Skulddugery Pleasent, by Derek Landy, is, quite frankly, the funniest book I have read since, well, forever.
Stephanie Edgely's uncle has just died. People speculate that he dropped dead of a heart attack, though why he did so is beyond them because he seemed to be a perfectly heathly middle-aged novelist. But died he has, and he has left behind quite a legacy for his favorite niece: Not only has Stephanie inherited his fortune and his grand old manor, but she has also inherited his lifestyle -- a life of danger and magic and a war that has spanned ages. Along with Skluddery Pleasent, a back-talking, flame-throwing, wise-cracking, Bently-driving, walking, talking, skeleton/dective with a grudge, she races against the evilest of villians to figure out why her uncle was murdered and to find an artifact that could mean the destruction of the world as we know it.
But nothing is ever that simple, as Ms. Edgely is soon to figure out, and things get complicated as magic and trechery permiate everything. Stephanie must find out who she really is, what life she really wants, and who her friends really are before Serpine burns down the world, taking Skulduggery with him.
I love this book. I have read it three times in the past two years. All the way through, all three times. And I don't even own it. Really, the sarcasm and wit is something else, and I must confess that I have gotten most of my good come-backs from that volume.
One of the other things that I like about the book, other than the refreshingly cynical sarcasm, is the plot. It basically boils down to a good guy vs. evil villian plot. Oh, sure, Stephanie has her doubts about people's motives, and some people's motives really need to be questioned, but at it's heart it's the good guy battling it out against the good guy. You just don't get plots that simple any more in young adult liturature, and it's sort of refreshing. You don't have to stress your brain out thinking 'oh, wait, he's the bad guy, right?' or 'wait, he was in love with her but now he's dating her but he's secretly working for the bad guy and he's trying to gleam information from her, and he's trying to spare the girl he loves. Is that it?'
Another thing: This book glides along smoothly without any romance. In most books there's a boy/girl tension to the plot, to help create tension. In a lot of books that is very nesscessary because there would be next to none dramatic tension otherwise (It's why I don't read much of Jenna Black's stuff. Or Stephanie Meyer's.). But this one is exciting enough without a guy element. It's very nice. All fighting and action, and very little romantic talk. Just the way I like it.
And, of course, there are the characters. More motley of a crew never have I met. A skeleton who walks and talks and posses 'razor sharp wit', a girl who knows that she's something more than suburbia, a tailor who's so ugly he decided that he shouldn't join boxing and ruin his face more, a warrior-lady who has layers like an onion (on the top, she's tough, but peel her and she's just as girly as the next lady who's wearing pink high-heels), a china (ha ha, punny) doll of a woman who's spell is just as alluring as her lies, and a villian who has no motive whatsoever, as far as I can tell. But you just love them all to bits. Except for China and Serpine, but that could've done without saying. The characters are real life people who spring to life off the page. You can see them marching through wax-musames, hear them as they laugh over their jokes, run with them as they avoid vampires. And, amazingly, you remember their names after you're done reading and you don't have to go back and reference the book just to make sure.
It doesn't seem like it should go together, a fantasy mystery about death and destruction and the satirical conversations about silly things like packages and cars, but it does. It fits together like a jigsaw puzzel, and one is hard-pressed to find a piece that is missing.
Yet another book trying to re-define the definition of magic, this one suceeds in a way that's more than half-decent. But even if the plot line were awful, the reasoning holey, and it required you to stretch your imagination a bit more than nesscesary you would forget to notice, so caught up would you be in the clever-word play and the lightness of the text.
I'm afraid that this piece of barely-coherent writing doesn't do the book one bit of justice, but it's late and I'm really rather tired. Let me just say that Stephanie and Skulddugery's adventures will be read many more times by me, and that I might have to go bean Derek Landy over the head with his own novel because I don't think he's put out a sequal.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Devil's Kiss
Devil's Kiss, Sarwat Chadda, could be classified as 'dark romance', or whatever you marketing people are calling it these days.
Billi SanGreal has been part of the Knights Templar, a secret organization that has been around since Roman times who destroyed the things that hide in the shadows, since she was young. Together with her best friend Kay she navigated the ups and downs of being trained as a warrior, a killer of the supernatural. But then Kay, a talented physic, left to study in Israel. When he comes waltzing back, he seems to think that everything can just go back to normal between them. Things in Billi's life have changed forever, though, and she just can't understand why Kay abandoned her to her father and the other members of the Knights Templar who hate her. Things begin to look up for Ms. SanGreal, though, when she save a handsome guy from muggers on a train. But it would do Billi good to remember that just as it is always darkest before the light, it is always lightest before the dark. And it's going to get very, very dark.
As this book starts out, you're like, *yawn*, another typical dark-romance, supernatural-hunting, love-triangle-inspecting, novel. Oh, joy. But you stick with it because the writing's good and Billi's real and believable and the demons are creepy, and then, not even half way through the book, there's a twist that makes you hit yourself on the forehead and shout "I should've seen coming!" But you didn't, even if you did happen to read the end of the book first.
There's another twist about forty pages from the end of the book, and then another one that's gleefully mischievous and sadly heart wrenching about ten pages from the end of the book. You could figure out the last twist by reading the end, yes, but it still doesn't make it any less sad. The middle twist leaves you with your mouth hanging saying "Whaa . . . ? That came from absolutely no where, with very little background in the plot line at all." And then you think on it, and a ligthbulb clicks on in your head, and you're like "Oh, wait . . . Now that my thinking device up in my skull's been turned on, it does. Got it."
So, good points for the story: I love the plot twists. I love the creepiness. Billi seems to be feasible character, a character who I would love to be (stubborn, street-smart, supernatural-smart, and tough). Actually, all of the characters seemed to be alive in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they're walking the streets of London right now. I also enjoyed that the ending of the book didn't give away too much of the story . . .
