Book Report: Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest

I’m a proud nerd, one who grew up with the old classic stories of Orcs, Goblins, and all sorts of fun things that are cool now, but really weren’t at one time. But that’s another post. Anyway, before the geek inherited the Earth, we all read these cool stories where a cool hero would undertake a quest, usually an epic one to save an old timey land and a king, along the way he’d pick up a few companions, maybe shoot off a one liner or so, and save the world with a wink and a smile. 

But these all had one thing in common, they took place in the olden days of swords and dragons. What would happen to these worlds when time moves on (if it does… it’s up to the epic heroes to ensure that it does) and eventually things are in the modern age? How does a Minotaur use snapchat? What about Elves and what will they end up doing? 

Fortunately, Helen and Troy’s Epic Road Quest by A. Lee Martinez is here to answer all those questions. Or at least post them in an more entertaining manner than I was able to do in a few sentences.

Helen and Troy is about… well, pretty much that. Helen and Troy, two friends who set out on an epic road quest to save the world. Or destroy it. They don’t know for much of the novel. Helen is a 19 year old Minotaur who works at a fast food restaurant with her friend, the exceedingly handsome Troy. He’s very, very handsome because it’s mentioned on every page. One day, Helen’s elf-manager attempts to sacrifice herself to his god, and ends up being sacrificed himself and curses both Helen and Troy to go out on an quest to find the ancient artifacts that will bring him back into this world. Reluctantly, the pair takes up this mission. They get added along the way by the very official Department of Questing, which would have been useful in some of those other books I read. They’re also pursued by a group of Orcs who formed a biker club, but weren’t really sure about what to do with it until they’re asked to stop the pair. 

This book reminded me of all those old questing books I used to read. I mean that as a high compliment, actually. Despite the fact that it is sent in mostly present day, I enjoyed the throwback feel to it: the evil god appearing to two young questers, finding artifacts and needing them to move onto the next part of the quest, even the rules set forth by certain characters. It just all fit in with the book. 

I also enjoyed the humor in this book, particularly when it came to some of the more modern uses for older things. When the old god is first summoned, he appears using ground beef in the fast food restaurant because that’s all there was. The Sisters of Fate now own a knick-knack store, and Future is always off behind a counter somewhere, just out of sight. Even little moments, like Helen talking about how difficult it was getting shirts over the horns in her head. Martinez always takes time out to show a little bit of humor.

However, some movements of this humor fell a little flat. For instance, Helen refers to herself as an “Enchanted American” and every time she did I just sort of cringed a little. Also, if one refers to herself as an Enchanted American, I would have liked to have seen more regular Americans and how they react to a world with magic. Troy is supposedly “normal” but the reactions to his infinite beauty led me to believe that we’d get some kind of revelation that he was actually enchanted in some way. 

There’s also Helen, who very much dislikes herself because she is a minotaur. It’s explained early on that she’s one of the only of her kind to be so much of a minotaur, as it’s a gene that’s been passed down and she just happened to get it worse than her mother. But so much of the book is dedicated to how much she hates herself because she is so minotaur like, it can get kind of distracting. I understand that accepting yourself is part of the story, but her self-hatred goes up almost until the end, which I felt tok away from too much of the book. 

Overall, it was an enjoyable book, one I would pick up again, (if a bag malfunction didn’t require me to leave it in Ireland… enjoy it, whoever will read it next!) but I wish there was more questing, and a lot less self-loathing.

Book Report/Summer Movie Season Review: Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl

I’m about to do something that most respectable lovers of books and the English Language should be doing. And yet, here I am. 

This is a joint Bad Shakespeare Book Report/Summer Movie Season Review of the novel and the movie Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. Hearing that book was spectacular leading into a movie that was wonderful, I decided to read it on my trip to Ireland so that when I got back, I could see the movie and compare the two. (Writer’s note… although this is all the writer’s note… I am fully aware that a book is not a movie is not a whatever future medium is going to be invented that lets us actually interact with the characters and go up against Harry Potter and his plans to thwart the generous Lord Voldemort, but alas, I’m comparing the two in this case.) And I have to say:

What a wonderful movie. 

Which is a surprise, given that the book is so terrible.

(Oh, I also broke the rule about not giving my opinion until the end. This post is all about rule breaking.) 

Let me back up. Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl is about the titular “Me”, an awkward boy entering his senior year of high school named Greg Gaines. Greg enjoys flying under the radar and trying to be friends with all of his classmates while not actually being friends with them, thus avoiding the horribleness of high school. He does enjoy hanging out with Earl, whom he refers to as a co-worker, and making terrible remakes of movies that he shows to no one. One day, his mother informs him that one of his classmates named Rachel (some of the backstory is cut out in the movie, but he knew her when he was younger) has cancer, and his mom makes him go over and spend time with her. From there they become friends, and Earl starts showing the movies they made together to her, which cheers her up. Eventually, Greg is asked to make a movie about her. And Greg can no longer go under the radar. 

Ok, so I’m doing a dual review, I told you that the movie was great (I’ve seen it twice, two days in a row) and the book is horrible (when my bad wouldn’t close in Ireland, I left the book behind.) I should also note that one of the reasons I’m doing this as a dual review is because Jesse Andrews wrote both of them, which makes me wonder why one is so great when the other was so horrible. Actually it doesn’t, because of one character: Greg.

The story itself in both versions is narrated by Greg, who is the definition of awkward. Tall and lanky, he spends a lot of time making fun of himself. In the movie this only happens a few times because he can only say it to so many characters before someone stops and says, “hey, dude, stop.” In the book, which is told in first person, we don’t have that filter. So, a good portion of the book is dedicated to not only how much Greg hates himself, but also to how no one should be reading the book, and he constantly wants to hurt himself before he moves onto the next chapter. It actually adds another bad layer to the book and sort of starts to tell the story of a guy who needs psychiatric intervention well before he starts talking to a girl with Cancer. 

Then there’s the second part of the title, the “Earl” of the story. The movie tones down Earl in ways that are incredible, and make me like the character instead of flipping ahead to see when he is no longer on the page and I can mercifully count down to those pages. Earl is from “the other side of the tracks” naturally, so he’s poorer and has a tougher family situation than Greg. One of the better points in both the book and the movie is that Greg’s father is a layabout college professor who is constantly trying new foods, which touches upon Earl just wanting to eat. in the book he’s unrestrained, making crude jokes every other page and stopping the narrative a lot. In both versions he does dial it back around Rachel, but it’s too distracting in the book. The movie makes him a lot more likable character, someone who is good for Greg because he’s a genuine friend, not someone Greg can just avoid or pretend is a friend. 

Lastly… there’s the Dying Girl. Rachel. Hey, spoilers for the book and the film are in this paragraph. You’ve been warned. This is your chance to turn back now and oh… here we go. Obviously, it’s called Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl, and yes, unlike other titles that play around with the idea of the Dying Girl, this one delivers and they Dying Girl does, in fact, die. The situations are very different in the book vs. the film. In the book, she dies after entering a coma a few days after Greg’s movie is shown to the entire school, most of whom hate it despite the fact that he was pressured into making it. In the film, Rachel dies after entering a coma while watching the film with Greg, who has decided to show it to her after she enters the hospital and he was supposed to go to the prom.

The movie ending carries a lot more weight than the book. It also helps to exemplify the problem I had with the book and how the movie fixes all of that. The book ends with Greg trying to figure out just what it is that he learned from all of this, while the movie ends with Greg not really learning anything, but being deeply and profoundly affected by his relationship with Rachel. Having her die during the final screening of it helps to solidify just what their relationship meant without trying to turn it into something it wasn’t. Greg couldn’t fly under the radar. 

The book does everything it can to distance the characters as if it’s screaming “THIS IS NOT A TYICAL CANCER STORY! CHECK IT OUT!” Take, for instance, the ending with Earl and Greg. Both versions have them getting into a fight. Both versions have them reconciling. In the movie, they reconcile at the funeral in a quiet moment, and their future as filmmakers is left up in the air. In the book it’s announced they don’t keep making movies, and Earl is “insane” because Greg finally gets to know him, I guess not knowing him since he was a kid or since they made movies together. It’s just distracting to the overall novel.

It’s just odd, because I’ve watched movies from books. Typically, I can separate out the two. Hey, this wouldn’t work in a book because it’s a movie, and this wouldn’t work in a movie because it’s a book. This is the first time I’ve watched a movie and had it correct literally every problem I had with the book. All of them. The characters have more depth, Greg and Earl’s traits are reigned in, it’s more about the relationship between the three characters than about how terrible Greg is. (and in both versions, he’s kind of terrible, but the movie makes you root for him more, rather than by the ninth time he wants to hurt himself instead of finishing his book, you’re rooting for him to just slam his head in the door and get it over.)

So… go see this movie. Now. Like I said, I’ve seen it twice. Don’t read the book. It takes away from this beautiful creation. 

And I feel dirty as an English Major saying that. Not as a movie lover, though!

Movie rating: Nine out of 10.

Book Report 52 Project: The Future of Us

Let’s pretend you can go 20 years a back in time, and you try to describe Facebook to them. “So, there’s this website, right? And we all log onto it, and we can see how anyone we ever met was doing. Even if we met them in passing!” It might be hard to explain to them just how it works. If you talk about looking at it on your phone they’ll look at you funny, because even if they have a cell phone, they don’t have internet on it. Myspace and Friendstr are still a few years off. Even logging on tot the internet in a way that doesn’t sound like a cartoon is a pipe dream, or it means you have sound turned down.

And watch out if someone wants to use the phone. That just won’t happen.

That’s the concept of the Future of Us, a young adult novel by Jay Asher (who also did the excellent 13 Reasons Why… and you should probably read that) and Carolyn Macker. Josh and Emma are typical teenagers in 1996, when Jost gets one of those free AOL CD-Roms that promised the internet. If you didn’t live back then, they started out seeming exclusive, but they were EVERYWHERE. We eventually used them as frisbees and to thatch roofs. Anyway, because it’s a Young Adult Novel, Josh has feelings for Emma, and they’re close friends. He’s already admitted this to her, and they’ve started to grow apart because of it. But, of course, his mom makes him bring over the CD-ROM so she can start using the internet. She boots it up and sees… Facebook. Of course, it doesn’t exist yet, so what they see is a glimpse into the future. Now, each decision will lead to a new and different life for them, including one where they’re no longer friends. 

