Book Review: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

     Religious symbolism expert Robert Langdon is urgently summoned to the Louvre to investigate a bizare murder.  The grandaughter of the deceased knows that it is a sting operation and Langdon is the prime suspect.  Sophie and Robert run through Paris and London, unravelling clues while staying ahead of the authorities.     
There are very few people in America who haven't heard of Dan Brown's best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code.  The "conspiracy thriller" is based on the premise that the Church (meaning the Catholic church) has surpressed critical, non-Biblical facts about the life of Christ.
     If you claim that Jesus was married and had a child, you will get flack no matter how many copies you sell.
The Da Vinci Code is a well-spun mystery (I hesitate to call it a thriller) that makes big claims backed up with almost completely phony research.  Even liberal reviewers gave Brown a hard time.  When attacked by historians, Brown affirmed that every thing in the book was fact.
     I've gotten different opinions from Christian who have read the book or seen the movie.  Some feel threatened, but Brown's dull axe, if you will, is only a threat to those unwilling to research.  The majority of Christians I've talked to enjoyed the story and left the theology.
     The final word?  Read if you are willing to do some extra research.  If you decide to read or watch The DaVinci Code, add The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and Cracking the DaVinci Code (or a similar book) to your home library.

Pros:

*Exciting plot

*Believable dialougue

*Decent prose style (those who bash Brown's style have had the luxury of never reading truly ban prose)

*Clues and riddles actually solveable by real people

Cons:

*Religious sexual content (the worst is at the end of chapter 74)

*Language (not horrible; probably one mild every other chapter)

*Mild alchohol

*Heavily unbiblical theology and world views

*Occasional clunky language (once again, it's not as bad as many negative reviews make out.

*Evil Albino trope is getting old

Fullmetal Alchemist [Hagane no Renkenjitsushi]

Humankind cannot gain anything without first sacrificing something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange.

It's like that myth about the hero. He made wings out of wax so he could fly...
But when he got too close to the sun...
To God...
The wax melted and he crashed to the ground.

In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth.

Look at me, Rose! This is what happens when you use alchemy on humans... This is what happens to sinners who trespass in God's domain!

Alchemy is the science of deconstructing, analyzing, and reconstructing matter; essentially, turning one thing into something else. The practice that makes you feel like you're magic. It can even turn lead into gold. However, alchemy is not an all-powerful art. One cannot make something out of nothing. Alchemy is a science and so must follow certain laws and rules, the most important being "Equivalent Exchange". To obtain, something of equal value is paid in retrobution. There is a taboo among alchemists, and that is human transmutation. It is forbidden. For what could equal the value of a human soul?

Two brothers, naiive and innocent, choose to challenge this law. In an attempt to resurrect their dead mother, Edward and Alphonse Elric learn the reason why human transmutation is forbidden. Alphonse, only nine years old, looses his body. Edward, the elder by a year, looses his left leg. Desperate, he sacrifices his right arm to bind his younger brother's soul to a suit of armor. Fitted with steel prosthesis called "automail" to replace his missing limbs, Edward and his brother journey to the capital city of Central, where 12-year-old Edward takes the State Alchemist's exam and becomes the youngest member of the military in the history of the military dictatorship of Amestris, earning himself the rank of Major, the title of Fullmetal Alchemist and Hero of the People, and Flame Alchemist Colonel Roy Mustang as his superior officer, one of the few men who knows the secret of their failed transmutation.

Fast forward three years. Edward is now fifteen years old, loud and obnoxious, with gaudy taste and the mouth of a sailor, but is still a prodigy and genius. We learn that he is searching for the Philosopher's Stone, a fabled object which is said to give alchemists the power to bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange, in order to return his Alphonse's body, as well as his own limbs (after all, automail has a lot of problems). While searching for this fabled stone, Edward and Alphonse meet all manner of people, including the doting father and crazed Lieutenant-Colonel Maes Hughes, the muscular and over-emotional Major Alex Louis Armstrong, "trigger-happy" Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, a mysterious serial killer called Scar, Twelfth Son of the Emperor of Xing, Ling Yao and his entourage, as well as an androgynous being named Envy, a deranged former state alchemist named Zolf J. Kimblee, and many others.

Finding the Philosopher's Stone, the Elrics soon realize, is the least of their problems. The two deal with love and loss, worrying over the life of their childhood friend Winry, who happens to be Edward's automail mechanic, Alphonse's "humanity", dealing with their estranged father, who left them when they were small, and the fate of their entire nation.

This unique fantasy is a manga, or a type of art-meets-literature sort of comic from Japan. Hiromu Arakawa's art is fantastic, her characters are unique and believable, the story is littered with witty moments, and the plotline is riveting and wonderfully complex. Arakawa's world, set in a post-industrial revolution-styled nation (rather similar to an eastern European nation, like Germany) is a balance of fantasy and reality, of history and modern culture, humor and drama, and mystery galore. Arakawa-sensei's whole idea of alchemy surpassing Newton's Laws is unique and clever and she brings a whole new light to the dead practice of alchemy.

Pros:
-brotherly love
-fast-paced plot
-Mustang's gloves
-Garfiel
-the Homunculi
-the relationships between characters
-Winry's wrench
-the art
-well-developed characters
-Alphonse and his kittens
-the age-old good vs. evil dilemma
-Edward
-witty humor
-action
-love
-the idea that "revenge only leads to more revenge" and should not be a justification for anything

Cons:
-language (nothing too bad, but enough to constitute a "rated T for teen" sticker)
-merciless slaughter
-some light sexual content
-war
-violence
-lots of character death

Other FMA Merch and Stuff:
-Fullmetal Alchemist (52-episode 2003 television series)
-Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa (2005 film based off of 2003 television series)
-Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (64-episode 2009-2010 television series)
-FMA: Brotherhood Untitled Movie Project (film to follow up FMA: Brotherhood)
-various Original Video Animations (side stories to go with the series)
-FMA spin-off novels

Series Review: The Red Pyramid

When the Percy Jackson series came to a close with The Last Olympian, many readers were left despondent.  With no promise as to whether they would ever see Percy again (which they will), young fans were thrilled with the release of The Red Pyramid, the first book in The Kane Chronicles.  Does it live up to their expectations of tensely woven action, witty (if unrealistic) dialogue, and a fantastic world-within-a-world?
In a word: Yes.

The Red Pyramid  begins with Carter and Sadie Kane's father blowing up the Rosetta stone and promptly being kidnapped by supernatural forces.  (Read the first chapter here.)  What follows is the wonderful but chaotic romp that usually occurs when gods and humans meet.  Because of the subject material (children connected to the gods through a hidden past, unusual powers, saving the world on a schedule, etc) it feels much like the Percy Jackson books.  Riordan does not, however, plagiarize his own material.  The Red Pyramid is a story all to its self.



Title list:
Book one: The Red Pyramid
Book two: TBA (release date Spring 2011)
Book three: TBA (release date Spring 2012)



Ups:
A homeschooled character--Finally!
Exciting; non-stop action
Good narrative, no distracting habits on the
     writer's part
No cussing (that I can recall)
No inappropriate sex, drugs, or alchol



Downs:
Oh my G*d's
Flat characters (because Carter and Sophie switch off narrating,
 we don't see in to their heads like we see into Percy's)
Unbelievable dialogue (while amusing it is much to "action hero-ish"
to sound plausible from a twelve year old and fourteen year old.)
"Transcription" narrative device doesn't work.

Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl"

"Stay back, human. You don't know what you're dealing with."

Artemis Fowl is a headstrong, determined young man with a vampire smile and a cutthroat attitude. He's a genius at the head of underground crimes across the globe, having written several papers and novels under various psuedonyms and has accomplished more than any person could ever dream of doing. And to think he's only twelve years old.

Artemis' story begins in a crowded city in Vietnam. Accompanied by his rather large, seemingly brutish bodyguard, known only as Butler, he acquires a copy of something known only as "The Book" from a supposed sprite with a drinking problem and hastily returns to his home in Ireland. From there, he begins decoding the information in this text with one goal in mind: gold. His plan? To kidnap a fairy.

This book, the first of seven in the series, is the start of the tentative truce between genius Artemis Fowl and the Lower Elements Police (LEP). Throughout the course of the series, Artemis finds himself slowly abandoning his criminal ways (albeit very, very slowly...) as he helps Captain Holly Short and the rest of the LEP keep fairies safe from humankind, and save humankind from crazed fairies.

Colfer has done an outstanding job, managing to create a world entirely his own, yet still coexisting with the one we live in. He's created his own language, which can be read at the bottom of each page of the books, and he's succeeded in bringing the age-old fairy idea back entirely as his own. This man deserves a high five and a plate of cookies.

Pros:
-believable characters with very human qualities
-very little romantic side-stories
-magic
-some odd love
-clever humor (including such obscure things as "quarks")
-environmentalist undertones (especially in the last two or three books)

Cons:
-technobabble, and lots of it
-occasional Mary-Sue-esque characters
-mild language (both English and Gnomish)
-slightly unbelievable ratio of criminal and do-gooder in Artemis, though it does even out as the series goes on
-odd love (while its a good thing, its also very, very strange)

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

The world as we know it does not exist.

In fact, it is populated by monsters and magic wielders who work under the noses of modern society-

Wait.

You've heard this before?

Michael Scott, author of the (yet to be finished) Secrets on the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series knows this is an old premise for fantasy. His prescription for reviving this trope involves magicians that actually acknowledge they live in a technical world, pleasantly unique vampires, teens with lives apart from magic wielding, and the ambitious use of every major world mythology.

The plot revolves around fifteen year old twins Sophie and Josh Newman. The book store Josh works at is attacked and burglarized by an unusual man. He leaves the place in chaos and with the book store owner's wife Perry. In the aftermath that follows Sophie and Josh are forced to flee with the store owner, who calls himself Nick Flemming.

The major premise of the story inevitably involves twins with powers that could save or destroy the world. But the world that they live in is so well constructed while operating within our own that it is more believable than, say, the world of Harry Potter. Unlike the aforementioned series, Secrets draws heavily on mythology, and unlike Percy Jackson and its sister books, Scott utilizes nearly every major world mythology. The mish-mash of monsters and gods that results will enthral any myth buff. Even the casual fantasy fan will recognize names and creatures, adding to the fun of this light, adventurous series.

Title list:

The Alchemyst

The Magician

The Sorceress

The Necromancer

The Warlock (to be released in 2011)

The Enchantress (to be released in 2012)

The Ups:

*Characters that use magic but live believably in our world, too

*Little swearing

*No sexual content (unless crushes count)

*No inappropriate drug or alcohol use

*Fast and complex plot

*Generally good dialogue and description

The Downs:

*Juvenile narrative style

*Scattered uses of "Oh my G*d"

*Characters "borrow" things occasionally