Lowly’s Book Blog

Technically this is an information book, but in reality it is an adventure travel guide, or travel advisory.

Richard Grant has a fascination for Mexico, especially the Sierra Madre mountains. He is determined to see them regardless of threat to life and limb. Before he begins he finds and interviews several Americans who have spent time there. They all give him the same advice. 1. Never travel alone. 2. Learn to ride a horse because you cannot depend on motor vehicles in the wilderness.

Grant heads off in a new Toyota SUV. You see, he doesn’t like horses. However, he does start off with company. But it isn’t too long before he is off on his own with the simple protection of a few popular names to drop as necessary. The other alteration to his immediate plans is that instead of traveling through the mountains north to south or east to west, he ends up following contacts around a district and then moving on to another district.

This book gives a fascinating insight into the modern version of the lawless west. It seems that the Sierra Madres are the new agricultural base for the marijuana and narcotics industry serving the US. There are very few lawmen and those that do exist are usually corrupt. Grant must have a very warm confident personality that others find interesting, and as a result his book is filled with real people.

This is also a cautionary tale. When I began to read about his final trip I began to wonder how on earth he was going to travel down the east side of the mountains, cross them and then half-way up the coast to meet his next contact, all in less than 50 pages. The reason became clear very quickly.

This book is a very good read. It gives the reader a rare look at one of the truly wild areas of the modern world and the trip is worth the time.

I was not at all enthusiastic about starting this. It just reeked boys adventure sport, probably poorly written following a formula. Boring… It is very nice to be wrong.

Peak (yes that is the hero’s name) is sprung by the NYC SWAT team painting his trademark blue mountain graffiti on a 75 story building, about level with the 70th floor. You see Peak is a talented rock climber, and there aren’t many rocks in the city, so he has to make do. When a copy cat falls to his death, the City of New York decides that Peak must be made an example. He is sentenced to 2 years in Juvenile Detention or leave the country immediately with his estranged father.

It turns out that Peak’s father runs a commercial climbing country, and he has a great idea for some publicity. His son is about to become the youngest person to every climb Mount Everest. So before Peak can think, he is in Tibet, clinging to the north side of Everest.

Smith takes this simple plot and adds layers of complexity. Peak befriends a young boy who has been forced to leave school to support his family, probably by becoming a Sherpa on Everest. The is a subplot about a Chinese army officer and the difficulties he causes for the climbers. Peak personality is far more complex than many fictional sporting heroes. He discovers a lot about himself on the slopes of Everest, including the importance of family. And then there is the English assignment.

I found the setting unusually unsettling. Most authors would portray Everest as pristine wilderness. Not Smith, he makes it clear that the climbing trails are so heavily used that the environment can no longer cope. The resulting pollution makes Base Camp sound revolting. And then as the climbers get higher they start seeing the corpses of those who didn’t make it. Smith makes it sound like there are too many to count and heaps more every year.

I found this to be a rivetting read.

Thank goodness for Michael Panckridge. He has incredible skill when writing short, adventurous stories for kids entering secondary school. This book is no different, and it serves well to introduce kids to the new archaeological adventure genre.

Lewis is a young man attending boarding school. His mother disappears early in the book leaving him a letter that sets Lewis off on a search to find her. It also puts the young man in conflict with the Light Society, a group of crusaders determined to rid the world of evil. But is every definition of evil the same?

This book was easily read in one sitting. It gets the reader in quickly and won’t release him until the story is finished. I hope it is the first in a continuing series of Light Society novels.

I have been reading Ken Catran’s Moran series from the beginning, and this one is just as good as all the rest. However, I do question whether or not it will appeal to the same crowd.

The Moran series follows the military careers of each member of four generations. Jacko was a sniper in World War 1. Robert, his son, was in Africa and Greece in World War 2, Jimmy fought in Vietnam and now Teresa is a lieutenant in a unit headed for East Timor and from there to Iraq. Most of the books appeal to year 7 and 8 boys because of the realistic violence therein. This book is different. The wars being fought are different, and as a result this book needs to tell the story radically differently. Teresa is in command and this requires that she think about collateral damage far more than any of her ancestors.  And of all the Morans, at the end of the book you get the feeling that she will survive and go on to live a normal life after the army, something her fathers never could do.

Personally, I liked this finish to the series. However, I doubt the boys interested in the blood and guts will tolerate this book for long. It’s a shame really.

My editor keeps saying that I go on too long with my reviews. Well, he’s not going to be happy with this one because there is a lot to say.

This book is another in the growing Indiana Jones genre. You know the plot, a clue to the location of an ancient treasure has been found and our hero has to race the bad guys to locate the treasure and rescue it for humanity. Sometimes this ancient treasure has supernatural powers, and sometimes it is simply the power of truth.

This time Jack Howard is looking for artefacts from the beginnings of Christianity. First he finds the ship that wrecked under St Paul. But before long he is under Vesuvius looking at an ancient library left by Emperor Claudius. There he finds that Claudius left a precious document, but another archaeologist from the early 20th century has already found it and moved it to a new secret location. The bad guys in this case are a special committee within the Catholic Church, because exposure of this treasure could easily destroy the Church.

You see, the hypothesis is that Claudius, a cripple, travelled with his friend Herod Agrippa to Judea to meet this young man who was gaining fame as a healer. This carpenter from Nasareth did not heal Claudius, but did present him with a scroll and a warning. When Claudius became emperor, this scroll was sealed and hidden with his friend who lived in Herculeum. Later Claudius faked his own poisoning and escaped for life as a hermit in a small villa on the slopes of Herculeum. In 79 AD Vesuvius got excited and buried a couple of cities, and Claudius as well.

