a book that changed my life (I)

you know those chain thingies that are rather popular on e-mail (usually telling some bullcrap and then warning that some evil would happen to you unless you forwarded that e-mail to a number of people; in other words, electronic curses - the portuguese government must be proud, this is a real technological shock) and, recently, in sms too? well, they're quite fashionable on blogs now, but i assume, they are quite cool on blogs. and useful, especially for those days when you feel as if your head have been flushed down the poo-poo chair, for you can't think of anything to post. anyway (digressions, digressions). there's one now, about books that changed one's life, and books that didn't. ten of each. easy to find in some of the most popular portuguese blogs. surprisingly enough (cough cough), no one has passed me the chain - oh, the wonders of being anonymous! - but i'll chitchat a bit about it. but not ten at once - i don't even think i've had ten books changing my life already.

i've written about this down here, but it's always worth talking about this book. it's the tale of two brothers from an aristocratic family - urza and mishra - who are sent to the archaeologic dig site of a well known researcher, tocasia. urza, born in the first day of the year, is calm, quiet, apparently weak but very intelligent; mishra, born in the last day of the same year, is fierce, reckless, strong but clever on his own way. while uncovering the secrets of an ancient civilization known by its technological progress, the thran, the brothers unveil a strange mechanical artifact holding a brilliant stone. accidentally the powerstone shatters in two halves, each brother keeping one. and that is is te beginning of a cold silence between them that would separate them and force them to wage war on each other - a truly devastating war that would change the world of dominaria forever.

i read this book back when i went to high school (seven years ago), and it marked the beginning of my personal process of world creation. it brought me to the fantasy world of literature, and opened wide the doors of my imagination. now that i think of it, if it wasn't for this book my life would be so different nowadays. i wouldn't have played magic: the gathering for so long. i wouldn't have played starcraft, warcraft, world of warcraft. probably i would have never started to write science fiction and fantasy, and therefore wouldn't have read tolkien, pullman, vinge and so on. more than that (and that's what the label "magic: the gathering hides many times), it's a truly remarkable story very well written by jeff grubb.

| grubb, jeff, the brother's war (1998), wizards of the coast (paperback edition) |