Those in deepest darkness fight most valiantly for the light.

I am back to school. I had an incredibly stressful day today trying to figure my schedule and grad requirements out. But luckily for me, everything actually turned out okay. I think. I have two classes which I am pretty much locked into taking that I haven't actually been to yet. So they could potentially turn out really bad. But I think they will be okay.

I read a lot over the Christmas break. I will be updating all my reading lists and such in the next couple days.

I finally finished a book trilogy that I started around 5 years ago I think it was. The author, Christopher Hopper, wrote and published the first two books (The Rise of the Dibor and The Lion Vrie) within a year or two. And then he wrote the third book (Athera's Dawn), but had a bunch of trouble with publishers. Finally, after years of waiting, he self-published the series and the final book came out at last (you can even read them for free on his blog if you so wish, personally, I despise reading off a screen). I should mention here how the second book ended with the most insane cliffhangers ever. It was one of those books where there are several story lines going on at the same time. It made up on inclusive story, its just that characters were in different places and doing different things at times. Anyways, at the end of the second book, the story was happening in around 5 different places. And it ended with insane cliffhangers in every one. If you don't believe me, read this:

"If it needs to be said again, I'm a far more spontaneous author than I am an outlined author. I tend to write from the seat of my pants. There are pros and cons to each of the polarized extremes, but it's the former that tends to excited me the most. For if I don't know where things are heading, I'm confident that my readers won't either. I ended The Lion Vrie on what's easily considered a far more tumultuous cliffhanger than Rise of the Dibor. The main reason for this is that I wanted to paint the characters into such perilous positions that not even I could foresee a way out. Literally, I wanted to be as clueless as the reader. And I was."

- Christopher Hopper

I read the final book within 24 hours I think. I had forgotten how gripping they were. Since I had read the first two books before, I kind of knew what to expect when I read them now. But when I got to the third book, it reminded me of how I felt when I read the first two books for the first time. It was that "I absolutely can't put this down" feeling. I think part of that is since the story is usually going on in more than one place, the author jumps around from place to place. Kind of like the Lord of the Rings books do. Only Christopher Hopper tends to stay in one story for only a chapter or two at time. And often just before moving on to a different story, there is a little bit of an intense moment or cliffhanger.

If you know me well enough to have ever talked books with me, there is a good chance I have ranted to you about this book series. I waited for years. Not, on-the-edge-of-my-seat waiting, but still waiting. I checked every few weeks at first. Then every few months. When it occurred to me I would peruse Mr Hopper's blog looking for any sign of a release date. I am happy to finally have the closure of finishing the series. The characters are no longer stranded in sure-death situations in my mind and I finally have a conclusion.


*The title of this post is the line from the back of Athera's Dawn