The Blurring Line Between Reality and Fantasy
926262
PAN'S LABYRINTH is a mystery cloaked in the garb of a fairy tale for adults. It is an examination of the cruelty of the Civil War in Spain as Franco assumed prominence and the extent to which some people would resist or escape: one of those means of escape just happens to be fantasy.  Writer/Director Guillermo del Toro proves his potential as one of the more important experimental filmmakers with this haunting, mesmerizing tale of a young girl's ability to cope with the world into which she is plunged.

Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is the eleven year old daughter of Carmen (Adriana Gil) whom we first meet as the mother and daughter move to the deserted mill to live with Carmen's sadistic and brutal new husband, Falangist Capitn Vidal (Sergi Lpez). Carmen is pregnant with Vidal's child and upon her arrival she is ordered to bed attended by the housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verd). Ofelia is frightened by Vidal and his cruel world and by the deteriorating condition of her very pregnant mother and follows a strange insect that leads her to a secret opening into a labyrinth.  Her curiosity and desperation to find a better place leads to her discovery of an entirely different world beneath the ground, a world run by the Faun (Doug Jones) who gives Ofelia three tasks that will assist her in making her world above ground a better place. Ofelia must choose between the ever increasing terror surrounding her new home with Vidal and his heinous behavior and overcome the fear of the grotesque but fascinating world of Pan's Labyrinth: the story ends with the manner in which a child must face the realities of the failure of the adult world and find successful solutions - whether those solutions be reality or fantasy.

Guillermo del Toro has chosen a superb cast of actors, extraordinary visual effects technicians, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and music composer Javier Navarrete to create this magical tale. The film becomes one of the finest examples of the use of fantasy in an historical setting. It is bound to become a classic.  Grady Harp, May 07
1354594
Michael Barsa paints a New England Gothic landscape with strong brush strokes and vivid colors. From the old house with its dark secrets, to the primeval woods, the rural roads, covered bridges, and small towns, theres depravity lurking beneath the limpid Norman Rockwell surface. We perceive that subliminal corruption as revealed through the eyes and mind of the narrator, Milo Crane.

Milo is a young adult who seeks shelter in his room, where he fantasizes about military history, weapons and fortifications, builds models of warships and lives in an imaginary world that borders on what we commonly think of as reality. Early on he seems a self-described eccentric and semi-recluse, a bit weird perhaps, but likeable. After all, between the black and white of social norms there are many shades of gray. Hes the product of a dysfunctional family. Milo had an aloof and forbidding best-selling writer for a father, a heavy-drinking and neglectful mother, and an older sister with whom he has a strange sadomasochistic relationship. Predictably, with his non-conformist quirks, he was marginalized and bullied by his peers. Is that narrative calculated to gain the readers sympathy before the truth is disclosed? Can we always trust our first impression of a character? Whats more, can we trust a first-person narrators impressions of the other characters in the story he or she narrates?

Milo is a prime example of the unreliable narrator frequently used in tales of psychological horror. Unreliable narrators aren't necessarily liars. Rather, they tell truths that conform to their singular perspective. To quote a character from one of my own novels: Thank heaven for people who are satisfied with facts that conform to the reality they wish to believe.
Theres a mystery at the heart of the novel: Was the car crash that killed Milos parents an accident, or something else? A number of secondary mysteries are skillfully connected to the principal one involving the parents death. The tension and conflict are ratcheted up when Milos sister Klara hires a French gardener, Henri Blanc, to upgrade the landscaping. Milo hates the gardener at first sight; he identifies Henri with Keith, the author-fathers most sinister creation. But Milo is jealous; he wants to be the center of his sisters attention. Is Milos perception skewed by jealousy, or does he see things clearly in his own, quirky way? On the other hand, could Milo be his fathers Frankenstein monster, his creature come to life? Whats more, could the tale be the product of a sinister collaboration between creator and creature?

