Book Review l Dracula & Frankenstein

Dracula

Bram Stoker 

Classic / Horror / Vampire /
8 Stars

Summary
We follow count Dracula from Transylvania to London, were the vampire wishes to start a new life and new reign of terror. The fiend is driven from the city, hunted by a trio of well informed and connected men lead by Dr. Van Helsing. Chasing the count back to Transylvania for the final encounter.

I read the first half of this book countless times, I could never make it past Mina Harkers entrance. I am so glad that I finally pushed through that, because this is one of the classics that I really enjoyed, right to the end. The last 1/4 of the book just flew by. I found myself comparing this again and again to Salem's Lot by King, pretty sure it was Dracula that inspired the book. But I think King did it better.

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

Summary
Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with reanimating the dead, he finally succeeds, but is horrified at the result. He flee's his laboratory, leaving the monster behind. When murders and mysteries begin to plague his family he wonders if the fiend is not to blame; which means that he, as the fiends creator is equally to blame. As the doctor sets out to hunt the monster, the reader confronts the nature vs nurture aspects of mankind. 

I read a part of this in high school, but I was never really motivated to pick it up again. But between the Netflix, Frankenstein Chronicles (which I binge watched) and that it was for free on audiobook (love librivox) I did finally read it.

It was a lot better than I thought it would be, and it was a lot different. Much more, short sweet and to the point than I had anticipated. The plot was different from what I was expecting - I don't really know what I was expecting - but I related much more to the monster, despised the Dr and disagreed with the "mankind" in the story. For a classic it really was a thought provoking piece.

Series Review - The Lord of the Rings

JRR Tolkien

1220 Page or 55 Hours of Audiobook

+ Authors Notes

Started August 20 2015

Finished September 21 2016 
(1 year, 1 month and 1 day)

9 Stars

Hard Read

Epic Fantasy/ Classic/ Film/ Fiction/ 

The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King

It is such an accomplishment to have finally finished this series.  I have picked up these novels so many times, only to put the books down again as I was unable to get into the writing. It is however a classic and the father of so many epic fantasies, I just couldn't take it off my TBR list.  After visiting New Zealand  - where the movies where made although I didn't get a chance to do the set tour like I had hoped, I did however get to go for a tour with the horses and the trainer from the movies, Steve Olds was the best advertisement for the movies and the books. -  I decided to give the series another try and picked up the audiobooks hoping that would make following along with the book easier. It didn't take me long to give up on the novel and just listen to the tapes. But I am so glad that I got the audiobooks!
Even with the audio books this has taken me more than a year to get through the trilogy. I have listened to the Fellowship and Two Towers, twice over completely; because I felt like I missed so many things the first time around. The last few chapters of The Two Towers I must have listened too half a dozen times over, I just couldn't get the names straight... It just felt like I was missing parts over and over. So anyways it took me a year to get through the first two books, and only a month to get through the final book. The Return of the King was a perfect finale, it brought everything together in such an amazing way...words cannot describe how wonderful it is, I am speechless trying to convey how I feel about it. I have the biggest book hangover.

My only critical points are that; I can't say that I am a fan of the writing style,  I am not against it but I would never manage to get through physical copies and that makes me a little sad (although I have scene a hardcover large print 7 novel split on amazon that makes me want to try).
While Middle Earth is brought to life by Tolkien's beautiful detailed descriptions - from the Shire to Mt Doom you know exactly what the landscape is, the atmosphere, nothing is overlooked - this quality also (unfortunately) makes the work very wordy and very slow. The story (even though I know the story) was still almost lost among the rest of the information, I found at times there was a lot of confusion. A neutral point being the timeline of the novel, we jump forward and backwards, from character to character and while I know the timeline (Frodo's journey taking him a year) I had no sense of the time at most points.

I am looking forward to starting The Hobbit (probably not until the new year) and possibly some of Tolkien's other writings.

Similar Series

The Songs of Ice and FIre Series 

Book Review - The Island of Dr Moreau

The Island of Dr Moreau
HG Wells

7 Stars
Classic/ Thriller / Mystery / Diary /
Medium/Hard read

Just like most bookworms I am constantly kicking myself about not reading more classics. the #1 reason = I find even the smallest classics to be tough reads. Classics always seem to involve rereading (at least in part), note taking and generally quite a bit of thought. I finally got around to this particular novel because it was mentioned in the Skin Collector by Jeffery Deaver. From the bits and pieces put into the Skin Collector, I got the idea that this novel was about a man scientist (who looks like the Dr from the human centipede in my head) doing some kind of experiment involving human, animal conjoining. I was anticipating Chimera, Frankenstien,  Clive Barker books of blood... you get the idea. I hope.

The novel in short : Edward Pendrick is the only survivor of a ship wreck in the middle of the ocean. He is found a year after, floating in a life boat, claiming no memory of how he survived the past 12 months. What we [the reader] are reading is the diary told in hindsight, of the "lost" months.
Ed is saved and brought to The Island after being found by Montgomery, Dr Moreau's assistant. Shortly after arriving we meet the Dr, who was once a fairly well known man in England. Cast out of society for his experiments on living animals, which we discover he has continued on the Island. Shortly Ed becomes aware of the Beast-People, the explanation of who these Beast-People are, how they came to be, how they live, is the main focal point of the book.

I know I have read some HG Wells before although I can't really remember what. I really enjoyed this book, it was very visual, and think that it would make a phenomenal comic.