I. Reading Logs
III. Realizations
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Reading Log #1: The Temporal Void
If you want hardcore science fiction, this is the book for you. The Temporal Void was the first novel I've read for months and its dual plot, along with its ever-shifting perspectives, left me dizzy and disjointed after reading the 700-page novel; in a good way, of course.
The setting of the story takes place more than a thousand years from now, where faster-than-light travel, in-body computers and the ability to store your memories so that they can be implanted onto another body when you die is the norm. The Temporal Void is a second part of a trilogy, the first entitled The Dreaming Void where a man named Inigo dreamed of a life of a man named Edeard and his inspirational adventures in the city of Makkrathan in a mysterious part of the galaxy called the Void. Inigo's dreams were released into the gaiafield, an accessible network that enabled those with gaiamotes to feel what other people are feeling, and sparked a religious movement known as the Living Dream. Fast forward a couple of years and a Second Dreamer arrives, but shocks the galaxy when they refused to do a task set by the Skylords, god-like beings that live in the Void.
That's where The Temporal Void starts. The Second Dreamer's refusal to do the Skylord's bidding, as mellow as those beings are, triggered a sudden and rapid expansion of the Void where it consumed anything that was in its path. Several factions race against each other to capture the Second Dreamer even as a threat of intergalactic war begins to form. In the middle of this all is Araminta, a normal woman that has lived a normal life and is the Second Dreamer. The Temporal Void is book for those who love hardcore sci-fi, political intrigue and plots within plots within plots within plots. It's confusing to follow the book if you've never read any of Peter Hamilton's works, but it's a good read.
Reading Log #2: Harmony
Harmony is a classic 'reluctant hero becomes a very important person' novel with a dash of action, humor and romance. For some odd reason, these kinds of stories are my kind of thing, along with books, movies and other media that have women as their protagonists. Don't get me wrong, but there's always something...different in having a female protagonist than a male one. It's probably just me, because I've been seeing media that has male protagonists for my entire life and having one that is of the other gender is refreshing.
On to the story itself, the book takes place in the future (as does 90% of sci-fi media out there) where humans have colonized the galaxy. Of course, in almost any sci-fi media that you could find in mainstream, there's always a war or a threat of a war that would occur in the entire story itself; nobody can satisfy everybody and humanity found themselves at odds against the avian race called the Marils.
Of course, again, in every war, there would be neutral parties. The most prominent of which is the Harmonic Empire, a system of 7 planets (Harmony Prime and H1-6) that have closed off their borders from all outside contact due to their reputation of being the only source of Badger metal, a type of metal that can be used to protect starfighters and starships from severe damage against ship-to-ship weapons.
In a nutshell, the story mixes political intrigue, love for the family, military action and witty humor and comes out with a beautiful space opera that would make you fall in love with it when you finish the story. The characters are lovable, especially Sissy, and you would yearn for more of it when the story ends, because it clearly marks that the end of the story is simply the beginning.
Reading Log #3: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Do you know the saying, "In every fairy tale, there's a grain of truth"?
In Michael Scott's Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Alchemyst, every fairy tale, myth, legend and stories had some truth in them. In fact, everything that was considered a myth were real!
But for Sophie and Josh Newman, fraternal twins on the cusp of adolescence, believed that these were just that, myths and fantasies. Until Dr. John Dee, the advisor of Queen Elizabeth I, came and attacked the bookstore the Josh worked in and kidnapped his boss' wife along with a special book that his boss owned.
In less than a day, they learned that the old man that owned the bookstore was none other than Nicholas Flamel himself, the famed alchemist that had created the Philosophers' Stone. Everything that they thought was only myth and fantasy suddenly became real, all too real.
What makes is worst that the book that Dr. John Dee was the Book of Abraham, a tome that contained various powerful magicks and the key to bring destruction upon the entirety of humanity; and now, it rests upon them to save the world...or destroy it.
Reading Log #4: Fire
When I finished reading this, I was confused but happy. Confused because this was a new twist in the wheel that's called Fantasy Literature. Happy because this was a new twist in the wheel that's called Fantasy Literature.
Fire's story focuses on its protagonist, an unbelievably beautiful woman named Fire; but there's a catch. The story takes place in the land of Dells, where monsters dwell. Not the usual monsters of horror books or Lovecraftian origins, but variations of animals that lived there that had different characteristics such as increased aggression, bright colorations...and incredible beauty. The fact is, all animals had a monster variation, even humans. Fire, the protagonist, is the daughter of a human monster, a cruel man by the name of Cansrel, who has used his abilities to manipulate and ruin many people.
