Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womak

Lola, a twelve year old girl, lives with her parents and her sister in New York City. Not the New York City that we know now, but one that is far too easy to imagine. Seemingly in every large city there is almost constant rioting, and the armed forces have been brought in to control the streets. Jobs are few and far between, and the United States, if not the world, is changing for the worse.

The story is told as entries in a diary. Lola gets the diary for her birthday, and we see what happens to her only through these diary entries.

Lola's father is a screen writer, but with the downfall of the economy, no one is making films anymore. Lola's mother doesn't work, and there is little or no money coming into the family. As things go downhill financially for the family, Lola's parents do the one thing they can think of to do -- they move to a less expensive, smaller, apartment south of Harlem. This doesn't solve their financial problems, but it at least helps, and when Lola's father gets a job at a bookstore, the family can come close to having enough money to survive.

But this move starts a downhill journey for Lola. She meets other girls in the neighborhood about her age. We get to know the girls as Lola does, little by little. It would be nice to be able to say that these new friends lead Lola down a path of crime leading to the end of the book, but that isn't what happens. Lola may be lead, but she quickly realizes that the money she gets helps her family live. In many ways she leads herself down the path she takes.

By the end of the book, Lola has changed, in fact, changed so dramatically that if we hadn't watched the changes happen, we'd never know it was the same person. She thinks differently and speaks differently, and her actions are no longer those of the sweet twelve year old we met at the beginning of the story.

I tend to think that Lola couldn't help but change. There is violence all around her. The armed forces killing rioters. The president of the United States is assassinated, not just once, but several times during the course of the book. The "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" doesn't refer so much to Lola and her friends, but to the world around them that is quickly becoming violent, unpredictable, and insane.

It's very difficult to recommend this book. Not because it isn't well written. It is. Not because it doesn't present a compelling and fast moving story. It does. It even manages to dramatically change the language used, but does it slowly, so slowly the reader barely recognizes what is happening. But I hesitate to recommend the book because it is simply a depressing book. She broke one final rule and it costs her friend, and if she follows the path she's on at the end of the book she won't stay alive long.

Should you read it? All I can say is I'm glad I read it, but I can't imagine reading it again.

The Ellie Chronicles, by James Marsdon

The Ellie Chronicles consists of the following three books:

While I Live
Incurable
Circle of Flight

Warning: Some minor spoilers for both the 'Tomorrow' series and the 'Ellie Chronicles'.

Note: 'While I Live' has recently been published in the U.S. Incurable will be released in the U.S. on September 1st. I don't know when 'Circle of Flight' will be released. I purchased the Australian versions of the final two books through 'Abes Books' on the Internet.

The Ellie Chronicles begins some time after the war has ended. The exact amount of time isn't specified, but we find out that Ellie has written a series of books about her and her friends' experiences during the war, three of which have been published. Ellie is somewhat of a hero to her own country-people, however the publicity has also caught the attention of some of the groups on the enemy side of the former conflict.

Ellie's family's farm is near the border between the two countries, and very early in the first of the three books, her parents are killed by a raiding party, one probably intent on killing Ellie.

Ellie, still caring for Gavon, a young orphan that attached himself to her during the war, now has to decide what to do with Gavon and with the farm. It's no real spoiler that she makes the decision to keep Gavon with her if possible, nor is it a spoiler to say she also decides to work the farm herself. Throughout all the 'Tomorrow' series, we've seen her love for the farm and for farming, and it would be almost unthinkable for her to make any other decision.

For all that Ellie is doing, it's sometimes good to remember that she hasn't even finished high school yet. She is perhaps 18 years old, and, in her country, needs a guardian until she is 21. She's taken a lot on -- a farm very much in debt, a ten year old deaf child, and all the other things that she needs to do for herself, like finish high school and perhaps go on to college.

And that's where Ellie is in life within the first few chapters of the first of the three books.

These books detail Ellie's struggles with Gavon, with the farm, and with both the enemy groups that raid in her country and a local group named Liberation that sends raids into the enemy's country. As seems to happen in movies and fiction, Ellie tries to stay out of the fights, but often gets drawn into them in one way or another. It's war, but its a more subtle war.

Ellie is forced to make some very difficult decisions. Decisions that in a just world she would never be forced to make. But the world she lives in simply isn't just. It's dangerous, and especially dangerous for her, and in the end she makes the decisions the way she feels she must.

I don't agree with all of her decisions, and think she made a couple of wrong choices at the end. Of course we'd like to believe she lived happily ever after, but I think that the author was showing us one more time that Ellie, for all the good in her, still is young and made some decisions that a younger person might make. Not necessarily wrong, but the not best, either.

But I hope I'm wrong. I hope that Ellie does live happily ever after.

The Host, by Stephanie Meyers

Stephanie Meyers is an author who you may not have heard of -- at least if you're male and/or over 30. She has written an immensely popular set of vampire/romance books collectively called "The Twilight Series", which begins with the book "Twilight". That book will be out as a film this fall, and the fourth and final book in the series comes out in September with "Wedding" parties being held at bookstores around the country. Recently a news media item asked whether Ms. Meyers was the next J. K. Rowling.

Admittedly, I haven't read any of the books in that series. Having read a bit about that series in customer reviews on Amazon.com, I explored a bit further and found she had written another book, called "The Host". The description of the book sounded interesting. Science fiction rather than fantasy, I decided I wanted to read it. I got a chance to try it out when a friend of mine visited and was able to lend me a copy.

In "The Host", earth has been quietly invaded and taken over by parasitic aliens. The invasion took place an undetermined amount of time ago, however it was recently enough that people who were adults during the invasion are still alive. The invasion happened slowly, and no one even realized the earth was being invaded until it was too late to prevent it further.

Into this world comes Wanderer, an alien who has lived in eight previous hosts on eight different worlds. Wanderer is placed into an adult host named Melanie. Melanie fights against being taken over, and Wanderer can often hear her speaking in their mind. Eventually the influence of Melanie leads Wanderer to search out Melanie's brother Jamie, and Melanie's love, Jared. With Melanie's help, Wanderer finds Jared and Jamie with a small resistance group. The bulk of the book is about Wanderer/Melanie living with the resistance group.

Within the group, Wanderer find friends and enemies, some in surprising places. As the book continues, we learn more about Wanderer and her past, and about the parasites and their history -- and their reasons (or rationalizations, depending upon your point of view) as to why they choose certain species as hosts.

This is not an action/adventure book. In fact, more than anything, it's a story of a growing friendship between two very unlikely people, and it's a love story. It's a moderately long book, and there was a time near the middle when things had slowed down enough that I was getting a bit bored, but within a chapter or two things picked up again and I finished the book just a day later after a bit of (unfortunate) late night reading.

As with some other books I've picked up and read recently, this really isn't the type of book I normally read. The science fiction aspect is, in a way, rather small, as it's the personal interactions the are important in the book. While it is a love story, sometimes it's hard to figure out who it's a love story about. maybe I was wrong above. Perhaps, more than anything else, it's the story of a person in a place completely foreign to her, trying to understand whether or not she belongs.

What stood out most for me is just how good a person Wanderer is. She may be an alien and an invader, but she is almost everything we value in a human. One character is angered by just how self-sacrificing Wanderer is. When, at the end of the book, she is willing to die and sacrifice herself for a friend, we, as readers, must look and ask ourselves just what the right answer is -- and whether there is a right answer.

Tomorrow Series, by James Marsden

Tomorrow When The War Began
Dead of Night
A Killing Frost
Darkness, Be My Friend
Burning For Revenge
The Night is for Hunting
The Other Side of Dawn

In "Tomorrow When the War Began", we meet a teenager named Ellie, a resident of Australia. She and a number of friends go out into the bush to camp out for a week or so. When they return, their country has been invaded, their families are in a prisoner camp, and soldiers are roaming the streets of their town.

As they become more and more aware of what has happened to their town, they begin to think of trying to strike back, trying to hinder the enemy in at least some small ways. As the books progress, Ellie and the group try more difficult targets, and not always with success. Everyone in the group changes as the war goes on, and everyone finds themselves doing things they never believed they could do.

We never, or at least rarely, forget that these teenagers are fighting in a war. And some of them don't make it.

I don't want to say much more about what happens. It's enough to know that these seven books tell Ellie's story of what happened and what she and her friends did in this war.

The books are tight and well written. They are incredibly realistic. There is nothing in any of the books I found difficult to believe, and there is much I wouldn't have thought about. The group is constantly short on food, for example. While they take supplies (including chickens -- many in the group lived on farms) from their homes early in the series, as time goes on, the original supplies of food run out and they have to find other places to procure food. As might be expected, in most cases those places are in enemy hands.

