Posts Tagged "Fantasy"

What was once your life is now your legend.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

Eragon is a simple country boy. Born and raised in the small village of Caravahall, Eragon believes that his destiny is simple - to follow in the footsteps of his father, farming the land for a living, marrying a simple country girl and seeing no more of the Empire than as far as the next town. Yet there is something different about Eragon. He doesn’t look like his father, and he is the only villager game enough to go hunting in the mountainous forest known as the Spine. Creepy and menacing, everything in the spine belongs to the King. When Eragon sets off to go hunting one night, his whole life is about to change.

Thousands of miles away, three elves from Ellesmera are desperately trying to outrun a Shade and his Urgal companion. An almost impossible feat when that Shade is Durza, filled to the brim with demonic spirits. Arya, leader of the elves, is carrying a stone more precious than her own life. In a last attempt to not let this stone fall into the hands of Durza, and in turn the King, Arya sends the stone by magic to Caravahall. But not everything goes as planned. The stone does not go to Caravhall where it was meant to, but lands in the Spine, in the exact position where Eragon is hunting.

Bringing the stone back with him to his father’s small homestead, Eragon soon discovers that the stone, in fact, is an egg. A dragon’s egg. An egg that isn’t meant to exist. And when more of his world starts falling apart – the death of his supposed father, the town being invaded by the King’s soldiers, and the betrayal by the local butcher – Eragon works out what they are looking for. Him. With the company of Caravahall’s mysterious storyteller who knows more about dragon’s than anyone else, Eragon sets out on a mission to find the only people who can help him – the last remnants of the freedom fighters, known only to members of the Empire as the Varden.

Along the way Eragon must learn how to protect himself and his dragon if they want any chance of survival. Eragon becomes proficient with the sword, refines his archery skills and is schooled in the Ancient Language – the basis of all magic. With each step, Eragon is carving out his own destiny and creating a legend. A legend that the King will stop at nothing to destroy.

Eragon is the first book in the Inheritance Cycle by author Christopher Paolini, and while at first glance has many similarities to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – the same three races, development of a language and an epic quest to defeat a dark overlord – the depth of the characters and the style interactions between the three races creates a fresh, new world that creates an epic fantasy for a younger generation. To me, I loved Eragon. It captured me from the fast-paced and intense prologue to the climatic ending that has you right in the thick of the action. Paolini’s style captivates the imagination, including just the right about of description to leave the settings and action up to the reader’s interpretation.

I love books that keep you reading, that are easy to read and aren’t a chore. Eragon defiantly fell into this category for me. Anything that I can fall into the world of the book and feel that it is reality for a short space of time, to me is a success on the part of the author.

Fast-paced and action-packed, Eragon does not disappoint.

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“It happened before. Burnt Mountain, Alaska. Novosibirsk, Siberia. Now it’s about to happen to a thriving city. Crack the code…or tomorrow is history…”

Auckland, New Zealand. A city with a population of 1.3 million. 25^th December. Already, 50 000 people have just vanished into a mystery white fog. They were never seen again. Their town was surrounded by white fog which defied gravity and wind, with whispers of ‘snowmen’ coming from the very few survivors. No one who goes in, comes out. No electrical transmissions can find their way through the storm, and nothing New Zealand authorities do can seem to stop the fog.

Imagine that you’re the only one who knew this was about to happen. Imagine that you’re the only one who has a chance of stopping it from happening again. Imagine that you had discovered a way to receive messages from the future and no one would believe you. Imagine that the fate of the civilization of the world could rest on how quick you can crack the code. Everything is stacked against you, you’re a teenager still in school, not old enough to be considered seriously, you have a mother that is only interested in the next episode of her favorite soap opera on TV and every minute that goes past is another death that could have been prevented.

This is Tane and Rebecca’s reality. Months earlier, Tane and Rebecca discovered a way to read messages that were transmitted through time. Messages coded and hidden in gamma ray bursts that are recorded by high-tech NASA space equipment, only you invented and discovered the program to read these messages. The messages that are decoded spell out a bleak future for live on earth. Receiving instructions from their future selves, Tane and Rebecca face a race against the clock to try and get the New Zealand and International military and bio-medical forces to listen to them. Every instruction that they have followed from these coded messages has been correct. From winning the lottery as a test, to breaking into NASA’s top-secret internet files, each step brings you closer to either saving humanity, or watching it descend further into chaos and destruction. Whispers of the Chimera Project that must be stopped, cryptic instructions for a device to send information to the future and juggling sudden millionaire status are just some of the issues that Tane and Rebecca have to deal with on a daily basis.

