Lucy

I miss Michael Crichton.  I miss seeing his newest book come out and wondering what current science topic he was going to tackle.  I miss reading it and being sucked into a world where dinosaurs, aliens or nanomachines exist.  And threaten to take over the world, naturally.  I miss chuckling over the fact that his books were marketed as thrillers when they were really science fiction, which meant that people who scorn sci-fi were inadvertently reading it.  Hee hee.  Any time an author I like stops writing, I feel sorry for myself that I don't get to read anything new by them ever again.  Selfish, I know.

Imagine my delight when a review I read compared Laurence Gonzales to Crichton.  It's an accurate comparison.  Gonzales' book Lucy was really similar to Crichton's book Next, which both have to do with transgenic species.  Next is about two animals with human genes, but Lucy is about a girl who is half human, half bonobo ape.  Bonobos look like chimpanzees and are endangered animals found only in the Congo.  Lucy's father is a scientist who lived in the Congo for years and decided it was his mission to bring the human race to its next level of evolution.  In other words, he was kinda crazy.  Lucy is found after another scientist, Jenny Lowe, comes to rescue Lucy's father when violence breaks out in the jungle.  Her father was killed, unfortunately, but Jenny takes Lucy back to England with her to find Lucy's remaining family.  Guess what?  None are found.  You know, 'cause Lucy's mom is an ape.  Nobody knows that, other than Lucy, until Jenny reads the journals that Lucy's dad meticulously kept over the years.

Lucy is an articulate, intelligent and well-educated young woman.  Her father spent her childhood filling her brain with more education than most of us get in a lifetime.  When Lucy and Jenny end up back in the U.S., where Jenny is from, Lucy tests out of all her high school classes, but Jenny decides to stick her in for a senior year anyway.  Now that Jenny is in on the secret, they are very intent on keeping Lucy out of the public eye and getting her adjusted to the real world.  This is hard to do, what with Lucy's social awkwardness, sensitivity to sound, super high intelligence and inhuman strength.  How do you keep those kinds of characteristics out of spotlight?

You know it's going to all fall apart and Lucy will be exposed for what she is, and sure enough, it happens.   But when it does, it's interesting how Lucy and her best friend, Amanda, spin it their own way.  They make a video on YouTube, create a MySpace page, blog incessantly about it and basically protect Lucy through public exposure.  She becomes a celebrity and by it, the government doesn't easily nap her for the proverbial tests in a laboratory.  You know that's going to happen too, but for a while she is protected by her celebrity.

The creepy parts are when the government decrees that Lucy isn't human, even going as far as to pass a law defining her existence as animal, not human.  Her treatment when she is captured is horrible and upsetting and would be cruel if she was truly just an animal.  Even the letters she gets from fans are creepy.  From marriage proposals to death threats, it was unnerving to read people's reactions.  Yet, Lucy handles it all so well.  So well, in fact, that I started to get a little annoyed that Lucy never gets mad.  She's just a little too perfect.  It's like Gonzales is trying to drive the point home that Lucy is better than the rest of us, that being who she is makes her more human.  But being human means getting mad or frustrated or acting badly sometimes.  And Lucy never does that.

Even though this book is science fiction and therefore filled with improbable situations, I kept wondering what would happen if scientists were able to create transgenic people.  This isn't a new topic.  The Isle of Dr. Moreau is an old book, after all.  And I mentioned Next.  And any book where people hate someone or something that's different.  Oh man, I'm not going to even start on a list of books on that topic.  This isn't a new idea, is what I'm saying, and probably Lucy isn't even the best book on that theme, but I still liked it.  It keep me riveted and by the time I reached the climax of Lucy's escape, I couldn't stop turning pages.  I love Crichton's books, but I never felt compassion for his characters like I did for Lucy.  It's got flaws, but overall, I still liked it.  How human of me.

Mockingjay

If you haven't heard of The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins then you are spending your days either living in a cave or being way more productive than I am.  The third and final installment in the series, Mockingjay, just came out this last month and I keep seeing them everywhere.  I picked up a copy at Costco, for cryin' out loud, that's how big of a deal these books are.  I've got some conflicting feelings about the conclusion of the series and I'm going to try very hard to write about it without revealing spoilers.  It's gonna be hard.

I loved the first book, The Hunger Games, but the second, Catching Fire, didn't capture me nearly as well as the first did.  The concept wasn't new and it felt a bit recycled as far as plot and tension went.  I was reading over the posts I did for both the books and while I gave The Hunger Games it's own post and couldn't say enough good things, Catching Fire was lumped in with two other books in a post about series books.  Not a good sign.  If I had been smart, and had the ability to wait that long, I should have waited until all three books are out and then read them back to back to retain more details.  I couldn't remember half of what happened in the previous books which made me keeping saying, "Huh?  What?  Who was that again?".  It could also be that my brain is full of holes.  I wouldn't rule out that possibility.

Mockingjay jumps right in where Catching Fire leaves off with Katniss in District 13 and reluctantly part of the rebellion effort.  Peeta is in the custody of President Snow and presumably being tortured for information.  Ends up, District 13 isn't some idyllic place to live, though it is out from under the Capitol's thumb.  The leaders of the rebellion have their own agenda for Katniss, including to be mascot to stir up rebellion efforts in other districts.  She just wants to be left alone.  Ah, Katniss, you just always want to be left alone.  You've got pouting and agonizing down to a science.  Get over it.  Be helpful or get outta Dodge, I wanted to tell her.  Grow up!  That was another one.  I felt impatient with her pretty much the entire book.  Granted, it's not like she's got some kind of ideal existence but she's so bent on revenge and nobody understands her and everybody just wants to use her.  Whatever.  At least her love for her family felt sincere or I'd worry that her character was intolerable.

