2016 Recommended Books List

2016 has been a pretty full year for me, and I suspect for everyone else, too. We had an election this year, and that was certainly a wild ride from start to finish. A lot happened in the world. We lost some pretty amazing people. A lot happened in my life, too, although I'd hope those events were more positive than what happened in the world and the U.S. at large.

I read quite a few books this year, in between school and writing and spending time with family. A lot of those books were amazing, the type of books that take hold of something in your soul. Looking back at the list, it's an odd combination of non-fiction and sci-fi/fantasy, with one lone exception. These are all books that deeply appealed to me in some way, whether that was the premise or the characters or the overall theme of the book. I would highly recommend them all.

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1. Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Summary: Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician--not an easy thing if you're a girl, and harder still if you're Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life.
With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush.

Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.

I read this book way back in February, and I absolutely adored it. In fact, it's pretty much the book that got me started doing book reviews on this blog. Once I read this book, I felt the need to share it with as many people as I possibly could. I've written a much longer review already, but to sum it up: this is a well-written book with amazing characters and an incredibly nuanced view of the Old West. I highly, highly recommend it. 

2. Starflight by Melissa Landers
Summary: Solara Brooks needs a fresh start, someplace where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. The outer realm may be lawless, but it's not like the law has ever been on her side. Still, off-world travel doesn't come cheap; Solara is left with no choice but to indenture herself in exchange for passage to the outer realm. She just wishes it could have been to anyone besides Doran Spaulding, the rich, pretty-boy quarterback who made her life miserable in school.

The tables suddenly turn when Doran is framed for conspiracy on Earth, and Solara cons him into playing the role of her servant on board the Banshee, a ship manned by an eccentric crew with their own secrets. Given the price on both Doran and Solara's heads, it may just be the safest place in the universe. But when the Banshee's dangerous enemies catch up with them, Solara and Doran must come together to protect the ship that has become their home-and the eccentric crew that feels like family.

I read this book in about half a day. It's a fun, fast-moving little sci-fi story with fun characters and a plot that features plenty of twists and turns. It's not the best book I've ever read; and it's not deep and thought-provoking like Under a Painted Sky. But it's a book I greatly enjoyed, and it's the type of fun, inoffensive sci-fi fluff I like to read when my brain needs a break and I don't want to have to critique something too hard.

3. Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood
Summary: Noor Inayat Khan was the first female radio operator sent into occupied France and transferred crucial messages. Johtje Vos, a Dutch housewife, hid Jews in her home and repeatedly outsmarted the Gestapo. Law student Hannie Schaft became involved in the most dangerous resistance work--sabotage, weapons transference, and assassinations. In these pages, young readers will meet these and many other similarly courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis.
Twenty-six engaging and suspense-filled stories unfold from across Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, and the United States, providing an inspiring reminder of women and girls’ refusal to sit on the sidelines around the world and throughout history.

I first encountered this book while volunteering at my local library. It seemed like the type of book I would like, so I checked it out and started reading. And just as I'd suspected, I loved it. This book tells the story of a variety of female heroes during World War II, most of whom are rarely taught about elsewhere. It doesn't restrict itself to any one type of hero, either. Included are women who fought the Nazis nonviolently, like Sophie Scholl and Johtie Vos, and much more literal fighters like Hannie Schaft. Women of color are included in the stories of Noor Inayat Khan and Josephine Baker. The faith and religon that inspired many of these women, such as Corrie ten Boom, isn't overlooked. Each story is concise yet important. This book really is an important reminder of women who were not afraid to do what they knew was right, even in the face of death.

4. Failures of the Presidents by Thomas J. Craughwell and M. William Phelps
Summary: In an effort to put an end to Britain and France’s policy of seizing American ships and sailors, Thomas Jefferson calls for an embargo. The result: 30,000 soldiers out of work, mercantile families bankrupted, and a nationwide economic depression.

In an effort to install a capitalist government in the Middle East, stabilize the region, and protect America from a possible Iraqi terrorist assault using weapons of mass destruction, George W. Bush orders the invasion of Iraq. The result: More than 4,000 American soldiers and personnel dead; estimated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead; hundreds of billions of dollars spent; the torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction leave American global credibility in tatters.

What were they thinking?

One of my favorite genres of history, so to speak, is the "American history they didn't teach you in school" genre. This book appeals very heavily to that interest of mine, as it not only explores little-known anecdotes from history, but calls attention to the flaws of most U.S. presidents. It's a fairly unbiased book that provides cultural and historical context for the presidents' various decisions, without absolving them of the consequences. This is the kind of history I very much appreciate.

5. On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Summary: Having made him look a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system. 

But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad. 

