BattleForums Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: north carolina Age: 19 Posts: 4,051
| Favorite Books?
I know all of us read, and i know we all have a personal favorite when it comes to books, and i thought it would be nice if we all shared our favorites with eachother.
So that this wont be considered SPAM or anything, give the title of the book, the author, and a description about the book.
His Dark Materials-The Golden Compass
Author:Phillip Pullman
In The Golden Compass, readers meet for the first time 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Jordan College in Oxford, England. It quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own - nor is her world. In Lyra's world, everyone has a personal dæmon, a lifelong animal familiar. This is a world in which science, theology and magic are closely intertwined.
These ideas are of little concern to Lyra, who at the outset of the story, spends most of her time with her friend Roger, a kitchen boy. Together, they share a carefree existence scampering across the roofs of the college, racing through the streets of Oxford, or waging war with the other children in town. But that life changes forever when Lyra and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, prevent an assassination attempt on her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust.
It is at this time that children mysteriously began to disappear. Children, and only the children, are vanishing at the hands of what become known as the "Gobblers." Who the Gobblers are and what they want is unknown, but soon, children from far and wide are disappearing with out a trace, even Lyra's good friend, Roger.
But before she can begin her search for Roger, Lyra is introduced to Mrs. Coulter, a beautiful and bewitching woman. Mrs. Coulter is a scholar and an explorer - seemingly everything that Lyra could ever hope to be. Mrs. Coulter takes Lyra under her wing and employs her as an assistant to help in the next expedition to explore the Arctic North. On the morning she is to leave Jordan College, the Master of the school gives Lyra an alethiometer, a rare and powerful instrument with the power to reveal the truth in all things.
While under Mrs. Coulter's guidance, Lyra learns of her mentor's critical role in Church's General Oblation Board, a.k.a. the Gobblers, the party responsible for the disappearing children. It is revealed that these kidnapped children are taken to Bolvangar, a place in the far North, to participate in Dust experiments whereby they are severed from their dæmons through a process called intercision. Lyra also learns that the Church has captured and imprisoned Lord Asriel in the Arctic region of Bolvanger where he has undertaken Dust experiments of his own.
Horrified at what she has learned, Lyra and Pantalaimon flee Mrs. Coulter's home in the middle of the night and are rescued through the kindness of two gyptian men. The gyptians are a gypsy group of boat-people who live a harsh life on the water tempered by their unwavering sense of family, loyalty and love. It is the gyptians' children who have suffered most at the hands of the Gobblers, and they have vowed to travel North to rescue them. Lyra pledges to share what she knows, rescue her dear friend Roger, and ultimately find her imprisoned father. Through the gyptian elders, Lord Faa and Farder Coram, Lyra is bewildered to learn that her parents are Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter. Despite this shock, Lyra quickly learns to read the alethiometer and understand its messages. Although her alethiometer enables her to discover the truth in everything around her, Lyra is unaware of the incredible role her own life plays in the fate of the universe. Lyra is the subject of a great prophecy in which she is destined to commit a fateful betrayal that will determine the future of all worlds.
His Dark Materials-The Subtle Knife
Author:Phillip Pullman
In The Subtle Knife, readers are introduced to Will Parry, a young boy living in modern-day Oxford, England. Will is only twelve years old, but he bears the responsibilities of an adult. Following the disappearance of his explorer-father, John Parry, during an expedition in the North, Will became parent, provider and protector to his frail, confused mother. And it's in protecting her that he becomes a murderer, too: he accidentally kills a man who breaks into their home to steal valuable letters written by John Parry. After placing his mother in the care of a kind friend, Will takes those letters and sets off to discover the truth about his father.
Will does indeed make an astonishing discovery, but it's not about his father. Along a busy road, he happens upon an extraordinary window in the air. Almost invisible to the eye, it opens into an entirely different world. Anxious to remain hidden, Will ventures through this window into the shimmering, haunted city of Cittàgazze, where he meets Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, who have also wandered into Cittàgazze from yet another world while searching for the answers behind Dust. Aside from Will and his new companions, this city is eerie, empty and silent. The people have fled to the hills to escape the Specters, phantom-like beings that feed on the consciousness of grown-ups, leaving them zombie-like and void forever after. Only the children, who are safe from the Specters, venture out to scavenge for food.
