I Just Can’t Help My Self

Last night when my husband and I went out for a quick nightcap (of fries, onion rings and baked potatoes), we passed by the bookstore with just the thought of looking through books. Despite having such little budget, we came out with new books anyway.

When I saw Asimov’s Magic on the shelf, I distinctly remember an old friend recommending it so I knew I had to have it. Getting The End of Eternity and Nighfall followed suit, since they were also new on the shelf and I only see the Foundation and Robot series usually on these shelves. So despite my wallet’s cries I bought them without hesitation and I am a happy little sci-fi geek.

And will commence to read them once I find the time. For the meantime, I give you a blurb about the books.

Magic

Isaac Asimov and science fiction are one and the same to millions of readers.He was the field’s transcendent genius, its reigning prophet, its genial patriarch, and its most prolific author. But Asimov also wrote fantasy, and invariably of an enduring quality. Magic is his final original collection, containing all of his uncollected fantasy stories that have never before appeared in book form.
In addition, this farewell collection of Asimov’s writings also includes his thoughts on the genre of fantasy itself. Here are the fascinating musings of a wide ranging intelligence, discussing everything from Tolkien to Spielberg, from Unicorns to King Arthur, from the difference between maidens and damsels to the speed of Seven League Boots – scientifically calculated at last!

Nighfall

This collaboration by two masters of the genre expands on Asimov’s classic short story first published in 1941. Kalgash is a planet with six suns, a world where darkness is unnatural. Scientists realize that an eclipse–an event that occurs only every 2049 years–is imminent, and that a society completely unfamiliar with darkness will be plunged into madness and chaos. The novel traces events leading to this discovery, and the fates of the main characters immediately following the apocalypse. While the premise is convincing in the context of a short story, this longer version brings up too many unresolved questions. The original tale was tightly written, succinct and stunning, but the novelization seems flabby and drawn-out–the reader recognizes the significance and consequences of the impending events long before the characters do. An abrupt and simplistic ending further mars a hallowed SF tale. 100,000 first printing.

The End of Eternity

Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a man whose job it is to range through past and present Centuries, monitoring and, where necessary, altering Time’s myriad cause-and-effect relationships. But when Harlan meets and falls for a non-Eternal woman, he seeks to use the awesome powers and techniques of the Eternals to twist time for his own purposes, so that he and his love can survive together.

Now, finding a good copy of Ender’s Game (at least) by Orson Scott Card will make my life complete.

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service #10 (Eiji Otsuka)

We finally got hold of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, #10 from a local seller. Manga volumes are not readily available in the local market, but am just really glad they still import this particular series.

We discovered this series a couple of years ago by accident. Not only was their cover design intriguing, the premise at the back coupled with ‘corpse’ and ‘delivery’ was too, so we had to go buy it and check it out. And was it a good choice! We followed the series ever since.

Your body is their business! Five young students at a Buddhist university, three guys and two girls, find little call for their job skills in today’s Tokyo… among the living, that is! But all that stuff in college they were told would never pay off – you know, channeling, dowsing, ESP – gives them a direct line to the dead… the dead who are still trapped in their corpses and can’t move on to the next reincarnation. The five form the Kurosagi (“Black Heron” – their ominous bird logo) Corpse Delivery Service: whether suicide, murder, accident, or illness, they’ll carry your body wherever it needs to go to free your soul! The kids from Kurosagi can smell a customer a mile away – it’s a good thing one of the girls majored in embalming!

Amazon

This latest volume covers dead that are suddenly rising up, lessons of letting sleeping dogs lie and why Numata (one of the main characters who always wear his sunglasses) suddenly takes them off for some one! Without spoiling anything this is another good volume of packed mysteries and I highly recommend anyone who loves a good story that is not necessarily scary. I just wished there was more info on Karatsu’s mysterious spirit that is always with him. Well, I guess that will let me hope for some more on the next volume yes?

For more info about the series, you can go read more via the Wikipedia page. Kurosagi Shitai Takuhaibin¹, was written by Eiji Otsuka, writer of the MPD Psycho manga series.

Rating: ★★★★★ 5 of 5 stars [?]

1. the series’s original Japanese title ↩

The Legend Of Drizzt, Omnibus (R. A. Salvatorre)

From the Forgotten Realms world, the Legend of Drizzt series covers the legends of the famous dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden¹. The Legend of Drizzt Omnibus compiles the first trilogy (The Dark Elf trilogy) that have been ported to sequential art— Home, Exile and Sojourn.

It’s a wonderfully woven tale of a dark elf that was born in violence and turmoil, grew into honor and lived in dignity despite the odds, and moved to the surface² to find where really belongs. The premise may be a bit cliche, but how the story was told and the circumstances that happen to Drizzt are done well. So it’s not really a cliche but more of a classic. This is one of the best fantasy stories I have read in a long while. It was hard to put down, so I read it from start to finish in one reading. I guess the graphic novel nature of this book made it all the more easier.

The characters are good, and you could really relate to most of the characters, especially the title character Drizzt. You really feel for him when he has to sacrifice everything, and the ones around him see tragedies they do not deserve. You also get to grasp the politics/ religion setting of the environment without going too much into it.

I used to play a homebrew version of D&D back in my college days, so this made me nostalgic and want to play again. I can’t believe I haven’t read this long before, good thing the hubby got interested and bought him self a copy.

I recommend this book to anyone who is starting on to read the fantasy genre, as this is a good start to get a good grasp of classic high fantasy. And also to anyone who is simply looking for a really good read.

Rating: ★★★★★ 5 of 5 stars [?]

1. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, I don’t know either ^^; Elven names are hard to pronounce that way ↩
2. as the drow live deep underground ↩