Book Review (6): Throne of Glass

You might remember that I've mentioned this some time ago. I'm done with the book shortly after that post, but it took me a while to get the review out. But I've done it, and here it is :)



Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas

Story Sypnosis (in my own words): Celaena Sardothien, legendary assassin who suffered a year in captivity, was promised freedom upon some conditions. She was to participate in a series of competitions against other fighters and emerge champion. Failure to do so will mean sure death. Celaena obviously accepts, and soon found many twists in what seemed like an innocent tournament.

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Let me get this straight - I love this book!

I did take a long time to get past the first 4 chapters (though that wasn't the story's fault, but my own work priorities). But one fine Saturday, I sat down, I read, and I didn't stop till I was done on Sunday morning... Okay, so I cheated, I slept a bit before I finished it on Sunday morning, but that's not important.

Overall, this book has gotten me on my toes and I'm eagerly waiting for the sequel to be out this fall (Yes, there will be a sequel!!) Let's get started!

1. Setting
The author spent about five chapters setting the story, which is really nice and stable. Five chapters to set the stage. The world is a medieval-like realm with castles and towns. The era was in oppression; a man who conquered the main city and declared himself King. Magic was banned, its books were burned and its people killed.

Yup, that's the underlying theme there. Oppression.

2. Costumes
I love the costumes. Nothing more I can say. Okay, so this has absolutely nothing to do with writing, but I just love the costumes. The description was lovely, though not as graphic as Memoirs of a Geisha (did you see the way the author describes the kimono? Absolutely love it.)

3. Celaena as a protagonist
I mentioned before that Eona was an interesting character, but I meant it in a negative way more than positive. Now, Celaena Sardothien is, in my opinion, a wonderful character. She is arrogant, cunning and witty, but also nice to the people that she likes. She also knows that she is beautiful, and often tries to use it to her advantage.

There is just something so attractive about her. To outsiders, she's elusive and mysterious. No one knows what the greatest assassin might do next. However, when the author writes in the perspective of Celaena again, you'll be surprised to find how normal she actually is. Also, it's so interesting to see her think throughout the book the thousand and one ways to assassinate people around her, albeit done too frequently.

In a way, she is like Christian Grey. Same multifaceted personality, but different. Different in the fact that Christian Grey's multicoloured personality backfires on him because he became very flat. For Celaena, the different parts of her personality, however extreme they may be, they made sense given the circumstances of her background.

4. Love Triangles
Argh. I hate this. I've said it again and again, I am so sick of love triangles. It's quite typical - Girl falls in love with Boy A first, but then there's Boy B. Plus, you can tell that eventually where the love triangle would result.

For some reason, even though I dislike love triangles, I'm super darn bad at guessing the result. I always brace myself for a possible twist. Never happened.

5. Plot
I appreciate the fact that the story has a pretty straightforward plot. There were some underlying subplots and foreshadowing, but nothing confusing. I need to take notes from these focused authors!!

Being a first part of a series, the book took some time to lay out its setting. However, what stood out for me was that the main plot was introduced by the end of Chapter 2. It's pretty risky to just throw out the main plot so early. You might lose the flavour and most authors prefer to roll out the story little by little. Well, it worked for me. I immediately got to know what the story is going to be about and that determines whether I'm going to like it or not.

Another author who did that was Maria V. Snyder. The initial plot was out by the end of Chapter 1, of which at the end of it I thought, "Sounds cool, let's go!" Some stories that dragged a little too long for my liking was Fifty Shades of Grey (review here) and "The Fire Within" by Chris D. Lacey. Alright, I'm about to be stoned because I know many people loved it. I've only read the first book and so far, meh. I am not giving up on the series though. So I'll try again!

Maybe I'm just a superficial reader who can't wait for the plot to thicken. Hmph.

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Rating: Love It

I loved the book, I'm looking forward to the sequel. Need I say anymore?

Pictures taken from:
Book Cover

Disclaimer: Despite the official term, the above book review is not a wholesome and fully critical one. The book is merely reviewed and reflected on based on story writing skills and other literary elements.

My biggest apologies

Dear readers,

Most likely, I will be posting Chapter 29 next weekend instead. The chapter is done, to be honest. However, I did not feel secure about how the chapter was written. I need more time to work on it and be assured that it is my best (and that the horrible detailing will not bite me in the loophole-butt in the future).

