Monday, March 31, 2008

March '08

RECLUCE: THE DEATH OF CHAOS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-640-We come back to Lerris, from The Magic of Recluce. Hamor is slowly taking over the world with machined order. Technology not as good as Ordered Steel, but close enough. Because of that, free Chaos is gathering under Candar and getting ready to explode. Hamor wants to destroy Recluce. Lerris, along with Justen and Gunnar [and their wives] face the Hamorian fleet, give their lives [except Lerris and Krystal] and use up most of the Order [and hence the Chaos] available. Interesting but this whole balance thing, I'm not sure about it. Modesitt doesn't explain it well enough, so one can't judge what he is doing with it or if he is just making things up as he goes and gets away with it because the reader has no idea of the underlying rules [or lack thereof]. I plan on reading the rest though.

HIKARU NO GO #1-6
-Y. Hotta-manga
-a young boy comes in contact with a GO master and begins playing the game. Kind of like a very, very indepth checkers. Not something you'd expect to find interesting, but this stuff is really intriguing. Makes you want to go out and start playing GO.

BOOK OF THE GODS: ARIADNE'S WEB
-F. Saberhagen-fantasy
-412-a little cleaner than Face of Apollo, but still just a recast of the Sword books. Not enjoyable enough to read any more I think.

MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT PART II
-C. Dickens-classic
-563-Jonas murders someone and is caught. Martin and Mark go to America and come back. Tom Pinch sees Mr Pecksniff for what he truly is. Everything is resolved in the end.

LITTLE WOMEN
-L.M. Alcott-classic
-669-the story of 4 sisters. How they grow up and marry. Rich in lessons. Alcott isn't afraid to say that without God life is empty. Very enjoyable.

MARS: MASTERMIND OF MARS
-E.R. Burroughs-fiction
-160-Apparently, when one goes to Mars, one no longer needs to go to the bathroom. I mean, 4 beings, one a 15ft tall ape, stay hidden in a little closet all day, without leaving? clench those buttocks Bobby!

HIKARU NO GO #7-16
-Y. Hotta-manga
-scanlations can be found at Anime-Eden.com. You'll need an account though.

BATTLE ROYALE #1
-K. Takami-manga
-216- graphic depictions of violence, rape and abuse. Filth. I had no idea.

GRAVITY DREAMS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-scifi
-468-this was a schtickload of philosophical crap. I want to label this sophist garbage. It felt like Modesitt was preaching at his audience the WHOLE time. There wasn't much of a plot, needless to say.

THE TWELVE KINGDOMS: SEA OF WIND
-F. Ono-fantasy
-317-chronologically, takes place shortly before Sea of Shadow. Deals with the Kirin of Tai. He was blown into our world by a Shoku and didn't come back for 10 years. His story as he adjusts to the fact that he is a Kirin and must choose the next king of Tai. Much shorter than Sea of Shadow, but MUCH less confusing; mainly because it doesn't deal with as much.

HIKARU NO GO #17-23
-Y. Hotta-manga
-scanlations can be found at Anime-Eden.com. You'll need an account though.

MERUPURI #1-4
-M. Hino-manga
-Shojo's shojo! thankgoodness it wasn't longer than 4vol.

IT
-S. King-horror
-1138- some big space bug comes to earth a long time ago. Now it resides in a Maine town and feeds on kids every 26years or so. Anyway, some kids hurt it and then come back in 26 years to finish the job. The horror in this novel lay in fact that humans are so bad. The people did horrible things, ignored horrible things, etc. Murder, madness, death and destruction. I haven't read any of King's stuff since highschool [and those were some short story collections] and I don't plan on reading anymore. I don't want to fill my mind with evil.

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP PART I & II
-C. Dickens-classic
-362/355-an old man and his granddaughter are brought to ruin. They wander. Are chased down by the grandfather's brother and the villain who ruined them. The villain, a coarse dwarf, dies by drowning at the end. The brother, who is rich, finds the grandfather and granddaughter, but only after the granddaughter has died. Very melancholic story. I enjoyed it immensely though.