Raider's Ransom by Emily Diamand was a very good read. This book is very interesting. At first, it seems like it's a story that took place long ago, when pirates roamed the seven seas and attacked other vessels and cities to raid them for goods. But after reading for a while, it becomes apparent that this story actually takes place far in the future. The story happens in the year 2216. The world has had lots of flooding, and much of England has been destroyed. People in England believe that technology was the cause of all the terrible natural disasters that have happened in the world, and have tried to destroy them. The religion in England basically teaches that technology is bad, and if you use it, you'll be cursed. In Greater Scotland, they still use technology, but much of it has been destroyed by natural disasters and also by angry people during the time called the Collapse where people went around destroying computers and other technology.
The main character in this book is Lilly Melkum. She lives in a tiny fishing village, and has grown up without any knowledge of technology. All those things were destroyed long before she was born. She lives with her Granny and her seacat in a little hut up on a hill. She and her best friend, Andy, have always dreamed of buying a big boat when they grow up and sailing all over the place. This dream is crushed when raiders attack her village while she is away on a fishing trip.
The raiders come and kidnap the Prime Ministers daughter who was staying at their village with an aunt, and because of a rumor of a seacat in the village, they attack Lilly's house and kill her Granny. When Lilly returns, her world has been turned upside down. Her Granny is dead, and she moves in with Andy. But that's not the end of it. The Prime Minister blames the villagers for his daughter's kidnapping, and drafts most of the men, including Andy, into the army for an attack on the Raiders. The others, he holds prisoner and threatens to hang.
Lilly wants to do something to help, but she doesn't know how anyone will let her. She overhears a conversation between the Prime Minister and his sister, and also a seemingly impossible conversation between the Scottish Ambassador and an unknown person. She suddenly knows what she can do. She sets out with a stolen jewel, a letter, and a disguise on her little fishing boat with her seacat in tow to rescue the Prime Minister's daughter from the Raiders.
The other main character is Zeph, the son of the Raider Boss who has kidnapped the Prime Minister's father. His father wanted to start a war with the English, so he could wipe them out. Zeph runs into Lilly on her journey, and after a strange turn of events, they become friends. But Lilly doesn't really trust him, because he's a Raider, one of those people who killed her Granny.
Through thick mud, dangerous fog, storms, cannons, torture, ghosts, talking jewels, fake uncles, treason, capture, and treachery, it is interesting to watch how the relationship between Zeph and Lilly change over the course of the book.
There were a few things about the book that I didn't really like. The whole book is written in first person present tense. I've mentioned before that I'm not sure I really like reading books in present tense. They're a little harder to wrap your brain around what happens in what order, since everything is happening now. But the main problem was that it was written in first person from the point of view of two different people: Zeph and Lilly. While it was definitely interesting to see the story unfold from each of their perspectives, it was rather confusing to know who was speaking. They switched at new chapters, but not neccessarily every other one. I never knew who was speaking until part way through the first page of each chapter, since there wasn't anything that identified who was speaking at the beginning of each chapter.
The other thing I didn't like very much was the ending. It had a terrible cliffhanger ending. When I first saw the book, it appeared to be a stand alone book, but it turns out there's a sequel - which, luckily, has already been written.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Last Girls of Pompeii - 2012 Book # 2
The Last Girls of Pompeii by Kathryn Lasky was a very interesting book. I really like historical fiction, because it helps the reader see what might have happened in historical events. It helps people realize that those things happened to real people and see what those people might have felt or been experiencing at the time.
The two main characters in the book are a girl and her slave. The girl was born with a crippled arm, and she always feels that she needs to hide her arm when around other people, especially ones that she doesn't know. Her slave is actually more like her best friend. They've been together since the girl was born, the slave being just four years older than the girl.
From the title, I knew that the volcano had to erupt somewhere in this story, and the anticipation for that built up the further through the book I got. It actually was the main reason I didn't want to put the book down. I knew what was coming, and I didn't know how it was going to affect the characters I had been reading about.
I think this book has a lot of good historical facts in it. The reader can really learn a lot about what life was like in ancient Roman times. They learn a lot about how marriage worked back then, since the main character's sister was planning her wedding, and also learn a lot about how people born with disabilities were viewed in that day as well. The book also includes some about the gladiators, since the girl slave's brother was a gladiator. Also, there is quite a bit about mythology in the book as well, since it was a part of people's daily lives in that it was their religion that they had at the time. I think the book was very educational as well as a good read.
However, I thought the ending was terrible. I guess I shouldn't have expected much better, since I knew the volcano was going to erupt sometime. Other than the very ending, the book was great.
The two main characters in the book are a girl and her slave. The girl was born with a crippled arm, and she always feels that she needs to hide her arm when around other people, especially ones that she doesn't know. Her slave is actually more like her best friend. They've been together since the girl was born, the slave being just four years older than the girl.
From the title, I knew that the volcano had to erupt somewhere in this story, and the anticipation for that built up the further through the book I got. It actually was the main reason I didn't want to put the book down. I knew what was coming, and I didn't know how it was going to affect the characters I had been reading about.
I think this book has a lot of good historical facts in it. The reader can really learn a lot about what life was like in ancient Roman times. They learn a lot about how marriage worked back then, since the main character's sister was planning her wedding, and also learn a lot about how people born with disabilities were viewed in that day as well. The book also includes some about the gladiators, since the girl slave's brother was a gladiator. Also, there is quite a bit about mythology in the book as well, since it was a part of people's daily lives in that it was their religion that they had at the time. I think the book was very educational as well as a good read.
However, I thought the ending was terrible. I guess I shouldn't have expected much better, since I knew the volcano was going to erupt sometime. Other than the very ending, the book was great.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Stravaganza: City of Ships - 2012 Book #1
The first book of the year was City of Ships by Mary Hoffman. This is the fifth book in the Stravaganza series. This is a series of books about two parallel worlds that are hundreds of years apart. Children from Earth in England are "chosen" to be stravaganti who can then stravagate between their world and the parallel world called Talia, which is very similar to Italy in the late 1500s.
In this book, the girl who was chosen as the new Stravagante is Isabel. She has a twin brother named Charlie, who, Isabel believes, is amazing at everything. He's really popular in school, he gets really good grades, and he's the captain of the swim team. Isabel only has a few friends, tries to make herself kind of invisible at school, gets pretty good grades - but not as good as Charlie's - and is afraid of the water. She is always comparing herself to her twin, and thinks of herself badly because of it. Then, one day, she finds a red bag with tesserae in it - the tiny pieces that are used to make mosaics. Isabel loves art and is fascinated by the bag. She falls asleep holding the bag, and finds herself in Talia where she is immediately welcomed by Flavia, her Stravagante in the city of Classe.
The next day in school, one of her classmates asks to talk to her, and asks about her last night. He had known about her finding the bag and wondered if anything had happened. She learns that a handful of other students at her school are Stravaganti who have visited Talia as well, and soon becomes great friends with them.
Things are going well for Isabel when she finds out about an impending war on the city of Classe. The di Chimici have allied with the Gate people and are planning an oversea attack on Classe. Isabel doesn't know what she can do to help with this situation, but she tries to be involved as much as she can. It doesn't make it any easier for her when her brother stars to wonder why her sister is acting so differently than she used to.
The only problem I had with reading this book was the fact that it has been awhile since I have read the first four books of the series. In the book, it kept referring to things that had happened in the previous books, and I wasn't always entirely sure what it was reffering to all the time. Overall, I thought this was a great book to read to start off the year.
In this book, the girl who was chosen as the new Stravagante is Isabel. She has a twin brother named Charlie, who, Isabel believes, is amazing at everything. He's really popular in school, he gets really good grades, and he's the captain of the swim team. Isabel only has a few friends, tries to make herself kind of invisible at school, gets pretty good grades - but not as good as Charlie's - and is afraid of the water. She is always comparing herself to her twin, and thinks of herself badly because of it. Then, one day, she finds a red bag with tesserae in it - the tiny pieces that are used to make mosaics. Isabel loves art and is fascinated by the bag. She falls asleep holding the bag, and finds herself in Talia where she is immediately welcomed by Flavia, her Stravagante in the city of Classe.
The next day in school, one of her classmates asks to talk to her, and asks about her last night. He had known about her finding the bag and wondered if anything had happened. She learns that a handful of other students at her school are Stravaganti who have visited Talia as well, and soon becomes great friends with them.
Things are going well for Isabel when she finds out about an impending war on the city of Classe. The di Chimici have allied with the Gate people and are planning an oversea attack on Classe. Isabel doesn't know what she can do to help with this situation, but she tries to be involved as much as she can. It doesn't make it any easier for her when her brother stars to wonder why her sister is acting so differently than she used to.
The only problem I had with reading this book was the fact that it has been awhile since I have read the first four books of the series. In the book, it kept referring to things that had happened in the previous books, and I wasn't always entirely sure what it was reffering to all the time. Overall, I thought this was a great book to read to start off the year.
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