Books: Fallen by Lauren Kate

This year on my birthday I received a lot of wonderful presents, which I really love from people I deeply care about. One of them is the Romanian translation of Lauren Kate's "Fallen". I was intrigued by the presentation on the back cover and I started to read it last Sunday and was immediately hopelessly mesmerized by it. I finished it on Wednesday and then wanted to read it again (which never happened to me, when reading a book again, I find that its magic is gone and I feel even more disappointed) or at least get the next novel of the series.
It is the book I always sought for, the perfect combination of writing talent, storytelling and the story itself. It is probably the only book I have read until now (and there are a lot of them), which didn't left me slightly disappointed by one of the above mentioned reasons. Also its atmosphere is beautiful and gracefully gothic but with passages full of horror. The fact that the main female character is not a natural blond with blue/ green eyes is a huge plus. The way the story evolves makes you read breathless until the end. The story itself is one of the most beautiful and tragic love story in literature, without getting too cheesy. It is similar to Liviu Rebreanu's "Adam and Eve" (another book I really close to my heart, but slightly dethroned by this one) but it evolves more gracefully and has another level of symbolism in it as opposed to Rebreanu's realism. I can say that this book is like beautiful hand made lace: precious and complicated.
I am convinced a lot of people will compare the "Fallen" series with the "Twilight" series, but even though the two have similar stories (an impossible love story between a mortal girl and a fantastic creature), they are profoundly different in the way the characters are built (ex: Daniel Grigori is more human in his reactions to Luce than she is) and the way the main female character thinks and relates to the others (Luce is smarter and feels things differently than Bella, who is partly blinded by her love for Edward).
What was your impression on "Fallen"?
I am in the process of getting "Torment" and I will be sure to post my opinions about it after I have finished reading it.

Music: TERRY PRATCHETT's "Soul Music" (A Discworld Novel)

No-spoilers-alert!

After all the stress and huge amounts of learning during the exam period, I felt the need to do some reading for my soul. I decided to fulfill my soul's need with something close to my heart: reading about music and decided to read Terry Pratchett's "Soul Music". I love the way he writes, his smart wit and funny ironies! He writes stories where you find yourself laughing so hard in a bus, that the people around you look at you asking themselves were you ran from.
I previously read his "Small Gods" and enjoyed it immensely. The world he creates is so beautiful and in the same time full of criticism towards our real world, that you cannot not find yourself in there. His characters are also colorful and alive.
Back to "Soul Music"... Well, it's about music... heavy or rock or hard rock music... in a world, where this sort of music is not common at all... I sometimes find myself humming some heavy melodic songs while reading about the music. I haven't finished it yet, but I am closing the ending and I am sure I will love it just as much as I love it until now. Will come back and mention if I didn't.

Here you can find more about Terry Pratchett's books.

Have you also read Terry Pratchett's books? What's your favorite?

Music: Epica – The Phantom Agony

Motto: A true work of art can be interpreted in more ways than one, since the creative human nature is so complex.


I remember my reaction when first listening to the title song of this album: "Grandiose. Who're they?". It took me 5 years to gather the necessary knowledge to write about Epica's debut album "The Phantom Agony".
The dominant atmosphere of the entire album is mystical and mysterious, yet colorful in the same time, just as the way young Arabian women look like: they show only their eyes or their faces, but their clothes are colorful and rich in patterns and their jewelry gorgeous, however what lies beneath all that fabric and color no one knows for sure. This is what "Adyta (The Neverending Embrace)" *tells* to the listener in the opening of the album. The last song of the album develops the intro's musicality and atmosphere to a maximum. Hence unveiling to the listener, in the same time the meaning of this dominant atmosphere and the title of the album: the atmosphere is "The Phantom Agony". Each song in its turn develops and explains a different façade of this vibrant atmosphere and shows another perspective of the Phantom's Agony. Therefore this album needs to be taken as a whole entity, each song is different and ties to the next one until the grandiose end.
This fact is also sustained by the various and different musical elements, which appear throughout the album:
- the choirs taken from the Classical and Gregorian music, which give, each time they appear a dramatic effect and create accents throughout the album's epic line
- the opulent rhythmic section appears as an echo of the choirs passages
- the classical instruments present give to the entire composition a precious aura and shine throughout the entire musical score like jewelry in the moonlight
- the Arabic musical elements, which have in this album more meanings than one: social (it is believed the Arabs have destroyed the *general peace* by killing so many innocents in terrorist attacks), cultural and musical (through the unique sound and color).
Eventually there comes the most obvious part: the singles, leading voices and with this the most obvious contrasts and the primary source for this album's special atmosphere. It is amazing how Mark's grunts are more expressive than Simone's voice and here appears a two level contrast, which, I don't know if it was searched for or was just the result of more lucky factors. But since in music the true talents, when combined bring out such contrasts into light, I tend to believe that this one of a kind contrast is the result of Mark's creativity and Simone's native voice and lack of experience. It is the only time I heard a vocal, without any technical training sound so good and natural (which is a contrast, since the technical singing teaches one to sing natural). But getting back to the two-level-contrast on the leading voices: by being so expressive in his grunts Mark is in contrast with Simone's linear voice, almost inexpressive. Throughout the album she shows almost no vocal expressivity and this is a very good thing, since the leading vocal score is so hard and jumps quickly from high notes to very low ones, becoming sufficient for itself through its notes. And here is where the second contrast appears, the extremely expressive musical background (sustained by all the elements listed above) and the simple, sincere, female voice, which sings the texts on each song. A very expressive, classical operatic voice would have failed badly on this album. Don't get me wrong, I am not against Simone, quite the contrary, she's one of my favorites and to be able to sing almost so natural at the age of 18 shows only that she is a natural.
After listening to the entire album, you'll just want to listen to it again and again and again and find various meanings of the Phantom's Agony, from the social aspects to each musical meaning… and in the end the feeling that dominates is that it fits just right next to Nightwish's "Century Child", Kamelot's "Epica", Trail of Tear's "A New Dimension of Might" and Tristania's "World of Glass", just to state a few albums close to "The Phantom Agony"'s release.

