Author Liesel K. Hill's Musings on Fantasia...
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Book Review: The Maze Runner
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Plot: Thomas awakens in a box which takes him, elevator-style, to a glade full of boys who have been trapped there for two years. They live in the midst of an unsolvable maze, complete with moving walls and terrifying monsters. None of them remember life before the maze, including Thomas. He's just the newest edition to the party. But not long after he awakens in his new life, things start to get really weird.
Characters: I really loved the characters in this book. Reminiscent of the Ender quintet, or things like The Sandlot or Holes, this is a story about young boys who are utterly believable. The relationships Thomas develops run the gauntlet between best friend, bordering on brother, to utter enemy. It gives the story a very school-ish feel, but because the situation is life and death, it's much more compelling than that.
Story: This is a very unique story. It's one of those that isn't easily categorized. It starts out feeling very fantasy-like, but by the end it has become clear that this is actually the mysterious first-chapter of a dystopian saga. The world outside the maze seems to be in ruins, which means the maze is really just the beginning.
Ending: Like all great first-books of a series, this ends on a cliffhanger, and makes you just want to start the next book in the series. I didn't figure I would, at least not right away, but I may have to re-think that a bit. :D
Overall: I really enjoyed this book. I plan to finish the series and, you know, see the movie. :D
Has anyone else read The Maze Runner? What did you think of it?
Monday, January 19, 2015
Top Ten Tuesday + Teasers
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
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He had spent many months fearing this day. Ever since Trollocs had come in the night, ever since Lan and Moiraine had dragged him from the Two Rivers, he had feared what was to come.
The Last Battle. The end. He found himself unafraid now that it had come. Worried, but not afraid. (pg. 80)
Top Ten Tuesday
Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.
Top 10 Books That Have Been on my TBR List the Longest (All covers courtesy of Goodreads.com unless otherwise linked)
This week is actually a freebie, and this what I thought of. This was super easy. I just sorted my TBR list on Goodreads.com by "date added." These are the books I've had on the list longest, but haven't ever gotten around to reading. All of them were added between April and May of 2012. Hehe.
1. First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher -- I've still never read Jim Butcher, though everyone tells me I should, and I'm sure when I get to it, I'll love it. Oddly, this always seems to be the quintessential book everyone refers to, but it's not the first in the series, so I'm always wondering whether to start with book 1 or not.
2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner -- I read a Faulkner book (or most of one at least) in college and actually really liked it. I've heard this is the one everyone really likes, so it's just a classic I'd like to say I've read. Haven't yet, though.
3. I am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits -- WWII-era histfic, it's one that sounds beautiful and tragic. I really want to get to it. It seems like histfic is the genre I have the most trouble actually reading. Go figure.
4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein -- Ditto the genre. I've heard this is like the best WWII book ever, but does require a case of kleenex. I think this one's on my Kindle, and I made a resolution to read all of the books that are sitting on my Kindle this year, so hopefully I'll get to it. :D
5. The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan -- Funny that I added this so early. I did a mermaid reading challenge in the summer of 2013, but obviously I was wanting to read some mermaid books earlier than that.
6. Hannah by Kathryn Lasky -- Another mermaid book I didn't get to during my challenge. I think these two, and a few others, I just honestly couldn't find. Didn't have them at the library or whatever.
7. I Never Promised You a Goody Bag by Jennifer Gilbert -- This is a real life memoir by a woman who survived a traumatic, near-death experience and then charged boldly forward through her life. I'd still really love to read her memoir.
8. The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey -- This is a book about the private life of dancers. After the film Black Swan I actually want to read this less (hated that film) but the premise still sounds interesting, and hopefully it will be better than that film. :D
9. When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle -- This is supposed to be a modern telling of Romeo and Juliet, but from Rosaline's POV. Just sounds intriguing and fun.
10. Kill Switch by Chris Lynch -- This has a really interesting premise, but it's a semi-espionage novel, and I've since learned that espionage novels are REALLY not my favorite. I'm still open to reading it, but a bit unsure about whether I'll like it or not.
What books have you had on your TBR the longest?
HTML Question
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| How I feel trying to figure out new HTML. (Source) |
I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!
So I'm finally getting around to streamlining my blogs. All of my posts will be here now, rather than having them both here and over at my LKHill blog. I will be keeping all of the features from that blog, of course. They'll just be here, not there.
So I have a question for those of you who are WAY more genius at HTML than I am. I was trying to do a custom redirect so that anyone going to that blog is automatically redirected here. I googled the code and it worked.
The problem is that any time anyone tries to go to any past post from that blog--say they find it through a search engine and click on the permalink--it still redirects them here to this blog.
Does anyone know how to do a redirect that will only work for the blog URL (http://lkhill.blogspot.com) but will allow people to access the blog's permalinks? I've been googling all the keywords I can think of, but can't find the answer.
Either it's called something specific I don't know, or it's just not possible. If anyone has any tips or suggestions for me, I'd really appreciate it. If you don't want to put a big, long, comment, feel free to email me at lkhillbooks@gmail.com.
Thanks! Happy Monday, Everyone!
Sunday, January 18, 2015
A Memory of Light Read-Along, Week 1
Welcome to week 1 of our A Memory of Light Read-Along! This week we read the Prologue-Chapter 1. Remember that everything in this section as well as everything that's come before is fair game for spoilers, so read at your own risk. I'm hosting this week.
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| Looks like Mordor, doesn't it? (Source) |
1. We get a terribly interesting chapter from Isam's POV in the Town below Thakandar. So many things we could talk about here, including the pointy-toothed Aiel. What stood out to you? What did you think? What do you want to know more about?
I want to know more about EVERYTHING!!! All we've really known about Luc/Isam is that they were pretty much raised in the Blight. Now we know where. Why haven't we heard anything about this Town before. You could write an entire book based around it. It sounds terribly sinister, and I can only imagine how twisted a child raised her would turn out to be. In that respect, it makes a lot of sense. But how did these corrupted Aiel come to be? How did Luc/Isam meld and become the hunters they are? (Histories, Man! I need histories!)
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Follow Friday: Book Duplicates
The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!
How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!
Do you own any doubles of your books? What led to getting that second...or third or fourth...copy? - Suggested by A Great Read.
There are really only two reasons this happens to me:
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| Books I wasn't very kind to and had to buy replacements. |
1) My favorite series (like Wheel of Time) that I read over and over I often have more than one kind of copy. Especially for later books, when I was caught up to the most recently published book in the series, I might have a hard copy. But then later I bought a paperback. And maybe an ecopy too so I could read on my kindle app. Or, you know, one book gets totally beat up and is falling apart, so I buy another, but can't bear to throw the old one, complete with highlights and margin annotations, away. Yeah, I'm sentimental that way. :D
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| Both hardback and paperback version of HP#3 |
2) I've gotten multiple copies of the same book for Christmas before. It's almost always my fault because I'll tell multiple people of a book I'm specifically hoping to get, and then have the nerve to be surprised when more than one person gets it for me. If one of the copies is an ecopy or was purchased online, returns become tricky. More than once I've just shrugged it off and decided I have a nice gift for the next brother whose birthday comes along. :D
How about you? Have you found yourself in similar situations?
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Movie Review: The Battle of Five Armies
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**While I'm careful not to blatantly give anything away, there may be some general spoilers for the story. If you aren't familiar with either film or novel, maybe just skim. :D**
Plot: My biggest complaints about film two (The Desolation of Smaug) was that 1) it ended on a TOTAL cliffhanger, and 2) we didn't actually get to see Smaug die in it (more on that later). The Battle of the Five Armies picked up right at the moment Desolation left off. Smaug attacks Dale and chaos ensues. From there, we go through the final battle for the mountain. We have elves, dwarves, orcs & goblins, the men of Dale, and eagles. Of course there are smaller factions everywhere, so exactly who the five armies are is sometimes unclear to the viewer.
