End Atlantis Begin Again

Hola Readers.  How are you all?  Are you ready to hear about a book I read while on vacation?  Good, the book is Prospero's Children by Jan Siegel.  I picked this book up at the used book store 'cause the cover was cool and it totally looked like a great vacation book and I WAS RIGHT!!!!  Why was I right (I mean besides the obvious I am always right)?  I'll tell you, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

I will warn you that the book is a bit convoluted, but I will do my best to sum it up in semi coherent manner, but your best bet is just to read it.  The book is divide into two parts plus a prologue and and epilogue.  Ok let's get to this shall we?  A man is desperately trying to keep his ship afloat amidst the biggest storm the planet has ever seen.  He fails and drowns, his body taken by a mermaid for her collection after she notices a peculiar key around his neck.  Untold years later the mermaid gives a fisherman the key as payment for his son who died after capturing her.  We then come to present times and the first half of the book.  We meet Fern, a 16 year old girl who has turned very practical after her mother died so that she could keep her flighty father and younger brother in line.  She has been doing very well acting the keeper of the house until her father inherits an old house of a relative who was a sea captain.  Fern is not thrilled to spend her holiday in the country, but makes the best of it.  While there, she and her brother Will discover many locked trunks and cabinets, but no keys.  Meanwhile, Fern and Will experience many strange sounds and sights in and around the house.  This does not trouble Will, but Fern has a hard time reconciling it all with her practical way of thinking.  Eventually Fern meets with a man called Ragginbone who hints that there is a lot more going on then they know.  Alison, a coworker of Fern and Will's father offers to "help" them get the property ready to sell.  As soon as she arrives, something seems off and even more strange things happen.  Turns out everybody seems to be searching for a mysterious key that has insane powers.  Fern and Will eventually discover that the key was made from a mysterious source called the Loadstone, an object that held great power and was the center of the culture of the fabled Atlantis.  It seems that the Loadstone altered the Atlanteans genetics, enhancing them to now wield all sorts of useful powers. The people who have these powers are called Gifted and to this day, the few descendants of the Atlanteans still have it.  Fern discovers that she has the Gift.  The Loadstone was destroyed when the last queen of Atlantis Zohran, decided that she wanted to make a key to the Gate of Death so that she would become truly immortal.  This act caused Atlantis to be destroyed and the all powerful key to become last.  Alison, along with an Old Spirit by the name of Azmordis are desperately searching for the key for their own ends.  Turns out that the key is in the house.  Much crazyness ensues (this happens in most books I read) and the key is found, then taken by Alison.  When she opens the Gate, instead of death, she opens a door in time to when the last queen also opened the door causing a time paradox AND the huge wave that destroys Atlantis comes through the door, drowning Alison and wreaking all kinds of havoc in the little town.  Time is now all messed up and Fern is told that the only solution is to go back in time and use the key to lock the door from the other side.  Fern uses a picture as a focus and goes back in time, followed by Azmordis.  The second half of the book shows us how Fern (who has had all her memories replaced by ones that fit the time period better...yeah I know that doesn't make sense, read the book) runs around Atlantis making friends and living out the final days of that fabled city.  The most significant person Fern meets is Rafarl, an Atlantean noble who helps Fern on her quest.  As always more crazyness ensues and after watching the queen Zohran open the gate only to find Alison on the other side and the beginning of the destruction of Atlantis, Fern gets a hold of the key.  Even though she tried to make Rafarl go and escape the coming destruction, he comes back for her (aw, true love, stupid, but sweet).  They go to his ship, but they are perused by Azmordis who wants the key.  Fern gives the key to Rafarl and gives herself up to buy them some time.  The giant wave hits and Fern jumps to the sea.  Fern wakes up back in her own time, with a very worried brother and father.  All seems to be well, as the time leaks have stopped thanks to Ferns sacrifice.  She misses Rafarl, but starts to look forward.  The book ends with Rafarl doing his best to keep the boat afloat, but to no avail.  As he drowns a mermaid takes his body, fascinated by a mysterious key.

Soooo that really did no justice at all to this book.  I can't even begin to get into all the great detail, characters and just coolness that this book held, seriously go read it.  This book was a great book from a first time author who did several things I really liked.  First of all, I like this interesting re-imagining of the Atlantis fable, since there is no definitive myth it allows the author to use it as she likes.  She makes a good case of how a city could be so advanced, and why it may have fallen.  For the most part I enjoyed all of the characters, they all had a part to play, they all had a history, and they all fit into the story without feeling forced.  Fern was interesting as a practical heroine who had to figure out that being an adult was not as straight forward as she thought.  Will was one of my favorite characters, being the perfect counterpoint to Fern.  The relationship between brother and sister was just great. The bad guys were a bit one dimensional, but I did like that there was more then one, they were all different and that they all had a different agenda, this made the alliances and enemies much more interesting.  The author did not try and "get" us by keeping information from us, one of the reasons I found this book to be so interesting is that the author actually made sure we knew for the most part what was going on, having our characters discover truths and mysteries in a timely manner instead of drawing it out forever YAY!  I was a bit worried about the time travel part as the logistics of time travel tend to make my head hurt, but the author did a pretty good job of that.  One of the things she did was have Fern's memories replaced by pertinent ones that applied to the time and place she traveled too.  This gave us a plausible explanation as to why Fern could fit in so easily and made a lot of the tedious acclimation moot. That being said, there was no real reason or mechanism given as to how or why this happened...apparently it is just a side affect of Gifted time traveling?  A side note I found interesting was one of the scenes with the crazy queen Zohran, doing despicable things to assure her power, surrounded by the nobles of the land put me very much in the mind of a similar scene in The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis.  There is a scene in that book where the two children encounter an ancient world filled with frozen nobles of increasingly greedy and evil countenance, culminating in Jadis, a witch queen who destroyed her world for power.  The parallel of these scenes was unexpected and kind of cool.  The best part may be the ending.  I know I know, I usually HATE endings, but this author tied it right back to the beginning in the most clever and believable fashion, making me very very happy. The few things that I was not so keen on.  I found the writing to be a bit uneven, some times when describing something, or a character gets introspective, the writing got over flowery and pretentious.  I felt when the author just told the story instead of trying to author it up, that the book flowed much better.  It was almost like she was trying to write in an overly lyrical, esoteric style, and then would forget to use her pretentious words and just tell a good story.  Some of the "magic" and such were not well explained, and Fern got a bit angsty on occasion, but overall I really enjoyed it.  I am totally stoked when my random picks turn out so well and it was the perfect book to read in the middle of the ocean.  I give this book 7 out of 10 house goblins and recommend it to anybody with an interest in Atlantis, mermaids, magic or time travel that actually works. Happy Reading Everybody!

