Starscape Books

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2537 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Back on Earth, Peter and Valentine forge an intellectual alliance and attempt to change the course of history.

This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station. Yet the reason it rings true for so many is that it is first and foremost a tale of humanity; a tale of a boy struggling to grow up into someone he can respect while living in an environment stripped of choices. Ender's Game is a must-read book for science fiction lovers, and a key conversion read for their friends who "don't read science fiction."

Ender's Game won both the Hugo and the Nebula the year it came out. Writer Orson Scott Card followed up this honor with the first-time feat of winning both awards again the next year for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. --Bonnie Bouman

Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5) (Ender's Shadow)

Orson Scott Card

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 639 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ender's Shadow is being dubbed as a parallel novel to Orson Scott Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ender's Game. By "parallel," Card means that Shadow begins and ends at roughly the same time as Game, and it chronicles many of the same events. In fact, the two books tell an almost identical story of brilliant children being trained in the orbiting Battle School to lead humanity's fleets in the final war against alien invaders known as the Buggers. The most brilliant of these young recruits is Ender Wiggin, an unparalleled commander and tactician who can surely defeat the Buggers if only he can overcome his own inner turmoil.

Second among the children is Bean, who becomes Ender's lieutenant despite the fact that he is the smallest and youngest of the Battle School students. Bean is the central character of Shadow, and we pick up his story when he is just a 2-year-old starving on the streets of a future Rotterdam that has become a hell on earth. Bean is unnaturally intelligent for his age, which is the only thing that allows him to escape--though not unscathed--the streets and eventually end up in Battle School. Despite his brilliance, however, Bean is doomed to live his life as an also-ran to the more famous and in many ways more brilliant Ender. Nonetheless, Bean learns things that Ender cannot or will not understand, and it falls to this once pathetic street urchin to carry the weight of a terrible burden that Ender must not be allowed to know.

Although it may seem like Shadow is merely an attempt by Card to cash in on the success of his justly famous Ender's Game, that suspicion will dissipate once you turn the first few pages of this engrossing novel. It's clear that Bean has a story worth telling, and that Card (who started the project with a cowriter but later decided he wanted it all to himself) is driven to tell it. And though much of Ender's Game hinges on a surprise ending that Card fans are likely well acquainted with, Shadow manages to capitalize on that same surprise and even turn the table on readers. In the end, it seems a shame that Shadow, like Bean himself, will forever be eclipsed by the myth of Ender, because this is a novel that can easily stand on its own. Luckily for readers, Card has left plenty of room for a sequel, so we may well be seeing more of Bean in the near future. --Craig E. Engler

Dragon and Liberator: The Sixth Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback)

Timothy Zahn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this exciting space adventure, fourteen-year-old Jack Morgan and Draycos, a poet/warrior K'da dragon who can hide himself as a tattoo on Jack's back, have their backs to the wall. Brought together by a twist of fate, these two have been through a lot of scrapes, risking death and imprisonment on worlds far and wide, seeking justice for Jack and information that might save Draycos's people from a genocidal ambush. But now, Neverlin, the man who killed Jack's parents and destroyed the scout fleet of which Draycos was the sole survivor, is about to ambush millions of K'da refugees, and kill them with a Death weapon that kills any living being within its range. To prevent Neverlin from eradicating the K'da race, Jack and Draycos must somehow disable the Death.

But for Jack and Draycos, things never seem to go the way they should. When Jack's friend Alison is captured, Jack gives himself up to keep her from being harmed. Neverlin, with Jack and Draycos as his prisoners, holds all the cards. But desperate times call for desperate measures, as time is running out, not just for our young heroes, but also for the millions of K'da who face annihilation, and resourceful Jack and his remarkable ally will fine a way . . . or die trying.

A powerful, thrilling conclusion to this terrific Young Adult six-book series. Fun for readers 10 and older.

The Dragon's Lair (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme)

