Fallen Angels
Walter Dean Myers
Scholastic
Fiction, YA Action/Historical Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Perry was never supposed to be in Vietnam at all, let alone on the front lines. He had a bad knee from a basketball injury, and was told that he'd be given a desk job for his year of military service, the Harlem boy's only option when his college prospects fell through. But a paperwork mix-up led to him being sent overseas - for a desk job, he's assured, just until his medical profile catches up to him and he's returned stateside. Yet somehow he finds himself in a "hooch" - barracks - with the rest of the soldiers, issued a weapon, and sent on patrols. Rumors keep insisting that the war's nearly over anyway, so Perry shouldn't see much, if any, action. If that's true, someone forgot to tell the Vietcong...
REVIEW: Another frequently challenged and banned book, Fallen Angels dives straight into the nightmare experience that was Vietnam. For all the talk and propaganda about patriotism and honor and justified force, for those with boots on the ground and blood on their hands, war is hell.
Perry just wanted to go to college and become a writer or even a philosopher, but when college plans fell through, the army seemed like a not-bad option for an income and life experience. He's told, more than once, that his profile will keep him out of harm's way, and learns the hard way that recruiters and superiors sometimes lie, just as countries lie to their own citizens, the first of many harsh lessons. Indeed, Perry ends up learning more about life, death, honor, cowardice, himself, and the world in his tour than he ever imagined, starting the moment he arrives in Vietnam; a fellow green recruit is killed right in front of him before they even reach the barracks, an early warning that death is all around, at all times, and can come for anybody at any time. From this inauspicious start, Perry's experience only gets grimmer. Even his own superiors can be at least as much of a threat as the enemy - and the enemy is often nebulous and seemingly ubiquitous. Efforts to win the favor of a local village by a goodwill visit one day transition almost seamlessly into a firefight in the same village's streets shortly afterwards, a whiplash that borders on the surreal but which is just another day in the madness of the war.
More than once, Perry must ask himself what he's doing here and why he's fighting; the answers he comes up with never seem adequate to justify the horrors he sees and the death he deals to total strangers. His bonds with his bunkmates keep him sane, if just barely at times, bonds that don't spare the rough, dark humor and crudity of soldiers in high-stress situations. None of them are perfect men, and none are any more guaranteed survival than Perry himself is, especially as numbers dwindle and his unit finds itself on a suspicious number of dangerous assignments, particularly the non-white members of the unit; racism is alive and well in the ranks. Some grumble about protesters back home, especially as the flow of new recruits to fill empty bunks slows to a trickle, but the longer the war drags on (despite peace being perpetually just a few weeks away) and the higher the body count (a body count that American news somehow never mentions when it talks about the war at all), the more Perry and the others start to wonder whether they have a point. The end result is a brutal, visceral look at the true face of war, an ugly thing even when necessary and worse when the reasoning is (generously described as) ambiguous.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Forever War (Joe Haldeman) - My Review
Monster (Walter Dean Myers) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Showing posts with label action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label action. Show all posts
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Fallen Angels (Walter Dean Myers)
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Kindling (Traci Chee)
Kindling
Traci Chee
Clarion
Fiction, YA Action/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: When nation fought nation on the Kindar peninsula, kindlers were the ultimate weapon: boys and girls with special gifts focused by balar crystals, unleashing powers to protect or destroy... but at a steep cost. For to use their magic, kindlers burned up their futures, days or months or years, few surviving past their teens. Thus, they were found and trained young, sacrificed as heroes in the name of glory - until the arrival of gunpowder and hand cannons rendered them obsolete almost overnight, followed by the end of the war with Amerand's victory. The long tradition of kindler warriors was outlawed as "barbaric", and those left alive were cast aside to wander in a world that no longer wanted or needed them.
In a small backwater near the mountains, a desperate young woman seeks help. Her village of Camas has been plagued by a pack of bandits who raid the mountain passes and keep her people on the very knife-edge of starvation with their raids and demands for tribute, to the point where they may not survive the coming winter on the scraps left behind. All ignore her pleas... all except for a handful of kindlers, all of whom have fallen on their own hard times, carrying their own scars. Can they remember and honor their old war codes to defend the helpless, or is the old age of heroes and magic truly gone from the land?
REVIEW: Kindling crosses the brutal reality of child soldiers with the familiar storyline exemplified by classics such as The Magnificent Seven, where a small band of antiheroes is gathered for one last shot at redemption (a shot where not everyone is guaranteed survival, let alone success), all told in a second-person present tense perspective (that's actually a first-person plural, from a sort of collective ghostly or spiritual host that focuses on each would-be hero in turn). Does it work? In general, yes, though at some point it started wallowing in its own trauma, gore, and helpless misery (not helped by rotating audiobook narrators who sometimes lean a little hard into the emotion and gulping, traumatic hesitations) to the point where it ultimately lost a half-star in the rating.
After a brief overview of the setup and setting, the tale opens with the classic trope of a stranger drifting into town and a young woman in distress (even though the latter's pleas are initially dismissed by the former, who doesn't want to get caught up in other people's problems when her own shoulders are nearly broken under the weight of her own troubles as it is). Not until a second stranger turns up - this one a former war hero of formidable skill - that the first character gets pulled into the plot/problem, drawn as much by the magnetism and authority embodied in the legendary "Twin Valley Reaper" as stubborn loyalty to the old kindler Codes of war that nobody, not even fellow kindlers, seems to remember, let alone honor; the leader of the mountain raider band is herself a former kindler, choosing to use her training to harass and kill innocent civilians rather than defend them. Of the seven would-be heroes, six of them cope with post-traumatic stress in various unhealthy ways, while the seventh is a cadet who was mere weeks from graduating and following her dream of becoming a true kindler on the battlefield when peace was declared and wrecked her future; this lattermost character was rather over-the-top in her childish innocence and eagerness to join her elders (in experience if not quite years; all of the characters are under 20, though war aged them all decades and kindlers were never expected to live to see their twentieth birthday anyway), actively envying their clearly broken lives and restless nights full of nightmares and completely ignorant why they'd resist finishing her training and letting her join them in slaughter even after she finally bloodies her blade and realizes (or seems to, for about half a minute) that death leaves a mark on the soul. (Why are they holding out on the big "secret" that binds them all like kin, she whines to them more than once, even as she sees them struggling...) All of them are looking to redeem themselves or prove something, to the ghosts of their past if nobody else, by joining the cause to defend Camas... and all fail themselves and their fellows more than once before finally coming together to show the village, the raiders, and the world that tried to erase them just what kindlers could do when united in common cause against evil.
You may notice a lack of names in this review; this was an audiobook I listened to, so I didn't catch spellings, and I'm having one heck of a time finding any but a couple names written down anywhere. They are distinct characters, and are generally interesting if not always likeable, save when they're repetitiously wallowing in their own miseries and clinging stubbornly to ideas and attitudes that not only aren't working but which might get other people killed. I was ready to smack each of them upside the head at least once, particularly when some terrible thing was happening or mere moments away from happening and they were lost in bad memories or doom-and-gloom observations instead of, y'know, actually doing something - even the wrong thing, just something - about the terrible thing. I get that this was part of the point, exemplified by how the power of kindling is quite literally about children being burned on the pyre of war for the sake of nations and leaders who not only consider their lives disposable, but who ignore and erase them as soon as it becomes politically convenient. Even given that, though, Kindling feels like it hammers those ideas, and the traumas of its characters, past the point of effectiveness, the end of the nail coming out the far side and catching up the story from telling itself.
You Might Also Enjoy:
War Girls (Tochi Onyebuchi) - My Review
The Builders (Daniel Polansky) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Traci Chee
Clarion
Fiction, YA Action/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: When nation fought nation on the Kindar peninsula, kindlers were the ultimate weapon: boys and girls with special gifts focused by balar crystals, unleashing powers to protect or destroy... but at a steep cost. For to use their magic, kindlers burned up their futures, days or months or years, few surviving past their teens. Thus, they were found and trained young, sacrificed as heroes in the name of glory - until the arrival of gunpowder and hand cannons rendered them obsolete almost overnight, followed by the end of the war with Amerand's victory. The long tradition of kindler warriors was outlawed as "barbaric", and those left alive were cast aside to wander in a world that no longer wanted or needed them.
In a small backwater near the mountains, a desperate young woman seeks help. Her village of Camas has been plagued by a pack of bandits who raid the mountain passes and keep her people on the very knife-edge of starvation with their raids and demands for tribute, to the point where they may not survive the coming winter on the scraps left behind. All ignore her pleas... all except for a handful of kindlers, all of whom have fallen on their own hard times, carrying their own scars. Can they remember and honor their old war codes to defend the helpless, or is the old age of heroes and magic truly gone from the land?
REVIEW: Kindling crosses the brutal reality of child soldiers with the familiar storyline exemplified by classics such as The Magnificent Seven, where a small band of antiheroes is gathered for one last shot at redemption (a shot where not everyone is guaranteed survival, let alone success), all told in a second-person present tense perspective (that's actually a first-person plural, from a sort of collective ghostly or spiritual host that focuses on each would-be hero in turn). Does it work? In general, yes, though at some point it started wallowing in its own trauma, gore, and helpless misery (not helped by rotating audiobook narrators who sometimes lean a little hard into the emotion and gulping, traumatic hesitations) to the point where it ultimately lost a half-star in the rating.
After a brief overview of the setup and setting, the tale opens with the classic trope of a stranger drifting into town and a young woman in distress (even though the latter's pleas are initially dismissed by the former, who doesn't want to get caught up in other people's problems when her own shoulders are nearly broken under the weight of her own troubles as it is). Not until a second stranger turns up - this one a former war hero of formidable skill - that the first character gets pulled into the plot/problem, drawn as much by the magnetism and authority embodied in the legendary "Twin Valley Reaper" as stubborn loyalty to the old kindler Codes of war that nobody, not even fellow kindlers, seems to remember, let alone honor; the leader of the mountain raider band is herself a former kindler, choosing to use her training to harass and kill innocent civilians rather than defend them. Of the seven would-be heroes, six of them cope with post-traumatic stress in various unhealthy ways, while the seventh is a cadet who was mere weeks from graduating and following her dream of becoming a true kindler on the battlefield when peace was declared and wrecked her future; this lattermost character was rather over-the-top in her childish innocence and eagerness to join her elders (in experience if not quite years; all of the characters are under 20, though war aged them all decades and kindlers were never expected to live to see their twentieth birthday anyway), actively envying their clearly broken lives and restless nights full of nightmares and completely ignorant why they'd resist finishing her training and letting her join them in slaughter even after she finally bloodies her blade and realizes (or seems to, for about half a minute) that death leaves a mark on the soul. (Why are they holding out on the big "secret" that binds them all like kin, she whines to them more than once, even as she sees them struggling...) All of them are looking to redeem themselves or prove something, to the ghosts of their past if nobody else, by joining the cause to defend Camas... and all fail themselves and their fellows more than once before finally coming together to show the village, the raiders, and the world that tried to erase them just what kindlers could do when united in common cause against evil.
You may notice a lack of names in this review; this was an audiobook I listened to, so I didn't catch spellings, and I'm having one heck of a time finding any but a couple names written down anywhere. They are distinct characters, and are generally interesting if not always likeable, save when they're repetitiously wallowing in their own miseries and clinging stubbornly to ideas and attitudes that not only aren't working but which might get other people killed. I was ready to smack each of them upside the head at least once, particularly when some terrible thing was happening or mere moments away from happening and they were lost in bad memories or doom-and-gloom observations instead of, y'know, actually doing something - even the wrong thing, just something - about the terrible thing. I get that this was part of the point, exemplified by how the power of kindling is quite literally about children being burned on the pyre of war for the sake of nations and leaders who not only consider their lives disposable, but who ignore and erase them as soon as it becomes politically convenient. Even given that, though, Kindling feels like it hammers those ideas, and the traumas of its characters, past the point of effectiveness, the end of the nail coming out the far side and catching up the story from telling itself.
You Might Also Enjoy:
War Girls (Tochi Onyebuchi) - My Review
The Builders (Daniel Polansky) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Thursday, March 27, 2025
The Guns Above (Robyn Bennis)
The Guns Above
A Signal Airship novel, Book 1
Robyn Bennis
Tor
Fiction, Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Josette Dupre never set out to become a war hero. The Garnian military barely tolerates women in lesser roles, even aboard their airships; it was pure chance that she was the highest-ranked officer left alive to perform a daring maneuver that turned the tide of one battle. Now, desperation and politics have combined to land her as the captain - by role if not by official rank - of a new airship, the Mistral. She knows the top brass are salivating for a chance to prove that women have no place in combat, and she intends to prove them wrong... ideally while taking down as many of the enemy as she can. But dreams of vindication and glory soon run head-first into challenges she never anticipated, from the flaws of her new ship's "revolutionary" design to crew morale and a war that's about to take a drastic turn for the worse.
Lord Bernat has never worked a day in his pampered life, cheerfully burning through the family coffers - until one day, instead of more money, his mother sends him to his general uncle. It seems that he's expected to earn his own money via a commission... unless he proves useful in another way, by providing eyewitness proof of Dupre's incompetence to put an end to any progressive notions that might take root in the military. Sure, he's never set foot on an airship before, but Bernat is certain it'll be much easier than actually being a soldier, not to mention the pay offered by his uncle is far better. But what seems like a simple task becomes much more complicated, when the Mistral becomes swept up in audacious new plot by Garnia's enemies. The foppish lord may have arrived on the airship intent on proving Dupre unfit for duty, but she may be the only one who can keep him and the rest of the crew alive.
REVIEW: It's been a bit since I read a steampunk adventure tale, so I figured I'd give this one a try. It offers plenty of action and detailed technical musings on the world's airships, as machines and as tools in greater combat... musings that, along with painstakingly explored battle tactics, threaten to sink the whole story and the characters with it.
