Doctor Who: Myths & Legends ~ Richard Dinnick (earc) review [@richarddinnick @bbcdoctorwho]

Adrian Salmon, illustrator
Doctor Who: Myths and Legends
BBC Books/Penguin Group UK
September 12, 2017 (International)/June 29, 2017 (UK)
288 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

For thousands of years, epic stories have been passed down from Time Lord to student, generation to generation. The truth of these tales was lost millennia ago, but the myths and legends themselves are timeless.

These are the most enduring of those tales. From the princess Manussa and her giant snake Mara, to the Vardon Horse of Xeriphin, these stories shed light on the universe around us and the beings from other worlds that we meet. Myths hold up a mirror to our past, present and future, explaining our culture, our history, our hopes and fears.

A collection of epic adventures from the Time Lords’ mist-covered past, Myths and Legends is an unforgettable gallery of heroes and villains, gods and monsters.

Earlier this year when a hurricane knocked the power out for several days and I realized how many more stars you could see*. Looking at all of those stars, it was hard not to wonder what could be on or around them.  Doctor Who: Myths and Legends presents some possibility.

Some of the myths and legends re-imagined to involve Time Lords were ones I was familiar with:  including Medusa, King Midas; and those I was not: stories with the Argonauts, the Cumaean Sibyl. Interestingly, I think I more enjoyed those stories where they myth was already known to me. I liked seeing how the author changed things up, where Doctor Who characters and/or ideas were inserted into these well known tales.

The more you know of Doctor Who, the different Doctors and all of the different alien planets and species they've encountered, the more you will recognize in Myths and Legends. These are not all sttories where the Doctor comes in, obvious in who they are and saves the day. Some give us more insight into Gallifrey, its past and attempts to extend its reach.l while others show us how certain beings go to be where they were when viewers encountered them (like, say, a Soviet sub in 1983).

Some of the stories did fall a bit short for me, seeming to not really resolve themselves or have satisfactory endings. (Though it could have been that I was unfamiliar with what Doctor Who episode/character/story they were involved in .) Others though, were fun, imaginative and did a great job both re-imagining the myths and legends we already know and including Whovian characters, lore, facts and ideas.

This collection is likely more enjoyable for Doctor Who fans  (and more so the more of it you've retrained) but fans of re-imaginings and science fiction may also find it a fun read, as well.




*This needs to be a thing everywhere






review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Idols ~ Margaret Stohl (earc) review [@lbkids @mstohl]

Idols (Icons #2)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
July 8, 2014
432 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

**Contains some spoilers for Icons (Book 1) - see my review here**

The Icons came from the sky. They belong to an inhuman enemy. They ended our civilization, and they can kill us.

Most of us.

Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas are the four Icon Children, the only humans immune to the Icon's power to stop a human heart. Now that Los Angeles has been saved, things are more complicated - and not just because Dol has to choose between Lucas and Ro, the two great loves of her life. As she flees to a resistance outpost hidden beneath a mountain, Dol makes contact with a fifth Icon Child, if only through her visions. When Dol and the others escape to Southeast Asia in search of this missing child, Dol's dreams, feelings and fears collide in an epic showdown that will change more than just four lives -- and stop one heart forever.

In this riveting sequel to Icons, filled with nonstop action and compelling romance, bestselling author Margaret Stohl explores what it means to be human and how our greatest weakness can be humanity's strongest chance at survival.

Last year in the Icons series' first book, Icons, we met Dol, Rom, Lucas, Tima, the Icon Children. They live in a world where unseen beings known as the Lords came from the sky and killed the majority of humanity, leaving the Icons - towering machine like things that people fear and cannot approach - around the world.

On the run now, after saving Los Angeles from its Icon, they're taken far away from the world they knew - where they grew up and base where they'd been.

Their journey develops the story that was a bit confusing for me in the first book. As they encounter new places and people, we find both some answers and deeper questions. I felt like I was missing a lot of the intricacies of the world in Icons. I didn't have that same feeling here. We already know the 'big picture' information from Icons and can now see more of how that fits into the characters, their lives and the world.

The bits of correspondence interspersed between the chapters tells a parallel story that can slowly be pieced together as the novel progresses. By the end, an amazing bit of information is revealed that will likely change readers view of at least one character. The communication by machines is, actually, one of my favorite parts of the story.

The way things are pieced together and the impact of different events and characters, both past and present, is really fantastic.

There is still a bit of a disconnect for me with the characters, but less than in the first book (I'm about eighty to eight-five percent with them, here). Ro, at times, seemed like he could have been Link's (from Stohl and Kami Garcia's Beautiful Creatures and Dangerous Creatures series) brother. They have personalities that, at times, are a bit similar while still vastly different. I really liked him in this book. Tima, also, was a great surprise. She was my favorite character in the book.

Now that many of my questions from the first book have been explained - either by new information given, discovered or by reading more of the Icons world - I am enjoying the characters more and, especially, after that ending I am looking forward to more in this series.

(Also: For some reason, I kept picturing one character as Abzorbaloff from Doctor Who . . . )

received from publisher, through NetGalley, for review

Doctor Who: The Bog Warrior ~ Cecelia Ahern (earc) review [#DoctorWho @Cecelia_Ahern]

Doctor Who: The Bog Warrior (Time Trips series)
BBC Digital
May 8, 2014
42 pages
add to Goodreads/get NOOK book/buy Kindle version

Arriving on the planet Cashel, the Tenth Doctor witnesses a strange masked ball. To guarantee peace, Prince Zircon has to choose a bride from the Bog People - dead men and women who have been resurrected as slaves. Or as warriors. But Zircon is in love with the enslaved Princess Ash, whose parents were deposed and executed by the current Queen. As usual, the Doctor has walked right into trouble, and it's up to him to sort it out.

The idea of Cecelia Ahern, author of P.S. I Love You, The Book of Tomorrow and others, writing a Doctor Who story seemed interesting. That the story was about the Tenth Doctor was even better.

"The Bog Warrior" is a bit of a twist on Cinderella, with aliens.

The story in "The Bog Warrior" seems well thought out and is quite original. The Bog People, the society and the romance and conflict at the center of the story are all intriguing. The premise and the characters are ones I could easily see made into a longer tale.

The story is weaker, though, as a Doctor Who tale. While the Doctor is, of course, present and the dialogue fit, there was not enough - of either his presence or dialogue. He was not as essential to the unfolding and, ultimately, the resolution of the story as I would have liked. The Doctor was more of a side character.

I did appreciate that the titles and summaries of the other Time Trips installments were included at the end of "The Bog Warrior." ("The Bog Warrior" was available for the US on NetGalley, some of the others were, too, others seemed to be UK only.)

While this Time Trips story was just okay for me (especially when it came to the fact that it was a Doctor Who tale), I liked my introduction to the series. Other titles in this series sound promising - some appeal to me more than others - and I look forward to reading more of them. It's worth mentioning that short stories feature different incarnations of Doctor Who (The Third, Fourth, Sixth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors).



Rating: 6/10


(see animated covers for the series)





buy Time Trips series for Kindle (or Amazon UK) or add to your Goodreads shelf





received via NetGalley from the publisher

The 5th Wave ~ Rick Yancey review

The 5th Wave (5th Wave #1)
Putnam Juvenile
May 7, 2013
480 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave.

At first it seemed like something people, humanity, we could survive. Then it didn't get better, it got worse. People kept dying.

Somehow The 5th Wave's title is a foreshadowing win, not a spoiler-fail.  We, of course, know that the fifth wave is coming . . . but the story starts out before even the first wave. It's kind of brilliant. Owing to the title, you know so much more is coming - and if you read the full publisher's synopsis, you even know some of what that is. That only heightens the tension, though.

As things get worse and worse, further and further away from what Cassie Sullivan, our main character, knew as normal, as she loses more, our bond with her grows. While Yancey is establishing the world of The 5th Wave, he's also doing a great job building a connection between Cassie and readers.

Eventually she is alone, struggling to keep a promise to her little brother, a promise that would reunite them. Meeting her at this time would have given an entirely different sense of Cassie and I'm glad we met her while she was still part of the, relatively, normal, known world. It's that much easier to experience this drastically new life with her, instead of seeing her as a character used to a world so different from ours. She's someone from our world, thrown into a world now like hers is.

A separate storyline that comes into play adds some interesting elements to the novel; it also adds some questions to Cassie's progress, for readers. There's some foreshadowing here, as well, that's really enjoyable. It's not as clear as it was with the title, leaving some doubt.

The 5th Wave is this fantastic horror, sci-fi YA novel with just a bit of dystopian mixed in. It uses multiple narrators incredibly well, each telling their story uniquely and giving readers a different angle on the current world. The 'waves' were due to an alien invasion, but there are some great times in the novel when it's written so that it's not clear whether a character is human or alien . . . or whether the distinction truly makes a difference.

I'm terribly excited for the sequel, The Infinite Sea (even if I don't want to wait until May to read it!).


Rating: 9/10



Other books you may also enjoy: In the After by Demitria Lunetta and Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Inheritance ~ Malinda Lo (earc) review

Inheritance (Adaptation #2)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
September 24, 2013
480 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

The triangular spaceship hovered motionless in the sky above Reese Holloway’s house, as inscrutable as a black hole. It had seemed like a good idea when they were inside: to tell the truth about what happened to them at Area 51. It didn’t seem like such a good idea now.

Reese and David are not normal teens—not since they were adapted with alien DNA by the Imria, an extraterrestrial race that has been secretly visiting Earth for decades. Now everyone is trying to get to them: the government, the Imria, and a mysterious corporation that would do anything for the upper hand against the aliens.

Beyond the web of conspiracies, Reese can’t reconcile her love for David with her feelings for her ex-girlfriend Amber, an Imrian. But her choice between two worlds will play a critical role in determining the future of humanity, the Imria’s place in it, and the inheritance she and David will bring to the universe.

In this gripping sequel to Adaptation, Malinda Lo brings a thoughtful exploration of adolescence, sexuality, and “the other” to a science fiction thriller that is impossible to put down.

The beginning scene of Inheritance is a continuation of the scene at the end of Adaptation. The first book Adaptation introduced us to the characters -- to Reese and David and to Amber and the Imrians -- and how Reese and David were adapted to save their lives. In Adaptation, they learned what had happened to them, how they were given Imrian DNA and became something not quite human, but at the end of the novel everyone else was finding out as well.

Now we get to see how the general public is going to react when Reese and David come out to tell what happened to them. It's not just people's feelings about the aliens they have to deal with, either. Soon, besides the government, Imria, conspiracy nuts, and people fearing invasion, there are also racists, homophobes and generally absurd people making the teens life harder. None of it helping Reese with what be an already difficult problem: figuring out her feelings.

I liked the way other's comments on race (David is Chinese, Reese is white) and sexuality - both through reactions when Reese and David took their story public and more locally through friends, school played a role in Inheritance. It was something that was very honest, both that it would happen, sadly, and that it would impact the characters. It also allowed the characters to have to think through, say or perhaps even do things that they perhaps might not have without that outside motivation or influence.

It brought an interesting layer to the story. At times, when the Imrians were explaining their society or ways in contrast, it was as if they aliens were going to show the humans how to really be human.

Where I did run in to a problem with Inheritance was the pacing. It's not short at 480 pages, but it's not epically long, either. It does, though, take a long time to read. The story is one that's easy to want to stay with, but it's easy to get weighed down in all the detail about Imria or whatever is happening. It doesn't move forward or read easily at a good speed.

Rating :6/10




 thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my digital galley for review

Icons ~ Margaret Stohl (arc) review

Icons (Icons #1)
Little, Brown Young Readers
May 7, 2013
428 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Your heart beats only with their permission.

Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.

Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.

She's different. She survived. Why?

When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.

Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.

Bestselling author Margaret Stohl delivers the first book in a heart-pounding series set in a haunting new world where four teens must piece together the mysteries of their pasts -- in order to save the future.

Icons is a set after what is now referred to as 'The Day' when Earth suffered an invasion from the Lords, a still faceless, mostly unknown enemy. A day that killed most of the world and left the Icons towering over the world's major cities. Icons - giant, machine like things - no one can approach and everyone fears.

