A bit later in the day than I'd anticipated, due to this being a rather cruddy and annoying month in many respects (not necessarily related to reading), but the month's reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
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
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeline L'Engle)
A Wrinkle in Time
The Time Quintet, Book 1
Madeline L'Engle
Listening Library
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Everything about teenage Meg Murry's life is going wrong, from her grades (even though both her parents are scientists) to her looks (plain, bespectacled, and wearing braces, as opposed to her beautiful mother) to her attitude (when are people going to stop telling her to be positive when there's nothing good to be positive about?). The worst, however, is the fact that it's been years and her father is still missing, and the small town rumor mill won't stop their whispering, muttering, or outright telling the Murry children to their faces what they think about that. There's only so much a girl can take, and certainly Meg's at her limit. Then things take a very strange turn. Her odd little brother, Charles Wallace, starts talking about "friends" in the old abandoned house in the woods. Then one of those friends comes to visit, and a very odd person Mrs. Whatsit turns out to be, indeed. Then fate seems to conspire to bring Meg, Charles, and classmate Calvin together, just in time to be whisked away on a dangerous journey across space and time. At the other end, Meg may finally find answers about her father... or she might find nothing but ultimate darkness.
This audiobook presentation also features an introduction by Ava DuVernay, the director of the 2018 theatrical film, a foreward by the author, and an afterword by Madeline L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis.
REVIEW: I've been meaning to get around to this classic for a while, but I was leery after my first childhood introduction to the Time Quintet: a teacher in third grade read us part of another story in the Time Quintet (which I remember as being A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but the plot summary sounds more like A Wind in the Door), and without context my chief memory of the experience was being bored to tears. But I finally got around to giving the first installment a try. While I wasn't bored to tears this time around, I can't say I was as blown away by it as many people seem to be.
Published in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time challenged what many publishers thought was "appropriate" material for children, even older children (the middle-grade distinction, separating younger from older children and both from the yet-to-be-created young adult/teen category, not being a thing yet). It still does, as witness the many challenges and bans aimed at it. While I can appreciate that it intentionally pushes at boundaries, I still found myself grinding my teeth now and again as I was bludgeoned with Lessons, not to mention casual assumption of (white) Christianity as the default human baseline culture (despite some lip service to other cultures existing) and galactic norm. While there's talk of advanced physics and metaphysics, the story leans far more on spirituality and religion; the Murry father vanished because he ran afoul of the malevolent "Black Thing" which already shadows Earth and has consumed whole worlds, the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit and her companions are clearly angels working for a masculine divine creator in the ongoing war against the darkness, and the whole tale is punctuated by Bible quotations. (There are also some elements that just plain don't age well; the focus on Meg's looks as a reflection of her self-worth, particularly how she needs a handsome boy to validate her existence - validation that comes in the form of Calvin telling her her eyes look pretty, so maybe she should stop wearing glasses, but then deciding that he'd rather she wear glasses so no other boy notices she has pretty eyes, which totally isn't creepily possessive for a veritable stranger to say to a girl at all - not to mention the slang that almost had me snickering it was so out of date and stilted.) As with most books that focus on Lessons, characters could sometimes take a back seat. Meg starts an emotional, somewhat whiny teenager - not entirely without cause, given what she's going through - but she leans awful hard into the role and only belatedly makes any effort to stand up, despite the whole of Creation evidently going out of its way to teach her personally. Her kid brother Charles Wallace is an unbelievably advanced five year old who almost shouldn't even need his sister's help (or Calvin's, though it's pretty clear the main reason Calvin is part of the trio is because of Meg, because heavens forfend a female find her own validation for existence or an independent future or actually be important save how she can help males who are her clear superiors succeed). In any event, many strange, sometimes beautiful and sometimes scary (and often eye-rollingly allegorical) things happen as Meg, Charles, and Calvin pursue Meg's father and confront an avatar of the foul Black Thing on a planet that has succumbed to its power.
While the plot doesn't drag overmuch, I have a low tolerance for preaching. That, plus aforementioned parts that don't age well (plus some irritation with the audiobook narrator's delivery), held it back in the ratings. I can still see the appeal, though, and how it changed the landscape of children's literature. (And the fact that people are still trying to ban it and rip it out of children's hands says it's still striking a nerve that needs to be struck, because I've yet to encounter a book banner who actually had the well-being of children and society at large in mind, despite their pearl-clutching rhetoric... but I digress.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Over Sea, Under Stone (Susan Cooper) - My Review
The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - My Review
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) - My Review
The Time Quintet, Book 1
Madeline L'Engle
Listening Library
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Everything about teenage Meg Murry's life is going wrong, from her grades (even though both her parents are scientists) to her looks (plain, bespectacled, and wearing braces, as opposed to her beautiful mother) to her attitude (when are people going to stop telling her to be positive when there's nothing good to be positive about?). The worst, however, is the fact that it's been years and her father is still missing, and the small town rumor mill won't stop their whispering, muttering, or outright telling the Murry children to their faces what they think about that. There's only so much a girl can take, and certainly Meg's at her limit. Then things take a very strange turn. Her odd little brother, Charles Wallace, starts talking about "friends" in the old abandoned house in the woods. Then one of those friends comes to visit, and a very odd person Mrs. Whatsit turns out to be, indeed. Then fate seems to conspire to bring Meg, Charles, and classmate Calvin together, just in time to be whisked away on a dangerous journey across space and time. At the other end, Meg may finally find answers about her father... or she might find nothing but ultimate darkness.
This audiobook presentation also features an introduction by Ava DuVernay, the director of the 2018 theatrical film, a foreward by the author, and an afterword by Madeline L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis.
REVIEW: I've been meaning to get around to this classic for a while, but I was leery after my first childhood introduction to the Time Quintet: a teacher in third grade read us part of another story in the Time Quintet (which I remember as being A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but the plot summary sounds more like A Wind in the Door), and without context my chief memory of the experience was being bored to tears. But I finally got around to giving the first installment a try. While I wasn't bored to tears this time around, I can't say I was as blown away by it as many people seem to be.
Published in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time challenged what many publishers thought was "appropriate" material for children, even older children (the middle-grade distinction, separating younger from older children and both from the yet-to-be-created young adult/teen category, not being a thing yet). It still does, as witness the many challenges and bans aimed at it. While I can appreciate that it intentionally pushes at boundaries, I still found myself grinding my teeth now and again as I was bludgeoned with Lessons, not to mention casual assumption of (white) Christianity as the default human baseline culture (despite some lip service to other cultures existing) and galactic norm. While there's talk of advanced physics and metaphysics, the story leans far more on spirituality and religion; the Murry father vanished because he ran afoul of the malevolent "Black Thing" which already shadows Earth and has consumed whole worlds, the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit and her companions are clearly angels working for a masculine divine creator in the ongoing war against the darkness, and the whole tale is punctuated by Bible quotations. (There are also some elements that just plain don't age well; the focus on Meg's looks as a reflection of her self-worth, particularly how she needs a handsome boy to validate her existence - validation that comes in the form of Calvin telling her her eyes look pretty, so maybe she should stop wearing glasses, but then deciding that he'd rather she wear glasses so no other boy notices she has pretty eyes, which totally isn't creepily possessive for a veritable stranger to say to a girl at all - not to mention the slang that almost had me snickering it was so out of date and stilted.) As with most books that focus on Lessons, characters could sometimes take a back seat. Meg starts an emotional, somewhat whiny teenager - not entirely without cause, given what she's going through - but she leans awful hard into the role and only belatedly makes any effort to stand up, despite the whole of Creation evidently going out of its way to teach her personally. Her kid brother Charles Wallace is an unbelievably advanced five year old who almost shouldn't even need his sister's help (or Calvin's, though it's pretty clear the main reason Calvin is part of the trio is because of Meg, because heavens forfend a female find her own validation for existence or an independent future or actually be important save how she can help males who are her clear superiors succeed). In any event, many strange, sometimes beautiful and sometimes scary (and often eye-rollingly allegorical) things happen as Meg, Charles, and Calvin pursue Meg's father and confront an avatar of the foul Black Thing on a planet that has succumbed to its power.
While the plot doesn't drag overmuch, I have a low tolerance for preaching. That, plus aforementioned parts that don't age well (plus some irritation with the audiobook narrator's delivery), held it back in the ratings. I can still see the appeal, though, and how it changed the landscape of children's literature. (And the fact that people are still trying to ban it and rip it out of children's hands says it's still striking a nerve that needs to be struck, because I've yet to encounter a book banner who actually had the well-being of children and society at large in mind, despite their pearl-clutching rhetoric... but I digress.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Over Sea, Under Stone (Susan Cooper) - My Review
The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - My Review
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) - My Review
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
There There (Tommy Orange)
There There
Tommy Orange
Knopf
Fiction, General Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Despite what popular media likes to show, Native Americans exist in places beyond the "rez", in suburbs and cities. Here, as everwhere, the scars of historic and ongoing mistreatment and prejudices linger and fester, and even as they reach for a connection and a future, too often it's snatched away. The city of Oakland is one such place, where Natives have gathered and been pushed into the cracks. From a young man branded by his mother's alcohol abuse to a woman fleeing an abusive relationship, from an aging ex-con to a boy trying to connect with something greater than himself, even to the lens of a would-be filmmmaker trying to document lives the world seems bound and determined to not see, numerous Native stories weave through the city's streets. At the coming Big Oakland Powwow, lives and generations will come together - and a terrible tragedy will play out.
REVIEW: If the description seems a bit vague, it's because this story is more a collection of stories and lives than a single cohesive arc. Orange jumps from character to character, often with tangential relations to each other that become apparent to the reader (if often not the people) as their tales unfurl. Nobody here is happy or thriving, but the back-breaking weights of history and living in a dominant culture that's still bound and determined to stuff Natives into ever-smaller boxes for ultimate disposal stack the odds against happiness or thriving for everyone here. Abuse, from alcohol to harder stuff (and from emotional to physical and worse), runs rampant, unhealthy coping mechanisms at best but about the only relief some can find. With the powwow, the characters try to recreate lost connections and save fading cultural values and memories, but even in these places nobody is safe from the tragedies all around them.
While the various lives examined show different aspects of modern urban Native American life with an insider's nuance and insight, sometimes the stories feel meandering and tangled. What ultimately cost it a half-star was the climax and ending, which felt rushed and incomplete; I almost wondered if the audiobook I listened to had been abridged, especially given how much time and attention went into setting everything up and putting every character into position for the violence at the end. But apparently it does just end like that, almost mid-thought, with no wrapup or examination of the fallout. That aside, it's a solid, often harrowing portrayal of lives and cultures too many have learned not to care about and pain too many have learned not to see.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Firekeeper's Daughter (Angeline Boulley) - My Review
The Very Best of Charles de Lint (Charles de Lint) - My Review
The Marrow Thieves (Cherie Dimaline) - My Review
Tommy Orange
Knopf
Fiction, General Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Despite what popular media likes to show, Native Americans exist in places beyond the "rez", in suburbs and cities. Here, as everwhere, the scars of historic and ongoing mistreatment and prejudices linger and fester, and even as they reach for a connection and a future, too often it's snatched away. The city of Oakland is one such place, where Natives have gathered and been pushed into the cracks. From a young man branded by his mother's alcohol abuse to a woman fleeing an abusive relationship, from an aging ex-con to a boy trying to connect with something greater than himself, even to the lens of a would-be filmmmaker trying to document lives the world seems bound and determined to not see, numerous Native stories weave through the city's streets. At the coming Big Oakland Powwow, lives and generations will come together - and a terrible tragedy will play out.
REVIEW: If the description seems a bit vague, it's because this story is more a collection of stories and lives than a single cohesive arc. Orange jumps from character to character, often with tangential relations to each other that become apparent to the reader (if often not the people) as their tales unfurl. Nobody here is happy or thriving, but the back-breaking weights of history and living in a dominant culture that's still bound and determined to stuff Natives into ever-smaller boxes for ultimate disposal stack the odds against happiness or thriving for everyone here. Abuse, from alcohol to harder stuff (and from emotional to physical and worse), runs rampant, unhealthy coping mechanisms at best but about the only relief some can find. With the powwow, the characters try to recreate lost connections and save fading cultural values and memories, but even in these places nobody is safe from the tragedies all around them.