Water And Wizards

You know those books you know you should read, the ones by the authors you are pretty sure you are gonna love, the ones that you see on the shelves of your local bookstore, reviewed favorably by all your trusted sources and raved about by all your closest reading buddies, the ones that will probably become one of your favorites...if you could just pick it up an read it. So then finally one day you do pick it up and read it and then you beat yourself up for taking so long to pick up one of your new favorite books, WHY WHY WHY you groan to yourself, why did I take so long to read this, I could have read the rest of the series by now, I could have reread this by now, I could have gushed to everybody who would listen to this by now...why why why?!? That folks is how I felt about A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, yep it has taken me more years then I care to admit to finally read this gem and I will tell you why shortly, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

A young boy dwelling in a northern island called Gont is found to have great wizarding potential.  He is taught by the local witch and saves his village from eastern Kargard raiders who have crossed on of the many oceans and seas to raid the boys little village.  He calls down a fog so thick that the villagers can escape and the many of the invaders are killed in the confusion.  The boy (who calls himself Sparrowhawk) is then taken to be taught by the hermit wizard Ogion who gives him his true name which is Ged.  Ged learns quickly and soon chafes under the slow pace that Ogion appears to be teaching him, culminating in him showing off to a local girl by summoning a spirit for the world beyond.  Ogion tells Ged that he has a choice, he can stay and continue to learn from Ogion at a slow pace, but will learn great control along the way, or he can leave and sail for Roke, where wizards are trained under the Archmage and his associates.  As much as Ged loves his master, he is young and hungry for power and chooses to leave.  Ged gets to Roke and is accepted as a pupil, and there he meets two people who will play two very different roles in his life.  The first is Jasper an older boy who seems to always be not quit mocking Ged, always challenging him, making him feel young and stupid, but not in an obvious way.  The other is Vetch, the big man from Iffish who is becomes Ged's

steadfast friend.  Ged learns quickly, always hungry for more knowledge and more power.  This all comes out when Jasper who has been awarded the title of sorcerer challenges Ged, resulting in Ged summoning what he ends up calling the Shadow, a twisted, deformed monster that hungers to take over Ged's body and use his powers for evil and destruction.  Ged is severely wounded and the Archmage dies protecting him.  A new Archmage is chosen, telling the finally recovered Ged that he must stay of Roke as that is the only place the Shadow cannot get to him. Ged stays and returns to his learning, but at a much slower, much more cautious pace.  He eventually earns his wizard staff and goes out into the world to earn his keep.  He ends up being the wizard to a small fishing village in the west of the world, very close to the island of Pendor which houses a dragon and his spawn.  The village is worried that when the dragons spawn get older, they will sate their voracious appetites by eating the villagers.  Ged works and lives among the people, until he starts to sense his Shadow, he knows he cannot stay and endanger the villagers, yet he cannot leave them defenseless against the dragons either. He decides to go to the island of Pendor and take care of the problem head on.  He defeats several of the young dragons and confronts the father dragon with his true name (in this world any who know a person or things true name has mastery over it, this is the real study of wizards).  The dragon tries to bargain with Ged, offering to tell him the Shadows true name, but Ged refuses and instead exacts an oath that the dragon or his offspring will never harm the villagers.  Ged then sails hither and yon, attempting to flee the Shadow.  He ends up in Osskill, a frozen island to the north where he has a run in with the Shadow, who uses Ged's name and saps him of all power.  He ends up in the care of Serret and her old husband the lord of the castle.  Serret shows him a stone that appears to be all powerful and tells him that it can tell him the name of his Shadow.  Ged realizes that the stone is actually a
prison for a malevolent spirit that has already taken in Serret and her husband for its own uses.  Ged refuses the offer of power and flees.  He sails to various islands, learning and processing life, eventually ending up on his old home island of Gont where his old master shows him that he will need to confront his Shadow if he is to ever have any sort of life.  Ged takes this to heart and instead of running starts pursuing his shadow.  After chasing it hither and yon (I love that phrase) Ged ends up on the island of Iffrish and meets up with his old friend Vetch. Together they set sail past the last known island to the south east and into the open ocean. Eventually Ged finds his Shadow and names it using his own name, finally figuring out that the Shadow he called up so long ago is actually part of him, and by naming it his true name he assumes mastery over himself.  The two friends sail home, thus starting the Earthsea Cycle and the adventures of Ged a wizard of Earthsea.

Obviously there is a whole lot of rich detail that has been left out of the synopsis.  This book is actually not all that long, but the story and the words and the imagery are just packed in like a delicious box full of chocolates.  There are a couple of reasons that it took me so long to pick this book up, the first being I had read a couple short stories of hers and while I enjoyed them, they seemed a bit dense and hard to get into and I have read "classics" that are no more then pretty words that do not add up to anything special.  This was not the case for this book.  In this case I think the full novel length of this book is much more suited to the style of prose that Ms. Le Guin employs, it is like the world of Earthsea itself a prose that swells and ebbs just like the ocean, and having enough pages for this full cycle of words to be expressed works much better then in a short story (in my own little opinion).  I will however go back and read some of the short stories now that I have a handle of the rhythem of the authors prose and see if it comes across differently. The second reason it took me a while is that there was no "hook" to get me excited to read it, I knew I should for all the reasons in the opening paragraph, but there was nothing that I had heard about that made me go "oh I have to read that right now!".  Of course now that I have read it, well I still feel the same way.  See this book is very subtle and not a really in your face type of work.  To me it is more of a story, or a piece of a long saga, and less of a book, which I love!  In some ways it reminds me of what Tolkien was trying to do with his Middle Earth saga and that is create a whole mythos for a world.  This wizard Ged we are told right away is a great and mighty epic wizard of fame and awesomeness, but the story we read is his personal journey to become the eventual legend. There is also a taste of C.S. Lewis in her prose, in the
actual traveling and interactions of Ged. This is not in any way to say that she is copying these authors, or that she has no style of her own, quit the opposite Ms. Le Guin has a very unique and beautiful writing style that is all her own, any references I make are just points of good writing that I think any good author needs to hit to be considered a writer worthy of praise. I loved that the struggle of the main character was not an epic violent battle of good vs. evil with a whole war to tear the world of Earthsea apart.  In fact the author purposely did not have her world at war, or any major world wide struggle, which is so prevalent in high fantasy.  The story however did not lag, it was still a battle of sorts, and the out come of the struggle was still as dire as any war, it was just more about a powerful man knowing himself and using that knowledge to defeat the dark parts of himself. This book is one of those where the setting is almost a character itself.  This world of Earthsea is just that, a place that is mostly water, where the land is all of these islands, there are no major landmasses like we think of, just greater and lesser islands. This influences a lot of the story in a very positive way (also keep the map in the front of the book handy to help keep all the places straight).  I also loved that nobody was white (Ok the barbarian invaders where white in a Viking sort of way, but that is it).  The hero's, the women, the men, the children, everybody was some shade of brown or black 'cause that is just how it is and especially in the era these were written, in the hey day of epic fantasy, non-white hero' were not (and sadly still are not) the norm. This point of her world is not pounded into our heads, this is not a "hey look I'm being awesome by writing about brown people" type of book, this is just how it is and I love it.  Ok so this post is getting to be as long as the book so I will attempt to wrap it up.  As I am sure you can tell, I really enjoyed this book.  It is powerful, yet subtle, epic, yet personal, involves a whole world, but is about the individual, there is magic, friendship, oceans, sailing, learning, jealousy, dragons, family, enemies, everything you could want in a book without it feeling crowded or stuffed. It is beautiful and sticks in your head and will go on my favorites shelf along with the rest of the series that I am now on my way to the book store to pick up.  I give it 9 out of 10 islands in an endless sea.

What books do you know you should read that you haven't?  What is stopping you from reading those books? Do I know how to ramble or what?

Narnia Forever

Ok last Narnia post for a while, I promise.  I was looking back over The Last Battle post and noticed it was kind of depressing and that is not how I want to end my great Narnia reread.  So I will use this opportunity to ramble on about the series as a whole in a completely disjointed all over the place manner.
Obviously the main reason I love this series for me is that it was my introduction to reading, my first glimpse of the fantasy genre, and my first understanding what good writing was.  I was honestly around 6 years old when I read these for my self the first time and they have stuck with me ever since.  These are the books that helped shape my taste in reading, let me use my imagination, and taught me I could fall in love with places and people that only exist as ink on a page. Even at that young age, books affected my mood and daily living.  I remember after finishing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) I was so excited.  I was pushing on the back of every closet I could find, I would make up games where we would defeat the white witch, my siblings were so sick of playing Narnia games I was always Susan (she was always my favorite) and since there were four of us I would make my brother Peter, one sister Lucy, and the other poor sister had to be Edwina (a female version of Edmund) :-).

I moved on to Prince Caspian (PC) and got my first hit of book melancholy.  I was so sad that everything my friends (because at this point Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were without a doubt my friends) had held dear was gone, so many years had passed that all there friends were dead, and the things that made Narnia so magical were hunted to near extinction.  When at the end of the book Peter and Susan were told they could never come back, I was crushed.  On the happy side I also got my first book crush and for the longest time whenever we played games that required a prince, mine was always Caspian. I picked up The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (VDT) hoping to make myself feel better and man did I fall hard.  If there is a book that I am actually in love with this may be the one. Getting away from the actual country of Narnia was helpful in healing my poor bruised soul.  The introduction of Eustace gave me the feeling that the adventures would always continue.  I continued my love affair with Prince Caspian and my love of the ocean and pirates was probably born with this book.
This is the book that restored my hope in further adventures.  The Silver Chair (SC) continued the adventures, showing me new places, new people, and new ways to get to Narnia.  Now instead of just pushing on the back of closets, I would open every door, gate, peek into every hole.  This really kicked my exploring tendency into high gear.  The Horse and His Boy (HHB) took me back to my favorite time in Narnia, with the original four children.  Gave me a glimpse of the lands beyond Narnia proper and got me thinking of about the different ways people are raised. The Magicians Nephew (MN) is the perfect mix of everyday life and magic.  I loved the idea that Narnia was not the only other magical world.  This book very much inspired me to go beyond this series and see what else was out there, that magic was endless and there are always new worlds being created.  My little brain was overloaded with all the connections I was seeing to previous books, the lamppost, how the witch got there.  This may have also started my obsession with magic sparkly jewelry.
The Last Battle (LB) taught me that with all the joy that books can bring, they can also make you miserable.  I remember moping around for weeks after finishing this book.  My poor parents could not figure out why I cried myself to sleep for a couple nights after finishing it.  My young brain had a hard time separating what I was feeling from the book and what was happening in real life. I still remember the trauma of it every time I read it.
These were the reactions I very clearly remember having the first time I read them. I have read them all (even LB) several times over the years and many of those initial reactions remain, the magic and wonder, the melancholy, the thrill of discovery, the trauma, but as my life has progressed I have also picked up on some other things.  I have decided I like the way C.S. Lewis deals with girls.  He is constrained to some degree by the time period, but he never makes them weak.  He keeps the balance between chivalry and practicality quit well.  More often then not he has his female characters dressing in armour along with the men and boys and heading into battle.  He does sometimes purposely separate them out and take them away from the whole sale slaughter portions of the battles, but always to go on an important mission that usually saves the boys butts, not to be sheltered and protected.  I also like that he tends to give his females a choice.  I remember in particular in HHB Queen Susan is one of the best archers in the land, but she chooses to stay out of battle, preferring not to get involved and stay on the social/political side of things.  Queen Lucy on the other hand is not nearly as skilled in combat, but chooses to be part of the battle anyways.  The author makes both of these decisions equally ok, neither of the girls is derided for wanting to be feminine, nor for wanting to act like a man.  Through out the series we see females both good and evil, always able to make their own choices.  He does not equate beauty with weakness, nor does he make his characters choose one over the other.  There is several times a female character will purposely be up to her knees in mud fighting injustice and then in the next scene be excited over the pretty dress she gets to wear.  I love characters who are allowed to be all these things.  I love the male characters as well, even if

