Random Reads: Doctor Who- The Story of Martha by Dan Abnett ft. various writers

Doctor Who: The Story of Martha

by Dan Abnett

with David Roden, Steve Lockley, Paul Lewis, Robert Shearman, and Simon Jowett

"Let me tell you a story..."

Anyone who has ever met me knows that I love the series "Doctor Who". I am not normally a Sci-Fi geek, but this series while sci-fi has heart and is grounded in the real world often. This made me willing and ready to read one of the novels based on the series. The Story of Martha felt like a good first book based on it being the only book that I am aware of that is in continuity with the television series. This book examines one year in the life of Martha Jones. This year takes place during Series 3 of the Doctor Who reboot. If you have watched the series you will know where this year fits into that story, which makes it a very interesting book to read because it adds a layer to the show. 

This book is done in several parts. We have the chapters of "The Story of Martha" by Dan Abnett and then between every few chapters is another story featuring Martha and the Doctor written by another author. This makes for a wide arrangement of stories contained within the cover of the book. Each serves its own individual purpose but adds significantly to the overall theme of the book. The theme is that the Doctor does amazing things and helps people when they are in dire situations. The world is in chaos in this particular book, so it feels right that she is sharing these stories. In this world of chaos these people need someone they can believe in, so Martha Jones tells people about her adventures with him. This brings hope to the world. 

Overall this is a fun book to read because you feel like you are watching an actual episode. While I was reading I kept using the real voice of Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones). This made me able to imagine the things happening even when the situations where otherworldly. Often times in a book that has this element it is hard to imagine the various settings/conflicts/stories because they are so out of our understanding, but due to the connection of the series it helps you to see everything they are creating. 

The gripe I have about the book is that the first two side stories had a bit too many similarities in parts. Also having seen subsequent series of the show one of the stories felt like it had been ripped off in the show. I am assuming whomever wrote that episode was not aware of the story that was contained in this book, as it did come before the episode that I am thinking of. It contains clones, which happens in series 6 of the show. This took away from the book because I felt like I was just rehashing something I had seen on the show, which was done better in my opinion. This is the main reason for 4 points instead of 5. In a collected volume of stories two subsequent stories should not feel as similar as two of them in this volume, however everything else contained within really is fresh, interesting, and adds so much to a true fan of "Doctor Who".

Blog content update...

I, the review of the site, have a busy life just like every other person. This is why I have decided to make new content available on the following days: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This is when new reviews will be posted of books that have been read. This keeps the site going with new content, since postings can be scheduled in advance and allows for me to still have a life when school starts next month. This is a win-win situation for everyone.

Also I have decided that each of the days will have a predominate theme. What this means is that each update will serve a particular purpose or fill a particular genre that I am interested in. These themes will be as followed:

Monday- Random read:  These will be an eclectic mix of books that do not fit into any one particular genre that I am reviewing on the other two days. As I am a reader that tends to be a little all over the map this permits me to review those books that may simply not fit anywhere else.

Wednesday- Mystery Reads: Within the last year I have discovered one of my favorite passions is reading a good mystery book and trying to discover just whodunit. This is why this feels like a natural extension of what I currently read and a nice addition to the site.

Friday- Series Book Reads: I tend to read a lot of series books. I will be reviewing a particular series until it is finished and then I will move onto another. This doesn't mean that the Monday or Wednesday reviews may not be part of a different series. I am sticking with the "Fear Street Seniors" series to begin with and will decide on the next series upon its completion.

At some point there will also be additional content added for Tuesday and Thursday as well but it will be focused on some other aspect of writing outside of book reviews. If a reader has a suggestion feel free to e-mail me at optimisticreader@gmail.com. You may also contact me via twitter @ Optimistic_Read or on facebook where I am also Optimistic Reader.

Fear Street Friday- "Fear Street Seniors: The Thirst" by R.L. Stine

Fear Street Seniors #3: The Thirst

by R.L. Stine

3 Faerie Points

These books can get a little mundane as an adult reading them because of Stine's chosen style to be shocking at the ending of every single chapter. Chapter Ends: "Becky shrieks" Next Chapter Opens: "Becky saw a spider is why she was shrieking". Sometimes this makes you want to yawn very hardcore. This book does pick-up some of the steam for the series overall though. We finally have a real death and we can see where things might be going for the rest of the series. Trisha Conrad, a girl in the senior class that had a psychic vision about all the seniors dying, is obviously going to be an important character throughout the series since she has been mentioned in every single book to date, while many other characters haven't made even the first appearance. 

This book focuses on the horror stereotype of the vampire. It is funny to read this particular book now because of "Twilight" being so huge still, but this follows some of the cliched things we immediately associate with vampires, though the ones here can indeed step into the sunlight (no they do not sparkle jeeze). In this book you are trying to figure out who the vampire is that is draining the blood of people, but it is pretty apparent if you follow the formula of the first two books or if you have read any other Fear Street book. By the end you go "Okay, so (insert character name) is the vampire thanks captain obvious". *Not giving you any spoilers since you know you should actually read these things I post about hehe*

The main reason that this volume gets 3 points instead of 2 is it picks up the pace a bit, as previously mentioned. Characters actually die in this book, which makes you start to believe the series will have a bigger pay off at the end. This is still in the first 1/3 of the 12 book series, so I wasn't expecting these first few books to be all that great. They have to build to something, but the nice thing is that they are not direct continuations of each other. They all to this point have independent stories that can be read singularly, so anyone can pick up one in the series that sounds interesting to them without having to read all of them. 

I should also mention that anyone that enjoys reading about twins this book does feature twin sisters prominently. They go through it, but they are the main characters here, so you will see how they interact with each other. The issue is do not go in expecting a lot of characterization of them as twins because they are pretty much different as night and day. Also Stine tends not to give his characters a very clearly distinct personality for some reason. I think this could be because of the fact that there are 12 books in the series and he isn't sure which characters he will need for what yet, so having them to defined could result in them being unusable in future books. 

The Fear Street books are easy reads. You can read them in the matter of an hour or two, so don't worry about wasting your life away from reading this drivel, but if you like a quick horror story that will tantalize you you can pick these up. There are ones you will enjoy and others you will not. It all depends on what tale Stine is weaving at the time. 

Queer Read: No Straight Lines edited by Justin Hall

No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics

edited by Justin Hall

5 Faerie Points

With announcements coming from big companies like DC and Marvel that they will feature prominent gay stories featured in important books like the gay marriage in Astonishing X-Men 51 it feels like a ripe time to have a collection of comics with a queer focus that paved the way for this. That is what this collection does. While it is obviously not an exhaustive list of the possible queer comics you could pick up that helped make current queer comics possible it is a good starting point. "No Straight Lines" collects shorter works instead of trying to place longer ones like "Stuck Rubber Baby" by Howard Cruse in its pages. In this collection this feels like the right choice because you get exposed to a wider variety of creators as a direct result of Hall's choice. 

There is a nice mixture of content here, as well. There are some stories that are heavily sexual in nature, while others are just about the ordinary life of a queer individual. It is nice to see this contrast because as a community we are very much like this. No one size fits all. We are a wide variety of individuals trying to live our best lives and this books showcases multiple facets of our queer identity. It will be easy to find yourself somewhere contained within the pages. 

As an individual that does not usually want to read sex in my comics (no I am not a prude just have a preference of where I want my smut hehe) I was shocked by how refreshing I felt the sex was dealt with here Yes, there are some graphic scenes of nudity and sex, but it feels right because any member of the queer community can see the truth in what was projected by these various creators. The sexual aspect doesn't take away from the story or dumb them down. In many cases it makes them seem more intelligent about who their audience was at the time they were created. Also the sex keeps them current, since sex will never go out of style.

If you are looking for something outside of your reading comfort this would be an excellent choice, especially if you love comic books. This book shows you that history of a community and how it got to the place where it is now. It is important, in my opinion, to have collections like this so we can recognize that comics did not always allow for the queer community to play in the same sandbox and a result people took to publishing their own stories about themselves. It is in those stories that one finds themselves reflected back not in mainstream books that feel they have to be PG for the wider audience. PG is okay to have (sex does not have to always happen in a Queer book), but the PG must be the choice of the creator of the book and serve the greater purpose. Queer comics sure has come a long way from the days of underground books published in basements and we are still only now coming out into the light. I hope we stay there and make some great comics for the next 40 years that will show how we came together as a community to show our real lives.

Bracken Library Book Review: The Gift by Peter Dickinson

The Gift

by Peter Dickinson

4 Faerie Points

The title and cover of this book are a little misleading because one instantly thinks that the book is going to be a heavily fantasy-based book, but once you get into it you discover it is more about growing up in a time where parents didn't always stick around and you go shoved off on family members (yes this happens today as well, but as I understand it even more frequently because parents would shove kids on grandparents then come back and then do it again.)

When you read this book you discover pretty quickly that it is a children's novel about a boy growing up in a dysfunction family and the boy has a rare gift, the ability to read into people's minds. This ability is described to him by his grandmother as being the cause of grief for his family. The gift doesn't appear as prominent as one would think though. It appears only sporadically throughout the book and the focus tends to be more on the people that he interacts with. 

One of the largest components of this story is the fact that his dad frequently moves the family and that they all really want to settle down finally, except for perhaps the father which is explained in the book. This causes the father to take part of a rather large plot that is the main story of the book, which I won't go into details as you should pick up the book and give it a chance for yourself. 

For me I enjoyed going in expecting one thing from this story and discovering it was more of a down-home charmed type of book instead. I enjoy when a book doesn't meet my expectations, but at the same time exceeds them because it does something better. Here it definitely fit the better category because I felt like I saw how someone of a different time period would have grown up. It wasn't high-brow literature by any means, but it was interesting to see the dynamics of each family member play out. My favorite relationship has to be between the main character and his grandmother. This relationship seems a bit stilted until you understand the story that she has been holding back. She has a reason to be hard-edged and you understand everything that makes their relationship what it is. Families didn't always look like what we have today with the running around to soccer games, meeting appointments, and etc. This book really reflects that, in my humble opinion. 

Overall I recommend reading "The Gift" by Peter Dickinson and finding a simpler time. It got deducted one Faerie Point because there are times where you will feel like, "Does this story have a point?", but it still keeps a certain bit of charm the entire time thus making it a great read for a lazy afternoon. 

Bracken Library Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault In Our Stars

by John Green

5 Faerie Points

Sometimes you have to use one of the most cliched words in existence to describe a book you have just finished. This is one of those books and the cliched word is definite: BEAUTIFUL. This book captures every human emotion that a young individual dying of cancer would feel. Green captures so much depth and emotion here, but at the same time he doesn't apologize for the fact that this is a fictitious story. He states as such from the very first page. He doesn't want us to try to find the truth, but appreciate the imaginary tale he has created. If you listen to the author you will be taken on a magical journey that will pull on your heart strings. 

The story does revolve around sick kids, so I can understand that many people would not be drawn to it based solely on that premise. If you decline to read it based on this single aspect though you will be missing a book that envelopes so much more about human emotion. You will miss a story about finding love, being true friends, and learning how that sometimes getting what you wish for isn't what you really needed. I can't imagine anyone stepping away from this book not taking something very meaningful from it. Be it from Gus, Hazel, or even the despicable Peter. One character in this book has a lesson for each of us to be taught. Pick it up and learn that lesson for you. Due to the nature of this book I don't want to go on and on about it and I feel that leaving it short and simple is following with Green a bit here. Each reader will take something different from it and isn't that the beauty of a book. The reader gets to decide what they take from their reading. I must say that this is simply a book that must be read! 

Bracken Library Book Review: Surrender by Sonya Hartnett

Surrender

by Sonya Hartnett

4 Faerie Points

There are some books that you read that you don't necessarily like, but that you think really speaks volumes. This is one of those books. This book focuses on Anwell, also known as Gabriel throughout, and his childhood and then his adult life. The book journeys through the friendship he forms with another boy named Finnigan. Through twists and turns in this book you get to the startling revelation at the end of the book. 

Sometimes a book tries to be more high-brow than it should have been. This is one of those books. It was a pleasant book to read, but it also left something to be desired because you are never fully aware of what is really going on within it. This starts to make sense as the mystery in it starts to finally unravel though. It doesn't make it a 5 star book though. There is a basic understanding of life that is missing from this book within the vast majority of its pages. It isn't until that ending that you finally see some humanity in the story, which would have greatly helped this book. 

The biggest reason that this book speaks volumes is that it shows the power of life being the family that you are born into. People have some control over their lives, but a lot of it does come down to whomever your parents are and what their lives are like. While it never directly states this you get this feeling. The reader starts understanding if poor Anwell had just been born into any other family that his life may have been greatly different. 

There are moments in this book that are interesting, which is why that it still gets 4 points. It isn't an easy to read book by any means, but it leaves a taste in your mouth that sometimes you need to have as a reader. This is an award winning book for a reason and everyone should read it at least once, but past that I am not sure it is one of those books you can go back and reread at a later date. The once that you got through it is more than enough. You will however understand the baseline of humanity after reading this book and I think that is something worthwhile here.