Book Review: Idolon by Mark Budz
I’m going to be entirely honest about this particular book. It was a battle to get through for me. The story is muddled, almost lost in the endless number of POV characters. It’s like reading a text book only to find out that half of the information is scrambled in other textbooks and you have to go looking for it. That’s the only way I can describe the reading experience for this.The basic story is not really all that basic. In fact, I can’t even tell you exactly what the story is about because the book left me so lost and confused in the end that I still haven’t a clue what to think. It’s a futuristic world where people can wear specialized ‘skins’ so that they can look like whoever they want. People can basically look like the celebrities of the past. Something is happening, though, that makes a new type of illegal skin some sort of big deal among people. I still don’t get what the big hubub was about it.So, the book opens with Dijk, a detective. He’s at a crime scene where a woman has been found dead. She’s wearing some sort of abnormal skin that isn’t registered and then we don’t hear from Dijk for a while. Now, my thoughts are, if you open up with this character, he really should play a bigger role. Then we learn about Nadice, who suddenly becomes pregnant, but because the laws state that her employer for some reason can tell her whether or not to have an abortion, she tries to smuggle herself out of the country. This is where Mateus comes in who gives her the opportunity provided that she carries something inside her. Now, in this world illegal skins or ripped skins (like ripped music) are the new cocaine. It turns out that this whole immaculate birth thing is happening all over. Pelayo is yet another character, who is looking for information about his lost sister or cousin, I’m not sure which, and his cousin Marta, another POV, both take the spotlight. Marta is the woman that helps Nadice, but we won’t get into that. Now, something about this strange skin that is going around has certain folks a little antsy. It’s supposed to be so revolutionary that it’s, scary. But it’s not scary. In fact, there’s nothing really bone gripping about this. Those aren’t even all the characters–there’s Al-Fayoumi, Atherton, Uri, and a bunch of others. I mean there are so many damn characters in this it’s hard to even keep track of what the hell is going on. The concepts he’s dealing with are so complex that with all those characters the poor reader is sitting by going “what?”. Even in the end I was thinking “what the hell happened?”. Somehow this strange skin that Nadice is carrying attaches itself to her baby and connects her to Marta, and together they are like a symbiot of some sort and the baby must survive so that it can bring the new skin into the world or something of that nature. I mean, just that alone is so mind boggling to think of that you would have hoped Budz would have stuck with just 2 character viewpoints.My vote on this is that it is a very poorly written book. The concepts are too deep for a book of so many characters. This is an example of why too many POV’s is a horribly bad thing. You can’t do it. Too much happens in the story to afford the change of POV all over the place. Even in the end the story jumps back and forth, back and forth. And by the time you reach the end you’re so thoroughly lost that you feel like your brain is actually dying.I really tried on this book, but it was so difficult to read and so mind boggling to just accept that I couldn’t even bring myself to believe in what was going on. There was too much. It’s like a soap opera crammed into 450 pages. Budz tries so hard to bring human-like life to all the characters, but that just isn’t enough room to make the characters important enough. I can’t concentrate emotionally on so many characters. Nobody human can.I think this is the first book on my Awards List that I actually truly disliked.
