Book Reviews
Re: Book Reviews
Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony - On a Pale Horse will always be my favorite Incarnations book, but I used to like this second book quite a bit as well. It didn't resonate with me as an audiobook, though. I found it kind of boring. It follows Chronos from before he takes up the mantle of time through his battle against Satan's chicanery.
Re: Book Reviews
First Test by Tamora Pierce - Keladry of Mindelan is the first girl since the Lioness to try and become a knight. She faces a lot of opposition and is grudgingly granted a year's probation as a page in order to prove herself. Keladry is a lot different from Alanna, but I enjoyed the book quite a bit. I've read the series a number of times, but am listening to the audiobook for the first time.
Page by Tamora Pierce - Kel has successfully completed her probationary year and now serves the other three years in her quest to become a squire and then a knight. It's fairly similar to the first book and is also a quick and entertaining read. I don't think this series is quite as good as the Lioness Quartet, but it is still pretty good.
Page by Tamora Pierce - Kel has successfully completed her probationary year and now serves the other three years in her quest to become a squire and then a knight. It's fairly similar to the first book and is also a quick and entertaining read. I don't think this series is quite as good as the Lioness Quartet, but it is still pretty good.
Re: Book Reviews
I'm a bit behind in posting the books I've read
Squire by Tamora Pierce - Kel becomes the squire for Raoul of Golden Lake, the commander of the King's Own. As such, she learns a lot, sees plenty of action and hones her skills. A nice continuation of the series.
3 Below by Patrick Carman - In the sequel to Floors, the Whippet Hotel is way behind on their taxes and Leo has to come up with a large sum of money by midnight to pay off the debt. Leo and his new step-brother explore the area underneath the hotel in search of a solution. While the book wasn't bad, it wasn't nearly as much fun as the first book. Maybe because the concept isn't new anymore.
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages - Dewey Kerrigan has been living with her Nana for years, but after her Nana's stroke, Dewey is about to rejoin her father for the first time in a long while. The year is 1943 and her father has been working on a secret government project in New Mexico. She is eventually reunited with him and the book explores her life and some of her friendships at the base, including an unlikely one with a girl named Suze. The book is very entertaining and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce - The final book in the Protector of the Small quartet shifts the action to the Scanran border. Scanra is making war on Tortall and is using vicious killing machines that are powered by the souls of murdered children. Kel is put in charge of a refugee camp and while she hates the assignment since it seems designed to keep her out of battle, she takes her role seriously and does a nice job administering the camp. She has been told by the Chamber of the Ordeal that she will meet up with the creator of the evil killing machines and that she will have a chance to end his villainy, but meanwhile she is stuck at the refugee camp. A nice conclusion to the series and one that continues the progress from her earlier years where she demonstrates a talent for command an ability to stay composed in difficult situations.
In looking over the list of 95 books that I've read this year, I noticed that 61 have been audiobooks and 34 have been printed books. A big change from previous years, but then again I've been listening to a lot of books while driving and while working around the house.
Squire by Tamora Pierce - Kel becomes the squire for Raoul of Golden Lake, the commander of the King's Own. As such, she learns a lot, sees plenty of action and hones her skills. A nice continuation of the series.
3 Below by Patrick Carman - In the sequel to Floors, the Whippet Hotel is way behind on their taxes and Leo has to come up with a large sum of money by midnight to pay off the debt. Leo and his new step-brother explore the area underneath the hotel in search of a solution. While the book wasn't bad, it wasn't nearly as much fun as the first book. Maybe because the concept isn't new anymore.
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages - Dewey Kerrigan has been living with her Nana for years, but after her Nana's stroke, Dewey is about to rejoin her father for the first time in a long while. The year is 1943 and her father has been working on a secret government project in New Mexico. She is eventually reunited with him and the book explores her life and some of her friendships at the base, including an unlikely one with a girl named Suze. The book is very entertaining and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce - The final book in the Protector of the Small quartet shifts the action to the Scanran border. Scanra is making war on Tortall and is using vicious killing machines that are powered by the souls of murdered children. Kel is put in charge of a refugee camp and while she hates the assignment since it seems designed to keep her out of battle, she takes her role seriously and does a nice job administering the camp. She has been told by the Chamber of the Ordeal that she will meet up with the creator of the evil killing machines and that she will have a chance to end his villainy, but meanwhile she is stuck at the refugee camp. A nice conclusion to the series and one that continues the progress from her earlier years where she demonstrates a talent for command an ability to stay composed in difficult situations.
