Another summer of a hundred books, plus some books I'm anticipating

This summer I'm doing the one hundred books thing again. I think it will be fun and also give me more motivation to post here because I am incredibly lazy when I don't have some sort of deadline imposed on myself. But, yeah, since I'm graduating, I'll need some sort of project to keep me busy, especially if the internships and whatnot don't all pan out. I'll do my best!

So here's a list of series I like and which need to have sequels, along with status of said sequels.

Leviathan - Westerfeld's website puts Behemoth at October 2010.
Hunger Games - Mockingjay is slated for late August of this year, according to Amazon.
Chaos Walking - Monsters of Men in late September, going by Amazon.
Malice - Amazon lists Havoc, the sequel, as being released in October of this year.
Suzumiya Haruhi series - Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyogaku, The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya has finally been announced, though Haruhi knows when we'll see an English version, especially since Baka-Tsuki can't translate anymore. However, Boredom has an English release in July, again going by Amazon.
Green Rider - Fourth book manuscript finished and in editing, according to author's website.
Kiki Strike - Very little information available, but it appears that book three is at least in the works. Kirsten Miller also has a book called The Eternal Ones coming out in August that I feel compelled to check out.
Theatre Illuminata - Book two, Perchance to Dream, is coming out in May.
Stravaganza - City of Ships is listed as coming out in June.

Two Funny Literature-Related Links

First of all, I bring you guys the Lyttle Lytton Contest. This contest, which focuses on writing intentionally unintentionally bad first sentences to novels, never fails to leave me in tears before I'm halfway through a page. "Jennifer stood there, quietly ovulating." That is the sort of wonderfully cringe-worthy fiction that this contest attempts to chronicle. Go over there, read and laugh at all the entries, then come back here and share your favorites in the comments, and I'll join in too.

Second, Disney is apparently releasing a new, updated Harriet the Spy movie that makes Harriet a blogger who gets in a blogging contest with a popular girl in her high school and stalks a celebrity. Yeah. I know. However, the post that alerted me to this promised that all was not lost. Even from seemingly dark news can come incredible hilarity, like this Jezebel article that playfully suggests other possible updates to children's books, such as "From The Mixed-Up Tweets Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" and "Little Blog on the Prairie." Both the Jezebel article and the Fandom Lounge post have plenty of comments with further title suggestions. Can you guys come up with any more? My ideas: "The Monster at the End of This Youtube Video" and "Where the /b/tards Are." XP

Shiver

Five Reasons You Should Read Shiver By Maggie Stiefvater

1. Creativity - The concept of werewolves isn't an original one, but Stiefvater's treatment of the condition is. These werewolves transform when the temperature drops too low, not during a full moon (though that bit of werewolf lore is addressed). Also, the ending is creatively done, foreshadowed during the book, and executed in a gripping fashion.

2. Humor - The characters in Shiver seemed fun and real, and a big part of this was that Sam and Grace both had senses of humor. Amazing how that goes a long way towards making characters more likable and the story in general seem more inviting and realistic. Three words: washer and dryer. All I'm gonna say.

3. Prose - Stiefvater has talent. The prose is Shiver was straightforward when it needed to be and poetic when that served the mood. And, by gum, the mere fact that Sam could think in song lyrics at times and not annoy the everlovin' crap out of me? That's an achievement all on its own.

4. Characters - I liked both Sam and Grace, and I cared about their romance and problems. Grace is a normal girl, and compared to some paranormal romance protagonists (Bella Swan, I am looking at you), she remains sensible when dealing with her boyfriend. Sam, whom I initially thought I'd dislike because he seemed like he would be a tragic, emo, misunderstood soul, turned out to be a well-rounded, fairly cheerful (as much so as a werewolf guy in his situation would reasonably be), and reasonably clear-headed individual.

5. Plot - Perhaps I should say "plots," as there is plenty going on in this book. Besides just the Sam and Grace romance, there's the mysterious death of Jack Culpeper, and Grace's relationships with her parents and Olivia and Rachel. These different plot threads are juggled skillfully, and they all pull together in the end to satisfying conclusions.

To sum it up, this is an overall great book. It takes a normal romance story, raises the stakes, adds excitement and supernatural elements, and wraps it up in a beautifully written package.

Also, right before posting this, I realized I needed to check the spelling of the author's last name, so I got up, walked over to my bookshelf, and looked. Walking back to my computer, I realized I could have just googled it. I'm... really not sure how to feel about this.

Incarceron

So Incarceron seems to be following the trend of dark sci-fi/fantasy in sorta post-apocalyptic settings that I've been seeing a lot of in the books I read lately. This book reminds me particularly of The Maze Runner (which, um, I forgot to review when I read it a couple weeks back, oops), but also of stuff like The Hunger Games, the Chaos Walking books, and sort of like Leviathan, too (another book that missed a review). So, yeah, there's a talking point. Have any of you guys out there noticed this YA fiction trend, or is it all in my head?

But anyway, let's talk about Incarceron on its own merits. So I started reading the book at about four o'clock in the afternoon the day I got it, and I finished it at 10:30. Six and a half hours, during which I also attended class for an hour and forty-five minutes, got dinner, took an online test, and played Civilization II. So, uh, yeah, I freaking blazed through this book, all things considered. Shades of The Knife of Never Letting Go. So, yeah, this was a pretty gripping read (unlike the books in the previous review).

Basically, Incarceron is a prison. One that sounds like some sort of Transformer or other type of giant robot, but anyway. It's this mega prison that was designed as sort of a grand experiment in prisoner reform. However, if things had really worked out like that, we wouldn't have a story. Instead, we meet Finn, a young man who's a member of a gang inside Incarceron. He and his band are just one of the many groups who struggle to survive inside the intelligent, malevolent prison. Then one day he finds a key, a link to the outside world. Enter Claudia, daughter of no less important a person than the very Warden of Incarceron. (Heh, the name still amuses me. "Incarceron destroy puny humans!") Claudia, once she's clued into the fact that Incarceron isn't the paradise it's supposed to be, is totally cool with helping Finn and his friends escape. However, she's not a total altruist. She's got problems of her own in the outside world, and she thinks Finn is the key to solving them.

So first of all, the characters. I like Finn. He's a pretty decent guy, for all that he's spent his life in a giant freaking prison. Compared to his companions, he's not at all a ruthless thug. Good, solid hero character with a nice bit of mystery in his past. (Isn't that always the case?) As for Claudia, what I liked about her character is that she's somewhat selfishly motivated. She doesn't want to help the prisoners just because she's a good person (and she is, we do see that), but she's got her own reasons for wanting Finn to be freed. And it makes sense, given her upbringing. Her father raised her to be the perfect queen and to have a chance in the court lifestyle. But, yeah, I just liked that because I have a fondness for characters with human weaknesses (see also Galinda in Wicked the musical). But anyway, besides the main characters, the supporting cast is also well drawn. Kiero is pretty complex in his own right, leaving you perpetually unsure of his true loyalty, and the Warden is similarly inscrutable. Well, next there's the setting, and I have to admit, the first chapter from Claudia's viewpoint threw me 'cause I didn't know why we were suddenly back in Regency times (or whichever period the Era is actually mimicking). But it the important thing is that this works. Incarceron is freaky and nightmarish, but you get, like, a Stepford Suburbia feel from the outside world that's just as bad. The worlds play off and reveal things about each other that just intensifies the mystery and subtle horror. And as for the plot, well, it's good. Good foreshadowing for the most part, unfolds at a nice clip for all the revelations, high stakes for the conflict, and, strewth, does it ever leave off at a cliffhanger point.

Well, I wanted to say more about this book at some point, but this review has been languishing on my desktop for long enough, so I'll just post it. Currently rereading the Chronicles of Prydain and Airman, so there won't be reviews for those.

The Fionavar Tapestry

So Guy Gavriel Kay is supposed to be this amazing fantasy author. Perhaps he is. But what matters to me is whether an author can captivate my imagination, and he could not. Others may enjoy his books, and, like with the ASoIaF guy, I can acknowledge that this guy can write well, but it just doesn't work for me. Anyway, enough with the apologizing, here's what I thought. So I read all of The Summer Tree and most of The Wandering Fire. I got so far because at parts Kay really did succeed in making me interested and care about the fate of these characters and this land. Although I have to wonder, if Fionavar is the first of all the worlds, why's it stuck in the middle ages when Earth is all whoosh jet planes? But I digress. Anyway, you've got these five university students from Toronto who are whisked away to a magical world on a suspiciously frivolous cause, just to be special guests at a festival. But of course they all have magical destinies, because no one in a fantasy novel ever doesn't have one of those. Hm, this reminds me of why I read so little high fantasy. Anyway, the five characters are Dave, Jen, Kevin, Kim, and Paul, and I only gave a crap about two of them for more than a couple pages at a time. Paul's a whiny emo kid because his girlfriend died. And you know what? If you can't make me care about tragic sundered love, you're doing it wrong. Kevin's a two-dimensional horndog who only cares about doing the ladies. Jen... I didn't really have a problem with her, but she didn't get, like, any fleshing out before she disappeared from the main plot for a while. I liked Kim well enough. She seemed to deal with her Destiny without totally going all mystical. And when Dave finally showed up, I really enjoyed the portion of the book with him and the Dalrei. That was fun. I dunno, there were snatches of the book where the characters seemed realistic and like interesting people, but too often the narrative was third person omniscient, not in anybody's head. And furthermore, the viewpoints jumped around so much, and more often than not the characters would have revelations about their Destinies, and though the reader was watching the character, the reader would not be clued into what any of this was about. And look, all of them are special? All of them have magical destinies? It's like a forum roleplay, where players keep trying to one-up each other in terms of power levels and specialness. "My character has a magic sword!" "My character can turn into a dragon!" "My character is the reincarnation of a dead hero!" "My character can completely manipulate the time flow and is immortal and can nullify any bad magic!" I mean, seriously.

Well, this was a vitriolic little review. Bad weekend. Got my wisdom teeth taken out and then couldn't even recover peacefully 'cause of the ruddy blizzard knocking our power out for a little under two full days. So I'm not in the mindset to be charitable to this series. The Fionavar Tapestry isn't bad, but it's certainly something that you need to have the right taste for.

With luck I'll finish some of the half-written reviews I have on my computer and post them soon.

Eyes Like Stars

Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev

So I read this the other day and was pleased with the funny, engaging story. So we've got Beatrice Shakespeare Smith, called Bertie, a seventeen year old girl who lives in the Theatre Illuminata, right? Yeah, in this theatre, the characters from the play are alive, able to hang out and interact with Bertie, and her best friends include four mischievous fairies and Nate, a pirate character. It's a pretty fun life, but Bertie is always getting into trouble because of her antics. Then one day it's the last straw, and the Theater Manager says that she'll have to leave unless she can find a way to make herself invaluable to the theatre. Bertie manages to figure out a plan, but the hard part comes in the execution, and that doesn't even take into account the sabotage and secrets that she comes up against.

So, yeah, it's a book about the theatre. So y'all know I like it, 'cause I totally dig the theatre. Plenty of references to theatre (and I swear I saw a reference to getting eaten by a grue, what) which made for some very nice moments of recognition when I picked them up. That's always fun. And the inclusion of familiar Shakespearean characters and seeing the interpretations of them gave another dimension to the book. Hm, well, we never actually leave the theatre in this story, and the Theatre Illuminata is such a magical place, I could never place the time period, which I thought was great because it just added to the magic and mystery of the story. And I quite liked Bertie herself. She's a familiar character type, the spunky girl who causes chaos but who has a good heart. She's smart, offbeat, somewhat girly instead of overwhelmingly tomboyish, and very creative. So when she decides on her plan on how to remain at the theatre, we buy that she's able to pull it off. Also nice is that her actions do have consequences, and even though things are mostly okay at the end, there's still a big burden of guilt regarding her one slip-up that she'll need to fix in the next book. Oh, and I do like that the story was mostly self-contained even while setting up for a sequel. I don't like reading one story stretched over multiple books. Give me story arcs that are as self-contained as possible but which contribute to a larger whole.

Anyway, Eyes Like Stars was a very enjoyable read. It's fairly substantial, but if you're like me, you'll blaze through it because it keeps your interest the whole way through.

Oh, and since I forgot to mention this in the last post, thanks to everyone who commented on the discussion post from earlier in the month. We came up with some great thoughts. ^_^

Avalanche

Avalanche by Arthur Roth is a book I remember reading in grade school. I recently found it again after a post on the LiveJournal community whatwasthatbook. Very useful comm, that one. I had good memories of the book, so I requested it from the library to read again.

So anyway, in Avalanche, fourteen year old Chris Palmer is trapped in an avalanche. What it says on the tin, basically. And what follows is a narrative that tracks Chris's time trapped beneath the snow as he tries to stay alive long enough to be rescued. There's not a lot of action, but the book is full of surprisingly interesting introspection and character development. In his mind, through memories and dreams, Chris untangles the troubled relationships he has with his mother, father, and his brother Terry. Chris, with a weak heart and scarlet fever as a child, has never felt good enough when compared to his athlete brother, and he feels that his father resents him for not being like Terry. In between flashbacks to the past, we see Chris struggle to deal with hunger, cold, and fear as the days go by.

One thing I liked about this book was that, despite it being for a younger age group, it didn't gloss over any of the darker aspects of the story. You get every carefully considered detail of what Chris does as he works to survive in the snow, and Chris even entertains the thought of taking his own life when he gets too overwhelmed. I mean, that's not something you usually see in a book that middle school kids might read. But, yeah, I liked this book. A clean, simple style, plenty going on, and Chris is a well-rounded character, with flaws and talents both, realistic, basically. Well, this is a short book, but it's very engaging and a quick read.