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SUCI
Buku pertama dalam trilogi SUCI.
“Orang akan cakap kamu semua lahir tiga tahun selepas kiamat. Kononnya kamu tak dapat menikmati keindahan sebenar dunia. Jangan percaya kata mereka. Inilah dunia yang sebenar. Dunia yang kamu pijak inilah dunia paling tulen. Dunia dulu, sebelum berlakunya pandemik itu, adalah palsu. Manusia tak hidup macam manusia. Kamu patut bersyukur kerana kamu tidak bergelumang dalam kekotoran dunia lama.”
Gendang dibunyikan dari pintu depan. Pak Hassan mengarahkan semua untuk bangun sebelum memejam mata dan membacakan doa. Semua budak di situ menundukkan kepala untuk menghayati. “Oh, Kuasa Suci Alam. Lindungilah anak-anak kami ini. Berikan mereka kekuatan. Tunjukkan mereka jalan yang benar supaya mereka tidak hilang seperti anak-anak yang sesat.”
23 orang remaja kesemuanya. Semua bakal menginjak umur 17 tahun pada tahun ini. Cukup umur. Hari ini, genap lima tahun sejak mereka memulakan latihan dengan Pak Hassan dan askar-askar lain. Hari ini, mereka menjadi dewasa.
“Orang akan cakap kamu semua lahir tiga tahun selepas kiamat. Kononnya kamu tak dapat menikmati keindahan sebenar dunia. Jangan percaya kata mereka. Inilah dunia yang sebenar. Dunia yang kamu pijak inilah dunia paling tulen. Dunia dulu, sebelum berlakunya pandemik itu, adalah palsu. Manusia tak hidup macam manusia. Kamu patut bersyukur kerana kamu tidak bergelumang dalam kekotoran dunia lama.”
Gendang dibunyikan dari pintu depan. Pak Hassan mengarahkan semua untuk bangun sebelum memejam mata dan membacakan doa. Semua budak di situ menundukkan kepala untuk menghayati. “Oh, Kuasa Suci Alam. Lindungilah anak-anak kami ini. Berikan mereka kekuatan. Tunjukkan mereka jalan yang benar supaya mereka tidak hilang seperti anak-anak yang sesat.”
23 orang remaja kesemuanya. Semua bakal menginjak umur 17 tahun pada tahun ini. Cukup umur. Hari ini, genap lima tahun sejak mereka memulakan latihan dengan Pak Hassan dan askar-askar lain. Hari ini, mereka menjadi dewasa.
344 pages, Paperback
Published March 25, 2022
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April 19, 2022
Kubeli novel ini kerna ku amat menyukai novel penulis sebelumnya iaitu Pengembaraan Laki-Laki Scorpio. Novel tersebut amatlah kelakar sehingga memecahkan usus perutku (atau pun kumudah terhibur?). Tetapi kali ini, tuan penulis membawakan sesuatu yang berbeza sedikit iaitu "serius" (namatey). Penulis tetap menyelitkan babak komedi sana dan sini tapi tidaklah sebanyak Pengembaraan Laki-Laki Scorpio. Kurasa kekuatan penulis adalah komedia, bila penulis cuba menghasilkan fiksyen serius (namatey), rasa kejanggalan di situ (jika anda telah membaca Pengembaraan Laki-Laki Scorpio dan Sepucuk Pistol Di Dalam Laci, anda akan faham maksudku).
Kisah novel ini pula, cuba anda bayangkan kumpulan ajaran sesat Ayah Pin, bayangkan yang polis/jakim belum menangkap mereka kerana aktiviti mereka masih belum kantoi. Tiba-tiba berlaku apokalips dan kumpulan ajaran sesat Ayah Pin ini selamat. Lalu lahir generasi baru dari kumpulan tersebut yang menganggap ajaran tersebut benar kerana tidak terdedah kepada ancaman fatwa jakim dan polis. Inilah lebih kurang sedikit latar belakang novel ini...
Sebab ku telah mengikuti siri tv buatan amerika bertajuk The Walking Dead, Book One, kudapati penulis mungkin mengambil sedikit sebanyak inspirasi dari cerita tersebut lalu menjadikan ku tidak rasa apa-apa yang baru dari novel ini. Jika anda tidak pernah menonton mahupun membaca apa-apa siri tv/filem/novel berkaitan dunia pasca apokalips/wabak, anda pasti akan menyukai novel ini.
p/s: Setiap yang bernyawa pasti akan merasai mati.... (Ali Imran 185)
p/s2: Pujian harus diberikan kepada penulis kerna bukan senang nak tulis novel sampai siap, novelku pun tak siap-siap. Doakan ku dapat mengikuti pesanan Tere Liye
Kisah novel ini pula, cuba anda bayangkan kumpulan ajaran sesat Ayah Pin, bayangkan yang polis/jakim belum menangkap mereka kerana aktiviti mereka masih belum kantoi. Tiba-tiba berlaku apokalips dan kumpulan ajaran sesat Ayah Pin ini selamat. Lalu lahir generasi baru dari kumpulan tersebut yang menganggap ajaran tersebut benar kerana tidak terdedah kepada ancaman fatwa jakim dan polis. Inilah lebih kurang sedikit latar belakang novel ini...
