Original Sin

By Lisa Desrochers

When I heard that we got this book I literally jumped up in down, I was that excited. Original Sin is the long awaited sequel to Personal Deamons, and I have been dying to get my hands on it. Waiting my turn for it nearly killed me. This morning I finally got it after what must have been eternity (less than a day) and immediately began to read. I couldn't wait for the continuation of Personal Deamons.
Obviously these are some pretty high standards for a book, but it didn't disappoint. Luc, a smoking hot deamon turned human, and Frannie, who is just plain awesome, return. I won't go off in an obsessive rant, because it would ruin Personal Deamons for anyone who hasn't read it. I'll just say that it totally lived up to my expectations, and that if there isn't another one soon I just may die.
In terms of food I would say this is chocolate. Not generic, lame chocolate, but the really good stuff. It's life changing and once you have some you simply must have more. That is what these books are, after that first taste you just can't put it down.
For anyone who wants a number on the book it is, obviously, a 5.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

Danny is from a family of what are known as mages, specifically the North family. The mages are descended from the mythological gods, but their powers have been greatly diminished because of a lack of gates, as the title suggests. Gates are made by gatemages, and a powerful kind of gate can be made to go to another world, Westil. If a mage passes through this gate and back, their power will be multiplied and they will be a god. Unfortunately for the mages, Loki locked all the gates that ever existed over one thousand years ago, and the current families promised each other to kill any gatemage they found after a war. They are left with not very much power and a lot of contempt for normal humans, called drowthers by the mages. Danny is a smart boy who is isolated because he seems to have no power. Some mages have an affinity with animals, and they can "ride" with them; others are good with plants, and can make things grow. Basically, each mage gets a certain kind of magic with which they associate. Most mages can make clants, a kind of copy of themselves made of things in the world that they can move around and see through. Danny can do none of the normal magic. Danny, naturally, is a gatemage, and a super powerful one at that. My main problem with the book is the gaping holes in Card's explanations. Some explanations were so flimsy I almost gave up on the book. Most mages get power by treating whatever their affinity is with kindness and whatnot. So Danny has to be nice to spacetime? And he likes to prank people because... Oh, of course, because spacetime pranks people all the time. Right. So Danny gets his power by being mean to people. But he's really a nice person! You can't blame him for doing nasty things; it's just his nature! And all gatemages get all sorts of special talents, like being able to learn a language by listening to just a couple of sentences. This is justified by the fact that gatemages can travel around in an instant to anywhere in the world, so they need languages. The gates also completely heal whoever passes through them, so gatemages can heal from any wound, even a bullet to the head (if they survive long to make and pass through a gate) and they never get sick. How convenient. There is no explanation offered for this. No other kind of mage gets added skills, and it isn't really necessary. Nor is it necessary to make Danny thousands and thousands of times stronger than any other gatemage that has ever been. Really, just twice as strong would have been more than enough. Some of the scenes were also unnecessary. Card really did not need the scene where a grown woman practically molested 13-year-old Danny in front of her husband and a friend. Where did that come from? There is an explanation, of course; the women had a troubled childhood. Sure, whatever you say! And the seen when Danny spends about 20 minutes in a public bathroom trying to work out how to hide his backpack in a gate while describing the loud sounds coming from some man in a stall. The sole purpose of this scene seemed to be so that Danny could make fun of the man for the remainder of the chapter. The book is also very shallow. The reader follows Danny through most of it, though there is a side plot taking place on Westilin, and Danny doesn't have to try for anything. He basically sits there and goes, "Wow! I can do this! And look what I figured out in two minutes! And now that I know you, I can suddenly do this! And it's all because of my super fast learning skills that come with being a gatemage (another of those superfluous skills)." There was no depth to the book. Card tried to develop it, but the plot was shallow, and it spelled everything out. It said in the book that wow, maybe not all drowthers are the same. And maybe there's more to them than mages think. (I'd quote, but I can't find the page). This isn't usually so bad, but it was stuck tactlessly in the middle of the chapter in a blatant attempt to develop Danny.

That said, I can now explain why I'm not taking all five points away. I enjoyed the idea of mages and the basic plot. It was interesting to read, and I liked the magic system if you ignore the gatemages (which is hard because both the man character of the main plot and the main character of the side plot are gatemages). I also liked how the idea explained ancient gods, with different families being the gods of different places, such as Greece and Norway. It also had a cool concept of the clants being what people thought were fairies, elves, and sprites.

It can have a 2.3. If you just accepted everything, it made a nice story, but it was hard to get past some of the things. It was also a little confusing at times, and the explanations really stretched the limits of my imagination. I suppose it's like flat soda. It has a nice flavor, but missing that fizz that makes it wonderful, as well disappointing because you were expecting something a bit better. And it tastes, well, flat.

Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

"The question then is, how much are you willing to give?"
And I answered, "Anything."
A breath later, Zane echoed my response with, "Everything."
— Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (Hawksong)

(Hello, Ms. Atwater-Rhodes! Are you reading this?)

