Peter And The Starcatchers

Peter And The Starcatchers: A Penny Dreadful Review

            Have you every wondered how Peter Pan got to Neverland? Ever wondered how he met Captain Hook? Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson know. They wrote a book about it and called it Peter And The Starcatchers.

            Peter is an orphan bound for servitude to the evil King Zarboff the Third. Sailing on the same ship as Peter, a ship which is called the Never Land, is ambassador’s daughter Molly Aster, and a mysterious trunk. A terrifying pirate called Black Stache, after his gorgeous facial hair,  has heard of the great treasure in the trunk, and will stop at nothing to obtain it.

This book also features some excellent illustrations by Greg Call. I dearly love an illustrated book. I feel pictures add so much. Here, they are exciting and beautiful. I think Black Stache’s luxurious facial hair grows longer and sleeker with each illustration.

This book is intended for a young adult audience, but it is so clever and magical that anyone can enjoy it. It would also be an excellent choice for reading aloud, so parents could share it with children who might struggle with a tale of this length. There’s a lot of humor and much potential for silly voices.

I highly recommend this new take on an old story. Peter And The Starcatchers is a great book. I rate it at five gears out of five. I shall treasure and reread my copy forever.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Warrior Stone: Underland

Warrior Stone: Underland: A Penny Dreadful Review

            All alternative dimensions in this day and age feature zeppelins. This science fiction truism includes the sepia-toned Underland of R. B. Harkess’s Warrior Stone: Underland.

            Resigned to her ordinariness, modern schoolgirl Claire Stone accidentally drops into a parallel world that appreciates what she can do. Late getting home one day, Claire crosses paths with the mercurial Warrior Evie Jones and saves her from a giant blob monster. Recognizing talent, Evie pulls some strings and inducts Claire into a parallel dimension as one of the warriors that tracks down and eliminates the blob monsters, known as morphs, before they can wreck havoc in Underland and our own world. The sepia-toned Underland is a fantastic and rather Steam or Dieselpunkish place peopled with strange creatures and magic. R. B. Harkess is good at conveying the sense of déjà vu that comes with an alternate reality so close to our own.

Claire Stone is clever, perceptive, resourceful, and knows when to keep her mouth shut. She is quieter than the typical heroine, and I find that makes her more real. She could be the school kid taking the city bus right next to you.

            In places it reminds me of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and in other places it reminds me of the movie Starship Troopers (in the military feel of the warriors and the extremely vibrant amounts of goo that result from the extermination of a morph). It turns out to be a combination that tells a very interesting story.

            I must confess that this book was not exactly my cup of tea. Perhaps Underland was too gritty for my taste, perhaps I felt there wasn’t enough Steam in the Punk, or perhaps I was simply in the wrong mindset to read this book. Still, it would be an excellent choice of literary companion for someone else. I award Warrior Stone: Underland three gears out of five. It is a solid adventure with interesting characters. This might be your new favorite series. Give it a try.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Queen Rat

Queen Rat: A Penny Dreadful Review

            In a watery future, or perhaps an alternate present, several enormous submarines contain a variety of tribes that were once a united empire. Governed by a series of strange laws and choc full of endearing (or frustrating) idiosyncracies, these tribes require a proper ruler to unite them. This is the strange world of Kim Lakin-Smith’s Queen Rat.

Ratiana, the titular Rat, is the darling princess of the roguish and slightly mad Victoriana tribe. She is a scrappy, piratical thing, preferring cogs and cutlasses to gowns and diplomacy. Simeon, the young prince she is required to marry, hails from the tribe of Aesthetes. His people remind me of Tolkien’s elves, though they prefer an intricate dueling style using swords rather than archery. A bow and arrows would be of little use on a submersive vessel. The two face an array of deadly and puzzling tasks in the Grand Trial preceeding their arranged nuptials. It is a delight to learn about their undersea world as our heroes dodge death and, yes, fall in love.

Queen Rat is a good adventure and a fun, quick read. I give it three and a half gears out of five. It would be an excellent choice for the middle reader ground between picture books and young adult novels. I do hope it is the beginning of a series. It seems to lay the groundwork for a marvelous one!

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Shanghai Sparrow

Shanghai Sparrow: A Penny Dreadful Review

A young girl living by her wits and light fingers in London might hold the key to ultimate empire. A half-breed fanatic bent on subjugating the fairy kingdom that spurned him. A handsome trickster. Add a madhouse, a school that trains girls in spycraft, a creation of etheric science, and the clever author Gaie Sebold, and you have a tasty adventure called Shanghai Sparrow.
I fell in love with the scrappy Eveline Duchen, otherwise known as Evvie Sparrow. She’s a quick-thinking, clever girl with a gift for languages. A life on London’s unforgiving streets hasn’t yet robbed her of all kindness, and she is the sort of character a reader instantly roots for. Her opponent, the sinister Mr. Holmforth, is a frightening man. He is supposed to be on the side of law and justice, but he is revealed as a corrupt and hateful person. Disturbing as he is, I would have liked a little more about him a little earlier in the book.
This is a book for those who like a little magic in their Steampunk. Evvie’s friend Liu is not what he appears to be. Or rather, he is much more than he seems. I would love to read more about him and more about the fairy kingdom, here called the Crepuscular. I do hope a sequel comes out soon.
I rather like Gaie Sebold’s distinctive narrative style. She combines the characters’ pasts and presents into a deep, fascinating story. Once you pick up one of her books, you cannot help but keep reading until the last tangle is unwound, the last revelation discovered.
I highly recommend this book. I give Shanghai Sparrow four and a half gears out of five. It is an excellent adventure for all ages, or rather, all ages able to read books that come in chapters.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

Incarceron

Incarceron: A Penny Dreadful Review

Remember how odd and twisted Through The Looking Glass was? I just read a book that’s odder. In Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher, nothing is what it seems. The truth slides around like sand dunes. Nothing and no one is straightforward. It was fantastic!
Inside the titular Incarceron, an inscrutable sentient prison, lives Finn, a young man haunted and tormented by a past he cannot remember. He dreams of escaping and finding his missing memories.  And he is not as innocent as he appears.  Incarceron has no room for innocence.  Outside dwells Claudia. Her father is the Warden of Incarceron, keeping secrets within secrets. Claudia is trapped in another sort of prison: a cage of rules. The Protocol instituted by a long-ago king traps her world in a stereotype of history with archaic customs and clothing. Nothing may change. Claudia wants change.  She wants to escape her impending wedding to the boorish heir to the throne.
Then Finn and Claudia find the keys. The mysterious crystalline artifacts allow them to discover each other and untangle the secrets and truths of their world. I shan’t spoil the twists and intrigues. They are far too much fun to read.
Incarceron is a book of labyrinths inside labyrinths. None of the characters know the entire truth about their world, and no one knows who might be lying or why. The dystopias of the worlds insides and outside the prison were meant to be utopias. Incarceron was intended as a glorious social experiment. The Protocol was meant to protect everyone in a simpler, friendlier time. I really enjoyed this unique look at stagnation and decay.
         This book takes a brain to read. I am fairly skilled at guessing the outcomes of plot points and predicting twists. I was blindsided and wrong too many times to count. Incarceron is fascinating. I could hardly put it down.
I believe this work deserves four and a half gears out of five. It was a dark and twisted journey through a dark and twisted world, and I must see whether the lies are all untangled in the sequel, Sapphique. So many questions left unanswered!

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

Young Sherlock Holmes: Knife Edge

Young Sherlock Holmes: Knife Edge: A Penny Dreadful Review

            At a recent convention, a well-known author handed me a free book. Normally, I do not begin reading a series in the middle, but I am never one to turn down free literature. As it turns out, it did not particularly matter that I had not read the previous novels, because the Young Sherlock Holmes books are almost as episodic as the original stories. My freebie was a self-contained adventure, and quite captivating.

            The young Mr. Holmes returns from adventures abroad to find his brother Mycroft waiting for him in Galway. They are there to investigate a medium who claims to be able to communicate with dead spies. The young Sherlock Holmes displays a germ of the deduction and intelligence we adore in his adult form, but tempered with the adorable optimism of youth. The story features a mysterious castle for him to explore, a little hint of romance, and, of course, a murder to solve. I shan’t spoil it by elaborating further.

            I give Knife Edge four gears out of five. I would definitely seek out the rest of this series. I love a satisfying adventure and mystery, and this fits the bill neatly.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather