The Left Hand Of God

The Left Hand Of God
Paul Hoffman
8/10

Well here we go, the review for Thesaurus (its actually for a worker at Thesaurus, but its not a big distinction and easier to say) i was asked to do it, and i must say, i am glad i was. This is a great book, paul is one of those writers thats able to tell a story in a way that makes it seem real, interesting and leaves you wanting more. I often say that the characters are original etc but this time i'm not kidding, the protagonist of our story is a complex, enthralling and, although eccentric, strangely loveable.
The small boy, Thomas Cale, is brought up in the worst possible environment, he grows up and is taught by a collection of extremist monks who believe strongly in using physical pain to atone for sins that all are born with. All that the boys who grow up in the remote monastery with these priests are taught to fear god, behave perfectly and to fight in time of war. Cale is a particularly good fighter, and one of the highest ranked monks talks a special interest in his education. this means harder lessons, and harsher punishments.

When Cale accidentally walks in on an atrocity during an errand, he sets in motion a series of events that lead him, and two of his friends, to run away from the monastery and become important factors in a coming war between the order of monks they ran from, and the large city of a powerful warrior race that they ran to.

The book is not without faults, however. There are numerous references to locations, travel, landscapes of various terrain, and a number of landmarks. There is no map in the book so picturing the world from vague descriptions is hard, and often frustrating. Hoffman has also used numerous real life names for people races of people, this forces us to think of stereotypes and saves the writer from having to describe them to us, it seems lazy and it is confusing. As a final irksome detail is that a few times in the book the writer takes on a storyteller sort of tone, this shocked me because there was no indication it just, at the end of a chapter, the narrator started dropping hits of things to come. We never receive warning of it and before i had time to work out what was happening, it was gone and the book moved back into the normal flow. It was a good use of writing, but I found that the change in tone stopped the book dead. For all you history buffs, the climax of the book, an all out war between the two forces is really an almost move by move copy of a battle from history,i wont say which one, however. Again this seemed like a lazy part of the book. A disappointment, being able to guess what will happens.

All of those put together may make it seem like it has a lot of cons but in reality, its a very small part of the book that is at fault, the rest of the 400+ pages are literature gold and well worth reading. A BIG thank you to Thesaurus for asking me to do this book, i'm very glad i got it and some more recommendations would be much appreciated. I think that the book is worth a detention, but if your monk oppressors catch you, then expect a thorough beating :P

Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days

Skulduggery Pleasant
Derek Landy
8/10

Well we all know about the tried and true Skulduggery Pleasant books, all of the characters have a certain quality about them they, all have points that mean you cant help but love them, the devotion of Valkyrie our hero, the perseverance and deadliness of Tanith, the cute lovability of Kenspeckle, the blatant stupidity of some of the bad guys and, of course, the sharp wit, dry humour and sheer awesomeness of the walking talking skeleton, Skulduggery. This variance and individuality between characters shows the comittment of a truly gifted writer.

The difference is that this book starts off with no Skulduggery, hes gone, missing presumed dead. As Valkyrie joureys to rescue him we recieve news of a new collection of criminals bent on revenge, as well as a prophecy concerning an appocalypse in the near future. Not really the best time to lose one of the most freaking aweosome heroes that I know to exist in literature.

The story progresses at an excellent pace and keeps up the beautiful description that the books are famous for, with an edge of your seat pace you cant help but but get sucked in. The only criticims i can find is that, in comparison to previous books in the series, its not as heavy on the comedy and action that I loved in the first couple, there seems to be a bit more of an emphisis on the story, and though this makes the book seem deeper, its unfortunately at the loss of an element that was always a highlight of the other books. Dont let this put you off though, far from it, this series is certainately a must read and if you havent then do so.

Its not a hrad to book to pick up, short as far as pages go, and with a large friendly font. The easy humor makes it easily accessible and the simple take on magic is one of the best i've ever seen. Whenever a writer has to redo a basic item in a book there is always a chance that it will be to different and not liked, magic in SP is simple and makes sense. The idea of an elemental magician verses an adept who can have any sort of magic power is an awesome concept and easy for anyone to understand.