The tale starts in the aftermath of Josette's victory, as she and the other survivors of her doomed old ship become part of a bold new idea handed down from Garnia's king that aims to put women in active leadership roles for the first time - in truth, a sign of desperation by a nation that's just plain running out of men and boys to throw into the meat grinder of war. She leverages her experience and skills from years serving in a non-combat role aboard the nation's airships to seize this chance to prove herself (and her gender) capable, but things aren't always easy for her; in a forgotten subplot, it turns out even her second-in-command and best friend secretly thinks women shouldn't be serving. This is not the only forgotten aspect of the story, which often is less about Josette and more about the author explaining to the reader in great detail every possible aspect of Garnia's airships in general and the Mistral in particular. The characters start to feel a bit like placeholders or even caricatures that have to squeeze their interactions, growth, and very existence into the limited spaces around these details, which later spread to encompass blow-by-blows of battles and military tactics. It goes without saying, of course, that Lord Bernat's trial by fire (quite literally) eventually brings him around, but he remains an insufferable twit far longer than he needs to, and his efforts at witty banter tend to fall flat. The action teeters between exciting drama and drawn-out excuses to relate more technical details, eventually leading up to a grand finale and the setup for the second book.
This isn't a bad military steampunk tale, and there are some very good moments. At some point, though, I just got tired of constantly being lectured about the minutiae of Garnian airship schematics and battle plans, and I never felt as engaged or invested as I should have been. I also kept thinking that I'd read the same basic ideas done more effectively elsewhere. Still, if you're looking for a story of soldiers, steampunk, and airships, this is a decent enough choice.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Leviathan (Scott Westerfield) - My Review
A Signal Airship novel, Book 1
Robyn Bennis
Tor
Fiction, Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Josette Dupre never set out to become a war hero. The Garnian military barely tolerates women in lesser roles, even aboard their airships; it was pure chance that she was the highest-ranked officer left alive to perform a daring maneuver that turned the tide of one battle. Now, desperation and politics have combined to land her as the captain - by role if not by official rank - of a new airship, the Mistral. She knows the top brass are salivating for a chance to prove that women have no place in combat, and she intends to prove them wrong... ideally while taking down as many of the enemy as she can. But dreams of vindication and glory soon run head-first into challenges she never anticipated, from the flaws of her new ship's "revolutionary" design to crew morale and a war that's about to take a drastic turn for the worse.
Lord Bernat has never worked a day in his pampered life, cheerfully burning through the family coffers - until one day, instead of more money, his mother sends him to his general uncle. It seems that he's expected to earn his own money via a commission... unless he proves useful in another way, by providing eyewitness proof of Dupre's incompetence to put an end to any progressive notions that might take root in the military. Sure, he's never set foot on an airship before, but Bernat is certain it'll be much easier than actually being a soldier, not to mention the pay offered by his uncle is far better. But what seems like a simple task becomes much more complicated, when the Mistral becomes swept up in audacious new plot by Garnia's enemies. The foppish lord may have arrived on the airship intent on proving Dupre unfit for duty, but she may be the only one who can keep him and the rest of the crew alive.
REVIEW: It's been a bit since I read a steampunk adventure tale, so I figured I'd give this one a try. It offers plenty of action and detailed technical musings on the world's airships, as machines and as tools in greater combat... musings that, along with painstakingly explored battle tactics, threaten to sink the whole story and the characters with it.
The tale starts in the aftermath of Josette's victory, as she and the other survivors of her doomed old ship become part of a bold new idea handed down from Garnia's king that aims to put women in active leadership roles for the first time - in truth, a sign of desperation by a nation that's just plain running out of men and boys to throw into the meat grinder of war. She leverages her experience and skills from years serving in a non-combat role aboard the nation's airships to seize this chance to prove herself (and her gender) capable, but things aren't always easy for her; in a forgotten subplot, it turns out even her second-in-command and best friend secretly thinks women shouldn't be serving. This is not the only forgotten aspect of the story, which often is less about Josette and more about the author explaining to the reader in great detail every possible aspect of Garnia's airships in general and the Mistral in particular. The characters start to feel a bit like placeholders or even caricatures that have to squeeze their interactions, growth, and very existence into the limited spaces around these details, which later spread to encompass blow-by-blows of battles and military tactics. It goes without saying, of course, that Lord Bernat's trial by fire (quite literally) eventually brings him around, but he remains an insufferable twit far longer than he needs to, and his efforts at witty banter tend to fall flat. The action teeters between exciting drama and drawn-out excuses to relate more technical details, eventually leading up to a grand finale and the setup for the second book.
This isn't a bad military steampunk tale, and there are some very good moments. At some point, though, I just got tired of constantly being lectured about the minutiae of Garnian airship schematics and battle plans, and I never felt as engaged or invested as I should have been. I also kept thinking that I'd read the same basic ideas done more effectively elsewhere. Still, if you're looking for a story of soldiers, steampunk, and airships, this is a decent enough choice.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Leviathan (Scott Westerfield) - My Review
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Zero Sum Game (S. L. Huang)
Zero Sum Game
The Cas Russell series, Book 1
S. L. Huang
Tor
Fiction, Action/Humor/Sci-Fi/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Some people are good at math. Some are great at it. And then there's Cas Russell, a woman to whom the whole world is a series of numbers and equations in constant flow around her, enabling her to perform seemingly-superhuman feats. Rather than use her gifts to make a killing in business or at a casino, she instead takes freelance jobs finding things that have been lost... even people. Tracking down Courtney, a wayward girl who got sucked into the clutches of a Colombian drug cartel, is just another day on the job to Cas. But something isn't adding up about this job. Why would drug lords and federal agencies alike take such a particular interest in an unnoteworthy, expendable mule? Why is there an ex-cop PI on her tail almost from the moment they escape the cartel compound, babbling nonsense about secret projects and assassinations and mind control? And who has decided the Cas herself is now a sufficient threat that her contacts are getting killed? Cas may not have many (or any) real friends, and her morals may be generously described as charcoal gray, but that just makes her a very, very bad enemy...
REVIEW: With a snarky bad-ass heroine and action straight from the first page, Zero Sum Game starts on a strong note, quickly establishing Cas and her abilities (as well as her not-quite-friend Rio, a psychopath who ironically is the only person she trusts to have her back). It stayed strong through most of its length, until an ending that felt like a betrayal and letdown of most everything that came before.
In the vein of many a mercenary or bounty hunter, Cas is not a white-hat good girl; the book opens after she's already killed numerous people breaking into the drug lords' compound outside of Los Angeles, and it's not long before the body count ticks higher during the escape with Courtney. She is, however, interesting, a compelling character with a nice, quick-witted voice and an intriguing ability as she uses her beyond-prodigal grasp of mathematics to pick her way through firefights without a scratch (using formulae to calculate the location of shooters via echos and vectors, figuring out force and optimal angles of attack in a heartbeat, etc.). If it all stretches credulity a bit, well, it's basically a superhero plot, and math as a superpower is less implausible than mutation from a radioactive spider bite or other gimmicks. It isn't long before Cas realizes just how much more there is to this seemingly-routine rescue mission, but it still takes some convincing before she realizes the truth about the threat: a secret society with an apparent mind reader who can manipulate people with just a single conversation, driving them to spill secrets, betray friends and family, even murder or commit suicide, all thinking it's their own idea. For a woman who has always been self-reliant, who relies on her brain and her calculations, this is a horror beyond anything, the idea that she might not even be able to trust her own memories or thoughts. Despite her lone-wolf instincts and inherently distrustful nature, she finds herself picking up a small handful of new allies (who are familiar tropes, but decently done) even before she admits to herself that this is a threat she cannot compute down to zero without help... and even then, victory may not be a sure formula. Being around other people forces her to see herself as others see her - making her question her utter disregard for humans, her casual willingness to resort to lethal force as though lives were just more numbers to impersonally manipulate - but does not lead to an instant personality shift. She is who she is, for better or worse, but perhaps she could become a slightly more ethical version of herself, especially when confronted with an enemy whose rationale and methodology repel her, but which seem disturbingly familiar.
As mentioned, this is a fast-paced book with few lulls, punctuated by periodic snark. A few of the setbacks seemed avoidable or foreseeable, but overall I was enjoying it... until the ending. Granted, this is just the first book in an apparently trilogy, but the ending felt like it ripped away Cas's agency and invalidated most of what she and her companions sacrificed. It was enough to knock a solid star off the rating, and make me uninterested in future adventures with Cas. Why bother, when the equation just comes to zero in the end?
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind (Jackson Ford) - My Review
Middlegame (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
Killing Gravity (Corey J. White) - My Review
The Cas Russell series, Book 1
S. L. Huang
Tor
Fiction, Action/Humor/Sci-Fi/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Some people are good at math. Some are great at it. And then there's Cas Russell, a woman to whom the whole world is a series of numbers and equations in constant flow around her, enabling her to perform seemingly-superhuman feats. Rather than use her gifts to make a killing in business or at a casino, she instead takes freelance jobs finding things that have been lost... even people. Tracking down Courtney, a wayward girl who got sucked into the clutches of a Colombian drug cartel, is just another day on the job to Cas. But something isn't adding up about this job. Why would drug lords and federal agencies alike take such a particular interest in an unnoteworthy, expendable mule? Why is there an ex-cop PI on her tail almost from the moment they escape the cartel compound, babbling nonsense about secret projects and assassinations and mind control? And who has decided the Cas herself is now a sufficient threat that her contacts are getting killed? Cas may not have many (or any) real friends, and her morals may be generously described as charcoal gray, but that just makes her a very, very bad enemy...
REVIEW: With a snarky bad-ass heroine and action straight from the first page, Zero Sum Game starts on a strong note, quickly establishing Cas and her abilities (as well as her not-quite-friend Rio, a psychopath who ironically is the only person she trusts to have her back). It stayed strong through most of its length, until an ending that felt like a betrayal and letdown of most everything that came before.
In the vein of many a mercenary or bounty hunter, Cas is not a white-hat good girl; the book opens after she's already killed numerous people breaking into the drug lords' compound outside of Los Angeles, and it's not long before the body count ticks higher during the escape with Courtney. She is, however, interesting, a compelling character with a nice, quick-witted voice and an intriguing ability as she uses her beyond-prodigal grasp of mathematics to pick her way through firefights without a scratch (using formulae to calculate the location of shooters via echos and vectors, figuring out force and optimal angles of attack in a heartbeat, etc.). If it all stretches credulity a bit, well, it's basically a superhero plot, and math as a superpower is less implausible than mutation from a radioactive spider bite or other gimmicks. It isn't long before Cas realizes just how much more there is to this seemingly-routine rescue mission, but it still takes some convincing before she realizes the truth about the threat: a secret society with an apparent mind reader who can manipulate people with just a single conversation, driving them to spill secrets, betray friends and family, even murder or commit suicide, all thinking it's their own idea. For a woman who has always been self-reliant, who relies on her brain and her calculations, this is a horror beyond anything, the idea that she might not even be able to trust her own memories or thoughts. Despite her lone-wolf instincts and inherently distrustful nature, she finds herself picking up a small handful of new allies (who are familiar tropes, but decently done) even before she admits to herself that this is a threat she cannot compute down to zero without help... and even then, victory may not be a sure formula. Being around other people forces her to see herself as others see her - making her question her utter disregard for humans, her casual willingness to resort to lethal force as though lives were just more numbers to impersonally manipulate - but does not lead to an instant personality shift. She is who she is, for better or worse, but perhaps she could become a slightly more ethical version of herself, especially when confronted with an enemy whose rationale and methodology repel her, but which seem disturbingly familiar.
As mentioned, this is a fast-paced book with few lulls, punctuated by periodic snark. A few of the setbacks seemed avoidable or foreseeable, but overall I was enjoying it... until the ending. Granted, this is just the first book in an apparently trilogy, but the ending felt like it ripped away Cas's agency and invalidated most of what she and her companions sacrificed. It was enough to knock a solid star off the rating, and make me uninterested in future adventures with Cas. Why bother, when the equation just comes to zero in the end?
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind (Jackson Ford) - My Review
Middlegame (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
Killing Gravity (Corey J. White) - My Review
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Dark Days (Derek Landy)
Dark Days
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 4
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, MG/YA Action/Fantasy/Horror/Humor
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: After cultists succeeded in opening a portal to the realm of the Faceless Ones, malevolent godlike entities that once ruled the Earth and have long wished to return to their former home (which would not bode well for pretty much anything currently inhabiting the planet), the living skeleton Skulduggery Pleasant, his apprentice Valkyrie Cain, and a handful of allies managed to drive the monstrous, madness-inducing beings back where they belonged... only Skulduggery was dragged through before the portal could be closed. That was nearly a year ago, and while most everyone in Dublin's magical community considers him gone (or as good as gone; if he hasn't succumbed, he's likely been driven insane by the Faceless Ones), Valkyrie will not rest until she gets her friend and teacher back, even accepting the tutelage of a necromancer to learn tricks that no elemental can teach her. At last, she stands on the cusp of victory - which, of course, means something is about to go terribly wrong, because that's when things always go terribly wrong.
Two hundred years ago, the sorcerer Dreylan Scarab was imprisoned for assassination, but confinement has not reformed him. Instead, the first thing he does on his release is organize the Revengers' Club, consisting of people with a bone to pick with the Dublin Sanctuary. A pack of villains like this isn't going to cooperate for long, but they only need to work together long enough to bring down the Sanctuary... and take down their mutual enemies, Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain. As if that weren't bad enough, every seer in the area has started getting visions of a new, darker danger on the horizon: a potentially world-ending mage known only as Darquesse - and, if the seers are right, that woman will not only slaughter Valkyrie's family, but her and Skulduggery too.