In looking over the list of 95 books that I've read this year, I noticed that 61 have been audiobooks and 34 have been printed books. A big change from previous years, but then again I've been listening to a lot of books while driving and while working around the house.
Re: Book Reviews
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey - Menolly is the daughter of the lord of Half Circle Seahold and has a talent for playing, singing and composing music. However, her parents don't think that girls should be harpers. When the Seahold's harper dies, they actively discourage her from playing until eventually she runs away from home and survives on her own in a series of caves until Thread comes near. The Harper Hall trilogy is a nice series and it was fun to revisit the first book.
The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan - The final book in the Kane Chronicles series finds Carter and Sadie leading a quest to try and stop Apophis, the God of Chaos, from destroying the world. Along the way there are plenty of challenges and battles in an entertaining adventure.
Shatterproof by Roland Smith - The fourth book in the Cahills vs Vespers series has action in Berlin, Timbuktu and Mumbai as the various Cahill members try to complete the Vesper missions they are assigned in order to keep their relatives, who are being held hostage, alive. A pretty quick read with plenty of action, though not much more information into the backstory.
The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan - The final book in the Kane Chronicles series finds Carter and Sadie leading a quest to try and stop Apophis, the God of Chaos, from destroying the world. Along the way there are plenty of challenges and battles in an entertaining adventure.
Shatterproof by Roland Smith - The fourth book in the Cahills vs Vespers series has action in Berlin, Timbuktu and Mumbai as the various Cahill members try to complete the Vesper missions they are assigned in order to keep their relatives, who are being held hostage, alive. A pretty quick read with plenty of action, though not much more information into the backstory.
Re: Book Reviews
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey - This book continues Menolly's tale from Dragonsong as she enters the Harper Hall and begins her studies. She suffers bullying from the girls and house mother at the cothold where she stays and it gets a bit worse after she demonstrates that her abilities are much superior to their abilities, though she does not intend to show them up. She makes friends and finds her place in the Harper Hall and quickly moves up to Journeyman status. A pretty entertaining book.
Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey - This book takes place several years after Dragonsinger and follows Piemur, who was introduced in the previous book. He is a highly intelligent boy with a great voice who tends to get into mischief from time to time. When his voice starts to change, he becomes the secret apprentice of the Master Harper while officially being apprenticed to the Drum Master. He helps one of the Journeymen on spying missions trying to ferret out problems with the Southerners and eventually this leads to him being lost on the Southern Continent. Another good entry in a very nice trilogy.
Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey - This book takes place several years after Dragonsinger and follows Piemur, who was introduced in the previous book. He is a highly intelligent boy with a great voice who tends to get into mischief from time to time. When his voice starts to change, he becomes the secret apprentice of the Master Harper while officially being apprenticed to the Drum Master. He helps one of the Journeymen on spying missions trying to ferret out problems with the Southerners and eventually this leads to him being lost on the Southern Continent. Another good entry in a very nice trilogy.
Re: Book Reviews
I'm a little behind in updating this.
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens - Three siblings, Kate, Michael and Emma, grow up in a series of orphanages, each more dire than the previous one. They are convinced that their parents will eventually return for them, but it has been 10 years. They are sent to a strange orphanage where they are the only children present. While exploring the mansion that serves as the orphanage, they find a green book that allows them to travel through time and discover some of the secrets about the town. Magic exists and becomes a part of their lives. I enjoyed the book a lot and just picked up the second book in the trilogy.
Spy Princess by Sherwood Smith - Times are tough and the kingdom is on the edge of rebellion. Lilah is a noble girl who sympathizes with the commoners, but doesn't know much about them. She disguises herself as a peasant boy and goes into town to learn and finds herself caught up in the rebellion. She also discovers that her older brother is also involved and is one of the leaders. Plenty of adventure in an entertaining story.
