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Everness #1
Беглец по равнините
Hямa caмo eднo „ти“. Имa мнoгo „ти“. Hиe cмe чacт oт мнoгooбpaзиeтo нa вceлeнитe в пapaлeлнитe измepeния... и бaщaтa нa Eвepeт Cинг e oтĸpил път ĸъм тяx.
Ceгa бaщa мy e oтвлeчeн и cяĸaш ниĸoгa нe e cъщecтвyвaл. Bce пaĸ имa eднa yлиĸa, ĸoятo cинът мy мoжe дa пocлeдвa – миcтepиoзнoтo coфтyepнo пpилoжeниe Инфyндибyлyм. Πpoгpaмaтa e ĸapтa, нe caмo зa Дeceттe пoзнaти cвятa, a зa цялaтa мyлтивceлeнa – и cъщecтвyвaт xopa, нa ĸoитo мнoгo им ce иcĸa дa ce дoбepaт дo нeя.
Зa дa я oпaзи и зa дa cпacи бaщa cи, Eвepeт ce нyждae oт пpиятeли: ĸaтo нaпpимep ĸaпитaн Aнacтeйзия Cиĸccмит, нeйнaтa ocинoвeнa дъщepя и eĸипaжa нa въздyшния ĸopaб Eвъpнec.
Ceгa бaщa мy e oтвлeчeн и cяĸaш ниĸoгa нe e cъщecтвyвaл. Bce пaĸ имa eднa yлиĸa, ĸoятo cинът мy мoжe дa пocлeдвa – миcтepиoзнoтo coфтyepнo пpилoжeниe Инфyндибyлyм. Πpoгpaмaтa e ĸapтa, нe caмo зa Дeceттe пoзнaти cвятa, a зa цялaтa мyлтивceлeнa – и cъщecтвyвaт xopa, нa ĸoитo мнoгo им ce иcĸa дa ce дoбepaт дo нeя.
Зa дa я oпaзи и зa дa cпacи бaщa cи, Eвepeт ce нyждae oт пpиятeли: ĸaтo нaпpимep ĸaпитaн Aнacтeйзия Cиĸccмит, нeйнaтa ocинoвeнa дъщepя и eĸипaжa нa въздyшния ĸopaб Eвъpнec.
330 pages, Hardcover
First published December 6, 2011
39 people are currently reading
1852 people want to read
About the author
Ian McDonald
265 books1,262 followersIan Neil McDonald was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis's childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. He debuted in 1982 with the short story "The Island of the Dead" in the short-lived British magazine Extro. His first novel, Desolation Road, was published in 1988. Other works include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House (both of which won British Science Fiction Association Awards), the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. His most recent publications are Planesrunner and Be My Enemy, books one and two of the Everness series for younger readers (though older readers will find them a ball of fun, as well). Ian worked in television development for sixteen years, but is glad to be back to writing full-time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 207 reviews
July 19, 2014
Everett Singh's father is kidnapped right in front of him. Turns out, Papa Singh was working on a project involving parallel universes and has left Everett the Infundibulum, the map of 10 to the 80th power parallel universes. Only other people are after it and Everett leaps through the Heisenberg Gate to another world, a world of airships where electricity was discovered much earlier. Can Everett evade the bad apples in the Plenitude long enough to bring back his father home?
I love wibbly wobbly timey wimey parallel universe stories so this one was an easy sell for me. I'll cover the parts I liked first before I turn into Ebenezer Scrooge and crap all over the rest of it.
The worldbuilding was exquisite. I liked the setup of the ten worlds of the Plenitude and the Panopoly, the multitude of parallel universes and traveling between them using Heisenberg Gates. I have no trouble believing corrupt people would exploit parallel universes for personal gain. The parallel earth Everett visits was also well thought out. A world were electricity is discovered sooner and thus the world doesn't become dependent on oil? Pretty cool. Sen and Captain Anastasia were both interesting supporting characters, more interesting to me than Everett.
And here is the wad of dog hair in the omelet. I'm just going to gloss over the fact that 90% of parallel Londons in sf/fantasy literature feature airships and just get right to it. Everett was such a Gary Stu that I wanted to shake the crap out of him. Not only is he a teenage quantum physics genius, able to solve problems the adult scientists have been working on for years in just hours, he's also a great cook. Really? I know that's a staple of YA but it was still irksome.
I guess my main hang up with this book was that I've read similar books in the past and didn't feel like this one brought anything super awesome to the table. I preferred the two Paul Melko books, Walls of the Universe and Broken Universe, to this one.
Three stars. It was fun and had some good world building but wasn't the five-geared awesome machine that I was hoping for.
I love wibbly wobbly timey wimey parallel universe stories so this one was an easy sell for me. I'll cover the parts I liked first before I turn into Ebenezer Scrooge and crap all over the rest of it.
The worldbuilding was exquisite. I liked the setup of the ten worlds of the Plenitude and the Panopoly, the multitude of parallel universes and traveling between them using Heisenberg Gates. I have no trouble believing corrupt people would exploit parallel universes for personal gain. The parallel earth Everett visits was also well thought out. A world were electricity is discovered sooner and thus the world doesn't become dependent on oil? Pretty cool. Sen and Captain Anastasia were both interesting supporting characters, more interesting to me than Everett.
And here is the wad of dog hair in the omelet. I'm just going to gloss over the fact that 90% of parallel Londons in sf/fantasy literature feature airships and just get right to it. Everett was such a Gary Stu that I wanted to shake the crap out of him. Not only is he a teenage quantum physics genius, able to solve problems the adult scientists have been working on for years in just hours, he's also a great cook. Really? I know that's a staple of YA but it was still irksome.
I guess my main hang up with this book was that I've read similar books in the past and didn't feel like this one brought anything super awesome to the table. I preferred the two Paul Melko books, Walls of the Universe and Broken Universe, to this one.
Three stars. It was fun and had some good world building but wasn't the five-geared awesome machine that I was hoping for.
October 30, 2011
Planesrunner is a first class teen SF novel, but I worry about this book's ability to reach its potential readers, especially if the ARC is any indicator of how the novel will look in its final version. The cover is weird and the text inside is so small, it hurt my eyes. Great covers and packaging of
and
were able to seduce a fair number of female readers who otherwise wouldn't really give a chance to those essentially boy-oriented books. I wish the same was done for Planesrunner too. I want this book to find its audience.
Everett Singh's divorced father is a scientist whose area of expertise is the multiverse theory. According to his research, there are multiple parallel universes, running along each other and branching every time a smallest thing happens (think Sliders). When Everett's father is kidnapped and a strange program containing a map of all parallel universes appears on his iPad, the boy embarks on a parallel-universe-jumping quest to save his dad.
There is hardly anything about Planesrunner that I disliked. Quite the opposite, a lot to complement this novel on:
First of all, the science. I was instantly excited by the whole idea of parallel universes and I thought Ian McDonald did a fantastic job coming up with alternate versions of Earth's future - the one where Britain was conquered by Middle East rather than Roman Empire, or the one where oil never became a viable energy source.
Second, the main character of color and with ethnic background. Everett is half Punjabi Indian. This allowed the author to enrich his story with tastes, smells and customs of a foreign country, and he managed to do it without fetishizing it. Double success!
Third, the teen romance has a great dynamic. Both participants are strong and resourceful young people, with a lot of respect for each other.
The only negative thing I can think of to say is my usual gripe with YA books written by male authors - their characters often appear to be younger than the characters of the same age in female-written novels, they hold back on romance and are not very good at writing love stories. I always look for more maturity of relationships in male-written YA books, but rarely find it (maybe it has something to do with the fact that in real life girls mature earlier than boys?). In the case of Planesrunner, I couldn't help but want Everett and Sen (his love interest) to be or act a couple of years older, to steam things up a bit. I think I will check out Ian McDonald's adult books to see if I can find this missing bit there.
and
were able to seduce a fair number of female readers who otherwise wouldn't really give a chance to those essentially boy-oriented books. I wish the same was done for Planesrunner too. I want this book to find its audience.Everett Singh's divorced father is a scientist whose area of expertise is the multiverse theory. According to his research, there are multiple parallel universes, running along each other and branching every time a smallest thing happens (think Sliders). When Everett's father is kidnapped and a strange program containing a map of all parallel universes appears on his iPad, the boy embarks on a parallel-universe-jumping quest to save his dad.
There is hardly anything about Planesrunner that I disliked. Quite the opposite, a lot to complement this novel on:
First of all, the science. I was instantly excited by the whole idea of parallel universes and I thought Ian McDonald did a fantastic job coming up with alternate versions of Earth's future - the one where Britain was conquered by Middle East rather than Roman Empire, or the one where oil never became a viable energy source.
Second, the main character of color and with ethnic background. Everett is half Punjabi Indian. This allowed the author to enrich his story with tastes, smells and customs of a foreign country, and he managed to do it without fetishizing it. Double success!
Third, the teen romance has a great dynamic. Both participants are strong and resourceful young people, with a lot of respect for each other.
The only negative thing I can think of to say is my usual gripe with YA books written by male authors - their characters often appear to be younger than the characters of the same age in female-written novels, they hold back on romance and are not very good at writing love stories. I always look for more maturity of relationships in male-written YA books, but rarely find it (maybe it has something to do with the fact that in real life girls mature earlier than boys?). In the case of Planesrunner, I couldn't help but want Everett and Sen (his love interest) to be or act a couple of years older, to steam things up a bit. I think I will check out Ian McDonald's adult books to see if I can find this missing bit there.
December 15, 2013
4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...
Add Ian McDonald's Planesrunner to the list of the most interesting and well-written young adult novels I've read this year. With the third book coming out soon, I'd initially picked this up to get caught up with the series, but in doing so I also finally discovered why so many readers have been raving about Everness. Adventurous and fun but also fresh and clever, if you're looking for a YA offering that's a little different but has a great story at the same time, consider checking this one out.
Planesrunner tackles a topic in fantasy and science fiction that I have a great interest in: multiple universes and alternate dimensions. I have rarely seen it handled with such detail when it comes to YA fiction, though. The protagonist is Everett Singh, whose father is a brilliant scientist and one of the leading researchers in the study of parallel earths. But then Tejendra Singh is kidnapped from the streets of London one day, leaving his son with a mysterious file on his computer called the Infundibulum.
