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Stowaway by John David Anderson. This author is SUCH a good writer. This was a middle grade book, and yet it was so enjoyable to read. Nothing with him is black/white -- characters and situations are always grey.
Set in the very near future (30 years from now), aliens arrive. They invite us into the "Coalition" (which sounds a lot like the Federation, huh? Anderson is a scifi fan and again and again it shows in good ways). The Coalition (the seemingly good guys) are fighting the (seemingly) bad guy aliens. The main character (Leo, a young boy), loses his family and spends most of the book on a space pirate ship trying to get them back.
I love how he shows that war is complex. There are no good guys or bad guys. Everyone has their own reasons, both sides consider themselves the good guys.
I was so sorry when this one ended. I wish the second book in this new series was out already.
20) Wolfsong by Ignatz Dovidāns. I went to Amazon to refresh myself on what the plot was and why I stopped reading it. Instead of writing something myself, I will inflict the worst review ever on you all.
21) The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein. I can't criticize a book aimed at very young readers for being immature. The story was simple and very predictable. The characters were generic. In it a street cat is mistaken for a wizard's familiar and-- well, the "talking animal" part of the story got very light at that point as the plot's focus moved onto the three young kids (who of course had a destiny). Even with the simple, predictable plot, I might have stuck with it if the focus had stayed on the animals... even though there were a ton of logic issues (like a cat, bird, and frog traveling together for days, and the frog being able to keep up with the other two just fine).
22) United Cherokee States of N'America by Bob Finley. Books for adults take me about 8 hours to read, YA books about 6 hours. This one clocked in at 30-something hours (and it's not an omnibus). Assuming you could accept the most unrealistic main character ever (he knew everything. Literally everything in the world. He could answer every question asked of him, on every subject, no exceptions.), the story started out okay. End of the world was coming, and of course he knew that and started prepping. Based on the 30+ hour read time, it should surprise no one when I say he needed an editor badly. So so so badly. So many needless, pointless information dumps. Not even about the plot, but US history, history of the planet, etc. Each time he started one, I skimmed 10+ pages until it ended, then the plot lasted a couple pages before he dumped more info about some subject. If somehow I could have pulled the plot out of the book and left the random info behind, I might have finished it.
