"Angels and Demons" By Dan Brown

I have finally gotten around to reading the the second book, or rather the prequel, to "The Da Vinci Code"
I enjoyed it. It was very good.

Structurally, I found it very similar to "The Da Vinci Code" Same kind of story line, same kind of twists. In both he gets involved in the end with the woman he was helping. A fact that I find kinda hard to accept timewise, as there is only supposed to be about a year off stage between the two books.
Reading "The Da Vinci Code", I got the impression that the main character Robert Langdon hadn't been with anyone for a while. ... Maybe it didn't work out with Vittoria for more then about three weeks after "Angels and Deamons". Though I find that hard to believe, so maybe I'm just remembering the beginning of "The Da Vinci Code" wrong. A not entirely impossible possibility.

Fascinating stuff about history and religion. That is one thing I've enjoyed immensely about both books. No complaints from me there.

And there was one more thing I wanted to say. The thought seems to be playing hind and seek inside my brain at the moment. So I'll do an up date if and when/if I remember what it was.

Please leave a comment, tell me what you think. Or find me on my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/SaaskiOFFICIAL
You can also take a look at my previous post on "The Da Vinci Code" here, http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2011/10/da-vinci-code-by-dan-brown.html

Thankyou for reading my post, Saaski

"Deadlocked" By Charlaine Harris SPOILER

SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE EARLIER BOOKS!

Deadlocked is the latest book in the TRUE BLOOD series.
Another series where I wish the main character wasn't so miserable all the time.
I do like Sookie. Part of me wishes she'd get together with Sam already. He's great for her. And she could be good for him if she'd just see whats in front of her. They'd be great together.
The other half of me knows that if they did that then something bad would undoubtedly happen to either force them apart or make them unhappy with each other.
What happened to happily ever after? There are so many interesting things that people can get up to without being miserable.
That's the problem with so many modern writers these days. I think anyway.
People need to realise that there is no lore against happiness.

But sadness aside. I did enjoy "Deadlocked".
Charlaine's book's are always a pleasure to read. She has such a ready imagination, and it's never hard to picture the story as she tells it.
I liked what happened on the forth to last page. And I want to knock Alcide and Eric's heads together. They're both ridiculous. And not in a good funny ha ha way.
Felipe too. I'm quite disappointed in him actually. I expected more of him. Something that didn't include him acting like a spoiled toddler with super powers. I mean really. Oh well.
I know that at minimum he's going to try and get Sookie to work for him again. I hope she looks him in the eyes and tell's asks him what he he has to offer.
Protection? So that she can make a target of herself for his rivals? People who might try to torture her again?
Money? For what? Sookie is happy with her house. She doesn't want a fancy car as far as I can tell, and she has a good income. Enough to live happily off.
Fame? ... Oh, you mean the thing that makes people never want to leave you alone and insist on knowing all your darkest secrets? Talk about nightmare for someone with Sookies abilities.
And if she doesn't do his bidding. He'd hurt her and the ones she loved? Ahh. I see. When he said protection, he meant "Not let them get to you so that I'd have the pleasure of hurting you myself." Of course. That is just the thing to make someone want to agree to work for anyone else. A guarantee that if she wasn't perfect she'd get hurt. And if she IS perfect she'd almost definitely get hurt.
Oh Wait! I apologise. There is a third option. She could give up her freedom entirely and go to live in a strange city with Felipe, then stay in a locked and windowless room under heavy guard without ever coming out except when Felipe wanted her. BRILLIANT!

I guess you can tell I think highly of the vampire King huh...

"Wee Free Men" By Terry Pratchett

I first read this book (Or rather, my mum read it to me then) when I was 8 years old, and I still love it as much today as I did then.
My favorite in the series is actually the forth and last one "I Shall wear Midnight"

Tiffany Aching is a great character. I love the matter of fact way she approaches life and the world in general.
She has such a clever yet somehow innocent mind. Especially in the first book.

My favorite line of hers will always be when she gets made Kelda of the Feagles, and she has to answer something before it can be official. With the wee birdy and the granite mountain. (In mind of not turning this into a spoiler version I wont say more then that.) I love it.

And the Wee Free Men (aka Nack Mac Feagles) are always a pleasure to read about. I like all there lines. Especially Daft Wallies, and Not-So-Big-as Medium-Size-Jock-But-Bigger-Then-Wee-Jock-Jock. (I'm surprised I remembered all that.)

I'd recommend this book to anyone.

"Slave to Sensation" By Nalini Singh

"Slave to Sensation" is the first book in the Psy-Changeling Series.
It's about Sascha, a woman who is Psy. A race of powerful Psychic's who believe that anyone week enough to feel emotion is not worth keeping around.
And Lucas, a Changeling leopard who's just about had enough of Psy superiority.
He want's to know how he can stop the Psy from repeating their latest atrocity.
Nikita, Sascha's mother and head of her family group, wants to get new information on what makes Changeling's tick.

Pretty standard Romance stuff. My own mother doesn't like Nalini, but I do. The world's she paint's are just so fascinating. I love the way the plot develops from book to book. It's not like how most "episode" series end up. When each book is mostly a separate entity on it's own, with just the vaguest background to link them.
Nalini's series actually move forward, and even though I find them in the romance section of my local book shop, I keep getting them because I want to know what happens next.
The romance part of it is good too. She always focuses more on what brought them to be together, not sex. Though that's in there. It's secondary. Which is something I like, though I'm not sure how many of you will agree with me.

"Kiss the Dead" by Laurell K. Hamilton

 I would not recommend Laurell's books to anyone under 15. Just for the record.

I'm really happy that I got this book. I had my doubts a bit. The last two books in the series haven't been up to standards. Not to mention even before then I'd felt like the series was going on a downward spiral.
Anita was having the same issues over and over again. She'd get freaked out, sort of figure out a solution by the end of the book, then in the next one it'd been like nothing had happened. We'd be taken through it all again.
After reading "Bullet" -which is a book with at least 350 pages- I felt like I'd read 50, 100 pages at most for the amount of stuff that was actually in it.
The only reason I'd continued to pick up the next book was because for all that Laurell can get fixated on one particular problem and gnaw on it, she does create the most amazing worlds. And her story lines are great, I wanted to know what happened next.

"Kiss the Dead" was like a breath of fresh air.  We're actually going somewhere. Stuff happened. I didn't feel like I was reading porn with a story line. And I know that sounds a little mean. But it's the truth. The last few books were like that. But this one was actually focused the world outside the bedrooms and Anita's torment.
People are actually happy. Which is something that I don't think has happened since "Skin Trade" or maybe even "Blood Noir" 5 books ago.

So for those of you thinking of giving up on Anita's life, I say "There is light at the end of the tunnel folks!"

We also get to see what Nathaniel's spine looks like! I mean, we've known he has one for quite some time, but normally he chooses not to use it. That is my favorite moment in the whole book, I swear. It's one sweet moment.
we get to see some old time character's come back in, and a new one.

I've been rereading all my favorite bit's again and again over the past few days. Just that in itself speaks for how much I've been enjoying this one.
So yeah. I'm happy, and I think I'll end it on that note.

"Tangle of Need" by Nalini Singh SPOILER

Note: I'm Sorry there's been such a big gap between posts. My Internet has been down for the past two weeks or so, and I just got it back this morning.


"Tangle of Need" is the much awaited latest book in Nalini's Psy-Changling series.
You can find it in amongst the rest of the Romance genre. Same as her Guild Hunter Series (that's the one with Elena, I'm sure I've mentioned) That in itself tells you allot about the main focus of Nalini's books, but it is not why I like them.
Nalini's style, especially with her psy-changeling series, is to focus on one new couple with each book and tell an underlying story through that. And she's very good at it.
I'm not sure if I can give you a good impression of my thoughts on the book without giving too much away. Considering that this is the 11th one in the series... what the hell,(I'll go back and do one about the first book some time I promise) SPOILER ALERT STOP READING
I'm starting to have a fairly good idea as to who the Ghost is. I've narrowed it down to two suspects. One more likely then the other, but I'm not ruling 'the other' out yet.
It's getting exiting.
I liked what happened with Henry Scott. Good riddance. And I think Vasic needs to spend some quality time Sascha. I don't think he's as lost as he thinks he is. (Sascha is an empath and can heal "non-phisical" wounds. Just in case some of you who haven't read any of the other books decided to read past the spoiler alert anyway..)
My favorite line in the whole book is when Aden tell's Adria and Riaz that "We appreciate the assistance" as the two of them are leaving, and Adria looks back over her shoulder and "wondered how often one of these men said that to anyone." It just manages to sum up the entirety of what the Arrows are. You can just feel it in your bones as she thinks it. Their utter isolation and loneliness, with the weight of so much responsibility to so many people pressing down on their shoulders. Just the image of him standing there watching them go, with Vasic behind him, quietly beginning to clean up of the killers remains. Pretty powerful if you ask me.

I like the ending to this one as well, with Adria and Riaz. It's not as predictable as it usually is in all the other books that have come before. It's good to have a bit of verity.

I'm worried about Ming. He's the biggest immediate threat. He could (and probably will) do some serious damage. Though I do also wonder what Tatiana and Shoshanna are up to. Especially Shoshanna. It's not like a Counsil member to go all quite and mousy. This is I think the 2nd or third book where we've heard nothing about what she's up to. It's making me suspicious.

To be honest though, Kaleb is the one who worries me the most. He means well I think, but then some of the worst kind of monsters in the world come into being by being when people think that they are doing what is right and necessarily. He'd never do anything to hurt the psy-net. He would do anything to help his people. But what does he consider helpful? I don't know.

I was going to also tell you who I thought the Ghost was, but I'm not sure if anyone would want hear what I think on that one, it might influence you're thinking until you can't come up with you're own guesses. So let me know in the comments if you do want to know and I'll answer when I see it.

"The Magicians of Caprona" By Diana Wynne Jones

You can tell I have had nothing much to do but read these past couple of days, since this is going to be my 3rd post in 30 or so hours.

The Magicians of Caprona is a very entertaining story that starts -note I say starts- off a bit like Romeo and Juliet, with to very respectable feuding families. But it's not about romance at all. It  focuses on the younger members of each family as they try to stop the adults from being stupid, and Chrestomanci is once again left with a big mess to clean up.

If it were juice I would have dipped in a straw, and sucked steadily down to the last dregs. Barely pausing to breathe.
I live for books.

NightSeer by L. K. Hamilton

This book is the Debut Novel by one of my favorite author's.
I've been curious for some time about it, and so when I saw it at the book store I couldn't resist.

I am Happy to say that I liked it very much. The only problem I had with it was that it didn't really feel finished to me, and I know it doesn't have a sequel.
I would like to see a bit more of the relationship between Keleios and Lothor. Also, I would like to see him defend his actions in the beginning of the book a bit. Because under all that devil-may-care attitude, I think he does have his reasons, (what is happening back home for example) and I think he actually does care for her very much.
Otherwise yeah, I loved it.

My Pack of Furry Fire Balls

One day, a Tuesday.
I was walking my dog. A nice little Chiwawa, one of those long haired ones with hair all orange and black that look like they're on fire when they run.
It's so cute!

I wanted to have more little fiery Chiwawa's, but they were too expensive.
I pondered this while I walked along. Doing creative calculating in my head to try and justify taking a detour down to the pet shop. No luck.
But this didn't depress me as much as it might have. I had my little Molly, and it was a bright and sunny day. Good for walking. By now we were coming around to the end of our walk, and we were in sight of my house.
I loved my house. It was pink with aqua blue windows, an aqua blue door, with a girl standing on the aqua blue porch.

... A girl standing on my aqua blue porch?
She had a brown box in one hand and her other on my little pink knocker. Interesting, I thought. She doesn't look like she's working for the post office. Besides, now I'm a bit closer, I can see that box has big holes along the top rim. Not the kind of box you receive in the mail.
And then it barked. The box, or what was in sided it, barked with the unmistakable sound of a puppy! I eyed the box.
The girl also turned to look at the content of the box, and noticed me coming through my little aqua blue gate in my pink fence, Chiwawa at my heels.
Her big green eyes lit up. "Ms. Pray?" she asks.
"Can I help you?" I asked back, polite little smile on my too thin for most peoples taste lips.
"I hope so," she nodded "My dad thinks it's immoral to make money off of other living beings, but we can't keep 'em so we were hoping you could take 'em." She held out the box.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, closing the gate behind Molly. "I'm not sure I understand."
"Oh, right. Sorry. I'm Nancy's niece." She named my best friend. "And when our dogs had puppies, but we couldn't keep 'em, she said you'd probably love having them. Since you've been wanting more for a while and so on." She paused, then said "We'll give 'em to you for nothing." She held the box toward me temptingly.


I peered in.
Four little balls of orange and black fire peered back inquiringly. One of them yipped at me. I fell in love.
"your sure?" I asked, breathless lungs barely giving me enough air to say the words.
"We can't keep 'em." The girl repeated. "We got eight already."
I was holding the box, though I didn't remember taking it. I heard myself mumble some pleasantries though I wasn't paying attention.

I crouched down so that Molly could look inside with me. "Look Molly, new friends." I said.
Molly sniffed the little ones in the box, then looked at me as if to say, Well alright, but I'm not looking after them for you.

"I'm so glad you're taking 'em." The girl said, "If you didn't, I don't know what we would've done."
"Thankyou so much." I said, looking up at her.
"No problems." She pushed her hands away from her body as if to push my thanks away. "I'll see you around then." And then she was gone, vaulting over my fence and away before I could think what else to say.

I shook my head at Molly in amazement. "We're going to have to call Nancy and find out just how she managed not to mention this." I told her.

Then I carefully carried the brown box though my purple living room into my white kitchen, where I promptly got out some dog food.
I wasn't certain of when they'd last eaten, and I'd rather they be a little too full, then a little too hungry on their first day at my house.

"The Da Vinci Code" By Dan Brown

This book has the potential to deeply offend some, highly intrigue others, and simply not interest most of the rest.

Which opinion you'll have is based, I think, very much on your belief in religion(or lack of it). But either way, I can promise you that it is not a book to take lightly. And if you are of the religious kind, I would strongly suggest reading it with and open mind, and the knowledge that when push comes to shove this is a FICTION book, and that Brown never claimed that it was fact. Or you simply won't enjoy it.

