Juvenile Fiction Review: Wait Till Helen Comes — A Ghost Story September 10, 2006
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This book was recommended to me by a co-worker, and her summary of it was so ensnaring that I went out and got it from a nearby library immediately. I sometimes marvel that I was able to read some of the books I did as a kid: how the hell did they not scare the ever-loving bejeezees out of me? From the mere sight of the twisted illustrations in Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books to the prose of a short story that culminated with an apparently long-dead man (Balthazar Beale, maybe?) returning for his book, I occasionally wonder what could have possibly possessed me to read such literature at the ages of oh, say, 7 or 8. I suppose it was inevitable that H.P. Lovecraft would become one of my favorite authors as I grew up.
(note the very subtle plea for help above! 
)
In my hunt for scary stories as a gradeschooler, I tended to overlook novels; I was more of a short story collections boy, which would account for why I missed Mary Downing Hahn’s novelette the first time around. Wait Till Helen Comes is another example of a book that I would have enjoyed as a child, but darned if I know why. It features a young girl’s morbid obsession with a gravestone (whose occupant shares all three initials of her name, among other things), a spirit taking possession of a child, and makes reference to several other related child deaths. It’s the kind of thing I look at now and think, "Jeez, can kids even handle all that?" But I know, when I was in fourth grade, I would have loved this kind of story.
Jean and Dave have children from previous marriages, but they get together and take their combined families out to live in a church in rural Maryland. Molly and Michael, Jean’s children, are upset by this but must learn to adapt. Dave’s young daughter Heather, on the other hand, almost immediately develops a fascination with a graveyard on the property, and starts communicating with the ghost of its occupants, a girl named Helen who died at the same age Heather is now.
Building on the already present tension between the children of the two parents, Helen becomes a means by which Heather continues to act horribly to the other children, Molly in particular. When Molly discovers that Helen may have additional plans for Heather, however, she must overcome her considerable dislike of Heather and fight Helen’s spirit to save her.
Hahn does a good job exploring several themes throughout the story, including fear of death and the unknown, the turmoil that can result from families merging, and the powerful effects of guilt on personality and self-image. Helen, the spirit, mirrors young Heather in so many ways, that she seems Hahn’s way of saying that history has a way of repeating itself, even if for occasionally singular reasons.
But the real reason this story succeeds is that it’s chilling. Heather is a vindictive, almost vicious child, who resents her new older siblings, and her encounters and obsession with Helen make you wonder about her sanity. Through several key scenes, we see that Molly is frightened by the situation, but is willing and ready to take on the young-looking ghost to keep her from taking Heather away. Heather, however, is resentful and mean to Molly, even several times hitting her with the foreboding title phrase, "Wait till Helen comes."
A good, scary read for anyone looking to journey initiate or increase their exposure to scary stories!
FINISHED!!! :-D February 14, 2006
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As you can see, I’ve finished Kavalier and Clay, and I now feel like I can call myself at least marginally cultured, now that I’ve read something that’s won a major literary award. It only took me a full year to do it (almost to the day).
Simply put, it got even more interesting as the story progressed (as is the case with most good stories).
It’s been a long time since I’ve really had a hand in collecting comics, but while I read them in high school and college, I took in the origin stories of more than a few super-heroes. Most of the ones I read about (the Marvel heroes: Spider-Man, the X-Men, Avengers, etc.) had their births well after the time in this book (in the 1960s), but a few others–Batman, Superman, and the like–are right out of this period, and warrant the occasional reference during the story. The fact that Stan Lee briefly appears as well adds a little bit of entertainment value to this story for me.
While I’m neither a professional critic nor exceptionally well read, I can see why this won the Pulitzer a few years ago. It’s obviously a fictitious account of life during the Golden Age of comics, but it’s also well researched, seems realistically enough portrayed (given my limited knowledge of comic books and how they started out), and draws on many themes and ideas that make for a good recounting of life in America. It’s a good telling of the highs and lows intrinsic to the pursuit of the American Dream, brought on by external events as well as personal hopes, dreams and fears.
Michael Chabon looks into the settings, people, and other minutiae of many different arenas, from Josef’s interest in escape artistry and how it dovetails with his escape from Prague during Hitler’s extermination of the Jews, to the cityscape of 1940s New York City, during the birth and rise of the comic book hero. Joe’s cousin, Sammy Clay, is a young Jewish man with a kind of unfocused creative genius whose pairing with his refugee cousin heralds the creation of the Escapist, a hero that eventually springboards the boys to fame and fortune. Yet along with the fortunes this and other creations of theirs bring, each of the boys must deal with the specters in their professional and personal lives.
Putting my love for comic books aside, this was still an impressive story, indicative of how the heroes we create can spring from our individual hopes and fears, and how the ones that stand the test of time are the ones that appeal to our core humanity on some level. Chabon does a good job of putting a stamp of reality on a work of fiction, as well as selectively taking creative license with locales and personalities that are real. Given my fascination with the world of comics, it’s easy for me to like this novel, but looking beyond it (objectively speaking), I think it could appeal to just about anyone concerned with the human drama of loss, gain, and perseverance.
Book Review: Star Wars X-Wing – Starfighters of Adumar January 11, 2006
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I’ve heard about how good the series of X-Wing novels are among the Star Wars novels. Written mostly by Michael Stackpole, they’ve garnered a lot of praise and attention among fans of Expanded Universe material, lagging in popularity only behind Timothy Zahn’s holy trilogy, Heir to the Empire. I’ve read the first X-Wing novel, long ago, and while it was very entertaining, I don’t think I had the patience to really figure out the starfighter dogfights and how they were written, so I’m sure a lot was lost on me at the time. I decided not to continue reading the series.
About ten years later, a friend of mine lends me Starfighters of Adumar, and says it’s one of the funniest and most entertaining books in the entire Star Wars line. Impressed that the X-Wing series made it to nine books (and likely more after that), I decided to give this piece by Aaron Allston a crack.
To say I was impressed would be quite an understatement. Not only was the story well-written, exciting, and chock full of humor (mostly embodied in the character of Wes Janson, to whom most Firefly fans will quickly compare that show’s pilot character, Wash), but it really went a long way towards renewing my enthusiasm for looking at further X-Wing novels in the future. Aaron Allston has a knack for characterization, and also proves deft in writing a good action piece with bits of political intrigue, plotting, and even a little romance.
Wedge Antilles, former leader of Rogue Squadron, is now a general in the New Republic military. After a mutual and amiable breakup with his long-time on-and-off girlfriend Qwi Xux, decides he needs to take a break from his duties and figure out what to do with his life. He is instead sent on a diplomatic mission to a far-off, backwater planet called Adumar, whose people worship fighter pilots and whose torpedo production capabilities would make them a potentially invaluable ally… or a dangerous foe, were they to side with the remnants of the Empire. Untrained in diplomacy and cursing his superior’s indifference to his needs, he nonetheless agrees to the assignment, and takes his three best pilots, Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson, and Derek "Hobbie" Klivvian to Adumar with him.
Upon arrival, Wedge figures out that things are not always what they appear to be. While he and his men are afforded heroes’ welcomes by the native Adumari, he finds that they are also courting representatives from the Imperial Remnant at the same time. Also, the internal social, political, and economic landscape of Adumar makes its potential for joining the New Republic as one world a tricky maneuver at best, one about which Wedge is not very optimistic. Add to this an encounter with a former friend and lover; assassination attempts; Janson’s love for the natives’ clothes and weaponry; a formidable young Adumari aide whose attraction to Wedge is obvious; and a rogue New Republic Intelligence operative whose real motives clash with Wedge’s, and the stage is set for an entertaining, intriguing, and fulfilling tale.
And all that praise comes before you factor in the starfighter sequences. Allston writes as fluidly as these kinds of fast-paced scenes require, and by virtue of that (and hopefully my ability to now comprehend a little more), these scenes are hard to put down. Wedge has really matured as a pilot and as a commander, and he really gets a chance to shine near the end of the book, leading a fighter assault against an enemy with not only greater numbers, but better equipment. His skills as a leader are key to the offensive, and really show why he is a fan favorite.
