Tempest- Julie Cross

(Received in Librarything Early Reviewers program. Thanks!)

I really, really wanted to like this book. YA science fiction brought me into the science fiction fold and prompted me to explore the genre, and this novel even falls into the category of "New Adult" rather than simply "YA," as the main character is nineteen. So as someone who is automatically rooting for New Adult and sci-fi YA, I had my hopes high.

Overall, the plot was interesting, if predictable, with some of the later developments telegraphed pretty dang early in the book. However, even if I didn't quite ever fall for the plot, there were so many aspects of the book that DID work. I really liked that it featured an older, male character and not a brooding 16 year old girl with a stalker love interest, and the main character has more motivation than JUST a girl.

Part of the reason the book really threw me out of the reading experience was because it was set in the past (which was really interesting by the way, because it forces an author to commit to a date and allows them to use pop culture references without a complete fear of dating it, because hey, there's already a date! but....) the character was almost exactly one year younger than me. And some of the references.. didn't quite work. There were things that were either a bit too old to be current, and one thing that from what I remember, didn't really get super popular until a year later. Maybe it will be fixed in the final edition, so I won't mention it in particular. But because the main character actually was my age, I noticed things like awkward dialog and strange references. Which isn't the books fault!

Another aspect of the book that I found extremely refreshing after the glut of sexless teen paranormals I've been reading is that sex just happens. I was slightly squicked by the main character's thought process at one point in the novel (pretty late in it, so I won't be a spoiler sport), but hey, I have met some teenage boys with that kind of attitude.

Overall, a quick and engaging read with some flaws, but a nice change of pace after all the mediocre YA fantasy. Major points for sci-fi, male protagonist, minuses for feeling a bit off in the setting/teen interests and some of the plotting/explanation (spoilers!). (  )

Shattering - Karen Healey

Seventeen-year-old Keri likes to plan for every possibility. She knows what to do if you break an arm, or get caught in an earthquake or fire. But she wasn't prepared for her brother's suicide, and his death has left her shattered with grief. When her childhood friend Janna tells her it was murder, not suicide, Keri wants to believe her. After all, Janna's brother died under similar circumstances years ago, and Janna insists a visiting tourist, Sione, who also lost a brother to apparent suicide that year, has helped her find some answers.

As the three dig deeper, disturbing facts begin to pile up: one boy killed every year; all older brothers; all had spent New Year's Eve in the idyllic town of Summerton. But when their search for the serial killer takes an unexpected turn, suspicion is cast on those they trust the most.

As secrets shatter around them, can they save the next victim? Or will they become victims themselves?

This book could quite possibly have been the YA fantasy I had been waiting for, the reason I continue to read in the genre despite not particularly enjoying it. I really don't want to say more about it, because the less you know going in, the more every little thing will make you so enthusiastic about shoving this book to everyone who says the subgenre is mined dry. Really, it is that good.

Highly, Highly Recommended

Hot Messes

(or, quick reviews of books I for whatever reason did not finish)

Sisters Red: An intriguing concept, but the main characters have infuriating views of just about anyone besides themselves, and there was no real external source of tension driving the narrative forward at least through the part I read. I even sought out spoilers to try to entice myself to read more, but even then, it still didn't succeed in that regard so I abandoned it. What would have made it better? A taught-er narrative with some element of unresolved mystery or drive-- I am sorry, but let's kill all the werewolves and somehow they aren't noticing the massive attrition happening in the middle of nowhere is very mysterious, in a bad way.

Once Dead, Twice Shy: Interesting world building, but the manner in which it was written just confused me. There were instances where I thought I must have missed something on a previous page. An incredibly quick read, but not a particularly interesting one.

All These Things I've Done-- Gabrielle Zevin

All These Things I've Done-- Gabrielle Zevin

Recommended

Several of my friends had commented that they liked the level of worldbuilding and detail in this novel, and as a complete sucker for setting description (ex-historian/current Geographer/computer programmer here, I breathe setting), I had to read this immediately. Just my luck, the library's copy came my way in only a few days, and I devoured it in a few hours.