moonlight

The huge bed in the bedroom is lit by the moonlight. She's watchig him sleep. She stayis in the moonlight at the foot of the bed. At the head of the bed there is a painting. Her eyes cannot distinguish the painted picture. But something inside her tells her she'd better not. He seems not to be affected by the moonlight. He doesn't feel the pain. His angelic face seems so out of her world. It is strange, because until a few hours ago they were sharing the same inner world. But not anymore... He's so peaceful in his sleep. So soundless... in the white moonlight...
Suddenly she shivered... her eyes filled with tears... the suddenly grew... but the wave of pain went away... she wiped the tears from her eyes and then she turned to him again... and caught a glimpse of the painting again, there was a figure starting to take shape... he was sleeping so peaceful... soundless... his face was so calm... so an...
but the pain hit her this time so hard, she had to lean on the bed's table so that she wouldn't fell on the floor... her hed was hit by a horrible pain... she felt she could almost faint because of the pain within her... her right hand was shaking on the bed table... with the left hand she covered her mouth as she screamed... blood tears were falling from her eyes... the figure in the painting seemed to be looking at her... the moonlight got brighter... brighter... he was so sounldless asleep... his face unaware of all her pa...
then the pain went away... she was still a bit shaky... she took the left hand from her mouth and wiped away the bloody tears from her face... there was someone looking at her... she rose her head and looked at him... he was still sleeping... soundless... in the moonlight... the painting seemed to be more coloured... and there he was, sleeping away from everything... she smiled at him... and he was away in his peaceful sleep... so sweet... so out of this world his sleep was...
this time the frobbing pain hit her in the stomach and made her fell powerless on the floor in the middle of the room in the pure white moonlight... she couldn't even move... so horrible every inch of her body was aching... she tried to lean with her hands on the floor... the light was blinding her... bloody tears fell on the floor... her head was hurting so bad she screamed all the pain inside her away into the white moonlight...

he woke up scared... someone screamed... he stood up... what was that? where is she? he looked around... but saw no sign of her... he got out of the bed and went towards the shy moonlight in the middle of the room... there... on the floor... blood drops... and the ending of the angel's dark wings... the dark angel was sitting in the windowlooking at the white moonlight... he streched a hand towards the black wings... and then... she turned... angsty eyes were looking at him... there she was with long black hair and black wings... looking at him... with angsty eyes...

the angel was taken aback... how did he... she was pure... he knew that... but then again she was there with black long wings... she was hit by the curse... she fell... he didn't knew... her eyes started to get filled with bloody tears... suddenly he felt her early pain... the moonlight got stronger and he could see the painting at the head of the bed... and there she was the dark angel looking at him again... he turned back to the window... but she was gone... the dark angel was gone... he fell on his knees under the frobbing pain that hit him... bloody tears fell from his eyes... on the floor in the white, blinding moonlight...

in me...

a good fiend of mine, once told me that I must find that person that can actually feel me, in the way that that person knows my intelectual potential and guids me in becoming someone truly exceptional... I haven't quite understood then what he actually ment... but now I think I have a bit of an idea, because I feel that I need indeed a person to help me, to guide me... I was told that I am special, that there is more about me than it actually meets the eye, but then he went away... people, feelings all tend to go away... but what's in me, that does not go away... that only metamorphosates itself into many strange shapes... and I remain wondering what to do with that... "Is there someone who can guide me out of this darkness into light?"
now I wonder if I really can do something, if I really have within me the premises of something/someone great... because right now all I feel within is deepest confusion...