Book #15: The Last Free Cat, and TV
The Last Free Cat by Jon Blake.
While this book had an interesting idea, it was perhaps the most unbelievable book I've ever read.
Set in the near future, the cat flu forced people to kill all wild/feral cats and everyone who owned one had to turn them in to be put down as well. The flu was too dangerous and spread too easily for people to have cats anymore. (Or was it.)
A giant company took over the "business" of cats -- they did all the breeding, neutered every cat they sold, controlled the whole market. Cats sold for 40 million euros or some crazy figure like that. Only the richest people in the world could own a cat.
Then a girl finds one in her garden. There are no free/wild cats left in the world, but one goes strolling into her garden. Though the punishment for having an unregistered cat is death, the mother lets her keep it.
Then the girl tells a kid at school about the cat. A kid she doesn't even like.
The cops find out she has the cat, and that's where the book really goes downhill. She and the boy she told lead a chase that would make the worst movie or TV show look like a masterpiece. These two kids outsmart every adult they meet. In a physical fight, they beat multiple cops. The two kids hitch a ride with a trucker. The boy watches the trucker drive. Five minutes into the trip the trucker stops the truck. The boy physically beats the trucker in a fight and then the two kids drive away in the tractor trailer, able to drive perfectly after watching for five minutes.
And then things get even worse. There's this whole subplot about the Free Cat Movement and it comes out that maybe everyone lied and there was no cat flu to begin with! That somehow the company tricked the entire world into destroying their cats so they could corner the market.
Every single adult was just so stupid in this book. The girl was caught at the end, but someone made a distraction, and all the cops watching her went to check it out, allowing her to just walk away.
I read a lot of young adult books. So many of them are well-written and just as enjoyable for an adult as for younger people. This was not one of those books.
(Side note: I did wonder at how many YA books I read, then I read an interview with an author. Many new and established writers are now writing YA instead of adult books because it permits them to write shorter books -- they don't have to pad 100 extra pages into their books. YA books can have just as mature, dark plots as adult books.)
[Two of five stars] Interesting idea, unbelievable story (not in a good way...), April 16, 2013
Though I'm not a young adult, I read a lot of YA books. Many of them are well-written and entertaining enough for an adult.
Unfortunately this wasn't one of them.
The basic idea of the book seemed interesting, so I bought it. Unfortunately it was one unbelievable event after the next. The two main characters (children), beat adults (cops even) in physical fights, outsmart them endlessly, beat odd after odd, etc. The two kids rode with an adult in a tractor trailer truck for a few minutes, then after beating the (adult) driver in a fight, jumped into the truck and drove off without problem. The kid, after watching the adult drive for a few minutes, knew how to drive the truck just fine. I, an adult who has been driving a car for many, many years, unlikely could drive a tractor trailer.
Add onto that a typical teenage "romance", and I just can't recommend this book.
Book #16 will be Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I've only read a few pages of it so far, but I'm loving it.
And on to TV...
Game of Thrones is working for me less and less this season. I can't imagine how I'd follow the show if I hadn't read the books. I should have posted about it earlier in the week, I can't even remember all the things that annoy me now. :P There's just one...
Cutting off Jamie's hand seemed to come out of no where. I suppose not, since he's a kingslayer, but they went from "You're talking down to me, I'll threaten you with a knife near your eye so you doFOOLED YA! CHOPPING OFF YOUR HAND NOW!". And shouldn't the wrist have been spurting blood? There was a slight pool on the table, nothing more.
Ah! And I remembered another thing. Unless Podrick walked away from the whores (which is possible), they gave him his money back? And the other two believed that? That whole scene didn't seem to fit.
Also, seriously, I'm tired of naked women and breasts. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of so much sexuality on a show.
I'm running out of time, so I'll have to end this with just a short recommendation: I watched the first ep of Naked Castaway for the novelty of seeing a naked guy walking around on a beach trying to survive alone, but it turns out to be really interesting (in addition to how odd it is seeing a naked manbutt on TV).
