The Magicians Guild

I have started reading the Magicians Guild. It is the first book of the Black Magician trilogy. In the beginning of the story it doesn't really give you any background; you are just thrown into a scene and you are slowly introduced to characters as they arrive in the story. I thought this was a nice approach but it did lead to some confusion at time. I would find myself going back a few paragraphs or even a few pages to try and get the characters sorted out. I kept feeling like I needed to reread; like I had missed something. I would also get confused whenever the writer would switch from one story line in one paragraph and then jump to another one in the very next paragraph. Sometimes when this happened I wouldn't realize it and would get confused about which characters I was currently reading about. The way it was written reminded me of a film. For example in a movie a cut to a different time line would be completely normal. You don't need any cluse or dividers because you see it visually. The idea of dropping the reader into the story without any background also reminded me of a film. Just last week I went and saw the new James Bond movie and that is exactly how it started out. It just dropped the viewer into an action scene without any background and let you find your way as you go. Even though I did get a bit confused a times I really found myself sucked into the story. So far there are no boring parts to this story. It has basically been non stop action the entire time. Because it doesn't really take time to explain everything and lets you just discover things as you go, it feels very fast paced and keeps my attention quite easily.

I am Legend

This weekend I listened to the I am Legend Audiobook. I saw the movie adaptation whenever it came out and I really enjoyed it. After reading the book however I do believe the original written version was far better. It was definitely far more creepy. The scene where Neville has just buried his wife and then she shows up pawing at the front door was one of my favorites. It is rare that a book can work up my anticipation scare me as much or more than film can. I liked that in the book Neville is not a scientist previous to the breakout as he was in the movie. He is self taught from going to the library and conducting his own experiments. The biggest difference and the part that really made the book so much better than the movie was the ending. I'm usually a sucker for happy endings, and while the movie ending wasn't completely sunshine and rainbows it didn't compare to the book ending. It completely twisted from what I was expecting. Neville had been killing all of the living vampires that he could during the day, knowing/thinking that they would eventually become the full on living dead vampire. And while Neville is doing this you don't have any problem with it; it makes perfect sense to you. Then in the end it turns everything around on you. These living vampire have found a way to keep from dying and have been starting a new civilization. Neville has actually become the monster. He is no longer the normal but the weird. And he has been slaughtering these people in their sleep who have been trying to start a new civilization.

The Hobbit

I remember when I was probably about five my older brother tried reading The Hobbit to me but I was to young to understand anything. I remember he spent about an hour trying to explain how hobbits lived in the side of hills and I just couldn't grasp the idea of a round door with a door knob in the middle. This summer my dad bought me a copy at a used book store and this second attempt has been much more successful than the last. I have seen all of the Lord of the Rings movies but never read any of the books. It is interesting to see Tolkien's style of writing and the mood that he develops in his stories; and then contrast that with the how his style is portrayed in film. I really enjoyed the fact that Tolkien was literally created a world for his stories. In the front of the copy I have is a map of the land where the stories take place. Every time a location was mentioned in the book I found myself flipping to the map to see what they were talking about. As a Graphic Design major I've learned to always look for ways to engage the user. This going back and forth between the book and map almost seems like a really early/simple version of an interactive feature. Maybe even a pre pre pre pre courser to video games. I am only about half way through the book so far but I will definitely be finishing it before I go to see the movie version that will be coming out soon. I believe that it will be really interesting to contrast the two. Hopefully it will not be disappointing.

Space Opera: In class writing assignment

David is a 17 year old kid on the planet Kahooi. He is just finishing up his basic schooling and wants to join the voyage space academy as soon as he turns 18. This is unlikly however because his father is expecting him to take on more responsibility in the "family business." His family is a sort of mafia. They control most of the crime and illegal activities on Kahooi. David is very upset by the fact that he will not be allowed to join the voyage space academy and decides to go visit the neighboring planet Potar with his friends (who are also a part of the mafia) to blow off some steam. David is not supposed to visit Potar because it is the home of a rivalry mafia family that would certainly kill David if they realized he was on their territory. He goes to a party being held by the rivalry family on a space yacht ship. This is a costume party (some sort of weird mask technology that actually changes your facial appearance). He meets a girl there and she turns out to be the daughter of the rival family's leader. David ends up kissing her that night and they are of course in love. They continue seeing each other despite the deadly rivalry between their families. At this point in time that the story is set in there are actually businesses who will kill people who want to commit suicide but don't want to do it themselves. Kari fakes her death so that she will be able to be with David. You know the rest....

