Saving Fish From Drowning. I did desperately want to like it (the premise of the book intrigued me right off the bat) but now I'm having difficulty trying to wade through it, so this morning when I again put it down, I decided to move on to other books.">

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Hi, I'm Angela, a girl with a blog on five different psyches:
girl, geek, reader, writer, gamer
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Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa MeyerLate last year, I heard about the upcoming release of Cinder, Marissa Meyer’s first YA book as well as the first book in the Lunar Chronicles. I was able to read a short excerpt online and was intrigued with the beginning, and vowed to keep an eye out for it.

Big disclaimers though: I love young adult lit, I love fairy tale retellings, and I have a soft heart towards the name “Kai”, due to a couple, ah, interesting story lines my friends and I built back in high school.

So, yes, Cinder. I finally bought it last week, and promptly sat down to read it one fine afternoon. And I barely got up until about ten in the evening, after I read the last lines.

A retelling with a twist

Ha, of course retellings all need a nice intriguing twist. Well, this one was sure to be interesting for geeks out there: set in a futuristic, dystopian Beijing (New Beijing, to be precise), with a menacing race on the moon threatening the “Earthens”, Cinder is not your usual downtrodden woman: actually, she’s a cyborg.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl…

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Yum.

Engrossing escapist fiction

Frankly, I’m more of a fantasy than sci-fi girl, but this was entirely too delicious to pass up. It is definitely futuristic, in a slightly steampunky way, and not utterly disconnected from the here and now–it’s a world that I can definitely meld with my own, but different enough to be magical.

Oh, did I say magical? That’s frowned upon in that society, when the Lunars’ “magic” has some very dire effects and capabilities on Earthens. The book isn’t deeply technical, and non-SF readers like me won’t get lost in all the technical jargon, but it gives enough interesting tidbits to feed the imagination and let you fill in the blanks.

Cinder is refreshing and relatable–a heroine who works hard, has grease on her forehead (while meeting the Prince), and is intrinsically good–but not afraid to get into a shouting match with her dominating stepmother Adri or try to bash someone in with a wrench.

The secondary characters are nicely fleshed out too–yes, even Adri–and some of them are quite endearing. I especially loved Iko, Cinder’s companion android and essential sidekick (although technically, she’s Adri’s). Kai is not just a pretty face, and while I might prefer a bit more fire to my heroes, well, as the heir, he’s plenty fiery enough (a few facepalm moments there, too).

The story can be rather predictable–I know we all know the Cinderella story, but I guessed one of the mysteries presented in the book fairly early on. I don’t feel that it detracts from the experience, but people who like complete shocker endings–wait, what am I saying? You’re reading a retelling. You’re certainly not expecting a shocker.

After the ball

After putting down the book, my immediate thought was, when is the next one coming out?! I’m shamelessly impatient, and my trivia-hungry brain wanted to know more and more about Cinder’s world and what happens next. “What happens next” is probably expected with a book that is part of a longer series; but oh, all those interesting, intriguing, tantalizing glimpses of the technology is exciting my brain and coming up with all sorts of theories. Like, this Lunar’s gift, is it something like the precursor to the Force? Roughly how many years in the future is this world set, where few people remember gasoline-run cars but Europe is still called Europe? And how is Singapore “far” from New Beijing? Where exactly is New Beijing–is it still in, uh, Current Beijing?

Ahem. Pardon me while my geeky self runs away with all the possibilities.

Cinder is definitely worth a read if you like either retellings or YA lit, and most especially if you like both. Hardcode SF readers may find it a bit too vague, but I’m sure it will still be an enjoyable, light read. The book itself is of moderate length and engrossing, and well worth the money I spent on it. If reading the excerpt intrigued you even a little, give it a shot.

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Maya Slater’s Mr. Darcy’s Diary

So I’m reading Maya Slater’s Mr. Darcy’s Diary, which I picked up at the Carrefour book sale I promised I wouldn’t go to. Like I said, I end up picking up books I wouldn’t normally buy at the usual price–like this one. I generally like retellings, but it seems to me that a lot of P&P retellings aren’t worth their salt (or pages).

I’m nearly chalking this one up as one of those you shouldn’t even bother borrowing. I haven’t given up on it yet, but I’m nearly there–and I’m not yet even half of the book. I’m skimming through the book, at the least. I’m not an expert of that time period by any means, so I’ve no idea how accurate some details and situations and habits are for that period–so don’t ask me about that. The characters are generally the same in terms of personality, and it seems to me that they included some dialogue from the 1995 BBC production with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, which is a plus for me: I loved that miniseries.

But I couldn’t care less about Darcy being… well, a man. At the risk of sounding like a prude, I didn’t care about the inclusion of Darcy’s intimate relations in the book; or of him having any with random people. Oh, they’re not “scandalous”; the first few instances, a friend had gotten him inebriated enough to spend an evening at a bordello; the ones after that were with a servant girl in Netherfield. If you can stretch your imagination, they even seem to be slightly according to Darcy’s personality, i.e., he wouldn’t have anything to do with the second girl while the Miss Bennets were in Netherfield due to Jane’s illness.

That is, if you can stretch your imagination far enough to imagine Darcy going to a bordello, or tumbling a serving girl in his friend’s house. “Darcy” does not write about the details of the encounter, thank goodness, but he does praise the first girl’s form along with mentioning, in passing, a word that feels “dirty”–although I’m not aware if it is a crude word. I’m just assuming it is, as there is a crude-word equivalent in modern vernacular.

It’s rather disturbing to think of Darcy tumbling random people, that’s all. Granted, he’s only done two in the time frame so far of the novel (and as he’s now rather in love with Lizzy, I assume there will be no more), but I’d much rather prefer that he had none whatsoever. Darcy is Darcy! You don’t have to have a man have intimate relations with serving girls et al to prove that he’s a man.

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Bridge to Terabithia

After picking up Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia from a book sale a few months ago, I finally took it along on the way to Ikea last Sunday. And it affected me so much that I had to distract myself–I was in danger of crying right on the bus on the way home while reading.

I’m glad I finally picked up this book. Initially I was rather unsure about it–the start wasn’t entirely too good for me, although the writing style itself was interesting and kept me going. Sure enough, soon Jess, Leslie, and even May Belle gripped me and made me feel for them, and appreciate their simple adventures. You could feel the simple joys they had, mixed in with all those little “life and death” issues we always have as kids ;)

As a child who was (is!) interested in fantasy, and stories, and creating make-believe worlds and scenarios with various versions of myself, I could relate a lot to Leslie–or at least the Leslie that we are given a treat to see from Jess’s eyes. I could certainly relate to the two children, being a kind of wallflower when I was in grade school–a bit of a geek, but not even geeky enough to be notorious. How they interacted with the worlds mentioned in the book–Lewis’s Narnia, and Alexander’s Prydain–was similar in many ways to how the books affected me. Jess’s hunger for these worlds and Leslie’s transformation of her fantasy-enriched imagination to Terabithia struck familiar chords in me.

The next afternoon they called P.T. and headed for Terabithia. It had been more than a month since they had been there together, and as they neared the creek bed, they slowed down. Jass wasn’t sure he still remembered how to be a king.

“We’ve been away for many years,” Leslie was whispering. “How to you suppose the kingdom has fared in our absence?”

“Where’ve we been?”

“Conquering the hostile savages on our northern borders,” she answered. “But the lines of communication have been broken, and thus we do not have tidings of our beloved homeland for many a full moon.” How was that for regular queen talk? Jess wished he could match it. “You think anything bad has happened?”

“We must have courage, my king. It may indeed be so.”

I will have to find the movie to borrow somewhere and finally check it out–I’ve been wanting to watch for a while now, but have been holding off as I wanted to read the book first. :)

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Prince Caspian

I watched Prince Caspian with friends last Thursday at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. Like previously mentioned, I’m not a book purist, but there is that line that mustn’t be crossed when we’re talking above movie adaptations of well-loved books. While Prince Caspian was not unsalvagable, I didn’t care overmuch about a few of the glaring differences.

(Warning: spoilers ahead!)

I didn’t mind that they “hurried” the children’s arrival in Narnia, that certain events (well, almost all events) became rather jumbled, that they added fight scenes where there was none (a bit on the fence with that one, though). I liked how Susan was in the midst of the fighting. I don’t even mind how far they got the White Witch present in the movie, and I actually like that because I rather like how Edmund was the one to resolve that issue, and his quip “Yeah, I know. You had it sorted” was good and well delivered. Being the one who suffered under the White Witch’s “affections”, it felt apt to have him deal that blow.

