Book Review: Fahrenheit 451

Title of Book
Author
Bradbury, Ray
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

Fahrenheit 451 follows the story of a fireman, Guy Montag, who lives in a dystopian society. His job as a fireman is to locate all books around the city and burn them. Books are banned from any individual and is considered to be an inferior type of entertainment in comparison television, which are more supported by the public. As Montag continues to burn more books throughout his job over time, he deals with a variety of external factors that changes his brainwashed and disillusioned perspective to considering books and their significance to society. Being a firemen in this dystopian society, Montag must deal with a plethora of barriers that are blocking his way before he can truly understand the importance of books and to keep them.

Fahrenheit 451 is an intriguing book that takes a different approach in a dystopian society. Instead of implementing a militaristic and governmental style, Bradbury uses firemen which encapsulates a unique and captivating plot line. Fahrenheit 451 demonstrates a story that everyone can enjoy, especially for those who enjoy reading dystopian novels. Bradbury effectively relates character development of Montag to the series of events that occurs. This coherent relationship that virtually happens side-by-side further produces a sense of immersion for the reader.

Personally, I enjoyed Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 novel. It is considered to be one of his best, and most iconic books that he has written to date. I highly recommend any average reader to consider reading Fahrenheit 451. The book is not too long, but it will still produce an immense amount of quality and satisfaction in the end.

Reviewer's Name
Nam T.

Book Review: Rendezvous

Title of Book
Author
Aubin, Jerry
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

The Ship Series continues to be phenomenal in Rendezvous. Rendezvous not only continues the thrilling adventures of Zax after twelve years after being Culled, but also continues to develop the story of Adan and his creation of his massive spaceship to save humanity. Aubin adds a whole new level to the depth of the Ship Series with his exploration of the Ship's history while still staying true to the original story. Full of plot twists, Rendezvous will leave you fascinated and reaching for the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book for any middle or high school aged reader.

Reviewer's Name
John B.

Book Review: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Author
Patterson, James
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

Maximum Ride is probably one of the most interesting and exciting books I have ever read. The novel starts with a group of children living in a house on their own, the one who watches out for the younger children is sixteen year old, Maximum Ride (Max). The children are not like other normal kids though; they can all fly. When the kids were younger they were all kidnapped by scientists and were experimented on. While they were experimented on they were given genetically attached wings. The children all escaped with the strength they all had together but now the scientists want them back. They can fly and they are stronger than most humans and they each have
individual powers unique to only them and they are not easy to find. The scientist also created what Max and the other children call “Erasers”, which are genetically mutated humans half wolf, half human with the sole purpose of finding the missing flying children. The novel follows Max and the children on their journey to freedom. I honestly think that there is something for everyone to enjoy in this book: romance, science fiction, action and adventure. I love this book and would highly recommend reading it.

Reviewer's Name
Madison S.

Book Review: Homeward

Title of Book
Author
Aubin, Jerry
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

Jerry Aubin continues The Ship Series with another phenomenal sci-fi novel. Homeward has the same energy and intensity as its two predecessors and continues Zax's thrilling adventures. In Homeward, life becomes much more complicated for Zax and he is once again faced with difficult moral challenges. Full of fascinating new twists and turns, Homeward will keep you on your feet. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for any middle or high school aged reader.

Reviewer's Name
John B.

Book Review: Revolution

Title of Book
Author
Aubin, Jerry
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

Aubin's continuation of the ship series is just as brilliant as the first. Now that Zax has revealed his discovery of an unknown spacecraft from Earth, everything has changed. The ship has erupted into full-blown revolution and Zax is once again faced with a moral dilemma. Revolution is another thrilling sci-fi adventure that is just as action-packed as Landfall. I could not put this book down and was completely enthralled by Aubin's futuristic society. I highly recommend this book for any middle or high school aged reader.

Reviewer's Name
John B.

Book Review: Landfall

Title of Book
Author
Aubin, Jerry
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

I loved this book. Jerry Aubin has written a sci-fi masterpiece that is the perfect combination of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Star Trek. Landfall follows the life of Zax, a fifteen-year-old cadet on a ship with the last human survivors 5,000 years in the future. Landfall is full of non-stop action and is an absolute page-turner. I couldn't put this book down and neither will you. I highly recommend this book for any middle or high school aged reader who loves a wonderful sci-fi adventure.

