Category: Books

This is the first time in a long time that I think I may have walked away liking the movie better than the book. I think I may be attributed to the fact that I didn’t know there was a novel attached. I would have read it considerably earlier had I known it was a book as well. I found myself hoping that Tristian’s adventures in Fairy would have matched those in the movie. The pirate story was more told out in the movie, and I was hoping to learn more about them in the novel. All-in-all, I would read the book and then watch the movie. It is one of my wife’s favorite movies, and I love it as well. I would recommend it, even for those who are not huge on fantasy.

I seem to be in the middle of a ton of Trilogies (which drives me crazy!).  I read I Am Number Four, and then found out it had a sequel named The Power of Six.  I first learned about this book because it had a movie made about it, which was a major disappointment after reading the book.  I had not read the second book before watching the movie, and I found that part of the reason I didn’t like the film was because they had taken parts from the second book that I didn’t know about yet.  The book follows a group of alien kids that escaped their planet’s demise by the hand of another alien race by coming to Earth.  They are given a charm that enables them to only be killed in a certain order.  The book begins with number three being hunted down, and the story of number four begins.  The end of the first book, and the second one show these aliens beginning to find each other and learning more what they are destined to do.  By the end of the second book you are aware of almost all of the remaining six Lorean (race of aliens that the nine are).

While it did drag at certain points it was a good read, and I am ready for The Rise of Nine to come out to continue the story.

I don’t know why I didn’t know that the movie Jumper was based on a book.  I enjoyed the movie, so reading the book was an obvious choice.  I only wish that the books, Jumper and Reflex, were what we got on the silver screen.  The two books tell a great story and, while there are a few places or moments that are reflected in the book, the plot is very, very different.  The premise remains, a boy is able to teleport, and it follows his story of learning to cope with his ability.  The sequel, Reflex, is not portrayed in the film at all, and takes the story to a very different place.  The book had me going, and I finished very quickly.  While looking for the image of the book I found another book in the series (which appears to be detached to David’s or Davey’s story, but I’m getting it right now none the less) called Jumper: Griffith’s Story.  I would hope that it maintained the caliber of book that the previous two in the series were.  Definitely a good pair of readings.

I was in a rut trying to decide which book to pick up next, and came across Matched.  Reviews touted it as something similar to The Hunger Games and so I decided to give it a shot.  It was much more love story, and significantly more a girls books than I found The Hunger Games to be, but still something that kept me engaged.  Matched follows a few characters in a dystopian society where most all agency has been removed and trends and predictions rule your existence.  A major part in this book is the Matching ceremony where people are placed with their best match in the Society for the opportunity to enter into a contract with them.  When the main character is matched something “goes wrong” and she is left to question the whole process.  Craziness ensues, and continues into the sequel crossed where the characters continue to define themselves, shaping what the third book will reveal.  Reached, the third book, is slated to be released November of 2012.  It reminds me why I do not like reading trilogies until they have all been released.  Much like Divergent, I have to wait for the sequels to come out, and I will probably end up revisiting the books again before the next one comes out.

The movie “Hackers” has always been one of my guilty pleasures for the absurd spin they put on the hacker scene, and the way they portrayed the actual hacking.  Then when I heard about a sequel to “Hackers” called “Operation: Takedown” I obviously wanted to see it.  This was in 1999 when I was in High School, and it wasn’t until watching a podcast interviewing Kevin Mitnick earlier this year that I learned how inaccurate the portrayal  of Mitnick was in the not so sequel “Hackers 2”.  Kevin then plugged his book, and I promptly purchased it on Amazon, and then downloaded it from Audible.

It is a descriptive autobiography about one of the world’s most sought after hackers.  It is interesting hearing it from his perspective where much more of what was done appears much more innocent in his eyes.  My wife even enjoyed hearing the end of his story.  I found it an interesting read, but I would imagine you would need to have some desire to hear the story in order to stick out reading it.

This book was a no-brainer for me to read when I saw it. I am a huge fan of Michael Crichton, and had heard about an unfinished work he was writing when he died. This book is definitely an homage to his techno-thriller works such as Jurassic Park. I feel Richard Preston did an effective job in finishing the story even though I feel I noticed where the transition occurred.

Micro takes place mainly in Hawaii, and is about a group of students who end up in a “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” situation, and a fight for survival ensues.  It takes many twists and turns, but has a few out of character plot points that drastically change the story from the usual pattern of Michael Crichton.  Overall I enjoyed this book and am saddened it is likely the last work by this author that will reach the book shelves.

MY sister-in-law Mindy recommended the Maze Runner series to me.  While talking about it she also recommended Divergent because I told her I had gotten hooked for trilogy books.  Kay Gough, a friend’s mother posted on Facebook about the Hunger Games that “Best writing now days is Young Adult fiction.”  I realized that is what I had been listening to the most was books gears toward teenagers.  Divergent is no exception as it is in the Children’s section of Harper Collin’s website.  I have decided to change gears after Divergent by picking up a book that was recommended to me by John a while back.  I started The World Without Us, but never got to dig into it because I started reading it about the same time as the Wallow Fire, irony or coincidence?

Anyway, Divergent is what appears to be the first book in a series following the theme of something horrible happened to the world, and this is how people cope now.  In this scenario Triss, or Beatrice, has come of age where she must choose what faction or group of people that she will ultimately live with and become.  There are five factions and each represent a different mentality and purpose for the population as a whole.  Trouble occurs when she is tested to find her faction tendencies, and she comes back divergent.  This means she displays multiple faction traits, and is a big no-no.  The text on the covers states “One choice can tranform you,” and that is what we see as Triss discovers who she is an changes to fit the situation she is presented.

The book sticks to her experience to strive to become one of her faction while trying to figure out what it means to be divergent.  The book keeps a good pace, and wraps up well for the sequel titled Insurgent is slated for a May 2012 release.  It will be interesting as I’m not accustomed to waiting for a sequel to come out.  All of the series I’ve done so far had been published (okay, I had to wait a week for Death Cure to come out to finish the Maze Runner).  It will be like waiting for the next Lord of the Rings or Back to The Future to get released in theaters.  It will be good to pick this back up next year in April to refresh what happened in the book to get ready to find out how “One choice can destroy you.”

Post-war craziness. new disease taking over humanity, possibly evil corporation trying to rid the world of the “Flare”.  Who would possibly be able to save the world’s population?  A bunch of kids of course.  The Maze Runner Trilogy follows a group of kids that have been tasked with saving the world.

The story didn’t exactly hook me, but it was enough for me to want to see it through to the end.  They kids used their own version of vulgarities that ended up getting rather annoying about midway through the first book.  Had they been the real words I think it would have been a major turn off to the series, but the removal from our vernacular made it bearable enough to finish.   The third book, “Death Cure” just came out so go ahead and have at the series.  I have such a hard time waiting after I’ve started reading, so having it out in it’s entirety surely helped.