Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I love Caliban Leandros. And Niko. I love this entire series, and I always have such a blast reading the books no matter if they’re awesome or just alright. Doubletake was a pretty decent addition to the series, though at times it felt like so little was happening despite how easily I kept turning the pages. The new big bad was crazier than crazy (in a good way), though Robin’s “family” reunion was a little too much and not enough at the same time. There’s not too much more I can say, I think. I enjoyed Doubletake and can’t wait for more Cal in my life.
I love Caliban Leandros. And Niko. I love this entire series, and I always have such a blast reading the books no matter if they’re awesome or just alright. Doubletake was a pretty decent addition to the series, though at times it felt like so little was happening despite how easily I kept turning the pages. The new big bad was crazier than crazy (in a good way), though Robin’s “family” reunion was a little too much and not enough at the same time. There’s not too much more I can say, I think. I enjoyed Doubletake and can’t wait for more Cal in my life.
Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
Between glowing reviews on Goodreads and all the awards it’s received, I don’t know why I took so long getting around to reading The House of the Scorpion. The novel follows the tale of Matteo Alacran, a boy who was cloned from El Patron, drug lord and head of a country called Opium. The world building in this dystopian future is lovely; not too much exposition, but enough backstory that you know how they came to be where they were.
As we follow Matt’s life from his “birth” to his teens, we’re smacked with all the familiar question when it comes to clones: are they really human? Will nature or nurture decide who they become? All these questions are handled with care and wonderful writing by Nancy Farmer. I fell for Matt immediately; he was a completely filled in character, from his own questions about his mortality and morality to the way he interacts with other people and the world around him.
The only problem I had with The House of the Scorpion was about the last quarter of the book, where a whole host of new characters are introduced, and Matt is thrown into an even newer situation for no reason that I could see. I understood how he got there, but it felt like the novel could have ended on the same note it did without that interlude.
Overall, though, The House of the Scorpion was an interesting and engaging take on clones, dystopias, and what it means to be human.
Between glowing reviews on Goodreads and all the awards it’s received, I don’t know why I took so long getting around to reading The House of the Scorpion. The novel follows the tale of Matteo Alacran, a boy who was cloned from El Patron, drug lord and head of a country called Opium. The world building in this dystopian future is lovely; not too much exposition, but enough backstory that you know how they came to be where they were.
As we follow Matt’s life from his “birth” to his teens, we’re smacked with all the familiar question when it comes to clones: are they really human? Will nature or nurture decide who they become? All these questions are handled with care and wonderful writing by Nancy Farmer. I fell for Matt immediately; he was a completely filled in character, from his own questions about his mortality and morality to the way he interacts with other people and the world around him.
The only problem I had with The House of the Scorpion was about the last quarter of the book, where a whole host of new characters are introduced, and Matt is thrown into an even newer situation for no reason that I could see. I understood how he got there, but it felt like the novel could have ended on the same note it did without that interlude.
Overall, though, The House of the Scorpion was an interesting and engaging take on clones, dystopias, and what it means to be human.
The design duo Kai & Sunny created the covers for David Mitchell's novels Cloud Atlas and Number 9 Dream. He has repaid them by writing a short story to accompany their latest exhibition, The Flower Show (currently running at the Stolen Space Gallery in Brick Lane). Listen to Chris Moran reading the story, over images from the exhibition
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audioslideshow/2011/jun/06/davidmitchell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audioslideshow/2011/jun/06/davidmitchell
Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I’m sort of a sucker for apocalyptic stories (right long with dystopian stories), so I grabbed Monument 14 the moment I saw it at the library. It seemed so promising: fourteen kids stuck together and trying to survive in a Walmart-like super store as the world crumbles around them. That story never goes well, does it?
The plot certainly starts off with a bang — or a few hundred of them, as a school bus carrying our hero and other characters is caught in the midst of a huge hailstorm. A kick-ass bus driver rams her bus straight into the super store and saves as many kids as she can (which is, unfortunately, only the fourteen in our title). From those opening moments on I was totally engrossed with the plot as it unfolded – for better or for worse.
Mostly for so-so.
The first person narrative focuses on Dean, one of the older teens as he tries to work through the insanity: a shell-shocked class mate, a crush, his little brother, a bunch of kids who are barely eight years old, and yeah, the apocalypse going on outside. Things go as smoothly as they can make it, but things continue to fall apart, and eventually the kids have to barricade themselves from the outside world. This is when it’s all supposed to get interesting, but it doesn’t quite get there.
There’s a sort of fantasy in living in a super store like these kids do. You’ve got everything you could need to ride out the apocalypse, but the store only seemed to serve as a sort of constant deus ex machina for the kids. Need to make food? There are microwaves! Need to seal off every window and door? Tarp and duct tape and nail guns and comforters! Need beds? Air mattresses, of course. Entertainment? Just head on down the next aisle! It was fun, but after a while it started to drag, and the relationships the kids develop and work through just weren’t enough to pick up the slack.
The only characters I really remember are Dean himself, who didn’t seem to have much of a personality beyond scared (and horny) teenage boy, his little brother the oh-so-helpful tech genius, and the boy scout leader type whose name I don’t even remember. The ups and downs the group experience didn’t mean a single thing to me, and I got tired of the drama after a while. I wasn’t truly moved until the very ending, and even that was so obviously manufactured to move me that I rolled my eyes even as I was tearing up. (Just a teeny tiny bit.)
So engrossing, yet so forgettable.
I’m sort of a sucker for apocalyptic stories (right long with dystopian stories), so I grabbed Monument 14 the moment I saw it at the library. It seemed so promising: fourteen kids stuck together and trying to survive in a Walmart-like super store as the world crumbles around them. That story never goes well, does it?
The plot certainly starts off with a bang — or a few hundred of them, as a school bus carrying our hero and other characters is caught in the midst of a huge hailstorm. A kick-ass bus driver rams her bus straight into the super store and saves as many kids as she can (which is, unfortunately, only the fourteen in our title). From those opening moments on I was totally engrossed with the plot as it unfolded – for better or for worse.
Mostly for so-so.
The first person narrative focuses on Dean, one of the older teens as he tries to work through the insanity: a shell-shocked class mate, a crush, his little brother, a bunch of kids who are barely eight years old, and yeah, the apocalypse going on outside. Things go as smoothly as they can make it, but things continue to fall apart, and eventually the kids have to barricade themselves from the outside world. This is when it’s all supposed to get interesting, but it doesn’t quite get there.
There’s a sort of fantasy in living in a super store like these kids do. You’ve got everything you could need to ride out the apocalypse, but the store only seemed to serve as a sort of constant deus ex machina for the kids. Need to make food? There are microwaves! Need to seal off every window and door? Tarp and duct tape and nail guns and comforters! Need beds? Air mattresses, of course. Entertainment? Just head on down the next aisle! It was fun, but after a while it started to drag, and the relationships the kids develop and work through just weren’t enough to pick up the slack.
The only characters I really remember are Dean himself, who didn’t seem to have much of a personality beyond scared (and horny) teenage boy, his little brother the oh-so-helpful tech genius, and the boy scout leader type whose name I don’t even remember. The ups and downs the group experience didn’t mean a single thing to me, and I got tired of the drama after a while. I wasn’t truly moved until the very ending, and even that was so obviously manufactured to move me that I rolled my eyes even as I was tearing up. (Just a teeny tiny bit.)
So engrossing, yet so forgettable.