Book Review Thread

[maximoose666]

Write reviews of books you have read.
You may like to consider including:

A short plot summary
Your opinions on the book
To whom (if anyone) you would recommend it.
Its genre(s)
Impact of the book on Literature (if any).

I will start off with a very lengthy review of The Lord of the Rings which I wrote some while back. Don't feel that your reviews need be this length.

NB. THE FOLLOWING REVIEW MAY CONTAIN PLOT INFORMATION AND/OR SPOILERS

Book Review – The Lord of the Rings

INTRODUCTION

The Lord of the Rings is set in the world of Middle Earth, an archetypal fantasy realm populated with Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Dragons, Wizards and Monsters. It is a land with tall mountain ranges, lush green valleys, clear running rivers, and a vast ocean across which lie the Undying Lands, the islands of the High Elves. It is a world of mighty fortresses, glittering citadels, simple peasant villages and old-fashioned inns.
We all know this place. It exists in our hearts and minds, the place where we’d like to go to, that we sometimes nearly touch when reading books, watching films, or dreaming. It is a fabled land of old that never existed but in the writer's mind, the world conjured up by the twin efforts of the writer’s pen and our own imagination.
But something evil gnaws at the heart of Middle Earth. The atmosphere soon becomes dark and foreboding, which sets the scene for the main story – a desperate flight from danger into danger, and a mission which, even when accomplished, causes nearly as much grief as there would have been if it had been left undone.
The time span covered in all three parts of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King) is roughly twenty-five years, though the main events of the narrative take place over one year. Tolkien’s wonderfully realistic storytelling brings the characters, places and scenes to life in the readers' heads, proving that stories do not have to be set in ‘Real Life’ to be believable.

PLOT SUMMARY

The adventure begins in Hobbiton, an old world village filled with naive inhabitants, Hobbits. (Hobbits are also known as Halflings, a four-foot high race with the appearance of humans except for their hairy, leathery-soled feet.) Bilbo Baggins, an aged hobbit, is preparing for his hundred and eleventh (‘Eleventy-First’) birthday celebration, which falls on the same day as Frodo’s (his orphaned relation and adopted heir) thirty-third birthday, which traditionally marked a hobbit’s coming of age. Bilbo confides only to Frodo and to his friend, the wizard Gandalf that he plans to leave Hobbiton immediately after his party, and go to live among the Elves at the house of Rivendell. He will do this with the aid of a magic ring that he acquired earlier (in The Hobbit) that makes its wearer invisible. Gandalf, however, learns that the ring holds evil powers. It will eventually take over the mind of its owner and turn him into a wraith. It has a will of its own, and it is trying to get back to its master, the Dark Lord Sauron who is again in his fortress of Barad-Dur, the dark tower. If he is allowed to get the ring then his conquest of the world will be unstoppable. The forces of good cannot use the ring, for it will eventually corrupt even the strongest of heart. The ring cannot be broken or melted in any ordinary fire. The only way for the forces of Good to triumph is for the ring to be destroyed by being melted in the fire that it was forged, the volcano Orodruin, Mount Doom.

The plot takes you on a journey through Middle Earth, following the adventures of Frodo as he journeys to Mount Doom. At Rivendell a fellowship is formed, with him and eight others to protect him sent to destroy the ring. Unlike many books, which run out of new ideas in the middle, leaving the reader floundering, this book keeps you gripped to the text. As you follow the journey of the nine-strong Fellowship of the Ring, the narrative splits to follow the different courses they take at the end of Book One. Avoiding the normal ‘Narrow Escape’ Scenario, you find yourself sadly staring at the pages in disbelief as the main characters die, as they rightly should.

The ending of The Lord of the Rings follows the desperate struggle of the Hobbits Frodo and his faithful companion Sam, the glorious return of the king of Gondor, and the departure of the Elves from Middle Earth for he Undying Lands. The climax is well built up, with a surprise twist at the top of Mount Doom, though the Ring is destroyed. The last part (The Return of the King), I feel, constitutes the ‘ending’, in which case it works very well, but the very last page of’ the book is something of a let-down, though Tolkien ties up any loose ends in ‘The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen’, included in the Appendix.

CHARACTER SUMMARY

Being such a lengthy epic, The Lord of the Rings has in it many main characters. For a start, there is the full Fellowship of the Ring, with the four hobbits, Frodo, Sam (his gardener), Merry and Pippin (both related to Frodo), Aragorn (A Ranger of the North who starts as a low-level character but who is heir to the throne of Gondor), Boromir (The son of the Steward of Gondor), Legolas (The kinsman of the Wood Elf King of Mirkwood), Gimli (The son of Gloin, a dwarf who was friends with Bilbo) and Gandalf, the wizard who set it all up, and was also a friend of Bilbo. Then as well as the Fellowship there are the ‘Secondary’ Main characters, such as Bilbo, Gollum (a corrupt previous owner of the Ring who shadows Frodo), Elrond (Elven owner of Rivendell), The Elven Queen Galadriel, Tom Bombadil and Arwen. All the human characters have the normal flaws, in particular Boromir, who, tainted by the Ring, tries to steal it from Frodo. When Frodo flees in fear, Boromir, overcome with grief at what he has done, bravely sells his life to protect them. Though all the characters are well developed, Boromir in particular appeared particularly lifelike and three-dimensional, because, though brave as a lion, he is a man with a man’s flaws. Gandalf, though he appears to be the stereotypical beardy-weirdy type is in fact not, and is, as is explained in the ‘Silmarilion’, a spirit in human form. I felt that Gollum was the most interesting character, as he had a split personality, one side of him power hungry and wicked, the other fundamentally good. For me, Arwen was the most sympathetic character, as she knows full well that if she marries Aragorn she may never join her people in the Undying Lands, but she does so all the same. One touching friendship in the book is that between Legolas and Gimli, Elf and Dwarf, whose races have great animosity for each other, but nonetheless become great friends.

LITERARY CRITICISM AND OPINIONS

Although a textbook example of the plot-driven narrative, Lord of the Rings manages to couple an excellent storyline with full depth-of-character. The sheer amount of description in the book conjures up the book’s scenes in the reader’s mind’s eye. The dialogue tends rather towards archaism, but this fits in well with the semi-mediaeval setting of the book. The book’s division into chapters is well handled, with the narrative following the actions of one group of characters fully before moving on to the next. Although criticised by some for its exhaustive length, it must be remembered that The Lord of the Rings was originally published as six separate books, sometimes collected into three "parts".

TO SUM UP -

What is particularly impressive about the book is that Tolkien has created a new, green world, young and closer to our world in its past. The book is a voice raised against the 'evil' Modern Age. I read it five years ago,and again three Christmases ago; I look forward to reading it many more times. It is my favourite book, a Modern Classic, and it will appeal to everyone who has the time and the reading stamina to read it. A wonderful book.

EDIT: Added subtitles for faster reading.

[Byakuya7]

Very nice addition to the literature section. I'll sticky this topic, and perhaps add my own review for a book I read, later on.

[Azalea]

Lookie, I'm gonna post my book report I used in english class about Angels & Demons

Like the majority of readers, I read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown after reading The Da Vinci Code. I would venture that most people reading this review are asking the question, "How does Angels & Demons compare to The Da Vinci Code?" The short answer is that they're very similar. If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, you should enjoy Angels & Demons.

Angels & Demons introduces the character of Robert Langdon, professor of religious iconology and art history at Harvard University. As the novel begins, he's awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from Maximilian Kohler, the director of CERN, the world's largest scientific research facility in Geneva, Switzerland. One of their top physicists had been murdered, with his chest branded with the word "Illuminati." Since Langdon is an expert on the ancient secret society known as the Illuminati, he's asked to help solve the murder. A high tech X-33 plane transports Langdon from Massachusetts to Switzerland in a little more than an hour.

The murder victim is Leonardo Vetra. Not only is he one of the world's leading physicists, he's a Catholic priest. He's a priest who has adopted a daughter, Vittoria, who is also a scientist at CERN. This was the largest suspension of disbelief for me, a man who is a priest, a father, and a top physicist, but accepting it sets the rest of the story in motion. Vetra and his daughter were using the world's largest particle accelerator to create antimatter, and then suspend the antimatter properly in canisters so that it doesn't interact with matter. If a canister is removed from the electrical system which keeps the matter and antimatter separated, then backup batteries will serve the same purpose for 24 hours. When those 24 hours expire, the two will collide in an instantaneous explosion of unprecedented power.

Lenoardo Vetra created the antimatter to simulate the Big Bang. In his mind, this would show proof that God exists, being able to create new matter and antimatter in the same way God created the universe. Vetra's murder, though, allows one of the canisters to be stolen. The question of who stole the canister and what they planned to do with it is soon answered. The canister is quickly found on a security camera in Vatican City, with its LEDs counting down the time until the batteries run out. The security camera, however, is nowhere to be found, leaving the canister's whereabouts a mystery too. Langdon and Vittoria Petra are quickly sent off to Rome and Vatican City, to help find the canister and return it to CERN before it explodes at midnight.

Not only does the canister threaten to destroy Vatican City, but with the recent death of the Pope, the cardinals of the Catholic Church are all within the city for the conclave to choose the new pope. They are all about to be locked within the Sistine Chapel where, according to church law, they must remain until a new pope is chosen. They are awaiting the preferiti, the four cardinals from four different European countries who are the preferred candidates to become the new pope. While Langdon and Vittoria are trying to convince the captain of the Swiss Guard and the camerlengo, the Pope's chamberlain who leads the church until the new pope is named, that the antimatter bomb is real, a phone call is received from a man who claims to be from the Illuminati. He has the four cardinals, which he will murder one by one, and then allow the bomb to destroy Vatican City, which houses not only the church hierarchy, but also its possessions and wealth. He has no demands; his only wish is the destruction of the Catholic Church in retribution for the church's treatment of scientists and the Illuminati over the centuries.

Langdon and Vittoria Vetra are in a race against time. They dig through archives and ancient mysteries to find clues, which also requires an extensive background in art history and religious symbology. This makes Robert Langdon the expert tour guide through all this arcane knowledge with his congenial and scholarly fashion, doing his best to educate without seeming superior with his own intelligence. Much like The Da Vinci Code, Langdon understands enough about each mystery to go in search of the missing pieces necessary to solve each puzzle, which leads him to the next one. Vittoria is beautiful, tough, intelligent, and determined to avenge her father's murder and keep the canister from exploding. The two of them are constantly one step behind the Illuminati, and once it's clear that the Swiss Guard and Vatican City have been penetrated by the ancient society, they don't know whom to trust. This leads them through churches, fountains, crypts, forgotten passages, secret passages, and catacombs. Death stalks them at every turn, in one form or another.

So it's time for the comparisons of Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. In some ways, Angels & Demons has a more suspenseful storyline with the antimatter bomb and the race to prevent the destruction of Vatican City. Both share a hired assassin, a tough and beautiful woman as Langdon's sidekick who's mourning the murder of a loved one, and mysteries that require extensive knowledge of art history, religious symbology, and secret societies. Robert Langdon is a protagonist that you can't dislike in any way, with just enough vulnerability to go along with his intelligence and right amount of charm. Angels & Demons is a looser story. It takes longer to get going, each new puzzle takes longer to solve, and too much character background is given for too many characters. While Dan Brown's writing style will never be called literary, he's obviously matured as a writer between the two books. The chapters in The Da Vinci Code are shorter, tighter, and the suspense is never allowed to wane.

While some judicious editing might have made it a tighter and more focused novel, Angels & Demons is still a highly enjoyable read. For those who love plot-driven novels, and for those who love thrillers and mysteries full of strange bits of information that tie everything together, grab a copy of Angels & Demons and find a comfortable chair. It's time well spent.

^ I hope its not too long, I had fun writing it :p

[Lan]

Book
Thraxas and the Sorcerers-Martin Scott

List of titles of the various books in the series
Thraxas and the Dance of Death
Thraxas at War
Thraxas and Warrior Monks
Thraxas on the Elf Islends
Thraxas under Siege
Death and Thraxas

Other Books
Milk,Sulphate and Alby Starvation
Love and Peace with Melody Paradise
Suzy,Led Zeppelin and Me

Genre
Fantasy

Review
Txraxas is a detective with minor magician talent at the age of 40.He's proud of his weight and his addiction to beer.The magician festival which happens once every five years is comming to this small city where the money and drugs make the rules.So Txraxas and his young girlfriend who happens to be 1/2 human,1/4 elf and 1/4 orc helps him with her incredible fighting gift.He's hired to help a wizard to winn this competition and to look for suspicious things.As always his luck pushs him in an unsolvable case with many obstacles standing on his way.

