Category Archives: magic

The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare

The best I can describe these books is that they were like packages of Double Stuff Oreo cookies hiding in my cupboard.

Now, for me, packages of Oreos in the cupboard don’t last long. I intend to make them last for days, intend being the key word here. But they are just so fun to eat, supremely tasty, with the added bonus of being a comfort food that you don’t have to actually cook and so addictive that even if I just eat two… and two… and two…  all of a sudden I have no more Oreos.

Do I get anything out of the Oreos other than a great sugar high and happy munching?  Nope.

Will I continue to eat Oreos?  Of course.

Do I love Oreos and recommend them to my friends? Without a doubt.

Start here!

Would I recommend these books? Only if you like Oreos.

No, seriously, they have nothing to do with Oreos. Other than that they are fun, addicting and, while I hate to say it – I fear I have to, nutritionally empty. But they are completely fat free, unless of course you eat them with Oreos – it’s your call!

The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

The Red Pyramid
The Throne of Fire
The Serpents Shadow

Young Adult Fantasy – what can I say I have a weakness for it.

At first I thought these would just be fun, fast reads – and they were. But I feel I should also mention that I’ve understood at least two references to ancient Egypt I would have missed since reading them. Fun, fast, informative…

Would I recommend them? You betcha! I also have read about Percy Jackson and the Olympians – and  I liked them… but I loved theses!

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

If you’ve ever gone to my page of fiction books and looked around you’ll see that I’ve got nine posts of Robin Hobb’s which in total review eleven books and almost every one says that you should really read Assassins Apprentice. So I just thought I’d start this one out by saying it again.

You should read Assassins Apprentice.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way I’ve only one really important thing to say about this book.

Even though this is the 15th book of Robin Hobb’s that I have read, even though ALL the others came in sets of three, (you know a trilogy, the thing fantasy writers seem to love) this is not book three of a trilogy. This is book three of four.

I just thought I should warn you.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but I have I mentioned that you should read Assassins Apprentice?

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

First off you should know that even though the word witch is in the title vampires feature prominently in the book as well.  I usually avoid vampires, but since I never read anything sensible like a book flap, I didn’t know they were in here until it was too late. Fortunatly gruesome incidents were minimal and I ended up enjoying the book.

Would I recommend it? Well now, if you are someone like John who’s sense of the universe is completely disrupted by vampires who don’t die in the sunlight then you’d better avoid it. If the specific traits and habits of vampires are of less importance to you this may be an enjoyable read with an interesting mix of magic, history and science.

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

I had just finished this book and was trying to explain to John a why I liked it and this is what came out:

“It’s a book that had it been a movie I would have loved it but because I liked the book I’d never see the movie, but do you know what I mean?”

Fortunately he did know what I meant.

Here is a translation for the rest of you. The book involved a lot of beating the bad guys up with big sticks, funny quippy sort of comments from the good guys, who weren’t all guys and weren’t an angelic type of good. The main character is a girl who’s quite adept at beating people up herself, and she has an interesting purple eyed cat.

As it turns out my favorite movies are the ones where good guys aren’t really that great and they make lots of quippy comments while they are running around blowing things up, which is always good because there is significantly less gore and guts.

I’m not a fan of gore and guts.

Or I like romantic comedy’s.

What I really don’t like, and have just stopped watching altogether are movies based on books that I liked. My reasons are as follows:

1)They are never as good as the books.

2)My mind is then poisoned with movie images that I can never shake which is extra lame because of the first reason.

3)I don’t actually read a ton of books where stuff gets blown up, so I don’t really have to worry about overlap there.

4)I do read books full of suspense. Suspense in books is fine, I just read faster, I like it. Suspense in movies irritates me and I ALWAYS jump. I hate jumping.

5) I also hate nightmares. It takes a bit in books to give me nightmares, Steven King gives me nightmares. When it comes to movies I could probably manage a nightmare after watching the Sandlot. Therefore half the books I read are movies I would never see for fear of nightmares.