The title of the novel is a metaphor related to a theme flowing throughout the narrative. A blue rose is something that doesnt occur in nature, its mysterious and enigmatic. It can also symbolize the impossible, or unattainable. A garden of blue roses could imply an illusion, something beautiful created with the intent to deceive that could inspire its admirers to imitate the deception. The product of a warped imagination. In that respect, it might allude to Platos warning in The Republic: Poetryhas a bad effect on its audiences, who learn to admire and imitate the faults it represents. We cannot, therefore, allow poets in our ideal state.

Garden of Blue Roses is filled with clever literary allusions. Theres also plenty of dark humor. I particularly liked the scene where Milo tries to play Sherlock Holmes at the local HMO clinic. He attempts to get private information from an unfriendly clerk and discovers that sleuthing in a Victorian thriller and real-life detective work in contemporary America are not quite the same thing. All things considered, Barsas debut novel is a compelling read that kept me engaged from the first page to the last.
2876674
I realize there is much suspension of belief in many stories but to me that is the beauty of a the story.  ANYTHING can happen.  WHAT WE WANT TO HAPPEN really does.  Fantasy is the .Best drug today.
3023200
Auralia's Colors is a fantasy novel that has a dubious reputation because of the authors' religion. Many fear that Colors is just a way to preach Christianity. It doesn't help when Jeffrey Overstreet mentions CS Lewis in interviews. Thankfully you will be hard pressed to find anything that resembles evangelical religion.

It's just an artsy kind of fantasy novel.

The story revolves around a girl who was found abandoned in a river. Auralia is surrounded by a culture devoid of colour and art. The king of Abascar duped the people into handing over their colourful belongings so that his kingdom would outshine others. Everyone wears drab uniforms and owns utilitarian posessions. Anything of real value or beauty is shoved under the castle. Even childhood dreams are discouraged in the kingdom of Abascar.

Sentimentalism and fatalism runs high in Auralia's Colors. There is yearning for beauty that expresses itself in poetry throughout the novel. Overstreet is clearly trying to create a longing for a child-like state of mind where everything is new and colorful. He contrasts this with the harshness and faithlessness that adulthood can bring. The abandoned infant, Auralia, is that reminder.

You will be enthralled in the first half of the novel as Overstreet introduces you to the Expanse - a land of four kingdoms bound together by a common past. It was wonderful to learn about how each House got to be the way they are. However the interest fades when the book just becomes an apocalyptic bore.

Why yearn for beauty or long after the simplicity of childhood - have a character to represent that - and then destroy everything? Truly depressing and fatalistic. It reminds me of when an artist is creating something wonderful, then starts to hate it, and wrecks it.

Very weird choice.

Rating (Gouge My Eyes Out, Below Average, Average, Above Average, More Please)
Average

Liked: Backstory to The Expanse and the House of Abascar, unique fantasy world

Disliked: Fatalism, determinism, and apocalypse
3508036
MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY is a combination fantasy and reality novel, loosely mixed. Other than the grouchy grandmother, it is a total departure from A MAN CALLED OVE, except for the being misunderstood part.

Seven-year old Elsa is the main character. Her mother is a hospital administrator who has little time for her daughter. This job falls to Granny, who fills her head with fairy tales about the Land-of-Almost-Awake. Their are parallels between the two worlds. Elsa lives in an apartment building with a collection of weird characters. On the ground floor there's a dog-like character Granny calls Our Friend. Then there's The Monster who lives across the hall. Our Friend is a wurse, a soldier-like character from the Land-of-Almost-Awake. The Monster is a Beowulf-like hero who saves the day when the Shadows try to destroy the Land-of-Almost-Awake. In reality he really was a soldier and returned from the war with a bad case of OCD. In the Land-of-Almost-Awake he's Wolfheart.