One really fun thing about The Hobbit films that was at least less present in the original LOTR films is that Jackson makes extensive use of the appendices. That's always fun to see for Tolkien fanatics.
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Adaptation: Back to Smaug not dying in film two. Okay, his death was an awesome, adrenaline pumping way to open up the third film, but as a story teller, I still think I'd rather he'd have died at the end of the 2nd film. I'm not sure what spurred this decision. Yeah, it allowed them to end the 2nd film on a cliffhanger, and maybe that's what they were going for, but even so. I'd rather have had a major climax for film two, and then film three could have focused completely on the battle. Also, the title The Desolation of Smaug implied that they'd get him the end. And they...didn't.
Let's put it this way: back in The Two Towers film, they completely put off doing Shelob's lair, partly for linear timing reasons, but mostly because they wanted Helm's Deep to be the climax of the film. Then, this time around, they took the climax large from film 2 and put two MAJOR events in film 3. Don't get me wrong: I wasn't completely put off by this, but I think if they'd have done it differently, it would have made more sense and been better.
Characters: I felt like the film stayed true to the characters and what compelling characters they are. I don't think I had a huge, overt emotional reaction to either of the first two films, other than just the average, "Cool." Of course I didn't see either of the first two films in theaters, either. (Let's face it: the in-your-face, surround-sound experience is a bit different than watching it at home.) Not so this time. I seriously bawled through the entire film. And not just at the tragic parts, but because the entire thing was so compelling. (Yeah, my twelve-year-old brother totally made fun of me. :/ ) That wouldn't have happened without compelling characters. Kudos to Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage as Thorin, Luke Evans, pretty much every dwarf, and Orlando Bloom for bringing our favorite characters to life. Even Legolas got a story line near the end that was brief, but surprisingly compelling.
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Effects: Awesome. Just amazing. Best CGI dragon EVER! And who didn't totally go wild for Beorn leaping from an eagle's back and shifting into bear-form mid-air. Awesome! No complaints here.
Extras: Evangeline Lily's Tauriel is a big part of the films, but is a departure from Tolkien (she wasn't in the books). I've never minded her at all. I loved Lily in Lost and could totally see how they used her as a vehicle to deepen the story. I didn't love her, but I didn't mind her either. Just sort of meh. (My brothers would hate me for that. They're all completely in love with her.) Yeah, after film three, I've changed my mind. I freaking love her. The story they did with her and Kili was one of the most compelling of the film, and she had me completely in tears by the end.
Favorite scenes: I've already mentioned a few of my favorites above, but another I loved was the one where Galadriel went to save Gandalf and faced down the essence of Sauron. Greatest thing ever! Loved it! There was also a kind of sadness to see how powerful Saramon once was before he turned to the dark side. I loved that they showed him fighting alongside Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond. Cool, but also melancholy.
Ending: While I pretty much loved everything about the ending, I did wish they have given us a few more Easter eggs that pointed toward the later, LOTR series. For example, it would have been fun to actually see a teenage Aragorn. And I would have loved it if, when Bilbo returned to Bag End, a tiny little boy hobbit had run up to him yelling "Uncle Bilbo, Uncle Bilbo, you're back!" I don't even know if either of those things would have fit into the timeline, but they would have been fun. :D There was, however, mention of a young Aragorn, and an appearance by Ian Holm. I appreciated both.
Overall: Loved it. If you liked any of the previous middle earth films even a little bit, you'll love it. If you, like me, love all things Tolkien, you'll be ecstatic. If you hated all previous films, well, this one probably won't be much different for you.
(Such a sweet video. The second I heard The Last Goodbye during the credits, I knew I had to have this song in my life. :D)
What did everyone else think of the final middle earth film?
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Teaser Tuesday: Maze Runner by James Dashner
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
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Thomas was drowning in a sea of confusion. A girl? He hadn't even thought about why the Glad only had boys, no girls. Hadn't even had a second change to notice, really. Who is she, he wondered. Why--
Newt shushed them again. "That's not bloody half of it," he said, then pointed down into the Box. "I think she's dead." (pg. 54)What are YOU reading this week?
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