The Dwarves Markus Heitz
I'm a total troll and when I see one of my friends post that
they're reading a book I sometimes look it up to see if it would interest me.
This one did so I put it on my wish list and, low and behold, it ended up under
the Christmas tree!
I really enjoyed it a lot. You don't often see fantasy epics told from the Dwarf perspective and it's a great change of pace. It follows the pattern of most epic tales but with plenty of unique elements to make it fresh including a "zombie" type of threat, an evil cousin race to the Elves called the Älfar, different rules for magic use which is important nowadays, and a more elaborate vision of Dwarven culture and civilization. It's somewhat slow moving at the beginning but I don't mind that when the story is being artfully sculpted and the characters are engaging. It makes use of people with unusual trades that you don't expect to see in this kind of tale. The objective sought is an ultimate weapon instead of a magic object which is also a nice change. And there are plenty of twists ... some are predictable but some genuinely caught me by surprise and there was enough suspense to keep it interesting from start to finish. I think I'll definitely pursue the sequels.
I really enjoyed it a lot. You don't often see fantasy epics told from the Dwarf perspective and it's a great change of pace. It follows the pattern of most epic tales but with plenty of unique elements to make it fresh including a "zombie" type of threat, an evil cousin race to the Elves called the Älfar, different rules for magic use which is important nowadays, and a more elaborate vision of Dwarven culture and civilization. It's somewhat slow moving at the beginning but I don't mind that when the story is being artfully sculpted and the characters are engaging. It makes use of people with unusual trades that you don't expect to see in this kind of tale. The objective sought is an ultimate weapon instead of a magic object which is also a nice change. And there are plenty of twists ... some are predictable but some genuinely caught me by surprise and there was enough suspense to keep it interesting from start to finish. I think I'll definitely pursue the sequels.
Mark Twain For Cat Lovers
I'm not a big Twain fan but I love cats and so did he. Anyone who loves cats can understand the need to just talk about them and their unique personality quirks. This book is a compilation of Twain's cat anecdotes. Most of them are derived from his autobiographical works and there are also vignettes from his fiction works as well as a few notes regarding Mark Twain and his cats from reporters, friends, and family. All of them are very short... sometimes just a sentence or two. And in one case after reading a short scene about a cat from one of his fictional works, there follows his telling of the back story behind the scene.
After reading this I even think his autobiographical accounts may be interesting... or maybe it's just the subject matter of cats. Like I said, I'm not a Twain fan (which is almost sacrilege since half of my blood comes from Hannibal, MO, lol) although he's extremely quotable and I appreciate the humor now that I'm an adult, Many of these stories are humorous. However, the editor that pieced them together is a huge Twain fan and I think sometimes he would excise the cat content without considering that the reader may not fully understand the context from which it came because they've not read everything Twain like he has. It's not quite as good as James Herriot's Cat Stories, but no matter. These anecdotal books give the brain a nice break from long elaborate stories and there are several within that I really liked.
I'm not a big Twain fan but I love cats and so did he. Anyone who loves cats can understand the need to just talk about them and their unique personality quirks. This book is a compilation of Twain's cat anecdotes. Most of them are derived from his autobiographical works and there are also vignettes from his fiction works as well as a few notes regarding Mark Twain and his cats from reporters, friends, and family. All of them are very short... sometimes just a sentence or two. And in one case after reading a short scene about a cat from one of his fictional works, there follows his telling of the back story behind the scene.
After reading this I even think his autobiographical accounts may be interesting... or maybe it's just the subject matter of cats. Like I said, I'm not a Twain fan (which is almost sacrilege since half of my blood comes from Hannibal, MO, lol) although he's extremely quotable and I appreciate the humor now that I'm an adult, Many of these stories are humorous. However, the editor that pieced them together is a huge Twain fan and I think sometimes he would excise the cat content without considering that the reader may not fully understand the context from which it came because they've not read everything Twain like he has. It's not quite as good as James Herriot's Cat Stories, but no matter. These anecdotal books give the brain a nice break from long elaborate stories and there are several within that I really liked.
1984
Just finished 1984 the other
day. Had to mull over it for a while
before I could find a good way to describe it. It was an interesting read, to
say the least.
Dark, grim, graphic and disturbing on many
levels, 1984 is probably Orwell's best known catharsis. Like most of these classic works, it has a
pessimistic view of the future. It was
written in 1949, and I wonder if Orwell had lived, if his perspective would've
changed a little. I think he would be impressed at the true successes of
American capitalism and the good it's done in the world and how the core of our
Constitution had prevented an automatonic state of mankind, evil with no hope
of getting it right, especially throughout the 1980's and the real 1984. I think he would also feel some relief that
the road to this conclusion is a very, very long one that can be sabotaged by
altruism.
Many of the vignettes painted in this book are
exaggerated and, I think, definitely impossible to actually occur at any time,
and yet I know that many of the abuses portrayed have occurred in the past and
are occurring even now in closed off nations.
You'd have to read it yourself to see the differences, but there is
definitely a prophetic tone to it, even if some parts of it could never come to
be. He over-thought some of his concepts
and they became rather complicated. I
think he would be shocked and alarmed at the fact that it is a lot easier to
manage a command and control society when it done under the radar. Would he recognize political correctness as
"newspeak" and the means of controlling thoughts? Would he recognize our mainstream news media
as the willing and eager proprietors of "doublethink"? Would he see the slow and camouflaged cancer
in our academic systems that is a much more efficient replacement for the
"Spies" and the teaching of "Hate"? Would he recognize the
Feminist movement as the agent that brings further enmity between men and women
instead of chastity? Of course he would,
but I think he'd be surprised to realize that more progress can be made from
leaders that claim to champion a utopia of peace instead of unending war. And he would realize that Christianity is not
the basis for this sort of society, as many people still mistake it to be.
The book follows the awakening of the main
character (played by John Hurt in the movie) and his attempt to break free from the system and fight Big Brother,
only to be caught and brainwashed into getting his mind right. It is thoroughly depressing and I don't
recommend it for anyone who is going into it without an analytical
mindset. However, it is well written
- simply in three parts that are easy to follow and not very long.
No comments:
Post a Comment