The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2014) Orbit

A post-apocalyptic science fiction story with a well-thought-out explanation of a cause for the zombie-like devastation of the world.  In Carey’s explanation, a spore spreads through the human race that started in the Amazon on the floor, attacking ants, who try to rub it off, but when infected will climb the nearest tree, attach themselves to a leaf and when the filaments of the maturing spore finish devouring their host, explode and spread their spores further along the floor of the rain forest.  In the humans, it travels the nervous system to the brain, replacing the intelligence of the host but controlling the motor functions.  A bite will infect their target.  But what the scientists discovered is that there appear to be children running around without being attacked but are obviously infected.  They capture some of these, take them to an airbase and then educate them. 

This is the story of how one of the little girls, Melanie, learns how the human race will continue.

Every child in the captured group, lives in a cell by themselves.  An alarm rings in the morning and they get dressed and sit in a wheelchair.  The door opens and two soldiers enter, one with a gun aimed at the child.  The other soldier ties the child into the chair and then wheels them into a classroom.  There, the teachers rotate each day, teaching different subjects.  One day, the base is attacked by Hungries (the zombies) herded by the Junkers (people who are not infected but did not evacuate to the uninfected areas) and the base falls.  Melanie, her favorite teacher, a scientist who was about to extract Melanie’s brain to inspect under the microscope, the Sergeant in charge of the military at the base, and a private escape.  But their way from there is not easy. 

The Junkers pursue them.  They try to hide but find themselves surrounded by the Hungries.  Melanie finds the Hungries do not see her.  They discover an abandoned mobile research vehicle and make their way inside, but it is inoperable.  The Sergeant works on restoring power and Melanie does recon, where she discovers a group of children, but they are operating as a savage tribe looking for protein (people) to eat.  The private becomes their first victim.  The scientist traps one of the kids and starts examining their brain tissue under the electron microscope and leaves the others behind who were looking for the private.  When she comes across a wall of the fungus, she stops and finalizes notes about the difference in the second generation of infected hungries, the kids, and realizes that all is lost.  Melanie tricks her into opening the door and then listens to her as the scientist, knowing she is infected and dying, explains what she has found in the kids.

Make Me by Lee Child (2015) Delacorte Press

In which Reacher steps off the train in Mother’s Rest, a town in the middle of nowhere, just to find out why it has that name.  He expects to find a museum or a visitor’s center or even a chamber of commerce with a history of the town.  What he finds instead, is a town of suspicious people and a woman who is looking for her partner who called her for backup.  Because of the aggressive behavior of the townspeople, Reacher decides to help her.  And of course, become her lover.  The main problem for the bad guys is that Reacher is better than them at the confrontation level.

LaBrava by Elmore Leonard (1983) Arbor House

An ex-Secret Service agent turned photographer lives in a building where the man who owns it, Maurice. is in his eighties and knows an ex-movie star.

LaBrava runs into the woman at a rehab check-in after she was arrested for throwing a beer bottle at a police officer.  Another man comes to see her, to ‘take her home’ and presents a security company badge trying to impersonate a police officer.  LaBrava puts him down until Maurice can get the star into his car and they leave.

The impersonator continues to come around and bother her, so Maurice gets her to come to his building and use one of the empty rooms.  LaBrava remembers her in movies he saw when he was 12.

But, of course, there is more to the story.  There is a murder plot to bilk her for $600G, which she does not have, but which Maurice will lend her so she can stay safe.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009) Delacorte Press

This starts with a teenager, our hero, trapped in a moving box that he finally discovers is an elevator and he is deposited in a world with other teenage boys who run the maze each day, trying to solve it so they can escape.  A girl appears a week later, not the usual month and she’s the first girl to arrive and has a message that the end is coming.  Once the hero figures-out how to escape only 40% go with him.  And in the end, we discover that everything is a lie and that was only experiment A – now on to B.

