I'm So Ashamed!

On the off chance that I still have the readers that I left the blogosphere with then I would like to personally apologize for my lack of activity for the past few months, and I would like to assure you all that my activity will pick up again come October. The reasons for my absence are many and I won't bore you with the details, or anything else really, all you need to know is that I'll soon be back.

Here's a list of the books that I've read in my absence, though they are few. Reviews to Follow. 

A Wizard Abroad

The Red Pyramid 
(Reviewed)

A Magic of Twilight

Greywalker 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 

I would also like to announce that I've been playing with the idea that I'd like to make this blog more than a review blog with the occasional meme thrown in there. I've recently developed the want or need, I haven't decided yet, to vent and share. As such, I think I'll add a bit more of a personal flare to my blog. Now whether or not this will attract more readers to my blog or deter them, I really don't care. All work and no play makes for a very boring blog, wouldn't you say?
How exactly is this going to change the face of Cornucopia of Fantasy? Well for starters I've been thinking of changing the name, though to what I have no idea. Also, the content may begin to take on the look of a personal blog rather than a review blog. This does not mean that I will cease writing reviews, as I love to do that. It does mean that you'll see a few more videos posted that may or may not pertain to books, or fantasy for that matter, a few more posts on life and ideas that I find interesting and generally anything that I find is important enough to make a blog post about. You might even see a few movie reviews or suggestions popping up here or there.
Hopefully I'll still be entertaining enough to read and you'll still value my opinions on books and the like. I'll try and keep it as fun as possible.

Review: City of Ashes

 City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments Book 2)

The second book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series brings quite a bit to the series that I though it severely lacking in with the first book. Her use of descriptive language has increased (as did her vocabulary apparently) and her characters have taken on much more of a “real” feeling, that is, they’ve become more three dimensional. She creates a background story in this book, and her concern with expanding on the important elements of the book that make it unique has risen considerably.

In the first mortal instruments book Clary Fray discovers that everything she knows about the world she lives in is false, well ok that’s not exactly true, she just can’t remember anything about the world she sees. A warlock named Magnus Bane was commissioned by Clary’s mother Jocelyn Fray to force clary to forget everything she sees involving the magical world. Well when Clary’s mother goes missing and Clary is absent for a “refreshing” of the forgetful spell, she begins to regain her sight, and with this comes the knowledge of her heritage as a Niphilim, or a shadowhunter, a race of humans said to have originated from the angels themselves. Clary’s life would never be the same when she finds out that her father (Valentine) is a bigoted mastermind bent on destroying the government of the Niphilim and anybody who gets in his way.

City of Ashes begins precisely where City of Bones left off, in the second book of the series Clary and her new friends Isabelle, Jace, Alec, and Magnus Bane continue their fight against Valentine, and in this book things get a lot more climactic than in City of Bones.

One of the things I was disappointed in when it came to the first book was Clare’s almost complete lack of a back story or any expanding on one of the most original things about the book: The Marks. In this sequel to City of Bones it seems Clare is more concerned with the background role that the marks played. One of the things I love about magic related books, is hearing about HOW the magic works, I love reading about the development of the practices and the applications it can be used for. In short, I love having background information about an idea in a book, it just makes a story seem so much more real and alive, and while it is still a little lacking in my opinion Cassandra Clare seems to do a much better job of elaborating on an element of her book that I simply adore.

Because of the interesting nature of the magic element of Clare’s book, her plot takes a lot of twists and turns and actually turns out to be extremely entertaining (again I managed to read this book in one day, it was that good). Plot twists are one of the things that I look for in a good book, and City of Ashes while a little on the mild side, has some excellent turnouts that make the book that much more enjoyable to read.

For those of you who haven’t read City of Bones I highly recommend this series, and for those of you who have read City of Bones, you will find that Clare’s second book is nothing if not an improvement on her first, you’ll definitely enjoy it.

Review: City of Bones

City of Bones (Mortal Instruments Book 1)

Typically I stay away from the “teen” section of the book store, but on a recent trip to my local Barnes and Noble I was having a hard time finding a book whose back cover’s synopsis captured my attention enough to get me to sample it (shallow, no?). I ended up calling a friend of mine and asking her for a book recommendation, and after some thought she suggested that I read City of Bones. I had seen her reading the book and it had looked interesting enough, so I gave in and headed over to the teen section in search of City of Bones under her recommendation.

