Jane

What would happen if Jane Eyre were to fall in love with a rock star? Such is the premise of April Lindner's Jane, a retelling of Jane Eyre. The central character, Jane Moore, is mostly alone in the world. Having lost her parents to a car accident, her only family members are her two siblings, and they're not at all close. Miss Moore doesn't have any friends either, and she's a rather shy, reserved person. One day, she decides to become a nanny.

Little does she know, however, that she'd become nanny to Madeline Rathburn, daughter of the one and only Nico Rathburn, an internationally famous rock star.

Miss Moore researches Mr. Rathburn online, and is greeted by stories of wild parties, substance abuse, and the general madness that typically seems to follow rock stars around. Apprehensively, she takes the job.

As she gets to know Maddy, she becomes acquainted with the staff of Thornfield Park- and it seems something is not quite right. Eventually, she gets to know Mr. Rathburn and develops an appreciation for his music, along with Mr. Rathburn himself.

She eventually falls in love with him, as one might expect, though somewhere along the lines, things go awry.

 I must say that I really enjoyed this book. I received an ARC courtesy of my library, though it took me an eternity to read through, it was a thoroughly good retelling of Jane Eyre.  I must now confess a grievous sin through my blog, that being that I've never read the original book by Charlotte Brontë. I have, however, seen a brilliant film adaptation. Lindner has created multidimensional characters, set them to an immersive experience, and impressively rekindled the burning fire of a classic. I especially enjoyed this book, and if you're looking for a nice spin on a classic, I recommend it.

On something great I stand

At this moment in this time, on something great I stand,
upon the precipice, the very edge, on the verge of a great thing grand.
Incoming is fresh opportunity,
new chances and potential;
I'm sitting on its ledge.
The untouched land,
awaiting harvest,
of glittering beaches and verdant forest.
Entering my view,
it soon will be here,
prodding away- the gloom to clear,
This will be a brand new year.

It sings the song of high potential,
a melody luxoriously long;
quite sentimental.
Ideas like waves wash in,
lapping the shore ever so gentle,
as one year reaches its fin,
it becomes time to set right the wrong.
Thus arrive tendrils of spring in grend beams of light,
imagination can take hold;
creativity set to flight.
Coming forth so bold,
a promise is made,
many words are exchanged,
massive happenings unfold.
Plans have been laid,
the future lies in range.

I hope you enjoy this poem, I got the idea for it late one night (as usual) and as soon as I finished I felt the urge to rock out to Dark Chest of Wonders, by Nightwish. Enjoy!
Once again, I'd really like to thank everybody who reads my blog, it means a lot to know that I have an audience. What's in store for next year? I'm glad I asked, you can expect a greater variety of books, more content, such as book trailers to accompany reviews, my take on video games (I'm still working on that set of articles on their history, the industry, etc.), and, here's where things get interesting; I'm upping my goal from last year of 12 posts a year all the way to 18 posts a year! I'm pretty sure I can do it.

This year has been excellent.

To my dearest readers,

This year has been one of the best for me as a blogger, and in regular life as well. I'd like to thank you for your feedback on my works and reviews, it means a world to me!
I'm preparing a disc. A very special disc. It's a dual layer DVD, which will pretty much hold twice as much as a regular DVD. It's not exactly Blu-Ray massive, but it'll certainly get the job done!
What, you ask, could I possibly stuff on there? Well, I could put this entire blog on there. And I will. In fact, I can do that thousands of times over. But that would be unnecessarily redundant. Instead, I've decided to create a time capsule of sorts (cue Inception music!) featuring just about anything I can get get my hands on. Thus, interesting videos from Youtube, the original Phantom of the Opera from the 1920's, various public domain books, pages from Wikipedia, Xbox 360 demos, and naturally this and other blogs are all going in. In addition, I'm adding music, photographs, and short notes from friends of mine about themselves and things they enjoy now, what their year was like, etc.
This blog post will be on the disc.
Any comments will be their as well.
The disk will pretty much be a sample of 2010!
If you have a blog that you'd like to be preserved on the disc, please be sure to post it in a comment below, prior to the deadline of January 1, 2011 (1/1/11).