Reviewer's Name
John B.

Book Review: Lightless

Title of Book
Author
Higgins, C.A.
Rating
2 stars = Meh
Review

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE PUBLISHER***

There seem to be a few cardinal sins most writers are cautioned to avoid at all costs. Two of these sins are exposition dumps and “show, don’t tell.” While the entire book doesn’t necessarily fall into these pitfalls, Lightless spends a big chunk of its 300 pages in telling the reader about all the exposition to the story that’s currently playing out. Instead of reading an interrogation, I would have much rather seen the events that led to the current state of the solar system. On top of all this, I failed to care about any of the characters or their plights because this method of storytelling was so impersonal.

I’ll admit that I almost gave up reading this book right before it became interesting again. The ending does a pretty good job of re-invigorating the plot, but it might be a case of too little too late. Furthermore, not only were there plenty of weird logical leaps, accents that were told to the reader but not shown in dialect, and actions that didn’t make much sense, but there was almost too much coincidence in the appearance of certain characters. The fact that I thought it would have been a more interesting story if the System interrogator was the terrorist all along, coming to tie up loose ends, says something about the standard nature of the plot.

In the end, this book suffers from being the first of an intended trilogy, as well as being this author’s first work. The amount of exposition crammed into this book is merely a setup to something that’s likely more interesting to read, not that I’ll continue with this trilogy. Additionally, there were quite a few times where the awkward wording of a sentence or the repetition of a particular word pulled me out of the narrative. Finally, I felt it took way too long for the computer specialist to figure out what the problem was. The clues were evident almost from the start, but she only “got smart” about it when the plot demanded it.

An interesting climax that required an expositional slog to get to, I give Lightless 2.0 stars out of 5.

Reviewer's Name
Benjamin W.

Book Review: Shadow of the Hegemon

Title of Book
Author
Card, Orson Scott
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

It’s almost fitting how the follow-on book in the spin-off series to Ender’s Game takes the same tactic as Speaker for the Dead and transforms itself into a completely different genre. While Speaker for the Dead and its sequels still maintained a level of science fiction for the Ender saga, Shadow of the Hegemon pivots into a political thriller with almost no hints of sci-fi to be seen. The strength of the characters helped make this transition relatively smooth, but it still highlights how these child-aged individuals hardly have any child-like qualities.

While the Shadow saga certainly needed to start out focusing on Bean, I did appreciate how Shadow of the Hegemon developed many of the supporting characters. For the first time in both series, I felt like the reader was able to know Petra and Peter while also seeing what Achilles was capable of accomplishing. The results of bringing back children war heroes to Earth had a logical feel to its progression, even if I didn’t really care much about southeastern Asian politics to really engage with the politics of the plot. That’s not to say the whole “cat and mouse” between Achilles and Bean wasn’t interesting; it just wasn’t what had brought me to this series in the first place.

Of course, having read the Ender saga first, I can already see the early ripples of how this side-series will start to wrap up. Now that Ender is less of a presence in the Shadow series, other characters finally have a chance to show what they can do. While I’ll reserve my predictions might change with what actually happens, I get the sense that Peter’s tenure as Hegemon changes the world just as Bean changes into some super-intelligent giant. I will admit that some of Orson Scott Card’s predictions from 2000 still seem plausible today, given the political climate, it’s clear that the author did his research before playing with the ever-important sci-fi “what if” scenario.

A political pivot from a well-known sci-fi series, I give Shadow of the Hegemon 4.0 stars out of 5.

Reviewer's Name
Benjamin W.
Awards

Book Review: The Martian

Title of Book
Author
Weir, Andy
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

After a NASA crew member is left behind on planet Mars, he has a huge to-do list. First, come in contact with NASA to prove he is alive, don't starve, don't die, then make it home alive. I'm not a huge fan of any science fiction type book, however, this was indeed an exception. I loved the perspectives the author chose to include, and the humor he shot into his characters gives the story personality. I suggest this book to an eighth grade audience; there is some inappropriate language and all of the science attributes are complex to understand. I strongly suggest to you this book if you want to be left on the edge of your seat with every new chapter, right up until the end.

Reviewer's Name
Jaime P.
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