Tag Archives: Harry Potter

A Touch of Dead – Book Review

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

A Touch of Dead is a collection of short stories that fit in at various places throughout the Sookie Stackhouse series. This book is a fairly short and easy read with just the following five stories:

Fairy Dust – Here, Sookie learns that fairies Claude and Claudette are actually the two surviving members of triplets, and they want her help in tracking down their sister’s killer.
Dracula Night- Here, Eric is getting Fangtasia ready for the celebration of Dracula’s birth, in hopes that his idol will actually appear. Of course, Sookie is invited to the party, and of course there is some trouble.
One Word Answer – This is the most important story in that you need to read this to understand the happenings of Definitely Dead. In it, we finally get the scene where Sookie finds out her cousin Hadley is a dead vampire. In this book, Sookie meets the Queen of Louisiana for the first time.
Lucky – Here, Sookie and her witch roommate, Amelia, team up to figure out who has been rifling through the files of their local insurance agent.
Gift Wrap – Here, Sookie is feeling lonely at Christmas time until she finds a pleasant surprise in store for her.

Although I enjoyed all the stories, I somehow liked Lucky the most. It features my favorite character Amelia, and I am beginning to enjoy reading about her as much if not more than Sookie. In fact, Charlaine Harris could spin off Amelia into her own series of books and that would be just fine with me . Dracula Night was my least favorite one.

I do have an ambivalent attitude towards these short stories. I remember feeling the same way about The Tales of Beedle the Bard. These kind of books seem to be written just to cash in on an existing audience (fans of Sookie/Harry Potter). These stories just do not stand on their own.

Therefore, I will be recommending this book only for hard-core Sookie lovers only. Others are better off reading the actual novels.

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Snakehead – A Book Review

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Snakehead

Snakehead is the seventh novel in the Young Adult Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. And, this is the first one I have read.

The Alex Rider series is a series of novels about British teenage super-spy Alex Rider who is reluctantly enrolled in MI6. He is frequently pitted against a nebulous organization called Spectra – some kind of world-wide criminal and terrorist organization.

My impressions after finishing Snakehead are that it reads like a cross between Harry Potter and James Bond. The story is certainly formulaic – the lonely orphan boy who has to fight the villains on his own steam (Harry Potter without the magic), working for MI6, which provides him with a lot of fancy gadgetry (James Bond references). However, in spite of the formula, it all really works somehow. The book moves rapidly, and the action sections are superb. Snakehead is also surprisingly well-written.

This is a very entertaining read and young boys will particularly enjoy ALex Rider’s exploits. In fact, this book would make for a very good movie. I am pretty sure that there will be one in the works shortly!

All in all, a surprisingly entertaining read. And if I do happen to spot the other books in the series at Eloor Library, I will definitely pick up one to read.

If you are interested in this series, here is a list of the books in the order they are meant to be read (although you can still enjoy the books out of order):

Stormbreaker
Point Blanc
Skeleton Key
Eagle Strike
Scorpia
Ark Angel

You can get more information about these books at the official Alex Rider website.

Magyk – A Book Review (Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

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Magyk Cover

Of late, I have been really reading a lot of Fantasy novels, so while doing this review, I just could not help but compare this one to others that I have read. I know it is really unfair to compare novels written by different authors, but I just could not review this book in isolation.

So, deep breath and here it goes…

Magyk by Angie Sage is one of a series of Young Adult Fantasy novels.

The entire series consists of the following books:

Magyk
Flyte
Physik
Queste
Syren (unreleased)

and there may be more to come, I guess…

The Plot

Septimus Heap (the hero of the series) is the seventh son of a seventh son, giving him extra-strong magical capabilities. On the day he is born, he is wrongly pronounced dead by the midwife and is sent to the evil Necromancer DomDaniel who wants to keep him and train him in his path of black magic.

On the same day, his father walking back home finds a small girl child abandoned in the forest, he brings her home and raises her as his own child as advised by the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Marcia.

Life goes on as usual for the next ten years until the identity of the girl child is revealed and the family is forced to run away from their home. The rest of the story deals with how they manage to defeat the evil DomDaniel and get reunited with Septimus.

