awhile - a pair of fluffy romances that I've read before.  One of them I used to own actually, but lost in the shuffle of my trip to Texas in 2006 (I think), so I'm glad to have it again and will review once I finish reading all of them. 

I've also got two new Angela Knight books, both lying firmly in the paranormal romance genre, and finally, an interestingly written romance from Meg Cabot. 

I'm a bit tired of epic fantasy, if you couldn't tell.  Plus these were ridiculously cheap - and very good, which I'll get into later.  I just wanted to update this, because I'm most definitely reading, just not writing so much lately.

The Adventures of Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi

Review is an assignment from my fairy tales class

Little Wooden Jerk

Collodi, Carlo. The Adventures of Pinocchio. Trans. Nancy Canepa. Illus. Carmelo Lettere. South Royalton: Steerforth, 2002. Print.

            The Pinocchio most of us grew up with was characterized much like a young boy and went on an adventure to become a real boy!  But the story it was based on, The Adventures of Pinocchio, follows the tale of a mouthy piece of wood that eventually becomes a puppet, and finally a real child.  This story isn’t narrated by some clever cricket, but there are plenty of other talking animals. 

            The book takes the reader through Pinocchio’s many adventures, from meeting the dastardly fox and cat duo to meeting the fairy girl to the familiar Pleasure Island where boys turn into donkeys.  However in the Disney version, much of the story is spent on how Pinocchio wants to become a real boy; in Collodi’s original, Pinocchio spends much of his time not particularly caring whether or not he turns into a real boy.  Many of his adventures are caused by him not following directions and pursuing shortcuts to supposed riches or skipping school and studying in favor of a fun night somewhere else.  Overall, his “adventures” tend to be mishaps that occur because of Pinocchio’s own decision to get into trouble.

            The differences don’t stop at shortening the storyline.  The Gepetto we came to know in the Disney film was an old man with a comfy, child-friendly home, not unlike a Swiss Santa Clause.  However, in the book version Gepetto is a poverty-stricken man who sacrifices most of what he owns to send his puppet-son to school.  The Disney movie was narrated by a talking cricket, Jiminy, but in the book, Pinocchio kills the advice-giving bug early on in the story.  And the blue fairy in the Disney movie seems to be the driving force in the story, dangling the goal of being a real boy before Pinocchio, while in the book she’s added on as an after-thought almost, adding another magical element to this serial fairy-tale.  So overall, the Disney film (like all Disney films drawn from fairy-tales) took some significant liberties with the plot and characters.

            Pinocchio is not exempt from Disney’s “artistic liberties.”  Collodi has Pinocchio start off as a mouthy piece of wood Gepetto’s friend pawned off on poverty-stricken Gepetto.  And while being a self-aware puppet may require some suspension of reality, in this story puppets are apparently commonly self-aware creatures.  So while it was certainly strange to read about people casually talking to this creepy golem, it’s supposed to be an unremarkable occurrence.  In any case, Disney took this puppet which had a terrible attitude, and turned him into bright-eyed and innocent Pinocchio.  Collodi’s Pinocchio seemed to have the mindset of an older boy, adolescent or just entering his teens.  But Disney gave Pinocchio a much more innocent personality, one that is more naïve than mischievous, as in the case of Collodi’s original. 

            Overall, the book Pinocchio was more interesting than the Disney movie, and far more suitable for adults.  While it was originally published as a story for children, I feel that the story would be better suited as a pleasure read for those actually interested in literature and fairy-tales than in children of today.  Some things that happen in the story are more graphic than some parents may feel comfortable with exposing their kids to or just plain less interesting than a colorful wooden boy on the television screen.  Is Pinocchio a must-read?  Frankly, I wouldn’t say that.  Is it fun if you happen to have a copy on hand?  Sure, and if you have some free time, I’d say go right ahead and enjoy the original fairy-tale.  But don’t expect a Disney-fied version – you will be disappointed.

Audience:

            My audience will be people of my age group who already know the Disney version of Pinocchio.  I intend to publish this review on a blog (maybe not my own, but on the internet in a casual medium as opposed to formally in a newspaper).  This blog will be for book reviews of adult books, or at least books for older readers and will typically be delivered in a casual tone.  My intended audience will be readers who happen to have access to internet and blogging websites, so I intend to keep reviews friendly to younger audiences as well, just in case.

The Devil's Labyrnth - John Saul

This was just a book I found at my local used bookstore.  I was trying to get more into the horror genre because I think I finally finished the Demonata series - which I've recommended often enough to people so I won't write about it here. 

In any case, this book is about a fifteen-year-old boy who got sent to a Catholic boarding school due to problems with his peers.  Only problem is that kids keep disappearing.  The building alone is creepy;  there's some sort of unmapped catacombs beneath the building that students use to get from class to class quickly that is conveniently unlit at all hours. 

What I originally thought was going to be some madman's irrationally bid for supremacy over the world or something turned into something remarkably small-minded by the end of the book.  The author had really built the story up to be something that was so much bigger. 

Overall though, not a bad read, especially not for a nice used book. Recommendation?  Sure if you like religion-based horror stories. 

Books of Blood Vol 1-3 - Clive Barker

Clive Barker's Books of Blood have apparently been hailed as a standard in the genre of horror.  My creative writing class started out with his book of short stories to inspire us for our own short horror story.

The short stories are each separate in their own right.  The first story is titled "Books of Blood" which is sort of supposed to link all the others together, but each short can be read as its own complete story.  

Before reading this book, I was excited to be exploring the horror genre.  After reading this book though, I pretty much fell in love with the genre.  The story Rawhead Rex from the book for example - probably my favorite short in the whole book.  Typical monster attacking a town kind of story.

What did I like most about this book?  I think the range of different stories was the best thing.  There were horror stories that were less horror and more grim humor, or stories that were unsettling instead of horrific.  It kept me interested from story to story and kept me reading.  Definitely a must read - but NOT if you can't tolerate a little gore.  Or a lot of gore.

What have I been doing??

Can it really be true?  I've only read four books since January?

Of course not.

Mom came in for a checkup so we bought Shadowfever in February or something...but I let her have it since I needed to study.  :(  But then she came back about a week or two ago and gave it back to me since she finished it :)  What did I read in the meantime?  Honestly, no idea.  Random 600 page epics online, reread the Acorna series (I know, I can pretty much recite lines at this point), Empowered, Runaways, and required reading....I think.  I've actually spent a lot of time studying, so I read less nowadays.  So sad :(  Hopefully that time is paying off toward my grades....if only, if only. 

Well, if I ever figure out what it is I've been reading this time, I will definitely update this thing.  So far all I have is the four books.  Oh, I just finished Sellswords vol.1 but I think I'll just wait til I complete the trilogy before updating.  I'll be halfway thru the third book before I finish the first damn review, so I might as well wait. 

Til then, enjoy my two lonely reviews :P

Starlight and Shadows volumes 1-3

Forgotten Realms tend to be a hit-or-miss for me.  In this case, I only liked two of the three books.  The first book built the two main characters and the world they existed in - since this is a series about drow, but is definitely not canon (according to the boyfriend), the author needed some space to build this fluffier version of drow.

That isn't to say that the characters here were lame or anything; the author just decided to add aspects to drow life that I don't think is what the creator (R.A. Salvatore?) had in mind precisely.

For example, she describes this scene, a party that the main character Liriel throws in Menzoborranzan.  Her house is described as being filled with young aristocracy dining on poisonous fish (not unlike fugu) and dancing competitively to an offbeat rhythm.  The dance lasts for what must have been hours, until only one remains, then the space is turned into some sort of baths/spa area for servants to relax sore limbs.  While I find the idea intriguing - drow luxuriating and reveling in excess much like how wealthy humans do - I do feel that it doesn't suit the characterization of Lolth's favored race very well.

In any case, the main character is Liriel, a magically gifted drow female who chooses not to study to become a priestess.  She instead decides she wants to explore the world, but is afraid to do so on the surface where her drow magic apparently doesn't work (also not canon).  Thus, she searches for a way to bring her magic up to the surface, coming across a berserker human,. Fyodor in the process.

Put short, I enjoyed their adventures in the first two books.  It was interesting, and made sense.  But the third book just seemed determined to reach a conclusion I didn't want, and so it felt out of place with me.  Overall, not a terrible read, but I felt like I'd wasted my time if it was going to end like that.  Meh.

Shadowfever...spoiler warning :P

Shadowfever is the long-awaited conclusion to Karen Marie Moning's Fever series, following MacKayla Lane's search for her sister's killer and ultimately her place in the pseudo-apocalypse.  Moning's typical romance-with-fantasy-elements genre is definitely put on hold in this series - a story that is firmly in the world of Urban/Dark fantasy.  Shadowfever picks up where the previous book (Dreamfever) left off, where Mac's mysterious bestial protector has died and reverted back to some form - one that is apparently familiar to Mac and earth-shattering.

We follow her brief lapse of sanity to where she joins forces with Darroc, currently going by the humble title of Lord Master and to where she encounters the Book again and again.  The story eventually follows to where she discovers where she comes from precisely and where her strange "quiet place" within was born.  The story of the Unseelie King is clarified, Aoibheal's place in fae history and the mystery of Mac's fourth Unseelie Prince. 

After reading (and collecting) the first four books, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one.  And overall, the only way this book disappoints me is in that now I feel there's so much more the author can write about the new world that has come about...and now I can't wait to read about it.  Every plotline was neatly concluded, every mystery solved, every question answered.  Does that mean that the end of this book didn't leave me with more questions?  Not exactly.  While I now know what happened to Christian MacKeltar, what will he do now with his...affliction?  What about the rest of the MacKeltar clan?  What about Barrons' nine men? 

I can only hope Moning will see fit to answer these questions in later volumes.

Lit Classes

So I'm about three weeks into the semester and I think I have a  good measure of my classes now.

That said, I feel i should write about my lit classes this semester.  I'm not required to take lit classes, being a marketing major and all, but I loved the idea of reading awesome books/stories for homework.  So I signed up for two classes this semester.

The first class is a Fairy Tale lit class - analyzing fairy tales as pieces of literature.  I thought this class was going to be different due to previous lit classes, but we aren't really doing much background of the era these were formally written and whatnot so it's kind of a bummer.  The teacher focuses more on the placement of characters and their symbolism, not so much of their place in the society each was written in.  Considering the volume of stories we're reading, it's understandable, but still a bit of a bummer.  At least I've been required to buy a volume of classic Western fairy tales that many of us are familiar with.  This includes (but is definitely not limited to) Cinderella stories, Puss in Boots, and the Maiden without Hands, so I'll have a lot of stories to read.

My other class is a creative writing class focusing on the genres of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.  This class I enjoy much more because I guess I've been wanting to test my creative writing skillz.  She's also a genre geek, which I can appreciate.  We're covering Clive Barker's Books of Blood at the moment, a book I've never heard of by an author I'd never heard of.  I'm pretty into Horror, a recent development, and this book has been more than satisfying my craving for the creeps.  I think I may actually improve my writing in this class (Shocking!!)

Hopefully this semester brings me some new skills when it comes to writing, I'd really like to be a better fiction writer.

Kindle reads

Lady Penitent trilogy - This followed the Spider Queen series, sort of following the result of Halisstra's story and explains the whole epic of the goddess Elisstree (I think that's how you spell it).

Acorna series : I got the whole original series on my kindle and burned through that sucker so quickly :D  mwahahaha - Unfortunately I was not able to find Acorna's children, but I like the original goodies best anyways.

I'll probably also be posting some of my class reads on here too since I'm taking a creative writing course and a course on fairy tales - I do love fairy tales.

Otherwise, most of the things I've been reading has been fanfics - DON'T JUDGE MEE.  I read the long ones that are all plotful.  So there.