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (2018) Knopf 

A post World War II story, covering the life of an English boy whose parents went to other parts of the world and left their teenage children in the care of strangers.  Even the leave-taking was a lie, the father leaving for Singapore, the mother staying until the children’s year in boarding schools could start.  Almost at once, the Moth, whom she left in charge, starts caring for them more like a father than a renter who agreed to watch over them when home.  Then they discover their mother’s traveling trunk in the basement and know she did not leave to meet-up with their father.  The Moth has a lot of friends over to their house in London and they get to know them by playing hooky and running around with the Darter, one of the friends, and getting jobs to earn money.  The boy even has an affair with a coworker, Agnes, from the restaurant where he works.  Halfway through the book, they are kidnapped, and the Moth is killed and their mother suddenly appears with the friends and sweeps the children off to her own ancestral home.  But even boarding them in far-away places fails to solve any problems and the son returns to live with her, learning nothing about when she was away and the daughter insisting on a school too far away for visiting.  Once the boy graduates college, he is recruited to work for the government, going through files to make sure nothing is left that would be incriminating to England.  There, he discovers traces of his mother as a spy for the government with enemies searching for her or her children.  The Moth, the Darter, others were watching over the children to keep them safe from foreign vengeance.  Finally, he finds the address of the Darter and visits the man, to discover he has married and has a 13 year old daughter.  On his way out, he sees a family photo, with the Darter and Agnes and a small girl and realizes that his kidnapping happened just over 13 years ago.  But he leaves the Darter in peace.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (2008) Macmillan

The story runs from the days of Henry the first to Henry the second and the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett.  It follows the life of two little boys, whose father and mother are killed by soldiers in front of them and rescued by an Abbot, who raises them.  Through their lives as a Prior of a Monastery and a Priest in the service of royalty (a little bit of John Jakes here).  A stone mason, who aspires to build a cathedral becomes the other force to move the story, demonstrating the lofty goals of people who wish the period after Henry I did not devolve into civil war between Stephen (Henry’s nephew) and the Empress Maud (Henry’s daughter) known as the Anarchy.  Follett does an excellent job on the history, getting the players and events correct.  The pivotal event for the story involves a plot to interrupt the succession in hopes for a weak king, the barons conspired to kill his son, William II, at sea.  However, there was a survivor, which they imprisoned to keep him quiet, in fear that he knew enough to bring them to justice.  In Follett’s story, this man is visited in his cell by a woman who lives in the nearby forest.  She is pregnant when they decide to kill him by hanging under a false charge.  A local knight’s son is a ruffian whose family successfully accuses the local Earl of being against King Stephen

United as One by Pittacus Lore (2016) HarperCollins

The seventh and final book in the original Lorien Series (There are additional books since, but they seem to be discarded chapters from different points of view).  In this episode, number eight is a prisoner, but number four, John, gets him to participate in a revolt against the Mogodorians, who think they’ve one.  John discovers he can learn any legacy and goes with the others to the mountain headquarters in West Virginia.  Ra has become something more fluid than ever before and his protege, also thinks she is unbeatable.  Both are wrong as Adam tumbles with her into an abyss, taking her from the formula and number four discovers Ra’s weakness is to be healed.

The Fate of Ten by Pittacus Lore (2015) HarperCollins

The sixth book in the Lorien series.  This volume picks-up from the previous installment with the Mogodorians attacking New York City, going from apartment to apartment, taking prisoners where there is cooperation and killing any resistance or hesitation.  At one apartment, a little girl suddenly discovers that she can levitate and move other objects, like soldiers and kills those who attacked and killed her stepfather.  Nine and Five are killing Mogs and brawling with each other.  John and Sam are leading refugees through the rubble, John healing those he can while they try to find safety.  Six and Seven and Adam have gone inside the Sanctuary and communicated with the entity formerly known as Lorien.  Ella, number ten, is being infused with her grandfather’s genetic mixture in an attempt to control her.

A year later, after his defeat, most of the Lorian have isolated themselves.  Except for number nine, who lost an arm in the final battle, and number ten, Ella, both of whom are teaching the new legacy endowed kids.  John has been fixing the cave that number eight found and creating new pendants.  He visits Adam, who was rescued from the abyss by him chimera, who did not survive.  Adam is in a Mogodorian refugee camp, trying to teach them how to change and live in a world in peace.  Marina, number seven, has found number eight, but will not interact with him as he wastes away.  Number six and Sam are traveling the world.  John leaves invitations for all of them to join him in the chamber he has reconstructed.  He is through with numbers.

When Six, Seven and Adam exit the Sanctuary, they find the skimmers have been disabled by the one Mog who survived the attack.  This means they’re stuck at the Sanctuary in Mexico without word from the others in New York.  Soon, they’re joined by Sarah and Mark and Lexa, the pilot of the second spacecraft that brought Ella from Lorien.

The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore (2014) HarperCollins 

The fifth book in the Lorien Legacies series in which Seven, Marina, has developed a new legacy, the ability to freeze any available moisture.  The cold that comes off of her is palpable.  She and Six and Adam, the true-born Mogodorian son of a general, fly south to a Mayan city and go into a temple that the Lorians altered into a sanctuary to hold the entity known as Lorien.  While they are en-route, John and Sam and Nine go to New York with the FBI to try to alter the outcome of the Secretary of Defense’s assurance to the United Nations that the Mogs are trustworthy allies.

