The Rainfall Market
You Yeong-Gwang, translated by Slin Jung
Ace
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Everyone's heard rumors of the Rainfall Market. Supposedly, if you're trapped and frustrated and at rock bottom in your life with no way out or up, you can write a letter to a particular address - and sometimes, just sometimes, you will recieve a Ticket to the Rainfall Market, with instructions to arrive on the first day of the rainy season. Here, among the Dokkaebi spirits, one may trade away the pains and sorrows of life and purchase a magic Orb that will forever change your fortunes - but only one orb, and if you do not leave the market before the rainy season ends, you'll vanish forever.
Kim Serin hates her life. She hates living in a condemned building that's slated for demolition. She hates being so poor that university isn't ever going to be an option. She hates that her mother works so hard and is so busy that she barely notices her own daughter. She hates being so lonely after her sister ran away from home. She would do anything, just anything, for a chance to be someone else, to live a different life. She only half-believes the stories of the Rainfall Market, but she's desperate enough to try anything, so she writes her letter. Surprisingly, she gets a red envelope with a golden Ticket tucked inside.
She doesn't know what to expect when she goes to the tiny little village beyond the end of the train line, but what she finds is a hidden city of wonders and dangers and magic... and, unbeknownst to her, a hidden power struggle between Dokkaebi in which Serin is just a pawn - and a potential sacrifice.
REVIEW: There seems to be a string of Asian cozy fantasies coming out these days, or maybe it's just that there's a string of them somehow coming across my radar. In any event, this promised a light, cozy tale, and I was in the mood for light and cozy, what with so many, many things being dark and decidedly not cozy. (Plus I'd just finished a Stephen King novella, and I try to switch up moods.) What I found was a story with shades of Miyazaki's Spirited Away, in a whimsical fairy tale marred mostly by predictability and a Lesson that's too obvious from the start.
Though marketed at general adult audiences, The Rainfall Market feels more like young adult, or maybe even middle-grade; Serin's worries about university and the future strike me as more (young) teen, but the overall tone skews light and bubbly and even silly, with a surreal blunting of corners and softening of blows and that sense of the main character being walked through adventures and events with just enough peril to be a little challenged but not so much as to ever really be in serious danger. The descriptions make me wonder if it wasn't intended to be illustrated or animated; there's an exaggeration to things, even the human girl Serin, that made me think of anime.
In any event, Serin starts out clearly - and with some justification - unhappy with her life, trudging through school and even messing up in her martial arts training (the one thing that brings her happiness and which she thought she could do well until she messes up in front of everyone), then climbing the endless stairs to her condemned home and a mother who scarcely seems to talk to her only remaining child. The book may wallow slightly here, but establishing Serin's misery is essential to drive her to her desperate letter. Then she goes to the Rainfall Market and encounters her first Dokkaebi, and with him the start of her real adventure; just being willing to trust him is her first test on the way to the Rainfall Market, the first of many challenges she'll face.
These Korean spirits are bigger than people (usually), with disproportionate arms and legs, and they steal things like memories or worries or even the impulse to keep clean on vacation from humans, turning these emotions into magical items. They have shades of faerie about them, with their fascination with humans as playthings of a sort, their bargains and trickery and temptations, and their secret ways and rivalries that can threaten any mortal caught up in them, only they tend to be more silly than traditional fae.
Serin knows none of this, of course; she's just a desperate girl, willing to follow a strange, childlike giant figure into an impossible city just for a chance to not keep living a life that feels unbearable. She soon realizes that her misery really does seem special; she alone got a golden Ticket while most everyone got Silver, and she alone is invited by the host to a special meeting, where she's given special privileges and advantages as she seeks out a magic Orb that will fix her life. Then she's off through the city of the Rainfall Market, visiting a string of peculiar Dokkaebi shops and shopkeepers and performing good deeds and tasks that see her rewarded beyond the simple purchasing of an Orb. Each Orb offers her a glimpse into another life that seems to give her what she wants, until she sees that everything she thought would bring her happiness can also lead to misery and sorrow to rival her own. Still, she takes a little too long figuring out the Lesson the Orbs are spelling out in bright rainbow letters (this is part of what makes me wonder about the target age, as this reads so young I'd be tempted to call it a children's story, not even middle-grade), while shadows lurk behind her and some unknown plot between the Dokkaebi plays out around her adventures. Eventually, of course, the short rainy season must end, but will Serin have found a better life before it's too late to return home, or will she miss out on this unique opportunity?
You can probably guess about how things unfold; I mentioned earlier that it's somewhat predictable, playing out like a video game in which Serin has to complete simple puzzles and challenges before passing through each level, gathering Orbs and other items that, naturally, will prove useful at the endgame. But even with that said, it's generally a good-hearted story, with some solid emotions and fun imagery.
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The Full Moon Coffee Shop (Mai Mochizuki) - My Review
Friday, January 9, 2026
The Rainfall Market (You Yeong-Gwang)
The Library Policeman (Stephen King)
The Library Policeman
The Four Past Midnight series, Story 3
Stephen King
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It was all the acrobat's fault. If the man scheduled to perform at the Junction City Rotary Club on Friday night hadn't fallen and injured his neck so bad, insurance salesman Sam Peebles never would've been recruited at the last minute to give a speech. And if he hadn't needed to write a speech, he never would've gone to the city library for books on public speaking. He hasn't liked libraries since he was a kid, and the moment he steps into the Junction City library building, he feels something wrong, off-putting, even malevolent - especially when he sees the creepy posters in the children's area, threatening children with bodily harm and promising a scary visit from the "Library Policeman" if they returned books late. Something about that poster catches in Sam's mind, which may explain why he's a little short with the old woman librarian who so kindly lends him two books from the library's "special collection".
The speech is a rousing success, and soon Sam's insurance business is booming... but he almost forgets about the books that helped him until he gets a phone call from Ardelia Lortz, the librarian. Only the books have gone missing. Stranger still, when he goes down to the library to take his lumps, the building he walks into looks nothing like the place he visited before - and there's no sign of the old woman ever having worked there at all. Yet still, Ardelia calls... and still, she threatens him with the "Library Policeman" if he fails to return the missing books.
REVIEW: A creepy premise, intriguing characters, and plenty of chills and unsettling action... this is what one usually wants from Stephen King, and what this story delivers. Sam is an ordinary man who starts with a very small and ordinary problem: writing a last-minute speech. Even the guy who ropes him into it tells him he can say pretty much anything so long as it fills half an hour, as odds are half the crowd will be drunk anyway, but Sam can't bring himself to half-bake any project. Besides, the Rotary Club is a good place to make business contacts and network, and some of the city's real movers and shakers are sure to be there; isn't it worth a little extra effort to make a good impression? Thus, when his part-time secretary Naomi tells him that his practice speech seems too dry and suggests a visit to the library to find material to help, Sam overcomes his nearly-bone-deep aversion to libraries to go... only, from the start, there's something not right about the building, or with the librarian Lortz. Even before he clashes with her over the gruesome posters in the children's area, he has an instinctive revulsion to the woman, even when she's saying and doing all the right, nice things. Still, he might have written it all off to nerves... but, of course, things escalate, even before he realizes the books have been irretrievably lost. Worse, when he mentions the name of Ardelia Lortz to anyone in Junction City, he gets a cold shoulder worthy of a blizzard. As more things go wrong and more terrifying incidents occur, Sam must not only unravel the secret of Lortz, but delve into his own past and the reason why he, of all people, has been targeted by her wrath.
There are a few times where King nearly loses the story in the weeds of backstory and details, but he keeps things interesting and the tension high. It may not be top-notch King, and not nearly as memorable as some of his other creations, but it's reasonably solid.
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Ink and Bone (Rachel Caine) - My Review
Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill) - My Review
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The Four Past Midnight series, Story 3
Stephen King
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It was all the acrobat's fault. If the man scheduled to perform at the Junction City Rotary Club on Friday night hadn't fallen and injured his neck so bad, insurance salesman Sam Peebles never would've been recruited at the last minute to give a speech. And if he hadn't needed to write a speech, he never would've gone to the city library for books on public speaking. He hasn't liked libraries since he was a kid, and the moment he steps into the Junction City library building, he feels something wrong, off-putting, even malevolent - especially when he sees the creepy posters in the children's area, threatening children with bodily harm and promising a scary visit from the "Library Policeman" if they returned books late. Something about that poster catches in Sam's mind, which may explain why he's a little short with the old woman librarian who so kindly lends him two books from the library's "special collection".
The speech is a rousing success, and soon Sam's insurance business is booming... but he almost forgets about the books that helped him until he gets a phone call from Ardelia Lortz, the librarian. Only the books have gone missing. Stranger still, when he goes down to the library to take his lumps, the building he walks into looks nothing like the place he visited before - and there's no sign of the old woman ever having worked there at all. Yet still, Ardelia calls... and still, she threatens him with the "Library Policeman" if he fails to return the missing books.
