His Dark Materials #3: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Read: 27 December, 2008

Lyra has definitely become more passive since Will entered the story. It's a shame. I had really enjoyed having a strong female main character in book 1. Still, though, there's no lack of strong female characters overall and the story was amazing. The pace throughout the series has been just right to captivate my attention while still presenting many interesting ideas.

The ending worried me. For the longest time, it seemed to be going in the direction of the standard "and then all the loose ends were neatly wrapped up and the children who fell in love would live happily ever after together!" But then the story veered off into a completely satisfying, albeit sad, ending. I was so relieved!

I've really enjoyed this series. It can be a little violent at times, which I do understand some people having issues with. But it's a brilliant story that doesn't treat its young adults like idiots - but rather challenges its readership with "cosmic" ideas. I will definitely be recommending the series.

Saints by Ruth Sanderson

The text was awful. It was written in a very point-by-point fashion that is barely interesting to an adult with a passion for religious tradition - I can imagine how dull it would be for a child who has a smaller tolerance for dullness. Take this sentence from the biography of Saint Lawrence for example, "Valerian hoped that if the flock of Christians had no shepherds, they would hopefully scatter" (emphasis mine).

That being said, the illustrations were beautiful - significantly raising my rating of the book. It's worth it if we intend to use it as a picture book, or if parents fill in their own stories based on the text rather than just reading it out.

Kashtanka by Anton Chekhov

This is a children's book illustrated by Gennady Spirin. The ISBN is 0-15-200539-0. The reason I mention this is that I want to talk about the presentation of the book - something that is obviously very important in a children's book.

Spirin's illustrations are absolutely beautiful. The are detailed and have a great amount of depth and character. Unfortunately, they are also very dark. This wouldn't be a bad thing except that the pages are very glossy, meaning that I had to struggle and essentially read in the dark just so that I could see them at all. It was such a shame and obviously a huge downside if this book is to be shared with kids.

The other big issue I took with the presentation of the book is that the text boxes looked too simplistic. There was no relationship between the illustrations at the text. Rather, half the page would just be white with text or, at best, there would be a thin and undecorated yellow border.

The story itself was so-so. As far as Russian classical authors go, I might be least familiar with with Chekhov. Because of this, it's rather difficult to judge what the story might have been like in the original language. That being said, I think it would have taken more than just changing the choice of wording to save the story. It was just very superficial. For example, when Kashtanka's masters find her again, the man who had taken her in is never mentioned again - despite the fact that he had spent a lot of energy to train her, may well have grown to like her, and would be left without an act once the dog left. In that sense, the story is very much incomplete.

I wouldn't bother buying this book.

Blind Faith by Ben Elton

Read: 19 December, 2008

Throughout my reading of this book, I kept thinking of the classics of dystopian fiction such as Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451. In the end, that's exactly where this book lost its points for me. The televisions that cover every wall, the underground railroad for books, the total saturation of society with sex, food, and entertainment, etc. All of it was lifted directly from the exemplars of the genre. The only difference was that when Huxley, Orwell, and Bradbury wrote their novels, their visions were prophetic in a way. Elton's novel, on the other hand, merely took much of the world as it is and changed the names (FaceBook becomes Face Space, YouTube becomes MyTube or just Tube).

All this might have been forgiven if the characters had been better fleshed out. Instead, Trafford is merely a modern man stuck in a totally different world with little explanation for why he thinks as he does. In his conversations with others (particularly Cassius and Sandra Dee), he comes off as either pathetic or overly dramatic. This might have worked had it been clearer that many felt as he did but were, like him, too afraid to show it. It might have worked if we could see him incorporating bits of media into his speech so that we can, at least, know that the reason he makes such dramatic speeches is simply that this is how he has learned to talk. Instead, we just have a thoroughly modern character who regresses into the role of a babbling idiot when he meets like-minded people, and then suddenly takes on this obnoxious and self-important attitude when he decides he has a "mission." It all reeked of Hollywood.

Compare this to Winston Smith who, despite his doubt, remained thoroughly a man of his time. Or compare it to John of Brave New World who at least had a good reason for being an outsider and a throw-back from our time.

All in all, I found it to be a bit of an ego-stroke - a vehicle for ideas that are finding themselves increasingly in poor favour. All the atheist and scientific talking points were puppetted out by the various characters, which is all well and good. I would have liked a better setting for such gems, but this is what I got instead. Worth a read, but don't expect too much.

Marley & Me by John Grogan

Read: 17 December, 2008

Entertaining, funny, sweet, and sad - but with no real substance. Marley & Me gives a nice snapshot into just over a decade of a couple's life, from the time they get a new puppy, through the experience of having children, a new job, and moving to an entirely different part of the country, until the dog's eventual death. It's a sweet story and the writing language is quite good (more on that in a second), but there's no real meat to the story.

The closest Grogan gets to adding a layer to his story is the idea that he could learn from Marley about how to live his own life. However, while this is mentioned a few times throughout the story (yes, he does come to the same epiphany at least twice), it never seems to have any impact on his life. He learns, but he never applies. And as far as epiphanies go, it's not even a really good one. It's fairly standard Hollywood comedy fare ("look, that guy is so crazy, man is he ever crazy! Hey, you know what? He really enjoys his life! Maybe I should be a little crazy too! But not really... not like him, anyway.").

My other complaint is that the book is rather repetitive at times. It's almost as though Grogan thought of two really great ways to say what he wanted to say - so rather than choose the best, he just stuck both in.

And finally, I didn't really approve of the way the Grogan family treated Marley. I think we've all gotten a pet before fully realizing what that pet entails. However, I feel that they dealt with it poorly. The worst example of this would be putting the aged and dying (not to mention terrified of kennels) dog into a kennel while the family goes to Disneyland. It strikes me as unbelievably selfish. If they really considered Marley to be part of the family, they would have either waited until Marley was gone or found some way to accomodate his needs during their absence (especially considering Marley's history with kennels).

The part that really gets to me is that the narrator doesn't seem to have any sense whatsoever that going to Disneyland at such a time might have been selfish or harmful to his dog. The title refers to Marley as the "world's worst dog," and that gets to the heart of the problem: never does Grogan acknowledge that he may have made poor choices in the care of his dog. If Marley rips his nails out and breaks his teeth because he's in a panic about being locked in a garage during a lightening storm, it's because Marley's a bad dog. It's sad, and I think it's indicative of a culture that treats animals as possessions and objects while simultaneously paying lip service to the idea that they are "part of the family."

Other than that, the book is an entertaining read. It's like watching TV - it's a nice way to pass an afternoon, but it leaves me feeling still hungry at the end.

His Dark Materials #2: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Read: 16 December, 2008

Awesome book - a complete page-turner. My only issue would be that Lyra seems much more passive than she did in The Golden Compass. She seems to just follow Will around rather than acting for herself. I can understand the idea that she is sacrificing her own desires to help Will accomplish his destiny, but it just seemed a shame to have the female character acting in such a way to a male character.

Reading some of the reviews on Shelfari, I have to agree that this book was more of a page-turner than the first one, but had less substance. Certainly, the action moved along quite quickly and a great deal of information was given out about the subtle knife and the Authority, but I guess that because we already know most of the characters, less time was needed to establish them. The result was a more plot-driven book than the first had been.

Also, Pullman used variations of the word "wary" far too much in the first dozen or so pages. Other than that, it was a fabulous book and I can't wait to read the third instalment!

Lady of Ch'iao Kuo by Laurence Yep

Read: 12 December, 2008

This book is part of Scholastic's Royal Diaries series. I picked this book up at a second-hand sale my University was hosting. Having never heard of the author or the series, I was sold entirely by the cover art (which is absolutely beautiful and quite possibly the best part of the book - maybe I can just frame it?).

Overall, I found it to be an interesting read. The concepts of being forced to grow up and being responsible for many people despite having no experience kept me turning the pages. Unfortunately, they weren't really fleshed out. I also noticed a few continuity errors - for example, Redbird's father decides that she will act as the translator when they talk to the Chinese, but then he goes to the Chinese without taking her along. This seems to happen for no reason other than to be able to kill off the father without having to hurt Redbird (or have her experience battle before the climax).

There were also some descriptions that may have been anachronistic, such as referring to the army as a "machine." I'm sure they had machines of some sort or another back then, but would she have seen them? More importantly, would she have had enough exposure to machines to think of such a description? It's a small detail, one that I might easily have passed over without noticing. It's just that the book is so full with these little things that it bogs the story down.

Finally, I just felt that the author wasn't very good at writing in the diary style. We're never told why she starts writing the diary (something that modern little girls living in an age where paper and ink are both cheap and plentiful might not need a reason for). And then there's the way she describes things... The narrative just feels very objective and detail-oriented, while perhaps missing some of the details that would have been important to her. It didn't feel like a diary, but rather a third person narrative crammed into a first person diary format.

All that being said, I still finished it and I did still enjoy reading it. I just feel disappointed because the story deserved a much better treatment than it received.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Read: 3 December, 2008

I was recommended this book by a German foreign-exchange student during my fourth year at University. We were taking a class together on First Nations Literature and I mentioned to her that I wanted to read more continental European books but that I had a hard time finding out which ones would be good. She suggested this one.

I must admit that my immediate curiosity led me to watch the movie before I had the chance to buy the book. The movie was amazing and confirmed the recommendation. In comparison with the book, the movie stands alone. That being said, it isn't as good as the book overall. There was only one part where I felt that it surpassed the book - the scene where Grenouille murders the first girl. In the book version, he just kills her, smells her, and leaves. There's no emotional whatsoever. In the movie version, on the other hand, he kills her, smells her, and then freaks out when her scent starts to dissipate. I found that to be a more likely reaction for a character like Grenouille, and I'm really not sure why he was so calm about the scent leaving the world forever in the book.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think I liked the part where he kills the final girl a bit better in the movie as well. Because it's from Richis's point of view, that scene is played out like a horror movie and really serves to build up the tension. In the book, on the other hand, it's all from Grenouille's point of view, so we just get his cold and methodical thinking. He even tells us over and over again that he can smell the rest of the household sleeping, so there's no suspense.

But these are just small complaints. The book was amazing and absolutely disgusting. I loved the way the world was captured in smells. It was clearly difficult since our language is so visually based. But Suskind managed to avoid simply writing "the room smelled like there was a fire in the corner, and an old woman sitting in a rocking chair." Rather, each of these individual smells would be broken down into their smelling components, like the type of wood being burned, or the old cheesy smell of the woman. Again, I can't emphasize enough how disgusting the book was, but it was a great fun reading!