A lively adventure that charms and delights despite raw writing and an erratic plot.
In Feng’s (co-author Cool-Doo, 2012, etc.) children’s novel, a boy and his robot brothers attempt to save the world from an evil scientist—but they have to stop fighting first.
When Jack’s mother had a miscarriage, his parents had their neighbor create Cool-Doo, a robot brother to help him cope. Later, Jack tricks the neighbor into creating Sleepy-Doo, a robot friend for Cool-Doo. The problem? Now Jack’s robot brothers are better than him at everything. Cool-Doo especially gets on his nerves, being more helpful and heroic than Jack can ever be. Even at their adventure camp in an international space station, they compete when they’re supposed to work as a team. They become prank targets for Jr. Z, the son of a scientist supposedly saving the world from natural disasters using money donated by people like Jack’s parents. The brothers accidentally overhear a conversation between Dr. Z and Jr. Z and discover that Dr. Z is the villain, causing tornadoes and stealing money while pretending to work on a solution. Deciding that this is his chance to be the hero, Jack sneaks back to Earth to steal the controller for the Unmoved Mover, the machine causing the disasters. His brothers tag along, but unless they learn to get along, they might not make it. The plot can be a bit erratic, with the episodic scenes of the brothers’ fights at times pushing the main conflict—Dr. Z’s tornadoes—to the background. Still, these brotherly skirmishes help establish the siblings’ difficulty in getting along while also introducing Feng’s boisterous, slapstick humor, which generally involves Jack making situations worse for himself. Though action-packed and funny, the narration tends to be bland, with blunt emotions or overly explained events slowing its pace. Dialogue—snappy when it happens—could have broken up the monotony, as could more of the simple but fun illustrations. Overly convenient discoveries bring about an expected happy ending, and the heroics leave room for more world-saving adventures.
A lively adventure that charms and delights despite raw writing and an erratic plot.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495339585
Page Count: 148
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly...
In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility.
As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories—painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing.
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1993
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