My memory's a bit patchy on the finer details of the tale, because I read it two weeks ago, but I remember that I refused to put it down, even as I ate ice cream we got at some ice cream parlor. I remember that I started it before dinner and finished it at ten at night. And I remember that my heart fluttered with Billi's, my eyes weeped with Billi's, and I felt a murderous desire to hurt the archangel with Billi. It wasn't an unusual experience, for me, but it was a very nice one. I usually don't feel all of those emotions in one night. My range of activities doesn't permit it. So, we could say that fighting with the Knights Templar through the writing of Mr. Chadda is a complete and totally escape from reality, as well as an exhilarating way to live vicariously.
I liked what it said on the back of the book. I forgot to write it down, but it went something like "There's nothing to fear but fear itself . . . and Billi SanGreal."
Um, evidently there is a new book out, but I haven't read it yet. I will, though, I will. It'll take Billi SanGreal and a whole lotta Unholy to stop me. (Ha ha. Yes, I am a riot. They do tell me that. Right before they throw rotten vegetables at me and chase me out of the room.)
So, Ms. SanGreal, just remember that before you take one step forward into the world of adults, remember to keep a foot in the past, a hand on your best friend's shoulder, and an eye out for things that never are as they seem. Because if you don't, it could cost you dearly. . . in a currency far more precious than money.
So, for more on Billi SanGreal and Sarwat Chadda please visit www.sarwatchadda.com Information on his new books and the whatnot can be found here. Enjoy.
Billi SanGreal has been part of the Knights Templar, a secret organization that has been around since Roman times who destroyed the things that hide in the shadows, since she was young. Together with her best friend Kay she navigated the ups and downs of being trained as a warrior, a killer of the supernatural. But then Kay, a talented physic, left to study in Israel. When he comes waltzing back, he seems to think that everything can just go back to normal between them. Things in Billi's life have changed forever, though, and she just can't understand why Kay abandoned her to her father and the other members of the Knights Templar who hate her. Things begin to look up for Ms. SanGreal, though, when she save a handsome guy from muggers on a train. But it would do Billi good to remember that just as it is always darkest before the light, it is always lightest before the dark. And it's going to get very, very dark.
As this book starts out, you're like, *yawn*, another typical dark-romance, supernatural-hunting, love-triangle-inspecting, novel. Oh, joy. But you stick with it because the writing's good and Billi's real and believable and the demons are creepy, and then, not even half way through the book, there's a twist that makes you hit yourself on the forehead and shout "I should've seen coming!" But you didn't, even if you did happen to read the end of the book first.
There's another twist about forty pages from the end of the book, and then another one that's gleefully mischievous and sadly heart wrenching about ten pages from the end of the book. You could figure out the last twist by reading the end, yes, but it still doesn't make it any less sad. The middle twist leaves you with your mouth hanging saying "Whaa . . . ? That came from absolutely no where, with very little background in the plot line at all." And then you think on it, and a ligthbulb clicks on in your head, and you're like "Oh, wait . . . Now that my thinking device up in my skull's been turned on, it does. Got it."
So, good points for the story: I love the plot twists. I love the creepiness. Billi seems to be feasible character, a character who I would love to be (stubborn, street-smart, supernatural-smart, and tough). Actually, all of the characters seemed to be alive in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they're walking the streets of London right now. I also enjoyed that the ending of the book didn't give away too much of the story . . .
My memory's a bit patchy on the finer details of the tale, because I read it two weeks ago, but I remember that I refused to put it down, even as I ate ice cream we got at some ice cream parlor. I remember that I started it before dinner and finished it at ten at night. And I remember that my heart fluttered with Billi's, my eyes weeped with Billi's, and I felt a murderous desire to hurt the archangel with Billi. It wasn't an unusual experience, for me, but it was a very nice one. I usually don't feel all of those emotions in one night. My range of activities doesn't permit it. So, we could say that fighting with the Knights Templar through the writing of Mr. Chadda is a complete and totally escape from reality, as well as an exhilarating way to live vicariously.
I liked what it said on the back of the book. I forgot to write it down, but it went something like "There's nothing to fear but fear itself . . . and Billi SanGreal."
Um, evidently there is a new book out, but I haven't read it yet. I will, though, I will. It'll take Billi SanGreal and a whole lotta Unholy to stop me. (Ha ha. Yes, I am a riot. They do tell me that. Right before they throw rotten vegetables at me and chase me out of the room.)
So, Ms. SanGreal, just remember that before you take one step forward into the world of adults, remember to keep a foot in the past, a hand on your best friend's shoulder, and an eye out for things that never are as they seem. Because if you don't, it could cost you dearly. . . in a currency far more precious than money.
So, for more on Billi SanGreal and Sarwat Chadda please visit www.sarwatchadda.com Information on his new books and the whatnot can be found here. Enjoy.
Monday, June 18, 2012
The Otherworldlies
This new series by Jennifer Anne Kogler gives yet another view of vampires--but one that doesn't involve 'vampires' in the traditional sense.
All Fern McAllister ever wanted to do was to be normal. Because her pale skin blisters easily, her stomach is not the most suitable for everyday living, her eyes hurt in direct sunlight, and she is dark-haired and skinny while the rest of her family is blond with a good build, she is the subject of a lot of torture at school. But then she learns something incredible: She isn't human. She is an Unusual, one of a group of eleven otherworldlies who were born all on the same day. The Unusual Eleven all have powers beyond most 'normal' otherworldlies comprehension, and Fern finds herself the subject of much desire among people who want to harm and potentially kill her, to one of her fellow Unusual who is trapped with no way to escape. Navigating seventh grade is hard enough when you're perfectly human, but Fern McAllister is quickly finding out that it's no breeze no matter what species you are.
Okay, so, as I've already said I'm going to major in Grim-Reaper-stuff, but I'm going to minor in Otherworldly-ness. So . . . I'll be an otherworldly Grim Reaper?
One of the really good things about this book is that it's set in middle school. I'm in middle school, and all you ever find is book after book about people in high school. Vladimir Tod, Billi SanGreal (I'll get to her story next post), Riley Blackthorne, Cassel Sharp, Lexington Bartleby . . . all the contemporaries are in high school. And others, Eragon and such, who are of high school age but don't go to high school because they're, like, olden-timey people. Oh, sure, there are middle school characters in other books, but they're lame. They just don't seem . . . like they could amount to anything. But Fern McAllister does. She could probably beat Vladimir Tod up. She probably would, too, if she needed to. And that is why I like her.
