This forum has been archived. Please visit the new forum at https://community.narniaweb.com/

Books: 2nd Edition

The community lounge for non-Narnian discussions.

Moderators: stargazer, johobbit

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Bookwyrm » Sep 01, 2010 3:54 pm

I think Suzanne Collins' writing provides a nice counterpoint to all of the fiction out there that basically tells kids/teens war is awesome.
User avatar
Bookwyrm
Moderator Emeritus
Lord of the Little Ponies
 
Posts: 14300
Joined: Sep 30, 2006
Location: Behind you
Gender: Male

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Valiant_Lucy » Sep 01, 2010 5:18 pm

Adeona wrote:Except: the Forest Born cover AJAiken showed us, that came out in England. That one is positively inappropriate! :p
Wait, which one do you mean? If you mean the pink one, I was actually going to comment and say I thought it was rather nice and would LOVE to get my hands on one of those copies. :D

*wants to read Mockingjay so, so, bad!!*
"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." Marilyn Monroe
User avatar
Valiant_Lucy
Moderator Emeritus
The IMAR&NB mod
 
Posts: 9142
Joined: Jan 13, 2006
Location: Canada
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby ValiantArcher » Sep 01, 2010 5:47 pm

A few things from the previous Books thread:

Booky, thanks! The idea that the Keys to the Kingdom series
takes place in the future makes complete sense, especially in light of the evidences you gave.

Interesting, DiGs. I actually hated most of the characters in Inkspell. :P Elinor, Darius, and Maggie's dad were my favourite characters, so that's a plus, then. I guess I shall still just have to see about reading the last book.

Mel, about Spellhunters/Knife:
I see. The idea of lesser genius just kind of fizzling out is kind of sad, even if more cheerful and reasonable than the idea of going mad. ;))
Yeah, he may have. Of course, he tried to commit suicide right AFTER Knife showed up, so... :P
And we've already sorted out that there ARE other fairies (male ones, too!), from what you said about the next book. :D ;))
Well, I guess I don't pay as much attention to world view if it's not obvious (Nix's was a lot easier to pick up on). I'm not really sure; I didn't read in-depth enough to critize/pick apart her worldview. I didn't find anything objectionable in it. :)
But, on the subject of world-building, Anderson was fine but I prefer N. D. Wilson. ;)
I did like Runaway Ralph well enough, but I never got into The Borrowers. ;))
Ooh! What are you thinking of Princess of Glass so far? *coughs* I didn't pick up on the literary name. :ymblushing: Then again, I've never read that book, so...

I haven't scrutinized either the new or old Bayern covers in detail, but I prefer the old ones. ;))

Mara, I think I may have heard of No More Dead Dogs before---it sounds vaguely familiar. ;)) I shall have to look it up.

This thread:

Nice intro, Kate! :)

Ooh, DiGs, that library sounds cool! :D

equustel, I'm glad you're liking Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl. I may have to see if my library will be getting it in---probably not, but I can always check. ;)) I really like his 100 Cupboards series; if you haven't read it, I'd recommend it. And Leepike Ridge is good, too. :D

Jo, have you read any books by Wilson? ;;)

Adeona, is it just the idea of the polytheistic gods that bothers you? Because, as Booky and you have pointed out, some of the theology is remarkably sound. ;)) Personally, the gods and goddesses don't bother me, but that might partially be because I find Greek (and other) myths rather interesting. And, it's not a 'real' world, so the polytheism really doesn't bother me when the lessons that come out of it have so much truth to them. Does that make sense? :) About the other thing that bothered you:
Like Booky said, I think the age gap is more 4-5 years, and it just feels like more because Gen acts so young and Attolia acts so old.

I'm still waiting for Mockingjay. :| Good news, though: The library has ordered a 3rd copy and I've gone down from #11 to #2 on the list. :D I'm really, really hoping to have it before the library closes for Labor Day, but we'll see. *is anxiously waiting* I keep stalking the library site to see if I'm getting any closer to getting it. :ymblushing:

