A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness

Deep in the heart of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, Diana Bishop – a young scholar and the descendant of witches – unearths an enchanted alchemical manuscript.  Wanting nothing to do with sorcery, she banishes the book to the stacks.  But her discovery has set a fantastical underworld stirring, and soon a horde of daemons, witches, and other creatures descends upon the library.  Among them is the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire with a keen interest in the book.  Equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense, A Discovery of Witches is a mesmerizing and addictive tale of passion and obsession that reveals the closely guarded secrets of an enchanted world.  (Back cover)

I’m on a short vacation right now, so I chose to read something very light and escapist.  I don’t want to think about anything too deeply, and this book fit.  I’m a big fan of magic in fantasy literature, so I found this interesting enough.  Another thing that I liked about it was that it dealt a lot with books and libraries.  Magic, books, and libraries – a winning combination. 

Although the book is a hefty 718 pages (mass market paperback), the back cover says about all it actually is.  The heroine, Diana, has been living in denial and suppressing her powerful magical abilities since a very young age.  She turns to the world of academia where she feels that she can accomplish much without needing to use any magic.  But she can’t escape her true nature.  So one day, she finds her hands on an enchanted manuscript.  She didn’t know, however, that for centuries all sorts of creatures have been searching for this tome, having each their own desperate agenda relating to it.  So when she opens the book, other creatures felt its magic as well and soon Diana is being hounded by other witches, daemons, and vampires.  And of course, once a vampire enters the picture, we all know how everything will turn out.  Yep, they fall in love.  Surprise, surprise. 

Matthew Clairmont is your average fantasy vampire.  Around and about him the author uses words like enigmatic, magnetic, tall, dark, mysterious, princely, knight-in-shining-armour, and the like.  You get the drift.  This vampire turns out to be scientist, too.  He is very curious about the genetics behind the different creatures out there – humans, vampires, witches, daemons, etc.  Turns out that the book Diana found may hold the key to his search for the answers he wants.  But of course, there’s a whole lot more they have to deal with.  Suddenly Diana is in terrible danger and Matthew then plays the role of protector.  As their relationship progresses, they find that a lot of things stand in the way of their romance.  Matthew carries a whole lot of history with him – 1500 years of it, to be exact.  Diana has to deal with that.  Then a long-ago covenant made between vampires, daemons, and witches actually forbids inter-species fraternization.  Add to that Diana’s raw magical power spilling out of her uncontrollably, coupled with a troubled past that she has yet to resolve.   So our pair has quite a lot on their supernatural hands. 

What made the book as long as 718 pages?  It was something pretty likeable and interesting, actually.  History, literature, and science.  Since the two protagonists are both scholars, and one of them apparently lived through all 1500 years of history, you get a crash course in those three fields of interest as you follow their tale of “the two of us against the world.”   Although the plot is basic and predictable, I did enjoy going through the crash course.  After all, you’d never get your genetics, physics and chemistry, literature, and history classes spiced up by romance, adventure, and suspense in a university course.  There’s an idea.  Why not throw in a magnetic, brooding vampire and a captivating, intelligent witch into a microbiology lecture?  I’m sure fewer students would be falling asleep as the professor drones on. 

So did I enjoy the book?  Yes.  It fit what I was looking for at the time.  I finished it in two days – all 718 pages of it.  Like I said, it’s light and doesn’t really require much of deep thinking.  You just sit back, imagine yourself in the wonderful world of Oxford, or a medieval castle in France, or surrounded by spectacular books in a great old library.  And oh, don’t forget to imagine yourself surrounded by unnaturally gorgeous peoples.  There.  Plus, I enjoyed the scholarly parts of the story, too.  I tend to read very fast when I’m actually having fun with the book.  So if you think all that’s appealing, then try the book and I hope you enjoy.   

