So Helpful...

I once again have a sever case of writers block.  Because of that I asked my usually smart and savvy Hubbin for some suggestions for today's post.  Here is what he came up with.

Ancient Aliens and how they time travel and further their agenda by setting up things for the future so people would know and not know.

Rouge Aliens that fly around and precipitate "sightings".

Pyramids...built by aliens.

Things you can only see from the sky.

Pictures of people talking on cell phones long before they were invented.

Decoding alien codes so we can communicate with future self aliens.

Stupid Endgame

Needless to say, my darling spouse is not being to helpful right now.  Also I should probably limit his Netflix account...and maybe hide his H.P. Lovecraft books...Anyways I'm gonna go read for a while and hope I am inspired to write a more coherent
and book oriented post next time.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Forty Two

Ha I am totally amassing a new TBR pile, except I'm gonna have to call this one my To Be Rambled pile.  I have finally caught up with my reading and am now ready for some rambling.  Um...hmmm...let's start with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  This book is beloved by many people around the world, and especially by weirdo's like me.  I had not read it in a while and wanted to see how it stood up to the test of time.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Arthur Dent is having a really bad day.  His house has been zoned for demolition to make way for a highway bypass and he is not happy about it.  Arthur does what any reasonable homeowner would do and lays down in front of the bulldozer.  Meanwhile his friend Ford Prefect comes along and convinces Arthur to have a quick mid day drink with him.  What Arthur is soon to find out is that Ford is actually a very human looking alien who has been chilling on Earth to work on the new edition of the titular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Arthur finds all of this out when Ford informs him that the planet Earth is slated for destruction to make way for an intergalactic bypass.  The two hitch a ride on an unsuspecting Vogon ship...which is not really a pleasant place to be.  Ford pops a translation fish into Arthur's ear and the language of the galaxy is now accessible to him...just in time for him and Ford to be blown out of an airlock by a very shout happy Vogon.   Against all odds (two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and nine to one against to be exact.) the duo are picked up by an impossibly amazing ship called The Heart of Gold, which had been conveniently stolen by the galactic president Zaphod Beeblebrox of the two heads and three arms and his current girlfriend, the Earth girl Trillian.  Arthur and Ford are escorted by the depressed robot Marvin to the bridge and the four embark on a mission to find the lost planet of Magrathea, where an advanced race used to make custom planets for the insanely rich.  Upon arrival to the mysterious planet all kinds of craziness ensues...as it does in these types of books and Arthur is separated from the group.  Eventually he finds out that his planet and people were actually custom made to be the ultimate computer in which trans-dimensional beings would use to find the question to the answer 42.  Unfortunately the planet Earth was blown up right before the computing was to be completed, bummer.  The beings (who appear to humans in the shape of mice) try to convince Arthur to donate his brain so that they don't have to start all over again.  Arthur understandably refuses and the four make their escape with the help of the eternally depressed Marvin.  The four hop back on their ship and head off into the universe for more adventures.

World Building - The book is set in various ships, planets and places through out the galaxy.  It is a bit sci fi, a bit humor, and a bit tongue-in-cheek.  Each environment is unique and painted clearly enough to give us some flavor without boring us with unending detail.  The little bits and pieces of the Guide interspersed through out the book also add to the world building of this book in a consistently humorous way.  The way the book is written, a completed world building is not needed as the humor is the over arching structure for the book.  It is just the right amount for the story.

Story - This book is less about the story and more about idea's and humor.  There is an overarching story line that gives the book a sort of beginning middle and end, but I think it is the overall flavor of the book that really shines.  It is silly, irreverent, meandering and just plain fun.  It is the type of story you want when you just want to relax and enjoy what you are reading with out too much effort.  It is a story of inside jokes and anybody who reads it and enjoys it is instantly admitted to a club where the members can have whole conversations just from various quotes from this book.

Characters - The characters in this book are super fun, and really pretty much every person, alien, ship, robot, computer and animal have some sort of distinct personality.  The various interactions, asides and outrageousness of them all are really what make this book so special.  I also really appreciate that as light hearted and chaotic as this book is, all of the main characters are remarkably consistent in their portrayal.

Editing - This book is all over the place...in a good way.  The main story itself is pretty straight forward and simple, but it is the asides and sidetracks and interruptions that give this book it's humor and charm.  The chaos is intentional and well thought out.  I have read books that try and use this style and fail because they get to muddled, this book however worked well in that even with the craziness it still flowed pretty well.

The Guide - My favorite part of this book is the excerpts from the Guide through out the book.  It is fun to see the various descriptions, opinions and just plain weirdness that these little snippets provide.  Many times they relate directly to the story, giving us an extra bit of world building and info, but sometimes it's just random stuff for fun.

The Movie - There is a movie based on this book and I have to say I don't hate it.  It's not perfect, as a book to movie rarely is, but I thought they did a decent job.  What I liked best was the casting, I felt that each character was more or less cast fittingly.  I especially like Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin and now every time I read the book I here his voice...I miss that guy.

The Camaraderie - This is one of those books that instantly makes you part of something.  It is a book that people read and love and quote and pretty much once you have read it you become a part of it.  I love that a book, especially a weird little book like this, can bring the most random of people together.  This just continues to prove the power of the written word and how people from all walks of life can read it and instantly bond over it, makes this little bookworm happy.

Overall Impression - This book is just fun.  That pretty much sums it up for me, it is a book I read when my brain needs a break and I just want to turn pages of a good book.  Oddly enough for as easy a read as it is, there are definitely some thought provoking ideas within the pages if that's what your in the mood for, so pretty much this book works all ways.  I would recommend this book to anybody with a sense of humor, likes writing with a twist, or just wants to be part of the club.  I give it 8 out of 10 Improbability Drives.

Happy Reading Everybody!

Sherlock Everywhere And Everything And Everybody Holmes

Hola readers!  How are you all doing this week?  Ready for a rambling?  Cool.  Today I'm gonna ramble about The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a short story collection edited by John Joseph Adams, a favorite of mine in the short story world.  This collection features stories about my favorite detective set in every style of writing you can imagine.  We've got fantasy, we've got scifi. we've got traditional, we've got alternate history, alternate reality and any and all mix of the above that one can imagine.  I would thing that this would cause the collection to be a mess, but the editor once again manages to get a sort of flow to the whole thing.  Here are some of my favorites out of the many many amazing stories within this book.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Doctor's Case by Stephen King - This story, besides reminding me how much I like Stephen King in short story form is the perfect tale to set off the collection.  Here we have a fairly straight forward Holmsian tale...but solved by Watson, who has begun to think like the famous detective after so much time spent in his company.  This story makes me smile every time I read it, I just really love every word of it.

The Adventure of the Other Detective by Bradley H. Sinor - We go off the traditional track a bit in this alternate reality story.  Dr. Watson stumbles quit by accident into a world where Moriarty is the good guy, chasing down the notorious Sherlock Holmes.  Watching Watson try and work out this world that feels turned topsy turvey, all the while seeing where it would make sense to have a place where the two master minds switch places makes one want to go back and reread a couple of the original stories.  I love how the author dealt with both worlds, and the eventual acceptance of all parties of situation.

The Adventure of the Field Theorems by Vonda N. McIntyre - The author of this story get's a bit meta on us, introducing Conan Doyle (the original Holmes author) as a character.  The author uses the well known, and slightly odd fact that Sir Doyle, while writing the coldly logical Sherlock Holmes, was actually an avid Spiritualist who was more then willing to believe anything.  This story capitalizes on this fact with a mystery set in the fields in the form of crop circles and possibly aliens.  It is hard to describe the appeal of this story other then to compare it to an almost X-files style story with the added bonus of making me want to study Conan Doyle.

Dynamics of a Hanging by Tony Pi- Another Moriarty story, and again going meta with the inclusion of authors as characters.  This time the focus is on Moriarty's early years and the discovery of an almost impossible cipher.  I think what I really liked about this story was the duel focus on music and math as a way to write a code.  It also inspired me to go find some awesome cipher's to brush up on my code breaking.

The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey by Peter Tremayne - Here we get a glimpse of Holmes younger days.  He is portrayed as a smart young man, perhaps lacking the cold logic of his older self, but brilliant none the less.  He investigates a mystery at an old friends house with the hopes of gaining the friend's sisters affection.  This turns out to be hopeless as she is engaged to a wealthy man.  Holmes does his best to solve the case, but eventually sums it up to "darker powers"  which is not the Holmes we know.  Watson however figures out what young Holmes cannot admit to himself, giving us a satisfying conclusion.

The Adventure of the Lost World by Dominic Green - Sherlock Holmes and Dinosaurs...need I say more?

The Adventure of the Pirates of Devil's Cape - Pirates!  I love pirates!  This tale takes us to the sultry swamps of New Orleans, introducing our proper London gents to the sweat and swizzle of the Big Easy.  I like this story 'cause it has just the right amount of swashbuckling, a handful of Holmsian logic and just a smidge of potential super natural.  Also there is an albino alligator, Siamese twins and bit of awesome swordplay.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman - Another author whose short stories make me happy.  This tale is in a weird way the most traditional, yet most twisted tale in the collection.  We get a new take on a very traditional case...but in this one we get a Cthulhu alien royalty, an alternate reality and a twist ending that makes one want to go reread the story over to get every nuance.  I think that this story really sums up what the editor wanted this collection to be.  A very good entry to a very good collection.

These are just a few of the numerous and varied stories in this collection.  A few thoughts on the book as a whole.  I found an interesting pervalance of  Moriarty, Irene Adler and oddly enough H.P. Lovecraft style monsters making numerous appearances.  I noted that Watson was the most popular narration and that the authors usually used either the name of a case that was mentioned but not told in the original stories, or a twist on the title of the original stories.  I found that it took me some time to get through this book, mostly because every story had the basic element of a Holmes mystery so I had to take time to digest and think through every story as I read it...and a few I had to read twice.  Overall I loved the weird combination of the tried and true and creativity that was present in EVERY story.  I will be reading most of the stories in this collection again and recommend it to anybody who loves Holmes and just about any other genre of books.  I give it 8 out of 10 deer stalking hats.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Flinging Across Space

Hi Readers!  How was your weekend?  Mine was insanely busy...but what else is new :-)  I did however manage to blaze through a book, which I will now ramble about.  The book The Rowan by my favorite Anne McCaffrey is an old school sci fi book that is always a perfect go to book.  We have been watching The X-Files here at my house and it made me nostalgic for some of my old school reading so The Rowan was grabbed and read.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Rowan is about an orphan colonial child who is found to have great telekinetic and telepathic abilities.  In this future universe, people with any sort of mental abilities are called Talents and the people who posses the high level and rare combination of telekinesis and telepathy are called Primes and are invaluable to keeping the now space fairing human race going.    These Primes have the ability to fling any object, large or small across an set amount of space.  This includes ships, drones, packages and any other thing a new planetary colony may need.  The Rowan is the child rescued from a devastating mudslide on the colonial planet Altair.  She is deemed to be Prime material and is so trained.  We follow the Rowen as she grows from a child to a teenager, encountering many hardships, growing moments along the way.  She also develops her talents, showing a promise to become one of the most talented Primes alive.  The next part of the book shows the Rowan taking over her own Prime station.  She is adept at her job and continues to grow but she if very lonely.  Although she tries, any person under her high level of talent just is not comfortable spending too much time around her.  This is loneliness is made worse by her inability to leave the moon on which her station is built due to dealing with a traumatizing illness anytime she tries to leave.  One day while working, the Rowan is contacted by mind from the far away colonial planet Deneb.  The contact states that the planet is under attack and requests help.  After lobbing a few missiles Earth's way to demonstrate the sever danger the planet is under.  To save the planet the Rowen merges with the other Prime talents to give the Deneb mind a chance to defeat the aliens.  After the crisis is over, the mind of Deneb in the form of Jeff Raven appears, and thanks to the intense merger discovers that he and the Rowan are in love.  The two of them spend time together, but the Rowans inability to travel makes their new love difficult.  Jeff Raven heads back to Deneb and the Rowan resumes work.  the Rowan is devastated when she loses contact with Jeff and learning he has been gravely injured transports herself to Deneb to nurse him back to health.  Jeff eventually heals and he and the Rowan are officially a pair.  Jeff signs on the the FT&T which is the impartial and neutral company that employs the Primes and pretty much controls all the instantaneous transport within the scope of humanity.  The last part of the book follows the Rowan and Jeff as they start their family and cope with the new responsibilities given to them by FT&T.  This culminates in a son with a second child on the way for the happy couple.  the Rowan and her female talents start to feel a malevolent presence that turns out to be the same aliens that had attacked before, but with infinantly more power. The Rowan merges with all the other female talents and Jeff merges with all the male kinetics and hopefully ends the alien threat for once and for all.  The book ends with Jeff and the Rowan  continuing to build their family and the FT&T finally carving a life for themselves.

World Building - I feel one of the authors strengths is world building.  The universe in which this story is set is detailed and complete.  It is set in a future Earth era where humans have expanded into space.  The FT&T and Talent set up is pretty well explained and very consistent through out the whole book.  This is one of those worlds that stays with you long after you have finished the book.  It is also one you feel infinite stories can be told in.    I found it interesting that for the purposes of this series, it was a private company and in some ways economics that was the focus of this universe.  That being said, the author was good at keeping the setting aligned with the other parts of the book.

Story - The story was fairly cohesive, following the main character through several stages of her life.  While the Rowan, Jeff and the aliens provided a thread to follow, the story was more episodic then flowing, more a series of short glimpses to make a whole then a beginning to end story. This worked for this book, setting up a universe and characters more then any over all story.  It kept me engaged from beginning to end and lived up to it's premise.

Characters - I found in this book, that along with the world building, characters were a very strong point in this book.  The characters where varied. well written and well fleshed out.  They interacted with each other in meaningful ways and every character introduced had a purpose.  My favorites were Jeff's mother Isthia of the ear, Elizara the insanely talented medic and both Ackerman and Gerolaman the stationmasters all of whom had great senses of humor.  I did feel that the Rowan had a bit of the special snowflake syndrome, being the bestest ever at being a Prime, but felt it was tempered by the hardships and personal issues she had to endure.

