28:13: The Rise of Nine (LOrien Legacies, Book 3), by Pittacus Lore (2012 hardcover)

This is a relatively good continuation of a teen series involving humanoid aliens on earth who must save the earth--and ultimately return to their own planet--by destroying other aliens intent on destroying them and the earth. Check out my earlier Lore entries for further details about the beginning of the series.

2.13: Saga Volume 1 issues 1-6), by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (2012 paperback trade)

Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite comic authors, perhaps because I encountered his work toward the beginning of my comic-reading career. Two Vaughan series in particular--Y: The Last Man, which follows the life of Yorrick Brown, last man alive after a virus targeting only males attacks the earth; and Runaways, charting the adventures of a group of teens who turn into superheroes after learning that their parents are super villains--top my list of comic favorites. Both series, as well as his Ex Machina series (review here) following Mitchell Hundred, architect-turned-superhero-turned-NYC-mayor by way of a freak accident giving him the ability to talk to machines which he uses to prevent the second twin tower from collapsing on 9/11, have concluded. So, when I learned that Vaughan had another series in progress, I knew I had to add it to my ever-growing list of comics to follow.

Not content to chart the lives of unusual humans in unlikely circumstances, in Saga Vaughan enters another world--or worlds, as the case may be--and introduces the plight of characters of a non-human nature. A never-ending inter-galactic war is taking place, in which beings from two worlds have taken their battle across the galaxy to involve other beings in the fight. In the middle of it are Marko and Alana, lovers from either side of the lines who have taken flight to give birth to Hazel, who has her mother's wings and her father's horns. Lest the precedent be set for cross-species love, the aristocratic caste from Landfall (who sport TV monitors as heads) send an envoy to the destroy the young couple; Freelancers have also been called to assassinate the couple--by none other than Marko's own people, in punishment for his betrayal of their kind.

So, Hazel and her folks clearly have the deck stacked against them from the start. It makes for a fast-paced race across space and time, with a whole cast of incredibly-imaginative species introduced. The first story arc does a good job introducing readers to this new world--enough so that I look forward to future releases with great anticipation.

Note: When adding labels to my post, I realized that Staples is the artist for another comic that I enjoyed. Entitled the Mystery Society (and reviewed here), it had only a 5-issue run. Here's hoping this collaboration lasts longer!

31.12: In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, by Margaret Atwood (iBook edition, original release 2011)

I earned a MA in literature, and my field of interest was primarily contemporary North American feminist authors. I also have what a librarian friend not-so-jokingly refers to as "the largest comic and graphic novel collection in northern California." As you may suspect, it is not too often that these two reading passions intersect, so it was with great joy that I scanned the 2012 Comic Con schedule and found a session entitled "Inside the Shadow Show: Ray Bradbury's Lasting Impact  on Literature, Comics, and Beyond," featuring Margaret Atwood--three of whose novels formed the basis of my thesis.

I wasn't so far astray from my early roots to have missed the Atwood's recent novels and poetry, of course, but I hadn't been keeping up on her nonfiction. The closest I'd come in this regard was following her on Twitter, where she has plenty to say on a wide range of political and social topics. (Note: unlike plenty of other well-known folks, Atwood is responsible for all her own tweets.) Before I saw my idol in person, I searched to see what I had missed. In addition to a few recent digital story releases, I found I had overlooked In Other Worlds, published in 2011. I uploaded the iBook in the Portland airport, happy that Atwood is an important enough author that her non-fiction is available quickly in eFormat.

Without a doubt, this is the fastest I have read a work of non-fiction in memory. I read plenty of fiction, but non-fiction volumes usually end up piled next to the bed, waiting until I decide to pick them up and read a chapter between novels; Non-fiction on my iPad usually faces an even less active fate, but I found myself reading right through Atwood's reflection. That's really what it is, too: Atwood's musings on what she refers to as Speculative Fiction (what others generally categorize as Science Fiction)--a distinction she has been criticized for, but which holds up well in her telling of it. The book is a collection of material, loosely divided into three sections: the first in which Atwood discusses SF by way of Beowulf, Twilight, and everything in between, illustrated with drawings she made as a nine-year old (and not included in the print version of the book); the second in which she republishes reviews and analyses she wrote about SF works from recent centuries--from folks such as Swift, Huxley, Wells, Piercy, LeGuin, and Ishiguro; and the third in which she includes five short SF pieces she authored over the years.

