The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I actually tried to read these books a while ago, they seemed boring then, but I decided to give them another try. I've gotten about one hundred pages in, but I honestly don't think I would have understood the begining if I hadn't already seen the movies. So far, Gandalf has informed Frodo of the evil that resides in the ring and what evil is responsible for it's creation. He has also told the tale of Smeagol/Gollum, and what hold the ring had over him from the begining, and what its still doing to him. This information, along with Gandalf's doubt that Smeagol/Gollum can ever recover from the power of the ring, has frightened Frodo, but also has made him determined to leave the Shire in order to protect its inhabitants, although it is not clear at this point whether or not he will actuallly be the one to Destroy the One Ring. (of course, I already know he will because I saw the movie) The elves are very curious, From what I read of them, they are carefree and enjoy a goodtime, unlike the elves portrayed in the movies, who are serious at every moment and noble looking. Now, Frodo, Sam, and Pippin are attempting to locate Gandalf, who failed to show at Frodo's fidtieth birthday party has he said he would. This information has unerved the elves, who obviously hold Gandalf in high status among themselves. Also, it seemes impossible to tell whether or not they are making fun of Frodo for speaking their own language when they give comments such as, "a jewl among hobbits." I also find the tone in which J.R.R. Tolkein has wriiten is a little annoying. He's always saying there is or is it. I know that its the proper way to write, but it still anoys me when I read. I really liked these movies, so hopefully the books won't be much different. I don't like it at all when books are changed on screen.

Started Book Three of Volume 3!

Witchlight: The third installment of Vol. 3 of the Night World series starts off with a shapshifter named Keller and her two friends attempting to locate the third Wild Power, who has been identified as Illiana Dominick, a lost Harman witch. Illiana is also said to be The Witch Child, a powerful Harman prophecized to marry the son of The Fist House of the Shapeshifters, which will create an unyeilding bond and alliance between the witches and shapeshifters forever. Illiana, a popular and much loved girl and in a human high school, is reluctant to accept her ancestry and her responsibility to the world as The Witch Child and the third Wild Power. Under the careful watch of Keller, vampire Nissa, witch Whinnie, and another shapeshifter Galen, Illiana continues to deny what the three agents of Circle Daybreak repeatedly tell her. Not by a coincidence, Galen is there when Keller tries to convince Illiana of her heritage mall. Galen is there to meet Illiana and get to know her, for he is the only son of the Fist House of the Shapeshifters and is fated to marry Illiana Harman. However, things take an unexpected turn. Everyone knows the of prophecy that states Galen will marry Illiana, but she is not his soulmate. Keller is. Keller's realization that she and Galen are the ones fated to be joined puts the alliance she has worked so hard for at risk. If Illiana does not marry Galen, then Circle Daybreak will lose the shapeshifters to the vampires and no alliance will be formed. For this reason, she is determined to deny she has any feelings for Galen and tries to convince him that he must be with Illiana, who he does not love. Its clear that the only person he has eyes for is Keller. And if this play of emotions between heart and duty weren't enough, a dragon has been awaked from its 30,000 year slumber and is bent on destroying the third Wild Power and bringing about the apocalypse...

Night World Volume 3

"The Night World isn't a place, it's all around us. And now its split in two, Vampires against Witches, Humans, and Daybreakers. The werewolves and shifters could go either way. Which ever side they take could determine the fate of the human race."
This is the third volume of Night World. I'm trying to make it last, but am not succeeding, because the final book, Strange Fate, doesn't come out until April! (which I can't for the life of me understand because this one came out in 1997!) Anyway, Vol. 3 includes Huntress, where a vampire girl of a prominent Night World family finds out that she is in fact half human. Learning this, Jez Redfern leaves her life behind in order to make amends for her past wrong doings to humans, her mother's kind, and stalks the very creatures she had once hunted with. But when Circle Daybreak enlists Jez to reclaim leadership of her old gang in order to identify a Wild Power (a child born the year of the Blind Maiden's vision who will hold off the darkness with three others at the time of the apocalypse) she fears for the human child's life as well as her own, for if those who she had once called her friends find out about her parentage, they would not hesitate to kill her. Jez not only has to keep her family a secret, but also juggles the new feelings awakened in her when she realizes that her soulmate is Morgead, a fellow gang member notoriously famous for hating humans, and the one person Jez is sure would strike her down if he knew the truth. Finding the Wild Power proved to be difficult, and Jez went through two likely candidates before she realized an even greater truth about herself, and her responsibility to the human race.