Although safe in Cittàgazze, the two pass through the window to Will's Oxford knowing that answers to their questions lie therein. Will inquires about his father's expedition to the North and learns that it included a study of atmospheric particles. And meanwhile, Lyra seeks out a scholar who can tell her more about Dust. The scholar Lyra finds is a certain scientist named Dr. Mary Malone, a member of the Dark Matter Research Unit, who has discovered the existence of Shadows, the very same mysterious entity as the Dust of Lyra's world. But even more startling is that Mary Malone has found that in these Shadows, or Dark Matter, or Dust, there is consciousness. These particles are conscious, and their awareness is what powers Lyra's alethiometer, and what surrounds all human thought and matter. Mary Malone's next task is to find a way to communicate with these particles, for they will tell her about the vital role she plays in the fate of the universe.
When Lyra and Will return to Cittàgazze, Will reads the letters his father wrote during his final expedition in the North, and he learns that his father knew about the windows between worlds. His father planned to travel through a window to explore another world - just as Will had done himself. For Will, this was finally something both father and son could share, but more importantly, it meant that his father could be alive. Had he ventured through that window, John Parry could be worlds away, but somewhere he was alive. And Will resolves to find him.
Lyra, meanwhile, pays a second visit to Dr. Mary Malone, and this time there are authorities waiting to question Lyra about her interest in Shadow particles and Dark Matter. She inadvertently reveals her involvement with Will, immediately flees the lab, and runs straight into Sir Charles Latrom, a deceiving man who has seen Lyra work the alethiometer and realizes its value. Flustered by her escape from the lab, Lyra discovers too late that Sir Charles has stolen her alethiometer. When Will and Lyra try to get it back, they learn its ransom: a certain knife located in the high tower of Cittàgazze.
The two young friends enter the tower together and climb to the very top, where Will faces a ferocious fight for the knife. Will ultimately triumphs, making him the rightful bearer of the knife. This is the Subtle Knife, and it is an object of extraordinary and devastating power. There is nothing sharper or more deadly, and its bearer is capable of cutting entries into countless other worlds. Armed with the subtle knife, Will and Lyra retrieve her alethiometer by outsmarting Sir Charles, who they discover has been conspiring with Lyra's own mother, Mrs. Coulter. With knife and alethiometer in hand, Will and Lyra return to Cittàgazze to resume the search for Will's father.
In the meantime, Lyra's old friend, Lee Scoresby, the Texan aeronaut, has located a certain explorer, Stanislaus Grumman, a man with a legendary following. Grumman was a renowned explorer from the far North immersed in investigating Dust. He is rumored to have the most unusual osprey daemon, and it was said that he once rejected the love of a witch. Now a shaman, his tribal Tartar name is Jopari, a.k.a. John Parry. He is Will's very own father. While on his last expedition, John Parry stumbled through a window into another world. He found himself in the world of Specters, witnessed their horror, and fled into yet another world. Unable to find his way back to the window that led to home, he adopted the persona of Stanislaus Grumman and endeavored to learn everything he could about this Dust and its impact on the universe. Most importantly, Grumman learned of the subtle knife and the critical role its bearer plays in the fate of the entire universe. Grumman's task, with the help of Lee Scoresby, is to find the bearer of the subtle knife and inform him of the road that lies ahead.
What neither Will nor Grumman realizes is that this ultimate meeting is not between knife bearer and shaman, but rather between father and son. High on a mountaintop in the total blackness of the night, Will encounters Grumman who tells Will that he, with his knife, stands in the balance between the forces of Good and Evil and that his destiny lies in finding Lord Asriel. Curious to see this knife bearer's face, Grumman lights a match and the moment of light is enough for each to realize whom he is facing. In the next instant, Will's father is killed by the scorned witch, intent on revenge, and once again, Will loses the father he's never known.
Will climbs down from the mountain to return to Lyra, but instead finds two angels awaiting him. Lyra is gone; her alethiometer remains behind. Clearly, she has been taken away against her will. Friendless, fatherless and confused, Will has yet another journey ahead of him, a journey that will finally fulfill his destiny and reveal the secret of Dust.
His Dark Materials-The Amber Spyglass
Author:Phillip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass brings the intrigue of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife to a heartstopping close, marking the third and final volume as the most powerful of the trilogy. Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, The Amber Spyglass introduces a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spy-master to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. And this final volume brings startling revelations, too: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass, and the names of who will live - and who will die - for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that - in its shocking outcome - will reveal the secret of Dust.
The Vampire Chronicles-The Vampire Lestat
Author:Anne Rice
The best part of Anne Rice is that she is a wonderful story teller. The Vampire Lestat goes back and forth in time, introducing Lestat in the 20th century as he joins a faux-Satanic rock band in New Orleans – the other musicians dressed in black, playing at goth, unaware that their new lead singer is a more than a casual fiend. Before they can cut a record, however, the story ducks back to France in the 18th century, to the years just before the revolution. We meet Lestat now as a mortal, the loneliest child in a large provincial household that is aristocratic but impoverished. Lestat fights wolves, makes friends with Nicholas, a rich merchant’s son, and together Nicolas and Lestat defy their parents to go off to Paris and try their luck in the theater.
It is in Paris that Lestat finds himself shadowed by a pale presence, the vampire Magnus, who soon performs “the Dark Trick” – a mutual exchange of blood – turning Lestat into a vampire also. Alas, Magnus is weary of immortality and almost immediately goes into the aforementioned fire, committing vampire suicide and leaving Lestat to discover how to survive his new nocturnal life on his own. In short order, Lestat turns his friend Nicholas into a vampire, and his mother as well, and he begins his long years of searching for the meaning of vampirehood in such places as Egypt, Greece, and finally New Orleans.
Anne Rice has a remarkable imagination, effortlessly spinning tale after tale. It’s a pity she takes herself so seriously, getting pseudo-religious and waxing philosophical at great length, particularly in the last third of the novel, where there’s a great deal of vampire hand-wringing and wondering why one is condemned to evil, sucking blood night after night, when one only wants to be good. This gets ridiculous, and wearisome too. Nevertheless, the story is compelling when she bothers to tell it, and the good parts are so well-written that I heartily recommend this book to anyone who has not yet discovered Anne Rice. Frankly, you can easily skim her more tedious sections.
With a bit of editing and self-control, this could have been a masterpiece. As it is, The Vampire Lestat is flawed, occasionally pretentious, but still a fascinating read, a dark feast of story-telling brilliance
The Vampire Chronicles-Queen of the Damned
Author:Anne Rice
Im sure a lot of us have seen the movie, but the movies leaves out WAY too many details. It even leaves out some main characters and a main plot.
Lestat, the rock-star vampire, forms a band with a few outcast mortals, and proceed to dominate the airwaves with their music. Lestat unbenounced awakens the sleeping figure of Akasha when he is taken into the legendary Vampire Marius's care. Seeking more power than he could ever imagine, he befriends.
The Talamasca is a secret organization devoted to paranormal studies. A girl there is influenced by Lestat's music, and is in the pursue of vampires herself.
She also happens to be related to the Twin Red-Haired Sisters, who were witches in the times of ancient egypt, the very origin of vampires. Akasha is visited by the withces and a evil spirit pocess the king Inkule and Akasha, as the spirit drew power by engaging itself into the victims body and absorbing his or her blood.
The witches were blamed for such catastrophies and the torment of Akasha and Inkule's kingdom, so they are sentenced to rape by Armand, who befriends the witches and conceives a child with one. One sister has her eyes taken out. The other has her tongue taken out. These witches pursue Akasha for the thousands of years to come, and finally help Lestat come to his senses and help defeat Akasha when the sisters finally re-unite with each other.
Well, those are my top-5 favorite books. Whats yours?
__________________ "The Doors of Perception" She danced around and round
To a guitar melody
From the fire her face
Was all aglow
How she enchanted me
Oh how I’d like to hold her near
And kiss and forever whisper in her ear
Last sexed by Darkmatter : 05-2-2005 at 5:47 PM. |
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