Literally. This book is about restrictions on caffeine and chocolate, mirroring Prohibition (and also mirroring the far inferior "White Cat" which I had nothing nice to say about so I will say nothing at all!), so of course, I consumed one large coffee beverage and several samplings of Halloween candy while reading it.

Was the world building entirely convincing? Anya Ballantine is struggling to keep her fractured family together as rivalry builds over control of her extended family's black market chocolate empire, and of course falls Romeo and Juliet-style for someone who is just out of reach. From the first few pages, it becomes clear that rules and order are her lifeblood. Cutting across the treacherous reaches of Central Park (which turns out to be disappointingly one of the few times there is a super concrete setting mention, but as someone who has nearly fainted of dehydration in said park, it isn't hard to see things go completely bottoms up with water rationing). But we never really get why...is it climate change? Is it some sort of water rights along the Hudson with territorial encroachment of Canada/etc?...I do of course have a theory, which has to do with the crazy amounts of control the government attempts to exert while still being absolutely corrupt--but that element puts my theory into question, as the government doesn't seem competent or interested enough to fulfill it.

Anyways, I will certainly be reading the next book, if only to find out whether I am right. Overall, it was a far more solid read than most YA science fiction out there, which is not saying much, but really, it was an enjoyable read.

Leviathan Wakes, Revisted

Leviathan Wakes (eArc, NetGalley). It took me at least 3 months to finish Leviathan Wakes, and catching it on the shelves in Mysterious Galaxy a few weeks back, I realized that my favorite part of the entire book was the pink lettering on the side. There needs to be far more pink in space opera. Pink looks great in space. (Which reminds me-- I'm desperate for a book either involving spectroscopy or planetary geodesy in one of its core plot elements. Any recs?)

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe. (from amazon)

At first glance, LW seems exactly like my type of book, which is why its probably more interesting to explore why it didn't work for me rather than what exactly I thought about it. There are countless glowing reviews , but in fact, io9's headline underscores possibly the single biggest reason I didn't love it-- comparing it to a big-budget Hollywood science fiction movie, which I tend to avoid like the plague or only watch when I'm feeling feisty.

Considering space opera I do like (I am quite addicted to everything archaeological space opera-- Jack McDevitt, Alastair Reynolds, etc, so it isn't like I'm some snob who doesn't love a good pseudo-scientific rip rolling yarn), I remembered I don't really like the kind of movie that LW wants to be in book form, and that's a problem. Because it really does read like a movie. Which isn't necessarily a fault-- "Feed" and "Deadline," with their pop culture mash up, devastatingly fast pace & twists also remind me of movies, but that's not why I like or don't like them. When it comes to LW, it is basically my least favorite science fiction tropes plastered into a snazzy Hollywood-style shell. I couldn't keep any of the characters straight, I had no investment in the plot, and at least there are female characters, we'll give it that.

Also, I should probably confess I do adore the MLN Hanover books, so it isn't like I'm not a Daniel Abraham fan. Though I did bounce off Dragon's Path as well. Perhaps Leviathan Wakes just didn't click, alas.

Doctor Who Review!

Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!

The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter (Amazon Marketplace--an old library copy, which always makes me sad, because that means it was taken out of circulation)

Why I read it: I am a new Who fangirl and a semi-aspiring writer

WARNING. This post contains references to events in ALL of Doctor Who and oblique snarky remarks to the most recent season of Torchwood. Proceed with caution.

While I do adore Moffat & Davies (RTD) versions of Doctor Who for often separate reasons, this book reminded me why I loved Davies' Who in light of the interminable Torchwood season and being in the speculation death grip of the upcoming half season of Doctor Who. However, it also illuminated a lot of the reasons why the hardcore Rose fangirls feel like Moffat is constantly trudging over RTD's relationship arc-- they have a fundamentally different way of structuring and developing emotional arcs for their side characters. RTD may carve out a backstory, have a reason for the Doctor to intervene in the lives of a character because of some sad sap story of the side character, but Moffat often structures the entire emotional life, emotional development, emotional arc, about the character's relationship with or two the Doctor. So in episodes where RTD ostensibly is still shipping Rose & The Doctor (or arguably, the Doctor's more baser, human side), Moffat has characters who live out their entire lives in direct connection to the Doctor and have these fulfilled emotional arcs IN ONE EPISODE.

However, my favorite thing about the Writer's Tale as a book is that it is unabashedly raw--its told in a series of emails! Sometimes RTD is telling how someone's script just isn't good enough and you are feeling sorry for the script writer, like a nature special from the side of the eaten gazelle, but other times, once you see how RTD re-constructs the plot of an episode and fits the actual lines that are in the style of the EXACT character in to the episode, you see he's not the ruthless predator! It is absolutely fascinating.

My least favorite aspect though is the tacit admission that the "science fiction" aspect of Who isn't even technobabble-- it is basically just fluff. Fluff that happens and does something as a plot device, which works on screen, but not necessarily when you deconstruct it or read in it texts, which is probably why I am more willing to abide by it in television than in print, where I side eye a lot of softer science fiction.

Overall, the book is a fascinating look into the development of the overall story arc, the way individual episodes are farmed out to other script writers and then reconstructed to fit the core characters, and the personal and professional politics that come into play especially as RTD decides to leave Who. Very entertaining, very quick read, despite the heft (the revised edition clocks in at over 700 pages including the index!) and a completely fascinating look into the process of writing. While I have certainly read other books about how to write, this one never really goes that route-- plot, character, and how the story evolves is shown, rather than told, and it is highly effective and completely engaging. Definitely a must for a Who Fan and a wannabe writer, which begs the question-- will you learn anything from it if you don't know your Who? Perhaps; there are certainly footnotes that give details, some of which I'd forgotten, but it does assume some familiarity, and the fun is seeing how things change from the original idea while knowing what ended up being shown on screen.

YA Double Feature

Saving June, Hannah Harrington (Netgalley eArc)

Harper Scott, trying to come to terms with her perfect older sister June's suicide, takes a road trip and finds love with a mysterious boy who had a connection to June-- and may know more about her sister's life and death than he's telling.

Harper is a fairly strong, likeable character, and I enjoyed that she wasn't the smart, gifted, academic and nearly good at everything protagonist that is so common in YA--but that's because in her family, that role was filled by her sister, who committed suicide before high school graduation. However, I ended up being distracted by the mystery of why her sister would ever want to get married right out of high school--I barely understand the flock who do so right after college. But that's the point-- there are no answers really, for other people's choices and why they do these things, so we don't really get them, and in turn, your enjoyment of the book will hinge on whether that is something you can deal with. It seems somewhat unfair that this was one of the first YA books I read after Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why, which has a superficially similar plot, but I found both far more contrived and compelling, strange how that works. There really was the core of a good book here, but Harper doesn't really come into her own into the second half of the book, in which there is an absolute deluge of plot, while the first half is far slower. I think another reason I had trouble clicking with the earlier scenes in the road trip was because I have never been to any of the states, and some of the characters mentioned offhand or in short encounters was uncomfortably stereotypes, and I never really got a sense of places, which I needed, because I don't know anything about these states.

Verdict: Very strong for a debut, with something there and emotional, but just doesn't quite click.

The Bermudez Triangle, Maureen Johnson (Paperbackswap)

Why I read it: I am unintentionally on a mission to read all of Johnson's books

Since coming together at the age of eleven, the Triangle has never been apart. The summer before senior year, however, Nina goes away to a summer program in California. When she returns, she expects to be welcomed back into her friends’ arms with great excitement. Instead, something has changed in the Triangle—Mel and Avery are acting strangely. There are in-jokes Nina doesn’t get, pauses in the conversations that seem to be full of some meaning that she just can’t grasp. She’s suddenly an outsider, and she has no idea why. Until she wanders into a dressing room and finds Mel and Avery kissing. What exactly do you do when your two best friends in the entire world start dating?

Copying & pasting that description, I just noticed something--when the book was published, I was the same exact age as the characters! Even more reason I should have loved it, right? However, I didn't. There just didn't seem to be quite enough plot, and there was background/offscreen parent syndrome. Maybe the OC and Gossip Girl have ruined YA for me--the parents are there and even have their own storylines on screen, while in this novel, they pop up as needed to dole out advice or be awkward or in the way. Also, I attended summer camp at Stanford several years previous, and it just isn't captured; the kinds of things you remember, the places you hang out at, the fountains you play in, isn't mentioned--at Stanford, you don't really have the bay, and she keeps mentioning it! That was really distracting. Also, as a graduate of their crossbay rival, I now feel like I need to be cleansed after saying that word so many times. I liked the idea of the hippie dippie boyfriend (I would, wouldn't I, after the other information I just disclosed, right?), but he's such a cipher and appears onscreen for such a short, ineffective period of time that it is unfortunate that nearly her entire character arc is based on him.

Looking over some of the other reviews though, I don't necessarily disagree--the characters ARE believable, but in the age of exceptional/whatever YA protagonists, it really just doesn't seem to be enough. It is a quiet portrayal of senior year events and relationships, but that's about it. And sometimes though, that works and is enough in a book. I was about to say that perhaps this would be my last Maureen Johnson book, but then I realized I have yet to read The Last Little Blue Envelope, so yes, I will have to read another of hers!

Verdict: Okay, but nothing special. Also, it is really quite dated!

Weekly Acquisitions!

PaperbackSwap (see my available books!)

Amazon

Have I picked winners? Thoughts?

Early Fall Book Deluge

Confession: There are at least three other books I am looking forward to that would be featured, except I haven't read the previous book in the series yet. And yes, I either own them or have them checked out from the library. Woops!

Fall books! I haven't actually been THAT excited for very many books this year, but this upcoming season seems ready to change that! Which is very exciting. So what am I itching to read?

First up, we have Cold Fire, the second in a trilogy following Cold Magic, which I didn't entirely love, but by the end, I wanted more. Why didn't I absolutely love Cold Magic? It starts off very slow, but that slowness does end up paying off because by the end, I actually care about the characters and was frustrated with their actions! I am not sure if the Cold books are classified as YA, but they read like it, except perhaps that's why I thought it should be moving quicker?

Because an actual YA would have covered more ground in far less pages. However, I can't wait to see what the characters are up to.

One Salt Sea is presumably not a good place to start in the October Daye series because let's face it, a TON has already happened and there has been so much in the way of world building. I can't say I'm super excited about the pairing teased in the preview chapter at the end of the previous book, but this is billed as a long series, so I am willing to wait! (But not that long! I am impatient). Don't you love how extremely vague I'm being? But as that's the fun of the novels I don't want to accidentally spoil anything.

Next up is Hellbent, the follow-up to Priest's Bloodshot and which has been overshadowed in hype by Ganymede, but while I did end up liking Dreadnought, I confess I never finished Boneshaker. Hellbent apparently starts off in Seattle (I say apparently because one of my least favorite elements of Bloodshot was that it doesn't distinguish the city early on and the first mention of any Seattle landmark is on about page 40, and I lived in Seattle for a bit and it really doesn't capture the city. However, it is nice to see an urban fantasy actually in Seattle--but I want there to be monsters lurking under the bridges of Fremont, you know?), and reprises with the same cast of characters. Which, is why this is fast becoming one of the urban fantasy series I actually seek out and buy--because the characters, bar the lead, are very interesting. However, I don't buy the lead as the age she says she is--potential twist, maybe she's lying? but the other characters have the potential to become even more interesting if they break out of the unrealized and kind of annoying lead character's shadow.

New Neal Stephenson. I will be reading it, regardless of whether or not I

have any interest in online gaming (spoilers: I don't).

