Here we go I guess. This book was quite good, I mean it wasn’t the best, there were some flaws. It didn’t exactly work perfectly. But then it did have a really good storyline and a respectable plot. It’s a superhero book which I found very interesting as I haven’t read one of them in a while. it is a story from mostly a villains perspective, which I find really great. It is about 550 pages long, so It could take a bit to finish, it did take me quite a bit to finish. It is an action/adventure book with more then enough high detail action. It is very well put together and slides into the next part/chapter very easily. The title is very catchy and caught my eye on the shelf.
Now here for some backstory (this will be pretty long).
It is set in a post-anarchitic world (I don’t know if that’s a thing or not). So if we backtrack a little we will learn that at some point very small numbers of people were being born with superpowers, these people are called ‘prodigies’. They were both feared and oppressed because of their abilities. People hunted and tormented them. That was until a prodigy going by the alias of ‘Ace Anarchy’ with the power of telekinesis decided to (ironically) unleash anarchy with his gang ‘The Anarchists’ by tearing down buildings, bridges, destroying roads and overall unleashing anarchy all around the area of Gatlon City (a fictional city made for the book, which is probably the capitol city for the country it is in and most likely the biggest) after destroying infrastructure military was sent in but they were destroyed, he went after government officials after and many were killed. With society breaking down, the government falling and all emergency services being disbanded, more prodigy gangs emerged. In other countries all hell started breaking loose and many civil wars started with more gangs disrupting society. This went on until Ace Anarchy ruled the world from Gatlon city. This was called the ‘Age of Anarchy and it went on for about 20 years. The worst wasn’t even the gangs, if you payed them or helped them they would leave you alone, the worst was the people. They would steal, loot, assault because there was no law enforcement (to be fair there was no law). It was the strong against the weak and the strong were usually jerks. Then at some point hope appeared, it called itself ‘The Renegades’. They were a prodigy gang who wanted to end the reign of anarchy. In reality they were a group of prodigy teenagers who’s base was in one of their garages. They saved people, stopped robberies and too down gangs. They were lead by a guy who calls himself ‘Captain Chromium’ because of the layer of chromium under his skin which made him almost invincible, but he was vulnerable to attacks at the eyes. They managed to kill ‘Ace Anarchy’ and some of his gang ‘the Anarchists’ and they more or less restored order. They became the new government and recruited more prodigies as ‘law enforcement’. They called themselves the ‘Council’.
Now back to the post-anarchitic world. The book is about a girl called Nova Artino, the niece of ‘Ace Anarchy’ and other people have their sides told aswell. It don’t think it tells us Nova’s age but I’m pretty sure she is 17-18. Her family is all dead, killed by a hitman sent by a prodigy gang, why? Because her dad wasn’t keeping up with the work they were asking him to do (he was a gifted prodigy with the power to make things out of light, in think? And they wanted him to make weapons for them). She’s a prodigy in the remnants of the ‘Anarchist’ gang who can make people fall asleep by touching their skin and she doesn’t need to sleep either, neither of these sound very useful but she uses them very effectively. She goes by the alias ‘Nightmare’. I’d say read the book if you want to know the story.
Now some flaws of the book are that it was a bit predictable, you could sort of tell what was coming. It showed both sides of the story so you knew what was coming but they didn’t and you were powerless to do anything. A lot of imagination went into this book because of the superpowers that I read in it. A lot of thought would have had to go into that. To be honest I could probably never think of that. 
‘Fire and Flood’ by Victoria Scott
I love this book. After reading it a second time, I can happily and honestly say, it’s gotten better. Why? Because the first time I read it, I was about ten years old, so I didn’t really understand the meaning, concept or what was even going on. But now I know that this is an amazing book and it was worth reading twice. It’s a pretty memorable book. I put it down over four months ago and I can remember nearly everything in it (and I’ve read a lot of books since then, so there are a lot of different stories going through my head for this one to compete with.
I’ve read the second book in the series as well (which is called ‘Salt and Stone’) and I wish there was a third one! To be honest, I don’t even know if you can call two books a series. I know that three books is a trilogy, but what is two books? If Victoria Scott writes a third book I will be happy to buy and read it.
The story is about a girl called Tella, who (I don’t know if it says this in the book) I am pretty sure is 16 years old. Her brother has cancer and it’s getting worse. Tella lives in the middle of nowhere in modern day America. She has no access to technology, as she now lives well away from the city she used to live in (where her friends are and where she used to be able to connect to the Internet). They moved because her Mum thought the countryside air would help her brother live a little longer or even (and there is very, very, little chance of this) surviving.
Tella and her family have lived there for about a year and Tella hates it. Why? Well could you imagine being about 16 and living without any technology? Away from all your friends? Not being able to contact them. It’s pretty bad.
Tella finds a blue box in her room – it seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Inside it is some sort of small device that looks a lot like a hearing aid. She finds a little blinking red light on it and is happy because this could mean technology (she’s had no access to Technology for at least 9 months). She decides to put it into her ear and, on the basis that it also looks a bit like a head phone earpiece, hopes to hear some new music. There’s no music; instead she hears audio that could change her life. It sends her on a huge adventure with tonnes of action.
I can happily say that this is one of my favourite books ever. Honestly, I highly recommend it. Definitely read it if you like the adventure genre. I’d put this book into the same genre as books like the Hunger Games. It is almost like the two books in the series should be the same book, though that would be way too long for one book. But it would make sense.
Review by 12 year old Finn Buck
‘WE’ by John Dickinson
Now, I have to admit, I didn’t like this book at all. I just didn’t like it for reasons I’m about to tell you. Honestly, I couldn’t finish it, I couldn’t seem to get a hold on it. It just didn’t work for me.
First of all, I didn’t like it because it’s really complicated and I couldn’t understand what was going on. At the start of the book, it was far to brief in setting out what was happening – ‘the context’. Usually I can handle this and I might be able to understand things as I get into the story, but here you feel as though you are missing part of the book. Anyhow, just so I don’t sound dumb, I am happy to say I understood enough of what was going on to keep turning the pages, but it was all still a bit of a blur.
Second of all, well actually, I don’t really have a second point. Refer again to the first point and multiply it by unnecessary complications set out in a book that is to brief to explain any of it.
This is a full on Sci-Fi book, there is nothing else, just Sci-Fi and I mean it. But I guess there could be more, since I never actually finished the book (I got bored and bewildered), but I’m going to go with science fiction. This is just my opinion, so please don’t kill me if you did actually like this book.
The book is set in the future where there is a lot of cool stuff, but, I think, some of this stuff somehow depletes the quality of life. One of these things is called the ‘World Ear’. It is implanted onto the back of your ear; think it more or less connects your brain to the rest of the world via the Internet. The stuff you want to know just appears in your vision. You can use it to communicate with other people too; like text messaging, but faster: because you just think what you want to say and it sends and it will appear in their vision. But then of course, you never learn to talk.
The story is about a man named Paul Munro who has been picked for an incredibly special job on the moon of a planet in the furthest reaches of the solar system (to be honest I don’t have a proper idea where which is confusing, but it’s probably a moon of either Pluto or Neptune). Paul had to get his World Ear removed as part of the job, so he can’t talk and he also thinks like a young child.
To get him to where he has to go, the Government puts him into a tiny space shuttle. For the duration of the journey, he’s put into a sort of incredibly deep sleep (because wouldn’t you be bored in a tiny space shuttle for 8 years on your own?). The space launch happens and this part is a bit confusing, he seems to be put into the spaceship thing (trust me it’s weird) and the ship sort of flies up to the outer atmosphere via like a metal like rope which it uses to get up there. And then, when up there, there seems to be a spaceport from where he gets launched to wherever.
While this is happening, Paul Munro unknowingly became famous because this is a big mission and there is huge excitement. Paul won’t be at this planet’s base on his own; there are already three people there from a previous mission. There were four, but one of them committed suicide because he couldn’t deal with it all. This created an uproar. Paul is the replacement. Paul is launched from the spaceport and the whole world holds its breath with excitement. But, after a few weeks, maybe months, the excitement is dying down; after two years, most people are starting to forget about it all. Only the team of people keeping everything on the mission in order remains focused on Paul’s mission.
BTW, yes, I did say spaceport, a lot of space missions seem to be going on in this book. I’m pretty sure it says there are over 200 people on mars and about 15 on Jupiter. I actually don’t know because while I have the book here beside me, I just can’t find anything in it and I would say other missions would also be going on. read the book and you’ll know what I mean.
I wouldn’t really recommend this book. Try it if you want. You might like it, so don’t let my opinion mess up yours. Sorry I didn’t read the whole book, it just didn’t catch on with me, so please don’t bite my head off. I can also see that a lot of thought was put into it and I sort of feel bad for writing anything bad about the book.
And I also apologise for the long wait for this or whatever review that was coming. It’s been a busy summer!
Review by 12 year old Finn Buck.
‘Interworld’ by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
This isn’t a bad book, but it could be better. I quite liked parts of it. I don’t think I’ll be able to write that much about it because there’s not much to it. So why did I pick it up? Because the book stands out, with its cool and outlandish name and great cover design. I picked this up off a shelf in my library because the spine of the book looked really cool, so I decided to read the blurb. It sounded pretty good so I gave it a try.
This book had huge potential. My problem with it is that in places there doesn’t seem enough book in the book, in others there’s too much. At some points, there just doesn’t seem to be enough detail to explain the story – to tell you what’s going on. I’d have liked more storyline and more detail on the characters. You keep thinking a bit is getting good and then it trails off. It’s a bit frustrating.
The story is about Joey Harker who lives a pretty average life; nothing is unusual in his life except for his crazy teacher – Mr Dimas. He gives Joey and his class weird assignments. For one of these weird assignments, as a test, the class is brought to a random place in their city. They go in groups of three. They have to try to get back to their school.
Joey, being somebody who can get lost in his own house (well, when his family built an extension, he didn’t recognise where he was!), did not fill his two team-mates with confidence. Turns out he knew where he was, but they laughed at him and didn’t take him seriously. They set off and Joey goes with them, though he knows it’s the wrong way. Havin gone the wrong way, they quickly get lost. Joey tells them he’ll scout ahead. He finds himself walking through a park as he looks for the right way. Then a sort of foggy mist descends around him. Joey walks through the mist and finds himself on the other side where he sees something incredible! (only kidding, it’s not that great, it’s a good surprise though). Read it to see what you think of the surprise.
Overall, this was a pretty average book which didn’t bore me, but didn’t keep me turning the pages either. I’ve written a fair bit about it in this review, but read it and see for yourself. This is a book for those who like sci-fi and action, maybe even fantasy. It’s a little bit of all these genres.
Thanks for reading this, Finn Buck, 12.
‘Warcross’ by Marie Lu
This is an exceptional book. I really liked it. The writing is great. There is real balance in the actual storyline – I mean there’s no boring bits, only what’s needed to keep things ticking along. This is one of those books where you pick it of the shelf of wherever and think ‘this might not be a great book’ or you just think nothing of it and you read it and you love it. In ways, it’s a bit like Ready Player One, particularly because of the virtual reality part of it all and other things. But, of course, you have other big differences.
The book’s characters are mostly well created and show huge personalities with likes, dislikes and opinions. I think this is where the book could be improved: a small number of characters are pretty boring. I know why they are there, but their parts could have been better.
I’d love to read a sequel. I think one is coming, supposedly called ‘Wildcard’: I can’t wait because this first book was totally unpredictable and threw your unsuspecting mind right round corners and through invisible tunnels. I sometimes try to predict what might happen next and this was just utterly impossible.
It’s set in the future where a 13 year old boy called Hideo Tanaka has invented a world/game called Warcross. To play, you only need a certain pair of virtual reality glasses made by Tanaka. It has become the biggest thing/trend ever and made Hideo a billionaire. The book is set a few years after this. The story follows an 18 year old girl called Emika Chen who is a hunter (person who is payed money by the police to find and basically capture people who bet on Warcross because its illegal).
Emika is poor, the book makes this very clear! There is no denying it. She rents an apartment with her roommate. some time later, they are about to be evicted due to not paying the landlord rent. She starts to get desperate and hacks into the opening ceremony for the Warcross championships (where different teams battle it out to win against each other while you watch via Warcross). She wants to steal something that would be worth a lot of money, but she accidentaly glitches her avatar into the match and everybody can see her. The rest of the book is about what happens when she enters the game.
I highly recommend this book if you like mystery and science fiction. Well, you might be wondering how does mystery come into this! If you really want to know, then read the book 🙂 I promise this is a really great book. I think Marie Lu has created something worth reading; that’s just my opinion.
Review by Finn Buck Aged 12
‘Six of Crows’ by Leigh Bardugo
I absolutely loved this book; it was way, way, way better than I expected. It sort of had everything you need for a great book. The storyline is crazy, with tonnes of twists and turns, big betrayals, great action parts and some huge plans (to do with the story). I didn’t expect this to be a great book, well, actually, to be honest, I thought it might be pretty bad, but, as it turns out: I was wrong; it was actually an incredibly good book. I loved it.
Leigh Bardugo has shown us how well she can create characters. She introduces us to them in the most incredible way; even writing it from different characters’ perspectives, which makes you read the book in a new and different way. I thought all of this was really great. These parts of the book are written carefully and contribute to the story – they are not a distraction.
