"Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker is about a land ruled by a faceless God King and focuses on the woman (Siri) who is sent to be his wife. That core of the plot feeds several subplots – Vivenna, the sister of the God King’s wife (Siri) trying to save her; a brewing war between nations; the machinations of the Gods who live amongst men and just who and what the God King really is.

Siri’s sister, Vievenna, not long after Siri is sent to be the God King’s wife, follows her in order to save her sister from the dire fate. As the story progresses, Sanderson shows an engaging parallel story of how Vivenna and Siri learn about the two disparate sides of life in Hallendren.

Men and Gods live together in this world. Men return as Gods or One of the most important elements of being a “Returned” is being unaware of how their previous life ended and what kind of life it was. Naturally, Lightsong, one of the one who have returned, is nagged by this fact, and continually seeks information about who he was and how it might affect his role as a god.

Gods amongst men is just one magical aspect of the novel. People’s hair changes color giving away their moods, and the essence of thaumaturgical power is BioChromatic breath, which is collected, shared and given to others in order to manipulate magic. 

A rogue swordsman named Vasher, is a man tortured by past deeds with a talking sword that seeks battle by his side. Sanderson applies humor to the master and weapon in Warbreaker, which allows for Sanderson’s voice and style to imprint its own image and character.

The characters and the world itself have a great "not everything is what it seems" feel to it. Sanderson does a great job of revealing these layers in terms of pacing them out to the reader. In many ways, the story initially has a faery-tale feel to it, with a royal daughter’s marriage binding two kingdoms. What unfolds from that simple premise is well-wrought and intelligent.

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys is definitely entertaining. Though the book incorporates bits of romantic comedy, crime drama, and horror, this is a love-buddy comedy in which the protagonist's antagonist is ‘so close to him’ that he is actually literary his brother - yet again simple great storytelling. 

"Fat Charlie" Nancy, our protagonist, is embarrassed by his father, we discover he’s not a good guy, and after he dies Charlie discovers that he also has a brother, who in all possibilities is the exact opposite to Charlie. 

Our protagonist is introduced into a world where magic is real. The humor comes from topics that include Fat Charlie's nebbishy qualities as well as the mismatch between him and his brother.

Anansi Boys also draws on the structure of Shakespearean comedy-perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Gaiman's Sandman comic could be interpreted as a decade-long homage to A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

I think that Anansi Boys is like an extended film treatment, where the depth at which you can go with, with a novel, has not been reached here.

"Interview with the Vampire", Anne Rice

Very interesting story! wow. A totally different story to all other Vampire stories I've read. This is the story of a vampire who having realized his current state of being, goes on a search to find who he is and maybe to some extend to find more way to realize his won wrong doing. We are in a room face to face with the Louis as he tells us how he ended up here. The state of the vampire here can be the metaphor for many human characteristics, i.e drug abusers, etc.

Rice tells the story with a method that is simple enough in nature, but she writes in such a way that the reader can’t easily see into her mechanism. Using the tool of 'flash-backs' she stops Louis’s story and returns to present day when ever story requires, as well as giving certain info at certain points of the story and and extending a particular scene to create tension - simple good storytelling. 

"Monster Island" by David Wellington

Several months have passed since Zombies have take over NY and humans are fighting a losing battle. Dekalb leaves Africa on a ship going to New York in pursuit of AID medicine in order to exchange it for his daughter back in Africa. And off course his encounters with the Zombies, and survivors, lead him to a journey. But when they meet Gary, a zombie who says he's in control of his zombie characteristics, referred to as “homo-mortis”, their journey takes a different path. 

The action is constant and Wellington makes his zombies more threatening than before by simply investigating more into the “why” and the “how” zombies operate. 

Wellington does a unique job of creating a post-zombie world, emphasizing the point that Third World and war-torn countries are most likely to be the most resilient against it. The combination of current world issues, African kidnapping, poverty, AIDS and so on, together with the characteristics that the genre of Zombie brings, gives this work it's unique touch. Wellington also decides to tell some of the story not from the POV of Dekalb - which in my opinion works really well as the audience feels they are getting a less subjective story, and thus becomes more believable. 

Unlike what many zombie movies/books need, The Monster is actually pretty fast paste. Dekalb, someone in hunt of the savior treasure for his daughter is, by definition, liked by his audience.  

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Master Piece Frankenstein follows the story of all and any one of us - the one who ends up making mistakes so big that it physically and, more importantly, mentally takes over them.

The nature of a mistake is off 'wrong-doing' - exactly what Evil/Monster's character is purely founded on. Told by a women in the 1800s(!!), it is written so beautifully, taking into account the golden yet very basic elements of storytelling, which are all really the study of Human Psychology, that to this date, it resonates with all ages. It is such work, Frankenstein, that once again proves to all storytellers, that the art of storytelling, both of 'entertainment' and of 'Literal/conceptual and Academic' orientation, can be fused and flourished into a simple but most importantly primal story. (Primal to humans)

The Role of the Female, Sex, Monstrosity, human nature, the nature of life and such life issues are of concern to Shelley in my opinion. 

The Magicians

Harry Potter, Narnia and college students, is really what the plot of this book feels like. The classicaal character of a teenager is portrayed here. Some of the characteristics of Quentin could be, he is dissatisfied with his life, feels insecure and is cocky at times. Despite it's similarities to Harry Potter and Narnia, this book has a larger plot. Quentin never stopped caring for his love for what at the time seems to be the fictional series of "Five young adult" fantasy novels set in Fillory. And off course the pursuance of the six book is what attracts Quentine towards Brakebills. We later of course find out that Fillory is actually of existence. Despite what the critics think about this book, I think it follows simple story common-sense which has been the working engine of many master stories.

It is a book for the young fantasy fan. Our audience have then suddenly been confronted with the existence of actual real magic, all of which he, any individual sci-fi reader, finds to be actually real! And very intelligently Lev Grossman takes all his knowledge, being a Sci-Fi critic for New York Times, and gives a twist to the story by making Fillory a place with all sorts of problems, discussed and ugliness. 

Just like all other Sci-Fis, this book is also about escapism. It’s about what it means to be comfortable with  a dream, a book, a movie—and forgetting the existence of a possible "reality" behind this fantasy. Maybe a metaphor for what we humans wish for and really our lives our, the mask that society puts on us everyday when we get out of the doors.

In conclusion, I think this book has not only shown us a new way in writing a book, but also a new way of looking at fantasy.

One of the main questions I think Grossman asked him self:

Which period/world should I put my story in for my audience to relate to my character's lives (conflicts) the most? The contemporary period/our contemporary lives 

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

“The Hobbit” follows the story of Biblo, our hero, set on a quest by Gandalf, his master (a wizard) to rob dragon Smaug for the prize of a treasure. Written on 1936, John Tolkien crafted the perfect classic hero’s journey. The theme and core of the story is about the growth of Biblo as a hero/a human being. 

He is called on an adventure and despite refusing to go he ends up going. Though Act 2 he learns and grows by over coming obstacles. In Act 3, with the help of his allies, he overcomes challenge and returns home now being a “better” person than he originally was - what a perfect recipe! 

The role of the “Master”, in this case Gandolf, in StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi, plays its part very beautifully. The story combines trades of Magic as well as human characteristics such as jealousy, racism and maturity through experience. 

I was introduced to a lot of new creatures such as Dwarfs, Wizards, Hobbits and so on. I think such creatures, seen in other gigantic stories, are created based on the collection of a few and specific human characteristics. This is assuming that humans have multiple characteristic. This in turn allows our storyteller to evoke specific emotions and thoughts as demanded by the story structure and the era’s social norms at different times throughout the story.

I think nature is used very well in this book. This can be seen specially at the end when the Eagles decide to help out. James Cameron in “Avatar” tried pulling off a similar story element but failed! - It felt contrived. We also see that the people who are the heros 'friends' are all in peace with nature and vise versa with the enemies.