Category: Action/Thriller
The Secret War by Matt Myklusch
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Jack Blank is living the dream as a celebrity superhero-in-training in the Imagine Nation. Unfortunately, Jack’s dream has a nightmare lurking under the surface—a shocking connection to the enemy super-soldier Revile, and a deadly Rüstov plot he can’t tell anyone about…not even his closest friends.
When the heroes of the Imagine Nation discover that an attack by Rüstov sleeper agents is imminent, Jack is forced to trust his friends in a race against the clock to fight back mass hysteria, find the enemy spies, and thwart the Rüstov plans in time to prevent a devastating invasion.
Full disclosure: After reading my review of The Accidental Hero and seeing that I loved the first book, Matt Myklusch sent me The Secret War, the second book, to review as I saw fit.
With that cleared up, let me say that The Secret War was fascinating. Jack has grown more as a character over the year after the events of The Accidental Hero and it’s not all for the better. He finds it hard to trust people, even his friends, with his horrible secret about the Rüstov and Revile. This, in many authors’ hands, would make him completely unlikeable, but Matt Myklusch managed to pull things off by showing the reader just how much pressure Jack is under.
One of the best things about The Secret War is that we learn so much more about the Imagine Nation. Matt Myklusch takes readers on a journey outside the city itself, which was the only place we saw in the first book. This journey outside of Jack’s comfort zone was definitely interesting because it shows just how much effort was put into world-building.
With an unpredictable plot, incredible world-building and sympathetic, three dimensional characters, there’s really nothing more you can ask for in a YA novel. Well, there is one thing: it’s aimed at boys. Yes, the oft-neglected male demographic in YA can finally have a great new series to read! And the best part? Girls can enjoy this book too.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Chasing the Falconers by Gordon Korman
(Cover picture courtesy of J & J Books and Coffee.)
Aiden and Meg Falconer are their parents’ only hope. The Falconers are facing life in prison—unless Aiden and Meg can follow a trail of clues to prove their innocence. The problem? They’re trapped in a juvenile detention center. Until they escape one night—and find themselves on the run, both from the authorities and from a sinister attacker who has his own reason to stop them. The Falconers must use their wits to make it across the country—with plenty of tests along the way.
I admit it: this book is way too young for me. I wasn’t in the target age group when I read it and I’m certainly not now, but it’s still a book I like to re-read about once a year. Why? Because it’s a well-written book with a cliché yet interesting premise.
It’s kind of predictable, but I’ve read a lo of books and watched a lot of movies with a similar premise. However, for the target age group, this would be their first exposure to a premise like this (proving the innocence of someone who’s been framed) and as such, is a great introduction to crime fiction. Gordon Korman is an excellent writer and has obviously done his research when it comes to all of the exciting scenarios in his first book in the On the Run series.
Meg and Aiden are great characters; they’re sympathetic and Chasing the Falconers appealing for both boys and girls. They also don’t like resorting to stealing to survive while they hunt for evidence and feel a lot of guilt when they do, but it shows that they at least refuse to sink to a really low level. Gordon Korman makes the siblings sympathetic (especially when we learn more about their backstory) while at the same time keeping the plot moving at a fast pace.
I would highly recommend it to people ages 10-12.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
The Accidental Hero by Matt Myklusch
(Cover picture courtesy of Munro’s Books.)
All Jack Blank knows is his bleak, dreary life at St. Barnaby’s Home for the Hopeless, Abandoned, Forgotten, and Lost, an orphanage that sinks more and more into the swampland of New Jersey with each passing year. His aptitude tests project him as spending a long, unhappy career as a toilet brush cleaner. His only chance at escape comes through the comic books donated years ago to the orphanage that he secretly reads in the dark corners of the library.
Everything changes one icy gray morning when Jack receives two visitors that alter his life forever. The first is a deadly robot straight out of one of his comic books that tries its best to blow him up. The second is an emissary from a secret country called the Imagine Nation, an astonishing place where all the fantastic and unbelievable things in our world originate – including Jack. Jack soon discovers that he has an amazing ability–one that could make him the savior of the Imagine Nation and the world beyond, or the biggest threat they’ve ever faced.