Opinion
It's a very good book with very interesting characters a happenings which you can read in two sleepless nights
Rating
9/10

Amazon Link

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1841490776/ref=pd_sim_b_4/104-5213136-4696749?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

[M-50]

My review will be about a book by Tom Clancy titled OP-CENTRE ACTS OF WAR.

Blurb (slightly edited, but 99% the same)
This book is about Syrian terrorists who have attacked a dam in Turkey along the Euphrates river. This is the first step in a deceptively dastardly plan to create all out war in the middle east. This will ensure that elite troops out of Damascus and leave the Syrian president ripe for assassination. the terrorists don't know that there is a new Regional Op-Centre online in Greece. This is a mobile version of the unmobile one, and therefore means that it has cutting edge technology installed. And they can see what the terrorists are trying to do. But the terrorists are more resourceful than any others before and they can obtain classified information through their ways. And the Reigonal Op-Center, the United States' latest weapon is a prize not to be passed up.....

Personal Review
This is an excellent book which keeps the reader engrossed and interested in it. It has excellent 'fight' scenes and is informative on the weapons that they have included. This is like his games. Exciting, ongoing and best of all, about wars and of soilders doing missions!:headbang:

[SylvreWolfe]

Spirits that Walk in Shadow
by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Genre:Scifi/Fantasy?

Kim and Jaimie are freshman roommates, but their college experience is anything but typical. This is Jaimie's first time in the "real world," away from her large, complicated family and their magics and traditions. It's Kim's chance to escape her high school reputation. But Jaimie quickly realizes what Kim can't see--it's more than just a "reputation." Kim is being pursued by something that feeds on her emotions. And, just like that, reality reshapes itself, as the two girls--along with Jaimie's three cousins--try to capture and rout the viri, or soul demon, who is tracking Kim. This utterly original novel combines humor, darkness, and hope, and will spellbind readers.

Personal opinion: I thought that this was a great book. I whipped through the book pretty quickly which goes to show something given I'm normally a rather slow paced reader.I'd definately give it a 9/10. I recomend it to anyone, especially if they're into the scifi/fantasy type genre...

[飛雲]

Book Review – Morning, Noon and Night

Morning, Noon and Night
by Sidney Sheldon
Genre:Thriller

Plot summary

The story started with Harry Standford, the worlds richest man, he was friends with many presidents and kings of various nations. As the story slowly moves forward, we noticed that he though he was very charming and has the mind of a genius in business, he was not so hot toward other intimated feelings.

He was followed when he was in some sort of vacation (or just cruising around the world with his luxury yacht, the Blue Sky), he said that it was only the media or some other company whom trying to figure his secret. But it all changed when he mysteriously died (drowned).

Then the story opens with his four children; Tyler, Woodrow, Kendall, and Julia (birth by a governess). Each of the children's flashback brings more to the almighty Harry Stanford's inner personality. He was cruel, a "monster with two legs" quoted his second son, Wed more as toodrow. He took over his father's company when he was at a young age, and then slowly build the Stanford Enterprise from the ground up, to prevent his children to rebel against him, he send them all of them to different boarding schools, to isolate them, kept them from joining together to go against him.

They were only together by holidays, they would post for a picture by the press, just to show how he's a good father. All his children loathed the "occasion". Stanford, then pulls strings around them with only one thing, his money when he die, he would ask his children to do something and when the refused, he would threaten to take their name off his will.

After his death, however, his children (all with their own issues) would fight for their estate, which supposedly worth more than 6 billion dollars, the tide started to get rough when Julia, whom had been moved from the house before she was born (her mother, the governess, left the house/mansion after Stanford's wife committed suicide), appears to the Stanford's to claim her share of the estate.

