Monday, May 2, 2011

FOREVER trailer

Maggie Stiefvater's third and final book in her Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Forever, comes out in the US and UK on July 12, 2011! 

Maggie is a superb author and if you are unfamiliar with her books, Shiver is the place to start. 

Or you can also check out my personal favorites, Lament and Ballad.

In the meantime, check out the Forever trailer, made by the author herself!



Maggie has made exquisite trailers for Shiver and Linger as well, which you can find here:



And what's ever MORE amazing, she composed original music for all three trailers!!!!

Enjoy!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Published:May 15, 2005 by Square Fish
Word Count: 60,779
Series: n/a
Source: library audiobook

My Grade: C

Synopsis from GoodReads.com: Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older...
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

This book starts out with a good idea, but doesn't fully deliver. The author commits to tackling a heavy issue like teenage death, but then seems afraid to fully wrestle with the strife that that involves, instead staying on the light side of things like talking to dogs and getting a driver's license. Overall the book felt like wasted potential, failing to plunge to the depths of the issues it presents. It was like eating only the icing on a piece of cake.

I thought the way the author handled the love triangle between Owen, Emily and Liz was too simplistic and juvenile, and did not reflect the complexities that such a situation would involve. Owen was married to Emily on Earth, but died and since fell in love with Liz in Elsewhere. When Emily also dies and joins Owen in Elsewhere, he gives up Liz but soon finds he is no longer in love with Emily. This problem is nicely solved by Emily volunteering to leave, and the rest of the book continues with Owen and Liz's relationship like the whole episode never happened. That just rubbed me the wrong way.

I kept thinking the book was over after Owen rescued Liz from her batched attempt to float back to Earth with the babies. But it just kept going on and on, indicating an ill-placed climax and awkward pacing.

Head-hopping! Ahhh!! I can't stand it! It's always so blatantly obvious and it really pulls me out of the story.

One reviewer on GoodReads.com says this book reads like a hallmark movie, sappy and hopelessly predictable. That's as good an estimation as I've seen of Elsewhere.
 
Find it on Amazon: Elsewhere

Visit the author's website:
http://www.memoirsofa.com/Elsewhere.html

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Review: Peter and the Starcatchers

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Published: Hyperion Books, 2004
Word Count: 83,150
Series: Peter and the Starcatchers, book one
Source: library audio book
 
My Grade: B

Synopsis from GoodReads.com:  A fast-paced, impossible-to-put-down adventure awaits as the young orphan Peter and his mates are dispatched to an island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They set sail aboard the Never Land, a ship carrying a precious and mysterious trunk in its cargo hold, and the journey quickly becomes fraught with excitement and danger. Discover richly developed characters in the sweet but sophisticated Molly, the scary but familiar Black Stache, and the fearless Peter. Treacherous battles with pirates, foreboding thunderstorms at sea, and evocative writing immerses the reader in a story that slowly and finally reveals the secrets and mysteries of the beloved Peter Pan.

I don't know about you, but I felt as though this book explained away some of the mystery of the Peter Pan story. Like: Where exactly did Peter come from? Why can he fly all the time without the constant need for fairy dust? How did fairies come to inhabit Neverland? How did Neverland get it's name? Just who is Captain Hook and how did he come to be on Neverland? The uncertainty behind these types of questions gives the Peter Pan mythos the aire of a dream or of Fairyland, and I think it's supposed to. Interacting with this story as a child (as I think most of us did), we did not wonder about these things but simply accepted the story and the fairies/people who existed in it as it was. I didn't like that Barry and Pearson gave a definite reason for these things. It takes away the magical quality of the story a bit.

Also, I can't remember if things like why Peter stays a boy forever are explicitly explained in the original book, or if I simply decided it was living on Neverland that stopped his growth. But if it was the latter, then I like the fact that we can come up with our own conclusion as to why things like that are the way they are in the Peter Pan story. (The authors give a different reason than mine, by the way, as to why Peter doesn't grow up).  Also, the original Peter Pan tells us pretty clearly that not growing up is Peter's CHOICE. In this book, that choice is clearly taken away. I am harping on this because this is one of the unique pivotal features of Peter Pan (the story and the character). And if you are going to write a prequel to Peter Pan, then at least make it consistent with the existing mythology!!  

There is a lot of action here. Almost too much, but if you've read my other reviews, you know I'm not a big fan of showy drawn-out action scenes. Especially when they are there for the sake of having an action scene, even if it doesn't contribute to the storyline. All the action scenes did move the story along, and if I was a ten year old boy I would have thought this book was totally awesome. And I would recommend it to 10 year old boys. But for me, I think the action could have been condensed and the plot more streamlined. But that's just me.

