. . . A Discount Ticket to Everywhere

And All Between, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:29:54 GMT

And All Between, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

When we left the world of Green-sky at the end of Below the Root, Genaa had discovered that her father was still alive in Erda, D'ol Falla and Raamo had decided that the illness and loss of Spirit-skills among the Kindar were the result of the sparation between the Erdlings and the Kindar -- and the gulf between the Kindar and the Ol'zhaan, as well. They came to the decision that the Erdlings and Kindar needed to be reunited.

But before we can see how Falla and Raamo plan to reunite the peoples and put their plan into action, we go back to the beginning of Below the Root and see those same days through the eyes of Teera and the Erdlings.

I am very glad we covered this territory, although watching the same dialogue rehashed with a different perspective character gets a little tiring after a while. We needed to see Erdling society and the events that led up to Teera's departure from Erda. We needed to see Teera adjusting to the world above the root, both on her own in the forest, and then while living with the D'oks. And, I believe, we especially needed to see the scene where Teera's parents tell her that they are going to have to eat Haba. We see how sorry her parents are that they are going to have to sacrifice the lapan, and see Teera being told that they have actively put off sacrificing Haba because of her status as an only child.

After Teera runs away, we also see the Erdlings looking for her. Her parents search for her for days, and finally her father is excused from his job to continue the search.

As we know, word will reach her parents that Teera is all right and is in Orbora. This moment happens at the halfway point of And All Between.

At this point, just as Raamo and Falla decide to reunite the Kindar and Erdlings, someone kidnaps Pomma and Teera. This is where the new plot starts.

Raamo, Falla, Genaa, and Neric decide that someone should go to Erda and bring Hiro D'anhk, Genaa's father, back. They decide to send Genaa and Neric, and Falla provides them with the location of the entrance where they leave the Verban. The pair take some food and head off into the darkness.

After they have left, Raamo and Falla find out that Regle has the weapon, and that he has kidnapped Pomma and Teera. Raamo and Falla buy some time by getting Regle to agree not to harm the children until after Genaa and Neric return.

Most of the action in the second half of And All Between takes place in Erda. We follow Genaa and Neric through the far-flung tunnels that lead to the city of Erda, and watch the Erdlings' reactions to two Ol'zhaan in their midst. Not only Ol'zhaan, even, but Ol'zhaan who say that they want to free the Erdlings.

Below the Root, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:26:28 GMT

Below the Root, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Snyder's Green-Sky trilogy was the second fantasy series I ever read, though it exists in that gray area between fantasy and science fiction (several books I love are in this gray area). The first, of course, was The Chronicles of Narnia. The Hobbit was several years in my future at this point. I will, of course, review all of these books in due time.

Below the Root takes place on the planet Green-sky, home of the Kindar. Green-sky is a rainforest planet dominated by gigantic trees, called "Grunds" in which the people live, and "rooftrees" which form the canopy. The Kindar are vegetarians and live a life dedicated to nonviolence. One of the sayings central to life on Green-sky is "I shall not lift my hand to any other except to offer Love and Joy."

When the Kindar reach the age of thirteen, they are given their careers. Though saying that they are "given" their careers isn't strictly accurate. Their careers are assigned to them, but the children are asked what they would like to have as their career, and if their temperament and talents lean in that direction, that will be their assignment.

The book opens just after the assignments are given out, as Raamo D'ok sits alone in the forest, stunned. He has just been told that he is going to become one of the Ol'zhaan, the rulers of Green-sky. He has retained some of the Spirit-skills that children usually grow out of by his age -- pensing (telepathy), kiniporting (telekinesis), healing, and Grunspreking (affecting the growth of plants). He is aware that he has kept these abilities longer than average, but he cannot believe that his Spirit-skills are strong enough to make him an Ol'zhaan.

Raamo's selection as an Ol'zhaan leads him to make some disturbing discoveries about Green-sky. He discovers, for example, that he is stronger in the Spirit-skills than anyone else he can find, even among the Ol'zhaan. In fact, he discovers the Spirit-skills are dying. And not only are the Spirit-skills dying, but so is the Wissenvine. The Wissenvine was a native plant of Green-sky which was manipulated with Grunspreking into something else. It holds prisoner beneath its root the terrible Pash-shan, monsters with sharp teeth and claws that would otherwise be a constant threat to the people of Green-sky.

Adding to Raamo's distress, his sister, Pomma, is ill with something called "the wasting." As time has gone by, more people have contracted the wasting, and the disease gets worse with every generation. Originally, it was almost a form of alcholism. The berries of the Wissenvine have intoxicating properties, and early sufferers of the wasting were able to get through their days if they were dosed with Wissenberries. But now the wasting has taken on a fatal form. Now it resembles depression more than anything else. The sufferers gradually lose interest in all of the activities of life. They lose their jobs and stop eating, only wanting more Wissenberries. Pomma has all but stopped eating and only seldom goes to school at the Garden. She may well be the next victim to die from the disease.

I have really amazingly positive memories of this book. In fact, to this day, whenever I see a Passionflower, I think, "A Wissenflower!" And my rereading has not spoiled my memories of the book one bit. The world that Snyder has created is vivid and I have so many memories (most of them fond) of the characters -- Raamo, Genaa, Neric, Falla (whose name, unfortunately, always reminded me of Falada, the horse from "The Goose Girl"), and, of course, Pomma and her pet sima (which I've always pictured as a lavender squirrel monkey), Baya.

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:16:14 GMT

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau

I have now read The City of Ember five times, and I enjoy it more with each reading. The world is vivid, the characters are lively, and the entire premise is fascinating.

The premise of The City of Ember is that before an apocalyptic event of some sort, people were sent into hiding in an underground city. They were given enough food and light bulbs to support them for approximately 225 years. The instructions on how to leave the city were given to the mayor of the city, and handed down from one mayor to the next. The box that contained the instructions had a timer that was set to go off in Year 225. However, in around the 150th year, the seventh Mayor became fatally ill and in desperation tried to open the box early in hopes that it contained a cure for the illness. He failed to open the box, and the box ended up shoved in a closet and all but forgotten.

Our story opens in the Year 241 -- 16 years after the mayor of Ember was supposed to be given the instructions. Supplies are running out. Lina, one of the protagonists, has been told that there were all sorts of foods that she has never had -- one of those are cans of things called "pineapple," -- and that some of the plants in the greenhouse are starting to get some kind of blight. Light bulbs, their only source of light, are now being rationed. The generator that powers the city seems to be on its last legs, as well.; there are power outages, which are getting more frequent, and getting longer.

The protagonists of The City of Ember are Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow. As the book opens, they are both 12 years old. In Ember, students attend school until they turn 12. At this point, they get their first jobs with the city, which are drawn by lots from a fabric bag. The storyline picks up on Selection Day. Lina ends up working in the Pipeworks, and Doon gets the position of Messenger. Lina truly had her heart set on being a Messenger, and Doon wants to help fix the city, so they switch jobs.

Lina, it turns out, is descended from the seventh mayor, and the box containing the instructions on how to leave Ember was in a closet in her home. Lina finds them only after her baby sister, Poppy, has gotten hold of them and ripped them up. She can see that they are instructions of some sort, and she enlists Doon in figuring out what they mean.

There are two subplots, one involving smuggling, and the other involving the belief that is held by some of the people of Ember that the Builders will be coming soon to save them. Meanwhile, Lina has been dreaming of another city -- a city that is as light as Ember is dark. She believes that her city exists somewhere, if only she can find the way to get there.

In fact, the idea that some humans, at least, have a mild precognitive ability runs throughout the entire Books of Ember series. I actually have a sort of fear of the end of the world left over from my youth in the 1980s, and as a result, I have trouble reading books in which the world ends on-screen, so I have only read three of the four Ember books. The one I haven't read, The Prophet of Yonwood also involves a person who has a premonition. This premonition is the reason that they built Ember in the first place.

DuPrau did a wonderful job building Ember. Everything is vivid and it is clear that she did a lot of thinking about how Ember should work. Though I have to admit that I wonder what kind of canning process the Builders used that the food is still reliably good after 241 years. Nowadays, 241-year-old cans would contain more than a few unpleasant surprises.

I have to caution the reader not to rely on the movie for any of the details of the book. Pretty much the only parts that are the same are Lina's and Doon's jobs and most of the plot about the instructions. For example, Doon's father does not know anything about the Instructions, there are significant differences between the Instructions in the book and in the movie, and there are no giant anythings, much less moths and moles. Read the book; it's much better than the movie.

Michael Vey 2: Rise of the Elgen, by Richard Paul Evans

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 06:50:08 GMT

Michael Vey 2: The Rise of the Elgen

This book had some really amazingly good parts, and some kind of problematic ones.

