I read Chalice, a 263 page book by Robin McKinley. This story is about Mirasol. She lives in this kingdom were there is a ruler, known as the master, the Chalice, and the Circle. Together they rule the kingdom of Willowlands. The master rules Willowlands and it is the Chalice's job to magically bind him to Willowlands and keep the country together. The Circle is representatives from the people and help the Master rule, each member of the circle has certain duties to help rule. Mirasol is an ordinary beekeeper who has the magic of being able to in a sense communicate with the land. This is not that unusual, but then she is chosen in a sense by Willowlands, to be the new Chalice since the old Chalice and Master had died. The country is in turmoil and Mirasol does the best she can to help it, however she has no training to be a Chalice. Normally, the Chalice will choose an apprentice to take over after they die, however the previous Chalice did not have an apprentice. This makes it so that Mirasol has hardly any idea how or even what she is supposed. She learns most of it by reading books in the library. There is also the problem of the new Master, when a new bloodline of masters is brought in, there are usually disasterous consequences. This forced the Circle to send message to the old Master's younger brother, who has been in service of the mysterious Fire temple for several years. The Priests reply that the brother would come, but anyone who has been in Fire so long is no longer completely human. The new Master comes and everyone is apprehensive of him because he no longer look human and seems to be extremely weak. Originally Mirasol is a little scared of the new Master, but then she ends up liking him. Unfortunately, there is the need to announce an heir since nobody wants more turmoil if the new Master suddenly died. The Circle chooses a greedy man named Horuld. Mirasol knows that Horuld is the wrong man to be heir, unfortunately there is nothing she can do. However it gets worse, Horuld is greedy and challenges the new Master to a duel to decide who should be the Master. Mirasol is really worried because she knows that the Master is in no shape to duel. At the duel when it looks like the master will lose Mirasol's bees come and swarm over the combatants. In the end Horuld is dead with his body burnt and the new Master is fine and human again. Most of the Circle quits and Mirasol and the new Master decide to get married.
I have enjoyed reading other Robin McKinley books. Besides Chalice, I have enjoyed reading The Hero and the Crown and Spindle's End. I thought that it was interesting how Robin McKinley wrote this novel. She deliberately starts the book off in the middle of Mirasol trying to become a good Chalice, this makes the reader feel confused and so understand how Mirasol is feeling. Mirasol has no previous Chalice experiences and is confused and unsure of how to do a lot of things that Chalice's are supposed to do. Robin McKinley also does not explain much of the Priests of Fire or about the Circle and other magical things, this keeps the reader in the dark and so the reader is able to just know what Mirasol knows. It allows the reader to better understand Mirasol and realize how brave she is. Mirasol tries her hardest to be a good Chalice even though she does not understand what to do. Unfortunately, Mirasol's lack of knowledge does get her in trouble when she went on a walk with Horuld, thinking she was only being polite, only to find out later that that meant that she supported Horuld. It is easy to forgive Mirasol for making that mistake because she is still unsure of all of these ceremonial gestures. I would have liked a little more introduction to the story, but I did think it was clever to just start off in the middle of the story, creating some confusion in the reader.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Reserved For the Cat
I read Reserved for the Cat a 372 page book by Mercedes Lackey. This novel is about Ninette Dupond. Her mom had died and her father had disappered when Ninette was young. Ninette is a dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet, however one day the lead ballerina sprained her ankle and Ninette had to play her part, Ninette is so good that in order to make the lead dancer feel better Ninette isfired. Ninette could not find another job until a strange talking cat showed up at her apartment and told her that he could help her get another job as a ballerina. Since Ninette had no other options she decides to trust the cat. The cat has her go to England and then pretend to be this famous Russian ballerina that had gotten shipwrecked. She is rescued by these owners of a music hall. One of the owners is an elemental master, or wizard, of air. His assistant is sensitive to magic and has some telepathic powers. There is also a talking parrot that claims to be the reincarnation of Mozart. At the music hall Ninette performs well and even though she just copies dances and ballet tricks from other performers, she is still good and can appease the audience. However, the real Russian ballerina that Ninette is impersonating has been taken over by an evil spirit that ate people. This spirit is angry that Ninette is stealing her reputation and so the spirit decides to kill Ninette. However, all of the spirit's attempts are thwarted by the music hall owner and this fire master that also performs at the music hall. Eventually Ninette told them the truth about who she is and though they were upset, they forgive her. It is also discovered that Ninette has some telepathic powers that give her this charisma that makes the audience enjoy seeing Ninette perform and from that enjoyment Ninette gets energy back. The elemental masters and the cat are trying to find out who is trying to hurt Ninette. The cat gets a lead and managed to find the evil spirit's hiding place, unfortunately once he was there he was trapped. The cat used to be an earth elemental master but was sealed in cat form because he lost a duel. The cat is also Ninette's father. Anyway the cat did not have enough power to kill the spirit and Ninette could tell that the cat is in danger and so she goes after him. Before she left she gave the brownie that lived in her apartment the message that when her maid came back, to tell the elemental master where she went. Anyway she goes to the evil spirit's house where she shots it and kills it. However the spirit had evil servants that were no longer under control, but the other people arrived in time and saved them. The book ends were Ninette will continue dancing at the music hall and the cat falls in love with this other person that was stuck in cat form.
