Beautiful, heartbreaking, story of two sisters, secrets, love, and death. Brashares is the author of the popular ” The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” teen series, and this is her first work geared for adults. It’s wonderful!

Most of it takes place on Long Island’s Fire Island, where Riley and her sister Alice grew up. The beach, in all its different faces and moods, is described so well it is almost if you are sitting there yourself.

Riley is odd. She has some sort of learning disability, and, although bright and self sufficient, she never has quite managed to grow up all the way. She never dates, is perfectly content to live with her parents, and has never noticed how shabby their little house really is, especially compared to the larger more expensive houses on Fire Island. Riley is happiest outdoors, swims like a fish, and works as a lifeguard. She is the stereotypical “tomboy”.

Alice, the younger sister, is pensive and strikingly beautiful. She has gone to college, and is considering a certain job after that. Alice finds herself spending a lot of time thinking other people’s thoughts for them. She is a natural caretaker, and also constantly worried that she will be “left behind” by Riley and her friend Paul.

Paul is the same age as Riley, and the two of them have been best friends since childhood. Paul went to New York for college, and at the start of this book, has returned to Fire Island to visit with Riley and Alice. Paul’s father died when Paul was very young, and Riley and her parents sort of adopted Paul, in a way. He and Riley function as brother and sister, and Paul and Riley both have always loved Alice.

The book cuts between present and past, weaving together the lives of the three main characters. Paul and Alice are thinking about the past, and trying to sort out just who they are now as adults, in the way that many twenty-something people do. Both are learning truths about their parent’s lives that they never knew before, but may have suspected. The entire book is very well written, but one thing that stood out to me the most was just how well Brashares captured that unanchored, searching, state that we all go through as we leave college and become a “real” adult.

Now that Alice and Paul are adults, things are changing. Alice and Paul just begin to notice that they have feelings for each other that go beyond friendship. Both struggle to figure out what to do with that. Each is worried about messing things up, and ruining a lifetime of friendship.

And then there is Riley to consider. Riley, who always saw dating as silly. As teenagers, Riley, Paul, and Alice all agreed that the things they saw their friends doing when they started dating was mostly stupid, and they would never act that way. But now, about a decade later, Paul and Alice have grown up and see things differently. What happens to Riley if Alice and Paul become more than friends?

Paul and Alice dance around each other, getting a tiny bit closer and then backing away, then moving closer once again, as the story continues. As soon as it looks as though the two have come to an understanding, something awful happens to Riley. This shakes up everyone’s world.

This is the kind of book that makes you want to read it while sitting on a beach. It makes the reader remember those precious, passionate, intense summers from when you were fourteen or fifteen, and wonder whatever happened to those special friends and long ago loves. It makes you ache and smile at the same time. It is definitely a summer read, and will be available soon, in June of 2007. Don’t miss it!

If I didn’t know before I picked up the book that it was written by a teenager, I might have been less impressed. This has all been done before, and if written by an adult, I would have found this book to be simply copying ideas that have been popular in many other fantasy books. However, I found the story line to be compelling, and the characters developed enough to get me to look past my initial bias. I did not expect something written by a teenager to be this good a read.

This book includes a big blue dragon, elves, dwarfs, and a battle between good and evil. It includes an army of Urgs and an evil almost immortal tyrant of a king. It reminded me very much of Tolkien’s epic series The Lord of The Rings in many ways, especially since the front of the book includes a map of this world that Paolini created, and the book itself has characters speaking in ancient dwarven or elven languages, and using powerful words of magic. The back of the book includes a glossary to help the reader remember just what all these made up words and phrases are supposed to mean.

You can find this book in the teen or young adult section of bookstores, and sometimes in the children’s section of libraries. I would not call this a kids book, however. Parts of it are extremely dark and evil. Main characters are beaten up, tortured, even killed. There is a scene where the Urgs massacre an entire town, and Eragon comes upon a pile of dead bodies of the murdered townspeople. On the top is a pike with a dead baby sticking on it. I still can’t get that scene out of my head. I wouldn’t recommend that young children read this book.

The story starts out with Eragon, who is about fourteen or fifteen, out hunting for food for his family. He finds a large blue rock, and takes it home, thinking it might be valuable to trade for food. Instead, the rock turns out to be a dragon egg. Eragon bonds with the baby dragon, and becomes a dragon rider. This event also drags Eragon into a whole world of politics and danger that he never knew existed. Other characters tell him bits and pieces of what it means to be a dragon rider now, and why he is in danger. His fate has been set, and he cannot simply refuse or avoid it. Eragon grows as the story goes on, and faces some really tough choices and bloody battles. To say anything more would be giving away too much of the story.

This book ends, but the story does not. This is the first part of the Inheritance Trilogy. The second book is called Eldest, and I was interested enough in Eragon to want to see what happens next for him and his friends. The third book, as far as I have been able to find out, might be called Inheritance, and there is no specific release date set. I do know there are many, many readers wanting to see how it all will end.

The copy of Eragon I read was a paperback with a picture from the movie on the cover, and some pictures from the movie included inside. For each review I heard praising how great Eragon the book was, I heard two saying that the movie was terrible. For that reason, I have not watched the movie. One thing I found strange though, was that in the book, there is a elven character named Arya, who is constantly being described as having long dark hair, and wearing dark leather pants and armor. The pictures of the actress playing Arya in the movie shows a red-haired girl, wearing an almost white dress. So, clearly, something is amiss with the movie version of Eragon.

In short, adult fans of Tolkien will enjoy reading Eragon. Most people are finding it very frustrating to have to wait indefinitely for the third and final book in the trilogy to appear.

I am a female geek. There are way too few of us out there.