As the book opens, Michael and the Electroclan (now consisting of Michael, Ostin, Taylor, Abigail, Grace, Ian, Jack, McKenna, Wade, and Zeus) return to Idaho. We know from the prologue that there is a trap set up for the Electroclan, but it takes until they return to Ostin's home for Ian to use his electrolocation (Ian can see anything -- even miles away and through walls -- with electricity) that Ostin's parents are not there, but his apartment is full of Elgen guards.

While they are searching for a safe place to hide (ideally somewhere they can download the data that Grace is carrying inside herself and they can begin the search for Michael's mother), Michael is contacted by an anonymous source of information. This source reaches Michael through a cell phone with no dial pad and no battery. The phone has two metal strips on the side, and is powered by the electricity in Michael's own body, which makes it unusable to anyone else.

Once the kids find a safe place that has a computer with a large enough hard drive, they find out that Michael's mother is being held in Peru, and the voice, as they come to call their source, helps them get to Peru.

Meanwhile, things are changing rapidly for Hatch. His scientists have found a way to use the same thing that caused the Glows to create limitless clean energy. I thought about keeping it a secret, but since it's telegraphed on the cover, I'll just tell you. They have created electric rats. The more rats they create (two rats can create a billion descendants in three years), the more rat-powered plants they can build. The more plants they build, the more of the world Elgen can control by threatening to withhold electricity from them.

The board of Elgen has decided that the electric rat plan is the wave of the future, and so they discontinue Hatch's project to create more Glows. They order Hatch to provide the existing Glows with a trust fund and arrange for their futures outside of his influence, but Hatch isn't going to go easily. He makes moves to not only hold on to the Glows, but to take over Elgen's electric-rat-based plants for himself.

Oh, and the rats are carnivorous. They can strip a bull clean in minutes, and we won't go into what happens to people that Hatch dislikes.

The problematic things include what is, for me, a lot of violence. Much of the violence is meted out by the villains (including the aforementioned death by rat), but some of it is the result of actions on the part of the heroes. Several people are killed onscreen, during a life-or-death situation, by a new member of the Electroclan towards the end of the book, and there are a few scenes of animals being killed when it is not a life-or-death situation. Speaking of animals, I think that Evans gets the bite pattern of an anaconda wrong, but I am not a herpetologist. It just seemed off. Though it is a mark of how good Evans's research is that that is the only real error I can find in the science.

Additionally, there is a stereotypical "bone-through-the-nose" indigenous tribe that appears in the pages of this book. This made me more than slightly uncomfortable, but I did a little research, and apparently the description Evans gives is fairly representative of some of the uncontacted tribes in the region. Something else happens towards the end of the book that made me email Evans to ask what that was about. And I'm not the type who emails authors frequently. In fact, I don't think I have ever done that before.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book and am really looking forward to the next book in the series. Particularly if Evans explains what was up with that part at the end.

The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:44:04 GMT

The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Another old favorite from my childhood, The Headless Cupid is the story of the Stanley family -- David, age 11, Janie, age 7, Esther and Blair, both age 4, their father and stepmother, and their stepsister, Amanda, age 12.

The book opens as the four Stanley children await the arrival of their new stepsister. They have only met her once, during the early days of their father's relationship with her mother, and David did not get an overall positive impression of her. He uses the term "upside-down smile" to describe the expression on her face.

When Amanda arrives, she is wearing a long black dress, old-fashioned shoes, and a red-and-purple shawl. She has her hair in a multitude of braids and has a reflective triangle fixed in the middle of her forehead. She soon explains that she is a witch and that this is her ceremonial costume. She also has a crow in a cage, that she explains is her Familiar.

The Stanley family is not without its peculiar aspects. The late Mrs. Stanley had some psychic ability, including a little bit of precognition, so when Amanda says that she is a witch, the kids are intrigued rather than frightened.

The Stanleys live in a large old house in the country. The house has an unusually ornate banister on the staircase, featuring vines and four large balls. The balls are held up by two cupids (they may be cherubs, technically, or perhaps Putti) apiece, holding them aloft on their fingertips. One cupid, however, is missing a head. The head has been gone for a long time, since the banister has clearly been varnished since the loss of the head, and the top of the cupid's neck is varnished over.

In scenes that have made this book frequently a feature of banned books lists, Amanda offers to initiate the Stanley siblings into her coven. She requires them to have a ceremonial costume that includes something old, something from someone who is dead, and something stolen, and nothing in their outfit can be white. She doesn't understand the import, however, of the fact that she now lives in a house deep in the country, rather than in the city. The way that the Stanleys get through her requirements are ingenious, but Amanda is unimpressed.

She also sets a series of trials for them. Of course, the astute reader will see what is really going on -- Amanda is setting the kids up to get into trouble. But the kids manage to survive the trials and get initiated into the coven.

Amanda also holds a seance, with interesting results.

Later, however, the son of the man who created the banister tells the Stanleys that the cupid's head was removed by a poltergeist. Soon afterwards, poltergeist activity begins in the Stanley household -- rocks appear from nowhere and objects break when no one is around. And where did the poltergeist hide the head?

The most important question is will Amanda ever truly become part of the family?

I had fond memories of this book. One of my best childhood friends read it, too back when I was in seventh or eighth grade, and she enjoyed it as well. It was actually a huge kick to see the book there on the table in her house and to be able to talk to her about it once she finished it.

The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:50:35 GMT

The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I fairly devoured Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books when I was a child, and would go back and reread them frequently. In fact, when I was 13, my mom's boss, the administrative librarian of her library, asked me who my favorite author was. I answered "Zilpha Keatley Snyder." So it has been a real joy to begin my project of rereading and reviewing her books. I also read every book twice before I review it, so that I can see how well it holds up once the reader knows what is going on, and these books hold up remarkably well under rereading.

The Egypt Game is the story of April, whose mother is a singer and budding actress. When her mother's career, and her romance with her manager, Nick, begin to take off, she ships April off to live with Caroline, the mother of April's now-deceased father. April excels at keeping her paternal grandmother at arms' length, largely by insisting on calling her "Caroline," rather than "Grandma." April also feigns an adult sophistication that she doesn't actually have, putting her hair up in a clumsily executed upswept hairdo and wearing badly applied false eyelashes.

April's saving grace, and the thing that bonds her to her new best friend, Melanie, is her vivid imagination. She and Melanie play all sorts of imaginative games. Then one day they see that the fence to the storage yard of a secondhand store has a loose board. They slide it open and discover a treasure trove of interesting things, including a chipped copy of the famous head of Nefertiti from the New Museum in Berlin. They quickly dub the head "Isis," and soon they have developed a whole realm of Egypt within that storage yard.

They are joined by another little girl from their building, Elizabeth, and Melanie's ever-present younger brother Marshall. Some other surprising additions are made later.

The kids take Egyptian names, learn hieroglyphics (since hieroglyphics were usually written in bright colors, this necessitates a break in their time in Egypt so that they can save up the money for colored pencils), and even mummify Elizabeth's parakeet.

This edition has a foreword in which Snyder says that this book has some basis in reality. She was working as a teacher (as Melanie's mother does) while her husband went to grad school at Berkeley (as Melanie's father is). The kids are based loosely on students she taught in her multiethnic neighborhood. Her daughter was the source for some of this book as well, since she attempted to mummify her own parakeet during her own childhood.

At first, I thought that The Egypt Game which was written in 1967, was truly an artifact of a previous time. The kids run around the neighborhood seemingly unsupervised a lot of the time, but then something shocking happens, and even though I read this book when I was younger, I didn't remember that plot development. The reaction to this event is something that cannot be pinned down to one time.

The Egypt Game ends with April asking Melanie a question. This question remains unanswered for 30 years. I can just imagine that one question hanging in the air for 30 years, until Melanie answers it in 1997. The answer comes in Snyder's 1997 novel The Gypsy Game, which is on my list, but, as of this writing, I haven't read it yet.

Michael Vey, Prisoner of Cell 25, by Richard Paul Evans

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 05:47:31 GMT

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, by Richard Paul Evans

Michael Vey is a fourteen-year-old high school freshman who lives in Meridian, Idaho. He also has Tourette's Syndrome. This does not mean that he curses uncontrollably, like in the popular perception of the condition. Rather, he has tics. He blinks and swallows and makes random sounds. Between his size (he is very short for his age), his Tourette's, his general social awkwardness and his best friend being Ostin Liss, the smartest kid in school, and himself the target of bullies, Michael spends a lot of time dealing with bullies.

One day he is set upon by the school bullies, Jack, Wade, and Mitchell, and strikes back. He zaps them with electricity and tells them that it could have been worse. That is the first time that we, and cheerleader Taylor Ridley, see that there is more to Michael than meets the eye.

Additionally, someone has been looking for two missing children for the past fourteen years, and it turns out that Michael is one of them. We find out that fourteen years ago, the staff at Pasadena General Hospital was testing out a new imaging device, made by a company called Elgen. Somehow it affected the babies born during that period, most of whom died. There were seventeen survivors, and Michael was one of them.

