The Last Thing I Remember: Andrew Klavan

Imagine waking up one morning, not knowing where you are and overhearing the order for your death. Imagine learning that everything you know about your life, your world, and even yourself is a lie. What would it take for someone to convince you that you are not who you think you are? How hard would you fight for what you believe to be the truth?

The Last Thing I Remember is a cross between The Bourne Identity and 24. It's fast paced and action-filled, with a likable protagonist. Charlie West is a 17 year old kid who sees the world in black and white terms--good guys and bad guys. He believes in America, in God, and in being the best guy he can be. He excels in all areas of life: school, karate, family. Life, generally speaking, is good.

Life is good, that is, until he wakes up in a cement cell, chained to a chair where he has been tortured, and overhears the order for his death. From that point on, Charlie is in a race to save his own life. Things get complicated, however, when he learns that he is being pursued by not just the bad guys (Islamic terrorists), but the good guys (American Law Enforcement) as well. Everything that Charlie has always believed about himself is put into question and he is forced to examine what he knows to be true versus what he is told about himself.

The tones of Patriotism and Religion are thick in this novel, which at first made me uncomfortable. However, as the story unfolds, the importance of those themes begins to make sense as a necessary part of the plot. Charlie West seems like a somewhat overdone hero--I mean realistically, how many 17-year-olds could un-arm and outwit a group of Islamic terrorists intent on ending his life?--but he is also plausible in many ways. He gets nervous around girls, he's shy, he dislikes his older sister simply for being an annoying older sister, he stresses out about grades and college. He is simultaneously a superhero and the boy next door.

The Last Thing I Remember is the first book in the Homelander Series, and my interest is admittedly piqued. I'm interested to see how the story of Charlie West is going to unravel.

Ender's Game: Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game is one of the Modern Library Reader's List Top 100 Novels; a list which I am trying to read through. It is also a novel I thought I had read in middle school or high school, but after reading it, I know this is my first read. I have heard of young adults reading this book, but I now think that the themes of warfare and psychological manipulation may be too advanced for some younger readers. I don't know that I would present this book to just any group of 8th graders--they would have to be mature and intelligent enough to comprehend the gravity of the story.

Imagine a world in which alien lifeforms have presented themselves as our enemy. There have been two previous wars with these aliens, and our world as we know it has changed completely. For one thing, space travel has become common and "big brother" monitors us by controlling our households. Families apply to have children, and at any moment a promising child may be taken away for government purposes. Ender is just such a child. He is the third child, which is a rare occurrence in itself. He is chosen by the government at the age of 6 to be groomed as a warfare commander. He is taken off Earth and put into the Battle school where he first learns how to fight, and then how to lead. He is a only a child, but the future of Earth and all mankind is put into his hands. The trick of it is, he has no idea. To Ender, it's just a big game that he excels at. He is aware that at some point in the distant future, as an adult, he may be chosen to be a commander, but he has no idea that he will fulfill that mission long before he is 16 years old.

Ender is a brilliant child who has equal parts aggression and compassion, making him the perfect candidate to lead an army. He can not only predict how the alien species will act, but he is strong enough to oppose them as well. He has quick thinking and is able to keep his army out of danger. He is also emotionally immature, frustrated by manipulating teachers, and heartbroken by a family that is never quite what he wants them to be.

Ender's Game has been heralded as "a scathing indictment of the military mind" (Library Journal). I read the military mind as malleable and gullible. Ender was an exception because he was aware of how he was being tested at every turn. He knew he was being manipulated and he used that knowledge to his own advantage. It is the other students at the battle school who illustrate perfectly the competitive and brainless spirit of military pawns. They act without question and have only success in mind. It is Ender who has to be reminded of how wonderful Earth is and that its human connections are worth fighting for. He simply doesn't have enough competitive spirit to keep him fighting without question.

To analyze this entire novel and discuss the many layers and themes would take at least an 8 page essay, so I'll leave the analyzing to someone else. I will state that I enjoyed the reading of Ender's Game and think it is an important novel. The most important aspect of the novel is in the last chapter. I believe it's true that compassion and understanding may well be the key to survival of our species.

The Titan's Curse: Rick Riordan

I am loving this series! Rick Riordan has created a cast of characters who are real and relatable, adventures that are exciting and inventive, and language that is readable. As much as I love Harry Potter, Percy Jackson strikes me as far more average. He's dyslexic, slightly ADHD, and he has trouble relating to girls.

This third volume in the series presents problems specific to the latter of Percy's realistic traits. As his feelings for Annabeth grow, he is confronted with a new crisis involving the goddess Artemis and her pack of girl Hunters. Artemis and her hunters are perpetual adolescents who have sworn off boys, which poses a real problem when Percy is thrown in with them on a quest to save Annabeth.

In The Titan's Curse, Percy is forced to face more serious emotional and mental battles. Is he the one who will fulfill the prophecy that has the potential to bring down all of Olympus? As his relationship with his father improves at a snail's pace, Percy is given the chance to see how terrible an Olympian parent can be. How is he going to protect Camp Half-Blood against some of the most evil gods and monsters in the world? And as an unpleasant new twist, Percy must now also convince Athena that he will not be responsible for the downfall of Olympus. As Annabeth's mother, Athena is suspicious of Percy and his involvement with her daughter.

The series is going along at a fast pace, and I'm really enjoying it. I only hope that Riordan has the foresight to keep the characters in the forefront, opposed to Rowling's decision to progressively make the stories about the battles, leaving our beloved characters to fall flat.

The Sea of Monsters: Rick Riordan

Hello again, lovely readers! I again have to make apologies for my delayed absence. Summer is always such a busy time, don't you think? Not to mention the fact that I have picked up a total of four books and read anywhere from three to one hundred pages of each before putting them aside. I finally found one worth reading, though, so let's get to it!

The Sea of Monsters is book two in a the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. I read book one (The Lightning Thief) when I was in Korea and have only now finally found the second book. To give you some background information, Percy Jackson is the son of the sea god, Posiedon. His mother, however, is a mortal, so Percy is what is known as a Half-blood. He's a little awkward, ADHD, and dyslexic. Percy is like Harry Potter's slightly annoying little brother. He's not nearly as goody-two-shoes as Harry Potter, but he's got the same hero angle. Percy also has two best friends--a half-goat-boy, and an overachieving girl. Sound familiar? To be quite frank, I think Percy and the Olympians is an excellent series to follow HP. A stranger in the bookstore last week asked me what might be a good series to follow Harry Potter. This person said that Twilight seemed a bit too...well, TOO. I agreed and suggested Percy and the Olympians.

In this second volume, Percy is once again faced with a challenge that will put him in grave danger. The monsters are just as vile and the references to mythology are ever-present. The exciting part about this particular chapter in Percy's life is that it's personal. He gains a brother and has to save his best friend from an amorous cyclopes. This chapter of the overall story is building up to what I am sure will end in some final battle of good versus evil. The god of the underworld, Kronos, is gaining in power and will likely become Voldemort-esque.

For adults, the similarities may be too much to handle, thus boring the reader. For young readers, however, I think that Percy will open a whole new world of monsters and heroes. If nothing else, Riordan is a great writer who creates a humorous narrator in Percy Jackson.