Book Review: Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
I am officially in love with Scott Westerfeld. I do not mean a homosexual love, but I absolutely and utterly adore this man’s writing. As some of you already know, I truly enjoyed reading the first book in the Midnighter’s series, of which I am going to be reading book two eventually here. Peeps is yet another one of Westerfeld’s brilliant literary works. The difference here is that Peeps is a completely new and realistic take on the traditional vampire story. Now, hold on for a second. I know what some are thinking. “Oh no, not another god awful piece of garbage vampire story.” No sir, this is not another one of those. In fact this isn’t even a vampire story at all.The story:Cal Thompson’s life has changed forever. He’s been infected with a horrible virus during a one night stand after a night out at the bar. But he’s lucky; he’s a carrier. He shows none of the signs of usual parasite positives–a.k.a. Peeps. He’s sane, he’s not trying to bite people, and he doesn’t have crazy infected rats following him around. But Cal has infected all his previous girlfriends due to not even knowing that he was infected in the first place. His job, as part of a secret underground group known as the Night Watch, is to hunt down and capture these people before their madness spawns more Peeps to terrorize society in the dark. Now, obviously I cannot give you more detail than that because that would give away far too much about the story. All I can say is that it is far deeper than that. Imagine what your life would be like if you could never resume a normal relationship with someone of the opposite sex ever again?Once again Westerfeld has put together a cast of amazing characters. Cal is amazing. He’s real. He acts exactly how I would expect a person in his position to. Lace too. And there are surprises throughout the story. Just when you think things are going in one direction they take a turn in the opposite. The parasite is, well, rather hardy and versatile.To add, Westerfeld has been truly kind to offer interesting blurbs on real parasites in this world to add more credibility to the story. Every other chapter has a new parasite to discuss. This isn’t a medical journal, but Westerfeld manages to tell you what these real parasites do without making your head spin with medical jargon. Then you start to sit back and think that this horrible parasite in the story could actually exist.The pacing is spot on too. There was no time in the story that I felt like taking a break. I finished 99% of it this weekend and only read a little on Thursday during break at work. The story kept me intrigued. I found myself going back to or three times in a couple hours even though I had so many other things to do. You start to really connect with Cal.The ending is rather different too. You do see it coming, but Westerfeld leaves the story open for a sequel–which there is. I’m looking forward to reading that edition too!This a must read in my opinion!
Book Review: Devilish by Maureen Johnson
I have to admit something to all of you. When I first picked this book up from my pile of award nominees I had very low expectations for it. I thought it was going to be terrible. I really did. I’m not sure why I thought this. Perhaps it had to do with the cover, which, while perfectly fitting for the story itself, would never have grabbed my interest in the book store–not in a million years. This has a lot to do with the fact that the story is more aimed, in my opinion, towards teenage girls. It is, after all, from the viewpoint of a high school girl, dealing with high school romances, friend problems, and other typical teenage dramas. Therefore, the cover had to reflect the target audience.I am so happy that I was horribly and idiotically wrong about this novel. It was fantastic. So good, even, that at times I wished I had a valid excuse not to go to work. I read it over the course of the last three days (finished it last night), reading at work during break and an hour each night. I didn’t want to put it down, but I had to. I wanted to continue on. I wanted to get to the end so bad because I wanted to know everything that happened.What makes this novel so good? Johnson’s writing style, or at least how she writes the first person narrative of the main character Jane. It’s that perfect style that tells you exactly what you need to know about the character–she’s a teenager, smart, and downright sarcastic and hilarious. Her style is strong throughout. I found myself giggling internally–I don’t generally laugh out loud when reading or express much of any emotion…that’s just the norm for me.The story is this:Jane attends a religious prep school with her best friend Allison. Jane is, well, to put it simply, an academic genius. But she’s not without her faults–she tends to get in trouble a lot. Allison is clumsy, throws up when put under pressure, and altogether quirky and odd. Then one day, after a terrible disaster where Allison throws up all over a freshman in the gym, Allison returns to school a completely different person. She’s so different that she’s answering questions during class, and correctly, she’s wearing new clothes and has new confidence. To make things worse, she’s just stolen Jane’s ex-boyfriend–well stolen is the wrong word, but you get the picture.Soon Jane finds out that there’s more to this sudden change than meets the eye. Allison has done something terrible and stupid–she’s just sold her soul to the devil.The story is, well, excellent. It’s strong, flows well, and sticks right to the point without running off in directions that are unnecessary. Jane is an awesome character. She’s full of life, spunk, and awesomeness–yes, I used that word to describe her. I found her to be a fantastic character.There were only a couple times I got annoyed during the novel and this had nothing to do whatseover with the story itself. I think the publisher perhaps misprinted some sentences in the novel so that they are in some ways using the right words, but are grammatically incorrect. I doubt this has anything to do with the author though.All in all the novel is damn good. It moves fast, has its fair share of twists and turns, and proves to me that I can’t judge a book by its cover all the time. Doing so means I will miss out on gems like this. Check this novel it. I think you’ll really enjoy it!
Book Review: The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
I’m heading quick into my list. I’ve already finished off two books on it, and am well on my way into Devilish. So, here is my review of this particular book.I can’t say that I really liked The King of Attolia, but neither can I say I hated it. It was so-so for me. One of the interesting things I thought this novel had over other fantasy novels was that it did not revolve around a major military conflict. The conflicts generally seemed to be internal, rather than external to the kingdom of Attolia. In addition to that I found that the world that Turner had created was so believable it was actually real. There is a good reason for this: it is so much like a Greece that never was. There are guns and pocket watches. Think of Greece if it had survived long enough to become an empire much like England became. Can you imagine?The story is this:This book takes place some time after her first book The Thief, but stands alone I think. The King of Attolia is an outsider. He’s not an Attolian, but an Eddisian from a neighboring kingdom, and not only that, he practically stole the throne. Few respect him, and the Queen herself at one point cut off his hand. But Eugenides must come to grips with the reality of his situation: he is king, whether he likes it or not, and he cannot run away–he must prove that fact to those that are bound to serve him.Costis is a soldier who has made a terrible mistake. He just struck the King. But to his surprise he is pardoned, and his Captain too. Rather than being exiled he is put under the King’s charge as part of the King’s attendants. Costis hates the King, and always has. He loves his Queen, but the King is a different story entirely. That is where the story should have stayed. The problem with the book, a part that makes the story itself a little weak, is that under all of that is threat of invasion from a neighboring kingdom, an uprising among the nobility (Barons), and mounting attempts on the King’s life. Now, the last thing worked well in the story. With Costis being a sort of personal guard for the man he loathes, it is an amazing transformation to see how the characters grow through the story. But my biggest beef was that the story focused on something that would seem literally trivial in comparison to the first two subplots. I think trivial hatreds among soldiers is minute in comparison to threat of invasion by a force that the Queen herself knows she cannot repel if the Barons cannot be controlled. So why are we focusing at all on the fact that the King is disliked and has to prove himself? At this point it’s almost pointless. Who cares if the King shows that he is worthy of his position, even if he doesn’t want it, if by the end of the oncoming war there might not be a King and Queen of Attolia at all? The subplot of war could very well have been left out in my opinion. It only damaged the story.Turner’s writing is solid, except in times when she is intentionally trying to be vague about details. There is a scene in the novel where the King is being attacked by assassins and later in that chapter we learn that the King kills all three, even though he’s technically a cripple. Yet, the scene isn’t even written. It’s almost as if the page was missing that had that action in it. Turner goes on to say that it all happened so fast, but the scene itself shows that the King is being killed. I re-read it a dozen times and still couldn’t figure out how we went from King being killed to King killing.Another issue was the constant jumping around of POV. The only characters I cared about were Costis and Eugenides. Costis is the central character and should have remained the focus. There were a bunch of jumps to characters that weren’t really all that important. We didn’t need their insights on things because Costis provided enough.The novel itself ends rather shaky for me. It seems like the novel should have gone on a bit longer in my opinion. It just stopped on a happy note, and that was that. There’s no climax, no build up to an ultimate finally. It digs into the story, stays there, and never rises to the occasion.Other than that I found the novel to be decent enough, if not lacking. Might not be the best novel written, but certainly not the worst. At least the characters and the worlds were believable.
Book Review: Recursion by Tony Ballantyne
As part of my reading list for the awards, here is my review of Recursion.It’s not very often that I get to read something as utterly complex as this story. I don’t mean complex in that “I don’t understand or fully comprehend” in the same fashion as was the case with The Elysium Commission (which was a good book nonetheless). Rather I mean the sheer massiveness of the concepts involved within the novel itself.The basic story is this:Herb is a young entrepeneur in a futuristic ‘world’ (figuratively speaking since in this case there are many worlds within Earth’s scope) governed by an entity called the Environmental Agency. He is returning to a planet where he had illegally set into action little machines called VNM’s–self replicating robots that can be programmed to create entire cities–only to find that his VNM’s have gone haywire and overrun the planet, destroying everything of value. Just when he thinks he might get away with it, being so far from the center of control for the Environmental Agency, an EA agent pops up in his ship. Soon he finds himself in a different sort of trouble as he learns that his accident is nothing compared to what the something called the “Enemy Domain” is up to.There are two other story lines that run through this. One involves Constantine–set in the past before Herb–who is called a “ghost” because he has imbedded into his mind four other personalities (not the psychological condition, but actual other personalities that live in him as he goes along with his life…they interact and the like). The other is Eva who we find out in the beginning has been planning to kill herself for some time but because the Environmental Agency is truly the nosiest of governments it won’t allow her to do it without careful planning. This is set in the past as well. Later on we find her in a mental health facility with a group of people paranoid about something called “the Watcher”.Now the two other story lines run in with the main story with Herb. Both merge in the end with Herb. I don’t think it was a perfect merging, it was somewhat flawed and not quite as strong as I would have liked, but it worked well enough to keep me interested in the story from start to finish. One of the things I loved most about this book were the concepts in it. You have VNM’s that can build AND destroy, people who have extra personalities that are practically their own people inside of their minds, copied mental entities within sustained ‘Matrix’ style worlds that are just as alive as the minds they came from, and AI’s that have grown and evolved so much that they are actually smarter than humans–for obvious reasons.All this makes for a very intriguing story. The action was fantastic and I found that I truly enjoyed all the characters, even the crazy ones. I generally don’t like stories with so many story lines, partially because I like to delve deep into individuals rather than groups. Luckily I think Ballantyne managed to create very 3-d characters for me. They had fears that were real in the world they lived in. They cried when they were supposed to; freaked out when things went bad. They were, essentially, very human! He does an excellent job taking characters that aren’t human and twisting them just so slightly so you might start to wonder, “something just isn’t right about you.” The twists and turns keep the plot fresh and new. I liked this book very much. It will be in my collection for some time and I expect to read some more Ballantyne.
Book Review: Midnighters–the Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
It’s not often that I read an entire book in practically one night. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy other books that I have read, but it does go to show that any book I read in one night is perfectly written to allow such a thing to happen.This is the case with Midnighters–the Secret Hour (Book One in the series if you must know). I don’t think I could be any happier with it. It was fast and well drawn. It didn’t bite off more than it could chew (though certainly with the concepts behind it it certainly could have).The story is basically this:There is a secret hour between midnight and midnight. It’s an hour that only those born at midnight can experience and it can only be experienced in Bixby, OK. For this hour everything else is frozen, except the shadowy creatures that live there. For the four Midnighters in Bixby, everything seems to be going normal. Each of them has a special talent. They don’t bother the creatures and the creatures don’t bother them. That is until Jessica Day moves to town and the shadowy monsters there suddenly become violent. The question is, why all of a sudden? Why would her presence cause this? And what can they do about it so that midnight is safe to roam again? To put it simply, this is a fascinating book with wonderful characters. Dess would have to be my favorite character, simply because she is so weird, but the entire cast is rather spellbinding. Westerfeld has created a very interesting mythology for his world. The plot moves smoothly. The characters develop very well and there is even a little romance, which for characters in their mid-teens (that 15-16 age) worked perfectly. It was not your usual romance, but that lovely high school bubbly romance that we have all come to expect from kids these days. Even the change of viewpoint each chapter worked out well, and I am one to be very weary of changes in POV. But for Westerfeld it worked. This is a fascinating book that tells a powerful and intriguing story. As I said, few times do I read a book straight through. This book I did.