The Infundibulum ends up being a map to the parallel earths -- all 10 to the power of 80 of them! -- making Everett the guardian of the most valuable tool in the whole entire multiverse. But there are others who see the Infundibulum as a powerful weapon, nefarious factions in the group of plenipotentiaries of the Ten Known Worlds. To escape their reach, Everett travels to a very different parallel earth. With the help of new friends, he is determined to find and rescue his father, while fighting to protect the Infundibulum at all costs.
Hard sci-fi readers will probably find the science behind the quantum physics and theory of multiple universes to be on the light side, but I still find Planesrunner to be a fabulously clever novel. There's enough information to enjoy this fun and action-filled story without getting bogged down with details, and when it comes to his imaginings of parallel earths, Ian McDonald takes things all the way.
The sights and sounds in the world Everett ends up in, designated E3, are beyond amazing. It is a world where fossil fuels have never existed, leading to a society powered by a system that can only be described as a souped-up version of steampunk or, as Everett so amusingly observed, "electropunk". Everett ends up being taken in by an airship crew, thus introducing the reader to the rich, imaginative culture and language of the "Airish". The author certainly does not skimp on the descriptions of the people and their way of life, making it easy to picture the setting and put myself right there.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the characters, though Everett himself comes off as a bit unrealistic as a 14 or 15-year-old boy. The extent of his intelligence is played up and so farfetched it's difficult for me to feel otherwise, but on the other hand, his more mature point of view and way of thinking might make him more relatable to a non-YA reader, thus making Planesrunner a book that may appeal to a much wider audience.
And finally, this book was just plain fun. Where else would I be able to get the craziness and thrills of an actual airship duel outside the pages of this awesome novel? I love YA fiction like this -- quick, clever and full of great ideas. The Everness series is simply "bonaroo"! Looking forward to continuing Everett's journey with the next book, Be My Enemy, and then on to Empress of the Sun, dropping early next year.
Add Ian McDonald's Planesrunner to the list of the most interesting and well-written young adult novels I've read this year. With the third book coming out soon, I'd initially picked this up to get caught up with the series, but in doing so I also finally discovered why so many readers have been raving about Everness. Adventurous and fun but also fresh and clever, if you're looking for a YA offering that's a little different but has a great story at the same time, consider checking this one out.
Planesrunner tackles a topic in fantasy and science fiction that I have a great interest in: multiple universes and alternate dimensions. I have rarely seen it handled with such detail when it comes to YA fiction, though. The protagonist is Everett Singh, whose father is a brilliant scientist and one of the leading researchers in the study of parallel earths. But then Tejendra Singh is kidnapped from the streets of London one day, leaving his son with a mysterious file on his computer called the Infundibulum.
The Infundibulum ends up being a map to the parallel earths -- all 10 to the power of 80 of them! -- making Everett the guardian of the most valuable tool in the whole entire multiverse. But there are others who see the Infundibulum as a powerful weapon, nefarious factions in the group of plenipotentiaries of the Ten Known Worlds. To escape their reach, Everett travels to a very different parallel earth. With the help of new friends, he is determined to find and rescue his father, while fighting to protect the Infundibulum at all costs.
Hard sci-fi readers will probably find the science behind the quantum physics and theory of multiple universes to be on the light side, but I still find Planesrunner to be a fabulously clever novel. There's enough information to enjoy this fun and action-filled story without getting bogged down with details, and when it comes to his imaginings of parallel earths, Ian McDonald takes things all the way.
The sights and sounds in the world Everett ends up in, designated E3, are beyond amazing. It is a world where fossil fuels have never existed, leading to a society powered by a system that can only be described as a souped-up version of steampunk or, as Everett so amusingly observed, "electropunk". Everett ends up being taken in by an airship crew, thus introducing the reader to the rich, imaginative culture and language of the "Airish". The author certainly does not skimp on the descriptions of the people and their way of life, making it easy to picture the setting and put myself right there.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the characters, though Everett himself comes off as a bit unrealistic as a 14 or 15-year-old boy. The extent of his intelligence is played up and so farfetched it's difficult for me to feel otherwise, but on the other hand, his more mature point of view and way of thinking might make him more relatable to a non-YA reader, thus making Planesrunner a book that may appeal to a much wider audience.
And finally, this book was just plain fun. Where else would I be able to get the craziness and thrills of an actual airship duel outside the pages of this awesome novel? I love YA fiction like this -- quick, clever and full of great ideas. The Everness series is simply "bonaroo"! Looking forward to continuing Everett's journey with the next book, Be My Enemy, and then on to Empress of the Sun, dropping early next year.
January 22, 2012
(Note: this review is now also up at Far Beyond Reality, my new science fiction and fantasy website!)
I’m a pretty big fan of Ian McDonald, so when I learned that a brand new novel by the author was on the way, I got suitably excited. Then, when I found out that the new novel would be the start of a series, and that this series would deal with alternate dimensions and multiverse-type ideas (very different from his last few books), I got really excited. And then, when I discovered that the series would be a young adult series — well, it took me a while to come down from that one.
So, here it is: Planesrunner, book one in Ian McDonald’s brand new EVERNESS series, which — based on this first novel — I hope will be a very long series of YA science fiction novels. Boy, this book was fun.
One night in London, fourteen-year-old Everett Singh is witness to his father’s kidnapping. The man disappears without a trace, and the authorities seem strangely unmotivated to pursue the investigation. Everett’s father, who is a theoretical physicist, left him the Infundibulum, a mysterious app which turns out to be the map of an infinite number of parallel universes. Armed with nothing but the Infundibulum and his wits, Everett sets out on a multi-dimensional quest to find his father....
Everett Singh is a wonderful main character who balances the delicate line between normal and awesome. On the one hand, he’s a fairly average, somewhat geeky British teenager. He’s the goalkeeper for his school’s soccer team. He likes Tottenham Hotspur. His parents are divorced, and he’s clearly still trying to cope with the break-up of his family. On the other hand, his dad is a genius physicist specializing in quantum theory, and it so happens that Everett has inherited his dad’s massive intellect — as well as his love of cooking. (Some of their get-togethers are soccer games, others are science lectures, and all of them are followed by spectacular cook-outs themed around one country’s cuisine. Like some of Steven Brust’s VLAD TALTOS books, this novel frequently made me really hungry.) Everett is occasionally a bit too perfect to be believable, but reading about his exploits is definitely never boring, and Ian McDonald throws in enough human touches to make Everett believable.
Ian McDonald tones down his usual, elegant prose to a more simple, functional style in Planesrunner, maybe because this is a YA novel. Sometimes the prose is downright chatty and occasionally funny, like when Everett thinks that a female constable looks “like a male comedian playing a female police officer.” Still, McDonald occasionally can’t help himself and throws in gorgeous lines like “She moved like a golden silk scarf falling through water” or “His signature looked like a spider car crash.” Combine this with the fast, fun dialogues that fill this novel and you have a book that practically reads itself.
Planesrunner is one of those novels that grabs hold of you from the very beginning and then just never lets go until the very end. The kidnapping happens on page 2, and it’s full speed ahead from that point on, with Everett trying to discover who is responsible, how the Infundibulum works, and ultimately how to retrieve his father. This will take him through a Heisenberg Gate to an alternate dimension, landing in a steampunk-like London that’s, pardon my fanboy, so insanely cool that it just about blows any other steampunk London clean out of the water. It comes complete with its own supremely entertaining vernacular, the wildest clothing style ever, and the most realistic airships I’ve ever read. (I could read an entire Aubrey-Maturin series of books about Anastasia Sixsmyth and her Merry Men.) And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Planesrunner really only covers one world — two if you count our own — out of the Plenitude of Ten Known Worlds. Can we have ten books, please?
One of the best aspects of this novel is its cast of side characters. As I mentioned above, Everett occasionally got on my nerves a bit with his supreme intellect and his perfect Indian appetizers, but like a movie in which the lead actor is outplayed by the supporting cast, this novel is sometimes completely taken over by the people surrounding Everett. Especially Sen Sixsmyth, the wild, bratty, mysterious navigator of the Everness is an attention grabber, but the rest of the crew of the airship is equally entertaining. Even back on our Earth, Everett’s mother is hilarious, first embarrassed at being caught in her tracksuit over breakfast by the detectives who are investigating her husband’s disappearance, then indignantly declaring that “this is a hi-fibre household” when one of the cops tries to mooch some toast and finds there’s only wholegrain available. These perfect little slice-of-life scenes juxtapose perfectly with the vivid, weird multiverse material and really highlight how solid even the minor characters are. My only complaint would be that the villains are a bit too over-the-top villainy, but really, in a novel that features a teenager crossing dimensions to rescue his kidnapped quantum physicist dad, you’d expect the contrast to be turned up a bit.
To top it all off, if this YA novel finds its way into the hands of the adults who are impatiently hovering in the periphery of its target audience, they’ll discover several fun little side-jokes and references that may not make sense (yet) to people born in the last few decades, and that’s not even mentioning some of the subtleties and recurring themes that fans of the author will recognize. This is a YA novel that definitely has a lot to offer to not-so-YA readers.
It’s rare when a book is more or less exactly what you hoped it would be, but Planesrunner is just that. I had a blast with this novel, and I can’t wait for the next book in the EVERNESS series. As Sen Sixsmyth would say, this book was utterly bonaroo.
(This review was also published at www.tor.com on 12/7/2011 and www.fantasyliterature.com on 12/14/2011.)
I’m a pretty big fan of Ian McDonald, so when I learned that a brand new novel by the author was on the way, I got suitably excited. Then, when I found out that the new novel would be the start of a series, and that this series would deal with alternate dimensions and multiverse-type ideas (very different from his last few books), I got really excited. And then, when I discovered that the series would be a young adult series — well, it took me a while to come down from that one.
So, here it is: Planesrunner, book one in Ian McDonald’s brand new EVERNESS series, which — based on this first novel — I hope will be a very long series of YA science fiction novels. Boy, this book was fun.
One night in London, fourteen-year-old Everett Singh is witness to his father’s kidnapping. The man disappears without a trace, and the authorities seem strangely unmotivated to pursue the investigation. Everett’s father, who is a theoretical physicist, left him the Infundibulum, a mysterious app which turns out to be the map of an infinite number of parallel universes. Armed with nothing but the Infundibulum and his wits, Everett sets out on a multi-dimensional quest to find his father....
Everett Singh is a wonderful main character who balances the delicate line between normal and awesome. On the one hand, he’s a fairly average, somewhat geeky British teenager. He’s the goalkeeper for his school’s soccer team. He likes Tottenham Hotspur. His parents are divorced, and he’s clearly still trying to cope with the break-up of his family. On the other hand, his dad is a genius physicist specializing in quantum theory, and it so happens that Everett has inherited his dad’s massive intellect — as well as his love of cooking. (Some of their get-togethers are soccer games, others are science lectures, and all of them are followed by spectacular cook-outs themed around one country’s cuisine. Like some of Steven Brust’s VLAD TALTOS books, this novel frequently made me really hungry.) Everett is occasionally a bit too perfect to be believable, but reading about his exploits is definitely never boring, and Ian McDonald throws in enough human touches to make Everett believable.
Ian McDonald tones down his usual, elegant prose to a more simple, functional style in Planesrunner, maybe because this is a YA novel. Sometimes the prose is downright chatty and occasionally funny, like when Everett thinks that a female constable looks “like a male comedian playing a female police officer.” Still, McDonald occasionally can’t help himself and throws in gorgeous lines like “She moved like a golden silk scarf falling through water” or “His signature looked like a spider car crash.” Combine this with the fast, fun dialogues that fill this novel and you have a book that practically reads itself.
Planesrunner is one of those novels that grabs hold of you from the very beginning and then just never lets go until the very end. The kidnapping happens on page 2, and it’s full speed ahead from that point on, with Everett trying to discover who is responsible, how the Infundibulum works, and ultimately how to retrieve his father. This will take him through a Heisenberg Gate to an alternate dimension, landing in a steampunk-like London that’s, pardon my fanboy, so insanely cool that it just about blows any other steampunk London clean out of the water. It comes complete with its own supremely entertaining vernacular, the wildest clothing style ever, and the most realistic airships I’ve ever read. (I could read an entire Aubrey-Maturin series of books about Anastasia Sixsmyth and her Merry Men.) And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Planesrunner really only covers one world — two if you count our own — out of the Plenitude of Ten Known Worlds. Can we have ten books, please?
One of the best aspects of this novel is its cast of side characters. As I mentioned above, Everett occasionally got on my nerves a bit with his supreme intellect and his perfect Indian appetizers, but like a movie in which the lead actor is outplayed by the supporting cast, this novel is sometimes completely taken over by the people surrounding Everett. Especially Sen Sixsmyth, the wild, bratty, mysterious navigator of the Everness is an attention grabber, but the rest of the crew of the airship is equally entertaining. Even back on our Earth, Everett’s mother is hilarious, first embarrassed at being caught in her tracksuit over breakfast by the detectives who are investigating her husband’s disappearance, then indignantly declaring that “this is a hi-fibre household” when one of the cops tries to mooch some toast and finds there’s only wholegrain available. These perfect little slice-of-life scenes juxtapose perfectly with the vivid, weird multiverse material and really highlight how solid even the minor characters are. My only complaint would be that the villains are a bit too over-the-top villainy, but really, in a novel that features a teenager crossing dimensions to rescue his kidnapped quantum physicist dad, you’d expect the contrast to be turned up a bit.
To top it all off, if this YA novel finds its way into the hands of the adults who are impatiently hovering in the periphery of its target audience, they’ll discover several fun little side-jokes and references that may not make sense (yet) to people born in the last few decades, and that’s not even mentioning some of the subtleties and recurring themes that fans of the author will recognize. This is a YA novel that definitely has a lot to offer to not-so-YA readers.
It’s rare when a book is more or less exactly what you hoped it would be, but Planesrunner is just that. I had a blast with this novel, and I can’t wait for the next book in the EVERNESS series. As Sen Sixsmyth would say, this book was utterly bonaroo.
(This review was also published at www.tor.com on 12/7/2011 and www.fantasyliterature.com on 12/14/2011.)
January 29, 2024
Много приятна фантастика за приключения из паралелни светове. По-скоро приказен стиймпънк, отколкото сай-фай.
March 6, 2012
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Regular readers know that I do not usually review Young Adult novels here; but I made an exception this month with the new Planesrunner, not just because it was specifically sent to me by the publishing company but because it's the YA debut of sci-fi veteran Ian McDonald, and I'm a big slavish fan of Ian McDonald. But alas, Ian McDonald or not, this action-adventure tale about multiple universes and a teen whose kidnapped dad gives him the key to unlocking it all is absolutely a YA product through and through, both for better and for worse; and so while actual teen readers may find this enjoyable (or may not -- like I said, I don't usually review YA novels), for actual grown-ups it leaves a lot to be desired, from a clunky plot to overly explanatory exposition, snotty teen characters that will make adults roll their eyes just as badly as real teens make them do, a reliance on a Cockney-like slang that's much more annoying than clever, and a lot more. (Plus, I have to confess that I'm already tired of the "teenage libertarian" theme that seems to so completely dominate YA novels by science-fiction authors, which is definitely the case here too; and, for a main character who's supposed to be a nerdy British Indian, I have to say that I was quite dismayed to see him portrayed on the front cover an awful lot like a hunky white guy. The effect is subtle enough in this case to save Pyr a public shaming; but I confess that this is a huge pet peeve of mine, when marketing executives at publishing companies take main protagonists of color and then "whitewash" them on the cover for an American audience.) Decent enough for what it is, grown-ups should nonetheless stay far clear from this literal definition of juvenilia.
Out of 10: 7.2, or 8.2 for Young Adult fans
Regular readers know that I do not usually review Young Adult novels here; but I made an exception this month with the new Planesrunner, not just because it was specifically sent to me by the publishing company but because it's the YA debut of sci-fi veteran Ian McDonald, and I'm a big slavish fan of Ian McDonald. But alas, Ian McDonald or not, this action-adventure tale about multiple universes and a teen whose kidnapped dad gives him the key to unlocking it all is absolutely a YA product through and through, both for better and for worse; and so while actual teen readers may find this enjoyable (or may not -- like I said, I don't usually review YA novels), for actual grown-ups it leaves a lot to be desired, from a clunky plot to overly explanatory exposition, snotty teen characters that will make adults roll their eyes just as badly as real teens make them do, a reliance on a Cockney-like slang that's much more annoying than clever, and a lot more. (Plus, I have to confess that I'm already tired of the "teenage libertarian" theme that seems to so completely dominate YA novels by science-fiction authors, which is definitely the case here too; and, for a main character who's supposed to be a nerdy British Indian, I have to say that I was quite dismayed to see him portrayed on the front cover an awful lot like a hunky white guy. The effect is subtle enough in this case to save Pyr a public shaming; but I confess that this is a huge pet peeve of mine, when marketing executives at publishing companies take main protagonists of color and then "whitewash" them on the cover for an American audience.) Decent enough for what it is, grown-ups should nonetheless stay far clear from this literal definition of juvenilia.
Out of 10: 7.2, or 8.2 for Young Adult fans
July 18, 2014
http://www.mybookishways.com/2011/12/...
When 14 year old Everett Singh watches his father’s kidnapping in front of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, he doesn’t quite know what to do. He’s very sure of what he saw, but the police don’t seem to believe him and his own mother is not even quite sure what to believe. See, Everett’s dad is a theoretical physicist, and it’s possible that he’s discovered something that some people will do anything to get their hands on. When Everett receives a mysterious file on his computer (which he calls Dr. Quantum), he realizes that things are about to get bad, and it will be up to him to save his dad.See, Tejendra Singh has discovered the multiverse; many, many universes running parallel to our own, different versions of Earth, or “planes” (hence the name Planesrunner.) Everett has unlocked the secret to mapping the universes (the Infundibulum), and using an invention called the Heisenberg Gate, scientists are able to travel to these alternate planes. There are 10 (E1-E10) main planes (including our Earth, the newest member) that have been deemed safe for travel, and it turns out that back and forth travel has already begun. Emmissaries from E3 are determined to capture Everett, and he knows that he must travel to their plane to get his father back.
There is really nothing about this book that I didn’t like. As soon as Everett jumps to E3, he heads to the library, where he does a bit of brushing up on this new, alternate London, and finds out that oil has never been used, and electricity is king. Everett calls it Electropunk. He describes E3 as what people in the 30’s imagined our time looking like, and immediately notices the smoky, chemical smell that envelopes him on the streets. After securing some funds by way of a pawnbroker, he takes to the trains, where he meets feisty, beautiful Sen Sixsmyth, who immediately tries to pilfer Dr. Quantum. Sen really means no harm and overwhelmed with loneliness, Everett confides in Sen. It’s soon after that we meet her adopted mother Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth and the crew of the airship Everness. Yep, I said airships. I’m kind of a sucker for a book with airships, and if you are too, you’ll LOVE Planesrunner. When Everett and Sen meet, the book takes off like a rocket. Don’t let the idea of multiple universes scare you. I admit, when I start thinking about stuff like countless parallel universes, my brain begins to ache just a bit, but kinda in a good way, because the thought of it is frankly awesome. In Planesrunner, Everett only explores one, but I’m hoping, and suspect, we’ll get more in the next book. Sen’s world is one of brutality, living by one’s wits, and the hustle and bustle of an alternate London that’s very different from Everett’s, but it’s also one of fierce loyalty, friendship, and swashbuckling adventure. I fell in love with the charming Sen from the get go (and I suspect Everett did too). However, as fun as hanging with the crew of the Everness is, Everett’s ultimate goal is to rescue his father, and he’ll call on his new friends to help. Hampering his efforts is Charlotte Villiers, Planepotentiary (sort of like an ambassador), and stone cold killer, and her cadre of thugs. They’re after Everett at every turn, but Captain Sixsmyth is larger than life, as is her crew, and they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves. Will Everett rescue his father from the evil Charlotte Villiars, and keep the Infudibulum out of the wrong hands? If I told you, that would spoil all the fun of this wonderful book! You certainly don’t have to be a young adult to enjoy this book, and lovers of sci-fi, adventure, and steampunk won’t be able to put it down! Not to be missed!