I also had my other hold come in yesterday: Lord Sunday. I actually finished it today and, while it wasn't what I was expecting, I thought it was a pretty good end to the series.
First off, Suzy is still my favourite character. ;))
One thing I liked was Arthur's struggling against the 'hero complex' or whatever it's called. ;)) In most other cases I can think of, the heroes won't admit that it's messing with their mind until it's too late/they've actually hurt someone. :P
I had accidentally stumbled across the fact that it was really the Will that was killing off all the trustees beforehand, which I was rather sad about. :( That said, it actually made sense: if the Will was strictly legal et al, then killing off the treacherous trustees was perfectly logical.
I didn't agree with Nix's worldview (the Architect is tired, the Will of the Architect is kind of evil, the Will of the Architect is to destroy everything, the Architect is dead and destroyed all creation with her, there is a new Architect, etc.), but it was rather interesting to read.
I guess the implication is that Arthur went back to earth and had a pretty happy and long life before he found out he wasn't really mortal? ;))
I loved the ending with Suzy and Art sitting there, having tea and biscuits. ;)) I was glad that Suzy finally got the chance to 'grow up' a little, though I've no doubt she'll still be the same old Suzy. I'm guessing she matured about to 21, or however old Art appeared to be, so that they stayed peers. :)
And, you know, 'creating' another Arthur helped resolve the issue of which world to stay in. ;))
*coughs* I know there was tons more I wanted to say, but I forgot it. :P Booky, Mel, anyone else who's read it, do you want to add/discuss something? ;))
Some days you battle yourself and other monsters.
Some days you just make soup.
User avatar
ValiantArcher
Moderator
BC Head and G&B Mod
 
Posts: 13195
Joined: May 16, 2007
Location: The Front Line

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Adeona » Sep 01, 2010 8:03 pm

Valiant_Lucy, yes, I did mean the pink one. Sorry, but I find it completely wrong for the book and just plain brash. :p

ValiantArcher and Bookwyrm: I'm not trying to ignite old debates, but what ages would you put Gen and Attolia at? I was thinking, at the end of QoA, around 19 and 26, respectively.
RL Sibs: Aviator, Lizzle, Narniancricket, DancingPrincesses, Andriel
User avatar
Adeona
NarniaWeb Guru
Thursday's Wayfaring Child
 
Posts: 1692
Joined: Jun 26, 2009
Location: Hidden in Silence
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Bookwyrm » Sep 01, 2010 8:08 pm

Sure, I'd be happy to talk about it. ;))

What did you think of them killing off Arthur's mom? It was such a sudden thing that I almost had to reread it to realize that yes, he really had done that. Poor Arthur. He got to be human and live a normal life, but he still lost something important.

I really liked that about Arthur too. Most of the time in fantasy the kids get handed god-mode powers and run off happily. It's rare to see a series in which the hero isn't happy about his powers.
That was one thing I liked about Rick Riordan's new series, the twins are basically as close to all-powerful as you can be in that book universe and relinquished their powers in favor of earning power the hard way.

We don't mind them being reignited, we like arguing about stuff around here. ;))
I would say Gen is 17-19 in The Thief and 20-22 by Conspiracy of King. Unless it indicates otherwise somewhere and I've forgotten, I don't think Attolia was very old when she became queen. I'd say 14-15 at oldest and I don't think it has been but maybe ten years since she took the throne by the end of CoK.
User avatar
Bookwyrm
Moderator Emeritus
Lord of the Little Ponies
 
Posts: 14300
Joined: Sep 30, 2006
Location: Behind you
Gender: Male

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby sandyentersNarnia » Sep 02, 2010 12:30 am

silver the wanderer: lol. I am enjoying it more and more. but i am stuck at the part where they are in the house of Tom in the Old Forest.
Image

"Two sides of the same coin"
User avatar
sandyentersNarnia
NarniaWeb Guru
 
Posts: 1252
Joined: May 23, 2010
Location: In Aslan's heart.

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby IloveFauns » Sep 02, 2010 5:20 am

Anyoe read, the tommrow series? tommrow when the war began? their is a movie of it soon.
User avatar
IloveFauns
NarniaWeb Zealot
 
Posts: 6435
Joined: Aug 22, 2008
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby ForeverFan » Sep 02, 2010 5:55 am

Yay! We're into our 2nd books thread.... *is properly happy* :)

(From the previous thread)
Kate on Richard Peck books wrote:No clue. The two I read were hilarious though.


Ah, okay, thanks! :)

Mel wrote:I... have no words. :-o (I know you're kidding, but you are just about the last person I would have expected to make that joke. :p )


Hehehe! ;))

Mel wrote:Pro-British books are rather hard to find here. Is it the same for you as well? I can only think of... one. I think. It's been so long I don't actually remember how the plot of The Reb and the Redcoats goes. ;)) I can think of a few more where there are semi-main characters who are Loyalists, but they're both set in the same area of the colonies, and the characters are the same type--older Scottish immigrants who remember what happened when they rebelled against the king. I can't think of any others where you have really positive Loyalist characters... (Er, wait. There is Felicity's grandfather in the American Girl series... he might count...)


