Eragon

Title: Eragon

Author: Christopher Paolini

Pages: 513

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: B+

Synopsis: While hunting deep in the Spine, 15-year-old Eragon finds a majestic blue stone. He returns home empty-handed from the hunt and tries to sell the stone for food. Nobody is willing to buy the stone and before long a dragon hatches from the stone. Eragon and the dragon form a bond and Eragon becomes a Dragon Rider. Eragon's uncle is killed by the evil Raz'ac after which Eragon leaves his hometown to try and extract revenge.

My Review: Paolini started this book when he was only 15 and it shows in his writing. I really, really like the books and the stories but sometimes the writing is a little cheesy and tacky. If the writing had been more refined and polished I would have given this book an A. This is one of those few books that force me to stay up late reading "just one more chapter."

From the Book: "(p. 460) Engaged in a fiery dance, their bodies were linked and seperated by the flashing blades. At times they nearly touched, taut skin only a hair's breadth away, but then momentum would whirl them apart, and they would withdraw for a second, only to join again. Their sinuous forms wove together like twisting ropes of windblown smoke."

The Path Between the Seas

Title: The Path Between the Seas

Author: David McCullough

Pages: 698 (including 83 pages of notes and index)

Genre: History, Non-fiction

Grade: A+

Synopsis: This is the story of the building of the Panama Canal. The book is split up into three sections. The first (1870-1894) explores the French's attempt at building the canal at Panama. The French spent hundreds of millions of dollars with a loss of around 20,000 lives and ultimately failed in their endeavors. Their failure brought depression to the French and forced out the government's leaders. The next section (1890-1904) involves the United States's decision to build a canal in Central America. Most of America wanted the canal to be built in Nicaragua (because how could the French have possibly chosen the best location?) but due to ingenious lobbying, the Americans ultimately decided on Panama. They purchased the canal holdings from the French and helped Panama secede from Columbia because the Colombian government wouldn't ratify the canal treaty that the Americans had drafted. The final section (1904-1914) covers the building of the great Panama Canal. The sheer scale of the work in the Panama Canal defies comprehension. At the height of the work, 45,000-50,000 people were working on the canal. Enough dirt was excavated to build a canal 55 feet wide and 10 feet deep from San Francisco to New York.

My Review: This book has claimed the top spot of my favorite books. This is a book that shouldn't be interesting but ends up being one of the most fascinating. The story is full of intrigue, deception, hard work, failure and ultimately success. McCullough has a way of describing events using written accounts and his knowledge of the time period that brings history to life. This is the fourth book by McCullough that I've read, and I look forward to reading all the rest; my only disappointment is that he has not written books about every President and historical occurrence.

From the Book: "(p. 78) One had only to look at the map to see that Panama was the proper place for the canal. The route was already well established, there was a railroad, there were thriving cities at each end. Only at Panama could a sea-level canal be built. It was really no great issue at all. Naturally there were problems. There were always problems. There had been large, formidable problems at Suez, and to many respected authorities they too had seemed insurmountable. But as time passed, as the work moved ahead at Suez, indeed as difficulties increased, men of genius had come forth to meet and conquer those difficulties. The same would happen again. For every challenge there would be a man of genius capable of meeting and conquering it. One must trust to inspiration. As for the money, there was money aplenty in France just waiting for the opening of the subscription books."

"(p. 417) Seen under the microscope, Stegomyia is a creature of striking beauty. Its general color is dark gray, but the thorax is marked with a silvery-white lyre-shaped pattern; the abdomen is banded with silvery-white stripes and the six-jointed legs are striped alternately with black and pure white. Among mosquitoes Stegomyia is the height of elegance."

"(p. 499) To the majority of those on the job his presence had been magical. Years afterward, the wife of one of the steam-shovel engineers, Mrs. Rose van Hardevald, would recall, "We saw him...on the end of the train. Jan got small flags for the children, and told us about when the train would pass...Mr. Roosevelt flashed us one of his well-known toothy smiles and waved his hat at the children..." In an instant, she said, she understood her husband's faith in the man. "And I was more certain than ever that we ourselves would not leave until it [the canal] was finished." Two years before, they had been living in Wyoming on a lonely stop on the Union Pacific. When her husband heard of the work at Panama, he had immediately wanted to go, because, he told her, "With Teddy Roosevelt, anything is possible." At the time neither of them had known quite where Panama was located."

Enchantment

Title: Enchantment

Author: Orson Scott Card

Pages: 387

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: A-

Synopsis: The subtitle of the book reads: "A classic fantasy with a modern twist" and that seems to be a pretty good description of the book. Ivan was born in the Ukraine when it was still under Soviet rule. His family finds a way to leave the Soviet Union and emigrate to the United States. When Ivan is a graduate student working on his dissertation about old Slavic folktales he returns to visit and study in the Ukraine. Once there, he wakes an enchanted 9th century princess placed under a spell by Baba Yaga with a kiss (ala Sleeping Beauty) and then finds their lives intertwined across a millennium.

Disclaimer: While I wouldn't call the book dirty, it does have some fairly frank discussions about sexuality.

My Review: Alison recommended this book to me a few years ago and then was surprised that I was reading this book because she didn't really like it. First off, this book was really strange. A large chunk of the story takes place in Russia and is based upon popular Slavic folktales. I'm not sure if I liked the book because of its Russian and Slavic folklore references or because it was a good book. I actually took a class in college on Slavic Folklore and was able to relate to many of the stories and tales that the book is built upon. At the beginning of the book I felt like Card was really struggling to make the story believable (and I realize that the book is a fantasy), but by the middle of the book the story begins to mesh and flow a little better. I found the book to be very clever.

From the Book: "(p. 20) Before we are citizens, he thought, we are children, and it is as children that we come to understand freedom and authority, liberty and duty. I have done my duty. I have bowed to authority. Mostly. And now, like Russia, I can set aside those burdens for a little while and see what happens."

"(p. 83) You get used to being naked, that's the first thing that Ivan discovered. Crashing through thick brush with branches snagging at your bare skin, you stop worrying about who's looking and spend your time trying to keep yourself from being flayed alive. He got shy again when they entered the village, but once he decided simply to let the gawkers gawk, he found himself much more interested in what he was seeing than what they were."