News today: not much. I listened to a lot of music, read a bit of Eye of the World... Haven't actually written some of my book yet, that's not good, because falling behind on National Novel Writing Month is hard to come back from... But my taekwondo test was awesome. Pretty guaranteed I passed, so I'm happy.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: 10
Grand Theft Auto IV: 10
LittleBigPlanet: 9.5
BioShock: 9.5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: 9.5
inFamous: 9.0
Killzone 2: 9.0
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: 9.0
Dead Space: 9.0
Resident Evil 5: 8.5
Valkyria Chronicles: 8.5

Resistance: Fall of Man: 8.5
Resistance 2: 9.0
Batman: Arkham Asylum: 9.0

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: 10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: 8.5
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: 9.0
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: 8.5
Eldest by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King: 8.0
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King: 9.5
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King: 9.5
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman: 9.0
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman: 9.5
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman: 10
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer: 8.0
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer: 9.0
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket: 8.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket: 8.5
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: 9.0
The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud: 8.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew: 7.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: 9.0

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vile Village and The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

With my previous reviews of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I've said that for the most part, the series is improving as it goes along. It started with a couple slightly-repetitive books about Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, whose parents die in a fire in book one. They are taken to live with their greedy almost-relative Count Olaf, who tries to steal the fortune they're going to inherit when the eldest, Violet, turns eighteen (she's fourteen). Once they convince the idiotic Mr. Poe,the banker taking care of the fortune and the guy deciding where they live, that Olaf is bad, he starts shunting them around to different guardians. However, Olaf follows them to all of their new homes and continually tries to steal the fortune from them (he's pretty determined). This goes on for the first four books, which I basically graded by where the Baudelaires live and the new characters that enter into the series.

With five and six though, we start to see the beginnings of a plot tying everything together (including the first few), when some new friends of the Baudelaires, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, discover a mysterious organization called VFD. We slowly learn more about this organization (which has actually been popping up all over the place) from then on, and this is when the books really pick up speed.

As you can tell by my reviews, I think outside of book four, the series has been improving, with the first four being very good and five and six being excellent. For seven and eight I wouldn't say Lemony Snicket improved a lot from the last two, but he definitely didn't lose any speed, either.

Book seven, The Vile Village, takes off the same way the first six did, with the Baudelaires being sent off to live with a new guardian. In this case, though, an entire village (the titular vile one named the Village of Fowl Devotees, VFD, which immediately catches the Baudelaires' attention) is raising them, because Snicket decided to incorporate the "It takes a village to raise a child" saying into his book.

And of course, with another home comes another disguise ofCount Olaf's he plans touse to get the Baudelaire fortune. Yes, there are some repetitive elements here too (the Baudelaires meet up with the Quagmiresand fail to learn about thereal VFD, not the village, yet again), butin this one,all hell breaks loose. By the end, the Baudelaires have been accused of murder,thrown in jail, chased by an angry mob, and the ending turns out more unfortunate than ever before.

That lastin particular is something I really liked about this one, because it shows that in future, we're going to be getting a lot less repetition, although Village does a decent job of that itself. Itdoes use some of the same elements of the previous books, butit mixes things up more than any of its predecessors with the village idea itself, a very uniquestoryline, a violent cast, the guy they actually live with (Hector, a hot air balloon fanatic) being almost helpful, and a very well-executed mystery sequence where the Baudelaires try to figure out clues being sent to them by the Quagmires.

As Snicket's storytelling gets more complex, the characters are developed better,andthe authorgets a better handle on his own writing,the series has improved a lot, this book being no exception.This one's longer, deeper, and, because itstarts gettingmore original,more interesting thanits predecessors.Despite some familiar territory the series has set up for itself, Vile Village takes a bunch of new, darker directions that are more intriguing than what have been seen before in the series, and makes it the best of the first seven.

Book eight, The Hostile Hospital, is another excellent entry in the series. Snicket's writing has now gotten to its peak (which it stays at for the rest of the series), so the storytelling in this one is just as brilliant as in book seven. It's nearly as long as seven, equally deep, and very thrilling, because it utilizes seven's surprise ending very well and cuts down even more on the repetition, which Snicket probably realized would've gotten old by book eight.

Also like seven, there's much more action to be found here than in the first few books, which focused on how unfortunate the Baudelaire's situations were and not as much on the Baudelaires fighting to get away from them. Of course, this is partially because the kids are now convicted felons, but there's also a lot of violence in the hospital they end up staying at for awhile of their own choosing, since Mr. Poe doesn't even appear in this one. You'll get deaths, attempted murders, even more mystery swirling about VFD than ever before, and, most excitingly of all, evidence that someone may have survived the fire at the Baudelaire mansion.

