The Visitors series, Book 1 Peter Lerangis Scholastic Fiction, MG Sci-Fi Themes: Alternate Earths, Weirdness *****
Description
Thirteen-year-old Doug Moore is haunted by anger and sorrow. His loving father first began a slow slide into madness, then vanished over a year ago.
Though the whole nation, via talk shows and tabloids, has kept an eye out, not one true lead has surfaced. He doesn't know if he'd rather his father be
found dead or alive. Then, riding the train under Franklin City home from school, he sees his father in an abandoned station on the route. The thing is,
nobody else saw him, and the station has been closed off for decades. Perhaps he was hallucinating. Perhaps he was mistaken. Or perhaps Doug was seeing
into another world...
Review
This is a nice, dark little story, the first in a series. The Watchers themselves make little overt appearance. Between chapters, cryptic snatches of
conversation are printed, as though unseen outsiders watched and manipulated events in the boy's life, a creepy and interesting concept. There is a nice
twist to the tale, which I began to suspect a little ways in, but I still enjoyed the ending. It looks like the series is going to be a collection of dark
tales connected by the influence of the unseen Watchers.
The Visitors series, Book 2 Peter Lerangis Scholastic Fiction, MG Sci-Fi Themes: Time Travel, Weirdness *****
Description
Four years ago, Adam, Edgar, and Lianna were out on the frozen lake, practicing ice hockey and goofing off. Something went terribly wrong, and Edgar died,
falling through a crack in the ice. Adam has never been able to remember the accident, but he can't shake the feeling that he himself killed his best friend,
despite everyone's assurances that it was nobody's fault. Now, he has found a special camcorder that shows the past. If he can find out what happened, maybe he
can do more than relive history. Maybe he can change it...
Review
Another impressive tale, you don't have to read Book 1 to enjoy it. Aside from the between-chapter observations of the never-explained Watchers, this is
essentially a stand-alone story. Again, even though I had an inkling of what really happened on the ice, it was suspenseful to follow Adam as he struggled to not
only figure it out himself, but to rewrite the last four years of his life... learning for himself the difficulties of rewriting history. Like a junior version
of the classic Twilight Zone, this is a promising series that should've had a solid future.
The Visitors series, Book 3 Peter Lerangis Scholastic Fiction, MG Sci-Fi Themes: Altered DNA, Weirdness *****
Description
From her earliest memories, Eve has known that she was different. When her parents told her that she was adopted, she wasn't surprised. Now, the life she
has come to accept is about to fall apart, when a chance encounter leads to mysterious clues about her origins... and possible fate.
Review
Another wonderful, creepy installment of this superior series. This one had a few extra twists that I didn't see coming. As always, watching Eve maneuver
through the nightmare that her life becomes is most of the fun.
Jake Branford is obsessed with war. He spends most of his time in his mind, reliving battles and dreaming of glories he was born too late to witness.
When a movie studio sets up to film a Civil War-era piece in his town, he is ecstatic. Soon, he finds himself on the set of the movie, which seems a
little too real, even for Hollywood...
Jake has always wanted to see real battle, to know how it feels to be a real soldier in a real war. He just may get his chance...
Review
Another excellent tale in this excellent series. As an added bonus, more is told of the mysterious Watchers, and a hint that they might figure in more
prominently in future stories. As for Jake, he learns that imagination can only take you so far in recreating the past, and predicting one's own reactions
to the realities of war.
The Visitors series, Book 5 Peter Lerangis Scholastic Fiction, MG Sci-Fi Themes: Time Travel, Weirdness ****+
Description
Thirteen-year-old Rachel feels like she is having her childhood sucked away. Her parents are already setting her up to follow in their high-stress careers, with
private schooling, a college degree, and everything. Rachel doesn't want to grow up to become them, but it doesn't look like she has much of a choice. The only person
who understands her is her grandfather Clemen, who, despite tragedy in his own childhood, is very much a kid at heart. At her grandfather's birthday celebration,
Rachel unexpectedly runs into another kindred spirit, a busboy named Colin who is at once dangerous, sympathetic, and enigmatic. Now, they're heading out on a cruise,
in honor of Clemen's birthday. Colin gives her a choice: stay with the ship and be criticized endlessly by her parents, or take a chance and go for a swim with him.
Grow up, or stay as she is... possibly forever.
Review
I thought this story was a little weaker than the other Watchers books. It took longer to get going, and seemed to wander about the plot more than the others. I also
didn't quite connect with the characters as well. Still, this is a very good story in a top-rate series.
The Visitors series, Book 6 Peter Lerangis Scholastic Fiction, MG Sci-Fi Themes: Altered DNA, Weirdness *****
Description
With his parents working for a special government lab, Sam Hughes is used to secrets. He's used to strange lab notes, long hours of isolation, and the
sensationalistic fears of others about what they're up to in their top-secret facility. Little does Sam suspect that one of those secrets touches on his life
in a very personal way, and all those wild speculations tossed around by others may not be wild enough to explain it.
Review
This was back to the series' old form, after a less impressive fifth installment. Even I didn't quite see the ending coming right away. I have seen no word
on whether or not the series has been picked up for a longer run or not, but I hope it has been. Word is, and this book seems to substantiate it, that the
Watchers themselves were to have been developed further, should the contract be renewed. (The latest info I have read indicates that Watchers was not picked up
for any more books, despite winning a couple awards. Very disappointing - this could've been quite an interesting series to have watched develop.)