My thoughts on this book

This is a very sweet and charming novel. It is a fantasy novel, but varies quite a bit from the usual style that I have come to expect. The hero (Septimus Heap) is actually introduced into the story quite late in the novel. Also, he is not identified as Septimus Heap right up till the end of the novel (although it was easy to guess quite early on). This late introduction and final realization of his identity ensures that the focus of the novel is not always on him. There are numerous secondary (very charmingly written) characters who flesh out this book with all their quirks and magical knowledge.

The evil magician DomDaniel is killed in this book. Therefore, I expect the other books in the series to be dealing with different issues, and different adventures (making this a change from stories such as Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, where the bad guys are defeated after a series of books).

I liked the pace of this book. It was quite a slow, and leisurely read. The events in the book unfold fairly slowly, and I found it very relaxing to read. The descriptions of the places, the people, and the magical characters and animals was also very nice. The manner of writing really took me into their world and fired up my imagination (a very good thing in a Fantasy novel).

Last words

The style of this book is very similar to Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I would say that this is a slightly better-written novel. Definitely a good read for people who don’t like too much violence in the story. If you liked Inkheart, you will definitely love Magyk.

The only thing I did not like about this novel is the very pretentious spelling of the word Magyk throughout the book and on the title. It almost stopped me from picking up this book at Eloor. The cover is rather beautiful, I thought….

The Bartimaeus Trilogy – Book Review

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My obsession with the Fantasy genre of novels shows no signs of abating. Last couple of weeks, I have been immersed in the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, occasionally looking up to face real-life. Even while doing other things, I was constantly wondering about the next twist and turn that would come up in this series.

Yes, these books are THAT good!

Now on to the review…

The Bartimaeus trilogy consists of the following books:

The Amulet of Samarkand
The Golem’s Eye
Ptolemy’s Gate

Here is a brief description and reviews of all the three novels:

The Amulet of Samarkand

The Amulet of Samarkand: This book sets the stage for the trilogy. The story takes place in a London where the society is a bit feudal consisting of 2 main classes: the magicians and the commoners. The magicians are super exclusive and comprise the governing class. They rule the country without a thought for the welfare of the commoners. In addition, the magicians tyrannize and enslave demons who are forced to carry out whatever tasks are allotted to them, whether they like it or not.

In this society, there is a young boy apprentice magician named Nathaniel who seems to embody all the vices that are inherent in such a society – ambition, arrogance, and a disdain for those not possessing magical talent. After he is insulted at a party, he summons and enslaves the demon (or djinni as he prefers to be called) Bartimaeus to help him take revenge on the magicians who caused his humiliation.

In the process, they manage to save the Prime Minister of England from a traitorous attack by one of his magical ministers, and Nathaniel becomes the Prime Minister’s favorite. However, the main characters and the mastermind behind the conspiracy manage to get away.

In this book, there are also the first signs of a revolution planned by the commoners against the magician’s regime. However, this is just a hint, and is not dealt with in detail. One of the rebellious commoners is Kitty who although she makes a fleeting appearance in this book, is a much bigger character in the sequels.

The Golem's Eye

The Golem’s Eye: In this book, the magician Nathaniel is fast moving up the ranks of the ministerial cabinet, making a lot of envious enemies along the way. He is also up against the Resistance movement, pitting himself against Kitty. If these headaches aren’t enough, he also has to deal with a creature called a “golem”, which has been let loose in the city by an ambitious magician.

He therefore summons Bartimaeus, and the two of them manage to subdue the golem. The resistance movement is also crushed and Nathaniel emerges the hero once again.

However, they still have not been able to snare the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy.

Ptolemy's Gate

Ptolemy’s Gate: Easily the most powerful and engrossing of all the 3 books. This is the book that makes the trilogy so awesome. In this book, Nathaniel is a disillusioned minister in the Prime Minister’s cabinet. He does not agree with the PM’s policies, and he finds the constant politicking and scuffle for power amongst the other ministers very tiring. His earlier illusions about the basic benevolence of the government is starting to fade.

Also, the commoners revolts are getting more serious and more difficult to control. In his frustration, he is treating his slave Bartimaeus even worse than before. Bartimaeus is growing weak and vulnerable from all the strain.

