The Secret of Sinbad's Cave by Brydie Walker Bain

I took this novel around July last year and finishing it sixteen months later (with apologies to the author), I can say that the young readers will love this book. This fantasy-adventure story reminds me so much of Steven Spielberg's 1985 film The Goonies regarding the search for a lost treasure and skirmishes with modern day hunters and pirates. This one though, is populated with vibrant New Zealand flora and fauna like nikau palm, rewarewa seedlings, kereru, tui, koura, Waitomo glow worm, and also elements and representatives of Maori Mythology like the Pouakai (Haast Eagle) , Taotoru (Orions Belt), and the patupaiarehe (fairy) bird.

Story-wise and as stated earlier, it caters to the YA readership but I think adult readers will also appreciate it especially if you love the New Zealand outdoors (as widely popularized by Peter Jackson's LOTR film trilogy) and the adventures of spelunking/potholing/caving. My only issue so far is how the character Mike was depicted as having no clue with regard to his daughter's whereabouts just after that child asked him about the location of hidden caves in the area. In real world, a parent can connect-the-dot quickly. It appears that Mike is the opposite, the counter-weight to Abraham's wisdom that creates a balancing order, an unexpected equilibrium shared by the two patriarchs for the whole pack. The children on the other hand are reckless being themselves and definitely lucky making you realize that you are indeed reading a fantastic novel. What I like most in this book are the background stories concerning the protagonist's ancestry, all ancient and in some angle, mythological. Tattoed Maori warriors summoned into haka dance is also a memorable scene.

Overall the adventure here is quick paced and there is a promise of new adventures and new worlds to see for the gang and especially for their leader Nat. For her though, this is just a first step.

Pounamu Taunga necklace

Genre: Fantasy-adventure, YA
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

The Indispensable Calvin & Hobbes (1992)

Even if Bill Watterson ended the adventures of a rascal and his sardonic stuff tiger 20 years ago, there is still no comic strip in this world that has the same depth and meaning than Calvin & Hobbes. The 1992 collection easily earns my 5/5 rating simply because of this. The execution of a wordless story is perfect.


Genre: Humor, Comic strips
Rating: 5 flying snow balls out of 5

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon

I just simply like how the story ended.
Imagine what happens to Sherlock Holmes years after his retirement in the business, service, and art of crime detection. This is that book.

It's also cool to catch a glimpse of life (beyond the cliched borders of deductive reasoning) reflected from the eyes of the legend himself:

 The application of creative intelligence to a problem, the finding of a solution at once dogged, elegant, and wild, this had always seemed to him to be the essential business of human beings--the discovery of sense and casuality amid false leads, the noise, the trackless brambles of life. 

And yet he had always been haunted--had he not?--by the knowledge that there were men, lunatic cryptographers, mad detectives, who squandered their brilliance and sanity in decoding and interpreting messages in cloud formations, in the letters of the Bible recombined, in the spots on the butterflies' wings. One might, perhaps, conclude from the existence of such men that meaning dwelled solely in the mind of the analyst. That it was the insoluble problems--the false leads and the cold cases--that reflected the true nature of things.

This is my second Michael Chabon read after Gentlemen of the Road and it's been a worthwhile journey.


Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Rating: 3.5 alphabet songs

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card

This is one of those rare books that scored both the Hugo and Nebula Award for best novel in a single year and judging the readers' ongoing response from an online poll, it remains the most popular Sci Fi novel in the last century.

The Introduction part by OSC really sets the tone for me to look for that greatness that this novel promises to deliver and I would have completely agreed with it and should have given a five star rating if I was reading this novel as a young adult. But reading it as an adult, I would have chosen a different novel.

Make no mistake about it, it's a good book by Orson Scott Card, much better than his Seventh Son (Book 1 of the Alvin Maker historical fantasy series) which I enjoyed loosely in the past. Maybe my expectations are high and I'm tired of reading another alien race-or alien 'bugs' that are too becoming common and cliched as Robert Heinlein's bugs in Starship Troopers. Even the major plot twist here is not hard to imagine and anticipate but I prefer to focus both on the things I like and the things I dislike to make this review more useful.

First, I like the idea of using a weapon that is NOT nuclear. Nuclear weapon is a cliche. Second, even if Andrew "Ender" Wiggin sometimes whined like Holden Caulfield, when authority dictates to do an immediate action, he's there. Ender did kick some a$$. The Battle School as a military institution for children is just the way as it should be. Interferences and manipulations in world politics by Demosthenes and Locke is quite interesting. The science of space travel here is at least, reasonable and the training school without gravity is just apt for maneouvering in 3D space.

