Sci Fi and Fantasy

Skybreaker

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

We enjoyed listening to Airborn on audio last year and were looking forward to listening to Skybreaker – the sequel to Airborn. I was disappointed – First, Matt’s become far too self-conscious about his lack of money. The whining and lack of self-confidence became tiresome and Matt became a character that I no longer respected.  Second, Nadira could have been a really interesting character but Oppel ditched her almost completely by the time they boarded the Hyperion. Why spend all of that time early in the book causing us to be interested in her and then barely mention her name once the story really got moving?

The next book in the series is Star Climber. I’m not sure I really want to read it. I’ve peeked that the synopsis and one review and it looks like we’ll find Matt whining his way through another adventure. That’s too bad.

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The Child Thief

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

Should I start by confessing that I don’t really like Peter Pan? And I cannot stand the Disney-fied Tinkerbell, though I supposed I probably had some weird fondness for her when I was young. I think the problem was that I saw the Disney Peter Pan before I read Barrie’s original. The early tainting ruined it all for me.

And then there was Brom and Child Thief. I was opposed to reading it because the dude needs to get another name – does he think he’s Prince? Or Madonna? I was opposed to reading it because… see above. I was interested in reading it because naked women prints inside of a YA book – awesome, that doesn’t happen very often.

So – I read it. And ended up paying 60 cents for the pleasure because I was working my butt off and couldn’t read more than a chapter a night for almost a full week. I wanted to read it straight through. It was good. I might almost like Peter Pan again. Maybe. I definitely like The Lost Boys – particularly since this particular group of Devils weren’t just boys.

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The Battle of the Labyrinth

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

I was a huge Percy Jackson fan after reading the first book. I talked so much about Percy that Rick Riordan’s wife stopped by my old Books in Bed blog to leave a comment. I really enjoyed the second book, too. And then there was the third book which I liked but… something happened and I was less enthusiastic about Percy. I don’t know if it was anything Percy did (or Riordan) or if it was just that I was in children/YA fiction madness and I just couldn’t manage to read one more piece of children’s literature – no matter how much I might want to.

Whatever it was, I never read book four – until Liz started reading the series and became fixated on it. When I told her I hadn’t finished the series, she told me that I HAD TO… so I reserved Battle of the Labyrinth and it took me forever to finish it. It wasn’t Percy’s fault (or Luke’s either) and it wasn’t Riordan’s fault. It’s me, I’m just not finding enough time to read. I enjoyed the book well enough but like KitCat, I found the Labyrinth a lot less scary than I expected to. The Labyrinth should have been really really frightening – and it just seemed like a normal day in the life of a Half-Blood Hero.

I think Book Five is upstairs on Liz’s bedroom floor. I’m trying to decide if I just want to go ahead and read it or if I want to head back to my TBR list or some general library reading. Will I enjoy book five more if I read it right after book four? Or should I hold off and think about it for awhile? Decisions, decisions.

Oh, I almost forgot… while I was reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, I asked TW what color ink her “pen” would write…If she had one like Riptide…. She said hers would be purple, which isn’t much of a surprise. Mine would be blue – or red – I can’t decide. What color “pen” would you have?

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The Libyrinth

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women, Young Adult /

TW kept telling me that I had to read The Libyrinth. I couldn’t figure out why. It looked like some run of the mill YA fantasy novel. What’s the big deal? TW likes fantasy but she tends to be not as big a fan of YA as I am.

It took all of two paragraphs for me to figure out why she liked it. Books. A library, the biggest library EVER. Ritualistic book burnings carried out by people who are either Eradicants or Singers, depending upon your point of view. Strong women, lesbians. The book had everything. EVERYTHING.

One of the characters, hears written text, and since she lives and works in a library (the Libyrinth) she is surrounded by books – random lines from random books appear throughout the story and it’s interesting to see how quickly we recognize (or don’t) the lines. (The list of quoted books is in the back, which was nice.)

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Her Fearful Symmetry

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Oh look, I finished a book. I’ve hit a rough patch, have you noticed? Work related. Life related. Bad book related. Not that Her Fearful Symmetry was bad. It wasn’t bad at all, it was good. Pretty freaking freaky and creepy and really not what I expected from the author of Time Traveler’s Wife.

Though I suppose it is a kind of travel… really good, dark, interesting reading.

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Zombie Jailbait

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I am a Mario Acevedo fan. He’s no Chris Moore but he comes just about as close as a person can come.

I read Zombie Jailbait straight through, could not put it down. Laughed out loud and yelled NO DON’T TURN HER! because lord, teenage girls are trouble and that one in particular… Yep, big trouble.

Oh, by the way, I liked this fourth book in the series better than I liked book three.

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Unclean Spirits

2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women, Young Adult /

TW said I should read Unclean Spirits and it seemed like a smart choice for the trip home from BlogHer Food. There was no way I’d be able to read anything deep or serious, not with that level of exhaustion, illness and frustration.

As it was, I could only barely read the fluff (in a dark, deadly sort of fluffy way) and it took about twice as long to finish as it should have.

Jayne is a pretty solid female character. Oh she has her problems but she’s a teenager. With bad parents. And a crazy uncle who didn’t prepare her for what she was stepping into. (People, learn a lesson – if you’re going to leave someone a gazillion dollars and the job of fighting demons, prepare them for the task – even if you are sure you aren’t going to die for ages and even if you think the person you’re leaving the money and the job to is too young to hear it. Prep is good. Really it is.)

I’m not dying to read the next book but I won’t turn my nose up at it if it appears on my library list.

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Princess Ben

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I couldn’t figure out why TW was so happy to read Princess Ben. And when she started talking about how excited RJ would be to read it, I was just plain skeptical. (RJ only reads vampire novels right now, unless forced to read something else…)

When TW and the kids came home from school pick up and RJ had stolen Princess Ben out from under TW… and then would not return it to her later that evening so her mother could finish it, I was more than a little shocked.

There are no vampires in Princess Ben. And it seemed like just another strong girl princess sort of book. Also, while I liked Off Season and Dairy Queen, the writing was not so compelling as to cause teenage girls (or their mothers) to fight over them.

So what was it about Princess Ben…? I have no idea, but it was good. It was compelling. It was worth fighting over. There wasn’t anything super surprising about it. This was not the first time we’ve read a Princess slays dragon and wakes the Prince with a kiss sort of book. I don’t even think it was the emotional eating Princess.

Not that I know what, exactly, causes this to be a great book – a combination of those things plus surprisingly good writing, characters you’re drawn to, and the dropped mentions of other fairy tales – all of the above?

Surely this will make the Cybil short list…

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