Mirror Mirror : A Terrible Retelling Of A Classic

Mirror Mirror Smoothie Review

For the longest time by best friend has been trying to get me to read Wicked. The darker the Wizard of Oz centered on the wicked witch. But considering I had so much to read already, I never got a chance to. But years later I got a free copy of the book Mirror Mirror, which happened to be darker more realistic tale of Snow White, written by the same author who wrote Wicked, Gregory Maguire. I know its not the famous “Wicked” but I thought that whatever charm this author had may translate into his version of Snow White.

So what is it about? Well it is the tale of Snow White. The setting is slightly different set in the back drop of a fractured and at war Italy of the 1500s. The tale itself focused on Bianca de Nevada who is a helplessly isolated girl who lives on a bit of farmland called Montefore. There she lives with her father, a elderly caretaker, and a priest. Things changed when a couple siblings, a daughter and son of the pope come to ask a impossible task of her father. They force him to take a quest to find the apple of Eden as Lucrezia (the pope’s daughter) is to stay behind to watch over the estate and Bianca de Nevada. Lucrezia fills in as the wicked step mother and surely it can be assumed from there where the story is going.

So now the good and bad? Sadly, I have to start with the bad because there is so much of it. The first big complaint about the book is that it is not the so called “darker” version this supposed to be. I feel that the author needs to look up the word “dark.” because for this book I feel he went for shock value trying to make things supposedly dark. Let list the things that he added to the tale of Snow White to make it darker, heavy doses of incest, child rape, a old woman who loves to have sex with a squid, a very disgustingly detailed scene about Bianca’s first period and the list goes on. All of this portrays all of it in a fashion of “Oh my god!” shock value. All of which has nothing to do with the story and many of the scenes concerning those points comes up as a “Yuck I didn’t need to read that” rather than “This story is so dark.” The tone was just very awkward more than anything else as this would come up randomly without any reason. The detail is poor. So poor that there are pages when it is hard to know what is going on or where they are. There are chapters that randomly jump to first person but failed to address who’s point of view it is coming from and from the detail in the chapter I failed to even have a good guess of who it is coming from. The characters are shallow. The one that is the most detailed is the villain and she still has very little to offer. The character who fills in as the prince is barely there and acts so oddly, that I got a sense that he was handicapped. Bianca is helpless to a fault making her step backward from strong female leads. Her role in this, is beauty and stupidity. Her story is both embarrassing and depressing. And don’t get me started on plot holes. That’s a topic for another whole essay.

The good? I give the rather credit for putting up a effort, but it is done so badly. Nothing here is good. People are better reading the old fairy tale because he has nothing new to offer at all. The only creepy element was a single scene. Soldiers who came back from war had the ‘rot.” The rot, was a infection that made the men decay while alive in a since. Very creepy stuff that’s only mentioned once.

Overall this book is a disaster. It should be avoided. And after reading this, I have no intention of reading anything else by this author. Not even Wicked.

½ smoothies out of four.

Overall rating: A Terrible Retelling Of Snow White.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Fire at The Center: An Old Fashioned Scifi Tale Missing a Purpose

Fire at the Center BY Geo. W. Proctor

This is another book giveaway gem. This one, I just grabbed for the hell of it. It’s a ancient paperback featuring image of a dinosaur in chains, and astronauts on the cover. And as crazy as it sounds, I figured it could be fun. Plus its a science fiction novel and as much as I like science fiction, really good books are hard to find. So I gave it a chance. It’s called “Fire at the Center” by Geo. W. Proctor.

So what is it about? Well its set in the far future where the human kind has populated many planets, yet human kind is divided. One side are a bunch who believe that a united dictatorship like government should rule everything. Of course it is a scifi space opera tradition and the faction have silly names I can’t remember. Then there’s group two with another silly name that makes up of free independent. The story focuses on Kendlers a man who is a member of the free thinking side who works for psi corps agency that uses psychics for multiple purposes. Kendler can read and take over minds. After returning from a time travel trip on earth to help scientists study a dinosaur he receives a new assignment. He is given a partner to investigate odd events on another planet. People are randomly going insane for no reason for hours at a time. They must sneak in, as silly name group number one suspect that Kendlers’ silly name group is at fault. So they must spy on others to find this source.

