Lord Loss by Darren Shan

A highly thrilling and fun read. The story line makes the book really difficult to wrench from a person's hands. It ain't scary regardless of all the warnings you see on the back of the book but it is gruesome and bloody at the right parts. Enter Grubbs Grady, an average adolescent who changed his name TO Grubbs (?). He finds himself dealing with mundane issues like peer pressure and getting back at his bossy older sister. However he eventually gets a nagging feeling that all is not as it should be when his family starts doing things that are completely out of character. A suspicious invitation to a fluffy ballet performance (which he violently rejects as any self respecting guy does) that ensures that his absence from home causes him to hang it all and try to figure out what on earth is going on. When he gets home and opens the door, all hell breaks loose... literally.

This book is a good starter into the darker side of fantasy and hell. Good fun. It's the first book in the 10 volume Demonata series.

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

In addition to being attracted by really cool book covers, I happened to be attracted by tattoo designs as well. Not that I'll ever get one in this lifetime. I think I'll leave the permanent skin marking thing to the brave souls out there clamoring for one.

That said, this book was particularly intriguing. You'd think that with a title like that the story line would go along the lines of the protagonist being born with this tattoo which gives away the fact that he is of noble birth or has some super fantastical power and how he has to deal with the responsibilities or consequences for having such a mark.

Wrong! You will be pleasantly surprised by the unusual plot of the story. I mean, it's still a good versus evil theme ultimately, but I guess conceptually and character-wise, this book wins my vote.

The story is set in London of the future. The villain: The Scourge. Three young heroes must set out to destroy The Scourge or the world risks being annihilated. Sounds cliched I know, but I wouldn't want to give a good story away.

Young adult readers would enjoy this book very much, especially if you're into supernatural powers and stories about demons.

Currently Reading: Feb '09

Hakanai Hane












Erica T

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

The boy Garion had spent his whole life in the confortable safety of Faldor's farm with his Aunt Pol who seems to be at the center of everything that goes on in her domain, the kitchen. He got into all sorts of mischief as a child but as he got older he began to wonder who his parents were, what the strange, pale circular mark on his palm means, and started feeling possessive about a childhood friend of his who started to blossom in interesting ways. However, a visit to a neighboring town with the incorrigible old rogue, Mister Wolf, changed Garion's life faster than he can say the names of the seven Gods. He suddenly found himself in the middle of a quest with Mister Wolf, Aunt Pol, Barak and Silk against an enemy that he knows nothing about. The frustrating thing is that nobody seems to want to tell him anything... What on earth is going on?

This is definitely one of my all time favorites! It was the first adult fantasy book I'd ever read and I remember finishing a book or two from this series in a day. If you want to start reading something in the fantasy genre, this would be a great book to start off with. Eddings' humorous writing makes the characters a fascinating and lovable lot. This is the first book of the Belgariad series. A MUST READ!!!

*A word of warning to those who have read tonnes of fantasy novels and have not read this one. You will find it extremely cliched. However just bear in mind that this book was written in the 1980's.

Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan

The Gods are fairly silent in the reality to most of us but in this book, the religious representatives of the people, The White, see their five Gods on a periodic basis. This is a world where Dreamweavers are being persecuted and feared by the Hanian people that they offer their healing services to. It has everything from a community of flying people and underwater dwellers created and favored by one of the gods, forbidden love, a mysterious cult from the south with sorcerous leaders clad in black that, according to hearsay, recruits followers by conducting religious orgies among other sacrilegious activities, and mysterious, powerful sorcerors on the run from the persecution of the White. It makes you wonder, whose side these people are on. And why do these five supposedly benevolent Gods instruct the White to destroy a people at one point or stay their hand at the next? And are they truly the only survivors of the great war between the Gods that happened once upon a time?

The great thing about this book is the way she wrote about the numerous and complex main characters that make this fantastic world go round. She introduced them all fairly early in the story. I normally go ballistic when authors keep you on tenterhooks about one character for the first third of the tale and then suddenly decide to switch to a completely new one during the second third. It throws me off but I have to admit, it makes the book all the more difficult to put down. I enjoyed how everything connected and lent itself to the mystery surrounding some of the more enigmatic characters. All in all a good read. This book is the first in Canavan's second trilogy, Age of the Five. For those who are just starting off in the fantasy genre, you might no want to try out this book just yet as it's a little heavy.

A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton

This book is the 8th installment in the Meredith Gentry series. As a fantasy novel, it falls heavily into the romance genre as the book is chock full of authorized promiscuity in the faerie world. Faeries are normally potrayed as whimsically beautiful, ephemereal, magical creatures or as extremely sexual beings who commonly take it in their heads to seduce (mainly) the heroine or hero of the story for their own evil(?) or enigmatic purposes. This tale of course plays on the latter except all the seduction takes place between faeries. Our heroine, Meredith Gentry, is the half-human, half Unseelie daughter of the deceased Prince of the Unseelie court. She has always been caught up in the drama and politics between the various faerie factions but as the years go by, each encounter seems more perilous than the next. Thankfully, her Darkness and Frost are always there by her side to support her. This time around, Meredith has to secure her throne by following her sadistic Aunt's (The current Queen of the Unseelie) terms and deal with a horrible and unexpected accusation made by the Seelie King through human laws against her bodyguards. What makes this turn of events terrifying is the fact that the King had tried to kill her before... For those who love both the romance and fantasy genre, this book is definitely for you. It provides a good blend of both genres as it has all the spice of sizzling sex yet it retains the wonder and mystery of magic. All in all a great read!

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know
what to do with himself - not just sometimes, but always.

It's really wonderful to be able to revisit old books, especially those that you have read as a child. However, this book in particular, seems to transcend any age group.

What's so amazing is that when you go back to this book as an older version of yourself you tend to appreciate the clever way it was written even more. Mr. Juster has cleverly taken concepts from Math and English and created a whole adventure out of them, sharing with the reader, his sharp wit and wonderful sense of humour.

So pick that book up and be immersed and visit the Island of Conclusions, escape the doldrums the Kingdom of Dictionopolis, meet Tock a watch dog in more ways than one, and encounter the ongoing, heated debate about the supremacy of numbers and words and join the Mathemagician for some (-) stew. Endure all the perils, excitement and more, of going on a crazy quest to restore order in an equally crazy world by looking for rhyme and reason.

A reccommended read for preteens to young teenagers and for all the adults who would like to stroll down memory lane and be entertained by this marvellous weave. I love how this book unexpectedly changes your point of view on our seemingly mundane world.

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