The Girl At The Center of the World by Austin Aslan

The Girl At The Center of The World is the sequel to The Islands At The End of The World. Seventeen year old Leilani Milton and her father returned to their home on the Big Island. Three months after The Arrival of the Emerald Orchid, an alien being orbiting the Earth and responsible for disabling all electronic and power grids, Leilani and her family lead a subsistence lifestyle, farming their own crops and rationing everything.

Leilani's epilepsy has resulted in her being able to communicate with the Emerald Orchid who returned to Earth to spawn as she has done before. An astronomer, Buzz living at the observatory on Mauna Kea helped Lei talk to the Orchid. The alien along with its baby was about to leave Earth but Lei and her father discovered that the Orchid has the ability to absorb the harmful radiation spewed out from nuclear meltdowns. With nuclear reactors no longer able to cool their fuel rods, catastrophic nuclear meltdowns began occurring all over the planet. Lei while in contact with the Orchid during her seizures was able to witness these meltdowns occuring all over the planet. Yet no excess radiation has yet to be measured. When the Orchids communicated their love of the "sweetness", Lei came to understand that this was a reference to the radiation which they absorb.

While the Orchid's leaving would have allowed the power grid to be restored, the nuclear meltdowns would have left the planet uninhabitable. So Lei managed to convince the Orchid to stay a while longer and to absorb the "sweet" radiation.  Lei's connection with the Orchid is strong but similar to a child holding onto a helium balloon. If she lets go, the Orchid will leave for her home in the depths of space where there are many more like her.

However, Lei's problem is that the longer she keeps the Orchid in orbit around Earth the more difficult it will be to recover from the extended period without power. She needs to get a message out to everyone about the nuclear plants, to tell them to stop trying to save the reactors and to let them go critical because the Orchid can absorb the harmful radiation. The question is how to do this.

Leilani's father, mother, her seven year old brother Kai and her Grandpa are safely hidden in their little valley. Her family celebrates Lei's seventeenth birthday along with Keali'l who is Hawaiian and whose parents died in the first tsunami wave. Keali`l worked for Lei's mother, a biologist at University of Hawai`i and now she's taken him in.

During one of her contacts with the Orchid, Lei finds the Orchid hinting at releasing something which Lei doesn't really understand. At her birthday party, which is attended by Tammy, Keali`l and Buzz, Lei feels ill and her parents worry that she might have appendicitis. However Lei experiences a seizure and realizes that the Orchid is releasing a meteor (Lei refers to this as a pearl) which she wants to send into the ocean. Lei asks the Orchid to send the meteor into the mountain on Hawai`i, Mauna Loa because if the meteor hits the ocean it will cause a tsunami. When she awakens there is an earthquake and a meteor shoots across the sky and into the shield volcano's flank.

Witnessing this, Tami Simpson who is Lei's best friend, realizes that Lei is able to communicate with the Orchid. Lei tells Buzz that she calls the meteor "the pearl". Buzz tells the Leilani's family he will hike up the volcano to check out the impact site and sample the pearl.

At night Tami and Lei meet Keali`l at the breakwater on Hilo Bay. The bay is filled with tsunami debris and the hills around Hilo are dark. Keali'l brings a dive light and the three go diving for slippahs (lobsters). However their diving is interrupted by Hanamen, the sheriff's men,  who fire shots at them and demand their dive light and their bag of lobsters. Lei leads her friends through a hole in the breakwater. One of the Hanamen is a guy named Two Dog. Two Dog and the other Hanamen notice a sailboat passing the bay and decide they are going to attack. Leaving a man behind to watch for Lei and her friends, Two Dog and two men head out after the sailboat. Lei leads Tami and Keali`l through the breakwater but Tami cuts herself badly on a piece of concrete. Fearing she will draw sharks as she is bleeding and having been seen by the Hanaman on the breakwater, Tami begins swimming for the sailboat. The three teens manage to convince the man and woman on the sailboat to pick them up, warning them that people are planning to take their boat.

Marcus who is a doctor and Rachel agree to sail to Onomea Bay where Lei's house is located. Lei tells them her family will help them if they treat Tami's serious leg wound. On the sailboat while talking with Keali`l, Lei has an important revelation that she could use the Emerald Orchid to send a message via Morse Code to others on Earth, by causing the Orchid to dim and brighten. To test the possibility that this might work, she asks the Orchid first to fade then to go back to her normal brilliance. It is successful.

Keali`l stays with Rachel on the sailboat while Lei, Marcus and Tami hike to Lei's home where they fill her parents in on what happened. Marcus tells Lei that Tami must have antibiotics for her leg which has a deep cut that must heal open. The next day Marcus relates his story of escape from Phoenix Arizona to San Carlos, Mexico. Lei and her family stock up Marcus and take him back to Onomea Bay and then she and Keali`l head into Hilo to search for the IV antibiotics Marcus has told them to search for. Finding nothing at the clinic they head to the hospital where the doctor, Dr. Madsen, after learning how she was injured tells them that they must bring Tami in. Tami is brought in and receives the antibiotics she needs because of Keali`l. Lei knows Keali`l has gotten the antibiotics at a great personal price. Meanwhile Lei runs into Aukina, the soldier from the military camp on O`ahu. He agrees to teach her Morse code, although he doesn't know her reason for wanting to learn.

