A day early again, but I updated the main Brightdreamer Books site, archiving the month's reviews. I'm also making more progress on my cross-linking efforts.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Sunday, October 28, 2018
The Secret Hour (Scott Westerfield)
The Secret Hour
The Midnighters trilogy, Book 1
Scott Westerfield
Eos
Fiction, YA Chiller/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: After growing up in Chicago, the Oklahoma town of Bixby looks like the definition of nowhere to Jessica Day - if a nowhere with an aeronautics firm where Mom landed a design job. But there's something funny about this place, and not just the odd-tasting water. Every night, at midnight, time freezes... and monsters emerge. As a Midnighter, someone born at the exact right time, Jessica is one of the few teens in Bixby who experiences this secret hour - an hour that appears to exist only in and around the town - but none of the others provoke such a strong reaction from the darklings who lurk there. Is it just because she's new, or is there something special about her, something that may end the eons-old struggle between humanity and darkling once and for all?
REVIEW: The Secret Hour isn't bad, establishing a creepy premise and decent cast. Westerfield creates some nice monsters with the darklings and the lesser slithers, shapeshifting beings that embody humanity's oldest nightmares. The teens each develop distinct personalities, generally with a little more to them than is first apparent, and each with a particular talent that comes alive in the secret hour. The exception here is Jessica Day, the nominal lead. She comes across as the quintessential Teen Heroine, half a step (if that) removed from Mary Sue status, whose initial helplessness and naivete only ensures that she'll somehow be Extra Important later on (no specific spoiler, but come on - I think most readers know the earmarks by now.) There are hints of relationship potential, and some typical high school drama (plus the obligatory family drama and parental issues)... the usual trappings of the age category and genre. Even if the elements hit their marks competently, they're still laid out on a rather well-worn story path that I'm a little tired of treading.
Westerfield's imagery and concepts are fine, and the majority of the cast is intriguing. It just felt a little too familiar, with Jessica being a cookie cutter Special New Girl, for the fourth star in the ratings... especially as I felt no interest in pursuing the series, which appears to be a problem for the first book in a trilogy. (Not that I need another series to follow, but it seems that a first book that fails to sell the second isn't doing something quite right, at least for this reader.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
Roswell High: The Outsiders (Melinda Metz) - My Review
Others See Us (William Sleator) - My Review
The Midnighters trilogy, Book 1
Scott Westerfield
Eos
Fiction, YA Chiller/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: After growing up in Chicago, the Oklahoma town of Bixby looks like the definition of nowhere to Jessica Day - if a nowhere with an aeronautics firm where Mom landed a design job. But there's something funny about this place, and not just the odd-tasting water. Every night, at midnight, time freezes... and monsters emerge. As a Midnighter, someone born at the exact right time, Jessica is one of the few teens in Bixby who experiences this secret hour - an hour that appears to exist only in and around the town - but none of the others provoke such a strong reaction from the darklings who lurk there. Is it just because she's new, or is there something special about her, something that may end the eons-old struggle between humanity and darkling once and for all?
REVIEW: The Secret Hour isn't bad, establishing a creepy premise and decent cast. Westerfield creates some nice monsters with the darklings and the lesser slithers, shapeshifting beings that embody humanity's oldest nightmares. The teens each develop distinct personalities, generally with a little more to them than is first apparent, and each with a particular talent that comes alive in the secret hour. The exception here is Jessica Day, the nominal lead. She comes across as the quintessential Teen Heroine, half a step (if that) removed from Mary Sue status, whose initial helplessness and naivete only ensures that she'll somehow be Extra Important later on (no specific spoiler, but come on - I think most readers know the earmarks by now.) There are hints of relationship potential, and some typical high school drama (plus the obligatory family drama and parental issues)... the usual trappings of the age category and genre. Even if the elements hit their marks competently, they're still laid out on a rather well-worn story path that I'm a little tired of treading.
Westerfield's imagery and concepts are fine, and the majority of the cast is intriguing. It just felt a little too familiar, with Jessica being a cookie cutter Special New Girl, for the fourth star in the ratings... especially as I felt no interest in pursuing the series, which appears to be a problem for the first book in a trilogy. (Not that I need another series to follow, but it seems that a first book that fails to sell the second isn't doing something quite right, at least for this reader.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
Roswell High: The Outsiders (Melinda Metz) - My Review
Others See Us (William Sleator) - My Review
Friday, October 26, 2018
Everything All At Once (Bill Nye)
Everything All At Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap Into Radical Curiosity, and Solve Any Problem
Bill Nye
Rodale Books
Nonfiction, Autobiography/Science
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: To be a nerd is to notice things - to ask questions and determine how to answer them, to see problems and decide how to fix them. Today, with our very future on Earth likely hinging on our ingenuity in facing major human-incited challenges that could change our planet irrevocably and unrecognizably in as little as two decades, we need our nerds more than ever, but too many people are turning their back on the very expertise we need the most. But quitting is not an option. CEO of The Planetary Society, host of popular educational shows, occasional comedy performer, and proud lifelong nerd Bill Nye explains the mindset that allows scientists to tackle problems from car safety to climate change, and how to harness that power yourself to create a better future.
