Meet Edison Thomas. He loves science, he invents gadgets, and his favorite band is They Might Be Giants. He also has Asperger’s Syndrome. Edison Thomas is the protagonist of Jacqueline Houtman’s book The Reinvention of Edison Thomas. Eddy, as he is known to his friends and family, has many similar difficulties as most kids with Asperger’s. He has a high sensitivity to noise, he has difficulty reading the emotions of people around him and he spends an large amount of his time on one subject. That subject being science and inventing. Eddy, much like his namesake, is constantly inventing things and correcting people’s scientific facts. He even says he likes They Might Be Giants because the science in their songs is accurate.

The author, Jacqueline Houtman, has a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology and lets her love of science shine through Eddy. She does a great job getting across the challenges kids like Eddy have in the average classroom setting. Eddy’s relationship with his classmates is strained at best until he meets another student who is also on the fringe of the middle school society. Justin is also a science geek who is very impressed with Eddy’s science skills and does not dwell on the social awkwardness.

During the course of the story Eddy is faced with a few dilemmas. Someone is pranking him, and trying to set him up for trouble. If that wasn’t enough, Eddy found out the crossing guard he sees every morning is being laid off. The loss of the crossing guard begins to worry Eddy that the corner is no longer safe for the younger kids crossing the street. Eddy tries to face these challenges on his own, but when science is not enough his newfound friends are there to help support him.

Overall the book is a good read for tweens and young teens. I think it is a very good book for siblings of kids on the spectrum because it gives some insight into the issues facing kids on the spectrum and also shows that with a little understanding you may find an interesting friend who would be happy to share their world with you. In the vein of the Joey Pigza series, The Reinvention of Edison Thomas attempts to highlight kids with special needs and show that heroes come in all shapes, sizes and issues and if you give them a chance they can do amazing things.

Would you ask them how to solve global warming or world hunger? Study the secrets of interstellar travel?

Ariel Blum, a twenty-something computer programmer and blogger, knows exactly what he wants. He sees that they have computers — and if they have computers, they must have computer games. Ariel wants to port alien computer games to human computers and review them on his blog.

Constellation Games, written by Leonard Richardson, is a new sci-fi story for adults from a small publisher called Candlemark & Gleam, with an interesting publication process that I’ll detail more below. I requested an advance copy of Constellation Games and read it over the winter holidays, and absolutely loved it — it might not be the best book I read in 2011, but it’s certainly in the top 10.

At the beginning of the book, aliens have shown up, and they’re tearing out huge chunks of the moon to build a big space station. Of course, the government goes crazy, denies things, tries to hide things … but then the aliens make a video introducing themselves and everyone knows anyway. You can’t hide things in the age of YouTube.

The Constellation, as they’re called, are actually a whole bunch of alien species, formed into a sort of anarchist society. They travel around the universe, making contact with civilizations and trying to convince them to join. Of course, humans, being what we are, turn out to be a paranoid bunch. Homeland Security forms a special Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs, and the TSA’s complications negate the advanced technology that would allow people to travel freely between the Earth and the space station.

Meanwhile, Ariel just wants to play some alien video games and make some money. He’s tired of programming games for 10-year-old girls like Sparkle Ponies 5: Pony Stable Extra and wants to do something more exciting. He’s been waiting for aliens to arrive since he was six, and he’s ready.

The book is told from Ariel’s point of view: sometimes through blog posts, where he writes snarky video game reviews (which are hilarious) and commentaries about his life, sometimes excerpts from instant message conversations, and sometimes it’s straight-up narration (labeled as “Real Life”). What’s great is that Ariel’s world is pretty much like ours — it’s not set in some far-distant future, either dystopian or utopian, but in our world now. People have fancy smart phones and play videogame sequels and the economy is crap.

The aliens that form the Constellation are terrific. While we don’t get to know all of them in detail, the glimpses we see of them are truly alien. Only a few types have the physiology to actually come to Earth and interact with humans, and they were careful to pick the ones with more palatable appearances to be spokespersons. I really loved the observations that the aliens make about humans, which are spot-on — for instance, that when they point out what they see as impending crises (global warming, for one) to human governments with offers to help, the humans’ response is more or less, “Yeah, we know. Leave it alone.” The descriptions of alien games (and game systems) are also wonderful, and feel like something from a different culture, with oddly-translated names like “Simulates Hi-Def False Daylight,” a game system from around 17 million years ago.

I don’t want to give away too much of the book. It was so much fun to read, but also thought-provoking. It reminded me in some ways of Ready Player One, in that it’s a book that will really delight readers who grew up playing video games and RPGs and — in this case — thinking about what they would do when the aliens arrive. It also struck a chord with me because of the way Ariel reviews video games, although he’s a much funnier reviewer than I am. He’s more like Jerry “Tycho” Holkins of Penny Arcade, blending social commentary with video game reviews.

But it goes beyond just being a witty first-contact story, too. In the book, Ariel gets mixed up in government conspiracies and weird alien secrets, and for the first time in his life he really has to grow up and make some real decisions. I loved not knowing where the book was going to go next, and just being along for this wild ride. All in all, Constellation Games is a perfect blend of aliens, video game geekiness, and modern social media.

One note: the book isn’t for kids. Ariel swears like he’s in a Kevin Smith movie, and there is some sexual content in the book (though that’s mostly at a PG-13 level, where it’s implied but then cuts to the next scene before things get too explicit).

So, now you’re interested and you want to read it for yourself, right? This is where it gets interesting. Candlemark & Gleam — an “experiment in publishing,” they call themselves — has a bunch of different ways you can read the book. For a mere $5, you’ll get a subscription to the web serial, and you can read the story as it is released piece by piece (kind of the way Max Barry’s Machine Man was originally published). The story started on November 29 and will run weekly until the book is done, at which point you’ll also get an ebook of the completed story. You can even follow Ariel on Twitter, and he’ll tweet things pertaining to his current storyline as it is released on the serial. (The only thing that I think would have made it even cooler is if the posts were actually released on the dates they’re posted here in the book, but there are some reasons that can’t be done exactly, which you’ll see if you read the story to the end.)

There are also several other subscription levels, which will get you things like additional short stories set in the Constellation Games universe and an Alien phrasebook. Or if you prefer the dead-tree versions (like me) you can pay $20 to get a copy of the paperback when it’s published in April (plus you can still read the web serial as it’s going), or the Adamantium Package (at $35) which gets you all of that plus a USB stick pre-loaded with the digital versions of the novel. It kind of reminds me of a Kickstarter campaign, which is fun.

To get you started, you can read the first two chapters for free. Go to Candlemark & Gleam’s website to read the free preview and get your subscription!

Random trivia: Candlemark & Gleam is also the publisher of our own Natania Barron’s Pilgrim of the Sky.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the townspeople, that makes Kyle a villain. Oh, and in case you didn’t know — Kyle also got some superpowers himself, so that makes him a supervillain. (It’s all detailed in Archvillain, which I reviewed last year.)

Well, while Kyle knows that he isn’t the real enemy, he’s decided to go ahead and play the role, at least until he’s gotten rid of Mighty Mike. And he’s got a good plan, too … until another evil genius shows up on the scene. That’s the premise of the second book in the series: The Mad Mask.

The Mad Mask appears to be some sort of technological wizard. Never seen without his black mask and green cloak (inspired by Dr. Doom, I think), the Mad Mask is an egomaniac who refers to himself in the third person. Horrifically scarred by plasma radiation, he fashioned the mask to hide his face and has his own nefarious agenda. But he seeks out Kyle for his assistance in building Unicron, a massive robot that will free them both of Mighty Mike. Kyle, impressed by the Mad Mask’s impervious force field and teleportation device, agrees to help — after all, if this is the end of Mighty Mike, it can’t be all bad.

The second book in the Archvillain series is sharp and funny like the first. I loved getting in the mind of Kyle, the misunderstood genius, who’s only trying to help but somehow always ends up looking like the bad guy. The mysterious Mad Mask is hilarious — he’s the sort of comic book supervillain who rants and raves, even to himself. What is the extent of his powers, and what’s the mystery behind his identity?

Again, author Barry Lyga proves himself adept at working in classic superhero tropes in a clever new way. Any kid who feels misunderstood by adults will appreciate Kyle’s internal dialogue and excerpts from his secret diary. The moment when the Mad Mask is finally unmasked is hilarious and unexpected — though it’s no surprise that the Azure Avenger is still on the run from the law by the end of the book.

If you haven’t read the first book yet, Archvillain is a really fun, action-packed book (recommended for ages 10-13), and The Mad Mask is a great followup. Now I have to wait another year for Book 3!

Disclosure: GeekDad received an advance reader copy for review purposes.

About the Book

About the Author

Paul H. Magid web site:
http://www.paulhmagid.com/

Paul H. Magid Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/KarmaNovel#!/profile.php?id=100002979900843

Lifting the Wheel of Karma Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/KarmaNovel

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Lifting the Wheel of Karma blog tour site:
http://liftingthewheelofkarma.blogspot.com/

Amazon buy link
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984016066?tag=tributebooks-20

Barnes&Noble.com buy link
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=dcSBhG3Rj8w&offerid=229293.9780984016068&type=2&subid=0

eBook
Price: $9.99

Kindle buy link
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005TJ3I4C?tag=tributebooks-20

My Take on the Book

What was amazing about this book was the way that in a slow but steady pace you are given the opportunity to look at the world in a different way. The book was captivating and engaging and I found that once I started the book I did not want to put it down. The spiritual nature of the book was amazing and I found myself being very interested in what the author had to say and the characters that he used to bring across his message. I think all of us are on a path or a journey in our life and this book makes you look at this path through a new lens and makes you reconsider the possibilities that may lie in front of you in the future as well. This was a great read!
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Image: Del Rey Books

Follow-up gifts can be tough.

That’s especially true if you know someone who got a YT-1300 Corellian Freighter for Life Day – or any similar celebratory occasion.

Fortunately, there’s the forthcoming Del Rey / Haynes Hardcover Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual for DIY starship owners – and possibly a few Star Wars fans who’ve imagined crawling around the Falcon tinkering with the horizontal boosters and alluvial dampers. (It’s not the first time UK publishing house Haynes has had some fun banking on its technical expertise: you can also pick up Haynes Manuals for Thomas the Tank Engine, the U.S.S. Enterprise, and Apollo 11.)

Created by Star Wars tie-in veterans Ryder Windham, Chris Reiff, and Chris Trevas, the Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual is a 125-page look at the Fastest Hunk of Junk in the Galaxy, from the history of its fictitious manufacturer to the place where Han Solo stows his spacesuit.

Given that Windham has written more than 50 Star Wars books, including Millennium Falcon: A 3-D Owner’s Guide, Reiff’s illustration credits included Jedi Path and Book of Sith, and Trevas has illustrated Windham’s Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, it’s no surprise to find this book jammed with all sorts of Expanded Universe details and meticulously-labled diagrams.

That said, I have to admit that I was a little taken aback when I opened it and found something a little less no-nonsense than the Haynes cover would imply.

Yes, I’m aware this is a work of fiction, but hear me out.

When I was a kid, my grandma gave me a copy of the first Star Fleet Technical Manual. And while the removable vinyl jacket carried the Star Trek label, nowhere in the book itself or on its plain red-and-black softcover was the TV show mentioned. The effect was a completely immersive — if somewhat dry — peek “behind the scenes” of the fictional Trek universe, and I loved it for that reason.

In contrast, the Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual is loaded with Star Wars backstory and photos and screen captures and artwork which, while entertaining, don’t really fit within the framework of an “owner’s manual.” Am I quibbling? Maybe — but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a fun book to read in its own right.

The opening chapter on the Corellian Engineering Corporation, for instance, not only explains some of the design elements of the YT-1300, but provides a ton of real-world inspiration for Star Wars kit-bashers and customizers, with its diagrams of different ship configurations and optional extras.

Beyond that, the book becomes an exploration of the Falcon itself, beginning with a look at the ship’s ownership history, then delving into the craft itself, with floor plans and console details and component cross sections. (Windham notes in the acknowledgements that some details about the ship which can be found in James Luceno’s novel Millennium Falcon were deliberately left out of this book so as not to spoil some details in Luceno’s work.)

You want technobabble? This book’s got it where it counts, kid:

Before Lando Calrissian acquired the Falcon, a previous owner had replaced the Avatar-10 with an Isu-Sim SSPO5 hyperdrive, which was augmented with numerous parts stolen from a Sienar Fleet Systems prototype Imperial Interdictor cruiser. The stolen parts included a hyperdrive motivator, Rendili transpacitors, paralight relays, and a null quantum field stabilizer.

The major strike against the Manual is that as enjoyable as it is exploring the Falcon through the in-depth text and technical illustrations, it’s not a hefty volume, despite being overly padded with familiar stock Star Wars images.

Still, for fans who revel in the details of that made-up galaxy, The Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual is pure interstellar smuggler daydream fuel.

Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of the book for this review.

Most of my Kickstarter loot … so far. Lots of board games, a couple books, and a lovely Wormworld Saga print.

Since I first started using Kickstarter, I’ve backed about 40 projects, some at the minimum “I just want to help” level and a couple at a higher level with bigger rewards. For the most part, I’ve supported a lot of board games, for which there’s typically a minimum level for the basic game without a lot of extras, but I’ve also kicked in for books, movies, apps, and other things as well. Of course, the hardest part about Kickstarter is that you pay the money up front and then have to wait for the work to be done — it can be a slow process, and difficult for those of us accustomed to instant gratification and cheap two-day shipping.

