Mini-Reviews 19: Remaining Quest Objectives

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I can see why this is such a popular book. I mean, it kept me interested while I was sleep-deprived on an airplane, and that is no mean feat.

Treasure Island doesn't use all the pirate tropes, it started all the pirate tropes.

My mom reviewed this, and this mini-review is part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for reckless violence.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, classics, pirates, rated E10+

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

I didn't enjoy reading this, and I think the reason for that is twofold: A) I'm too old for it, and B) it was meant to be read aloud.

This mini-review is also part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. It's meant to be read aloud to children.

2 stars. Star ratings are a subjective measure of how much I liked a book, not a more objective measure of how good a book is, and I didn't enjoy reading this.

Tags for this one: 2-star, classics, rated E, talking animals

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

Honestly, I like this better now that I'm older. When I was younger, I found the book too tense, but I think it's just right for me now. Also it's about a mouse, so that's a definite plus in my opinion (I am, after all, the person who named his blog "Sam the Library Mouse").

I really enjoyed how the toy motorcycle works. You make it go by making motorcycle noises. It's just such a fun explanation. |And it's made even better by the toy ambulance, which shows up later in the book, being powered by making ambulance noises.|

This mini-review, too, is part of my first completed quest. Hence the title of the collection.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. Nothing objectionable.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, rated E, talking animals

(Endnote: Oddly enough, all three of these books have prominently yellow covers.)

Mini-Reviews 18: Wheels on a Big Rig

Callings for Life: God's Plan, Your Purpose by Jeffrey Leininger

This book takes a hundred and fifty-four pages to say something that I can pretty comprehensively sum up in three sentences: "God probably hasn't called you to do something grand and epic, so you should focus on where God has put you now rather than the grand and epic thing you think God wants you to do. Having a normal life is not bad, and you should value it. God intends you to do a lot of small things rather than one really huge thing."

As you may have suspected, I was not enthralled. Oh, it's a lovely exploration of the doctrine of vocation, I just couldn't get into it because A) I fully grasped the point from reading the back cover, and B) I already understand the doctrine of vocation. I read nonfiction to learn things, and I honestly don't learn much from a book that repeatedly tells me something I already know for 154 pages.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for people dying in some of the examples it gives. It would make a supremely boring videogame.

3 stars. It's not a bad book, it's just also not the right one for me.

Tags for this one: 3-star, Christian nonfiction, nonfiction, rated E10+

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams 

This book is quite short. Also slightly sad. Though not as sad as I was expecting, given that I expected |the titular rabbit to die outright, and he only sort of dies|. Also there's a fairy involved. 

I had to look up what velveteen was, because I didn't actually know. It's apparently "velvet but instead of making it velvety by cutting the vertical threads, you make it velvety by cutting the horizontal threads." Or something of that sort.

This review is part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for being sad.

3 stars. It somehow manages to be both slightly depressing and slightly sappy.

Tags for this one: 3-star, rated E10+

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

This book is less short than The Velveteen Rabbit is, but I have similarly little to say about it. Hence this being a mini-review.

The plot of this is not terribly believable, but that's part of its charm.

This review is also part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, junior fiction, rated E

(Endnote: And they're rollin' rollin' rollin', rollin' rollin' rollin)

Mini-Reviews 17: Again

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

My mom reviewed this, here. Go there for some actual thoughts on the book.

I honestly wouldn't have done even this utter placeholder of a mini-review normally. However, this (sad excuse for a) review is part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+.

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, classics, junior fiction, magical realism, rated E10+

Quaint Creatures by Andrew D. Meredith

This is a book about a veterinarian in what's basically a D&D world. It's quite fun and I wish it were a series so I could read more of it.

I think it balances the slice-of-life aspect with the plot quite well. That, however, is my personal opinion; other people might think it needs more plot or more slice-of-life.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for fantasy violence. It could be a reasonably good videogame; I'd play it.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, fantasy, rated E10+, slice-of-life

The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray by E. Latimer

This book involves (posthumously) Dorian Gray, of The Picture of Dorian Gray fame. That would be a spoiler, but come on, the book's about spooky magic paintings and the protagonist's last name is Gray.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for scary scenes and {T15+ implied past homosexuality, thanks to the subject matter involving Oscar Wilde. It's pretty veiled, and if you didn't know about Wilde you probably wouldn't notice it, but it's there and it bugged me. It was also kind of sprung on you near the end, so I'd already read most of the book before I noticed.}

1 star. Honestly I probably should have quit reading it, but I wanted to know how it ended. It's rather a shame about the above-mentioned redactedness, because Bryony herself could have been quite a compelling protagonist.

Tags for this one: 1-star, magical realism, rated T15+

(Endnote: Zac Efron is in none of these books.)

Mini-Reviews 16: Tons of #9 Coal

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

The main characters of another of Sarah Dessen's books (This Lullaby, I think) cameo in this one. I thought that was neat.

It's about a girl who's trying desperately to pretend everything is fine and hold things together while everything falls apart around her, and also a guy who's into weird music and who she maybe (okay definitely, this is a romance novel) likes.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for discussion of an eating disorder (and possibly also a suicide attempt), an in-the-past and mostly offscreen sexual assault, and swearing (including one instance of The Cardinal Swearword).

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, a kissing book, DRAMA!, modern setting, rated T15+, romance, school drama, YA

Bitter End by Rex Stout

 

It's another Nero Wolfe book. A novella, this time. I read this on a tablet in an airport, which is not my favorite way or place to read books, but it was good enough that I liked it regardless.

 

Basically, someone puts quinine in a can of liver paté (no idea what paté is but I assume it's some kind of meat paste thing) that Nero Wolfe subsequently eats. He Does Not Like This and begins a personal quest to find whoever did that and make them pay.

 

I don't have tons to say about this, but I do have some favorite lines to share.

 

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A stern T for violence (people getting shot at and stuff, plus it is a murder mystery).

 

4 stars.

Favorite lines:

 

    "I am under no obligation to catch murderers indiscriminately."

    Page, uh, I have no idea? This is an ebook and it doesn't like telling me the page numbers for whatever reason.

 

     "Some news for you. [NAME REDACTED] is under arrest: they just took |her| away from here. Mr. Wolfe would like to have |her| prosecuted for feeding him quinine, but the cops prefer to try |her| for murder. [REDACTED]'s guilty of both."

    Page nobodyknows. Page numbers are a mess in Ebooks, it's one of the reasons I don't like them as much as actual paper books.

Tags for this one: 4-star, mystery, rated T

Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel (illustrated by Christopher Steininger)

 

Content warning: This is a book about bats. If you don't like bats or are afraid of bats, don't read it.

Basically, a young bat's clan of bats is migrating south after the young bat (our main character) accidentally provoked some owls into burning down their home tree. Then he gets separated from the clan, goes on an a bunch of adventures, and meets the girl deuteragonist. She's not really a love interest, though that may change as the series goes on.

The book is actually pretty creepy. The art doesn't help, but the story features such delightful things as a rat civilization, a cult of bats who can sort of transform into humans, and these carnivorous jungle bats that try to eat whatever they can get their hands on (including some pigeons and the deuteragonist).

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for all that stuff I mentioned above.

3 stars. Could conceivably have been 4 if it hadn't kept talking about evolution.

Tags for this one: 3-star, adventure, modern setting, rated T, talking animals

(Endnote: And the boss man said, "Well bless my soul!")

Mini-Reviews 15: It's The Long Title Song!

Handbook of Consolations for the Fears and Trials that Oppress Us in the Struggle with Death by Johann Gerhard 

I thought this book was some sort of grief counseling, for when someone you love dies.

It is not.

This book is for when you are the one dying, or when you're talking to someone who is, and you/they are struggling with your faith. It's written in the classic ancient-greek-philosophy-instruction style of "Student: I have a question, and it's this! Teacher: I have an answer to that question, and it's this."

It's quite good. If I'm ever dying of sickness, someone please send me a copy.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for discussion of death.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, Christian nonfiction, nonfiction, rated E10+

The Story of Be by David Crystal

I got this out of the library on a whim because it looked interesting. It was, in fact, interesting.

While I (as a firm believer in the Tower of Babel) disagree with it on where languages came from, most of the rest of it is pretty informative.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for sexual references ({T15+ish describing the "sexual be", as in "being with someone"}).

3 stars. Not amazing, but it's definitely not bad.

Tags for this one: 3-star, nonfiction, rated T15+

The Innocent by David Baldacci

I have now read a thriller. Yay me.

It's about this special forces assassin guy who gets almost assassinated himself (repeatedly), then teams up with a teenage girl who's been having a bad time in foster care and whose parents have just been murdered. Because person or persons unknown keep trying to assassinate the both of them, and also keep assassinating other people who they try to get evidence from.

Also known as "489 pages of the plot thickening and 57 pages of 'oh yeah, it's all coming together.'"

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: M for mostly offscreen sexual content between two adults (which I skipped over anyway), strong language (though no Cardinal Swearwords that I recall), and semi-graphic violence. This is a book for adults.

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, modern setting, rated M, thriller

(Endnote: I'm really starting to run out of titles for these things.)

Mini-Reviews 14: It Starts With "The"

Title because the last four macro-reviews I've done have been of books whose titles start with the word "the", and the first two in this collection also do that.

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" by Edgar Allan Poe

This is a short story about hypnotism (the Victorians had a thing about it). Basically, it's a (fictional) recounting of what happens if you hypnotize someone right before they die. It's also, as befits Edgar Allan Poe, pretty creepy.

Also, apparently this was first published without explicitly claiming to be fiction? That would have been really creepy to read in the newspaper.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for body horror. I don't think it would make a very good game.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, fiction but historical, horror, rated T

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London

If this book hadn't been written in 1912, it would be rather suspect. For one, it uses the term "Aryan," which the Nazis ruined ("Aryan" has nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but the Nazi connotations make it practically unusable), and it's about a catastrophic plague that depopulated the world (thanks, Covid scaremongering).

Oh, and this actually superlethal plague? Happened, in-universe, in 2013. One year off from the whole "the world is ending in 2012" thing, and seven years off from the actual mass-panic-causing not-all-that-lethal still-kinda-around-but-no-one-cares plague we had.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for discussion of abuse.

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, post-apocalyptic, rated E10+

Hideout by Watt Key

You've had a bunch of classic SF, now get ready for true crime! But not actually true crime, because this is fiction. False crime.

Basically, a twelve-year-old boy discovers the secret swamp hideout of another twelve-year-old boy. The second one is waiting for his dad and his older brother to come find him once his dad gets out of prison. Unfortunately, |the dad is dead and the brother does criiiiiiiiiiime (i.e. grows marijuana) for a living (and is also not a nice person)|. It's a good thing that the first twelve-year-old boy has a police officer for a dad.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A soft T for drug reference (|that guy and his marijuana farm|), though nobody actually uses any.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, modern setting, rated T

(Endnote: All the 19th- and 20th-century SF I've been doing lately is thanks to an anthology I got. It has all that in it, plus a couple I didn't bother reading because they sounded boring.)

Mini-Reviews 13: It's Not Even Friday!

Playing with Fire by Derek Landy

Book 2 of Skulduggery Pleasant. (Book 1 is here.) In this one, some new (or possibly not so new?) bad guys show up and try to resurrect an evil giant monster thing. |They succeed, and the heroes have to fight it.|

It's been like a year since I read the last one, so I don't remember how many of the villains in this were mentioned in the first one.

Oh, and the Spring-Heeled Jack shows up, which was interesting.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence and giant spiders.

4 stars. However, as previously mentioned, there are giant spiders; I can read past them, but if you hate giant spiders, you probably shouldn't read this.

Tags for this one: 4-star, cool magic, modern setting, rated T, urban fantasy

The Wondrous World of Violet Barnaby by Jenny Lundquist

This is about a twelve-ish-year-old girl, Violet Barnaby, whose mom is dead and whose dad has recently remarried. She spends most of the book grieving for her mom and railing against the injustice of change.

She also spends most of the book repressing the urge to just snap and start shouting at everything. I, too, have repressed that urge, as probably have we all.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, DRAMA!, modern setting, rated E

The Wolf of Cape Fen by Juliana Brandt

This book has a very twisty plot, and one that holds together in light of the new plot twists (I'm looking at you, Maximum Ride). Plus they're actually well-executed enough that I don't see them coming, which... either I've been reading books with untwisty plots or I've just gotten really good at spotting the plot twist.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for "deal-with-the-devil"-style magic (though not with the actual devil).

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, magical realism, modern setting, rated E10+

(Endnote: HALT IN THE NAME OF THE FRIDAY KNIGHT! Man, I really need to review Dragons at Crumbling Castle...)

Mini-Reviews 12: The Day Has Come

...when I run out of things to reference in the titles of these posts.

The Castle in the Mist by Amy Ephron

This is one of those books that doesn't actually explain what's going on within it; basically, they show you what's happening to the characters, but don't actually provide the worldbuilding behind that. It crops up a lot in horror and magical realism, and sometimes fantasy.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A soft E10+ for spookiness. Could be an OK visual novel.

3 stars. The ending was too trippy and strange for my taste.

Tags for this one: 3-star, magical realism, modern setting, rated E10+

Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall

Behold, the first book of the series in which Brackenbeast is book 2. This one is definitely a lot spookier and less fairy-tale-gone-wrong.

Overall, I liked Brackenbeast better.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A stern T for {T-ish pulling a casual homosexuality mention}. yeesh. That said, a videogame of Thirteens would possibly be fun, if you like spooky things.

And 3 stars as well, for the same reason.

 

Tags for this one: 3-star, horror, modern setting, rated T, series component

"The Secret Garden" by G. K. Chesterton

No, this isn't the same thing as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This one is a murder mystery.

It's also one of the rare ones where I don't even suspect the murderer until they're revealed. (The only other one of those within the last couple years is Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.) In the case of "The Secret Garden," it's because |the murderer showed up in a previous mystery, wherein he was firmly on the side of good|.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for |decapitation| and violence in general. Doesn't have a very videogameifiable plot, though.

4 stars.

Favorite lines:

    “Well, doctor,” said the priest, looking up blinking, “|can a man cut off his own head? I don’t know|.”

    Page ??? (this is a short story). It's Father Brown, doing a reveal.

Tags for this one: 4-star, fiction but historical, mystery, rated E10+, short stories

(Endnote: I'm not saying I reviewed "The Secret Garden" solely because it could get mistaken for a more famous work with the same name...)

Mini-Reviews 11: March Forth

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

My mom reviewed this one. Go there if you want an actual review. I mostly just did this one to showcase a couple of lines.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for marital infidelity and some alcohol use.

4 stars.

Favorite lines: 

    "Moving on," [the teacher] continued, not hearing me, "I've been instructed to tell you again that you are not to touch the wet paint outside the cafeteria. Most people would know this without being told, but apparently some of you are not like most people."

    Page 49.

    "Oh, yeah," she said. "My mom always makes too much anyway."

    "You can never have too much fried chicken," Dave told her.

    "She made fried chicken last time," Heather said, still studying her screen. "I remember, because Dave ate two breasts, two legs, and two wings. Which was actually..."

    "An entire chicken," Dave finished for her, sighing. "A personal best for me."

    Pages 282-283.

Tags for this one: 4-star, a kissing book, modern setting, rated T, romance, YA

 

 

 

Brackenbeast by Kate Alice Marshall

 

The titular brackenbeasts are actually made of mud, not bracken. In-universe, they used to be made of bracken, until some evil guy turned them into mud. |And mushrooms.|

The villains in this are the sort of folklore-ish "super dangerous but also very rule-bound and if you beat them at their own game you'll be fine" villains that show up a lot in, you guessed it, folklore. 

 

I picked this up thinking it was another horror entry into my Allan County mythos ([EXPLANATORY EDIT, 4/23/2026: it was a story I was writing about the concept of "what if horror protagonists were competent people and had actual good weapons"]). And it could have made a good horror story if the author had played the story for scariness instead of somewhat fairytale-esque magical realism. Instead it makes a good somewhat fairytale-esque magical realism story.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for spookiness and violence (if you don't read the afterword, which is... T-ish.)

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, magical realism, modern setting, rated E10+

 

 

 

Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm by Siobhan McDermott

 

This is an Asian-flavored take on the "magic school" genre. It's set in a fantasy world.

The magic schoolchildren are learning to become a type of immortal called the Cyo B'Ahon. |Now imagine you have a thick accent, and pronounce "Siobhan" phonetically|. 

 

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for general violence and some evil spirit creatures .

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, fantasy, rated E10+

(Endnote: What Happened to Goodbye has the honor of being the first book to which I've given the tag "romance".)

Mini-Reviews 10: On Top Of Some Covers, All Covered With Snow

Dragon Kingdom of Wrenly: The Coldfire Curse by Jordan Quinn (graphic novel art by Ornella Greco)

This is rather below my general reading level. Let's just leave it at that. It's about dragons and a curse that's making it be winter (and, surprisingly, isn't the White Witch's fault).

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for cartoon violence, or possibly on the high side of E.

3 stars. It isn't bad, it's just that I would have loved it if I was about ten, and (spoiler alert) I'm not ten.

Tags for this one: 3-star, adventure, dragons, fantasy, junior fiction, manga/graphic novel, rated E10+

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

"This is a Hansel and Gretel retelling." You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? But you're actually wrong. It's the Snow Queen.

Now, granted, the title would make a lot more sense if it were a modern-day Hansel and Gretel retelling. But, as I said in the last paragraph, it's actually a modern-day Snow Queen retelling. With a few bits of some other Hans Christian Andersen fairytales thrown in; there's that one about the red dancing shoes, the little match-girl shows up (but, unfortunately, sans |the Death of the Discworld to help|), and there's possibly some Little Red Riding Hood in there as well.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for dangerous bits and violence (among other things, the plot gets kicked off by the main character's best friend getting a shard of glass in his eye). Straightforward enough to be a sort of RPG.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, fairy tale retelling, magical realism, modern setting, rated E10+

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Apparently this one was written because one of Agatha Christie's nephews (I think) complained that all her murder mysteries were too clean and bloodless, so she wrote this one specifically for him.

 

Yes, it was still Christmastime when I read this.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for mmmuuuuurrrder and discussions of marital infidelity. It's not gory or anything.

4 stars.

Favorite lines:

    Colonel Johnson, Chief Constable of Middleshire, might be of the opinion that nothing could beat a wood fire, but Hercule Poirot was of the opinion that central heating could and did every time.

    Page 84.

Tags for this one: 4-star, mystery, rated T

(Endnote: The title for this post was originally going to be "Mini-Reviews 10: 10.0x10^0" before I realized that all three of the books I'm reviewing here have snow on the cover.)

Mini-Reviews 9: Fantastic Number 9

deadly ... pink by Vivian Vande Velde

In which we've developed VR that interfaces with your brain. It starts to be unsafe after playing it for eight hours straight, which is why you get kicked out after thirty minutes. Except if you're an admin and can make it not do that, in which case you're at risk of brain damage and your sister has to come talk you out of staying in the game.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for violence and some other miscellaneous stuff.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, modern setting, rated E10+, science fiction

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

This was good until it was abruptly depressing. Did Ray Bradbury ever write anything that didn't have dystopia and/or |nuclear war| somewhere in it?

Much of the science in this is a bit dated (humans can't survive without a spacesuit on Mars, and crewed Mars rockets aren't exactly easy to build) but it's still a good read.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence and (I think) some bad language. It's too disjointed to make one cohesive narrative, though you could do something like release each mini-story as its own chapter or DLC for the main game. 

3 stars. The ending was too melancholy for my taste.

Tags for this one: 3-star, rated T, science fiction, space

Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

This one would have been good if it had played the scary straight. It ought to have been creepypasta material instead of sadpasta material. But instead of a ghost dog that's insane and attacking people, we get a ghost dog that's trying to lead people to the resting place of a kid who got lost looking for it and froze to death. I'd have spoiler tagged that, but I saw it coming by like chapter 3, so why bother.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for dangerous situations (characters get stuck in a blizzard). It's not even spooky.

2 stars. Just lame.

Tags for this one: 2-star, horror [at least I think it was supposed to be], junior fiction, lame, modern setting, rated E10+

(Endnote: It's been a while since I did one of these, hasn't it.)

Mini-Reviews 8: Oops, All Vega Jane

The Keeper by David Baldacci

In which we leave our dystopia and discover that the Intentionally Very Lethal Wilderness outside of it is that way because it's supposed to keep the dystopia's people in and everyone else out.

 

Also we find another, even more dystopian dystopia. And proceed to completely wreck the whole place and nope out of there. 

This is book 2.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence and some bad language.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, cool magic, dystopian, fantasy, rated T, series component, YA

The Width of the World by David Baldacci

In which we leave the Intentionally Very Lethal Wilderness and discover that our dystopia's dystopian-ness pales in comparison to the dystopian-ness of the dystopia that is the rest of the world. But at least the rest of the world has trains. While our dystopia was stuck in the Renaissance, the rest of the world has reached the 1920s.

