Black Hills

Right from the moment you pick up a Dan Simmons novel and first set eyes upon the page, you know you're in for a whole new kind of reading experience. It took me an entire paragraph (yes, the first one, because it’s just that obvious) to realize this would be the case. There is detail, flow and a sense of perfection in the way Simmons has crafted the first scene in BLACK HILLS, and I have to admit that I readily gobbled down every delicious bite of it. What’s more, I found that I continued to devour the pages by great sheaves despite the growing concerns niggling at the back of my neck.

Dude can write.

Paha Sapa is the promised hero of BLACK HILLS, and we get him in full measure. The story starts with the young Sioux boy being jolted to his core by the invasion of a white man’s ghost. But this isn’t just any white man. It’s General George Armstrong Custer, who has just been killed in his famous Last Stand against the American Indians. In the confusion and chaos of the battle, Paha Sapa (Sioux for “Black Hills”) rolls and flops on the ground as the ghost asserts itself within him. In time, Paha Sapa gains control and returns to his father with the prattling voice of this white man echoing in his skull.

We see Paha Sapa’s life as it stretches across time, covering a vast portion of the United State's history. The time of his youth is fraught with danger; from continued ranged attacks by the ever-expanding white settlers and the soldiers protecting them, to the frantic attempts of Chief Crazy Horse to know his future from Paha Sapa’s forward-looking visions. The narrative also carries us into his adult life, through times of economic depression, through the great Dust Bowl, and finally into his marriage and fatherhood. Then last--with the story line that most intrigued me--we read of Paha Sapa as a dying senior, working as a powder man on nothing less than the slowly emerging face of Mount Rushmore--a monument which he plans to utterly destroy.

Simmons weaves us through this man’s life, jumping from one timeline to the next, and paints a picture both beautiful and sublime. At several points we also get some of what the general has been raving about for so long as Paha Sapa eventually comes to understand the white man’s language. These sections are constructed as the General speaking to his beloved wife, of the memories they have made and the times they have shared, while he supposedly lays in an extended healing-darkness after what he can only assume has been a grievous wounding at the Battle of the Greasy Grass.

So much goodness, and as I said I found that I couldn’t stop turning the pages. At various times I would lift my head and stop to think a moment, forcing myself to look at the story as a reviewer duly should, and though I found some concerns and difficulties waiting for me there, I very easily dove right back in and lost myself in the pages once again.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and in this case it really is too bad.

Multiple times over.

Let me make something perfectly clear: when you write a story (Take notes people. I’m only going to say this once.) you are, very literally, making promises to your readers.

When we see that a ghost has chosen to inhabit our main character, we expect that this is going to have some impact upon him. BLACK HILLS doesn’t do this.

When we see focused intent within our character, driving him toward a particular purpose, we expect that he will either see it to fulfillment or turn from it for justifiable reasons. BLACK HILLS doesn’t do that either.

And when we read those first words on that first page, we expect an ending. We expect that we’ll have made the journey, and enjoyed the trip, and that the time we spent within its pages has been well spent. All of these things are important. But BLACK HILLS doesn’t even attempt do this.

BLACK HILLS is not a novel. It’s a history, plain and simple. Have you ever watched a movie that’s based on historical events, and at the “end” instead of including something even approximating a real ending they just have an explanation session about who died and who lived and what the live ones are doing now? (No, zombies do not count here.) I’m good with additional facts. I really am. It’s the lack of an ending that just kills me. (Great example: Valkyrie. Awesome movie. No ending.) This book is exactly like that.

But it gets even worse.

Due to the extreme backlash that would result upon my person from the Great Overlords of the Elite were I to divulge any specifics from the “end” of Black Hills, I shall instead parrot an early review for Towers of Midnight (which I recently read over at Tor) and give you only my responses while reading such specifics.

1) Ooh! Here it comes, everyone! "Hold on to your butts." (Loads of meaningless points here for knowing the quote on that last one)
2) Uh...what?
3) Are you freaking kidding me?
4) Okay, so where is this going now?
5) Well, that sucks.
6) "Coincidence? I think NOT!" (Double those meaningless bonus points for knowing this one)
7) Oh...wow. What just happened? Seriously. I’m completely lost.
8) The end? Alllll right...

