Chaos Walking Trilogy

The "Chaos Walking" Trilogy by Patrick Ness is a commentary on our society, even though it's set lightyears away.
      Todd is the only boy in a town of only men.  All of the women died of a native plague on this new planet just after Todd was born, they died of the plague that can broadcasts all men's thoughts to everyone else.  Their collective thoughts create the Noise, and through the Noise, nearly all secrets are revealed.  But when Todd finds a pocket of silence in the swamps, he has to rethink what he knows of his town and himself.  Because when you've been lied to all your life, there's only one way to find out the truth, and fighting back against the convention could have bigger implications than you could ever guess.  Especially when your tap is all that's needed to set the dominoes cascading down.

So, a bunch of settlers come to a planet, and find that they can all hear each other's thoughts.  They also find an alien species who have hardly any way to communicate with them.  What's the next obvious thing that these settlers do.  Oh, I don't know, maybe they ought to start a war?
       Hmm.  Well, you know, we're starving, we're hungry, and we're 60-something years away from any help.  We're going to have to live with this alien species for the rest of our lives, and our great-great-great grandchildren are going to have to live with them too.  So, heck, why not go for it and start blowing their brains out?  Yeah . . . What's the worst that can happen?   I love the human thought process.  Especially when it's in books, and I don't have to live with the repercussions.
        These books, well, about half of the time, these books are written by an illiterate boy.  Todd, pretty obvious, right?  It isn't as bad as "Blood Red Road," Moira Young, but he spells thing phonetically.  I don't have a problem with that, I actually sort of like it, because I'm awful with the spelling part of things, but it might not be your cup'o'tea.
         The characters are very strong.  Very strong.  Each person is unique, painfully so, and they all have their own motives.  Some of them are very easy to predict, such as Todd and Viola, but others are more of a wild card.  Everyone does things that are morally disgusting, such as committing murder, initiating planet-wide-war, and infecting innocent people with fatal diseases, but it's their reaction after the deed and the motives that drove them that you have to judge them on.  Otherwise, you'd wind up hating everyone in the books.
        The Land, and you won't know what I'm talking about until you've read the third book, confuses me.  It's sort of a peaceful part of the book, except for the fact that the Return is basically baying for blood, but I can't pick out individuals.  I couldn't even tell you if the Return is a male or a female.  The Return seems male for the most time, but other times it seems female . . . It adds to the overall effect of the story, but it can also subtract from it a bit.
        Another thing that subtracts from the story is the obvious bloodlust.  It sort of repulses me how many people in this book want war.  The Return can't stop begging to stick a knife in the Knife, Todd blatantly harms the captured ones in New Prentisstown, Mistress Coyle goes around blowing up things left and right and smiling while she does it, and the Mayor decides to start a war, just so he can rule.  What is with these people?  Most of the semi-prominent characters adore violence, and the main characters take part in it just to please the semi-prominent characters.  It is repulsive, but enthralling.  And it is completely rateable to today.  How many bullies hurt others, just because it gives them power?  It's a theme you see repeated here, but on a much grander scale.
        The New World in itself is intriguing.  The fact that everyone can hear the thoughts of everyone else (except for . . . but I won't ruin it), that animals can talk, and that you can hear the thoughts of the animals is really quite an interesting concept.  It is said in the book that it's all about information:  How much you have, how you can control it, and, of course, how often you get it.  Patrick Ness said, in his biography in the back of the first book, that he got the idea from today's society, and how we're always hooked up to information.  Computers, television, even radios and newspapers.  You name it, we're getting information from it.  Again, another theme that applies to today, and today's life.
         There are three books, this being a trilogy.  The first is "The Knife of Never Letting Go," followed by "The Ask and the Answer," and "Monsters of Men"  (because war makes monsters of men . . . ).  You might just want to check out all three at once, because both "The Knife" and "The Ask" end on major cliff hangers. Like, major.  Major, as in in-your-face, you are going to die if you don't read the next book as soon as humanly possible major.  I mean, "Monsters of Men," has a major cliff-hanger too, but you can't do really anything about that one.
         And even though all Viola and Todd want is to be safe, they forget that when you spit into the wind you get a convoy of 40 spaceships, the arrows of an alien species, and the hostilities of your own people coming right back at you. I hope you don't.

I am Number Four

"I am Number Four," by Pittacus Lore.

Three are dead.  He is Number Four.
Assuming the pseudonym John Smith, "Number Four" sets to settling in in his latest town, Paradise, Ohio.  Falling for the ex-cheerleader ex-girlfriend of the town's basketball star doesn't do much to his policy of staying invisible, and staying invisible is everything for the alien who's trying to stay under the radar of the murderous Mogadarians who killed his people and stripped his planet of resources.  If John can keep his newly developing powers a secret from the bloodthirsty killers, than their might be a chance that Lorien can be saved.  Mistakes come at every turn, though, and John's powers fly out of control.  It might be merely a matter of time before the Mogadarians find him, and mark their death total up to four . . .

