título: confusión
autora: jicalazuxil
fandom: eragon
género: drabble
pareja: eragon, murtagh
advertencias: pre-slash (?)
disclaimer: escrito después de terminar el primer libro, porque antes de enterarme que eran hermanos me parecían la pareja perfecta. lo siguen siendo, sólo que ahora con el adicionado angst que trae el incesto ^^

confusión

Eragon se encontraba admirando la grácil figura de Arya, cuando la extraña idea de haber traicionado a Murtagh de algún modo le vino a la cabeza. No lo entendía. No tenía nada que ver una cosa con la otra. Eran dos extremos opuestos. Aunque interiormente, comenzó a preguntarse cómo había sido posible que hubiera puesto en primer lugar la seguridad de alguien que ni siquiera conocía ante los deseos de alguien que le había salvado la vida. No sólo le había salvado sino que de algún modo se había convertido en algo parecido a un amigo. Sin embargo, no entendía qué comparación podía haber entre la elfa y el chico. Eragon sacudió la cabeza intentando disipar tan confusos pensamientos. No sólo temía que Sapphira se diera cuenta (porque ella no dejaría el tema hasta que todo quedase aclarado), sino que temía su propia reacción ante el descubrimiento de otra cosa que no fuera una tentativa amistad en su relación con el chico. Había veces que prefería la ceguedad a tener que afrontar cosas tan… desconocidas.

fin

de åter helg igen. vakna först vid 7 tiden …….. men verkligen … vad ska jag göra uppe så tidigt. båda tjejerna sover ju o anton är här oxå. att bara sitta vid datan eller ligga o läsa de kan jag göra nån annan dag . så jag somnade om o vakna vid halv 9 ………. mycke bättre

var ute i skogen med vovvar en liten stund, tyvärr tänkte jag mig inte för o tog inte riktigt passande skor så jag ville inte gå för långt. kan ta en runda till senare så att dom får springa av sig ordentligt

nu ska jag putsa av mina köksfönster o sätta upp mina nya julgardiner jag sydde igår ….. hoppas att resultatet blir lika positivt som mina förväntningar …… återkommer med foto om de går att ta nåt bra kort med min skitkamera ….

mm … jag fick upp gardinerna o jag är jättenöjd men ingen bild …     till middag idag beställde vanessa o anton lasagne ………. IGEN … men de är  gott o lätt att göra så de är inga problem ………. med lite sallad till så är de gott. efter maten tog jag vovvar på ytterliggare en skogspromenad ……… men de börja mörkna så jag tog stigen ut med nissan till soptippen typ o sen gick jag nissastigen hem …… de blir en rejäl runda men de behövde både vovvar o jag.

när jag kom hem satte jag bulldeg för jäsning. hade tänkt göra lussebullar men de är ingen som äter dom så då är de bättre jag vanliga bullar. efter baken blev de en snabb dusch o sen var de dags för soffan ………. senare på kvällen tittade jag på “eragon” ………. trodde kanske den skulla vara mer fängslande men var nog inte riktigt på filmhumör ………

men summerar dagen och jag är nöjd ……….. så därför gott folk

Sov gott ………..

Brisingr, es el tercer acto en la historia de Eragon y su dragona Saphira. Mientras que los primeros libros se sienten llenos de aventuras y descubrir nuevas tierras.,Brisingr se siente más directo. Su principal preocupación es solucionar problemas  y atar cabos, dominado por las espectativas que la misma trama fue creando. En sí este  tercer capítulo cierra muchos cabos sueltos y abre algunos sólo para dar muestras de cómo ha de ser el final

Eragon ha jurado servir a Nasuada, jefa máxima de la rebelión; debe seguir su entrenamiento con los elfos, y está bajo las órdenes de los enanos, debido a que es parte del clan. En sí, entre tantos juramentos y huecos en la historia que se necesitan llenar, Brisingr es una novela CASI completamente predecible en el sentido que la novela está obligada a desarrollarse hacia donde te ha apuntado desde dos libros atrás.

A groso modo, Brisingir trata de cómo es que Galbatorix cada vez se ha hecho más fuerte, el linaje de Eragon y Murtagh, el  final del entrenamiento de Eragon, el destino de la venganza contra los Ra’Zac,  las acciones de Nasuada para intentar liberar Alagaesia y el papel de Roran con los Varden.

En sí el libro toma un tono más obscuro; sanguinario, por no ir más lejos. Es notorio desde los primeros capítulos que Paolini intentó alejarse de la literatura para niños con un método fácil: incluir violencia y tornar más oscura la trama, sin desarrollar los personajes.  Las escenas de acción son del todo satisfactorias, aunque a veces no es creíble que un personaje sea tan poderoso de la noche a la mañana. Aunque si uno se traga el hecho de que es capaz de creer todo lo que aparece en el libro, tales exageraciones serán del agrado. Eso sí, hay capítulos enteros dedicados a política y a diálogos que bien pudieron quitarse sin mayor problema, pero son tan largos y tan aburridos que hubiera preferido saltarlos por completo al leer Brisingr.

Resumiendo, Brisingr ya no es un libro de aventura donde la sensación de viajar y descubrir nuevos lugares imperaba, va más hacia el cuento épico del héroe que tiene que batallar contra el mal. Es mucho más activo que su predecesor, Eldest, y por mucho, el más violento de toda la saga.   La narración está mejor hecha y ya no se siente como tres historias cortadas y pegadas a la fuerza en un libro; tiene fluidez entre cada historia. Las secciones de diálogo y política son un bodrio, pero por fortuna no son muchas. A veces intenta  ensalzar a los personajes, pero falla en su intento, haciéndolos superhumanos. Recomendable sólo si se ha seguido la serie; pero es  un excelente prólogo para el final de este relato.

Eragon – Christopher Paolini
Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz
Emma – Jane Austen (Clueless)
Shawshank Redemption – Stephen King

So what’s intriguing about newly published author Leslie Y. Shen?  Well, for starters, she’s only a high school student.

I admit I loved reading Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, but it never occurred to me that a talent to match his existed out there.  And it doesn’t.  Not for now, at any rate.

Ms. Shen is not on a level with Christopher Paolini.  Do I believe she’ll get to that point sometime later in her career?  Probably, and I look forward to seeing it happen.  In terms of Shen’s debut novella, however, she won’t command the same kind of audience that Paolini does.  Baby Talk, as Shen’s book is titled, will appeal most to a sharply defined group of young, culturally aware readers.

It’s set right here in Palo Alto, Calif., or as the young writer describes it, the town under the “soul-saving sun.”  Here where the kids are trained to be everything and more, protagonist Sophia copes with inadequacy– not to mention identity, love, and general angst.  When she is not being an artist, studying, or remaining firmly silent about physical harassment suffered at the hands of a classmate, she ponders iconic questions of the 21st century:  Where do I belong?  How Asian am I, really? What does it mean to be a woman, and why can’t it be different?  Will I be successful?  How about happy?  Are boyfriends overrated?

The existence led by Sophia and company is a colorful one, despite it being absolutely mundane.  Reality’s there, but at the same time, the characters aren’t really tuned in to it.  Instead they drift “back and forth and sideways” through complex family histories and memories that are touchingly painful in spite of their extreme innocence.

And that’s one of the few complaints one could make about Baby Talk.  It’s baby talk, and yet it isn’t.  Shen is young and inexperienced, and it shows.  At the same time, her obviously naive outlook on life is expressed with language to rival that of many established writers.  Her prose is lyrical, passionate, precocious, sweet– and all carefully constructed to be as ambiguous as possible.  Shen wants her readers to think analytically.

That’s not to say, of course, that you shouldn’t get wrapped up in the story.  It’s a beautiful story, though light on plot, and you get to know several generations’ worth of strong women through the structure of the book.  There are moments of laughter and friendship, but ultimately Shen is ambitious in trying to tackle the sweeping concepts:  love, existence, sexuality, race, happiness, death, forgiveness.  I’m sure her handling of the suicide topic will be controversial in Palo Alto, as will her seemingly anti-adult sentiments.  It’s unclear, however, whether or not she believes what she has written.

As a whole, Baby Talk is an impressive piece of writing.  It has kinks, but the author is stylistically spot-on.  Quick read, best for advanced readers (I’d guess at age groups anywhere in high school or college).  I recommend reading some of the passages several times for the full effect.  The retail price is a bit high, but you might try contacting Ms. Shen herself and asking for a discounted (or free, if you really make an impression)  copy.  I was actually able to chat with the author.  Perfectly nice young lady.

Baby Talk by Leslie Y. Shen

113 pages.  Young adult fiction, literary fiction, Asian, women’s fiction.

Available in paperback ($19.99) and hardcover ($29.99) at Xlibris online.  Coming soon to Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble online.

Contact the author:  lshen10@paly.net

Teenaged author Leslie Shen released her debut piece, Baby Talk, earlier this month.

Agora vem personalizado! hehe. Fofo! ^^

Primeiramente quero dizer que não estou aqui para encher o saco de ninguém com minhas histórinhas de compras no Submarino.
O meu post de hoje é sim sobre minha segunda compra nele, mas principalmente pelo fato de “a 1ª impressão é a que fica” não se  encaixar nessa história.
Como eu contei no meu post anterior “Livros, livros e mais livros”, não tive uma experiência muito boa com a dita primeira compra, e estava com medo de que a dose de problemas se repetisse numa segunda compra. Tá, você pode estar pensando “Então por que diabos você vai arriscar de     novo?! ¬¬’ “, e eu respondo: “É que os preços estão tão baixinhos… *-* “. E não resisti, comprei mais livros. >.<
Estava na minha dose diária de “sonhos de consumo do Submarino” no dia 29 de outubro e vi que o frete era grátis para 2 ou mais livros independente do preço dele e só para aquele dia. Ae pirei! Estava louca para comprar outros livros e decidi não esperar pelo vale-troca do “A Garota Americana”, porque se eu ficasse esperando… ia perder todas as oportunidades e promoções.
O bom foi que:
1- Saiu tudo tão baratinho, como com a primeira compra! Na primeira saiu cada livro por 9,90 (menos “A Garota Americana” – que troquei logo), e nessa compra 5 livros foram menos de 9,90 e 3 foram 14,90.
2- Chegou muito antes do previsto (ao contrário do outro…)! A previsão era de 9 dias úteis, ou seja, dia 13/11, e chegou ontem, 07/11! \o/ Aliás, a cena se repetiu. Pela segunda vez foi a Bre quem recebeu. O engraçado foi que eu abri a porta e vi o rapaz no portão, mas pensei que era para minha tia, só que ela veio avisar que não era, então falei para a Brenna ir ver o que era e fiquei sentada na cama vendo tv destraída, até ela me assustar jogando a caixa no meu colo com um sonoro “tcharaaam”. Nós ficamos rindo desse “déjà vu”… xD
3- Não teve nenhum problema com os livros dessa vez. Aleluia!
Com isso, percebi que os problemas aconteceram sim, mas pelo menos tive meus direitos de consumidora atendidos (se é assim que se fala) e vi que essa confusão toda não rola sempre (e espero que nunca mais!).

Já vi essa cena antes... ;D

E agora falarei quais foram os livros que se juntaram aos outros.
* Coleção Brumas de Avalon (1, 2, 3 e 4) + Memórias de uma Gueixa. [link para os 2 juntos]
Eles vieram assim mesmo, um pacote com o Brumas e o Memórias custando juntos 44,90 (no caso 8,98 cada), que era mais barato que os dois separados. Estava louca para comprar Memórias de uma Gueixa desde que vi o filme, a muuuuito tempo atrás.
* Coleção Ciclo da Herança
- Eragon
- Eldest
- Brisingr
Essa coleção saiu por 14,90 cada livro. Bem, se eu tivesse esperado, compraria eles por 29,90, que é o preço atual… Mas tudo bem, eu relevo porque não paguei frete.

Falando em Ciclo da Herança, eu estava procurando sobre a série na internet e assim descobri que o nome antes era Trilogia da Herança e depois mudou para Ciclo da Herança. Quando estava lendo sobre, no Wikipédia, vi uma notícia de que o autor, Christopher Paolini, quando estava escrevendo Brisingr percebeu que não conseguiria terminar a saga e responder a todas as questões deixadas nos livros anteriores e portanto concluiria num quarto volume, um a mais que o previsto.
Outra notícia é de que o 4º livro não tem ainda uma data de lançamento, mas o que já se sabe é que a capa do livro será verde e terá um dragão verde-esmeralda. E também foi confirmado que haverá mais explicações sobre os meninos-gato.
Eu não consegui encontrar informações sobre o suposto 4º livro nos sites de fãs em português, nem no eragon.com.br – que só me leva para a página do Brisingr ¬¬’ – então não sei confirmar exatamente as notícias dadas no Wikipédia.
Mas e você, o que acha? Terá mesmo um novo livro? Acha que precisa mesmo de outro volume para esclarecer algumas questões? (Ou ainda não leu a saga?)

Situação atual: muuuuitos livros para ler, e até agora só li – e ainda estou lendo – um, O Hobbit. Que felicidaaade! Agora tenho que me controlar e juntar dinheiro, ao invés de gastar. Mas antes eu não me contive e comprei uma pulseirinha… >.< Mas é que ela é especial. Quando chegar eu tiro uma foto com ela e mostro para vocês. ^^
Outra foto com meus livrinhos queridos no meu Twitpic.

DISCLEIMER: ESTE LIBRO ES UNA SECUELA DE ERAGON, ASI QUE SI UNO DESEA LEER LA PRIMERA PARTE, RECOMIENDO ALTAMENTE EVITAR ESTE POST.

Eldest, libro de Christopher Paolini  continúa las aventuras de Eragon, el joven  Jinete del dragón. Las acciones de esta novela comienzan a partir del fin de  la batalla con los Varden, y la muerte de Urza. Se observa el campo de batalla victorioso, pero Eragon está herido y su cicatriz en la espalda le resulta durante casi el 70% del libro una cruz que le resta todas sus fuerzas.

La novela en sí lidia con tres tramas que se desarrollan a partir de la partida de Eragon hacia la tierra de los Elfos, donde continuará su entrenamiento. Cada una de las tramas está entrelazada a manera de capítulos separados. Primero se enfocan en trama uno, luego en la trama dos, luego trama tres, para regresar a la primera y así sucesivamente. La primera trama, y de mayor importancia, es la de Eragon, que viaja a la tierra de los elfos y recibe su entrenamiento. La segunda trama, que aunque no es mala sí es un paso atrás en la fuerza narrativa del libro,  se concentra en Roran, el primo mayor de Eragon, que se encuentra escondido del imperio y deberá hacerse cargo de cosas formidables. El tercer nudo, está fuertemente ligado con los Varden y la amenaza constante del imperio y los problemas internos que hay entre ellos, con los Enanos y con otras fuerzas internas que debilitan las fuerzas de los rebeldes.

En  sí casi la mayoría del libro, en cuanto a Eragon concierne, trata sobre su viaje hacia la tierra de los Elfos, su aprendizaje y varios cambios que lleva allí.  De nuevo Paolini da un libro muy digerible y sencillo.  El problema es que no sorprende, salvo al final, donde se hace gala de un par de Ases que guarda en la manga. Ya que la mayoría trata del entrenamiento de Eragon (que no es malo, pero definitivamente es una etapa transitoria no muy interesante) y sobre los problemas de Roran (que aunque heróicas, uno desea leerlas sólo para llegar al siguiente segmento de acerca de Eragon), el libro se siente poco sustancioso. De ninguna manera es un mal libro, pero repito, durante muchas hojas  uno desea que algo REALMENTE INTERESANTE pase.

Como extras, el libro explica aún más sobre la historia de los elfos, dragones, jinetes y uso de la magia. Posiblemente ese sea su mayor fuerza, que esclarece las vaguedades del universo de Alagäesia y permite sustentar más su propia mitología.

A su vez, Paolini toma muchos elementos de Star Wars (las similitudes son tantas que faltan dedos para contarlas) y la narrativa en algunos puntos intenta emular a Tolkien (con efectos a veces no muy convincentes).

Recomendable, si uno ya se enganchó con la serie, pero  sin duda este libro es el pretexto para continuar la saga.

Título: Eragon
Autor: Christopher Paolini
Género: Fantasia
Tamanho: 480
Formato: Pdf

Eragon, de Christopher Paolini, é o primeiro volume da Trilogia da Herança. Lançado com estrondoso sucesso nos Estados Unidos e Canadá, onde foram comercializados 2,5 milhões de exemplares, o romance de estreia de Christopher Paolini já foi vendido para 38 países e licenciado para o cinema.

Eragon é uma história repleta de acção, perigosos vilões e locais fantásticos. Com dragões e elfos, cavaleiros, lutas de espadas, inesperadas revelações e, claro, uma linda donzela que é muito bem capaz de cuidar de si própria. O protagonista, de quinze anos, é um pacato rapaz do campo, que ao encontrar na floresta uma pedra azul polida, se vê da noite para o dia no meio de uma disputa pelo poder do Império, na qual ele é peça principal.

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We are currently reading Eragon which is my pick for our bookclub! I have already read it – several times and will read it again before our meeting on Wednesday night at my house. I will be interested to see what the girls think! This is our last meeting before our Christmas windup

Hello, and excuse my non-professionalism  in the title. I am just so excited to finally post my first blog.

To start, my name is Jamir Burney and I am currently in school. I have aspirations to be a published fictional writer and write 2 movie scripts.

As of right now I am waiting on responses from 3 interviews from internships of writing. But enough of me, allow me to tell you why I am blogging.

Here a few reasons:

1. I really enjoy writing and expressing myself.
2. I equally enjoy hearing what others have to say and helping with their problems.
3. I have never, ever blogged or owned my own forum.
4. I would like to interact with different people who know what I am talking about.
5. Every experience leads up to the final you.
6. I truly want to be HEARD!

Well now that I told you why I want to blog, how about I tell you what I am blogging about, though you might have guessed.

I am blogging about my favorite books, that I can read endlessly. Harry Potter, Twilight, and Eragon. These book are inspiring in a way, but more importantly in my eyes it allows you to

go somewhere you can never be and creates that feeling that you are there which is just as good as being there. But also these books mean something to me. Harry Potter and the Chamber of

Secrets was the first book I read all the way through and then re-read.  After that I was hooked on Harry Potter. Twilight was the first book in which I actually embraced the theme of romance

novels. Although, I am a guy I truly understand Twilight and I frown upon those who judge it without good reason. Finally, Eragon is a book I love because it is a tale of heroics, which we all

want to hear, and a lot of the times it has those parts that get your heart beating or when you know that he is about to breakdown a door and people will finally know he is the Dragon Rider.

Those are the parts I live for.

And so I conclude my first blog. If you would like to comment or email me feel free I am very open and sociable.

Oh Yeah, Welcome to my Blog!

Ok, me tengo que dejar de enganchar con sagas de libros, no es sano pero me gusta xD.

Me prestaron Eragon hace un par de meses, y hace un par de semanas lo terminé. Es increiblemente bueno y enganchate. Es fácil de leer, la historia es buena, atrapante, con un aire épico genial. Los personajes son carismáticos, queribles algunos, detestables otros. Tiene varios conflictos, se desarrollan, se resuelve el que plantea el libro y deja “enganche” para el resto de la saga.

¿De qué va? Soy mala haciendo sinopsis, quería simplemente dejar mi opinión personal. No quiero dejar mi opinión de la historia hasta tanto no termine la saga. Pero bien, más o menos.  La historia va sobre un muchacho de 15 años que vive en el reino legendario de Algaësia, reino gobernado por un tirano rey. El muchacho, de nombre Eragon, es un campesino que vive con su tío y su primo, puesto que su madre lo abandonó al nacer. Mientras estaba buscando algo para cazar en el bosque que se encuentra en el valle de una cadena montañosa horripilante y llena de mitos, una explosión desvía a su presa -que venía siguiendo por días- y revela una extraña gema. De mal humor, puesto que tendría que comprar carne al carnicero del pueblo, una persona muy desagradable, toma la gema. Intenta venderla, pero le ofertan o muy poco dinero, o no la aceptan por su procedencia supuestamente maldita. Así, el muchacho se queda con la gema, de la que luego de un tiempo, nace un dragón, animal se creía extinto desde hacía ya mucho tiempo, que lo convierte en Jinete de Dragón, llevándolo a tomar varias decisiones, enfrentándolo con asesinos mitológicos y, enfrentando al propio Imperio.

A esperar que me presten Eldest, y luego, Brisingr.

Sorry for the blog theme swapping, but I’m trying to settle on something that feels right.  My first one was nice and clean, but didn’t really match my personal style.  The second was closer, but felt a little constrained for some reason.  This new one doesn’t seem as rigid and it has that “je ne sais quoi” about it that I like.  I may change it later if I happen to find something better, but for now, I’ll stick with this.

I recently discovered two cool online places for writers and readers alike, and thought I’d share them with you guys.  The first is called the Writers’ Database, a site put together by Luminary Publishing.  It’s a nifty (and free!) website that helps writers track what they’ve written, who they’ve sent manuscripts to, how many books they’ve sold, and it has a database of contact info for literary magazines and publishing companies that can be perused at one’s leisure.  It even has a word-count tracker that graphs your weekly progress.  Basically, it’s a great big one-stop-shop for the business side of writing. 

The next place I’ve stumbled across is GoodReads.com, a sort of Facebook for bookworms.  Whether you’re a reader or a writer, this place looks like a great hub to meet with other folks that share a common interest in books.  I’ve only just signed up myself and have no friends on there just yet, so feel free to look me.  I plan to start blogging there as well.

Writing Update
You may or may not have noticed that the progress meter for the first draft of book 2 has not budged much.  I have worked on it some, but I’ve taken a break from it to work on a cooperative project with my brother that’s been on the back-burner for a while.  Over the last few months we decided we needed to just get it done and spent several late nights hammering out details and storyline.  I won’t say much about it except that it will be of novella length (~25,000 words, or 1/4 the size of a regular novel) and be of the sci-fi/fantasy/military comedy persuasion.  Our plan is to publish this in a literary magazine before making it available as a book.  Each magazine has a different maximum word count, so depending on which magazine accepts it, the story might get broken down into an episodic format.  I’m about a third of the way through the first draft and I hope to finish it before Thanksgiving, then it’s back to work on Book 2 of the Black Armor Tales.  By the end of the year, my goal is to have Book 2 draft 1 completed and a final version of the novella done and sent off to a magazine.

Alright, without further ado, the second installment of…

5 Things from Sam’s Desk of Awesomeness: Books – Fiction Series
This week, we’ve got a selection of several fiction series that I’ve enjoyed very much over my years of reading.  They each have their place in my life and upbringing, and I recommend any one of these series for good reads.

1. Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

Eoin (pronounced like Ewan) Colfer has created a unique world that is funny, engaging, and inventive all at the same time.  I first stumbled across Artemis Fowl at the New Zealand international airport while my brother and I awaited our flight that would take us back to the U.S.  There were several books on the shelf and the premise sounded intriguing, but I already had plenty of things to read so I didn’t pick it up then.  I forgot about the series until seeing it yet again at Borders a few weeks later.  My curiosity got the better of me and I bought the first one and I’ve followed it ever since.  The series is named for the young and highly intelligent protagonist who starts out as a sort of brainiac anti-hero that gets mixed up with the underground world of fairies when he cooks up a scheme to take their gold.  As one progresses through the series, however, Artemis matures and begins to find other ways to apply his massive intellect outside of the criminal world.  With a good mix of fantasy, science fiction, drama, action, and comedy, it’s an all around fun series to read.  While you won’t find too many deep, philosophical messages here (they are, after all, aimed at the young adult crowd) the stories are fun with plenty of humor and unique, quirky characters to follow.  There are times when Colfer’s dialog is a little cheesy and the humor a bit forced, but these instances are few and far between.  All in all, a great series for anyone.  Each book is fairly self-contained, and can be picked up and read without any prior knowledge, but you get a more gratifying experience if you start with the first one.

2. The Discworld Series – Terry Pratchett
If one were to take Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and mash it together with Douglas Adams’ Hitchiker’s Guide to Galaxy series, then piled on an extra helping of sarcasm,  the Disworld series by Terry Pratchett is what you would get.  Rife with well-written prose and imagination, the 37 (as of today) book series  is definite must read for any fan of satire and/or fantasy.  Filled with oddball characters like Rincewind, the bumbling wizard, Commander Vimes, the laid-back, no-nonsense leader of the City Watch, and even Death (my personal favorite) who speaks in all capital letters, it’s a series that pokes fun at societal and fantasy conventions while at the same time delivering fantastic stories.   I began reading the series while I was in college, starting with the first book, The Colour of Magic, on the suggestion of an engineering buddy and I’ve loved them ever since.  Calvin & Hobbes books were essentially my “kids’ books” growing up and I read fantasy stories like the Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, so the Discworld series felt very natural to pick up and read.  They’ve even started to make a decent set of movies based on the series.  If you get a chance, check out Hogfather and The Colour of Magic.  You’ll be glad you did.

3. The Young Indiana Jones series – various authors
This series takes me back to my pre-teen days when I was all into the short novellas written specifically with young boys in mind.  I liked The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift well enough, but my favorites were always the Young Indiana Jones series.  Adventure, action, and a little (but only a little) romance, and you have all the things a young boy chases after in his imagination.  I’m afraid to revisit them in case I find the writing and stories too cliched or terrible.  Like old G.I. Joe and He-Man cartoons, I prefer to keep them locked in my head where they are still made of awesome.

4. Nero Wolfe – Rex Stout
Any fan of the mystery genre has no doubt heard of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series.  The premise and storytelling mode is similar to that of Sherlock Holmes.  Archie Goodwin, the assistant, is the series’ narrator and sidekick to Nero Wolfe, the brilliant detective.  However, the similarity with Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic series ends there.  Stout’s characters have a stronger sense of balance between them and their relationship is more symbiotic than that of Holmes and Watson.  Archie is the wise cracking footman and muscle while Nero is the highly eccentric, overweight genius who rarely ever leaves his home.  The charm of the series is their relationship and the ways each of them reacts to the situations they find themselves in.  Stout’s writing is fantastic and his characters jump straight into your mind the moment they arrive on the scene.  My favorites out of this series include The Second Confession, The Black Mountain, and The League of Frightened Men.  I have never actually read a print copy of this series, but I have listened to the audiobooks and, after hearing Michael Pritchard voice all the characters, it’s hard to read the print version because he does such a fantastic job.  There is also an A&E TV series that ran for a short time that was very good, though the actor who plays Wolfe always seems slightly off in his depiction of the great detective.

5. The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
I have to give it to Christopher Paolini.  At the age of 19, barely a year younger than I was at the time, he became a New York Times bestselling author with the first book in the Inheritance Cycle, Eragon.  The book spun off a movie (which was sub par in my opinion) and a video game (that I’ve heard is atrocious).  Despite the quality of the movie and the game, the books are actually quite good.  While you won’t find anything too terribly original (some have even mocked it, calling it Star Wars minus lightsabers, plus dragons) the storytelling is solid.  Though his dialogue can be a little shaky at times, his prose is well written and he successfully blends several fantasy conventions into a fun story.  I am actually in the middle of the series right now so my experience is still fairly new, relatively speaking, but his writing gets better as he goes and I look to seeing where he takes it.  I also have to credit Paolini for annoying me enough to get off my butt and finish a novel (though I do have to credit my wife – then girlfriend – for encouraging me along the way).  After reading that he’s about my age and already a major author, I got a little miffed, to say the least, but in a good way.  I have the utmost respect for Paolini and what he’s done.

Alright, that’s it for this week everybody.  Stay tuned for more info on the upcoming novella and book 2 of the Black Armor Tales.  Remember to grab a copy of book 1, The Thief and the Red Mandolin, at Amazon.com or CreateSpace when you get the chance.  Oh, and before I forget there’s also a preview of the book available here and here.  You can also purchase an e-version of the book on Smashwords, Amazon’s Kindle, the Stanza application on the iPhone (via the Smashwords line), and, soon, Sony’s e-bookstore.

Ciao,

El Capitan

Stole this from a friend – I can never resist a good book meme!

What books are your comfort reading–the ones you slink back to in times of stress?
Books are a bit Turret’s like for me—if I read something kind of awful, my own life seems better by comparison, I guess?  So when I’m really stressed, I like to read books about hard times, like Joanne Greenberg’s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, or The Joy Luck Club.  That said… I might always lean towards no-brain fun, too.

What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
Mmm… let’s see.  When I was very small it as Who’s a Pest? a book by Crosby Bonsall about a little boy who everyone insists is a pest—even though he says he’s not.  It’s a strange, funny little book, that involves everything from mean sisters to talking animals, and an all-consuming pit.  It’s hard to explain, you’d have to read it.  When I was a little older, though, I was a big fan of Mercer Mayer books, and the Alexander books by Judith Viorst (especially Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday).

What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
Undoubtedly Just as Long as We’re Together by Judy Blume.   That book almost single-handedly got me through the break-up with my first (and second, really) best friend.  Stephanie Hirsch was the first fictional character who I really saw as a reflection of my life—or what my life could be.  She was what Rory Gilmore would be in a few years down the line.  This is also the book that got me serious—at age eleven—about writing young adult books.

What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf–the books you’ve bought but just never get around to reading?
The ones I buy but haven’t read?  Are probably mainly in the non-fiction genre.  There are certain periods of history that I love—love, love, love, like the American Revolution and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, and so I have a few books that I own that cover those periods, but I haven’t read any of them.  Also under that list would be anthologies.  I have a few either from classes (writing on music, etc) and gifts from friends, but I just don’t jump into them very often.

What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
There are a few of them.  I tend to get very comfortable either in classics or in young adult or children’s fantasy… so almost anything outside of that is (embarrassingly) kind of a gray area for me.  The ones that I’d really love to say I read are mystery novels—I feel like I’m missing out on a great genre, and the ones I’ve read I’ve enjoyed, but I just don’t go looking for them.  I’d also like to say that I appreciated a good Grisham—because really, everybody is supposed to like Grisham, but all I’ve read was The Pelican Brief, and that was enforced (high school book report).  I’d like to say I’d read Michener, too.  My mother loves his novels, and I love the look and the idea of them… but I’ve never so much as opened one.

What’s the oddest book you’ve ever read?
Does The Host count?  Because I have likened parts of that novel to a Miyazaki film on crack.  Outside of the illustrious Miss Meyer, however… I would have to say… actually, no.  I really think The Host might be the oddest book I’ve read.

What book were you never able to get through,despite the recommendations of people you respect?
I can’t think of one off the top of my head.  Possibly Wicked?  Maybe Eragon as well.

What’s the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
I don’t do this very often.  The only one I can even remember is Jane Eyre.  Which I started for the first time when I was twelve—I hated the childhood section of that book, and so I kept putting it down.  It remains to this day the only book I’ve ever literally thrown across the room (more than once, I believe) in frustration—and my ugly little orange paperback bears the marks as proof.  It took me months to get through Lowood.  Once I got to Thornfield, though, I was hooked, hooked, hooked, and it is almost definitely my favorite book of all time.

What’s your favorite short story–or do you even have one?
I’m not very good at reading short stories, I’ll admit.  There was one in a literature book of mine in high school, though, called “Chasing Summer,” that I really loved, all about a couple who, after a thermo-nuclear war, chase the patches of light that make their way through the nuclear winter sky.  I also really love “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury… actually, I love his “A Sound of Thunder,” also.  Reason why I’ve always wanted to read more Bradbury (that should go with Grisham and Michener, above).

The desert island. Three books (and collected works don’t count. If you want the Lord of the Rings it’ll cost you all three slots). Go:
1. Jane Eyre… it’s a debate between this and Persuasion, but as yet Jane Eyre continues to have the smallest of edges.
2. Great Expectations—maybe.  Not because it’s one of my favorites (it’s kind of not) but just because I think analyzing it would last me years. 
3. Fingerprints: Payback by Melinda Metz.  At least I think I’d pick this one.  One of the last three, at least.  It’d kill me not to have the full series, though.  Mindless fun—well, mostly mindless.  And one of my biggest fiction OTPs.  Yes, I know you’ve never heard of it.

Originally, I thought I might just write that as my title, and then not talk about Star Wars at all (huzzah for in-jokes) but then I realized that you can relate Star Wars to anything, and therefore I can write about Star Wars for this topic.

I first watched A New Hope when I was really young–in fact, we still have the old VHS tapes from when Lucas released the new-and-improved versions of the original trilogy (you know, with the Jawa falling off the  Ronto and the more-crowded cantina and Han shooting second). I think it might have been those first few viewings of that galaxy far, far away that turned me into not only a fan of SciFi, but of adventure–particularly quest romances.  I devoured old myths and fantasy/sci-fi novels as I grew up, never realizing that these stories  had a lot of the same traits until I read Eragon (caution: spoilers ahead!). When Eragon finds out that the right-hand man of evil, Morzan, is his father, all I could think of was Luke and Vader on Cloud City. The light bulb flickered on, and after that,  I really dove in, looking up Hero of a Thousand Faces and just about everything else Joseph Campbell wrote, comparing legends and myths from various civilizations and, of course, writing my own stories as well. Call it escapism, a hobby, an antisocial activity–whatever you like. You’ll still have to admit that there’s something in Star Wars (and in any quest romance) that makes you want to be a part of it.

Quests are a part of life. Most have meaning only for you, but they’re still there. Whether you’re walking across campus to find a professor’s office or writing a paper or applying to college, you’re on a mission–a quest, in other words. What Star Wars gives us is a series of quests that have more meaning than a paper or a long walk. Star Wars does combine the best of adventure, romance, mysticism, science, and unexpected plot turns, but what really makes it special are the quests the story focuses on. Luke, a farm boy longing to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Jedi; Leia, the princess, bravely leading a rebellion against an evil Empire; and Han, the scoundrel, just out to keep his neck intact and his wallet full of credits at the end of the day. The success or failure of their quests, unlike your paper, matter to everyone around them. If the Rebel Alliance succeeds, the course of history changes drastically, and thousands of worlds will be freed from Imperial tyranny. Or, the Empire could crush them and then extend the grip of the Dark Side even further. Everything (almost literally; the Empire can blow up planets, you know!) hangs in the balance of their quests. Lives, planets, the balance of the Force–it all depends on them. Your paper, on the other hand, makes up a fraction of one of your many grades, which in ten or twenty years you will not even remember.

Just in case you’re not convinced, watch this, and just try to tell me it’s not awesome:

Remember: the Force will be with you, always.

Dacia

Edit: I completely forgot to cite the video. Thanks Prof. Hall

Moosebutter, comp. Star Wars An A Capella Tribute to John Williams. Perfs. Corey Vidal. 2002.

Eragon, novela escrita por Christopher Paolini, cuenta sobre un muchacho de mismo nombre. Eragon, un joven aparentemente huérfano que vive en el bosque, se encuentra una piedra de color azul. La piedra resulta ser un huevo de una dragona, que lo ha elegido como compañero de vida y aventuras. Así comienza Eragon,  primer libro de un ciclo (semejante a Harry Potter que son episodios consecutivos) aún inconcluso.

Sin dar mucho detalle, para quienes deseen leer el libro, éste trata sobre cómo Eragon consigue a Safira, su dragona. Habla acerca de cómo comienza a crecer como un jinete de dragón, y sus primeros acercamientos en aprendizaje en las artes de la magia, espada y en general la situación en la que es arrastrado en sus aventuras por fuerzas más grandes que él. Durante el libro, se establece la mitología del universo de Eragon. Esta mitología, extremadamente semejante a la de  a Star Wars, habla sobre un pasado donde caballeros nobles existían, y un jinete muy poderoso que perdió su camino, decidió traicionar a todos y de paso convertirse en líder supremo del reino. Varios años después, un chico del campo con poderes inusuales aparece e intenta destruir al imperio malvado.

En sí la narrativa es ligera y las hojas pasan volando gracias a un estilo que se agradece por ser sencillo y adictivo. La trama en sí no es tan compleja como para darte vueltas en la cabeza sobre el final y pero no es predecible completamente.

Paolini adolece de varios problemas en Eragon. El protagonista se vende a cada cinco minutos como el mesias que salvará al mundo. Más de dos veces “hace cosas que tardan años en siquiera aaparecer”. Sí, entendemos que está en desventaja y debe ser el elegido, pero decir a cada 20 hojas que puede hacer todo lo que cuesta años de entrenamiento sólo porque sí no emociona: diluye la emoción. A su vez hay ciertos secretos que revelan al final del libro los cuales son tan obvios (La verdadera identidad de su mentor) que resultan inútiles, y en general, hojas donde parece que nuestro protagonista sólo hace errores.

Eragon, el libro, con respecto a la película varía muchísimo. Escenas son cortadas y añadidas de regreso.  La película se siente estúpida y algunas conexiones son dudosas siendo muy buenos. El libro hace un cambio radical a la trama, pero sí sustancial en cuanto a calidad.