REVIEW: Taking up about a year after the previous volume ended, the reader finds a Valkyrie Cain who has only grown more powerful and more determined without Skulduggery around, willingly dabbling in necromancy despite how that force is viewed by most magic users and finding an unexpected talent there. If she had any misgivings about spending so much time among magicians in earlier adventures, those were sucked through the portal after Skulduggery; she's spending even more time out of the house in her laser-focused pursuit of a way to re-open the portal and rescue the living skeleton, relying more and more on the mirror image decoy to cover for her with family even though it's been glitchy. Not even her parents announcing that she's about to become a big sister is enough to get her to stay home and invest more time in her mundane life, not when she has a mission (and when the magical world continues to draw her like a magnet; she can try blaming her however-long-ago ancestor, the last of the Ancients, for the attraction, but at this point it's nearly an addiction). Even her closest friends are concerned for her, but she won't hear a word of caution. It goes without saying that she succeeds (just as it also goes without saying that success is hard-won by the skin of her teeth), but that's only the start of bigger problems as the Revengers' Club and their campaign of, well, revenge sweeps through the magical community of Dublin. The returned Skulduggery is not the same as he was, but then neither is Valkyrie the same girl he left behind, far more of a partner than an assistant or apprentice. They still make a formidable team, each using their new powers and resilience to great effect as the stakes inevitably ratchet higher with every chapter.
Baddies from previous books return as Revengers' Club members, naturally... and, as before, the Sanctuary magicians are not exactly pure as the driven snow in their histories and intentions; there's a very good reason so many people hold such hard feelings towards them, and the attacks are in no small part composed of metaphoric chickens coming home to roost. Corruption in power has been a theme since the start, and here it comes to a head for the Dublin Sanctuary in quite catastrophic ways. Add that to the visions that put Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and the other Dublin mages at the heart of the possible end of the world in a few years (as close as they can guesstimate; Valkyrie looks a few years older, at least), and things can only go from bad to worse.
As before, there's still humor threading through several moments and interactions, but the horror elements are only growing stronger as Valkyrie grows up. At around 15 now, the girl and the series are wading into Young Adult territory with both feet; indeed, she's getting involved in her first fledgling romance with a side character, even though her greater destiny and probable doom constantly lurks over her shoulder. Everyone she loves, and even people she dislikes, go through the wringer here on the way to a tense climax that creates lasting ramifications for all concerned and altering the trajectory of the series.
If this entry has a slightly lower rating than previous outings of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, it's a very near thing, and partly due to it feeling a little rushed and overwhelming at times, standing at a pivot point in the larger arc (at least, that's what I assume, given events). It's shorter than the others, and could've used a slight bit more breathing space between All The Things happening and all the characters that come together. The ending twist is also a touch telegraphed. Still, this remains a highly entertaining and exciting series, one where the main characters aren't bubble-wrapped and actually experience consequences from their mistakes - and even their victories. I'm looking forward to reading (or listening) on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Library of the Dead (T. L. Huchu) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 4
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, MG/YA Action/Fantasy/Horror/Humor
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: After cultists succeeded in opening a portal to the realm of the Faceless Ones, malevolent godlike entities that once ruled the Earth and have long wished to return to their former home (which would not bode well for pretty much anything currently inhabiting the planet), the living skeleton Skulduggery Pleasant, his apprentice Valkyrie Cain, and a handful of allies managed to drive the monstrous, madness-inducing beings back where they belonged... only Skulduggery was dragged through before the portal could be closed. That was nearly a year ago, and while most everyone in Dublin's magical community considers him gone (or as good as gone; if he hasn't succumbed, he's likely been driven insane by the Faceless Ones), Valkyrie will not rest until she gets her friend and teacher back, even accepting the tutelage of a necromancer to learn tricks that no elemental can teach her. At last, she stands on the cusp of victory - which, of course, means something is about to go terribly wrong, because that's when things always go terribly wrong.
Two hundred years ago, the sorcerer Dreylan Scarab was imprisoned for assassination, but confinement has not reformed him. Instead, the first thing he does on his release is organize the Revengers' Club, consisting of people with a bone to pick with the Dublin Sanctuary. A pack of villains like this isn't going to cooperate for long, but they only need to work together long enough to bring down the Sanctuary... and take down their mutual enemies, Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain. As if that weren't bad enough, every seer in the area has started getting visions of a new, darker danger on the horizon: a potentially world-ending mage known only as Darquesse - and, if the seers are right, that woman will not only slaughter Valkyrie's family, but her and Skulduggery too.
REVIEW: Taking up about a year after the previous volume ended, the reader finds a Valkyrie Cain who has only grown more powerful and more determined without Skulduggery around, willingly dabbling in necromancy despite how that force is viewed by most magic users and finding an unexpected talent there. If she had any misgivings about spending so much time among magicians in earlier adventures, those were sucked through the portal after Skulduggery; she's spending even more time out of the house in her laser-focused pursuit of a way to re-open the portal and rescue the living skeleton, relying more and more on the mirror image decoy to cover for her with family even though it's been glitchy. Not even her parents announcing that she's about to become a big sister is enough to get her to stay home and invest more time in her mundane life, not when she has a mission (and when the magical world continues to draw her like a magnet; she can try blaming her however-long-ago ancestor, the last of the Ancients, for the attraction, but at this point it's nearly an addiction). Even her closest friends are concerned for her, but she won't hear a word of caution. It goes without saying that she succeeds (just as it also goes without saying that success is hard-won by the skin of her teeth), but that's only the start of bigger problems as the Revengers' Club and their campaign of, well, revenge sweeps through the magical community of Dublin. The returned Skulduggery is not the same as he was, but then neither is Valkyrie the same girl he left behind, far more of a partner than an assistant or apprentice. They still make a formidable team, each using their new powers and resilience to great effect as the stakes inevitably ratchet higher with every chapter.
Baddies from previous books return as Revengers' Club members, naturally... and, as before, the Sanctuary magicians are not exactly pure as the driven snow in their histories and intentions; there's a very good reason so many people hold such hard feelings towards them, and the attacks are in no small part composed of metaphoric chickens coming home to roost. Corruption in power has been a theme since the start, and here it comes to a head for the Dublin Sanctuary in quite catastrophic ways. Add that to the visions that put Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and the other Dublin mages at the heart of the possible end of the world in a few years (as close as they can guesstimate; Valkyrie looks a few years older, at least), and things can only go from bad to worse.
As before, there's still humor threading through several moments and interactions, but the horror elements are only growing stronger as Valkyrie grows up. At around 15 now, the girl and the series are wading into Young Adult territory with both feet; indeed, she's getting involved in her first fledgling romance with a side character, even though her greater destiny and probable doom constantly lurks over her shoulder. Everyone she loves, and even people she dislikes, go through the wringer here on the way to a tense climax that creates lasting ramifications for all concerned and altering the trajectory of the series.
If this entry has a slightly lower rating than previous outings of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, it's a very near thing, and partly due to it feeling a little rushed and overwhelming at times, standing at a pivot point in the larger arc (at least, that's what I assume, given events). It's shorter than the others, and could've used a slight bit more breathing space between All The Things happening and all the characters that come together. The ending twist is also a touch telegraphed. Still, this remains a highly entertaining and exciting series, one where the main characters aren't bubble-wrapped and actually experience consequences from their mistakes - and even their victories. I'm looking forward to reading (or listening) on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Library of the Dead (T. L. Huchu) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Friday, June 7, 2024
Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger! (M. T. Anderson)
Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 4
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When last we left our plucky pals - ordinary girl Lily Gefelty, Katie Mulligan (young heroine of haunted Horror Hollow), and Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut - they were in the Vbngoom monastery in the high mountains of exotic Delaware, having just thwarted an evil criminal network's plans to loot the place and turn it into a cheap tourist trap. Now they face the peril of escaping Delaware's many dangers and countless spies in order to get back home to their drab home town of Pelt. But the autocrat in charge - His Terrifying Majesty, the Awful and Adorable Autocrat of Dagsboro, who has long coveted the hidden monastery and its many secrets, secrets that could give him and his vast spy networks unlimited powers and ensure his cruel reign lasts forever - isn't about to let the foreign meddlers and their monk friends slip free without an extended stay in one of the state's many well-appointed interrogation rooms. Fortunately, the Vbngoom head monk has contacts inside the Delaware resistance, who promise aid in the form of Agent Q. Unfortunately, nobody knows what Q looks like... or whether one agent, no matter how good or no matter how many cool spy gadgets they may have, will be enough to help them escape.
REVIEW: The fourth installment of the hilarious series turns its attention to spy novels, as the imperiled pals deal with Delaware's devious spy network with the not-always-helpful-help of "Agent Q", a boy no older than themselves but with the arrogance of someone ten times his size. More wondrous (and not so wondrous) sides of the exotic realm of Delaware unfold, with everything from airship cities to sapient lobsters to state-sanctioned game shows unmasking traitors to the autocrat, though it does still sometimes feel like its repeating itself and could've used a fresh setting. Katie's crush on the young monk Drgnan (it was explained in the previous volume that there is a severe shortage of vowels in the autocrat's mismanaged state) gets some follow-through... along with the first hints of unease by Lily, who doesn't want to be jealous of her best friend finding some happiness but can't seem to stop that squirmy feeling in her belly when she sees them holding hands. Jasper Dash, meanwhile, is a bit unsettled to see some of himself reflected in the egocentric Q, another young hero of a book series who relies on all sorts of sciencey gadgetry and insists in saving the day. The story has a few more breather moments for incremental character growth, but is still fairly relentless in its action and its humor, more than once hiding just a little sliver of something sharper beneath the silly surface. I expect I'll polish off the fifth and final volume in the future.
(Edit - Apparently, there is actually a sixth installment, but my library's Libby service doesn't have it... dang it...)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (Mac Barnett) - My Review
The Name of This Book is Secret (Pseudonymous Bosch) - My Review
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 4
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When last we left our plucky pals - ordinary girl Lily Gefelty, Katie Mulligan (young heroine of haunted Horror Hollow), and Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut - they were in the Vbngoom monastery in the high mountains of exotic Delaware, having just thwarted an evil criminal network's plans to loot the place and turn it into a cheap tourist trap. Now they face the peril of escaping Delaware's many dangers and countless spies in order to get back home to their drab home town of Pelt. But the autocrat in charge - His Terrifying Majesty, the Awful and Adorable Autocrat of Dagsboro, who has long coveted the hidden monastery and its many secrets, secrets that could give him and his vast spy networks unlimited powers and ensure his cruel reign lasts forever - isn't about to let the foreign meddlers and their monk friends slip free without an extended stay in one of the state's many well-appointed interrogation rooms. Fortunately, the Vbngoom head monk has contacts inside the Delaware resistance, who promise aid in the form of Agent Q. Unfortunately, nobody knows what Q looks like... or whether one agent, no matter how good or no matter how many cool spy gadgets they may have, will be enough to help them escape.
REVIEW: The fourth installment of the hilarious series turns its attention to spy novels, as the imperiled pals deal with Delaware's devious spy network with the not-always-helpful-help of "Agent Q", a boy no older than themselves but with the arrogance of someone ten times his size. More wondrous (and not so wondrous) sides of the exotic realm of Delaware unfold, with everything from airship cities to sapient lobsters to state-sanctioned game shows unmasking traitors to the autocrat, though it does still sometimes feel like its repeating itself and could've used a fresh setting. Katie's crush on the young monk Drgnan (it was explained in the previous volume that there is a severe shortage of vowels in the autocrat's mismanaged state) gets some follow-through... along with the first hints of unease by Lily, who doesn't want to be jealous of her best friend finding some happiness but can't seem to stop that squirmy feeling in her belly when she sees them holding hands. Jasper Dash, meanwhile, is a bit unsettled to see some of himself reflected in the egocentric Q, another young hero of a book series who relies on all sorts of sciencey gadgetry and insists in saving the day. The story has a few more breather moments for incremental character growth, but is still fairly relentless in its action and its humor, more than once hiding just a little sliver of something sharper beneath the silly surface. I expect I'll polish off the fifth and final volume in the future.
(Edit - Apparently, there is actually a sixth installment, but my library's Libby service doesn't have it... dang it...)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (Mac Barnett) - My Review
The Name of This Book is Secret (Pseudonymous Bosch) - My Review
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Z. Rex (Steve Cole)
Z. Rex
The Hunting series, Book 1
Steve Cole
Puffin Books
Fiction, MG Action/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: For twelve-year-old Adam Adlar, life with his tech genius father Bill has its ups and downs. On the upside, he gets to play with Dad's cutting-edge "Ultra-Reality" equipment as the first (and thus far only) test subject, a system that can actually insert ideas and sensations into one's brain so a player is living the game in a way even virtual reality can only dream of imitating. On the downside, Adam often feels more like luggage than a son, following his dad around the world in pursuit of fresh funding and new backers, left behind in hotel rooms - sometimes for days at a time. Dad's latest gig lands them in New Mexico, about as far from Adam's beloved native Edinburgh as possible, but surely this project's the one that will get Ultra-Reality funded. Just two or three days, Dad promises, before disappearing into a sleek black car and riding off into the desert.
Five days later, and aside from a couple of ambiguous texts and a visit from a surly bodyguard, Adam hasn't had any contact with his father. Then a strange text arrives - just before the building is destroyed, demolished by an impossible, invisible monster.
At first, Adam thinks it's a Tyrannosaurus rex... but, while there's no way to know if the apex Cretaceous predators had chameleon skin like this brute, he knows for a fact that T. rexes didn't have five-fingered hands. Nor did they have wings. And they certainly couldn't talk, albeit in stunted, struggling sounds. The monster seems strangely fixated on locating Adam and his missing father, and from the carnage left in its wake Adam doesn't want to know what the "Z. rex" has planned for them. But first impressions might be deceiving. Perhaps the impossible dinosaur isn't his enemy, but his only ally against something far more dangerous, something that has already trapped his dad and is now coming for Adam himself.
REVIEW: I'll admit at the outset here that the rating might be mildly generous, but I'm taking into account both the target audience and my own middling-to-low expectations when I downloaded this audiobook from Libby. (I'll also admit that I initially thought Z. Rex would involve zombie dinosaurs, which sounded like it could've been a cheesy fun time.) But it turned out to have just a little more to it than it seemed - nothing hugely deep, but more than I expected.