When 14 year old Everett Singh watches his father’s kidnapping in front of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, he doesn’t quite know what to do. He’s very sure of what he saw, but the police don’t seem to believe him and his own mother is not even quite sure what to believe. See, Everett’s dad is a theoretical physicist, and it’s possible that he’s discovered something that some people will do anything to get their hands on. When Everett receives a mysterious file on his computer (which he calls Dr. Quantum), he realizes that things are about to get bad, and it will be up to him to save his dad.See, Tejendra Singh has discovered the multiverse; many, many universes running parallel to our own, different versions of Earth, or “planes” (hence the name Planesrunner.) Everett has unlocked the secret to mapping the universes (the Infundibulum), and using an invention called the Heisenberg Gate, scientists are able to travel to these alternate planes. There are 10 (E1-E10) main planes (including our Earth, the newest member) that have been deemed safe for travel, and it turns out that back and forth travel has already begun. Emmissaries from E3 are determined to capture Everett, and he knows that he must travel to their plane to get his father back.
There is really nothing about this book that I didn’t like. As soon as Everett jumps to E3, he heads to the library, where he does a bit of brushing up on this new, alternate London, and finds out that oil has never been used, and electricity is king. Everett calls it Electropunk. He describes E3 as what people in the 30’s imagined our time looking like, and immediately notices the smoky, chemical smell that envelopes him on the streets. After securing some funds by way of a pawnbroker, he takes to the trains, where he meets feisty, beautiful Sen Sixsmyth, who immediately tries to pilfer Dr. Quantum. Sen really means no harm and overwhelmed with loneliness, Everett confides in Sen. It’s soon after that we meet her adopted mother Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth and the crew of the airship Everness. Yep, I said airships. I’m kind of a sucker for a book with airships, and if you are too, you’ll LOVE Planesrunner. When Everett and Sen meet, the book takes off like a rocket. Don’t let the idea of multiple universes scare you. I admit, when I start thinking about stuff like countless parallel universes, my brain begins to ache just a bit, but kinda in a good way, because the thought of it is frankly awesome. In Planesrunner, Everett only explores one, but I’m hoping, and suspect, we’ll get more in the next book. Sen’s world is one of brutality, living by one’s wits, and the hustle and bustle of an alternate London that’s very different from Everett’s, but it’s also one of fierce loyalty, friendship, and swashbuckling adventure. I fell in love with the charming Sen from the get go (and I suspect Everett did too). However, as fun as hanging with the crew of the Everness is, Everett’s ultimate goal is to rescue his father, and he’ll call on his new friends to help. Hampering his efforts is Charlotte Villiers, Planepotentiary (sort of like an ambassador), and stone cold killer, and her cadre of thugs. They’re after Everett at every turn, but Captain Sixsmyth is larger than life, as is her crew, and they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves. Will Everett rescue his father from the evil Charlotte Villiars, and keep the Infudibulum out of the wrong hands? If I told you, that would spoil all the fun of this wonderful book! You certainly don’t have to be a young adult to enjoy this book, and lovers of sci-fi, adventure, and steampunk won’t be able to put it down! Not to be missed!
May 17, 2017
„Беглец по равнините” е поредният повод да се доверявам с лекота на издателските избори на „Студио Арт Лайн”! Книга първа от трилогията „Евърнес” на Иън Макдоналд е едновременно ненатоварващ приключенски роман и балсам за душата на всеки фен на фантастичното. Любими Young Adult мотиви се преплитат с алтернативна история и стиймпънк декори! Мммм, ето какво ми трябваше за да си прекарам страхотно уикенда! Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле":
https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...
https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...
February 23, 2013
I just couldn't. You'd think a concept like this would be super interesting, but this just didn't do it for me.
April 4, 2015
Finally done with Planesrunner - but it has nothing to do with the quality of the book. Quite the opposite. However, I was so swamped with work that I simply could not have more than ten or fifteen minutes of joy-reading a day. Still, Ian's first installment of this YA steampunk saga is a pure joy and, in my humble opinion, should be included in school reading for junior high classes as a worthy sample of contemporary adventure fiction. Kudos to Ian - as usual, I would give my left arm to be able to write like this. Can't wait to continue with Everett's adventures in the multiverse, and Be My Enemy is the next. I just hope it won't take me so long to finish it...
January 10, 2012
Good YA novel, especially in its last third. But I don't think I will read the next one. Maybe if I was younger...
December 14, 2011
NOTE: This review originally appeared at
The King of Elfland's 2nd Cousin
on December 13th, 2011. If you enjoy it, please come check us out!
As I've mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Ian McDonald's adult science fiction. His complex, multi-layered plots and penchant for near-future science fiction set in non-western cultures (Africa, India, Brazil, Turkey, etc.) have always struck me as interesting, engaging, ambitious, and structurally complex. So when I heard that Pyr was going to be releasing a new YA novel by Ian McDonald entitled Planesrunner , I jumped at the chance to read it.
McDonald has earned a large, loyal, and very much deserved following for his adult fiction. I don't know if the decision to market this particular story as YA lay with the author, his agent, or with his publishers, but it does make reviewing the book an interesting challenge. The YA and SF genres have different (though overlapping) conventions which stem from both their respective histories and their divergent audiences, and it is unclear through which lens we should look at Planesrunner . What comes first: the science fiction, or the YA?
Planesrunner is told from the perspective of Everett Singh, the fourteen year old son of a quantum physicist involved in the development of doorways onto parallel worlds. Everett watches his father get kidnapped, and then finds that he alone has the clues and capabilities to rescue him.
Judged solely by the protagonist's age, Planesrunner falls firmly into YA territory. Though the book opens in London, McDonald's hero comes from a Punjabi background, and McDonald's excellent ear for local cultures comes through in Everett's voice. Particularly in the novel's first third, McDonald paints Everett in solidly contemporary British colors, albeit filtered through his Punjabi background. Everett's cultural background can likely best be compared to that of Jessminder "Jess" Bhamra in the excellent Bend It Like Beckham: to say that Everett is a soccer-loving British boy tells only half the story, while to say he is Punjabi does the same. This is a blend culture more accessible to western readers than the India McDonald took us to in his (adult) Cyberabad Days , but it is definitely not the whitebread England of Harry Potter. As always, I applaud McDonald's presentation of cultural complexity.
The first third of the novel focuses on Everett's reactions to his father's kidnapping. From the high-powered opening, the story's pace slows down significantly as we learn more about Everett's family background (his parents have split up, he has a younger sister, etc.) and we get gradually introduced to our protagonist. We learn about Everett through his interactions with his mother, his soccer team buddy, the police, and his father's co-workers. Throughout this process, we gradually learn more about the work his father does, and about the parallel worlds that he helped discover. This part of the book is written with McDonald's typical skill, providing a good feel for Everett, his values, his cultural background, and his life. We grow to care about him, and get engaged in his desire to save his father. All of this is good, however by the standards of contemporary YA it happens rather slowly. Most contemporary YA that dives into the action the way this story does maintains and rapidly escalates the tension from page one. Here, the tension is maintained but its escalation unfolds more slowly. It is effective, but it has more of the feel of an adult novel than a typical YA story.
Once Everett deduces that his father has been taken to the parallel world of E3 and follows him through the gates, the book's pace accelerates substantially. First, the alternate reality Everett crosses into is a vastly different London, where oil was never discovered. As a result, its 21st-century society runs on coal-powered electricity and has no access to technology we take for granted (e.g. plastics). It is a delightful and compelling steampunk world, complete with vast airship fleets. The concept of a 21st-century London where oil had never been discovered is an interesting one, and McDonald does an excellent job of rendering its technological development believably. But while he does a fine job of nailing the technological/scientific world-building, I am less sold on the cultural flavor of his alternate London, which blends contemporary and pseudo-Victorian sensibilities.
On the one hand, we see that the alternate world has values and a cultural background commensurate or at least compatible with those of our modern world. The villains in E3 are quite at home in skyscrapers, modern dress, and with modern weaponry. But they are set in opposition to a romantic rabble of airship sailors who dress, talk, and generally act like they stepped out of the Victorian era. Perhaps this disconnect is part of McDonald's point, but upon reflection, I found myself doubtful. Nevertheless, it is a testament to McDonald's skill at world-building that these quibbles only arose upon reflection: while reading the story, I found the world compelling, engaging, and believable.
Once in this new world, Everett quickly joins up with that staple of the steampunk sub-genre, a crew of airshippirates sailors. They are second-class citizens presented as a rough-around-the-edges but still lovable rabble, quasi-Romany in nature. The characters Everett runs into, in particular his fiesty love-interest Sen, her adoptive mother (the captain), and her Bible/Shakespeare-quoting crewman are all extremely distinct, very interesting, and very engaging. In portraying both this world and the harsh underbelly of its society, McDonald made an interesting authorial choice: most of these characters speak in polari, which IRL is a cant slang developed in the British theater community in the 17th and 18th centuries. McDonald portrays this dialect directly in dialog, making it hard to parse for the uninitiated. I found myself torn as to its effectiveness.
The strategic use of polari deepens the credibility of McDonald's alternate world. Yet at the same time, it decreases the accessibility of that world. As an American whose only previous encounters with polari had been limited to a handful of phrases in a few episodes of Porridge while living in Europe, I found that it took real work to decode what characters in Planesrunner were saying. Interestingly, Everett had very little trouble doing so: it is possible that growing up in London, he would have had more exposure to polari than I have had growing up in the States. Readers as unfamiliar with it as I was might find that it takes a bit of effort to get through. Overall, this strategy marks an interesting choice, and one that in general McDonald pulls off effectively. However, it is a choice that I have rarely seen in YA. Experienced genre readers will probably just accept it and make use of the glossary at the end of the book, but I am less certain that YA readers will be willing to invest the same amount of effort.
The biggest weakness I found in Planesrunner was that once Everett stepped into the parallel world, it seemed as if he had entirely forgotten about the mother and younger sister he left behind. To some extent, this is a natural consequence of the plot's focus on rescuing his father. Nevertheless, I had the impression that themes of Everett's family introduced at the book's opening remained unaddressed (let alone resolved) at the book's end. Above all, it is this fact that makes the book feel more like an adult SF novel than a YA SF novel.
