Friday, April 30, 2010

Changes.... by Jim Butcher

8 books for the month of April!
  1. The Politician (Andrew Young)
  2. Sweet Land Stories (E.L. Doctorow)
  3. Nights In Rodanthe (Nicholas Sparks)
  4. The Veiled Kingdom (Carmen bin Laden)
  5. The River Kings' Road (Liane Merciel)
  6. Alex Cross' Trial (James Patterson)
  7. House Rules (Jodi Picoult)
  8. Changes (James Butcher)
Yoooooohooo!!! Finished my 8th book for the month yesterday. Didn't know this latest one is part of a serial (Dresden files) about the main character, Harry Dresden. I picked it cos it's on the NY Times Best Seller list.

This is another epic fantasy in a modern setting. A fiction where vampires and wizards can be killed by bullets but magic and spells seem the preferred choice in action. It's a story about faerie godmothers with magical powers, knights, retired angels, archangels.... the writer weaves everything imaginable into this book. Very subtle with many twists.

This latest sequel starts with Harry being told by his former love (now half vampire) that he has a child (Maggie). Maggie was kidnapped by the King of the Red Court to be sacrificed in a ritual; a blood curse that will kill all those related to Maggie. That of course meant, Harry would die too. The quest for Maggie was fraught with battles of the supernatural. The story is full of action.... you don't get bored cos something would turned up just as you think things are slowing down.

But a few things I noted... despite having a super duper faerie godmother, Harry realized that brains still play the more important role. There're quite a few other insights which I thought were quite nice but just cannot seem to put them into my own words here.

Personally I'd have reservations about letting my younger kids read this. Too many 'mixes' in the novel; compromise between good and evil, too much gray.

4 comments:

Thomas C B Chua said...

Anugerah NILAM April 2010

Nama Pelajar : AJ 7
Tingkatan : 5 A
Jumlah Buku Baca :7 dalam satu bulan

AJ7 said...

LOL! Are you still around? I thought you've left for your trip and having a whale of a time now. 8) BTW, do you think NILAM works in encouraging students to read?

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha, I think NILAM only encourages students to be copy cat, copy the reports from previous years. I know the students copying the same books every year. It defeats the purpose of having NILAM in schools. BTW I think the only one qualify for the award is you, AJ7.... hahahahaha....

from wonderland

AJ7 said...

Wonderland... Yup! The skill these days is in the copying. LOL! I take my students to the library and that's what they do. Turn the book to the back and copy the synopsis at the back. Kinda defeats the purpose. These days I tell them to go to the library themselves if they want to read... sheer waste of time to bring them.

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