Adam starts the story as the tagalong son of a single father. He loves his dad, and his dad loves him, but Bill Adlar's obsessive pursuit of Ultra-Reality (and the associated "Think-Send" tech that can pull memories from and implant knowledge into a living mind) hasn't provided the most stable home life, and thus far every would-be sponsor and backer has fallen through. Adam is so used to being left behind that he doesn't really think much of his father not coming back when he said he would... but when things start literally blowing apart, just when the "bodyguard" turns up at the apartment with a gun and a very unfriendly attitude, he's jarred out of his complacency. From here, Adam's off on a wild race, one that eventually sees him captured by "Zed" the Z-rex... and that name alone is enough to clue Adam into the fact that there's more to the monster than its apparent savageness; Bill Adlar was born in the American Midwest, but took to pronouncing "Z" as "zed" while raising a son with an Edinburgh woman, so hearing "zed" from a monster can't be a coincidence. Zed starts out an apparent beast, despite his stunted ability to speak; several brutes are mauled and outright killed while trying to take the dinosaur down, and Adam is terrified he'll be next on the menu. Yet it's also clear that Zed has some ulterior motive in mind as he holds the boy hostage in pursuit of Bill Adlar. The two find themselves in an uneasy alliance against greater enemies whose plans make one rampaging, genetically enhanced Tyrannosaurus rex seem downright insignificant.
This easily could've been a shallow, simple book of running and screaming and fighting dinos and sneering baddies. On some level, yes, it does have all those. But there's also just a hair more going on. Zed isn't a simplistic beast, nor is he merely a misunderstood giant prehistoric puppy; he can and does kill in pursuit of his goals, and also has an animal temper at times that can be hard to rein in, so Adam isn't stupid to be reticent to team up with him for so long. With his wings, humanlike intelligence, and other enhancements, Zed straddles a line between dinosaur and dragon... and what kid in the target audience wouldn't love to befriend a dragon? (Heck, I'm in my upper 40's and I'd still love a dragon buddy.) Adam himself can be a bit slow on the uptake at times, but does eventually grow more of a spine. The baddies can be a slight bit mustache-twirly and shallow, but they really don't need to be more than that in a story like this, and they prove to be quite formidable foes even to a boy with a winged dinosaur in his corner.
There are some flaws, particularly in generous handwaves of tech and science and how evolution - even artificially-juiced evolution - would work. It's also a very boy-heavy cast, which starts to feel conspicuous. I expected a bit more of a follow-through on the opening scene and the Ultra-Reality gaming itself (which seems to be pretty much forgotten by the end). And a few "twists" are a bit obvious as an older reader. But those issues aside, looking at it as a younger reader (especially a boy and/or a dinosaur lover) would approach it, Z. Rex is actually entertaining for what it is, a story that doesn't insult the audience by glossing over the brutality of an apex predator (or the brutality of the kind of people who think recreating and unleashing said predator is a good idea).
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dragons vs. Drones (Wesley King) - My Review
Domesticating Dragons (Dan Koboldt) - My Review
Cryptid Hunters (Roland Smith) - My Review
The Hunting series, Book 1
Steve Cole
Puffin Books
Fiction, MG Action/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: For twelve-year-old Adam Adlar, life with his tech genius father Bill has its ups and downs. On the upside, he gets to play with Dad's cutting-edge "Ultra-Reality" equipment as the first (and thus far only) test subject, a system that can actually insert ideas and sensations into one's brain so a player is living the game in a way even virtual reality can only dream of imitating. On the downside, Adam often feels more like luggage than a son, following his dad around the world in pursuit of fresh funding and new backers, left behind in hotel rooms - sometimes for days at a time. Dad's latest gig lands them in New Mexico, about as far from Adam's beloved native Edinburgh as possible, but surely this project's the one that will get Ultra-Reality funded. Just two or three days, Dad promises, before disappearing into a sleek black car and riding off into the desert.
Five days later, and aside from a couple of ambiguous texts and a visit from a surly bodyguard, Adam hasn't had any contact with his father. Then a strange text arrives - just before the building is destroyed, demolished by an impossible, invisible monster.
At first, Adam thinks it's a Tyrannosaurus rex... but, while there's no way to know if the apex Cretaceous predators had chameleon skin like this brute, he knows for a fact that T. rexes didn't have five-fingered hands. Nor did they have wings. And they certainly couldn't talk, albeit in stunted, struggling sounds. The monster seems strangely fixated on locating Adam and his missing father, and from the carnage left in its wake Adam doesn't want to know what the "Z. rex" has planned for them. But first impressions might be deceiving. Perhaps the impossible dinosaur isn't his enemy, but his only ally against something far more dangerous, something that has already trapped his dad and is now coming for Adam himself.
REVIEW: I'll admit at the outset here that the rating might be mildly generous, but I'm taking into account both the target audience and my own middling-to-low expectations when I downloaded this audiobook from Libby. (I'll also admit that I initially thought Z. Rex would involve zombie dinosaurs, which sounded like it could've been a cheesy fun time.) But it turned out to have just a little more to it than it seemed - nothing hugely deep, but more than I expected.
Adam starts the story as the tagalong son of a single father. He loves his dad, and his dad loves him, but Bill Adlar's obsessive pursuit of Ultra-Reality (and the associated "Think-Send" tech that can pull memories from and implant knowledge into a living mind) hasn't provided the most stable home life, and thus far every would-be sponsor and backer has fallen through. Adam is so used to being left behind that he doesn't really think much of his father not coming back when he said he would... but when things start literally blowing apart, just when the "bodyguard" turns up at the apartment with a gun and a very unfriendly attitude, he's jarred out of his complacency. From here, Adam's off on a wild race, one that eventually sees him captured by "Zed" the Z-rex... and that name alone is enough to clue Adam into the fact that there's more to the monster than its apparent savageness; Bill Adlar was born in the American Midwest, but took to pronouncing "Z" as "zed" while raising a son with an Edinburgh woman, so hearing "zed" from a monster can't be a coincidence. Zed starts out an apparent beast, despite his stunted ability to speak; several brutes are mauled and outright killed while trying to take the dinosaur down, and Adam is terrified he'll be next on the menu. Yet it's also clear that Zed has some ulterior motive in mind as he holds the boy hostage in pursuit of Bill Adlar. The two find themselves in an uneasy alliance against greater enemies whose plans make one rampaging, genetically enhanced Tyrannosaurus rex seem downright insignificant.
This easily could've been a shallow, simple book of running and screaming and fighting dinos and sneering baddies. On some level, yes, it does have all those. But there's also just a hair more going on. Zed isn't a simplistic beast, nor is he merely a misunderstood giant prehistoric puppy; he can and does kill in pursuit of his goals, and also has an animal temper at times that can be hard to rein in, so Adam isn't stupid to be reticent to team up with him for so long. With his wings, humanlike intelligence, and other enhancements, Zed straddles a line between dinosaur and dragon... and what kid in the target audience wouldn't love to befriend a dragon? (Heck, I'm in my upper 40's and I'd still love a dragon buddy.) Adam himself can be a bit slow on the uptake at times, but does eventually grow more of a spine. The baddies can be a slight bit mustache-twirly and shallow, but they really don't need to be more than that in a story like this, and they prove to be quite formidable foes even to a boy with a winged dinosaur in his corner.
There are some flaws, particularly in generous handwaves of tech and science and how evolution - even artificially-juiced evolution - would work. It's also a very boy-heavy cast, which starts to feel conspicuous. I expected a bit more of a follow-through on the opening scene and the Ultra-Reality gaming itself (which seems to be pretty much forgotten by the end). And a few "twists" are a bit obvious as an older reader. But those issues aside, looking at it as a younger reader (especially a boy and/or a dinosaur lover) would approach it, Z. Rex is actually entertaining for what it is, a story that doesn't insult the audience by glossing over the brutality of an apex predator (or the brutality of the kind of people who think recreating and unleashing said predator is a good idea).
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dragons vs. Drones (Wesley King) - My Review
Domesticating Dragons (Dan Koboldt) - My Review
Cryptid Hunters (Roland Smith) - My Review
Friday, May 10, 2024
Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware (M. T. Anderson)
Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 3
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the drab little town of Pelt, there isn't much worth getting excited about (well, excepting the odd invasion by stilt-walking whale armies, but thus far that was a one-off event). One thing that does grab the town's attention is a good sports match, particularly when it comes to the rousing game of Stare-Eyes. The high school varsity team could well make the state finals... if they can beat the champion team from Delaware, that is. But the day gets off to an inauspicious start when hordes of beetles swarm the town, as if panicked by some approaching force of great and terrible evil, and things only get worse from there.
Jasper Dash (Boy Technonaut, and star of a nearly-forgotten series of young adventurer books promoting the wonders of Gargletine breakfast drink) is the varsity team's secret weapon, having honed incredible staring powers during his stay at a remote monastery. But something is very, very strange about today's match, and the Delaware team - such as how their eyes change to slit-pupiled serpent eyes mid-match (which is clearly an illegal substitution, though the referees don't seem to notice it). And his friend Katie sees illegal artifacts being smuggled in the back of their team van. Then a psychic call for help reaches Jasper, summoning him (and his friends, Katie and ordinary girl Lily) to the wildest place on Earth, a realm of impenetrable jungles and lost cannibal tribes and mystical secrets beyond understanding, a civilization ruled by an iron-fisted despot with spies on every corner and in every spigot, a location cut off from the rest of civilization for over a hundred years by impossibly high tolls: the fabled, mystic realm of Delaware.
REVIEW: The third installment of the hilarious adventure series spoof turns its focus on exotic ethnic stereotypes as it transforms the state of Delaware into a fantastical realm out of a pulp writer's fever dream, a mythologized "Other" land with strong dashes of untrustworthy foreign governments for spice. Once more, the author flings himself gleefully into the conceit, spinning a wild and tangled yarn that hits about every "exotic adventure" trope and cliche available (and more besides). Whereas the last book progressed the characters a little, this one feels more like a holding pattern. Katie is still hoping to be a "normal" girl someday, not the weekly savior of Horror Hollow; her crush on a Stare-Eyes school champion, Choate Brinsley, ends in inevitable heartbreak (whereupon her mother reminds her of her advice never to fall for boys whose names sound like prep schools), but she makes little more effort to "normalize" her life. Jasper, meanwhile, still knows he's out of step with the rest of the world but not what to do with it... and, here, being out of step comes in handy, as he's the only one who knows the truth about Delaware. (Or is it the truth? Perhaps, as a character notes later, the Delaware they find themselves in, the tin-pot dictatorship with a sprawling capital city full of mules and goats and massive cargo-hauling tortoises from the desert lands, is the sort of place only a boy like Jasper Dash could reach, defying conventional wisdom and modern cartography and probably at least one lesser law of physics to exist.) Lily still feels out of place with her two world-saving companions, being not nearly as athletic or good in a fight or clever with a comeback, and struggles to fit in and not hold them back. But the story centers more on Jasper, who by nature cannot grow or change, as the whole adventure ties into more of his lost history; the hidden monastery where he acquired so many useful skills wasn't in Nepal or Tibet but in the misty mountains of Delaware (a state that normally has no mountains, but then normally the state doesn't have jungles or dinosaurs or kangaroo-riding cannibals or six-armed, tusked mountain tribespeople and the like, so "normal" can take a hike down the freeway). Along the way the reader is treated to some brilliant, if nonsensical, mind's-eye candy and great turns of phrase, and a few sly observations and moments that slip in sharp underneath the silliness. It's still quite a fun series overall, though one wonders if it isn't growing a touch stagnant around the edges.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
Bad Unicorn (Platte F. Clarke) - My Review
Story Thieves (James Riley) - My Review
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 3
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the drab little town of Pelt, there isn't much worth getting excited about (well, excepting the odd invasion by stilt-walking whale armies, but thus far that was a one-off event). One thing that does grab the town's attention is a good sports match, particularly when it comes to the rousing game of Stare-Eyes. The high school varsity team could well make the state finals... if they can beat the champion team from Delaware, that is. But the day gets off to an inauspicious start when hordes of beetles swarm the town, as if panicked by some approaching force of great and terrible evil, and things only get worse from there.
Jasper Dash (Boy Technonaut, and star of a nearly-forgotten series of young adventurer books promoting the wonders of Gargletine breakfast drink) is the varsity team's secret weapon, having honed incredible staring powers during his stay at a remote monastery. But something is very, very strange about today's match, and the Delaware team - such as how their eyes change to slit-pupiled serpent eyes mid-match (which is clearly an illegal substitution, though the referees don't seem to notice it). And his friend Katie sees illegal artifacts being smuggled in the back of their team van. Then a psychic call for help reaches Jasper, summoning him (and his friends, Katie and ordinary girl Lily) to the wildest place on Earth, a realm of impenetrable jungles and lost cannibal tribes and mystical secrets beyond understanding, a civilization ruled by an iron-fisted despot with spies on every corner and in every spigot, a location cut off from the rest of civilization for over a hundred years by impossibly high tolls: the fabled, mystic realm of Delaware.
