Books for October

Dark Life by Kat Falls

Review

Long ago, earthquakes and tsunamis shattered the world, the sea level rose, and people had to make a decision. Those who chose to remain topside remained in increasingly cramped conditions where space, not gold, became the most valuable resource. Then there were those who went down, into the ocean where there was free space and money to be made, as well as incredible danger. Ty is the child of one of those settlers, and he has grown up in a world totally alien to most people, the ocean floor. But now his family's homestead is under attack from a ruthless group of raiders and the government is threatening to cut off their supplies unless they are caught. After several close run-ins with the outlaw leader, Ty begins to realize that unless the group is caught, everyone below the sea is in constant danger. But is there more going on that he knows?

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Review

When Marcus decides to skip school with his friends, he ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. After a terrible terrorist attack, Marcus and the others are picked up by the Department of Homeland Securities and taken to a remote island off the coast of America. There they are interrogated for days to find out if they are terrorists, and Marcus is only released because DHS realizes they have no need to hold him for any longer, as long as he doesn't talk. When Marcus returns home, he finds that one of his friends was not released, and that the city of San Francisco, his home, has become a police state controlled by the DHS. In order to "keep the peace", they break up nonviolent protests and concerts with tear gas, track everybody's movement and threaten citizens with arrest and worse if they don't comply. Marcus begins to realize that the only way to defeat the now out-of-control DHS is to turn the people against them, and so he starts an underground movement to oppose them and show the world the fallacies they've been spreading. But can he keep his actions secret from those he would have once trusted with his life?

Worldshaker by Richard Harland

Review

Colbert Porpentine thinks he has life figured out. His world consists of the Worldshaker, an enormous steam-powered Juggernaut which rolls and floats across the earth. The upper class live on the highest decks, while the animal-like Filthies labor down below to keep the Worldshaker moving. Occasionally, Filthies are rescued from that life of drudgery and brought up to the other decks, where they are trained into Menials, creatures that help with physical labor. Colbert knows that all this is true because that's what he's been taught his entire life. But when he meets a Filthy, one who was "rescued" to be trained in a Menial, he finds that she isn't an unthinking animal like he's been taught. What else is false? Is everything he knows a lie?

Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks

Review

Five hundred years ago, a devastating war created by creatures that humans called demons tore apart the United States, leaving a blackened and smoking wasteland, populated by mutants and desperate people, trying to scratch out a living in a new, harsh world. Some humans mutated from radiation and disease, turning into thick-skinned creatures called Trolls. At some point, a group of survivors fled into an isolated valley and sealed it off with their technology, shutting themselves off from the outside world. Over the years, people forgot about technology and began to believe it was magic. Now the barrier protecting the valley from the outside has crumbled, and an army of Trolls is preparing to invade the valley. Can the isolated, unprepared people within even hope to fend off such a devastating attack?

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Review

The Graveyard Book begins with a murder. A man named Jack enters the house of a sleeping family and does away with them for an unknown reason. However, he doesn't manage to kill the baby, who has been rescued by some kindly ghosts who prevent him from completing the murder. The boy, named Nobody Owens by the Owens family, a relatively recent ghostly couple, is raised in the graveyard, where he learns many lessons about the dead and the living and those that are neither. He travels through a Ghoul-Gate, and is almost turned into a disgusting, foul-mouthed ghoul by a whole pack of them. He encounters werewolves and vampires and the Sleer, a thing that lives under the hill. But the most dangerous thing he will ever encounter is not a ghost or a ghoul or a vampire or a werewolf. It will be the man who killed his family. And one day, he will have to leave the graveyard where he is protected, and find the man who murdered his family.

Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz

Review

When Matt is caught stealing from a warehouse with a "friend", it quickly goes sour. His friend stabs the guard who caught them in the back, and they are both arrested. While the police recognize that he isn't responsible for the near murder, they feel that as an accomplice, he should also be punished. He is given a choice between a stint in prison and living in a foster home. He chooses the second option, but he should have chosen prison. He goes to live in a foster home in the country, and the people seem nice, if a bit odd. He soon comes to realize that something is wrong. He can't get out of the town: the road loops back on itself. Anyone who tries to help him disappears. And the townspeople seem to be strangely fascinated by an old, dismantled nuclear power station. What is going on?

The US Congress

Review

The US Congress is a short but informative read which deals with the Senate and the House of Representatives, the two branches of the US Congress. By reading it, you will learn the jobs of those two branches, their differences and similarities, and how they mesh with the other branches of government. The book starts by introducing the Great Compromise, the act which split Congress into its two branches. It then moves on to explain more of the details about the Senate and the House, how men and women in Congress must always think about pleasing their constituents and other interesting details. It also breaks down the differences between the two. Lastly, the book describes what it's like to speak on the floor and the checks and balances present in the system. A good read to get to know what the Congress is all about and how it works.

Evil Star by Anthony Horowitz

Review

In Evil Star, the second book in The Gatekeepers series, the Old Ones are once again stirring in their prisons beneath the Earth. Although Matt survived the last battle, where ghoulish cultists sought to open Raven's Gate, he now finds himself targeted by servants of the Old Ones and unwitting people manipulated into trying to kill him. Finally, after a near-fatal attack on his school, he agrees to do a job for the Nexus, a group created to stop the Old Ones from breaking out of their prisons. He meets with a bookseller who, after winning a bid for an ancient book that is the key to the next gate, has gone mad and sees demons everywhere. While Matt is elsewhere, he is murdered and the book stolen. And so Matt takes a trip to Peru, where the only other serious bidder for the book is located, and after an attack, he is separated from his friend Richard and wanders the streets. There he meets a boy who may be the next person who is destined to stop the Old Ones or die trying. There's only one problem: they don't speak the same language. Can Matt and his new friend possibly stop a powerful and influential madman who is trying to bring the Old Ones back to the world, where they will exterminate humanity and rebuild it in their image?

Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child

Review

Buried beneath the ice of the Artic Circle for millions of years, an enormous animal that may be a distant evolutionary relation to the saber-toothed tiger is found in an ice cave by a group of scientists. Despite the reservations of the scientists and the dire warnings of the local Native American tribe, who point to the blood-red Aurora Borealis as a sign of evil, the media company which sponsored the expedition steps in and arranges for the animal to be excavated and thawed out in a secure room. However, the carcass soon goes missing. Whoever did it blew through a solid wall and sawed it out of the ice before disappearing into the snow. The man who is overseeing the media event is furious at having his prize snatched from him, and points fingers at everyone, sending his men on patrols along the perimeter of the camp to see if the cat is hidden out there. And then, during a violent snowstorm, one of the men turns up dead, torn to pieces by something more powerful than a polar bear...

-- JackW - 01 Oct 2010