Kitty, the revolutionary commoner is also not in good shape. She has been hiding from the government and is secretly learning magic in order to learn how to summon Bartimaeus, who she has befriended in “The Golem’s Eye”. Her ambition is to remove the djinns and the humans from the tyranny of the magicians. She hopes that with the help of Bartimaeus, djinn and humans can work together to overthrow the magicians.

This book goes into a good bit of detail into Bartimaeus past when he was a slave to the magician Ptolemy in Egypt. However, this was a relationship between equals as Ptolemy gave him complete freedom to come and go as he wished. Bartimaeus is very fond of his master Ptolemy, Kitty senses this in her conversations with Bartimaeus, and prompts him to reveal the astonishing secret of Ptolemy’s Gate.

When there is another sabotage attempt by the ministers against the PM, Kitty and Nathaniel use this information provided by Bartimaeus in order to save the day.

The ending of this book is superb, surprising, and very moving, and absolutely perfectly written. The author has managed to retain the tone of the books (which throughout is very light and humorous), while subtly changing “Ptolemy’s Gate” to being a much more darker and more mature book. A great end to the series.

What is so Awesome About This Series

The books switch perspective between all the 3 main characters – Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, and Kitty. We get to know the events that are occuring from all of them. Since, they are all quite complex characters in their own way, it helped me to understand and empathize with them a lot. Even Nathaniel, who is a pretty nasty guy, is very relatable.

The character development in these books is very nice. None of the people are outright heroes. Some of the choices they make are morally ambiguous, but as you go through the books, they become stronger and learn from their experiences.

The humor in these books is wonderful. The djinni is extremely sarcastic and worldly, and in spite of being Nathaniel’s slave manages to get the upper hand of him in various arguments.

I love the message that is subtly provided in the books. That war can harm the invading country as well as the country that is invaded, that slavery compromises the humanity of the slave-owner as well as the slave, that torture is likewise devastating to both the torturer and the victim, and that a country in which the ruling classes blithely assume that what is in their interest is also in the interest of commoners who have no say is a country heading for destructive violence.

The book series ends with just 3 books, unlike some others which go and on and on…

Do you need any other reasons to read these books? This is a must-read for any lover of Fantasy novels, and a good upgrade for the folks who have graduated from the Harry Potter series of novels. A Young Adult fiction series that is equally suitable for adults as well.

Note: All the books start slowly, but it is worth ploughing through the first 100 pages, because after that the books start getting really interesting and the action totally heats up…

The Tales of Beedle the Bard – Book Review

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The Tales of Beedle the Bard

You can read this slim book (only about 65 pages or so, depending on the edition) within a couple of hours-totally easy reading, but also leaves you feeling a bit cheated (this book is very short and simplistic).

“The Tales of Beedle the Bard” by J.K. Rowling is apparently a collection of short stories meant for witch and wizard children, something on the lines of the brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, which us poor Muggles grew up on.

The book consists of 5 stories:

The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
The Warlock’s Hairy Heart
Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
The Tale of the Three Brothers

Albus Dumbledore (late principal of Hogwarts Academy) left these tales behind for the Hogwarts Academy, along with a set of notes, where he records his throughts on all these stories. These were later translated into English by Hermione Granger and then collated into this publication.

My thoughts on this book

All stories are uniformly good. The “Tale of the Three Brothers” has an interesting tie-in to the Harry Potter books, and is by association the most interesting story. The rest of the stories do not have any connection with Harry Potter at all.

More than the actual stories, Dumbledore’s commentary is more interesting and provides some flesh to the book. I also liked the illustrations and the general way this book is structured to make it appear genuinely like a book of fairy tales meant for wizards. However, it falls far short when you compare it to the J.R.R. Tolkien Silmarillion series of books, which were totally awesome.

I also would have preferred it to contain a few more stories. Somehow, reading just 5 stories made me feel a little bit cheated. I would definitely not fork up so much cash to buy this book just to look at the pretty pictures.

What I did love was the fact that the book is printed on recycled paper, and that proceeds of the sale of this book goes to the “Children’s High Level Group” charity, which was set up by J.K. Rowling to change the lives of abandoned children living in institutions.