REVIEW: The third installment of the hilarious adventure series spoof turns its focus on exotic ethnic stereotypes as it transforms the state of Delaware into a fantastical realm out of a pulp writer's fever dream, a mythologized "Other" land with strong dashes of untrustworthy foreign governments for spice. Once more, the author flings himself gleefully into the conceit, spinning a wild and tangled yarn that hits about every "exotic adventure" trope and cliche available (and more besides). Whereas the last book progressed the characters a little, this one feels more like a holding pattern. Katie is still hoping to be a "normal" girl someday, not the weekly savior of Horror Hollow; her crush on a Stare-Eyes school champion, Choate Brinsley, ends in inevitable heartbreak (whereupon her mother reminds her of her advice never to fall for boys whose names sound like prep schools), but she makes little more effort to "normalize" her life. Jasper, meanwhile, still knows he's out of step with the rest of the world but not what to do with it... and, here, being out of step comes in handy, as he's the only one who knows the truth about Delaware. (Or is it the truth? Perhaps, as a character notes later, the Delaware they find themselves in, the tin-pot dictatorship with a sprawling capital city full of mules and goats and massive cargo-hauling tortoises from the desert lands, is the sort of place only a boy like Jasper Dash could reach, defying conventional wisdom and modern cartography and probably at least one lesser law of physics to exist.) Lily still feels out of place with her two world-saving companions, being not nearly as athletic or good in a fight or clever with a comeback, and struggles to fit in and not hold them back. But the story centers more on Jasper, who by nature cannot grow or change, as the whole adventure ties into more of his lost history; the hidden monastery where he acquired so many useful skills wasn't in Nepal or Tibet but in the misty mountains of Delaware (a state that normally has no mountains, but then normally the state doesn't have jungles or dinosaurs or kangaroo-riding cannibals or six-armed, tusked mountain tribespeople and the like, so "normal" can take a hike down the freeway). Along the way the reader is treated to some brilliant, if nonsensical, mind's-eye candy and great turns of phrase, and a few sly observations and moments that slip in sharp underneath the silliness. It's still quite a fun series overall, though one wonders if it isn't growing a touch stagnant around the edges.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
Bad Unicorn (Platte F. Clarke) - My Review
Story Thieves (James Riley) - My Review
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen (M. T. Anderson)
The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 2
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: It's summer break, and Katie is bored, bored, bored. She's sick and tired of the werewolves and the zombies, of foiling evil plans and solving mysteries and otherwise being the girl heroine of Horror Hollow (off Route 666). She just wants to do normal stuff for a while: go on vacation, read a vapid teen magazine and do the quizzes, chill out by the pool. Fortunately, her friend Jasper Dash (Boy Technonaut, young hero of his own obsolete kid adventurer series) just got an invitation to Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort. That sounds like just the place to have an ordinary, boring summer with Jasper and their other friend, the normal girl Lily (well, except for the time she helped stop her dad's boss from taking over the world with an army of whales on stilts, but that's a story for a previous book).
When they get to the mountains, they're surprised to discover that not only is Jasper's photocopied coupon fraudulent, but that several other guests received the same ones... guests that seem oddly familiar, such as the crime-solving duo the Manley Boys, the gossiping Cutesy Dell twins, and even Eddie Wax, star of a popular boy-and-his-horse adventure. The famed Hooper Quints were supposed to turn up, too - only, shortly after the trio arrive, someone rushes into the lobby to announce that the quints were abducted on the way up the mountain! This looks like a mystery in need of solving, with a villain in need of thwarting - but Katie didn't come all the way up here just to fall right back into danger and detective work. It's summer, darn it all, and she's on break! Unfortunately, peril didn't get the memo to leave the pals alone, not even on vacation...
REVIEW: I only had a short window to listen to an audiobook today, so I grabbed this title, having greatly enjoyed Whales on Stilts previously. Just as hilarious and out-loud-snicker-inducing as the first book, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen once again presses the pedal to the metal (and nearly through to the asphalt) with a fast-paced story full of action(!), mystery(!), danger(!), footnotes(!), and exclamation marks(!). Amid the hilarious satire of numerous classic series, Anderson actually adds a little depth to his characters, making them more than the tropes they were created to skewer. The tale leans more into the meta elements introduced in the previous volume, as the characters seem mildly self-aware about being fictional creations, which has some drawbacks that come into play in the story. There's an unexpected element of pathos underlying this revelation, giving the story more heart than its outwardly silly, over-the-top trappings might suggest. Katie tries being a normal girl for once, finding new friends in the Cutesy Dell twins, but there's only so long she can stay out of the heroism game. As she sits on the sidelines, Lily and Jasper take up the challenge of solving the mystery, but both run into their own brands of trouble as they get separated during the search for the missing quintuplets. Other guests at the lodge, of course, are all suspects in their own ways, each more peculiar than the last.
The tale quite deliberately does not even try to make sense by the end (another nod to serial tales that often, especially later in their runs, sacrifice logic for cheap thrills and big twists), but it all works in its own context; as before, this is the kind of story that can only work with absolute, total commitment to the conceit. I expect I'll continue on with this series if they remain this fun, and I'm definitely interested in seeing where Anderson is going with kid heroes who are aware of how they're stuck in time and tropes beyond their control.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (Mac Barnett) - My Review
Cold Cereal (Adam Rex) - My Review
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 2
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: It's summer break, and Katie is bored, bored, bored. She's sick and tired of the werewolves and the zombies, of foiling evil plans and solving mysteries and otherwise being the girl heroine of Horror Hollow (off Route 666). She just wants to do normal stuff for a while: go on vacation, read a vapid teen magazine and do the quizzes, chill out by the pool. Fortunately, her friend Jasper Dash (Boy Technonaut, young hero of his own obsolete kid adventurer series) just got an invitation to Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort. That sounds like just the place to have an ordinary, boring summer with Jasper and their other friend, the normal girl Lily (well, except for the time she helped stop her dad's boss from taking over the world with an army of whales on stilts, but that's a story for a previous book).
When they get to the mountains, they're surprised to discover that not only is Jasper's photocopied coupon fraudulent, but that several other guests received the same ones... guests that seem oddly familiar, such as the crime-solving duo the Manley Boys, the gossiping Cutesy Dell twins, and even Eddie Wax, star of a popular boy-and-his-horse adventure. The famed Hooper Quints were supposed to turn up, too - only, shortly after the trio arrive, someone rushes into the lobby to announce that the quints were abducted on the way up the mountain! This looks like a mystery in need of solving, with a villain in need of thwarting - but Katie didn't come all the way up here just to fall right back into danger and detective work. It's summer, darn it all, and she's on break! Unfortunately, peril didn't get the memo to leave the pals alone, not even on vacation...
REVIEW: I only had a short window to listen to an audiobook today, so I grabbed this title, having greatly enjoyed Whales on Stilts previously. Just as hilarious and out-loud-snicker-inducing as the first book, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen once again presses the pedal to the metal (and nearly through to the asphalt) with a fast-paced story full of action(!), mystery(!), danger(!), footnotes(!), and exclamation marks(!). Amid the hilarious satire of numerous classic series, Anderson actually adds a little depth to his characters, making them more than the tropes they were created to skewer. The tale leans more into the meta elements introduced in the previous volume, as the characters seem mildly self-aware about being fictional creations, which has some drawbacks that come into play in the story. There's an unexpected element of pathos underlying this revelation, giving the story more heart than its outwardly silly, over-the-top trappings might suggest. Katie tries being a normal girl for once, finding new friends in the Cutesy Dell twins, but there's only so long she can stay out of the heroism game. As she sits on the sidelines, Lily and Jasper take up the challenge of solving the mystery, but both run into their own brands of trouble as they get separated during the search for the missing quintuplets. Other guests at the lodge, of course, are all suspects in their own ways, each more peculiar than the last.
The tale quite deliberately does not even try to make sense by the end (another nod to serial tales that often, especially later in their runs, sacrifice logic for cheap thrills and big twists), but it all works in its own context; as before, this is the kind of story that can only work with absolute, total commitment to the conceit. I expect I'll continue on with this series if they remain this fun, and I'm definitely interested in seeing where Anderson is going with kid heroes who are aware of how they're stuck in time and tropes beyond their control.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (Mac Barnett) - My Review
Cold Cereal (Adam Rex) - My Review
Friday, April 5, 2024
The Mighty Odds (Amy Ignatow)
The Mighty Odds
The Odds series, Book 1
Amy Ignatow
Amulet Books
Fiction, CH? Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Nick's always been something of a nerd. Martina hides behind her sketchbook, unnoticed by everyone. Farshad had hoped that middle school would be a chance for new friends and a new start until the popular kids branded him "Terror Boy", an unkind reference to his Middle Eastern heritage. Cookie, the only Black girl in Deborah Reed Middle School, has clawed her way to the top of the social ladder and does not intend to slip so much as a single rung. They were four ordinary middle school students, on their way back to rural Muellersville from a field trip to Philadelphia... before the accident. Now, they all have super powers - sort of. Nick can transport himself, but only four inches to the left. Martina can change her eye color. Farshad's thumbs have super strength. And Cookie can hear people's thoughts if they're thinking about directions. None of these powers are the sort of things to write a movie franchise about, but they're all signs that something extraordinary happened - and, unimpressive as these new gifts are, someone is trying very, very hard to get their hands on the kids.
REVIEW: I'll admit I came close to docking this book a half-point for a cliffhanger ending (and for poor formatting on the audiobook version I borrowed; inexplicably, the last fifteen or so minutes of the file are just the first part of the book replaying). Aside from that, it's exactly what it looks like from the description: a light, fun tale of mismatched kids bonded by new powers and new enemies. (Well, kids and a few others, but that risks spoilers.) The fact that the major employer in Muellersville is a chemical company should be a hint that something sinister is afoot, and the accident lands the hapless kids squarely in the middle of it. Light as the overall concept is, the characters are generally more than simple sketches, each having a decently interesting backstory that helps explain where they are when they start out and how they react once they become involved in something as unusual as developing strange powers seemingly out of nowhere. They are not natural friends, separated by racial, social, and economic divides that even mysterious abilities and shared trauma can't easily bridge. By the end, they're still not completely at ease with teamwork, but they're working on it, and none of them are so stupidly stubborn as to keep rejecting the need to band together against a common enemy (though it does take some convincing). I ultimately decided to give it the benefit of the doubt on that cliffhanger and round it up.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Invasion (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
Sister of the Chosen One (Erin Armknecht and Colleen Oakes) - My Review
Power Up (Kate Leth) - My Review
The Odds series, Book 1
Amy Ignatow
Amulet Books
Fiction, CH? Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Nick's always been something of a nerd. Martina hides behind her sketchbook, unnoticed by everyone. Farshad had hoped that middle school would be a chance for new friends and a new start until the popular kids branded him "Terror Boy", an unkind reference to his Middle Eastern heritage. Cookie, the only Black girl in Deborah Reed Middle School, has clawed her way to the top of the social ladder and does not intend to slip so much as a single rung. They were four ordinary middle school students, on their way back to rural Muellersville from a field trip to Philadelphia... before the accident. Now, they all have super powers - sort of. Nick can transport himself, but only four inches to the left. Martina can change her eye color. Farshad's thumbs have super strength. And Cookie can hear people's thoughts if they're thinking about directions. None of these powers are the sort of things to write a movie franchise about, but they're all signs that something extraordinary happened - and, unimpressive as these new gifts are, someone is trying very, very hard to get their hands on the kids.
REVIEW: I'll admit I came close to docking this book a half-point for a cliffhanger ending (and for poor formatting on the audiobook version I borrowed; inexplicably, the last fifteen or so minutes of the file are just the first part of the book replaying). Aside from that, it's exactly what it looks like from the description: a light, fun tale of mismatched kids bonded by new powers and new enemies. (Well, kids and a few others, but that risks spoilers.) The fact that the major employer in Muellersville is a chemical company should be a hint that something sinister is afoot, and the accident lands the hapless kids squarely in the middle of it. Light as the overall concept is, the characters are generally more than simple sketches, each having a decently interesting backstory that helps explain where they are when they start out and how they react once they become involved in something as unusual as developing strange powers seemingly out of nowhere. They are not natural friends, separated by racial, social, and economic divides that even mysterious abilities and shared trauma can't easily bridge. By the end, they're still not completely at ease with teamwork, but they're working on it, and none of them are so stupidly stubborn as to keep rejecting the need to band together against a common enemy (though it does take some convincing). I ultimately decided to give it the benefit of the doubt on that cliffhanger and round it up.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Invasion (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
Sister of the Chosen One (Erin Armknecht and Colleen Oakes) - My Review
Power Up (Kate Leth) - My Review
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Whales on Stilts (M. T. Anderson)
Whales on Stilts
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 1
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Lily Gefelty is nobody's idea of a heroine. She spends most of her life hiding behind her bangs, as good as invisible... but being invisible means she notices things others miss. So when she goes to work with her dad for Career Day, she notices something amiss with the place - inside an abandoned warehouse (in the abandoned warehouse district of town) and protected by armed guards - and with the boss - Larry, a strange man who always wears a burlap sack on his head, rubber gloves on his hands, and has a strange habit of dumping seawater on his face for lunch. She's also not too sure about the outfit's business plan, though her father insists it's just an ordinary business dedicated to building stilts (and other accessories) for whales. Lily, though, is certain that Larry is a mad scientist trying to take over the world... a certainty that only becomes stronger when Larry tells Lily and her father that he's going to take over the world this coming Tuesday.
Lily doesn't know what to do with this information, or how to stop it. She's just the girl nobody notices, not the girl who saves the day. Fortunately, she has two best friends who are famous for saving days: Kate Mulligan, whose exploits surviving monster attacks in Horror Hollow (a suburb off Route 666) have landed her a book series and fan club, and Jasper Dash, boy technonaut, whose steam-powered contraptions and science-based adventures used to have a far greater following (though he still has a lucrative endorsement from Gargletine breakfast drinks). But it's going to take more than Kate and Jasper to stop Larry's evil schemes. It's going to take a new heroine to step up... a heroine like Lily Gefelty.
REVIEW: The title promises over-the-top silliness in the vein of old implausible serials and kid adventurer tales, and the story delivers on that promise in full and then some. Part Lemony Snickett, part Goosebumps, part homage to/satire of logic-light but action-heavy adventure series the likes of which date back well over a century, this is the kind of book that only works if the author fully commits to the gimmick, leans all their weight on the gas pedal, and puts every needle in the red, start to finish, which Anderson gleefully does. The fourth wall gets so many holes in it it's practically a window, which can be a tough trick to pull off but works here. (Some of the humor seemed aimed a little over the heads of the target reader, to the grown-ups reading along - or, like me, reading entirely on our own - not in a crude way, but referencing experiences and cultural knowledge the average youngster likely just doesn't have or hasn't been exposed to yet.) The main characters, despite their inherent exaggeration and silliness, make for a fun trio bonded by genuine friendship, each pulling their weight (even if they're sometimes hampered by the tropes that created them; Jasper Dash's clunky gear-and-steamwork gadgetry was all the rage back in the heyday of his serials and peak Gargletine sales, but is more than a little outdated in the cell phone era, while Kate is often shadowed by a trio of ghostwriters who crank out even more exaggerated versions of her exaggerated exploits so fast they often hit stores before the exploit itself has concluded). That friendship forms an emotional core that makes the story more than a collection of gags and winks, pulling all the elements together to be even stronger than the sum of the parts. The author often intrudes to skip over boring or repetitive parts or add the odd flashback or commentary, plus more than a few one-liners and asides. At the end of the wild adventure, which naturally leaves the door open for future installments (like any good serial), is a "study guide" for classrooms and book groups written by an expert... a guide that reveals far more about the expert's issues than the book it purports to examine. The fact that I was prompted to snicker out loud at work multiple times while listening to this story kicks it above four stars. I'm not sure if I need to follow the Pals in Peril tales further - this feels like a gimmick that, while hilarious once, might not be able to carry more installments without getting stale or repeating itself - but I'd be game to try at least one more.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Name of This Book is Secret (Pseudonymous Bosch) - My Review
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes (Wade Albert White) - My Review
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 1
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Lily Gefelty is nobody's idea of a heroine. She spends most of her life hiding behind her bangs, as good as invisible... but being invisible means she notices things others miss. So when she goes to work with her dad for Career Day, she notices something amiss with the place - inside an abandoned warehouse (in the abandoned warehouse district of town) and protected by armed guards - and with the boss - Larry, a strange man who always wears a burlap sack on his head, rubber gloves on his hands, and has a strange habit of dumping seawater on his face for lunch. She's also not too sure about the outfit's business plan, though her father insists it's just an ordinary business dedicated to building stilts (and other accessories) for whales. Lily, though, is certain that Larry is a mad scientist trying to take over the world... a certainty that only becomes stronger when Larry tells Lily and her father that he's going to take over the world this coming Tuesday.
Lily doesn't know what to do with this information, or how to stop it. She's just the girl nobody notices, not the girl who saves the day. Fortunately, she has two best friends who are famous for saving days: Kate Mulligan, whose exploits surviving monster attacks in Horror Hollow (a suburb off Route 666) have landed her a book series and fan club, and Jasper Dash, boy technonaut, whose steam-powered contraptions and science-based adventures used to have a far greater following (though he still has a lucrative endorsement from Gargletine breakfast drinks). But it's going to take more than Kate and Jasper to stop Larry's evil schemes. It's going to take a new heroine to step up... a heroine like Lily Gefelty.
REVIEW: The title promises over-the-top silliness in the vein of old implausible serials and kid adventurer tales, and the story delivers on that promise in full and then some. Part Lemony Snickett, part Goosebumps, part homage to/satire of logic-light but action-heavy adventure series the likes of which date back well over a century, this is the kind of book that only works if the author fully commits to the gimmick, leans all their weight on the gas pedal, and puts every needle in the red, start to finish, which Anderson gleefully does. The fourth wall gets so many holes in it it's practically a window, which can be a tough trick to pull off but works here. (Some of the humor seemed aimed a little over the heads of the target reader, to the grown-ups reading along - or, like me, reading entirely on our own - not in a crude way, but referencing experiences and cultural knowledge the average youngster likely just doesn't have or hasn't been exposed to yet.) The main characters, despite their inherent exaggeration and silliness, make for a fun trio bonded by genuine friendship, each pulling their weight (even if they're sometimes hampered by the tropes that created them; Jasper Dash's clunky gear-and-steamwork gadgetry was all the rage back in the heyday of his serials and peak Gargletine sales, but is more than a little outdated in the cell phone era, while Kate is often shadowed by a trio of ghostwriters who crank out even more exaggerated versions of her exaggerated exploits so fast they often hit stores before the exploit itself has concluded). That friendship forms an emotional core that makes the story more than a collection of gags and winks, pulling all the elements together to be even stronger than the sum of the parts. The author often intrudes to skip over boring or repetitive parts or add the odd flashback or commentary, plus more than a few one-liners and asides. At the end of the wild adventure, which naturally leaves the door open for future installments (like any good serial), is a "study guide" for classrooms and book groups written by an expert... a guide that reveals far more about the expert's issues than the book it purports to examine. The fact that I was prompted to snicker out loud at work multiple times while listening to this story kicks it above four stars. I'm not sure if I need to follow the Pals in Peril tales further - this feels like a gimmick that, while hilarious once, might not be able to carry more installments without getting stale or repeating itself - but I'd be game to try at least one more.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Name of This Book is Secret (Pseudonymous Bosch) - My Review
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes (Wade Albert White) - My Review
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Lifeboat 12 (Susan Hood)
Lifeboat 12
Susan Hood
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, MG Action/Chiller/Historical Fiction/Poetry
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When war comes to London, it brings rations, air raid sirens, gas masks, and bombs falling from the skies... all of which could hardly make thirteen-year-old Ken's life much worse, thanks to an overworked father, a stepmother who hardly seems to care for him, and a kid half-sister who steals all the love and attention in the household. Now he's been told that he is to be one of countless children to be shipped away from the city due to the threat of German attacks - all the way across the ocean to Canada. Dad tells him it'll be his own grand adventure, like the ones in the books he's always reading (that of course he can't take with him), but to Ken it feels more like his stepmom has finally found a way to get him out of the house once and for all. Still, once he's on his way, he begins to warm to the prospect, especially when the food aboard the transport ship - luxury liner SS City of Benares, out of India, pressed into national service - is miles above anything he's had in his impoverished, ration-restricted home in memory.
Then the German submarine finds the convoy, and everything goes wrong all at once.
Now Ken is in a cramped lifeboat with hardly any food, not enough water, and odds of rescue diminishing by the hour. What happened to the other passengers and crew of their ship? Where is the British Navy, who was supposed to be following the convoy? And how is anyone ever going to find one tiny, overloaded lifeboat in the middle of the vast Atlantic Ocean?
This story was inspired by true events in World War II.
REVIEW: Melding the horrors of war and ocean survival, the confusion of growing up in turbulent times, and the excitement of discovery and adventure as a young man is pushed into the wider world on his own for the first time (even if that excitement too often runs face-first into the unforgiving chasm of reality), Lifeboat 12 makes a pivotal moment in world history relatable to readers of all ages.
Ken starts out a mere boy, casually selfish in the way of many children, prone to mischief like stealing apples as he acts out anxieties about his home life: he still carries a certain guilt knowing that his mother died shortly after giving birth to him, and has never warmed up to his stepmother, nor she to him. When he finds that his parents are sending him halfway around the world, he sees it as ultimate proof that he's unwelcome in his own home... until the bombs begin to fall, and he realizes the danger they claim they're trying to protect him from is all too real. In the way of children, he adapts quickly to the new reality, becoming obsessed with airplanes and ships until he can identify them at a glance, and thus thinks himself more prepared for the journey to Canada than he really is - even when the trip itself proves at least as dangerous as staying in London, and that's before they even reach the docks and the ship. Along the way, he begins to make new friends and even step up to small leadership roles over younger children. Soon enough, he's forgotten all about the potential dangers of the war... but the war has not forgotten about him, as he learns the hard way in the dead of night. In the mad scramble to escape, he ends up in the wrong lifeboat, one of many crowded into too small of a space with inadequate emergency supplies (there isn't even simple fishing gear on board to supplement canned rations). The emergency levels playing fields almost across the board; boy or girl, passenger or crew, officer or civilian, adult or child, even white English or other (the crew of the luxury liner are Muslims and foreigners, most of them just service crew and not even working sailors), all are literally in the same survival boat. The desperation and tedium are at least as dangerous as exposure and dehydration, and Ken and others try desperately to keep themselves sane... not all of them succeeding.
The story is told in a sort of free verse, with short chapters that have little fat in them, adding an almost surreal overtone. The ending felt a trifle abrupt, and I almost wanted an afterword outlining the original true story and what was kept or changed about Hood's take on events, but other than that it's a solid tale.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex (Owen Chase et al.) - My Review
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
The Cay (Theodore Taylor) - My Review
Susan Hood
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, MG Action/Chiller/Historical Fiction/Poetry
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When war comes to London, it brings rations, air raid sirens, gas masks, and bombs falling from the skies... all of which could hardly make thirteen-year-old Ken's life much worse, thanks to an overworked father, a stepmother who hardly seems to care for him, and a kid half-sister who steals all the love and attention in the household. Now he's been told that he is to be one of countless children to be shipped away from the city due to the threat of German attacks - all the way across the ocean to Canada. Dad tells him it'll be his own grand adventure, like the ones in the books he's always reading (that of course he can't take with him), but to Ken it feels more like his stepmom has finally found a way to get him out of the house once and for all. Still, once he's on his way, he begins to warm to the prospect, especially when the food aboard the transport ship - luxury liner SS City of Benares, out of India, pressed into national service - is miles above anything he's had in his impoverished, ration-restricted home in memory.
Then the German submarine finds the convoy, and everything goes wrong all at once.
Now Ken is in a cramped lifeboat with hardly any food, not enough water, and odds of rescue diminishing by the hour. What happened to the other passengers and crew of their ship? Where is the British Navy, who was supposed to be following the convoy? And how is anyone ever going to find one tiny, overloaded lifeboat in the middle of the vast Atlantic Ocean?
This story was inspired by true events in World War II.
REVIEW: Melding the horrors of war and ocean survival, the confusion of growing up in turbulent times, and the excitement of discovery and adventure as a young man is pushed into the wider world on his own for the first time (even if that excitement too often runs face-first into the unforgiving chasm of reality), Lifeboat 12 makes a pivotal moment in world history relatable to readers of all ages.
Ken starts out a mere boy, casually selfish in the way of many children, prone to mischief like stealing apples as he acts out anxieties about his home life: he still carries a certain guilt knowing that his mother died shortly after giving birth to him, and has never warmed up to his stepmother, nor she to him. When he finds that his parents are sending him halfway around the world, he sees it as ultimate proof that he's unwelcome in his own home... until the bombs begin to fall, and he realizes the danger they claim they're trying to protect him from is all too real. In the way of children, he adapts quickly to the new reality, becoming obsessed with airplanes and ships until he can identify them at a glance, and thus thinks himself more prepared for the journey to Canada than he really is - even when the trip itself proves at least as dangerous as staying in London, and that's before they even reach the docks and the ship. Along the way, he begins to make new friends and even step up to small leadership roles over younger children. Soon enough, he's forgotten all about the potential dangers of the war... but the war has not forgotten about him, as he learns the hard way in the dead of night. In the mad scramble to escape, he ends up in the wrong lifeboat, one of many crowded into too small of a space with inadequate emergency supplies (there isn't even simple fishing gear on board to supplement canned rations). The emergency levels playing fields almost across the board; boy or girl, passenger or crew, officer or civilian, adult or child, even white English or other (the crew of the luxury liner are Muslims and foreigners, most of them just service crew and not even working sailors), all are literally in the same survival boat. The desperation and tedium are at least as dangerous as exposure and dehydration, and Ken and others try desperately to keep themselves sane... not all of them succeeding.
The story is told in a sort of free verse, with short chapters that have little fat in them, adding an almost surreal overtone. The ending felt a trifle abrupt, and I almost wanted an afterword outlining the original true story and what was kept or changed about Hood's take on events, but other than that it's a solid tale.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex (Owen Chase et al.) - My Review
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
The Cay (Theodore Taylor) - My Review
Thursday, September 14, 2023
The Terminal List (Jack Carr)
The Terminal List
The Terminal List series, Book 1
Jack Carr
Atria
Fiction, Action/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Lieutenant Commander James Reece has proudly served his country for close to two decades, a top Navy SEAL with an unparalleled reputation and track record. When new orders come down for an urgent mission in Afghanistan, though, something feels strange about the situation, but he is nothing if not a loyal soldier, and the intel seems solid... which is how he wound up leading his men into a deadly ambush. As one of the only survivors, Reece is shocked to discover that he's being made the scapegoat - and enraged when he learns why: multiple men in his unit, including himself, apparently have rare malignant brain tumors, too many to be mere natural coincidence. Clearly, someone up the chain is covering up something. Even then, there might have been a chance he could've swallowed his anger and followed orders, taking the fall - but then his wife and young daughter are killed in a "random" home invasion. Patriot he may be, but nobody hurts his family and lives to tell the tale. James Reece is now a man with literally nothing to lose. Even if he is staring down a death sentence, he can make what's left of his life count for something by bringing down the people who betrayed him, his troops, and his family.
REVIEW: On the one hand, this book is precisely what it claims to be: a testosterone-soaked tale of revenge, an ode to militant masculinity, draped in Old Glory and mounds of shell casings. If you're looking for a straightforward story of violence and vengeance and a red-blooded man sticking it to the corrupt politicians and fat cat private sector parasites, one that never drags its heels or dithers or concerns itself with wimpy ideas like "morality" or "legality" or "maybe pause a sec and think if turning into a one-man death machine is really the only possible solution to this problem", this story will not disappoint, especially if you love copious specs on weapons and tactical assaults. On that level, it certainly delivers in spades, drawing on Carr's extensive experience and research to add a nice ring of authenticity. On the other hand, there are the other levels...
