I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: APHEX TWIN-“minipops 67 [120.2]” (2014).

I can’t write the whole title of this because the rest of the words make it seem like it is xml code, so it is not printing properly.  Well played, trickster.

Aphex Twin videos have no business being anywhere near a children’s book (even a book as dark as this).  But the music itself is pretty safe since it’s instrumental (or unintelligible vocals if there are vocals).

Anyway, this is the opening track from the first Aphex Twin album in thirteen years (really? yes!).

“Minipops” is the first single from the album (due out later this month).

It is less aggressive than what I think of as Aphex work (like say “Windowlicker”) but it is no less warped.  It opens with some complex drums and a simple but warped keyboard riff.  Some voices come in, and there may be words but I can’t make them out.

It actually feels like a kind of verse chorus build up.  Just before the half way point the music almost drops away leaving a simple keyboard and an even more processed voice.  By the three minute mark a new voice comes in, it is deeper and scarier, and it is followed by the most clean voice of all (although it is still quite fuzzy).  Again, I have no idea if words are being spoken, but there is a weird melody being vocalized.  And the music floating around seems to slowly get more and more distorted as the song lurches to an end.

It’s not my favorite Aphex Twin piece as it’s not as dynamic as some of his others, but I’m happy that he’s putting out an albums worth of stuff.

This video has no actual visuals (except what you see), so it is totally safe for all ages.

[READ: August 28, 2014] Countdown

Book Three of this series has an aspect that I really like and an aspect that I, like less

I’m starting with the part I liked less because it involves the main plot.  As we left the Cahill family in Book Two, they were in big trouble.  Rutherford Pierce had taken the super mega strong serum and his henchmen were closing in on Amy and Dan and friends wherever they went.

As this book opens Amy and Dan are racing through an airport to get to their private helicopter, when they are spotted by the paparazzi (Pierce owns the media and sends the paparazzi after them wherever they are).  On the other side of the airport are some of his serum-fueled goons, who are looking to stop them at any cost.  The kids run through the airport and make it to the helicopter just in time.

They start flying to Guatemala, where they are looking for the next ingredient for the antidote to the serum.  Suddenly the pilot puts on a  parachute and leaps from the helicopter, leaving the kids to land the plane in the Guatemalan ruins.

This was all quite exciting and I enjoyed it very much.  What I liked less was that after what happened in the last book–Amy going off on her own to spare the lives of her family and nearly getting killed–the boys are mad at her.  They barley talk to her and consider that she has betrayed them.  One of the things I have loved about the series was the bond that Amy and Dan had.  And I hate that this series has dissolved the bond and that Amy has felt like an outcast.  I understand it builds the drama and that there are many exciting elements to this approach, but it’s not what I read this series for.  I also realize that as this book draws to and end, the isolation of Amy become almost the point of this series, but it still changes the series in a way I don’t like.

After they are nearly killed, though, the kids bond again, and set off on their quest to find this missing element.

About midway through the book, when Dan is trapped, hanging off of a zipline with the goons threatening to finish him off, Amy does the unthinkable, she drinks the extra vial of serum that she has been carrying around with her.  She becomes superhuman–in an even more intense way the Pierce, whose version has been diluted.  But as they learned from their research, Amy knows that her days are now numbered–the serum kills in about a week.  She sacrificed herself to save Dan.

This is a wonderful plot point and of course wouldn’t be possible if Amy wasn’t already feeling isolated.  I only wish she had gotten to enjoy the powers of the serum before the debilitation kicked in.  (Well, she does get to enjoy some of the powers, at least).

Okay, now on to what I liked so much.  Nellie!  Nellie has a prominent role in this series and this book.  I love reading about Nellie.  I’m sure in part it’s because she is underutilized so everything is new with her.  But I also love her because she is a punk kid who likes cooking.  She’s a really interesting character who is brash and funny and doesn’t ever quit.  And she is an indomitable spirit who is great to read about.

Nellie has two boys who look up to her in this book.  One is a hacker named Pony.  I also love Pony.  True, he would be less interesting if a lot were written about him because he’s just a hacker kid (nothing wrong with hacker kids, but they don’t make for terribly compelling characters if all they do is hack).  But I like him because he’s also funny and he’s intrigued by the “bad” hacker April May (who doesn’t have much to do in this book).  The minimal contact between Pony and April was a nice emotional point for me.

Nellie’s other “boyfriend” is Samuel.  Samuel is the guy who accidentally gave the serum to Pierce in the beginning of the series.  Since then, Rutherford has forced him to work on the serum to perfect it and remove the side effects.  I worried that Nellie was going to be played with and that Samuel was really a bad guy, but thankfully no, Samuel has no intention of helping Pierce.  So Nellie has gone undercover to try to rescue him, and get him to modify the serum to save Amy.

There’s also a fascinating side plot that Pierce’s wife, who is basically a doormat to Pierce) may be a Cahill as well.  Such intrigue!

The ending of this book was very dark.  And while I know that Amy will survive (how can she not), it ended on a note of such pessimism that there was no compelling desire to jump into the final book–it’s not really a cliff hanger so much as a death sentence.  And I didn’t care for that.  And I have to say that if the apparent death of one of the characters is not proven to be false, I am going to be very angry at this series.