TSUBASA RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE chapter 152 - 155 (CLAMP) 6/09/2007 06:14:00 PM

OK, here’s another piece of review which needs to be written. Badly. Please bear with me. Because this review consists of … chapters and it definitely be extra long if I discuss each chapter individually, I’ll try to summarize the important things only. On with the show then.

About Yuuko:
Kurogane has every right of calling Yuuko with various derogatory names, considering how she loves to tease him mercilessly.

Yuuko is definitely mischievous in her own way, but it doesn’t change the fact that she truly cares for Syaoran and the gang (and Watanuki, of course--and we all know she LOVES to torture Watanuki :D). According to Geo of Infinity, Yuuko was the one who’s pained the most because she knew everything that would happen to Syaoran-tachi, yet she could never tell them or do something to change all the agonizing future that awaited them because the rule of the world forbid her to do so.

I love Yuuko for her eccentric ways, but I didn’t think that I would ever sympathize with her. Now I do, though.

About going to Celes:
Just to make everything clear: Sakura’s not really dead. Her soul was separated from her body, but her life didn’t disappear. Confused? So am I.

To make things short, it’s important to obtain her body from Celes so that: 1) She’d be able to be revived; and 2) Fei Wong Reed and his cronies could not get Sakura’s feather-contained body.

Giving the prize money they won at the chess competition as the price (because it’s something that the four of them--Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai, and Mokona--acquire together), off they went to Celes. Using Mokona’s power alone, it’s impossible to choose which world to head to. Therefore, Yuuko asked Fai to use his magic power synchronously with Mokona in order for them to advance to Celes.

Fai wasn’t at all pleased at his return and meeting Ashura-ou. He was dreadfully shocked, however, at seeing a creepy looking little kid which stood along Ashura-ou. As if that wasn’t enough, the kid pointed his skinny hand at Fai and said, “You killed me”.

The kid was supposed to be Fai’s twin brother, but how could it be--since he’s dead (there’s a death scene of one of the twins in the previous chapter)? What’s with Fai having a twin? Just read on.

About Syaoran:
Syaoran got terrible headache as the gang entered the castle in Celes and it got worse when they proceeded to Ashura’s hall. What’s with that?

About Fai:
Fai’s apparently a prince; his father’s older brother was the emperor of a country called “Valeria”. Too bad that he was born twins and magically gifted--two things which was considered as bad omen by the people of Valeria.

They could not be killed because it would only cause more misfortunes. As a solution, the emperor banished Fai and his twin brother--Yuui--to a valley where time flowed differently and magic was ineffective. Fai was imprisoned inside a tower while Yuui was put under--in some sort of burial ground.

About the curse:
No, it’s not about the so called unlucky twins. It’s about Fai’s curse. Killing someone who’s magically more powerful than him was not Fai’s only curse, it seemed. He’s accursed of something else--a curse which could only work in Celes. This curse has not been revealed yet.

Well, this review turned out shorter than I’ve expected. Let me wrap things up by quoting a passage from chapter 155’s ending:

“The revealed past, the connected curses. The conclusion to the tragedy is?!”

The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova) 6/04/2007 09:58:00 PM

Ever since “The Da Vinci Code” became a big hit, bookstores have been filled with books of similar themes: adventure novels with a taste of “history”. One of them is “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova. I hadn’t read any new releases for some time, so when my friend offered that book to me, I was more than glad to accept her offer.

“The Historian” is an old story with a new twist, actually. It’s a long-long-long narrative about the hunt of, undoubtedly, the most famous phantom in our pop culture--vampire. Not just a vampire, but the vampire--Count Vlad of the Order of the Dragon (aka Dracula). Familiar, eh?

First, a little bit of summary. A woman (which remained nameless all through the book) recaptured a chapter in her life when, as a young woman, she followed the trail set by her predecessors (her father and her father’s post-graduate supervisor) in their hunt for Dracula. The quest extended for three generations (1930’s-1950’s-1970’s), that’s why I said that it’s a long-long-long narrative. The woman told her story, which in it contained his father’s story of his own past experience, which in it contained the memoirs of his supervisor. Confusing? I wouldn’t blame you. During my reading the book, there were times when I was befuddled myself at whose narrative it was which presented before me. Really, it took full concentration to read the book.

Each narrator (the girl, his father, her father’s post-grad supervisor) was lured into finding out all about Dracula, even going for a quest in search of him, due to the mysterious discovery of an old book. There weren’t any writings on the book, saved for the picture of a dragon with an inscription of “Dracula” in the middle pages of the book. Enough with the summary; lets on to my impression on the story.

In my opinion, “The Historian” fulfils the most basic requirement of a good story--the power to capture its audience (or readers, in this case). Unless there’s something more pressing that needed to be done immediately, I found it difficult to stop reading the book. That’s just how skillful Kostova was at weaving her tale.

Regardless its title, “The Historian”--a reverence to Dracula’s keenness in keeping the chronicles of men by means of keeping a private library--merely uses historical facts as ornaments. These facts are not really important for the sake of history itself.

Let me explain. There are a bunch of historical facts in “The Historian”. One wouldn’t have accused Kostova for not doing enough research because she did--foreign relations among countries during the Cold War, Ottoman Empire’s conquest of Europe in the 15th century, some Eastern European countries’ Middle Age’s history, etc. These facts are, however, only important in relation with Dracula (which was taken from a real life character).

In short, Kostova is only used historical facts to make her story more interesting, not because the importance of these facts--something which, as a history obsessed freak, I don’t fancy.

Nonetheless, it’s only trivial matter compared to the fact that there are far too many coincidences in the story. Too many coincidences that even the most unobservant readers will not fail to notice them. THAT is the more substantial flaw of “The Historian”. It seems that every time the girl’s father went--whether it’s a foreign city with a million people population or an international congress unrelated which topic unrelated whatsoever to Dracula--he would always meet people that possess the same mysterious book. He’s also very lucky to always find the documents containing information necessary to continue his investigation in such short period of time. Even the grand closure, when Dracula was successfully vanquished, is set upon accidental fashion. Isn’t it quite spectacular that two people who had just arrived--in a timely manner, by the way--at the spot, could be able to organize the perfect ambush to beat an extremely intelligent character who had outsmarted his enemies for near half millennium?

The overabundance of coincidences is only one of “The Historian” ‘s minus points. Until now, I’m still left in the dark about Dracula’s true motive of giving his dragon books to all those people. Sure, it’s mentioned that Dracula only gave his books to few selected individuals; mainly historians because they had the ability to “preserve the past”, so to speak, something that Dracula himself wished to do. That also explains why Dracula ended up taking Professor Rossi (the post-grad supervisor) and told him to make an inventory of Dracula’s book collection.

Still, something is amiss. Why not just make the historians his slave right from the very start? It would surely save lots of time and energy. Dracula wishes that his existence kept secret, which was why he tried to intimidate anyone who tried to find out more about him. If that’s the case, why he gave the dragon book in the first place--knowing the curious nature of the historians would surely cause them to track Dracula? There were five people that received the book, but why only Professor Rossi that was kidnapped when the other historians also took inquiries to pursue him? I wonder if anybody who had read the book could tell me the answers to all those questions.

Overall, “The Historian” is worth the read, especially if you like adventure novels. It’s not one that I’d like to add to my favorite book list, though.