Homework... book reports

Okay, so a friend told me I should do a “book report” for all the books I have read recently. I thought he was joking, but got the reply, “I was being for real.” So here goes,

The Book of the Dead- by Patricia Cornwell
This is the latest in the Kay Scarpetta series. It follows suit along with series and style quite well. Granted I missed reading the prequel to this one, Predator, but it was pretty easy to jump back into what was going on. The story is independent of the series, so someone could pick up this book and only be minor confusion by the overall storyline. I have actually read the majority of this series out of order, without any difficulty. I do have to say that the case in this book wasn’t as captivating as some of the others in the series, but it was an easy read that did keep the book in my hands.


The Golden Compass- by Philip Pullman
I can’t say how it compares to the movie since I read it after the movie had left my little sleepy town, which isn’t hard it only takes 2 weeks before something is gone. As the book goes, this book was very intriguing to me. Though there were some inconsistencies in the book. I don’t know how the editors missed it, or if it was intentional, but the number of compasses mentioned varied. If it was intentional, what was the meaning behind it? To show that they really didn’t know how many there were or to show just how dishonest one of the characters is? Very baffling though, the book did a great job to pull me into this fictional universe, to the characters, the want of my own snow leopard, or my own dæmon, and to play with a big polar bear.

The Subtle Knife- by Philip Pullman
The second in his dark material series, I actually like this book much more; finding myself reading hours on end when I should have been sleeping for work. There were some formatting differences, but I don’t think it could have been avoided because you were actually dealing with multiple characters in multiple locations. That formatting generally annoys me because I have to try and figure out which characters the new chapter is following, but Pullman made the transitions quite seamless and easy to jump back into the “forks” in the roads.

The Amber Spyglass- by Philip Pullman
The conclusion of the dark material series; I am about half way through this. The twists in this novel can be baffling and some of the literary imagery can be difficult, but that may just be me. And again there are some inconsistencies, which are “answered” the more you read, but sometimes the way they are answered seems to be after thoughts and don’t make any sense. I now it is sci-fi, sometimes it isn’t suppose to make sense to the real world, but they don’t even seem to make sense to these fictional worlds. And once again, the format had be modified in this book. It continues with the multiple character jumping, only now there are even more characters to keep track of in the jumps. Besides that there is an italicized paragraph at the beginning of roughly the first ten chapters. This threw me for a loop. It is basically another story within the story; this formatting is something I don’t care for. I wouldn’t mind if it was a narrative before the novel even began, but to break it up, mid sentence sometimes, yuck.
Sidebar, this makes me have to ask Richelle Mead, do you have formatting changes in your series, Georgette Kincaid series, Succubus (fill in Blues, on Top, Dreams) and your Vampire Academy series? I know, if I was a better friend I would have already gone out and purchased Succubus on Top instead of waiting for my free copies and could answer this question for myself.
Anyway, back on track, the metaphorical, controversial journey that TAS takes you through is much like Matrix Revolutions to me with the whole omnipotent being and the want/need to destroy it to ensure life continues story line. I am always uneasy with this topic; it doesn’t have to do with religion or someone playing on common belief, but more that it just another way that it is being rehashed. So again, I am only about halfway through and I am enjoying it for the most part. Right now out of this series The Subtle Knife has been my favorite. Unless, the second half changes drastically; I am sure this is how it is going to stay.