Themes of family, of choosing/balancing sides, and of cultural identity are all frequently explored in YA. One can argue (and I've done so on this blog before) that at some level all YA novels address the challenge of finding one's place in a complex, multi-layered, and ambiguous world. McDonald sets these themes up fairly well in the opening of Planesrunner , but fails to follow through on them by its end. Themes of family get re-introduced, with the focus on Everett's place within the airship's "adopted family", but it never ties back to the family he left at home. Perhaps as the series continues we will return to these themes and gain some closure. But stretching a single unresolved thematic arc across a series and without clear inflection points in each installment is something adult series may pull off, but flies in the face of typical YA conventions. It is one thing to end the plot of the first book on a cliffhanger as McDonald (more-or-less) does, but to leave thematic threads dangling (as opposed to tied, whether loosely or strongly) weakens the book's emotional resonance.
Overall, Planesrunner is a solid adventure. Read as such, it is perfectly enjoyable. Fans of adult science fiction will find it especially satisfying, and will likely find it fast by the standards of the adult genre. Fans of YA science fiction will likely enjoy it as well, though I suspect that long-term it won't be as memorable as more tightly themed YA novels. Readers of McDonald's earlier work will enjoy Planesrunner for how it builds on McDonald's strengths and how it diverges and expands on his previous patterns. However, readers looking for the thematic, structural, and sociological complexity of McDonald's adult novels won't find it here. That complexity may exist below the story's surface, incorporated into the story's world-building, but Planesrunner is a simpler, more adventure-focused story than McDonald's earlier work. In general, I found Planesrunner a fun if only partially-satisfying read, but I am definitely invested enough to pick up the next book in the series when it comes out.
As I've mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Ian McDonald's adult science fiction. His complex, multi-layered plots and penchant for near-future science fiction set in non-western cultures (Africa, India, Brazil, Turkey, etc.) have always struck me as interesting, engaging, ambitious, and structurally complex. So when I heard that Pyr was going to be releasing a new YA novel by Ian McDonald entitled Planesrunner , I jumped at the chance to read it.
McDonald has earned a large, loyal, and very much deserved following for his adult fiction. I don't know if the decision to market this particular story as YA lay with the author, his agent, or with his publishers, but it does make reviewing the book an interesting challenge. The YA and SF genres have different (though overlapping) conventions which stem from both their respective histories and their divergent audiences, and it is unclear through which lens we should look at Planesrunner . What comes first: the science fiction, or the YA?
Planesrunner is told from the perspective of Everett Singh, the fourteen year old son of a quantum physicist involved in the development of doorways onto parallel worlds. Everett watches his father get kidnapped, and then finds that he alone has the clues and capabilities to rescue him.
Judged solely by the protagonist's age, Planesrunner falls firmly into YA territory. Though the book opens in London, McDonald's hero comes from a Punjabi background, and McDonald's excellent ear for local cultures comes through in Everett's voice. Particularly in the novel's first third, McDonald paints Everett in solidly contemporary British colors, albeit filtered through his Punjabi background. Everett's cultural background can likely best be compared to that of Jessminder "Jess" Bhamra in the excellent Bend It Like Beckham: to say that Everett is a soccer-loving British boy tells only half the story, while to say he is Punjabi does the same. This is a blend culture more accessible to western readers than the India McDonald took us to in his (adult) Cyberabad Days , but it is definitely not the whitebread England of Harry Potter. As always, I applaud McDonald's presentation of cultural complexity.
The first third of the novel focuses on Everett's reactions to his father's kidnapping. From the high-powered opening, the story's pace slows down significantly as we learn more about Everett's family background (his parents have split up, he has a younger sister, etc.) and we get gradually introduced to our protagonist. We learn about Everett through his interactions with his mother, his soccer team buddy, the police, and his father's co-workers. Throughout this process, we gradually learn more about the work his father does, and about the parallel worlds that he helped discover. This part of the book is written with McDonald's typical skill, providing a good feel for Everett, his values, his cultural background, and his life. We grow to care about him, and get engaged in his desire to save his father. All of this is good, however by the standards of contemporary YA it happens rather slowly. Most contemporary YA that dives into the action the way this story does maintains and rapidly escalates the tension from page one. Here, the tension is maintained but its escalation unfolds more slowly. It is effective, but it has more of the feel of an adult novel than a typical YA story.
Once Everett deduces that his father has been taken to the parallel world of E3 and follows him through the gates, the book's pace accelerates substantially. First, the alternate reality Everett crosses into is a vastly different London, where oil was never discovered. As a result, its 21st-century society runs on coal-powered electricity and has no access to technology we take for granted (e.g. plastics). It is a delightful and compelling steampunk world, complete with vast airship fleets. The concept of a 21st-century London where oil had never been discovered is an interesting one, and McDonald does an excellent job of rendering its technological development believably. But while he does a fine job of nailing the technological/scientific world-building, I am less sold on the cultural flavor of his alternate London, which blends contemporary and pseudo-Victorian sensibilities.
On the one hand, we see that the alternate world has values and a cultural background commensurate or at least compatible with those of our modern world. The villains in E3 are quite at home in skyscrapers, modern dress, and with modern weaponry. But they are set in opposition to a romantic rabble of airship sailors who dress, talk, and generally act like they stepped out of the Victorian era. Perhaps this disconnect is part of McDonald's point, but upon reflection, I found myself doubtful. Nevertheless, it is a testament to McDonald's skill at world-building that these quibbles only arose upon reflection: while reading the story, I found the world compelling, engaging, and believable.
Once in this new world, Everett quickly joins up with that staple of the steampunk sub-genre, a crew of airship
The strategic use of polari deepens the credibility of McDonald's alternate world. Yet at the same time, it decreases the accessibility of that world. As an American whose only previous encounters with polari had been limited to a handful of phrases in a few episodes of Porridge while living in Europe, I found that it took real work to decode what characters in Planesrunner were saying. Interestingly, Everett had very little trouble doing so: it is possible that growing up in London, he would have had more exposure to polari than I have had growing up in the States. Readers as unfamiliar with it as I was might find that it takes a bit of effort to get through. Overall, this strategy marks an interesting choice, and one that in general McDonald pulls off effectively. However, it is a choice that I have rarely seen in YA. Experienced genre readers will probably just accept it and make use of the glossary at the end of the book, but I am less certain that YA readers will be willing to invest the same amount of effort.
The biggest weakness I found in Planesrunner was that once Everett stepped into the parallel world, it seemed as if he had entirely forgotten about the mother and younger sister he left behind. To some extent, this is a natural consequence of the plot's focus on rescuing his father. Nevertheless, I had the impression that themes of Everett's family introduced at the book's opening remained unaddressed (let alone resolved) at the book's end. Above all, it is this fact that makes the book feel more like an adult SF novel than a YA SF novel.
Themes of family, of choosing/balancing sides, and of cultural identity are all frequently explored in YA. One can argue (and I've done so on this blog before) that at some level all YA novels address the challenge of finding one's place in a complex, multi-layered, and ambiguous world. McDonald sets these themes up fairly well in the opening of Planesrunner , but fails to follow through on them by its end. Themes of family get re-introduced, with the focus on Everett's place within the airship's "adopted family", but it never ties back to the family he left at home. Perhaps as the series continues we will return to these themes and gain some closure. But stretching a single unresolved thematic arc across a series and without clear inflection points in each installment is something adult series may pull off, but flies in the face of typical YA conventions. It is one thing to end the plot of the first book on a cliffhanger as McDonald (more-or-less) does, but to leave thematic threads dangling (as opposed to tied, whether loosely or strongly) weakens the book's emotional resonance.
Overall, Planesrunner is a solid adventure. Read as such, it is perfectly enjoyable. Fans of adult science fiction will find it especially satisfying, and will likely find it fast by the standards of the adult genre. Fans of YA science fiction will likely enjoy it as well, though I suspect that long-term it won't be as memorable as more tightly themed YA novels. Readers of McDonald's earlier work will enjoy Planesrunner for how it builds on McDonald's strengths and how it diverges and expands on his previous patterns. However, readers looking for the thematic, structural, and sociological complexity of McDonald's adult novels won't find it here. That complexity may exist below the story's surface, incorporated into the story's world-building, but Planesrunner is a simpler, more adventure-focused story than McDonald's earlier work. In general, I found Planesrunner a fun if only partially-satisfying read, but I am definitely invested enough to pick up the next book in the series when it comes out.
September 3, 2013
Today’s post is on Planesrunner by Ian McDonald. It is 268 pages long including a dictionary at the end. It is published by PYR. The cover has two of the main characters one running towards the reader from an iPad and other has her hands thrown out with cards coming from them. The intended reader is young adult but I do not think that YA’s have the attention span for this novel. There is no language, no sex, and all the action is pretty tame. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the dust jacket- There in not one you. There are many yous. There is no one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.
When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse-the Infundibulum- the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets- some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth- at their finger-tips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
Review- I wanted to like this book. The concept is strong, I know McDonald as a writer, and the publisher is very picky about who they publish. But somewhere McDonald just dropped the ball. This is book is not for YA. It is too wordy, the characters are boring, the plot ploddingly slow. I was bored for most of this book. I would count the pages in chapters just to see how long they were so I would read one then go do something else before reading another chapter. I can think of nothing that I enjoyed about this book and that is making writing this review so hard. All the action scenes that happen just feel like filler, the narration was terrible, really there was nothing that I liked about this book. And that is too bad because I wanted to like this book. It sounds wonderful, so promising but I really do not know where McDonald went wrong but this book really is just plain old boring. If you want to want McDonald get his adult stuff. It is so much better.
I give this book One out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
From the dust jacket- There in not one you. There are many yous. There is no one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.
When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse-the Infundibulum- the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets- some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth- at their finger-tips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
Review- I wanted to like this book. The concept is strong, I know McDonald as a writer, and the publisher is very picky about who they publish. But somewhere McDonald just dropped the ball. This is book is not for YA. It is too wordy, the characters are boring, the plot ploddingly slow. I was bored for most of this book. I would count the pages in chapters just to see how long they were so I would read one then go do something else before reading another chapter. I can think of nothing that I enjoyed about this book and that is making writing this review so hard. All the action scenes that happen just feel like filler, the narration was terrible, really there was nothing that I liked about this book. And that is too bad because I wanted to like this book. It sounds wonderful, so promising but I really do not know where McDonald went wrong but this book really is just plain old boring. If you want to want McDonald get his adult stuff. It is so much better.
