Book Reviews

Post by **Rusty** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:15 am

This is fine. I sort of see it as a miniblog on books. If others see it, cool. If not, at least I can still look back on them from time to time to remind myself what i read and when.

Post by **Rusty** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 12:10 pm

I finished reading Variable Star by Spider Robinson and Robert Heinlein. Robinson wrote the novel based on an extensive outline that Heinlein wrote back in 1955 and then set aside for some reason. The book is about Joel Johnston, an 18 year old musician and struggling student who wants to marry his girlfriend eventually, when he can afford to. Except that it turns out her name isn't really Jinny Hamilton and her family isn't poor, not by a longshot. I liked the book a lot. It had the feel of a modernized Heinlein novel and makes me want to go back and reread my collection of Heinlein juveniles.

Post by **Rusty** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:36 pm

I started reading the new Tom Swift. Jr. series that started up this year. The first book is called Into the Abyss and deals with a new Swift submersible that has an accident during testing. This is the fourth Tom Swift, Jr. series. The first one ran for 33 books from 1954-1971 and a few of the later books are hard to get and expensive. The series was updated in the 1980s with a new supporting cast and lasted 11 volumes. Another revamp in the 1990s (with yet another change in the supporting cast) lasted for 13 books. The new series brings back an original cast member (Bud Barclay), but has been updated yet again. I read through the entirety of the first 3 series over the summer a few years ago and I liked all of the different incarnations. This series isn't bad so far and I hope it lasts longer than the last two.

Post by **fluffy** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:59 pm

I'm on the last book of the Heritage of Shannara series called The Druid of Shannara.

This whole series is not Terry Brooks best effort. He puts way too much into meaningless detail and almost nothing into action.
I'm going to be relieved to finish this and put it behind me.

Oh wait and that PM I sent you Kurt? The list is 17 pages!!!

Post by **Rusty** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 7:12 pm

I was very disappointed with the Heritage series. the single book, First King of Shannara, was pretty good, though.

Post by **Rusty** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:29 am

I just finished reading the Tartan Magic trilogy by Jane Yolen. The three books are:

The Wizard's Map
The Pictish Child
The Bagpiper's Ghost

The series is about a family that goes to Scotland over vacation to stay with relatives and the oldest kids, who are twins, encounter ghosts and wizards and other magic. The books were pretty well written, though fairly short since they were aimed at the juvenile market.

Post by **Psychotic_Carp** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 9:09 pm

Did it take place during current times or in the past?

Post by **Rusty** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 9:56 pm

Current times. The family arrives in the small town in Scotland during summer vacation and stay with relatives who live in a house that is around 500 years old. Since it is raining their first day there, the kids explore the attic where they find card games for an old game called Patience and a map. These items are magically linked to a wizard who has been around since the 13th century, but hasn't been seen in a century. The twin girl has some magic ability, though it is untrained. She has to defeat the wizard.

In the second book, a Pictish girl from 1000 years in the past falls through a rift in time to the present day. The twins and their Gran have to help the girl as an evil force from the past tries to kill her.

In the third book, the twins and Gran have to help a few ghosts take care of the business that has kept them from moving on.

Post by **Rusty** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:40 pm

I've started reading the Pendragon series by DJ MacHale. I finished the first book in the series today - The Merchant of Death. The series revolves around a 14 year old boy named Bobby who is whisked away by his uncle one day into an adventure to help save a people on another world who are slowly being destroyed. It turns out he is someone who can travel through the worlds and so is his uncle. I liked the book quite a bit and also like the plot device that has Bobby sending journals of his adventures to his friends back at home.

Post by **Rusty** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 3:09 am

I was at the library today and saw the book London Calling by Edward Bloor and thought it looked interesting so I checked it out. I started reading it tonight and found it very hard to put down, finally finishing it a few minutes ago. It is an excellent book about a middle school boy who attends a private catholic school that he hates, has an alcoholic father that he rarely sees and whose family struggles to make ends meet. When he receives an old radio from his grandmother, he suddenly finds himself transported to the London Blitz in 1940 where he needs to help a boy named Jimmy do..something. But is it all a dream?

Post by **Psychotic_Carp** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:07 am

well was it?

Post by **Rusty** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 2:05 pm

Nope - It had to do with ghosts and unfinished business along with time travel.

Post by **Rusty** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:30 pm

I read Terry Pratchett's Only You Can Save Mankind and thought it was good. It was a different type of book than his Discworld novels, but still enjoyable. Johnny Maxwell is playing a game where the object is to kill alien spaceships when suddenly a message appears on his screen "We Surrender". He has to decide what to do when the aliens decide they don't want to fight anymore.

Post by **Rusty** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:57 pm

I finished Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett. In this book, Johnny and his friends are walking through the cemetery and one of them dares Johnny to knock on the door of one of the mausoleums. He knocks and is rather surprised when the dead person residing there answers the knock. Johnny is the only one who can see him and soon finds himself involved in saving the cemetery from being demolished for a new building project. The book was thought provoking about the influence of the past on the living and was very entertaining as well. I'm looking forward to the third book in the series.

Post by **Rusty** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:06 pm

I read The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo, the author of the Charlie Bone series. The main chacter is a boy named Gwyn who lives on a farm in Wales. His relationship with his father hasn't been good since his sister disappeared four years earlier. Gwyn finds out from his grandmohter that he is descended from a line of magicians who appear about every 7 generations and that he may be a magician.

I liked the book quite a bit. It is fairly short, but the characters come across very well. There are two more books in the series that I will read eventually.