*adds those to lists of future reads* Given the fact that the British and Loyalist aspects of the War had such huge positive impacts on Canadian history, yes, books like that are rather scarce around here. :( The only two I can think of are a Dear Canada diary (With Nothing But Our Courage, which was pretty good) and a book written by a lady who incidentally was one of my dad's teachers in elementary school, entitled Flight. Other than that...there's really nothing else that I've found. Except for I think there was a Dear America diary that was also pro-Loyalist? Someone recommended it to me once, I think.

I did a quick re-read of Daniel Deronda these past few days, except for I think I read it too fast, and therefore didn't enjoy it as much as before. I had been wanting to re-read it for some time, especially to see what my second impressions of the book were. Ultimately, I think my thoughts the second time around are much the same as the ones the first time I read the book, although of course they are slightly different because it's a second time read through. If that makes any sense. ;)) Now I'm reading a Hardy Boys novel as some lighter fiction.
[center]Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight,
Kind folks of old, you come again no more.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
User avatar
ForeverFan
NarniaWeb Zealot
Keeper of Thursdays (BC), Retired
 
Posts: 5755
Joined: Dec 18, 2006
Location: Crossing the Rubicon
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Shantih » Sep 02, 2010 7:15 am

Regarding the continued discussion on the first page, I too must confess I'm not a big Tolkien fan. I enjoyed reading LOTR and love the films too, but I've never been completely in love with them. Same goes for Jane Austen actually, I enjoy reading her books but I wouldn't call them favourites.

So, a new thread! I don't come in here quite as much as I used to. I think it's because I read a lot of non-fiction these days, and unless you're interested in the particular subject it's pretty dull for other people ;)) In particular lately I've been reading books on physics and cosmology. I've especially enjoyed books by the physicist Michio Kaku, but I'm also delving into books by Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene.

I also picked up my first Neil Gaiman book recently. I went for Neverwhere, and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. I'm always being recommended Gaiman's work and want to give him another chance, but I don't really know what to try. Are there any Gaiman fans on NWeb? :p

Last night I finished another book people are always telling me to read - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I began this one again feeling that my expectations had been too high, it was an OK read but I didn't really care for it too much. The vivid writing reviewers kept talking about seemed like Zusak was trying a bit too hard to be inventive. But, in the last 100 pages it picked up and I began to really care about the characters. I won't lie, by the end I was crying my eyes out :ymblushing:

I've now started White Noise by Don DeLillo, it's a strange, postmodern novel which is a change after the last few pieces of fiction I've read, but I'm starting to enjoy to style and just go with the flow.
There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
User avatar
Shantih
Moderator Emeritus
 
Posts: 4894
Joined: Oct 24, 2005
Location: England

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Warrior 4 Jesus » Sep 02, 2010 7:23 am

Neil Gaiman? I haven't read heaps of his works but I've read some. They really are hit and miss. Here are some I feel are his better works (of those I've tried).

The Sandman (a series of 10 graphic novels - I've read the first 6 volumes so far)
Good Omens (hilarious! - co-authored with Terry Pratchett)
Coraline (great but aimed at children)
American Gods (I only got half-way through before I had to return it but the story was very good, if odd)

Also there are several movies.
Stardust
Coraline
Mirrormask


I've read some of Neverwhere and seen the mini-series. The premise was very interesting but the story and characters didn't reel me in.
Currently watching:
Doctor Who - Season 11
User avatar
Warrior 4 Jesus
NarniaWeb Master
 
Posts: 10045
Joined: Mar 06, 2005
Location: Australia
Gender: Male

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Valiant_Lucy » Sep 02, 2010 8:18 am

FF wrote:a book written by a lady who incidentally was one of my dad's teachers in elementary school, entitled Flight
Connie Brummel Crook was your dad's teacher?? When I was younger I was positively obsessed with her books. Laura's Choice was my favorite book, "ever", when I was 13 (I think I was mostly in love with "Red" in it ;)) ). So yeah, that's really cool! :D :D

Shantih--glad you liked The Book Thief--or the ending of it anyway :P I haven't read it in a while, I lent it to my cousin and she hasn't given it back yet :P But thinking about it, I want to reread it. I definetly loved it. :D
"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." Marilyn Monroe
User avatar
Valiant_Lucy
Moderator Emeritus
The IMAR&NB mod
 
