Queer science-fiction romance for teens is badly needed, but readers needn’t settle for thinly constructed worlds, flat...
This sequel to The Star Host (2016) brings a fraught romantic pairing into constant deadly space peril.
Since escaping the planet Erden on the Star Stream at the end of the previous book, Ren’s star-host magic has been spiraling out of control. His usually brown eyes frequently gleam with the blue of his “technopath” power, as he finds himself controlling the ship by accident in his nightmares. His slow-burn relationship with Asher is falling apart; how can he trust a boyfriend who has such loyalty to the star host–hating Phoenix Corps? The crew of the Star Stream attempts to stabilize Ren by bringing him to his home planet, but that only reveals deadly plots that play out against a backdrop of nameless, primitive villages. While traveling with a band of revolutionaries, Asher and Ren fight and then reconcile time and time again. The Montague/Capulet love affair between two white young men—one a planet-born star host, the other a born-and-bred spacer and soldier—doesn’t rescue this effort from dialogue that makes little contextual sense or planets that feel like a movie-studio backlot. Still, the pacing is solid enough to keep readers entertained while they wait for some good Firefly fan fiction.
Queer science-fiction romance for teens is badly needed, but readers needn’t settle for thinly constructed worlds, flat characters, and tepid prose. Try Alexandra Duncan’s Sound (2015) instead . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-945053-18-4
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Interlude Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre.
Survival camp? How can you not have bad feelings about that?
Sixteen-year-old nerd (or geek, but not dork) Henry Lambert has no desire to go to Strongwoods Survival Camp. His father thinks it might help Henry man up and free him of some of his odd phobias. Randy, Henry’s best friend since kindergarten, is excited at the prospect of going thanks to the camp’s promotional YouTube video, so Henry relents. When they arrive at the shabby camp in the middle of nowhere and meet the possibly insane counselor (and only staff member), Max, Henry’s bad feelings multiply. Max tries to train his five campers with a combination of carrot and stick, but the boys are not athletes, let alone survivalists. When a trio of gangsters drops in on the camp Games to try to collect the debt owed by the owner, the boys suddenly have to put their skills to the test. Too bad they don’t have any—at all. Strand’s summer-camp farce is peopled with sarcastic losers who’re chatty and wry. It’s often funny, and the gags turn in unexpected directions and would do Saturday Night Live skits proud. However, the story’s flow is hampered by an unnecessary and completely unfunny frame that takes place during the premier of the movie the boys make of their experience. The repeated intrusions bring the narrative to a screeching halt.
Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8455-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In an unnamed country (a thinly veiled Philippines), three teenage boys pick trash for a meager living. A bag of cash in the trash might be—well, not their ticket out of poverty but at least a minor windfall. With 1,100 pesos, maybe they can eat chicken occasionally, instead of just rice. Gardo and Raphael are determined not to give any of it to the police who've been sniffing around, so they enlist their friend Rat. In alternating and tightly paced points of view, supplemented by occasional other voices, the boys relate the intrigue in which they're quickly enmeshed. A murdered houseboy, an orphaned girl, a treasure map, a secret code, corrupt politicians and 10,000,000 missing dollars: It all adds up to a cracker of a thriller. Sadly, the setting relies on Third World poverty tourism for its flavor, as if this otherwise enjoyable caper were being told by Olivia, the story's British charity worker who muses with vacuous sentimentality on the children that "break your heart" and "change your life." Nevertheless, a zippy and classic briefcase-full-of-money thrill ride. (Thriller. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-75214-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
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