Brain Spill Book Reviews #2

Larklight

Setting

Larklight is a book written by Philip Reeve that takes place in the 1800s if Isaac Newton had invented space travel. The story begins in a house which is a satellite in space. In thsi world, the British Empire has expanded to the moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and the Moons of Jupiter. Most of the (human) characters act like people out of a Charles Dickens novel, but in space.

Summary

 The story starts when giant spiders attack the (floating space) house of Myrtle and Art Mumby and they escape to the moon, where they are taken onto the ship of pirate Jack Havock. The book, told from the viewpoint of Art Mumby -- with some excerpts from Myrtle -- and tells of the tale of how Art, Myrtle, and Jack try to discover who the giant spiders are and what they want with the house of Art and Myrtle.

Characters

Art Mumby

Art is the narrator of the story and the main character. He dreams of exploring deep space and going on adventures, but is stuck in his floating house, Larklight, listening to his sister play piano. He is a fun character, but even as the narrator, very little is learned about him.

Myrtle Mumby

Myrtle is the most annoying character in the entire book. Not only does she insist on playing piano all the time, she always tries to be lady-like, which drove me mad about halfway through the book. She changes more than most characters, but it is a very sudden, unusual change and is probably not the book's main character.

Jack Havock

Jack Havock is the most famous pirate in all of the British Empire, though he is younger than he is thought of in the papers. He roams the Solar System with his very eclectic crew of alien-escapees from a lab in London. Havock has a sad past, that I will not spoil, and is one of the deeper characters in the story. He saves just about everybody in the entire cast of characters from certain death.

Mr. Webster

Mr. Webster is the name of the head giant spider who attacked Larklight and kidnapped the Mumby children's father. He is the antagonist of the story and his race and intentions unfold very nicely as the plot continues.

Nipper

I just put Nipper in this character summary because he's a giant crab.

Conclusion

The book is well written and unfolds very nicely and evenly. I enjoyed the majority of the book as well as the hover hogs. The characters do not develop much throughout the story, but this more of a 'show-me-a-new-world' story rather than a hero's journey story. 8.5 out of 11 pancakes.

*Pancakes are not provided by blogger.

Picture from http://www.scificool.com/tomas-alfredson-to-direct-larklight/

Brain Spill Book Reviews #1

The Fuzzy Papers

Recently, I read The Fuzzy Papers, by H. Beam Piper. In the book, a man named Jack Holloway finds a little furry creatures in the forests of the planet Zarathustra. He names the creatures Fuzzies. The creature seems to be intelligent, but when the local charter company finds out about the creatures, they are out to disprove the claims of Fuzzy sapience. This book is actually two separate books: Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens. The majority of the book is about laws, politics, and science... but this is space laws, politics, and science! Yay! This book is awesome when it comes to a science-fiction story that actually makes you think. It questions if we really can know if something is an intelligent creature or not, and the author really writes about it well. And, if that isn't good enough, Fuzzies are awesome. 9 stars out of 10. Huzzah!

Picture from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7637149-fuzzy-sapiens

Back to School... Meh.

School is back in session here in the land of California, and like most of my fellow Google users, I feel inclined to search for Back to School quotes, apples, movies, and bulletin boards. School is one of the strangest things that affect the student mind. When school is ending and summer begins, students are just itching to get out of school and be free, but when summer comes to a close and school prepares to open, many students are excited to get supplies, get their schedule, and go to school in general. After school has been in session for a month or two, kids start dragging their feet while on the way to school. They no longer want to go to school. That's when winter break comes along to save the students. The only problem is, this two week break is not enough to reboot the student mind, and the students know that in a mere two weeks, they will have to go right back to school. This time, they are not as excited to be back in school. Then, as the school year gets closer to May, the cycle restarts once again.

Super Parking Lot

We recently came back from a trip to Seattle. When we got off the plane back home, we were tired, bored, and easily amused. We came up with the idea of having a super parking lot. This parking lot would have many special abilities, including the ability to fly. He also would be able to turn invisible and breath under water. This parking lot would also wear a cape to show he is a super hero and would ride around in his invisible jet. This super parking lot has vowed to protect parking lots everywhere from oppression by cars and would allow all parking lots to be free. His arch-enemy would be the terrible army of buses and the parking meter. Of course, being a superhero, we had to give this parking lot a super special, top-secret, epic and awesome superhero name of power and justice. We named him Dave, the Super Flying Parking Lot.

Doctor Who - Civilization 3

I loke Doctor Who. I like Civilization III. I decided to combined the two.

The Philippines - Day 4

Monday, November 15, 201o; 7:45pm

Today, we had something forgot breakfast.It rained a lot and created a giant puddle around the house next door. We didn't do much today. Our three oldest cousins, Jacob, Jeremy, and Liwliwa (Who are still younger than us), went to school. The camera stopped working. We were invited to a large ceremony for Shannon at Alinunu School. It was all about thanking her for setting up a project to send books and supplies to the school. When we left, all the kids waved at us. We had sort of a fish dish for dinner.

It was also Riza's birthday today. Riza is our youngest cousin. As a result, we got a squishy rice read along with our breakfast. It was nice. Jacob took me to a shop after his school was out and we got corn chips. Its kind of strange to be there, because I am a tall white boy and many stare at me.

Oh, well. Its not like I haven't been the strange one of the bunch anyway! To learn more about the Alinunu Book Project and how to help out, go to the following link:

http://alinunubookproject.blogspot.com/

Just Desert

So, I was cleaning my room one day, and I found a discovery. A book of my own stories, written when I was in 4th and 5th grade! The book was titled 'Mysterious Writing Book' due to the strange disappearance of the creator of the pictures in the book. Nobody knew who he was or where he went. The person who had received these pictures published them and allowed people to try to come up with stories to these pictures. My class got to write stories for these pictures. Although mine are not that great, they are funnyish. Yes, I know the picture shows a person in the kitchen, but the title is "Just Desert", not "Just Dessert". I hope you enjoy the story!

Just Desert

"She lowered the knife and it grew even brighter"

She was just making pumpkin pie, but the pumpkin exploded. It had grown larger and larger and then it exploded. Anna screamed when she saw the monster inside of it. The monster was small, round, and green. It's eyes were huge and there were five of them. The monster rolled around like a ball. It also could hop. It hopped on Anna and bit her head off, and went on with his plan to conquer the world. Muahahaha!

Please remember that I was in 5th grade when I wrote this.

This is just one of many stories that I wrote in that book. over the next few weeks, I will be showing most of these stories on my blog!