Normally I wouldn’t do this.  I have read plenty of books that became movies and disregarded plenty of movies based on books.  I suppose, had the most recent Indiana Jones feature been based on a book, I would have blogged about it in my excitement.  What people truly close to me know is that I waited an agonizing number of years for my big screen hero to emerge from the cinematic fields of Elysium.  But now, a truly staggering event is occurring.  Edgar Rice Burroughs, the man who created arguably the most popular fictional character of all time, will finally, after almost one hundred years, have his science fiction epic novels given the silver screen treatment.  A Princess of Mars hits theatres as John Carter of Mars this Friday.  In honor of this event, here is my book review. Read the rest of this entry »

Inspector Tyador Borlu, working for the Beszel police department, is the rare detective who succeeds by combining diligent police work with his instinctual leaps of understanding.  Assigned to the Extreme Crime Squad, Inspector Borlu is one of the first detectives called to the scene when the body of a murdered woman is found on the outskirts of the city.  Also at the scene is Constable Lizbyet Corwi, and the two of them work together to ascertain the hows, whys and wheres of this young woman’s death.  But the more the two of them uncover, the more they begin to fear that they are being drawn into something much bigger and much more sinister than the death of one woman.  As they dig deeper, one threat seems to loom over it all: Breach.

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The opening of a book can be just as or even more important than the ending.  Sometime, long ago, in my Junior High years, I read a novel entitled The Cay for class, and I remember how my teacher lured us into the book by just focusing on the first sentence.  The Meaning of Night, although thematically a much different book, lures the reader into its pages with its very first sentences made up of very sinister words:  “After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster dinner”. Read the rest of this entry »

I hesitate writing this book review.  And it is not because I see myself as a tragically flawed writer (although accusations have been made).  The reason stems from the fact that this book hits somewhat close to home.  Yes, one might say that the plot unfolds in far away England where breakfast consists of french fries, slabs of ham, grilled tomatoes, fried eggs and Heinz beans or that the fictional work is merely the refreshing efforts of a successful author.  However, I heartily disagree with those imaginary arguments.  Like Dr. Rene Belloq says, “I am a shadowy reflection of you”.  In many ways, this book is a shadowy reflection of Charles Wright. Read the rest of this entry »

The Erard Piano was, by all accounts, the most popular piano of the late 1700′s and early 1800′s.  An international success, the piano inhabited the most illustrious homes around the world.  They were even commissioned by King Louis XVI for the royal French courts.  While they have fallen out of favor in the last century or so, their influence on the piano industry will forever be remembered.  It is this type of piano, the Erard, in the midst of the British occupation of Burma in 1886 upon which Daniel Mason’s subtle exploration of the human mind revolves. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the moral powerful themes in the literary world, and the one that resonates most with people of all ages is the coming of age story.  It has been done in spectacular fashion (see Harry Potter for details).  It has been done in muted tones and shades of black and white (see To Kill A Mockingbird).  It has been done in space (see Ender’s Game), and it has been done on the streets of Barcelona (see Shadow of the Wind).  And I would argue, in all those cases, the theme was carried out successfully and with enough fanfare to warrant a good, thorough reading.  I wish I could say the same for The Magicians. Read the rest of this entry »

I imagine that years ago, this series of novels would have been vilified for it’s nearly unimaginable subplots of sexual abuse, corruption, prostitution, sadism, and violence.  However, as times changed we have grown more accustomed to the seemingly unavoidable and horrendous crimes that crop up in the news and (hopefully) shock us.  Maybe it is a result of the large population of forensically based television shows, or perhaps it is a result of the real life dramas played out in the papers.   Fundamentally, there is a very realistic and frightening aspect to the story arc of this trilogy that creates the compelling plot, which once started, races to the finish line. Read the rest of this entry »

In the recent decade, society has been inundated with a variety of zombie movies.  While zombies have not reached the dizzying romantic hype of other types of undead (vampires, anyone?), they have subtly carved their own niche into the landscape of our fascination.  Read the rest of this entry »

This series of books came highly recommended by a student of mine (thank you, Logan).  Part of being an eighth grade teacher is admitting to yourself that somewhere deep inside your inner thirteen-your old is still alive and well.  Because I was such an avid reader at that age, I managed to go through an impressive number of fantasy and sci-fiction books, most of which had sequels or prequels or both.

Due to the popularity of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, most fantasy books followed a similar plot arc complete with fictional maps, expansive histories, richly imagined languages, and epic adventures.  Hobbits were untouchable, but elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, trolls and wizards lived on.

Star Wars also influenced many science fiction books, replacing stories like 2001: A Space Odyssey with swashbuckling space tales.  Spaceships no longer plodded through space, swords became standard fare, and roguish pirates were all the rage thanks to Han Solo

But that was back in the day.

In my mind, The Bartimaeus Trilogy bucks those trends in favor of more modern ones. Read the rest of this entry »