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Dragon and Judge

by Timothy Zahn

More curious twists. Jack and Draycos happen to be near the planet where his parents last were – before dying in a supposed accident. Jack decides he can\’t pass up the chance to visit the place, and get some closure. Upon landing they are promptly accosted by an alien group that lives in a secluded canyon. (I happened the really like the naming convention of the aliens- it was quite unique). These aliens claim to recognize something about Jack and press him into service as a judge, to settle disputes they\’ve had lingering for years. Because the last set of assigned judges in their community- provided by the intergalactic entity- died under suspicious circumstances. Jack quickly realizes that something else is going on in this alien colony, and he\’s determined to get to the bottom of it. So he pretends to accept his new role (using the manipulative and people-reading skills he learned from his criminal uncle) while practically living in captivity and sending Draycos (whose existence is still a secret) out at night to spy around. But then he finds out that events in the past here involved his own parents- and if he\’s not careful, his old enemies might turn up to finish him off before he can expose things. Meanwhile there\’s a parallel storyline of Alison and her new alien/dragon companion Taneem, who have been captured by the enemy who coerce them into opening the safe that was owned by the advance team of Draycos\’ people- which will give them the coordinates of the arriving remnants of his race. Alison and Taneem have to outwit the enemy while hoping to gain access to that information themselves, but the reader is starting to wonder if Alison has her own, darker motives as well. Just like the other stories in this series, there\’s plenty of action, intrigue, and delving into ethics, especially between Jack and his K\’da companion with his high standards of self-imposed chivalry.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 318 pages, 2007

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

Dragon and Slave

by Timothy Zahn

Third in this series. It was a good story, even though the adventure is not my usual type. Jack and his symbiont companion are still trying to identify the enemy of Draycos\’ race. Having failed to do so as mercenary recruits, this time Jack deliberately gets himself sold into slavery, intending to hack the computers of the wealthy owner who has the right connections. Before ever having a chance to get close to a computer in the family household, Jack first has to survive his life of servitude- suffering deprivation, long work hours, unjust punishments and so on. He is astonished when his fellow slaves help him, with no obvious benefit to themselves. Draycos tries to help him plan an escape route and break into the house, but it isn\’t until the spoiled daughter demands him as her plaything (having seen him perform tricks for his companions) that he has a way in. It\’s not easier though. Inside the house is even more dangerous and tricky than just living in the slave quarters was. Somebody maybe is spying on them. Jack doesn\’t speak his owners\’ language. He guesses wrong at things several times. In the end, with a neat twist of irony, he finds the information he was after through no effort of his own. But then finds it impossible to leave safely- as now his skills as a conman and lockpick have been recognized by the owner, who plans to sell him to the highest bidder- or are there ulterior motives? I\’ve kind of left a lot out here- the plot got rather detailed and honestly sometimes it lost my interest but then new turns would make me eager to find out how they were going to get out of the mess. Something strange is happening with Draycos, too- his connection to Jack is changing, his senses are sharpening with no real explanation. I\’m curious to see what that\’s becoming, as the alien/human relationship is what intrigues me about this series. Funny, the girl Kayna which a few other reviewers speculated was being set up for a future enemy or love interest, wasn\’t present in this book at all.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 300 pages, 2005

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

Dragon and Soldier

by Timothy Zahn

Sequel to Dragon and Thief. Not quite as good as the first book was for me, but that could be due to the focus on battles and such. Jack and Draycos need to identify who had attacked the dragon\’s species, without revealing the fact that Draycos survived. They figure they can get this information from the database of mercenary companies that keep tabs on all their enemies and competitors. So Jack enlists in a mercenary unit that regularly takes children (base age is fourteen, though quite a few lie and join up younger). Supposedly they do this because their families are desperate for the payout money, although the contracts of course have fine print that often lets the company weasel out of paying- but that\’s beside the point. Jack goes through a ten-day boot camp, trying to fit in but his dragon \’tattoo\’ gets noticed and he has to pretend to show it off, not hide it. Which makes keeping Drayco\’s existence secret a bit more tricky. Meanwhile they have to figure out how to access the computers, and get sent to their first battle assignment before accomplishing that. A place where they are not welcome, and after a short while Jack realizes they\’re not actually there to defend the civilians as he was told. The fighting in this book is not hard to read- it\’s mostly bombs, tactical evasion, spying, getting taken captive and interrogated, and so on. Draycos takes matters into his own claws a few times, but even in that case the descriptions are light on gore (and he prefers not to kill unless it\’s necessary anyways).

