Book Challenge -- Day 5

5. Favorite fantasy books

I don't really have favorite fantasy books, I have favorite series. They are usually vivid stories with characters I can relate to or adventures I wouldn't mind being a part of. And there's usually some kind of magic.
     The Chronicles of Narnia are some of the most powerful stories from my childhood--talking animals, political intrigue and unrest, aboard-ship voyages, family relationships that aren't perfect "everyone-gets-along" or "we hate each other" relationships, friendships that are based on mutual respect, and magic. The biggest draw was probably the talking animals and the magic when I was younger, but as I re-read and think about them more I enjoy the politics and the language of the stories. And the fact that the characters grow older and move beyond Narnia.
     Kim Harrison's Hollows series is more adult, featuring a sassy witch who is just as unsure of herself as the rest of us, only better at hiding it from everyone else. Rachel is passionate and concerned about doing the best she can with the life she's been given, the only problem is that everything keeps going wrong. I can identify with Rachel's struggles (more in the empathizing sense) and I enjoy that she learns to depend on the people who love her. It does help that she's got some kick-ass magic and moral dilemmas to deal with.
     The single novel A Game of Thrones is fascinating--I've only read the first book, but the series is complicated and intricate, it takes me forever to get through a single story because I constantly want to skip over to a different character and finish their story before moving on to contemporaneous events. Though I know it wouldn't make sense to do so because of spoilers, I like hearing about one line before moving on to the next. So much happens in A Game of Thrones and the characters are so powerfully imagined that I just want to dive back into their world, as much as I don't really want to live there.
     The language of the Lord of the Rings drew me in immediately: it is fluid and graceful while still having peaks and valleys. Tolkien was a master linguist and it shows in his storytelling. He knows how to keep the audience invested in the tale without making it seem like it couldn't happen. While some stories rely on surprises to keep the reader going, you expect the plot and it makes the story just as thrilling because the author has built an expectation and delivered on his promise of a fantastic story.
     My attachment to Harry Potter is more nostalgic than any of these stories (probably excepting Narnia) because I was part of the Harry Potter Phenomenon. When the books came out I was the same age as most of the characters; I stood in line to check out the books; I waited with baited breath for the titles of the new book, and begged my parents to take me to the movies when they finally arrived. The Harry Potter series was a huge part of my childhood, as it was for many of my peers and every time I pick up the book I remember how I felt the first time I read them and I discover some new tidbit I didn't catch last time. Still, I am reminded how the stories of Harry, Ron, and Hermione gave my siblings and me a time to be together as a family imagining and talking about something with anticipation. I imagine my mom reading the books to us was like the great classics of the nineteenth century being released weekly in the newspaper. And it is a powerful tradition.

Book Challenge -- Day 4

4. Favorite platonic friendships

Like most kids who grew up along with the Harry Potter Series, I am a fan of the Harry-Hermione platonic friendship (there was a time when I thought it might go romantic, but despite Rowling's comments about Hermione ending up with Ron, I think it turned out just fine). They are friends who support each other and are there for the good and bad times. There are moments during the series where Harry wants to be the hero and rescue Hermione, but she's not having it and shows him up with one of her clever plans. At the same time Hermione sticks around when the horcruxes begin to turn Harry dark and though most of us know she could have saved the world without his directionally challenged self, she kept Harry around. The two characters compliment each other without overwhelming or expecting more from the other.
     A lot of the friendships in literature don't tend to stay platonic. I enjoyed Annabel and Percy from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, but after a while they shifted over into the romantic zone. Percy and Grover, however, have that snarky relationship that is all so common in today's reality, but is difficult to convey into a written world without becoming cruel. Like Harry and Hermione, Grover and Percy are there for each other while they attempt to accomplish the impossible. The relationship between Grover and Percy is more like that of Ron and Harry, though. They have Annabel as their brains, and they are the adventure and implusive behavior behind her plans.
     A completely different friendship I enjoyed was in the Thief of Eddis series: Gen and Sophos. The two begin their association while on a quest to retrieve legitimacy for Gen's cousin--a stone bestowed upon the ruler of Eddis by the Thief. Helen (Eddis as she is known) cares for her cousin and their friendship is strong enough to last through his trials and triumphs. Sophos is the heir to a neighboring kingdom and a scholar rather than any kind of warrior. The two boys become friends, but are separated by nations when Sophos is sent to learn his country and Gen goes to fetch the woman he loves and become king. When next they meet, Sophos is Sounis and Gen is Attolis--kings of their respective countries, but still young men looking for friendship. They each have their own responsibilities and desires, but they learn to respect each other and be young men together under and outside of the ceremony of their offices.

Book Challenge -- Day 3

3: Saddest character death

I still remember the first time I read Aslan's death in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I was at first stunned at how easily he went to slaughter, and how Susan and Lucy allowed him to die for them, then angry with Aslan for giving up his role in the revolution to fight. He was probably the first character I remember being actually upset about. I now understand why Aslan had to die, but am still relieved every time he comes back to life.
     The character I remember actually crying and having to set down the book and come back to was Hedwig. She was with Harry from the beginning and cared for him unconditionally--the movies don't show it as well as the books, but Hedwig was the only friend Harry had at Privet Drive. The frustration that anyone could harm, let alone kill, a creature that had little to no efficacy in the story was overwhelming; Hedwig was for moral support, and yes, she made letter-writing a little easier, but she didn't have an irreplaceable role in the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.  Most lingeringly I remember the deaths of the hound dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows as being sad, it was sixth grade, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about it now. The puppy with his innards coming out is heartbreaking. Really any book where the pet dies a horrible death is sad and miserable, and people should stop doing that!
     From my favorite novel, A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle, Binnie is a little girl with epilepsy whose father doesn't believe in medication. The entire novel centers around death and loss and what it means to actually live in the face of eventual extinction, so I understand why L'Engle has this child and her illness appear. While the main character is dealing with her grandfather's slow death she is plunged into depression when a beautiful little girl she meets in the hospital dies in her arms after an epileptic fit. Binnie's death is so unexpected in the context of the story that all the tension surrounding loss is suddenly focused in the one event.
     Really any story where a character is either slowly or pointlessly (in the story's universe) killed off is sad. Aslan was a character I became attached to quickly and easily; Hedwig and the dogs from Red Fern were loyal and had no reason to be killed other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time; and Binnie was a bright child and had so much she could have lived for, but was killed through no fault or choice of her own. I understand the phenomenon as a plot device, but it still upsets me every time.