City of Glass

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

I don't normally do this, but the following passage resonated with me and I marked it:

“Oh, Clary,” Amatis said. “Don’t you see? There’s always something you can do. It’s just people like me who always tell themselves otherwise. I told myself there was nothing I could do about Luke. I told myself there was nothing I could do about Stephen leaving me. And I refuse even to attend the Clave’s meetings because I tell myself there’s nothing I can do to influence their decision, even when I hate what they do. But then when I do choose to do something – well, I can’t even do that one thing right.” Her eyes shone, hard and bright in the firelight. “Go to bed, Clary,” she finished. “And from now on, you can come and go as you please. I won’t do anything to stop you. After all, like you said, there’s nothing I can do.”

I'm really feeling this right now. Impotent is what I call it. And it calls to my attention that Amatis is an adult and Clary is the child. In children's literature, the children are always the characters willing to move forward, to invite change, to take the leap. And adults are inept or dead.

Am I inept or dead?

I guess I'm inept

I have to be careful about what I write or else I might say too much and spoil it.

Instead I will provide a couple of excerpts from my favorite scene. Here's number one:
Valentine: The Nephilim you created were a great race of men. For many years they valiantly battled to rid this planet of the demon taint. But they have failed due to weakness and corruption in their ranks. I intend to return them to their former glory-


Raziel: Glory? The Angel sounded faintly curious, as if the word were strange to him. Glory belongs to God alone.
If you have read the previous two books in this trilogy you will understand the premise. The Angel Raziel shared his blood with humans in order to make the Nephilim to fight the demons that invade our world. Throughout, the Nephilim, or Shadowhunters, have expressed doubt in there even being a God. Valentine in particular has always been jealous that the Downworlders; vampires, lycanthropes, fairies, and warlocks; are stronger in many ways than the Nephilim. Downworlders are humans infected by demon blood.

I was so excited for Raziel to not only acknowledge God, but also to give adoration where adoration is due. In addition it gave me a mini slap in the face. We say words like awesome and glorious with very little acknowledgement of the One and Only True Example of Awesome and Glorious.

Here's number two:
Raziel: God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son on an altar much like this one, to see who it was that Abraham loved more, Isaac or God. But no one asked you to sacrifice your son, Valentine.
I'm sorry, maybe it's inappropriate, but I just loved to see this. God's Word spoken as Truth in fiction. It's done so rarely in the secular world of literature. You can only talk about God in traditional Christian Fiction. OR if it is just a part of daily life thrown in, but not forced upon the reader.

I'll be done for today. I enjoyed the book. I have nothing additional to add beyond what I've mentioned about the series in the past reviews.

Glass

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

This is a 680 page book that I read in 2 days.

If it were written in prose rather than free verse, it might be more realistically a 340 page book.

Still, when the Caudill Nominees are out and I am reading fanatically to get them back on the shelf, I read about 100 pages a day on a fruitful day.

So whether or not this is good literature, I obviously couldn’t put it down

Glass is the second in a trilogy that began with Crank. I read Crank because it won the Abraham Lincoln Readers’ Choice Award that is geared toward High School kids.

I think we’ve established that I love lists and I tend to be obsessive in conquering them. I think we’ve also established that I like to complete series. I cannot leave them unfinished. I might miss something. Perhaps it is a chance for a bit of control on my part in a world where I have very little.

So I come to this review wondering how I should handle it. Did I enjoy the book? Yes. Was it frightening? Yes. Were there drugs? Of course. Sex? A lot implied, but not in graphic detail. Is this book useful? Yes. Will it be used in a useful manner? Probably not.

I imagine that a lot of kids will read it to live vicariously through the character of Kristina and her alter-ego Bree. It provides the chance to live the dangerous life of a “bad” girl without the conquences of said life. We read books to experience new adventures that maybe otherwise we could never achieve.

This is one of the reasons that I prefer Fantasy and Science Fiction. They tend to be otherworldly. I like to escape into a good book. Happy endings are optional. I dislike “contemporary realistic fiction” primarily because it is an ever possible reality.

In the last week, I watched Diane Sawyer present a news report on the growing epidemic of high school aged heroin addicts. The kids were buying Oxycontin to get high until the cost rose beyond their means. I read $80 per pill. Heroin dealers moved in and began to sell bags of heroine for $5.

I visited the ABC News website and found an article on a young mother of a four-year-old daughter, five-months pregnant and addicted to heroine. She’s fighting a seven-year addiction that began with prescription drugs.

I was never tempted. I feared the wrath of MOM. I was a good child. I was relatively dependable. Disappointments were rare. I might have pushed curfew a time or two. I might have dated the wrong boy. My world was basically safe.

I could have easily been Kristina. I was gullible and impressionable and I would have adored recognition of my existence. I was lucky that an opportunity never presented itself.

I still think that Crank is an opportunity to share a dangerous threat in a safe environment. Glass, perhaps deserves an older audience. It is not so much a continued downward spiral, as continued rock bottom.

There are reviewers who are afraid that these books glamorize meth-addiction. I think that these books are very readable and can even capture the attention of the reluctant readers who may be more in need of a safety net.

The Necromancer

The Necromancer: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

I had a patron come into the library, having finished this book, to tell me that I would not like it. Luckily, I managed to cut her off before she could go much further. I hate to be primed or given any spoiler info. Spoiler info includes, "You will probably need a tissue, I did." I'm that anal OR that much of a purist. You can decide. I hate going into anything with expectations. I love to be surprised. I hate to be disappointed. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, really.

Number one. This addition to the series is much shorter – nearly half the size of the others. That actually helps. Perhaps there should have been more editting of the others. Perhaps they should have been broken down more. Perhaps the decision to present them according to strict titles was a mistake. I like the titles. They speak to something in my nature. But are they too rigid for creativity? Are they misleading? Do they drive the content too much? Case in point:

Artemis Fowl The Atlantis Complex. The publisher asked the author for headway on the next book. The author provided the publisher with the title. The publisher hired the illustrator to design the book cover. The cover was presented to the author. The cover shows Artemis in the water with Atlantis in the background. The author had never intended Atlantis to be visited in the book. It was merely the name of the mental illness affecting his main character. Hence a new direction for the story to be integrated. The cover was created without thought to the story line and therefor the story line was changed. Backwards? Ya' think?

Number two. The inevitable FINALLY happens! Spoiler alert. Josh finally goes over to the so-called darkside. It's been blatantly foreshadowed from the first book. About time. It's just not believable. All along, I have not bought into it. I will preface this argument by saying that he might have left Flamel for Dee under the "possession" of Mars Ultor. I cannot remember. But if this is the case, and I wish I could grab of copy the book, then there is no point for the building argument for Josh to desert Flamel.

I do not believe that Josh would turn to the darkside for three reasons. The first and primary reason is his twin sister Sophie. We have been led to believe that they are uniquely connected, like most twins would have us believe. They are relying upon each other during this incredible crisis of change in their life. If your sibling is the only one helping you keep your sanity, why on earth would you desert her?!?!?!?!

Reason two is that Flamel supposedly is not to be trusted. Ok, that's fine. He might not have been explicit in his plans, purposes or goals. But he is an adult, an immortal with the goal of saving the world with very little time in which to do it. Despite the size of theses books, by the time we reach this one, less than two weeks have occurred and all action-packed. It is not about intimate conversations and communications. It's about making sacrifices to save the world. Just another reason why have little tolerance for whiney Luke Skywalker – I mean Josh.

And reason three is that Dee smells bad when he uses magic – sulfur or rotten eggs. If that's not an indication to stay away from him, what is?

I am thrilled that this series seems to be coming to its conclusion! As always, it is the adults – the immortals – that are fun to follow. Favorite new character? Another twin!

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

I'm going to preface this review by saying, I've become a little "mental" myself. I'm not really sure if it is clinical or imagined. But this book was all the more enjoyable, because I could relate to it.

Artemis Fowl, criminal mastermind, teen genious, is losing his mind. Sheer brilliance!

Artemis, a human, has somehow contracted a fairy psychosis – Atlantis Complex. Atlantis Complex is triggered in fairies by guilt – enormous loads of guilt. Symptoms include obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia and even multiple personality disorder. Artemis has plenty of guilt, but he'snot a fairy. HOWEVER, we all know that Artemis has one hand in the human world and the other in the fairy realm. Playing with fairy magic has finally backfired.

Artemis' OCD presents itself in an obsession with numbers. He is very comfortable and secure with 5s and any multiple thereof. 4s, however, are BAD. Didn't you know that the Chinese word for 4 sounds very similar to the Chinese word for death? Americans may be superstitious about 13, but 4 is much worse.

Artemis always responds in 5-word phrases. When he must give a presentation, he writes it and memorizes so that he is certain it contains enough words to form a multiple of 5. Interuptions and questions and any adlibbing create anxiety.

If there is to be a meeting, there must be exactly 5 people in attendance. It must start at a time ending in 5.

And all of this counting makes for very odd and stunted conversations. Not too mention, Artemis doesn't really sound like Artemis anymore.

Paranoia?Artemis cannot trust the very people he has learned to count upon. He sends Butler, his ever-present bodyguard, off on a wild goose chase to keep him away.

Multiple Personality Disorder? Let me introduce Orion, Artemis' alter-ego. Orion's favorite pasttime is professing his abounding love to LEP Captain Holly Short. How embarrassing, but offering much comic relief.

Artemis' downward spiral was quite enjoyable to watch, but that was where the enjoyment ended. This book was shorter than we've come to expect from the series and I'm glad. It took me awhile to muddle through it. It didn't advance the overall story. It was almost an aside to the main conversation.

Anybody watch the Star Trek spin off series a decade ago? I'm talking Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space 9. I'll start off by saying I never really watched the original TV series. I've definitely watched all of the movies at least once. Next Generation was the first series I followed fanatically. Huge crush on Picard. Oops, I said too much … I liked Voyager just fine. I was still comfortable with traveling on a ship, through space, and meeting new people and going to new places. But DS9 was DIFFERENT. It was obviously a part of the franchise. It was great for cameo appearances. But it always felt stuck because you could never GO anywhere on a space station.

In a round about way, this is how Atlantis Complex read. I'd call it a companion novel. Not necessarily the 7th book in the series. Maybe it's quitting time.

Some thoughts and ideas were hard to follow. Some minor characters from previous books came back in minor ways. In the end, the great calamity was caused by an unusual love story. Is this what Artemis Fowl readers like? I think not.

The Red Pyramid

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

I'm so glad that for once I wasn't a book snob.

I remember when The Lightning Thief first came out in 2005. Another of my favorite books, Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, was also published in 2005. I became interested in both when I checked them in as new books to our collection. Both the covers and the jacket summaries caught my attention, but at the time I was very busy reading the Rebecca Caudill Nominees and the Newbery Honor winners.

It was soon made obvious that our avid readers LOVED The Lightning Thief. Boys were coming in droves asking for it. I made a mental note that I would need to read it when I finished my current reading project. But the Rebecca Caudill Nominees 2009 announcement changed my priorities in 2008. Both of these books were on the list and so they moved up on my reading list.

And I loved both! As soon as I had finished the new crop of Caudill nominees, I diverted myself to devouring the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series. I read Book 2 of the first and then Book 2 of the second. Then I read Book 3 of the first followed by Book 3 of the second. And I had an extremely hard time determining which series I preferred because I found both to be excellent.

When The Lightning Thief hit the theaters and a new crop of reluctant readers began to find their way to the library to read the series, I finally made my choice. I chose Wolf Brother and probably because it didn't sell out to Hollywood. And also primarily because the series is not complete and so I have more to look forward to.

My jaw dropped when I heard that Rick Riordan was publishing a new series known as the Kane Chronicles. The request list skyrocketed as soon as the item record was added to the catalog database. And I refused to join the fandom. A little like a U2 fan dropping the band as soon as they made the Top 40 with the masses. "How dare the man ink another book to the blueprint of his first series to be launched on the energy of a media-fueled mania for the motion picture of the original piece!" BREATHE.

I discovered a second catalog record for The Red Pyramid with a much shorter waiting period. And I quietly requested it. I secreted it home. I placed it on a shelf eager to NOT rush into it. I started reading it with snobbish disdain.

(Anyone who knows me, knows that I rarely use strong language. When I do, it is when I am impassioned or at wits end.)

"Gosh Darn it! I LOVE it!"

It's not like Percy Jackson at all. I think it's better.

I appreciated that they flipped the personalities of the brother and sister. Sadie is the brave and reckless sibling. Carter is the mild-mannered, cautious brainiac. Hard for me to identify with the appropriate gender, but this would be a delightful change for many.

It is a brilliant move to introduce the Western Civilization to another culture's rich mythology. I've dabbled in many, but most of us Liberal Arts grads are only fluent in Greek and Roman.

I adored the biracial family and how it is a part of the mindset even if it is only a small part of the internal dialog.

Now if I can just get over myself and accept that Riordan is going to publish yet a another series concurrently with this one. But I suppose with the proceeds from a movie, he has the time on his hands. Already on the request list for The Last Hero: Heroes of Olympus.