The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

It’s the next best thing to The Lord of the Rings, or even better.

Author: Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson

Released: January 1990

New York Times Bestseller, International Bestseller, Locus Award Nominee, David Gemmel Legend Award Nominee

Synopsis

The Dark One, Shai’tan, is freed from his prison. And the Wheel of Time turns to answer this threat--the Dragon. Lews Therin Telamon is the fated Dragon who led the Aes Sedai, channelers of the One Power, to seal Shai’tan away from the world again. Despite defeat, The Dark One managed to taint Saidin, male half of the True Source. Because of this, male Aes Sedai, including the Dragon himself, is driven to madness. The said taint is described as oil on water; the water which is the One Power, remains devoid of impurities but to touch it means going through the taint.

As time flows, the Wheel turns, and the Dark One’s seal weakens, threatening to unleash himself on the world once more. The Wheel weaves the Dragon again, but the Dragon Reborn would be facing both the Dark One and the madness brought by using Saidin.

Rand Al’Thor, together with Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon, are mere villagers of the Two Rivers. This changed when their destinies are interwoven with Moraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai, and Lan, the Sedai’s Warder. Moraine cannot determine the Dragon Reborn from the three, so she brings them all along. The Sedai also saw the potential of two other villagers Egwene al’Vere and Nynaeve al’Meara as future channelers of the One Power. With a party of seven, in the first book of the series, The Eye of The World, they fought a myriad of unfriendly characters to get to Tar Valon, the city of the Aes Sedai.

Rand al'Thor by artist Seamas Gallagher.
See his other Wheel of Time comic artworks
on http://seamassketches.blogspot.com

And from there, the plot thickens, and more characters and subplots are unveiled in a projected 14 part series.

Reading Experience

Robert Jordan brings you an adventure worthy of twelve books. Though I won’t deny that it won’t make you flip through the pages with much haste, it is still quite a page-turner.

Jordan wrote a very elaborate plot for this epic fantasy. Moreover, the characters are fully developed in every page and in every instalment. You may have an affinity to a character, which might turn to adversity in the next chapter or the next book. But the more important part is, you feel them evolving with everything they go through.

I say that the series’ downfall is its length. Readers are daunted by a fourteen-part series, not to mention the width of one book and the span of one page. But serious epic fantasy readers would appreciate this treatment because the book would be able to bring the story to heights that a shortened plot could not. To shed more light, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien are the last three books of an extensive and much more elaborate epic fantasy plot.

What I enjoy best about The Wheel of Time is its game-like format. Being a fan of Role Playing Games like Final Fantasy, you have an arsenal of predetermined configuration, this is the premise of the One Power for the book. As a gamer, you work around this and you cannot pull something out of the bag for the heck of it, which is the same for The Wheel of Time. Jordan sticks with what was set in the premise and aptly plays around it.

In Conclusion

No I would not recommend reading the Wheel of Time to just any reader. But if you are looking for an epic adventure, determined to see it through the end, then you better start now because the last book is set to be released in 2012 (says me who's still stuck in the 6th book).

The Wheel of Time symbol 
by Matthew Nielsen from www.fantasy-fan.org

Random Wheel of Time facts:

- Characters in the book are mainly humans, compared to other fantasy series with a variety of creatures.

- The series, despite its length, has a prequel, The New Spring, which was originally intended as a short story. 

- Robert Jordan died on September 16, 2007 with the series left unfinished, leaving notes behind on how The Wheel of Time should end.

- Brandon Sanderson, a fantasy writer, was chosen to finish the twelfth book, The Gathering Storm and the last two titles; Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light

-          Prequel. The New Spring

-          Book 1. The Eye of The World

-          Book 2. The Great Hunt

-          Book 3. The Dragon Reborn

-          Book 4. The Shadow Rising

-          Book 5. The Fires of Heaven

-          Book 6. Lord of Chaos (This is where I’ve gotten to so far)

-          Book 7. A Crown of Swords

-          Book 8. The Path of Daggers

-          Book 9. Winter’s Heart

-          Book 10. Crossroads of Twilight

-          Book 11. Knife of Dreams

-          Book 12. The Gathering Storm

-          Book 13. Towers of Midnight

-          Book 14. A Memory of Light

You can get more information about the series at Wikipedia.

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The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

There’s a rebel in all of us. Whether we loosen the chains that bind our inner rebel to bars of conformity, or add more locks to secure and obscure its existence from prying judgmental eyes is completely up to us. Yet its lingering, internal gnawing is real, and indubitably present. And that rebel is perfectly compacted in Holden Caulfield, the wannabe catcher in the rye.

Author: J. D. Salinger (Jerome David Salinger)

Released: 1951

One of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, a 2005 Time Magazine list

Synopsis

Trust me when I say that the storyline of this book is not the main course, but a medium, a sterling plate where the meat is served. 

Holden Caulfield is a problematic middle child who doesn’t like anything much, conceited but perceptive, at least for his own good. Kicked out from Pencey school, Holden, out of whim, which pretty much sums up his decision-making, packs his bag and sets off for the streets of New York. 


With an erratic come what may to-do-list, Holden goes from dancing with a good dancer, drinking with a smarty, listening to phonies, talking with a prostitute to arguing with his date. Holden shares his take on every person, situation, or place he goes to, even with the ducks in Central Park. He practically hates everything, except for his brothers Allie and D.B., his sister Phoebe, one of the very few whose words get through to him, and English, his best subject.

Reading Experience

Catcher in the Rye is one of the most criticized classic novels. Those who have lived during its original release would have full appreciation of the controversy it caused. Any reader planning to read this book should know how it was during the 1950’s in America. It was the height of conservatism, of conforming to societal norms, of being like everyone else.

Salinger’s presentation is through the opinionated mind of teenager Holden Caulfield, who speaks in teenage slang. Reviews say that Holden represents the American teenager in the 1950’s, who are sick of all the phonies of their time. But like every good novel and personified character, Holden’s thoughts transgress race, era and age as I found myself nodding, agreeing to his notions despite disagreeing with some. It has reflected most issues which threatens pillars of tradition and conventional thinking, most of which are very much alive up to this day.

Once Holden is introduced, you’ll learn his attitude. You might even defend it from the other characters who disapprove of his behavior, which is probably a common trait for those acquainted with liberty and individuality. But eventually, ‘it’ll grow on you and old Holden’ will seem ridiculous. He is not a round character like what most novels are populated with. He may not change, but the reader’s opinion of him will. For me, it changed from enjoying his company and his relative derision, to a point of concern but not towards distaste.

As for other characters, their purpose is to be critiqued by the protagonist. Most of them are insignificant, except for a very select few. There are characters you won’t meet during the course of the story but Holden speaks about them liberally.

Also, expect an open ending. You are free to think what happens to Holden and Phoebe, not to mention Mr. Antolini. You can end it any way you want to, a ‘whatever-makes-you-sleep-better-at-night’ thing.

The Catcher in the Rye’s title originated from a misheard version of the poem through the Rye by Robert Burns. Holden dreams of catching falling children coming through the rye. What he doesn’t realize is, he is falling too, and it was his sister, Phoebe, who effectively caught him at midfall. It captured the challenging coming-of-age process of reconciling the innocence of childhood with the demands of adulthood—all children must go through the ‘rye’.

In Conclusion

Like every review I chuck out, I always say that it’s not for everyone, no one novel is. But Catcher in the Rye is really not for everyone, ‘and I mean it, I really do’. It is told in an unorthodox manner, and ended uniquely. Its unorthodox quality is the definite reason for its significance.

And though it isn’t for everyone, especially those who enjoy the safety in numbers and loves conservatism, I still recommend picking it up, to at least realize where the contempt is coming from, a good reminder of how troublesome it was as a teenager, for those who have forgotten.

Today’s reader may find it droning at times, I know I did. So just put it down, do something else, then pick it up again. It is necessarily repetitive, enough to emphasize and highlight Holden’s attitude in familiar or unfamiliar situations. You may reach the point where you can predict how he would perceive something, but you won’t be able to predict how the plot goes, which threw me off-guard, ‘to be honest with you’.

I guess I’ll leave it there. And yes, you should read it, ‘it’ll kill you, I swear it will’.

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The Last Time I Saw Mother by Arlene J. Chai

A rendezvous of fact and sufficient fiction, The Last Time I Saw Mother can rightly take its place on the realism shelf. It is easy to mistake this novel for a biography when immersed in its pages. Arlene J. Chai effectively placed Philippine history and Caridad’s tale in concurrence. And a plot in synch is every reader’s underlying demand.

Author: Arlene J. Chai

Published: 1995

Synopsis

Living a quiet happy life in Australia with her daughter, Marla, is enough for Caridad. Despite an insistent void, a gap she couldn’t grasp, or felt she needed to, Caridad has long settled for how things were. But the obscure gap’s presence strengthens after her mother, Thelma, uncharacteristically took the time to send a letter only to beckon her home.

Alarmed by her mother’s odd action, she calls her cousin, Mia, expecting an urgent predicament. But Mia did nothing to reduce her anxiety. Mia knows something, but kept mum, reiterating Thelma’s request to come home. Because Thelma has something to say, something that no letter or phone call can effectively relay.

Reading Experience

It is not surprising to easily relate with The Last Time I Saw Mother. There are major boosts contributing to such a fine quality.

One is precise Philippine history synchronized with Caridad’s personal history. The struggle of the majority during the Martial Law isn’t misplaced. Moreover, Chai conveyed the general predicament by magnifying the dilemma of one family, and its impact on their lives.

The characters would be the second and most vital contributor to the novel’s relevance. They were given specific voices and identifiable personas. They are everyday people, minding their own lives. Readers might identify with them, or know someone like them.

However, finishing the book is a bit of a challenge. The story was told from perspectives of the deeply involved characters, which enhanced personality establishment. But this is an ambiguous trait. Telling it from different points of view necessitates focus shifting.

There were certain shifts that caught me off-guard and reduced my interest. Of course, cliffhangers are welcome but some were quite disarming, which can make the reader put the book down.

Perhaps the novel’s most notable feat is its presentation of a family secret; its elusive quality, its simple existence, the ease of its acceptance, and significance. Foolish to classify as either good or bad, but undeniably harsh for anyone to shoulder. To put it simply, the plot is an exploration of the gray area.

In Conclusion

This is one definitive example of realism. Accuracy with history and effective chronological plotting are both trademarks of this novel. Paired with great character development, readers will easily identify with the characters. It may not be fast-paced but undeniably a good addition for any reader’s reading selection. 

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Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

(Originally printed in the FEU Advocate August 2007 issue as part of the Refreshments review corner. Republished with certain edits and changes for consistency with this blog’s other book reviews and, of course, applying the virtue of hindsight)

Living is mechanical. Everyday feels like a routine, making ourselves our own slavedrivers. Yet we say we are free, but how free are we if a pre-established ‘morality’ and ‘ethics’ are shoved to our faces? Is existence compelled to destiny?

 

Author: Haruki Murakami

Translator: J. Philip Gabriel

Published: English language release on 2005

New York Times 10 Best Books of 2005, World Fantasy Awards

Synopsis

Kafka Tamura is a fifteen-year old boy determined to leave his father’s jurisdiction. He ran away with a rucksack and money he has been saving for quite some time. Along the way, he meets Sakura who might be his sister, and Ms. Saeki who just might be his mother. Kafka eventually nurtured a seemingly Oedipal complex as his feelings towards Ms. Saeki develops during his short-lived stay in her private library.

Concurrent with Kafka’s wandering is Nakata, whose existence roots deep with Kafka. Nakata ‘was’ smart, but something happened during the war which rendered dim-witted. He has never recovered or matured intellectually, surviving merely from a subsidy, which he calls ‘sub city’, from the City Mayor. Every day seems like yesterday until the good-natured Nakata felt compelled to stab Johnnie Walker—yes, the fine whisky is a character. Running away from the police, Nakata is obliged to meet Kafka, with Ms. Saeki’s private library as rendezvous.

As Kafka and Nakata ran, destiny weaves them both in an indefinite tangle.

Reading Experience

Murakami’s writing is vividly unique. His storyline delivery has a consistent shifting of the two primary characters’ viewpoint. This is not confusing to the reader, but it’s like closing your mouth after noticing that it has been hanging open for awhile. Like a full stop, turn left, another full stop, this time turning right. This style, at times, may make you drop the book for a certain number of hours, days or even weeks before picking it up again until the characters have grown on you, and you feel their grip stronger than before.

But what is most unique in Murakami’s style is his characters. Apart from the obvious connection between Kafka and Nakata, other characters turn out to be deeply interconnected. This is also the book where I met Oshima, probably one of the most complicated contemporary literary characters I have encountered. Furthermore, the characters undeniably felt humane; they pee, they get aroused, masturbate and have sex. With such frames, Murakami was able to target consciousness expansion. He covered several moral sensitive areas of sexuality and individuality; politics, juvenile delinquency, crime, and even incest.

In Conclusion
Kafka on the Shore is probably one of the books close to the epicenter of magical realism. Such is delivered in varying ways; fishes fall from the sky, cats talk, a rain of leeches, dreams can be perpetrated, and a daunting shape-shifter exists.

Departing from the usual presentation of a fresh perspective on not-so-fresh issues, Kafka on the Shore bends your mind’s eyesight into a questioning state which will lead to a renewed outlook. It's a book bound to make you think, ponder, and interpret; a mental exercise for your imagination.

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The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Well of course it isn’t as grand as The Da Vinci Code, but it is a worthy sequel to trouble Robert Langdon from the confines of Harvard. Dan Brown’s novels, especially The Da Vinci Code, dabble with people’s doubt and feed them a page-turning storyline with mouth-watering pieces of, usually historic, information. And such quality indubitably exists with the latest release, The Lost Symbol.

Author: Dan Brown

Released: 2009

Synopsis

America’s clandestine, undying accounts of certain doings of the Masonic brothers have gone beyond their shores. Evidently, ancient stories of their involvement in the shaping of American history are popular ‘over-the-coffee’ discussions, auditorium-worthy talks, even for non-Americans—if it weren’t, Doubleday wouldn’t have published The Lost Symbol internationally and National Treasure would’ve crashed and burned in cinemas outside American soil. Yes, The Lost Symbol toys with the same line with National Treasure, but in an entirely different arena—more convoluted and pleasurably vexing.

A madman, whose entire persona is deeply immersed among the characters, will try to unravel the secret of the Free Masons. His audacious plan is not to reveal a thousand-years-old mystery to the world but to digest its surreptitious totality and greedily destroy and obliterate its existence. Definitely a madman, but wise enough to know that he does not know how to decipher and find reason, logic, meaning with the enigmatic messages ‘hidden in plain sight’. His solution is to find someone who can, dragging Robert Langdon in the middle of the CIA, the Free Masons and possibly ending the world as we know it—a famous theory about an apocalypse in 2012.

Reading Experience

Brown once again throws, or rather re-throws, a concept debated between the most intellectual believers and skeptics—the power of thought, the use of the brain’s untapped potentials. Langdon’s viewpoint in all this is one of a skeptic who plays along with the madman’s belief, aiming to save Peter Solomon, a friend and a Mason—and proprietor of the key to unlock the bridge between science and faith.

    

Though it is nowhere near the achievement, attention and reception that The Da Vinci Code got,—but I don’t think it was intended to surpass its predecessor—The Lost Symbol is a thrilling read in its own way. I finished the book in three days because it was hard to put down.

    

Brown ends chapters with undeniably effective cliffhangers. His brand of storytelling is clear of confusion on whose eyes are you seeing from. He starts paragraphs with the name, or in reference to the character, of the person who will be joined by the audience, adequately placing the reader as part of the scene.
    

Authors will have a formula that they are comfortable with. Brown is not an exception. But this time, the equation is quite different from Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Good news right? Perhaps adding up to the novel’s unpredictability, a change in formula but not with pace. 