So here are some awesome things that happened this year I thought I'd take note of:

I saw the original Tron.
I finished the Hunger Games trilogy on Mockingjay.
I finished the 10th grade.
I got a Dreamcast.
I visited the Nintendo Store in NYC.
I watched E3 conferences over the internet.
I watched them present Project Natal.
I watched that become Kinect.
I bought one.
I got a free Hunger Games poster from Hot Topic.
I discovered Dealspl.us which is an amazing website for free stuff.
I had the most fun I've had in over a decade at a dance party with some friends.
I also managed to translate both "avant-garde" teenager and "brand new to ballroom" into "I think I've created a victim" that same night.
I'm learning to dance.
I'm taking it seriously.
Already I'm having loads of fun with the paso doble.
I got my first ARC.
Thanks to a couple friends, I watched A Walk to Remember. That's now among my favorite movies, right up there with Away From Her.
I purchased a copy of Fallen and Tragic Kingdom.
I made new friends.
I got closer to old ones.
We're happy.

Lastly, I had at least one post per month on my blog! It's a monumental record for me.

Archvillain

Before I get into my review of Archvillain, I'd like to thank Mr. Barry Lyga for providing me a free copy of his book. It means a lot to me! I'd also like to apologize for taking so long to write my review, it seems life managed to sneak up on me yet again.

Archvillain is the story of a boy, specifically young Kyle Camden. Kyle isn't particularly well understood by adults- or local law enforcement for that matter. What he has going for him? His mind, his wondrous mind. He's quite intelligent and has a taste for pranks- not dumb, pull my finger type pranks, but more complex, Rube Goldberg-esque practical jokes, usually with the goal of making people realize just how they make fools of themselves.
One night, Kyle is granted superpowers that seem to enhance everything- especially his mind.
He soon discovers, however, that he's not the only one with power. Another boy known simply as "Mighty Mike" rolls into town, and he seems to have a bad case of amnesia, since he remembers nothing of his past life. He seems to have good intentions, that's for sure, but he doesn't really know just the havoc he can unwittingly wreak! Regardless, the people took to loving Mike, and poor Kyle, who was once in the spotlight, is now pushed aside.
Kyle decides he'd rather not be probed and keeps his abilities secret. His feelings eventually get the better of him; he has to show up Mike for who he is! And so, Kyle becomes his nemesis.

This was a rather fun read, and while the target audience seems to be readers from 7-12, it was rather enjoyable for myself (an older reader), helped along by an interesting protagonist, unique plot, various nerdy references that touch a special area in my heart.
In all, if you are, or if you know a kid around age 7-12 who enjoys a fun story, interesting, progressive characters, and some sweet comic book style action, I can definitely recommend it. Lyga has done an excellent job on this book, his first for such a young audience.

More:

Official Site:

http://barrylyga.com/new/archvillain-1.html

Interview with the author:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/archvillain-novel-interview-101029.html

Jonathan Liu on Archvillain:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/11/how-to-become-an-archvillain/

Truancy

Your pulse is racing; you're pretty sure the person behind you can hear it. You forgot the impact those four words can have on you as you fumble with your pencil between your sweaty fingers and involuntarily draw a large dark slash across the paper. Panicking, you flip around the pencil and begin rubbing as furiously as possible with the eraser.

