Imagine this: you just came into existence. No personal memories, no idea of who you are, and you have no knowledge of how you came to be. This is how Happenstance felt a few months ago (in the previous book) when he woke up in an abandoned cavern. Besides having no memory, Happenstance is no ordinary boy. He possesses a strange ability to see great distances and in dark places, is able to leap great distances, and steer the course of fate. Happenstance is able to do this by following magical rays of light that shows the person's fate.
Happenstance lives in the great Aerie tower with Lord Umber, Oates, and Sophie. Umber is Happenstance's eccentric mentor and a brilliant inventor. He brings Happenstance with him on literally every adventure. Umber has the most complex back story of any other character. He used to be a normal person living in our world. After college, he was invited to work on Project REBOOT. The idea was to build a computer containing a vast amount of human knowledge in case disaster occurred and society had to start over. Umber and his colleagues had finished, but disaster did occur. Just before he would have died, Umber and the REBOOT computer were teleported to Happenstance's world. Umber is now secretly using the computer to introduce this medieval world to modern technology.
Oates is a man with superhuman strength, and a strange curse that makes him forever speak the truth, and blurt out whatever is on his mind. Sophie is a highly skilled archer and artist who was taken in by Umber as a little girl. She was born in a distant land that was ruled by cruel tyrant and his hot-tempered son. When Sophie beat the prince in an archery contest, he was so enraged that he cut off her hand that she uses to hold her bow and sent her away. With Umber's help, she has a complex prostetic that allows her to hold a bow again. Although shy to strangers, Sophie has shown deep feelings towards Happenstance.
Cryptic symbolism is prevailent through much of the novel. Most of the time, they relate to common fairy tails. A senator from another country told of how he fell curse to a demon trapped in a mirror. This was the same mirror from Snow White! (It was the mirror's fault, not the Queen.) The candy illusion that drew Hansle and Grettle to the witch was created from an enchanted amulate, which now resides at the Aerie.
The man in Jack in the beanstalk who traded the beans for a cow turned out to be a meddler like Happenstance. Umber has a magic key that belonged to Rumple Stiltskin, which is how he was able to sneak into the miller daughter's tower.
Most of the references were attributed to his old series, so someone who hasn't read anything from PW Catanese might not understand right away.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
101 Ways to Bug your Parents Book Report
I took "Sneeze" to be a very likeable character. He is fascinated with technology, enthusiastic, and will do just about anything to reach his goal. Hiccup, however, is almost the complete opposite of Sneeze. He is a hypochondriac who worries about any joint, organ, muscle, nerve, and sinus cavity in his body. He is constantly complaining that he is bound to catch some sort of obscure disease.
Sneeze's classmates were also very interesting. Goldie is an extremely nosy girl, and will listen in on private conversations every chance she gets. Surprisingly, Goldie seems to be extremely popular. Most of Sneeze's peers constantly harras him and think that he's a big loser, except for Ace. Ace is the coolest kid you could meet. He is calm, quiet, and has a strange air of confidence about him.
Sneeze has an odd tendency to solve problems in a overcomplicated way. Although this is an important quality to his inventing, this can land him in trouble. Counting your chickens before they hatch and paying too close attention to the little details are not a good combination. Sneeze's initial task is to get enough money to go to a science convention. Rather than just tell his parents his issue, he secretly gets a job at a golf course. This doesn't pay nearly as much as needed, so he decides to write a book. Sneeze spends countless hours researching and editing, and make lots of money off of the preorders, but everyone demands their money back when they see that it's just a few peices of paper stapled together. This goes to show that you shoudn't plan too far ahead.
Sneeze's classmates were also very interesting. Goldie is an extremely nosy girl, and will listen in on private conversations every chance she gets. Surprisingly, Goldie seems to be extremely popular. Most of Sneeze's peers constantly harras him and think that he's a big loser, except for Ace. Ace is the coolest kid you could meet. He is calm, quiet, and has a strange air of confidence about him.
