Turning Pages Reads: ARROW OF LIGHTNING by JOSEPH BRUCHAC

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

A funny thing happened on the way to reading a book, way back in 2013, that I didn't think I'd enjoy... I fell in love with a world, a character, and an entire series.

"Fast-paced, action-packed, and easy to get into, KILLER OF ENEMIES is a dystopian fantasy that flat-out erases the stereotypical "simple Native" tale in favor of a cold-eyed, sharp-shooting monster-killing menace, whose powers are freaking her out, but who is nonetheless DETERMINED to save her little corner of the world, and those she loves." - my original review.

I eagerly swallowed down ROSE EAGLE, the much-too-short prequel to KILLER that I wasn't aware I was jonesing for, with a character who is NOT superhuman, and who, in fact, falls down, gets dirty, and screws things up. She wins anyway, because she knows how to accept help. I whined until -- finally -- TRAIL OF THE DEAD was released, showing us a different side of the derring-do super heroine main character from KILLERS than we'd known before, as she struggles with being in charge, and mastering herself.

And then, we moved. And I MISSED being part of everything - I missed doing the cover reveal and reviewing ARROW OF LIGHTNING the day it came out. I saw it on Edelweiss and gasped out loud. HOW did I miss it!?! And, as always, I feared, What if it isn't as good??!

Silly me.

Synopsis: As the book begins, Rose and her band are heading out, ranging wider and further from the Valley Where First Light Paints the Cliffs in their quest to find and gather more people who are under the tyrannical control of the Ones and their last henchmen. Just when she feels a little less wobbly on her feet, Lozen's on her own again. Unfortunately, her Power is still... unsettled. Surely all is well now, and all real enemies slain? Nope. And the trouble is not the massive genmod river dweller that she and Hussein discover -- and which her surprising new Power helps dispatch. Her Power shows her something much less reassuring - that her archnemesis Luther Four Deaths is still ... living. And, the Jester and Lady Time are sending him after her. Again. What's it going to take to make this dude finally have to die!? Lozen is frustrated - and afraid. She realizes that the way she's been stomping out fires wherever she finds them isn't going to work anymore. She's made a promise to herself to take no more human life, and so... she must leave her band of family and friends, and stake out herself as bait, in hopes of bringing the fight to herself. She doesn't quite know what she'll do, then. She'll have Hussein with her - and hopefully, between the two of them, they'll come up with... something.

Of course, no plan works that smoothly. Before she can even get away to begin hunting Luther, a plague of locus and some of the Ones' henchmen reappear, and the entire encampment, in their safe, fire-proof, cliff-dwellings are suddenly threatened. Lozen has to make some choices - hard choices - and walk away from the people she believed it was her responsibility to safeguard. She wants a happily-ever-after with Hussein and with her people, she might even want a family, like Rose is carrying for a few more months -- but to get all of that, those hunting her have to go. Lozen, for the first time, is truly overwhelmed. Even Hussein can't calm or cure her - and he doesn't try. Lozen walks her path alone but for the wisdom of Coyote in the stories from her father and Uncle Chato, and from the Horse People, who lend their calm and support. And, putting one foot in front of the other, with no superior wisdom, and with a new Power that seems unreliable and shaky at best, Lozen does what must be done, one more time.

The theme of this novel is change, and who changes, and why, and how may surprise you.

Observations: Of all of the exhausting battles, cleverly unique monsters, diabolical shenanigans of the Ones and hard grind of living with a heightened sense of danger and survival at all times, the one thing that separates the KILLER OF ENEMIES series from other post-apocalyptic/survivalist narratives is that these books are wise... and hopeful. Wise, because Lozen may carry the burden of being the one with the plots and the plans, to keep the life and limb of her ragtag community together, she is but the namesake of another Lozen of long ago, who, too, held the torch for her people, and helped them to overcome. Thus, she is never alone with the burden. There is a Bedu story, to help her remember what to do. There is a Coyote tale, or a visitation from the ever-annoying Halley. There are sparks of skill from her younger siblings, and surprising contributions from the older generation. Lozen is surrounded by stories, wrapped in wisdom, and carried on the shoulders of her people as a leader - they lend her their minds, and they collaborate together to survive.

Readers encountering Lozen's community can't help but wonder how to draw some of that wisdom and hope into their own communities... and therein is woven the magic of a brilliant story. Monsters? Yes. Great evil? Yes. Unbeatable odds? Yes. But community and survival, and a "we'll do it anyway" attitude? Also yes - and that gives me life.

Conclusion: There is nothing on earth as satisfying as an excellent conclusion. I really kind of hate leaving Lozen's beautiful, sere landscape, filled with things which want to strip the flesh from my bones. How Bruchac made this place seem like home, I don't really know... except that he made the Spirits whisper in the wind, and shine down from the stars. No empty landscape filled with enemies here; this place is inhabited, and its heart beats. I want to go back... so it's time to re-read the first one again. You're welcome to join me.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Lee & Low Publishing. You can find ARROW OF LIGHTNING by Joseph Bruchac at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Turning Pages Reads: LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND by M.T. ANDERSON

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

M.T. Anderson is the king of the intellectual young adult novel. His work is arguably not written for young adults, but rather simply marketed toward them, because his characters are teens and tweens whose behavior is not circumscribed by the "usual" teen boundaries which get books challenged and called out by concerned parents. A lot of times, teens might not truly even quite understand M.T. Anderson's novels... but there's definitely still something about them that makes them fascinating, worth rereading, arguing with friends about, and dissecting in English class. This novel is just about how fragile our society is, and how, if one leeetle domino was pushed, how quickly it would all fall apart, and what do we REALLY know, and what do we REALLY cherish and what REALLY has value in what we have now -- today? And that kind of observation and rumination is very intelligent - and something we all need to consider.

This is another classically Anderson book - a short, stabby little satire, with a dark futures, existentialist narrative that might upset some - but which will amuse and provoke others to further consideration and insight.

Synopsis: Adam Costello's carefully ordered world began to unravel when the vuvv landed on Earth. Not that the vuvv are killers or anything, no. They've just brought progress - all at once, igniting a new kind of class war. Now, there's no need to work, because the vuvv do all the jobs; no need to research and strive, becaue the vuvv have brought the cure of all illnesses. At the expense of human jobs, Earth's ecology, and myriad nations' sovereignties, the Earth has been made a client planet. Now there's no competition, because the vuvv have the least expensive everything. Farmers are undersold, goods are commercially produced elsewhere, and all the new tech and medicine is behind a steadily rising paywall. For those who made relationships with the vuvv early on, there are riches untold. For the "have nots," there's nothing, literally and truly nothing. People are bored, bitter, and starving. All that seems left is for humans to try and be and do what the vuvv see and enjoy - the 1950's in terms of art, music, and film. Entertaining the uber-rich and the vuvv, humanity scrambles to be funny, romantic, sexy, and pleasing. It is both lowering and amusing that adult humans, with advanced degrees, can think of nothing else to do to survive but to pander.

