The Wolves of Midwinter

Tuesday, May 18, 2010



"As promised by readers, a battalion of Daleks will be unleashed to reap harm upon "Fantastyfreak," for neglecting his blog duties. For far too long, he has been too occupied with developing a dystopian trilogy of books and completing final tasks for his Spring semester at college. Now, he has finally returned after an inordinate amount of time spent with college and novel work. Finally, his semester has finished and writer block has effectively stalled his writing efforts. Presently, he will be returning to his assigned duties at his small laptop with a disorganized pile of books that are required to be read and reviewed perfectly. Be prepared for a summer filled with a large quantity of blog reviews."


***Important Week Theme Information****

Jokes aside, Book Expo America occurs in less than a week from this day. According to my plans, I'll be there for one lone day, on neither Tuesday or Thursday, therefore I am tragically missing my chance to procure certain ARC's such as "Clockwork Angel." Then again, I have an opportunity to see both Maria V. Snyder and Richelle Mead again.

On Thursday of next week, I'll be offering accurate information as to the ARC's I successfully received and those I missed my chance of attaining. And to fully engage my blog reader's in my Book Expo America journey, I'm planning to host a special "Countdown to Book Expo America Week," beginning today with the introduction of the week long event. Followed after these instructions, the first review for the day will be revealed. In summary, reviews will appear every single day, starting today. Referencing my average tally for reviews which is either three or four a month, these seven reviews shall effectively compensate for my lack of a solid appearance in nearly a month.

*****Contest Information********



I apologize for the unintentional marginalization of my blog readers by entitling this, "The Blog Servant Contest." But this contest requires the adeptness of a good servant because the task requires visiting Book Expo America's site and drafting a schedule for me that involves receiving the most number of ARC's on Wednesday, May26,2010 only. Since my plans involve visting Book Expo America for only one day due to financial limitations. Unlike past corrupt rulers who imprison their servants, I am rewarding them for their contribution to this blog and their effective tooling of an awesome single day itinerary

Here are the guidelines though: Maria V. Snyder and Richelle Mead are to be included in the schedule in some form. And also omit the time block between 1-2pm. because I need sustenance then. Basically the schedule is 8am.-8pm., with no 1-2pm. The 1-2pm. block was magically obliterated by David Tennants's Doctor Who. Whoops!! A hole in the time continuum was created. Now more paradoxes shall appear!


Book Expo America's website
can be utilized to craft the flawless schedule along with various author blogs or other book bloggers. Lexie's site for example contains a ton of information about the authors who are slated to appear with their respective ARC's. Wherever the information originates from, the most important factor to this contest lies with the finished schedule.

Once you're done with your schedule, Marauder's Map, map of Middle Earth, forward it to me at narniafanatic (at) gmail (dot) come before Monday, May 24th. All entries after Monday will be dismissed unless you're the only contest entry.





******THE PRIZE!!!!!!!!*******



Unlike other blog contests where books are sent, I'm offering you the chance to be the blogger for one day. Actually, I'm only giving you the chance to be the questioner for a future author interview. Instead of my loquacious self draining the author, you'll take up the megaphone and ask any desirable questions to an author of my choosing. None of the questions will be censored unless terrorists plans are mentioned or some terribly unholy sentence is created. Basically, do not ask the author if he has divine powers or foresight?


??????Why am I having this contest????? Because it adhere' to my unconventional shaping of ideas and greatly differs from the usual method of blog contests. While the use of "servants," may be against blogger status quo. You have to admit, connotations aside, that Blog Servants greatly fits with the goal of unorthodox blogging. Odd blogs are the revolutionary form of blogging. Even if the overuse of LOL Cat imagery is punishable by the overlords of the blog sphere. Please have mercy on me!! I'm only a blogger, bereft of a certain tally of blog watchers.

Review:



Finally, I will seague into my review of the "Mortal Instrutments Trilogy," written by the amusing, creative, and erudite Cassandra Clare. The Mortal Instrument Trilogy was originally a trilogy of books I happened to avoid during my senior year of high school. Knowledge of this series was received through trustworthy readers who have enthusiastically praised this books for it's colorful cast of characters, creative world, and insanely engaging plot. In result, I further guarded myself from the book because of the dreaded front cover of the perfected front torso. Inevitably, comparisons were drawn between "City of Bone's," cover and the countless covers of perspiring bare torso's shelved in the "Romance section." A phobia developed out of this and eventually became "Bare Torso Book Phobia." Tragically, the reviews of many readers could not eradicate the resilient force of this phobia.

After two years though this phobia was completely wiped because the number of glowing reviews stood in opposition to the myths. The myth happened to be the book series itself was an archetypal Harlequin fantasy series with predictable happens and lots of perspiring,unclothed bodies. Predictably, curiosity overtook and the first volume, second volume, third volume were consequently checked out from the library in late 2009. Opening the book was a frightening experience which caused my heart rate to exhilarate and my mind to damper my excitement because the book may fit my preconceived ideas.

Fortunately, after fifty pages or so the book altogether destroyed my myths. In honesty, I forgot about these fallacious myths and become completely hooked to the story contained in Book one. After less than a week, I finished all three volumes at an unprecedented pace, comparable only to the seven Harry Potter books. Shockingly, Cassandra Clare's story structure was innovative and also showed uncontested evidence that her series was carefully outlined and structured. More importantly, her elaborate universe involved characters who were even more fascinating than the coexisting worlds of her fantastical beings and human beings. All the characters though had the same shades of human emotions that causes readers to effectively take interest in their external and internal struggles.

Cassandra Clare's the epitome of highly entertaining novels because she's deft with writing novels that overreach genre boundaries. Nearly every described quality of a good novel can be found within her novels. In all, she creates a fanciful story template that allows readers to imprint their full selves into the characters. When we experience empathy and relation with a story's characters, the novel's plot and suspense only increase one's firmly established enjoyment of a story. Mind you, there were a few minor issues with the third novel where certain dialogue scenes between characters were either too excessive or too minimal. Overall though the story is intelligently written and begs to be read by any individual. The only prerequisite for reading this book is having the potential to be entertained. Since that applies to everyone, I can safely recommend this book to any mortals with souls. Though vampires would surely enjoy it since they have the same brain functions as us.




2 comments:

The Whitney's said...

I agree with your review. I, too, was avoiding the books because of the cover. But am now hooked. I <3 this series.

Unknown said...

Even after being completely surprised by the book's quality, I still haven't learned my lesson about prejudging books by covers. I nearly overlooked another favorite, "Poison Study," for those same reasons. Whether we like to admit it or not, covers really do factor consciously/unconsciously into our choosing or selection of books.