Babel 17

A lot of neat new ideas offered in this book. I really enjoyed the idea of language expanding thinking ability pushed to the extreme with a language who's word meanings are so intricate that it allows the speaker to see situations from a heightened awareness. And the reverse of that concept in the character of The Butcher who doesn't use the words I or me. I also was very interested in the idea of reading a person's thoughts through the reading and interpreting of facial muscles, movements, and personal actions. The body modification through cosmetic surgery was very interesting and I like to think that the human race will begin to artificially modify themselves in a conscious effort towards diversification and evolution. After reading this book I feel motivated to learn more languages and enrich my existing vocabulary as well as learning more about common facial expressions and how to read and interpret them.

My Destination is the Stars

I forgot to post for this reading before, so I may be a little hazy on the details of the story, though this was one of my favorite books I read in this class. I loved the anti hero, bent on revenge. Great premise to move the story, forget chasing love or money, revenge is a stronger more interesting motive. I thought that the removed tattoo mask of NOMAD that shows up in the main character's passionate emotions was so cool. I'd really like to illustrate his face. I wish I could remember more of the book, but I feel like its blending with some of the recent similar sci- fi I've read recently. I can't recall if its this book or another that had the neat scifi diseases and problems of the future universe, but one example is the woman who can't help but telepathically send her thoughts out.

Warbreaker

Warbreaker is my favorite read yet in this class. From the beginning of the book the reader is told that an Idrian princess will go marry the Hallandren God King to prevent a war, as preordained in a peace treaty. The story holds to that plot while twisting and pulling to break loose of its guidelines. From the start things go wrong in the plan. The wrong princess is sent to Halladren and her sister follows with the intention of rescuing her only to fall into the clutches of a band of knieving mercenaries who her to try and push the Halladrens into war. Meanwhile the first princess is trapped in the God king's palace where she is warned of unknown dangers and told she must produce the God King's heir though he appears to have no interest in her. The story remains this way, with many plans to escape from the plot being thwarted until the end. At the end your sure the war is imminent, the Lifeless troops are marching, and no one is alive who knows the command to stop them. But War breaker is all about not letting war break, so the God King release's Kalad's undead army of stone soldiers o stop the Lifeless force and stop the war just before it begins. I found this book really engaging. When Vivianna finds out that he has been betrayed by the mercenaries I was right there with her. I couldn't believe it, but then when she thought back at the signs of their betrayal and of how she ignored them, I realized I too had ignored these obvious signs of disloyalty. I also really liked the cast of characters. They were diverse and interesting and I identified with quite a few of them, especially Vasher and LightSong. The magic system was really interesting too, almost seemed written for art students with a focus on color.

Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Another book with no character names! Everyone instead has an aleius or just a last name. I liked that, it gives a back story to all the characters. For instance Shadow goes by Shadow because he was a shy kid who followed adults around rather than playing with other kids. I liked Shadow a lot as a character and that he, as a full grown and rather large criminal sort of man, has so many ties to his childhood and childlike questions and actions. The story jumps around a lot and I definitely had trouble following the story, but that's not to say that it made me dislike the book. I found some of the short stories within the book, such as the story of the twins, to kind of take me outside the context of the main story to give a me a greater understanding of some issue that will aide me when I return to the actual story. The same thing is true of the short quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I especially liked the chapter that started with Benjamin Franklin's quote, "Three may keep a secret, if the two of them are dead" and then started the chapter with the sentence, "Three days had passed." I thoroughly enjoyed Neil Gaiman's style of writing, and found many of his ideas about the world quite insightful, but the whole idea of ancient Gods living within modern times and living regular mortal style lives just didn't dance for me. The writing kept me reading, but the plot concerning the god's and their impending battle or storm didn't win me over. I have yet to finish the book, so maybe the ending will change my mind about the plot.