they are a bit more traditional in nature.  I love that almost all the characters have a growth arc, weather they are the children, the royals, or the magical entities nobody is written as perfect. I also love the role choice plays in all of these books, I am a huge proponent of giving everybody a choice in life, and also being responsible for the choices you make.  These books are fantastic at showing how the choice a single person makes can effect so many other people, whether you mean for it to or not.  I love the variety of places the author sends us, I love how he has a culture for every place you go.  Given some of the cultures may come across a bit stereo-typical/borderline racist, I will give him a itty bitty bit of leeway considering the time period he wrote it in, but it is a good discussion point when reading this with other people.  As traumatizing as it is, I do love that you essentially get to see the whole entire history and Narnia, from it's very creation in MN to it's brutal and violent ending in LB.  I do not know of any other series that does this.

Ok ok ok I'm done now.  I just needed to put down on paper/screen/bytes my complicated lifelong feelings for a series of 7 short books that have changed my life for the better.  Thanks for hanging in there with me, I know I can be incoherent and gushy and messy, but it's just my undying love spewing all over the place :-)
What was the first book/series that changed your life?  Do you identify with characters a bit to much like I do?  Have you ever had to remember that the book isn't real, these people and places don't actually exist?  When was the last time you checked the back of your coat closet?

The Last Of Everything

Finished The Last Battle, took me a while, but it is all finished now. I rarely read the this last book in the Chronicles of Narnia because it always makes me sad.  The whole tone of the book is pretty dark and depressing, and even the glorious ending cannot make up for the permanent loss of the character I always identified with the most.  This is not to say this is not a great book, a good ending to the best series ever written (in my most humble opinion), but it still makes me sad.

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Here's how the end of Narnia happens.  We start out our final story with an Ape named Shift and a donkey named Puzzle. Shift is a cunning, conniving, manipulative talking ape who has a tyrannical relationship with the slow and sweet Puzzle.  One day they find a lion skin, which Shift convinces Puzzle to wear as a coat.  Shift figures out that they can use this disguise to trick the rest of the Narnians into believing that Aslan is back and use this belief to get the things he wants.  Meanwhile King Tirian, the last of the Narnian King's (although he does not yet know this) is relaxing with his best friend, the unicorn Jewel when he brought news of the wholesale slaughter of the forests Dryads.  Tirian is furious and vows to make things right.  

He and Jewel leave to find out who dares to cut down the sacred tree's of the forest.  What they find is Calormen from the south using Talking Beast as labor to cut down the forest.  Tirian is told that this is all done on the order of Aslan who has returned to Narnia at last.  Tirian has a hard time believing that Aslan would ever order the harm of his own people and he decides to investigate further.  Tirian eventually comes to blows with a Calormen guard and kills him in a fight.  Tirian feeling that if the guard was only acting on Aslan's orders, he did not deserve to be killed, so the young king turns himself in to be judged by Aslan.  Jewel accompanies him and both are held captive.  As the night wears on Tirian hears and sees things that lead him to believe that the Aslan that is supposedly giving these insane orders is really a false Aslan.  King Tirian calls upon the true Aslan to send him aid as he had in dire times past.  Jill and Eustace, two children from our world who helped rescue the enchanted Prince Rilian.  The children free the king and make their escape to a tower that has been stocked and readied for just this purpose.  The children and the king arm themselves and  sneak back to rescue Jewel and attempt to find out about the false Aslan.  Jill manages to free Puzzle, who is still wearing the lion skin and being presented as Aslan against his will.  With this proof of fraud, the king hopes to win his people back to his side and free his country from the Calormens.  The group run into a bunch of dwarfs being held captive 

by a few Calormens and set about freeing them.  Instead of being grateful and joining back with the rightful king, the dwarfs declare themselves free of any king and decide to rule themselves.  The dwarf Poggin is the only one to remain loyal to the king.  The next day as they are headed back to show the Narnians the fake Aslan and hopefully raise an army.  On the way back they are intercepted by Farsight the Eagle who bears dire news.  The castle Cair Paravel has been taken by the Calormens and the Narnians all slaughtered.  Tirian feels a sense of dread and doom, feeling that Narnia is set to perish.  They arrive at the site of the Stable where Shift had been passing Puzzle off as Aslan, and hear them telling the group that the violent and bloody god of the Calormens Tash, and the great Lion Aslan are one and the same and are to be called Tashlan.  A battle ensues and the group is pushed into the stables, were the Calormens intend to burn them alive as an offering to Tash.  After a bloody battle in which many friends loose their lives, Trilian is finally pushed into the stable, but instead of a small dark stable, he finds himself in an open sunlight land in the company of seven other people.  The people turn out to be Digory Kirke, Polly Plumber, Peter, Edumund and Lucy Pevensie, and of course Jill and Eustace.  Susan is not present, because she no longer believes in Narnia, preferring instead to think it was all a game they played in their younger days.  In this land they meet Aslan and watch the destruction of Narnia and it's surrounding lands.  

At first everybody is sad and mourns the loss of their land, but soon realize that the land they are in, is actually a brighter, cleaner, happier version of Narnia.  Aslan leads them further into this new land and they start to meet friends and family who have died, or been dead for a very long time.  They eventually all meet at the garden the Digory plucked the apple from in The Magicians Nephew and Aslan explains that they were all killed in a train accident and they are essentially in Heaven.  Aslan also informs them that they can meet with their family their as this country connects all places in existence.  The book ends saying everybody lived happier then we could ever imagine, and that happiness will last forever.

