Books

Jon Del Arroz is a serious science fiction author. And by serious, I mean he's taken the time and trouble to join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America guild, something I've bothered to do, and now probably never will.

Del Arroz, an Hispanic, was planning to attend Worldcon 76, when he received notice that they were disallowing his attendance, stating he had intended to break their code of conduct. "Worldcon 76 strives to be an inclusive place in fandom, as difficult as that can be, and racist and bullying behavior is not acceptable at our Worldcon."

Because nothing says inclusivity and anti-racism like banning an Hispanic author from your event.

What triggered this reaction? What was it that Del Arroz had done to merit sucha response? Had he published a political manifesto? Posted with a frillion AK-47s on Facebook? Publicly burned a picture of Ray Bradbury?

What's cooler than a LEGO scientist minifigure that comes with two clear beakers filled with different colors? The book she comes with, of course!

The latest in the line of LEGO ADVENTURES IN THE REAL WORLD is LEGO SCIENCE, and where LEGO FARM was a Level 1 reader for beginners, LEGO SCIENCE is a emBIG book with sections devoted to chemistry, matter, space, inventions, physics, and much more! You'll be building water molecules from LEGO, learning how things work, why they work, and the often amazing ways things were discovered. You'll be given build challenges along the way -- but not just to create something, but answer science questions about them, like the kind of energy used to build your pair of racecars, and what things you could apply to make them faster.

After defeating the evil jumbie Severine, you'd think the people on Corinne LeMar's island home would be praising her. Instead they fear her. She's half jumbie after all and can't be trusted because of it. And when children start disappearing Corinne is the first suspect on everyone's list. To clear her name and rescue the missing children, Corinne must tag up with her old friends and seek out a water jumbie, Mama D'Leau. But Mama D'Leau won't help Corinne and her friends without aking a bargain. Her friends must travel with mermaids across the ocean to Ghana to retrieve a magical object before Mama D'Leau will tell Corinne what happened to the missing children. With everything against her, Corinne must once again rely on her friends and her courage to save the missing kids and her reputation.

Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! The superheroes that have populated the four-color tales of the comic book pages have made the transition into reality. They go by names like Thanatos or Mr. Xtreme or Phoenix Jones. They have costumes and missions that drive them. And you may even have one operating in your city!

Author Nadia Fezzani has spent time with several of these crimefighters across the United States and Canada, and has chronicled her experiences in REAL LIFE SUPER HEROES from Dundurn. As anyone who frequents CriticalBlast knows, we have an affinity for the super hero as well as for those who appear publicly in costumes. So we were eager to speak with Ms. Fezzani and dig up a few more answers about the addition of these characters to real life society.

Is the Real Life Super Hero (RLSH) movement a fad, an extension of cosplay, or something larger--a step for societal evolution?

In the world beyond the brick, LEGO has established itself as a place of creativity, fun, and humor. Now they're taking things a step beyond with their line of books for young readers, "LEGO Adventure in the Real World."

FARM is designated as a Level 1 reader, which translates to a market of K-1st graders, but don't expect this to be a 5-word-per-page standard kid reader. Each page is packed with photographs of farm life, overlaid with cartoon LEGO images cracking wise with traditional LEGO style humor.

The book does more than introduce youngsters to farm animals. It explains at the basic level the daily routines and machinery necessary to run a successful farm, and shows how the many different kinds of farms are important to so many aspects of our lives beyond the dinner table.

Blip is a happy little robot/console that lives daily plugged into her computer. But when a blackout causes her to trip and unplug (and fall-and-roll a distance longer than any meatball did from on top of spaghetti), she finds herself out of doors, in the sunlight, and learning new things.

Well, basically -- as per the text of the book -- she's doing pretty much all the same things she did on her computer. But she's doing them "for real" and she's having more fun doing so. So much so that, when she ultimately returns home to reconnect to her old life, she finds that she prefers the way things are when she's "unplugged."

Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen continue the SECRET HERO SOCIETY series that casts all your favorite DC Comics characters as middle school students. Told from the perspective of a cynical Bruce Wayne via notes, diagrams, text message continuity, and standard comic book style panels, DETENTION OF DOOM kicks things off with a handful of your heroic students getting academic awards from the Luthor foundation. Clark gets a unique looking trophy for bravery, while Bruce gets a medal for participation. (Other students can be seen in the program, including Guy Gardner for Debate and Dinah Lance for Musical Achievement.)

Sam is a hall monitor at Eerie Elementary. It's not just a job, it's an adventure.

That's because the hall monitors at the school historically have one secret job that nobody but former hall monitors understand: keeping Eerie Elementary from eating students. Only Sam and his friends Lucy and Antonio (and their mentor, former hall monitor Mister Nekobi, the janitor) know that they're really up against one of the town founders, Orson Eerie, who found a way to transfer his soul into the school building through mad science and strange magic.

Jumbies don't exist. At least that's what Corrine La Mer thinks. Jumbies are legend, trickster creatures used to scare children. But when Corinne runs into the forest and finds herself staring into a set of yellow eyes she's not so sure anymore. And when a mysterious, beautiful woman shows up at market, everyone is talking about her. Corinne doesnt know what to think. but when the beautiful woman shows up at her home and takes interest in her father, it sets Corinne on edge. And as the mysterious woman starts to take hold of Corrine's father, she must band together with her friends to save her father and her island from the Jumbies that most certainly are more than legend.

by Rhys Hagan

Isolation and dependence. Remember those words. They form the cornerstone of totalitarianism which is essential for cults to prosper. Being isolated from the outside world limits what can influence you while developing a sense of elitism due to access to, what members are led to believe is, an exclusive ‘truth’. Dependence ensures that members are convinced the knowledge and status that comes with it are only available to them through participation in group meetings. Denying the leader or doctrine often not only results in a loss of access to this ‘truth’, but also excommunication and punishment. Members end up dependent on the group for a sense of value, for socializing (as they are isolated from the rest of the world), and often for their very safety.

Gorilla Grodd and Captain Cold have a lot to learn--and to teach, in this LEGO activity book built around DC Comics' "Fastest Man Alive."

With the CW series THE FLASH being better than ever, and the character's key role in the just-released JUSTICE LEAGUE movie, The Flash is getting hotter and hotter. What better way to introduce him into your LEGO collection than by picking up this fun, interactive book that shows you just what he can do using the trademarked LEGO humor. And to make it even more enticing, this book comes with a minifigure of the Scarlet Speedster himself!

I live in a LEGO world. My son has thousands, separated into color-marked drawers. We made a plywood top overlay for one of his play tables and covered it with LEGO base plates. We've worked on some pretty intense kits.

Or so we thought.

Along comes THE GREATEST BRICK BUILDS: AMAZING CREATIONS IN LEGO. And not only do the contents live up to the title, they surpass it. These models aren't just creative -- they're enormous. The smallest of them begin at just over 10,000 bricks. The largest is two million! The level of detail in the model of Ohio Stadium (750,000 bricks) is astounding, and just needs the sounds of fans cheering to complete the illusion.

A while back, we were privileged to review THUMP: THE FIRST BUNDRED DAYS, a novel concept that presents the 2016 campaign in a new setting. Rather than getting into the policy wonk details of how each campaign was run, Thump's creators -- Brett R. Smith, Timothy Lim, and Mark Pellegrini -- simplified the events to the traditional rhyming style of the children's picture book, complete with illustrations that draw from Peter Rabbit rather than from the editorial cartoon pages of your daily newspaper.

After reviewing the book, and seeing the reactions online of others once the book was released, we spoke with editor Brett R. Smith about some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of Thump -- where he came from, and where he's going from here.

What was the "secret origin" of THUMP: THE FIRST BUNDRED DAYS?

Little Pip-Pip is the smallest of the penguins on his corner of the Antarctic. But it's not his size that's a problem for him, but his intense fear of doing what all the other penguins are doing: getting into the water.

Pip-Pip is laughed at by his peers, but encouraged by his mother. We learn there are all sorts of very good reasons why Pip-Pip should be afraid of the water. It's cold. It's dark. And there are things that live beneath the water that might eat him. Sounds like good reasons to me for staying on the ice! But then, what kind of lesson would that be for young readers?

Told in an engaging rhyming meter and illustrated with edge-to-edge color illustrations, BE BRAVE, LITTLE PENGUIN is an adorable tale, designed in an easy-to-read fashion that encourages children to follow along and vocalize the verses.

If you're a dog lover (or know someone who is -- this is the Christmas season, after all), then you'll want to check out Andrea Yerramilli's

children's book, RALPHIE, ALWAYS LOVED from About Something Good press.

Ralphie is a pup who was persistently returned to the animal shelter for doing what comes naturally to puppies -- especially ones who don't get

trained.

When his fourth family picks him out, he finds himself in a whole new environment of love (and rules). He has his good moments and bad, but

experiences growth throughout his life. He learns how to behave around new children and how to take on the responsibilities of the older dog. The only thing he doesn't have to learn is how to return the love given to him -- that comes naturally.

Last December, I talked a bit about THE LAST WITNESS.  As a big fan of THE DESTROYER, I was eager to read the spin-off series LEGACY by Warren Murphy and Gerald Welch.  While I was waiting for the next LEGACY book, Welch had mentioned to me that he had another series called THE LAST WITNESS.  I liked it so much, I ended up reading the first four books of the series over a long weekend. 

Since running for (and subsequently winning) the office of President, Donald Trump has been compared to many things and called many names. Most of them have not been very nice. And even the nice comparisons have never equated the man with a cuddly bunny.

Every administration spawns collections of political cartoons that critique the administration and the policies. But Timothy Lim, Mark Pellegrini, and Brett R. Smith have gone against that grain, and produced a collection of, quite frankly, adorable anthropomorphic cartoons documenting the Trump administration in three acts, beginning with the declaration, then the campaign, and finally the inauguration.

Darkness. Deep dark despair. Can you imagine not being surrounded by the light, truth, knowledge of the Gospel as we know it today?

I was enthralled by the vivid displays in words and art of the plight of Martin Luther. Truly this remarkable man suffered much for years before his mind was enlightened by ignoring the benighted teachers of his time. Showing boldness without regard for life, he desired to not just find fault with the misuse of power by the Church, but to declare a new interpretation of the scriptures based on his beliefs.

In Joshua David Bellin’s new YA sci-fi, FREEFALL, humanity has destroyed the earth and must seek a new home. A relatively small – and carefully selected – group are granted access to the mission, dooming those left behind to die. They will enter into cryogenic sleep for a thousand years, during which they’ll be transported to a brand new, habitable planet. While the wealthy Upperworlders take the best ship for themselves, the poor and marginalized Lowerworlders are stuck on the supply ship, the Freefall. Unfortunately, when all passengers awaken one thousand years in the future, they find themselves on a scary, uninhabitable planet full of monsters, where daylight temperatures are brutal enough to fry you in seconds. Something – or someone – sabotaged the ships so they wouldn’t reach their planned destinations.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton is an un-put-down-able story of friendship and the price of success, set in a New Orleans inspired world where physical beauty is prized above all – and comes at a cost.

In the city of Orleans, every person is born with gray skin, red eyes, straw-like brittle hair, and “ugly” features. The wealthy receive regular beauty treatments, during which their skin color, hair color, facial features, and body structure are magically (and painfully) altered by Belles, young women born with the ability to change a person’s appearance through their Arcana. These treatments are pricey, but coveted (skin returns to gray after a month or so, requiring constant upkeep).