Life As We Knew It

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Let me just share a little bit – movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact scarred the living daylights out of me.  Any time I hear about a near miss asteroid passing the planet, I freak out.  With that in mind, Life As We Knew It was probably one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read.

Presented entirely in diary format, our main character Miranda is a normal high school sophomore.  She has fights with her mom, has problems at school, pretty standard stuff.  She and her neighbors gather to watch a meteor on a near miss course with Earth.  Unexpectedly, the meteor impacts the moon, shifting its orbit, and causing worldwide catastrophe.  Tides change and tsunamis wipe out all coastal cities.  The closer orbit of the moon causes tectonic plates to shift and volcanoes to erupt, throwing a cloud of ash that covers the entire planet.

Scary stuff.  What Pfeffer does that makes all of this so effective is keep most of it off the page.  All of the really scary stuff is heard second hand.  Power is lost nearly immediately, and all forms of media are gone.  The only news is word of mouth.  Miranda and her family live in rural Pennsylvania, away from major epicenters of disaster, but word of mouth is almost more terrifying than if Pfeffer had placed her protagonist in the thick of it.  People fight over food.  Gas shoots up to $20 a gallon.  Medical supplies run out quickly and simple diseases become fatal.  Again, very little of this is shown, only talked about.  They are very isolated in their rural area, but the devastation is crystal clear.

Miranda as a character is interesting.  At points, she is very unlikeable.  She is very selfish in very difficult situations.  But as the first year in this new world wears on, and food begins to disappear, Miranda becomes a much more selfless person.  She begins to think less about her wants and needs as well as her own survival and more about the survival of her mother and brothers.

Pfeffer has a follow up to this coming out in June, The Dead and the Gone, which takes the same event and situation, but sets it in an urban environment.  Her apparent reluctance to show violence may be tested in a more dangerous setting, but I’m excited to see this world with a different set of eyes.  For anyone who enjoys end of the world fiction, this is perfect.  I do not categorize this as science-fiction, because I think that term conjures up aliens and advanced technology.  This is a book about survival in an event that has, for now, only happened in speculative fiction.

The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Set in a depressing future, The House of the Scorpion is an interesting young adult novel dealing with drug production and cloning.  The bulk of the story is set in the country of Opium, which was created between the United States and Mexico.  This country was founded for a variety of reasons.  It is a buffer between the countries, preventing illegal immigration.  This immigration was apparently no longer from Mexico into America, but Americans were crossing the Rio Grande into the booming Mexican economy.  Opium was also established as a place to legally grow opium poppy, fields and fields of it.  The drugs produced here were not to be sold to either American or Mexican citizens, and the widespread availability of the drugs were meant to dissuade people from using them.  If they are everywhere and easy to obtain, fewer people will use them is apparently the logic.

The story follows Matt who was being raised by a cook on the fringes of the palatial grounds of the ruler of Opium, El Patron.  Through a series of events, Matt comes to live in the palace of El Patron, learning that he is a clone of the nearly 200 year-old drug lord.  Matt becomes El Patron’s favorite pet, while all other potential heirs to his throne obviously hate Matt.  El Patron’s health declines and Matt learns he has been grown solely for new organs for El Patron, and seeks to escape before he becomes the next clone to fall victim to El Patron’s failing health.

Trade Waiting: Thunderbolts – Faith in Monsters

Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters

Writer: Warren Ellis

Artist: Mike Deodato, Jr.

Issues: Thunderbolts #110-115, Thunderbolts Special

What is it about villains that we find intriguing in fiction?  Darth Vader.  Sauron.  The evil aliens from Independence Day.  Is it wrong that I was secretly rooting for each of them?  That must be the basis for Thunderbolts, a team of reformed super villains fighting crime, etc.  This is the first trade I’ve read of Thunderbolts, and really enjoyed it.  Set in post-Civil War Marvel America, the Thunderbolts are under new guidance, Norman Osborne and the United States government, and are tasked with tracking down unregistered heroes.

Even without knowing the detailed history of the Thunderbolts team, the book was very enjoyable.  From what I understand, much of the line-up is new, including Daredevil’s nemesis Bullseye and the new Venom.  Character development isn’t a huge part of the plot, it really is more about the situation than the characters.  They have been sanctioned by the government to brutally take down unregistered combatants.  It shows how they make the fights look worse than they really are, to show that the person being brought to justice was a threat, even though the real threat is having a team of insane villains working with government sanctions.  These people have been made into celebrities by the media, having shows and toys where the enemy is Captain America and his crew.  One can’t help but wonder what will happen when the political currents change and they are no longer needed as heroes, how will they react?

I really enjoyed this book.  If you enjoyed Civil War, I’m positive you’ll like this examination of where Marvel is going.  Until next time, folks.  Keep waiting for those trades.

Monster Planet

Monster Planet: A Zombie Novel

This book is third in David Wellington’s zombie series. The first book is Monster Island, (but actually happens to be the second in story chronology). The second of the series published (but first in story chronology) is Monster Nation. All are great book and work as a trilogy, although I think there may be more to come.

We are all, or at least should be, familiar with zombie apocalypses. Wellington’s Monster series follows the traditional outline of zombie attacks, that is the dead rise from the dead, eat the living, the living fight back to only realize that they (humanity) are the real monsters. Zombies, from a character stand point, are kind of like one trick ponies; they eat people and that’s about it. Wellington diverges from the zombie norm by incorporating lich (rhymes with ditch) zombies, or liches in the plural. Liches are badass zombies who retain their personalities and gain magical abilities. They also want to destroy the rest of humanity (not just eat it).

Overall Wellington does a great job at combining the old with the new. The action sequences are great. The humans are just the right amount of desperate, the zombies are just the right amount of hungry and the liches are just to cool for school. Highly recommended!

Eclipse

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

What is it about vampires that people find sexy? I’ve never quite understood the fascination with being made the meal of a blood-thirsty creature of the night. Anne Rice certainly made a career out of showing the exotic side of vampires, and now Stephenie Meyer has done the same thing for the young adult audience.

This series is quickly becoming a juggernaut. If it will ever overtake Harry Potter in terms of ubiquitous popularity remains to be seen, but these books are insanely popular. Eclipse is the third in the series, and like Harry Potter, they must be read in order. Twilight, New Moon, and now Eclipse follow the exploits of Bella Swan, who moves to Forks, Washington, to live with her sheriff father. Once in school, she becomes enamoured with a family of extremely beautiful brothers and sisters, and begins a relationship with the most beautiful, Edward. This relationship is immediately the only thing in Bella’s life, and all of her other relationships are jeopardized. Edward’s desire for Bella goes beyond just her personality, as it turns out he’s a vampire, but they manage to make it work. That is until they have a big dramatic break-up, Bella runs off with a friend of hers, Jacob, who turns out to be a werewolf. Thus, the horrible question is presented: which creature of the night will she chose to love?

Trade Waiting: The Amazing Spider-man

The Amazing Spider-man Volume 8: Sins Past

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Artist: Mike Deodato, Jr.

Issues: The Amazing Spider-man #509-514

This is the trade that I wanted to read when I started reading Straczynski’s run on Amazing Spider-man.  I’d read about what happens in it, really wanted to read it, but got myself convinced that I should read the seven volumes before.  So for the past few months, I’ve been slowly getting caught up on Peter Parker’s adventures.  I’ve been satisfied with what’s gone on up to now, but not blown away.  Straczynski’s writing is great, his dialogue is dead on, but some of the villains were boring for my taste, and too much on the supernatural side.  But then came the Sins Past storyline, and I am in love with Spider-man once again.  I’m choosing to ignore Mephisto’s appearance in current issues, preventing him from ruining my reading past issues.

Sins Past revolves around a pair of villains confronting Spider-man, threatening his family, and trying to wipe him off the face of the earth.  Pretty standard villainry, actually.  They feel Spider-man has wronged them and are questing to make things right.  I tinkered with the idea of keeping this spoiler free, but since these were published years ago, I’m not going to worry about it.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The Caldecott Medal, which is awarded to a children’s book based on its illustrations, has been awarded to The Invention of Hugo Cabret in 2008.  Controversy has arisen as most libraries have this book in their young adult collection.  That’s where my library has our copy.  Arguments aside on what type of book the medal should be awarded to, based purely on illustrations, this book is a winner.

Selznick’s book follows Hugo Cabret, a young boy living alone in a train station in Paris, France in the early 1900s.  Hugo becomes apprenticed to a bitter toy-maker and begins to unravel the mystery of his past, which involves a cryptic notebook, a mysterious mechanical man, and messages from his dead father.  Story is compelling and mysterious without becoming too big.

Where the work really shines, however, is in the illustrations.  Many have called this a graphic novel.  While not a comic book, its story definitely relies upon the illustrations to tell the tale of Hugo and his mysterious past.  There are no thought bubbles or words on the illustrated pages.  The wonderfully drawn black and white images convey exactly what they’re supposed to without saying a word.  Blocks of text flesh out the characters, but never run for much more than ten pages, if even that.

This book is an excellent example of the evolution that is occurring in graphic novels.  They don’t have to be filled with spandex-wearing superheroes.  Great artwork can be just as compelling at storytelling as great words.  Hugo Cabret’s illustrations are just as important to the story as the words.  The book comes highly recommended, with it’s intriguing story and wonderful illustrations.