Tada, I have read two asigned books, and now I have read three! I looked around on other people's blogs, but only one review of Ship Breaker. So I was unprepared for this book. When I was reading it, it had the same sort of feel as House Of The Scorpion. It even was similar. Half men=Idjits, Nailer's father=Matt's "father", The guy who helped Matt escape=Tool, The whole clone harvesting, I have to escape= I helped Nita run away from Pyce, I have to escape. But still, it was a good book.
It starts out with a whole bunch of confusing belief systems (the rust saint, the fates, and the scavenger god) and a whole bunch of confusing concepts (half-men, the life cult, and the ship breakers). Nailer is a light crew person, meaning that he crawls into the ships and strips off the wiring and copper, while heavy crew strips off the ship parts from the ship. After escaping from an oil room in a ship, Nailer is considered as Lucky Boy, and his abusive father stays away from him for a while. But when he and Pima find a clipper ship, with a live rich girl in it. Every thing changes. After making her swear a blood oath that Nailer, Pima, and her (Nita) were crew and had each other's back, she tells them her story. She says that she is being chased by her fathers enemies who want her for leverage to make her father smuggle illegal goods for them, or something like that. Then Nailer's father's mostly heavy crew finds the clipper and her. When the find out that the people who came ashore are not her award giving family, they want to kill her, but then when the people (her enemies) offer money, they prepare to sell Nita. Nailer, Nita, and Tool, a Half-man who somehow wasn't loyal to his "master" escape to where her father's loyaler ship crews could help her. When they get to New Orleans, or what was left of it after some city killers or Hurricanes destroyed it and New Orleans II, Nita is lost and Tool refuses to help Nailer take on Nita's father's enemies. His reasoning being that he will not jump into un-winnable battles like any other Half-man. So Nailer and the loyal crew of the Undauntless sail off to find Nita. Soon they get caught in a beggining city killer, while being followed by the ruthless Pole Star. The same ship that Nita was running from when she crashed into the shore. Nailer offers a suggestion that might help them escape. As they near his beach he worked as a Ship Breaker on, he says that they could go through a gap in "The Teeth" (a bunch of drowned buildings that shred up ships like teeth) which the Pole Star cannot get through. Then they could board it and get Nita. They do. But when Nailer finds Nita, she is with his father, who is saying she is now "body scavenge" (a term for dead people who wash up on shore, who are then broken like ships). Nailer then fights with his dad and ends up killing him by turning on the gears for something extendable that will grind up anything in them, in this case, Nailer's father. He then escapes with Nita and is given a reward and so does Pima who then are able to sort of get off the streets, or in this case, beach.
Themes: One prominent one is that killing should hurt. And if it doesn't, there is something wrong with you. There is also another one about loyalty, that sometimes no loyalty is good (Tool betraying his master for a good purpose) and sometimes loyalty can be good (the crew of the Undauntless saving Nita). Themes in there that were in the similar book, House Of The Scorpion: Something about that everyone deserves life, Nita, even though she is rich and none of the Ship Breakers would care about her. And Matt, he's a clone, but he deserves to live even though he is just meant to be harvested. Other than that, I can't think of any others.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Immortals, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddel
This is my eighth blog post, and yet, I have only read two of the books I set myself to read. This is the final book in the edge chronicles which I did a post on earlier, and it was a very good ending. I wanted to read it all at once before we had to go to Italy, so I didn't read the first bit for first impressions, which I seem to be doing a lot.
It starts off with our main character in a mine where they mine stormphrax. It is a thing that explodes if hit not in twilight light, and its powder can be used to purify all liquids. But nothing comes without a price, and the phraxmines are very dangerous, because if a twilight lamp is lit too bright and someone hits a crystal of stormphrax, an explosion, too dark or not on at all, the crystal becomes heavier (they get heavier in darkness) and smashes through all the sleeping quarter's and kills everyone. The explosions are taken advantage of by sky-ships which use the explosion to keep their ship in the air. Nate Quarter is the main character who works in the mines until he gets caught in a drunken brawl and has to run away. He finds work in the city of Great Glade and becomes part of their thousandsticks team. The book skips forward a couple of years to when the big game against the other team is happening and the owner of the factory that Nate worked in is disowning his own son and letting Nate inherit the company. Then as it alternates between then (inheritance time) and now (thousandsticks time) and in the now time the disinherited son who was on the other team reveals that he blew up the factory to Nate (caused by an accident with a lamp and stormphrax, which would be blamed on Nate because it was his job to maintain the lamps) and then pushes him off the very high pole where the winning point is. The object of thousandsticks is to shove the other teams out of the way as you climb over hills, and then send your players up the pole hill and reach the top of the pole before anyone else. Then it turns out that the son killed his father by accident with the explosion, so he flees and so does Nate, his friend Slip, a bander bear (very large and intelligent bear), and Eudoxia who was the grand-daughter of the owner of the company who now just wants to find her father in the other city of the hive. When they get there they find her father taken as a political prisoner (they had to dress up as militia officials to see him) and then get swept into a war against the city of Great Glade. While the war is being lost by the Hive, Nate, Slip, the bander bear and Eudoxia manage to escape. Nate leaves Slip and the bear with Eudoxia's father and leaves to Riverrise with a friend they met on the way to the Hive. Eudoxia had a bullet in her ear and now is very sick, so they needed the healing water's of Riverrise to heal her. When they get there,. they realize that the place is a place where even your thoughts are unsafe because it is ruled by a waif (Waifs can read minds) tyrant and his waif followers. The waif, Golderayce, has been ruling Riverrise for thousands of years because only he has access the the very healing waters (which can reverse age) at the top of the waterfall which he hoards jealously, by controlling the flow of the waterfall. But what is needed to cure Eudoxia is the very healing waters, some easily found herbs, and some that are only found up at the top of the water fountain. So with the help of two of Golderayce's servants he manages to get into the garden of life at the top and get the healing waters and the plants. But Golderayce finds him, and he has a instant death poisoned dart ready to be shot. Nate manages to delay him until he collapses into dust for not getting the needed water to stop him from becoming dust. Nate heals Eudoxia and then participates in an expedition to The Edge (where the world just ends in a never ending cliff) and then to a mysteriously returned city of Santraphrax which supposedly floated away in the first books. As Nate, Slip, the banderbear... go on the rock with a lot of other people. They see that it is inhabited. But one person who broke away from the group, finds his brother who was lost on a previous expedition. The brother tells him that the place is not inhabited by people but shape-changing Gloamgozers who live off fear and want to take over the world. He takes him to a laboratory where pre-life organisms, glisters, are turned into Gloamgozers. His brother is killed by the explosion when his brother blew it up, but now there can be no more Gloamgozers. Meanwhile, the Gloamgozers reveal themselves and the fact that the floating rock the city is on is being destroyed by a long ago plague of stone sickness where floating rocks no longer float, and that the city too is ruined. Then they begin to feed off the fear of the expeditionaries jumping off the rock to escape. After that it begins to rain the waters of Riverrise which kill the Gloamgozers and heal the rock. The story ends with Nate descending down on an edge expedition and a picture that the drop off the edge is not bottomless.
What I liked, the characters all were very real and well played out. And so were the themes of injustice and greed, and bad things happening to good people. What I didn't like is why they had to add on the Gloamgozers and how the whole healing rain was a sort of Deus Ex Machina. I did think that it was a good end for the series aside from that and enjoyed it very much. Although, as a small note, there are other themes, but they are small and not easy to describe, although they are present in the other books which I do not remember very well.
It starts off with our main character in a mine where they mine stormphrax. It is a thing that explodes if hit not in twilight light, and its powder can be used to purify all liquids. But nothing comes without a price, and the phraxmines are very dangerous, because if a twilight lamp is lit too bright and someone hits a crystal of stormphrax, an explosion, too dark or not on at all, the crystal becomes heavier (they get heavier in darkness) and smashes through all the sleeping quarter's and kills everyone. The explosions are taken advantage of by sky-ships which use the explosion to keep their ship in the air. Nate Quarter is the main character who works in the mines until he gets caught in a drunken brawl and has to run away. He finds work in the city of Great Glade and becomes part of their thousandsticks team. The book skips forward a couple of years to when the big game against the other team is happening and the owner of the factory that Nate worked in is disowning his own son and letting Nate inherit the company. Then as it alternates between then (inheritance time) and now (thousandsticks time) and in the now time the disinherited son who was on the other team reveals that he blew up the factory to Nate (caused by an accident with a lamp and stormphrax, which would be blamed on Nate because it was his job to maintain the lamps) and then pushes him off the very high pole where the winning point is. The object of thousandsticks is to shove the other teams out of the way as you climb over hills, and then send your players up the pole hill and reach the top of the pole before anyone else. Then it turns out that the son killed his father by accident with the explosion, so he flees and so does Nate, his friend Slip, a bander bear (very large and intelligent bear), and Eudoxia who was the grand-daughter of the owner of the company who now just wants to find her father in the other city of the hive. When they get there they find her father taken as a political prisoner (they had to dress up as militia officials to see him) and then get swept into a war against the city of Great Glade. While the war is being lost by the Hive, Nate, Slip, the bander bear and Eudoxia manage to escape. Nate leaves Slip and the bear with Eudoxia's father and leaves to Riverrise with a friend they met on the way to the Hive. Eudoxia had a bullet in her ear and now is very sick, so they needed the healing water's of Riverrise to heal her. When they get there,. they realize that the place is a place where even your thoughts are unsafe because it is ruled by a waif (Waifs can read minds) tyrant and his waif followers. The waif, Golderayce, has been ruling Riverrise for thousands of years because only he has access the the very healing waters (which can reverse age) at the top of the waterfall which he hoards jealously, by controlling the flow of the waterfall. But what is needed to cure Eudoxia is the very healing waters, some easily found herbs, and some that are only found up at the top of the water fountain. So with the help of two of Golderayce's servants he manages to get into the garden of life at the top and get the healing waters and the plants. But Golderayce finds him, and he has a instant death poisoned dart ready to be shot. Nate manages to delay him until he collapses into dust for not getting the needed water to stop him from becoming dust. Nate heals Eudoxia and then participates in an expedition to The Edge (where the world just ends in a never ending cliff) and then to a mysteriously returned city of Santraphrax which supposedly floated away in the first books. As Nate, Slip, the banderbear... go on the rock with a lot of other people. They see that it is inhabited. But one person who broke away from the group, finds his brother who was lost on a previous expedition. The brother tells him that the place is not inhabited by people but shape-changing Gloamgozers who live off fear and want to take over the world. He takes him to a laboratory where pre-life organisms, glisters, are turned into Gloamgozers. His brother is killed by the explosion when his brother blew it up, but now there can be no more Gloamgozers. Meanwhile, the Gloamgozers reveal themselves and the fact that the floating rock the city is on is being destroyed by a long ago plague of stone sickness where floating rocks no longer float, and that the city too is ruined. Then they begin to feed off the fear of the expeditionaries jumping off the rock to escape. After that it begins to rain the waters of Riverrise which kill the Gloamgozers and heal the rock. The story ends with Nate descending down on an edge expedition and a picture that the drop off the edge is not bottomless.
What I liked, the characters all were very real and well played out. And so were the themes of injustice and greed, and bad things happening to good people. What I didn't like is why they had to add on the Gloamgozers and how the whole healing rain was a sort of Deus Ex Machina. I did think that it was a good end for the series aside from that and enjoyed it very much. Although, as a small note, there are other themes, but they are small and not easy to describe, although they are present in the other books which I do not remember very well.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Discovering Pig Magic
Well,this time I had time to read a little of the book to do first impressions. It is about three girls Ariel Niki and Margaret . It keeps on referring to some sort of ritual, I guess I will have to find out later. So far it is very suspenseful and good. Happy reading everyone!
