Post-exam reading

Post-Exam Reads

1. Royal Assassin (Book 2 of the Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb
2. Assassin's Quest (Book 3 of the Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb
3. Prodigy (Book 2 of the Legend trilogy) by Marie Lu
4. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
5. Gone With the Wind

As can be seen, my post-exam reads have been a healthy mix of fantasy and science fiction. I was really sad about the Farseer trilogy because it wasn't as good as the Tawny Man trilogy that came after it ): The Fool had much more of a personality in the Tawny Man trilogy and while I got to understand Fitz, I preferred him as a sulky middle-aged man instead of a tempestuous boy as he was in the Farseer trilogy. I did love Nighteyes though. Someone needs to make a series of this!

I remember being so excited that HBO did Game of Thrones because I'd just finished reading the books. Haven't begun to watch it though because the casting was a bit off in my head, but I should start watching it? I can't decide if I should haha it's like I know all the spoilers already cause I've read the books. Sorta like Sherlock because the Arthur Conan Doyle canon has been around for over a hundred years. Totally saw it coming that he played dead. But I like how Sherlock rewards the readers with in-jokes and brings the books up to date like the John Watson blog that actually exists! and when the show flashes case names like 'The Speckled Band', 'The Sign of Three' etc etc. It's little details like these that make the show so smart and show that the writers have bothered to do research.

Anyway, Prodigy was really disappointing, first the book moved really slowly. I average a book/ 2 days if it's YA, but man I took like a week to read this cause I kept getting bored in between and switching to other books. I re-read Shannon Hale's "The Goose Girl" before I even got around to finishing Prodigy. Also, there was this half-baked romance thing between June and Day and then the love square (yes a freaking sqaure) with Day/ Tess/ June/ Anden etc etc. Gah. It wasn't one bit convincing. I can't stand it when dystopian YA novels choose to bring in romance. Most of them don't do very well at it. In fact, I can't think of a single convincing romance in the fantasy/sci-fi YA novels I've read so far. Not Hunger Games, Not The Mortal Instruments (though I only read the first book cause I couldn't be bothered with the others", not Fuse. Twilight was the most convincing but that was because everyone was gooey-eyed over Edward Cullen throughout all the books. And at least the Harry Potter series had the sense to acknowledge that Harry's thing with Cho Chang was just a crush.

Maze Runner was interesting, but it left so many questions unanswered. It was like from the moment Thomas got thrown into the Glade, things and people dying and weird things kept happening and no break in between. It more or less tried to plod on swiftly but nothing made sense. And I took quite a long time with this book too. The only reason I kept up with it was to see if the maze was actually solvable and how they did it. The characters were boring. They reminded me of the Greasers in The Outsiders except not as cool or fleshed out or likeable. Not sure how I'd feel about the movie.

Oooh talking bout movies, this summer's selection looks really exciting! Can't wait to watch Maleficient and The Fault in Our Stars ahaha the TFiOS trailer really grew on me the second time round I watched it. Then there's Chef and X-men. Can I just say how much I love Michael Fassbender. I was blown away after he acted as Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre. He was so perfectly cast. adflksdfj. Can't. But oh man he's so talented. And he's gonna be acting in a film adaptation of Macbeth AS MACBETH!!! Which is so incredibly freaking exciting. And Marion Cotilliard as Lady Macbeth. I have my doubts about Lady Macbeth, because I'd always imagined her as a flame-haired Boudicea/ Boudica but after seeing Cotilliard in Inception, I think she would bring a really intriguing nuance to Lady Macbeth, sly and tempting even if headstrong. Too bad it's only coming out next year. Ugh.

Anyway reading Gone With the Wind now. It's reaaally long, and Scarlett O'Hara is selfish and vain and spoilt and stupid, but I love how we're given the context of the civil war and how we see her change or not change. Like it's so sweepingly romantic in the style it's written. And I would really like to watch the movie haha, I know the book's doing character-building and all, but I really want to know what happens to Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler. Just ahhh, it's fun to read, and to see the movement of the South from a golden age of genteel ladies in crinolines affecting soft manners to how the civil war changes everything. I'm only a quarter through the book, but it's such a dramatic read and a ton of fun ((: