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Hey, look, it's not about weight loss!
Sep. 26th, 2012 06:42 amWhat the title says. :-P I've just read the first two books in what looks to be an ongoing series (book two just came out a few months ago). They're classified as young adult, but hey, nothing wrong with YA fiction.
The first book in the series is The Search for WondLa. The second is A Hero for WondLa. The books start with Eva Nine, twelve years old, in Sanctuary, an underground complex. She's been there her whole life, raised by the robot MUTHR. She has food pellets and nutri-bars for meals, runs holo-simulations learning how to survive Outside, and relies on an Omnipod, a hand-held omniscient computer about the size and shape of a hand mirror, to help her with her lessons. Being twelve, she's getting to the age where she has more questions than answers, and MUTHR is less-than-helpful with answers. Eva found a code inside one of her dresser drawers which gave her unlimited access to the Sanctuary databases, and using a map of Sanctuary, found an abandoned passage. There, she keeps her "secret stash:" toys, clothes, and other things she was supposed to have outgrown and gotten rid of, but wasn't ready to give up just yet. One item stands out from the rest; one item that wasn't originally given to her by MUTHR: a piece of pasteboard with a picture of a robot, a child, and an adult. They're smiling, happy. The only text originally on the board was La, in ornate script; she later found another piece of it, with Wond in the same script. She calls her picture "WondLa," and wants to know more about it. How did it get there? What does it mean?
One day, Sanctuary is attacked. With MUTHR's help, Eva flees to the surface...and finds it much, much different than her simulations. Her Omnipod is near-useless in these conditions. She's left wondering if this is even Earth, like she always thought.
I don't want to go into too much more detail, and really, I can't go into much more without giving away some of the important plot points. I can't talk about Hero for WondLa without totally spoiling Search for WondLa. The books have lovely illustrations, and an interactive element: each book has three drawings you can scan (?) with a webcam to be taken to interactive features online--sort of a variation on the ever-increasing QR code. Not having a webcam, I didn't bother scanning the drawings, so I don't know exactly what they do.
Overall, I liked them, and will wait somewhat-patiently for the next book in the series. The author is Tony diTerlizzi, who also wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles.
The first book in the series is The Search for WondLa. The second is A Hero for WondLa. The books start with Eva Nine, twelve years old, in Sanctuary, an underground complex. She's been there her whole life, raised by the robot MUTHR. She has food pellets and nutri-bars for meals, runs holo-simulations learning how to survive Outside, and relies on an Omnipod, a hand-held omniscient computer about the size and shape of a hand mirror, to help her with her lessons. Being twelve, she's getting to the age where she has more questions than answers, and MUTHR is less-than-helpful with answers. Eva found a code inside one of her dresser drawers which gave her unlimited access to the Sanctuary databases, and using a map of Sanctuary, found an abandoned passage. There, she keeps her "secret stash:" toys, clothes, and other things she was supposed to have outgrown and gotten rid of, but wasn't ready to give up just yet. One item stands out from the rest; one item that wasn't originally given to her by MUTHR: a piece of pasteboard with a picture of a robot, a child, and an adult. They're smiling, happy. The only text originally on the board was La, in ornate script; she later found another piece of it, with Wond in the same script. She calls her picture "WondLa," and wants to know more about it. How did it get there? What does it mean?
One day, Sanctuary is attacked. With MUTHR's help, Eva flees to the surface...and finds it much, much different than her simulations. Her Omnipod is near-useless in these conditions. She's left wondering if this is even Earth, like she always thought.
I don't want to go into too much more detail, and really, I can't go into much more without giving away some of the important plot points. I can't talk about Hero for WondLa without totally spoiling Search for WondLa. The books have lovely illustrations, and an interactive element: each book has three drawings you can scan (?) with a webcam to be taken to interactive features online--sort of a variation on the ever-increasing QR code. Not having a webcam, I didn't bother scanning the drawings, so I don't know exactly what they do.
Overall, I liked them, and will wait somewhat-patiently for the next book in the series. The author is Tony diTerlizzi, who also wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles.
