Yvonne Feresu

Tag: novels

  • If you loved the Game of Thrones books you should read The Wheel of Time series

    If you loved the Game of Thrones books you should read The Wheel of Time series

    If you enjoyed reading A Song of Fire and Ice (adapted into Game of Thrones), you should definitely try the Wheel of Time series. It’s a fascinating series (but kind of old), and perfect for fantasy book lovers. I first read them when I was 12 (yes I was way ahead of my age by then) and I was absolutely hooked. The series is long enough to keep you occupied for ages, (which is perfect if you ask me) and goes all the way to book 15. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but so far it’s been worth it.

     When I first read the books I only went up to book six because the school library didn’t have the last books in the series, the librarian probably didn’t know how long it was. The story is set in a completely fictional world, but Jordan (the writer) does an incredible job of describing this world in various ways that make it easy to understand it. It’s a sprawling story with a number of key characters and lots of minor ones too. It’s really easy to follow because Jordan writes it as kind of a funnel, where the first books focus on one or two characters then expands as the plot thickens.

    What’s it about (no spoilers)?

    I don’t want to put in any major spoilers (maybe a few teasers) so I’ll try not to go into too much detail about what happens in the first four books, (there’s a prequel on Moraine which is actually book 12 but I read it first this time around.) And who’s Moraine? A woman, known as Aes Sedai, who can practise a form of magic (called channelling), who goes in search of a boy prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn. Basically, the Dragon Reborn is a boy/man meant to face The Dark One (or Shai’tan) in The Last Battle to save the world (whilst kind of breaking it at the same time). Obviously, this means the Dragon Reborn can also channel (you can’t fight the Lord of the Dark without magic duh).

    Here’s the catch… (tiny spoiler) …

    Men are forbidden from channelling otherwise they go cuckoo, in other words, they go crazy. Channelling for men, is tainted, and when they do, they eventually lose their minds and bad things start to happen. Who wants magic in the hands of a crazy person? Anyways I’m sure you can already start to see the problem here. How’s he supposed to be saving any world when:

    1. He shouldn’t be channelling
    2. He could lose his marbles before this final battle even happens?

    Oh, and did I mention that this Dragon Reborn is kind of like a reincarnation of the Dragon (duh) who did save the world (and broke it) thousands of years ago? He’s kind of like, but not quite. It’s difficult to describe without giving key details away, so you’ll have to read it again.

    How many characters are in it?

    Lots! There are a whole lot of characters and Jordan keeps adding more as the story develops, however, you’ll experience this story mostly through the eyes of about six or seven characters. You’ll still get to view things through the eyes of many other characters, but those seven feature the most in the first four books (I’m not including the prequel here). So does it get confusing? Not really. Not too much. Okay, I’ll admit, there are characters whose parts I barely remember (the really minor seeming ones but I suspect crucial in the near future), but generally, you can keep up with the main plot.

    Is there a Daenerys, Jon Snow or Tyrion? Not to me. It’s hard to have a clear favourite because some of the characters are incredibly complex, and sometimes they have conflicting interests. Bottom line, it’s hard to pick sides. All you know is that you don’t want Shai’tan to win. On that note, whilst we encounter The Dark One directly in the book, we never meet the Creator. At all. At least not in the first few books. The Creator is referenced, but we never have any direct or indirect encounters, so there’s no need to worry too much about prejudice.

    Is there gratuitous language or explicit sexual content?

    Sorry…no. That’s a Game of Thrones TV adaptation thing, so no, there is none of that. They do swear, but not in the same way we do. Their swearing is very contextual to their world so it’s not offensive. And yes, the characters do engage in intimate and sexual activity, but Jordan doesn’t go into explicit descriptions, he just lets you fill it in with your imagination. If it was a TV series, there would be lots of nudity though. In fact, they’d be so many scenes with nudity you wouldn’t watch it with your parents. But nudity is not really explicit unless you’re actually seeing it right?

    Is there romance?

    Yes! What series (that’s 15 books long) could survive without a bit of romance? There’s enough romance to satisfy without being enough to dominate the saga. Whilst love and romantic interaction is a fairly strong theme, it’s not central to the story, neither is it overwhelming. It’s just the right amount. And there is a fair bit of death and violence to off-set the good stuff.

    Final Verdict

    It’s definitely a series worth picking up and committing to (although sometimes you need a break, you can read non-fiction in-between) and I can’t wait to get to see how the story goes (I’m on book 5 now). There’s are obviously stuff that I wasn’t too crazy about in the books, but the good stuff outweighs the not so great parts. Here’s a list of the names of the books upto book 4, hopefully, you’ll enjoy it as much I’m doing. 

    PS: Robert Jordan died before he finished the entire series, but he had written enough notes, and taken the story far enough that another writer could have finished the books for him. Which is exactly what happened. They found another writer with a similar style who could carry the story to the end in the last books. I’m not sure if a reader can tell the difference because I haven’t gotten to the books where Brandon takes over yet. I’ll pass the verdict once I do.

    The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan (Book 1-4)

    • Book 1: The Eye of the World
    • Book 2: The Great Hunt
    • Book 3: The Dragon Reborn
    • Book 4: Shadow Rising
  • When reading a book changes your life

    When reading a book changes your life

    I read Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah, and I feel as if the ground has shifted beneath my feet. It’s not as if I have discovered Adiche for the first time, no, I read Purple Hibiscus years ago when I was still in high school. But back then I went through books like a juggernaut. I was relentless in my pursuit of deliciously carved out stories, and exquisite worlds built and manipulated for our pleasure.

    I wasn’t very discerning in my complete immersion in the words created by authors, I wanted to read, and I did. I’ve read so many books in my short lifetime a lot of them are a forgotten blur I’m unlikely ever to remember. When exactly my obsession with reading began, I’m not entirely sure. Perhaps it was when I was 8 years old, and loved to borrow books from the library. I particularly remember, when we lived in Bindura as a child, borrowing a particular book with lots of coloured pictures and big print. I loved that book…Beauty and the Beast.

    I also remember rushing to my bedroom after school intent on retrieving that book from my wardrobe, wanting to pack it into my school satchel so I wouldn’t forget it again. I walked in on my uncle having sex…in my room, on my bed. Perhaps that’s why I still remember the cover of that book. I’m not sure if I told my mother, he was a distant young uncle, but one I liked nevertheless. I’m also puzzled how I knew, at the age of 7 or 8, that it was sex that they were having. Do 8 year olds normally recognise that act for what it is?

    Maybe that obsession crystallized when I was 10. I recall stealing my mother’s Mills and Boon novels from her bookshelf and locking my bedroom door to read them in secret. I closed my bedroom curtains to ensure nobody would peak, and know, as if I knew I shouldn’t have been reading them at 10. These Millies weren’t the new glossy type; these fluffy romances with stiflingly predictable storylines and characters. These new kind with a lazy kind of writing that I find difficult to swallow, and haven’t been able to for years now.

    Maybe I don’t want light reads anymore, maybe I don’t have enough stress to desire the cottony, easy escape they provide. I don’t know, all I know is the old ones were better. They were beautifully written, more layered, and the storylines, even though similar, were more nuanced. From all my Millie reading, the old ones are the ones I remember best. Maybe one day I’ll start collecting them, see if I can read them again.

    But those were not the only books I was reading. I indulged myself in the Sydney Sheldon titles my mother owned, I read the Pelican Brief (John Grisham), and whatever else I could find on her bookshelf. I am forever grateful Eaglesvale Primary had a well-endowed library because it wasn’t long before I moved from my mother’s bookshelf, to the hundreds of books lining the shelves of the school library. By this time my anti-social habit had swallowed me. I blazed through as many books as I could, the library was my new paradise.

    Writing about it now I’m filled with a strange nostalgia, wishing I could go back to that time when my world revolved around the library, sports ground, and whoever I had a blistering crush on at the time. I recall reading this particular series from that library, The Wheel of Time. The smallest book must have had about 600 pages. I barely ate, or slept, completely consumed by the series. That’s how I read novels, with a single minded intensity. I read whilst eating, walking, during conversation, by candlelight and sometimes even by moonlight. Reading novels and books was my addiction, an addiction I wore proudly and without shame.

    However, I’m not sure any of them fundamentally changed me, at least not a single one in its individual capacity. I feel altered. I cannot describe this feeling, it’s too puzzling, too monumental, but I know that I’m different. There’s an itchy excitedness under my skin and I don’t know what it means. Are books supposed to alter you like this? Novels mind you, not non-fiction or self-help book, novels. Her writing, and storytelling is so beautiful it leaves me breathless. If I had any doubts about writing fiction I’m fairly certain they have been swept away.

    READ: What’s really holding you back, honestly?

    I want to scream at the top of my lungs, I want to dance and sing, and talk about this freaking novel. At this point, that’s all I want to do honestly, but I can only do so with those who’ve read it, all of it, otherwise I’ll start to bore people with zero interest in it. As a writer, I’m inspired, awed. As a young woman I feel liberated. It’s as if Adichie’s writing and her characters have liberated me, they have given me permission to just be exactly as I want to be, even though I didn’t think I needed any permission.

    I want to write like Adichie, to construct context as if I’m world building (sci-fi writers often construct entirely new worlds) and when it’s done right, it’s magnificent. She has given me permission to write what I want to, however I want to, without the doubts and fears about audience and genres and prizes and maybe bestseller lists too. Her characters allowed me to be easy on myself, now I know it’s okay that I’m not thinking about marriage, or worrying about it. At almost 24 I started to wonder if I something was wrong with me for not being worried or too concerned about marriage. If my lack of urgency or fear was natural. Now I don’t care, I’m designing my life, and I’ll design it how I want it.

    I have so much to say, but it’s all jumbled and messy and maybe irrelevant as well, so I’ll leave it here. My hands are shaking from emotion that I don’t know what to do with. A book, a film, an encounter, maybe even a song can change your whole being, sometimes in a moment, sometimes over time when you least expect it.

    Comments? Tell me about a book, a film or encounter that altered your world.