More interesting is the continually developing relationship between Draycos and his host- he\’s still trying to instill his code of honor and ethics in the boy, while Jack can\’t help falling back on the conman mindset he was taught. There\’s also an intriguing character Alison Kayna, who seems a lot more experienced than the other new recruits. Suspicion goes both ways between her and Jack- they each wonder what the other is up to, but avoid close questioning or striking up a friendship. The story closes with Kayna zeroing in on the fact that Jack is definitely involved in something- which probably leads right into the next book in the series.

I kind of like the fact that something I at first assumed was a weak point in the plot- Jack sabotaging a natural resource that was the crux of the whole conflict the mercenaries were there for with an item that could withstand the blast- actually turned out to be something he did on purpose. Seems like his desire to be a better person- turning away from his shady upbringing- and Drayco\’s strong sense of chivalry are sinking into each other. There was also a really cool scene where Draycos and Jack\’s uncle spoke in code using poetry- they basically took turns quoting a lengthy poem, with critical information given in lines were deliberately omitted. (However, the dragon\’s line-by-line explanation of that to Jack later on was a bit tedious).

This one has my favorite cover of the series. I just happen to like the tattoo detail and how Drayco\’s tail is snapping out of Jack\’s arm (even though there was never a scene where the dragon showed himself while Kayna was nearby).

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 301 pages, 2004

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

Dragon and Thief

by Timothy Zahn

This very sci-fi story is about two unlikely companions. Jack is a boy- about twelve I think- who was raised by a conman, decided to quit that lifestyle and at the opening of the book is hiding out on a mostly uninhabited planet because someone framed him for a very serious theft. Draycos is an alien being, a highly intelligent dragonlike creature trained as a warrior, with a strong sense of honor and ethics. Draycos and his crewmates are fleeing an enemy intent on commiting genocide against his race, when they\’re ambushed and his ship crashes on the same planet: Draycos is the only survivor. Some dangerous mercenaries come to inspect the crash site, to do away with any possible survivors or witnesses. The boy had approached the crash site out of curiosity but finds himself fleeing alongside Draycos for his life. They strike up a very unusual partnership. Draycos agrees to help Jack solve the mystery of the theft he was blamed for, after which they intend to do something about the aliens that killed Draycos\’ people- because they are now approaching humankind as well, presumably with similar intent. This quickly becomes a story with a lot of action and intrigue, which ends up centering on a high-stakes heist Jack is forced to perform by his enemies, only in the end to discover the enemy isn\’t quite who he thought it was. There are encounters with other aliens, chase scenes with narrow escapes, sophisticated break-ins, and other adventures. Not my usual kind of reading yet I was riveted to the page.

The dynamic between Jack and Draycos is a good one- Jack is not really pleased at having to use his thievery skills just when he was trying to start living a reformed life, but at the same time he is often irritated by Draycos\’ insistence on honorable actions which he perceives as being pointless or getting in the way of their goal. Draycos is literally bound to the boy in order to live (more on that in a moment) but finds Jack\’s everyone-for-himself attitude troublesome and at one point serious thinks of abandoning him, even though it might mean his own undoing. His often superior attitude reminded me a lot of Ax from the Animorphs books. And there is an even stronger connection:

