Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Les Misérables, Part I: Fantine

1 comment:
My re-read of Les Misérables (the unabridged Fahnestock and MacAfee translation published by Signet classics) is going a lot faster and has certainly been far more enjoyable than my first read of the book. Since I know where the plot was heading, I've been paying more attention to minor details and trying to absorb Victor Hugo's ideas about politics and society. Where I had once been impatient with his sometimes lengthy and tedious digressions, I now find myself fascinated by his thoughts.

The novel follows the story of Jean Valjean, a man who initially went to jail for stealing bread to feed his family and, after several attempts to escape, ended up with a prison sentence of 19 years total. Valjean, after leaving prison a changed man (and not necessarily for the better), steals again which prompts Police Inspector Javert to track him down to bring him to justice.


SPOILERS FOR PART I

---- What do you think of Bishop Myriel? He’s definitely described as being truly saintly; I’m wondering if there’s any pessimistic reader out there?

It's funny that Hugo glosses over just how Monsieur Myriel went from being a young man "devoted to worldly pleasures" (p.1) to such a saintly person. It's implied that the horrors of the French Revolution had something to do with it, but no details are supplied. I'm the type of person who wants to know what motivates people to behave the way they do, and I think here, to believe that M. Myriel is as good of a person as the story tells us is akin to an act of faith.

But ultimately, I think it matters less whether or not I believe there can be such saintly people like M. Myriel. M. Myriel is supposed to be Hugo's moral ideal-- genuine kindness, altruism, doing good deeds for their own sake and not for self-serving reasons, believing in the good in others (that incident with the criminals returning stolen goods shows that he believes people who commit crimes are not truly evil, just that there must be some reason for doing so). It's a morality that doesn't come from any specific religious doctrine or secular law, but from love of his fellow human beings. It might seem excessive, but the 90 or so pages spent on M. Myriel that opens the novel sets the foundation for rest of the book.

---- What do you think of the contrast between Javert & Valjean?

I may be cheating a little here, since I've read the book once before, but the basis of Les Misérables is the contrast between morality and the law. Valjean represents morality whereas Javert represents the secular justice system that governs society. After meeting the bishop, Valjean lives life by his own code of ethics, which includes having compassion for fellow humans, acts of charity for the less fortunate, sacrificing himself for others, and always doing good things as M. Myriel had done. Javert, on the other hand, follows no moral code but strictly adheres to the laws laid down by man, which maintain order in society. A typical ISTJ, he only wants to uphold his duties as a police officer whereas Valjean is willing to break laws in order to do what he believes is the right thing.

It's obvious where Hugo's opinions lie. In recounting Valjean's history, he questions society's treatment of criminals and the justice system that governs over them. I get the sense that he doesn't think of criminals as evil people but as human beings who did evil due to of specific circumstances, being products of the society they live in. He describes Valjean's punishment as something that turned him from a man to a beast, that his time in prison was more detrimental rather than reforming. I found his comment about the role of society (victim) and criminal being flipped interesting-- the idea that human laws can be perverted by humans' idea of "justice".

Not that Javert is somehow wrong or bad-- I think that would be too simple (and lazy) of an explanation. He is also a product of the society he lives in, and I really like Hugo's description that he embodies "all the evil of good" (p.291). Reading this book a second time, I feel a lot more sympathy for him.

---- On the portrayal of the "miserables"

I really like the book's sympathetic portrayal of people who are generally looked down upon in society-- the poor, criminals, prostitutes, etc. Particularly striking to me was his portrayal of Fantine. I feel like prostitution often gets portrayed in one of two ways: either glorified or glamourized (with often a tragic end) or as something abhorrent. Fantine's story was tragic but rather than focusing on her prostitution, the novel emphasizes how she made so many sacrifices for her child. I think it's also a comment on the nature of relationships at the time-- the callous way Fantine's lover left her to deal with the consequences of their liaison reveals just how unequal things were for men and women. Sadly, I still see the same things happening today.

I think, ultimately, Hugo doesn't believe in inherent evil (I am undecided if he believes in inherent good). Aside from the bishop, all of the (major) characters that have shown up so far are presented as products of the social/economic/political environment they live in, regardless of their social class, of whether they are criminals, prostitutes, or police officers. He sees people for what they are-- human beings, who just happen to live within a certain set of (sometimes unfortunate) circumstances.


You can go here to Tien's post to read other people's thoughts on this same section.

Friday, September 07, 2012

Currently in my reading life...

2 comments:
Currently Reading, or rather Listening to

I came across this a couple days ago: A fan-made audiobook version of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. But it's not just a mere audiobook. LOTR fan Phil Dragash not only reads the book text but has also included music and various sound effects to make it a richer experience. As he explains in his introductory video of the project, he's trying to make a "hybrid of an audio drama and an audiobook" that includes the sounds that you'd hear as if you were in the situations described in the book.

In a scene that takes place in the woods, the sound of rustling leaves and birds twittering can be heard in the background; when a rider on horseback comes up the road, the rhythmic clopping of hooves accompanies the narration. There are also pieces of music, some of which you might recognize from the LOTR movie soundtracks, to set the mood of the scenes.



