Karl's Reading List

Published by Egmont UK Limited/Electric Monkey: London, UK: 2012 (2009). First published by HarperTeen: New York, USA, 2008. Book 1 in the 'Gone' series. Followed by 'Hunger.' I borrowed this book from a family member knowing nothing about it except that some of my students like it. I soon learned it was seen as a combination of Stephen King meets Lord of the Flies - neither of which are my usual jam (he says, having literally just finished reading a different book by the author of Lord of the Flies ). Yeah, it is like that. Particularly Stephen King's Under the Dome, which I know from the mini-series of the same name. Plus, it also has similarities to Lost (which I loved) and X-Men (some of which I enjoy). So, anyway... The basic premise of Gone  is that all of a sudden everyone fifteen and older who lives in or near the town of Perdido Beach mysteriously disappears, and the remaining children discover that they are now trapped by a mysterious barrier that has a ...

Published by Penguin Books/Michael Joseph: Middlesex, England, 1986 (1954). First published 1951. A classic title by a classic sci-fi author, The Day of the Triffids is one of those books that I know the premise of - to a degree - but am not entirely sure whether I have read it before. I thought I had, but there was a lot I didn't remember.  To my knowledge, the premise was 'a world where everyone goes blind and killer plants (triffids) roam around preying on the blind humans.' That is true, but a surprisingly large amount of the runtime doesn't focus on the titular triffids at all - or if it does, they are more in the background. This seems to be largely because Wyndham has resisted the urge to 'over-humanize' the plants; they are not 'plotting' against people, they are simply taking the most of the opportunity presented by the blinding of humanity in order to do what they do best. Although they are shown to 'communicate' to some degree and gath...

Published by Huia Publishers: Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2018. This is a new book in the English department, another by an up-and-coming new Maori author, and whoo boy it ramps up quickly! At the end of the first chapter a bus full of highschool students crashes in the New Zealand bush. Most die. A few chapters later one student needs his leg operated on by another student. A few chapters later another student turns murderous. Somewhere in the midst of all this the survivors begin getting nose-bleeds and seeing visions. Eventually a spaceship and a sinister corporation are introduced. It's so much and it all just keeps escalating! The book is a page-turner, helped by the amount of plot and the very short chapters (the shortest chapter is made up of a single line of text), and I can imagine students really enjoying it for its realistic New Zealand teens (well, before they turn murderous), its fast pace, and even its occasional romantic subplots (which do at times get a bit mo...

Published by Puffin Books: London, England, 2000 (1994, 1984). When I was reading this book, I had somehow come under the belief that it was written a very young author - that Swindells had perhaps even been in high school when he wrote it. Since finishing it, I have learned that Swindells was actually much older, and that this wasn't even his first book. I tell you this, because the revelation that Swindells was an author well in to his literary career came as a bit of a shock to me. Brother in the Land tells the story of Danny Lodge who, with his younger brother and parents, is living in the little English town of Skipley. When nuclear war breaks out Danny's life changes forever. As the book progresses life in Skipley goes from back to worse; by the end of the novel most of the people in Danny's life have died in one way or another, and although the book has a 'happy ending' of sorts, this is fairly 'tacked on' (literally. Swindells apparently added the la...

Published by Fabbri Publishing Ltd: Barcelona, Spain: 1991. First published 1886. This is one of Stevenson's more well-known stories, yet unlike Treasure Island is not one I had much of an idea of the plot of. I was also unaware, until after completing this novel, that Stevenson was Scottish, but it does make sense considering just how Scottish both the setting and characters in Kidnapped are. The story follows young David Balfour, whose parents have died, as he delivers a sealed letter from his father to his up-to-now unknown uncle at a rundown manor called 'The Shaws.' Very quickly David learns that his uncle intends ill towards his nephew, and this escalates into David being (surprise) kidnapped and put on board a ship bound for the Carolinas, where he will be sold as a "white slave". He never arrives in America, however, as, when the ship strikes and sinks a boat, David befriends the sole survivor, Alan Breck, and together the two manage to get the ship diver...

