Kiwie: Haaaaaaai!
Katastrofekat: Yo!
Katastrofekat: So, Lolita then?
Kiwie: Yeah, what did you think about the read?
Katastrofekat: It was an okay book, but it was a bit longer than what I feel it should have been.
Katastrofekat: You?
Kiwie: Agreed, some parts were just too dragged out for my tastes. Like when they were driving around the country and Humbert Humbert (H.H) was basically just listing a lot of places and mentioning a thing here and a thing there. I just skimmed those pages and put the book down for a couple of days before I continued.
Katastrofekat: Same here.
Kiwie Kristine: This is really one of those books that I liked more after I was done and had a think than during. Not that it was bad, it was just tough to get through, not just because of the writing, but also the "romance" between H.H and a girl who is 12 at the start...
Katastrofekat: That is true. Also, I kind of whis we could have gotten to know Lolita a bit better. She just was around a lot, but I don't think she had that much of a personality
Kiwie: Yeah, but that's the nature of a first-person narrative we only see people through the narrator and he didn't bother getting to know her at all. She liked movies and boys as far as he was concerned. Of course she was broken throughout and possbly hid her personality well.
Katastrofekat: Yeah, how can you not be broken if you grow up with a mother that resents you. No wonder she wanted to be loved, no matter how wrong the romance might have been
Kiwie: Yeah, and what we learn about her when H.H visits her with her new husband is equally disturbing, she really didn't have a chance, unless she got though and just let it happen. She seems a bit emotionally crippled to me, very no-nonsense. She bartered with H.H "I do this and you give me that," so she must have had an end in mind too.
Katastrofekat: She can't have had an easy life, no matter how though she got. I did like who H.H started to lose his mind when they were on their second trip through America. When he saw people following them.
Kiwie: I liked that too, when he was falling apart was great, getting paranoid, making up advanced scemes etc. We know he was in mental health institutions several times during his life and it wasn't until the end he himself truly realised how sick he was. Earlier he'd brush it off as if it was just exhaustion or something, but the really started to lose it when he got paranoid.
Katastrofekat: One thing that really annoyed me was when he narrated the story and suddenly changed to french. I had french for three years and I still didn't understand enough to actually know what he meant by it. I wish he could have stuck to english or at least translated the french in footnotes or something. I felt like I was missing stuff and that was really annoying.
Kiwie: Ugh, the french! I used google translate for some parts, made noe more sense with that... He also threw in some german and latin for good measure. Frustrating!
Kiwie: Well, some of it made sense, but sometimes he used his pet names for Lolita there as well and google translate was all "WTF?"
Katastrofekat: Yeah. Even though I liked the book, I didn't like it quite enough to actually bother with google translate.
Kiwie: I hate feeling left out...
Katastrofekat: Oh, the pet names! Omg, that girl had to many names if you ask me...
Kiwie: Yeah, and he couldn't keep other people straight either! I know he was making up names for them, but dude, stick to the same ones for the same people! He was too meticulous about the other stuff to not be able to do it (as a narrator).
Katastrofekat: In the start of the book I had trouble figuring out who he was talking about, when he called both Lolita and her mother by their last name.
Kiwie: Yeah. Everything was jumbled (and I guess it was so in H.H mind too, but I don't think that's an excuse for overdoing it Nabokov!)
Kiwie Kristine: H.H is an pretentious ass and that made it hard to read too sometimes. All those french philosophers and what nots.
Katastrofekat: Yes! That's excatly what he was. The story he told us was very interesting and disturbing at the same time, but I had a hard time relating to him at all.
Kiwie: I did a little research (okay, wikipedia) and there is apparently an annotated version that explains stuff (especially references to other things and I'm sure I only picked up on the Poe related ones...). I think that would have been more fun to read, this isn't exactly the kind of story that drags you into it anyway, the interruption would probalby be welcome. The story is interesting, and I loved how it started out as a defence of his actions and ended up as a confession of his sins instead. That is brilliant story-telling and perfect use of the first-person!
Katastrofekat: Yeah, I think I would have liked to read that version as well, as I felt kind of stupid at times while reading, since there obviously was stuff I was missing out on. I agree, the story-telling was good and this book wouldn't have worked as well if it wasn't written in the first-person. I'm glad to have read it, as I now will be able to get Lolita references but it won't be a book I will be in a hurry to read again.
Kiwie: Nothing is more annoying than when you know you don't get it. It's like banging your head against a wall. I won't re-read either I think. I do have a penchant for unlikeable main characters, but not the perverted ones. Tip of the hat to Nabokov though, he wrote a pretty good and unredeemable guy, who I think appears to be a good example of the pervert (as shown in the media at least), only with a different narrative. Nabokov gets a lot of it right, but also makes H.H annoying and in fact as childish as the child he abuses sometimes makes the novels somewhat annoying as well.
Katastrofekat: That's right, Nabokov wrote this book very well. Also, This is a main character I'm actually glad not to be able to relate to, if you know what I mean.
Kiwie: Haha, yeah, I'd be pretty disturbed at myself if I read it an thoguht "hey, that H.H's on to something!"
Katastrofekat: Ai, that would be pretty bad!
Kiwie: This could be a book peple get suspected pervs to read and go "so what did you think?" and if they liked H.H: lock em up!
Sunday, 16 June 2013
June #1 pick: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Author: Neil Gaiman
First Published: June 2013
What goodreads has to say about it:
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac - as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark, from storytelling genius Neil Gaiman. It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it.
His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.
Why we chose this book and what we expect
It is a Gaiman novel. We don't really need any other reason as he's among our very favorite authors. Also the cover is really pretty.
Kiwie: Gaiman has a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf so when he comes out with a new novel I'm going to read it. Easy as pie! I don't have any particular expectations other than that, hopefully, I'll like it or even better, love it. It sounds interesting at least.
Katastrofekat:
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Conversation about Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angels
We had a little chat about the novel:
Katastrofekat: any thoughts?
Kiwie: Plenty, just, hard to sort out, there is some good and some bad in this novel. I read it really really fast considering how long it was.
Katastrofekat: Yeah, I think I read it in two days, so not the most complex book, but a lot of action. I liked that there wasn't much wasted time
Kiwie: True. A good light entertaining read, but not much more is sort of what I'm thinking.
Katastrofekat: Yes, I was thinking along those lines. Not my favourite main character though
Kiwie: No, Tessa was not interesting, nor developed enough I think. She just came over from New York, got kidnapped and it didn't seem to affect her much at all, other than that shes thought she looked bad after. Which is never a good place to start with a character. She is distraught over her brother, but oh, she knew all along what he was like and didn't do anything about it till the end. I wanted to slap her so many times.
Katastrofekat: Haha, maybe it would have done her some good! And she said she was distraught over her brother, but to me it seemed a bit like she forgot him whenever Will was in the same room as her. Also, I don't like the constant pining that seems to be in all young adult books theses days!
Kiwie: Yes! She kept forgetting about her brother, who according to her was all she had left, you wouldn't do that would you? Especially not when you don't know if he's a live or not, and then it took her ages to catch onto him in the end. Not a very good mind on her. Ugh. Pining, don't get me started. Fancying someone is alright, but do you really have to be so dramatic about it? I knows she's only, what sixteen, but come on. Just because someone is pretty and stuff you don't have to swoon and fall for them in a heartbeat.
Katastrofekat: If someone is all you have in the world, you damn well don't forget them! I might have found it more believable if she cared about her brother but had her doubts about him before she left New York. Yeah. Sure, you might fall for someone, but that doesn't mean you change your entire person. Also, if you live with your crush, fucking talk to him, instead of just thinking about it!
Kiwie: She just seems so emotionally unreal, and then there is the whole "proper lady do's and don'ts" that crop up, most of it from Jessamine, but some from Tessa, and she's supposed to change and she becomes more kick-ass throughout, but I didn't feel as if a lot changed inside her before she slightly broke at the end.