Many other characters get their chances to shine in this book, Wes Janson in particular. With his sophomoric sense of humor and impulsive wit, he really does a good job of lending levity to what would otherwise be a pretty grim group of pilots. In one memorable scene, he interrupts a court game, insults an Adumari noble, and challenges him to a duel, mocking him all the while. It’s schoolboy humor at its best, and you can’t help but love this character. Also of note are Tomer Darpen, the diplomatic aide and former fighter pilot whose motives are soon seen to be less than noble and often at cross purposes with Wedge and his men; Hallis Saper, the mission documentarian whose often peculiar appearance belies a cunning information gatherer; and Iella Wessiri, an Intelligence operative with connections to Wedge’s past, and possibly his future.
Overall, this book is a wonderful read, and I highly recommend it to Star Wars fans as well as those who enjoy action, humor and fun in their science fiction. If nothing else, you have swords that shoot your opponents upon making contact, adoring fans who like to demonstrate their enthusiasm by killing their idols, and X-Wing pilots wearing women’s clothing at one point to avoid detection by the masses.
With all that said, what can there possibly be not to like? 
Review: Star Wars: The Joiner King, by Troy Denning October 15, 2005
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I’ve been a fan of the Star Wars novels since the early-mid 90s, when Timothy Zahn put ink to paper and turned out the classic Heir to the Empire trilogy. While I recall a general dearth of reading activity at this time–I was in high school, and the required reading I had to do gave me an aversion to reading in general–this seems to be the exception, along with some other escapist fiction like Star Trek and Dune. And The Hobbit. Anyways…
I continued to read as many of these books as I could when they came out, and quickly learned that in the Star Wars paradigm, as with all others, there were books I really liked (like the Jedi Academy trilogy, Rogue Squadron series, and The Courtship of Princess Leia) and there were books I was not so fond of (Children of the Jedi, Vector Prime, the Corellian trilogy). By the time I finished undergrad, I was a bit burnt out on them, and hadn’t really picked one up and read it until now.
It feels good to be back.
Set after the end of the New Jedi Order novels (most of which I haven’t yet read), the story involves several of the Young Jedi Knights answering a call only they can hear and abandoning their duties during the reconstruction of the galaxy in the aftermath a war. They depart for the Unknown Regions, and soon after a government of aliens known as the Chiss demands to know from the Galactic Alliance why these Jedi are interfering in their affairs.
Unable to explain why their Jedi have suddenly gone rogue, Luke, Mara, Han and Leia decide to go after them. They find a colony of insectoid aliens along the borders of Chiss space; the Young Jedi Knights, who have strangely started to exhibit a shared consciousness with the insects and refuse to abandon them; and the Unu, a former Jedi, now the colony leader, whose radically altered persona and enhanced powers seem an advanced state of what is beginning to happen to Jaina and the other Young Jedi Knights.
It seems the Chiss have been starving the border colonies, and the rogue Jedi have been thwarting their latest attempts. Unable to understand why the Chiss would do this, Luke and company are torn between solving the mystery and pulling the Young Jedi Knights back into Alliance territory, where they can hopefully be saved from the shared mind. Add to these the complications of yet another nest of insects attacking them–one to which the Unu and his colony are mysteriously blind–and the increasing willfulness of the Young Jedi Knights, and it becomes clear that this is a story that is both complex and exciting.
This is definitely one of the better Star Wars books I can remember reading: the pacing is good, the characters are engaging, and the plot, though sometimes a little convoluted, is nonetheless interesting and understandable. Denning obviously knows the characters from both eras, and is not afraid to develop and change them in challenging ways while still keeping true to their basic nature. There are also flashes of humor, from Han’s distaste of bugs to Mara’s caustic wit, that deliver the occasional laugh without distracting from the overall story.
There are some interesting elements that are obviously developed from the NJO era, such as the New Philosophy the Jedi have with regard to the Force. I won’t go into details, but it really takes the idea of the Light and Dark sides of the Force and turn it on its ear somewhat. I find myself wondering how wise this will be in the long term, but for the present it makes for some interesting speculation, and eventually I’m sure, plot and character devices. Jacen is also becoming an intriguing character, with his exploration of other cultures and ways of using the Force, though I can still get annoyed with both him and his twin sister Jaina (who at times I wanted to slap in this novel).
Since this book is the first of the Dark Nest trilogy, I can’t give a full assessment of the overall story. There is a cliffhanger (of sorts), but, like with many "first" episodes in a trilogy, this one resolves enough to where it can stand on its own. With that said, I’m also eager to see what happens in the upcoming novels, which is no small compliment to Denning’s storytelling ability. If his other efforts are this good, I may have to go back and start hunting for the novels I’ve missed.
Review: Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama October 6, 2005
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Being an Illinois resident while I attended library school, I’ve been hearing quite a lot about Barack Obama since even before his keynote address at the DNC last year. That he was already an author, with a book of memoirs out, was news I to me. When I heard he would be speaking at ALA in Chicago, I was quick to snatch a copy of his book from the nearest library (which, happily, was the one at which I worked). While I admit it took me a while to finish it, I think it is a fascinating account of a remarkable young man’s journey into self-discovery through the tracing of his African roots.
I will say right from the get-go that my assessment of this account is biased. Politics do not really enter into this book, but the man as a politician today colors my perception of the narrative he wrote a decade ago. I may consider myself middle-of-the-road in terms of my personal politics, but I usually seem to end up voting for Democratic candidates and policies, and as of late I’ve found myself particularly impressed by this man. It was with this mindset already in place that I checked out his book, and it likely colors my review of it.
To say Obama had an interesting childhood would be a gross oversimplification. He spent his first formative years in Hawaii, then moved with his mother to Indonesia and back to Hawaii for high school. His father was mostly absent except in the accounts his mother and her parents have of him, and his singular example as a driven, intelligent, and fair man are standards to which young Barack is held. He develops intellectually as a remarkable student and eloquent speaker, and his growth as a person is highlighted by his engagement with a myriad of puzzles concerning his identity: as a black man, as an American, as an organizer and concerned citizen, and finally, as the heir to the legacy of a father he barely knew, and who died before he had the chance to reach out to him.
As a young man who starts as an organizer in Chicago, he deals with his share of misfit tenants, lethargic community leaders and allies whose tenuous help almost always serves their own interests as well. When he decides to go to law school, he uses the remaining time he has until then to journey to Kenya, homeland of his father. There he encounters family who know him much better than he knows them, both because he exhibits many of his father’s traits and attitudes, and because he has not met many of them until now. He slowly learns more about the details of his father’s life and his grandfather before him, and comes to realize that the downfall of these otherwise remarkable men lay in a stubborn and laconic pride that he had been, up until that point, likely to emulate.
I found myself drawn in from the beginning as Obama recounts his childhood. He was a perceptive kid, with large shoes to fill and a mother who kept his intellectual and moral developments firmly on track. His dealings with various racial and cultural problems deepens as he grows into the man he is becoming, and despite his remarkable gifts, he can also be impulsive, self-absorbed, and occasionally downright rude. It is his growth through these obstacles that prepares him for the later challenges that come along, and I enjoyed seeing him stumble as well as succeed.
I had some troubles keeping track of the people in Obama’s life, as there are a lot of people who come and go during the story, particularly when I reached the third part, about Kenya, where he has much family he’s never met. Still, I was more or less able to follow the relations, their origins, plights and how they pertained and related to Obama.
Still, the book is highly readable: the pacing is good, the characters are easy to imagine and relate to, and some parts are very memorable. As my first foray into reading memoirs, I can only compare Dreams From My Father to a good novel, which is appropriate, as it reads like one in many places. For anyone curious about the man in the Senate and what struggles he’s dealt with, I highly recommend Dreams From My Father.
Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince July 25, 2005
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For those of you who haven’t read my reviews before, here’s the warning: I do spoilers. So if you’re dying NOT to know what happens until you’ve read/listened to/seen something, do not read on. I talk about whatever stands out to me, regardless of whether it’s a spoiler or not.
There. That’s done. Moving on…
It only being about a week since I’ve read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I’m still smarting from a lot of the new developments in it. Yes, I’m a big geek/fanboy/whatever, but that’s just the way it is. I find it hard to rank it against the rest of the books in the series, though at this point Prisoner of Azkaban is still my favorite.
HBP definitely moves things along nicely and sets up a great cliffhanger for the final book, though I’m starting to feel a bit jaded to the twists and sudden reversals that J.K. Rowling so masterfully inserts into these stories. Even as my head was spinning from the realization that Snape was Dumbledore’s murderer, I felt like things still ended too loosely. Sure, he killed Dumbledore, and he taunted Harry mercilessly, but it’s still perfectly possible that he’s on the side of the Order (as you’ll find out if you visit any of the fan sites and chatrooms). I mean, we’re gearing up for what (I hope) is the final battle against Lord Voldemort, and I was hoping we’d have a better idea of who truly is on what side for the coming denouement.
Still, this book has heart, in many ways. Some relationship issues are brought to fruition, much to the delight of Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron shippers and the severe chagrin of Harry/Hermione shippers (all I have to say to that is, "I told you so!"). There are several other minor heartwarmers, particularly a touching scene involving Fleur Delacour and Mrs. Weasley as they tend to the mangled, injured Bill Weasley after a battle. Harry’s resolve after the death of Dumbledore is also uplifting, matched equally by his friends’ devotion to stick with him, come what may.
Harry, who was passed over for Prefect in Order of the Phoenix, is finally given some responsibility he can live with, captaincy of the Griffyndor Quidditch team, and it’s fun to see how he deals with the difficulties that come with it. There are some minor issues he must resolve with Hagrid, since he is no longer taking Hagrid’s course, Care of Magical Creatures. He also has to deal with a new Potions teacher, Horace Slughorn, who "collects" people, and who believes Harry would be the crown jewel in his collection. As it turns out, Harry must acquire a particularly important piece of information Slughorn possesses, which tests his ingenuity and luck in a very interesting way.
Another fascinating part of this story is are Harry’s intermittent "lessons" with Professor Dumbledore, which delve into the past of Harry’s archnemesis, Lord Voldemort. Discovering the circumstances and actions that made him the most evil wizard of the age, like with Darth Vader’s past in Star Wars, add some depth to the character, though it certainly does a good job of distancing comparison between the two (Vader’s circumstances & actions, while reprehensible, were actually motivated by love, something Voldemort has never known; he’s a selfish man, through and through).
Of particular note are the circumstances of his birth and parentage, which helps explain how he couldn’t possibly know love from his childhood; as well as Voldemort’s early interactions with Dumbledore, whom he eventually asks if he can return to Hogwarts to teach there. The discovery of Voldemort’s Horcruxes are interesting, though potentially a double-edged sword. I liked the idea behind them, but their explanation felt a lot like the video games I played when I was younger: in order to face the villain, you have to go through all the strongholds and destroy them first, as they’re his source of power. I fully expect the Book 7 video game to take full advantage of that. In the mean time, I can’t wait to see how this development plays into the plot of the next story.
Several of Harry’s other nemeses get interesting development in this book. Draco Malfoy, who is sparingly used this time around, is still given pivotal tasks and surprising depth. While he seems to be walking the path of a Death Eater, he also seems to be having serious second thoughts about it, which could prove significant in the coming battle. Snape, the titular Half-Blood Prince, is also given more background, but little in terms of actual development: he’s still the Harry-hating, sneering jerk we love to hate. Given his apparent murder of the Hogwarts Headmaster and Harry’s resultant hatred of him, I’m hard-pressed to see how he’s going to change between now and the end, though, knowing Rowling’s mastery of the double-twist, I’m not ruling anything out.
Given that I finished this book the day after I bought it, I think it’s safe to say that it’s a fun and interesting read, and a worthy addition to what is already an engaging and increasingly dark series. Harry Potter is, as always, evolving, becoming more independent and adult even as he gets more powerful and determined. While I don’t yet know where I’d rank HBP in relation to the rest of the series, I believe it to be a good story and a necessary bridge to the battle that’s coming.
