So Long, And Thanks for all the Fish

by Douglas Adams

4/5 stars

Contrary to the introductory song for the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy movie, this novel is the 4^th volume in Douglas Adams’ beloved series. At this point in the series, you know what you’re in for. I don’t necessarily think that the sequels really hold up to the wonder that is the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I am grateful for each opportunity to enter the universe.

I always love the first chapter of a Hitchhiker novel. In fact, the first chapter usually ends up being one of the best. It’s a place for Adams’ wit to roam free largely without a burden of narrative duty. And let’s be honest, the wit is the real selling point of these novels. It’s been a while since I’ve read the first three, so I can’t necessarily comment on how this novel fits into my belief that the Hitchhiker books seem to get a little less funny as they go on. There is a wonderful scene with a lady selling raffle tickets that is a real hoot. However, I do miss the familiarity of some of my favorite things from the novels: interactions between Ford and Arthur, Marvin. These show up later, but this largely feels like a connector novel.

It feels like a connector novel because of the light plot. The story seems to consist of Arthur making a lady friend and Ford meeting back up with Arthur. Also the dolphins and God’s last message. Adams makes a crack at the American book market (as of the time this novel was written), claiming that they approach things from a standpoint of the longer the better. This novel certainly isn’t long, coming in at under 200 pages. It’s a quick, fun read. And if you’ve reached this point in the series fair and square, you know what you’re getting yourself in for.

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley

3.5/5

While the dust jacket introduces us to our main protagonist, there are two boys at the heart of this story. Ryder does not believe in the witches. He is more practical than that. While he has always been such, at the start of the novel he has also taken on the responsibility of his family after his father’s death. He has given up his own big dreams in order to keep the family farm afloat. Falpian is in mourning for the loss of his twin brother, and wants nothing more than to prove himself to his father.

The fact that these two boys play such a prominent role in the novel raises an issue I have with the cover design. At first appearance the cover appears to be a frigid winter landscape. A second glance reveals the profile of a young woman. There has been a lot of press lately about the idea of gendered covers, and how such books are perceived. I for one am fine picking up a book regardless of it has a “masculine” or “feminine” cover. Unfortunately, this is easier for women to do than men. For some reason there is a stigma against men reading “girly” books. This cover seems like a small, inconsequential issue. Or, something I wish desperately was a non-issue. Regardless, I fear that the design of this cover might prevent some boys from picking up this book. That is a shame. The main characters are men, something it can be difficult to find in young adult fantasy right now. Additionally, the story explores some really interesting ideas of beliefs, expectations, and coming-of-age.

Within the story itself, the land dispute and the Witchlanders forcing the Baens in their territory into the Bitterlands after the war present parallels to the Israel/Palestine conflict to me. I’m not trying to say that the book offers any specific commentary on that situation or bashes one over the head with one point of view; rather, that even fantasy is based in some sort of fact. Granted, the connections I draw are filtered through my own experiences (“experiences” here being a class on the Israel/Palestine conflict). These parallels may also help explain some of the Baen’s backwards ideas about women. We open an entire section with the idea that in the Baen women are not allowed to practice magic, while Falpian also informs us of the fact. However, this also establishes that differences between the two people are cultural as well. Coakley also describes racial differences between the two people. Those made me uncomfortable, and I do not know if it was my own conflict-aversion, PC world, or that I felt it was unnecessary with the other elements.

At times the world can seem cramped. I get that Ryder wants to protect his family, primarily his sisters, but at times the stakes feel off. For most of the book I have no real concept of the Witchlander’s world. I think the third part of the book does the best at painting a vivid picture of where we are, but I’d like to see that throughout. Overall, I was happy to see a fantasy that tackled some of these big themes. I think that it could have been fine tuned a bit. I also think the jacket summary and cover could have reflected the tone and themes of the book better.

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

3/5 stars

First off, it should be noted that Peter and the Shadow Thieves is the second in a series, following Peter and the Starcatchers. I read Peter and the Starcatchers last summer, giving it 4/5 stars on goodreads at the time. Peter and the Starcatchers was a fresh reimagining of the Peter Pan story, that I admittedly picked up to be more versed in the world for when I get around to reading the well-received stage play. I was extremely charmed by the original novel, so Peter and the Shadow Thieves had to live up to it, and over come the second book in the series hurdle.

There were many things I liked about the book. I liked that it lived in the same world as the first novel, while continuing to build on the mythology. Not to mention there was some beautiful narrative book-end work between the opening and closing. Molly continued to charm me to no end.

This novel also forced Peter to addresses the idea that he will not age a little more. He begins to notice his friends on the island and Molly, growing, in all the ways one grows from childhood. This isn’t explored completely in this novel, but rather seems to be a seed planted to explore further in the next installments.

This installment also spent most of its time away from Mollusk Island. I was excited to see how Victorian England worked in this world, and I must say I was a little disappointed. We got some scenes that seemed pulled straight out of Dickens of Peter being accidently recruited by a pickpocket overlord (Oliver Twist anyone?). He spent some time in a Victorian jail, amongst various lowlifes of all ages. He chatted up a drunk in an alley off the dock. It was all very well and good, but did nothing to forward the plot other than attempt to drive how just how out of place Peter was, and how hard it was for him to find Molly, which I think could have been accomplished more succinctly. Additionally, in occasional chapters we would flip back to Hook and the other boys on the island, as if to remind the reader that they still existed in the world. But I don’t know that we really needed to go on these excursions.

The plot itself is intriguing. Peter has to protect the startstuff yet again, venturing to London when he fears Molly and her family are in danger. The reader is introduced to one of the “others” Molly mentioned in Peter and the Starcatchers. Lord Ombra presents a formidable childhood villain that introduces the proper amount of magic into the world, and the brand of magic fits the world already created. The tone is right. Additionally we get to meet a young George Darling. We also get a small cameo by a young J.M. Barrie. I believe I was supposed to be charmed by this cameo. Unfortunatly, I was slightly annoyed as I felt like it threw me from the very specific world the authors worked so hard to create. A world that has been very successfully executed. Alas, I am sure it is a nod specifically thrown in for parents reading their children to sleep, and overall does nothing to influence my enjoyment of the story.

From a technical standpoint, like its predecessor, Peter and the Shadow Thieves has very short chapters. This is extremely smart. At over 500 pages (regardless of how quick they read) it’s a little heftier than the standard middle-grade novel. The short chapters help break it up, keeping the pacing quick. On the flip side, these short chapters also make it easier to indulge in some of the side alleys of the plot. Regardless, it was a solid effort, and I am sure I will continue the series at some point.

Check it out on goodreads

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

3/5 stars

I liked the voice in this book. It was very enjoyable in its simplicity, and I expect easily accessible for its target age range. However, that says nothing about the plot, with which I did have some problems.

Jacob is a lonely boy. We know this because he tells us he’s a loser. And we meet the guy he tells us is his one friend, right before they are no longer friends. This kind of encapsulates a lot of the problems I had with this book. Everything felt somewhat rushed. I didn’t feel enough of an establishment of the relationship with the Peculiars to understand Jacob’s loyalty to them, especially in regards to Emma. Maybe it would have helped me understand his grasping if we had seen more of his relationship with his grandfather, and what that meant to him.

The mythology of the Peculiars themselves felt a little weak to me as well. The way they were described seemed much more circus sideshow to me, something discussed briefly in the book as a way they hid in plain site from ordinary people, if only briefly touched upon. But the mythology established discussed how the Peculiars had been forced into a hiding of sorts centuries before. The idea of these people just wasn’t adequately explored enough for me to feel any of the stakes in their journey or survival. Jacob was told a lot more than he experienced, and what he did experience was quick and underdeveloped.

Additionally, I’m not really sure what purpose the pictures served. This book was marketed primarily around the existence of these pictures, and yet, they didn’t really forward the narrative at all. They were inserted somewhat awkwardly within Jacob’s narration, cutting the story off at odd points. Oftentimes, my imagination did as well or better than the picture. I appreciate the concept and the attempt, but I’m not sure where I stand on the execution. I do not know that it did anything for the book. In fact, I felt myself wondering if some of the problems of the story came from trying to tailor Jacob’s experience to fit these photographs, like writing a jukebox musical.

I did enjoy the setting, I could picture a lonely isle in Wales being a little scary and intimidating. I thought of lots of fog. When the characters first mentioned the house Jacob was looking for I conjured up something like the house in the recent Woman in Black movie. The atmosphere was right, but it didn’t all add up. I’d held off on reading this one thinking it was going to be scary. It was not. That’s not a value judgment. The book copy just paints a more foreboding picture than the novel ever does. So, if that was a deterrent from reading the book, it should be a non-issue.

There is going to be a sequel to this book. So, I don’t know that everything needed to feel as rushed and half-baked as it did. There is some real potential here, and I’m not by any means saying I did not enjoy the book. However, I wouldn’t have minded getting a little more development and leaving off on more of a cliffhanger.

Check it out on goodreads

The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig

3.5/5 stars

When I first walked into the library seeking my first pile of summer books I was ecstatic to see a new Lauren Willig out. When I realized it was not a Pink Carnation novel I was confused, simply because I didn’t know there was another novel in the works. At first I was a little hesitant, but Willig came through. Her voice is delightful as always. The humor and lightness of the Pink Carnation series is still present, but in a different form.

Much like the Pink Carnation series, this novel moves back and forth through time. However, in the Ashford Affair we are mostly following one family rather than someone doing dissertation research. The parallels of the format hit home a little better in this novel. Switching back and forth between Addie and Clemmie, they are often dealing with similar thematic issues. With Pink Carnation it is generally used a bit more to build suspense, or play with information that has been/is about to be revealed.

I was extremely interested seeing the different sides or interpretations of Addie as seen through the different people in her life. We see a little bit of it with Clemmie’s Aunt Anna. There were many things in the “present” timeline in regards to Addie that were never really explored. For instance, there was a nugget thrown out about something Addie had said to Jon that was never really adequately addressed. Additionally we only got to see her speak in the “present” once, something interesting considering we see so many things from her point-of-view in the past. Of course, the “present” is Clemmie’s rodeo, and much of plot is about her attempting to reconcile this new information with her own portrait of her grandmother.

This idea of learning more about the generations before us, and how steeped in mystery our own family histories can be, is really interesting. This book may have found me at a good time. I have spent the last year pondering my own grandparents, how little I actually know about their lives.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to walk away with. The book attempts to force Clemmie to look at her life in a completely new way, but I’m not sure what her exact transformation is. Additionally, I’m not clear on Addie. I’m fine with walking away with her as a complicated character. But I’m not really sure what exactly I’m supposed to walk away with period.

It’s a fun ride though. Willig’s voice is smooth and enjoyable as always, making it a pleasure to read. Additionally, anyone that throws in a Stoppard reference is A-OK by me.

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