3.5/5 stars
Clarion Books, 2012
293 pages
MG Science-Fiction
Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine.
After adoring Okay For Now, one of my top reads of 2011, I was excited to see another book from Schmidt and eagerly requested it. I was thrown by a loop to see that it was not a straight contemporary but I wanted to see it through despite the inclusion of fantastical elements. Unfortunately it ended up really not being what I wanted. For my review, I want to divide it into two parts: one for the contemporary and one for the sci-fi sections. The book is also roughly divided into that with italicized chapters detailing another world and regular font for our world although the two increasingly overlap as the book progresses.
Let's start with the contemporary, which I loved. Sixth-grader Tommy lives with his painter father and bubbly younger sister after the death of his mother. Unfortunately the father no longer paints and the sister no longer speaks due to grief even as their house is under assault by a mega-corporation eager to snatch up its land and develop it. Amid this melancholy, Tommy receives a chain from Valorim and soon finds himself speaking its language to the bafflement of his classmates and embarking on its defense. I loved just about everything that was realistic in this book-the sad family attempting to move on without a vital part of itself, the kids at school as well as their teachers and staff, Tommy's battle against the realtor. It was great stuff!
But the fantastical elements were SO hard for me. I dreaded every time I reached a chapter set there (they alternate). There are many made-up words, which are included in a glossary in the back, but they never fully sunk in to my brain so even as I approached the end, I had to keep flipping to check on their meaning. Then there was the fantasy world itself; I understood its basic conflict with evil Lord Mondus using treachery to gain power but I was a little confused on the names of the people around him (were the Valorim and the Ethelim the same people?) I got a very Lord of the Rings vibe from this part with the way names are deployed except that I love LOTR and did not care for this.
Overall: I did not want Schmidt to try something new and was very thrown by the science fiction elements to the point that they distracted me from the overarching themes of the story.
Great review! Not so sure if I'm up for this book. The contemporary part sounds great, but the sci fi not so much.
ReplyDeleteI have heard great things about this author -- but maybe I'll start out by reading Okay for Now....
ReplyDeleteHow interesting that he has come up with such a book. It doesn't sound like I'd go for it, but I could see boys in the right age group really getting into it!
ReplyDeleteSci-fi fantasy can be a hard genre to read especially if you aren't used to it. I'm not sure about the alternate sections, but I may have to give this one a try. It sounds different.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of this book, but I have heard great things about Okay for Now, which is a book that I will be adding to my TBR list. It is often so disappointing when an author mixes things up and doesn't get it right. When authors try to create new worlds and use different words to describe creatures or items, I often have a difficult time absorbing the material. The new words have to be easy to pronounce or interesting.
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