10 Random Books to Tell you About me

I found this on the blog Stuck in a Book, and thought I should give it a try. So with a mug of coffee, and a break in the time I've put aside to clean my room, I'm going to use a random number generator to pick out the ten books randomly, since I don't trust my hands, lol.

I might have cheated with the number generator, and I took books from my bookshelf and my Kindle. and I chose only the ones I've read in order for more authentic responses. I also listed them in alphabetical order in order to sate my perfectionist side, which will definitely rear its ugly head once this is posted due to the errors I won't notice until then.

Cinder by Merissa Meyer

I've reviewed this book, and I found it extremely gripping despite the fact that there were a few things I didn't like. I loved the futuristic, cyber-punk take on the Cinderella story, despite the fact it didn't turn out like the fairy tale and that Cinder's story is far from over (there's three other main stories that come after this). I got this book after seeing it floating around the bookworm world, and decided to give it a shot. I bought it at a Chapters in Edmonton over a year ago. I love the simplicity of the cover, despite the fact Cinder didn't wear red glass high heels to the ball, and she ended up losing a cyborg foot instead if a shoe. haha

Dreamlander by K.M. Weiland

This was a treasure. When I think of a good book along the lines of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Dreamlander pops to mind. Makes me wonder if I should change my penname from 'Mikaela A. Ingram' to 'M. A. Ingram' – because most of my favourite fantasy books are written by those who have more than one initial in their penname X3 I super enjoyed this book because, despite the length of it, it kept me hooked and the pace was lively. The thing I loved most about it was that the man on the cover, the main character, reminds me of Canadian actor Yannick Bisson, and so I imagined him as such throughout the entirety of the book (as he looked in Sue Thomas F.B.Eye). I'm such a nerd. And it only took me a weekend to finish it, despite the fact that it was over 400 pages long! I got it after I found out about K.M. Weiland and started following her writing advice.

Fractured by Rae Elliott

This was another good book I found through my search for writing advice. Up to the point in which I found this novel, I had wondered if someone out there had mashed science fiction and fantasy into a science fantasy that involved an android somehow. I'm so glad I was able to support an indie writer while also finding such a gem.

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen

I got this book from Bethany House Publishers' review program a few years ago, back when I still ran my old blog "Pen to Paper". I believe this was the book that ended that review period, because I couldn't get into it when I got it. This last year, I fell into it and was unable to put it down until it was finished. It was so good! I guess I really like reading books where the main character has to stay hidden and experiences nail-biting instances almost constantly. This was so good! She was in love with the lord of the manor, but she couldn't let him know it was her!

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

This book let itself be known when I was in my Sherlock Holmes phase, and was sitting on "Sherlock's Shelf" section of Chapters when it was around. This was the book that introduced me to Hercule Poirot, and I found myself gripped by the happenings in the story – couldn't figure out who the killer was until the end! Through this book I would eventually come across series 7 – 12 on Netflix of Agatha Christie's Poirot, which I enjoy watching every time I have the chance to watch. I love this Mr. Poirot.

A Natural History of Dragons, a Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

Such a treat, this one is. This was the first book I've found where a fantasy takes place in a Victorian setting, and not a medieval one (there ought to more, I think). I heard about this book from the bookworm's grapevine as well, and I think I finished it in, like, in a day. When I should have been writing my C.S. Lewis paper at college. This one's a fantasy in the fact that there are dragons, and I absolutely love dragons. I look forward to collecting the rest of the series once I have the money.

The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen

I got this one because I want to, one day, own all of Julie Klassen's novels. She's such a talented writer, and every one of her books sucks me back to the regency era. This one, though, didn't really engage me like I hoped, and seemed to stretch on longer than it should have. The atmosphere was interesting, but there was just too much going on. I'm attempting to read her The Dancing Master, but I'm having trouble, and I could only chalk it up to the fact that I'm not interesting in going to the regency era right now.

The Transformers: All Hail Optimus

Yes, I'm a nerd. A Transformers nerd. With the current storyline going on, with Optimus Prime (the mech on the cover), I was curious to see what was going on when it was said that this volume would cover events in which Optimus would try to annex Earth into the Cybertronian Empire. Poor guy, Optimus is only trying to annex Earth in order to keep it safe from the rest of the galaxy!

I got this when my uncle gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday. So I can say that my uncle bought this for me :3

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Volume 4

Yeah, I'm not going to post the cover here. It's not like it depicts anything overly bad, it just has a bit of violence. So I'm going to spare anyone who's a little sensitive to that, and not post it here. Yeah, having Overlord's fist sticking out through Ultra Magnus' chest is a little violent (out of all covers of the issues contained inside it, they had to pick that one).

I bought this one back in January, but didn't receive it until I got home from college since Indigo deemed it necessary to send me Volume 5 before Volume 4, haha. I haven't really cracked it open yet since I care about most of the characters in the story, and I know they're going to get hurt (I've read a couple of the issues in it). Haha, get over yourself, Mikaela.

Two Renegade Realms by Donita K. Paul

This book left me with so many questions when I finished it. And what's frustrating was that its sequel, the final instalment of the Realm Walkers Trilogy, was slated to be released back in January-February of 2016, but then Donita K. Paul fell ill and Zondervan dropped her. Now we don't know when it'll come out.

I found this book and the first of it's trilogy in an Indigo of all places, which I found rather odd since it contains Christian themes and is written by a Christian authoress. I laugh, since Indigo seemingly doesn't know!



These are the ten books I shared so you guys could learn a bit more about me. This was fun :3

If you'd like to do this for yourself, click on the Stuck in a Book link I've provided at the top of the post.