"Time's up." So ring out those words and as your paper is swiftly whisked off your desk you begin to despair; you realize that you've erased the whole thing.
The words "pop quiz" and "one minute" are possibly the most frightening four words you've ever heard.
Enter the world of Truancy, by Isamu Fukui.
In Truancy, there exists a dystopia controlled by a manipulative (not to mention dangerous) educational system and a cruel, shadowy dictator known simply as 'The Mayor'. The Mayor is ruthless in his atttempts to control the populace, this he does through the media, the authorities, and most importantly the schools. This mayor follows the old slave owners mantra: keep the body strong and the mind weak. This mayor seems to be one of several men who've been assigned to retain control over their own large groups of people, though Fukui doesn't give us particularly much information as to the world around this single city.
Outside the city lies an abandoned urban wasteland; within lies great mystery to just about everybody within the city. This is because this area has been condemned, and ordinary citizens are forbidden entrance.
Within the city, there's little to look forward to. School is just plain unfair, the rules are extremely loose (and by loose I mean poorly defined), and it seems that school authorities are trained in the art of cruelty. It seems they have one simple job: keep the students as occupied as possible, make sure they keep their heads down, and don't allow any to think for themselves! The point of this, it seems, is to ensure a future full of blindly obedient adults raised on the system, so used to it, and these adults who've given up the fight are all The Mayor needs to retain control of his little city.
Of course, where there's a hideously corrupt system, there's somebody to oppose it. This is where the Truancy comes in.

The Truancy is composed of students who've escaped the system by expulsion. Unfortunately for the students, expulsion would typically spell "doomed", as an expelled student is usually shunned by his or her family, and will become a wandering vagrant, likely to die of starvation or something similarly heinous. Of course The Mayor, losing power over these people, has decided to deem them nightmarishly dangerous, and citizens are not allowed contact with vagrants.
The Truancy has decided on just how unfair that is. Seeing through the system, they've decided to band together to take action. Led by the radical Zyid, they launch assaults directly onto the system itself, attacking key figures and authorities.
Finally, everything trickles down unto our humble protagonist, Tack. Tack lives a relatively ordinary life, stressed by school but seeing no other options, just like all the other kids. One day, though, his entire world is flipped, and he slowly uncovers the truth about what lies behind the scenes.
I'm afraid I must stop myself here for the sake of not giving away too much about the book.
What I can tell you is that Mr. Fukui has written a brilliant dystopia that's meant as a hyperbole of the current educational system, primarily highlighting some of its failings. While the book felt rather preachy early on, Fukui manages to drive the points home with class later in the book. It was a very fast paced novel, the setting seemed to be the relatively near future (perhaps sometime in the mid 2020's, at least through the eyes of people living in the late 2000's) though Fukui never really provides us much information as to just when everything is happening.
In all, this is a prime example of a dystopia, an impressive novel, and all the more amazing is the fact that the author was in high school at the time of writing it! It's a very stirring read, and if you enjoy mysterious action-packed dystopias in relatively futuristic urban settings, discussion of educational systems, and books by young authors, you'll likely enjoy this book. If I had to describe it in a pinch, it's like Animal Farm meets the action of The Hunger Games meets the educational system of Hard Times.

Further:
Official Website
http://www.thetruancy.com/

Sighing Myself to Sleep

Sighing Myself to Sleep
by Jourdan E. Cameron

Nightly as I lay down to rest,
I sigh aloud in my bed,
cutting inside my head,
agonized,
left half dead.
Somewhere knowing rest will come,
truly wish it never leaves,
to lay forever numb,
to leave this world and its griefs.
There alone and lying cold,
I try recall something of value,
something a friend once told,
I ask myself what it was that she told you,
just as I feel the chill envelop me,
sleep itself begins to conquer,
and I recall.
Commanded to fail to release,
retain my grip,
holding on up until dawn,
through the dark cold night clinging fast,
the harsh times will soon have passed.
The sun is completely forgotten before its rise,
before dawn comes darkest night.
Dawn may be far from what I surmise,
and it is likely a while before the earth is bathed in glorious light.
Until the day grows bright, retain your fight,
fight for light,
do not take to flight,
you shan't lose might.
Soon will end this night.
Salvation is not yet in sight,
it is in your fight.
Thus is her advice, and this is what I shall do.
I inhale once more and find myself given to abderianism;
my sudden laughter bouncing sharp across the walls of my cell,
my lonely place, my solitary hell,
I'll break free.
I'll escape.
With one mad tale to tell.
Laughter returns to sighs,
mirth to tears,
hope to fears.
And I throw it all away as I await my release day.
Calling back up the words of a friend,
"We all go through things like that".
Suddenly the world is new.
Against the laws of logic I bang on my walls,
and clearly enough returns a bang clear as dew.
I strike an epiphany;
I'm yet another lonesome consciousness,
full of eosophilia,
waiting for the dawn to come,
knowing it to mean one less:
one less pain and one less sorrow,
one less burden and one less weight,
understanding the consequences to be great,
realizing what rides the back of tomorrow.
I will be here for it.