In an attempt to relax, Lei goes swimming at Rainbow Falls and suffers a grand mal seizure during which her contact with the Star Flowers is interrupted by an unknown person telling the Orchid to leave Earth. Shocked, Lei has no idea what to make of this. As Tami's leg heals, Lei begins to learn Morse Code from Aukina and struggles to learn who might be contacting the Orchid. Against the backdrop of the growing tension between the tribes, Lei begins practicing dimming and brightening the Orchid so she can eventually send her message out about the nuclear reactors. But will her efforts be thwarted by the unknown person attempting to convince the Orchids to leave?


Discussion

The Girl At The Center of The World is an exciting sequel that focuses on Leilani's attempt to save her planet and on the survival of her family and friends. There are plenty of descriptions about how the Milton family is working on building a sustainable lifestyle.

However Lei's focus is on a much larger and grander scale. Through her contact with the Orchids she experiences first hand the melt down of nuclear reactors in different areas of the world. "A silent pop of white flashes off the coast of New York. A ball of water crowned with radioactive mist swells along the morning's edge. The atomic poison of this explosion mixes with the fallout of other nuclear disasters that blanket the globe. But my Orchid draws up the venom, neutralizes it." Lei knows the longer the world remains without the ability to make electricity the harder it will be to recover. But her discovery that the Orchids have saved the planet from nuclear fallout means she must eliminate all of the danger from the nuclear reactors before she can let the Orchids leave. She must get the message out to the rest of the world to allow their nuclear reactors to go critical so the Orchid can finish the job of absorbing the excess radiation and then be released. An unexpected development is the introduction of an unknown person who attempts to get the Star Flowers to leave. Lei doesn't know the identity of this person but attempts to block his communication with the mother Orchid and to form a strong bond with her baby.  All her attempts to communicate and reason with this person fail. This sets up a mystery and also a source of conflict that complicates Lei's mission. The resolution to this conflict in the novel is really anticlimactic partly because once the identity of the other contact is revealed, Lei seems to quickly and rather easily convince him to leave and partly because the second storyline is more exciting.

That second storyline continues the conflict hinted at in the first novel between Lei's Tutu who was once a police officer and the sheriff of Hilo who has taken control of the island. Lei's grandfather and the sheriff have a complicated past which comes back to haunt them both. Bands of gangs called Tribes are fighting for control of Puna and Hilo. The sheriff of Hana from Maui who put a gun to Lei's father's head in the first novel is in control in Puna. His Hanamen control the plantations and agriculture. When the sheriff learns about Lei's ability to connect with the Star Flowers he begins to search for her family's farm. This leads to a deadly confrontation which provides the main source of tension for the novel.

Aslan's storyline is unique as is his setting - the exotic islands of Hawai`i. He touches on some of the native Hawaiian culture and beliefs, and of the islands' annexation by America and the desire of Hawaiians to exercise self government. This is main reason for the sheriff's desire to have the Orchids stay. "What we're building here is too important. These Flowers leave, the occupiers --the tourist droves --return. I won't allow that to happen."

Unlike the first novel which focused on survival during the crisis, The Girl At The Center Of The World focuses more on relationships; Lei's relationship with her beloved grandpa who reveals his connection to the sheriff of Hana, her friendship with Tami who is her best friend and the blossoming romance between Lei and Aukina. Aslan ties up all the loose ends neatly - and perhaps too conveniently but the novel ends on a hopeful tone.  Power is gradually being restored and civilization is beginning to return to the world.

The Girl At The Center Of The World is a solid conclusion to the novel and will appeal to those who enjoy a unique science fiction story set in an exotic location. Austin Aslan was inspired to write these two novels while doing his masters in tropical biology in Hawaii.

Book Details:

The Girl At The Center Of The World by Austin Aslan
New York: Wendy Lamb Books     2015
337 pp. 

The Islands At The End of the World by Austin Aslan

Set in Hawaii, The Islands At The End of The World tells the story of a father and daughter trying to survive in world devastated by the presence of an alien entity.

Sixteen-year-old Leilani Milton lives with her parents and seven year old brother Kai in Hilo, on the big island of Hawai'i. Her father who was originally from New Mexico, is Dr. Michael Milton, a professor of ecology at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and white. Her mother is pure Hawaiian and also a professor of ecology at UH at Hilo too. They have only lived on the island for three years.

The story opens on Sunday, April 26 with Leilani surfing with her best friend, Tami. On their way to get ice cream afterwards, Leilani and her father hear the siren warning of a tsunami. A few hours earlier, there was a meteor strike in the northern Pacific, eight hundred miles south of Alaska. Eventually the threat is downgraded.

