Time Fixers (Miles in Time Book 2) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Time Travel YA Continues with a Timeless Volume

 Time Fixers (Miles in Time Book 2) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Time Travel YA Continues with a Timeless Volume 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Well The Hardy Boys are at it again. No, not those Hardy Boys. Simon and Miles Hardy, the time traveling brothers from Lee Matthew Goldberg’s 2-Part YA Science Fiction Time Travel series. The first volume, Miles in Time, involved the adventurous detective Miles going back in time to prevent his scientific technogeek older brother, Simon from being murdered by unidentified assailants. He saved his brother but made a mortal enemy in Omni, the secret sinister organization that put the initial target on Simon’s back. 

The second volume, Time Fixers is a stronger, more personal, and also more focused adventure that raises the conflicts. This time Simon is able to improve his time travel device to travel beyond the previous week. Instead it can send the traveler back to 1999. For the brothers, that means one important thing. In the present, their mentally ill mother is institutionalized. They can go back to when she was in high school and resolve the family trauma that led to her years of addiction and mental illness. The brothers are not alone. Miles told his girlfriend, Maisie about the previous time traveling adventures. She comes with, hoping to resolve a family conflict of her own with her missing mother. The trio become embroiled in not only their own family histories but the origins of Omni whose members might be all too familiar to them.

In the first book, the focus was on adventure with some family drama thrown in. This one reverses that by devoting more time on the family drama and minimizing the adventure but still making it an important part.

There is deep trauma that is explored particularly with Miles and Simon's mother, Patty. When they left her, she was addicted to pills, spoke in monosyllables and non sequiturs, and committed self-harm. The years of being broken and non-functional took their toll. She is lost to her family in the present so the brothers want to change her past.

Once they see Patty's family, Simon and Miles understand their mother more. Before they pitied and cared for her. Miles in particular often nursed her when his father, Kip could not. However, as much as they missed the loving and involved woman that she briefly was when they were small, she is now a remote cypher to them. They can't break through her precarious vulnerable exterior and have given up trying to communicate with her. She is less a mother to them and more of an object of pity, concern, and frustration.

In the past, they see their mother as a feisty multifaceted emotional girl who is hurt at home and trying different means to detach herself from that hurt. The brothers focus on the causes of what made their mother turn out the way that she did rather than the effects of what it created. Patty is a person who had her life ahead of her and could have lived it openly and creatively with plenty of love, acceptance, and support but was stopped by  abusive and narcissistic parents. The boys have to rescue their mother not only from her toxic home but from herself and the woman that she turns into.

Patty isn't the only person that the boys and Maisie try to help. They try to prevent a tragedy in Kip’s young life that left him withdrawn and falling into self-isolation. Maisie also recognizes her parents' struggles and insecurities so she doesn't end up alone. The teens are given insights into their parents as people, kids like them who were uncertain, confused, awkward, idealistic, intelligent, rebellious, immature, curious, surly, argumentative, cynical, and ready to challenge the world that their kids would later inherit. They are going through the same struggles about identity, acceptance, and belonging that their children are going through in the 2020’s.

There are  other aspects of the book that shine. There are  humorous moments when Simon, Miles, and Maisie go to the past and gape at the weird fashions, old fashioned technology, and the music. There are also clever references about the time period that border on nostalgic.

The adventure also goes through some fascinating twists, climaxes, and resolutions. The trio are stalked by enemies that use a variety of means like threats, manipulation, and feigning friendship to find their technology, divide, and destroy them.

It's also interesting to see Omni in its earlier form as a small organization with few employees but nefarious goals before its 2020's incarnation as a widespread conspiracy with various members, outlets, and schemes. We also see how the agents got involved with this organization, why they joined, and why they stayed when conscience should have told them otherwise. Similar to their parents, the kids see their adversaries as people who had reasons for what they did and could have lived different lives. Instead they chose a path that led to financial gain, corruption, violence and self-destruction.

Time Fixers is a brilliant book about how choice and trauma shaped our past and created our present. It also happens to be a great thrilling adventure to spend time with. 

The Ingenious and The Colour of Life by J.Y. Sam; Intelligent and Character Driven Science Fiction About Genetically Engineered Genius Children

 The Ingenious and The Colour of Life by J.Y. Sam; Intelligent and Character Driven Science Fiction About Genetically Engineered Genius Children 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I can never truly say that I am tired of a genre when there are books out there that are set to prove me wrong. Just as Darren Frey’s Psychonautic, Blythe Gryphon’s The Genius of Our Wiles, Ian Conner’s Cardinals, and Stacy Keenan’s Love is Eternal did with Vampire Romances so J.Y. Sam’s The Ingenious and The Colour of Life does with books about Superheroes and Children With Magical/Psychic Abilities. It shows that there is still enough life left in that genre to impress even the most bored reviewer. In fact, it is a top contender already for one of the Best Books of 2024.

Years ago, a secret project was created called Project Ingenious to create genius children through genetic engineering. Things went awry, the project ended, and the children were separated. Years later, someone is hunting down these kids. The doors of the project are forced to be reopened as three of the kids are located. They are Millicent Bythaway, a genius with a photographic and eidetic memory, Calista Matheson, a beautiful tech expert, and Tai Jones, an empath who can see auras. They are led by Professor Harald Wolff who wants them to hone their gifts, find the other missing kids, and keep safe from whoever wants to kill them.

