Hero - Perry Moore

Hero is my annual Random Young Adult Book for 2011. My previous one - Ryan Brown's Play Dead (Review) was based on the awesome cover and my latent zombie love, and ended up a spectacular - if entertaining - failure. What drew me to Hero was the unique premise. And this time I don't feel stupid for spending the short time it took to read it.

Set in an alternate present-day Earth reminiscent of the Marvel/DC comic book universes, the novel tells the story of Thom Creed - a teenager with a lot of problems weighing heavily on him. He is a basketball star in his high school team, but still he has no friends because he is also the son of the world's once-premier superhero Major Might. Failing to prevent a horrible tragedy due to his lack of super-powers, Hal Creed was disgraced and blamed for the thousands of victims, and has been met with hostility and ostracized ever since. Thom also possesses healing abilities that he is just barely beginning to understand, which in a house where heroes are taboo is anything but a good thing. And if that is not enough, the boy hides an even bigger secret from his dad - he is gay.

A chance encounter with the A-listers of the League of Heroes ends with Thom being recruited as a probationary member, and put in a team of misfit wannabe heroes, each with their quirky power and personal issues. But even as he struggles with the secret he is hiding from everyone, a much bigger problem arises - someone is killing the world's most powerful superheroes, and Thom quickly finds himself in a place where his choices might determine the fate of many.

Hero is young adult all the way through, but at the same time it deals with the adolescent issues in a serious and honest manner. The superhero world is intentionally made cliche. Many of the A-listers are clearly recognizable DC characters like Superman, Flash or Wonder Woman, with only the name and clothing changed. Moore doesn't try to be original, and it seems to me his purpose was to create a comic-book universe that felt familiar and comfortable to the teenage readers. Even if I am more of a Marvel guy myself, I have to say he has succeeded. The world is a wonderful background for the allegory of growing up different and fighting to find your own value among hatred and bigotry.

The theme of Thom's sexuality is obviously the most important one, permeating practically everything else in the story, but Hero is surprisingly pure in that it doesn't focus on the sexual attraction so much as on the internal conflict and the need for support. At the same time, this is a book about growing up, surviving adversity, and finding your own wings, so it can be an equally pleasant read for any non-bigoted reader no matter their sexuality. It definitely doesn't feel like a "gay read". Also, despite the writing and story being on the YA side, the novel contains some pretty harsh language and a lot of description of grizzly violence, especially towards the end. Yet somehow those don't really clash with the concept, but instead serve to enhance it, to add more depth to it.

Perry Moore's writing style, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired. Hero is his debut novel, and it shows. Of course, YA books tend to be judged by lower standards stylistically, but even so the prose often feels rushed, uneven and chunky. Surprisingly, this didn't prevent me from enjoying the story, which - in contrast to the sometimes clumsy writing - is perfectly paced, the built-up to the epic showdown executed with confidence, and with enough plot twists to keep the interest until the very last page (even if most of them are pretty obvious for an older audience). Moore also has a very good instincts where describing superhero battles and large-scale cool-looking events are concerned, and the description of those is usually top notch.

The characterization is also uneven, but this is easily forgivable. Hero is, after all, the story of one boy's journey of self-discovery, and as such, it focuses heavily on him. Thom is well developed and feels real and interesting enough to forgive him his sometimes unrealistic lack of confidence, considering he is after all, an athletic jock with a superpower. That said, many other characters - like Thom's father, the old and sarcastic compulsive smoker precog Ruth or the haughty and constantly angry Scarlett who hides her own painful secrets behind her fiery powers - receive a really decent amount of fleshing out, almost surprisingly deep considering the target age group. Ironically, the least well developed is Thom's love interest who isn't even identified as such until very late in the novel, even though we are constantly in the kid's head and should've gotten the memo earlier.

In the end, Hero is a really good book. The unrealistic setting serves to enhance the very real problems Moore deals with, while at the same time also presenting the palette for a cool superhero story that examines the usual coming out drama in a new and exciting light, without undervaluing it. It is an entertaining and quick read, and at best it might even make you think about the struggles of many kids all over the world, dealing with what Thom faces without having superpowers.

7.5/10

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan

The thing that I really like about Percy Jackson and the Olympians, is that it knows its place. The series is adequately written, fast-paced and fun, and while it steals openly from Harry Potter, it makes no pretense to compete with Joan Rowling's bespectacled wizard. Actually, you might say that this is the softcore version of Harry Potter (that is, if you can picture Harry and "hardcore" in the same sentence, without getting a horse into the picture).

A year has passed since the events of The Lightning Thief. Percy has spent most of it in school, without getting kicked, and things are definitely looking up. Of course, it doesn't take long before everything goes to Hades, and he is soon set on a quest to save not only his friend Grover (who has been kidnapped by a cyclops), but also the tree of Thalia, daughter of Zeus, which has been poisoned by the traitor Luke. The second part is terribly important, as the tree's life is connected to the barrier that protects Camp Half Blood from monsters, and when it dies, the demigods will be fair game for the supernatural beasts that hunt them.

The thirst thing that you will notice about The Sea of Monsters is the fact that it is not predictable. Rick Riordan has made a huge leap forward in that regard, and unlike The Lightning Thief, plot-twists here are a lot more unexpected, and better executed. In fact, the very end of the book is a shocking plot-twist, as well as a cliff-hanger, so be warned. Other good things about the book include a new member of Percy's ka-tet - the strange Tyson, who I found a lot more likable than Grover - and a huge flock of man-eating giant sheep!!!

Unfortunately, not everything about Percy's second adventure is better than the first. For one, although the overall story is a step forward, the places and monsters characters encounter are not on the level of those in The Lightning Thief. The "theme-park" element that I mentioned in my previous review of the series is still as strong as before, and not getting any less noticeable. Also, I hate it when YA authors use the "Authority Sux" cliche, where the authority figure is so absurdly obtuse, mean, annoying and disliking the main character, that said character has no other choice, but to break all the rules to do what needs to be done. I didn't like it with Snape, and I don't like it here.

So, basically, The Sea of Monsters is more of the same, somewhat better than the first book, but outside of the plot structure - not hugely. If you liked The Lightning Thief, you'll like this one as well. If you didn't, then it's highly unlikely that the second story will change your mind.

7.5/10

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

My affair (more of a guilty slumming really) with Percy Jackson started - as most of my Young Adult frolicking (this came out so wrong...) - with a movie adaptation. I have mentioned before that I have this superpower where I get really annoyed if I haven't read the book a movie is based on. And with me trying to watch everything SFF-related that comes out, I simply had to read Rick Riordan's Harry Potter clone.

And yes, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is exactly that. The similarities are glaring and unseemly, shamelessly exhibiting themselves in the reader's face just so he won't forget what he's dealing with. Surprisingly enough, once you get over the feeling of nauseous deja vu, The Lightning Thief is actually not half bad.

Young Percy Jackson is a loser. Dealing with dyslexia, anger management issues and the fact that he gets kicked out of every school he is put into before even a year's passed, it is fair to say he is a troubled kid. Add to that an abusive step-father, and we've got the perfect recipe for a disturbing Chuck Palaniuk pretentious slice-of-life slash post-pubescent-nihilistic-wisdom novel.

Instead, we have Rick Riordan, and luckily, since no more than a few pages into the book one of Percy's teachers turns into a Fury and tries to kill him, and he finds out that his actual father is none other than a god of Olympus. All the ancient myths are true (except, let's hope, for the golden rain thing, as even Hentai is rarely that kinky), and not only that, but dear old Perseus Jackson is actually the chief suspect of the theft of Zeus' Master Bolt - the weapon he forged to defeat the Titans. With Percy's mother seemingly fallen victim of a monster sent by Hades, he has mere days to find the real thief and prove his innocence. But for that to happen, he has to figure out a way to leave Camp Half Blood - the place where demigods like him - the Olympians' offspring - come to live and train to be heroes.

The Lightning Thief is a fun and fast-paced read, intensely formulaic and unfortunately a tad too predictable, but still decent. The irreverent way in which Rick Riordan manages to completely bastardize and Americanize Greek mythology is actually quite enjoyable, if one is not naturally irritated by such things (but then one would be missing on a lot of God of War merriment, so one is obviously to be pitied). What's especially nice is the fact that even though the story is lightning-fast (see what I did there?), Riordan still takes time to build some world, and explain how said world works. Another solid point in favor of The Lightning Thief is Percy himself. No cringing-at-authority with this teenager, no worries about grades or whether the potion is going to come out right. No, Percy Jackson speaks his mind, speaks it loud, and in a sarcastic voice. Even when he's all emo and sad, you kind of sympathize, instead of wishing for him to grow a pair and stop whining.

And yet, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is not Harry Potter. That is only natural, after all, I know of only seven books that are. Still, Rick Riordan seems to have missed the point of what actually makes Joan Rowling's series so good. It is not the hidden mystical world concept itself, although that plays a part too. It is the richness of it. The little detail and the big history, and the background. The Lightning Thief doesn't have that. What's more - being based on a non-original concept, it is not only predictable (after all, if you've read the mythology, you simply know how certain characters would react), but it also feels too much like a theme-park. Percy and his friends (yeah, he gets his own Ron and Hermione) travel throughout America and meet various monsters and characters from the Greek myths, but it never feels like a real world. It's like they don't exist outside of guest-starring in his story, like they don't have independent life of their own.

I will not go into Rick Riordan's style of writing. This is a YA book, and a derivative one. Suffice to say the writing is adequate, and at times even inventive. And considering what a fast read The Lightning Thief is, I'd say it does its job.

All in all, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is shaping up to be a decent Harry Potter clone, not nearly as good but good enough to be worth checking out. It is a YA book through and through, and also very predictable, but it's fun, has a really cool protagonist and will take up no more than an evening or two of your time.

7/10

P.S. Accidentally, don't listen to what people say - the movie is also very decent, and Logan Lerman is perfect for Percy's role. Check it out.

Fantasy Masterworks: Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes was my first contact with Bradbury, and it was a mindblast! The powerful story of archetypes and conviction that has inspired not a few of Steven King's books, and the beautiful and colorful prose of the novel enchanted me in a way that very few authors have ever managed.

The story is set in a small Midwestern town. One October, a mysterious traveling carnival arrives, filled with strange attractions and stranger performers. And as the carnival's dark promises of secret desires turn to madness and despair, the lives of two 13-year old boys change forever.

The beauty of Something Wicked This Way Comes is contained in its contrasts. Will Halloway is born a minute before midnight on October 30. Blond and blue-eyed, he is careful and timid. Jim Nightshade on the other hand - born a minute after midnight on October 31 - is his exact opposite. With his chestnut hair and dark eyes, brooding and always "looking at his shadow", he is ever getting into trouble. Perhaps it is this duality that accounts for the boys' friendship. It is also another beautiful contrast that Jim's brashness is what makes him the weak one in the story, while Will's timidity hides greater strength.

The monstrous performers of Mr. Dark's carnival are among the most vivid images of nightmarish dementia I've seen in any type of fantasy, not in small part due to Bradbury's amazing descriptions. The scene of the Wax Witch's flight in a balloon held by her breaths, as she touches people's dreams in search for the boys, brands itself deep into the imagination, and won't let go long after you've put the book down. And it is but one example of the powerful imagery that occurs many times throughout the book.

In the end, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a story of growing up and coming of age, of overcoming the greatest obstacles - your own desires and self-doubts - and of finding strength in what makes us human, against a power that would steal your dreams and turn them to nightmares. The book has mythic resonance, despite its "YA" setup and small-town setting, and in its wake one feels maybe a little stronger, as if the reader, and not the characters, has overcome the obstacles of Mr. Dark's traveling carnival. It is a beautifully written and imagined novel, and an attestation to the genius of Ray Bradbury's writing. I can not recommend it enough!

10/10

Play Dead - Ryan Brown

I bet everyone knows that feeling, when you need something completely brainless to read, just some relaxing dumb fun. Sometimes you don't even know you need it, until you bump into the right book. I was browsing my local bookstore, looking for Clive Barker's Weaveworld, when I suddenly saw that awesome kitsch cover. Then I read the blurb, and I was hooked. Suddenly Play Dead was just what I needed to read.

Also, look at the author. You can't say no to this smile!


So, anyway. The story is set in a little Texas town called Killington. On the morning before a major football game, high-school quarterback bad-boy Cole Logan (I'm wondering if that's not a little subtle, Ryan. Should've named him Brock Jockson; then we'd be sure he's a bad boy) is attacked in his front yard and has two fingers of his left hand cut. The assault comes with a warning - if he doesn't back from the game, his teammates could be next. Being a bad boy, Cole laughs in the face of danger and proceeds to announce in front of the whole school that the game is on, while bleeding almost to death in the process. It turns out the game is not on for him, because the coach forbids him from playing, but the enemy - the big champion team from the neighboring town of Elmwood - doesn't know that. So the Killington Jackrabbits bus ends in the river and the whole team except for Cole and the coach drowns. But being a really bad boy, Cole doesn't let things go, and with the help of mystical cat-loving lonely widow and football fan Black Mona, he raises his teammates back from the dead. However, they are not quite alive, and what's worse, they have only two day before they change into mindless flesh-eating monsters. In that time they must win a game against the Elmwood Badgers, or their souls will be damned forever. So Cole sets on a desperate quest to help his tortured friends, with the help of gorgeous-yet-intelligent Savannah, daughter of the coach and reporter for the school paper.

Yes, Play Dead is exactly as ridiculous as the synopsis suggests. It is corny, takes itself WAY too seriously, and is filled to bursting with football heroism. In one word, it is gorgeous! Ryan Brown's debut reads with the speed of light, and the feeling of white trash supernatural midwest horror is one I've always enjoyed. The book is poorly written, with pages of one-line dialogue, delivered by half-dimensional cardboard characters. There are infodumps galore, integrated with the subtlety of Cole Logan's name. But somehow it's all way too cool for the reader to really care. The language is simple, but does the job, and the sloppy style doesn't slow you down.

So, this is a story about zombies fighting for their souls with the help of heroic characters, who overcome their personal flaws in the process. In a football game. If you can read this description, and still think Play Dead might be the book for you, then take it from me - it most certainly is!

6/10

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow

I put off reading Little Brother for some time. See, I have this subconscious aversion to the term "Young Adult". Which is weird, considering how I've loved almost all the YA books I've ever read, but there you have it.

Man, do I hate myself for waiting so long! Cory Doctorow's all-too-real dystopian vision of "security measures" gone wrong is one of the most gripping and compelling stories I've read this year. The story is set in an unspecified future a few years from now. Marcus Yallow is a 17-year old boy living in San Francisco. One day, while ditching school with his friends to look for a real-life clues from an on-line game, he becomes witness to a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge. Being in the wrong place at the oh-so-wrong time, Marcus is nabbed by the Department of Homeland Security. A few smart-ass "I know my rights and I wanna know what I've been charged with" retorts on his part lead to a week of physical and mental torture, while the DHS extract all his little teen secrets from him just for the heck of it. After that he is released, together with two of his pals. The fourth - his best friend Darryl - remains missing.

In those few days the city has changed. It is now an Orwellian nightmare of surveillance, security checkpoints, tagging and random checks on the street by the forces of the DHS. Even broken and scared, Marcus still can't quell the fury and indignation he feels at this violation of his freedom and privacy. And after what has been done to him, the only course he sees is making them pay for it. And taking the country back from tyranny in the name of "security". Thus begins a story of a techno-revolution that is not dissimilar to the movements in the 60s.

What I loved about Little Brother was the feeling of urgency, the looming shadow of a reality that is rapidly turning into a Fascist nightmare. Also, the main character Marcus is one of the most believable teens I've seen in a novel in a long time. He is not idealized, but neither is he dumbed-down for stereotype's sake. He is a smart, socially aware boy who makes mistakes, feels fear and insecurity; he is vulnerable and cocky at the same time, he mouths off and gets into trouble. But his naivete is also a shield and a sword in the battle with a foe that any "mature" person would never even consider standing up against.

The level of techno-slang in Little Brother is just about right for someone like me who browses the net every day, but considers "hacking" to be something akin to VooDoo mysticism. I can't really say where the real slang ends and the imaginary technology begins, but Doctorow has made his book so believable, so real, that it doesn't matter. It all adds to the feeling of imminent danger, of a future that could very well be now.

What I didn't like about Little Brother was the amount of explanation. I realize the book is meant to be read by younger people, but even so the info-dumps are just a bit too much, and some of them are situated at points where the reader really expects the story to move. I don't mind a one-sentence explanation of a term or concept, but two pages of crypto-theory just puts a stopper on things.

This is a small problem though. All in all Little Brother is a great story of a techno-age rebellion, one that I really empathised with, and with a main character I thoroughly loved. It is a warning of what could very well already be happening, but it is also a promise: that when it all goes wrong, it won't be the Big, but the Little Brother - the Little Brothers - watching, and that they will never let it happen without a fight. And if we could believe that - well, then we are the Little Brothers.

9/10

Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

I am not a fan of bashing popular things. In my view, if something is really popular, there's a good reason for that, and even if it is by no means my reason (as is the case here for example), I'd at least give it the benefit of the doubt. I also like figuring stuff out for myself, so when the first Twilight movie was around the corner, I took a deep breath and jumped into the book itself. I was surprised at how "ok" it was. I was expecting either something way better, or something way worse. It wasn't until I learned more about the modern vampire branch of the Urban Fantasy genre that I realized that this series is obviously if not as good as it gets, then pretty darn good considering the competition.

All in all I enjoyed Twilight. Not enough to grab New Moon right after it, but enough to appreciate that there was a reason for the whole madness surrounding the series. Even if the book is not the best literature there is, it still somehow connects to you, makes you care about its characters and the world they live in. Still, I only read New Moon when that movie was around the corner, and even though it was a bit worse than the first one, it was still fine.

But then came Eclipse. In New Moon I had survived Bella's constant whining and spinelessness where her beloved vampire Edward was considered; it was somehow justified, since he had abandoned her and all. Not so in the third installment of Stephenie Meyer's series. There is a certain quality to Bella, which I like to call BLATANT SEXISM. Something one wouldn't expect from a woman author, but something one gets in abundance from Eclipse anyway. In one word - Bella acts like a cow. Easily distracted from what's important by her Edward staring at her, able to forgive him any transgression into her privacy and freedom, constantly reminding us how much she loves him and how she gets epileptic seizures whenever he's away from her... If it were a 300-page book, that would have been tolerable, considering that there's also a lot of world-building and action for a change. However, Eclipse is more than 600 pages long, and when you add lovestruck wolf-boy Jacob in the picture, constantly panting around Bella and asking her to choose him instead of Edward, the soap drama just gets way too effin' much!

See, the problem with this book is that it's about half as big as it should have been, and most of it is comprised of the main characters being annoying as hell. Too much attention is given to trivial details, and even though the plot is supposed to be about the newest plan of deranged vampire Victoria to kill Bella as a revenge for Edward killing her mate James in the first novel, you end up feeling that the most important parts are the ones where Bella whines about how she wants to be turned into a bloodsucker herself so that she can be with her love forever and ever and ever, and how she doesn't want to marry Edward even though she is willing to die for him, because - apparently - she doesn't want to be "that girl", whatever that means.

So, as much as I've been defending the Twilight series over the years, I have to say that Eclipse was plain bad. It just drones on and on, and if you are not a girl, imagining Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner shirtless while reading, it simply doesn't work. There is a decent world-building part, and the action scene in the end is by far the best in the series so far. And it still isn't enough to drown all the whining and lip-biting. I have the tentative hope that the movie will be better, because it seems to focus more on the action, but I still don't think I'll be reading Breaking Dawn before it hits the big screen.

5/10