Review: Pathfinder

Rigg has spent his life training under his father.  Alone in the woods, they track animals and work math problems and practice accents.  When his father suddenly dies, Rigg quickly discovers the value of his training as he sets off across an unfamiliar land, searching for answers to questions he didn't know he had.

And then there's his powers: he can see path where people have walked.  That used to be the extent of his powers, but after his father's death he realizes that he can do so much more than see the past.  He can change it.  And that might just be the most dangerous thing of all.

Entertainment: ★★★★★

I'll be frank, some of the time-space physics stuff was a little mind-boggling.  Discussions of whether it's possible to change the past and what time means and other similar topics were a little deeper than I expected.  But I enjoy stuff like that, so I actually thought it was pretty cool.  And educational and thought-inspiring.

As for the story itself, I thought it was extremely enjoyable.  I liked Rigg's narration and although the story wasn't particularly suspenseful I was very curious to see how everything tied together in the end.  And the ending managed to provide closure while still leaving me really excited to read the next book.

Plot: ★★★★★

It's a really original premise and a really exciting plot, mixed with some absolutely fantastic worldbuilding. Enough said.

Characters: ★★★★

Pathfinder loses a couple points here because I never really connected with the characters, emotionally.  However, they were great fun to read about and quite interesting.

Writing: ★★★★★

I really do like Card's style.

End Result: five stars.  A really excellent book.  Read it.

Trailer Tuesday (17)

This week's trailer: The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby.  Okay, I'm a sucker for steampunk and I'm a sucker for violins.  Together?  Wow.  This video is a little creepy, a lot awesome, and makes me really, really want to read the book!  (For more info on the book and fun stuff like a sample chapter, check out the website)

What do you think about this trailer?  And what's your favorite trailer?

Review: The Maze Runner

This book counts towards the What's In A Name? Challenge.


Thomas has no idea who he is, where he is, or even how old he is.  All his knows is his name on the day he arrives in the Glade.  The Glade is full of boys like him with no memory of their past.  The Gladers have spent years trying to escape the Glade, but without success; for the Glade is surrounded by a gigantic, seemingly impossible maze filled with mysterious monsters.

Their lives have settled into a routine: every morning the doors open and Runners leave the Glade, searching for a way out of the maze.  Every night the doors close, and to be caught outside it night is to disappear forever.  Every thirty days, a new boy arrives to replace the dead and missing.  But with Thomas's arrival, things start to change quickly.  The endgame is coming.  The boys begin to wonder if they are finally going to solve the maze... or if none of them will ever leave the Glade alive...

Entertainment: ★★★★

I read The Maze Runner in only a few hours, eager to figure out what the "answers" were.  Honestly I would have given it five stars except that it was, at times, pretty confusing.

Plot: ★★★★★

Bonus points for being majorly unique, super interesting, and gripping.  I have to say, however, that I disliked the ending.  I felt like there was no closure.  Also, I felt like things moved a little too fast at some parts, like I was having to scramble to keep up with the runaway storyline.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but in a plot as complex and layered as this it did make things kind of confusing. 

Overall, a really excellent plot, if you're willing to put some effort into understanding it.

Characters: ★★

I have to say I didn't really like any of the characters.  Some of them apparently couldn't make up their minds on whether to be good guys or not, and were just erratic and hard to understand.  The main character, Thomas, was just bizarre.  He said and did things that made no sense, had more than a few sudden personality reversals, and failed to convey any realistic emotions.  I couldn't connect with any of the characters, at all, and couldn't understand most of them either.

Writing: ★★★★

Dashner does description well, although as I just mentioned I wasn't a huge fan of the characterization.  He's excellent at building suspense and giving just the right amount of clues - not enough to give anything away, but enough to keep the reader fascinated.  I enjoyed his writing style and will probably be reading more of his books.

End Result: four stars.  A good book, definitely worth your time.

The Princess of Las Pulgas: The Winner!

The very first novapsych contest closed yesterday!  And the winner of their very own copy of The Princess of Las Pulgas is...

*drumroll*

Kati!

Congrats, Kati!  I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

Review: I Will Save You

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Kidd has escaped the group home.  He's sick of drugs and therapy and ready to have a life again.  He gets lucky at the Californian coast, where a kindly retired surfer takes him under his wing and gives him a summer job.  Kidd is just drifting, though, without a real reason to keep living - until he meets Olivia.  She's blond, beautiful, smart, and rich.  Common sense says that they'll never be together, but Kidd can't help but hope otherwise.

Devon is smart, cruel, and suicidal.  He's followed Kidd from the group home, and he's not leaving until he gets exactly what he wants.

Entertainment: ★★★★★

Beautiful.

I read it in three hours and I'm already considering rereading it.

Plot: ★★★★★

I can't really discuss it without bringing up major spoilers, so suffice to say I loved it.  Literally loved it.

Characters: ★★★★

Out of the three main characters, I thought Olivia and Kidd were excellent, but I just couldn't get into Devon, I don't know why.  But Olivia and Kidd easily made up for that, and besides I loved most of the side characters.  Plus, Kidd's narrating voice was excellent.

Writing: ★★★★★

All I can really do is restate what I said about the other categories: I really, really enjoyed I Will Save You.

End Result: five stars.

Trailer Tuesday

Today's trailer: Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck.  The book itself sounds interesting - you can check out the website if you want to know more.  The trailer is amazing!  I love the Indian art influences and (what sounds to my uneducated ear like) Indian music.  I actually watched this trailer over and over again at least four times because I liked it so much!

Review: Todd the Dreamer

Todd has a dead-end job, a dead-end relationship, and no particular goal in life.  So when he sees an ad for a lucid dreaming experiment, he figures it'll be an easy way to make some extra money and get away from his girlfriend for a while.

He doesn't expect to quickly become a talented lucid dreamer.  He doesn't expect weird, inexplicable out-of-body experiences.  He doesn't expect danger.  And he definitely doesn't expect the line between dreaming and reality to disappear.

Entertainment: ★★★

It was a nice quick read.

Plot: ★★★

It started off really well, had an unfortunate slump towards the middle where not much really happened, and then picked up again for an interesting ending.  I enjoyed learning about dreaming, too.

Characters: ★

Frankly, Todd was kind of a wimp.  And not in a relatable way, more like a wait-I'm-supposed-to-care-about-this-character? way.  He makes efforts to cheat on his girlfriend/fiancee, in both dreams and real life; in fact, he generally behaves like a pig for much of the story.  He has absolutely no motivation, no respect for anyone, and on top of everything he smokes.  He was whiny.  In one telling quote, "Well, he didn't care.  He didn't care about anything.  Nothing seemed to be worth the effort.  Nobody paid any attention to him.  Nobody respected him.  Nobody loved him."

I was fed up and hoping for an unpleasant ending for him by a quarter of the way through the book.

The rest of the cast was just pretty... bland, I guess.  Nobody really stood out to me as interesting or unique.

Writing: ★★★

There were several grammar errors that I found a little distracting, and then there was once scene where a character started off as Michael but then was written in twice as "John."  I assume it was a typo but either way I think there were a couple of editing issues that bugged me.

That said, the writing was okay but I'd have preferred a little more description, of both the dreams and real life.

End Result: three stars.  A decent book, but not amazingly excellent.