Sunday, June 7, 2009

48HBC: Mothstorm

Mothstorm: The Horror From Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus! by Philip Reeve, illustrated by David Wyatt. (Grades 4-8.)

Art and Myrtle are back in this third book of the Larklight series. It's the Christmas holiday and the Mumby family is just about to relax and enjoy their Christmas dinner when visitors arrive with a very strange photo and word of a distress signal from the planet Georgium Sidus (only improper people call it Uranus!). So, off they go on another rip-roaring Victorian space travel adventure! And, as usual, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.

I've quite enjoyed all three of the Larklight books, although I must confess that I've found each one of them a little bit longer than would be ideal. They're action-packed and funny in an extremely well-crafted alternate world.

And one thing that occurred to me as I was reading this tonight is...

(I don't think this spoils anything, but I'll give you a spoiler alert just in case. If you haven't read them and want to, you might want to skip the next paragraph!)

...that the books are children's fantasy stories with protagonists that are not orphans. Mr. Reeve has crafted many believable and creative ways for the kids to take over the action without killing off the parents. Writers take note: this is how it's done!

Highly recommended for fans of fantasy-adventure.

And as for the 48-Hour Book Challenge, I'm closing in on my goal. I hope to stay awake long enough to finish another book! We'll see....

So far:

Total time spent reading/blogging: 18 hours
Books finished: 5 (woohoo!)
Pages finished: 1418*

*I did start The Comet's Curse and read 66 pages before putting it down. It just wasn't keeping my interest enough for this late in the game. I think it's due back at the library, but I may pick it up at some point in the future. Has anyone read it that wants to weigh in?