I'd like to thank a certain E.B.W. for making this poem possible, as well as the makers of the following videos for keeping it from dying as a concept:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHACLWzUsyg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRQRzWtrINg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKgnSjZr8Z0

Eosophilia means love of the dawn, and abderianism relates to insane laughter.
http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/e.htm

Incarceron

Incarceron is a prison. It's purpose: a perfect world created to ensure the safety of its inmates. Incarceron is inescapable. Incarceron, in fact, is alive.

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher, is a brilliant piece of dystopian science fantasy about the prison of the same name. The book centers on a small group of people entrapped within, primarily Finn, who was born of Incarceron but believes he is from the now fabled outside. Because there is no way out of Incarceron, the prison wastes nothing- that includes people. Finn, though, believes that if he was born outside- and this of course means there must be a way out if he got in.
Inside Incarceron isn't the paradise its makers believed it would be. The prison has, at best, subdued those within, retaining some control. At worst, it's completely useless. There are faction feuding between one another. Fighting is constant, shallow rivalries run deep, and the prison laughs at it all.
Meanwhile in what could be another world, one frozen in time (seemingly the 18th century) complex battles of a political nature rage on, between those seeking to halt progress and those willing to allow it burst forth into the light once more, to bring transparency and truth, all through the shade of coups, plots, and secret societies.
Caught somewhere between all this is Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, who is betrothed to a haughty, irritating (yet politically important) prince, the son of a queen who is about as evil, shadowy and conniving as he is annoying, who discovers that marrying this fool in order to take part in a scheme grander than she could ever conceive was the reason for her being in this world.
This brings us to her father, the Warden of Incarceron himself. The Warden is a very powerful man, confident, and borders at times on arrogant. He also happens to know that Incarceron is not at all the perfect world it was meant to be- a failing that would cost him dearly should its troubles become known.
Claudia isn't entirely alone, as she has Jared, her Sapienti tutor, mentor, and essentially everything her father is not towards her (the Sapienti are a council of scholars responsible for Incarceron's existence). Other than him, however, are a few servants who generally don't become particularly involved in her life.
Meanwhile within the depths of Incarceron, battles rage between factions, and caught somewhere between them is poor Finn. Having been taken up by one of the factions, he has been assigned an oath brother (essentially another member he is to remain loyal to for the rest of eternity), and he's considered special, a "starseer" because from time to time he'll have visions that, while crippling, are glances of a world beyond Incarceron. In addition to his oath brother is a Sapienti, who is greatly interested in his visions and serves as a guide, much like Jared.
Finn manages to discover an incredible item- the Key to Incarceron! Now, it's up to him to figure out just what to do with it.


I must say that I absolutely loved Incarceron; it kept me riveted from start to finish. From the moment I opened the book I was unceremoniously dumped into the twisted, frightening world that is Incarceron, and at times I felt as if I had to fight for my life from behind the pages. I can definitely recommend Incarceron to those who enjoy fantasy dystopias, action adventure, and political drama.
I did feel, though, that the book needed a little more follow through in some areas, especially towards the end, and I would have definitely appreciated more background information (though I did particularly enjoy Fisher's method of introducing information through dialog).


Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMRFsTwwj_U

Video Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUi67h6bznY