Audiobook published by Audible, 2015.  Narrated by Victor Bevine. Book 1 in 'The Earthborn Trilogy'. Lucas is one of the last survivors of a dying Earth, destroyed in battle with aliens who were after the resources of Earth, particularly water. He comes across an alien spaceship and a sympathetic alien, and then - along with the ferocious female human Asha - they seek to escape the planet. The premise is a little cliché but fine. The novel as a whole is fairly B-grade pulpy - lots of limbs getting blown off, heads splattered etc. This gives the book a slightly unpleasant feel, as does the fact that many remaining humans (our protagonists not included) have resorted to cannibalism, something that always sickens me in any medium I encounter it.  There are a few moments where the plot goes in a different direction than anticipated, and there were enough interesting moments that I kept listening, but honestly, there are much better books than this to get into the genre with. Victo...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group: New York, NY, 2007 (2003). Book One of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; ' The Ashes of Worlds '. Last week I was returning a book to my local library and saw a flyer for something called the 'Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge.' A fairly straight-forward challenge running through until 30 June 2022, that challenges you to read 26 books, each by an author whose surname starts with a different letter of the alphabet. There is no major prize, although after every fifth book you can claim a small prize from the library. It's really just an excuse to read more books. As if I need excuses to read. Anyway, I decided to have a go, and have also decided I'll try and read my books for this in alphabetical order (not a requirement of the competition). So a...

Published by Random House New Zealand: Auckland, New Zealand, 2013 (2008). This is the second book by Kiwi author Fleur Beale that I have reviewed for this site. The first one, Slide the Corner , was enjoyable enough but not much more than that. Juno of Taris is a much more readable story, and one that I found myself wanting to finish. Once again, its not mind-blowingly original, but it doesn't really need to be! Juno is one of 500 residents of Taris, a small self-contained island surrounded by a protective wall located somewhere in the Southern Ocean. It is some indeterminate time in the future, following wars and disasters, and now the residents of Taris believe themselves to be the last remaining humans on Earth. They survive by working together and following the rules laid down by their 'Governance Companions' (a small group of elders) without question. Juno, a 12 year old girl, is not the best at following these rules, and has begun to realise that some people on the i...

Published by Scholastic New Zealand Limited: Auckland, NZ, 2006. This book was published by Scholastic as part of the My Story series, books aimed at younger readers that retell various interesting or significant events in the history of New Zealand. In this instance, Castaway tells the story of (fictional) Sam Clark, who becomes part of the (historical) sinking of the Dundonald, a ship that crashed into Disappointment Island in 1907. The 15 survivors are forced to endure a harsh winter on the sub-Antarctic island (part of the Auckland Islands group), building huts out of earth and grass, eating mollymawks and seals, and eventually building small boats out of sticks and canvas in order to reach Auckland Island itself, where they know a depot is kept stocked to aid shipwreck survivors. The story (as it seems most in the My Story series are) is told as a journal, kept by Sam during his travels. This means we get a first hand account of life as it is on the island, but also means the sto...

Published by Canongate Books: Great Britain, 2008 (2002). I knew quite a lot about the general plot of this book before I began reading, thanks to reviews about it when it first came out, as well as having seen at least part of the Oscar-winning film version. Life of Pi tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, who starts by growing up as the son of a zookeeper in India and choosing to follow three religions simultaneously, and later on ends up adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger. With a plot like that, I knew the book would be somewhat 'quirky', but I wasn't expecting the level of humour, or the level of insight within it. The three religions thing is a bit odd, but then, so is the character of Pi. To him, the three religions of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity all overlap in numerous ways: "Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hin...

Published by Anderson Press: London, 2016. Alone leaps straight into the action. Thirteen year old Sam survives a plane crash and is swimming through the stormy night trying to escape the scene. Soon he finds that he is stranded alone in the Amazonian jungle, and must learn how to survive his ordeal. The book doesn't mince words or pull punches. Diarrhea, leeches in hard to reach crevices, eating maggots, slicing hands open... all of these episodes are a little gross to read, and as the book progresses Sam's run of bad luck does occasionally veer into the ridiculous level - if anything good happens there is bound to be another episode of pain or sickness around the corner. This makes it somewhat unsettling when Sam befriends a young otter, particularly when that otter faces life-threatening situations by being around Sam. Will it all end well? Enjoyable on the whole. Probably won't read again. Completed 12 February 2021. Previous Book ~ Next Book

Published by Mallinson Rendel Publishers Ltd: Wellington, NZ, 2003. I'm now at the point in the year where I'm reading with an eye towards what I might be teaching next year. As I have a year 9 class in 2021 (I haven't taught one of those yet) I'm looking through some of the books on offer in the English Department for that year level. No Safe Harbour is one of those. It stars Stuart and Sandra, twins who have been in Christchurch for their Grandad's funeral and are now heading home via ferry to Wellington. The only problem is that this is April 1968, and the ferry in question is the Wahine.  Any New Zealander who has some knowledge of our own history will likely have heard of the Wahine, and be aware that it ran aground on Barrett Reef in Wellington Harbour during an unexpectedly severe storm, and then sank. This book tells that story through the eyes of Stuart.  Told in first person, we are limited to understanding what Stuart understands, and although he is highl...