Fire, even as she had grown under the cruel man, had grown up compassionate and morally strong. She refuses to use her abilities for anything other than self-defense and even then, she would feel guilty about doing it.
The story itself was nice, but it leaned onto the side of romance a tad bit too much for me to truly enjoy it. There's something in First Person Perspective stories that makes me feel incredibly disoriented. It could be that the main character was female and it does sound strange to read things that say you are doing these things but you're not actually doing these things that a woman is supposed to do, and it could the writing style itself; but the story in general is sweet and a good read, something to munch on when your brain is tired from too much work or boredom.
Reading Log #5: The Beyonders: A World Without Heroes
Ahh. Another 'reluctant hero' story. I think I have a thing for these stories, or it could be that the title of the story is enough to intrigue me. The Beyonders: A World Without Heroes talks about another world, Lyrian, that lies just beside the realm of Earth and the numerous entrances that lead to it. Stone arches, hollow logs, even small holes in the ground provide a one way trip to Lyrian, but for Jason, the protagonist, he entered Lyrian by being eaten by a hippopotamus. It was ridiculous, but it landed him straight to a river, where a band of instrumentalists were about to commit suicide to make a statement to the warlock that ruled the Lyrian Empire, Maldor.The story itself wasn't that bad. Though it grates on me how all-powerful Maldor seems to be and how manipulative and cunning he is even if it seems that he's just a stereotypical evil emperor bent on taking over the world.
'Reluctant Hero' stories will always be my favorite, but there are times when I just wish that the hero would get a power up through their own merits and kick the antagonist's behind.
All in all, even though there isn't much to 'all in all' to begin with, The Beyonders is a decent story, but it's advisable to wait until 2012 or 2013 to read it, because that's when the book's sequel would be published. The ending of the story is a cliff-hanger and very open-ended, but it's worth the read, if you don't mind waiting two years to know what would happen next...
Reading Log #6, #7 and #8
Never would I actually imagine reading a book like this, but I did. The thing is, I saw this book in several bookstores that were on sale and I got irritated at why is there so much of it. Naturally, I bought it, and...I guess I enjoyed reading it.
These kinds of books are not my cup of tea, they're usually for people like my mom, who enjoy reading trashy/fluffy romance novels, but I'll pick up something like these books once in a while to take a break in my sci-fi/fantasy interests.
I don't really know what to say about this book...just that I've read it and it's nice, but I don't think I'll be reading this anytime soon.
Even if I have two more books like this.
I couldn't help but plug this in here after I've just read it. It's a Harry Potter fanfiction, if you've ever heard of the term, and it's probably one of the most amusing and probable versions of 'what could have been' for the Harry Potter Universe.
My only warning is that the first chapter, the prologue, contains graphic child abuse, namely physical and verbal abuse, on Harry Potter. It's a fanon (canonical to fans) thing for fanfiction writers to write about Harry being abused to make a better story and this is no exception.
To the story, Harry becomes an emotional recluse after years of constant abuse from his Uncle and his cousin, but he discovers magic early in his life (right after the incident of him apparating to the roof of his school) and begins to train in its use through trial and error, his sources of knowledge coming from fantasy books he would read at the library near his home and the one in his school. At the end of each chapter, there would be snippets of passages from Sun Tzu's The Art of War and it would become obvious later on that Harry was preparing for such.
On the title, the story may be called Brutal Harry, but there are not many instances where he would be brutal, mainly because he's still a kid and he doesn't have the inclination to take someone else's life yet.
It's amusing and quite a good read, and that's that.
I talked about amusing Harry Potter fanfictions in the previous log, and I couldn't help (again) to share this. Harry Potter takes place in the 1990s; Harry being born in 1980. What if, for a school excursion, young Harry Potter watches Star Wars and gains and epiphany. He was a Jedi.
As wrong as his assumption was, it was an amusing take on how Harry grows in life and eventually rejects his Hogwarts letter because, from what he had learned from the Star Wars' Original Trilogy, his parents, moreso his father, went to the Dark Side after attending Hogwarts in the sense that: a. He was living in his aunt and uncle's house, b. His relatives were being awful to him because they were protecting him, c. His relatives lied about his parents' deaths to keep him from learning about magic a.k.a. The Dark Side to Harry.
Amusement galore. You've got to read it to know it.
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