The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Thankfully my job now allows me to listen to music and audiobooks (I don't have to talk to anyone!) soo..... that's how I was able to listen to The Magician King in two days. I really enjoyed the first book, The Magicians so when Audible had their 50% off sale, I dove right in and snatched up the second book of the series.

As I really get into audiobooks, I realize just how much the voice actor really does matter. Man, the voice actor really does affect the audio of the book! It's a shame because if the voice actor is bad, well, then it doesn't matter how well written your book is.

However, The Magician King has nothing to worry about, because the voice actor is awesome. It's the same one from the first book, and reads Quentin's and Julia's, this time around, with just as much snark as the first book. I really like it when the voice actor doesn't go too off base when they read other characters because it's how I would read it inside my head. I really can't stand it when the voice actor tries to do different accents and different pitches, because... I totally know that you are just one person. Ugh!

Anyway, the reviews of the book on goodreads are up and down. Some people love this book and others... not so much.

I personally thought it was excellent. I loved the Quentin snark, and though some were frustrated with Quentin not learning ANYTHING from the first book, I felt like it was organic. Quentin is now the King of Fillory, and as par for the course, he hates his life. It seems that he hadn't learned anything from his misadventures of the first book, which should annoy the crap out of me, but it doesn't. He reflects upon the death of Alice, and is almost resigned to living a boring, comfortable life of Fillory, which of course, gets him in trouble.

To me, he represents a couple of people in my life, where even though they obtained everything they wanted (even at the expense of others, i.e Alice), they are still unhappy. He was eye roll-y until he used the key to be dumped back into Chestertown. HAH!

From there, Grossman really explored Quentin and Julia, including their adventure to get back to Fillory. I already knew from the show, that in this book, Grossman tells Julia's story, which is harrowing and heartbreaking at the same time. I think what struck me the most was the hand that was given to two students who worked the same, were in the same classes growing up and simultaneously given different "rewards" for their hard work. We learned that magic is arbitrary. Julia became, through sheer will, a great magician, though at a terrible price.

There wasn't any reason, other than maybe initial talent, that Julia didn't get into Brakebill's. Quentin at first is convinced of his own superiority, but when he goes to Fog for help, he realizes just how snobbish and elitist his own education had been. Finally, when he sees the world through Julia's eyes, he repents and for the first time, actually starts to grows up and reflect his journey so far.

Grossman has such a way with words that is admirable, and I only hope to write fantasy as well as he does. Grossman still has a literary style, it's more action packed, especially his time with Julia. I wished his story with Julia was a bit tighter, and maybe even a stand alone book before The Magician King? Or a novella? The reason I say that is that Fillory, the outside islands, the seven keys adventures and the underworld seems to be just a sketch, not an actualized world, like Brakebill's was. I can argue that it was never meant to be a world that we knew much of because Quentin, though obsessed with getting there, and then getting back there, just used Fillory as a goal, not as a place to live. However, I would have liked to understood more of Fillory, and then the underworld when they obtained the 7th key.

I will say, I was shocked by the ending. I did feel sorry for Quentin, but I'm excited to read where the 3rd book takes him. He is in the Neitherlands completely alone and this... this is when Quentin is really going to come into his own. I just hope the snark doesn't go completely away, but maybe use it to make fun of others, like I do! I can't wait to read the final book in the trilogy.

Which is Better? The Martian by Andy Weir

Oh man! I haven't done one of these in a while! I really should catch up on them, but my initiative of writing shows as they airs is really challenging. Movies are a lot easier to do, hence this is being posted before 11/22/63 and Shadowhunters.

My husband and I watched The Martian this past weekend after I read the book. I've heard really good reviews of the movie, and after reading the book, I couldn't imagine the movie messing too much of it up. It's pretty direct and action packed, but I did wonder how they were going to shift the first person perspective to an entire movie third person (for the most part).

There were a few things I knew and didn't know before I read the book and then watched the movie. Obviously, I knew that Matt Damon played the guy that gets stuck on Mars. Though it was never explicitly told to me, I figured out that the guy that got stuck on Mars eventually goes home.

(Usually when it's a sad space movie, people eventually spoils it for you).

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I still haven't seen Gravity.

Anyway, I didn't realize how funny the book would be and though Matt Damon would be good regardless, I was pleased to see him in such a likable role.

I really enjoyed the movie, and they stayed pretty truthful to the book. However, I felt like there needed to be more with Mark and his time on Mars. I know they had to shoot different scenes with NASA and the various plans to get him home, but I thought they could have done less of those and more with Mark trying to survive on Mars. In the book he was so charming that I didn't mind him talking about science and what he was going to do. It would have been more exciting to me to see him struggling with survival rather than Kristen Wiig looking alarmed the entire time.