The shadowhunters were interesting though, I liked them, though perhaps not all their personalities. Herondale was just too obvious, and ugh, I hate too obvious. Charlotte and Jem were more interesting I think. It's just that Tessa seemed to trust them because they were pretty, which brings us back to how annoying she was, ha-ha.
Katastrofekat: Yeah. I actually kind of liked Jessamine better, at least she knew what she wanted and acted accordingly.
The shadowhunters fascinated me and I really want to know more about the downworlders and their underground world! I liked Charlotte and Jem as well, and I wish we got to know them a bit better. Since all Tessa could think about was her brother and Will, I felt like a big part of the world was left out of the picture.
Kiwie: True, but at least her brother was plot related, the whole "I think I'm in love with Will, maybe that other angel-boy who is dying is also totally hot though?" = COMPLETELY UNINTERESTING. I understand characters falling in love and having a love life, or just wanting sex, but this isn't that. It's something else I think, maybe. Actually, I'm not sure what the plot was. Was it her missing brother and her mystic ability, was it her relationships with people or was it just something bad is stirring among the mundanes and downworlders hate shadowhunters?
Katastrofekat: Yes, true. And she didn't really get to know any of them, she just thought they were pretty, and that kind of gets to me. She might have an underdeveloped personality, but because of that, everyone else seemed kind of one dimensional as well. I felt like the author wasn't too sure about what the plot was either, and maybe she tried to make it character driven instead, but didn't quite make it? The book felt very much like an introduction to the world the whole way through
Kiwie: "Oh, they're pretty," *swoon* was it. Will could quite poetry, and that was basically why she liked him in addition to the pretty. Then he was mean and cruel (which we understand as it is spelled out for us on multiple occasions is a defence mechanism) to her, teasing her and things. One would think that would give her a reality check.
If this was supposed to be character driven if failed, it also felt like an introduction to a potentially interesting world, and I've read that this is her second series in the same one, and I don't know, shouldn't it be more developed and more quickly explained? Tessa was reading that damn Codex throughout! It went very slow even though she got thrown into it and should have gotten some education by the Shadowhunters first thing, not just Will throwing a book at her, and a few bits of information from the others, yet she learnt all about Sophie and Jem for instance.
Katastrofekat: This book was the first one to come out, if I have understood it correctly. The other series, The Mortal Instruments is a prequel series, but this book was the first one.
Kiwie: Oh, okay. I just saw a listing online and TMI were listed first
Kiwie: Nope, just checked, the first TMI came out in 2007, this came out three years later.
Katastrofekat: Okay, right. But you are right. It was an okay read, but didn't quite live up to expectations. I wanted more from the book. Also, the clockwork angel, it was always there, and that one time it was interesting, we didn't get to know what the deal was, and when the action died down, it was forgotten.
Kiwie: Yes! Tessa didn't even seem slightly curious! She got saved by her necklace! Come on! "my angel" was everything she said about it.
The next one better be about her parents, and the angel and other things or this series will be progressing in the wrong direction... I liked the novel as I read it, it was light and enjoyable, but often annoying, however I'll be reading the next one soon I think.
Katastrofekat: Yeah, that is true. I liked the book, but when I think back at it, I see the faults better then when I read it. The book wasn't my favourite, but it was only parts that really annoyed me while reading it and the world have a lot of potential, so I want to keep reading the series.
Kiwie: It seemed alright when I read it, but this whole conversation shows that I liked it less than I thought. Which is how it is with books (and life) some things are better in hindsight and some are worse. I think I'll finish the series, but not continue reading Cassandra Clare after that. I also think that I prefer adult supernatural romance to the teen version, at least there they get laid & kick-ass at the same time...
Katastrofekat: I like that! I think that pretty much concludes it.
Kiwie: Yeah. I could add that the whole "set in London" thing is pointless. That the city air isn't fresh and the Thames is dirty as fuck and some names does not create a setting...
Katastrofekat: Right. The only thing about the setting is that it isn't where Tessa grew up. Besides that, pointless.
