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