The goldfinch: brave new worlds

In The goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Theo decker has no family, apart from his grandparents that is. But even they can hardly be counted as that, with the recent death of his mother they has been staying with the family of a friend from school untill other arangements can be found.

        Theo is altogether miserable. After all, anyone in his place would be. You've lost your mother, your father hasn't been heard from in years, you barley know your grandparents (you never really got along in the first place). With the grandparents claiming to be unable to care for theo due to recent illness, the question is raised as to whether theo will eventually stay with them, or go to an orphanage. Neither prospect seems appealing.

     Scince the attack on the museum, theo has also been thinking about the man who gave him the ring, "Hobart and Blackwell, Ring the green bell" the man had said. Being one of the few things he remembered clearly from those few hours in the museum, Theo looked up the address and stopped by after school one day. Upon seeing the ring, Mr Hobart let Theo In immediately. They talked Theo met the late Mr Blackwell's nice, badly injured in the explosion. And immediately got along with the both of them.

    This was the start of a new existence for Theo, as he became fascinated with the business of antiques and restoration run by mr Hobart. He began to feel happier, he had finally discovered (I'm sure many of you can relate to this moment) good work in good company. This world was an oasis. He told no one about it. none of the therapists, none of the social workers, none of the teachers. And that world was his own. The book is very engaging and is starting to take on some real depth. I'm excited to see where the story goes.

The Goldfinch: A Ring to Remember

       Although I am not very far into "The Goldfinch" by Dona Tartt, the story is already developing. Despite the vast amounts of time we all seem to have nowadays between school, work, and more school, I sadly haven't made a habit of reading may books of the particular style represented in The Goldfinch, so there's not much I can say in the way of comparison to it's fellow works of literature. I CAN however, say the at one particular aspect within the story has intrigued me.

     After the explosion in the museum, Theo , the main character, talks to an injured and dying old man. Theo ends up taking the man's ring. Theo then keeps it with him. when asked about it later he doesn't really know himself why he kept it, but lies and says it's belonged in his family for generations. Theo's attachment to the ring is an interesting  if trivial detail in the story. The implications of this detail, they reach far beyond the object's size. Theo has just lost his entire world. he lived with his mom, who died in the explosion, and his dad was nowhere to be found. The only relatives he has left are his grandparents, people who he barely knows, people who he never liked to begin with, people who don't really seem to want him anyway. Theo's keeping of the ring signifies his connection to the people in the museum who died, as well as the fact that Theo wants to have a connection, a family, anyone and anything other than what he's got right now. this could foreshadow events that take place in the book and lead Theo to be stuck in Amsterdam where we found him at the start of the book. The Goldfinch is a book that I'd definitely recommend. so until next time, Ive got a book to read.    

The goldfinch

The newest book I've begun to read is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

   The book starts in Amsterdam. Athough little is revealed at first, Theo Decker (our protagonist) seems to be stuck there. He remembers his mother_dead fourteen years. And we're plunged into the story, in his with grade year when an art galery that the was visiting was bombed.

The story is has an intriguing plottline and holds particular relevance in light of remembering  the boston marathon bombing, and other tragedies. Tartt's novel has so far been extreemely interest interesting, and I expect it to be a great work of fiction.

Drift wars by Brett James: Down the Rabbit Hole

      It's been about a week scince my last post and id like to thank all the people who made comments on my previous post on Drift Wars. While many of you were interested in the novel, many also wished that I'd given a little more detail.

   Never fear, the Drift wars are still here. having finished the brief story by brett james, I can say that the story develops very quickly into an engaging work of literature. the story is well worth a read  and although I don't want to give away too much, I'll say that theworld is almost copletely flipped upside down. just read it and you'll see.

Drift Wars, by Brett James

     Today, I stareted reading the book Drift Wars, by Brett James. This story, though short seems to be  an interesting read.

         In James's 380 page novel Peter Garvey is droped into a Halo-like world, we follow him into his first battle as a marine against the Riel, a coalition of two alien species that are fighting against humanity in the drift, a region that is darker than the rest of dpace due to the lower number of stars in the reigeon. However, as the story progresses, not all is as it seems.

Read it to find out more.

A Quick Recap.

     I think I've already said enough about this book in the past few weeks, but while I'm look ing of a new book to read, I thought I'd go over it once more.

     Robopoccalypse was unique, it's story and characters are well written, and are a bit of a departure from what I've come to expect in sci-fi books. Nevertheless I enjoyed it. One thing that has recently been on my mind is that a lot of books seem to be almost exactly the same, I have been looking for books that show this originality. Robopoccalypse is in my opinion a great show of talent and I would gladly recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi.