Leilani, whose name means "Flower of Heaven", is leaving at six the next morning with her father for Honolulu, on the island of O'ahu. She will undergo special tests and a drug trial for her epilepsy. It was epilepsy that resulted in her being dropped from the gymnastics team when she was twelve. That was the age Leilani had her first grand mal seizure. She had been having petits mals for years. Once at O'ahu, Leilani will stop her meds, then started start a trial medication. If the medication works and she has no grand mal she will continue. If she has a grand mal, the trial will stop. All of this is making Leilani very nervous.

Before she leaves though, her grandpa arrives that evening so he can see her off in the morning. Leilani's grandpa is determined to keep alive the cultural practices of his Hawaiian ancestors. He was in the navy and then become a cop on Maui. Now retired, grandpa is Leilani's kahuna or spiritual adviser.  Grandpa tells her that Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of lightning, lava and volcanoes is her guardian spirit.

Their forty-minute flight on Monday, April 27 takes them over Maui, Lana'i, Moloka'i to O'ahu. In Honolulu, they drive to the clinic where they meet Dr. Makani who tells them more information about the trial. Meanwhile, bizarre things begin to happen around the world. Leilani and her dad learn that the U.S. President is recovering from surgery for appendicitis. At the clinic while some tests are being done on Leilani, they learn that the stock exchange has been shut down, the Vice President is missing as is the Prime Minister of Japan, Congressional offices have closed, the Euro has collapsed and several British banks have failed. Trying not to worry, Leilani and her father check into their fancy hotel on Waikiki Beach.

While talking with her mother and Kai, Leilani and her father also watch the President of the United States as he addresses the nation. However, the transmission dies as does their internet connection with her mother and Kai. All they know is that president was trying to tell them something very important and to warn them about something. Leilani experiences a petit mal seizure during which she hears a voice saying strange things in what seems like a dream. "These islands and their sacred tides call me forth." and "Come drift upon me, and spread. Bring me the means of life." Later on Leilani recalls these words and finds them to be strange, since she never dreams or hears things during seizures.

The next morning they awake to a power outage, satellite networks and electronics are inoperative and flights are grounded. At the clinic, Dr. Makani tells them that his neighbour with NOAA indicated that there is some kind of geomagnetic storm or something that is interfering with the Earth's magnetic field. That night from her room at the clinic they notice "a hazy green knot dominates a quarter of the night sky". The next morning a local astronomer indicates that there seems to be a correlation between the green light seen at night and the blackouts and malfunctioning electronics. By Thursday morning, all the equipment at the clinic is not working and the newspaper has dubbed the green cloud the "Emerald Orchid". They also learn that tsunami struck O'ahu's Kailu Bay earlier on Wednesday as well as the area around Hilo on the Big Island. The tsunamis are believed to be due to the Emerald Orchid. Leilani's dad decides that they need to get home and they need to begin looking for ways off of O'ahu now.

Leilani is released from the clinic but their attempts to leave Waikiki are hampered when Leilani has another seizure. Again she dreams and hears a strange voice, "These islands are here for me, and I crave what they will offer. It is a good thing...I am Leilani. Spellbound, I blossom." By Friday chaos reigns. There are gasoline shortages, the National Guard and coast guard have been deployed, there is no way off the island for tourists, and no communication with the outside world. The government decides to send tourists to the Marine Corps Base at Kaneohe Bay to be evacuated by navy ships to the West Coast. First they try to leave via one of the smaller island airstrips, Kalaeloa Airport, but discover they can't book a flight until the following Tuesday. Talking with people at the airport, Leilani and her dad learn that the military is simply shuffling people around. Leilani's father decides to try to find someone to take them to the Big Island by yacht or sailboat. This also is unsuccessful. Leilani witnesses the brutal murder of a man who is caught stealing a boat and this brings on yet another seizure. Again Leilani dreams and hears a strange voice. "This is right. I am here. It is time. And this one spits fire. It oozes heat. This one has not warmed before. I will linger, then as I have done on other shores, and we both shall have our fill."

Two days later, on Monday morning, Leilani wakes in the hotel room in Waikiki. Their hotel is now under attack by gangs who are after the tourists. Waikiki has been looted and buildings are on fire. The Emerald Orchid now dominates the sky at night, complete with lightning bolts and meteor showers. Their attempt to reach Kaupa Pond is thwarted when they are diverted by the military to the Marine Corps Base. Arriving by bus at Kailua, Leilani and her father are forced to surrender their backpacks and food and are eventually placed in a makeshift camp. They are told to they will be called when their turn comes to be transported by helicopter to their home on the Big Island. While waiting, Leilani meets a handsome soldier, Aukina. As conditions deteriorate in the camps, Leilani decides to induce a seizure in the hopes they can get out of the camp. But like the other seizures, Leilani continues to hear voices. "You are Leilani. I am Leilani. Suckle. Gather your strength...Time to linger and grow strong on the heat."

Leilani's father now becomes determined to break out of the camp. Aukina tells Leilani that people on the islands are breaking into factions according to race. The Sovereign Nationers want to secede from the United States. He reveals that all the military are taking potassium iodide tablets in anticipation of the radiation fallout after the nuclear reactors fail. He tells them that the military is out of fuel and that what is left is being conserved for a special action. He wishes he could take her with him. The only thing he can do is provide Leilani with wire cutters. After stocking up on food from the warehouse, which Leilani breaks into, they flee the camp into the night.