Sebab ku telah mengikuti siri tv buatan amerika bertajuk The Walking Dead, Book One, kudapati penulis mungkin mengambil sedikit sebanyak inspirasi dari cerita tersebut lalu menjadikan ku tidak rasa apa-apa yang baru dari novel ini. Jika anda tidak pernah menonton mahupun membaca apa-apa siri tv/filem/novel berkaitan dunia pasca apokalips/wabak, anda pasti akan menyukai novel ini.
p/s: Setiap yang bernyawa pasti akan merasai mati.... (Ali Imran 185)
p/s2: Pujian harus diberikan kepada penulis kerna bukan senang nak tulis novel sampai siap, novelku pun tak siap-siap. Doakan ku dapat mengikuti pesanan Tere Liye
September 12, 2022
Tak sangka pulak tema distopia buku ini agak menarik bagi aku (jarang jugak nak minat naratif distopia edisi lokal). Berlatar tamadun baru selepas ‘kiamat’ (dunia lama ‘pupus’ selepas pandemik), naratif SUCI dibina dalam konteks masa hadapan dengan pembangunan bandar yang terbiar dan masyarakatnya hidup berpuak di perkampungan dengan mengamalkan ajaran dan pemerintahan sendiri.
Jalan ceritanya bersifat survival dan adventur, diolah dalam perspektif Adan; remaja 17 tahun yang kali pertama terpaksa keluar daripada kampung demi menyelamatkan diri setelah kampungnya dibakar dan orang-orang kampungnya mati dibunuh oleh puak Orangmata yang mahu menakluk tanah Semenanjung. Tempo ceritanya perlahan, kadang agak ‘stagnant’ tapi aku suka efisiensi bahasanya yang digubah cermat dengan gaya penulisan yang tak lewah, sedap dibaca, dialog yang bersahaja, ada humor dan adegan sarkastik tapi cuma sekadar perlu; tak jengkel atau terlalu merepek.
Karakterisasi Adan agak bagus; sesuai dengan fasa coming-of-age dengan personalitinya yang kurang sabar, agak defensif dan terburu-buru tapi ada sifat cekal, setia dan kuat semangat yang aku suka. Agak terkesan dengan dinamik watak Im yang setakat bahagian II saja— harapan tinggi nak baca adventur dia dan Adan sampai habis tapi liciknya penulis! Suka dengan Kartini (terpaling gagah) dan yang paling misterius, Koi— harap ada lebih perkembangan watak dia di buku seterusnya.
Ada saspens dan aksi, konflik persahabatan, perihal cinta pertama juga subplot mistikal dan sureal tentang kepercayaan— tertarik dengan cara penulis variasikan perspektif tentang hal keagamaan pada naratif. Semacam dunia berputar ke masa lampau waktu manusia tiada pegangan hidup dan masih jahil. Bahagian pertengahan ceritanya paling menarik bagi aku sebab boleh lihat eksplorasi dunia SUCI dengan lebih terperinci— refleksi sosial dan kehidupan masyarakat, tentang Makhluk dan puak Orangmata, twist watak (dah boleh agak sebenarnya pasal Kapitan) dan eksposisi setiap karakter tambahan termasuk satu bahagian dengan perspektif Erina yang kena culik.
Naratif perkenalan yang bagus dan tak terlalu berat untuk permulaan sebuah trilogi. Pengakhiran yang tak tergantung sangat walaupun agak tergesa, akan ditunggu sambungannya nanti. 4.2 bintang untuk SUCI!
Jalan ceritanya bersifat survival dan adventur, diolah dalam perspektif Adan; remaja 17 tahun yang kali pertama terpaksa keluar daripada kampung demi menyelamatkan diri setelah kampungnya dibakar dan orang-orang kampungnya mati dibunuh oleh puak Orangmata yang mahu menakluk tanah Semenanjung. Tempo ceritanya perlahan, kadang agak ‘stagnant’ tapi aku suka efisiensi bahasanya yang digubah cermat dengan gaya penulisan yang tak lewah, sedap dibaca, dialog yang bersahaja, ada humor dan adegan sarkastik tapi cuma sekadar perlu; tak jengkel atau terlalu merepek.
Karakterisasi Adan agak bagus; sesuai dengan fasa coming-of-age dengan personalitinya yang kurang sabar, agak defensif dan terburu-buru tapi ada sifat cekal, setia dan kuat semangat yang aku suka. Agak terkesan dengan dinamik watak Im yang setakat bahagian II saja— harapan tinggi nak baca adventur dia dan Adan sampai habis tapi liciknya penulis! Suka dengan Kartini (terpaling gagah) dan yang paling misterius, Koi— harap ada lebih perkembangan watak dia di buku seterusnya.