6)If I want to have deep thoughts about something I’ll read a book. movies are in my opinion for open mouthed, drooling, mindless, entertainment. Therefore if I’ve read a book that requires any sort of brain power I’m not interested in seeing it on the screen.

When in comes to movies I didn’t love Seven Pounds (way too much thinking) I won’t be watching the Time Travelers Wife, or Inkheart (because making a movie about a book like that is just wrong) and don’t even get me started on Harry Potter…

But I did really like this book. So much so that if it becomes a movie I’ll never, ever watch it.

Would I recommend it? Yes

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

I like epic fantasy novels and series. I like knowing what happens next… and next… and next.  The trouble with this is that authors of epic fantasy’s usually don’t crank out their books one right after another so I’m required to remember what happens in a book for long stretches of time… possibly years. Usually this is where John comes in. I screen books and give him ones I think he’ll like and he remembers everything he reads and can remind me of all the little (and sometimes gigantic) details I have forgotten. Unfortunately after he read A Game of Thrones and possibly the next one or so in this series he quit. He quit reading them because the author makes you care about his characters and then he kills them.  Sadly it’s true, the chapters switch character viewpoints among a huge cast and Martin has an uncanny ability to turn you from indifferent,  to actively rooting for them right before he offs them.

In any case I couldn’t count on John to remind me what happened in the last books, which was a problem, because this books timeline runs along side the book before (A Feast For Crows) so I actually was trying to remember what happened two books (A Storm of Swords) ago.  I read those books in 2004 and 2006 respectively.  I can’t remember a book I read last week, asking me to not only remember back to a time before children but to also recall what I read then – not happening.

For the first quarter of the book I was confused, really confused. I recognized names, some events were familiar, I had a couple of “OH YEAH he killed that king” sort of moments but it was pretty bad. By the time I reached the half way point I was mildly confused but had come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t setting this book down, re-reading the last two and coming back to it.  Mild confusion and I were getting along fine.   The third quarter of the book I was well enough in that most of my confusion was behind me and I was caught up in the story again. Then last quarter arrived and he started killing off all the characters I cared about, threw a few new old ones that I was supposed to remember into the mix and ended it with me wanting to know what happens next.

Would I recommend it? The series isn’t for anyone… the term epic should not be taken lightly… This was a 1,000 page tome and while lots of people died nothing got resolved and it’s the fifth book in the series. On the other hand it’s a pretty darn good story, from what I can remember… If you are brave enough to take them on start with A Game of Thrones.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

It appears I read the first book in this series before I started writing about the books I was reading, which is annoying to me, and possibly to you to. Or maybe it’s just a bit of my need-to-have-some-part-of-my-life-in-order-so-I-choose-odd-small-things issue coming though and no one is annoyed other than me.

Regardless of who is or is not annoyed by this out of order book review I’ll attempt to put my own issues aside and carry on.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman was a recommendation from Pat Rothfuss’s blog. And since we should all have read at least The Name of The Wind by now we know he is a super author, and we should probably at least check out his recommendations right?

Right.

If you would like to do so yourself here is his link http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2009/08/things-i-like-magicians-and-faeries-of/ 

Personally I’d call The Magicians something of a Harry Potter meets Narnia in an adult sort of way.

(And by that oh best beloved I mean we’ve added, sarcasm, sex, drugs, alcohol, death and other assorted nasties)

I recall it being a fairly wonderful, if slightly startling book, so therefore I found the second in the series (see large title above) and brought it home.  I then proceeded to read this book in a much shorter time frame than I should have which resulted in a much shorter night sleep than was really prudent.

And it was worth it.

Would I recommend it? Why yes, yes I would, thanks for asking.

And on a slightly different but still sort of related subject I feel compelled to share this flow chart of NPR’s top 100 science fiction and fantasy books (also recommended by Pat Rothfuss) because it’s funny if you’ve read enough of them to be dorky enough to get the jokes and possibly helpful in finding a new book to read if you haven’t.

NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Flow Chart