Cinder: a book review

Cinder. Marissa Meyer. 2013. Square Fish, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. Pages 387. [Source: Bought]

Even in the future, the story begins with Once Upon a Time....

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl....

Sixteen-year-old Cinder, a gifting mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past and is reviled by her stepmother. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she's suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future. Because there is something unusual about Cinder, something that others would kill for.

~~~

Rating: ✭✭✭✭✩

For years I've been hearing down the bookworm grapevine how great Cinder, and in extension, The Lunar Chronicles are. So I was highly optimistic about this book when I plucked it up from the Chapters bookstore shelf I found it on.

Now, I did end up enjoying it immensely when I read it, but there were some elements I didn't quite like.

I fell in love with Cinder, sympathized with her, felt frustration with her when her stepmother and eldest stepsister treated her like dirt. Felt sad when she felt sad, etc. I was totally immersed.

The story opens with with Cinder sitting in her shop stall in the marketplace, switching her cyborg foot for a new one since it's been on her since she was a kid. The old one was too small, and it was beginning to rust and become difficult to deal with. Her only company is her android companion, Iko, who is much more lively than the average android.

Suddenly, a boy trying to remain discreet with his hoodie and his bowed head appears in front of her stall and plunks an older android down on her worktable. It doesn't take Cinder long to realize who her newest customer is, and once she realizes it's Prince Kai of all people, well, her life just jumped off a cliff.

The worldbuilding that went into this story was splendid. The setting, New Beijing, was definitely something new for me but not wholly distracting, though it was kinda sad since the city sounded pretty crowded. I don't really know what to say about how far into the future the story takes place.

There were a few things that irked me. I'm such a stickler for the little details, little things that don't bother others, haha. But...

• I didn't really like how Canada, sometime in the past, had been absorbed by America. Like, I get that countries get absorbed and split over time, but the fact that America tried to absorb Canada in 1812 and failed and then, in this story, Canada is nothing more than a province... UHG.
• At least Canada's representative got a mention.
• There was a lot of the "Cinderella Story" that had been cut out. Like I expected the author to not follow too closely to the Cinderella Story framework, but there were bits I kinda wished had happened. Like maybe a Lunar fairy godmother? (okay, okay, I can see that Dr. Erland kind of filled that role by providing a new cybernetic hand and foot, but that happened after the ball!)

The main thing that kind of bugged me and kind of ruined the world of The Lunar Chronicles was the presence of the sub-dermal ID chips. I can blame the Left Behind series for inducing the major paranoia I felt when the ID chips were mentioned, because in Left Behind, the authors had it as part of the mark of the beast with the fact that you needed to have one if you wanted to be a member of society.

The chips put me ill at ease, but I was eventually able to look past it.

The world presented in this book offered an interesting contrast to what kind of world is often offered in futuristic science-fiction stories. Instead of a pristine, peaceful, united world, the world in Cinder is grungy, sick, and shattered. The Earth is ravaged by a sickness worse than ebola, with people being carted away by medical androids never to be seen again.

In the story, I stuck close to Cinder, meaning that my mind didn't wander and dwell on the world around the events of the stories. It was just so depressing. I guess I can only handle so much gloom in a story (which is why I've never been a big fan of dystopia), haha.

Dr. Erland had to be my favourite character after Cinder in the novel. At first, I didn't like him very much since he was basically the reason why Cinder had been "sold" by her stepmother, and I fully expected that he was going to start dissecting her. But then he turned out to be the total opposite of the evil head-scientist I thought he would be. He was basically the first person to actually care about Cinder since her adopted father died. And the fact that he's a Lunar hiding out amongst the humans and that he's wants revenge on the Lunar Queen due to her authorities having taken his daughter away....

I honestly can't wait to read Scarlet, Cinder's sequel. I want to know what will happen to Cinder and Dr. Erland. Is it wrong that I want to see what happens to a secondary character more than the main character? No. I often find myself in this predicament! (Dr. Erland better not die!)

Queen Levana must be stopped, and it's a moment I await with bated breath. She is such a sick, evil woman.

Writing Update

It's days like to day, ones where I spend the time doing what I want while anxiously dreading the coming week, that I think about my original stories while keeping an eye on Deep Space Nine as it plays on a window seperate from the one I'm writing this blog post on.

Yeah, I can't seem to stop multi-tasking. My mom says I'm a master at it.

Well, it's a skill I got from my mother, so I can only blame Mom, haha.

Usually I don't like to talk about my stories since they usually fall through and fade away like "A Galaxy So Fickle" did (though it's an idea that has been archived. I would like to recycle it again). But, since this is my blog, I should really write something other than book, movie, and TV show reviews. That's all it's been for the last few months, and people read my blog, so...

Yeah, I'll write about something. I want to expand the horizons of this blog (if that makes sense), and in the future I want to write about the differences between Science-Fiction-Steampunk and Fantasy-Steampunk. But right now, I'm going to talk about my latest novel project.

Over the last couple of months, I've been working on the backbone and outline of a novel project I've submitted to Camp Nanowrimo as "The Sceptre of Raja-dûmé" (pronounced: rah-ZHah doom-may). It's about a gentleman thief named Fletcher Broome (one of those characters that have been on reserve, waiting for their story to come along).

I've been following how-to's written by K.M. Weiland (yes, the authoress of Dreamlander!) that can be found on her website www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com, and so far I kind of know where the story is going to go. But I don't exactly know what's going to happen after Fletcher gets to the sands of the Endless Desert on Dekartaal... will he wander the sands for a week before he's found, or will he run into someone right away?

I'll have to keep planning. Camp Nanowrimo April is coming up fast, so the story has to have a better background before April 1st. So, yeah...