It's quite an ambitious endeavour but it's very well done. I'm only three chapters into The Fellowship of the Ring but so far the production quality has been great, the sound effects and music very fitting, and Dragash's narration is full of nuance and emotion. I should mention that he's also got an incredible talent for voice acting, breathing life into the characters and bringing out their personalities. Overall, what I've listened to so far has a very professional feel to it (albeit with a few minor, but not distracting, errors).

If you're interested, here's a link to Phil Dragash's channel on Youtube, where you can listen to the first two books in the series (the third one is forthcoming, I believe) online or download the mp3s.


An Upcoming Read-along
Tien's Blurb will be hosting a Read-along of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, which will start September 15 and last until December, so we'll all be ready to watch the movie when it comes out around Christmas. It's the classic French tale of love and redemption, of justice and mercy, with a full cast of colourful and complex characters, set against the backdrop of the revolutionary Paris of the 1800s.

I've already read this one (just last year, in fact) but it is such a massive book (my copy being over 1400 pages long!) that my goal the first time was just to get through the darn thing. I'm sure I missed a lot of the nuances of the story and I know much of the details of the revolution went over my head, so this time I'm hoping to read a little more carefully and absorb more of the story.

Head over to Tien's post about it if you'd like to join us in tackling this brick of a book!

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

[BOOK REVIEW] Blacker Than Black by Rhi Etzweiler

No comments:
Blacker Than Black
By Rhi Etzweiler
Published by Riptide Publishing; January 23, 2012
ebook, 360 pages
Apparently, my twin and I are two of York’s most notorious criminals. We’ve been Nightwalkers in the blue-light district since the vamps took over the world. Don’t know how many years it’s been. Long enough that a stream of fellow ’walkers have come and gone. Most don’t last long selling their chi. End up face-down in the gutter, or worse.

For us, one night and one sale change everything.

Monsieur Garthelle is the first john to hunt me down. He calls me a chi thief in one breath and offers absolution—servitude—in the next. Maybe I’m a sucker, but I like living and breathing. Strange that such a powerful vamp would show leniency to a mere human. And something’s not right with the chi I took from him. It won’t go away.

Neither will he, and he’s forcing us to spy on his peers. Then a vamp turns up dead, and we go from playing eyes and ears to investigating a murder. This isn’t what I signed up for. All I ever wanted was to sell a little chi, maybe steal some in return. I should’ve kept my damn hands to myself.

This is my story. Look through my eyes.
(from Goodreads)

Review:

Here's an unusual vampire story: Blacker Than Black features vampires, called lyche, that feed on the energy ("chi") of living things. Black and Jhez are twins who work as Nightwalkers in the Blue Light District, selling their chi to the lyche that prowl the city they live in. One night while with a client, Black steals a bit of the vampire's own chi and the two are accidentally bonded together. Even worse, the vampire turns out to be Monsieur Garthelle, the lyche mayor of the city, who uses the bond to force Black and Jhez into working for him.

One of the first things I noticed about Blacker Than Black was its intricate, meditative writing style which tells the story in present tense, first person perspective. Normally first person present POV is meant to pull you right into the character's head and offers an immediacy to the story, but Black's narration had the effect of distancing the reader, making it difficult to get into the story. The writing is strangely very fluid at times but then the flow is abruptly stopped by sentence fragments littered through out. It's also very dense-- there is a ton of detailed and sensual description which helps to set the mood and atmosphere of the book, yet it also caused me a lot of frustration as it was often extremely overwrought. I really struggled to keep my attention focused while reading because the writing style had the effect of shutting me out of the story. Not to say that it is bad; there's no doubt that the author can write-- Etzweiler uses some truly beautiful turns of phrase-- but much of it felt needlessly extravagant. Considering that Black and Jhez are orphans who have been living on the streets since they were children, it also seems strange that the narration from Black's point of view would employ such complex language.

The story opens in an alley at night in the Blue Light District, setting the dark atmosphere of the book. There is little explanation for how the world came to be the way it is, with vampires in positions of power after revealing their existence to humans some time ago. Instead, the worldbuilding focuses on developing the intricate political and social relationships of the lyche. The structure of lyche society is complex and layered, with many rules and social customs, and it is clear that the author has put a lot of effort into fleshing it out. It's a big part of the story but the explanations were confusing and difficult to follow, and the writing style certainly didn't help things. I already had trouble connecting to the characters so I couldn't really get invested in the vampire politics of the story.

In terms of the actual plot, there is a mystery that the main characters are trying to solve, but it isn't a mystery that readers can actually participate in. Since the entire book is told from Black's perspective, we are only given the very limited knowledge that he has, and as the book goes on, it becomes clear that a lot of information is deliberately hidden from him. The plot seems to move forward only when previously hidden information comes to light. Conversations are sometimes repetitive and often move very slowly-- one character says something, then a paragraph of dense description about his tone of voice, the light bouncing off his face, the ambiance of the room they're in, wondering about this or that; then the character spoken to replies and there is another paragraph of similar descriptions and inner dialogue. All this gives the book a meandering tone, and gave me the impression that Etzweiler was just writing in circles sometimes.

All in all, there are some interesting things in Blacker Than Black but between the molasses-slow plot and the distractingly overwrought writing style, I found it a difficult and often boring book to read. I know it isn't meant to be a light read but I can't help but think Etzweiler overcomplicated many things unnecessarily. On the other hand, the lyche worldbuilding is a unique departure from traditional vampire lore, and I like that the relationship between Black and Garthelle moves slowly, with the author trying to establish a believable emotional connection between them before taking it any further. I just wish it was written differently.