Members of their group die. They are captured, and killed. In between, friendships and romances flower and vanish, and any relationship is difficult because of the difficult times they live in. And as much as we hope for a wonderful and happy life for Ellie, as the last book ends, we find that, in war, there are no truly happy endings.

"Tomorrow, When the War Began" and it's subsequent sequels are one of the best selling and most critically aclaimed series of books in Australia for young people.

These books are not llight-hearted, but tense, frightening and, at times, difficult, it's a story that shows what war is like in a way that is seldom seen. It doesn't glorify war, and while this group of teenagers -- especially the boys -- may have seen it as exciting, as time goes on they -- and we -- realize that war is hunger and fright and finally, it is doing what you do because it's what you feel you must do.

Highly recommended. Even if it takes time to track down the books so you can read them, it's worth it.

The Midnighters (Series) by Scott Westerfeld

Book 1: The Secret Hour
Book 2: Touching Darkness
Book 3: Blue Noon

Fifteen year old Jessica Day has just moved from Chicago to Bixby, Oklahoma. School is just starting and she's already beginning to be part of a group of popular kids at school. Then, one night, she finds herself awake at midnight and looking out her window at a cat. The cat seems to want her to follow it outside, and she does. It's been raining, but now the rain drops are fixed in place, hanging in the air. Outside, she wanders through something she sees as magical and wonderful -- until the cats turns into something else and begins chasing her. As she runs away, the magical time ends and she walks home in the pouring rain.

As she tries to understand what she experienced, she meets up with some not so popular people in the school, and, from them discovers that for some, Bixby has an extra hour which they call the "secret hour" which occurs at midnight. At that time, people who were born at exactly midnight have an hour of time that no one else knows about or can perceive. The problem is, that's when the monsters come out.


Together, the five Midnighters (each with his or her own special talent) try to understand exactly why the Secret Hour came about, what the various monsters are trying to accomplish, and how to stop them. Being a book for younger readers, you're pretty sure none of them are going to die, but as the series progresses the situations become more and more dangerous, and it becomes more and more likely that one or more of the Midnighters won't survive the final battles.

As in some other book series, these books are really just parts one through three of the same book. (These more so than even the Mediator series by Meg Cabot. While you could read just one of those books and get a whole story, you can't do so with the Midnighters. None of the three stands on its own.)


Scott Westerfeld writes books that have very original ideas. If the idea of a "secret hour" isn't itself unique (something I'm not certain about), what he does with the idea is. We have teenagers, all with their own faults and strengths being forced to go beyond anything they ever believed they could accomplish. They have their petty disputes and jealousies, romances and friendships, and everyone feels left out of the group at some time. Yet they always know that they must work together. They know that their lives may depend upon one another and each must trust that the others will do what they would do. In short, these kids are very believable as kids, even if they do have an awfully heavy weight placed upon them.


I like Westerfeld's writing. In the case of these books, he often switches viewpoint from character to character to give us, the readers, more information about what other characters are feeling and doing. The technique works very well, especially with the character Dess. As she is the loner of the five, most of the time we see her only with the entire group, so handing off the narrative to her allows for some needed insight.


What you won't find here is a lot of very complex plot or intricate interrelationships between people. But that's okay. The age group he's shooting at is probably around thirteen, and that explains the straight forward plot of the books. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying what he's written in bad or even boring -- it isn't. It completely fits what I believe the author was trying to do, which is write an exciting story for young teens. And Scott Westerfeld completely accomplished that. More than accomplished it, for the Midnighters is a fast moving, exciting story for pretty much anyone.


Rating: 7.7/10

The Mediator (Series) by Meg Cabot

Book 1: Shadowland
Book 2: Ninth Key
Book 3: Reunion
Book 4: Darkest Hour
Book 5: Haunted
Book 6: Twilight

I picked up the first Mediator book just to see what it was like. I saw it and the first four sequels at my local half price book store, read a bit inside and thought it might be a fun read.

I was abosultely right.

Suze (short for Susannah), can see the dead. Not just see them, in fact, but talk to them and interact with them. And, when necessary, throw a punch or two just to show them who's boss. As a Mediator, she tries to help the dead with what ever is keeping them here. Sometimes it can be simple -- like making sure that a locket is given to the right person. Sometimes it's more complex, and sometimes neither she nor the dead know what it will take to get the ghost to move on.

At sixteen, this Mediator thing has caused some problems for Suze. Up 'till now, she's live in New York City, and she's been trying to be a good mediator, but sometimes being a good mediator has gotten her into trouble. Like, for example, getting brought home by the police.

But now her mom has remarried to a guy that lives in Carmel, California. And who has three sons. And now she's left the place she's lived her whole life and moved to Carmel. When she gets there, it's not that it's not a nice house, and they've given her a great room with a view of the ocean. There's just this one little thing. Her room happens to also be occupied by a ghost. A male ghost. A kinda hot looking male ghost name Jesse.

And so starts the first book of the Mediator series.

Suze is just the sort of character I love reading. She's spunky, funny, sarcastic, and does what she believes is right, whether or not people around her think she should. (She reminds me a lot of Max in the Maximum Ride series). Each book of the series has Suze working with a new ghost or ghosts, and each slowly expands and defines her relationship with Jesse, the ghost who was murdered in her room 150 years ago.

In the third book in the series, Paul is introduced. While he doesn't have much to do in Darkest Hour, in Haunted and Twilight he plays major roles. Paul is another mediator, but he doesn't act like a mediator. And Suze finds out there are things he can do that she had no idea were possible. While he's willing to teach her, he also seems to very badly want her as a girlfriend. He confuses Suze -- she doesn't like him, yet she finds him very attractive.

Suze is confused about her feelings for Jesse, about her feelings for Paul, about what Paul is doing and has done, and finds she can't tell the truth to anyone. This is all part of what makes the books fun. Suze is never really unhappy given what's going on inside her, just confused. And she's got reasons to be confused. She can't very well take Jesse to the prom. Even though she can see and feel him, no one else could, and she'd look more than a bit strange. On the other hand, Paul isn't really her sort of guy...

And so it goes.

The six books make up a single story. Probably the best way to think of them is that each is a novelette. The page count in each book may be more than 300, but that's with a large type face and wide spacing, so the actual length isn't that great. (I'm a medium to quick reader, and I can read one of these in less than two hours.)

You've probably heard of the movie The Princess Diaries. Meg Cabot wrote the novel that movie was based upon. (She also wrote quite a few sequels to that novel.)

These are just simply fun to read, with a lot of humor and a nice love story connecting them all. I highly recommend them.

Rating: 9/10

"The Time Traveler's Academy" by Reginald Williams

Last night I finished "The Time Traveler's Academy" by Reginald Williams. In the book, a meteor shower lands an organism that, by itself, is completely harmless. However, the organism manages to combine the bubonic plague virus with the avian flu virus. Anyone without natural immunity to the virus who contracts it, dies. John, a former special operatives soldier, is drafted back into service to train and then lead a crew on a time machine to obtain a cure for the virus and save humanity.

It's said that any good science fiction novel has only one fantastic concept that the read is forced to accept, the thought being that too many fantastic concepts make the novel unbelievable. This book didn't stop with just one or two. Here's some of them:

1. Time travel
   
2. A virus from space that can interact and combine two earth viruses.
   
3. A society on a planet across the galaxy and thousands of years in the past speaks English.
   
4. The people on that planet look like us, as well
   
5. Because a person eats some food on an alien planet, he "adapts" to being near a black hole
   
6. Having adapted to being near the black hole, he's now a superman (Well, he's really the superhero The Flash).
   
7. He's able to run (yes, *run*) on Earth and Mars at the speed of light.
   
8. He creates a tornado that tosses himself and a large, heavy, object into space.
   
9. He ends up on Mars after tossing stuff into space. Oh yeah, he can breathe Martian air.

I'll give the author numbers one and two. They are what the book is based upon and actually I thought the explanation for the virus and what happened was well done.

When the aliens spoke English, it gave me a pause, but I let it go. I don't believe it could happen, but it was early in the book, so I just, well, kinda pretended it didn't happen that way.

When our heroes adapted, it wasn't clear to me what was going on -- and then John ran across three states in a matter of seconds. Then, later, he uses his ability to run at the speed of light to travel in time. It was about here that the book completely broke down for me. Even assuming someone could move their legs fast enough to run the speed of light -- something I can't believe -- I *really* can't believe that it could be done. He just couldn't get enough traction! And even at slower speeds -- as when he runs across three states in a matter of seconds -- how the heck is he going to stop?

And as for this tornado thing, well, I have real problems believing that a tornado is going to toss any thing as high as even low Earth orbit. And then to have him land on Mars -- well, while there is an extremely slight possibility it could happen, it's kinda like one person throwing a rock blindly into the air, and another person firing a gun blindly into the air and having the bullet hit the rock. Only not as likely.