(I shall have to watch Skandar Keynes, who played Edmund–seems to be shaping up to be a good actor.)

But I do mind that they added a Caspian/Susan twist, and topped it all off with a kiss. Yes, I notice the tension between them, and yes, I laughed when Lucy exclaimed, “‘You might need to call me again’?!” The tension is enough, thankyouverymuch. I didn’t need to see the kiss. I’m not a prude–I like a good kiss–but you know that feeling that it just isn’t right? That’s how I felt. Maybe it was not handled well enough by the actors and/or the scriptwriters, I don’t know; but all in all I had much rather they left the kiss off.

Peter and Caspian, as well, felt like two teenage boys with these oversized egos. I realize they’re teenage boys trying to find their place in the world, but it just felt like they were immature kids, and their “bickering” was annoying. Is it just that the acting wasn’t good enough? It’s good to have a bit of rivalry within the ranks, but if they did this to just add some grittiness to the story, then it was poorly written/done.

Thank goodness there was plenty to save this movie: Reepicheep is wonderful, and I knew something was up with Nikabrik–I only found out afterward that it was actually Warwick Davis, of Willow fame! I have to say it is odd to have him play a villain, but maybe that’s why they made him practically unrecognizable? (His eyes almost gave him away though; I just knew that I knew that actor.)

Lucy and Edmund are wonderful in this film, as is Georgie Henley and Skandar. Great acting, and I have to say my favorite lines are from the two of them, like Lucy’s aforementioned “You might need to call me again” outburst, and gems like this from Edmund:

King Miraz: Tell me, Prince Edmund…
Edmund Pevensie: King.
King Miraz: I beg your Pardon.
Edmund Pevensie: It’s King Edmund, actually. Just King though. Peter’s the High King. (Pause) I know, it’s confusing.

If you’re a Narnia fan, then it’s a given: you should watch this movie. Just don’t expect a lot from it.

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Eragon

I just finished Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, after resolving to read it since it’s been turned into a movie (no, I haven’t watched the movie, and yes, I heard it wasn’t good). As a YA fantasy novel, to me it was pretty typical: fast-paced adventure, magic, dragons, a likeable protagonist who is coming of age. It was an enjoyable read, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next installation soon.

(Spoiler warning! I will be talking about some plot elements that affect the ending of the book.)

I don’t exactly know if I feel it’s doing a good bit of foreshadowing or if it’s too much. I obviously haven’t read Eldest, but already I feel like it’s going to be a no-brainer. For one thing, Angela the witch’s foretelling of Eragon’s future felt like… wait, already? So we already know there’s a near-death, someone who’s family will betray him, and there’s a noble love on the horizon.

I felt the near-death would be Brom right off. I mean, seriously, who else was it going to be? Who else (who’s still alive) was close to Eragon other than Roran, Brom, and Saphira? If Saphira dies, there goes the story. There was a chance it would be Roran, but I felt that Brom would make more sense, more impact.

And besides, there was the whole thing about the betrayal of someone who’s family. That instantly pointed to Roran, but! We skip to the end of the book, where we, omg, find out about Murtagh’s past. Murtagh Son of Morzan who, when sparring with Eragon, was his equal in every respect, even when they tire. There was mention of them being so alike each other, but yet differing in beliefs. Let’s not forget Murtagh’s mother, who came from an unknown village, who mysteriously left when Murtagh was three, and returned just as mysteriously.

Oh, what’s that about Eragon’s mother? His mother, who had become apparently rich, went home to Garrow five months pregnant with Eragon, gave birth, and then pleaded that he be raised there, and then disappeared. I mean, seriously? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to put, omg, two long-lost brothers together and, in the end, have them face each other in a heart-rending, emotional battle between good and evil! Not to mention battle for the heart of a noblewoman, Nasuada, apparently. There was a stray thought about it being Arya, but you never know. Would that be possible in Eragon’s world?

Okay, maybe I’m wrong about some of these points. I don’t even know what I think about all these guesses of mine. I feel like, what, why is this so easy?? I don’t know if I enjoy it, making all these guesses.

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Gregory Maguire’s Oz

Lately I’ve just put down Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and I have to say that it was brilliant — I loved the fully-realized political and spiritual backdrop for the tale, and Elphaba was certainly a character. She’s the title character, but it was so well written that you actually feel and know her to be an outsider. The outsider? In her own book. Hence the politics and the spiritual/religious backdrop aren’t really a backdrop after all, but they’re pretty much the meat and core of the tale.

