LOTR-THE TWO TOWERS BY: J.R.R TOLKIEN

Author: J.R.R Tolkien
# of pages: 220/352

Hello everyone! I started a new book for our book project. It is: "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". As you might remember, last year I did "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". So, I am going through the series. So far, I am very pleased with the book, it is very interesting and intense, and I did notice it was different than the movie so far. Today, I will be talking about the Protagonists and the Antagonists. That leads me to my first point in today's blog post:

Protagonists: Their are many protagonists in this book. First of all, I will start on a large scale. In middle-earth (The fictional place of Tolkien's works), their is a group of beings called the "Free peoples". These are the races that were the constant enemy of Sauron and Melkor (The evil lords throughout the ages) and waged wars on them and his allies. They are known as "the good ones", and their are four races that come under The Free peoples: Men, Elves, Dwarves, Eagles and Ents. "The Lord of Rings" mainly focuses on Men and Elves, though the Dwarves did have their part in The war of the Ring (the books conflict). Then, you have specific groups of these races. For example, their are men in Gondor (the biggest protagonist kingdom in the book) and in Rohan, and they both wage war on Sauron. Going to specific individuals, in this book their are eight main characters so far, that have significant roles: Aragorn (Man), Legolas (Elf), Gimli (Dwarve), Gandalf (Istari; a wizard), Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took, Frodo Baggins, and Samwise Gamgee( all Hobbits; like men but drastically smaller.

Antagonists: As well as their being many protagonists in the book, their are also many antagonists. As I mentioned, their is "The evil" side, ruled by the dark lord Sauron. His minions consist of Orcs (Ugly and twisted forms of life), Corrupted men (From regions such as Rhun, or Harad) and it also consists of other creatures of evil, such as wargs (huge and bloodthirsty wolfs) and bats. These peoples terrorize the Free peoples of Middle-earth, and their goal is dominate all life. Like The Free Peoples, the orcs and men come from different regions. For example, their is a small faction of Orcs from Gundabad (who  were mostly slaughtered by the Dwarves), and the largest Middle-Earth faction of Orcs from Mordor. Though their are no main antagonists who are main characters in the book, their are some notable ones: The nine Nazgul (Also known as the Ringwraiths; they were once noble kings of men, who have been corrupted by Sauron who made them his most powerful minons), Sauron (The dark lord who is the master of all evil in Middle-Earth), Saruman (A once wise and powerful Istari; who was corrupted by Sauron) and various generals of the Orcs who have relatively small parts in the book, but yet they still pose a large threat to the Free peoples of Middle-Earth because the Orcs are their foes.

Here , I will include images of specific peoples in Middle-Earth, so that you can gain a clear image of how they look like:

(Above: Here you can see some troops from Gondor. As you can see, the people of Gondor are the same as real life humans, except they obviously live in  a fictional world)

(Above: Here you can see some Mordor orcs. They do have a human-like form, but they are ugly twisted beings, who only enjoy the suffering of others)

In general, I hope you have enjoyed my Blog Post, and tune in for another one!

The Scorch Trials - First Post

"The Scorch Trials" by James Dashner is the second book in the "Maze Runner Series". It’s a story about approximately ten people who in the last book managed to escape the secret maze, and now are trying to get out of the scorch trials. The antagonists, W.I.C.K.E.D. (World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department), are experimenting on those people to see what they’re capable of, and how they react in critical situations. In the last book, there was a lot more people though most of them were either killed by electronic creatures called grievers from the maze made by W.I.C.K.E.D. or they didn't agree on escaping the maze. The ones who disagreed to escape stayed in the little area, their campsite, in the middle of the maze that's surrounded by safe tall walls. The plot is set in the future, United States of America. The exact location stays anonymous throughout the book. There is a group of protagonists in this book, though the main protagonist/character is Thomas. He is a tall, dark haired, teenage guy who is stubborn, brave, and mysterious. Him insisting to go to the maze (in the previous book) and to complete the assignment the Rat Man has given the group (in this book) while nobody else wanted to go makes him brave and stubborn. As for being mysterious, he once worked for W.I.C.K.E.D., he magically remembered much more about his life than the others. (once W.I.C.K.E.D. sends up somebody in the box to the little area in the middle of the maze, the person immediately forgets almost everything about themselves. Their name is the only thing they can remember after a little while, everything else never comes back.) 

I'm looking forward to reading the whole book, it's very interesting and I recommend it to really anyone! I'm half way through it and I think I got addicted to the "Maze Runner" series...

