Book Beyond Imagination

Hola Readers!  Who's ready for another rambling?  I am YAY!  Today let's ramble about...The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers.  It is part of his Zamonia series but can be read as a stand alone like I did.  I think this one was recommended to me by my baby sis...which is always a good thing.  Let me tell you people this book hit all my literary emotions.  It was not at all what I expected in a very very very good way. What the heck do I mean?  I'll tell you, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all, let me just warn you that I am not going to be able to get a billionth of this book into the synopsis 'cause every page, every word is dripping with meaning and story and well...yeah.  So instead I'm gonna try and just give you enough of an outline to not be too lost, but seriously you just should go read it. Our story is narrated by Optimus Yarnspinner, a Lindworm (a being that resembles a dinosaur) from the fabled Lindworm Castle, home to many a worthy author.  Optimus has just lost his authorial godfather Dancealot and has set out on a quest to find the author of a fantastic manuscript left to him.  This manuscript has the ability to run the reader through every emotion known to living beings and yet it has not been published.  To find this mysterious author, Optimus heads to Bookholm which is essentially a city devoted to all things books.  It is filled with book sellers, book binders, book publishers, cafe's with book themes, literary music, ink, pens whatever you can possibly relate to books you will find in Bookholm (kind of like my blog lol).  Upon arrival Optimus is thrust into an adventure that any book hero would envy.  He starts by showing his book to a couple of very interesting book vendors in the hope that they will recognize it.  This leads him to various other places and to aquiring the book The Catacombs of Bookholm by the famous Book Hunter Colophonius Regenschein and we as the readers learn along with Optimus all about the catacombs of Bookholm.  Optimus is finally directed to Pfistomel Smyke a collector of the rare book brought up from the catacombs and also a kind of literary scientist.  He turns out to be one nasty dude and after reading the manuscript reveals his nefarious plan to Optimus.  Smyke's whole goal in life is to essentially turn all art mediocre, to eliminate any greatness and essentially control everything.  To this end he drugs Optimus and traps him in the catacombs beneath Bookholm...and this is where his adventure really starts.  Optimus uses the knowledge he aquired to try and traverse the catacombs, but disaster keeps befalling him.  After several misadventures he is rescued by the not so malicious

Booklings, who despite their fearsome reputation, choose to care for Optimus.  They show Optimus many of the safer wonders of the catacombs and inspire him with their dedication to memorizing all the works of all the authors.  Tragedy strikes when an unusual alliance of Book Hunters finds the Booklings Grotto and destroy it along with killing many of the Booklings.  Optimus is shoved into a bookshelf contraption and sent spinning through the catacombs to more adventures.  He eventually ends up in the Hall of the Shadow King, a mysterious character that plays a part in almost all the scary tales of the Underworld of Bookholm.  After even more adventures (are you sensing a theme here?) we finally get the Shadow Kings story.  Turns out that he is the author of the fantastic manuscript, but that it was also his downfall.  The Shadow King started out life as a human who had the misfortune of running into Smyke, who of course could not stand the idea of such great art outside of his control.  Smyke then used many arcane techniques and wondrous supplies to turn the human into what is now the Shadow King.  He was made to be pretty much immortal, strong, smart, literary and unable to ever enter sun or moon light on the dire consequence of bursting into flame.  More conversation and writing and adventuring and book stuff and Optimus and the Shadow King decide to go back up to the surface regardless of the consequences.  They face down a hoard of Book Hunters, discover a confession and will and finally confront Smyke.  The Shadow King allows himself to catch on fire, burning down a good portion of Bookhom and Optimus escapes, inspired finally to write his first masterpiece.  This does not even BEGIN to remotely tell the rich and full story of this insanely wonderful world...but then short of reading the book, I don' think anybody could do it justice.

World Building - This book is set in the fictional world of Zamonia...which I cannot wait to read more of!  We got to visit Bookholm and the insane amount of detail was just fantastic!  I felt like I could find myself in any section of this city and know exactly where I am.  It felt whole and complete and layered.  There were customs, cultures, rules, consequences, legends, language, all in abundant variety.  There were notes that added to the depth of this world and for having so much shoved into one book, the world was not confusing in the least. I loved the little touches, like the cafe's with the literary inspired treats, or the various parts of the city dedicated to different area's of the book process.  It was just so full in a good way, it felt almost endless, like there was always another nook or crany or passageway to explore, new treasures to find, so cool.   Again this is just one part of whole world and this one book has made me very eager to explore the rest of it...such amazing world building.

Story - The story was whole and complete.  It had a beginning, middle and end.  It was in some ways your typical adventure story, but more along the lines of an epic saga like Beowulf with many small adventures, meetings and incidents adding to the whole adventure.  The story had a fairly classic structure with a lot of original ideas, giving the reader the comfort of structure and the thrill of discovery, very cool story.

Character - Variety is the word I think best describes the characters in this book.  In this book we see so many species (Lindworms, Booklings, Uggly's, Spinxxx and so many many many more), characters from different backgrounds, classes, shapes, sizes, needs, modes.  Again you would think that this would detract from actual character development, but I found that the characters that mattered where very fully formed and all the other characters added some delicious flavor.  Yay characters.

Editing - I'm shocked at how well this book is edited.  Again (are we getting sick of me saying this yet?)  it is just stuffed full of so many things that it should feel cluttered or choppy or overly long...but...it doesn't.  I found myself reading every single word, trying to absorb as much of the literary goodness that I could.  It was a page turner and I had very few complaints about the pacing.  Not sure how this happened, if the author is just that amazing, or his relationship with his editor is that good or some combination, but epic editing.

Book Lovers Dream - This book was written for lovers of the written word.  The language, the setting, the story, everything about it seems tailored to bibliophiles.  I seriously want to go wander into one of the bookshops and get me a stack of books, curl up in a cafe with a cup of Midnight Oil Espresso and a Book pastry and read my brains out.  The amount of literariness that has been poured into the book makes me feel like the author loves books and all things literary as much as I do.  It is finally a book about books that doesn't drive me nuts.  It is not just about reading books either, it is about how they are written, how they are published, the materials, the variety and the idea that there are types of books we can only imagine out there somewhere if we can just look hard enough.

Wordplay - If forced to choose a favorite component about this book, I would say it is the language.  The author uses a MASSIVE variety of words....and if there was no human word that was sufficient, he made one up and attributed it to one of his zillions of non human races.  On top of that the author would constantly list numerous books and their authors...I kept waiting for this to get annoying...but somehow it worked perfectly with the story.  To make it even better, he cleverly disguised some famous authors by anagraming their names.  For example:  Selwi Rollcar = Lewis Carroll, Aliesha Wimperslake = William Shakespeare, so very cool.  I love words, and when an author uses them correctly it just makes my little literary heart go pitter patter.

Not What I Thought - So to be honest I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting into when I started this book.  From the description and the titles of the authors other books in the series I thought it might be a kids book.  Then the illustrations and mostly almost silly animalistic characteristics of most of the characters led to me thinking it might be a light hearted tale....Nope.  This is definitely a book for at the very least older kids.  There is violence (so much violence), betrayal, complex ideas...not a book for 7 year old.  It was great though and the juxtaposition (sorry this book makes me pull out my big girl words) of the simple illustrations, the fun characters and the adult writing were very original and a great read.

Overall Impression - Ok, so I don't think I have been able to impart even a tenth of what I want to about this book.  In the end all I can say is that it is an experience, and one I think anybody who loves books should have.  I give this book 9 out of 10 Animatomes and really encourage every book reader to pick it up....even if it's just to figure out what the heck I'm talking about.  Happy Reading Everybody!!! 

Game Of Thrones In Space

Hola Readers, how are you all doing today?  I got a couple fabulous days off that were much needed and were used to my literary advantage...but more on that later.  One of the things I got finished was Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey, the second book in the Expanse series.  I loved the first one and was leery and excited to read the second one as more then once a series has disappointed in it's follow up.  Lucky for me I loved this book as much as the first one.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

At the end of the last book we left the crew of the Rocinante putting themselves back together after helping Detective Miller plunge the protomolecule ridden space station Eros into Venus.  If this doesn't make any sense...go read the book lol.  Anyways Holden and his crew are running around doing errands for Fred Johnson, the de facto leader of the OPA when they stumble across the aftermath of Ganymede.  Ganymede is a moon that has become the main food growing space for the Belt and it was attacked by an unknown monster like entity.  The attack wiped out all of the Earth and Mars marines stationed on the base except for one, our girl Bobbie.  The attack led to the very tense Earth and Mars factions shooting at each other and chaos reigns.  The ensuing violence pretty much decimates that Ganymede station and we meet Prax, a botanist who lives with his young daughter on the base.  Prax discovers his daughter is missing and kind of goes on a bit of a bender in his search for her.  Meanwhile back on Earth Chrisjen Avasarala, the under-secretary representing Earth in the UN is desperately trying to stay in the loop and maintain what peace she can between Earth, Mars and the OPA.  This is further complicated by people both above and below her pushing their own agendas.  Avasarala is particularly interested in keeping an eye on Venus and the energy spikes that seem to correlate with the monster attack.  Bobbie the Martian Marine is brought to the UN as the only survivor to show the video of the monster. Avasarala feels that there is more going on then meets the eye and hires Bobbie to work with her to find out what it is.  Back on Ganymede Holden and crew run into Prax and agree to help him find his daughter.  Their search leads to a hidden lab where Holden...who has had a much closer encounter with the protomolecule then anybody ever needs, realizes what it is they are seeing.  He get's everybody back to the ship and the heck out of dodge.  They fly back to Fred Johnson, where after a tiff, Holden and crew are once again free to take on any contract they want.  They set up a fund to find Mei, Prax's daughter and off they go.  Avasarala after some stuff realizes that one of the Generals is behind the whole "protomolecule as a weapon" thing and that he is trying to instigate a war.  She continues to play the political game, ending up with Bobbie out in space on a slow ship to Ganymede.  She contacts Holden and makes him an offer he can't refuse.  After they all get together on the Rocinante, Holden and his crew (Naomi, Alex and Amos...who are now equal owners of the ship and its profits), Avasarala, Bobbie and Prax pool their information and come to a horrifying realization.  Prax's daughter, along with many other children who have also gone missing, all had a very specific immuno disorder.  This disorder made it possible for them to infect the children with the protomolecule in an attempt to make a controllable weapon.  The problem with this is that they were never really controllable and one got loose and caused all the events from Ganymede and forward to occur.  We also get more info on Jules Mao...the father of Julie Mao from the last book.  We discover that his wealth and company are a huge part of what has made this atrocity possible.  Of course the biggest concern is if one of these monsters makes it anywhere where there is human in habitation...cause you know...it turns everybody into vomit zombies (still one of my favorite phrases).  Our people discover that lab base and fly there post haste.  After some political manuvering and a bit of threatening the crew make it.  They split up to accomplish various tasks and finally make it back to the Rocinante alive and with Mei and some of the other children.  Everybody goes to Luna to celebrate and reconnect with what family they have left.  Unfortunately the celebration is cut short when the news comes that Venus has spun off a comet size blast of protomolecule headed who knows where...and thus ends this second book.  Obviously there is a ton more as usual to this complex yet highly readable book, but as usual this is about the gist of it.

World Building - The series continues to build upon the last book.  This time however we get to visit some new places, namely Earth, Ganymede and plenty of various ships.  All of the careful world building and science of the last book were carried on in this book, making it a world that was easy to jump right back into.  I especially appreciate the little daily details that the authors pop in to remind us of the various environments our characters find themselves in, especially the different gravity types.  I really felt like I was hopping right back into a complete world.  Great job guys.

Story - I felt that this story really built on the completeness and simplicity (yet in a complete contradiction the complexness) of the first book.  I felt like the first story set us up to read through this story with complete understanding.  This story, with it's personal bits with Prax and his daughter, the larger political landscape and the even larger ancient alien threat to humanity all tied together in a whole that left me feeling satisfied while still wanting to hurry up and read the next story.  This is the kind of serial reading I like, where the story is not repetitive with the same formula over and over.  They are original stories that when all read together make an even longer overall story...very saga like.

Character -  We add a couple of new characters in this installment and I love each and every one of them.  In some ways, each character is a bit of an extreme version of a certain personality...on the other hand, each character also has various layers and motivations, making the more outlandish components of their persona's make sense.  I love the naturalness of the characters interactions with each other and how each one seemed authentic and genuine.  I also appreciated how the characters we already knew developed in a believable way considering the insane events of the first book.  Awesome characters.

Editing - The editing of this series is becoming on of my favorite aspects of these books.  These complex ideas, twisted politics, various characters and multiple places could very quickly become confusing, but between the authors and editors it is insanely readable.  Part of the ease of reading is that they use a trick that helps the Game of Thrones Series (hence the title...along with it is pretty much a similar feel...just in space...)which is each chapter belongs to a specific character and is labeled as such.  This takes the big crazy and funnels it through a single viewpoint...but more on that later.

Viewpoints - The first book in this series worked because we saw all the complexity funneled through two very distinct and two very different view points.  This book builds on what we learned in the first book and kicks it up a notch with FOUR viewpoints.  I like the characters they choose as they come from different places (Mars, Earth, Belt and Holden representing a kind of every man).  They are different personalities, different professions, different socio-economic classes...essentially every issue is shown to us from a sampling of who might be affected.  This expanded version of what we started with further enriches the world and story, yet still makes me feel like the book is readable without being overly bogged down.  I also feel like I am getting a mostly diverse view of events, not all one sided, no one planet or area is right, no one view is entirely correct...it's pretty open ended without being ambiguous...if that makes sense.

Micro to Macro - When a series is set in such an epic setting, I like it when they can focus on multiple layers, and this book does it beautifully.  I mentioned it before, but I like how we have the personal story of Prax and his daughter Mei, it puts an individual face on the impact of these vast and broad happenings.  I think even in real life we get so used to hearing these epic horror stories that we forget that individual suffer horribly because of these events.  We then expand to the politicol/soci-economic problems of Earth, Mars and the OPA.  This is a bigger issue, affecting more people and requiring a bigger and more complex solution, while still depending on the whims of individuals and their own prides and prejudices (see what I did their Austen fans?).  Then we expand into a universal concern as the protomolecule threatens EVERYBODY, doesn't matter where you were born, or where you work, or even how much money you have...this requires people to put aside individual concerns, patriotic alliances and work together in an unprecedented way to save humanity.  The various levels give the reader both somebody to root for and an epic horror to root against.

Names - Something I have noticed and loved as a bibliophile is the abundance of literary and historical references scattered through out the books.  In this book even the title has a Shakespearean origin.  Caliban is the twisted son of a witch who is a slave to the main character Prospero of the Tempest, until he throws off his shackles to disastrous effect.  This is paralleled in our book by the protomolecule/human hybrid monsters breaking the human constraints.  The names of the ships are especially fun to look up.  The Rocinante is named after the horse in Don Quixote.  The Barbapiccola is named after a philosopher and poet.  The Somnambulist is a pretty awesome word for sleepwalking and the Guanshiyin is a Hindu Goddess.  Pretty much anything with a name has some sort of cool story attached to it...jut another layer of awesome.

Overall - I am so excited that this second installment lived up to my love of the first book.  This is not always the case and I now have super high hopes for the next book.  I have been putting these books on my phone 'cause they are super easy to read a couple of pages inbetween calls and dealing with the monsters so they have been my go to books lately.  I give this book 8 out of 10 bulbs of coffee and am totally stoked to catch up on the tv show AND read the next book.  I recommend it to anybody who wants a solid scifi story, misses game of thrones and doesn't mind vomit zombies instead of white walkers or who read the first book and loved it.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Inspired And Accomplished

Hola Readers...did you all think I had finally been buried by my books with no hope of escape?
 Nope, I was just on a whirlwind Las Vegas trip for Hubbins birthday.  The trip was awesome, like so awesome, like so so so awesome.  We purposely designed the trip with very few time crunches so that we could maximize relaxation time, which is what we both really needed.  This environment seriously got my creative juices flowing and I not only came up with several brand spanking new post ideas, but I also finished two books, both of which were amazing in their own ways.  The new post ideas really excite me because I have been feeling drained of all creativity lately and feel like I am either repeating myself, or that I am just throwing up generic random posts.  These new ideas are ones that, to me at least, really make me feel happy, creative and the reason I got into writing this blog in the first place.  The books I finished made me happy.  One was a book I have been trying to finish for a couple weeks.  I finished it on the plane on the way there and then just sat there, inspired to write and write and write.  The second book was one that fit the environment so well I swear it was written just for this trip.  The whole feel of the trip also inspired my poor over worked brain.  We got to see the Cirque du Soleil aquatic show "O" and it was sheer magic.  After the show, all I wanted to do was dive into my magical books and continue the dream.  The bath tub in our room was another great bit.
 These tubs are so deep and so long I actually float when I'm in them.  Combine that with a glass or three of wine, a good book and some great music and my brain is just happy happy happy.  To finish of this trip of inspiration my brother flew us over the Grand Canyon in his helicopter.  We got the total VIP experience, complete with champagne at the bottom of the canyon.  Aside from a little desperately needing to pee incident, it was just the coolest thing ever.  Got to finish off my trip by going straight to my fire station and working and chilling with my other family, which just cemented the great brain space.  So all of this to say you will hopefully be seeing some high quality posts and some in depth ramblings in the near future.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Reading In The Woods

As we were getting ready for our Trip of Awesome as our adventure in the redwoods will now officially be called, my already amazing Hubbin took me to the bookstore to get a book.  He asked what I wanted and I said I was looking for faries and woods and short stories.  Well folks the literary spirits must have heard me 'cause as soon as we walked into the store a book called Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold, edited by Paula Guran.  Let's see, fairies...check, woods...check...short stories...check, and check out the cover below!  This is a collection of retold fairy tales (or wonder stories as she calls them) which is one of my favorite genre's.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

The Bone Mother by Angela Slatter - I have a thing for Baba Yaga stories and this retelling of Vasilisa the Beautiful did not disappoint.  In this version we explore the relationship between mothers and daughters and the various ways they can delight and disappoint each other. We also get a different take on the Baba Yaga character.  Most stories show her as either an evil witch or a misunderstood granny.  This story shows us all the facets and motivations of this Russian staple giving us a very well rounded story within just a few pages.

The Coin of Heart's Desire by Yoon Ha Lee - For this story the author was inspired by Korean folklore and The Dragon King Under the Sea in particular.  In this stories few pages we get a glimpse of a most noble young empress who makes a life altering decision when she is confronted with a dragon and his wish giving coin.  This is my favorite type of short story as it not only entertains but makes a person think.  How does one obtain their hearts desire and not become corrupted, especially when a whole country is concerned.  Loved it!

The Coat of Stars by Holly Black - Can I just say I am seriously loving this author lately.  Anyways here we have a story that is very much a mix of modern and fae and to me it is seamless.  Drawing from any number of brave tailor tales we follow Rafael, a New York costume designer as he comes home to his super traditional family and how he finds a child hood friend by using his skills as a tailor to woo the fairy queen.  This story has so many layers to it and yet it is very readable and very to the point.  Another spot on story by this author.

The Queen and the Cambion by Richard Bowes - One of my favorite subjects in general is Queen Victoria and her reign.  When you combine that with Merlin, one of my favorite wizards, then we have a match made in heaven.  This story gives us a glimpse of both Victoria and Merlin through out the years as their lives intersect at various points and not always in a linear fashion.  This makes for a fascinating, yet intimate look at two larger then life English icons.  This combination is a winner and I totally want to read so much more.

Rats by Veronica Schanoes - This is a very different sort of "fairy tale".  It is essentially this authors telling of the tragedy of Sid and Nancy.  The author tries to convey the mental illness of the main character with fantastical imagery and I think she does a great job.  The author wanted to get the point across that the Nancy character was not an evil horrible person hell bent on destruction but a sick and troubled child who needed help not shunning.  I'm not sure if most people would call it a fairy tale and yet that is what fairy tales were originally intended for, to tell a cautionary tale and draw attention to things that needed to be fixed...I liked it.

Good Hunting by Ken Liu - I love foxes so it follows that I very much enjoy any tale involving kitsune or any other fox spirit.  In this tale we follow a former hunter of spirits and a kitsune as they try and adapt to a new and changing world.  They go from simple country hunter and spirit to working with steam engines and prostitution in the modern Hong Kong.  Eventually the pair use new technology to restore the spirits shape shifting abilities.  I love stories like this that show that magic can come in so many different forms and like anything else needs to evolve and adapt.

Over all I very much liked the variety of stories in this collection.  The vast majority made me very happy and I will probably pull it out and read it again.  I also now have so many happy memories associated with it as I read it in a redwood, on a tree throne, laying by a river and curled up with my nephews.  This is definitely a book that comes with experiences and it will forever be in my favorites collection for at least that reason.  I give it 8 out of 10 haute coutre coats and recommend it to anybody who loves a retold fairy tale and originality.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Reading With Giants

I' BACK!!!!! Did you all miss me?  What?!?  You didn't even notice I was gone?  Eh I guess that's fair.  My super birthday trip of awesome was about as perfect as it could possibly be.  There was hiking, there was driving, there was shopping, there was playing, there was drinking, there was eating and most important of all there was READING!!!!!!  Seriously though.  This trip is exactly what I needed to get my head back in the game.  Here are some brief highlights.

Reading break by the river

Reading inside of a living hollowed out giant of a redwood tree

The site where I am going to build my giant library house

Utter epicness

Inspiration for almost every book ever

Reading time in the tub of relaxation and happiness

Natural reading throne...also super comfy!

So so so so so so big!

Just 'cause I think this is super cool.

The trip was absolutely amazing.  It got my imagination all fired up.  I got to finish a couple of books, including one from beginning to end.  I got to spend time with people I love.  Mostly I got to run away and just be.  Thank you so so so so so so much to my amazing Hubbin who put the most perfect of birthday trips together for me!!!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Birthday Surprise Of Awesome!

AHHHHHH MY HUBBIN IS THE BESTEST HUBBIN EVER!!!!!  I just got surprised with a birthday trip to California to go hiking in the redwoods and visit the west coast nephews.  AND he bought me a stack of books to take with me. To make this trip even better there is all kinds of built in reading time.  I am seriously so excited.  The only downside to all of this is that I will literally be coming home from the fire station, taking a shower and hopping on an airplane to cross the whole country.

 All this after about 30 hours on my other ambulance.  Pretty much what I am trying to say is posting will be spotty at best for the next week.  I will instead be reading, hiking and soaking up all the west coast goodness while I can.  BUT when I get back and settled there will be posting galore!  I hope you are all having as great a week as I am.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!!

I Can't Believe I Read The Whole Thing!

With all the crazyness and adulting we have been experiencing lately, Hubbin declared yesterday a day of do nothing we don't want to.  These happen very rarely and we decided to take full advantage.  To make it even better the day was all cloudy and stormy...perfect for some reading.  I have been finding it difficult to read more then a chapter or two of any book at a time so I looked forward to some uninterrupted reading.  Lucky for me I even had a new book on hand.  So we made a big cup of coffee, Hubbin settled on the couch and I snuggled into my favorite giant reading chair.  I found every available pillow to cushion me and started reading.  I kept reading until the book was all done!!!! I have not been able to read a book start to finish like that in ages.  It reminded me of when I was young and still in school without all my adult responsibilities and tearing through whole books in a single day, especially during the summer was actually pretty normal.  My poor parents would have to take me to the library for insanely large stacks of books on a regular basis just so I could keep up.  I very much enjoyed my day of literary immersion and will try and build in a little more down time for the brain freeing experience that is the ability to read with no interruptions.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Complications of Blended Families

Hi all, sorry for the insanely spotty posting...but life...so it will probably continue for at least another couple of weeks.  Anyways how about a quick rambling?  The nicer weather has made me pull out some of my graphic novels and Saga Volume II by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Fiona Staples was up to bat.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

When we last left our Romeo and Juliettesque little family they were hurtling through space on a wooden rocket ship (I want of of these SOOOOOO bad!) and had been visited/invaded by Marko's parents.  We learn a little bit about Marko's childhood on the moon Wreath and she his parents devotion to him and each other.  Upon arriving Marko's mother Klara banishes the ghost baby sitter Izabel to a local planetoid and Marko goes after her.  Marko's mother also decides to go after her son.  Alana and her newborn daughter are left with Barr, Marko's father.  After some hesitation on both sides, the two of them bond...mostly over little Hazel...but still start to warm to each other.  After some much needed sleep Alana discovers that Barr has used his considerable skills to make special cloths for the family.  He also reveals to Alana that he has only a very short amount of time to live and that he has told nobody else.  Back on the planetoid Marko and his mamma run into all kinds of fun trouble, but eventually recover Izabel...of course they also discover that the planetoid is actually a huge space egg with a deadly creature inside about to hatch.  Elsewhere in the universe many a folk are trying to hunt down our little family and especially their mixed daughter.  The Will (our intrepid freelancer) is still brooding over the death of his girlfriend The Stalk and his inability to rescue Slave Girl from her owners.  After several day dreams and refusal to continue his mission, Gwendolyn, a kick ass Wreath native...and Marko's infamous ex-fiancee...appears to motivate The Will.  She helps him find a way to rescue Slave Girl and convinces him to go after Marko and Alana.  This culminates in the wooden rocket ship being discovered and almost destroyed.  The ship is saved by Barr using the last of his strength to hold everything together, dying in the process of protecting his family. The Will and company are sent on their merry way...for the moment.  Also hot on the trail of our little mixed up family is the Prince Robot IV.  He is not allowed to go home until he has completed his mission of slaying Marko and Alana and bringing back the baby.  He has used his knowledge of the progression of the duo's relationship from prisoner and keeper to husband and wife and mother and father.  We as the lucky readers also get to watch this happen.  Essentially it is a book (so awesome) of disguised rhetoric of peace that brings them together.  Prince Robot IV discovers that the author of the book lives on the planet Quietus and surmises that the couple may end up there.  He go's and visits the author who though injured by the robot, covers the fact that the little family is already there.  This is where we end our story...for now.

Since the format of this is different from a "normal" book, I'm gonna use my original rambling format.  A lot of what I loved in the first volume of this story remains in this second volume.  I love watching the pair, and especially Alana deal with the realities of new parenthood while also trying to travel, survive and still have a "meet the parents" moment.  Learning more of the pairs history, especially Marko's really starts to give the family feel of this story some good strong roots.  Finding out some more of the details of Marko and Alana's relationship was also a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed the character of Gwendolyn and how she wasn't some bitch pining away for her man, but instead just wanted her stuff back so she could move on with life.   The Will continued to show both his brutal side and his soft side, sometimes in conflict with each other to make him our freelancer with a heart of gold.  The other thing I really liked about this installment of the series was how they showed the toll that this never ending war was taking on the rest of the galaxy.   Various species on multiple worlds are drafted into either side of the war through no choice of their own, but the whims of whatever army got there first.  Some species thrive and have become an interagal part to the Wreath and Landfall people.  Others are pressed into service or killed wholesale in the name of a people that they have never seen and have no real right to push this war and it's horrors on them.  We see a universe of wonder and variety and amazement that is becoming tired and weary and just about done.  I think this is great because a) this is a reality even now in our real lives and b) sets up so many options for future volumes.  I continue to enjoy this series and it's mix of fantasy, sci fi and domestic bliss...or what passes for it when you haven't slept in 96 hours.  I can't wait to continue this series and give it 7 out of 10 bad romance novels.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Earth VS Mars VS The Belt

Hola Readers, sorry for the lack of posting, but 110 hours in 8 days on an ambulance makes this little bookworm a wee bit exhausted.  I have however gotten some sleep and finished an awesome book so lets ramble for a bit shall we?  The book is Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey...which is actually the pen name of two authors by the names of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  It is the first book in the Expanse series which is a pretty epic story in space.  My Mamma recommended it and as always she knows what I like.  Let's dive right into it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is pretty much divided between the perspectives of Detective Miller and Captain Holden.  Each chapter switches between the two characters and is labeled as such and makes the reading experience very clear and concise.  Before all that though we start with a proloug in which we meet Julie.  Julie appears to be a prisoner and we watch her escape onto an empty ship where she makes a horrifying discovery of her entire crew and her captors turned into a weird pile of sludge and still living body parts...pretty blechy if you ask me.  She makes her escape and our story starts.  On Ceres station, in an area of space called The Belt, Detective Miller is tasked with finding Julie Mao, the daughter of a wealthy business family who has run away to join the OPA (Outer Planet Alliance) a loosely formed group that runs the gamet between an advocacy group and out and out terrorists.  Essentially people who live outside the inner planet area (mostly Mars and Earth) feel that they are discriminated against by the inner planet folk.  I could really write pages about the politics, but I think this is enough for the current story.  Detective Miller starts his research and he and the reader start to get to know Julie through various means as he searches for any sign of her.  Meanwhile on a ship called the Canterbury XO Holden takes a group of people to check out a ship called the Scopuli which is giving off a distress signal.  While exploring a mysterious force destroys the Canterbury leaving Holden and his crew (Naomi, Alex, Amos and Shed) as the remaining survivors.  Holden makes a discovery that the equipment used to send the fake distress signal was of Martian origin and he sends out a broadcast to the universe to that affect.  This essentially sets of a war between the OPA and Mars.  Holden and his crew then begin a series of moves and discoveries that eventually coincide with Detective Miller and his search for Julie.  Holden and his crew end up on a station that specializes in construction and is run by Fred Johnson, a former military hero turned OPA leader in a "commandeered" ship that the crew now call their own.  They ally with Fred as he is willing to be reasonable and utilize his resources to get to the bottom of the whole mystery.  Eventually the crew meets up with Detective Miller on Eros station where they finally find the body of Julie Mao...after a pretty bloody fire fight.  The body is growing weird growths of various shapes, sizes and textures.  After this discovery, the station goes into lock down and the inhabitants are herded into various "safe" zones.  Miller and Holden get separated and discover that the lock down is just a ploy to get the people gathered so that this mysterious group can experiment on them...without their knowledge of course.  After much stuff and things we finally discover that an Earth cooperation had discovered a block of ice embedded with an alien virus that was meant to rewrite DNA long before humans came along.  The cooperation wants to find a way to modify the virus to rewrite human DNA for various means.  The cooperation is ended, but they are still left with the problem of Eros.  Video and audio feeds from Eros reveal a horror show of growths, human remains acting in unnatural ways, and the station itself reacting to all attempts to destroy it.  Eventually Miller realizes that Julie is still alive in some form and that the virus is using her experiences and mind to do its dreadful work.  Miller boards the station and makes his way through the haunting and terrifying situation to find what is left of Julie and convinces her to crash the station on Venus, a planet that is still inhabitable by humans.  There the virus starts to rework the planet.  The rest of the human inhabited universe learns what is going on and goes back to some semblance of normalcy and Holden and his crew fly off to further adventures.  Obviously a very abbreviated version of a fairly complex book, but it's the gist of the story if nothing else.

World Building - This book is set apx 200 years in the future, in a combination of space, ships, stations and planets.  The authors did a fantastic job in setting up a complex and sweeping universe without boring the crap out of anybody.  The "science" of things felt plausible, which for me is always a plus as when things get tossed in with no sense it takes me out of the world.  It was not overly explained, nor was information withheld just to try and up the tension.  I felt like I had a good grasp of the asthetics, politics, and society of this books worlds. While reading it was easy to get immersed in the world as it unfolded in a natural and complete way.  World building gets an A+++++ from me :-)

Story - I loved the story put forth in this book.  With all of the complex politics and world building it would be very easy to loose the story in all of the details that the author could have piled on us.  Instead we get a clear, engaging mystery that has a beginning, middle and end while still leaving tons of room for future stories.  I am always impressed, especially in hard core sci fi and an author(s) can produce a readable story that is as fresh and original as this one.  I think the fact that the authors pulled in elements of noir, horror, mystery and a the perfect amount of humor really brought this story into the realm of a great read.  In the end we are left with an intriguing mystery that has just the right amount of twists and reveals that also lets us learn about the characters and the universe.  Good show guys good show.

Characters - The characters of this book were spot on.  Each main character was full developed with their own stories, belief's, moral code and attitude.  I felt like I could walk up to any of them and know exactly who they were.  The interactions between the characters was superb, with each interaction adding to the story and the picture of each character.  Miller and Holden's interactions were my favorite as the authors used them to show both sides of almost every situation.  They would have discussions and arguments and by the time they were done, you could at a minimum agree that they both had valid points.  I love this because it made the book feel balanced and fair and that the authors were not trying to shove any sort of agenda down your throats.  I also liked how every character stayed in character...what I mean is nobody did anything wildly out of character just to further the story.  Character rocked it.

Editing - The way the book was set up, with each chapter focusing on a specific character that we got to know very well was the perfect format for this book.  It was easy to follow, engaging and we got all the information we needed to understand exactly what was going on.  Sometimes in these epic sagas I have to flip back a couple pages to make sure I understand what I am reading, but this book flowed so smoothly.  Considering that two separate authors worked on this book, makes this feat even more amazing.  Go editors!

Language - The use of language in this book added a lot to the clarification and understanding of the various places in the universe.  For instance the Belters have their own lingo, stringing together words and phrases in a way that would only make sense to a native.  The closer to the inner planets you get the more refined the language becomes.  The characters also have a habit of giving names to things they have never seen before.  My personal favorite is vomit zombies, which is what they call the inhabitants of Eros station that have been infected by the alien virus.  It has got to be one of the most descriptive yet simple labels I have ever heard and I now use it in my everyday vernacular.  Each character also has a distinct voice that the authors wrote to reflect each particular individuals background and life.  Overall the language of this book was used to enhance the world building to a very effective degree.

Julie Mao - I'm gonna give this character her own space 'cause for all that she is only physically present in the book for a couple of pages, her existence is pretty much the whole basis for this book.  I found it brave and interesting that the actions of this girl, who made choices and decisions that any of us would have made are pretty much the catalyst for so many things in this book.  I also like how well we got to know her as a person and how the characters also got to know her in their own ways.  This is all very crucial near the end, when this feeling of knowing...and in Detective Millers case, loving Julie, leads to the understanding of how the virus is controlling the station.  Julie is very much a present character through out the entire story despite her pretty much being dead from the beginning. She is important to us not only in the beginning, but through out the book as she becomes part of each step of the mystery and in particular what she becomes to Detective Miller.  It is a great way to add a bit of an unusual twist to the story.

TV Show - The Syfy channel has attempted to make this into a tv show called The Expanse and in all honesty it's not bad.  My biggest issue with it is that after the clear and directness of the book, the tv show actually feels overly complicated...which is weird 'cause usually I'm upset because they over simplify things.  That being said the show really tried hard, and in most cases succeeded in showing us the various places in the universe and their disparate societies.  It is visually stunning and the casting is pretty well done.  I know they are trying to get the politic and such across...I just wish they had stuck to the cleaner format.  I will however be watching the next season so there is that.

Overall Impression - In case you hadn't figured it out, I really enjoyed this book.  It is everything I want a science fiction book...well any book really to be.  It avoided many of the pitfalls that these sweeping epics tend to fall into and left me with a very readable, very enjoyable, very good book.  I am desperately hoping this quality keeps up through out the series and will without a doubt be picking up the next book. I give this book 8 out of 10 textured fungus skewers and recommend it to any fan of science fiction, epics, or just a great combination of story, world building and character.
Happy Reading Everybody!

Happy 100!

One of my favorite childhood authors the fabulous Beverly Cleary turns 100 today!  This author of the famed Ramona series, among other gems has lived, written and just made kids lives awesome for the last 100 years.

Seriously folks 100 years...how absolutely awesome and amazing is that.  I want to wish this classy lady many more awesome years and thank her for making my childhood an amazing experience.  Happy Birthday!

Inspired

I got to spend the day with one of my firefighter/EMT/booklover/awesome friend yesterday and it was pretty great.  We spent some time in the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art and can I just say it was very inspiring.  There is just so much variety in styles, mediums, time periods and aesthetics that I spent most of the time torn between wanting somebody to write a story about certain pieces and running straight home to my bookshelf to immerse myself in worlds inspired by these works of art.

We finished our day of awesome at a concert where again I was reminded how all the different art forms work and compliment each other...and also how much I was again inspired to read certain books.  Seriously the whole day was just one running list of books I now wanted to read because of all the cool things I saw and heard.  I love day's like this that remind me how the whole world fits together so well, and how reading is one part of it.  Go get inspired people...and if a couple of you want to write me some cool stories, even better!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Off The Blog

Hi Folks!  How is everybody today?  Today I am gonna do something a wee bit different.  Hubbin sent me the most wonderful and amazing post today.  It's called I am in a Bookshop by Julian Stodd and it pretty much sums up everything about books and reading and bookshops and libraries and well pretty much all thing book related.

 Please go read it, I found it inspiring and hope every person who has ever picked up a book and found a new world, thought, idea or feeling will get a chance to read this post.  Ok I'm gonna quit yapping at you and let you get over to that other site and read it for yourself.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Firehouse Book Club

As if my firehouse wasn't awesome enough, a sort of impromptu reading club has spontaneously formed.  A core group of us from various battalions and such have started reading, sharing and recommending books to each other.  Eventually it gets to the point most of us have read the same book and then we gather around the dinner table excitedly talking over each about our love/hate/eh of the books until we are interrupted by a call.

It is awesome to walk  into my bunk and find a book on my bed, or get a text that a new book is waiting for me in my locker, or have an eager fellow EMT/Firefighter flag me down in the hall with a new "you HAVE to read this" book in hand.  This is my favorite thing about reading, you can ALWAYS find somebody else who shares that joy, and to find several someones in a place I love who share this literary passion of mine is just insanely wonderful.  I hope you all find the same sort of serendipity in the places that you love.  Happy Reading Everybody!

When The World Went Cold

Hello all, how was your weekend?  Mine was exhaustingly busy and awesome and crazy...so about the norm.  I promised you all some Halloween style ramblings this week, so let us start of with The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black.  I got this book on a total whim one day.  I was just sitting on my couch and out of the blue I decided that this was a book I need to get and read for the October season (I love ebooks sometimes, really feeds into my impulse buying/reading habit) and so I did.  Was my impulse decision good or bad?  Lets find out, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Tana wakes up in the bathroom after a wild highschool party completely alone and having a hard time remembering what happened.  As she makes her way through the house she realizes that every person at the party is dead, killed in a horrific manner, with all the requisite blood and gore.  The only survivor other then herself is her ex-boyfriend Aidan and a crazy (seriously deranged) vampire that goes by Gavriel.  Yep this is a vampire book...but it's ok...it's a good vampire book.  In flashbacks through out the book we learn that vampires have been around forever, but one by the name of Casper Morales bought into the whole human romanticizing of the undead (see what happens when you make your vampires glitter) and decided to go on a turning rampage.  In this world when you get bitten by a vampire you go Cold, which means you are infected, but not turned.  To turn you need to drink human blood, then you die and come back immortal, pointy toothed and thirsty.  If you don't drink human blood within about 88 days then the infection goes away and you remain human.  Cool beans, you think, if I want to stay human I'll just refrain from drinking blood.  Unfortunately it is not so easy, when you go Cold, you get progressively thirstier and thirstier until you turn into a super strong lunatic who would do anything to get blood.  So the vampire Casper goes around infecting as many people as he can sink his teeth into (previously the old vampires would carefully regulate the turning of new vampires to keep their existence a secret and also to keep the food supply plentiful) and all these new crazy insatiable vampires go around infecting more people...lather, rinse, repeat.  The governments doing what governments do, eventually get a bit of a handle on the situation and quarantine off a bunch of the cities, sending any vampires and infected to them. Back to Tana.  Hmmm if I write this all out the post is going to be 100 pages long...I'll do my best.  Tana takes both boys on a freaky road trip where they meet up with Midnight and Winter, a brother and sister duo with a death wish.  They make it to Coldtown where the infected Aiden and the mad Gavriel must live out the rest of their lives and Tana gets a marker to get out later as long as she remains human.  The twins also head in, hoping to convince on of their coveted undead to bite them...without killing them.  Gavriel leaves the group after a parting gift from Tana and the rest of the group head to a house of Midnights friends.  All kinds of absolute horrific, yet entertaining insaneness ensue with truly tragic results.  Tana gets caught up in an ancient feud between Gavriel and Lucien, the vampire who reigns over Coldtown as it's beautiful, untouchable star.  More madness and mayhem, more death and Tana gets bitten for real.  Tana's little sister Pearl comes looking for her adding even more chaos to the mess.  After approximately 2/3 of the characters die we finally end with Tana determined to defeat the infection and remain human.  Gavriel offers to stay with her, as he can easily over power her even in her infected state and in his madness her pleas mean nothing.  Tana asks why he would do this and he tells her she is the only person to ever try and save him.  We end with the two of them holed up for the fight of Tana's life.

Argh!  I hate trying to summarize books like this because it is so chock full of awesomeness and things and stuff that directly pertain to all my myriads of feelings on this book, but if I try and get it all in I'll just rewrite the book. I guess you'll just have to trust me on the stuff I didn't get in.  So I started reading this not knowing what to expect and I think that greatly added to my enjoyment of the book.  Like I said before it was a completely out of the blue, random buy and read.  Ok let's start with the good, and I will try and be coherent.  First of all, I love vampires.  They may be my favorite type of monster 'cause they are usually intelligent and can make choices.  I like the idea of immortality playing a role in their decisions and their weird mix of inclusion and aloofness in the human race. The vampires in this book made me happy because of the variety and realisticness of their attitudes.  You have your ancient and elite guys who have remained hidden for thousands of years, keeping tight control.  You have your young guns who want a change, you have your pathetic, your haughty, and your bat sh*t crazy, all with their own unique perspective.  I liked how the author had a fairly well thought out society and progression of history when it came to her vampires and their history with the rest of the world.  Next on the list surprised me.  I loved all the teenagers.  Yep, I usually am not a fan of modern YA books 'cause teenage angst drives me bananas, but in this book you could tell the author remembered what being a teen felt like without the over the topness you get in a lot of books.  The heroine Tana was tough, but not necessary kick-ass.  She had a history that would justify major drama, but she kept it to a mix of pragmaticness and an impulse control issue.  Tana was scared, confused, angry, tired, and a little bit in love...just like any human would be in her situation.  Aidan was a great character because he started out a bit twisted and messed up and getting infected and the way he acted after all seemed in-line with the character.  He is a character that a lot of writers try to include to show how "progressive" and "modern" they are, but it usually feels like a token piece.  Ms. Black however managed to make Aidan a real person, somebody who I swear I've met before, really well written.  Midnight, Winter and Pearl all show a fascination with the "stars" of Coldtown that mirrors our own societies obsession with a lifestyle they can't have, and they show us all facets of it.  A lot of bad stuff happens in this book, I mean a lot, like Game of Thrones style bad, but all of it is necessary and not only furthers the story, but adds consequences to decisions and actions. I love this because while there are some good outcomes in the book, not everything ended happily and wonderfully.  Choices were made, and sometimes it was the wrong choice and people suffered greatly for it.  There is romance in the book, and the main one is between the heroine and the vampire, but it is actually a decent romance.  Tana realizes that her attraction to Gavriel is in part an instinctive reaction to his looks and she tries to temper it.  The author also lets Gavriel be truly crazy, mad as a hatter and that adds an awesome dimension to a YA romance plot.  Really the only things that got to me were sometimes it felt like the vampires, especially Lucien and his cohorts were directly lifted from an Anne Rice novel.  I sometimes would automatically substitute the name Lestat for the various vampires. The author stated that this book was in part a tribute to the various vampire writers...but it felt a tad bit derivative at times (yay I got to use one of my big girl words).  I could probably go on for pages about the subtleties and nuances and social commentary, but I will let you go read it so you can come back here and discuss it with me. I recommend it to all my reading buddies (you know who you are), anybody who wanted Twilight to be better, or just wants a really nuanced YA book with action and awesome.  I give this book 8 out of 10 garnet necklaces and I hope they never try and turn it into a movie 'cause they will just ruin it.   Happy Reading Everybody!

Awesome Present For ME!!!!

My baby sis is back in the states from her world tour and she came bearing an early birthday present for me :-)

Private Worlds 

It's a book published and printed in 1937...and yes the first thing I did was smell it, and let me tell you it smells awesome!

Other then being a really cool find from overseas, where she got the book is pretty awesome too!  Shakespeare and Company in Paris is an old book store built...or should I say created by George Whitman who said "I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations." —George Whitman

The builder of the bookstore and various authors who were passing through at the time used to be able to spend the night inside the bookstore.  There is a ton of history behind the store and the book and I cannot wait to explore both of them!  Thanks baby sis for a perfect present.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Astronaut

Had a blast with my Bubby, his wife and my Hubbin this weekend, which included watching the phenomenal movie The Martian...based on the book The Martian by Andy Weir.  My Hubbin asked me try and hold off on reading the book before watching the movie 'cause I have a bad habit of being "that person" during the movie who compares it to the book the whole time...I tried...I really tried, but we had a long distance transfer at work which resulted in a long trip home...and the book was there...As always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! (for the book and movie)

Mark Watney gets brutally ripped away from his crew during a massive storm.  Presumed dead by his crew mates (which makes sense 'cause his bio-readings show him dead) make an emergancy ascent to their ship the Hermes and head home.  Shockingly Watney survives his ordeal and is now stranded on Mars as the only living creature on the planet.  We follow Watney through his journal as he tries and plans on how to survive.  This is made a bit easier as he still has most of the equipment from the aborted mission at his disposal including potatoes which he plants using his own poo as fertilizer...I call them pootatos..get it...POOtatos hahahahahaha....ok...need to get back on track.  Watney realizes that everybody must think he is dead.  On a positive note, he also realizes that if he can survive long enough, the next Mars mission will be arriving in about 4 years.   Of course he not only needs to figure out how to survive that long, but how to navigate a ton of the planet to get to the new landing site.  Meanwhile back at NASA a series of satellite photos reveal that Watney is still alive.  This of course causes a huge stir and much discussing on the possibilities of his long term survival and the chances of rescuing him.  An unexpected boon happens when Watney gets a hold of Pathfinder and uses it to communicate with NASA.  They work together on several plans starting with a rushed probe to get him supplies.  This goes very wrong when certain variables are not accounted for.  Watney continues on his own with various plans, mishaps and revamping when things don't go his way...turns out he is a savvy botanist.  All hope seems lost when the Chinese reveal they have a probe that they are willing to donate to the cause in exchange for a spot on the next Mars expedition.  NASA plans on using this to send more food to Watney.  Meanwhile a kid named Rich Purnell figures that using the right calculations they can use the probe to resupply the Hermes the ship that the rest of Watney's crew is on and send them back to pick him up.  The problem is they only have one probe and must choose which plan to go with.  NASA director chooses the "safer" option of sending Watney food, only to be foiled when an anonymous person sends the plan to the crew of the Hermes who execute it without permission.  With no other option they go for the rescue plan and head back to Mars to pick up their missing crewman.  Back on Mars, Watney has overcome all kinds of stuff to finally get to the landing site where he is told how to strip pretty much everything off of the ascent vehicle.  After a couple of harrowing maneuvers the crew of the Hermes get their man back. And that is the  basic story.

For some reason, every time I refer to this book I call it the astronaut instead of The Martian...not sure why...but there you go. What the synopsis does not do is convey the sheer personality of almost every single character in this book, it is just amazing to me  how varied, detailed and authentic each person has, while still being a pretty scientific novel.  This combination of personality and science (well as much science as one can have in a slightly futuristic fiction novel) really makes this book readable for several types of readers.  I especially enjoyed the sense of humor in what could have been a very dreary and depressing story.  The voice of Mark (which is the dominant one in this book) is my favorite as you watch him cycle through emotions, then get on with keeping himself alive.  He is smart, but sometimes messes up, he is scared, but not helpless, he is funny, but no inappropriate. A lot of the strength in this book comes in part from the format.  About 2/3 of the total book is a first person verbal journal style of Mark Watney and his time on Mars.  This works well 'cause his stream of conscious style suits his predicament and gives him ample opportunity to just talk things out.  This also gives us a lot of the humor as he pretty much says whatever comes to his brain as he records.  We also get a kind of real time "technical" peek into exactly how he is surviving.  This first person narrative is peppered with random flashbacks and the normal prose at NASA.  In the end we get to see things from both ends, get to know things the other end doesn't and laugh when Mark refuses to cooperate in a PC manner when they finally establish communication.  Another strength (for me anyways) is the beliveability of this book.  It is set just far enough into the future that we can assume certain technology is in regular use, but not so far that we loose the sense of familiarity.  The author is pretty good at giving scientific, yet not overly smarty pants explanations on to why something should or shouldn't work.  This makes it very easy to stay in this world the author has created.  I am also very into Mars and follow news of it closely and even have the Curiosity Rover T-shirt so this book spoke to that very much.  I loved the tone of this book, I loved the world, I loved the characters, I just really enjoyed this book.  I also LOVED the movie...not quit as much as the book of course, but it was still awesome.  It followed the book fairly well, and with out a doubt, kept the flavor and spirit of the book.  I would recommend this book to just about anybody with any interest in well, pretty much anybody.  With the exception of some gloriously placed swear words, this book is even suitable for the slightly younger crowd.  I give this book 8 out of 10 Pootatos and wish I had the patience to put in all of the awesome little sayings and quotes that make me smile and laugh out loud.  GO READ THIS BOOK!  Happy Reading Everybody!