Ender's Game

 

In honor of the movie coming out a while ago, I wanted to tell people how awesome Ender's Game is. I loved the book because it was easy to relate to characters or situations in the story (To feel for them I mean, obviously I haven't been in many zero gravity battles recently). Orson Scott Card also includes some moral dilemmas that make you think. The book is part of a series (Ender's Shadow, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide). I mainly wanted to write to the people who have yet to see the movie. If you haven't read the book yet, don't watch the movie... yet. I say this because it is really tempting to go take in a story in 2 hours instead of the time it takes to read a novel, but this book has layers and parts that really deserve closer inspection. Here is what Amazon.com says about it: 

"In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. 

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is."

Clearly, It's an interesting story, but it can be more than that if you read the book, and THEN go see the movie instead of skipping the novel.  

Read the beginning of Ender's Game on Google books.

~Reviewed by Kash F., SHS student

Leviathan

While I was reading this summer, I found the gem of the Leviathan series. The first book is Leviathan and one of my favorite books I think I've ever read.

Leviathan takes place during WWI but instead of the historical sides in the war, they are divided into Clankers and Darwinists. Clankers rely on machines as transportation and weapons, their technology extremely advanced. Darwinists have been able to create fabricated animals, a mix of animal and science, serving the human needs. The story follows the life of a 15 year old girl Deryn, who secretly enters the British Air Service as a boy. Great Britain is a Darwinist country so after an interesting first day in the Air Service, Deryn is placed on the famous air animal, shaped as a giant whale, the Leviathan.

The book also follows the son of the Archduke and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary named Alek. When his parents are murdered, starting the war, he knows he is wanted dead. He and his trusty mechaniks instructor and fencing master leave the country at once on their giant Clanker machine, a Stormwalker.

Leviathan is a book packed with action and conflict with an interesting taste of parallel reality science. It is one of my favorites and hope you guys get the chance to read it!

Written by Scott Westerfield, the Leviathan trilogy also includes Behemoth (book 2) and Goliath (book 3).  Preview Leviathan at Google books:  http://tinyurl.com/px2hrt8.

~Review by Katie C., SJH student

Try The False Prince for adventure & suspense

I recently stayed up way too late on a school night finishing The False Price by Jennifer Nielsen.  I saw it listed on a Teens Choice book award list and decided to give it a try.  This book was a refreshing change from all the dystopian novels I’ve been reading lately.  Don’t get me wrong, I love dystopian literature, but this is different.  It has lots of action, suspense, adventure, intrigue, and plot twists.  I was truly shocked a couple of times in the story.  In the middle of it all is a wily, stubborn, and unpredictable main character whom you can’t help but love.

            The book is set in medieval times and includes a royal family living in the fictional realm of Carthya, scruffy orphans, a gang of thieves, pirates – lots of colorful characters.  Here’s the book description from Amazon.com:

“In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.”

The False Price is the first book in the Ascendance trilogy.  The second book, The Runaway King, is equally exciting.  The final book of the series, The Shadow Throne, will be released next week, and I will get it for the library ASAP and have it ready for checkout – after I read it, of course.  :-) 
You can read the beginning of The False Prince on Google books:  http://books.google.com/books?id=H8aSwiaUKFQC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20false%20prince&pg=PT13#v=onepage&q=the%20false%20prince&f=false.

~Mrs. Brownlee