The plot twist here when there was another Julia came to them, some hit-man had been hired to kill the real Julia, and the accidental death of Harry Stanford doesn't seems to be all accidental anymore. There seems to be a deeper plot . The chess board is set.

LITERARY CRITICISM AND OPINIONS

This is the third book which I read by Sidney Sheldon and like his other books, it was a page turner, I could put it down. Love the fast moving story line, the details which he gives to each character. Especially with Harry Stanford.

[sweeter]

Gossip Girl by Cecily von what's-her-face


Plot summary:
Gossipgirl.net is a site detailing the lives of Upper East Side teenagers. These teenagers are born rich and beautiful, leading what seem to be charmed lives.


Characters:
Serena van der Woodsen (S)- newly-returned-from-boarding-school It Girl
Blair Waldorf (B)- S's BFF and de facto Queen Bee during S's absence
Nate Archibald (N) - B's boyfriend
Daniel Humphrey (D) - dark, brooding, chain-smoking artiste
Vanessa Abrams (V) - D's on/off best friend/girlfriend


Review:
The novel is meant to be purely escapist, as you may have expected, and it is. But even considering that fact, it barely touches mediocre.

B finds out that S and N have slept together in the past. The best friend and the boyfriend, who hasn't heard of that? B gets mad and severs her relationships with S and N. N can't make up his mind whether to go back to reliable B or to try and make it work with free-spirited S. Now that S is friendless, she hooks up with D, who is hopelessly infatuated with the idea of her. Of course, pretty girls never end up with sensitive but average-looking boys - they play with their hearts only to stomp on them with the 4-inch heel of their Manolos in the end. D ends up with V, the rebel-girl best friend who is in love with him. Of course. N doesn't end up with anybody because he's a wishy-washy pussy who can't make up his mind. B and S make up because THAT is the power of friendship(tm). It's the typical teenage plot, but in glitzier, more expensive packaging.

The characters are one-dimensional - this is chick literature after all - but I think more effort could have been done to at least try to develop them. S is tall and blonde and got kicked out of boarding school for too much partying. B is petite and dark-haired and is classy and fashion-conscious. V is average height and bald and is into film-making and alternative music. N is the pretty boy and D is the emo boy. At the end of the series, the characters are all COMPLETELY the same, except maybe their hair grew longer or they got a haircut.

The descriptions are colorful and engrossing, especially tidbits about high-end culture. The dialogue is so-so.


Impact on literature:
None, and none should be expected. It's just good old escapism targeted to a newer audience - the younger Sex and the City-ists. The sugar and spice/old-school values of Sweet Valley High doesn't really sell anymore, and Gossip Girl is our generation's flavor. If you're into this kind of literature, the Princess Diaries would be a much better choice because it serves the same purpose but is funnier.


Other:
Watch the TV series because Penn Badgley is hot. And his character, Dan, is completely different than the Dan in the book. This Dan doesn't smoke, reads Chaucer and Pynchon in his spare time, isn't afraid to take the moral high road, has good hygiene, and sadly, cannot exist in real life.

External links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_Girl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_Girl_%28TV_series%29

(:

[Joan]

Book : A Town Like Alice
Author: Nevil Shute

Plot summary: The book is about a girl named Jean Padget, in WWII she is taken captive by Japanese soliders when she's working in Malaya. From there the party she is captured with starts a walkt that through a large part of Malaya because the Japanese don't know where to put them. There she meets the Australian Joe Harman, whi she thinks dies because of her. When the war is over and she some years later returns to Malaya because of some money she inherited she learns that he is still alive, so she leaves for Australia to see him. He is then in England looking for her. When she waits for him she is in the town he lives neat and decides to restore it if things work out between him and her.

Your opinions on the book: A rather intruiging book, you never really know where it's going and it keeps you reading. Alot of things happens and you really want to know what happens. I liked the book, it was sweet and I learned alot from it. Also it's a love story, that really describes love in a way that is way more likely than love is described in many other books and that really appealed to me. The book can alos be very exiting at times and that also was a thing I liked about this book.

To whom (if anyone) you would recommend it: I would recomend it to people who likes reading stories, because mainly it is a story.