At first I found the whole idea a little over the top. But the longer I read, it seemed more plausible. Gibbins is nothing if not thorough in his archaeological information. Since Gibbins is really an archaeologist by training he does have some credibility, certainly more than many others who are writing in this genre.

But I suspect his publisher would sell more books if there weren’t quite so many ancient history lectures found in the text. Every now and then Gibbins, in the voice of Jack Howard, stops all action and goes on for a page or three about ancient history. All right already…if I were that interested, I am perfectly capable of looking it up for myself.

This is a good read, but keep your brain engaged or you will be lost.

It is always good to find a ‘horse’ book written for girls older than 8. This book is a wonderful modern incarnation of all those mustang books that I used to read when I was very young.

Lara is a new girl at the school, and friendless. She meets and gradually becomes friends with Kahu, outwardly confident but filled with self-doubt. Kahu teaches Lara to ride and together they visit a wild brumby heard roaming a wilderness area in New Zealand. So far, just a lovely story about friendship.

But the politicians decide to cull the brumby heards. And one of the hunters is notorious for his cruelty. He is determined to find the white stallion and bring it under control. Lara and Kahu decide to get involved in an attempt to protect the stallion.

In years past, the story would continue that the two children managed to protect the stallion and his heard from harm and eveyone lived happily ever after. But we all know that in the real world, children don’t often stop adults bent on a plan of action. Brocker protects the reality of her story. The children do not prevail, horses are caught and even die. But in the end the future of the brumby heard is assured.

This was a quick and simple read, but not childish.

New Zealand is producing some wonderful literature with a huge variety of themes and subjects. Vicki Simpson has won an award for this outstanding novel by a first time author.

Yo, Shark bait! is about exactly what the title indicates, fishing. Actually it is more a coming-of-age story, but don’t tell any reader that or they will decide the whole idea is boring. Rory is a mad keen fisherman, but one day while fishing with his father, he goes overboard and is greeted by a shark once he hits the water. Suddenly fishing isn’t quite so great. To make things worse, his school friends find out what happened and the teasing is unbearable. Just to make life a little worse, a teacher nominates Rory to run a fishing competition. But Rory can hardly stand the thought of fishing…

I found this book surprisingly good. The characters were strong and the situations believable, if at times the mystery was a little contrived.

Sometimes I just need to read more quickly. I picked up this book about a week late. But maybe that is the best advertisement possible for this book.

Last week I had a year 7 boy come up to me and ask ‘Can you tell me the where the book about the thieves who stole the formula for Coca Cola is? I started reading it last time and I want to continue it.’ I had no idea what he was talking about, but it registered I needed to find that book that could keep a 12 year old hanging on for a week to find out what would happen next. So when this book finally made its way to the top of the reading list and it opened with an explanation of how the formula for Coca Cola was protected, I was keen to read it, preferably without interruption.

But before I go on. The book opens at a school fete where three friends from Glenfield High are running a taste contest. Fizzer has the best taste buds in the world. He can tell the difference between any two drinks, absolutely foolproof. This talent becomes very important when the the formula for Coca Cola is stolen and the world is running out of Coke. Fizzer is employed by Coca Cola to help recreate the formula. But naturally in any adventure story, things go wrong and Fizzer and his friend Tupai are suddenly caught up in the middle of an international crime ring and murderous villains.

OK, so this summary sounds silly. The beauty of Falkner’s writing is that he makes this apparently insane idea seem plausible. The adventure is a winner. I got so caught up in the story that interruptions were pushed aside until I finished, only about 2 hours later.

I have already said tons about Falkner in my review of Super Freak so I won’t go on again here. But I am really looking forward to finding the time to read The Super Flea, the third book in the series.

I have seen a lot of Greg Pyers books over the years. Mostly they are information books nicely written to give good reliable information to 8-12 year olds. Personally, I think Pyers should have stayed with that format and not tried to make a go of it writing fiction.

This book is very clearly number 2 in the Jack Brown series, and clearly there are, or were, plans for many more. Jack is a young man passionate about animals. Not at all surprising since he can speak to any animal telepathically. Naturally the bad guys are out to destroy rare animals, rob a zoo, or otherwise upset the beasts. Conveniently Jack’s cousin Molly lives near the City Zoo, so his R&R after his first big adventure is interrupted again.

Yes this book, and the series has it’s place. It is very difficult to find something not too long, and not too complex for 12 year old boys who have decided that they cannot read, or will not read. They need something that is short so it is not scary, and gets straight into the action without wasting time developing characters. This book fits the bill. At 150 pages long, most boys will at least give it a go.

But I believe the plot is too predictable, even too childish to stand up to a long series. Since I can’t find any more in the series after book 2, it looks like the publishers agreed with me.

I remember dying to get my hands on this book as soon as it arrived. I loved Book of Lies mainly because the writing was just so unexpected. A well-established author of teenage realistic fiction was suddenly launching into fantasy stories. But Master of the Books did not hold the same delight.

The story so far… Marcel has defeated the war dragon Mortregis, and he thinks the Book of Lies has been destroyed. However, this new book tells us that one scrap of the book remains and Marcel’s brother Fergus has taken it to guide him in his search for revenge. Nicola and Marcel set off searching for Fergus, and … you get the picture.

As an adventure story for lower secondary students this book is superb, but somehow I felt it lacked the subtlety of the first book in the series. This one read far more like an average adventure story with a magical and medieval setting. Better than many in the genre, but not quite up to the high standard I have come to expect from Moloney. Pity that.