I have now finished the book, here is the plot summary. But first, an explanation about the ritual. Apparently, the three girls found this old book of magic in a thrift store. The ritual was a ritual for change, and they had to go somewhere and bury these "objects" and think of what change they wanted to occur. Now for the plot summary. Once again, Margaret gets a pig for her birthday (it started a long time ago, and now she hates pigs). But now she is going into middle school and does not want to be known for pigs. Everything starts out fine, and the ritual appears to be working. But then weird things start happening. Margaret had wished for James, a boy she had a crush on, to notice her. But he starts noticing her, as pig girl, not what she wanted. Niki, one of her friends, had a brother with down syndrome, and she had wished for him to go away, meaning for him to go away to sort of special needs home so her mom could have more time. But instead, he starts going away as in dying, because his heart turns out to be bad. Ariel wished to become a proffesional chef. And she is on her way, because she won a cooking contest and now has a scholarship to a cooking college (or something like that). But the recipie she entered was from a cooking show, with only the flour altered, and now she is afraid she'll get in big trouble, or be sued. So they all decide to reverse the spell. They go to a forest near a bay where they burried the objects and mark the spot where they burried them so they can come back after they have a sign that tommorow is they night they should reverse the magic. But then their next door neighbor dies of stroke, maragret's mom is revealed to be an agoraphobic and is now on some sort of anti-agoraphobic drugs, and Niki's little brother is in the hospital. Ariel and Niki both agree those are signs not to do they ritual but margaret doesn't agree. They all have a fight and kind of stop being friends. Margaret goes out to reverse the magic herself but gets delayed so much that she gives up and goes home. Then when they all meet and make up, they begin to believe that even undoing the ritual won't stop all of this and stop believing in magic. Ariel refuses the scholarship and fixes her problem, Maragret smashes all her pigs, and I forget what Niki does. Maragret's aunt discovers the pig massacre and when M tells her that they didn't have any real memories to go with them, she says they did, and then M agrees. Niki's brother is now better, but not perfect. And so is M's mom. Then in the epilogue M digs up her object, her very first pig, sells the magic book and buys one last pig.
What I liked, it kept the theme hidden until the end. Can anyone guess the theme, all right, here it is: Be careful what you wish for! It was also a very cleverly done coming of age story, middle school and all that. But what I didn't like is how it did not explain how the unstoppable destructive power of the ritual was averted and everyone lived happily ever after. I suppose it has to do with "Pig Magic" which probably isn't really magic but some sort of pseudo magic type thing which I still do not understand. But other than that it was a good book.
I have now finished the book, here is the plot summary. But first, an explanation about the ritual. Apparently, the three girls found this old book of magic in a thrift store. The ritual was a ritual for change, and they had to go somewhere and bury these "objects" and think of what change they wanted to occur. Now for the plot summary. Once again, Margaret gets a pig for her birthday (it started a long time ago, and now she hates pigs). But now she is going into middle school and does not want to be known for pigs. Everything starts out fine, and the ritual appears to be working. But then weird things start happening. Margaret had wished for James, a boy she had a crush on, to notice her. But he starts noticing her, as pig girl, not what she wanted. Niki, one of her friends, had a brother with down syndrome, and she had wished for him to go away, meaning for him to go away to sort of special needs home so her mom could have more time. But instead, he starts going away as in dying, because his heart turns out to be bad. Ariel wished to become a proffesional chef. And she is on her way, because she won a cooking contest and now has a scholarship to a cooking college (or something like that). But the recipie she entered was from a cooking show, with only the flour altered, and now she is afraid she'll get in big trouble, or be sued. So they all decide to reverse the spell. They go to a forest near a bay where they burried the objects and mark the spot where they burried them so they can come back after they have a sign that tommorow is they night they should reverse the magic. But then their next door neighbor dies of stroke, maragret's mom is revealed to be an agoraphobic and is now on some sort of anti-agoraphobic drugs, and Niki's little brother is in the hospital. Ariel and Niki both agree those are signs not to do they ritual but margaret doesn't agree. They all have a fight and kind of stop being friends. Margaret goes out to reverse the magic herself but gets delayed so much that she gives up and goes home. Then when they all meet and make up, they begin to believe that even undoing the ritual won't stop all of this and stop believing in magic. Ariel refuses the scholarship and fixes her problem, Maragret smashes all her pigs, and I forget what Niki does. Maragret's aunt discovers the pig massacre and when M tells her that they didn't have any real memories to go with them, she says they did, and then M agrees. Niki's brother is now better, but not perfect. And so is M's mom. Then in the epilogue M digs up her object, her very first pig, sells the magic book and buys one last pig.
What I liked, it kept the theme hidden until the end. Can anyone guess the theme, all right, here it is: Be careful what you wish for! It was also a very cleverly done coming of age story, middle school and all that. But what I didn't like is how it did not explain how the unstoppable destructive power of the ritual was averted and everyone lived happily ever after. I suppose it has to do with "Pig Magic" which probably isn't really magic but some sort of pseudo magic type thing which I still do not understand. But other than that it was a good book.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
House of Many Ways
The house of many ways book, is a sequel of Howl's Moving Castle. However, you don't really need to know anything about that book, except that Howl is a wizard and his wife's name is Sophie. Now for the plot.
