I was first introduced to Paulo Coelho through a friend who recommended his book Alchemist to me. I was never a reader, not even a magazine or school textbook; reading the first paragraph of Alchemist changed all of that for me. The first page grasped my attention from the time the Sheppard is found sleeping under a starry night. That book alone had such a tremendous impact on me, that I went on a rampage and read all of his books, and after reading them all, I found some to be just average, and some became my favorite over the Alchemist.

Brida, one of Mr. Coelho's works did its magic like the Alchemist did from the first paragraph, but it wasn't even the first paragraph, it was first sentence which said, "Brida wanted to learn magic." I being attracted to the metaphysical world since birth was fascinated and excited by such a line, and reading each and every paragraph from the first page kept drawing me inwards into the mysterious world of Paulo Coleho and Brida. It was the first time I learned about the magic of the sun and magic of the moon, which pretty much stated magic of the day and magic of the night which had masculine and feminine energy. Sun represented the masculine and moon represented the feminine magic, and according to a witch in the book, the magic of the moon was far more powerful than magic of the sun, because the universal energy is much stronger at night.

The reason behind Brida wanting to learn magic was that she wanted to find her soul-mate through it, as she was a hopeless romantic with a bad streak in relationship department of her life. In the novel, her teach was a male, who took her on a tree top to show her the sunset, and twilight time, and advised her that twilight time is even more powerful than day or night, because both energies of the sun and moon were crossing paths, and in doing so it makes a powerful reaction if magic is done during such a time. The author kept the mystery going all the way till the end as to how, when and who is Brida's soul-mate. Even thought she was in a steady healthy relationship, she knew within her that the guy she's dating is not her soul-mate.

This is one question and dilemma we all run into in our own relationship in real life. Paulo Coelho at one point was a big believer in magic and had experienced tarot card reading, astrology and witchcraft, and through such horrific experiences which almost took his life, he found a light within it by writing such subjects. All of his books have some sort of a metaphysical aspect to it, whether it is dealing with the energy of the universe, or energy of the starts and planets which he's referring to astrology, but what makes Paulo Coelho great is that he brings sci-fi, romance and spirituality together in one book. Even though science fiction is a complete different mythology for a sci-fi fanatic, but one must understand the true foundation of sci-fi: it's telling you a story which involves a physical aspect which either hasn't been discovered or can't be seen, like charkas inside a human body. Brida is a must read for every romantic and sci-fi book fan.