What Really Happened in Peru : Fan Review

She really did it again!

   Honestly, I only started reading the Mortal Instrument series when I chanced upon the eye catching covers of the boxed set of the first three books in a local bookstore.  In fact, I was not familiar with Cassandra Clare or any of the titles but as I am admittedly a sucker for uber attractive book covers, I took the first book from the bookstore shelf and read it there and then.  Lo and behold, I was carrying the boxed set when I went home later that day and read through the initial trilogy in a very long weekend (my boss was not entirely convinced I was sick that time, tsk tsk tsk).

   Now, three years from my initial interaction with Shadowhunters and she did it again; took me out of my present and transported me to somewhere totally unexpected.  This time, in Peru!

    The first episode in the planned ten-part ebook collection starring the enigmatic Magnus Bane just blew me away. It grabbed me from the very first word until I finished the whole fortyish pages of adventure, surprise and drunken glimpse on who our favorite cat-eyed warlock really is. It is as expected.  Colorful, flamboyant, weird, fun and one of a kind.

   The last word left me wanting for more and the month long wait is too long for the next installment, but then the imagery that was created by Cassie Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan left me with so much that my sketching hand is itching to grab a pen and paper and maybe transfer my imagination to vision. Who knows!

   Until next month then, and the next adventure of my Magnus Bane!

5 out of 5 stars…(no questions asked)

CATCHING FIRE

There have been a great number of books that have given me sleepless nights.  The very first that I can remember was way back in high school when I first read the Amityville book; and that because of the horror that my vivid imagination gave me.  After that, there have been an innumerable string of titles that I can barely remember the titles of, simply because I could not put them down as soon as I started reading.  But then, I can remember reading something that I had to pause in between chapters and think about what I have just read - that is, not until the second book in the Hunger Games series; Catching Fire.

After i virtually devoured the first of the series, I was totally prepared to be taken into the whirlwind of Panem after Katniss' and Peeta's victory.  As expected, the book delivered the twists and turns that though some have been forming at the back of my mind while reading the first book, others have totally unnerved me, but, totally in a good way.  If I though I was addicted in the first book, i'm totally much worst here in the second staging of the Hunger Games.

Katniss as always is the girl on fire.  The other cast of characters have been totally hard to hate and its hard to root for the main characters when some of the other tributes are equally as appealing.  Finnick, Johanna and the rest have given me stunned minutes as I imagine how they might look like.  The ending is as always a bomb!

I still can't wait to see the first of the titles on screen as Hunger Games open in theaters March 23, 2012 but now I have something else to watch out for, Catching Fire, out in theaters November of 2013.

Now I'm on fire as I am immersed in the third and final installment.

HUNGER GAMES

I have heard a lot of good things about the HUNGER GAMES trilogy by Suzanne Collins but for some reason, I did not have the push to read the book when I started by YA bookfest late last year.  It was only when I had nothing else to read that I finally got down to haphazardly read the first book of the post apocalyptic series.

And boy was I blown away.

The Hunger Games series is set in the future where the continent of North America, or what is left of it has been taken over by what is known as the Capitol; a pseudo-communistic government that is led by the snake and rose smelling President Snow.  The center, Capitol, is home to the rich and privileged while the rest has been divided into Districts.

In "celebration" of Capitol's win over the people, the districts are made to "sacrifice" two of its teens every year in a reality-television game of survival where the lone winner must kill each and every other tribute in the arena.  In its 74th year, the Hunger Games pits 24 youth whose cunning, skill and sometimes luck will eventually decide the victor.  It is a story of Katniss, of Peeta, of Gale and the rest of the cast who though some are silent in the book have made what could only be one of the most exciting premise I have ever read.

I was so immersed on Hunger Games that I lost tract of time and am currently devouring the next book.  Sad, I may be as the pages I have yet to read gets thinner, I hunger for the third book and am eagerly awaiting the movie coming out next year.

For those who wish to see the movie and is excited on how they look, here are the main cast of HUNGER GAMES coming out March of 2012.

KATNISS EVERDEEN

PEETA

GALE

PRIMROSE

CINNA

THRESH

RUE

GALE during the District 12 reaping

Katniss and Gale at the forest near District 12

Katniss as District 12 tribute

Peeta at his family's Pastry Shop

City of Fallen Angels

L’amor che move ill sole e l’altre stel e...