REVIEW: A creepy premise, intriguing characters, and plenty of chills and unsettling action... this is what one usually wants from Stephen King, and what this story delivers. Sam is an ordinary man who starts with a very small and ordinary problem: writing a last-minute speech. Even the guy who ropes him into it tells him he can say pretty much anything so long as it fills half an hour, as odds are half the crowd will be drunk anyway, but Sam can't bring himself to half-bake any project. Besides, the Rotary Club is a good place to make business contacts and network, and some of the city's real movers and shakers are sure to be there; isn't it worth a little extra effort to make a good impression? Thus, when his part-time secretary Naomi tells him that his practice speech seems too dry and suggests a visit to the library to find material to help, Sam overcomes his nearly-bone-deep aversion to libraries to go... only, from the start, there's something not right about the building, or with the librarian Lortz. Even before he clashes with her over the gruesome posters in the children's area, he has an instinctive revulsion to the woman, even when she's saying and doing all the right, nice things. Still, he might have written it all off to nerves... but, of course, things escalate, even before he realizes the books have been irretrievably lost. Worse, when he mentions the name of Ardelia Lortz to anyone in Junction City, he gets a cold shoulder worthy of a blizzard. As more things go wrong and more terrifying incidents occur, Sam must not only unravel the secret of Lortz, but delve into his own past and the reason why he, of all people, has been targeted by her wrath.
There are a few times where King nearly loses the story in the weeds of backstory and details, but he keeps things interesting and the tension high. It may not be top-notch King, and not nearly as memorable as some of his other creations, but it's reasonably solid.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Ink and Bone (Rachel Caine) - My Review
Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill) - My Review
The Langoliers (Stephen King) - My Review
The Wrong Stars (Tim Pratt)
The Wrong Stars
The Axiom series, Book 1
Tim Pratt
Angry Robot
Fiction, Adventure/Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Five hundred years ago, a dying Earth sent out fleets of "goldilocks" ships: vessels with cryogenically-preserved crews, embryos, and other building blocks of colonization, flung into the stars and aimed at planets that might possibly be hospitable to human life. But then people got themselves together (more or less), the planet slowly recovering as humanity spread through the solar system... and then the Liars showed up. Vaguely cephalopodlike aliens who come in multiple body types, no two groups tell the same stories of their origins, their purpose, or even what the rest of the galaxy is like, hence humanity's popular name for them. But they are keen traders of technology, and now humans have access to "bridges" that allow passage to various systems in nearly the blink of an eye. As for the goldilocks ships, a handful succeeded, more reached their destination after centuries to find that bridge-assisted people had beat them to colonization, and many were presumed lost to the void... until now.
Callie and the crew of the White Raven thought they'd stumbled across another easy salvage when they found the derelict ship drifting near Neptune, though one whose profile they don't recognize. Beneath all the strange fins and appendages welded to the surface, they're astonished to find an ancient relic: a goldilocks ship. It must've malfunctioned and never gotten clear of the solar system, but something doesn't add up. Who - or what - made the bizarre modifications, which are both inside and outside the hull? And, with only one crewmember in cryogenic suspension, what happened to everyone else?
Elaine Oh was a xenobiologist who never expected to see her home star system again. Then she's woken by a stranger who informs her that five centuries have passed, and not only did her ship not reach the distant planet it was aiming for, it apparently never left home, relatively speaking. But... no, that's not right. Her memory is a bit scrambled from the sleep pod, but she remembers going somewhere - and something terrible happened, something she has to warn people about, if only she could remember.
When the White Raven's half-cyborg engineer Ashok discovers a strange box in the engine bay, none of them suspect the magnitude of what they've discovered... or how the fallout could destroy humanity.
REVIEW: I knew, going into this one, that it was composed of many familiar space opera/adventure parts. The ragtag salvage crew, the aliens with unknown motivations, the "magic box"/MacGuffin technology that endangers anyone who possesses it... nothing particularly innovative here. But familiar doesn't necessarily mean bad. Even the stalest genre chestnuts can be made tasty with the right seasoning and presentation. Unfortunately, The Wrong Stars never became more than the sum of its generic parts... and sometimes, sadly, felt less than that sum.