Charmain is sent to look after her great great uncle's by marriage house. When she gets there, she realizes that everything has to be operated by magic, and she knows none. While she is there, a bunch of magic creatures get mad at her, she floods the house with soap bubbles, and creates a larger pile of dishes because she broke the magic faucet. Then someone called Peter, an apprentice to her great great uncle, comes and with her, explores the house more and messes it up more. Then Charmain's application to be a royal librarian is approved. When she goes to the royal mansion, she meets Sophie and Wizard Howl disguised as a kid. He says that the king needs help to find where his gold has all gone. But cannot say it to her directly because of spies and conspiracies. Then after lots of exploring, Peter and Charmain realize that the cause of everything was of a Lubbock that Charmain met earlier. It had bribed some magical creatures to create trouble between the rest of their kind and Charmain Peter. Then double crossed them by laying its eggs in them, which when the hatched, would eat them from the inside. The eggs are removed once they confessed. Also, it is revealed that Charmain's uncle is sick from the Lubbock eggs, which are also removed. Then finally, Howl and Sophie reveal that the reason why the gold is missing is because a child of the same Lubbock, is now going to be heir. He was hiding it so no one would notice that he was paying his disguised Lubbock henchmen to kill off other heirs. Then after an intense series of scenes, they manage to kill all the Lubbocks and find the gold.
What I liked, is that magic didn't come in as often in the Harry Potter way, where you have to understand every little bit in order to make sense of the plot. Here, you just needed to know what the magic was supposed to do, and what it did do. What I didn't like was that is was all very complicated. I had to stop occasionally while reading the book so the information could sink in.
Charmain is sent to look after her great great uncle's by marriage house. When she gets there, she realizes that everything has to be operated by magic, and she knows none. While she is there, a bunch of magic creatures get mad at her, she floods the house with soap bubbles, and creates a larger pile of dishes because she broke the magic faucet. Then someone called Peter, an apprentice to her great great uncle, comes and with her, explores the house more and messes it up more. Then Charmain's application to be a royal librarian is approved. When she goes to the royal mansion, she meets Sophie and Wizard Howl disguised as a kid. He says that the king needs help to find where his gold has all gone. But cannot say it to her directly because of spies and conspiracies. Then after lots of exploring, Peter and Charmain realize that the cause of everything was of a Lubbock that Charmain met earlier. It had bribed some magical creatures to create trouble between the rest of their kind and Charmain Peter. Then double crossed them by laying its eggs in them, which when the hatched, would eat them from the inside. The eggs are removed once they confessed. Also, it is revealed that Charmain's uncle is sick from the Lubbock eggs, which are also removed. Then finally, Howl and Sophie reveal that the reason why the gold is missing is because a child of the same Lubbock, is now going to be heir. He was hiding it so no one would notice that he was paying his disguised Lubbock henchmen to kill off other heirs. Then after an intense series of scenes, they manage to kill all the Lubbocks and find the gold.
What I liked, is that magic didn't come in as often in the Harry Potter way, where you have to understand every little bit in order to make sense of the plot. Here, you just needed to know what the magic was supposed to do, and what it did do. What I didn't like was that is was all very complicated. I had to stop occasionally while reading the book so the information could sink in.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
This is a book in a series. I will give a little background. In underland (a land under the ground) humans live in a sort of medieval society but with certain breaks from that. Everything down there is magnified, spiders, rats, cockroaches, ants, bats, frogs, they even have some sort of preserved plesiosaur species. Anyway, that is it for the background.
