He’s here! The Phantom of the Opera!

There’s nothing quite like rediscovering something that you loved when you were younger. When I was twelve years old, and into my high school years, I was obsessed withThe Phantom of the Opera. It started with the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but then quickly moved on to the original novel by Gaston Leroux and many other versions and impressions of the story. I haven’t really thought about it much since then, until recently when a co-worker, who is also into musical theater, mentioned that they had released a DVD of the 25th anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall. A few YouTube clips later and I knew that I had to have it. The performance is amazing, with a full orchestra and a cast of 140 people. It’s the main trio of actors – Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine, and Hadley Fraser as Raoul – that truly makes it special. They are absolutely brilliant and as far as I’m concerned, one of the best Phantoms to ever play the part. Check out the video if you don’t believe me.

Sigh.

Since I’ve been in such a Phantom mood, I decided to reread the original novel by Gaston Leroux. I have to say that pretty much everyone who has ever created their own rendition of the story, whether on stage or in film, has changed it drastically. And in some ways, they have to. There is little about the actual Phantom (whose name is Erik) in the book. Mostly, it deals with the management of the opera trying to solve the mystery of the “Opera Ghost,” and about Raoul trying to solve the mystery of why Christine keeps disappearing for days on end and seems so unwell when she’s with him. Still, it’s an interesting read, especially if you love the story as much as I do. It’s nice to see where it all started. It also made me want to visit the Garnier Opera House in Paris someday. That’s one for the bucket list.

Finally, after all of this, I decided to reread another of my favorite books: Phantom by Susan Kay. This book was out of print for a while, but I think it’s come back out in paperback and is available in e-book. I found this book by accident when I was in high school – at the check out line at a grocery store of all places! Since it had something to do with the Phantom of the Opera, you know that I had to grab it! Kay takes the story a step further, taking what we know about the Phantom (that he’s a magician, that he had traveled to Persia, that he must’ve had something to do with the building of the Opera House) and built his life story. We get to see what it was like when he was a small child, hated and feared by his mother. What happened when he ran away and was used in  a gypsy carnival as a freak show. How he traveled to Russia and Persia, becoming invaluable to the Shah and creating multitudes of enemies. How he was able to work with Garnier, the architect of the Opera House, and how he secretly created his underground house. And of course, how he first heard Christine sing. It’s a fascinating character study and Kay certainly did her homework, giving a very plausible example of how someone could become so brilliant in so many fields of study, while still dealing with the limitations forced upon him by his deformity.

Yay Minta!

I’m so happy for my friend Minta Hall! Her first book, The Magician of Wall Street was released this week from Entangled Publishing. It’s so exciting and I’m so happy for her!

Minta is one of the members of my writing group and seeing one of us have success is really inspiring. It gives me hope that one day my own writing might see the light of day. I can’t say enough about my writing group. There are six of us, each one writing very different stories. It has encouraged me to keep writing, to write more on a schedule even when life gets crazy. They are rough critics, but fair. Every one of their suggestions has helped make my writing better. They are also a great support group, making me feel better when I start doubting myself.

I found my writing group through Meetup.Com, but there are other places to look as well – bookstores, libraries, local universities. I think having a writing group is extremely helpful for anyone who is serious about producing a manuscript that is fit to print.

The Magicians

I first heard of The Magicians by Lev Grossman on the “Books on the Nightstand” podcast. And I know what you’re thinking, because I thought the same thing. A book about a young man who goes off to a mysterious school to study magic . . . where have I heard that before? It sounds so familiar. Oh, right! This must be a rip off of Harry Potter!

Um, no.

I have to admit, this book didn’t really grab me. The premise was interesting enough – a teenage boy stumbles upon Breakbills College, a school for magic. He sits an entrance exam and is admitted, leaving behind his plans to go to Princeton. Our main character, Quentin, is a bit depressing. He’s one of those teenagers who believe that their lives are bleak even when they’re actually pretty good. I have to say, he really annoyed me at times, even though I knew lots of kids like this when I was in high school.

Although Quentin is in college, he is still really into a series of children’s books set in the magical world of Fillory. Fillory is basically Narnia, right down to the talking animals and the four British siblings who become kings and queens. Quentin discovers that not only is Fillory real, it is in danger and needs Quentin to save the day.

Which brings me to my main complaint of the whole series: all the negativity. Quentin learns that he can do magic. He’s not happy. He joins an elite group of students, one of whom becomes his girlfriend (who he later cheats on). He’s still not happy. Quentin learns that his favorite books and favorite fictional place are 100% real – AND HE GETS TO GO THERE WITH ALL HIS FRIENDS. Still miserable. There was very little joy in the book at all. When I read about magic, I want to see wonder. I want to see excitement. I want to see more than just general apathy. Quentin wonders at several points in the story why he isn’t happy, and it’s a very good question. WHY AREN’T YOU EXCITED ABOUT ALL THESE AMAZING THINGS HAPPENING TO YOU?

There were several interesting things in the book. Brakebills was a very interesting story world, although I wish we could have seen more of the classes. I would’ve also liked to see what other magicians do once out of school, since I don’t believe that every single one of them are as disillusioned as Quentin is. I would’ve rather had the story from Quentin’s girlfriend Alice’s point of view, since she’s a much more likeable character.

I might try re-reading this at some point, just to see if I missed anything, but for the most part, it was kind of blah for me.

Five Things I Like About My J.O.B.

I do a lot of complaining about my job, and believe me, there has been a lot to complain about lately. I had originally planned to blog three times last week, but when you are stuck working late every night and coming home feeling like death warmed over, it’s hard to get up the motivation. Frankly, I’ve been letting myself get a bit depressed because of the pressure I’ve been under, so that’s why I thought this post would be good. That and I haven’t had a Five Things post since Christmastime. Time to dust it off.

1. My Co-Workers

I have awesome co-workers. Sure, we don’t always see eye to eye. But for the most part, the fourteen of us who work in my department get along great. They are my work family and I am proud to call them such. We are always willing to help each other out, always there to lend a shoulder to cry on or to celebrate when we achieve our goals. And on birthdays, there are always bagels from Panera Bread.

2. My Private Office

Yes, my co-workers and I generally get along great, but on the rare occasions when we don’t, it’s nice to be able to get away from everyone. My office is tiny, but it does have a door which I am allowed to keep shut if I so desire. So what if it gets so stuffy in there that I can barely breathe? I can crank up my iPod on it’s little dock and work away all by my lonesome. It’s nice.

3. The Skills I Have Learned

My official title at my job is “accountant,” despite the fact that I have never once taken an accounting class. Everything I have learned about the field, I have learned through this company. I have become proficient in many different bookkeeping programs, from QuickBooks to MAS, and I can make an Excel spreadsheet stand up and dance on its hind legs. I never would have learned this stuff if it wasn’t for my job.

4. The Hasler M3000

This thing is magic. I have to admit, I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to office supplies and office machines. I always buy my own pens, pencils, and notepads just because I can’t stand to use the cheap, generic stuff they buy. When I met the Hasler, however, I immediately fell in love. This machine is amazing. One of my duties is to send out monthly letters to clients. Some days there’s only a handful. Others, hundreds. The Hasler not only folds all my letters for me – it stuffs them into envelopes too! I put in paper, it spits out perfect letters ready to be mailed. It’s beautiful.

5. The Fact That I Have A Job

This is probably the most important one. For all the complaining I do, I realize that I am pretty damn lucky. I know several people who have been unemployed for a while. Our company is fairly recession-proof, so despite the economy being on a roller coaster, we’ve been surviving quite well. Whenever I complain about my job, I need to remember that things could be a whole lot worse.

Vampires!

You guys remember that post when I asked for help deciding what to read next? Well, that went completely up in the air because I forgot that the third book in a series that I absolutely love was getting released. It came out last week and so, of course, I had to run out and get it. And then re-read the first two books so I would have everything fresh in my mind.

