Twilight Saga

Twilight Saga
(Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn)
Stephenie Meyer
http://stepheniemeyer.com/index.html

This is a series of books that I've read previously (before this little blog began), but while I was waiting for some new books to arrive from Amazon I picked up again, and just as before I couldn't seem to put them down. I actually got my new books while I was in the middle of New Moon, and I figured that I would set the series down and read my new books, but I ended up reading the whole set, even though I know how it ends already. I actually resisted this series for a very long time, I thought that it was some silly vampire love story. I even admit to thinking the series was a bit beneath me. This of course was a silly thought, I should have known better seeing as I had a similar opinion of the Harry Potter series and that one ended up being one of my favorite sets of books! Now the Twilight Saga has taken it's place next to HP in my ever expanding library.

Anyways- back to the books at hand. Unless you live under a rock, you are probably aware that the series centers around a human girl, Bella, who moves to a small town on the Olympic Peninsula and falls in love with a vampire, Edward. The series is essentially a traditional love story, with passion, loss, depression, friendship, love triangles, danger and action, only this series throws in the supernatural too, adding in Vampire and Werewolves into the mix. I won't go into too much more of the plot, becuase I imagine that once I start I could write a short novel of my own.

I will say that this series is powerful in its simplicity and originality, taking storie lines we all know, like the idea of Romeo & Juliet, and infusing them with enough of the supernatural to make it all seem fresh again. Stephenie Meyer came up with a great story that captivates not only the tween set, but also alot of adults, including myself. They are a fairly easy read, which is great, although it's hard not to get sucked in and spend hours on end in this new world.

So far Twilight has been made into a movie, and I think it suffered from lack of budget, but it still made for a fun b-list type movie, it just didn't really come anywhere close to the books. New Moon comes out in November and so far looks to be a much better movie, this could be from the additional money being funneled its way or from the new director or simply from the familiarity the cast now has with the subject matter. Eclpise is currently being filmed in Vancouver and Breaking Dawn is hopefully on the horizon, although it has a much headier content, so it will be interesting to see how the movie industry handles Vampire/human love scenes and the birth of an half-vampire child.

In short (despite that this entry is not actually short), I would recommend these books. For me they reminded me why I liked books to begin with. They can take you to a new world, and Stephenie's world is a wonderful one to visit. They reignited my love of books, my love of writing and even my love of travel as once upon a time I sat on a beach in La Push and watched the waves crash onto First Beach. Stephenie's books both took me back to my own childhood and introduced me to a great new world where anything was possible.

The Host

The Host
By: Stephenie Meyer
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

I picked this book up after reading the Twilight series and thouroughly enjoying it. I was interested to see what Stephenie Meyer would do with a different genre, and needless to say I was not dissapointed. At 619 pages, this is a lengthy read, but ultimately a worthwhile one. This book was a little harder to get into then some others, but once you buy into the concept, it really clicks along and in the end leaves you really wanting Ms. Meyer to write a follow up.

The Host revolves around the concept of life on earth post alien invasion, for both the surviving humans who are in hiding and the aliens, or "Souls" who are using human bodies as hosts. The main charecter in this story in the Wanderer, a Soul who has lived in many host bodies, from plants to bears, on many planets. The story follows the Wanderer as she is implanted in a particularly rebellious host named Melanie. While most host simply dissapear as the Soul takes over, Melanie remains and struggles with Wanderer for control until they reach a contentious relationship that eventually turns into a strange sort of friendship. Through this relationship Wanderer forges relationships with other humans and ultimately must decide where she stands in what is a war between the Souls and the remaining Humans.

This really is an excellent book that I think is ultimately about the relationships we form under the most unexpected circumstances, how those relationships are tainted by prejudice and how we can ultimately come to accept both eachother and ourselves.