I've always loved animal-human hybrids, no matter what I said in the Angel review. Edit - I like them when they aren't already overdone. I mean, werewolves are cool and all, but would it hurt so much to have a ferret-person? How about a platypus-person? Anyhow, bird and snake people are common enough on their own (not really), but Ms. Atwater-Rhodes takes it a step further by adding in different species of birds and snakes and creating a hierarchy and an entire society out of them, and even mentions other species of animal-human. What I also like is that she at least hints at the existance of humans within the book. Not that I think having a book with no people in them are bad, but I think they are hard to pull off well.

Onto the book itself. Hawksong is a masterpiece of setting, eternal wars, change, romance (ugh) and desire for peace. The bird-people (avians) and the snake-people (Serpiente - thanks Jelle!) have been in eternal war for oh-so-long, fueled by killing, revenge, and more killing - a vicious cycle. Finally, the two newly appointed leaders of the avians and Serpiente, having seen all close to them die in combat, decide to stop the war. The only deemed way for them to convincingly convince their people to stop fighting is to marry. The only thing is, they have to convince the Serpiente that they love each other, while the main character, Danica, is quite frightened by the leader of the Serpiente, Zane. There is love, but it's their job to fight through rivals and almost-assassinations to find it.

What I liked most about this book was its unorthodox plot and setting. I can see Danica and Zane marrying and being desperately in love, or Zane being pure evil and Danica killing him, but when I read the book, I was surprised and pleased by the turnout. Yes, there's a happy ending, but what Ms. Atwater-Rhodes does that most authors forget is that there is sacrifice. I feel, personally, that there can't just be a happy ending. I'd probably torment my characters if I ever wrote a book because I feel suffering and sadness are just something one should include; it's in real life, why leave it out of books? The setting was beautifully described - and not only the physical place, but the emotions of the time - the intense hatred and rivalry between the bird- and snake-people. Well done!

Overall, I'd think that this book would be a food sophisticated, yet simple enough for any palate, like sushi. Beautiful to look at, a little bit of doubt once you read the summary, or find out what the sushi is made of, namely raw fish and seaweed, and satisfaction once you actually bite down. I don't actually like sushi, but I liked this book, and the analogy worked perfectly.

Unforsaken

By Sophie Littlefield
   Let me preface my review with a confession- I haven't actually read the first book in this series, nor am I familiar with the author's other works. Since her other works are adult crime fiction, I haven't yet felt the urge to delve into her other writing, and since the cover of the galley copy explicitly stated "A Companion to Banished", I assumed it was OK  to simply jump to this one. I was right, coincidentally, but I think that was more a result of the shoddy writing style than any real separation between the two plots. I was able to gather enough information both to cover the gaps in my knowledge and to make any future reading of Banished unnecessary and unappealing.
  I'll start with a play-by-play of the first few pages to give you an idea of the writing style:

  "Eleven's like... the new ten," Jess said, cracking herself up and spitting Coke on Gojo's coffee table. It had a glass top that showed every mark-- fingerprints, smudges of guacamole, and the crumbs from the chips, which were made of blue corn but tasted like every other chip I'd ever had. Still, it was a first, and out of habit I said the words in my head. Blue corn chips. When I got home--which had better be soon--I'd write it in my journal. It would be number 62.
  But that was for later. Right now I had to focus.
  "That makes no sense," Charlotte said, licking salt off her fingers. She was sitting on the floor between Gojo's legs. He leaned back on the couch with a beer dangling loose in one hand, the fingers of the other playing with Charlotte's wavy red hair.
  It was Gojo's fifth beer since we'd gotten here. I'd counted.
  "No, you know, really," Jess said, managing to stop giggling only to start up again. I was pretty sure she didn't actually drink as much as she had tonight. Not like Charlotte, who drank more than Jess and me put together and you couldn't tell. "Eleven o'clock isn't as late now that we're going to be juniors. It's like the new ten o'clock. You know, like black is the new... no, wait."
  "Olive," I said. "Olive green, it's the new black. You know, neutral? I read it in Vogue."

   Appealing, right? Don't worry, these few pages (ironically the "hook" of the book) don't have anything to do with the rest of the plotline, the prequel, the characters, or the conflict; in short, the author could have cut these completely irrelevant pages out and no one would have cared noticed.
  On the other hand, this does mean that the rest of the book was a lot better. There were a few cool characters: The main character, Hailey, is a Healer, which basically means she can repair most injuries. The injuries she can't repair, the ones that die being healed by her, they turn into zombies. Points for originality. There's her cousin (I think that's what he was... it wasn't very clear.) who is around five years old. The author does a fantastic job of following his stream of consciousness in the tense bits, and I think he might be my favorite character overall. He's psychic and, I think, the only one who knows what's going on at any point in the book.
  There are also a few not-so-cool characters. There's the quintessential warm-soft-lacrosse-insufferable-powerful boyfriend, who can seemingly deal with anything. There's a chauvinistic polygamist good-for-nothing varmint. He's my least favorite character. I wonder how the author felt when she was writing his chauvinistic drivel? It really wasn't necessary, my dear Ms. Littlefield, to include that little character quirk. Indeed, the book could have done without him in the first place. Why was he--oh, right. He had a big role in the 'companion' novel. There's a doctor the author was superbly and subtly setting up for the quintessential betraying-evil-and-joining-good character-flip. I think Ms. Littlefield forgot. It never happened. Silly.
  Another thing that struck a perhaps discordant tone when I read the book was its striking, striking similarity to the Maximum Ride series. A group of evil, morally-challenged scientists with a posse of weird guards chase down a group with awesome powers. Enough said on that.
  I hope I've been sufficiently cynical and sarcastic in this post. I was conflicted over this book- it has some seriously cool parts, like the zombies and the five year old psychic, but other parts fall flat like a soufflé left in a cupboard. In other words, a 3.5.

To quote the psychic:

  All day long the glasses lady had been trying to make him talk, but Chub knew about not talking and he was better at it than the lady was at making him talk, and he stayed quiet.
  He could tell that made the lady with the brown glasses kind of mad. But she didn't do anything about it  except try harder to play with him. But she wasn't very good at playing. ....On the table there was a hiding thing.... The lady with the brown glasses would take something out of the box and put it on the table, but it was behind the hiding thing so he couldn't see it. Then she would ask him which thing was on the table.
  He didn't know. He couldn't see behind the hiding thing. He could have told her that, but it would mean he would have to say words and today he wasn't saying words.

'Angel' by James Patterson

I think I'll start with a quote again. A little melodramatic or cheesy, I know, but I think it gives a good feel of the book.

"I had to give him props, but how annoying of him to be a hero when I was trying so hard to dislike him. It was downright selfish." (Patterson)

There it is. Angel by James Patterson, mostly summarized in one line.

Angel is only one of - what, 7 books? - in the Maximum Ride series. I have to give Patterson credit - he took a somewhat overused idea - angels being people, human-animal hybrids - and made it into an action, romance packed series. I loved it in the beginning. If I could say one thing to Mr. Patterson, though, it would be to tell him that he is falling into the deep, dark pits of the cliche and melodramatic. The series was lovely in the beginning - but, really. Someone actually says "I've survived ten years of catholic school, and I will cut you off at your knees without a blink. Do you understand?" (Patterson). It makes a nice plunge into the character's personality; you couldn't have done it more obviously.

Onto the plot. This Maximum Ride book, like all the others, can be read in about an hour. A definite speed read, where you can zip past everything, and have a good idea of what happened. Or, you could read deeply, and come out feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all the drama after drama, angst after teenage angst.

There is yet another secret organization trying to do something amazing and awesome - no, this time it isn't taking over the world. Maximum Ride needs to save everyone once again - but this time, it isn't really her who does it. (Argh! Can't give away anything!) There are also scientists trying to convince her to proliferate for the sake of the world. She is caught between her old boyfriend and new one (ANGST) and needs to be a good leader for her flock.

If this book were a food, it would probably be a bag of chips, just the original Lays kind. You eat it out of habit, but once you get into it and eat too much, you feel sick. Not healthy nor amazingly yummy - just filler food. Fried and a not-too-original taste, but familiar and quick to eat.

The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This is a cool book. Set in Calcutta in May, 1932, the story is one of a boy named Ben and his twin sister Sheere. They were separated at birth, but they meet again when they turn 16. And there's this awesome guy trying to kill them. I think the villain is amazing; he is creepy, mysterious, and pretty much whatever makes a good villain. The book is eerie and well written. It's complicated, but I won't go into it because then I'll give the whole thing away. I'm not sure how to describe this book without ruining it, but it was great!

I rate it 4.8. The writing was wonderful, the story was exciting, and it only stretched the boundaries of reality a little. It was full of mystique, and it had a some nice humor, though I would not call the book comical. It was like chocolate mousse; it was dark, creamy, wonderful, almost perfect, and it makes you feel happy.

Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

Blink & Caution was an interesting book. It was a good story, once you got past the fact that it was in the present tense. And as if that weren't bad enough, half of it was in the second person! The beginning was awful, but once I got used to the writing style, it definitely started to improve. There's a boy named Blink, who is referred to as you and who's real name is Brent. He walks into a hotel one day to steal people's leftover food for breakfast when he sees the CEO of a company walk out with three other men. People say he got kidnapped, but Blink knows that he went with the men under his own volition. Then there's Caution, as in Caution: Watch Your Step. Her real name is Kitty, and that is how she is referred to in most of the book. Kitty runs away from her drug dealer boyfriend named Merlin, and she is convinced that he can actually do magic. He goes away pretty quickly, and is not a major part of the book. They are both haunted by their past. Blink has left home because of a nasty stepfather. Kitty is almost suicidal over the death of her brother, and she is convinced that his death is her fault. They end up meeting, and they go off to see if they can make a whole lot of money somehow with the knowledge that the CEO's kidnapping is fake.

I'd give it a 3.2. It was ok; the writing style dragged it way down. It wasn't a book that I felt the need to keep on reading, but it was good. It also had a great ending. I like books that have a well written ending that is put together nicely and ties everything up. Well, most things, anyway. It was like a snickers bar. A nice chocolate covering, not the best taste, but it leaves you satisfied.