The Declaration

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

Dystopian novels are an interesting bunch.  They present a bleak vision of the future where some current social problem is magnified to an enormous extent.  While these books a great, and it’s always interesting to see what the world could potentially look like, there tend to be a number of cliches that arise from this genre.  The main character tends to be indoctrinated completely, believing wholly in the system they were brought up.  This is a way for the author to establish how his or her universe works.  Then comes the second main character who can see how things are wrong and together with the main character, they fight the system.

The Declaration follows this formula, but still manages to be a good read.  This strength comes from the nature of the world Gemma Malley has created.  The year is 2140 and pharmaceutical advancements in the form of a drug called Longevity allows humans to live forever.  But if everyone lives forever, we’d run out of space pretty quick.  In order to begin taking the drug, you must sign a declaration stating that you will never have a child.  You are required to make this decision by 16, and you must actively say no, or you have made the declaration by default.  The story follows Anna, who was born illegally and is considered a Surplus.  It is implied that other countries readily kill Surplus children, but England, where the story is set, is more evolved and tries to give Surpluses a purpose, training them for menial jobs like house cleaning and hard labor.

Malley is very good at slowly giving out clues about this future world.  She doesn’t spell it all out on the first page.  We learn slowly that the worlds resources are gone, and there are harsh restrictions on energy, food, and water.  Christianity appears to have been replaced with a more naturalistic religion.   Mother Earth is constantly referred to, and people seem to be afraid to disappoint her.  Surpluses like Anna are indoctrinated into believing that they are a strain on the natural order of things, that their very presence is an affront to Mother Nature.  It basically boils down to old people refusing to let go of their power, and making new generations illegal.  This is ageism taken to the extreme.  There are also hints that poorer countries are not given Longevity as freely as wealthier nations.  There is something very sad about this world.  It reminds me a lot of the movie Children of Men.  The world is just tired and in need of new blood.

The outsider character is Peter who refuses to be indoctrinated and convinces Anna that she can fight too.  Frankly, I didn’t care too much about this aspect of the story.  The world, and how it works, held my interest more than Anna’s discovery that there should be children in the world.  This may be that these are little more than cardboard cutouts of characters.  The villain is genuinely sinister, but when her backstory is given, I didn’t sympathize with her because I had already guessed it.  If Malley had made a more intriguing story set in this amazing world, I would have loved this book even more.

Evil Genius

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks

Imagine what Harry Potter would have been like if he had discovered that instead of being born to loving, though dead, parents, he was instead the son of Voldemort.  Harry would be heir to his entire evil empire, and sent not to Hogwarts, but to a school teaching all aspects of evil.  Essentially, that is Evil Genius.  Cadel Piggott gets into some trouble because he is too smart for his own good.  His adoptive parents are encouraged by the police to take Cadel to a therapist after he breaks into several different websites.  His therapist informs him that his biological father is the nefarious Dr. Darkkon, a supervillain currently in prison.  Cadel’s evil father begins to take an active role in Cadel’s education, teaching him the ways of the Force, as it were.  After graduating high school at 13, he is enrolled in the Axis Institute, a school to train future supervillains founded by Dr. Darkkon.

While the setup is very much like Harry Potter, with a poor little orphan boy with horrible surrogate parents being swept off to a school that embraces everything about him, Evil Genius is a very different beast.  Cadel Piggott/Darkkon is a hard character.  He’s not necessarily evil, he’s just super intelligent with no proper outlet for his ideas and interests.  He’s obsessed with systems, like traffic systems and the more complex system of human social interactions.  He learns about them by experimenting with them, and causing problems so that he can learn more.  If that’s by causing a traffic jam or setting off a chain of events that all of his classmates in his high school fail their final exams, it’s all in the interest of expanding his knowledge.  Again, he’s not evil or malicious, his intent is truly to learn, but it’s hard to empathize with him.  He’s almost so smart, he’s another species.

