Thrills, violence, time/space questions, and some contemplation about colonization make for action on the thoughtful side.
Between Liam and the starliner carrying his sister lie baffling timestreams, inscrutable enemies, and vast stretches of cold, empty space.
Humans have departed Mars to colonize another planet. As Last Day on Mars (2017) ended, readers learned—but Liam didn’t—that Phoebe, Liam’s best friend and only fellow traveler in their small spacecraft (not counting their parents, injured and in stasis, and an intelligent, panda-faced bot), is a disguised alien. A horrifying prelude shows that Xela—Phoebe’s real name—came to Mars after a “hurtling wave of atomic fire” seared her whole planet, Telos, in six minutes. Of 6 billion Telphons, only 238 survived—and they want revenge on humans, who caused the cataclysm. When will Liam learn Xela’s identity? Where does her loyalty lie? She hides her lavender, black-bristled skin in order to resemble a white, human girl; Liam’s multiracial heritage, mentioned in Mars, is unmentioned here. Arcs of emotional tension braid through outer-space flying and fighting scenes, various aliens, jolts of puzzle-mystery time travel, and science/philosophy (“Now and then are constraints of three-dimensional beings”). Liam’s loneliness in “the deep black and silence of space” is offset by adventure: “It’s been fun, you know, when it hasn’t been terrifying.” Reveals are plentiful, including a closing one to beckon readers forward.
Thrills, violence, time/space questions, and some contemplation about colonization make for action on the thoughtful side. (Science fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-230674-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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