I am not impressed with this story.  It's a typical Hollywood-blockbuster movie, but slowed down a bit, and shoved into a book.  Here look at this version of the summary:
             There is a mysterious alien male who may or may not have amazing powers that have the potential to save our world from terrifying alien invaders!  He also wants to restore his home planet back to it's former glory because it was ravaged by the same species of intergalactic menaces.  But, before his powers develop, he must blend in with the high school population to hide from the evil aliens.  While he is hiding in a small town, he meets the girl of his dreams and gets into a fight with her possessive ex-boyfriend.  When his powers finally show themselves, will our hero be able to escape the detection of the bad guys?  . . . No, probably not.  
       Well, where have we heard that before?  Oh, right in the trailer of the next alien-invasion movie.  Which, makes sense, because this book is also a movie.  But even the book is complete with pretty blonds, unlikely allies, and an aging mentor.  I'm sorry, I'm just not happy over here.  I  guess I just thought it was going to be some fantastic book, some earth-shattering new sci-fi book.  Instead, it's horribly cliched.
        It has all of the good elements of a fiction book:  A gigantic problem that's about to become a whole lot bigger if it doesn't get fixed soon, a hero that's (presumably) going to fix it, and a secret that the hero has to keep hidden from the rest of the world.  Yeah, sure.  We see that in nearly every contemporary young adult book.  It's a reliable formula, as well as a comforting one.
        And there's a unique twist to the problem:  The victims can only be killed in numerical order.  But that premise leaves several unanswered questions;  who decided the numerical order?  What exactly is a Lorien charm?  Who casted the thing, if you said that all of your Elders had fled the planet?  There is a lot of mystery in this book, questions that are left unanswered to create hype, but those questions aren't there to create hype, in my opinion, and just leave holes in the reason of the plot.
        And, dude, does the girl have to be blond?  Does the ex-boyfriend have to be a jock?  I thought that we were past this.  Oh, sure, it's standard in plenty of realistic fiction/romance books, but this is . . . I don't know.   I enjoy stories.  Isn't that evident on what I choose to write my blog?  This is a pretty good story.  It has an intriguing back-story, and a wonderful premise to it.  But, I don't know, and I know I've said that before, but . . .  I would've done something different, if I had been writing it.
       Maybe part of the problem was that I couldn't find anyone in this book to relate to.  John was a bit bull-headed, Sarah was a bit of a ditz, Sam was too nerdy and unsocial . . . I probably could've connected with Henri, if given half the chance, but I wasn't.  He's always the enemy in John's eyes, the over-protective parent, etc.  But he's the only one with any sense!
      Also, I just couldn't buy into Mogadaria and Loria, or whatever the planets were called.  Those places, no matter how many times they described them or went over their history, there was never any chance that they might've, could've, possibly, maybe been real, that feeling you get when you read a really good book, and you know that that place could really be out there, no matter how implausible.
       So, Mr. Four, I wish you luck in saving your planet.  But with all your sterotypes, I doubt that you'll be able to save your literary audience from despair.

For more information (not much more, but . . .) the website is http://iamnumberfour.com/

Ender's Game

I used to only read fantasy, but this is one of the books that opened up my mind:  Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. 
      Peter Wiggen, ten years old, is evil and cold hearted, killing without mercy.  Valentine Wiggen, eight years old, is kind and soft hearted, the one who loves without a second thought.  Together, they have the power to take over the nets.  But their younger brother, Andrew (Ender) Wiggen, six years old and part ruthless killer, part loving soul, might have the power to end the alien invasion once and for all.
     Aliens, or buggers, have attacked earth on two second invasions.  This will be their third, and the government is searching for their champion, their war general, and Ender Wiggen fits the bill.  He will be taken up to space and trained in a game of warfare -- day after day, until he breaks.  The fate of the people of earth is up to him.  At least, that's what the government wants him to think.

Orson Scott Card is an amazing author, and his ability to create depth in his stories is something I really enjoy.  Ender is a genius for a six-, nine-, and eventually ten-year-old, and as he progresses up the ranks in the Battle School you get a feel for his character.  He becomes almost a real person as you follow his thought process.  His longing for his sister, his want to prove himself, and eventually how he breaks is all believable.
       The buggers, also, are very well done.  They aren't humanoid, more cockroach-like (hence the name "bugger"), and all the more feasible for that.  They are alien in the way that everyone fears, and they don't speak our language, a trait that gets attributed to too many modern aliens these days. 
        Peter and Valentine stand out as well.  Sometimes they begin to seem too adult, too old for twelve- and ten-year-olds, but then they say something that makes you remember that they're brother and sister, juvenile and pre-teen, not two stuffy politicians. 
       Also, there are government conspiracies in this book, making it all the better.  This is another one of those books that says 'no one's perfect', but this one also has the added theme 'but they will go to any lengths to ensure that it seems that they are perfect.'  You see Colonel Graff as a good guy and a bad guy.
       I have very few complaints with this book, other than the fact that the Second Warsaw Pact isn't explained too well, nor is the original Warsaw Pact.  I suppose that the reader is supposed to know what the original Warsaw Pact is prior to reading.  Also, there is not much attention paid to the earth-side war, only to the space battle and the space politics.  What exactly were the Russians doing that was such a great cause for alarm?  Also, what is a Hegemony, or should I already know that? 
      Ender's Game is part of a series, yes.   Ender's Game, The Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, make up "Ender's Quartet".  I haven't finished Children of the Mind yet, and I'll do separate posts on Xenocide and The Speaker for the Dead, because the latter is unbelievably wonderful in it's own way, the the first has it's own charm, especially in the sci-fi area of things.  Children of the Mind is very promising as well. 
        There are several adjacent books to these as well.  Ender in Exile and In the Shadow of the Hegemon, for example.  I think there might be a few others, but I haven't read them yet, so I don't know their titles specifically.  There also several graphic novels that tell the story of these books as well.  Basically look for anything that says 'Actual Ender's Game' on it, and that has something to do with Ender's Game.  Pretty much.