false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166669092m/14967.jpg 14967 6 <I>A Trip to the Stars</I> opens with a kidnapping at a New York planetarium in 1965 and ends exactly 15 years later at a Hawaiian observatory. In the 500 intervening and absurdly readable pages, its two narrators undergo equal parts heartache and discovery--not to mention a fine excess of things astronomical. As Nicholas Christopher's exhilarating third novel begins, 10-year-old Loren reaches for his aunt Alma's hand while the crowd surges around them. Alas, he's in for the first of many jolts: <i> The woman, who was pulling me hard now to a blue sedan idling at the curb, was not my aunt. Until she opened the rear door and pushed me in, I thought she must have mistaken me for another child. Then, before stepping in after me, she looked me full in the face and betrayed no surprise. </i> Already twice orphaned, Loren is spirited away from the young woman he considers his only relative and finds himself in a strange building on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Inhabited by "people looking for lost things" and, as he later realizes, "people who had once been lost--like me," the Hotel Canopus is the life work of his uncle, the collector and pomologist Junius Samax. (Let it be known that <I>A Trip to the Stars</I> features the most fanciful monikers this side of Howard Norman's novels.) Now restored to his real name, Enzo, and assured that his aunt has been informed of his fate, the boy is given the sort of home schooling only Nicholas Christopher could dream up--the usual academic suspects enhanced by ancient languages, Zuni wisdom, mnemonics, and, of course, astronomy. (In this novel of multiple stargazers, even Enzo's wolf dog, Sirius, has a head for the heavens.) Meanwhile, Alma, having failed to find her nephew, attempts to rid herself of her past: she changes her name to Mala and, following the most compelling spider bite in all fiction, joins the Navy Nursing Corps and heads for Vietnam.<p> As the author alternates between Enzo and Mala's very separate universes, he packs his book with suspense and arcana. Echoes and parallels prevail, as do demons and eccentrics. The Hotel Canopus is filled with exotic individuals, including an eight-fingered pianist-arachnologist, an art historian in hot pursuit of Adam's navel, and women named Desirée, Della, Dolores, Denise, and Dalia. But it also houses a resentful relative or two. <I>A Trip to the Stars</I> is so grounded that all its magic, coincidence, and mystery seem hyper-real, from a girl who becomes a vampire to Mala's lover, a soldier whose shrapnel wounds mirror the Andromeda galaxy. Despite the intricacy of his novel, Nicholas Christopher has wisely declined to preface it with a family tree or a list of dramatis personae. For this we can be grateful, since much of the book's pleasure comes from watching him weave destinies, miracles, and more than a few blood feuds as he proffers the ultimate celestial fix. <I>--Kerry Fried</I> 16921 20 2 2001 A Trip To The Stars total:374|5:206|4:109|3:45|2:8|1:6| 374 1623 560 89 5 1 false false Sun Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 23 12:50:18 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 19 07:58:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 18 false false Mon Oct 05 06:00:26 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 08:51:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 21 20:17:03 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 20:32:17 -0700 2009
I w...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Oct 11 19:31:24 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 03:38:52 -0700 2009
This book ia pretty ambitious, and tries to tell lots of semi-related stories that cross a variety of genres from within the lens of two protagonists.

The storie...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 11:52:19 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 11:59:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jan 14 11:03:49 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 11:14:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jun 23 18:07:25 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 20:16:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 true false Fri Feb 06 07:06:17 -0800 2009 Mon Apr 06 08:41:03 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Nov 04 12:20:32 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 04 12:48:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 20 12:40:55 -0700 2008 Sat May 02 09:07:13 -0700 2009
Now that I am finished I still love it. The last third got a bit slow for me, and I was left still peckish at the ending until a friend pointed out that perhaps NC was making room for a sequel. Harrumph. I still feel there was a key meeting missing, but I'd be w...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 31 12:10:23 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 26 05:28:18 -0800 2008 The Bestiary so I was really looking forward to this book; this might explain why I was less than thrilled by it. I really enjoy his imagination and the unusual characters he creates but something in this book just fell flat for me. I kept thinking to myself, ‘...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Dec 17 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 20:14:30 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 07:48:07 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jul 11 20:31:26 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 20:33:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Mar 13 06:38:04 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 06:41:54 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 29 18:09:49 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 21:22:05 -0800 2009 3 0 true false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 08 13:12:03 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 13:15:48 -0800 2008 once 2 0 false false Sun Oct 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 09:22:10 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 09:16:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Nov 27 22:11:56 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 27 22:12:42 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Fri Jan 16 22:42:01 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 22:43:07 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Nov 05 17:34:41 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 05 17:38:55 -0800 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=14967