Germline- TC McCarthy

Germline- TC McCarthy

Provenance: Librarything Early Reviewers Program

Why I read it: I read a fair amount of military space opera but no other military sci-fi

Solid, entertaining and very fast paced exploration of a man at war with a somewhat ill-defined enemy and himself. However, one of the weakest aspects of the book was that there were somewhat wild shifts in tone and even the kind of material presented--apparently the book started out as a series of novellas, and despite the editing, it still shows. Overall, interesting, but despite the attempt at character development, the first half of the book was really quite maddening and the main character very self-centered and only gets his act together after being stunned when everyone is dying around him, but it takes the personal conflict to make a change. It is just hard to sympathize because he wasn't drafted into the war--he chose, as a journalist.

Also, the ending seemed to belong to a different sort of book entirely and had me wondering if I missed something huge. That said, I will probably look in to the sequel. Do I necessarily recommend this book to others? Yes, but with a few caveats. I started this one when I was about 1/3 of the way through the Forever War, which was so affecting and engrossing, I had to put it aside and still have not finished it and have so many thoughts about it. On the other hand, I read this novel in two sittings, and it is both a quick read and not one. The prose is whip smart and electric quick, but the emotional weight piles on you as you become frustrated with the character, and finally the dam bursts and he gets some of it, but something about the overall construction of the novel just does not work. That said, overall it is a very interesting read and I can't think of anything offhand remotely comparable in terms of capturing effective military science fiction.

Recommended, but not necessarily because its fantastic.

The Magician King- Lev Grossman

The Magician King- Lev Grossman

Provenance: eArc received from Netgalley
Why I read it: I liked the Magicians a lot

The Magician King, the sequel to one of my surprise favorites of 2009 (I had no idea what to expect and ended up reading the entire book before/during a flight from Seattle to San Diego), is fantasy for the iPhone-addicted, prescription-ridden, BA-slugging lost generation who still await their letter from Hogwarts, hoping it might rescue them from the economic apocalypse, or at least from their parents' couch.

The Magician King picks up not quite where we left off, but similar enough in tone for the reader to possibly go “Oh my god, shut up Quentin.”After the first chapter, Quentin not only markedly improves, but we also get to hear from Julia, whose anti-Brakebills magical education is far more interesting. If you found Quentin highly abrasive and too hedonistic in the first book, now he only partakes in the occasional inebriation and is frankly, nearly celibate. While sling shoting through the magical and real world, the novel never quite achieves the epic fantasy sense or traps the action in a city enough to be urban fantasy (thankfully?), but notable side characters make reappearances and the whole wide magical world gets quite a bit bigger. Furthermore, something my brother brought up in regards to Harry Potter (we may have gotten into a large debate over the series and our rapidly decreasing willingness to “buy” the world which nearly descended into fisticuffs in from of ABC Family's constant replay of the first few films) is somewhat played for plot—that how you do a spell, who does the spell, and so on, has a marked effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of magic. Woo!

Also, as a semi-professional cartographer, my favorite character was Benedict, who pretty much gets brought along as Quentin’s entertainment/improvement project until he finds someone who REALLY needs his help. See: Julia’s secondary plot. Benedict attempts to be an awesome mapmaker, in the face of many scientific hurtles, such as a potentially non-spherical world (which would throw a wrench, or shall we say, level in the plan, because how would you determine latitude by angle of the sun if this wasn’t something that happened, and since Fillory lacks mechanically, no chronometer for longitude! Woo!) Poor Benedict.

Julia is not only the one who got away, but the one was cast out, who didn’t get into the elite college, who had to determine things on her own. Overall, the book's strongest points are avoiding Quentin's more annoying side, which I have seen blamed 10! times for people not finishing the previous book everywhere from io9 to Westeros (and yes, I may have ended up arguing somewhat with them, I am a bit of a Grossman fangirl, though the copy I got signed was for a friend who loved, loved the first book. Loved, loved).

I highly recommend this book and it is on my top 10 list for this year, out of the 130 or so books I have read, and probably higher if we're only counting those actually published in 2011.

Currently reading: Briarpatch- Tim Pratt (Spoilers: I LOVE IT), The Writer's Tale (Spoilers: For all of Doctor Who!), Tanya Huff's Blood Lines series (Spoilers: I read vampire books)