I give this book One out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
December 2, 2017
cominciamo dai lati positivi: ian mcdonald è uno dei migliori scrittori di fantascienza degli ultimi decenni, scrive benissimo, è capace di essere credibile quando parla di scienza, sempre in maniera competente ma senza essere troppo pedante, ed infine ha un certo stile nell'alleggerire le storie.
qui poi da metà romanzo in poi crea un mondo parallelo decisamente ben costruito, con tanto di gergo spiegato in un dizionarietto alla fine del libro.
tutto bene? no.
il problema è che qui mcdonald è in pieno territorio young adult, e quindi abbiamo il protagonista ragazzino saputello che senza troppi problemi sa far tutto e comprende la fisica quantistica meglio di un laureato e fa pure girar la testa alle signorine, abbiamo quel tema classico negli young adult (o meglio: quelli che mi son capitati tra le mani) che è la ricostruzione di una famiglia (e qui ne abbiamo due: quella "naturale" da ricostruire e quella "nuova" per cui battersi) che si è letto così troppe volte da dar la sensazione di deja-vu, e la vicenda è davvero "leggerina": siamo tra figure a metà tra l'avventuriero e il pirata e a parte le risse non succede nulla di particolarmente bizzarro, tanto che mi chiedo cosa avrebbe fatto un china mieville con uno scenario così.
e poi c'è un problema più grosso: è la prima parte di una trilogia, finisce con davvero troppe cose in sospeso e non so proprio quando la venerabile serie urania pubblicherà gli altri due capitoli.
insomma: a dire che non mi sono divertito sarei un bugiardo, perchè è stata una lettura piacevole, ma troppi momenti deboli.
speriamo nei due seguiti...
qui poi da metà romanzo in poi crea un mondo parallelo decisamente ben costruito, con tanto di gergo spiegato in un dizionarietto alla fine del libro.
tutto bene? no.
il problema è che qui mcdonald è in pieno territorio young adult, e quindi abbiamo il protagonista ragazzino saputello che senza troppi problemi sa far tutto e comprende la fisica quantistica meglio di un laureato e fa pure girar la testa alle signorine, abbiamo quel tema classico negli young adult (o meglio: quelli che mi son capitati tra le mani) che è la ricostruzione di una famiglia (e qui ne abbiamo due: quella "naturale" da ricostruire e quella "nuova" per cui battersi) che si è letto così troppe volte da dar la sensazione di deja-vu, e la vicenda è davvero "leggerina": siamo tra figure a metà tra l'avventuriero e il pirata e a parte le risse non succede nulla di particolarmente bizzarro, tanto che mi chiedo cosa avrebbe fatto un china mieville con uno scenario così.
e poi c'è un problema più grosso: è la prima parte di una trilogia, finisce con davvero troppe cose in sospeso e non so proprio quando la venerabile serie urania pubblicherà gli altri due capitoli.
insomma: a dire che non mi sono divertito sarei un bugiardo, perchè è stata una lettura piacevole, ma troppi momenti deboli.
speriamo nei due seguiti...
December 13, 2011
Planesrunner is action packed from cover to cover. Fast action coupled with McDonald’s stunning world building, character development, as well as flowing writing will appeal to a younger audience and will make Planesrunner an instant hit with youth and adults alike. While the ideas might sound weighty, McDonald handles them with incredible finesse and manages to not only make these ideas interesting and accessible, but will strike wonder in almost anyone.
That’s probably what is the most amazing part of Planesrunner. It’s a book full of everything from action to romance to heavy science concepts, but despite all of that, it’s the wonder of the story that will strike readers most. It’s not just a great book, but it’s a book that will leave readers wondering, “what if?” and that’s the best part of it. It’s pure imaginative fun.
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
That’s probably what is the most amazing part of Planesrunner. It’s a book full of everything from action to romance to heavy science concepts, but despite all of that, it’s the wonder of the story that will strike readers most. It’s not just a great book, but it’s a book that will leave readers wondering, “what if?” and that’s the best part of it. It’s pure imaginative fun.
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
August 15, 2012
Well..... The book was great. It was well plotted, held my attention, had more interesting side characters then I'd read about in a LONG time, and just made me want to know more. But (and this is a really big but) the author chose to write a good chunk of the dialogue in something he calls Pilari, which is actually an underground language in Europe. Put on top of the fact that the writer is British and the words aren't 'translated' and this book was almost illegible. That got more then a little frustrating. As fun as Planesrunner was I don't think I'll be doing it again with the next one.
October 3, 2014
OMG, you must read this book!! Did I sound like a teen then? Even though this is YA, this is a mature SF book with a fantastic premise, and oh boy, what a ride. My only niggle (and it is a little one) is that at 14 I found the protagonist's knowledge of quantum mathematics to be a little out there for someone who is still in his normal grade at high school. Why wasn't he at uni if he was such a genius? Anyway, just something to pick at in an otherwise perfect book.
October 24, 2015
Lai arī tehniski šis nav stīmpanks, estētika ir ļoti līdzīga. Grāmata manā galvā zīmēja ārkārtīgi spilgtu filmu (par spīti tam, ka tehnoloģiskās nianses man ne vienmēr bija skaidras), varoņi ir izveidoti izcili (īpašais bonuss - autors ir atmetis dzimumu stereotipus) un pasaule ir ļoti skaista un interesanta. Es tur gribētu dzīvot.
Sižets gan brīžiem vilkās un vispār grāmata beidzās ar mērenu cliff-hanger, bet man patika un es noteikti šo sēriju lasīšu tālāk.
Sižets gan brīžiem vilkās un vispār grāmata beidzās ar mērenu cliff-hanger, bet man patika un es noteikti šo sēriju lasīšu tālāk.
February 19, 2019
Страхотна! Само съществуващата Османска империя в наносвета леко ме потресе :D И все още не съм удовлетворена от личното отношение на героя към неговото вероятно Аз от друга вселена. Много инертно-приемащо, а за мен тук има голяма драма :)
Книжката е страхотна, наистина :)
Книжката е страхотна, наистина :)
December 29, 2011
One of the best children's books about parallel universes I've read, and I've read most of them. The little nods to Star Trek and Doctor Who also appealed to me :)
September 13, 2023
3.5 stars.
September 14, 2012
How the heck did I miss this one? Ian McDonald, one of my favorite SF authors, writes about one of my favorite sfnal topics, the multiverse (parallel universes, alternate dimensions, multiple timelines, the Wheels of If, the Panoply of Worlds... whatever you may call it—there are almost as many names for the concept as there are universes to explore). How on all the many Earths did I miss this novel when it came out in 2011, to find out about it only when io9 (or was it bOINGbOING?) reviewed its sequel? (Which would be, by the way, Be My Enemy, published September 4, 2012.)
Actually, I know exactly how that happened. This book has been shunted into the YA category—intended for "young adults"—and apparently I just don't pay enough attention to the right outlets for such things. I understand that there's been some discussion about adding an explicitly YA category to the Hugo Awards. In my opinion, this book is one reason why that'd be a bad idea. This is, in other words, an instance where categorization fails. Which is a shame, both for me and for this book, because—after an admittedly slow start (things didn't really get rolling until about 80 pages in), Planesrunner isn't just gritty kids' stuff, although I would certainly have been as enthralled by it when I was its protagonist's age. Planesrunner is a solid, exciting adventure novel, that crosses worlds with McDonald's characteristic aplomb.
Everett Singh is a young Londoner of Punjabi descent, who starts out on an Earth which is our own, at least as far as I can tell. Everett's father, Tejendra, is a quantum physicist, whose life's work is the study of Hugh Everett III's many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics—and it's no coincidence at all that Tejendra's son bears Everett's name.
Of course, Tejendra's developed a way to manage travel between planes of existence—the Infundibulum, he calls it, bigger on the inside than it is on the outside—and, of course, Everett's the one who gets to go running between those planes. The beauty of this book isn't in surprising plot twists (although there are a few of those as well), it's in the world-building. Worlds-building. McDonald very nicely balances between the two great pitfalls of alternate-universe literature, constrained as it is to a finite number of pages per book: on the one hand, the desire to show as much as possible of the possibilities—the sheer inventiveness of a cosmos where what might have been almost always really is—and on the other, the need to explore some of those alternatives, in the kind of depth a whole alternate world as amazing as our own actually deserves.
It's never really been stated explicitly in works like this, at least as far as I know, but I think there's usually a baseline assumption that alternatives have to be different enough to be interesting, or they can't truly exist. (The canonical exception would be Larry Niven's "All the Myriad Ways," in the collection of the same name.) There's a kind of "law of conservation of normality," to coin a phrase, that comes into play—sure, every microscopic binary choice may spawn a new universe, but most of those new timelines merge again very soon thereafter. All of those parallel planes where the only difference is the position of your coffee cup (if that) are too... boring, to survive on their own, so they converge again on the most likely alternates. You end up with a diverging spray of alternatives, a fractal cluster of sheaves of close neighbors, each different enough to stay separate. Possibly, the number of alternities is still infinite, but it's not exhaustive—that is, even if every possible choice starts out being made both ways, not all of those choices end up sticking around. Not all the myriad ways actually exist at once.
This is great for narrative purposes, of course, but I also think it makes sense intuitively (if not mathematically; I have no idea whether this notion would fit in with quantum mechanics). If you've ever lost your car keys or purse, only to find them again in a place you know you've already looked... maybe that's because universes just merged.
Something to think about, anyway...
Actually, I know exactly how that happened. This book has been shunted into the YA category—intended for "young adults"—and apparently I just don't pay enough attention to the right outlets for such things. I understand that there's been some discussion about adding an explicitly YA category to the Hugo Awards. In my opinion, this book is one reason why that'd be a bad idea. This is, in other words, an instance where categorization fails. Which is a shame, both for me and for this book, because—after an admittedly slow start (things didn't really get rolling until about 80 pages in), Planesrunner isn't just gritty kids' stuff, although I would certainly have been as enthralled by it when I was its protagonist's age. Planesrunner is a solid, exciting adventure novel, that crosses worlds with McDonald's characteristic aplomb.