Michael gets an invitation to a private school with a student body of 17, called the Elgen Academy. By now, Michael knows that he is one of the babies that was affected by Elgen's machine. So, of course, he instantly realizes that this is Elgen's attempt to get him under their control, and refuses to go. However, when Michael's mother and Taylor are kidnapped, Michael and Ostin know that the school is the first place to look for them. Soon they, and a couple of surprising other characters, head off to California to rescue them.

We find out that the surviving children have different types of special abilities, all having to do with electricity. Evans builds on the idea that animal nervous systems are electrical in nature. Besides Michael's ability to project electricity, we find, for example, that one of the kids has the ability to affect the emotions of other people. Another can generate heat and light. The way that science, and bioelectricity in particular, is used in this book has led to it being named an Outstanding Book by the National Science Teachers Association.

Michael has an unexpected ability, too, that Ostin finds while testing Michael's abilities. Michael seems to be able to absorb electricity from around himself and direct it.

We do, of course, find out what Cell 25 is. The promotional material for the book offer the reader a chance to glimpse what is in Cell 25 if you visit the book's website. And, after seeing what is in Cell 25, I have to ask, "Why would I want to do that?" I know that it's just a gimmick and probably is jus some supplemental material, such as an interview with the author, but still . . . . I feel this was not the best possible marketing choice.

One of the most peculiar things about the book is that most of it is written in the first person, from Michael's point of view. However, once Taylor gets kidnapped, we see things from her perspective, in the third person. It is an interesting approach, though I have known some people in the fanfiction-writing community who would be extremely critical of this technique. I wonder how things would have worked out if Evans had attempted different first-person perspectives, similar to what Rick Riordan does in his Kane Chronicles series.

Overall, though, I loved this book. The characters, the danger, the science. It was with a very pleasant feeling of anticipation that I waited for the second book (which I have now read and am currently working on my review of). This is shaping up to be an amazing series.

Turn Right at Machu Picchu, by Mark Adams

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:02:47 GMT

Turn Right at Machu Picchu, by Mark Adams

Another book of history and adventure, Turn Right at Machu Picchu chronicles the travels of the writer, Mark Adams, through Peru. Adams worked as an editor for an adventure travel magazine, but had never traveled in an adventurous way in his life. He had a connection to Peru through his wife, who is Peruvian, and one thing led to another and he decided to follow the trail that Hiram Bingham III took through the Andes when he first visited Machu Picchu. Bingham has long been claimed to be the discoverer of Machu Picchu, but there were families living on the site at the time. So, "discoverer" isn't really the correct term. He is, however, the man who brought knowledge of Machu Picchu to European-descended people. He also may have raised awareness to the point where preservation became a priority for the Peruvian government. Without Bingham, Machu Picchu may have been taken away, stone-by-stone, by grave robbers.

The book moves back and forth in time among the age of the Incas, the life and times of Hiram Bingham III, and Adams's trek through the Andes.

I suspect that this book may be more of a memoir than a straight autobiography. In other words, Adams may have exaggerated events and personalities in the book. But it is still a fantastic read -- interesting and amusing by turns. I have read passages from it to my friends and family, just so that they can see what I'm laughing about.

Bingham came from a family of adventurers. His grandfather, Hiram Bingham I -- as an aside it really feels weird to write "I" that way; my mom always taught me that unless we are talking about royalty or Popes, if a grandfather, father, and son all have the same name, they should be "Senior," "Junior," and "III," but Adams uses "I", so I am using it, too. Hiram Bingham I built the first Christian church in Hawaii, in 1820. A subsequent church, built on the site in 1837, is still there today, in downtown Kailua. Hiram I didn't stay on the Big Island very long, and soon moved to Honolulu. Hiram I was not fond of the Hawaiians, and they didn't much like him either. The people who ran the missions agreed with the Hawaiians. When Hiram I had to bring his wife back to the mainland for medical treatment, the missionary association refused to send them back to Hawaii.

Hiram III's father, Hiram II, followed in Hiram I's footsteps, only on the Gilbert Islands. Bingham however, was born in Honolulu when Hiram II had to go there for medical treatment. Bingham plotted his escape to the mainland for several years before he finally was sent there. And when, on his way back from a conference, he happened to overhear tales of a lost capital of the Incas, Bingham discovered that he had wandering feet, as well. He spent six years going back and forth between Yale and Peru, searching for history and, of course, for treasure.

Complicating matters was that the idea of archaeology evolved during those years. Originally, archaeology was treasure-hunting. Whoever found an item could take it out of the country, oftentimes without even needing to bribe anyone. By the end of Bingham's time in archaeology, the idea that the artifacts found should stay in the country had taken hold. Adams chronicles the problems this caused for Bingham in the 20th century and for Yale in the 21st.

This book is full of fascinating characters, both modern and historical. And as someone who has an entirely embarrassing fondness for The Emperor's New Groove, I was very pleased to find out that Pacha's name is an actual Quechua word ("Pacha" means "Earth," as in the ground, not the planet). I have had less luck with Yzma and Kronk.

I loved this book and have read it several times already. This may end up being one of those books I reread with frequency.

Clay's Ark, by Octavia E. Butler

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:52:38 GMT

Clay's Ark, by Octavia E. Butler

In Patternmaster, we meet mutated humans called "Clayarks." Clay's Ark is the origin story of the Clayarks.

The only character from any of the chronologically earlier books that is even mentioned in this book is the "Clay" of the name. This is, of course, our old friend Clay Dana, from Mind of My Mind. When he discovered his psychokinetic ability, he also discovered a way that that ability could be used to cross interstellar distances. The actual specifics of how that works are sort of handwaved away (unless there is some important scientific principle I am missing here), but we are told that every human has a baseline level of psychic ability, including psychokinesis. That baseline level is exactly what is needed to power the Dana Drive.

Clay's Ark is told in alternating chapters of the past and the present. The past chapters tell how Eli, the only surviving astronaut from the Ark's trip to Alpha Centauri Proxima sets up an enclave of people with the Clayark disease. The present chapters cover the interaction of Blake Maslin and his daughters, Rane and Keira with the people of the enclave.

While this is a relatively fresh way to let the story unfold, I found it to be in a way a less-effective storytelling device than Butler perhaps intended. All of the actual excitement is in the "Present" storylines. The "Past" storyline is, well, the past. We already know what happened in the past, because we have seen the way it has already unfolded. To use an entirely too United-States-centric analogy, it is like reading a thriller set during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and trying to build a lot of drama and tension around the outcome of the American Revolution.

The Clayark disease is not truly a disease. It is, in fact, an invasion from another planet. An unstoppable invasion, because we have enough trouble fighting microbes of our own. How can we possibly stop a microbe from another planet? The actual way that the microbe came to infect the crew of the Ark is another case of handwaving. I guess the crew wasn't wearing any kind of protective clothing, either on the surface or after they took samples from the life forms they found onto their ships, which was careless. In a way, I almost wonder if the Clayark disease was meant to be an analogy for AIDS, which seemed unstoppable during the era when the book was written. And what stops HIV? Protective covering. You know what? I might be on to something here.

Even if they didn't know yet that protective covering can stop HIV (which they might not have -- I'm trying to remember), the Clayark disease = AIDS thing might have been a pretty good bit of prognostication. Unlike much of the rest of her predictions of the future.

As most science fiction writers do, Butler had ideas about how the future would unfold. Clay's Ark was published in 1984 and contained many predictions about the end of the 20th and the early 21st centuries. In some ways, she gets it spectacularly wrong. She envisioned a turn of the 21st century dominated by religious fervor, followed by a mass loss of faith when the Second Coming didn't happen in 2000. Of course, in real life, the society of the United States just kind of perked along without a whole lot of drama on any front. There was some excitement about the possibility of our computers no longer working as of midnight on December 31, 1999, but even that was pretty anticlimactic on the whole.

One of the recurrent themes in Butler's work is of a future where anyone with money lives in walled enclaves. Clay's Ark uses this theme. The Maslins lived in one of the enclaves, which the girls rarely left. Keira is dying of leukemia, though, and wants to see her paternal grandparents one more time before she dies. So her father drives her and Rane across the desert, where they are kidnapped by Eli and the other people with the disease. As I write this, the "present" of Clay's Ark is only nine years in our future, and so far very few children have been raised from birth in walled compounds, and most of those are members of minority religions.

I am in the habit of warning for sexual violence, and boy is there sexual violence in this one. The Maslins run into what Butler calls a "car family," which is basically a street gang that isn't actually in a city. They apparently drive around in isolated areas and kidnap people for ransom. If no ransom is to be had, they torture and, frequently, kill the people they kidnap.

Overall, despite its flaws in exeution, Clay's Ark is a fascinating meditation on a relatively unexplored idea about alien invasion. And, of course, it fulfills its intended purpose of filling in the backstory of the Clayarks.

Mind of My Mind, by Octavia E. Butler

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 05:02:14 GMT

Mind of My Mind, by Octavia E. Butler

Mind of My Mind opens in the late 20th century. Doro's breeding program is proceeding apace. He has a new child, Mary, whom he expects will be something highly unusual The problem is that every time he has attempted to make whatever-she-is-supposed-to-be, things end badly. In hopes that it will help her survive her transition (the period when a latent psychic becomes an active psychic), Doro marries her to one of his actives, Karl.

Karl has a nice life. He has a nice mansion that was given to him by someone who was planning to sell it anyhow, and didn't really need the money. He has a nice housekeeper, a nice cook, and a nice gardener. And he has a nice mistress. All of the above are somewhere on the continuum between pets and puppets. Karl has the ability to read, and affect, the minds of non-gifted humans.

In addition to Karl, we meet five more actives. One is Rachel Davidson, a healer who gets the energy to heal from the crowds who attend her healings. She uses the trappings of Christianity, but has no actual religious beliefs, Christian or otherwise. Another is Jan Sholto, who could not cope with the psychic interference from the people around her, so she shielded it all off. She retained one skill, though. She practices psychometry, which is the ability to "read" the history of objects. Jesse Bernarr (I wonder if his name came from Bernarr MacFadden) has an entire town under his thrall. He cannot drive, however, because he gets distracted by random thoughts from passing drivers. Ada Dragan is the one we know the least about going in. She mentally manipulated a man to marry her, but couldn't bring herself to make him love her. As a result, he hates her. She also is hurt by the thoughts of people around her, and cannot stand to be sit around and experience a child who is being abused and not do something about it. Ada also hungers to know more people like herself. And then there is Seth. Seth has a very close relationship with his brother, Clay, who is a latent, and cannot handle the thoughts that he occasionally picks up. In fact, we find out later on that Seth has been unconsciously shielding his brother

When Mary comes through her transition, she finds that she is connected to all six of these actives -- Ada, Jesse, Jan, Karl, Rachel, and Seth -- in what she refers to as a "Pattern." When she connects to them, each heads for California to find the person who is connected to them, and, most likely, kill him or her.

Doro is never very explicit about what Mary was supposed to turn out like, but he does seem surprised by her ability to connect to these people. Mary further discovers that she can read the minds of these six people without their knowledge, and that she can draw energy from them. In a way, she has to draw energy from them. Doro tells her that she is a parasite, which turns out not to be completely true.

Mary discovers that her ability to draw in actives is not limited to these six. She can draw in any actives anywhere in the world. She can also draw in latents and push them through transition. She also is a healer, a skill she learned from picking through Rachel's thoughts. She may be able to pick up other skills from the people in her Pattern, but Butler is never explicit about whether she can or not.

When Doro gives Mary two years to see what she can build, she surpasses his expectations. This is where things begin to go badly for Mary.

As with all of the other Butler novels I have read, I really enjoyed Mind of My Mind I was very surprised to find that this was not the first book in the Patternist series. It seems like it should be the centerpiece, but it is not. Like Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind is a prequel. The first book of the series written was Patternmaster, and this is the prequel that explains where the Pattern came from.

Since most of the actives in the Pattern have the ability to make pets or puppets out of non-gifted humans, the issue of slavery comes up here, as well. This time, one of the major questions is how far one can ethically bend a person's natural inclinations -- in at least one case, a "mute" (an ungifted person) who naturally loves children is forced to love a specific child. Also, the characters debate the morality of forcing a slave to enjoy his or her slavery. Most of the Patternists see no harm in it, but Emma takes a stand against it. I wonder if Emma was a sort of surrogate for Butler, since Emma ended up becoming a professional writer in the 20th century.

Wild Seed, by Octavia E. Butler

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:55:20 GMT

Wild Seed, by Octavia E. Butler

I first discovered Butler's writing when I discovered the music of Dionne Farris. Farris's song, I Know became a huge hit, but I just adored almost the entire Wild Seed, Wild Flower album. She said in an interview once that the title came from this book. Since Farris was inspired by Butler's writing, and I loved Farris's album, I figured I would give Butler a chance. And I was not disappointed.

Wild Seed was actually the fifth novel written in her Patternist series, but it is the first one in the internal chronology of the series. I prefer to read books in the order in which they take place, rather than the order that they were written, so Wild Seed is up first.

In one of the previous books, Mind of My Mind, we meet Doro and Emma, who are both apparently immortal. There are hints of their history together, but nothing is spelled out. Wild Seed fills in the blanks.

Doro was born around four thousand years ago in Kush, which later became Nubia, and which is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. When Doro turned thirteen, he discovered that he had the ability to jump from one body to another. The unfortunate effect of this ability is that, when jumping, he consumes the person inside the body, so that when he leaves that body, the body is dead. His first two victims were his parents. He, naturally, found this traumatic and blocked out the next fifty years.

By the time he adjusted, he realized that he actually craves the experience of jumping from body to body, and if he goes too long, he suffers what he describes as "hunger." He also discovered that people with psychic ability "taste" better than others do, so he begins breeding them. He also discovers that latent psychics don't always make the best parents. Frequently he has to have a child fostered by another, more stable, family. More than 3,000 years after he begins his breeding program, he begins shipping some of his people from Africa to villages in North America.

While searching for one of his villages, the residents of which have most likely been sold into slavery, he "smells" something he has never sensed before. He follows this sense for miles and miles across Africa, eventually discovering Anwanyu, a 300-year-old woman living alone in a small village. He is intrigued by her, particularly after he learns that she is a shapeshifter. She looks like an elderly woman because that is what the people of her village expect; she actually stopped aging at 20 years old, and when she goes back to her natural appearance, she looks like she is 20.

One thing follows another, and Anwanyu agrees to become Doro's wife and to go to "the New World" with him. On the way, and once she is there, she begins to understand the full extent of Doro's breeding program. Doro takes latent psychics from all races and cross-breeds them, often while "wearing" the body of one of the participants. In that way, Doro considers himself, and not the original owner of the body, to be the parent of the child.

We time jump through one hundred and fifty years during the course of this novel. Anyanwu finds a husband and raises a number of children, both her husband's and Doro's, with him. Then, later, she disguises herself as a white man, and buys a plantation where she can keep her family, who are, naturally, all Black, safe. She marries a white woman and they have a number of children (she is able to manipulate her genes so that the children look white but are created using Anyanwu's genes) together, as well. Finally, as the Civil War looms, Anyanwu takes the name Emma and plans to move her family to California.

The story is fascinating and I fell in love with some of the characters, particularly Isaac, a telekinetic who is Doro's son. But the most intriguing part of this book is the question about the nature of slavery. Doro prides himself on not having slaves in his villages, but in a very real way, everyone, both black and white, in his villages are his slaves. They live where he says they must live, they marry whom he says they must marry, and they reproduce with those he says they must reproduce with. And if they make Doro unhappy, they are next on the menu.

Butler not only did an good job filling in the blanks that existed in her Patternist series; she also did an amazing job of creating a fantastic story in its own right.

Floors, by Patrick Carman

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:33:34 GMT

Floors, by Patrick Carman

Floors opens with a prologue in which 15-year-old Merganzer Whippet visits his father's deathbed. His father's final words, spoken to Merganzer, are, "You will prosper in the field of wacky inventions." Unfortunately, or possibly fortunately, Merganzer's interpretation of this statement was inaccurate, as we discover later on.

We fast-forward an unspecified number of years into the life of ten-year-old Leo Fillmore. Leo is the son of Clarence, the caretaker for the Whippet Hotel, which is in New York City. The hotel was the result of Merganzer's forays into the field of wacky inventions. And the inventions are definitely wacky. All of the rooms of the hotel have very over-the-top themes -- there is a cake room, a ponds and caves room, a pinball room, a robot room, a room that is a scale model of Central Park, and those are just some of the rooms that everyone knows about. Then there are the hidden rooms that only Merganzer knows about.

You may notice that Merganzer, Whippet, and Leo are all animal names Fortunately, this is not a general theme, though I do wonder what Carman had in mind with these three names.

We meet the three permanent residents of the Whippet Hotel: LilyAnn Pompadore, a socialite from Texas (and her poorly housebroken dog Hiney); Captain Rickenbacker, a billionaire inventor in his own right; and Theodore Bump, a prolific novelist (who is rumored to write under nine famous pseudonyms). We also meet the rest of the staff: Ms. Sparks, the manager of the hotel; Mr. Phipps, the gardener; Pilar, the maid; and Pilar's son, Remi, who, despite being only ten himself, has just gotten a job as the doorman.

Leo and his dad live in the boiler room of the hotel. They have separate cots with a washing machine between them and the boiler makes noises constantly. There is a desk in the corner, and above the desk is a shark's head that also works as a ticker-tape printer. Requests for Clarence's assistance come out on strips of paper from the shark's mouth. We begin our story, and Leo begins his day, taking Merganzer's six ducks, five drakes and a hen named Betty, for a walk. The ducks live on the roof of the hotel, and there is a dedicated elevator just for them. Today the elevator is more crowded than usual, and it isn't until Leo takes the ducks back out of the elevator that he notices a large purple box is in the elevator with them. The words "for Leo" are written on the box.

The box is the beginning of a sort of scavenger hunt that Merganzer has set up for Leo. Leo will find four boxes through the day, each a different color, and each leading to one of the hidden hotel rooms.

This scavenger hunt is intertwined with the story of Bernardo Frescobaldi, a millionaire who wants to buy the hotel. He has sent his right-hand man, Martin, to the hotel to find someone willing to sabotage the hotel in hopes of making the owner willing to sell. The Bernardo plot is also how Carman exposits some of Merganzer's background.

I just finished my second read-through of the book (I usually read every book twice before I post my review to see how it holds together in the second reading) and I am extremely disappointed to say that Floors loses something the second time through. You know what is going on the second time, so some of the things that seemed to make sense the first time end up being confusing the second time. I ended up docking this book a bluebonnet as a result.

I will check out the second book in the series, 3 Below, though, because I love Carman's writing, and, although Floors was imperfect, I still want to see what happens in the lives of Leo and the other residents of the Whippet Hotel.

Dark Souls, by Paula Morris

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 06:13:33 GMT

Dark Souls, by Paula Morris

In 2009, I bought Ruined, the first young adult novel by Paula Morris, at the book fair at my son's school. Though the book had weaknesses, I thought she had a lot of potential.

So I was thrilled to see at Amazon.com that Morris had a second young adult novel coming out in 2012, Dark Souls. When I saw it, I preordered it immediately. And the potential I saw in her first novel definitely is coming into flower here.

Dark Souls is the tale of Miranda Tennant, a 16-year-old girl from the Midwest of the United States. She is currently living in Iowa. Her brother, Rob, is driving her and her best friend, Jenna, home through the cornfields from a party when a car comes out of a side street without stopping, or even slowing. The impact flips the car that Miranda, Rob, and Jenna are in over. Jenna dies instantly. Miranda and Rob survive, but there are consequences for them, too. Rob ends up with a debilitating case of claustrophobia. Miranda watches Jenna walk over to her, brush her hand through Miranda's hair and then walk away through the cornfields. At this point, Miranda realizes she can see ghosts.

The action of the novel begins six months later. Miranda and Rob's parents, Peggy and Jeff, decide that their children need a change of scenery. So, when Peggy gets invited to conduct a performance of Dido and Aeneas in York Minster and there just happens to be a symposium on Richard III (Jeff's area of expertise) in York that same week, the Tennant family goes off to York.

They are staying in a rental apartment in The Shambles, a medieval street. Their first night in York, Lord Poole, the man who invited Jeff to the symposium, takes them to dinner and to the shrine of St. Margaret Clitherow, a 16th century Catholic martyr. However, the people who set up the shrine were mistaken on which was actually St. Margaret's house. Miranda sees the saint's ghost emerge from the correct house.

The book has two intertwined plots. Miranda meets Nick, a young man who frequently appears out of nowhere, and who, he claims, has been seeing ghosts longer than she has. They first talk to each other while Miranda is being pestered by the ghost of a small child who wants to show her where her body, and those of other children, are. Nick explains that the little girl, whose name is Mary, was a resident of a school for homeless children. The owner of the school received money from church organizations to take care of the children, whom he farmed out as slave labor. The children were not fed or clothed properly, so they began to die, and the owner of the school hid the bodies so as to keep receiving the money for children who no longer needed it. Nick explains that ghosts appear because they have unfinished business

Meanwhile, Rob has met a young woman, Sally, with whom he is taken. Sally is home from college on vacation and spends her days working in a tearoom and her evenings working in her parents' pub, the White Boar. When it turns out that the staff has just up and quit, Rob begins "helping out," which is the euphemism that Rob uses for working at the pub. Acts of vandalism start happening, beginning with the trashing of the cellar of the pub and there is no sign that anyone has broken in.

Morris lived in York for several years, so it is not terribly surprising that most of the historical and geographical information checks out (though the part of me that breaks out into hives when I remember how some authors butcher both geography and history is thankful for it). The fire in York Minster in 1829 and the Martins both check out, as does the burning of York Castle. There was a ragged school on Bedern where, reportedly, the owner killed the children and/or let them die from abuse and neglect, and there are reports of ghosts in all of these places. She also not only got Margaret Clitherow's house right but she also correctly identifies (though not by name) the business in the building today. I cannot find any evidence of an empty, boarded-up building, though.

In 2002, I spent one night and a few hours of the following day in York. We did not spend much time in the Shambles or in the Minster. I do remember the parking lot that the Tennants walk through on their way to Clifford's Tower.

Overall, I really loved this book and am looking forward to the next young adult book that Ms. Morris writes.

The Lost Painting, by Jonathan Harr

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 01:48:53 GMT

The Lost Painting, by Jonathan Harr

After reading some of the work of Dan Brown (which I will get around to reviewing later), I became interested in books of historical mystery.

Though it lacks gunfights and chase scenes, The Lost Painting is one of those books.

The book is the story of three people -- Denis Mahon, Francesca Cappelletti, and Sergio Benedetti, and their role in finding the lost Caravaggio masterpiece, The Taking of Christ, which shows the soldiers arresting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a painter of the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the techniques that was popular then was called "chiaroscuro," when spotlighting techniques were used to emphasize the subjects in the painting. Caravaggio was a master of chiaroscuro, making the shadows pronounced almost to the point where they were figures in the painting in their own rights.

A large number of prominent art historians have become obsessed with Caravaggio, Mahon among them. As the book opens, Cappelletti was a graduate student working under another Caravaggio aficionado, and with a third as her advisor. So, when Cappelletti is researching a Caravaggio painting of John the Baptist, and she finds a reference to The Taking of Christ, her interest is understandably piqued. Caravaggio lived for a time in the palazzo of the Mattei family and he painted The Taking of Christ as a commission for the then-current head of the Mattei family.

Cappelletti believes that the clues to what became of the painting are somewhere in the Mattei family archives. However, the current Marchesa believes that everything worth discovering in the archives has already been discovered. Cappelletti accomplishes something that others think impossible -- she gets the Marchesa to open the archives.

At this point, both Cappelletti and Harr show their ignorance of archiving. Both Harr and Cappelletti seem to think that there is something wrong with the Marchesa reorganizing the family archives by the "creator," which is the person or organization who is the subject of the archive, rather than strictly chronologically. However, that is how professional archivists organize archives. So that was kind of vexing. Though I would have preferred it if the Marchesa had been creating an index of the documents in it, or even better, if she hired a professional archivist to organize the archive.

Cappelletti and her research partner Laura Testa tracked the painting to Scotland, and then they lost it. They published two articles in which they mentioned their research. These articles were read by Benedetti, who worked as a restorer for the National Gallery in Dublin.

Benedetti happened across a painting that looked an awful lot like The Taking of Christ in the sitting room of a rectory. He knew from Cappelletti and Testa's articles that The Taking of Christ made it as far as Scotland. Could it have made it as far as Ireland? And if so, how did it make it across the Irish Sea?

It is not a terrible secret that the painting has been found (in fact, the painting is the illustration on the cover of the book), so there is no harm in me telling you that yes, the painting that Benedetti found was the original. After a harrowing experience relining the painting (relining is the process by which an old canvas is reinforced by gluing a new one to it), Benedetti successfully restored it and it is now the pride of the collection of the National Gallery.

I love research (that's why I went back to school in the early 2000s and got my masters in library science) and found this book fascinating. I also love art. My poor kid has been to more art museums than some adults. So the research and views into parts of the art world that I had never seen before were fascinating to me. If you, too, find the worlds of art and libraries fascinating, I highly recommend this book. If the worlds of art and libraries are not your thing, I recommend you give it a pass.

Top of the Feud Chain, by Lisi Harrison

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:59:41 GMT

Top of the Feud Chain, by Lisi Harrison

This book was just ah-mazing. I was dubious for a while, but decided to give it a chance, and it was so worth it.

Shira has disappeared, and everything has gone nuts in her absence. The girls are now challenging each other to (often dangerous) competitions. The loser leaves the island. And the Muses are egging them on, making up even more contests and offering privileges to the winners.

One of the girls challenges Skye to a PAP race, and brings in a girl who had previously been kicked off of the island has her co-pilot. The gloves come off. Skye chooses Charlie to be her co-pilot, but Charlie decides that they should fly Darwin's souped-up PAP and bring in a ringer, Taz, to actually do the piloting. Somehow it all blossoms out of control, and suddenly Allie, Mel, Charlie, Darwin, Skye and Taz, are all going. In order to get the boys to the PAP hangar without attracting attention, they dress them up in drag.

So, with two people aboard one PAP and six people aboard the other, the race begins. Skye and Charlie's PAP takes the lead easily, but once they are out over the desert, something goes wrong and their PAP crashes.

This is where I became dubious. I kept thinking that the girls had blown it, and that they were all going to have to leave the Island. Not only that, but I was used to the storyline being the competition and was wondering if it would all be over when the Jackie O's get back. Then I took a step back and realized that this isn't really the story about the competition, it is the story of Allie, Charlie, and Skye. And to tell their story, they needed a larger enemy than other teenaged girls. Larger than Shira Brazille, in fact. Because there are things larger than Shira Brazille. Nature itself is one of those things.

Though to help them along, they do find food aboard the PAP. They also find another, less pleasant, surprise.

Shira rescues her sons, and Skye and Allie become upset with their boyfriends for leaving so easily. This means that the Jackie O's are on their own in the desert. Shira sends them a message saying that if they can get back to the Academy by sunset of the next day, the school will take them back.

So the girls head back for school, but they die in the desert and their corpses are picked clean by vultures and . . . .

Of course they don't die. But it's how they get back and what happens once they get there that I found so stunning. I won't tell you whether they make it back by Shira's deadline, though.

This was a payoff well worth the four-book wait. And although Triple ended up getting sent home early, she does get a reward. This made me happy, since I had been pulling for Triple for a long time.

Belle of the Brawl, by Lisi Harrison

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 06:14:45 GMT

Belle of the Brawl, by Lisi Harrison

Throughout this volume, Charlie vacillates between trying to appease Darwin and trying to placate Allie. Charlie has never had a girl best friend before so she doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize her friendship with Allie. However, she also doesn't want to alienate Darwin again.

Skye has two problems in this volume and their names are Sydney and Triple. At the end of Movers and Fakers, Shira saw Sydney romancing Skye and assumed they were together. She virtually promised Skye that Skye's position would be safe so long as she continued to date Sydney. Should she break Sydney's heart, however, her head would be on the proverbial chopping block next. Meanwhile, Mimi put Triple in charge of breaking Skye's "bad habits." Triple puts Skye through all sorts of torture, including dodging llama poop, to get her to remember the routine flawlessly and not rely on the music to give her her cues.

Then there are Allie A. and Allie J, who has decided that she wants to be called "AJ" now and cannot resist telling anyone who will listen about the indignity she suffered while Allie was masquerading as her. She also uses the theft of her identity as source material for new songs, leading Allie to be ostracized by all except for Skye and Charlie.

I really thought that AJ's reaction was excessive. I was thinking "either prosecute her or let it go, already," pretty early in this storyline.

Shira organizes a "Muse Cruise" -- two hours on a ship in the artificial ocean where the muses will be circulating among the students, handing out pearls of wisdom. AJ is supposed to perform her identity theft inspired songs on the cruise as well, which just thrills Allie. Additionally, Skye and Triple are forbidden to attend, since they are supposed to be working on Skye's dancing that weekend. The only one of our protagonists who doesn't seem to be having problems with regard to the Muse Cruise is Charlie.

We find out that at some point, Shira has pinpointed areas that each of the Alphas need to work on, and find out both Skye's and Triple's.

And then there are Allie's problems. First, Darwin actually comes right out and tells her that he isn't interested in her. Of course, he is interested in Charlie. But Allie still has a thing for Darwin, and Charlie doesn't want to break Allie's heart by dating the guy her friend likes. So Charlie and Darwin come up with the plan to fix up Allie and Darwin's much-sought-after-but-never caught brother, Melbourne. Mel is also a fashion aficionado and part-time model. He also has a soft spot for romantic comedies, just like Allie. And Allie is just his type. But will Allie's heart go along with the plan?

Second, Allie is told that she has to find her passion, and soon, or she will be on the next PAP home. Fortunately for her, her best friend is a genius and is able to pinpoint Allie's talent exactly -- acting.

The book ends with the number of girls at the school being whittled down to 30. Everyone is relaxed and happy in their now-much-smaller school. However, then Shira tells them that she is leaving on business and that by the time she gets back, she wants one girl to demonstrate that she deserves to be the winner.

Movers and Fakers, by Lisi Harrison

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:20:34 GMT

Movers and Fakers, by Lisi Harrison

After finding out that Shira Brazille knew that Allie A. was committing identity theft, I honestly thought that Movers and Fakers would lead off with the other students finding out. But we don't. Oh, no. Allie A. has to become even closer friends with the other Jackie Os beforehand.

Charlie is finally on the inventor track. It is unclear how she got there, though. Perhaps Shira looked at the application that Charlie gave her in Alphas and changed her track accordingly. Perhaps she was put on the track because she is the first Alpha to get a patent, for nail polish that changes color with your mood. You lick it, and the chemicals react to the pheromones in your saliva, changing the color of the nail polish.

Skye is having a crisis. She cannot seem to catch up to Triple, no matter what she does, so she decides to focus on her second and third talents -- boys and partying. She is having trouble deciding between Taz and Sydney, though. This may just lead to problems later on.

Using the excuse of having an Alpha to turn in, Charlie gets access to Shira's house so that she can shut down the surveillance system, in hopes that Allie and Darwin's romance will blossom. She gives Shira a made-up name, Ivy Lambert (based on the song "Mairzy Doats"). It does not take long for Shira to catch on to the fact that the surveillance system is down, and so who should she call to fix it? Charlie, of course. Charlie intentionally takes a long time fixing it, so as to give Allie and Darwin more time, and also to allow Skye time to hold her parties.

In the meantime, Charlie looks up Jess, an old friend from Thailand, and discovers that he is now a hottie. Suddenly, Charlie is all "Darwin who?" and she has fantasies of being with Jess and the two of them being best friends with Allie and Darwin.

Oh, and the real Allie J. turns up and she gradually earns the enmity of all of the Jackie Os (with the exception of Triple, who has no time for things like that).

The book ends on a cliffhanger that has me just unbelievably grateful that I own the next book in the series, Belle of the Brawl, already.

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but from where I sit, I think that Triple should win the Alpha contest. She seems to be the only young woman in the entire school who is totally focused on improving herself. Everyone else is too caught up in romance and friendship drama (admittedly, the romance and friendship drama is what makes the books interesting). I think that the tales of Allie, Charlie, and Skye should end in a way that they land on their feet and are headed toward brilliant futures that they have made for themselves, rather than having it given to them by Shira Brazille.

In my world, there would definitely be a message in this series about the importance of making your own way in the world. The winner will, ultimately, be Shira's possession. I can totally see Shira having a "I made you, I can destroy you" attitude towards the winner, and I wouldn't like to see any of the protagonists end up in that position.

At the end of Movers and Fakers, the body count is 21. 22, if you count Ivy Lambert. Two books, and 78 more young women, to go.

Alphas, by Lisi Harrison

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 17:49:12 GMT

Alphas, by Lisi Harrison

I really, really needed another young adult series to get into. Truly.

That's why when I found the first book of the Alphas series in the bargain books bin at work, I put it back and kept walking. The Alphas is by Lisi Harrison, the same woman who wrote the Monster High books, which I also enjoyed reading. So it was tempting.

And then I didn't see the book for a while and battled feelings of both relief (that I wouldn't be starting a new series) and disappointment (that I wouldn't be starting this particular series). One night, I was at the store (it's a 24-hour store) and saw it again. So I figured it was fate. Or something very like it.

The premise is fascinating. One hundred of the best and brightest teenaged girls from all over the world are gathered together at a special boarding school designed to make them the best they can be. Once they get there, though, they discover there is a catch -- it is a zero-sum game. One by one, ninety-nine of these girls will be sent home until only one survives.

Central to our tale are three young women:

Allie Abbott gets her invitation to the school by accident. The actual applicant is Allie J. Abbott, a famous singer/songwriter/environmental activist with the same name, but a different middle initial. Allie has had her heart broken recently, so she decides to masquerade as Allie J. and attend the school in disguise.

Charlie Deery is the daughter of the right-hand woman of the founder of the school, Shira Brazille. She is also the girlfriend of the Shira's son. When there is a last-minute opening, Shira decides to offer the opening to Charlie, on the condition that Charlie will break up with her son. Also, unbeknownst to Shirar, Charlie designed many of the features of the manufactured island where the school is located.

Skye Hamilton is one of the most famous young dancers of her generation. She heads up a dance troupe and also is pretty well-known for getting her way with the opposite sex.

Needless to say, Allie, Charlie, and Skye end up rooming together, along with a famous soap opera actress and an actress/model/dancer.