All in all, the book was interesting and thought-provoking, as I was able to tell Atwood myself during the signing session after the panel ended. She smiled kindly in response. Either that, or she was smiling at the fact that I had purchased both the eBook and hardcover editions, recognizing that readers like me who want signatures from authors like her are one reason that print books may not be altogether obsolete in a double-profit future she imagines.

29-30.12: I'm Starved for You and I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth, by Margaret Atwood (2012, available in eBook only)

 Anyone who knows me well is aware of the fact that I am a big fan of Margaret Atwood's work. I've read everything she's written, whether poetry, fiction, children's picture books (Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut is a favorite of mine.) or nonfiction, and I wrote my master's thesis on three of her novels--exploring the way women use power in relationships with each other. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that I'd be willing to shell out $2.99 and $1.99--the cost of these two publications on iBooks--for two short stories. You might not be so eager to do so, but I for one have no regrets.

I'm Starved for You (I'm waffling on the choice of quotation marks or italics here, but I've decided to use italics as this is a single publication, despite its short length.) is what Atwood would refer to as a piece of ustopian speculative fiction. In an America that is spiraling into violence, poverty, and environmental degradation, one corporation finds a solution--and a way to maintain a comfortable profit margin. People are invited to volunteer to serve as inmates at a prison for monthly shifts, alternating with others who share their house when they are incarcerated. In this manner, people trade personal freedom for security and comfort. I'm sure you won't be surprised to find out that it's not quite that simple.

In I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth, readers get to revisit characters from The Robber Bride. Roz, Charis, and Tony have weathered the years together and still provide emotional support across their different social circles. In this story, Charis reports on a dream she had, starring their former enemy, now deceased, dressed in a wolf's coat, and Roz and Tony spend time dissecting it and offering Charis advice about her love life and Billy's return to the scene. The story itself is charming, but what I really enjoyed was being reunited with these old friends. Anyone who was a fan of The Robber Bride will enjoy this story, with the only disappointment being that we didn't get more time with Charis, Roz, and Tony.

17.12: The Power of Six (Book 2, Lorien Legacies), by Pittacus Lore (2011 hardcover)

Finished yesterday. No time to review, but hope to catch up this summer. Stay tuned.

95.11: Losers in Space, buy John Barnes (advance uncorrected proof, publication April 2012)

Part of the fun at the NCTE Annual Convention is trolling the exhibit area for freebies. I'm pretty cautious about what I pick up, since I have to haul it across country, and I try to stick to carry-on luggage in my travels. However, the promising sales pitch for this book--teens seeking fame by stowing away on a spaceship with a sociopath loose among them--was strong enough for the novel to make it into my bag. And, pretty much, the sales pitch tells you what you need to know about the book; I'd likely add "futuristic Breakfast Club" to the description to complete the plot. (Of course, today's teen may not find this addition illuminating, but GenXers will get it.) One thing that makes this novel stand out a bit are the 16 regular excerpts--entitled "Notes for the Interested"--that provide explanations of culture, science, and math concepts relevant to the plot. As the book itself points out, these tangents aren't essential to the storyline and an uninterested reader could skip them. Hopefully, though, while considering the effects of celebrity, social media, and romance, a few teen readers may also pick up a few educational tidbits.

86: Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson (2009 hardcover)

I chose this book based on Amazon's recommendation and the fact that both Cory Doctorow and Stephen King provided blurbs for the jacket.  King said, "Robert Charles Wilson is a hell of a storyteller," and since I think King is quite the storyteller himself, I thought this was pretty high praise.  The book turned out compelling enough to keep me going through 400+ pages of small font (My perspective has been skewed by all the TeenLit I read these days.), but it's a hard book to describe in many ways.

Mainly the problem of describing the novel arises in assigning it a genre. Wilson is considered a SciFi author, and I suppose that loosely fits things--but very loosely. The story is set in a futuristic 22nd-Century America, but one that looks much more like things did in the 18th century. There are scattered pockets of technology, but on the whole it's much more of a feudal society, with landowners and serfs, a mixed civil and religious political structure with military leanings. There's a constant war that is being waged to maintain the American borders--and a corresponding flag of 13 stripes and 60 stars. It's low tech enough to keep it out of the Steampunk genre, yet there's a flavor of something futuristic at the same time--in a collapse type of way common to Post-Apocalyptic novels, but well after any horror has dissipated.

With all that aside, the novel is primarily a story of friendship--between a lower-born aspiring author (the book's narrator) and the aristocratic son of the slain US President. The two travel across country, engage in numerous battle scenes, make critiques of high society and religion, and comment on socialism and totalitarianism. All in all there is a bit of something in here for everyone, and while I think that it's a more male-oriented plot, there is enough drama and interest to pull most readers along.

65: Blackout, by Connie Willis (2010 paperback; hardcover published 2010)

Over the summer, NPR put out "Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Reads."  It's a decent list, although lacking a bit in female authors (Octavia Butler is noticeably and disappointingly absent, for instance.).  One female author on the list with whom I was not familiar is Connie Willis, whose Doomsday Book came in at 97.  While scavenging the close-out sale at Border's, I came across Blackout and decided to give it a try.

At first I had quite a hard time with the book, and I couldn't figure out why.  It wasn't because of the content or premise, as its storyline of time-traveling historians appealed to me.  I was a bit less interested in the WW II focus, but that still didn't explain it.  Finally, I realized that the author's extensive use of dialogue--both external and internal--was putting me off. This may have been exacerbated by the fact that the language is British English in the early 1940s, a vernacular similar enough to mine so that I felt it should seem comfortable, but different enough so that it really wasn't. Things felt stilted and formal, which I suppose was true of the time itself as well as the language, when compared to today.

Ultimately I grew to enjoy the book and the opportunity to peek into 1940 London during the Blitz. Because the narrators are historians, traveling back in time to study particular events, it seems natural to have historical information and a narrative storyline jumbled together.  And, this is really the way I like my history lessons: fictional and story driven. I'm taking a bit of a break from the war, but I'll be back sometime with a review of the follow-up book, All Clear.

60-61: The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials (Books 1 and 2 of the Maze Runner trilogy), by James Dashner (2009 paperback and 2010 hardcover)

I came across this trilogy in postings on the Centurions of 2011 Facebook page regarding the monthly books members have read.  Time and time again, folks commented on these books being among their favorite for the month.  With such regular recommendations, a few tantalizing details, and the promise of a maze, how could I resist trying another post-apocalyptic TeenLit series?

I'll have to say that when reading the first third of The Maze Runner, I was less than enthralled. The main character is a whiny, self-centered 16-year-old boy named Thomas, and I felt no kinship with him. Had I been trapped in the center (the Glade) of the maze with him and his 50 or so teen male cohorts, I would have wanted to smack him--and pretty much every one of them--upside the head and told him to get over himself.  Sure your memory has been wiped, sure you are trapped in a prison for unknown crimes, and sure horrific creatures lurk in the corridors waiting to kill you, but...sheesh.  Enough of the moping and discourteous behavior, Thomas.  Snap out of it!

And, of course, he does snap out of it. After all, as in all teen post-apocalyptic tales, these young folks must rise to the occasion.  Or be eaten by monsters.

By the middle of the first volume, enthrallment kicked in, and I rushed right on to The Scorch Trials, where the girls finally show up.  Rather than the surreal, obviously fabricated maze, the two teen teams now enter the real world--alternating between cities filled with insane, zombie-like Cranks, a nightmare landscape with relentless sun beating down on a desert wasteland, and torrential wind and lightening storms destroying anything alive on said wasteland.  It's a world devastated by sun flairs and an extremely contagious fatal disease. And monsters, but different monsters.

I read these first volumes in two days, and despite how busy I am preparing for this Saturday's pig roast and the looming first day of the semester, I'm going to get to Northtown Books as soon as possible to pick up the trilogy's conclusion, The Death Cure. 

53: Glow (Sky Chasers, Volume 1), by Amy Kathleen Ryan (2011 advance reader paperback; release 9.27.2011)

My friend Marsha Mielke loaned me this book, saying that she'd be interested to hear what I thought about the religious aspect of it. I'm an atheist, and while she doesn't share my views, we have easy conversations about religion and belief.  The thing is, that while some atheists find religious themes unattractive or uncomfortable, I actually don't mind them when they are used effectively.  Thirteen years of Catholic school steeped me in the stories of that religion, so there is almost a comfort in recognizing the symbols and myths that play themselves out over the course of human history. While I don't believe in a god and the attendant behaviors, I have no problem with the fact that many people do--unless they are using their religion to oppress, condemn, or judge others.

That's the thing that makes the story of Glow interesting: a religious theme is used to explore societal issues, human survival, and treatment of others. The setting is aboard two spacecraft hurtling through space on a decades-long journey to a replacement planet in order to start Earth culture over again. (I'm sure they'll do it right this time.) These, of course, are huge crafts, with gardens, farms, labs, living quarters--basically very Next Generation-ish. What we come to learn over the course of time is that the two crafts started off with one difference; crew members on one were religious/ Christian, and the crew on the other were non-believers and members of other religions, with a few Christians mixed in.  As the story unfolds, Waverly and Kieran, teens in the first generation born in space aboard the mixed belief ship, must face the problems caused by another difference that developed after the ships--traveling light years apart--left Earth.  While their ship managed to develop a cure to the infertility that plagued the crafts, the Christian ship never did. Nor were they willing to share their cure with their Christian counterparts. (Yeah, sort of makes the outlook on successfully avoiding the problems that caused this migration in the first place look a bit bleak, huh?)

Enter violent attacks, religious fervor, teen angst...

The book is pretty good, even if it doesn't compare to the Hunger Games series (a required reference on the jacket cover every TeenLit SciF Post Apocalyptic series). The romance playing second fiddle to the societal structures and issues explored. The religious theme doesn't fully present itself until the last third of the book, and it doesn't come down too specifically on either side of the aisle.  In the closing Acknowledgements, Ryan explains that "The theories of Sacvan Bercovitch, Ph.D., described in his remarkable book The Puritan Origins of the American Self shaped the major themes in Glow." I have to confess that I won't be racing out to explore those theories in the original, but I will patiently wait for them to make their way into the sequel.

45: Pathfinder, by Orson Scott Card (2010 hardcover)

I read Ender's Game 15-20 years ago, but I haven't read another book by Card since then.  I know he has a big following and many good books--even some Ender sequels, from what I understand--but he's just an author I never remember to look for.  So, when I came across Pathfinder in the Young Adult section of the local bookstore (If it was published today, I'm betting Ender's Game would show up there too.), I decided it was fate.  The novel offered me a way to reintroduce myself to an author I like in a genre that I'm currently reading  a lot of. 

Pathfinder is particularly interesting because it intertwines two story lines of different genres in each chapter.  Chapters begin with a piece of a SciFi narrative involving space ships, time travel, and humanoid robots.  From  there, they switch into fantasy mode, going back 1,100 years to a medieval-ish time. This is actually the primary story mode for the book, which features a 13-year-old boy named Rigg whose fur-trapping father dies in the woods, leaving him on his own.  He comes into previously unknown knowledge about his background and starts on a journey, where he meets two others who, like him, have special abilities.

When reading fantasy, I tend to like more contemporary settings (a la Gaiman or de Lint), so the SciFi aspect of this kept me more engaged than I may have otherwise been.  One other thing that kept my attention is that Card tackles interesting scientific theories regarding space and time but doesn't dumb them down for his younger readers.  The book is identified as being appropriate for those in grades 7 and up, and I imagine that kids in those lower grades will be stretched in both their thinking and their vocabulary with this book.  

Having read Pathfinder, I foresee more Card in my near future.  I think I'll likely reread Ender's Game and move through that sequence.  If you have other favorites by Card, I'd be interested in your suggestions.

31: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu (2010 hardcover)

From the Amazon.com recommendations list, this book screamed "winner" at me for many reasons: a witty title, the SciFi genre, a young author (winner of the National Book Foundations 5 Under 35 Award), and--the clincher--cool ray guns on the cover.  I was destined to love this book, I decided.  And, I worked hard to do so.  I even read the entire book--forgoing my usual 57-page rule based on Nancy Pearl's formula (see blog entry 16 for formula details)--because I felt that, at any moment, I was going to suddenly come around to loving it.

It never happened.  

Despite the great premise of a young man traveling through time, in a universe that is itself science fictional, repairing the time-travel machines of others, while seeking his father who invented one of the first time machines and thereafter disappeared (basically, all components right up my reading alley), the book never clicked for me.  I didn't like the whiny main character, his extremely long, rambling private monologues, and even the science and fiction explanations were interminable. I must admit that I did a lot of skimming in the last half of the book.

Of course, there was enough interest to keep me skimming (and the books was a short 239 pages, which helped) so it wasn't all bad.  I'd simply suggest waiting until Yu's second novel, or checking out his award-winning short story collection, rather than adding this one to your reading list. 

26: Divergent, by Veronica Roth (2011 hardcover)

If you enjoyed Collins's Hunger Games teen series, you'll enjoy Roth's Divergent as well.  I haven't decided yet whether it's quite as good--I'll wait until the second book in the trilogy is released to make that decision--but I can tell you that I read through the fast-paced post-apocalyptic story over the course of two busy days, fitting some reading time whenever I could and staying up late to finish.

The protagonist of Divergent is a 16-year-old girl, coming of age in a society that has rebuilt itself after a devastating war by having people commit to one of five factions which live their lives based on characteristics opposite of those they believe led to war in the first place.  At 16, children must pick one of these factions, in which they will live out their lives: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, and Amity.  While raised by their parents within one of these factions, each new adult has the opportunity to join whichever group he/she desires, guided by the results of a virtual-action personality test.  While Beatrice has been raised in Abnegation, leading a life of political and humanitarian service (selfless people will do the best for others, it's believed), she has always struggled to conform to Abnegation expectations.  When she takes her test, she discovers why: she is one of a small percentage of people who identify with more than one faction in testing--in her case Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless--making her one of the Divergent.  She is told she must keep this a secret, as Divergence is dangerous.   

I don't want to add a spoiler here, so I won't tell you which of the three factions Beatrice chooses.  However, suffice it to say that dividing people into five personality/behavior types started out as a good social experiment, but the system has degenerated over time.   Mistrust and corruption have led to divisiveness, and faction charters and constitutions have been distorted.  As divergent, Beatrice--or Tris, as she becomes known--is exactly the type of person that may be able to do something about this.  And, in TeenLit fashion, she wont have to do it alone, as long as the dark, sexy Four is at her side.

All in all, it's a promising first novel by Roth, and I'm looking forward to the second in the series.  And, if you loved Hunger Games as much as I did, it's at least a good read to kill some time before Collins releases some new work.

2: I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (2010 Paperback)

I guess it would have been clever of me to hold off on reading this for a week or two so I could post it as number 4 on my list.  However, the cover and title had attracted me for some time—I picked it up and put it down in the TeenLit section of at least two bookstores before I finally purchased it—so it’s no surprise that I decided to jump in once I finally had it in my possession.  What’s a bit more surprising is how compelling I found it; in fact, I read the majority in only two settings.

The premise of the book is that there are nine young aliens living on earth—each with his or her own guardian—hiding out from another race of aliens who destroyed their home planet, biding their time until they come into their Legacies (superpowers) and can return home to fight the bad guys and restore their planet to health.  The Lorien aliens living among us humans mean no harm—in fact, they have been involved in advancing the human race throughout Earth’s history—and, if anything, we have a common enemy in the Mogadorians.  After all, having depleted the natural resources on their own plant, the Mogodorians overran Lorien because it was the closest planet able to sustain life.  The next closest?  Earth.

The book begins with the murder of a young boy and his guardian in rural Kenya, whereafter the reader is introduced to the story’s narrator: a 15-year old Lorien boy.  We soon learn that the Kenyan boy was Number 3, and the Lorien living in America is Number 4.  The numbers represent the order in which the Lorien refugees must be killed—the result of a charm cast by an Elder as they left Lorien in an effort to increase their chance at survival.  It’s been 10 years since the kids and their guardians arrived on Earth and scattered to the far corners, and the Mogodorians are beginning to panic; they want to ensure the total elimination of the Lorien race, and they also want to keep Earthlings ignorant of their plans for the planet.  Add the fact that these Lorien kids are entering puberty—when their Legacies begin to manifest and they will be able to take the battle to the Mogodorians—and you have a game of cat and mouse being played on a large scale.

John Smith (the name the narrator has most recently taken) and guardian Henri move to Paradise, Ohio—one of dozens of moves made over time in an effort to elude the notice of their hunters.  As the new kid in high school, he immediately catches the attention of the quarterback, the quarterback’s beautiful ex-girlfriend, and an alien-conspiracy nerd.  While the teen storyline/romance is typical, the contrast of good and bad alien, an interesting planetary backstory, and some decent writing make this teen book a good read.  It claims to be the first of three in the Lorian Legacies trilogy, and there is already a motion picture in plans for this first volume.  I’ll likely be checking out the movie and the next two books as they are published.  Stay tuned.