Art and Myrtle Mumby are reunited with Jack Havock and his gang of alien-pirates-turned-spies under more sinister circumstances. The sea at their resort abruptly disappears and appears, and strange top hats in their closets begin to call to them.
Myrtle grew faintly more likeable in this book. Perhaps this was because she did more. (See my other review for the explanation of Myrtle in the previous book in this series.) Myrtle in Starcross starts ships with alchemy, uses her bathing dress to escape a . . . erm . . . starfish (yes, well, it was giant and carnivorous), hosts a friendly Moob (in the form of a hair cloth and a bonnet), rescues her brother Art and Mrs. Spinnaker, and more.
The randomness was a bit improved. I appreciated it. Brainwashing top hats? Simply brilliant.
Stars: 6 because Myrtle was better, the plot was more random . . . in essence, just see above.
Violence: 5 for non-serious violence.
Romance: 6. It was mostly avoided (since our narrator is a brave British boy not courageous enough to face this topic at most times - ha ha). But Myrtle still likes Jack, and so does Ssil. Jack tries to persuade Myrtle that they aren't right together, but Myrtle turns stubborn and refuses to listen. Jack didn't answer Myrtle's letters (and Art finds a book on how to write love letters in Jack's cabin). And finally, Myrtle thinks Jack likes Delphine instead of her.
Language: 5 because of some swear words with only the first letter printed.
Appropriate for: 9-11
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Mortal Engines
"He cut through the 21st Century Gallery, past the big plastic statues of Pluto and Mickey, animal-headed gods of lost America" (7).
If you read Larklight or Starcross, this is much more advanced than those books. It's more serious and deals with less random problems.
I won't go into a full-blown grammar rant now, but it isn't "try and book," it's try TO book (73). Try AND book means that you are both trying and booking, and what is the point of trying if you're already booking? Reeve apparently doesn't know about this rule, as he does it again with "try and be reasonable" (75). He also does it in either Larklight or Starcross, I don't remember which.
On second thought, the two examples in Mortal Engines are both in dialogue, which is often rife whith grammatical errors that reflect the quirks of actual speech. (I'm not just talking about Reeve's dialogue either. C.S. Lewis ^.^ uses it himself in The Magician's Nephew, dropping hs and adding them just like a . . . um, I really have no idea what accent that is, but the word Cockney comes to mind, so I'll label that accent Cockney until I figure out otherwise). Reeve may be pardoned.
This book has a great plot, cool premise, woo not-so-shiny technology (hey, it's steampunk, man), and amazing characters. I'm not a fan of steampunk, so this didn't make the top simply because of my personal preferences, but it is a pretty good book.
Stars: 7.5, for reasons stated in the last paragraph.
Violence: 8. Hester's entire face is cut up by Valentine (apparently it was an accident or something), Katherine gets stabbed (accidentally again) by her dad, and the traction city of London is blown up. Pod dies under a roasting hot ship that lands on him.
Romance: 7. Tom likes Kate at one point, then he likes Hester. Kate likes Pod and he likes her (they get a kiss scene later in the book, which I didn't even notice was a kiss scene until afterwards, which shows either that I'm incredibly oblivious or that it was a harmless kiss scene. Maybe both).
Language: TBA (I forgot and I have to look)
Appropriate for: 11 to teen
If you read Larklight or Starcross, this is much more advanced than those books. It's more serious and deals with less random problems.
I won't go into a full-blown grammar rant now, but it isn't "try and book," it's try TO book (73). Try AND book means that you are both trying and booking, and what is the point of trying if you're already booking? Reeve apparently doesn't know about this rule, as he does it again with "try and be reasonable" (75). He also does it in either Larklight or Starcross, I don't remember which.
On second thought, the two examples in Mortal Engines are both in dialogue, which is often rife whith grammatical errors that reflect the quirks of actual speech. (I'm not just talking about Reeve's dialogue either. C.S. Lewis ^.^ uses it himself in The Magician's Nephew, dropping hs and adding them just like a . . . um, I really have no idea what accent that is, but the word Cockney comes to mind, so I'll label that accent Cockney until I figure out otherwise). Reeve may be pardoned.
This book has a great plot, cool premise, woo not-so-shiny technology (hey, it's steampunk, man), and amazing characters. I'm not a fan of steampunk, so this didn't make the top simply because of my personal preferences, but it is a pretty good book.
Stars: 7.5, for reasons stated in the last paragraph.