Any book suggestions would also be apreciated :)

Breaking the Mold (Robopoccalypse by Daniel H. Wilson)

A unique apocalypse book.

     An oxymoron I know, but Robopoccpcalypse has managed to break free from all the post-apocalyptic doom by machines and/or zombies books. the author, Daniel H. Wilson employes  a few plot devices to make his story stand out.

       There is the the idea that it is a history book, composed of third, and first person accounts of the events that took place. this also divides the book into several main storylines. this allows Wilson to give voice to many, varied perspectives while outlining the important events and eliminating any unnecessary or details of day to day life that could make the book too tedious to continue reading. This of course brings us to the characters.  

     Characters define a book. their choices and interactions drive the story and it's progress. they're one of the simplest and most reliable ways to separate good authors from amazing ones. in this book I daresay Mr. Wilson has succeeded. the characters so far have been week developed, and they all seem too have a relatable air to them. I'll avoid specifics so as not to give away the story, but I can say that I look forward to seeing how the story progresses.

Robopocalypse: A Book About A Book?

First of all I'd like to thank all the people who've recommended books, sometimes it seems impossible to find a good book and recommendations really do help steer you in the right direction. The book Robopocalypse has been sitting on my shelf for sometime now, and after many recommendations, I finally decided to take a look.

        The beginning is fairly typical for a book of this type and tittle, you open at the end of a huge war against a super-intelegent super computer that tried to wipe out the entire human race.

        However after the initial introduction you discover that Robopocalypse is in fact a book about a book. This premise surprised me. after all, sudden and unexpected bookception is not something that you see in most works of fiction. Although I've heard about it before, this is the only novel of it's kind and specific style that I know of. I found the originality delightfully refreshing in a world where every other book is full of sappy romance and revolts against futuristic dystopian governments. and the other half are made up of unrealistic or uninventive books. works with real intelegance and originality seem few and far between.

       The book is in essance a full transcription of the robot's uprising and attack on humanity recorded by a robot whose only purpose seems to have been to preserve a record of their history. Having only read the first few chapters I can only say that this looks to bee a promising and entertaining book.

In Between Books... Any Suggestions?

  
   There's a new trimester beginning and finally I have the time, and the freedom to write something moderately interesting! Having finished a book recently I thought that this would be a good time to ask for recommendations, and requests.

    I'll be searching goodreads and the ibooks store for interesting looking tittles, but if there's anything you think I should look at please tell me. so far I will probably go with a scifi or fiction adventure. this is what I have so far.

. Drift wars by Brett James
. Daemon by Daniel Suarez
. The Maze Runner by James Dashner


these are the frst three that I've seen feel free to add to the list in the coments. thanks!

Review of: Champion by Marie Lu

Over the course of the past year or so, I have posted about a series of books by author Marie Lu. the titles in question are Legend, And Prodigy. I have mentioned the two books because to mild suprise I have recently discovered that there is in fact a third novel in the series. to understand my suprise, you'll have to get a summary of the books.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

 At the beginnig of the book Legend, we find ourselves dropped into a future scociety where environmental disasters, ant political infighting have torn the United States apart. The two resultant nations are vastly different and embroiled in a bloody war that is almost as old as the countries themselves we meet Day in the slums of Los Angeles, fighting against a corupt and cruel dictatorship. June is on the opposite side, the Daughter of a rich family in the So called "republic" she is one of the governments best and brightest. with the suden murder of her brother, the last remaining member of her family she sets out to  track down the prime suspect _ Day. But of course the story is more complicated than that. with a comendable level of talent Marie Lu weaves a story of romance, deception and dark secrets. the books' sequel picks up the story with details that are just too good to give away. The end result however is sad but carries the sobering element of reality where not everything has a picture perfect ending.

     Being completely satisfied by the ending of prodigy, I was surprised yet pleased to find a third book had been written. The book that I belive now to be the trilogy's finale picks up six months from the end of the second volume. Although it was an engaging book and never failed to hold my attention, it seems to have been a book that was not originally planned within the framework of the series and consequently didn't have me raving quite as much as it's predecessors. In my experience as a reader, and to a lesser extent as a writer, planning is the foundation of a good story. This being said, any additions tend to only cause structural problems that tend to cause more and more problems as the stories progress. It is a tribute to Marie Lu's competence as a writer that she was still able to produce a well written story without many holes in the story. Though it will never in my opinion be quite at the level of the first two in it's collection the book Champion, by Marie Lu is still well worth a read.