Book of the Day

Avery tries hard to be dull. He wants his parents to stop having to worry all the time, to stop having to work extra hours at work to pay for the damaged property that seems to follow Avery around in a cloud of delinquency. But the destruction isn’t because Avery’s a bad guy, it’s because he’s still getting used to his own strength. It’s not generally normal to be able to bench press a car, or fly. Avery is many things, but dull is not one of them.

When Avery is approached first by an older woman, Cherchette, with powers who claims she wants to help him, and then by a group of teenagers with powers who claim that Cherchette is creepy and not to be trusted. But life is never that simple, and Avery has to make his own decisions about who to trust and what to do with his superpowers.

This was an entertaining, if slightly predictable, superhero/superpower story. The powers were not terribly surprising. Super strength, flight, ice, genius, even the cat girl; these are mostly standard superhero fare. The power of stickiness was a nice, not overly done touch. But a book does not have to be entirely new and shocking in order to entertain, and this book manages to come through on that front. I am looking forward to the sequel that was heavily foreshadowed at the end.

Having survived the Hunger Games, Katniss is now thrust into the spotlight at the champion. It is a position that makes her uneasy on a number of levels. Her relationships are strained, and her very life is in danger, though from far subtler dangers than those found in the Arena. Katniss’s amazing win has sparked uprisings amongst the various districts, and the president has made it clear that she is going to be held responsible – and may pay with her family’s lives. So when the next Hunger Games are announced, and there is a twist this time, Katniss is aware that it’s targeted at her: against all expectations she will be thrust back into the Arena to fight.

I had been expecting more of a political thriller this time around, so I was caught off guard by the reintroduction of Katniss in the Arena. In some ways I think that it would have been just as knuckle-whitening if Katniss had, as originally planned, been the mentor to other children fighting in the games. The emotional whiplash would certainly have been present. As it is, while I enjoyed the scenes in the Area, they were a bit of a disappointment, and felt more tacked on than anything. If the entire book, like the first one, had been about survival in the Arena, that would have been one thing. But this one couldn’t quite decide if it was a book about the dangers of political maneuvering or the more obvious dangers of an opponent with a spear. As Katniss matures and questions both her own actions and those of the government, it might make sense to spend more time with the equally dangerous, and perhaps more treacherous, fights to rebel against an oppressive regime.

I can see why the author did not have Katniss immediately start planning a rebellion. Katniss’s success in the Arena was largely a result of her overriding determination to survive at all costs. That is not the personality type that throws itself into an almost hopeless struggle. I’m hoping that in the third book, we’ll see more leadership from Katniss and those around her.

These review makes it seem like I didn’t like the book, which is very far from the truth. As with the first one, I was unable to put the book down, driven to know what was going to happen next. I read it all in one sitting, which is a recommendation in itself.

The thing about talking dogs, Todd tell us, is that they really don’t have much to say.

Todd lives on New World. When the settlers arrived on the planet, it was supposed to be a new Eden. Instead, they arrived to hardship and sickness and aliens no one counted on. Then, in the midst of a war, came the Noise. All the women died. All of the men became infected with Noise: their every thought is projected out into the world, heard by all. But this is not the sort of telepathy you read about in books. This is real thought, the messy jumble of thinking several things at once, some of them contradictory. It’s overwhelming, nonsensical. Noise.

Todd is almost thirteen (or fourteen if he’d lived on Old World) and thus about to become a man. He’s the last boy in the village, the last child to be born before the sickness that killed the women and destroyed the men with Noise. But before his birthday arrives, he finds a well of silence in the swamp. A place where there is no Noise. What is causing it? And why does his entire town suddenly want to kill him just for discovering it? Forced to run, Todd must determine for himself what it means to be a man.

This was a hard-hitting, page-turning tour de force. The characters were superbly drawn and believable (with the possible exception of Aaron, but even Todd had a hard time believing in him). The author takes the idea of not being able to escape from constant bombardment of information and runs with it. I liked that all of the settlements reacted to the Noise differently, just as they would have in real life.