Sam develops the protagonists through their abilities and personalities. Their origins and previous experiences are diverse and play into who they are as individuals. Millicent was raised by one of the former scientists who conditioned her to avoid using her gifts in school to avoid detection. She knows that she has these powers but mostly keeps them to herself. However, they manifest in different ways such as suddenly learning new languages just by reading them in phrase books or feeling her late mother’s spirit literally communicating with her. This remains mostly within herself until she accidentally rescues a young boy at her workplace. Since Millicent’s abilities allow her to absorb knowledge and information, she is the most intelligent of the trio and is usually the first to provide information and make strategic plans. 

Tai also has an interesting backstory. While Millicent is ordered to hide her abilities, Tai does not have that option. His second sight appears whether he wants it to or not and it ends up helping to save his life when he has to face homelessness. Unlike Millicent who was protected by loving but overprotective parents, Tai was abandoned by his mother and left to face a harsh impoverished world alone. Despite his difficult upbringing, he is the kindest character of the trio, even in the whole book. His empathic abilities are exacerbated by his kind nature, one that is displayed when he cares for a family of cats like they were his own children. He is able to feel the cats’ pain and see the colors reflecting their moods as he helps them.  

Calista is a much more extroverted character than her colleagues and her background builds on that. She hid her abilities in ignorance. Unlike Millicent who had to hide her intelligence and talents behind an average facade, Calista cultivated a beautiful public image and downplayed her intelligence almost too successfully. There is some implication that the “dumb beauty” role was foisted upon her by parents who wanted her to stay hidden and she fell into it so well that she became that role. Some of her early dimness is held up as comic relief, but the implications make it a dark comedy as she is unable to be who she really could be. It is only when she is a teen and meets her boyfriend, Jake, that she is able to free the potential that had been inside. Calista and Jake’s relationship interests her enough to study computers and to absorb the information to the point that within a short time she is able to hack into classified government information after Jake mysteriously disappears.

When Professor Wolff brings them together, one would expect them to become a superhero team, start saving innocent lives, and take on evil forces. Okay, some of that happens but it’s less to do with the characters becoming a force for good than it is about them learning about and expanding on their abilities and above all keeping safe from those who will harm them. It’s less about the greater good than it is about their personal good. They are tutored and trained by colleagues in various advanced academic subjects, self defense, and techniques to hone their powers. They are also kept isolated in Wolff’s compound and being teenagers, they get cabin fever and are ready to defy orders. These acts of defiance end up challenging and enabling them to work together as a team. Ironically, even though they weren’t intended to be a team of superheroes, that is exactly what they become especially after they locate others with special abilities and recruit them to join their team. 

The darkest part of the book is an extended flashback which fills in the blanks about Project Ingenious and what it did. Millicent, Tai, and Calista have to see through the memories of another character, one who was driven insane by the experiment and the abuse and mistreatment that they endured. There are many disturbing things revealed in this flashback notably that it begins inside the womb through the character’s mind and includes the scientists’ discussions and thought processes outside. This reveals that these characters were meant to become geniuses even as fetuses. Imagine having full awareness of your surroundings even before you are born, being able to think, plan, and reason before you understand basic concepts like love, warmth, home, and family. It would be enough to drive a person insane and that is what happens here. 

Because of what we learn in the flashback, it’s hard to see the characters in simple black and white, good and evil terms. Wolff’s true motives are highly suspect. He appears to genuinely care about the geniuses beyond being experiments but many of his goals and motives are questionable. Is he a scientist who realized that his original project was wrong and is trying to redeem himself? Is he a potential megalomaniac who has his own ambitions for what he wants to do with the young people? It’s hard to tell and this book can go either way.

The shades of gray in which the characters inhabit are particularly unveiled in one of the most puzzling chapters. Milicent, Calista, Tai and their other new friends do something questionable to counter an enemy. For spoiler’s sake, it won’t be revealed but it raises a lot of ethical concerns in whether the characters overstep their boundaries in committing this action. To be fair, they are called out on it and there are some hints that they opened up a huge problem for themselves that wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t acted. It’s a definite open ended decision that will potentially take the next book to reveal the consequences.

With interesting characters, unique abilities, and shades of gray, Ingenious and the Colour of Life proves itself to be a cut above most in the superhero subgenre.

Lit List LitPick Book Reviews

 Lit List: LitPick Book Reviews

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

It's no secret that I have been incredibly busy this year working on other projects. When I haven't been   reading and reviewing books for the   Bookworm Reviews, I have been editing,   summarizing, and reviewing books for   other sources. I would like to highlight some of those other sources.                                                                                                            

Here is a brief summary and review for the books that I have reviewed for LitPick Book Reviews site. Because of restrictions, I cannot post the full reviews here so I am just posting brief summaries and reviews

The Cuban Gambit by Jay Perin 

The third volume in this series. It involves the powerful, wealthy, and ruthless Shepherd, Barrons, and Kingsley Families who in the wake of their defeat of archenemy, Jared Sanders find themselves embroiled in corporate takeovers, extramarital affairs, kidnapping, scandals and plenty of drama.

This wide encompassing series features a wide variety of multifaceted characters with various goals and motives. There is enough glitz and glamor to put an 80's night time soap opera to shame and enough intergenerational conflict, high stakes, and deep characterization of a Shakespearean Tragedy. It reveals the inner personal struggles of various public figures with all of their conniving schemes and on rare occasions their empathetic warmth.

The Devil's Calling by Michael Kelley

Academic couple Sean McQueen and M Edens are adjusting to a new life together with their children and their recently established all-female college. Unfortunately, a new AI program and some messages from a previous enemy reawakens old fears and grudges as M is about to go on a lecture tour.

