Katherine Langrish's Troll Mill

Set three years later.  The family's settled in with Peer as one of them.  Now that he's older, he's developing feelings for the lovely Hilde who's always been by and on his side.  Peer just wants to be grown and show how independent and self sufficient that he is to Hilde.  Then, the dilemma of the story.  Kersten, Bjorn's wife, runs at Peer with her baby and tells him to bring it to Bjorn.  She runs off into the water and then the book starts to move.

review of Katherine Langrish's Troll Fell

a fun book that is rich enough to lead to a couple of other books following it.  the character's are engaging and just having to live through injustice. everyone seems to have their own ideas of what happiness is and they all seek it out.  it is set amongst trolls, vikings, and other beings in-between.  it can be very fun or quite dismal with a dash of dark humor. recommended read for people who like to read a good fantasy book that mixes with history and takes itself lightly while not being flippant.

Review of A. R. R. R. Roberts’ The Soddit

This is an obvious parody of J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit.  Bilbo Baggins has become Bingo Grabbings.  Gandelf is Gandef.  It goes on as such.  The characters have comedic elements added to them.  Bingo has arthritic feet, so he says ‘ow’ when he walks.  Gandef is going deaf and seems to only hear what he wants to.  Thorin or Thorri has a speech issue, a pronounced lisp.  There are several characters that are killed off making obvious and simply mistakes.  They are mourned for one paragraph and then gone from the mind. 

The characters are not long lasting like Bilbo, Thorin, and Gandelf in the Hobbit.  They are thoroughly entertaining for someone who just wants to read something that endorses a lot of fun to be had.

review of the maze runner

This book is unlike any I have ever read.  The closest approximation that can be made would be to compare it to the idea if the Lord of the Flies having taken place in a completely secluded and artificial setting with boys who had severe cases of amnesia.  It is a grand psychological thriller that starts with the same pace and feeling as when it ends.  It smacks of mystery and a sense of not coming-of-age, but more than that.

The boys have to rediscover who they are and they have to do it the fast and difficult way.  Nothing is handed to them.  They take nothing for granted and yet, the seclusion has upped their paranoia and dropped their sense of morality.  Thomas is seen as being belligerent, but he is the one that has still clung to his idea of what is important.  He is the one they pick on for wanting to be the ‘hero’ when he really just wants to do the ‘right thing’.  So, the real question here is what draws the line from a hero and decent human being?

Jeff Lemire’s The Nobody

A strange and tragic tale from the point of view of a not so whiny sixteen year old girl. A man comes into town with his face and hands bandaged and he wears goggles.  He barely eats. He doesn’t socialize.  Who is he and how did he end up the way he is?  That is her innocent curiosity while the older citizens of the small town of Large Mouth are suspicious of him.  Watch and experience the natural human curiosity and suspicion of that which is different take over a small town and sink it to its lowest depths.

review of Wells' War of the Worlds

An excellent analysis of the rise of industry I.e. the Martians and its breaking down of society. The aliens are not benevolent and their goal is not to integrate. They are machines out to kill all of the human race. The machines are used beautifully to represent the rise of industrialization within the British society. It was not the Victorian age, but it was the pivotal time in between that determined the fate of future society. The society was pulled down and the people practically and literally ripped apart from the change that is represented within the book.

review of Rowling's harry potter and the deathly hallows

Review of Rowling’s Harry potter and the deathly hallows

A beautiful end to a splendid series. The characters are fully dimensional. The plot is thick and yet, doesn't go over the head of the reader. The themes are appropriate and important for the age groups that are targeted. The main things to look at in this book are the horcruxes and the hallows. They are the representations of human vanity and vice.  They also show the goodness of people when looked at from a different angle.

The horcruxes are a diary, ring, locket, cup, diadem, snake, and person.  They each represent something great and each is something great in its own right. The diary is supposed to hold a sense of privacy and closeness to the heart. It is only appropriate that he puts a piece of his soul within it first. The diary is an item that holds thoughts and hopes.  They hold futures.   Voldemort’s diary held a part of himself as a teenager.  His hope for the future could be found within and with himself.  He knew or thought it even then.  It is ironic when Harry destroys the diary with a Basilisk fang because the snake is something that Voldemort could understand.  It is a solitary creature much like himself that is mesmerizing and yet, frightening to others. The diadem is a sign of royalty or being of a higher birth and so Voldemort using it was only logical.  The ring is an item to be worn with a sense of ownership or title. The locket is something to hold memories of those lost. The cup represents a sense of taking and receiving.

The hallows are important because they are a great morality tale for how fear should be handled. It is not death that is truly what they are trying to defeat, but fear. Fear is what drives them to choose as they do except for the last brother who is wiser than the other brothers. The first brother chose the elder wand which he wanted to use as a weapon and not as a sort of defense. The second brother chose the resurrection stone, so that he could then bring back what they see as stolen from them. The third brother chose the cloak of invisibility, so that he could hide from death and embrace it when they are prepared.