Brain Spill Book Reviews #2

Larklight

Setting

Larklight is a book written by Philip Reeve that takes place in the 1800s if Isaac Newton had invented space travel. The story begins in a house which is a satellite in space. In thsi world, the British Empire has expanded to the moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and the Moons of Jupiter. Most of the (human) characters act like people out of a Charles Dickens novel, but in space.

Summary

 The story starts when giant spiders attack the (floating space) house of Myrtle and Art Mumby and they escape to the moon, where they are taken onto the ship of pirate Jack Havock. The book, told from the viewpoint of Art Mumby -- with some excerpts from Myrtle -- and tells of the tale of how Art, Myrtle, and Jack try to discover who the giant spiders are and what they want with the house of Art and Myrtle.

Characters

Art Mumby

Art is the narrator of the story and the main character. He dreams of exploring deep space and going on adventures, but is stuck in his floating house, Larklight, listening to his sister play piano. He is a fun character, but even as the narrator, very little is learned about him.

Myrtle Mumby

Myrtle is the most annoying character in the entire book. Not only does she insist on playing piano all the time, she always tries to be lady-like, which drove me mad about halfway through the book. She changes more than most characters, but it is a very sudden, unusual change and is probably not the book's main character.

Jack Havock

Jack Havock is the most famous pirate in all of the British Empire, though he is younger than he is thought of in the papers. He roams the Solar System with his very eclectic crew of alien-escapees from a lab in London. Havock has a sad past, that I will not spoil, and is one of the deeper characters in the story. He saves just about everybody in the entire cast of characters from certain death.

Mr. Webster

Mr. Webster is the name of the head giant spider who attacked Larklight and kidnapped the Mumby children's father. He is the antagonist of the story and his race and intentions unfold very nicely as the plot continues.

Nipper

I just put Nipper in this character summary because he's a giant crab.

Conclusion

The book is well written and unfolds very nicely and evenly. I enjoyed the majority of the book as well as the hover hogs. The characters do not develop much throughout the story, but this more of a 'show-me-a-new-world' story rather than a hero's journey story. 8.5 out of 11 pancakes.

*Pancakes are not provided by blogger.

Picture from http://www.scificool.com/tomas-alfredson-to-direct-larklight/

From a wedding to the end of the world

In a land full of jubilation and joy, there was much joy and jubilation. Under the new great mayor, Vladimir, the city of Rurik had become bountiful and full of gold, jewels, crops, and other little joys in life that aren't necessary but make you just a little bit happier. Near the end of Novemtober, a wedding was to be held at the local cathedral. This wedding was to be the first wedding between citizens of the city of Rurik and the city of As-minora. A woman of As-minora had been sent from her home town to marry one of the great officials of Rurik. At the cathedral where the wedding was to be held, there live a funny little priest named Finnilwicky. The great priest of As-minora had stepped aside, humbly, allowing Finnilwicky to perform the whole wedding ceremony. The wedding was going quite smoothly and everyone was happy until it happened. The door opened and a foreign traveler with armor and a spear came inside and slumped down in the back seat of the church. The whole crowd turned around and saw this strange man, not even wearing a tie, and showed their displeasure silently. Finnilwicky, himself, was also very displeased. His very, very clean church was now getting dirty at the hands of the traveler. Nonetheless, he continued the ceremony, but then the man started making a racket and started booing the couple to be wed. When the men in the church tried to get the man out, the man attacked them with his spear. The man broke up the whole ceremony and put all of the people except for the priest in the jail, which he had also overran. The priest fell to his knees and wept. What a terrible thing to happen on his first major wedding ceremony. Then the priest decided to go and give the strange traveler a good talking to, but when he went out to talk to that man, he found that the man had put all of the people of the town in jail. When the priest walked up to the traveler, the sky suddenly filled with clouds and lightning started hitting all tall, metallic objects. Then there was a huge whoosh, and the two looked to see a large wave coming directly at them. At the same time, an earthquake rumbled and split the land, leaving only the area where the two were standing in tact. The water from the wave filled in the gap that the earthquake had made. Then the world heated up a whole lot, leading to instantaneous desertification of all the land not already submerged by water. Then a huge blizzard came and froze all the water and then it started snowing. Then the sun went out and the moon started hurtling towards the earth. When the moon hit the earth, the plot of land that the priest and the traveler were standing on shot out into space and turned into an asteroid with an atmosphere, becoming the dwarf planet, New Earth, because the rest of the earth had been blown up, and the traveler and the priest had to live on the same asteroid for the rest of their lives.

France- Day 5 (Last Day!)

21 March 2010; 8:42 pm (Paris time)-

Today, my dad and I went to Notre Dame Cathedral. We listened to the mass in the morning and looked at the inside of the cathedral, seeing the rose windows and the amazing ceiling. We went into the bell towers on a tour. We saw a lot of gargoyles and one of the main bells. Some of the gargoyles looked very funny. You can tell in the towers better than anywhere else that the cathedral is on an island. There is a statue of Charlemagne outside of the cathedral. We also went to the Crypte Archeologique, which is an ancient Gallo-Roman city underneath the front of the cathedral. Across the river from the cathedral, we found Shakespeare & Co. (Finally!). It is an old English bookstore with many nooks and crannies. It actually looks like it is one of the oldest shops around. Amazingly, though, it was packed with people. My dad got Master and Commander, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, but I got Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia. I had a tart called Tarte Mendient, which is made of chocolate and nuts. I also had a panini called Le Dinde, which had French sausage and tomatoes inside of it.

France- Day 4

20 March 2010; 8:15pm (Paris Time)-

Today, my dad and I went to the Chateau de Versailles, an overgrown mansion made by Louis XIV of France. We saw the great chapel and the Hall of Mirrors. I learned that a lot of the stuff that was originally from Versailles was stolen when the French Revolution took place. That meant that some rooms that we saw had just a bust or a painting. The most amazing thing about Versailles for me was the ceilings. Almost all the ceilings were painted with pictures of gods and other people in the sky, and although the building was amazing, the gardens were more amazing. The garden was huge. Everywhere, there was a fountain. We had lunch in front of the Fountain of Neptune. After a long nap and resting of legs, my dad and I went to the Musée D’Orsay, and we were the last people allowed in because we only had an hour until closing time. We saw paintings like the Large Dressed Dancer by Degas, Dancing at the Moulin de la Galerre by Renoir, the self-portrait of Van Gogh, and many others. Something else I noticed about France is that there are a lot of statues. On almost every road, there is a statue of some somewhat famous person in history.