Customer Reviews

Singing the Dogstar Blues (Firebird Fantasy)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The acceptance of different sexualities in future societies has long been a staple of science fiction. To downgrade this book on the basis that it deals in part with homosexuality does it a disservice. If you don't like HOW it deals with the issue (meaning the writing is awkward, belabored, etc.,), that's one thing. To object because it DOES deal with it is a completely different situation. This book deals with the issue of who you are, both genetically and sociologically. Who you are depends so much on your experiences in life, the people who had an effect on you as you grew, your inborn personality, and the way you interact with the world and the way the world interacts with you. So yes, homosexuality is an issue in this book, but as part of a larger picture: if in the future, test-tube babies and genetic engineering become the norm, how will that affect our families? How will it affect our concepts of ourselves? But the issue of family is central: If a parent can't or doesn't provide the love and nuturing we need, it's vital to find a loving and supportive adult figure who can. If in this case, that happens to be Joss's mother's same-sex partner, so be it.

That issue aside, I found this a very good read. The characters were distinct and interesting. The situations were intriguing. It's not new for a science fiction novel to explore first contact with alien species, but Goodman's aliens have depth and texture, and the difference and similarities between the species are explored sensitively. I found the relationship between Joss and Mavkel a high point in the book. I loved Joss's rebellious, independent character, and I wanted to know more about her walk on the shady side. Between the characterizations and the well-developed sense of time and place, let alone suspense, the book definitely kept me reading.

(...) The book ends too quickly and conveniently. I saw most of the ending coming, and I found it a little obvious. I'll be recommending this book to readers, but it isn't quite at the top of my list.

Aliens. Aliens from a distant planet have landed on the Earth. The landing was expected and anticipated. Joss Aarrenson attends an academy so she can learn how to time jump (time travel) into the history or future. The aliens that land on the Earth are called Chorians. Joss is chosen to partner up with a visiting alien who wants to learn how to time jump. Mavkel was his name, Mav for short. Mav soon becomes closer to Joss, and after a little getting used to, Joss is treating Mav like a family member. Things soon get harder and harder for Joss and Mav, and Mav is falling further into depression and closer to death. Refmol, the chorian chanter, finds that Mav must be joined telepathically with another being if he is to stay alive. Joss is the only thing, and in this case hope, for Mav. She must find her father if she is to join with Mav, but she's been trying for as long as she can remember. Why Joss? Why Mav?
This story is told in a mysterious and futuristic way that is sure to make you want to keep reading until the end. It is hilarious in parts, and always leaves a question pounding in your head that you won't find out until you're finished with the book. A thrilling and entertaining story!

I really, really liked this book and I wish there was a sequel too. Joss is normal but also clever so I could relate to her and I love Mav. I was hooked from the very beginning and also go my brother who is 19 to read it and he liked it too. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and it was great to read about Melbourne in the future - the author really put some thought into that, and also the humour. The ending was really exciting too.

This book is one of my favourites, it varys from subjects like time and space travel to a slight racism. The charecter Mav is fantastic, i love this and the input of music as healing is fantastic, i would love it if there was a sequal

"Singing the Dogstar Blues" is that rare specimen of YA fiction called science fiction. That's right, not dystopia or rather dystopian romance, not sci-fi romance, but real deal sci-fi. There are no love triangles in it, no angst, no moping around boys. Gee, no wonder nobody read it. My library book was bought 6 years and looks as if nobody ever even touched it.

Joss Aaronson is a 1st year student at a time travel school. She is about to be paired up with her permanent TT partner who would accompany her on all her adventures. Her partner turns out to be the first alien admitted to the TT school Mavkel. For some reason he feels Joss is his perfect mate. Mavkel's race is deeply dual. Its species live in telepathically connected pairs. Mavkel needs to establish a psychic connection with Joss without which he can't exist. After several failed attempts to connect, the couple's last resort is to travel back into the past to seek the missing ingredient to assist their union.

Great things about "Singing the Dogstar Blues":

1) time travel! - I craved more of it though.

2) aliens! - Mavkel is the cutest alien with a fab personality and the whole concept of his society is very curious.

3) futuristic setting! - loved the cyberpunky feel of it.

4) emphasis on developing of friendship instead of romance!

5) a heroine who kicks ass and who is rebellious without being annoying.

6) mystery! - yes, an actual mystery involving assassins, sperm donors and DNA.

I mean, what's not to like here? Why aren't there more books like this? It is always such a pleasure to read teen books that are both entertaining, light and not dumb. I can't read Le Guin's complex and thought-provoking sci-fi all the time, right? Some fun teen sci-fi is necessary too.

