Sleeping Giants

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

The Themis Files is a deeply human story about a world-changing alien discovery.

17 years ago, a young girl named Rose fell through the ground in the Black Hills and found herself in an underground chamber filled with gleaming symbols, lying in the palm of a giant metal hand. Now a physicist, Rose leads a research team struggling to determine the hand's origins. When another giant limb is discovered, she quickly devises a method for unearthing the hidden pieces, convinced there is an entire body out there waiting to be found.

Halfway around the globe, Kara watches helplessly as her helicopter shuts down over a pistachio field in Turkey. That'll leave a mark, but she's about to crash her way into what might be the greatest endeavor in human history.

This is a hunt for truth, power, and giant body parts. Written as a series of interview transcripts, journal entries and mission logs, The Themis Files tells the tale of a handful of people whose lives are inexorably linked by the discovery of an alien device and the commotion that follows.

Review/Comment:

I bought this book in 2017, kept it in my bookshelf until I have all three of the Themis Files series. Last two weeks, I don't know what have gotten me, I just took this book out while I was cleaning my room and started reading it.

It is a quick read, I assure you. It doesn't have the lengthy narrative or descriptive I usually find. It is in the form of interviews and journal entries. There would be a mysterious interviewer that interrogates the protagonists throughout the book which makes me think he is something like Phil Coulson in the Agents of SHIELD.

I am not a fan of big robots, because I feel it is a children tale, but this, this has gotten me far into thinking how would we react if we encounter a robotic hand that is enormous. The story tells how the world responds to it and how sensitive it would be in geopolitical sense. I remembered Alastair Reynold's novel of Blue Remembered Earth that ponders on one thought: "Are we, the homo sapiens, ready to react and respond as one true species or factious as ever?"

There is a point in the story that made me winched in pain. I cannot be revealing too much here, but it has something to do with human anatomy. I don't understand why the subject is so much willing to go for it. The robot is like the Ring in Lord of the Rings, luring all characters to it. And the ending, phew, I don't get it. It is such a twist!

Is this a fun book to read? Yes! It is a quick read, like I have mentioned. You will finish it in no time!

The Stockholm Octavo

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

Life is close to perfect for Emil Larsson, a self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise in 1791 Stockholm. He is a true man of the Town -- a drinker, card player, and contented bachelor -- until one evening when Mrs. Sofia Sparrow, a fortune-teller and proprietor of an exclusive gaming parlor, shares with him a vision she has had: a golden path that will lead him to love and connection. She lays an Octavo for him, a spread of eight cards that augur the eight individuals who can help him realize this vision -- if he can find them.

Review/Comment:

I read this book twice. Not because I had the time. When I first read it, I lost interest in it when all the eight cards had been laid down. Then I mustered my strength to read it after three months and behold, in no time I have finished it!

It is interesting to see how cards played a subtle role in the whole story where love and connection is tied to how a monarch and its rule are affected. I love how each individual is connected in each other's Octavo, especially Sofia's Octavo.

I also love how the author describes the scenes in this Town and its society. I could feel the air of Stockholm and its corrupted stench that comes after it. I could see the ladies dressed up, eager to learn how to act like one. And I think it is not good to omit the fans. I remembered a line that goes something like this: "Men arm themselves with swords but ladies armed themselves with fans". I also recalled a character called the Uzanne spoke of "fanning the revolution". And the description of the fans made me look up in the Amazon looking for one similar fan - the Cassiopeia.

The only I thing I don't like about the story is that, Emil seemed to be lost in his own Octavo. He is supposed to find a wife, get married and secure his job. But this events carried over so many days and weeks trying to figure out his Octavo and finding his true love.

Is it really that important?

I hope I am part of your Octavo! Worth to read!

Ulap Nu Penglai Kampuk (Book)

A book not published officially, but only printed as part of a charity cause, this book documents many medicinal plants on a particular part of the tropical Malaysia.

Thin but sturdy, this book continues to amaze the readers with its rough sketches of plants and its bilingual content. 

Paper Flowers

Bougainvillea, that's the name of the flower.
But in my country, they are called paper flowers because of the papery texture of the petals.
And I, believe they are the remnants of a phoenix, secretly guarding the gardens.

The Miniaturist

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam--a city ruled by glittering wealth and oppressive religion--a masterful debut steeped in atmosphere and shimmering with mystery, in the tradition of Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Sarah Dunant. 

"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . ."

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office--leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist--an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand--and fear--the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.

Review/Comment:

I finished this book in two weeks. Honestly, I chose this book a while ago because it reminds me of a crime in CSI about the miniaturist. I couldn't get hold the full picture when I read the synopsis and so I took it for a dive.

Goodreads give a total of 3.59 star and I think I know why. The whole idea of the mysterious miniaturist seems to wane when you go deeper into the plot. It instead revolves around the characters: Nella, Marin, Cornelia, Johannes and Otto and that miniaturist just seems to refuse to see any one of us at all, including the readers. This is frustrating!

In the end, the plot turns sloppy in explaining the miniaturist and then that's it. No more reference, just how the family deal with a series of unfortunate tragedies although I might be surprise and sad at Marin as she turns from a sharp-tongued lady to a soft one due to so many issues steaming out around her.

The story does little to the miniaturist and more on the characters on how they live their lives in Amsterdam. I don't like how Nella behaves. I don't think that's how ladies in that era behaves. I don't know. Correct me if I'm wrong. And up till the last few pages, I think it is more on the relationship between Nella and Marin.

Quick read, but not that enjoyable actually.

Of Flowers and Book

Legendary book must be savoured, not read. 

📖

New review coming soon.

New Sun upon the Sea

Jewel of the skies

Burning white 

Blue is the sea 

Gone are the days

You walked away 

And smiled at me 

Where my tears flow

Into a thousand streams

Into the ocean 

Below the new sun.