Everett Singh is a young Londoner of Punjabi descent, who starts out on an Earth which is our own, at least as far as I can tell. Everett's father, Tejendra, is a quantum physicist, whose life's work is the study of Hugh Everett III's many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics—and it's no coincidence at all that Tejendra's son bears Everett's name.
Of course, Tejendra's developed a way to manage travel between planes of existence—the Infundibulum, he calls it, bigger on the inside than it is on the outside—and, of course, Everett's the one who gets to go running between those planes. The beauty of this book isn't in surprising plot twists (although there are a few of those as well), it's in the world-building. Worlds-building. McDonald very nicely balances between the two great pitfalls of alternate-universe literature, constrained as it is to a finite number of pages per book: on the one hand, the desire to show as much as possible of the possibilities—the sheer inventiveness of a cosmos where what might have been almost always really is—and on the other, the need to explore some of those alternatives, in the kind of depth a whole alternate world as amazing as our own actually deserves.
It's never really been stated explicitly in works like this, at least as far as I know, but I think there's usually a baseline assumption that alternatives have to be different enough to be interesting, or they can't truly exist. (The canonical exception would be Larry Niven's "All the Myriad Ways," in the collection of the same name.) There's a kind of "law of conservation of normality," to coin a phrase, that comes into play—sure, every microscopic binary choice may spawn a new universe, but most of those new timelines merge again very soon thereafter. All of those parallel planes where the only difference is the position of your coffee cup (if that) are too... boring, to survive on their own, so they converge again on the most likely alternates. You end up with a diverging spray of alternatives, a fractal cluster of sheaves of close neighbors, each different enough to stay separate. Possibly, the number of alternities is still infinite, but it's not exhaustive—that is, even if every possible choice starts out being made both ways, not all of those choices end up sticking around. Not all the myriad ways actually exist at once.
This is great for narrative purposes, of course, but I also think it makes sense intuitively (if not mathematically; I have no idea whether this notion would fit in with quantum mechanics). If you've ever lost your car keys or purse, only to find them again in a place you know you've already looked... maybe that's because universes just merged.
Something to think about, anyway...
March 7, 2022
Мисля да се огранича до първата част на поредицата.
От издателството са направили страхотни корици и на трите книги.
От издателството са направили страхотни корици и на трите книги.
January 10, 2013
You'll have to forgive me, but I don't think I've ever gone from Adult to YA with an author before and its a fascinating transition. I’m not sure how many people who enjoy YA would also like Ian McDonald’s adult books. There's an added value though in being aware of his earlier stuff when reading Planesrunner. I kept noticing things like how the nanoblade was reminiscent of the Q-blades of Brasyl, the street brawl that smelled faintly like a scene in River of Gods. Then there’s the overall geekiness, the use of foreign slang, creating a whole new pop culture (the effort he puts into describing how the cool kids would dress in another universe is adorable to me), and of course use of multiple universes. McDonald has his go-to tropes, and somehow they never get old.
There’s also a lot of fresh stuff, like the steampunk aspects (or electropunk as Everett Singh mused, which reminded of when McDonald remarked in an interview that we’ve kind of gone overboard with the whole “-punk” thing), and the light-hearted youthful atmosphere. This is very much an action-adventure. It’s quick, it’s fun, and Everett’s fast brain doesn’t dwell too much on melancholic thoughts. He's the type of character that's alive with possibility. When he figures out what his father has asked him to do - venture alone into an alien universe, carrying an impossibly valuable piece of technology while being chased by a conspiratorial order lead by a blonde-haired demon in a pencil skirt, all to rescue him and protect the multiverse - I don't think it every occurs to him that he can't do it. He's a boy genius, an ace goalie and a damn good cook too. Why shouldn't he be able to save the world?
In his adult works, McDonald doesn’t waste time on exposition, and generally leaves his readers to their own devices in trying to figure out the futuristic slang, politics and cultural cues. Here, he takes a bit more time. For Everett, this is a whole new adventure, the same way it is for us as readers, so everything feels fresh and shiny, and you get to see Everett working at understanding this new world. You feel how exhilarated he is, and also how overwhelmed. McDonald's paints this new, zeppelin filled world with a patient and thorough brush, and the results are utterly engrossing.
McDonald also lets Everett go on about his Punjabi roots, and I loved seeing that side of him, how important his heritage is. Diversity is always a big part of McDonald's books, and he doesn't take it for granted. He's not afraid to discuss how this new Earth that Everett lands on is divided racially, how Everett feels when he's kicked out of a restaurant because he looks Airish. It provides the texture of the setting, the reality and stakes, as well as giving the main character roots and depth.
The prose is rich, but fast, and if you’re not paying attention you’ll miss some technical details. Perhaps it’s because I don’t think in three dimensions like Sen and the crew of the Everness, but I had a hard time picturing the inside of the airship that becomes Everett’s home away from home. That only became a big deal towards the end when a lot of the action involved the ship and how it functioned, but I was able to keep up and still found it exciting, so I can’t complain too much.
What I think makes this stand out against other YA works is along with its fast pace and action, its also ridiculously well researched. It doesn't feel like swallowing a bag of marshmallows - tasty, but ultimately hollow, like a lot YA I read is - it's got substance and solid ground to stand on. More meat, less fat. Win, win.
There’s also a lot of fresh stuff, like the steampunk aspects (or electropunk as Everett Singh mused, which reminded of when McDonald remarked in an interview that we’ve kind of gone overboard with the whole “-punk” thing), and the light-hearted youthful atmosphere. This is very much an action-adventure. It’s quick, it’s fun, and Everett’s fast brain doesn’t dwell too much on melancholic thoughts. He's the type of character that's alive with possibility. When he figures out what his father has asked him to do - venture alone into an alien universe, carrying an impossibly valuable piece of technology while being chased by a conspiratorial order lead by a blonde-haired demon in a pencil skirt, all to rescue him and protect the multiverse - I don't think it every occurs to him that he can't do it. He's a boy genius, an ace goalie and a damn good cook too. Why shouldn't he be able to save the world?
In his adult works, McDonald doesn’t waste time on exposition, and generally leaves his readers to their own devices in trying to figure out the futuristic slang, politics and cultural cues. Here, he takes a bit more time. For Everett, this is a whole new adventure, the same way it is for us as readers, so everything feels fresh and shiny, and you get to see Everett working at understanding this new world. You feel how exhilarated he is, and also how overwhelmed. McDonald's paints this new, zeppelin filled world with a patient and thorough brush, and the results are utterly engrossing.
McDonald also lets Everett go on about his Punjabi roots, and I loved seeing that side of him, how important his heritage is. Diversity is always a big part of McDonald's books, and he doesn't take it for granted. He's not afraid to discuss how this new Earth that Everett lands on is divided racially, how Everett feels when he's kicked out of a restaurant because he looks Airish. It provides the texture of the setting, the reality and stakes, as well as giving the main character roots and depth.
The prose is rich, but fast, and if you’re not paying attention you’ll miss some technical details. Perhaps it’s because I don’t think in three dimensions like Sen and the crew of the Everness, but I had a hard time picturing the inside of the airship that becomes Everett’s home away from home. That only became a big deal towards the end when a lot of the action involved the ship and how it functioned, but I was able to keep up and still found it exciting, so I can’t complain too much.
What I think makes this stand out against other YA works is along with its fast pace and action, its also ridiculously well researched. It doesn't feel like swallowing a bag of marshmallows - tasty, but ultimately hollow, like a lot YA I read is - it's got substance and solid ground to stand on. More meat, less fat. Win, win.
January 2, 2012
You know him for his Science Fiction like THE DERVISH HOUSE and others, but now Ian McDonald invades YA territory with PLANESRUNNER and a world where the Earth exists in almost limitless parallel universes.
Our PoV character is teenage Everett Singh, soccer goalie, science smarty-pants, and son of the brilliant Tejendra Singh, who created the infundibulum--a sort of map to the parallel universes, or "planes". Before now only the ten Earths that have been able to create gateways can visit each other, but with Tejendra's invention any earth can be jumped to. But agents from the E2 plane will do anything to get the infundibulum, even kidnap Tejendra from under Everett's very nose. Little do they know that it's Everett who his dad left it to for safekeeping, and he'll do anything to rescue his dad.
The majority of the book is spent in E2, where electricity was discovered in the 1789, and as a result oil-related technology was never developed...including plastic. In this Steampunk-like world Everett befriends the eclectic Sen, the teenage pilot of the cargo airship Everness, and via her a new family among the airship's small crew.
PLANESRUNNER was fun to read, with a creative mix of Steampunk and SF, and after visiting E2, I expect Everett will jump to other planes, so I'm looking forward to reading about those--he leaves hints for what the other earths would be like. The science is interesting and explained without feeling like it's over my head. And following Everett's adventures felt realistic, although he seemed a little too smart for a teenage boy.
Everett is a well-drawn character, but my favorite is Sen, the snarky bohemian orphan, who finds Everett fascinating, and is quickly drawn into his predicament. The other characters add eclectic flair: Captain Sixsmyth, the young captain of the Everness and her sense of honor; Mr. Sharkey, the American "gentleman" who spews bible verse; Mchynlyth, the Scottish engineer; and Charlotte Villiers, the E2 agent with the killer shoes and fascinators who is determined to get the infundibulum.
The storytelling itself is almost stream-of-consciousness as Everett goes off on tangents in the middle of the action--which is stylistically reminiscent of McKinley's DRAGONHAVEN. I like it, but it may frustrate some readers as it slows the story's pace. McDonald also has the habit of stringing scenes one after another, making the pacing lumpy and disconnected feeling, although by the end it makes sense. One other problem is Sen's frequent use of slang. While it adds "authenticity" it can get confusing; fortunately the book contains a dictionary of slang terms.
Despite the jumble of events, they lead up to an exciting ending, where Everett is backed into a corner with no obvious solution. And while there's no clear "win", and McDonald leaves the ending open for the following books in the series, it is a fun ride.