So the good? Well I must say its imaginative. I always like that. But one thing I must give them credit for is explaining everything thoroughly. These space things always lose me, because I don’t care about the politics, space crafts, ray guns and star fighting. I feel that it just did the right thing by staying focused in a realistic manner and telling the reader only what is important. The author also goes through the trouble to add detail and explain the scifi elements in the story to allow the readers to understand what it is like.

The bad? Well this story has too many ideas. Its short two hundred page read and the author tries to shove way too many topics in one book. It would have worked better if he focused on one and elaborated on it. Also the pacing is weird. The beginning with the time travel was long, extended with a lot of action, and character development and detail. Yet the most interesting part, the investigation with strange riots was extremely rushed, which was quite disappointing with little detail at all. And at the end was rushed even more taking place in twenty five pages. Overall the story starts off with a great concept but the wanders around aimless, back and forth between a lot of concepts with no real sense of story progression what so ever.

Overall, the writing it self is confident but the story seems t have little purpose. It saves itself because it does not fall into the world of nerdy star wars or star trek, but it just didn’t live up to its potential like it should have.

Overall Rating: A old school space opera missing a purpose

2 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Small Favors : A Surprising Fun Paranormal Thriller

Small favors By Jim Butcher Smoothie Review

Here is yet another book I pulled from the mount of the “To read,” books I own. This time it’s a Dresden Files novel. And with that said I never read a Dresden Files novel. I have been recommended the series for a very long time but never tried it. I think the reasoning behind that the only previous exposure I had it was a very boring TV show. But sooner or later I had to give it a try so it is either now or never. The book is Small Favors by Jim Butcher.

So what is the Dresden Files? It is a about a paranormal detective who happens to be a wizard. Or to simplify things further he is practically the male counter part version of the Anita Blake series in a sense. The book Small Favors is the tenth book in the series (Yes. I entered a bit late in the series) In this one, Harry Dresden is pulled into a deal with the winter court’s Ice Queen of the fairy realm Mab, because he owes her a favor. He must investigate the disappearance of a crime lord. While this is happening, summer court of the fairy realm believes Mab hired him as a knight and sent these crazy goat men after him to stop him. During the investigation he seeks the aid of his friends who is made up of a very colorful cast of characters and find that he desperately needs them as the case quickly turns into a war against fallen angels.

So the good? This is a fun, light hearted and never takes itself seriously. Imagination is fantastic. Harry Dresden is just such a likable character. The story fell deeper on a emotion level than I would have first thought by the end. I was so worried about who would die, and I cared about their relationships. Another thing that is most impressive of it all, is that this is the tenth book in the series and this book had enough detail about what was going on, that I had a clue of what was going on. The writer did not assume that I knew the back history of everything and laid things out perfectly. Though the red court and white courts were just names to me, but the book made their importance very clear. So the author was doing a good job on that.

The bad? Well to be honest there isn’t much. The biggest problem I had was the attempts of the witty comments, that Dresden would throw in throughout the book. Some are funny and witty but half of them are lame and down right corny. I rolled my eyes who Dresden said, “Talk to the hand” after a punch. But the rest of the book does make up for that.

Overall, reading this book is like tuning into a random episode of a TV show that you never heard of. You don’t know the back story, but what’s there is a hell of a lot of fun. And since Anita Blake has taken the route of paranormal erotica rather than paranormal investigating lately, I’ll give Harry Dresden a shot. So you should know by now from the review if this is your thing. If you like this paranormal mystery adventures this book is a good one. I can’t say how it compares to the rest, but this book was fun.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Throne of Fire : A Strong Second Installment In The Kane Chronicles

Throne Of Fire By Rick Riordan Smoothie review

Yes. As you may have noticed from the reviews so far, I am a very big Percy Jackson nerd. I can go on forever as to why I love those books so much and could go even further on how I find them more enjoyable than Harry Potter. But I’ll let that slide for a moment to talk about Riordan’s second series called The Kane Chronicle that I am also hooked onto, and this review is on the second book called Throne of Fire.

