Links of Interest for Authors
Published and Self-Published Novels Reviewed
Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, has received much praise as a children’s book and has made it on to reading lists of many elementary schools. I have read many reviews about the book from people of all ages who thoroughly enjoyed it. I have also talked to people that have likewise read and enjoyed it.
Because of its acclaim, it has now been made into a major motion picture staring Brendan Fraser.
Mistborn is the first book in the Mistborn trilogy, and the second book by author Brandon Sanderson. In Mistborn, Sanderson introduces us to a whole new set of magical rules than the ones from his debut novel Elantris.
In a nutshell, the plot of Mistborn is simple. A street urchin with magical powers (known in the Mistborn trilogy as allomancy) is befriended by the resistance in hopes of her helping to overthrow a ruthless and immortal dictator who has governed and enslaved the peoples of the world for a thousand years, and, unless something is done, is likely to continue for many millennia more.
I have to admit that when I first figured out the plot Brandon Sanderson’s debut novel, Elantris, I was quite intrigued. Despite his being a novice, Sanderson does a masterful job in setting up a totally new land and a new magic system in very little time. Most interesting of all, however, is when you are introduced to the protagonist — a prince turned zombie.
I’m not a big Science Fiction person. I probably haven’t read all of the best Science Fiction stories out there. Of all of them that I have read, though, my favorite by far is Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card.
(In fact, I am privileged to have an autographed copy of the book.)
Enders Game originally started as a novelette. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I think he wrote the original story while he was still a student at Brigham Young University. Orson Scott Card later changed it into a full-length novel. Not long after garnering a lot of praise and awards for Ender’s Game, he wrote more books about the same characters including another award winning novel and another novel, Ender’s Shadow, where Ender’s Game is retold from another point of view.
Ender Wiggin is a third, the third child in a family where families are only allowed to have two children unless they receive special permission from the government to do otherwise. The government is constantly fighting against a group of insect-like aliens called Buggers, and Earth is constantly training children up from a young age to be able to fight against them. Earth has already survived two invasions and they are expecting the Third Invasion at any time. The rest of the book recounts his time at “Battle School” where he and his teammates have to compete in a variety of different exercises first against other teams and later against computer-simulated Bugger squadrons.
If I had to pick two words to describe Ender’s Game, I would pick Continue reading
My daughter read the three books in the Land of Elyon, by Patrick Carman, and enjoyed them immensely.
She asked me to read them, and I agreed.
I enjoyed the first book, the Dark Hills Divide, more than the next two books. The Dark Hills Divide stars a girl who lives in a group of three cities. The three cities have been completely surrounded by a large wall through the efforts of one of the founders of the cities. This wall is meant to protect the cities from the outside and does so rather well, limiting trade with the outside to that which can be tightly managed and keeping the villagers safe. The girl, Alexa Daley, however is a wanderer and does not enjoy being kept within the walls. When she manages to escape, she finds that she is missing out on a magical but dangerous world.
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