Books, stories and creative walkabout
Fantasy
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Once again I have plunched into the young adult genre, this time reading the first installment of The Hunger Games Trilogy, and I found “The Hunger Games” thought-provoking. True to the genre, “The Hunger Games” features a teenager taking on adult responsibilities, including the obligatory love triangel and smoldering romance. What hooked me in “The […]
MoreKraken РChina Mi̬ville
Imagine London riddles with underground societies, religious sects, and political factions. Not that difficult, you say. Now imagine some of these worshipping giant squids, a figure talking through a tattoo on a man’s back, and the sea’s ambassador living in an ordinary house, communicating with messages in bottles. Yeah, it’s beginning to get weird. China […]
MoreCity of Bones – Cassandra Clare
Oh yes…. another young adult novel, which, surprise, is part of a series (The Mortal Instruments). It has all the characteristics of YA novels: teenage protagonist, brooding hunk, life and death situations, supernatural elements, sexual tension, and missing parental influence. There are times when I think, is this, what literature is coming to, but I […]
MoreTehanu – Ursula K. Le Guin
“The Farthest Shore” and “Tehanu” were written almost 20 years apart, but they are the only books in the Earthsea quartet that have a continuous storyline. Ged leaves the furthest reaches of Earthsea in “The Farthest Shore” by air and returns to the island of his birth, Gont in “Tehanu”. Despite this, there is still […]
MoreThe Farthest Shore – Ursula Le Guin
Something is amiss in Earthsea; magic is losing its potency and singers are forgetting the words of the ancient songs. A young prince Arren is sent to Roke Island as a messenger to speak to the Archmage. The Archmage is Ged, known from the two previous books about Earthsea. Ged is now an elderly man […]
MoreThe Tomb of Atuan – Ursula K. Le Guin
The Earthsea Quartet continues with the story of a young girl, who at the age of five, is removed from her family to serve at a religious center, first as a novice and later as Priestess. She is called Arha, the eaten one. Her duty is a difficult one. She has an exulted position but […]
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