Overall a fantastic book, and totally worth a detention, I have to thank my chemistry teacher, who helped me greatly to read this book by not showing up to classes. This goes out to you Mr. Harris :D
Try your best to read this book, but if you cant dont lose your head:P

Cavern Of Black Ice

Cavern Of Black Ice
J.V Jones
9/10

This is an awesome book. Its heavy fantasy, which i don't normally like but i have to say, this was impressive. it has two main characters and it follows each of their stories until they meet up and travel together. One of them is the adopted daughter of the leader of a large city, another is a young man who is a nobody in his clan. The man, Raif, encounters numerous adversaries as his clan is taken over my a malevolent tyrant who has tricked the clan into thinking he is really a great leader. This forces him to leave his home as he will not obey many new rules that are imposed upon the clan. The woman, Ash, has been having numerous dreams of evil beings (think small, Gollum-like shadow creatures) who plead for her to set them free. She does not understand what is happening to her and though her adoptive father does, he refuses to tell her. When she learns of a plan to have her imprisoned she runs from her home and ends up meeting Raif, who has traveled to the city after leaving.

The two of them travel to an old scholar who tells Ash what she is, a being created to bring upon the worlds destruction by summoning demons. She wishes to avert this and to do so must travel to a cavern of black ice and use her powers of destruction on the cavern so she essentially empties herself of power. What entails is a fantastic story of adventure as Raif and Ash travel to prevent this catastrophe. As Ash loses control of her powers she realises that she will summon the demons whether she wants to or not, so it becomes a race against time to get to the cavern.

Overall the book has everything you could need in a great story; suspense, trills, plot twists, a well written love story and loveable characters. Really its a cracking good read and, in my opinion, well worth reading on an 8 hour drive to Adelaide so u don't have to listen to anything your parents think is good music.

Beatle Meets Destiny

Beatle Meets Destiny
Gabrielle Williams
7/10

Hmm, where to start? Well, it is probably good form to mention that i only picked up this book because it was promoted at our school. Yes Gabrielle Williams came to our school and talked about this book in order as well as giving a short talk on how to write better stories. It was rather interesting and was really funny. She had a way of talking that made it seem as if she was closer to our age than hers. She spoke as if she had personal experience of our time as opposed to hers. No offence, she wasn't really old or anything but the way people live these days, especially teenagers, changes far more frequently than any other age group so to have that knowledge and experience was impressive. One of my favourite remarks that was made on the day was "No, because that would be weird." if you were there then you should remember. If not, I don't care, all my important readers were there so there's no problem.

The book itself is great, a good storyline and an awesome set of characters. However the book reminded me very much of, are you ready for this?
Don't Call Me Ishmael!!
Yes! One of the year 8 English texts and its a shame because, compared to Don't Call Me Ishmael, it's a letdown. Ishmael was funnier, more interesting with an even better cast of characters. So if you were lucky enough to read D.C.M.I then know that this book is like that but not quite as good. If you didn't like Ishmael you probably wont like this so its all a matter of perspective. I'll leave it to you.

It's a nice story but not worth a detention, not this close to exams but if you carefully read when your supposed to be studying, then that is OK because studying is really boring. I'll leave it to you.

The Host

The Host
Stephanie Meyer
9/10

Yes, I know it's a Stephanie Meyer. Yes, I know she wrote "Twilight". No, I'm not a girl. No, I'm not gay. Yes, I still gave it 9/10. It really is a good book.


Really.

Read it yourself if you don't believe me.
Really. You can trust me.

The story takes place on an earth that has been invaded by parasitic hosts. They take over the humans minds and live using their bodies. almost all of humanity is lost at the start of the book. There are only small pockets of Resistance left. Now generally when the aliens take over the host the original human mind is completely overpowered and destroyed, only the alien mind is left. The book follows the story of the alien who's host was not overpowered.

It is a fantastic tale because the two minds eventually become friends and start working together to find a pocket of resistance. Although the humans are wary they eventually accept the alien and her host and then the story follows a number of hardships that the two minds must handle together.

I found it was an awesome and clever storyline which kept me enthralled until the very end. And when it finishes it sort of leave you wanting more. A book worth a detention that you and your alien invader can enjoy together.

Witch And Wizard

Witch and Wizard
James Patterson
9/10

This is much better than my last read, thankfully. It was really interesting and has an awesome storyline. I was happy to jump right into a fast paced, fantasy story that had almost no deep meaning, no complicated relationships, no BLOODY 20 PAGE BIOGRAPHY'S OF CHARACTERS WHO AREN'T REALLY IMPORTANT! it was just a good clean read and for that it got a higher review than it would have had I read it just after 'Five Greatest Warriors' for example.

One of the things that annoyed me was the system of government that the bad guys use. The leader is called "The One Who Is The One" then there's "The One Who Judges" and "The One Who Enforces" it all become very annoying but thankfully, that's the point and the main character makes fun of them at regular intervals with hilarious results. The New Order has also banned books, music and anything else that could possible be counted as creative, it is a world of science.

Regardless I really liked it. It is a very Sci-Fi/Fantasy heavy storyline so if your not really into that sort of thing then maybe give it a miss. One thing that I found was a nice perk was that there are a few words, not too many, that looked like they were made up for the book. they gave it a sense of being its own story and gave the world an edge of realism. As a tribute I wall right the last paragraph with some of these words.

This is not a cantrip and I'm no naysayer, this book is real pukka. So whether your a curve, straight and narrow or an Erlenmeyer, like me, get all your friends, meet at the nearest Dickensian Mingus and get the book. Then read it in class and get a detention. Your book will also be burned by order of The One Who Is The One.

By The One Who Rights Reviews

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest
Steig Larsson
4/10

About Bloody Time!I have found a book that is not really worth reading. It was boring and a huge letdown to me. The first book in the series was great even though it had a bit of a slow start. The second one was fantastic and had plenty to keep me interested but the third was just boring. Very little of anything of interest, 20 page long biography's of characters, even the minor ones. I did not find anything of value in it. A four is generous in my opinion.

There's not much else to say except go out and get the first two, read them, they are awesome and then skip the last one. The most useful thing in the third one is that shes OK. But seriously your time would probably be better spent getting a detention for writing a book about watching grass grow. And then a sequel - Watching Paint Dry.

Five Greatest Warriors

Five Greatest Warriors
Matthew Reilly
10/10

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!
It took 2 years but he finally released the sequel to "Six Sacred Stones."
And it's one hell of a sequel, there are plot turns, comedy, betrayal, suspense and a brand new bad guy - one of the most horrible I've ever read about.
if you've read any of the Jack West books than you will no how good the books are but due to the fact that I loved the book so much i wont say anything about it because im almost dying to talk about it, a downside of finishing it in one sitting. So I will just say that its maybe his best book yet and leave it at that.

Sorry its so short but there's not a lot that can be said that wont just be an understatement. So ill finish by saying that the book is easily worth reading non stop for a whole period regardless of the consequences, I'm talking form experience.

Can't wait for the "4 Something Somethings"

Gone

Gone
Michael Grant
10/10

Gone is a book that tells the story of a small town that suddenly gets cut off from the rest of the world. it gets surrounded by an impenetrable dome and nothing can get in or out except for air, the Dome can still regenerate a viable atmosphere. The thing that makes this book really great though is the last effect that the dome has. All humans over the age of 15 disappear, there's no flash or anything, they're just gone. Oh, and it mutates some of the inhabitants, giving them super powers.

The book is great and I really enjoyed seeing how the assorted characters react to the dome and how each one tries to adapt to the situation. Some form cruel gangs, others form humane gangs. Some try to seize control, others just listen to and follow those in power. What would you do? I've made a poll to find this out. Also what would be a cool power to get? What would be useful? what power would you want someone else to have that could work with yours? Leave a comment, I'm really interested.This is also the first post that I'm linking to from Facebook. I want to see if I get any more followers as opposed to just telling people via word of mouth.

The book is great and it provides a good medium for how well you know your friends, what would they do on Domeday? (yes i gave it a name) Would they team up with you so that you could hoard more food and supplies? Or would they ditch you and leave you at the mercy of the bigger stronger factions? It's a fantastic book and well worth a detention, either reading in class or arguing with your friend, who might not be as much of a friend as you thought.

Hunger Games II - Catching Fire

Hunger Games II - Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins
9/10

This book was somewhat a disappointment because it did not live up to the expectations set by the first book. Don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic book but, the first was still better. After reading the book I felt that it reminded me a lot of the Pirates Of The Caribbean series of movies. The first was great(9/10), the second was not as much (7/10), and the third was fantastic (10/10) I found that the middle movie was really just a set up that would make the third really good. I hope that his holds true with the hunger games.

After a really late night I cant think of anything more to say about the book this morning other than, read the book, the whole series is awesome and this book is no doubt a fantastic sequel to the hugely popular Hunger Games. Not as Good as the first one but good enough for a detention in a really boring subject like math or maybe RE. Mr Kessler makes my RE classes moderately interesting but others might not think as much about their own teachers. They therefore they may think a detention is the lesser of two evils. Which is ironic because a lesson about god is not often considered evil. Oh well...Read the book!