The Deerslayer

Published Information

Author:	James Fenimore Cooper
Series:	Leatherstocking Tales #1
Published:	1841
Genre:	Adventure
Pages:	608 (Version at B&N)

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Result of scalping shown, people killed)
Sexual Content:	PG
Language:	PG
Reading Age:	High School
Buy Recommend:	Paperback (Classic, but very mentally challenging)
Overall Rating:	5 out of 10 (Portrayed as adventure, but mostly a discourse on human nature and religion)

Plot Summary

The Deerslayer is set in the 1740's, the frontier time of America as the French and Indian wars. The colonies are still small and two classes of colonials have formed: the settlers, and the frontiersmen (not sure if that was the exact names used). The frontiersmen live on the edge of civilization and are the trappers and hunters. They also have the most contact with Indians. In some cases this is a good thing, and in others not so much. The French and trying to undermine the colonists and actually pay Indians for the scalps of colonials regardless of age or sex. The settlements do the same thing with Indian scalps: they will trade Indian scalps for money, again without regard to age or sex.

With that setting in mind, we meet two companions: Natty Bumppo, otherwise known as the Deerslayer, and Hurry Harry. Both are frontiersman, and are on their way to a lake in upstate New York. Deerslayer is going there to meet an Indian friend, Chingachgook (meaning Big Serpent, which is how Deerslayer calls him), to help him rescue his true love, Wah-ta-Wah, who had been captured by the Huron tribe. Hurry was traveling with him to meet with Tom Sutter. Tom lives on the lake with his two daughter, one of which Hurry wants to marry.

Once they arrive, the realize the same Huron tribe that captured Wah-to-Wah is also in the area. Tom and Hurry are of the opinion that Indian scalps are valuable and immediately try and find a way to raid the tribe and take some scalps. They are captured in the process, so it is up to Deerslayer to keep the girls safe, and try and save Tom and Hurry. Deerslayer does meet up with Serpent, and they hatch some plans to rescue the men, as well as Wah-ta-Wah.

The daughters, one who is beautiful, and one who is "simple", also do what they can to help. In some cases, the plans work out, and in some cases things don't go quite as planned. But by the end of the story, the plot doesn't go where you might expect.

Comments

This was actually a harder book to read than I expected. First off, the story is an adventure that could have been written in less than 200 pages. But the author mixed in some fairly serious discussions into the story, as well as comments about nature, both of the earth and "being" as well as the gifts and expectations of different races of humans. If I had read the book for its discussions of human nature and the need for each of us to be true to who we are, I might have rated the book much higher than I did, but I didn't expect that, and so survived the book rather than truly enjoyed it. That being said, Cooper does an excellent job in his arguments in the book. It is very thought provoking, and while I didn't enjoy the book as much as I would have liked, I did keep thinking about the book for the next several days.

It is interesting to note that during Cooper's time, the books were not considered all that great. Critics didn't enjoy it all that much. But after several decades, the books were much more critically acclaimed, until now, they are considered classics.

If you do read it, don't read it for the plot or adventure. If you do, you will be bored and lose interest. But if you go in for the discourses from Deerslayer on the gift of the "white man" being that of Christianity, forgiveness, and kindness, you will not be disappointed. In fact, you might look at our world now and recognize how far we are from what we should be, regardless of our race or color. We, as a whole human race, should be better at being true to who we are and how we treat others. This would be an interesting book club read, if prepared for properly.

"The Deerslayer" can also be found online, for free, at http://www.literaturepage.com/read/cooper-deerslayer.html.

The Alchemyst

Published Information

Author:	Michael Scott
Series:	The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel #1
Published:	May 2007
Genre:	Fantasy
Pages:	400

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Fantasy violence)
Sexual Content:	PG
Language:	PG (Don't remember anything bad)
Reading Age:	Junior high, though might be a bit scary
Buy Recommend:	Hardbound (This book will be read several times in my house.)
Overall Rating:	6 out of 10 (Fast paced, enjoyable read)

Plot Summary

Sophie and Josh Newman are 15 year old twins who have taken up summer jobs in San Francisco. Josh works in a book shop for Nick Fleming and Sophie lands a job at the coffee shop across the street working for Perry Fleming, Nick's wife. In the first couple of chapters we learn that Nick and Perry are anything but normal and are actually near immortal humans. Specifically, Nick is Nicholas Flamel, the famous alchemist, and Perry is a very powerful sorceress. Both have been living for centuries and now work to protect the earth from being destroyed by the Dark Elders, basically evil gods who once ruled the earth, but were beaten by humans and their iron.

On top of everything, it turns out that Sophie and Josh are also a part of saving the world, and are part of a prophesy in which they will have the power to save or destroy the world. They problem is that they don't understand this magic world, have no magic of their own that they are aware of, and are just learning to drive. How can they be the prophesied twins to save the world from the Dark Elders? Fortunately, Nick and Perry, along with an ancient vampire, will all work together to train them. But will it be soon enough? The Dark Elders have also discovered their existence and are sending all of their servants, as well as themselves, to try and capture, if not kill the twins.

Comments

So a couple of things on this book. First, vampire books are becoming popular, as are books about the gods. This is the first one that I have read that attempts to blend the two. Of course, vampires are a little different that we normally think, as are the gods. But they are still present, and in an enjoyable form

Second, the author makes a habit of describing something a character does by explaining it from a non-standard point of view. For instance, most authors might say the following: "Joe said some words and then cracked a smile. Jane noticed the smile and wasn't sure what it meant." This author says (in some instances): "Joe said some words. Jane wasn't sure what the smile meant." In other words, it is implied that Joe cracked a smile. There were several times where I went searching back into the book to figure out when "Joe smiled." It took most of the book before I figured out this grammatical structure/style and it was very frustrating until then. In fact it was still frustrating because you are not sure Jane was talking about Joe's smile, her smile, or a random smile that appeared in the air.

Third, "deux ex machina" is a standard in this book. There are several times when there is no possible way to escape, but all of the sudden, the main characters are able to call upon a here to fore unknown power to fix the problem. That is one of my pet peeves. That being said, it isn't as obvious as I have seen in other books so it didn't bother me so much.

Overall, the book was enjoyable and a good page turner. At the end of the book, you find that the author has based much of the book on research of people that really did exist. That has made me want to go back and re-read just to see the real human aspect of the characters. Obviously, they didn't have mystical magic powers, but they were real scientists of their times.

The Wednesday Wars

Published Information

Author:	Gary D. Schmidt
Published:	May 2007
Genre:	Historical Novel
Pages:	272

Ratings

Violence:	G
Sexual Content:	PG
Language:	G
Reading Age:	Junior high (Elementary would even be ok, but much of history in book might be missed)
Buy Recommend:	Hardbound (Great feel good book, many in my family have read and will read again)
Overall Rating:	9 out of 10 (One of the best books I have read in a long time)

Plot Summary

Main Chars: Holling, Mrs Baker, Heather (sister), Meryl Lee

The book is set in the late sixties, during the Vietnam war, in New York. Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader who is convinced that teachers are out to get him, in particular, Mrs. Baker. He assumes they arrange schedules and make assignments specifically to torture their students. Especially, him. However, as any teacher will tell you, this is not the case.

On Wednesdays, most of his class is off early in the afternoon to attend either Jewish or Catholic services for youth. Holling, being Presbyterian, goes to neither of these, so has to stay in class. He is the only one. So Mrs. Baker decides to make use of his time. First, she assigns him busy work like cleaning the erasers for the school. But after a few weeks of this, she decides this is a waste of time and so comes up with another scheme to make Holling miserable. They are going to read Shakespeare together.

Turns out, Holling loves to read. His favorite book is Treasure Island, but can't imagine Shakespeare can be that good. However, as the book moves on, Holling realizes that Shakespeare's plays are very applicable in our life and he begins loving this reading. Holling and Mrs. Baker begin to truly enjoy this time together, and as the year progresses, Holling realizes there is much more to Mrs. Baker, and for that matter, many other people in his life that he either took for granted or dismissed, than meets the eye. She helps him grow up in a much more real sense than his father and mother do.

Comments

I loved this book! Once again, I find that often times, my favorites are books that make me stop and think about my own life. What are my priorities? What are my shortcomings? What can I laugh at in my laugh? This book made me stop and think about each of these, along with many other questions. There are times in the book that I had to put the book down because I was laughing so much. I remember when my wife read the book and she kept laughing. I didn't understand it then, but I do now. As an adult, it is so funny to me to think back on when I was a youth, looking at parents, teachers, other adults, and couldn't understand their motives. As an adult, it is hilarious to see life through the eyes of a seventh grader, when I understand more, now, what the adults are thinking.