In general, the science in this book is abominable. Horrible. I don't see how anyone who has ever taken a physics course could believe the stuff in this book.

Since I've ranted a bit about the science, let me rant about an internal inconsistency.

We are told that going back in time is bad. Very bad. It can cause the universe to restart -- essentially cause another big bang. And if not that, then these creatures will come around and destroy you if you get too close to causing the universe to reset.

But, wait! Didn't I mention a planet a long way away and thousands of years in the past that spoke English? Uh, yeah, I did. This planet is the one on which they have decided they will find the cure to the virus. The author uses some meaningless mumbo-jumbo to explain that they aren't *really* traveling to that planet's past, so it's okay. But it's also quite clear that they do travel to the planet's past, because they change it's future. And, besides, it doesn't even exist by the time this story takes place.

Now that I think about it, let me add a couple more items to my list:

1. The crew of the time machine give the aliens a satellite phone which uses the alien's communication system to communicate with the crew after they leave the planet. (And are traveling in time.) Huh?
   
2. The universe is an organism that tries to protect itself from time paradoxes by sending some weird kind of entity out to destroy things that are going to alter time.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know what publisher had been dumb enough to waste money on this book, so I started looking. No where on or in the book is a publisher listed. The author thanks his editor, then gives her email address.. something at aol.com. I don't want to say she's a poor editor. I don't recall any typos or misspelled words. Or even poorly constructed sentences. No, it was the thoughts behind the sentences that were poorly constructed.

I don't sell books, but I'm thinking seriously of selling this one. I can't imagine ever reading it again, and if I forget enough about it to make me pick it up and want to reread it, I don't think I want to put myself through the pain again.

Last thoughts: The author is really trying to market this book. I notice that on Amazon.com he markets Time Traveler's Academy ball caps. He's got a website, or I think he does, but it isn't responding as I write this.

Rating: .5/10

(Notice the period in front of the five.) The reason I gave the book any points at all was because I thought the information about the virus and how it creates the super virus to be interesting and worthwhile. But don't read the book.

When the Wind Blows by James Patterson

Earlier I reviewed the Maximum Ride series by this author. It turns out that the character of Max was first created for this novel. Almost, that is.

We meet Max almost immediately as she escapes from the school in which she was born and imprisoned, and as she escapes, we learn that she has wings and can fly. We are then introduced to Kit, and FBI agent, and Frannie, a veterinarian, and eventually all three come together in an attempt to first keep Max from being recaptured and second, to free the rest of the flock. Oh, and Kit is there to solve some murders, one of which happens to be that of Frannie's late husband David.

Coming from the perspective of having read the four Maximum Ride books, When the Wind Blows comes across as an almost/sort of take on what Max was like at age eleven and how the escape from the school could have occurred. The problem is, in looking at things from that perspective, things just aren't quite right, and the most glaring of these things is how Max and the flock are physically formed. In the newer books, the kids' wings fit into some sort of special areas in their backs, and their arms and wings are completely separate. In this book, the arms seem to be the main wing supports. Max freely admits she is oviparous (meaning that she lays eggs to reproduce), which, again, does not seem to be the case in the later books. Most readers will notice many other differences as well, making an uneasy relationship between this book and the Maximum Ride books.

But one shouldn't review a book based upon how well it fits into a later series, especially when there's no claim that it should fit. So, how is it when considered on its own?

Like most of Mr. Patterson's books, it moves very quickly. Chapters are very short -- often two or three pages -- and switch between character viewpoints often. It's a quick, enjoyable read, and if you like the style of this writer's young adult books, you'll probably enjoy this one as well. In the end, there seemed to be just too many people connected to Frannie who were part of the conspiracy for it to be believable to me, and I'm still not sure what to make of the epilogue.
If you like the Maximum Ride series, this book is worth reading just to meet an almost Max at eleven. If you didn't like that series, then I'd give this one a pass. (And if you haven't read the series, I highly suggest you give the first book a try.)

Rating: 6.5/10

Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams is said to be an "International Bestseller". I won't argue. Perhaps it is. But I didn't find it nearly as compelling as other books I've read recently. (Then again, when I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I didn't see what all the fuss was about either -- it wasn't until book three that I really got into that series.)

Will Burrows and his archaeologist father dig in London. Specifically, they dig tunnels searching for historical finds. Will isn't popular at school, and his home life isn't the best. His mother seems to be in a drunken haze most of the time, and his younger sister has taken over the household jobs of shopping, cooking, laundry, and pretty much everything else, since their father, Dr. Burrows does none of it. After making some discoveries that Will isn't aware of, Dr. Burrows disappears, and not long thereafter, Will begins his search for his father after finding a tunnel leading out of his father's basement workspace. Will begins a journey that will show him his family in an entirely new light.