James Reece is the quintessential Navy SEAL, a self-avowed patriot who chafes at stupid things like gun laws and environmentalism, who doesn't feel any particular qualms about killing even innocent civilians (I'm not sure he recognizes that such people exist, especially if they don't speak English; his idea of freedom is a Navy ship loaded to the gills with munitions and missiles sailing off to threaten or blast American dominance into other countries) and wistfully considers America's best and boldest days to be when we tortured and brutalized foreigners in the wake of 9/11... even as he scowls at enemies torturing and brutalizing Americans. He's a soldier's soldier, a man's man, a patriot's patriot, and when he no longer has anything to live for or anything to lose, he becomes the worst enemy imaginable, seeming to revel in being let off the leash to perform acts of cold-blooded murder and utter sadistic brutality; blood and bullets are the only law and justice he recognizes as remotely legitimate, and courts are as distasteful as any foreign word in his manly American mouth. A key part of the plot is an experimental drug meant to reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on field soldiers... something apparently only lesser, weaker, flawed people experience, not proper men like Reece to whom killing is just another job a man does. It's just that sort of weak, lefty idea - that maybe constant warfare is bad for people, or maybe violence shouldn't be the only option on the table - that threatens everything good about America, and Carr doesn't exactly mince words driving home the theme that our country would be better off with more men like James Reece and less of... well, anything else.
In the end, I wound up splitting the difference. I can't exactly fault it for delivering the story it promised, after all, even if the execution often felt like being bashed over the head with a flag-wrapped rifle... and, yes, I have read far worse stories.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Forever War (John Haldeman) - My Review
Dogs of War (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Phoenix Rising (Cynthia Vespia) - My Review
The Terminal List series, Book 1
Jack Carr
Atria
Fiction, Action/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Lieutenant Commander James Reece has proudly served his country for close to two decades, a top Navy SEAL with an unparalleled reputation and track record. When new orders come down for an urgent mission in Afghanistan, though, something feels strange about the situation, but he is nothing if not a loyal soldier, and the intel seems solid... which is how he wound up leading his men into a deadly ambush. As one of the only survivors, Reece is shocked to discover that he's being made the scapegoat - and enraged when he learns why: multiple men in his unit, including himself, apparently have rare malignant brain tumors, too many to be mere natural coincidence. Clearly, someone up the chain is covering up something. Even then, there might have been a chance he could've swallowed his anger and followed orders, taking the fall - but then his wife and young daughter are killed in a "random" home invasion. Patriot he may be, but nobody hurts his family and lives to tell the tale. James Reece is now a man with literally nothing to lose. Even if he is staring down a death sentence, he can make what's left of his life count for something by bringing down the people who betrayed him, his troops, and his family.
REVIEW: On the one hand, this book is precisely what it claims to be: a testosterone-soaked tale of revenge, an ode to militant masculinity, draped in Old Glory and mounds of shell casings. If you're looking for a straightforward story of violence and vengeance and a red-blooded man sticking it to the corrupt politicians and fat cat private sector parasites, one that never drags its heels or dithers or concerns itself with wimpy ideas like "morality" or "legality" or "maybe pause a sec and think if turning into a one-man death machine is really the only possible solution to this problem", this story will not disappoint, especially if you love copious specs on weapons and tactical assaults. On that level, it certainly delivers in spades, drawing on Carr's extensive experience and research to add a nice ring of authenticity. On the other hand, there are the other levels...
James Reece is the quintessential Navy SEAL, a self-avowed patriot who chafes at stupid things like gun laws and environmentalism, who doesn't feel any particular qualms about killing even innocent civilians (I'm not sure he recognizes that such people exist, especially if they don't speak English; his idea of freedom is a Navy ship loaded to the gills with munitions and missiles sailing off to threaten or blast American dominance into other countries) and wistfully considers America's best and boldest days to be when we tortured and brutalized foreigners in the wake of 9/11... even as he scowls at enemies torturing and brutalizing Americans. He's a soldier's soldier, a man's man, a patriot's patriot, and when he no longer has anything to live for or anything to lose, he becomes the worst enemy imaginable, seeming to revel in being let off the leash to perform acts of cold-blooded murder and utter sadistic brutality; blood and bullets are the only law and justice he recognizes as remotely legitimate, and courts are as distasteful as any foreign word in his manly American mouth. A key part of the plot is an experimental drug meant to reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on field soldiers... something apparently only lesser, weaker, flawed people experience, not proper men like Reece to whom killing is just another job a man does. It's just that sort of weak, lefty idea - that maybe constant warfare is bad for people, or maybe violence shouldn't be the only option on the table - that threatens everything good about America, and Carr doesn't exactly mince words driving home the theme that our country would be better off with more men like James Reece and less of... well, anything else.
In the end, I wound up splitting the difference. I can't exactly fault it for delivering the story it promised, after all, even if the execution often felt like being bashed over the head with a flag-wrapped rifle... and, yes, I have read far worse stories.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Forever War (John Haldeman) - My Review
Dogs of War (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Phoenix Rising (Cynthia Vespia) - My Review
Friday, June 2, 2023
The Athena Protocol (Shamim Sarif)
The Athena Protocol
The Athena Protocol series, Book 1
Shamim Sarif
HarperTeen
Fiction,YA Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: With a pop star mother and an unknown father, Jessie Archer was never going to have a normal life... but she never could've predicted just how unusual it would turn out to be. After an early graduation from traditional schooling, she was first recruited by a program training operatives for covert agencies, until she was invited to join a special project her now-retired mother helped found. The Athena Protocol is an off-the-books, technically extralegal organization dedicated to exacting justice for those that the world governments seem unwilling or unable to help, most notably women and girls left to the mercy of traffickers and terrorists. Jessie's prodigal tech skills make her a top agent of the small team - until one mission pushes her too far, and she finds herself breaking the Protocol's strict "no kill" rule. The bullet that ended a monstrous man's life also effectively ends her days as an Athena Protocol agent, just before they're due to take down a major international trafficker operating out of Belgrade.
Jessie fumes. She knows it was wrong (at least on some level) to have pulled the trigger, but the team needs her help if they're to have any hope of taking down their latest target. Using some back door code she left behind in the Protocol servers, she starts doing some independent research... and stumbles onto a much bigger, much darker plot. Worse, these new revelations mean the team may be in more danger than they realize. She may no longer be an Athena agent, but Jessie's not about to see friends and family walk into a trap, nor is she about to let another monster get away with destroying untold lives. She hops a plane to Belgrade, intent on conducting her own mission... but, while worrying about the danger to her ex-teammates, she forgot to worry enough about the danger to herself...
REVIEW: The Athena Protocol is exactly what it promises to be: a girl-oriented action tale of spies and secret missions and taking down bad guys with deception, stealth, and cool James Bondian gadgetry. Like the rest of the Protocol, adults and fellow teen/young adult agents alike, Jessie came to the agency with both talent and baggage, and work in the field tends to magnify both... especially when so much of their work starts to feel like slapping duct tape over cracks in a vast dam, the growing weight and pressure of the monstrosities committed against women and girls growing ever larger daily and the effects of their efforts seeming to grow less and less significant in a world that just plain does not seem to care - a world that too often rewards the monsters with yet more power and chances to abuse and kill. Jessie reaches this breaking point on the opening mission, but its only after she gets booted from the Protocol - by her own mother, even, one of the triad of founders - that she understands just how much her work does indeed matter, and how much it meant to her in particular. She does not, to her credit, immediately go full-on rogue; she keeps trying to work with the system that no longer wants to work with her, and only ends up going solo when she has no other alternative. Even through her investigation in Belgrade, she crosses paths with her former coworkers and can't help inserting herself to help. Along the way, she works through some personal issues about her job and her complicated history with her mother, even as she finds herself confronting some significant complications in the form of the attractive daughter of her mark, who may or may not be an innocent bystander in the man's myriad crimes. Things twist and turn through the streets of Belgrade, the digital footprints of money laundering across national borders, even through conflicted encounters with the Protocol's members, with plenty of action and a heroine who isn't beyond some missteps and mistakes but who never comes across as gullible or bumbling to further the plot. Actually, refreshingly, nobody is reduced to that level; they're all competent, strong people doing the best with the information they have. Even when the leadership ejects Jessie from the Protocol, it's an entirely understandable decision from their point of view, as even Jessie admits to herself once she calms down... and the leadership, to their credit, does actually listen to her when she brings them sufficient evidence for what she uncovers in her independent investigations. It wraps up with some nice twists and a decently satisfactory resolution that isn't without some tears and guilt and heartbreak, setting up the next book in the series. I enjoyed it. It's the kind of story that would make a solid TV or film adaptation, actually.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo) - My Review
The Emperor's Edge (Lindsay Buroker) - My Review
The Falconer (Elizabeth May) - My Review
The Athena Protocol series, Book 1
Shamim Sarif
HarperTeen
Fiction,YA Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: With a pop star mother and an unknown father, Jessie Archer was never going to have a normal life... but she never could've predicted just how unusual it would turn out to be. After an early graduation from traditional schooling, she was first recruited by a program training operatives for covert agencies, until she was invited to join a special project her now-retired mother helped found. The Athena Protocol is an off-the-books, technically extralegal organization dedicated to exacting justice for those that the world governments seem unwilling or unable to help, most notably women and girls left to the mercy of traffickers and terrorists. Jessie's prodigal tech skills make her a top agent of the small team - until one mission pushes her too far, and she finds herself breaking the Protocol's strict "no kill" rule. The bullet that ended a monstrous man's life also effectively ends her days as an Athena Protocol agent, just before they're due to take down a major international trafficker operating out of Belgrade.
Jessie fumes. She knows it was wrong (at least on some level) to have pulled the trigger, but the team needs her help if they're to have any hope of taking down their latest target. Using some back door code she left behind in the Protocol servers, she starts doing some independent research... and stumbles onto a much bigger, much darker plot. Worse, these new revelations mean the team may be in more danger than they realize. She may no longer be an Athena agent, but Jessie's not about to see friends and family walk into a trap, nor is she about to let another monster get away with destroying untold lives. She hops a plane to Belgrade, intent on conducting her own mission... but, while worrying about the danger to her ex-teammates, she forgot to worry enough about the danger to herself...
REVIEW: The Athena Protocol is exactly what it promises to be: a girl-oriented action tale of spies and secret missions and taking down bad guys with deception, stealth, and cool James Bondian gadgetry. Like the rest of the Protocol, adults and fellow teen/young adult agents alike, Jessie came to the agency with both talent and baggage, and work in the field tends to magnify both... especially when so much of their work starts to feel like slapping duct tape over cracks in a vast dam, the growing weight and pressure of the monstrosities committed against women and girls growing ever larger daily and the effects of their efforts seeming to grow less and less significant in a world that just plain does not seem to care - a world that too often rewards the monsters with yet more power and chances to abuse and kill. Jessie reaches this breaking point on the opening mission, but its only after she gets booted from the Protocol - by her own mother, even, one of the triad of founders - that she understands just how much her work does indeed matter, and how much it meant to her in particular. She does not, to her credit, immediately go full-on rogue; she keeps trying to work with the system that no longer wants to work with her, and only ends up going solo when she has no other alternative. Even through her investigation in Belgrade, she crosses paths with her former coworkers and can't help inserting herself to help. Along the way, she works through some personal issues about her job and her complicated history with her mother, even as she finds herself confronting some significant complications in the form of the attractive daughter of her mark, who may or may not be an innocent bystander in the man's myriad crimes. Things twist and turn through the streets of Belgrade, the digital footprints of money laundering across national borders, even through conflicted encounters with the Protocol's members, with plenty of action and a heroine who isn't beyond some missteps and mistakes but who never comes across as gullible or bumbling to further the plot. Actually, refreshingly, nobody is reduced to that level; they're all competent, strong people doing the best with the information they have. Even when the leadership ejects Jessie from the Protocol, it's an entirely understandable decision from their point of view, as even Jessie admits to herself once she calms down... and the leadership, to their credit, does actually listen to her when she brings them sufficient evidence for what she uncovers in her independent investigations. It wraps up with some nice twists and a decently satisfactory resolution that isn't without some tears and guilt and heartbreak, setting up the next book in the series. I enjoyed it. It's the kind of story that would make a solid TV or film adaptation, actually.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo) - My Review
The Emperor's Edge (Lindsay Buroker) - My Review
The Falconer (Elizabeth May) - My Review
Friday, November 25, 2022
The Poodle of Doom (Susan Tan)
The Poodle of Doom
The Pets Rule! series, Book 2
Susan Tan, illustrations by Wendy Tan Shiau Wei
Scholastic
Fiction, CH Action/Humor
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since arriving at the Chin household (ostensibly as a pet for the girl Lucy), Ember the rescue Chihuahua has worked single-mindedly toward his destiny: to rule the world as its evil overlord. He already has the loyalty of the other household pets, and is working on the rest of the neighborhood. When he hears that Lucy's grandmother Poh Poh is coming to visit with her pet poodle Fluffy, Ember hopes to find an ally. Instead he finds an enemy determined to destroy the world Ember hopes to rule.
REVIEW: I normally don't read second entries in series before I read the first, but we had some down time at work today and this one was on top of the tote, and my audiobook for the day had already ended. I also have to admit that the title made me chuckle. (In the interest of full disclosure, I grew up knowing two Standard Poodles, one of which could definitely edge into "grumpy" territory.) So, I figured it was worth a quick read. It turned out to be a fun little adventure. Ember is a determined would-be overlord, but finds a cunning enemy in Fluffy, whose first evil act is trying to replace the chocolate chips in a batch of brownies with raisins. When Fluffy then turns on the terrifying dryer all by himself, and even spouts his own catchphrase, Ember realizes that he's underestimated the danger significantly... but his efforts to thwart Fluffy's foul plot are tripped up by his own inability to listen to his friends/minions. Yes, it's a silly story, but Ember learns important lessons and Fluffy's schemes had me chuckling, plus the illustrations were fun. It made for an enjoyable distraction.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors (Drew Daywalt) - My Review
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Carnivores (Aaron Reynolds) - My Review
The Pets Rule! series, Book 2
Susan Tan, illustrations by Wendy Tan Shiau Wei
Scholastic
Fiction, CH Action/Humor
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since arriving at the Chin household (ostensibly as a pet for the girl Lucy), Ember the rescue Chihuahua has worked single-mindedly toward his destiny: to rule the world as its evil overlord. He already has the loyalty of the other household pets, and is working on the rest of the neighborhood. When he hears that Lucy's grandmother Poh Poh is coming to visit with her pet poodle Fluffy, Ember hopes to find an ally. Instead he finds an enemy determined to destroy the world Ember hopes to rule.