So Gregor had previously gotten a prophecy and a note that one of his "friends", a rat, would send escorts. The escorts turn out to be millions of little rats dragging them out of the apartment. Finally Gregor decides to go with his sister Boots, but his mom wants to go as well because she wants to know what happens to him if anything at all does. So Gregor brings her along. It turns out that The Curse Of The Warmbloods has struck and is some sort of the Black Plague. On a mission to dispense some anti-flea powder to the rats to stop the plague from spreading, Gregor's mom gets bitten, and gets the plague. This gives Gregor the incentive to go off of a mission to find a plant called starshade which is the cure. On the way members of the party die off from huge carnivorous plants, quicksand, giant poison dart frogs, and other things. Finally when they get to the one and only field starshade, an army of giant ants come marching in to destroy the starshade and kill off the party. They succeed in eradicating the starshade, but don't kill off the party. They all sit around thinking that underland will be doomed and the plague will spread to overland (our world). Then one of the rats who came (one died in quicksand, the other by a plant) points out the importance of one puzzling stanza in the prophecy.
Turn and turn and turn again.
You see the what but not the when.
Remedy and wrong entwine,
and so they form a single vine.
The turning part, if facing the field of starshade, makes you end up looking back at the city. From what they had seen, they realize that the doctors at the hospital were probably very nervous as they were because they had started a plague. The rat left says that it was probably created as a biological weapon to kill the rats with. A missing in action person they met in the forest agrees with him, so they all set off back home. It turns out to be true and that the doctors and nurses (before they were all executed for their crimes, harsh, I know) were hoarding a whole cave of antidotes. Then everyone is cured and Gregor goes back up. And then, because there was no logical explanation for where he got his weird shoes/socks made of lizard skin, he spills the beans to his neighbor who had originally suspected something strange was going on in his first trip.
What I liked is the prophecy. I always find prophecies really interesting, because they have a sort of aura of "Well, it could be this, or it could be that." and always when coming true, are sure to be surprising. What I didn't like was that the book came only in large print, which drives me crazy. And that even though it was clearly told in third person, I kept on thinking it was first from Gregor's point of view.
So Gregor had previously gotten a prophecy and a note that one of his "friends", a rat, would send escorts. The escorts turn out to be millions of little rats dragging them out of the apartment. Finally Gregor decides to go with his sister Boots, but his mom wants to go as well because she wants to know what happens to him if anything at all does. So Gregor brings her along. It turns out that The Curse Of The Warmbloods has struck and is some sort of the Black Plague. On a mission to dispense some anti-flea powder to the rats to stop the plague from spreading, Gregor's mom gets bitten, and gets the plague. This gives Gregor the incentive to go off of a mission to find a plant called starshade which is the cure. On the way members of the party die off from huge carnivorous plants, quicksand, giant poison dart frogs, and other things. Finally when they get to the one and only field starshade, an army of giant ants come marching in to destroy the starshade and kill off the party. They succeed in eradicating the starshade, but don't kill off the party. They all sit around thinking that underland will be doomed and the plague will spread to overland (our world). Then one of the rats who came (one died in quicksand, the other by a plant) points out the importance of one puzzling stanza in the prophecy.
Turn and turn and turn again.
You see the what but not the when.
Remedy and wrong entwine,
and so they form a single vine.
The turning part, if facing the field of starshade, makes you end up looking back at the city. From what they had seen, they realize that the doctors at the hospital were probably very nervous as they were because they had started a plague. The rat left says that it was probably created as a biological weapon to kill the rats with. A missing in action person they met in the forest agrees with him, so they all set off back home. It turns out to be true and that the doctors and nurses (before they were all executed for their crimes, harsh, I know) were hoarding a whole cave of antidotes. Then everyone is cured and Gregor goes back up. And then, because there was no logical explanation for where he got his weird shoes/socks made of lizard skin, he spills the beans to his neighbor who had originally suspected something strange was going on in his first trip.
What I liked is the prophecy. I always find prophecies really interesting, because they have a sort of aura of "Well, it could be this, or it could be that." and always when coming true, are sure to be surprising. What I didn't like was that the book came only in large print, which drives me crazy. And that even though it was clearly told in third person, I kept on thinking it was first from Gregor's point of view.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Daredevil, comic book.
This was a comic book. About a superhero named Daredevil. It was very confusing and I apologize if my plot summary doesn't make sense.
