When the sequal is actually better than the original

For my second book this tri, I decided to YOLO it and go with Insurgent. Y'know, that book that everyone has read at least once. It was amazing to me personally, and I liked it better than Divergent, which was a great book in itself (Alliegent though. yuck.). So I thought I'd do a quick run down between the two books.


Divergent:

• Unique plot, really makes you think about the personality aspect of it all
• Great diction/syntax, like all pretty great books do
• Cheesy love story (gotta love those)
• Lots of death. LOTS of it. Kinda sad actually.

Insurgent:

• Really builds off of Divergent, very smooth transition
• Adds a touch of realism with the betrayal of Caleb and all
• The love story feels a little more real in this one to me than in Divergent
• The death isn't emphasized, focuses more on the plot of escaping Erudite and planning that revolution.

This kinda made me realize how long it's been since I've read Divergent. Dang. I need to go back and read that. 

But from where I've started off again, the feels are real. Listen to Caleb here for a sec.

"'Tris,' he says, 'I'm your brother. You can tell me anything.'" (Roth 35)

UH HUH. YEAH RIGHT. YOU LITTLE BACKSTABBER D:

An Epic's Epilogue

Only 3 words I have for Homestuck right now; that was amazing.

Is getting 13000 points at Lazer Kraze amazing? Yes. Is acing exams amazing? You bet. But nothing can beat reading a comic this big again and picking up on details you missed.

I repeat, nothing. Nothing can beat this.

The first time I read this, I'll admit, I probably skipped half of it. Reason being is the text shows up in a "chat" log format that's hard to read at times. What if all of your texts were words to a book? Wouldn't that be a little hard to read as well?  But this time I actually sat down and read it through like I should of the first time and I can safely say my love for the story as a whole has come flooding back like a huge nostalgia wave.

How real the characters act is another thing I absolutely love. In other books the characters aren't easy to relate to. Take for example, Tris from Divergent. She's definitely a bold one, and we can appreciate her, but personally for me some of the things she did without really questioning them ahead of time seems kind of unrealistic. Like how she jumped down a pit for Dauntless when she first chose them. I don't think 99% of the population would go ahead and jump off a cliff like that to prove something. Either that or I'm an expert at living under a rock and this is a daily occurrence.

Because jumping off cliffs is totally safe and recommended for kids. Don't you dare read that disclaimer.

But I feel like I can actually relate to the kids in Homestuck. They're only a little younger than us at the very beginning, and where it ends up with the Alpha kids they're only a little older. Understandably, they freak out at first. They're not perfect. They have many, and I repeat, MANY flaws, and I feel like that that's us in today's world. We don't know what to do when faced with problems half the time, that's why we're not grown up adults in the world yet. If we knew everything then we should be out of our parent's hair, and I don't think half of us have taken a step to untangle us from that extremely comfortable nest. But that was these guys too; they were without warning chucked into 4 different planets basically with "save yourself" without any guidance except for little sprites for only a tiny amount of time. It's a surprise their session didn't crash and burn and they made something of it. They didn't get into fights, they didn't buckle under pressure. Two of the kids literally set a bomb at their feet and stayed there, knowing they were going to die. But that's the kind of limits we're pushed to when we're faced with a life or death situation. We go to radical ends, not knowing what it'll turn out as. I feel like Homestuck painted this picture extremely well.

^ Rose and Dave at the bomb before it blew up

Hopefully what I'm trying to say about the bomb is pretty clear in this picture. The tubes and everything are a part of the "doom device", so to speak. Yet they just stand there, looking at the time, literally facing their own inevitable death without flipping out and running away screaming. No, they sit there and count the seconds before they die in a calm manner. Everyone, if you knew you would die and not flip out in response, raise your hands.

....

....

Yeah that's what I thought. We're too human for that, our sense of fight or flight would kick in. Though I think a traumatic experience would affect that instinct. For example, Dave (pictured in the left) has seen many different dead versions of himself. And Rose (pictured in the right) was corrupted by outside forces, not to mention she was killed herself in a strife and had to get revived. After facing death that many times, I think most of us would grow numb to the idea of it, which the smooth transition between the fight and flight instinct and the degradation of it is done extremely well and smoothly.

