Orson Scott Card

When it comes to Science-Fiction/Fantasy literature, Orson Scott Card has got it all. He's received multiple awards for his writing, including two Hugo awards and two Nebula awards (for the same two books). His Ender's Game series is one of the most popular works of science fiction ever written. Instead of simply paraphrasing more of Card's Wikipedia page, I've decided to provide my diligent readers with a link.

If you haven't already read Ender's Game (the first one), then you need to click that link up there again. Seriously. Ender's Game is one of my favorite books ever. I've only met one person who didn't LOVE Ender's Game, but I can't remember who it was, so obviously that person's opinion is wrong. The twenty other novels/short stories (yep, twenty) that follow Ender's Game can get a little bit repetitive, but for those of you who love the series a lot (maybe too much?), they are definitely worth it.

That brings us to what I dislike about Orson Scott Card's writing. It's very, very repetitive. For those of you taking U.S. history, I would compare Card to the 19th century writer Horatio Alger, who basically wrote the same story over and over with different character names. Maybe Card isn't that bad, but he sure comes close. In all the books I've read by him (I've read four of his series, with twelve books in total), he fails to successfully create more than one type of main character. All of his main characters are exactly like Ender; unbelievably intelligent, difficult to relate to, and immensely dedicated to whatever goal they have. Even though Ender, Bean (from a series branching out from Ender's Game), Rigg (from Card's novel Pathfinder), and Bartholomew Coleman (from Card's Empire series) are all extremely cool characters, they are nothing like normal people. They seem to always know exactly what to do and when to do it. Card's characters also have an unbelievably ridiculous sense of duty. After killing all of his friends during their failed assassination attempt, Coleman (from the Empire series) has the following conversation with an unnamed agent,

"I wish we could pretend these guys were a bunch of foreign assassins," said Cole glumly.
"I know," said the agent. "You knew them, right?"
"They were my team," said Cole. "But they got distracted from the mission."
"What mission?"
"Preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States," said Cole. "No matter what you think of the President, assassinating him does not preserve of protect anything."

Pretty ridiculous, huh? After two whole books of getting to know and love Coleman's team, Card makes Coleman kill his entire team to, "Preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States". You know what the worst part is? The President they were trying to assassinate was actually a manipulative asshole; he needed to die! This annoying theme of duty and responsibility is repeated throughout Card's other novels, including Ender's overly repetitive sense of guilt towards his accidental xenocide (the genocide of an entire alien species).

Here is where I sum up my blog post. If you wanted, you could read a boring paraphrase of everything I've just written. Or, you could just listen to some peaceful music that I feel sums up my blog post very well.

500 Pounds of Tiger and the Pacific Ocean

If you have read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, then the title of my post will likely have made sense to you. If not, then I shall further enlighten you. The Life of Pi is about a young Indian boy named Piscine (Pi, for short) who's father owns a zoo. The book is divided in three parts with the first part explaining his background and upbringing, part two being the majority of the plot content, and part three as a closing section. But first, I shall divulge my own background concerning this book.

I have always been an avid reader although it's a little more difficult now because of the wonderful homework load that my fantastic school dishes out, but I still find time to squeeze in a book or two. I read The Life of Pi a while back and it has remained one of my favorite books for a long time. I received this book as a birthday present when I was in 6th grade and my friend had told me that he had searched for a long time through Pages for All Ages (remember that place? Loved it. Would spend entire mornings in there...) for a book that I had not read. I had heard about that book before and, as shallow as this may sound, I used to (and still sort of do) judge a book by the cover. The cover art for the version of The Life of Pi I received was really pretty cool. I'd attach a picture, but I have neither the time nor the patience to figure out how to download the correct drivers to connect my ancient scanner with my newer computer. Sorry.

EDIT: Oh look, I figured out how to do hyperlinks. Thanks Christina! Click here to see a picture of my cover art.

Anyway, the book starts out describing Pi's multiple religions and then we move on to the plot point that the book is centered about. Pi is stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a 500 pound, fully grown, male Bengal tiger. The rest of the story is about his amazing journey and his desire to live. He experiences many incredible encounters--all of which border on the impossible but have just enough believability to make it seem credible. As I said before, the more possible a book seems to me, the more I enjoy it. (I love fantasy too--this is just about realistic fiction)

I especially enjoyed Martel's active descriptions as the book progressed. If I were to compare it to Zusak (author of The Book Thief), I would say that Zusak was much more surreal, leaving your mind to conjure up most of the images with well placed phrases whereas Martel would give very solid descriptions, similar to a movie. However, it will be up to you to read both and decide which one you prefer.

The only negative comments I have about this book were largely a matter of opinion. At the time I had read it, I was largely into action and fantasy (although my repertoire has since broadened) and so the semi-sluggish pace of the plot was a little dull. Then again, it probably didn't help that I was reading this during a long, 6-hour car trip. Still, I have gone back and read it several times (a sure sign that I like the book) and it seems to get better every time.

So, overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's not afraid to plow through a somewhat dry beginning. I promise that it gets much more interesting later on though.

