Out of the Silent Planet

Title: Out of the Silent Planet  (Space Trilogy, #1)

Author: C.S. Lewis

Summary:  Dr. Ransom, a philologist, is kidnapped by two men who truly deserve the title of "evil scientist":  Weston and Devine.  They take him to Malacandra, which is called Mars on the earth.  Weston and Devine have a philosophy of imperialism on a large scale, and they plan to annihilate the inhabitants of Malacandra to make room for humans.  The Oyarsa of Malacandra, who is the leader of Mars under Maleldil (an allegory for God), sent for Weston and Devine.  Weston and Devine, misunderstanding Oyarsa's gesture of friendship as an intention to use them for human sacrifices, left Malacandra and returned with Ransom to use for a sacrifice.  Ransom escapes and meets the hrossa, which are like seals, the sorns, huge herdsmen slightly reminiscent of Cyclops (but with both eyes), and the pfifltriggi (sp?), creatures dwarflike in their love of working metals.  

Stars: 9.  It was a little hard to work through, but I loved the description and new words.  I promise myself I will reread it later.  In the daytime.  

Violence: 6.  This is more of a thoughtful book, but they killed a sea monster (I forgot what it was called, but Ransom helped kill it, disobeying the eldil who spoke to him.)  

Romance: 6, for when Ransom and his hross friend discussed hross love (not in too much detail or with too much abandon, for it didn't go into the physicalities of it).  

Language: 0-1

Appropriate for:  Older teen/adult

Other: This was a good step up from The Chronicles of Narnia (I still like the story of the Chronicles better, but this was great too).  It contained more challenging vocabulary, more tangled allegory, and great description.  I had to look up no less than 15 words in the dictionary.  

Runemarks

Title: Runemarks

Author: Joanne Harris

Summary: Maddy Smith is a Fiery.  She has a rune, which allows her to do magic.  When she meets a wandering Fiery named One-Eye, she never guesses the truth.  When he sends her below ground to find a treasure called The Whisperer, she discovers Loki, one of the old Norse gods, and he tells her that old One-Eye is actually Odin, the head honcho.  At least, he was the head honcho before the big war.  Now the rest of the gods aren't fully on his side. Maddy and Loki, with the guidance of the Whisperer, venture to the Underworld, where the showdown will occur between Odin and the Nameless.  The Nameless turns out to be the most unexpected character of all.  

Stars:  4-5  

Violence: 7, because when the Nameless speaks, everyone's nose bleeds.  Also, a lot of battling and casting runes happens - which usually involves violence.    

Romance: 4.  Hel, goddess of the Underworld, trades Loki for Balder.  Originally, she had asked Loki to kill Balder so that she and Balder could be together in the Underworld.  (Evidently Balder was god of sunshine or something, so he was handsome.  But really . . . a handsome god named Balder?)  

Language:  4; it contained d--n and b-----d.  

Appropriate for: Young adults

Other: It was like Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, what with all the glamours.  And I could draw a connection between runes and hieroglyphs.  

The world was almost confusingly complex.  One set of gods is confusing enough.  Two sets is just crazy.  Maybe the Norse gods were that numerous and befuddling originally.  Well, the author could have explained them better.  

This book seemed anti-Christian or something.  The titles of some of the antagonists were parsons and bishops (and this wasn't the kind of book where the "bad guy" is the protagonist, like Macbeth).  The Nameless, who was really, really, greedy and bad and terrible etc., was called the Ancient of Days.  The antagonist was the established church.  The church sometimes had communion, which was a black-magic connection of the entire church and the Nameless.  It's as if the author is saying that the church is bad.  And that makes me not so sure about this book.  

Beauty

Title: Beauty

Author: Robin McKinley

Summary: Beauty's father wanders into an enchanted castle, where he is shown hospitality.  As he leaves, he picks a rose for Beauty.  But the Beast, the owner of the castle, tells him that he must bring back his daughter to live with the Beast or else come back alone and die.  Beauty comes to live with the Beast and discovers that he is not what he seems.  When she agrees to marry him, he turns into a prince.  

Stars: 8.  I like books that retell familiar stories (fairy tales and Shakespeare, for example).  

Violence: 3 for when the Beast sends the horse off by smacking it on the flank with his claws.  He frightens the invisible servants with a roar so loud that it actually tumbles Beauty over.  

Romance: 6, since it is a princess story.  It isn't graphic, though.  The invisible servants try to make Beauty wear a dress that she considers . . . immodest . . . but it isn't described in that much graphic detail.  (That was one of my favorite scenes.)  

Language: 0

Appropriate for: 9+  

Other: I really liked the description of places, especially of the castle.  The invisible servants were - to say the least - amusing.