Also, speaking of morals, there's a lot of moral dilemmas in this. I mean this is a life or death situation, do you kill your own pet to save a stranger's life? What's the ethics of replicating your friends and then sending them on meteors? The author does an extremely good job making the reader contemplate these kind of things and I honestly feel like I've grown as a person because I've read it, 100% this time. When Dave saw his brother killed by Jade's pet, he stated, "I guess it has been on my mind. Maybe I am supposed to be a hero and rise to the occasion because there seems to be this little persistent voice in my head nagging me about it, insisting someone's gotta pay. And it's hard for me to disagree," (Hussie 5603). All of this doom and destruction is going on around Dave, and all he does is sit there and contemplate relatively calmly about what his next course of action should be. Yet he's unsure. His consciousness and his better judgment are conflicting massive time, and he's gotta end up choosing a side. But the fact that we have to deal with our consciousness and our better judgment bickering at each other quite commonly only reflects what we think in our lives. What if we were in their shoes? Is it morally right? Does it have to happen regardless? Maybe I'm that oddball person who thinks way too deeply into things (I wouldn't be surprised with the amount of an oddball I'm already), but at least to me this really reflects back on my way of thinking.

I don't beg often, and yet I'm here on my knees praying for you to give it a chance. Please, PLEASE, go read it. I'll even give you a link right here. I implore you, it will be one of the best decisions you make in life. It starts out kind of slow, and the third intermission is a bit boring, but if you can make it through that then you won't regret it.

Well now that I have that done, do you guys have any recommendations for the next book I should read?

The Hemospectrum and Racisim: A Guide

A sad fact of life is that we have racisim in our lives. It's just human nature. But how Alternian society does it, I find a bit disturbing. Much worse than we ever had here on Earth.

Worst example I can think of for racism here is the Holocaust. The systematic killing of 6 million Jews. Genocide. Don't get me wrong, that's extremely awful, but when you force people for hundreds of years to be slaves to others because they have a "warmer" blood color per say rather than the "cooler bloods"? That takes the cake of awful. And to go out and conquer others' planets because of your say so? This is imperialism, genocide, and rasism all thrown together in a nice little happy pot of "wost society ever". One of the kids who live here's too ashamed to admit the blood running through his skin, even though it's the same exact color as you and I have.

Because
it's
mutant.

And seeing a mutant results in being "culled".

You see the lower ones, such as the red, orange, and yellow? Those are the ones getting oppressed. It's like a kingdom of sorts, but country wide and the fact that there are much harsher consquences for not following the status quoe than in a medieval society. They can't help their blood color. That's something they're born with. The kid I mentioned isn't even on this list, and if he would of lived a few more years on Alternia, he would of been culled due to his blood color being able to show in his eyes.

It's sad that these things keep reoccuring in our society and that it was a constant in a society such as Alternia. But the connection between our own racism with people's skin color and blood color on Alternia is too similar to ignore.

Cascade

That moment where everything comes together and makes sense. Ever had one of those? Like one of those where everything just works out right, luck's on your side, and afterwards you're wondering how it even worked out?

That was Cascade.

Cascade is where John created something called the "Scratch", which resets the universe and starts over with their guardians being the kids and the kids themselves turn into the guardians. Sounds like the kids are going to die, right? Wrong. Jade, Rose, and Dave all go god tier, and Jade saves all 4 of their planets, Skaia, John, and a battleship which she uses to send herself through the 4th wall.

The author literally made the 4th wall something in this. You didn't misread.

I mean, look at Jade! She is a literal hero in this, she saved pretty much everything, at those last few seconds. And PM finally became a major character in this with her and Bec (Bec's one of the main bad guys in this) as she takes a ring and somewhat transforms into a light version of the villian himself. This was so amazing, solving so many cliff hangers in a matter of minutes. I think all of this affected their character. Wouldn't a near death experience effect you like that? Mainly though, unlike more death experiences, I think this one gave all the kids a boost in confidence in themselves and a sense of unification. 

In short, I'm proud of these kids. Freaking amazing <3

Coming to terms with identity

So Dave, the guy obsessed with protecting his friends, says, “I’m not a hero. Bro was. John is. But I’m not.” ....What just happened!?

What a loaded quote. As I was reading, this stuck in my head. When coming in terms with Bro’s death, it was the first time we as readers actually saw his personality.  We are all somewhat insecure in some way, but Dave hid behind a cool persona the whole time. But just blatenly admitting it like that, to an alien troll girl who's obsessed with tastes and justice.

Then again, there are a lot weirder things that happen.

