Artemis Fowl series..- Eoin Colfer

Artemis Fowl miliuner jenius yang baru berusia dua belas tahun. Karena ingin mendapatkan emas ia berhasil masuk ke dunia peri. Tapi ternyata peri-peri yang dihadapinya bukanlah seperti yang ada dalam dongeng. Mereka bersenjata dan berbahaya, dan mereka mau melakukan apa saja untuk membebaskan teman mereka yang ditawan Artemis.

tentang seorang pengarang fiksi terkenal -Vida Winter- yang mengarang tentang dongeng ketigabelas *yang ternyata cerita ketigabelas itu adalah cerita mengenai mitos kelahiran tiap pembaca novelnya*, kemudian novel itu dicetak ulang dengan judul  dongeng-dongeng perubahan dan keputusasaan. Kemudian, untuk mengabadikan kehidupannya sebelum menjelang ajalnya, Vida meminta Margaret Lea untuk membuat biografinya setelah dia membaca jurnal M Lea mengenai biografi orang kembar, dari wawancaranya yang terdengar seperti dongeng, M Lea menjadi teringat dengan kenangan masa lalunya bahwa dia memiliki saudara kembar yang meninggal saat dilahirkan. Kisah hidup Vida ternyata sangat rumit dan menyedihkan seperti Jane Eyre. Mungkin secara keseluruhan novel ini dibuat terinsipirasi dari novel Jane Eyre -namun lebih gelap ceritanya- dilihat dari adanya kelainan mental, rumah terbakar dan orang yang diketemukan tewas dalam perpustakaan itu dikemudian hari. Sayangnya disini tidak ada Mr Rochester hehehee… atau mungkin Dr Colin itu mr R nya?

 

"Ceritakan padaku yang sesungguhnya." Permintaan sederhana itu mengusik hati Vida Winter, novelis ternama yang penuh rahasia. Bukankah selama enam puluh tahun ini dia telah mengarang banyak dongeng, tapi tak pernah mengungkapkan kisahnya sendiri? Namun, menjelang ajal, masa lalu tak dapat dihindarinya lagi, berapa pun banyaknya dongeng yang telah ditenunnya. Maka Vida Winter mengundang Margaret Lea, penulis biografi muda, yang memiliki rahasia sendiri tentang kelahirannya, yang telah dikubur dalam-dalam oleh orang-orang yang paling dia kasihi, dan menciptakan bayang-bayang kelam yang membuntuti tiap langkahnya. Inilah kisah Vida dan keluarga Angelfield: Isabelle yang cantik dan keras kepala, si kembar Adeline dan Emmeline yang liar, rumah besar Angelfield yang tua dan nyaris ambruk, serta semua penghuninya, hidup atau mati. Sementara Margaret tenggelam dalam dongeng Vida, rahasia kelam itu lambat laun tersingkap, dan saat kebenaran mengemuka, kedua wanita itu pun harus menghadapi hantu-hantu yang selama ini membayangi hidup mereka.

 

Lumayan untuk menyegarkan penampilan eh pikiran setelah membaca buku fiksi yang kelam berkabut tadi. Seperti another chicklit ceritanya ringan, sambil lalu sambil ngemil nonton tv dengerin musik gak masalah, intinya tentang cwe bernama Liv Elliot seorang akuntan tapi pengen jadi desainer topi yang akhirnya malah punya bisnis lingerie dari kenalan acara mabuk-mabukannya di bar gay di Australia (wahhhhhhhh… chicklit emang selalu penuh dengan tema kebetulan yang berlebihan). Liv berlibur ke Aussie menginap di villa pinggir pantai milik pacar Alex sahabatnya yg matre. Dia berlibur setelah mengalami depresi karena ditinggalkan tunangannya yg membatalkan acara pernikahan mereka. Di sini dia bertemu lagi dengan cwo pertamanya Ben Parker yang keren abis dan ternyata sudah pacaran dengan Amelia, seorang socialite cantik. Karena dia masih bete dengan cowok dan setiap kesempatan yang ada tuk dekat lagi dg BP tuh selalu not in the right time jadinya dia sedikit cuek dengan BP padahal sih… kemudian endingnya seperti biasa, everybody happy

(disini aku sibuk membayangkan BP adalah Hugh Jackman, LE adalah Nicole.. yah pre film australia itu loh)

awalnya aku agak bingung membaca bukunya, perlu waktu 5 menit untuk memahami dan mulai menyenangi ceritanya. novel ini ibarat membaca Jumper versi novel dramanya namun lebih manusiawi dan lucu aja. Henry DeTamble mempunyai gen yang diistilahkan chrono-displacement gene (CDG) cacat gen krono yang menyebabkan dia bisa berpindah-pindah waktu, namun tidak seperti di film quantum leap atau jumper, saat tiba di waktu yang lain entah itu masa depan atau lampau dia tiba dalam keadaan polos, tidak membawa satu benda pun dari masanya, karena disini yang bisa berpindah hanya gennya saja (masuk akal kan) klo baju kan struktur molekulnya beda. Dia akhirnya menikah dengan Clare , gadis yang secara konsisten ditemuinya dari waktu ke waktu, dan mempunyai agenda untuk menyediakan pakaian/akomodasi saat dia terdampar di masa yang ditentukan tsb. Akhirnya mereka mempunyai anak bernama Alba yang jg mempunyai gen yang sama dengannya. Clare pun meninggal di pelukan Henry. Ada kalimat romantisnya nih…

Siehe, ich lebe. Woraus? Weder Kindheit noch Zukunftl werden weniger… Uberzahliges Dasein / entspringt mir im Herzen.