Like I said earlier the tone of this whole book is pretty dark as far as the rest of the books are concerned.  Compared to a lot of other books it is still pretty tame, but it is not what you would expect after reading the other books.  Of all the books in the series I think this one probably has the most overt religious tone to it, but to me not so much that it detracts from the story.  I like how the author wraps everything up in one neat package, bringing together all the characters, places and stories into one grand finale.  I thought it was pretty brave of him to essentially kill everybody and everything, including his own world.  I know this review sounds a little stilted and choppy, but...well....I kinda hate this book. Not in a don't read it because it's badly written, or is objectionable, or anything like that.  I just hate the idea that it has to end.  I know the ending implies that Narnia lives on in Aslan's country, but it is still sad to think that if
Narnia ever did really exist it is gone now.  I think reading this last book (remember I was only like 6 years old) crushed any hope that my young self had of ever actually getting into Narnia (not that it stopped me from pushing the back of every coat closet I found).  The destruction of the world in the book, meant that no other children from our world would ever be able to go their.  I knew that it wasn't a real place, but especially being that young you always wanted to have the hope that maybe, just maybe places like that did exist. To have this world that I was in love with be destroyed was a bit soul crushing to my young self.  Every time I reread it (which isn't often) I still feel a bit of my 6 year old soul wither just a bit.  My other issue with it is Susan being unable maintain her belief in Narnia.  As the oldest girl in my family, I always identified with Susan and her bossy ways and it came as one more blow to me that she ended up not being able to hang on her belief.  I understand why the author put that scenario in, he was trying to make a point about belief in general, but it still sucks.  Ok enough with the depressive reviewing. As much as I personally hated the book (which isn't really true, I don't hate it, it just makes me sad), the reason is because I love this series so much and any reminder that it ever has to end is just not cool.  I will do a series summation soon 'cause this post has gotten completely out of control.  Happy reading everybody.

Have you ever read a book you hated because it was the end?  Have you ever had your soul crushed by a book?  Do I invest way to much of my emotional self into my reading for being a supposedly sane "adult"?

In The Beginning

Continuing with our Chronicles of Narnia series I have finished The Magician's Nephew.  I want to say this is one of my favorites...but I think I have said that about all of the books in this series up to this point.  This book tells us how Narnia was created and how the comings and goings between Narnia and our world all began.  Here is how the story goes.

Once upon a time there were two children living in pre-WWI London.  These children were named Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer and they were both stuck in London for the summer holidays.  Digory is staying with his Aunt Letty and Uncle Andrew while his father is in India because his mother is very sick and probably dying.  To amuse themselves they discovered a bit of a passageway in the attics that ran the whole length of the row houses that the children lived in.  One day while exploring this passage they stumbled into the attic of Digory's slightly mad Uncle Andrew.  Uncle Andrew had spent his life pursuing the study of magic and is now ready for some human experimentation.  There is a tray of rings in this mad man's attic study, each set a pair of rings, one with a yellow stone and one with a green stone.  Uncle Andrew tells Polly to 

take a yellow ring as a gift, but the moment she takes it, she vanishes.  Digory is understandably upset and starts to freak out a bit, but Uncle Andrew tells him there may be a way to get her back.  He tells Digory if he takes a green ring with him he can use the yellow ring to go wherever Polly is (Uncle Andrew does not know much about wherever it is he sends the children) and bring himself and Polly home.  Digory uses the yellow ring and finds himself in a vast, quiet, rich, living wood that he dubs The Wood Between Worlds (this may have contributed to my tree obsession).  The other feature of this place is the endless small pools scattered between the trees.  Polly and Digory discover that each of the pools is a different world and that the yellow ring brings them to the woods and the wearing the green ring while jumping into a pool will take you to another world. Digory and Polly decide to explore another pool and end up on the desolate world of Charn.  While in this world Digory awakens a powerful sorceress queen by the name of Jadis and inadvertently brings her back to London.  The queen wreaks havoc on London and is eventually taken back to the woods and then to another world by the children using the rings.  Along with the children and the queen, Uncle Andrew, a cabbie and his horse also get drawn into this other place.  At first they seem to have landed in an empty world, but they soon notice a huge lion singing.  As he sings a fresh new world comes into being.  Mountains and oceans form, animals appear, trees and grass grow, it is all pretty awesome.  The queen however is not enjoying herself very much and tries to hurt the lion by throwing the iron crossbar of a lamppost from London at the beast.  She does not succeed in slowing the lion down, but a living lamppost grows from the bar (the same one we see later in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)  The lion of course turns out to be Aslan and he has created Narnia and the surrounding 

countries, giving the gift of speech to certain animals and populating the world with creatures such as dryads and fauns and such.  Because Digory brought the queen to Narnia it is his job to fetch the means of protecting it.  Aslan turns the cabbie's horse into a winged horse and he flies the children to a far away garden which contains a tree of life.  While in the garden Digory encounters the queen who has eaten an apple and therefore now has eternal life.  She tries to tempt Digory to first eat an apple for himself, or at least bring one back to heal his dying mother.  As much as Digory wants to save his mother, he knows he has to keep his promise and bring the apple back to Aslan.  Aslan commands Digory to plant the apple.  In the meantime Uncle Andrew has had a rough time of it, not being able to accept what he is seeing, he is perpetually frightened.  Aslan has him sleep while he crowns the cabbie and his wife (who has been brought to Narnia by Aslan) the first King and Queen of Narnia.  These kind people rule the country justly and kindly and their children become the King's and Queens of the surrounding countries as well.  Aslan gives an apple to Digory and sends the children and Uncle Andrew back to London with the command to dispose of the rings that allowed them to travel between worlds.  Digory's mother recovers fully and they all move to the big house that again comes into play in LWW.  Digory plants the apple core and buries all the rings around the resulting tree.  Eventually the tree is blown over by a storm and is used by Digory to build a wardrobe.  Digory becomes Professor Kirke, and he and his family and Narnia live happily ever for the most part.