Now, final addition to the earlier stated downsides, I expected a love interest for Ender. If there's a source of aggression (Peter), there must also be a source of affection. Of course, Valentine loves Ender and vice versa, but they are siblings. Harry Potter had Cho Chang before Ginny Weasley. Han Solo had Princess Leia. Maybe there was a clue somewhere and I saw it, but I just don't want to believe it for the lack of 'light' or rather, details.

Despite the mixed reaction, the book as a whole passes the threshold and I do look forward to the sequel Speaker for the Dead given the author's story in writing it. I even look forward to the film adaptation before the year 2013 ends because my idol who played Han Solo, Blade Runner, and the President of the United States will be playing the role of Graff. And even if  issues surround OSC on his beliefs and ideals, I still respect him as a person and as a human being. This culture of hate will never end if you just hate the hater.

Memorable line:
"Don't start apologizing for them, Ender. Just because they didn't know they were killing human beings doesn't mean they weren't killing human beings." -Mazer Rackham



Genre: Sci Fi
Rating: 3.5 rays of Dr. Device

Ender's Game Official Trailer 1

A Book For All Ages

If JRR Tolkien's intention in writing this book is to inspire and entertain his children then I would say he succeeded. The story is fast-paced for a children's novel and can still deliver the thrill of anticipation for the next scenes for an adult reader.

 Looking at Tolkien's trademark style of world-building, it's fascinating to identify how diverse the element of "race" here and I even like this diversity better than the sequel saga War of the Ring (Lord of The Rings I-III). There are of course the race of halflings, dwarves, humans, elves, and goblins (progenitors of orcs). Add to these are the races of trolls, wild wolves (wargs), and avians (ancestral birds that can verbally communicate with men) including their subspecies (ravens, eagles, and thrushes). Not to forget the race of dragons but fortunately for the protagonists, they only need to tackle one member of that race---in the name of Smaug the Magnificent.

 In the upcoming trilogy films by Peter Jackson, I want to see cool characters like the thirteen dwarves, Beorn (the shapeshifter, or perhaps a druid?), Radagast the Brown, the Necromancer, The King of Eagles, the trolls (Tom, Bert, and Bill), the Goblin King, Bard the bowman, Dain the mighty dwarf, Roac the raven, and the thrushes. Of course, the recurrent roles of the major characters in LOTR series are already expected. Tauriel may not be in the book, but for obvious reason I can't wait to see her in the second or perhaps third film.

[Spoiler alert here, don't read further if you haven't read the book]

Zenith point (climax) of the novel belonged to the Battle of the Five Armies up to the unexpected death of a major character, while the nadir point (lowest point) belonged to the unbelievable death of Smaug the Dragon from a single arrow.

The central quest of the book is to recapture stolen treasures from the dragon but I like the author's message here that there exists something that weighs heavier than all the earthly treasures this world can provide, and it's called Peace. Letting go of the Arkenstone to the rightful owner is a very cool gesture by Bilbo. Of course, he got the mithrill, the sting, and the magic ring all saved for future resolution.

And the adventure has just begun.

Genre: Fantasy 
Rating: 4 tobacco-jars

Kwentillion: Premiere Issue

published by Summit Media

The superb cover art by Chester Ocampo can easily square off with any artist of the adult-oriented Heavy Metal magazine in the US but it's important to emphasize this early that this premiere issue is very much suitable for general patronage now known as the YA generation. The short story by Budjette and KaJo is once again a good work (and another quality young heroine of Trese tradition) while Poso Maximo by Robert Magnuson is highly enjoyable. I can only wonder if the young heir of Datu is directly related to the world of Alexandra Trese but this remains to be verified. High Society by Chikiamco & Buena is a noteworthy read.  Andrew Drilon's The Secret Origin of Spin-Man is a memorable short parody of the superhero genre.

Dimacali & Bumanglag's Sky Gypsies reminded me of the recent clash involving illegal Chinese fishermen and the Philippine Navy in the Scarborough Shoal but this story does not involve anything about territorial disputes and the role between the bully and the harassed is in complete reverse here. Upcoming and current stars in the world of graphic illustration can be helpful especially in knowing their influences.

Philippine Folk Magic compiled by Chikiamco and drawn by Mervin Malonzo is for me, the best feature of the whole magazine and I hope that they continue this feature for the next issues under the category of Myth-troduction. It's a good eye-opener for the uninitiated and a refresher for old followers of Philippine Mythology.

My wish so far is to finally see a good collection of mythology from our brothers in the south---the Mindanao Epic. It may be republished in a book form and not necessarily in a magazine format, as long as it follow the original narrative structure of the oral tradition. I want to read more about Prinsipe Bantugan's fall and how his friends recapture his spirit by outsmarting the Gods of the underworld. I want to see him reborn and kick his foes to oblivion with his magical Kampilan just in the nick of time. I don't mind seeing Tikbalang in a distant galaxy or a Tamawo guarding a forgotten colony ship but what I do mind is the original story. It's easy to reinvent, readapt, or retell a story in the current setting, but the challenge lies in making the mythology relevant to the young generation without sacrificing the original story and the reason why myths are being told  by our grand folks. Philippine Mythology exist to teach the Filipino a lesson, they exist to provide value not to the material, but to the unseen things like justice, honor, brotherhood, and humility.

The Magic Circle by Gilda Cordero Fernando

Of all the reading materials in the bookshop, why would I even bother with a children's book? Maybe the sad Kapre in the cover caught my attention, or the artwork by Gilbert Daroy got me, or perhaps I always loved nature and the spirit world since I was a kid that prompted me to steal time and read this children's book in a small corner of the shop.

Jepoy Baybayin---the poorest boy of the Barrio and his dog Galis (who like Pugad Baboy's Polgas, can also speak well with punchlines) were invited to a wedding party by a duwende. It was a cool and interesting party, with all the fantastic food, songs, stories, and revelry and of course, the bride-&-groom Tikbalang at the center of the bancquet celebrating their union in the world of the spirits. But this celebration will be halted by a sudden demise of a mythical creature and comrade and the once festive mood of a spiritual union became a burial procession into the edge of the universe.

Who doesn't like a magical story with a very timely message to save the earth? Who doesn't like a story that relives the youthful days of humanity's enchantment with the spirit and elemental world?

This is a legit piece of literature for children that must be treasured and shared. And as an adult, it caught my attention too.

illustration ©Gilbert Daroy

read the first chapter here

Category: Children's Story, YA, Short fiction
Rating: 4 gold-rimmed plates out of 5

Starvation Games

I can see the filmmakers including the script writers (of which the author Suzanne Collins is a member) made a great deal and effort in transforming the first book of the trilogy into live action and it was never that easy. Was it a good movie? I believe so, to rate it among the ranks of the Young Adult genre but clearly it wasn't that great. This film made me realize that we can't simply rely on a good writer to make a good film, and vice versa. The story we imagined from words sometimes is different from visions of the director.

The main flaw I saw in this film is the struggle between the target audience and the theme (young adult and mandatory killing), leading to the filmmakers' decision to stand in-between. The filmmakers clearly made a safer strategy by making the death scenes aseptic and portraying the actors as if they were "acting." Jennifer Lawrence is a very pretty actress and playing the role of Katniss would have been perfect if she was immersed fully into the rural environment of District 12. Nature is her element and I want to see Katniss at home in the jungle. Yes, she can climb the trees and embrace the earth but the way she ran into the woods made me think differently. Her move wasn't that smooth as a sneaking hunter, it's more like a student running late for school. That hallucination scene also needs to be improved. I imagined that part in the book as highly an internal experience and seeing Katniss' visions from 2nd to 3rd person perspective is kinda weak.Understandably, this movie generally caters to the young, screaming, giggling and blushing viewers who have to choose sides between Team Peeta or Team Gale.

Don't get me wrong. I give a shit for this movie because I enjoyed the book when I first read it in 2009. I still have to read the Japanese book Battle Royale and see its adaptation for further comparisons. Perhaps Saoirse Ronan's portrayal of Hanna could have set a better standard as a young huntress but Katniss' nature is to hunt animals while Hanna, to kill people. That's a big difference.


Rating: 7 out of 10
Genre: Sci Fi, Dystopia, YA

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

With that same pragmatic sentimentality and alienation of Holden Caulfield in JD Salinger's Catcher in The Rye, this book I think is much better than its film version. While working for the final revision of this novel, Chris Fuhrman may have lost the battle against cancer but won the war for making his story effective, serving as a testament of his legacy as a writer.

From the first pages you imagine that you are watching a teenage adventure film like Goonies (it may excite you or annoy you) but only to be surprised by its unwarned mischiefs, heartbreaks, lust and violence up to the unexpected anticlimax all weaved in a taut narrative from the eye of the novel's protagonist Francis Doyle.