Violence: 8. Hester's entire face is cut up by Valentine (apparently it was an accident or something), Katherine gets stabbed (accidentally again) by her dad, and the traction city of London is blown up. Pod dies under a roasting hot ship that lands on him.
Romance: 7. Tom likes Kate at one point, then he likes Hester. Kate likes Pod and he likes her (they get a kiss scene later in the book, which I didn't even notice was a kiss scene until afterwards, which shows either that I'm incredibly oblivious or that it was a harmless kiss scene. Maybe both).
Language: TBA (I forgot and I have to look)
Appropriate for: 11 to teen
Larklight
At first, Larklight sounds like a perfectly normal vacation house. Myrtle's playing the piano and Art wants to see the delivery boat come in. By the end of the third page, however, the mention of the gravity generator alerts you to the fact that something is not right. Then the words "space damp" and various other clues tell you that this is definitely not Earth (4).
Here is an example of Phillip Reeve's dry wit and humor: "I remember thinking that there could be no fate more horrible than to be buried alive, and wondering what type of deranged and sickly mind could have invented such a tale. But as I lay there immobilised in a jar on the wrong side of the Moon with only a ravening caterpillar for company I realised that Mr. Poe was actually quite a cheery, light-hearted sort of chap, and that his story had been touchingly optimistic" (58).
There's an illustration of a skeleton on page 53, if you dislike that sort of thing.
Really, the only thing this book has going for it is the humorous circumstances which seem to be aiming for Hitch Hiker's Guide randomness. Of course, there's no improbability drive, so the wild and wacky things which happen in this book are a little more restrained.
On the whole, Myrtle is a very disagreeable person. I wouldn't like to talk to her, and though she has spunk, she is incredibly rude, annoying, and haughty besides.
Now all that I wouldn't mind in a character, but Myrtle pretty much does nothing exciting/adventurous/important during this entire book. She cleaned Larklight, complained, was rude to the moon natives, complained, cleaned the Sophronia, complained, got kidnapped, got rescued, went to London, watched the city's destruction, and stomped Mr. Webster. The only action that was really necessary for her to do was the arachnid squashing I mentioned last. (Ulla could just as easily have told Richard Burton.)
Granted, many of these things in this book may not have happened without Myrtle, but the spider squishing is really the only exciting thing she actively did. Oh, and singing. Scaring away the cacti will be generously counted for her acts of heroism, but they still only number two. One is a major plot point, and the other isn't really.
Stars: 7 for humor and ludicrous circumstance.
Violence: 5, for when people/aliens/sentient beings are sedated, shot, whacked, etc. This is not described in detail.
Romance: 4. Ssil secretly loves Jack, and so does Myrtle. Jack likes Myrtle, too, and there's a kiss scene at the end of the book. Art describes it by apophasis, as follows: "And I cannot bring myself to describe what happened next. It is one thing to write of giant spiders and man-eating moths, but there are some sights to stomach-turning for even the bravest British boy to contemplate, and the soppy way Jack and my sister ran to cuddle and to kiss each other is one of 'em" (392).
Language: All the swear words have only one letter (the rest are replaced with a dash). Some examples are d--n, d--n-d, bl---y, h-ll, and G-d.
Appropriate for: 10-12
Here is an example of Phillip Reeve's dry wit and humor: "I remember thinking that there could be no fate more horrible than to be buried alive, and wondering what type of deranged and sickly mind could have invented such a tale. But as I lay there immobilised in a jar on the wrong side of the Moon with only a ravening caterpillar for company I realised that Mr. Poe was actually quite a cheery, light-hearted sort of chap, and that his story had been touchingly optimistic" (58).
There's an illustration of a skeleton on page 53, if you dislike that sort of thing.
Really, the only thing this book has going for it is the humorous circumstances which seem to be aiming for Hitch Hiker's Guide randomness. Of course, there's no improbability drive, so the wild and wacky things which happen in this book are a little more restrained.
On the whole, Myrtle is a very disagreeable person. I wouldn't like to talk to her, and though she has spunk, she is incredibly rude, annoying, and haughty besides.
Now all that I wouldn't mind in a character, but Myrtle pretty much does nothing exciting/adventurous/important during this entire book. She cleaned Larklight, complained, was rude to the moon natives, complained, cleaned the Sophronia, complained, got kidnapped, got rescued, went to London, watched the city's destruction, and stomped Mr. Webster. The only action that was really necessary for her to do was the arachnid squashing I mentioned last. (Ulla could just as easily have told Richard Burton.)
Granted, many of these things in this book may not have happened without Myrtle, but the spider squishing is really the only exciting thing she actively did. Oh, and singing. Scaring away the cacti will be generously counted for her acts of heroism, but they still only number two. One is a major plot point, and the other isn't really.
Stars: 7 for humor and ludicrous circumstance.
Violence: 5, for when people/aliens/sentient beings are sedated, shot, whacked, etc. This is not described in detail.
Romance: 4. Ssil secretly loves Jack, and so does Myrtle. Jack likes Myrtle, too, and there's a kiss scene at the end of the book. Art describes it by apophasis, as follows: "And I cannot bring myself to describe what happened next. It is one thing to write of giant spiders and man-eating moths, but there are some sights to stomach-turning for even the bravest British boy to contemplate, and the soppy way Jack and my sister ran to cuddle and to kiss each other is one of 'em" (392).
Language: All the swear words have only one letter (the rest are replaced with a dash). Some examples are d--n, d--n-d, bl---y, h-ll, and G-d.
Appropriate for: 10-12
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Blackout/All Clear
All Clear is the sequel to Blackout, but it's more like the author wrote so much that the book would be too heavy and intimidating. Blackout ends at a chapter ending, so it was pretty suspenseful. They could really be spliced together into one volume without too much effort, other than the fact that you can suck more money out of readers by making them buy two books instead of just one book. In any case, here's what happens in both books. (I'm mashing the reviews of Blackout and All Clear together.)
Polly, Merope, and Michael are time traveling historians exploring different aspects of World War Two. There are also several other historians whose stories are interepersed among this main storyline (but they're actually the same historians at different times under different names). Their drops, which are portals back to their home base in Oxford, won't open, so the three of them just try to survive in the middle of the Blitz, hoping that a retrieval team will come through and get them. But time is winding down, and Polly has a deadline coming up. That means she was in London previously (relative to her life) but at a later time (relative to history). I'm not sure what happens if you're in the same place at the same time twice, but it's not a good thing. Maybe disappearing from the space-time-travel continuum? That would be odd, because of the matter can't be created or destroyed, but then, who knows? Connie Willis is a great author and I'm sure she'd come up with something a lot more intricate than that.
The character development in Blackout and All Clear was masterful and I was totally invested in the characters by the end. Except . . . except Colin. The parts about Colin that made me like him were at the beginning of Blackout, and I'd nearly forgotten. No matter /how/ much I hated the running around in Passage, I really think we could have used a little more time watching Colin's frantic efforts instead of just being told that his efforts were frantic.
There were a few things about Colin that I wouldn't have minded being told straight out. Number one: Did he do flash-time drops or not? I know Polly said/thought something about him looking old at the end of the book, but that might have been because a) she'd been away from him for months or b) he was worried about her/Merope/Dunworthy/the entire blasted problem. Him looking old isn't a conclusive point for him being flash-time dropped. Number two: Was he Merope/Eileen's grandson? Polly mentioned the resemblance and the dear-boy-ing, so I assumed it was a genetic relationship (and obviously, Merope must be Colin's ancestor, because he wasn't married or anything at that point and Merope was in the just-post-WWII age and Colin was in 2060 . . . anyhow, I'm rambling, but it's sort of obvious).
In addition, it did get long-winded and confusing at times, where the things that we were told about way before in the book happened afterwards, or happened twice from two different viewpoints. It really couldn't be helped, though, since it's time travel.
Merope seemed to be Pollyish and grown up when the story was told from her viewpoint, but she was far more childish when other people were narrating the story. She seemed to be an inconsistent personality.
Stars: 9 for an amazing adventure, in-depth research, and likeable characters.
Violence: 7. It's the Blitz. Bombs are going off, people get cut in half, and at one point it looks like there's a pile of bodies in front of a store (they're actually mannequins that got thrown out of a store window by the force of a bomb.
Romance: 4.5 since Polly and Colin have a slight relationship throughout both books (which gets put on hold when Polly, Merope, and Michael are stuck in London during the Blitz). Colin (who's seventeen) suggests doing a bunch of flash-drops so he can catch up with Polly in age so it wouldn't be too awkward.
Language: 6.5 for English swear words such as bl--dy, d-mn, etc.
Appropriate for: teen to adult