I am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Search for Sam

Pittacus Lore

This novella is a followup to Lost Legacies novella in the Lorien Legacies series. It continues from the perspective of Adam, the Mog general's wayward son. Adam has, as the result of a memory retrieval experiment, gained some of the consciousness of One. This results in new sympathies and in this novella, we find out how he is able to help out with Sam and his Father, intersecting with the storyline of The Rise of Nine. This is a great serial and Lore can't write them fast enough.
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The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Leisel Meminger is a young girl being raised in a Munich suburb by her foster parents in the early 1940's. As she grows up, she learns about Germany through her new family, friends, and life in the town. The fact that she steals books seems like a plot device that was invented (somehow not integral to the identity of the characters). What is particularly interesting is that this book has not antagonist. All the characters are protagonists. It is one big happy support group... with the exception of the Fuhrer of course. So with just the idea of Hitler as an ever-present, domineering character, Zusak can completely avoid writing in specific characters to dislike. All conflict and tension comes directly from a character that is not really even in the book. I suppose this is a modern Anne Frank, which is strange to say since the timing of the books is identical. But this book feels more modern somehow. Perhaps is it the "Grimm Reaper as blogger" feel that the narrator uses (which turned me off initially nearly terminated my interest). I would say this is an average book, but you can read it quickly and I think it does give a glimpse of life in "normal Germany" where the average people lived during the war.
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Monsters of Men

Patrick Ness
Chaos Walking Trilogy (Book 3)

In this final installment, the two sides in the human war for dominance (men vs. women) decide to a precarious cease fire in order to collaborate agains a common enemy, the Spackle (or The Land as we soon learn). This cease fire and collaboration does not in anyway decrease the antagonism between the Mayor and Mistress Coyle, nor do the political machinations of either go away. They are just thrown into the mix of any decisions of the larger battle. I particularly like how Ness is willing to explicitly link bad decisions to prior bad decisions. He is explicitly calling us to think about making alternate decisions that lead to true peace, not the "only decision possible" which is generally violence. When those decision points arise, the characters always call to mind the previous "only decision possible", which only led to an escalation. In the end, this is still a tragic war, a tragic portrayal of the average human response to violence, and probably more than accurate picture of the ugliness of war on a personal and global level.  None of these books stand on their own, but as a trilogy, well done.
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The Ask and The Answer

Patrick Ness
Chaos Walking Trilogy (Book 2)

We start with Todd and Viola having made it to Haven only to be met by Mayor Prentiss, who arrived first. The Mayor has taken over the town and this book is a description of the struggle for control over the town. The Mayor controls most men and the town proper, while most women follow Mistress  Coyle and her efforts to resist the Mayor. Clearly Coyle and the Mayor have history and their antagonism runs deep. Ness, having developed the strange idea of Noise in the first volume, is now using the Noise as a differentiator between the establishment and the rebellion as well as a potential weapon in this war. Perhaps the most interesting developments in the story are those that surround questions of how to resist a tyrant, and how to avoid violence or escalation. You easily see the blowback coming as a reader, and wonder why it is so hard in reality to see blowback in advance. Ness also lays out in pretty simple characters the various approaches to war, violence and resistance. He also doe a good job of showing that there is no ideology that works in all cases. Life and conflict are complex, and the decisions that we make are never made in isolation. I was cautious after book 1 in this series, but Ness does a good job with further world development and idea development that makes this book worth reading. I will bump this series up to 

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The Knife of Never Letting Go

Patrick Ness
Chaos Walking Trilogy (Book 1)

The setting for this story is a "New World" planet that is being settled by those seeking religious freedom. We are about 20 years in to the settlement process and pick up with our protagonist (Todd) about a month away from reaching his 13th birthday and initiation into manhood. We learn that on this planet, the men are afflicted with Noise. That is, their thoughts (all of them) are made available for everyone to see/hear/feel. Of course, not all is at it seems to Todd initially and his discoveries and travels over the two week timeframe of this novel are all about setting the stage and developing the world. The series has possibilities for looking at privacy, power, gender roles, religious freedom and religious coercion. But as of yet, it is only setting the stage. On its own, it is interesting, but not strong. So stay tuned for the remainder of the series to see if this is worthwhile.
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How to Survive in a Science Fictional Universe

Charles Yu

Strange. And not in a good way. Yu is describing a time travel scenario in a world where science fiction is reality. Science fiction universes can be created and he is working in one that is not yet completed. This is kind of interesting, but not used. The primary device here is a time traveling mechanic who is in effect searching for familial meaning. The time travel piece is dealt with in a straight forward way and I found myself slogging through this, waiting for it to be better. Wanting it to be better. About 2/3 through, I came across a 2 page section where Charles father is describing the theoretical underpinnings of how time travel works. Finally, this was interesting. But 2 pages does not a good book make. Sorry Charles, go back and try again.

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The Drowned Cities

Paulo Bacigalupi

Another dystopian future dominated by climate change and genetic modifications. This entry is definitely in the Young Adult genre and is a bit softer than The Windup Girl, which I loved. Here we are set in the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The Chinese peacekeeping forces have pulled out, considering the former U.S. a lost cause. The resulting chaos is managed by warlords battling for control, utilizing child soldiers as their primary fighting force. Into this melange of chaos we meet Tool, a genetically modified fighting organism (part human, part dog, part hyena, part ...) and Mahlia, a young girl who lost a hand to the roving bands of fighters. When these two meet up, we are faced with humanity in the best sense as they make decisions based on other instead of self.

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