While this book had an interesting idea, it was perhaps the most unbelievable book I've ever read.
Set in the near future, the cat flu forced people to kill all wild/feral cats and everyone who owned one had to turn them in to be put down as well. The flu was too dangerous and spread too easily for people to have cats anymore. (Or was it.)
A giant company took over the "business" of cats -- they did all the breeding, neutered every cat they sold, controlled the whole market. Cats sold for 40 million euros or some crazy figure like that. Only the richest people in the world could own a cat.
Then a girl finds one in her garden. There are no free/wild cats left in the world, but one goes strolling into her garden. Though the punishment for having an unregistered cat is death, the mother lets her keep it.
Then the girl tells a kid at school about the cat. A kid she doesn't even like.
The cops find out she has the cat, and that's where the book really goes downhill. She and the boy she told lead a chase that would make the worst movie or TV show look like a masterpiece. These two kids outsmart every adult they meet. In a physical fight, they beat multiple cops. The two kids hitch a ride with a trucker. The boy watches the trucker drive. Five minutes into the trip the trucker stops the truck. The boy physically beats the trucker in a fight and then the two kids drive away in the tractor trailer, able to drive perfectly after watching for five minutes.
And then things get even worse. There's this whole subplot about the Free Cat Movement and it comes out that maybe everyone lied and there was no cat flu to begin with! That somehow the company tricked the entire world into destroying their cats so they could corner the market.
Every single adult was just so stupid in this book. The girl was caught at the end, but someone made a distraction, and all the cops watching her went to check it out, allowing her to just walk away.
I read a lot of young adult books. So many of them are well-written and just as enjoyable for an adult as for younger people. This was not one of those books.
(Side note: I did wonder at how many YA books I read, then I read an interview with an author. Many new and established writers are now writing YA instead of adult books because it permits them to write shorter books -- they don't have to pad 100 extra pages into their books. YA books can have just as mature, dark plots as adult books.)
[Two of five stars] Interesting idea, unbelievable story (not in a good way...), April 16, 2013
Though I'm not a young adult, I read a lot of YA books. Many of them are well-written and entertaining enough for an adult.
Unfortunately this wasn't one of them.
The basic idea of the book seemed interesting, so I bought it. Unfortunately it was one unbelievable event after the next. The two main characters (children), beat adults (cops even) in physical fights, outsmart them endlessly, beat odd after odd, etc. The two kids rode with an adult in a tractor trailer truck for a few minutes, then after beating the (adult) driver in a fight, jumped into the truck and drove off without problem. The kid, after watching the adult drive for a few minutes, knew how to drive the truck just fine. I, an adult who has been driving a car for many, many years, unlikely could drive a tractor trailer.
Add onto that a typical teenage "romance", and I just can't recommend this book.
Book #16 will be Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I've only read a few pages of it so far, but I'm loving it.
And on to TV...
Game of Thrones is working for me less and less this season. I can't imagine how I'd follow the show if I hadn't read the books. I should have posted about it earlier in the week, I can't even remember all the things that annoy me now. :P There's just one...
Cutting off Jamie's hand seemed to come out of no where. I suppose not, since he's a kingslayer, but they went from "You're talking down to me, I'll threaten you with a knife near your eye so you doFOOLED YA! CHOPPING OFF YOUR HAND NOW!". And shouldn't the wrist have been spurting blood? There was a slight pool on the table, nothing more.
Ah! And I remembered another thing. Unless Podrick walked away from the whores (which is possible), they gave him his money back? And the other two believed that? That whole scene didn't seem to fit.
Also, seriously, I'm tired of naked women and breasts. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of so much sexuality on a show.
I'm running out of time, so I'll have to end this with just a short recommendation: I watched the first ep of Naked Castaway for the novelty of seeing a naked guy walking around on a beach trying to survive alone, but it turns out to be really interesting (in addition to how odd it is seeing a naked manbutt on TV).