This book is awash in both science and spirit to make a technological and metaphysical masterpiece. Sean and M take different views but are able to bridge those views into something that combines the best of both worlds.

They are aided by a brilliantly written circle of friends and family and a deep abiding love for each other. This allows them to overcome every struggle and work together when it comes to a dramatic confrontation against an old enemy

Art Imitating Life by Claire Merchant

After a devastating breakup, Paige Stewart and her friends Liam and Nathaniel (the latter of whom has a crush on Paige) find themselves in a parallel universe. In the fantasy kingdom of Avellithia, the trio must play the parts of Sage the Sorceress, Nathaniel the Rogue, and Liam the Archer to fight an approaching army. Along the way, they discover counterparts of everyone they know and get involved in various romantic engagements.

The parallel universe of Avellithia is very interesting and well written. Unfortunately, it's buried under too much Teen Romance. The love shapes among Paige, Nathaniel, and other characters takes precedence over the potential magic, fantastic elements, and conflicts among kingdoms. The results end up becoming boring and cliche. Because of the focus on Romance over Fantasy, there are some fascinating touches that are introduced but not brought to their fullest fruition.

The Music Within Your Heart by Isaac Samuel Miller 

Songwriter, Sophia looks back on her troubled life. She comes from a dysfunctional background with a mentally ill mother, a father with a secret life, and a brother who was murdered in a hate crime. She is surrounded by racism as she attends college and tries to earn a living as a singer. She also ends up being caught between Sammy, the white son of a racist and Kyle, a charismatic African-American musician.

This is a brilliant character study of Sophia looking back on her hard life to see what went wrong and right. Her journey is both heart wrenching and heartwarming. Many of the more racist elements make for suspenseful and tense moments as Sophia doubts even the seemingly good people around her. She also navigates through her romances with grit and determination as she and Sammy have their ups and downs while Kyle proves to be a charming and engaging presence before he comes to an untimely end.

Weekly Reader: Semicolon: Life Goes On From A Different Perspective: Living With Purpose by A.P. Aristeiguieta; Captivating Spiritual Journey Into Deep Emotion, Strong Friendships, and Lucid Dreams

 Weekly Reader: Semicolon: Life Goes On From A Different Perspective: Living With Purpose by A.P. Aristeiguieta; Captivating Spiritual Journey Into Deep Emotion, Strong Friendships, and Lucid Dreams

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Is it too early to pick a potential favorite book of 2023 because I found a contender?

Semicolon Life Goes On From A Different Perspective Living With Purpose by A.P. Aristeiguieta is a captivating, lyrical, and spiritual book that tells a fantastic story about loneliness, depression, and friendship. 

Semicolon is not unlike some of my other favorite books in the past like Imajica by Clive Barker, Melia in Foreverland by Thomas Milhorat, The Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, The Unseen Blossom by Zlaikha Y Samad and L'mere Younossi, The Enchanted World Series, Tales From The Hinterland by Melissa Albert, The Bookbinder's Daughter by Jessica Thorne, Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity by David A Neuman, Merchants of Knowledge and Magic by Erika McCorkle, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass). It's a book that is thought about, felt, and lived in as much as it is read.

According to the Introduction, this is somewhat based on a true story, a semiautobiographical novel or a literary nonfiction, on incidents from Aristeiguieta's past. Aristeiguieta's author surrogate is Amy, a teenager who has been hospitalized.  One night, she sees a little boy, Tito, standing by her bed and who appears to be a friendly spirit of some sort.

Amy is released and after a while, her parents send her to a boarding school in Mexico. At the airport, she meets Alberto, a talkative teen about her age who is heading for the same destination and quickly becomes an intelligent and very odd friend to her.

Semicolon is a book that asks as many questions as it provides answers, allowing those to explore their own inner conclusions about what they experienced. It is both thought provoking and visceral at the same time.

The book's excellence starts with its protagonist. While books about troubled teens are nothing new, Aristeiguieta takes great care to capture a young brilliant but fractured mind on the verge of falling into existential loneliness and emotional numbness.

At first, there are some hints about the cause of Amy's hospitalization but we aren't told anything definite until later. She lays in the hospital bed thinking about how she got there. She was someone who felt invisible and lived inside her own head. (What depressed, lonely, imaginative kid hasn't felt that way? Heck what depressed, lonely, imaginative, adult still doesn't feel that way?) One day, she wanted to end those feelings and attempted to take her own life. 

She also reflects that even during her hospitalization, her frequently arguing parents couldn't stop blaming each other, throwing herself even further into despair. She finds no comfort in outside existence so she retreated into her own solitude but when even that failed to soothe her, she decided to kill herself instead.

 This is a very accurate description of long term depression that someone feels when their usual escapes and coping mechanisms no longer work. After all, you can read, watch TV or stream videos, or play games all day. But eventually the book will close, the credits will roll, and the game will be over, and the real world unfortunately has to be lived in.

Tito and Alberto act as sort of spirit guides towards Amy. Throughout the book, Tito leads Amy through various astral projections and lucid dreams to see different views of the world around her. She travels through moments and memories that aren't just hers but belong to other people and recognizes different parts of herself that she thought were long gone.

In the hospital, he astrally takes her out of her room to observe her family, other patients, and their concerned friends and family members. She is able to connect with others in a way that is greater than what she has felt in a long time. Tito is able to open up a warmer part of Amy's personality that still exists underneath the sadness and depression. Later, Tito takes her to a park where there are balloons and a party. This opens up the youthful childlike side of her as a counter to the cynicism that she has developed.