2 stars out of 5

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgallery.com in exchange for an honest review.

Friday, August 31, 2012

[BOOK REVIEW] Cinder by Marissa Meyer

No comments:
Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
By Marissa Meyer
Published by Feiwel & Friends; January 3, 2012
Hardcover, 387 pages
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
(from Goodreads)

Review:

Cinder is a book with a great concept but poor execution. There is so much potential here-- cyborgs, fairytale retelling, political intrigue-- but it is wasted on all counts. Concepts aside, the overall storyline is boring and predictable, so simplistically written that I feel like this is more of a children's book than a teen novel, and sorely lacking in depth.

The East Asian nations have merged as one large Eastern Commonwealth, ruled by a royal family. Cinder is a cyborg living with her adopted family in the capital city New Beijing and working as a mechanic. Cyborgs are treated with suspicion and fear, and generally considered second-class citizens by humankind. When a royal visitor comes seeking her expertise at her mechanic's booth, Cinder becomes entangled in a conspiracy and a looming war involving the mysterious Lunar nation, whose people have supernatural abilities.

Aside from some discrimination towards cyborgs, there isn't any real exploration of exactly what an existence as a cyborg entails. Cinder is 32% cyborg, has a metal hand and foot, an enhanced brain and a silicon heart. Can she still be considered human? What about her brain chemistry, which regulates emotions? Does she feel things differently than other humans? Can she even feel or is it programmed into her? What about artificial intelligence? The cyborg concept was poorly used, seeming more like an excuse to make Cinder an outcast, much in the vein of other popular YA paranormal/dystopian fiction, except that rather being a loner due to having special powers, Cinder is an enhanced human (which, in a way, is kind of like having special powers). Sure, her enhanced brain with its data-processing does come in handy quite a number of times, but Cinder being a cyborg doesn't add any real depth to her character or the book overall.

Furthermore, it makes no sense that there would be so much discrimination towards cyborgs that even higher ups would not want to deal with them. Wouldn't the royal family be interested in cyborgs for reasons of national security? They should be pouring money into cyborg research and development in order to bring up a cyborg army to defend themselves, especially at a time when Earth has such a precarious relationship to the Lunars with their supernatural powers.

As a fairytale retelling, the book didn't really add anything new or put a new twist onto the Cinderella storyline aside from placing it in a sci-fi world. That might be acceptable if the worldbuilding wasn't shoddy at best. There are throwaway mentions of a Fourth World War that changed the Earth, entire continents as conglomerate supercountries formed from their separate nations, and various new technologies such as the many robots running around working for humans. However, nothing was really developed or explained, and even the physical/visual descriptions of the world were sparse (we aren't even given a description of what the main character looks like). Chinese culture is used only shallowly to give life to New Beijing; there are mentions of dumplings, of pagodas, and many usages of Chinese honorifics, but these are only the most superficial aspects of the culture. There were also mentions of geishas and kimonos, which are some of the most obvious and stereotypical aspects of Japanese culture. In other words, Asian culture was only used as a gimmick without any true understanding of them, and made me think of these posters that criticize racist and insensitive portrayals of non-Caucasion cultures.

The political aspects of this book could have been really interesting but were instead boring and juvenile. Who ever heard of politicians openly threatening each other the way Prince Kai and Queen Levana do? Kai was completely immature in all of his interactions with the Lunar Queen; no matter how much you can't stand the other person, a good politician should still know to be diplomatic! And saying he is young doesn't give him an excuse-- you'd think that someone who'd grown up around politicians and diplomats would know how to behave in such situations. Wouldn't his father, the Emperor, have taught him a bit about diplomacy, seeing that Kai is the only heir to the Eastern Commonwealth? Also, why was Kai so intent on chasing after a girl he barely knew when there were all sorts of major problems going on in his country that need to be urgently dealt with? I doubt that he'd have so much time on his hands, what with trying to find a cure for a plague sweeping his country and defending from Lunar invaders and all.

As for the plot itself, it was completely and utterly predictable. This is a very typical write-by-numbers YA book-- outcast girl meets boy, outcast girl discovers her secret powers/deep dark secret/evil conspiracy (usually this information is given to them by some other, older, minor character, Dr Erland in this case), girl realizes boy is in danger, girl saves boy by sacrificing herself, boy finds some reason they can't be together, end with a cliffhanger to ensure you will buy the next book in the series. (Sometimes I think I should really stop reading YA but I keep finding myself pulled in by the hype.. sigh.)

All in all, Cinder wasn't the worst read ever, and will definitely appeal to those who like easy-to-read, fast-paced stories that require little brainpower. There are some intriguing concepts here but they all feel like gimmicks and are never explored enough for the story to have any modicum of depth. If you are looking for thought-provoking science fiction, interesting twists on fairytale retellings, realistic and well-developed characters or good writing, skip this book. You're not going to find any of those things here. However, if you like half-baked young adult romances with wooden characters and a predictable plot, then this book might be for you.