So what is it about? Well much like Percy Jackson it’s deeply set in a ancient mythology. This time it’s Egyptian mythology. The story focuses on Sadie and Carter, two siblings who are godlings. They have the ability to channel the power of two of the great gods, because they share the blood of the pharaohs. Carter can channel the power of Horus and Sadie can channel the power of Isis. The teenagers, after the events of the last book have created a new house of life (or order if you like that word better) where magicians are trying to restore the way of the gods. Magicians up until then have refused the gods way because they would corrupt people with power, which has been proven wrong as the House of Life society of magicians have became just as corrupt since without the gods influence. In this book Horus comes to Carter telling him that he and Sadie must find the three scrolls of Ra before the world ends in five days without much else info to go on. Sadie and Carter rush to the job to learn the whole truth. The great god Aphophis, (god of chaos) will break out of its prison in the Deut (A netherwordly other dimension for Egyptian gods and magic) and the only thing to counter act him is the long lost god Ra who was banished out of a fit of jealously by Horus and Isis. The only way to get him back is by finding the three scrolls and performing the spell to pressure Ra. Also the leader of the first sector of the house of life who does not support the gods, believes that bringing back Ra is part of some evil plan so he is planning to kill the Kane siblings and their order of the house of life, to stop all of it.

So now it’s time for the good and bad. I’ll start with the good. One good thing about this story is the characters are layered. Sadie and Carter both split up for selfish reasons bringing about the imperfection of both of them. At the end of the world, Sadie refuses to help to hangout with her friends on her birthday. Carter ditches Sadie as she searches for the last scroll, because he found out where his girl friend is held prisoner at. They are not cut and dry heroes we typically see in fantasy novels. And for the first time since book one, the author shows a softer and jolly side and Bast the cat god guardian of the Kane family reveals she made some big mistakes in the past. The book is unpredictable and fun. Action is always rolling and seeing things from Sadie’s and Carter’s point of view is always funny.

Now the bad? Well there is nothing terrible. The Egyptian mythology though, Riordan seems to have trouble translating to paper time to time. With the first book, I didn’t really understand the mythology until halfway though and didn’t understand it completely until the end. This book however, he seems to be apologizing for that with over explaining things. Also there was a character I didn’t like all that much named Bes who is the ugly dwarf god. He has the power of scaring off demons by tearing his clothes off (he’s wearing a speedo underneath) and screaming “Boo!” If that strikes you as silly, well that’s because it is. Young adult novels are fun adventure books that can be aimed at anyone from thirteen and up. But I feel even a thirteen year old would look at Bes and think he is silly. But then again it could just be me.

Overall its fun. The story is still strong second installment in the series. (much better than Sea of Monster or Chamber of Secrets) and I’m interested to see what will happen next. So if you enjoy these kind of things and can handle Bes, then recommend it to everyone. It’s a great story overall.

Overall rating: A Strong Second Installment In The Kane Chronicles.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Bourne Deception : A Disappointing And Brainless Bourne Novel

The Bourne Deception By Eric Van Lustbader Smoothie Review

Okay, the reason why I am reading this book is not as random as usual. Yes. I did get it used from a odd source, but my reasoning for grabbing it went well beyond “Hey, why not?” The book is The Bourne Deception, a Bourne novel written by Eric Van Lustbader who bought the rights to the series shortly after Robert Ludlum died. (RIP Mr. Ludlum. I adored your work.) And I read his first Bourne novel (where he continued off of the original series) a while back called the Bourne Legacy. I had low expectations at first with this, “How dare they!” attitude of taking the work of my favorite espionage writer, taking it as his own, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I love it. So I decided to try another.

So to start off with, before I go into detail about the review, I want to get something clear. Lustbader Bourne is not the Ludlum Bourne. Ludlum Bourne was serious, was written with deep knowledge of the CIA woven in, and was set in the sixties and seventies. The last one he wrote, the Bourne Ultimatum was in the seventies focusing on how Bourne is getting too old to do thins anymore. The Lustbader Bourne is magically young again set in modern day as well as the fact the characters from Ludlum’s books with the exception of his wife and kids are dead. It’s more fun dumb action scenes in exotic locations. They are nothing like the earlier novels so you can’t expect the same thing from the two.

So as I started reading I realized that there apparently a book of two between the last one I read and this one. (a very annoying thing I hate about book series. I try to read stand along more often a than not because of this.) Jason Bourne is on the tropical island Bali with his new girlfriend Moira. His wife Maurie is not mentioned other than the fact he mourns her, so I could only assume she is dead and there’s no mention of his children at all. And while there Arkadan, Bourne’s arch enemy from Treadstone (Introduced in the previous books I assume), sends a man to kill him. Bourne’s shot right in the chest and among the chaos it assumed (except for Moira who knows the truth) that Bourne is dead. But of course Bourne is not dead. A doctor and old friend from Treadstone got him in a hospital where he went through multiple surgeries to get the bullet out of his chest that graze his heart.

Meanwhile Moria goes back home. She hears from a friend that there is something she needs to know only to see him shot but not before getting a thumb drive from him. From there on out, she is on mission to find out what is happening as men from Noah Pearl’s government agency Black try to kill her every step of the way. Meanwhile Soraya another government figure heads to Egypt with a team, to arrive at a suspected terrorist attack on a plane. But as she investigates, she find that it might not be Iranians as they first thought, but Americans behind it falling into a web of conspiracy. Arkaden meanwhile is viciously training a army for a secret mission with the help of some their crooked Russians allies. And for the first half of the book Bourne is in Bali recovering on a spiritual journey annoyingly pondering questions about his identity (which were all answered in the Ludlum novels) until someone sends a man to kill him again making him seek revenge finally to track down his killer. All of this does oddly tie up into one web of conspiracy thankfully.

So the good and bad. First, I think I will start with the bad. It is sticking in my mind so much better than the good right now. The first thing I must mention is that this is a Bourne novel with very little Bourne at all. It is much more about Soraya and Moira. Bourne’s spiritual journey and reacting to the fact that his fate is the same as that of Shiva, the god of death and resurrection, did not fit. And once the ball gets rolled on the action, Bourne is in only two fight scenes. Also I wonder if Lustabador read Ludlum’s books at all, because if he did, he would realize that all of Bourne’s questions of identity were answered. Believe it or not he did get his memory back in Supremacy. So playing the confused tortured soul in book seven or in this case four of Lustabador series seemed silly to me. The pacing was disjointed making it boring and there was huge problem with this book, was the lack of realism. I know I’m not expecting this author to live up to Ludlum but there’s a difference between dumb fun and insulting stupidity. For being a spy as clever as Bourne, he makes some of the dumbest decisions and the people around him were just as stupid. Not to mention some of the things done in this book was absolutely ridiculous. Like there is scene where Moira’s locked in a closet. They tape it off leaving a crack. Then crank the vacuum to suck the air out. But excuse me, what kind of house vacuum does that? Even if it was a secret government weapon of some sort, it would have to have a fitting that is air tight in relation to the opening. Highly unlikely . And the key hole anyone? And then as the book builds up the tension in this scene. Guess what? There’s air vent like in every room in a house has. So there is name chance of suffocation. Just one example of a stupid area showing this author’s mistakes, not just with the spy themes, but just physics to general. Also the climax is disappointing.

So now I’m moving onto the good. Even after I just butchered the book, you’re probably asking what could be good? Well there are a couple redeeming qualities and that comes in from of a couple side stories later in the book. The first is Arkadan tries to help a abused wife and child after he fails to stop the killing of her son. Though it has nothing to do with the main story, its nice to see another side of the bad guy. I always love it when the author is bold enough to blur the lines between good and evil. It Reminds us all, that not all bad guys are pure evil and are human in some sense. It was interesting. Another side story is a girl Bourne meets. She’s delivering a painting, and is oddly suspicious, is lying to Bourne, just as Bourne is lying to her.

……………………………..Spoiler alert……………………..

It turn out she is a spy as well, living a double life just as Bourne is never being herself. She double crosses Bourne leading to her death. As she dies she talks to Bourne. “Why is it people feel they have to lie with each other?” she begins the scene with. It is such a moving sub story. At her death, I thought I might have been reading a different book. It was done so well another compared to the rest, which only frustrates me. Why couldn’t this be the central story of the novel? A story where Bourne ran into a femme fatale double agent maybe. It just had so much more substance. Collectively this is above thirty pages out of six hundred though.

……………………………..End of spoiler…………………………………

The only other interesting element is Bourne trying to limit what he can do. But this is not used to potential it had. It is only mentioned off and on here and there.

Overall, the book biggest crime is, as it tries to be smart, the dumber it becomes. Simple fun like his first novel the worked perfectly, but the entire book here was ultimately horrible and the exception of the two tiny subplots. I have another Lustabader Bourne novel somewhere and now I’m afraid to read it. That’s how bad it was. And if for some crazy reason, you have it laying around, I say rip out those tiny substories and read those only. Other than that I recommend you to avoid this novel. I read reviews of this on Goodreads after finishing and a reader said, “Ludlum would be rolling over in his grave if he knew what became of his work,” and sadly I must agree.

Overall Rating: A Disappointing and brainless Bourne Novel.

1 Smoothie out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Red Pyramid : Ancient Egyptian Magic Brings Out a New Exciting Adventure

Red Pyramid By Rick Riordan

Did I ever mention I love the Percy Jackson series? I think it might have came up a few times as I made multiple references in my smoothie reviews as well as left positive reviews for all five books. Well I do. So when I heard Rick Riordan was starting a new series. A trilogy set in a brand new mythology all together I was excited. So I went out and bought a copy of the first book in the Kane trilogy called “The Red Pyramid.”

So what is it about? It is a epic fantasy set in deep in ancient Egyptian mythology. It starts off with a broken family. The mother is dead as the siblings are separated by a legal battle after her death. Carter is in the custody of his father, who is a Egyptologist which means the two travel all over the world always on the road. Then his sister Sadie is under the custody of her grandparents in London living a very normal life. They have very different up bringing as well as being complete strangers.

Anyways Julius (their father) and Carter only have visitation rights twice a year. And one of the days is Christmas eve. As they spend the day together, Julius takes them to the museum. There he seems edgy and once inside they witness him performing a spell just as a great explosion happens, releasing Egyptian gods that have been locked away for thousands of years.

As this happens Sadie and Carter are thrown into a world of ancient Egyptian magic. The god of chaos Set is building great red pyramid that will on completion will give him power to rule the world. There is a secret order of Egyptian magicians called the first nome seems to welcome them at first but once discovering that they may have strong Pharaoh blood that can host gods, they are labeled as enemies. Julius is taken by Set locked away and buried in a coffin. Also gods beside Set are trying to possess the siblings. So as they run from everything, they find that they must defeat Set to stop everything. The only ally they have with them is a cat goddess Bast, who promised their father that she would watch over them. Wow a lot to explain there. But hopefully it made sense to you.

So the good and bad? Well start with the bad. There was nothing terribly bad, but there was enough to bother a reader a bit. The problem being this focused on Egyptian mythology. And it seemed it took every long time to explain this world. Gods were talked about many times, but seem to take the longest explain how the hosts worked. There seemed to be lacking explanations of what the demons were. Were they existing inside hosts as well? I’m still not sure. There’s another dimension where gods thrive, a sort of spirit world called the Duat. And then when channeling god, such as Horus, the host can control this nine foot giant puppet form of the god. Nothing terrible here. Lots of good ideas, but it’s a rough first say 170 pages explaining until it actually made sense to the reader. This seems so strange to say as he did the same in the original Percy Jackson much more quickly, but then again maybe Greek mythology is easier because the general audience is exposed to that world so much more. The next thing. I have to say is a major side character is a baboon. And baboons are, have you seen them? They are gross. It’s the last animal I would want with me on a adventure.

Now the good? Despite its bumpy start, once the mythology was all laid out I got into it. It echoes some things form Percy Jackson, but it is in no way the same book. It had new rules, new villains and new fun characters. The author even went far out of his way to make them not resemble characters from the first series in the least which is great. Action is paced perfectly. It jumped back and forth between Sadie and Carter giving the alternation chapters very interesting perspectives.

Overall, in the end it fun. It delivers the exciting adventure it promises and does live up to the author reputation. The only thing that holds it back is the bumpy start.

Overall Rating : Ancient Egyptian Magic Brings Out a New Exciting Adventure

3 ½ Smoothie out of Four

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

The Curse Maker : Makes Something Old Seem Fresh Again

The Curse Maker By Laurell K Hamilton Smoothie Review

Back to the short stories. Between long novels it’s good to read one or two. So I decided to continue with a tale from Laurell K Hamilton’s Strange Candy collection called the Curse Maker.

So what is it? It is a story set in a medieval sort of fantasy world. It focuses on a warrior Sidra, her mentor and sorcerer Gannon to help a dear friend who is dying from the death curse. It follows them as they put together clues to find the curse marker who can lift the curse.

So the good? Despite the fact it is set in a dangerous and dragons set of world, it doesn’t feel like it. It’s not convoluted with dozens of new terms to remember. Also it is a crime story. Nothing epic. The simplicity in fact is what makes it so enjoyable and accessible to other readers who are not die hard fans of the genre. The characters are fun, and the imagination is brilliant. Instead of pulling out the old fashioned trolls, dragons, or elves she went with a evil sword that likes to drink blood. It is portrayal in a very creepy fashion.

The bad? It is not action based. The climax feels like its leading to another part of the story when there isn’t one. So it does leave the reader at a cliff hanger wondering what will happen next rather than a true conclusion. And also I wanted to know so much more about this world. The detail is so minimal in this piece.

Overall it interesting. If you have the collection it’s worth reading this one. If you got it for a dollar in ebook format, I don’t think that is disappointing either. Beyond that, you might want to question whether it is worth sinking money into this individual story. It is in no way a must read. Just a very mediocre fun story.

Overall Rating: Makes something Old Seem Fresh Again

2 smoothie out of four

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Excavation: Nothing new, but breaks the hell out of old ground.

Excavation By James Rollins Smoothie Review

James Rollins is the a master of treasure hunting and tomb raiding adventures, as Ludlum is to spy novels and as Crichton is to science fiction. It is a bit of a tall claim. But this is my fourth book I’ve read by him and so far it proves to be true. He has not proven me wrong with the exception of the Sigma force novels. So now I’m about knee deep into the James Rollins novels and the latest adventure is called Excavation.

So what is it about? It centers on a professor and his nephew. The professor just found a mummy from the jungles of Chili and is sure that it is proof of a civilization that predates the Inca. But he finds that it is actually a Spanish priest. As he looked further he also finds that the skull of the priest is filled with liquid gold. Upon this discovery a secret society of Spanish monks take him hostage because they are searching for this rare gold that they call “the blood of the devil,” because with it they believe they can build the vessel so god can come to earth. The professor’s nephew is Sam, who is with a team of student archaeologists down in the Andes. They have just discovered a new temple in the side of a mountain. They are accidentally trapped in it as it crumbles during a attack from tomb robbers. The temple into the mountain goes to the source of the “blood of the devil,” And it is no surprise that in and professor Conklin’s and Sam’s path intertwine.

So the good? After reading Ice Hunt, and Deep Fathom, I was relieved to not see the military or army of any kind as a big factor. It’s much simpler. The team is stuck inside living on limited supplies, facing a cave of dwelling creatures and booby traps as Conklin’s side foreshadow things to come and reveal secrets behind the temple. Action is fun. The story is also one of the oddest. So it is unpredictable.

The bad? It is very similar to Rollins other book Subterranean. In more ways than one. At one point I thought I was re reading a old book. So there is nothing new or groundbreaking here except for the off the wall scifi twist at the end. I also felt for the first time in a Rollins’ book, the characters were shallow. They felt like cardboard cut outs to me.

But overall it’s a fun read. The end may be silly but its still fine. If you like adventure novels. I most definitely recommend this one.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

The 13th Tale : A Failed Replication of Jane Eyre With The Element Of Twiness Thrown in

The 13th Tale By Diane Setterfield Smoothie Review

Call me crazy, but I like to be proved wrong. I was so sure I hated memoirs and memoir like dramas. Everyone of them I read was downright horrible and I told myself they are all the same. That is until I came across a few I thoroughly enjoyed. “To Kill A Mocking Bird,” “The Glass Castle” and “October Sky” made me feel like a fool because I did see all memoirs as the same, when indeed they were not. I then came across one that looked interesting. It was a hardback called the Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It is not a actual memoir but is meant to play out like one. The concept behind it was that if a girl writing a biography of author. An author with an over active imagination who has told absolutely no one the truth and for some reason, I saw hope in this idea.

So the story starts with Margaret who is a girl who works in a book shop with her father and as a hobby on the side writes various essays about what she reads. In some cases she won awards for her work. The essays grabbed the attention of the famous but aging and ill Vida Winter. And given the offer to be paid to listen to her story and write it down, Margaret accepts it and goes to the woman’s large richy house to do the job. Before leaving though, Margaret also finds that she had a twin sister who died at birth which becomes more important as Vida’s tale is about a odd child hood growing up with her own twin. Her mother was put away. Her uncle was just as mentally ill. Her father was nowhere to be seen or heard of. The aging blind house keeper and lonely gardener was left to raise them, but neither of them could support themselves, must less the children who grew wild throughout the house, bearly speaking English having no education, and being a true annoyance to whole village.