Katastrofekat: any thoughts?
Kiwie: Plenty, just, hard to sort out, there is some good and some bad in this novel. I read it really really fast considering how long it was.
Katastrofekat: Yeah, I think I read it in two days, so not the most complex book, but a lot of action. I liked that there wasn't much wasted time
Kiwie: True. A good light entertaining read, but not much more is sort of what I'm thinking.
Katastrofekat: Yes, I was thinking along those lines. Not my favourite main character though
Kiwie: No, Tessa was not interesting, nor developed enough I think. She just came over from New York, got kidnapped and it didn't seem to affect her much at all, other than that shes thought she looked bad after. Which is never a good place to start with a character. She is distraught over her brother, but oh, she knew all along what he was like and didn't do anything about it till the end. I wanted to slap her so many times.
Katastrofekat: Haha, maybe it would have done her some good! And she said she was distraught over her brother, but to me it seemed a bit like she forgot him whenever Will was in the same room as her. Also, I don't like the constant pining that seems to be in all young adult books theses days!
Kiwie: Yes! She kept forgetting about her brother, who according to her was all she had left, you wouldn't do that would you? Especially not when you don't know if he's a live or not, and then it took her ages to catch onto him in the end. Not a very good mind on her. Ugh. Pining, don't get me started. Fancying someone is alright, but do you really have to be so dramatic about it? I knows she's only, what sixteen, but come on. Just because someone is pretty and stuff you don't have to swoon and fall for them in a heartbeat.
Katastrofekat: If someone is all you have in the world, you damn well don't forget them! I might have found it more believable if she cared about her brother but had her doubts about him before she left New York. Yeah. Sure, you might fall for someone, but that doesn't mean you change your entire person. Also, if you live with your crush, fucking talk to him, instead of just thinking about it!
Kiwie: She just seems so emotionally unreal, and then there is the whole "proper lady do's and don'ts" that crop up, most of it from Jessamine, but some from Tessa, and she's supposed to change and she becomes more kick-ass throughout, but I didn't feel as if a lot changed inside her before she slightly broke at the end.
The shadowhunters were interesting though, I liked them, though perhaps not all their personalities. Herondale was just too obvious, and ugh, I hate too obvious. Charlotte and Jem were more interesting I think. It's just that Tessa seemed to trust them because they were pretty, which brings us back to how annoying she was, ha-ha.
Katastrofekat: Yeah. I actually kind of liked Jessamine better, at least she knew what she wanted and acted accordingly.
The shadowhunters fascinated me and I really want to know more about the downworlders and their underground world! I liked Charlotte and Jem as well, and I wish we got to know them a bit better. Since all Tessa could think about was her brother and Will, I felt like a big part of the world was left out of the picture.
Kiwie: True, but at least her brother was plot related, the whole "I think I'm in love with Will, maybe that other angel-boy who is dying is also totally hot though?" = COMPLETELY UNINTERESTING. I understand characters falling in love and having a love life, or just wanting sex, but this isn't that. It's something else I think, maybe. Actually, I'm not sure what the plot was. Was it her missing brother and her mystic ability, was it her relationships with people or was it just something bad is stirring among the mundanes and downworlders hate shadowhunters?
Katastrofekat: Yes, true. And she didn't really get to know any of them, she just thought they were pretty, and that kind of gets to me. She might have an underdeveloped personality, but because of that, everyone else seemed kind of one dimensional as well. I felt like the author wasn't too sure about what the plot was either, and maybe she tried to make it character driven instead, but didn't quite make it? The book felt very much like an introduction to the world the whole way through
Kiwie: "Oh, they're pretty," *swoon* was it. Will could quite poetry, and that was basically why she liked him in addition to the pretty. Then he was mean and cruel (which we understand as it is spelled out for us on multiple occasions is a defence mechanism) to her, teasing her and things. One would think that would give her a reality check.
If this was supposed to be character driven if failed, it also felt like an introduction to a potentially interesting world, and I've read that this is her second series in the same one, and I don't know, shouldn't it be more developed and more quickly explained? Tessa was reading that damn Codex throughout! It went very slow even though she got thrown into it and should have gotten some education by the Shadowhunters first thing, not just Will throwing a book at her, and a few bits of information from the others, yet she learnt all about Sophie and Jem for instance.
Katastrofekat: This book was the first one to come out, if I have understood it correctly. The other series, The Mortal Instruments is a prequel series, but this book was the first one.
Kiwie: Oh, okay. I just saw a listing online and TMI were listed first
Kiwie: Nope, just checked, the first TMI came out in 2007, this came out three years later.
Katastrofekat: Okay, right. But you are right. It was an okay read, but didn't quite live up to expectations. I wanted more from the book. Also, the clockwork angel, it was always there, and that one time it was interesting, we didn't get to know what the deal was, and when the action died down, it was forgotten.
Kiwie: Yes! Tessa didn't even seem slightly curious! She got saved by her necklace! Come on! "my angel" was everything she said about it.
The next one better be about her parents, and the angel and other things or this series will be progressing in the wrong direction... I liked the novel as I read it, it was light and enjoyable, but often annoying, however I'll be reading the next one soon I think.
Katastrofekat: Yeah, that is true. I liked the book, but when I think back at it, I see the faults better then when I read it. The book wasn't my favourite, but it was only parts that really annoyed me while reading it and the world have a lot of potential, so I want to keep reading the series.
Kiwie: It seemed alright when I read it, but this whole conversation shows that I liked it less than I thought. Which is how it is with books (and life) some things are better in hindsight and some are worse. I think I'll finish the series, but not continue reading Cassandra Clare after that. I also think that I prefer adult supernatural romance to the teen version, at least there they get laid & kick-ass at the same time...
Katastrofekat: I like that! I think that pretty much concludes it.
Kiwie: Yeah. I could add that the whole "set in London" thing is pointless. That the city air isn't fresh and the Thames is dirty as fuck and some names does not create a setting...
Katastrofekat: Right. The only thing about the setting is that it isn't where Tessa grew up. Besides that, pointless.
Monday, 15 April 2013
May novel: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokof
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
First Published: 1955
What Goodreads says about the book:
Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.
Why we chose this book and what we expect:
It's a classic and we wanted to read something different this time.
Kiwie:
I don't expect much, other than what is probably an interesting story? I just want to read it to have read it so to speak. I feel like there is a Lolita shaped hole in my literary education (many other holes too of course) and I feel like filling it just about now. I already know the story so well, but I haven't got a first hand experience of it, so I thought I should.
Katastrofekat:
I don't have many expectations and don't really know that much about the story other than a few things, so I'm going into this book pretty blank. I have it on my e-reader and thought I should read it some day and this is a very good excuse. Not that I need an excuse to read!
Monday, 1 April 2013
Post-read post: Every Day
What to say about this book? I laughed, I cried, I rolled my eyes and I loved it. That does not mean that this is a book without problems, because there are so-so many. If you like David Levithan, you'll probably like this too, because I think that without that fact I wouldn't.
I love the idea of waking up in a different body every day, and I hate it too. It is a fun thought experiment, but I wonder if this should have been turned into a novel.
Upside: It preaches a lot of tolerance. The genderlessness of A is really awesome, because gender is very much a body thing, if it wasn't for our bodies it would be just a personality thing. This part of the novel I love love love. It is also funny (did I mention that already?).
Downside: A really does not have a lot of insight into things, and a lot of the bodies A wake up in seem unreal. Also: I CANNOT IGNORE THE LACK OF ANSWER TO WHY!!!!!! Seriously. I hate that. There is so much goodness in this concept that just isn't realized.
It has so much great stuff going for it, some of the lives we peer into are awesome, and A falling in love and breaking all their rules. Then there is the stalking of the love interest, stalking is not cute, it is creepy. You do not have to see your loved one every day (intended) okay? Especially not when the person you are in love with wants you to back off. If the feeling is mutual? Go ahead, if it isn't? You're violating some privacy.
