Oblivion by Anthony Horowitz

5

(Read October)

I’ve been waiting for this book so long that the day it arrived I couldn’t bear to do anything else. Anyone who has read these books (or frankly, ANY of his books) can attest to the fact of how long he takes to publish them. This is the last in a 5 book series, with the fourth book having been published in 2008…that’s four years of waiting for one book. I hoped it was worth it.

In general, I’m going to have to say it was. The book was true to form in terms of quality of writing and imagery, and it managed to bring you back up to speed without the necessity of reading all the books again, which I definitely appreciated. It also began with a really nice twist that prevented him from copping out on something he was in his rights to do. Yet this ‘twist’ also meant he could revamp the story- give it a different setting, a different feel, and also a much greater urgency and challenge. I don’t want to say what it was, since I really liked the feeling when I found out, but I’ll just say that in no way could on predict it.

Getting to the story itself…uh. Mr. Horowitz really knows how to keep me on edge. Anyone who has read some of my other reviews can attest to how much I love (adore, desire, need) the fantasy “power” element in these kinds of books. They will either make or break the book for me, because they need to be grand, majestic and powerful without being showy and over-the-top. What can I say, I’m a hard man to please. But I meet my match in this man. Whenever he does the scenes with the powers, I can hardly contain my delight and my squeals of glee, but, knowing this, he very rarely let’s me have this feeling but because I love it that much, I would read on longer (lacking any part with powers) to ultimately reach that moment when I manage to squeeze some more of the unearthly delight out of him. It’s exhausting and wonderful all at the same time.

What’s a really well-done part in this book is the dystopian side of things too. The Old Ones have really gone to town on the world and it’s nice to see supernatural abilities in a decrepit, dystopian settings [1]. I’ve come to love survival type shows and scenarios during my hiatus, and dystopia offers a really nice outlet for this.

My opinion of the characters hasn’t changed. I still like Scarlet, Jaime and Richard but I find Matt increasingly frustrating. I do still lack him but, gah! That boy needs a slap across the face sometimes. My recollection of this book was also that not much time was spent exploring the characters. They had their moments and their conversations, and every few chapters we change perspectives so we can always see what they’re thinking, but I didn’t learn much else about them and it was relatively minor as a part of the book.

As with the Rise of Nine, the ending was disappointing for me. It was tremendously well-written. I’ve never been so sickened and heart-broken and moved by a YA-style book. I also kind of think this relatively traumatic ending coloured the rest of the ending for me- I wasn’t over it by the time the book ended. But in other ways, it was a little rushed and predictable. It seems that something that had happened previously was rendered obsolete for the sake of plot. But like I said, I’m a bit biased.

I loved these books: I love this book. I’d recommend anyone to read them, and I’d physically drag them around the store until they stepped out, the series in hand. But at the same time, I’m going to warn you. You get attached to the characters, even if sometimes you find them annoying or too quiet: maybe because of everything they have to go through. And then this book goes and snaps your heart in too, a malicious gleam in its eye, and blood dripping from it’s monster of a mouth. And crazily, you’ll love it while you’re hating it.

[1] If I was to ever write a book or a story, this is exactly the kind of thing I would write. I’ve known this for nigh on 4 years now. Funny, huh? J

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Part of the Austen in August event hosted by Roofbeamreader.net. (Master post link.)

4
Persuasion follows Anne Elliot, the second daughter of conceited baron, and the less beautiful daughter. It follows her life in the usual Austen style of dealing with her family as a socially over-concious body and her own personal life, with the usual period emphasis on her getting married or at least finding potential suitors.

Despite that rather vague and perhaps dull little analogy, I adored this book. For me, it was so very much like Pride and Prejudice in terms of Anne and Elizabeth being similar and the story itself even sharing some similarities. Now these comparisons are very general and it is definitely not the same story, but as a general feeling for the book, it is so much like Austen's most famous novel that I think any fans of that book could feel safe to pick up this one and enjoy it.

In contrast to Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion is probably darker. It isn't really a dark book, but some parts suggest a more cultured character who sees the poverty and suffering around her- at least more than I remember Elizabeth doing- and someone who is more directly affected by evil times and nefarious people.

It's a little predictable at times. Perhaps it's a familiarity with Austen's novels, or perhaps it was me comparing it to Pride and Prejudice, but whatever it happened to be, it made the book less of a surprise but nonetheless enjoyable. Frankly, I read Austen's books because I love how she writes and how she can so aptly draw me into a story which on the outside would, to me, perhaps seem superficial and not work minutes, let alone hours, of my time. But Austen succeeds in crafting masterpieces that I love reading.