Probably the first thing you should know -- and something I hinted about above -- is that this is the first book in a planned series of books. Nothing is really solved at the end of the book, so you'll need to read the next book in the series to get any answers.

While never boring, Tunnels isn't always especially interesting either. It takes about one hundred pages of exposition before the book gets into the real meat of the story, and even then it tends to move slowly. With the exception of Will and his sister, I never felt as if the characters were well motivated. Chester, Will's one and only friend, chooses to help him find his father. Why? Other than the fact that they are friends, Chester really doesn't have any reason to do something that looks as dangerous as this search mission looks. A later character, Cal, accompanies Will, and again while I understand what the motivation is supposed to be, Cal understands the great danger in what he is doing, yet doesn't seem to worry about it. Other characters' motivations are even less well understood.

Further, the underground society in which Will finds himself doesn't seem well thought out. The rules seem somewhat arbitrary. Perhaps some of these things will be explored in future volumes, and some of my questions will be answered.

It's not a bad read, but there are many other books that I think are better.

Followed by Deeper (Tunnels Book II)

Rating: 6.5/10

Jumper by Steven Gould

First, forget ninety percent of the movie. Make that ninety-eight percent. The original novel doesn't have some nasty government agent or Paladin out to kill our hero, David. It doesn't have another Jumper flicking himself and David all over the place as he speeds around in some stolen sports car. And it doesn't have a long lost childhood love.

What it does have surpasses anything the movie even attempted.

What gives David the ability to teleport is never explained. At the beginning, it's simply a fact. In the end, we know a tiny bit more, but only a tiny bit. David doesn't wonder about how, he simply knows he can. When something life threatening starts to happen David teleports away. At first this teleporting is involuntary -- it just happens when David feels especially threatened. Quickly he learns to control the ability. He leaves home to escape an abusive father and settles in New York. After acquiring some money and living for a while in NYC, he meets Milli and even after she returns home to a college out west, she and David continue seeing each other.

Eventually, through some mistakes on David's part, the government learns that he is able to travel extremely quickly between continents, they want to know how, and they want him to work for them. He's not thrilled with the idea, but eventually agrees if they agree to help him.

Between the story of David and Milli, David and the government, and David and his family (which opens into a much larger narrative), I found this a very compelling book. Gould isn't the best writer out there, and this is his first book, which exacerbates the situation, but it's such a quick read that a lot of that can be overlooked. And I found David's cleverness in some of the things he does quite amusing. I won't spoil it, but watch for the first time he and the government agent meet.

What we see in Jumper is how a teenager might react to the powers David is given under the circumstances that he is in. In most ways it's quite believable. David sometimes takes chances and they don't work. His love life gets messed up because he's not willing to talk much about his life, especially once the government is after him. He takes revenge on people in ways that an adult probably would not, even given the circumstances. In short, David is a teenager who makes mistakes, and sometimes makes serious mistakes.

Jumper is compelling, interesting, and fun to read.

Because of the recent film, the book is back in print. It is followed by Reflex, which is not, but is often available through sellers on Amazon.com.

I guess maybe I ought to warn you. There is abundant usage of profanity, within the first few chapters there is an attempted homosexual rape, and if I remember correctly some non-explicit sex. If these things offend you, you probably shouldn't read the book.

Rating: 7.9/10

The Shadow Children Series, by Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Shadow Children Series:

Amoung the Hidden
Amoung the Impostors
Amoung the Betrayed
Amoung the Barons
Amoung the Brave
Amoung the Enemy
Amoung the Free

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Okay, this is another series, and again, if you were to look at the suggested age group it would be below the young adult ages. But, as in Have Space Suit, Will Travel, this is a good story and the series is worth a read.

In Amoung the Hidden, we meet Luke, a "third child". He is the third son of a family in a nation in which parents are legally limited to have only two children. Any third's can be immediately be put to death. Luke has been in hiding his entire life, but it hasn't been too cumbersome until now because in living on a farm with no other homes near, there has been no danger of him being seen. Now new houses for "Barons", people who are, in Luke's eyes, rich, have been erected near by and people have moved into those houses. Luke can no longer leave the house for hear of being seen, but worse, he must stay hidden even within his home. He can't eat with his family, for fear someone will see him through the window. During the day when no one but Luke is home, he must stay in the attic so that window shades need not be drawn and raise suspicion.

