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