Medicating perfection; Book Post 13-15
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh so much fail on the reading front over the past month arrrrrrrrrgh
Book: The Jungle Book
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Genre: Classics, children, adventure
Pages: 192
Plot in ten words or less: Boy raised in political jungle. Dancing elephants, and clubbing seals.
Why I Picked It: It was a dollar at Ollie's. And I was curious XD
Review: LOVED IT SO HARD. But in a way, I am actually really...angry? confused? that this was considered a children's book back at the turn of the last century, while we have become so oversensitive and so fond of dumbing down our children that most teenagers probably wouldn't attempt to read this book.
But that's hardly Mr. Kipling's fault XD
Jungle Book is a fun romp, and it took the 'talking animals' in a direction I have never seen outside of "The Book of the Dun Cow" - basically, that the animals are thoughtful and have order to their society and their codes of honor, but at the same time they have their species-bound limitations and an acknowledged fear of men (often, Mowgli is warned that merely training his eyes on the other animals would be enough to cow them, which he abuses sometimes). Mowgli is in only three of the seven stories though, and the others also explore the processes and ways of other animals of the world, my favorite being about the white seal. Also effffffffffffffffffffffffffff I really understand the Baloo/Bagheera shipping fanbase now, holy crap the book serves it to you on a golden platter.
Book: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore In Twilight, The Sky At Daybreak
Author: Ono Fuyumi, translated by Eugene Woodbury
Genre: Fantasy, action, adventure, badassery
Pages: 253
Plot in ten words or less: Unicorn rescue mission, national conspiracies abound, women are super-badass (again).
Why I Picked It: BECAUSE IT IS A TWELVE KINGDOMS NOVEL uh also as research for the game I'm making.
Review:
Quote from book:
"If my job as an empress is to sit here and protect Kei and watch Tai go to the dogs and do nothing, then you can take this throne and shove it."
THERE BE BADASSERY IN THIS NOVEL, OH YES.
IF YOU ARE FRUSTRATED WITH THE LACK OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT IN FANTASY NOVELS, THEN WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU READING TWELVE KINGDOMS? WHY? That is all. (This book was awesome, I can't wait to get the official translation now).
Book: Enchantment
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Fantasy, action, adventure
Pages: 320
Plot in ten words or less: Student forced to be hero of a Russian Sleeping Beauty.
Why I Picked It: Because I generally have loved all of Orson Scott Card's books so far, and this was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty so why the hell not?
Review:
I'm actually still a bit torn about how I like this book. And I did like it, but it didn't move mountains in me like other books Card has done.
Basically, it is about how a modern graduate student, Ivan, gets pulled into a Russian version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, except that it involves a real kingdom that existed over nine hundred years before he was even born, and the princess he kissed and must marry hates his guts. This is what I love about the book, the princess, and their strained relationship. Katerina is absolutely Princess Badass - while she never takes up a sword, she is fierce and sharp, bold and smart as hell, and won't let anybody stamp on her or her kingdom. A thread of gender-inversion does string through the novel, with Ivan holding up the more sensitive side of their relationship constantly, and softening her. Their strained relationship is delicious delayed gratification, which is what I love in romance stories.
Oh also Baba Yaga is the scariest-ass villain I've seen in a book for a long time D: We need to use Card's interpretation of her a bit as inspiration for Gesma.
I think I was cool with the book until one particular scene turned me sour, which was basically bringing in the cliche 'jilted lover attempts vengence because she loves the hero too much' crap. Especially since I think it was the hero's responsibility to make the jilted lover feel not-so-jilted, but he really did nothing to help her out. It just kinda threw off the rest of the book for me. Also it felt like a lot of the book was build-up, leading into a relatively weak climax.
I bought two books today, The Prince and Pride and Prejudice, the former being interesting because I play WARREN and it is relevant to those interests, and P&P is because my mom half-disowned me in our last conversation cause I told her that I've never read anything by Jane Austen. Anyways, this year was planned to be a year for me to catch up on classics, so why not. Alice in Wonderland is on my shortlist too XD
Book: The Jungle Book
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Genre: Classics, children, adventure
Pages: 192
Plot in ten words or less: Boy raised in political jungle. Dancing elephants, and clubbing seals.
