Book Review ~~ The Testing ~~

Quite recently, I read “The Testing”, by Joelle Charbonneau. While it may not be good enough to gain a permanent spot on your bookshelf (unless, like me, you have multiple bookshelves and boxes filled with books), it’s certainly worth a read, especially if you liked other dystopian novels like this one. It doesn’t add much new material to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy or Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, but it’s a great book all the same, even if it’s relatively unoriginal. It’s set after the Seven Stages of war–the first Four Stages were about humans’ war against each other, and in the last three, the earth “fought back”, mutating so that many new kinds of plants and animals were created, many of them very different from the life before the mutation. Then, the remaining humans banded together to create the United Commonwealth in an attempt to rebuild the world. Malencia “Cia” Vale, the protagonist of the story, is a sixteen-year-old girl from Five Lakes Colony, one of the smallest colonies so far with only nine hundred people. She, along with three others from the graduating class of fourteen people–Tomas, who was a close friend of hers until they drifted apart, Zandri, and Malachi– is chosen for the Testing, a test that will allow the best and brightest to progress to the University and continue their schooling to become the nation’s future leaders. This should be a time for her to rejoice, as she feels that it will make her father, who passed the Testing, proud, but instead, her father warns her to trust no one, because the test isn’t just what it seems. While his memory of the testing was wiped, he explains, he often has nightmares about what happened during the Testing, and he believes that the Test isn’t just a paper-and-pen test, because in his nightmares, he sees the world blowing up and people who seem to be his friends, who entered the Testing with him, being killed. Cia tries to follow his advice, but as the book progresses, it seems like her childhood friend, Tomas, may be among the ones she shouldn’t trust, and she has to choose whether she can trust him or not. I really liked the book, especially because the book is really focused on actual, academic knowledge, something that wasn’t in the Hunger Games or Divergent trilogies. I would recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian stories and rate it 9.8/10.

Book Review ~~ Anthem ~~

A while ago, I had the pleasure of reading “Anthem,” by Ayn Rand, a very interesting book about a man who dared to think of himself as a single person, instead of as a mindless member of humans, thinking of himself as “I” instead of thinking of humankind as “we” and even naming himself. As he searched for knowledge, he discovered electricity and lightbulbs, unthinkable in a world where no one thinks for himself, only following the decisions of the World Council. In this world where everyone is a mindless unit of a whole, the words inscribed in the Palace of the World Council are: “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever.” Ayn Rand does a much better job of explaining the atmosphere of the book than I do, of course, but hopefully I’ve explained the book well enough for you to get the gist of it. Though this book is barely eighty pages long, each page is very meaningful, telling a lot about humanity as a whole. I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to anyone who likes meaningful books about individualism or just reading in general, as this short, succinct book is enough of a quick read to allow people interested in it to decide whether they want to continue reading after just a short while. I would rate it 9.8/10.

Book Review ~~ A Game of Thrones ~~

Today I just finished reading “A Game of Thrones”, by George R. R. Martin. It’s the first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire, and despite being the shortest book in the series so far, it’s 807 pages long (not even counting the appendix), one of the longest books I’ve read yet. It’s a fantasy book, but doesn’t include so much fantasy that it requires much introduction to the concept of the world, though the amount of characters and the many plots and side-plots may confuse readers. It’s mainly set in the Seven Kingdoms, where the “game of thrones” is at its height, but also includes the story of the Wall, where monsters threaten to enter the Seven Kingdoms, a problem far greater than the many self-declared kings’ battle for the throne, but those who wish to sit on the throne or are embroiled in a battle against the current king for other reasons don’t realize the danger. The story of Daenerys and Viserys is also included; the only surviving children of the “Mad Iron King” Aerys Targaryen, they were forced to flee when he was defeated because of a rebellion after his cruel deeds, Daenerys only in her mother’s womb at the time, and Viserys’ plans to reclaim the throne and take vengeance of the killers of his close family troubles the current holders of the throne. At first, the story centers around the Eddard Stark’s family–Catelyn Stark, his wife, and his children, Robb Stark, Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, and Rickon Stark–but as the story progresses, it begins to include more stories about Daenerys and the royal court. I really enjoyed reading this book, although at first it was somewhat confusing, especially because of all the different characters, but the author really explains the subtleties behind the situation well. I would rate this book 9.8/10 and recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy, adventure, or suspense and has time to read a series that’s already 4,197 pages long and has two more books being planned.