It was made of 3 parts, one was something about nazis which I tried to read but I could not follow the plot, the second one is the one I will put in the plot summary, and the third one was extremely confusing like the first one but worse. (Small note: Daredevil does not have any superpowers. He is blind but has his other senses enhanced to a point where its crazy)
It starts off with Daredevil being constantly followed by the press because now they know who he really is. But in the past he had been somehow viewed as a criminal, which even with extensive hours of research, I still don't get. Then later on, Daredevil escapes and Melvin apologizes. Then an FBI agent comes up to him, she says that she has to make a case against him. But she doesn't want to. She just wants to know why he dresses up and beats people up. Then she says that she came to ask him what to do, because she had been given an amulet which gave a previous hero his powers. And she wants to know what to do. He asks her to meet her the next day on top of a roof. When she meets him the have a mock fight, and after the mock fight, he says that that is what she should do with her powers, fight. While he is going home, one of his other "super"friends named Melvin meets him. Daredevil asks him what he was doing there, and Melvin (previously a villain I think) said "You should have killed me when you could. I'm sorry."or something like that, and then knocks him out. A crime boss is now going to kill Daredevil, but the FBI agent jumps down and saves him and drags Melvin along. Then as DD helps the FBI agent to prevent a store robbery, he tells her why he wears the costume and delivers some thematic advice.
What I liked, is that it was very thematic. And surprisingly so, which made it worth reading. What I didn't like, is how I couldn't understand most of the book. Although, when I paid close attention, the seemingly different story lines were actually one big one.
It was made of 3 parts, one was something about nazis which I tried to read but I could not follow the plot, the second one is the one I will put in the plot summary, and the third one was extremely confusing like the first one but worse. (Small note: Daredevil does not have any superpowers. He is blind but has his other senses enhanced to a point where its crazy)
It starts off with Daredevil being constantly followed by the press because now they know who he really is. But in the past he had been somehow viewed as a criminal, which even with extensive hours of research, I still don't get. Then later on, Daredevil escapes and Melvin apologizes. Then an FBI agent comes up to him, she says that she has to make a case against him. But she doesn't want to. She just wants to know why he dresses up and beats people up. Then she says that she came to ask him what to do, because she had been given an amulet which gave a previous hero his powers. And she wants to know what to do. He asks her to meet her the next day on top of a roof. When she meets him the have a mock fight, and after the mock fight, he says that that is what she should do with her powers, fight. While he is going home, one of his other "super"friends named Melvin meets him. Daredevil asks him what he was doing there, and Melvin (previously a villain I think) said "You should have killed me when you could. I'm sorry."or something like that, and then knocks him out. A crime boss is now going to kill Daredevil, but the FBI agent jumps down and saves him and drags Melvin along. Then as DD helps the FBI agent to prevent a store robbery, he tells her why he wears the costume and delivers some thematic advice.
What I liked, is that it was very thematic. And surprisingly so, which made it worth reading. What I didn't like, is how I couldn't understand most of the book. Although, when I paid close attention, the seemingly different story lines were actually one big one.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Flora's Dare
This book comes after Flora Segunda, and also deserves a blog entry.
It starts off with Flora being stuck in her room, grounded, because she danced with the birdie (the bloodthirsty god country) ambassador, which was sort of treason. She then goes to a theatre where a sudden ant-government rally breaks out while she is in the toilet. She manages to escape, because her sister Idden pulls her out of the crowd to tell her that she has deserted the army and to make Flora swear not to tell. Then they all get into a horse carriage to get away, although Idden jumps off and disappears into the city. Udo, who came with Flora has obtained a zombified Springheel Jack (infamous outlaw) who he stores in Flora's house when they realize that he got killed in the rally as they were escaping and now is an undead zombie. He stores him at Flora's house so the zombie powder can wear off, then he can drag him to the police station and get the bounty.
Then Valefor, in desperate need of Life force, eats Springheel Jack, but left the boots so Udo can still get the bounty. They were proof he was dead because he would never take them off, alive. Udo gets mad, so instead of getting the bounty, he wears the boots. Which begin to influence his attitude until they inject a full blown Springheel Jack sentience into Udo's body. The boots turn out to be simply the storehouse for his soul.
Then the birdie ambassador tells Flora that he needs her help to free a giant magical squid under the city. The squid is actually a magical entity trapped in the form of a squid in order to threaten the city for someones evil purposes. It worked. But now the squid is having a baby and is going into labor and causing city endangering earthquakes. Now Flora sets off on a mission to gain a diary that will tell how to release the squid. While doing so, she accidentally travels into the past but eventually gets back while she and the person she met are teleporting away from a ghoul.
