Circulate Joy: Action

Showing posts with label Action. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

10 things that require zero talent

Saturday, February 13, 2021

My review of book "Through Hell and Highwater" by Victoria Liiv

If these random images have stirred your interests, it’s more likely that Victoria Liiv's “Through Hell and Highwater” will stimulate your curiosity to read her book!

Victoria in her maiden attempt at a new urban fantasy, with adventure and a strong dose of magical realism, has beautifully depicted the heroic action sequences by a venturesome group of students of Volo Noscere University in Rome. The story targeting readers of mentioned genres, revolves around an unpredictable fictional alternate world hidden from the human eye. It operates with its own magical community and separate media channels, thus unmindful of the dangerous happenings in the real world. Some in their community believe it is a magical attack, whereas others perceive that it could be human-made.

Now to save the world from destruction, a group of students of a magical school from the University must unite and overcome some life-threatening challenges, despite all the calamities surrounding them, while untangling a mystery. They learn adversity is a great schoolmaster.

Magical Elf Evyline, Shapeshifter Lisanna, Wizard Tylon, Vampire Finley, Orc RocTar, Werewolf Dylan are some of the compelling characters who strengthen the storyline and keep the book vibrant.

Victoria towards laying a strong foundation devotes considerable time to vividly develop the characters and their various personality traits -- Evyline: “I was not meant to be hurting anyone or anything, even if they were trying to hurt me."; Tylon: “Evyline is my mentee. I would hate to see something happen to her.”; RocTar, who likes the sound of not talking: ”he knew he could trust his friends when he was in trouble.” The story is filled with happenings when everyone has a friend who laughs funnier than he jokes.

I liked Victoria’s fondness to develop the motivation of all the important characters.

Victoria has delved into deep friendship formations and genuine emotions. I enjoyed how the characters had split into their own groups as it typically happens in a school environment. Some characters are loquacious, whereas some are laconic. I found the most believable character in Evyline – ‘down-to-earth’ personality! It is good to study Evyline’s characterisation carefully, to see how the young elf manages the complicated situations and saves her friends as a drowning person will clutch at a straw. I could feel pity for Evyline sometimes. However, the character development process also left an impression on me, that the story is gaining momentum quite slowly.

I enjoyed Victoria’s unique and effective style in advancing the story smartly with interesting paradoxes as well: "What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him”; "Are you coming or what? … Lisanna hissed at them, and it echoed back 'coming or what', 'or what', 'what' off the walls, bringing goosebumps on her skin.”

The world-building is splendid, with well-depicted scenes, characterisations, and places: -- Nice lines: “anger is not a weapon, it is a weakness and will always be a disadvantage in a fight.” -- Portrayals of typical day-to-day happenings: "For a moment she had felt like they could relate to each other in a way two people did after learning they have a lot in common." -- Good imaginations sprinkled throughout the storyline: “… the older Fairy should have retired long ago”; “the vampire was wearing pyjamas.”

Victoria’s picturesque narratives, elaborating on various magical spells are excellent. Her simplicity of dialogues only made the book better. The smooth story-flow enabled page-turning. Humorous interactions among students are indeed a treat for readers. Furthermore, Victoria’s love for nature is easily decipherable from her fluent descriptions about plants, which also glues the readers into the story.

Well, I felt, an interesting plot could have been more carefully crafted to make it earth-shattering! I was disappointed with: cliché episodes; unprofessional editing; some portrayals remain underdeveloped thereby not enough to strengthen the storyline; sometimes too much ‘talk’ than ‘show’; unclear big picture - missed the forest for the trees.

However, the book is an enjoyable read as many adorable features mask the flaws. Initially, I reckoned it as any mundane school story - only instead of humans, filled with magical beings. However, it surely made a difference. As the story progressed, I could gauge Victoria’s potential and I understood that she has laid a strong foundation for the sequel of her 1^st book. For a maiden effort, I must say, it is great.

I look forward to seeing how Victoria would resolve the untied ends, and I am especially excited to see how the team of students is going to achieve that.

In essence, I am satisfied with the book's good entertainment value. Victoria has set the stage for something bigger, for the next book, to resolve certain inherent puzzles in this book. Certainly!

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

My review for the book: "SkyView: Lord of the Wills" by M Sheehan

Language	English
Link	https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55374347-skyview
Rating (stars)	4 / 5

Sheehan stands out as a creative author who can kindle our enthusiasm, as he weaves a brilliant tale in "SkyView: Lord of the Wills". The fresh and intriguing plot has beautifully blended features: A theme centred around the protagonists chasing a huge wealth; a medieval historical puzzle intertwining modern-day feud among the family heirs over 700 years; the history that comes alive through SkyView - a supersonic jet with AR, to digitally reconstruct the events of the past; sophisticated AI ship and magical HoloTable.

The book explores history from a different perspective. Sheehan establishes the amazing reality that some powerful people behind, have twisted it deliberately. Besides, the adventure, action, fantasy, suspense, mystery and drama elements built into the story, aroused a non-stop curiosity in me.

The story revolves around the 'Wills' left behind by eight wealthy promoters of a group company who founded it in 1318. The founders are from eight different countries - The UK, The Netherlands, Ireland, France, Bohemia, Greece, Germany and Spain, united in Switzerland for business objectives.

Owing to differences of opinions on operational matters they part ways thus leading to factions of good and evil forces -'Pillars'. An ill-conceived succession plan in the 'Wills' triggers cruel conflicts between the rival 'Pillars', who are fighting even in the 21st century, to establish the legitimate 'Lord' for the massive wealth.

Sheehan has dexterously chosen the hero's name as "Will-I-Am' -- William -- a British -- who discovers that the company he has been working for, was originally promoted by his great-grandfather -- one of the architects of the 'Wills'! He is startled to know that he can inherit a huge fortune as a legal heir.

William learns that his grandfather died mysteriously. The cryptic will tempts him to unravel the mystery and go all out for the hidden fortune. The thought that every man is the architect of his destiny forces him to undertake a challenging quest. He digs into a murky past. He doesn't know that he has to face many impediments, betrayals, seclusion and astonishing realities. The story gets interesting when his mission is facilitated by six more legitimate heirs of the founders. They are challenged by the antagonists - 'disinherited' heirs from the rival factions of the splinter group!

The protagonists make bold attempts to corroborate their legitimacy for the ancestral properties, through the 'Wills'. The 'Wills' cryptically link events through the history, which they need to decipher, only via the SkyView. They need to untie the knots of schemed conspiracies that happened in the 13th century. Puzzling dirty politics, shadowy past and mysterious connections emerge.

The heroes realize that they have to always put their best foot forward. They know no gain without pain. The unsuspecting heroes do wrong speculations and suffer mental drains, due to the misleading acts of deceptive enemies. Their cohesion gets challenged by the clever enemies who try to manipulate the SkyView, thereby the contents in the wills, to their favour.

The story spirals into intriguing twists with an unguessable end. How the mysterious dots in the wills are going to be connected to evolve the big picture? That indeed galvanized my interests throughout!

Sheehan perfectly portrays William by depicting his multifarious abilities. He has handled the other character developments distinctively. A reader can see a piece of himself within the characters.

To invigorate the intelligent storyline, Sheehan with his wisdom and imagination cohesively handles some extraordinary features: Eidetic memory; cypher codings; invisibility shields; cradle - a parallel world operation by faking one's death! He describes through vivid scenes: Drive-in volcano; graphene embedded forearms for defence, mind-link communication, unlocking secrets through trace DNA; and fake arrests. Indeed, I felt like travelling in William's ship and the SkyView!

Sheehan engages the reader by carefully structuring the storyline with authenticity. He has beautifully brought out the conflict between the good and evil 'Pillars'. He maintains a good tempo, stays focussed on his aim and with balanced narratives and dialogues, he delivers satisfaction.

However the brakes in between: innumerable characters; unresolved suspense; repetitions; some incomprehensible descriptions.

Sheehan doesn't sound like a neo-author. The plot is well-researched with deep-rooted history interleaves, which sometimes make you wonder whether it's fiction or real!

My favourite lines: “To reach the heights of heaven you must also reach the depths of hell"; "Success is when opportunity meets preparation." The book with such numerous appreciable lines (I enjoyed ~ 50 lines), ticks the right chords.

I plan to read the sequel to understand how the remaining knots will be untied.

In essence: Efficacious plot with a very good entertainment quotient. A reader will certainly enjoy wonderful moments with the uniqueness and conceptual intensity in the storyline. You too can delight in a panoramic virtual tour across Europe and Africa as the story draws you in! Bonus - Amazing facts!!