Review of Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle

Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle is the last book in the Austin Family series. In this story Vicky Austin is granted a very generous gift from a friend of the family to take a trip to Antarctica. Vicky is very excited about this trip until she receives some anonymous warnings from someone who would prefer her to not go on the trip. She disregards the warnings and goes on the trip anyway and finds herself in the middle of an international conspiracy and her life is put in danger by those who think she knows more than she actually does. This was an ok read, but it was a bit tedious in places. I think I actually enjoyed the descriptions of scenery and the characters interactions with the wildlife than I did the actual plot of the story. One thing I didn't like that much was the use of a flash forward scene at the beginning of each chapter. In general this is a literary device that I don't enjoy and find that it just makes the story harder to follow.

I don't think it's strictly necessary to read any of the other books in the series before reading this book, but I would recommend reading the rest of the series first, plus The Arm of the Starfish, if you'd like some background information on the characters and previous events in their lives. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of The Austin Family series or of the author, but I'm not sure how much someone not familiar with the series would get out of this book.

Review of The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle is the story of a young man named Adam Eddington who has landed a summer job abroad with a renowned marine biologist, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe. Due to unforeseen circumstances he winds up caught in the middle of an international conspiracy between Dr. O'Keefe and those that would steal his work. Adam must figure out who he can trust and decide whose side he wants to be on, but this decision is not as simple as he would like.

This book was an ok read. It was mostly a mystery thriller type novel with some light science fiction mixed in. The scientific concepts presented in the book were very interesting and there was a good bit of action as well. I'm not sure I entirely liked where the book ended though and felt it could have done with one more chapter to provide some additional closure, but I suppose the author wanted to leave that up to the reader's imagination. This book crosses over with L'Engle's Time Quintet series and features characters from that series, but all grown up with children of their own. This book takes place between books four and five of the Time Quintet and while it's not necessary to read the first four books before reading this book, I would recommend reading this book before reading the fifth book of the Time Quintet.

Review of The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'Engle

The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'Engle is the second book in the Austin Family series and takes place a couple of years after Meet the Austins. The father of the family gets a new job and they have to move, but they decide to take a road trip/camping vacation all across the country first to bond as a family. I'd say that a lot of the book was fairly dull and just described the various places they visited, though some of the scenery descriptions were quite nice. Things did get more interesting when the main character met a guy at one of the campsites and they seemed to become instantly fascinated with each other and he actually followed/stalked her around the country much to her delight and her family's dismay. There was still a lot of dull filler type stuff after that with a few exciting events here and there, but I did enjoy reading about the budding relationship which had a lot of ups and downs. Overall I'd say that I enjoyed this book a bit more than Meet the Austins, but I probably wouldn't rate it as more than three stars. There was one brief reference to A Wrinkle in Time which really made me smile.

Review of Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine isn't sci-fi or fantasy. In fact it isn't even fiction, but since I've been on a Douglas Adams kick lately I decided I wanted to give this book a chance. The book basically details the travels of Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine around the planet to visit/research endangered species. It makes for a very good story and it is quite educational and humorous. I think anyone who is a Douglas Adams fan would enjoy reading about his real life adventures.