A Monster Calls blogged by Andrew W.

Yesterday, I reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Today, I shall report on A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (inspired by Siobhan Dowd). This is a picture book, but it's fairly dark and deals with some mature themes. A troubled boy named Conor, with an ailing mother, a divorced father, and a slightly unpleasant grandmother, is paid visits in the night by a huge monster, made of a yew tree. The monster tells Conor three tales in exchange for a fourth tale told by Conor. The boy thinks he knows what the fourth tale is, but dreads its coming even as the monster tells him a tale of royal backstabbing and intrigue, a tale of an apothecary and a holy man, and even a tale of Conor and his schoolyard bully. Finally, it comes time for the fourth tale: his recurring nightmare about losing his mother to a fiery monster, aka. cancer. The monster forces Conor to relive the nightmare, and helps him cope with the loss of his mother and make amends with his grandmother.

The Eye of the World blogged by Andrew W.

I would estimate the time I spent reading to number around 15 hours.

I read a variety of things, including the moody A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (inspired by Siobhan Dowd), as well as newspapers in several towns I went through (including Moab, Utah and Jackson Hole, Wyoming), but the most striking book has been The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. This is, I'm told, Book One of Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, and it is a very promising first book. Jordan is a heavy fantasy writer along the lines of J.R.R. Tolkien, and has created quite an intriguing fantasy world. The prologue introduces us to magically-induced madness and the "Breaking of the World" caused by a struggle between two supernatural entities, the Dragon and the Dark One. Flash-forward several ages, and the story follows a young man named Rand al'Thor and his buddies goofing around in their isolated farm village, which is preparing for its yearly Bel Tine festival. There are strange guests arriving in town, including a "gleeman" named Thom Merrilin, as well as a peculiar pair: a lady of noble status calling herself Moirane, and her evident bodyguard Lan. The night before the festival, the town is attacked by a band of Trollocs, led by a Myrdraal (or "Fade"), creatures the villagers had thought were only in stories. Moirane is revealed to be an Aes Sedai, a female magic-user, which causes some outrage and suspicion in the town. Rand's father is injured in the attack, but Moirane heals him, and reveals to Rand that she suspects the Trollocs were after men of his age: him and his friends, Mat and Perrin. Thus, it is for the town's safety that they all travel to Tar Valon, the city of the Aes Sedai. Rand is conflicted, but goes along with Moirane because of his gratitude. They are joined by the gleeman, Thom, as well as Rand's adventurous lady friend, Egwene. While fleeing the village, the group is pursued by an ominous "Draghkar". The group reaches the city of Baerlon, where all three young men are struck with a nightmarish lucid dream in which the Dark One himself speaks with them. The village's spiritual leader, Nynaeve, also catches up with the group and demands the youths return home. However, in Baerlon are the "Children of the Light", religious crusaders who despise the Aes Sedai and the Dark One equally; upon learning that Moirane is an Aes Sedai, they attempt to arrest the whole lot, and the group must escape again. This is as far as I've read, and I am not even halfway through.