And further

[cyphomandra]

I am currently on a roll, which is unusual enough to take advantage of. This first book is an interesting example of how two major faults can effectively cancel each other out, so that I finished this book in a state of Zen-like calm that was quite far removed from some of my earlier reactions. I am going to spoil the ending quite thoroughly, though, so consider this an advance warning.

Brian Falkner, The tomorrow code. The good bits in this are the NZ setting, especially where there are chase sequences all around recognisable chunks of Auckland, and the fact that there are Maori characters (the male lead and his brother) who are not just there as convenient stereotypes. I am also quite taken with the fact that the menacing danger that could wipe out the entire population of NZ is, in fact, a Long White Cloud (literal translation of the Maori name for NZ, for non-Kiwis), but as the characters never mention this I’m not sure it’s deliberate. The bad bits – hmm. Tane and Rebecca, two teenagers, start getting messages from the future telling what to do to deal with a dangerous white mist that is proceeding down the country, killing all in its path. The messages turn out to be from their future selves, and the white mist is one of those science-tampering-in-god’s-domain things (okay, technically described as “playing with the building blocks of life”), which involves so much appalling cod-science that I actually hit myself over the head with the book at one point to see if it was less painful that way. Rebecca, being a skilled computer programmer and general all-round genius (she’s one of those modern supremely competent girlfriend characters who will be tempted briefly by the motorbike and external charms of Tane’s brother before realising that Tane himself is just what she’s always wanted) is naturally vehemently opposed to medical science (while being quite fond of anything involving high tech gadgets), and goes on about how the mist, which contains giant antibodies (arrgh. arrgh) will wipe out the virulent plague of humans while going all-out to stop it doing so.

The two of them fail to stop the mist (despite discovering that the creatures it contains can be destroyed by *water*, in what I hope is an homage to that triffid film rather than the result of well-reasoned research) and end up holed up in a very high tech submarine (bought after winning Lotto with numbers from the future) somewhere in the Hauraki Gulf. Fortunately, then, they decide to send *different* messages back to their past selves and thus avert their doom, and the book restarts, well before the first message gets detected and with no apparent changes. And then finishes.

Finding out that this was pretty much a “and then they woke up” story made me much less annoyed with the rest of it, although I’m not sure that was the point. I do think you can’t do a reset and change piece without showing what will be different (why not jump to the first message? How are they going to ensure that things happen differently?) but, if it means going through all that bad science again, why should I care? Anyway. Anyone reading this who wants my copy should let me know. My other notes for this say “Anubis Gates”, where I think my point was that while I will accept a moebius loop for some information in a time travel story (i.e., who writes the poem “The Twelve Hours of the Night” in Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates, a brilliant book I’ve mentioned earlier on here), this book does have an explanation for the time travel/holes themselves, whereas The Tomorrow Code never explains either who comes up with the message device (the future selves send their past selves the plan) or, really, the mist/giant antibody thing).


Michelle Magorian, Just Henry. Another post-WWII one; main character is fascinated by movies and, as egged on by his grandmother, dedicated to the memory of his father, a dead war hero. There are some very nice character moments here – the family dynamics, the interactions with the other school children, the adults – and one thing Magorian does very well is that sense of community. This one is let down a little by having a rather obvious plot – as soon as all the pieces are mentioned it’s easy enough to see where they’re going, but as it’s quite a long book you can get impatient waiting. Once you hit the reveal, though, there's a good action sequence.


Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love. Nice, solidly done YA about a teenage boy who gets into writing his own zine, and falls, hopelessly, in love with another zine writer who’s a lesbian. Very nice about the problems of drawing boundaries between love and friendship, of knowing your own feelings and dealing with those of others; characters are realistic, flawed and easy to care about. I’ll look out for more of hers.

Comments

[amysisson.livejournal.com]

I liked Hard Love too. I think I've read another title or two of hers that I've liked as well.