While Tito helps Amy, his appearance does not suddenly solve all of Amy's problems. Her parents send her to the boarding school, partly because they are concerned that she may try to attempt suicide again but also so their arguing and eventual separation does not affect her fragile state. At the school, she is just as isolated as she was at her old one. Luckily, Alberto, the boy that she met at the airport, attends the same school and instantly becomes her closest friend.

Alberto serves a different purpose for Amy than Tito. One could compare Amy's time in the hospital to her being reborn. When she meets Tito, she is like a child and children often communicate with pictures, simple words, and concepts like "love," "fun," and "happy." 

When she goes to the school, Amy re-enters her teen stage. Teenagers are full of questions, confused about the world and their identity, and struggling to understand it. Alberto helps her in that respect.

Alberto is a more human presence than the ethereal Tito. While he is an actual human (possibly), he is very intellectual and intuitive. He asks Amy provocative questions about her beliefs and experiences and shares his own views. He is someone with a deep faith in Judaism but is also open to other spiritual practices like the concepts of lucid dreams and visions and the existence of parallel dimensions. He's like a Teen Guru advising Amy intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

He guides Amy into putting her time with Tito into words and discovering what it could actually mean. 

It is very refreshing that even though Amy and Alberto become close, they do not develop a romance. Aristeiguieta was wise to avoid this because it shows that there can be great value in platonic friendship and that two people, even teenagers, can find connections that are built on mutual trust and care and not necessarily on lust. In developing her friendships with Tito and Alberto, Amy is able to understand her relationships with others like her parents and learn more about herself, maybe even love herself. 

Semicolon is a punctuation symbol that joins two independent clauses without using a coordinating conjunction like and. That's what this book is about, joining independent clauses: things that shouldn't exist at once but somehow do. Things like life and death, dreams and reality, sleep and awake, emotion and thought, dark and light, and childhood and adolescence. They're like Yin and Yang, divided they make separate halves and different sections of a story. When they join together, united, they make a whole picture and story. 

Through her dreams of Tito and her conversations with Alberto, Amy goes on a metaphysical journey by means of astral projection, parallel dimension travel, and lucid dreams to show her a deeper world of love, hope, and the power of one's mind and spirit. 

Whether this book is literally or metaphorically true, it is a powerful account of the mind, heart, soul, and spirit.

Weekly Reader: Fearghus Academy: Precarious Gems by I.O. Scheffer; Magic Users Get Some Serious Game Play

 

Weekly Reader: Fearghus Academy: Precarious Gems by I.O. Scheffer; Magic Users Get Some Serious Game Play

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: In this third installment of the Fearghus Academy Series, Artesia Addison and her friends get to know more of the rest of the world around them. They also are affected with that illness that strikes every teenager: an overabundance of hormones and deep romantic feelings for classmates and other peers.

Another school year is in the air in Domhan and this year coincides with the Magic Research and Cooperation Triennial Tournament. Good news, Fearghus Academy students are permitted to participate in the Tournament in nearby Naomh. They have to use their magical abilities of Water, Fire, Air, Earth, Ice, and others against students from other schools. So in other words, it's something like Hogwarts' Triwizard Tournament combined with a human Pokemon battle.

To top it all off, sworn enemy Alptraum Engel is still around and is ready to take her villainous act on the road to fight those meddling kids. Just as big as the athletic tournament and the ever present threat of Engel, is the romantic lives of these kids who are starting to view their classmates as more than friends. 

Because I am not fond of books or episodes where most of the action is an athletic tournament, I find Precarious Gems to be the weakest volume in the series. However, it is the weakest volume in an outstanding series so the weakness isn't very much and Fearghus Academy is still strongly recommended as a whole.

The Tournament sections are interesting especially for those who like athletic competitions or magical duels. The characters often have to use their intelligence as well as their skill sets to best their opponents. A Water Mage Vs. A Fire Mage or Ice Vs. Fire is easy enough to figure out. But what sparks could fly in a Fire Vs. Fire battle (pun not intended)? What would result in Light Vs. Earth besides a scorching summer day? What powers are those in Other and how can one compete with a rival who has powers that they don't know about? 

There are some pretty clever means that Team Fearghus uses to defend themselves like building an ice wall or creating a bright light to throw their opponent off kilter. But a little of the competition goes a long way and ends surprisingly anticlimactic when unforeseen circumstances force Fearghus to withdraw from the competition.

What is more important is the development of our lead characters. As adolescents, they are experimenting with their bodies and their emotions. Many of the characters are pairing up. Wild girl Marnie and the steadier Gretel have fallen in love. The devout Lulu and class clown Douglas have been involved since the ending of the last book. They are strange attractions of opposites, but so far seem to work well.

Deuteragonists, Artesia and Eilam get the most attention and this book explores their romantic lives as they struggle to survive in this exciting but troubling world. In the previous book, Eilam was afflicted with a parasite which caused him to have great pain hearing or seeing religious things. He was then kidnapped and subjected to torture and abuse from his birth parents. 

This volume clearly shows that those events left their mark on him physically and emotionally. He is easily subdued a few times in this book and is unsure of himself or his abilities. He makes a few new friends, some turn out to be beyond fair weather friends, and exposes his fears and vulnerabilities even more. He has many heart to heart conversations with Artesia and Telemachus.

