Mini Book Reviews: Watchmen...

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Published: 1987 by DC Comics

Genre: Graphic Comic, Sci-Fi

Format: Paperback, 416 Pages, Library

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.

One of the most influential graphic novels of all time and a perennial best-seller, Watchmen has been studied on college campuses across the nation and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to other graphic novels such as V for Vendetta, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Sandman series.

My Thoughts:

Watchmen is a product of the Cold War. It's all about nuclear arms and Russia and communism, along with a dissection of the psychology of people who would actually put on costumes and become vigilantes. It's interesting. But it's also full of too much talking and not enough character. The women characters are not well-represented. Also, I didn't like the ending. The anti-hero hero is a white supremacist, misogynist, racist, and conspiracy theorist who also is a psychopath....hmmm.

But, the series on HBO is a sequel to the comic series and I feel like they address a lot of the issues I had with comic series. It had a nice finality to it and some kick-ass female characters every step of the way. So I recommend reading this in order to truly enjoy the HBO series!

The Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Published: April 22nd, 2008 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Sci-fi

Format: Paperback, 320 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adopted, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."

Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere - and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives.

Do Jonah and Chip have any choice in the matter? And what should they choose when both alternatives are horrifying?

With Found, Margaret Peterson Haddix begins a new series that promises to be every bit as suspenseful as Among the Hidden, and proves her, once again, to be a master of the page-turner. 

My Thoughts:

I read this one for G's school for the Battle of the Books. It's a fun one. I enjoyed the mystery. It looks like every book has quite the cliff-hanger. G has been reading them too and he's already on the third book. He highly recommends them and it's a fun little sci-fi mystery series for kids.

Caliban's War (Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey

Published: June 26th, 2012 by Orbit (Hachette)

Genre: Sci-fi

Format: Kindle, 595 Pages, Own

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .

Caliban's War is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the critically acclaimed Leviathan Wakes.

My Thoughts:

This is the second book in the Expanse series and it's so fantastic! We learn a lot more about various characters than you get in the TV series. Events are a bit different and that's fun to get both storylines, one from the books and the one from the TV series. Both are fantastic.

The Dutch House

Published: September 24th, 2019 by Harper

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: Audiobook, 12 Hours, Library

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

My Thoughts:

Honestly, the only thing that kept me coming back was listening to it with Tom Hanks narrating. It was a fine and interesting story but it didn't draw me in. By the end, I just shrugged my shoulders and thought "what was the point?" Interesting but not profound. That's two Patchett novels I just haven't gotten. I'm just not sure if I'll ever pick up another of her books.

I looked at a few reviews from Goodreads with the same rating as mine and a lot seemed to share my sentiments of what? What's the point? And what was she trying to say?

Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter

Published: January 2nd, 2020 by Audible Studios

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Sci-fi

Format: Audiobook, 5 Hours, 2 Minutes, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of the best-selling Jane Yellowrock and Soulwood series comes a tough new heroine who is far more than she seems.

After the Final War, after the appearance of the Bug aliens and their enforced peace, Shining Smith is still alive, still doing business from the old scrapyard bequeathed to her by her father. But Shining is now something more than human. And the scrapyard is no longer just a scrapyard, but a place full of secrets that she has guarded for years.

This life she has built, while empty, is predictable and safe. Until the only friend left from her previous life shows up, dead, in the back of a scrapped Tesla warplane, a note to her clutched in his fingers - a note warning her of a coming attack.

Someone knows who she is. Someone knows what she is guarding. Will she be able to protect the scrapyard? Will she even survive? Or will she have to destroy everything she loves to keep her secrets out of the wrong hands?

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this one. Lots of action and battles and cats. I couldn't ask for more...well, maybe a bit better on the dialogue. That was a bit stinted and unnatural. But the performance was fun. And I just loved the intelligent cats. The storyline is pretty sweet, too, with World War III done and over and Chinese nanotech bugs have infiltrated almost everything. I definitely want to read more about Shining and her cats!