The Androids Dream

OK, my last review was a little angry I admit.  I am happy to say that my faith in novels has been restored thanks to John Scalzi's The Androids Dream.  Another book I just sorta picked up at my local library, it kept me entertained throughout.  the beginning was promising, the middle was action packed and I totally didn't see the end coming at all.

Androids Dream is set in the future, after the earth has had First Contact with aliens and has joined the Common Confederation of Planets.  The basic plot is that one race of aliens, the Nidu, have a coronation ceremony coming up that requires a certain breed of sheep from the Earth call the Androids Dream breed. The human government is split in two on the issue, with half scrambling to procure the sheep and save the tenuous relationship between the two species, while the other half are trying to destroy all of this specific breed and start a war.  The story mostly follows Harry Creek, a war veteran with the training and expertise to try and sort out this mess and Robin Baker, a pet shop owner with past ties to the Androids Dream breed.

This story is one of the best I've read in a long while.  Scalzi is a very good writer although my one complaint is that this book was very poorly edited.  Basic mistakes like spelling and grammar were not fixed.  Sometimes whole words were missing from sentences and you were left stumbling.  If something like that really bugs you then hopefully its been fixed in a later edition than the one I picked up (if there is one).  Still, if you can get past editing mistakes I suggest you pick this up.  This was a very good book and one of the best sci-fi books I've picked up in some time.

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

Hi there! This is Kiki. Finally contributing to what was supposed to be a combined effort. The reason behind my belated participation is that due to school and other such nonsense I stopped reading books right about the time this blog was started. Super pathetic, I know. Well, I'm officially educated now and can start my life of leisure with the written word and let me tell you, my reintroduction was fantabulous!

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance is freaking hilarious. I was laughing out loud at some of the irreverent things Elna Baker has to say about her life and experiences. Nikki can definitely attest to the fact. She had to listen to me howling while she was trying to enjoy her own book. And please don't be deterred, this is not just for those of the Mormon persuasion. I am certain that it can be thoroughly enjoyed by all. It is a memoir about a young Mormon girl coming to New York for school and finding her faith and values questioned and analyzed. It is funny and revealing and an excellent coming-of-age story. She discusses her quest to be successful, lose weight, and find the perfect man in chronological essays that make for one rip-roarin' fun story. Baker's style is very easy and relate-able. She has a flair for storytelling and the book didn't disappoint. The only issue I found with it was that it ended. I know that's super cliche but it's true. I wanted to keep reading her interesting stories and learning about her interesting life. Her life is so fun and full, this book definitely made me want to live more and be more involved in what's happening around me.

I know this was a short review but this will probably be pretty typical of me. I will be as honest as possible but I'm not going to talk and talk and talk forever. Short and sweet, that's how I write. Although, I do promise to be around this blog more.

For a first review, though, I'm calling this a success. What do you think?

The Astonishing Adventure of Fanboy and Goth Girl

I hate the media and pop culture. Absolutely hate it. Especially how they portray high school.   My high school experience was nothing like their descriptions at all.  Sure there were the jocks and the nerds and all that but everyone was more or less nice to each other.  Heck, they often overlapped into each other.  Sure there was bullying because that happens everywhere but the entire school didn’t gang up on one kid because he liked comic books and was an honor student.  Honestly, nobody gave a crap.  Which brings me to today’s review, after my long absence.  I remember walking through Barnes & Noble and seeing The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga and thinking “this seems relevant to me,” but I didn’t pick it up because I was in middle school at the time and had none of the moneys.  The reason I found it intriguing at the time was because from the description it was about a boy who was trying to come to terms with being part of the sub-culture known as nerd.  Now I have some weird social anxieties and I too was trying to deal with this very same issue (yes I love sci-fi, anime and manga, comic books, video games and the sciences.  Deal with it).  Anyway, I was perusing my local library when I came across this book in the young adult section.  I figured it was worth a shot.  Ho boy was I in for a big disappointment.

So the main character is a 15 year old sophomore in high school honor student with a severe attitude problem.  Now, I am of the belief that you should have a main character that you either like or can relate to.  Otherwise, you’re reader is not going to care about what happens to him or her in the story and you’ve rendered your book unreadable.  This particular guy, who I cannot for the life of me remember his name.  If it was given at all in the book, which there’s a possibility it wasn’t, then I can remember it. That’s how annoying and boring this character was.  If he was a real guy I met in my high school I probably would have thought him a jerk and then ignored him, but no apparently everyone in his school wants to make his life a living hell because he openly admits to being a comic book enthusiast.  NOBODY CARES IN REAL LIFE! Not to mention he would have found plenty of other people just like him with the same interests and would have hung out with that crowd.  Or, maybe he wouldn’t have because the guy is a complete jerk.  He is rude to his mom, his best friend, his new friend, his stepdad, his idol, everyone.  He expects everyone to cater to his desires and whims and when they have their own lives to attend to, he gets mad and throws a tantrum.  He has a fight his best friend because he can’t go to a big comic book convention because his lacrosse game is the same day.  Just because the main character hates sports, he thinks everyone else should to.  Everyone is allowed to have their own interests!  Your hypocrisy speaks volumes to your character.