Another book in the series I absolutely love (are we sensing a pattern here).  I love a good prequel and this one is well thought out, tying it back to the other books in the series.  I think my favorite part is the Wood Between the Worlds, I love the endless possibilities it presents and love that even though they are not all explored in this story, that they are there for me to imagine.  I like that Narnia is not the only other acknowledged world in the universe, and that the stories and travel possibilities are potentially endless.  I enjoyed that no matter how epic the scope of this story gets (endless universes, world creating, words that can destroy all life), at the heart it is still about the simple relationships between everyday people.  The back and forth between the worlds is cool, I like that in this book (which is echoed a bit in LWW) a person has a bit of control over their comings and goings.  This book for me represents all the different ways a person can travel, learn, see, experience, and imagine, it is a story of possibilities, of variety, and of beginnings and endings.  This is one of those books that sets my own imagination turning, giving me a base on which to try and think on all the different varietions of worlds you could get to.  Obviously I love this book :-)  I am now going to go gaze into pools and see if I can find the Wood Between the Worlds

I Walked Through The Desert With A Horse Who Could Talk

Continuing with the Great Narnia Re-Read I have finished The Horse and His Boy.  I like this one because it is almost entirely about people who were born and raised in this other world (with some cameo's from the Pevensie children all grown up).  It is set during the reign of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy and takes place almost entirely outside of the actual country of Narnia.

Quick(ish) summary.  Shasta has spent his whole life the son of a poor fisherman in the country of Calormen.  He overhears a visiting soldier offering to buy him, when his father protests about selling of his child, the soldier points out that the fair-skinned, blond haired, blue-eyed Shasta is obviously of no blood relation and is probably not even Claormene.  Admitting that this is true, that he found the boy in a boat that drifted to shore with nothing but the dead body of his guarding in the boat with him, the fisherman starts to haggle for a price for the boy.  Shasta slips away to the stables where the soldiers war-horse is being housed, and much to Shasta's shock the horse begins speaking to him.  The horse is named Bree (short for a very
unpronounceable name) and tells Shasta that he was kidnapped from the fields of Narnia when he was a foal, Bree also points out that Shasta looks like a northerner further confirming the fisherman's story.  The horse and his boy (Ah hey this is where the title comes from) decide to run away to the north together.  Once they have made good their escape, with Shasta starting of as a hopeless rider they are soon chased  by a lion.  Neither Shasta nor Bree has ever seen a lion, but they have heard tales of the demon lion of the north, a popular tale throughout Calormen.  The lion seems to have a partner and drives Shasta and Bree into the path of another horse Hwin and her companion the Tarkheena Aravis (Tarkaans and Tarkheenas being the equivalents to nobles in Calormen).  Aravis is escaping an arranged marriage and Hwin, much like Bree wants to return to Narnia after being stolen away as a foal.  The foursome enter into the great city of Tashbaan and attempt to get through it without notice.  They agree to meet at the Tombs on the otherside if they get separated.  This being a good adventure story soon sees our group split apart.  Shasta is mistaken for a Northern Prince by the visiting King Edmund and his retinue.  Shasta is taken to their lodgings and fed and tucked in to rest.  While resting he overhears the King and his sister Queen Susan discussing her lack of desire to marry Rabadash the eldest son of the Tisroc (that is what they call there King).  They decide to make there escape while they can,
knowing as soon as the Queen refuses the marriage that they will be in great danger.  They leave Shasta alone and a boy who looks just like him climbs in through the window.  The boy, who is the real Prince Corin helps Shasta find a way out to the tombs.  At the tombs there is no sign of his companions and her curls up for the night, with a large cat who keeps him company.  Meanwhile Aravis has met up with her silly friend the Tarkheena Lasaraleen.  After she finally convinces her friend that she must leave Lasaraleen has her groom take the two horses to the tombs while she and Aravis make their way through the castle out to garden exit.  On their way out they overhear the Tisroc and his son Rabadash discussing the escape of the Narnians.  Tisroc gives his son permission to take the country of Archenland, which lays on the borders between Calormen and Narnia to prepare for the capture of Queen Susan and the eventual invasion of Narnia.  Aravis is reunited with the horses and Shasta and informs them of the Princes plans.  They ride long and hard and arrive at the Hermits dwelling, just as they are approaching they spot a cloud in the distance that is the army of Rabadash, a lion suddenly appears, spurring the horses on to even greater speeds.  Once they get into the gates of the Hermit, he sends Shasta on to warn the King Lune of Archenland.  Shasta arrives with the warning in time and is given a non-talking horse to follow the rest of the group to the castle.  Along the way Shasta gets lost and meets again a lion, turns out that their was only one lion the whole time and it was Aslan, the great lion, protector of Narnia.  Shasta continues into Narnia, carrying the news of war to King Edmund, who is joined by Queen Lucy and of course the Prince Corin.  The battle is won, Shasta is revealed to be Cor, the long lost prince of Archenland and Corins older twin who was kidnapped by a corrupt advisor many years ago.  Rabadash, refusing the mercy of the King is turned into a donkey by Aslan and sent back to his home.  He is returned to human form, but may never go more than 10 miles from the temple of Tash or he will revert back to donkey form forever.  Aravis moves into the castle and eventually marries Cor (formerly Shasta) and Bree and Hwin finally return to Narnia and they all lived happily ever after...well for the most part.
This book features children from this other world, unlike all the other books in this series in which the
children all come from our world and must go back home in the end, which gives it a bit more of a long term consequences feel (does that make sense?).  The book essentially tells us the story of Shasta's whole life, from birth to adulthood.  I like that this book uses a hero and heroine from this particular world, it is a good reminder that you can have amazing magical adventures without having to travel to a different world.  By setting the story mostly in Calormen and Archenland we have now seen almost the whole world now.  We have seen Narnia to the West, sailed the Seas to the East, been to the wilds of Etinsmoore to the North and now finally Calormen and Archenland to the South. It gives a sense of completeness to this strange flat world (remeber it is not round and you can sail over the edge).  One could argue that the way the Calormens were portrayed could be in a racist, or at least stereotypical vein, with everybody acting like what one would think Middle Easteners would act if you wrote this in the 1950's.  I give it a bit of a pass because of the time period (but just a bit mind you).  I do like that the author
created a whole culture for the Calormens, complete with their own hierarchy, religion and style of dress, also I really want to go see the city of Tashbaan.  The god Tash will come into play in a later book, and I appreciate the set up of a world where not everybody believes the same thing, nor has the same culture.  I like learning a bit about Archenland (which is mentioned in later/earlier books depending on the order you read them), but I think my favorite little tidbit is that this story was mentioned in The Silver Chair and this (to me) makes the world even richer, to have stories within stories and tales, and mythologies and folk hero's.  A lot of people like to compare these books to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and call them out for being to simple, but I think C.S. Lewis actually does an amazing job with his world building, albeit in a much subtler way then in some of the more epic fantasies.  Ok so this is a true rambling with me just typing random thoughts about this book so I will stop here and tell you that I love this book, just like all the others.  Happy Reading

Do you think things actually written in other time periods is any sort of excuse for stereotypes   Do you prefer simpler short with a straight forward story or do your prefer the more complicated epics with multiple story threads?  Do you like books that reference themselves?  Do I ever make any sense at all?