One of the big draws of this book is the action and boy howdy, there's plenty.  But not until more than halfway through the book, which was kind of irritating.  There isn't a whole lot of plot before that point either, just lots of worrying by Katniss.  Then, it feels like Collins was trying to make up for the lack of action by making it totally gruesome.  I can't remember how violent the previous books where, but there's no way this wouldn't end up rated R if they made a move out of it.  That's not to say it wasn't exciting and totally intense, but I wouldn't recommend it to my grandmother or anyone younger than fifteen years old.

The other big draw is the Katniss/Gale/Peeta love triangle.  Future writers take note: to sell lots of books make sure you include a love triangle.  For me, it became obvious fairly quickly who Katniss was going to end up with, but it seemed like Collins changed what we knew of the guy she didn't go with so that it would make sense for her not to be with him.  It's hard not to give out details.  What I'm trying to say is the guy that was eliminated had to take a pretty big dive to be taken out of the running and it didn't seem in character.  I'd have to go back and read the first two books again to catch what was implied, but instead I'll let you fans of the series correct me.

In all, it was exciting but gory, satisfying but annoying.  I expected to like it more than I did and that was disappointing.  The only thing I really like was what Collins did with Peeta's character.  That was fresh, brilliant and interesting.  The ending took me by complete surprise, but I didn't really understand what had happened so I had to go back and read it again.  I kept thinking, "What now?  Huh?" during the last couple of chapters.  The very last chapter was very satisfying, though, with what Collins did with Katniss and her future family.  It felt right.  I'd re-read the first book for sure, but it wouldn't make sense to not re-read the other books so then I wouldn't re-read the first one after all because then I'd feel obligated to read the next two.  Meh, forget it.

Since young adult novels based on bleak and dystopian futures are all the rage these days, I decided to write my own and pay for my kids' college funds with the piles of money I'll eventually make.  It takes place in the not-so-distant future when the human race has become so fearful of dairy products, due to the careful plotting of the poultry industry, that all cows have been eradicated and harsh fines and prison sentences imposed on those who dare to raise them.  The human race has become universally lactose intolerant and plagued with illnesses related to calcium deficiencies.  High cholesterol has plummeted, though.  The book starts out with a young girl on her family's ranch in Montana where they raise llamas and donkeys and, of course, the government-approved flock of chickens.  Our hero, a girl named Dogla, and her family are hiding a big secret, though.  They are secretly raising a few dairy cows in an underground bunker.  A really smelly underground bunker.  Dogla has to hide her strong bones and teeth from the other kids at school lest the traitorous nature of her family's work be revealed.  When the secret is discovered  by government agents ('cause you know it will be) Dogla and her family are shipped off to the poultry work farms in Alabama as punishment.  Dogla has to plan her escape and bring down the government's evil plot against cows (and goats too, now that I think of it) over the course of at least three books.  Four if I can get a good enough deal with a publisher.  What do you think?  Newberry material?  Not that I care.  I'm in it for the money and you know these babies are gonna sell like vampire novels!

The Maze Runner

I'm so behind in blog posts that I'm tempted to just sum this up by saying, if you like The Hunger Games series, you'll like The Maze Runner. It feels lazy to only write that much, so I'll elaborate some more. The Maze Runner by James Dashner takes place in a dystopian future, but we are given so few details about it that the mystery is slowly revealed by the bare facts Dashner doles out bit by bit. Don't dystopian young adult novels feel like they're all the rage lately? It seems like I've read piles of them lately and but thankfully this one delivers on several accounts.

Thomas wakes up in a metal box, confused and without memories of how he got there or anything about his life, other than his name. When he comes out, he is greeted by a group of teenage boys living in a communal farm, surrounded by giant stone walls covered in ivy. Yup, you guessed it. It's a maze. Every day at dawn, the doors of the maze open and runners take off to find an escape to the maze. They have to return by sundown before the doors close or they take the risk of being killed by the Grievers, monstrous machines programmed to kill. If a runner is merely stung by a Griever, he goes through a horrific change that brings back sporadic memories of life before the maze. Those memories don't seem to be all that pleasant.

I like alternate futures and puzzles like what are depicted in this book, but a few things bugged me. The boys have their own slang and profanity, that while the words are innocent in themselves, are used so frequently and substituted so obviously for familiar swear words that they become just as offensive. It bugged me that Dashner used that tactic and then proceeded to beat the reader over the head with it. It bugged me that it was assumed that all teenage boys would have giant potty mouths. I was never a teenage boy, so maybe that's the norm, but it bugged me.

Complaints aside, this was a cool book.  The mysteries are slowly revealed, but not so slowly and teasingly that I got annoyed.  I reached a point in the book when I realized that this is the first in a series, which annoys me, but what isn't a series any more?  I throw my hands up.  I'll read the next books, I'm sure.  Like I said in the first sentence, if you liked The Hunger Games, then this is a book for you.  If not, I've got a whole stack of books waiting to be blogged about in the next week or two and surely one of those will interest you.  I aim to please, after all. 

Unblogged books

I admit, I like things to be tidied up. I like my loose ends tied. Here we are, nearing the end of the year and I have a handful of books I never blogged about but they won't stop nagging at me because of it. I deemed each of them unworthy and yet, here I am blogging about them. Darn those unbloggable books. You might be wondering, what makes a book unworthy of me sharing my opinion willy-nilly? Mostly it was because I couldn't think of anything spectacular to say that would either deter readers or cause them to leap from their computers and dash to the library. Those are the two reactions I prefer to instill in people. Some of these I loved and some I hated, but the most I can conjure up is about a paragraph each.

I read one book this year that I so completely disliked that I didn't even want to think about it after I read it. Usually, if I really don't like a book it's just that much more fuel for my fire. But this book was repulsive to me and I didn't want to think about it ever again after I read it. My Abandonment by Peter Rock is about a girl, Caroline, and her father who are living in a state park in Oregon, off the grid and avoiding people. Their past is mysterious and you gather that the father is a veteran with mental illness. They do get discovered and people try to help them in their situation, but everything just deteriorates more and more. It's based on a true story but the whole thing made my skin crawl. That's all I want to say about that.

Mark L. Van Name's newest installment of his books about Jon Moore and his intelligent ship Lobo is just as awesome as I thought it would be. If my blogging about the previous books haven't gotten you to pick up a copy of the first book yet, me writing yet another blog about it probably won't do the trick. Overthrowing Heaven is more action, more great sci-fi and focused much more on Lobo than Jon. Loved it.

When I was at my uncle's funeral, I met the father of an upcoming author, Aprilynne Pike. It's a long story, but I decided to read her young adult novel, Wings. It's about a girl who suddenly sprouts a blossom out of her back that resembles wings. Ends up, she's a faerie and never knew it. This story could have been very cool and original and yet, it just reads like a Twilight knock-off, love triangle and everything. Except in Wings it's the girl who's supernatural, not her love interests. Well, one of them is, but whatever. If you love Twilight, read Wings, but I can't endorse it much more than that.

Caren went to a midnight release party for The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan and didn't know what the hubub was about. My husband was seething with jealousy that she went and had pre-ordered a signed copy of the book months before. Caren sent us the bumper sticker she got at the party that said, "Bela is a Darkfriend" and my husband giggled like a schoolgirl and then dashed upstairs to plaster it to his bookcase. The fact is, if you're already a fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, you'll have read the latest installment finished by Sanderson after Jordan passed away. You don't need me telling you how awesome it is or how perfectly Sanderson accomplished the task of taking over this epic book series. You already know. And those of you who don't know probably would be hesitant to start a series that includes twelve books, one prequel and a nearly rabid fan base. I don't blame you.

I like fairy tale retellings, like Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl or Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted. They're fun and interesting and flesh out a tale so creatively that it gives it new life. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George falls directly into that category and the caliber of Hale or Levine. George retells the tale of the twelve dancing princesses, which was one my favorite stories growing up. It was riveting and exciting and very well done. I read it, then passed it on to both my eight- and six-year-old daughters who both adored it. I would gander that any child on a skilled enough reading level would love this book and would also be a great read-a-loud. I'm going to have to do some more reading of George's books if this is what I have to expect. Excellent stuff.

Speaking of excellent writing, I recently re-read The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. This book is a perfectly crafted dystopian future story about a tyrannical drug lord, cloning, and corrupt governments, but written for the young adult age group. Nancy Farmer has written many books but Scorpion has to be my favorite. Matteo, the clone of drug lord Matteo Alacran of the nation of Opium, a strip of land between Mexico and the U.S. is just as clever as his original version and with the help of some other clever people is able to make more of his life than as spare parts. Very cool, very exciting and some interesting deep thinking about the idea of cloning in general and the value of life.

Ahh, I'm feeling better. Now I can dive into books for the new year knowing that I tidied up my pile. Now if only I felt that way about my desk...

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

This is the conversation I have imagined between author Seth Grahame-Smith and his buddy on the concept of writing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:

Seth: What is up with women and Pride and Prejudice? They drool all over themselves when anything to do with that book comes up.
Buddy: Dude, I know.
Seth: You know what would make that book appealing to men? Zombies. Lots of 'em. And make the Bennett sisters kick-butt warriors in the battle against the zombie infestation of England. That would be hot!
Buddy: Dude! Awesome!

And so he wrote the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: with ultraviolent zombie mayhem. Believe me, there is plenty of zombie mayhem. Grahame-Smith said in an interview I read online that the book is 85% Austen and 15% Grahame-Smith. I can believe that. The added parts are obvious and the essential story remains the same. The difference is that England is troubled by a constant zombie problem that has no near resolution and the Bennett sisters have been trained by their father and a Chinese martial arts master to battle against the unmentionables. So you know, pretty much the same.

Grahame-Smith's concept works, if you can buy the idea of adding zombies. You can picture Elizabeth Bennett doing martial arts and Catherine de Bourgh being the country's most formidable female warrior against the unmentionables. The book is funny at times, especially anything to do with Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas. It definitely feels like it was written for a male audience (who Grahame-Smith has said he wrote the book for), but who is actually going to read this book? Most likely women. I mean, it's still Pride and Prejudice and it still has the language of an Austen book and the love story is the same. If I'm right and it's mostly women who will read it, there are far too many jokes about the male anatomy and people vomiting and beating hearts being ripped out of chests to appeal to a female audience. In fact, there are only about three jokes that are recycled throughout the book. Maybe that would work better in a movie, but it's glaringly repetitive in the book.

Speaking of a movie, I also read online that the book would possibly become a movie in the future. If so, it will most likely be the first film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice to get an R rating. 'Cause there's lots of gore. Oodles. I can imagine that will be when the men turn out in droves. That's not saying that all men love gore or that women are incapable of enjoying zombie flicks, but I don't think I'm wrong by saying it's slanted towards one gender. And that's fine too. But I doubt their Mr. Darcy will hold a candle to Colin Firth or Matthew MacFayden. I'm just sayin'.

The Hunger Games

For those you who read Uglies by Scott Westerfeld or The Road by Cormac McCarthy or I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and enjoy good post-apocalyptic fiction can add The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins to your to-read list. Unlike Uglies, it doesn't have a morality lesson to teach. Unlike The Road, it isn't depicting the most depraved aspects of humanity and yet makes you unable to tear your eyes away. Unlike I Am Legend, it doesn't have any vampires. In fact, there's nothing supernatural about the book, just really advanced technology and some seriously sick people who like to watch human suffering for mass entertainment.

In The Hunger Games, once again we are in a post-war United States, now called Panem, run by a corrupt and cruel government based in the Rocky Mountains. The remaining country that hasn't been destroyed by the war is divided into twelve districts. Each district has a main focus of industry. There used to be thirteen districts, but the thirteenth one was annihilated after it attempted to revolt against the government. Now the government holds the Hunger Games every year as a reminder that they are all powerful and the people are utterly and powerlessly under its control.

A lottery is held each year in each district to select one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the games. They are shipped off the the capitol to garner a fan base and find sponsors to help them along their way during the games. And what are the games, you ask? A fight to the death. The winner gets fame, glory and unlimited food for them and their families for the rest of their lives. Our hero, Katniss Everdeen, is selected as one of the tributes--as they are called--along with a boy from her village in District 12. She has spent her life illegally hunting and gathering food for her family to keep them from starving, so she has many skills that will help her during the game. She is distrustful of everybody so any kind gesture made by Peeta, the boy who came with her, is seen by her as manipulation to win the game. She has a soft spot for her little sister, Prim, whose place she took as a tribute, but not for many others.

Imagine Survivor or Big Brother or any of those mind-numbingly stupid "reality" shows and then change it so that everybody is supposed to kill each other off. The entire nation watches as Katniss and the other tributes fight and plot and form alliances. This form of repression by the government is masked as entertainment. It's disturbing, but since it's geared towards Young Adult readers, not graphic. It was an incredibly suspenseful book and I kept flipping pages in anticipation of what could possibly happen next. My only complaint is that it's the first book in a series when I thought it was a stand-alone novel and according to my searches, the second book doesn't come out until September 1st. That just makes me crabby. If I'm going to start a series, I want to be able to move from one book to the next, without having to set some sort of reminder for myself to remember to look for the second book when it comes out. I'm totally going to do it, but it makes me grouchy like an old man.

As another endorsement for this book, it won a Cybil award last year for the best Fantasy and Science Fiction novel. These awards are given by bloggers who read children and young adult books either as parents, librarians, authors, teachers or others. If you don't care about awards, it's still a good read. Put your mind in the world disaster/post-apocalyptic zone and take it for a spin.

Slanted Jack

I've been reading an awful lot of chick lit lately, between our co-reviews for the last two months and my own stack of girly stuff, so I decided it was time to inject some testosterone into my book pile. What better way than to read some serious science fiction with a hero with bulging muscles, mounds of weapons at his disposal and a penchant for peaceful resolution? Okay, so I figured I better get our two male readers interested again in what's posted on this here blog and thought if I wrote "weapons" "muscles" and "science fiction" it might get their attention. They are probably thinking I should have named this blog Red Hot Estrogen.

I reviewed One Jump Ahead a while back and decided it was time to see if the sequel was out. Slanted Jack by Mark L. Van Name delivers a second dose of our hero, Jon Moore, and his very cool Predator Class Assault Vehicle, Lobo. This time, Jon finds himself face-to-face with con man, Slanted Jack, who wants his help protecting a boy who has surprising abilities. Jon would normally ignore anything to do with Jack, but the boy is from his home world, Pinkelponker. Go ahead and giggle. The planet was named by a child and everybody thinks it's ridiculous. Anyway, Pinkelponker has been inaccessible by outsiders for over a century and Jon has completely lost contact with his family there. And Jon is 130 years old, but only because his sister, Jennie, changed the composition of his body to be laced with nanomachines that regenerate him on a constant basis, making him impervious to any wounds that don't include a gunshot to the head. Did I mention this was some serious sci-fi?

So if this is such a guy book, why do I like it? Jon Moore is a fascinating character. You learn bits and pieces about him as the book goes on and I learned more about him in the sequel than I did in the first book. I like having details naturally revealed to me, not all dumped in my lap. Jon doesn't want to hurt anybody despite being able to very easily. I love his relationship with Lobo. For a machine with some emotive programming, Lobo is very wry, sarcastic and you can tell there is more to him than meets the eye. You get a small glimpse of that in this book, but you can tell that Van Name is saving up for another book. The action is intense, the emotions are very real and Van Name leaves just enough unexplained so that the endings are always a surprise.

My only complaint is that the lone female character was a bit of a caricature of a helpless female. She's irrational, upset all the time, nearly useless and a seductive temptation for Jon. He's a perfect gentleman to her and the book is definitely rated PG, both in sex and violence, but it was kind of irritating for her to be so wimpy. Then the ending happens and you understand a bit more of everybody's motivations and behaviors.

I love science fiction and this was great fun to read (despite the atrocious cover art), but definitely start with the first book. You could understand everything that's going on in Slanted Jack without having read One Jump Ahead, but if you can get more of Jon and Lobo, why not read both?

Ender in Exile

There is something to be said about waiting for a book to come out. You read the buzz on the internet or hear someone say something, then the anticipation builds until you finally get your hands on the book and crack it open. I love the build-up for a much anticipated book almost as much as I love reading it. Yes, I was one of those people who pre-ordered the last Harry Potter book on Amazon, then kicked myself when I could have gone to the supermarket down the street at midnight and picked up a copy after waiting in line for an hour (which my hubby did with our brother-in-law). Waiting is half the fun, which is why it was such a treat when Ender in Exile finally made it into my greedy hands.

Orson Scott Card's Ender universe (Enderverse?) is one of my most favorite, most re-read series of books. Ender's Game is considered a staple of science fiction/political intrigue/psychological drama and if you haven't read it yet, you are missing out. It's one of my family's favorite books and mentioning a passage from it can spark a three-hour discussion. My sister even bought my brother a t-shirt that said, "The Enemy's Gate is Down" which is only cool if you've read the book. Hint: read the book. I don't care if you say you hate science fiction because this book is for everyone. Like excitement? Love clever dialog and intrigue? Have kids? Ever been a kid? This book is for you. No romance, however. Ender is only six at the beginning and twelve at the end. Look for romance in Speaker for the Dead, the sequel, and it's minimal at best. In fact, for romance, read the Ender's Shadow series. There's a smidgen there. I digress.

I'm writing this review mostly for those who have read Ender's Game (i.e. my family) and haven't read Ender in Exile or even heard it had been published, so I won't be going into detail describing events in Ender's Game. I assume you've read it. Ender in Exile picks up minutes after Ender's Game ends. In Speaker for the Dead, you get a much older, more experienced, more at peace with himself Ender. Exile is Ender right after the defeat of the Formics and before he heads off to his first colony. You learn what Valentine and Peter do to make sure Ender never returns to Earth and the maneuvering Ender's parents do to ensure his safety. This book covers the voyage through space, with a lovely little romance between Ender and a colonist girl from Italy. Don't worry, they are fifteen years old by then, so it's not the awkward twelve-year-old kid kind of romance. And let's face it, Ender isn't an ordinary kid, so even romance isn't ordinary for him. On the space voyage, he also deals with scheming military officers and hysterical passengers. On the planet, he's got a whole group of people who've been there for forty years to work with, but surprisingly, Card spends hardly any time there. It's a pit stop for the ending of the story, which is very cool and has to do with Bean. Non-Ender readers, have I lost you? Good. Go read Ender's Game.

What I loved so much about this book is that it explained how Ender became the man that you read about in Speaker. He is so calm, so at one with who he is and what he is meant to be that you wonder what it took to reach that point. Frankly, his childhood should have damaged him beyond repair and at the beginning of Exile, you see that damage. You see the broken young man and the obsession over his sins. You see the disconnect with people around him, the way he distances himself from the kids that he loves and trusts and guided to victory. You see what should have happened after what he went through. It feels very true, very right. Then Card leads you through Ender's process in dealing with everything and how he uses his superior intellect and superior capability to love and understand to then heal. Again, it feels honest and true. You heal along with him as you read.

This book was exactly what the doctor ordered. I found no flaw in it. A second reading might do it, and when Caren reads it she'll probably find ten, but she's just better at that then me. I'm just basking in the awesomeness of it all. It has Card's lightening fast verbal exchanges between characters, which are abundant in his books, and the characters' motivations are stacked with more layers than baklava. Just as Ender comes to truly love those that surround him, you come to truly love Card's characters. You love them because you understand them completely, which is the whole point of this entire series. All nine books of it. I might just start over again over Christmas, as a present to myself.

Generation Dead, Gifts, and The Adoration of Jenna Fox

I tend to go through book phases where I read the same genre of book over and over again. It's like I get an itch that needs scratching and the only thing that will do is to overdose on it. Sometimes I'll go through murder mystery phases that will last for years, but thanks to this blog, I have more motivation to pull out of my zone and try something different. For a little while there, it was sci-fi/fantasy geared towards teenagers. What's sad is that I'm such a slacker about reading these days is that I read the following books weeks and even months ago and I'm just getting around to writing about them. Also because I haven't cracked a book open in a month. A month! My brain is atrophying! Lest I forget even more plot details, I better get writing.

I don't know about you but I love a good zombie story. "Generation Dead" by Dan Waters takes the idea that for no apparent reason, teenagers all over the country are coming back from the dead. It's only teenagers and it's always within a few hours of death. Some of these "living impaired" kids are almost as functional as when they were alive while others just shuffle around and moan. But none appear to have the need to eat human brains (darn) or other scary stuff from the movies. There are theories about why it's happening. Maybe all the preservatives in food? Chemicals in the water? The story follows Phoebe, a Goth girl who is fascinated by the zombies and in particular, a boy named Tommy. Her friends Margi and Adam (who also has a secret crush on Phoebe), are baffled by her interest, but get involved with Phoebe in a club that promotes understanding and awareness for the undead.

What I found interesting was the parallels between this situation and the civil rights movement in the 60s. The zombies are hated, reviled, abused, set on fire, beaten with baseball bats, and feared by the general public. Very few people want to give them any rights and oftentimes, their families will have nothing to do with them after they come back from the dead. The zombies stick together and while some of them want progress to be made peacefully, there are others who think they need to resort to violence. The age group this book is geared towards is a generation who has never really experienced such potent prejudice. Heck, neither have I! It's no longer socially acceptable to hate and shun. Well, openly at least. This is a pretty good allegory to situations that have existed and raise questions that maybe a 15-year-old today have never had to think about. My only beef was the ending and after grumbling for a few days, I read somewhere that it was setting things up for a sequel. That made more sense, but now I have to wait around for Waters to write a second one, which just makes me grumpy.

With "Gifts" by Ursula K. LeGuin, I was having major deja-biblio-vu. You know, where you have the sneaking suspicion that you've read a book before, that you might already know the ending, but you don't want to skip ahead and check in case you haven't? Well, yeah, I had read this one before, but it was worth a second read. This book is more in the 10-12 year-old range of readers, with lighter ideas and a bit easier language. This is pure fantasy, a story of a race of people who live in the mountains and have terrible gifts, like being able to call animals from the wild in order to be slaughtered, or twisting people's limbs with a thought, or erasing memories, or destroying with a word. Orrec is a young man who refuses to use his gift of "unmaking" and upsets the basic tenets of their society. His friend, Gry, is a gentler spirit as well and joins him in refusing to use her gift for killing animals. Because they are disturbing the balance, conflicts arise and Orrec has to find a way to protect his clan. Riveting good stuff and a very satisfying ending.

"The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary Pearson is my favorite book of late and I probably could have done a whole post on it alone. I like good science fiction and this was very good indeed. Jenna Fox wakes up from a coma after two years and finds out that she had an accident and also can't seem to remember anything that happened before waking up. Also, she doesn't have any pictures of herself or anybody else and not even so much as a get well card. Oh, and by the way, they moved across the country while she was in a coma. Huh? That's what she thinks too. And she has these strange compelling needs to do certain things. And her parents are kind of fuzzy on details. And have I mentioned that her grandmother hates her and won't stay in the same room as her? Sounds like an episode of "Lost", I know. It was an awesome book. Made me wonder, as a parent, what I would do to save my child. Hmm, insert thoughtful nod of my head here.

Did you notice that all three books have very cool covers? I showed the whole cover for "Generation Dead" because I think it looks rad. Ahh, feels good to have that post out of the way. Now, if I could just find something to read.

The Host

After reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer, I have hope that the "Twilight" series might not actually end up making my brain explode from pure frustration and malice. The synopsis is that a species of alien invades Earth, takes over human bodies and makes them their own. The aliens cannot live outside of host bodies and they see the human race as perfect for the picking. After all, they're so violent and unstable, they're bound to kill each other off within a few decades anyway. These aliens, calling themselves "souls", are inherently peaceful, non-confrontational, law-abiding citizens. Everything is done for the common good. They don't see what they've done as murder, just furthering their own population on a very nice planet. There are a few stray humans here and there that fight against the occupation, but that's what they have Seekers for, to capture the humans and pacify them by inserting a soul.

The story is told from the viewpoint of a soul having been put inside the body of a 20-ish year old woman who's been running from the aliens for years. What the soul, called Wanderer, experiences is Melanie, the human, having no desire to have her body snatched and fighting back with her mind. Melanie is making Wanderer think she's going to have to switch bodies and in her desperation to take control, decides to do just that. Discard this body and get a new one. But Melanie has other plans. She wants Wanderer to find her younger brother and the love of her life, who she hopes are still on the run. Through a series of vague instructions Melanie remembers her uncle giving her, she convinces Wanderer to go in the Arizona desert and look for them.

Okay, here are the things Stephenie Meyer is good at in her books:
1. Lots of action.
2. Compelling the reader to keep reading.
3. Impossible love-triangles.
4. Fits of overdramatic self-sacrificing in her lead characters.
5. Hot guys.
6. Moments of ridiculousness.
7. Cool creatures.

"The Host" contains all these, but Meyer gets points from me because:
1. It's not a series.
2. The impossible love-triangle is actually resolved sensibly.
3. I don't hate her main characters.
4. The overdramatic self-sacrificing moment is at least believable from the character.
5. I couldn't put it down.
6. The aliens are very cool.

If Meyer can write more books like "The Host", and less like "Twilight", I'll be glad to read more of them. I am getting more excited to read the last book in the series because of "The Host", but since Bella is so flawed and impossible to like, I'm not getting my hopes up too high. And honestly, in future books she has to drop the love triangle story line. Move on, woman.

I'm Just a Geek Too

I love Star Trek. I'm not ashamed of it. I fall in the category of The Next Generation lovers. I don't much like the original Star Trek and I've never gotten into the spin-offs from TNG. I'm sure they have their redeeming values, but I'm just not interested. Give me Jean-Luc Picard and William Riker any day, baby. I love the story lines, the characters and all things Trekkie. I remember watching it with my dad when I was a young girl after I'd had cleaned up after a hard day's play. In fact, I don't think I knew there was an original Star Trek until years after I had been watching TNG. By they way, that's what the cool people call it: TNG. Only acronyms here.

I never had strong feelings about Wesley Crusher. I had more of a little-girl crush on Riker than on Wesley. I secretly wanted to be Deanna Troi and I really liked Geordi LaForge. His visor was just cool. As far as I knew, Wil Wheaton--who played Wesley--had disappeared into obscurity after the end of TNG. That's pretty much what happened, but not because he wanted to disappear. I read somewhere on the internet that he had gotten quite a following from his website and blog, so I decided to check it out. I didn't see much that interested me from the website, but I did notice he had written some books. Out of curiosity, I checked out "Just A Geek." Well, one thing Wheaton definitely can be described as is geeky. I have a geeky husband, so I can recognize true geekiness when I see it. Love of technology, all things computer, gets excited about new advances in such fields, reads lots of fantasy and sci-fi, etc. I love my handsome geek. Anyway, Wil Wheaton is a geek, according to the attributes listed.

In this book, he writes about the creation of his website and his transformation from frustrated actor to writer and blogger. It was a long road and Wheaton describes it painfully and honestly. Seriously, why do people become actors? The rejection, the frustration, the critical evaluation of your looks and talents on a constant basis all seems like so destructive of the human spirit. And yet, people go after it over and over again. Reading his book, I couldn't help but keep wanting to grab him, give him a good shake and maybe a slap across the face and tell him to get a real job and move on. But he loved acting. He didn't want to give it up. I can understand passion about something, so I'll forgive his stubbornness.