En-route to the sanctuary, Adam bluffs his way past Mog scout ships that intercept him and instead gets an escort to the temple area, which is surrounded by a field that burns any Mog trying to get inside.  Once there, he announces that his father sent him to inspect their setup.  But the leader of the squad knows his father (whom he has killed) in fact, considers him a traitor.  When she drags him to the field to burn him, Number Six and Marina slip behind a gun turret and kill the Mogs, except for the leader, who runs off.  They get to Adam and because he has a legacy, he is able to follow them through the field.

The leader calls Setracus Ra urgently and lets him know the Garde are there and have entered the temple.  He tells her to make sure they don’t leave.  In the meantime, Five attacks Ra and is thrown out of the mother ship while it is still a long ways from the ground.

Four and Nine blast their way through Mog guards to find the Secretary looks like is almost dead.  Four prevents him from committing suicide and heals him.  He wants the Secretary to do the right thing.

Setracus Ra alights in front of the UN building and walks down a ladder with Ten, Ellie, his granddaughter, reluctantly beside him, announcing that they come in peace.  But the Secretary takes the microphone and announces that Ra is a monster intent on the destruction and enslavement of Earth.  Ellie manages to hurt Ra and his concentration make him lose the good looks he had applied to himself and reveal himself as he is.  But the charm he made between them still works and every attempt to hurt Ra reveals itself on Ellie instead.  Five figures this out and knocks first John, then Nine out of the way, but Ellie tells John how she is wounded.  Nine sees Five simply as a traitor and turns to fight him, angry because he prevented Nine from killing Ra (not knowing it would not have worked – only Ellie can hurt him).

Six and Seven and Adam enter the sanctuary, carrying Eight and the charms from their combined chests.  Lorien is awakened and brings Eight back to life for a few minutes so Marina and he can say goodbye.  But the entity is vague in how she can help with the Mogodorians.

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman - illustrated by Brett Helquist (2009) HarperCollins 

The story of a boy in the days of the Vikings whose father is away on a raid.  He tries to go to the woods with his father’s axe and cut down a tree.  But the axe is too big for him and when the tree is felled, he cannot get out of the way fast enough and his leg is shattered, rendering him not useful to his neighbors.  His mother is from Scotland and was taken by his father in a raid because she was so beautiful.  He did not even approach her about marriage until he taught her enough of his own language to ask her.  But he died on a later raid, saving a packhorse who had swept overboard.  When he returned, the cold and wet had gone into his lungs and he died.

His mother married another man who did not like his new stepson.  So one day, Odd took a salmon and set out to find his father’s wood cutting hut.  He has to use a staff as a crutch because of his leg, but he makes it to the hut, or just in front of it, where he sees a fox who clearly wants him to follow.  So he does and comes upon a scene with an eagle sitting on top of a tree and a bear stuck between two trees with it’s arm buried in a honeycomb.  Odd takes his axe and cuts down the tree behind the bear to free him, hoping the bear won’t eat him.  Instead, the bear, the fox and the eagle follow him home.

In the night he hears voices in a discussion and gets up and accuses the animals of talking.  They finally let him know that they are really Odin, Thor and Loki and have been banished from Asgard by a Frost Giant.  Odd agrees to go with them to get rid of the Giant.

The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore (2013) HarperCollins

The fourth book the Lorien Legacy series in which we get a traitor in the midst of the children of Lorien.  We start with Sam being reunited with his father as they break out of a Mogodorian prison with the help of a young Mogodorian named Adam.

The others notice that number five is moving from Jamaica to Florida and burns a huge crop circle in the swamp.  It hits the news and the group go to rescue the new guy before the Mogodorians find him.  He’s smaller than the others and stockier and quieter.  But as soon as they find him, the Mogodorians attack.  They fight their way out of the bind with a last second shot from Malcom, Sam’s father.

Everyone returns to Chicago and they try to figure out a next move.  It is decided that they should return to the Florida swamp because Five left his chest there with its artifacts.  But Ella, number ten, has a screaming nightmare and when John, four, touches her to try healing her, he also is trapped in her nightmare.  The others decide to go to Florida anyway.

Once they get there, it turns out that five is a traitor and in an attempt to kill nine, he accidentally kills eight.  But the anger that causes seven brings on a new aspect of the chill she experiences when healing and she freezes the water around them and drive an icicle into fives foot and another one into his eye.