However, one day Luke spies someone in a Baron's house that he can see from his attic window. The house was supposed to be empty. Eventually, Luke decides there is a third child living in the house, and he sneaks over to meet the child. This third child turns out to be Jen, who is approximately Luke's age. However, Jen has things Luke has never seen, thanks to being the child of a Baron. One of those things is a computer which is hooked to a network, and with which Jen talks to other third children.

Jen is determined to achieve freedom for all third children, and works on a plan to do just that during some of the times that Luke visits her.

Amoung the Hidden is the only book in the entire series that can be read as a stand alone book. All the others in the series are based upon the preceding books in one way or another.

This is an amazing little book. We feel Luke's frustration and loneliness as his parent's push him further into the shadows trying to keep him safe, yet at the same time distancing themselves both emotionally and physically from him. It's his desperateness that forces him to Jen's doorstep, but it's Jen's companionship that keeps him there. The plight of Luke -- much worse off in so many ways than Jen -- seems hopeless. We see no way for him to ever escape the prison sentence he has been given as a third child, and, in the end, even Jen fails him in that regard.

I haven't yet found a book I disliked by this author, and I doubt this book would disappoint anyone who enjoys the alternate future/science fiction genre.

The entire series of books takes place over a very short period of time -- at most perhaps two years. Each of the following books is a single chapter in the struggle to free the third children and to bring a new and less restrictive government to the land. Each book is short, and each succeeding book builds upon the previous books in the series. In general, I felt that it turned out to be too easy to accomplish the changes the people wanted, but unlike in some stories, we do see people important to us die, and we see people important to us go through extreme hardships, and those make it a little easier to believe that the rest of the people in the country have chosen to rebel as well.

I didn't like any of the following books as well as I liked the first book, but that isn't a strike against the other books, it's more a point for the first.

Amoung the Hidden, Rating: 9.5/10

Entire Series, Rating: 8.7/10

Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert Heinlein

Technically, this is a juvenile, aimed at a somewhat lower age group than young adult. But this is such a great story, and from one of the great science fiction writers, that I think it has to be included.

Have Space Suit, Will Travel, is the story of Kip. Kip wins a contest and by way of a prize is given a used spacesuit. Weeks later, after completely reconditioning the suit, he is out taking a final walk in the suit before selling it to pay for college expenses, he hears a mayday from someone calling themselves Peewee. Within a few moments, Kip is captured by two unscrupulous men who are working with even nastier aliens, and is trying to save Peewee, a young girl, and the Mother Thing, yet another species of alien. Both Peewee and the Mother Thing have been kidnapped by the bad aliens, and a good part of the story is Kipp doing what he can to try to save the two of them.

This is a story in the grand tradition of science fiction -- good guys and bad guys, good aliens and bad aliens, a world saved, a world lost, and entirely believable characters in both Kip and Peewee. It also foreshadows some of the types of characters we see later in Heinlein's writing -- Kip is an extremely capable engineer/mechanic, though he has only just graduated high school. Peewee is a strong young girl, capable and smart, though she sometimes gets into more than she can handle. It does have some anachronisms. The contest Kipp enters involves sending in soap labels. Kipp works at a very 1950 style drugstore. But once Kip gets into space, the anachronisms, if there are any, are easily ignored.

For me, there has always seemed to be a bit of romance in the story as well. By the end of the story, Kip and Peewee like each other a lot, and while he's much too old for her at the time the story ends, let a few years go by and the age doesn't matter so much anymore. But maybe that's just me.. :-)

I have nothing bad to say about this book. It can be enjoyed by anyone, from preteen to adult, and is simply a very good read from an acknowledged master of science fiction. Very highly recommended.

Rating 10/10

The Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson

Maximum Ride Book 1: The Angel Experiment
Maximum Ride Book 2: School's Out - Forever
Maximum Ride Book 3: Saving the World
Maximum Ride Book 4: The Final Warning

All by James Patterson

Let me start by saying that that book one of this series is actually a sort of sequel itself. The book When the Wind Blows introduces Max, and the story is continued in the book The Lake House. I haven't had the chance to read either one of these books, but my understanding is the Max is not the main character in either book.

I'm starting with books one through three, as they form a distinct trilogy and storyline.

