Reviews - Sci Fi/Fantasy

"The Magician's Nephew" By: C.S. Lewis

Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer go on an adventure with the accidental help of Digory's Uncle, Andrew. Uncle Andrew developed two rings with the color of yellow and two more with green. The rings transport you to another world. When Digory has to rescue Polly from the world, they both find Queen Jadis (AKA: The White Witch) and when the children try to go back to their world, the queen goes with them. She causes chaos and destruction while she's there for a short period of time. Then Digory takes the queen, Polly, Uncle Andrew, the cabby, and the cabby's horse, Strawberry to another world that they haven't seen before. Then a they hear a sweet song and it's coming from a big lion. (AKA: Aslan) Then new life springs up everywhere along with animals of all sorts. Then Digory asks Aslan if there is anything he can bring back to make his mother well again. Aslan sends him on a mission to get a special fruit. When he returns, Aslan tells Digory to throw the fruit in the mud by the river. From that, grows a big, beautiful tree what has fruit, and that fruit is what Digory must take to make his mother better. When everyone goes back to where they are supposed to be, Digory's mother becomes well again, and after that, Digory plants the fruit core in the backyard. When years past by, a big storm came through and tore down the tree. Digory uses the tree for firewood and uses the rest to make a big wardrobe.

I chose this book because it tells how Narnia became Narnia. It also has a good adventure to it, also!

I really enjoyed this book and I think that others will too.

People who like to know how certain things came to be and like adventure would probably like this book.

Review of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

First off, I chose this book because I enjoyed an animated movie by the same title. The movie had an interesting story line, and it was very good. So, I decided to see if the director of the movie kept the storyline and other details close to the book.

Howl's Moving Castle is mainly about a girl named Sophie who is the eldest of three. After Sophie's father dies and Sophie's stepmother does not know what to do with Sophie and her two sisters, her stepmother, Fanny, sends the youngest sister, Martha, to be an apprentice to a witch; the middle sister, Lettie, is sent to be an apprentice at a bakery in Market Chipping where they live; and Sophie, since she is the eldest, stays for an apprenticeship at the family hat shop. Sophie is shy and does not mind staying where she is at because she is good at making hats, and also the eldest of three is not supposed to make anything of themselves. In their land of Ingary, the people are scared of two people specifically, the Witch of the Waste and Wizard Howl (who sucks the souls of young girls). So one day when Sophie is selling hats in the shop, a mysterious woman enters the shop asking to see hats, but turns out to have a problem with Sophie. The women turns out to be the Witch of the Waste and sets a horrible curse on Sophie in which she is transformed into an old lady. Sophie, having no other choice, sets off to not burden any of her family. Sophie comes upon the wizard Howl's moving castle while on this journey. Sophie has no idea how much she will discover about herself once she enters the castle. She'll make a deal with a fire demon, brave Howl and the Witch of the Waste, and the most difficult thing, cleaning Howl's muddled castle.

I love the book. I will probably fall in love with it on page one everytime I read it. The movie keeps the storyline and the details are pretty close, so it makes it that much better when you can see what someone else saw of this book.

The person who would enjoy this book would be someone who likes those magical worlds that you can fall in love with. There are romances that are discreetly shown. Someone who likes magic would love this book.

The book I chose to read was the first book of the Alera Codex series, called The Furies of Chalderon by Jim Butcher.

This book is about several characters, which can get confusing, but it is mostly about a boy named Tavi and a girl named Amara. They live in a world in which every person has the ability to control elemental creatures called Furies. Well, almost everyone. Tavi, well over the age one normally gets one, has no Fury to call his own. He lives with his uncle and aunt on a sheep farm and tends to the sheep. But when he tries to do a favor for a girl, he looses the sheep. After going with his uncle to get them back, they find the sheep all killed and discover a race once ran out of their boundaries are coming back once more. The Marat are savages and act as such. After a near death experience, Tavi is rescued by Amara and he hides her, as she is on the run. And so Tavi, Amara and his family all go on a few connected, but separate journeys that will change the fate of their home.

I will always love Jim Butchers books. They are always so well developed and so interesting... even if it is very obviously written by a man. His books are awesome either way.

Anyone who enjoys an immersible, well written and humorous fantasy should give this book a try!

For my first book review I chose to read Web of Air by Philip Reeve. It is the sequel to Fever Crumb, the second book in the Fever Crumb series.

First off it starts with a new character named Arlo Thursday. He begins to climb a cliff as these birds called angels follow him, angels are mutant birds who have fingers at the end of their wings and can speak . Well there is a storm coming and him father and grandfather were working in the shipyard. His family was the best ship builders ever on the island. As he reached the top the angels began to yell “wave!” as a giant wave came closer and closer to the island as he ran. When the wave subsided there was nothing left but him and the angels. Then this character does not appear for awhile as it returns to the main character, Fever. Her and her new friends on a traveling theatre arrive in mayda also known as the world’s end. Here they shay for a few days and Fever runs into some obstacles with a religious group. And meets another engineer named Dr. Teal. She hears of these stories of a boy who is trying to create a flying machine his name is Arlo so she goes and finds him but by doing this she gets mixed up in a lot of trouble. She then is kidnapped by Flynn who is then killed by Vishniak who also killed another man who tried to fly. Then she is chased and returns to Arlo’s House where she is then kidnapped by Fat Jago. He then has her tied to some tracks so she will be killed but then Arlo saves her. And they take his boat to the isles where he grew up. They stay in the watchtower to build the Aeroplane. Fever and Arlo begin to develop a strong relationship as they work together. Arlo finally flies but not for long then he crashes and they have to rebuild it.by this time both Fat Jago and Dr.Teal know where they are so Fat Jago gets his crew on one of his largest boats to the isles and Teal and the mayor hop on a small boat. They fight off the men but Jago gets up and as he’s attacking Fever he throws a bullet chain into the fire and the bullets explode. So Jago died from the shots too the back. When Dr.Teal shows up he is not himself as he holds a gun to Arlo’s head. Quickly Fever fights back and gets Teal tied up.. But Arlo is hurt from a bullet to the arm. She gets in the aeroplane and flies over the ocean but is shot down. Luckily her mother rescues her and later she awakes in the ship. But she learns that her mother was involved with trying to kill Arlo so to keep him safe she makes a deal that if he never tries to flay again he can live and she must go to the priestess on mayda and tell her that the goddess told her that flying is bad. So she did but Arlo no longer trusts her. And when she goes to his house it is destroyed and her mother tries to comfort her but she runs to the dock to see if he is still thee but its to late he is already sailing away. She cries after him yelling his name but he doesn’t turn around she says she wants to go with him but he gust fades into the distance. She is once again all alone and now she must go back to London.

I chose this book because I loved the first one and it is very well written.

My opinion This book is great you really get attached to the characters and you care for them. Also the ending is really sad and when I finished it I didn’t cry but the second I walked out of my room I burst into tears.
If you like steampunk and adventure I would recommend this series and if you like feeling what the character feels. But if you don’t want to cry don’t read this. But it is a very good book.

Unwholly by Neil Shusterman is a thrilling and gripping futuristic sequel to Unwind. This sequel is about the survival of Connor, Lev, and Risa who survived a bombing at a harvest camp in the previous book Unwind. Connor, known as the Akron AWOL, protects a group of runaway Unwinds in Arizona with the help of Risa who is paralyzed from the neck down. The term "unwind," explained in the first book, is when the parent of a child decides to have he or she put into the divided state. All the body parts of this child, being in the age of thirteen to seventeen, are given to others. This procedure may sound like a good thing similar to organ doning but it was used to get rid of troubled teens who rioted against the country. Neil Shusterman grabs the attention of the reader by realing them in with the creation of a "superhuman" named Cam who was made out of all the best unwind parts in the country. The story continues with the journey of Connor, Risa, and Lev who meet several people who make them change and survive the world of unwinding. With a shocking twist at the end of the book, Neil Shusterman had me reading page after page not wanting to put the book down. As disturbing as the book was, Shusterman grabs the attention of the reader in making them realize that real life's future could be this way. I absolutely loved this book and now I don't know what to do that I'm done reading it! If you want and gripping thriller of the future with a disturbing twist definitely read Unwholly by Neil Shusterman!

I chose to read The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. The lost hero is the first book of The Heros of Olympus seris. It is some what connected to the lighting thief seris. I didn't finish the lightning thief seris my self. The Lost Hero is about three demigods who go to Canada to talk to the North wind. That's all I'm going to say with out spoiling it. I loved the lost hero it was a very good book I couldn't stop reading it!