Snow Crash

Snow Crash, written by Neal Stephenson, has got to be one of the most horribly confusing by ultimately interesting book I have ever read. The book is about Hiro Protagonist, a half black-half Japanese male that is a suave hacker in the world of the metaverse and the best swordsman on the planet. He is joined by a female protagonist that goes by the name of Y.T, a 15 year old courier (a person who makes deliveries on a skateboard in this world), that eventually meets up with Hiro. The whole story revolves around them and a cornucopia of other minor characters that end up clashing together in a crazy story that will not fail to make you sit on every page thinking on what just happened.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, as many novels I read these days do not try to challenge the reader as intellectually as this novel. This is due to the fact that the story of this novel does not follow a clear cut path and often spirals into what seems to be the mundane into the absurd. What makes it so hard to follow is the fact that the novel starts off harmlessly enough, but then spirals into a plot about robot assassin dogs, huge aircraft carriers that harbor a population the size of a country, and a hiro (see what I did there?) that often gets into the most absurd situation. However, this does not mean that this book is necessarily bad; it may even be the best part of this novel. It breaks the bounds of the conventional with its absurdity that it is refreshing read which makes you stop every so often to try to piece together the plot in all of its craziness.

All this absurdity is then even added by the insane amounts of knowledge that the write then bestows upon us, especially around the middle of the novel. Through the fact that some of if not the majority of the novel takes place in the metaverse, the equivalent of an mmo like perfect world, a lot of text is situated in explaining the innerworkings of the system through the eyes of a hacker. Though to a hacker, such as I happen to be, it was easy to piece together most of the dialogue and immense amounts of information thrown at me. However, the another suspecting reader, this can  get confusing very fast and it will probably be a deal breaker for most readers. This unfortunately makes this novel a hard read for many and will result in  a lot of people giving up around 50 pages in due to the massive amount of confusion ultimately going to be settling on them.

WarBreaker

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson is a book of epic proportions. The novel centers around a turbulent time between two rival nations, the Idrians and the Hallendren, where they are on the verge of war. In hopes to stop this from happening the Idrians send women, the youngest daughter of the chief, to go and wed the God King of Hallendren, who is presumably the most evil man who walked the earth.  The novel is quite interesting and one thing that made it so was that the story was being told through multiple viewpoints.

By breaking up the story between that of three different protagonists, Sanderson was able to create a world with believable details and create interesting sub stories that all led up to the final conflict. Siri’s adventure in the Court of Gods sees her interacting and experiencing the life of a god through the eyes of a country girl. This led to sub plot of an innocent girl, trying to survive in a not innocent environment filled with lies and deceit. Another story was told through her sister, a haughty woman who ends up on the streets of Hallendren, to incite rebel and war efforts against the kingdom of Hallendren. The last story is told through the eyes of a god, or a god that believes that he himself is not a good and is fighting with that belief as he goes through the daily rituals and problems that a god has to face.

The story itself was very interesting, but if you read to the end you may end up feeling let down at the ending of this novel. (SPOILER ALERT), the ending of the novel where Vasher tells you what basically happened and fills all the plot holes of the book, seemed patched together in the last minute in attempt to finish the book without any holes missing. The events that led to it also seemed half assed, where Dent basically betrays Vivenna seemed to happen with no prior event leading up to it. It just sort of happened. There was no indication at all that this betrayal was going to happen and thus, we sort of feel left out of the mystery because there was no revelation at the end that all those things he was doing was even hinting the fact that he was going to betray her.

The Magician King

The Magician King was an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying sequel to the Harry Potter/Narnia crossover book of The Magicians Apprentice. Though interesting on its own right, it doesn’t capture the same, or nearly as an effective, to the strife’s of a teenager trying to find his way in the world. Granted, that is because the main character is no longer a teenager, it loses the essence of what made the first novel so great.

                What makes the Magician King engrossing to read however is that it the character is extremely relatable if you are in your teens to early adult. This is because he is basically the avatar and a stereotype of a young adult, with all the ups and downs of early adulthood, put into a magical world that is resonate with many of the readers in this books demographic. When reading, it almost feels like as if you were in one of your childhood dreams, except that you are sex crazed 20 year old that doesn’t know what to do with his life.

                Ultimately, what made the novel not live up the expectation and grandeur of the first is it’s story progression. There was a never a moment in the book where it felt like it picked up and the hero was thrust into a new adventure. This is due to the fact that the book slowly doles out excitement in small sugar packets that get you hyperactive for a moment, but never really gives you the energy needed to sustain you through the day. Though these sweet moments made me keep going, in hope of a giant jawbreaker size event to occur, it never really happened.

                Nevertheless, Grossman did write a jewel in the rough with the history of one of the most mysterious characters in the first novel, Julia. Her account and biography on the events occurring while Quentin was in college was harrowing, disturbing, and downright amazing. Though definitely he just got a story of a cocaine addict and just threw some magic dust in there, the story was an interesting take on how the loss, or denial, of magic threw whole life into disarray.

