Karen’s Blog

Yes, I love to read. I read books, magazines, cereal boxes - everything. I love a good book, regardless of subject matter or genre. And if I start a book, I will almost inevitably finish it. I always figure, maybe it will get better next chapter even halfway through a book. But sometimes they just don’t, and sometimes what starts as a good book gets worse.

Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban 

This was a book was okay. But just okay. It starts out in a promising fashion, with the title character, Andrea, a Princess who would rather be a knight. Or at least a squire. The fourth of her father the king’s daughters, she has been allowed to train with the boys, and wins the big Archery competition they have been training for. Andrea, about to turn fourteen, is sure this will convince her father to let her continue with the training, and not to become a lady like her mother and sisters are. Set in a medieval kingdom, it seems a decent start.

And when the book takes a science fiction/fantasy turn, who could complain? By accident she ends up in modern California, and realizes her Tio (uncle) Ramiro travels there regularly when she finds his house not far from the beach she lands on. Still interesting enough, right? We then go through the expected culture shock and transition, and the expected tension when her uncle insists she return to her own world as soon as possible.

But it all kinda goes downhill from there, with Andrea and her sisters dealing with battling kingdoms, a deceitful suitor, princes, soldiers, romance, and what is proper and what is not. And I guess the story disappoints me, because in the course of all this action, Andrea is obviously supposedly falling in love with one character whom she dislikes. And it isn’t until the end of the books that she realizes this, and it just seems too dumb for a girl who is supposed to be strong, smart, and clever enough to get away with all sorts of stuff and travel secretly between worlds, but not to figure out her own feelings at all.

So, eh, don’t bother with this one. I am sure the author meant well, and it appears to be aimed at young teen girls, and is supposed to be empowering, I am sure, but it just loses steam. By the end, I was just mildly annoyed by Princess Andrea’s obtuseness, and didn’t even care if she lived happily ever after.

Oh, and by the way, I have always hated cover art that doesn’t quite fit the story. You can’t see her father’s castle from the beach archway she’s standing in - for goodness sake it’s far from the castle, down a large cliff and at the base of a rocky beach, and as the story begins her hair is short, not long enough for a long braid, and the “golden arrow” is supposed to be large and sharp enough to hurt someone with, and is hidden in her hair, not a cute little ornament like the cover illustration shows. I know, the artist was probably not given the actual story to read, but should have been!

Category 7 by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson

My dentist took one look of this cover and said “Oh, science fiction, huh?” But as I was incapable of responding (he waited until everything was installed in my mouth for the work on my back molar) I couldn’t say “Yes, and no, not really.”

I guess he’s right, after all the story is based on scientists and the government being able to secretly control the weather. That’s gotta be fiction, right? At least we all hope so. I think.

The more you read, the more little doubts creep in, but hey, that’s what good fiction does, right? Takes everyday things and tweaks them just enough to make you wonder …

The book is more about politics, elections, power, the influences of business and wealth and government, and at the same time, it is a murder mystery, a character-driven story, and the classic “mad scientist” - though in this case, one might argue more mad-as-in-angry than mad-as-in-crazy …

A really interesting (yes, I use that word a lot) story, in which you learn a lot about the weather and how storms form (a meteorologist is the main female character), and much more. Some of the characters are more well-developed than others, but it is a good story, and a quick read.Had I not grown up on Science Fiction, and have been convinced we’d have FTL travel by the time I was a grown-up, maybe I wouldn’t find some of the weather-manipulation ability quite so convincing. And yes, you are right, there’s no such thing as a “Category 7″ hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but that’s how big the storm brewing is …

The Angel Factory by Terence Blacker

Just the title was enough to make me want to read it. Turning the book over, it says it’s “Teen Fiction,” but I don’t care what age level material I read, a good story is a good story. After all, I was pulling Robert Heinlein books from dad’s pile of library books in 4th grade, so why not read “teen” stuff now, right?


A good story it is, not too long or tedious, it gets going pretty quickly. The main character, Thomas Wisdom - yeah, it’s fiction so the names don’t have to pretend to be real - is a teenager who thinks he is a typical kid. He’s got the “perfect” family - normal, boring mom, dad, big sister, and even a little white dog, Dougal, the Westie. His best friend is the school outcast, Gip, a kid who has none of the advantages Tom has - no nuclear family, stable home, etc., so naturally the two are friends. They hack into Tom’s Dad’s computer, and everything Tom thought he knew about life pretty much changes.


The “Angel” of the title isn’t what you think, this is not a religious book, but science fiction. Tom is adopted, and his parents, sister, and he doesn’t know who else in his life are not even really human, they are an extra-terrestrial species sent to “help” humanity, and refer to themselves as angels. While this explains some things, like his ‘perfect’ family, it doesn’t explain everything, and Tom and Gip set out to find out the truth behind the whole thing.


Along the way, Tom finds his birth parents, the “angel factory” where the “angels” go to get “renewed” periodically, and answers to questions that just lead to more questions. It’s a quick read - 216 pages, but set in 12-point type with wide margins and plenty of leading - with a few surprise twists, an interesting look at what it means to be human, and the consequence of being able to make choices, and I think you would enjoy it, regardless of your age.