Ada saspens dan aksi, konflik persahabatan, perihal cinta pertama juga subplot mistikal dan sureal tentang kepercayaan— tertarik dengan cara penulis variasikan perspektif tentang hal keagamaan pada naratif. Semacam dunia berputar ke masa lampau waktu manusia tiada pegangan hidup dan masih jahil. Bahagian pertengahan ceritanya paling menarik bagi aku sebab boleh lihat eksplorasi dunia SUCI dengan lebih terperinci— refleksi sosial dan kehidupan masyarakat, tentang Makhluk dan puak Orangmata, twist watak (dah boleh agak sebenarnya pasal Kapitan) dan eksposisi setiap karakter tambahan termasuk satu bahagian dengan perspektif Erina yang kena culik.
Naratif perkenalan yang bagus dan tak terlalu berat untuk permulaan sebuah trilogi. Pengakhiran yang tak tergantung sangat walaupun agak tergesa, akan ditunggu sambungannya nanti. 4.2 bintang untuk SUCI!
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May 30, 2022Seperti beberapa komen ulasan sebelum ni, aku macam mereka juga. Sukar nak habiskan buku ni. Penulisa yang dikenal dengan genre komedi, kali ini nampkanya lebih serius. Saya faham, ini adalah pemula kepada triologi, jadi untuk membina dunia dan watak-wataknya perjalanan cerita jadi perlahan.
May 10, 2022
!!WARNING ALERT!! Ada unsur kekejaman,keganasan dan aksi pembunuhan yang ekstrem.
!! no spoiler alert !!
-Kehidupan selepas kehancuran dunia. Bagaimanakah kehidupan manusia ?
-Adan dan sekumpulan remaja yang lain telah berkumpul di suatu tempat yang diketuai oleh Pak Hassan iaitu pembawa ajaran Kuasa Suci Alam.
-Sekumpulan remaja ini telah dilatih selama 5 tahun. Setelah usia menginjak 17tahun, mereka telah diberikan latihan terakhir dengan pergi ke balai masing-masing secara berpasangan demi menjaga keamanan kampung mereka daripada ancaman luar.
-Adan,Im, Erina,Syikin dan remaja lain pergi ke balai masing-masing dengan hanya berbekalkan ilmu yang mereka pelajari daripada Pak Hassan.
- Misi yang mereka jalankan sudah tentu tidak semulus yang mereka sangkakan. Balai mereka telah diceroboh oleh Orangmata dan disebabkan kejadian itu mereka pulang ke kampung untuk meminta bantuan.Tapi rupanya kampung mereka juga telah dimusnahkan.
-Apakah nasib Adan setelah itu? Bagaimanakah dia mahu meneruskan kehidupan setelah melihat banyak kemusnahan? Adakah Adan akan terus berjuang atau berputus asa?
!! no spoiler alert !!
-Kehidupan selepas kehancuran dunia. Bagaimanakah kehidupan manusia ?
-Adan dan sekumpulan remaja yang lain telah berkumpul di suatu tempat yang diketuai oleh Pak Hassan iaitu pembawa ajaran Kuasa Suci Alam.
-Sekumpulan remaja ini telah dilatih selama 5 tahun. Setelah usia menginjak 17tahun, mereka telah diberikan latihan terakhir dengan pergi ke balai masing-masing secara berpasangan demi menjaga keamanan kampung mereka daripada ancaman luar.
-Adan,Im, Erina,Syikin dan remaja lain pergi ke balai masing-masing dengan hanya berbekalkan ilmu yang mereka pelajari daripada Pak Hassan.
- Misi yang mereka jalankan sudah tentu tidak semulus yang mereka sangkakan. Balai mereka telah diceroboh oleh Orangmata dan disebabkan kejadian itu mereka pulang ke kampung untuk meminta bantuan.Tapi rupanya kampung mereka juga telah dimusnahkan.
-Apakah nasib Adan setelah itu? Bagaimanakah dia mahu meneruskan kehidupan setelah melihat banyak kemusnahan? Adakah Adan akan terus berjuang atau berputus asa?
July 16, 2022
Aku rasa buku ini memang sesuai untuk penggemar siri Hunger Games, Divergent ataupun Maze Runner. Aku lah tu. Buku pertama ini agak slow, tapi aku enjoy the ride. Memang penulis nak aku mengembara bersama Adan ke dunia Suci. Ada juga beberapa babak hanya bertindak sebagai filler, itu agak meleret sedikit. Tak sabar menunggu sambungannya.
April 8, 2022
I've discussed this in my booktube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqLa_...
And here is more or less transcribed of my thoughts from the video:
Impressions & Settings
Funnily my first impression of the book went something like this. Great…it’s a trilogy. Cause I have problems committing to a series. I’m the issue here not this book. And because of that, I am painfully aware that I might not get all of my questions answered but at least I do expect that the basic conflict our protagonist faced in the first series would be resolved.
From the blurb, it felt it was going to be a dystopian/post-apocalyptic kind of genre/settings.
Early in the story, we are introduced to Adan, an average teenage boy who is one of Pak Hassan’s warriors/soldiers. And I gotta say, he really has his priorities straight. You’d think for someone who has been training for five years he would be more like Katniss Everdeen and just has survival mode on his brain but it turns out the one occupying his mind is his lovely crush, Erina, one of the female warriors in his group. And I get it, this is fixi, and it’s not uncommon in western writing too, but I also gotta give credit, in portraying a teenage boy to be…hormonal. But personally, I don’t need to know the thought process of him being biologically affected by the nape of this Erina girl. But it’s just minor instances thank god.
