The Ranger's Apprentice: Books 1-3

John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series is a pretty popular one with the middle school set, so of course I had to give it a go. Matthew had the first three in a boxed set (not that he's read them; he said he couldn't get into them) so those are the ones I read. The first one started out kind of slow, but then the adventure starts and keeps going. I think this series would be best for 5th-7th graders who read on at least that reading level. It might be a little boring for a high schooler. The closest thing I can relate them to is the The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. They're right in between juvenile and young adult, but the language is definitely young adult. That's the one thing that did bug me. It swore quite a bit, much more than I would want Jordyn to read. Matthew, no problem. But not Jordyn. I did like these books, though, and I'll probably read the rest -- I have to know what happens! -- but I can only give them three stars. 

The Feed

The year Cass and I first met, the topic for his English class was Utopia/Dystopia, in which he read this book, and has spawned the reading of many other books that he and I both enjoy. We first read Feed that year, and I recently decided it merited a re-read. 

Feed, a cyberpunk, dystopian satire, is about a teenage boy, Titus, who lives in a world

 driven by technology and the consumer lifestyle. The internet has evolved into "The Feed"- a network directly connecting brains via an implanted computer chip at birth. Yup, the internet is right in your head, as well as interrupting commercials and ads. School is done through the feed, and almost everything in their world is manufactured and commercialized.

But this world and this life has a price; nature is paying. Clouds are manufactured. The oceans are so polluted that whales have to wear a protective sheath. Sexual production is no longer possible and all children are custom made to their parents specifications and inserted through IVF.  Yet noone seems to care. They're only aware of themselves and the feed.

 For Titus and his friends, it feels like everyone has the feed. But then they meet Violet. Titus is quite taken by Violet, but his friends don't really like her, and she doesn't like them either. So Titus and Violet start to isolate themselves. They start having a different kind of fun as Violet begins to resist the feed and they try to confuse the personalized ads. Until it's revealed that Violet is in serious trouble. 

Now, first things first. When you hear the title, it reminds you of facebook, no? And reading the book, it does feel like facebook gone too far, but Anderson published Feed in 2002! He is very tuned in to the technology of the world today and where it is leading us. I find this novel still relevant today, even after ten years and all of our newest technological advances. Some of the conditions of his world are a bit far off and belong in the realm of science fiction, but others are not too many steps away from where we are now: personalized ads are all over the place. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. They all know what you like and suggest new things. Hulu will even let you customize your commercials. That world may be closer than we think.

To be honest, the characters were kind of difficult to relate to, as were some of the topics in the novel, but I think that's kind of the point: as we let technology rule our lives, we lose part of who we are.  Because of that, I find Feed to be an important dystopian read and a warning against what our society may become. 

Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras

I have something terrible to admit.

I judge books by their covers.

I apologize.

So when these books came out and everyone was just reading them up, I was like, "Whatever. I don't want to read some stupid clique book." Even when they were recommend to me.

I finally learned otherwise. These books are exactly up my alley. Or, at least, they started that way. I really enjoyed Uglies, and even Pretties. Specials and Extras, though, I found to be overkill. And I thought Extras was pretty lame. Plus, I'm not all that into series/sequel books where it's the same society but not the same characters. [I appreciate Lois Lowry calling Gathering Blue and The Messenger companion books.] 

Here's what happens: They live in a society where you get surgery at 16 to become pretty. But it turns out, there are people outside of the city, people who don't get the surgery. And sometimes, people from the city actually leave, they choose to not have the surgery. Tally Youngblood's friend, Shay, is one of them. And if Tally doesn't find Shay and bring her back, she'll never become pretty. Anything she chooses from this point out will drastically change her life, maybe even her world. 

So, yeah. I liked it a lot. I love this futuristic, post-apocalyptic (insofar as the Rusties, aka us, had our apocalypse and their society grew out of it), utopia/dystopia theme. I'm not sure I would recommend Extras, at least without qualifying it as my least favorite. 

But I had a few questions about their society, mostly brought about by Specials, which felt a little bit like plot holes to me, but maybe I'm the only one. 

• It surprises me that they still have their own birthdays. . . Okay, that wasn't a question. It just seems odd to me, in a society where the stress is on sameness without actually ever saying so. So why  do they let them have their own? Also, I guess this one isn't really a plot hole. But it's still my question! 
• Do they, the government, still let people give birth? Doesn't that seem contrary to being pretty? Do they have to have another surgery after giving birth? After every birth?
• Do littlies live with their parents? And why/how does the government trust middle pretties/crumblies to raise their children to twelve? 
• What are crumblies? But wikipedia answered this for me: crumblies are generally parents, any middle or late pretties can be referred to as crumblies.
• What's up with the Tally-wa and Shay-la thing? I get that they're nicknames, but I just kept wondering if they had significance, and it seems like they gave the -la to everyone, so what's the point if everyone has one? And why is on Tally a -wa? 
• I guess the only really plot-holey one is society as a whole, how it runs. Is their still a family unit? Why does the government even allow there to be all the people they need to take care of? Like, what is the point? And if the government is in control . . .    I just don't get it. And where does the money come from? How does everything run and maintain? I just feel like I wasn't given enough information about how the society works as a whole, outside of what it's like to be a teenager ugly or new pretty. Wikipedia explains this, sort of, but it's not the same as if it's in the book. It's not as prove-able.
• I also wanted to know the deal with David and Tally, in the end, you know?  

So, read the books. Answer my questions. And keep reading! 

Crossed

Last weekend, Cass and I read Ally Condie's Crossed, a sequel to Matched, and my worst fears came true. . . Ally Condie is a Stephanie Meyers. Okay, that was rude. She's not that bad. But my fears of Crossed turning into more of a Twilight than a Hunger Games came true for sure.


Problems:
1. The novel lacks voice -- esp because I read this in-between/at the same time as The Help and Sing You Home [reviews coming soon!] which were also told from different perspectives and done much better.


2. Condie says "says" too much. I know she doesn't want to be all "he exclaimed" & "she gasped" all over the page-- but just cut it out. Just dialogue it. "Blah." Enter. Indent. "Talk-ity-talk." Enter. Indent. Carry on. In all fairness, I may have noticed this one more because I was reading it aloud to Cass. I didn't notice it as much while reading silently. 


3. I'm not sure any of my questions were even answered, other than Ky's back-story. But I guess that's why there is a third book . . .


4. I still do not like Ky. He still just creeps me out.


Overall, meh. I'll still read the third when it comes out, but it's just not my type of book. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about guilty pleasure teen books. This one just isn't for me. I think I'll go read The Giver now. 

Matched

Slated as a cross between Twilight and Hunger Games, I was surprised when Cass brought this home from the library. He read Matched first, said it was clear that Ally Condie is from Utah, and it was reminiscent of The Giver and, despite similarities, he liked it better than Twilight. 

So I read it. It does start out very Giver-esque, with the banquets and the ceremonies. In this society they have the ability to predict everything. They predict who will be your best match. How you will react in a given situation. The figure out what your caloric intake should be and provide appropriate meals. They assign your job, tell you where to live. Tell you when to have children, when to stop having children. And when to die. They have exacted what makes the optimal life and are providing it for their society. Yet there is a mix up at the Matching, and Cassia has been given two matches -- one a mistake, he's an aberration and disallowed to be matched, Ky, and one a childhood friend, a best friend, Xander. See the Twilight similarities? Guess which boy she chooses?? And of course, I like the other one.

So that bothered me. I liked parts of it. I like the idea even though it's not super original. She's also been signed by Disney I guess. She's definitely writing to her target audience -- Twilight -- and it's a little predictable, but I just can't get over the boy problem. I think Ky is a creeper. But there are a lot of occasions where I find boys to be creepers in media and I'm the only one. Overall, I did like this book. And I will read the next one, I'm sure, when Cass brings it home from the library in a month or two. And maybe I won't hate the ending. Hopefully it solves some of the mysteries Condie has laid out for us in the first book and doesn't turn into a ridiculous teenage love story with the cover of having more to it. Because this book, the series I'm sure, is ultimately about free will, agency, the power to choose. It's much deeper than Twilight, and I really hope Condie doesn't sell out just for numbers. Quality over Quantity, right? Please?

The Island

"Which is better - to be born stupid into an intelligent society 
or intelligent into an insane one?"

A follow-up to Brave New World, Huxley offers a cross between utopia and primitive-ity for a "sane" society. Island has many of the same themes as Brave New World, but they are dealt with very differently. 


Drugs are still used, but they are used to put the society in an enlightened state for the purpose of gaining knowledge. Likewise with the trances, as they are used for hyper-learning. This "sane" society merges the best of the East and West, as well as utilizing the best of technology, science, and religion, as opposed to being slaves to it. 


To be completely honest, the book was a little over my head and I will definitely have to re-read it in the future to gain a better understanding.

Running Towards Death!

Wedding Countdown: 11 days!

The Checklist is almost completed. Saturday Mom and I took a vanful to Cedar and Cass gave me my keys. I also totally unpacked and organized the kitchen. Monday, Distribution Center Shopping. I picked up my dress and met with the stake pres. on Tuesday.  Today, I got my nails done. Bridals and Endowments on Saturday. All the announcements are sent. [more or less. I think I only messed up a few :)]

Somehow I managed to read, too. (but only Matthew books) 
-The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan -- good book, not my favorite of his, but a nice sequel to The Red Pyramid. I'm not as into the Egyptian stuff and at times the story is disconnected, but I will surely read the next in the series.
&
ALL of The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins -- which I totally loved (hence the super fast reading of the 5 books). They were written for children, which aided the fast read, and are totally at a children's level (which is why I made Jenn get them for Matthew for Christmas) and I'm not sure why I didn't read them earlier. Probably school! :P
The books are about Gregor, from the Overland, and his travels into the Underland, where humans live among various creatures of unusual size. Gregor is presumed to be the warrior in prophecies left by  Underland's founder and it is seen as his duty to fulfill them.  I really enjoyed the serious, the thought and plot were original.  Nerdy me really enjoyed the use of language and the differences in syntax between the Overlanders and the Underlanders. As well as the linguistic styles of the speaking animals. And character development was great -- even in the animals, of which there were many! I really grew attached to all of the characters by the end of book five. They were all fairly realistic.
However, I didn't love the ending, but I can see what Collins was doing, as well as why.  I just would have ended the series differently. But my ending would have been fantastical whereas hers was realistic.  Even though it was a fantasy series. Regardless, I totally recommend this. Go. Read. Enjoy.

The good news is, I don't really have that much to stress about! And please forgive my scattered crazy post! Eventually I will be normal! Or back to my normal. . .