Adventures, and their Different Forms

I first read The Hobbit when I was about thirteen years old. Since then I think I’ve read it about four times over, but I’ve never appreciated the book more than when I read it during my first semester at university. The line that stood out to me most: “adventures are not all pony-rides in May sunshine”.

This may seem a fairly inconsequential line. And maybe it wasn’t written with any deeper meaning intended. The quote, as I’ve copied it down, is just a few words in a much longer sentence in the actual book, so that I barely noticed it during the first readings.

But here’s the thing: for me, university was an adventure. Living away from my parents for the first time was an adventure. Adult life in general was one big adventure that I had somehow found myself wound up in, and having Bilbo with me, wanting desperately to just give up and go home, was – and is – a great comfort to me.

This is why I love The Hobbit so much. It acknowledges that, no, adventures are never a smooth ride. And you might want to avoid going on one in the first place, lest you make yourself late for dinner. And once you’re out there, there will be times that you’ll want nothing more than to be back at home, safe and sound and comfortable once again.

But going home isn’t always possible. More important, it isn’t always the right thing to do. Adventures may not be all pony-rides in May sunshine, but they are necessary, and they are most definitely good for you.

Adventures are also not all of one sort. And if Bilbo can face Smaug the Magnificent, Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities, then I can at least attempt to face my own life, whatever that may entail.

the Earthsea Quartet by Ursula le Guin

I have to admit that I completely judged this book by its cover. I saw it in a bookshop, the cover caught my eye, and I bought it. There was no blurb on my copy, so I didn’t even have a brief synopsis, but there were dragons on the cover, and I reasoned that dragons are always good to read about, so I got quite excited about reading a book that I essentially knew nothing about for the first time.
The Earthsea Quartet is a fantasy series set in a world made up of hundreds of little islands, where dragons exist and wizards are trained to fight for good or for evil. The series follows the adventures of Sparrowhawk, a wizard, along with various other characters, including Arren, a prince, and Tenar, a child priestess.
I’m sad to say that I was a bit disappointed by this book. I felt as though it just didn’t really add anything to an already-existing genre. In all fairness, I probably read this book at the wrong time, since I was really wanting to read The Winds of Winter which hasn’t been written yet and thought starting a new fantasy series set in another fantasy world would be a good substitute, and I probably shouldn’t have read all four books at once, as if they were all one big book, but I knew that if I didn’t I would never come back to this series, and I wanted to persevere with it. Nevertheless, I felt like there wasn’t a lot of character development and there were points where the book really lagged.
That said, I did really enjoy The Tombs of Atuan and I quite enjoyed Tehanu as well. I think a lot of that was to do with them being told from Tenar’s perspective, who was probably the most interesting and complex character in the series. Tehanu was also written in a very different style and offered the most in-depth character development, particularly in Sparrowhawk’s case, while dealing with some important issues in society, such as sexism and child abuse, and even threw some romance into the mix. However, despite being an enjoyable read, the final book in The Earthsea Quartet was lacking in plot development and had a rather rushed and confusing conclusion which left a few loose ends still dangling.
Even A Wizard of Earthsea had some enjoyable parts. I loved Vetch and was genuinely moved when he told Sparrowhawk his true name.
Aside from all else, this is probably the only fantasy series I have ever read where the hero is not white, and I was very impressed with the racial diversity within the book.
All in all, this was not a bad book, but it is not one I would be in a hurry to read again, and I’m unlikely to recommend it to anyone else.

Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire

One of the things I love most about George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the brilliantly written, complex characters. Having recently finished reading A Feast for Crows, I was thinking about which characters I like the best, and why. I’ve also noticed that my feelings towards certain characters have changed over the course of the series.
Tyrion remains possibly my favourite character of the series, despite not actually appearing in A Feast for Crows. I just think his wit is incredible, and he appears to be one of the few people unafraid to stand up and put Joffrey in his place. I actually felt quite shocked, as the series went on, at the way he is mistreated and under-appreciated, even by the people he is supposed to be fighting alongside. Despite remaining stubbornly loyal to his family for most of the series, it seems that it is those people who should trust him who are bent on destroying him, and who go to great lengths to deny the enormous part he played in protecting King’s Landing from war.
However, speaking of the Lannisters, I must admit that I’m feeling increasingly sympathetic towards them. As I read on, I realise that they did not do all of the things I had previously thought they had (namely, starting the war in the first place) and I find myself trying to make justifications for the things that they did do. I actually kind of love Jaime, now, and when I admit this fact to friends who have only just started the series, I always have to respond to their horrified looks with “Don’t judge me – he gets better!” I truly think that Brienne was an extremely good influence on him, and I’ve been known to say something along the lines of, “Apart from throwing a child out of a window, he’s actually a really nice guy…” As for Cersei, well. I love to hate her. I can’t quite bring myself to like her – she’s just too awful. But at the same time, I enjoy her being in the series and do feel sorry for her at times.
One way in which I differ from many ASoIaF fans is that I’m never entirely sure whether I like Arya or not. I just think that she’s a little too ruthless and bloodthirsty – especially for a young girl. Also, I often feel as if she was orchestrated to be generally loved, and for that alone, I’m not entirely inclined to like her the way others do.

NOTE: I have not yet read A Dance With Dragons, so please, NO ONE tell me anything!

Edmund Pevensie (again)

I’ve said before that I hated Edmund for most of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, I think that he is now starting to emerge as my favourite of the four Pevensie children. After reading Prince Caspian, I now kind of love him, and I think that he is by far the most developed character in The Chronicles of Narnia.
I am glad to say that Edmund has well and truly learned the error of his ways. He is no longer spiteful, selfish, unkind or dishonest, and I think it’s amazing how much he has managed to grow. As opposed to before teasing Lucy mercilessly for claiming to find a magical world in the back of a wardrobe, in Prince Caspian, he is the only one who believes her when she says she sees Aslan, even though he can’t see him himself. This faith in his younger sister is even stronger as a result of his earlier cynicism. The evidence of just how far Edmund has come is in Aslan’s words of greeting to him: “Well done.”
Edmund was interesting, and by far more interesting than the rest of the characters. The reason for this was that he wasn’t perfect, which is okay, since no real person is. He got annoyed at the others putting fish in his hat (and, after all, who wouldn’t?). He teased Trumpkin, although fairly amicably, nicknaming him the D.L.F. (Dear Little Friend). He intends to be supportive to Lucy, but ends up snapping at her, as a result of being woken up in the middle of the night.
There are also some points in the book where he does some things that are just incredibly daft, such as eating earth because he thought it looked like chocolate, or leaving behind his torch in Narnia. To me, these moments were endearing, and adding more realism to his character.
The transformation of Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Edmund in Prince Caspian is astonishing and one that I really appreciated. I loved coming to love his character, and I loved that even when he was King Edmund, he was still really just a daft wee laddie.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd

If I’d had a better idea of what this book was about, I would not have read it directly after The Fault in Our Stars, since I usually try to vary my reading, by not reading too many similar books in a row. Saying that, the only real similarities between the two books are the theme of cancer and the inevitably unhappy ending. Aside from that, A Monster Calls seemed fairly unique.
A Monster Calls begins with a monster coming to visit a young boy called Conor, who is going through a lot of problems. His mum has cancer, his dad lives far away, and he’s being bullied at school. To Conor’s bewilderment, the Monster tells him that he has been summoned by Conor and will first tell him three stories, then ask for a story in return.
I loved the way the book was laid out, with black and white sketches across the pages, telling the story along with the words. It wasn’t a graphic novel, but it wouldn’t have been the same without the drawings on nearly every page.
Another thing which I always like in a book is a story within a story, so the Monster’s three stories fell on very welcome ears. They were like fairy tales, and yet unlike them as well. What I mean by that is that they began like fairy tales, but ended unlike any fairy tale would. The endings were confusing and complicated and often unhappy, just as the endings of a person’s stories of their real life can be. The Monster shows Conor that sometimes, what you ask for isn’t really what you want, when you come to get it.
At the end of the book, I began to wonder if the Monster was really real at all, or if it was just Conor’s way of coping with what was happening to his mum. It seems to me that many of the conversations held between Conor and the Monster could have actually been between Conor and his own internal voice – the monster that he felt was inside himself. What is clear, throughout almost all of the book, is that the Monster isn’t really a monster at all. The only real monster is cancer, and it is a harder monster to fight than the type of monsters most children are afraid of. Hence, Conor telling the Monster that he has seen worse, when they first met.
I read this book nearly all in one go. It’s a perfect book to just curl up with and lose yourself in, and was quite different from anything I would usually read, being a mix of fantasy and realism. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys that mix of fairy tales with reality, and anyone who is looking for a story that seems so very real and true. It is beautifully told.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