While the various lives examined show different aspects of modern urban Native American life with an insider's nuance and insight, sometimes the stories feel meandering and tangled. What ultimately cost it a half-star was the climax and ending, which felt rushed and incomplete; I almost wondered if the audiobook I listened to had been abridged, especially given how much time and attention went into setting everything up and putting every character into position for the violence at the end. But apparently it does just end like that, almost mid-thought, with no wrapup or examination of the fallout. That aside, it's a solid, often harrowing portrayal of lives and cultures too many have learned not to care about and pain too many have learned not to see.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Firekeeper's Daughter (Angeline Boulley) - My Review
The Very Best of Charles de Lint (Charles de Lint) - My Review
The Marrow Thieves (Cherie Dimaline) - My Review
Sunday, November 20, 2022
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 (N. K. Jemisin, editor)
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018
N. K. Jemisin, editor (John Joseph Adams, series editor)
Mariner
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Rivers take human form to escape captivity... a young woman discovers a dark family secret in the worst possible way... a robot on a galactic spaceship is forced into an impossible choice by a stowaway... These and more stories are collected in this volume, edited by author N. K. Jemisin.
REVIEW: Yes, it's a few years old, but I keep meaning to read more short stories, and this book was free to me. (I also, as I've noted in previous reviews, have somewhat iffy luck with anthologies, but I like what I've read of Jemisin's work and decided to trust her judgement... and, again, free to me.) As with the majority of anthologies and collections I've read, the results are a bit of a mixed bag. A few I thoroughly enjoyed, some others were decent explorations of their concepts (if not quite my cup of cocoa), a few more I just could not connect with, and one I admittedly had to resort to skimming to get through. More than one of these seemed a bit long, not just for the anthology but for the stories they were telling. Many of the tales reflect the year in which they were written, the tumultuous gut-punch fallout of events in 2016 that continue to resonate unpleasantly through the nation and greater world; not surprisingly, the overall tone of the anthology leans dark and bleak and more than a little angry. At the end, information about the authors is presented, along with statements about the tales included, their inspirations and influences. I wish the stories had been more clearly connected, or at least the author notes had been presented in the same order as the stories appeared instead of just alphabetically; by the time I reached the afterword, I had to flip back and forth to even try matching up who had written what. This extra behind-the-scenes discussion helped lift the volume to a solid four stars. Overall, it's a decent assortment of tales reflecting the modern state of the genre.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (John Joseph Adams, editor) - My Review
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012 Edition (Liz Gorinsky, David G. Hartwell, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editors) - My Review
N. K. Jemisin, editor (John Joseph Adams, series editor)
Mariner
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Rivers take human form to escape captivity... a young woman discovers a dark family secret in the worst possible way... a robot on a galactic spaceship is forced into an impossible choice by a stowaway... These and more stories are collected in this volume, edited by author N. K. Jemisin.
REVIEW: Yes, it's a few years old, but I keep meaning to read more short stories, and this book was free to me. (I also, as I've noted in previous reviews, have somewhat iffy luck with anthologies, but I like what I've read of Jemisin's work and decided to trust her judgement... and, again, free to me.) As with the majority of anthologies and collections I've read, the results are a bit of a mixed bag. A few I thoroughly enjoyed, some others were decent explorations of their concepts (if not quite my cup of cocoa), a few more I just could not connect with, and one I admittedly had to resort to skimming to get through. More than one of these seemed a bit long, not just for the anthology but for the stories they were telling. Many of the tales reflect the year in which they were written, the tumultuous gut-punch fallout of events in 2016 that continue to resonate unpleasantly through the nation and greater world; not surprisingly, the overall tone of the anthology leans dark and bleak and more than a little angry. At the end, information about the authors is presented, along with statements about the tales included, their inspirations and influences. I wish the stories had been more clearly connected, or at least the author notes had been presented in the same order as the stories appeared instead of just alphabetically; by the time I reached the afterword, I had to flip back and forth to even try matching up who had written what. This extra behind-the-scenes discussion helped lift the volume to a solid four stars. Overall, it's a decent assortment of tales reflecting the modern state of the genre.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (John Joseph Adams, editor) - My Review
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012 Edition (Liz Gorinsky, David G. Hartwell, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editors) - My Review
Friday, November 18, 2022
Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods (Catherynne M. Valente)
Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods
Catherynne M. Valente
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Long, long ago, when a particularly wild forest fell in love with a particularly mild valley, all was right with the world... but, of course, things change, as things are wont to do. The forest created a whole host of creatures just as wild as itself, while the valley built a tidy little village just as mild as itself, attracting all manner of people. Then the creatures, particularly the wildest sort known as Quidnunks, started to hunt the people of Littlebridge, and the people hunted the creatures and Quidnunks, and only the creation of a powerful treaty kept them from killing each other off outright. Under the treaty, for every human killed, a Quidnunk must marry that human's ghost and live in the village of Littlebridge, and for every Quidnunk killed a human must do the same, going to live in the wild forest villages. Again, for a time, all was right with the world... but, again, things changed...
The boy Osmo Unknown knows every nook and cranny and plank and cobblestone of Littlebridge - and he hates it. He hates how mild and orderly life is here, how nothing ever seems to happen, especially to a boy like him. He hates how he's expected to become a hunter like his mother, even though hunters at least get to venture into the Fourpenny Woods beyond town (forbidden to all else) in search of increasingly-scarce game. He hates how wealthy girls like Ivy never notice boys like him, and never will. Just once, he wants to get lost, find himself elsewhere, have an adventure, but these days the world seems fresh out of adventure; there haven't been any strange creatures or Quidnunks sighted in so long that some, like Osmo, are convinced they're just a myth, a metaphor, something made up to keep little children from breaking the rules. Then his mother accidentally shoots an odd creature just outside the village - a creature with gold blood. A Quidnunk.
Whisked away by a cantankerous being, the half-badger, half-skunk Bonk the Cross, Osmo finds himself deep in the Fourpenny Woods, far from everything he's ever known. If he fails in the seemingly impossible quest set before him, the treaty will be broken and his whole village will suffer the wrath of the wilds. This is just the sort of thing Osmo used to dream of happening in his boring, mild life back in Littlebridge... only it's far more terrifying than he ever anticipated, to actually be on an adventure instead of just reading about one.