Things start with plenty of promise, as Callie and her peculiar crew discover the goldilocks ship, Elaine, and the mystery, all pretty much out of the gate... tweaked when, briefly revived from slumber, Elaine's first words are a warning about alien contact. But aliens are old news in modern-day deep space; the Liars are common faces around the solar system, though of course they arrived after the goldilocks ships left Earth. Of course, the reader can infer that there's more than that... and the crew really should, too, when Ashok discovers the strange black box that defies every scan he throws at it, and when the mere sight of it sends every Liar in the vicinity fleeing as fast as their multiple tentacle legs can carry them. The crew's persistent refusal to ignore the evidence of their eyes is an early warning sign, unfortunately. There are soon numerous others. For a starfaring future that has reached other systems generations ago, the future Pratt presents just doesn't feel... futuristic, or big, or exciting, or anything I generally feel when reading a solid space adventure. Elaine barely has any trouble adapting to a society that's advanced five centuries in her absence, excepting brief moments of disorientation meeting a few more exotic members of the crew (whose exotic nature, with the exception of Ashok's cybernetic enhancements, as often as not end up just being cosmetic, and not really impacting the plot) and people on the Neptunian space station she visits. One would think that encountering aliens and having whole new colony worlds opened up would have some sort of notable impact, something to really throw a relic from the past off her game, but no. She's almost immediately more concerned with whether or not her physical attraction to Callie is reciprocated; they're both women, but I couldn't help sensing a bit of "male gaze" behind their interactions (no prize for guessing whether the feelings are, in fact, mutual).
Beyond those issues, the story itself started feeling stale pretty early, as characters increasingly skewed toward less intelligent actions and conversations, repeating things and drawing out revelations. By the end, everyone had pretty much entered "too stupid to live" territory. I can't get into details for spoiler reasons, but I can rarely pinpoint a particular scene and interaction that dropped a book's rating below three stars like I could in this story, and it did involve characters being impossibly, ridiculously obtuse, even when the baddie was laying out their evil plans, using all the standard Evil Plan (TM) jargon, literally kicking another character like kicking a puppy... and still, still, they had to be outright told (again and again) before they believed that this person was, in fact, not particularly good maybe. (There were other elements involved, too, relating to alien tech and artifacts and what seemed to be glaring plot and logic holes, but, again, spoiler potential.) And then the wrap up just empties a box of leftover space adventure clichés on the table as if to get them over with before setting up a sequel.
It's frustrating more than anything. This could've been an enjoyable adventure, even with the familiarity. But by the end I just felt like I'd wasted my time with a crew I didn't care for in a galaxy that felt too small.
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Velocity Weapon (Megan E. O'Keefe) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
Shards of Earth (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
The Axiom series, Book 1
Tim Pratt
Angry Robot
Fiction, Adventure/Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Five hundred years ago, a dying Earth sent out fleets of "goldilocks" ships: vessels with cryogenically-preserved crews, embryos, and other building blocks of colonization, flung into the stars and aimed at planets that might possibly be hospitable to human life. But then people got themselves together (more or less), the planet slowly recovering as humanity spread through the solar system... and then the Liars showed up. Vaguely cephalopodlike aliens who come in multiple body types, no two groups tell the same stories of their origins, their purpose, or even what the rest of the galaxy is like, hence humanity's popular name for them. But they are keen traders of technology, and now humans have access to "bridges" that allow passage to various systems in nearly the blink of an eye. As for the goldilocks ships, a handful succeeded, more reached their destination after centuries to find that bridge-assisted people had beat them to colonization, and many were presumed lost to the void... until now.
Callie and the crew of the White Raven thought they'd stumbled across another easy salvage when they found the derelict ship drifting near Neptune, though one whose profile they don't recognize. Beneath all the strange fins and appendages welded to the surface, they're astonished to find an ancient relic: a goldilocks ship. It must've malfunctioned and never gotten clear of the solar system, but something doesn't add up. Who - or what - made the bizarre modifications, which are both inside and outside the hull? And, with only one crewmember in cryogenic suspension, what happened to everyone else?
Elaine Oh was a xenobiologist who never expected to see her home star system again. Then she's woken by a stranger who informs her that five centuries have passed, and not only did her ship not reach the distant planet it was aiming for, it apparently never left home, relatively speaking. But... no, that's not right. Her memory is a bit scrambled from the sleep pod, but she remembers going somewhere - and something terrible happened, something she has to warn people about, if only she could remember.
When the White Raven's half-cyborg engineer Ashok discovers a strange box in the engine bay, none of them suspect the magnitude of what they've discovered... or how the fallout could destroy humanity.
REVIEW: I knew, going into this one, that it was composed of many familiar space opera/adventure parts. The ragtag salvage crew, the aliens with unknown motivations, the "magic box"/MacGuffin technology that endangers anyone who possesses it... nothing particularly innovative here. But familiar doesn't necessarily mean bad. Even the stalest genre chestnuts can be made tasty with the right seasoning and presentation. Unfortunately, The Wrong Stars never became more than the sum of its generic parts... and sometimes, sadly, felt less than that sum.
