Revenge of the Witch

I read this years ago and couldn't remember anything about it. Originally I gave it four stars and I hold to that with a reread. 

Tom Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son, therefore making him the special. He doesn't know how, but his mother believes he is someone who will help him fight the coming darkness. Now that he is older and his eldest brother is running the farm with his pregnant wife (along with their aging father and mother), Tom is sent to start and apprenticeship with the Spook. Spook, or Mr. Gregory, is the Country's Spook. He's the one who takes care of those things that go bump in the night. Tom's apprenticeships is hard and full of scary moments. His first trial as a Spook is to stay the night in a haunted house, don't open the door for anyone, at midnight go into the cellar, and don't let the candle go out. Bravery and facing his fears will be key to any and everything he does as an apprentice Spook. After meeting a girl with pointy shoes, things go from faint bumps in the night to revenge and kidnapped children very quickly. 

I'm not much of a horror person. Thriller to an extent, but I don't do horror. There were two times in the book where I actually got a little jittery. Well written parts. I had to remind myself that it was just a story, and a young adult story at that. Though for it being young adult, it was kinda pushing the envelope for me. Like a baby died (and eaten) here and normally that is something writers touch--not anything graphic on that account, but still...

I liked all three of our main characters. Spook is awesome. I'd love to see him in action because we didn't really get to see him do anything besides teach this time around. Tom resembles a real person in that he has faults in judgement but sometimes his judgement is right on. Alice is also someone I'm excited to see how she progresses. There are thirteen books in this series (ah, the unlucky number) and the second to last one is called I Am Alice with her rather gloriously standing on the front cover, which makes me think she's come into some witchy power, for good or bad we don't know yet, but I'm intrigued. EDIT: I'm not continuing on with the series. I don't need the bad juju in my life. 

It is a very quick read. If I was able to just sit down and read (without a dog or other persons or jobs interrupting me) I could have finished it easily in two days. Possibly one if I started early. Sometimes it's rather "telling" instead of showing, but it is supposed to be something like Tom's journal and they aren't normally as descriptive as "normal books" so it can be forgiven somewhat. The prose is probably what dropped the star, those two very suspenseful moments (though at the beginning for me) were why I wanted to give it a 4.5 but.... Still a good beginning to a series. 

As I said, I'm not sure about horror, if it gets to be too.... ick for me, I'm going to put the series down. But we'll see how far we go. 

I also remember seeing the movie that they made of the book; it was called The Seventh Son and while it does have some of the happenings, I guess, but it is extremely different from the book. Like it's hard to figure that it's the same story. Though it does have Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian or General Kirigan) play Tom, but the age different of the character and actor is rather ridiculous--kinda like what they did for Percy Jackson's movie. What is up with them slaughtering the stories... They could have had a good long series for The Last Apprentice, but lost it and did a horrible movie. Don't watch it. Save yourself the few hours and find something else.  

In Another World With My Smartphone (Part 1)

 One of the few Isekai ("different world")  manga I've read. 

Touya Mochizuki finds himself talking with God. Apparently he wasn't supposed to die, so in order to make amends God gives him a chance to go to another world. Touya asks if he can take his smartphone with him and God says yes, and that he'll also have magical powers in this world as well. Excited to start his new life, he hitches a ride with a clothes merchant (who wants his clothes and pays top dollar for the fine pieces) and makes his way to the nearest city. He runs into twin girls who help him find the Adventurer's Guild so he can make some money and stay at the inn. The girls help and they split bounties. Touya finds that not only is his smartphone super helpful, but he has the ability to use all magics in this world. Being a helpful person he makes many friends especially among the nobles which helps him move up in society to where he eventually gets his own kingdom. But not all is as easy as it seems. Crystalline beasts are awakening and nothing, not magic or brute force, seems to be able to stop them. 

The plot of the crystalline creatures and Ende (who I think is a bad guy, though we don't know yet) has a lot going for it. The fact that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is going to help defeat them is pretty awesome, though I personally could do without the mechtechs--but that's just me. I think it has a lot of promise. 

Touya, though, is a MarySue or Gary-Stu if you like, which would normally make me grade it a bit harder, but I still gave it a 4 Star because as the story goes on he finds challenges that are really difficult to overcome. I do think there are still problems with Touya as a character besides his Gary-Stu-ness--which I guess they give a bit of an explanation for but that isn't until later in the series. He doesn't really change throughout the course of the 12 volumes that are out at present. He's completely awesome (Gary-Stu) and girls flock to him (it is a harem after all) but he doesn't change. There are no faults to over come so there is nothing too change. 

I could also do without the perv-y moments that are sprinkled throughout the series. Because Touya is the only boy who isn't a dad or king of a country, all the perv-y people are robot girls or their female creator who's gross. I end up skimming or skipping through parts whenever they are around. Ugh. It' gets tiresome. 

But over all the characters are fun and the plot is creative. I even find that I enjoyed the "building a kingdom" part of the story where much of it was just trying to straighten things out. It's well illustrated and has a good story. We just need to have the main character not be so powerful at the beginning (give him some training sores) and less "panty shots" or plain sex talk. 

The series isn't complete yet, so when another huge bunch comes out, my hubby will probably have me check it out. 

Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

 

 

Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary is number four in Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series and it had some twists and turns that I didn't see coming.

It's nearly Christmas and things only go wrong for Kendra and Seth Sorenson. The Society of the Evening Star is everywhere and even with Warren and others on guard at all times, Kendra finds herself kidnapped with a duplicate taking her place. Seth and Warren end up confronting the fake Kendra and she commits suicide--all the while Seth and the other's believe Kendra is really dead (funeral and everything) and they don't know what Kendra is gone. The Sphinx forces her to try to work the Oculus which almost makes her go crazy. With some unknown help, Kendra is able to escape and makes her way back to Fablehaven and safety. Though comforted by the fact that Kendra is actually alive, complications arise as new information appears that the Society of the Evening Star knows where and is planning on going to get yet another piece of the key to the Zzyzx, the Demon Prison. Gaining access to the Dragon Sanctuary is only part of the battle. The dragons themselves are something completely different. 

As I said, there were some twists that I didn't see coming. Some sad things, but others that blew my mind. I wonder if there were times when I could have been a more thorough reader and picked these bits of foreshadowing up, but there were other things were it blindsided me and my son as I read aloud to him. The ending did have a bit of a villainous monologue that was rather tedious, but I don't see how Brandon Mull could have concluded it in any other way. 

I think the world of Fablehaven was well dove into. We were given so much more information about the different things that go on that 'we without magical milk' don't know about, stinkbulbs being the biggest one I think. Of course we spent a lot of time in Fablehaven as well as amongst dragons elsewhere, but there was more to explore and discover in Fablehaven itself, which was intriguing.

It did seem like it took a long time to get through. It almost seemed like there were three different stories in one book, as if they were hard "Acts" in a play. These moments didn't seem to flow well into one another. So much like separate stories, that it was hard to remember what was going on previously. It was strange. 

Though, there was a lot of character development for both Seth and Kendra which makes me happy. Seth is stepping into his own and making his stands. Kendra is finding it hard to trust anyone. I'm excited to see how much farther they go in the next book.