A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby

So I realize this isn't my usual fare. There's not nearly enough supernatural stuff in it. But when you try new things, most of the thrill is not knowing what you're going to get, isn't it? Also, I think this book placed highly on the New York Times book list or something. And I like the cover - it's four people's feet floating in a sea of clouds, and that's just surreal enough to be both romantic and really absurd. And I think that's a good way of beginning to describe this book: romantic and absurd. Except that I might have to take back the romantic part later on - we'll see. Oh yea, this is another one from those four boxes of books.

The chapters are named after the four main characters, so there aren't really chapter names. Which makes me think that you could probably read the book out of sequence, except that then maybe it wouldn't make much sense now, would it? So they're called Martin, Maureen, JJ and Jess. MM and JJ. The only thing they have in common is that they wanted to commit suicide on New Year's Eve at the same place, and then they kind of got into each others' way. Then everything begins.

As you would expect with suicidal people, they each have a bunch of problems dragging them down. So it took some time and chapters before the whole character development thing came on. Before that, though, a lot of random stuff happened just because they didn't know what to do with themselves, and that's kind of a very human dilemma. The randomness of all these semi unchained events, as told by four different voices, is what would pull you in. That's a feat in itself - not many writers, certainly not me - can create such drastically different people on the same page and switch voices, just like that.

When they interact, which they almost always do, it's even stranger and more hilarious, because there are four unhappy unfriendly people insulting each other for the company, because they have got nowhere else to go. When you think about it, when an author writes a conversation between characters, and all the characters are part of that author, it's like the author's talking to himself. At least that's why it's so difficult for me, but you know, kudos to all the more successful authors and playwrights and screenwriters who can do great conversations, and Nick Hornby's certainly one of these.

Every time I read a book and finish it very quickly, I don't stop thinking like the voice of that book for a day or two. So I imagine that this is what's happening now, because I just finished this book, and I keep having this urge to type a sentence, put in a comma, and then ask a one word question, like "So this is how we do it, right?" I think this is because that's how Jess talks. A lot. JJ does that to some extent too, but he's a hipster and a musician, so he does that whole "Rock on, man" type of thing. And Martin pretends to be cultured, when he might be even more savage than Jess, who's really just thoughtless. I always go on like this with character commentary.

It's kind of like the psychological profile of four people, but smashed together into a giant mass, that somehow ends up being coherent and even inspiring. Or if not inspiring, then at least thought provoking, which is what most texts are supposed to do, anyway. I'm pretty sure this book is fiction, but it feels like nonfiction, because the characters could be real people. Like your next door neighbor or something. Without talking about the emotions specifically, the story comes out with a lot of heart. There is a plot, but it's not as structured as a science fiction or fantasy book, because this kind of story has a different point to it.

Anyway, I can see why Nick Hornby is an award winning author. My boyfriend said that he has High Fidelity, another book that this guy wrote, so maybe I'll look into that. But then, of course, there are the rest of the books from those boxes that I actually wanted to go into. And some more books I bought. It's like necessary for me, because I only seem to buy books, food and clothing. Well um, that's neither here nor there.

Eldest, by Christopher Paolini

Okay, so I take it back. I take it all back. Christopher Paolini worked really hard to get his name, and his parents could only have helped him so much. I hope he never reads my last post. Then again, no one reads this blog, a tiny dust mote in the vastness of the internet, right? Right. So let's move on.

Because the war against Galbatorix has begun, this book has a lot of battle scenes, and they are all very detailed albeit nodding a bit to the confusion of actual battle. In the first few chapters, I never believed that Murtagh was actually dead, but I was surprised anyway when he came back sometime at the end. Roran's story kept the entire book grounded, because it was a struggle of a normal human being without any special powers except his decisiveness and his charisma. This leads me to believe that he might become king of the land in the third book. I say it keeps the book grounded, because Eragon is no longer fully human as we humans know it - instead, he is half dragon, and half elf. There are so many expectations for him that the part of his personality that deals with expectations reacts like Harry Potter.

Aside from personally pleased that many strong women play roles aside from Saphira the dragon, I was amazed at how much the author had fleshed out the languages. There are complete alphabets somewhere in Paolini's office that he probably keeps as a reference. Most of us have enough trouble learning the existing languages, but he makes new ones. I have yet to decipher the specific differences between the ancient, elven and dwarf languages. The chapters have also gotten longer and harder to keep track of.

We are introduced to elf culture here, and it strikes me as very archaic. There are many rules, and many forms of courtesy with a strict hierarchy. Yet because of the existence of magic, most elves only need to do what pleases them - they don't need to really have a trade to have money or to make a living. I mean, they sing their homes out of trees, so there's no real estate industry, they sing their food out of plants, so there's no farming necessary. The only people who seem to do anything for society are the queen Islanzadi, her courtiers and the weapon smith, whose name escapes me, but who is also kind of a hermit and has no use for the mannerisms of the rest of elven society. Everyone else hones their magic, their fighting, does research and reads a lot - much like Oromis, except that Oromis has the additional job of making sure Eragon has all the skills he needs.

While the lessons Eragon goes through are difficult and detailed, and there's a lot of character development going on, he's just learning and so not much plot is going on there. So the part about plot has been delegated to Roran, who must make sure that his home - all the villagers - survives as well as go find Katrina, for the sake of his love and sanity. So he escapes for a while, and then comes back and helps everyone get rid of the soldiers, until the Raz'ac stole Katrina. Then he convinces everyone to be a part of the Varden, by demonstrating excellent oratory skills in addition to his warrior's prowess with a hammer. Is it bad that I feel our presidents should be selected more based on things like that rather than just oratory skills as in American democracy? While the way Roran came to power can't ensure that he's not evil, it's based upon trust and actions, not words, so I somehow feel that it's a lot more solid. It also brings up the question of whether the ends justify the means.

The other part of plot that Eragon has to go through is to deal with his infatuation with Arya. While everyone relates to this part because everyone has a first love, it just seems to diminish his character a bit - even though I agree with Saphira's words about how he's full of love and he's more so waiting for someone to receive it. I guess while Roran was leading humans, Eragon has to learn to lead people of three or four different races, if you consider the Kulls, so his job is more difficult. But Roran's journey just seemed so much organic, because they had to contend with things that humans are used to: poverty, starvation, sickness, sleeplessness and a race against time.

After Roran had to kill two soldiers at that port town, and had to raze a part of Teirm to escape, the part where they were sailing reminded me heavily of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. There was no albatross, though, only a giant whirlpool that everyone was afraid of. The way that Birgit kicked the balls of one random sailor and then held her knife at another against rampant sexism made me proud, and also reminded me of Dawn Cook's Decoy Princess duology. Duology is a word, right? Cuz bilogy wouldn't sound right. Or maybe it's just duo. And I was happy to see Jeod again, and that Helen loved him enough to make it to the ship on time.

By that time, the battle had started, and it was time for Eragon to move out. I was glad he was using his new skills to help his leadership abilities, and wasn't sure what would happen to Carvahall, because they were too tired to just join in the battle with the dwarves and the Kull and other soldiers. Galbatorix's plan to rebuild the Riders had the same problem as the comic the Watchmen. In fact, when an elf said, "Who watches the watchmen?" I thought it was even a direct reference. Maybe they should have the dwarves and the Kull exposed to dragon eggs to see if they would be accepted to, as a weird case of affirmative action for the Riders. Yes, I know I'm being strange.

Everything came together very well at the end, and even explained the title. The only things that this book managed to resolve was the relationship between Roran and Eragon, and decide the fate of Carvahall. The rest would have to wait til the next book, which I will eagerly dig up or buy.

Eragon, by Christopher Paolini

While I've seen other people reading this book and was curious from time to time, I got this book through sheer luck. One of the people I met through working at Target decided to upend himself from Amherst, MA to go to somewhere in New Hampshire, and he didn't want to burden his family with extraneous items. So he gave all his books to the most avid bookworm he knew, which was me. Eragon happened to be at the top of the stack, out of four large boxes of books.

There was a map on the inside cover. That usually speaks of epic fantasy journeys through this made up map, and I wasn't wrong. Despite opening with three unnamed characters being attacked by villains when they're obviously on a mission, the language narrates in a very leisurely fashion. I guess it would have to, considering that the book is fairly thick. But then I noticed that each chapter wasn't very long at all. And Eragon was described as a simple farm boy, which means that there should be plenty of time for character development. It took a short while before the dragon herself was even introduced.

And then, when shit went down, so to speak, it was a semi realistic confusing mass. The emotions of grief were kind of handled swiftly and efficiently so that the plot can progress. And there was a lot of plot to progress. It was told more or less like a longwinded role playing game, because the protagonist had to train with Brom before anything got done, and Eragon was never really alone. Aside from the dragon, there was Brom and later, Montaugh (probably incorrect spelling) and after him, when they got to the secret hidden rebel base, there was the king of the humans, which was separate from the king of the dwarves, not to mention the elf in the prologue.

This heavily reminds me of either the Dragon Quest series or the Final Fantasy series. Given that the book was written when the author was sixteen, I would assume that's where he got some of his material (from video games). I thought it was also Harry Potter-esque, but it was not nearly as intricate and the list of villains hasn't gotten so long yet.

I read in the back that the book was first published by the guy's parents, and yea, it's all good, but I couldn't help being disappointed anyway. Because I mean, when I write my poems, I have to follow through with a series of hoops, you know, like a cover letter and such and all this other stuff, but the acknowledgments page just made it seem like all the marketing was done by the parents, and Mr. Paolini didn't have to go through this process of sending his manuscript to like a trillion places. Lucky duck.

But all the same, the dragon had strong characterization and so did Montaugh and the politics around Eragon, even though he himself wasn't developed enough to be interesting yet. So I was looking forward to the second book. Which, as I found out today, was also in the same box, so yay.