Things start with plenty of promise, as Callie and her peculiar crew discover the goldilocks ship, Elaine, and the mystery, all pretty much out of the gate... tweaked when, briefly revived from slumber, Elaine's first words are a warning about alien contact. But aliens are old news in modern-day deep space; the Liars are common faces around the solar system, though of course they arrived after the goldilocks ships left Earth. Of course, the reader can infer that there's more than that... and the crew really should, too, when Ashok discovers the strange black box that defies every scan he throws at it, and when the mere sight of it sends every Liar in the vicinity fleeing as fast as their multiple tentacle legs can carry them. The crew's persistent refusal to ignore the evidence of their eyes is an early warning sign, unfortunately. There are soon numerous others. For a starfaring future that has reached other systems generations ago, the future Pratt presents just doesn't feel... futuristic, or big, or exciting, or anything I generally feel when reading a solid space adventure. Elaine barely has any trouble adapting to a society that's advanced five centuries in her absence, excepting brief moments of disorientation meeting a few more exotic members of the crew (whose exotic nature, with the exception of Ashok's cybernetic enhancements, as often as not end up just being cosmetic, and not really impacting the plot) and people on the Neptunian space station she visits. One would think that encountering aliens and having whole new colony worlds opened up would have some sort of notable impact, something to really throw a relic from the past off her game, but no. She's almost immediately more concerned with whether or not her physical attraction to Callie is reciprocated; they're both women, but I couldn't help sensing a bit of "male gaze" behind their interactions (no prize for guessing whether the feelings are, in fact, mutual).
Beyond those issues, the story itself started feeling stale pretty early, as characters increasingly skewed toward less intelligent actions and conversations, repeating things and drawing out revelations. By the end, everyone had pretty much entered "too stupid to live" territory. I can't get into details for spoiler reasons, but I can rarely pinpoint a particular scene and interaction that dropped a book's rating below three stars like I could in this story, and it did involve characters being impossibly, ridiculously obtuse, even when the baddie was laying out their evil plans, using all the standard Evil Plan (TM) jargon, literally kicking another character like kicking a puppy... and still, still, they had to be outright told (again and again) before they believed that this person was, in fact, not particularly good maybe. (There were other elements involved, too, relating to alien tech and artifacts and what seemed to be glaring plot and logic holes, but, again, spoiler potential.) And then the wrap up just empties a box of leftover space adventure clichés on the table as if to get them over with before setting up a sequel.
It's frustrating more than anything. This could've been an enjoyable adventure, even with the familiarity. But by the end I just felt like I'd wasted my time with a crew I didn't care for in a galaxy that felt too small.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Velocity Weapon (Megan E. O'Keefe) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
Shards of Earth (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
The One and Only Bob (Katherine Applegate)
The One and Only Bob
The One and Only series, Book 2
Katherine Applegate
Harper
Fiction, CH Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Everyone calls dogs "man's best friend", but Bob the mutt knows that the feeling is far from mutual. Would a "best friend" tear him and his littermates from their mother when they were just a few weeks old? Would a "best friend" then throw the helpless puppies from the window of a moving truck, to land in a ditch (if they were lucky) and fend for themselves - leaving just one determined survivor? Even when Bob found his way to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and the enclosure of Ivan the gorilla, he knew better than to trust people; just look at what they did to Ivan's elephant friend Stella, the baby elephant Ruby, and Ivan himself.
That was a year ago. Now, Ivan and Ruby have better lives in a local zoo and Bob lives with the girl Julia and her family. Still, much as he loves the ear scratches and the soft bed and the regular meals, he tries his best to keep his stray mutt edge, resisting all efforts at training. After all, he knows just how little a human's love really means.
When a hurricane sweeps through, Bob and his friends are thrown into chaos... and, unexpectedly, Bob hears a bark he hasn't heard since his puppy days: the voice of his sister Boss, whom he hasn't seen since they were tossed out the window of a truck. Maybe he wasn't the only one to survive, after all - but what can one little mutt hope to do in the middle of a disaster?
REVIEW: I enjoyed Applegate's fictionalization of the real-life Ivan's tale in The One and Only Ivan, but didn't think it needed a sequel. Where do you go from that ending, anyway? But Bob does, indeed, have his own story that's worth telling... and, in Applegate's typical fashion, she manages to manipulate simple prose into sucker-punches to the feelings at will.
Bob was always the hardscrabble mutt with the heart of gold, building a jaded wall around his feelings and a heart that had been broken too many times in the past. He openly scoffs at dogs who grovel to humans, even humans who treat them terribly. Clearly the species is untrustworthy. Just look at what they're doing with the planet, and why Ruby and Ivan and the other zoo animals will never be safe in the shrinking patches of wilderness left to their kind. But he can't help but feel warm toward Julia and her family; they did help rescue Ivan and his friends from their horrible days in the Big Top Mall, after all, so they're not bad, but be darned if he'll ever be one of those sad sack pooches treating humans like gods on Earth. Lately, though, he's been having bad dreams, dreams where he loses everyone - and where, somewhere in the distance, his sister Boss is also lost and alone. Then the storm hits, tearing his world apart, scattering the zoo animals (some do not make it; Applegate has never pretended death is never an option, not in any of her books), and giving Bob a painful sliver of hope when he hears a very familiar voice from the nearby animal shelter. But the waters are still rising, the winds still blowing, and the danger is far from past. Bob the streetwise mutt, who has only ever looked out for "numero uno", must decide whether he's willing to risk everything for a chance to save the ones he loves - even if those chances are slim, bordering on none.
If one wants to be overly-critical, Bob does feel a little "human" in his head, but so did Ivan, and it didn't hurt his story (or soften the emotional blows or payoffs). That's about all I can think of against it. For a children's book, Bob faces very real peril and possibility of failure, and not everyone can (or wants to) be "saved" when Mother Nature gets angry. If this is any indication of the storytelling level, then I expect I'll be reading the rest of the series at some point.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate) - My Review
Pony Confidential (Christina Lynch) - My Review
Pax (Sara Pennypacker) - My Review
The One and Only series, Book 2
Katherine Applegate
Harper
Fiction, CH Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Everyone calls dogs "man's best friend", but Bob the mutt knows that the feeling is far from mutual. Would a "best friend" tear him and his littermates from their mother when they were just a few weeks old? Would a "best friend" then throw the helpless puppies from the window of a moving truck, to land in a ditch (if they were lucky) and fend for themselves - leaving just one determined survivor? Even when Bob found his way to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and the enclosure of Ivan the gorilla, he knew better than to trust people; just look at what they did to Ivan's elephant friend Stella, the baby elephant Ruby, and Ivan himself.
That was a year ago. Now, Ivan and Ruby have better lives in a local zoo and Bob lives with the girl Julia and her family. Still, much as he loves the ear scratches and the soft bed and the regular meals, he tries his best to keep his stray mutt edge, resisting all efforts at training. After all, he knows just how little a human's love really means.
When a hurricane sweeps through, Bob and his friends are thrown into chaos... and, unexpectedly, Bob hears a bark he hasn't heard since his puppy days: the voice of his sister Boss, whom he hasn't seen since they were tossed out the window of a truck. Maybe he wasn't the only one to survive, after all - but what can one little mutt hope to do in the middle of a disaster?
REVIEW: I enjoyed Applegate's fictionalization of the real-life Ivan's tale in The One and Only Ivan, but didn't think it needed a sequel. Where do you go from that ending, anyway? But Bob does, indeed, have his own story that's worth telling... and, in Applegate's typical fashion, she manages to manipulate simple prose into sucker-punches to the feelings at will.
Bob was always the hardscrabble mutt with the heart of gold, building a jaded wall around his feelings and a heart that had been broken too many times in the past. He openly scoffs at dogs who grovel to humans, even humans who treat them terribly. Clearly the species is untrustworthy. Just look at what they're doing with the planet, and why Ruby and Ivan and the other zoo animals will never be safe in the shrinking patches of wilderness left to their kind. But he can't help but feel warm toward Julia and her family; they did help rescue Ivan and his friends from their horrible days in the Big Top Mall, after all, so they're not bad, but be darned if he'll ever be one of those sad sack pooches treating humans like gods on Earth. Lately, though, he's been having bad dreams, dreams where he loses everyone - and where, somewhere in the distance, his sister Boss is also lost and alone. Then the storm hits, tearing his world apart, scattering the zoo animals (some do not make it; Applegate has never pretended death is never an option, not in any of her books), and giving Bob a painful sliver of hope when he hears a very familiar voice from the nearby animal shelter. But the waters are still rising, the winds still blowing, and the danger is far from past. Bob the streetwise mutt, who has only ever looked out for "numero uno", must decide whether he's willing to risk everything for a chance to save the ones he loves - even if those chances are slim, bordering on none.