    

And, as usual, the book is well-researched, from the facts amidst the fiction, down to the minute detail of architectural masterpieces in Washington D.C. vividly described for a more precise imagined tour, or better yet, reader experience. 

    

I honestly started reading The Lost Symbol with much skepticism—but I did keep an open mind as the pages I’ve read become thicker. Moreover, I felt like a fortune-teller attempting to spoil the rest of the plot by identifying Dan Brown’s foreshadowing and habitually muttering a turn of event before I get to the next page. I owe this behavior to my reading of Angels and Demons first then The Da Vinci Code which is how I noticed Dan Brown’s formula. And the same observation from another book lover, who has read Digital Fortress and Deception Point, did not mitigate such attitude. 

Well I am still a skeptic when I finished it. But I did question certain ideologies that the book divulged and even researched them, quite a desirable trait for a novel, to make readers more interested with history. More importantly, I was only capable of spoiling insignificant bits of the storyline, except for one essential part—but I leave that to the reader’s eye. 

In Conclusion

In a nutshell, Dan Brown’s formula has changed, for the better. And his dexterity in writing remains nifty and inventive, resourceful would also be an appropriate appraisal. With a gripping storyline, and a fascinating perspective on Noetic science and, again, biblical role, The Lost Symbol is definitely the sum of a desirable reading equation—an enjoyable read ‘not’ hidden, and in plain sight.

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Waiting by Ha Jin

Life is consistently and habitually measured by numbers; anniversaries with a partner, months left until the New Year, weeks until payday, days of work, hours spent on sleeping, heartbeats per minute and seconds that could be the difference between life and death. Concepts of living and time are almost indistinguishable, feasible but cumbersome to determine one from the other except for their exclusive feats.

Author: Ha Jin

Released: 1999

1999 National Book Award


Synopsis

Time is depicted by numbers—an endless counting, dying of boredom from such a simple, but unpalatable, task is highly probable. While living your life is permitting time to unsuccessfully attempt and foolishly exhaust itself until its existence would only matter when you pause—and take the brave gesture of looking back to the things that were and the you that was. 

      

Cliché statements would depict “Living your life” in all the forms of achieving elation and doing jovial actions. There is no argument about the presence of the harrowing weight on the other end of the scale. It is a dilemma to say some or most, but probably all, of us, are dealing or have dealt with the difficulties of living our lives.

      

Perhaps the virtue of hindsight would be the most rueful virtue to possess—when you are rendered incapable and compelled to admit that you’ve lived your life not the way you intended to, and time had gone by, waiting.

This is the message effectively conveyed and nonchalantly depicted in Ha Jin’s Waiting. Lin Kong, an almost-perfect husband-to-be, has flaws that decided how the years of his life will be spent. Shuyu, probably one of the saddest characters I have ever encountered, has been consistently, year-in and year-out like some gloomy tradition, brought to court to be divorced. And each and every year, the verdict is the same, making Lin Kong and Manna Wu, Lin Kong’s ‘true love’ and blatantly but unofficially his mistress, wait for another year.

Reading Experience

Ha Jin’s storytelling prowess is to bring this repetitive and ingeniously simple plot out of brooding boredom. Probably the reason why it won the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction, is its delivery. The plot was plain, and the climax is unusually placed just a few pages away from the middle of the storyline—or maybe what I considered as climactic for the simplicity of the story is maintained to the very end. 

      

And even the end is auspiciously simplistic, unexpectedly casual and creatively inadvertent. Indeed, less is more. 


In Conclusion 
It’s not a book that you can’t put down. It doesn’t have that quality. Starting to read threateningly translates to not finishing it, at least during the first few chapters, but once you get to feel and understand the characters, you know that you’ll just have to know how it ends. Its end is notable and satisfying. Ha Jin ended the book well, and I respect its finality not because I liked how it ended but because of its brilliant delivery.

      

Yet given all those, it’s not something that you would want to read again. It’s one of those books that you’re glad to finish, absorbed the moral, and the immoral, but just satisfied to have it lay on the bookshelf. The next time you touch it is when you recommend it to another reader.

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