I liked reading this book. Now I want to read the other Elemental Masters novels. I think that they are about different people, but they are in the same setting. I did think that this was a good book and I liked the main character Ninette. She is a strong female character even though she didn't have much magic. She is very determined and stubborn. She works really hard to be good at dancing and she spends basically all her time practicing. I thought that it is kind of sad that all Ninette really does is dance, but she does have a lot of friends and she really does enjoy dancing. Ninette does have her flaw that she really likes attention and enjoys having a lot of men come up to admire her and she loves the audience's applause and attention.
I liked reading this book. Now I want to read the other Elemental Masters novels. I think that they are about different people, but they are in the same setting. I did think that this was a good book and I liked the main character Ninette. She is a strong female character even though she didn't have much magic. She is very determined and stubborn. She works really hard to be good at dancing and she spends basically all her time practicing. I thought that it is kind of sad that all Ninette really does is dance, but she does have a lot of friends and she really does enjoy dancing. Ninette does have her flaw that she really likes attention and enjoys having a lot of men come up to admire her and she loves the audience's applause and attention.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Deception Point
I read Deception Point, a 736 page book by Dan Brown. As the title implies there were a lot of deceptions in this book. This novel is about Rachel Sexton, the daughter of a senator running for the presidency. She and her father don't get along well because her father is power hungry and mean and cheated on Rachel's mother. Rachel is a gister, she works for a secret agency known as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Rachel takes information from the intelligence reports from the NRO and then condenses the important information and sends it in a brief report to the presidents' office. One day she received a call from the president that he wanted to meet her. So, she met the president and he told her that NASA had made a huge discovery. NASA was under attack from Senator Sexton, Rachel's father, for spending tons of money that got wasted and that money going to NASA was money that could be spent on helping schools. Anyway after a lot of suspense of what the discovery was, because the President said that he couldn't tell her what the discovery was, she would have to see it for herself. So, she is flown to the Arctic and she finds that NASA had discovered a meteorite with fossil on it, which proved that there was extraterrestrial life. She did what the president had asked her to and via a video camera on the computer, informed the president's staff about the discovery. However, after a while the authenticity of the meteorite was put into question and so Rachel and Michael and Corky and Norah went outside on the Arctic to do this test and they found that the meteorite had been planted in the ice. However, they were attacked and Norah died. Corky, Michael, and Rachel through many very dangerous situations that they just happened to survive, while been followed by the secret service people that attacked them, managed to get on an ice shelf. They thought that they were going to die but Rachel had been hitting their piece of ice which sent out signals, that a submarine that just happened to be near by heard. The submarine rescued them and then they were going to be taken by helicopter to meet the head of the NRO to talk about the meteorite. In brief, after a long series of debates Rachel and Michael now believe that the meteorite was a fake, though Corky still believes that the meteorite is real. However, they go to Michael's ship were he has all his information for his research on the ocean. There they find the final piece of evidence that the meteorite is a fake. They get attacked again and more people die and they find out that the mastermind behind the whole operation is William Pickering, the head of the NRO. A huge thing called a megaplume was hit by a sinking helicopter and the megaplume exploded and it sunk the ship with Pickering on it, however there just happened to be another helicopter there that was looking for the previous helicopter that had taken everyone to the ship. This new helicopter saved Corky, Michael, and Rachel and they went to the President and told him everything. In the end the President wins the election over Senator Sexton because Sexton was going to show the press evidence of NASA's scam, however Rachel and Sexton's assistant Gabrielle had switched the photos so that instead they showed the photos of Sexton's sex scandal. In the end Michael and Rachel fall in love. Throughout all of this the point of view is constantly switching and telling the stories from different perspectives. Another side of the story is from Gabrielle who at first believed in Sexton but then found out his true nature and so Gabrielle turned on him.
I think that a lot of Dan Brown's books are similar, but I still think that they are fun to read. I think that Dan Brown does like suspense a little too much. In the book Rachel, Michael, Corky, and Norah think that there is something wrong because there were plankton in the meteorite excavation hole. However, it takes so long before the reader finds that out. First some scientists sees something in the water that really excites him, but the secret service people knew that it was bad that he found whatever was in the water and so they kill him. Then a few chapters later everyone else finds the hole and are shocked by what is in it and can't believe it and then finally the reader learns that it is plankton that are in the hole. Dan Brown seems to really like making things suspenseful and mysterious and I sometimes think that it is a little too much and it sounds kind of forced, like it is obviously supposed to be drawing as much suspense as it can. I also think that in this book there were a few too many life or death scenes were miraculously something saves the main characters.
I think that a lot of Dan Brown's books are similar, but I still think that they are fun to read. I think that Dan Brown does like suspense a little too much. In the book Rachel, Michael, Corky, and Norah think that there is something wrong because there were plankton in the meteorite excavation hole. However, it takes so long before the reader finds that out. First some scientists sees something in the water that really excites him, but the secret service people knew that it was bad that he found whatever was in the water and so they kill him. Then a few chapters later everyone else finds the hole and are shocked by what is in it and can't believe it and then finally the reader learns that it is plankton that are in the hole. Dan Brown seems to really like making things suspenseful and mysterious and I sometimes think that it is a little too much and it sounds kind of forced, like it is obviously supposed to be drawing as much suspense as it can. I also think that in this book there were a few too many life or death scenes were miraculously something saves the main characters.
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