I had my doubts about this book when my friend lent it to me. The way she described it…well it made me less than enthusiastic, I have to admit. Yet I decided to give The Accidental Hero (first published under the title Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation) a chance. After all, I had been skeptical when the same friend lent me Cinder and it turned out to be amazing.
Matt Myklusch’s novel pokes tongue-in-cheek fun at old superhero tropes while at the same time putting a new spin on them so that young boys (and girls too!) will love it. I’ve only read one comic book in my entire life, but as with most people, I’m familiar with superheroes. I’m a closet fan of the new Batman movies, used to watch the Spiderman cartoons and actually didn’t mind Thor. The Accidental Hero focuses on the adventures of an orphan, Jack Blank, who accidentally discovers his superpowers and is taken away to the Imagine Nation, a constantly moving island of superheroes. Yet from the moment he arrives, things start to go wrong.
I considered Jack a cardboard cutout for the first third of the book, but then I realized the author was poking a bit of fun at old superhero clichés while slowly building a three dimensional character with a great character arc. Jack is a character readers of all ages will love, especially boys, who seem to be woefully neglected in the YA genre.
With a fast-paced plot and amazing world-building, this is the kind of new spin on old clichés I love. Personally, I’m glad I read it and look forward to reading about Jack’s future adventures.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Shift by Kim Curran
(Cover picture courtesy of Iceberg Ink.)
When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he’s not so average after all. He’s a ‘Shifter’. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world quickly starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I honestly don’t know how this book could have gone wrong, but I just couldn’t get into it. The premise was fascinating and well executed and the plot was reliably fast-paced throughout the entire novel. Shift had the potential to be an absolutely amazing book, but it was the characters that fell flat for me.
Scott is your average YA protagonist: he accidentally stumbles upon his powers, is seen by someone with the same powers and is taken to a secret location to learn about them, only to discover that he is more powerful than most people with the same powers. Without spoiling much more of the plot, let’s just say I could predict most of his actions throughout the novel, which I don’t like to be able to do as characters should surprise readers once in a while. Of course, since it’s a girl that finds him, you know that they’re going to fall in love eventually. Aubrey is another cardboard cutout and the other characters in the novel really aren’t much better.
However, I absolutely love the explanation for why and how shifting occurs. Kim Curran has actually taken the time to come up with a believable, scientific explanation rather than just saying that it’s magic and leaving it at that. She also wrote a very fast-paced novel, which somewhat makes up for her poor characterization. If Shift had not been fast-paced, I never would have been able to finish it.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sean is a washed-up child actor reduced to the lowest dregs of reality television to keep himself afloat.
His life was a downward spiral of alcoholism, regret, and failure…until he met Dagmar Shaw.
The world of Dagmar Shaw, however, is rarely straightforward. People tend to die around her, and now she wants Sean for something. A movie, she says, but who’s to say what her real game is?
I was introduced to The Fourth Wall by reading Walter Jon Williams’ Big Idea essay over at Whatever. Intrigued by the idea behind the novel, I bought it on pure speculation, as I seem to do quite a bit when I read The Big Idea articles. After all, it’s how I found out about Feed, to name one of the best examples. And much like Feed, The Fourth Wall has a killer opening, which is not entirely appropriate for all readers.
“When you spot someone sitting at the beach wearing a headset for Augmented Reality, or wearing AR specs on the bus, or smiling quietly in the back pew of the church with his video glasses on, what do you think?
I’ll tell you what you think. You think he’s watching porn.“
This sets the tone for pretty much the whole novel: cynical, witty and a bit dark. It’s also hard to classify this novel because just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the plot takes a sharp turn and you’re left mystified once more. You really won’t be able to predict the ending either, which stays true to the dark, cynical atmosphere that Williams maintains throughout the novel.
Sean Makin is a washed-up child actor and even though The Fourth Wall is set in the future, he offers a lot of insight into the cutthroat world of Hollywood. You see both the glamorous side and the incredibly dark side that no one wants to talk about. Sean is the perfect character to tell a story like this because of his dark past and his highly cynical attitude towards life and acting. He has a very sad past that adds a lot of layers to his character, making him a wonderfully three dimensional character. There is no doubt in my mind he is a memorable character.
After enjoying The Fourth Wall so much, I have a feeling I’ll be reading and reviewing a lot more Walter Jon Williams novels in the future.
I give this book 5/5 stars.