The first place they flee to is the abandoned home of the chancellor of UH Hilo. After cleaning up and getting some rest, they are warned to leave. They manage to steal a boat, but Leilani's father is shot during the escape. They head towards Moloka'i but when they run out of gas, Leilani and her father now risk being smashed against the rocks of the island. Leilani manages to jump onto a ledge and eventually pull her father to the safety. Then from the direction of Kalaupapa, an outrigger canoe comes to rescue them. They are taken to a clinic on the beach where Leilani's father is operated on and she receives stitches for a gash on her forehead. The older man who rescued her tells her that he is a healer. Identifying himself as Uncle Akoni, he abruptly questions Leilani about her epilepsy and suggests to her that maybe her epilepsy is an "opportunity". 

As they both recover from their ordeal, they find Akoni's community a refuge. Akoni begins dropping hints to Leilani, referring to the Emerald Orchid as a ship that likes the radiation or "hotness". After four days, Akoni indicates that he must go to deal with other factions on Moloka'i. Akoni indicates that things might begin to get worse and he offers Leilani and her father a way to get to Maui. He tells Leilani's dad that through a ham radio, they have confirmed that nuclear reactor meltdowns are occurring all over the world as power systems fail and there is no means to cool the reactors. These meltdowns will continue as more and more reactors fail. However the strange thing is that no radiation has been detected. Akoni tells them that they cannot even read normal amounts of radiation. It is at this point that Akoni reveals what he knows to both Leilani and her father; that the Emerald Orchid, whatever it is, is preventing a catastrophic nuclear winter from happening. He tells Leilani that people with epilepsy like himself and Leilani can "hear" the Emerald Orchid and he begs her that upon her arrival in Hilo, to go up the mountain, listen and try to contact them.

As life on the islands begins to unravel further, the military abandons the islands and Leilani and her father struggle through the last part of their journey, Leilani begins to understand what is happening to her planet and how they are tied to the Emerald Orchid. She realizes she may be the only one who can save her dying planet.

Discussion

The Islands At The End Of The World is a story of journeys - human and alien. It is well-written piece of science fiction that uses the alien-comes-to-earth trope but with a twist. Instead of the aliens being highly intelligent beings, those of the Emerald Orchid are compared to sea turtles who follow their instinct to migrate to their ancestral breeding grounds. In this case that ancestral home is the atmosphere of the planet Earth. The first foreshadowing of this comes when Leilani and her father are on Moloka'i watching a sea turtle. Her father mentions that "some turtle species cross the entire ocean to lay their eggs...When the supercontinent of Gondwanaland was just breaking apart, the turtles would simply swim across a narrow strait, lay their eggs, and then head back home. Over the next hundred-or-so million years, the continents drifted apart, about an inch a year. The turtles went about their business, doing what they used to, what their parents used to do, each generation unaware of the imperceptible change. Now they cross oceans. And they'll be here still, following their ancient paths, inch by new inch, long after we're gone."

It is this exchange that helps Leilani to piece together the circumstances behind the Emerald Orchid five weeks after its appearance. It is while resting at a small plot of marijuana plants and smoking pot, that Leilani and her father have a detailed discussion of the "Emerald Orchid." They both notice that the Emerald Orchid has changed and seems to be made of two entities. It reminds Leilani of the jellyfish she's seen at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Remembering "those dark seizurescapes, the snatches of imagery, the voice, the echoes of thought flowing through with my own consciousness" results in Leilani realizing that the "Emerald Orchid" is alive and that like the sea turtles, it has come to Earth to give birth.

"I only put this together just now! But it is a ... cosmic sea turtle! It was born here. It's just returned to lay its eggs, or spawn, or whatever it does. It's feeding on the atmosphere. That's how it works!"

Leilani's father believes the "Emerald Orchid" may be the explanation behind the mass extinctions throughout Earth's history. For both Leilani and her father, this realization is overwhelming. "I catch a glimpse of my father's wonder: if our terrestrial turtles will cross oceans, unaware of the drifting continents, then how much grander are these creatures, who voyage between worlds?"

But the Emerald Orchid is different from Earth's sea turtle as evidenced by its response after Leilani makes contact and explains that they need it to stay and "to take up all the hotness until it is gone." Although the "Emerald Orchid" and its young one want to leave, they want also to help. "I want the depths, but I want to do the good thing more. The good thing is to stay." They decide to stay and feast on Earth's radiation, so that they can grow strong and so that Leilani can protect her young.

The story of Leilani and her father's journey back home is told entirely from Leilani's perspective. Her narrative is broken into five parts named after the Hawaiian islands. Fortunately for the reader, Aslan has provided basic maps both of the Hawaiian chain of islands as well as maps at the beginning of each new section that help to place the events for readers. At the beginning of their journey, Leilani and her father's world is encompassed by the Hawaiian islands. The islands located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean give the sense of isolation. By the end, they have a sense being a part of something much larger and much grander. In particular, Leilani has felt socially isolated because of her epilepsy; she was dropped from the gymnastics team and doesn't yet have her license because her doctor hasn't yet signed off on it. She's also of mixed ancestry on an island that prides itself on full-blooded Hawaiian ancestry. However, in this new world, Leilani's epilepsy is a gift that saves her world and her mixed blood is a call to all to co-operate in order to survive.

