Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I found this book while helping clean out the costume room for drama in high school. I have always intended to read it, but decided to finally read it over break when I had a free day. It is only 177 pages long, so I figured I could read it in one day. Also, the picture I have is not the cover of my book… mine is actually just typography of the title and author’s name that is really yellow and bent. I liked the used feeling of it, and it was fun to read a book that I randomly found. I also found The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I will hopefully get to that this summer or early next school year.

Besides ‘dystopian sci-fi-future,’ the only thing I knew about this book beforehand was that it detailed a culture where people were entertained a lot. I’ll get to that later. First, I liked how the book started off. It described how babies are decanted (“born” in test tubes) and how each set of babies are treated differently. There are Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons (I think that’s all of them). Each different type are given a certain treatment based on their predestined caste. For instance, Alphas are treated to the best, while some Epsilons are exposed to sleeping sicknesses and extreme heat to condition them to be able to work in tropical climates. This was really interesting, and set off the story well.

Next, we learn of how the children are hypnopaedically (spoken to while sleeping) conditioned to be consumerists with phrases like “ending is better than mending” and ”the more stitches the less riches”  which leads them to buy new clothes often. Sports are also planned out to be ridiculously intricate, and any sport that doesn’t require a ton of apparatuses is not allowed, because then people wouldn’t have to buy stuff to play. The most important aspect of this society, in my opinion, is the fact that they are always entertained. Being alone or unoccupied is seen as anti-social and extremely negative.

When people aren’t engaging in weirdly intricate games, at parties, or sleeping with whomever they want (monogamy? gross!), they can take grammes of soma. Huxley likens soma to alcohol/drugs without the aftereffect. They have many sayings that are to the effect of, “why care when you can be high?” Ex: “a gramme is better than a damn.” Soma basically lets you go on holiday in your mind. Okay… though I love the societal aspects of this story, I suppose I should let you explore some of that on your own.

The bulk of the story deals with a man,  Bernard, who was born as a physically stunted Alpha, which means he is intellectually above his physical level so he stands out in society. His relationship with Lenina Crowne, a worker in the decanting factory, is explored. They go on a trip to the Savage Reservation in the USA and meet John, who is a savage (Indian). The actual story deals with their relationships, and how each of them either follow or veer from social norms.

I really enjoyed the social aspects of this book. The story is interesting, but I was much more fascinated with the construction of the world and conditioning of people in order to make them ‘happy.’  Huxley chose his points of view well — we get to see things through three(+) extremely different points that highlight the oddity of social norms. This is a relatively short novel and a quick read. If you like sci-fi or are interested in social conditioning, I would absolutely recommend this book to you.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

This is the second book in the Mistborn series; it’s a 763 page fantasy novel. I will warn you now that if you haven’t read the first one (and plan to) you might not want to read this review. I was going to try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but there is so much that I might accidentally give away, it’s not worth trying.

This story starts off with Elend Venture as king of the New Empire faced with his father, Straff Venture’s approaching army. Straff’s larger force is threatening to take control of Luthadel. The entire novel deals with the threat of Straff’s army (and a couple other interesting threats) against Luthadel, and how the crew deals with them. Vin is now put on guard duty for Elend — she really explores her power, and learns what it is to be ruthless. Vin has become more confident and Elend is now the one working his way into being confident in his role as king.

We are introduced to a new character in this book — the Watcher. I’ll give a little bit of a spoiler and say the Watcher is Zane, a mistborn who hides and watches Vin and Elend, making Vin extremely anxious. Zane is one of my favorite characters in this book, and although Sanderson did use his POV sometimes, I could have used even more. Zane is supposedly insane, and I really enjoyed his inner conflicts when in the presence of other people. Sanderson explores not only characters outside of the original crew, but other species, as well. Learning about koloss and kandra (mostly kandra, I’ll admit), was fascinating. Drawing it out through dialogue, rather than narrative worked really well. Again, I was pleasantly surprised at Sanderson’s world building expertise.

I was so relieved that this novel was very different from Mistborn. Rather than just continuing the story, Sanderson expands on the world and increases our knowledge of it. It was also interesting to read from the many, many different view points. We get to see things from both sides of the struggles surrounding Luthadel, and some perspectives away from the city. I thought this was an excellent way to keep things interesting, and to break up the monotony of the siege in Luthadel.

