Calliope Jones and The Last World Diver Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series

Haylie Hanson’s Debut book, Calliope Jones and The Last World Diver Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series.

Or, best get it as part of this trilogy:

Beauty!

Beauty. Beauty. It’s what I kept thinking as I read; as I closed the book for the night. I saw, and felt, artistry at work.

It’s been a long time since I felt immersed in an author’s world; actually involved in the story; actually IN the world. In fact, the last time was maybe never. But, by the power of this author’s gorgeous writing, I endured slow-motion end-of-summer doldrums and later dragged myself to school and family meals right along with the story’s eponymous hero, Calliope Jones. Lulled to calm before the storm.

I found the author’s word choices perfectly apt and descriptive in wonderful ways; sights and smells, tastes and touch, the lights and noise of her world, so colorful, redolent, delicious; mundanely familiar and vividly real. It’s like, phrase after phrase I’d clutch the book to my chest, close my eyes and re-enter her world to savor it all again; like recalling the layered flavors of a favorite childhood comfort food and beverage. Fun and evocative.

But, I couldn’t pause. I couldn’t stop and re-savor a moment of her world. I had to move on. Despite her storytelling’s beauty, the author held me in suspense and eager to plunge deeper into her tale.

This book is the best example I’ve ever read of an author […]

Molly of Mars And The Alien Nebula Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series

Molly of Mars and the Alien Nebula Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series.

Kid Heroes to the Rescue with a Well-Laid Plan!

I loved the action sequences in the first book, but this second book starts with an action sequence even more brilliantly described than those in the first – prettier, more evocative, and well-woven with backstory and setup – a fast, compact rush of images that quickly sweeps you off your feet and headlong into the story. Then, an unrelenting string of questions, answers, and mysteries within mystery keep the story moving and the reader involved.

Maybe it’s just because Molly befriended me in Book 1, but this story feels more intimately told, as if Molly’s sharing her story by letting you read her diary. I liked that.

The story is sprinkled throughout with similes so whimsically mundane and charmingly evocative they made me chuckle, marvel, and totally get it, all at once, like the sensation of clamping your magnetic boots onto a spacecraft’s hull for a dicey spacewalk compared to negotiating the tackiness of a movie theater’s aisles after the show.

I’d read it again, but there’s so much more Molly to go. More books, I mean. And that’s good, ’cause the only disappointment I experienced was that this story felt shorter than the last, and I got to spend less time in Molly’s world this time than I would have liked.

But it’s still well worth the visit. So, sit back, curl up, pull the popcorn close, and let your escape pod drift into this book.

 

Brave New Girls Book Review by Roan Reedling author of Rocket McGee

Brave New Girls Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series .

Young Heroes Bright of Intellect and Spirit.
I ached to write a review after each of this book’s fresh and novel stories. But I stomped on the urge ’cause I itched to witness whether the story that followed would bear out my sense that the next always bested the last. And it did, every time, though I’m positive that would’ve happened regardless of the order read.
These stories amazed me, one after another, with how much world-building, character development, and human experience the authors could cram into such small parcels of parchment*, on top of the well-plotted tales of their young heroes’ brave exploits; young women bright of intellect and spirit. And, though each and every tale brought the hero’s quest to a satisfying conclusion, each left me hungry to witness her next move. I’ll be on the lookout. In the meantime, I’ll have no problem reading them all over again.

*Okay, I read it on Kindle, but parchment’s what arced from my fingertips, and I’ve never been good at measuring cyber-real-estate.

 

Molly of Mars and The Alien Syndicate Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series

Molly of Mars and The Alien Syndicate Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series

Molly of Mars 1 Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series.

Molly’s a brave, young, human inhabitant of Mars, full of heart and fire, who cares deeply for her friends and her planet, and takes full and personal responsibility for defending them. My kind of kid character. My kind of hero of any age.

The book’s an easy read and an excellent study in show-don’t-tell storytelling. The author does a very nice job of helping us share – feel – the anxieties, misunderstandings, hurts, hopes, and vindications experienced by Molly and her friends through their deeds and reactions – and those of the people around them. We witness the kids’ growth, as they wrestle with their experiences, gain insight from them, and mature in their deeds and reactions. But they’re kind of mature to begin with, and the daily challenges of being a grown-up kid, unnoticed or dismissed in a grownups’ world, are portrayed in credible ways that feel real.

The author does a great job, too, of weaving the friends’ backstories and the history of humans on Mars into the story at just the right moments, without disrupting the story’s flow, while the kids unravel the mystery – even as it deepens – so there’s rarely a lull in the action as the kids charge headlong through a gauntlet of sleek, cinematic action sequences.

Sure, I had to yank myself out of the story a time or two and put the book aside, […]