Todd Klein's Blog, page 24

And Then I Read: GUARDS! GUARDS! by Terry Pratchett

I read this a while ago and for some reason didn’t write a review. I know I enjoyed it, in fact it caused the Night Watch sub-series of Pratchett’s Discworld series to become my third favorite after the Tiffany Aching books and the Moist von Lipwig ones. It has so much going on in the city of Ankh-Morpork, including the overthrow of the Patrician, the attack of a large dragon, the Watch’s brave and idealistic new recruit Carrot, Lady Sybil Ramkin and her dragon shelter, the orangutan Librarian, and above all, the clever deductions and plans of Watch commander Samuel Vimes. Highly recommended.

Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett

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Rereading: MR. BASS’S PLANETOID by Eleanor Cameron

The third book in Cameron’s Mushroom Planet series is again filled with fantasy science that I could barely believe as a child, but that’s balanced by an exciting plot and appealing characters.

David and Chuck have barely recovered from their last flight to the Mushroom Planet orbiting Earth but hidden by fog and mist from most observers, when a new problem comes to them. A scientist named Prewytt Brumblydge has discovered some of the same amazing things as the boys’ friend Mr. Bass, and is using them in a dangerous way. His machine, the Brumblitron, set up on a remote island, might cause our entire world to be destroyed. When the boys meet Prewytt they notice he looks like one of the Mushroom People that inhabit the small world of Basidium, but when the scientist and his machine vanishes, they must use their own space ship to try to find him before his experiments doom everyone.

The illustrations by Louis Darling are fine, though he doesn’t have as much to work with here as on “The Enormous Egg” by Oliver Butterworth. Recommended.

Mr Bass’s Planetoid by Eleanor Cameron

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Rereading: SON OF THE BLACK STALLION by Walter Farley

Illustrated by Milton Menasco

The third book in the Black Stallion series takes place in Flushing, NY where Alec Ramsey and his friend retired horse trainer Henry Dailey had worked with The Black to prepare him for the match race in the first book. The second book took them to Saudi Arabia to the real owner of the horse, where Alec’s help earned him the promise of the first foal sired by The Black. In this book, the young horse arrives, already very large and muscular like his father, and full of anger and hatred for humans, other horses, and everything. Alec’s dreams of his new horse running in big races at nearby Belmont Park seem suddenly impossible as he and Henry struggle to get through Satan’s anger and earn his trust. That struggle takes up much of the book, while training for racing fills out the last third, with a big race at the end for Alec and Satan, if they can overcome the horse’s anger and fear.

Recommended.

Son of the Black Stallion by Walter Farley

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Rereading: FREDDY AND SIMON THE DICTATOR by Walter R. Brooks

As the long Freddy the Pig series neared its end, Brooks put aside silly stories about Martians for this one and returned to earlier enemies and themes. Simon the rat has a new plan to not only conquer the Bean farm, but to take over the entire area, and his approach is one that resonates with past and current politics. He has become a rabble-rousing speech-maker, with some help from another Freddy enemy, Mr. Garble, and his rhetoric begins turning animals against humans, even some from the Bean farm. This plan involves animals taking over farms, with help from wild wolves and other creatures from the north, and Mr. and Mrs. Bean and their neighbors are in real danger. How will Freddy, his friends, and allies like Mr. Camphor and the sheriff stand against such overwhelming odds?

While the theme is serious, there’s still plenty of humor and excitement as well as political satire. Recommended.

Freddy and Simon the Dictator by Walter R Brooks

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Rereading: OZMA OF OZ by L. Frank Baum

Cover and many illustrations in color by John R. Neill

The third book in Baum’s Oz series has much to recommend it. For those who have seen Disney’s “Return to Oz,” there are familiar elements and characters like The Wheelers and Tiktok the mechanical man.

Dorothy and her Uncle Henry are at sea en route to Australia to visit family when a massive storm batters the sailing ship they’re passengers on. Dorothy gets swept overboard clinging to a chicken coop, and when the storm is over, she meets Billina, the yellow hen. Billina finds she can talk, and Dorothy realizes she has somehow come to a fairyland like Oz, but when they reach shore, it turns out to be the country of Ev, and Dorothy and Billina are attacked by Wheelers, strange people with wheels for feet and hands. They escape into a cave, where they find a mechanical man long wound down and stuck. Dorothy winds him up, and Tiktok introduces himself, and declares Dorothy his new master, since she has restored his movement. Tiktok protects Dorothy and Billina from the Wheelers, and they go to the royal palace of Ev, which is nearly empty because the king is dead, and the queen and her children have been imprisoned by the Nome King, whose underground kingdom is at the edge of Ev. Princess Langwidere rules reluctantly instead, and locks Dorothy away in a tower.

Things look up when Ozma, ruler of Oz, arrives with her friends and a small army across the Deadly Desert using a magic carpet to cross the poisonous sand. Dorothy is delighted to be reunited with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. Dorothy and her companions are soon rescued by Ozma, who has come to try to free the missing royal family from the Nome King. That will prove a dangerous and difficult task.

This book gets bogged down a bit in the Nome King’s underground palace as each of the characters must try to guess what the Ev family has been turned into, and I think Baum made the solution too easy to guess in advance. Despite that, it’s an imaginative and entertaining read. My copy, an early printing from 1910, has page after page of wonderful color art by Neill, clearly a very expensive book to create, and the art is excellent. Recommended.

Ozma of Oz by L Frank Baum

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Incoming: JUSTICE LEAGUE, THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER-HEROES Trade Paperback

Images © DC Comics

The hardcover reprint of this material came out in April, this trade paperback version is the same except that the word “Absolute” is not in the title. It reprints five tabloid-size books written by Paul Dini and with painted art by Alex Ross. The work is wonderful if you like Alex’s art, as I do, and the writing is equally good. This version retails at $29.99. Look for it at your comics retailer, I don’t see it listed on Amazon yet, but the release date is August 20th.

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Rereading: THE GRANGE AT HIGH FORCE by Philip Turner

The second in Turner’s Darnley Mills series about three boys in a small coastal town in northern England, following “Colonel Sheperton’s Clock.” Peter is the son of the rector, a science whiz and inventor; David is the practical son of the town’s carpenter and recently recovered from surgery to repair the lame leg he was born with; Arthur is the son of a sheep farmer on the high moor just outside town, and knows animals and the wild moors. They spend most of their time together, and in this book are often at High Grange, a lonely manor house in the hills recently bought and renovated by retired Admiral Beauchamp-Troubridge and his servant Guns Kelly. The boys are initially drawn to the ancient cannons the Admirable has placed on his terrace, and then to the project of restoring the small church next door, fallen into disrepair and full of pigeons. The Admiral has one neighbor, Miss Cadell-Twitten, the actual owner of High Grange, who has leased it to the Admiral. Miss Cadell-Twitten is a bird lover, and her small house and large garden are a bird sanctuary.

The mystery the boys must solve is the whereabouts of a statue of Mary and other items removed from the Darnley Mills church two hundred or so years earlier by an architect hired to work on the church and also High Grange. The statue belongs to the church, but has been missing for most of those years. While investigating, the boys join forces with the Admiral and Guns to try firing the old cannons, search into town history, and work on Peter’s creations. Then they’re all caught in a freak blizzard that takes everyone by surprise, and leads to rescues and discoveries.

Well written, wonderful characters, highly recommended.

The Grange at High Force by Philip Turner

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And Then I Read: HOGFATHER by Terry Pratchett

The theme of this book in the Death sub-series of Pratchett’s vast Discworld opus revolves around the Hogfather, Discworld’s version of Santa Claus, as seen above, who has gone missing. This causes all kinds of chaos as the holiday of Hogswatch approaches, when the Hogfather is believed to visit children everywhere to leave gifts. Death decides to try filling in for the missing deity with all kinds of amusing results. His granddaughter Susan is also drawn into the madness, as are the wizards of Unseen University. The disappearance of the Hogfather is engineered by a mysterious group called The Auditors, who hire a ruthless assassin, Mr. Teatime. His gang of criminals invade the world of the Tooth Fairy, a similar deity, as a way to gain control of the minds of the world’s children, forcing them to stop believing in Hogfather. There are lots more complications in this eventful and often funny book, one of Pratchett’s best in my opinion, as he spins the logical contradictions of the situations and characters in creative ways. Recommended.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

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Rereading: THE COMPASS POINTS NORTH by M. E. Atkinson

Cover and illustrations by Harold Jones

The third book of holiday adventures featuring the Lockett children: Oliver, Jane and Bill, begins with a new family of four children who are camping just on the English side of the Scottish border. They’re led by fiery Fenella, who reminds me a bit of Nancy Blackett in the Arthur Ransome books: full of ideas, ready to find an enemy to fight. The other Sinclair children are sensible Edward, practical sister Podge, and young brother Pip. They’re stuck at this camp because their mother’s car has broken down, and there’s no telling when it might get fixed. Fenella is delighted to find out another group of children has arrived in the small village, and begins to plot. Those children are Bill and Jane Lockett (brother Oliver goes on to stay with an Uncle in Edinborough) and sisters Morwenna and Esmé with their French governess Mademoiselle. Bill and Jane are disgusted to be staying under the thumb of a governess, but at least they can get out on their own once in a while. Also with them is another friend, young Bobby, who becomes the target of Fenella. She has decided that her own family represent the Ancient Britons, and the others are the Scots and Picts. A border war is called for, and it begins with the kidnapping of Bobby.

Before long a battle ensues, but later the two families join forces and work together to several ends. Bill and Edward are into fishing, Jane, Fenella and the sisters make friends with an English woman, Mrs. Hardy and her daughter Elspeth, living in a neighboring cottage, and learn that she is very worried about their future, as they are running out of money and have no income. The girls hatch plans to help her open a tea shop. Meanwhile Esmé is trying hard to match the toughness of Jane and Bill, and has some dangerous adventures of her own, and she and Pip also become detectives.

Great fun if you like British holiday adventures, as I do. Fine illustrations by Harold Jones, too. Recommended.

The Compass Points North by M E Atkinson

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Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION RETURNS by Walter Farley

Cover and illustrations by Harold Eldridge

In the first book of this series, “The Black Stallion,” Alec Ramsey and his wild stallion rescued and brought home from a shipwreck came to international attention when they won a match race against the two best race horses in America. That also came to the attention of The Black’s real owner, an Arabian Sheik named Abu Ja Kub ben Ishak, who turns up one day with proof of ownership to take his prize stallion home, coincidentally the day after some unknown villain tried to poison the horse.

What follows is a thrilling adventure as Alec, his friend and trainer Henry Dailey, and new friend Mr. Volence, owner of one of the horses The Black beat in the match race, set off to Arabia to search for the mysterious home of The Black with the hope that Mr. Volence can convince the Sheik to sell him a few of his horses. They travel by sea plane from New York to Arabia, then by caravan across the desert, where their guide is murdered and their supplies stolen, leaving them at the mercy of the harsh landscape. Can they somehow reach the mountains where The Black now lives? As you can see from the cover, they can, and Alec and his friends become involved in war and treachery as well as another high-stakes race.

Great read, and I found the travel using long-extinct sea planes interesting, as well as the way the desert and its inhabitants were depicted and brought to life. Recommended.

The Black Stallion Returns by Walter Farley

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