The Green Rider - review

After reading the awesome Dance of Dragons by George R.R. Martin, any other book I read would pale in comparison. Boy, was I right. The book in question is The Green Rider by Kristen Britain. If memory serves me right, I had wanted to read this since my uni days but never could find it or never got around to it. I saw the books recently; I think it’s a new reprint with a beautiful cover of a winged horse. I must say the cover attracted me more than anything else this time around. Perhaps it was all the good reviews placed at the start of the book or the fact that it says "New York Times bestseller" on the cover, my expectations were high. It was a little naïve on my part. I mean, we all know bestseller doesn’t equate to a good book, just like blockbuster doesn’t necessarily mean good movie.

The book starts off by introducing its protagonist, Karigan G’ladheon who had just run away from school after beating silly a boy from an aristocrat family. She then stumbles upon a dying Green rider, messenger to the king. He asks that she deliver his crucial message to the king for there are others desperate to waylay him. Not knowing what else to do, she accepts the message and inadvertently accepts the quest put upon her. The starting is interesting enough but I just didn’t feel anything from the book. The descriptions of the towns and the country of Sacoridia could be any medieval city in any fantasy book. The characters themselves could be any generic fantasy character. The Merlin TV series have the same generic setting but the chemistry between the characters make up for that. As for George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, the description of the characters and places are very distinct and real. You can almost smell the stink of the city when he describes King’s Landing or similarly, when Discworld author Terry Pratchett describes Ankh-Morpork.

Since I had already bought the 2nd book, Rider’s First Call (I bought it before I found the first book), I decided to read it even though my impression of the 1st book was pretty average. The writing has improved and there is more going on BUT there were too many elements taken straight out of Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings (the 1st book had it too). I wanted to pull my hair out when Karigan found herself among elf-like beings (called Eletians in the book) and was given a bowl of water to gaze into what was, what is and what may be. It’s Frodo and Galadriel all over again! That’s not the only LOTR element I found in the book but I won’t delve further. I speed read whenever I came across any of those scenes.

I also felt that the author wrote from the point of view of too many characters. This doesn’t give you much time to get to know the characters, so you end up not caring much whatever happens to them. In Song of Ice and Fire, Martin focusses on a few characters in each book. It may be frustrating when you’re desperate to know what happens to a character that will only appear in the next book, but it allows you to empathise with some of the characters and understand the real story behind their motivations. With too many characters, you just don’t know who to root for. I suppose in Rider's First Call, we’re supposed to root for Karigan but a lot of the time she gets help, so it seems like all she’s done is not through her own effort. I prefer reading about characters who really struggle and work hard to achieve what they want.

Nonetheless, I still want to read Rider’s First Call till the end since I bought the book. It wasn’t money well spent but it could be worse. I would say the 2nd book would be much better than the first if not for the many LOTR references used throughout the book. I know no one can write anything purely original but there are ways to make it your own. Clearly, that wasn’t the case in this book.

I guess overall the books are okay, there are some interesting bits. I like the idea of Green riders, they're kinda like Heralds from Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series. I might have liked it more if I read it during my uni days though (and if it had less LOTR elements).

Closed

How do you know when to give up? What would you do when all you've worked for is out of your grasp? What would you do then? One of the paths to achieve one of my dreams have been closed and I don't know whether to give up or not. I told myself earlier that if this didn't work, I would give up. Yet, I'm not sure I want to. I'm not sure if I want to continue either. I'm getting older and pursuing this dream may even be irresponsible. I should focus on settling down and do financial planning for the future. I should but there's always that lingering thought at the back of my head saying, 'What if you regret it? What if years later, you regret giving up now?'. Arghh, too many what ifs. Pondering on what ifs never did anyone any good and yet they still do it anyway, just like what I'm doing now. It's just that when you give up working towards something, especially when you've been working at it for the last few years, suddenly your life seems aimless. You feel lost. Suddenly all the noise has gone down and there's only the silence greeting you. My question again, is, 'How do you know when to give up?'

Grade 5 Theory

Last week, I almost quit my piano lessons. I haven’t gone for classes for roughly two months and I felt reluctant to start again as I haven’t really been diligent in practising my scores. Nonetheless, I still decided to go to class. I would let fate or whatever I’m feeling when I discuss with my teacher decide whether I would really stop or not. When I got there, she asked me to go inside the classroom first while she settled something. I went in and started to play the sonatina I had sort of practised a few days ago. To my utter surprise, it sounded not as bad as I expected and I actually enjoyed playing. I didn’t even tone down the volume like I usually do because I don’t want other people hearing (kinda hard to achieve in a music school). My teacher came in a few minutes later and she summed up my playing in two words, “Not bad.” Then I asked her if she’s okay having a student like me who always couldn’t come to class either due to work or family gatherings. She said its okay; she’s used to it :P She also mentioned I’m not the only student who comes to class with not enough practice. That decided it - I shall continue. I felt relieved after that.