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Oh yeah, a lot of other people are in this movie too. I'm not sure why though? It's a fun film, but I guess they all like science and NASA? This movie and the book did make me enthusiastic for Space again.

I do have 1 bone to pick with the movie. Mindy Park... should have been an Asian girl. I'm sure there are white people with the last name Park, but come on! I imagined her as Asian in the book, and again, not saying that white women can't have a job at NASA, but... we're already having a problem with diversity in movies and the least that could have been done was case an Asian person with the obvious Asian name. Its not as if there aren't any Asian actresses that are up to the task of staring at the computer screen and acting smart. I'm sure Lucy Liu is always looking for a job... is Elementary still on? She was a Charlie's Angel, she could have definitely been in two places at once.

In all seriousness though, that role was poorly miscast. Mackenzie Davis did a fine job, but I'm sure she doesn't have a shortage of auditions looking for a tall, blonde lady. Asian actresses have it much harder, and with something so obvious as Mindy Park should have been given to an Asian actress.

Overall, if you want a fun way to spend a few hours, watch the film. It's not much different than the book, other than seeing lots of famous faces on screen. There is less technical jargon, which is more user friendly than the book.. but if your conceited like me and want to feel smart, read the book too.

House of Hades by Rick Riordan

There is not much of an introduction except that I've read all of Rick Riordan's demi-god book series. There something about reading them that takes me back to that YA time in my life, though to be completely honest with you, I read the first one when I was 23.

These books are also guilty pleasures because it also reminds me of a time when I was a complete fanatic and watched Hercules and Xena TV shows every single day from ages 9 to 11, when they moved the show from it's 4:00 and 4:30pm spot respectively.

Did anyone else dream of the day you discovered you were a daughter of a Greek god or goddess and miraculously had powers and they needed you to fight their battles for them? Or that you would wake up one day and actually be in the same universe as Hercules and Xena and get to hang out with them?

Anyone? Just me, then?

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You can't deny how bad-ass Lucy Lawless is. I just wanted to BE her when I was younger.

Anyway, back to Rick Riordan. Not only am I a sucker for books with Greek Mythology, I am incredibly jealous of Riordan's career. He simply took all the mythology (Roman, Egyptian, Norse), gave them all young protagonists and the books practically wrote themselves. I still feel like my love of Xena and Hercules should have given me the kick in the pants to write them, but I digress.

This book is another installment using the famous Percy Jackson character, but it isn't apart of the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series, but The Heroes of Olympus series, which combine Roman and Greek gods, mixing Greek and Roman culture as well. The Mark of Athena ended on a cliff hanger, which enraged me, but by the time it actually came out, I moved on to other books.. but I was glad to eventually get around to reading it.

Now, are they meaningful, deep books that will change your life once you've read them? No. Are they well written books that build on the themes of friendships, responsibility, duty and commitment that is appropriate for the YA audience? Yes. It was an enjoyable read for me, and it's nice to read books where the author took care to age his characters appropriately, but also allow them to keep a bit of their innocence for just a tad bit longer... and to encourage kids that are reading them to enjoy fantasy and magic for just a bit longer as well.

I have the next book in the docket, and I hope to read it soon. My husband did throw Infinite Jest on my book pile... so... we'll see.
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For old times sake.

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

This book was part of a "buy one, get one" free deal at Audible, and I used 1 of my credits to purchase two books. There wasn't much else in the deal, unfortunately, but I was curious to read Orange is the New Black since the Netflix show came out a few years ago.

The book isn't the jammed packed comedy-drama depicted in the show, but that's to be expected. It's entertaining in a different way and I appreciate the narrative. It's also incredibly informative and her passion for the corrupt prison system (and sentencing of nonviolent drug crimes) is easily seen. She makes a compelling case on what is wrong with the prison system and gently pushes the reader to wonder exactly how much the prison system is affecting the rest of our economy and way of life in America.

Piper Kerman starts off as an eye rolling lost 20 something wasp who is in need of a good adventure and some time to "find herself." She meets Nora, who is 10 years her senior and has the allure that some middle aged men sometimes do for young women. Nora is a drug smuggler working with an African drug lord and quickly pulls Piper into her fold. Piper is mesmerized by the glamorous lifestyle and the exotic places, but soon she sees the cracks of her fantasy life. It all comes to a head when Nora asks her to smuggle money into the country, and she barely does it without getting caught. Piper realizes that she doesn't want this, and soon makes her getaway.

