Soon I Will Be Invincible

While reading Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman, I get the feeling that I would enjoy it more if I was into that whole comic book superhero type culture. It feels like the book may be full of tropey-type jokes that I just don't get. This means I don't entirely trust my own opinion, here.

Of course, that's not about to stop me. Soon I Will Be Invincible has a great title and two protagonists. Well, two main characters. The first is Doctor Impossible, the Smartest Man Alive, who aims to bust out of prison and take over the world. The second is Fatale (pronounced fuh-toll) the cyborg with a dark past that isn't really there.

Fatale has just been admitted into the Champions, a league of superheroes investigating the disappearance of Superman Legacy The Tick Core-Fire, a charismatic invulnerable flying tank with more abilities than anyone could ever need. Meanwhile, Doctor Impossible has escaped, and is already scheming to take over the world.

I don't really have much to say about this. It has almost nothing in the way of character growth, for anyone other than Fatale. It is riddled with either poorly-executed foreshadowing or terribly-executed exposition. Honestly, those are the only two problems for me, but they seem like big ones. I really think it might just be because I'm not used to books like this.

Blugh. I don't like writing reviews that aren't positive (I've only got one truly negative review). It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. You know what? Don't listen to me. Give Soon I Will Be Invincible a try. It was fun. I read it in a few days, so that's good for something (like, it grabbed my attention or whatever). And, in the end, it does have a pretty sweet title.

The Spiderwick Tie-In Books: A FieldStore Guide

Arthur's Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
This book is the actual field guide that they talk about in the Spiderwick Chronicles series. I think it is weird that the Grace kids went into so much trouble to hide the book and now it is being mass-produced! This book is about all the weird fantastical creatures that Arthur Spiderwick studied. It has labeled illustrations and lots of pull-out pages. In The Spiderwick Chronicles, the Grace kids saw many of these creatures, but they didn't see most of them. That is why this book adds a lot to the original series. This book is worth reading and keeping.

Care and Feeding of Sprites, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
This is a book about how to care for sprites, which is really funny because... um.. you know... they don't exist. The pretty much only good thing about it is the poster. There is a fold-out poster on the dust cover. It is also really fun to have specifics of different kinds of sprites, not just the 10 words, "There are many different kinds of sprites in the world," which is about all Arthur's Spiderwicks Field Guide says. It is also fun to read how the author doesn't give a hint that sprites don't exist. This book is worth reading, but is only worth keeping if you: 1) want information on specific types of sprites, 2) want the poster, 3) believe in sprites, or 4) all of the above.

The Chronicles of Spiderwick, A grand tour of the enchanted world navigated by Thimbletack, by Holly Black
This book is Thimbletack's scrapbook of things he collected as the years went by at the Spiderwick estate. It is a sort of guide to the Spiderwick books including a map of the house, a family tree, and lots of interesting stuff about the people who have been there. This includes things that are not in the original series, like graded homework essays by the Grace kids, newspaper clippings from around the world, letters, pages ripped out of books, diary entries, and family pictures. It is fun to see how all these extra bits fit in with the original series, and it answers some questions you may have had when reading the series. For example, how did Aunt Lucinda convinced the sprites to come? This book has the answer. The Grant Tour book is worth reading, and worth keeping if you are a big Spiderwick fan (e.g., me!).

Notebook for Fantastical Observations, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
This book is full of fun stories and activities organized by magical creature, including dragons, brownies, and lots of other creatures. For example, under dragons, there is a page for "Sketches for two locations where dragons may be found, in the real world and in the fairy world." Some of these activities are easy to complete, others may leave you stumped, such as (under Brownies), "I imagine this creature helping me with chores around my house." This book is definitely worth reading, but only worth keeping if you are willing to do the activities, like me. It is a good way to keep the fantasy going until the next series comes out (and, I assure you, it eventually will).

The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Holly Black

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a 5-book series about the Grace children -- Mallory Grace, Jared Grace, and Simon Grace -- and their adventures in a world full of fairies who live right along with us humans, but that only they can see. The books are The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgarath. The books are full of bizarre creatures (good, bad, and dead), duels, a certain amount of blood-shed, falling, running, more falling, and more running.

These books are a quick and fun read. I read them in three days the first time. Since then, I have read them two more times, so I think they are worth getting and they are worth keeping. There are lots of other books related to Spiderwick, which you will find in my next blog entry, in which I will tell you which of these books are worth getting or keeping or both.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Every time I read a book, I want to be in it. That is exactly what happened to Bastian Balthazar Bux. Bastian is a boy that always wanted to be in a book, but when he accidentally goes into a book called The Neverending Story, he finds out he wants the exact opposite. The Neverending Story that Bastian was reading is about when the Childlike Empress, Ruler of Fantastica, is sick and Atreyu, a young Green Skin, is sent on a quest to find a cure. Along the way, Atreyu meets Falkor, a luckdragon. Together, they find out that the only thing that can cure the Childlike Empress is a new name from a human from the outer world. By this time, I think I should explain you this: The book Bastian was reading we already went over, but the book I read is about Bastian reading the book and doing what happened next -- going to Fantastica.

This book is filled with monsters, heroes, extraordinary places and most of all, weird, weird people, or should I say inhabitants of Fantastica. If you like all those four things, plus adventure and excitement and a little bit of sadness, read this book.

Dragon Rider, by Cornelia Funke

This book was about some dragons who tried to escape the humans who were attacking their valley, so one of them sets out to find a safe place to live accompanied by Sorrel, a brownie girl; Ben, a human boy; and Twigleg, a homunculous. Along the way they find lots of other fantastic creatures, like a basilisk, sand elves, a sea serpent, a roc bird, magic ravens, and mountain dwarves. There was also Nettlebrand, the very bad, very mean, very bossy Golden One.

I liked everything in the book because it was with bad guys, heroes and good guys. If you like scary, brave and funny, read this book.