Faerie Wars

by Herbie Brennan

Very good.  Poor Henry, but he handled the circumstances very well.  So did Pyrgus, I was impressed.

{From faeriewars.com: What’s Henry to do when his parent’s marriage starts to fall apart? What can he do except get on with his summer job of cleaning out Mr Fogarty’s shed. But there’s something in that shed that will turn Henry’s whole life inside out and take him into a whole different level of reality…

What’s Pyrgus to do when the animals he loves come under threat? What can he do except rescue those he can … and fall foul of those who threaten the entire Faerie Realm? Soon there’s only one thing for it and that’s to leave the realm completely…

When Henry and Pyrgus get together, an entire world hangs in the balance and those they love face nightmare dangers.

Faerie Wars is an extraordinary, page-turning read full of tension, adventure and the kind of detail that ensures you‘ll be holding your breath as the story unfolds.}

Deep Secret

by Diana Wynne Jones

Good book.  It gets very involving and although it brushes over some details the ones we have are magnificent.  Jones has created a universe where we see multiple planets, where dynasties crumble, and where very strange things happen at Science Conventions.

{From the publisher, Torr: Rupert Venables is a Magid. It’s a Magid’s job to oversee what goes on in the vast Multiverse. Actually, Rupert is really only a junior Magid. But he’s got a king-sized problem. Rupert’s territory includes Earth and the Empire of Korfyros. When his mentor dies Rupert must find a replacement. But there are hundreds of candidates. How is he supposed to choose? And interviewing each one could take forever. Unless. What if he could round them all up in one place? Simple!}

I would recommend this to everyone, even though it’s probably more likable to 16+ (because of pacing, not language or mature topics, in fact it was marketed towards adults), British-lovers and fantasy/sci-fi enthusiasts.  The next book in the series is called The Merlin Conspiracy.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Excellent!  I first heard of this book from The Bookshelf Collection, and knew I had to get my hands on this book.

{From Scholastic, where you can hear an excerpt read by Suzanne Collins herself!:  In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.}

“… a superb tale of physical adventure, political suspense, and romance.” (Booklist)  ”… brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced… a futuristic novel every bit as good and as allegorically rich as Scott Westerfeld’s ‘Uglies’ books.” (The New York Times, John Green)

It was definitely a page turner and leaves you desperately grasping for the next book.  Happily the sequel, Catching Fire, comes out September 1, 2009.  I would recommend this book to all readers, it is great.

Brave New World

by Alduous Huxley

A vision of our future world from Huxley’s view in the 1930’s when the helicopter was a striking new invention and Ford was changing the world with his mass production lines.  After a big disaster the world has been condensed and formed into nine World States, each with a supreme leader.  People are no longer born but are grown in conveyor-belt style, and specially engineered to fill their regimented social roles.

The reader follows some characters on the top of the scale, the Alphas, Bernard and Hutch.  One struggles to fit into his social role and the other fits easily but longs for forbidden poetry.  They both push the limits of their society and get entangled with a savage from one of the wild tribes left in southwestern America.  Their struggles carry them to the top of society and end in disappointing, exhilarating, and utterly devastating ways.

Good book to read, just to be aware of it, and for it’s good points about society and good descriptive scenes.  Some things are ludicrous, like the fact that this world structure would work, and the parts where John the Savage can argue eloquently and fully understand the depths of Shakespeare from seeing the book some while he was a child.

This book was among the ranks of Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Gulliver’s Travels that we covered in AP English my senior year.   Personally, I wanted to cover more books.   What about Slaughterhouse Five?  Middlemarch?  In Cold Blood?  Grapes of Wrath?  Invisible Man?  Catch-22?  The Things They Carried?  Of Mice and Men?  Heart of Darkness?  David Copperfield?  Come on, let’s read people!

I did enjoy Wuthering Heights and Hamlet, but I think Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland would be a better substitute for Gulliver’s Travels.  I’ve heard Brave New World and 1984 compared a lot, as Orual said in a conversation about AP books on College Confidential: “I recommend Brave New World over 1984, but it depends on whether you’d prefer to read about how things we like destroy us or about how things we hate destroy us.”

Ender’s Game

by Orson Scott Card

Good book!  I’ve been on a sci-fi run lately, and they all surprise me with their ideas and points of view.  So thought-provoking, so intense.  I really enjoyed the Game and its intricacies, I couldn’t wait for their next match or to see how Ender would develop his leadership skills.  Although I did find the ages unrealistic.  Card writes that Ender is 6 when he is taken to battle school; the situation would be more feasible if he were 15.

I really like Card’s way of using omniscient voices.  In some stories such conventions leave me very confused and distracted, but in Ender’s Game, this extra tidbits have just the right effect.  It is well done indeed.

{From Wikipedia: Set in Earth’s future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind who have barely survived two conflicts with the Buggers (an insectoid alien race). In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders. The world’s most talented children, including the novel’s protagonist Ender Wiggin, are taken at a very young age to a training center known as the Battle School. There, teachers train them in the arts of war through increasingly difficult games including ones undertaken in zero gravity in the Battle Room where Ender’s tactical genius is revealed.}

… spoiler:

Abhorsen

by Garth Nix

A very good ending to the trilogy, this book was heavy and sad and yet emerged triumphantly and hopefully at the end.

I fell in love with the Disreputable Dog.  She was such a great soul and a great character.  Not knowing her past and her mysterious actions almost made me wonder if she was on the bad side, but thankfully for our heroes she was not.  She was an angel.

One thing; why didn’t Sam and Lirael realize that Sabriel and Touchstone were still alive because Sabriel’s flutes were still working when they crossed the wall?  Oh well.

The Ninth was strong

and fought with might,

But lone Orannis

was put out of the light,

Broken in two

and buried under hill,

Forever to lie there,

wishing us ill.

So says the song. But Orannis, the Destroyer, is no longer buried under hill. It has been freed from its subterranean prison and now seeks to escape the silver hemispheres, the final barrier to the unleashing of its terrible powers.

Only Lirael, newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. She and her companions — Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget — have to take that chance. For the Destroyer is the enemy of all Life, and it must be stopped, though Lirael does not know how.

To make matters worse, Sam’s best friend, Nick, is helping the Destroyer, as are the necromancer Hedge and the Greater Dead Chlorr, and there has been no word from the Abhorsen Sabriel or King Touchstone.

Everything depends upon Lirael. A heavy, perhaps even impossible burden for a young woman who just days ago was merely a Second Assistant Librarian. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the rather mixed help of her companions, Lirael must search in both Life and Death for some means to defeat the Destroyer.

Before it is too late. . .

{From www.abhorsentrilogy.com:

Orannis, the Destroyer, is no longer buried under hill. It has been freed from its subterranean prison and now seeks to escape the silver hemispheres, the final barrier to the unleashing of its terrible powers.

Only Lirael, newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. She and her companions — Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget — have to take that chance. For the Destroyer is the enemy of all Life, and it must be stopped, though Lirael does not know how.

To make matters worse, Sam’s best friend, Nick, is unwittingly helping the Destroyer, as are the necromancer Hedge and the Greater Dead Chlorr, and there has been no word from the Abhorsen Sabriel or King Touchstone.

Everything depends upon Lirael. A heavy, perhaps even impossible burden for a young woman who just days ago was merely a Second Assistant Librarian. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the rather mixed help of her companions, Lirael must search in both Life and Death for some means to defeat the Destroyer.}

The Mysterious Benedict Society

by Trenton Lee Stewart

Young Adult books are gaining esteem for their quality and contribution to great literature.  Juvenile fiction can also be an enriching genre not to be overlooked by those over the age of 15.  (Need I mention Harry Potter?)  The Mysterious Benedict Society is one of the juvenile classification that any adult can still appreciate.

Good read.  The intriguing cover is a good representation of what you’ll find inside.  This book can be separated into two parts, the test/finding of amazing kids, and the battle against the evil mastermind.  I enjoyed both; the first part was so interesting, and will excite anyone who likes puzzles.  The second part was full of interesting twists and turns and makes the reader think.  Stewart has a lot of fresh ideas.

Excellent book.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

Oh, I love this book, I was cracking up with every new page!  The sarcastic tone is so awesome, even if the subject matter is irrevocably silly and plot jumps outnumber characters.  I feel a compulsion to read the 4 sequels.  But, it turns out that there were supposed to be 6 books, but Adams died in 2001 at age 46 and never got to write it.  His widow sanctioned a project that will pick up the story again, and she requested Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer to write the next books.

“Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide book

Comic fantasy children’s author describes being given the opportunity to continue Douglas Adams’s legendary series as ‘like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice’”

~ guardian.co.uk, September 17, 2008 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books /2008/sep/17/douglasadams>

I love Eoin Colfer and am excited that he will continue the quirky journey.  I have no more to say but:  So long, and thanks for all the fish!

oh, and… 

42!!

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox

by Eoin Colfer

Wow.  I loved it!  Colfer is almost certainly my favorite author of all time.  (Philip Pullman is a close second, James Herriot and J.K. Rowling vie for third!)

The danger and excitement aren’t over for Artemis and Holly.  Surprisingly this book sees them re-entering the time stream to go eight years in the past.  Here Colfer explores some interesting aspects of the ‘time paradox’ from which the sixth book gets its name.

Both Artemis and Holly have to contend with aspects of their past; Artemis gets a good look at his younger self and Holly is reminded of her mother’s death.  Plus they meet up with an old nemesis that I had an inkling readers would be seeing more of.  And still more of, because something goes wrong in the future too…

One of my favorite parts about book six is how great a person Artemis is turning into.  He is forced to be honest, he admits a betrayal, he concedes his physical ineptitude and insignificance in the universe, he has feelings, and this is the first time that he does something for someone else for no profit whatsoever.  Very nice.

One of my favorite scenes is where Holly gets to talk to Julius Root through hologram.  It was wonderful for her to get that second chance and to hear from Root how much pride and hope he felt for both Holly and Commander Trouble Kelp.  I’m glad Holly forgave Artemis.

“Arty”s little twin brothers are adorable.  They will be very interesting in future books.  The ending was awesome.

One part I still don’t get, when Holly and Artemis go back in time and Butler is behind them and thus easily subdues them, why did it happen that way?  Was Artemis’ memory wrong on that part?  Was it something the younger Artemis remembered?  Maybe I’ll find it on a fan site or an author interview or something.

In reading around I’ve seen the opinion that this book is different from the earlier books in the series.  I agree, it feels a little different.  I don’t know which is my favorite.

But thank you Colfer for another wonderful book!