The Magicians

The novel The Magicians by Lev Grossman is one of the most haunting novels I have read in recent memory. Grossman’s novel is an interesting mash of almost all the big magic fantasies of the recent century. This includes works such as harry potter and of the Narnia series. However, this story is a more mature (and darker) story then the others and it also is one of the saddest and depressing novels I have read. What makes this novel so sad is the connection one feels with the characters of the novel which makes us go through plenty of rollercoaster of emotions the way Grossman writes the story.

The progression of this novel is quite lengthy, extending from the college years of Quentin all the way to his eventual tussle with the beast in his adulthood. Grossman basically writes the story of Quentin through his life as a student and a full fledge adventuring mage in one 400 page novel, basically compressing Harry Potter and Narnia into one readable sitting. This sort of stretch leaves out major gaps in the story (most especially in his years in college) and most years of his life pass with only one chapter dedicated to them. However, by getting a full view of his life, we see a great coming of age story where Quentin grows and matures through the many events and retrospects of his life. As a college student at Ringling, I can really sympathies with his years as a college student and I felt that I was able to connect with Quentin then most characters. With that being said, this novel is by far the saddest story I have read in my entire life.

Throughout the story, I was intrigued by the magic and wonder of the world but, most of my attention was directed to the relationship between Alice and Quentin. Through their ups and downs and their time together, I have come to love them as a couple. It’s hard to say what exactly led me to completely fall entranced in their relationship, but it was probably due to them being singled out and eventually fell in love which I thought was absolutely adorable and heartwarming. When Quentin (and eventually Alice) ended up cheating on each other, not only was I sad, I was almost in tears to see this relationship fall apart. When they got back together, I was feeling so happy that I ended up reading the rest of the book in one sitting because I wanted to see their happy ending together. But sadly, as if Grossman wanted to make me miserable and crying, he decided to bring death to Alice in the worst and ironic way possible. This eventually led me to be in tears for about an hour whilst reading the rest of the book, hoping she would come back.

A Wild Sheep Chase

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami has by far been the weirdest and psychological thriller I have ever read in my life. A Wild Sheep Chase is a novel about a character that throughout the whole entire novel remains nameless. Through a series of events that change his life and his obtaining of a picture of one peculiar sheep, he goes on a trip to find a elusive sheep. This sheep, which no one can identify it’s breed and has a star on its back, has a peculiar way of entering and possessing humans that it meets and forever changing its life, for better and worse. What got me really hooked and thoroughly invested in this book is the progression in the story, as the events of the novel slowly creep up in weirdness that one barely notices the weirdness at all.

The novel starts off like many light novels generally found in Japan. Starting off like a normal story of one’s life in Japan, it slowly but surely takes on the story of a curious ghost story. This slow shift is something I have not come across in novels, and it did a very good job into luring me into the story. By not suddenly present the horror like in most horror novels and movies; it trapped me into reading it towards the end. This is because even if I did want to quit, since I already am in the climax of the story before I even realize it, I have the strong urge to find out what happens in the end. The surreal aspect of the novel also is curious because I did not find an area of the novel where the shift really occurred. To the talking of someone’s ears as being cute, to a novel and curious story of a town being built far away in the mountains, the story hardly has a clear shift to the horror.

This is also the first novel where the main character of the novel does not have a name. I think that Haruki Murakami is doing what a lot of Japanese writers are known for doing, putting us into the psyche of the main character by not giving us to much information about the main character. Unlike most western novels who often have strong main characters, this novel allows us to fill the roles of this unfortunate man as he struggles to figure out everything in his life. This gives us a more introspective look into his life and we are more engaged because we ourselves feel the ridiculousness of the main character.

               

Interview with the Vampire

“Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is an appealing life story through a interesting character, a vampire. Though I usually shy away at stories involving a vampire that gets into a relationship with a another male vampire, this story had some interesting twist and turns that can keep a reader’s attention.

The setting of the narrative has been used in many and many books, and Rice didn’t add anything to the old formula. However, Rice does use this formula well in giving the vampires story a different perspective by using the boy as a device to show a humans opinion on this story.

What kept me interested throughout the story was the idea of a vampire’s difference in feeling towards the senses. This was an intriguing angle to take considering many vampire novels just talk about a vampire’s hunt. Though many of the novels I have read for the class have taken the role of the monster (Frankenstein, Monster Island) Rice did a great job in describing through words the heightened senses of the vampire. It got to the point where it was very easy to picture myself in the shoes Louis and almost experience myself what it was like to be a vampire.

Another attention-grabbing part of this novel is the relationships Louise goes through throughout the course of this novel. His first relationship with Lestat was a less common narrative found in vampire novels and it was fun to read a story of two conflicting ideals of what a vampire is. Louise gave into the heightened senses of a vampire, while clinging onto his human form, whilst Lestat reveled in his vampire instincts. It was then when he met (or created) Claudia, where his relationship dynamic changed. He started caring for Claudia, and treats her as if she was his own child. But, it was interesting to see how the relationship developed, as Claudia matured in mind but not in body. Louise throughout the novel could not accept that Claudia was growing up and was almost horrified to see her change. Lastly, it was somewhat horrifying to find what a person’s perception of reality is after living for so long. Rice did a great job in imagining a psyche that has changed over centuries of existence.