The Wind Singer by William Nicholson

The Wind Singer
by William Nicholson

341 pages

"The tussle was short but intense. During it, much of the mud on Kestrel's legs was wiped on to the Chief Examiner's clothing. When at last he got a grip on her and tore her off, she let go, and he threw her farther than he intended. At once she sprang to her feet and ran. he made no attempt to chase her. he was too shocked at the sight of his muddy clothes. 'My whites!'' he said. 'The little witch!'" (59).

I absolutely love this book. The characters are wonderfully colorful and have so much personality. The main characters, Bowman and Kestrel Hath and Mumpo all have very well developed characterizations. The book is very clearly fantasy, but the fantastical elements are woven in so naturally, and the world is introduced so well that the reader slips right in to the story comfortably from the very beginning.

The plot follows three children as they oppose the system in the city of Aramanth. In Aramanth, everybody's status is determined by a battery of tests, starting when a child is still in its diapers. Everything depends on the tests, and the color of one's clothing reflects the level of society one is at. White robes signify the highest level possible to be attained. The children run away to try to find the key to bringing back the life of the city, to free the people from the oppressive control of the tests. To do this, they go in search for the voice of the Wind Singer, a mysterious structure at the center of Aramanth which nobody really knows the purpose of.

Although it seems to be a simple book, a smooth read, it leaves much to be thought about. The different aspects of the world created in The Wind Singer prompt the reader to think about how our own world works and gently points out the fallacies of our current mindsets. In the quote above, the Chief Examiner demonstrates that his highest priority is his status, which is symbolically dirtied by Kestrel. She shows a complete disregard for the very thing that the Chief Examiner holds dear, which on further thought is more twisted than it seems. Knowledge and the journey of finding it (learning) has been twisted until it is a mere rat race, a perverse mockery of what it really should be. And we see this in our own lives, the constant preoccupation with grades, people sacrificing their whole lives to try to attain what really isn't that important on further examination.

I would definitely give The Wind Singer a 10/10!

Quarter 3 Final Blog

The genre that remains for fourth quarter: Nonfiction/Memoir

I've read quite a few genres this year. I even read a mystery (And Then There Were None), something I haven't done in a very long time. Honestly though, my preferences haven't changed. I still really like Fantasy and Sci-Fi. I mean I read The Silmarillion which stifled the overwhelming need to read fantasy for a while, and I read some other books (The Purgatorio and The Paradiso). The Paradiso was really a bore, though. I felt like the entire time, Dante was just giving a lecture on Church beliefs and being righteous and ho hum blahblahblah. I think I tuned out more times while reading that book than any other book I've read before.
Well, after that, I read The Three Musketeers which was really good fun, but I felt like I hadn't read fantasy in AGES. I actually read The Prophecy of the Sisters when I was on vacation, which was slightly milder fantasy. When I got back, I found Silver Phoenix as a new book while I was shelving in the library. I was dying to feed my fantasy fix, so I read through it relatively quickly. I mean Silver Phoenix was really just a normal, iffy quality debut fantasy novel by an author. Wasn't so great, but it did the job.

So, favorite book of the quarter. I think The Three Musketeers wins this title. Apart from fantasy/sci-fi, I think next in line in my favorite genres is Classics. I just love the language and the style they're written in. Just the way the story unfolds is different too. I love it, and unlike The Count of Monte Cristo which I enjoyed very much too, The Three Musketeers is, like I said before, a much lighter story. I really enjoy Dumas' style, and reading The Three Musketeers was a wonderful experience.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (End!)

So yeah, I finished my first mystery in a very long time! Alright, so that wasn't so bad, I guess. I think that this book was quite suspenseful because of the Little Indian Boy nursery rhyme. I thought Agatha Christie did a pretty good job of keeping it interesting with the twists on how each verse was fulfilled. But, no spoilers right now!

The ending, I thought, was quite good, and ironic. I thought that there was something fishy with the suspects, and I knew it wasn't the last few people left on the island. I just didn't know that it turned out to actually b-oh yeah, no spoilers. ;) I'm not exactly sure if I really like the explanation though. It seemed a little out there, but I didn't think it was terrible out there. It did make some morbid kind of sense, I guess.

Well, then. Here's my final rating of the book then: 9/10 (Yes, I'm still not exactly in love with mysteries. Stubborn ole me)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (#1)

Pages: 1-108

Wow! I'm actually enjoying a mystery. It's a mystery to me (haha, ok that was a bad joke, I get it) how I've been reading for so long without ever picking up an Agatha Christie novel. I think that this one is very interesting, and I like the style of writing.

So, first off, I really like how it's switching between the different characters' perspectives. With 10 characters, it is a little confusing at first, but a little bit into the book, I had already caught on. With so many different perspectives, the plot really unfolds beautifully. We get a little bit of information revealed at a time, and it's a lot of fun to read.

Next, I do enjoy her writing style. It's easy to read, and a bit of a departure from the kind of language I encountered in The Paradiso and The Three Musketeers. It's much cleaner, and although I hesitate to say that it's modern, it is a bit more up to our time's way of speaking and writing. It's refreshing to read this type of style again, since Silver Phoenix seemed to be just a bit of a stand-in filler between the books I really wanted to read. Silver Phoenix was a bit of a train wreck from the beginning, so I didn't pay too much attention to the author's writing style. I admit that I kind of wanted it to just be over and read it for the story. I'm finding that this isn't the case for And Then There Were None at all. I'm really into the story, and although I do usually bow to the strain of the suspense, I'm doing alright so far!

I'm enjoying this novel, and can't wait to read more!

My rating of the book so far: 9.5/10 (I don't know, but I'm not sure if it's a perfect 10?)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Begin!)

And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie

So, one of my goals this quarter is to to read a bit more mystery. If it isn't apparent already, I'm really into fantasy/sci-fi (so much that I was half-contemplating picking up this Star Wars novel I had before I remembered my goal). I honestly can't remember the last time I read a mystery novel. Well, that might be because I always cave in and take a peek (alright, maybe not just a peek) at the end. My willpower can't stand up to the suspense! Anyway, I decided the time for me to read a mystery is long overdue, and I've picked up And Then There Were None. I'm thinking it's a little hard to go wrong with such a famous mystery author (Agatha Christie!) and such a famous work of hers. Well then, let's see how it goes!

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Silver Phoenix
by Cindy Pon

I'd been on some pretty classical material for a bit (The Three Musketeers), and I was hankering for some fantasy again. So, of course I picked up one of those...wait for it...yes one of those generic "Young Adult Fantasy" books. They tend to be about an inch thick, same size, hardcover, colorful cover, and the same "rebellious heroine" plot lines. Alright, I know, I was desperate, and I took it on an impulse. However, when I started reading, I discovered that this was no ordinary generic fantasy book. In fact, it was a bit of a not-up-to par generic fantasy book. The author failed to develop the plot and characters at consistent rates. So, one section would have a bit of a dull length of character development, and in a mad rush to catch up with the characters, the plot would come roaring back and ended up half-baked and introduced in the wrong place. It was an...interesting experience. Maybe not in a good way. The ending wasn't exactly up to par either, with loose ends that I had been expecting to be tied up, as they usually are in others of this generic fantasy variety. Oh well, it did stave away the blind hunger for some fantasy, though and I'm moving on to something new! So...that's how it went.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (Begin! ...Middle...and the End?)

The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas

I read The Count of Monte Cristo last year and really loved it, so I thought that reading more Dumas would be enjoyable. I picked up a copy of The Three Musketeers that I had around and started reading it. It didn't disappoint! I actually enjoyed The Three Musketeers even more than The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a bit lighter fare and didn't have such a somber, dark tone that The Count had. I really enjoyed The Three Musketeers, so...that's how it went!