My will and my desire were turned
by love, the love that moves the sun and the other
stars... PARADISO (Dante)

Have you ever had that feeling of doom that you know will eventually happen but just keeps building up until you feel ready to explode?  When you are expecting something bad and you know it is not just a thought but is really about to happen and you cant do anything about it but wait for it to be there?  Well thats how I felt reading the newest installment of the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

After reading the third book, City of Glass a few months back, I never really thought that there would be another book in the series.  In fact, I thought the ending was one of the best on any series or trilogies I have read.  The conflict was fixed, loose ends tied up, it was over and done with.  The end.  Then I read on the author's website (which I read from time to time much is my fascination on the characters within the Shadowhunter books) that there would be another book. I thought, hell, what now?  Will it eventually be one of those series that goes on and on without any ending whatsoever?  With complexities that will eventually devour everything into incomprehensible nonsense.  But still I waited for the fourth book.  And now I'm really glad I did.

City of Fallen Angels begins a few weeks after the third book ended.  And while the first conflict was resolved, this new book tells us that it was but the beginning of a whole new adventure and this time with more at stake than just the Shadowhunters. 

I thought with the third book, the end of the trilogy that i know everything there is to know about their world,,,only to find out that i have only touched the surface of something that is so deep that it would take the rest of the upcoming books to scratch it, probably more.

I also only just realized that though Simon was one of my liked characters in the first three books, it is only now in City of Fallen Angels that I become to realize that he is as real as Jace or Clary. Also, new characters are introduced with subtlety that you sort of grow into liking them bit by bit and not suddenly thrust into your presence.

In the end, this is a whole new different ball game.  A story of love, salvation, forgiveness, hate, and self sacrifice.  The feeling of the angst of someone in love but filled with the confusion of it all emanates from Jace like a throbbing presence, add to this the questions that plague Clary's mind creates a jumble of emotions clearly evident in young lovers feeling the enormity of the emotion in all its splendor.  The characters have  all grown up and has become more real with depths and emotions not entirely different from ours.

The antagonist, when finally revealed is someone/something you would expect but then again someone/something that you would never have thought in a million years (curious? read the book).

Reading through the pages, I realized the the way the novels were written makes them perfect to be transformed to films without much changes to the premise. as a script writer, the sequences of how it was written is perfect. I cant wait for the first movie.

All in all, read the book.  Immerse yourself once more to a world that might not be our own but shouts with the goodness that makes us who we are.

*City of Fallen Angels is book 23 of the 100 challenge

young at heart

theres something very captivating about the idea of reliving one's youth that makes YOUNG ADULT (YA) fiction very popular to readers.  i'd guess that there is a certain part of our childhood that stays with each of us until our adult years that somehow a glimpse of those slices of wonder and discovery drives us to escape into these windows of innocence.

YA fiction is a branch of fiction whose story revolves around young characters, usually in situations that would bring them to greatness amidst insurmountable odds.  in my quest to bulk up my cache of books in my collection, i have accumulated quite a number of them; attracted with the quick wit, action, drama and the fantasy that is still all too real from the eyes of these youthful characters.  most often than not, it is their naivete that lends them the strength to succeed.

LEVEN THUMPS by OBERT SKYE

im currently absorbed in this hilarious adventure of a 14 year old orphan boy who turns out to be an important character to a dreamland called FOO.  the pacing is fast, the words are witty and the situations are totally out of this world although a lot of the scenes are in our very own dimension. together with a thirteen year old girl who can control and create ice, a cute furry cat-like creature and a king who temporarily is a sliver of wood.  the formula of the story is new and totally entertaining...hahahaha... who can resist a strong, powerful and tall king who unfortunately is currently a toothpick.  priceless!

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS by RICK RIODAN

adventure and action is what makes the percy jackson series tick.  from book to book (five in total) the unpredictability of the plot twists guides the characters into a situations weird and weirder.  a son of the sea god, POSEIDON, percy faces monsters and TITANS with a daughter of ATHENA, a CYCLOP halfbrother and a faun whose favorite food is an aluminum soda can.  one thing good about this series is it has reintroduced me to the gods and goddesses of greek mythology.  tsk tsk tsk, now, if only my literature class was this interesting.

SHIVER (and the rest of the series) by MAGGIE STIEFVATER

now, what made these book really popular was the earlier titles that introduced the genre to the public.  who among us would not recognize HARRY POTTER and the TWILIGHT series.  these two are undeniably the forerunners of the popularity of YA books.  not only were they made into movies (the current trend is transforming the books into blockbusters: currently playing I AM NUMBER FOUR, BEASTLY (March), MORTAL INSTRUMENTS (2012), etc.) but they paved the way for the genre to be read by adults as well.  one of the driving force of the interest is the emotions that pushes the characters into reality - foremost would be love.

what the twilight series did to vampires, SHIVER will do to WEREWOLVES.  the books not only  delivers the emotion, the pain of wanting to belong, the love that will bridge all odds.  watch out for the movie now in pre-production.

i love books, whatever genre, whatever age.  i might not be one of the characters in these youthful books but then again, as i read from page to page somehow i feel the age that i will forever be in.  young at heart!

in the realm of the fantastic

books are and have always been windows that have taken me into the lives and worlds that are described within the pages.  not a few times have i found myself too immersed in the stories that i read that i completely forget the present and exist inside for that moment.  my mind adds sound, atmosphere and little details that are otherwise not given by the author.

maybe its this reason that my genre of choice has always been fantasy.  i remember way back when my mom used to read to me bulfinch's mythology, the iconic lord of the ring series in high school and discovering the creatures of narnia in college during the 90s.  of course, the more recent world of hogwarts and harry potter is joy cut short much too soon.

what i love about these worlds are the realism behind them.  yes, realism.  i would always equate a great fantasy when the worlds and those that inhabit them are much too real to be considered as make believe.  for sure, this is the main reason that most of these titles have been made and are continued to be made into movies.

the fantasy/scifi genre for fiction is a myriad collection of these universes and alternate realities that are each fantastic in their own rights.  and in each of them are characters and ideas that are both different and mirrors of our own.  from the dragons of anne mccaffrey's dragon of pern series to the gay herald mage character of mercedes lackey, to the rodents of redwall of brian jacques; however unbelievable, they take us in because somewhere there are emotions, situations and places that remind us of our mundane world.  

i love all these worlds.  in fact, there is not one among them where id say no to an invitation to visit again.  but of all these, these are the top 5 that i would gladly live in.  

*i wont even consider middle earth of J.R.R. Tolkien, Narnia, Hogwarts and the rest of the more popular ones since i'd think that with the movies and the hooplah about them, they'd be too over crowded with humans to be exciting for my taste, hehehe

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS by CASSANDRA CLARE

several months ago, i chanced upon a boxed set collection of three books while lounging at powerbooks in megamall.  not familiar with the author, i bought a copy of the first book; City of Bones since I was intrigued by the tattooed torso in the cover.  a week after, i had all three in the series.

The Mortal Instruments series is an urban fantasy set in modern day US.  It tells the story of the Shadowhunters, a band of special individuals gifted with extraordinary gifts.  The story talks about angels, nephilims, demons and all there rest of the creatures from the pages of fairy tales.  In fact, it even had a rat that became a vampire.  

Jace Wayland and Clary Fray has completely taken me in that I cant even wait for the fourth book out in April of this year.  And watch out, a movie with Alex Pettyfer and Lily Collins is in the works!

The Mortal Instruments titles are The City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.  City of Fallen Angels is the 4th book.  A prequel series The Infernal Devices whose Book 1, The Clockwork Angel came out late last year is almost as good.

THE SECRETS of the IMMORTAL NICOLAS FLAMEL by MICHAEL SCOTT

fresh from my find of the mortal instruments and having to wait for the next book in the series, i browsed the titles on the bookshelves, choosing books based on instinct and on how i feel about the book cover (yes, especially for the genre, book covers matter a lot) and found The Alchemyst, the first volume in this work that totally blew me off.  

initially set in san francisco, the story chronicles the chaos that happens to a set of twins when they discovered that they are not who they thought themselves to be.  in company of nicolas flamel (yes, the very same nicolas flamel mentioned in the novels by jk rowling and apparently is a real person from history), a wizard, sophie and josh newman soon discovers and gets to meet and encounter entities only real in stories from greek, roman, egyptian and any number of mythologies.  

the story is fast paced and is full of action and movement.  in fact, to those more inclined to the more action-packed genre of fiction; the writing style feels much like da vinci code by dan brown. 

like the previous series, these books: alchemyst, magician, sorceress, necromancer and the forthcoming titles were also optioned to be made into movies.

THE WHEEL OF TIME by ROBERT JORDAN

i don't only buy books from the major bookstores.  in fact, my person is a constant fixture in any number of booksale or books for less branch all over the metro.  my new favorite is bookayukay in quezon city where i just found some missing titles to complete some of my series collections early today. 

during one of these visits, another cover got my attention.  the eye of the world, book 1 of the 14 volumes in the wheel of time series.  honestly, while reading this i totally felt i was back in middle earth but with little differences in the feel like going from one city to another in the same province.  

although the action sequence or the plot development is repetitive in each of the books, i was never the less taken into the heart of rand al thor and his being the dragon reborn.

it took me three months to finally have a copy of the first eleven books and the prequel book in the series.  book 13 and 14, written by another writer after the demise of robert jordan is to be out soon. 

THE RIFTWAR SAGA & THE SONS OF KRONDOR by RAYMOND E. FEIST

another epic fantasy series that i totally dug out of the mountain of thrift books are the titles within the rift war saga and the succeeding series, the sons of krondor.  

i was able to read this series a very long time ago when i had a friend who would loan me his books during the times i could ill afford to rent one.  now, i have almost all the titles with the exception of the newer ones that i plan to buy as soon i can finish the other books that i have recently purchased.

the riftwar saga takes place in two worlds both very much like our own if not of the existence of magic and the creatures that were "invented" for this world.  and while as all epic fantasies are alike in the broad scope of almost-nomadic main characters go, this one surprises the readers with each title  in the series.

pug, the driving character in the first two books, magician:apprentice and magician:master is a common and recurring character in all the books including those just newly published.

a graphic novel of this work is out as well.

SANDMAN by NEIL GAIMAN

now this next series are not even books.  

a collection of graphic novels with art done by selected artists, this 11 volume work chronicles stories and life glimpses of the mythological being sandman.  the lord of dream, as he is called presents tales and wonders as only neil gaiman can deliver.  nuff said.

there are a lot more authors, series and books out there. in fact, i dont consider my choices here as my permanent choices.  works by ursula le guin, eragon and the inheritance series by paolini, the percy jackson books by rick riodan, pittacus lore's i am number four and the lorien legacy series etc. are great works that have found permanent spaces in my own private library.  and my choices might not be yours but let me share this with you, there are two keys to the realm of the fantastic; good authors and good imagination.  can you enter?

library

 since moving to manila, i have started a collection of novels which i have been meaning to do every since...in the few months that i have been here, i have accumulated quite a lot of titles...now, as someone who has a very limited budget, i would suggest that you trek from one thrift bookshop to the other in search of your favorite authors and titles...it would help if you keep a list of those you lack in a series and if your budget permits, grab the book when you find it...who knows when you'll get a chance to see it again...

the list i have here are mostly of fantasy novels and the currently popular ones that disappear from the shelves of national bookstore of powerbooks a few days after they are displayed... favorite authors are robert jordan of the wheel of time series, cassandra clare of the mortal instruments, j.r.r. tolkien of lord of the rings, raymund e. feist of the riftwar saga, neil gaiman of sandman, rick riodan of percy jackson, michael scott of nicolas flamel...all the rest of the title are not bad at all, in fact i am proud of this collection...and its growing at an alarming rate... heheheh

 The Eye of the World
 The Great Hunt
 The Dragon Reborn
 The Shadow Rising
 The Lord of Chaos
 The Path of Daggers
 Crossword of Twilight
 Knife of Dreams
 The Magic Engineer
 Dragon Prince
 The Star Scroll
 Wicked
 The Eyes of the Dragon
 The Magician: Apprentice
 The Magician: Master
 Silverthorn
 A Darkness at Sethanon
 Prince of the Blood
 The King's Buccaneer
 Faerie Tale
 Tears of Krondor
Faith of the Fallen
 Charmed Life
 The Lives of Christopher Chant
 The Magicians of Caprona
 Witch Week
 Conrad's Fate
 Renaissance Faire
 Salon Fantastique
 The Dragon Quintet
 The Best of American Erotica 2007
 The Courts of Love
 Graceling
 Fire
 The Faerie Path
 The Lost Queen
 City of Bones
 City of Ashes
 City of Glass
 Clockwork Angel
 The Dark Hills Divide
 Alchemyst
 Magician
 Sorceress
 Necromancer
 Skin Hunger
 Sacred Scars
 Fragile Things
 The Dream Hunters
 Seasons of Mist
 A Game of You
 Fables & Reflections
 Brief Lives
 Worlds End
 The Wake
 Preludes & Nocturnes
 The Doll's House
 Dream Country
 The Kindly Ones
 Endless Night
 Small Gods
 Children of the Shaman
 Eragon
 Eldest
 Brisingr
 Children of Amarid
 Fallen
 The Floating Island
 The Thief Queen's Daughter
 Midnight over Sanctaphrax
 Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret
 The Ratastrophe Catastrophe
 The Yowler Foul-up
 The Shadewell Shenangans
 Silver City
 Redwal
 Mossflower
 Mattimeo
 Martin the Warrior
 The Legend of Luke
 Lord Brocktree
 Last Days of Krypton
 Star Dancer
 Fire Dreamer
 I am Number Four
 Lightning Thief
 Sea of Monsters
 Titan's Curse
 Battle of the Labyrinth
 Last Olympian
 Fellowship of the Ring
 The Dragon and the Unicorn
 Dragonbone Chair
 Amber Spyglass
 Voyage of the Dawn Treader
 The Zahir
 Love in times of Cholera
 One Hundred years of Solitude