I’ve always been a bit of a Civil War buff, so it was only natural that I should read this book. After being a bit disappointed by my last read, I decided I needed a book that I knew I would enjoy, and this was the clearest choice when scanning my shelf of books yet to read. I had actually started reading this book before, but my school schedule at that time split my reading time too much to really follow and enjoy a book as in-depth as this, so I started the Harry Potter series at that time instead. Of course, fourth semester proved too much even for Harry Potter, which just delayed me getting back to this book even more. After a bit of time in the fantasy genre, I decided now was a great time to jump in to a piece of historical fiction, which made The Killer Angels the obvious choice.
This book is considered by many to be one of the best war books written, particularly on an actual historical event, and it is certainly seen as one of the top contenders in the lineup of fiction based on the Civil War. It actually doesn’t even feel right calling it fiction, since the events of the book are true events and the characters are real characters, but the interpretation put to paper here is a fictional translation based on the truths of the battle and the people learned through the authors research. Not only is this book highly regarded among Civil War buffs and critics, but it is also a Pullitzer Prize winning book and required reading at several schools and many military institutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Civil War, Historical Fiction, Michael Shaara, Modern Library, The Killer Angels
It took until near the end of its run in theaters, but I finally saw the new Star Trek movie today. I’ve never been quick to see films in theaters, and sadly I never get the chance to see many even when I want to since my schedule just doesn’t match up well to the schedules of those I would go with. My brother and I both had some free time today though, so we decided yesterday to meet at a theater halfway and go see it (he’d already seen it once though).
I went in to this movie really not sure what to expect from it. When I first heard about it, I was among those convinced that the idea was flat out foolish. I knew I didn’t want a franchise that was practically one of the staples of American cinema and television to die out, but I wasn’t feeling too good about this reboot idea with new actors playing the classic roles when I heard that it was how they were going to bring the franchise back to life. It was obvious that something needed to be done to bring Star Trek in to the 21st century, and to take it off life-support. The mess that was Nemesis did prove that trying to take what was already present and liven it up to a newer style just didn’t work. So, a reboot? It worked for Battlestar Galactica I guess, but BSG was much more out of date than Star Trek, since the films and new series had kept the franchise reasonably alive until a bit more recently. I knew something had to be done, but I just wasn’t sure this was it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures, Science-Fiction, Spyglass Entertainment, Star Trek
Well, it’s been a few days since I read the book, so I figured I might as well get this write up done with. I decided this time around I would take in a fantasy book that was just a one-shot, and that was a bit more typical of the genre than the urban fantasy that Charles de Lint presented me in his last read. Urban fantasy is great of course, but I was itching for something that really felt like a fantasy novel and so I decided I would give Green a whirl.
Now I’m a fairly open person with literature, as well as fim and related arts, and I love diversity in this respect. My musical tastes and still art tastes are a bit more rigid, but when it comes to stories, whether on pages or stages or screens, I can find a place for nearly all kinds. My blog has made this kind of evident since I haven’t really disliked anything I’ve read or watched and posted on here about. I’ve found faults, sure, but I’ve enjoyed everything that I’ve blogged about and would recommend them happily to those who were interested. Well, at least that is until now. So get ready for this momentous occassion, an entry that is negative overall is on its way. Read the rest of this entry »
Discussions at work have really surprised me about one of the factors of our economy that is never really touched on, but is just as unsustainable as everything else that is going on. It’s everywhere really, and the people who are responsible will never ever admit their responsibility, and the media rarely touches it because no one wants to admit that the consumer themselves is to blame for some of what’s going on. It’s all a sick double standard, and I’m really getting tired of this concept of entitlement that so many people have.
I am, of course, discussing internet piracy. Yes yes, I know, that dirty horrible subject that is as hot a topic these days as abortion and religion. I find that internet piracy has its place, and I even say it’s perfectly fine in some situations. Frankly, as is often the case, the root of the problem and the inability to find any common ground is because you have one side screaming yes and the other screaming no, but it’s not quite as simple as that, as few things ever are. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s another first for me when it comes to my blogging. Sure, it’s another book, but this book is a bit different than those I’ve blogged about so far. Yeah, it’s not young adult fiction like my previous entries, but the differences there aren’t really as extreme as certain elitists would have us believe. Sure, the Ember series was notably easy to read, but the Harry Potter series could easily stand up to a lot of adult fiction out there. The main difference was actually the fact that this book is a compilation of smaller self-contained short stories instead of just one ongoing story.
It took a bit of getting used to, and I think I’ll actually read these between other books and series, since there’s a lot more Newford series books out there by Charles de Lint. A series of loosely connected short stories is easy to split between other reads, so I’ll take advantage of that due to the opportunity. Sometimes reading small self-contained stories one after another can get to be a bit much as well. I can’t really explain it, but it’s just a bit tougher to read a book like this instead of one that’s just one whole continuous story, at least for me anyways. One book of multiple stories is easy to do, but since there’s so many to go I just feel like if I tried to marathon them then I’d just burn myself out. It’s funny how an ongoing series has me chomping at the bit for the next book to see what happens next, but a collection of smaller stories has me looking for breaks. A mystery of psychology I guess. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot, Newford Series, Orb Books, Urban Fantasy
I’m late again, but that’s because my host has been up and down a bit since last night, which made writing this post difficult. It’s still not fully resolved yet, but it’s better enough at this point to reliably navigate the site and make the post. I actually finished the book on Thursday night, but waited to post until Friday due to the fact it was just too late to start writing a post (which often takes me an hour or so). Another interesting tidbit is that this will be my ninth post during this month, which will surpass my record of eight posts in one month that I set last March. Not really a huge count by any means since I know other bloggers who double or triple that on a slow month, but it’s still a nice jump for me.
So anyways, about this book, I honestly went in to it with quite a bit of concern. Between the disappointment of the last book and the wildly differing reviews from other readers online, I could tell that this one had the potential to be a real stinker. Still though, I try to avoid preconceived notions, so I went in to the book with an open mind. I won’t deny that there were elements introduced in the last book that concerned me, particularly the borderline sci-fi stuff, but returning to the original cast and setting gave me a bit of hope. I did like the cast of the third book, but the setting and storyline just didn’t work for me as part of the series. So the question going in to this volume was whether the series would have been good as a trilogy, or whether it’s best just to stop after the second book. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Books of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau, Post-Apocalyptic, Random House, The Diamond of Darkhold
Alright folks, it’s rant time, although I actually hate the term ‘rant’, but I really don’t know what else to call it. So, I guess with that, I’m basically admitting that, from the very start, I just don’t know everything like so many others seem to. What a bummer right? Unfortunately I don’t think the people who think they know everything know quite as much as they think they do, and it really bothers me just how closed minded we have become as a society.
It seems no matter where you go, you find people who insist that their way is the only way, and the right way. It’s a mode of thinking, and when you look at human history, you can see that countless numbers of people have died in wars and conflicts and other types of actions that are the result of this kind of thinking. It’s amazing how much more enlightened we claim to be, yet you need not go far to find this attitude on a smaller scale. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Ramblings
This series has certainly been going fast, and I haven’t even devoted the same amount of time per day to reading it as I did with Harry Potter. That’s primarily because I’ve been busy the past few weeks, particularly on weekends, and partially for other reasons which I will talk about in this post later on. Honestly though, I probably could have gone through this series in just over a single week had I read it with the same intensity that I did with Harry Potter.
This is the book in the series that concerned me most though, as the summary made it clear from the very start that this book followed a different cast of characters in a different setting. It’s obviously tied in with the rest of the series, but just how much was a big question. There’s nothing wrong with prequels, but sometimes those prequels just feel out of place, and it can be hard to really get in to them when the book follows new characters in a new setting instead of the characters and setting the reader has gotten accustomed to in the previous books. Sometimes it’s done very very well, and other times it’s just completely out of place. Either way, I knew going in to this book that it would be quite different, and that this difference could make it better or worse, or anything in between. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Apocalyptic, Books of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau, Random House, The Prophet of Yonwood
I’m just a little late on this one. I actually finished the book late Thursday night, but didn’t have the time to write up the blog post for it at the time. On Friday I headed out of town and didn’t have access to the internet to write up this post until late last night, which again didn’t provide enough time for the write up. I’m working today, but it’s dead, so now I’ve got the time to do this, so here I am.
The interesting thing about this series, after reading one like Harry Potter, is that I really don’t know what to expect when going from one book to the next. With Harry Potter I had seen all the movies that were released, and it was so well known I was already familiar with a number of main events in the last two books. While the first book of the Ember series has a movie as well, the movie is actually a very different story that only maintains the basics from the book, unlike the Harry Potter series; which had changes and omissions, but remained relatively true to the books. The film for the first book didn’t provide much insight to the books themselves, due to the large differences, and the series isn’t known enough to really give me much to go on as far as what I’ve heard from others. It’s a bit of a big change when coming off a series like Harry Potter, which is about as big as literature can expect to get in these modern times. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Books of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau, Post-Apocalyptic, Random House, The People of Sparks
With my backlog as large as it is, I decided I’d start by wiping out some of the quicker reads. There’s no denying that the City of Ember series, as a young adult series, was the perfect choice to wipe four books from my backlog relatively quickly. These books are written with family friendly reading in mind, so they aren’t too long and they aren’t too in depth either.
The books do interest me of course, or they wouldn’t be in my backlog to begin with. The film was great, but I was made well aware of the fact that the film and the book are very very different well before I saw the film or read the book. I’m usually not big in to post-apocalyptic literature, but DuPrau’s style drew me in from the start. It did make use of a few of the regular formulas, but it took it in a direction that I thought seemed fairly unique and interesting. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Books of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau, Post-Apocalyptic, Random House, The City of Ember
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