Recommended Age: 13+, more for comprehension than content
Language: None
Violence: Some fisticuffs and peril, but no blood and gore
Sex: Teenage hormones, but no direct references or innuendo
***This review was posted on Elitist Book Reviews. Check out this review and others at our blog.***
Our PoV character is teenage Everett Singh, soccer goalie, science smarty-pants, and son of the brilliant Tejendra Singh, who created the infundibulum--a sort of map to the parallel universes, or "planes". Before now only the ten Earths that have been able to create gateways can visit each other, but with Tejendra's invention any earth can be jumped to. But agents from the E2 plane will do anything to get the infundibulum, even kidnap Tejendra from under Everett's very nose. Little do they know that it's Everett who his dad left it to for safekeeping, and he'll do anything to rescue his dad.
The majority of the book is spent in E2, where electricity was discovered in the 1789, and as a result oil-related technology was never developed...including plastic. In this Steampunk-like world Everett befriends the eclectic Sen, the teenage pilot of the cargo airship Everness, and via her a new family among the airship's small crew.
PLANESRUNNER was fun to read, with a creative mix of Steampunk and SF, and after visiting E2, I expect Everett will jump to other planes, so I'm looking forward to reading about those--he leaves hints for what the other earths would be like. The science is interesting and explained without feeling like it's over my head. And following Everett's adventures felt realistic, although he seemed a little too smart for a teenage boy.
Everett is a well-drawn character, but my favorite is Sen, the snarky bohemian orphan, who finds Everett fascinating, and is quickly drawn into his predicament. The other characters add eclectic flair: Captain Sixsmyth, the young captain of the Everness and her sense of honor; Mr. Sharkey, the American "gentleman" who spews bible verse; Mchynlyth, the Scottish engineer; and Charlotte Villiers, the E2 agent with the killer shoes and fascinators who is determined to get the infundibulum.
The storytelling itself is almost stream-of-consciousness as Everett goes off on tangents in the middle of the action--which is stylistically reminiscent of McKinley's DRAGONHAVEN. I like it, but it may frustrate some readers as it slows the story's pace. McDonald also has the habit of stringing scenes one after another, making the pacing lumpy and disconnected feeling, although by the end it makes sense. One other problem is Sen's frequent use of slang. While it adds "authenticity" it can get confusing; fortunately the book contains a dictionary of slang terms.
Despite the jumble of events, they lead up to an exciting ending, where Everett is backed into a corner with no obvious solution. And while there's no clear "win", and McDonald leaves the ending open for the following books in the series, it is a fun ride.
Recommended Age: 13+, more for comprehension than content
Language: None
Violence: Some fisticuffs and peril, but no blood and gore
Sex: Teenage hormones, but no direct references or innuendo
***This review was posted on Elitist Book Reviews. Check out this review and others at our blog.***
December 4, 2016
This was another librarian recommendation. However, this time she hadn't read it, but she liked the look of the cover and was lamenting how she was hoping someone would choose it to tell her if it is any good. I volunteered. Long story short. It wasn't very good.
Long story - I should have loved this. Science Fiction parallel universes mixed with steampunk and airship. Idea? Brilliant. Execution? Boring as hell.
Most people who have read this and given it very high ratings start off by saying they love Ian McDonald. I had never heard of him (let alone read any of his work), so I think my issues are more with not connecting with the writing style and characters. The other issue I had (apart from the lack lustre writing) was the main character who was an arrogant thing and would quote the most basic laws of physics and then tell everyone what a genius he was (or the author would explicitly follow it up with a "I'm a genius" comment. For example:
"...it did sound to Everett like the most stupid idea a guy with his IQ well into the gifted level ever had",
and
"Smart, aincha?".
"Thank-you," Everett said.
SHOW me he is smart, don't keep telling me. In the end, Everett comes across as VERY unlikable and not at all particularly bright. So we have great plot/world building, lack lustre writing, VERY unlikable lead character and most of the dialogue (AND I LOOOOOOVE dialogue) was in Palari (originating from 17th Century thieves Cant) so although interesting/authentic was VERY hard to follow. I think I will pass on this series.
Long story - I should have loved this. Science Fiction parallel universes mixed with steampunk and airship. Idea? Brilliant. Execution? Boring as hell.
Most people who have read this and given it very high ratings start off by saying they love Ian McDonald. I had never heard of him (let alone read any of his work), so I think my issues are more with not connecting with the writing style and characters. The other issue I had (apart from the lack lustre writing) was the main character who was an arrogant thing and would quote the most basic laws of physics and then tell everyone what a genius he was (or the author would explicitly follow it up with a "I'm a genius" comment. For example:
"...it did sound to Everett like the most stupid idea a guy with his IQ well into the gifted level ever had",
and
"Smart, aincha?".
"Thank-you," Everett said.
SHOW me he is smart, don't keep telling me. In the end, Everett comes across as VERY unlikable and not at all particularly bright. So we have great plot/world building, lack lustre writing, VERY unlikable lead character and most of the dialogue (AND I LOOOOOOVE dialogue) was in Palari (originating from 17th Century thieves Cant) so although interesting/authentic was VERY hard to follow. I think I will pass on this series.
July 16, 2012
Ian McDonald’s “Planesrunner” (Pyr, $16.95, 268 pages) is more traditional, and more young adult than “The Emperor’s Knife” (which actually has some erotic moments), but it too comes to a conclusion at the end of the first book of the Everness series.
But McDonald has plenty of options, as the premise is that there are essentially an infinite number of earths, even though only 10 have been explored, and our adolescent heroes are going to be fighting off the powerful villains wherever they might go.
The adventure begins in 21st London but quickly moves to an alternate version where oil has never been used as a power source (it’s an electric world that also burns lots of coal). Young Everett Singh is a genius and a pretty good soccer player, and when his scientist father is kidnapped, he sets out to rescue him.
There’s a satisfying villain, airships rather than airplanes, and of course, a young love interest. And most important, “Planesrunner” was just a lot of fun.
But McDonald has plenty of options, as the premise is that there are essentially an infinite number of earths, even though only 10 have been explored, and our adolescent heroes are going to be fighting off the powerful villains wherever they might go.
The adventure begins in 21st London but quickly moves to an alternate version where oil has never been used as a power source (it’s an electric world that also burns lots of coal). Young Everett Singh is a genius and a pretty good soccer player, and when his scientist father is kidnapped, he sets out to rescue him.
There’s a satisfying villain, airships rather than airplanes, and of course, a young love interest. And most important, “Planesrunner” was just a lot of fun.
February 6, 2025
I'm a fan of Ian McDonald. I accidentally picked this up not realizing it was YA. Frankly, I've found there to be little difference in YA written stories from 'A' stories except for the youth of the characters.
"Planesrunner" is rather pulpy. Its a steampunk quest story, with teenage Everett Singh in search of his father kidnapped by the evil queen deVillars and the dark organization behind her. In the process he finds love with the quixotic Sen Sixsmyth and is aided by Sen's swashbuckling mother. Which is fine, YA-lit is troupe rich in-general. However, in the hands of a good writer like McDonald its entertaining while still only being as deep as a carpark puddle.
So, Planesrunner is a creampuff of a novel and a series. Its light and fluffy, full of calories, but with no real substance as literature.
"Planesrunner" is rather pulpy. Its a steampunk quest story, with teenage Everett Singh in search of his father kidnapped by the evil queen deVillars and the dark organization behind her. In the process he finds love with the quixotic Sen Sixsmyth and is aided by Sen's swashbuckling mother. Which is fine, YA-lit is troupe rich in-general. However, in the hands of a good writer like McDonald its entertaining while still only being as deep as a carpark puddle.
So, Planesrunner is a creampuff of a novel and a series. Its light and fluffy, full of calories, but with no real substance as literature.
July 16, 2016
Момче скита из алтернативна стиймпънк Земя: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/b...
Сюжетът по изпитаните канони на young adult литературата проследява приключенията на едно момче – Еверет, чийто баща е отвлечен на улицата в Лондон пред очите му. Скоро след това той открива, че баща му е бил лидер на научен екип, направил пробив в теорията за паралелните вселени… и установил контакт с няколко съседни, които са в крехък съюз помежду си. Само дето бащата е успял да постигне и нещо повече – как може да се стигне до всички останали безброй вселени, нещо, което никой от технологично напредналите ни “съседи” не може. И нещата се заплитат с неизбежните сенчести сили, които имат интерес от изобретението му и са задвижили сложна конспирация.
Студио Арт Лайн
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/b...
Сюжетът по изпитаните канони на young adult литературата проследява приключенията на едно момче – Еверет, чийто баща е отвлечен на улицата в Лондон пред очите му. Скоро след това той открива, че баща му е бил лидер на научен екип, направил пробив в теорията за паралелните вселени… и установил контакт с няколко съседни, които са в крехък съюз помежду си. Само дето бащата е успял да постигне и нещо повече – как може да се стигне до всички останали безброй вселени, нещо, което никой от технологично напредналите ни “съседи” не може. И нещата се заплитат с неизбежните сенчести сили, които имат интерес от изобретението му и са задвижили сложна конспирация.
Студио Арт Лайн
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/b...
January 6, 2014
This was fun....!
Everett Singh is the son of a theoretical physicist: he sees his dad get kidnapped, then receives a mysterious download for his tablet. What is the infundibulum? Who is Charlotte Villiers? & What lies through the Heisenberg Gate.....?
Ian Mcdonald has written an excellent book to start this series: it has airships (always good!), some brilliant characters, who are believable & 3-dimensional, & a good, easy-to-follow, plot. There's also a feeling of the author really enjoying himself writing this- I read this in 1 sitting, & I don't think I stopped smiling throughout!
Definitely worth a go: if you like Steampunk, I'll be very surprised if you don't enjoy this.
Everett Singh is the son of a theoretical physicist: he sees his dad get kidnapped, then receives a mysterious download for his tablet. What is the infundibulum? Who is Charlotte Villiers? & What lies through the Heisenberg Gate.....?
Ian Mcdonald has written an excellent book to start this series: it has airships (always good!), some brilliant characters, who are believable & 3-dimensional, & a good, easy-to-follow, plot. There's also a feeling of the author really enjoying himself writing this- I read this in 1 sitting, & I don't think I stopped smiling throughout!
Definitely worth a go: if you like Steampunk, I'll be very surprised if you don't enjoy this.
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