Kevin’s Comments (group member since Oct 25, 2016)

Kevin’s comments from the 833 Reading Responses group.

Question: Identify significant moments within the text. Why are they important?

In the fantasy novel Demon Apocalypse of The Demonata series by Darren Shan, a significant moment in the book is when Beranabus, a powerful magician, discovers the three missing pieces of the Kah-Gash as the life forms of Grubbs, Bec, and Kernel. The Kah-Gash is the last hope for humanity’s survival as demons are growing and ravaging around our planet to desperately kill humans. It is a mythical weapon that can perform amazing feats of magic for multiple uses. War has been taken place after Lord Loss and demon armies have invaded for revenge and destroying everything in sight. Beranabus sates, “ ’ The Kah-Gash reserved time because the world faced annihilation and there was no other way ... But it was a massive, perilous undertaking. (185) ’ ” After becoming the Kah-Gash, it gave them a second chance to fix the damage and stop the war from happening by travelling back in time. Rather than everyone dying from the massive amounts of demoniac torture and the extinction of humans, Grubbs, Bec, and Kernel who have the desire to kill demons no matter what based on past experiences are given hope to prevent this disaster. Therefore, a significant moment from the book is when the Kah-Gash is finally formed to save everyone from demon attacks.
I would like to improve on stopping my use of repeating some words and phrases constantly. Like some things can’t be paraphrased and so it’s hard for me to find something to replace it. Also, I want to work on making my analysis better because I don’t really make some connections to other moments in the text and sometimes I don’t answer the question.

Focus Question: How does the setting impact the plot or characters?

In the fantasy novel “Demon Thief” of The Demonata series by Darren Shan, the places the main character Kernel Fleck has been have impacted his life. From the start of his life, he was viewed as crazy or unordinary kid so he never had friends and he constantly had to face his loneness although his parents were very supportive of him. But one day changed his life forever, he discovered his baby brother was actually a demon and he has great powers that can open these “windows” where he can travel between universes or worlds. Later on, he met and joined the “Disciples”, a group of people with magical abilities who swear to defend humanity against demons. On page 57, it says “You’ve followed us into a different universe – the home of the Demonata. It’s a hellhole.” This shows how being in Demonata can put Kernel in a life or death situation and can affect the rest of the plot, since he doesn’t have the power to kill all of the dangerous demons. The new setting can also make him meet new characters and discover new secrets that can be the solution to the problem in the story or contribute to the sequel.

Question: Identify significant moments in the text? Why are they important?

In the fantasy world of the Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan, finding out and deciphering Loki’s plans is a significant moment in the book because it contributes to solving the conflict of Thor’s missing hammer. Magus Chases, the main protagonist, has to accomplish his most difficult task just after defeating a ferocious god. He was assigned to find and retrieve Thor’s hammer after Loki and the earth giants have stolen it. The hammer is critical for Thor’s enemies to start war between the nine worlds. On page 347, the giant Utgard-Loki (no relation to the Loki above) explained, “Well, it’s simple, effective, and relatively foolproof. It doesn’t get you the hammer back, but as I said, I don’t care about that. My main concern is keeping Loki in captivity. If he gets free, he starts Ragnarok right now, and I, for one, am not ready.” This moment is significant because this is where Magnus and his friends realize there are more at stake if they don’t get back Thor’s hammer. If the hammer doesn’t return to its rightful owner then Loki is freed from captivity and immediately starts Ragnarok, which is the war that everyone is preparing for. There are greater catastrophes that can happen if their assignment wasn’t successful. As a result, it shows that Magnus has the chance to stop this after he gained new information on Loki’s plans.