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Good reading for early teens

25/6/2014

A Taste of Gold
by Deryn Pittar

It is good to read a story located in places you know so you can see them in your mind as you read. The action in this book takes place in the western Bay of Plenty and Coromandel areas and if you know places like Waihi, Katikati, Paeroa and Tairua and the roads between them it is even more enjoyable.
Jason and Levi are 18-year old twins visiting from Australia and come from a family with genetically altered talents though there is no explanation of how this came about. One of the boys can feel and hear the presence of precious stones and the other can taste precious metals in his mouth. This leads them to experience an adventure as they expose a gang of jewellery thieves.
There is even more fantasy when the twins encounter two taniwha who are also brothers and like Jason and Levi are also fond of gold and diamonds. With cops, robbers and a girl reporter added to the taniwha and the singing gems and gold, A Taste of Gold makes good reading for people in their early teens.
While I was reading I found several spelling and other mistakes but the story appealed to my imagination. Young New Zealanders, especially those who know the area, should also be interested in reading A Taste of Gold.

Review by Emily R

A Taste of Gold
By Deryn Pittar
Publisher: Evernight Teens ISBN 978-1-77130-667-6
Available in ebook or print from Evernight Teens bit.ly/19ncFza
Amazon (ebook) http://amzn.to/IQeT3k
To schools and libraries via Wheelers

Comments

Very readable collection

17/6/2014

Comments

Conclave
by Lee Murray, Jan Goldie, Piper Mejia, Celine Murray

This collection by different authors includes four stories of fantasy or soft science fiction accessible to all readers. They’re held together by the device of ‘Conclave’, which also differs in concept – being a place, entity, or event.
Jan Goldie’s A Mer-Tale, tells of a community of Mer-people who because of an invasion of the seas by extra-terrestrials has had to adapt partially to land living. “We Mer are real. There’s nothing mythological about us. We’ve inhabited Earth’s seas for millions of years. But about one thousand years ago all that changed….Now we slum it in the human world.” There’s intrigue and action as a small group of young Mer sets out to rescue captured friends and restore their right to live in the oceans. The story is well told and memorable.
Piper Mejia’s The Fence, deals with another small group that escapes from an enclosed community controlled by a despotic authority called ConClave Corp. It’s a familiar scenario within the genre but the story is interesting for the insights into how different characters respond to circumstances beyond their control and what they value most.
In Conclave Seven, by Lee Murray, Conclave is a Galactic Games event, and the story has more than a passing similarity to The Hunger Games. A team of four Terrean contestants must outperform teams from 19 other civilizations and complete a series of challenges. Though killing one’s rivals isn’t the aim, the majority of competitors don’t survive. Giant spiders reminiscent of Shelob, trees that move, a whirlpool, and tensions in team dynamics keep the action moving.
Celine Murray’s story Peach and Araxis is the fourth and shortest. Set on board a spaceship, Conclave Pacifica, the travellers are ex-Earth migrants bound for a new home planet. Somehow during the journey of several generations duration they’ve gone seriously off-course. Will this mean failure of the mission, or can intervention by Peach’s mysterious online social-media-style friend solve the problem?
The characters at the centre of each of these stories are young and the collection is aimed at YA readers, but Conclave could also be a good starting point for adults who have avoided fantasy and science fiction so far and would like to try it. The four Authors have all been published previously within the genres.
There are a few errors that should be corrected in a later edition, but overall it’s a very readable collection.

Review by Alderaan Hoth

Conclave
Publisher: Leapy Sheep, April 2014, 263pp
ISBN 978-0-473-28191-4 print; ISBN 978-0-473-28199-1 epub; ISBN 978-0-473-28200-4 mobi
Available from: Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Conclave-Collection-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B00JJIQ8EQ
Createspace http://www.amazon.com/Conclave-Collection-Science-Fiction-Fantasy/dp/0473281988
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/427117
Wheelers, or direct from the publisher.

Comments

Historically fascinating

6/6/2014

Comments

Destinies Divided A World War 1 romance of the Chinese Diaspora
by Mee-mee Phipps

This is the follow-on from Memories in the Bone, which I had been looking forward to reading. Sadly, I was disappointed.
     I had become involved in the lives of Zhou Yu, Horowai, Yung and all the others and felt I had got to know them all and wanted to know what became of them after the first book finished.
     This second book simply tells the story, and a jolly good story it is too. The fact that it is a good story is not enough to involve the reader in the lives of the characters in the same way. It did tell me what became of them all, but did not leave me wanting more. It almost seemed it had been written in a hurry just to get the story told.
     Historically it is fascinating. I knew nothing about the contribution the Chinese people made to the First World War or how they felt they were betrayed at the end. Like the author, I was surprised to learn 200,000 Chinese non-combatant labourers were used to dig trenches, lay mine fields and bury dead, and how they were considered expendable. Thousands of them perished in Europe during the time.
     I will, however, read the next book The Lifting of the Sun when it is available and hope it engages me as Memories in the Bone did.
     I cannot help but think that the huge scope of this story – from feudal China to Gold Rush Australia, colonial New Zealand, the West Coast of the United States of America to the Great War trenches in Europe – would make a great television mini series.

Review by Rewa Vivienne

Destinies Divided: A World War 1 romance of the Chinese Diaspora
Imprint: Seriously Red Books
Available: Kindle, Fishpond, Create Space; and in NZ, Papawai Press, Devonport or direct from: [email protected]

Comments

Good reading for early teens

Very readable collection

Historically fascinating

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