SPOILERS in this paragraph. I didn\’t know this aspect going into the book, it took me by as much surprise as it did the main character, and I was instantly intrigued and delighted by the unique idea. The dragonlike alien shifts between dimensions. He can be three-dimensional for a six-hour limit, then must rest or he will die. And he rests by flattening himself into two-dimensional form that lays over the skin of an appropriate host- in this case the boy Jack. He\’s like a living tattoo that can slide around into any position on the body, and pop out into real space at any point. I\’ve read plenty of books featuring dragons that have some sort of bond with a human partner- mental telepathy or sharing emotions, etc. This idea! It was so fascinating to imagine, and of course gives Jack an edge when facing his enemies who don\’t know Draycos even exists, much less is travelling along with him at every moment, communicating, planning, and able to snap out into attack mode when the moment is right. The dragon can also bend himself somehow to move through walls, and says that when he is in two-dimensional form \”most of my body is now projected along a fourth dimension, outside the bounds of this universe.\” Does that sound like Z-space to anyone? Ha. But in this case it\’s handled so well- the alien\’s attempts to explain a complicated phenomenon of his life-form to an unbelieving boy is totally believable to this reader.

And my fascination with this concept- that Draycos with all his speed, agility, intelligence, claws that can pierce metal and ability to go through walls- yet had a serious vulnerability in depending on this young boy for his continual existence (also he couldn\’t read written language, a crucial flaw in a few points of the story that he struggled to overcome)- kept me reading with a lot of interest, even though the main premise is outside my usual interest. It\’s a well-written story too, which also kept me very engaged. There\’s even some funny moments. Like when they are running from enemies, crash an alien celebration ceremony and avoid being outright killed for the intrusion by pretending to be hired performers. Draycos stepped up to the role very adroitly!

Well, I picked this one up on a whim at a library sale once. Glad now that I did! I recognized the author\’s name, probably because he has written a lot of Star Wars books (even though I\’ve never read any of those). I liked this so much I looked for the rest of the series before I was even halfway done with this one. Someone else has #2 and 3 on hold ahead of me at the library, so I\’ll have to wait a bit, but I already have #4-6 in hand now. My only complaint- and this is a silly one- is that the cover image doesn\’t really match the description of Draycos. He has shiny gold scales with red edges, that color change to black when angered or excited. So I guess that\’s why the cover image dragon has dark skin, but it looks more leathery than scaly, hm.

Rating: 4/5 248 pages, 2003

More opinions: Thistle-Chaser

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

VISSER

by K.A. Applegate

Another good one! Like The Andalite Chronicles, it fills in a ton of backstory about the Yeerks invading Earth. This one jumps around between the present narrative and the past, because it\’s Visser One being on trial for multiple counts of treason, and having to explain herself- recounting how the Yeerk Edriss first discovered Earth and realized humans might make good host species, how they took their first hosts to explore the possibilities and learn about humans, how the Sharing was initially set up, how Edriss and her companion Yeerk went through several different hosts until Edriss ended up in Marco\’s mom, and so on. Half of this is Edriss simply telling it, the other half is \”memory transfers\” where everyone gets to view exactly what went on, revealing some details Edriss would have rather kept secret. All the time Visser Three is there- goading her and spouting anger and at risk of being put on trial himself, as Visser One takes every opportunity to point out his mistakes. At one point someone dumps a tiger and a bear into the group- as a distraction?- to make them think it\’s the Animorphs but later someone let the actual Animorphs know where they are and they face a real attack. It was actually cool to see the Animorphs through their enemies\’ eyes. Also to see how humans appeared to them- kind of a character study on the human race. As in The Departure, this one lets the reader see things from the other side, making Visser One not exactly sympathetic, but definitely more of a gray character- you can see why she was driven to do the things she did, but she readily displays her ruthlessness- for all she appears to have developed fond feelings for humankind (living among them in disguise for over a year before any more Yeerks came to Earth), she has no qualms about killing children to meet her ends (and that\’s just one example). Visser Three, on the other hand, remains thoroughly himself the whole time in this book- angry and blustering and bloodthirsty. Not one of the funnier books, but definitely intriguing and laid a lot of things out. Incidentally it was difficult at some points to tell who was talking, or who could hear whom using thought-speak though, when the narrating Visser One was communicating with her host or someone else, or they were in one of the memory replays- but I skimmed past some of that muddle regardless. As a trial it\’s all one huge farce, because in the end the Vissers evade the death penalty and carry on- with some warnings is all. If you\’re interested, do check out some of the other reviews I linked to below. Some of them go into a lot more detail than I cover here.

Rating: 4/5 220 pages, 1999

more opinions:
Arkham Reviews
Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales
the Library Ladies

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

The Illusion

Animorphs #33
by K.A. Applegate

(There may be SPOILERS). The Animorphs team are trying to find out where the Anti-Morphing weapon is hidden, so they sneak into a large event of The Sharing. While there Ax causes some ruckus because he gets carried away with tasting food (introducing some humor once more). They decide to deliberately let Tobias get captured so that when the new weapon is tested, the enemy will think it simply doesn\’t work (because of course the hawk is Tobias\’ true form). The plan is that Rachel will sneak along with Tobias as a fly, return to let the team know where they are, and bring them all back to save Tobias and destroy the weapon. Only things go wrong. Tobias ends up being held captive and tortured for most of the book. It\’s very vivid. Especially the wandering and agony his mind goes through. The reader learns a lot about bad times in his past, as he revists them. Finally he retreats into the mind of the hawk, which just suffers the pain not understanding it, and gives up thinking he\’s going to die. Of course the team crashes in just at the last minute and manages to save Tobias, in a very confusing and gruesome battle, but it leaves them all incredibly shook up. Tobias wonders about how Jake- as the leader- has been deliberately using him, and Rachel expresses her true feelings, plus all the awkwardness in their relationship. Tobias goes through all this after having faced (earlier in the story) some glum moments feeling awkward when he\’s in human form to be with Rachel, and realizing that a hawk has a naturally short life span. . . . In addition to all this, there\’s some equally grim stuff when the torturer reveals to Tobias some of her own backstory- what led her to actually become a voluntary host to an alien Yeerk. Oh, and there\’s a deeper connection bonding between Tobias and Ax, as in part of the plan to fool the enemy, Tobias acquires the Andalite so he can take the form the enemy expects him to. I don\’t know why the Animorphs haven\’t all acquired Andalite morphs before this point- it would be incredibly useful! Anyway, this is all a jumble, as I\’m rather tired, but it was such an intense story, don\’t really feel like this one fits in the juvenile fiction category either, due to the torture scenes. (During which there\’s there\’s a strong reference to the Princess Bride Pit of Despair- a few other reviwers noticed that as well). As a side note, there were numerous small typos in the copy I read- I don\’t know if it\’s just the e-book version or not.

Rating: 3/5 156 pages, 1999

more opinions:
Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales
Arkham Reviews
the Library Ladies

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

Symptoms of Being Human

by Jeff Garvin

Riley, the protagonist of this novel, is going through a lot. A new high school. Parents involved in politics, very high-profile. Anxiety attacks and therapy sessions after a brief stay in a mental hospital. And Riley is gender fluid (feeling like a boy one day, a girl the next), which nobody (except the therapist) knows about. Riley mostly wears neutral clothing that leave him/her feeling untrue to self and (as much I could gather from the story) strikes an androgynous appearance. Riley makes a few friends but suffers taunts and harassment at school which eventually escalates. Meanwhile, the therapist suggest writing as an outlet, so Riley begins to blog- about personal experiences, with a nice scattering of snark and humor thrown in. It\’s something of a shock when the blog becomes wildly popular among the online LGBTQ community- and Riley starts cautiously giving advice to people who send in messages. Receives a lot of support on the blog, but also some negative comments. Then it turns sour when an anonymous commentator starts leaving hateful messages and hinting that they know Riley\’s true identity, threatening to out Riley at school. Fair warning: some of the events at the end of this book could be traumatic to read. There\’s an assault, and there\’s talk about a suicide and its affects on someone\’s family. However there\’s also support, true friendship, and positive self-discovery. Sometimes things get ugly but Riley makes it through and finds strength.

I liked how realistic this book felt- in that nobody\’s perfect. Riley\’s two friends are mostly accepting, but one avoids stepping in sometimes when Riley needs help, and the other is hiding her own secrets. Riley finds support among the LGBTQ community, but sees how someone else faces a violent reaction when coming out to parents. There\’s even a moment when Riley isn\’t sure if a new acquaintance is male or female, and feels awkward about it- realizing that everyone has an innate tendency to judge on appearances, even when we don\’t want to. Rather pointedly, the author wrote the book in a way that never actually reveals which sex characteristics Riley was born with- this made sense, but sometimes it felt a bit forced to me. This is the first time I read a book with a main character who is gender fluid, so it was educational for me. However for readers already familiar with this, the explanations might feel like an info dump at times, even though they were woven pretty well into the story.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 340 pages, 2016

more opinions:
Reading Rants
Gone with the Words

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Young Adult

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor

This is a book that has been on my TBR a very long time- and before that I had definitely heard of it. It won a Newbery in 1977. I think I may have seen a film version when I was a kid- one of the scenes where the family and their neighbors fight a fire in the cotton field at night, beating the flames with dampened grain sacks, was suddenly visually familiar to me. It’s about the Logans- a black family living in Mississippi during the thirties. Cassie’s family owns their land, but is surrounded by black families who are sharecropping, barely able to make ends meet. The nine-year-old narrator tells about all the inequalities she experiences and witnesses- from sub-par segregated schooling to suffering insults and snubs in public, to watching her family struggle to hold onto their land as white people in positions of influence and means make life hard for them. At first this is subtle, and Cassie’s parents resist by equally subtle means- encouraging the black community to boycott the local white-owned grocery store, for example. But gradually things escalate into violence- beatings, theft, shooting, threats of lynching. Even the kids get involved, trying to sabotage the school bus (I thought this was funny) and Cassie cleverly (but in a rather backhanded way) gets even with a white girl who once forced her off the sidewalk and humiliates her in school. While the racism and violence is disturbing to read about, Cassie’s family bonds tighter through their troubles- the kids definitely stick up for each other- and the parents share wise words to counsel their children. I can see why this book is taught in schools and considered a classic, but somehow I did not really feel invested in the characters. Might just be the other distractions around me IRL right now. Actually the two characters that interested me most were outside the main family- one a black boy who has a cocky attitude and winds up in bad company- a gradual thing but you see it coming. The other a white kid who is something of a loner and walks with Cassie and her siblings to and from school- he tries to befriend them but they are wary. I liked this kid, wish he’d been more a part of the story. The book is part of a series about the Logan family- but unfortunately I don’t really feel interested in seeking out any of the other volumes.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5

276 pages, 1976

more opinions:
Valentina’s Room
Please Read It to Me
anyone else?

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Young Adult

No Love Allowed

by Kate Evangelista

Another YA about mental illness, which I wanted to read in particular because of the subject matter: one of the main characters, Didi, is bipolar. Unfortunately, this type of book isn\’t really to my taste, so although I found it amusing, somewhat interesting and heartwarming in the end, I really had to force myself to finish reading it; sorry to say but a lot felt just downright shallow and cheesy. And if you are interested yourself in reading it, skip after the paragraph below because I wrote a bunch of spoilers.

It\’s about a rich boy Caleb, who wants to take a gap year partying and touring Europe with his cousin before college. Gets in trouble with his dad and has to do an internship at the company, required to attend all the public functions thrown by said company. He needs a date for all these events, but has already burned his bridges with every available female in his social circle. There\’s an incident in the country club where he\’s dining when dumps his current girlfriend, and the waitress Didi catches his eye. So he ends up asking her to be his fake girlfriend for the summer, and in return he will pose for her (she\’s an artist).

It\’s a complete mismatch. Caleb lives in a mansion, drives sporty cars, throws money around like it\’s nothing. Didi and her mother barely make ends meet, her mom has to work several jobs and sometimes they have to decide between paying the electric bill, or for Didi\’s medications. Of course, in spite of this huge disparity and predictable a mile away, Did and Caleb fall in love regardless. Most of the story is about the social affairs they attend, and the constant not-so-subtle flirting between Didi and Caleb. To her credit, I liked Didi. She\’s thrown into a completely foreign environment; alternately stunned, bemused or offended when Caleb or his cousin offer to casually buy her things (a new cell phone, outfits, accessories and makeup for the parties), navigates the social circles with apparent ease at the functions- thrilled by the excitement and lavish gatherings more than anything else. But after all the thrills and heightened feelings, there\’s got to be a down. A really hard one, because Didi deliberately goes off her meds (so she can paint more) and then there\’s literally a crash. (Annoyingly, all the scenes in the hospital felt unrealistic). Caleb finally finds out about her diagnosis, and it looks like it might be the end. But the man cuts short his Europe trip to return- Didi is unlike any other girl he\’s known, and he really does love her, so he comes back and declares (in a wonderfully romantic museum setting date) that he will stick with her regardless of the difficulties ahead. Really lovely ending, but it all just felt so poorly described to me. The parts about Didi being bipolar didn\’t feel like a main part of the story, just an additional characteristic to support part of the plot, which was disappointing. And I liked that she was an artist, but that part didn\’t feel real to me either. Oh well.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 2/5 231 pages, 2016

more opinions:
Rhapsody in Books
Buried in Books

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Current Reads, Young Adult

A Quiet Kind of Thunder

by Sara Barnard

Steffi suffers from anxiety, often stricken by panic attacks, fear of strangers, public places, speaking on the telephone- and talking out loud. She\’s been \”selectively mute\” for so long she learned a bit of sign language (and \”selective\” doesn\’t mean she can choose when to talk or not- it seems to freeze her up without reason). Steffi has one best friend, Tem, who has known her since they were little and doesn\’t at all mind speaking up for her. Then a new boy arrives at school, Rhys. He\’s deaf. They become friends, as Steffi can commiunicate a bit in sign language, and Rhys doesn\’t at all mind her silence, or judge her for it. As her friendship with Rhys blossoms into something more, Steffi slowly starts to find her voice again- not just because of growing confidence in herself (helped, in part, by ongoing cognitive behavioral therapy) but also due to taking a new medication. Which she doesn\’t tell her friends about. So much happens. Tem and Steffi drift apart, as Steffi and Rhys grow closer. Steffi meets Rhys\’ deaf friends, and realizes how awkward her sign language use has actually been, sees a whole new side of her friend, recognizes she didn\’t really know what it was like to be deaf; their similarities are not always the same as understanding. Near the end of the story, Steffi and Rhys, giddy with their newfound love, plan a secret getaway together, but it doesn\’t go smoothly and Steffi is faced with challenges she\’s always shied away from. She has to realize a few things about herself. She has to be honest with Tem, and her parents, on her return. She has to reconsider her realationship with Rhys, even as it becomes most intimate- is her growing ability to speak and navigate normal social situations, drawing her away from Rhys?

This story had more depth than I expected. The love story aspect of it really is very sweet. Yeah, there\’s a sex scene near the end, and although I don\’t read a lot of love stories (teen or otherwise) I have to say I though it pretty darn realistic. Young, awkward, fumbling, tender love. Not what you might hope for (from the girl\’s viewpoint at least) but then moving on graciously. It was really nice to see Steffi grow as a character, to see how much Rhys cared for her, even though they had some misunderstandings and frustrations. The depiction of anxiety is different from the few accounts I\’ve read before, but I\’m sure it\’s different for everyone, so I appreciated seeing another aspect of what living with that can be like. I felt like the author wrote it with a lot of compassion and straightforwardness, as well.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 390 pages, 2018

more opinions:
It\’s All About Books
That\’s What She Read

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Young Adult

Tag: Young Adult

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