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.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Friday, May 30, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
"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:
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.
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:
- Time travel
- A virus from space that can interact and combine two earth viruses.
- A society on a planet across the galaxy and thousands of years in the past speaks English.
- The people on that planet look like us, as well
- Because a person eats some food on an alien planet, he "adapts" to being near a black hole
- Having adapted to being near the black hole, he's now a superman (Well, he's really the superhero The Flash).
- He's able to run (yes, *run*) on Earth and Mars at the speed of light.
- He creates a tornado that tosses himself and a large, heavy, object into space.
- 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:
- 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?
- 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.
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