As the conclusive instalment to the series The Mortal Instruments, I had long awaited this book and it was with extreme excitement that I finally began to read it. In fact, this book was so popular that I wound up buying the very last copy from my local bookshop, with the oddly satisfying knowledge that many fangirls would be raging at me when they went to get a copy of their own.
City of Heavenly Fire is, as I’ve said, the final book in The Mortal Instruments, a fantasy series about shadowhunters, who fight demons, and downworlders (werewolves, vampires, warlocks and faeries). In this book, a group of young shadowhunters and downworlders attempt to unite Downworld and defeat Sebastian, a shadowhunter corrupted with higher demon blood who is trying to destroy the world and rule Hell. What he also wants more than anything is his sister, Clary, who he thinks he loves, despite not having a real understanding of what love actually means.
What I have to say more than anything is that Cassandra Clare is a fantastic writer. I am always amazed at how she has managed to create this extraordinarily vivid fantasy world and get so many stories out of it. She’s created a niche for herself, and yet within that, her books have so much range, from humour that makes you laugh out loud to battle scenes that made me physically cringe from the gore. I am rarely into books as much as I get into these. And what I mean by that is that when I read her books, I am literally on the edge of my seat. Twice during reading this book, I started saying “no no no no no” out loud. Cassandra Clare’s writing inspires me, as a writer, and sets the bar extremely high for what I might try to write.
I loved the many unique and individual characters throughout this series. My all-time favourite character from a Cassandra Clare novel has got to be Will Herondale, but as he did not feature in this book, I’d have to say that my favourite character from this is Simon Lewis. He is just wonderful. He has some of the best one-liners in the series, and he is also a good and loyal friend, especially to Clary. I won’t spoil what happens, but there is this bit near the end where Simon makes this huge sacrifice for the rest of the characters and it was actually so heart-breakingly brave that I considered never reading another Cassandra Clare novel again, or at least writing to her and telling her to change it.
The ending was, I thought, very satisfying. It tied up everything together nicely and was much happier than I’d actually expected it to be. It gave a glimpse of hope for the future alongside the reality of the loss felt when a war ends, even when it ends in victory. I was also pleased to see that the ending of this book set up the beginning of a sequel series very nicely. However, I had hoped and expected for Sebastian to have a different ending than he did, but at least what happened made sense.
I enjoyed this book immensely and will be eager to devour anything Cassandra Clare writes. I also plan to read this series again from the beginning to enjoy it again. I strongly recommend this book.