I read this entire book in almost one sitting. It is fast-paced and you really feel for these three young women as they begin to find their way in the new world in which they have found themselves. I am sure that the Alpha Academy is some kind of metaphor for growing up, but even at face value, The Alphas is a terrific book. There are only four books in the series, so I fully expect to read all of them. The only question is, should I head out to B&N tomorrow and get the second book or not?

Note: I finally did get the second book, but not the next day. I actually picked up the third book at a used book store, and then I had to go to B&N to pick up the second book, didn't I? I haven't even started on it yet, though, because I have the eighth and final Sisters Grimm book to read, first.

Run, by Francine Pascal

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 01:21:52 GMT

Run, by Francine Pascal

When Sam was chasing Gaia back in Sam, Loki's men caught him. Now, it is Monday morning, and Gaia gets an email telling her that she has only until 10:00 that night to save Sam. You see, Sam is a diabetic, and he hasn't had his insulin since Saturday. He won't last much beyond 10:00.

Loki sets Gaia a series of tests, most of which make no sense, that she has to pass before she can get Sam back. We see through this just how far she will go, and possibly more importantly, how far she won't.

Where Sam was light on plot, Run is heavy on it. However, similar to Sam, most of the plot is action. Most of the action in this volume is in Gaia's neck of the woods -- from the brownstone to school, then to the park, back to school, etc. And everywhere she stops, she either gets some form of communication from Loki or has a test to pass. Sometimes both.

Throughout the day, we see evidence that Gaia is under close surveillance. Someone is watching her, but who is it, and how can someone get so close to her with a camera without her noticing? Hopefully we will find out soon.

Ed is shaping up to be a pretty good sidekick and an excellent friend. He follows Gaia through a lot of this very difficult day (though he does have to go back to school for a chemistry test, which he thinks he probably got a C on).

We also find out that Sam has some kind of depersonalization issue going on. Depersonalization is the feeling that you are not connected to your body. Fleeting periods of depersonalization are normally the result of things like anxiety, stress, or migraine. However, Sam has something more than that here. He almost never feels connected to his body. This level of depersonalization is usually considered to be a form of dissociative disorder and results from some kind of trauma. We do know that Sam was a geek until he reached middle school, at which point his parents took him out and got him braces and a new wardrobe. I am not sure if that is the kind of trauma that results in chronic depersonalization, though. It should he interesting, if a bit harrowing, to find out what was.

We see more of Tom and Tom's worries about Gaia. Gaia has, of course, decided that Tom was a sociopath based on her confrontation with Loki in Hell's Kitchen at the end of Sam. I do wonder what the ultimate fallout of that decision will be, but we don't find out here.

I now have Book 4, Twisted and Book 9, Blood. I haven't read either yet, though. I'll get to Twisted soon, though.

Sam, by Francine Pascal

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:28:19 GMT

Sam, by Francine Pascal

Marco is dead at Ella's hands, and, the neo-Nazis have decided that Gaia did it. As a result, CJ (the guy who injured Heather) has now been given the task of killing Gaia.

Once she learns that CJ is determined to kill her, Gaia makes two resolutions: 1. to find her father, and 2. to have sex with Sam.

Meanwhile, Heather feels her hold over Sam slipping due to Gaia's influence. So, she coincidentally (or possibly not-so-coincidentally) has decided to have sex with Sam as well.

This volume is actually kind of thin on plot. It does, however, have character introspection, and chase scenes. Lots of chase scenes.

We see the changes that Gaia's presence has made in the lives of Ed, Sam, and Heather. We also see a lot of Tom's thoughts about Gaia and about Gaia's mother, Katia.

We also see that Heather is tired of being the Queen Bee. She is getting herself into an untenable position. Her parents have fallen on hard financial times, but she cannot keep her position in the school if she admits to it. So she is stuck. She is like the proverbial person riding the tiger -- she cannot get off the tiger, or the tiger will eat her. I actually felt a little sorry for Heather. Not quite sorry enough, though. We find out that Ed was her first love, and it all came to an end when he had his accident. I will have to see more about this before I can fully feel sorry for her. Looking through her eyes, she seemed very shallow, breaking up with someone she claimed to have loved simply because his legs don't work. If that's love . . . . .

Speaking of love, we see a lot of Sam's conflicted feelings about Heather and Gaia. He thinks he loves Heather, probably. But he is drawn to Gaia in a way that may be love, as well.

Gaia decides that since she is probably going to be dead soon, she had better get on with propositioning Sam. She goes down to the park and there's a very detailed passage on the way her emotions are all over the place. At the end, Heather catches up with them, and gives her note propositioning Sam to him. After Heather and Sam leave, CJ turns up and we get the first chase scene of the book, as Gaia flees.

The book ends in one extended chase, in which Gaia is chasing someone who looks like her father, and CJ, Sam, and Tom are all chasing Gaia. This chase leads pretty much directly into the plot of the third book in the series, Run.

We find out who the "L" in all of those emails from Fearless is. Though I reserve the right to be skeptical about whether we know everything, based on things I have read about future books in the series. I'll have to read the next few books before I can be certain that what we've been told is actually what is going on here.

Wild Orchid, by Cameron Dokey

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 20:18:35 GMT

Wild Orchid, by Cameron Dokey

Wild Orchid took me marginally longer to read than the previous two Dokey books that I read. This means that instead of taking about 12 hours, it took maybe 15 or so.

Dokey's writing style was just as engaging as ever. I suspect it took me a while longer because Wild Orchid is based on the tale of Mulan, and as I had never seen or read any version of the tale except the Disney movie, I had few preconceived notions of the story for Dokey to play with.

In Wild Orchid, Mulan's father is a famous general, Hua Wei. Mulan's mother died in childbirth, and Wei's mourning was so great that he forbade anyone ever mentioning his wife's name again. He then returned to the battlefield and never came home again.

Mulan grows up with two retainers, Min Xian and Old Lao, and one friend, a boy named Li Po, who lives on the other side of the stream that borders her family's property.

Mulan dresses like a commoner, in a tunic and pants, and spends her childhood climbing trees and getting into other scrapes. Li Po teaches her the things he is learning -- reading, writing, swordsmanship, archery, and horseback riding. Meanwhile, Mulan is also being taught weaving, sewing, and embroidery by Min Xian. She is hopeless at embroidery, but is not too bad at weaving and sewing.

Then one day her father comes home unexpectedly. He has been injured in battle and the war is now over. Wei is certain that the Huns will try again soon, but the Emperor is offended at the suggestion and strips him of his rank before sending him home.

He is at first somewhat shocked to learn that his daughter has been learning such masculine arts along with the feminine ones, but eventually he takes over Mulan's reading and writing lessons himself.

Meanwhile, his best friend, General Yuwen Huaji, is so impressed by Mulan's archery skills that he gives her his late son's bow.

Before he leaves to return to the army, Huaji, takes Li Po on as an aide.

Time passes, and Mulan's father takes a second wife, the much younger Zao Xing. In due time, Zao Xing gets pregnant.

Soon after Zao Xing announces her pregnancy, it turns out that Wei was right and the Huns are going to try again. An order for all of the families in China to send the eldest man in the home to battle comes out, but Wei is never asked to return to his former post as General. This means that if Wei responds to the summons, he will be a common soldier. That, plus her desire that her father be there for the birth of her younger sibling, causes Mulan to dress up as a boy and head off to war herself.

Fortunately, the archers are under her Huaji, and archery is her strongest skill. So she ends up bunking with Li Po, which helps protect her secret. The army is led by the emperor's three sons, Ying, Guang, and Jian. Jian is the prince over the archers as well, and Mulan finds herself instantly drawn to him. She does end up saving China in a much less flamboyant, but far more efficient, way than the Mulan of the movie does.

With almost 500 hours of Mandarin study under my belt, I am not proficient yet, but I am not unfamiliar with the language, either. It seems to me that Dokey did a really good job with the Chinese in this book. Most of the names make sense and seem realistic, though I am uncertain about the name "Old Lao," since the most common "Lao" in Mandarin translates as "old," which would make his name "Old Old." A "mulan" is a magnolia, and not technically an orchid at all. It would have been nice if Dokey had mentioned this, even in passing. She also, at one point, translates the surname "Xiao" as "small," and I can find no evidence that "small" was ever a surname. I also was uncertain about the surname "Yuwen," but a little research shows that "Yuwen" is one of a small number of compound surnames of Xianbei origin.

Well-written, well-researched, fast-moving, and engaging. I really enjoyed reading Wild Orchid and highly recommend it.

The Council of Mirrors, by Michael Buckley

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 02:33:37 GMT

The Council of Mirrors, by Michael Buckley

I grinned all the way through the end of this book.

And since I had not-too-long-previously sighed heavily about a development that had me flashing back to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (remind me to do reviews of the Harry Potter books some day), going from there to grinning madly? Was a wonderful feeling.

