Sci Fi and Fantasy

The Tree of Life

2 Comments / 2014, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Yes I’ve finished a book. Better yet, I finished The Tree of Life. Both are big deals because life is crazy and The Tree of Life was a little sluggish in the first half of the book. Not as sluggish as the second book in the trilogy, but difficult.

These would have been much better to read if I’d read them all straight in a row. Too many freaking characters. The timewalking also wreaked havoc on my ability to place people and events. Why do so many of the peoples (errr creatures) have to have so damn many names. (I know why, but sheesh.)

I enjoyed this book. I mostly liked the ending. It’s all good.

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The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Lol

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp is a cybil middle grade book, I believe. We listened to it on audio and you’d think the fact that it was read by Lyle Lovett would make this a slam dunk. It did not, my friends, no it did not (lol — I’m laughing at myself for typing that, which you would understand if you’ve read this book.)

He started slowly and it took awhile to warm up to him. The whole book started a wee bit slowly and then suddenly, we were hooked.

The language is fantastic. The vocabulary — holy hell, sports fans… remember those dumb assignments where you had to find five words you didn’t know (while reading some library book) and write the definitions and it was impossible because you already knew all of the words. If you have a kid like that, try this book. Brilliantly done. Really.

I’m not generally a fan of anthropomorphism, but in this case — I loved the racoons and the canebrake rattlers, and the armadillo and even that horrid porcine family. Oh and the cat. I liked him, too.

I’ve also got a nasty craving for a sugar pie…

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Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

We listened to The Screaming Staircase on audio and man that was creepy. I think this was on the Cybils middle grade scifi/fantasy list and if that’s true… I hope the middle grade readers can handle some really creepy, yukky descriptive content.

It was good. Really good. I liked all of three of the kids a lot. I’m looking forward to book 2.

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The Rithmatist

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

We really enjoyed listening to The Rithmatist on audio. Except… it took a chapter or so to get into (alternate realities often do) and at the beginning or end of each chapter, they describe a rithmatic defense. It would have been nice to be able to see those lines as they were described. Instead, we kept going online later and looking at the drawings.

I don’t usually do this but… it was very Harry Potter-like. A boy. His father died. He’s at a boarding school. There are professors, some of whom the boy suspects of wrong-doing. There’s magic. There’s even a “symbol” — it may not be a lightning bolt on a forehead but… see, very Harry Potter-like. Which possibly explains why we enjoyed it?

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Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga)

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Mermaids. I like mermaids. I should have liked Deep Blue more than I did.

I didn’t actually really start to enjoy it until it was almost over and then I was kind of grouchy because it ended and now I have to get book two in order to find out what happens next (all while hoping that I enjoy the beginning of book two more than I enjoyed the beginning of book one. Which I’m not all that inclined to do, right now. Maybe later.)

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The Here and Now

2014, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I wasn’t sure I wanted to read The Here and Now… after what Ann Brashares did to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants… I hold book grudges for a really long time. But, I bit the bullet and reserved it. If nothing else, I’d have something to complain about, right?

Well… it wasn’t a bad book. It wasn’t SotTP good but it wasn’t bad. I am not sure I liked how it all went down there at the end. A little too neat and tidy but with a lot of weird twisty things, too. Possibly for a sequel? Which leads me to something I can complain about… does everything have to be a sequel nowadays? Really? Could we just have some stand alone books, please?

Also, mosquitos are bad. Time travel ain’t all that hot, either.

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Beautiful Redemption

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’m so glad I stuck through this series. After a couple of lackluster books that had me saying “I hope this series ends soon because I’m getting tired of this…” the last book in the series, Beautiful Redemption paid off. This is my favorite book in the series. By far.

I’m still angsty over the “outside of Summerville” and “Summerville water tower” setting but all was forgiven once everything was sorted out and all of the creatures functioning as they should. The Far Keep scene at the end was fabulous and Sarafina did exactly what she should have done. Perfect.

I’m glad it’s over and I’m glad it ended this way.

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Patient Zero

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I need to go wander around the internet and try to find a character list for the Rot & Ruin series and compare it to the characters in Patient Zero. Some of these people are those people, right? Also, I found myself wondering whether there were discrepancies or I was not remembering Rot & Ruin correctly. I hate that, lol.

I very much enjoyed Patient Zero — and I’m super glad Texasebeth mentioned it a couple of months ago!

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