(Lihatlah, aku hidup. Dengan apa? Baik masa kanak kanak ataupun masa depan / tidak tumbuh semakin kecil… Mahluk yang berkelimpahan / muncul di dalam hatiku.)

 

The novel tells the story of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Abshire (born 1971), an artist from a wealthy family who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement during his lifetime, that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Clare’s past is still in Henry’s future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare’s childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present. In the novel, the future cannot be changed, and many tragic events are foreshadowed in the past.

Henry is unable to control his time traveling: when he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trip will last. His destinations are tied to his subconscious, as Henry most often travels to places he has visited or will eventually visit. Very often, Henry is taken back to the moment his mother died in a car accident that he survived, and is forced to observe the car crash again and again. Certain things like stress or flickering images (like those of television) can trigger time travel for Henry. It is described as being similar to epilepsy or a panic attack, though on brain imagery, his brain shows patterns similar to those who are schizophrenic. He uses running as a way of keeping calm and remaining in the present. But more importantly, he needs to be able to run fast to escape any unknown situations he could travel back (or forward) to at any given time.

Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past. Even fillings in his teeth are left behind. He always "arrives" naked and must work hard while "away" to find clothing, shelter, and food without getting beaten up or arrested. He amasses a number of survival skills including pickpocketing, lock-picking, and expert fighting skills. He learns many of these skills from older versions of himself, either when the older self is time-traveling into his own past, or when his older and younger selves’ time-traveling coincides.

Henry frequently time travels into Clare’s childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, starting in 1977 when she is six years old. On one of his early visits, Henry dictates to her a list of the visits he will make to her; she writes these dates into a diary so she can expect his visits. As an adult, when all of the visits are through, she gives the list to him to memorize so that he will know them when he returns to her in her past. This is an example of a predestination paradox, since the knowledge of the dates forms a causal loop, with Henry having got the list of dates from Clare when she was an adult, and Henry having memorized the list and dictated it to Clare on one of his first visits in 1977. During one of Henry’s visits, he inadvertently reveals that he and Clare will be married in the future, confirming what a Ouija board spelled out to Clare and her friends at a sleepover. His last visit takes place on her eighteenth birthday in 1989 where he and Clare make love for the first time, and then they are separated for two years until they finally meet in real time for both of them.

Clare and Henry get married, but have trouble conceiving a child because of his genetic disorder. After six miscarriages, Henry gives up and has a vasectomy. However, a past version of Henry, pre-vasectomy, travels to the future and makes love to Clare. She becomes pregnant and carries the child to term. They have a daughter named Alba, who is also diagnosed with the same disorder. Unlike Henry, however, Alba has more control over her destination when she time travels. Before she is born, Henry travels to the future and meets Alba, who is ten years old and on a school field trip. During this visit, Henry is confronted by Alba’s teacher, who is suspicious of his identity; Henry then learns that he has already died in real-time by the time Alba has turned ten. Alone with her dad, ten-year-old Alba confirms that he died when she was five years old.

During what is to be his last year of life, Henry time-travels to a Chicago parking garage on a frigid winter night, where he is unable to find shelter. He experiences hypothermia and develops frostbite. When Henry returns to his ‘present’, his feet must be amputated. Henry and Clare both know that without the ability to escape by running, Henry will certainly die within the next few jumps back in time. On New Year’s Eve, the DeTambles throw a party, ostensibly to celebrate the new year, but the real reason is known only to Henry: he knows that the journey that will take his life will happen that night, and he doesn’t want Clare to be alone when that happens. Just before midnight, Henry time-travels into the middle of the Michigan woods during deer season and is fatally shot by Clare’s brother. This scene is foreshadowed earlier in the novel. Henry returns to the present and dies in Clare’s arms.

Clare is devastated by Henry’s passing, and feels unable to live her life without him. Although their daughter Alba sees him from time to time, he and Clare seem never to be able to see each other. She finds a letter from Henry describing an experience he had with her in her future, when she is an old woman. Henry doesn’t want Clare to wait for him, but he wants her to know that they will see each other again, and that love knows no boundaries and transcends time and death. Clare lives to old age, and the book concludes as she waits for Henry’s last visit.

Bagus deh.. baca aja, walau timingnya mungkin loncat-loncat.