Library & Literary Miscellany

Death Note, Volume 1by Tsugumi Ohba (Author) and Takeshi Obata (Illustrator)

In Death Note, light and dark become confused. Bored-out-of-his-mind Japanese teenager Light Yagami loses his apathy upon picking up the Death Note notebook. The Death Note was dropped into the human world by the equally bored shinigami death god named Ryuk. Ryuk wanted to see what a human would do with the power of the Death Note–the power being the ability to kill any human whose name is written within its pages (see Volume 1 itself for a complete list of rules and regulations for how this is done).

With the power wielded through the Death Note, Light decides to take justice into his own hands and rid the world of evil criminal-by-criminal. As Light sees it, he is “ridding the world of evil and creating a utopia…” over which he will rule. Light has little remorse for those he kills, and he continues to increase his death toll. It’s not long before the authorities become suspicious about the mysterious increase in deaths among the criminal ilk, and Light’s movement of the world toward purported utopia becomes increasingly nefarious as he goes to great lengths to avoid being identified and captured.

The tension rises further still when the authorities hire the renowned-for-his-deeds, anonymous-by-appearance detective “L” to catch the killer of criminals. Light and L begin a battle with each as the other’s nemesis. Each one plans, observes, and re-evaluates next steps based on the actions of the other. Neither one wants to be identified first as being identified would have disastrous repercussions for both of them.

Death Note is a dark and horrifying tale with a main character named Light but lacking itself much light and hope. As for the graphic part of the graphic novel, Ryuk the shinigami’s wide and threatening black mouth and sharp teeth cause chills to run down the spine. Light’s detached, methodical murdering is equally chilling. If the first volume is any indication, themes of the series are going to be morality versus immorality, justice versus injustice, utopia versus dystopia, hero versus monster, good versus evil, courage versus cowardice, and life versus death. Light is an anti-hero that readers will hold their breath for as they wait for him to be caught and then feel conflicted emotions if and when he is.

Death Note is part of the Shonen Jump Advance line, and the series is given a T+ rating (meaning for older teens). For readers who enjoy manga and ethics questions, this may be a series to point them to.

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Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure (Children Of The Lamp) by P.B. Kerr (2004)

In P.B. Kerr’s first book of his Children of the Lamp series, having wisdom teeth pulled out means more than a bit of discomfort, a large dental bill, and the possibility of developing dry socket. For twelve-year old twins Philippa and John Gaunt, having their wisdom teeth pulled means something else entirely.

As twins with loving (and wealthy) parents, they’ve always considered themselves to be pretty lucky. Once their wisdom teeth have been removed, they discover their good fortune goes far beyond luck and stems from who and what they are. They are Children of the Lamp; they are djinn (not genie, mind you, djinn as the term genie is prosaic and repugnant to djinn). With their wisdom teeth gone, it is time for their fallow djinn powers to begin burgeoning.

The twins’ parents (mother-djinn; father-standard order human) have hidden their “djinn” nature from them in attempts to help them lead normal lives. The twins, however, are not content to be ordinary and jump at the chance to go visit their Uncle Nimrod and have him explain some of the mysterious things that have been happening to them.

From their Uncle Nimrod, they discover that there are actually multiple tribes of djinn–not all of them are bestowers of good fortune and caretakers of humankind. Instead the djinn have split into the good (the Marid, the Jinn, and the Jann) and the evil (the Ifrit, the Shaitan, and the Ghul). As descendants of the Marid tribe, Philippa and John are on the good side, and they soon find themselves embroiled in the battle to defeat the evil djinn in their plan to discover the lost tomb of the evil djinn Akhenaten and to release him along with the seventy other djinn he had bound into his service (and you probably always thought he was just another pharaoh…). Whomever releases these seventy djinn will have the power to command them and thus disrupt the careful homeostasis of good and bad luck that the good djinn attempt to maintain.

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure chronicles the twins discovery of their djinn identity and their growing understanding of the responsibility that comes with power. Due to the relationship among djinn, heat, smoke, fire, and the like, smoking plays a larger role in this book than is typical in children’s literature. Still, the story contains more than exposition, smoke and fire, and good versus evil battle, Kerr also makes room for humor, particularly in the development of his secondary characters. Mr. Rakshasas an older, wiser, agoraphobic djinn who has spent many a year trapped inside a bottle frequently inserts cryptic (but fitting in-context if you pause to think on them long enough) interjections into the conversations. For example:

“The cat is his own best advisor, right enough”

“There’s many a time a man’s mouth broke his own nose.”

“To be sure, it is a shame to try to make a goat’s beard out of a fine stallion’s tail”

Overall, Kerr has created a fully developed fantastic world that exists alongside reality as we know it (a la series such as Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, So You Want to Be a Wizard, the Bartimaeus Trilogy, etc.). Detail-by-detail he has laid the groundwork for creating more stories centering around the historical battle between the good and evil djinn. Some readers may relish the detail and the fully-created djinn history, while others may long for less exposition and more action.

The Akhenaten Adventure is Kerr’s first work for children, and the series may pick up in pace now that the world has been developed. It’s a fun work for younger readers who want to delve into a fictional extrapolation about the lives of genies, errr, I mean djinn. It’s also been rumored to be coming soon in movie form.

Uncle Nimrod also passes on some sage commentary on humans and wishes:

“…it’s usually best that they [humans] get the thing themselves. Through their own hard work. That way, they tend to appreciate it more when they get it…Equally, there are many occasions when they just don’t think their wish through. When they don’t consider the full implications of actually having their dearest wish come true.”

“They [wishes] can be unpredictable…When you play around with the future, there is a random, unexpected, even unpleasant aspect to what you’re doing.”

And if you emjoy the first book, you’ll be happy to know that there are more books in the Children of the Lamp Series:

Blue Djinn of Babylon (Children of the Lamp Book 2)

Cobra King Of Kathmandu (Children Of The Lamp Book 3)

Day Of The Djinn Warriors (Children Of The Lamp Book 4)

You can also check out P.B. Kerr’s official website.

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Ingo by Helen Dunmore (2006 US hardcover; 2008 US paperback)

“Ingo’s a place that has many names, ” says Granny Carne. “You can call it Mer, Mare, or Meor…Earth and Ingo don’t mix, even though we live side by side. Earth and Ingo aren’t always friends…”

Despite Granny Carne’s words, in Helen Dunmore’s fantastic fantasy Earth and Ingo do mix–with consequences. Ingo is set partially above ground in modern day Cornwall and partially below the surface of the water in Ingo.

Ingo features Sapphire Trewhella (also known as Saph or Sapphy). Sapphy takes after her father, Matthew Trewhella, in that she has always been drawn to the sea. She recalls, “Dad used to say that the sea doesn’t hate you and it doesn’t love you. It’s up to you to learn its ways and keep yourself safe.”

It’s “Dad used to say” because her father has disappeared. His boat, the Peggy Gordon, was found without him in it, and he is presumed drowned. Sapphy, however, suspects her father’s disappearance has something to do with Ingo. She recalls her father singing, “I wish I was away in Ingo; Far across the briny sea, Sailing over deepest waters; Where love nor care never trouble me…”

Her father’s disappearance certainly troubles her and causes trouble for her family. Her mother is forced to work all the time at her waitressing job and, consequently, her older brother Conor and Sapphy spend much time by themselves.

When one day Sapphy cannot find Conor, she fears that he has disappeared just like her father. She heads out to the cove to look for him, and she finds him talking to Elvira the mermaid. This leads to her encounter with Faro the merman who takes her on a journey under the sea. On this journey, she lets go of Earth completely and becomes a part of Ingo.

Sapphy and Conor are welcomed into Ingo because they each have a little Mer in them (long story that goes into family lore about the disappearance of a previous Matthew Trewhella), but Sapphy seems to have even a little more than her brother. Her draw to the sea becomes increasingly strong after she’s been a part of it. Not-too-subtle warning signals such as a new found taste for salting her water and consuming anchovies begin to alarm Conor while her mother appears largely ignorant of all goings on. With Conor’s help, Sapphy struggles to resist the pull of Ingo.

Yet, despite her resistance, Sapphy continues to find Ingo and Faro seductive. When she’s in Ingo, nothing else seems to matter–not time, not Conor, not Earth, not humanity in general. When she’s not in Ingo but back on Earth, she finds so many troubles weighing her down–she feels in her bones that her father is still alive but he’s made no attempt to contact her, her mother has given up on her father coming back and is becoming romantically involved with a diver named Roger (a diver who’s getting increasingly close to encroaching upon Ingo), and her mother is dead set against her getting a dog (when Sapphy already has the perfect one picked out!).

Ingo takes on the struggle between two worlds, between two types of people, between two ways of life. The struggle between Ingo and Earth has its parallel struggle within Sapphy’s family where the impetuousness of Sapphy and her father frequently clashes with the practical nature of Conor and her mother. This struggle comes to the fore in the latter part of Ingo when Roger decides he wants to dive in areas where, unbeknownst to him, he is not welcomed.