My regular schedule will resume shortly after, which means:

Chapter 29 will be posted on 22 June 2013
Chapter 30 will be posted on 29 June 2013 (the immediate week after)

Thank you for your understanding. As I'm typing this, I'm wondering whether my readers would stop by this blog when they notice that this week's chapter is not up... If not, this post will be rendered useless *cries*

New Word (6): Insuperable

It has been a while since I looked for new words. I caught this word while I was peeking at my friend's book: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis.

in·su·per·a·ble  

/inˈso͞op(ə)rəbəl/

Adjective (of a difficulty or obstacle) Impossible to overcome.

Synonyms insurmountable - invincible - unconquerable

(Google Search, because I'm too lazy to find a more credible, established source.)

Let's see if I can use this word at all. It shouldn't be a big problem.

The general plot

If some of you are wondering, when is this story going to end, if it ever ends... Here's the answer for you... it will NEVER!!!

Nah, just being lame right now.

But I thought I'll put in a mid-week entry to try and warm up my mind to write Chapter 29 (Yup, it's almost done! One more scene to finish...)

The entire 'saga' of "I Want To Be A Turk!" is divided into three parts.

Part 1: The finding of Meia and the events of Before Crisis and Crisis Core. As you have already read, the story ends at the end of Before Crisis and it leads on to the beginning of Final Fantasy VII.

Part 2: The story of Meia and the exiled Turks during the events of Final Fantasy VII. Here, the main proponents are still AVALANCHE and the Shinra Turks since they are the driving force behind the canon storyline. Meia and the exiled Turks actually take a backseat, but everything that they do is a build-up to Part 3.

(P.S: If my story is not THAT clear enough, we are currently in Part 2.)

Part 3: The last part of this entire journey would begin at the end of Final Fantasy VII, and it will last... for quite some time. Unfortunately, I will not reveal much, but you can be sure that Meia and (some of) the others will be back in full force again.

Obviously, Part 1 is the one labelled "I Want To Be A Turk!" and Part 2 and 3 will be under "Days of Exile". I won't torture my readers on a wild goosechase with a new sequel!

Now that we got your heads a little clearer, let's get back with the programme and down to business. I hope that I can get the chapter out by this weekend, which gives me about three to four more days to work it. Now it's up to my brain to crank its gears and forget all about my other duties (which are actually more important... opps.)

Days of Exile: Chapter 28

Ah! My duties! In a whirl of busy-ness, I've forgotten to upload my latest chapter of "Days of Exile"!!

Unfortunately, that is also my last chapter that is completed. Usually, I am writing five chapters ahead of my uploaded one, but the last few months I had a massive mental block and the chapters aren't churning out as smoothly as I'd like. Hopefully I can get back on track in the next few weeks, but I'm not feeling confident about it.

Well, well, well... Chapter 28 already. Despite proofreading it a few times, I found it unsatisfactory, so there were last minute changes here and there. Okay, more like here and there and everywhere. I tried to make the conversation sound more natural by reading it out and dramatising it. Yeah, that's how I proofread.

I had intended the return of Meia and her discovery to be much further apart, but I didn't have enough scenes to fill up another chapter. Contrary to 'popular' belief, my scenes are not fillers, even if they look like fillers now :P Eventually I hope that everything will unfold and piece together perfectly.

I received a wonderful review from Cocofury, actually. I was scared initially (I'm quite bad with feedback). However, she did it in so objectively and non-condescendingly. Totally appreciate that. And, I'm also grateful to those who took time to review!

Mai: Great to know that you enjoy "I Want To Be A Turk!" Hope you catch up to Chapter 28 soon! :P

Takara: Thank you for your faithful comment, as always!

Jefri: In fandom, Reno is portrayed as a playboy. Some fictitious details cannot be left out :P

Dontgotaclue88: Hmm... We'll see. :)

Kadajclone: Really flattered that you think so! Achievement unlocked!

See you soon!

A short update

In case you guys are wondering, I am sick.

Down with a flu since Wednesday, and I'm recovering as slowly as the twelve days of Christmas (whatever THAT means).

If you're wondering, Yay, that means she gets to find time to write! You're so, so, so wrong :( I've been sleeping in and out of the last four days. I only remember waking up to eat, take medicine and knock out for another few hours.

Now that my medicine's is finished, I believe I can start writing with what little time I have. I've not recovered though, boo :(

I have been updating my chapters, which made me wonder... where is everyone?? I haven't heard a single peep from my readers for a long time. Then again, I've been quiet on fanfiction too. I haven't read anything in a long time. Which goes to show that karma is a nasty... thing.

Apart from that, I've been stuffing my anime-deprived brain with anime. So yeah, apart from waking up to eat and take medicine, I HAVE been watching anime. I admit.

So... If anyone else is there, just remember that I'm still around... you know?