REVIEW: I normally don't read second entries in series before I read the first, but we had some down time at work today and this one was on top of the tote, and my audiobook for the day had already ended. I also have to admit that the title made me chuckle. (In the interest of full disclosure, I grew up knowing two Standard Poodles, one of which could definitely edge into "grumpy" territory.) So, I figured it was worth a quick read. It turned out to be a fun little adventure. Ember is a determined would-be overlord, but finds a cunning enemy in Fluffy, whose first evil act is trying to replace the chocolate chips in a batch of brownies with raisins. When Fluffy then turns on the terrifying dryer all by himself, and even spouts his own catchphrase, Ember realizes that he's underestimated the danger significantly... but his efforts to thwart Fluffy's foul plot are tripped up by his own inability to listen to his friends/minions. Yes, it's a silly story, but Ember learns important lessons and Fluffy's schemes had me chuckling, plus the illustrations were fun. It made for an enjoyable distraction.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors (Drew Daywalt) - My Review
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Carnivores (Aaron Reynolds) - My Review
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Good Guys (Stephen Brust)
Good Guys
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Friday, May 20, 2022
Escape (Gordon Korman)
Escape
The Island trilogy, Book 3
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: First the storm and explosion destroyed the schooner Phoenix, where their parents had sent the six troubled youth to learn life skills. Then the island that was their salvation from death at sea turns out to be a meeting spot for dangerous smugglers. Now they've discovered a new danger - a top secret atomic bomb from World War II - hidden on the island. Plus one of their own, Will, has a bullet wound to the leg, which could easily turn septic in the tropical heat and germ-ridden jungle. With odds of rescue via passing ship or plane essentially nil and Will getting sicker by the day, Luke and the others are pushed to a desperate plan, a Hail Mary plan that will either get them help, or get them all killed.
REVIEW: The third and final Island installment finally brings all the kids together in the same reality; Will rejoins his sister and the others after his self-imposed exile and J.J. finally has to shake off his persistent belief in "rigged" events and hidden cameras (which even he was starting to admit to himself was more about the fantasy of safety just around the corner than actually believing some hidden camera crew and project director would let them nearly die on multiple occasions to build character in wayward children) and step up to the plate to help his fellow castaways. Using equipment and drugs scavenged from the old military base, the kids struggle to survive, but each of them understands that they're only putting off the inevitable if they can't find a way off this island. Their plan involves putting one of them in immediate peril in the off chance that doing so will result in survival for all, but it's a long shot, and they all know it. The stakes have never been higher, and it comes together in a thrill ride of a climax and a conclusion that doesn't overstay its welcome. Overall, the Island trilogy's a decent, fast-reading tale of survival and danger.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Into the Drowning Deep (Mira Grant) - My Review
Nation (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The Island trilogy, Book 3
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: First the storm and explosion destroyed the schooner Phoenix, where their parents had sent the six troubled youth to learn life skills. Then the island that was their salvation from death at sea turns out to be a meeting spot for dangerous smugglers. Now they've discovered a new danger - a top secret atomic bomb from World War II - hidden on the island. Plus one of their own, Will, has a bullet wound to the leg, which could easily turn septic in the tropical heat and germ-ridden jungle. With odds of rescue via passing ship or plane essentially nil and Will getting sicker by the day, Luke and the others are pushed to a desperate plan, a Hail Mary plan that will either get them help, or get them all killed.
REVIEW: The third and final Island installment finally brings all the kids together in the same reality; Will rejoins his sister and the others after his self-imposed exile and J.J. finally has to shake off his persistent belief in "rigged" events and hidden cameras (which even he was starting to admit to himself was more about the fantasy of safety just around the corner than actually believing some hidden camera crew and project director would let them nearly die on multiple occasions to build character in wayward children) and step up to the plate to help his fellow castaways. Using equipment and drugs scavenged from the old military base, the kids struggle to survive, but each of them understands that they're only putting off the inevitable if they can't find a way off this island. Their plan involves putting one of them in immediate peril in the off chance that doing so will result in survival for all, but it's a long shot, and they all know it. The stakes have never been higher, and it comes together in a thrill ride of a climax and a conclusion that doesn't overstay its welcome. Overall, the Island trilogy's a decent, fast-reading tale of survival and danger.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Into the Drowning Deep (Mira Grant) - My Review
Nation (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Survival (Gordon Korman)
Survival
The Island trilogy, Book 2
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Not long ago, they were six strangers, sent on a "character building" adventure aboard the schooner Phoenix in the Pacific Ocean. Now, stranded on an uncharted island, they're each other's only chance at survival. It seemed that getting off the deadly waters would improve their situation, but while there's food aplenty to be scrounged in the jungles and lagoons, there's no fresh water... and, worse, no sign of boats or planes or anyone else passing near enough to signal for help. Will is also suffering a form of amnesiac delusion, convinced he's been abducted and the others are out to get him. Then they learn that they aren't, in fact, the only people who know about the island - and the people who do know about it are not the kind of people they want to be found by. They're the kind of people who shoot companions in cold blood, let alone perfect strangers.
REVIEW: This continues the Island trilogy on the unnamed, uncharted desert island. The kids start coming together into a group for mutual survival, though friction still lies just under the surface. TV addict Ian finds his knowledge from endless hours parked in front of documentary TV shows coming in handy, while Charla's athleticism comes in very handy for snagging fish and knocking down coconuts and Luke finds himself thrust into a leadership role. The arrival of bad guys adds an extra layer of danger and dread, if a mildly contrived one. (One starts to wonder if J.J. has a bit of a point about it maybe all being staged.) It loses a half-mark for that sense of contrivance, plus drawing out Will's delusional isolation and J.J.'s obnoxious insistence on none of it being real. Still, it keeps the tension pretty high and sets up even more trouble going into the final volume.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Rogue Wave (Theodore Taylor) - My Review
The Island trilogy, Book 2
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Not long ago, they were six strangers, sent on a "character building" adventure aboard the schooner Phoenix in the Pacific Ocean. Now, stranded on an uncharted island, they're each other's only chance at survival. It seemed that getting off the deadly waters would improve their situation, but while there's food aplenty to be scrounged in the jungles and lagoons, there's no fresh water... and, worse, no sign of boats or planes or anyone else passing near enough to signal for help. Will is also suffering a form of amnesiac delusion, convinced he's been abducted and the others are out to get him. Then they learn that they aren't, in fact, the only people who know about the island - and the people who do know about it are not the kind of people they want to be found by. They're the kind of people who shoot companions in cold blood, let alone perfect strangers.
REVIEW: This continues the Island trilogy on the unnamed, uncharted desert island. The kids start coming together into a group for mutual survival, though friction still lies just under the surface. TV addict Ian finds his knowledge from endless hours parked in front of documentary TV shows coming in handy, while Charla's athleticism comes in very handy for snagging fish and knocking down coconuts and Luke finds himself thrust into a leadership role. The arrival of bad guys adds an extra layer of danger and dread, if a mildly contrived one. (One starts to wonder if J.J. has a bit of a point about it maybe all being staged.) It loses a half-mark for that sense of contrivance, plus drawing out Will's delusional isolation and J.J.'s obnoxious insistence on none of it being real. Still, it keeps the tension pretty high and sets up even more trouble going into the final volume.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Rogue Wave (Theodore Taylor) - My Review
Shipwreck (Gordon Korman)
Shipwreck
The Island trilogy, Book 1
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Charting New Courses advertised itself as a life-changing experience for troubled youth, taking them aboard the working schooner Phoenix in the Pacific Ocean to teach them teamwork and discipline and other life skills. Nobody asked the "troubled youth" what they thought of the plan, though of course none of them have a say in the matter. Luke is here as part of a plea deal after being caught with a firearm in his school locker. J.J.'s increasingly dramatic stunts to get his actor father's attention ended with a motorcycle flying through an art gallery window and Dad finally running out of patience. Will and Lyssa's sibling rivalry culminated in violence that landed them both in the hospital. Charla's athletic talent became an obsession, while Ian's parents just wanted to force him out of the house and away from the TV and internet that absorbed all of his time. None of them really expect anything like what Charting New Courses promised their parents; it's just going to be a few weeks of misery and drudgery and seasickness, then back to their normal lives.
The sea has its own agenda, however, and soon drudgery's the last of their worries, when a storm takes out their engines, their captain, and their hopes of survival.
REVIEW: While it may not break new ground in the survival/thriller subgenre, Shipwreck takes a credible turn at a familiar idea, with a cast of kids carrying personal baggage into a situation that's literally life and death. Friction flies between them almost from the start; Will and Lyssa can't go five seconds without antagonizing each other, while J.J.'s spoiled brat persona (and conviction that the dangers they face are just part of the program, rigged or arranged by CNC for "character building") gets on everyone's nerves. The first mate, dubbed Ratface, doesn't help much, his antipathy towards the troubled youth clear from the outset; he doesn't even bother learning names, just calling all males "Archie" and females "Veronica". The storm, naturally, levels the playing field, a situation made worse by one character's impulsive and ill-thought actions and another's rank cowardice in the face of calamity. Given that this is the first in a trilogy, it goes without saying that they're still in a decent level of danger by the end... those who get through the storm, at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex (Owen Chase) - My Review
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
The Island trilogy, Book 1
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Charting New Courses advertised itself as a life-changing experience for troubled youth, taking them aboard the working schooner Phoenix in the Pacific Ocean to teach them teamwork and discipline and other life skills. Nobody asked the "troubled youth" what they thought of the plan, though of course none of them have a say in the matter. Luke is here as part of a plea deal after being caught with a firearm in his school locker. J.J.'s increasingly dramatic stunts to get his actor father's attention ended with a motorcycle flying through an art gallery window and Dad finally running out of patience. Will and Lyssa's sibling rivalry culminated in violence that landed them both in the hospital. Charla's athletic talent became an obsession, while Ian's parents just wanted to force him out of the house and away from the TV and internet that absorbed all of his time. None of them really expect anything like what Charting New Courses promised their parents; it's just going to be a few weeks of misery and drudgery and seasickness, then back to their normal lives.
The sea has its own agenda, however, and soon drudgery's the last of their worries, when a storm takes out their engines, their captain, and their hopes of survival.
REVIEW: While it may not break new ground in the survival/thriller subgenre, Shipwreck takes a credible turn at a familiar idea, with a cast of kids carrying personal baggage into a situation that's literally life and death. Friction flies between them almost from the start; Will and Lyssa can't go five seconds without antagonizing each other, while J.J.'s spoiled brat persona (and conviction that the dangers they face are just part of the program, rigged or arranged by CNC for "character building") gets on everyone's nerves. The first mate, dubbed Ratface, doesn't help much, his antipathy towards the troubled youth clear from the outset; he doesn't even bother learning names, just calling all males "Archie" and females "Veronica". The storm, naturally, levels the playing field, a situation made worse by one character's impulsive and ill-thought actions and another's rank cowardice in the face of calamity. Given that this is the first in a trilogy, it goes without saying that they're still in a decent level of danger by the end... those who get through the storm, at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex (Owen Chase) - My Review
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
Friday, March 18, 2022
Alone (Megan E. Freeman)
Alone
Megan E. Freeman
Aladdin
Fiction, MG Action/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When twelve-year-old Maddie wanted to throw a secret sleepover with her friends in her grandparents' empty apartment, she told a little white lie to her separated parents, telling each she'd be spending the weekend with the other. She's not a bad kid or prone to lying, and it's not like she doesn't like her parents or the new stepfamilies. It just feels good to get out from under her responsibilities and parental scrutiny once in a while, to just hang with friends and watch movies and stay up late on the weekend. Even when her friends had to cancel on her, Maddie decided to go on her own anyway. What could possibly go wrong?
The next day, everyone in her Colorado town is gone.
Sometime after midnight, a vague national threat - she never did get the details, having mostly slept through it - saw everyone evacuated in a rush, their cell phones and belongings left behind. Worse, Maddie realizes that both her parents think she's with the other family... and without cell phones, if they got separated, there's no way for them to realize she's not there. Now she's alone, save her neighbors' Rottweiler George. As one day becomes one week becomes months, Maddie realizes she doesn't know how long she'll have to survive before help comes. Worse, she doesn't even know if help is coming at all.
REVIEW: Alone is a decent, sometimes dark little thriller of survival in an abandoned American suburb. There are hints of things being wrong from the start, convoys of military vehicles passing through towns and checkpoints that her parents see more as a hassle than a warning, but like many kids, Maddie can't bring herself to bother about adult things like politics or nebulous threats to "national freedom". She has more important things to worry about, like dealing with a separated family and hanging out with friends and figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, which still seems so far away it's nearly impossible to imagine. Waking to find herself all alone, she has to do some growing up pretty quickly, even though she initially believes that her isolation is bound to be temporary; Mom and Dad will surely move heaven and earth and even strongarm the military to come find her once they realize she's gone. It soon becomes apparent that she really is on her own, that she really could be lost for good - that she really could die here and nobody would know what happened to her. Still, even as Maddie faces internal crises of will and failures of hope, she digs in and pulls herself through, making a few mistakes but generally being smart enough to learn from them. The tale moves fairly well, acquiring an almost poetic quality (literally poetic towards the end, as her isolation leads her to a new appreciation for poetry in her trips to the abandoned town library) on its way to a slightly rushed but reasonably satisfactory ending.
You Might Also Enjoy:
My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Saturday, the Twelfth of October (Norma Fox Mazer) - My Review
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)