Kryptic Centurion's Books > Book reviews by Kryptic Centurion

Hog fattening time!

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 22 April 2008 03:34 (A review of Eldest (Inheritance Trilogy 2))

This is the longest book I've read in recent years. It just kepy going and going! I had a schedule to keep for my Book Quest and this book brought me up to the deadline because of its length!

After seeing Eragon and finding it intriguing, I did some research and read various reviews and comparison between book and film lists. Eragon must have been the most watered down epic film of recent years.

I skipped to Eldest though as I wanted to read a book where I didn't know what was going to happen.

Eldest is the continuing story of Eragon Shadeslayer. A young boy who was chosen by a dragon to be its rider. He has become a hero in the resistance against the Empire and now goes to get trained by the Elves.

The alternate focus on this story is that of Ronan, Eragon's cousin. He returns from a neighbouring town to find his Father Dead, his cousin missing and his home & Heritage destroyed.

Ronan has no powers and no immediate Deus Ex. He relies simply on his own strength and will. The underdog always gets respects in this case. His trials were much more challenging than Eragon 'OP' Shadeslayer.

I thought the disappearance of Murtagh from the entire bulk of the novel was a cop out. A character of true torment and they just brushed him aside to cameo later.

The elf customs were also laborious and monotonous. Them and their traditions, it was a wind up mission! Once again, Elves in a fantasy narrative are just a source of hate and bore!

The Battle of the Burning Plains was somewhat enjoyable. A real Minas Tirith if you will. It wasn't too long and the action was sharp. I think thats where Paolini's talent lies, in the heat of battle.

Read this book if you want to kill a month with reading. I look forward to the final installments of Inheritence.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

In the world of the blind, the plant is

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 18 April 2008 07:05 (A review of The Day of the Triffids (Penguin Modern Classics))

From an early age, my Dad would always talked about this book as if it were the Bible. His favourite book by far and always on his recommendation list whenever I'm in a bookstore or a library with him.

After seeing the film and the TV series, I thought I'd best try this sucker out. Both were low budget and didn't do the storyline any justice.

After an accident causing his eyes to shut down temporarily, a man in hospital wakes up to no noise and nobody. He plucks up the courage to take his bandage off and can finally see that his world has turned upside down.

After an eerie but spectacular meteor storm the night before, everyone who saw it has myseriously gone blind. Now being one of the few people who can see, he finds himself in a moral predicament.

I, myself, imagined walking around the streets as the only person who could see surrounded by blindies. Would you help them? Could you help them? It is just too big a question to pose. They'd be totally dependent on you and all you'd have is the dying establishment around you. You'd have to supply everything to them.

For good measure, throw in another antagonising force. The Triffid. A walking tripod of a plant with a poision stinger that stretches ten feet from its stalk. This puts man on the endangered species list! The only real advantage man has over the Triffid is his eyesight...

The origin of the triffid is different in every medium. However, the one that has the most significant theory is the man-made one. We created our own destruction. The human race will always be willing to fuck everyone over. It is even posed in the book that the blindness caused by the meteors were man-made satellites.

It just goes to show that even though we all cherish life, that some lives are more important than others. It is a horrible way to look at it but seeing as the world is literally ticking over to Doomsday, we might aswell not bother with optimism that we won't destroy ourselves.

Whether its by nuclear war, global warming or being blinded and becoming plant food. We're all going to end up dead by our own means.

Read book?

1 comments, Reply to this entry

Chas and Cem together again.

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 18 April 2008 04:35 (A review of The Machine Gunners)

This book always brought a smile to my face. Whether reading it or hearing it mentioned, it was a fucking laugh regardless.

Young Chas McGill lives in WW2 Britain in some nowhere town in the North. At his local school, they collect memorabilia from crashed aircraft as their only hobby. Chas manages to get the ultimate prize one day when he manages to salvage a fully operational machine gun. He teams up with his bezzie mate, Cemetary Jones (Legend) and a bunch of other misfits to create a fortress to protect their town from ensuing German bombers.

The childrens mentality usually reflects the opinions of the time. All about paranoia and like. There is almost substantial growth involved from when they start as little kids playing fort to guardians of the Northern shore.

I felt the novel didn't need any female characters at all. Stereotypes and hinderances throughout.

Follow the adventures of Chas, Cem, Audrey, Carrot Top, Nicky, Clogger and Audrey *rolls eyes* as they fight for ideals that even we don't have.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

He cried.

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 15 April 2008 01:13 (A review of The Picture of Dorian Gray (Vintage Classics))

Considering the age of this book, I was quite mislead by the term 'cry/cried' throughout. A lesser educated person would have been ravaged with mind-boggling confusion.

I have a knack for writing down favourite quotes from the books I read. I couldn't do that with this text. This is by far the most beautifully written book I have ever laid my short-sighted eyes on.

Every page had so much detail and wonder that I was close to jotting nearly all of it down on a seperate pad of paper. Oscar Wilde has my full respect and I intend to read more of his work.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a tale trekking the life, beauty and scandal of Dorian G: as a young man he is picked up by a moderate & not so talented artist. The artist has found his muse in Gray and creates one of the greatest portraits of his career by modelling him.

The picture alone captures the essence of DG's astounding and blessed good looks. After seeing it, DG wishes that his good looks would never fade, like the painting before him. As time goes by, his wish becomes more and more true. Yet there is a price to pay for a wish as grand as his.

I struggled toward the middle of the book because of its tendency to dribble about how special one man is by his good looks alone. It has very little links to modern beauty but the right to ones soul has always been the pricetag for it.

I also felt a sense of culture when I commuted on the train to work whilst reading it. I was reading a novel by Oscar Wilde, they were reading shit rags like the London Lite.

Anyone who loves the beauty of words and language should earn a copy of this book. The enlightened out there should never skip this step.

4 comments, Reply to this entry

Front to Back Life

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 8 February 2008 09:28 (A review of The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (Goosebumps Series))

During my youth I was encouraged to go to the library to read as part of a readership scheme. There would be a trolley of selected books which you would have a week to read and then come back, write something about it and then pick the next.

The first book I picked was the only Goosebumps on the rack. I finished this book by the next day!

For a younger readership, I'll always remember it as a enthralling adventure. I couldn't put it down and wnjoyed every second. I even went back to it afterwards to read the chapters I liked since I had 6 days left before I went back to the library.

The story is from the perspective from an ordinary young lad. His parents by a Cuckoo Clock which has a secret. After messing around with it, he realises that the secret is the clock is making him travel back in time. He relives his life at integral stages but has to figure how to stop before he experiences pre-life!

The twist at the end is the real kicker! I highly recommend for anyone who wants an easy and nostalgic read.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

I'll fight whoever just to fight.

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 8 February 2008 09:17 (A review of Light a Last Candle)

This book was recommended to me by my Dad. Most books he take interest in are turn of the century crime or American Revolution related so when he handed it to me I wa a bit :-S.

He knew I just finished reading I Am Legend so he gave me the book as it is of a similar theme. The End of Civilisation.

I was thoroughly impressed. The book details the life of the Last Free Man on Earth after a brutal alien invasion. This post-apocalyptic world is not like we know it. The remains of the human race have been modified to the aliens will, the patrolling saucers devastate all who oppose and the weather is no longer constant.

A very interesting read if only to find out how it all turns out for the Ice Lover.

0 comments, Reply to this entry