And more so than the other books I've read, I think one can see the influence and reason for the title of this book. Persuasion is a central feature in this book from early on and it is through persuasion, coercion, subtlety and even deception that the main characters work and the consequence of these actions have a number of reprecussions throughout the entire book.

Another interesting theme in the book is that of the Navy. They feature as the primary source of love interests for the characters, and the scorn of those characters Austen designates as distasteful, but not antagonists. Reading up on it, it transpires that Austen's brothers were of the Navy themselves and so it for that reason that she included and made such an exploration of them here.

Despite my perhaps rambly yet short review, I do believe that this is a quite excellent Austen novel and is one that anyone who start with Pride and Prejudice should definitely check out! (At least for the sake of discussing with me, since I could be under a self-imposed illusion!)

Friday Hop Sept

Q: It’s Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. so we want to know what you are Thankful for – blogging related of course! Who has helped you out along the way? What books are you thankful for reading?

I hate these questions. I ain't too great at being thankful and heartfelt. I'm just not generally good at emotion full stop. So when I hear this, I think of everyone who might expect me to mention them. But I don't wnat to do that, I want to try and be honest. So I decided I'd go for the one person I'm most thankful for in the blogosphere.

Karen. At For What It's Worth or @teamsheltie on Twitter.

I have bloggers I like, respect, read and feel I owe some of my tact and blogging ways to (I really do. If I haven't mentioned anyone and they feel left out, know that I you are all the jam on my bread. You make blogging this sweet experience), but that fine lady above encouraged me to go one step further and actually do a blog. You may all laugh and guffaw whilst reading, and tell your loved ones over dinner how monumentally bad this blog is, but I don't mind. Karen encouraged me to do this, and I love the dimension it adds to my life and outlook. Joining the blogging universe in the concrete way of starting a blog is like buying a house in the nieghbourhood you've always wanted to live in. The people are better than expected, it's comfortable and you don't need to worry about how things are going because this such a big change that you know things will work out as they're supposed to.

Part of doing this meant getting over that original fear and idea about blogging. It was scary. It was constant judgement, perhaps ridicule, in an environment that the whole 7 billion people of the world could potentially see. How do I overcome that? Stepping stones. Karen let me guest post and it sort of chased away my lingering demons. It was nice and even though I cannot physically keep guest posting for her, she can quite easily claim any of my post as her own, any book or any statement, since I owe her a whole bunch.

And she sent me Enclave. Winning a book makes me love anyone, but I adored that it led to conversations and surpassed the simple "Thansk for the book I won". I'm eternally grateful.

When You're Not Reading: What occupies your time 

when your nose isn't stuck in a book?

Just to get the obvious out of the way: school. I spend probably a third (if not more) of my week doing school related things. Homework, going to school, extra-ciricular or revision.

But if I get the time, I am- like many teenagers- quite a keen gamer. I haven't done a great deal recently, but I do do it in spurts when I have a particular game I like. I don't like shooters- the ones you hear about all the time- rather I like RPGs (Role Playing Games). I have the belief that a good RPG is like a good book. It completely immerses you in an alternate reality where you can do and experience the impossible. It's not for everyone, but I can personally see the parallels. Also, it's nice to be able to have something I love on multiple levels (Re: fantasy).

I also try and do exercise. Mostly it's just personal cardio, but I'm thinking about running properly. I started a while ago but gave up because of time constraints. It won't come about in the near furture but I hope it does soon. And I'm not fitness-mad. It's just that I like to graze on food while doing things and grazing is kind of a bad habit that I can't break. Instead, I just try to stay ahead of it.

My more interesting hobbies include:

- Taekwondo (I tell you, I'm not fitness-mad!) but not as much as I used to. My club closed down so it's mostly just a bit of practise every now and then.

- I write a little. I'm not a great writer; I'm more a good ideas person. Still, I don't have a creative outlet so I need something. I avoid poetry like the plague, but a bit of fiction never hurt anybody! Also, I can't draw. My 10 year old cousin draws better than I can ever hope to. I'm also in the school newspaper, but it's early days.

-  Probably my most unique thing is that I study Ancient Greek Classics (the language), and I don't even go to public school! It's so hard, and I tweet about it and complain, but's it's something I'm proud of for its innate quirkiness. And I can say things in Greek that are stupid, but sound impressive!

- I also really like casual learning. (Goodness I'm boring). It just means I try to learn a new concept (science, philosophy, psychology, writing, you name it!) each week and then test myself on them at the end of the month. I enjoy the challenge.

Besides other things like shopping, film and (obviously) blogging, there's not much else. Reading is kind of a dominant feature in my life.