I actually really enjoyed the concept of this book, even if it did hit a lot of the cliche marks about love  and time travel. I really enjoyed it more for the role of Emma, and I felt she should have been more the central character rather than focusing dually on her and Josh. The whole “he’s her friend, he has a crush on her!” thing was a little cliche, and it took away from the core of the story, which was Emma learning her destiny, looking into the future, and finding out… she wasn’t really happy.

We don’t think about that a lot abut whether we’ll be happy in the future. Back when I was studying how to be a teacher, I would sometimes fantasize about zipping ahead magically 2 years into the future and becoming a teacher. I can even look back at my own facebook statuses, which include in 2010 being happy when I got the acceptance letter telling me I made it into the program. I didn’t know what the next five years held for me, that it would take me down this interestingly rocky path.

Emma is like that. She keeps logging onto Facebook each time finding a new and different future in front of her, some of them kind of dark and full of loneliness. She keeps hitting that button, hoping to find something different, but doesn’t even as she works to make things happen. Josh, on the other hand, is working to make things happen, but his story kind of skips over his own revelations.

But it is this uncertainty towards happiness that sort of strengthens her as a character. I wish the focus wasn’t so much on how she was going to (spoilers) eventually end up with Josh. Sort of like a reverse “don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”. She would see different futures where he ended up with someone else, and her own life growing more and more miserable. I feel the whole “Josh” thing was a bit of a letdown in the long run, because she didn’t really “learn” from it so much as just “didn’t want to see him with someone else.” And it’s unfortunate, because that weakened her a little bit, and took away from a brilliant character who wasn’t just a one note character at the start. The whole “Josh likes me” thing weighing with her heavily, and she was dealing with it.

I put this in the category of a “sorta wasted potential book” but at least executed really well. I liked the reminders of 1996, and the sheer insanity as they dealt with the things around them not knowing words like “Netflix” or the complexities of losing one’s phone. (The former is unlivable without, the latter is… well, absurd in its own way.) I just wish the focus had shifted more to Emma as a character, who was dealing with her own problems and seeing the result in real time, and not leading directly to a romantic payoff as the “reward.” 

I sound so jaded when I say it like that. Of course, though, I’m happy the two characters ultimately found love, I just wish it was through a different way. (Like maybe a flash forward to how she reacted when the REAL Facebook came into play.)

Overall, I think this is the first book I’ve read in this project that I don’t have extremely strong opinions about. Its worth a read, even if to get some more Jay Asher in your life (and you should) and it’s an interesting concept to explore. 

Book Report 52 Project: I Was The Cat by Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey

Think about the different between a cat and a dog for a moment. Dogs are fun loving bundles of energy that are happy to see you, and pretty much just want love. Cats, on the other hand, want you to bring them food and if do not bring them food fast enough, you probably will become their food. And yet, we’ve invited them both into our homes. We classify them both as “pets.” But one loves you unconditionally, and one puts up with your presence long enough to be fed, maybe scratched behind the ears, and sleeps 20 hours a day.

So the idea of a megalomaniacal cat as seen in Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey’s Graphic Novel, I Was The Cat is far fetched only insofar as it seems unlikely that a cat would be awake long enough to attempt to take over the world. 

I Was The Cat is the story about Allison Breaking, a blogger with problems. (Well beyond the stupid name, I’m guessing.) She is almost broke, and her blog “Breaking News” (Oh, NOW I get it) isn’t doing so well. So when she receives a phone call from a mysterious Burma asking her to write his memoirs, she can’t really refuse. Here’s the kicker: Burma is a cat. A cat on his ninth life, and he wants to chronicle how he, a simple house cat, has been wrapped up in many historical events, including romancing Audrey Hepburn and his stint running messages for the British in World War 1. He’s been a busy little animal.

Some of you may remember that I crossed paths with a book of Paul Tobin’s before… the sexually obsessed wasted premise Superhero novel Prepare to Die! I have to admit, I did a terrible English Major thing, and I judged a book by it’s cover. I walked into a brand new comic book store that apparently had been in a location in a mall (remember those, kids?) for a few months but for some reason I didn’t notice it. Upon my entrance, I was drawn to the graphic novel section and a book with a cat on the front. In the vague recesses of my mind, I remember hearing about this book, so I quickly purchased it. It was when I got home that I realized it was another Paul Tobin book. But, in fairness, I didn’t have a problem with the concept or writing of Prepare to Die! so I was willing to give this another chance.

Unfortunately, a lot of the problems of that book were here, too. (Not the sex part, thankfully. I don’t know I could have handled a sex-obsessed cat.) 

Let’s start with the good: this is a pretty fun book. It’s hard to go wrong when you’ve got what amounts to a James Bond type book but the focus is on the cat the villain is stroking as opposed to the man himself. It was interesting to see all of different lives of Burma, and how he was weaved within history. Plus, the characterization of Burma is awesome, he’s very aware of the ridiculousness of the situation. In fact, there’s an air of ridiculousness in the whole book, which I think is important. It’s when something takes itself too seriously that it becomes impossible to really enjoy. 

