Avid Reading in September 2010

As part of my relaxation time and ways to keep my mind active, I do a lot of reading. I read stories very rapidly. With good writing, I disappear into the world and sometimes lose track of time and what all is going on out in the ‘real’ world. I’m going to try to give my impressions of the book and then give them a rating.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle. The third in her most famous series, L’Engel follows the adventures of the youngest character, Charles. The story is told half from his point of view and half from Meg’s point of view – who was the protagonist in the first two books. We get to see what happens to the various characters, and we get a deeper understanding of Meg’s mother-in-law. Charles goes with a winged unicorn on a mission to save the world from nuclear war by going back in time and changing a cyclical story that is based in Welsh history. It is an entertaining book with some fairly direct religious overtones. While not as good as the first book – A Wrinkle in Time – it is well worth reading. B.

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron by Michael Stackpole. I have to admit, I am a Star Wars affectioniado, so as I geek out to several Star Wars books, bear with me. X-Wing: Rogue fighter follows one of the minor characters from the three Star Wars movies. The book takes place right after the Return of the Jedi, and tells the story of the New Republic (as the Rebel Alliance now calls itself) is putting together a squadron of pilots that can do more than just fly. They are also a propaganda and a special ops unit. We are introduced to many characters who, in the expanded universe, become quite important. The novel is told from several different points of view, including Wedge, Corran Horn, a law officer turned rebel; Kirtan Loor, Corran’s old co-worker and nemesis. The novel has action, adventure, mystery, impending romance, all the things one needs in a space opera. I give X-Wing: Rogue Squadron an A-.

Hard Merchandise is another Star Wars book. It takes place in about the same time period. It is book 3 of the Bounty Hunter Wars. The story centers around Boba Fett and the some of the other bounty hunters seen in the Empire Strikes Back. A lot of the story is told in flashback, and it is sometimes hard to keep track of when a chapter is happening. There is a mystery element to the trilogy, but unfortunately the audience is not given all the clues so one cannot figure it out ahead of time. All in all, I found the Bounty Hunter Wars to be under par from what I expect from the Star Wars extended universe. I give Hard Merchandise a C-.

Truce at Bakura is yet another Star Wars novel. Yes, I was on a Star Wars kick for part of the month. Truce takes place immediately after Return of the Jedi (and before Rogue Fighter). Luke, Han, Leia, and the other main characters are all still at Endor when they receive a coded imperial message of a outlying Empire planet under attack by an unknown race. The Rebels decide to go help since they destroyed the Emperor and most of the fleet. Truce has a nice mix of the space opera elements. It expands the relationship and the negotiating the relationship of Han Solo and Princess Leia, and it explores Luke’s mastery of the Force as well as his dealing with his interest in a woman and falling in love for the first time. The ssi-ruuk, the antagonists, are a scary race and do create a worthy adversary for the remnants of the Empire and the New Republic to combine forces against. I give Truce at Bakura a solid B.

For my book club, I read Nation by Terry Pratchett. Nation takes place in a alternate dimension, and is set in the 1800s. Pratchett is usually an enjoyable read, but I found it a little hard to get in to. I finished about a quarter of it before our Alfheim book club meeting, and I was encouraged to read the rest of it. After about the first third, the story picked up and I had trouble putting it down. The characters developed nicely, and the story was engaging and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. While not Pratchett’s best book, I give Nation a B+.

I had not read Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson in years. I must have been in high school when I last read it. I remember enjoying reading it and relating to it, but now as an adult, it was painful to read and I really had to fight my way through it. Thomas Covenant, the main character, is not all that nice a guy. He is a leper, and understandably depressed by it, but he wallows in the fact that he is ill and sullen. Even when taken to another land where he has great power, he is still sullen and lets it completely define who he is. When he does evil to someone who had helped him a lot, it was never his fault; it was the fact that he was a leper that led him to act so. He does not take responsibility for his actions. Maybe because I spend so much of my time talking to my students about taking responsibility and being responsible that it struck such a negative chord in me. It’s like Covenant has immersed himself in teen-aged angst and refuses responsibility for it. I give Lord Foul’s Bane a D.

Speaking of teen-aged angst, let’s visit Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I am a great fan of the Greek myths, and when I first saw this, I winced. I avoided reading it for quite some time. I then saw the movie, and I enjoyed it immensely. They actually did a good job with the mythology, as opposed to some of the other Greek myth material out there (the new Clash of the Titans, Disney’s Hercules [great message, lousy mythology], Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules [great entertainment, painful history and mythology sometimes]) I decided to read the book. I found that I really enjoyed the book. I am very happy that I watched the movie first; I would have been disappointed the other way around. The book has Percy younger than the movie, and the stories are deeper and more tied into the mythological stories. This is one of the best adolescent series we have. While not as good as the Harry Potter series, it is better than the Twilight series. Percy, as well as most of the characters, is a demi-god, and he is accused of stealing Zeus’s thunderbolt. The other main characters include Annabeth, the daughter of Athena; Grover, a satyr; Luke, the son of Hermes; as well as a great supporting cast including the gods of Olympus – Poseidon, Zeus, Ares, Hades, Dionysus – and the great centaur teacher Chiron. While the movie was good, the book was significantly better. I give the Lightning Thief an A-.

While I was visiting my brother-in-law, he suggested and then lent me a Star Trek book – Best Destiny. Best Destiny follows James T. Kirk’s first time in outer space. He is 16 years old and absolutely filled with teenage angst. He is furious with his father, who is a Star Fleet security officer and is very much absent from Jimmy’s day-to-day life. Jimmy is taken up to the Star Ship Enterprise, captained by Robert April, and of course, something goes wrong, and they meet some pirates who also have a teenager who is just as filled with teenaged angst as Jimmy. It is a well written book, and the writers of the new Star Trek movie read the book to really get a feeling for how to write Kirk for the new movie. Finest Destiny is one of the better Star Trek books, and watching Jimmy come to terms and become Jim Kirk was enjoyable. I give Best Destiny a B+.

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next Percy Jackson book. I read Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. Riordan really delves into the mythology even further. He brings a lot of the elements of the Odyssey into the second book, including the Cyclops Polyphemus, Scylla, Charibdis, and the man-eating giants. We are also introduced to a new character Tyson, who has a special relationship to Percy. The primary antagonist of the series becomes more clear and powerful, and the danger to the protagonists becomes more pronounced as well. The Sea of Monsters is well written and just as good as the first. A-.

After so many sci-fi or fantasy books, I decided to take a full break from those worlds, and went back to a classic. For the first time since I taught it twelve years ago, I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It holds up. It is a double story of growing up and being curious about a mysterious neighbor, and the story of white racism in the South. The two stories seem very separate until they are tied together in the final two chapters. I cannot say enough good things about it. If you have never read it, read it. If you have never watch movie starring Gregory Peck, rent it and watch it. Both are brilliant. I give To Kill a Mockingbird an A+.

And those are the books I read during September of 2010.