One of the most emotional ones between Eilam and Telemachus involves Telemachus pouring out his heart to Eilam. While Telemachus is certainly gay, Eilam is asexual but this conversation suggests that Eilam may actually be demisexual, asexual except where Telemachus is concerned or at least feels an emotional romantic connection with his friend, just not a sexual one. It's nice that finally after flirtations, jokes, and loyalty in the past two books the two young men are ready to admit their true feelings towards each other and take that step into becoming a couple.

Artesia also has her own love life to sort out. She breaks up with her former boyfriend, Jun, because the long distant relationship becomes harder to keep up with. At first, she thinks that she may have feelings for Eilam but since she knows of his sexuality and recognizes their platonic friendship, she does not pursue it.

Instead her latest romance comes from another place. In my review of October Jewels, I wrote that Artesia treats both Jun and Marnie, who are infatuated with her, equally and speculated that perhaps her sexuality was something that was waiting to be explored.

Well the wait is over. While Artesia had a romance with Jun, she is now interested in someone else: Callie Rose Boutique, a model and student from a rival school. Callie and Artesia at first get into teasing conversations that border on flirting. They go on dates first in groups then single. Then finally they become physical. Artesia is captivated by this beautiful self-assured woman who is unafraid to pursue a romantic relationship with another woman despite objections from her homophobic classmates. 

Artesia herself is uncertain at first. Even though she sympathizes and understands her friends' sexualities, her own has never been explored. There is still something of the 1860's Earth girl in her that causes her to think those feelings are wrong for her. Callie gives her a chance to understand and accept those emotions within herself and realize that they are perfectly natural and normal. Artesia is bisexual and she finally acknowledges that.

Another important aspect to this volume of the series is how it explores the relationships between the adopted parents and the children in their care. After the previous volume where we met Eilam's horrible abusive birth parents and learned a painful depressing secret about Artesia's, it is demonstrated that in Domhan they are in good hands. 

Mr. Peterson shows deep affection for Eilam and his other adopted son, Cadence. He becomes the person that Eilam can confide in and respect. He gives what the young man never had before: unconditional love and acceptance.

Nichole Harvey also steps up in her parenting of Artesia. She acts like a mother tiger or bear protecting her cub. She is concerned about Artesia's relationship with Eilam because of his parentage but slowly comes around. She also shares stories of her own youth to lead by example but also to let Artesia know that nothing is off the table and they can talk about anything.

Nichole's best moment comes at the end when she has to defend her adopted daughter from Engel's latest trap. While Engel reveals a dark secret of her own, Nichole's actions show that there is no excuse for her to mistreat children, particularly her daughter. 

While the Tournament takes a lot of Precarious Gems' time, it is the romantic and familial relationships that stand out in this book.

Weekly Reader: Fearghus Academy: Crystal Shards by I.O. Scheffer; The Fight Becomes Internal and More Personal for Our Magical Friends

 Weekly Reader: Fearghus Academy: Crystal Shards by I.O. Scheffer; The Fight Becomes Internal and More Personal for Our Magical Friends

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: So now we return to that awesome school for magical students. No, not that one. The, in my opinion, better, more awesome school for magical students. Fearghus Academy from I.O. Scheffer's YA Science Fiction/Fantasy series of the same name.

In the first volume, Anna Addison is adopted by Nichole Harvey, an eccentric Earth mage, and leaves 1860's England and Earth behind and heads for the planet, Domhan. She changes her name to Artesia and begins training as a Fire mage to study at Fearghus Academy. She makes various friends such as Evelyn Smith, an overachieving Light user, and Eilam Deforest, a secretive Ice mage. Artesia and her friends are also the targets of Alptraum Engel, a magic user who wants to gather all the magic that she can, including twelve very powerful skulls. On one of their missions the students find one of those skulls but lose fellow Fearghus student, Antonia Maria, in the process.

In the first book, October Jewels, we are introduced to Domhan, Fearghus Academy, the characters, and the ongoing plots. It's a great start. This second volume, Crystal Shards raises the stakes by being stronger and more character driven. It throws the characters, particularly Artesia and Eilam into emotional turmoil that could change them forever.

The gang is sent on an assignment to discover how the nuns in a nearby convent are impregnated without having sexual intercourse. After uncovering the truth, their next conflict involves one of their own. Parvaneh, a student, disappears and is found again alive but deprived of her magic. She has to return to Earth and to Domhan, she is considered dead. We then learn the source of her kidnapping. Eilam's scientist parents were arrested for conducting unethical experiments. They have escaped and now want to continue their research on volunteers, whether they are willing or not, and they have no reservations on their age, mental status, or whether they are blood relatives.

Meanwhile Artesia and the others are trailing people who are in debt from some dark creatures. They are also told that Antonia is with this sinister group, but she is not the flashy, vibrant, friendly girl that they once knew.

Sometimes the second volume in a series can be a miss. The first sets up the world and if the third doesn't end the series, it often leads to a dramatic climax needing the next book to resolve it. If done badly, the second volume can be a lot of running around with no resolution. If done right, setting and plot give way to developing the characters and deepening our understanding of them. In this case, it is a second book done right.

One of the brightest spots in the book is the strongest character in this volume, Eilam. From their first assignment, Eilam goes through a series of changes which alter him from the kindly, trustworthy, but quiet young man that we knew. During the search in the convent, Eilam is left alone in a graphic room with dead bodies, a living baby still in his deceased mother's arms, and a demonic looking creature. 

Eilam comes through that ordeal with a newly adopted brother by his adopted father, Mr. Peterson. Worse, he ends up with a strange affliction in which he suffers tremendous headaches and blackouts, especially when he sees or hears about religious things. That's not a problem for him, since he's an agnostic but many of his friends, such as Lulu and Artesia are religious, and even the mention of "My God" as a swear is enough to put him in great pain.

Despite this affliction, he continues to help his friends with their studies and Mr. Peterson with caring for baby Cadence. He tries to be the same person as always, loyal best friends with Artesia and sort of boyfriend to Telemachus, but his illness takes its toll on him. It gets worse when his birth parents are released. He winds up back in their house and is forced to endure the sadistic tortures that they implement on him and their so-called subjects.

Eilam spends a lot of time trying to prove that he is nothing like his parents, being a good and thoughtful person even towards those who bully him. But his good intentions fall apart when he is alone with them. The Drs. Deforest study their biological son's abilities and those of other guinea pigs, including another student that Eilam led them to (instead of them going after one of his friends). 

They really are pieces of work that make Joan Crawford and Josef Fritzel look like Parents of the Year (Okay maybe not that bad, but close enough).

Eilam's father verbally and physically abuses him, at one point sticking his hand in a toaster. He also keeps him locked in with a dangerous prisoner who delights in torturing him. Eilam's mother does not come off any better. While she doesn't physically harm Eilam, she is just as manipulative. She never stands up for Eilam's mistreatment, considering her love for her husband more important than her son. She isolates Eilam from his peers by telling him dark secrets about the Domhan government and Fearghus Academy's intentions. It's unclear whether she is telling him the truth, but it certainly drives a wedge between Eilam and his friends and makes him more alone than ever. Come the next book and we will certainly see a character with massive PTSD and Stockholm Syndrome.

Eilam isn't the only character that goes through a lot of emotional turmoil. Artesia adjusts to her life in Domhan and Fearghus. What she once thought of as glamorous and exciting, she now sees a harsher darker side. When they go through the process of mourning Parvaneh, Artesia wonders how long loyalties last in this new world. Does the loyalty of her new friends and family last as long as she is considered useful? What happens to someone when they return to Earth? They are left alone without friends, family, or a purpose that no longer exists, a feeling that they were once capable of great things but now no longer can achieve them.

Artesia also has some dramatic encounters that leave her incredibly shaken. A dark creature working for Engel tracks her down and threatens her friends in Domhan and Earth. She is in fear of what could happen to them and is unable to express it because she is sworn to secrecy. 

One of her friends finds out a secret about her past and while she calls that friend out for nosing around, the revelation brings her closer to her adopted home world than she thought. 

By far, Artesia's strongest and most emotional moment occurs when she is reunited with Antonia or what remains of her. She has a hard time finding her flamboyant friend in the hardened cold blooded being before her. Artesia wrestles with the consequences of what she did and didn't do in the previous volume and how she and the other students played a part in Antonia's downfall. Artesia also sees for herself the true danger in Engel's ambitions in that she can change a once loving person into a soulless monster.

Crystal Shards puts Eilam and Artesia through an emotional wringer. It's clear that by volume three, they and the rest of Fearghus Academy will never be the same again. 

Weekly Reader: Music Boxes by Tonja Drecker; Pas De Dark Fantasy Pirouettes Into The World of Ballet

 

Weekly Reader: Music Boxes by Tonja Drecker; Pas De Dark Fantasy Pirouettes Into The World of Ballet

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: What a way to return after a long hiatus. Tonja Drecker's Music Boxes is a complex YA Dark Fantasy that takes the Readers to a strange and disturbing ballet school. 

Lindsey's family moved from rural Nebraska to New York City, so her younger sister, Bridget, could attend a pre-college program at Julliard as a violin prodigy. Lindsey is out of place and more than a bit jealous, particularly since moving meant that she had to give up her ballet classes and now has to take lessons at the Community Center. 

Lindsey's anger and confusion about her surroundings leads her to Madame Destinee's dance school, a school conveniently located within walking distance of her family's apartment. It is every ballet student's dream: beautiful costumes, talented dancers, and an understanding teacher whose only payment is an agreement to perform in every recital after midnight. "I only desire your talent," Madame Destinee says. What could go wrong?

Music Boxes is a contemporary fantasy that isn't too far from a fairy tale, you know like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. A fairy tale that would make a lovely ballet. 

What makes that type of story often are the visuals and the way that Drecker writes Music Boxes focuses on the strangeness of Madame Destinee and her studio.

Once a character walks into Destinee's studio, it is clear that they practically wandered into a seemingly enchanted world. There are golden staircases with plush cushions. The dancers wear the most beautiful costumes and are so agile and limber that their dancing almost looks like flying. There is no music playing around the studio, just inside the dancer's earbuds and even though the music is different for each person, they move in synchronous choreographed formation.

Destinee is also a one of a kind teacher who knows each dancer's personal struggles, strengths, and weaknesses. She also gives them all sorts of good food, even if it isn't always healthy, but it is very delicious. She is very encouraging towards the newcomers, like Lindsey, and willing to allow them demonstrate their talents. Even the least talented of dancers would want to visit this beautiful, colorful, warm atmosphere.

It's a perfect place for Lindsey to nurture her talent and ambition to be a lead dancer, a prima ballerina.

However, as with many fairy tales there is another side to this wonderful setting. The gingerbread house is the home of a child eating witch. The beautiful singing voice is a mermaid luring sailors to their deaths. The beautiful ornate mansion or palace is the location of child abuse and infanticide. In this case, the dance studio harbors many dark secrets.

