Book Review: Tales of the Dragon's Bard: Eventide by Tracy and Laura Hickman

This book review is very exciting for me to write because (drum roll please) I got to read Eventide and write this review before the book was even out! I'm not positive on the exact release date, but it's sometime this month. I'm pretty excited about this one.

So Eventide started out slow for me. I had a hard time getting into it, and at first I blamed that on the reading level - it felt young. But as the story continued, I noticed that many of the sentences were beautifully crafted. The Hickman's word choice is original, and their sentences become creations. It was really impressive, so that made me want to bump up the reading level, and by that point, I was hooked on the book.

It was told in an interesting and unique fashion. The Dragon's Bard, Edvard, collects stories, so I was reading the individual stories but they all connected, influencing the ultimate story line of Jarod and his quest to win the heart of the beautiful Caprice. It was really well written. All the little stories were unique and fun.

I got to meet the Hickman's at the Provo City Library - they are super nice. Both of them have written other novels. You can learn more about them and their other books here. Tales of the Dragon's Bard is going to be a series, and the next book is in the works.

Try this book out - it was fun, clean, unique, and entertaining.

Book Reviews: I Am Number Four and The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

This is another one of those cases where I saw the movie first. I had no idea these were books, but they are really, really good.

Basically, there is a planet called Lorien and the (really awful) bad guys attacked it. To save their race, the Loriens send nine kids to earth along with their protectors. The nine are destined to return to Lorien and restart everything. But now the bad guys are on earth and hunting the kids. They must be killed in order, one to nine, which is a sort of protective charm. When we enter the story, One though Three have been killed and we follow the story of number Four as he discovers his really cool magical abilities and learns more about his past.

In the sequel, we continue to follow the intense stories of the Loriens that are still alive. Both books are really well written. They are captivating and exciting. I highly recommend them. For the most part they were clean. There is violence, but it wasn't overly graphic. Lore is a bit conceited (he names the planet and race after himself!) but it doesn't ruin the writing or the story. I you've seen the movie, READ THE BOOK! It's a million times better!

Book Review: Tankborn by Karen Sandler

This book was FANTASTIC. Ok, back story first.

It came out in September of 2011. Karen Sandler came to my publishing class in February of 2012. My very good friend won an ARC in a drawing of sorts that we did. She graciously let me read it first. I wasn't sure what to expect because it's pretty sci-fi, but it was SO good. I am very impressed with Sandler's work.

Sandler invented a planet called Loka where humans had to go when things got bad on earth (think Wall-e type situation). There was a specific class structure, but when that started to fall apart, people invented GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, to basically be the lowest class. They are treated almost as badly as slaves. Our heroine, Kayla, is a GEN. We follow her story as she gets her Assignment and is sent to work for a Trueborn family. She ends up getting involved in a definitely illegal scheme, but she's at the good end, of course (she IS the heroine). Her world ends up getting flipped all over the place, and all the things she believed in get all mixed up.

I was really impressed with Sandler's story. It was so creative and well thought out. She definitely created all aspects of Loka, not just the parts that applied to this story. I felt like she sped up too much once questions started being answered, but it was still well written. The genetic stuff got too complex for me, I think she should have dumbed it down just a bit more, but I still understood the story. I highly recommend this (clean) novel.

Happy International Harry Potter Day

Prime Minister David Cameron said,
“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ms. Rowling’s work has had a huge and undeniable impact on the literary world as we know it. In order to fully commemorate and immortalize her work, we have to decided to officially declare May 2nd as an official international holiday, in honor of the date that protagonist Harry Potter conquered the main antagonist of the series, Lord Voldemort. We hope that children and adults alike will be reminded of Harry Potter’s strong and courageous character on this day, as well as of the true credit that Ms. Rowling has made to society.”

Finally. A day for Harry Potter lovers like me. I am wearing my Maurader's Map t-shirt. On the front it says "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and on the back it says "mischief managed." It was tricky deciding between my three HP shirts today. :) 

I have some chalk...maybe I'll write HP things on the sidewalks today...who knows? So many mischievous possibilities. Hopefully I'll watch at least one of the movies today and read some of the best parts of the books. My friend Ariel got to go to platform 9 3/4 - I wish I could be there TODAY. Or at Harry Potter world in Florida. Now that would be ideal.

