Review: Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman

Tags: YA, science fiction, aliens, time travel

Summary

17-year-old Joss Aaronson is an irreverent harmonica player, a first-year student in the time-jumping program at Australia’s Centre for Historical Studies, and a stealthy player in the game against authority. When the Centre’s first alien student, a Chorian named Mavkel, chooses her as his time-jumping partner, the two form an unlikely alliance. For Chorians need to be part of a pair to survive, and Mavkel has lost his birth-pair.

Joss tackles prejudiced teachers, heavy security, a distant mother, and her own enigmatic background, but when Mavkel begins to waste away, Joss knows that the only way to save him is to go back in time and discover her own lineage. The result is a startling discovery that will rock what everyone believes of the Centre.

Review

It’s been a while since I’ve read a straight-up science-fiction YA novel, and yet SINGING THE DOGSTAR BLUES proves to be one of the best of its genre. With a great protagonist and a fully realized world, this small book will suck you in so fast you won’t even realize when you’ve lost your heart to it.

Joss is, without a doubt, my kind of girl. A bit jaded, a bit too smart for her own good, she is thoroughly entertaining to read about. Her tongue-in-cheek observations and flagrant disregard for Centre rules make her the opposite of the passive protagonist I typically dread in YA lit, and yet she’s not so rebellious as to be unrelatable. She is, in a sense, the kind of “bad girl” most readers have secretly imagined themselves being.

Science fiction is difficult to write because it involves creating a thorough world and to consider the implications of adding any detail to the story. Luckily, Alison Goodman’s world in SINGING THE DOGSTAR BLUES is remarkably believable and “real”: I could very nearly see all that Joss sees through the sharp and precise writing.

The one complaint I had about this book was the predictability of the ending. I figured out how things were going to unfold several chapters before Joss did. This is a recurring weakness in Goodman’s novels (her YA fantasy Eon: Dragoneye Reborn had the same thing happen), and yet doesn’t majorly detract from my utter delight in reading this book. Overall, I can solidly recommend SINGING THE DOGSTAR BLUES as one of the best YA science fiction novels ever written. Don’t miss out on this one!

Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3 out of 5 - I've seen better, and I've seen worse. I can see that as Joss, particularly as she is of mixed ethnicity, and that rebellious look on the model's face fits well with my idea of Joss.

Penguin / Nov. 2004 (reprint) / Paperback / 272pp. / $7.99

Personal copy.

Waiting on Wednesday (97): The Sequel Edition

There are so many sequels I'm anticipating that I think it's better off if I just put them all here, in one WoW post!

All summaries from Goodreads. And, uh, I suppose you might not want to read them if you haven't read the first books yet:

We'll Always Have Summer (Summer, Book 3) by Jenny Han

It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college-- only, their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It's time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.

The love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah is to die for. Seriously. It is incredibly well written and I have no idea how it'll all turn out, since I love both boys. Can a happy ending exist for all three beloved characters? We'll find out soon enough!

We'll Always Have Summer will be published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster on April 26, 2011.

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon's army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona's power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled "Emperor" Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power--and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . .

Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama and romance, its unforgettable fight scenes, and its surprises, is the conclusion to an epic only Alison Goodman could create.

The first book, Eon, bowled me over, first with how incredible a world Alison Goodman had built, and then by how much it reminds me of timeless fantasy classics written by greats such as Robin McKinley, Gail Carson Levine, Tamora Pierce, and Sherwood Smith. If any of those authors appealed to you, then get thee a copy of the first book immediately!

Eona will be published in hardcover from Viking Juvenile on April 19, 2011.

Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready

Aura’s life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend, Logan, died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can’t deny her connection with the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she’s not sure that she wants to.

Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past—the mystery of the Shift.

As Aura’s search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets…and her heart.

Well, that synopsis made the series sound like another ditzy little ditty in the paranormal romance department... but Shift is so much more than that. Beautifully strong characterization and world-building--how does Jeri do it?--will lead you an ardent fan of her writing. Maybe the publishing gods will be kind and gift me with an ARC somehow, somewhere...?

Shift will be published in hardcover from Simon Pulse on May 3, 2011.

Cover Lust (23): Eon and Eona

A separate Cover Lust post in its entirety for the breathtakingness that is all of Alison Goodman's international covers for her book Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and its sequel, Eona: The Last Dragoneye (at least, those are its American titles. They are varied slightly throughout the world.) I don't speak enough about this series because I truly believe that Alison Goodman has written a fantasy series as great as anything by the legendary Tamora Pierce. (The fact that Pierce likes Goodman's books should be a good sign.)

Here is the cover I first saw for it, the US hardcover:

Amazing already, no? It's shiny in person, too.

It was already published as The Two Pearls of Wisdom in Australia and the UK:

Not my favorite color scheme, and the eyes are a little much, but still lovely. And you can kind of tell that Eon/Eona is Asian.

Here are some other editions of the first book:

  

UK paperback // US paperback // Spanish hardcover

 

Polish edition // French edition

Here is the US hardcover for Eona:

I like how it matches the US paperback of Eon. Doesn't hurt that it's so utterly badass. Although it's questionably, potentially whitewashed (is it? I can't really tell; my eyes are kind of tired at the moment, sorry). Here are some more covers for Eona or its international equivalents:

 

Australian hardcover // German edition

I love them both; the German edition kind of reminds me of the video cover for Mulan. But my favorite cover of all is the UK edition, titled The Necklace of the Gods:

zomgzomgzomgzomg that is almost exactly what I think Eona should look like! So badass.

I know there's been some flack regarding these books in the blogosphere in the past, about them taking exceptional liberties with the Asian inspirations of this fantasy, but my stance on this matter is that these books are Asian-inspired. They are not meant to follow a strict set of rules or be representative of the entire Asian mythological culture. I do believe that Alison Goodman has created a world thorough enough to exist on its own, in its own little universe somewhere we don't know about. Perhaps you will be intrigued enough to give this series a try? :) I know I am definitely waiting impatiently for the sequel to finally, finally come out in April.