I loved the scene were Todd, having found someone with no Noise, makes the stunning realization that even though he can’t hear the actual thoughts, he can still know what that person is thinking simply because he knows that person. This is a perfect coming of age story, exploring what it means to be an adult, what it means to be a man, and the difficulties in ever knowing another person completely, whether you are privy to their thoughts or not. I can’t wait to read the next in the series, due to be published the first week of September.

Technically, this is not a young adult book, but it falls into that rather large expanse of books that are written with adults as the target audience but which are enjoyed by teenagers as well, particularly since most of the book features a sixteen-year-old Kirk. With the new Star Trek movie coming out to rave reviews, I suspect that many people may feel motivated to track down other incarnations of a rebellious teenaged Kirk.

James T. Kirk is sixteen and a troublemaker. His innate leadership is strong, but he constantly misuses the trust and loyalty of his friends. Desperate to convince his son that responsibility and hard work are important qualities, George Kirk brings Jimmy along on the maiden voyage of the Enterprise, a mission intended to simply test out the top-secret vessel’s engines. But when a group of Star Fleet members takes a shuttle down to visit a plant, things start to go wrong. They are attacked by pirates, and must fight to save their own lives. Meanwhile, on the pirate ship one of the key pirates is a technological genius who is also a teenager. Parallels between James and the pirate are inevitable, and Jimmy can’t help seeing the differences between the brave and resourceful Star Fleet commanders and the whining self-centered pirates.

There is a fair amount of action in this book, as well as introspection. Although it differs significantly from the movie version of events (which, after all, take place in an alternate universe), it does feature a rebellious, and often sullen, Jimmy Kirk, and the ways in which his attitude is slowly changed. The book is framed with the adult Kirk being reminded of his youth by current events, allowing the author to end with information about how all of the main characters fared after the tumultuous events of the past.

On a class trip to view the workings of the vast machine that now keeps what’s left of the human race alive inside a huge complex, safe from the frigid temperatures outside, Sol Wheat’s life is turned upside down. First he witnesses a major accident. Was it sabotage? When he returns home his father is missing and Sol suddenly finds himself the target of the Clockworkers, a secret organization that will stop at nothing to ensure that the Machine remains safe. Before he knows it Sol and his estranged friend Cleo are on the run, dodging bullets while trying desperately to figure out who is behind the Clockworkers.

I read this book in part because it sounded interesting, in part because the review compared it to Phillip Reeve, and in part because an article in the Horn Book mentioned the author as being one of the few who writes for teens with an optimistic viewpoint. I was somewhat disappointed. While the plot was interesting, it did not grab me the way that the Hungry City books did. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, particularly when they were so obviously plot-driven. For instance, a major turning point for Cleo is her realization that while she’s enjoyed posing as a rebel, when push comes to shove she’s all talk. She tries to change that. Yet by the end of the book Cleo is back exactly where she started: smoking stem and playing in a band, as if her experiences and worldview changes mean nothing now that things are back to “normal”.

Perhaps it was simply this book, since I have not read others by the author, but I also don’t understand why the Horn Book essayist held this author up as someone who promotes optimistic worldviews (SPOILERS follow). The idea that the world is utterly destroyed except for the extremely corrupt society left in the Machine is depressing and generally disempowering: at the end of the book the characters essentially engage in behavior that they believe will result in the death of everyone in the city simply from a sense of outrage at the injustice of it all. Er, mass suicide is the answer to injustice? (And I’m still unsure why the Machine didn’t break permanently. One character specifically states that he is worried because the mechanism to jump start the electrical system has been dismantled, thus implying that to simply start running power through it would not be enough. Other characters in a position to understand how the Machine works are terrified when the power goes out and the Machine stops running. That a simple resurgence of electricity could start the machine running again appear to surprise everyone, but is a surprise that is taken completely in stride and never really explained.)