The story starts out exploring the idea of twiness. The thought that one could not live without the other. One will get half the personality traits, as the other has the opposite, so together they become a full person. But separated they are nothing. But also through out her story, there are hints of ghosts, that leave questions about what Vida is leaving out.

So, I’ll start with the good, because its short. The good of it is this story is written in beautiful fashion. In all seriousness the words flow like poetry or the lyrics of song. I haven’t seen anything written in this fashion in a long time.

Okay. The bad? Well basically, the story is aimless. It starts off interesting and then loses all direction making you wonder what exactly you are reading. Not to mention the breaks from the story to itself where Margaret spends time thinking about the twin she never known. Margaret starts seeing ghosts of her twin and making ludicrous connections between her life and Vida‘s because of the twiness. It is far too melodramatic and even ridiculous as in one scene when she breaks down and cries in front of everyone because Margaret feels her twin was so much like Vida even though they never met and there was no similarity at all. Lastly was about two thirds through when I was wondering where this book was heading. It revealed itself to be a cheap modern day version of Jane Eyre, which was sad and uninteresting. But the more I thought about it, I found the author went so far below that level it was astonishing. It has the setting, dialogue, and ghost stories, but all fell flat.

Overall it took me forever to read it because it bored me so much. It’ll fool you when you start but will making major missteps once you’re in the heart of it. Skip this drama. Go read Jane Eyre if this sounds remotely entertaining. You will get much more for the time put into it there.

Overall Rating: A Failed Replication of Jane Eyre With The Element Of Twiness Thrown in

1 smoothie out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Micro: Crichton’s Last Dive In Science Shows Us The World Of Entomology

Micro By Michael Crichton and Richard Preston Smoothie Review

In 2007, we had a great loss. One of the world’s best science fiction writers, Michael Crichton died. But right after his death rumors swirled. Works were found on his computer. One was Pirate Latitudes. The other was a unfinished work, that the press refused to reveal any news about it for the longest while. Then out of nowhere, this work appears again. It is called Micro and was finished by Richard Preston, who wrote the “Hot Zone” which proves they found someone knowledgeable in at least one area of science.

So now you’re asking what is it about? It is about seven college students. Many who are experts in environmental sorts of science. One is a expert on spiders. Another studies plants and what not. Despite their somewhat typical portrayals, they are geniuses one way or another. And they are offered a job, at a secretive yet high income research place called Nanigen. But as they began to take off Peter, one of the college students, finds that his brother Eric who works at Nanigen dies under mysterious consequences. So as the students are excited about the new job. Peter uncovers the clue to his brother death. He finds that Nanigen is at fault.

Nanigen is revealed as a place finding and discovering natural resources that are too tiny to study. These include protozoan, fungi, resika and what not. They shrink people with machine like environment to go out into the rain forest and study it. But as Peter reveals his evidence about what happened to his brother, the owner Vin Drake shrinks them and in a crazy turn of events, they are thrown out into the rainforest to die. So there they must survive the wild and somehow make it back to Nanigen to get to normal size again before they die of bends. Bends are internal bleeding they can all die from in three days. It is side effect to being so small.

The good? Well despite the silliness of the imaginative shrink ray shrinking people, who go into the tiny world the entomology science is great. Since there was little detail in the beginning as well as science facts the book made up for it with the tiny world. Having just served a semester in entomology science at college , I loved every bit of it. The characters are realistic. You learn to love them as it goes on. And like always, the action is original and fun.

So the bad? Well there’s a twist about two thirds into the book. And it is a really big change in vibe, direction of the story and sudden instantaneous change of the lead character of the book. This is the part of the book where my jaw dropped. This something I never seen in a Crichton book and I feel this is where the book was left unfinished and Richard took over. The last third felt to me like I was reading another book. The ending also seemed too unreal to me. It involved a air battles between the students on tiny planes and killer flying nano bots. The bad guy, Vin Drake seemed evil in a cartoony fashion leading up the showdown. Also a character that is thought to be dead shows up randomly to be a lead again. The resurrection seemed to come out of nowhere. Overall, the whole book switched tones.

But overall, the books isn’t bad. I love the first two thirds. The last third, I’m not too sure about. I would not recommend this to die hard Crichton fan and science nerd like myself, at twenty dollars. But if you see it at a descent price, grab it. It has its good parts.

Overall rating: Crichton’s last dive in science shows us the world of entomology.

2 ¾ smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/