So it is an enjoyable novel, it is interesting as a concept, but it fails along the way. The writing is decent enough, but the stalking, the fact that we learn nothing of why A is like that, and very little of the "bad guy" is so fucking annoying. So in the end it comes down to this:
Read it if you liked Levithan & if you can keep yourself from thinking too much. Otherwise? Don't. It is a very quick read though. I finished it in February, it is the writing of the "review" that has been troublesome.
Best Wishes,
Kiwie
I love the idea of waking up in a different body every day, and I hate it too. It is a fun thought experiment, but I wonder if this should have been turned into a novel.
Upside: It preaches a lot of tolerance. The genderlessness of A is really awesome, because gender is very much a body thing, if it wasn't for our bodies it would be just a personality thing. This part of the novel I love love love. It is also funny (did I mention that already?).
Downside: A really does not have a lot of insight into things, and a lot of the bodies A wake up in seem unreal. Also: I CANNOT IGNORE THE LACK OF ANSWER TO WHY!!!!!! Seriously. I hate that. There is so much goodness in this concept that just isn't realized.
It has so much great stuff going for it, some of the lives we peer into are awesome, and A falling in love and breaking all their rules. Then there is the stalking of the love interest, stalking is not cute, it is creepy. You do not have to see your loved one every day (intended) okay? Especially not when the person you are in love with wants you to back off. If the feeling is mutual? Go ahead, if it isn't? You're violating some privacy.
So it is an enjoyable novel, it is interesting as a concept, but it fails along the way. The writing is decent enough, but the stalking, the fact that we learn nothing of why A is like that, and very little of the "bad guy" is so fucking annoying. So in the end it comes down to this:
Read it if you liked Levithan & if you can keep yourself from thinking too much. Otherwise? Don't. It is a very quick read though. I finished it in February, it is the writing of the "review" that has been troublesome.
Best Wishes,
Kiwie
Sunday, 24 March 2013
April book pick: Clockwork Angel
Title:
Clockwork Angel
Author:
Cassandra Clare
First
published: 2010
What goodreads says about the book:
Magic
is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.
When
sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother,
her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria,
and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld,
where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit
streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the
world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.
Kidnapped by the
mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The
Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder
with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another
person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the
Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his
own.
Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the
Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother
if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself
fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose
fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose
caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's
length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them
deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the
Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between
saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . .
and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.
Why
we choose this book and what we expect:
We
choose this book because it has been on both our to-read-lists for a
while, and when Cassandra Clare is on book tour with the last book in
this series, we thought this would be a good time to read it.
Katastrofekat:
I
really don't know what I expect from this book, other then a new
world where monsters are real and anything can happen. I hope the
book is exciting and hard to put down, and I hope that this book will
make me want to read the rest of the series.
Kiwie:
Why not. Really, that's all I've got to say about this one. Once upon a time I had a real reason why, when I saw it, read a blurb or something and decided: Yes, why not, this looks like a novel for me. Okay, maybe I do have a reason: Victorian England! My favorite (fictional) time & place. Also vampires. I'd kill to be a vampire (pun intended/I mean this literally). Also they have a pandemonium club, I don't know what that is, but it sounds awesome.
Thursday, 31 January 2013
What did we think about Clockwork Angels?
Katastrofekat:
When I first started to read the prologue in this book, I was slightly worried this would be another one of these books you want to like, but just can't get properly into. But after the prologue it got better. The universe in this book was really interesting and even though the main character was a bit boring at times, it was interesting to see the world through his eyes. Since Owen Hardy, the main character, has lived a very sheltered life, everything in this world is as new to him as it is to us, and Owens optimistic view on life colours all his experiences. I liked the conflict in the book, how Owen was a symbol for making your own choices and that choosing between two extremes isn't always the wisest thing to do.
I liked the pace of the story and would have liked to learn more about some of the pople Owen meets and learn more about some of the places he goes. One thing that bothered me a bit, was that no matter what Owen did, everything always seemed to work out for the best. Those few times he really was in trouble, we just skipped over the problem, moved farther ahead in the story and continued when everything was alright again.