Upon review of the inside flap of the book I found that the synopsis was sufficiently appetizing for my fiction hungry palate to digest. What I soon found was that the book, both well written but not verbose and with an original plot, held my attention enough to get me to finish it in one day.

City of Bones is written by Cassandra Clare, an author whose writing is neither flowery, nor tantalizingly descriptive, and although her writing style leaves many things to be desired(like more background or description of elements), she still has enough talent to write an amply descriptive novel while keeping the simplicity that designates this as a “teen” book. The characters of the book, aside from the protagonist, are rather two dimensional. They are likable enough and along with Clare’s simple writing style they move the plot along in a way that keeps you from noticing that they are two dimensional.

One thing I must say that I particularly enjoyed about City of Bones was the novelty of the plot elements, which revolve around a world of mysticism, demons, and angels. While these things do not seem particularly profound or innovating at their core, it is their nature that make them so unique.

Magic does indeed exist in the protagonist Clary’s world (unbeknownst to her), as do demons and apparently angels; but magic as used by the main characters is not really magic in the strictest sense of the word, instead it comes in the form of various “runes” that take the appearance of strange tattoos plastered all over the bodies of the characters. The idea of tattooed runes is one that I would have love to have seen developed beyond the background role that it takes in the book, but who knows? It might begin to play more of a role in the next two books.

The plot is simple to understand and fun to read, it is not filled with the twists and turns of a psychological thriller, but it varies enough from the prolific plethora of pedantry that is so often found in the Teen section of the book store as to distinguish itself as a well written, intelligent, and page-turning novel.

Cassandra Clare write to entertain and keeps the reader holding on until the very end, not because of fantastical character design, intense verbiage, or chapter long descriptions of scenery, but because of an genuinely enjoyable plot. Through the intense imagination of a good reader, one can immerse themselves in the story, and not feel as though there was anything missing.

Check it out on Amazon.com

Review: Wit'ch Fire

Wit'ch Fire (The Banned and the Banished, Book 1)

A classic tale of growing up, of ripening to power, and of defeating an evil “dark lord”, such is the story of Elena, a girl who one day discovers that she possesses a great and terrible power, and she gets her period all at the same time! Elena discovers her ability and immediately her world is begot with death and destruction. Her family is killed and her childhood home burned down and to top it all off she is being chased by a hoard of terrible creatures looking to capture her and bring her back to the dark lord, probably to be killed.

James Clemens writes a terrific story, one that cannot be put down easily. Wit’ch Fire is a book filled with suspense, action, magic, betrayal and adventure. Reading Wit’ch Fire was a very pleasant ride through the doomed land of Alasea. Dark creatures, unforgettable characters, and a story that every person who has ever grown up can relate to in a way, James Clemens creates a world of magic that has never been touched by the eyes of the unenlightened, and every page in this gripping fantasy novel is entertaining and rife with powerful language.

The writing of Wit’ch fire is first rate, and the story is something else entirely. Clemens writes about a world full of strange magic, creatures, and people; and yet it invokes a sense of familiarity characterized by the trials of growing up.

However, if you are looking for an original story with plot twists galore and a never done before story that leaves you breathless and clamoring for more then I suggest you look elsewhere. The story itself is cliché and lends itself to the hundreds of other series that involve gaining an untold power and defeating a dastardly ruler who threatens to destroy the world.

The only truly innovative thing about the story is the method by which Elena uses her power, she must “dip” her hand into an unseen force by reaching into nothing and pulling her hand out, after which it is stained a deep red getting lighter as she uses her magic.

To enjoy this book, one must look past the its cliched story and focus on enjoying it in the way that one enjoys hearing about triumph over evil and the coming of age. Recommended over plenty of other unimaginative stories especially for its characters and entertaining writing.

The Dragon Reborn

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again..."

Jordan's 3rd book in his epic series of 12 continues the tale of Rand Al'Thor and his companions as they continue to fight the armies of the Dark Lord, who is still imprisoned in Shayol Ghul, though his prison is weakening. The story focuses on Rand's search for the swords Callandor, held in the city of Tear and his continuing maddness.

The book, like all of Robert Jordan's books, is very well written and draws us further into the story. The characters are three demensional and keep gaining demensionality as the story progresses. I won't bother recomending this book to anyone because if you're reading this review you have to have read the series up until now.

Check it out on Amazon