I wish that Icons had been explained better or somehow built more fully from the beginning because I was never quite able to get into it. The Lords, Icons and everything never quite made complete sense to me. I understood that there was a day that something big happened where so many simply died, but it continued to seem abstract in a way.

The different locations, the different worlds of Icons from the Grass Mission where Dol and Ro live, to the Embassy , to a later location, are very well imagined detailed and easy to picture. Each place, especially that later place (which may or may not be spoilery to name), was very easy to picture but didn't feel bogged down in detail. I really loved that.

It was harder somehow, though, to picture them all in the same larger world.  They were separate and distinct, to be sure, but it was hard to connect them at all, to bridge them them.

Likely because they whole Lords and Icons thing never really clicked for me, Icons did not ever, all come together for me. How the characters, their similarities, the Embassy, what everyone might have been planning, it lacked the impact I wanted it to have.

Three of the characters did seem to develop well as the story progressed. If the story had clicked for me, I think I would have really enjoyed their story. I do wish that Tima had more of a part in things. She had didn't feel like as much a part of things as Dol, Ro and Lucas but I liked her in the beginning and end so I wish she had been.

Despite the issues I had with the story, the possibility of things promised by the ending has me hopeful for the second book and what may happen.


Rating: 6/10



thank you to the publisher for the arc and digital galley for review

Natural Selection ~ Malinda Lo (earc) review

Natural Selection (Adaptation #1.5)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
September 3, 2013
40 pages (ebook novella)
add to Goodreads/buy Kindle version

I was born on Earth, not Kurra. I'm not human,even though I try to be. My people, the Imria, think I'm a little unusual because of that. They call me an Earthsider: as if I've crossed a line, chosen a side. Gone native.

Before she met her girlfriend Reese, before she knew the role she would play in the fate of two worlds, Amber was a fifteen-year-old Imrian torn between two identities. Imrian by blood, Amber was forced to hide her true self to pass as human during the time she spent on earth. And even when she returns to Kurra, her human experiences, including first love and heartache, still separate her from her fellow Imrians. But when Amber undergoes kibila, a traditional Imrian coming-of-age ceremony during which Amber will choose her name and identity for the next fifteen years, she will be forced to either accept her role in both worlds or forge her own path.

Malinda Lo's digital exclusive novella companion to Adaptation and Inheritance takes readers on a journey through Amber's past, giving fans a glimpse into her life on Kurra and a deeper understanding of one of Adaptation's most compelling characters.

I may be the odd one here, but I'd forgotten the role of Amber in Adaptation -- at least by her name -- when I read 'Natural Selection.' While I couldn't figure out how these Imirian characters fit in the world of Adaptation -- aside, of course, from the general -- I still really enjoyed it.

I'm actually quite happy I didn't know how they were a part of the novels as I was reading; it was nice taking in their story on its own, not trying to fit it into the bigger picture at the same time.

'Natural Selection' gives a great glimpse of life on Kurra. We learned just a little bit of what the Imirians were like in Adaptation but here, we get a real 'at home' look. It's especially great if you're going to read Inheritance, the second book in the series. Not only do you get a fuller picture of what it's like on Kurra and Imirian society, but of Amber, as well.

The story alternates between Amber's life on Earth, posing as a human and her life back on Kurra. The back and forth could get a bit confusing at times, with the transitions not always entirely clear. However, the parallels between what she experienced on Earth prior to returning to Kurra and what's happening during the ceremony line up perfectly. Both story lines flow very well and work incredibly well together. They work better told concurrently, rather than consecutively.

While not remembering who the character of Amber was, I really liked this digital short story. I liked that background on the Imirians, it gave me a leg up - upon starting Inheritance - on Reese and David. As they're figuring things out, trying to understand things, I already had some of that understanding.

Once I did remember who Amber was -- also upon starting Inheritance -- I really appreciated the character development she received in 'Natural Selection.' She's an intriguing character after both Adaptation and the short story and I couldn't wait to see what happened with her in Inheritance.

Rating: 9/10



thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy to review