Adam doesn't fit into the new world order really well. This is not because he has not tried, and tried hard, with an entertainment vlog scheme hatched up by he and his lust neighbor, Chloe. For a while, they made decent money off their scheme. But lust doesn't last for long. Adam's crush wants to Be Somebody, and Adam, whose father has stolen their means of travel and disappeared into the night, is kind of a nobody. His mother is unemployed, his baby sister is grimly selling her stuffed animals, and Adam is desperately ill, from a gastrointestinal disease which he got from the unfiltered water that his family is forced to drink. With municipal utilities no longer under the control of anyone with a human digestive system, Adam is hardly anyone to inspire lust - especially not without health insurance or medication. Between bouts of horrible fevers, diarrhea, and flatulence, Adam tries to determine what is of value to the human world anymore, now that the vuvv determine value. What Adam really cares about is his art, and while he once made computer landscapes of fantastical beauty as the places to which he'd like to escape, now he processes all he sees and feels through the medium of paint. He paints what he sees - not a brave new world, or castles in the air, but the detritus of a dying civilization, and the oddly tacked on ephemera of the vuvv society. What the vuvv want to see in art are still life and kitsch, bright colors and castles in the sky. While most people will do anything to survive in this brave new world, the artist in Adam realizes that he can't give them what they want, and that, in a larger parallel, that maybe none of humanity can give the vuvv what they want.

Maybe it would be better if everyone stopped trying.

Observations: This novella-length satire is, in some part, about art and humanity. It is also about, in part, the way the United States relates to the rest of the world, and its colonialist attitudes. This is a novel about how everything is monetized, and only those who are workers or somehow "valuable" to what Important People need and want - entertainers, worker bees, soldier drones - are worth anything in Western society. This is also a book about family, and individuals, and what we do to survive. It is both sparsely written and terse, and voluminously artistically rendered. It is both bleak and grim, and sneakily, snarkily funny.

I noticed that there really was only one America in this novel, and that Adam didn't seem to know anything about how the vuvv interacted with anywhere which wasn't America. The were issues where people complained that immigrants were stealing jobs, and knocking apart bodegas, but the vuvv seem to see humanity as just... humanity, a group of cattle worth corralling. Ironic, that humans still blamed humans for what was going on, and yet... isn't that what we do? Isn't that what we always will do? Or, do we have it in us to try something else?

Conclusion: Adam and his frequent, explosive gastrointestinal disorder is going to gross out and confuse a lot of readers, young and old, but this is one of those short pieces of literature which we'll see later as a classic of economic thought and worth sticking with and returning to again. While it would be a challenge to teach, it would be a worthwhile challenge, and I look forward to hearing how it is received.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. After September 12th, you can find LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND by M.T. Anderson at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Turning Pages Reads: THE GLASS ARROW, by KRISTEN SIMMONS

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Aya has lived in hiding for as long as she can recall - because not to hide is to be caught by the Trackers, to be owned and bred. The census keeps track of girls, polishing and preparing them to be someone's forever wife, as fecundity is a valuable thing. Not every woman can bear children, and not every family is in favor of that kind of life, thus Aya's family are resistors. It doesn't last forever, however. One day, the hunters come and take her, and she is dragged away to the Garden, to be polished as a bride for the Magnates and Merchants. Aya continue her defiance alone -- with a ridiculous flower name the Governess gives her, with scanty outfits and with eyes always on her - weighing, judging, comparing, competing eyes. Aya's not competing to "win" a man, though - she has a sort-of maybe-kind-of friend, but the rest of the girls are sheep she wants nothing to do with. Her noncompliance gets her starved and roughly handled, left out of doors in all weather - but mostly free. She's made a real friend - a wolf pup - and has caught the attention of one of the mute beast handlers who work with the horses. He's trying to help - but Aya knows she can't depend on a man, even one outcaste and mute, even one who is all but invisible to the people at the Garden. Aya can depend on no one but herself... right?

Observations: One of this author's strengths is her worldbuilding; though there's a familiar feeling with this dystopian setting, the level of detail and ...logic in the cause and effect of the politics of the world is strongly plotted. This is one of the author's definitely strengths, and what will make this book a pulse-pounder for dystopian fans.

This book is marketed as THE HANDMAID'S TALE meets BLOOD RED ROAD, and I agree at least on the HANDMAID'S TALE portion, anyway. The commodification of women and the pitched battle of control over their bodies is something which has hovered outside the real of fiction since Margaret Atwood wrote her startling work -- and YA lit has frequently revisited the concept of a lack of control over the young female body. Simmons takes it a step further with the idea of fertility being controlled corporately, and being sold to the highest bidder.

The immediacy of the writing, and the fast pace of the scenes make it a little difficult for the reader to get a grip on details such as the size of the world or how far flung this insanity is with control over women - is it just the equivalent of North America, or the whole world? Are there other places where women have learned how to deal with this madness, or have overturned it? Because Aya grew up free, she never, ever, ever stops fighting for a return to that freedom. Sure, soft beds are nice; sure, good food you don't have to prepare is great -- but nothing extinguishes her desire to be on her own again, and one imagines that surely there are other girls who are so determined. I found myself wishing for a little more from the author on that score.

While there was subtle diversity in the novel, I wished that there could have been more - which is another question which returned me to 'where is this happening, and how widespread?' It seems this is set in a mostly white pseudo-America.

Conclusion:I found it ironic that there is a mythos in this culture that all their troubles began with a bad love triangle. I find myself wondering if the author isn't having a private laugh at the prevalence of love triangles in YA fiction, and this is a warning that they'll bring ruin upon us all! Likely not. ☺ For readers who enjoy the oft-clichéd "strong female character" who is digging in and being brave, finding love in unexpected places (There's no insta-love here, which readers will appreciate), and making fast-paced, life-or-death decisions, this book is for you. With strength of conviction Aya digs in to create the future she wants out of the present within her hands - something we could all learn better to do.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. After August 2, you can find THE GLASS ARROW by Kristen Simmons at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Thursday Review: SPILL ZONE by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland

Synopsis: If you've ever read Scott Westerfeld's early trilogy The Midnighters, you'll know he does scary really, really well. And actually, he does various kinds of scary really well. Spill Zone seems to collect all those different kinds of scary in one graphic novel (which is only Vol. 1, by the way) designed, apparently, to give me nightmares: Creepy talking doll. Creepy NOT-talking kid. Radioactive-mutant-nano-infected monsters. Floating human meat puppets (which sent me off into a temporary YouTube black hole). Oh, and mysteriously plotting North Koreans.

The Spill Zone is what is left of Poughkeepsie, New York after a bizarre accident has left the town a no-go zone of horrors. But the Spill Zone is also how Addison makes her living, selling anonymous photos of the zone's peculiarities to discerning art collectors so she can support herself and her little sister Lexa. The most important rule she follows is: never step off her motorbike. The day she does leave the safety of her bike…is the day things get REALLY weird.

Observations: This is a suspenseful, edgy post-apocalyptic adventure from an accomplished storyteller in the genre—and I was pleased to see that Westerfeld's ability to convey a truly creepy atmosphere also applies to the graphic novel format. The partnership with artist Alex Puvilland (who is married to the incomparable LeUyen Pham, BTW) is a good one: the art has this scratchy, crackly quality that fits well with the tone of the story, and the important details are highlighted with clarity and simplicity.

   

Conclusion: The plot of this one is gripping, and I can hardly wait for the next installment (talk about a cliffhanger ending).

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SPILL ZONE just came out this week! I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, First Second. You can find SPILL ZONE by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Cybils Speculative Reader: MEMORY GIRL by LINDA JOY SINGLETON

Welcome to the 2016 Cybils Speculative Reader!

As a first run reader for the Cybils, I'll be briefly introducing you to the books on the list, giving you a mostly unbiased look at some of the plot.

Enjoy!

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There are elements to this novel which are so familiar -- THE GIVER vs. DIVERGENT vs. OLD MAN'S WAR vs. NEUROMANCER -- we've dealt with the "downloaded human consciousness" trope before. However, the dystopian grotesqueness of seeing it up close, using teens who are already seeking identity and trying to hold onto it -- who struggle with peer pressure and the overarching adult desire for them to conform make this a compelling read regardless.

Synopsis: At ShareHaven, life is shared -- and extended. Jennza knows it's not her lot to be herself forever -- the ultimate use for her is to take on the memories of someone who has passed away, and live again for that family, with those memories. She's meant to take on another life... but she worries. Is her life going to have her good friends Lorelei and Marcus in it? Will it have trips to the seaside, her silly little pet Petal, and her love of climbing? How do you keep all that makes you... you, if you have to grow up to be someone else?

There's not too much time to worry over that, however; Jennza is

Observations: We don't often, in dystopian novels, get a real sense of "what brought us to this point," and this novel offers only the barest hints of "some big terrible thing happened, and then we decided on this idea." The novel explains more than once that there was no choice but to do this - and the characters don't really react to this as much as the average teen. Though they're conditioned somewhat to accept their place and revel in the idea of exchanging it -- it seems there'd be more than one who rejected this idea.

Religion is pitted against Science in this novel; Scientists are the keepers of wisdom, and belief and faith and even praying are frowned upon as backwards and problematic behaviors in this brave new world. I really wished that the novel had delved further into these ideas, as things like assisted suicide seem compatible with Believers in this world, not Science. Which I found intriguing but a bit odd.

This seems to be a truly post-racial society in some ways - the question of whether someone who didn't look like your long-lost whomever could stand in for them never came up -- which for me was something I was looking forward to exploring. Do people pick their youth based on appearance, or is it only their scores? There is a lot more going on in this society than this book got into.

Conclusion: Though the slang is new, the trope is familiar. A bright, shiny, clean dystopia which walks familiar medical/scientific/we-have-all-the-answers paths, yet prolific Singleton has provided worldbuilding which gives a new depth and provides new ideas to explore for the reader.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of CBAY Books. You can find MEMORY GIRL by Linda Joy Singleton at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Cybils Speculative Reader: FLAWED by CECILIA AHERN

Welcome to the 2016 Cybils Speculative Reader!

As a first run reader for the Cybils, I'll be briefly introducing you to the books on the list, giving you a mostly unbiased look at some of the plot.

Enjoy!

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One of the strengths of speculative fiction is allowing a reader to look at a subject without the trappings of modern society. This is what makes dystopian novels such a useful blank slate on which to dissect an idea. Many readers felt last year's ALL AMERICAN BOYS was a good starting point for discussing police violence in society; I maintain that this novel will work better for those who feel that issues are too political in current events. This novel takes place... elsewhere, which maybe makes it easier to see how the labeling of imperfection in the flawed hands of a abusive State can hurt, especially in terms of a young person of color's (the family is biracial) imperfect performance of adulthood.

Readers should be advised that there are descriptions of violence in this book.

       “HARP!” I shout at the police officer, feeling the anger fully within me now. I learned this at school. I learned all this. Why doesn't he know these basic principles that I was taught, that he was surely taught too? Why doesn't anybody in the real world do what we're taught? H is for honesty,” I say, hearing the tremble in my voice, not from fear but from anger. ... A is for accountability. Accepting individual responsibility and ensuring public accountability... R is for respect. Having respect for people, their human rights and their needs.”
       The police officer lifts the baton from his hip belt.
       “Whoa, now,” the man to my right says. “What are you going to do with that?”        “You keep quiet,” he says, sweat on his upper lip now.
       “She's just a child,” a woman calls out. “For the love of God, would you all leave her alone.”
       Her desperate cry introduces a whole new wave of emotion.
       “And you” - he looks at me menacingly - “need to keep your mouth shut. Understand?”
       I take a deep breath. I'm not finished. It would be logical to at least finish what I was saying before the inevitable happens... Professionalism,” I say finally, gently, just to the police officer. “Providing a professional policing service to all communities.”


from FLAWED, p. 309-10

Synopsis: Celestine's mother is a model, so she knows how to walk the walk, to stand tall and straight and let the world look. If you're flawless, you shouldn't gloat, but you definitely should own it. Sure, Mom gets a little help with her flawless look, but that's okay - nobody's perfect. Celestine isn't perfect, either, but she's specific. Exact. Her skill in mathematics and her linguistic prowess are something her boyfriend, Art, laughs at her about a great deal, but she doesn't mind. She likes definitions, things that have boundaries, rules that clearly edge the path she must walk. Because she lives in the Guild, where the highest ideal is to be Flawless, Celestine is in good company. It's a horrific thing to be Flawed; to wear on your skin the brand which tells the world how you fell from grace. Whether it's on your temple, your hand, your foot, chest, or your tongue, the world will still know by the red band you're legally obliged to wear on your sleeve. Nobody wants to be Flawed, so nobody pushes the envelope.

Well, Celestine's sister, Juniper, does. Though they appear to be almost twins, Juniper is grumpy, sarcastic, and always seems pissed and on edge. She's linguistically vague, too, which bugs Celestine a great deal, but at least she's consistently inconsistent. She always pushes authority. Celestine never does. She's always late, always a disaster, always trying to stand out from the family - Celestine's total opposite... until one day, Celestine acts from the heart -- not from the predigested set of rules the Guild lives by. Juniper is frozen in fear, Art tries to hold her back, but it's all too late. And when they come for Celestine, she is shocked.

But, are they right? Is she Flawed to the bone? Or, are the Flawed - the imperfect ones, marked and ignored in society - not the ones violating the laws of human decency? Not the ones who are wrong?

Observations: Celestine is flawed.

She's human.

She's a human teen.

She makes mistakes - big ones. Dumb ones. She clearly doesn't believe people's true colors once they've shown them. She's naive. She was sheltered. She is swollen like a tick on her privilege, and it makes her blind to the pitfalls of the society in which she lives. When that life ends for her, when she is treated as others who have fewer privileges, it is a short, sharp, shock. She reels. She hates herself. She rejects the truth she knows. And then, she decides to own it.

Readers who has been quiet and good, hopeful that their "respectability' would save them from whatever, if they just kept your head down and were nice, will find that this book resonates strongly. Readers who have been pressured and have "gone along to get along," and found themselves doing so with a stomach ache will also find this book to resonate. Taking our choices in our hands and saying "NO" to what we perceive as injustice and wrong in this society, whatever the cost, has never been as serious an issue as it is now, and this book just blew me away with how seriously it presented these issues.

When you decide to own your power, that's when you make a difference in the world.

Conclusion: Though the novel doesn't quite end with a cliffhanger, Celestine begins her journey in her new understanding at its conclusion. Readers who've only read Ahern's adult work aren't sure what to make of this book, but I think many young adults will find this worth their while, and if you're looking for a valuable tool to open discussion on society, our place in it, and how we change it... have I got a book for you!

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of my public library, but this is a BUY book for me. You can find FLAWED by Cecelia Ahern at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Cybils Speculative Reader: DARK ENERGY by ROBINSON WELLS

Welcome to the 2016 Cybils Speculative Reader!

As a first run reader for the Cybils, I'll be briefly introducing you to the books on the list, giving you a mostly unbiased look at some of the plot.

Enjoy!

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Synopsis: "There's a lot in the universe that we don't understand. Sometimes it lands here.