Puddleglum and Marsh-Wiggle...What Great Words

Woohoo, I actually finished a book this week, given it was a reread, and I know how much I love it, but still a sense of accomplishment non the less.  The Silver Chair is the most quest like of stories in the Chronicles of Narnia and continues the adventures of Eustace Scrubb whom we met in the last book and is joined by Jill Pole in this adventure.

Eustace and Jill (or Scrubb and Pole as they call each other for most of the book) are being tormented by bullies at an experimental school both children are attending.  In desperation they try a gate in a wall that is always locked, of course that would be no fun in an adventure book, so of low and behold the door opens.  The children find themselves in a completely different land, high atop an impossibly tall mountain.  Jill shows of for Eustace by walking the edge of a cliff, but loses her balance.  Eustace grabs her but ends up falling
over the edge himself.  Jill is understandably distraught, between being stuck in this strange land and now her only companion plunging to his doom, and to top it all off a giant lion is between her and the only source of water.  The lion of course turns out to be Aslan, who gives Jill several signs to aid her on her quest to find the missing prince, for that is why Aslan called the children to Narnia.  Aslan sends Jill down the mountain on his breath (he did the same for Eustace, so no smashed children in this story).  They are immediately taken to the castle and told the tragic story of the missing prince.  The King (who is the now elderly Caspian of earlier stories) and his beloved Queen had a son Rilian who was the crown Prince of Narnia.  One day about 10 years prior, the Queen, Prince and a group of people went out for a picnic.  The Queen was tired so they moved away from a little fountain in a glade so she could rest.  The Queen while resting was bitten by a vile green snake and died from the poison.  Rilian vowed revenge and started to seek the snake.  After several weeks of going out on his own the Prince appeared to start acting strangely, claiming to have met a beautiful woman, and then he disappeared and no trace of him appeared in the 10 years hence.  King Caspian and many brave men searched high and low for the missing Prince, but none of them men who sent off to find him ever returned.  With no heir for the kingdom, the elderly King Caspian has set sail for the utter East to ask Aslan who should be King when he is gone.  The children are given to the care of a Marsh-Wiggle named Puddleglum (I just want to say these are

the best type of words ever!)  Puddleglum is a morose frog like man who lives in the cold northern marshes.  While he may be a wet blanket, he proves himself brave, smart and loyal on many occasions.  The group travels north, led by the signs that Aslan has given to Jill.  The farther north they travel, the colder and harder it gets.  They pass by crude giants having rock fights and eventually come to a massive bridge that spans the chasm.  On this bridge they meet a fair lady in a green dress and a knight in who is covered from head to toe in black armour.  The lady tells the group to go to the castle Harfang and present themselves for the Autumn Feast compliments of the Lady of the Green Kirtle.  The children are very excited about the prospect of a warm meal and a bed to sleep in, because no matter how great adventures sound in books, the reality of sleeping on the hard ground in the middle of winter with nothing but the food you hunt to eat is actually kind of miserable.  Puddleglum has his reservations but sticks with the children.  They arrive at the castle and are treated like pets (this is one of my favorite chapters for the descriptions of all the ways they use the giant things for little people).  Eventually they discover that they are actually meant to be made into pie for the feast...to be eaten.  They make their escape and end up very deep underground, captives of the Earthmen, various beings who live deep in the earth.  They are brought to an underground castle and greeted by a human man.  The young man seems odd to the children and he tells them that he is under an enchantment that turns him into a raving madman for one hour every day and that he must be bound to the silver chair to help ease the enchantment.  When the time comes the young man is bound to the chair, but

during his "madness" the group discovers that he is actually the lost Prince Rilian.  They loose the Prince, who promptly destroys the Silver Chair, freeing him from the witches enchantment.  The witch (who turns out to be the fair lady who sent them to the giants to be eaten) returns and is defeated by the group which now includes the Prince. The group quickly makes their way up through the earth, stopping to watch the Earthmen return to their even deeper under ground homes (in which jewels are living and can be squeezed into a juice...awesome!)  The group breaks through to Narnia and Rilian returns just in time to say good-bye to his dying father.  Aslan allows the children to scare the bullies just enough to keep them from hurting anybody else and then returns them to their own home.

Another great entry in the Chronicles of Narnia.  As I said earlier, this is the most traditional "quest" type story, with a very specific set of instructions to follow, and consequences when they are messed up.  I love how CS Lewis shows you the whole world, not just the part that is considered Narnia proper, but the everything surrounding it, this is even more apparent in the next book.  My favorite parts of this book were the idea of being floated down on the breath of Aslan, taking hours to safety reach the ground, it was a trick I used to get myself to sleep when I was younger, imagining I was floating down the mountain.  I love the scenes at the giants castle, mostly 'cause I love stories about giants and how little people adapt to that environment.  I also loved the idea of living jewels and viable metals, great visuals.  I hope you are all enjoying my walk down nostalgia lane, and thank you for bearing with my long-winded ramblings.  Happy Reading!

Annual Feel Good Re-Read Of Happiness.

Hello All, hope you all enjoyed your "finally have an excuse to dress in that weird item of clothing I bought and swore I would wear all the time except for it looks like a weird costume so that is what I wore to take the kids trick or treating" day :-)  I am enjoying all of the awesome pic's of my nephews and friends kids who all happened to dress like superhero's this year, and eating leftover candy for breakfast (hey it's tradition...don't judge). Anyways the season of ghouls and ghosts is over and it is time to turn our thoughts to the holidays and such.  I have to admit, I am ready to take a little breather from all of the horror style death and mayhem and get into some fantasy style death and mayhem :-)

On that note, I am starting my annual Chronicles of Narnia re-read.  I almost always re-read this series after Halloween, it is kind of a palate cleanser from all of the horrific violence, gory deaths, and all around bleakness that pervades the types of books I usually read in October, don't get me wrong, I love my scary horrorish novels, I just am ready for something else.  I love re-reading my Narnia books during this time of year for several reasons. 1) I really, really, really love these books. 2) They take me back to my childhood reading days, and I had an excellent childhood, so it puts me in a more...hmm not sure how to put it...child like frame of mind I guess, ready to look at the holidays with a kid like excitement. 3) My life is hectic on the best of days and the holidays always ramp up my stress levels to 10+ so when I get too crazy I just pull my Narnia out and escape to a very happy place, and since I've read these so many times before I don't get any nasty surprises so my blood pressure usually returns to normal. 4) There short and I've read them before which makes them easy to finish so I feel like I've actually accomplished SOMETHING during the holidays. 5) I really really really love these book!.

So there it is folks, my annual re-read has now commenced.  If you have never read these books before, I highly recommend anyone and everyone picking them up right now...go ahead I'll wait...got them? Great...what you've already read them, awesome then I know you are excited to read them again!  Alright everybody read these at your own pace and we will discuss them later.

Did Hurricane Sandy affect your Halloween plans?  Is your pumpkin a gooey melty smelly mess on your front porch?  Do you have a book/series your re-read on a regular basis?

Dream Come True

Been spending some time with my nephews K-man and R-boy here on the farm and having a great time.  I think my favorite moment is something I have been waiting to do since they were born, I got to sit down and read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to them.  It was so amazing, they both sat and listened and asked and answered questions and really enjoyed it.  This is the first book I remeber reading by myself, and is still my favorite book of all time.  To be able to share it with my nephews is a dream come true.

What book are you dying to read to your kid/grandkid/niece/nephew?   What was the first book you remember reading?  What book was read to you?

Because I Just Can't Wait

No this is not a post about the new Hobbit movie (even though I really really can't wait for that to come out!)  This post is about my frustration in finding a great new series and then having to wait months, or even years for the next book to come out (I'm looking at you George R. R. Martin).  I guess if it took me longer then a couple days to read a book this wouldn't be such a problem, but it still gets frustrating.  To try to alleviate the suffering of my fellow series sufferers I have put together a list of some of my favorite series that are complete, as in if you want (and yes I have done this before) you can go get every book in the series and read them beginning to end, kind of what I do on Netflix when a good TV series gets put on (I'm working on Dr. Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation right now).  Here we go!

Waiting for the next book to come out

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

These books will forever be the beginning of my escape to other worlds.  To this day if I need a happy place this is where I go.  It also has the advantage of all 7 books being a quick read so you don't need to spend weeks on any one book.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I would also include the Hobbit in addition to the trilogy because I think they tie together so well, but I will leave that up to the individual reader.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
I admit this is one of the first series I started before all the books were out, I held of until the first three were out, read them all in a week (didn't shower, eat, or go to work but by golly I got those books read!) and then spent agonizing month waiting with everyone else for the next one to come out only to read it all in one sitting and go through the process all over again. Happily for all you new readers out there you will not have to experience that, you can just go pick up the boxed set.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
Excellent series, one of the first that I have been this excited about in a while, great writer, great stories, great characters AND anybody can read them from your fourth grade boy to your 99 year old great-grandmother.

The Harper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey
This is what got me started into Anne McCaffery and Pern.  If you want to be a tad less confused you can start with the Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy.  She has several books set in this world, but you don't really have to read them in any particular order, you can go escape into this amazing world at any point.

The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce
These are some good books especially for when they were written, a lot of girl power with out drilling it into your head.  It is pretty much your typical knight/quest story, with some very cool twists.  The other ones set in this world: The Immortals Quartet, Protector of the Small Quartet, and the Trickster Duo are all amazing (and complete) as well.  I like these 'cause each heroine is very different from all the others, not always loud and in your face.

The Inkworld Trilogy by Cornelia Funke
This is a book...about a book :-)  This whole series is about people who love books, make books, write books, read books and eventually live in a book!  It gets pretty dark for supposed children's books, but they make for an excellent read...especially if you really love books.

The Myst Reader by David Wingrove
If you haven't figured out the extent of my geekyness by now, this should put the final nail in the coffin.  I used to play all of the Myst games with my Mamma late into the night, so when a book came out we got it on principle.  All three books turned out to be amazing, giving some great background to the game, but more importantly they truly created this peopled world, where the game left it empty and desolate.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
I was very pleasantly surprised by these young adult books.  They have it all, humor, gods, monsters, tears, adventure.  I really like how he modernized the Greek gods in this series, definitely a fresh take on the whole Greek hero on a vase thing. 

The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead
These books are written from a perspective of how the legend of Arthur may have been true.  An almost historical account of survivors from Atlantis all the way through to a modern day rebirth of King Arthur, I found it extremely innovative.  He also has a set of books called the King Raven trilogy about the legend of Robin Hood which is also really good.

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paloni
Here is another guy who took his own sweet time finishing his series, but now that it is finished I have to recommend that everybody read it.  This kid started these books when he was a mere lad of 19!  I also have a soft spot for good Dragon books, and cool sword...and people who live in Montana.

Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Huge nostalgia factor for me with these books.  They are pretty quick to read, and give me a familiar break from my epic stuff I'm usually into.  Plus now I know how to make my own cheese :-)

Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
This is one of my more recent acquisitions. She utilizes a first person view in this set that I really love, and it cuts down on some of the gratuitous landscape description that seems to plague fantasy novels. I love her writing style and have started a second mostly unrelated trilogy of hers as well.

Ok ok I'll stop now.  Hopefully I have given you avid readers a few new options, and if you have any complete series you think I would like feel free to send them my way.

Do you hate it when you get really into a series and have to wait for the next one?  Do you ever go back and reread a series when a new book in it comes out to catch back up?  Have you ever bought a whole series at once?  Are showers really that important in the grand scheme of things? Have I given away the extent of my geeky dorkness?