REVIEW: I've had pretty good luck with Valente's work in the past, so when I saw this audiobook available on Libby I snapped it up for a listen. With wonderful turns of phrase, colorful characters, bold adventures painted in all the colors of imagination, and genuine heart, Osmo and his companions kept me wonderfully entertained from start to finish. It moves at a fairly snappy pace, yet manages to create characters and situations with some roundness and dimension to them. No scene, no sentence, no word is ever wasted. I also must say I appreciated the narrator, Heath Miller, who gave such life to already-lively prose and did so in a way that I could actually hear, without mumbling or muttering or whispering or otherwise making me adjust the volume on my earphones every five seconds (unlike some audiobook narrators I've encountered). I can highly recommend it to readers of any age who want a wild and whimsical adventure.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Over the Woodward Wall (A. Deborah Baker) - My Review
Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak) - My Review
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
Catherynne M. Valente
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Long, long ago, when a particularly wild forest fell in love with a particularly mild valley, all was right with the world... but, of course, things change, as things are wont to do. The forest created a whole host of creatures just as wild as itself, while the valley built a tidy little village just as mild as itself, attracting all manner of people. Then the creatures, particularly the wildest sort known as Quidnunks, started to hunt the people of Littlebridge, and the people hunted the creatures and Quidnunks, and only the creation of a powerful treaty kept them from killing each other off outright. Under the treaty, for every human killed, a Quidnunk must marry that human's ghost and live in the village of Littlebridge, and for every Quidnunk killed a human must do the same, going to live in the wild forest villages. Again, for a time, all was right with the world... but, again, things changed...
The boy Osmo Unknown knows every nook and cranny and plank and cobblestone of Littlebridge - and he hates it. He hates how mild and orderly life is here, how nothing ever seems to happen, especially to a boy like him. He hates how he's expected to become a hunter like his mother, even though hunters at least get to venture into the Fourpenny Woods beyond town (forbidden to all else) in search of increasingly-scarce game. He hates how wealthy girls like Ivy never notice boys like him, and never will. Just once, he wants to get lost, find himself elsewhere, have an adventure, but these days the world seems fresh out of adventure; there haven't been any strange creatures or Quidnunks sighted in so long that some, like Osmo, are convinced they're just a myth, a metaphor, something made up to keep little children from breaking the rules. Then his mother accidentally shoots an odd creature just outside the village - a creature with gold blood. A Quidnunk.
Whisked away by a cantankerous being, the half-badger, half-skunk Bonk the Cross, Osmo finds himself deep in the Fourpenny Woods, far from everything he's ever known. If he fails in the seemingly impossible quest set before him, the treaty will be broken and his whole village will suffer the wrath of the wilds. This is just the sort of thing Osmo used to dream of happening in his boring, mild life back in Littlebridge... only it's far more terrifying than he ever anticipated, to actually be on an adventure instead of just reading about one.
REVIEW: I've had pretty good luck with Valente's work in the past, so when I saw this audiobook available on Libby I snapped it up for a listen. With wonderful turns of phrase, colorful characters, bold adventures painted in all the colors of imagination, and genuine heart, Osmo and his companions kept me wonderfully entertained from start to finish. It moves at a fairly snappy pace, yet manages to create characters and situations with some roundness and dimension to them. No scene, no sentence, no word is ever wasted. I also must say I appreciated the narrator, Heath Miller, who gave such life to already-lively prose and did so in a way that I could actually hear, without mumbling or muttering or whispering or otherwise making me adjust the volume on my earphones every five seconds (unlike some audiobook narrators I've encountered). I can highly recommend it to readers of any age who want a wild and whimsical adventure.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Over the Woodward Wall (A. Deborah Baker) - My Review
Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak) - My Review
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Ice Planet Barbarians (Ruby Dixon)
Ice Planet Barbarians
The Ice Planet Barbarians series, Book 1
Ruby Dixon
Berkley
Fiction, Romance/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Georgie never believed in aliens, until she woke to find herself in the cargo hold of a spaceship, along with a half-dozen other young women. Whoever the strange little green men are (or their brutal orange guards), they aren't the catch-and-release type of abductors. Instead, they're more the catch-and-sell-off-to-unknown-aliens-for-unknown-reasons type... and none of the captives want to think too much on what it might mean that they only went after young, single Earth women. But Georgie's not the kind to go down without a fight. And when a problem with the abductors' ship leads them to drop the human cargo off on an iceball planet, she's not going to pass up the chance to escape. Only she finds more than she bargained for when she's snared by the massive blue barbarian. He has horns and armored skin and even a tail, his eyes glow green, and the biting cold that's slowly killing her hardly seems to phase him, but darned if he isn't the hottest thing she's ever seen. But she has to get back to Earth, hopefully before the abductor aliens come back to reclaim their "cargo". She can't afford to lose her heart to a big blue brute.
Vektal doesn't know what to make of the strange thing dangling in his hunting snare. It looks sort of like a person, if small and pale and soft and with too many fingers - nothing at all like a proper sa-khui. Where could she have come from, and what's she doing here? But his khui, the symbiotic life form in his heart, tells him this is his life-mate, future mother of his kits, and the khui are never wrong. Now, he just has to convince the strange woman of that. No easy task, when she can't speak his language and doesn't even have her own khui. But there are other ways of talking than mere words...
REVIEW: I've heard some talk of this book around, so when I saw it available as an audiobook via Libby - and when I needed a relatively short title to fill out the end of a work day - I figured I'd give it a try. I've read (and listened to) other romance titles (and erotica, which this leans strongly toward), so why not? Considering that I didn't have high expectations going in, I was actually pleasantly surprised.
Initially, this looks to be a typical erotic sci-fi romp where sexy young Earth women hook up with hot aliens who seemed to have evolved primarily to pleasure said Earth women in ways no mere Homo sapiens man could manage. To be fair, that is the basic plot arc (no real spoiler, that; it's right in the title and cover art and blurb). But Georgie actually has some moxie in her. As the leader of the abductees, mostly because nobody else steps up to the plate when a leader is needed, Georgie spearheads their initial escape attempt and later explorations of the ice world. She's not just talk; she does hard things and makes hard decisions, thinking of the needs of others and not just herself. (Well, she does reserve some selfishness in regards to intimate interspecies relations, but she keeps her pants on, or at least puts them back on, when the others need help). Vektal, for his part, is also a leader of his people, but doesn't know at all what to make of the first human woman he's ever set eyes on; his people don't even have the concept of aliens. He initially takes her for something weak, and compared to him she is - physically, at least - but he comes to understand that there's a lot more to her than her diminutive (compared to him) physique. Despite the fated-mate aspect of the tale, consent is actually discussed and a key part of the plot; Vektal's race may be a bit fuzzy on the term, given how the khui determine much of their lives (including their life-mates, though before finding that one special person they aren't expected to be celibate), but Vektal never forces the issue and is willing to learn for the sake of love, even being willing to give Georgie up if she ultimately chooses her home over his.
The story moves pretty fast, and throughout has both action and humor. There's a certain self-awareness beneath the words, a bit of a wink and acknowledgement that never denies its genre or ambitions; this is not high literature or deep philosophy, but a sex-filled alien adventure, and never pretends to be otherwise. As for the expected erotic explorations between humans and sa-khui, they're suitably steamy (and more than a bit over-the-top, intentionally). It ultimately lost a half-star for leaning a bit too hard into the fated-mate (and breeding) aspect, and just not being quite my cup of cocoa in the long run. But it definitely rose above my expectations, and I've read far worse stories, with far flimsier characters and romances.
You Might Also Enjoy:
An American Werewolf in Hoboken (Dakota Cassidy) - My Review
Hunt the Stars (Jessie Mihalik) - My Review
ExtraNormal (Suze Reese) - My Review
The Ice Planet Barbarians series, Book 1
Ruby Dixon
Berkley
Fiction, Romance/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Georgie never believed in aliens, until she woke to find herself in the cargo hold of a spaceship, along with a half-dozen other young women. Whoever the strange little green men are (or their brutal orange guards), they aren't the catch-and-release type of abductors. Instead, they're more the catch-and-sell-off-to-unknown-aliens-for-unknown-reasons type... and none of the captives want to think too much on what it might mean that they only went after young, single Earth women. But Georgie's not the kind to go down without a fight. And when a problem with the abductors' ship leads them to drop the human cargo off on an iceball planet, she's not going to pass up the chance to escape. Only she finds more than she bargained for when she's snared by the massive blue barbarian. He has horns and armored skin and even a tail, his eyes glow green, and the biting cold that's slowly killing her hardly seems to phase him, but darned if he isn't the hottest thing she's ever seen. But she has to get back to Earth, hopefully before the abductor aliens come back to reclaim their "cargo". She can't afford to lose her heart to a big blue brute.
Vektal doesn't know what to make of the strange thing dangling in his hunting snare. It looks sort of like a person, if small and pale and soft and with too many fingers - nothing at all like a proper sa-khui. Where could she have come from, and what's she doing here? But his khui, the symbiotic life form in his heart, tells him this is his life-mate, future mother of his kits, and the khui are never wrong. Now, he just has to convince the strange woman of that. No easy task, when she can't speak his language and doesn't even have her own khui. But there are other ways of talking than mere words...
REVIEW: I've heard some talk of this book around, so when I saw it available as an audiobook via Libby - and when I needed a relatively short title to fill out the end of a work day - I figured I'd give it a try. I've read (and listened to) other romance titles (and erotica, which this leans strongly toward), so why not? Considering that I didn't have high expectations going in, I was actually pleasantly surprised.
Initially, this looks to be a typical erotic sci-fi romp where sexy young Earth women hook up with hot aliens who seemed to have evolved primarily to pleasure said Earth women in ways no mere Homo sapiens man could manage. To be fair, that is the basic plot arc (no real spoiler, that; it's right in the title and cover art and blurb). But Georgie actually has some moxie in her. As the leader of the abductees, mostly because nobody else steps up to the plate when a leader is needed, Georgie spearheads their initial escape attempt and later explorations of the ice world. She's not just talk; she does hard things and makes hard decisions, thinking of the needs of others and not just herself. (Well, she does reserve some selfishness in regards to intimate interspecies relations, but she keeps her pants on, or at least puts them back on, when the others need help). Vektal, for his part, is also a leader of his people, but doesn't know at all what to make of the first human woman he's ever set eyes on; his people don't even have the concept of aliens. He initially takes her for something weak, and compared to him she is - physically, at least - but he comes to understand that there's a lot more to her than her diminutive (compared to him) physique. Despite the fated-mate aspect of the tale, consent is actually discussed and a key part of the plot; Vektal's race may be a bit fuzzy on the term, given how the khui determine much of their lives (including their life-mates, though before finding that one special person they aren't expected to be celibate), but Vektal never forces the issue and is willing to learn for the sake of love, even being willing to give Georgie up if she ultimately chooses her home over his.
The story moves pretty fast, and throughout has both action and humor. There's a certain self-awareness beneath the words, a bit of a wink and acknowledgement that never denies its genre or ambitions; this is not high literature or deep philosophy, but a sex-filled alien adventure, and never pretends to be otherwise. As for the expected erotic explorations between humans and sa-khui, they're suitably steamy (and more than a bit over-the-top, intentionally). It ultimately lost a half-star for leaning a bit too hard into the fated-mate (and breeding) aspect, and just not being quite my cup of cocoa in the long run. But it definitely rose above my expectations, and I've read far worse stories, with far flimsier characters and romances.
You Might Also Enjoy:
An American Werewolf in Hoboken (Dakota Cassidy) - My Review
Hunt the Stars (Jessie Mihalik) - My Review
ExtraNormal (Suze Reese) - My Review
A Snake Falls to Earth (Darcie Little Badger)
A Snake Falls to Earth
Darcie Little Badger
Levine Querido
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When Nina was a young girl, her great-great-grandmother Rosita told her many stories of the old Lipan ways, from the times before the white people came and even before the two worlds - our own Earth and the Reflecting World of the spirits and shapeshifting animal people and old magic - were separated, but one has haunted her more than any other: the last tale she told, while lying in a hospital bed, speaking the lost language of their tribe. Nina is sure there's a hidden truth in that story, one tied to the Texas land where Grandma now lives (and which the old woman seems strangely reluctant to leave, even as drought and increasingly poor weather threaten the place). The land never seemed special beyond her family, though, until a new nosy neighbor turns up. By unraveling the story's secrets, maybe Nina can save the land, and her grandmother.
In the Reflecting World, the cottonmouth boy Oli has just been turned out from his mother's home, as all young cottonmouths are, to find his own way in the world - but he's having a very rough time of it. He even lost the last gift his mother gave him, a blanket woven with his family's special design. After stumbling upon the elusive path to anywhere-you-please (a path that may only appear once in a long lifetime), he finally manages to find a place to make his home, and even some new friends: a hawk, a pair of boisterous coyotes, and a small blue-throated toad who never speaks or takes a false human form, but is nevertheless a steadfast companion. When the toad falls ill, Oli determines to find the cause and hopefully a cure, even if it means traveling to the world of humans.
Nina and Oli live in literally separate worlds, but their paths are destined to cross. When they do, many questions may be answered... or everything could go terribly wrong...
