Movies are fun, and movies that in the process of being filmed went terrible wrong are often even more fun.  Apocalypse on the Set outlines the troubled production of nine movies that didn't quite go as planned.  Though the movies in the book are generally fairly old even today they resonate. 

There's Waterworld, famous for its insanely high production costs and poor reviews (but in retrospect wasn't maybe quite so terrible). There's the Twilight Zone movie that killed its star and two child actors in a helicopter crash. 

Pulgasari is a particularly interesting case: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il kidnapped a respected South Korean director and his actress wife to kickstart the North's film industry.  It worked, for a time, but North Korea isn't the paradise it's made out to be.

Apocalypse is fairly short, with basically an overview of each highlighted film, but for movie-loving kids it's a good taste of how Hollywood and film making really works.

Not one for the younger set, I'll say.

Is there a sympathetic character in the lot?  It's possible, but look what we've go to choose from.  Glokta is be a merciless, pitiless torturer, even when he knows his prisoner is innocent.  Jezal is a self-centered, womanizing party-boy (and above average fencer).  Logen Ninefingers is an unstoppable barbarian killer who wishes he never picked up a sword, but does anyway.  Not many of the other characters fare much better in the redeeming quality department.


Whatever the case, The Blade Itself and the First Law series of which it is the first part is a fun read.  All of the characters have some degree of wit to them, and if they aren't funny outright, at least they are clever.

It's hard to put together the plot of the series, though.  Know that you won't really know what;s going on at all until the whole thing wraps up.  Nothing really becomes clear until the end.  There is a war in the North, a brewing invasion somewhere to the south, and the King is sick and dying with to idiot sons posed to take the throne.  Trouble is a-brewin' in the capital, so Questions Must Be Asked.  Beyond that, I can't say much more without giving it all away.

I'll say again, though: not one for the younger set.  It's bloody, violent, and mature.  But for older teens, it's fun and compelling.

I'm not sure if there is anything I can say about the Twitter feed on this one: it's just a bunch of words.  Literally.  They generally don't make a lot of sense.  Just fragments and phrases. Some make a weird sense ("Your muscles are responsible") and others are... odd (Cheddar apple).  Tt's just a spam account by a spambot to promote an ebook service.

You may wonder why I bring this up.  Well, somebody decided it would be fun to take the more understandable ones as inspiration for a comic.  Thus Horse E-comics was born. 

There isn't much more to say...

John Dies at the End felt very much like a book that was written in pieces without a particular goal in mind, with weird episodic sections that didn't always tie together too neatly.  This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It comes together much more tightly, with a plot that's (mostly) coherent and character motivations that make a little more sense.

After the events of the previous novel, things haven't really settled down much in the town of "Undisclosed".  It's still a terrible town, with nothing much to recommend it.  David and John still are useless layabouts.  Only now, and infestation of weird spider-like parasites are taking over and zombifying people.  With humans mutating into super-killers and a government unable to quell the fears of the nation, the infected are quarantined in the hospital where they think the outbreak began.  Obviously David and John know better.

This book is slightly less insane than the first, but what it loses in crazy it picks up with a better story, even if it feels like a messed up comedy version of the Walking Dead.  There are still the swears and the reference to drug use as in the first, but it feels tamer, more accessible.  You certainly need to have read the first book to understand why John and David are special, and why David's dog Molly seems unusually clever.

I am always on the hunt for books that might appeal to those Percy Jackson fans... and this one caught my eye because it was about Indian mythology (and had a cover that suggested there might be some good action).

Ash Mistry is visiting his aunt and uncle in India, when his uncle takes on the job of translating some pictograms for the mysterious Lord Alexander Savage. Ash is immediately suspicious of the large payment offered for the job and the creepy appearance of Lord Savage and his employees. Somehow they seem to resemble reptiles and dangerous predators a little too much...

Ash is at an archeological site near Lord Savage's home when the ground suddenly gives way and he falls into an undiscovered area under the site. He accidentally pricks himself on a golden arrowhead, which leaves a sliver in his finger, and begins to see visions of the battle against the evil demon king Ravana. It turns out that Lord Savage is indeed an evil bad guy who wants to release the demon Ravana so that he can become immortal.... and the golden arrowhead is exactly the thing he is looking for. Unfortunately Ash and his sister become the primary target for Lord Savage and his employees -- who are really demons in disguise. 

With the world at risk of being overrun by murderous demons, Ash needs to find a way to stop Lord Savage. This means battling giant birds, monstrous reptiles and shape shifting wolves. 

I liked the action and pace of the plot and definitely found bits about Indian mythology intriguing. I do think the gods/demons will interest many Percy Jackson fans. I don't find the conversation and characters to be as humorous as the ones in Rick Riordan's books but there are some witty comments that give the characters distinct voices and keep the tone of the book light. The whole thing about incarnation added an interesting layer to the plot, but I felt it could have the potential to become a bit of a cop out where it doesn't matter if characters die because they'll come back to life later anyway.

This is more suited for preteens (pretty much the same audience for the Percy Jackson series). Visit the Ash Mistry blog for character profiles, info on Indian Mythology, book excerpts and activity sheets. And yes, there is a sequel: Ash Mistry and the City of Death.

Almost two years ago we reviewed Across the Universe by Beth Revis.  You may recall that book: we discussed the misleading and unappealing (to boys) cover.  Well, the publishers must have listened, because over the various printings and editions of it and its two sequels, we went from this:



To this:


To these:


All I can say is thank you.  These are much better, and much more unisex.


Anyway.

From Across the Universe, where Amy wakes up from a cryogenic sleep too early only to find that life aboard the Godspeed has changed to a bizarre society nothing like expected, to A Million Suns where she and Elder discover that the Godspeed may already be orbiting their destination (and has been for decades or even centuries), we finally arrive at Shades of Earth and the possible conclusion of the journey and the series.

Having been forced at the end of the previous book to evacuate and land despite warnings that the planet iss swarming with monsters, our crew successfully lands the shuttle and wakes the remaining cryogenically frozen crew members.  Facing this strange turn of events, Amy's militarily-minded father and the scientists don't trust the shipborn Godspeed residents and immediately clash.  This tension is only made worse by a mysterious force murdering folks.  Is it aliens?  It must be aliens.

Reading this series is reading a genuine classic sci-fi story.  One can find more than a few social critiques in this, the same way the the stories of old did.  Despite initial impressions (and those old covers) there is no more romance in here than there is in any other sci-fi series.  I only wish that it hadn't been written in first-person present tense.  Even with that in mind, I still recommend it.  I quite enjoyed it.  Just make sure to get the ones with the newest covers.

People generally run away when they hear gunshots. Not Colin though. He stayed right where he was so he could see the nine-millimeter handgun. The gun that mysteriously went off in his school cafeteria while people were eating Melissa's birthday cake.
Everyone believes that the gun belongs to Wayne Connelly. It fits. He's the big bad wolf in school. Wayne is sent home and not to show up at school until further notice. End of story. Colin, however, knew they've got the wrong guy. Even though Wayne's absence at the school means no more head dunking in toilet water for Colin, he is going to prove Wayne's innocence, but so far, the only evidence he's got is that Wayne was a neat eater and the gun had icing and cake all over it.
Teen realistic fiction is not my usual reading fare, but I've heard good things about Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stent, and I know a few teens who enjoy straightforward and funny school stories, so I thought I'd give this a try.  Colin Fischer is an okay read. Every book that is written with a protagonist with an autism spectrum disorder trying to solve a mystery will undoubtedly be compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon.  It's hard to not find the premise derivative, but the voice of the narrator is strong enough to keep readers' interest, and the footnotes give extra insight into the mind of Colin. How the friendship develops between Colin and Wayne also feels natural. The mystery, on the other hand, is weak and even by the end of the book, when Colin "solves" the mystery so to speak, there is really no explanation for the motives behind the gun.
Colin Fischer is a non-intimidating read, so it'll be a good one to suggest to teens who are looking for a light read. Another selling point for this book is the authors' previous works. They've collaborated as screenwriters on the X-Men and Thor films, and that fact may earn the book some credibility.  Note: The book for the most part is appropriate for younger teens, but there is a vague reference to some "funny business".

We aren't the only ones out here on the internet doing this kind of thing.  There are a good many others finding great boys' reads, and we haven't really done much to send you their way if you haven't already found them.

I won't go repeating other people's lists, but I will link you to a good one someone else made: Maggie Lyons Blog.  I don't want to steal her hard work, so head on over there for plenty of blogs and resources.

I had no idea this was a sequel.  I also had no idea that it was a spinoff of Harlan Coben's adult series.  I picked it up and started reading, and was tossed into the middle of a story I didn't know anything about. Seconds Away picks up immediately after the events of the first book, Shelter.  Mickey Bolitar finds himself in the home of an apparently crazy old lady who informs him that his dead father is not in fact dead, and that the paramedic that supposedly helped them is in fact a Nazi from 80 years ago, unaged.

I didn't immediately understand any of this, but the story is well recapped so I got the gist of the previous book.  Mickey and his outcast friends saved another classmate from a terrible situation, but it left the town and his new school under the impression that he was a troublemaking bad kid. 

Now an even sorrier situation comes up: the most popular, prettiest girl in the school (who incidentally helped Mickey out in the previous installment) is now in hospital, having been shot.  Her mother was murdered in the same incident.  Mickey is determined to get to the bottom of this. 

Also, he's trying to make the school basketball team.  Priorities, you know?

Seconds Away feels forced, almost as if the author was holding back in the name of writing for teens.  That said, it's still pretty page-turney.  You can pick it up without having read the first book or the adult series and still get a good idea of what's going on. This is probably best suited to kids who are reasonably advanced readers but are still maybe a little too young for more mature sex and violence.  Make no mistake, there is murder here, but nothing graphic.

What does everyone think about the winners of the 2013 Printz Award Winner and Honour Books?

Winner:
In Darkness by Nick Lake

Honour Books:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Dodger by Terry Pratchett
The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna