Archive for May, 2009

The Chronicles of Narnia #2: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

ISBN: 0064471047
224 pages
published in 1950.

Oh man. This was so good.

The Christian allusions and references and stuff got really thick in this first-published, second-chronologically book of the Chronicles of Narnia, and while it was not quite as easy to ignore as it was in The Magician’s Nephew, it was easy enough to not have it ruin the story. It really is a fantastic story. I was so sad when it was over. I don’t really know how necessary it is for me to go over the plot as I’m probably one of the few people that haven’t read this book already, but the story centers around four children and how they find that they are able to travel to a different world by walking into the back of the wardrobe in the house they come to live in after having to flee World War II.

This world is, of course, Narnia, and they find it trapped an in eternal winter (where it also never becomes Christmas) due to the evil magic of the White Witch. One boy, Edmund, falls for her tricks and winds up betraying the other children to her, and they must flee while waiting for Aslan, the Lion, to show up. He does, and eventually saves the day, but the story is rich and emotional and follows not only Christian mythology but Norse and Greek mythology as well, so it’s really interesting to see it all intertwined.

I really love these stories and I’ll definitely be picking up the third book sometime soon.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

ISBN: 051513449X
266 pages
published in 1993.

There is nothing in the world more embarrassing than the cover of this book. I’m glad I read the entire thing in my house because if I had brought it out into the world with me to read I would have taped up the cover in brown-paper bag or something. The most unnecessary cover EVER. End rant.

Other than that though, this was a really fun book. Guilty Pleasures is the first book of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, which follows the adventures (what a hokey word) of Anita Blake, a young woman who raises the dead and fights vampires and other bumps-in-the-night for a living. In the opening of the series, Anita is faced with an assignment from the master vampire of the city – vampires are being killed in the city of St. Louis and it’s Anita’s job to find out who is doing it so it can be stopped. Not that she particularly is thrilled about the job – but the master vampire is a real vindictive, horrible bitch who is over a thousand years old and who would have no issue killing Anita or her friends if she refused. Guess that doesn’t leave her many options.

The dialogue is witty, the story is action-packed and there are many very likable characters (as well as many characters that are fun to not like so much). Hamilton’s voice makes this book really unique and it’s easy to see Anita as real – her personality really pops out.

Just – the cover!

Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

ISBN: 1416949984
214 pages
published in 1997.

I was in love with this book when I was like ten. When the sequels came out I pretty much forced my mom to help me find them at libraries and we eventually had our local library borrow them from another, I think. Anyway, it’s been a while, so I thought they were worth a re-read. Definitely were.

Silverwing is the story of a young Silverwing bat named Shade. He’s the runt of his colony and is tired of being smaller and weaker than everyone else – and tired of being pushed around by those that are bigger than him. So, one night, he tells the other newborns that he’s going to wait outside to see the sun rather than go back into his colony’s roost. This is forbidden of bats, and his actions eventually cause his home to be burnt to the ground by owls that enforce the law prohibiting bats from the daylight.

This starts his colony on an early migration to Hibernaculum, where they will join up with the males of the colony to hibernate for the winter. However, Shade gets lost in a storm, gets blown out to sea and meets up with a Brightwing bat named Marina who has a ring on her forearm – similar to an elder bat in Shade’s own colony, and purportedly the same as the father that had apparently died before he was born.

Following the sound map that Shade’s mother gave him before he was lost, they set out on a journey to meet back up with his colony and find out the secrets of the metal bands which Shade thinks will lead him to set the bats free to fly during the day and also uncover the mystery surrounding his father’s disappearance.

House Of Night #1: Marked by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast

ISBN: 0312360266
306 pages
published in 2007.

Once again, I’m really exhausted, so I’m not going to go into detail. I was really shocked at how terrible this was, hahaha. It’s about a girl that finds out she is turning into a vampire and needs to go to a vampire finishing school in order to learn how to interact and cope in the world as a vampire. So, it’s basically a crappy highschool novel with vampires, which fits in with this really interesting young-adult vampire fad that’s been going on the past few years. I actually have been doing a lot of reading in it because I find it really intriguing.

But, anyway, the characters are really stereotypical and poorly developed. The main character is alright, but everyone else she interacts with is a huge terrible stereotype and it’s irritating. I’ve heard that the series goes downhill and she just gets slutty and awful, but as terrible as it is, it’s one of those guilty-pleasure, addicting, brainless reads so I’m going to continue with it.

Letter To A Christian Nation by Sam Harris

ISBN: 0307278778
115 pages
published in 2006.

I’m too tired to post a big review on this right now, because I’ve been up all night – but this book is AMAZING and I agree with him almost 100 percent. I realize that the viewpoint written of in this book is extremely controversial, but it was really relieving to have someone write a book explicitly addressing the concerns I have in regards to religion and its effects on society. I don’t have anything against religious people themselves unless they do something terrible to me specifically, but I have a problem with the institution.

I thought the way that Harris wrote was intelligent and precise, though necessarily brutal in some places and unforgiving, which was probably entirely necessary. I especially liked the point he made about the word “atheist” itself:

Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a few of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a non-astrologer” or a “non-alchemist.” We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing mor ethan the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.

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