The Finisher by David Baldacci

Hello,

I am Savannah for those of you who didn't know, and I have decided to read the book The Finisher. In my opinion, I didn't really  like the book that much, but since I'm 260 pages in, I'm not going to change. This would be a very interesting book for those of you who like mystery, fantasy, adventures.  In the book there is a fourteen year old girl, and her name is Vega Jane. Vega is the protagonist in the story. She has a brother named John, and he got taken by Morrigone, head of council.The council makes the rules for everybody. There is no antagonist yet, but there are a few people who seem a little sketchy. Vega is in an alternate universe called Wormwood, where she has to figure out why and where her coworker (Quentin Herms) has disappeared to. She believes that he has gone to the Quag which is a place where no one ever goes because no one has ever come back. There are things that are happening in Wormwood than anyone can ever imagine, there is an evil magic in the air. 

      

Dandelion Fire

Author: N.D. Wilson

#of pages: 466/466

 Dandelion Fire, the second book in the 100 cupboards series starts off in Kansas with our brave protagonist Henry York. A few months ago when Henry came to Kansas to stay with his Uncle and Aunt he found an unexpected surprise in his attic room. Behind the old crumbling walls lie one hundred cupboards all leading to a place of mystery and hidden magic. The fact that Henry came from one of these cupboards as an infant was unknown until he found the cupboards himself. Henry York is an average boy of twelve with brown hair and brown eyes. The only thing out of the ordinary about him from the outside is a burn from his temple to his jaw with growing spider webs left to mark his face when the evil witch’s blood spilled on him; the immortal evil witch of Endor, Nimiane. He is as brave as one can be after finding out that everybody's lives including his depended on himself; that if he failed it's bye bye to everything. Once, Henry was in a situation where "But he was also feeling stubborn. As much as he wanted to stop, he hated the idea of stopping....Henry dropped free, his hands grazing the wall and then grabbing nothing but air." (Wilson 150 - 151). You might say stubborn and so would Henry, but what the reader does not realize from this small text is that Henry had literally been just cut open and gone through a painfully forced naming ritual where he almost became the minor antagonist's son. If he stopped now there would be no hope and his friend Richard all the while had disappeared. In my opinion, that was brave. The real antagonist of the whole series is the immortal witch of Endor; however, she is more or less mentioned in the second book except that she is beautiful, glowing with power. Evil is nothing compared to her and she takes control over the minor antagonist of this book, Darius. How to describe Darius, he is a seventh son and has the second site; meaning he is able to see things the way we do and what we can't see. Kind of confusing right? Anyways he's a powerful wizard. He disguises himself as a burly tough looking person but his true form isn't such a pretty sight either. He is tall, bony, has yellow teeth, worse of all, he has no chin! Where his chin should have been a bone stuck out and looked as if it was ivory; he also had a chin strap. Although he hated his father, Darius grew up to be just like him; cold and cruel. The End. :)

Dealing With Dragons

page 74/212

Patricia C. Wrede

I am reading "Dealing with Dragons" which is about princess. Cimorene is one of the seven princesses of the kingdom of Linderwall. She is the youngest of them, but she is not like the rest of them. She is refusing to learn the princess things like embroidering, dancing, etiquette. She has jet black hair she wears in braids, not like the others. She is also very tall, this is why her parents are afraid she would not find a husband.  Therefore her parents take her to another kingdom where they  want her to get married. She is stubborn as a pig, one might say strong minded. She rebuts to her parents, and when her parents assign her a husband she refuses him. She only wants to learn the things that amuse her.   

Oryx and Crake - Characters

pages  264/431
Hello all,
for my book project, I have been reading the book Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood, a profound Canadian author.
I am currently on page 264.
This book is slightly different to most/all of the other books I have read. Despite the fact that recently I have been reading a lot of dystopian fiction, it was all YA. This book was written for an older audience, I believe, but I am actually enjoying it.
The main character in this book is Snowman, who, in his youth, was called Jimmy. He lives naked, all but a blanket and resides in a tree, eating mangoes and fish once a week. Now, to explain Jimmy/Snowman's situation, I will have to bring in the antagonist, Crake.
In Jimmy's childhood, Glenn and Jimmy were best friends, as they both lived in the compound where their parents worked, creating pigoons and other such genetically modified animals. They give each other nicknames, and Jimmy calls Glenn, Crake, a name that sticks for life. Jimmy, though, is called Jimmy throughout his life until he decides to change it in old age. The two of them are firm friends, playing chess and messing around online and watching films... and some of a not entirely appropriate nature.
To be honest, I think Crake is a sociopath. He values logic and he understands knowledge and is amazing at chess, yet he doesn't do very well at empathy or sympathy. Even though he isn't the greatest person to choose for a friend, they get along, and stay friends throughout their lives.
 Despite his problems, Crake gets wonderful grades and gets into the best university of his time. Here, he learns a lot about genetics and tissue and materials and so forth. Arm in arm with his knowledge, and lack of any sort of sympathy or feeling for others, he annihilates the human race with a disease of his making, and replaces all humans with his own genetically perfect human beings, with different tissues and genetic material from other animals. The whole human race is killed.
Wel... all except for Jimmy :) Now you see, Crake has left Jimmy, the last specimen of the human race, ever, taking care of the 'people of Crake', a group of 'perfect' human beings, although people who have no real knowledge or understanding of anything. They just act like Crake programmed them to, and like the animals that they have genetic material from. Jimmy has to look over and after them, and keep himself barely alive. He is permitted to one fish a week. The rest, he has to find and scavenge for himself. He has basically given up on life, and spends his time recollecting the past. He is somewhat determined, and lives each day trying to survive, but there is nothing left he can do. So he basically just waiting for death.
Thank you for reading,
Gemma

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

I have finished reading my book project book which is Delirium  by Lauren Oliver. In Delirium love is considered a disease. Yes. Love. The same love that  we consider totally normal, and pleasant and all that, the society in Delirium considers it lethal, dangerous, and destructive. It can kill. It promotes suicide and all things bad.The society in Delirium considers love so deadly that they created a 'cure' for it. When a child hits the age of 18 they have to go through the procedure which alters your thinking slightly and prevents you from feeling any feeling of love whatsoever, because after all, it's so dangerous.

Lena, the protagonist, is a perfectly normal 18 year old who has grown up believing and 'knowing' that love is a terrible thing and has grown up practically counting the days till she gets cured. She can't wait to know that she is safe and secure from the deadly thing that they call love. She is very obedient, at the beginning of the book at least, and abides all the rules of the society, including curfew by 9 and to be a decent amount away from males. However, this changes towards the middle of the book when she meets Alex and in fact does the dreaded thing - and falls in love. She is then open to other ideas and becomes curious about the truth of her society and what love means. When she finds out, she becomes reckless and has the desire to rebel.

The antagonist is society. The society Lena lives in. It is based in the U.S but not all of the U.S. It considers the rest of the world as dangerous as the rest of the world must be infected by love. It has no idea of what the rest of the world gets up to and only lives within walls with electric fences that separate the whole society from everything else. It believes that love is a lethal concept and strives to prevent it from becoming an 'epidemic' like it had before - hand, well, before the ingenious cure was created to save mankind.

I REALLY enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes science-fiction. It's a really scary concept, and it was fabulous :D

GD

The Hobbit

1/28/2015

The Hobbit

I am reading the hobbit and so far I found this book interesting. I have watched the movies but haven't seen the book. In this book There are many protagonists and antagonists. But the main character is Bilbo Baggins who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life. Bilbo is short and a nice hobbit, and in case you didn't know, hobbits have very large feet. There are many Antagonists in this book. In my opinion, the main antagonist is the dragon. This book has people who want to kill other people like bad people and good people. The good people are people like Bilbo or Gandalf the wizard.

"Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" By Rick Riordan

"Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters"

229/265 # of pages

Rick Riordan

Hello,
For this book report that is supposed to be a sci-fi book, I am reading "Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters" By Rick Riordan. This Book is a sequel of "The Lightning Thief" were Percy, the main character finds out his friend is a satyr, his Latin teacher is a centaur, and that he is a half-blood. Which means he is a son of a god, half human and half god. he is the son of Poseidon, God of the sea, and when he prays he can receive help from him. The main plot of the story so far is that Percy has spent his school year in New York and now its getting to summer so he wants to go to camp. Chiron, his favorite teacher who cares about him told him not to because something dangerous is going on. Percy ran away from New York with his half blood and brother who is a cyclops and his friend Annabeth who is a half god too and lives in Virginia. They came to camp realizing that someone had poisoned a tree that guards the camp made out of their friend who died, Thalia. Annabeth, Tyson (his half brother) and Percy end up going on the journey to find the fleece that can save the tree and find their friend Grover who went to find it too, but failed so far and is going to marry a huge cyclops named Polyphemus.

The protagonist, Percy Jackson is a tween (about 12 or 13 int his book) and he has dyslexia but is still very smart. He really cares about his friends and almost died 8 times trying to save them, even the ones who don't like him that much or don't want to listen to him or need his help. The author just mentions that Percy has Brown hair, but that's all. Percy is caring, sweet but very brave. He is a good and loyal friend, protects and helps them and stands for their opinions.

The antagonist in the book is Luke Castellan. Although Percy and his friends faced Polyphemus the big Cyclops who almost drowned them, Luke was the one who let them do the whole journey but then came and tried (not sure if he did yet, didn't finish the book) to steel the fleece which Percy and his friends almost died trying to get it. Luke is basically trying to bring Kronos back to life, causing a lot of half-bloods to join in and he wants to bring down Olympus. has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was a good friend int he begging but not trustworthy since int he first book he tried to kill Percy on a journey they were on and he hid his plan that was to actually take over and kill all his friends. He isn't a good person, not caring, hates his father, but he is strong and brave.



http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130812185100/olympians/images/d/dc/Cover_-_percy_jackson_and_the_sea_of_monsters.jpg

That's it for now, Read my next post!

Shelly