Book Review: "Ungifted" by Gordon Korman

Title: Ungifted
Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Balzer + Bray, 2012

Donovan Curtis has always been one to act before thinking. He'll just get this urge and act on it, and then he'll have to deal with the consequences afterward. But when his impulses lead to the accidental destruction of the middle school gym, he knows he's made a huge mistake this time. Luckily for him, an error works out in his favor and sends him to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction and away from the wrath of Superintendent Schultz, who has conveniently forgotten the name of the student he caught red-handed. Unfortunately Donovan is decidedly not gifted in the same ways his new classmates, all with extremely high IQs, are. Yet despite how clear it is he doesn't belong, he manages to figure out just what the self-described nerds need. He just needs to be able to fake his way through the Academy in order to stay there and out from under the watchful eye of the man looking for him.

This was a really fun look at what might happen if an average kid was thrown in a group of supersmart ones, though it was not without its flaws. Donovan really throws a wrench into the relatively normal proceedings of the Academy, which is admittedly far beyond what you would see in a regular middle school. I really liked how Donovan highlights this; the smart kids get all sorts of advantages and a very nurturing environment in which to work and learn, as opposed to the dismal surroundings and equipment found at his old school, Hardcastle Middle, where each grade has about 300 students. Korman shows how the way students are treated and the tools they have can really make a huge difference.

This story was told with lots of humor, too. This is my first book I've read by Korman, but I hear this is pretty typical of his work. The situations that Donovan gets himself into, and that the Academy students end up in, are pretty funny to read about. Plus the characters themselves are funny, both in manner and in the things they say.

One of the things I most appreciated about this book was how Korman wrote about a realistically pregnant woman in Katie, Donovan's very pregnant sister who ends up being a huge part of the plot. He does not shy away from the physical discomforts about being pregnant, such as the constant need to go to the bathroom, swollen ankles, the difficulty of moving around, etc. She is grumpy about her situation, and the fact that she misses her husband who is serving in Afghanistan only adds to her character and fueled my sympathy. It's rare that I read about a pregnant character who is engaging in the way Katie is, and who kids might be able to relate to. No, they might not be able to relate to the baby stuff, but her relationship with her brother is something any kid with a sibling can get. Plus, now readers will know a bit more about Human Growth and Development.

Yet this novel had its flaws too. I had trouble with the incredible stereotypical image given to the kids at the Academy. All are smaller and shrimpy, physically weak, and pasty from lack of sunlight. I understand that Donovan and his "normalcy" are at the heart of the book, but it kind of gives the message that supersmart people are all supposed to look and act a certain way. I'm also unsure as to the amount of diversity in the book, though there was little to no physical description of the characters so that could be left up to the reader to decide the ethnicities of the students—mostly all I had to go on was "pasty," which doesn't really lend me to think there are many (if any) students of color. I wish there had been more description, and character development actually. Only a handful of people had more to their character than how smart they were and their special talents. We occasionally got a first-person perspective from secondary characters, but many are left completely undeveloped.

Despite the issues I had with the characters, Korman manages to tell a fresh, fun story about how a person's ungiftedness might actually be his gift. It's a story of teamwork, friendship, and robots, which are always fun to have around.

Disclosure: I got this book from my local library.

Audiobook Review: "Robopocalypse" by Daniel H. Wilson

Title: Robopocalypse
Author: Daniel H. Wilson
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2011 (print available from Doubleday, 2011)
Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

In the not-so-distant future, robots are everywhere. There are ones that act as servants, smart cars and buildings that can operate on their own, military robots, and hundreds more. They are everywhere, performing millions of functions. When man's quest for knowledge goes too far and a powerful artificial intelligence, known as Archos, is summoned, this is the beginning of the end. Archos takes control of all robots that are online, and humankind is under attack by the things it depends on in everyday life. This is the new war, in which billions will die. But humans aren't going down without a fight.

Told as a framed narrative by Cormac Wallace, who, at the end of the war, finds what he calls the "black box" of the whole robot uprising. It contains the stories of what it calls human heroes, starting from the very beginning and going to the very end. Cormac decides he needs to write these stories he sees played by this surviving robot in order for future generations to know and understand what their ancestors endured, and what was sacrificed.

This book has been getting a lot of praise, including winning an Alex Award (given to exceptional adult books with teen appeal), and it is all deserved. I have been wanting to read this since before its Alex Award, and I'm so glad I finally got around to it. This is a sci-fi book that belongs up there with the classics. Slowly building up to what becomes known as Zero Hour with isolated incidents having to do with what are dismissed as malfunctions, all hell breaks loose when Archos unleashes the full power of robot kind on humans.

I loved how the narrative was constructed. Cormac recounts each person's story either in their own words as he hears them on the recordings, or as he sees them from captured video. It was incredible to see how each person or group affected the rest of the characters or how they helped humanity with their actions. I loved seeing them all come together or connect through the course of the book. Though this book is filled with carnage and unspeakable tragedy, there is an undercurrent of the fierceness of the human spirit and the unbreakable hope that comes with it. It is filled with the deepest pain and love; when it comes down to it, we see what each character is made of.

My only problem with the book as a whole was how each first-person narrative was told in the present tense. I couldn't imagine people recounting these events in the present tense out loud, which is what we are told they are doing. But that's my only problem.

Mike Chamberlain did a decent job at narration. He made voices just different enough that the different speakers could be distinguished from one another, and he did a great job at unrolling the story at the right pace. Nothing stood out too much to me, but he told the story well and never took me out of it unnecessarily. And really, that's all this book needed.

Be warned, this is not a book for those who get queasy easily. There is a LOT of blood and guts. People die in horrible ways, in great numbers. But if you can get past that, I promise this book is worth it. It certainly deserved its Alex Award, as I can easily see teens reading and really enjoying this, and I hope more adults will pick it up too.

Disclosure: I got this audiobook from the library.