When I sat down to write this review, I had a song running through my head that just wouldn’t quit. So, I jumped over to YouTube and found that the song did indeed say it all. Ah, what insight we can receive from the Naked Eyes. They say it best: Promises, promises. Indeed.

As I mentioned above, this is a history book. A very well-written history book, granted, but a history book nonetheless. If you like history and only care about history, then you will very easily be able to love this book. Me, I like stories. When I read a novel, I expect story. I expect an ending. I expect closure. And I got none of those here.

This comment from the Acknowledgments page at the back of the book is the very epitome of the book:

“A special thanks here to the members of the Dan Simmons Forum at dansimmons.com for their help on the long and amusing chase through original newspaper accounts and other printed materials to discover which way Mr. Ferris’s original wheel rotated.”

If this is the kind of stuff you’re willing to just kill for, READ THIS BOOK.

If not (and I mean “not” in the most meager of senses possible) "LEAVE NOW AND NEVER COME BACK!" (Triple those meaningless bonus points if you get this last one as well)

BookInTenWords: One Indian’s battle to defeat the white man. Just kidding.

Recommended age: 18+ for content
Language: Two or three minor characters spout off for a bit each.
Violence: Little. There is a major war, but no real detail.
Sex: Two scenes, both pointless to the story and reminisced by General Custer.

Dan Simmons’s Website

Final note: Though I will absolutely try reading another Dan Simmons novel (probably an old one), I plan on staying away from anything of his that looks too historical in nature. I just don’t think I could handle another let down like this.

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Posted in Books We Like...and Hate , Dan Simmons , Historical Fiction

Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series has created a buzz in the Young Adult world. Her version of a future American dystopia is grim and disturbing. And compelling. The final novel, MOCKINGJAY, was released in August with great anticipation...but was it worth getting all worked up about?

The series begins with THE HUNGER GAMES, an exciting, brutal, and clever story. The setting is well done and artfully displays a society that's rotting from both ends. HUNGER GAMES explores the themes of an influential propaganda machine and an extravagant Capital at the expense of the people, then takes it the next frightening step.

The second novel, CATCHING FIRE, is the weakest in the series because not only is it a rehash of THE HUNGER GAMES, the entire first half is a distanced narrative that doesn't advance characterization and only minimally advances plot. It was as though Collins wanted to get the start out of the way so she could set up even more over-the-top Games for this round (which, I have to admit, were decidedly clever, the new characters interesting), and set up the events for the final novel.

In the third installment, MOCKINGJAY, the aftermath of the 75th games can now finally resolve book two's cliffhanger ending. District 13, the name the rebellion has given itself, has taken over the former District's underground bunker and created a new life for Panem's refugees--one that's startlingly similar to the Capital in it strictness and control. District 13's leader, President Coin, wants to use Katniss Everdeen as the face of the revolution, call her the Mockingjay (a reference to the Capital's past failed manipulations), and use the rebels' own propaganda to garner support from the other districts. If they succeed in taking the other Districts, then they plan to invade the Capital itself. But will Panem only be trading one tyranny for another?

MOCKINGJAY expands the themes from the first two novels: Is war the best way to resolve conflict? Is revenge justifiable? Is controlling people ever reasonable? Collins succeeds in building on the the setting as she explores District 13 and its own distinct culture, and creates a world we'd be afraid to live in--a world frighteningly similar to the Games itself. Katniss must deal with Peeta's imprisonment by the Capital, Gale's romantic frustrations, and decide whether being the Mockingjay is the right thing to do. She has a hard road ahead of her.

Collins is consistent with Katniss' character, her first-person present tense PoV clean, straightforward, and engaging. Katniss starts out the series strong and capable, if cynical; but when we reach MOCKINGJAY, instead of growing as a character, she stagnates. This is supposed to be a coming-of-age story and instead of growing into a woman she continues being a whiny and indecisive teenager who, despite a few bursts of independence, gives up. The only thing she's truly decisive about is her desire to kill President Snow, but at the same time is ambivalent about the war. It doesn't help, either, that she spends half the novel in the hospital or recuperating from injury, which was too much downtime. Katniss has spent her life taking care of her family in the absence of her father and has even survived the Hunger Games twice, so she's earned the right to claim her adulthood--but instead fails to take the next crucial step. This alone will disappoint readers. But wait, there's more.

The story starts out fine enough, but it progresses slowly with spurts of action. By the end the rebellion contradicts its goals, the battle's high body count has no clear purpose, the PoV character Katniss doesn't witness the climax, and then at the end there's ambiguity as to what life will be like for Panem after the war. "But," you say, "Collins is showing us how the powerful will control and hurt innocents to get what they want. And Katniss' ineffectiveness is simply a result of their control!" My reply: Collins' points could have come across just as well with a clearer resolution and more complete character arc. However, Collins is true to her story, and as a result the characters don't emerge unscathed--for a story like this it's difficult to have other than a bittersweet ending. This hard reality may leave readers ambivalent about how Collins chooses to end MOCKINGJAY.

If you haven't read the series, perhaps you're wondering if all three are worth reading. The up-side is that the novels are short so it's not a huge time commitment to read all three. If you have teenagers, they'll likely want to want to read the series, and you'll need to know how to discuss its disturbing themes with them. But beyond that, what do I really think? Only read THE HUNGER GAMES and call it good enough.

Recommended Age: 12 and up, or older depending on your kids, due to themes and violence.
Language: None.
Violence: Quite a bit, actually, for a YA novel. While most of it does happen off-screen, it's still disturbing and frequent for its target audience.
Sex: Katniss is frustratingly oblivious to romantic overtures. There's kissing, falsely implied intimacy, and references to sexual abuse.

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Posted in Books We Like...and Hate , Dystopian SF , Suzanne Collins , Young Adult

A Taint in the Blood

Shadowspawn used to rule the Earth as gods. But you can get kind of lazy when you're immortal and nearly indestructible. After thousands of years of cross-breeding with humans, today's Shadowspawn posterity isn't as pureblooded, making for all kinds of problems. Even worse, humans have over-populated the Earth and kind of taken over things. By the time you get around to dealing with the issue, you have to do something drastic, say, another plague to wipe out all the extra humans so you can reestablish yourself as the one in charge.

Adrian Brézé may not be pureblood Shadowspawn, but he's got enough that his ability in the Power is stronger than most, and he's decided that the blood is no excuse to treat the human race as sheep. The only problem is that the other almost-purebloods not only outnumber him thousands to one, they would never agree with him to leave humans alone. After years of trying to help the Brotherhood, a group dedicated to the eradication of Shadowspawn, he retires from the civil war. Unfortunately, his sister Adrianne decides to yank him back into Shadowspawn politics by kidnapping his ex-girlfriend. As he works to save Ellen, Adrian discovers the dismaying plans the Council has for the human race.

I'm not sure why, but S.M. Stirling decided it was his turn at a vampire urban fantasy series starting with A TAINT IN THE BLOOD. His successful Change Series has garnered him a well-deserved following, the post-apocalyptic stories grim yet hopeful. Now, instead of a retro Dark Ages setting, he tries his hand at magic and demons. Most of us are getting tired of all the blood-sucking out there (Gaiman thinks so too), but if it's going to stick around, the writing might as well be decent--and fortunately Stirling will force those vampire wannabe writers to step it up a notch, especially in showing how much vampires really are monsters. It's about time.

Stirling's big strength in all his books is world building. Here he takes the traditional vampire lore and twists it into a shape that's more interesting than most urban fantasy. There's the history and origins of modern-day 'demon cannibals' who are born not made, mix in Shadowspawn proclivities and lifestyle, add a pinch of killing methods and details about warfare, and fold in the rules of the Power and how to work around it. Then you bake it into something that looks like a regular cake, but is actually a lava cake filled with chocolaty goodness (couldn't help myself, the novel is filled with all sorts of foodie details).

This book has all the clichés. There's the main character Adrian, the wealthy and brooding immortal who's trying to break away from his evil family and their 'humans are only good for food' attitudes. There's the grizzled mentor Harvey, thrice divorced, who carries around his sawed-off shotgun with silver bullets and used to work with Adrian for the Brotherhood. There's the plucky heroine Ellen with the body of a goddess (she's a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe...), who endures torture at the hands of Adrian's sadistic sister while she awaits rescue. Have we read all this before? Sure, but not written with this much tongue-in-cheek and depth at the same time.

Yet, while TAINT is better than your average urban fantasy, it has its flaws. The most petty being that Stirling is italics happy--between all the telepathy and PoV character thoughts it got to be a little ridiculous. If you want me to get more serious, then I could complain about how poor Ellen must suffer Adrienne's sadist tendencies, and unfortunately we end up having to watch, including one incredibly unpleasant S&M scene. While Adrienne is a deliciously evil villain, the constant sexual abuse witnessed first hand and talked about among her blood herd of 'lucies' got redundant and overbearing.

One thing that starts out as a strength but ends up becoming a problem later is the pacing. Like his other novels, Stirling starts TAINT at a sprint, and blabs about back history along the way, hoping you can keep up. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't, but the action is enough to keep you reading even if you don't 100% know what's going on. The action does get breakneck enough that readers will stumble and have to re-read when transitions are light on explanation; on the other end of the spectrum is a big gap of time that's glossed over, and even includes a hokey 'Rocky trains for the big fight montage' reference. It kind of felt like Stirling rattled off this book one weekend and had a lot of fun writing it, throwing together interesting concepts along the way, but didn't bother to go back and smooth it all out. What starts out as interesting world building by the end leaves some holes about how the magic works, which is pretty crucial to the plot. Add to that some contrivances, and you read the climax thinking, "What the..." or "That should not have worked."

I really wanted to like TAINT because I enjoyed Stirling's Change Series novels, but while it's well written and interesting, its over-the-top cruelty was difficult for me to read. The novel could give romantic vampire urban fantasy the jump start it needs, forcing realism and excellent writing into a usually fluffy and melodramatic sub-genre, and could attract readers who usually wouldn't pick up this kind of book.

Recommended Age: 18 and up, this book is for adults only.
Language: Yes, and it's relatively frequent.
Violence: Between the fighting, sexual abuse, and torture there's a lot and it's graphic.
Sex: There's quite a bit and the talk can get crass.

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Posted in Books We Like...and Hate , S.M. Stirling , Urban Fantasy

The Red Wolf Conspiracy

I came across THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY for the first time a few months ago at the library. It caught my eye because the cover was striking, the title intriguing, and it had some good quotes from people I actually recognized. At the time, I was in the middle of another novel and ended up forgetting about the encounter. Interestingly enough, I was given the chance by our illustrious Overlords to once again get this book in my hands, and this time to say something about it.

CONSPIRACY is the first in a planned trilogy (of course, it IS fantasy after all…) of books by Robert V. S. Redick and is his debut novel as a published author. As such, I expected going in that there would be some decent world-building, a fairly direct plot, possibly some good characters, and more than likely some horrible “new author” errors that would make the experience a less-than-shining example of perfection.

Of course, that’s exactly what I found.

Pazel Pathkendle seems to be the main character of the story. An orphan of sorts that makes his life as a tarboy on ships from the Kingdom of Arqual, Pazel has lived and worked as he made his way from one great vessel to the next. (Think old-school, pirates, cannons, bilge rats.) He hails from a small country and everyone instantly hates him for it. His father was a captain before disappearing from Pazel’s life, though it seems like just about everyone the boy talks to has heard about his father, the traitor. Another reason to hate or suspect him. Eventually, Pazel finds himself hired onto the Chathrand, the last of a fleet of massive ships made long ago, on which sails the peace-offering bride of the Arquali kingdom to their enemies from Mzithrin, Thasha Isiq.

Emperors, rulers, mad-men, kings, Benegeserit-like nuns, Brownies (though not named as such), and yes even a sentient rat or two, take part in this fairly straight-forward story that has come together after four decades of Arquali planning and intrigue. (Why so long? Honestly, I’m not quite sure. Yes, even AFTER reading the whole thing.) The Arqualis and the Mzithrins finally want peace. Or do they? Certainly not everyone does. And thus, comes the story to us.

The first few pages easily passed my test. Redick writes fluidly and with great control. He pulls you into the world of Pazel and his friends and we’re instantly transported into his world of ship-life. Though quickly, on comes the world-building. For the most part, this is handled decently-well. There are certainly long passages of semi-pertinent information, great chunks of history passed onto the reader, and several sufficiently-long-that-they-bothered-me bits of dialogue that would have made the book much more difficult to get through if the writing hadn’t been quite so good. After forty-five pages (ten percent, my typical allowance for a new author) it hadn’t really caught my interest, and I probably would have given up on it right then if I hadn’t been reading it for a review. But I persevered. Jogging through mid-scene jumps in character perspective, slogging down significant summaries of interim story, and even past being addressed directly as a reader several times (this is almost an unforgivable sin in my book). The characters seemed pretty one-dimensional, mostly due to the fact that we spend so little time getting to know them because the dang pacing of the story is so fast, and because of this I repeatedly found myself asking, "So what?"

In the end? There were definitely parts of CONSPIRACY that I liked. There were a few “Yes, finally!” moments that came...and quickly passed. The ending left a whole lot to be desired, skewing from the Chathrand completely, wandering through lots of extra world-building touches, and then devolving into about fifty pages of confession and explanation. Though the tale was very fast-paced and had some great potential, the execution was bad enough that I don’t think I can recommend the book very heartily. Lots of good reviews have been garnered by Conspiracy , focusing mostly on Redick’s great world-building, which is good but not spectacular--being mostly a bunch of single pieces and not one interlocking puzzle-riffic whole. (You didn’t know that was a word, did you? Now you do.) If you’re looking for the “Ooh! Aah!” factor more than a story/character-oriented tale, this may just be the book for you. But it wasn’t for me.

I can’t emphasize enough though just how much I liked his writing/words/language. It really did pull me in and drag me along. If Redick’s story had just been put together better, presented better, I could easily see myself liking this book. My suggestion would be to skip this one and try picking him back up again after he’s written a few more. Maybe he’ll have learned the whole trade a bit better by then. We can only hope.

Recommended age: 14 and up
Language: Little to none that I remember
Violence: Very little until the end and then some but not heavy, just…surprising
Sex: Discretely addressed in a few conversations/situations, mild

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Posted in Books We Like...and Hate , Fantasy , Robert V.S. Redick

Spellwright

If you are an aspiring author, we can guarantee you have heard this advice: write what you know. Now granted, for the most part you can come to know most anything via study and research. When it comes to disabilities, however, you simply can't know unless you've experienced it. We use this as a preface to Blake Charlton's SPELLWRIGHT, because Charlton took that bit of advice and ran with it.

Charlton grew up battling dyslexia and the stereotypes and difficulties that come with that disorder. He channeled that experience into his debut novel, SPELLWRIGHT, and created a magic based on language. Spells need to literally be spelled. His PoV, Nicodemus Weal, has the spark for magic, but is dyslexic (both magically and literally, which in this novel amount to the same thing). The ideas here are absolutely incredible. In most cases, when authors give their PoVs a disability, that disability is just a gimmick. Not so with the characters in SPELLWRIGHT (well, at least for Nicodemus, more on the other characters in a bit). Nicodemus' inability to "spell" is addressed as cacography, and it is vital to the plot. He may either be a herald of salvation or doom, the majority of the plot revolving around his (and others) attempts to figure out which. Again, the ideas here are great, and the magic system is creative and fitting.

But...

There are a ton of problems with this debut. For many people they may be deal-breakers (especially those of you who would claim to be literary elitists).

The over-arching problem is clarity. From characters, to setting, dream sequences (ESPECIALLY bad and unclear), transitions, to visualizing the magic (at times)...it just lacks the needed clarity that would have pushed this novel into excellence. The characters didn't grab us at all beyond the main PoV, and not even he was all that gripping (he whines A LOT). His disability was handled well, and made important. But there is also a blind guy. And a seizure girl. And another girl who shouts out "obscenities" (they are lame) almost in parody of Tourette syndrome. Another can only say three phrases. It's over-kill, and other than the main characters dyslexia, the rest all feel like gimmicks or parodies, and are all basically pointless. There ARE reasons for the disabilities, though the explanations tend to make them even more frustrating and gimmicky.

The setting is mostly in a magic school/academy. Yup, seriously. And there is a prophecy about demons coming to destroy the world. Our main PoV, who is unsure as to his lineage, might be the savior or destroyer. But see, he is conflicted. He just wants to be a normal boy...Get the idea? Yeah, the actual story is pretty cliché. Luckily the magic system isn't, and really is the saving grace of this novel.

Another issue has to do with how information is presented to the reader. 90% of the time, it comes across in info-dumps layered in page upon page of exposition. 9% of the time we get it via class/teacher lectures (We don't need anymore school, thank you. We already suffered through the horridly inconsistent Harry Potter novels, and have forked over tens of thousands of dollars for REAL school. Less school, more imagination. kthxbai). What does this do? Well for one, it kills all pacing. There are moments where things start to move along beautifully...only to be undermined by fifteen pages of blatant info-dump. There is one section, approximately half-way through the novel, where we get a long-winded, repetitive conversation (see the numbered list below) mixed with flashes to an action sequence. The action sequence is ruined because if this obvious attempt to break up an extremely boring student/teacher discussion. Yawn. It happens like this.

1) Here is 1 page of plot progression.
2) PoV says, "I don't understand."
3) 10 page info-dump explanation.
4) PoV says, "I don't understand."
5) Another 10 page info-dump explanation.
6) 1 page plot progression.
7) Repeat.

You can see where the frustration comes in. Mostly because the actual plot stuff seems like it could be entertaining.

Show vs. Tell. You all know the phrase. SPELLWRIGHT is 1% show and 99% tell. And the telling persists up until the last freaking page. No joke. Perhaps you heard a random scream the other night. That was Steve screaming, "STOP TELLING ME THIS CRAP AND SHOW IT TO ME!!!! FRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKK!" That may or may not be a direct quote.

But...

Nevertheless, there was a lot to enjoy here in spite of the many frustrations. The ideas behind language magic, and the evolution of it throughout the novel are fascinating. SPELLWRIGHT is a confusing novel in terms of "what the heck do we think of it." The more and more we digested it, we began to think of it in the same vein as the simpler fantasy novels. You know, like from our Fantasy 101 post. Had there not been such a nifty premise with the magic here, we may have put the novel down. However the magic itself, though unclear visually at times, really pushes this novel up several notches. We were very strongly ambivalent towards it. Will we read the follow-ups? Yes. With all the back-story, history and info having been dumped in this first novel, the following novels could be great (if simple) fantasy.

The question is, will you like it? Should you go out and spend the hardcover price on it? We are gonna say that you should borrow it, and decide for yourself. If you are in to the older feeling, simpler written fantasy, then give Blake Charlton's novel a shot.

Recommended Age: 12 and up. Honestly, this could almost have been YA.
Language: Not really. The made-up "swearing" in the novel feels very forced and mild. Like us saying, "crud." The actual swearing we are used to only happens maybe twice in the novel.
Violence: Not much. Extremely tame where it actually happens, and pretty random and unclear.
Sex: No. Some childish discussions. Again, kinda YA.

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Posted in Blake Charlton , Books We Like...and Hate , Fantasy

The Maze Runner

James Dashner's THE MAZE RUNNER has garnered a lot of attention since it's release. It is a novel filled with really cool and unique ideas, so on that end, its attention is completely understandable.

The plot centers around a group of amnesiac teenagers, stuck together in a foreign, hostile, and deadly maze, where bizarre creatures roam. These creatures are called Grievers, and they hunt the Gladers--as the kids call themselves--while the walls of the Maze are constantly changing. They are in marginal contact with their "captors" who send them supplies and new kids. However, the schedule of "one new kid a month" is broken the day after the main character Thomas arrives, when Teresa, the first girl Glader ever arrives with a message that "Everything is going to change." We should mention hate this over-used phrase.

We both froth at the mouth for a good dystopian story, go into convulsions for a post-apocalyptic story, and one of Nick's favorite topics is social experimentation. With all of that going for it, you would think this good would be a shoo-in for a recommendation for us, right?

Uh...hesitantly so. Kinda. The first conclusion that we both came to after reading the book, was that it was a fantastic book, completely entertaining, and ridiculously annoying. It's probably the most irritating good book we have read.

The first thing to mention about our irritation is that it has all the bad parts of the TV show Lost, and the irritation of WoT. None of the characters will communicate! We think it is cheating to fake adversity because the characters act like idiots, when it behooves them not to. Maybe we give too much credit to humanity, but when there is a problem to be solved, usually people will, at least eventually, come together to solve it. While the Gladers do cooperate to create a kind of Lord of the Flies hierarchy and governance so that they can survive, they don't cooperate when it matters most.

It seems like Dashner just included zero communication simply for the sake of adding conflict. So many times it made sense for the characters to talk to each other, but instead nearly all of the dialog devolves into "You're so dumb for asking that question. We aren't going to explain anything to you because you're a newbie. We get really upset and irritated when you ask questions, but we sure aren't going to answer them so you will stop asking. We'd prefer that you just keep asking us questions so we can call you names and stay in this awesome Maze forever. Let's go eat, so you can ask me more questions that we won't answer so we can call you more names, that you don't understand, because we won't answer your questions."

OK...we exaggerate...barely. Some quotes from the book:

"Why do you come in here asking stupid questions? It's really annoying." No, Dashner, what is annoying is your way of avoiding having to answer questions.

"Thomas wanted to scream. He knew he had a lot to learn. That's why he was asking questions." We wanted to scream too.

Another thing that bugged us, more than just a little bit, were the logical inconsistencies in the book. Yeah, we know it is a YA book, and perhaps our expectations were a bit too high. Admittedly, when we read a book like this we want our minds blown, not mildly stirred.

Example? For over TWO YEARS the Gladers were mucking about in the Maze, and they couldn't figure it out until Thomas and Teresa came to the Glade. The solution was obvious from close to the beginning, and we both were hoping it would be something a bit more inventive. It wasn't, which made us mad because we couldn't believe it never occurred to the characters to try it.

Then there is the fact that if the characters get stung by a Griever, if they get back to the Glade in time, they are given Grief Serum which briefly, and violently restores some of their memories. But if they talk about them, something happens they wind up doing crazy stuff like trying to kill themselves. Well a certain character (we don't want to spoil it) gets stung, gets the Serum, and then proceeds to disobey all the rules Dashner has set on how characters react to this...with no repercussions.

So yeah. Logic holes. They bother us.

Also...the book hamstrings itself. The aforementioned problems keep the throttle in idle instead of letting it roar, and the ending happens a few chapters too early, making the climax actually pretty boring.

We guess we should throw in a mention of what we actually thought of the characters themselves. Honestly, it was somewhat hard for us to care about them. Dashner's focus on denying information to both the characters and the reader was 100% successful, but had the side effect of denying us a connection to them. When any of them died, it was with no drama, for us, whatsoever. We didn't care at all what happened to any of them. Even when a certain character dies that was supposed to be a big deal...well, it just wasn't.

OK, that's a lot of negative...and normally would be enough for us to put the book down. However, it was a short read. Just a couple hours, which helped it out immensely. We both, despite the irritation, liked the book. When we talked about it, it was much harder to define why we liked it than why we didn't but we kept coming back to the conclusion that we did enjoy it. How's that for vague?

Perhaps it was the fact that it truly was an attempt at something very unique. Yes it took things that have been done, but blended them into this cross-genre tale. If you took ENDER'S GAME and LORD OF THE FLIES, and smashed them together, you would get something a lot like this. Which, is more than just one point in the win column.

We suppose our final conclusion is that if you like to read YA a lot, and you can forgive the lack of communication in the novel, you should give this book a try. If you like dystopian stories, then you will find something to enjoy here.


Recommended Age: 13 and up.
Language: Well it is obvious that Dashner wanted some vulgarity in the dialog, but he replaces all the words with something else. We know what he is saying, but it doesn't actually swear at all.
Violence: There are a few scenes but it is really tame.
Sex: None. At all.

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Posted in Books We Like...and Hate , Dystopian SF , James Dashner