Tag: Crown Duel

Inda and Ender

Tuesday, 6 May, 2008 at 1:35 am

I finished Inda a while ago. I was going to write an entry about it, but as always I kept building up the writing part of it, trying to make it all nice and a coherently written piece, so it never got out of my head. Now I am forcing it out so everything will be rambly. (Spoilers ahead probably.)

The first thing that struck me while reading was how similar the academy was to Battle School (in the Ender books). I don’t mean anything negative by the comparison. Of course two schools centered around command and winning wars will be similar. But I thought it was interesting, how the premise worked in both settings. One was outer space and all future-y, the other was on another planet entirely (more like another universe, not really an alien planet) and in medieval-like times. (Flying spacecraft versus swords and bows, woo!) Both would set up battles between students.

Gand actually reminded me of what’s-his-name in Ender (sorry can’t remember, haven’t read the books in a while, and they’re not handy at school either), although I didn’t realize it until he was talking to Brath (is that his name? argh I took Inda home over the weekend) about controlling the students. Brath reminded me of that other school head guy in Ender too.

I think Battle School factored more into Ender’s plot though. Or … at least it did in Ender’s Shadow. Sorry, haven’t read Ender’s Game in a while, and it tends to blend with Shadow for me anyway. In Inda it was more just a setting.

But that’s okay, I liked learning more about Sartorias-Deles (the world Inda takes place on) and the customs of that time and everything. (Crown Duel takes place on the same world, but many many years later.)

What else? Oh, when some of the characters died, I couldn’t believe it. Even nearing the end, I thought, Oh this character can’t die because such and such, then in the next scene or two, that person dies! Heartwrenching.

Oh yeah, you know how in Crown Duel I probably have weird associations with characters? Well it happened in Inda too. Firstly I was sort of comparing Inda and Ender while reading through the academy part, but Inda stood on his own personality in my mind. (They both got banished oh em gee el oh el!)

Then near the end I was shocked by this association I had: the Sierlaef looks like and is like Prince Zuko from Avatar: the Last Airbender, in my mind. O.o Except with blonde hair. It probably started with the “horsetail” hairdo. Then all of his throwing his royal weight around, his anger, or something in his personality cemented the connection in my mind.

I didn’t pick up on it until the Sierlaef was riding around patrolling the south though. It really shocked me. The Sierlaef doesn’t have a scar on his face in my mind … and he also has blonde hair (I have to force the blonde hair though—I always picture brown hair first, for anybody), but he still looks like Prince Zuko! Weird.

Now I need to buy The Fox. But it’s only in hardcover? And I am a poor, poor student with little expendable cash. :( (All my allowance goes toward cable and internet.)

Also, I would like to say, woot! My silly little post in the athanarel community on LJ may or may not have prompted Sherwood Smith to post the latest behind-the-scenes story, but either way it’s written and posted! XD Joy of joys! Now I have to print out all the stories and bind them in a nice book. Hmm, I have to shop for a nice paper. (I’m thinking of doing a Japanese link stitch binding, if I can get money for that book off Amazon.)

there’s got to be another way

Tuesday, 8 June, 2004 at 7:12 pm

Hah, I just realized there’s this option to have people registered before they can comment … and that I had it marked “yes” ^^;; I don’t really know how I’d have people register. How did I register in this thing? I forgot. Uhh … too lazy to go find out.

Yesterday I watched Mean Girls. Mum thinks it was a copy of some executive’s video, and not a pirate, ’cause it was bad quality, but in a good way. Meaning, it wasn’t slanted, and there weren’t shadows of people walking across. ^^;; (unlike Shrek, which we watched Saturday.) It was just fuzzzzy and there was an annoying crackle in the background, which I managed to partially get rid of (Mum: “There was background noise?” ^^;).

I liked Mean Girls, but it wasn’t as good as the commercials make it out to be … :/ I don’t know if I’d watch it again. But I’d tell people to go see it if they’re interested! (And … I’m not a hypocrite; I wouldn’t have paid theater admission to see it, I wouldn’t have rented it from Blockbuster, and if it weren’t on HBO later I’d go through my whole life without having seen it.)

Shrek was good. Not fantabulously amazing, but if anyone had a DVD or paid for my ticket, I’d see it again. >b

Most of my summer so far, my internet access has been subpar. :( Half the time it’s really really really really really slow and the other half it’s all right. One time when it was slow I tried running a speed test, and my browser sat there for about ten minutes (or more) before the site told me the id thingamabobber had timed out and I should check to make sure I met the requirements of the test (cable or DSL access). O_o

Earlier this year I finally managed to get Launch videos to work on my laptop, but now they don’t work because the internet speed is too slow and the video keeps “buffering” or my connection is broken and I have to click OK to restart the video, but that never works and the window just freezes and I can’t do anything with it.

Also, the host servers I use for fs.net (Host Affect) seem to be down quite a bit. I don’t know. They say they have 99.9% uptime (equalling 45 minutes per month of downtime), which means roughly 1.5 minutes downtime every day. A week or two ago I couldn’t get fs.net for an hour or so almost every day. I didn’t think the internet was that slow then, either. x_x I dunno.

I have 21 different nail polish colors. Blues, pinks, purples, reds, and shimmery colors. I also have four clear bottles (one’s this Sally Hansens diamond strength thing, one is a plain clear color, one is Cutex Strong Nail with glitter in it, and the last is a topcoat). Right now I like only two or three of the colors. I want new nail polish. ^^;;; Yeah, I’m horrible all right.

Books I want to reread: Sabriel and Lirael, Crown Duel, and the Ender series. I also want to reread The Sandman series. I also have By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept to read. I just have to finish reading Jo’s Boys. Blah. That one is so unlike Little Women … but I won’t get rid of it, because it’s part of the series. ^^;;; I also have to buy Abhorsen before I read Sabriel or Lirael. That came out … a looong time ago … but it didn’t go to paperback for a while, and by the time it did I’d stopped going to the young adult section. :(

I have ten dollars. I want anime posters, Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, Confidential Confessions 4, Abhorsen, and The Time Traveler’s Wife. ^^;; Good luck to me.

laptop; Lirael; books, reading

Tuesday, 16 July, 2002 at 12:02 pm

Wheee, my laptop came today. :D It’s heavy. T-T And the case is heavy too. O.? Umm, Hidek turned it on. ¬_¬ And I don’t want to turn it off, cause … well, I’m not at the main screen, it’s a screen saying I have to read … stuff, and then press any key on the keyboard to say I’ve read it, and I don’t want to read it, so I don’t want to press keys on the keyboard either. And I don’t want to just turn it off because … I think that would be bad? ^_^;;

Um, did I ever say? I finished reading Lirael. Last Wednesday. ;_; Are authors allowed to do that? Make a whole long really good and juicy book, then make it “to be continued”??? Hmm, I don’t really mind, since it just means more goodness from Garth Nix, but still … when is Abhorsen coming out? :( *checks Amazon* “This item will be published in January 2003.” Wahhh!!! *sniffles* How will I live?

Oyeah, Hidek, Mama, and I went to Super Crown on Sunday, and the new ownership really really really … stinks. There were two shelves of sci-fi (two Star Wars books O_O) and the Young Adult and “chapter books” were still stuck together. >_< Seriously, does this tell me I’m supposed to move on from Young Adult? grar. They didn’t have Caroline B. Cooney, either.

So we went to Barnes & Noble, at the mall, and they didn’t have For All Time either. ;_; But I bought Episode Zero, Chobits 1, Crown Duel (double book version *dances*), and Witch Child. Born Blue still isn’t in paperback. *ponders* So, I read Episode Zero, and spent last night reading Chobits, then had a really weird dream that I don’t really remember. ^_^;

And Simpsons is in Spanish again. O.o What’s going on?

1:24 Mommy isn’t home yet. Wow, the laptop’s been on for quite a while …