Wheaton is really honest about his mistakes and failings. He's also honest about who ticked him off or screwed him over during and after TNG. He doesn't hold anything back in his writing, which makes you sympathize with him, but it also shows how immature he can be. He loves his wife and stepkids, but acts really self-involved at times. I guess he's just a person, really.

I think the best thing he ever did was start writing. He's funny and clever, scorchingly honest and can assemble his words pretty well. Other than his perverse love for the "f" word, I thoroughly enjoyed reading what he had to write. Partly because of all his fun inside info on TNG cast members, but I'm geeky like that.

Invasive Procedures...Into Your GUTS!

While I'm on a Orson Scott Card theme here, I'm going to tell you about an inadvertently funny book I just read co-authored by him and Aaron Johnston. Let me tell you what I know about Aaron Johnston. He and I share the same alma mater and when I was in college, he was part of a comedy troupe whose performances I frequented. Let me tell you, the guy is funny. Hilarious, in fact. Part of the reason why I kept going back was to watch him and Eric D. Snider, another funny guy. And I had a small crush on him, despite his pokey-out ears and hideously ugly 90s-style Girbaud jeans. He had great comedic timing, improv skills and could do physical comedy nearly as well as Steve Martin. Now he writes a column for www.nauvoo.com called The Back Bench that is, not surprisingly, very funny. So what is he doing writing a novel with sci-fi great OSC? Card is usually funny in a wry, sarcastic way, not like Johnston. It seems to me that they became buds and decided to write a book together. Johnston had read lots of sci-fi and had a great idea for a book, so Card co-wrote it so it would make some money instead of dying of obscurity. But you can tell where Johnston's influences come from. "Invasive Procedures" is so close to a Michael Crichton novel that I'm surprised it didn't get misprinted with his name on the front. Let me tell you some key elements of a Michael Crichton novel:

1. Must be loosely based on a scientific principle or recent discovery.
2. Must rely on fear and ignorance of said principle to make it more easily believed.
3. Main character must be good-looking and highly intelligent, preferably with several college degrees.
4. Must have enough secondary characters to kill off, at least one of which the reader can easily despise and one that is goofy and lovable.
5. Must have attractive love interest for main character who is also highly intelligent.
6. The villain must be vain and also brilliant with a little splash of megalomaniac behavior to make it interesting.

Okay, so that describes a whole lot of books out there, but the way Crichton packages it, you can always tell when he's written a book. And all of his books have all six elements. I dare you to point out one that doesn't. I think I've read them all, so I'm probably safe in that assumption. Not that his books are exciting and a fun read, but predictable. Oh so predictable. In "Invasive Procedures" you have Frank Hartman, a virologist, fighting against George Galen, a deranged geneticist out to cure the world of disease by turning everyone into him. Then there's Monica Owens, the beautiful and (shocker) intelligent heart surgeon who Galen captures to help with the disturbing medical procedures he has in mind. Blah blah blah.

Why, Orson, why? I laughed my way through this book because it so utterly smacked of Crichton-ness and so devoid of Card-ness. Where were the moral dilemmas? Where was the villain that you could almost love? Aaron Johnston, I can only blame you. Stick to comedy next time. There certainly wasn't any in this book and maybe it would have been better if it had.

One funny side note is that I actually listened to this on CD, borrowed from the library. I listened as I worked in my kitchen over the course of a few weeks and when my kids would catch snatches of it, they were annoyed that I was listening to something so boring. But one night at dinner, my second daughter said, "Mom, I know what you're listening to. 'Frank was touched by evil.'" Yes, yes he was.

Another funny side note: the title of this book is also the title of an episode for "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Finally, something funny!

Fluffity fluff fluff

I just read a book that was pure fluff, but not a complete waste of time. "Playing for Pizza" reminds me of "Bleachers" another fluff football books that came out some years ago. John Grisham hasn't written a fabulous legal thriller in a while, now that I think about it. He did write the gritty non-fiction book, "The Innocent Man" not too long ago. Honestly, I wish he would write another book like "The Painted House", about a young boy growing up in rural Arkansas during the 50s. It was exciting, had his fun style of writing, but had nothing to do with lawyers. Good stuff.

Back to fluffiness. It's not just for rabbits and kittens, apparently. Even my old standby favorite author who delivers every time, Orson Scott Card, engages in fluff. I spent one short evening reading his latest "book" that was more of a bookette, "The War of Gifts: an Ender story". I'm not trying to say it wasn't a good read, because it was. Full of complicated personal histories of people, insightful looks into what motivates the villains, etc. etc. Typical Card good stuff. But wouldn't this have been more appropriately published in his online magazine, The Intergalactic Medicine Show? He writes Ender-related stories there fairly regularly. For those of you who are Ender fans, I'd highly recommend shelling out the $2.50 four times a year for the magazine. Anyway, publishing his little story (Christmas themed, no less) during the holidays seems out of Card's character. Like when Grisham wrote "Skipping Christmas" one holiday season (only to be butchered by Tim Allen in the film version not long after) you had to wonder if the payment on his yacht was getting behind. But Card? A yacht owner? Maybe his agent's yacht needed some updates? I hate to get all cynical, but that's what it felt like to me. Maybe he's going to come out with another Shadow book soon and this is to warm us up to it. Huh.

Don't think I'm discounting fluff because there are definite times I need some fluff to lighten my mental load. Not like I'm reading Tennison or Thoreau, but sometimes the day-to-day workings of life needs a little fluff to round off the edges. I think I'd rather read some fluff by an author that usually writes really amazing novels than one that only writes cotton candy. I'm looking at you, Richard Paul Evans.

Sci-Fi and fantasy, gotta love it

I know it must appear that I've forgotten I have a blog, but honestly, I was entrenched in some really good books. I've been on a sci-fi and fantasy kick lately. Maybe it's a side-effect of losing Harry Potter and I'm craving to fill the void, but I noticed the other day that all the books I've been checking out lately have fallen within those categories. One of them was a doozy. Last spring, I read "Inda" by Sherwood Smith. As far as fantasy novels go, this was a gem. The irritating things about fantasy novels? Learning the vocabulary. Every fantasy novelist feels compelled to make up new words for everything, preferably unpronounceable. In "Inda" the royalty all have bizarre made up titles that I have to guess at the pronunciation, which frustrates me. Then you have to remember what all these things mean later when they bring it up again. That almost stopped me. But the action and characters kept me going. It was really compelling discovering this fascinating culture. It honestly only felt like a fantasy novel in the sense that there's a tiny smidgen of magic and the entire world is, well, made up. It was more of a political novel, with different factions, plots, maneuverings and such. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, despite it's weird made-up words. When "The Fox" came out, which was the sequel to "Inda", I grabbed it. Again, action-packed, thrilling adventure story. Loved it. The author gives us a glimpse of different cultures within the world that are so different from the one that was focused on in the first book. The main character, Inda, is so likable, so noble, that you yearn for him to succeed. That's what makes a character convincing, making the reader empathize and worry over them. These books are no casual reads, either. At 650+ pages, I can tell how long it's going to take me to read it because I can't hold it with one hand. Therefore, it'll require my two-handed attention while I read. No nursing a baby while I read it, or standing over a stove. I'll have to sit down and use both hands, which won't happen all that often during the day. But well worth the effort and tired arms. The only thing that is perplexing is this sexually amoral society they live in. It is expected to have relationships outside of marriage in all forms and variations and considered abnormal not to. Huh, whatever. Another take on "fantasy" I guess. Nothing is pornographic, but plenty of allusions. Just to warn you.

Another great fantasy read, while I'm on the topic, was the second Fablehaven book. I wrote about the first Fablehaven book here and I finally got a copy from the library. Let me tell you, there's a darn good reason why there's a dozen holds for that book. I thought the first book was good, but I think the second was even better. More action, more excitement, more twists and turns, and less forced preaching from the grandparents. One thing that annoys me about sequential books is the way the author tries to remind you of what happened. I hate it when they just spout it out verbatim, like a "Previously on Lost" deposition. Boring. I'd rather it be covertly included and Brandon Mull did a good job of that. Another thing that annoys me in books is pathetic bad guys. Either they are so grotesquely evil that you can't even read about them or they aren't convincing enough to give you chills. Fablehaven has some evil guys that you haven't even met yet, but they are there, enticing you with hints of their dastardly deeds. You almost dread meeting them in future books. I love that word "dastardly". I wonder if I can find a way to include that in my daily life.

Last on my list of books I recently enjoyed is "One Jump Ahead" by Mark L. Van Name. This is pure, unadulterated science fiction. No magic or fairies here. It's been said that the difference between sci-fi and fantasy is that sci-fi has bolts and rivets and fantasy has trees. "One Jump Ahead" is full of bolts and rivets. My husband is a gadget guy. He loves technology and toys of that nature. When I read this, I thought to myself that he would love to live in this world. The hero is great in this book. Jon has a tortured, mysterious past that is enough to make you read more books about him just to uncover it all. He's also virtuous in a deadly way. You wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, unless he was already with you and had his vehicle, Lobo, nearby. It also helps that the action keeps it moving and the bad guys are, well, I already expounded on that.

It's time for me to explore some other genres. I've got some great non-fiction books on my bedside table waiting my attention, so that's where I'm headed now. If you haven't sampled any fantasy or sci-fi yet, these are good places to start. Broaden your horizons!

I Am Legend

I came about reading this book in a roundabout way. I was perusing movie trailers on apple.com and saw that a new Will Smith movie was coming out. When I clicked on it, the trailer wouldn't work for whatever reason, so I googled the title to find a working trailer. On digg.com, it had a trailer and a description of the movie, saying it was based on a book by Richard Matheson. I watched the trailer, found it to be delightfully spooky and decided I needed to read the book. It's a post-apocalyptic vampire thriller. I'm always a fan of vampires. I thought it was a suspenseful page-turner, packing a wallop at a mere 150 pages. This book was written in the 50s and you can tell by some of the language he uses and some of the slightly silly science he concocts. The main character's psychological state is a big part of the book too, which made me sit and wonder how I would handle being the last person on earth. Build a fortress and fight to the end? Give up and die? I don't know. All in all, I read the book in just a few hours and enjoyed it.

A Brief History of the Dead

This book was a bit bizarre, but thought-provoking. I actually listened to this on CD a few years ago, but decided it was worth putting on my blog. The whole premise of the book is based on some African theology that when you die, you go to a sort of pre-afterlife, where you remain until everyone who remembers you on Earth has died. The author, Kevin Brockmeier, tells this story from two points of view, the people in The City, as they call it, and a woman in Antarctica. Something is obviously going on, since people in The City keep disappearing in the thousands and the woman in Antarctica can't get a hold of her fellow explorers or the outside world. The ending left me, well, puzzled and a bit dissatisfied, but you might like it better. The whole concept was interesting and it was suspenseful to realize what was going on, but have to watch the characters figure it out. I wasn't going to add books on this blog that I hadn't read recently, but decided this might get some people to read it and then tell me what they thought of it.