I'll be reviewing I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak soon, as soon as I finish actually reading it. I probably would have finished it in time, if it weren't for a library mishap. Turns out, my card expires exactly one day before my renewal date meaning I had to return the book otherwise I'd get fined 20 cents. I don't have 20 cents. Oh well. I hope you enjoy Life of Pi!

Could you PLEASE write faster, Mr. Martin?

George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is certainly an interesting read. Notice how I use, "interesting" in a neutral sense; you're either going to love it or your going to hate it. There are parts of the series that are going to make you go, "WOW", and parts that are going to make you go "WTF". 


A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world, on the very cleverly named continents Westeros and Essos (note my sarcasm). There are three main story lines throughout the series. Instead of wasting your precious time trying to explain these three story lines in my own words, I've decided upon a different method. As the great Benjamin Franklin once said, "When in doubt, Wikipedia".


"There are three principal storylines in the series: the chronicling of a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros between several competing families; the rising threat of the Others who dwell beyond an immense wall of ice that forms Westeros' northern border; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king who was murdered in another civil war fifteen years previously, to return to Westeros and claim her rightful throne"

I've been reading fantasy for as long as I can remember. One thing that really stands out in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is the maturity level. When I first picked up A Game of Thrones, the first in the series, I was admittedly intimidated. All the other fantasy novels I'd read had been pretty softcore; no detailed sex scenes involving a dwarf and his prostitute (who he thinks he's in love with). Nor did I find myself reading about two twin brother's and sister's incestuous experiences. While odd at some points, these revealing scenes certainly had the affect of making me feel like I was reading a more mature book. 

Martin's plot is very cleverly designed, and it requires a lot of concentrated reading to make all the connections between the three story lines. A complicated plot, though, requires a lot of characters. Too many. And my good friend Mr. Martin doesn't hesitate to reserve at least one chapter for each and every character he deems worthy (he's a generous man, every character is worthy apparently). The few characters that show up often enough to gain an emotional attachment to are immediately killed. By the end of the fourth book there are eighteen characters that have been the center of a chapter, with eight of them being in only one. There are only two or three characters that live from the first book to the fourth. Without an emotional attachment to any of the extant characters, knowing your favorite character died at the end of the previous book makes it very hard to pick up the next book in the series.

The worst part of the series is probably that I haven't finished it. No, it's not that I'm illiterate and that I'm waiting for the next book on tape to come out, it's that Mr. Martin writes TOO DAMN SLOW! Martin started writing A Song of Ice and Fire in 1991, and the latest book in the series (the fourth), A Feast for Crows, came out in 2005. I check Martin's site every month or so, hoping for some kind of update. Alas, he has not updated his, "A Song of Ice and Fire Update Page" for quite some time; it's been three years, to be exact. I'm starting to worry Martin may, in fact, be dead, and that I'm going to be left hanging for the rest of my life, never knowing what's going to happen. Oh well, at least I got to read about dwarf sex.

The Book Thief

I had heard of Markus Zusak since Freshman year but my friends would always gasp in disbelief whenever I mentioned I've never actually read anything by him. They would then proceed to go on and on about how amazing The Book Thief is or how hilarious I am the Messenger is and so I finally decided to read The Book Thief so they'd get off my case. I soon realized that my friends were right--I should have read The Book Thief a long time ago.

Before I start, I should mention that anything I say that reveals bits of plot are all things that can be found very early on and therefore should not ruin the book for you, if you do decide to read it.

The Book Thief is a truly fantastic book set in Germany before and during World War II. I have always been fond of historical fiction because the possibility that this story could be true is always very tantalizing. The story revolves around a girl named Liesel Meminger and her constant desire to read. It is not difficult to imagine how she gets reading material due to the title of the book. Zusak then uses these books to help illustrate Liesel's life and how reading influences her actions.

The thing that I like the most about The Book Thief would probably be the narrator. The Book Thief is narrated by a personified form of Death. He (or at least, I presume it's a he) describes the taking of human life as "carrying their souls out of their bodies" and it's just a remarkable experience to read something from Death's point of view. Death apparently also has an interesting sense of humor because, I'm not going to lie, this book can be depressing, but there are also lines that made me chuckle.

Throughout the book, Zusak has little blurbs of information in bold that sometimes entertain and other times enlighten the reader. His writing style is very unique and although I wouldn't call it vague, it often encourages the reader to think and imagine how the scene unfolds for him or herself. Zusak also uses one-line paragraphs and short, implicative sentences to great effect, but you have to be careful to fully read and comprehend these. I am a hasty reader by nature so whenever I come upon an exciting scene, I tend to accidentally skip lines and become very confused. Try not to repeat my mistake.

For me, the biggest letdown of most books would be the ending. They are either extremely anticlimactic or simply make no sense at all, but I felt that the ending to The Book Thief was done very nicely. It left room for thought but didn't feel incomplete.

As you can probably imagine, I would highly recommended this book to anyone with even the slightest interest in World War II. It's a wonderfully written novel and definitely worth reading. I will be moving onto Zusak's other famous novel, I am the Messenger very soon and hopefully giving you updates on that book as well.