In the meantime, John sees Ella in the nightmare sitting on a throne next to Setracus Ra, calling for the death of six.  The Mogodorians choose to attack the penthouse at this point with only humans, Malcom, Sam and John’s girlfriend, Sarah, to defend the place and the two sleeping Loriens.  John wakes up, but cannot keep the Mogodorians from taking Ella.=

Ella wakes in an unknown bed and finds herself on the Mogodorian mother ship.  She tries to escape, but no one stops her.  There is nowhere to go.  Setrakus Ra finds her and calls her his granddaughter.

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs (2014) Ace

Charles, the Marrock’s son and enforcer, and his new mate, Anna are sent to a meeting of werewolves from around the world to deal with the Marrock’s decision to out the werewolves to the public.  With the Marrock only in charge of the werewolves in the U.S., his announcement will also affect those in other places and not all are enthused with the idea.  His biggest ally is Arthur, someone he doesn’t really like, the Alpha from England who insists that he is the Arthur of legend reincarnated.  His biggest foe, Chastain, is the Alpha from France, who controls, but does not administer, Europe mainland.  He is a beast that kills without rules.  To keep the peace, the Marrock hired a fea, a Grey Lord, one who was the Grand Belled Sans Merci. 

Then, vampires try to kidnap Anna.  Followed by vampires kidnapping and killing Arthur’s mate.  There is a hunt in a controlled environment going on when it happens.  Chastain, in wolf form, having found one of the prizes, presents it to Anna, who wants nothing to do with it or him.  Chastain snaps his jaws close to her neck and Charles reverting to wolf form almost instantly, blindsides him, then grabs his nose, shutting off his air supply and making him pass-out.  The fea announces that Charles drew first blood and has broken the rules.  He runs to pick his own fighting ground, expecting the other wolves to give chase.  But Anna, notes that the hunt was over and she was threatened and therefore Charles is clear.  Once they have reunited, they go to their hotel to rest.  Then Anna wakes-up in the vampire’s van.

The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore (2012) HarperCollins 

The Loric chronicles continue with the introduction of number nine.  He was raised in Chicago in a penthouse taking up two top floors in the John Hancock tower.  He is arrogant, brash and everything number four is not.  But he is also extremely well trained in his legacies.  Number four is still torn over his girlfriend, Sarah, having turned him into the FBI and the Mogodorians and the loss or capture of his friend, Sam.  Number six left to go find the Garde member in Spain and finds two other Garde: numbers seven and ten.  Seven turns out to be able to breathe under water, to be able to see in the dark, and most importantly, to heal the wounded.  Ten is a surprise in more than one way: she escaped Lorian on a second ship, with several chimera, though none are with her, and she can change age.  She can also communicate with some of the others telepathically.  Perhaps the biggest surprise was number eight.  He was in India and he can teleport and morph into animals or anything else he can imagine.  The locals think he is a reincarnation of Vishnu.

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (2011) HarperCollins

The saga of the Loric Garde continues.  Those who came to Earth with their Cepans (guardians) in a desperate attempt to develop their Legacy powers, learn to use the tools in their chest (which only opens the hands of both the Garde and their Cepan, unless the Cepan is dead), train and take back their planet – while evading the Mogadorians who have come to Earth to find and kill them.

A ‘charm’ had been in place to keep the Mogadorians from just killing their targets in any order.  They have to find each successive numbered Garde or the attempt will backfire and kill the killer.  But now, Number Six has found Number Four and the charm will no longer work, putting all the Garde in danger.  Number Six and her Cepan were captured by the Mogadorians and held prisoner.  While there, her Cepan is killed in front of her.  Back in her cell, she develops a Legacy power of invisibility and uses that to confuse her guards who rush into her cell and she escapes.  The Mogadorians still have her chest, but she develops additional powers, including the ability to control the elements.  Between them, and Number Four’s friend, Sam, they begin to defeat the Mogadorians each time the catch up to them.  Clues lead them to understand that Sam’s dad was an ally and hid something at their property under a sundial.  This takes them so close to Number Four’s girlfriend

But they are not all-powerful.

Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017) Greenwillow Books

About a group of young people.  There is Virgil, referred to by his family as Turtle, which he hates, the Tanaka sisters; Kaori and Gen, Kaori working as a psychic with only two customers; Virgil and Valencia, who is deaf, but wears hearing aids.  Her family doesn’t get her either.  And then there is Bull, who is a bully and thinks he knows everything, and none of it is necessarily good.

Virgil is in a special education class with Valencia, whom he has a crush on, and Bull calls him retard and calls Valencia deafo.

