Goliath by Scott Westerfeld: Review Posted by Tiffany at 9:23 PM

Title: Goliath
Author: Scott Westerfeld (site)
Published: September 20th, 2011 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 560
Buy: Amazon/ Book Depo/ Powell's 
Source: GalleyGrab
Rating: 4.5/5
Synopsis: Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren’t technically enemies.
The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is at it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld’s brilliant trilogy.(Goodreads)


Review: I love Scott Westerfeld. Peeps was amazing (seriously, everyone, this series is tragically underappreciated), Uglies was wonderful, and his MG steampunk trilogy has been one of my favorite reads lately. The strange mix of history and crazy genetic mutations, steampunk, girls posing as boys to become bad-a airman, and princes who know a thing or two about mechanics (be still, my heart!) was so addictive that I'm sad to see the end of the trilogy. I LOVE this world. The story was great, the characters were great, but the world was amazing. It's World War 1- but the dividing issue is very different. Some countries believe in using genetic mutation, hybrid creature-airships (insane, right?) and basically biologically enhanced creatures in place of machinery. The other side thinks that those hybrids are an abomination, going for awesome steampunk machinery. The battles between these two types of aircraft (also between machine walkers and giant fighting animals) were so great- it's almost hard to wrap your mind around how very different this world is.

The only thing that kept me from putting this on my list of all-time favorites was the voice. It was (appropriately) a bit young for me. One of Westerfeld's strengths as a writer is being able to adapt his series perfectly for the intended age group. Some people make YA sound too adult, some people make it sound too young. He has managed to make three different series in three different age groups, all of them pitch-perfect. (Peeps may be older YA, but it feels like adult.) Yes, I know that he's got six series, but I've only read three (so far). I love his writing! This latest series had amazing illustrations by Keith Thompson. I am dying  to get some of the prints available on his site. It was so much easier to picture the crazy creatures and contraptions in this series after I got a look at some of Thompson's pictures.

The writing was fantastic, the world was unique and amazing, and the artwork was to die for. Go read this series!

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld: Review Posted by Tiffany at 12:20 PM

Title: Behemoth
Author: Scott Westerfeld (blog)
Published: September 25th, 2010 by Simon Pulse
Pages: 485
Price: $11.15 Amazon $13.42 Book Depository
Series: Leviathan #2
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5
Synopsis: The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.

Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's ahead. (Goodreads)

Initial Thoughts: I bought this book because I loved the first book in this Steampunk trilogy, Leviathan.


Quick Review: This was another solid book by Scott Westerfeld. Alek and Deryn continue their adventures. There are some really amazing scenes set in Istanbul/Constantinople, where things get pretty crazy. I was, however, on the edge of my seat the entire book, just waiting for a certain secret to come out. Which it did-kind of, but not in the way I'd hoped. I'm enjoying the series, but I really feel that I'm a bit too old to love it. It would be great for MG, younger teens, and boys. It's definitely another book to pass on to the brother. You know what's funny about Scott Westerfeld? He has a series for every age. Leviathan for MG/younger teens, Uglies for YA, and Peeps for older YA/adults. He's a fantastic writer and I always enjoy his books. I wish he'd do an older series set in the Leviathan world, I LOVE all of the crazy steampunk stuff.

Duel The Third! "Definitional Chaos" by Scott Westerfeld Posted by Tiffany at 11:52 AM

"Definitional Chaos"

By Scott Westerfeld

Geektastic

Story #3, 24 pages

(Geek Noir Detective Story)

Michaela: 3 / 5

I liked it. I thought it was going to be terrible. I didn't like the way he set the story up in the beginning and I hated the main character. I liked the story and T-Moon, but it wasn't enough to save this one from the boring main character.

Tiffany: 3.5 / 5

It took me a while to get into this one, but I enjoyed it. All of the game references were a bit dull and the evil/good/chaos/neutral stuff dragged on (and I hated the player names), but I loved the idea of a noir detective story with a geek as the detective. The scheming was a lot of fun, I just couldn't really get into the characters. 

Books For Bears Rating: 3.25 / 5

Midnighters: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld: Review Posted by Tiffany at 2:19 PM

Title: The Secret Hour (Midnighters)
Author: Scott Westerfeld (site)
Published: 2004 by HarperTeen
Pages: 297
Price: $8.99 Amazon 
Series: Midnighters #1
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5
Synopsis: Nobody is safe in the secret hour.

Strange things happen at midnight in the town of Bixby, Oklahoma.

Time freezes.

Nobody moves.

For one secret hour each night, the town belongs to the dark creatures that haunt the shadows. Only a small group of people know about the secret hour -- only they are free to move about the midnight time.

These people call themselves Midnighters. Each one has a different power that is strongest at midnight: Seer, Mindcaster, Acrobat, Polymath. For years the Midnighters and the dark creatures have shared the secret hour, uneasily avoiding one another. All that changes when the new girl with an unmistakable midnight aura appears at Bixby High School.

Jessica Day is not an outsider like the other Midnighters. She acts perfectly normal in every way. But it soon becomes clear that the dark creatures sense a hidden power in Jessica . . . and they're determined to stop her before she can use it.

A story of courage, shadowy perils, and unexpected destiny, the secret hour is the first volume of the mesmerizing Midnighters trilogy by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld. (Goodreads)

Initial Thoughts: I'm a big fan of both the Uglies series and Peeps, but it took me a while to get to this series. It seemed a bit 90s-YA to me (if that makes any sense to you), and it turns out I was right-but not necessarily in a bad way.


Review: I really like the idea of a group of teens who somehow experience an hour outside of reality, running around while the rest of the world is frozen. There are so many possibilities! It's also much more terrifying- no one can help you if something goes wrong in that hour. The unique powers were definitely interesting, I wonder how each person's 'ability' is determined? Just luck? Why are they the only ones? I was definitely drawn in by the mystery of their situation, if not by the characters themselves. They just felt a bit one-dimensional. It's not that they're unoriginal, more that they aren't fleshed out. I feel like the book was, overall, a bit roughly sketched. It felt really short (can't believe it was almost 300 pages), I felt like I didn't really get to know them at all. I'm hoping that we get to see more of that in the next book.

Another thing I loved about this series? All of the crazy mathematical rules and weapons. They used pieces of metal with thirteen-letter names to fight their enemies, because they can't handle anything to do with the number 13. I never realized how many 13-letter words there are, it was fun to see which one they'd pull out next. The whole backstory about who the creatures were and why they were there was amazing, original and fantastic. Scott Westerfeld has one hell of an imagination. I wonder if he has vivid, terrifying nightmares? (Maybe that's where these guys came from!) I'm very excited to read the rest of the series, but if I don't see some major character development (or at least exploration), I'm going to be disappointed.


Quick Review: The Secret Hour was a fast read with an original, gripping story. The characters felt a bit unfinished, but it's nothing that a bit of character development in the next few installments wouldn't fix. This is definitely worth a read to fans of fantasy, horror, and all things supernatural.

Torment T-Shirts for $8! (Plus Acquisitions) Posted by Tiffany at 11:00 AM

I stopped at Borders yesterday and saw these beautiful shirts for $7.99 The picture's small, so it doesn't do it justice. The front has the picture from the cover of Torment with "Love Never Dies" in big print down the side, and the back has "Torment/ A Fallen Novel/ Lauren Kate" in that gorgeous font that's used on the books. Really cute, if a bit thin, shirts! The site says Not In Store, but I think it's more that they can't guarantee that you'll find it in store. Mine had plenty, although they were in the romance section. Happy hunting!

Also- picked up a few new books!