vovat | For God and Cauldron (Plus Rabbits)

Hey, how about some reviews of three books I read recently?

Watership Down, by Richard Adams - I'd been meaning to read this one for a while. Actually, I did read the first few pages when I was waiting for a computer at the local library some years ago. Recently, though, I saw the book on

therealtavie's shelf and read an interview where Neko Case said it was one of her favorite books, so those things together pushed me into trying it again. And it really is a good book, describing the lives of rabbits from their own point of view. Adams' introduction said that he wanted to have rabbits who would think and communicate like people, but wouldn't do anything rabbits couldn't actually do, and I think he succeeded. And the idea of rabbits having their own religion and mythology was rather fascinating.

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan - Speaking of mythology, this is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which was recommended to me by

rockinlibrarian. It's in much the same vein as Harry Potter, in terms of having an adolescent boy discover he has both magic powers and deadly enemies, as well as in there being a special training place for people like him. The similarities don't stop there, but it's not like Rowling invented these ideas. Anyway, Riordan definitely has his own style, simultaneously more modern and more faithful to traditional mythology than Rowling's. I like his view of the gods in the modern age, in that they have adapted somewhat with the times, yet still maintain their traditional personalities. And there's a good dose of humor, one of my favorite throwaway bits being how one of the only two songs Grover the satyr can play on his pipes is Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday." I'll definitely have to read the rest of this series. In fact, I've already started on the second book, The Sea of Monsters.

The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander - The second book in the Prydain series (honestly, the fact that the first book has "three" in the title still tends to confuse me) is an improvement over the first one, at least to my mind. Since Alexander has already introduced his main characters, he's able to have more fun with them. We can definitely see Taran maturing in the course of the adventure, and Fflewddur Fflam and Doli have some good moments. I also found the three enchantresses to be pretty amusing characters.

bethje has told me that enjoys being in the middle of a good book. I can understand that, but I usually like to finish as quickly as I can. After all, that's when I can move on to the next one, right? {g} Also, I like to look back on books I've finished reading. And I don't think I'm going to run out of things to read anytime soon. I might eventually run out of new Oz stuff, though, so all you aspiring Oz authors need to get to work! {g}