Through a few characters’ POV, we see a lot of study surrounding the Deepness.  I love the little excerpts from journals at the beginning of each chapter that had to do with the Deepness (and Alendi and Rashek). Another part of the book I enjoyed was seen through Sazed’s POV (he is one of the people studying the Deepness). His area of study is that of religion, and he has over 300 religions recorded that the Lord Ruler stamped out in order to form the Steel Ministry. Though not much is known of his own religion (Terris), he manages to uncover a lot of things that mention it, which is where we get the story of the Well of Ascension and the Hero of Ages. The Terris (or religious, I suppose) aspects of this novel are amazing — I was dumbfounded at the end of the novel when everything came together (huzzah foreshadowing!).

Just like Mistborn, I was interested in the first couple hundred pages, but not riveted. However, once I got in the tw0- and three-hundred pages, it was a struggle to put the book down. I finished about the last 350 pages in one day. If you enjoyed Mistborn, you can’t not read this. If you haven’t read Mistborn, get on it! It is so worth your time. And trust me, I really haven’t given that many spoilers — nothing you couldn’t get from reading the blurb of the second book… and don’t read the blurb of the third book if you plan to read the series! Anyway, I want to say this book also comes highly recommended. I will be starting The Hero of Ages shortly, and hope to finish it before break is over and I have to go to class again.

Finals Week

Hello there loyal followers! I haven’t had a chance to do a post recently, for many reasons. Excuses include: reading three books at once, being busy with Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed, and lastly FINALS. I’ve had projects, papers, and ‘studying’ galore the past two weeks, and therefore haven’t had much time to read (it’s a lazy excuse, since I made time to play video games). Luckily, starting today, I’m on break until April 30th, when we start our May term class (a three week, three-hour-a-day class).

This week, I was expected to turn in a paper about feng shui for my Asian cultures class, turn in a screen adaptation of a story or book of my choice — I chose the prologue and first chapter of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss — for my film and literature class, and a creative project and researched rationale for said project for my British literature class. For that, we had to pick an author or story or something we focused on in class and do a project that had something to do with it. I chose to focus on “Love and Freindship” by Jane Austen. I wrote a series of letters to a male friend about interactions with two different female friends. It was a fun little study on how my attitude towards a friendship affects content of  interactions and conversations.

Along with all this, I was playing two games. I beat Mass Effect 3, and although the end was a little… brief… as you may have heard from the outcry from the online community, it was a good game. It was very fast paced and exciting. I still prefer Mass Effect 1, mostly because of the role-playing elements, but the gameplay in 3 was quite fun. I have also just started playing through the Assassin’s Creed games. I’m only a few hours into the first one, but it’s fun and I will probably end up spending a good amount of my break playing it. I will most likely also do another play through of Mass Effect 3, just for good measure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, as a sort of replacement for a review this week, I decided to do a preview of upcoming reviews. I am taking a graphic novel course for May term, and will probably review each of them here. We are planning to read both Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman, which I actually read last year, but never thought about reviewing. We are also reading Watchmen, which I didn’t realize… When I read Ghost World and 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, I also checked out Watchmen, and am about halfway through it. The other graphic novel that we plan to read is Black Hole by Charles Burns. Along with standalone graphic novels, we are looking at an anthology called Best American Comics 2011 which is attributed to editors Alison Bechdel, Jessica Abel, and Matt Madden and a book titled Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am, of course, still reading The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. I am about halfway through, and it’s quite enjoyable so far. I’m hoping to finish it and The Hero of Ages over break, and have the reviews up soon. On a bit of a side note, after my final final today, I plan to stop in at the North American Review at UNI to let them know I am interested in a job (writer, editor, whatever they have). The NAR is the first literary journal to be published in the US and has a great reputation. When I attend UNI next year, I’m really hoping to be able to work there. Wish me luck!

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

I started reading this on a suggestion from Adam at Reviews and Ramblings, who is actually going through the series again. It is a 643 page fantasy novel, the first in the Final Empire trilogy. Mistborn is a hefty story, not one easily summarized. But, well, here we go.

Mistborn is about a young skaa girl, about 16, named Vin. She uses her Luck to influence people so her thieving crew, led by her emotionally and physically abusive brother, can get by. The story is also about a skaa rebellion and it’s leader, Kelsier, a full Mistborn (more about this later). The skaa people have worked on plantations as slaves, been beaten by the nobility, and have generally suffered heavily for at least the last 1000 years under the Lord Ruler’s reign. The majority of the plot in this book deals with the detailed plans of skaa rebellion. I thought it would be lengthy and boring to look at the plans, but it actually adds a lot to the story and is easy to get through.

