Breed to Come

Okay, so my step-grandfather got me hooked on sci-fi books.  It was an attempt to get me away from some of the more serious books that aren't actually stories (like 'Myth, Morality, and Religion' or 'The Philosophy of Tolkien') but it didn't work, because in one of books the author was talking about the relation between The Lord of the Rings and sci-fi books, so they were good examples :)


I am so glad I found the cool cover
not the creepy one.

'Breed to Come' by Andre Norton (that's a nom-de-plume, her real name is Mary Norton) is a post-apocalyptic story, which is basically what you would get if you took evolution, Humans leaving earth, very advanced technology, cats, and rolled them all into one.  Humans have been gone from our good planet Earth for quite some time.  In those long, long years Cats, Dogs, Wild Boars, and Rats have evolved and become the four dominant species, all capable of reasoning and at the very least, using simple tools.  The first three species are living very primitively near the ruins of a Human university.  Cats have developed the ability to walk constantly on two legs, and they are able to use primitive tools and weapons.  The Rats live in the ruins of the city, and not much is learned about them until the end of the book.  They are very similar to Cats, though. 

The hero of the story is a Cat named Furtig, whose ancestor Gammage left the Clans to live in the ruins of the Human university and discover their secrets.  Furtig, after losing his chance at the Trials (a contest between the males so the females have a chance to choose their mate), decides to follow Gammage and the many Cats who followed him.  When he finally arrives, Furtig discovers that Gammage and the Cats under him have made tremendous progress discovering how to use the Human's technology, and why the Humans left in the first place.  Even so, Gammage is very concerned that the Humans will return, and soon, to reclaim their home planet.

The story is very complex, and there is so much about the technology of the Humans that is never explained.  There is an extremely interesting plot twist, which I never really expected, but probably should have.  I wish I could rant about it, but I'm going to restrain myself.  There is not much conversation throughout the book, which is usually what it takes to keep me occupied with a  book, otherwise I will read through three full pages without actually registering what was happening, then I have to go back and re-read.  But the book kept my attention the whole way through!  I absolutely could not put it down.  If it was possible to read all the time (literally) I would have read this book while I slept!


I give this book an: A-
The book was really good, and I love, love, love the plot, however, nothing really relevant to the plot happens until you're almost half way through the book.  Okay, stuff happens, it's just very slow.  After reading more Andre Norton books I find this rather typical of her.  There is also not a whole lot of character development, which in NOT typical of Andre Norton.

I would TOTALLY recommend this book!

Oh, and one thing I LOVE about Andre Norton's books is that she proves that romance is not required to make a good book :D

In Defense of Frodo

So recently I was at a summer camp, and while there I was talking with a group of girls, and we got into the subject of The Lord of the Rings, one of my favorite subjects.  While on this subject, one of the girls started gushing about Sam in a manner such as the following: 

I'd like to suggest that he does, at least in the fan world

"Sam is sooooo awesome!  I love Sam so much, he is so cool, he is the best character in LotR!"  etc.  Then she moves on to Sam's counterpart, Frodo: "Frodo on the other hand is soooooo annoying, he's all greedy, and mean to Sam, and an educated snob!!  He's always acting above Sam!!

Now hold on.  I like Sam and Frodo, they are both really cool.  For different reasons.  Which is as it should be.  Now I am not going to point out Sam's character flaws in this post, I shall devote a small post to that later.  But for now:

In Defense of Frodo:
First things first:  Frodo is NOT greedy.  If by 'greedy' you are referring to his being possessive of the Ring, possessive is not the same as greedy.  This possessiveness is also not part of Frodo, it comes as a side effect of The Ring.  Anyone can become affected in this way by it, including but not limited to Boromir, Gollum/Smeagol, Bilbo, oh, and Sam was definitely hesitant before he gave the Ring back to Frodo after he rescued him from the Orc tower.

Second:  Frodo is NOT mean to Sam.  He may be a bit snappish towards the end of the quest, but again, that's a side effect of The Ring.

When does Frodo act like a snob?  Is this part of the whole 'he's mean and greedy' thing?  Because we already debunked that.  He also doesn't act above Sam.  Sam is Frodo's closest friend!  It's also not Frodo's fault that he has an opportunity to be more educated than Sam.  Also, Sam isn't as not educated as some might think.  In the books it mentions Sam spending lots of time with Bilbo and listening to him.  Don't you think he might've learned something from him?

Now that I have done my best at justifying Frodo, I'm now going to justify all those fanpeople who love Sam and strongly dislike Frodo.

In Defense of All Those Who Love Sam and Dislike Frodo:
This is perfectly normal for people to love Sam.  That's kind of the way that Tolkien set it up.  Sam is the character whom Tolkien made to be most similar to the average Joe.  He has regular person characteristics, and reacts to most situations in the same ways that a regular person would.  The real thing is, that despite the fact that Sam is similar to a regular person, he does do many quite heroic things, including, but not limited to, carrying Frodo (literally and mentally), providing for the material needs of himself and Frodo, going off with Frodo when Frodo was going to go alone, saving the Shire, helping to defend Frodo from Gollum, rescuing Frodo from an orc tower, taking on a gigantic spider that I have nightmares about (sorry diehard Sam fans, he didn't ever actually kill it), and etc.  This heroicness while still being ordinary is what appeals to so many people who read The Lord of the Rings. 

Frodo is not like this, because he had to be one of the higher characters.  It was a consequence of his choosing to carry the Ring.  Frodo had to become more than an ordinary person, because of his more than ordinary burden.  Frodo says to Sam, "We set out to save the Shire, and it has been saved.  But not for me."  That reflects the fact that Frodo has grown since his quest, and he has been hurt.  The Shire can no longer hold Frodo, he is not at peace there, so he has to go across the sea into the Undying Lands.  He will eventually die there, by the way, just because the Undying Lands are undying doesn't mean that Frodo won't die.

I think that Frodo is a tragic character, who had the right to be honored, and should have been mourned.  I honestly feel sorry for Frodo.  I still like Sam, I think he's great example of courage in the ordinary person, but just because you like Sam doesn't mean you should bash on Frodo.  In fact, you should probably love Frodo just as much as Sam did.  After all, if it wasn't for his love for Frodo, Sam wouldn't have become the hero that he is.

Bucket List Tag!

So I was tagged by my dear friend Monica at Spilled Ink for the Bucket List Tag!  Thanks Monica!  I shall now list the ten things I wish to do before I kick the bucket (translation:  before I die).

• Start a Pro-Life group
• Become an OB-GYN (a pro-life one!)
• Go sky-diving, bungee-jumping, and/or deep sea scuba-diving!
• Read every bit of writing that Tolkien ever wrote
• Eat a dessert pizza
• Remember all of my friends' birthdays for at least one year
• Go to Europe and see the sights, Catholic and secular!
• Cook all the meals for my family for at least one day (technically I could, I just have never done it yet)
• Own a horse!
• Win a blue ribbon at a horse show (lots of red second place ribbons, never a beautiful blue first place ribbon)
• Whoa, that's it?  I guess so!

Okay, so that's it!  Some of those listed are more ambitious than others, some are next to impossible for me right now, but might very well be possible in the future!  I'm not going to tag anyone, because I don't know who to tag besides my friend Monica, who has already been tagged, so I don't want to double tag her :)  I don't think anyone will mind this breach of etiquette because I don't think anyone reads this except for you Monica!  But that's okay, because it allows me to do things like this ;)

Oh, and by the way, I have close to three reviews I want to get out, plus another post on the side, but almost NO TIME to do so.  What's that rhyme in The Hobbit, it brings down mountains and eats up people, etc.?  Yeah, it also prevents me from posting on here.  Ah, the many abilities of time.