2 stars out of 5

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Books I'm Excited About (2)

No comments:
It's been a while. I've been super busy with work that I haven't been able to update. Reviews are coming soon though! Here's just a quick post-- some books I really want to read.
The Child Thief by Brom. I love retellings of fairytales and classic stories so this dark and twisted update of Peter Pan piqued my interest immediately. The author previously worked as an illustrator, and apparently his own artwork is featured in the book (and I believe the cover is done by him as well).

Days by James Lovegrove. A science fiction surrounding a large department store called "Days", where anything can be bought as long as you have the right amount of credit. I wonder if happiness is on sale there?

Wraeththu by Storm Constantine. According to a member of Goodreads, this book is about "gay hermaphrodites with magical powers" and they have some sort of magical sex. Sounds like a really bad yaoi manga. ...I'm sold!

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Movie Adaptations I'd Love to See

No comments:
I just recently came across a post by the bloggers over at Big Books Tiny Voices with a list of over 60 YA/MG book-to-movie adaptations that have been optioned or are already in the making. You'll have to pop over to their blog to see the full list and not all of these may actually be made into films, but I picked out 5 that I'd most love to watch on the big screen:
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Laini Taylor really has a way with words. Her unique, mellifluous writing style caught the attention of many readers, myself included. The book follows a fairly typical YA paranormal storyline but Taylor's lyrical and whimsical writing brought new life to an old plot. I really want to see the designs for the demon characters in the book; Taylor's writing is quite descriptive but seeing the characters would be a different experience.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I actually have this book out from the library right now and will be starting it soon. It's a YA dystopian that takes place in a world where love is a disease that must be eradicated, and before she has a chance to undergo treatment to prevent her from ever succumbing to the disease, the main character Lena falls in love. It's such an intriguing concept and I'm curious to see how the story plays out both in the book and on the movie screen.
The Giver by Lois Lowry. I actually played the Giver in a short film made by my friends and I in middle school as part of a class project, so there is a lot of nostalgia connected to this book for me. It was a lot of fun and nobody minded that a tiny Asian girl played the role of an old man... hahaha! Apparently Jeff Bridges has already been cast as the Giver... we'll see how his performance stacks up against mine! LOL
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. After the breathtakingly awesome Lord of the Rings film trilogy, I'm sure a Hobbit adaptation will be equally stunning. Maybe this time I'll finally buck down and read through the book as well.
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. Although the book left some things to be desired (here's my review of it), I think it'll translate well as a movie; I've always thought that many of the scenes in the book have a very cinematic quality to them. Also, I have another reason for wanting to see this as a movie: I want to see an Asian actress playing the lead. Hollywood rarely makes movies with Asian protagonists, and if when they do, it tends to be with stereotypical characterizations. Allison, the main character of The Immortal Rules doesn't really fit into the typical Asian female stereotypes though, so I'm really interested in seeing what Hollywood does. Being of Asian heritage myself, I'm particularly invested in this.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

[BOOK REVIEW] vN by Madeline Ashby

No comments:
vN
By Madeline Ashby
Published by Angry Robot; July 31, 2012
Paperback, 448 pages
Amy Peterson is a self-replicating humanoid robot.

For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.

Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history – like the fact that the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has failed… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her.
(from Goodreads)

Review:

In the future, anticipating the End of Days, a megachurch pours money into artificial intelligence to develop von Neumann machines ("vN"), a series of self-replicating humanoids meant as companions for those who don't make it into Heaven. When Judgement Day fails to arrive, these human-like robots are left on Earth to live among human beings. They are programmed with a "failsafe"-- a mechanism that makes them unable to withstand seeing a human being hurt, in order to ensure that they will never harm a human.

Amy Peterson is a vN living in a mixed human-vN family. She is a replica (an "iteration") of her vN mother, Charlotte. While normally vN mature to adulthood in a year, Amy's human father has kept her on a strict diet that stunts her growth, keeping her maturation at a human rate. At 5 years old, Amy is highly unusual for a vN, with a child's appearance when most others her age have reached adulthood long ago. While trying to protect her mother from her grandmother Portia, Amy eats her grandma, integrating Portia's synthetic body into her own, which causes an instantaneous growth spurt, pushing her into her adult form. At the same time, Portia's consciousness is absorbed into Amy's own memory banks and Amy discovers her failsafe has failed as well. With her grandmother inside her head, Amy goes on the run as the police and government officials try to track her down.

There is plenty to think about in vN. In terms of scientific and technological progress, author Madeline Ashby is exploring how artificial intelligence might fit (or not fit) into human society. vN are treated as foreign entities by humans, tolerated but not quite accepted with human reactions toward them ranging from the sympathetic to disgust. An interlude in the middle of the book has Amy working at a cosplay restaurant where all the workers are vN and the customers are human. As a waitress, Amy has to wear different outfits (eg. nurse, cowgirl) and is essentially part of the restaurant's entertainment, play-acting a role for humans. I think this is meant to show how, despite their sentience, vN have difficulty finding a place in a human society where many people want to see them as merely robots and machines, placing them in an uncomfortable position between person and object.

