A charming tale of space-based adventure.
Debut author Sees delivers an exuberant YA sci-fi novel.
Seventeen-year-old Ree Lindbergh is part of the 300-person crew of the starship Omega Centauri, patrolling the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Their mission is to prevent further hostilities between humans and the shape-shifting Bufoanthroids from the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Although Ree is happy enough spending her days in the company of her best friend, Zac, and dreaming of one day seeing the planet Earth, she’s still troubled. Every night she has nightmares about her dead mother, who was killed by Bufoanthroids on the day Ree was born. When Zac and his ship vanish, Ree undertakes a dangerous rescue mission. As she unravels mysteries and faces dangers, she learns the truth about her own past—and discovers feelings she’s never had before. The novel’s characters are well-developed and true to their types; Ree is a very relatable Everygirl with a far more interesting personality than, say, Twilight’s Bella Swan. Her first-person narration and dialogue are clear and entertaining (“[T]he familiar smell of sweet saskatoon berries, tangy yet tart, reheated freeze-dried goodness, and hot, gooey pizza consumed my nostrils”). As befits a novel written by an educator, the prose is clean and professional; the action scenes are a bit sparse, but the conclusion of the story promises more to come. The novel’s worldbuilding is pure, glorious space opera in the classic style: Starships warp away to patrol and invade entire galaxies, and characters listen to voice-activated radio broadcasts while discussing the history of the Worldwide Space Federation. There’s enough detail to establish the setting and flesh out the story, but the author leaves it open-ended enough that sequels are almost mandatory. Sees demonstrates a quiet sense of fun to go along with all the YA adventure and romance; notably, one particular line of dialogue (“If you want to kiss a frog and hope he turns into a prince…then go ahead”) underlines a running pun throughout the novel: The Bufoanthroids’ name appears to be a combination of the Latin bufo (“toad”) and anthropo (“human”).
A charming tale of space-based adventure.Pub Date: March 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615930596
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Centauri Publishing Group
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An enthusiastic novel with two clever, self-assured lead characters.
Zeng’s allegorical second novel (To the Land of Fantasies, 2008) is a young-adult adventure about two friends searching for a way to defeat fear and its craving for world domination.
Luke and Zack are on their way to see the king when Luke has a confrontation with sorrow, which takes on a bodily form. Soon the two are looking for “hosts” of emotions so powerful that the men often have physical reactions. Some of the more troubling emotions have counterparts that can act as a deterrent (e.g. greed vs. generosity), but there seems to be no defense against fear, which wages war by recruiting personified emotions (hate) and dispelling others (modesty). Luke’s request for the king to finance his inventions is quickly sidelined for the seemingly abstract goal of saving the city’s people by pinpointing all emotions, good and bad. Each host’s name is an anagram—King Ivan Ty suffers from vanity. But while the book’s first half consists mostly of Luke and Zack trudging through the city and encountering new characters, the exhilarating second half is a series of battles: Fear and its cronies target the people hosting good emotions, and they face off against the two men. The author also makes it easy to applaud the protagonists by providing them with substance—Luke comes to terms with his father’s death; Zack’s affinity for food provides comic relief. The tale occasionally glosses details—the first appearance of despair receives too little physical description—but Zeng generally uses striking imagery, particularly fear’s assault of the castle, effortlessly demonstrating the futility of the armed guards. There’s no hidden context in the author’s novel, and the moral implications aren’t subtle; but who’s going to argue with heroes who use love and hope as weapons?
An enthusiastic novel with two clever, self-assured lead characters.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481700153
Page Count: 250
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engaging, if occasionally uneven, second chapter in Klecter’s unique Yellow Truck series.
In this second installment in the Yellow Truck series, Brave Knight faces ruin, but Yellow Truck sticks by his friend.
Klecter (Yellow Truck and Billy’s Toolbox, 2012, etc.) continues his allegorical tale about Yellow Truck, a war-veteran vehicle who has feet instead of tires, and life in Yellow Truck’s hometown, Hillville. As with the first installment, Yellow Truck has a pivotal role in a story that centers on someone else; this time around, he assists his friend Brave Knight as he battles evil forces, seen and unseen. When a giant hurls enormous playing cards at the locals, Brave fights back against him. But, as they battle, nothing Knight does seems to work, and before long, Brave is the laughingstock of the Kingdom. His domestic situation also deteriorates when his wife, Jolie, spends all of Brave’s money—following her neighbor Ungrateful Greta’s advice— and begins an extramarital affair with mechanic Billy Tuneup, the playboy cad from the first novel. The story’s lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek tone makes it a charming read—somewhat like a children’s book, but one with adult themes. However, some of the characters from the first novel appear without adequate explanation; Sally the Untalented Artist and Rodney Rebuild make brief cameos, for example, but serve no real purpose in the story. Although Ungrateful Greta gets her due at the end of the tale, her comeuppance is somewhat unsatisfying and a bit long-winded. That said, Klecter manages to pack a lot into this story, which never feels too heavy.
An engaging, if occasionally uneven, second chapter in Klecter’s unique Yellow Truck series.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478280439
Page Count: 238
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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