thecaptainsquarters's reviews
2360 reviews

Ahoy there mateys. A story of space, mystical objects, and flying . . .

I picked up this novel because it involves human flying and racing with artificial wings on the Moon – otherwise known as piloting. I had recently re-read a favorite, Windhaven by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle which involves piloting. The idea of humans flying has always appealed to me and here we have a book that involves humans flying in space. Super cool, so I gave it a shot.

This novel was hard to get into at first. In addition to the piloting, the main storyline involves the concept of “energy, and the things people will do to have it and to keep it for themselves.” The beginning dealt with not only the history of how humans got to the current political situation but also some philosophical discussions of the differences between the peoples living on the Earth, the Terra Ring, and the Moon. The story also somewhat disjointedly switches from the past to the present. While it did add flavor and set the stage for the novel’s current events, I couldn’t help but want to get back to the story of the main character, Clinton Rittener.

Clinton Rittener is a space pirate, rogue, killer, hardened man, hero, and above all an intelligent opportunist. He is the heart of the novel and much of its appeal. Frankly, I wish there had been more of Clinton in it. The novel quickly became fascinating once the “real action” with him commences.

Some of the fascination for me was the author’s use of historical facts and phrases. I love when new words and ideas lead me to researching items on the interwebs. Here are two of my favorites from this novel:

amanuensis [uh-man-yoo-en-sis] – a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another; secretary. Word Origin – “one who takes dictation,” 1610s, from Latin amanuensis “adjective used as a noun,” from servus a manu “secretary,” literally “servant from the hand,” from a “from” + manu, ablative of manus “hand.”

auto-de-fé – An auto-da-fé or auto-de-fé (from Portuguese auto da fé, meaning “act of faith”) was the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition, Portuguese Inquisition or the Mexican Inquisition had decided their punishment, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed.

Regular readers may remember my dislike of physics. Chemistry on the other hand is another story. I loved it and voluntarily took Chem II back in high school as an elective. Chemistry makes sense. However, since those long ago days, I have not been up to date in chemistry news. Several days ago I happened upon a picture of the first period table while doing art research and the picture made me delightfully happy. Then yesterday this novel lead me to two more chemistry facts of delight that either Chem II didn’t cover or I blatantly forgot. So I will share:

Transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 92 (the atomic number of uranium). All of these elements are unstable and decay radioactively into other elements.

Mysterious Periodic Element 137 – Feynmanium is the fabricated name of a theoretical element with the symbol Fy and atomic number 137. This element is known in the scientific literature as untriseptium (Uts), or simply element 137. There is some question about this element spelling the end of the periodic table. For discussion of this concept visit Column: The crucible.

Not only did I get new facts and a great protagonist, this novel ended with a bang. Let’s just say the ending was so unexpected I had to stop, blink, and reread passages at the end in a kind of disbelief. This novel is definitely worth reading but may make you angry by its ending.

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Ahoy me mateys! A young adult fantasy yarn . . . Adventures on the high seas, deception, surprises, a missing princess and a boy who can speak Cat. What is not to love? This young(er) adult fantasy book has a plucky young boy, Duncan, at the center of the action with his trusty kitten friend, Fia at his side. Duncan starts out on his journey as a young person just wanting to be allowed to succeed and to be allowed to be noticed despite his mother’s wishes. He soon gets what he desires and learns that not everything is as it seems.

I enjoyed Duncan’s transition in this novel from dissatisfied but principled youth to mature young adult. The secondary characters of Duncan’s mother, his friend Betsy, and Brig in particular were lovely. Not to mention all of the cats and their quirky personalities and tricks. Trick # 8 ½ being one of my more favorites.

Also a super nice touch when reading were the author’s own illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. They are charming and fun. The picture of Mr. Flu . . . I mean Spike! in particular made me laugh.

I know this book is aimed towards younger readers (8 to 14 bah!) but if you are looking for a light easy read that revolves around the sea and cats and an epic adventure then this book is for you. I read it in a couple of hours and enjoyed every moment.

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Ahoy there me mateys . . . This book was a random pick off the new fiction bookshelf at a local library because of its name on the spine. The name made me pick it up. The cover had a strong-looking woman on the front, a sword, and best of all: ships. Arrrrr!

That made me flip it over. The back of the novel had a wonderful description and so it got added to the stack of reading material already piled high that day. I had never heard of the author but I thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy novel. This book is the story of Irona 700 who is plucked from obscurity and lands in the ruling class of the kingdom of Benign.

As a side note the word “benign” means:

1: of a gentle disposition: gracious

2a: showing kindness and gentleness

2b: favorable, wholesome

3a: of a mild type or character that does not threaten health or life; especially: not becoming cancerous

3b: having no significant effect: harmless.

Ahem. Well the city in this novel does not match what we think it should mean. Benign as the capital of the Empire is hardly gentle and is certainly prejudicial about its own status and importance. So the city name made me smile.

The main character Irona 700 however, is awesome, intelligent yet flawed, and just wonderful to read about. The plot follows the main character through the years and showcases the politics of Benign, the choices Irona 700 makes along the way, and the personal cost of making those choices.

The first half of the book was certainly more interesting to me than the second half because it showcases Irona 700’s personal growth and the establishment of her standing in the ruling governmental body. Other readers may find the second half to be slower and even perhaps boring because it details the changing of the political status quo. It is less about the character herself evolving but more about the world changing around her. The ending was just distressing, if somewhat predictable, and may disgruntle some readers. I loved the political structure and the character so the book worked for me overall.

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Ahoy there me mateys! This was one of the ports I wanted to plunder and my oh my how wonderful and amazing it was to explore this part of our solar system. I adored this sci-fi novel. A good old fashioned space yarn. I love the politics, the characters, the science, the suspense, the writing, the ships (Arrrr!), and even the physics. Upon my life! I know I am known in these waters for my hatred of physics . . . but this book did a wonderful job of making the physics accessible to a salty sea dog like myself. Why the novel even ended with an “Author’s Note: The Science Behind the Story.” And it was awesome. I mean actually fun to read. And funny. The authors’ put in a lot of thought behind the novel which they detail in part in that section.

My favorite characters were Crow and Sandy (both men) but the novel was populated with a nice combination of strong and intelligent male and female characters. There was only a small amount of romance thrown in which was fun and did add something to the plot and was not for gratuitous sex in space scenes . . . though there was sex happening in space. The only con was that the Americans were mostly the heroes and the Chinese mostly were not. But that was a small issue for me overall and did not stop my enjoyment of the book. I have never read any of Mr. Sandford’s other novels before but he does have a couple of young adult ones. Hmmmm . . .

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Ahoy there me mateys!

Another port plundered. Arrrr! So this is the first book I have read by this author and will not be my last. In my opinion, this book is basically Needful Things but with teens, social networking, and the internet. It does not come close to the Stephen King novel. That said it was an enjoyable book and a good introduction, for me at least, to this author’s writing. The novel switches points of view about the various teens in town but overall the voice you hear most is of the heroine Kaylee. Quotes on the back of the hardback cover seem to suggest this is a dystopian novel but it certainly didn’t feel that way to me. It just seemed more like a straight out young adult thriller. Lots of action, some murder, mayhem, etc. Lots of plot twists, many of which were unpredictable.

Now with social media seemingly here to stay there has been a lot of “regular” media attention about the seeming anonymity of the interwebs and how people can use the internet in ways they would never choose to in real life. Think about internet trolls using comments to get a rise. Teens sexting photos to classmates when in real life most of those people would not see those same sexters in underwear ever. The seriousness of suicide due to online commentary. Etc. Examples of the potential misuse show up in the media all the time. I am not saying we should hate the internet. I personally find it to be wonderful. But these are serious issues that pose serious concerns.

This book takes some of those scary ideas along with behaviors actually seen in today’s online usage and asks the question (in the author’s own words) “what would people say if they were anonymous online and thought no one knew it was them . . . and what would they do if they thought they could get things they needed?”

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Ahoy there mateys . . . This book is the sequel to the compound. I was not completely satisfied with the first book for many reasons. However I still wanted to give the second book a read, and I found it was much more to my tastes then the previous one. The first half of the book was especially hopping.

The relationship between the siblings is one of the stronger things about this novel. I enjoyed seeing how the Eli and his family are adapting to their new life. With this novel some of the ideas were much more interesting than the plot delved into. It has the same “problem” as the first book being short at 328 pages and not seeming to have time to delve into the interesting ideas that the author sets up. Also some of the plot twists were kind of predictable. That being said, I definitely enjoyed this duology. The series could end here but well the author wasn’t necessary planning a second novel either when she wrote the compound.

As she indicates in her acknowledgements at the end of this second book:

But when it comes down to it, this book would not have happened without the readers of The Compound. All the letters, e-mails, and the students I met in schools and through Skype all wanting to know: What happens next? You finally persuaded me that I needed to know, too. I hope you like what I found.

I liked what she found. If the author writes more I will certainly participate in the next adventure.

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Ahoy there mateys! I first was introduced to this author by reading arclight, so when I saw that she had written this novel, I picked it up. This is what I would term a “young adult thriller.” The main character, Dinah, is a bit screwed up by her cousin’s suicide attempt. She wants revenge . . . but how to get it?

This was a decent read. I certainly liked the main character and her two best friends were super fun – especially Brucey. The bad boy plot was sadly sort of predictable as was a good portion of the ending. There were a couple of side plots that were better in terms of the twist. I know that Dinah’s emotions are supposed to be running rampant and clouding her judgment. But I wish our heroine could have been a little smarter about how she chose to handle it. Though maybe part of the deeper substructure of the plot was about what revenge gets people in the end.

While I liked Dinah’s father and Uncle as a concept, all the adults in this novel seemed to be two-dimensional and clueless. Dinah’s mother is just plain nuts and why in the world are those parents still together. I mean I know in young adult novels, the parents have to sort of be out of the way for young people to have their stories but seriously. I know it’s a small gripe but still.

If you are looking for a realistic novel this ain’t it, but it was a decent way to pass the time. Not sure if I would want another story about Dinah specifically but a story about Brucey . . . hmmm.

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Ahoy there me mateys! This also was one of the ports I wanted to plunder. And it was even better than the initial sighting suggested. This novel is a beautiful retelling of the “Arabian Nights” stories and folktales. Now I have only read a few snippets of the English translation of these stories and have always wanted in the back of my mind to explore them all. Alas, I have not done so. The main storyline of Scheherazade telling stories for 1,001 nights to save herself from death has always been an interesting concept to me. A woman using the strength of her intelligence and inner beauty to save herself. I do so love strong woman characters and many of the Arabian Night stories have filtered down through the years into western fairy tales that I love.

This novel does not disappoint at all. This version was full of rich detail and character. It lured me in with its magic and enchanted me from beginning to end. I lost all track of time while delving into this story. Unlike many of the 1,001 tales, women are the central focus of this tale. They are strong, capable, smart, and have inner beauty. The bond between the sisters in the novel is especially strong and the plot intertwined with it. There are points of view from the king’s perspective but they only enhance the story further.

One of the more interesting details of this book is that only the evil king is officially named. He goes by the name of Lo-Melkhiin. All other characters are called by their relationship to the narrator. For example “sister’s mother” or “Lady-bless.” This enriched the novel and added to its otherworldly feeling.

The desert setting is beautiful and startling in its descriptions. There was beauty in the telling of the qasr, henna, weaving, religion, fountains, etc. I loved the goats vs. sheep references. Whatever the author touched seemed to glow with its own inner light and be improved therein. Every detail seemed carefully chosen and was seemingly perfect. The story seems simple when broken down but when you look at the novel overall it is simply of gem of richness and depth . . . as though it too is one of the old folk tales itself.

There is going to be a companion novel and I will definitely read it. If you have not read this one then go get it and be enthralled.

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