Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Sites | Writers | Advertise | My Orble | Login
 
The reading of all good books is indeed like a carefully studied conversation... with the noblest men... in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts. ~ Rene Decartes

Paper Cover - September 2006

Across the Nightingale Floor

September 29th 2006 00:01
My sisters call me nipponiac, because I love anything Japanese. Heck, I'm even dishing out the five years of my uni life just studying about everything and anything in the land of the rising sun.

That's why I was happy to find this novel worthy of reading.

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn


And, I can say that I jumped into the bandwagon before everyone else in the world did. This is book one of the Otori Trilogy, as told by the main characters Otori Takeo and Shirakawa Kaede. The story is gripping right from the very beginning, and I have virtually no bad things to say about it.

Set in feudal Japan, we mostly follow Takeo's life as he grows up as a "weak", little boy of a religious, forbidden sect called the Hidden (We get hints of what this religion is, but we wouldn't be told until the last few chapters of book 3). After witnessing his whole village massacred, and being the sole survivor of it all, he is adopted by a powerful Lord Otori Shigeru. He is then trained in the ways of some form of a super samurai x ninja (we also learn many of his life's secrets, but we're also left with a lot of holes to be filled by the second and third books).

If I say anything more, I would be ruining the little surprises and twists in the story, and we don't want that, do we? This is one of those books that are so compact in plot and character that anything else will unravel that delicious mystery Lian Hearn has managed to entwine. All I can say is, this series oh so addictive and I hope that if they ever make a film out of this series, they better do the books some justice.


I promise you, dear readers, that you won't be disappointed when you read this. Even my chick-literature-addicted sister loved it.

I rate this novel:
10/10


** Image taken from http://www.booksdirect.com.au
141
Vote
Shared on
   


The Silver Road

September 17th 2006 05:53
The Silver Road - Grace Dugan
The Silver Road - Grace Dugan
The Silver Road is an alright story. I didn't have high expectations for it but it turned out to be an OK story with enough twists to keep the reader amused.

The Silver Road follows the lives of Zuven, a 16 year old foundling with a mysterious past, Yelala (the character that stands out most) a noblewoman who has dedicated her life as a soldier, and Haga, eldest son of a baron and has dedicated his life to rebellion. Together their lives intertwine as they try to kick evil old king off the throne.

I'll let you in to a little spoiler: The three of them will never succeed in usurping the king. The king will be kicked off by somebody else, and will be replaced by another evil old king before these three finally succeeds what they were planning to do.

You know what's lacking in this story? A good relationship between the characters instead of just a "meh" kind of thing between them. The only characters who actually gets a good relationship are Yelala and Flite, and you'll only get it in Chapter 50 of the overall 59 chapters of the book. The other two characters, Zuven and Haga, are a little hostile and sounded to me like they were just using each other.

Another thing is establishing a sort of reader-character relationship. I found the two main characters (Zuven and Haga) quite unlikeable (Like how I found myself disliking Fanny Price of Mansfield Park). One way to establish this relationship is to maybe invite the readers to decipher messages, add mysteries and intrigue, etc.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this novel. Being 6 years in the making, Dugal certainly did a great job on it. It's not the same as other fantasy books out there. The plot here is very compact, and anything "fantastical" is kept to a minimum. This book reminds me of Lian Hearn's The Otori Trilogy in terms of characters, setting, and plot.

This novel can be bought from bookstores everywhere for $20 ($19.95 at Dymocks).

I rate this novel:
8/10



//Book cover from http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/2006/08/review-silver-road-by-grace-dugan.html
115
Vote
Shared on
   


Beware the bargain zombies

September 13th 2006 04:57
Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a book review, nor book gossip, nor any news about new books.

This is a straight out blog for every book consumer out there. Listen closely and listen well.

Being a bookworm, I rushed towards Sydney University's Quadrangle after hearing that a whole box full of the books of your choice would only cost $5. If you can't afford the $5 boxes, the books would only cost you half price. And knowing that the Great Hall is a big, big place, I knew that I was in for serious book bargains.

(And it's true. A Series of Unfortunate Events #8 only costed me 50c! That's a save of about $14.40)

Anyway, the bargains aren't the reason why I'm writing this. It's the amount of *ahem* enthusiasm that people have when they see the words "BARGAIN", "SALE", and "BOX OF BOOKS FOR $5!!!11!".

I was squeezing past people and gigantic backpacks when I spotted my Lemony Snicket treasure, hiding amongst hardcovers twice its size. I immediately picked it up and never let it go.

It was just then when I passed the Crime Fiction table and stopped to look at a Jeffrey Archer paperback when the girl standing across me started to flick through the books madly, picking up books and shoving it into her box.

Hmm. Enthusiastic bookworm, she is. I decided move to the next table (Literature, or was it Australiana?) and observe her. And sure enough, once I was out of her field of vision, she slowed down and started to sift through the books more slowly.

Wow. I turned around and almost crashed into a guy carrying two boxes (one for the girl behind him, I suppose), heading towards the cash register.

Wow. I never noticed it before, but when I looked around the Great Hall I see people throwing in their own cool Matrix moves as they dodge backpacks, heavy boxes, and lightning fast moves to grab any (random?) book before somebody else took it.

Ok, I'm hyping it. But in doing so, I think you know what I mean.

The point of this blog is not to relate to you a day in my life. No, lovely reader. It's to watch out for those bargain crazed zombies. They seem to be lost in their own little lalalands once they're in their environment, so be careful!

Of course, once I saw everyone doing it, I did it myself, snapping up two Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman books for a total cost of $1 (25c each!)

Oh, the irony of life.
145
Vote
Shared on
   


ATTN Aspiring Writers

September 9th 2006 00:08
Homeword '06, the Western Sydney Writers' Festival, kicks off at Parramatta Town Hall in Church St starting from today, 9 September.

This is your chance, oh aspiring and realised writers, to come and join workshops galore. Each workshop costs $5 to attend. Who knows, you might even see your favourite Orble blogger there (In the FLESH, ladies and gentlemen) --if they come, that is


[ Click here to read more ]
152
Vote
Shared on
   


Author's Awards

September 5th 2006 07:23
I'm sure that there are a lot of authors out there, published or not, who would want their pieces of magnificence etc to be recognised. Getting your stories published is hard enough already (remember that episode on Inspector Rex about the author turned murderer)... but winning an award? Sounds pretty tough, hmm? But according to this site, "Good books are often judged by the prizes they win. "

Enough about that. Here I've compiled a collection of awards that you, oh mighty author, can join. An award is an award is an award, oui mon ami


[ Click here to read more ]
135
Vote
Shared on
   


More Posts
1 Posts
5 Posts
6 Posts
14 Posts dating from July 2006
Email Subscription
Receive e-mail notifications of new posts on this blog:
Moderated by JonD
Copyright © 2006 2007 2008 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]