A teenager discovers that his own memories can't be trusted, in another nightmarish tale of alien intrigue from the author of Interstellar Pig (1984) and the more recent Dangerous Wishes (1995). His best friend, Tim, has disappeared, but all Leo can offer police is a wild tale of being abducted by little green men in a futuristic spaceship. The very banality of this "memory" rouses Leo's suspicions, and the plot thickens when Tim shows up two days later—older and bearing a set of disturbing drawings that, he claims, must not fall into the hands of "The Others." Sleator tells all as it happens, so that readers learn most of what's going on before Leo does; The Others, smog-loving shape-shifters bent on devastating the environment, are being chased by "the heads," an alien race of kidnappers. Both tinker with Leo's mind, though the effects prove to be only temporary. The author uses his considerable descriptive skills to make the members of both camps gut-wrenchingly repulsive; although the aliens' schemes are too confusing to follow easily, the author's many fans and readers who like their stories served up with mind-controlled zombies, chases, captures, twists, levitation, tricks, weird science, and horrible monsters with disgusting table manners brandishing oversized syringes will find plenty here to please. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-45463-2
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
If it were a Golden Age comic, this tale of ridiculous science, space dogs and humanoid aliens with flashlights in their hands might not be bad. Alas... Number Four is a fugitive from the planet Lorien, which is sloppily described as both "hundreds of lightyears away" and "billions of miles away." Along with eight other children and their caretakers, Number Four escaped from the Mogadorian invasion of Lorien ten years ago. Now the nine children are scattered on Earth, hiding. Luckily and fairly nonsensically, the planet's Elders cast a charm on them so they could only be killed in numerical order, but children one through three are dead, and Number Four is next. Too bad he's finally gained a friend and a girlfriend and doesn't want to run. At least his newly developing alien powers means there will be screen-ready combat and explosions. Perhaps most idiotic, "author" Pittacus Lore is a character in this fiction—but the first-person narrator is someone else entirely. Maybe this is a natural extension of lightly hidden actual author James Frey's drive to fictionalize his life, but literature it ain't. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-196955-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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