The Art of Bone by Jeff Smith

Reading Jeff Smith's The Art of Bone has opened up my mind to new possibilities in the art world, especially comics. He started inventing the idea of Bone at the young age of nine. To be dedicated to something that long has to be worth it in the end, at least we all hope it will. He was literally able to live his dream in creating his ultimate character Bone. His comic contains amazing plots, storytelling, and also involves a moral aspect to his work. The fact that he is able to accomplish so many great qualities in his work inspires me to stick to my dreams as an artist. His work reminds me most of J.R.R. Tolkien, which isn't a bad thing because his amount of work is breathtaking. I also read in the book that he was inspired by Walt Kelly's Pogo. I wasn't too interested into comics as a little kid, or now for that matter, but after reading The Art of Bone it has changed my perspective on comics and opened my mind to new beginnings. His character Fone Bone is a very strong, funny, adventurous, and cute character. He shape is all organic, looks a little like a ghost because he is all white, but also has the body shape and movements like a human being. What I didn't like about Fone was his nose, but as I read more it sorta grew on me. There is also Fone's cousin in the comic whose name is Phoney Bone. His personality type is cynical, greedy, and egotistic. Though the two cousins' personalities are the opposite, they work together well in the comic because they compliment each other. Smith's addition of Thorn, the talented and beautiful female character, is genius because it adds a touch of romance to their spunky voyage. You can immediately tell that Fone likes Thorn from the moment he meets her and their journey interacting with each other is fun. About the background story with the first dragon great dragon Mim and dreamland. Mim was the original Queen of the dragons as well as the creator of the valley. She was eventually possessed by the Lord of the Locusts and because of this the other dragons were forced to turn her into stone so the Lord of the Locusts wouldn't destroy their world. Reading about that I thought was a very unique take on how the valley was made. Overall, I like reading about Fone Bone and his adventures with his friends. It was comical, interesting, and a unique take on a epic journey while learning about moral values. I will definitely recommend it to my peers.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

One of my favorite authors is Patricia Briggs and her stories have action, drama, suspense, fantasy, and some romance. The book I just finished is called River Marked, it is book six in her Mercy Thompson series. It is amazing and a great story! Read it!!! The reason why it is so successful is because she does a lot of research into making her urban fantasy. She utilizes tall tales from native americans, vampires, shape changers, fairies, and more. A book based in today's world that when humans coexist with fantasy type creatures. It is something new and exciting and a break from vampires. There are vampires included in the series, but the story is set around the character Mercy Thompson. She calls herself a walker and as a walker she has the ability to turn into a coyote whenever she would like, though it wastes more energy if she shifts a lot, her senses are heightened, and her strength is more powerful than a humans. Mercy is a mechanic and runs her own garage she lives next to an alpha werewolf whom she eventually marries and she always seems to get into trouble with danger in each book, but always wins against her enemies, so far. The plot line and story I immediately fell in love with because I am always caught reading science fiction and fantasy books. In the book River Marked Mercy and the alpha wolf, Adam, are thrown a surprise wedding because Mercy isn't the type to plan out and be all girly about that kind thing. So her mom, her friends, and the wolf pack throw one for her and Adam and they end up going to a campground next to a river for their honeymoon. During this time she meets another of her kind and his name is Coyote. Coyote is an ancient shape-changer that mainly only the native americans spin stories and know about. She learns more about her dad and how he died from Coyote. Turns out something bad happens and Coyote, his shape-changing friends, Mercy, and Adam have to fight off the ancient magical monster. In the end Mercy gets a little beat up, but everything turns out alright. The fact that Briggs incorporates tall tales and native american history captures me the most. It feeds the story more pizzazz and interests the reader further into reading. She is a well known author and extraordinary writer and I hope to read more of her books. 

Interview with a Vampire

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice is a very well written book. I found it enjoyable to read and her portrayal of vampires interesting. The beginning of the novel reminded me of Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley because both monsters start by telling their story to someone about their troubles and woes in life. Frankenstein starts with the letters, then the introduction of the beast, and afterwards he tells him his story about what happens. In Interview with a Vampire, the reporter records the life of a vampire named Louis. Louis tells the him the past couple hundred years of his life about living on the plantation, the downfall of his brother's death, meeting Lestat, moving because of people were getting suspicious, feeding off of rats, meeting Claudia, Claudia's attempt to kill Lestat, meeting Armand, Claudia dies, Armand and Louis live together, and then finally Louis ends up by himself. I have watched the movie before reading the book which helped a little bit, but the books are always better. Anne Rice's stories contain drama, suspense, and entice the emotions. She can be very descriptive sometimes which is a little bothersome, but nonetheless her novels are amazing. The fact that there was only a little hint of homosexual relationships in this book makes it even more captivating. I didn't catch it until Louis was having thoughts about Armand and Claudia talking about how Louis loves Armand more than her. I didn't even think of it that way before. It makes me want to read the other books in the Vampire Chronicles. The fact that Louis is still in contact with his soul throughout the book makes him slightly more human than vampire and the fact that he ate off of rats numerous times. That aspect of the novel caught me the most because it really made me think, what if I were to become a vampire? How would I handle it? Would I feed off of rats or humans? It was weird to think of and honestly I would probably be the worst vampire ever. I wouldn't be able to kill anything without feel any remorse or guilt. So I would either kill myself somehow or eat off of animals. Yes, it is survival of the fittest and vampires would be the supreme being, but the fact that they have to hide their nature would just be a bother and very boring to me. It would be hard to live without ever seeing the sunset again. In general, vampires are pretty awesome, but when they have to live with all those restrictions it would suck, literally. ;) I think that vampires need to find another person in comparison to their character or soul mate in order to stay sane and keep alive. It gives them a purpose in life to live and stay alive, without love there is no life at all. That's why vampires seem so wise and romantic. They are trying to find that one person right for them. The chase keeps them going and helps them pursue their journey to find another. “It has been said that we need just three things in life: Something to do, Something to look forward to And someone to love.” -Anonymous