And this is only the beginning.

The Tomorrow Code is Brian Falkner’s first young adult novel, with three children’s novels being published prior to this. The style of writing and the way in with Falkner deals with some difficult concepts is remarkable. When talking about science, quantum foam and biology, it is easy to get lost in the technical terms, yet Falkner allows the reader to sympathise with either of the two main characters. Rebecca is the brains, the science and math whiz who more often than not is the one talking and explaining the technical jargon while Tane is the creative soul and often, like me, doesn’t have a clue what Rebecca is saying, yet somehow works it out in more simple and creative terms. Rather than subtracting from the plot, this actually adds to the sense of urgency and mystery of the novel. In all, I liked this novel, it captured my interest from the beginning and it was an easy read that I didn’t have to struggle through. The characters were interesting, plot well developed and style captivating from the first page to the end.

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Patrick Ness has announced on his website that on August 3, 2009, he’ll be announcing the title for the third Chaos Walking book. For those of you that read the interview we did with Patrick recently will know that everything about the third novel has been kept top secret. That includes the title. So, as you can imagine, we’re very excited about this!

Stay tuned for the announcement!

Has anyone seen this cover?

I can’t tell you how much I want to get my hands on a copy of this novel. How brilliant is this picture? The artist in question should be taking a bow, if you ask me. I can’t remember the last time I went so nuts over the cover of a novel. I’d buy it just for the cover alone, which actually supports my theory that people DO judge books by their cover. Period.

Becca Fitzpatrick has the whole package thing working for her, though, and Hush Hush actually sounds like a decent read. Check the synopsis from amazon:

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.

With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

How COOL is the name Patch? I think I’m in love already!

Lucius opened his mouth slightly, and I felt the faintest touch of his fangs touching my skin just above the spot where my blood pulsed strongest.

His fangs…

I didn’t care it if was irrational. I didn’t care if it was impossible. I just wanted to feel them. I needed them, like I’ve never needed anything in my whole life. In my mouth, my own teeth began to ache. That delicious, delirious agony of something struggling so hard to be born.

When Lucius rocks into town, declaring that he’s a vampire and Jessica is his betrothed (and also a vampire), Jessica tells the big tall Romanian guy to take a hike. I mean, come on, vampires? Insert big, loud snorting noise here. Jessica isn’t buying it, not even when her parents encourage her to listen to Lucius’s story, especially the part about the whole betrothed stuff.

But vampires aren’t real. Right? Right. So that means that her parents must have gone crazy, and the guy with the hypnotizing stare and ancient disposition must be some kind of crack pot. And Jess can’t be a vamp. She’s lived in her body her whole life. She’d know about something like that, right? But then Jess’s parents invite him to stay with them for as long as he needs, and Jessica thinks that maybe her parents have gone a little mad too.

Lucius enrols at her school and wins everyone over. Well, everyone with ovaries, anyway. He follows Jess everywhere, holds the door open for her, buys her lunch, defends her honor – gah! It’s just so frustrating and Jess wonders why he just can’t leave her alone?

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what the hell Jessica’s problem is. If a really hot, European guy ambled into town and told me that he wanted me to be his princess, my reaction would be the exact opposite of Jess’s. But Jess has her reasons, or reason, rather, and his name is Jake.

Jake isn’t anything like Lucius. He’s American, for one. He doesn’t have any of that European allure that Lucius has, but he’s nice. And he likes Jess. Enter love triangle here.

In terms of character, I found Jess annoying. I found being inside her head incredibly frustrating and I almost wished – no, I definitely wished – that this story had been told through Lucius’s perspective. I hated her naivety. Sure, if someone told me that they were a vampire I wouldn’t believe them either. But when the proof is presented in front of you and you just keep denying and denying and denying on the surface when deep down you really believe, well, that just gets annoying. And I really hated that Jess decided she wanted Lucius when she realized he no longer wanted her. Even though I hated all these things about her, I was compelled to keep reading.

I did, however, love Lucius. Not at first – I needed some convincing – but after a hundred pages or so, I was sold. I loved his rebellious streak; I loved his old manner. I loved how he chose the one girl he knew Jessica would hate him to fraternize with.

The cover is beautiful, although the guy who is obviously supposed to be Lucius reminds me a little of the Count from Sesame Street. What do you think?

I’m pretty sure fans of teen vampire books will want to give this one a go. Make sure you tell us what you think!

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