Happy Harry Potter Day!

Book Review: the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

We read The Hobbit in my English novel class this semester. I, sadly, have never read anything by Tolkien before. This book was a lot of fun.

It follows the adventures of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins as he travels with some dwarves in search of their old treasure that has been guarded by a dragon named Smaug for years. They encounter goblins, elves, eagles, wolves, giant spiders, and thanks to Bilbo's secret ring and the wizard Gandalf , most of them survive the journey.

The writing style is very much like storytelling. The narrator takes on this paternal tone and even intercedes with explanations to teach the reader. I thought that was unique and seemed to fit Tolkien really well. I do not think the novel would do so well if it was published today, though. We have too many faster-paced novels available now and taste has changed. I think people would find it juvenile.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was fun, well-written, and unique. Tolkien didn't steal ideas for his made-up worlds or his creatures - he is basically the first fantasy writer ever. Side track! I actually think J.K. Rowling was a big Tolkien fan. I have not looked into that at all, but she also uses crazy-powerful objects (the Deathly Hallows), she has giant spiders, she has a super powerful father-figure wizard, and the objects are what can be used to defeat the ultimate bad guy...and now I'm going into Lord of the Rings as well. I warned you about the side track.


Anyways, I really enjoyed The Hobbit and I highly recommend it. For my English novel class I had to make a blog about The Hobbit and Tolkien (with a classmate, not on my own). You can read more about these ideas and other more in-depth thoughts at that blog: Journeys with Tolkien.

Book Reviews: The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner

He's been on the New York Times YA best seller list...WHY? Dashner's books were juvenile, ridiculous, confusing, and way too violent. I'm sorry, YA readers, but I was not impressed by Dashner's trilogy, I was highly disappointed. I just now put down the third book, walked into my kitchen and told my roommate that this "may be the worst trilogy I have ever read." Harsh, I know, but that's how I felt.

First off, lots and lots of hype was made about these books. I was interested of course. The trilogy is yet another distopian one. The world is ending and in chaos and only a few can save it. Typical, yes. But, Dashner did get a good spin on it by not answering any questions until basically the epilogue. Actually, that's not a good spin, it's just frustrating to the reader to be 100% in the dark through the bitter end. I don't think Dashner himself knew the answers. Honestly, I'm still a bit confused on who's who and what's what.

The violence was a bit over the top in my opinion. I understand that it fit the story line really well and was actually realistic for the world-in-chaos idea, but this is YA fiction and I think Dashner went a bit too far. Too much killing, "blood spurting," things like that. It was gross. The only good thing was that he rushed through the intense and significant killings. Which is bad writing, but good to get through the violence. He rushed through the deaths of important characters so much that I didn't even feel anything at all. No sadness, no relief, no nothing. Looking back, I don't think I cared about any of these characters. ... Nope, I don't care about them at all. I have no way to connect to them because they can't even remember their lives before all the chaos. Lack of characters you can relate to = bad.

I'm sorry if you loved these books. I was not impressed. I thought they were badly written and I don't feel satisfied at all. The ending was frustrating, and not just because of who ends up with who. I almost feel like I, as a reader, was tricked. I also felt like Dashner was growing into writing as the books continued, but he's already written the entire 13th Reality series, so he should be better at writing than this trilogy was.

Again, I'm sorry if Dashner is your inspiration, but I cannot recommend these books. They were so disappointing and awful.

Hopefully the next book review I do will have a better response.

Too Busy for Life

I need a shirt that says that. Seriously, this is ridiculous. I'm sorry for the lack of posting and book reviews - school and work has me BUSY. But here are some book reviews you get to look forward to in the next 2ish weeks when things calm down:

The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I'll also write about (FINALLY) meeting Shannon Hale (!!!), bacon on desserts, some exciting book-related adventures I've been having (launch parties, meeting people, ect.), possibly some Native American Literature stuff, and maybe a few brief dramatic stories.

If you're in school, good luck with the rest of the semester! If you're not...I'm currently jealous.