The art is pretty good, too. Dewey manages to work in his depiction of London as something that’s actually alive. There is always something go on in the background, people are talking, lives are being lived. It feels like the busy city that it actually is. He gets little details right that make the story worth reading. 

However… we need to talk about the ending. I’d say spoilers follow, but, well.. nothing happens.

The entire graphic novel feels like a prelude to something else. Or rather, it WOULD feel like a prelude to something else, if it was actually building towards something. In the story, it turns out Burma IS still trying to take over the world, having some complex scheme with food additives. Or something. There’s a spy trying to stop him, he doesn’t. And then the whole thing ends with Allison saying, ‘I’ll write your story” and, that’s it. Of course, she’s been with him the entire time, learning the story, so it’s not so much as a revelation as I felt the publisher messed up and put a page in the back that needed to be towards the front. This is not a revelation, it’s the plot of the freaking book. Or lack thereof. 

It’s unfortunate, but this lack of a climax completely brings the book down. It’s fun learning about Burma’s previous lives. I mentioned the Audrey Hepburn thing earlier, because it’s actually a really fun sequence. But like the rest of the book… it doesn’t really go anywhere. What could have been an interesting story about a cat and the world is just sort of… meh. 

Tobin has shown once again that he’s brilliant when coming up with some GREAT concepts with books, but in the end, he doesn’t know how to execute them. Maybe if we had more spy scenes. Or maybe it could have been focused more on Allison’s dilemma of whether or not to work for him. To me, this is the worst kind of book, because it wastes potential. I can handle a bad book. What I can’t handle is a book that manages to waste a great premise and spend more time trying to be mysterious rather than tell a great story, or hit upon some of the better jokes. 

So, should you read this book? I don’t know. Ultimately it’s an interesting book. Yes, there’s the “Breaking News” pun that is so difficult to get through. I can’t really recommend it too much, though. There’s a joke from the Simpsons that I frequently use when describing movies. It’s a hot day and they want to go to the movies. So, they pull up to the theater and see a sign that says “FREE AIRCONDITIONING WITH MOVIE!” I sue that to talk about movies that aren’t terrible enough to be called awful but not good enough for you to run out and see now. That’s pretty much of which this book is the equivalent. I guess I just expected more from a book about our kitten overlords.

Book Report 52 Project: The Global War on Morris

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. “They” whoever the nebulous “they” are can say that all they want, but at the end of the day you’re going to look at the cover and if it’s really appealing, you're going to go out and buy it. It’s just that simple. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. The person sitting next to you has done it. Which is why I wasn’t surprised when, on a cold day in December, I drifted over to a book called The Global War on Morris by Steve Israel. (Yes, the sitting congressman. No, I didn’t realize it at the time. No, still not really pushing my politics on anyone.)  I read the back and was immediately hooked.

The Global War on Morris is a book about… well, a global war. On Morris. If only it were that simple. The book is about a married, bored, pharmaceutical sales representative that gets wrapped up in a web of terrorism, late night hotel room visits, baseball, and a very angry computer named NICK. Morris doesn’t want a lot out of life, he wants to get home, watch baseball, order some Chinese food, and sit lifelessly on the couch with his wife. He does’t want to make waves. Ok, so occasionally he wants to flirt with the pretty receptionist at one of the offices he frequents. This flirtation eventually leads to Morris being on everyones radar, getting wrapped up in a terrorist conspiracy involving a terrorist cell in Florida, and eventually catching the eye of NICK and Vice President Cheney.

Yeah. It’s that kind of novel. 

The first thing that struck me about the book is just how funny it was. Even the scenes of Morris, sitting at home trying to watch the Mets, were full of fun, little observations. And a book that includes a terrorist cell has some deft writing to do if it’s going to be really enjoyable. A nice touch points out that weary terrorist Hassan will kill the American infidels, but until then, he will keep them dry has he works from his towel shack in a fancy hotel. 

The plotting in this novel also works a very interesting act as well. I’ve mentioned many times that yes, Morris is a man that doesn’t like to make waves. That would seem to keep him far away from the terror watch list… after all, what kind of man who’s life’s greatest ambition is to stay below the radar would end with him gathering the attention of one of the funniest, and sadly underused character in the novel, supercomputer NICK? The plot requires a series of connections, some of them very thin, but believable. For instance, NICK first notices Morris because of his illicit flirtings (and maybe a bit more) with cute receptionist, who had previously been on a date with a known drug smuggler. NICK puts these together, “pings” Morris, who is then pinged again when his daughter is arrested, etc. These connections are weaved very well, and it’s interesting to see how they are all pulled off. 

Sadly, though, that leads to the most glaring disappointment of this novel, the ending. I’m going to keep it spoiler-free, mostly because the ending is interesting at least, but all of the comedy, deft plotting, and all around fun of the novel is quickly sucked out when Morris is finally caught up to by various agencies that are out to get him. One of the funnier recurring gags are the sheer number of agencies just not talking to each other, and the resulting chaos. But it is almost as if Israel wanted to rush through the ending, rather than taking time to wrap up these stories. 

I was also saddened to see NICK, the computer, be used so little by the end of it. A great concept - chapters are written as NICK is given information, making little observations here and there, and then suddenly, NICK just goes away. 

Israel also uses a large amount of his experience on the hill to take shots at Former Vice President Cheney and George W. Bush. I felt overall these scenes were a bit “meh” and about 5 years too late. There was some comedy to be mined from all of this (and some of the Cheney scenes were actually really funny) but more could have been done to preserve the comedy that had been built up until these moments brought the book to a grinding halt. Overall not terrible, just wildly out of place in 2015. (the book was published in 2014. I’m not THAT behind in my book reading. Ok, I am.)

None of this should take away from the fact that the book is genuinely funny, and difficult to put down. I read it in almost one sitting, actually laughing out loud at a lot of parts. Again, Israel throws a lot of stuff into the little details, such as agency incompetence or just the fact that we don’t know who we are dealing with at all times. Overall, it’s an interesting experience. I may have to go back and read the book again, just so I can pick up on all the little details stuffed into its pages. 

Book Report 52 Project: The Death Cure by James Dashner (Spoilers!)

Endings are hard. Have you really told your story? Have you finished everything you want to say? Are you going to leave the story open or are you going to close everything off with the wave of your hand? I guess that’s why we have so many instances of the “end” of something letting us down. Or in the case of so many superhero stories, not really ending it and rebooting it for another day. In some cases, three times in 10 years.

I’m looking at YOU Batman and Spider-Man.

So, it is with that in mind that read The Death Cure, perhaps the best named but sadly, weakest of the Maze Runner Trilogy books (not counting the prequels. Yes. I’m getting to those. No. Not next week.)

Like it’s predecessor, The Death Cure picks up following the events of The Scorch Trials with Thomas locked up in a windowless white room slowing going mad as he awaits his fate. He’s cut off all telepathic communication with Theresa following the events of the Scorch Trials and her perceived betrayals. He is then removed from the room and is offered a chance to regain his memories but he’ll be cut off telepathically from Theresa and Aris. Also, as a stroke of bad luck, it turns out that as part of the variables not everyone was immune to the Flare, so sadly, poor Newt is now going to die. Then some stuff happens. More stuff happens. Eventually we will find out that there was a resistance to WICKED called the Right Arm (for reasons that are never made clear) and Gally who murdered Chuck in the first book has joined them. Then more stuff happens. Eventually, it’s back into the Maze for a few pages. 

I didn’t dislike this book, I still think the concept is really cool. A Flare pretty much destroys the Earth. A disease is released (spoiler: eventually you find out that it’s released intentionally). People live, stakes are high, testing is done. The problem is that I kind of felt like the conversation between the writer and the publisher went a little like this.

“Hey, love this Maze Runner thing. How much material do you have?”

“I don’t know. Maybe four or five books.”

“Ah.. you see, trilogies are REALLY hot right now.”

“So... you want a trilogy?”

“Bingo! Just cram what you’ve got into the end.”

The Death Cure is more of a mishmash of ideas that, and because I read this on a Kindle I’m not 100% percent certain about, but it felt this way, was way longer than the other books. The pacing clearly starts to break down at the end of The Scorch Trials, and then the rest of this book is just sort of like “the greatest hits of what James Dashner wanted to write, but didn’t.”

There’s the fact that Newt is not immune, and taken away. They spend time In Denver, which supposedly is a clean city, but is slowly succumbing to the Flare. There’s the whole Right Arm and Gally situation, which is VERY interesting, but only takes up a few pages. A group fighting the combined world’s governments? We don’t think this is interesting? There’s the storyline where Theresa escapes with some people, but... to where? She just sort of meanders out of the book so she can (spoiler) make her big sacrifice at the end and redeem herself. There’s the Immunes being slowly kidnapped... then put back into the maze as a way of keeping them safe. 

There’s easily two half books contained within the Death Cure, and I wanted to read them, not have them put off to the special wonderful mini-book that I’m sure may be coming out. James Dashner spends a lot of time coming up with this fantastic dystopian world that has recognizable elements and isn’t left vague... it’s frightening and realistic all at the same time. And there are some great concepts, particularly the revolution, which I talk about more in this review than is mentioned in the book itself. 

The book and the story ends (spoilers again... I can’t talk about this without talking about the ending) the immunes being sent into a new area (a new “Glade” if you will) to rebuild society, and the whole thing turning out to be a setup from WICKED. Which also negates almost the entire need for the Right Arm subplot, since they’re trying to stop - what - them from just giving up?

The best moment of the book is Newt. No longer immune, the once important leader and “glue” of the group is removed, and is slowly succumbing to the effects of the Flare. The stakes are raised further when it is revealed that Thomas, holding the cure to the Flare in his brain, will have to be sacrificed. There’s a tension that I wish could have been explored more, especially with the way that Thomas feels responsible for Newt’s condition, including his limp, when it’s revealed as to why he has that as well. 

The really funny thing is that with all the Young Adult Movie adaptions coming out, the adaptors of this movie have said that they will not be splitting the movie into two parts, such as done with Hunger Games and eventually, Divergent. Which is sad, because this did require some splitting, and expansion of some excellent ideas. I really wish Dashner had gotten the opportunity to finish them. This needed more. Maybe some of my questions will be addressed in the prequels? I hope so. It’s an interesting concept that needed the extra time to be fleshed out.

So, I’m recommending you read this trilogy, but I’m also recommending that someone, somewhere, come up with a good ending at some point to a book series.

Book Report 52: The Scorch Trials By James Dashner (The Maze Runner Book 2)

      Sequels are interesting creatures. On the one hand, they provide a follow up to adventures we’ve already experienced. On the other, they can follow up and tread old ground, rehashing old plots, and in the case of The Hangover part 2, entire movies. But there’s also an odd need for sequels in some cases, a chance to return to visit familiar faces and catch up, see how they are doing.

            Then there’s the damn part two of a trilogy.

            Part two of a trilogy is always a difficult beast to tackle. It’s not really a beginning, but it’s tasked with introducing the reader to new characters. It’s not really an ending, because the ending is coming and it’s just not in this book. So it occupies a weird middle ground where it has to justify it’s own existence: it has to tell a part of a story, make it feel complete, but it’s not really going to answer all your questions  and you have to tune into part 3. Done right, it’s a beautiful addition to a story that advances characters, plots, and developments. Done wrong, and you get The Twelve. (The second book in the Passage Trilogy.)

            I’m happy to report that the Scorch Trials manage to tell a complete story, advance the plot, and doesn’t spend much of it’s read time undoing everything we’ve just in the Maze Runner. Which is good, mostly because I was a little hesitant in going into this one, given the cliffhangery nature of the first book, and the cliffhangery nature of this book as well. Fortunately, it features a lot of running, but very little maze, and much more intrigue. It’s a shame that the movie version is going to blaze “THE MAZE RUNNER PART 2: SCORCH TRIALS” over the title, because it features very little maze running.

            This book picks up almost immediately as the first book ends, with Thomas and the surviving Gladers being taken away by a mysterious group from their even more mysterious group that imprisoned them in a giant maze. Oh, yeah, spoilers I guess. But if there’s a Maze Runner 2, and it doesn’t feature the title “Maze Runner”, you can probably safely assume that they did, in fact, escape the maze at some point. So it’s not really spoilers unless you didn’t pay close attention.

            Moving on.

            Thomas and company spend a few nights in a barrack type place when suddenly, the nature of the Maze becomes clear: It’s a test. It turns out that some flares scorched the Earth, then after all the Earth Scorching a virus was accidentally released, and now the surviving world governments created a group called WICKED in order to try to find a cure for this disease that turns people into zombie like creatures. Or destroys their brains. It’s tough to describe. The virus attacks their brains, so only by putting people in extreme danger are they able to map out a cure.

            Anyway, so Thomas and Company learn that the Maze was just part one, and now they’re being given over to part 2, the Scorch Trials, which involves walking across a desert. (Hence the “scorch” part of it.) They also have to deal with the fact that it turns out there was more than once Maze, and that just across the way was a gender flipped version of events: all girls, save for one boy, with whom Thomas can now share thoughts telepathically with Theresa having been taken away to join the girls group.

            Whew. That’s a lot.

            First the really good: This does not just tread old ground, like I said. There’s a new group dynamic, and new mysteries. For instance, odd tattoos that show up on the back of several of the boys, including pointing out that one is the leader, one is the glue, and one is going to be killed by group B. There’s also a lot of danger, a few of the boys are wiped out in the first few chapters of the book. There’s also a good sense of just how far in the future this is, what with teleporters and invisible forcefields being a normal part of the operating procedure, while at the same time introducing the characters who have no memory and have been living off sticks and mud for several years are now reacting to the technological changes, so it makes the explanation of events seem organic rather than an odd conversation into just why someone who would grow up with the technology need to take time out to explain it to us.

            There’s even a pretty cool moment where a gun is used, and infection spreads because guns have been obsolete for so long that the rust is able to infect someone. Nice little touch.

            The writing style, like the first one is pretty quick paced, descriptive without spending too much on drawn out moments that are padding. A lot of jammed into this book, and that is easily felt looking back at it, but not at the moment.

            The only real downside of this book is some of the melodrama associated with some of the characters. Thomas and Theresa are best friends who can read each other’s minds, even if they can’t remember too much about each other.  They’re on the run from a god-like government entity that literally made one character kill another character in the previous book (also spoilers… I guess) and built a giant maze that kept people trapped inside for years. So… when Theresa is visiting Thomas in his dreams telling him to trust her, maybe he wants to do it instead of spending so much time debating what she wants. These parts of the book drag, which is a shame because it takes away from the sheer awesome of evil corporations, world changing catastrophes, and sun-zombies.

            There’s also the addition of a new character and obvious love interest for Thomas, Brenda. She’s an interesting character in her own right, but she’s constantly framed in her feelings for Thomas. Since the narrative is told strictly through his eyes, how do we KNOW she has feelings for him? Because she spends a large section of the novel throwing herself at him like she had a fatal disease and kissing him was the only cure. (Of course, that’s a bad example, because she may or may not actually have a fatal disease.) But this could have been toned down a little bit because it comes out of nowhere, and again, adds needless melodrama to an already jam packed book.

            Overall, this is a great second entry, but does suffer from what I said in having no real beginning, and then again no real ending because everything is going to be wrapped up in the Maze Runner 3: The Death Cure, which hopefully will feature more Mazes than this one, which was oddly maze free for a Maze Runner book. I am looking forward to reading the next entry, which I guess means that this one did it’s job, but I’m interested in seeing how it fits in with the entire trilogy when the series is done.

            Keep in mind, I’m not including the two prequels when I talk about the trilogy, as I consider them separate from these books. Although I’ll probably be covering this as the year and Book Report 52 continues.

Book Report 52 Project: A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King

I love comic books and superheroes.

I know. You’re shocked. Shocked. Unless you don’t read this blog regularly, then it may be a bit of a surprise, I guess. But this love of superheroes has given me an odd quest, and that’s to find a great superhero novel, which seems to be increasingly difficult to do. I thought I’d found it last year with Paul Tobin’s Prepare to Die!, but I found it mostly to be a fantasy of an oversexed superhero rather than the compelling portrait of a superhero that has accepted his mortality and just given up. 

So, when I heard about another superhero novel, A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King I was very intrigued. All of the superheroes in the world, giving up their powers to fight a mysterious calamity, except one! A hero, the Ultimate, sacrificing his life with all of those powers to stop this calamity, creatively named “The Blue.” (Not making that up. The big problem is a color, found readily in nature.) One hero refuses to give up his power, and to make the twist even better, it was PenUltimate, the Ultimate’s sidekick! And, despite the fact that he refuses to give up his powers... he’s retired! What could have caused him to retire? And what of all the super villains? Will they take advantage of this superheroless world? 

Here’s where I talk about another issue that plagues me. You see, unlike most people, I can handle something bad. A bad book? I’ll still slog through it, because even in it’s badness there’s something good, even if it’s enjoying how terrible it is. I remember one particularly bad novel called April and Oliver that was terrible, and yet, I managed to make my way through because I could appreciate it. Bad movie? Hey, there’s a certain fun in calling out just how terrible it actually is. I didn’t enjoy Transformers 4: More Explosions and Inappropriate Glances at a 17 Year Old, but hey, I could appreciate that it’s still giant robots wailing on each other. 

No, what I can’t stand is something that wastes it’s potential. Star Trek: Voyager is my least favorite Star Trek series not because it was bad... I still enjoy the characters and the acting is decent... I hate it because of the wasted potential. They could have done so much more with Captain Janeway and her crew.

This brings me back to A Once Crowded Sky. I didn’t hate it because it was a bad book. I hated it because it wastes every potential to shoehorn a superhero story into a fable about the war on terror. And fails. So miserably. 

As mentioned, the book focuses on a world where all heroes are tasked with giving up their powers to a vaguely described energy burst that is destroying the world called “The Blue.” The Ultimate sacrifices himself, and his sidekick doesn’t give up his powers because reasons that are never fully explored, because he retired for reasons that aren’t fully explored, and people hate for all of these reasons. If you’re worried that the novel will spend too much time on it, don’t, because the novel spends almost no time on it. There’s one former superhero (that only shows up at the beginning in a very awesome scene, and then at the end because oh, crap, she’s barely mentioned in the rest of the novel and we have to wrap up her story somehow) that seems vaguely mad Pen (as he’s known) but we find out in her brief scene that she’s his ex, which brings in many other connotations to the scene.

There is also the Soldier, who knows the secret behind the “virus” that caused all the super villains to kill themselves when the Blue (God, I hate typing that as a real problem for people to solve) struck. (Spoiler: He did it. And he’s wracked... WRACKED with guilt about it for a few scenes. Easily two.) Don’t get me started on his supernatural sidekick that may or may not be the actual devil and despite the constant appearances and so much potential for the nature of evil and what’s right in a better novel, makes no sense here. Just... none.

The other problem that this novel has with trying to tell a superhero story in a novel form is the fact that it’s too clever for itself. Chapter titles are given using Comic Book Titles and numbering... and there’s a character who can see the future and writes it all down in comic book form. Not drawn comic book form, mind you, but as a writer writes the comic book form, lest you forget that this is based on a comic book. He’s also the only one who knows what the Blue actually is, and for a while it appears that the threat is comic book itself, but... yeah.

The other thing that needs to be addressed is the very repetitive nature of this novel. Not just in form... no, paragraphs get repeated to the point that you can skip entire sections without missing a beat. But also scenes. Entire. Scenes. Not even in a way that is satisfying or to make a point. But let’s take the main hero, Ultimate, and his creation. Once again... spoilers... but you find out that he brutally murdered Pen’s parents while under the influence of an evil villain, and he also brutally murdered another kid’s parents who becomes the super-future seeing guy. He brutally murders so many people that this book that by the end you have to wonder what a “hero” is.

Ultimately, that’s what makes this novel not so “Bad” but “Frustrating” because it wastes so many good ideas... a world without heroes... what does it mean to be a hero... hard decisions... in such a glossed over manner. If Pen has retired, then why does it matter if he gives up his powers or not? What about the countless other superheroes who have given up their powers... how are they affected? There’s an entire sub-plot where Pen is being monitored that is removed in five seconds after the Ultimate brutally murders the guy who’s watching him... why is this dropped? What about the villains? Or the nature of evil. Last week I talked about a novel that starts off in the modern world but then invites you into it’s strange world. A Once Crowded Sky is content to remind you every few minutes that you’re reading a novel, and hold you away from the world at arm’s length. And that may be the most frustrating thing of all. 

       The Quest for a Good Superhero Novel Continues...

Book Report 52 Project: Into the Night by Suzanne Rigdon

  Quick Programming Note: I like to read. I haven't been able to read much over the past year because I got lazy, and I like to make excuses as to why I can't read, despite the fact that I love to read. To challenge that, I've given myself an assignment: I'm going to read 52 books in 2015. That's one book a week, outside of Graduate School. And I'm going to hand over Fridays on Bad Shakespeare for my Book Reports. So welcome to the first installment of the Book Report 52 Project on Bad Shakespeare. 

   Vampire novels nowadays are hard. They've been examined, re-imagined, pulled apart, put back together, made scary, rebooted, made unscary, rebooted again, slayed by cheerleaders, loved by cheerleaders, turned human again (shang-shu to those who know), battled werewolves and zombies, parodied, defanged, refanged, loved, hated, time travelled, hunted by former presidents, young adulted, fan ficitioned, turned into movie after movie after movie... if you name it, it's probably been done. Except maybe in space. Have vampires been in space yet?

   Note to self: check and see if Vampires have been in space yet. If not, write a million dollar book idea. Ka-ching.

   It is with this in mind that I went into Into the Night, the debut novel by Suzanne Rigdon. The idea that Vampires were everywhere and new versions were hard. And on paper, it's there's not a lot new introduced into this novel. Girl meets hunky guy? Check. Girl goes on date with hunky guy? Check. Hunky guy turns out to be undead creature of the night? Check. Girl becomes vampire? Check. Girl becomes embroiled in classic underground struggle between the Vampire Queen, jealous lovers, and hunky guy. Well, check, but I guess that's less of a cliche.

  Into the Night tells that story... the story of Selina Baker, a coordinator for a Boston-based nonprofit, who goes out one night with her best friend, Jess, then meets James, goes on a date with him, and is attacked while trying to get ice cream. Turns out James is a vampire, and she's soon drawn into a fully realized vampire world, one that feels lived in... which is nice since most vampire stories tend to just say, "VAMPIRE" and then leave it at that. Selina finds herself at odds with the Vampire Queen, and drawn into a dangerous world.

  It should be noted at this point that I really enjoyed this novel, despite my initial fears that it was going to be "just another vampire novel." The best thing about this novel is that it doesn't attempt to really re-invent anything, but it expands upon it, and creates a fully realized world.

  The novel itself starts out kind of slow. Yes, when you know that there's going to be Vampires and supernatural stuff, there's an element of "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?" type expectations, but what Ms. Rigdon is playing towards is her strengths, and that's not just dropping random characters into a Vampire story and trying to invent some kind of new Vampire or twist on it. It's a slow build, and allows the reader to really enter the world.

   I keep using the phrase, "Enter the world." That's important for me as a reader, and I don't think enough people focus on. There's going to be another novel I'm going to review on here that doesn't allow that entrance into the world, and just sort of expects everyone to think "hey... this is happening" and it works to the detriment of the novel itself. Ms. Rigdon works hard to establish a world that is at the same time realistic, but allows fantastical elements to co-exsist. Most of the main characters are fully fleshed out.

   The other standout feature of this novel (and this is standout) is just how creepy the Vampire scenes are. Too often, in other novels, the danger in these scenes is tuned down. I've never been sucked in (get it... sucked in... Vampire novel? Hey, they aren't all winners.) by the sheer creepiness of these scenes, or the danger associated with them. You want some good scenes where the main character actually seems in danger rather than, "oh, it's a novel, she's going to be ok?" Yeah, check this out. It's listed as "urban fantasy" but it's really more of a horror novel. Ms. Rigdon has some serious chops when it comes to writing truly scary scenes.

  My only real complaint is a little variation of what I said before, and that's the very start and the very end of the novel itself. The novel starts slow - like I said, Ms. Rigdon's strengths really lie in the horror aspects of the novel - so some of the earlier scenes where Selina spends a few paragraphs picking out an outfit tend to go on a little bit. There is a payoff when these details become important later on, but it can be a little bit to get through when you don't realize there's going to be a payoff.

  Also noted is the ending... it's a cliffhanger, folks! That's not a bad thing (I could have read 200 more pages with these characters, and when the sequel comes out I certainly will) but it is a bit abrupt. Thankfully, most of the main plot points are resolved, so the cliffhanger plays more like a preview for the next novel rather than a major continuation of this one. But I find it important for anyone going into a novel to know if there's a cliffhanger ending, because some people care. Again, this plays of more like a strength than an annoyance. Plus, it helps that the seeds for the cliffhanger ending/sequel novel are placed throughout this novel, rather than "hey, look... I'm going to end it here so you can buy part 2". It's a natural extension. You know, like what a cliffhanger is supposed to be.

   I'm a fan of vampires, and I do enjoy seeing some of the interpretations that are out there. The bottom line is I would highly recommend this novel to people who want a mix of things familiar, but told in an amazing way with some excellent writing, and world-building that never seems forced or phony. Check this novel out, you won't be sorry.