Books, Stories, and Other Such Literary Works

   Hey!  Did you know I’m writing a book?  Yeah, it’s all about this kid who goes to another world where he has to defeat the bad guy and basically save the world before he can go back home.  Sounds incredibly cliché, right?  But it’s totally not.  I have all this really original stuff, like abominable snowmen, aliens that look like humans, but actually aren’t, and talking animals.  Oh, and it’s all magical and stuff too, just in case you were getting the wrong idea about this being some kind of Narnia rip-off.  It’s not.  This is entirely made up of my own ideas and not influenced in any way by the fantasy I read and watch.
   Anyway, on the subject of books, I’ve been reading a series by Orson Scott Card called Ender’s Game.  Well, that’s what the first book is called.  I’m not actually sure what the whole series called, but it’s pretty darn good.  It’s sci-fi, and the sci in sci-fi is a definite presence in the series.  The thing is jam packed with scientific mumbo jumbo.  But Card has such good writing skills he can drift a bit into that and still keep a captivating storyline running. 
   Speaking of good stories, or any story for that matter, you always have to remember that when you first pick that book up, you don’t know whether it will be happy, sad, terribly frightening, or enjoyable to the extreme.  The character you grow to love could fall off a cliff and die in the end.  Or they could end up learning an important lesson and being all the better for it.  Or they could simply learn nothing at all and continue with their life same as before the story started.  But worst of all, the story could leave you hanging over who knows what.  The story may build up a big climatic battle, then stop, right before the forces clash.  There might not even be a climatic anything, it could just stop somewhere in the story, leaving you to wonder about what happens.
   Now that you know the dangers of this kind of story, let me weave a little one for you.  It was in a land, far far away, a long time ago.  In the times of dragons and magic, there was a boy; his name was Bob, a very unusual name back then.  He was a simple farm boy, but he was chosen to be the companion of the King’s son.  They were both fond of riding and as they were riding through the woods one day they found themselves in a place neither of them had been before.

   The End

   Yes, the end.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  If you don’t believe it, look back up there and you’ll see I did indeed warn you.  Now don’t be mad.  I was just showing an example.  I could have had Bob fall off a cliff, or find a troll in the woods and then I could have stopped the story right as the troll was about to squash Bob.  Of course, I also could have had Bob go through the forest and do and learn nothing at all.  Or I could have had him save the King’s son’s life, and live happily ever after on all the money the King gave to him for it.  But happy endings are so old, and boring, and cliché.  Who needs them?  The point it, I could have had several endings that would have been a lot worse than the one I actually used.  Could have, could have, could have.  At least with that one, you could give it a happy ending in your mind if you so wished.  Or if you’re a person who likes darker stories you could’ve had everyone die.  That’s always an option.
   So I guess the moral of this post is, don’t judge a book by its cover.  That, and Ender’s Game is awesome!