School is out for the summer, but Virgil feels he has failed – at least at what he wanted to do before he wouldn’t see Valencia for the next three months.  So he sets an appointment with Kaori who tells him to bring five special stones and he sets out across the woods.

Valencia has seen Karoi’s card on the bulletin board at the store and calls and sets her own appointment.

While Virgil is crossing the woods, Bull comes upon him and steals his backpack and throws it down a well – the backpack contains Virgil’s pet guinea pig, Gulliver.  Virgil sees a ladder and tries to climb down to rescue Gulliver but falls from the last rung and cannot reach it to climb out.

Virgil’s lateness worries Kaori and when Valencia gets there, she and her sister figure out that Valencia is who Virgil was wanting to say hello to.  They all go in search of the missing Virgil.

Well written and deserving of the Newbery Medal.

I Am Number 4 by Pitticus Lore (2010) HarperCollins

This book follows an alien teenager and his guardian as they try to stay one step ahead of their mortal enemies, the vicious Mogodorians, who destroyed their planet of Lorien.  Now, they’re tracking the nine surviving kids - Garde who are just now are coming into their legacies to Earth, and the Mogardorians intend to kill them.  But they have to kill them in order.  As they manage to do that, each of the other kids get a scar on their left ankle.  Three of them have been killed.  The narrator of the story is number four.  His Cepan, or guardian.

(James Frey and Jobie Hughes collaborate as Pitticus Lore)

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman (2007) Subterranean Press (3/4)

a collection of short stories including:

- The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds in which Jack Horner is approached by Jill Dumpty to look into the murder of her brother Humpty.

- Troll Bridge in which we finally get to understand how the troll came to live under the bridge.

- Don’t Ask Jack in which we learn just why Jack in the Box is so scary to kids.

- How to Sell the Ponti Bridge where we learn how someone can sell the already owned to the owners.

- October in the Chair where the months take turns in the chair, deciding who can tell their stories.

- Chivalry in which a Mrs. Whittaker buys the Holy Grail from a thrift store and is bothered by Sir Galaad, on a quest for the goblet.

- The Price that a cat pays to keep its benefactors safe from something worse than their nightmares.

- How to Talk to Girls at Parties in which two young men barge into a party, one slick with the girls, the other very bashful.  Only these girls are from around here, meaning Earth.

- Sunbird in which extreme epicureans depart to Egypt to eat the one and only sunbird, which is at once exhilarating and deadly and can be done only once every hundred years.

- The Witch’s Gravestone the precursor to the Graveyard Book – in which Bod, a live boy, is being watched over and educated by the denizens of a graveyard.  He meet the spirit of a witch who was buried in unconsecrated ground (for being a witch) and learns she does not have a gravestone.  He resolves to get her one.

 The Forbidden Door by Dean Koontz (2018) Bantam

Another episode in the Jane Hawk saga.  Jane is now the most wanted fugitive in America and false news is put out there claiming an autopsy shows her husband was murdered, implying Jane did it.  But he was cremated, so an autopsy cannot be performed.  Her in-laws escape their ranch just before the Arcadians can kidnap and enslave them.  In the meantime, Jane is pursued and fights her way to freedom.  She sets in motion a plan to retrieve her son with the help of friends.  Her pursuers must deal with enslaved minions who are going out of control.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (2009) Doubleday

Another in the series of Professor Langdon’s thrillers related to symbology.  In this episode, Langdon is invited to a presentation by one of his former students at the Bilbao museum in Spain.  But before the man can do the final reveal, he is killed by a sniper.  Langdon and the host museum’s leader, who is also the fiancé of the Spanish prince, pursue releasing the information anyway, which the assassin was sent to prevent, so he turns his eye on Langdon and pursues him into a cathedral.

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill (2011) Little Brown Books

A juvenile urban fantasy novel about a boy whose parents are getting divorced and while his brother gets to spend the in-between time until their parents get their new places to live, he has to go stay with an Aunt and Uncle he barely knows.  His mother and father forget him too easily.  He’s not in any family pictures, his mother doesn’t even always remember who he is when she’s talking to him.

As he leaves, his brother surprises him with a gift of his old skateboard, which Jack hides, because he doesn’t want his mother to say he can’t take it with him.

At his eccentric Aunt and Uncle’s home, he finds almost all walls are covered with books.  He makes a friend, a first for him, a girl whose twin brother was taken when he was younger and who came back with horrible scars on one side of his face.  She’s the terror of the bully who is the son of the richest and most powerful man in town – Mr. Avery.

But Mr. Avery wants Jack dead so he can control the magic that lives under the town.