This is another book I've already done a full review for, back when I read a bunch of SF novels over the summer. I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly, since it takes the story of the "misunderstood military genius" and gives it to a female protagonist. It's well-written and the story moves just fast enough. I've heard that this series (the Honor Harrington series) is based off of the Horatio Hornblower books, and it does seem that way, but the books are different enough, in genre and in writing, that they don't come off as too similar. I look forward to reading the next book, whenever I can find it. 

6. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Summary: How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father? If someone destroyed your city? If everything you ever loved was taken from you?

David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice. 

And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.

This is yet another book that I've previously reviewed on this blog. Again, see that post for my complete thoughts. To make a long(ish) review short, well... This is a book with a very unique perspective on superheroes. It turns genre conventions upside down and tells a heartfelt, enthralling story, and the whole thing is very well-written. As a side note, the sequels are just as good. I'd recommend the whole Reckoners trilogy, which stems from this book; but even as a standalone, Steelheart is awesome, and comes highly recommended by me.

7. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Summary: After Martians invade Earth—specifically, England—a philosophically-inclined writer is set on a journey across the ravaged English countryside as he attempts to find his wife and, with luck, avoid death. 

This is this year's obligatory really old, yet surprisingly good novel (last year's was Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days). First published in 1898, War of the Worlds is thought to be the first mainstream alien invasion story, and besides being groundbreaking science fiction, it also carries some scintillating social commentary. It isn't as exciting or fast-moving as modern sci-fi, but it still carries its fair share of action. The best part of the novel, though—at least in my opinion—is the atmosphere Wells creates with words alone. The scenarios presented in the novel, the hopelessness and fear, were mildly terrifying even to me. They're even sharper when you think of how nineteenth- and twentieth-century readers must have perceived the story. All of Wells's fiction was based on real science of his day, after all.

***

So there you have it: seven books I read this year and loved. I'd recommend all of them, especially if you're a fan of science fiction or history. Even if you're not, these are still, in my opinion, valuable books. If you've read any of these or end up reading them in the coming year, I'd love to discuss them. Until then, Feliz Navidad, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year

Book Recommendation: Steelheart

Summary: How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father?

If someone destroyed your city?

If everything you ever loved was taken from you?

David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice. 

And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.






Recently, I've been getting more and more into the superhero genre. It's fun to think about people with awesome skills or superpowers--and often, the narrative of a vigilante with a hidden identity raises interesting moral questions. The superhero genre, when handled right, contains a wealth of storytelling possibilities. This book--and its sequels--explores one of the lesser-seen possibilities, and boy is it enthralling.

The premise of Steelheart is that at some point twelve or so years in the past, a weird astronomical event called Calamity occurred--and people all over the world started gaining superpowers, bending and breaking the laws of physics. And then all of these superpowered people (called "Epics") decided that what they really wanted to do with these powers was take as much power as they could for themselves, and subjugate anyone too weak to fight back.

That's the setup for the novel's main story. This certainly isn't the first book to feature a story where people with superpowers go bad instead of good and try to take over the world. But this book takes the idea further than most. In a sense, this is an anti-superhero story: here, the people with powers are the villains, the monsters, the evil ones. The only heroes here are the ordinary people with the courage and cunning to fight back.

In fact, the more I think about it, this story is the antithesis to stories like X-Men, where people with powers are oppressed solely because they have powers. In this story, author Brandon Sanderson takes the idea of "superpowers" to its logical extreme. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If ordinary people really did start gaining superpowers out of nowhere, who's to say they wouldn't all become tyrants?

Of course, the sequels muddy this philosophical bent quite a bit. But the books still have a very interesting and thus far underused premise. In addition, the characters are all sympathetic and complex, and the plotting of the books is a thing to behold. Seriously, Brandon Sanderson has a knack for weaving an action-packed mystery and revealing a plot twist at the very end that changes everything. He's also good at coming up with intriguing settings; each book takes place in a different city that's been transformed since the coming of the Epics. Each place is unique and drives the action in its own way.

In short, the Reckoners Trilogy--of which Steelheart is the first book--is an amazing series, and I'm glad I had the chance to read it. I would highly recommend it to others looking for a short series to get into, especially if superheroes are your thing.

I give Steelheart four stars out of five (though the Reckoners Trilogy as a whole is more of a 4.5/5).

Book Review: Fate of Flames

Summary: Four girls with the power to control the elements and save the world from a terrible evil must come together in the first epic novel in a brand-new series.

When Phantoms—massive beasts made from nightmares and darkness—suddenly appeared and began terrorizing the world, four girls, the Effigies, each gained a unique power to control one of the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Since then, four girls across the world have continually fought against the Phantoms, fulfilling their cosmic duty. And when one Effigy dies, another girl gains her power as a replacement.