As the book opens, the Grimms, Mr. Canis, Red, and Pinocchio are now living inside the mirror, which has been stripped of pretty much everything except the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors. And, of course, most of the mirrors are broken. One mirror doesn't seem to have a guardian; Bunny uses this one to repair the broken mirrors, and we meet all of the guardians of the mirrors. The guardians, it turns out, are capable of seeing the future, and they predict that Sabrina and Daphne are the only thing that can save the world from Mirror.

At first, the girls believe that they are meant to be administrators, rather than actors, in the defeat of Mirror. This works out about as well as you might expect.

One of the things I have loved about this series is that the fairy tale characters almost have become real people to me. I work at the toys department of a Walmart, and one of the first things I saw upon returning to work after finishing The Council of Mirrors was a Snow White doll. I immediately began wishing they made a Bunny Lancaster doll and had to remind myself that Bunny is supposed to be the villain of the story and thus they wouldn't have a doll of her. But she is so vividly drawn in this series that I forgot for a moment that Bunny, as such, is the result of the work of Buckley.

We find out what happened in Snow's original story and, rather than tying something up neatly, the revelation leads to more complications. The original version of Snow's story was tragic, just as the Editor warned us. And, in a way, it underlines some of the stranger points in Snow White. I may do a separate post on that some day.

A surprising character does something unexpected that ends up changing the game completely on its way to saving the day. I just love writing spoiler-free book reviews.

All in all, I loved this book and felt that the trip through the world of The Sisters Grimm was well worth my time. That is particularly gratifying, in that after I read The Fairy-Tale Detectives, I was unsure about whether to continue with the series at all.

Fearless, by Francine Pascal

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 08:49:09 GMT

Fearless, by Francine Pascal

Back in the 1980/1981 school year, I read a book by Francine Pascal called Hangin' Out With Cici. In it, the protagonist. Victoria, finds herself at odds with her mistrustful mother. One day, as she is exiting the subway, she realizes she got off at the wrong stop. Not only does she find herself in the wrong neighborhood, she finds herself in the wrong decade. She is befriended by a girl named Cici, who is full of trouble. It is a delightful book and was one of my late mother's favorites, as well. It is currently published under the name My Mother Was Never a Child.

Recently, I saw a compilation of the first three Fearless books by Pascal. I debated buying it for a long time, but I finally bit and bought it. And I loved the first three books. Now I find it's a 36-part series. I don't know if I have the shelf space for that. On the other hand, apparently a lot happens in these 36 books. We'll have to play it by ear.

But first, Fearless, the first book in the series.

The protagonist of the series, Gaia Moore, is a genius, a world-class chess player, and a black belt in karate. She also lacks the fear reaction when she is in danger.

Because of this lack of a fear reaction, Gaia's second-favorite hobby, after chess, is to go through dangerous areas and beat up the people who attack her. She is very, very good at this.

One thing she is not so good at, though, is socializing with her peers. She has only had one relationship even approaching a romantic interest in her life, a boy she played chess against when she was in seventh grade. She also has never had a real friend.

Gaia's father was a member of the CIA. Something happened to him to make him leave her to the mercies of the foster care system when she was 12. She has spent the last five years bouncing around, and has finally come to rest with George and Ella. George is one of her father's former CIA colleagues, and Ella is his much-younger trophy wife. They live in a brownstone in the Village on Manhattan.

The majority of the plot of this volume is basic high school stuff -- Gaia makes a friend (Ed), develops a crush (Sam) and makes an enemy (Heather, whom she spilled hot coffee on accidentally, and who has hated her ever since), with some gang violence mixed in. There are also the beginnings of the overarching plot, wherein someone has a not-entirely-healthy interest in Gaia. This someone has appointed a woman to watch her, and this woman has also been in contact with the street gang.

Gaia makes a really massive mistake in this volume. Gaia knows that one of the gang members in the park has a knife and when she tries to warn Heather, Heather keeps interrupting her, telling her that she doesn't want to hear anything that Gaia has to say. So Gaia lets Heather go and almost immediately afterward warns some of Heather's friends who wisely avoid the park, but in the process don't warn Heather either. This is kind of an odd plot twist now, with the ubiquity of cell phones, but you have to remember that this was 1999, when only about 25% of teenagers had cell phones Apparently, neither Heather nor her friends counted among that 25%. Heather gets attacked, and nearly dies. I find it both interesting and frustrating that Gaia gets all of the blame for Heather's injury, but the friends who didn't warn her seem not to be blamed at all.

I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. As I had a compilation book, it was just a matter of turning a few pages to go right into the next book in the series, Sam, and I did so ecstatically There is one odd thing about the structure of the book. It is not divided into straightforward chapters. It is divided into something like subchapters. The first page of each chapter has a title and a quote from one of the following subchapters, and then the next page begins the first subchapter. It was a fascinating way to divide up the book, and also to whet the reader's appetite for what will come next. However, it took a while to figure out, and I wonder whether this structure will be as useful 35 books from now.

Back and Deader than Ever, by Lisi Harrison

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:41:11 GMT

Monster High 4: Back and Deader than Ever, by Lisi Harrison

When this series started, I read a review of the first book where the reviewer expressed disappointment that the books were not following the videos. I had a possible explanation for this discrepancy, which seems to be borne out by the events of Back and Deader than Ever, which is the final book in the Monster High series.

The action starts seven months after Where There's a Wolf, There's a Way. It is early June and the RADs travel openly, not only in Salem, but beyond. And we are finding out that there are RADs outside of the Salem area.

The overarching plot in this volume is that Lala's dad is pressuring her to do things that will look good on a college application. So in the process of researching things she can do to impress her father, she finds out that a new shoe company is looking to sponsor a high school. The theme they are looking for is one of balance between things that are different. To this end, they want the school that they sponsor to choose a couple from within their student body that represents this idea. The three couples that emerge are two Normie/RAD couples -- Frankie and Brett and Haylee and Heath -- and the jock/princess pairing of Cleo and Deuce.

Meanwhile, Melody joins a rock band. The band has an offer to go on a tour over the summer, but Jackson really wants Melody to join him as a summer camp counselor. We have to wait until almost the very end of the volume to find out which she will choose -- Jackson or Grunge Goddess (the name of the band -- at first).

There is one very important development that doesn't quite add up to me. It is so important that I had to knock off a bluebonnet for it. I have reread that part of the book several times trying to make sense of it, but have had very little luck.

Nevertheless, Back and Deader Than Ever is a fun read, and I very much have enjoyed my time with the Normies and RADs of Salem. I will miss this series a lot.

The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:11:56 GMT

The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan

I came away from The Throne of Fire with two expectations for how The Serpent's Shadow would turn out. I got a 50%. One of my expectations was right, the other was wrong. And no, I'm not going to tell you what they were and which was the correct one.

So, the book starts out with the sentence, " If you’re listening to this, congratulations! You survived Doomsday."

And my first reaction was, "That's a relief. Now how did we manage to survive it?"

The action opens six months after The Throne of Fire. Carter, Sadie, Walt, Alyssa, and Felix have arrived at the Dallas Museum of Art (I have been to the Dallas Museum of Art, and love it; if you get a chance I highly recommend a visit) to try to collect a specific copy of The Book of Overcoming Apophis. Only six copies of this version have ever existed, and Apophis's henchmen have destroyed the other five. Sadie is warned by a face that she sees in a wall, that they won't be able to rescue this copy, either. The face helpfully adds that what they need to rescue is a golden box. The face also tells her that he can help them on their quest and that they have two days to rescue him. Unfortunately, the face does not tell Sadie who he is.

Everything goes pear-shaped, of course, and death and destruction follows. Fortunately, much of the destruction is repairable. The death? Not so much.

To call The Serpent's Shadow "action-packed" would be an understatement. If I were to repeat all of the plot points here, you would probably say, "Enough already." It is a roller-coaster ride through Egypt and the Duat with a visit to Dallas, Memphis, and Brooklyn along the way.

They are no longer tutoring the initiates at Brooklyn House, by the way, the initiates are now attending a private school, the Brooklyn Academy for the Gifted, and some of the action happens there, at a school dance, even.

So. Plot. Well, they fail to stop Apophis with the Book of Overcoming Apophis, so then there's Plan B, which will probably kill both of the Kanes. In search of a Plan C, our heroes (Carter, Sadie, Zia, and Walt) go haring off in different directions. And if Plan C doesn't come together, it may all be over.

We see pretty much everyone that we have met to date in the series in this volume. The only exceptions I can think of were Nephthys and Sekhmet, and the odds are good that they are in the background somewhere.

The book ends with a very intriguing prediction and a decision by Felix that I think may be even more interesting in the long run.

Also, I have just achieved a milestone. This is the tenth book by Riordan I have added to my AStore. There are nine books per page, so I have just started a second page of books by any one author, for the first time.