books by review

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid      What does it mean to be human? S. J. Kincaid tackles that question with this trilogy. Humanity has perfected Artiffical Intelligence centuries ago, back when the elites of society moved to space, some making a home on small astroids and other living on the emperors enormous space ship. With advance technology, advance security is needed to protect vulnerable human beings, so a creature called Diabolic's, are created. These beings are man-made, but they look like humans, only they have superhuman strength and speed, and they are bought and programed to protect one person. The protagonist is a diabolic by the name of Nemesis, and she's programed to protect the daughter of a lesser noble of the empire. The daughter is called to do business on the emperors ship, however, the nobles knew of the emperors cruelness and that if they sent their daughter, they probably would never see her again, so they used ...

Shadow and Bone  by Leigh Barduo I  really enjoyed this series! This was Bardugo's first series, I read Six of Crows first, but Shadow and Bone really helped me understand the power of the Grisha. Overall, I'd say this was a hero's story, with Alina as our hero.  This series was about how the world has a natural balance, and there are Grisha who have a type of ability, and there are three branches, the Corporalki, Etherealki, and the Materialki.  The Corporealki deal in the living and the dead, as in bodily functions. The Etherealki are summoners, meaning they can  summon wind, or fire, or water. Materialki can create things, they're tinkerers. This story focuses on two summoners, the Darkling and Alina. The Darkling has been around for hundreds of years, and he can summon darkness. Alina is born and turns into the Sun Summoner, she can summon light, and they are the only two of their kind. The Darkling is well feared and the second...

Reading Update      In my Reading Fiction course, my professor started class by saying he was going to change some of our lives that day.  Simultaneously, he was going to ruin every movie, book, and basically story telling for us.  He did this by showing us Joseph Cambell's Monomyth concept.  I have a huge interest in writing as well as reading, as they kinda of go hand-in-hand and I found this very interesting fro not only a readers perspective but from that of a writers. The monomyth is the idea that every hero's story can be broken down into these 12 different stages and has 8 different archetypes.       In this installment, I want to breakdown these steps, and in later posts, I'll use this to breakdown the different books I read and talk about on this blog.     I'm going to start with the 12 different stages.                      ...

Summoner by Taran Matharu        The Summoner by Taran Mathrua is a unique middle grade fantasy series. It's set in a world with elves, dwarfs, orcs, and humans all sharing the same content. Matharu created unique cultures and ways of life for each of these creatures, which we got to see throughout the series. Of course, not all of these groups are seen as equals, humans and orcs reign as the most powerful, with elves, dwarfs and at the bottom of the chain of command. The orcs and humans have been at war for years, and orcs had the  advantage of using animals to fight for them. These were not just any animals, but demons, who were attached to a magician. Humans figure out how to capture and command demons also, as well as use the demons energy to cast spells. Our protagonist is a boy of 12 years in the first book, The Novice, and he learns he has the ability to capture a demon and perform spells by  accident, using a book an old traveler gav...