Why I Picked It: It was a dollar at Ollie's. And I was curious XD
Review: LOVED IT SO HARD. But in a way, I am actually really...angry? confused? that this was considered a children's book back at the turn of the last century, while we have become so oversensitive and so fond of dumbing down our children that most teenagers probably wouldn't attempt to read this book.
But that's hardly Mr. Kipling's fault XD
Jungle Book is a fun romp, and it took the 'talking animals' in a direction I have never seen outside of "The Book of the Dun Cow" - basically, that the animals are thoughtful and have order to their society and their codes of honor, but at the same time they have their species-bound limitations and an acknowledged fear of men (often, Mowgli is warned that merely training his eyes on the other animals would be enough to cow them, which he abuses sometimes). Mowgli is in only three of the seven stories though, and the others also explore the processes and ways of other animals of the world, my favorite being about the white seal. Also effffffffffffffffffffffffffff I really understand the Baloo/Bagheera shipping fanbase now, holy crap the book serves it to you on a golden platter.
Book: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore In Twilight, The Sky At Daybreak
Author: Ono Fuyumi, translated by Eugene Woodbury
Genre: Fantasy, action, adventure, badassery
Pages: 253
Plot in ten words or less: Unicorn rescue mission, national conspiracies abound, women are super-badass (again).
Why I Picked It: BECAUSE IT IS A TWELVE KINGDOMS NOVEL uh also as research for the game I'm making.
Review:
Quote from book:
"If my job as an empress is to sit here and protect Kei and watch Tai go to the dogs and do nothing, then you can take this throne and shove it."
THERE BE BADASSERY IN THIS NOVEL, OH YES.
IF YOU ARE FRUSTRATED WITH THE LACK OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT IN FANTASY NOVELS, THEN WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU READING TWELVE KINGDOMS? WHY? That is all. (This book was awesome, I can't wait to get the official translation now).
Book: Enchantment
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Fantasy, action, adventure
Pages: 320
Plot in ten words or less: Student forced to be hero of a Russian Sleeping Beauty.
Why I Picked It: Because I generally have loved all of Orson Scott Card's books so far, and this was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty so why the hell not?
Review:
I'm actually still a bit torn about how I like this book. And I did like it, but it didn't move mountains in me like other books Card has done.
Basically, it is about how a modern graduate student, Ivan, gets pulled into a Russian version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, except that it involves a real kingdom that existed over nine hundred years before he was even born, and the princess he kissed and must marry hates his guts. This is what I love about the book, the princess, and their strained relationship. Katerina is absolutely Princess Badass - while she never takes up a sword, she is fierce and sharp, bold and smart as hell, and won't let anybody stamp on her or her kingdom. A thread of gender-inversion does string through the novel, with Ivan holding up the more sensitive side of their relationship constantly, and softening her. Their strained relationship is delicious delayed gratification, which is what I love in romance stories.
Oh also Baba Yaga is the scariest-ass villain I've seen in a book for a long time D: We need to use Card's interpretation of her a bit as inspiration for Gesma.
I think I was cool with the book until one particular scene turned me sour, which was basically bringing in the cliche 'jilted lover attempts vengence because she loves the hero too much' crap. Especially since I think it was the hero's responsibility to make the jilted lover feel not-so-jilted, but he really did nothing to help her out. It just kinda threw off the rest of the book for me. Also it felt like a lot of the book was build-up, leading into a relatively weak climax.
I bought two books today, The Prince and Pride and Prejudice, the former being interesting because I play WARREN and it is relevant to those interests, and P&P is because my mom half-disowned me in our last conversation cause I told her that I've never read anything by Jane Austen. Anyways, this year was planned to be a year for me to catch up on classics, so why not. Alice in Wonderland is on my shortlist too XD