REVIEW: I really enjoyed Elatsoe by the same author, so I figured I'd try this one. Like Elatsoe, A Snake Falls to Earth takes place in a modern Earth one step to the side of our own, an Earth where the reality of the Reflecting World and its former connection to our own is an accepted reality. People know of the existence of the animal people, but it's generally believed they haven't visited our world for many generations. The tale is also steeped in Native American lore and storytelling traditions. Nina aspires to be a storyteller like her favorite online celebrities, but thus far has never had the courage to share tales with the world, instead recording them in a private video diary. The puzzle of her great-great-grandmother's last story (and other oddities, such as her family's odd longevity and the strangely powerful pull of the ancestral land) drives her to dig deeper into Lipan lore and culture, which has sadly faded through the generations. Meanwhile, Oli makes his perilous way from childhood to adulthood in the Reflecting World, a place of both wonders and dangers, powerful originator spirits and dark monsters... but also with traces of modern Earth, in a market of smuggled real world goods (which do not last long in the reflected world, but which inspire various innovations such as the specatcles nearsighted Oli wears in his false human form, and contraptions like automobiles and steam-powered houseboats that a few animal people tinker with). He might have lived his life complacently beside his favorite basking rock and the bottomless lake, with no friends but the silent toad, but finds himself pulled into the antics of the coyotes, not to mention having to deal with fallout from his early fumbling efforts to find his own way (during which he made an enemy who has not forgotten him). The arcs of Nina and Oli are largely independent through a fair chunk of the book, only later crossing ways when Oli and his friends make the perilous crossing to our world. They manage to help each other, but their stories remain their own; neither is helpless without the other. There's humor and emotion and distinctive characters in both of their worlds, and nobody is particularly stupid for the sake of being stupid/drawing out the tale (though they sometimes need a bit of a push to get moving). Something about it felt a little incomplete by the end, though the book itself mentions how tales rarely have a simple, clean arc and ending, trailing off into other tales, much as life itself is more than a simple thread with a clearly defined point. Overall, I enjoyed the characters and the distinct Native American flavor, even if I didn't find myself enjoying it quite as much as Elatsoe.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Leopard's Daughter (Lee Killough) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Darcie Little Badger
Levine Querido
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When Nina was a young girl, her great-great-grandmother Rosita told her many stories of the old Lipan ways, from the times before the white people came and even before the two worlds - our own Earth and the Reflecting World of the spirits and shapeshifting animal people and old magic - were separated, but one has haunted her more than any other: the last tale she told, while lying in a hospital bed, speaking the lost language of their tribe. Nina is sure there's a hidden truth in that story, one tied to the Texas land where Grandma now lives (and which the old woman seems strangely reluctant to leave, even as drought and increasingly poor weather threaten the place). The land never seemed special beyond her family, though, until a new nosy neighbor turns up. By unraveling the story's secrets, maybe Nina can save the land, and her grandmother.
In the Reflecting World, the cottonmouth boy Oli has just been turned out from his mother's home, as all young cottonmouths are, to find his own way in the world - but he's having a very rough time of it. He even lost the last gift his mother gave him, a blanket woven with his family's special design. After stumbling upon the elusive path to anywhere-you-please (a path that may only appear once in a long lifetime), he finally manages to find a place to make his home, and even some new friends: a hawk, a pair of boisterous coyotes, and a small blue-throated toad who never speaks or takes a false human form, but is nevertheless a steadfast companion. When the toad falls ill, Oli determines to find the cause and hopefully a cure, even if it means traveling to the world of humans.
Nina and Oli live in literally separate worlds, but their paths are destined to cross. When they do, many questions may be answered... or everything could go terribly wrong...
REVIEW: I really enjoyed Elatsoe by the same author, so I figured I'd try this one. Like Elatsoe, A Snake Falls to Earth takes place in a modern Earth one step to the side of our own, an Earth where the reality of the Reflecting World and its former connection to our own is an accepted reality. People know of the existence of the animal people, but it's generally believed they haven't visited our world for many generations. The tale is also steeped in Native American lore and storytelling traditions. Nina aspires to be a storyteller like her favorite online celebrities, but thus far has never had the courage to share tales with the world, instead recording them in a private video diary. The puzzle of her great-great-grandmother's last story (and other oddities, such as her family's odd longevity and the strangely powerful pull of the ancestral land) drives her to dig deeper into Lipan lore and culture, which has sadly faded through the generations. Meanwhile, Oli makes his perilous way from childhood to adulthood in the Reflecting World, a place of both wonders and dangers, powerful originator spirits and dark monsters... but also with traces of modern Earth, in a market of smuggled real world goods (which do not last long in the reflected world, but which inspire various innovations such as the specatcles nearsighted Oli wears in his false human form, and contraptions like automobiles and steam-powered houseboats that a few animal people tinker with). He might have lived his life complacently beside his favorite basking rock and the bottomless lake, with no friends but the silent toad, but finds himself pulled into the antics of the coyotes, not to mention having to deal with fallout from his early fumbling efforts to find his own way (during which he made an enemy who has not forgotten him). The arcs of Nina and Oli are largely independent through a fair chunk of the book, only later crossing ways when Oli and his friends make the perilous crossing to our world. They manage to help each other, but their stories remain their own; neither is helpless without the other. There's humor and emotion and distinctive characters in both of their worlds, and nobody is particularly stupid for the sake of being stupid/drawing out the tale (though they sometimes need a bit of a push to get moving). Something about it felt a little incomplete by the end, though the book itself mentions how tales rarely have a simple, clean arc and ending, trailing off into other tales, much as life itself is more than a simple thread with a clearly defined point. Overall, I enjoyed the characters and the distinct Native American flavor, even if I didn't find myself enjoying it quite as much as Elatsoe.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Leopard's Daughter (Lee Killough) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Everless (Sara Holland)
Everless
The Everless series, Book 1
Sara Holland
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: If anyone has reason to hate the Gerling family that rules Sempera, it's Jules Ember. Once, she and her father lived in the royal city of Everless, where her father was a blacksmith who helped forge blood-iron coins: time, drawn from the blood of the Gerlings' subjects, condensed into metal form and paid to the royals to extend their own lives. She grew up playing with the princes Roan and Liam... until the terrible accident that sent Jules and her father fleeing from royal wrath. Only desperation would drive her back to Everless... and desperate things have become. Her father has already traded too much of his time to the tax collectors. With a royal wedding coming up, the palace is hiring whole fleets of servants - and surely, among such a number and after so many years away, nobody would recognize one lone, lowborn girl, come to earn the blood-iron coins to pay off family debts and maybe give her ailing father a few of his hard-earned years back. What's worse is how time sometimes wobbles in her presence, slowing or even stopping; such minor abilities have led many a hedge witch to be killed. It's a gamble, of course, but one she feels she has no choice but to take.
The moment she sets foot back in Everless, she realizes that the place she remembered from a child's perspective is nothing at all like the truth. Soon, she finds herself caught up in dangerous intrigues and deceptions and mysteries that may change everything she thought she knew about the palace, the Gerlings, the ageless Queen, the legendary Sorceress and Alchemist of ancient times who first bound time to metal and blood... and even herself.
REVIEW: The premise sounded interesting, a hint of vampirism (in spirit, at least, with a ruling class demanding blood from the peasantry to extend their lives and ensure their rule) wrapped around a fantasy world. There was definite promise in the setting, and the characters seemed serviceable, if not wholly original. But something about this story never came together for me, and I think much of that had to do with Jules. She's one of those too-common main characters who can't actually put any pieces together despite numerous blatant hints until someone else patiently explains it - more than once, because of course they're too shocked and/or in denial the first time or ten the information is revealed. In her defense, it doesn't help that nobody in Jules's life bothers telling her things that are vital to her existence and survival before she's alone and up to her scalp in danger precisely because nobody told her such things. The reader, therefore, is way ahead of the game and is forced to endure her stumbling and bumbling and denying and standing in shocked, silent disbelief and/or denial, coming to the exact wrong conclusion and doing the exact wrong thing at any given time. Much of her story is tied up in the tale of the Alchemist and the Sorceress, which forms the apparent backbone of Sempera's society, but I never felt the weight of the myths in the greater world, if that makes any sense. After far too much dithering and delaying and meandering, the story finally comes to a conclusion that reveals things that the reader likely figured out long before... a conclusion that doesn't actually resolve anything, instead setting up a second volume that I'd need to read if I cared enough to find out what happened. I couldn't help feeling that the whole arc could've been resolved in one book if Jules hadn't been deliberately kept in the dark or had been a little more self-aware. I mostly kept listening because I was too lazy to switch audiobooks at work. Again, there was lots of potential going into it, and it had moments and glimmers that held my interest and kept me hoping it would rise up to that potential. Ultimately, though, I just never connected with it and grew too irritated by the heroine to enjoy the story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Mystic (Jason Denzel) - My Review
The Queen of Blood (Sarah Beth Durst) - My Review
Raybearer (Jordan Ifueko) - My Review
The Everless series, Book 1
Sara Holland
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: If anyone has reason to hate the Gerling family that rules Sempera, it's Jules Ember. Once, she and her father lived in the royal city of Everless, where her father was a blacksmith who helped forge blood-iron coins: time, drawn from the blood of the Gerlings' subjects, condensed into metal form and paid to the royals to extend their own lives. She grew up playing with the princes Roan and Liam... until the terrible accident that sent Jules and her father fleeing from royal wrath. Only desperation would drive her back to Everless... and desperate things have become. Her father has already traded too much of his time to the tax collectors. With a royal wedding coming up, the palace is hiring whole fleets of servants - and surely, among such a number and after so many years away, nobody would recognize one lone, lowborn girl, come to earn the blood-iron coins to pay off family debts and maybe give her ailing father a few of his hard-earned years back. What's worse is how time sometimes wobbles in her presence, slowing or even stopping; such minor abilities have led many a hedge witch to be killed. It's a gamble, of course, but one she feels she has no choice but to take.
The moment she sets foot back in Everless, she realizes that the place she remembered from a child's perspective is nothing at all like the truth. Soon, she finds herself caught up in dangerous intrigues and deceptions and mysteries that may change everything she thought she knew about the palace, the Gerlings, the ageless Queen, the legendary Sorceress and Alchemist of ancient times who first bound time to metal and blood... and even herself.
REVIEW: The premise sounded interesting, a hint of vampirism (in spirit, at least, with a ruling class demanding blood from the peasantry to extend their lives and ensure their rule) wrapped around a fantasy world. There was definite promise in the setting, and the characters seemed serviceable, if not wholly original. But something about this story never came together for me, and I think much of that had to do with Jules. She's one of those too-common main characters who can't actually put any pieces together despite numerous blatant hints until someone else patiently explains it - more than once, because of course they're too shocked and/or in denial the first time or ten the information is revealed. In her defense, it doesn't help that nobody in Jules's life bothers telling her things that are vital to her existence and survival before she's alone and up to her scalp in danger precisely because nobody told her such things. The reader, therefore, is way ahead of the game and is forced to endure her stumbling and bumbling and denying and standing in shocked, silent disbelief and/or denial, coming to the exact wrong conclusion and doing the exact wrong thing at any given time. Much of her story is tied up in the tale of the Alchemist and the Sorceress, which forms the apparent backbone of Sempera's society, but I never felt the weight of the myths in the greater world, if that makes any sense. After far too much dithering and delaying and meandering, the story finally comes to a conclusion that reveals things that the reader likely figured out long before... a conclusion that doesn't actually resolve anything, instead setting up a second volume that I'd need to read if I cared enough to find out what happened. I couldn't help feeling that the whole arc could've been resolved in one book if Jules hadn't been deliberately kept in the dark or had been a little more self-aware. I mostly kept listening because I was too lazy to switch audiobooks at work. Again, there was lots of potential going into it, and it had moments and glimmers that held my interest and kept me hoping it would rise up to that potential. Ultimately, though, I just never connected with it and grew too irritated by the heroine to enjoy the story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Mystic (Jason Denzel) - My Review
The Queen of Blood (Sarah Beth Durst) - My Review
Raybearer (Jordan Ifueko) - My Review
Thursday, November 3, 2022
When the Sky Fell on Splendor (Emily Henry)
When the Sky Fell on Splendor
Emily Henry
Razorbill
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
** (Bad)
DESCRIPTION: Five years ago, the small town of Splendor, Ohio was rocked by an explosion at the steel mill, and nothing has been the same since, even for those who didn't lose someone in the blast. Out of the ashes, a tentative new friendship was forged among six teens (and one aging dog), who call themselves the Ordinary. They spend their free time making mockumentary videos for the internet, which hasn't exactly garnered them the fame and fortune they might hope for but at least keeps them from feeling too smothered by small town life. If only they could capture something unique, something attention-getting... something real.
One night, shooting a faux "haunting" video at the abandoned Jenkins house, Frannie and her companions see what they take to be meteors streaking across the sky, until something crashes into the nearby power substation. They go to investigate - and somehow lose six hours of their life, with nothing but a vague memory of intense light and a sound that might be voices or music or something else altogether. What footage their camera managed to capture only deepens the mystery... and when strange things start occurring around them and around Splendor, they realize it's not just their imaginations. Something very extraordinary happened to the Ordinary that night, and if they can't figure out what soon, then they and the entire town might be in grave danger.
REVIEW: The premise had promise, and it started out decent enough as it established its characters and the desperation of their existence in modern middle-of-nowhere Ohio. Narrator Frannie struggles to cope with the lingering scars of the steel mill blast, a blast that left her oldest brother Mark in a coma and forever changed her relationship with her brother Albert and father (not to mention the mother who left them when she couldn't cope). With the Ordinary, for all that none of them speak openly of their griefs and troubles, she at least knows she isn't alone in the world, even if she can't see much of a future for herself or more than one of her friends. Goofing around in internet videos is as close to cutting loose as she can manage - until the thing falls from the sky, of course, shattering even that fragile peace the teens have managed to cobble together between them.
And here is where things start to wobble, as Frannie is shown to be rather clueless and in denial about obvious things, not to mention how it becomes increasingly clear that she doesn't ever actually do anything (save suffer and generally be confused) without being pushed... and even then it takes multiple shoves. She even ends up with a hurt ankle, evidently because we haven't yet consigned that cliche to the garbage heap where it belongs. The rest of the Ordinary try, with varying degrees of success, to cope in their own ways, choosing everything from pretending nothing happened to deep dives into conspiracy theories to wondering how to take advantage of finally having something the world might notice on video, but it's a bit difficult to connect with them through the lens of Frannie.
There is some decent tension as their video goes viral and brings the wrong kind of attention, but at some point it starts feeling less like genuine danger and more like a cheap knock-off of The X-Files without the character chemistry or tight plotting... more like in the later seasons when it's clear the writers no longer have a clear and unified vision of what the Truth actually is and are just winging it from episode to episode. The teens degrade from reasonably believable characters caught in a situation far beyond their experience to people who would be outsmarted and outinvestigated by the Scooby Doo gang. And then, at the climax (which had gone from tense to almost laughably ridiculous already), there is a hard right turn that almost literally had me groaning and rolling my eyes in utter incredulity, completely shattering any lingering traces of my suspension of disbelief. I will not elaborate to avoid spoilers, but it completely changes the entire premise of the book from teen sci-fi thriller to something else entirely, making me feel cheated.
On top of that, the audiobook was irritating, as the narrator often dipped into mumbles and whispers that made me crank up the volume to hear over ambient noise at work, only to hurt my ears when returning to a normal voice. I don't like being in pain, but maybe that's just me. By the end, I just wished that whatever fell on Splendor had done a more thorough job and taken out the whole town.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Invasion (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
The X-Files: Fight the Future (Chris Carter and Elizabeth Hand) - My Review
Roswell High: The Outsiders (Melinda Metz) - My Review
Emily Henry
Razorbill
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
** (Bad)
DESCRIPTION: Five years ago, the small town of Splendor, Ohio was rocked by an explosion at the steel mill, and nothing has been the same since, even for those who didn't lose someone in the blast. Out of the ashes, a tentative new friendship was forged among six teens (and one aging dog), who call themselves the Ordinary. They spend their free time making mockumentary videos for the internet, which hasn't exactly garnered them the fame and fortune they might hope for but at least keeps them from feeling too smothered by small town life. If only they could capture something unique, something attention-getting... something real.
One night, shooting a faux "haunting" video at the abandoned Jenkins house, Frannie and her companions see what they take to be meteors streaking across the sky, until something crashes into the nearby power substation. They go to investigate - and somehow lose six hours of their life, with nothing but a vague memory of intense light and a sound that might be voices or music or something else altogether. What footage their camera managed to capture only deepens the mystery... and when strange things start occurring around them and around Splendor, they realize it's not just their imaginations. Something very extraordinary happened to the Ordinary that night, and if they can't figure out what soon, then they and the entire town might be in grave danger.
REVIEW: The premise had promise, and it started out decent enough as it established its characters and the desperation of their existence in modern middle-of-nowhere Ohio. Narrator Frannie struggles to cope with the lingering scars of the steel mill blast, a blast that left her oldest brother Mark in a coma and forever changed her relationship with her brother Albert and father (not to mention the mother who left them when she couldn't cope). With the Ordinary, for all that none of them speak openly of their griefs and troubles, she at least knows she isn't alone in the world, even if she can't see much of a future for herself or more than one of her friends. Goofing around in internet videos is as close to cutting loose as she can manage - until the thing falls from the sky, of course, shattering even that fragile peace the teens have managed to cobble together between them.
And here is where things start to wobble, as Frannie is shown to be rather clueless and in denial about obvious things, not to mention how it becomes increasingly clear that she doesn't ever actually do anything (save suffer and generally be confused) without being pushed... and even then it takes multiple shoves. She even ends up with a hurt ankle, evidently because we haven't yet consigned that cliche to the garbage heap where it belongs. The rest of the Ordinary try, with varying degrees of success, to cope in their own ways, choosing everything from pretending nothing happened to deep dives into conspiracy theories to wondering how to take advantage of finally having something the world might notice on video, but it's a bit difficult to connect with them through the lens of Frannie.
There is some decent tension as their video goes viral and brings the wrong kind of attention, but at some point it starts feeling less like genuine danger and more like a cheap knock-off of The X-Files without the character chemistry or tight plotting... more like in the later seasons when it's clear the writers no longer have a clear and unified vision of what the Truth actually is and are just winging it from episode to episode. The teens degrade from reasonably believable characters caught in a situation far beyond their experience to people who would be outsmarted and outinvestigated by the Scooby Doo gang. And then, at the climax (which had gone from tense to almost laughably ridiculous already), there is a hard right turn that almost literally had me groaning and rolling my eyes in utter incredulity, completely shattering any lingering traces of my suspension of disbelief. I will not elaborate to avoid spoilers, but it completely changes the entire premise of the book from teen sci-fi thriller to something else entirely, making me feel cheated.
On top of that, the audiobook was irritating, as the narrator often dipped into mumbles and whispers that made me crank up the volume to hear over ambient noise at work, only to hurt my ears when returning to a normal voice. I don't like being in pain, but maybe that's just me. By the end, I just wished that whatever fell on Splendor had done a more thorough job and taken out the whole town.
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