Poll Results - Fantasy Book List

I haven't had the opportunity to write much, since I'm on a road trip with my family and it's been absolutely jam-packed with things to do. 

So far, I've been to Memphis, TN, and Saint Louis. Memphis was pretty cool, and Saint Louis was awesome. We saw penguins in the Saint Louis Zoo, and toured the arch. 

I've been paying attention to the poll results, and Fantasy is currently tied with Classics/Historical Fiction - so I've decided to make a fantasy book list.

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

I honestly don't know why I waited so long to read this book.  I'd heard good things about it, I'd seen it in the library, but I waited a while before actually reading it. It's creepy and wonderful, delving you deep into a magical world, and the secrets of a Victorian girl's school. 

Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

When 18-year-old Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waist and turns into an old crone, she stoically decides to head out into the wilds in the hope of getting rid of the curse. Soon enough, she's made an agreement with Wizard Howl's fire demon, and gotten herself into a whole heap of trouble. It's the kind of book that you read slowly, because you don't want it to end. This book deserves to be a classic, 100%. I fully plan to read it to my children as a bedtime story. 

I finished the audio book just before leaving for my trip - I've read and re-read this book about about a zillion times, and I still love it. Diana Wynne Jones is pretty brilliant, and her old-fashioned fantasy style is reminiscent of  C. S. Lewis or Tolkien.* Actually, that's no coincidence - she attended lectures by both while she was at collage.

A scene from the movie - Howl's bedroom. Even though the movie is nothing like the book**, it's still terrific. I think this is maybe my favorite ever book-movie combo. I think animation is the perfect medium for fantasy movies, but I love animation in general. 

Terry Pratchett in General

Terry Pratchett is a satirical fantasy writer - one of the UK's best selling and most critically acclaimed fantasy writers before J. K. Rowling came along. I've only read three (Equal Rites, Small Gods, The Truth), but I've enjoyed all of them. 

I think The Truth is my favorite so far. The characters are the best thing about the book - Mr. Tulip and Otto the vampire have joined the ranks of my all-time favorite literary characters. I also like the concept behind the novels - they take place in a parallel universe, and the same characters pop up in different novels. The series is a lot of fun to read, and with 39(!) books in all, it'll take a good, long time to work though the whole thing. 

More fantasy books to come!

**As I believer I've said before, I don't mind if a movie doesn't follow a book, as long as the movie itself is good. So many people gripe about movies that don't follow the book, and when I ask them if it was actually a good movie, they look at me blankly and say, "Well, duh, no, it didn't follow the book!" 

So, you mean, a movie has horrible acting, bad directing, and 

*Speaking of Tolkien, have you seen the new Hobbit trailer?

Life of Pi: book and movie

I went to see Life of Pi today. I read the book last summer, and enjoyed it - so when I first heard about the movie, I was wary, especially since it's a very "literary" book. It's the story of an Indian boy - Piscine "Pi" Patel, named for a swimming pool, son of a zoo owner - and at sixteen, Pi sets off to Canada with his family on a Japanese tanker ship which sinks in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Pi finds himself trapped on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Bengal tiger, Richard Parker , an orangutan, a zebra, and a hyena - and soon, only Pi himself and the tiger are left. As Pi struggles to survive, he relies on his (exceptionally strong) faith in God to keep himself from total despair. Pi encounters swarms of flying fish, sees the ocean alive with luminescent jellyfish, and discovers a mysterious and horrifying floating island. The book moves slowly, but the story is enough to make you read on.
The movie is gorgeous, and the incredible cinematography nicely complements the book's prose. From the lush scenes of India to the shots of Pi and Richard Parker alone in the lifeboat, the whole thing is jaw-droppingly beautiful. It follows the book well enough: I'd personally rather see a good movie that wanders off course than an awful one that follows a book word for word, though, and Life of Pi is definitely a good movie.
Either way, the story itself is incredible. It's the kind of story that sparks your own imagination, and takes your mind gallivanting off into a dozen different directions. The plot is remarkably believable, though the last few pages of the book will challenge everything.


I plan to write a more general post about fiction into film sometime in the relatively near future, stay tuned!

AND check out this year's Oscar nominations!
http://oscar.go.com/nominees