Tony Bertauski Archives

Yzabel / December 24, 2012

Review: Halfskin

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease. No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter and prettier.

We become better.

At what point are we no longer human?

Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he’s not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human. Halfskins have no legal rights and will have their biomites shutdown. It’s not called murder, merely deactivation.

Cali Richards has been Nix’s legal guardian since their parents died. She has lost far too many people in her life to let the government take Nix. She is a nanobiometric engineer and will discover how to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And technology can’t cure insanity.

Cali and Nix keep a slippery grip on reality as they elude a maniacal federal agent dedicated to saving humanity from what he calls ‘The Biomite Plague’.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #728 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This book surprised me in more than one way. It wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be at first (I think I expected something like car chases and the usual stuff you see in books/movies when an innocent has to elude the government/FBI/police), but this in itself wasn’t a problem, because what I got instead was just as interesting, if not more.

A few months ago, I read “The Annihilation of Foreverland” by the same author, which was already quite good in my opinion (and I could sense its shadow in the ‘dreamland’, too). In “Halfskin”, his writing is even better, and I had no problem picturing scene after scene. The world depicted by Tony Bertauski here is close enough to our own for a reader to quickly find his/her way in it. The major difference is the importance of widespread biomite technology, a technology that brings a lot of good things to humanity (healing, improved brain abilities…) yet has an underlying ‘dark side’, as biomites themselves behave like cancerous cells and keep on replicating, gradually replacing human tissues, even sane ones. The issues raised by this pervade the story, both through the main characters’ narratives and through the short blog entries and stories of a few other people; while the latter may seem unrelated at first, they do shed light on the pros and cons of biomite technology, in a balanced way that makes it hard to decide quickly “this is good” or “this is bad”. Here lies another side of the book I appreciated: it contains a lot of potential for such questions, but it doesn’t give us the answers, instead leaving us to reflect upon the technology itself and make our own opinion about it.

The characters themselves, especially Cali, Nix and Marcus, are all interesting in their own way, as well as believable. Nix just wants to live, like any other 17-year-old young man wants to, and it is later proved that he’s actually quite generous, going as far as to sustain a lie that is harmful to him in more than one way, in order to avoid harming another person. Cali has already lost too many beloved ones, and her desire to save her brother is very human and understandable. As for Marcus, his position is that of an integrist, yet it isn’t a totally blind one, for it is motivated by genuine concernt about what makes human beings human, and how to ensure that humanity as a whole doesn’t cross a supposed line that would doom it.

I found a few scenes in the last chapters confusing, though, especially the one in the hotel (I had to go backwards and read some things again to fully get what was happening); but I’m partly at fault, because I wasn’t reading in the best conditions either. I’m also not sure yet about the role played by the lagoon, although I think it made an interesting parallel to Cali’s other 5% of brain functions; but I like to think that said lagoon (and Raine) will be important in a potential sequel, and if there is one, I hope that the dreamland, as well as a couple of elements at the very end, will play a part.

Yzabel / October 8, 2012

Review: Claus

Claus: Legend of the Fat Man by Tony Bertauski

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Some legends are forged in fire.
Others are born in snow.

In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean.

The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient. Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions — time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They’ve even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace.

Until now.

An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He’s tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold One and total chaos. He’s white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One.

They will come to the aid of a legendary elven known as… Claus.

Review:

I must admit I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the other one I read from the author. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable in its own right, and proved a gripping read.

It was also a somewhat weird novel, in that some things in it that might have thrown me off-course actually proved palatable in the end. The idea of the elves as a science-based civilization is so different than the usual take on the whole North Pole/Santa Claus/elves vision that even though it seemed weird at first, it very soon left me going all “Sure, why not?”, and discovering it became an enjoyment in and of itself. Same went with Jack’s antics: in the very beginning, I thought they’d be unnerving… but then, all of a sudden, I realized that I was actually waiting to see him come into the story again, with his crazy ways of acting and the way he would treat the people around him.

The story also tackles touchy themes, such as the loss of memory (which is probably worse than dying for some people, at least) and how gestures (or lack thereof) seen as insignificant, or overlooked, in the past may give birth to a monster. Those are part of the themes I can easily be brought to appreciate in a fictional setting.

I think the one thing that left me hesitant was the 19th century aspect of “Claus”. I couldn’t relate to those parts of the story—being an avid reader and student of 19th century litterature, I didn’t find the ‘feeling’ I would expect from the chapters about the Santas’ life before arriving amon the elves. I probably wouldn’t have minded as much hadn’t I already had quite a pile of previous readings behind me, though. Still, it happened. That’s too bad.

Otherwise, if you like different takes and original twists on very traditional tales, go for it.

Yzabel / August 28, 2012

Review: The Annihilation Of Foreverland

The Annihilation of Foreverland by Tony Bertauski

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

When kids awake on an island, they’re told there was an accident. Before they can go home, they will visit Foreverland, an alternate reality that will heal their minds. Reed dreams of a girl that tells him to resist Foreverland. He doesn’t remember her name, but knows he once loved her. He’ll have to endure great suffering and trust his dream. And trust he’s not insane. Danny Boy, the new arrival, meets Reed’s dream girl inside Foreverland. She’s stuck in the fantasy land that no kid can resist. Where every heart’s desire is satisfied. Why should anyone care how Foreverland works? Together, they discover what it’s really doing to them.

Review:

(This review was done for {Read It & Reap 57} in the Shut Up And Read group. It dates back to May, but I felt I should have posted it here way sooner, so here goes.)

The new cover is really much better! ~~Although I really wasn’t thrilled by the cover~~, the book’s summary got my attention, and I don’t regret picking it. It turned to be a pretty good surprise.

I got pulled in the story fairly quickly and easily. No dilly-dallying, no slow build-up, but the mystery from the start: where are those boys, what’s happened to them, and what lies behind this weird island they’re living on. I like when something’s smelling fishy from the start, and here I wasn’t disappointed. The world built up by the author was believable, felt real enough, and its secrets were revealed with just the right amount of pacing in my opinion. As for the main characters (three for me, Reed and Danny Boy, of course, but also Zin), I really liked following their progress. They proved likeable, and resourceful in the case of Danny and Zin. And while Reed wasn’t given that much screen time comparatively, I could feel his presence pervading the narrative all the time, his fate an impending Damocles sword. In fact, I felt that this novel offered more than just your standard YA plot, raising questions and darker themes that may appeal to an older audience too. Finally, a word about the few news clippings inserted at the beginning of each part: I think they are a nice add-on, distillating some information that made me wonder what character they were about. It wasn’t too hard to find out, of course, yet it was enjoyable nevertheless.

There are a few things I couldn’t wrap my mind around, though, and it’s too bad, because there weren’t that many, but they made me wince regularly enough (hence the 4-stars rating, but really, I’d have probably made it a 4.5 if GR had allowed it). A few uses of capital letters that I found jarring—I get it that they were here to illustrate a point, but no need to shout it in my face. Sometimes too the style was a little too abrupt, and the point of view tended to change abruptly too, which made things a little confusing in a few places. Mostly, though, what irked me was the use of the word ‘son’ by approximately everyone. I’d expect it from the Investors addressing the boys, but not from one boy to the other; it felt really weird every time it happened, and it happened often.

Other than that, it was a compelling story, and I heartily recommend it.