The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

Number of Pages: 306
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date of Original Publication: 1937
ISBN #: 0-345-33968-1

Hey peeps. Finished another book for class. This one I have read and previously reviewed but I will review it of course again. This is the Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. A now prelude the the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

This novel is about a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who is confronted one morning by a wizard named Gandalf who wants him to join an adventure with him. As hobbits do not like adventures he naturally refused yet the next day twelve dwarfs along with Gandalf show up at his door and convince him to come with them.

There are many conflicts on the way of this journey but they’re main goal is to get across the land to a mountain which had once belonged to the dwarfs yet was overruled by a dragon many years before hand. The dwarfs struggle with their journey and Bilbo changes along the way. Finding a ring that can turn him invisible and becoming a leader in which no one thought he could be. Gandalf had faith in the hobbit where as the dwarfs did not. Gandalf is only present in some of the adventures.

I enjoyed this novel very much. I thought it was entertaining and well written. It had it’s funny moments and it generally keeps a good story line. The only thing I didn’t really care for much were the characters personalities. The twelve dwarfs seemed useless half the time, Bilbo complained a lot, Thorin Oakenshield was supposedly the leader of the company of dwarfs but was always lagging behind and then the wizard was always leaving to do his own business. Small frustrations that I just didn’t think made any of them heroic. I wont give any spoilers but my three favorite characters die at the end…sad day. But it was still a good novel and I would recommend reading it.

I would give this novel 5 out 5 for good plot development and writing techniques. I have not decided yet if I want to read the entire L.OT.R trilogy but I will maybe in the future and get reviews up.

For those of you who followed all of my Midnight Breed Series reviews: Book 11 Edge of Dawn comes out on Tuesday and I should have the review up Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. (Yes I am thrilled to read this and I may pull an all nighter.) *This series I mainly reviewed on my Tumblr.

I will try and get my next book review up as soon as possible. Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns for me, let me know, or just simply want to talk to me. I will do book requests. You can send me a message to me on here or E-Mail me at: TeamBellisle@yahoo.com

I check my yahoo account more often then Blogger however.

~TJ 

Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Number of Pages: 272
Publisher: Barnes & Noble books
Date of Original Publication: 1865 (book 1) 1871 (Book 2)
ISBN #: 978-1-59308-015-0 + 1-59308-015-8

Hello everyone. Back again. :) Finished reading Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” and the sequel “Through The Looking-Glass”. I had to read these for my sci fi and fantasy lit class…so here’s my review!

The novel was a very quick read and involved many pictures. We all like picture books right? Well unfortunately I disliked these two novels. The main premise of the story is a 7 year old girl named Alice who has an over active imagination and ends up dreaming of two quests that she has to finish. The first one being to find out who she is (she’s seven) and the second being that she wants to be a queen.

Lewis describes these novels as being written as children books but there’s no way children would even be able to comprehend half of the puns, the jokes, or the themes involved in the novel. Overall it’s just a strange novel, the characters are mainly personified objects and talking animals. 

I found Alice’s character to be most obnoxious. She cries nearly every other page and is constantly expecting everything to be proper for her when shes in a world of insanity. Her logic doesn’t fit into the illogical world that Carroll portrays, therefore she is constantly frustrated.

A few of the characters seem to help the story become more enjoyable such as the hookah smoking caterpillar and the Cheshire cat that disappears. The mad hatter also helps bring some entertainment in this novel as he’s completely bonkers. But personally I wouldn’t really recommend these two.

I’d rate this a 2 out of 5. It’s just hard for me to explain my review of these two books. It’s too weird to review.

My next review (most likely) will be of The Hobbit…so hopefully you’ll appreciate that one more. I’m going to go crawl back into bed now.

I will try and get my next book review up as soon as possible. Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns for me, let me know, or just simply want to talk to me. I will do book requests. You can send me a message to me on here or E-Mail me at: TeamBellisle@yahoo.com

I check my yahoo account more often then Blogger however.

~TJ 

War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

Number of Pages: 200
Publisher: Tor Classics
Date of Original Publication: 1898
ISBN #: 0-812-50515-8

Hey guys.

I’m feeling another old classic needs to be reviewed. More like I had to read it for my science fiction and fantasy literature class so here you go: H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds.