Piper chronicles her life since her tumultuous time. She meets Larry and though dated women prior, they fall in love. Thinking her brief stint with Nora would just fade away in the past, she moves on, climbing the professional ladder and moving to NYC with Larry. However, it all goes south, and she is indicted on a drug trafficking and money laundering.

It takes the federal courts 6 years to finally sentence her and close her case. She's less eye roll-y during this time, though I am never a fan of describing deep and personal moments with significant others with cliches ad nauseam. She routinely goes back over how much she is cared for and how much people love her, which, to me, felt a bit off. Maybe it was to drive home the fact that her life outside of prison would be vastly different than many of the women she would meet on the inside? That her time in jail didn't really mess up the rest of her life, just the brief period?

Anyway, she gets to jail at Danbury and the characters mentioned in the book are different, though you can see where the inspiration came from. The cast of characters rotate much more frequently in the book than on the show and there is a lot less sex in the book than on the show, hah.

Again, she provides a much needed perspective of an educated woman going through the prison system. It's clear that socioeconomically she benefited from the system, until her rebellion led her being named in a criminal case and though she will leave (relatively) unscathed from her time in prison (she even had a high paying job that her friend created for her), she realized what her participating in the drug ring did to others, and how the prison is just failing those who made mistakes and need rehabilitation, not punishment.

Upon further research, I'm glad to see that she used her experience to continue to push for prison rehabilitation and prison education. I'm also glad to know that her and Larry are still together, despite the show breaking them up.

It was a really good listen and an easy listen. However, the audio wasn't consistent. I really liked the voice actor, though sometimes I felt like her voice kept getting lower and lower in pitch and I had to bump up the volume to hear her and then she would switch to another character and I would have to hurry to turn down the volume again.


Overall, a great listen. I have to rewatch the first season (and the second possibly) to do a "Which is Better?" but I think they are great pieces of work on their own. Their messages are different but both stand alone as individual pieces.

The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith

I don't remember if the movie, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was a huge hit or not. I remember seeing it in theatres (with I think Josh), and really enjoying the movie. It was smartly done with that "tongue-in-cheek" undercurrent, which was the only way that movie could have been pulled off.

I first heard about the author, Seth Grahame-Smith from the book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which by the way, I need to actually see the movie. Quick, was it any good? I didn't hear much about it after it came out, but that's probably a bad sign) and loved the fact that it didn't take the whole zombie or the Austen book very seriously. I know Austen fanatics had mixed feelings about it, but since Pride and Prejudice isn't my favorite Austen book (I prefer Sense and Sensibility more. Yes, a lot of my classmates in my women's lit class had a real problem with that too), so I thought the insertion of zombies was a good touch.

He's one of those authors that kind of fly under the radar for me, personally. After reading Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, which I enjoyed, I didn't really keep an eye out for his next books. He's a good writer, but to be honest, I didn't really remember much from both PPZ and Abraham Lincoln, only that I enjoyed it.

So, when Audible threw The Last American Vampire by Grahame-Smith into their $5 dollar sale, like most purchases from that sale, I figured, why not? The voice actor (reader? I still don't know) wasn't annoying (I'm still bitter from Magnus Chase) and like I said before, Grahame-Smith always produced pretty good material.

Honestly, after listening to this book, I want to go back, purchase PPZ and Abraham Lincoln and listen to it... because this book was awesome!

It's definitely fantasy. But what I think makes good fantasy (or bad fantasy) different from great fantasy, is when the "world" or concept, like vampires, is just a tool to to really tell a great story, instead of using said fantasy concept to be the story itself. Grahame-Smith does just that.

Audiobook are really dependent on the voice actor they enlist to read the story. If the actor doesn't get the character correctly, or just blows (I'm still bitter), then the whole story is ruined, no matter how good the book is. MacLeod Andrews (what a name!) is phenomenal. The story is meant to be sort of a transcript. The main character, Henry Sturges, is telling his story to the writer of the novel. The listener feels as if Henry Sturges is actually talking to them and recounting his incredible life story. The powerhouse between Smith's writing and Andrews acting is what made the audiobook such an enjoyable listen.

The story itself is ironic, and tongue-in-cheek, creative, funny and sad. The story is about the journey of the vampire mentor who trained Abraham Lincoln to be a vampire hunter. The book starts with Henry bringing back Lincoln after he was assassinated, and the confrontation between the two right before Lincoln kills himself by jumping into sunlight.

Smith uses British and American history characters such as Abraham Lincoln, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and JFK and many others. He also uses the Romanovs, Rasputin and Nikola Tesla to implement Henry into very well known historical events and lace them with realist fantastical touches. The idea that Rasputin was a vampire (and therefore unkillable) isn't so far fetched.

It's a fun book that shouldn't be passed up because it has the word vampire in it. It's almost reminiscent of early Rice's works, where it's not about the vampires, but state of humanity and the never ending fight between good and evil. Highly recommended.

The Martian by Andy Weir

I wasn't aware that The Martian was a book before the movie came out, but when it was 20% off at Target, I snapped it up. I also haven't seen the film first, but I heard from many that it's pretty good, and I quote, "he grows potatoes and shit."

I figure that was a good enough endorsement, and since I realized that it takes me longer to get through books once I've seen the movie (because it just feels like I already know what's going on and nothing is a mystery anymore), I decided to wait to read the book, and catch The Movie when it was out on DVD/Redbox/Amazon/HBO Go.

So, with what this book is about, and the fact that many friends that read the book also warned me that it was pretty technical, I thought this would be a drag, and it would take me weeks to finish. However, I was flat out wrong. The combination of such a funny, geeky, crass character named Mark Watney, the probability that the United States would go to Mars in the 20 or so years, and the improbability that Watney would survive made a riveting book.

I didn't mind the jargon and the technical talk. It actually inflated my ego a whole lot because I felt like I understood him, though I'm sure actual astronauts would roll their eyes and say that's not how that would all work. It really helped that the main character was so jovial and made jokes, despite his impending doom every 5 minutes.

I really liked the different perspectives of NASA and the drive to get Watney home.

It's a very straight forward, action packed book with a bit of suspense at the end. I knew that they would have to get Watney and that everyone would live, but there was a moment or two where I thought it was possible that another astronaut would die, or even Watney would die.

I can't wait to watch the movie!

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Well, with the movie and the TV show, it was bound to happen. It seems I always am behind the trends of YA, but I do end up reading some of them.

But man, Cassandra Clare is infamous. Like, Anne Rice infamous. Though, instead of declaring the Lestat series are finished and she would write exclusively Christian themed novels, Clare is rumored to be a plagiarist during her time as a fan fiction writer, as well as parts of her books to be taken from other works.

Now that I've read her books... I don't think she really hides the fact that she definitely uses folk tales, myths, legends and other public fantasy ideas in her works. I mean, come on, "All the stories are true..." is a running theme throughout the books, and she doesn't make it a secret that she uses everything from vampires, to Norse mythology, to fairy tales, even Star Wars (finding out they were siblings?! Come on.), so I don't think any authors who accuse her of stealing her work really has a leg to stand on, because even though she basically uses everything under the sun in her books, it seems it's a work completely her own.Clare creates an imaginative world where she packs everything she can, all the folklore and urban fantasy into almost an unlimited book series.

Man, again, I have to put Clare in with "people whose careers I wish I stole" because she doesn't pretend to think up all of this stuff on her own. She takes it all and her theme is, "all the stores are true." Brilliant. I would take the haters any day of the week.

I do give her mad props for her extensive world building, which led her to numerous books. How many books does she have out now with different series stemming from The Mortal Instruments? 20? She definitely put time and effort using all she can and she's made a career out of it.

The real question is... is it any good? I'm not sure if I'm qualified yet to answer that question, because I feel like I stumbled into a real Hannibal situation, where I am so saturated with the TV show and the movies, that when it came to reading the books, there was nothing new. The books were almost like the movies, and the TV show added much more to the books. The first book, the City of Bones, definitely follows the movie of finding the Mortal cup, though I'm still confused about the big round blue portal in the movie.

However, her downfall are the characters in the books. She creates a very extensive world with alternative realities and universes, and the "rules" of the universe are practically nonexistent, that she leaves barely any room to introduce any real characters. I was deeply confused when it was revealed that Valentine was also Jace's father. Just to move plot along and create conflict between Clary and Jace, Jace, who was deemed a quick thinker, smart and almost wise beyond his years, absolutely took Valentine, who was deemed a psychopath, at his word, and was immediately obedient to him.

What also didn't work for the book was the snappy dialogue between the characters. It had a very Joss Whedon flair to it, which is admirable, but... since I didn't feel a connection to any of the characters, I thought the dialogue fell flat. I also don't buy that 15 year olds talk like that at all. I taught 15 year olds... they are way dumber. Apparently her writing improves greatly, which I'm looking forward too.

Was it riveting? No. Now that I've seen the terrible movie, and I am watching the TV show on free form which leaves me feeling more confused (I still don't know what's happening and I've read the book now) everytime I watch it. Overall, it took me a bit to get through. I found it boring and I also realized that not much happened (which is an awful realization when you are holding a monster of a book). However, I'm reserving my judgement about this book series with the second book because I definitely watched the TV show and the movie before the book.