If one wants to be overly-critical, Bob does feel a little "human" in his head, but so did Ivan, and it didn't hurt his story (or soften the emotional blows or payoffs). That's about all I can think of against it. For a children's book, Bob faces very real peril and possibility of failure, and not everyone can (or wants to) be "saved" when Mother Nature gets angry. If this is any indication of the storytelling level, then I expect I'll be reading the rest of the series at some point.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate) - My Review
Pony Confidential (Christina Lynch) - My Review
Pax (Sara Pennypacker) - My Review
Monday, January 5, 2026
The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
The Pillars of the Earth
The Kingsbridge series, Book 1
Ken Follett
Penguin
Fiction, Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: England in the twelfth century is a land in the midst of turmoil. Ever since the infamous storm that sank the White Ship and, with it, a vast swath of royal heirs, the line of succession has been muddied - a power struggle that explodes when King Henry dies in a hunting accident in Normandy. The people need their faith more than ever: the commoners to keep their spirits alight in the grimmest times, and the nobility to legitimize their rule. But too often the men of God covet earthly power, and the men of royalty forget their spiritual obligations. When the tainted words of three powerful men lead to an innocent man's hanging, his wild golden-eyed lover casts a curse in blood at the liars' feet. Even she does not suspect just how long it will take the curse to come to fruition, and the many lives it will touch through the decades...
Tom Builder was supporting his family by building a new home for the young nobleman William Hamleigh to begin his married life. It's steady work in trying times, though he would much rather work on something bigger, something grander: a cathedral, the ultimate test of a mason's skills. Then his job is abruptly canceled when William's intended - Lady Aliena, daughter of the Earl of Shiring - calls off their wedding. With his wife, teen son, and young daughter in tow, Tom sets off in search of work, all the while harboring his secret dream, but few people are hiring builders in these times, and before long the Builder family is starving. After great tragedy and many twists of fate, Tom finds himself in Kingsbridge, a small town with a run-down monastery and a sagging old church that has seen better days. This could be his chance to make his mark and leave a legacy for generations, rebuilding the dank Kingsbridge chapel into a true monument to the glory of God, a job that could last decades and see his family well provided for... if only he can convince the new prior.
Philip came to the church as a young boy, after he watched bloodthirsty soldiers butcher his peasant parents and almost kill himself and his brother, only to be stopped by an abbot with nothing but the word of God on his lips. From that moment on, he devoted himself to his faith, becoming the leader of a small monastery in the English countryside, while his brother Francis went into a more interesting and dangerous line of work as a spy for the royal crown. When Francis asks Philip to intervene in a possible rebel plot, the faithful man becomes entangled with the scheming arch-deacon Waleran. The relationship leads to Philip's rise to the priory of Kingsbridge... but the monastery was depleted by its former leader, and the humble new prior has his work cut out for him winning over the apathetic and hostile monks and restoring its fortunes. Perhaps the worst affront to his faith is the state of the church. It should be a place of light and grandeur, drawing the faithful from miles around, not dank and dark and fallen half to ruin and neglect. When providence sends a master builder to him, it seems a sign from God Himself... but there will be many challenges ahead, not just for Philip and Tom but for Kingsbridge and the whole of England.
REVIEW: This classic hardly needs an introduction, an epic historical fiction spanning decades (and, in later volumes, centuries). I enjoy sinking into a nice, thick epic fantasy, and there would seem to be quite a bit of overlap. But for some reason, I often felt like I was being kept at arm's length, and despite several interesting moments and characters that almost intrigued me, I often struggled to pick it back up after I set it down.
Replete with details of life in medieval England, Follett does a solid job establishing the setting, as well as the incredible amount of labor that went into the construction of a Gothic cathedral, the work of decades or even generations. The people are of their time and world... but they also, unfortunately, sometimes feel flat. There is a clear split between the villains and the heroes, those who abuse their power and faith for personal gain and those who hold true to their values, and it's fairly clear who will turn out to be a traitor (to the reader, if not the people in the story). The villains are so repulsively monstrous or glaringly devious it was hard to read their sections of the story; yes, I understand, people can be terrible to other people, especially nobles flaunting their essentially unfettered power over their subjects, but at some point the rapes and dehumanizing tortures and humiliations just go over the top, making me reluctant to pick the book back up when I got to their chapters. On the other hand, some characters who are set up to be intriguing fade to nothing but background names, or are written off in time jumps between sections, making me wonder why they had been introduced to begin with. The writing style also grated on me at times; Follett tends to flat-out explain things that should've been clear from a character's words and actions, stating to the reader that "he was angry" or "she was scared", summarizing their thoughts and experiences and even repeating things unnecessarily. This contributed to a sense of bloat and meandering, though when the story moves forward, it could be exciting, and there were moments of beauty and heartbreak along the way. The final parts bookend the opening scene nicely, but it lacked some impact for me as I never really immersed myself in the story as I'd hoped to.
In the end, while I can see why many people praise this book, The Pillars of the Earth just was not for me, and I doubt I'll read more in the series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Grimpow: The Invisible Road (Rafael Ábalos) - My Review
Between Two Fires (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (Terry Jones and Alan Ereira) - My Review
The Kingsbridge series, Book 1
Ken Follett
Penguin
Fiction, Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: England in the twelfth century is a land in the midst of turmoil. Ever since the infamous storm that sank the White Ship and, with it, a vast swath of royal heirs, the line of succession has been muddied - a power struggle that explodes when King Henry dies in a hunting accident in Normandy. The people need their faith more than ever: the commoners to keep their spirits alight in the grimmest times, and the nobility to legitimize their rule. But too often the men of God covet earthly power, and the men of royalty forget their spiritual obligations. When the tainted words of three powerful men lead to an innocent man's hanging, his wild golden-eyed lover casts a curse in blood at the liars' feet. Even she does not suspect just how long it will take the curse to come to fruition, and the many lives it will touch through the decades...
Tom Builder was supporting his family by building a new home for the young nobleman William Hamleigh to begin his married life. It's steady work in trying times, though he would much rather work on something bigger, something grander: a cathedral, the ultimate test of a mason's skills. Then his job is abruptly canceled when William's intended - Lady Aliena, daughter of the Earl of Shiring - calls off their wedding. With his wife, teen son, and young daughter in tow, Tom sets off in search of work, all the while harboring his secret dream, but few people are hiring builders in these times, and before long the Builder family is starving. After great tragedy and many twists of fate, Tom finds himself in Kingsbridge, a small town with a run-down monastery and a sagging old church that has seen better days. This could be his chance to make his mark and leave a legacy for generations, rebuilding the dank Kingsbridge chapel into a true monument to the glory of God, a job that could last decades and see his family well provided for... if only he can convince the new prior.
Philip came to the church as a young boy, after he watched bloodthirsty soldiers butcher his peasant parents and almost kill himself and his brother, only to be stopped by an abbot with nothing but the word of God on his lips. From that moment on, he devoted himself to his faith, becoming the leader of a small monastery in the English countryside, while his brother Francis went into a more interesting and dangerous line of work as a spy for the royal crown. When Francis asks Philip to intervene in a possible rebel plot, the faithful man becomes entangled with the scheming arch-deacon Waleran. The relationship leads to Philip's rise to the priory of Kingsbridge... but the monastery was depleted by its former leader, and the humble new prior has his work cut out for him winning over the apathetic and hostile monks and restoring its fortunes. Perhaps the worst affront to his faith is the state of the church. It should be a place of light and grandeur, drawing the faithful from miles around, not dank and dark and fallen half to ruin and neglect. When providence sends a master builder to him, it seems a sign from God Himself... but there will be many challenges ahead, not just for Philip and Tom but for Kingsbridge and the whole of England.
REVIEW: This classic hardly needs an introduction, an epic historical fiction spanning decades (and, in later volumes, centuries). I enjoy sinking into a nice, thick epic fantasy, and there would seem to be quite a bit of overlap. But for some reason, I often felt like I was being kept at arm's length, and despite several interesting moments and characters that almost intrigued me, I often struggled to pick it back up after I set it down.
Replete with details of life in medieval England, Follett does a solid job establishing the setting, as well as the incredible amount of labor that went into the construction of a Gothic cathedral, the work of decades or even generations. The people are of their time and world... but they also, unfortunately, sometimes feel flat. There is a clear split between the villains and the heroes, those who abuse their power and faith for personal gain and those who hold true to their values, and it's fairly clear who will turn out to be a traitor (to the reader, if not the people in the story). The villains are so repulsively monstrous or glaringly devious it was hard to read their sections of the story; yes, I understand, people can be terrible to other people, especially nobles flaunting their essentially unfettered power over their subjects, but at some point the rapes and dehumanizing tortures and humiliations just go over the top, making me reluctant to pick the book back up when I got to their chapters. On the other hand, some characters who are set up to be intriguing fade to nothing but background names, or are written off in time jumps between sections, making me wonder why they had been introduced to begin with. The writing style also grated on me at times; Follett tends to flat-out explain things that should've been clear from a character's words and actions, stating to the reader that "he was angry" or "she was scared", summarizing their thoughts and experiences and even repeating things unnecessarily. This contributed to a sense of bloat and meandering, though when the story moves forward, it could be exciting, and there were moments of beauty and heartbreak along the way. The final parts bookend the opening scene nicely, but it lacked some impact for me as I never really immersed myself in the story as I'd hoped to.
In the end, while I can see why many people praise this book, The Pillars of the Earth just was not for me, and I doubt I'll read more in the series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Grimpow: The Invisible Road (Rafael Ábalos) - My Review
Between Two Fires (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (Terry Jones and Alan Ereira) - My Review
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