Joss Aaronson is almost 18 and about to begin studies in time travel at the Centre for Neo-Historical Studies in Melbourne, Australia, circa 2050. She is the child of a sperm donor and a famous, newscaster mother who has had little time for her daughter, whom she sent away to boarding schools starting at age 12. Joss hides a soft heart beneath a cynical, tough, wise-cracking exterior. She tells herself that what's important in life is taking care of herself first, an example she learned from her neglectful mother. But she's very close to a fatherly bar owner with underworld connections whose life she saved when she hauled him out of the Yarra River before he was "mulched by the cleaning system." And when she has a chance to be paired at the Centre with a young alien visitor named Mavkel, she steps forward willingly, unlike most of her fellow students. They don't want anything to do with a Chorian humanoid who has floppy ears like a dog, two noses and two mouths, and struggles to speak out loud since his culture uses telepathy to communicate. When Mavkel does talk, it comes out like singing, and his destined profession on his planet before coming to Earth to learn time travel was to be a healer, using music as the means to achieve it.

Joss relates to the music, because she is an extremely talented blues musician who plays a mouth harp. She also relates to Mavkel's loneliness and isolation--she's felt that way all her life. However, she's not sure she's prepared to support Mavkel to the extent he wants and needs her to, by allowing him to forge a mental bond between them strong enough to allow them to communicate telepathically. Joss is afraid of being engulfed by such a close connection and resists, until she learns that without this mind link, Mavkel may die.

Unfortunately, the link cannot be made, even after Joss finally agrees to it, until she discovers who her father is. And that can't be achieved until she and Mavkel take a wild--and totally non-Centre-approved--trip through time to the day of her conception in a Petri dish.

I loved this book's characters, world-building and emotion-laden plot. And I consider it an amazing achievement by the author to inspire someone like me to feel this way because, frankly, I'm not a big fan of science fiction, which makes me a really hard sell. The main reason she won me over is that I'm a sucker for a great buddy story where two outsiders, who seem at the outset of the story as different as they can be, form a moving friendship by going through adversity together and protecting each other's backs. (One of my favorite examples of this kind of relationship is the Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder film from 1979, The Frisco Kid.)

I was in particular awe of the author for creating a character as wonderful as Mavkel. He comes across as completely alien and other, which is extremely important if the character is from outer space. And yet he's so intelligent and kind that I came to care for him very much right along with Joss.

As for Joss, I was really moved by how much she grows across the course of the story due to gradually, irresistibly, opening her heart to Mavkel. Her friendship with him involves being as sympathetic to his emotional pain as he is to hers, making it impossible for Joss to maintain her hard, defensive shell around him.

As much as I loved the book, though, I had trouble with the ending. Not because I found it predictable, as some reviewers here and elsewhere, who are obviously sci fi fans, found it to be. What bothered me is that the author used a time-travel paradox that I don't much like in that the logic doesn't make sense. Character's experience reactions to actions occurring during time travel *before*, not after, those actions occur, much in the way time travel is used in the first Terminator film. In order to avoid creating a spoiler, I'll use a metaphor to describe what I mean for STDB: Joss has a metaphorical "bruise" throughout the first part of the story that should not have been there at all (reaction), because the "punch" given during a time travel excursion that caused the bruise is not thrown (action) until the end of the book. I much prefer it when reaction follows time-travel actions in a logical sequence, such as in the Back to the Future movie series.

That quibble, however, did not spoil the book for me, because the world-building and great characters far overshadowed it. My only regret on finishing this book is that it is a stand-alone story. I would love to read more books about Joss and Mavkel.

This is how I rate the book:

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 4

Writing: 5

Mystery Plot: 4

Friendship Plot: 5

Overall: 5

It's been a while since I've read a straight-up science-fiction YA novel, and yet SINGING THE DOGSTAR BLUES proves to be one of the best of its genre. With a great protagonist and a fully realized world, this small book will suck you in so fast you won't even realize when you've lost your heart to it.

Joss is, without a doubt, my kind of girl. A bit jaded, a bit too smart for her own good, she is thoroughly entertaining to read about. Her tongue-in-cheek observations and flagrant disregard for Centre rules make her the opposite of the passive protagonist I typically dread in YA lit, and yet she's not so rebellious as to be unrelatable. She is, in a sense, the kind of "bad girl" most readers have secretly imagined themselves being.

Science fiction is difficult to write because it involves creating a thorough world and to consider the implications of adding any detail to the story. Luckily, Alison Goodman's world in SINGING THE DOGSTAR BLUES is remarkably believable and "real": I could very nearly see all that Joss sees through the sharp and precise writing.

The one complaint I had about this book was the predictability of the ending. I figured out how things were going to unfold several chapters before Joss did. This is a recurring weakness in Goodman's novels (her YA fantasy Eon: Dragoneye Reborn had the same thing happen), and yet doesn't majorly detract from my utter delight in reading this book. Overall, I can solidly recommend SINGING THE DOGSTAR BLUES as one of the YA science fiction novels ever written. Don't miss out on this one!

I almost didn't make it through this book (and that's unusual for me). It was obvious the author was building up to something right from page one, but the thing never got going until 7/8 of the way through! Then the final 1/8 all zipped by in a way that seemed way too easy and convenient and not worth all the buildup.
On the bright side, the narrator was a fun sort of character, a spunky girl with a history of trouble and an attitude that never quit. A good character lost in a mediocre, slow-moving plot.