Dunmore’s characters are flawed yet still developing and changing just as the world is flawed yet still developing and changing (the latter we have the privilege to participate in changing). Ingo is top-notch fantasy while also speaking to family dynamics, individual choices, willpower, self-discovery, and imagination.

Ingo–with its tagline “In a world without air all you breathe is adventure”–will likely be popular with middle grade fantasy fans of both genders. Ingo is Book One in a planned tetralogy–Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep, and The Crossing of Ingo (the final two are more difficult to attain from within the US since HarperCollins just published the US edition of The Tide Knot in January 2008). For more on the series immediately, visit Helen Dunmore’s site or Harper Collin’s Ingo site (including a video book trailer). The pull of Ingo is strong, who can resist?

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Sky Village Book 1 (Kaimira) by Monk & Nigel Ashland (2008)

“Human hatred for meks and beasts ran deep…After decades of war followed by only a few years of uneasy peace, humans had learned to stick with their own kind.”

In a post-Trinary War world, Earth is populated with meks (machines), beasts, and humans. With meks and beasts constantly warring and pillaging, it’s all humans can do to find a place to call home. Some are laying low on ground or underground and others have taken to the sky.

Mei is one of those who (reluctantly) takes to the sky when her father sends her off to live in the Sky Village. Hovering high above China, the Sky Village is a community tied together through a maze of interconnected hot-air balloons and a shared history; Mei is forced to do some serious adjusting–both in her balance and in her life outlook. Half a world away in what remains of Las Vegas Rom fights his own demons (literally). In an attempt to save his sister, he enters the Demon caves where he finds himself embroiled in a gladiator-style competition against demon hybrids for the entertainment of the masses.

With Mei above Earth in China and Rom below Earth in Las Vegas, the two find themselves joined through the Tree Book. The Tree Book is a book of stories and other wonders that that their parents have always guarded. They have never before seen inside its pages. Now with their parents absent from their lives, Mei and Rom take the Tree Book into their own hands and find each other. In their friendship, they develop a certain sense of stability in the midst of a world of uncertainty. In the Tree Book, they find the beginnings of answers to their past and more enigmas about the future.

Mei and Rom discover that they are both carriers of the Kaimira gene–a genetic mutation endowing them with characteristics of human, beast, and machine. The Kaimira gene provides an intriguing basis for the plot for this story and for the future of the series.

In Sky Village, the Ashlands combine elements of future story, fantasy, survival, adventure, identity, and culture. The series reminds me a bit of Philip Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles (Mortal Enginesand the like). Although Reeve’s series is aimed at a slightly older audience than the Kaimira series, both grapple with ideas about Otherness and possible ways of interacting with those who are different from ourselves.

Takeaway quote: Mei’s mother once told her, “If you know your enemy as you know your friend…then there is hope your enemy will become your friend.”

*review based on an advance reading copy

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The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (2006)

“It had all been twisted into nonsense…He’d transformed her memories of a world alive with hope and possibility and danger into make-believe, the foolish stuff of children. He was just another in a long line of unbelievers and this–this stupid, nonsensical book–was how he made fun of her.”

Did Lewis Carroll imagine the happenings in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1872) and tell them to Alice Liddell? Or did Alyss Heart live through those adventures and tell them to Charles Dodgson? In his 2006 re-imagining, The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor posits the latter scenario in this first book of his trilogy about what really occurred in the Kingdom of Wonderland.

Beddor re-creates the whole cast of Wonderland characters such that The Looking Glass Wars showcases (just to name a few) on the side of White Imagination Alyss Heart, Bibwit Harte, General Doppelganger, Hatter Madigan, and Dodge Anders and on the side of Black Imagination her Aunt Redd, The Cat (who happens to be quite a proficient assassin), Jack of Diamonds, and many members of card families of the Diamond, Clubs, and Spades varieties.

Alyss Heart, princess of Wonderland, has grown up in a Wonderland where there exists a tenuous peace in the land. Twelve years earlier White and Black Imagination had done battle and White Imagination with its precepts of peace and harmony had won out. Alyss’s imagination, while fertile, had not yet been trained fully in these precepts.

But on Alysss’s seventh birthday, peace is shattered when Alyss’s Aunt Redd (aka her Imperial Viciousness) comes back to reclaim the Heart throne and the Heart crystal. Redd kills Alyss’s parents and wages a bloody overthrow that leaves Wonderland under the thumb of Black Imagination.

