One more month, and another procrastination update:
Recently Read SF/F:
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead, MG mystery/SF, hardcover): In 1979, NYC sixth-grader Miranda starts finding odd notes that seem to be addressed to her. They tell her things nobody could know, implying that one of her friends is in mortal danger... but which friend? Her best friend since forever, Sal, no longer even talks to her, and her new friends aren't really the same - and just what is the danger? And to whom is she supposed to write the letter she's been instructed to write?
This is one of the stranger tales I've read in a while, a small-scale story of the bonds of friendship and the troubles of growing up that conceals much larger ideas of causality and time travel. Everyone has a lot more to them than is initially apparent, turning the cast into real people - even the grown-ups, whom MG books tend to skimp on. It's inspired by Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time; it's Miranda's favorite book, one she talks about at borderline-spoiler length. By the end, everything comes together for a fast-paced, emotional climax. When You Reach Me more than earned its accolades and awards, a book many grown-ups would enjoy at least as much as the younger target audience.
Eridahn (Robert F. Young, sci-fi, paperback): Jim Carpenter may be a time traveler from 1998, but he's still essentially a truck driver, piloting camouflaged robotic vehicles around prehistory recording holopictures. The discovery of a fossilized modern human skeleton in the late Cretaceous sends him to the Age of Dinosaurs in "Sam", a reptivehicle concealed in a Triceratops illusion. What he finds is something impossible: a boy and a girl who claim to be Martian royalty, brought to earth by terrorist kidnappers. Jim doesn't know what to believe - until the terrorists show up, seeking their escaped victims.
It was really cheap at a thrift store, and looked like a quick little throwback SF adventure. That's more or less what it is - and about all it is. Though not pitched at kids (there's nothing explicit, but one attempted rape of the 11-year-old princess by a terrorist, not to mention a rather disturbing vibe between 30-odd-year-old Jim and the girl that takes an unsettling twist at the end), I couldn't help thinking that this is one that would spark a young imagination: kids camping out and roasting marshmallows under a Cretaceous starscape, the reptivehicle Sam that's essentially a robot buddy sidekick (save lacking sapience), the abandoned Martian colony on Earth, etc. There's also a master alien race known as the Ku, who appear as geometric 2-dimensional patterns and are largely a plot device to explain how modern humans exist on Mars (with an "intelligent design" sidestep of evolution; I would've hoped that science fiction readers in the 1980's wouldn't need that bone thrown to them, that reassurance of human superiority over nature, but unfortunately I know better...) The characters aren't very deep and the storytelling's somewhat clunky, full of infodumps about Martian culture (where "desentimentalization" of adults has led to a cold, loveless society built on greed and backstabbing) and such. But things happen, and everyone pulls their weight. Not bad, but not great, though it nearly lost an extra half-star in my ratings for that creep factor.
Currently Reading:
A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, Book 1, Mary Brennan, fantasy, paperback): The word's most renowned and notorious dragon expert, Lady Trent, relates her memoirs, beginning with a childhood obsession with nature and dragons that led to her famed career.
I've just started it, and already anticipate quite enjoying the book, and probably the series. The faux-historic alternate world melds a Victorian sensibility with the limited horizons of an earlier age, the perfect setting for a tale of pushing the boundaries of gender, class, exploration, and knowledge. I'm liking the main character so far.