The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew - CS Lewis

Details:
TITLE: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew
AUTHOR: CS Lewis
GENRE: Children Fantasy
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins Children's Books
ISBN: 978-0007115556
PAGES: 214

Synopsis:
So this is the book 1 in the chronicles of Narnia. The story starts in London in 1900, introducing Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer. They met in a garden one afternoon and despite can't help to tease each other, they soon became friends and went on to some adventures in the roof of the houses.

They opened the wrong attic door, and found themselves in Kirke's uncle's office, who is a magician. Uncle Andrew forced Polly to wear a yellow ring and immediately she disappeared. Then he force Digory to wear it too, if he wants to save his friend.

He discovered himself to be in a woods with lots of pool of water. He is reunited with Polly and they decided to take on a little adventures before returning to London.

Now, it is important for the readers to understand that, the yellow ring DOES NOT transport the person out of the world, instead, it transports them to the woods, which serves as a interchange for all worlds. While the green ring DOES NOT transport the person back to London either, it transport them back to the woods.

They arrived in the world of Charn, where everything is in ruined. Digory accidentally woke up the Queen, Jadis. Realizing her evil nature, the children tried to run, only to find that Jadis followed them back to London.

The children try to dispose her off to another world, only to find themselves in Narnia. Aslan the Lion brought life in Narnia, and hence thereof Jadis trying to conquer it.

The battle is on between Aslan and Jadis. But with Jadis consuming the Apple from the mountain, she became immortal and all powerful again. Can 2 kids defeat an immportal and powerful witch?

★★★★☆
-KarWai-

HOW TO DITCH THE ORIENTAL MINDSET!

Behind every closed doors, lies the silent grief of a child. Who secretly yearns to be part of the Western culture, to be able to experience what science project is all about? what summer activities they can join during the break? Experiences gained outside the classroom that can never be taught in class.

Yes. behind each closed doors of oriental families, lies a hope. A dim spark of hope, that brings forth to a change.

Let me share with you a true Malaysian story.

I grew up with homework. Yes, if there's a thing/chore that I grew up with, is definitely homework. I don't even tidy my bed on a daily basis.

The moment i stepped into pre-school, i had to shoulder the responsibility to complete each homework given by the teacher and the consequences of not finishing the homework will result in severe punishment that one could hardly imagine.

And every time the thought of unfinished homework flashed across my mind, i'll get sweaty palms,feeling restless and resort to copying other's answers. The thing in mind was to get it done to avoid punishment.

How oriental culture teaches is basically the spoon-feeding method. Feed the students with knowledge, and expect them to produce back the same thing. So i hope you get the picture of it.

How this matter irked me, is the fact that we're not moving forward. We are just merely floating. For those who realized that floating will them nowhere, they are the ones who managed to grasp the concept of learning everything in the classroom does not make you the smartest of all.

Trivia which I came across from watching a tv show ; Who is the first American pilot who managed to travel faster than sound?

At this point, if you can answer (and you think is correct) Congratulations. You're out of this square box.

But if you can't answer this. I'l give you a second try ; Who is the first American president who got assassinated?

bye got too bored writing.

Sepulchre (Languedoc Trilogy #2) - Kate Mosse

Details:
TITLE: Sepulchre
AUTHOR: Kate Mosse
GENRE: Supernatural- Fantasy-Adventure
PUBLISHER: Orion Books (2007)
ISBN: 978-0399154676
PAGES: 732


Synopsis:
Welcome to Sepulchre, the sequel in the Langeudoc Trilogy. Basically the place is still the same, most of the story happens in Carcassonne, to be exact, an estate called Domaine de la Cade located in Rennes-Les-Bains.

The style of the writing is still very much like the first book, Labyrinth. The book involves two main protagonists, Leonie Vernier from 19th century, and Meridith Martin from present. The biggest difference is, instead of the present protagonist being the reincarnation form of the past, Meredith is actually a direct descendant of the Vernier family.

In fact, one of the main reasons Miss Martin decided to travel from America to France is to find her family history (Meredith is adopted since birth). In Paris, she was intrigued when she was handed a flyer of a Tarot card reading. On it, there was a Tarot card, La Justice, and the illustration looks exactly like Meredith herself.

The reading of the Tarot is somewhat puzzling, which the reader only understood in the end of the novel. After the reading, Meredith went to the present Domaine de la Cade, now a hotel run by a family, to find some clues.

In the 19th century, Leonie and her brother went to Rennes Les Bains on behalf of the invitation of their aunt, Isolde Lascombe. It was at there they heard of these folklores on a demon, who dwells in a sepulchre near the estate and could be summoned using a deck of Tarot cards. Leonie accidentally found the sepulchre, and experienced some strange incident there.

It was not until the middle the readers found out that Isolde is actually Anatole Vernier's lover and she is forced to stay there because of a villain, Victor Constant, who won't rest until he found them and kill them.

The story flips back and forth and overall it's about how a deck of Tarot cards could use to summon a demon in a sepulchre, and the relationship between the cards and the characters (8 major cards referring to 8 characters in the novel), and the life of Leonie.

The climax of the story is on 31st October, 1897 and 2007. The Eve of All Saints. Everthing is related, as it turned out. And although some supernatural elements are involved in it, I have to say this book is slightly better than Labyrinth, in terms of the ending. Though Labyrinth's progression of storyline is much better and not so boring.

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai-

-UNTITLED-

Why BAD guys always end up dying/disappearing/jailed in the end of the show? Be it in the movies/cartoons/dramas and etc etc.

BUT WHY?

Is just so unfair at the thought of it. So disturbed.

1. I admit that antagonist characters get shortcut most of the time. For example, when they wanna get into some secret HIDEOUT, poof, they just miraculously appear! GOD KNOWS HOW THEY GET IN!
   
2. While the protagonist characters need to squeeze their brain juice figuring out how to get in!

BUT that's the only advantage of being the bad guy. Your takes are lesser, hence less talking or action and the biggest drawback is NO PRETTY GIRL!

How come bad people no need pretty girl? Is it because bad guys don't deserve pretty girls? Which law states that bad guys are prohibited from having pretty girls in shows!

Even if they have, they end up getting stolen by the good guy

**updates

WHY BAD GUYS ALWAYS MISS IN SHOOTING!

Usually is one hero versus ten armed bad guys, but they still lose wtf.

Pull the trigger and kill the hero. What usually happens is that, the hero can take on ALL OF THEM and still unharm.

poor bad guys. sigh.

one day im gonna stand up for all the bad guys and let them triumph over the good people.

such despicable act, to keep letting the good guy wins.

but in reality, good guys always lose to bad guys. because bad guys are filthy rich, filthy influential and surrounded by super hot girls.

sometimes movies are just plain delusional.

Labyrinth (Languedoc Trilogy #1) - Kate Mosse

Details:
TITLE: Labyrinth
AUTHOR: Kate Mosse
GENRE: Fantasy-Adventure
PUBLISHER: Orion Books (2005)
ISBN: 0752860534
PAGES: 544

Synopsis:
Basically this book is so thick because two related stories are weaved into one. In 1209, in Carcassonne a seventeen-year-old Alais Pelletier was given a mysterious book by her father, which he claims contains within the secret of the True Grail. In 2005, Alice Tanner discovered two skeletons in a forgotten cave in the French Pyrennes. Puzzled by the labyrinth symbol carved into the rock, she began her adventure to find out what exactly happened 800 years ago in the cave.

The stories are related. Kate Mosse would put in a few chapters of stories of 13th century, then the scene will cut to the modern times. For example, at the ending of chapter 15, Alais from 1209 is going to bed. Then in chapter 16, the story will cut to Alice Tanner from 2005 waking up in the morning. Such closely knitted storyline is rather well-written, although sometimes one might get confused.

The main puzzle is, of course, the labyrinth symbol. Now this is not the labyrinth from the Greek mythology involving Deadalus and Theseus, instead this labyrinth refers to the puzzle of the true Holy Grail, which means it actually originated from 1AD.

Sorry for the long introduction. I shall now briefly talk about the plot.

Alais Pelletier is the daughter of this second in command man in Carcassone. Hence, she is sort of like a princess in her place. However, the enemy of the city would siege the city soon. Hence she is trusted with a ring and a mysterious book written in Hieroglyph and was forced to flee the city with Sajhe, her young friend and a commoner.

Little does she knows that her sister is actually the main villain, and together with Alais' own husband, they are plotting to get the book from Alais at all cost. Alais found a long time friend of her dad's, and was explained of the history of the book and the ring.

Years have passed living in the mountain hiding from her sister, finally came a night where she has to go to a cave and protect the book and the ring from her sister.

Back to the future. Alice Tanner found two skeletons in the cave. There was supposed to be a ring, however Alice failed to see it and the ring was brought by a young police officer whose mother is an ally of Audric Baillard. The identity of Audric Baillard is perhaps the key to solving the mystery of Holy Grail.

In the modern world. the villain is a group of secret society which is ran by a mother-and-son duo. They already possess two of the three books and is eager to get the final book, which whereabouts is still unknown since 1209.

In the end when the two stories converge, it became clear that what can the three books do, when combined. And how the rings played a role there.

What's exciting about this book is that the author doesn't just tell you what happens next. She told you 70% of what has happened, in a narrative way; then the story will move to the modern world, where the protagonist there discover some artifacts or ruins, and you the readers can complete imagining what happened to the other 30%.

Overall this is an OK book, the plot is fresh, the writing style is somewhat unprecedented. Just that the book is a little bit too long, over 500 pages. I heard the sequel is even longer, more than 700 pages. OMG.

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai-

The Nostradamus Prophecies - Mario Reading

Details:
TITLE: THE NOSTRADAMUS PROPHECIES
AUTHOR: MARIO READING
GENRE: FANTASY-ADVENTURE
PUBLISHER: ATLANTIC BOOKS (August 2009)
ISBN: 9781848871243
PAGES: 428

Synopsis:
Nostradamus, the most famous prophet in the past, wrote 1000 prophecies (quatrains). Of these 1000, only 942 survived. What happened to the other 58? What prophecies could be so terrible that they had to be hidden from the society? No one really knows.

Nostradamus, besides accurately predicting the happening of the 2 World Wars, The 9/11 incident, Katrina Hurricane and much more, also predicted the Second Coming (of Jesus) and the Third Antichrist (who is like the biggest villain who could cause unrest in the world, the first is Napoleon, and the second is Adolf Hilter). The identity of the Third Antichrist remains unknown.

Until Sabir, a journalist whose career is on the edge, tries to revive his career by writing an article on it.

He approached a Gypsy, who sold him some clues. These clues, however, happened to be the keys to retrieving back the missing 58 quatrains. Although the book revolves around the missing 58 quadrants from his 10 centuries, it was more like a hide-and-seek game. Almost half of the book describes how Bale, the antagonist, was chasing/stalking/watching over Sabir, Yola and Alexi (both Gypsies) the trio. Sabir and his gypsies were, on the other hand, trying to avoid both Bale and Captain Claque while trying to recover the prophecies.

Based on the ending, I think Mario would write another sequel, which would revolves around Sabir's new shaman ability, and probably Yola's son. It might also involves the Second Coming and the Third Antichrist as well. Corpus Malefius/The Countess might play a bigger role in the sequel.

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai

Photography #2

Is it true that grass is always

greener on the other side?