Book Reviews – Page 150

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card

July 23, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: A very special boy can see the paths of everything that has ever lived. And he is not just any boy. But he does not know that yet.

Orson Scott Card is both blessed and cursed with being able to write books about very gifted children better than anyone I know. It is a blessing because with few exceptions his books are very good.

The negative is that his stories are reminiscent of each other, even when they have different settings and genres. Pathfinder is more fantasy (at least in the first book) than science fiction or dystopian. There are two storylines that do not quite merge in this book. I assume that we will learn more in future books.

What I think is happening is that a colony ship from Earth (the first one) had something unexpected happen when they tried to move through a fold in space. Instead of jumping something odd happened. We really do not know for sure what happened through most of the book.

Spycatcher by Matthew Dunn

July 20, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: A super spy saves the United States from a really bad terrorist.

Spy novels, with very few exceptions, have the same basic story line. There are bad guys (modern spy novels it is usually either China or Islamic terrorists, old spy novels it is the Soviet Union or other Eastern Block countries).

The spy does a lot of bad things, but he (and it is usually he) feels bad about them, wants to quit but has to keep doing the spy things to keep the world safe because no one else can do the job as well as he can.

There are twists. One of the good guys is actually a bad guy, one of the bad guys is actually a good guy, or something like that.

Grave Peril (Dresden Files #3) by Jim Butcher

July 18, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Dresden and a ‘Righteous man’ fight the latest set of nasties in order to protect Chicago from vampires, ghosts and more.

It is always interesting to me that once I start working on a reading project, suddenly books that I thought would have no connection to the project get connected. In this case, Harry Dresden, the only wizard in Chicago, has started regularly working with Michael. A righteous man that has been chosen as The Fist of God.

Dresden explains to another character that Michael’s power is because Michael is a righteous man. His faith in God and simple, humble righteousness have a power that Dresden as a hard working wizard doesn’t have access to.

Throughout the book God’s power is present, not as magic, but a protective force for the innocent and righteous. Of course, Michael and his family and friends are Catholic. The books is set in Chicago, a very Catholic city, but more important, the ritual and rites of the Catholic church lend themselves to being written about like this.

The basic story of this book is that something or someone has been stirring up the divide between the real world and the NeverNever (the spirit world). So Harry and Michael keep running around stopping Ghosts and demons and other nasty things from hurting or killing people.

The Last Guardian (Artemis Fowl #8) by Eoin Colfer

July 16, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Artemis is cured and life is good. But Opal Koboi has figured out yet another way to escape and this the her target is not just power, the the destruction of all humanity. I started reading the Artemis Fowl books last fall. I was looking for another fun quick young adult series and I … Read more

Matched by Ally Condie

July 15, 2012 by Adam Shields

Today’s Kindle Book of the Day for July 15. On sale for $2.99. I am reposting the full review.

Takeaway: A romantic cross between Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Hunger Games without the violence, Wrinkle in Time told from the perspective of the people of Camazotz and the determinism of Asmov’s Foundation series.

All of the recent young adult dystopian novels must be speaking to some cultural current. It is not just the good writing (although I really have enjoyed Hunger Games and Divergent and Cory Doctorow, etc.). I think at least part of it is the loss of privacy that comes about with the rise of Facebook and Twitter and computing in general. Probably the weak economy and general feeling of government unresponsiveness is another part. But there seems to be something more that I cannot put my finger on.

Matched by Ally Condie is set in a future utopia. The ‘Society” lives in peace. Everything is predicted and controlled by the ‘Society’. The protagonist is Cassia, a 17 year old girl about to be ‘matched’ to her future mate. The Society is large and controls everything, from the meals you eat, to your free time activities, to the date of your death.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

July 13, 2012 by Adam Shields

I am on vacation at the beach this weeks so I am posting some older reviews of books that make great beach reads. I finished the last Artemis Fowl book this week and will post the review next week.

Takeaway: Root for the bad guy, because he is a 12 year old mastermind genius

I did not read these when they first came out. I am glad that the series is almost done. It is easier to read that way.

Artemis Fowl is a 12 year old genius. He also happens to be from a very long line of thieves. Previous to the book, his father went missing (died?) and as we meet Artemis he is leading the household with the help of his assistant Butler. His mother is grieving over his father’s loss and has had a break with reality. She often does not even know who Artemis (or anyone else is). Butler’s sister is his mother’s maid and caretaker.

Finding Juliet by Frank Sennett

July 12, 2012 by Adam Shields

I am at the beach this week. So I decided to post some of my favorite beach reads instead of writing new reviews.

Summary: Classic guy meets girl romance with a slight literary twist.

Today is my last day at the beach while on vacation. I just have not been reading much this vacation. Instead I have been playing Scrabble and Words with Friends and hanging out in the room. (I break out in hives if I put on too much sunscreen, so I have to limit my sun exposure to a couple hours a day.) I have mostly been reading church focused stuff but not finishing anything.

Yesterday, I gave up and decided to just go fiction. So I looked through my long list of fiction books that I have picked up free from Amazon and pretty much at random chose one. (The cover image on the left was different when I originally picked it up. I think when I got it, it was a statue of Juliet. This cover looks like it should be on a vampire book.)

Finding Juliet is a classic beach read. A light romance without a ton of mental content. The set up is a recently dumped Literature Grad student writes a letter to Juliet (from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) as a class assignment. The letter is chosen best in class and sent to the Juliet Society in Verona. A letter is written back and soon the guy decides to travel to Italy to meet his Juliet.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (Second Review)

July 6, 2012 by Adam Shields

Note: Bookwi.se contributor Emily Flury posted a review of this book earlier. This review is from Adam Shields.

Summary: A humorous satire about a group of teen beauty pageant contestants that crash land on a deserted island and have to figure out how to survive.

It is summer. And I am mostly in a mood for vacation reading. Vacation reading for me is funny, usually light, reads. I often lean toward young adult or action/romance or maybe some fantasy books during the summer.

After reading Emily’s review, I picked up Beauty Queens from the library on audiobook. This is a book that I think needs to be listened to. I have not seen a paper copy, but I have no idea how it would properly communicate the story the way that the audiobook does. There are commercials, flashbacks, pageant background interviews, not the mention the actually story line. In audio form, it works really well.

This books is satire. A group of teen beauty pageant girls crash land on a deserted island. All of the adults and chaperons and most of the pageant contestants die in the plane crash. But a small group of them survive and have to figure out how to live on a deserted island.

King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight (Read Again Post)

July 5, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Asserting that the Gospel is about Jesus, does not minimize the need for salvation, the need for evangelism, the need for social ministry or God’s transforming power.

In my desire to expand my knowledge (and keep myself entertained), I read a lot of books. In my head, I know that many times I need to ruminate on a book more to really get the point and put into practice what I have heard from it. But too often I just keep reading. After all I have a blog to write.

So I made a goal for myself to re-read one book a month. I suck at meeting goals. I have only re-read 10 in the last 18 months and only 2 this year. But when I re-read, I like to read in a different format. The first time I read King Jesus Gospel I read it on my kindle. This time I listened to the audiobook.

First things, first. I think this is a very important book. I think that the message, that we need to place Jesus as Savior, Lord and Messiah and full-filler of the story of Israel, is vitally important.

Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots by Scott Hahn

June 29, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: The more I explore Catholic belief, the more it pushes me to think about my own beliefs.

If you have not noticed, I have been reading about Catholic theology, practice and conversion lately. This is a personal project to understand a stream of Christian faith that is large, important and often quite misunderstood by Evangelical Protestants.

The subtitle of this book: 40 Catholic Customs and their Biblical Roots, seemed like a perfect book to further my education. And it was useful, even if not really what I was expecting. It is designed to be read like a daily devotional. There are forty short chapters with an explanation of the custom and a little devotional quote from a modern or ancient Christian figure.