The True Meaning of Smekday

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Earth has been invaded by aliens.  Under the command of Captain Smek, the aliens called the Boov have taken control of the planet, renamed everything after their great leader, and forced humans to move to remote locations.  In America, humans are given Florida, until the Boov discover they like oranges, so they are relocated to Arizona.  The main character, Gratuity Tucci, decides to drive to Florida and Arizona, and hopes to find her mother who had been abducted by the aliens shortly before the invasion.  Along the way, she gets a flat tire and a Boov by the name of J.Lo helps her by repairing her car, making it hover.  They set out on a cross-country adventure and wackiness ensues.

Essentially, this is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for kids.  It’s a mix of science-fiction, humor, and some light social commentary.  I’m not always the biggest fan of humor in science-fiction, however when it works, it’s great.  This book has moments that are just ludicrous, and it is very funny.  As J.Lo, our main alien character, discovers new things about Earth, and the English language, funny things just tend to happen.  He loves urinal cakes for a snack and thinks armadillos are awesome, and he finds it difficult to use American restrooms because the Boov have seven genders, not just two.  The book is long, over 400 pages, and the humor seems to fizzle out towards the end.  The author may have just run out of steam, or he was trying to make it more serious in the end.

There are more serious aspects to the book, with social commentary that is never heavy-handed.  My favorite moments were towards the end when Tip (Gratuity’s nickname) finally reaches Arizona and discovers how Americans are rebuilding.  Each city is run differently.  Phoenix is a military dictatorship.  The president is running a small farming community.  There are some fine citizens who think there should be clear lines dividing where each race can live.  “We need to start the new America out right” they say.  Seeing a culture rebuild itself after a major catastrophe always fascinates me.  What I love about this book is that the rebuilding is not the focus, so it never becomes overwrought and complicated.  It’s subtle.

The True Meaning of Smekday is a great, funny sci-fi book in the vein of Douglas Adams’ books.  It is essentially a road trip story involving a girl trying to find her mother.  Helping her along the way is an alien sidekick.  The humor is fun, never vulgar, but seems to run out towards the end, where it is replaced by a compelling vision of America compressed, against its will, into the state of Arizona.  The length could be too much for some younger kids, but the illustrations keep it accessible.  I would recommend it to fans of humor and sci-fi.

Airborn

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the airship Aurora, a dirigible filled with the lighter then air gas, hydrium. He yearns to move up in rank and become an assistant sailmaker, a person who attends and repairs the giant gas cells that keep the ship afloat, just like his deceased father. Matt’s adventure starts when he encounters an elderly balloonist in a dramatic midair rescue attempt. The balloonist eventually dies soon after confiding in Matt about strange creatures hereto undiscovered; creatures that live their whole lives in the open air. Six months later Matt encounters the balloonists granddaughter, Kate de Vries, on a trip to Australia, and discovers that not only does she share his curiosity about the mysterious creatures but plans on finding evidence of their existence. In the meantime Matt discovers he won’t get promoted because a young man of wealth and connection, Bruce Lunardi, has been placed as the new junior sailmaker. To top it off Matt and the airship encounter pirates and are eventually shipwrecked on a uncharted island that may hold the proof of the airborn creatures they’ve been looking for. But the island holds many dangers that will test their ingenuity, courage, and may hasten the end of their mortality.

This was an enjoyable novel that is in the tradition of old swashbuckler movies, and the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. The novel keeps a good balance between its action scenes and character development. The reader not only becomes invested in the plot, the predicaments (of which there are many) that the characters find themselves in, but also in the characters themselves, how they grow and change because of the situations they face. The only defect is that the novel slows down a bit in the middle, but it’s redeemed by a rousing, action packed conclusion.

I’d recommend it for anyone 12 and up, especially those who are interested in pirates and classic adventure yarns.

Black Tattoo

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

I hate to admit it but I picked this up based mostly on its cover. It just screamed too cool for school. And then I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. It’s a very quick and engrossing read, with plenty of action and a fresh take on the demon/hell subgenre.

Black Tattoo is the story of three teens and their attempts to thwart the evil Scourge, a demon intent on destroying all of reality. Esme is the young heroine who has magical abilities, such as flight, but can also kick major bootie with a sword and hand to hand combat. Then there is Charlie, whose parents recently divorced. He is pretty angry at his parents and the world. Then all of a sudden he is given magical abilities because of a mysterious black tattoo that appears on his body. Having unlimited power and being angry is not the best situation a young man could find himself in. Fortunately for Charlie he has his best friend for the ride, Jack. After Esme and Charlie, Jack is just a normal everyday teen. Through out the journey he proves time again that despite not having powers, and being pretty much scared witless all the time even a normal boy can become a hero.

What I really liked about this book though is where the second half of the book occurs, Hell. Although it resembles a fire and brimstone hell, it really is its own world, full of different monsters, gladiator battles, and a mysterious dragon at the heart of reality.

I’d highly recommend this book. It’s the perfect distraction on a winter afternoon.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga

Fanboy is your standard geek.  He’s in to computers and comics.  He’s constantly bullied at school and has no where to turn.  His mother is pregnant and his stepfather is just another bully.  His only refuge is the comic book he’s creating in the middle of the night, and his only dream is to meet Brian Michael Bendis, who will surely help Fanboy get his book published.  Then he meets your standard goth girl Kyra, and they become friends based on their shared hatred of the same bullies.

Barry Lyga’s book has a great blend of humor and drama.  Most of the humor is very sarcastic.  Fanboy makes hysterical comments about high school society in his very dry, sardonic voice.  There are also lots of in-jokes about the world of comics.  If the reader doesn’t know comics well, most of these jokes may be lost.  This use of humor based on the world of comics would make me recommend this to a person who has read a lot of comics but doesn’t read a lot of traditional novels.  Fanboy’s cynical voice and wry observations of high school and the world of comics makes for an enjoyable book.

The book is also, at times, very dark and depressing.  There is a constant threat of violence throughout the book.  Fanboy has a List, a running tally of all those who have ever tormented him.  These are not petty bullying episodes, they are violent incidents that are completely unjustified.  Fanboy is quiet, keeps to himself, is viewed as weak, and is therefore a target.  It is at times difficult to read and you question why he just won’t stand up for himself.  In addition to the List, he carries a bullet with him at all times, reaching for it almost like a religious icon when he is being bullied.  Kyra is far more vocal about her violent tendencies, and one of the central stories of the book is learning why she is so angry.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that the two title characters are not romantically involved.  They have great banter, constantly bickering with each other but developing a great friendship.  So many books of this sort show the weak hero all of a sudden coming into his own and finding the love of his life.  Fanboy definitely begins to stand up for himself, but he isn’t shown getting a relationship.  Not every milestone has to happen before the age of 18.

I felt this book was very relatable without being too preachy, and I never felt that this was an adult writing.  This is pretty much a pitch-perfect angsty teenager who is being pushed to the edge by bullies.  I especially liked the book because not everything was resolved at the end.  Fanboy is slightly more assertive, but you see that he is still a work in progress.  His relationship with his mother and stepfather seem to get better, but it’s still not perfect.  I highly enjoyed this book, because this was me in high school.  Cynical, angry at the world, feeling like there is no place to turn, and learning that there are people out there ready to listen if you are willing to open up.  I would recommend this to everyone, and I’m going to close this by saying I’m glad high school is over for me.

Hero

Hero by Perry Moore

There’s really nothing the super hero genre hasn’t already done.  It hasn’t really forged any new ground, and has instead continued using the same archetypes of heroes granted godlike powers and all kinds of insecurities.  “I can fly at the speed of sound, can’t be killed, and I just can’t get Lois Lane/Mary Jane/Jean Grey/etc.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love my superhero comics, but the major characters haven’t really evolved.  The same could be said for coming out literature.  Starting with Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys, the number of books involving gay characters coming to grips with their sexuality has grown substantially.  But they are still basically Dawson’s Creek with gay characters.  “Oh, I love you but I can never be with you…Oh woe is me…”  Perry Moore’s Hero manages to merge the two genres into a pretty seamless package.  While it doesn’t forge new ground in either genre, as a combined effort, it’s a great young adult novel.

Thom Creed is not your average kid.  He goes to high school and he plays basketball, but he is far from being a normal teenager.  His father was once a superhero.  He was apprenticed to a character similar to Superman, but was disgraced and driven from the League, a massive group of heroes who protect the Earth and are modeled after DC’s pantheon.  The mystery of Thom’s father’s fall from grace is central to the plot, and is intriguing enough to keep reading.