More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

What Came from the Stars, Gary Schmidt, YA Fantasy, Wince Heroically

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About half of What Came from the Stars was good, a story of a family wracked with grief for their mom, threatened with having their beachfront land consumed by condominiums, having to fight a terrible evil. The other half? Boring. Boring in a way that you wanted to throw the book across the room.

The Good Part

Tommy and Patty’s mom died in a car accident a few months before the story begins. Tommy blames himself because his mom, usually a careful driver, and he got into a small fight when she dropped him off at school, just before she spun out of control on the icy road. His sister Patty has not spoken since.

Their father is an artist who has barely touched his paints since the accident. They live in an old, beat up house on the ocean near Plymouth, Massachusetts. The local Realtor, conveniently married to the lieutenant governor, greedily plans to get an easement through their property to build condominiums. The scenes in the local zoning board are excellent; we see that the other land owners all feel it is unfair but they are all only too glad it is not their land she covets. No one speaks for Tommy’s family and the town grants the easement.

Tommy has friends and enemies. The Realtor’s daughter is a total pain in the neck and a loud-voiced bully. Tommy’s teacher suddenly takes ill and is replaced by a mysterious sub. Tommy can tell that the sub is linked to the mysterious vandalism in the town.

I’ve not read Gary Schmidt’s books before but will look for them now. He has a gift to take a simple story and make it compelling, readable, the characters real people that you care about.

The Bad Part

Maybe if you are twelve and just finished reading every book J. R. R. Tolkein ever wrote you might like the ponderous, dull parts with the heroic wording. I did not. It was incredibly difficult to wade through and I didn’t feel like Mr. Schmidt really got the right voice. It was not campy silly nor was it inspiring good. It was just plain ponderous and overwrought. I winced every time I turned the page and saw we were back to the heroic tale of the Valorim.

Overall

I have to give this book 4 stars despite the way too heavy dose of bad heroic fantasy prose.  The characters and story of Tommy and his family, their friends and the nasty Realtor were too good to not rate this high.  But oh, the bad parts.  If I could rate them separately they would get a 1.

Maggot Moon Sally Gardner Science Fiction Dark Urban Fantasy

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Maggot Moon is hard to classify. The protagonist is Standish Treadwell who cannot read, cannot write, isn’t bright. Yet he foils a plot to claim a lunar landing by his totalitarian country.

Very Dark

I noticed two reviewers on Amazon were upset at the violence and hatred that poured through Standish’s teacher, the local neighborhood snitches and the secret police. There is a reason for this.

This book is aimed at young adults but it is  more suited to older teens and adults. A teacher murders a student by beating him to death; Standish’s mother has her tongue cut out; Standish and his grandfather are slated to go to the “maggot farms” the next day. Standish has a best friend Hector who disappears along with his parents from their next door home. The regime ensures Hector’s father will cooperate by cutting off Hector’s fingers, one at a time. They shot his mother immediately.

Maggot Moon is not just “dark” it is Stygian, dealing with horrible happenings and horrible plots with complete matter of fact acceptance.  It is that matter of fact telling that makes this so terrible.  Standish, with mismatched eyes and not too bright knows it is a matter of time before the authorities come for him too.  He is living on borrowed time.

Standish learns that the facility behind his house, hidden by a very tall wall capped with broken glass, is a fake moon surface. The scientists, the “moon explorers”, the people who built the facility, will all be murdered when the fake lunar landing is done. We learn the graves are already dug.

Bravery

In the face of this Standish decides to jump out in full view of the television cameras – and the machine gun armed guards – with a sign that says “hoax”. His reason is simple. No one should believe that such a horrible country can deliver something so wonderful as a moon landing. And no one should fear the regime’s threats to launch missels from the moon.

Standish may not be bright but he is brave. He knows he has no chance to survive, but of course, he won’t survive even if he stays home meekly waiting to be collected for his one way trip to the maggot farm.

Interesting Characters

Standish, his best friend Hector, his grandfather, his grandfather’s love, Hector’s parents are interesting people that we feel like we could like had we met them in person. Sally Gardner does a good job with the characterization.

Overall

Sally Gardner built an all-too-believable society and her novel builds upon the initial horror, until it is almost pure terror, but the other ingredients are grace and love.

I recommend this for adults, not for children.