There are also times I had to momentarily stop reading because of other emotions it made me feel: sadness, joy, or anger. I love how Superman's father (bear with me a sec…) talks about the great promise we humans show both for good and bad. While there aren't super villains in this book, you still see the good and bad in people. We see people who are insensitive to race, or are diva types, as well as the power of forgiveness and love. Once again… great book.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

Published Information

Author:	Eoin Colfer
Series:	Artemis Fowl
Published:	August 2010
Genre:	Fantasy
Pages:	368

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Not much detail, but many people die in bad ways)
Sexual Content:	PG (Artemis is temporarily besotted with Holly)
Language:	PG (Standard Fairy swearing)
Reading Age:	Junior High
Buy Recommend:	Paperback (My daughter and I will read it, but probably not more than once)
Overall Rating:	4 out of 10 (Still fun, but hard to follow, and not of same caliber as the rest of the series)

Plot Summary

As the book begins, we find that Artemis has a mental illness that only affects magical creatures called Atlantis Syndrome, with symptoms of paranoia, multiply personalities, OCD, and a few other things. But he has also come up with a plan to save the world (human and fairy) to help rid him of the guilt he has felt (which brought on the illness). He heads off into the Arctic area to show off his new idea to several important people in the fairy world.

At the demonstration, things go well and most of the group begin to buy into his idea. However the discussion is cut short when Artemis picks up an invisible craft flying towards their meeting. This craft is a space probe Foaly sent out years ago that, for some reason, is no longer responding the Foaly's instructions and commands. The probe basically kills all those at the meeting except Artemis, Foaly, and Holly. They are able to escape by using the machine Artemis has invented to save the world.

In a pod they were able to recover, they follow the probe as it drills into the ice and water. Very quickly they realize its destination is Atlantis. Their mission becomes returning to the surface to be able to transmit a distress signal to the fairy community (that and they are running out of air and will die if they don't get out). They are able to get the message and Atlantis is evacuated.

At the same time, Butler has received a message that his sister is in trouble. Butler goes out to meet his sister and shows up just in time for he and sister to be attacked by thousands of mesmerized humans being controlled by an unknown fairy. They are able to escape, but are tracked by some criminal dwarfs intent on killing them. Once again they escape and realize Artemis must be in trouble. Using a tracking device Butler put on Artemis, Butler tracks Artemis and saves Artemis' group from the pod.

Now that they are back together, the realize the events must be related, but are not sure who the perpetrator is. They must work quickly to figure out who is behind all of this and catch them before more damage can be done.

Comments

While the book was fun, it was a disappointment to me for several reasons. First, the book is very different than the others, meaning, Artemis isn't as important as he is in other books in the series. Instead he is more of a comic relief character. I found some of the best parts of the previous books have been the interaction with Artemis and this change was hard for me to accept.

Second, a new villain is introduced, Commander Root's brother to be exact, but we don’t really have time to connect with him. It seems the character development with him is very weak, and he is killed off by the end anyway. Though he is killed off through his own choice. Through the whole book, he seems like a self serving, egotistical type criminal, but it the end, his love for his human wife, whom he mesmerized, who is now very old and about to die, is enough for him to walk off into the sunset with her, saving the day. Just seems out of character.

I also don't like that the book starts you off in a very confusing situation. We have been use to the Artemis of old that is smart, can solve any problem, does whatever it takes, but from the first minute in the book, we know Artemis is not his normal self. He seems crazy, weak, etc. The best way for us to begin this book would have been for the author to walk us through his transition into craziness, especially as he begins to realize he has a problem, rather than drop us the middle. That can sometimes work, but in this case it left me very unsatisfied. It was almost as if the writing was being limited in some fashion outside of the book/story. For example, having to meet a deadline so the author cut some content, or having a limit on the number of pages. I can't imagine any other reason why some of the pieces of the story were summarized rather than detailed. Especially when the last couple of books in the series were quite a bit longer. So why not this one?

Additionally, we now know that there are two Opals running around in the world (from the last book), and she gets a passing mention in this book. That is especially irritating because there were several items I wanted cleared up from the last book regarding her. So what was the point of the book? Add a new villain just to kill him off? Was this whole book basically a setup for the next book where Opal is dealt with? Was the book just to set the stage for how Opal would be released? It seems like a waste of effort if that is all that is achieved.

Finally, for some reason, I had thought the plan was to do seven books? I remember reading that 4 or 5 books ago. So what happened? Story get too big for the series? Making too much money to just end it? I am all for a continuing series, but set that expectation, or at least don't set the expectation of the number of books, and then change. I feel the same way as I felt when Aragon became a four book series. Brandon Sanderson did this as well, but he warned people about it before releasing and explained his reasoning so most people were ok with it. Aragon and Artemis Fowl did not set expectations, and so once again, it was a surprise. And if the next book (assuming there is one) is not of a better quality, then it's not a good surprise.

Overall, compared to the rest of the series, it seemed like a rushed effort and was not up to the caliber of the rest of the series. It almost seemed to me like one of those webisodes that are becoming popular with TV shows these days. Keep the main story running and then add small inserts here and there to explain away plot lines that are about to be introduced.