Alice is... not amused. Her dad works for NASA and he's like a little kid hopped up on sugar, because at LAST, at LAST, a real life Unidentified Flying Object has crash-landed in the Midwest, and it might be ALIENS. Which would be, obviously, awesome for him in the investigative sense, although Alice isn't sure that even potentially awesome aliens make it worth leaving Miami for the Minnetonka School for the Gifted and Talented in Minnesota. Alice - and her new roommates, Rachel and Brynne - are even less amused when actual aliens come out of the ship, aliens who call themselves "Guides." Um, really? Alice didn't sign up to be guided, thanks. Especially not by super pale - though admittedly also super muscular and hot - people who couldn't even land a ship properly and who have killed a lot of central Iowans. Alice and her friends think the whole thing is dubious. And when they get a chance to get a bit closer to the story, and even look inside the ship, they're even more skeptical - and more than a little concerned. There's something their new school mates are just not telling them...or the government... or Alice's dad. The alien's ship is like, a mile tall, and three miles long... so, just how big of a problem are they hiding?

Observations: Robinson Wells does voice and characterizations like few others - there's heart and humor in his novels, even when the incident - aliens landing! - isn't necessarily funny. Additionally, the combination of First Nations + Fantasy is very well done. Aliens + aliens arriving at Halloween is funny on myriad levels, additionally forcing the reader to look at what we celebrate in Western society and ask ourselves why we do what we do - which is always a good thing.

Dismissing the stereotypical Strong Female Character, Alice has dramatic self-doubt, but also hilarious nerdish tendencies, and a fierce, big-hearted love for her father. Half Navajo, half white, she is a product of both halves of her biracial heritage - comfortable with both hogan and being well-heeled - and she is refreshingly unapologetic about what her privilege gets her. Her roommates are scholastically gifted math and science scholars possessing a thoroughly sharp-eyed disinclination to believe whatever tripe the "management," whether faculty or government, is peddling. This rises so far above the disaffected characterization of a lot of teens in YA lit - these girls care DEEPLY which galvanizes them to challenge and to question and to not accept.

Conclusion: If you're into snark and Star Trek references, like real-life reflected diversity and adventure in your aliens-come-to-earth novels and tend to be narrow-eyed and cynical about believing anything but what you see... have I got a book for you!

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the public library. You can find DARK ENERGY by Robinson Wells at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: METALTOWN by KRISTEN SIMMONS

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

The jacket flap copy for this novel was "Newsies" meets "Les Mis" or something like that, which made me chuckle, as I have seen neither and am not particularly interested in musicals, in any event. However, I like history a great deal, and had hopes for this novel from that point of view.

Synopsis: Metaltown is where it all gets done - where the detonators for the bombs are made, where the shells are filled, where the war gets its weapons while the ultra-rich Josef Hampton and his heir, Otto, get richer. The people of Metaltown are exhausted, grimy, and treated less as human beings than as cogs in the Hampton family's wheel, however -- and no one knows this better than Ty. She was raised in an orphanage, and has relied on the tight friendship and code of the streets of her friends, especially Colin. Colin isn't like Ty - once, he lived on the better side of town, went to school, and didn't have to work, but with his Mom doing double shifts at a factory, her girlfriend, Cherish, sick from corn flu, the sickness which comes from the bio engineered food which has killed hundreds, and with Colin's brother a junkie, they've come down in the world. Colin is all Ty's got, and though he's got a bit more family, she knows he's got her back, too. Or at least, he did -- but then he met the clean, pretty girl who reminds him too much of his old life. Lena's a Hampton - what does she know, really, about going without pay and working twelve hour shifts at the factory? What does she really know about suffering? Ty can't see anything good about Lena getting involved in their lives. She's determined to change the world of Metaltown - and all she needs is a guy like Colin at her back. They can start a union like the Brotherhood, and won't let anything stop them.

Observations: The podcast, "Stuff You Missed In History Class" recently had a piece on the London Match Girls Strike of 1888. If you remember this from the history of the Industrial Revolution, you know that the situation that made the strike happen was real -- the deadly bone rot caused from the phosphorus used in the match heads, the fires from the "strike anywhere" aspect of the matches, the poor working conditions, including dimness and long hours of standing, the fines for lateness or for talking, the charges for the tools the women used to make the matches -- and the fines for them being broken or stacked wrongly or whatever. It was, to put it succinctly, sharecropping with matches, and like most 19th century labor strikes, it was ugly and brutal and frequently covered in the British press, which brought out a lot of gasping from Nice People who were Shocked, Sir, Simply Shocked by the mere thought of such poor people living on London's East End and living in squalor, etc. etc. To be honest, I tend to hate stories like that, because I find that reality and the level of gasp-clutch-pearls painful -- simply because the whole idea of industrialists making bank on the backs of their workers isn't just a story -- it's real life today, and it never stopped, only mostly moved out of English-speaking countries. And yet: if we don't know about it, read about it, or talk about it, we don't remember what we have or where we came from. From that point of view, this is a necessary book.

This novel has a lot of the elements historically present in a story of unions and laborers -- poor working conditions, a union crystallizing from the desperation of the poor and mistreated, graft, and abuse. It lso has a series of coincidences, a clueless, idealistic, rich-girl white savior, and a love triangle -- which I bluntly think the novel would have been stronger and cleaner without. I found myself disappointed by that, and frustrated that a strong and smart girl like Ty turned into an all-about-the-boy girl - especially when there was SERIOUS STUFF TO DO -- but then, I'm always the one who rolls their eyes and throws the book across the room when the hero gives the girl a scorching kiss in the middle of a gun battle, and I loathe obvious plot devices like triangles. I didn't buy the romance and feel it detracted. Your mileage may vary.

Conclusion: While there were plenty of stereotypes at play, there was some quiet diversity in this novel, which was good to see. A slow start - about the first 200 pages - before the action catches on might make this a tricky novel for those who like to simply leap in, but the gritty realism will keep most reading. I did wonder was how this dystopian world had come into play - historically how the world had come to this sorry pass to begin with - and unfortunately, that wasn't covered in the novel. The history behind a dystopia is as important, to me, as how people live in the here-and-now. As infected as people are today with the spirit of "never forget," how would people not know their history? World building questions will probably less to those in search of a fast-paced story with strong romantic elements. Will probably go down well for those who liked Patrick Ness' THE ASK AND THE ANSWER, Phillip Reeves MORTAL INSTRUMENTS books or the dystopian elements of INCARCERON.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. Today, you can find METALTOWN by Kristen Simmons at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Turning Pages Reads: TELL THE WIND AND FIRE by SARAH REES BRENNAN

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

I tried very, very hard in high school English to read Dickens. I hated Dora. I loathed David. I wanted to smack Uriah Heep (but then, didn't everyone). I hated Our Mutual Friend. I had no luck with finding anything compatible in the voice, in the characterizations, nothing. And then I read A Tale of Two Cities.

It remains my favorite Dickens novel of all time; I was hooked, the moment I read those beautiful, lyrical words, was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

I probably had to read that six times to get it. But then, I did. And I was in.

Suffice it to say, I was a little wary when I read that Sarah Rees Brennan did a modern version of my favorite Dickens novel... very wary indeed.

Synopsis: The Light part of the City is where the ones who practice Light magic live - it comes from the natural world. The Dark part of the City is walled - to keep the Dark magicians close, but not too close. The Light needs the Dark to survive - to drain the sediment of the Light from their blood, lest they die. But how disgusting, to take blood for a living, to drink it? There are too many of them, and their half of the city is squalid -- buried, is what they call living there. There's never enough food, and there is violence. But, they're a necessary evil, even the doppelgangers; the result of a Light spell to save the life of a Light magician. That illegal spell actually creates a Dark magician - one who wears the Light magician's face. They're hooded, collared, hidden. Another necessary evil -- hated, but needed.