Last word: Strictly one-time reading and for die-hard Harry Potter fans only.

Book Review – The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

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The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Just completed reading “The Dangerous Days of Daniel X” written by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge and … I am so angry.

What a complete waste of time. I hated it from the word go, only managed to complete it because it was a short and simple kind of novel.

Supposedly called a page-turner, the novel is about a good alien “Daniel X” who has hidden superpowers, which he uses to destroy evil aliens. He is also on a revenge mission to get the alien called “Prayer” for killing his parents, when he was a baby.

The story moves rapidly, in fact so rapidly, that it is difficult to even experience anything. For example, Daniel gets kidnapped by the aliens, is transported to another planet, meets his long-lost relatives, defeats an alien, and comes back to earth all within 50 – 60 pages. A truly amazing feat to squash so much into so few pages. Just something that I do not appreciate.

The style of writing focuses more on action, rather than conversation or emotions. And that was also not something I liked.

The quality of the language used is poor. It reads like a first draft, not a fully finished/edited novel. Very short super-basic sentences, which may be suited to an 8-year old boy (and that too one who is not very advanced). For example, the Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson books are much more complex, and include a much larger vocabulary.

After completing the book, I realized that this is the start of a series and that there are more books to come….arggghh….God help us all !

Suggestion to James Patterson: If you really need to create a series, make it all into comic books. The writing reads like that anyway.

Suggestion to others: Run faaar faaar away from this one…another planet if possible.

P.S. I give it 2 stars in my review primarily because the torture all got over so quickly.

P.P.S. I usually love science fiction, so I don’t hate this book because of the genre.

P.P.P.S. I may not have gotten so angry, if the book’s blurb clearly mentioned that it was a Young Adult novel. I felt totally misguided when I started reading the book.

Inkheart – The Book review

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Inkheart Cover

The success of the Harry Potter series seems to have created a spurt in the growth of Young Adult (YA) Fantasy literature. Numerous writers (some good and some not-so-good) have piggy-backed on this formula.

And one of them is Cornelia Funke – author of the Ink series. The series consists of the following novels:

Inkheart
Inkspell
Inkdeath

The premise of the book is :

The hero Mo can bring characters from a book to life when he reads a book out aloud. However, when he does bring someone out of a novel, something in the real world has to take its place in the book.

When Mo’s daughter was three, he was reading to his wife from a rather rough fantasy book called Inkheart. Three grown men from the story appear while Mo’s wife, a futon, and a stuffed animal disappear from the living room. Mo goes into hiding, because the men he read out of the story are the very evil bad guys from the book, and he makes it his life’s work to try to read his wife back out of the book. The bad guys are after Mo because some of them want to get back into the book, while others want him to read out treasure from different stories.

The story starts off a little slow, but then builds up into a good climax. The characters are a little simplistic but I suppose it is done deliberately based on the target audience. My favorite characters turned out to be the main villain Capricorn – so called because he was born under its star, and Dustfinger. Dustfinger is one of the best etched characters in the novel, and he and his protege (Farid) actually provide all the interest in the novel. Dustfinger is not the bad guy, but he is not the good guy either. He just makes his moves based on his self-interest. The shades of grey in his character and the pathos of his situation (he is in love with Mo’s wife, and he has been read out of the book and cannot return back even though he wants to) actually make the novel far deeper and more interesting. The hero and his family are pretty much cardboard characters and not at all interesting.

What I was expecting when I opened the novel was something on the lines of “The Golden Compass” series by Philip Pullman, which is complex enough for adults to also read and enjoy. However, Inkheart is definitely for the pre-teens to late teens age group with not too much for adults.

Even the literary references (and there are many here) are to books enjoyed by children such as Peter Pan and Treasure Island. However, I must say that I liked the quotations at the beginning of each chapter from other classic novels. They were very relevant to the actual content of the chapter and also they were from some of my favorite classic children’s novels.

In my opinion, this is a good start to a series. Hopefully, the other books are more advanced and complex. My hopes are high because I remember that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone also started slowly – setting the stage for the rest of the series.

Also, the various reviews for Inkspell and Inkdeath are pretty good. So, looking forward to continuing the series

Note: The original novel is in German, so some things could have got lost in translation.