There's the fact that the dancers came from different places like Santiago, Boston, Paris, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg. No, they didn't move from there to New York City. They claim to live in those places right now and found their way to Madame Destinee's studio like Lindsey did. It just appeared wherever they lived.

Who is this audience that appears to Destinee's performances every night after midnight? The dancers can't see them but they hear their applause and know that they are there.

Creepiest of all is the collection of music boxes. Each one has a lifelike dancer inside and were made by Destinee's brother who was an expert inventor and toy designer who disappeared one day and was never seen again. Lindsey can't help but notice new ones added to Destinee's collection, new ones with dancers that look awfully familiar.

Definitely the fantastic aspects are the strongest parts of Music Boxes. In fact, it outweighs many of the more realistic tween drama of the rest of the book. Lindsey has an instant rivalry with Adela, one dancer and sort of a romance with Robert, another dancer. Typical stuff for a YA novel and nothing surprising here but I suppose every fairy tale needs the Jealous Antagonist and Prince Charming.

Lindsey's rivalry with Bridget is much more compelling. While Bridget is at times a spoiled brat and Lindsey, a moody whiner, their love for each other is also evident. In an early chapter, both sisters admit their concerns about the move and their worries about their father working two jobs and their mother working in a diner. Bridget asks if these changes were her fault because of her violin talent. Lindsey assures her that they are not and that Bridget has a gift which should be studied and practiced. This dialogue comes back into play in one of the best moments when Lindsey fights Destinee for Bridget and she admits that her love for her sister is stronger than her desire to be a prima ballerina. 

There are some frustrating unanswered questions by the time the book ends and some ambiguity concerning the fates of some characters. But for a contemporary fairy tale, Music Boxes is en pointe.

New Book Alert: Mandate: Thirteen by Joseph J. Dowling; Dystopian Science Fiction Focuses On Father-Daughter Road Trip to Escape

 

New Book Alert: Mandate: Thirteen by Joseph J. Dowling; Dystopian Science Fiction Focuses On Father-Daughter Road Trip to Escape

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The second Dystopian Science Fiction novel that I am reading this month is a different style than What Branches Grow.

Instead of focusing on the somber dark world in which the characters live, instead it focuses on the relationship between a father and daughter who try to escape it.

In the near future London is practically run by religious fanatics who force a strict rule over the population. Among the laws are that when a girl turns 13, she is to be tested for her fertility. If she is able to give birth, then she will be sent to a birthing center where she will remain until she delivers the allotted amount of children. 

Michael and his wife, Allison are at a crossroads in their relationship. Their daughter, Hope, has reached that fateful age and is shown to be fertile. Allison, being the "good and loyal citizen" that she is, betrays her husband and daughter and turns Hope in. Rather than acquiesce to the law, Michael runs away with Hope to Wales to stay with an old friend of Michael's.

Mandate: Thirteen presents a terrifying possibility that could be believable. It doesn't help that similar to What Branches Grow it is shown to be a few years into the future. Michael's nostalgic popular culture memories suggest that he was a Millennial, even a Zoomer.

 This futuristic world is one which religious fanatics have taken power and control every aspect in society. Do I need to explain any further about the likelihood of that scenario? The only thing that is surprising is that the setting is Great Britain and not the United States. Of course, that may be because I am more familiar with the controversies concerning the American Evangelical movement, the scare tactics that they pull, threats against people who aren't like them, their political overreach with endorsing certain causes and candidates, and their violations of separation of church and state (and the ways that they try to sidestep that amendment clause).

I sort of wish that we could peer inside the inner workings of this futuristic London. We see the laws and how they affect most people through Michael and his family, but we don't see it on a wider scale. It would be interesting for example to look into one of the Birthing Center and what goes on in there. If Dowling ever writes a sequel, it would be an interesting approach to get a more inside look at this dystopian society. Perhaps he could tell it from the point of view of a woman who escaped the Birthing Center.

What does hold up is the father-daughter relationship between Michael and Hope. The moment that Michael processes that his daughter is going to be taken away, he does not hesitate. He takes her away to be safe. He is clearly a loving and selfless parent who would put his life on the line for his daughter.

It's normal to read a mother to take that role as nurturer caregiver while the father is the status quo conformist. But the fact that the roles are intentionally reversed in this case shows that regardless of gender, there are some who will join the system and reject their humanity and those who retain their humanity by fighting the system. A father caring for a child in a science fiction landscape is becoming more prevalent in works like this, The Last of Us, and The Mandalorian showing that love and true devotion between a parent and child knows no gender or setting.

Michael and Hope have some warm moments demonstrating their close loving bond. Despite running for their lives, they share some humorous jibes about Michael's age or Hope's interests. 

There are times where they defend each other using violence if necessary. 

So, there is a real sense of affection and devotion that are found in these characters that is illustrated on this journey of survival, courage, and striving for freedom.

Michael and Hope have plenty of typical moments where they hide out with rural families that live just outside of the dystopian society's rules and regulations but present problems of their own. There are the false safe spots where their end goals are not met. There are also the government types who follow them and want to catch them dead or alive. Then there is the secret about why these particular fugitives are important. Some of it is typical for the genre but there are enough twists that keep them from being too cliche.

Mandate: Thirteen is a strong father-daughter story that just so happens to be set in a dystopian future.

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls (The Adventures of Ruby Pi Book 2): Teen Heroines Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems; Ruby and Her Genius Colleagues Return in Five More Intelligent, Exciting, Educational, and Clever Stories

 

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls (The Adventures of Ruby Pi Book 2): Teen Heroines Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems; Ruby and Her Genius Colleagues Return in Five More Intelligent, Exciting, Educational, and Clever Stories

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I will admit that I am a Literary Genius but a Math Dunce.

I excelled in English Writing and Literature classes and even tutored other students. I earned my BA in English from University of Missouri-St. Louis and Masters in Library Science from Indiana University-Indianapolis. I have turned my talents in Writing and Literature into a loved (and hopefully one day lucrative) career as a Book Reviewer and Editor.

However, Math was a different story. Math and Science were my worst subjects in school. I liked logic puzzles and code breaking because they involved analysis and deductive reasoning but those were the only Math problems that I actually liked.

 I barely passed my undergraduate degree by taking Computer courses for Science credit and Contemporary Math (Math for everyday use like shopping and business AKA "Math for Dummies/English Majors") for Math. If it wasn't for those courses, I would either still be trying to get my BA or have long given up in frustration.

The reason that I am mentioning my terrible history with Math is to emphasize on how well Tom Durwood's The Adventures of Ruby Pi Series works. It works the same way many good educational PBS series do. It explains a subject that many Readers may have (and still might) have a hard time understanding and makes it clear and exciting to follow.

The second book, The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls is more of the same. Excellent stories featuring intelligent young women using their mathematical skills in diverse ways to help the society around them.

Just like in the Geometry Girls, the book is separated into five stories. They are:

"Ruby Pi and The Case of the Shy Mathematician"

The eponymous protagonist/super genius is back. This time Rupa is called by Inspector Daniel Summerscale to solve the murder of mathematician, Anaan Warinda.

This case is a personal one for Rupa. Warinda was a mentor to the young woman and even encountered her as a child, giving her the nickname of Ruby Pi.

As with her previous experience, Rupa uses a mathematical procedure to solve Warinda's murder. This time she uses "Bayes's Rule" which states, "The probability of arriving at a true theorem improves upon the processing of new data." Some Mathematical theories are created as means to solve problems, not just with numbers.

Rupa is able to gather data to find a solution, especially in solving Warinda's complex coded notebooks. She finds herself involved in a much larger case involving the tense relationship between the English and Indian governments. She also earns respect and admiration from Inspector Summerscale and the Mathematical Society. It is definitely a period of ascension towards Rupa's character and status.

"Blue Moon Over Mogollons"

While Bayes's Rule may be new to some Readers, many are probably familiar with the concept of card counting and how highly intelligent gamblers use it to cheat the system and sometimes try to beat the house.

In Wild West, Silver City, Casey uses her talent for card counting to help her mother succeed in card games (even if Ma doesn't always listen). However, their latest caper involves some dangerous desperados and new weaponry.

In this story, we see how Casey is able to use her talents to help her family. However, we also see how this makes her an outsider towards them. Because of her advanced intelligence, Casey is able to see and long for a life outside of the saloons, gambling houses, and shoot outs. Casey's mother however lives only for her current pleasures like gambling and drinking. While Math is important to the story,"Blue Moon Over Mogollons" is mostly a family story about what happens when families have different incompatible views about what they want out of life.

"Pen's Black Swan"

As we learned from the previous volume, societies need economic and statistical forecasters to predict the financial turns that could occur. Just like with the weather, it would be good to listen and prepare ourselves.

This story is set in 1992 when Penelope West predicts that the stock market will undergo a black swan, an unpredictable and unforeseen event typically with extreme consequences. This is also the time when markets coalesced to force the British government to exit the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by removing its currency from the government.

Of the five stories, this is probably the least interesting. It covers similar ground to "Yan Li and the Numerators" and "Shawnee and The Visitor" in which a fictional person presents a real prediction but is shot down by reality. However, it does give some credence by people accepting Pen's views in the end. This and similar stories prove that we should never be too proud or arrogant to not listen to warnings. Sometimes, it's best to over prepare and be calm when something doesn't happen than to not prepare and be in the middle of the explosion wondering what we could have done differently.

"Jayani's Big Gamble"

Similar to "Blue Moon Over Mogollons" this is a family story disguised as a math lesson. Third Aunt who raised and trained her apprentice chef, Jayani, is ill. Jayani must raise money for her medical care but how? She uses her baking skills and knowledge of volume to make pottery and rent out kilns.

Jayani is a clever woman who is able to take charge during troubled times. She helps her aunt showing a strong familial love. She also is able to become a success achieving fame and wealth for her talents. She and her aunt are the opposite of Casey and her mother in that they show deep loyalty and encouragement.

"Sasha With the Red Hair"

We come to one of my favorite Mathematical puzzles, code breaking in probably my favorite story in this volume. It is similar in content to the previous volume's "Simone and the Mean Girls" involving an intelligent woman trying to solve a code while dealing with a vain and arrogant rival. Only this time, the rival is her sister.

 Uly won the  Vavilov for Mathematical achievement and she and her family are going to Moscow for the honor. Unfortunately, her sister Sasha ("with the red hair" the narrative says), gets the attention with her beauty and claiming credit for the achievement. 

While in Moscow, Uly stumbles upon a secret Mayan codex and Sasha gets herself in trouble with the NKVD.

This story is a reminder of the old fairy tales in which a good hard working sibling triumphs over the bad tempered lazy sibling. Uly is a reminder of many who have been overlooked by peers, leaders, friends, and even family members because of better looking, louder, and more talented siblings. It can be hard to deal with when one's talents are so often overlooked. However, in this instance both sisters get exactly what they deserve in a clever roundabout way which finally rewards Uly's intelligence. While Sasha brings about her own comeuppance.