This novel is about England in the 1890’s being attacked by martians. The theory is that the Martians were humans who became more evolution advanced by a few thousand years (if that made any sense..it’s going on midnight) due to Mars having a longer life then Earth, however Mars has a decreasing temperature so they come to invade earth for our land. The key point of their attack point is to show how Imperialism is not always the best of all ideas. England and the time thought they were superior during their reign but Wells emphasizes the human ego by crushing it with a group of aliens who come in much more technologically advanced and wipe them out.

The main character of this novel does not have a name he is simply known as the Narrator. The Narrator shows many humanistic elements that make it realistic. His fear from the alien invasion, his panic when it comes to the thought of being separated from his wife, the curiosity he has towards finding out new information about the martians, as well as his compassion and sympathy towards the victims of the inhabitants.

The enemies, known as the martians, are described to be very human like in appearance yet the exact opposite at the same time. They do not sleep or eat, they do not have a digestive system and reproduce asexually yet they inject blood into themselves to maintain the nutrients which brings a vampire theory into play. They do not ever become ill due to having none to little diseases at their homeland which becomes a problem when their immune system is unable to handle and support the human diseases that they become exposed too. 

Interesting nerd fact: Wells is the first author ever to implement telepathy  into a science fiction villain/enemy. 

Alright. I won’t give too much a way (even though i could)

I actually quite enjoyed this book. At times I felt as though it was too wordy and slow yet the overall action in this novel and the events that took place were realistic and true to human nature which is why I would definitely recommend this novel to any one who likes realistic fiction as well as science fiction. I would say go for it and read it and see what you think.

I rate this one a 4.5 out of 5, for a developed story line, good action, and  getting straight to the point.

I will try and get my next book review up as soon as possible. Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns for me, let me know, or just simply want to talk to me. I will do book requests. You can send me a message to me on here or E-Mail me at: TeamBellisle@yahoo.com

I check my yahoo account more often then Blogspot however.

~TJ 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Number of Pages: 240
Publisher: Intervisual Books
Date of Original Publication: 1818
ISBN #: 1-61524-349-6

Hey guys back for February :)

The first book for this month that I’ll give to you as a review unfortunately was one I did not like. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein may be a hit classic and the starter of the entire Science Fiction genre but I just could not get into this one.

I read this my sophomore year in High School and now had to read it again for my Sci Fi and Literature course in college and I still don’t like it. I appreciate it more then I did back then but I still found the novel to be overall boring and very anti climatic.

The story focus’s on Victor Frankenstein, a young, emotionally unstable man who’s born into wealth and very intelligent. Victor pursues his passion for the sciences and pours himself into creating life, in which he succeeds by creating an alien known as The Creation. The Creation is described as being quite large with yellowish skin, and not very handsome as he is made by several various organs and skin patches in which Frankenstein was able to fine in morgues and other places. 

This is a story within a story within a story. The creation’s story is told through the means of Victor Frankenstein and Victor’s story is being told by a ship captain by the name of Walton who tells Victor’s story after meeting him and believing that Victor is the man he’s been looking for as a friend for years. Walton brings out many attributes of Victor that emphasize his character, a major characteristic being: his selfishness. He wants a friend but by the end of the novel he has lost so many friends that he refuses to befriend Walton for fear of being hurt again.

Frankenstein becomes horrified by the creature he has created and despises him from the instant he becomes alive. The Creature learns language and emotions through his own means and decides that he would like a companion one day as he has been rejected by every standard human he has faced with. Frankenstein disagrees with this idea afraid that creating another horrible “monster” for him will only create more problems within the human race.

I know this was her first book and she was only the age of 19 but I felt like the plot line was just not entertaining. Slow driving. Not too much in character development apart from Victor being very emotional and the Creature being characterized as intelligent. Nearly everyone dies in the novel left and right, I felt like there was no really driving action in the end.

I would rate this novel at a 2 out of 5 for creativity but not a captivating plot line.

My next post will be on H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds.Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns for me, let me know, or just simply want to talk to me. I will do book requests. You can send me a message to me on here or E-Mail me at: TeamBellisle@yahoo.com

I check my yahoo account more often then Blogger however.

~TJ