Unlike most of the coming-of-age stories that we know, the author wrote with less drama and more with impressionism that reminded me of Hemingway. The setting is Savannah, Georgia 1974---the twilight years of the hippie generation. It's also the generation of the civil rights movement and the feminist movement when Afro-American citizens marched the streets and mothers look up to The Sensous Woman as their pillow book, but just like any kind of mainstream and cultural revolution of history, people are becoming more confused and alienated than before.

All in all, it's never too easy to forget the gang of Tim, Francis, Rusty, Wade and Joey (and Margie). God, forgive these children for they were only thirteen.


memorable quotes:


"Adulthood doesn't interest me. My only worry is drinking will stunt my growth."


"Trouble is our only defense against boredom, Francis.  You know that's the truth."


"Every adult is the creation of a child...My life is the result of that boy's dreams and limitations, and of the company that boy kept a long time ago, back when things could still happen for the first time."

movie poster

 

Genre: Coming-of-Age, Teenage Fiction, Postmodernist
Rating: 4 tranquilizer blowguns

Hunger Games Trailer

Martin Scorsese's HUGO

After watching the classic, shootfest film Taxi Driver I know Martin Scorsese films should be part of my DVD archive. Using Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro) as my Blogger profile picture for more than a year here is a testament and my sincere tribute/homage for Scorsese's greatness and brilliance in film directing. In my opinion, he is the best Hollywood director that should have won more awards than what he actually earned.

This coming 23rd day of November, there will be a worldwide premiere for Martin Scorsese's much-awaited adaptation of Brian Selznick's YA novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," simply titled in the film as "HUGO." This book is actually a cross-genre novel (historical fiction, picture novel, sci fi, steampunk) but highly recommended and suitable for readers of YA fiction.

Smells Like Teen Spirit*

1990s. A decade of Nintendo, Beavis & Butthead, and MTV. For the 19-year old Ned Vizzini, it was a decade for a nerdy young adult to pick the "weapon" and choose that dangerous path to manhood-- in short, a perfect time to define the youthful stage of life once and for all.

Ned published this book in 2002 from his collection of teenage writings and high school anecdotes. All of us have been there and done that. It was a journey into the wild and wacky world of parents and siblings, video games, Magic Cards, dorky backpacks, "Stuy" Tests, demolition derby, alternative music, grunge, Nirvana, Garbage, Pearl Jam, walkman, karate and marathon challenges, home made videos and VHS, Christian Camps and punk chicks, Jimi Hendrix and his ultra wicked guitar playing skills (like he was doin' his mama), turnstile juveniles, snowboarding and broken bones, house painting, Prom nights, Hooters restaurants, and last but not the least--girlfriend.

Ned effortlessly retells it in a simple and real way, just like a friend tells you about past misadventures and conquests. It was revealing and very funny too.


some memorable passages:


When adults asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, "A cartographer or a civil engineer." Those professions were specific enough to sound smart but vague enough to conceal my real career goal: playing video games.  


Ever since fifth grade, when that girl Rebecca told me I danced like a cricket, I've been a professional wallflower. I like it, in  a perverse way. Standing by the wall, surrounded by other nerdy nondancers, a sort of camaraderie forms. It's safe there, much safer than on the floor.


I finally came home drunk. I was happy about this because Matt Groening, in Work is Hell, lists the twenty-five steps to manhood, and "first time drunk" is number seventeen, right after "first compulsive m@5turb@tion" and just before "first car accident." I had to do it sooner or later.


I wanted a girlfriend all through high school, and when I finally got one, it was confusing and weird and stressful. But it also lived up to the hype, and that's rare. Pot didn't live up to its hype. Cigarettes didn't. The girl did.


I was still a virgin. That was something I worried about every day; something I had worried about since I was thirteen or fourteen; something that particularly worried me because the average American male loses his virginity at sixteen.

Rating: 4 wallflowers
Genre: YA, Quasi-Autobiography

*with apologies to a great 90's band---Nirvana

Banned Books Week 2010

Celebrating the freedom to read banned books has already started at 25th of September and will end this Saturday, the 2nd of October. Though I know I'm off by at least half a week, I believe it's  never too late to give banned books a chance to finally realize their true value, being proof of history themselves. They were banned due to political, moral, and biased reasons but nevertheless, any form of expression by any author or individual who only wanted to tell their sides of the story is a very valid point for us to listen (or read, to be exact).

