'Ready Player Two' by Ernest Cline, 'Fourth Wing' by Rebecca Yarros, and 'Is a River Alive' by Robert MacFarlane

 Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline (3.5)

Enjoyable – but completely derivative of ‘Ready Player One’. Really not much newly creative, which made the first book so unique. I did appreciate that he was able to do a round two using the same characters but with a new plot. Unfortunately, the main character had to go through a very unlikeable stage as part of his arc in order to make this book work. Cline predictably lies heavily on 80’s trivia, which works for many of his fans. There is a feeling of inclusion similar to finding Easter eggs in games. The ending seemed a bit abrupt and set things up for a possible third book, though given it’s Sci-Fi bent, he’s going to have to drop the 80’s schtick. 

 

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (4.5)

I enjoyed so many things about this book – but particularly the interactions between dragons and their riders. The author has taken the classic plot of a seemingly weak protagonist who is put in a precarious situation and has to continually battle the system and bad guys, and made it feel fresh with twists (some more obvious than others), interesting characters and dragons! My biggest concern with the book is that it seems to be written for YA (many accurately call it a blend of Harry Potter and Hunger Games), but it comes across as an R-rated book for language, violence and sex. There is a bit of a warning in the front, but that will just urge many YA readers on! 

 

Is a River Alive?, Robert MacFarlane (4.0)

The author has a nice way of going to places and writing as ‘doing, not telling’, which I appreciate. I also liked how he started with the small creak near his home that he has known all his life and returned to it after each journey. I loved the author’s young son’s comment to the subject of this book: ‘Of course a river is alive, this will be a short book’. Rather than arguing this point, MacFarlane journeys to three very different rivers and describes how some special people are working hard to protect and/or revitalize them. I was worried that it would be a sad tale of how we are ruining our environment, but he manages to highlight the positive work being done. My only complaint is that the poetic words sometimes were a bit over the top for me and made it feel fictional at times.