Sci Fi and Fantasy

The Celestial Globe

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

The second book in the Kronos Chronicles wasn’t quite as good as the first. The Celestial Globe had all of our favorite characters but for most of the book they were split off from each other. Well, not exactly. It was Petra and Astrophil and Dee in England and Neel and Tomik together… in several places. Which was interesting, very interesting, but it took too long to bring the whole gang together. Or maybe it was that once they were all together, the story moved too quickly and we didn’t get to see the relationships of the three kids together.

It looks like the next book will remedy that, though…

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Dreamdark: Silksinger

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Dreamdark: Silksinger is the second in the Dreamdark series and I haven’t read the first. I hate it when that happens. But TW assured me that I didn’t need to read the first one… and she was right, though I probably would have found it easier to dig into this one had I read the first. I found the first few chapters a little slow and confusing because of the introduction of so many new to me characters and situations. Once I got through that initial slowness, I was hooked.

Now I have to go back and read the first one.

(Also loved the author’s note at the end – the evil character was named for a comment captcha form. That’s awesome! I like it when funky captchas turn into something good.)

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The Farwalker’s Quest

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

The beginning of Farwalker’s Quest made me feel like I’d already read this story – 13 year old children preparing for their naming test, a treesinger, a healtouch – it just seemed familiar. Now that I’ve finished, I know I haven’t read it before but it still feels familiar.

But anyway – another good middle grade science fiction/fantasy book from the Cybils short list. I don’t think this is going to be the winner but it’s an excellent story with characters I liked a lot. The ending was particularly interesting. I expected the Farwalker (and her companions) to find what they were looking for, where they found it, and how they found it – but I didn’t quite expect what they found. I don’t know why I didn’t expect it, that’s what made sense – or it did once I read it. Heh.

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

And here’s the problem with the Cybils – and with any awards really – books that don’t really “go together” are judged in the same category. How do you put Where the Mountain Meets the Moon in the same category with something like Farwalker or Dreamdark? 11 Birthdays is a completely different type of “fantasy  or science fiction” than Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which is different from The Prince of Fenway Park, which is different than… it goes on.

Folk tales should not be up against science fiction.

Modern fantasy should not be up against folk tales.

Bah.

Can we just give every book in the Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade) a prize. They’ve all been excellent. Every single one of them.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon felt familiar – like I’d read it before, or like I’ve read all of those Chinese folk tales before, in one book – or maybe like I know Minli. If you do read aloud with your kids, this would be a nice one – short chapters and within most of the chapters are stand alone tales that are being told within the story. So if you’ve really only got just two minutes to read, there are a lot of easy stopping points – and you can drag the book out for a long time, if you have kids who like that.

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The Prince of Fenway Park

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to like The Prince of Fenway Park, much less love it. But – it rocked. I mean it really did.

I know a good bit about baseball but I’m not a fan. I only watch it when we go to dinner at Booby’s and I’m facing a TV that is playing a baseball game.  So really, why would a kids book about baseball appeal to me at all? Well… it was a fantasy. It had great characters, and I’m not just talking about the Hall of Famers (and those who should be in the Hall of Fame) but the cursed creatures who lived underneath Fenway Park – those characters were brilliantly written.

I was almost sorry to see the book end.

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The Poison Eaters

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, short stories, Young Adult /

I think I might have to stop saying things like, “I don’t really like short stories” because the last few books of short stories have been pretty darn good. Then again, not everyone can tell a story like Holly Black… The Poison Eaters was excellent. I don’t think there was a single story that I didn’t like. A couple of them, I LOVED. The story set in the Philippines was perfect.  The story about the three sisters, fabulous. Every single one of them – fabulous.

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Fledgling

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

We’ve been listening to Fledgling on audio for quite awhile and finally finished it last night. After you get over the creepy-ness of the 10 year old vampire erotic sex/feeding story, it’s smooth sailing. (For the record, the 10 year old vampire isn’t really 10 years old, she’s 53 in vampire years and just LOOKS like a 10 or 11 year old girl.) The race storyline, the simbiont storyline – excellent, as you would expect from Butler. She turned vampires into something a helluva lot more than Meyers or Rice or even Stoker ever dreamed up.

When it ended, TW and I were once again sorry that Octavia Butler died in 2008. She had a lot more stories in her and I’d really like to have heard more about Shori Mathews and her family of simbionts.

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Bite Me

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I would marry Chris Moore. I say that every time he publishes a new book. Every time. Sometimes I just say it for no good reason except that I love Chris Moore. I also love Abby Normal and would marry her if she wasn’t a fictional character and wasn’t my daughter’s age.

While I was reading Bite Me, I tweeted a couple of quotes from the book. Quotes that made me laugh my freaking ass OFF.

An inky-colored despair of rejection enveloped me like the black tortilla of depression around a pain burrito

I have sniffed the bitter pink Sharpie of despair

People! What’s not to love about lines like that?  Poor Chet! Poor Tommy! Poor Abby! Yay Kona (from Fluke!) Go Animals!

Go Christopher freaking Moore!

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The Practice Room

2010, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Debbie B discovered I have a thing for YA fiction and mentioned of hers from high school had just written a YA book. I asked her the title, discovered it was a self published book so it wouldn’t be available at my library. I waited about 30 seconds and said what the hell, I’ll just buy it. And I did.

The Practice Room arrived shortly before my trip to California. I figured it would be an easy airport (and hotel room) read so I took it with me. Unfortunately, I also took Joe Hill with me – and I was super busy while I was there and pretty much just slept when I wasn’t working. So… I didn’t even pick the darn thing up until this week and I read it pretty quickly – not as quickly as I expected because it wasn’t super compelling.

It was kind of cute and was an interesting way to teach kids about music. In fact, with some polishing, it could be a really good way to teach kids about music. “Music-morphing” into another world is a good concept for a YA book, though I think this is really more middle grade fiction than YA. It just needs a wee bit more personality and a good editor to boost it along.

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