This year, my most memorable reading experience with a politically banned book is reading the Diary of Anne Frank. It was banned in Lebanon for portraying Jews, Israel, or Zionism "favorably." Crazy it may sound, the very old mantra about "one country's hero is just another country's heretic" is still, highly relevant in a politically-divided world of this Global Age. What an irony.

Here's my short review for Anne Frank's Diary over the Shelfari group.

ALA | Banned Books Week 2010
List of Banned Books @ Wikipedia

What are you reading now, AUTOMATON?

Love, Unrequited

Of all the eleven stories on Love & Pain (including Elbert's interstitials), six got my attention as I enjoyed finishing them one by one that helped me stay awake at midnight. I am not really a fan of romance novels but still, I like those heartbreaking and heartwarming stories as classic and ancient as time itself, this time infused with the modern technique in art and storytelling by artists and writers mostly graduates from UP and Ateneo. The influence of Manga art is very obvious as it surely caters to the taste of younger readers and young at heart in this anthology originally released at the Summer Komikon last April. I got my copy at the Metro Comic Con last Saturday.

I like the Sci Fi love story written and drawn by Ruben De Vela (admittedly, being a Sci Fi reader) but I think the story by Fidelis Tan and Mary Rañises tops them all. It's also worthy to mention the urban horror love story by Yvette Tan drawn by Francis Alcara, and the modern fantasy love story by Kate Osias and Mark Torres that came as close runner-ups.

I give this book three scores for the artwork, and four for the stories for an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5.

Genre: Comics, Anthology, Romance
Rating: 3.5 photographs out of 5

LYCANTHROPY

Vampire stories are overrated and overused these days.
But looking at history, there are only 5 exceptions. Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula, the classic film NOSFERATU, and the UNDERWORLD series (with ultra-hot Kate Beckinsale as the lead chick). That classic Vampire vs Werewolf Saga is better than this over hyped series by She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-But-I-Still-Dare-To-Name-Her Stephenie Meyer.

Sorry folks, but that's how a Lycan see it. Because Wolves do not swim with the current. =P

see the whole picture

Hungry for more?

Ridley Scott's Gladiator, Golding's Lord of the Flies, and Miss Universe wrapped into one. Such is the first book in the series for young adults by Suzanne Collins.

The novel is an easy read and I must admit that it's a good respite from the current hype of Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, Witches, and Conspiracy Theories --all in the realm of the fantastic. Though I think this book is also turning into a hype on its own, it's still a good story to keep you awake in this rainy season, even while in your work trips.

There are hints of irony in the story, evident in the founding of the Games itself that aims to remind everyone in a fictional place named Panem about their survival from a brutal history. This reminder can only be done by the spectacle and glamour of sacrificing 24 lives of children every year, so that the rest will continue living while entertained by this sadistic game at the same time. What a perfect show.

I like the part when the mockingjays are serenading (or perhaps mourning) at a child's death, providing the background music in one of the better part of the story. It was fun with the tracker jacks stinging the players' a$$es to death, and the resulting hallucinations from their venom. I was horrified and at the same time thrilled by the Napalm-like attack, and I enjoyed the kids shooting, slicing, and cutting while trying to kill and outfox each other. I enjoyed Thresh smashing Clove's head with a piece of rock, and the mangled Cato begging Katniss for an instant death. I laughed at that part when the frantic Claudius finally announced the winners of the Game due to an apparent act of double suicide that symbolically slapped the Gamemakers' faces, and would have threatened to render the Game's outcome moot.

After reading the book, you realize that you're slightly hungry too. Hungry for more. If only a silvery parachute will fall from heaven carrying the next book of the series for me to devour, the same way the players cheat death by instant aids from their capitalistic sponsors.

I look forward to Katniss fulfilling her revenge to the Gamemakers and the Capitol. As things will never be the same again at the return of Katniss to District 12 by the end of the book, I can say that she's hungry for revenge. In the final book of the series, we might see an arrow puncturing the skull of President Snow. Violent? Nothing is more brutal in this book, and probably for the whole series too.


some hungry passages:

Rue's death has forced me to confront my own fury against the cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us. But here, even more strongly than at home, I feel my impotence. There's no way to take revenge on the Capitol. Is there?

----------------

Katniss Everdeen. A girl who lives in the Seam. Hunts in the woods. Trades in the Hob. I stare in the mirror as I try to remember who I am and who I am not. By the time I join the others, the pressure of Peeta's arm around my shoulders feels alien.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 tracker jacks
Genre: YA, Dystopia