The Alchemist... Jaguar Knights...

So I did a lot of reading this weekend...

Recent Books: The Jaguar Knights is another story of the Blades (basically knights) in Dave Duncan's arsenal. It tells the story of two brothers who become blades, Wolf and Lynx, who are then thrown into a very strange mystery. A strange attack on a fortress by some unknown force sends Wolf on a journey to find out what happened, and who did the attacking. The story starts off somewhat interesting actually, but the finish is extremely lacking. Lynx finds himself slowly turning into a jaguar, and Wolf betrays just about everyone in the story. Not very satisfying at all. Too many loose ends. It seemed like Duncan was just getting into it, and then ran into some deadlines, because the last 100 pages are pretty sloppy, with large plot holes and terrible resolutions. (3/10).

The other book I read this weekend was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which was a fascinating read about a boy's journey from being a simple shephard in Spain, to going on a journey to find his Personal Legend in Egypt. This book has been a bestseller for a decade now, and has had tons of publicity due to various celebrities known to have read it, such as Bill Clinton and Julia Roberts. It has some interesting life lessons it tries to teach, and introduces the reader to the world of Alchemy, and it's famed reverence of the Elixir of Life along with the Philosopher's Stone. Alchemy is also the root of such cults (or religions if you want to stretch it), like Kabbalah. Along his journey, the boy meets a strange god-like figure, a gypsy, a crystal merchant, an Englishman, and of course, the Alchemist himself. Each of them teaches him something about life, and his journey. The book promotes the idea that one should always try to better themselves, and they do that by pursuing their Personal Legend. If everyone in the world does that, then society and the world will be better, and as the generations pass, the world will become a virtual utopia. Anyways, a very interesting read that I would recommend! (8/10). It's short too...