Elizabeth Haydon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Scarnag's Lair! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Dragon's Lair is the third book of Elizabeth Haydon's new series for young adults, The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme. The story opens up with Ven helping Char gather the food that is being dropped-off at The Crossroads Inn when a farmer helps him unload. The farmer turns out to be King Vandemere from the Castle of Elysian in disguise, who warns Ven that the Thief Queen is out to capture him and his friends. Understanding the warning of the King, who advises Ven to take his friends and run beyond the Great River, he agrees with his advice and a plan that he assigns him and is greeted by the King's forester, Tuck, a Lirinved (the in-between) who will guide them and protect them from the Thief Queen and her spies, huge flocks of Ravens that hunt them wherever they go.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom of the Nain and Lirin are against each other, threatening to disrupt in war. Even worse, a Dragon by the name of Scarnag is terrorizing the Nain to get back his treasure that was taken from him by the Nain. It is up to Ven to avoid the dragon and find out what exactly was stolen, and to trade with the Lirin/Nain to get something that King Vandemere wants, even if it may cost him the throne!
When Ven heads back to Kingston with Tuck, he sets-out to get Amariel to come along with him, the Merrow that saved him from the Fire Pirates. He is also greeted by Madam Sharra, who gives him one of the cards of her deck that is tucked-away in Black Ivory, a dragon scale from the Primeval Wyrm spoken of in The Symphony of Ages series and the first book of the War of the Known World trilogy (Requiem for the Sun/The Assassin King).
This is a nice treat for any of the legions of fans for the Symphony of Ages, which is a World Wide Bestseller series, but is also a nice introduction and "sugar-coated flavor," for any one younger who are just experiencing Elizabeth Haydon's enchanting world for the first time. I highly recommend this book to anyone, young or old, who enjoy a good story, or who enjoyed J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter series or J.R.R.Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I acclaim Haydon as the best fantasy author of this age, don't let her books slip you by! And if you read some of Haydon's Lost Journals, than try her Symphony's on for size if you haven't already! Elizabeth Haydon is right up there with the best fantasy authors known to date!

Editorial Review:

Barely one day after fulfilling his second mission for King Vandemere as Royal Reporter of the land of Serendair, young Charles Magnus Ven Polypheme—known as Ven—is off on another adventure. To keep them safe from the wrath of the Thief Queen, whose rage at their escape from the Gated City knows no bounds, the king sends Ven and his friends on an important mission.

Their journey takes them across a wondrous land filled with marvels—and danger. For the mission the king entrusts to Ven is a delicate one: to discover the cause of a dispute between two warring kingdoms—and the answer leads Ven straight into the lair of a very angry dragon….

Fans of The Floating Island and The Thief Queen’s Daughter—both chosen as Book Sense Children’s Picks—will love this third enchanting adventure in The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series by bestselling author Elizabeth Haydon.

In the Land of the Lawn Weenies: and Other Warped and Creepy Tales (Starscape)

David Lubar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Loved it!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book for my 11 year old daughter. She loved it so much that she read the whole thing in a week! On our trip she would stop and read me stories. David Lubar has a way of intriguing and entertaining my daughter and that causes her to read more and watch less TV.

So Great And Fun!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

My friend turned me on to In The Land Of The Lawn Weenies. My initial reaction was "What the hell??" The title turned me off. However, I was SO surprised by this collection of fun children's stories. The stories are very great and very fun, and contain very much hilarity. I loved each and every story in this collection, because they are so weird and twisted, but that's what makes them amazing!!

Editorial Review:

Kids can be such monsters. Literally.

From the award-winning author of Hidden Talents, two remarkable short story collections - Kidzilla and The Witch's Monkey - together for the first time. Plus several brand new stories. Each hilarious and harrowing. A substitute teacher finds out she has some monsters for students. A group of kids attempt a levitation trick with hair-raising results. A neighborhood is so boring the grown ups are turning into...well...you know. And dozens more.

So don't be a weenie! Read these stories!

Invasion of the Road Weenies: and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

David Lubar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

CREEPY TALES 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Yet more great stories from literary master David Lubar. Plenty of short
sharp shocks to give kids the shivers as Halloween approaches!

Great book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

My kids and I loved this book. It is full of great short stories. It would be a great book for a reluctant reader because the stories are so short. The reader can have many short, entertaining reading sessions without the chance of getting bored. While camping this past weekend my son retold many of stories from this book while we were sitting around the campfire. They really are great spooky campfire stories!

Editorial Review:

Watch out for the road weenies!
A town is overrun by road weenies--a.k.a. joggers--who never smile. A girl thinks she's too old for Halloween...until she finds a special pair of gloves. A boy takes a shortcut to an unexpected place. A mummy takes his revenge, one little piece at a time.... Welcome to the weird and wacky world of award-winning storyteller and master of the macabre, David Lubar. These thirty-five tales ranging from the silly and offbeat to flat-out horrifying are just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark. As an added bonus at the end of the book, David answers the question most frequently asked of writers with a behind-the-scenes look at the various ways he got the ideas for the stories in this collection. Don't be a weenie. Read these stories. If you dare!

Dragon and Judge: The Fifth Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback)

Timothy Zahn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Orphaned at the age of three, brought up by his con man Uncle Virgil, Jack Morgan has done things that even in the future in space are unusual. But when he rescued Draycos, a dragon-like symbiont, from certain death, his life became a series of breathtaking adventures. With the help of Draycos, who can leap onto Jack’s back and become what looks like a tattoo, Jack has been doing everything he can to find out who ambushed the scout-fleet of Draycos’s people, the K’da and Shontine, leaving Draycos the sole survivor.. Now, just when Jack thinks he may finally be on the trail of the information he needs, he’s kidnapped by aliens, who ask him to be a judge for them, as, they reveal, his parents had once been.