Don’t tell me that “it’s the whole point of the novel to see the character learn” or whatever, because he doesn’t learn anything! It’s sort of implied that maybe he has a change of heart or something but there is no lesson learned.  He just starts being nice to his mom all of a sudden.  Seriously, this guy really frustrated me.

I will admit the writing was decent.  After doing a bit of research on the author, I can see that he wrote for the comic book industry for a while, though I haven’t read any of his comic books, before writing novels full time.  This is his first novel, so I suppose I should cut him some slack.  I’m sorry though, his main character just really bugs me.

Anyway, final thoughts.  I know I harped a lot on the main character and the fact that it isn’t very true to real life and I didn’t really look to much at the story.  As story’s go, there have been better and worse.  Mostly it was just bland.  It sure wasn’t the astonishing adventure I was promised from the title.  If the main character hadn’t riled me up so much I probably would have just cast it off as a boring book.  I swear, a book hasn’t made me this angry since I read I am the Cheese in eighth grade.

And can you believe there’s a sequel?  People actually enjoyed this book enough for there to be a sequel.  This is exactly why I hate pop culture. 

Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez

You ever feel like you have no idea what to say about something?  Well, that's how I feel about Divine Misfortune by A Lee. Martinez.  This book was so...bland...that I've been trying for weeks to come up with something interesting to say about it.  Unfortunately for you, I honestly cant.  I suppose if you're looking for an easy, short read to get your mind off things, its not that bad, but the concept of all the gods ever imagined existing and all vying for your devotion and worship can create some really interesting concepts and in a way he does bring a few into play but in the end the gods are just whiny, petty brats, and the people are one dimensional and incapable of being independent.  The ending didn't really solve anything, the middle was incredibly slow, while the beginning sucked you in promising an interesting story from an interesting concept.  Whats really awful is that the book itself wasn't especially bad.  It was well written, and even clever at times but the author could have done so much more with this story.  I was expecting a flavor full bonanza when I picked this up but all I got instead was a rice cake.
-Nikki

Leviathan by Scott Westerfield

I love history.  It’s always been one of my favorite subjects in school and when a history documentary is on TV I will sit down and watch it, unless of course a space documentary is on at the same time.  A girls got to have her priorities straight.  But what does this have to do with books you may ask?  Well, today’s review is over Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, a story that revolves around the events preceding WWI but with a twist. 

So we open to a war scene describing a glorious army about to strike down their enemy’s.  the men are tall and proud and ready to fight for their country.  The machines are gleaming in the sun well oiled and ready to take down the enemy.  The horses stand strong and powerful and the men riding them know they are reliant.  Oh wait, never mind, it’s a child playing with his toys in his bedroom at the dead of night.  But this isn’t any boy; this is a prince, the child of the archduke of Austria.  His mentors are about to take him out of the castle to teach him how to night walk in a GIANT MECHANICAL WALKER.  Yup there’s the twist.  The Germans are “clankers” and the British are “beasties.”  The British use fabricated animals instead of machines for everything from cars to airships.  They take Darwinism to the extreme, where as the Germans have invented machines reminiscent of the giant walkers in star wars only much smaller and piloted by people who actually have a brain.

Anyway we’ve meet the Prince named Aleksander.  The other main character is Deryn Sharp, a girl pretending to be a boy to serve in the British air corps. Deryn is smart, quick witted and better then most of the boys in the service.  Now this is a heroine I can get behind!  She’s a born flier and will do anything to be in the sky, even pretend to be a boy which is actually a plus for her cause she doesn’t like girly things like dresses.  She ends up serving on the Leviathan, the first fabricated air ship and also the biggest. This is her dream come true, if she is allowed to stay when the ship picks up a Lady known as the Boffin, a scientist who works to come up with new fabricated species.  With the extra weight that the Boffin brings, they have to get rid of some crew members and Deryn and the other newbie airmen are first in line to be kicked out.  But of course, where would the story be if she did get kicked off the ship?  The book is called Leviathan; of course she is going to stay.

