The Land of Odd: ‘Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye’ written by Tania Del Rio and illustrated by Will Staehle

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All-Seeing Eye, ghosts, gothic, mazes, middle grade, monsters, mystery, puzzles, secret room, steampunk, Tania Del Rio, treasure, Warren the 13th, Will Staehle, witches

Twelve-year-old Warren the 13^th, heir to the once-fabulous Warren Hotel, has a problem. Rumors of a hidden family treasure, a powerful something called the All-Seeing Eye, may actually be true. Finding it may help Warren restore his family’s fortunes but his creepy Aunt Annaconda is looking for it too and word’s gotten out. The race for the mysterious treasure is on but no one knows the hotel better than Warren, who’s been cleaning and patching up the place all by himself for the last five years. That’s all the time it’s taken for his Uncle Rupert to let the mansion and the grounds fall into disrepair. Known for his laziness, Rupert became even more befuddled when he unexpectedly married Aunt Annaconda four months ago. She is not at all nice: she insults Warren about his looks (his face is a bit toad-like and his teeth are crooked—but he has a big heart, a full head of luxurious hair, and is very clever), she bosses him around, and she inevitably underestimates him. Warren tries his best to steer clear but, unfortunately, his aunt has a habit of turning up where he least expects her. She is determined to have the power of the Eye for herself and isn’t shy about tearing the hotel apart to find it. She is a frightening adversary but Warren has some unusual friends on his side. In the fight against his aunt’s supernaturally-powered greed, Warren’s kindness, loyalty, and sharp thinking are his secret weapons.

Warren the 13^th and the All-Seeing Eye is a beautifully imagined book; the author, Tania Del Rio, and the illustrator, Will Staehle, have created a visual treat as much as a good story, a world teeming with danger and surprise that also serves to underscore the importance of having friends. See a preview and meet the characters at http://warrenthe13th.com/. An activity booklet filled with mazes and word games as well as a new short story about Warren the 13^th can be downloaded here: https://www.scribd.com/document/335608383/Warren-the-13th-Activity-Booklet.

Keep an eye peeled for the next book in the series, Warren the 13th and The Whispering Woods.

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“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” by Neil Gaiman

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childhood, Lettie Hempstock, memory, monsters, Neil Gaiman, ocean, reading

 

There is magic in this novel, in Mr. Gaiman’s economic, lilting prose ordered as carefully as a spell, pinning down quicksilver memories, not all of them welcome. His adult protagonist returns to the farm at the end of the lane where his friend, Lettie Hempstock, lived with her mother and grandmother (Lettie Hempstock who had been eleven for a very long time), to the bench by the duck pond that is really an ocean, and remembers a series of fantastic events that started after the “bad birthday” when he turned seven. Gaiman inhabits his seven-year-old psyche with admirable ease, relating the small joys and larger fears of childhood with a clarity so remarkable that it dragged me along for a ride down my own lane. It seems perfectly reasonable that the writer Neil Gaiman has become would begin with a house that possessed its own faery ring and was surrounded by roses and hazel thickets. And that the seven-year-old who lived there would be a voracious reader and become the center of an otherwise invisible struggle against the varmints and fleas loosed from the world in the Forever that the Hempstocks left behind when they came here, to this world, to play.

While reading this novel, I was reminded of a scene from the movie Hocus Pocus in which a witch flies on her broom over a sleeping New England town and, singing beautifully and irresistibly, lures the children from their beds. In the wake of Mr. Gaiman’s tidy discussions of huge emotions, we cannot help but be drawn down our own lanes to visit memories good and bad and all long forgotten. The pages of this book veer from microscope to telescope, zooming in on the smallest wriggling details and then opening into the bright flowering of the universe. Along the way, contradictions abound: there is no food and then there are satisfying quantities of the most savory, comforting food you can imagine; there is terror and a warm fire burning in the hearth; there are things that are worse than what they appear to be and others that are better than could be hoped for. It is the confusion and joy of childhood and the agony, from a child’s perspective, of watching it all change and having no say in the matter. Except. Except for a little help from the little girl at the end of lane.  Every book is like a small ocean but this book is larger than most. Happy sailing.

Read more about this book and more of Neil Gaiman’s works in progress at his website.

“Altar of Eden” by James Rollins

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Altar of Eden, alternate evolution, evil laboratory, genetics, James Rollins, mayhem, monsters, New Orleans, prehistoric, veterinarian, virus, weapons

Dr. Moreau lives: In a secret, deep-pockets laboratory on a remote island in the Caribbean, a greedy scientist with an unhealthy sense of entitlement (shocker) makes a fatal mistake by sending a selection of his specimens to Washington, D.C. on a trawler. En route, a violent storm off the coast of Louisiana causes the trawler to run aground, leaving the Border Patrol with what they think is part of an illegal animal smuggling operation. But these animals are very, very strange. Organising both their rescue and the ensuing investigation is the ruggedly handsome Border Patrol officer, Jack Menard, an ex-Marine who leads the BP’s Special Response Team (the best of the best of the best plus gadgets and weapons). He enlists the assistance of Dr. Lorna Polk, a beautiful blonde (groan) research veterinarian, with whom he has a long and complicated history. They quickly tease apart the mystery and horror the cargo represents; the development of their mutual attraction is an expected diversion from what is otherwise a typically delightful Rollins excursion into mayhem and destruction, all for the greater good.

The setting, in and around New Orleans, is obviously dear to Rollins; he evokes its sights, sounds, and smells with the reverence of a native who’s been away for a while. From pain perdu, glimpses of architecture, maze-like wetlands, and Uncle Joe’s Alligator Farm, New Orleans life is presented in a whirlwind tour, conveying a distinct home advantage for Jack’s beleaguered team that also serves them well in enemy territory. In addition to teaching you more about high-tech weaponry than you’d ever thought to learn, Rollins takes a few liberties with genetic theory to explore the nature of humanity in the most inhumane environment possible. It’s all very plausible given a slightly cynical worldview. In the end, not even the maximally-fortified and -funded machinations of a morally bankrupt operation can stand up to the combined powers of love, friendship, family, and a specialised virus. Exactly as it should be. Thanks, James. I had a blast!

For more information about James Rollins and his current projects, please visit his website.

Something new: Those of you with e-readers can now get Altar Of Eden for $1.99 on Amazon!

“Fragment” by Warren Fahy

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alternate evolution, Hender's Island, monsters, reality show, scientists, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Warren Fahy

This is my kind of book. Its foundation carries the echo of a premise from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World : a geographic anomaly has caused tiny Hender’s Island to be isolated from the rest of the globe. However, rather than have evolution frozen in Dinosaur Time, Fahy has created an undisturbed evolutionary hothouse where new and more deadly paths have been taken. It still doesn’t bode well for the hapless sailors and scientists who accidentally discover this evolutionary gem and there is an inevitable clash between those who wish to study the new life (a few dedicated and brilliant scientists), those who wish to profit by it (a reality show called ‘SeaLife’), and those who would like the whole thing to just go away (the military).

The originality of the various creatures’ biology, morphology, and ecosystems is brilliant, making up in large part for a few of the more one-dimensional humans with which they interact (read shred), be they soldier or scientist. Some of the horrifying new discoveries are also illustrated as they would appear on the pages of a scientist’s field notebook (which does help to visualize such fantastic creations). Avid readers of the genre will be familiar with the question of whether or not we can accept life forms vastly different from our own but perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the plot is that those who ignore the tenets of science and humanity always get their comeuppance. Always. [No idea how “The Mummy” reference popped into my head but the (fingers crossed) movie of Fragment should be as much fun.]

For more information about Warren Fahy, check out his website.