Pulses, Waves, Plagues and War

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1887.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
New York, NY : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2013.
457 p. ; 23 cm. 

I loved Yancey's Monstrumologist and his wonderful follow-up, The Curse of the Wendigo - but his latest book, The 5th Wave wasn't as satisfying to me.  The writing is really good, the plotting is interesting and engaging, and there is a lot of great action and thrills, but ,ultimately, for me there is just too much that strains credibility.  What I liked about his previous two books was their specificity - a few characters involved in very circumscribed actions.  The 5th Wave on the other hand involves the global (and I mean global) eradication of humanity by a super-advanced invasion force of aliens - but it just happens that a few characters who knew each other before the invasion not only survive the extermination, but successfully resist and sabotage it.  I also just found the most important plot twist involving one of the main characters to be completely unbelievable.  Either he would have never changed his behavior - or the aliens would have never been so stupid as to use such characters in their operations to rid the earth of humans.

But, these incredulities aside, there is a lot to enjoy in this novel.  The waves of destruction (thus the title) by the aliens are frightening and exciting to the imagination: a massive EMP (electromagnetic pulse), induced tectonic upheaval creating worldwide megatsunamis, a very lethal viral pandemic, and sleeper human/alien killers, and... well, you get the picture.

Yancey also creates a strong and interesting female hero - something that is refreshingly more common these days (think Hunger Games, Slated and Divergent).  In spite of not enjoying the book as much as I thought I might, I'd still give it high marks, and not hesitate recommending it to students looking for something exciting and interesting to read.

Classic Yuck!

The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey
New York : Simon & Schuster BFYR, c2010.
424 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

Yancey's follow-up to The Monstrumologist is great; I think an even better book than the first. As in The Monstrumologist there is plenty of gruesome gore and supernatural violence - bodies turn up flayed, eviscerated, and missing eyes and faces. There are basements full of green sewage and dead bodies. What raises this book above all the ick is it's finely crafted plot and superbly drawn main characters - Dr. Warthrop the late 19th century monstrumologist and his orphaned assistant are fully developed and interesting characters.

The framing of this novel, like the first one, is a clever device attributing the story to the journals of a very old, deceased William Henry - giving the novel an air of authenticity. It also benefits from many references to people and events of the period, so that it reads a bit like historical fiction - but without the dullness that genre sometimes exhibits.

Our book group at the high school just finished Stephen King's Pet Sematary - and the contrast couldn't be greater. Where King's writing is sloppy and uneven, this book was tight and elegant. I'm definitely a fan.

Not For the Breakfast Table

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yance
New York : Simon & Schuster BFYR, c2009.
434 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

This book is a Printz honor book - and it is a compelling read. This book would be a great step up for fans of the Cirque du Freak series. There is lot (and I mean lots) of gore and bloodshed. Because most of the violence is committed by monsters that are like humanoid great white sharks, it is more fantastical and less offensive than simple murder and mayhem stories.

The book is well-plotted and conceived, cleverly nested as a story from the late 1800s as conveyed in the journals of an old man who has passed away in a retirement home.

The novel has also features a likable orphan protagonist and uses many of the stock in trade tricks of Gothic horror - gloomy midnights in graveyards, basement labs, and underground lairs where the last monsters must be hunted. The novel has some creative touches in references to the civil war period and to the gruesome habits of parasites (an interesting comparison could be made to Peeps in this regard.)