Also, you get enough of blood-sucking vampires. Sure, Suck it Up was cute, but it all amouts to the same thing--vampires who are trying not to suck blood. Yes, this problem does present itself in the world of the otherworldlies, in the faces of Blouts and Rollens (blood-drinkers and non-blood-drinkers), but it isn't that much of a temptation. Like, Fern never has some abstract desire to rip into a jugular. I appluad her, and Jennifer Anne Kogler, on that.
The characters are believable and realistically confusing. The only one we get a real good look at is Fern, but we have enough to look at through her. As I said before, she is strong in mind despite her weak body, savy and suspicious despite her relatively innocent upbringing, and you find yourself rooting for her. Sam, her brother, is empathetic and jealous, the perfect mix of emotions, what one would expect to be feeling in a situation like that. The Lins are the real confusing ones--what are their motives? They must want something from Fern, or at least, Lindsey wants something from her if her parents don't.
A lot of questions are left unanswered and unperfect. Like, do Sam and Fern really share the same birthday, March 10? If the Lins are great Hyperions, and their family has great renoun, then wouldn't only one have the great renoun because the other had to be married to them? And then, of course, there are the questions that you were meant to ask like, Who are the other Unusuals? Can the Vampire Alliance really be trusted? usual what not.
I just liked this praise-thing found on the back of the book, so I'll put it in. "Brimming with action and other colorful characters, The Otherworldlies brings you a gusty heroin who must learn to embrace her 'Unsusual' talents. You've never seen vampires like this before." Laura Ruby, the author of Bad Apple and The Chaos King, said this, and I agree with her quite throughly.
The series includes the titles The Otherworldlies and The Siren's Cry at the moment,or, at least, those are the only ones I've read as of right now. I will be keeping an eye out for more of her stuff. . .
Her website is: www.jenniferannekogler.com It has all of her updates on the latest books, and her old books too. Duh.
All Fern McAllister ever wanted to do was to be normal. Because her pale skin blisters easily, her stomach is not the most suitable for everyday living, her eyes hurt in direct sunlight, and she is dark-haired and skinny while the rest of her family is blond with a good build, she is the subject of a lot of torture at school. But then she learns something incredible: She isn't human. She is an Unusual, one of a group of eleven otherworldlies who were born all on the same day. The Unusual Eleven all have powers beyond most 'normal' otherworldlies comprehension, and Fern finds herself the subject of much desire among people who want to harm and potentially kill her, to one of her fellow Unusual who is trapped with no way to escape. Navigating seventh grade is hard enough when you're perfectly human, but Fern McAllister is quickly finding out that it's no breeze no matter what species you are.
Okay, so, as I've already said I'm going to major in Grim-Reaper-stuff, but I'm going to minor in Otherworldly-ness. So . . . I'll be an otherworldly Grim Reaper?
One of the really good things about this book is that it's set in middle school. I'm in middle school, and all you ever find is book after book about people in high school. Vladimir Tod, Billi SanGreal (I'll get to her story next post), Riley Blackthorne, Cassel Sharp, Lexington Bartleby . . . all the contemporaries are in high school. And others, Eragon and such, who are of high school age but don't go to high school because they're, like, olden-timey people. Oh, sure, there are middle school characters in other books, but they're lame. They just don't seem . . . like they could amount to anything. But Fern McAllister does. She could probably beat Vladimir Tod up. She probably would, too, if she needed to. And that is why I like her.
Also, you get enough of blood-sucking vampires. Sure, Suck it Up was cute, but it all amouts to the same thing--vampires who are trying not to suck blood. Yes, this problem does present itself in the world of the otherworldlies, in the faces of Blouts and Rollens (blood-drinkers and non-blood-drinkers), but it isn't that much of a temptation. Like, Fern never has some abstract desire to rip into a jugular. I appluad her, and Jennifer Anne Kogler, on that.
The characters are believable and realistically confusing. The only one we get a real good look at is Fern, but we have enough to look at through her. As I said before, she is strong in mind despite her weak body, savy and suspicious despite her relatively innocent upbringing, and you find yourself rooting for her. Sam, her brother, is empathetic and jealous, the perfect mix of emotions, what one would expect to be feeling in a situation like that. The Lins are the real confusing ones--what are their motives? They must want something from Fern, or at least, Lindsey wants something from her if her parents don't.
A lot of questions are left unanswered and unperfect. Like, do Sam and Fern really share the same birthday, March 10? If the Lins are great Hyperions, and their family has great renoun, then wouldn't only one have the great renoun because the other had to be married to them? And then, of course, there are the questions that you were meant to ask like, Who are the other Unusuals? Can the Vampire Alliance really be trusted? usual what not.
I just liked this praise-thing found on the back of the book, so I'll put it in. "Brimming with action and other colorful characters, The Otherworldlies brings you a gusty heroin who must learn to embrace her 'Unsusual' talents. You've never seen vampires like this before." Laura Ruby, the author of Bad Apple and The Chaos King, said this, and I agree with her quite throughly.
The series includes the titles The Otherworldlies and The Siren's Cry at the moment,or, at least, those are the only ones I've read as of right now. I will be keeping an eye out for more of her stuff. . .
Her website is: www.jenniferannekogler.com It has all of her updates on the latest books, and her old books too. Duh.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Blood Wounds
Blood Wounds, in my opinion, is the best thing Susan Beth Pfeffer's written so far.
Willa is part of a mixed family. She knows that she's lucky to have Jack, her step-father. She knows that she's lucky to have her two step-sisters, even though they've been spoiled silly by their mother. She knows she's lucky that she's out of her biological father's house, where things were bad for her mother. She becomes even more aware of this fact when it is becomes clear that her father has gone on a killing spree, killing his new wife and their three daughters. The danger rises as her father comes into her town, possibly looking for her and her mother.
