Black, White, & Read All Over

This book was a free download for my new e-reader that my mother in law got me for Christmas. For a free book, I was massively surprised. I loved it. Honestly, I cannot wait to read the second book in the series. Let me tell you a little about it…

The first vision the reader gets of life in New Haven is in the Prologue. We see that they have a certain view of life and that it is rather brainwashy (yes I know that is not a word, but I couldn’t think of another word to use). We find that Haven has cut itself off from the rest of the world not once, but twice. They have left people behind because of a horrible disease… influenza. Then we jump to Old Haven. Still cut off from the rest of the world, but also cut off from New Haven as well. The Old Havenites have to struggle to survive, not only fighting each other to survive, but fighting the New Havenites as well. The story does jump around quite a bit. There is no real “main” character, but there are a lot of characters that the reader feels a certain kinship with. I can’t really tell you much without giving away key points to the story which I do not want to do. I want you to read it for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I honestly suggest that you read this book. Believe me when I say that you will not be disappointed.

New Moon runs a close second for worst book of the series. First, Meyer again goes with a pointless Prologue. Although I can say that it was slightly better than Twilight’s Prologue. Where as the Prologue of the first book gave us slightly too much information, New Moon’s doesn’t give us quite as much information. That is beside the point, however, because I still do not want to know what happens later on in the book before I am supposed to read it. It is not as if Meyer doesn’t foreshadow. She does, quite often in fact. Don’t get me wrong, foreshadowing is good when done right, which Meyer does, the thing is, she does it so often that it makes the entire book pretty predictable. I mean the reader already knows before it happens that Jacob is going to fall for Bella. The reader already knows that something is going to happen and Edward will come back in the picture. The reader already knows that Bella is a weak character that thinks her survival hinges on that of Edward. The reader knows all of this before it actually comes to fruition. Speaking of Bella, her reaction to Edward leaving? Completely losing anything that makes her Bella? She reacts as if she has lost something that can never be replaced. Yes, I know what many of you are thinking. “Wouldn’t you do the same thing if you lost your one true love?” Actually, I might cry for a little while, yes. I might be depressed for a little bit, yes. But then, I would pull myself up by my bootstraps. Tell myself that I don’t need a partner to make me complete. Yes, I am not going to lie, it would be hard, but I would not completely shut off everyone in my life because some douchcanoe thought he was doing me a favor by leaving me in the middle of the woods alone after promising to stay with me forever. No person, I do not care who they are, deserves the satisfaction of me completely shutting everyone out. Plain and simple. Moving on, Bella completely leads on the only redeeming character that Meyer created. Jacob is seriously the only realistic character in the entire “saga”. Speaking of Jacob and Bella. Bella kind of pisses me off. She basically casts Jacob aside when Alice comes back. Alice tells her that Edward is in trouble and she blows Jacob off, even after pining over the fact that he left her alone during his “change”. To me it sounded like she was saying, “I don’t care that you have fallen in love with me. I don’t care that we have spent every waking moment for the past few months together. I don’t care if it hurts you in the slightest. This ‘man’ that left me because he thought it was better to decide for me what was best for me instead of letting me decide for myself, is more important than you could ever be.” Bella just brushes aside everything to rush to the aid of a person that she thinks doesn’t want her around in the first place. Not cool Bella, Not cool at all. Then of course there is the Volturi. Just like Twilight, Meyers drags on the book and then miraculously has a climax and ending that last maybe 10 pages. She gives no indication throughout the book that the Volturi are going to be contenders in the climax. She doesn’t really lead up to it. New Moon is basically the story of Bella crying her eyes out for about a third of the book. Jacob and Bella’s relationship is most of the book, and then Bella saving Edward is like an eight of the book. She seriously could have done better. Like why not have Edward come back and see the budding relationship between Jacob and Bella. Why not have Edward find out that Jacob is a Shapeshifter (I refuse to call him a werewolf because he is not)? Why not have Jacob and Edward have a confrontation? No instead throughout the entire book she has Victoria hunting Bella, then all of a sudden drops that story line for the Volturi confrontation. It just doesn’t sit well with me. I can honestly say that I think this book disappointed me more than Twilight ever could have.

Before I start my review of Twilight I would like to say a few words. I know the fandom for this book happens to be quite large. I also know that those who hate this book, and the members of the fandom both can be quite harsh when it comes to reviews or opinions of Twilight. I would like to say here and now, read the entire review before you start submitting asks to me (or reblogging) that either praises me for this review or condemns me for it. Read it with an open mind. I will try to be as fair as I possibly can.

With that said, here is a quick summary from Wikipedia:

Isabella “Bella” Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother, Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella’s attention.

When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella upon his return; their newfound relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate’s van in the school parking lot. Edward saves her life when he instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands.

Bella becomes determined to find out how Edward saved her life, and constantly pesters him with questions. After a family friend, Jacob Black, tells her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was too desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is disturbed when another vampire coven arrives in Forks. James, a tracker vampire who is intrigued by the Cullens’ relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens attempt to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. There, Bella receives a phone call from James, who claims to be holding her mother captive. When Bella surrenders herself, James attacks her. Before James can kill her, Edward, along with the other Cullens, rescues her and defeats James. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella’s hand, Edward successfully sucks the poison from her bloodstream and prevents her from becoming a vampire, after which she is brought to a hospital. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their school prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, but Edward refuses.

First and foremost, I would like to say that Meyer is not the best author, by a long shot. In this, her debut novel, one can obviously tell that she is new to this. One, she is very wordy. She abuses adjectives. While the use of adjectives can be an asset to any writing, it is possible to overuse them (For examples check out the Chapter 1 synopsis I wrote earlier). Her writing style is awkward to say the least. Growing up, I was always a well read child. In fifth grade I read my first Stephen King novel (Salem’s Lot to be exact). I have read many classics and a whole lot of what I consider to be crap. No, I am not an English major, but I do know a good writer when I see one, I know a bad writer when I see one, and I know a writer that is in severe need of help when I see one. Meyer happens to be the latter. I think she does have potential as a writer, but judging by Twilight, she has a long way to go. She picks and chooses what she wants to describe in detail and leaves other things barely described at all. It can be very frustrating to the reader. Not to mention that it seems that while writing the book, Meyer realized about halfway through that she needed a conflict, and hastily put one together. There was almost no build up to the conflict. At one minute everything is going smooth, and then “BAM” conflict, and the book is over. It reminded me of watching a really bad movie that has a really slow start, a fifteen minute climax scene and then its over. I found it rather disappointing.

Meyer had potential with Twilight, but she kind of squandered it. Only a highly talented author can rewrite an entire mythology. Meyer attempted to do so with Edward and the other vampires, and in my opinion it was a huge flop. I understand why she did so, but I don’t think she went about it the right way. For centuries upon centuries, vampires have been the same (unless you count those awful vampire books by Lynsay Sands. I mean come on, vampires from Atlantis where the disease is actually nanobytes that repair everything including making you young again if you are elderly? Puh-lease!). Yes there are people who have altered they mythology and succeeded, but completely rewriting the mythology is really hard to do. And of all things, why on earth would you make one of the most feared creatures in the history of mythology sparkle? The only creature in mythology that is supposed to sparkle is a fairy (or pixie). The whole “venom” thing as well is rather troubling. In almost all vampire mythologies to turn another human into a vampire the vampire and human must consume each others blood, then the human must die to become a vampire. I have never heard of “venom” turning a person with just one bite, unless we are talking about zombies or werewolves. I think that Meyer’s vampires are an insult to the entire mythology of vampires. A vampire is supposed to be a blood thirsty predator with hardly any morals. I give Meyer an A for effort, but an F for follow through.