But overview aside, I’m actually kind of shocked Dave said this. I mean I can relate a lot with him wanting to be something more than I am at the current moment, so I know it’s a hard thing to come to terms with. And he came to terms right when he own guardian, his own dad figure died. If anything, I would of felt the need for revenge. To get back at the killer for what they did to them and what they did to me indirectly by killing that person I care about so much. But no, he just realizes he isn’t a hero. In a way, he is giving up part of his aspirations of the game, which I personally find a little upsetting, but still, out of any time, it was when something traumatic happened when he came to terms with his real identity. I think this is a pivotal moment for Dave as a character, as he just starts playing as himself for real starting now, and that realist outlook ends up saving his butt along with everyone else later.

Though he couldn’t take the sword out of his Bro’s body at least. Someone who would of gone up all smiles and removed it I’d consider clinically insane.

Just,no. 

God Tiers part 2

Classes. Ah man, this is the harder part of a god tier to define, but it’s kind of based off of medieval constructs. For example, there’s Page as a class. So that being said, here’s all 14 classes.

1.    . Page – *definition not 100%*
2.          Sylph – heals aspect
3.      Mage – either actively knows or is manipulated by aspect
4.      Knight – protects aspect
5.      Seer – passively knows aspect
6.      Maid – makes aspect
7.      Witch – actively manipulates aspect
8.      Prince – actively destroys aspect
9.         Bard – passively destroys aspect
10.     Thief – steals aspect for one’s own gain
11.     Rouge – steals from aspect/steals aspect from others and spreads it among friends
12.     Heir – embodies aspect
13.     Lord* - commands aspect
14.        Muse*- inspires aspect

Ignore 13-14 right now, but it’s a little confusing at first. I know the feeling; at first I’d sit there half confused on what was going on myself with all of this. Some of this is speculation, as they haven’t been perfectly defined. Example of this would be Mage and Page. But the class is the limitation on what you can do with the aspect itself. The active passive scale that exists is showing how active an aspect is compared to another. Like for example, Page is less active than Prince by a long shot, as Prince is one of the most active and Page one of the most passive. Passive itself is usually the aspect being used in the benefit of others while Active is generally used as the aspect being beneficial to the individual with it. So in a way, this does show the kind of people in our world. They help shape how we handle situations. While some of us are more destructive with our natures, others aren’t, and use their ability to help others.

However, they can turn the opposite of their aspect if they’re "heavily resistant to their trUe calling. or, if corrUpted in some way by an oUtside inflUence." (Calliope). I feel like this is like us rejecting our fate in real life. Usually, if we resist something too much, it turns into the exact opposite, something that we may or may not want considering, but usually it’s to an extreme that we’re shocked by as people.

In a basic, wrap up like conclusion, your title is basically how you use something you have (or have a lack of) to the best of your personal ability. Pretty cool, huh?

God Tiers (part 1)

I absolutely love God Tiers. It's the best thing when it comes to speculation that I can think of. I will literally spend days theorizing over different God Tiers, their powers, what they mean metaphorically in our world, ect.

The basic definition of a God tier is its class and it's aspect. For instance, let's take John. He's a Heir of Breath, where Heir is the class and Breath is the aspect. I'm going to go over the part that I think has more of a connection to our lives first, the aspects.

Out of the aspects, there's  twelve known ones as of now.

1. Breath (motion, freedom)
2. Blood (unity)
3. Light (knowledge, luck)
4. Void (secrets, protection)
5. Time
6. Space
7. Life
8. Doom (death or law/order)
9. Heart (positive emotion)
10. Mind
11. Hope
12. Rage (negative emotion)

Out of all of these twelve...elements, so to speak, I believe that they make up who we as humans are. We have Breath, which gives us a push to do things in our lives. On a more literal note, we can breathe with it. Blood gives us a support group, friends, people to fall back on. In addition, we kind of need blood to live. Light lets us shed "light", so to speak on a situation so it's basically our common sense. Also, in order to get through life we need luck to an extent. Void gives us the voice of retraint to hold ourselves back. Life is what lets us begin things, and in a way is related to Breath in the way that it lets new things begin. Doom is the lawful restraints we have to live under to live in society, and in addition, the death of life itself. Heart lets us feel emotionally and come to conclusions this way (pathos), while Mind lets us look at the facts and only come up with facts that way (logos). Hope is that far off distant goal we have that gives "Breath", while Rage is our way of being "human" and making mistakes. So excluding Space and Time, that's what lets humans be uniquely human.

Space and Time.... The status of our world now, and the change that happens to the world. These two things are what makes up our universe, and why they're so astronomically important to any given Sburb session or life as we know it. It's not just what breathes life into an object, it's the object itself. Space-time's the building blocks of our universe, and without those two, there'd be no existance of the rest.

Telling Stories through numbers

I'd like to take a look at the main character's names so far.

We have John Egbert, of course. Guy I talked about last time, super dorky guy.
Then there's Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider, and Jade Harley. The other main characters.

At first glance, they're all just names, right? Well, maybe. I'm not quite so convinced on that.

For example:

J-o-h-n. Four letters.
R-o-s-e. Four letters.
D-a-v-e.
J-a-d-e.

The pattern's consistant. The number 4 is seeming to reoccur in Homestuck right now.

4/13. The day John and his friends were first being tracked by the story. AKA, when Homestuck began.

There are 4 kids in the session.
There are 4 guardians, and 4 ansestors.

Also, I believe 2 is somewhat of a reoccuring instance in this. There's the Dream Worlds in which the four kids sleep in. There are only two: Prospit and Derse. There are two females and two males playing at the current moment in time. Two people are on each side, and there must be two kinds of people in a Sburb session (Time and Space players, I'll explain God Tiers next post) and diolouge can only happen in the chat client, Pesterchum, with two people at the same time. Also, their codes on there that are their "username" of sorts shortened always shorten into two letters, and the username itself is a mashup of two words put together. Always.

So that being said, the numbers 2 and 4 are pretty reoccuring. Now this could have a few meanings. First, I'd like to point out how both numbers are relatively low. It's not some astronomical high number. The second thing that I'd like to notice is both numbers are even. If split, it's fair to both sides.

Now what the game "Sburb" is about... it's supposed to see if kids could fight and prove themselves as able-minded and able-bodied people of their society. If they fit those conformities, dispite their extremely different personalities, backgrounds. In a way, the whole game is a metaphor to our life, except heavily dramaticized with death and destruction. It's supposed to see if the players can handle loss, realize what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, forgive and forget (but always keep an eye open). The various tid bits that would help us in our world, that maybe we don't all 100% get. So the fact that the numbers are even, might hint at a lesson of fairness. "Life is not fair," is something we all know, but maybe Homestuck is hinting at something more than just keeping it at that. The kids did have a lot of things thrown in their faces, been extremely unlucky. Life hasn't been fair to them in the slightest. While this is all speculation on the theme at this point, as I haven't read it 100% in a while, it could very well be something along the lines of "make with what you have, even if life isn't fair." For starters, the important numbers that I just pointed out are small. Maybe that's a foreshadow that they don't really have that much at the beginning, even though they have Earth in tact in all, maybe they don't fully appreciate what they do have, dimishing the value. But since it's even, you can still be fair splitting up those numbers, making me think that maybe it's saying that the kids should be fair, even if life isn't. So that's why I'm thinking maybe a potential theme to Homestuck is to be fair, make with what you have as much as you can, no matter what. Even if the cards are against you.

Egderp's shenanigians

Have you ever had that friend that just goes around, trying to honestly try their best but they can never really get ahold of what they want? Ok, maybe not having a friend like that is the best example, because I think anyone who would be labeled as that would be somewhat offended and there aren't really that many people who don't try as hard as they can and not succeed. So a better example would be a dog. Like, you know those kind of days where your dog just sits there, trying to get you to get them to take a bath, but you don't feel like it, so they keep hounding you (ha the puns), and eventually forget what they were going to do in the first place and just go do other things like play with their bone but then get bored of it so then they start pestering you again and get bored and the cycle goes on and on?

I think I got off track somewhere.

But that's John Egbert. Freaking love this guy.

JUST LOOK AT HIM. He has these dorky glasses on, hair not even really kept, the green ghost buster slime thing that's grinning dispite all odds. And then there's his buck teeth. How did he even get teeth messed up that bad? Those are some wonky genetics going on, I kind of feel bad for him. But he's somewhat just that person who doesn't really quite think through things before he does them, he just...does them. Goes through the flow of life without really thinking of the consequences(Except for Betty Crocker, which no one can explain. He's a weird dude). Kinda like Mildred from Fahrenheit 451. I think from what I'm seeing though that he has a good heart, though he seems somewhat pessimistic when he thinks about things.

"John? Who is this "John" you speak of? You are quite certain there has never been, nor ever will be..."
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=001946

In that quote, he puts on a disguise that is obviously see through to try to fool his dad that it isn't him. It's one of those big glasses with a fake nose and a magicians hat combined all into one. You know, this may just be my extreme deductive super sleuth skills, but I'm pretty sure I could tell that's John from a long shot. ESPECIALLY with him wearing that, as that'd be something only he would even dare do. Later, he shamelessly goes downstairs where his dad could see him in such a "disguise", which I would never have the self pride to spare to do a thing like that. You know what, I dare one of you guys to wear a disguise like that to school. And for me to take pictures. :)

A new beginning

So I may of may not of finished the Septimus Heap Series. Whoops. Okay, maybe I'm a little short on the last one, but with a new tri on the horizon, I would like to start anew. So, with that, I'm presenting my next read: Homestuck! I read it a long while ago, but it's honestly extremely hard to keep track of 7000 pages, and counting. So it'll be like almost an entire new read, except I know a bit of background now. Either way, I am estatic about reading this, and it shouldn't be long before I begin. I will love this whole thing forever and always, so I'm just dying to start this again.

 

Trailer for Homestuck

 





In essence, it's about 4 kids who play a game, called "Sburb", which in turn causes the end of the world, and they have to save their race, and then it gets a heck of a lot more complicated after that. Easier explained read than said. But I am extremely excited to start this!

As for the prompt itself, I choose Homestuck for a myrid of reasons. First off, I really like this book. It's super intense, uses multiple forms of media to convey a deep meaning story, and includes pretty difficult language at times. I also choose it for the stark contrast it  has compared to the books I've been reading as of late. This non-traditional form of delivering a story has helped me look at more possibilities when writing, and I would like to re-read this just so I can get a much better feel for how this way, how Andrew Hussie managed to write such an elaborate masterpiece in such a unique way.

Finally, I'm choosing Homestuck for how it develops the characters. Especially for how it develops the characters. He does such a great job at it, settlely making the dyamic characters grow and learn life lessons that even us as teenagers, and adults alike, can learn from. So I guess I also want this for the learning experience.

So I went with Magyk

For this week, I would like to compare the main characters to objects in our daily lives. Not only do I believe this somewhat makes the characters more realistic, it truly helps to understand the characters and their strengths and weaknesses.

Boy 412 seems to be naive about the setting, and a little bit scared. However, he is extremely adventurous and has an unquenchable curiosity. He seems a bit blunt, yet when he rocks the boat he seems somewhat uneasy again, and because of that, reveals his also clumsy nature. Due to this, I would say he is most like a cat. There's a popular belief that cats get scared at shadows easy, making them jumpy and clumsy, much like how Boy 412 is. In addition, "Curiosity kills the cat" is a saying for a reason. Boy 412 has shown a curiosity that is unrivaled by anything I've yet to see in my life, book or real life, and it tended to get him in a little bit of trouble.

Jenna Heap is somewhat bold, and somehow cautious, at the same time. She has shown resourcefulness when in the bog, keeping the rest of her family safe, yet is hunted by the Hunter for her status, as she is a princess, and an evil Ex-Ordinary Wizard DomDaniel needs her dead before he can take over the Castle. Because of these traits, I would say Jenna is most like a flower in the dead of winter. Both stand out, and have given those too afraid to speak up/tired of the winter hope. It's also somewhat reckless to be showing your head like that when you're wanted to bad, seeing how both are red flags compared to their surroundings.

Silas and Sarah Heap have shown to overall be extremely caring, and willing to do anything for their children. However, they seem pretty gullible and fast to accept change. I would say that the pair of them are like weak armor. They try their best to defend what they can, but fact of life is that they can't do their jobs 100%. Like how both are fine with change, weak armor can bend and break easily, showing that maybe their situation adapting isn't the smartest thing in the world.

Next intersection, begin!

So as I finished the 7th Tower series, I am once again at a loss for books I should read next. Well not entirely, but it's a little hard to decide what to actually read when there's so many good books out there.