Ok, let's talk about Star Stuff. You know, that gold glittery dust that fell from the heavens and makes people fly. What's that you say? You thought it was called "Fairy Dust" and came from fairies? Me too. That's all I'm going to say about that.

I found myself not caring about the antics of Slank and Little Richard, but again that stuff is geared toward young boys. Also, Black Stache seemed to just track Slank or Peter through the island the whole time, and didn't contribute much to the other action. Peter's character was not as confident and boastful as he is usually depicted. He was much sweeter in this book, which is ok. It didn't bother me that much, it was just different.

Overall, it was a great little action book that is a nice choice for young boys.

Find it on Amazon: Peter and the Starcatchers

Visit the authors' website: http://www.peterandthestarcatchers.com/

Friday, March 4, 2011

Book Blogger Hop: March 4-7, 2011

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-for-Books. 
Click the button for rules on how to participate in this fun Book Party!Book Blogger Hop

This week's question comes from Mia who blogs at Girl About Books:

 "Who's your all-time favorite book villain?"

My answer:

I tend to enjoy books that have a conflict rather than a villain as it's driving force, so this is difficult. But as I am a character person (as opposed to a plot person), I like my villains to be complex, preferably tortured souls, who have misguided reasons for doing what they do.

So I choose The Queen of Attolia from the book The Queen of Attolia, (which is the sequel to The Thief) simply because she does something unforgivable to the beloved protagonist, Gen, that makes you just want to hate her forever. However, as I said I like my characters complex and layered, so your feelings toward the Queen change as you read the book. It's excellent - if you haven't heard of these books, go read them right now!!!

The Thief (The Queen's Thief, Book 1)  The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, Book 2)

Review: Incarceron

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Published: May 3rd 2007 by Hodder Children's Books
Word Count: 96201
Series: Incarceron, book one
Source: library audiobook

Synopsis from GoodReads.com: Incarceron -- a futuristic prison, sealed from view, where the descendants of the original prisoners live in a dark world torn by rivalry and savagery. It is a terrifying mix of high technology -- a living building which pervades the novel as an ever-watchful, ever-vengeful character, and a typical medieval torture chamber -- chains, great halls, dungeons. A young prisoner, Finn, has haunting visions of an earlier life, and cannot believe he was born here and has always been here. In the outer world, Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, is trapped in her own form of prison -- a futuristic world constructed beautifully to look like a past era, an imminent marriage she dreads. She knows nothing of Incarceron, except that it exists. But there comes a moment when Finn, inside Incarceron, and Claudia, outside, simultaneously find a device -- a crystal key, through which they can talk to each other. And so the plan for Finn's escape is born ...

Incarceron is basically a tale about what happens when human society attempts a Utopia. We know from history that theoretically a Utopia works perfectly –  but in practice, the natural inclination of man toward greed and power makes this an improbability. Incarceron’s premise is as old as Thomas Moore’s influential book, and even older besides, but set in a futuristic society that is at once more technologically advanced and intellectually primitive. These conditions, paired with a Protocol that superimposes an eighteenth-century time period and forces everyone to live within the confines of that period, gives the idea new dimension and gives us new things to consider about human nature and what happens when you strive to create a perfect society.

Besides the evident theme of how a Utopia is first created and then inevitably destroyed by descending into crime and chaos, Incarceron holds a myriad of fundamental themes. These include ideas such as considering the essential nature of man; the essential nature of change, how to stop change, or why things change at all; and what technology does for us or how it can work against us. It also explores the idea of a closed-off system and if such a thing can ever truly exist. The fact that this book addresses so many prominent themes while still managing to be a Young Adult fantasy story that is entertaining is a marvelous accomplishment – and a rarity at that.

Below, I am going to look at three of this book’s major themes: time, technology, and the utopian environment.

Outlawed Time

“You above all, Master Sapient, understand what the iron decree of the Havana have done to us. We are rich – some of us – and live well. But we are not free. We are chained hand and foot by protocol. Enslaved to a static empty world, where men and women can’t read, where scientific advances of the ages are the preserve of the rich, where artist and poets are doomed to endless repetitions and sterile re-workings of past masterpieces. Nothing is new. New does not exist. Nothing changes, nothing grows, evolves, develops. Time has stopped. Progress is forbidden.”

The world of Incarceron, or should I say the Outside, is stuck in an eighteenth-century time period by decree of King Endor. Time no longer exists. And the ‘Era’ as they call it, is never-changing. This is an interesting idea – outlawing time, simply getting rid of time and imposing a period from the past on what is actually a futuristic premise. What would people do if high-tech gadgets that allowed for convenience existed, and then were not allowed to use them? Well, of course they would still be used illegally, which is what happens in the book. One thing I thought was interesting was when Claudia and Jared are ridding out to visit the Steel Wolf supporter and they pass by a hovel. Jared comments that only the rich enjoy comfort in this time period, which is very true. But, since everyone knows it’s a sham, why would they stand for it?

Even if a time period was superimposed upon another, you cannot keep time standing still forever. Wouldn’t the poor classes eventually ban together and rise up in rebellion? Wouldn’t commerce and capitalism and the pursuit of the betterment of one’s station overpower strict structures of time and eventually lead to change and even the burgeoning of a middle class? Or a rebellion that results in a change of power? Or any number of things that have happened in the course of human events? And after all, this is why we have change over time, why change exists at all. The world by its nature cannot be stagnant. All things change in time. So wouldn’t this decree of outlawing time and keeping the world in one perpetual state eventually become invalid simply because of the course of human events? You could write a whole book just considering that premise.

Ambition is Destruction: Technology in a Perfect World

“ “…There was no provision for the death penalty, but the prison is in charge now. It is thinking for itself.”
In the silence, Keiro said, “Did they really think it would work?”
After a moment Gildas turned the page… “It seems so. He is not clear about what went wrong. Perhaps some unplanned element entered and tipped the balance… a small act, so that the flaw in their perfect ecosystem gradually grew and destroyed it. Perhaps Incarceron itself malfunctioned, became a tyrant. That certainly happened, but was it cause or effect? And then there’s this.” He pointed out the words as he read them…
“Or is it that man contains within himself the seeds of evil. That even if he is placed in a paradise perfectly formed for him, he will poison it, slowly, with his own jealousies and desires. I fear it may be that we blame the prison for our own corruption, and I do not accept myself, for I too am one who has killed and looked only to my own gain.” ”

There are two very strong messages in the above passage that embody the other two fundamental themes of this book: technology and Utopia.

First of all, technology. The idea that machines will take over and become tyrants, that we spell our own destruction or create our own enslavement or imprisonment by our technology, is a well-worn one. But as we now live in a world where new and more advanced technology appears to surface before its predecessor leaves the factory, and our computers and cell phones become obsolete almost as soon as we purchase them, it’s an issue that is often on our minds and one that deserves serious consideration. Incarceron’s tale of how the prison’s technology overruns its makers and keeps a whole population in its grip is a warning tale (perhaps in the extreme) of what happens when our technology gets too advanced and we know too much for our own good. The fear of going too far, of pushing the boundaries to the absolute limit and then having to deal with the consequences is one that becomes more real as we become more dependent on the gadgets and machines we have invented to help us run our lives. Perhaps it is for this reason King Endor enforced a Protocol that does not include the use of technology to run daily life.

 The second theme here is one that penetrates the entire book. The purpose of Incarceron was to be a perfect environment. A closed-off, self-sustaining system that was unencumbered by the world Outside. The idea was that if Incarceron was all that existed and the people inside it were uninfluenced and unaffected by the Outside,  the paradise would be able to be sustained.  

But as we can see, Fisher proposes that even in a Utopia, will we always destroy it because we are inherently evil. This is such a biblical motif. In the Garden of Eden, man was originally placed in a paradise and because of our own sinful nature, our temptation and disobedience, we were kicked out of it and into a world full of debauchery and evil and hardship. So of course we can always change a paradise into a nightmare. I believe the idea here is that, even if we are inclined as a human race to create destruction from perfection, that there are still some redeeming qualities in us that makes us sorry for the destruction we create and want to rise above it in search of a better existence.

There is much more to be said about the ideas and themes in Incarceron. This is simply a snapshot of what can be explored. 

Visit the author's website: http://www.catherine-fisher.com/index.asp

Get it on Amazon: Incarceron

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Review: White Cat

White Cat by Holly Black
Published: May 4th 2010 by Margaret K. McElderry
Word Count: 76,600
Series:Curse Workers, book one
Source: library audiobook

My Grade: A+

Synopsis from GoodReads.com:
Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.


Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.


A guy having dreams about and following a white cat? C’mon, that’s corny and dumb. What guy is going to want to pick that book up? Unfortunately, based on the synopsis alone, I don’t think many teenage guys will, which is a shame, because the synopsis does not do this book justice. [Edit: The synopsis from GoodReads gives a much better picture than the one I got from the synopsis on the back of the audiobook case!]