Of course, it’s also easy, when you don’t have the items in hand, to forget how much you’ve already spent on things that haven’t arrived yet. Toward the end of the year I had to put a moratorium on things for a while because I’d really spent more than my budget allowed, even though it meant missing out on some really cool ideas.

So, here’s a year-end reflection on the things that have arrived so far. I know there were at least a few that should be arriving shortly after Christmas, (like Carnival, for instance) but I’ll have to cover those later. For each item I’ll tell you when it was funded, when I actually received the rewards, what I think of it, and whether it’s available for purchase now.

Inevitable: dystopian tabletop gaming

This was my first foray into Kickstarter — it was actually funded in June 2010, but it’s the only thing I backed last year. It was also before I’d seen a lot of board game companies getting into Kickstarter for funding, and the rewards structure was still kind of a new thing. In this case, you could kick in for downloadable print-and-plays, but I pitched in at a higher level for the “deluxe” printed copy. That was kind of an expensive proposition, but I liked some of the other stuff by game designer Jonathan Leistiko, and I liked the idea of helping get something off the ground.

Inevitable was funded in June 2010, and I received it sometime in the fall or winter that year (I don’t have the exact date). The game itself is sort of like the game of Life or maybe Careers, except set in a dystopian future filled with black humor. I thought it was kind of fun, but not necessarily really deep as far as game mechanics go. I’d like to play it again but it’s certainly one that requires the right set of players. It’s available now at $45 for the printed version, or you can get the downloadable one for just $10.

Nora and Lucy; Horribly Heartbroken at Hogwarts

Ok, so Nora Renick-Rineheart and Lucy Knisley are pretty clever girls: they basically got over 300 people to fund a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter… in exchange for a comic about the experience. Now, I’ve read some of Lucy Knisley’s other work (including memoir/travelogue type books) and I like her drawing and writing style. Plus my wife really wanted a copy of the 25-page comic book. At $15 for a little zine-style book (it’s that little yellow book in the bottom left corner of the photo), it’s a bit pricey, but the book was pretty fun to read. And my wife got to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter later on.

Funded: January 8. Received … in April? You might be able to buy a copy from the Burrow’s Studio store, but it’s currently down so I can’t check to be sure.

Mathematician’s Dice

I funded these in February, and received them sometime around July. They’re a pair of dice, but instead of 1 – 6, they have i, 0, 1, φ, e, and π. Honestly I haven’t done much with them other than to add them to my dice stash, but they’re fun and were about $10. You can still buy them here, though they cost more now — here’s a case where backing on Kickstarter was a better deal than waiting.

Michael Zulli: Fracture of the Universal Boy

This is a comic book done by Michael Zulli. I hadn’t ever heard of him before, but I was impressed enough with the sample artwork and intrigued about the story, so I chipped in for a copy. It’s a large, gorgeous hardcover, but I had to wait a while for it: it was funded in March, and I received it just this past week. (Though I think there may have been a mix-up with my address when I moved. Note to Kickstarters: don’t collect addresses until you’re ready to ship! If it takes you eight or nine months to produce something, people may have moved by then.)

I’ve only flipped through it a little and haven’t sat down to read the story, but the production quality is great and the price seems about right for the size and length of the book — however, that is a long time to wait between paying for a book and getting it. It’s not for sale separately as far as I can tell, at least not yet.

Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew

If you didn’t back this at least at the $5 PDF-version level, you missed out. It’s a comic book about the crew that runs around inside a giant robot warrior, repairing things and keeping it running because the celebrity pilots are idiots. I mean, imagine the amount of maintenance that Voltron would have required, right? The best part about the comic is that you don’t ever actually see the robot from the exterior — it’s just all about the slightly crazy people who work in its bowels … and other parts.

I paid at the end of March, and have gotten PDFs of the three-part miniseries, though I’m still waiting for the printed copies, which I’m expecting soon. Not sure if this will be sold anywhere after they’re ready. If it is, you may want to consider picking it up — I would say it’s rated PG-13 to R, but anyone who grew up watching Voltron or other giant robot warrior cartoons will probably get the humor.

Book: The Stupidest Angel

Author: Christopher Moore

Recommended By: Ariane

Ariane says: This is one of my all time favorite books, period. While it’s technically the third in a series (prequels are Practical Demonkeeping and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove), it is still very enjoyable as a stand-alone book. I promise, The Stupidest Angel will have you laughing until you pee in your pants. After all, how many other Christmas books involve zombies? Warning: Christopher Moore is not an author I’d recommend to anyone who doesn’t enjoy a good swear word. Just saying.

[For more of Ariane Coffin's list of *good* Christmas books, visit GeekMom!]