Hugo Award for Best Novel

Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book writes about a young boy named Nobody Owens or Bod who has a unique relationship with the dead. Throughout the novel Bod learns many things that the dead know about and don’t. With his guardian Silas, a mysterious figure who is neither living nor dead, Bod learns multiple things about life, the dead, and how powerful knowledge is. Knowledge is Power and power is what Bod seeks in order to protect himself, avenge his family, and put a stop to the Man Jack. In chapter 6 when Silas reveals that The Man Jack is the one responsible for Bod’s family’s death and is still after Bod, Bod seeks revenge and the only way he is to do so he says is to, become more knowledgeable and learn more. In order for Bod to…

Sun Tzu once said, “The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.” Victims of many situations usually are unaware of their trouble until the oppressor portrays it. Unfortunately, Nobody Owens from Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, always got into life-threatening incidents. In this novel, the man Jack, an extremely dangerous man to the Dorian family, goes to the Dorian household to avoid problems for himself in the future.…

Shakespeare. Both of these stories are considered ghost stories. The ghost in Hamlet is of Hamlet Sr., who was killed and now seeks revenge. The ghosts in The Graveyard Book are all of the main characters who died, were buried in the same graveyard, and came back to life. They are from several different time periods and ways of life, which adds depth to the story. It is also similar to Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which the ghosts are the crewmates on the mariner’s ship. It also includes…

something that has led her to win quite a few awards for. She writes mainstream, romance (Kristine Grayson), science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction (one that includes a book about writing), and mystery (Kris Nelscott); which by the way, is just about every genre there is out there. Her husband, Dean Wesley Smith is also a writer, and together have written some things together that they publish under the names of Kathryn Wesley or Sandy Schofield. Her work is published in over ten languages and…

In Cormac McCarthry’s novel The Road, the man, who believes God has entrusted him to protect the boy from the evils and dangers of the world, is in a constant struggle between life and death. McCarthy depicts the man as a hardy character with a sensitive side towards his son. The man, struggling to survive for the sake of the boy, is ruthless, suffering, and protective. If he is pushed to his limit, the man can be ruthlessly violent. For instance, he and the boy were hiding behind an…

The Importance of Friendship Friendship is, by definition, a relationship between two friends. Some believe that friendships are a necessity for human life. Joseph Conrad was a man who grew up not having many friends. As a young child he had missed school quite a bit from illnesses (Kathleen Wilson 200). This made it hard to have close relationships with other children. He did however gain a love for literature and the sea from his father at a young age (www.notablebiographies.com). This is…

not easy” (Roethke 656). What could be seen as a dance in actuality is the little boy trying to keep up with his drunken father? The constant walking movement of the father that is referred to in the poem as the waltz, causes a disarray of damage in the kitchen as he moves. “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (Roethke 656). The waltz the father and boy share is quite loud, indeed with lots of movement they start to move even the pots and pans in the kitchen. The annoyance…

In “My Papa’s Waltz,” Roethke uses an extended metaphor, but uses different language to describe it as the poem is read. “My Papa’s Waltz” has the metaphor of dancing throughout the poem, more correctly, waltzing between a father and son. Everything from the description of the fluidity of the dance to the speakers feeling towards the dance helps create a stronger meaning behind the metaphor. Roethke uses dancing as a metaphor for the relationship between the son and the father, according to the…

A father’s job is to care for his children, to keep them safe from harm. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way as is made clear in two Jess Walter’s stories, “Please” and “We Live in Water” from a book of the same name We Live in Water. In “Please” the son in the story lives with his mom, Carla, and her druggie boyfriend, Jeff in an environment where drugs come first. Tommy, the absentee father, has little control regarding the safety of his child. In “We Live in Water”, it is…

Jennifer Vo Thelma and Louise is a story about two women who decide to go on a trip, but it does not go as planned. The premise is a classic adventure story about friends who plan a great adventure; however, they hit bumps in the road, but the problems they endure help them define themselves. In the three act breakdown, act I is the planning of the trip to taking off on the trip, act II is the runaway from all their troubles, which leads to act III Thelma and Louise tries to escape and their…