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First Page Friday is a new weekly feature at Pen to Paper, where I will post the first page of a (probably) Young Adult book, that I am particularly excited about, or have already read and loved.
by Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Pages: 400
Release date: 4th October 2012
Buy: Book Dep | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones
Find on Goodreads
Goodreads synopsis:
Jake's father disappears while working on mysterious experiments with the obsessive, reclusive Oberon Venn. Jake is convinced Venn has murdered him. But the truth he finds at the snow-bound Wintercombe Abbey is far stranger ... The experiments concerned a black mirror, which is a portal to both the past and the future. Venn is not alone in wanting to use its powers. Strangers begin gathering in and around Venn's estate: Sarah - a runaway, who appears out of nowhere and is clearly not what she says, Maskelyne - who claims the mirror was stolen from him in some past century. There are others, a product of the mirror's power to twist time. And a tribe of elemental beings surround this isolated estate, fey, cold, untrustworthy, and filled with hate for humans. But of them all, Jake is hell-bent on using the mirror to get to the truth. Whatever the cost, he must learn what really happened to his father.
The First Page
My Thoughts...
I read The Obsidian Mirror earlier on in the year, while I was doing work experience with the publishing company. Catherine is an author I had read before (I'd read Incarceron, and seriously loved it), so I was excited to be asked to read this so soon before publication. I ended up liking this even more than Incarceron though, which is great!
Having read the book, and knowing the entire story, though (and this is the first time on this feature that I'm going to say something like this) ... I don't think that the first page communicates the full extent of the protagonist. That's not to say that the first page is not good - because it really is - but there is so much more to Jake's character than what this page shows.
When I've mentioned characters on this feature in the past, I've always said that the character comes through really well, but this makes Jake's character seem like an entirely bad and sly one, and he turns out not to be like that. But on the other hand, it does give his character a chance to noticeably develop, which is something that I really liked about the book.
The very beginning to this page is what I think is the most fascinating, though. It absolutely doesn't make any sense when you read it for the first time. You don't know who any of the characters are, after all, so Symmes is a mystery man to you, but you also have very little idea of what he's talking about (you only have the title of the book and the synopsis to go by). The first line is seriously good, as well. Discovering something impossible sounds very exciting to me!
I loved this book, and if you want to find out more of my reasons for this, you can read my review HERE.
I also interviewed Catherine for the Obsidian Mirror Blog Tour yesterday, which you can check out HERE.
What do you think of this first page? Does it make you want to read the book?
As always, let us know what you think of it in the comments below!
4 comments:
I've always like the idea that as we turn the pages, authors reveal more and more about the characters then it's left to us to create the characters in mind. A promising first page start. :D
Catherine Fisher is amazing in world building and steam-punkish stuff, so I'm pretty excited about this!
You had me when I read the first page. :-)
I love this new feature Dani it's such a great idea! I'm really excited to read this one, saw that you are ill on twitter so sending you get well soon wishes!
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