Then there's Britt-Marie who's married to Kent, who's never home. There's also a taxi driver, named Alf, we later find out is Kent's brother. In the Land-of -Almost-Awake they're both in love with the princess, Britt-Marie. Britt Marie is a royal pain.
She call herself the president of the non-existent lease holders association. She's a rule enforcer: She who must be obeyed. Granny is always messing with her. She shoots her with a paint gun. She smokes. Get this, Granny is a surgeon who serves all over the world, wherever she's needed, and she smokes, even in the hospital, and she parks her beat-up Renault in Britt-Marie's spot. Granny also can't seem to spell.

Elsa's favorite reading material is the Harry Potter books and she loves STAR WARS. She doesn't understand people who don't like either. Her father is a bit like Britt-Marie. He's always correcting her language and he doesn't seem to have a sense of humor, but he loves Elsa.

Backman does not worry one iota about suspension of disbelief. I think he could've written a novel where a goofy Granny tells her granddaughter all sorts of fairy tales that apply to real life, but Granny should make it clear that they're just fairy tales, despite all the real-life connections. Elsa is too smart to believe there really is a Land-of-Almost-Awake.
1943380
Schaffer mixes reality and fantasy seamlessly. The characters are richly drawn and the scenes are dreamlike (or nightmarish as needed). Grown-up fairy tale in the tradition of The Night Circus.
2879790
Someone asked me recently if I believed extraterrestrials were coming to Earth, and if I did, what did I think they wanted. I replied that I had never made up my mind between the scientific explanation for the Universe and the magical one. Are aliens the same or different from the fairies, or the Gods, or the spirits?

I believe in a world beyond the mundane, but I don't know if it's magical or scientific, or whether that distinction is a real as some would tell us it is.

The Ship that Sailed to Mars is from that rarest class of fantasy wherein the distinction between science and magic is blurred. A man wanted to travel to the planet Mars. Because of his faith, the fairies decided to build him a spaceship. That's so simple an idea, and so beautiful a whimsy, and as a concept it breaks all of the modern rules.

C.S. Lewis, besides being the author of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, also wrote a science fiction trilogy which painted outer-space as Heaven rather than void. Not empty - but full of light and life. When reading William Timlin's work I feel a similar sense that the Universe is not filled with dead rock and vacuum so much as it is with wonder and imagination. I believe this is a too-often missing perspective at the present moment.

This is a deluxe hardcover version of the book printed on very thick paper. The illustrations and text pages are separated and reproduced with great care. I did detect what appeared to be a light amount of blurring on a few of the pictures, but I can't say if that's an error in reproduction or how the original pictures were. It does seem a shame that no dust-jacket is provided. The interior art (drawn and painted by the author) is wonderful and I am sure that one of the many pieces of art the author created could have been selected as a cover. Did the first print not have a cover illustration?

The text appears to be hand written, but very legible. I noticed it encouraged me to read more slowly. Over-all the layout is reminiscent of the original presentation of William Blake's books.

This book would be suitable for a child of any age or any adult who is able to avoid feeling embarrassed when faced with unbridled and playful imagination. You will find it free of the formulaic cliches so many of our modern works of fantasy and science-fiction now seem permanently locked in the clutches of. To a child, this will be a wonderful adventure filled with imagination. Perhaps an adult might see something deeper in the protagonist's journey and the long voyage from Earth, past so many worlds in-between, to get to the world of Mars.

Noah Mullette-Gillman
Author of Magic Makes You Strange
2410237
The book begins with the defining statement of its thesis (page 1): "The basic contentions of the argument of this book are implicit in its title, namely, that reality is socially constructed. . . ."  The essence of this: our understanding of what is "real" is something that comes from our living in a social world.  That social world is a major part of defining what "reality" is.

The book is not necessarily an easy read.  But the authors' argument is important and the reader will be rewarded by "toughing it out."  Even if one disagree with Berger and Luckmann, it is important to grapple with and address their arguments.

One of the major issues of the human condition is that we become convinced that we "know" reality" and reject other people's views of "reality"--when, in fact, as the authors argue, "reality is a construction of society."  Much conflict, then, is a battle over constructions--and not a battle over objective reality.