Having read Black’s Valiant, I was hesitant to give this book a shot. Valiant was just ok for me, and with a premise that sounded less promising than the previous read, I doubted White Cat was going to be better. But boy, was I wrong. White Cat is ten times better! The story is nuanced and layered with so much more texture to it that it at first seems. The relationships – especially within the Sharpe family – the con-artist lifestyle, the mafia type hierarchical system of powerful Worker families, the deals, schemes, double-agents, and especially the memory work that keeps you guessing the whole time all combine to keep the reader invested in the action.

Family is a big theme here. Along with betrayal, trust, lies, loyalty, cover-ups, and ties that bind, these prominent themes are all considered and explored through  the context of what they mean when they occur within a family. Cassel hates and loves his brothers at the same time – hates them for how they lied to him, for what they made him do, and for making him believe he had killed his best friend. But despite that, he still wants to save them from a fate born of the consequences of their criminal enterprises.

WARNING: SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH
The most unique aspect of this book is that the usual YA fantasy premise has been flipped on its head. The protagonist is utterly normal, and everyone else around him has a special ability. I thought that was clever as it hasn’t really been explored yet. (At least not in anything I’ve read.) But after the first few chapters I started to suspect maybe Cassel is more like his Worker family members than he thinks. Then I decided I would be very disappointed if Cassel turned out to be a Worker and he just never knew it somehow. Because that would be soooo predictable and therefore, dull. However, while this does happen, Black provides an interesting twist that I didn’t see coming, and so I forgave her for the most obvious reveal in the history of YA fantasy protagonist self-revelation.

This book is the best type of book in its genre because it’s clearly fantasy (a percentage of the population are Curse Workers with magic powers and the larger population all know about them) without seeming to be fantasy at all. By this I mean that there are so many other real human issues, relationships, problems, and stakes that it is easy to forget the element propelling the story, which is the ability of some people to work curses. Yet at the same time Black has created a history for the Curse Workers that gives the fantasy element depth. She has seamlessly woven the telling of the Curse Worker history as well as its significance to the story into the fabric of the tale, so it does not feel forced, but natural. It fits perfectly into real human history and so does not feel foreign or ‘other.’  The fantasy elements support the ‘real’ human elements, not the other way around, which is the type of fantasy I like best. Also, I think it is the best type of fantasy for readers who are not fans of fantasy or are hesitant to pick up a fantasy book, because it shows how fantasy can be used to heighten and therefore highlight certain aspects of the human condition.

The writing is tight and the story well-planned. Although we are dealing with cons, which can easily get muddy and confusing and so can be hard to explain to the reader what is really going on, I never felt like I didn’t know what the score was. I liked that Cassel was clever enough to figure out what was happening but not let on that he knew what was happening until the right moment. I liked that he was confident in his conning abilities, almost like that was his Worker power, making up for what he thought he was lacking as a member of his family. I only hope that Black will not fall prey to the pitfalls of complex plots and subplots in her second book. I am more excited for the sequel to White Cat than I have been for a sequel in a long while.

Find it on Amazon: White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)

Visit the author's website:
http://www.blackholly.com/

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Review: Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Published: August 31st 2010 by Margaret K. McElderry
Word Count:131,487
Series: Infernal Devices, book one
Source: library audiobook

My Grade: A


Synopsis from GoodReads: When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them.  As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.


I don't have much to say about this book except that it was a good solid read and exactly what I would expect from the author of the Mortal Instruments series. The similarities between Will Herondale and Jace Wayland were easy to see and satisfying to discover, but not so apparent that they seemed like the same character. Quite the opposite.

The plot twists were well devised and well disguised. Clare is a master at backstory and revealing that backstory slowly to provide revelations to the characters and the readers about what is happening in the present. Like in the Mortal Instrument series, I am interested to find out more about Will's  and Jem's pasts and especially Tessa's origins and parents' lives and what that may reveal about the nature of what or who she is. This first book in the Infernal Devices series, while being a satisfying read with a complex story and plenty of information to keep us on the edge of our seats, also seems like only the tip of an iceberg of a much bigger story that will unfold in the upcoming sequels.


Note: The last sentence in the plot summary is a bit misleading, I think. Tessa doesn't really have to chose between saving her brother or helping her friends, and I would say this book is less about love than its predecessor series, The Mortal Instruments.

Find it on Amazon:Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1)

Visit the author's website: http://www.theinfernaldevices.com/

Books on this blog

  • City of Bones, Book One of The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
  • Eighth Grade Bites, The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer
  • Evermore by Alyson Noel
  • Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
  • Magyk, Book One of the Septimus Heap Series by Angie Sage
  • The Alchemyst: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
  • The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud