Voyage of the Basset

Have you ever had the book from when you were a kid that you still can read over and over? Voyage of the Basset by James C. Christensen with Renwick St. James and Alan Dean Foster is mine. I can still read it and love the story, looking at the pictures and picking up new details everytime I read it.

The premise is;

"Cassandra Aisling, who was nine year and eleven months old (which made her very, very close to ten), didn't care one jot what sensible people thought. She liked strange, mysterious and magical things. So when her world not just tilted, wholly, truly and topsy-turvily tangled and tumbled upside down, she boarded the H.M.S. Basset, ready to explore the landscape of imagination.

Pledging allegiance to the Basset's motto, Credendo Vides... By believing, One sees..., Cassandra, her skeptical older sister Miranda, and their father, Professor Algernon Aisling, set out in search of the ancient legends. From the flickering flight of faeries to the mermaids' siren songs, a labyrinth-bound Minotaur to a fire breathing dragon, the Aisling family witness firsthand the wonders of the mythological world. Cassandra's adventures intertwine with her father's scientific scribblings to present both new tales and the essence of classic myths."

I love this book with all my heart, for it draws together a lot of my favorite myths and has lovable characters that people of any age could realte to. All the characters are at different stages in life, Cassandra is the little kid who loves magic and finds it in everything. Miranda is the skeptical teenager who is of course, moodier than anything on Earth ;) And Professor Aisling is the man trying to prove to science and modern culture that mythology still has a place in the world. All of them will have to learn (or relearn) that it's not by seeing one believes, it's by believeing one truly sees.

Mood: Sleepy -.-

Music: Those Voices, by StarKidPotter in A Very Potter Sequel

Storm Front: A Novel of the Dresden Files

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher, is the beginning of a wonderful series (that I still haven't read the last of so no spoilers!!!) that has now begun to climb up on my all time favorite series list. I also just found out that the audio tape of this book was narrated by James Marsters, more commonly known as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is too perfect if you ask me. Okay, enough with the fun facts, here's the premise;

"Storm Front is Jim Butcher's first novel and introduces his popular character- Harry Dresden, wizard for hire. For his first case, Harry is called in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with the blackest of magic. At first, the less-than-solvent Harry's eyes light up with dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage. Now, that black mage knows Harry's name. And things are about to get very... interesting."

As a series that starts out fast and hits the ground running, getting better and better as time goes on. Including faeries that are actually cool, vampires that don't glitter, werewolves who are actually werewolves and not shapeshifters, and a talking skull, this series enchanted me within the first few pages. Harry's dry commentary and wit is a fantastic way to get this story told especially considering his own interesting past times with dark magic, but that's something that you'll have to learn more about on your own. :D

I'd rate this book a 4, only because I know how good this series gets as time goes on. The characters are funny and everything comes together for a clean and throughly enjoyable story, and I reccomend it to all who loved any and all of Joss Whedon's tv series, as well as anyone who'd enjoy a nice and dark fantasy that'll make you want to curl under the covers...

The mood I'm in (because I forgot it last time): Annoyed with my dog. Again. *sigh*

Music I'm listening to: Goin' Back to Hogwarts from a Very Potter Musical is stuck in my head, and if you haven't watched the youtube videos, you're missing out!!!

Chocolat

So first off, I wanted to say sorry! I've been incredibly bad about updating this and really it's only because I've been lazy. However, it's summer and I decided to be a little less lazy and write about this amazing book that was loaned to me.

Chocolat (By Joanne Harris) is a book unlike the movie in many ways. Don't get me wrong, I adore the movie (and for that manner, Johnny Depp in it :D) but the book was very good in it's own right. The premise of the book is this;

"When beautiful, unmarried Vianne Rocher sweeps into the pinched little French town of Lansquenet on the heels of the carnival and opens a gen of a chocolate shop across the square from the church, she begins to wreak havoc with the town's Lenten vows. Her uncanny ability to percieve her customer's private discontents and alleviate them with just the right confection coaxes the villiager to abandon themselves to temptation and happiness, but enrages Pere Reynaud, the local priest. Certain only a witch could stir such sinful indulgence and devise such clever cures, Reynaud pits himself against Vianne and vows to block the chocolate festival she plans for Easter Sunday, and to run her out of town forever. Witch or not (she'll never tell), Vianne soon sparks a dramatic confrontation between those who prefer the cold comforts of the church and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for pleasure. Hailed as "an amazement of riched few readers will be able to resist" by the New York Times Book Review, Chocolat is a timeless and enchanting story about temptation, pleasure, and what a complete waste of time it is to deny yourself anything."

I've got to admit, I borrowed this book thinking 'Wow! This'll be fun to learn more about the romance between Roux and Vianne! That'll be so cool!' Because despite how much I'm a pain about it, I love a good romance book like Pride and Prejudice. I couldn't have been farther from the truth. This book puts a whole new spin on the entire movie and concept, for while the movie is sweet and happy, this book is throughly bittersweet. It's beautiful how much more you understand the motives in each character, especially revealing much of Vianne's mystery, while creating more around her. But you also understand the nature of the Pere Reynaud (who was the mayor, count or whatever guy in the movie) as the book switches from his and Vianne's perpective. I loved how this book showed that no one is completely good and exemplifies how people are shades of gray, and how they grow. Watching Anouk throughout this book was fastinating, and probably could've been a book all on it's own!

I give this book an easy five, and reccomend it to all who know that chocolate come in many different flavors, not just sweet as Hershey's milk chocolate.

Marked

So, I caved. As far as reading this book, I was completely and utterly convinced it was going to be another "Twilight", which had enough angst in it to last me about 10 years. However, my friends were persistant in having me read this book, so I checked it out from the library. That's when I learned; My friends were right. This is now defietly on my radar, and I keep stopping myself from reading all the plot on wikipedia, it's just that good.

Marked sets up an interesting story, with vampyres (their spelling not mine)being a large prt of everyday life. Vampyres dominate Hollywood and are known for their talent in the Arts, as well as having a lot of money to go with it. Now, there are types of vampyres, one of which is called a Tracker. The Tracker will Mark possible vampyre initiates with a sapphire cresent moon outline upon their forehead. This Mark fills in when a human changes into a vampyre, and other sapphire tattoos appear on the vampyre's face, these tattoos change depending on a vampyre's personality. Now, when a human is Marked, they get violently sick and have to go to a House of Night, vampyre school, or they die. The vampyre school will teach the changing fledgling (as they're called) about vampyres in classes such as Vampire Soc., Equestrian training, fencing classes, Drama, etc. The setback to this changing process is that it can spell death for those not strong enough. The body will reject the change and the fledgling can die a gruesome death. Talk about a school on edge.

*Possible Spoiler Alert, I'm talking about some of the plot*

Here enters the heroine of the story, Zoey. Zoey's mother divorced her father and remarried to a religious fanatic who believes that vampyres are evil, that his wife should submit to his will with no arguent, and that anyone who's not a part of his religion is evil. Have I mentioned I really hate this character? No? Consider it mentioned. So after Zoey's Marked her familiy decides that the answer to the problem is to call in the family therapist and church prayer tree. Zoey quickly runs away to visit her Grandma before escaping to the House of Night. Upon arrival to her Grandma's house, Zoey runs into the spirits of her Cherokee ansestors, and then the vampyre goddess herself, Nyx. Nyx blesses Zoey and declares her to be her eyes and ears in a new world just before Zoey blacks out. Zoey reawakens in the House of Night with a filled in Mark on her forehead and her grandmother at her side. She then is introduced to a High Priestess of Nyx, who becomes her mentor in order to protect Zoe for her grandmother. And this is only the beginning of this book.

*Spoiler over*

I rate this book a solid 4. Marked has an engaging plot that sucks you into the world of Night and doesn't let you go. The authors masterfully laid hints to the upcoming books to the point that I can't wait to get back to school and find the second book, which is saying something. Oh, and sorry for the lack of links today, my computer's being pokey.
If you have any questions, comments, or book review requests, let me know in the comments below and I will get back to you asap!

Mood: Annoyed at the computer, it's being frustrating

Music: Miss Murder by AFI

The Mists of Avalon

The Mists of Avalon has been reviewed as an either you completely love this book, or you will hate it with every fiber of your being. It's about the women behind the legendary King Arthur's throne, his mother Igraine begins as the first character you meet. Then, Morgaine, Arthur's sister, Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, Nimue, a priestess of Avalon, Morgause, Arthur's aunt and Queen of Lothlian, and Gwenhwyfar, Arthur's wife all tell his story. While mostly the story is told of Morgaine's perspective, every once and a while it will switch perspectives to give a more clear and detailed version of the story. All the details of Arthur's story is there, but the journey to the different details is completely different.

My take? Loved this book. Completely awesome. Then again, I've loved King Arthur's story since I was little. Morgan Le Fey has always been painted as the bad sorceress but I've always had the nagging question at the back of my mind is "Why?" This story masterfully paints a whole new story within the threads of all other King Arthur stories, combining all ideas into a story so real that I almost piched myself a couple times trying to make sure I remembered it was fiction, that if I walked into mist, I wasn't going to spirited away to Avalon. This book just begs to be taken off the shelf and read, it's story seems to go off the page and honestly, I have problems reading anything about King Arthur and how evil Morgan is. I just can't think that simply anymore, all I think of is how? Why?

I rate this book a 5 for it's intricate details, fantastic visual power, and ideas that last beyond the pages. Can't live without it on my shelves anymore!!


This book was also transfered into a TNT miniseries, though I haven't quite watched all of them yet, it does seem pretty awesome. Link to watch the series on tnt is here.

Mood: Still Tired >.<
What I'm listening to: Sweet Dreams are Made of This by the Eurythmics

Intoduction ~ Villians by Necessity

Hi. I'm Sev, I'm a student and I'm creating a blog for a school project, but also because now I get to talk about books or story ideas and not feel werid. Anyway, so because I'm truly horrible at introductions, I'm just gonna dive right into a book review, feel free to comment or something if the book I'm talking about interests you, I'd be more than happy to give a few recommendations about similar books.

Currently I'm reading a book called Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward. Throw out any ideas about a normal fiction story, because this one turns everything on it's head. In a normal story, you'd expect to see unicorns, elves, and humans all teaming up to save the world from Darkness and Evil. In this book, not so much. Imagine the villains, the evildoers, teaming up to save the world from being destroyed by Good. Basically the book takes all the typical stereotypes and makes fun of them. This book, for me anyway, seemed to me like the ultimate reminder that thing are always different from another point of view. This book is now actually out of print but I'm sure it could be found in libraries or ebay/halfprice/amazon.

So the rating scale rankings is going to be as follows:
0 This book no longer exists. Anyone mentions it and I will pretend I have no idea what they're talking about- it's just that bad
1 Not a great book, wouldn't recommend it and hope never to encounter it ever again
2 The book is not very good and didn't enjoy any part of it
3 The book was okay, might recommend it
4 Very cool, loved almost all the book and will be happy to recommend and reread it at any time
5 I can't live without this book!!!

Villains by Necessity is going to be a 4. One of my all time favorite books, however there are some minorly slow parts to the book.



Mood: Sleepy >.<
Favorite song of the Day: Snow White Queen by Evanessence (Is that how you spell it?)