Redshirts by John Scalzi

There's something wrong with the spaceship Intrepid.

New space fleet member Andrew Dahl and other new recruits, called "ensigns" start to realize that one the dreaded "away" missions, mission where teams are sent out to explore distant planets, at least one the new recruit dies.

They spend their time trying to work it out, is it simply luck? Is there some hidden formula to surviving an ice shark attack? Or the dreaded "death by door malfunction?"

Turns out there is something fishy going on, I'll do my best not to spoil it in the next section.

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall

I picked this book up because of its title and appealing cover image. While I would not have been disappointed if the story dealt with an American kid from the suburbs taking a trip out West, this book exceeded my expectations because it features Native American protagonists engaged in thoughtful introspection.

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

In Tommy Wallach’s pre-apocalyptic novel We All Looked Up, the fault is not in our stars but in one particular star. An asteroid, more accurately, one whose path threatens a collision with our own planet. Nicknamed “Ardor,” the interstellar visitor drifts inexorably toward Earth, its inescapable doom wicks away inhibitions, and the worlds of four Seattle high school students intersect as society crumbles around them.

Like The Breakfast Club, Wallach’s novel brings together high school students from disparate social groups: Andy, the skateboarding slacker who is also a musician; Anita, the overscheduled overachiever living her parents’ dream; Peter, the basketball star who has already started to question the future drawn out for him; and Eliza, the artistic beauty with the besmirched reputation. Only this club faces not Saturday detention but world destruction—teenagers often think small things are the end of the world, so how might they respond when it really is the end of the world?

What truly matters when not only you but also possibly all of humanity has a specific expiration date? How do our reputations matter if we can count our final days on a calendar page? What are we left with when what we’ve based our lives on is no more? Amid the couplings and uncouplings (I am tempted to say that the novel could also be called We All Hooked Up—not as a criticism, mind you), the family issues and the violence, Wallach drives us to consider the fundamental philosophical questions of what it means to be human. And the connections between us all, connections we shouldn’t need imminent catastrophe to recognize.

Stripped of its macro level of pre-apocalyptic doom, We All Looked Up is the story of four teens struggling to become who they are, the same struggle we all face in our non-apocalyptic lives. As the main characters all look inward, We All Looked Up shows us the complexity behind the teen clique stereotypes, making it (like The Breakfast Club) a story of unexpected depth.

As a reading teacher, I think Wallach’s novel makes an excellent ladder with Vonnegut (explicitly referenced in We All Looked Up) and the pre-apocalyptic The Last Policeman series by Ben Winters. All three authors help us see that whether the world is ending or it only feels like it (and maybe it always feels like it), the end of the world doesn’t have to mean the end of being human.

Winning Chess

I learned to beat my father at chess years ago when I read Fred Reinfeld's Chess in a Nutshell, a nice introduction to the game. Winning Chess: How to Perfect Your Attacking Play is a reprint of Chernev and Reinfeld's 1948 Winning Chess, which was then subtitled How to See Three Moves Ahead.

Chess nerds know that the way games are recorded (chess notation) changed in the 1970s from "descriptive" to "algebraic." Well, I learned the old way, and am reading an older copy of Winning Chess. I sort of feel like I should adapt to the more commonly used algebraic notation, but it's just so easy for me to read what I learned way back when...

Fortunately, this new edition is updated with algebraic notation. Most readers these days will appreciate that, I'm sure. The book includes twenty chapters of instruction on tactics. Each chapter has a series of scenarios to illustrate how to do a pin, a fork, a double attack, discovered check, double check, etc. You learn how to identify your opponents "overworked pieces," self defense, "design for checkmate," and so on. There are quiz problems at the end of each chapter to encourage the reader (I find them encouraging, anyway.). I have not yet looked at the final chapter of six illustrative games, but I expect they will be helpful, too.

I can't really give an excerpt from the book. Each scenario has two diagrams of the chess board. The first view sets the scene, and you can try to figure a good sequence of moves. The authors then show their preferred moves, and the second view of the board is worth studying too, because there are various possible outcomes to consider.

I host a Chess program at the library every week and Winning Chess has improved my game. I recommend this and any other of Fred Reinfeld's chess books. He writes well (Not always the case in chess books) so the instruction is easy to understand.

THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH by Max Brallier

When I heard this one compared to a cross between DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and The Walking Dead, I couldn't pass it up. After it was snatched up by one of my students, I was able to get my hands on it. What fun!

Jack Sullivan's life has been a disaster. He is used to being shuffled from one foster family to another. Now he finds himself totally on his own after the apocalypse hits his town. Surrounded by zombies and countless other fearsome monsters, Jack is living in the treehouse in the backyard of his most recent foster family. He has cleverly fixed up the place so he can defend himself and enjoy some entertainment at the same time. After all, why let a little thing like the apocalypse ruin everything.

Jack has a checklist of goals that help keep him focused. Two things at the top of his list are to find his best friend Quint and rescue June Del Toro, the girl of his dreams. Armed with what he calls his Louisville Splinter, he is determined to take on the zombies and monsters who now rule the world.

Author Max Brallier and illustrator Douglas Holgate have created the next hot reading adventure for reluctant readers or for anyone looking for a fast-paced, humorous adventure. An unlikely hero like Jack combined with graphic novel style illustrations make THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH a sure winner. I can't wait to the next adventure scheduled for release in August 2016.

Previously posted at readingjunky.blogspot.com

First of its Kind

If you're growing up today and you're into young adult science fiction and fantasy, you are spoiled. Terribly, awfully spoiled. New titles arrive weekly and a lot of them are damned good. You will never ever get through all of YA SFF published, and certainly not while you are still a YA.

It was not always thus. Even a couple of decades ago, things were sparser. Remember that the reason JK Rowling had difficulty publishing the first of the Harry Potter novels was the widely held belief in the publishing industry that "kids just weren't that into fantasy." Scroll back a few more decades and you have only a smattering of titles (including the Earthsea books I wrote about a while back). Scroll back just a little further to the 1930s and there's really no YA SFF. YA is not really a concept at all and SF was just emerging from infancy, about it enter its Golden Age.

Then in 1940 Slan, by AE Van Vogt, was published serially and became, arguably, the first YA science fiction novel.

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Bridge, Emily and Tab are the best of friends. They have even sworn over the almighty Twinkie  to never fight. As the friends go from grade school to middle school things seem to change a little. Will they survive the arrival of boys, cell phones, and social media on their scene?
In addition to the three friends, Stead
Rebecca Stead has masterfully woven this story from multiple perspectives, bringing issues facing every student today front and center. A beautifully written commentary on lives of tweens and teens in this age of technology.

Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela S. Turner

It's a cliché to say that a work of nonfiction reads like a novel, but... Well, Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune totally reads like a novel. A bloody, epic one at that, full of betrayal, bravery, backstabbing, honor, loyalty, war, and feuding families in soon-to-be feudal Japan.

The Taira clan had the emperor's favor—unfairly and undeservedly, in the eyes of Minamoto Yoshitomo. After a Minamoto plot to kidnap the emperor went awry and Yoshitomo was murdered, it would not have been unexpected for Taira Kiyomori to kill Yoshitomo's surviving sons, as well. He decided to spare a few of Minamoto's sons, however, including the youngest, an infant boy named Yoshitsune.

So here's the story of an exiled child from a dishonored family who runs away from the monastery he was sent to, learns archery and swordfighting late in life (for a boy from a samurai family, anyway), reunites with his brothers to go to war against the Taira, displays courage and skill in battle and an unexpected military genius, has a kind of charisma that engenders loyalty among the men he commands, but is also proud and ambitious and maybe arrogant, meaning powerful men had powerful reasons to fear and/or hate him and seek his downfall. Seriously, is it any wonder that Yoshitsune became a legendary figure and the basis of several classic works of Japanese literature?

Pamela S. Turner's biography of Yoshitsune is a page-turning, very approachable book that vividly describes 12th-century Japan, while delineating what is known about Yoshitsune's life and what is speculation or fiction. Turner integrates a lot of information about Japanese life and culture at the time into the text, which helps readers understand the complex relationships (or rivalries) among the families, clans, and with the imperial family. She also writes rousing battle scenes. And if you're a fan of back matter, you'll have even more reason to love this book—practically a third of the book consists of back matter, comprising an author's note, comprehensive chapter notes, a bibliography, and more.

Firefight (The Reckoners, Book Two) by Brandon Sanderson

This is a great sci-fi series. I wrote a review of Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, the first book in the Reckoners series, over a year ago. You can check it out here if you want a little back story.

Firefight takes place shortly after the end of Steelheart, our hero, David, is struggling with the realisation that his friend and mentor, the man known as the Prof, possesses super powers much like the Epics - the enemies he is sworn to destroy.

We catch up with the Reckoners as they travel to Babilar (once New York), a city almost entirely covered in water. Here, David and his rag-tag group of friends must traverse this minefield of a setting to try and track down and destroy the super villain Firefight, along with other Epics.

However, in Babilar, nothing is as it seems.

The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

Historical fiction reads for younger reads aren't always the most popular or entertaining reads I must admit. I can't remember the last time a young customer has requested one of them in the library. However, when one does find a book that is not only based on historical events but is also a transcendent story then it must be lauded. Shelley Pearsall's The Seventh Most Important Thing is one such book.