The danger does pass, but the aftermath is almost worse. Caught between her 'real' family and her blood family, Willa wants to make peace with the half-sisters she never met, the half-brother she could never forget, and the town that is out for her family's blood. Even if it tears her 'real' family apart.
I usually find realistic fiction boring, but this one was good. I couldn't put it down, actually. I think I annoyed some librarians: I sat in the library and read it for an hour solid while they kept turning up the air conditioner, trying to get me out ( ;).
Willa is the most heart-warming character I've come across in a while. She is brave to face the people that hate her, and I can only hope to emulate that. I could also never imagine being in the situation she is in with her step-sisters. They are real brats, even if they don't seem it at first glance, and I don't think I could continue being nice to them after all I saw them get. Does that make any sense? Okay, so, what I'm trying to say is that Willa must be a lovely person to remain happy and untainted even while Brooke and Alyssa get everything they want.
This book has a lot of similarities to Wild Things, in my mind, if only because there is an unknown half-brother and both team up and deal with some aspect of death. I like Trace more than I like Wil, though, in some aspects. Trace is more of a real-world guy, and I can picture him giving Willa advice about the world later in life. World-hardened and street-toughened, he's the older brother that I wish I had. (Well, I wish I had any older brother, really, but if I could have my pick of them, I'd choose Trace.)
No matter how many similarities you'll find between this books and others, there is one thing that I've never found in any other book: The plot line. It is a very sick, twisted plot line. It's something that you would never see coming. If you think about it too much, your stomach turns. But it's new. Please name a book in which there is something equally disturbing. (Maybe I should give this book to my dad for Father's Day . . . That would be cruel.)
I cried several times while reading this. I would've laughed out loud too, but there were really no funny parts. I've been reading books that I haven't been posting on, and I haven't been posting on them because I don't like them. The characters were paper dolls, the plots, meaningless. But here, I felt like there was something at stake, so my emotions ran rampant with it. I probably made myself look life a fool while sitting in the Young Adult section, but so be it. It was well worth it.
If every realistic fiction book were like this, you wouldn't be able to pull me away from them. As it is, I am feeling deprived. Blood Wounds doesn't just get under your skin: It cuts you all the way to your heart.
Willa is part of a mixed family. She knows that she's lucky to have Jack, her step-father. She knows that she's lucky to have her two step-sisters, even though they've been spoiled silly by their mother. She knows she's lucky that she's out of her biological father's house, where things were bad for her mother. She becomes even more aware of this fact when it is becomes clear that her father has gone on a killing spree, killing his new wife and their three daughters. The danger rises as her father comes into her town, possibly looking for her and her mother.
The danger does pass, but the aftermath is almost worse. Caught between her 'real' family and her blood family, Willa wants to make peace with the half-sisters she never met, the half-brother she could never forget, and the town that is out for her family's blood. Even if it tears her 'real' family apart.
I usually find realistic fiction boring, but this one was good. I couldn't put it down, actually. I think I annoyed some librarians: I sat in the library and read it for an hour solid while they kept turning up the air conditioner, trying to get me out ( ;).
Willa is the most heart-warming character I've come across in a while. She is brave to face the people that hate her, and I can only hope to emulate that. I could also never imagine being in the situation she is in with her step-sisters. They are real brats, even if they don't seem it at first glance, and I don't think I could continue being nice to them after all I saw them get. Does that make any sense? Okay, so, what I'm trying to say is that Willa must be a lovely person to remain happy and untainted even while Brooke and Alyssa get everything they want.
This book has a lot of similarities to Wild Things, in my mind, if only because there is an unknown half-brother and both team up and deal with some aspect of death. I like Trace more than I like Wil, though, in some aspects. Trace is more of a real-world guy, and I can picture him giving Willa advice about the world later in life. World-hardened and street-toughened, he's the older brother that I wish I had. (Well, I wish I had any older brother, really, but if I could have my pick of them, I'd choose Trace.)
No matter how many similarities you'll find between this books and others, there is one thing that I've never found in any other book: The plot line. It is a very sick, twisted plot line. It's something that you would never see coming. If you think about it too much, your stomach turns. But it's new. Please name a book in which there is something equally disturbing. (Maybe I should give this book to my dad for Father's Day . . . That would be cruel.)
I cried several times while reading this. I would've laughed out loud too, but there were really no funny parts. I've been reading books that I haven't been posting on, and I haven't been posting on them because I don't like them. The characters were paper dolls, the plots, meaningless. But here, I felt like there was something at stake, so my emotions ran rampant with it. I probably made myself look life a fool while sitting in the Young Adult section, but so be it. It was well worth it.
If every realistic fiction book were like this, you wouldn't be able to pull me away from them. As it is, I am feeling deprived. Blood Wounds doesn't just get under your skin: It cuts you all the way to your heart.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Gardener
The Gardener is another futuristic sci-fi thriller from S.A. Bodeen.
Mason wants to become a biologist. He gets a wonderful offer from TroDyn, the lab that dominates his home town, but his mother refuses to let him go. Is it because she resents her employer, or because there is deeper bad blood between her and the company? After Mason meets a strange, nearly catatonic girl at the nursing home his mother works in, answers start coming in an unstoppable flood. Answers he isn't quite sure he wants, as well as questions to which only TroDyn has the answer. Is it really possible to create a human autotroph? And why would anyone do such a thing? Mason has only twenty-four hours to figure out the answers to these questions, twenty-four hours until the girl he rescued shuts down forever.
I am a really bad summery writer, if I hadn't already mentioned that. I can't figure out if that blurb up there makes the book sound more or less exciting than it really is. The sentence-thing on the front of the book is more misleading than that is, at least in my opinion. The Greenhouse doesn't really grow humans . . . at least in the technical sense.
Like The Compound, this book tackles a problem that could become a huge disaster in the near future. For S.A. Bodeen's first book the problem was nuclear warfare. For this book, it's the problem of growth of population/rate of food production. This hasn't happened yet, in the setting of the book, it's just that people are trying to figure out how to stop it before it happens. Or to be prepared for it before it happens.
One thing I don't like is that you know what one of the creepy parts are before you even open the book. It says it right on the inside flap. Of course, there is another creepy part, near the end, when they're in the Greenhouse, but they could've held the suspense out a little bit longer, couldn't they have?
The characters are solid, I suppose. 'The girl' still remains a mystery, even after she gives up plenty of secrets. Jack is a bit washy, in my opinion. And I know this sounds really, weird, but Mason is such a strange name for the main character. He just doesn't seem like a 'Mason'. Maybe a 'James' or a . . . I don't know. I just can't get my head wrapped around the fact that his name is Mason. And the girl's name, well, I find that one strange as well, but maybe I've been polluted the The Curse Workers. Because 'the girl' is nice and happy and friendly and the character she shares a name with . . . isn't.
And of course, there's the happy, fairytale ending that offers up next-to-no explanation. Leaves a lot of questions, if you get me. But the questions aren't numerous or big enough to hint at a sequel. I suppose I can stop being an over analytical-book freak, but that's my job on here, isn't it? So, let me just say that I think that happy endings are all good and well, but I would like some explanation to how they come about. Like . . . well, I'll let you read about it.
Also, I cannot make myself generate any fear of the Gardner, even as 'the girl' is so clearly terrified of him. The fear is an emotion that someone tried hard to create, but it's still like someone threw a pebble into a dark well trying to hit their mark and missed. It might help, though, if you take your time with the book, instead of reading it within the space of the afternoon. The connections that you make to the characters will probably be stronger, as will the suspense and the emotion. Because the friend who recommended this to me loved it.
Anyway, whether The Greenhouse will grow (ha ha) on you or not, it's your choice to find out. Just don't let it grow on you too much, or else you might find yourself forever rooted in the pages of a near catastrophe, trying to drink the light and the water as the rest of the world starves around you.
The author has her own website, that has news about her newest novels and series. I'll let you check it out for yourself: http://www.rockforadoll.com/
Mason wants to become a biologist. He gets a wonderful offer from TroDyn, the lab that dominates his home town, but his mother refuses to let him go. Is it because she resents her employer, or because there is deeper bad blood between her and the company? After Mason meets a strange, nearly catatonic girl at the nursing home his mother works in, answers start coming in an unstoppable flood. Answers he isn't quite sure he wants, as well as questions to which only TroDyn has the answer. Is it really possible to create a human autotroph? And why would anyone do such a thing? Mason has only twenty-four hours to figure out the answers to these questions, twenty-four hours until the girl he rescued shuts down forever.
I am a really bad summery writer, if I hadn't already mentioned that. I can't figure out if that blurb up there makes the book sound more or less exciting than it really is. The sentence-thing on the front of the book is more misleading than that is, at least in my opinion. The Greenhouse doesn't really grow humans . . . at least in the technical sense.
Like The Compound, this book tackles a problem that could become a huge disaster in the near future. For S.A. Bodeen's first book the problem was nuclear warfare. For this book, it's the problem of growth of population/rate of food production. This hasn't happened yet, in the setting of the book, it's just that people are trying to figure out how to stop it before it happens. Or to be prepared for it before it happens.
One thing I don't like is that you know what one of the creepy parts are before you even open the book. It says it right on the inside flap. Of course, there is another creepy part, near the end, when they're in the Greenhouse, but they could've held the suspense out a little bit longer, couldn't they have?
The characters are solid, I suppose. 'The girl' still remains a mystery, even after she gives up plenty of secrets. Jack is a bit washy, in my opinion. And I know this sounds really, weird, but Mason is such a strange name for the main character. He just doesn't seem like a 'Mason'. Maybe a 'James' or a . . . I don't know. I just can't get my head wrapped around the fact that his name is Mason. And the girl's name, well, I find that one strange as well, but maybe I've been polluted the The Curse Workers. Because 'the girl' is nice and happy and friendly and the character she shares a name with . . . isn't.
And of course, there's the happy, fairytale ending that offers up next-to-no explanation. Leaves a lot of questions, if you get me. But the questions aren't numerous or big enough to hint at a sequel. I suppose I can stop being an over analytical-book freak, but that's my job on here, isn't it? So, let me just say that I think that happy endings are all good and well, but I would like some explanation to how they come about. Like . . . well, I'll let you read about it.
Also, I cannot make myself generate any fear of the Gardner, even as 'the girl' is so clearly terrified of him. The fear is an emotion that someone tried hard to create, but it's still like someone threw a pebble into a dark well trying to hit their mark and missed. It might help, though, if you take your time with the book, instead of reading it within the space of the afternoon. The connections that you make to the characters will probably be stronger, as will the suspense and the emotion. Because the friend who recommended this to me loved it.
Anyway, whether The Greenhouse will grow (ha ha) on you or not, it's your choice to find out. Just don't let it grow on you too much, or else you might find yourself forever rooted in the pages of a near catastrophe, trying to drink the light and the water as the rest of the world starves around you.
The author has her own website, that has news about her newest novels and series. I'll let you check it out for yourself: http://www.rockforadoll.com/
Friday, June 8, 2012
The Book of Mordred
The Book of Mordred, Vivian Vande Velde, is based on the Arthurian legends. It shines a bright light on Mordred, the final enemy of the legendary king.
Alayna's wizard husband has died just a year past, when her daughter Kiera is stolen by the most powerful wizard in the land. Four years later, Nimue has just escaped from a citadel of great evil. Five years past that, Keira begins to foresee the fall of King Aurthur's regime, and with it the death of Mordred and his brothers. This books weaves three tales together to tell a straw that spans the ages and carries us through the height of Arthur's time, and drags us down to the end.
I haven't finished this book yet. I'm only halfway through Kiera's part, but I like it. It's a bit slow going, all in all, but pretty fascinating if you're a suckler for myths and legends of ancient times, like me.
A bit of background for those who aren't: in Arthurian legend, or the legend of King Arthur (he reunited all of England after the so-called barbarians ruled it, I think, and created the Round Table), Mordred was Arthur's and his half-sister's, Morgana's, son. Mordred was also Arthur's downfall, so usually he is portrayed in a bad light.
This book is different because it shows him as a hero. A random knight who rescued a stolen child, a nobleman who took on a wizard to save a few pheasant boys, and a man trying to avenge his brothers. Instead of being a treacherous, lying, squirt who hated Aurthur.
The book took a lot of my concentration to stay interested for the first ten pages, though, and it took a bunch of effort to get through the beginning of Nimue's part. (It's divided into three sections: Alayna's section, Nimue's section, and Kiera's section.) I don't know why the plot line didn't hook me right away. It is my type of story. I think that the writing style is part of it. Heavy, in a way I can't find the words to describe, if any of that made sense. It isn't heavy on language, and only moderately heavy in description . . .
Maybe this, again, was a case of not caring. I couldn't find it in me to fret with Alayna, or to hurt with Nimue. The only people I really liked are Mordred and Kiera; Kiera because she seems more alive than any of them, and Mordred because I find sullen, moody, and righteous knights likable. Even Arthur is dull.
Another interesting twist is that Lancelot is considered a bit of a villain. Of course, he was Guinevere's 'boyfriend', and that was considered treason against the king and the whatnot, but he isn't smiled upon even before he is found out. Usually Lancelot is considered the shining gem of the Round Table, next to Arthur, and everyone manages to forget that he stole away Guinevere. Arthur, too, here, is outshone by a few others on the Round Table. He doesn't seem like the king of the country, or the hero of the people, more of a background figurehead.
The backstabbing of some of the characters delight me. Their evil nature and the lengths they will go to to get others on their side delight me, because I am just a twisted child like that. Reading the book is like watching a chess game, save that each player has a mind of its own.
It seems that one of the newest fads in children's literature, other than sticking characters in arenas and making them kill each other, is putting a new twist on an old legend. Rick Riordan started it, and every person who wants to rewrite the old laws of magic is doing it too. But this story doesn't shine a new light on an old situation: It shines an old, dusty light on an equally old and dusty subject. But wipe away the dust and you get a gleaming, shining, and entrancing story about the other view of Camelot.
Alayna's wizard husband has died just a year past, when her daughter Kiera is stolen by the most powerful wizard in the land. Four years later, Nimue has just escaped from a citadel of great evil. Five years past that, Keira begins to foresee the fall of King Aurthur's regime, and with it the death of Mordred and his brothers. This books weaves three tales together to tell a straw that spans the ages and carries us through the height of Arthur's time, and drags us down to the end.
I haven't finished this book yet. I'm only halfway through Kiera's part, but I like it. It's a bit slow going, all in all, but pretty fascinating if you're a suckler for myths and legends of ancient times, like me.
A bit of background for those who aren't: in Arthurian legend, or the legend of King Arthur (he reunited all of England after the so-called barbarians ruled it, I think, and created the Round Table), Mordred was Arthur's and his half-sister's, Morgana's, son. Mordred was also Arthur's downfall, so usually he is portrayed in a bad light.
This book is different because it shows him as a hero. A random knight who rescued a stolen child, a nobleman who took on a wizard to save a few pheasant boys, and a man trying to avenge his brothers. Instead of being a treacherous, lying, squirt who hated Aurthur.
The book took a lot of my concentration to stay interested for the first ten pages, though, and it took a bunch of effort to get through the beginning of Nimue's part. (It's divided into three sections: Alayna's section, Nimue's section, and Kiera's section.) I don't know why the plot line didn't hook me right away. It is my type of story. I think that the writing style is part of it. Heavy, in a way I can't find the words to describe, if any of that made sense. It isn't heavy on language, and only moderately heavy in description . . .
Maybe this, again, was a case of not caring. I couldn't find it in me to fret with Alayna, or to hurt with Nimue. The only people I really liked are Mordred and Kiera; Kiera because she seems more alive than any of them, and Mordred because I find sullen, moody, and righteous knights likable. Even Arthur is dull.
Another interesting twist is that Lancelot is considered a bit of a villain. Of course, he was Guinevere's 'boyfriend', and that was considered treason against the king and the whatnot, but he isn't smiled upon even before he is found out. Usually Lancelot is considered the shining gem of the Round Table, next to Arthur, and everyone manages to forget that he stole away Guinevere. Arthur, too, here, is outshone by a few others on the Round Table. He doesn't seem like the king of the country, or the hero of the people, more of a background figurehead.
The backstabbing of some of the characters delight me. Their evil nature and the lengths they will go to to get others on their side delight me, because I am just a twisted child like that. Reading the book is like watching a chess game, save that each player has a mind of its own.
It seems that one of the newest fads in children's literature, other than sticking characters in arenas and making them kill each other, is putting a new twist on an old legend. Rick Riordan started it, and every person who wants to rewrite the old laws of magic is doing it too. But this story doesn't shine a new light on an old situation: It shines an old, dusty light on an equally old and dusty subject. But wipe away the dust and you get a gleaming, shining, and entrancing story about the other view of Camelot.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
H.I.V.E.
H.I.V.E., Mark Walden, is a series about extraordinary teenagers living a life of extraordinary action and extraordinary evil.
Otto Malpense showed up one day on the front step of an orphanage. Eventually he took it over and got the Prime Minister of England fired. Laura Brand hacked into a military base near her house and used the top secret equipment to hack into her friend's phone accounts. Shelby Trinity is a world-class jewelry thief. Wing Fanchu's parents might be dead, but when they were alive they were most certainly involved with the top-secret villain agency, G.L.O.V.E. The four unlikely, and only partially evil, teenagers are shipped off to a secret training facility designed for turning truant teenagers into real, bad, and smart criminals. When Overlord, an artificially intelligent computer program, breaks loose, G.L.O.V.E. is thrown into chaos, and only these four teenagers and an able assassin will be able to stop the menace. Who will die? Who will escape? And who will become the most powerful weapon since the atomic bomb?
Yeah . . . So, anyway, I consider these books a beach read. Very light on the brain, and not very hard to digest. The cliffhangers are pretty lame as well, because Mark Walden practically tells you what's going to happen next.