If you enjoy stories where there is a lot of action, subterfuge, and intrigue, then this book will appeal. The plot holes and dangling plot threads can be ignored if you just want a quick adventure story. For more intense and carefully realized de-evolved future, pick up a copy of Philip Reeve’s Hungry City series.

Mary has lived her entire life in an isolated village, surrounded by the Forest of Hands and Teeth. The Unconsecrated teem around the village’s fences, trying desperately to get in. It is only the protection of the Guardians and the guidance of the Sisterhood that has protected the village all of these years. Mary has always been discontented with the quiet village life, convinced that there is a great world outside, one free of the Unconsecrated. She dreams of the ocean. But the Sisterhood has been keeping secrets from the villagers, secrets that could have deadly consequences.

When the fences fail and the village is overrun, Mary barely escapes with her life, along with a handful of others. The villagers who escape with her are a complicated bunch, including both the man Mary is betrothed to (“marriage in our village was not about love, it was about committment”) and the man that she passionately loves.

While the word “zombies” is used only in the author’s acknowledgments, it will be instantly obvious to fans of the genre that the Unconsecrated are the walking dead. While there have been wry comments that the tide is turning and “zombies are the new vampire”, it is still relatively rare to find a well-written book with zombies as a main theme. While I did not always resonate with the emotional roller coaster Mary was riding, I suspect that that had more to do with my own frame of mind than anything to be found in the writing. The action sequences – as well as the frantic choices and repercussions that accompany the danger – were my favorite parts of the book.

Before the accident, Lia was the envy of everyone in the school. Pretty, athletic, rich, and popular, she always knew exactly where she belonged. But then the car’s automatic sensors malfunctioned, careening her off the road. And when she woke up, she wasn’t Lia Kahn anymore.

In an effort to save her, the doctors have scanned and uploaded her brain into an android body. Lia’s a skinner now, a mechhead, a machine. The doctors assure her that this new body and new life is far better than certain death, but Lia’s not so sure. Everything is different, all of her relationships are broken, huge chunks of the population don’t believe she’s human and therefore shouldn’t be given rights. And then there are the other skinners. The ones who insist that they don’t want to be human.

Although the premise of this book is very similar to that of The Adoration of Jenna Fox, also published last year, the books have very different feels to them. Skinned is a page-turner, with lots of action to frame Lia’s bouts with self-doubt and philosophy. There are no easy answers.

The world-building was particularly well done, with hints of the ways in which the future world has developed, and a sense of a larger universe outside of Lia’s consciousness, which is going about its business even when she’s not there.

An entertaining and engaging read, this book will bring up questions of what it means to be human, to be an individual, and to be the survivor of a horrendous accident.

Cal has only been in New York for a year. He was supposed to be studying at college, but now he’s infected. He’s traded school for the Night Watch, an underground organization dedicated to hunting down “peeps” – the parasite positive. Cal doesn’t like to use “the v-word” but in many ways the peeps are like vampires: they don’t like sunlight, they love rats, they’re totally insane, and they’re cannibals. Cal himself is one of the very rare carriers of the disease, meaning that his senses and reaction times are heightened, but he’s remained sane. He can never kiss a girl, however, since his very saliva will turn her into a monster.

Then Cal meets Lace, a mysterious, and very attractive, girl. Suddenly his previous resolve to remain alone and unloved for the rest of his life is extremely hard to follow through on. As if this isn’t hard enough on him, Cal and Lace start to discover disturbing news about the peeps. News with horrifying implications….

The characters in the book were sharply drawn, and often dryly funny. I particularly enjoyed the frequent asides about parasites in general. Author Scott Westerfeld presents facts about real and actual parasites, then lets the reader draw their conclusions about the realism of the book’s featured imaginary parasite. This book is a far cry from the usual mysterious and elegant vampire story, instead featuring peeps who are insane, filthy, and anything but suave. Even the main characters aren’t exactly smooth characters: Cal is a bit of a geek. But that makes the characters, and the story, far more real and, in some ways, far scarier.