The plot itself isn't hard to follow, but it can get a little heavy, for lack of better words. Because of some of the things it deals with. -love, religion- And the fact that it is based around what is to many of us, our own beliefs. Or at least something that we grew up hearing about, and were taught to take for granted.
I will not get into my own beliefs in religion, but I will say that I had to put this book down and walk away for a while half way through, and that I am not one to put books down lightly. - So that's saying something.
It is like the difference between eating a fudge cake, and eating a sponge cake I guess. Both are delicious, but one you have to eat slowly, and the other you can take it in at what ever pace you like.

On a purely technical note however, the story is written well, and I believe is well worth reading.
Brown did tend to drag on a bit with his descriptions, but then may a great authors do.

So, yeah.

I enjoyed it, and so did my acupuncturist.

Saaski.

"The Song of the Lioness" Quartet, by Tamora Pierce

For those of you who don't already know of her, and because this is the first time I'm posting about any of her books, I think I should tell you a bit about how this author writes first.
The first thing I'll say, is that Tamora writes series among series. Now, what I mean by that is that her series are connected. (Another person who does this is Terry Pratchett.) For example, her main character in this series, -Alanna- is the mother of the main character in her forth series, -Alianne- which is based almost 20 years after Alanna's series. Alanna is in her mid-to-late 30's, and it is Alys' turn to find her place in the world.
And so on and so forth...

As far as I can find, Tamora Pierce has created 2 main worlds in which her story's grow.
I will also note that unlike Pratchett's "Disc worlds", and the alternate worlds that the manga authors of CLAMP creates, Pierce's two worlds are not connected and have nothing to do with each other. They are entirely separate.

The best way I can describe Tamora's writing, I think, lies in telling you how I myself was first introduced to the books.
I had just finished reading half of "the Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan, and anyone who has read them can tell you just how mind numbing that series can be, even if taken in s slowly. Let alone at the almost inhaling pace I'd been going. So, needing a break but still wanting to read something, I asked my friend if she knew of a series or book that didn't force you to think too much, but at the same time wasn't boring or predictable. She showed me Tamora Pierce, and I fell in love. (Cheesy line yes, but none less true.)
I would not hesitate recommend her books to anyone who doesn't hate Fiction. It is good for all ages. And by that I don't mean that parents won't get bored reading it to their kids. (Though they won't. My mum and I are reading them to my little sister now and are having a great time.) I truly mean it's good for all ages. My mum is 41 and she loves them as much as I do. My sister is 11. My friend, that I mentioned earlier, read them when she was even younger.

And now, I shall talk about what the title of this post says I am talking about.

As far as I can find, this series is the first of all the books that Tamora Pierce has ever sold. It started out as one book, titled The song of the Lioness, and was later split into 4 separate books at the recommendation of her agent. Now, I can't tell you if it is better as 4 different books, because I never read it as 1 book. But I can tell you that I was caught immediately by Alanna and her struggles, as she strives to become a knight while unable to tell anyone that their little guy friend or student Alan is actually Alanna, and not a guy at all.
And I know now, you're probably staring at your screen wanting to yell at me, "Hey! Did you just give the plot away!?"
I promise you no, I didn't. Everything I've said, you find out in the first chapter, and isn't even the beginning of what makes it such a good series.
Hmm.. now I come to the difficult part. How do I tell you what does make it a good series Without doing what just I promised you I wasn't doing. Which is tell you the whole story.
I guess I go back to saying what I did before, in explaining the whole of Tamora's writing. "The Song of the Lioness" Quartet is very good in that it doesn't twist your brain around with convoluted plots, and/or have you wanting to scream at the characters and call them every name under the sky for not seeing what's right. Under. Their noses. But at the same time it is interesting. It can have you chuckling and wanting to cry, or even rolling your eyes at times. Tamora paints her worlds clearly. But she doesn't go on about them either. You can see everything she wants you to see clearly in your minds eye, including which way North, South, East and West are. But you'll never find yourself skipping paragraphs to get to the juicy bits.

It's based in a world that's not our own. Some can use magic, and the Gods speak to their people. Legends happen, and immortals are real. No such thing as electronics. That kind of thing.

Alanna is as stubborn as they come.

No, it's not all innocents and fairy tales.

And that's it I think - all I can tell you of what I thought without giving anything away. I'll do a Spoiler version some other time.

Sincerely, Saaski.

Love

What is love?

I have heard people speak of it.

I have read of it in books.

But I know that that is not enough,

Not to those who don't already know.

So I'm forced to wonder at the difference,

To wonder what I'm missing out on.

I ask you God;

                      Will I ever know?

Or was I sent into this lifetime,

To learn how to live alone.