I am referring to the Shadow World series by Dianne Sylvan. Like I said, there are three books so far (and a fourth one on the way!!!): Queen of Shadows, Shadowflame, and the newly released Shadow’s Fall. There are many reasons why I love this series. For starters, I love, love, LOVE her take on vampires. Vampires are the big thing and have been for a few years now, but Sylvan takes a whole new spin on them that was brilliant. These are not mopey, emo, “oh-woe-is-me-i’m-undead” vampires. These are powerful beings who are very sure of their place in society. The world is divided up into territories, each ruled by a Prime who is not only responsible for the vampires in their realm, but the humans as well. The story takes place in Austin, Texas, the headquarters of the Prime of the Southern United States, David Solomon.

Here’s why David is awesome. Not only is he absolutely gorgeous (are vampires allowed to be ugly?), but he is also incredibly smart. The technology he has created in order to track the vampires in the city and to communicate with the vampires in his employ is intricate and, frankly, I would understand none of it. But it works. He has several computers and servers and gigabytes of data, records, and other information. He’s a technology geek! And it’s awesome!

The main character is Miranda Grey, a human who is a local musician. She has many problems, one of which is that she is able to feel the emotions of the people around her. She uses this power to influence the people who come to hear her perform, but it quickly becomes overwhelming. Then one night she is attacked by a group of men in an alley and David finds her and saves her. He brings her to his headquarters, the Haven, and helps her to heal, physically and emotionally. As you can probably guess, this leads to them falling in love and to Miranda becoming a vampire herself.

There’s a lot more to the series, of course, but I don’t want to give anything away. Let’s just say that there is mystery, romance, political intrigue, and the coolest vampires ever put on paper that kick some serious ass. There are friends who would die to protect you and friends who never show what their true motives are. The last book ended with such a cliffhanger, I am DYING to read the next one, which will hopefully come out sometime next year. If you like vampire books, you will like this series. It is sharp, witty, and intelligent.

May the odds be ever in your favor . . .

So yeah, I made it out to see The Hunger Games. And it was awesome.

Before I get too far into this, let’s just all agree that there will be spoilers in this post, both about the movie and about the book. You have been warned.

I don’t even know how to talk about it. Several people I know, both online and off, have said that it’s probably the best book-to-film adaptation they’ve ever seen and I have to agree. In most films that are based on my favorite books (the Harry Potter films come to mind), I always come away enjoying them, but feeling as if something was missing, something was lacking. Not this time.

I’ll start off with the (very few) complaints I had, although they are extremely minor. I went to the movie with my husband, who has not read the book. I needed someone who was going in with no expectations, not really knowing much about the story, except for what you get to see in the trailer. He had some complaints, mostly saying that there seemed to be a lot of backstory that was missing. And that is true. The greater backstory was one of the things that had to be sacrificed. We are given just enough to know what’s going on and that’s about it. Also left out were some of the more brutal, disturbing parts of the games, particularly the huge beasts created from the remains of the fallen tributes. The beasts are there, but they are basically just big dogs. Still scary as hell, but not as twisted as the version in the book.

There was also a lot of relying on the shaky hand-held camera to soften some of the violence, or at least make it harder to see clearly. Because there is definitely violence. A lot of it. I think they just barely got the PG-13 rating. The shaky camera is incredibly hard to watch at times because it is incredibly disorienting. This is not a bad thing in smaller doses, since we are supposed to feel disoriented and scared through the Games, but I think it was overused just a bit.

Now the good stuff. I’ll start with the casting. In a word – AWESOME! Jennifer Lawrence was perfect as Katniss. She seemed to just get it. You could see how emotionally invested she was in the part with every movement, every glance, every word. Also good was Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. He was sweet and adorable, but had also had a gravity to him. You could see how much he cared about Katniss and how desperate their situation was. I thought the two of them together worked very well. Other standouts: Woody Harrelson as Haymitch and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. I wish we had seen more of them. I also loved Stanley Tucci as the game show host Cesar Flickerman and Amandla Stenberg as sweet little Rue.

The movie was visually stunning as well. It was easy to see and feel the grittiness of District 12, contrasted with the luxurious, sleek and colorful Capitol. Another thing that was nice was that we got to see outside the Games, which was impossible in the book since we stay in Katniss’ head the whole time. We got to see the Gameroom, which was just amazing. It was a bit chilling to see how technical the whole thing was to those people. When they initiate a wall of fire in order to either kill Katniss or, at least, chase her back to the other Tributes, the Head Gamemaker simply says, “Get ready for another cannon.” (For anyone who hasn’t read the book, they fire a cannon shot every time someone dies.) He was so matter-of-fact about it. We also got to see some of the reactions of the people in the Districts, the beginnings of the revolution that Katniss will find herself in the middle of.

The terrors of the games themselves had to be more understated than in the book, but it was very, very close to what I pictured. Because of this, the movie was very hard to watch at times. I spent most of the time very tense, because even though I knew what was coming, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. I knew that the swarm of tracker-jackers was going to attack (and I have a bee phobia, which was fun). I knew Rue was going to die and she was so adorable, I didn’t want to watch it. I will be seeing the movie again this weekend, and it will be easier now because I know how these things were handled.

So overall, I would definitely recommend this movie to both fans of the book and people who haven’t read the book yet. My husband also enjoyed the movie and will be going to see it with me again this weekend. He has also agreed to read the book, although my copy now has a waiting list (my mother, her housemate, another friend, then maybe my husband).

Ready Player One

I first heard of this book on the “Books on the Nightstand” podcast (an excellent show, by the way). The hosts, both of whom work in the publishing industry, were raving about Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I knew it was only a matter of time until I got my hands on it.

For some reason, lately I’ve been getting into these dystopian, post-apocalyptic stories. Ready Player One certainly fits into this category. What makes it slightly terrifying is that not only does the story take place in the not too distant future (late 2030′s to early 2040′s), it is a future that is horrifically possible.

Massive worldwide climate change. Almost complete depletion of the world’s energy resources. I think one of the images that will stick in my head for a long time is the main character’s living situation. Wade is an eighteen year old boy who lives in a double wide trailer with his aunt and her boyfriend . . . and twelve other people! And that’s not the worst part. This place is called “the stacks” because, due to the numbers of people flocking to the large cities because they can’t afford to live anywhere else, they have taken to stacking these mobile homes on top of one another, some of them twenty high! The whole thing is held up by scaffolding, but it can collapse at any moment. Every aspect of life is precarious. Frightening.

So here’s the premise: in this dystopian future, there is a virtual reality system called the OASIS. It’s huge. This is more than the Internet, more than any RPG. The OASIS is made up of thousands of worlds. It has become the “place” where children go to school, where people go to church, where there is access to every book, movie, television show and video game ever made. Because the real world is so bleak, most people spend nearly all their time in the OASIS. Once inside, you can create your own reality and become whoever you want to be.

With the way people already do this on the Internet, do you see why I said this future was frighteningly plausible?

The creator of this virtual paradise, James Halliday, has died. He has no heirs, no family. He has left behind a video explaining that he has hidden a secret somewhere in the OASIS, and the person who finds it will inherit his multi-billion dollar fortune and control over the OASIS itself. Enter our main character. Wade stumbles upon the first “key” and, from then on, his life changes forever. With such a valuable prize on the line, you can imagine the intensity involved in not only tracking down more clues, but tracking down the people who were able to piece together parts of the mystery. A large corporation, IOI, is determined to win the contest so that they can gain control of the OASIS and monetize the hell out of it. They are willing to do anything to get their hands on it, from blackmail to murder.

There were so many interesting concepts in this book. The wonders of technology, certainly – using it for good and for evil. The concept of making good friends online, without ever meeting them in person. And then, the 80′s references. Halliday was obsessed with that decade and, as such, all the clues are pieces of 80′s movies, music, and of course, classic video games. It was so much fun to read and think, “Hey! I remember that!”

I really enjoyed this book. From the middle on, it was almost impossible to put down. Go read it! Now!