Review: Warding My House Before I Sleep

I received and read The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett (see his site at www.petervbrett.com), back in December and finished it in the beginning of January when I was visiting the folks in sunny Florida-obviously a late review.

Peter Brett has created a great fantasy novel here. The idea that the coreling demons rise from the ground each night to terrorize those not protected by wards is both clever and terrifying. I found myself actually scooting up to the edge of my seat to read this book when I knew something was about to happen. I would say it gets 4 out of 5 stars from me. 

There is much of this book, let's face it, that is not particularly original to this genre. However, I think the writing is good enough and the story--and it IS a great story that leaves you wanting to find out what happens next-- combined with character development carries the book far and above what I would have thought of it without those elements. 

The story essentially follows three people. First, we have "the Warded Man" himself, our clever, flawed hero who despite "weak" parents, uses his wits and agility to become who he is. The second is our heroine, who could have had a simple life but chose to go against her mother's wishes to become a healer and follow her own path, which in the last quarter of the book crashes smack into the hero's road. He has the chance to come to her rescue and they have the chance to become somewhat romantically linked. Lastly, the third person is the Robin to the Warded Man's Batman, the Sam to our Frodo, the Jimmy to our Superman. He has his sad sack story that he came through by becoming an entertainer and an entertainer so apt, in fact, that he can mesmerize the corelings with his fiddle playing. A skill, as luck would have it that supplements our hero's fighting abilities.

We come to care for these people from their younger years and follow them through the book to where they are, presumably for the rest of the series, as adults. We follow them separately. They don't have overlapping stories from the outset, instead, Brett takes the approach of letting us see them how they developed individually, which will make it interesting to see how they come together later. I'm used, in this genre in particular, to seeing a group "quest" mentality forge the bond that brings the characters together. Whereas here, we see a group that comes together at the end of a book, that must work together for the freedom of humanity.

I'm going to relate one part which is a bit of a spoiler here that I have to criticize. So, you might want to stop reading if you're the sort who gets bent out of shape when spoilers are involved: 

There is a point of the book where our heroine, who has been saving herself until she is 27 years old--and the author does go to some extremes to show how she avoids getting herself romantically attached to at least one suitor and save herself, gets raped by thugs on the road. This is the part of the whole book that played the most contrived and stiffly for me. There was all this build-up of her saving herself and then when it was over there was a little bit of "soreness" when she was walking afterward. For the most part, she was right back to being normal and very soon thereafter, she was wanting to share her bed with the hero. The emotional build-up of her saving herself only to lose her virginity by being violently gang-raped and then to not emotionally react to it very much at all, rang a little untrue for me. It made me wonder if that rape was thrown in at the last minute, like maybe Brett planned for her to go to The Warded Man a virgin for some story reason? Not sure, I just didn't like it.

As a side note, there is some discussion how the author wrote this book "by thumb," that is to say, on a personal hand-held device on his way to and from work on public transportation. I am in awe. I take public transportation in Chicago and know how distracting the train and/or buses can be. The people, the herky-jerky action of the sardine-packed containers hauling us all back and forth from our homes to offices and back again? Awful. So, I admit, it makes me like him more. I hope he can get himself a parking spot and not deal with the distractions but at the same time, I envy him his escape from it all. So, I'll escape to his world and read his books on the El if he keeps writing the rest of them in this series this well.

If you couldn't already tell, I'm looking forward to the next book in this series already. I want to know what happens to these characters. Luckily, I don't think I'll have to wait too long because apparently we may be lucky enough to get the next book in the series in December 2009. 

Happy reading!

DOLLHOUSE coming soon, et al

Frank sent an email recently pointing to an i09 article about the sexuality of Dollhouse, which I do plan to watch. I really don't care. I like pretty much everything that Joss Whedon has touched.

Speaking of Mr. Whedon, AMC is having a contest as to who is hotter, Hans (Star Wars) or Mal (Firefly/Serenity). I voted for Mal, but that's just me. Vote here.

Lastly I got an email last night from someone in Chicago who was waiting for a friend at Barleycorn's in Wrigleyville that is one of my favorites I've ever gotten, it goes like this:
[The guy]'s late but there was a singing chicken telegram. (and then the guys next to me decided to order chicken strips and somehow I ended up with a free beer). I LOVE this city!!

L-O-S-T, Season 5, Episode 4 (The Little Prince)

First of, let's start with Doc Jensen's review
______________________

Niel got us started this week's discussion:

JIN IS ALIVE! and once again finds himself stuck with a group that he cannot understand nor they him....Plus he is with a group of French scientist, so you know first sign of trouble and they will give up. You can also hear the numbers being repeated when one of Le Frogs is playing with the radio. So now we have Charlotte, Miles and Juliet all suffering from the island nose bleeds and Daniel asking Miles "are you sure you have never been to this island before" ??? And we have a new group possibly from Aijira airlines who made some outriggers and drank all the Dharma beer. Other than finding Jin adrift, there wasn't too much to this episode I thought. The numbers popped up all over the place in this episode. And for Alison, the attorney that you could not place is from My So Called Life.

Review: A Non-Cringeworthy Historical Romance

I was recommended the book, Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati, and was recommended the series, in fact, by a fellow LT reader based on my appreciation of the Diana Gabaldon, Outlander series. Thank you! I'm not much of a historical romance reader, unless done well (as an example, I wasn't particularly fond of the series that begins with Knight Errant, by R Garcia Y Robertson-though I do applaud the idea of his story, and the heroine is compelling.) However, the writing of Ms. Lippi is excellent and very reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon's style.

For me, Elizabeth "Boots" Bonner's journey into the new world and her strength and intelligence encourage the reader to appreciate and identify with her character the way I typically don't identify with most romance heroines. The challenges she and her husband face together are surmountable when they work together to outwit their foes.

I did have a "come on!" moment at the end of the book when I learned that Daniel is likely the heir to a Scottish Earldom, but decided I didn't care, at least as it related to the end of the this book. I enjoyed the rest of the book too much. But now I'm waiting to read the next ones (which I couldn't find in the bookstore).

Review: Unfortunate Read

The book, A Fortunate Age, by Joanna Smith Rakoff, follows a group of friends from Oberlin through the morass of their daily lives, by looking at the group of friends one at a time, one chapter at a time.

The book is well-written, hence my 3-star rating on some other sites and thumbs slightly down here, and I'm sure it has an audience but I'm not it. I pretty much hated every single character and was annoyed with how they related to one another within the group. I had to force myself to finish it. I am not a fan of the whiny, misunderstood, lazy Gen X-er spirit portrayed here. As a Gen-Xer myself, I feel like I know these people and their ilk and they annoy me in real life. Why would I want to read about them too? It did not help the book's cause for me.

I also had a problem with this author's portrayal of New York as one of the characters in the book. I think it is fine to do that if you make the city relevant for everyone. I live in Chicago, so even though it took me a while to catch on to what she was saying about a particular area, eventually I did identify with the neighborhoods the author describes as similar to some from here (even if I don't know the specific New York area she might be talking about). But, it annoyed me to think that people outside of cities would be at a loss to "get" a whole character in the book, even if that character is a city.

I won't be recommending this to anyone.

L-O-S-T, Season 5, Episode 3 (Jughead)

First, start with Doc Jenson's review.

____________________________

JJ Started Us Off Again:

Widmore.


hey everyone. last nights ep was kind of boring for me through some of it and i was kind of expecting a bit more to happen really. it was a Desmond ep, which are almost always the best ones and Jensen teased it up pretty good, so i was really wanting a lot of heavy mental fixation. well, it lagged for me in those areas, until the end and then my brained melted. WIDMORE.

So, most of the episode felt a lot like distraction: John needing to speak with Richard, the dudes they captured speaking Latin, the focus on Faraday and Charlotte and Miles on the island, Desmond trying to locate Faraday's mom, and of course the "Jughead" A-bomb. all of it was rendered totally as nothing more than set up or truly as distraction once two things happen: first that Richard refers to the young soldier (soldier costumes - trick #1) with "Jones" on his shirt (Trick #2) as WIDMORE. well this changes about a dozen things that we have discussed here on our emails. We have been presuming for a long time that Widmore was Dharma and his war with Ben is over Benry killing all the Dharma peeps. at least i did! well, if we see Widmore as an Other when he is young in 1954, then that chnages EVERYTHING on that front.... when we see Widmore in this episode, is he the chosen one for Jacob at that time and Richard is training him up to be top dog? does Widmore take over later and then BENRY is chosen in his place, starting their fued -- like first Widmore is Jacob's boy, then Benry replaces him and then Locke replaces Benry? does this set up some sort of chain of accepted as special, but then rejected later recurring history of embittered fallen leaders on the island, all of whom want their place and the island back? or does Widmore wish he had been chosen by Jacob, thought he was going to be (like Locke) but wasn't, and now he is bitter? was Penny born on the island, and if so how? when did Widmore leave the island and why? since Widmore was once an Other, how in the world did he have a Dharma 2nd Protocol directive to have ready for Keamy on the frieghter? i am wondering if Widmore was an other, was kicked out of the others and then started the Dharma Initiative as a Trojan Horse to find it again, control it and wipe out the Others for exiling him... but who knows.


mind scrambler number two: Locke telling Richard about himself and when he's born.... is John really special or chosen at all? did this exchange actually propel Richard forward to seeking out Locke when he never would have at all if not for this conversation? why does John look so old if he's only 48 years old? and here's an even bigger one: Widmore interacted with Juliet, Sawyer, Miles, Charlotte, Faraday, and Locke in this episode. once Charles Widmore is off the island, does he use this knowledge to track all of these people and in their pre-Flight 815 lives to see WHEN they crash on the island and he is ready to kick things into action right then to sink the fake plane, and ready the frieghter to locate it? has he been watching the Losties since before any of them were born because of the interactions that happened in this episode? all of that is so crazy if that's the case.... are the Others and the the Losties one different strings in time that overlap, so they can changed one another's paths, but not their own, i wonder...


and finally, Desmond and Penny named their son Charles aka Charlie.... after both Charles Widmore and Charlie Pace... or is little Charlie Hume really old Charles Widmore as a boy and he'll end up on the island with Des and Penny in the past as the island loops in time and then grow up there like Ben among the Others. maybe we could guess that Penny is not his daughter, but maybe he learns that she's his mother and he's been protecting and steering his own mother all his life and making sure Desmond meets her and they fall in love, but also that he makes it to the island first before truly ending up with her, so he will then father Charles and take him to the island as a boy to grow up into the Charles Widmore we have been seeing. ha! wrap your head around that!!!

New L-O-S-T Tonight

First off, from last week, check out J Wood's take on the first two episodes.

JJ:

new L O S T episode tonight at 8pm central. (last weeks "The Lie" episode will re-air before it at 7pm)

if anyone wants to, Doc Jensen has a tease article for tonight's ep on ew.com, but i warn you, it was pretty complicated. i didn't understand a quarter of it. talk with you kids tomorrow!

Niel:

Jay and Jack Lost Podcast have once again seen tonights episode before us and have claimed it is one of Jay's favorites.