There are also way to many characters. I mean, we have the main handful: Otto, Laura, Wing, Shelby, Nigel, Franz, Lucy, Max Nero, Cypher, Raven, Professor Pike, H.I.V.E.mind, Overlord, and I'm pretty sure I missed someone. Next to that are the secondary characters: Furan, Mrs. Leon, Colonel Francisco, Chief Lewis, and I'm forgetting like twenty because there are so many. You really have to remember them all, or read the books in a tight sequence or else you forget them all. And it is pretty crucial that you remember them all.
For most of the books, there is only one villain, and that is Overlord. He comes in around the edges, and you don't quite know he's there until the end. It's pretty clever, I have to admit.
The whole thing would be pretty clever. Otto is basically the evil Harry Potter, albeit for the fact that he doesn't have any magical powers. As I said in my rant on Catherine Jinks's Evil Genius, everybody is doing a spin-off of Harry Potter.
Also, and I know this sounds stupid, but the evil people aren't evil enough. Like, they're nice to each other. At least, they are not actively trying to kill each other. Until Rouge, but that's different. The criminals are working together, and I can't figure out if it give me the creeps or if it's just straight up weird.
Also, there is also supposed to be some wickedly awesome, super-assassin who never gets beaten, named Raven. Well, in the first two books, that's fine. She's the super-assassin she's supposed to be. But in the other books she gets her rear end kicked on almost a chapterly basis! Okay, so, maybe not that often, but it sure seems like it.
I know I'm making these books out to be the worst books ever written, but they aren't. They aren't on my 'buy immediately' list, or even my 'wow, that really made an impression on me' list, but they make a list of 'hey, that's not half bad'. A resounding approval, I know. The plots, though, are not what you would normally find in a novel--more like something you would find in a Marvel Comic or an Arnold Swar-- I don't know how to spell that, so let's just say a "Terminator"-like movie-- with people getting chased around with helicopters that are shooting machine guns at them, breaking into buildings in New York City with the NYPD surrounding the bottom of the building, blowing up enemy bases in the Amazon Jungle.
The books are, in this order, The Higher Institute for Villainous Eduction, Overlord Protocol, Escape Velocity, Dreadnought, Rouge, and there's another one that's supposed to be coming out soon, Zero Hour. I liked The Higher Institute . . ., Escape Velocity, and Rouge the best. Dreadnought made next to no sense, but Overlord Protocol wasn't too bad.
If you're looking for an action book in which there is some blood, some gore, and a different vantage point these are your go-to material. These books serve as a reminder that battling the forces of good is not all that it's chalked up to be.
Otto Malpense showed up one day on the front step of an orphanage. Eventually he took it over and got the Prime Minister of England fired. Laura Brand hacked into a military base near her house and used the top secret equipment to hack into her friend's phone accounts. Shelby Trinity is a world-class jewelry thief. Wing Fanchu's parents might be dead, but when they were alive they were most certainly involved with the top-secret villain agency, G.L.O.V.E. The four unlikely, and only partially evil, teenagers are shipped off to a secret training facility designed for turning truant teenagers into real, bad, and smart criminals. When Overlord, an artificially intelligent computer program, breaks loose, G.L.O.V.E. is thrown into chaos, and only these four teenagers and an able assassin will be able to stop the menace. Who will die? Who will escape? And who will become the most powerful weapon since the atomic bomb?
Yeah . . . So, anyway, I consider these books a beach read. Very light on the brain, and not very hard to digest. The cliffhangers are pretty lame as well, because Mark Walden practically tells you what's going to happen next.
There are also way to many characters. I mean, we have the main handful: Otto, Laura, Wing, Shelby, Nigel, Franz, Lucy, Max Nero, Cypher, Raven, Professor Pike, H.I.V.E.mind, Overlord, and I'm pretty sure I missed someone. Next to that are the secondary characters: Furan, Mrs. Leon, Colonel Francisco, Chief Lewis, and I'm forgetting like twenty because there are so many. You really have to remember them all, or read the books in a tight sequence or else you forget them all. And it is pretty crucial that you remember them all.
For most of the books, there is only one villain, and that is Overlord. He comes in around the edges, and you don't quite know he's there until the end. It's pretty clever, I have to admit.
The whole thing would be pretty clever. Otto is basically the evil Harry Potter, albeit for the fact that he doesn't have any magical powers. As I said in my rant on Catherine Jinks's Evil Genius, everybody is doing a spin-off of Harry Potter.
Also, and I know this sounds stupid, but the evil people aren't evil enough. Like, they're nice to each other. At least, they are not actively trying to kill each other. Until Rouge, but that's different. The criminals are working together, and I can't figure out if it give me the creeps or if it's just straight up weird.
Also, there is also supposed to be some wickedly awesome, super-assassin who never gets beaten, named Raven. Well, in the first two books, that's fine. She's the super-assassin she's supposed to be. But in the other books she gets her rear end kicked on almost a chapterly basis! Okay, so, maybe not that often, but it sure seems like it.
I know I'm making these books out to be the worst books ever written, but they aren't. They aren't on my 'buy immediately' list, or even my 'wow, that really made an impression on me' list, but they make a list of 'hey, that's not half bad'. A resounding approval, I know. The plots, though, are not what you would normally find in a novel--more like something you would find in a Marvel Comic or an Arnold Swar-- I don't know how to spell that, so let's just say a "Terminator"-like movie-- with people getting chased around with helicopters that are shooting machine guns at them, breaking into buildings in New York City with the NYPD surrounding the bottom of the building, blowing up enemy bases in the Amazon Jungle.
The books are, in this order, The Higher Institute for Villainous Eduction, Overlord Protocol, Escape Velocity, Dreadnought, Rouge, and there's another one that's supposed to be coming out soon, Zero Hour. I liked The Higher Institute . . ., Escape Velocity, and Rouge the best. Dreadnought made next to no sense, but Overlord Protocol wasn't too bad.
If you're looking for an action book in which there is some blood, some gore, and a different vantage point these are your go-to material. These books serve as a reminder that battling the forces of good is not all that it's chalked up to be.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Railsea
Railsea, China Mieville, is sort of a steampunk/sci-fi take on the fate of a world with a twist of Moby Dick.
Sham ap Soorap is a doctor's apprentice on the moling train the Medes. The captain, Captain Naphi, has a philosophy: A big, ivory colored mole. The Medes and crew search the southern part of the Railsea, searching for the captain's philosophy and moles that they can hunt for blubber. Sham ap Soorap has higher aspirations, though. He wants to be a salvor.
To be a salvor is to be one of the courageous few who prowl the the Railsea, looking for train wrecks and other ruins to discover and sell. Trying to prove himself to his crew, Sham does a bit of salvage work and he finds a roll of old camera film hidden in a train that has been destroyed. The contents of that roll of film means different things to different people: To Captain Naphi it means the end of her search for her philosophy, to Sham it means something that he cannot even begin to comprehend, to the Rumour Sellers of Manihiki it means that there might be treasure, and the the Shroake siblings it means that they have to finish the work that their parents started.
One of the things that really bugged me about this book was the fact that ampersands ( '&') were used instead of the word 'and'. Around chapter 45 you get an explanation of the symbolism, and eventually you get used to it, but it took a while to re-train my brain.
The author is almost conversational in part of his writing, and that's sort of comforting. It's like he's reaching out of the pages and actually telling you the story. He also refers to the Railsea and the lands around like it is the only time period anyone has ever known, and like you've grown up going to school there. It makes everything seem more real, that Sham might not be some figment of imagination, he might've been an actual kid who actually lost his parents who really does want to be a salvor.
China Mieville is also very humorous, in small ways. Like, I won't go into fine detail, but Sham was stranded somewhere and it said something like "He dug around in the wreck, found himself some boards, and built himself a house. After that, he was lucky to find some seeds so he planted himself a garden and ate the food that grew. When he grew up he went back to Streggeye with the wind blowing in his hair." I don't know, it was longer than that. But I stared at the paragraph for a minute or so because I was only on, like, page 300, and the book was nowhere near done. The next line, though, was "That didn't really happen." It was sort of funny.
The reason why that stood out is because some of the writing, to my opinion, is detailed. Not dry, per say, but very detailed. And sort of roundabout. Maybe it's just that I'm reading too fast and I keep skipping over stuff, but it seems that there is almost as much detail in this book as there is in A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.
For the first fifty pages, at least, I was a bit lost. This seems to be the point, but I couldn't tell you exactly why. When it does get explained, 'it' being the Railsea and what it connects, the various layers of this world, the moling business, and salvage, sometimes it makes even less sense than before it had been explained at all. You have to sort of think yourself through it. It eventually makes sense. Sort of.
This book could be classified as steampunk. The trains are windup, diesel, windblown, or something else, and the dress described of the salvors could very well be what they wore on the Everness (Planesrunner, Ian McDonald).
Technology, pirates, mystery, gypsies, chases for ivory-colored beasts, a boy who wants to be something else, and children who want to be exactly who they are combine to create a noise you won't forget: the sound of a train running over the endless rails of the Railsea.
Sham ap Soorap is a doctor's apprentice on the moling train the Medes. The captain, Captain Naphi, has a philosophy: A big, ivory colored mole. The Medes and crew search the southern part of the Railsea, searching for the captain's philosophy and moles that they can hunt for blubber. Sham ap Soorap has higher aspirations, though. He wants to be a salvor.
To be a salvor is to be one of the courageous few who prowl the the Railsea, looking for train wrecks and other ruins to discover and sell. Trying to prove himself to his crew, Sham does a bit of salvage work and he finds a roll of old camera film hidden in a train that has been destroyed. The contents of that roll of film means different things to different people: To Captain Naphi it means the end of her search for her philosophy, to Sham it means something that he cannot even begin to comprehend, to the Rumour Sellers of Manihiki it means that there might be treasure, and the the Shroake siblings it means that they have to finish the work that their parents started.
One of the things that really bugged me about this book was the fact that ampersands ( '&') were used instead of the word 'and'. Around chapter 45 you get an explanation of the symbolism, and eventually you get used to it, but it took a while to re-train my brain.
The author is almost conversational in part of his writing, and that's sort of comforting. It's like he's reaching out of the pages and actually telling you the story. He also refers to the Railsea and the lands around like it is the only time period anyone has ever known, and like you've grown up going to school there. It makes everything seem more real, that Sham might not be some figment of imagination, he might've been an actual kid who actually lost his parents who really does want to be a salvor.
China Mieville is also very humorous, in small ways. Like, I won't go into fine detail, but Sham was stranded somewhere and it said something like "He dug around in the wreck, found himself some boards, and built himself a house. After that, he was lucky to find some seeds so he planted himself a garden and ate the food that grew. When he grew up he went back to Streggeye with the wind blowing in his hair." I don't know, it was longer than that. But I stared at the paragraph for a minute or so because I was only on, like, page 300, and the book was nowhere near done. The next line, though, was "That didn't really happen." It was sort of funny.
The reason why that stood out is because some of the writing, to my opinion, is detailed. Not dry, per say, but very detailed. And sort of roundabout. Maybe it's just that I'm reading too fast and I keep skipping over stuff, but it seems that there is almost as much detail in this book as there is in A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.
For the first fifty pages, at least, I was a bit lost. This seems to be the point, but I couldn't tell you exactly why. When it does get explained, 'it' being the Railsea and what it connects, the various layers of this world, the moling business, and salvage, sometimes it makes even less sense than before it had been explained at all. You have to sort of think yourself through it. It eventually makes sense. Sort of.
This book could be classified as steampunk. The trains are windup, diesel, windblown, or something else, and the dress described of the salvors could very well be what they wore on the Everness (Planesrunner, Ian McDonald).
Technology, pirates, mystery, gypsies, chases for ivory-colored beasts, a boy who wants to be something else, and children who want to be exactly who they are combine to create a noise you won't forget: the sound of a train running over the endless rails of the Railsea.
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