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper - A classic tale about the discovery of a sapient species on the planet Zarathustra in the distant future. A company controls the planet, but its charter would be thrown out if the sapient species is confirmed, so they attempt to keep that from happening. A very nice tale.
The Journal of Curious Letters by James Dashner - This is the start of a fantasy series about alternate realities where certain members of Reality-Prime are recruited to keep things on track. It was okay, but I liked Dashner's Maze Runner a lot more.
White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages - The sequel to The Green Glass Sea starts in 1946 as Dewey and Suze are spending a year in Alamogordo, New Mexico with Suze's parents while Suze's dad works on the V-2 project to build rockets. The book is mostly about the girls growing up, but it is amidst the backdrop of the rise of atomic power. There are plenty of things for both girls to deal with and some people may think the book lacks action, but I loved it, just as much as the first book.
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens - Three siblings, Kate, Michael and Emma, grow up in a series of orphanages, each more dire than the previous one. They are convinced that their parents will eventually return for them, but it has been 10 years. They are sent to a strange orphanage where they are the only children present. While exploring the mansion that serves as the orphanage, they find a green book that allows them to travel through time and discover some of the secrets about the town. Magic exists and becomes a part of their lives. I enjoyed the book a lot and just picked up the second book in the trilogy.
Spy Princess by Sherwood Smith - Times are tough and the kingdom is on the edge of rebellion. Lilah is a noble girl who sympathizes with the commoners, but doesn't know much about them. She disguises herself as a peasant boy and goes into town to learn and finds herself caught up in the rebellion. She also discovers that her older brother is also involved and is one of the leaders. Plenty of adventure in an entertaining story.
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper - A classic tale about the discovery of a sapient species on the planet Zarathustra in the distant future. A company controls the planet, but its charter would be thrown out if the sapient species is confirmed, so they attempt to keep that from happening. A very nice tale.
The Journal of Curious Letters by James Dashner - This is the start of a fantasy series about alternate realities where certain members of Reality-Prime are recruited to keep things on track. It was okay, but I liked Dashner's Maze Runner a lot more.
White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages - The sequel to The Green Glass Sea starts in 1946 as Dewey and Suze are spending a year in Alamogordo, New Mexico with Suze's parents while Suze's dad works on the V-2 project to build rockets. The book is mostly about the girls growing up, but it is amidst the backdrop of the rise of atomic power. There are plenty of things for both girls to deal with and some people may think the book lacks action, but I loved it, just as much as the first book.
Re: Book Reviews
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce - Aliane Cooper, the only daughter of The Lioness, wants to use the talents she learned from her father to become a spy, but her parents will not let her do it. When she is captured by pirates and sold as a slave on a neighboring island kingdom, Ali finds her opportunity to achieve her goal of becoming a spy while also winning a wager from a trickster god who has taken an interest in her. Not quite as action packed as some of Pierce's books, but still plenty of fun.
Re: Book Reviews
Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce - The second half of the Trickster duology follows Aly and her friends as they create a revolution against the ruling Rittevon dynasty to restore a raka Queen to the throne. Plenty of intrigue and adventure in this entertaining conclusion to the tale.
Higher Education by Charles Sheffield - In the future, a boy named Rick gets caught playing a prank on the wrong person and ends up expelled. He applies to a mining company to try and go into space to become an asteroid miner. However, he finds that the schooling he received was totally inadequate for the job and must work harder than he ever has before to succeed. The depiction of the education system in the future is a satire that shows one possible future if a number of current/recent trends were to continue unchecked. I found that part of the book hilarious. Education is shown to be important in achieving Rick's goals, but the education system itself had been ineffectual due to government interference, an emphasis on self esteem and the threat of lawsuits. I enjoyed the rest of the book as well.
Higher Education by Charles Sheffield - In the future, a boy named Rick gets caught playing a prank on the wrong person and ends up expelled. He applies to a mining company to try and go into space to become an asteroid miner. However, he finds that the schooling he received was totally inadequate for the job and must work harder than he ever has before to succeed. The depiction of the education system in the future is a satire that shows one possible future if a number of current/recent trends were to continue unchecked. I found that part of the book hilarious. Education is shown to be important in achieving Rick's goals, but the education system itself had been ineffectual due to government interference, an emphasis on self esteem and the threat of lawsuits. I enjoyed the rest of the book as well.
Re: Book Reviews
The Billion Dollar Boy by Charles Sheffield - A spoiled kid who is incredibly wealthy thanks to his father's business ventures takes a trip to the Asteroid Belt with his mother. He gets drunk and ends up transmitting through the node network to a spot 27 light years from Earth. He gets picked up by a Harvester ship there and becomes one of the crew, thus putting paid to his spoiled ways. Another fun novel in the Jupiter line.
Re: Book Reviews
The Kindling by Braden Bell - Three kids find that their world changes when they discover that they are magi whose powers have just 'kindled'. It turns out that many of their teachers are magic as well and the kids need all the help that they can get as dark forces are after them. A fairly humorous story that moves along at a quick pace. It wasn't too intricate a story, but was entertaining.
Putting Up Roots by Charles Sheffield - Rick and his autistic cousin, Dawn, are sent to the planet Solferino along with a number of other young adults. They are supposed to be among the forerunners of the colonization movement, but not everything is as it seems. The third Jupiter novel wasn't as much fun as the first two books in the series, but it was still a decent science fiction story.
Putting Up Roots by Charles Sheffield - Rick and his autistic cousin, Dawn, are sent to the planet Solferino along with a number of other young adults. They are supposed to be among the forerunners of the colonization movement, but not everything is as it seems. The third Jupiter novel wasn't as much fun as the first two books in the series, but it was still a decent science fiction story.
Re: Book Reviews
Infinity Ring 1: A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner - The book takes place in a parallel reality where a number of breaks in time have accumulated over the past 2000+ years and now the Earth is suffering from numerous earthquakes, storms and other acts of nature. Most of the world is under the control of the SQ, which has built its power over the same span of years. Dak Smyth's parents have invented a time traveling device and an SQ attack forces Dak and two friends to travel through time to try and prevent the breaks from happening in the first place. It was a pretty fast moving book and I enjoyed it. A very quick read, though.
Re: Book Reviews
Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer - The last Artemis Fowl book sets up a final battle between the villain Opal Koboi and Artemis's friends. There's plenty of action and plenty of humor and the book is enjoyable, though not as much as the first couple of books in the series. Everything is a bit more comfortable and familiar now and perhaps that detracts from it a bit. However, it is still a good book and a nice way to end the series.
Re: Book Reviews
The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull - A new candy shop opens in the small California town of Colson. Nate, who is new in town, and several of his new friends discover that the candy shop not only has many varieties of regular candy, but the owner of the store also makes magic candy that can give kids special abilities. The kids earn this candy by going on missions for the owner, but they become suspicious when the missions start to get a bit shady. The book was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to reading the sequel, which just came out.
Re: Book Reviews
Dragon of Seas by Pierdomenico Baccalario - The final book in the Century Quartet wraps up the series with most of the action taking place in Shanghai. While I enjoyed the book, I didn't think the book was quite as interesting as the other three books. The story was kind of bland and you didn't get much of a feeling for the city, unlike the other books, which took place in Rome, Paris and New York. In this book, the four 'chosen ones' meet up in Shanghai and discover the secret that they have been pursuing all year. Their main enemy is a reclusive billionaire who lives in a skyscraper. Everything gets resolved, but the energy of the previous books is missing.
I wish that Scholastic would resume publishing Baccalario's other series, the Ulysses Moore books, which have been hold since book 4 several years ago. The series is up to #12 in Italy.
I wish that Scholastic would resume publishing Baccalario's other series, the Ulysses Moore books, which have been hold since book 4 several years ago. The series is up to #12 in Italy.
Re: Book Reviews
The Calder Game by Blue Balliett - Calder Pillay and his friends are unhappy with their new teacher, who is very strict and stifles creativity. When Calder and his father travel to England, Calder becomes involved with a mystery regarding a statue of a minotaur that mysteriously was donated to the town where they are staying. Calder disappears and his friends are brought over to England to help with the search. This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as the previous two books - Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3.