A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world.  This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the balance.  (Book cover)

This is exactly the kind of book that I love to read, and dream I could write – intelligent, deep, thought-provoking, and with magic and dragons in it!  I have loved Ursula K. Le Guin for a long time, but it had been especially difficult for me to find a complete set of her Earthsea books.   At last, on a serendipitous foray into an obscure corner of my small world (Cubao  J), I came upon a second-hand-books store that had it!  Joyous day it was indeed!  I tried not to get too excited, so I let the books settle for a while in my bookshelf, let them get used to the atmosphere of my room, but constantly I knew they were there, waiting for me.   The Earthsea series has spawned a radio dramatization, a television series, and even an anime film from the famed Studio Ghibli.

So Ged learns from a very young age that unlike the other kids, he’s special, gifted – he can do magic!  His beginnings weren’t so bad, he was a naturally curious child who liked to explore and learn more and more about his world and about what he can do in it.  He even ends up helping to save his village from savage invaders, risking his life in the process.  Good thing someone comes along to take him in hand, his teacher, Ogion.  The benevolent and quiet old man believed the boy to be incredibly powerful and sees in him unlimited potential, but Ged is impatient and impulsive.  He thinks the teacher isn’t actually teaching him anything.  So he does something that will have terrible consequences later – in secret he reads a dangerous book and summons up an unexplained darkness that no one will be powerful enough to confront, except Ged himself.   Ogion then does the only thing he could do at that point – he sends the rough-hewn Ged to wizard school, that he may learn what he needs to become a powerful wizard. 

Everyone at school acknowledges Ged’s undeniable giftedness.  But there he meets Jasper, older, more learned and just as confident in his skills as Ged was in his; they quickly rub each other the wrong way.  And though Ged makes good friends in Vetch and in the other aspiring wizards, he carries a constant grudge toward Jasper.  Then comes the fateful day when, issuing a challenge against Jasper, he ends up releasing the Shadow into the world.  In a desperate attempt to save Ged’s life, the Archmage sacrifices his, and Ged is left to hover at the border of life and death.  Thus begins his true development into the wizard he was destined to be, and his journey all over Earthsea in a quest to defeat the unnamed evil no one else but he could possibly face.

I loved every single word of this book.  Reading it, you can clearly see that the author has a profound understanding of what it means to be human – imperfect.  I love the fact that Ged started off just like any other kid who knows that he’s got something that other kids don’t.  He was cocky, boastful, arrogant, and with a little mean streak that helped him dominate all the other kids.  But of course, the world knows exactly how to teach kids like this the lesson that they need.  Ged learns humility the hard way.  In many ways he reminds me strongly of Beowulf (Yes, hero of the earliest known epic in the English language.  Read that, too!).  The point is that Ged learns from his terrible experiences, acknowledges his faults, and works hard to try to remedy the situation himself.  He doesn’t just give up and hide in a corner somewhere, asking other people to protect him.  In the process, he discovers just who his real friends are, and what it means to be only a small part of the great balance of the world, and that having power doesn’t mean having control and dominion over what or who seems powerless. 

I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!  I sincerely hope that whoever you are, wherever you are in the world, you may also find something that gives you such pleasure and joy as well-told stories like the Earthsea Saga does for me. 

Ursula K. Le Guin's website

Enchantment - Orson Scott Card

Book jacket synopsis:

The moment young Ivan stumbled upon a clearing in the dense Carpathian forest, his life was forever changed.  Atop a pedestal encircled by fallen leaves, the beautiful princess Katerina lay as still as death – while a malevolent presence stirred in the hidden depths below.

Now years later, Ivan is compelled to return.  He finds the clearing just as he left it.  This time he does not run…

This is probably the third or fourth time I’ve reread this book.  It’s one of those stories that I gravitate towards when the world around me seems to have lost all its magic, and all its inhabitants seem to be moving about merely following patterns that loop back and never change.

As the title suggests, it’s a story that lets me want to believe that there are still some things beautiful and wonderful in the world.  I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always had a special fondness for fairy tales, and that Sleeping Beauty is my favourite.  Well, this particular adaptation of Sleeping Beauty is one of the best I’ve ever encountered so far.

We meet Ivan, a ten-year-old Russian boy, suffering from identity crisis.  His parents have suddenly decided that everyone will turn Jew – and that this will have serious implications as to which parts of his anatomy will remain unscathed; all this in a desperate effort to escape Russia.  They sojourn at a relative’s farm in Ukraine, where on one of his running sprees, Ivan finds the sleeping princess Katerina and runs away, frightened by the palpable evil that guards her resting place.  The family flies to America where Ivan grows up to be a scholar and an athlete; but not for one moment has he forgotten the mysterious clearing, and the sleeping beauty that lies in the middle of a great chasm filled with dead leaves. He returns to her, unable to move on with his life unless he does, and when he does find her he takes his destiny in hand and his life – as well as Katerina’s – become hopelessly entangled in events that lead them to discover what truly mattered in their lives.  But did he actually end up saving the princess, or bringing her further trouble?  Was Ivan the man that the princess needed, or will he end up regretting his actions and wishing he had left Katerina trapped under the curse forever? 

Baba Yaga is certainly powerful, but it is never enough.  She ensorcells Bear, the god of winter, and taps into his power, using it to get even more.  The curse she placed on Katerina and the Bear seemed fool proof, until Ivan came along.  And now she must use all her wiles and employ all her magic to get everything back to how she wishes it to be.  But even as they find themselves betrayed left and right by people supposedly trustworthy, Ivan and Katerina manage to find some allies of their own. 

I love how this book sent me back in time to when I was a kid eating up all the books on folk tales in my school library.  I remember the tales from Russia; Baba Yaga and the Bear, and brave Ivan who had as many or even more adventures than did the more western Jack.  I loved that the characters that peopled this story weren’t glamorized.  They all had their own problems to deal with – even the witch and the gods had their unpleasant circumstances to face.  I love that both Ivan and Katerina were not your stereotypical fairy tale prince and princess.  They both surely had their many failings right along with the qualities that redeem them in each other’s eyes.  But their journey is a long and perilous one, filled with magic and science, bitterness and betrayal, and intertwined along with theirs are the lives of everyone around them. How were they to know that they held the fragile balance of the world in their hands?  Too many times in the book did it seem doubtful that goodness, nobility, sacrifice, and even love would make any difference in their efforts against their terrible and powerful adversary.  And I am taken along for the ride.  I follow them across the unseen bridge through time and space into two different worlds, each with their own brand of good and evil, of truth and lies, and most of all, of magic. 

As long as I can read, and as long as the pages of this book are intact, I believe I shall never tire of reading it over and over.  Rarely is there ever such a book that comes this close to the soul that once it is found, it is ever let go.  I hope you find such a book yourself, and gain a revitalizing source of magic when and where there seems to be no more magic to be found. 

Final Fantasy Tactics for PS1

A warrior takes sword in hand, clasping a gem to his heart...

Engraving vanishing memories into the sword,

He places finely honed skills into the stone.

Spoken from the sword, handed down from the stone,

Now the story can be told...

The Zodiac Brave Story

I am reliving my long-lost youth again by playing this game.  It's my all-time favorite.  It's much like playing chess.  You need to be a pretty good strategist to really enjoy it.  The story is fabulous, too.  Of course this is a Final Fantasy game, after all, so the indispensables are there: epic battles, unrecognized heroes, gods and deities, dragons, castles, princes and princesses, and a quest to save the world.  Too bad they never made another like it, though there have been so many that have adapted a similar format.  I'm so glad it could be downloaded for the PS3.  I highly recommend it.  Enjoy! 

Thomas the Rhymer - Ellen Kushner

The best thing about this story is the music.  You could almost see yourself in the halls of the kings and nobles, in the gardens and fountains, and in the magical realm of Elfland, immersed in the powerful music and magic of minstrelsy.  Seldom have I encountered a book with so much music and sound in it.  You will hear the susurration of silks, the rustling of leaves, the baa-ing of sheep, stories of tragic loves and heroic rescues, and music, music, music. It’s wonderful to hear music from your own imagination, brought to you by the power of words on a page.

The book gives us the life of Thomas, a minstrel.  We meet him first when, as a young travelling harper trying to find escape from the consequences of his youthful indiscretions, he finds himself in the care of a farmer and his wife deep in the quiet countryside.  He sings them his songs, new and old, and shares with them the gift of his music. The couple takes him in and is soon as fond of him as if he was their own child.  There among the hills, ranges, meadows, and music he meets Elspeth.  Their love is young and innocent, playful and easy.  But Thomas’ fate takes a drastic turn when one day while taking a stroll through the trees, he encounters the wondrous Queen of Elfland, who strikes a bargain with him and takes him from Earth and into her magical realm to be her lover and servant for seven years. 

In Elfland Thomas meets many strange and wonderful characters.  Hunter, the queen’s brother, tries to challenge him at every turn.  Thomas’ invisible servant sees to his needs but also hides a grim and sad story of her own.  There is the dove that weeps tears of blood when it hears Thomas’ music – bespelled by Hunter.  There is the King Who Waits, who calls Thomas “brother” and with whom Thomas feels a strange bond.  And then of course, the Queen.  He serves as her harper and singer in the halls and as the lover in her bed.  Thomas’ time in Elfland is full of magical stories, mysteries and riddles that he must solve, as well as innocents he feels compelled to save from cruel fates.  His true mettle as a minstrel is tested there, and he learns more about himself and about life and death from his incredible experiences.  At the end of seven years, and as a reward for solving a riddle and making a noble sacrifice, the Queen returns him to Earth with the gift of “a tongue that cannot lie.” 

I will leave the rest of the story for you to discover.  It is filled with magic and music.  If you enjoy a good, colorful fantasy enhanced by lyrical and imaginative storytelling, then you will appreciate this book.  It is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.  It also strongly reminded me of the tale of “Tam Lin” (I think it might be based loosely on this folk tale because of the many similarities and direct references.) and “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” which I also enjoyed immensely and consider as one of the most memorable books I ever read.  In any case, I believe "Thomas the Rhymer" is definitely worth reading.  Enjoy! 

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

Once in a while you find a book that is just filled with magic and wonder that it pains you to see the harsh reality around your own world.  How you wish that such fictional things were not just dreams on a page and that they could really be.  One such book that I found recently is “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern.  This book got me right from the moment I first saw it at the bookstore – black and white and red, all glamour, mystery, and magic.  If ever I’d be crazy enough to try to put together a list of books I most love (an impossible, unthinkable endeavor), this book will definitely be somewhere near the top of that list. 

From www.erinmorgenstern.com comes this description:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

I don’t even know where to begin describing the experience of reading this book.  I am no literary critic; I can only try to put into words how it felt like for me to experience a piece of literature.  When I started reading this book, I just felt like I was already there – like I fell into the world by accident and didn’t even feel the wind of the passage.  And throughout the reading I felt such longing for the circus to be true, to really exist even if I could never go there myself.  It almost doesn’t matter that I’ll never enter any of the tents, or see the bonfire, or witness the performances.  Just having it all be real would be enough. 

I fell in love with all the characters – every single one of them, from the proprietors to the ticket sellers.  How I wished I could actually see their performances in the tents or on the grounds as people walked around.  I empathized with their fears, dismays, curiosities, joys, and triumphs.  And central to it all is the astounding magical dynamic between Marco and Celia.  Throughout the entire story I desperately hoped that they’ll find happiness and overcome all difficulties, for there were times in the story when I felt that not even all the magic they have between them could possibly save them.

The author was able to create such a magical world – I could practically see the bonfire and smell the caramel.  What an amazing imagination, to have produced something like this.  It does remind me of a couple of other books.  One is “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury, and another is “The Prestige” by Christopher Priest – both of which are just as well worth reading.  It has been a long time since any book has elicited such an emotional response from me.  I do wish more and more people will read “The Night Circus” and experience its magic, too.