As we follow these two characters we see them grow and develop which I can not tell you how nice that is.  To many books keep their characters flat and one dimensional and they are so boooooooring.  Its like reading about rocks, but even that can be interesting with the right author.  And the supporting cast is interesting at times, boring at others but that’s alright. What we really want to know is what will happen to Deryn and Alek but oh wait, I forgot, there isn’t an end!  Yeah the book just stops.  No ending to anything.  Oh there’s a resolution and such, but the book itself just stops!  When Ii finished it I was baffled.  There has got to be more, Westerfiled wouldn’t just stop this book.  But he did, and its annoying.  I am ok with books setting up a sequel but not when they don’t have an ending themselves!

Besides all that though, it was a decent book with a really interesting story.  It’s obvious this book is for kids (it has pictures!) but that shouldn’t stop adults from reading it.  After all, what’s life if you can’t immerse yourself in a good book, even if that book isn’t meant for adults?

The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman

Recently, Kiki got me into a new author by the name of Neal Shusterman. Let me just tell you that this guy can write.  His books are for young adults and children but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that juvenile fiction is often times better than their adult counterparts and Shusterman is a great example as to why.  The Dark Side of Nowhere, isn’t the best book by him that I’ve read but it’s certainly better than a lot of other books out there.

You open to the setting of a sleepy suburban town in the middle of nowhere right after a boy by the name of Ethan has died.  The main character is Jason, a good kid with a rebellious streak because he is too bored with his life and wants to liven things up.  Jason’s parents are practically Mr. and Mrs. American Dream which only adds to his frustration at how normal and boring his life is. From the beginning of the book you have a sense of foreboding that something awful/surprising is lurking just around the corner and you just know that something is about to change.  Oh you know that feeling.  Anyway of course the change occurs in the form of a mysterious gift from a mysterious janitor.  Yup, that’s right a janitor. And what does Jason acquire from this janitor?  If you guessed super powers then you are absolutely WRONG!  No he gets a metal glove that shoots BB’s.  Yup, that’s right BB’s.   So yeah the change occurs and Jason finds himself missing his sleepy boring suburban life and it’s all so wonderfully cliché that I just drunk it all up.

Now, I didn’t have any real problems with this story, the characters or the writing.  There were a few confusing parts, however.  One example of this is a little blink and you miss it scene with Jason and his two friends.  Jason has to a shot once a month for his whole life and he grew up thinking that everyone else had to get it too.  However one of his friends who just moved to Billington from out of town doesn’t have to get it and hasn’t even heard of it.  This scene is supposed to establish that yes these shots are isolated to only a few people in town but if you aren’t paying attention you could miss this little incident and not understand a key plot point which is actually what happened to me.  After a while you do find out what is going on and everything gets back on track so it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

The thing about Shusterman’s writing is that he is very adept at making the reader think.  Even in the silly Dark Side of Nowhere you spent the entire book asking deep and insightful questions.  Now, a much better example of this ability he has would be another one of his books called Unwind which I will get into at a later date, but still if you pick up this novel and read it through you will see what I mean.  If you’re looking for a good book check The Dark Side of Nowhere out, or if it doesn’t appeal to you, read any other Shusterman novel.  He is an awesome writer and you won’t be disappointed.

-Nikki

Sky-Roderick Townsley

I know lots of people out there do book reviews and what not and I’m not trying to steal their shtick but everyone’s entitled to their own opinion right? This just happens to be mine. 

Anyway, the first book I want to take a look at is Sky by Roderick Townley.  It’s about a teenage boy named Sky who loves his jazz piano but his father is against it.  It was a fairly easy read, with a pretty interesting storyline.  I liked that, although this book is very focused on music in general and jazz in particular, it isn’t bogged down with terms that musically illiterate people wouldn’t understand.  That is actually something that I can’t stand when I read books centered on music.  They fill it with all these terms that only people who read music will understand and honestly it just makes these books sound pretentious.  Sky, however, was pretty good about not making the story only about how great jazz is and how stupid all the non-musicians are. 

Here’s what bugged me about it.  The summary pretty much gave the entire plot away.  It was obvious from the beginning what was going to happen but the book didn’t even let me read a few pages before I figured it out.  You read the summary on the back and you basically know what is going to happen.  Another thing about it is the characters.  You’re given a taste of who they are but they are never fully developed, even the main character Sky.  All you ever really know about him is his love for the piano and that his family is messed up. 

Still the writing was pretty good and the story wasn’t slow at all.  It was a fairly simple read that kept me more or less interested.  I’d say that if you run into this book and you’re not in the middle of something else, pick it up and give it a try but don’t go out looking for it.

                                                                                                                                    -Nikki