The Towers of Sunset

I figure I'll start out the new year with one old book and one new. The Passage was the first book this year and the review can be found over here. The old book is one that I read a few years back.... probably high school actually. The Towers of the Sunset is L. E. Modesitt Jr's second book in the Saga of Recluce series. If you've been reading the blog over the last year you probably saw my review on the first book The Magic of Recluce. Just a note: It really bugs me that he doesn't spell it Recluse, but Recluce! Is that an acceptable spelling alternate? Guess it doesn't matter - still bugs me.

The Towers of the Sunset is not a sequel to the first book in the series. It happens to be a prequel. You follow a young wizard by the name of Creslin as he leaves his homeland and starts a new story. It's essentially the story of how Recluce came to be and how Order changed the world. Again, don't really want to give anything away, but it's enjoyable. I always felt that Modesitt should have followed Lerris from The Magic of Recluce a little more, but I hear that happens a little later in the whole Saga. In fact, I've actually started reading the books in the order of their history in the world rather than in order of their release. That's probably a better idea for anyone that's getting into these stories.

Rating: 6 CBs - Modesitt is a good writer that gives you an engaging story without 900 pages. Not that I don't want 900 pages, I just like that you can sit down and read it in a week if you aren't doing other stuff.

-D

The Passage

My wife purchased this book through a book club a few months back and I finally got around to reading it. The Passage also happens to be on the top 100 books to read by Amazon found here. She thought it would be right up my alley, but since I started The Stand and this was said to be similar to that book I thought I'd give it a little time before attempting it. But here I am, finished with a new book and still working on buttoning up the other huge novel. It was probably worth jumping ship though.

The Passage is part story and part fictitious history lesson. You follow a few groups of people throughout the novel that's locale varies from Colorado to California. In fact, some of the story happens right around where we're presently residing. It was nice to hear about Thousand Palms, Banning, and the wind farms. Back to it, the story is about a potential cure-all turned weapon by the American government. That weapon is released, accidentally, and ends up bringing the eventual end of the human civilization. It really is a cross of I Am Legend and The Stand. It's still it's own story even with the similarities. The 700-page book spans about 100 years and rarely feels like it. ;-)

It's a well written book. Cronin does a good job describing the scene and the emotions of the players. You don't need a huge imagination for his writing. I did have a little problem seeing the characters as little more than teenagers even though I believe they were mostly in their mid to late twenties. Maybe I just glossed that over.  LOL, that just made me think that this is almost a vampire Red Dawn! Doesn't that make you want to leave the book alone... and that's not my intent. If anything the book is worth the read, but I wasn't happy with the ending. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it was left a little more open ended than I would have preferred. Perhaps Cronin is looking at doing a sequel, but I would like to know how it all went on. *sigh*

Rating: 7 CB's - good book; couldn't put it down; want real ending.

-D

Most people, whether they are into music or not, have heard the catchy tunes of Buddy Holly at some point in their lives.  They remain an influence on many artists of varied genres even today.  His untimely death (with other promising musicians) is often referred to as the Day the Music Died.  But for the musicians, songwritters, and artists of his hometown, the music never stopped.  This is the topic of my latest read: Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air: Legends of West Texas Music.  The book is a compilation of interviews with twenty-five artists who came from or drifted into and were influenced by Lubbock, Texas - the home of Buddy Holly. 
My interest in this book is based on my lifelong love of some of these very artists: Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, and Terry Allen.  But it is amazing just how many artists are from the flatland that makes up Lubbock's landscape.  Although I have never spent any time in Lubbock, I feel I know the story: small town hoping to be something bigger, but never qutie making it.  All the trappings of the Bible belt: a church on every corner and bars on the outskirts of town.  The struggle to find something to pass the time, to make a way out of town, and the sense of home that draws you back when you leave. 
The legacy of Buddy Holly went almost completely unnoticed by the citizens of Lubbock (until the Chamber found out it was a moneymaking venture) and many of the artists of Lubbock have gone mostly unnoticed by mainstream anything.  Nonetheless, that is just how most of them would want it.  They do it for the love of music, not to make money.  I am so happy that Chris Oglesby took the time to record some of these stories. 
If you are uninitiated in the music of West Texas (or Texas in general), this book is a great starting point.
Rating: 6 of 7
-L

A Year in Review

At the beginning of this year we challenged one another to read a book a week and thus this blog was born.  Did we make it?   Not quite, but we tried hard and read much more than we did the previous year! 
For those of you looking for excuses for not finishing our project on time, well you aren't going to get those here; but I will say it is interesting how one book can throw you off your book-loving game and another can re-ignite your passion for reading.  So here's the report card for the year:

-L:
Books read: 47 (not too far off target)
Books started and not finished: 2 (The Reader - yeah, not so much into the porn, Vanity Fair - still holding out hope in the bedside basket for books better left for tomorrow).
Books finished and not yet reviewed: 7 (yeah, that list is long, blame it on the baby growing in my tummy, so good to know I will always and ever have someone to blame things on - welcome to parenting 101)
Favorites of the year: The Road, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

-D:
Books read; 43 - farther off target, but could count 44 as I didn't count The Jesus Manifesto. Meh
Books started and not finished: Towers of Sunset, The Passage, The Stand, and Wolves of Calla. It's not that I don't want to finish the books, but I have some background to finish. With WoC I needed to read The Stand first. I stopped reading The Stand b/c of the size and thought I should try to get to 52 books but then started a couple 1000 page books in it's stead. I'm currently reading ToS and The Passage before picking the stand back up
Books finished and not yet reviewed: 1 - No Country for Old Men
Favourites of the year: That's a tough one - The Road, Soldiers Live, and The Gathering Storm. 

I was thinking about the fact that I didn't finish up 52 books this year, but I was able to read a ton of pages! I have nearly 10,000 pages in Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and Joe Abercrombie. That's eleven books only. That's 33 300 page books. =\ But our challenge wasn't to read the most pages, but to read 52 books in a year. 

It sounds like we're going to be a little busier next year so we might not get through the same amount of reading as this year. But we'll keep plugging along with Leah reading books that people are interested in and I'll live in my little fantasy world. 



Happy New Year!

American Gods

American Gods: A Novel happens to be my second Neil Gaiman novel and neither of those has been the novel I was planning to read of his. I've been meaning to pick up Coraline since purchasing and enjoying the movie. It was a cute but freaky kids story that shouldn't be shown to kids under a certain age unless they are incredibly morbid. The movie takes me back to a Grimm's Fairy Tales type of dark story. Anyways, the first reviewed book with Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch which was humorous and just a delightful story. American Gods falls into a different category.


In American Gods, a storm is brewing throughout America and somehow a seemingly normal ex-con has a pivotal role. You're greeted with plenty of mythology from the beginning that is carried on until the end. I found it amusing that you had a chance to see all types of different old god/s mythologies including Norse, American Indian, and other odd fairy tales to go along. What Gaiman didn't touch base on was Christianity, for the most part, and Santa. I'm not sure how he would have fared, but I'm assuming that he left those out so as not to alienate a good portion of his readers. The story is quite engaging and well written. He reminds me of a cross between Chuck Palahnuik and Stephen King. The way he writes dialogue was amusing.

I wasn't happy with the amount of smut that he decided to write about in the first hundred of so pages. There were three sex scenes and one was a homosexual scene. It didn't really bring the story along in any way. I felt that it took away from what could have been a story for multiple age groups. I was also happy that we weren't inundated throughout his book with the same type of imagery. I believe that I would have put the book down had that happened. It still affects my rating and recommendation in a not-so-good way.

Rating: 5 CBs - I can't recommend this b/c of the sex stuff at the beginning. If I wanted to read a romance novel then I'd go pick up one. I have a feeling that he was somewhat tamed by having a co-author with the first book I read of his. I will attempt to read a couple other books by Gaiman in the near future hopefully with better results. reader beware.

-D

Merry Christmas!

Now I know it's Christmas Eve, but I might not be up to writing tomorrow. We'll see. But I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to enjoy the time with the family and your friends. While we have a good time opening presents and sharing a good conversation let's not forget that we have a Saviour that came to us so that we might be removed from our old life and given a new one.

“Behold , the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son , and they shall call His name Immanuel ,” which translated means, “God with us .”

 -D

After Midnight, we're going to let it all hang down...

We had some big news happen in the world of Fantasy last month. TOR released the second to last Wheel of Time novel. Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time) is basically the first half of the last book, but Jordan (and now Sanderson) has been one to write incredibly long novels so this isn't to be unexpected. One of the nice items that's been picked up since Jordan's unfortunate death has been the expediency in releasing the final few books of the series through Sanderson. The last two books were a year apart..... we're all hoping that the final chapter will be released in a year. It's bittersweet to see the end of a series that's been going for two decades, but it's also created a ton of anticipation to find out what happens. But enough about the release of the book and onto the actual book.

Towers of Midnight is the latest chapter in The Wheel of Time epic. Brandon Sanderson brings his own feel to the story, but also leaves much of Robert Jordan in this next selection. It's a fast paced novel compared to the last few. Considering that we're one book away from the Final Battle, it would make sense that we can feel the pace quickening from one about the daily struggles(and fashion) of the realm and into the unpredictability of the Dark One's touch on the same continent. If you've been struggling to finish the series, continue to hammer through and you'll get to this point. It's worth the battle.

I do have a little concern about this book. It mostly hinges on the title. Now, any Robert Jordan fans out there that need to correct me may do so, but I believe I'm correct in this. The title would suggest that Rand, the main protagonist, would be going to Seanchan(another continent that's vital, somehow, to the end game) and fulfilling the prophecy of the Dragon. But, you won't find that story in this novel. The main plots surround two other key plots. You have Perrin and his decision of leading an army to the Last Battle, and Mat, Thom, and Noal going to the Tower of Ghenji to save Moraine(an character from the first few novels). Now, wouldn't it be nice to have a book title that matters to the story at hand? I would have preferred Towers of Ghenji over something that really isn't applicable. And Sanderson throwing in a few lines at the beginning of the story to attempt to tie in the title is just rubbish. There's also one other plot point in the book that feels pretty contrived, but I don't want to give away anything. It might have been major at some other point in the timeline, but it feels minor. Perhaps the final book will bring it more perspective.

Rating: 9 CBs - It's highly entertaining and action-filled. After midnight, were gonna chug-a-lug and shout.
Were gonna stimulate some action; Were gonna get some satisfaction. Were gonna find out what it is all about

-D