A week after that, my teacher asked me if I wanted to take theory exams this August. I do want to take it eventually and August is a bit early but I thought better take now than later. No matter how much time I have, I will still end up studying last minute anyways :)

Cat Commentary – Cheshire Cat

Cookies and Arrow are back to normal. When I came back from pilgrimage, they looked scrawny and shabby. Not only that, they gave me the cold treatment! It’s been almost a month since I came back and I’m happy to note that they look well-fed, cleaner (Cookies like white again) and not giving me the cold treatment anymore :) There’s been more cats in our compound too. Bow is still here and so is Leon. They seem to be good friends. There’s also the big-headed cat I saw a while back. He’s here more often now. He really reminds of of the Cheshire Cat because of his big head and striped fur so I’m going to call him Cheshire. Yep, it’s getting crowded here.

Unfinished books

After reading all three books my sis gave me for my birthday two months ago (Murakami’s 1Q84 and Birthday Stories, and Pratchett’s Snuff), I decided to continue with Pratchett’s Thief of Time which I had bought many, many, many months ago but never finished. I guess it wasn’t until I read his Tiffany Aching series, which I read a year ago, that I finally understood and appreciated his writing style. After finishing Snuff, I was ready to delve into Pratchett’s other Discworld books. Reading The Thief of Time the second time around was much more enjoyable. After finishing this book, I plan to finish other books I haven’t finished reading. At the top of my head, those are:

o Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Everything (almost finished)
o Elizabeth Kostova’s The Swan Thieves (almost finished)
o Peter Gethers’s Forever Norton (halfway there :P)

Cat Commentary - Tense Stand-off

As you all know, we’ve welcomed the presence of Cookies, Arrow and occasionally, Cream at our house’s outside compound. We also welcome some cats that come and ago. Lately though, we seem to be hosting another cat. She’s white with several black patches on her body (kinda like a cow). My sister has named her Bow, so that there’s Cookies and Cream, Bow and Arrow. I don’t think Arrow would be happy with this arrangement. She, along with Cookies, has been quite hostile towards the newcomer, but nothing that warrants an intervention. They just get a bit aggressive during feeding time and when they think she’s stealing the attention away from them. Sometimes, Cookies and Arrow give me the cold shoulder when they think I’m being too friendly with Bow -__-;; Anyways, I couldn’t help feeling sorry towards Bow, she’s quite scrawny and has a meow that tugs the heart. Unfortunately, she’s clearly the outsider among the outsiders. Her features are so different from Cookies and Arrow, even her fur is course where theirs is soft. Still, I’m hoping that one day, Cookies and Arrow will befriend her. At the moment, they seem to tolerate her presence but aren’t exactly chummy with her. Cream hasn’t been around since Bow appeared which might be a good thing. She’s already fierce enough with Cookies and Arrow (I still miss her though!).
If this scene is already seems crowded enough, it doesn’t seem that it will stop here. I was feeding Cookies the other night and Bow was there as well. I called Arrow but she was nowhere to be seen. While Cookies was eating and Bow was waiting for her turn, a cat came up the stairs. I’ll refer to it as a “he” since it looks like a male. He must belong to one of the neighbours since he had a collar. He was a curious looking cat though. He was brown in colour (I think, it was night after all and the lighting wasn’t great) with some faint stripes along its body. What’s curious about the cat was its big, round head. The cat didn’t look like it has a neck, it looked like the head was attached directly to the body.
Anyway, once he came up the stairs, everybody (me along with Cookies and Bow) froze. It was like a tense stand-off, everyone stared at each other and nobody wanted to make the first move. I literally froze and the cat warily approached me. He wanted to walk pass me, at the same, it seemed like he wanted to approach Bow who was next to me. Maybe they’re friends. He kept inching forward to get past me. Somewhere around this time, Arrow finally came up, the cat dashed away once he had passed me and the tension was broken. I continued to feed Bow and then Arrow. It was a funny situation. Later on, I found out that the cat has been sighted around the house a few times before. It seems like our house is really cat-friendly again :D

Don’t let the putu mayam guy go!

I was minding my way at the office today when my colleague told me the putu mayam guy was outside. I told her, “Thanks, but no thanks.” As I walked further, I saw another colleague of mine walk by, a packet of vadai in her hand. In my mind I was thinking, ‘Hmm, I didn’t know he sells vadai too.’ I then did a u-turn to grab my wallet. On the way down, I asked some of my departmental colleagues if they wanted anything. One of them said yes, then another one said okay and another one said she wouldn't mind having vadai, too. When I went to the reception area, I was told the putu mayam guy had left! Like all things in life, if there is anything you want, don’t dillydally. Just go get it!