I love reading books and since the Harry Potter phenomena I have been pulled towards the Fantasy Genre.
Harry Potter made me get back to the Big Daddy of Fantasy 'Lord of the Rings'. It was a huge and a daunting read with the first few chapters being some of the most laborious chapters I have ever read. After the thrill a minute Harry Potter it was drab and boring with all its poetry and dances. But, somehow I forced myself to read through till the end and after finishing it I was like 'Yeah..It was good'. I went to the 'Silmarillion' a prequel to the LOTR and it was an extended version of the first few chapters of the LOTR.
After a small hiatus I came back to this genre by reading 'The Bartimaeus Trilogy'. This is one series I would recommend to anyone interested in fantasy. It has a brilliant protogonist, Bartimaeus, a witty demon full of wise cracks. One thing that impressed me about this series was its innovative theme and setup. The setup is early 20th century England. It is ruled by cold hearted magicians who get their power by calling upon demons like Bartimaeus to do their bidding. The commoner, the people who lack this ability are ruled with an iron hand by these people. The story begins with a young magician Nathaniel who calls down Bartimaeus to help him take revenge on a magician who insulted him. The story moves along with Nathaniel as he grows into one of the cold hearted magicians and finally realizes his follies. It is a brilliant humorous book that I will remember fondly.
Then came the 'Inheritance Trilogy' written by a so-called 'child prodigy', Christopher Paolini. This is a wholesale copy of various fantasy novels like LOTR to movies like Starwars. It is a very poor read and i finished the two books that are available as of now only because I had nothing better to do. Its now a couple of years since I read these book and one stupid thing I remember from this book is the hero conveniently falls unconscious everytime there is a duel.
This experience made me decide that from now on I am going to read books only after reading a review. That is how I got to The Wheel of Time, which was rated in many sites as one of the all time best Fantasy series. Well, what is this series about? This series is about our hero, the legendary 'Dragon Reborn' and his fight to save the world from the Dark One. This sounds pretty much similar to Harry Potter, LOTR and any other fantasy novel but the premise is what makes this series different. Here time is a cycle what is now present is just the past, which occured ages ago, replaying itself with minor changes. The creator creates the world, creates a Wheel of Time which turns and time gets repeated for ever. Human lives are threads that are woven by the wheel as and when it turns. The creator has imprisoned the Dark One in a prison so that he cannot affect the lives of people. The whole story is like every time the Dark One makes an attempt to escape from his prison, the Dragon is born who fights the dark one and puts him back in the prison. This plays out again and again.
The Magic in this series is called 'One Power'. It consists of a male half called Saidin and a female half called Saidar. The people who can use this power are called Aes Sedai. The females use the female half and the males the male half (Channeling) . In one particular age, one particular Aes Sedai bored a hole into the Dark One's prison during an experiment gone awry. This opens the world to the influence of the Dark One. A set of male Aes Sedai led by the legendary 'Dragon', Lews Therin Telamon, make a daring attempt to seal the hole by using Saidin and succeed in their plan. The Dark One in a last ditch effort taints Saidin. This makes every male Aes Sedai, including the Dragon, mad and they set about destroying the world before dying themselves. The female Aes Sedai somehow save the world from the rampaging males and conclude that no male with the ability to use saidin should be allowed to do so. They go about 'Gentling' every male who can channel.
Now cut to the present. The seals of the Dark One's prison are weakening and his influence is being felt in the world again. The Dragon is Reborn but there is the risk of Madness on Channeling and also that the Female Aes Sedai are against men channeling. The Dragon Reborn battles madness and various enemies as he attempts to save the world from the Dark One.
That's a clumsy attempt at summarising the series. It has its drawbacks, poor female characters who make the story as boring as possible when the story moves in their point of view and also a rabid desire to make this a mammoth series for obvious revenue reasons. The Wheel of Time series currently has 11 books, a prequel and a 12th and final one scheduled for release. I am currently in the 6th book and I find the book interesting. Its plot is a huge complex weave and makes other novels including LOTR look simple and plain by comparison. But I will recommend this book only to people who can read through the boring parts, which get on your nerves, while holding to the belief that it will get better. The parts in Rand Al Thor's (The Dragon Reborn) point of view make very interesting reading, this I can promise.
Well I have rambled on and on for about one hour or more now. That's it for today. :)
Harry Potter made me get back to the Big Daddy of Fantasy 'Lord of the Rings'. It was a huge and a daunting read with the first few chapters being some of the most laborious chapters I have ever read. After the thrill a minute Harry Potter it was drab and boring with all its poetry and dances. But, somehow I forced myself to read through till the end and after finishing it I was like 'Yeah..It was good'. I went to the 'Silmarillion' a prequel to the LOTR and it was an extended version of the first few chapters of the LOTR.
After a small hiatus I came back to this genre by reading 'The Bartimaeus Trilogy'. This is one series I would recommend to anyone interested in fantasy. It has a brilliant protogonist, Bartimaeus, a witty demon full of wise cracks. One thing that impressed me about this series was its innovative theme and setup. The setup is early 20th century England. It is ruled by cold hearted magicians who get their power by calling upon demons like Bartimaeus to do their bidding. The commoner, the people who lack this ability are ruled with an iron hand by these people. The story begins with a young magician Nathaniel who calls down Bartimaeus to help him take revenge on a magician who insulted him. The story moves along with Nathaniel as he grows into one of the cold hearted magicians and finally realizes his follies. It is a brilliant humorous book that I will remember fondly.
Then came the 'Inheritance Trilogy' written by a so-called 'child prodigy', Christopher Paolini. This is a wholesale copy of various fantasy novels like LOTR to movies like Starwars. It is a very poor read and i finished the two books that are available as of now only because I had nothing better to do. Its now a couple of years since I read these book and one stupid thing I remember from this book is the hero conveniently falls unconscious everytime there is a duel.
This experience made me decide that from now on I am going to read books only after reading a review. That is how I got to The Wheel of Time, which was rated in many sites as one of the all time best Fantasy series. Well, what is this series about? This series is about our hero, the legendary 'Dragon Reborn' and his fight to save the world from the Dark One. This sounds pretty much similar to Harry Potter, LOTR and any other fantasy novel but the premise is what makes this series different. Here time is a cycle what is now present is just the past, which occured ages ago, replaying itself with minor changes. The creator creates the world, creates a Wheel of Time which turns and time gets repeated for ever. Human lives are threads that are woven by the wheel as and when it turns. The creator has imprisoned the Dark One in a prison so that he cannot affect the lives of people. The whole story is like every time the Dark One makes an attempt to escape from his prison, the Dragon is born who fights the dark one and puts him back in the prison. This plays out again and again.
The Magic in this series is called 'One Power'. It consists of a male half called Saidin and a female half called Saidar. The people who can use this power are called Aes Sedai. The females use the female half and the males the male half (Channeling) . In one particular age, one particular Aes Sedai bored a hole into the Dark One's prison during an experiment gone awry. This opens the world to the influence of the Dark One. A set of male Aes Sedai led by the legendary 'Dragon', Lews Therin Telamon, make a daring attempt to seal the hole by using Saidin and succeed in their plan. The Dark One in a last ditch effort taints Saidin. This makes every male Aes Sedai, including the Dragon, mad and they set about destroying the world before dying themselves. The female Aes Sedai somehow save the world from the rampaging males and conclude that no male with the ability to use saidin should be allowed to do so. They go about 'Gentling' every male who can channel.
Now cut to the present. The seals of the Dark One's prison are weakening and his influence is being felt in the world again. The Dragon is Reborn but there is the risk of Madness on Channeling and also that the Female Aes Sedai are against men channeling. The Dragon Reborn battles madness and various enemies as he attempts to save the world from the Dark One.
That's a clumsy attempt at summarising the series. It has its drawbacks, poor female characters who make the story as boring as possible when the story moves in their point of view and also a rabid desire to make this a mammoth series for obvious revenue reasons. The Wheel of Time series currently has 11 books, a prequel and a 12th and final one scheduled for release. I am currently in the 6th book and I find the book interesting. Its plot is a huge complex weave and makes other novels including LOTR look simple and plain by comparison. But I will recommend this book only to people who can read through the boring parts, which get on your nerves, while holding to the belief that it will get better. The parts in Rand Al Thor's (The Dragon Reborn) point of view make very interesting reading, this I can promise.
Well I have rambled on and on for about one hour or more now. That's it for today. :)