I feelt like the book was a good length, but at the same time, I wish we could get to know more about some of the things that was only hinted at, like the theories about other worlds and the myths about the Seven Cities.
When I was reading the book, it was entertaining and I wanted to continue reading, but as soon as I put the book down, I found it hard to pick it back up. That is why it only gets a three star rating. I liked the book, but the story didn't suck me in enough to get me to pick up the book every day.
Kiwie:
This was a quick read, once I got into it I read it in large chunks and spent less than a week on it. The main character has faith in the Watchmaker and expects his future to be what he has decided, as manager of an apple orchard, marrying to the lovely Lavinia and that will be that. A comfortable, unexciting life. Good, if a little boring. Owen Hardy is a dreamer, and his late mother left behind a lot of books that he treasures and loves reading.
When you turn seventeen you are an adult, and Owen is sixteen and ready to be an adult, he just wants to be a little mischievous first, a little turns into a lot and he finds himself traveling, meeting strangers, joining a circus (which incidentally seems to be a theme in the books I'm reading these days. If only real circuses were anything like those in books), seeing the world and finding himself in the midst of a game, a pawn of no importance or possibly all the importance in the world. As if these adventures weren't hard enough he is after all a teenage boy and what would a story like this be without a little romance? The loss of virginity and some heartbreak?
This is no way a brilliant book, but it is a nice one, and the world Owen Hardy inhabits is interesting, recognizable and foreign. Order and chaos in extremes and so forth. It is a play with ideas as well as a fantastical coming of age story.
I only wish there were more pirates.
When I first started to read the prologue in this book, I was slightly worried this would be another one of these books you want to like, but just can't get properly into. But after the prologue it got better. The universe in this book was really interesting and even though the main character was a bit boring at times, it was interesting to see the world through his eyes. Since Owen Hardy, the main character, has lived a very sheltered life, everything in this world is as new to him as it is to us, and Owens optimistic view on life colours all his experiences. I liked the conflict in the book, how Owen was a symbol for making your own choices and that choosing between two extremes isn't always the wisest thing to do.
I liked the pace of the story and would have liked to learn more about some of the pople Owen meets and learn more about some of the places he goes. One thing that bothered me a bit, was that no matter what Owen did, everything always seemed to work out for the best. Those few times he really was in trouble, we just skipped over the problem, moved farther ahead in the story and continued when everything was alright again.
I feelt like the book was a good length, but at the same time, I wish we could get to know more about some of the things that was only hinted at, like the theories about other worlds and the myths about the Seven Cities.
When I was reading the book, it was entertaining and I wanted to continue reading, but as soon as I put the book down, I found it hard to pick it back up. That is why it only gets a three star rating. I liked the book, but the story didn't suck me in enough to get me to pick up the book every day.
Kiwie:
This was a quick read, once I got into it I read it in large chunks and spent less than a week on it. The main character has faith in the Watchmaker and expects his future to be what he has decided, as manager of an apple orchard, marrying to the lovely Lavinia and that will be that. A comfortable, unexciting life. Good, if a little boring. Owen Hardy is a dreamer, and his late mother left behind a lot of books that he treasures and loves reading.
When you turn seventeen you are an adult, and Owen is sixteen and ready to be an adult, he just wants to be a little mischievous first, a little turns into a lot and he finds himself traveling, meeting strangers, joining a circus (which incidentally seems to be a theme in the books I'm reading these days. If only real circuses were anything like those in books), seeing the world and finding himself in the midst of a game, a pawn of no importance or possibly all the importance in the world. As if these adventures weren't hard enough he is after all a teenage boy and what would a story like this be without a little romance? The loss of virginity and some heartbreak?
This is no way a brilliant book, but it is a nice one, and the world Owen Hardy inhabits is interesting, recognizable and foreign. Order and chaos in extremes and so forth. It is a play with ideas as well as a fantastical coming of age story.
I only wish there were more pirates.
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