A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin

This was – and still is – a big book. The problem for me with reading big books is that there’re that little bit more difficult to carry around and they can take ages to finish, especially if you’re a slow reader, like me. Nevertheless, this book was worth it. Without a doubt.
A Clash of Kings is the second book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire, of which A Game of Thrones is the first. It basically picks up where A Game of Thrones left off, and is called A Clash of Kings because there are so many people at this time in the series who think they should be king. It’s quite a complicated story with many complex characters, but that’s the basic jist of it.
I definately prefer this book to the previous one in the series. Where A Game of Thrones didn’t start to feel properly exciting until it reached its climax near the end, I felt that A Clash of Kings got into the drama and action much more quickly. Apart from the first few chapters where nothing much actually happened (which I’m fine with, to be honest, since the chapters were still well written and necessary in order to develop each character’s backstory) almost every chapter was impossible to stop reading, with the exception of a few slightly less interesting chapters here and there.
There were times when I thought, “This book is blowing my mind.” For example, one night, I stayed up til nearly one in the morning reading it, thinking I would just read up to the end of the battle that was taking place, before realising that the battle went on for four more chapters. (By the way, I liked how here the book swings back and forth between Sansa’s point of view and Tyrion’s point of view, rather than simply giving each character an incredibly long chapter.) After finally putting the book down, I remained a little stunned. So much happened in the book that it would have been impossible to foresee the ending of the second book from the ending of the first. I feel that each of the characters travelled a long way, taking me with them as they went.
This book also had a much larger element of fantasy compared to the first one. It was still for the most part a fictional historical drama, but I enjoyed the introduction of “green dreams” and “wargs”, although I know things like that aren’t to everyone’s taste.
Part of what I love about this series is that each character has their own unique and complex personality and backstory, rather than in some books or movies where characters exist only to hold the plot together and have only a vague personality at best.
For example, I loving getting a better look-in at who Theon was as a person. And although I strongly disliked him, I also felt incredibly sorry for him. He’s unpleasant enough to those around him, but he’s also kind of lost. He doesn’t know whose side he should be on, or where he belongs. He feels he doesn’t belong anywhere, and he’s right, to an extent. And that isn’t his fault, although it doesn’t excuse his later actions. He actually reminded me a little of Macbeth towards the end, as his guilt and regret consumed him, and he realised he was alone and hated by those who were once his friends, with nothing remaining to him but an empty title he’d given himself.
I also think I’m beginning to like Sansa a lot more, despite the fact that I used to hate her. She really loses a lot of her naivety, as she realises the harsh reality of her situation. Nevertheless, she still spends a lot of time waiting around for some knight in shining armour – literally – to rescue her. But then again, what else can she do?
Whilst reading this book, I also began watching the TV series Game of Thrones. I’ve only watched the first four episodes of the show so far, and I think it’s very good, but doesn’t compare to the book. The book is much easier to understand, and explores the characters’ personalities a lot more deeply. However, that may be due to the fact that I’ve only just started watching it, and I definitely plan to continue with it.
This book, like I said, blew my mind. It’s very much character driven, which I love and is incredibly exciting and climatic. I recommend it to fans of fantasy and/or historical dramas. It may take a while to read, but trust me, it’s worth it.

Mort by Terry Pratchett

I was really looking forward to reading this. In previous Discworld novels, I had loved the character of Death, and the idea of his having an apprentice was one that intrigued me incredibly. It’s something that is at the same time completely original and something surprisingly natural. After all, why not?
Mort is about a young boy who is instructed by his father to get an apprenticeship, but the only person who will take him on is Death. The only real trouble is that Mort, struck by the frequent injustice of his profession, attempts to save the life of a princess, thus upsetting the entire future of history.
I loved the way the book explains the ridiculousness of the Disc (a flat disc on the backs of four elephants, on the back of a giant turtle that swims through space) by saying that “A million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten”. And, in fact, the existence of something so mind-bogglingly random is possible, and once you have accepted that, it’s easy to believe that everything that occurs on the Disc is entirely rational and realistic.
The way the book ended was not at all what I expected at the beginning of the book, but I think I liked the way it did end better. It was a slightly less conventional ending to a fairytale and it suited the characters all much better.
Mort also had some brilliant lines. One of my favourites is when a man says to Mort, “Look, I’ll be frank, I can direct you to a great brothel” and Mort replies with all of his affable innocence, “I’ve already had lunch.” Another was when the book was was explaining Ankh-Morpork’s voting system of “One man, one vote”: “The Patrician was the man; he had the vote.” And a third was the line that I feel sums up the Discworld novels entirely: “When you’re a god, you don’t have to have a reason.”
I have to say, I was thrilled to see the unexpected reappearance of Rincewind. I especially liked that when he reappears, he is desperately and futilely apologising for some unknown drunken obscenity he had performed against a statue. Also, for some reason, I always forget that the head librarian at Unseen University is an orang-outang, so the reminder of that always makes me smile.
What slightly confused me was the certain amount of incongruity between Mort and the glimpse of the house of Death seen in The Light Fantastic. It’s a small thing, but I don’t understand why Mort speaksin block capitals in The Light Fantastic, whereas in Mort, he rarely does. Also, why do Deaths friends from The Light Fantastic not feature in Mort? And I found Ysabel to be a much saner and more likeable character in Mort, but that may be due to a more thourough development of her character. I suppose none of these things really matter, but they were confusing for me.
This is quite possibly the best and funniest Discworld novels I have read so far, and i recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy or humour, and anyone who can believe in the possibility of anything, however random.

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Reading this book, I was reminded of the year I dressed up as a wizard for Halloween. For the past few years, I’d been a pumpkin and I was desperate to be a pumpkin no longer, as I didn’t see what could possibly be scary about a piece of fruit. But I didn’t want to be a witch either, as all the other little girls invariably dressed up as witches. So, in an effort to be a little bit different, I dressed up as a wizard, complete with starry cloak, pointy hat and an orange t-shirt with a picture of a planet on it. However, much to my dismay, no one understood what I was. Even when I told them. The whole night, everyone I met asked me if I didn’t mean I was a witch, since, according to them, girls couldn’t be wizards. And now, years later, I wish I had read Equal Rites to shove it in everyone’s questioning faces.
As can be deduced from my hopefully-not-too-boring antidote, Equal Rites is about a young girl trying to become a wizard. In truth, she actually is a wizard, but one in desperate need of training. With some training as a witch under her belt, Esk sets off to join Unseen University, where wizards go to study. There, she has to overcome not only the chauvinistic leaders in wizardry, but the “unimaginable terrors” that feed off magic.
I found the plot of Equal Rites somewhat simpler than other Discworld novels I’ve read, despite retaining the same illogical logic and clever humour. I suppose the main difference was that it was considerably less random than the other books. I flew through this book, and am even now laughing in retrospect at Terry Pratchett’s wit.
The main theme of equal opportunities for men and women is very well dealt with in this book. Although the reader is put in no doubt that Esk was destined to be a wizard from birth, the book doesn’t simply consist of women fighting against men. I liked that, because the idea of female versus male seems to me unrealistic and unhelpful when struggling to achieve equal opportunities. Even Granny Weatherwax, the one who decides that Esk needs to go to Unseen University, agrees with everyone else that wizardry should be for men and witchcraft should be for women.
I particularly liked the character of Simon. He seems like a nice guy, and someone who genuinely wants to help Esk. He is also the first person besides Esk to wonder why women can’t be wizards, rather than simply saying that they can’t, and that’s that. For some reason, I was surprised that he was actually very good at magic. I’m not sure if it was the earlier observation that he “did everything inexpertly” or his own self-deprecating manner, but I was (wrongly) convinced that he would be no good as a wizard.
I also really liked the no-nonsense character of Granny and the way she manages to get everything to listen to her. I love how she charges into Unseen University despite “lore” in order to sort everything out, and how she manages to fly a broomstick so close to the ground that she’s actually lower down than if she was simply walking.
I loved this book, and recommend it to anyone who can understand the frustration of being told a women can’t be a wizard, just because.

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I had heard of this book for a long time before reading it, without ever actually knowing what it was, or what it was about. However, I recently heard that it was very, very funny, and so I read it hoping for a laugh and a good story.
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the story of what happened to the last remaining inhabitants of Earth after it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. More specifically, it is the story of Arthur Dent, who is just an ordinary guy, really, and his friend Ford Prefect, who is an alien hitch hiker who had been stranded on Earth for the past fifteen years. It is the story of a few other things as well, but I don’t want to give too much away.
I’ve said I read it hoping for a laugh, and I have to say that there were definately some laugh-out-loud moments. I particularly liked the bit about the Vogon poetry. I love the idea of using poetry as an instrument of torture and of Ford screaming in agony while Arthur says that he quite liked it, actually. And, in future, I will definately take the Guide’s advice of counting aggressively at computers, because it is the equivalent of saying “blood” over and over to a human being.
Someone told me they had thought The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was written by Terry Pratchett, and there were in fact times when I thought the only difference between this book and something Terry Pratchett would write was that Douglas Adams had written it first. It has the same humour as a Terry Pratchett book, the same occasional randomness, and the same logic that shouldn’t make sense and yet does, against all reason.
Overall, I liked this book, and plan to read the rest of the books in this Trilogy of Five. I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy or sci-fi and anyone who enjoys a little bit of random humour.