With her inchoate imagination, Alyss is powerless, and she is forced to flee Wonderland through the Pool of Tears. Alyss winds up in London where her imagination enervates. For a time, she tries to keep Wonderland real to her by telling others about it, but she is ridiculed and scorned. The last straw is when she tells Charles Dodgson and he twists her story into nonsense. Thereafter, she resolves to put Wonderland (and concomitantly, her imagination) behind her completely such that she no longer believes flowers can sing for they don’t have larynxes nor does she believe any longer in Wonderland’s very existence.

In Alyss’s absence from Wonderland, her imagination suffers, but Wonderland also suffers under the thumb of Redd. Among other things, Redd decrees, “Silence is hereby outlawed. Silence breeds independent thought, which in turn breeds dissent.” Redd’s authoritarian rule brooks no dissent; Redd has fostered only the precepts of Black Imagination throughout Wonderland. Black Imagination thrives on fear and keeping others powerless.

Not all in Wonderland fear Redd and consent to her rule. A small group known as the Alyssians continue to strive against Redd’s authoritarian rule. The Alyssians locate Alyss’s whereabouts in London and bring her back to Wonderland many years after her initial departure. The grown-up Alyss returns to Wonderland to reclaim her place as rightful ruler, but first she must reclaim her imagination. Her mother once told her, “…you must work hard to develop it according to the guiding principles of the Heart dynasty–love, justice, and duty to the people. An undisciplined imagination is worse than no imagination at all. It can do more harm. Remember what happened to your aunt Redd.”

Alyss must fight to recapture her imagination, the Heart crystal, and her Wonderland by finding her way through the Looking Glass Maze. Alyss’s tutor Bibwit Hare has said that “A unique Looking Glass Maze exists for every would-be queen. The maze must be successfully navigated by the would-be queen if she is to reach her imagination’s full potential and thus be fit to rule.”

If nothing else, Beddor’s re-imagining provides another explanation for the Queen of Hearts’ (Aunt Redds’) propensity to yell, “Off with his/her/their heads.” But it does more than that; Beddor’s story gives us another wonderful (albeit unlike the original) fantasy story set in Wonderland that readers will be able to enjoy. It is like the original in the sense that both Carroll’s stories and Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars encourage imaginations to blossom.

If you like The Looking Glass Wars, you might enjoy other stories that re-visit classics and fairy tales through different perspective such as Gregory Maguire, Donna Jo Napoli, or Robin McKinley. You could also visit The Looking Glass Wars website which begins with the line “Fantasy just declared war on reality…” You could also just go ahead and read the sequel, Seeing Redd.

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Fablehaven #1 by Brandon Mull (hardcover 2006, softcover 2007)

A visit to one’s grandparents in Connecticut may not seem to be the most auspicious plot for a hit young adult fantasy, but therein lies the mastery of Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven.

When their parents head off on a cruise, Seth and Kendra head off to spend time with the Grandparents they hardly know. They soon find themselves spending time not just with their Grandpa but with Fablehaven’s other inhabitants—naiads, trolls, ogres, fairies, witches, imps, satyrs, golems, and the like.

In Fablehaven, drinking milk is not solely for the purpose of attaining a specific daily calcium intake. Rather, Seth and Kendra must drink milk from a magical cow in order to attain sight of magical beings. Fablehaven operates according to ancient laws that preserve a tenuous order between the human caretakers and the magical creatures inside the haven. Their Grandfather hopes that by being able to see the haven’s creatures, the children will be wise enough to abide by the ancient laws and to leave the creatures alone.

Warnings can only do so much, however, and despite Grandfather’s warnings, Seth wanders into the forest (leading to a close escape from a witch), captures a fairy (leading to a retributive fairy attack after which he looks suspiciously like a walrus), and opens his window on Midsummer’s Eve (leading to the kidnapping of his grandfather, the unleashing of an evil creature, and the impending demise of Fablehaven).

Seth’s repeated disobedience advances the plot, but also makes him a somewhat disagreeable character whose intelligence readers will repeatedly question. Seth unfortunately does not heed the advice of Dale, one of Fablehaven’s caretaker’s, when Dale tells him, “Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real smart ones learn from the mistakes of others”. Seth does not learn from the mistakes of others, nor does he seem to learn from his own firsthand mistakes.

Despite Seth’s difficult-to-identify-with character, Kendra’s behavior is more palatable as she strives to right the imbalances brought to Fablehaven by Seth’s actions. Overall, Fablehaven moves at a fast pace and includes enough exotic creatures and suspenseful episodes that it will likely acquire a cadre of loyal readers, particularly as the series progresses with the sequel Rise of the Evening Star (May 2007) and beyond.

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