Most of the books I read come from either the Science Fiction/Fantasy section, or would be classified in the (now difficult to find) Horror Section. Many of my favorite books include vampires, zombies, dragons, or were authored by Stephen King. I play World of Warcraft each and every day, and have not one, not two, but three completely different characters. I read manga, enjoy anime movies, and know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. I don’t have a whole lot of female friends who understand why I like these things.

My reading list of late has reflected these interests. If you are as much of a geek as I am, you might enjoy the following books as much as I did.

Paths Not Taken by Simon R. Green

I’ve never read one of his books before a friend handed me this one. I think they are part of a series. Green takes time to explain a lot of important things to his readers, so I found it easy to follow along with the story line despite having skipped over his other books.

John Taylor makes his living by finding things. He works in a city called Nightside. Basically, Nightside is the place where all the monsters and evil things go. They live there, they work there, they shop there. It’s the kind of place where anything at all could happen, magic runs rampant and unchecked, and one can find absolutely anything. It’s big and scary and dangerous. It’s the bar scene from the first Star Wars movie taken to the extreme. Fortunately, John Taylor is the son of a very powerful being, and has a real bad reputation. He scares the monsters.

In this book, John is asked to solve the case of a man who is being “haunted” by past and future versions of himself. All of them are angry as hell, and this man can’t figure out how to make them go away. John teams up with Tommy Oblivion, a (sort of) friend who can change reality just by talking persuasively, and Suzie Shooter, a friend whose name says it all. Eventually, they are led to find John Taylor’s mother, who turns out to be none other than Lilith (of the biblical myth). She created Nightside, and John is trying to stop her before she can destroy it.

Filled with twisted humor, bloody battles, and random magic, this book is a fun read! For example, there is this part where John Taylor says:

“Many of the self-styled prophets recognized me, and made the sign of the cross at me. Some made the sign of the extremely cross, and shook handmade charms and fetishes at me.”

The book changes in tone a bit once John Taylor and his friends start trying to find Lilith. It gets darker, a bit more serious, and brings up some concepts that are deep and disturbing. Still, I found it to be a good enough read to consider seeking out some of Green’s other books someday.

Diablo: The Sin War: Birthright By Richard A Knaack

I played the hell out of the Diablo game, (if you will excuse the pun), and was delighted to find this book series that is based on that world. Diablo is made by Blizzard Entertainment. I’m not real sure if the game itself or the online version is still available now. It’s not necessary to have played the game to get into the book series, however. Each book is an original story.

This book is the first part of what I believe will be a trilogy called “The Sin War”. In short, The Sin War refers to the ongoing battle between Heaven and Hell where each side wants to control the fate of all creation. This trilogy starts as the war is pushing into “Sanctuary”, which is where the people are.

Uldyssian is a farmer. He lost almost his entire family to a plague, except for one younger brother, Mendeln. They live in a small village where everyone knows everyone else, and has for years and years. One day, bodies are found outside the village, Uldyssian gets accused of murder, and suddenly powerful men from each of the two prevailing churches are after him.

Uldyssian finds that he mysteriously has developed some magical powers. He has no idea where these came from, or what to do with them. Fortunately, he meets a noble woman, Lylia, who helps him figure it all out. They leave town, along with Mendlen, (who has had his own share of odd occurrences he’s not telling anyone about), Achilios, (Uldyssian’s best buddy who is a great hunter), and Serenthia, (a woman who is in love with Uldyssian, but who is loved by Achilios). That’s when things get more complex.

Nothing is as it first appears in this book. Powerful beings from both Heaven and Hell are searching for Uldyssian, but why? Where did Uldyssian get these powers from? What’s up with Mendlen and the stones with the ancient writing on them that he can somehow read? Most of these questions are unanswered at the end of the book, and you have to read the second book find out what happens next.

*SPOILER ALERT* Strangely enough, Lylia turns out to be none other than Lilith. I didn’t expect to find a common link between the book by Green and the book by Knaak, but there it is.
*END OF SPOILER*

Warcraft SunWell Trilogy #1 Dragon Hunt written by Richard A. Knaak, illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim

Blizzard Entertainment is also the maker of the World Of Warcraft Online game I spend so much time playing. This book is the first of a manga series based on the World Of Warcraft game. I think the only people who will enjoy this series are people who already play WOW. The artwork is good, but the story line is a bit flat. Reading this manga feels very similar to playing the game. There is a lot of action, and many of the races found in WOW are represented here. What made me buy this manga was that it was written by Knaak, the author of the Diablo books that I like so much.

The cover of #1 has a blue dragon and a blond, barely dressed young woman. She holds up the dragon’s head, and his wing is protectively around her. Makes one think things like “Their relationship is probably doomed”, or “Hmm… guess whose dating specifically to piss off her parents!”

Fortunately, this manga isn’t simply the story of star crossed lovers. First, the reader will find several pages of text explaining the universe in WOW. The story starts with a dwarf and three orcs trying to kill a dragon. The dragon crashes to the ground, changes into a man, and is found by the blond woman on the cover. She somehow knows he is a dragon, and isn’t phased by it. She immediately brings him home to mom and dad, whose house appears to be an “underground railroad” station for dragons. Yeah, I don’t really get it either.

I will say that the story line gets better if you keep reading. More characters are introduced, and some foes become friends. I don’t think the ending could have been more obviously set up to get you to read the next book. I realize the most mangas are a series, and each one is supposed to connect to the next one, but still! This one makes it all too obvious. It is almost as if this series was designed to be easy for readers who are new to the manga or graphic novel format, as well as a promotional tool to get you to think about playing WOW. Even still, the book is a fun quick read, and I was impressed by the artwork.