Journey To The Fringe: Read Or Stay Away?

Hey, everyone. This is Lida_Rose, and this would be my second post about whether to read or stay away from a certain book based solely on the description. This time, I decided to look at Journey To The Fringe by Kelli Swofford Nielsen. As I understand, this is a debut author with a debut book, and I love it when I can look at this kind of thing because someday, I plan on writing my own novel. So, let's dive right in to the summary.

"Long ago, Stone Mages were revered in Lyria. They were men and women who could use powerful tradestones to harness their unique gifts of wind, rain, and earth to help those around them. But war with the Southern realm has threatened the mages with extinction. The truth about the tradestones has been lost, and the remaining magic is dwindling. When Princess Ivy, the beloved daughter of the king, is abducted, it seems that all hope for Lyria is lost as well. But when an unlikely group of loyal subjects embarks on a dangerous journey to the far-distant Fringe, the hope of restoring crown and kingdom is renewed. Among the group is Simon, a fool with wisdom beyond his years; Gilda, a nonmagical witch; Burr, a young thief; and Merrick, a jaded sea captain. Their quest will test their courage, their strength, and their friendship. But at the Fringe, they encounter a truth that will change everything they thought they knew about themselves, and this small band of heroes must embrace the power that is their birthright and stand together as Stone Mages of Lyria."

What? No unique gifts of fire? Darn it! At the risk of sounding like an arsonist, I like fire.  Anyway, let's look at the positives and negatives of this book description.

Positives: I already like the characters mentioned and am eager to see how they turn out in the actual story. Of course, there's near-extinction, war, and lost hope for a nation (or kingdom. Whatever Lyria is), which are always pluses in my book. Also, I like the character names and the idea that their worlds will all turn upside down. The fact that this is the first novel in a series holds promise for me.

Negatives: No fire. Also, the phrase "unlikely group" is kinda silly, isn't it? Of course the group that assembles to save her will be considered "unlikely" by others and will therefore have to "prove" themselves. That's how the world works. I also have an issue with "Their quest will test their courage, their strength, and their friendship." Couldn't that be changed to, "Their quest will test their courage, strength, and friendship?" And, for that matter, couldn't it be changed even further to, "Their quest will test them?" Perhaps I'm too harsh.

So, those are my thoughts on this book description. I do think that, as much as this story has potential to be awesome, it also has the potential to be cliche and tedious to read. However, it might be well worth the risk. For that reason, if I see Journey To The Fringe in the bookstore, I will pick it up and give it a fair shake, reading it instead of staying away in the hopes it will impress me.

Blah Monday

Crap, it's my day to write something.

Last night my throat randomly decided it wanted to be sore, and it is still persisting right this very second. Flurghvable

But who cares about that!

So. Today I'll be writing about

um

well

how about I share pictures of my trip to Japan back in spring? In honor of Drew, the lucky fucker.

LET'S BEGIN (this is going to be a really long post and this is only like 1/50th of the pictures I took)

Also I'm Crooked, hi.

One Piece is everywhere. Like, you think squirrels and mosquitoes and McDonald's are everywhere, but One Piece is everywhere everywhere.

Our group randomly stopped to coo at this family's dogs (there are two), and we all played together for a bit. Censored because it's polite.

FANTA FANTA DONTCHU WANTA

Your guess is as good as mine.

A deer park. At one point one of the teachers was surrounded by deer all trying to get food from her and they knocked her into a puddle and it was really sad and hilarious.

The gate to Kamisama's house, or so I was told.

This was so delicious you do not even know, my God.

We went...somewhere involving samurais.

There were a bunch of adorable rocks everywhere dressed up like dolls, some alone and some in little family groups.

The Skytree

CHICKEN OM NOM NOM

Look you guys it's a real foreign cat. It doesn't meow, it NYANS~

Below Tokyo Tower

Mini-Tokyo Tower

Bedazzled Tokyo Tower

Way up in Tokyo Tower

This is the first time I saw anything indicating Shibuya's actual real existence.

The Studio Ghibli Museum. Be jealous~

Honestly we couldn't tell if this was a guy or a girl, but like five of the girls in our group were totally about to follow him/her around.

WAIT WAIT WAIT IT'S REAL

Shibuya when you come out of the station, aaahhhhhh

AAAAAHHH HACHIKO

This is the Starbucks, along with several floors of DVDs/CDs/Books/Manga/etc, glorious glorious place. I stood in one of the windows and filmed the scramble for a little bit and people were staring at me but I didn't really care.

The 109 /sobs/

Yes you may stare at the poster.

HI WOW YOU'RE REAL

Oh the glory.

We only spent a total of two hours in Shibuya. It was so beautiful, and really quiet for a city.

Anyhow there's the Monday post. I'm gonna go swallow something that rhymes with shmacon and peggs, bye.