Human nature's role? The book winds up with a telling comment here (page 183): "Man is biologically predestined to construct and to inhabit a world with others.  This world becomes for him the dominant and definitive reality. Its limits are set by nature, but, once constructed, this world acts back upon nature. . . . In this same dialectic man produces reality and thereby produces himself."

This is an important work on how people come to understand the world around them and how that perception, in its turn, affects their behavior. Many readers will be uncomfortable with this argument, but it is an important issue to address.  And this book is one of those key venues where such an interaction between readers and ideas can take place.
3225293
This is an important precursor to the fantasy genre. To me, it seems to be more of a faithful rendering of the author's own drug-induced dream than a conscious work of literature. It is told by a Victorian little girl, who fell asleep on a summer day and had an epic nightmare. The monarchical form of government and the English judicial system are not represented favorably in this imaginative tale.
4457802
Sparse language in a surreal world. This book will make you ponder about what is real, what is perceived and what is in-between.
4096121
In the not-too-distant future, technology exists but is not depended upon, and magic (juju) is alive and real, a normal part of everyday life. Existence is a struggle - water has to be forced from the atmosphere using capture stations, the towns are small and surrounded by desert, travel requires you to walk, and the Okeke (dark-skinned) people are enslaved and abused by the Nuru (light-skinned) people.

The main character is Onyesonwu (which translated means "Who Fears Death", the title of the book), the product of rape, which makes her different and set apart from everyone else in a very visible way, subject to ridicule, derision, and scorn at the worst, and invisibility at the least. As the author says in her blog, "'Who Fears Death' is a story about a woman who has to fight to be what she is." Thus, it's more than just a coming-of-age story, but also a coming-of-power story.

Onyesonwu struggles on many levels with who she is - a female in a society that still abuses women, even going so far as to mutilate their genitals; the biological daughter of an evil sorcerer and the woman he raped, a woman who deliberately chose to have her child; the adopted daughter of a respected blacksmith; and a sorceress in her own right that has to fight to be taught her craft, simply because she is a woman. Beyond that, she has to discover who she really is, at her very core, and learn to harness her power. She is unable to turn a blind eye to the genocide and other atrocities happening in the world around her, and does what she can to stop it. Although she is angry, at times reckless and dangerous, as a character you feel for her. You want to help her, you want things to go well for her.

This book reminded me very much of the style and tone of Octavia E. Butler, and I even mentioned that to a friend, before reading that Butler is one of Okarafor's influences. Similarities with Butler's work include a strong female character with flaws, trying to find her place in the world as well as trying to make it better.

The prose is descriptive without being heavy-handed. When I think about the book, I feel as if I am in the desert with Onyesonwu and her friends, that I too am a part of her world.

Highly recommended.
2100486
I made a mistake in purchasing this book. Based on the first review, I thought it would be a historical novel. Instead I read a book full of vampyres (sic), demons, possession, magick (sic), alchemists, etc.  This is pure fantasy filled with characters who all hate each other.  I couldn't tell if descriptions of London were based on fact or were simply more fantasy creations. Half way through the book I still hadn't found any semblance of a plot.

A women is killed and her corpse keeps rising to life.  The main characters keep meeting  at her crypt at night to find out why she is possessed or who possessed her or something else. The characters, because of their mutual dislike, spend so much time  biting their tongues or choking down retorts to verbal jibes that they don't get much done and have to come back again the next night, and the next. That covers about two thirds of the book.

