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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wild and Whimsical Joy Ride Through Time and Space, November 2, 2009
This review is from: The Doom Machine (Hardcover)
Mark Teague's work --- his artwork, at any rate --- is instantly recognizable to anyone who has known a kid in the last dozen years. His hilariously inventive illustrations for such books as HOW DO DINOSAURS SAY GOODNIGHT? tell stories in their own right. Now, with THE DOOM MACHINE, his first work of intermediate fiction, Teague proves that his storytelling skills don't start and stop with illustrations, but he is quite a talented writer as well.
Let me set the scene for you. The year is 1956: the dawn of the Cold War and the height of the country's infatuation with all things outer space. Jack Creedle is a paper delivery boy in the small town of Vern Hollow. He tries to stay one step ahead of the town police chief (and the chief's bullying son, Grady) while not worrying his well-meaning mom too much and spending as much time as he can "borrowing" supplies from the local junkyard to fix up old cars. Perhaps inspired by his Uncle Bud, a dedicated inventor, Jack is a talented, budding mechanic. So it's good thing that he's around when Dr. Shumway and her daughter roll into town and can't roll back out again because their car has broken down. Young Isadora is an aspiring scientist --- with some surprising skills --- who looks up to her accomplished mother but wishes she had a little more excitement in her life.
It turns out that Isadora is about to find excitement in spades. There have been recent reports of extraterrestrial activity in Vern Hollow, and, although Dr. Shumway and Isadora don't believe a thing until they have found empirical evidence, pretty soon empirical evidence finds them. Determined to escape from the quarantine imposed by the Outer Space Division of the U.S. Army, they load up Dr. Shumway's newly souped-up station wagon with Uncle Bud and his destabilizer machine (cleverly disguised as a refrigerator) in tow. When they encounter an alien search party, they (and the extremely valuable machine that can create holes in space) find themselves taken on board the huge flying saucer, prisoners of a ruthless alien commander named Xaafuun who just can't stand "ooman bings."
Mark Teague's debut novel is a nonstop adventure, a wild and whimsical joy ride through time and space. What's remarkable is how Teague manages to include semi-serious ideas about time travel, quantum mechanics and relativity into what is, in the final analysis, an exuberantly ridiculous plot, an homage to the adventure stories of yore. In the style of old 1950s science fiction television shows and movies, THE DOOM MACHINE is a crazy combination of fact and fiction (okay, mostly fiction) as Jack and company encounter dozens of different alien species as they careen through space on an interstellar journey that none of them (or any of Teague's readers) will soon forget.
And, of course, the novel just wouldn't be complete without Teague's own numerous illustrations scattered throughout, bringing to life even more vividly the crazy worlds of his imagination.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Fridge of DOOM, April 8, 2010
This review is from: The Doom Machine (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
During the 1950s, Earth was visited by giant monster alien spiders planning to take over the entire universe, when they made off with a common household appliance!
Sort of.
What really happens is a little more complicated, but only if you ask the right people, like Jack Creedle, the kid mechanic in Vern Hollow, or Isadora Shumway, or her mother, a scientist who found herself stuck in Vern Hollow with a bunch of crazy people who think there are aliens. You might also ask Joe, the homeless guy who seems to know an awful lot about aliens, and not just the skreeps (those giant spiders I mentioned). The guy to ask about the fridge would be its inventor, Jack's uncle Bud.
Even though it looks like a common refrigerator at first glance, it's actually an amazing scientific invention that would allow spaceships to navigate freely through wormholes and stuff -- meaning that, if the skreeps get it, they could go anywhere in the universe in a moment. And guess what? The skreeps get it. They also get Jack, his uncle, Isadora, her mom, Joe, and the cop and his son.
Can you imagine -- stuck on a spaceship, watching Earth get smaller, with bunches of evil giant spiders, and nothing to eat but what giant spiders eat????!!
It's a good thing Jack and Isadora are a good team. First they manage to repair the ship in a timeless moment before it crash lands and before anyone notices (don't ask, you'll only get confused), then they manage to escape onto Arboria and find the local rebels while skillfully evading their skreep pursuers (and the cop and his son), and they make friends with a cool scary ultra-powerful monster, then they manage to get off of Arboria, then they-- wait, you're going to read it, aren't you? I'll stop there.
With skreeps and tree things and hoolies and time paradoxes, you're in for a few bursts of creativity among snatches of 'Oh My Darling Clementine' and 'Leaving Cheyenne' from Joe. To make it even better, you don't have to moan through Jack and Isadora's thoughts about each other, because real stuff is happening!
The spiders are a little scary, especially the commander of the ship, Xaafuun, eager to please her queen with gifts of the ultimate fridge and a handful of Uurthlings. But they aren't all bad -- you'll have to read it to find out about that!
Has your refrigerator been making weird sounds lately? Because mine has, and frankly, I'm a little worried.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Doom Machine, February 12, 2010
This review is from: The Doom Machine (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This book took me back several years to when science fiction was starting with aliens and kidnapping and space ships! Not exactly 'literature', but fun to read, no matter how unlikely the action is! As the 'hero' and his friend are both young, I can't tell for whom the book was written, but enjoyed it anyhow.
Jack Creedle is a kid who can fix any engine going. His Uncle Bud has a secret invention that could change the universe. Scientist Dr Shumway and her daughter, Isadora, had their car break down just as they got into town.
Jack saw a flying saucer land in the woods as he was delivering papers. The commander of the saucer, Xaafun, appeared on local TV to reassure the 'ooman bings' that they mean no harm, a blatant lie as they mean to conquer 'uurth' as soon as they get Uncle Bud's invention. They intend to take it to the home planet, make a lot of copies, then grab as many planets as they wish. (As the skreeps look like giant spiders and are extremely ruthless, this did not reassure the town inhabitants, and most left.)
Jack fixes the Shumway's car, but is caught speeding by Sergeant Webb and his son, Grady. As Jack isn't old enough to have a license, he takes off and gets away. Isadora was with him.
The army comes to town to fight the skreeps. In the meantime, Jack, Isadora, Uncle Bud and his invention, and the Webbs are kidnapped by the skreeps and off they go through the universe. It turns out that Bud's invention was secretly funded by the skreeps as it will make traveling from system to system much faster. The skreeps life style is to ruin one planet, then take over another for themselves. Bud keeps stalling them on copying, saying he needs one thing and another!
After many adventures on different planets, it all ends well. The skreeps are defeated on their home planet, and the ooman bings are safe!
This is a good book to read if you like science fiction. It certainly isn't deep, and not much science, but it is entertaining. Kind of like some of the old pulp magazine stories.
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