The Micro Reviews From Planet Procrastination: Journey to the Blue(ish) Planet!

Following our intrepid heroes’ thorough exploration of Uranus (snicker), the brave adventurers headed to the next stop on their tour of the Solar System – the gloriously blue Neptune. En route (which is French for “on the way” or “during the course of the Journey” and is completely redundant here as the Micro Reviews had never been to Earth’s France, or learned the language), all but one crew member decided to have a siesta (which is Spanish for “a little nap in the afternoon when the day is at its hottest”, which is also completely useless in this context as A. the Micro Reviews knew even less of Earth’s Spain then they did of its nearby neighbor  France; B. In space “afternoon” is not really existent; and C. It was perfectly climate controlled in the spaceship) and by a collective lapse in judgement (which happened fairly regularly) left the most incompetent crew member, Lieutenant Huh, at the helm.

Confident in the knowledge that the ship’s navigation system and auto-pilot had already been configured to their destination (a knowledge that was completely flawed as characteristically none of the crew members had actually gotten around to configuring the systems), Lieutenant Huh decided to take a nap also, Glark dammit! and gently rested his head upon the control panel. By another stroke of bad judgement and planning one of the most sensitive and dangerous controls – which opened up a compact wormhole for quick travel to far-off galaxies – had been placed front and centre on the control panel, with no labeling save a very tatty post-it note (the Micro Reviews had discovered this fascinating technology while undercover in an accounting company on Earth. Besides the post-it they had found no reason to continue their invasion recon as Earth offices were too boring even for them).  The Create Wormhole button (or Cre8 Wrmhol as it said on the post-it) had also been placed in the rather unfortunate area directly under  Lieutenant Huh’s face.

Upon waking from a very restorative nap, Huh found himself gazing at a large and brilliant blue planet, slowing getting larger and bluer as the ship approached it. He was quite pleased with himself. Obviously his nap had been quite productive and they had arrived at Neptune ahead of schedule! He was halfway through giving himself a hearty pat on the back with all six of his arms when he noticed something peculiar about the blue planet that was getting clearer by the second – it looked, well, a tad dead. From what he remembered about Neptune he wasn’t expecting a planet teeming with life – after all it was essentially a huge ball of frozen gases – but he certainly hadn’t expected a barren, decidedly un-frozen and un-gaseous wasteland of blue dirt with rather sinister looking black trees dotted about. He decided he should probably cease his back-patting, wake up his slumbering crew members, and investigate what the Hrak was wrong with Neptune and whether or not it was even Neptune at all…

And now for the reviews:

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Another entertaining and addictive installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I especially enjoyed the “coming out” of the weres and the further development of fae in the series’ plot. The main mystery had a satisfactory amount of twists and red herrings but in the end i was a little let down by the final reveal. Besides this it was an enjoyable and quick read and I haven’t lost interest in the series yet 🙂

Blue by Pat Grant

A beautifully illustrated, quintessentially Australian graphic novel that deals with some of our country’s serious issues of racism and localism. The artwork and story were deceptively simple  (whimsical line/ink drawings in black and white with touches of blue, and hand-drawn lettering, with the accompanying tale of a trio of  teenage surfers skipping school to investigate a dead body near the train tracks) but cut right to the heart of the issues in a very unique way. The graphic novel was paired with a series of short essays by the author on surfing culture, comics and the like.

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr Seuss

A quality collection of Dr Seuss stories previously only published in magazines in the ’50s. Some are obviously beginnings of ideas which became classic Dr Seuss books (I’m sure I’ve read a full-length version of Gustav the Goldfish before, and The Strange Shirt Spot definitely inspired The Cat in the Hat Comes Back!) while others are completely new. My favourites were: the headlining The Bippolo Seed; and the hilarious fable, The Rabbit, the Bear and the Zinniga-Zanniga.

Curses and Blessings for All Occasions by Bradley Trevor Greive

 

A highly giggle-worthy and witty humor/gift book. I like how Bradley Trevor Greive has shifted from the captioned animal photos of his previous books to funny little vintage drawings of animals that have been altered to match the text (in a similar vein as the Married to the Sea online comics which I adore) – it fits the subject matter like a glove. My favorite curses and blessings were: Blessing #3, 5, 13, 15 and 18; and Curse # 6, 7, 13, 21 and 22 😛 Now you have to read it to find out! MWAHAHAHA!

The Templeton Twins: Have An Idea by Ellis Weiner

A very clever and amusing children’s adventure story. The narration, character and plot development were reminiscent of Lemony Snicket‘s Series of Unfortunate Events, which I loved so this was an enjoyable read. I especially loved the narrator, especially especially how he (or she?) explained words or concepts and the questions he (I’m almost certain its a he…) asked at the end of each chapter. The illustrations were also lovely, and I like the gray-scale and blue theme. I guessed all the twists before they occurred, but I am about 15 years older than the target audience, and I’m sure 9-13 year old me would’ve been kept guessing and loving every moment of it!

HUZZAH! There ends the first rebooted Micro Reviews from Planet Procrastination!! What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments, or any other (legal and non-creepy) way you’d prefer to contact me 🙂

Until the continued adventures of the Micro Reviews returns I hope you have fun imagining what befalls them on the mysterious blue planet (here’s a hint: its much less sinister than it seems 😉 ) and as always:

Happy Reading!