Also explored is the relationship between parent and child. At its core, vN is really about family, growing up and belonging, and Ashby draws parallels between the parent-child relationship with the vN ability to self-replicate. A number of vN characters are compared to their "mothers" or "fathers", the vN that they are replicated from, questioning if children can transcend their hereditary influences. Amy's father Jack also serves as an example of how parents can sometimes decide things for their children, in order to ensure a good life for their child, but in reality, this decision can be damaging. By restricting Amy's food so she can grow up at the same rate as a human child, Jack hopes that it will help her intergrate better into human society, but it also hints of child abuse, since while Amy feels no pain at the lack of nourishment, she does mention feeling a constant hunger and emptiness. It is also this hunger that drives her to eat her grandma.

In terms of the plotline, vN is a fairly typical on-the-run/road trip story. The writing is somewhat disjointed, most noticeably in the first half of the book and during action scenes. There are not enough explanations or descriptions for the background and setting so the book is difficult to get into. I would have liked more information on how the world in vN came to be the way it is. A lot of scientific- and technical-sounding terminology is used without only vague allusions to their real meaning and never get fully explained until well into the story. In the second half of the book, the writing flowed more smoothly and the narrative turns toward uncovering Portia's and Charlotte's past, and the book takes on a more typical hero-looking-for-answers storyline. It was enjoyable to follow Amy through her journey as she discovers her own special qualities as a vN and learns the truth about the antagonistic relationship between her mother and grandmother. However, the plot becomes predictable at this point and while vN offers plenty of food for thought, it stays within conventional tropes and plotlines rather than going into more subversive territory. It doesn't challenge the idea of what a robot story is.

Still, there is plenty to like about this book and science fiction fans should definitely check it out. vN is full of fresh and interesting ideas and the steady pace of the plot as well as the many likeable characters will keep readers' attentions. The writing could use some polishing up, but I like that Ashby is well versed in contemporary pop culture, seamlessly weaving references to science fiction, anime and online culture into the narrative. It seems that a sequel will be coming out as well, and I know I will definitely be looking out for that.

3 stars out of 5

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

[BOOK REVIEW] Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

No comments:
Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy #6)
By Richelle Mead
Published by Razorbill; December 7, 2010
Hardcover, 594 pages
Murder. Love. Jealousy. And the ultimate sacrifice.

Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules. She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir Princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardian to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose—for a crime she didn’t even commit. She’s in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She’ll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose’s life is running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back... and this time she is truly out of second chances. The big question is, when your life is about saving others, who will save you?
(from Goodreads)

Review:

Reading Last Sacrifice felt a bit like reading the final Harry Potter book-- the first 3/4 is mostly dull descriptions of the characters running around and searching for clues rather than the excitement and action you would expect in a finale. There were plenty of things going on-- Lissa's tests as a candidate for the throne, Rose's friends trying to solve the mystery of Tatiana's murder, Rose and Dimitri reconnecting with each other-- but author Richelle Mead wove all of the plotlines together in such a clumsy way that everything just felt flat. And while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had a decently satisfying ending, Last Sacrifice finished with a ridiculous deus ex machina that completely derailed the personalities of some of my beloved characters and left a lot of loose threads.

It's always a problem when Lissa and Rose split up since Mead hasn't figured out a better way to tell Lissa's storylines without using her and Rose's bond as a cheap plot device. I wasn't bothered by it in Spirit Bound where it was used sparingly, but like in Blood Promise, this book has Rose constantly checking in on her best friend using the bond in order to tell Lissa's side of the story. Perhaps it would have been less annoying had Lissa's story been even the least bit interesting. Lissa's tests to become the next vampire monarch were of the most formulaic kind-- a survival test, a test of fear, and a riddle. Each one followed a very predictable structure and their outcomes were predictable as well, although I did like seeing Lissa's growth as she went through each test. I saw the final result of who would be crowned long before it happened.

In addition to the constant use of Rose and Lissa's bond, there was a lot of abuse of the dream walking abilities that spirit users have as well, with Rose being visited by spirit users every time she fell asleep. These sections were used to let the reader know what was occurring in the other subplots that Rose wasn't involved in. Unfortunately, due to the nature of these spirit abilities/plot devices, much of these sections depended on Mead telling us what was happening rather than showing us the scenes. Rose can conveniently access Lissa's memories to find out what happened since her last check-in, so she ends up explaining to the reader what has occurred. Similarly, any spirit user who visits Rose in a dream ends up relaying information through dialogue. What we end up with is a lot of talking about and telling of events that happened rather than showing it. Isn't one of the cardinal rules of writing "tell rather than show"? These spirit abilities may have provided Mead with an easy way to deal with the limited first person perspective, but she ended up writing herself into a corner. And what a badly-written corner it is.

There was a lot of new information introduced in this book about the Vampire Academy world, which was clearly meant to set the stage for the spin-off series Bloodlines. The substantial amount of time spent on the Keepers was a compelling and unexpected expansion of the VA world but it had absolutely zero significance to Last Sacrifice's storyline. The whole section felt like filler, dragging the story out needlessly (seriously, is Mead paid by the number of pages she writes or something?), to only be dropped for the rest of the book. Many other aspects of the plot were left unresolved as well, presumably to be picked up in Bloodlines, and while that makes for a good marketing scheme, as a reader I am annoyed at the lack of resolution.

Speaking of resolutions, we do see the conclusion of the primary mystery of the book-- but the identity of Queen Tatiana's killer is a disappointing and infuriating revelation. The culprit's identity was unpredictable, but only because Mead pulled a deus ex machina on us. It felt like she took stock of all the characters in the series and picked the least likely candidate, only for pure shock value, regardless of whether or not it even makes sense for the character to commit murder. She gave poor reasons for it, and in doing so, destroyed a previously respected character in one fell swoop. A character who had always been described as intelligent and strong, has now turned to a petty, jealous killer.

Oh but Mead wasn't satisfied with destroying only one character. The boring and obvious romantic subplot has also ruined any likeability Rose has left. The way she handles things with the two men in her life makes her out to be a selfish and inconsiderate person who leads other people on for her own benefit. When called out on her actions, she says she's sorry without acting sorry at all and even turns it back on the other person, who is completely justified in their anger, saying that it was the person's own fault for the way things turned out. I guess Rose shouldn't be held responsible for her own morally reprehensible actions? (And we're supposed to view her as a heroine to be looked up to?) And no matter how much she tells us she's sorry and she actually cares, I remain unconvinced that she cared about the other person at all, and frankly, it seems to me that the leftover person in the love triangle dodged a bullet here.

So what exactly was the titular last sacrifice in this book? I'm thinking it was Rose's likeability as a character. (Thank god she won't be the main character of Bloodlines!) Or maybe "last sacrifice" refers to all the sacrifices every major character except Rose and Dimitri had to make in order for Rose to have her happy ending with the person she loves. For myself? I certainly sacrificed a lot of precious time that could be spent on other books to read this awful volume and it was not really worth it.

1 star out of 5

Monday, July 16, 2012

[AUDIOBOOK REVIEW] Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

No comments:
Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)
By Richelle Mead
Published by Razorbill; May 18, 2010
Audiobook, 13 hours and 11 minutes
Read by Emily Shaffer
After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri’s birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s—and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir. It's graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives outside of the Academy’s cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri. He's out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he's silenced her...forever.

But Rose can't forget what she learned on her journey—whispers of a magic too impossible and terrifying to comprehend. A magic inextricably tied to Lissa that could hold the answer to all of Rose's prayers, but not without devastating consequences. Now Rose will have to decide what—and who—matters most to her. In the end, is true love really worth the price?
(from Goodreads)

Review:

Spirit Bound was a big improvement over the somewhat lackluster Blood Promise. The story begins with Rose back at St. Vladimir's Academy, getting ready to take her trials to become a full-fledged guardian. After she passes with flying colours and graduates from high school, she shifts her attention to finding a way to heal Dimitri, based on a rumour she came across in Siberia. The book moves at a steady pace with plenty of conflicts and revelations, all written in Richelle Mead's clean and crisp humour-infused style. Many familiar characters return as the much of the book takes place at the Moroi royal court, including Adrian, whom Rose has begun a relationship with, Christian, Tasha, and Dimitri.

The many unpredictable plot twists make Spirit Bound a novel that is difficult to put down. Throughout the Vampire Academy series, Mead has always been able to surprise me with completely unexpected events in the storyline that change the plot significantly. In Spirit Bound, one plotline leads to another through fast and shocking reveals that drive the story and raise the suspense. Lots of things are stirring up in the Moroi royal courts and Rose finds herself in the middle of it, dealing with the work and expectations of being a new guardian, navigating the royal court's social scene, and even facing Queen Tatiana, ruler of the vampire race.

I grew increasingly annoyed with Rose as the story went on. It's understandable that Rose would be concerned about Dimitri, but her constant thoughts about him throughout the book, while conveniently forgetting her boyfriend Adrian's existence, doesn't make me like her all that much. It makes me feel sorry for Adrian, whose sweet and caring side is revealed in this volume. He's so dedicated to Rose and it irritates me so much that Rose does not truly appreciate what a great guy he is. Rose repeatedly says that she has come to care deeply for Adrian, to the point that she can't imagine not having him in her life and expresses that wish for their relationship to work out. She keeps telling us this throughout the narrative yet her actual behaviour betrays an intense fixation on Dimitri. It makes any romantic moment she has with Adrian not believable in the least. As a reader, I am no longer interested in the outcome of Rose's love life because, no matter how much Richelle Mead tries to convince us that there is a tense love triangle here, it is obvious that Adrian was never a real contender at all.

Lissa and Christian's love story is equally frustrating. I am still not quite clear as to why they broke up in the first place, but the possibility of them getting back together is constantly dangled in front of the reader's face in all of their interactions. It's exasperatingly obvious they'll end up together anyway and I just wish Mead had them make up quickly so we can get on to the more interesting parts of the book.

Emily Shaffer's voice really suits Rose in the audiobook. Her narration could have been a little more nuanced but she uses plenty of emotion that had me hanging on to every word even during slower scenes. She has fairly distinctive voices for all of the main characters, though it was an odd choice to give Adrian a British accent when I'm pretty sure it's never been mentioned in the book that his character speaks like that. It was a little distracting at first but I got used to it. More distracting though, were the different music and sound effects that were played every time a spirit user used their powers and every time a Strigoi showed up. I'm not sure what the audiobook's producers were thinking when they decided to add in these audio effects. They added absolutely nothing to the narration or the story and were incredibly jarring.

Despite the unengaging romantic entanglements, Spirit Bound kept me engrossed with its drama and political intrigue. I could not tell where the story was heading at all and a big twist at the end of the book has me eager to read Last Sacrifice, the final book in the series. I can't wait to see what's next!

4 stars out of 5

Thursday, July 12, 2012

[BOOK REVIEW] The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

No comments:
The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
By Julie Kagawa
Published by Harlequin Teen; April 24, 2012
Hardcover, 485 pages
"In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity."

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of "them." The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend--a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what--and who--is worth dying for.
(from Goodreads)

Review:

There have been a number of YA books with a dystopian or post-apocalyptic theme involving vampires popping up lately, so when Julie Kagawa's Blood of Eden series was first announced, I was a little wary. Still, Kagawa's Iron Fey series was a fairly original idea among the multitudes of YA paranormal series so I was hoping she'd put an interesting twist on vampires as she did with fairies. While I was certainly not disappointed, I felt like the first book of the Blood of Eden trilogy, called The Immortal Rules, left some things to be desired.

The Immortal Rules is about Allison Sekemoto, an orphaned human teenager living in the outer region of a city ruled by vampires. In order to survive as an Unregistered human, she must go out and search for food while avoiding being caught by both the city's blood-sucking rulers and the crazed Rabid vampires that have succumbed to their beastly desires and lost all control of their reason. It is on one of these scavenging trips that she is attacked by Rabids. On the brink of death, she is approached by a mysterious vampire who tells her that her life can be saved in exchange for her mortality. Allison, clinging desperately to life, chooses to become of the the blood-sucking monsters that she hates most.

One of Kagawa's strengths is her excellent worldbuilding. Her vampires are the frightening soulless creatures of traditional vampire lore. They are not necessarily beautiful or elegant, and they are very very deadly. Her vampire "science" includes details about their lack of breathing, what happens to their flesh and blood when they heal themselves, and she really tries to explain what it's like to be a vampire through Allie's perspective. The setting, like the vampires, is terrifying as well. The first 100 or so pages detailing Allie's life as an unregistered human gives us a close look at the harrowing conditions she lives in. The descriptions are gritty and visceral, and Kagawa paints a starkly grim picture of a broken down society clinging to the last dredges of life, where even cannibalism is an option for the most desperate.

The characters, on the other hand, were a little lacking. Allison is a good heroine for the most part; she's strong and self reliant from years of living on the streets, depending almost solely on herself for survival. She's a little bit cookie-cutter, though. Like most urban fantasy heroines, she's stereotypically "kick-ass" in that she can fend for herself and doesn't let anyone boss her around. I do like that, in a world where books have been banned, she has a desire to learn how to read and believes that the information and ideas in books hold the key to saving humanity. But this side of her is too underdeveloped at this point to flesh her out much more as a character. The other characters were also rather archetypal, although I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kagawa included some important religious characters.

It was an unexpected decision to include the religion in the book, as I don't often see it as a theme in popular YA paranormal fiction and I hope it gets elaborated upon in the sequel. Kagawa presents it in a non-judgmental way that is fitting for the story. It is also pretty rare to find a devoutly religious love interest as well. I suspect he'll abandon his beliefs by the end of the series, but I sincerely hope not, because it'll be interesting to see how his beliefs play out and if/how they affect his relationships with people, particularly Allison.

Although most of the plot twists were predictable, I was engrossed in the story. There were, however, some parts that I felt could have been edited out, and I felt the book did not need to be as long as it was. The pacing was also quite uneven, most noticeably in the last third of the book. After the big climactic event, I felt like the story should have ended faster, but instead it dragged out at a weird pace. I understand the reasoning for it-- Kagawa wanted to end this book at a specific point, and she had to get to that point, even if the climax was long over-- but it definitely slowed the book down at the end.

On a final note, I want to point out that Allison is described as being Asian. Her last name suggests that she is of Japanese descent (though I'm pretty sure Sekemoto is not an actual existing Japanese surname) and she is described as having "squinty eyes" and called an "Asian doll" by other characters in the book. I am very pleased to see that Kagawa, who is of Japanese background herself, wrote a book wherein the main character is of a non-Caucasian race and I'm happy to see that Harlequin Teen published it. I'm even ecstatic that Allison's characterization doesn't follow any sort of Asian stereotype (for example, being demure or servile).

So, why, Harlequin Teen, did you pick a white girl to represent her on the cover?! I know book covers don't often reflect accurately on the content inside but I can't help but think that this is probably a case of deliberate whitewashing by the publisher in order to sell more books. As if we wouldn't notice that the protagonist is described as Asian as soon as we cracked the book open. Seriously.

Overall, The Immortal Rules is an enjoyable enough read. Kagawa's writing is direct and functional, with few flourishes, and makes for a solid narrative style that drives the story. However, the book doesn't really add anything to the existing number of vampire and post-apocalyptic fiction already out there but I may be speaking too soon. Kagawa's Iron Fey series wove together fairy lore and technological progress in an interesting and creative way, but these themes were developed over the course of the series and were not entirely evident in the first book. Perhaps Blood of Eden will be the same.

3 stars out of 5

Monday, July 09, 2012

[BOOK REVIEW] Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

No comments:
Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)
By Richelle Mead
Published by Razorbill; August 25, 2009
Paperback, 503 pages
Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same.

The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?
(from Goodreads)

Review:

I'm not a big fan of vampires so Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series came as a nice surprise to me since it felt very different from the typical YA paranormal series that usually revolves around a girl falling for a paranormal creature. Romance takes a backseat as the main focus of Vampire Academy is on the many plot threads running throughout the series. The first three books were great, full of action and excitement and never had a truly dull moment. However, Blood Promise, as the fourth book of this series, fails to deliver the same fast-paced adventure and thrill that I love VA for. It feels a lot like the middle book in a trilogy, where the action is slower since the author is taking time to set things up in preparation for the finale.

In Blood Promise, Rose runs off to Siberia in order to find and kill Dimitri as she promised she would. Since she's in a totally different setting, we are introduced to a handful of new characters, which includes Dimitri's family. Dimitri's family consists of his mother and his sisters, who are all dhampirs. This part of the book delves a bit into the lives of dhampir women and how they live and interact particularly with Moroi. We also get some glimpses into Dimitri's childhood.

Blood Promise also introduces us to Sydney Sage, who is an Alchemist. The Alchemists are a group of humans who aid the vampires in keeping their existence a secret. I was very interested in Sydney as a character because I was aware that she is the main character of the Vampire Academy spin-off series, Bloodlines. I latched on to her character right away because of this and because of how drastically different she is from Rose but I was disappointed since her role in Blood Promise was actually quite small and not very memorable at all.

With this book, Richelle Mead extends her worldbuilding which should be interesting, but instead, only brings attention to the many plot holes in the series. If the Alchemists are so important to the vampires, then why weren't they mentioned earlier in the series? Also, I find it odd that they work for vampires and help them, when most Alchemists carry the view that vampires are evil creatures who prey on human beings. It is explained that Alchemists have a tattoo which is charmed to prevent them from exposing the vampire world and are compelled to work for them as it is a job passed on through the family. However, if so many Alchemists were against vampires in the first place, you'd think they'd find some way to band together and rebel. There is also a revelation in the book that renders Lissa's kidnapping in the first Vampire Academy book rather pointless.

It's also evident that Mead did not know what to do about Lissa's story now that she and Rose are separated. She takes advantage of Rose's bond with Lissa and uses it as a plot device to show what is going on with Lissa back at St. Vladimir's Academy. The bond isn't integrated very well into the structure of the story and of course, every time Rose peeks in on Lissa, she conveniently witnesses something important. I think Mead could have just written those chapters from Lissa's point of view instead of using the bond, and the story would have flowed a bit better. The use of the mental link as a convenient plot device just seems kind of cheesy, clumsily-executed, and poorly thought-out.

The first three books in the VA series had a fairly good internal pace in terms of how quickly the story moved. Blood Promise, on the other hand, felt like a significant departure from the tight editing of the previous books. The first 300 or so pages are fairly slow since it's mostly just Rose living with Dimitri's family and trying to figure out what to do. It's certainly not what we're used to in the normally action-packed Vampire Academy series. I rather enjoyed the change in pace however it did begin drag on a bit, especially with Lissa's story, which was obvious and not at all interesting, and all the flashbacks with Dimitri. They seemed more like filler written to increase page numbers rather than to add to the plot and could have been edited down. The real action doesn't really occur until about two-thirds in, and when it does, Mead is back in form with thrilling fight scenes and intriguing plot twists but it is too little too late.

All in all, Blood Promise wasn't an entirely bad read but there is a noticeable decline in quality in this installment. I hope that this is just due to Mead getting ready to dish out some big revelations as we get closer to the end of Rose's adventures.

2 stars out of 5

Friday, July 06, 2012

Books I'm Excited About (1)

No comments:
While books weren't my first love (that honour goes to art!), they are certainly a close second. Books and reading occupy quite a large portion of my mind on a regular basis, yet for some reason I've only recently thought about writing down my many thoughts about them. So this is the start of my book blog.

I thought I'd begin by listing some books that I've been dying to read but for whatever reason have not gotten to yet (usually it's because the library doesn't have it or my hold hasn't come in), and hopefully this will become a regular thing.


Books I'm Excited About
The Selection by Kiera Cass. This is a book that I've had my eye on long before its release date. It was apparently pitched as The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor (tv show), which piqued my interest right away (along with a good deal of uncontrollable laughter, of course!). It is a YA dystopian novel about a girl who is entered in a Bachelor-style competition to win a prince's heart. It sounds hilariously bad so how could I resist?! Of course, there was the whole fiasco with the author and her agent behaving really unprofessionally towards a reviewer of the book, and while I don't think such behaviour is acceptable in any way, I still want to read this book for the premise.

Night's Master by Tanith Lee. This is the first book of the Flat Earth series, which is a series a books in the vein of One Thousand and One Nights. Tanith Lee is known for her dark fantasy and science fiction, which are genres that I absolutely adore. I've always wanted to read her books so this seems like a good place to start. Plus, I really like seeing old fantasy and sci-fi illustrated book covers. This one is really lovely! Unfortunately, I can't find this one at my public library so I will have to find some other way to get my hands on it.

Pawnee: The Greatest Town In America by Leslie Knope. This is actually a book tie-in for the tv show Parks and Recreation, which I'm a fan of. Leslie Knope is the main character, played by Amy Poehler (who is awesome!), and on the show she wrote a book about the town she lives in, and this is it. I hope it's as funny as the show!