The Selection, Strange Semi Dystopian Fantasy with Romance by Kiera Cass

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I liked The Selehttps://amzn.to/3RDkkXYction although I did not like the characters.  How odd is that?  I found the heroine, America Singer, whiny and all too immature.  Her two love interests, Aspen, a lowly Six, and Maxon the prince were OK, but I found it impossible to believe that Maxon could be as clueless as he was described.  (I could believe that Aspen was a sexist jerk.)

The Intriguing Parts

The most interesting parts of the book were the caste system, which was downright puzzling, and the idea that a big country (apparently a combination of the US, Canada, Mexico and part of Central America) could be governed by a king with a tiny lot of ministers.

The caste system allocated people to jobs by caste, into which one was born.  Apparently a woman could marry up and join the higher caste, but if she married someone below then she moved down.  People in castes Five, Six and Seven are poor with unpredictable livelihoods.  Eights are wanderers, homeless people.  Sixes and Sevens go to school while higher castes are home schooled / private schooled? / tutored.

The really goofy thing is that Fives are all artists. Huh? That makes no sense whatsoever. Sixes are servants. Fours work in factories or farm. I can go along with servants and factory workers being hereditary roles but artists? You either have artistic talent or you do not. The heroine’s brother has zero interest in art or music and wants to be a scientist. So in our mythical country he can’t be a scientist, however talented and good he might be, but he can be an artist, however untalented?

The government part was stupid. No congress or Imperial Senate or even a House of Lords, no governors, just the king and his family rule the country. No way, that simply would not work. There are hints that the Twos have political clout but no details.  When I read dystopia I want details:  How does it work, who gets what and why does it hold together.

I found it incredible that Prince Maxon would be so unaware of the realities in his country that he did not realize the lower castes went hungry. Then he announced that the girls in the Selection would get a lower allowance with the difference going to feed the poor for oh, maybe a week or two. He made an appeal on television for the upper castes to donate, but how long will that last?

Lots of Pretty Clothes and Hunky Guys

I think one reason I enjoyed this was that I read it when traveling in the evenings after long days of yucky business meetings.  Something light, fluffy and with lots of clothes and hunky guys filled the bill.

Another reason was that the book reminded me so much of two books I enjoyed, A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith and The Hunger Games. The girls compete as in The Hunger Games but losers don’t die, they actually get rewarded with higher status. The winner gets to marry our clueless friend, Prince Maxon.

Just as in A Posse of Princesses the contestants include the requisite selfish beauty, Celeste, the narrator/heroine, the heroine’s good friend. What we don’t have are any of the other characters or real interesting relationships. The characters act like sixth graders at their first school dance.

I enjoyed this while reading it, but as I was writing this review it struck me how incredibly silly it was and how very poorly written. None of the characters were believable and the dialogue was horrible. I will probably read the sequel, The Elite but I’ll wait for another business trip where I need something brainless with pretty clothes and hunky guys.

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Faerie Wars Chronicles Ruler of the Realm, Faerie Lord Herbie Brennan YA Fantasy

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The Faerie Wars Chronicles started off with a bang with Faerie Wars and its sequel The Purple Emperor. Both were excellent with interesting characters, fast plots, evil villains, well-written dialogue and conflicts that felt real.

You can read my reviews here:

The Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan YA Fantasy Fiction Book 1 Chronicles

The Purple Emperor Faerie Wars Chronicles Herbie Brennan YA Fantasy Review

Sadly the next two books in the series, Ruler of the Realm and Faerie Lord were disappointing and did not come close to the fun and enjoyment of the first books. Both were boring, with little character development and even less plot tension. Both were unconvincing and worst of all, left me feeling like I really didn’t care what happened next.

The whole series is aimed at younger readers but the first two books were satisfying for me, and based on reviews on Amazon, many adult readers enjoyed them too. These next two books have all the shortcuts we expect in YA fiction that can turn off adults. The characters just do things without drawing out why they act as they do. Wonderful results happen to save the day, without any reason as to why.  Very likely younger readers will enjoy these two novels although I did not.

Ruler of the Realm

Ruler of the Realm wasn’t bad, just not very good. I did not enjoy reading it.

Just Blah

It felt pedestrian, with the characters acting out a script vs. acting like real people. For example, Henry, the hero from our world, is kidnapped by the aliens also known as demons, and implanted with a device to control his thoughts and given false memories. He believes he has been turned into a demon and ordered to produce a faerie/demon child with the Purple Empress Blue. Really? Henry has taken biology classes in high school and should know it doesn’t work this way. Even had he been changed into a demon he cannot produce a demon child. That may seem like a trivial point that only a pedant would care about, but I have a hard time believing that someone as smart as Henry would fall for a lie like that.

The Good Parts

The only good parts of the book are the settings, which are well done and the ending. Brennan introduces several parts of the Faerie World that we’ve not seen before and gives excellent descriptions.  When  you’re in the desert you feel hot.

Not to spoil it for readers, but the finale is excellent with Blue managing to overcome the demon king by herself. What I do like with Herbie Brennan’s books is that they stand on their own without cliffhangers in between novels.

Overall Just OK

Ruler of the Realm dragged. So Henry is back in England and confused. Yes, and why should I care? The previous two books gave you a reason to care, but Ruler of the Realm does not.

I managed to finish this but it was a close call.

Faerie Lord

I did not get past the first 30 pages or so of Faerie Lord then skipped to the end. I was glad that they rescued Hodge but that was about the only thing I liked in the book.

Based on Amazon reviews, I am in the minority not liking this. Maybe I tried to read it too soon after the first two books and just had enough of the series.

I see there is a fifth book now, The Faeman Quest, with Henry and Blue’s daughter Mella which I will not read.

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The Purple Emperor Faerie Wars Chronicles Herbie Brennan YA Fantasy Review

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The Purple Emperor (The Faerie Wars Chronicles) begins immediately after the end of Faerie Wars. As the title implies, Herbie Brennan has turned this into a several book series, with five books as of May 2013.

Excellent Sequel

So often a series bogs down in book 2. The first book moves fast, with intriguing characters and setting, interesting challenges and threats. The second often spends extra time setting up new characters and side plots to explore later, with the main plot or characters suffering from slow pace. The good news is that The Purple Emperor breaks that jinx; it is as good or better than the first book. I have a reserve in for the third book and look forward to reading it.

Character Development

I mentioned how interesting the villains were in my blog review for Faerie Wars. (You can read that blog post here: The Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan YA Fantasy Fiction Book 1 Chronicles.)

The villains are truly villainous, rotten to the core and happy with themselves in their vileness. Book 2, The Purple Emperor spends more time on these amazing villains and we get to know (but not love) Brimstone, Lord Hairstreak, and Chalkhill. I actually developed a mild fondness for Chalkhill, the cowardly, despicable former glue factory owner, cat killer and now symbiotic host to a talkative Wyrm.

The younger characters, Pyrgus, Henry and Blue develop as would real people and we get to know Pyrgus and Blue’s younger half brother, Comma better and meet the forest Faerie Nymph. Pyrgus seems to become less central to the action during the story and Harry gets a more prominent role. All three continue through the typical coming-of-age struggles, but what sets The Purple Emperor apart from so many YA fantasies is the coming of age part just happens. It’s the background, the normal side effect from teens having to act as adults in the grown up world. There is nothing boring or pretentious here, just a good story with plot and tensions that force three young people to mature.

Setting

Brennan has some wonderful settings that could be built into the story more. We go from England to the Faerie capital city to the deep forest, back to the city, in the palace, in Lord Hairstreak’s mansion in the woods. Brennan could capitalize on these a little more.

Plot

Just like its predecessor, The Purple Emperor moves fast with challenges, surprises and traps. Brennan has mastered the YA fiction plot elements and spends just the right amount of time on each one. Yet the book has more nuances and layers that make it enjoyable for adults too.

Overall

I liked this book very much, even more than the first book. Brennan wrote a tight story with fascinating characters, dastardly villains, interesting settings and intriguing moral problems. Adults and older teens will enjoy the full novel while younger teens will like the fast plot and good-guy/bad-guy story.

5 Stars.

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The Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan YA Fantasy Fiction Book 1 Chronicles

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Faerie Wars is the first book in The Faerie Wars Chronicles by Herbie Brennan. When I started this book some of the scenes were familiar, but I don’t think I read the full novel before.

Faerie Wars was a treat to read. It starts off with hero Henry Atherton recognizing that his parents are having problems and suspecting his Dad of an affair. Although the family troubles are a background note to the series and frame some of Henry’s choices, they are not a key part of the plot and Henry’s family are side characters.

Characters are Grand

The important characters are Henry, his eccentric employer Mr. Fogarty, the Faery crown prince Pyrgus and princess Blue, the Purple Emperor and several wonderfully rotten villains. The villains don’t have many redeeming qualities – in fact none – but they are not cardboard cutouts either. You understand what motivates them (money and power), their goals (power, money and survival) and although the depth of wickedness is stunning, it is reasonable for characters who value power and money above everything.

Faerie Wars could have been a classic coming-of-age story. All three young characters, Henry, Pyrgus and Blue, grow during the novel and Henry develops the backbone to assert himself with his parents and creepy sister. But this too is a side note, a secondary plot, and does not detract from the serious story.

The heart of Faerie Wars is how the Purple Emperor can keep his realm together and overcome deep divisions between faeries of the dark and faeries of the light.  War looms. The faeries live in the Purple Empire in an analogue world to Earth. They are human. The two sides have different religions, eyes and the dark faeries have a far greater tolerance for demons and a propensity to seek power and money.

Plot Moves and Captures Interest

Pyrgus needs to take refuge in the Analogue World (our Earth) but someone sabotages the portal. Pyrgus ends up in Mr. Fogarty’s backyard, with wings and about 6 inches tall. Henry rescues Pyrgus from Mr. Fogarty’s cat. When Pyrgus reverts to his natural shape and size the two boys help Mr. Fogarty (former particle physicist and bank robber) build a portal from our side. Unfortuately Pyrgus is impatient and instead of waiting for Mr. Fogarty to test the portal, he plunges in and ends up in the other analogue world, Hael.

Demons live in Hael and seek entrance to Faerie world or Earth to wreak destruction and misery. Their leader is Beleth who captures Pyrgus and devises a tormenting death for him. Henry manages to rescue Pyrgus with help from Blue.

Highly Recommend

Faerie Wars is fun and fast to read. The characters are sympathetic and interesting. I even found myself hoping a few of the lesser villains would survive another book, despite their vile actions and nasty attitudes.

Faerie Wars is listed as YA Fiction. I would categorize it as a book that younger people could enjoy for the plot and characters, which adults would enjoy too. We adults also realize the the Purple Emperor faces a real dilemma, one that we face in our world too, and that adds depth to the story that we enjoy.

4 Stars.

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The Monstrumologist, Rick Yancey, YA Fantasy Fiction Review

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I liked Rick Yancey’s Alfred Kropp series so much I looked for more books he wrote. The Monstrumologist was disappointing. I could not get past about page 40.

Maybe I started The Monstrumologist with my expectations set too high after the Alfred Kropp series. Or maybe it simply just is not as good as the Alfred Kropp books.

I could not get interested in the main character, Will Henry, nor did the plot or style interest me. I did not finish The Monstrumologist and cannot recommend it.

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Another Pan, Dark Fantasy Fiction Review, Daniel Dina Nayeri

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I enjoyed Another Faust and quickly checked out the second book by authors Daniel and Dina Nayeri, Another Pan.

Maybe I should have waited a bit to read Another Pan. It was interesting and enjoyable until about halfway through, then it got boring and tedious. I finished it only because the prior book was so good that I kept hoping Another Pan would reach its potential.

Sadly, it never did. The characters and premise were interesting, a play on the Peter Pan story with backdrop of the female demon Legion from Another Faust. The book brought in Egyptian legends, teen girl infatuation, young teen nerd-kid angst along with a heartless, selfish Peter.

I suppose there are girls who could remain infatuated with a young man even after they learn he is actually 80 years old, but I think most 15 year old girls would be repelled by the idea. And sure, there are many nerd boys who are so desperate to be accepted that they could toad eat a gang of older boys, even after realizing they are a gang of criminals.  But both?  At the same time?  And even while they are offered friendship by one of the most popular boys in school?

I also got tired of the repetitive “bitterness” that the Egyptian legendary characters were supposed to have felt.  Lots of people face similar evils and tragedy.   It was hard to believe that only these five individuals died with so much bitterness and were mummified that their very bones could defeat death.

The premise and characters just didn’t work for me. I give this 2 stars.

You can read my review of Another Faust here:

Another Faust Book Review Dark Fantasy Fiction Daniel Dina Nayeri

The Burning Bridge, The Ranger’s Apprentice Book 2, Fantasy, John Flanagan

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The Burning Bridge (The Ranger’s Apprentice, Book 2) is the second book by John Flanagan featuring young Will and Horace. You can read my review of the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan, here:

Review: Ranger’s Apprentice Book One: The Ruins of Gorlan John Flanagan

Book 1 was fast moving with extensive character development.  The hero and his friends are all young teens but the book shouldn’t be considered YA fantasy as the characterization, setting, theme and plot are all more adult.  This second book, The Burning Bridge has a stronger plot but the characters don’t exhibit as much interest or change during the story.

Will and Horace are sent on a mission to neighboring Celtica to request military assistance in the upcoming battle against the evil Morgarath. They discover Morgarath’s audacious plan to attack their kingdom from behind. For years their kingdom of Araluen has relied on the impassible cliffs and deep gorge called The Fissure, to protect them from Morgarath.  There is only one pass and Araluen controls it.

In fact Morgarath has enslaved miners and workers from Celtica who have built a secret tunnel and bridge to get his troops across The Fissure and attack the king where he least expects it. Will, Horace and the young ranger Gilan realize that Celtica has been attacked and its forces have retreated to the south. The young Evanlyn meets up with them after having her entire party of armed guards and her mistress killed by the semi-human Wargals. Gilan leaves them and races to inform the king that Celtica is under attack.

Will, Evanlyn and Horace are supposed to make their way back to Araluen but on the way they foll a party of Wargals herding captive Celtica miners. They are horrified to discover that Morgarath has built an enormous bridge across the Fissure and decide to burn it to prevent the surprise attack from Araluen’s rear. Will and Evanlyn are captured by mercenary Skandians while Horace escapes to warn the king.

The Burning Bridge is fast moving and fun. In some ways it’s not as good as the first book was, but it was easy to finish and enjoyable. John Flanagan created a rich environment with interesting setting and political backdrop. It’s well-written and even without the character development we saw in Book 1, The Burning Bridge is well worth reading.  There are a few scenes featuring Will’s friends Alyss that could have been eliminated to produce a tighter book, but presumably we will see more of Alyss in future stories.

I recommend it with 4 stars.

Another Faust – Book Review Dark Fantasy Fiction Daniel Dina Nayeri

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Another Faust kept coming up on my library searches and popped up in Amazon’s recommendations.  The novel, listed as YA dark fantasy, didn’t sound like something I’d care for.

The blurb was not appealing: “One night, in cities all across Europe, five children vanish only to appear, years later, at an exclusive New York party with a strange and elegant governess.” However, Another Faust was good and I enjoyed it.

The book starts with vignettes where four of the five children face their deepest fears and desires. Madame Vileroy meets each of the four and offers a bargain. They can come live with her, give up something small, and she will make their fears disappear and their deepest wants come true.

Of course, like any bargain with the devil, what the children gave away was far more important than what they received, and what they received was flawed and dangerous.

Victoria wanted to win, to be the smartest, know the most, win at anything that required intellectual prowess. What she really wanted was to be loved and be special to someone. What she received from Madame Villeroy was the ability to listen to others’ thoughts, to find what almost anyone said or did. What she lost was honor, empathy, a sense of fair play, a value for others. She became unpleasant and unlikable.

Belle wanted to be beautiful. At 10 she was already attractive but she wanted desperately to be beyond pretty. She bargained herself and her twin sister Bice and received beauty but at a horrible price. Underneath her beautiful exterior she hid rotting flesh and spirit. And she smelled. She stank of rot and sewage. Of course Madame Villeroy had a cure for that, but again, the cure was barely superficial and the cost was high.

Belle’s twin Bice was not swept up by her own desire. But she too traded. She traded time for learning.

Christian was desperately poor. He feared poverty and wanted to excel at sports to become rich. He traded himself for the ability to steal, however slight, from others with more talent, more ability. Madame Villeroy gave him a dummy man to practice on and a coffin-like chamber to rest and restore his body. Christian puts aside his dreams of being a writer to pursue fortune on the sports field.

Valentin also wanted to win, to be loved, to count for something. He dreamt of being a famous poet. He traded his anchor in time and place for the ability to unwind time and change events, for the illusion of success.

As the novel progresses we see how each of the children, now 15 years old and enrolled in the most exclusive school in New York, realize the poor bargain they made, face the fact that they sold their soul for nothing and what they decide to do about it. Three of them escape, albeit at a very high price, and two remain behind, hopefully to learn later as they grow that they can leave and that they can retrieve their souls.

One point I particularly enjoyed about the book was the way the authors treated “selling your soul to the devil”. The three children who escape realize that the sale is not like selling your house. Instead it is a day-by-day decision and a process of giving away small pieces of yourself over time. This is less dramatic than in “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, but far more likely to be the way it works. You don’t damn yourself in one dramatic action but in small steps, small losses, small cheats, small choices over the course of your life.

I highly recommend this novel to adults or older teens.

4 Stars