Now let’s get down to the two main characters. Bella. Bella is a hollow character. Meyer wrote her so any girl reading could become Bella. I don’t know about you, but when I read a book I want to relate to the characters, but I don’t want to become them. Bella is supposed to be this awkward, clumsy girl that over questions herself and others motives. In my opinion, she is a weak character. I find it really hard to like Bella, let alone relate to her in anyway. Then you have Edward. The list of things wrong with Edward’s character is so long that I don’t even know where to start. First and foremost, he is really controlling. He constantly tells Bella what is good for her, what she can and can’t do, and makes her think (although going against what he says) that she can’t live without him. He constantly tells her that she should leave him alone, but then he tells her he doesn’t want to be without her. Not to mention he stalks her and breaks into her home to watch her sleep. In real life, Edward would be in jail quicker than you can say “Twilight”. Bella starts off constantly thinking about Edward and worrying about his reactions like he is the neatest thing since sliced bread. She takes everything he does personally, then she is constantly putting herself down and telling herself she is not good enough for him. Seriously, I wanted to go into the book, shake her and tell her that she does not need anyone’s approval! Not to mention, Bella is rather daft when it comes to Edward. I mean it takes her almost half the book to find out he is a vampire. She should have figured it out after the “accident”.

Speaking of the “accident”, someone please tell me in what state is there still school when the roads are to icy to drive on properly? Honestly. If roads are icy they at least postpone school until the salt/sand trucks can treat the roads. That entire scenario just seemed way off to me. No one sees Edward? I highly doubt that. And after promising to tell Bella what is up, he completely disregards her while simultaneously implying that she is crazy. *Eyeroll*

The climax. The first we hear of the other vampires is an obscure reference Alice makes about halfway through the book. Then all of a sudden we are dealing with James hunting Bella. Bella lies to and intentionally hurts her father. Then instead of talking to the people that are protecting her and telling them that James has her mother (falling for the oldest trick in the book by the way) she runs straight to him. I mean she is petrified of doing anything physical (i.e. gym class, dancing) but she is going to run straight into the arms of a man that is going to kill her and not be quick about it? That is logic for you. The entire scenario was rather disappointing. Meyer could have put more into it. She could have made it a great, suspenseful scenario, but she chose to rush through it and basically glance over the entire thing. It is like she realized she needed a climax and hastily tacked on the first thing that came into her head without actually thinking it through.

I find it very hard to like Twilight. It is a poorly written book, and gives young people a horrible example of “love”. There is no doubt in my mind that Meyer could potentially write a good book, but I think she needs to think things through a little bit instead of relying solely on a dream (Twilight came to Meyer in a dream.) to write your book for you. Dreams can be great inspiration, but they can’t be your entire book. Use them as a stepping stone.

All in all I give Twilight 1 1/2 stars. It had great potential, but Meyer squandered that potential. I still don’t get all the hubub about it. It is nowhere near the best book ever written, and the story (despite the changes to the vampire mythology) is far from original. Personally, if you have a choice between Twilight and just about any other vampire book out there (other than anything by Lynsay Sands) I would choose the other book.

I, like most children of my generation (and hopefully some before mine and many after mine), grew up with The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Amazingly enough, I had not read this book until just recently when my younger brother let be borrow his copy. In my personal opinion, I find it rather nice to know a little about how Narnia came to be and why the Ice Queen was so evil. Keep in mind that while The Magician’s Nephew is a prequel to books like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Lewis didn’t actually publish it until 1955 (the 6th in the series to be published). He makes a lot of references to some of the other books by way of “That is in another story.” I found the story rather enchanting just as the rest of the Chronicles, however it did leave me with some questions.

The following summary from Wikipedia contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

From Wikipedia:

The story begins in London during the summer of 1900. Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row of terraced houses. They decide to explore the attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory’s Uncle Andrew in his study. Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish. He then explains to Digory that he has been dabbling in magic, and that the rings allow travel between one world and another. He persuades Digory, effectively through blackmail, to take another yellow ring to follow wherever Polly has gone, and two green rings so that both can return.

Digory finds himself transported to a sleepy woodland with an almost narcotic effect; he finds Polly nearby. The woodland is filled with pools. Digory and Polly surmise that the world is not really a proper world at all but a “Wood between the Worlds,” similar to the attic that links their rowhouses back in England, and that each pool leads to a separate universe. They decide to explore a different world before returning to England, and jump into one of the nearby pools. They then find themselves in a desolate abandoned city of the ancient world of Charn. Inside the ruined palace, they discover statuesque figures of Charn’s former kings and queens, which degenerate from the fair and wise to the cowardly and cruel. They find a bell with a hammer, with these words:

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad
What would have followed if you had

Despite protests from Polly, Digory rings the bell. This awakens the last of the statues, a witch named Jadis, who, to avoid defeat in battle, had deliberately killed every living thing in Charn by speaking a “Deplorable Word.” As the only survivor left in her world, she placed herself in an enchanted sleep that would only be broken by someone ringing the bell.

The children realize Jadis’s evil nature and attempt to flee, but she follows them back to England by clinging to them as they clutch their rings. In England, she dismisses Uncle Andrew as a mere dabbler in magic. She discovers that her magic does not work in England but she still has her strength. She enslaves Uncle Andrew and orders him to fetch her a chariot, so she can set about conquering Earth. They leave, and she returns standing atop a hansom with no driver, followed by a fire engine. There is a collision at the front door of the Kirke house, and police arrive. Jadis breaks off a rod from a nearby lamp-post and brandishes it as a weapon.

Polly and Digory grab her and put on their magic rings to take her out of their world, dragging with them Uncle Andrew, Frank the cab-driver, and Frank’s horse, since all were touching one another when Digory and Polly grabbed their rings. In the Wood between the Worlds they jump into a pool, hoping it leads back to Charn. Instead they stumble into a dark void that Jadis recognizes as a world not yet created. They then all witness the creation of a new world by the lion Aslan, who brings various entities, stars, plants, and animals, into existence as he sings. Jadis attempts to kill Aslan with the iron bar from the lamp-post, but it deflects harmlessly off of him and begins to sprout into a new lamp-post “tree.” Jadis flees.

Aslan gives some animals the power of speech, commanding them to use it for justice and merriment. Digory’s uncle is frozen with fear and unable to communicate with the talking animals, who mistake him for a kind of tree. Aslan confronts Digory with his responsibility for bringing Jadis into his young world, and tells Digory he must atone by helping to protect Narnia from her evil. Aslan transforms the cabbie’s horse into a winged horse named Fledge, and Digory and Polly fly on him to a garden high in the mountains. Digory’s task is to take an apple from a tree in this garden, and plant it in Narnia. In the garden Digory finds a sign reading:

Come in my gold gates or not at all
Take of my fruit for others or forbear
For those who steal or those who climb my wall
Shall find their heart’s desire and find despair

Digory picks one of the apples for his mission, but has to resist temptation to eat one for himself after he smells the apples. As he prepares to leave he is shocked to see the witch Jadis. She has eaten one of the magic apples, thereby becoming immortal, but her face is now “deadly white;” Digory begins to understand what the last line in the sign means. She tempts Digory to either eat an apple himself and join her in immortality, or steal one back to Earth to heal his dying mother. Digory resists temptation, knowing that his mother would never condone theft. However the clincher comes when the Witch suggests he leave Polly behind, not knowing Polly can get away by her own ring. At this, Digory sees through the Witch’s ploy. Foiled, the Witch departs for the North. Digory returns to Narnia with an apple, which is planted in Narnian soil. A new tree springs up, which Aslan says will repel the Witch for centuries to come. Aslan informs Digory that a stolen apple would have healed his mother, but at a terrible price: anyone who steals the apples gets their heart’s desire, but it comes in a form that makes it unlikeable. In the case of the Witch, she now has her heart’s desire for immortality, but it only means eternal misery because of her evil heart. Moreover, the magic apples are now a horror to her, which is why the tree repels her. With Aslan’s permission, Digory then takes an apple from the new tree to heal his mother. Aslan promises the apple will now bring joy. Aslan returns Digory, Polly, and Uncle Andrew to England; Frank and his wife, Helen (transported from England by Aslan) stay to rule Narnia as its first King and Queen.

Digory’s apple restores his dying mother to health, and he and Polly remain lifelong friends. Uncle Andrew reforms and gives up magic but he still enjoys bragging about his adventures with the Witch on their tour of London. Digory plants the apple’s core in the back yard of his aunt’s home in London. Years later the tree that grows from it blows down in a storm. Digory has its wood made into a wardrobe, thus linking the story to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which Digory has become the old professor in whose country house Lucy Pevensie finds the wardrobe and the way into Narnia.

Now keep in mind that I have only read this book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Boy and his Horse so some of my inquiries might actually be answered in some of the other books, but alas I shall ask them anyway. I know that Digory and Polly bury the rings with the apple core where the apple tree later sprouts, but is that the only way to the Wood between the Worlds? I mean it is a little confusing that Uncle Andrew managed to find a way to the Wood, but the Wood is not mentioned further. I know that it would have probably been a little to wordy for the type of books that the Chronicles are, but I would have liked to know how he figured all of it out. That is just me though. I am a curious person. When I read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, I thought that the Queen was just misunderstood, but reading The Magician’s Nephew removed all of those feelings. I think the way Lewis portrayed her in this particular book made her appear to be an even worse despot (if that was even possible). The way that she is in this book, however, does shine some light on why she was the way she was. I mean could you imagine destroying your entire world to avoid a fight? I don’t agree with what she did, but (I guess this is just because I am the way I am) I do understand that it must have been a hard decision.

I also found there to be a lot of religious undertones to the book. I mean when everyone is transported to Narnia, it is the black abyss of nothingness. Then all of a sudden a beautiful song starts and an entire world is created by Aslan. This (in my opinion) is reflective of creation stories that are prevalent in many religions around the world. Aslan is essentially the “god” of Narnia. But that brings another question to my mind. If Aslan created Narnia, and Narnia is just a country within the world, did Aslan create the entire world? If he did, then why are the only talking animals from Narnia? This part didn’t make much sense to me, but like I said I have not read the rest of the books so this question may very well be answered when I finish the books. Then you have the “good vs. evil” story. Aslan being the good, and Jadis (the Queen) being the evil. While most stories have a “good vs. evil” story within them, in this book it is somewhat glanced over. One can obviously tell that Aslan is the good and Jadis is the evil, but it is not dwelled upon as much as it would be in other stories. I rather like that. It seems to me as if Lewis is letting the reader decide who they think is good and who they think is evil, while subtly giving his opinion as well.

Overall, I have to say that The Magician’s Nephew is a well written book. I think that everyone should read it at least once. I fully suggest reading it before the movie is released as I do with any book/movie adaptation. The great thing about The Chronicles of Narnia is that they can be enjoyed by people of all ages. I personally plan on starting to read them all to my daughter (3 years) and my son (18 months) as soon as we finish reading Fly by Night (review on that to come at a later date). If you want your children to grow up with a healthy love of reading, then the best thing to do is to start reading to them early and what better place to start than with books that we most likely read as children?

In closing, I give The Magician’s Nephew 4 out of 5 stars. Pick yourself up a copy from your local library, take a trip to your local bookstore, or click the picture and purchase it from Amazon. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

*Photo courtesy of snazal.com.  As with all of my reviews, clicking the photo takes you to the books Amazon.com page so you can purchase the book yourself!*