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn

I chose to read some stories from Kwaidan this week. I read The Story of Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi, Diplomacy, Of a Mirror and a Bell, Jikininki,Mujina, and Rokura-Kubi. While I do my best to stay away from horror in any form, (novel, movie, haunted houses) from what I have seen and read it seems that most horror stories today try to scare people more through disgust and gore than through suspense and an actual scary story line. These short stories however did not use gore to try and scare the reader at all. This may be attributed to the fact that these stories were merely meant to be a recording of Japanese horror stories not to actually scare anyone. I can imagine when these stories were actually being told in their original setting that they may have been more "gored up" to get the point across more effectively.

My favorite story from the ones I read was Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi. Even though these stories lacked in any super descriptive details and were just bare stories, this particular story seriously freaked me out. The idea of being blind(extremely vulnerable) and thinking that you are performing music for a room full of hospitable people when in actuality you are sitting outdoors in a cemetery surrounded by glowing flame spirits who want to hurt you is terrifying. The ending where the spirit comes and rips the ears off of the old man while the old man just sits there meditating was the scariest scene out of any of the stories I read in my opinion. 

Another one of the stories that I really enjoyed was the Rokura-Kubi. I have a vietnamese friend who had told me about these creatures that have detachable heads that we had seen in a movie, so actually reading the story for myself was really exciting.

Monster Island by David Wellington

I chose to do the alternative reading this week which was David Wellington's Monster Island.
I have never read a novel in this format before and it was an interesting experience. Because each "chapter" is written separately as a blog post, each chapter seems to be a short story by itself. This makes for a fast paced book that really keeps your attention.

Although I only had time to make it through the first two sections I was very intrigued and will certainly be going back to the rest of it. While it certainly isn't a super well written literary piece it is fun to read. There is constant action and lots of intertwining story lines. It will jump from one character to another with no evident connection, but the story lines slowly come come closer until the 2 characters are interacting with each other. This happened with the main character and the half human half zombie character.

This half human half zombie character has without a doubt been my favorite part of this story so far. It is a point of view that I have never encountered before. The point of view of a zombie story is always a human who is caught in the middle of spread of zombies, slashing through them without question. While that more common point of view is found in the story and the mind of zombie character is not technically completely zombie it was still sort of refreshing to get a new perspective in scenario I've heard a hundred times.

I also found it interesting that some of the story takes place in Africa. Every zombie story I have ever heard or seen has either taken place in the US or in Europe somewhere. In the story in mentions that the third world nations who had already been in turmoil and civil war were the only ones who were prepared for what happened. Theses countries already had large stockpiles of guns and ammunition, and were used to constant combat in there own backyards. I had honestly never thought about what would happen in other areas of the world during a zombie apocalypse.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I attempted to read this book in high school and remember losing interest within the first 2 chapters. I was expecting the same experience this time but was surprised. Frankenstein was one of the original Gothic horror stories. Its has all of the archetypes of a gothic novel including  the virgin maiden (Frankensteins adopted sister), the tyrant (Frankenstein's creation), and of course the hero (Frankenstein).

 I found the relationship between Frankenstein and his creature particularly appealing. I have heard the basic story of Frankenstein 100 times and in my mind I always pictured Frankenstein's creation as the heartless, dumb, monster; and pictured Frankenstein as a victim. After reading the story I realize this is not the case at all. Frankenstein creates a living creature that is so hideous that no one will even give him a chance to be a good person, and then on top of this Frankenstein refuses to give love to, communicate with, or acknowledge  his creation in any way besides condemning him.

This book makes you question what really defines a monster. Is a monster just someone/something that is physically inhuman, ugly, or gross? Or maybe a monster is someone who is more emotionally and psychologically inhuman and ugly.

The creation is always referred to as the monster because of his appearance and his arguably understandable response(murder) to the way people are treating him. It seems to me though that Frankenstein is far more monster like; he gives life to something and refuses to give the creature any chance of living a happy or at all satisfying life. Even when he has the opportunity and is in the process of making a mate for the creature he changes his mind at the last moment. He has basically created a creature to be tortured and miserable for as long as it lives.

Something else that I noticed different in the book than from what I have always heard was that Frankenstein's creation was not only capable of speaking, but was extremely well spoken. I have always pictured the creation in my head as a grunting fool who couldn't form any words, and this was certainly not the case in the book.