If you haven't heard about this series, then it needs a bit of explanation. Max and the "flock" have been genetically altered to have wings and to be able to fly. At the beginning of book one, they have escaped from the laboratory with the help of a scientist named Jeb, and have been living in a secluded place for a couple of years.

Soon after book one begins, they are attacked by "Erasers", also genetically altered humans, but these have been bred to fight. One of the flock, Angel, is abducted, and the flock is off to save her.

While each of the first three books has a specific plot, there is an overall story arc for the three books: Max and the flock against the scientists who created them and who are sending the Erasers out to find and return them. While not everything is tied up at the end of book three (how can you tie up the loose ends of having bird kids flying around the U.S.?), certainly the ending of the third book ties up what must be tied up.

I really enjoyed these books. They are fast moving, exciting, and, very often, funny. Max is a joy to listen to, and each of the members of the flock has his or her own voice and style. We watch as they try to find their parents, and both the joys and sadnesses of failing -- or succeeding. Told in the first person (most of the time) by Max, we get to see how leadership wears on her, how difficult it is for her to literally have the life or death of the flock in her hands. How she handles this responsibility, and sometimes how she doesn't handle it, is an important part of the story.

I tend to go to Amazon.com and look at how other people have reviewed the books I'm reviewing. I do this for several reasons. Often I'm in love with a book, and reading the less complementory reviews might help me see some of the faults that I'm missing. In reading the reviews this time I couldn't find any clear pattern for the first three books, except for one -- the ratings tended to go down for each new book.

While I guess I'd have to agree, I also can't bring myself to rate just a single book of the first three. These books are so intertwined, that I don't believe it does them justice to read any one of them -- all three really ought to be read, and they really need to be judged together.

That said, I'm rating Maximum Ride, Books 1-3 as one story.

Rating: 8.5/10

Okay, now on to book four.

The flock is asked to go to Antarctica to help with studies on global warming.

Huh?

Well, it makes a little more sense when you read it in the book, but not, I guess, a lot. We get all sorts of good reasons as to why they can help and nothing else will work, but let's be honest, there aren't really very many good reasons why there aren't other solutions to the problems presented that only the flock can solve.

There's also another bad corporation that wants to kill off the flock, and that's how things get complicated later in the book.

Okay, it's not very original. Okay, there's a lot about global warming. Okay it doesn't all make a lot of sense. But it's still fun. We still get Max and Fang and the awkwardness between them, and the flock continues to evole in unusual ways (I mean, who would ever have guesed about Gazzy?). It's still a fun read, and it begins what I'm guessing will be another trilogy of books.
It seems most reviewers disliked this book because of the amount of information (some called it propaganda) about global warming. I'm not going to get into a discussion about global warming here, it isn't appropriate. Since that's the major theme of the book, if you aren't interested, then this is one you might want to skip. On the other hand, if you're into reading the next chapter in Max and the flock's tale, don't skip it. It certainly isn't the best book in the series, and may even be the worst, but just because it's about Max, it's worth a read, at least for me.

Rating: 7.5/10

A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray

A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray, is about a sixteen year old girl named Gemma Doyle. Gemma has grown up in India with her mother and father, but she desperately wants to go to England for schooling. When her mother is killed, she gets her wish. She is sent to England, and then to a boarding school. Initially snubbed by the popular girls in the school, she blackmails herself and her roommate into the clique. She deals with visions, a mysterious and ghostly young girl who leads her to a diary, and eventually with powers she does not completely understand.

From the blurb on the back, it seemed like an interesting story, but even after my purchase I was somewhat reluctant to start the book. It got pushed to the bottom of my reading stack, and continued getting pushed down as I purchased more books. When I finally got around to starting it, I didn't want to put it down.

A Great and Terrible Beauty may be set as a gothic, but it doesn't read like one. Bray does an excellent job of weaving together the various stories of the difficulties of being in a finishing school at that time, the girls' loves and lives, and Gemma's powers. Gemma is a very likeable girl, and her problems in the school are in many ways problems most of us have faced. I never thought I'd like to read about girls in a finishing school in the late 1800s, but the author not only kept me interested, but kept me wishing I had more time to read. Rarely was I ready to put the book down.

But it isn't just a history. Something is going on, and it's not until late in the book that we really understand just what that something is. Gemma struggles with her decisions and her abilities and makes choices, and not always the best choices.

A Great and Terrible Beauty, now subtitled The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, is followed by Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing.

While perhaps this book wasn't generally exciting, it is constantly interesting and compelling. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and enough that I purchased the second book in the trilogy.

Rating: 7.5/10