But now, with technologies in place to protect the world’s major cities from Phantom attacks, the Effigies have stopped defending humanity and, instead, have become international celebrities, with their heroic feats ranked, televised, and talked about in online fandoms.

Until the day that New York City’s protection against the Phantoms fails, a man seems to be able to control them by sheer force of will, and Maia, a high school student, unexpectedly becomes the Fire Effigy.

Now Maia has been thrown into battle with three girls who want nothing to do with one another. But with the first human villain that the girls have ever faced, and an army of Phantoms preparing for attack, there isn’t much time for the Effigies to learn how to work together.

Can the girls take control of their destinies before the world is destroyed forever?



First off, a disclaimer: Fate of Flames is scheduled to be released this November. The copy of it that I read is an ARC, which I obtained at Barnes & Noble's Book-Fest. Legally, I am not allowed to quote this book, only review it in my own words. That's what I always do, but I felt I should note this somewhere in the post.

Now, onto the review.

Fate of Flames is sort of a weird book for me. First, it's a contemporary fantasy about a girl who gains special powers. There are certain tropes and clichés associated with such a story, and Fate of Flames plays right into some of those. There are others that it plays with or subverts, which makes the book as a whole both conventional and inventive at the same time.

On the conventional side, it's a coming-of-age story about a high school girl--Maia Finley--who gains the ability to control fire. As the Fire Effigy, she's thrown into a world where she's expected to team up with three other Effigies--her personal heroes--and fight the monsters that have been attacking the world since the 1800's. But there's a twist--Maia is terrified of fire, ever since a house fire killed her parents and twin sister. And there's something suspicious about the death of her predecessor...

The story itself, at least for three fourths of the book, is pretty conventional. Coming of age story--check. Relatable teenage protagonist--check. Mysterious hot love interest man--check. Shadowy governmental organization--check. Monsters the world must be defended from--check.

But that's not all there is to the book, and that's the part that makes it unique. Yes, it's a coming of age story--but it's one that doesn't shy away from the psychological effect constant fighting has on teenaged soldiers. The relatable teen girl protagonist has many weaknesses and genuinely doesn't know what's going on a lot of the time--there's no way she could've made it through the plot of the book without the help of the other three Effigies (Belle, Chae Rin, and Lake). All three of these other girls also have their own flaws and weaknesses, yet none of them are demonized or set up as one-dimensional rivals for Maia. In the end, they find strength by working together. The mysterious love interest guy is a member of the shadowy governmental organization--and as it turns out, both of them were probably lying to Maia all along. There are only three prominent male characters in the book, and one of them is a government agent with nasty secrets, one of them is a government agent with zero morals, and one is a villain with multiple personalities in his head. He's able to control the monsters that have been attacking the world for over a century.

So there's a lot going on in this book. The plot and characters are a smooth blend of the cliché and the atypical. That sort of threw me in the first half of the book--I never knew what to expect, even when I thought I did. But by the second half, I got to liking it. Fate of Flames is a well-written book with good characters and a lot of interesting concepts. And it's the first in a series, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

So that's my opinion of the book. I've still got one more thing to add: back by popular demand, it's the star rating system that I used to use for movies. I'll be using it to rate this book, and presumably a few more books after it; if like it or think I could use a better system, please let me know!

I'm giving Fate of Flames three and a half stars.

Fate of Flames hasn't been released yet, so I guess there aren't a lot of people out there to discuss it with me. But suffice to say, it's a good book and I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the series. In my opinion, any author who can blend cliché and originality with this amount of skill is someone whose books I'll be keeping up with. 

Movie Fights: Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice

Alright, I understand that technically, this post should be called Movie Fights: Captain America: Civil War vs. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but I didn't name it that because, well, first of all: that's a really long title. Too long. Secondly, there are way too many colons in there. And finally, I for one have had enough of these ridiculous movie subtitles. Call it Batman vs. Superman OR call it Dawn of Justice, but don't do both! That's just confusing! It's like cramming two movies' worth of material into one rushed, confusing theatrical cut... wait a second.

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start again: This is the much-awaited (maybe) comparison of Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, and DC's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Now, on the surface, these two movies seem to have a lot in common. They’re both big-budget summer action films where superheroes who should be working together fight instead, because of a relatively petty issue that they could easily resolve by communicating if they really tried. However, these movies have a lot of sizable differences, which add up to make them into two very different films.

I’ll tackle Batman v. Superman first.

To start, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is long. It’s a long movie, and I swear not a minute of it is wasted. It’s stuffed to the gills with plot. There are at least two and half different plotlines in the theatrical cut alone; I hear there are even more in the director’s cut. Most of the plot is setup for Batman and Superman fighting; and boy is there a lot of setup. I don’t want to spoil any of it, but let me just say: there are more villainous machinations and philosophy-rationality discussions in Batman v. Superman than there are actual brawls between Batman and Superman. In addition to all the philosophical rhetoric and plot twists, there’s also a generous amount of setup for future DC movie-universe films. I’m not a hardcore DC fan, so I didn’t catch all of the hints while I was watching the movie, but I got at least some of them. And then, of course, there’s a subplot meant to set up the DC’s incoming Justice League movie.

All this adds up to a film so full of things happening that it’s hard to follow everything at once. Batman v. Superman is so dense, so stuffed with important plot pieces that my only impression walking out of the theater was “sensory overload”. It took me the better part of two weeks to really work through everything I vicariously experienced in the movie. For a movie called Batman v. Superman, there’s a lot of expositing, a lot of storytelling twists and turns, and not a lot of fight scenes. (In fact, 90% of the fighting is relegated to the last half hour of the movie. The rest of the movie only has a Superman rescue montage and like one scene of Batman doing Cool Stuff.)

So Batman v. Superman is too much material crammed into not enough space, with a much darker tone than you would think given the subject matter. Let’s look at Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War.

Unlike DC, Marvel has already established a strong movie brand and found their niche as far as storytelling goes. They’ve got a handle on the tone of their movies, and though I think the actual writing in their films has been going downhill of late, they know what works for them.

So Captain America: Civil War is, in essence, more of the same. It’s got all of the characters you know and love from the previous movies. It’s got peppy, fun-to-watch action scenes sprinkled throughout, along with snappy, humorous dialogue. It’s got a smattering of thought-out character moments, and a plot that makes sense if you don’t think about it too much. In short, it’s got everything we’ve come to expect from Marvel over the past few years.

To be honest, I enjoyed Civil War a lot more than Batman v. Superman. Civil War was a lot less complicated, easier to follow, and didn’t require as much active thought from me. It also had a more light-hearted tone. Batman v. Superman is dark and gritty and believes that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Civil War believes that power corrupts, but ultimately justice can be served if we try hard and commit to it. That’s a big difference in tone right there, but that’s not the end of it. Batman v. Superman is almost entirely consumed with its philosophy—that power is a corrupting influence with no moral compass, no matter a person’s intentions. By contrast, Civil War doesn’t touch on its own philosophy hardly at all, and even contradicts itself at points. What it comes down to is that Civil War doesn’t take itself half as seriously as Batman v. Superman, so it’s more fun to watch.

The thing is, though, I don’t think either of these movies is really the best it could have been, and ultimately neither of them are a completely enjoyable presentation of what they promised. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: any movie that promises me Batman and Superman fighting each other has a heck of a premise to live up to. The same goes for Civil War: the filmmakers had a lot to set up if they were going to get me to believe that the Avengers would really split apart and fight each other. Both movies tried to live up to their premises, but neither of them accomplished it really well. Batman v. Superman spent too much time on the buildup. It’s so dark and complicated that by the time it gets to the actual fight, you hardly even care anymore. Civil War didn’t spend enough time building things up; it presented a philosophy of sorts for both sides of the conflict, but then had the characters contradict themselves multiple times. Essentially, Civil War seesawed back and forth between a dark, serious plotline and the upbeat, enjoyable action sequences we’ve come to expect from Marvel. It couldn’t pick a tone, and I think that was its major flaw.

I do think both of these movies are worth watching. Civil War certainly isn’t the worst movie Marvel’s ever made, and it did have its share of worthwhile moments. Batman v. Superman is… an experience. I actually did enjoy it, but not all of it. If you watch it for anything, watch for Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. They were definitely the highlights.

Both these movies are worth watching, but I think they both represent missed potential on the parts of their studios. To quote the Honest Trailer, Batman v. Superman “burned through like six movies’ worth of good material”, and suffered for it. It was too rushed, trying to get us to care about too much in too short a time span. By contrast, it was obvious that Civil War was, at least in part, riding the wave of popularity Marvel has accrued with its past movies. It’s my personal opinion that the writing in Marvel movies is starting to go downhill, simply because Marvel knows that any movie they slap their name on will sell like hotcakes. Essentially, they’re getting lazy, instead of using that branding potential to break new ground and explore new territory film-wise.

In closing: both of these movies represent their respective studios’ shortcomings. Captain America: Civil War rides a wave of previous successes, not bothering with internal consistency because the writers know people won’t care; it’s Marvel, and Marvel movies are good. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice tries desperately to build up everything in the DC universe at once, hoping that something will stick and get people to come back for the next DC film. So both of these movies have their good points, but neither reached their full potential. Neither of them could decide exactly what they were trying to do. Maybe they’re more similar than I thought.