Sneeze has an odd tendency to solve problems in a overcomplicated way. Although this is an important quality to his inventing, this can land him in trouble. Counting your chickens before they hatch and paying too close attention to the little details are not a good combination. Sneeze's initial task is to get enough money to go to a science convention. Rather than just tell his parents his issue, he secretly gets a job at a golf course. This doesn't pay nearly as much as needed, so he decides to write a book. Sneeze spends countless hours researching and editing, and make lots of money off of the preorders, but everyone demands their money back when they see that it's just a few peices of paper stapled together. This goes to show that you shoudn't plan too far ahead.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Q2 Book Report- The People of Sparks
While I did enjoy the next installment of the City of Ember series, I didn't think it was as good as the first one.
The two main protagonists are pretty much the same as they were in the first book. Lina is creative and acts on impulse, while Doon is highly intelligent and always carefully plans things out. There are several new people mentioned, both from Ember and the surface village of Sparks. Torren is a young boy from Sparks who seems to have a lot of emotional problems. He is frequently selfish and rude, and has a really bad temper. Torren is also extremely possessive and territorial. Absolutely no one but him can enter or see his room, and is extremely angry when anyone else hangs out with his older brother Casper. Casper is a roamer, and seems to have many similar personality traits to Torren. He is greedy, and is constantly searching for money and treasure. Much like Torren, he considers anyone he meets on the road to be either an immediate enemy, or just another robber to rough up. Several new people from Ember are also mentioned. Tick is a highly charismatic boy who wants to demand that the people of Sparks treat the Emberites more fairly. He enjoys being the self-proclaimed leader to the emberites, even to the point of stirring up violence.
There were several plotlines and conflicts going on at the same time. Lina's baby sister is sick, there seems to be a shortage of food, the villagers and the Emberites are constantly fighting, There is a mysterious library that may contain vital knoledge, and Lina has stowed away on Casper's truck to a distant city to find an ancient treasure. Lina follows a far-fetched idea that the People of Ember have a connection with this city, and this leads her to stow away with Casper. Meanwhile, the Emberites are furious with the Sparks villagers for not giving them enough food, and are further spurred by the lies of Tick. Lina and Doon save the day once again and everybody comes out just fine. The most important event is at the end, when Doon reinvents electricity.
The two main protagonists are pretty much the same as they were in the first book. Lina is creative and acts on impulse, while Doon is highly intelligent and always carefully plans things out. There are several new people mentioned, both from Ember and the surface village of Sparks. Torren is a young boy from Sparks who seems to have a lot of emotional problems. He is frequently selfish and rude, and has a really bad temper. Torren is also extremely possessive and territorial. Absolutely no one but him can enter or see his room, and is extremely angry when anyone else hangs out with his older brother Casper. Casper is a roamer, and seems to have many similar personality traits to Torren. He is greedy, and is constantly searching for money and treasure. Much like Torren, he considers anyone he meets on the road to be either an immediate enemy, or just another robber to rough up. Several new people from Ember are also mentioned. Tick is a highly charismatic boy who wants to demand that the people of Sparks treat the Emberites more fairly. He enjoys being the self-proclaimed leader to the emberites, even to the point of stirring up violence.
There were several plotlines and conflicts going on at the same time. Lina's baby sister is sick, there seems to be a shortage of food, the villagers and the Emberites are constantly fighting, There is a mysterious library that may contain vital knoledge, and Lina has stowed away on Casper's truck to a distant city to find an ancient treasure. Lina follows a far-fetched idea that the People of Ember have a connection with this city, and this leads her to stow away with Casper. Meanwhile, the Emberites are furious with the Sparks villagers for not giving them enough food, and are further spurred by the lies of Tick. Lina and Doon save the day once again and everybody comes out just fine. The most important event is at the end, when Doon reinvents electricity.
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