Also, we get a reverse Renamed Concept Rule courtesy of getting used to the strange terminology over the last two books, then stumbling into a world where people use normal words.

This is book 3.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence and some bad language.

4 stars.

 

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, cool magic, dystopian, fantasy, rated T, series component, YA

The Stars Below by David Baldacci

In which we discover that I actually can take the BBEG seriously even though his name is literally just "Necro".

 

I'm not sure what's going on with that title.

 

This is book 4.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence and some bad language.

4 stars.

 

Tags for this one: 4-star, a kissing book, adventure, cool magic, dystopian, fantasy, rated T, series component, YA

(Endnote: You may have noticed that book 4 is slightly thinner than the other two. This isn't because that's how it is in real life, it's because the internet is loath to provide me with pictures that aren't squished.)

Mini-Reviews 7: Finish Him

The author of A Rover's Story has also written a book called The Shape of Thunder. We all know thunder is sound, and sound is a shockwave, and shockwaves in three dimensions are spherical, but it's interrupted by the ground, so the shape of thunder is: an oblate spheroid.

The Finisher by David Baldacci

Somehow, that was less dystopian than I was expecting. And higher-magic than I was expecting. The dystopia is run by people who have the best interests of its people at heart, except they have a warped idea of what said interests are.

Also, the Renamed Concept Rule strikes again! But less bad this time, probably because the book itself is fairly well-written.

(The titular "Finisher" actually refers to the main character; it's her job. She's the one who does the final artisanry in the factory in the book's town.)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for creepy stuff, some swearing, and violence.

4 stars. This has promise.

Tags for this one: 4-star, dystopian, fantasy, rated T, series component

The Education of Ivy Blake by Ellen Airgood

You've heard of Terrible Modern Fictional Dads, now get ready for... drumroll please Terrible Modern Fictional Moms!

And also Actually Perfectly Okay Modern Fictional Everyone Other Than The Main Character's Mom, including an Really Fairly Nice Modern Fictional Dad of Someone Else. It's really just Ivy's mom who's terrible. 

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for substance abuse by the Terrible Modern Fictional Mom and some redacted swearing.

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, modern setting, rated T

A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga

I must admit that I got this book out of the library fully expecting it to be kind of lame. Thankfully, it was actually good!

Also the front quote is from the author of this one.

Res (Resilience) is completely adorable.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. It could be an okay videogame.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, rated E, science fiction, space

(Endnote: Did you know the theme music for Mortal Kombat is actually based on a Finnish hymn?)

Mini-Reviews 6: Half-Blood Prince

Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart by Mimi Swartz

This is certainly informative, especially so since I don't usually go in for biomedical engineering. It was published in 2018, but according to my research (read: I looked at the article "artificial heart" on Wikipedia) nobody's yet managed to make a complete one that's available for anything other than experiments.

Were this a videogame, its subject matter would get rated: T15+ for gore, because this is heart surgery.

However, the book handles it in a way that's: also T15+, but for strong language (including one instance of The Cardinal Swearword) and some sexual references.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, nonfiction, rated T15+

Battlesong by Lian Tanner

Behold the third book in this trilogy (second book here). I probably won't ever read the first book, but you never know.

We do manage to |defeat the angry uber-Luddites for good| in this one, courtesy of |finding a hidden science facility| (Aperture Science, anyone?) and any sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic. And if you live in a world that's been forcibly regressed to medieval times, modern technology counts as sufficiently advanced.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for the same things as the other one.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, dystopian, rated T, series component

Minecraft: The Crash by Tracey Baptiste

This is an interesting look at how to handle sudden grief and other strong emotions, but I'm not sure I needed that from a Minecraft book.

At least they have their version be explicitly modded in this. Honestly, "It's modded" is the solution to basically every "There are no [insert thing] in Minecraft!" plot hole ever (I'm looking at you, Winter Morgan's unrealistic command blocks), but... I've seen two books use it, now, and one of them is this.

 

Nothing ever crashes in this one, making this a case of a Somewhat Misleading Title™.

Minecraft is a videogame, and it's rated: E10+ for fantasy violence. This one has grievous injury as well (car accident).

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, Minecraft, modern setting, rated E10+

(Endnote: What if the people in Sunker's Deep and Battlesong cracked into a nuclear isolation facility and didn't know what it was because none of them can read? I see no way that could end horribly.)