Lucie Manette knows better than to say how she truly feels about the state of things in her world. She lives in the Light now, she's a Light magician, but she was born buried -- born in the Dark. Once, to save the life of one she loved, she made a spectacle of herself, a spectacle the Light was unable to ignore, and one that no one has ever forgotten. Lucie's a celebrity now, has a doting boyfriend of the ruling family, and knows that only her silent, smiling compliance saved her father's life, and keeps him - and the life she now lives - safe. Everything is in balance now; she can almost relax and believe in the loveliness that Ethan has brought to her world ... but one slip, one mistake, one wrong move, and suddenly, it's all up in smoke. Ethan has secrets, too -- secrets Lucie would never, ever have guessed. Heartbroken and in a rage, she sets before him the impossible task of making everything right again. But, nobody can. It seems that nothing can stop the revolution -- but Lucie has to stay one step ahead of the mob if she is to once again save her heart.

Observations: This was a hugely risky novel, but I feel like Sarah Rees Brennan was one of the few writers who could have pulled it off. As she says in her author's note, "Fantasy is a tool for talking about the real world," and this novel does indeed hold our gaze to a messed up, tragic world that is created and maintained by both hope and fear -- and cause us to ponder a better system that could make something of it.

A magical dystopia was the perfect setting for a novel the reader could view a little more dispassionately than something set in the now. And a dispassionate view is necessary, when reading both the Dickens and this modern retelling of A Tale of Two Cities. Knowing the history of the French Revolution you know -- spoiler alert - that blood will run in the streets. Some of the characters in the beginning of the novel will necessarily not be there by the end. Who, though? How can Lucie save anyone?

In the violent, angry, dark and breathtakingly cruel society which has spilled to both sides of this Dark/Light divided New York, what is WORTH saving? Like Dickens' classic, this book allows the reader to lose oneself in the story... and also in some pretty deep thinking.

Conclusion: A novel that has a lot in common with the Dickens it gives a hat tip to -- but will probably be a lot easier to read than the original novel for many teens. Difficult, complex and troubling, this is a story of lies and sacrifice, and when it's time to start lying about them.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of my public library. You can find TELL THE WIND AND FIRE by Sarah Rees Brennan at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Toon Thursday: The Return of Psychobabble for Writers

That's right--last time's rerun was just a teaser for the real thing: a lovely new cartoon featuring everyone's favorite bummer topic, DYSTOPIAS. More precisely, the shiny happy people who write them. Any resemblance to existing writers, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No angry notes this time, thanks.

Turning Pages Reads: UPDRAFT by FRAN WILDE

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

Synopsis: Kirit Densira lives with her Trader mother in the Towers - skyscrapers made of live, organic bone, which pulse and grow. The City is alive, and the Traders are some of the most powerful and free of its denizens, below only the Singers, whose word is final, and whose wings, songs, and glass knives keep the City safe from the invisible sky-monsters which hunt its citizens. Densira Tower, once thought unlucky, has grown two tiers higher since Kirit's mother, Ezarit, has brought it prosperity through her daring flights and trades between other towers. There is safety in height - and in keeping to one's own Tower. Ezarit is well spoken of, for trading necessary medicines between the Towers and changing the way things are done, and Kirit longs to be just like her.

Kirit wants nothing more than this - just to walk her mother's path as a flyer and a trader. Once she passes her wing-test, she, too, will contribute to the luck and prosperity of their tower. But, days before her wingtest, her mother leaves on an urgent mission, and Kirit, loathe to see her go, bends the Tower Law and stays to watch her go. In a moment of inattention, everything changes -- one of the monsters the Towers all fear attacks. Kirit's screams of terror change everything. Suddenly her life is no longer the straight line planned, from wing-tested apprentice to Trader, partner at her mother's side. Suddenly, she's pulled between the tower and the Spire; between the bright world of sky and air, and the closed-in world, gray world of the Singers. Losing everything, Kirit decides to save herself -- and finds truths about her family, the City's past, and the secretive and terrifying Singers that change the way she sees everything. But those truths aren't hers to tell - and those secrets may destroy everything.

Observations: This is, in basic, surface ways, a huge adventure story of a Chosen One who finds out Big Secrets and with the help of the underdogs and the overlooked, saves her city and those she loves. It's a familiar story, easy to lose oneself in and stay happy. It's also a deep and complex story of power brokering, trades and betrayal - a story about secrets, and the lengths to which we sometimes go to keep them, about power and absolute power. It's also a story about loving one's family, in spite of everything, and that's a story we know very well. So, on the surface, despite its being a new story entirely, UPDRAFT has plenty that will feel familiar to the reader.

The worldbuilding in this story is superbly detailed and thought out, which makes sense, since more than one book will hang on this framework. Though the novel spent a lot of time setting this world in place, I found myself with more questions than the book answered: what were the bones made of? Why were people going blind from the sun, or having breathing problems - what is inimical in the atmosphere that affects humans so? Are the people in the City entirely human? The protagonist is, from the cornrowed hair she sports on both covers, a person of color, but there's not detail about this in the book, at all. Where did her people come from? How did they get into the bones? And, the bones of ...what? If the bones are organic and still growing... where's the rest of the body? What is it, down below on the planet surface (Earth? Or what planet is it?) that's worse than what's above the people, the invisible monsters? I found myself with more prosaic questions, too - the people ate mostly birds and what they could grow from small gardens - but I wondered where they got their water, and how. Details like this (mainly because I've been playing a simulation video game called Cities: Skylines and have started to dream about water pipes and adequate power plants) tend to distract me a little - but not too much.

Conclusion: UPDRAFT is Fran Wilde's first whole novel, after plenty of short story writing in the speculative fiction universe. Her characters are unique and apparently diverse; her writing chops are strong. The characterization in the novel has an air of familiarity to it which provides an absorbing and comfortable narrative, - as comforting as most Heroine's Journey books tend to be. It is adventurous and exciting, and there were so many more details I wished to have! I hope to find more answers in the sequel (CLOUDBOUND, 9/2016) to come. As it stands, UPDRAFT had a sufficiently satisfying beginning, middle, and end, and despite the sequel, reads well as a standalone. Still - the good news is, there's more to anticipate.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the library! You can find UPDRAFT by FRAN WILDE at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Thursday Review: MARTians by Blythe Woolston

It's hard to see, but that's a pattern of
little shopping carts in the background...

Synopsis: So far, everything I've read by Blythe Woolston—that being The Freak Observer (reviewed here) and Catch and Release (reviewed here)—has been a tiny nugget of intensity like a knot in the gut. That's also how I would describe her latest book MARTians, which, though it's more dystopian than the other two, still packs that same emotional wallop. Oddly enough, though, it's the lack of emotion in this story that catches and holds you—because it is all too familiar and believable.

The world of the narrator, Zoe, is very much like ours, only everything has been consumerized. Big-box stores are everywhere, and they are everyTHING. Everything you could ever need or want or even think to want. And now, the last of the public schools have been privatized by the government, so Zoe's been graduated early and shuffled right on into the workforce. Unfortunately, her mom chooses this as the time she must leave the newly-minted adult Zoe and go look for work elsewhere.

Zoe may be home alone, but at AllMart, she's set on a path to productive citizenship. The problem is, this isn't how she wanted her life to be. The other problem is, she isn't even sure what she SHOULD want: Her AnnaMom? The perks that come with being a model worker? Then, when fellow employee Timmer comes into her life, his unexpected care and friendship throw her for a loop, and make her realize that maybe, just maybe, AllMart can't actually offer her absolutely everything…

Observations: This story is unique and quirky and yet terrifyingly recognizable in many ways—the details made me want to laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. There are these fun/scary little asides, like news reports that provide a backdrop of current events (such as the turning of Zoe's old high school into a production facility for Bats of Happiness Guano Fertilizer), and the "Better Know a Product" feature (giving you all you need to know about said Bats of Happiness). These interrupted asides influence the feel, the structure of the story, with the interesting effect of immersing us even more in Zoe's world, punctuated by television bulletins and in-store announcements and advertising on her phone.

In a world where consumer culture is telling everyone what to think, how to feel, and what to buy to make that happen, Zoe is this little but shining bright light, a candle flame to be carefully nurtured. Her small individual journey is in fact incredibly important—in a way, it's a struggle for her soul, her very self.

Though I had a few questions—things I didn't quite understand about the way the society worked or why AnnaMom left—they ultimately didn't stand in the way of the book's effectiveness. It feels allegorical, this story, in a way similar to stories like Feed by MT Anderson, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, or, especially, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and the rest of the MaddAddam trilogy.

Conclusion: This is the type of dystopia where it isn't so much the trappings of our civilization that are disintegrating but our own morals. In a way that is much scarier, because it's far easier to believe—but we can hope that stories like these can keep us thinking and feeling and being human. For more from Blythe Woolston, you can visit her blog.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the Stanislaus County Library. You can find MARTians by Blythe Woolston at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: A WAKE OF VULTURES by LILA BOWEN

To begin with, this isn't a YA novel. It's a crossover adult novel, recommended for older YA readers due to some violence and disturbing interactions and attitudes. Lila Bowen is a pseudonym for Delilah Dawson, a familiar YA author. If you like stories of the Old West and enjoyed Moira Young's BLOOD RED ROAD or Patrick Ness' CHAOS WALKING series, you might find you really enjoy this. I honestly didn't think I would like it. Frankly, Westerns - the whole "cowboys and Injuns" thing -- is so problematic as to have been leeched of any enjoyment. But, I found this book sneakily got in under my radar, and I was riveted. It's weird as heck and oddly ...fascinating.

Summary: Nettie Lonesome has put away her femaleness, because what good does it do her? Having observed covertly, she knows females get to be only wives or whores, and she's not into either role. Half Native, half black, she lives as not-quite-a-daughter, but not-quite-a-slave, in a strange halfway place on a hardscrabble farm outside of town. Until one night, a well-dressed stranger insinuates himself onto the property -- intent on taking the one thing Nettie has that's hers. She's not going to let him, of course. An uncommonly strong girl, since she's the only one on the farm who works, Nettie fights for her life -- and nothing stops him, until by chance she hits him in the chest with a spike of wood... and then he turns into cold black sand and an empty suit of clothes with a hole in the shirt... Wait, what?

Even without the evidence of a body, anybody even half Black remotely suspected of doing violence to a white person is going to hang. Nettie makes tracks -- shoving her braid under the man's conveniently abandoned hat -- to the large ranch up the valley - because the lazy slobs for whom she works will miss her and raise a fuss... but they're not that bright. Posing as a boy called Nat and getting work is easy enough, but violence is following her - violence, and the spirit of a wet horse. There's something Nettie has to do to now -- some deaths to revenge -- and she has to keep moving, before the violence in her past overtakes her, and ruins her future.

Peaks: The setting was really amazing, and one of the best things about the novel. The author wrote that she binge-watched "Lonesome Dove" when she was a kid. It shows; the Western sitting just sings. The magic is bizarre and weird and it works. And, Nettie isn't just a girl, she's a girl who sometimes feels like a boy, who sometimes likes boys, who sometimes likes girls. She isn't a slave, she's not only Native, but both. Her identity is fluid and unsettled, and while everything surprises her for awhile, she unsentimentally just accepts what is, and moves on. Mostly. Eventually. She's funny and kind of abrasive.

Nettie is also angry - furiously so - and terrified. Having been treated as garbage her whole life, it's hard for her to come to grips with change, and with trusting the people she must trust to do the things she must do. WHY did her parents abandon her? WHY was she being raised by awful, abusive people who basically kept her as a slave? Why is she being hunted and haunted and tracked across the world? The big question of "why me," which we all ask so often, is answered in an unusual way. Though a kind of Bildungsroman for Nettie, as the story deals with her becoming and accepting herself the way the brother-and-sister duo with whom she travels accepts her, this novel is also fast-paced and gallops along through the empty desert in a really enjoyable way. Imagine a kind of folkloric Louis L'Amour with a female lead and chupacabras. Good times.

Valleys: Though the use of the word "Injun" and "Indians" appears frequently, the author deals respectfully with her Native characters, having made a commitment to diversity which I applaud. I am always leery of books which drag out folklore and characters from a culture which don't belong to them, but Bowen makes an attempt to do her best to research and describe things with accuracy and knowledge. Nettie is described as likely half-Comanche, according to the author in her notes, while Dan and Winifred are Chirichahua. The characters from Comanche myth, the skinwalkers and two-natured folklore she discovered through research. She also apologizes in advance for what she didn't get right.

Conclusion: This is a weird and wonderful first book in a new series, and I loved how it ended - you could stop with this book and be happy, because this adventure is over, with no cliff-hanger. However, it's a lovely thought to think there will be another strange and wild book late next year!

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the public library. You can find A WAKE OF VULTURES by Lila Bowen at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: INHERIT THE STARS by TESSA ELWOOD

I don't often like to review a book waaaaay before it comes out, so this is less of a review, and more of a squee with a few salient details you could find on the back of the novel. I posted this review for the first time in August, because I Could. Not. Wait. Not even a little bit. I'm happy to reread this book this month, and I really enjoyed this book; it was unashamedly a love story -- but a love between sisters and extended family first -- even when the family didn't extend very far. This holiday season, Tessa Elwood's INHERIT THE STARS is going to be a little early gift you give yourself... stop shopping or worrying about shopping, stop sniffling and whinging about your cold. Make yourself the perfect pot of tea, and snuggle in.

Yeah, I know that doesn't sound like anything you want to do when it's 82°F. But you will want to, months from now. Trust me.

Summary: Fane, Westlet, Galton. Three households, all alike in dignity, in the fair interplanetary space where we set our tale... but this isn't Romeo and Juliet in space -- it's quite possibly even more contentious.

Fane is in trouble. Not that you'd know it - the royal house of Fane never sags, never falters, never does anything but stand tall and smile. At least, not since Asa's mother left them for the Lord of Galton when Asa was three -- taking some of Fane's vital resources with her. That was years ago, but things have gone downhill in the sixteen years since, and Fane's people are rioting, fed up with the austerity measures which have left them all low on fuel - freezing - and starving. Wren, Asa's eldest sister, and the Heir, always smiled for the cameras -- no matter what. But now Wren is comatose, having been caught in a bombing, middle sister Emmie is being sold off to Westlet in marriage to their Heir, in return for food shipments and Asa's father... is going to make it so Em being the eldest and his Heir ...is the literal truth.

The overlooked and patronized youngest, her hair prickly and thin on her recently-shorn head, Asa is no one's choice for a solution to life's problems. She's been passed over for looks, is gangling, clumsy, and talks too much when she's scared - which is a lot, lately. She's also been told she's just like her mother for too long. Part of the mess they're in is her fault -- and she's determined to fix it. She's Fane - no matter the cost. The first thing she needs to do is take Emmie's place with the arranged marriage... and all the rest should fall into place after that. Right?

Peaks: It's not often that a novel written in the first person still manage plot twists. Though we have eyewitness accounts and firsthand seeing of everything, the reader still finds some surprises. Asa's gift is that she doesn't quite understand herself, thus the reader is able to be caught off guard by various things.

There are few YA novels which tell the true repercussions of war and feature differently abled bodies and prostheses without some sort of practically super-power witty banter or compensatory good looks to make up for it -- that's not the case here.

The tension in this book just doesn't let up. From the first moment, there's chaos and trouble. Asa is a well-meaning girl with a good, loving heart -- but sometimes love isn't enough, unless it's coupled with cunning and braced with quick thinking. Asa makes every sacrifice count -- and does her utmost to plug all of the leaks, but Fane has been in isolation for thirteen years -- it's too much to expect for Fane and Westlet to make a perfect treaty. There is treachery threatening from every direction...

Another unexpected positive is the character descriptions - unexpected diversity.

Valleys: While I had no problems, some readers find rather cinematic narrative descriptions lacking in continuity and difficult to follow. They become confused, because of the amount of action in the first several chapters. I had to track back to find ages of the daughters, which seem to be obscured deliberately, but otherwise had no real issues. Some of what Asa thinks and says is metaphoric instead of literal, and at times, when the narrative to me could have used being more detailed and descriptive, in terms of the technology, for instance, there's a bit of fuzziness about what will and won't work to save everyone -- it goes a little Star Trek fuzzy there, but because I'm not particularly technical, I could suspend my belief for that.

Despite three houses and planets, it seems that most characters are described in the novel as some version of "American standard," - and though I liked the cover, I found myself wishing I knew a little more of the planetary history and how humans had gotten there -- but I was also okay not knowing that.

Conclusion: I love mystery, politics and romance all in one novel, and Asa is an awkwardly young, earnest, and at times completely wrong-for-it heroine who really works. With its romance limited on a very innocent beginning, I can see this being a big, swoopy romantic favorite for older middle graders looking for a challenging plot, too.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Running Press in Philly. After December 8th, 2015, you can find INHERIT THE STARS by debut author Tessa Elwood at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Monday Review: THE SCORPION RULES by Erin Bow

Summary: While you can certainly characterize all of Erin Bow's books so far as speculative fiction, they aren't easily categorized within that, nor are they similar to one another in any way—and I like that. Her first book Plain Kate (reviewed here) was a Cybils finalist, and her second book, Sorrow's Knot (reviewed here) was equally unique and enjoyable in my opinion, working with recognizable mythology and folk tales to weave a new, relevant, and gripping story.

The newly released The Scorpion Rules, like those two, creates a world that is recognizable as based on our own, but unlike the previous two, we are plunged not into a mythical past or present but a frightening dystopian future ruled by an all-too-humanlike AI. That AI, Talis, is the voice which starts the story, in an excerpt from his "Holy Utterances" describing how he all but destroyed humanity in order to save it. In the aftermath, Talis created the Children of Peace: 400 years later, and the heirs of the remaining human nation-states are kept sequestered in safe, pastoral Preceptures—not for their own safety, but as hostages.

And if human nations are presumptuous enough to defy Talis and go to war, their hostages' lives are forfeit. Too bad the newly created nation the Cumberland Alliance, dry and desolate, is willing to start a war over water with its northern neighbor, the Pan-Polar Confederacy. Too bad, in particular, for the confederacy's Princess Greta. Greta's really only known life at the Precepture, going to school and farming for food under the AI's watchful panopticon. Until, that is, the Cumberland Alliance's hostage Elian suddenly appears and changes the way she sees her circumscribed world…

Peaks: One of the interesting things about this book is that the POV characters are not necessarily the "us" characters in the story. Elian, who we only see through the eyes of Greta, is the character "most like us," whose life and outlook is the most similar to the reader's. This keeps us fully immersed in the world setting, understanding it, at the same time as there's this little voice that keeps us (and Greta) questioning it. It's an interesting storytelling strategy, one which makes the reader question oneself and how easily we ourselves might be led into acceptance of a morally murky reality.

Another fascinating aspect of the story harkens back to older hard sci-fi of the Asimov era: the question it poses that perhaps we humans are unfit to govern ourselves and would be better governed by an emotionally impartial entity. And yet, as always, this begs the question of the extent to which such an entity, having been created by humans in the first place, will still mirror our flaws as much as we want it to mirror only our ideals. And Talis, the AI in this story, is in many ways all too human. I do love stories that are not afraid to pose difficult philosophical problems—but at the same time, The Scorpion Rules doesn't allow theoretical questions to impede the telling of a good story, about the indomitability of friendship and love and human connection, and the survival of the HUMAN spirit and self against impossible odds, even our own determination to destroy ourselves and each other.

Valleys: I won't lie; this is a pretty strange world Greta and her companions live in. Because we are told the story primarily through Greta's viewpoint, we are given an automatic entrance into her world, but it's a rather alien one in many respects. And because Greta IS a child of her world, her reasons for doing things, her emotions, reflect that recognizable-but-fundamentally-altered worldview. For me, this meant a certain automatic distance from the narrator and the story itself, because of her rarefied existence. It's extremely well done—appropriate to the story, certainly—but part of me kept wondering what the story would have been like if we'd also gotten Elian's viewpoint, if we'd gotten to be the "us" character, even if only here and there. But maybe that would have been too much telling us what to think.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you are bothered by ambiguity, whether narrative or moral, this might be a difficult one.

Conclusion: In many ways this story reminded me of some of the most thought-provoking of adult spec fic novels—the dystopian A Canticle For Leibowitz, say (reviewed here); the more recent Station Eleven; or, of course, the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey with its rogue AI Hal. It doesn't give the reader easy answers OR easy questions, but it will make you think hard, and wonder.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley; all comments are based on the advance review copy. You can find THE SCORPION RULES by Erin Bow at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: TRAIL OF THE DEAD, by JOSEPH BRUCHAC

I have a tiny addiction to Joseph Bruchac's KILLER OF ENEMIES books, as you'll note from my original review, the review of the ROSE EAGLE novella, and the fact that I do cover reveals for the KILLERS series - which I don't often even notice are going on, with other books. In between books in this series, I generally make a nuisance of myself, poking around Tu Books and pressing my face to the glass. (Metaphorically.) Where other post-apocalyptic books are literally the stuff of nightmares, and I find myself depressed by them, or rushing through the awful parts, the characterization in these novels make the nightmare-monster-filled desert a place that seems ...kinda homey. In a terrible way. Like, I could do without the flying monkeys...

Unlike many books which bridge the first and last bits of a trilogy, there is important story happening here - with the action slowed (but not by much - still plenty of varmints that need killin'), we get to know a different Lozen, one who is still struggling with newly discovered powers and trying to learn to rely on them like she would her own five senses, we see her weaknesses and challenges and we're introduced to a terrifying, soulless evil that always returns...

I'm happy to have read this sequel, and while you're waiting to get yours (October 1, 2015), you might go back and start at the beginning of the series while you wait. It's worth your while.

Summary: Lozen keeps waiting to feel like there's been... victory. Everyone is standing upright. Nobody's dead. Even some long-lost people she respected have caught up to she and her newly reunited family. Hussein is still right beside her, and together, they're on the way to the Valley where the rest of the Chiricahua in their group was left behind -- so why does she feel like the bottom is about to drop out of the universe? And, why does she feel so... dark? So empty? The nightmares are the worst, and she keeps listening, looking, calling silently for Hally - but he's nowhere to be found, now.

Everyone looks to Lozen like she's the girl with the plan, but how did she end up in charge of this ragtag bunch of survivors? And, what is she supposed to do, when it turns out that the Valley on which she pinned all her hopes isn't a safe place at all? Her finger's are twitchy on her guns - and she's hurting beings who doesn't deserve it. Coyote isn't to be trusted - yet he's lurking, and there are hostile eyes, all around them. Lozen feels brittle -- like she's going to break -- and the feeling of being stalked increases. Something's got to give, but they're running out of time.

Peaks: There are ...pop culture references in this novel that Lozen doesn't understand, but which are little gifts for the reader, spoken by The Dreamer and Hally. Sometimes it's other books which pop up and wave, and there was a Robert Burns reference that gave me a little twinge of unexpected poignant loveliness. There's a very funny battle of wits with Coyote that I enjoyed especially - and I think the odd bits of comic relief put in when Lozen can hardly smile are important because she cannot smile. She cannot laugh. She cannot lay the battle down and pick up hope -- because Warrior Mind - or PTSD - makes it feel like you're going to be fighting a war forever.

The feeling of utter defeat after having to kill not just monsters but people? Is one that shouldn't be downplayed. This is why Lozen isn't characterized as just some noble-profiled superheroine, but a real person. All of the running around and leadership and powers-having GETS OLD. All of the people who have lost because of her, have been hurt, because others were gunning for her, or manipulating her - all of this weighs on her soul. I also appreciated that while Lozen may be struggling, when she finds help, it's not Insta-Help. The relief is immediate, but Lozen acknowledges immediately that one cannot live on a mountaintop, nor stay in a place of healing - warriors have to go down again and take up the fight, but the trick is carrying the place of peace and healing along with them.

Cover Chatter: I love that the model for the first and second books remains the same, and I can't wait to see what the final looks like.

Conclusion: Slightly slowing to let us see a bit more of Lozen's world, her soul, and her struggles, this second volume in this KILLER trilogy gives us more Chiricahua stories - and a Bedu one, too - more enemies to worry over, and more to love to in this crazy post-apocalyptic version of America. Your readers will want to finish this and then go right back to the first one like I did.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Tu Books. After October 1, you can find TRAIL OF THE DEAD by Joseph Bruchac at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: HUNTER, by MERCEDES LACKEY

I started my late teen entry into fantasy reading with girls who heard telepathic dragons and Heralds who rode blue-eyed telepathic horses. They whole telepathic animal thing quickly got to be a bit much, but I have to admit that I loved those books enough at the time to give any McCaffrrey or Lackey book more than half a chance -- which turns out to be a good thing. A fully realized story with no love triangle (shocking!) and a beginning, middle and END, this novel happily leaves a sliver of light at the edge of the door to enable a sequel or two to push through.

Summary: Joyeaux Charmand is a sixteen year old monster "incident" survivor, raised by Masters in a secret post-Buddhist monastery to be a Hunter. Joy loves the order and familiarity of her quiet life in the Colorado mountains, but has now been called to the Apex, the nerve center of the remaining, monster-free world, by her Uncle, the Prefect. In the twisted post-apocalyptic of Earth in which she finds herself, Joy is accustomed to using all of her skills to work alongside the "Cits," the citizen civilians who have no magic. Together with her Hounds, magical beasts who came into the world, along with the monsters, from the Otherside, Joy patrols and trains and does what she can. It's what Hunters do.

Having lived in rural and secret surroundings, Joy is an enigma to the tech-obsessed, city people of the Apex, where she has been sent to live. Though he is the Prefect of Apex, and allegedly in power, Joy's uncle is clearly wary of something, and keeps their relationship distant and cool - and Joy keeps her mouth shut, because the Masters at the monastery don't want to cede all of their secrets, magic and power to the Apex, and only sent her away to keep the whole settlement safe. They don't quite trust the government, or their intention to protect the people. Joy - and the reader - understands this only faintly at first. Joy's biggest understanding is that there are monsters to kill, people to protect, and having her own TV channel, signature color, rivalries with other Hunters, and a "trending" score for her fan following is just surreal. Especially since it seems like someone - maybe monsters working in eerie concert, maybe a political enemy of her the Prefect's? - is trying to kill her.

Peaks: Mercedes Lackey writes books of absorbing detail and drama. The class striations, the monsters, and the world of the monastery are rendered in cinematic definition. There's a great deal going on, the confrontations begin immediately, the allies are unclear, and the stakes are high. By the time Joy reaches the Apex, there's a sense of familiarity in this novel - as if we've read this book before, or seen the movie. However much an echo of the hollow pageantry of The Hunger Games the Apex seems, Joy, as the girl with all the gifts, is neither as humanly flawed nor cynically wary as the heroine of that tale. Joy's genuineness and desire for connection with people who truly see her allows readers an "in" to the story, and will have them cheering for her to change her world.

Diversity was a quiet positive in this novel, with characters varicolored and variously orientation. I was relieved to see the narrator's stated distaste for the "Christers" who allegedly kicked off the Diseray - or the Dies Irae, depending on who you ask - begin to be informed by actually meeting with and talking to a person - no matter how perfectly Joy is presented, she's still able to make assumptions and have prejudices which need confrontation with reality. This goes a ways toward making her a character readers can both admire, yet also appreciate.

Valleys: This book, as a first in a series, needs extra patience from the reader to maneuver through the densely packed first chapters, and the measured pacing to get to know the main character, find her spark, and root for her society. We have the disadvantage of only being able to see as far as the main character can see, in some cases - and then our understanding outpaces hers. While not being the sort of heroine who makes readers roll their eyes and point out the obvious clues she's missing to danger, readers may find themselves impatient with her methodical thought processes and lack of suspicion - and may find themselves guessing plot twists well before they happen.

Bluntly, the post-apocalyptic Chosen Child/Earth Savior role of the heroine is entirely overdone in YA lit. No one is perky, pretty, and competent at all times, scores all the goals and is thrifty, reverent and clean too - but it's a common YA trope to create the Perfect Girl for whom every guy in the school lusts, too. (And then comes the sparkly vampire. Fortunately, vampires are staked, in this book). Further, there is a GREAT deal of plot and detail overlap between this book and other successful YA post-apocalyptic efforts. While there's no new stories at ALL, the use of glamour and points and trending for fighters echoes the ridiculous world of The Capitol in THE HUNGER GAMES; the flying paparazzi cameras echo myriad other YA novels, including Dashner's THE MAZE RUNNER and Westerfeld's UGLIES series. The familiarity of these elements so soon after the success of the other novels allows the reader to think, "Okay, I've seen that before, I know there's no danger and that it will all be okay," which probably lowers the stakes and removes the tension in a way the author never intended.

Conclusion: Slow pacing and dense detail in world-building may challenge some readers while similarities to other recent post-apocalyptic novels may trouble others. However, if imitation is the quickest way to get readers hooked, readers seeking read-alikes may find this intriguing enough to begin, and then the original entertaining details will cement their interest.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Disney/Hyperion. After September 1, you can find HUNTER by Mercedes Lackey at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!