It's easy to recognize that author Austin Aslan lived on the Hawaiian Islands. The novel is filled with fascinating historical, geographical, cultural tidbits as well as some references to Hawaiian mythology. All are woven into the story seamlessly, both informing and engaging the reader.

One theme that appears early on is the conflict in Hawaiian society between the white and Hawaiian races. One group, whom grandpa refers to as "Sovereign Nation people" want the islands to be governed by those who are pure Hawaiians. While Leilani's grandpa acknowledges that "The seizure of Hawaii by the U.S. military was a despicable act." he is willing to recognize that people like Leilani's father who have married Hawaiians and now live on the island are just as much Hawaiian as he or Leilani's mother. This conflict becomes more dominant in the novel as conditions on the island worsen and civil authority collapses.

Overall, The Islands At The End Of The World is a debut novel well worth reading. Aslan has planned a sequel, ready for publication in 2016.

Book Details:

The Islands At The End Of The World by Austin Aslan
New York: Wendy Lamb Books      2014
358 pp.

The Hunt by Stacey Kade

The Hunt continues the saga of Ariane's attempts to extricate herself from GTX, the sinister research organization that created her.  Ariane is an alien-human hybrid, created using human DNA and DNA from the alien found at Roswell in 1947.

Ariane's adoptive father, Mark Tucker,  helped her escape and now she and Zane need to figure out what to do next. They are planning to travel to Zane's mother's home in Chicago. After retrieving a duffelbag from beneath the dumpster, it's contents reveal more surprises. There are Canadian and US passports for a Talia Torv as well as a large amount of cash and a letter from her father, Mark. The bag also contains clothing and the keys to an older model car.

The letter reveals that Ariane has a tracking chip embedded in her neck which can be inactivated by a magnet. But more importantly Mark's letter also reveals several things; that Ariane was never free from GTX but was allowed to live outside the research lab and that she needs to cut ties to Wingate. She also learns that the other labs who are in a battle to win a lucrative government contract to create supersoldiers are out to kill her. There is to be a trial or fight to the death between the three supersoldiers created by Dr. Jacobs of GTX, David Laughlin of Laughlin Integrated Enterprises and Emerson St. John of Emerson Technology. Her father warns her that corporate espionage between all three companies means that Ariane's escape will not go unnoticed for very long. Although her father tells her to try to leave the United States, it soon becomes apparent that this will not be possible.

Zane and Ariane locate a late model van that Ariane's father had hidden for her in a storage center. They travel to his mother's home where Ariane makes the discovery that Zane's mother is the lab technician, Mara, who cared for her and treated her kindly. Zane's mother is confused and frightened when she meets Ariane, mistaking her for another human-alien hybrid known as Ford. Zane and Ariane learn that David Laughlin has three hybrids named Nixon, Ford and Carter. Zane's mother unknowingly became involved with Laughlin Enterprises when she moved to Chicago after her marriage with Zane's dad collapsed,  to take an office job. Laughlin honed in on Mara's experience at GTX and drew her into his research. Mara now works with Laughlin's hybrids, trying to find "the balance between independent thought and obedience, between humanity and all the accelerated benefits of your ...other people." Mara tells Ariane that the Laughlin hybrids seem to thrive as a communal cell rather than as individuals. The Laughlin hybrids were raised without caregivers and are not able to relate to humans. As a result, Ford hates humans. Ariane learns also that the hybrids have been sent to school.

Mara warns Ariane to return to Wingate where she will be protected by GTX from Laughlin and also the hybrids. However Zane and Ariane decide against this and instead learn from Mara where the hybrids are attending school. Ariane intends to seek out the hybrids and try to convince them to work with her to obtain their freedom. But when she and Zane manage to meet them at Linwood Academy, they realize that what Mara has told them is true; the three hybrids move together as though they are a single entity, led by Ford. They also see why Mara mistook Ariane for Ford, as they look identical.

Ariane proposes that they work together to obtain their freedom. Ariane knows that if she can free Ford, Nixon and Carter, the trials won't take place. However, Ford tells them that they will not help her unless she obtains a supply of the enzyme, Quorosene, which is being withheld from them unless they cooperate.

When Ariane and Zane return to Mara's home, they learn that Quinn has been kidnapped by Dr. Jacobs and is being used as a way to lure Ariane back to GTX. However, Ariane believes that if she turns herself into Dr. Jacobs, Quinn AND Zane will never be safe because Jacobs knows that she cares for Zane.

All of this makes Ariane determined to obtain the Quorosene and end the experimentation on the alien hybrids. With time running out,she devises a plan that hopefully will save both Ford and Quinn. But when Zane intervenes with the best of intentions, Ariane must change her own game plan.

The Hunt manages, in the last half of the novel, to live up to the promise of the first novel, The Rules. Readers might find the middle of this novel drags, as Kade focuses on the blossoming physical attraction between Zane and Ariane while slowly continuing to advance the storyline about the hunt and possible recapture of Ariane. At times the relationship takes over the story, when all the reader wants is to learn how Ariane will get away from GTX. The author also spends considerable time developing the backstory behind Zane, his relationship with his brother and the abusive relationship with his father. This allows us to understand the motivations behind Zane's actions later in the novel.

The last eight chapters are very exciting with several unexpected twists that lead to a cliffhanger ending and provide and excellent segue into the final novel in this trilogy.

The Hunt incorporates the requisite themes of identity, human experimentation, and the right to be free. Ariane never asked to be created but now that she exists she has a right to live her life the way she chooses and not to be subjected to experimentation and captivity. Although she is part alien, she is also human and therefore has human rights.

Overall, The Hunt delivers what readers expected based on the first novel. It's unfortunate that it the reading is marred by poor editing, with several typographic errors as well as general slips such as referring to Ariane as Ari.

Book Details:
The Hunt by Stacey Kade
New York: Hyperion        2014
359 pp.

Man of Steel

"I have to believe you were sent here for a reason. And even if it takes the rest of your life, you owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is."

This summer's remake of the Superman movie is absolutely everything fans of the comic hero will love. Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane is really the Superman movie we've all been waiting for years to be made. It takes the original concept of Superman into somewhat new ground by presenting a more "realistic" view of the superhero, one that people can relate to. And because of the amazing special effects that are available today, allows viewers to truly experience the the battles between super aliens very, very realistically. The movie's storyline is based on a story written by David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan using the Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Entertainment.

The movie spends more than an hour and a half developing the backstory of Superman, opening with esteemed Krypton scientist, Jor-El, confronting Krypton's leaders and begging them to evacuate their dying planet. Their planet has been irreparably damaged because its core has been destroyed. They refuse and the meeting is interrupted by the head of Kyrpton's soldiers, General Zod, who attempts to overthrow Krypton's leaders.

Meanwhile, Jor-El's wife, Lara Lor-Von (Ayelet Zurer) has naturally given birth to a son, Kal-El, which is considered a form of treason. All Kryponites are genetically engineered with their duty in life predetermined and are birthed from special pods. Seeing that a civil war has broken out and that his planet is doomed, Jor-El steals the Codex the which contains all the genetic material of every Kryptonite and has it placed into his son's body. He and Lara then launch their son in a spacecraft which travels to Earth. Their hope is that Kal-El will grow up to lead Earth's people.

General Zod and his group, including his wife Faora-Ul, are captured and placed in special capsules and then imprisoned in a black hole. However, when Krypton collapses and explodes, the forces that keep them imprisoned are dissolved and General Zod and company are freed. They spend 33 years searching their colonies and the universe for Kal-El's location until they are led to Earth by a homing beacon.

During those 33 years, Kal-El, rescued from his spaceship by a Kansas couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane), is raised as their son. They name him Clarke and hide Kal-El's ship in their barn. As Clarke grows up it becomes evident that he has special abilities and the Lane's are convinced that he has a special purpose on Earth. Clarke get his biology from Jor-El but his character from Jonathan Lane who encourages him and advises Clarke that the person he becomes will influence the world either way. Jonathan Kent tells the young Clarke, "You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be. Whoever that man is, good character or bad, he's going to change the world"

The movie doesn't begin with Clarke's life as a child, instead we see him as an itinerant worker, moving from job to job, trying to figure out just who he is. But every time a disaster strikes, Clarke is there to save the day, rescuing people in mortal danger. During these times we see flashbacks of Clarke as a child, saving fellow students and being bullied for being quiet but different. During this time he struggles to understand his identity.

During a stint at a job in a restaurant, Clarke overhears army men talking about a top secret investigation by the US military in the Arctic. At the same time at The Daily Planet, Lois Lane is also sent on assignment to the same location to investigate the unusual discovery. Both are there to figure out what is going on. Clarke, investigating on his own, discovers that this is a ship from his home planet, but we don't learn until later on that this was a ship sent thousands of years ago to investigate possible other worlds for the Kryptonites to colonize. Inadvertently, Clarke sets off a homing beacon that will lead General Zod to Earth. It is at this time that he also meets Lois Lane and heals her from a serious wound.

Two things result from their meeting. The first is that Lois Lane manages to get someone to publish her story about what has happened in the Arctic. The second is that General Zod arrives on Earth demanding that the humans hand over the Kryptonite who has been masquerading as a human for the past 3 decades. Clarke decides to turn himself into the US Military and assures them that his intentions are not to cause harm to either Earth or it's people. He tells General Swanwick that he suspects Zod is not to be trusted.

However, when he meets General Zod, he learns that his intentions for Earth are not quite so benign and Kal-El now knows he must fight for his adopted race or they will face extinction. What follows is an epic battle on a world level for the future of Earth. With the humans witnessing the first of these battles, it soon becomes apparent that Superman is on their side. But if he is to win, he's going to need every bit of help they can muster.

Discussion

Man of Steel offers the third reboot of the Superman movies, after those featuring Christopher Reeve (1978 - 1987) and Brandon Routh (2006).  

Unlike previous movies, where the relationship between Clarke Kent/Superman and Lois Lane, intrepid reporter from the Daily Planet was paramount, in this adaptation the feud between Kal-El and General Zod is the dominant storyline. This changes the entire dynamic of the movie, turning the focus from Lois and Kent and her incredible naivete about who Kent really is (which now becomes a subplot), into a battle of super-men for the future of Earth. The other most important relationship in the movie is that between Kal-El and his human father, Jonathan Lane. Again and again, Jonathan preaches patience and tries to teach Kal-El how to distinguish between right and wrong. Little does he know his efforts will likely determine whether or not Earth is saved.

The movie was reasonably well cast:  Henry Cavill offers a physically handsome Superman. In this version of Superman, Cavill plays him as an intelligent, thoughtful man, leaving behind the bumbling, socially awkward Carke Kent of the mid-20th century. He's still the alien man struggling to figure out his identity and having to make a huge choice whether to side with his fellow Kryptonites or with his adopted, weaker humans.

Amy Adams was offers a surprisingly good performance as Lois Lane. This Lois Lane is more savvy and realistic as she quickly follows her leads back to learn who and what Kal-El is. She decides not to reveal her source when pushed to do so. She's believable as someone, an intelligent extra-terrestrial like Kal-El, might actually like.

General Zod was well played by Michael Shannon, who captures the intensity and cruelty of a Krypton soldier bred to preserve and protect his people to the very end. He too is a character striving to do what he thinks is the right course of action to save what remains of his race. General Zod's wife, Faora-Ul (Antje Trau) is cruel and ruthless to the core, a fitting partner for General Zod. She considers Kal-El's compassion to be a form of weakness. "You have a sense of morality and we do not. And that gives us an evolutionary advantage. And if there's one thing that history teaches us it's that evolution always wins."

The devastating battles between Zod and Kal-El are intense and dominate the last half of the movie, perhaps to the detriment of the story. Modern audiences will likely enjoy the bone-crunching punches and throws that send these supermen through blocks of office towers, into locomotives and into the stratosphere. The devastation to cities is remarkably well portrayed lending a terrible realism to their battles.

Despite the plot holes here and there, the lengthy backstory, and the poor pacing of the movie overall, Man of Steel is generally entertaining. (The 1978 movie starring Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder was well done except for the ridiculous time-altering ending.) With its themes of identity, faith, trust and choosing between right and wrong, Man of Steel offers much more to viewers. The scene where Kal-El goes to see a priest is particularly interesting.

Thankfully, Hans Zimmer, whose beautiful score graced the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, was commissioned to write the music for Man of Steel. He appropriately ditched John Williams' March of Superman and replaced it with his characteristic dynamic, rich scores.

One last thing: more than annoying is the jarring last scene where Superman takes down a US military drone and tells the General that he does not take being monitored lightly. This scene, so obviously a political statement against the recent US drone controversy, was out of place in the movie and completely ridiculous as an ending to a great action film.

Man of Steel will undoubtedly be one of the best movies of 2013.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running, not staying, but facing.
Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity.
And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield.

The story opens with Cassiopeia Marie Sullivan's first person narration which describes the waves of the alien invasion and then her hiding in the wilderness. She is one of the last survivors of the human race. It began with the appearance of a huge green ship in orbit around the Earth. For ten days nothing happened while people speculated, fretted, and wondered why the aliens did not make contact. The attack came in waves. 

The first wave was a electromagnetic pulse that knocked out everything - cell phones, electricity, car and airplane engines. Nothing worked. Cars stalled on the roads, planes plummeted to earth. Half a million people died. The second wave was the creation of an earthquake that caused a massive tsunami. Forty percent of the earth's population lives within sixty miles of a coastline. Three billion people perished. The third wave was an Ebola-like outbreak, spread by Earth's three hundred billion birds. The fourth wave was the "Silencers" or those who are aliens inhabiting human bodies whose job it is to kill the remaining humans.

Cassie's father, mother and younger brother Sammy had stayed through the first three waves, barricaded in their home. However, when her mother died from the Red Tsunami, Cassie's father decided to leave and head for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, over one hundred miles away. When they arrives at a refugee camp twenty miles from their home, Cassie, Sammy and their father waited to see what would happen. Then one day a grey drone appeared, followed later by troops who separated the children from older teens and adults. This resulted in Cassie becoming separated from Sammy. She then witnessed the mass murder of all the adults but manages to escape.

The novel picks up the story with Cassie's current situation, hidden in the forest. Cassie realizes that she cannot stay hidden forever, that she will eventually be hunted down and that she wants to keep her promise to Sammy to come get him. She decides to make her way back to the Wright-Patterson Base where she believes Sammy has been taken. However, despite her care in traveling, she is shot and wounded by what she suspects is a "Silencer" - an alien who looks like a human who kills those who remain. Seriously wounded, Cassie is surprised when he lets her go. However, further into her journey, she becomes stranded during a snowstorm and is rescued by a stranger.

Meanwhile, although Cassie assumes seventeen-year old Ben Parish is dead, he is in fact barely alive, suffering from the Red Plague. Ben is a boy that Cassie liked prior to the alien invasion. He narrates his story beginning with his arrival at Wright-Patterson Airbase after the soldiers clean out the tent city next to the base where he has been staying. They save his life and he is encouraged to find the will to fight against the aliens. He learns from the doctor there that the aliens have infected certain people and that these people are now activated into hunters to kill the remaining humans - the fifth wave of the invasion. The preceding four waves were merely to whittle Earth's 4 billion population down to a manageable size for annihilation.

Parish, along with many other children, are trained to be soldiers and are told that they can help fight back against the invaders. They are tagged with a small capsule that allows them to be tracked and are told that the aliens are inside some humans and that with the use of a special headset they can be detected and will glow green. Those who are not infested will be red. From the very beginning all of their training reinforces this understanding, giving them no reason to question otherwise. Parish, who used to be a high school jock and who is deeply depressed over the loss of his sister and his family, is gradually trained into a proficient soldier. His unit includes a young woman named Ringer who is a crack shot, several young boys named Dumbo and Flinstone, a young girl named Teacup and a little boy named Nugget who is in fact, Cassie's brother, Sammy.

When their training is complete, Parish, who now goes by the name, Zombie, along with his unit (excepting Sammy) are sent on a mission into a city. They are given special headsets that glow green indicating a person is infested with an alien and are told to take out anyone who registers as "infested". However, Ringer begins to realize that the situation doesn't make sense and soon figures out that they are being used by the aliens as the 5th Wave - humans who are trained and duped to kill those humans who have survived the previous four waves of attack. Ben and Ringer must decide what to do as Ben knows he needs to return for Nugget whom he promised he would not leave behind.

During the time that Ben and Sammy are at Wright-Patterson Airbase, Cassie awakens to finds herself being cared for at an isolated farmhouse in Ohio. Her caretaker is a handsome young man, Evan Walker, who claims to be the sole survivor of his family. The house is Evan's family's farmhouse, but soon many things about Evan just don't add up. Cassie soon begins to realize the truth of what he is too. This is complicated by the fact that Cassie begins to fall for Evan, all the while struggling between attempting to trust him and wanting to kill him for who he is and what she's sure he's done.

Cassie tells him she must go back to get her brother, even if it means her dying in the process. Evan who is in love with her, decides to debrief her on the base so that she will have a reasonable chance of succeeding. How will Cassie sneak into a death camp for humans, that is surrounded by drones and soldiers controlled by advanced alien technology?

Discussion

Rick Yancey is an adult writer whose previous works have been immensely popular. The 5th Wave which is the first in his new YA series, feels like a mix of original Star Trek (Return to Tomorrow) and the television series V which ran in the 1980's and deals with humans battling malevolent aliens intent on taking over Earth. Of course these storylines - the aliens so advanced they have no physical body and are only a consciousness, and the alien invasion that sees a few good aliens side with their human prey, are a common trope in science fiction literature and movies.

The novel is narrated in several voices; 16 year old Cassie, Sammy, 17 year old Benjamin Parish who is a boy Cassie had a crush on before "The Arrival", and Evan Walker, a mysterious stranger who helps Cassie. The first part of the novel, narrated by Cassie is excellent, capturing the reader's interest with the fascinating backstory of the appearance of the aliens and their gradual assault on Earth. However, the novel slows considerably when Yancey goes into great detail regarding Ben Parish's training at Wright-Patterson. Readers will find this part of the novel slow going, but the detail here is important, because the author is setting up the events that lead to the climax of the novel.

All of this is used to create a twist in the plot which leads to a heart-pounding climax and sets the stage for the next novel. It's like a game of chess now; with the aliens in check and the humans awaiting their next move. And the odds are stacked against the humans.

Cassie is the strong-willed, courageous heroine in this novel. Her relationship with Evan is the dominant one is this first novel. It creates a great deal of suspense because the reader knows who Evan is but doesn't yet know his motive for helping Cassie and because Cassie isn't completely certain who he is. The end of the novel sees Cassie meet up with her crush, Ben Parish, who has changed considerably since their high school days, only months ago. He is now a hardened soldier bent on revenge. Yancey has set up the possibility of a love triangle between Ben, Cassie and Evan in the next installment.

My only complaint about this book was when Yancey first switches his narrator. The novel is broken into different sections separated by black title pages. The second section, titled Wonderland is confusing because the reader assumes they are still reading the narration by Cassie when in fact the story is now being told by Ben's point of view.

Like many recent young adult novels, The 5th Wave is long, a whopping 457 pages. But those pages are filled with a mixture of horror, suspense, romance, grit and action that keeps the reader engaged throughout. The reader wants the humans to win, but the odds against them are so high that this creates the tension necessary for the next book!

Book Details:
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Toronto: G.P. Putnam's Sons   2013
457 pp.