Then the big magician says that the only way to release the squid by deactivating the imprisoning sigils, is for the last descendant of the person who trapped the squid to die. Then he says that she is the last descendant, and proceeds to use his birdie police force to try and kill her. Flora comes back to him at the Blinskir baths and says that the only way for the sigils to be broken is for the last descendant to die by drowning. She then zombifies him, and leaves Udo (back to normal) to keep him zombified or knocked out until she comes back. She then dives into the baths which are actually not filled with water, but with breathable liquid magic. This happens only once in a while when the baths connect with the magic ocean. Flora uses this to access the squid's prison, then she uses a key obtained from the past to unlock the sigils. Then everything is happily ever after with Flora dancing with ghosts of her dead relatives at her real rightful house (weird happy ending) But one thing is strange, the person she met in the past, Tiny Doom, her mother, is not there. And this is because she had tried the Ultimate Ranger Dare, to escape death. Small note: from knowledge gained from the book, you do this somehow by drowning yourself in the magic ocean and jump over the abyss where all souls go, unless they come back out as ghosts. The second to last ranger, (missing in action) had almost done this, but only attained a sort of time travel into the future where she met Flora. Then it just leaves me hanging off a cliff, cliff hanger.
The only thing I could say about that book was, that it was intense, and very well thought out. And also, I can't wait for the next book to come out.
It starts off with Flora being stuck in her room, grounded, because she danced with the birdie (the bloodthirsty god country) ambassador, which was sort of treason. She then goes to a theatre where a sudden ant-government rally breaks out while she is in the toilet. She manages to escape, because her sister Idden pulls her out of the crowd to tell her that she has deserted the army and to make Flora swear not to tell. Then they all get into a horse carriage to get away, although Idden jumps off and disappears into the city. Udo, who came with Flora has obtained a zombified Springheel Jack (infamous outlaw) who he stores in Flora's house when they realize that he got killed in the rally as they were escaping and now is an undead zombie. He stores him at Flora's house so the zombie powder can wear off, then he can drag him to the police station and get the bounty.
Then Valefor, in desperate need of Life force, eats Springheel Jack, but left the boots so Udo can still get the bounty. They were proof he was dead because he would never take them off, alive. Udo gets mad, so instead of getting the bounty, he wears the boots. Which begin to influence his attitude until they inject a full blown Springheel Jack sentience into Udo's body. The boots turn out to be simply the storehouse for his soul.
Then the birdie ambassador tells Flora that he needs her help to free a giant magical squid under the city. The squid is actually a magical entity trapped in the form of a squid in order to threaten the city for someones evil purposes. It worked. But now the squid is having a baby and is going into labor and causing city endangering earthquakes. Now Flora sets off on a mission to gain a diary that will tell how to release the squid. While doing so, she accidentally travels into the past but eventually gets back while she and the person she met are teleporting away from a ghoul.
Then the big magician says that the only way to release the squid by deactivating the imprisoning sigils, is for the last descendant of the person who trapped the squid to die. Then he says that she is the last descendant, and proceeds to use his birdie police force to try and kill her. Flora comes back to him at the Blinskir baths and says that the only way for the sigils to be broken is for the last descendant to die by drowning. She then zombifies him, and leaves Udo (back to normal) to keep him zombified or knocked out until she comes back. She then dives into the baths which are actually not filled with water, but with breathable liquid magic. This happens only once in a while when the baths connect with the magic ocean. Flora uses this to access the squid's prison, then she uses a key obtained from the past to unlock the sigils. Then everything is happily ever after with Flora dancing with ghosts of her dead relatives at her real rightful house (weird happy ending) But one thing is strange, the person she met in the past, Tiny Doom, her mother, is not there. And this is because she had tried the Ultimate Ranger Dare, to escape death. Small note: from knowledge gained from the book, you do this somehow by drowning yourself in the magic ocean and jump over the abyss where all souls go, unless they come back out as ghosts. The second to last ranger, (missing in action) had almost done this, but only attained a sort of time travel into the future where she met Flora. Then it just leaves me hanging off a cliff, cliff hanger.
The only thing I could say about that book was, that it was intense, and very well thought out. And also, I can't wait for the next book to come out.
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