In Black Dawn, a human girl named Maggie learns of a horrible tragedy, Her eighteen year old brother Miles had been killed in a mountain climbing expedition, or so his girlfriend claims. Maggie however, does not believe Sylvia's crying act and pursues the truth about her brother. Upon confronting Sylvia, Maggie learns that the older girl was in fact lying, but is hit with the realization that she will never know the truth when she is knocked out. When she wakes, Maggie is locked in a cart with three other girls. One around middle school age, the other, a slave who attempted to escape the Dark Kingdom, the place Maggie will soon find herself, a place that is ruled by Night Worlders, where technology is nonexistent, and where humans are slaves to the vampires, shapeshifters, werewolves, and witches. The last girl is a mystery. Being blind, how could she be of any use to the Night Worlders? When Maggie and her new acquaintances attempt to escape, they are forced to split up, leaving Maggie with the nearly unconscious blind girl, Arcadia. (though we find out later her real name is Aradia.) Hiding from the slavetraders, Maggie meets a vampire boy named Delos, who saved her life and Aradia's from a shapeshifter, using the blue flames of a Wild Power. The two realize that they are soulmates, despite what the vampire prince wishes (yes he's the prince of the Dark Kingdom!) and it becomes evident that he must choose a side. Either he will give in to the infamous Hunter Redfern and contribute to the destruction of the human world, or join the Daybreakers and assume his responsibility to hold off the darkness...

As of now, two Wild Powers have been found, and the prophecy states that there must be four:
One from the land of Kings long forgotten (Delos)
One from the hearth which still holds the Spark (possibly a Harman witch?)
One from the Dayworld where two eyes are watching (Jez)
And one from the twilight to be one with the dark (?)

Didn't get to book three yet!

Night World Volume 2

This volume includes: Dark Angel, The Chosen, and Soulmate. I read the first two volumes over Thanksgiving break and picked them out for the long car ride upstate :) The three stories in this volume continue on with individuals from the night World and the human world finding their soulmates and working towards the future for all. It was hinted from the last book that Circle Daybreak, a witch organization that works to bring together the inhabitants of the Night World and the human world, attempts to end the fighting and hatred between the two has resurfaced. Many Daybreakers feel that the fact that countless, and in some cases, very important, members of the Night World have found human soulmates means that a new era is approaching and that the opportunity for the two worlds to coexist peacefully is within reach. Dark Angel tells of the near death experience of Gillian Lennox, a witch of the second kind, meaning that she is oblivious to her ancestry. Gillian copes with this and her new found powers with the help of her "guardian angel." Angel starts out as a helpful and encouraging presence, but things take a turn for the worst when Gillian finds out that Angel wants to kill her soulmate and possess his body so that he could live on earth. The Chosen gives the story of a young vampire hunter, Rashel, who kills any and all vampires in a obsession to avenge to her mother's death and her friend Timmy's disappearance at the hand of a red-haired vampire. Ironically, Rashel's soulmate is one of the very creatures she seeks to destroy. Finally, in Soulamte, a girl learns, from mysterious notes left by her subconcious mind, that she is an Old Soul, a human who keeps coming back from the void, ever since the dawn of civilization. Hannah begins to remember her days in past years, and the one with whom she was always destined to spend them with, Thiery, the first made vampire, Lord of the Night World, and leader of Circle Daybreak. Mysteriously enough, Hannah never lives to see the dawn of her seventeenth birthday and her numerous deaths that span over the centuries are unclear. She is told by a stranger that it is her soulmate who has repeatedly killed her, but when old memories start to rise within her she realizes that she has been kept from lifetimes of happiness with Thierry due to a love triangle that dates back to the creation of the Night World Council.

Another Vampire Series!!: Night World Vol. 1

My first impression of this series was that it was less about the supernatural and more of what love means to individuals who have found it:
There are two main rules for those belonging to the Night World. The first is to never tell a human about the existence of vampires, werewolves, witches, or anything of their secret history. The second is to never fall in love with a human. Break either, and the consequence is death, for the Night Worlder as well as the human. The Night World series are basically short stories of what happens when these rules are broken:
In Secret Vampire Poppy's life is brought to a sudden stop when she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her best friend, and secret crush, since kindergarten, James a vampire of the Night World, is her only hope of survival. But saving Poppy would mean death for him, foremost because it would be an unwritten confession that James had fallen in love with a human, and in order to change her, James must tell her his darkest secret. The two rules would be broken. Once his decision is made, James gets an unwanted visit from his immoral cousin, Ash, who puts Poppy and James in danger of the wrath of the entire Night World Council...

