Currently in my reading life...

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!

[BOOK REVIEW] Blacker Than Black by Rhi Etzweiler

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.

[BOOK REVIEW] Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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