Reviews and Comments

Didn't read this as a youth, thought it would be interesting to experience with my daughter, who loves animals. We read one part per night, including the fourth part recently discovered and published. The parts are, briefly:

1) Jonathan lives to fly, even when exiled from his Flock.
2) Heaven (or something like it) where Jon becomes a better flier
3) Returning to teach the joy of flight to others and overthrow the Flock
4) Organized Religion distorts and destroys the message

Definitely a connection to the religion of the 70s that I remember. The whole story forms a sort of loop, as the young gull of part 4 rediscovers the message. Without that part, this wouldn't be as good a story by far. The book concludes with an authors note about how part 4 was returned to print very recently.

A lot of reviews criticize the pictures. I think they add a bit, and mostly occur during breaks in the action. Other reviews criticize Jonathan breaking from the flock, flying instead of eating, etc. These are the same people that look for bathrooms on science fiction shows, methinks. It's a story, people!

My takeaway - push against your boundaries, strive for excellence, and look for the truth behind the message.

This short novel is full of win!

First off, it is a grand adventure story, with all the elements you would expect - travel, landscapes, interactions with people. Next, it's a disaster story like no other - real end-of-the-world stuff. Lastly, it's science fiction - describing manned flight off-planet, weightlessness, and the rigors of take-off and landing. All of this written before 1932!

Yes, some of the science we know today is missing. Miniaturization, computers, radio communication through space. A modern version would have had several probes landing on the new planet, and the composition of the atmosphere (via spectral analysis) determined well in advance.

The main characters are fully fleshed out, and the "love triangle" between Eve, Tony and David is a good side story to the direct plot. Yes, some sexism is present. Also, the novel is "color blind" - very few racial descriptions are given.

These are but minor quibbles in a very readable story, most of the time hard to put down. First read this (and the sequel) as a young teen, and my imagination is just as fired by the re-reading. Found myself thinking of this as a movie (not the 1951 film). The plot would work today, with just a few minor tweaks to update the science. Highly recommended!

John Scalzi has built up a very complete world set in the very near future. His characters are three dimensional and their motives lend an intriguing aspect to what starts as an us vs them story. The novel is self-contained and explains the story well, and is followed by a novella detailing the history further. Clearly the author planned this out very well!

The action focuses on an FBI team tasked with crimes related to a particular group of humans – those who were affected by a disease called Haden's Syndrome. This malady affected a significant chunk of the population, especially a group that didn't fully recover and were "Locked In" – alive and aware but totally paralyzed. This latter group is able to interact with the ordinary human world through robots with a direct neural interface.

These devices lead to questions of the rights of individuals, including who funds research and medical care. The novel starts with the passage of a congressional act to reduce this funding. Related conflicts fall to the FBI team and frame much of the story. A deeper mystery develops, drawing the reader in to this world.

Both members of the team and many of the additional characters are very well developed. The author builds up a world that feels very real and connected to ours. He also manages to incorporate the Navajo, the NBA, elite code hackers and even a Ninja, though that last is not as fleshed out as I would like. There is also quite a bit of humor in this novel, excellently brought out by reader Wil Wheaton.

I found the mystery aspects compelling and the action well described. The disease and funding were both completely believable, and the story nicely concluded. Recommended!

This is one of the more famous Arthur stories, and I am fairly sure I saw the Disney film decades ago. It did not make a large impression on me. Certain aspects of the book are very good, and others are far less so.

Young "Wart" is not descended from nobility like his companion Kay, and the two of them grow up in and around castle life. Only towards the end of the novel is there any potential friction, as Kay starts through his knighthood ceremony, leaving Wart as the squire. The finale of the novel moves far too fast, reducing Wart's moping to a few pages and skipping over Sir Kay's actions completely.

Well done was the anachronistic Merlyn. The comedy in his comments feels timeless, even though the novel was written several decades ago. He also introduces Wart to experiences that will make him the well-rounded King Arthur of legend. These experiences culminate in the strength to pull the Sword from the Stone.

The novel has several passages of characters delivering long diatribes about various topics, some religious and some otherwise. These detract from the main narrative and increase the difficulty of reading. I can’t say whether this is the style of T.H. White or the mode of the time, but I didn’t enjoy it.

I went into this novel thinking of it as a young adult novel, or perhaps even a children's book, ala Disney's interpretation. What I found would be difficult for most kids to understand or even for many adults to explain. While I enjoyed the very good bits, this novel (and probably the series) are not especially recommended.