Rating: 
An eternity of reflecting one’s misery back on oneself, as it turns out, gets quite dull. Really, it’s torturous. You can’t change anything at this point, it’s all been said and done. And the thanklessness of it…well. It’s just more than Kiriel can deal with. So what if he’s breaking all the rules? He deserves a vacation. And the body he slipped into…well, it was about to die anyway.
After eternity as a spirit, the physical realm is quite something. In fact, Kiriel is giving the Creator props at every turn. Color! Wind! It’s all just incredible. Of course, learning to be human whilst being supervised is more than a little awkward, so his first order of business is to remove himself from the company of Shaun’s best friend and head home for some solitude.
After getting caught essentially making out with a t-shirt, spending a couple of hours in the bathroom, and overhauling Shaun’s appearance, Kiriel thinks he’s getting the hang of this physical thing. Each new experience is incredible. Like ketchup. Oh does he love ketchup! Ingenious.
But he has bigger issues at hand. Better experiences he wants to try to get to before someone notices and his trip comes to an end. Only at this point does he realize his choice of someone generally unnoticed may not have been the best. These are not the boys who…get on well with girls. But he can try!
Speaking is his biggest issue really. It’s a bit hard to remember to try to talk like an uninterested, unenlightened teenage boy when you know pretty much everything. Eager to try to make an impact while he can, Kiriel decides to give some advice to a bully, who he knows he’ll see in Hell if things don’t change. But apparently attempting to counsel a bully on his fears of inadequacy in public is not the best idea.
After a few days as Shaun, Kiriel’s curiosity is starting to wear off. The novelty is wearing off. Being human is hopelessly futile. Shaun has disappeared, and no one has noticed, aside from his cat. It’s horribly depressing. And the changes he’s begun, being nicer to Jason, well, he won’t be here to carry through on that. So what’s the point, really?
Still. It’s been fun. And you can learn things while physical that you just wouldn’t otherwise. So it wasn’t all pointless. And maybe he will leave a mark after he’s gone. Maybe it’s not all futile.
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Rating:
After returning from their successful mission to the Underworld, Charlotte and Zee have returned to life as usual. Minus the nightmares/generally strange dreams, and the fact that Charlotte is grounded forever, because it turns out, once you learn that the gods are real, lying to your parents just doesn’t work anymore. Life is just too real for that. Still, it’s not all bad. When a cute new boy moves to town, and seems to have an interest in Charlotte, it’s hard not to feel at least a little uplifted.
Unfortunately, things don’t stay smooth for long.
There’s the strange old man Charlotte, Zee, and even Mr. Mielswetzski have seen around town. And Jason gone missing. And Zee taking an interest in Maddy, Charlotte’s best friend, only to dump her
and pick up with an Ashley. And let’s not forget the total personality make-over he could have done without. And to ice Charlotte’s cake, her father has won an award, and the family is going on a cruise. A History cruise. Every day to disembark and visit local sites. Every teenager’s dream.
Or not.
Still, at least she can get out of the house.
Things go amiss on the cruise almost from the get-go. Her parents arrive late to breakfast on their second day raving about Thalia the lounge singer. It starts pouring just as she’s about to lay out by the pool. Her parents make a date to meet her for breakfast the next morning (after locking her in her room due to a misunderstanding), and miss the appointment. Upon exploration Charlotte discovers the ship to be empty, and in the Mediterranean. Just a wee bit off course from the East Coast.
Eventually, Charlotte finds the passengers and all the crew locked in the Lounge with Thalia, who happens to be a Siren, and her powers don’t work on Children. It’s up to Charlotte. Who, by some
stroke of fate, isn’t alone. Jason, whom she thought she’d seen the day before, is indeed on board. There to help her. Turns out, he knows about her escapades in the Underworld. His dad’s a god, kin to Poseidon. Poseidon doesn’t take well to people messing with his family, and it turns out Philonecron is his grandson. Which puts Charlotte on the hit list. For which an entire ship full of people are about to pay the price. So of course they do the only sensible thing. They head for
Poseidon’s yacht, with the plan of stealing his Trident to control Thalia and free the passengers and crew.
After a near miss with a couple sea monsters, Charlotte and Jason make it to the yacht. They hatch a plan.
Charlotte, never big on patience, sets off on her own. Suffice it to say her plan takes a turn for the disastrous, but fate seems to be on her side, handing her an unlikely ally, and one more shot to save the day.
Again.
December 28th, 2007
10:28 am
Book Review, Series, Staff Favorites
adventure, alice in wonderland, alyss, fantasy, hatter madigan, imagination, magic, war, ya fiction
Rating:
Picking up were Looking Glass Wars left off, Alyss is now Queen of Wonderland, but all is not wonderful. No one knows what will become of Redd and The Cat, after their leap into the Heart Crystal, Alyss is worried that Dodge’s need for revenge will ruin him, she’s unsure if a Queen should love one of her guardsman, King Arch of Borderland seems to be planning something, and no one has heard from Hatter Madigan.
There’s never a dull moment. Especially once Redd imagines herself back into existence through a painter’s canvas. She and The Cat waste no time in collecting a new army on Earth. As luck would have it, one of the first people they run into is a member of Wonderland’s Tutor species, who fled through the Pool of Tears after having a falling out with Bibwit Harte. Vollrath, eager to prove himself, tells Redd all she needs to know about gaining her full powers, which will give her the best chance of defeating Alyss and reclaiming Wonderland as her own.
King Arch also has designs on Wonderland. After using the Diamonds to help start his plot on its way, capturing Homburg Molly and rendering the Crystal Continuum useless, he seems well on his way. The Diamonds are imprisoned (all but Jack, who has escaped), Hatter Madigan has done as expected and come for Molly, but all is not as smooth as Arch suspects. Jack of Diamonds will always side with whoever is most advantageous to him. And Hatter Madigan is not as loyal as he seems.
Back in Wonderland, Alyss’ powers are put to their test, as she helps to defend the city against the seeming endless army sent against her. Cryptic words from a caterpillar come at an unexpected time to help guide her along her way.
You’ll be left on the edge of your seat, eager for the final installment.
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Rating:
I originally started re-reading this series when I first saw The Golden Compass preview on TV. Since it has come to annoy me, as having recently read the book again, I can tell they’ve altered the story. Unfortunately, I put down The Subtle Knife for a long time while concentrating on school books and other reads. Surprisingly, picking it up again after a long span of time, I was able to jump right back in, and it was every bit as compelling. But it does make reviewing it a little harder.
We pick up Lyra’s story just after she’s gone into the hole in the sky created by her father, intent on finding him and putting a stop to whatever he’s doing. Instead of finding Lord Asriel, however, she finds herself in a beautiful city inhabited by only children. Some invisible menace known as Specters has driven off, or killed, all the adults.
A series of events conspire to unite Lyra with Will, a boy who grew up in an Oxford very much like, and very different from, her own. Will is searching for his father, missing for 12 years. Lyra has vowed to help him. Along the way of course comes the unexpected trouble of having the alethiometer stolen by and old man who turns out to be someone Lyra has already had a run-in with, the police looking for both she and Will, brokering a deal to go after a mysterious knife, only to find out it’s incredibly powerful and has deemed Will its new master.
It’s a very fast read, with never a dull moment. Any Pullman fan or Potter fan yet to read His Dark Materials will find plenty to like. And you’ll certainly be left wanting to know how it will all end.
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Rating:
After seeing a trailer for this movie recently, and then stumbling across my copies of the series in VT, I decided to re-read them.
This story is central to Lyra Belacqua, a child without family, left in the care of Oxford College. While the college does its best to educate her, Lyra more greatly enjoys running amok with her best friend Roger, who works in the kitchens. But her curiosity and hankering to know are what lead everything into being.
Having snuck into a room she’s not meant to be in, she gets trapped, and while hiding in a closet sees a plot to poison her uncle unfold. She then warns her Uncle without thinking, and after filling him in, is left hidden to spy on the upcoming meeting. The meeting, of course, leaves her all the more curious, especially about Dust.
Then come the Gobblers, child thieves, stealing children from their families all around England, and finally coming to Oxford, where they get their hands both on Roger, and a gyptian boy Lyra knew. Lyra has little time to mourn, as she herself is about to go away, newly made assistant to the beautiful Mrs. Coulter.
Not long into her new life, Lyra grows increasingly disturbed, both by Mrs. Coulter, and her daemon, the evil golden monkey, who can roam too far from his mistress. In the end, she runs away, meeting up again with the gyptians, who hide her and keep her safe, as they know even more about her and the big picture and the gobblers than she herself does.
And so begins Lyra’s Quest to save Roger, and all the captured children, and her father, as she comes to learn Lord Asriel to be.
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Rating:
Having just recovered his father from a years-long enchantment, Charlie is on his own again—his parents have gone off for a second honeymoon. But there’s plenty to look forward to. Once they’re back, the family will be moving into its old home. Which, as Charlie and Uncle Paton find out while visiting, has been recently vandalized. By something not quite human, if the glimpse Charlie gets of two figures scurrying away is right.
At school, things aren’t going so well either. The appearance of a boy called Dagbert Endless has everyone ill at ease. Cook, because she knew his father. Charlie, because Dagbert has attached himself to him and is insulting all his friends. Charlie’s friends because…they’re being insulted. But the boy’s plot fails. He can’t actually break up Charlie and his gang, since they know it’s what he’s up to, and they aren’t falling for it.
Charlie’s aunt has also remarried, and is now step-mother to a sweet girl, and rather questionable boy, who happens to be under Manfred Bloor’s control.
But the real key to the story is the beast. Asa, after helping Charlie save his father, hasn’t been seen since. But mournful howls can be heard filling the air every night. The townspeople get themselves into a panic and go out on a hunt, after which Charlie knows he just has to find Asa. And thanks to Mr. Ominous, he has a plan.
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Rating: 
For the first time in my reading of this series, I had a hard time getting through the book. I’m not really sure whether it was me, or the story. More than the others it felt a bit out of left field, even though it wasn’t.
Following up the previous tale, The Most High Academe has died, Quint is training to be a Knight Academic, sponsored by the Professor of Light, and Maris is in Undertown, in the “care” of her uncle.
Plots abound throughout the school, as the weather turns more and more wintry and hopeless. Every mission to the Deepwoods in search of Stormphrax fails; some before they’ve even left the city. Sky Scholars grow paranoid and start seeking out and destroying any hint of Earth scholarship. Meanwhile, it’s exactly that they need. And only by accident does anyone realize it.
While a battle broils in the city, Quint and his friends, and Maris, take to the skies with their last hope. An ancient idea that has to save the day.
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August 20th, 2007
10:32 am
Book Review, Harry Potter Read-Alikes, Series, Staff Favorites
adventure, artemis, death/loss, family, fantasy, greek mythology, juvenile ficiton, magic, monsters, olympians, percy jackson, titans, ya fiction
Rating:
The action is non-stop in this installment of the series, right from the get-go. Percy, Annabeth and Thalia are on their way to Maine to answer Grover’s call for help. Unsure of what they’re walking into, they don’t have much of a plan, which leaves them without much to go on when the first people they encounter are a couple of the school administrators.
After managing to squeak by that sticky situation, the kids are undone again as the monster-in-residence at the school makes off with the half-breeds Grover found. Percy goes after them alone, unable to find any of his friends, and lands himself in yet another bad spot. The gang arrives to help him out just in time to realize it’s all a trap. Only some completely unforeseen assistance gets them out of the jam, but not without losses.
The group arrives back at camp only to prepare to leave again on a mission, ultimately, to save the world. Their friend-turned enemy Luke has gotten himself in with the wrong crowd, and a plot to overthrow the Olympians is under way. Three Hunters and two campers are chosen to go after the goddess Artemis, who needs to be at the meeting on the solstice or all hell will break loose. Percy, unwilling to be left behind, follows along unbeknown to the rest, unwilling to sit idle while he has a friend in trouble.
As foretold by as prophecy before the group departed, they suffer loss along the way, and obstacles at every turn. Will they succeed in their quest, or will Kronos awake and the Titans be restored?
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Rating:
In the second installment of their series, Pete, Inna, Vicky, Aaron and Gary are finally getting their hands dirty with some real pirating work. Being lookout in the midst of a storm isn’t a whole lot of fun, but they consider it the most important job on the ship. Rotten Teeth might not…but the Captain repays him for his doubts by sticking him up in the crow’s nest til morning, which makes it all worth it.
Early the next morning, Pete wakes up and spies a surprising sight through his spyglass–a Ghost Ship! Rotten Tooth just sets to laughing at them again when they tell him about it, so they go to Clegg instead, because Clegg knows everything. He tells them Ghost Ships are very important and its their job to find out what it wants.
With special permission from the captain to sleep on deck, the kids set about to do just that, trying to save the day yet again. Even when it seems no one believes them, these kids stick to their guns and do what they know is right. Which is lucky for their crew mates, since as of yet, this little crew hasn’t been wrong!
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As the series starts off, pirate-hopefuls Pete, Inna, Vicky, Aaron and Gary all left their respective ships behind to come crew the Sea Rat, whose Captain—Stinky Beard—wanted to start a Pirate School. Rotten Tooth, the best pirate on the ship, was given the job of being their teacher. He didn’t much appreciate the job, so his students had yet to learn anything much more than how to clean and stay out of his way. But they were determined to find a way to make him see that they were ready to be real pirates.
After a number of backfired plans, the group strikes gold: the crew is set to take off on a Treasure Hunt on Snake Island. The kids seek out Clegg, the pirate who knows all, to ask him about the curse of the snake of Snake Island. They also copy themselves the treasure map. Then, with permission from the captain to camp on the beach for the night, they’re set to try and save the day. The plan? Get that treasure first! And prove they’re ready to be pirates.
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