I always take notes and comment in the margins or in a journal through out my reviews. But recently, I read a friend’s novel while he was on facebook chatting with me and I gave him a real time review… moment by moment, thought by thought. He seemed entertained by this, so I thought I could try doing this with more books. What if instead of editing a formal review after a book, I just shared my streaming thoughts? With Prominence League Part Two, I’m giving it a try. The following is directly from my journal this afternoon - no edits.
Title: The Prominence League Part Two
Author: C. David Cannon
Publisher: LucidBooks
Genre: Young Adult
Length: 230 pages
Mandarin Moon in my Scentsy warmer, coffee depleted, still in my pajamas, I sit down to read The Prominence League Part II. I truly enjoyed the first book, but that was baseball and this is martial arts – my element. From line one, I’m HOOKED.
Already the book shows a level of writing maturity – that confidence that radiates “I am a seasoned author now.” I hope my second book shows the same degree of improvement over my first.
I love that he starts the chapter numbers where the previous book ended. It gives you an immediate sense of continuation and begs the question – “Is there an omnibus in my future?”
Still, Cannon keeps with his love for knocking out characters. Carriane is a fainting Queen with a flair for drama. It kind of makes you wonder if she was mildly based on anyone he knew in real life and what that was like.
My favorite thing about dystopian society fiction is how it points out intentions behind real world current events.
“Now I see why people did nothing to stop it,” Ian says looking at the timeline of events in the report. “It happened too slow, and was covered in lies the whole way.” [...]
“That’s right Ian [...] they weren’t trying to keep us safe from terrorists like they claimed. In fact, they encouraged new reports of terrorist attacks, because they always beefed up their measures after one. This was obedience training plain and simple.”
In all this fabulous story telling, though, I want to slap Carriane and her obsession with her relationship status. But Cannon’s behind the scenes take on our current education system quickly makes me get over it, until Emerald reinstates the token young adult love triangle.
What’s with the Caleb kid that all the females salivate at his very existence? It’s like sitting through high school watching girls fawn over the boy that became the man I married.
And it’s not just the writing that is better than ever [I note after seeing a new graphic], I’m especially impressed with this round of maps and graphics. And for the first time in the series we see a worldwide view of Carriane’s reality.
By Chapter 26, my daughter is using me as a full on jungle gym. She has no idea that what I am reading now will be passed onto her in about eight to ten years. There’s just so much to discuss afterward… the obvious dystopian society and personal worldview stuff – but then also the less obvious near dive into meta-fiction with Carriane’s self-absorbed reality show fantasy and the ever interesting relationship between a hero and their adventure.
Once again I find myself reading an American novelist, possibly sending me on an escape route to Canada. Man, I need to visit Canada already! It is so often deemed a safe haven. do they write novels in Canada about escaping to the United States?
There’s this book by Olivier Dunrea that I read to my kiddo literally every night called BooBoo, BooBoo is a little blue gosling who likes to eat. Almost every page she eats something and the line after goes: “Good food,” she says. My internal ear is all wonky with toddler stories as I read Cannon’s book and creep up on the end… I just want to close with:
Andi read another book.
“Good book,” she says.
So there you have it folks… my first official stream of consciousness review.
Other books you might enjoy if you read Cannon (or if you enjoyed you should read Cannon):
Fizz & Peppers (Not dystopian, but an awesome adventure!)
Arlington Park (Totally random – Just in case you enjoy the desire to slap characters.)
