Unlocking Books discussion

I'm currently reading The Book of Lost Things as an audiobook for my drive to work, but I'm really not liking it. The writing is great, but the story is rather dark and brooding.

I just finished Brisinger. Great book!

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini? I've read the first two in that series and was impressed with the author's amazing story. I haven't yet gotten to the 3rd one.

I read Eragon and was disappointed, honestly. I think I might have been expecting too much from the author.

With Eragon, I was reminded of the first book in Wheel of Time--farm boy called on a mission to save the world. But the author of Wheel of Time made every side character a POV and the story became too big (IMO). That's why I liked Eragon. The story stuck to one POV and so was much faster paced.

I've read all three books and it reminded of Star Wars with Dragons but I really enjoyed them.

I'm reading a lot books at the moment. 22 or 23....something like that; I can't remember the exact number. As far as young adult titles go, I'm reading The Maze Runner and Inkheart. Neither one have grabbed me to the point that I can't put them down but I wouldn't call either one of them boring either.

I actually didn't like the Maze Runner. The slang really bugged me and the characters didn't grab me at all and I don't feel any anticipation to grab the Scorched Trials either. It was a let down for me. YA is seriously lacking in interesting, realistic male POVs...its annoying.

I never liked Inkheart either...don't know why. I like Funke's writing style too because the book The Thief Lord is one of my favorites so Inkheart has always been a mystery to me.

Kyle wrote: "YA is seriously lacking in interesting, realistic male POVs...its annoying.

I guess that's a good challenge for yourself.

There were two things that really annoyed me about Maze Runner. The first was the way the author described emotions: She smiled as if she were happy. He turned pale as if he were scared. He explained every visual indication of emotion as if we couldn't figure it out for ourselves.

The other was that his main character was the only one to figure it out. It seemed more like the author was being convenient than that Thomas (was that his name? it's been a while) was really that good.

But I thought that if the author was willing to grow the sequel to Maze Runner could be pretty good. Maze Runner was a great concept.

She smiled as if she were happy.

That sentence implies (to me at least) that she wasn't happy and was simply faking it... for the sake of someone else, perhaps.

Oh well. I've never read it, so I can't offer my opinion of it.

I can't remember for sure if the author actually used, "She smiled as if she were happy." But he did that kind of thing a lot. And it wasn't that she was faking it.

It would have worked if he'd written "She smiled as if she were happy, but inside, she felt empty." OR "She smiled as if the sun had just peeked out on a cloudy day."

But it made me learn something (to watch out everytime I use the phrase "as if"), and for that, I am grateful.

I will read the next few books by this author. I think he has so much potential.

Ha. I just noticed my own overuse of "either" in my above comment. *shrug*

And Sonia, I agree. When I read a sentence like that, "She smiled as if she were happy," I think she's faking it and it's from another's POV, someone who is watching the situation and knows she can't possibly be happy.

"He turned pale as if he were scared," is another one that sounds to me like someone is watching someone else and doesn't understand why this person seems scared.

But then, these two sentences are taken out of context, too. If they were from the subject's POV, then yeah, a little redundant.

Jeanne whispers...Jaimey, "Neither one has grabbed me..." (singular verb)

Thank you Jeanne. Oops. Forgot a comma. ;o)

Ha ha hee hee hee! Funny girl!

the scortch trials scared my mom. (Hello noses! *shudders*

I'm reading The great tree of Avalon by T.A. Barron. I picked it up because the cover says is has something to do with a dragon!

I am reading Zombies vs. Unicorns. It's a YA anthology. Personally, I am a dragon fan and care little for zombies or unicorns, but zombies have always seemed like the worst possible monster out there. Therefore, if I have to choose between zombies and unicorns, unicorns win for me.

I think Unicorns shouldn't be in the same book as zombies. What where they thinking? Bleck. ):P

It's holly black right? There's no explaining what she does.

I never read it though sounds nuts.

Nuts sounds fun...

Holly Black, yes. I guess two authors (Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier) had a public, online argument over which was better. The end result was that they put together an anthology, consisting of unicorn and zombie stories. And in between each story the authors argue about how the story supports each side.

Just a warning for anyone with sensibilities: This seems to be written for older YA. There's some sensuality, some strong language, including F-bombs, and some dark scenes.

Is it okay? I liked her fairy stories (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside) because they were darker so maybe I should pick that up. I did not like the Spiderwick chronicles though...just couldn't get into them.

I did the Spiderwick Chronicles as book on tape (read by Mark Hammill; he did an excellent job) and then shared it with my kids. For children to early teens, I think Spiderwick Chronicles is great.

But I haven't read her other fairy tales. I'm intrigued. Gotta go check those out.

I think you would like Zombies vs. Unicorns, but there's a lot in there to make someone uncomfortable.


My favorite story so far is "How to Raise Your Own Baby Killer Unicorn". It's the one I'm currently reading.

Just finished: Hawkspar, by Holly Lisle

Currently reading: The Mischief of the Mistletoe - A Pink Carnation Christmas by Lauren Willig

Next Up:

The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip
Find The Way ... and other tales of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey

I just finished White Cat by Holly Black. Really intriguing story, and very different from anything I've read in a long time.

Has anybody heard the fairy tale about the White Cat? It has always been my favorite fairy tale, but I've only heard the story once. It's not one of the more popular stories, like Cinderalla, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Rapunzel.

The White Cat

http://mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/31...

Well, I'm currently rereading Ranger's Apprentice #1 The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan; it's one of the few books I can read over and over again. After I'm done getting my entertainment there, I plan to finish reading The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (I've only been reading it for a month). I'm really looking forward to being able to say that I read The Lord of the Rings series. :D

Having just read the 'Mystery of Edwin Drood' (the ending's a killer) I've just started the Complete Works of Edgar Wallace. I'm working on a theory ref the kindle edition, and those works that haven't been included in the 'Complete'works

I'm reading Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher. These are both the second books of a series that I started last year.

Sapphique is on my list as well.

Rita,

Do you remember in the White Cat fairytale how the servants were just "hands in the air"? The hands served dinner, kept things tidy, and attended to our hero's every need. Wouldn't they be nice employees? The man who maintains my garden and fixes things here thinks I owe him conversation as well as his wages. I don't agree.

Yes, I do remember the hands in the air. After the spell was broken, what happened to those hands? I don't remember.

I don't remember the hands being mentioned again either, but I didn't read the last page. I ran out of time and the writing seemed a little tedious toward the end. Or maybe it was just my need to do something else. I'll have to go back and finish reading the story. A second look will tell me if I was an impatient reader or if they need an editor.

I'm currently reading Vixen for the YA book club. Only on chapter one, and I already think the author has done an excellent job of capturing the feel of the 1920's. Yet I still see some similarities with today's teenagers.

Rita wrote: "Brisingr by Christopher Paolini? I've read the first two in that series and was impressed with the author's amazing story. I haven't yet gotten to the 3rd one."

Hi, Rita!

I'm also a big fan of Paolini's unique storytelling, I think he's an extraordinary writer, and a young one, at that (I believe he started writing Eragon at the age of fifeteen, or something.) Anyway, I highly recommend Brisingr.Plus, the final installment, aptly titled Inheritance, is due out in November!

I'm now reading The Beyonders #1 A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull. It's a great book, but after reading the Fablehave series I was expecting more from Mull. It's still a solid four stars though!!

Dustin wrote: "I'm also a big fan of Paolini's unique storytelling, I think he's an extraordinary writer, and a young one, at that (I believe he started writing Eragon at the age of fifeteen, or something.) Anyway, I highly recommend Brisingr.Plus, the final installment, aptly titled Inheritance, is due out in November!"

I will definitely pick up the 3rd and 4th when the last one comes out, but I confess that I once started reading the 3rd and had a hard time getting into it. Maybe it just wasn't the right time for me.

Don't worry, Rita. I had to go down to my brother's room to get him through the first hundred pages...then about half way through the book I had to do it again. This book has a lot of unnecessary detail. It's good just needed a little okay a lot more editing. At least, it did in my opion.

Hmmm, I didn't have any problems with Brisingr at all..

My impression of the first book was that Paolini had a fresh, straigh-forward style, but I thought his world was a little flat. His elves and his dwarves seemed like tall or short humans. I don't think he has to go with the stereotypes set up by other authors, but I do think they should be different from us. I think their racial traits should be very vivid.

One thing I like about Paolini is his use of metaphor. I remember his scenes descriptions using the most vivid metaphor I've ever read. I'm terrible at metaphors, so I really admire Paolini for his.

I'll spare you all with my opinion about Paolini's elves, dwarves, and writing...I love the series but I have problems with it. The longer this series continues though, it seems like he adds more details.

Aw, but Stephanie, I'd love to hear your opinion.

Well....here it is then. Paolini ruined the elves and the dwarves for me. I'm not quite sure how he did it, but they just seem wrong to me. He absolutely ruined Murtagh! I mean, he killed Brom (one of the best characters in the series), which in that case was probably a good thing...

In the first book Murtagh was so awesome and manly but in the second and third book he just lost it. He's powerful but his character seems really wimpy to me. I can only hope that Paolini either kills Murtagh to save him from more ruin or fixes him.

And Eragon is possibly one of the wimpiest main characters I've ever had to follow. If you ask me, Arya should've been a guy and Eragon should've been a girl. She's way tougher to him, not to say that girls can't be tough, they can. But guys just aren't guys if they aren't tough. Yes, I'm probably going over the top but it just bugs me. The writing is fine, rather than all the detail Paolini adds to each book as the series continues.

I do really like the story though. And even though it sounds like it, I don't hate the characters. They just aren't the best ones I've ever read. Of course, if Paolini can make me...dislike his characters then he must be doing something right to instill such emotion, right? He's definately a talented writer but I can't take reading about more stone forests for several big pages! (that last one is probably an exageration, the desciption is probably closer to a page but it felt like a long time)

I am not currently reading much of anything. Too much going on in my life but I want so much to relax and read. I want to continue the Sword of Truth Series and The Dresden Files.

Etshadow, I've read both of those series. I love Dresden Files. Can't wait for the next one to come out this summer.

Have you considered audiobooks? Some people think reading an audiobook is cheating, and it certainly can't replace reading it for yourself. However, when you're busy and you love reading, an audiobook can give a book addict the fix they need. I usually read two books at a time--a paper book and an audiobook. The one I read on my car drive to work, and the other I read evenings and weekends. But at least, I get more reading in and my drive is no longer a waste of time.

Stephanie, I liked how well you thought out your assessment of Paolini's series. You made a lot of good points. My feelings are similar. I think Paolini's story was well done, but I also thought that he may have been too successful too fast. He needs to learn some lessons--like POV rules and how to avoid passive voice. Or he needs a better editor.

I think his biggest issue is probably description. He needs to limit himself to the relevent stuff. I may be wrong but that's how I feel. :) You're one of the few people who haven't explode after reading that, Rita. There are some die-hard Paolini fans out there...

In good writing, the description is carefully interspersed throughout the story. It should be relevant and given in small doses. And in my opinion, it should be given through the eyes of the POV rather than the eyes of the author. That gives the description flare and personality. Makes the story leap from the page.