We slowly establish the settings of Adan’s world, there is a belief system introduced, Adan and his friends and the village he came from believed in this Kuasa Suci Alam, they have some recitations of their prayers and in their beliefs, they recognise these two elements that arose from the damages of the world. One a monster/zombie-like being called Makhluk and another is the phenomena called Penyucian to describe how their current world state came to be. Very interesting the concept, cause it's basically calling the wipeout of the current world’s civilisation as a form of cleansing or purification.
Literacy in this world is not high. Not many can read well except for our bookish protagonist here, Adan. But it makes sense because it seems books or the art of writing or record keeping no longer exist and only what remains are books that were not affected or managed to be salvaged from this penyucian. In fact, interestingly various books were mentioned and made reference in this story which were Robinson Crusoe, Turunnya Sebuah Bendera from Usman Awang, Muhammad, the biography of our last prophet of Islam and a novel called Salina. I thought that was a nice touch and also good use of foreshadowing/symbolism. And looking back I think there’s some running theme here with this bookish reference…about survival, mother nature, duality of solitude/independence, fighting for freedom and clashes of beliefs. Either serve as a nod to the past world or a reminder for Adan and the society he’s living in.
Another poignant scene or motifs to me which similarly reminds me of the Attack on Titans series were the sea and greenery motifs. The scene where the characters were at the sea reflected serenity, peace and the dream of these youngsters wanting to venture out beyond the sea. Then, there’s also the state of their world itself, which based on Adan’s belief, is that the power of nature purified the world into ruin, and that the world will still continue spinning regardless, so humans should move forward as well. And lest not forget the flower growing on those Makhluk being, perhaps they're here to symbolize that in midst of all the violence and bloodshed, flowers continue to bloom beautifully. This is the same with Attack on titans, they always depict flowers when a chaos scene happened. A beautiful gift of nature among dead bodies./stench of death.
Thoughts on overall writing & characters
Personally, I think Hadi M Nor did a splendid job in his writing, there is cohesion, the lines flow seamlessly and with purpose. All the scenes have purpose for the next one or later on in the chapters which shows a lot of care, planning and details went on in crafting this piece. Basically it reads like watching a movie or a series in my head. And I must commend the action sequence, the pacing did not lose momentum for fast scenes such as fight or battle scenes in this story. It really kept me engaged. The dialogues didn’t feel stiff and overall it was wild at the end. Like in a good way. Not sure if this can be attributed to his experience in script-writing for such popular TV shows like Oh My English that gives him an edge.
But story-wise, and this is just me. I kind of could predicted the major reveal of the villain in this story and was not surprise by the key death moments. Maybe I’m heartless or I have strong mental fortitude cause the moment it’s a dystopian-ish story, I’m already closing off my heart, don’t get attached to any of these characters, but alas I do have a favourite.
Lets talk about characters. We have Adan our male protagonist, he’s bookish, rather quiet, kind and sensible but considered to be weak. He’s basically reminded me of Kaneki Ken from Tokyo Ghoul, bookish and a weakling. You’d think putting a book-lover character who is also lembik like me would make me like him. But in all honesty, I don’t really feel attached towards him. But I was still interested to see how he handled and navigate the situations he was in. Yes, he was still interesting enough.
We have Im, his best friend who is the very opposite of him, athletic, energetic and popular. Erina who is his crush or potential love interest and the damsel who literally is in distress, poor girl. Then, later in the book, we got a character that reminds me of Dumbledore, Tuan Idris is his name, must be the beard and his touching talk with the MC. We got a group of other misfits, Jaki, acting like an annoying rival, Koi, the tall and stoic good-natured male like Mori-senpai, Maia the youngest, brave and flexible girl and then my favourite, even though she doesn’t appear much, Kartini, the elder sister/leader of the group. And I tabbed some of her and Maia scene with the MC because they’re really badasses when it comes to overwriting the MC’s mansplaining and catching his back. So yes I enjoyed that, I got a kick out of it, okay.
Portrayal of abuse and violence towards women
This is not like a jab towards the author. In fact more like a reminder to myself as a writer and to other writers as well, and maybe something to ponder. When it comes to writing portrayal of abuse and violence towards women. Look, I get it, this is fixi and it’s all about the grittiness, gore and violence, the overall rawness of human nature. But I believe there is a way author can work trauma especially towards women without ‘show don��t tell’ too explicitly. And yes, I get it it’s intended for mature reader, but with influx of such media always utilising this portrayal, it starts to breed a new problem.
Hear me out, and I’ll link a good article from bookriot.com where they analyse Harley Quinn in suicide squad and compared to birds of prey. And I’ll borrow its words. Too many movies/stories use sexual violence to perform double duty: to show how threatening the bad guy is or how the victim has suffered, yes, but also to titillate/’excite’. I would venture to guess that most aren’t even aware they were titillating—that’s just how they frame the female body, especially the nude female body. And this is what I get from a certain scene especially involving Erina, one of the female characters. While it succeeded making me loathe the villains, it also unfortunately succeeded in making me to a certain extent feel uncomfortable. Maybe others don’t feel bothered, good on them. And sure in few of these scenes, Erina for the most parts has agency, she put up a fight and we do not dwell too much on these scene, we’re focused on her surviving but and not just Erina, Erina and the group of females captured and tortured in this story, there were tendencies that to deprive the dignity of the female have always been with regards to stripping off her clothing or involving the showing of her body. But for once, I would like to read where the author refuses to reward the reader for visualising a woman being humiliated by making that humiliation attractive, and it refrains from making the audience complicit in the unjust punishment (or the potential exploitation from the villain). But these are all something to be handled delicately. And because we rarely read or watch trauma on women that are handled differently (I mean we always have to sit through and read/watch a woman’s body being unjustly exposed to prove the violence they faced, so to ask to write differently while giving the same impact, can be challenging for others) I think a good example in writing to show don’t tell with regards to trauma on women is to not focus on the damage that had been done on her body, but the after-impact or other imagery. For movie, Birds of Prey, one of the characters, Helena’s backstory is that her entire family was murdered in front of her when she was a child, and we do see that scene in multiple flashbacks. But though Birds of Prey isn’t shy about gore, the camera lingers not on Helena’s family’s wounds, but the toy car she clutches in her fist as it happens and that clearly becomes a token of safety to her—not the pain, but the thing that gets her through the pain. In book, I can think of the Six of Crows duology, one of the female characters, Inej Gafa, was sold to prostitution but here’s the thing, there’s limited scenes about her actual deeds as prostitution, but readers could tell she is very disturbed by her former boss who bought her, and scold her, and her dislikeness to get close physically to people. We, as reader don’t need to know the work of a prostitution in details especially when this character considered it a violating moment. It’s not that it shouldn’t be done, it could, but if given the chance, could be done differently. If you ask me, it’s a mix, because we’re supposed to be in Erina’s headspace but at the same time any awful things happen to her, it can feel at time as though we’re complicit with the villains. Sometimes we manage to fight off as though we’re Erina but often it felt her agency was withheld by the savagery of the villains in this scene. It’s a hard angle to take I understand. But that’s just my two cents on the matter.
Conclusion
Overall, I would give this 3.5 out of 5 (Yes Gooderads rating system here sucks). It’s still the first in a trilogy series so it is promising. Look don’t take my word for it. I’m already seeing it’s selling well in stores and for good reasons. I couldn’t bump it up to 4 stars because I could guess the storyline and it’s not a bad thing, it’s just I’m not super surprised by the revelation of things. So while I didn’t super adore the story, I still have a good read overall. I’m satisfied that the MC’s main concern in this story was resolved and making room for the next instalment for something bigger. There’s potential.
https://bookriot.com/birds-of-prey-mo...
https://crimereads.com/writing-violen...
https://www.thecuriousreader.in/featu...
https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/fre...
https://rtfgenderandmediaculture.word...
And here is more or less transcribed of my thoughts from the video:
Impressions & Settings
Funnily my first impression of the book went something like this. Great…it’s a trilogy. Cause I have problems committing to a series. I’m the issue here not this book. And because of that, I am painfully aware that I might not get all of my questions answered but at least I do expect that the basic conflict our protagonist faced in the first series would be resolved.
From the blurb, it felt it was going to be a dystopian/post-apocalyptic kind of genre/settings.
Early in the story, we are introduced to Adan, an average teenage boy who is one of Pak Hassan’s warriors/soldiers. And I gotta say, he really has his priorities straight. You’d think for someone who has been training for five years he would be more like Katniss Everdeen and just has survival mode on his brain but it turns out the one occupying his mind is his lovely crush, Erina, one of the female warriors in his group. And I get it, this is fixi, and it’s not uncommon in western writing too, but I also gotta give credit, in portraying a teenage boy to be…hormonal. But personally, I don’t need to know the thought process of him being biologically affected by the nape of this Erina girl. But it’s just minor instances thank god.
We slowly establish the settings of Adan’s world, there is a belief system introduced, Adan and his friends and the village he came from believed in this Kuasa Suci Alam, they have some recitations of their prayers and in their beliefs, they recognise these two elements that arose from the damages of the world. One a monster/zombie-like being called Makhluk and another is the phenomena called Penyucian to describe how their current world state came to be. Very interesting the concept, cause it's basically calling the wipeout of the current world’s civilisation as a form of cleansing or purification.
Literacy in this world is not high. Not many can read well except for our bookish protagonist here, Adan. But it makes sense because it seems books or the art of writing or record keeping no longer exist and only what remains are books that were not affected or managed to be salvaged from this penyucian. In fact, interestingly various books were mentioned and made reference in this story which were Robinson Crusoe, Turunnya Sebuah Bendera from Usman Awang, Muhammad, the biography of our last prophet of Islam and a novel called Salina. I thought that was a nice touch and also good use of foreshadowing/symbolism. And looking back I think there’s some running theme here with this bookish reference…about survival, mother nature, duality of solitude/independence, fighting for freedom and clashes of beliefs. Either serve as a nod to the past world or a reminder for Adan and the society he’s living in.
Another poignant scene or motifs to me which similarly reminds me of the Attack on Titans series were the sea and greenery motifs. The scene where the characters were at the sea reflected serenity, peace and the dream of these youngsters wanting to venture out beyond the sea. Then, there’s also the state of their world itself, which based on Adan’s belief, is that the power of nature purified the world into ruin, and that the world will still continue spinning regardless, so humans should move forward as well. And lest not forget the flower growing on those Makhluk being, perhaps they're here to symbolize that in midst of all the violence and bloodshed, flowers continue to bloom beautifully. This is the same with Attack on titans, they always depict flowers when a chaos scene happened. A beautiful gift of nature among dead bodies./stench of death.
Thoughts on overall writing & characters
Personally, I think Hadi M Nor did a splendid job in his writing, there is cohesion, the lines flow seamlessly and with purpose. All the scenes have purpose for the next one or later on in the chapters which shows a lot of care, planning and details went on in crafting this piece. Basically it reads like watching a movie or a series in my head. And I must commend the action sequence, the pacing did not lose momentum for fast scenes such as fight or battle scenes in this story. It really kept me engaged. The dialogues didn’t feel stiff and overall it was wild at the end. Like in a good way. Not sure if this can be attributed to his experience in script-writing for such popular TV shows like Oh My English that gives him an edge.
But story-wise, and this is just me. I kind of could predicted the major reveal of the villain in this story and was not surprise by the key death moments. Maybe I’m heartless or I have strong mental fortitude cause the moment it’s a dystopian-ish story, I’m already closing off my heart, don’t get attached to any of these characters, but alas I do have a favourite.
Lets talk about characters. We have Adan our male protagonist, he’s bookish, rather quiet, kind and sensible but considered to be weak. He’s basically reminded me of Kaneki Ken from Tokyo Ghoul, bookish and a weakling. You’d think putting a book-lover character who is also lembik like me would make me like him. But in all honesty, I don’t really feel attached towards him. But I was still interested to see how he handled and navigate the situations he was in. Yes, he was still interesting enough.
We have Im, his best friend who is the very opposite of him, athletic, energetic and popular. Erina who is his crush or potential love interest and the damsel who literally is in distress, poor girl. Then, later in the book, we got a character that reminds me of Dumbledore, Tuan Idris is his name, must be the beard and his touching talk with the MC. We got a group of other misfits, Jaki, acting like an annoying rival, Koi, the tall and stoic good-natured male like Mori-senpai, Maia the youngest, brave and flexible girl and then my favourite, even though she doesn’t appear much, Kartini, the elder sister/leader of the group. And I tabbed some of her and Maia scene with the MC because they’re really badasses when it comes to overwriting the MC’s mansplaining and catching his back. So yes I enjoyed that, I got a kick out of it, okay.
Portrayal of abuse and violence towards women
This is not like a jab towards the author. In fact more like a reminder to myself as a writer and to other writers as well, and maybe something to ponder. When it comes to writing portrayal of abuse and violence towards women. Look, I get it, this is fixi and it’s all about the grittiness, gore and violence, the overall rawness of human nature. But I believe there is a way author can work trauma especially towards women without ‘show don��t tell’ too explicitly. And yes, I get it it’s intended for mature reader, but with influx of such media always utilising this portrayal, it starts to breed a new problem.
Hear me out, and I’ll link a good article from bookriot.com where they analyse Harley Quinn in suicide squad and compared to birds of prey. And I’ll borrow its words. Too many movies/stories use sexual violence to perform double duty: to show how threatening the bad guy is or how the victim has suffered, yes, but also to titillate/’excite’. I would venture to guess that most aren’t even aware they were titillating—that’s just how they frame the female body, especially the nude female body. And this is what I get from a certain scene especially involving Erina, one of the female characters. While it succeeded making me loathe the villains, it also unfortunately succeeded in making me to a certain extent feel uncomfortable. Maybe others don’t feel bothered, good on them. And sure in few of these scenes, Erina for the most parts has agency, she put up a fight and we do not dwell too much on these scene, we’re focused on her surviving but and not just Erina, Erina and the group of females captured and tortured in this story, there were tendencies that to deprive the dignity of the female have always been with regards to stripping off her clothing or involving the showing of her body. But for once, I would like to read where the author refuses to reward the reader for visualising a woman being humiliated by making that humiliation attractive, and it refrains from making the audience complicit in the unjust punishment (or the potential exploitation from the villain). But these are all something to be handled delicately. And because we rarely read or watch trauma on women that are handled differently (I mean we always have to sit through and read/watch a woman’s body being unjustly exposed to prove the violence they faced, so to ask to write differently while giving the same impact, can be challenging for others) I think a good example in writing to show don’t tell with regards to trauma on women is to not focus on the damage that had been done on her body, but the after-impact or other imagery. For movie, Birds of Prey, one of the characters, Helena’s backstory is that her entire family was murdered in front of her when she was a child, and we do see that scene in multiple flashbacks. But though Birds of Prey isn’t shy about gore, the camera lingers not on Helena’s family’s wounds, but the toy car she clutches in her fist as it happens and that clearly becomes a token of safety to her—not the pain, but the thing that gets her through the pain. In book, I can think of the Six of Crows duology, one of the female characters, Inej Gafa, was sold to prostitution but here’s the thing, there’s limited scenes about her actual deeds as prostitution, but readers could tell she is very disturbed by her former boss who bought her, and scold her, and her dislikeness to get close physically to people. We, as reader don’t need to know the work of a prostitution in details especially when this character considered it a violating moment. It’s not that it shouldn’t be done, it could, but if given the chance, could be done differently. If you ask me, it’s a mix, because we’re supposed to be in Erina’s headspace but at the same time any awful things happen to her, it can feel at time as though we’re complicit with the villains. Sometimes we manage to fight off as though we’re Erina but often it felt her agency was withheld by the savagery of the villains in this scene. It’s a hard angle to take I understand. But that’s just my two cents on the matter.
Conclusion
Overall, I would give this 3.5 out of 5 (Yes Gooderads rating system here sucks). It’s still the first in a trilogy series so it is promising. Look don’t take my word for it. I’m already seeing it’s selling well in stores and for good reasons. I couldn’t bump it up to 4 stars because I could guess the storyline and it’s not a bad thing, it’s just I’m not super surprised by the revelation of things. So while I didn’t super adore the story, I still have a good read overall. I’m satisfied that the MC’s main concern in this story was resolved and making room for the next instalment for something bigger. There’s potential.
https://bookriot.com/birds-of-prey-mo...
https://crimereads.com/writing-violen...
https://www.thecuriousreader.in/featu...
https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/fre...
https://rtfgenderandmediaculture.word...
May 31, 2022
Aku suka tulisan Hadi. Aku dah baca hampir semua tulisan Hadi. Bukan sahaja buku. Tapi juga blog dari zaman Blogspot ke Wordpress ke Medium. Semua aku baca dan aku suka. Ada sesuatu yang special dengan cara penulisan dia.
However, berbeza pula dengan Suci. Graf pembacaan Suci ibarat rollercoster. Ada naik turunnya. Aku hampir-hampir give up halfway. Tapi aku paksa juga untuk habiskan sebab dah alang-alang sampai tengah. Bila baca dengan keadaan paksa tu akan berlaku lah speed reading dan aku mungkin ada terlepas pandang beberapa fakta mengenai cerita yang nak disampaikan penulis.
Mungkin ceritanya slow sebab ini ialah buku pertama daripada siri trilogi Suci. Jadi, penulis cuba nak kenalkan dengan dunia yang ada dalam ceritanya serta watak-watak yang ada. Tapi, still some parts are just boring dan....rasanya boleh skip kot? Kadang-kadang rasa macam tak ada motif sesetengah babak tu. Macam sekadar nak panjangkan cerita dan cukupkan patah perkataan? Idk. Ini pendapat peribadi je. Mungkin kena tunggu buku kedua dan ketiga sambungan Suci ni lah baru dapat tahu the whole story kan.
Adakah saya akan baca sambungannya? Tengok dulu lah. Kalau komen kat Goodreads untuk next buku positif, then I will give it a try. Kalau tak, maybe cukup sampai disini saja~~
However, berbeza pula dengan Suci. Graf pembacaan Suci ibarat rollercoster. Ada naik turunnya. Aku hampir-hampir give up halfway. Tapi aku paksa juga untuk habiskan sebab dah alang-alang sampai tengah. Bila baca dengan keadaan paksa tu akan berlaku lah speed reading dan aku mungkin ada terlepas pandang beberapa fakta mengenai cerita yang nak disampaikan penulis.
Mungkin ceritanya slow sebab ini ialah buku pertama daripada siri trilogi Suci. Jadi, penulis cuba nak kenalkan dengan dunia yang ada dalam ceritanya serta watak-watak yang ada. Tapi, still some parts are just boring dan....rasanya boleh skip kot? Kadang-kadang rasa macam tak ada motif sesetengah babak tu. Macam sekadar nak panjangkan cerita dan cukupkan patah perkataan? Idk. Ini pendapat peribadi je. Mungkin kena tunggu buku kedua dan ketiga sambungan Suci ni lah baru dapat tahu the whole story kan.
Adakah saya akan baca sambungannya? Tengok dulu lah. Kalau komen kat Goodreads untuk next buku positif, then I will give it a try. Kalau tak, maybe cukup sampai disini saja~~
August 20, 2022
Cerita selepas dunia musnah dan manusia terpaksa berhadapan dengan makhluk.. Manusia juga terpisah dan hidup dalam komuniti berbeza dengan pegangan yang berbeza.. Namun ada satu kumpulan iaitu Orangmata yang cuba menjajah, menghapuskan kumpulan manusia lain dan memaksa mereka mengikuti agama Orangmata..
December 17, 2022
It's an afterlife apocalypse zombie versus human kinda story. At first, aku imagine Orangmata tu macam Dajjal ada mata satu, but i think it's not. Tapi best lah dia punya plot twist who the Kapitan was. And Pak Hassan tu aku imagine macam Ayah Pin pun ada gak. I mean the watak like pelbagai but very nicely narrate. And did Hadi write Adan tu dia sebenarnya? Lol.
September 1, 2022
❕Amaran: Buku ini terdapat babak pembunuhan 🪓 yang mengerikan dan agak ekstrem, namun tidak ada unsur lucah
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📍Buku ini mengisahkan sekumpulan remaja berusia 17 tahun yang terpaksa menempuh dunia luar yang penuh kacau-bilau selepas berlakunya “pandemik” yang menghapuskan tamadun manusia seluruhnya.
📌Selepas 5 tahun di bawah jagaan dan bimbingan Pak Hassan, Adan, Im, Syikin, Erina dan rakan-rakannya yang lain diberikan latihan terakhir untuk berjaga di balai-balai yang telah ditetapkan untuk mereka. Tugas mereka cukup mudah, menjaga balai dan memberi isyarat kepada Pak Hassan sekiranya ada sebarang pencerobohan. Berbekalkan ajaran Pak Hassan, dan kepercayaan mereka kepada Kuasa Suci Alam, mereka bertolak keluar dari kawasan perkampungan mereka untuk bertugas.
📌Namun, didapati perkampungan Pak Hassan telah hancur dimusnahkan oleh puak Orangmata, mayat Pak Hassan diikat pada tiang dalam keadaan yang teruk.
📌Hanya tinggal mereka berempat yang terselamat. Dunia tidak seperti dulu lagi, bagaimanakah nasib Adan, Im, Erina, dan Syikin? bukan setakat mereka harus menghadapi puak Orangmata yang menuduh mereka sebagai anak-anak ajaran sesat Pak Hassan, tetapi mereka juga harus berdepan dengan “Makhluk” yang dijangkiti akibat “pandemik”.
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📌4 orang remaja berlawan dengan Orangmata yang sudah dewasa. Sudah tentu nasib tidak menyebelahi mereka. Syikin mati dibunuh, Erina ditangkap - Adakah usaha Im & Adan mencari Erina menemui kejayaan atau kegagalan?
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📌Sejak fenomena Penyucian, puak Orangmata cuba menawan semua perkampungan. Setiap orang yang ditawan haruslah menganut agama mereka, Mata Yang satu. Bagaimanakah nasib Erina?
Semua yang terselamat meminta bantuan di sebuah perkampungan Islam yang diketuai Tuan Idris. Puak Orangmata sudah mengepung orang Islam di segenap penjuru. Apakah persediaan kampung Islam untuk melawan ancaman Orangmata?
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tak sabar nak baca buku seterusnya! Apakah punca berlakunya “pandemik” ini dan apakah kesudahan buat mereka yang masih “survived” di dunia yang penuh kehancuran itu?
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🌟3
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📍Buku ini mengisahkan sekumpulan remaja berusia 17 tahun yang terpaksa menempuh dunia luar yang penuh kacau-bilau selepas berlakunya “pandemik” yang menghapuskan tamadun manusia seluruhnya.
📌Selepas 5 tahun di bawah jagaan dan bimbingan Pak Hassan, Adan, Im, Syikin, Erina dan rakan-rakannya yang lain diberikan latihan terakhir untuk berjaga di balai-balai yang telah ditetapkan untuk mereka. Tugas mereka cukup mudah, menjaga balai dan memberi isyarat kepada Pak Hassan sekiranya ada sebarang pencerobohan. Berbekalkan ajaran Pak Hassan, dan kepercayaan mereka kepada Kuasa Suci Alam, mereka bertolak keluar dari kawasan perkampungan mereka untuk bertugas.
📌Namun, didapati perkampungan Pak Hassan telah hancur dimusnahkan oleh puak Orangmata, mayat Pak Hassan diikat pada tiang dalam keadaan yang teruk.
📌Hanya tinggal mereka berempat yang terselamat. Dunia tidak seperti dulu lagi, bagaimanakah nasib Adan, Im, Erina, dan Syikin? bukan setakat mereka harus menghadapi puak Orangmata yang menuduh mereka sebagai anak-anak ajaran sesat Pak Hassan, tetapi mereka juga harus berdepan dengan “Makhluk” yang dijangkiti akibat “pandemik”.
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📌4 orang remaja berlawan dengan Orangmata yang sudah dewasa. Sudah tentu nasib tidak menyebelahi mereka. Syikin mati dibunuh, Erina ditangkap - Adakah usaha Im & Adan mencari Erina menemui kejayaan atau kegagalan?
-
📌Sejak fenomena Penyucian, puak Orangmata cuba menawan semua perkampungan. Setiap orang yang ditawan haruslah menganut agama mereka, Mata Yang satu. Bagaimanakah nasib Erina?
Semua yang terselamat meminta bantuan di sebuah perkampungan Islam yang diketuai Tuan Idris. Puak Orangmata sudah mengepung orang Islam di segenap penjuru. Apakah persediaan kampung Islam untuk melawan ancaman Orangmata?
-
tak sabar nak baca buku seterusnya! Apakah punca berlakunya “pandemik” ini dan apakah kesudahan buat mereka yang masih “survived” di dunia yang penuh kehancuran itu?
-
🌟3
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