Jack’s friend Alison Kayna, and her newly acquired K’da symbiont Taneem, are also kidnapped, and she is forced by two of the conspirators to open the booby-trapped safes from the K’da/Shontine scout fleet, to try and learn the rendezvous point of the larger fleet. With the help of Jack’s Uncle Virge and his ship Essenay, Jack and Draycos escape and rescue Alison, but they are unable to gain the information they desperately need to save the refugee fleet… and precious time is running out!

The Thief Queen's Daughter (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme)

Elizabeth Haydon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Even better than the first, if that's possible 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I loved the Floating Island. It was one of the best books of any genre that I have read in a long time, and reminded me of my favorite childhood tomes, with the right amount of magic and adventure, and probably the most likable hero I've encountered. Second books are usually very disappointing, especially when the first is as amazing as that one was, so I was shocked and delighted to discover that The Thief Queen's daughter, which I've awaited anziously since I read the last page of the Floating Island, is even more engagingly magical.

This is a series I recommend, as a teacher, parent, and proud perennial kid, to everyone and anyone. There is nothing offensive about it, but the lessons woven artfully into the plot are good ones for anybody to adopt. The characters, especially Felonia the Thief Queen, will stay in your memory long after the last page of this book is done. I am now anxiously awaiting The Dragon's Lair, the next of Ven's adventures. The little trailer for it at the end hooked me immediately.

Editorial Review:

On his first day on the job as Royal Reporter of the land of Serendair, Charles Magnus Ven Polypheme—known as Ven—is sent by King Vandemere on a secret mission within the walls of the Gated City. The king warns Ven to take care—because once you enter the Gated City, you might never be allowed to leave. The Gated City is ruled by the powerful Raven’s Guild, and the guild is ruled by the Queen of Thieves.

Ven and his friends enter the Gated City ready for adventure. But when one friend is kidnapped and it is revealed that they are traveling in the company of the runaway daughter of the Queen of Thieves herself, their adventure turns deadly. For the ruthless Thief Queen will stop at nothing to get her daughter back….

Hidden Talents

David Lubar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Too Slow 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Martin is famous around home for shooting off his mouth, constantly getting himself in trouble both with his parents and with authority figures at school. After getting thrown out of a series of schools, he ends up at Edgeview, a boarding school for trouble boys that is seen as the last stop for them. At first Martin's attitude toward his new school is horrible. He gets on the bad side of the principal and all of the teachers the first day, and his roommate and roommate's friends are all very strange.

Soon, though, Martin begins to see something different in his classmates' strangeness. Flinch seems to see things coming at him before they happen. Cheater always knows the answer to trivia questions. Torchie is insistent he isn't setting the fires that pop up all around him. Martin suspects that his friends might have special powers. The hard part becomes convincing the boys themselves that they are more than the losers and outcasts they've been told they are for so long.

I liked the basic story, as well as the characters. However, we know from the title of the book and the description on the back that the boys in this story have "hidden talents." Therefore, the part of the book leading up to Martin realizing it and then the boys themselves realizing it is excruciatingly slow. I kept wanting to shake them, to make them open their eyes and see the evidence that was piled up in front of them. The part of the book in which they actually accepted and used their powers was too short compared to the leadup.

Editorial Review:

American Library Association “Best Books for Young Adults”
American Library Association “Quick Picks for Young Adults”

Martin Anderson and his friends don’t like being called losers. But they’ve been called that for so long even they start to believe it. Until Martin makes an incredible discovery: each of his friends has a special hidden talent.

Edgeview Alternative School was supposed to be end of the road. But for Martin and his friends, it just might be a new beginning.

The Floating Island (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme)

Elizabeth Haydon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Long ago, in the Second Age of history, a young Nain explorer by the name of Ven Polypheme traveled much of the known and unknown world, recording his adventures. Recently discovered by archaeologists, a few fragments of his original journals are reproduced in this book. Great care has been taken to reconstruct the parts of the journal that did not survive, so that a whole story can be told...

Charles Magnus Ven Polypheme--known as Ven--is the youngest son of a long line of famous shipwrights. He dreams not of building ships, but of sailing them to far-off lands where magic thrives. Ven gets his chance when he is chosen to direct the Inspection of his family's latest ship--and sets sail on the journey of a lifetime.

Attacked by fire pirates, lost at sea and near death, Ven is rescued by a passing ship on its way to the Island of Serendair. Thankful to be alive, little does Ven know that the pirate attack--and his subsequent rescue--may not have been an accident. Shadowy figures are hunting for the famed Floating Island, the only source of the mystical Water of Life. They think Ven can lead them to this treasure, and will stop at nothing to get it--even murder.

In a narrative that alternates entries from his journals and drawings from his sketchbooks, Ven begins the famous chronicles of his exciting and exotic adventures--adventures that would later earn him renown as the author of The Book of All Human Knowledge and All the World's Magic.