A remake for FInal Fantasy VII

Well, just when I was thinking to myself that I had some free time, I ended up being swamped by work AND being addicted to an anime (I'll talk about that another time.)

This post is about my deepest gaming desire.

Well, that and much more, but having a FF7 remake is indeed one of my biggest dreams. I remembered that when the Playstation 3 was first released, everyone was 'ooh' and 'aah'-ing, but I wasn't too swayed. Those were the days when my gaming experience is limited to Final Fantasy. (It still is, but at least I have more knowledge in other games!)

Then, I boldly made the statement: "If they remake FF7 on the PS3, I'll buy it in an instant!" And well, I guess you've guessed that I obviously do not have a PS3. Nevertheless, my declaration still stands. I'll buy the console that supports the glorious, legendary remake... if they ever get down to it.

Years ago, SquareEnix released the all-too-tantalising FF7 opening just to show us the awesome graphics that PS3 supports. Many of us know the video, but I'm just going to show it anyway.




I mean, look at that! How much epic-ness is that? Of course many people saw this in the epilogue of Crisis Core, which shows the same quality, but wouldn't you want to see the rest of FF7 being shown in HD!!?!?!

I know I do, I'm positively dying for the day to come.

But sadly, we all know the answer in our hearts. We fight it, we ignore it, we try to justify it, but it's clear as day that SquareEnix will not remake this game anytime so soon. Here are some of my reasons why they are holding back their horses:

1. Focusing on other games
This should be a no brainer for Final Fantasy fans. Square is currently busy with many projects. Some of which they are also kinda delayed in releasing. I'm talking about Final Fantasy 13 Versus. It was hyped up way too early because now it seems like they are shirking responsibility. Of course, I know it's because it's the fifth and last game in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation (similar to the FF7 compilation, just that the world is set in FF13). So for sure Versus will not be out till the preceding four titles are released.

EDIT (27/1/2014): So now FF13 Versus will become FF15. Yay. As long as it's not that horrible Cocoon place.

Back to the main point. FF7 remake won't even be considered because of the fact that there are simply too many titles to work on now. Personally, I can relate to this. Last year, one of my fics "Their Memories of Fukinara High", ended prematurely. I commented then that I might return to it, but as I delve deeper into the FF7 fandom, I find that it's hard for me to go back to SDK too. Partly because of the research I got to do again and because my pool of readers are gone already.

The supporters of FF7 remake will not be a dying race (yet), that's for sure. But the research will take Square quite some time, which brings me to my next point.

2. Different team of developers
FF7 was made in 1997. It's going to be close to 20 years (in 4 years' time). Many changes have been made to the company. The most famous one that we know of is Nobuo Uematsu leaving Square. He's not the only one. Many of the original team are no longer in Square. If we want a remake, what is better than reuniting all the heroes to work together? However, things aren't as easy as it sounds. The amount of liasion, the costs, the old dirty politics (if there were any) dug up again...

Like I said, it's really hard. It's probably easier to find a new team of artists and developers to do the remake, but would the fans appreciate it? I know for sure that if the FF7 remake music is not done by Nobuo Uematsu, I would not be as excited. Nobuo Uematsu is a non-negotiable for me - He MUST compose the music, if not co-arrange or direct. But that's just me.

3. System Requirement
Even though Final Fantasy 13 looks freaking awesome on a PS3, I can tell that the system requirements for a FF7 equivalent is going to be hard. We ARE assuming that in the FF7 remake, the graphics would be as darn HD as in FF13, right?

If that were the case, imagine. The entire Midgar, with every nut and bolt visible to the eye. The world map, all in your control to explore, changes the scenery with every step that you take. Even the chocobo has to be animated carefully and let's not forget the other nitty gritty details like summoning summons and falling snow in Icicle Inn.

Before I lose you in your imaginative ecstasy, can you imagine the amount of power needed to support such a game? Square is unable to deliver it adequately (I believe they can and have the technology to do it, but they choose not to yet). That is why FF13 is so linear in storyline, as compared to FF7 to 9.

4. Backup plan

*insert Keanu conspiracy meme here*

Well, in this meme they said in case SquareEnix ran out of ideas for a game, but I see it more as a backup plan in case none of their works are successful anymore and they are plunging towards bankruptcy.

The legend of how Final Fantasy first began was that Square released "Final Fantasy" as their last-chance in the gaming industry. Seeing how increasingly unpopular some titles are nowadays, maybe they are really keeping the remake as a last-attempt before it really becomes their 'final fantasy'.

Perhaps I should write a post on the things that I want to see on the remake :3

So, what do you think? Do you think there should be a remake?

Special thanks to:
oldivai for the youtube video