Both Vin and Kelsier grow an amazing amount throughout the book. Though Vin starts off as timid, untrusting, and unsure about herself, Kelsier’s actions and confidence in her helps her grow as a character. She also helps Kelsier grow, and their dynamic makes the dark idea of oppression seem a little less crushing. The story was broken down into five ‘parts’ and I really enjoyed how each Part felt different than the others. It actually made sense to me to break it down this way, and I feel it contributed to the changes and development of each character.

The majority of the story takes place in Luthadel, the capitol city of sorts of the Final Empire. The noble houses who basically run the economy in Luthadel also oppress the skaa. There are often skaa murders in the middle of the street, and they have no sympathy for their slaves. The nobility in this reminded me quite a bit of the noble Houses in Menzoberranzan (city of the drow elves) in the Legend of Drizzt series — not saying that’s a bad thing, because it makes an excellent background for oppression and squabbling/pact-making between nobility to gain rank. In Luthadel, there are nightly mists, where most are afraid to even go outside. This also reminded me of the darkness of Menzoberranzan.

The book explains the ‘magic’ system extremely well. Brandon Sanderson is clearly a master at world building. As I learned about Allomantic powers — being able to burn the ten basic Allomantic metals to Soothe or Riot emotions, to Push or Pull on metal in the world, etc., throughout the book — I realized how well it was weaved into the story. It never felt like I was reading Sanderson’s notes on a world he created, it always felt important to the story. Anyway, Mistings are people who can burn one Allomantic metal to alter something physically or mentally in the world around them. Mistborn are able to burn every Allomantic metal, and are much more rare.

Even though I had basically figured out the how the novel was going to end, it was still extremely satisfying, maybe even more so, because I know that it fit with what I knew of the world. If you can’t tell, I really enjoyed this novel. The characters grew well throughout, and were completely realistic. The powers (‘real’ magic) were creative and unique and fit well into the story. The plot was fantastic. Although the first 200 pages took me a bit to get through, I finished the last 443 in two days. I really did not want to put it down, and have already started The Well of Ascension, second in the trilogy. I highly recommend Mistborn for anyone who even remotely enjoys fantasy.

Though there were a few good quotes, I picked just one to share. Trust is a big part of Vin’s life, because she was always taught by her brother that anyone and everyone WILL betray you. No questions asked. This quote deals with the idea of trust:

“That’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends won’t hurt you. [...] Distrust is really the same thing–only on the other side. I can see how a person, given the choice between two assumptions, would choose to trust.”

28 Days Later: The Aftermath by Steve Niles

This short, 112-page-long graphic novel is a movie companion of sorts to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. It takes place behind the scenes of the creation and outbreak of the rage virus that permeates the story of the movies. Again, this was found in my perusal of the graphic novel section of the library.

The novel is set up in four distinct sections which focus on the Stages of the Rage virus: Development, Outbreak, Decimation, and Quarantine. Each section of the novel focuses on little vignettes of people who encounter the virus. If you have seen at least the first film (28 Days Later), you will be able to pick up on what is happening. If you haven’t seen the movies, it may honestly be a little confusing.

This was a really short graphic novel — though it says it is 112 pages, one whole section of that is the sort of action description of each panel and page of Stage 3: Decimation. This was a neat addition, but I only really skimmed it. The novel is really about 90 pages of continuous story.

"You're right... We should start testing on chimps."

There were two things I really enjoyed about reading The Aftermath. The first was the detailed description of how the  Rage virus was created (human error, of course) and the surrounding characters of the section. The second was the art style. It was dark and bloody, as seen in the picture of one of the creators of the virus. This fit the story, and was just really well done.

If there was one thing I didn’t really like about the novel, it would be that it seemed short, almost to the point of being brief. Although it does make a nice companion to the films, I wouldn’t say it was required reading for a fan by any means. There isn’t really a lot of character development, and the one character who carries through most of the Stages doesn’t matter in the end.ed to show the art, as there wasn’t much dialogue — some pages were almost completely made up of pictures.

This book was a short read — it only took me about an hour and a half to get through. It was enjoyable to learn a little bit more of the Rage virus and the events surrounding each stage of its progression. However, because it was so short and added only a little to the established story of the movies, I would only tentatively recommend reading it if you’re not a big fan.