Random Recommendations

Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish
This is a rather obscure fantasy book, but it is one of my favourites. It is about the thousand and first hero to fight the evil that never dies, by the name of Prince Ombra. The writing is very evocative, the references to mythology delightful, and has wonderfully deep themes surrounding destiny.


The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
The novel is centered around Rory Deveaux, a Louisiana born teenager, who decides to go to an English boarding school; around the same time, a copy-cat Jack the Ripper is appearing in the city. Rory is the only one who can see the man that is thought to be the suspect. I didn't originally think I was going to enjoy this book, because of the somewhat cliche plot, but the writing is very well done and the characters are likable and realistic. 


Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
I'm not even going to cover the plot of this one; everyone should know about Frankenstein. However, I know a lot of people haven't read the book, and I think everyone needs to. It's very philosophical and just splendid. 


The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger
A non-fiction recommendation written by a philosopher, about "self" and reality. It addresses some science (quite a bit, actually) and includes the results of several scientific trials about consciousness. I liked this book because it made me question reality a bit more (a good thing, I think, when you're a writer) and think.


Ancestor by Scott Sigler
It has all my favourite things in a book; realistic sounding science, DNA, compelling plot, and fabulous, to die for, characters. It's centered around characters dealing with genetically-engineered monsters, and it's both horrifying and thrilling. However, it is also disgusting (though not as much as his other book, Infection); it's very reminiscent of watching a scary b-movie.


The Relic Master Series by Catherine Fisher
This one is difficult to summarize, so I'll let the novel's description speak for itself;"Welcome to Anara, a world mysteriously crumbling to devastation, where nothing is what it seems: Ancient relics emit technologically advanced powers, members of the old Order are hunted by the governing Watch yet revered by the people, and the great energy that connects all seems to also be destroying all. The only hope for the world lies in Galen, a man of the old Order and a Keeper of relics, and his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Raffi." The plot is pretty simple, but the characterization of Galen and Raffi (and everyone else) is done nicely, and the world-building is done extremely well. I especially liked how Raffi (the teenage protagonist) was not quite the chosen one.


Those are my book recommendations for week. 


Everyone enjoy the rest of their weekend!

It's Saturday!

Hello! Kirky here.

To be honest, I wasn't completely sure what to do for today. I'm much better when assigned a topic, because otherwise I get so many ideas that I don't know which one wot pick. Well, I've had more than a month to consider this now, and I thought I might bring up a topic that most bloggers probably wouldn't think to mention: reading in translation.

I think some of you are aware that I live in Brussels, right? For those of you with decent European geography -- that little country sandwiched between France, Holland and Germany that also borders the North Sea? Yeah, I live in the capital of that country. Belgium. For those of you who are as geographically challenged as I am, all you really need to know is that it's in Western Europe (er... you know Europe, right?), produces the world's best chocolate, makes fantastic waffles, invented French fries and legally enforces recycling. Yes, I love it here. But the bins annoy/confuse me. In terms of more trivial stuff, Brussels is considered to be the capital of the EU, has who official languages and has a very easy metro system. Oh, and last Monday, we finally got a government after more than five hundred days (and you guys thought Iraq held a record for that). I say "we", but technically I should use the third person since I'm not actually Belgian.

Anyway, I'm wandering off topic. Those of you who've seen my inkpop profile page and made it past the meat cleaver may've noticed that one of my suggestions for curing writer's block is trying to translate a chapter or so into a different language. It's a lot harder than you might think. The reading experience is very different in a different language. French is my second live language (my fourth language if you include Latin and Greek), and I've been reading a lot in translation since I arrived here. Books are really expensive, though, if they've been translated.

Reading in another language is a very good way to increase fluency, but it's also tiring. Until you start thinking in the other language, there's an overwhelming tendency to try to translate everything into English. My advice? Don't. It's extremely tiring and it just gets annoying if you try to look up every other word. It's much better to get the gist and move on. Reading books you've already read in English can be extremely helpful, since you can sometimes guess at what a phrase means if you're not entirely sure but remember the English phrase from a similar part in the book. I think the book I've so far learnt the most French from, without even touching a dictionary, is Eragon. You would not believe how many times the characters sigh or shrug their shoulders in the first half of that book. I didn't know how to say "shrug" OR "sigh" in French until about two months ago, when I got a French version of Eragon.

There are always some things about a translation that are going to fall flat, and above all, this involves jokes. I remember reading Harry Potter seven in French not long after it came out, and the Weasley twins weren't nearly as funny in French. Sometimes, the beauty (or an understanding of) the original language is needed in order to be able to fully understand the text. The translator has a difficult task of trying to strike a balance between a literal translation and conveying the right sense and tone to the reader. I honestly don't know what they did, but the translators of the Twilight series seem to have done something amazing to those books, because they seem to have quite a big following in Belgium and France.

I honestly thing whoever translated the Tintin and the Asterix and Obelix comic books into English was a genius. I was quite surprised the other day to discover that a lot of people don't realise that Tintin was created by a Belgian artist and originally written in French (similarly, the Smerfs were created by a Flemish-speaking Belgian). I've read Tintin and Asterix in both English and French, and I can tell you that there is next to no trace WHATSOEVER that they weren't originally written by and English person. The puns, the jokes -- everything has not only been translated, but put into a sense that an English person without any comprehension of French is going to find funny.

The only book that I can say is like that (that I've read), is the English translation of All's Quiet on the Western Front, by Enrique Maria Remarque. It is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, and I didn't realise until I read the ending that it had all be written in German. The translation was flawless. It's the only book that's ever brought me close to crying.

Reading in translation is a very different experience, but a very powerful one. Unless you come across a gem of a translation, you tend to lose about 70% of the humour and about 50% of the beauty of the original.

I'm off for the weekend. Bye, people!

-Kirky^^

Random Facts

So, it's Saturday- I ALMOST forgot I was supposed to post today...
Anyways, I'm just going to share random facts with you, since I don't feel like doing a book review or something of that sort. I unearthed them while researching for my book, or I learned of them sometime during the school day.

1. A female tiger is actually called a tigress. I have always thought it was just tiger...

2. Magenta, from Blues Clues, is a guy and Blue is a girl. I got that backwards for most of my childhood. Well, until about a month ago.

3. The Egyptian god of chaos was called Apophis.

4. During a time in ancient China, sometime before 1450 AD, women were forced to bind their feet, from the age of six up. Their foot bones would grow deformed, into this claw-like shape. It was considered attractive by men, and marriage was vital back then. The fact that their feet grew deformed meant that it was painful to move about, and restricted women to the home, thus reinforcing that stupid "men are superior" idea that people had in their heads back then.

5. Narcissus was a young man in Greek mythology who refused love, including that of someone named Echo, who made him fall in love with his own reflection. Since his reflection obviously couldn't love him back, Narcissus wasted away into a flower.

Do you have any trivial information to share? Because I love trivial info; I eat it up like chocolate. Well, not literally, but still. So, to end with a completely irrelevant quote:
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen

The Monstrumologist : Book Review

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
//Amazon//Barnes and Noble//The Book Depository//

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me...and the one who cursed me.

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts? 

Setting: The Monstrumologist takes place in 1888, in a New England town not all too far from my own. The setting is done is wonderful detail, and draws the reader in extremely well. Any disgusting elements of the story (and there are quite a few) are described eloquently, and in way that establishes a firm image and does miracles to create the mood, adding to the horror of the story, as a whole. 

Characters: Of everything else, the characters are probably the weakest element of the books, though I am loathe to say that, as they are still very good. If they lack in development, I would say that it is more due to the way the story is told, through reflection in a journal, more than a hundred years later. That said, I immediately fell in love with Doctor Pellinore Warthrop and Will Henry; both are flawed human beings, the doctor very much so. While Will's youth (he is only twelve) would usually annoy me, his naivety (that he slowly loses over the course of the book and the next two) sets him up as a strong contrast to the more cynical doctor; he is a loveable boy, overall. 


Plot: Oh, the plot is marvelous. It is suspenseful, avoiding the typical pitfalls of horror literature, as well as being realistic, despite the presence of "monsters". The story takes place over a short period, involving relatively few events, but is nonetheless compelling. Each plot development is logical and truly adds to the story, as well as setting up the theme of the story - if the term monster can truly be limited to creatures of aberrant biology. 


Writing: This is my favourite part - the actual writing. There are few words to describe the writing, other than that it does its best to reflect the period, while remaining understandable to teenagers and adults. The metaphors and descriptors used fall just short of perfect - Yancey rarely falls upon the cliche comparisons, but every one that is made is apt and brilliant. It has an artistic and somewhat poetical bent; if you're vocabulary isn't up to par, then you might find yourself struggling to follow along. 


Overall: 5 stars. I cannot recommended this highly enough, along with it's two sequels, with the exception that if you're looking for a short, easy read, this is not it at all. The horrors and secrets which fuel each book lead to an engaging plot, made all the better by the writing.

Saturday

I made a banner for the blog. :] It was originally pink too, but the white flare covered it up. Oh well, I kind of like it better this way. In case there's any graphic designer out there, this made using GIMP and Picnik, two of my favorite programs. 

Anyways, this is our first Saturday posting so I didn't want to do anything really big quite yet. I ave decided to bring one of my favorite blogs into light; Reasoning with Vampires. 

For all of you Twilight fans out there, DON'T ever read this blog. Filled to the brim with more than hundred mistakes you should never get away with as a writer, this blog is fun to read and surprisingly educating, in it's own way. 

I switched off between wondering how by Jaf did Stephenie Meyer get away with this and laughing at how horribly pathetic Belward really is. (Since they apparently can't live without each other, I felt it was appropriate to classify them as one person.) Dana, the writer of the blog, is one of the most sarcastic, yet utterly hilarious, person you will ever meet/read about. If Stephenie Meyer is your idol, you might want to check out this blog first. Maybe you'll realize you're better off aspiring to be Dana than Stephenie. Not only does Dana know the difference between first and second person, but she can actually hold an audience too!

If you have time on your hands and want to read something interesting, read a few posts at Reasoning with Vampires. Thanks guys for your time and remember, keep writing!