However, I will say that I thought eight in terms of excitement and intrigue wasn't quite up to snuff with six and seven before it. While I praise it highly for breaking the mold (it has yet another excellent cliffhanger ending) and getting into the overall story more than its predecessors, once the Baudelaires get to the hospital, Snicket starts doing a few things that take a bit too long or repeat themselves too much toward the middle. We get a whole bunch of the kids studying anagrams and filing papers thrown at us, neither of which enthuse me. So while there are scenes that are some of the best in the series (the ending, the action sequences, the sections about the Baudelaire fire, the mysterious Snicket file, and the new VFD information), there are also some rather drab ones.

Overall, my favorite to least favorite of the series so far are as follows: 7, 6, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 4, meaning the ones I just reviewed were fantastic entries. Seven still had some repetitive moments but was the first one to start changing things and never had a dull moment, while eight had some of the most original, fresh scenes but also had a few dull ones. But these show, on the whole,that there are fantastic things to come in the series. Nicely done, Mr. Snicket.

The Vile Village: 8.5

The Hostile Hospital: 8.5

I'll start by saying that NaNoWriMo is going awesomely. I've written 7,000 words in four days. I want to do another 1,000 today before I go to bed, but it is late... Whatever, I'll sneak upstairs and do it. My book is well on its way!

Next, still excited for that taekwondo test, and I love playing guitar now. It was a bit annoying at first because I sucked so bad, obviously, and because your fingers hurt a lot playing acoustics at first, but now it's crazy fun.

I'm still trying to condense my reviews, but this is an 870 page book... Either way, this is the book series you've all wanted reviews for it (you know it's true ), the one, the only, Harry Potter!

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: 10
Grand Theft Auto IV: 10
LittleBigPlanet: 9.5
BioShock: 9.5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: 9.5
inFamous: 9.0
Killzone 2: 9.0
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: 9.0
Dead Space: 9.0
Resident Evil 5: 8.5
Valkyria Chronicles: 8.5

Resistance: Fall of Man: 8.5
Resistance 2: 9.0
Batman: Arkham Asylum: 9.0

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: 10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: 8.5
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: 9.0
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: 8.5
Eldest by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King: 8.0
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King: 9.5
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King: 9.5
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman: 9.0
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman: 9.5
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman: 10
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer: 8.0
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer: 9.0
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket: 8.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket: 8.5
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: 9.0
The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud: 8.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew: 7.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: 9.0

The first four Harry Potter books were published within a span of five years, which is pretty ridiculous to me. However, this was partially because Rowling's publishers were making so much money that they started giving her deadlines on when she had to get her books finished. This sure sucked for her, because that meant she had to write Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a 734 page book, in a year. It's weird that they flipped out about that so much though, because the Harry Potter series made Rowling the first author to have three books in the top three spots on the NY Times Bestseller List.

But by the time Rowling got around to writing book five, she was so famous that she could get any publisher she wanted, so she got to finish it when she felt like it. This meant that we waited three painful years before the biggest book in the series yet, Order of the Phoenix, came around. At 870 pages, it remains the longest in the series.

Harry and his friends have been through a lot together at this point. Harry himself became famous at one year old because the evil wizard Voldemort tried to kill him with a curse that had killed dozens of wizards before, but for some reason, it backfired when he tried it on Harry, and it nearly killed him instead. Harry then had to grow up away from being famous under the protection of his evil aunt and uncle (who are also non-magic people, a.k.a. muggles). This is annoying for him, of course, but the blood relation he has with the Dursleys protects him from Voldemort. Therefore, it's only when he goes to his school- Hogwarts- when he gets in danger.

Voldemort has been trying to return all series, and in four, he finally succeeded. Now, Harry is in more danger than ever, since the dark lord is seeking revenge and is at full power again. Harry saw him come back and had to duel him in book four, and, while the wise headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore, and Harry's friends, Ron and Hermione, believe him, the government of the magical world, the Ministry of Magic, doesn't. Therefore, we see a lot of political problems in book five, because while Voldemort murders and gathers his army together again that he had when he was previously starting a wizarding war, the Ministry does nothing. In fact, the Minister, Cornelius Fudge, tries to silence Harry and Dumbledore, who, he thinks, are trying to take control of the Ministry.

This means that Fudge tries to take control of Hogwarts in return, putting under his personal eye. He sends in a new teacher- Dolores Umbridge- to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts position that has been held by a different teacher every year, because it's apparently cursed. Now I'm going to say this straight up: Umbridge is one of the biggest b****es I have ever read about, rivaling the likes of Voldemort in this series. I thorougly hated her by the end of this book, as she pushed to get Dumbledore and Hagrid, Harry's friend and the Hogwars gamekeeper, out of the school, and force restrictions on the students. Her detentions in particular are vicious. When Harry tries to speak out about what he saw the night Voldemort returned, he is brought to her room every day to write "I must not tell lies" on a piece of parchment in his own blood, which is magically sucked from his hand by her quill.

Harry and friends, however, don't take this crap. Ron and Hermione decide to form Dumbledore's Army, which is essentially a Defense Against the Dark Arts ****taught by Harry to help the students who are on their side and believe in Dumbledore. Harry's no master at magic, but he's done a lot more in battle than most of the adult wizards in the book, which is saying something.

But while this insurrection goes on at Hogwarts, the real battle goes on behind the scenes. Voldemort and his followers- the Death Eaters- are squaring off against the small secret society that believes Voldemort has returned, called the Order of the Phoenix. These include Dumbledore, who also leads the group, many of the Hogwarts teachers, Sirius Black, Harry's godfather who also happens to be a convicted felon, and Harry's old DADA teachers, Remus Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody (well sort of Moody...). Harry tries to help, but is considered "too young," despite all he has done.

So Harry really has a hard time of it in this book, with all of the adults treating him like a child, most of his old friends mistrusting him (though he doesn't notice many of them stick with him through it all), and Dumbledore apparently avoiding Harry, when he used to be a sort of father figure to him. This is an odd development that comes along with Harry having constant nightmares and apparently seeing into the thoughts of Voldemort himself, because the night he was nearly killed and got his famous lightning bolt scar, a connection was made between the two. These lead toward... Well, the fantastic, action-packed, jaw-dropping, secret-unveiling conclusion.

As you can tell, there is a lot, and I mean A LOT to this story, and I haven't even mentioned Harry's dating life with his girlfriend, Cho Chang, or many of the rules Umbridge enforces. I'm more than happy to devour all the Harry Potter I can get though, because J.K. Rowling's writing, at this point, is flawless. In the first two books she felt a little shaky sometimes, but now it's always pitch perfect. We get one of the darkest books yet with this one, and yet there's still plenty of humor thrown in to avoid making the book just plain gloomy. In fact, the Weasley twins, Ron's older brothers Fred and George, are perhaps the funniest they've ever been in this book, giving Umbridge all the hell they can. In other words, while we get dark, Rowling keeps things balanced out a little bit to keep things fun.

All of the plot points are delivered masterfully. There is a lot to Order of the Phoenix, and yet Rowling keeps the story churning outwithouttrying to shove a dull moment down our throats. I find that even her characters dealing with political issues is interesting because of how cruel the government is (could even be worse than Obama!) and how the characters react realistically. I'd revolt too if I was Harry.

But Rowling's excellent writing andher story that's so complex, weaved together masterfully, andawesome at every turn aren't all there is to book five. It's always been the characters that are the true magic of Harry Potter. Many feel a bit zany, and yet none feel completely unrealistic. If you've lived as long as Harry (which isn't long), you'll have already met someone that's somewhat like all of the characters, some mean teacher, some egotistical jerk, someone you look up to,someone that'll stick with you through thick and thin, all of them are here. They were powerful in book one, and now we're on book five, I felt like I knew them. I feel like I've actually met Harry because of how much we've learned about him. Rowling feels this even more powerfully. When one of the big characters dies at the end of the book (not saying who if you seriously haven't read this book), she cried. This emotional power transfers well to her storytelling, and would make me keep reading even through a dull moment.

However, there is one gaping flaw in Order of the Phoenix. Like Goblet of Fire before it, I felt that Rowling was getting very longwinded, even though her writing was drastically improving. Now, it gets even worse. There's a good chapter or two in there about Umbridge's cruelty or house elf junk that really didn't need to be there and doesn't enhance the overall story much at all. Rowling even said that if she could do the whole series over, she'd edit book five more, which really needed doing. The seventh book, Deathly Hallows, is 759 pages long, making it the second longest, and definitely had more straight up relevant plot than book five. Therefore, it should've been the longest. If that much could've been edited, book five would've been even better.

Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun reading Order of the Phoenix. Rowling's story has gotten richer and more powerful every step of the way, and this is no exception. Despite some unnecessary scenes that could've been taken out or mixed together (as seen in the movie), the government taking over, the teens revolting, the love story, the comedy, and the war just begging to begin all blend into one fantastic story that can't be missed anymore than its predecessors.

9.5 out of 10: Superb

Edit: Oh, and I think I'll start posting the covers of the books, just because pictures are fun.

National Novel Writing Month has begun! Everyone who wants to try it, the goal is to write a 50,000 word story in a month- which is about 1,667 words a day. It's a very cool challenge because it pushes you to keep writing when you feel like your book is turning out badly (probably isn't anyway). I'm already writing a story, obviously, so my goal's to write another 50,000 words or finish the book, whichever comes first. I'm pretty sure that'll be the latter, but whatever. I just thought I'd let you all know!

I'm double testing for my next two belts in taekwondo this Saturday. Testing happens every ten weeks, so I'm pretty excited. I'm at yellow, the third belt, so I'm aiming for green, the fifth.

And heeeeeeere... we go! I am trying to shorten these up by the way, for those who are scared off by how long they are.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: 10
Grand Theft Auto IV: 10
LittleBigPlanet: 9.5
BioShock: 9.5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: 9.5
inFamous: 9.0
Killzone 2: 9.0
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: 9.0
Dead Space: 9.0
Resident Evil 5: 8.5
Valkyria Chronicles: 8.5

Resistance: Fall of Man: 8.5
Resistance 2: 9.0
Batman: Arkham Asylum: 9.0

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: 10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: 8.5
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: 9.0
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: 8.5
Eldest by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King: 8.0
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King: 9.5
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King: 9.5
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman: 9.0
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman: 9.5
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman: 10
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer: 8.0
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer: 9.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket: 8.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket: 8.5
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: 9.0
The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud: 8.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew: 7.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: 9.0

Artemis Fowl, a book series by Irishman Eoin Colfer, deserves more fame than it gets in my opinion. The writing of the series is fantastic, it's hilarious, the fairy (and human) technology is cool, new, and exciting in each book, and the characters and story are well-developed.

This holds true for the fourth book in the series, Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, in which the teenage main character, the titular Artemis Fowl, goes to face off against the evil Opal Koboi from book two, who has been rescued from the prison she's been kept in. However, because of the last book he doesn't remember that fairies exist, so a lot of the book is focused on him and his badass Butlergettingtheir memories back. Holly Short, meanwhile, a fairy that's fighting on Artemis's side (they were enemies before) is trying to stop Opal from framing her and taking over not only the underground fairy world, but the human one as well. Her plan involves helping an Italian guy discover the fairy world so that the two groups will meet and war will break out, giving Opal the opportunity to take control.

No more story spoiling. As per usual, Eoin Colfer delivers an excellent story blending unique fantasy with reality, with fun, often laugh-out-loudfunny characters (Mulch Diggums, a flatulent dwarf, is particularly humorous). Artemis's character development seems to start over from square one, as in how he was in book one, but we quickly learn that when he gets his memory back, he starts understanding how to care for others. After all, Artemis was originally a millionnaire teenage criminal mastermind trying to steal from the fairies in book one.

The high points of the story come when we get interaction between Artemis and Holly, who somehow have sexual tension, despite being human and fairy. Some others include every time Mulch talks, sinceI don't think I've laughed at a character more often than him in any series (except maybe Ron of Harry Potter fame),Butler beating up some crazy monsters, and when fairies attach jet packs to their backs.Aside from some awesome action scenes, like a giant troll battle halfway through, Colfer's storytelling and wit propel the book forward very quickly to keep the reader engrossed along with these sequences.

Since book three almost closed the gap on continuing the series, one would think that this one would be a bit corny by finding a loophole to exploit for the author to keep writing. Fortunately, the book never feels this cheap because all of the characters are as strong as they were in Eternity Code (book three), if not stronger. The set pieces are a bit familiar, but the plot twists and turns so much that it's hard to notice.

However, the book is far from flawless. Opal is evil, even diabolical, to be sure, but she's also extremely annoying. I was kind of glad that, after Arctic Incident (book two) she didn't show up in Eternity Code, but Colfer felt like bringing her back again, which, to me, was a bad call. She has some strong evil schemes, but her whining gets annoying, and a fairly large portion of the story is told from her perspective.

Another thing that bugged me is that Colfer seemed to try a little too hard to make sure this book didn't feel as cheap as it very well could have. The plot does feel like it's a rather necessary part of the story, so itwas unnecessary for him to go into pages and pages of repeating how Artemis is getting his memory back, provingthere's more story to tell, and that this book isn't a cash-in. I believed that the first time I heard it, so there's a section in there that dragged on me, in which Artemis told everyone in creation how he was going to re-learn what he knew before (although the boredom was broken up nicely by the troll fight). Or at least, it felt repetitive- even if it wasn't all that much so, it could've been condensed a lot.

This could also be because Colfer wanted to write a long book, possibly to try to make it more expensive, and possibly because it seems a lot of authors like todo that. I think it's around the same length as book three, but didn't need to be- it could've been more like book one or two in length and been better off. Either way, it took longer to explain than it needed to, and the worst plot points of the series so far were brought back into play here.

I consider the book an improvement over book two, but not quite up to the awesomeness of books one and three. I think I attribute this to Colfer bringing back book two characters but also improving his writing prowess, which is a bit of a toss-up. Nevertheless, the story is well-told and action packed, so I would highly suggest it.

8.5 out of 10: Great