Being the hopeless sap that I am, you’d probably guess what my favorite part is. Spoiler alert, for those of you who don’t want to be spoiled ;) but Elphaba and Fiyero’s ultimately-doomed relationship was a treat. I was half expecting her and Boq to end up together — the other half was that I didn’t feel like I wanted her to be in a relationship. But when Fiyero and she did end up in a rather complicated relationship, it was a suprise, a good surprise, a treat. She was a little “closer” then, not so much an outsider, while it lasted.

I think I’m definitely picking up Son of a Witch now, which I had read a bit of in a bookstore back in the Philippines. It’s definitely an intriguing read.

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The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio (Lloyd Alexander)

I finished Lloyd Alexander’s last work sometime last week. The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio was light, and in keeping with how I know Alexander’s work to be: seemingly simple, but something with great depth. I loved the characters he created, as usual — for all the short time I got to know them, by the time I ended the book I loved them all.

The story is about Carlo, who is forced to leave his uncle’s home after a disastrous errand. Armed with only a treasure map and a coat with gold coins sewn in (effectively “wearing [his] fortune on [his] back…not the most fashionably dressed, but, no doubt, the most expensively”, in Carlo’s own words), he travels to Sidya and meets the beautiful, capable Shira and the rather shady Baksheesh, who goes with him on his journey on the Golden Road in order to find the treasure.

The story is an adventure, both literally and in the self-discovery sense. As someone who loves The Prydain Chronicles, I’ll go ahead with comparisons between the two. Like the idealistic Taran, Carlo must go through the same learning and awakening. Like Taran, he is kept wondering about the real deal with Shira, who admits to liking him but tells him that she will leave him. Like Fflewddur Fflam, Baksheesh loves exaggeration and won’t scruple to hide the truth (but as someone who’s always complaining, I admit to getting annoyed with Baksheesh!). I’d say Baksheesh is a mix between Doli and Fflewddur, leaning more on the Doli-scale. And the wise old man Salamon? He’d be in a league all his own. I loved the interaction between the ever-optimistic Salamon and the complaining Baksheesh.

My favorite secondary character would have to be Bashir, however, of the Bashir-Bazouks. He doesn’t come in until much later in the book, but he’s filled with such life, simplicity, enthusiasm, and good will. Even when you feel you should hate him, you just can’t get yourself to hate him. And for a secondary character who doesn’t have much screen time, it almost feels like you know him already; he’s not flat or stereotypical.

I admit to feeling that the book was far too short, that I would have wanted to be with Carlo, Shira, Baksheesh, and Salamon more. The Chronicles of Prydain are still my favorite Lloyd Alexander books, but The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio is still one amazing, well-written book that shouldn’t be passed on.

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Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield’s evocative novel on the connection and bond between siblings, revolves around two sets of twins: Margaret Lea and her deceased twin Moira, and tragedy-born twins Emmeline and Adeline March. The story is two-fold, one story in another story: you have Margaret while she goes about her task to write the life story of reclusive, mysterious author Vida Winter… and then you have Vida Winter narrating her story; Vida, the successful writer who’s never told the truth about who she is and where she came from. She’s finally coming clean.

I will admit that I picked up this novel purely on reading that it was a “spellbinding, lyrical debut” as I’ve always been drawn to rather lyrical, lush stories–and always felt disconnected with rather terse ones. I raved about it some time ago when I started reading it, and I’ve since finished it. It was definitely a good read.

There are three things that I want to highlight about this book, which might very well be the deciding point if this book interests you:

  1. I’m usually a quick reader, always wanting to devour each book. But with this book (along with a few others) was worded so wonderfully that I took my time, savoring each word, each phrase. I’m not one for something overly drawn out, because that makes me read even quicker, skip some phrases. Setterfield hit a good balance between lush prose and story speed, which is important. Something too lush will drown me; something too terse isn’t personal to me.
  2. The story revolved around family, bonds, and love. There’s a lot of tragedy, and a lot of abandonment, with dysfunctional people and people who think they know better. But they all served to highlight the (often almost otherworldly) connections between siblings, between twins, to be precise. There wasn’t an extraneous story, a useless thread: I was easily sucked into the story, my full concentration on it.
  3. Vida Winter’s past is a mystery, and because of that, the book itself is a big mystery that keeps one guessing. And guessing. And guessing. It’s so finely weaved together that once you reach the end of Vida’s personal story (“…my story–my own personal story–ended before my writing began. Storytelling has only ever been a way of filling in the time since everything finished.”) you might say, as I did, “why didn’t I see that before?”