Posts: 9142
Joined: Jan 13, 2006
Location: Canada
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby ForeverFan » Sep 02, 2010 12:41 pm

Val: :D Hehe, yes! Even better, we went to the same church as her, although I was too young then to actually remember if we ever met her. I still really like Laura's Choice, which I remember my Mom reading to us eons ago, because of the War of 1812 setting, and of course because Laura Secord was just plain amazing. *shakes hands solemnly* Glad to meet another fan! :) (Although I think I already knew you liked her?) ;))
[center]Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight,
Kind folks of old, you come again no more.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
User avatar
ForeverFan
NarniaWeb Zealot
Keeper of Thursdays (BC), Retired
 
Posts: 5755
Joined: Dec 18, 2006
Location: Crossing the Rubicon
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Liberty Hoffman » Sep 02, 2010 1:36 pm

Bookwyrm wrote:I think Suzanne Collins' writing provides a nice counterpoint to all of the fiction out there that basically tells kids/teens war is awesome.




yeah! I totally agree! in The Underland Chronicles, she shows just how bad war can be! and she has her characters discover goodness in the midst of war! I love her writing!
Image
NW sister - wild rose ~ NW big sis - ramagut
Born in the water
Take quick to the trees
I want all that You are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADBC57vKfQ
User avatar
Liberty Hoffman
NarniaWeb Master
Libby the Epic; sub in the WC
 
Posts: 11761
Joined: Aug 22, 2008
Location: Where the gully's deep in green and golden glades
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby DiGoRyKiRkE » Sep 02, 2010 3:48 pm

W4J, Stardust is a really good book! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's got the occasional curse word, but it's very well written, and is a very quick read. I think I read it in less than a week (not saying much as it's less than 250 pages I think. . . but I'm a slow reader). You should definitely check it out. (The movie isn't half-bad either. . . apart from their occasional exxagerations ;)) )
Member of Ye Olde NarniaWeb
WC: Old Forum: 1024 New Forum: 240
User avatar
DiGoRyKiRkE
Moderator
The Logical Ornithological Mod
 
Posts: 23238
Joined: Mar 29, 2005
Location: Ohio: The Buckeye State
Gender: Male

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby sweeetlilgurlie » Sep 02, 2010 6:40 pm

*timidly raises her hand*

I like the new Books of Bayern covers too. I think that the old paintings were rather ugly, actually. I hate roughly drawn/painting people that look almost like sticks. I much prefer the people on the new covers, and ESPECIALLY like the cover for River Secrets.

Really, AJ? You seem to be in the minority, then, because most of the people I've spoken with like Enna Burning and River Secrets MUCH more than Forest Born, myself included. Razo was just such an electric character-- meaning that his personality drew me in. I like him so much.

I didn't dislike Forest Born. It was alright. I just felt that it had a little too much of the "GIRL POWER!" dynamic. Sure, it's good that they're going out and doing things for themselves, but bits just seemed to be out of stupidity! It annoyed me greatly. I did like Rin, though. And I didn't mind that Shannon Hale brought Selia back.
"Let the music cast its spell,
give the atmosphere a chance.
Simply follow where I lead;
let me teach you how to dance."
User avatar
sweeetlilgurlie
Moderator Emeritus
The Sparkle Princess
 
Posts: 5424
Joined: Oct 26, 2005
Location: Narnia
Gender: Female

Re: Books: 2nd Edition

Postby Warrior 4 Jesus » Sep 02, 2010 6:55 pm

DigoryKirke, yes, I've seen the Stardust movie. It was good British fun. I've yet to read the original novel.

ILoveFauns, I read the Tomorrow When The War Began series back in high-school. It was still being written at the time, so I had to wait patiently for the each book to be released. There's some strong content in the books but it's true and an honest portrayl of teenagers (the parts we love and the parts we hate). I really enjoyed the idea that the teenagers are put through their paces and have to survive a war on Australian soil. As I understand it, such as story hadn't been set here before. Quality writing, interesting characters and a good story - what's not to love? I haven't seen the movie but I've heard it's quite good.
Currently watching:
Doctor Who - Season 11
User avatar
Warrior 4 Jesus
NarniaWeb Master
 
Posts: 10045
Joined: Mar 06, 2005
Location: Australia
Gender: Male

PreviousNext

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests