Review | Bounders, Monica Tesler

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25785674Twelve year old Jasper is a Bounder. He may not quite fit in with the other kids in his class, but the very things that make him different also make him uniquely suited to outer space. In Bounders, Jasper embarks on his first space mission, where he and his friends soon learn that: (1) there’s a mysterious alien being held captive by Earth Force and its existence is being kept top secret, and (2) Bounders are the only ones who can use Earth Force’s new and classified technology, gloves that allow them to quantum bound without a ship.

Bounders is such a fun story. Middle grade science fiction, Bounders just has a lot of fun with the whole space adventure story. Jasper and his friends geek out over the special technology they get to use, and it’s near impossible not to get caught up in their excitement. It was fun reading about their training on a space station, which includes a pretty awesome set of chutes that zip you from one place to another.

The mystery of the captive alien was intriguing, as are the various hints that Earth Force may not be as heroic as they seem. A field trip to a planet feels especially shady, with an Earth Force aeronaut demanding to see a local community close up despite their guide’s reluctance. It feels uncomfortably like the entitlement of a colonizer, and it’ll be interesting to see Tesler unpack these dynamics later in the series.

The idea of tweens saving the world isn’t new, and there are lots of other books out there with the same idea. What sets Bounders apart is the sense of sheer joy Jasper’s point of view provides. You can tell Tesler is having as much fun writing this adventure as Jasper is experiencing it, and that just makes it overall such a delightful reading experience.

I do have some concerns with the book, mostly from some good points raised in this Goodreads review. The reviewer pointed out concerns such as the use of the Magical Disabled Person trope, the idea of eugenics being wrong only because useful characteristics were bred out, and the simplification of a wide range of neurodiverse conditions into a single skill set. To be fair, I also share in that reviewer’s belief that the author’s heart is in the right place. As well, I’ll be honest: I don’t know if I would have caught this had I not read that review, but having read it, I admit it affected my experience of the book, and I think these are important points to raise.

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Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Excerpt | The Hunter and the Wild Girl, Pauline Holdstock

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25861172Set in 19th century France, The Hunter and the Wild Girl tells the tale of two outcasts: a feral girl who had escaped captivity and was hiding in the woods, and a reclusive hunter named Peyre whose life changes when he encounters the girl. The book has been lauded as a dark fairy tale, and reviewers have described the author’s writing as difficult to get into, but well worth the effort (National Post and Quill and Quire).

Here’s the thing: I couldn’t get into it at all. This is not to say that the writing or the book is bad. In fact, I gave this book a few more attempts than my usual three strikes rule before giving up, and I think it’s because I recognize a certain beauty in its language. The book design is beautiful as well, with a bit of a crinkly cover design that suggests age and roughness, and deckle edge pages within that connote weight, a story beyond the ordinary. I think that the text has a kind of beauty as well, a rather dense and rich rhythm that invites unpacking. It’s not for me, but I think other readers may appreciate what Holdstock has created.

So, decide for yourselves. Below are two randomly selected passages from the beginning of the book, each featuring one of the main characters. I don’t know if these are a fair representation of the book, but I hope they give you an idea of the language throughout. If you find yourself intrigued and wanting to learn more, then do give this book a chance. Perhaps you are just the kind of reader it needs.

Up on the bluff now, the wind finds her as soon as she stands. She runs with it at her back. By afternoon she is far away, at one with the high garrigue, the rough sanctuary of scrub and rock that is her home. She moves with ease along the ridge where there seems no path. At length, seeing a small bush where yellow leaves have withered, she stops. She finds a sharp stone and with her back always to the wind she begins to worry and chisel at the base of her bush. She pinches humpbacked bugs from the crevices between the rotten roots. They try to squirm away as fast as they are revealed, and just as fast she eats them. Bitter and husky they are and not to her taste and she goes on. Her life is returning to her whole and unforgotten, like waking to a day as ordinary as another. [pp. 10]

Peyre wakes not as the fragile toper of yesterday, nor as the uneasy watcher who rose in the night to padlock his chickens and secure his front door. He is restored. His self as returned. Intact, it can steer his dangerous mind through another day, ride it with the reins taut and its vision blinkered, turning it from the boy who lies always at the edge of sight. He starts on yesterday’s list even as he leaves his bed, his body assuming the dreamlike quality of the sleepwalker while his mind engages fully with its subject — the outstretched wing of an owl, its primaries extended like fingers that would comb the air, its markings as if a painter ran a brush of white in bands across the wing half closed. [pp. 48-49]

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Thanks to Goose Lane for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | The Immortals, Jordanna Max Brodsky

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25746707In The Immortals, the first in Jordanna Max Brodsky’s Olympus Bound trilogy, the goddess Artemis is now living in Manhattan as PI Selene DiSilva, who rescues female victims of abuse and punishes their abusers. When she arrives too late to save a murder victim, she vows to exact revenge on the murderer. Also on the hunt of the killer is Theo Schultz, the victim’s ex-boyfriend and a professor of the classics who notices that the murder has the markings of an ancient Greek ritual.

The Immortals is a nerdy fun read, a Greek mythology of The Da Vinci Code. Theo and Selene’s investigation reveals ancient artifacts, arcane rituals, and a series of murders that somehow have mythological significance. The Greek gods and goddesses at this point have left Olympus, and are fading in strength as their relevance to the contemporary world fades. Gods like Apollo (God of Art and Music) and Dionysus (God of Wine) are still going strong, but others like Selene as Goddess of the Hunt and Demeter as Goddess of the Hearth are fading away as hunting becomes less popular and the hearth is replaced by electric heating. Selene’s search for the murderer is complicated by her realization that she seems to be getting stronger with each death. Worse, her mother Leto is dying, and Selene must face the possibility that if this ritual renews the power of Greek gods and goddesses, the murders may be what is needed to save her mother’s life.

The murder mystery is fascinating, and I particularly geeked out over the scenes in the American Museum of Natural History. I also love the relationships between the characters — Selene’s pain at her mother’s impending death, and the estrangement between her and her twin brother Paul (Apollo) ever since an incident over two thousand years ago. (Readers more familiar than I with Greek mythology may know what happened; I found out a bit later in the book and found it fascinating.) There is also the attraction between Selene and Theo, which she feels the need to fight, partly because she has vowed to remain eternally chaste and also partly because of a long ago heartbreak with another man, Orion. Theo is just a total Robert Langdon type, who is sweet and dorky and prone to going into lecture mode when explaining particular aspects of the crime scene.

If you like Greek mythology, arcane puzzles and nerdy murder mysteries, The Immortals is definitely worth a try.

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Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.