First up on the list: Lord of the Rings. From what I've gathered, it's about some sort of ring that turns people corrupt and people have to go quest to throw the ring in a volcano. That, in itself, wasn't what really drew me to the book though. I believe two factors really sold me on considering the book. First, the setting. If I can remember correctly, there were a lot of magical references, and fantasy elements in the book. I've always tended to like those kind of books. Second, I've heard so many good things about it. Not only does it seem like a hard series, as one might say, for its girth and massive detail, but to me it seems like a challenge, and I might want to challenge that book now. I'm not 100% though, if I was, I'd be reading it already, wouldn't I?

Second, in a very similar fashion, is Magyk of the 7th Son of the 7th Son series. Not nearly as well known as Lord of the Rings, but I've gotten some personal recommendations from one of my friends that I should read it, which brought it to my attention. I know for a fact that it uses magic commonly, in a very medieval like setting, which seems to be the trend in what I'm looking for as of late. I've also heard the plot has something to do with an evil force escaping and the 7th son of the 7th son has to stop it. That's such an awkward thing to call someone, but it's the best I can do for the main character right now, which I'm pretty sure is that 7th son of the 7th son. It seems pretty big as well, and has 5 books in the series, unlike how Lord of the Rings only has 3. It might honestly have more text than Lord of the Rings, but I guess I can't compare the two until I finish reading both series.

Going a little bit away from this magic theme, but not all the way, is Magic under Glass. It's a single book so it'd most likely be a quick read I can get in before the end of the trimester. My mom bought me the book and left it on my desk for a while now, it might not be such a bad idea to have a quick read at this point in time considering it's close to the end of the trimester. From what I've gathered, its about some musician girl finding a clockwork doll who can talk and tries to get her to do "something". What that "something" is, my mom omitted just to probably get me to read the book in the first place. Regardless, it seems like somewhat of an option, especially considering the time frame I'm writing this in.

So which one should I do? Comments much appreciated~

Well that was somewhat quick

Dear Mr./Mrs. Garth Nix,

I thank you for taking time out of your day to read my letter. What I wanted to discuss is the 7th tower series as a whole, that you wrote. Overall, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Not only were the government dynamics with corruption and all extremely interesting, but I like how you somewhat put some deep heart felt hate in Tal to add conflict with Millia. That sounds a little awkward in hindsight, but the point stands; you making Tal want to instinctively hate Milla just because she didn't come from the tower, and his slow but gradual accepting of Millia in his world. I think that we could use that in today's society, the whole learning to be accepting and all. Thank you for seriously addressing the issue in a mature fashion.

• "Garth Nix has created a wonderful fantasy world with this series...The young boy Tal and his reluctant (and somewhat grumpy) companion Milla are an interesting pair and their journey is full of surprises. Garth has a great gift for characterization and pacing, and he has a sly sense of humor which always entertains."

— Claire E. White, The Internet Writing Journal^[3]

I believe the quote above captures very well, in what you have done with the series. They dyamic partnership between Milla and Tal grown as the series wages on is entertaining in itself, not to mention the crazy things you have found to throw in the way of them as the series has gone on. 

The one thing that I believe needs critique is when you shift perspectives. I still somewhat cringe when 3rd person omniscient is used, as it does let us know everything, but transitioning to what character to character is thinking/doing is somewhat awkward. I felt like your transitions were a bit bland, but it didn't take too much away from the story you already had down. Just somewhat of a distraction from the otherwise amazing plot.

Thank you again, for taking time to read my letter. I hope you have a good day, and I'll be looking for future books of yours.

Sincerely,

Katerina Baumgarter

A soundtrack in dedication of "The Fall"

Warning book one spoilers

Wow this series is very hard to put down! It's a six book series, and I've finished book three since I last updated this blog. Sorry about not letting you all know! Regardless, all three books were amazing, but I'll be focusing on "The Fall", as that's the first book in the series, which I've kept you all somewhat updated on. Anyway, onto the point here.

The Fall has a lot of extremely dramatic points. It's a very serious book, with themes of survival and power abuse and slaves. Like I've mentioned earlier, it has that medieval touch to it with the 7 towers and everything. So some music focused on suspence is a must. It doesn't really even have a happy end, ending with Milla, a character that Tal meets mid way through his journey who loathes his guts and wants to kill him instantly. Songs about being misunderstood, therefore, would be a nessesity.

As for specifics, I would want to start with a song that has a bit of a sad tune to it, but it still definately has hope and curiosity. You see, at the beginning of the book, Tal is trying to find his lost dad, take care of his younger sister, and find something called a Primary Sunstone; a jewel that has enough power to bring magical powers to the 7 towers in their entirety. However, Tal has a few enemies, for reasons he doesn't really know, so a tone of innocense would be there. Out of all of these things, the closest things that I can think of that can come to mind is "Tangl'd"'s "When will my life begin". What takes place in this song is that Rapunzel is going around a tower that she's lived in for 18 years, lamenting over her inability to find out what's outside. This song shows complete innocence about the consequences of her actions, and also it shows Rapunzel's desire to find out more. This desire is mirrored in Tal's being at the very beginning, not of nessesairly seeing what was outside, as he firmly believed that horror terrors of many kinds lived out there, and anyone who dared went out into the cold wilderness outside would never be seen again, which is pretty consistant to this point.

The next big plot point is when Tal gets stuck in the Achievement of Music, to get a primary sunstone for his mother, when he was sure he signed up for the Achievement of Body, which is more of an obstacle course. "You're gonna go far kid" I believe truly captures Tal's anger at the government around him and how it treats him unfairly.

Next, when Tal falls off of the tower when trying to get a Primary Sunstone and getting lost in the cold, I would argue that Tal, dispire his lonely feelings, feels somewhat free when he meets actual humans that live outside the tower. He experiences personal freedom, and is liberated from the common misconseptions about outside of the 7 towers. Suddenly, everyone back there who seemed to have power doesn't seem to be that importnat anymore, however, he still feels very alone with the fact that now no one will be able to understand him and he knows full well that stepping back in the castle might result in people searching for him. Because of all of these traits, I would say "Let it go" in Disney's "Frozen" would be a good choice for this song. Not only are both in a very similar setting, which doesn't really mean that much, but the fact that they both kept to themselves for so long, that no one would truly understand them and the fact that

When he finds Milla, who's just about to strangle his throat, I would argue that Tal's probably scared out of his mind, most likely already accepting certain death. So I think a good next song would be "It ends tonight".

Fighting when it was just himself and Milla, I would say he's stronger, but scared none the less. Milla's on the ground hurt, afterall. So I think that a good final song for The Fall would be a reprise of "You're gonna go far kid", bringing back not only the hatred of the government in which he lives in, but the hatred of the animal who would do such a thing to Milla.

Setting of 7th Tower and comparison to our society

So I went ahead and started 7th Tower, and I'm finding the social casting extremely interesting. You're born into a color casting of sorts, Red being the lowest and Violet being the highest. The higher you are, the better jobs, income, and standard of living you have. However, you all live in the same tower. This gives a clear structure to life, and makes some have great standards of living, while others don't so much. The lower the color casting, the more people in it.

I thought about this, and you can connect this social structure to medieval times. The Peasants would be like the lower colors, and given the more mundane work and  the nobility/kings would be the high colors, with a higher standard of living. They all would have to live near eachother in the same castle/land area. And untold danger is outside of this castle, like how there is danger outside of the tower in the 7th Tower. I found this connection from medieval life to this book extremely interesting. I wonder what other connections there will be from our world to this one?

The end...(SPOILERS FOR ALLIGENCE!)

So I've made it to the end of Allegiance over winter break, and I can't say I'm happy with the ending. At all. When Tris was killed, she didn't even try to get back up. She'd been though so much, and it wasn't like her at all to just give up.

I would discribe Tris as an extremely independent person, who goes by her own flow, and isn't afraid to stand for what she believed in. Yeah, all of the death around her was painful, but she always overcame. She didn't take "no" for an answer,  as she's very headstrong. So the fact that she just decides to not even get revenge for getting sucker shot, and just "I FELL INTO MY MOM'S ARMS WHOOP-DIE-DO!" And she just left Tobias behind. She just left him there to hold her dead body! Did she not even care about him? She made very clear signs that she did, so when she didn't even try to come back to life, it made me question that. Knowing the fact that she didn't take "no" for an answer, she would always fight to the end, she just..gave up! Either her character changed in a heartbeat or that was written completely out of character. If it's the former.. I can't say I like Tris anymore. She'd be a pushover, and that's almost devolving as a character.

Overall, the book was great, but the end just.. WHY. It's probably the worst ending I've read, no joke. Worse than Mocking Jay, and that's saying something. But that's for another time.

So now that I'm done with that, any book reccomendations? I'm thinking of reading the 7th Tower Series, but I'm open for other suggestions. I typically like Science Fiction and Fantasy if that helps anyone.