REVIEW: Nye combines an autobiography with an examination of the scientific process and nerd mindset, which he explains isn't just for computer geeks or slide rule-toting men in lab coats: it's an ability everyone can develop, an ability everyone probably needs to develop if we're going to survive, let alone thrive, in the coming decades. He traces his own nerd roots back to his childhood, from his tinkerer father to years in the Boy Scouts and later in science classes, where he caught the "bug" after a massive pendulum experiment allowed him to see with his own eyes mathematics in action. He also discusses how he came to merge the art of comedy and entertainment with his love of science. (I remember him from his days on the local Seattle comedy show Almost Live!, so it was interesting to see how he came to be part of that, and how it helped him transition to the national stage.) From transportation to GMOs to power grids to the link between space exploration and improvement of quality of life here on Earth, even to improving our own sense of responsibility and civic pride, Nye turns his "everything all at once" mind to possible solutions. Naturally, our climate challenges form a central theme, a problem he still sees as surmountable if we start as soon as possible. With events just prior to and after this book's publication in 2017, and the rapidly-increasing rate with which science is being shut out of the conversation altogether in certain world powers, I fear he may be a trifle too optimistic in his claims that a dedicated "nerd" can use reason and logic to convince any regime to set aside tribalism and short-term gains in favor of the longer view... Still, his optimism gives me some (small) hope, and his explanation of how to be a nerd even outside of a science lab hopefully reaches ears who need to hear it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Unbound (Richard Currier) - My Review
Undeniable (Bill Nye) - My Review
Fool Me Twice (Shawn Lawrence Otto) - My Review
Bill Nye
Rodale Books
Nonfiction, Autobiography/Science
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: To be a nerd is to notice things - to ask questions and determine how to answer them, to see problems and decide how to fix them. Today, with our very future on Earth likely hinging on our ingenuity in facing major human-incited challenges that could change our planet irrevocably and unrecognizably in as little as two decades, we need our nerds more than ever, but too many people are turning their back on the very expertise we need the most. But quitting is not an option. CEO of The Planetary Society, host of popular educational shows, occasional comedy performer, and proud lifelong nerd Bill Nye explains the mindset that allows scientists to tackle problems from car safety to climate change, and how to harness that power yourself to create a better future.
REVIEW: Nye combines an autobiography with an examination of the scientific process and nerd mindset, which he explains isn't just for computer geeks or slide rule-toting men in lab coats: it's an ability everyone can develop, an ability everyone probably needs to develop if we're going to survive, let alone thrive, in the coming decades. He traces his own nerd roots back to his childhood, from his tinkerer father to years in the Boy Scouts and later in science classes, where he caught the "bug" after a massive pendulum experiment allowed him to see with his own eyes mathematics in action. He also discusses how he came to merge the art of comedy and entertainment with his love of science. (I remember him from his days on the local Seattle comedy show Almost Live!, so it was interesting to see how he came to be part of that, and how it helped him transition to the national stage.) From transportation to GMOs to power grids to the link between space exploration and improvement of quality of life here on Earth, even to improving our own sense of responsibility and civic pride, Nye turns his "everything all at once" mind to possible solutions. Naturally, our climate challenges form a central theme, a problem he still sees as surmountable if we start as soon as possible. With events just prior to and after this book's publication in 2017, and the rapidly-increasing rate with which science is being shut out of the conversation altogether in certain world powers, I fear he may be a trifle too optimistic in his claims that a dedicated "nerd" can use reason and logic to convince any regime to set aside tribalism and short-term gains in favor of the longer view... Still, his optimism gives me some (small) hope, and his explanation of how to be a nerd even outside of a science lab hopefully reaches ears who need to hear it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Unbound (Richard Currier) - My Review
Undeniable (Bill Nye) - My Review
Fool Me Twice (Shawn Lawrence Otto) - My Review
Monday, October 22, 2018
Fairy Quest Volume 1: Outlaws (Paul Jenkins)
Fairy Quest Volume 1: Outlaws
The Fairy Quest series, Issues 1 - 2
Paul Jenkins, illustrated by Humberto Ramos
Boom! Studios
Fiction, MG? Fantasy/Graphic Novel
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time...
Every fairy tale ever told lives on in Fablewood, where characters play out their stories again and again, daily, for all time. Failure to re-enact one's tale properly results in punishment or mind erasure by Fablewood's foul ruler, Grimm, and his horde of think police. But little Red defies her story by befriending gruff Mister Woof. When they're discovered, they flee in search of the legendary Realworld, where nobody's stories are written for them and Red and Woof can be free at last - but it's far, far away if it exists at all, and every friend could just as easily betray them to the think police as help them.
REVIEW: I've previously read the Outcasts issues of the Fairy Quest series; evidently, this is where the story starts. (There may even be another volume between this and Outcasts, but for some reason Hoopla doesn't seem to have them, and even lists these ones out of order. But, I digress...) In any event, while I picked up enough to follow the story in Outcasts, it was nice to see how things started for Red and Mister Woof. Grimm slowly squeezes the life (and the memories) out of the very stories he claims to protect with his draconian rule; there is no telling who is friend and who is foe, as centuries of retellings have warped the minds of (nominal) heroes and villains alike, leading to a furtive underground movement of rebels of all stripes and species. The mood can be grim (pun intended), though the art is lively and the story moves briskly. Enjoyable, though it's not strictly necessary to read these issues first.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Wizard's Tale (Kurt Busiek) - My Review
Fairy Quest: Outcasts #1 (Paul Jenkins) - My Review
Fables: Legends in Exile Volume 1 (Bill Williamson) - My Review
The Fairy Quest series, Issues 1 - 2
Paul Jenkins, illustrated by Humberto Ramos
Boom! Studios
Fiction, MG? Fantasy/Graphic Novel
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time...
Every fairy tale ever told lives on in Fablewood, where characters play out their stories again and again, daily, for all time. Failure to re-enact one's tale properly results in punishment or mind erasure by Fablewood's foul ruler, Grimm, and his horde of think police. But little Red defies her story by befriending gruff Mister Woof. When they're discovered, they flee in search of the legendary Realworld, where nobody's stories are written for them and Red and Woof can be free at last - but it's far, far away if it exists at all, and every friend could just as easily betray them to the think police as help them.
REVIEW: I've previously read the Outcasts issues of the Fairy Quest series; evidently, this is where the story starts. (There may even be another volume between this and Outcasts, but for some reason Hoopla doesn't seem to have them, and even lists these ones out of order. But, I digress...) In any event, while I picked up enough to follow the story in Outcasts, it was nice to see how things started for Red and Mister Woof. Grimm slowly squeezes the life (and the memories) out of the very stories he claims to protect with his draconian rule; there is no telling who is friend and who is foe, as centuries of retellings have warped the minds of (nominal) heroes and villains alike, leading to a furtive underground movement of rebels of all stripes and species. The mood can be grim (pun intended), though the art is lively and the story moves briskly. Enjoyable, though it's not strictly necessary to read these issues first.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Wizard's Tale (Kurt Busiek) - My Review
Fairy Quest: Outcasts #1 (Paul Jenkins) - My Review
Fables: Legends in Exile Volume 1 (Bill Williamson) - My Review
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Jupiter Winds (C. J. Darlington)
Jupiter Winds
The Jupiter Winds series, Book 1
C. J. Darlington
Mountainview Books, LLC
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Grey Alexander and her kid sister Rin have been scraping a living from the wilds of a land that used to be called America, ever since their parents disappeared on a hunting trip. They get by through selling contraband salvage - such as books printed before the conquest - on the black market... and their luck may have just run out. When Grey gets captured, she is brought before Commander Yurkutz, who demands to know the whereabouts of her mother and father. It turns out the elder Alexanders are not only alive, but fugitives on the planet Jupiter - which, despite official word, is perfectly habitable. Grey and Rin both find themselves involved in an interplanetary struggle for control of the cloud-shrouded world, a fight between the forces of Good and Evil itself.
REVIEW: This got many good reviews on Amazon, and it was on sale, so I picked it up. It started decently enough, with Grey and Rin as competent survivors in a future dystopia. I could even almost convince myself to swallow a habitable Jupiter for the sake of a decent story; I've read more extreme conceits, such as plays on the old idea of "aether" in space. Indeed, it can be fun to play with the impossible, if one has a story that supports it and knows it's playing - if the internal logic holds up, in other words. Unfortunately, that internal logic suddenly jumped down a massive black hole when the book revealed itself to be a fundamentalist Christian story with strong Creationist leanings. None of the reviews I read mentioned this. Suddenly, it wasn't just a storytelling conceit that Jupiter had land - one really was not supposed to know, let alone think about, the impossibility of a gas giant being basically a big Earth, complete with one G of gravity and breathable air. One wasn't supposed to question the secret plan of the society to which Grey's parents belonged, a sort of latter-day Noah cult... where Earth species are supposed to just slip right into an alien ecosystem (that looks suspiciously like Earth's, 'cause God was in a rut when creating the solar system I guess.) One was especially not supposed to question the idea that the good guys wanted to start fresh on Jupiter without interference from Mazdaar (suspiciously from the Middle East...wasn't the evil anti-Christian Middle Eastern civilization getting old hat in C. S. Lewis's day?) - yet Mazdaar has already gained a major foothold while the good guys are sitting around twiddling their thumbs with unlaunched ships until pushed by a crisis. What's the holdup, guys? It's a little late when the enemy has armed bases up and running and regular flights to the planet. Don't think, don't question, don't even look at the internal logic inconsistencies: this is a Lesson about Faith, not really a science fiction story.
Setting aside those issues, Grey and Rin aren't terrible characters, even if they do tend to be led around a little overmuch, and only really achieve successes when they give up and pray to the same god that let the Mazdaar overtake Earth until it's considered too evil for goodly folk to inhabit. (Then He graciously gives them a new world to repeat the same technological mistakes that are currently leading to our climate collapse... but that's another one of those internal logic things I suppose I wasn't supposed to question, 'cause God again.) It also made for a certain predictability in the storyline; I knew the main characters were blessedly protected, and I could peg the good guys and the traitors at first glance based on their faith or lack thereof, draining a lot of the tension. The experience was frustrating more than anything, because Gray and Rin and the initial setup could've carried a decent story without constantly having to drop to their knees in praise.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Larklight (Philip Reeve) - My Review
Quintessence (David Walton) - My Review
The Jupiter Winds series, Book 1
C. J. Darlington
Mountainview Books, LLC
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Grey Alexander and her kid sister Rin have been scraping a living from the wilds of a land that used to be called America, ever since their parents disappeared on a hunting trip. They get by through selling contraband salvage - such as books printed before the conquest - on the black market... and their luck may have just run out. When Grey gets captured, she is brought before Commander Yurkutz, who demands to know the whereabouts of her mother and father. It turns out the elder Alexanders are not only alive, but fugitives on the planet Jupiter - which, despite official word, is perfectly habitable. Grey and Rin both find themselves involved in an interplanetary struggle for control of the cloud-shrouded world, a fight between the forces of Good and Evil itself.
REVIEW: This got many good reviews on Amazon, and it was on sale, so I picked it up. It started decently enough, with Grey and Rin as competent survivors in a future dystopia. I could even almost convince myself to swallow a habitable Jupiter for the sake of a decent story; I've read more extreme conceits, such as plays on the old idea of "aether" in space. Indeed, it can be fun to play with the impossible, if one has a story that supports it and knows it's playing - if the internal logic holds up, in other words. Unfortunately, that internal logic suddenly jumped down a massive black hole when the book revealed itself to be a fundamentalist Christian story with strong Creationist leanings. None of the reviews I read mentioned this. Suddenly, it wasn't just a storytelling conceit that Jupiter had land - one really was not supposed to know, let alone think about, the impossibility of a gas giant being basically a big Earth, complete with one G of gravity and breathable air. One wasn't supposed to question the secret plan of the society to which Grey's parents belonged, a sort of latter-day Noah cult... where Earth species are supposed to just slip right into an alien ecosystem (that looks suspiciously like Earth's, 'cause God was in a rut when creating the solar system I guess.) One was especially not supposed to question the idea that the good guys wanted to start fresh on Jupiter without interference from Mazdaar (suspiciously from the Middle East...wasn't the evil anti-Christian Middle Eastern civilization getting old hat in C. S. Lewis's day?) - yet Mazdaar has already gained a major foothold while the good guys are sitting around twiddling their thumbs with unlaunched ships until pushed by a crisis. What's the holdup, guys? It's a little late when the enemy has armed bases up and running and regular flights to the planet. Don't think, don't question, don't even look at the internal logic inconsistencies: this is a Lesson about Faith, not really a science fiction story.
Setting aside those issues, Grey and Rin aren't terrible characters, even if they do tend to be led around a little overmuch, and only really achieve successes when they give up and pray to the same god that let the Mazdaar overtake Earth until it's considered too evil for goodly folk to inhabit. (Then He graciously gives them a new world to repeat the same technological mistakes that are currently leading to our climate collapse... but that's another one of those internal logic things I suppose I wasn't supposed to question, 'cause God again.) It also made for a certain predictability in the storyline; I knew the main characters were blessedly protected, and I could peg the good guys and the traitors at first glance based on their faith or lack thereof, draining a lot of the tension. The experience was frustrating more than anything, because Gray and Rin and the initial setup could've carried a decent story without constantly having to drop to their knees in praise.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Larklight (Philip Reeve) - My Review
Quintessence (David Walton) - My Review
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