The book is set in a fantasy world which has different countries with different beliefs and opinions; it’s full of people who dislike and like different things. There are a race of humans called the Grisha; they have powers and are able to do things, but these things aren’t that strong. There are countries that like and dislike them and also those who hunt and kill them.
Unintentional chaos sort of erupts when a man creates a drug called Jurda Parem for the Grisha which is extremely addictive, has terrible after effects and hugely amplifies the powers of a Grisha and makes them able to do stuff they shouldn’t be able to do. Well, the man who made Jurda Parem has been captured and taken prisoner in the most fortified place in the world called the Ice Court. A 17 year old criminal prodigy called Kaz Brekker has been paid huge amounts of money to break into the Ice Court and get the man out alive.
Kaz is able to use whatever crew he needs, but, even for Kaz, this is going to be an extremely hard task to complete. He might be killed or assassinated after he gets the money.
I loved this book and recommend it if you like fantasy and action. The book might be a bit boring at the start or you might not understand it completely, but, trust me, it gets better, way better. I was not sure I wanted to read it. I’m glad I did. This truly might be one of my favourite books, though that would be really hard to rank. If you read this, I hope you like it, because I definitely did. If you don’t, well, that’s your opinion.
Review by 12 year old Finn Buck.
The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
Overall, this is a classic Rick Riordan book. It’s written in his usual style which I love so much. I like it when one of Riordan’s books gets published or he starts a new series. I get so excited and always try to buy or borrow it from a library or even from somebody else. This book is no exception and everything about it is pretty good, but one or two things could have been changed to make it better. It reads like there are thing missing that could have been added in.
This is the first book in the ‘Trials of Apollo’ series, which now has reached its 3rd book; the amazing thing is that he also wrote the Magnus Chase series (I hope its not finished as a trilogy) at the same time: now that’s hard work. He brings in characters from other books he has written and they help make it all happen. This mixing of characters between books made this story all the better. He has put power, attitude and personality into new characters, some of who come near to being the main characters.
This book has Rick Riordan written all over it, with his funny and mythological style of writing. The writing completely brainwashes me to read on and on and I haven’t even started on the cover of any of the books. For me, if I see a Rick Riordan cover in a bookstore I go wild if its a new book or series.
Its really all about the Greek god Apollo who has been cast down from Olympus by Zeus as a punishment. He’s now in the body of a 16 year old boy named Lester Papadoulos. Of course, on arrival on Earth, he lands in a dumpster in an alleyway and is mugged straight away. As if this couldn’t get any worse, he is saved by a 12 year old daughter of Demeter called Meg (oh the embarrassment!). He tells Meg that he wants a powerful demigod to claim his service (meaning he does what they say and hopefully that gets him back into being a god). Meg instantly claims his service and becomes his master. It turns out the way he can become a god again is by completing certain trials which turn out to be freeing the oracles (sacred places of prophecy) of the world and defeating the triumvirate (who want to destroy the oracles and Apollo). Lets just say he is probably not going to have a good time doing any of this because, him being a god, he is used to sending demigods on quests to do this sort of stuff.
This is a great book about Greek mythology. I really liked it. I highly recommend this book if you like Rick Riordan, have read one of his books or just like mythology and adventure fiction. If you read this, I hope you like it.
Review by 12 year old Finn Buck
‘Insignia’ by S. J. Kincaid
This is an explosion of a book. It’s full of unlimited possibilities and imagination. I found it a bit mindboggling at times; this didn’t stop me piling through the pages of what is a beautifully written read. I think Kincaid had fun writing this book – the characters are all full of attitude and have strong personalities. It has a unique storyline, with what I am going to call bad guys and traitors. It takes the characters to places you’d never expect them to go and has a whole lot of twists. It’s a funny story with happy and mischievous bits at times. It’s both a sci-fi and an action book (there’s probably an actual category of books like this one!).
It is set years from now, where World War 3 is being fought between the Indo-Americans (America and India) and the Russo-Chinese (Russia and China) in space using spaceships controlled by army trained teenagers using Virtual Reality and a computer called a ‘neural processor’ (this is inserted into their brains).
The teenagers are all incredibly talented video gamers from all over America and India. Why do they use teenagers? Because they are the only age group who can handle it; anybody else will go mad or die. But the war is more or less a game for territory in space and money for the big companies and corporations. And, in America, the teenagers train and fight at the Pentagonal Spire which is a tower that has been built at the Pentagon.
The story is about 14 year old Tom Raines (he’s a bit naughty!) who loves gaming and VR and is incredibly good at it. He has a homeless gambling addict of a dad and goes to school in VR. But one day his world is changed when he is spotted by the U.S military and is offered a place at the training facility to become one of the fighters. He is overwhelmed with joy and wants to go so much but his dad does not really like the idea and goes on about how you’ll never be repaid or honoured. But Tom goes none the less. He makes friends and enemies as soon as he arrives but needless to say anyone can be a traitor and even people you think you know well.
I would highly recommend this if you like sci-fi and action books. I loved this book and if you read it I hope you do too. I think there is a sequel to this book and if there is I want to read it so bad! Another thing in the book it says Albert Einstein once said ‘ I know not what World War 3 will be fought with but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones’ and of course this isn’t happening.
Review by 12 year old Finn Buck.
‘Hover Car Racer’ by Matthew Reilly
I’ve read this book five times. I’d read it again (it’s a quick read). It’s up there on my list of all time favourites. The book has everything – twists, turns, fantastic characters and a fast-paced, addictive, storyline. What’s funny is how this sci-fi book doesn’t stand out in bookshops and libraries (I lend books from two different libraries). I just picked it up off the shelf one day, read it and found it’s one hell of a read. It also has that funny twinge of comedy and it actually made me laugh at random times.
At the start of the book it says it’s set: “A few years from now”. I wonder, as the book was written in 2004, why don’t we have hover technology yet?
The book is about, 14-year-old, Jason Chaser who has a talent for hover car racing (hardly a surprise given the book’s title!). Jason dreams of becoming a pro racer. His younger brother (he’s 12) is AKA ‘The Bug’ and he’s the hover car’s navigator. He helps Jason to make plans. He’s good at it because he’s clever (he can tell you what 654 x 357 is in 2 seconds!).
Their talent as racers is spotted at a race by a teacher from the International Race School in Tasmania (the school actually owns Tasmania, so they have huge race courses for the hover cars). The teacher offers them a place at the school. This gives Jason a chance to become a pro racer.
When he gets to the school, Jason makes friends with Ariel Piper who is the first ever girl to enter the race school.
It becomes obvious quickly that someone is intent on stopping him and Ariel from winning anything or becoming something big. It’s a story you can read with little effort; you just go with the flow. I recommend this book to anyone who likes fast-paced sci-fi thrillers (I’d say that’s most kids!). I’d say kids of any age could read it. The only hard bit for younger reads is that there are lots of characters and they can be hard to keep up with. I liked this, but some kids might get confused by this.
Review by Finn Buck aged 12.
‘A Million Dollar Gift’ by Ian Somer
This is the first of a series of books and a debut novel for Irish writer Ian Somer. I think he’s done well. This book has all the right plot, pieces, characters and ideas for an action thriller. The book’s 400 pages go past fast. It’s an easy read with no difficult words. These supernatural books just seem to find me no matter what. This is also a really interesting book. I look forward to reading the whole series to learn more. There’s one thing I really like about this book and it might just be how the main character is Irish.
It’s about 17 year old Ross Bentley who lives in Maybrook, Ireland. He has one friend called Gemma (he likes being by himself). He works at the local supermarket and has psychic powers (he can move things with his mind). Yes, the book mixes the boring with the cool. He lives with just his dad because his Mum died from a heart attack when he was 11. The sadness lead to him discovering his power. No one knows he has this power; though in the book he does end up telling his Dad and Gemma.
In the book we are introduced to Ross as he films a mad stunt he’s doing on his skateboard. He puts it on the Internet without telling anyone who he is. He tries not to use his powers for bad. I’m not sure I could stop myself
He finds out about a contest in London called the Million Dollar Gift in which, if you have any supernatural power, you win a million Euros/Pounds/Dollars. They are looking for people with powers! Ross decides to enter because his family needs the money and once there he shows them his power. Of course it can’t be this simple … it isn’t.
As soon as he shows off his powers, he finds he has thrown himself into an unpredictable world of the true gifts. The true gifts are powers like telekinesis, super speed (called warper) and 13 more like that. Then there are the power hungry, greedy, powerful people who want you dead which isn’t a very nice thought … Ross’s experiences make for a great action packed story. It’s also a funny book.
The book is written so that you have to read the next book. I highly recommend this if you like supernatural books because I know I love them. I ripped through this book and I am hopeful for more in the sequel. Anyone reading this book will enjoy all the cool powers the characters have!
Review by 12 year old Finn Buck.
Pointless Book Reviews 