Other things that was of interest in me is that there are two writers in this book. Novels about writers are quite interesting for me; now I have two: one a biographer and another a fiction writer. Love of reading and Jane Eyre was another. That’s not to say that the book is perfect: precious few are. The final ending of the book felt a bit too drawn-out, a little contrived: there was such a lot of wrapping up to do that it seemed there were endless epilogues. It was not a slow landing, but one that happened in rather swift gradations.

All in all, though, it was definitely a good book, one of those that I can easily call an escape into another world, another time, another place. One that transforms, and one that speaks of more than just the surface.

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The True World

Paint it Black

I finished Janet Fitch’s Paint It Black just a few minutes ago: a darkly beautiful, haunting tale about model/actress Josie Tyrell and living through the tragedy that is her boyfriend’s suicide. Dealing with questions such as, do we really kill that which we love? and whose fault is it, really?, Paint It Black is a glimpse into the soul of one who has gone through love and loss and is struggling to find the way back.

I had my misgivings about the book: I loved Fitch’s White Oleander and while I had high hopes for this book, I was worried about expecting too much. I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint, but I did approach with caution. Fitch’s lyrical style works best with the first person perspective of her first novel, but it still lent a haunting, heavy tone to Paint It Black which suited the book. It both drew you closer than a run-of-the-mill third person perspective could, but also kept you at a distance, the same distance that Josie wraps around herself and fuels the mysterious air around her (like her movie character Elena, “mysterious and haunted”).

The book delves into the mind and emotions of not just Josie, but the grief-stricken mother, Meredith, domineering and always striving for perfection before her son’s death tears apart her quasi-perfect world. It explores into the emotions going through Michael, when he was alive and seemingly destroying the very thing he stormed the Bastille for.

“To be or not to be… It’s the only question, really. Zero or one. Accept or reject.”

But that was the thing about zero. Its weakness. Even if zero had taken over the entire universe, the biggest fascist of all, one tiny gesture could deny it. One footprint, one atom. You didn’t have to be a genius. You didn’t even have to know that was what you were doing. You made a mark. You changed something. And changed zero to one.

It’s a depressing tale (I cried I don’t know how many times), hanging heavy and clawing right at your heart. Fitch has a way with words, a way of making you think without throwing everything at you, of creating both a bridge and a wall between you and grieving Josie, grasping Meredith, and troubled Michael. The book is like a black painting, seemingly dark and heavy, but if you look closer, let yourself see, there’s this silvery white paint shining from underneath: the True World, its beauty never entirely gone, if we only know where and how to look.

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On putting down a book

For the past few weeks I’ve been struggling with one of the books I’m currently reading, specifically Amy Tan’s Saving Fish From Drowning. I did desperately want to like it (the premise of the book intrigued me right off the bat) but now I’m having difficulty trying to wade through it, so this morning when I again put it down, I decided to move on to other books.

I’ve only done this with one other book (Jostein Gaarder’s Maya) and I honestly thought that it wouldn’t happen again anytime soon (I’d only started really getting back into reading this year!) but it did. I feel a certain kind of sadness at the thought of finally setting aside a book as “unreadable” on a personal level, since you’re pretty much giving up on the book.

Personally, I put down a book for good when it’s the middle of the book already and I can’t connect with the characters, and when I’ve started to feel that the sole reason why I’m still reading is that I must finish it since it’s started already. I’ve gone through lots of books with parts that I always find hard to go through (be it because it’s long and dragging, or because it’s emotionally draining) but when this is typical of a whole half of the book… I should be spending my time better.

Saving Fish From Drowning basically was both for me. It had its moments, but on the whole I felt that it moved all over the place at an inconsistent pace. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters (except maybe Bibi herself and Esme) and there was almost nothing happening. There’s a certain sense of voyeurism in following everything (and I mean everything) about a group of people as they trek through their itinerary but it soon felt like a blog that was far too meandering. :P

Should I give Saving Fish From Drowning a second chance? Why? What would make you put down a book you’ve started?

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