Editing - The book was divided into four parts, and at times it felt like four separate stories strung together.  There was a bit of choppiness and disparities between the parts as well that sometimes took me out of the world to say to myself "um that is not what was said/happened in the last part".  Part of this is the fact that the middle part of the book started as a completed short story and that the rest of the book was built around that.  Overall though the pacing and flow of the book was very good.

Talents - I love love love the concept and execution of the talents in this future universe.  The author introduced the concept and followed through with it in a very scientific, yet understandable way.  She then continued to be consistant and varied with the various types, strengths and combinations a person could have.  She also made sure to have a structured environment where a talent can and would thrive, be useful and be accepted as a valuable member of society.  It would be very easy for the author to make a book about the "normal" people vs. the "talented" people, but instead she integrated them into a economic society.  I just really love the concept and execution of the concept.
The Love Story - Sooo... not really a fan of how Jeff just happened to appear and be a perfect match for the Rowan right when she was feeling the most lonely.  I guess I understand that if you merged your whole mind with somebody you would know pretty quickly if you loved them or not...but it still seemed pretty convenient.  I also was not a fan of the proprietary bossing around of the Rowan, especially when she was pregnant by Jeff, and also a few other's, but mostly Jeff.  It felt like since he loved her, he felt he could control her when he felt it was in her best interest.  On the plus side, the Rowan usually fought back against the imposed restrictions and overall Jeff loved and appreciated the Rowan for exactly who she was.

Personal Interactions - One of my favorite parts about this book, and the author in general is how the characters interact with each other.  The book has many characters and they all play a role with their own personalities, likes and dislikes.  Not one character is perfect, they all have their positives and negatives and they all deal with each other on different levels.  Watching these interactions gives an authenticity to the book that is phenomenal and really elevates it above a lot of other books.  It is nice to see an author have a grasp on true human interactions and work them so well into the book.

Complete Randomness - I just want to say I love the original cover of this book (the first pic on the post) the colors themselves just make me happy.  Also I have an old school paperback version of the book and it smells incredible!!!  So yeah...

Overall Impression - I love this book.  It definitely has it's flaws, but I go back to this story over and over again.  It is one of those that get's in my brain and stays there.  I feel this is mostly due to the amazing universe the author has created.  This is a great start to a great series and I will continually go back to it as both a nostalgia piece and just a good book.  I recommend it to anybody who wants to read incredible world building, sci fi with a more domestic bent or just really loves Anne McCaffrey.

Score - I give this book 8 out of 10 pukah's

That is today's rambling...not to bad considering I've taken care of and transported close to a ton of human flesh this week.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!!

Space Faring Bureaucracy

To appease my summer SciFi appetite I finally finished reading the short story collection Federations edited by John Joseph Adams.  The editor says he took the inspiration for this collection from watching shows like Star Trek and Star Wars and reading book like those in the Dune series.  The common theme in all of the above mentioned is the interstellar government that spans the stars.  This inspiration has lead to book chock full of a myriad different stories, governments, worlds and organizations that come together to make for a very though provoking, page turning collection that makes me want even more stories.  Here are just a few of the stellar stories in this anthology.

Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine - A being from deep space has sent out a vision to a select member of every race in the known galaxy.  The vision is powerful enough that when the being states it will only come if all the races stop warring with each other they all comply.  The story is set many many years after the initial contact and leaves one wondering if the fact that the wars have stopped is the whole point of the secret glorious mission.  Good story, very good story.

Terra-Exulta by S.L. Gilbow - This may be one of my favorite short stories of all time.  It explores the use of language and how labeling something in a certain way can change ones perception completely.  We get a quick glimpse of a man who using only words changes a galaxy's perception of a planet form thinking it is the most beautiful paradise to being disgusted with the whole endeavor.  The story is short, sweet, to the point and really gets the point of the power of words across in a direct and entertaining manner.

Twilight of the Gods by John C. Wright - Imagine a ship so large it feels like a world.  Now imaging the people on it have lived there for so many generations that the newest ones think Earth and any other planet is nothing more then a myth or fantasy.  This story turns our pre-conceived notion of a space ship and it's inhabitants on its head.  I love the idea that this decrepit space is all these people know and how it has shaped their culture and mind set.

Pardon our Conquest by Alan Den Foster - An entire empire is conquered with out so much as a shot being fired.  The premise of this story is made even more interesting by the perspective that it is told in.  Instead of the grand hero's swooping in and gallantly helping a backwards race, we see the story from the conquered empires point of view and understand their confusion when this new alliance actually seeks to integrate them into their federation (but only if they want to) while giving them complete freedom and autonomy.  This is a great story that gets you thinking long after you have finished it.

My She by Mary Rosenblum - This is the kind of short story I love.  A to the point, thought provoking tale about the line between an individual person and a tool.  The story is about clones of a very specific pair of humans that serve as an invaluable communication tool in the future.  The tale if further enriched by the presence of a anthropomorphic dog character that acts as a servant/guide.  If this story does not get you thinking about a myriad of different things...then I don't know what will.

The Shoulders of Giants by Robert J. Sawyer - A look at what happens when the present catches up to the future.  This story is another thought provoking look at life and what happens when the continues experimentation and exploration comes to a critical mass and all converges on one point.  I also like how this story in a very concise manner manages to convoy a story, characters, humor and a thought provoking premise all in a very limited amount of pages.

Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy by Catherynne M. Valente - Imagine my surprise, consternation and eventual delight when I discovered the author of my beloved September stories had contributed to what was an already awesome collection.  This super visual story was focused on interstellar wine as a way to convoy a story, a history, and a universe.  This story had all the trademarks of this authors insanely awesome image driven story telling with an adult twist...and wine...'cause wine is awesome...just go read the story.

In case you haven't figured it out I loved this collection.  One of the unique things about this collection is the little bit of editor commentary at the beginning of each story.  He obviously really enjoys the subject matter and has an enthusiastic and fairly concise insight into each story.  I enjoyed this collection immensely, it was varied, well edited and yet stayed easily within the identifiable confines of the theme.  I still keep picking it up, hoping more stories will magically appear because I just don't want to stop reading!  I recommend it to anybody who likes sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Wars or well written, varied, thought provoking stories.  I give it 8 out of 10 Galactic Senates and am going to go find ALL the collections edited by this guy 'cause seriously awesome stuff here.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!!

The Alien In My Head

Today is a good day.  Work was surprisingly reasonable (no literal last minute calls), partner was awesome, met Hubbin on the way into the house in a serendipitous bout of timing and to top it all off I FINALLY get some fall weather in the form of a lightning storm of epic proportions.  All of this makes it feel like the perfect time to ramble about an amazing book I just finished, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu.  What is so amazing about this book (other then it's yellow cover)?  I will tell you, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Tao is an alien, and he resides inside the heads of various humans.  He and the rest of his race crash landed on Earth a zillion years ago and have spent the intervening years trying to find a way home.  This was made difficult by the fact that the aliens (or Quasing as their race is called) can only survive on Earth by hitching a ride in a living creature.  Our alien friends jump from one evolutionary step to the next until they get a hold of a couple of homo sapiens.  They find that these creatures can be led and guided to start producing innovations and inventions that lead the Quasing closer to finding a way home.  The aliens also note that violence and war tend to breed the best technological leaps and therefore lead their humans into the bloodiest of situations.  At some point a group of Quasing realize that they are essentially killing off their human hosts and try to find a more peaceful solution, even if it means a longer time to get home, if they ever do.  This group is known as the Prophus.  The rest of the Quasing decide that they are getting home no matter what the cost an form the Genjix.  The two groups wage a war using their vast knowledge and human hosts to try and promote their way.  This all leads to the Prophus Quasing Tao on a mission with his human host Edward.  Tao and Edward have shared a long and mutually beneficial relationship which is sadly cut short when Edward is killed.  When a Quasing host is killed, the alien is released (in fact the death of a host is the only way to leave a host...) and for lack of better host (usually a human host that is in the know has trained for years to become a host for a Quasing and is on hand when the old host dies) merges with a Chicago man by the name of Roen Tam, an out of shape, unmotivated tech worker who live with his roommate a newly graduated doctor.  Roen wakes up to a voice in his head and off we go as Roen learns to accept that Tao is real, not some psychotic hallucination and the history of both his own human race and Taos.  We then spend the next couple of chapters as they span months of Tao training Roen both physically and mentally to carry out the missions that are vital to the Prophus success.  Along the way Roen makes several new friends, some with Quasing of their own, like the attractive and lethal Sonya who carries Baji, a Prophus Quasing inherited from her mother.  Others are normal humans who have been recruited to the cause.  Much mayhem and madness ensues and Roen decides that he no longer wants to participate in the war, he is sick of the violence and the killing and the disregard of human well-being.  Tao gives him plenty of time to come around on his own, as he cannot directly control his host without an insane amount of effort and even then not for long.  Meanwhile Roen begins (with Tao's help) courting an old co-worker by the name of Jill, enjoying his stab at normalcy.  Roen eventually rejoins the fight and more madness and mayhem are read about resulting in the kidnapping of Sonya and Jill.  Roen leads a team with the duel purpose of rescuing the girls and halting some nefarious plan of the Genjix.  Sadly, despite their best efforts Sonya is killed and Bali takes up residence in Jill.  The battle is won, but the war still rages on and the surviving peeps go on to continue the fight.

Whew that was really long, but the book was very complex in a very readable way and the synopsis does it very little justice.  So just what was it that made me love this book?  I think I like how realistic the whole thing was, yes we are talking about symbiotic, near immortal aliens...but it all made so much sense.  I'm gonna focus mostly on Tao and Roen.  Roen is a slightly overweight, junk food snarfing, slogging to work, living a dull life, scared of moving on, jaded guy.  We see this guy all the time, a guy who could be smarter, fitter, happier...but for some reason does not put in the effort.  This is a character the vast majority of us can relate to, which makes it easier to accept the bizarre alien in his head.  The juxtaposition of the two characters is what makes this book so very readable.  They get to know each other over a span of time, they take an even longer time to learn to trust one another, and it is very clear that while Tao is the brains of the operation, he does not control Roen.  All the choices that are made, are made by the man.  The alien has its influence, but human nature tends to take over in the end.  This idea appeals to me on many levels.  The first one is that this is not an easy cop out plot device, an alien does not come and make Roen magically awesome.  Roen has to work and work hard AND he has to choose to do so...given having an alien constantly goading you in your head in a way that is inescapable is a great motivator, still Roen makes the choice.  This is very apparent when Roen decides to step back and Tao holds his peace and allows Roen to come to his own conclusions.  In the matter of his personal life, Tao helps, but again lets Roen choose his own path with Jill.  Tao says he finds it important to let his humans have their own lives as that is what the Prophus are fighting for in the first place.  The interactions between Tao and Roan are awesome, they mostly consist of a very dry and sarcastic Tao goading his host into doing something and Roen snarkily coming right back at him.  The rate and speed at which Roen learns his various skills is fairly reasonable pace for a human...even with an alien backer and I love that his missions start out boring, easy and almost insulting and then progress.  I also really loved the flashback story telling that Tao does at the beginning of each chapter giving us a history without an info dump. Overall I think my favorite part is the plausibleness of Roen, and the other humans reactions in general.  So many times in a book I will think "what the heck, I would flip if that happened to me!" but the character reacts in a wholly unrealistic yet essential to the plot manner, pissing me off.  In this book Roen is allowed to have natural human emotions and reactions to the crazyness going on around him, making him not only readable, but relatable.   There is so much entertainment, action, spying, aliens, sci-fi, Chicago, Tai-Chi, awesomeness all written in a style that keeps you coming back for more.  I give this book 9 out of 10 code writers and recommend it to anybody who wants to read a well-thought out, entertaining, thought provoking, multi-genre tale of super cool.   Happy Reading Everybody!

SciFi Awesomeness!

Hey guess what?  Two ramblings in a row!!!  How did you get so lucky you ask?  Mostly I have a ton of books to ramble about and I am low on ideas for other blog posts...so ramblings it is.  Today is a ramble about one of my favoritist short story collections.  My baby sis read it, called me and said get it, get it right now, and through the magic of ebooks The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows edited by Jonathan Strahan was purchased, read and loved.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Ass-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld - Besides being by one of my favorite authors, this story is also about the love of a hard copy book.  In the future colonists have a severely limited weight they are allowed to carry on the colony ship.  The main character goes through some extreme measures to make sure he can take at least one intact book with him.  This just goes to show you I am not the only one with a physical attachment to ones books.

Orange by Neil Gaiman - Another one of my favorite authors contributes this quirky, strange awesome story told entirely through answers.  This is the story that made my baby sis call me and I am glad she did.  The story...if you can call it that is some sort of transcript where all you get is the protagonists answers to unknown questions.  It is surprisingly readable and has a great sense of humor.  I love love love it.

Repair Kit by Stephen Baxter - This whole story is a bit of a deus ex machina in a tongue in cheek way.  The whole story hinges on a box that can repair things by pulling them from the past.  The best part is whenever the mechanic is asked to explain the way the box works, he is tells them that it is unexplainable alien technology.

Anda's Game by Cory Doctorow - Our plucky and pudgy heroine of this story shows us that anybody can choose to do the right thing.  Taking MMORPG's to a whole new level this story gives us a whole lot of social commentary (without to much preaching) in the package of an ordinary girl and her ordinary family. This story has heart and that makes this story awesome.

The Dust Assassin by Ian McDonald - The biggest appeal of this one is that it is set in India.  The author does a great job integrating the future with the culture, customs and religions of this fascinating country.  The combination of this perfect setting and a heart wrenching, yet brilliant story make this a unique and wonderful addition to this collection.

Infestation by Garth Nix - Vampires, aliens, supersoldiers, everything a fast paced story needs.  This story takes an old school baddie, vampires and turns them into supersoldiers from another planet.  In the future these supersoldiers have gotten to Earth and the government allows civilians the chance to take them out...or die trying.  A fun twist on the vampire hunter story.

Pinocchio by Walter Jon Williams - The last entry in this collection deals with a society where children are limited because of over crowding and the ability to switch bodies at will.  The story examines what happens when you are young and basically immortal.  It is also a social commentary on our celebrities, child stars, and the flash in the pan fame the Internet can bring.

This collection is varied and wonderful and re readable (which is a huge plus).  It is technically geared towards the YA crowd and I think it fits the bill perfectly.  Many of the stories are a great jumping off point for discussions of various issues that affect people now and potentially in the future.  I recommend this collection to just about everybody and give it 9 out of 10 real books!

What is your favorite short story genre?  Is social commentary in a story good or obnoxious?  What is your vision of the future? How does one write a story in only answers?

Mental Quest

By the end of today I will have driven over 18 hours in four days, I have also finished some more books, so that kind of makes up for it.  One of the books is Yurth Burden by Andre Norton and is the second book in the duo book Children of the Gates.  I liked this one better then the first one in this duo, which is surprising 'cause when reading the descriptions the first one sounded much more appealing, but that just goes to show you why you should read all kinds of books.  as always SPOILERS AHEAD LOTS OF SPOILERS!

The Yurth are beings with significant mental powers that live an ascetic life in the unforgiving mountains.  The Raski lack the mental powers of their planet mates, but many live a much richer life then the Yurth.  The Raski hate the Yurth, most believe it is because the Raski fear and covet the Yurth's mental abilities, but it is not known when, or why this hatred was born.  We meet Elossa, a young Yurth who is on a pilgrimage that all Yurth make when they enter adulthood. This quest is one that changes the Yurth who have gone on it in some way, laying upon them a burden of knowledge that is not shared or talked about.  She follows an inner sense far past any where she has been before.  As she is traveling she finds that she is being followed by a Raski and at one point saves his life.  Eventually the two end up in a ruined city with one end dominated by a partially buried giant sphere.  When Elossa approaches it, it opens. Stans, the Raski informed her that he was the last descendant of the king who had ruled in the ruined city and that he was bound to find out what happened and take revenge. Unable to stop him, Elossa allows him into the sphere.  When she enters a voice tells her the story of her people.  Apparently the Yurth are a star faring race that roamed the universe in their giant sphere ships.  At some point the ship is damaged and through user error the ship crash lands on the city of the Raski, destroying it and spreading some sort of madness which results in the Raski reverting back to a medieval style of living.  The Yurth in penance for the unforeseen destruction take an oath to never again rise to the stars and to live an asture life.  They are scanned with a beam that somehow makes all this possible, while imbuing with the mental powers they currently have.  The Raski in their madness blame the Yurth for their reduced way of life and have hated them ever since.  Stans and Elossa decide that since this happened centuries ago that both sides are to blame, and both sides need to move on.  They decide to team up to try and convince both sides to let the past go and move on.  On their journey back, they encounter a cave of what I can only describe as evilness.  They find the old king, who had survived the destruction of the city by foul means and destroy him.  The story ends with the two of them deciding to continue their quest to get their respective races to move forward.

 I think I liked this book better because it made a lot more sense then the other book in this duo.  I really really liked the idea of exploring the various feelings and result that the unintentional destruction set off.  It was nice to have the "aliens" be a race of conscientious beings who felt so bad about their mistake that they doomed not only themselves but all of their decedents to try and make up for it, instead of the normal nefarious destructive aliens.  I loved how Elossa and Stans came to the conclusion that no matter what happened in the past, it was the responsibility of both races to move on and live their lives.  The pacing was interesting because their was a lot of introspection mixed with KAPOW pieces of action.  It may not be everybody's cup of tea, but I liked the mix.  The only real issue I had with it, is that we get the big reveal about half way through the book and then the rest of the book is the whole evil king thing...which I thought was not really nessecary.  I would have much preferred to see Elossa and Stans go to their people and start to try and heal all the wounds from the past.  This is defiantly a science fiction book written in the good style of the 70's which I love.  It is a bit trippy, a bit thinky, a bit spacey, a bit of everything I love about the old school science fiction.  I would give this book 7 out of 10 sargons!

What is your favorite style of science fiction?  Does science fiction always have to take place in the future?  Why did I wait so long to read Andre Norton?

Elves, UFO's And Dimensional Travelers

I have read several short stories by Andre Norton, one of the first female Science Fiction writers, but for some reason have never actually picked up one of her full novels.  This has been remedied by reading Children of the Gates, which contains two of her novels.  The one I will ramble about today is the first one in the collection, Here Abide Monsters.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Nick Shaw is headed to his lake house for the weekend to escape a bit of a difficult situation at home.  He meets up with a young woman named Linda and her Peke dog Lung.  She is headed to a friends house and has to drive a road known as the Cut-Off which seems to be responsible for various peoples dissaperances over the years including Nicks own cousin a few years ago.  Nick has a bad feeling and offers to escort Linda to her friends house.  The two encounter a wall of fog and end up in another world.  They meet up with a band of people from 1940's Britain and learn that they have ended up in a very strange world indeed.  The natives of the world seem to be creatures that come from Earth myth, the theory being that they may have slipped through the same portals that brought the humans to this world, thus creating the myths.  There also appears to be humans from every era and place on Earth roaming around, some more violent then

others.  To top it all off, an unknown alien race is running around in their spaceships beaming people up and capturing them in their ships.  As the group hides and runs and hides and runs they tell the new comers that at some point a man called the Herald will come from one of the big shining protected cities and offer them a choice.  If they accept his offer, they will be protected from the violent factions and the aliens, but they will become changed, something not quite human.  Nick gets captured by a medieval group, intent on violence and some arcane sorcery.  Eventually they leave Nick tied to a tree in the hands of some very vicious monsters.  The Herald appears and tells Nick that if he accepts his offer he will be forever protected and part of this fantastic world.  Nick asks for more time to decide and the Herald tells him he has his own power.  Nick discovers with great concentration he can create illusion and manipulate objects.  He is reunited with his group, who learn that they too can use this new found power to varying degrees of success.  Nick has another conversation with the Herald and also one of the group who had accepted the Heralds offer.  The two tell Nick that a great evil is coming and unless the humans accept the offer, they will probably not survive.  This is where it gets a little mushy and I'm not quit sure what happens, but in the end a lot of the group dies and the rest decide to accept the Heralds offer and the change that comes with it.

I have mixed feelings about this story.  It starts off really awesome, written in the style of the old school SciFi that I LOVE!  There was tension, excitement, monsters, UFO's, choices, action, everything that should make a great story...but it never really came together for me.  The characters seemed half formed, like they had a story to tell, but couldn't quit get it out.  The story also suffered from a lack of clarity.  The best I could figure is that this world has something bad in it and the bad is just compounded by aliens and roving bands of lost Earthlings and the only way to be able to survive is to choose to change into one of the native Elf type people.  That was it, except it wasn't told that simply, there were innuendos, hints, there was the tease of a greater story, of a bigger picture, of a vast universe, but the story never really delivered.  The imagery was beautiful, there were certain scenes and passages that really stuck in my head as truly stunning.  The beginning was especially good.  I like how she wrote the knowing dread of Nick as the wall of fog rolled towards him, I loved the descriptions of some of the native inhabitants of this alternate world, I have decided I really need to go find some of the fantastic creatures from this world and make them my pets. Also the cover was awesome!  Overall I appreciated the imagery, but wanted a story that I could follow.  I give this book 6 out of 10 portals to another universe.

Moon Wolf

Hello all, sorry about the weird posting schedule lately, but life has been a bit on the crazy side...and it will probably continue to be crazy.  I will still do a daily post, but no guarantee on what time the post will go up.  That being said, all the craziness has actually given me some extra odd moments to read so my TBR pile is finally dwindling.  One of the books on that list was the second book in the Lunar Chronicles.  The book is Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and it continues the story of Cinder, our cyborg lost Lunar princess and introduces us to Scarlet, a young farmer who turns out to have an interesting connection to Cinder.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Scarlet is frustrated, her Grandmere has been missing from their small town outside of Paris, France for several weeks and nobody seems to be taking it seriously.  She is doing her best to keep the farm that she runs with her Grandmere running in her absence while also pursuing leads to what may have happened to her.  On one of her deliveries she meets Wolf, a tortured and conflicted fighter.  He tells Scarlet that he wants out and wonders if she has a job for him on her farm, which she does not.  She heads home to find her estranged father tearing the house apart, looking for something.  When Scarlet confronts him, he claims that he had been captured along with Scarlet's Grandmere and had been tortured to try and get her to reveal something. He also reveals that the captors had a numbered tattoo.  Meanwhile back in New Beijing, Cinder has recruited a rouge American captain/cadet/fellow prisoner named Carswell Thorne to help her escape.  Using her new hand and foot implements that were smuggled to her in her cell, she and her new friend make good their escape.  This of course causes the current Lunar Queen Levana to freak.  She blames the Emperor Kai and tells him if they do not recapture Cinder then there will be war.  Cinder continues to learn to use her new found Lunar power of manipulating bio-electricity to get her and Thorne away.  Back in

France, Scarlet has found Wolf, and noted his tattoo, linking it with her Grandmere's captors.  She receives news that her father had died under mysterious circumstances and is more determined then ever to find her Grandmere.  Wolf decides to go with her and much running and hiding occur.  Wolf tells her that he is part of a pack, that he and his brother were taken at a very young age and trained and molded into these wolf like creatures.  Wolf himself is an alpha or top dog in his pack, while his brother Ran is a lowly Omega.  They run into Ran in the forest and a pretty brutal fight occurs, with Wolf coming out the winner.  He and Scarlet have a moment or five and then he reveals to Scarlet where her Grandmere is.  He begs her not to go on the rescue mission, stating it is too dangerous.  Scarlet is determined and Wolf agrees to go with her.  When they arrive at a bombed out museum/theatre and then the big reveal...Wolf turns out to be a Lunar and has lured Scarlet to the lair on purpose to try and get more information.  Scarlet is understandably hurt, angry and betrayed and now a prisoner.  Back with our cyborg Cinderella, she is trying to get some answers about her past, she stumbles upon some information about Michelle Benoit, who just happens to be Scarlets Grandmere.  They make there way to the farm, which at this point is empty and find a secret chamber.  Cinder then has flashbacks as she looks at all the equipment which kept her alive from the age of 3 to 11, this is why she has no memories of that time.  She was in an induced coma for 8 years while they repaired her burned and broken body.  Scarlet is questioned and imprisoned, while Wolf is praised for his deception and cunning in getting Scarlet to the lair.  Queen Levana decides to use her wolf packs (which we learn are Lunars taken at a young age and mutated into wolf like creatures that are ferocious and bound to a single leader)  that she has positioned all over the world to start a devastating attack on the humans and Wolf is given the honor of leading the Paris attack.  He is feeling remorse and a romantic attachment to Scarlet and slips her a key chip to help her escape.  She finds her Grandmere, who is in pretty bad shape and is with her when she dies.  Scarlet escapes and is saved from an attack by Wolf, who ends up killing his brother Ran.  Chaos ensues and Scarlet and Wolf end up with Cinder and Thorne in their ship and make good their escape just in time to watch Emperor Kai pledge to marry Queen Levana if she promises to stop the attacks on humans.  She agrees and Cinder realizes that she has to quit running and make a stand.  Thus ends book 2.

I am gonna put this out there right now and say I did not like this book near as much as I liked Cinder, the first book in this series.  The first book did a great job putting in every element from the traditional Cinderella story into a futuristic tale that mostly made sense (I am still confused over a lot of the Lunar stuff).  This book was a lot more jumbled with the story of Little Red Riding Hood (kind of) combined with the continuing story of Cinder.  I really enjoyed the parts of the book that dealt with Cinder and also liked the addition of Thorne who added some comic relief.  I was not as into Scarlet and her story, it felt a bit forced, like the author wanted to get another fairy tale into the series at the expense of the story.  Most of the whole Michelle Beniot helping rescue Cinder story could have been done with out Scarlet and Wolf, and Scarlet was a character I wanted to shake on a regular basis. Until the whole backstory of Cinders rescue came out near the end, I could not figure out what Scarlet had to do with anything...even Wolf had more of a direct impact on the Cinder storyline.  Again I felt like Scarlet was needless and the story could have been told with out her.  The book felt like nothing happened for 2/3 of it then all of a sudden EVERYTHING HAPPENED AT ONCE AND IT FELT LIKE I WAS READING THE BOOK IN ALL CAPS.  The "love" story between Wolf and Scarlet felt forced into a super short amount of time, and I could never get a read on Wolf.  Is he a tough, alpha Lunar who is willing to betray Scarlet?  Is he a sad little puppy who misses his mommy and

daddy, but puts on a good front?  Is he a depraved killer with a poets soul?  Over all he seemed a bit whimpery to me. I had to go back and read a quick synopsis of Cinder to remember what was going on, and I still don't have a great grasp on the whole Lunar thing...if they can manipulate everybody, and the Queen is especially strong, then why don't they just take over Earth in like, 5 seconds?  Why have a whole bloody war when Queen Levana could just ask nicely for the world and it would be handed to her? Are Lunars aliens or mutated humans? You definitely need to have read the first book to read this one as it is a direct continuation of the story and doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its own. I still love the combination of traditional fairytales and the future, I love the world that has been built and the technology makes sense, which is awesome.  Overall I am still into Cinders story and hope the next book focuses more on the over all story and less on forced characters.  I give it 5 out of 10 red hoodies.
How do you feel about sequels that veer away from the main story line?  Why do I feel the need to edit every book I read?  Do I sound like I hate everything all the time?

Christmas Aliens

I'm BAAAAACK!  Did you all miss me?  You did notice I was gone right... I had the best week ever.  Got to play with lil G, got to know baby L a bit better (they are both awesome little weirdos), got to see the WHOLE ENTIRE FAMILY and shared a hotel room with most of them.  Trekked down south to visit Mom and Dad J and continued to get spoiled absolutely rotten. Seriously best Christmas ever.  On top of all the family and the getting spoiled and the driving (so much driving!) I also finished four books and started a fifth Ahhh bliss. So get ready for many a rambling on a varied number of books.
 Since it is Christmas week I will start of with my new Christmas book, Miracles and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Williams.  It took me forever to find this years Christmas book, after last years disaster I was a bit leery.  I got this book on several recommendations and the fact that it was short stories which usually works well for me, oh and there was supposed to be a sci-fi element to some of the story's.  I started reading it all curled up on my MIL couch in my new fluffy spa robe (felt like being wrapped in a warm cloud) sipping a cup of egg nog infused coffee.  I have to tell you folks, this book was perfect.  I will start by listing some of my favorite stories.

Miracle-The title story is awesome, it references the classic Christmas movies, has an eco-friendly spirit who turns expensive dresses into leaves, a sweet and plausible love story, and just a bunch of Christmas heart.  A sweet story that perfectly walks the line between sentimental and hilarious.

Inn - This story has a completely different feel (in a good way) from the first one.  In this one a suburban soccer mom is faced with the original Christmas story in a very very real way.  Again combining a bit of a sci-fi/fantasy feel with a true Christmas story, loved every word of it.

In Coppelius's Toyshop - This story was a bit creepy and drives home the point that mean people who don't get the spirit of Christmas get what they deserve.  In this semi-horror story a grinchy single urban man gets what is coming to him when he snarls his way through the magical toy store of Dr. Coppelius.  Also I really want to visit this store!

Cat's Paw- This is the authors homage to the classic Christmas Mystery with a bit of a futuristic twist.  In our tale we have apes who act as humans, their sweet, smart and slightly naive keeper, an heir who is up to his eyeballs in debt, an animal liberation terrorist organization, a pompous detective and his assistant who just wants to get to his sisters for a country Christmas. This one is just really cool.

Newsletter- This is probably my favorite.  This is the first story I have ever read to successfully combine aliens and Christmas and still retain what makes both genre's/feelings/atmosphere so unique and special.  Somehow the author manages to tell a sci-fi story with aliens and research and conspiracy theories and STILL retain a feeling of holiday cheer, amazing!

I think what struck me most about this collection is the authors real love of Christmas.  A lot of authors in this genre tend to take a jaded and cynical look at the holidays, or completely discount the original story as impossible and absurd, but she really has a feel for it.  She successfully put out several stories spanning a ton of genre's and in each one kept to the feeling of Christmas without once getting overly sappy.  The author also obviously loves books and referenced so many amazing ones throughout her stories, some playing an important role, some just there because they are beloved books. Also her grasp on old school sci-fi movies is quit impressive. Her ability to mention Jesus and the Bible without being apologetic, but not falling into preaching territory is such a refreshing read compared to the over sanitized politically correct versions or purposefully inflammatory crap that has been out there around Christmas lately.  I understand the need to not offend...but if you don't like Christmas and all the parts that go with it, don't read Christmas books, problem solved.  Overall I loved, loved, loved this collection, I felt like it was written just for me being the Christmas loving, book adoring, sci-fi geek that I am, this hit the spot perfectly.  I recommend it for any body who loves both the tradition of Christmas and appreciates a twist on an idea.  I give it 10 out of 10 candy canes and will probably reread at least a couple of the stories every year.  Happy Reading Everybody!

What is your favorite Christmas story?  Do you like your Christmas stories in novel length or short story form?  Who would have thought combining aliens and Christmas would work so well?

Games Old And New

Just finished Future Games, a short story collection edited by Paula Guran.  I picked this one up because it had a cool premise of games of the future, and I was hankering for some good SciF, also I recognized a lot of my favorite authors names on the front cover.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I wanted more...new games, or altered games, or space games. While I did get a few of these, the vast majority of the stories were about traditional games, played in a fairly traditional manner with a couple minor tweaks, mostly the fact that they were played against aliens as a first contact.

Baseball was the dominating sport in this story with three of the stories being directly about baseball and another one it playing a decent roll.  There was also football and hockey played pretty straight across the board as well.  As I am not a baseball fan, and except for in Distance by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, the story was about the actual game, it got a little boring for me.  I guess with a title like Future Games I was expecting something a little more futuristic.  That is not to say there were not some great stories in here.

Will the Chill by John Shirley-The first story in this book was just like I expected.  A super athlete who hurls uninhabited planets against another competitor doing the same thing.  This definitely futuristic sport was cool enough to be a story in it's own right, but going inside this superstars head and learning about the results of his obsession with winning just put into the awesome category.

Man-Mountain Gentian by Howard Waldrop and Listen by Joel Richards-Both of these stories did a great job in taking something traditional (sumo and martial arts respectively)  and totally placing them in a different environment, one where the brain and mind were what won the matches for you vs the traditional brute strength.

Kip, Running by Genevieve Williams-This story was one of the few that really showed you a potential future Earth.  The story was fun, pacing was great and the fact that it was set in future Seattle didn't hurt at all.  I also liked the amount of character development the author managed to get into such a short amount of pages.

Name That Planet by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough-This one just cracked my up. An intergalactic game show complete with gooey aliens, a shiny toothed host and an intergalactic conspiracy.  I loved how familiar and alien this story felt all at the same time.  This is most definitely a future game :-)

Ladies and Gentleman This is Your Crisis by Kate Wilhelm and The Survivor by Walter F. Moudy-Both of these stories feature The Hunger Games like settings, long before that book existed.  In both of these stories the prominence of television, the callousness of the audience, and the government sanctioned murder/death all serve as chilling harbingers of a world not as far off as we would like.

Overall I found about every other story in this collection pretty great, which to me makes it totally worth it, but I have been known to buy collections for just one fantastic story.  I think that this book also shows that even if you are labeled (by yourself or others) as a SciFi Geek, Nerd, Dork or whatever that your interests can be wide and varied, that even that bespectacled Star Trek collector can be just as much of a beer swilling baseball fan as the next person. Overall I would recommend this book to SciFi fans, sports fans, or just people who like a glimpse of aliens playing baseball.

Starry Blue Apocolypse

Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert
Just had to put that out there 'cause I'm pretty sure the spoilers will be coming fast and fierce with this rambling of And All the Stars by Andrea Host.  I actually decided to do something different and try and write down all my reactions to the book, so here they are in the order that they were written.
Starry blue apocalypse (what a great post title), Apple green cavalry teeheehee, Noi, not the main girl character yet by far the strongest and yet most caring girl in the book, Fisher-Science Boy YAY!, Pan is a theatre guy and not gay, Nash is the hot athletic one and is gay, yay for stereo-type reversals, Tyler?, AHHHHH Alien boyfriend, ....ew?!?, Theodin :-)  Shakespeare and Peter Pan I may die happy, Oh...gees, Never knew the boy, The Host, Why are Aussie teens more mature?  No crushing Angst, eh happy/pat ending.

That my friends was pretty much word for word in order the thoughts I had time to jot down while reading this book...but what is it about you ask, well I will tell you. Be prepared for an epically long post!
Madeline wakes up in the rubble of St. James station, confused and hurt.  It takes a couple chapters but we learn that huge Spires of something have risen out of the earth at Earth's most populated cities spewing a cloud of glittering dust that may turn everybody into Edward Cullen...wait I mean we don't know what is going to happen with the dust.  Sydney Australia is one of those cities and this is just the beginning.  Madeline makes her way to her cousins (the androgynous cross-dressing, movie star Tyler) apartment and starts putting together what happened.  People are warned to stay indoors and try not to be exposed to the dust as they are not sure what it does yet.  Madeline gets a hold of her family and lets them know that she is safe.  Meanwhile her body starts to to weird things, like ache all over, giver a hunger like she has never

experienced, allows her to project and "shape" energy, and oh yeah it covers most of her body in a deep blue starry like substance.  After eating all the food in the apt.  Madeline goes in search of food and meets Noi, a baker who survived the initial dust dispersion.  She informs Madeline that the dust does one of three things, kills you, makes you Green, or makes you Blue, Noi is Blue like Madeline.  The girls run into a boy who appears to have fallen down the stairs and meet his friends, the beautiful Nash, the impish Pan, and Gav who drives and apple green Bug.  All of the boys are Blues and come from a boarding school where they are trying to help their fellow school mates recover.  After some practical other things being done, the boys and girls decide to band together, along with a young girl named Emily that they pick up along the way.  They start doing experiments, trying to figure out how to use their new found powers and keep enough food in the house to feed their new ravousness appetites.  Madeline, who is an introvert by nature, finds the best way to stay calm is to sketch and paint her new friends.  She is also attracted to the driven, calm and intelligent Fisher, who is doing everything he can to find out about the dust and the Spires.  Madeline and Noi become inseparable as friends, depending on each other far more then anyone else.  One day while experimenting with a large group of Blues at a local beach, huge white "kites" of energy start swooping in and possessing the Blues.  The group try and get away, but Gav is taken.

They acquire a new companion in the form of Min, a sarcastic, yet practical boy. They get away and move into an apartment with a secret office and rig up early warning devices.  Madeline finally acts on her feelings for Fish in an awkward but very sweet way, but they are interrupted by the Spire "singing".  By watching the news they find out that the possessed Blues are aliens called the En-Mott and that they are here for two years to settle primacy...whatever that means.  The humans are to turn over anybody who is Blue, and if they are not sufficient more dust will be released until they have enough.  The Green's it turns out are susceptible to the Spires and are essentially mind controlled by it.  This triggers a cycle of trying to figure out what to do, hiding and practicing.  It is discovered that some of the Blues (like Nash) instead of expelling energy actually need to absorb it from other Blues, these are called leech-Blues. Turns out that settling primacy means having several types of challenges, destroying buildings and humans in the process.  When one of the challengers turns out to be hunting Madeline down for being the strongest Blue, the group decides to head out.  They end up in a newly build hotel, and Madeline and Fish do the deed...several times (yay for teenage sex).  Madeline tells Noi that she has fallen in love with Fish.  The next day they are all captured and separated.  Madeline wakes up to an empty building and minimal food.  The En-Mott are trying to weaken her so that they can possess her.
 She runs into Fisher who informs her that he has actually been possessed the whole time and that she has never actually met the human half.  Understandably this devastates Madeline, but she keeps her head as the alien who now calls himself Theodin (yep after the king in Lord of the Rings) tells her that he has a plan to help her rid her world of aliens as he has come to love their group and want to protect them.  He makes her angry enough to "soul punch" the alien out of the body, killing the alien in the process.  She learns how to transfer energy into the human host so that he survives the transition and discovers that the host knows and remembers everything that happened while possessed (as my brother would say Awkward).  Putting aside her teen angst for later, Madeline and the newly released Fisher go and free the others, finding out the alien plans in the process.  I'm still not 100% sure what everything meant, but I did get that the aliens would come back every eight years, so just trying to wait out the promised two years wasn't going to help anything.  Using there new found fighting techniques the group (who have been calling themselves The Blue Musketeers) teaches the world how to fight of the aliens.  At the end Fisher tells Madeline that he does have feelings for her, and point blank tells her the difference between himself and the alien.  He gives Madeline the choice to come with him, or go with the other group.  Madeline chooses to see what happens with him.  The epilogue shows the group five years later, all with happy endings and a free if slightly torn up planet.

Whew, that was honestly just a bare bones plot synopsis, this book is so so so much more.  I loved this book, I couldn't put this book down, much work was not completed because of this book.  I think I liked this book so much because it was so gosh darn practical, especially for a young adult scifi book.  Let's start with the writing.  The first chapter of two totally confused me, it dumps you right into this confused, painful, wait did I just miss something moment.  At first I thought I had missed something because it was just like..what the hell?  This ended up working really well because that is exactly what our main character was feeling and right of the bat you had some insight into her new life.  I loved that other than glimpses here and there this story was mostly about the here and now, and a possible future.  The pacing of this book was really great, a mix between action, dialogue, humor, introspection and a lot of food. The author makes use of Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dumas, and Barrie in a way that fits beautifully into the story (I'm a sucker for an author who loves and respects other authors), and turning the group into The Blue Musketeers gave the reader a sense that the group found a way to be
cohesive. The words of course were vastly important, and this author does not shy away from words, but on the whole she is not overly flowery either, a very good balance.  On to the characters.  The characters were my favorite part of this book, the author did an amazing job making them seem authentic, everything they did or said seemed to make sense and have a real life motive.  Nobody was given words or actions just to further the plot.  The underlying feel of the group was that they were all friends, there was no unnecessary drama, no pointless misunderstandings, just a group of people who were trying to survive and along the way formed unbreakable bonds.  Even the romances were low key and plausible.  The main romance between Madeline and Fisher was even discussed as being the result of the situation, more than a long term development.  Madeline was a great main character (though I use that term loosely as almost all the characters were very well developed).  She was never the leader, never the most beautiful, her talent, while amazing, was not one that necessarily saved lives, she had a hard time not withdrawing and her tightest relationship was not with the boy she fell in love with, but the discovery of a best friend in Noi.  Noi was awesome, that is all I can say.  She is my favorite type of character, capable but willing to ask for help, strong and caring, bossy and able to bake.  She is the type that reminds you that you can be more then the strong, sexy shooter girl, or the quiet shy, yet oh-so-good girl.  Noi is as human as they come and I love her for it. Emily the young girl, full of young anger, this character really showed the difference a few years and some maturity can make. She was portrayed as 12/13 year old girl, not in the sense that she was whiny, but that her emotions would swing from clingy and scared, to unreasonably angry over the slightest thing.  I liked this contrast to the older more mature members of the team.  Fisher was a good character, possessed or not I loved the idea of the main romantic interest being a smarty mcsmarty pants.  Again he never belittled people for not knowing as much as him, and his joy came from learning, not so much knowing.  Nash was the perfect mix of strong and sweet, somebody who should

be around in any crisis.  Min...well we all know a Min, a guy who covers everything up with a sarcastic joke, but will be the first one to defend you when it comes down to it.  Gav was about as boy next-door as you can get, probably the most laid back character, willing to do what needed to be done. Then there is Pan, he is my other favorite character in the book.  He is constantly "performing" always quoting lines from plays and keeping the groups spirit up.  Tyler is the other character that is used in this book, though we don't get to know him very well as he is off-stage most of the time, but he is the epitome of staying true to oneself in the most extreme of ways, I'm not sure how effective this was in this type of story, but I'm glad he was in there anyways.  Overall the author figured out how to put in a ton of diversity, ethnic,
sexual orientation/identification, personality, gender, location in a manner that did not seemed forced.  The concept of the aliens was pretty cool, for some reason though, they kept reminding me of the book The Host (but that may be because of all the trailers that are out) I like that most of them had a complete disregard for human life, it made the killing of them easier to stomach.  I wish the history and current events of there race was a little clearer, but I don't think it mattered in the end.  I do however want my own dandelion dragon. The ending was a bit to pat and happy, but not implausible and after everything that had happened to these poor kids I guess they deserved a happy ending.  In case you couldn't tell, I loved this book and would recommend it to almost anyone.  I give it 9 out of 10 dandelion dragons.
What makes a book unputdownable for you?  How would you survive an alien invasion?  Why are Aussie teens so much more mature then American teens?