Author Archives: Alexander U.

The Silmarillion: Requires Dedication

Posted on by
Reply

Taking place long before The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, published posthumously and edited by Christopher Tolkien, is a summary of thousands of years of history. Central to the book are the Silmarils, artifacts created by an elf named Feanor with the light from two tree that preceded the sun and moon. These trees themself were successors to two great lamps. However, the central plot of the Silmarils has lots of context surrounding it, and all the elf family trees, conflicts, and artifacts are explained.

The main antagonist is Morgoth, the master of Sauron and greatest evil in the entire lore. He is a Vala, but all the other Valar reject him because he is evil.

Some central stories are those of Beren and Luthien, Turin, and of course, Feanor.

Beren and Luthien are star crossed lovers, Beren being a human and Luthien being not just an elf, but an elf with an overprotective father. Beren is tasked with retrieving a Silmaril from Morgoth to win Luthien’s hand.

Turin is a human that was raised in a magically protected territory of Doriath, almost exclusively by elves.

Feanor’s story after creating the Silmarils starts when Morgoth steals them, after which Feanor commands his entire people to fight Morgoth.

Overall, the Silmarillion is a difficult read; however, reading it provides a ton of insight on why and how things happened in the Lord of the Rings.

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Spoiler Free Review of Lockwood and Company Book 1: The Screaming Staircase

Posted on by
1

I read the first book of Lockwood and Company after watching and liking the Netflix adaptation. The first book, written by Jonathan Stroud, is titled The Screaming Staircase. It is an urban fantasy novel with some horror elements.

The world is one where 50 years prior to the events of the novel (which takes place in an unclear time but may take place in a technologically-stagnant early 2010’s) a catastrophe referred to as the Problem caused ghosts to start appearing and killing many people, only requiring a touch to cause a kind of quickly-fatal spreading necrotic toxin. However, the only people that can catch more than a glimpse of a ghost are children, who lose their psychic powers by their 20’s. This, of course, means children have to work.

One such child is Lucy Carlyle, the narrator, who is an expert in hearing ghosts and telepathically communicating with them. She is the newest member of the group and is generally competent, but messes up due to a lack of knowledge on occasion.

The titular company is owned by Anthony Lockwood, who is arrogant but also the only person on the team who can talk to people. He is best at seeing ghosts and places where people died.

The last protagonist is George Cubbins, who is not particularly good at any paranormal power and gets in to fights with the other members over nothing, but he’s also the only one who bothers preparing for anything and do any research.

While Lockwood and Company may seem incompetent, the ghost hunting groups run by adults are even more incompetent, with added bureaucracy and a lack of care for human life. The children end up having to deal with adults who are incompetent but also extremely overconfident and condescending, which drives the half of the conflict in the story that is not caused by Lockwood and Co. themselves. The story is full of mystery and twists which is why I will not spoil it here. Lockwood and Co. is a great read for anyone who likes urban fantasy and can handle injury, death, peril, and horror.

– Alexander U.

Lockwood and Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.