This type of fantasy fiction is not my thing.  For people who enjoy fantasy fiction,  the writing itself is well done.  I had to force myself to finish reading since there was no real plot to resolve. It was simply too convoluted for me to enjoy.
3458659
Seven Shades of Grey--not to be confused with the similar-sounding erotic novel Five Shades of Grey--takes place in India.  Vivek Mehra is an author who knows India well and who also understands the ubiquity of the Internet and its influence on the lives of those who actually live at great distances from one another.  Reading this book makes one feel like a voyeur peering over the shoulders of those in a chat room. Written form the point of view of an Indian chemist working on perfecting a new formula, the narrative is really about a tortured soul seeking refuge in the messages he receives from women as distant as New York City, Canada, and Singapore. His own wife Dolly, for whom he professes great love, is nevertheless an incidental character.  She is often gone visiting her parents for a month at a time, leaving Vikram Singhal to find solace and inspiration online. The women with whom he communicates seem as distressed as he is, dissolving into tears and aching for spiritual connection that is only fleeting when it comes.
The book is a series of Internet encounters and vivid dreams punctuated occasionally by what appear to be real-life encounters with real people.  MAA is the thread connecting Vikram to the real world--as he lights incense and prays to this god between sleeping and dreaming and connecting to women in chat rooms.
When Dolly66, ironically with the same name as his wife, abandons their virtual connection, he is lost.  He had placed in her his spiritual connection to the universe and now is bereft.  It became another Internet friend's task to save him and explain to him what the reader had already ascertained about the relationship with Dolly66. His cyberspace world included profound expressions of love for women he had not met, women who represented a pure kind of spiritual love beyond the day-to-day world he shared with his wife. Perhaps it was only Vikram who did not understand that he "knew" only what came to him through the words on his computer and that the words could easily represent an invented reality.
All of the ramblings of Vikram take place as he sits in the waiting room of the maternity ward waiting for the birth of his first child after ten years of a barren marriage.  The reader can only speculate about the future of Vikram and his real-world wife Dolly, a woman who admits that as an Indian woman she was taught to obey her husband.  In the prologue Vikram describes himself as a dutiful husband "as confused as ever."  His year of living in the "new planet" of the Internet have transformed him, but has he learned anything?  The reader is left wondering what the next year will bring.
3650363
From early times, men have fantasized about what it would be like to become invisible, as witness medieval stories about cloaks of invisibility, and the like. Wells's novel, placed at the turn of the last century, puts the dream into a modern context, but in it, the dream becomes a nightmare.
The beginning of the book deals with the coming of the man, who has invented a way to become invisible, and used it on himself, to a small English town.  He is essentially a refugee.  The Invisible Man is irritable to the point of homicidal madness, a trait engendered both by secretive overwork on his discovery and by the effects of the decolorizing agent. Because his invisibiity has caused him to go about naked, the Invisible Man has suffered terribly in the English winter, and he has clothed himself in bandages and stolen clothing to hide his newfound status. Still, he is undone by the nosiness of strangers and eventually flees again to find himself in the home of a former acquaintance, one Kemp.
In explaining his dilemma to Kemp, the Invisible Man, an albino scientist named Griffin, discloses that he discovered a compound that decolorized blood, and that as an albino, he was the perfect test case. Discussion of the refractory powers of light dominates this portion of the book, in a manner understandable to anyone.  However, taking the chemical creates great pain, and madness.
Wells's analyses of the problems facing one who has become invisible is extremely thorough, and done in the context of Griffin's narrative.  One must be careful not to go about in the rain, where he would appear as a bubble, or in the fog, where he would appear as an opening in the vapor.  One cannot walk through mud or puddles without his feet becoming visible, and must eat in hidden places, because the food eaten remains visible until digested.  The curiosity of dogs and persons with keen senses is aroused because the Invisible Man still leaves a scent and makes sounds as he moves about.  And the lack of protective garments makes one extraordinarily sensitive to heat, cold, and inclement weather.
Eventually, the Invisible Man turns to murder and arson to cover his "tracks" and, in the end, is undone and killed when he returns to attack Kemp.  The novel bogs down a bit here.
Wells's importance to creating s/f writing as a genre is that he used available science to explain how his fantasies came about.  In this respect, he differs from Verne and other predecessors, as well as a good many successors.  This trait makes his stories possess a veneer of believability uncommon to most s/f.  The Invisible Man is one of Wells's best novels, and I can guarantee that you will enjoy it if you like s/f.  Highly recommended.
830239
Magic is real but only certain people can do it. People who are obsessed with something (cats, heavy metal music, art, etc.) which becomes their truest passion (or coping mechanism) tend to become 'mancers. Whatever it is, they must be fully immersed and open to it as a vessel, to perform magic.

But because magic doesn't jive with the laws governing the universe, it creates problems. The physical form of magic, the titular Flex, is like crystal meth. Normal people ingest it and are allowed to "do" magic of their own. But there are consequences to this: namely Flux, which is a blowback re-balancing of the laws of the universe, that rebound upon the user, persons loved by the user, and other innocent victims. The world's populace fear magic, fear Flux, fear 'mancers. Being a 'mancer isn't cool.

Enter Paul Tsabo, a working class Joe who is a former cop. Paul had an encounter with a 'mancer that changed his life (and cost him a foot) and lead to secrets that cost him his marriage. Now he works for an insurance corporation, trying to maintain a civil relationship with his ex-wife and co-parent his young daughter. A horrific accident nearly kills Paul and his daughter. Although both escape, the aftermath is costly. Paul is forced to learn to use his skills as a 'mancer to try and save his daughter: by becoming a Flex maker / dealer.

Oh, and there also happens to be a mass murderer on the loose, who's using Flex to kill people in ever growing multiples.

With numerous pop culture and video game references, doughnut theories, and chicken sexing, there's something for all readers of sci-fi/fantasy. Ferrett has crafted a story about desires and passions that distill into physical magic, the consequences of manifesting that magic, and what lengths someone will go to for those they love.
464847
When one reads a book, it is very difficult to be objective. One can attempt to be objective but in the end it is a matter of one person's meat is another person's poison. This is certainly the case wiith this fantasy,fairly fast-paced novel. The book has a lot of sexual violence. For those who committed violent acts, sexual abuse and rape, the hero of the story is a demon, who showed no mercy for pedophiles and sex criminals. The victims view the hero, Alec Winters, as an angel, who saved their lives and disappeared.  The reader is left with a feeling of confusion. Bill Winters is a character that is psychic, who has devoted his life to saving victims from sexual abuse and violence. His sister was a victim of sexual violence committed by his father and was committed to a mental hospital as a result.

There is a lot of repetition of violent scenes under slightly differing circumstances, which was a bit much as Alec Winters uses similar vague methods of saving victims from sexual abuse, violence and even cetain death.

The book is an interesting read with many steady twists. I found it difficult to identify with the hero as he was far too surrealistic for my taste. Readers, who like psychic fiction may find this book a  gripping and fascinating read. I continued reading until the end in the hope of finding some realism in Alec Winters existence but was really disappointed. He is a superhuman angel/demon all combined in one person. His amazing strength and ability to cause death to sex perverts, pedophiles and rapists is too far-fetched for my taste.

It is not a book that can be recommended to readers who are sensitive to sexual violence and crude language to describe the various scenarios occurring in this story.  Faint-hearted readers should not even attempt to read this book as undoubtedly it would disgust them.
4028958
Not so long ago, the release of a great book produced the kind of furor that film releases now receive.  TALES OF FANTASY AND REALITY is a book that increases one's regret that good books no longer receive the attention that they deserve.  It is apparent from the first page that the imagination of author Chinwe John is a thing of wonder, encompassing modernist realism and the flights of fancy that shape her work.  Particularly impressive and moving in TALES OF FANTASY AND REALITY are Dr. John's evocations of African lore, a rich vein of wondrous material too little explored by English-speaking writers and readers.  Dr. John's storytelling in verse reveals her as an insightful, inspiring artist, and TALES OF FANTASY AND REALITY is a work of art that belongs in the hands of every reader who has tired of formulaic, uninspiring books by ghost writers.  Even in this age of gadgetry and technical wizardry, it is rare that an author succeeds as Dr. John has in using words to transform fantasies of the mind into realities on the page.  Brava!