I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-“Get Out” (2014).

Sloan has a new album coming out next week.  It is currently streaming on Picthfork.  The album is like a small version of the Kiss solo albums (except that there is only one album) or like Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma (because it’s a double album and one side is kinda crazy). Each member of the band has written the songs for a side.  The imagery for the disc is a deck of playing card, and each member gets a suit:  Diamond (Jay Ferguson); Heart (Chris Murphy);  Shamrock (Patrick Pentland); Spade (Andrew Scott).  Even though I am a big fan of Sloan, I have honestly never been able to tell their vocalists apart. True, they do sound distinctive, but I can’t keep them straight at all.  So this album should help with that (and maybe see if there is one composer I like better–I don’t think so).

I chose this song primarily because it seemed to tie in well with this book and also because it a rocking song that last for less than 2 minutes.

The guitar comes rocking right at the start.  The verses are short and the bridge , a simple “Get out, you can get out” propels the song along nicely.  There’s a loud squalling guitar solos.  And a cool chorus with backing vocals.  And after two verses, two bridges and two choruses, the song ends.  A great soundtrack for an escape.

I’m looking forward to the release (although I won’t be getting the deluxe edition, sorry guys).

[READ: September 4, 2014] Flashpoint

In all of my time reading the 39 Clues, this is the first time I actually caught up to the series–I read this book almost in the week that it came out.  So if I was actually playing online with the clues, I may have been able to win whatever it is the online competition is.  Actually it’s quite rare that I read anything soon after it has come out, so that was fun in itself as well.

Okay, so this series has concluded with major 39 dude Gordon Korman taking over the reins.  And that made me happy, because he knows that the family working as a team is what is so important to the series.  And he got them working together again–even if it was because Amy was days away from death by the side effects of the serum.

As the story starts out (yes, I am still bitter about what happened at the end of Book Three–and I must report that that was not redeemed in any way, so yes, I am mad at the series for the senselessness of what happened to a favorite character of mine), Dan is being held prisoner by Galt Pierce.  (I love how nutty the Patriotist party is portrayed, and how easily susceptible people are to the platitudes Rutherford Pierce offers).  He and his sister Cara are trying to extract information from Dan.  Dan is given a truth serum and reveals some information, but then he takes a sleeping potion to knock himself out.

When he awakens, Galt threatens him, but Cara tells Galt to back off.  And then, unless Dan is mistaken, and he may be, she seems to help him escape from the plane that they are currently waiting in.  At the same time, Jonah Wizard’s plane is nearby (through some clever tracking by Pony), and they are able to rescue Dan.  Then they are off to Phenom Penh to find the final ingredient–the venom form a Tonle Sap snake.  Which means a trip through the amazingness that is Angkor Wat

Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, Nellie was captured in her failed attempt to rescue Sammy.  But Pierce keeps his enemies close.  And once it is discovered that Nellie is a great cook, he forces her to cook desserts for his guards and staff.  And they are all pretty psyched because she is a such a good cook.  She knows she is still in a prison, but it feels less intense since the guards actually seem to like her now.  But she and Sammy are still working on a plan to take down Pierce’s company (but not to hurt any of the guards who, are in fact nice to her and are really just doing a job–most don’t even know what Pierce’s company makes).

The final thread, one that has been very minor, but proves to be well executed, pulls tight when Debi Ann (Rutherford’s long suffering, un-serumed wife) finds Olivia Cahill’s book, stored in her room.  She sees a note about Hope Cahill an can’t believe that her husband is still thinking about “her.”  And yes, that is why Pierce has been so adamantly opposed to the Cahills–as punishment for Hope rejecting him all those years ago.  We also learn that Debi Ann is indeed part of the Cahill family line and she is pretty annoyed with how she has been treated.

The middle of the book features a traitor, who may yet be able to provide help to the Cahills.  And there is a surprising revelation about April May.

The end of the book sees the kids find the venom and create the antidote. But how can they possibly get it into Pierce and his goons?  And wait, why is Amy refusing to take it until she can complete the destruction of Pierce’s plan?  Oh and wait, what are the “secrets” that Pierce says he has buried around the world (well, actually we know what he is planning to do but the details were never made explicit as they are now)?

The end of this book was very exciting, with some last second surprises and the real possibility (given the other series) that some people will not be around for the final series of books.  This series ends with the question of whether Amy and Dan can possibly continue to live like this.  Dan wanted out from the beginning.  Amy wants out too.  There is a kind of epilogue (and we get to see Saladin again), and it looks like it will all be revealed in February when the final series, Doublecross (which is also the name of Sloan’s previous album), is released.