In Daughters of Darkness three vampire sisters escape the tyrannical island which was formally their home in exchange for freedom in the outside human world. Upon learning of their absence, the girls' brother, the infamous Ash from Secret Vampire, is sent by his family to bring them back home. What the arrogant, bad-boy vampire does not expect is to find his soulmate while attempting to persuade his sisters to return home, much less that the girl would be human. Discovering this, Ash is faced with his own immorality and reminded constantly of the way he acted towards humans before he found himself tied to one. I suppose this is what we would call poetic justice, a vampire who hates humans, labeling them 'vermin,' unwillingly loving what he once hated. Of course, the Night World Law forbids them to be together and most certainly would present them with death for claiming that they were soulmates. The Night World Council would not hesitate to kill Ash's youngest sister, Jade and her soulmate as well, who happens to be the younger brother of Mary-Lynette, the human girl Ash is fated to be with forever. The only solution for them is to stay hidden in the human world, if they aren't caught first...

In the last book of Night World Vol. 1, Spellbinder two witch cousins, direct decedents of the most powerful witch, Hellewise, fight each other for the affections of a human boy. Blaise fights simply to have him, to conquer. Thea fights to protect him from her somewhat twisted cousin Blaise, and fights her own emotions, which include pure love for the human boy Eric, and fear of death by the Night World Council should they find out her one and only love is human. Throughout the story, Blaise uses underhanded methods to win Eric, bewitchment and allure, none of which work because his love for Thea is pure and cannot be tainted. In the midst of it all, a dangerous spirit is released from the void endlessly searching to avenge deaths of centuries past. It is Thea's duty to send the spirit back and with Eric by her side, she is confident that they will live through it. Then the Inner Circle of Witches appear at Thea's home to chastise her for using forbidden spells, and find that an even greater punishment must await her for breaking the two most important rules of the Night World...

Finished 'salem's Lot!

I really liked this one, although it was a little hard to follow because the stories switched so often. I can't get over how scary 'salem's Lot was and I actually jumped when I heard the wind "scratching" at the window a few days ago. I suppose this book was unnerving because some of it is actually believable, such as entire families inexplicably disappearing in the dead of night, or mysterious strangers spontaneously arriving in a town where if you weren't born there, you were considered an outsider and thought the worst of. Also disturbing was the fact that the town itself was so isolated and withdrawn within its own borders that I assume no help would ever have arrived. What happened to Father Callahan was also disturbing. Supposedly, he lost his faith at the end, and he made reference to Cain. Judging by the fact that Barlow allowed him to live, I think that Father Callahan was made to wander like Cain, safe from any harm, but always wandering. The one question I have is how Barlow could have bestowed such a punishment on Father Callahan? Otherwise, despite the extinction of 'salem's Lot, things ended optimistically, with two people who know the truth fighting for tomorrow.

Nearly everyone has inexplicably disappeared in 'salem's Lot. Although, these disappearances can be explained by those who know the truth, and that is a pitiful number. With the loss of Susan Norton to the vampires, only Matt Burke, Ben Mears, Jimmy Cody, and a little boy named Mark Petrie, who was nearly turned by Danny Glick, know what evil has taken up residence in 'salem's Lot. The introduction of Mr. Barlow rises horrible fears in the reader, for there is no doubt what this man, if he can be considered as such, is doing to the people of 'salem's Lot. Though his motives are unclear at the moment, it is certain that Barlow is turning every man woman and child in the town, or rather, having his 'minions' turn them. What he hopes to accomplish by these actions is not known, whether it is out of pure evil or the building blocks of a greater plan. The concept of an entire town disappearing and not a soul knowing of it is very unsettling. What's more, Susan's claim of "there's lots more of us now" does not put the odds in the favor of those who know the truth. Initially, there were only five of them, one of which is now, undoubtedly, feeding information on Ben, Matt, Jimmy, and Mark> With Susan on their side, the vampires must know that some individuals know what they are and will certainly expect action from the group....