Alcatraz Versus The Shattered Lens

Sanderson, B. (2010). Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens. New York: Scholastic Press.

292 pages.

Internetz, you have not been witness to it. But a great battle of wills was just averted. When my co-assistant and I learned that our boss was receiving an advance copy of the fourth book in the Alcatraz series, we went to war with one another. My boss's office was left in far from perfect condition. Her many books were tossed from their slumping shelves, torn to pieces. Shredded pages rained down like apocalyptic ash.

Who would get to read the Alcatraz book first?! She was willing to skip classes to read it. I was willing to set aside Dudley the Dissertation for Alcatraz. Who would win?

Perhaps some great power sensed that another war to end show more all wars was brewing. Perhaps somebody over at Scholastic can't read. But we were sent TWO COPIES of Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens. One for each assistant. (Our boss doesn't get to read it. When we informed her of this, she took it surprisingly well.)

Appetizer: The fourth book of Alcatraz's memoirs can be thought of as "the part where everything goes wrong, and then Alcatraz has a cheese sandwich." Alcatraz's words, not mine.

War has broken out between the librarians and the free kingdom of Mokia. Alcatraz, his friends and family hope to send reinforcements. But the Knights and other kingdoms won't help. So it's up to Alcatraz and his friends to figure out a plan. There's just no guarantee that it'll be a good one.

The resulting story involves a better understanding of the Smedry talents, meeting another Smedry cousin (this one is bad at math), lots of stoopidity and a nakey Alcatraz. (Naked, to you adult types.)

Hilarious!

I am SO amazed by Brandon Sanderson's ability to be consistently HILARIOUS throughout his children's books. I've tried to write funny in the past and it almost always ends painfully for me. And not in a humorous painful way with a bucket on my head and with boxers with little hearts exposed. Just painfully with me deciding to limp back into my serious (with moments of levity!) fiction.

(Sidenote: Have you heard of Writing Excuses? Sanderson co-hosts regular fifteen-minute podcasts about various aspects of creative writing. The podcasts are essentially an awesome writing MFA program that you can listen to at your leisure for free. I highly recommend listening!)

Where was I?

Hilariousness-ness.

The fourth Alcatraz book still had me chuckling. In this round, I especially liked Sanderson's approach to chapter titles. Some chapters are missing. (Gaps! The reader can fill them in! Funzies!) Others are titled according to some advanced math (Or advanced math for me. My brain stopped accounting for what those crazy numbers were doing after eighth grade.) Maybe the chapter titles are just nonsense. I wouldn't know the difference!

My biggest complaint about the book is the cover. I know I'm not really the target audience, but I really don't like the photoshopped appearance. Especially since it seems like Bastille is in the exact same position on the covers of both the third and fourth books.

Call me crazy, but I don't think that's the best stance for fighting a knight OR a giant robot. I guess I should just be impressed that they used the same models. Way to be cohesive!

It is worth noting that this book ends with more problems left unresolved than the other books so far. It gave the book a "the end of The Empire Strikes Back" feel. To be concluded in the next installment. So, stay tuned!

So now the wait for the fifth and final (*weeps*) book begins.

Sigh.

Dinner Conversation:

"I am an idiot.
You should know this already, if you've read the previous three volumes of my autobiography" (Author's Foreword).

"So, there I was, holding a pink teddy bear in my hand. It had a red bow and an inviting, cute, bearlike smile. Also, it was ticking" (p. 1).

"We'd need to put someone in danger who is so valuable the knights have to respond. But this person also has to be uncompromisingly stoopid. It's idiocy on a grand scale to send oneself directly to a palace on the brink of destruction, surrounded by Librarians, in a doomed kingdom! Why, they'd have to be stoopid on a colossal degree. Of the likes previously unseen to all of humankind!"
And suddenly, for some reason, all eyes in the room turned toward me" (pp. 27-28).

"If you've ever thought that books are boring, it's because you don't know how to read them correctly. From now on, when you read a book, I want you to scream the words of the novel out loud while reading them, then do exactly what the characters are doing in the story.
Trust me, it will make books way more exciting. Even dictionaries. Particularly dictionaries. So go ahead and try it out with this next part of the book. If you do it right, you'll win the bonus prize" (p. 37).

"...I haven't talked much about religion in these books.
This is intentional, mostly from a self-preservation standpoint. I've discovered that talking about religion has a lot in common with wearing a catcher's mask: Both give people liberty to throw things at you. (And in the case of religion, sometimes the "things" are lightning bolts.)" (p. 107).

"...We are faced by superior numbers and superior firepower. In the moments before you arrived, I had made the difficult decision to surrender. I was on my way to the wall to announce it to the Librarians."
The words hung in the air like a foul stench--the kind that everyone notices but doesn't want to point out, for fear of being named the one who caused it" (p. 113-114).

Tasty Rating: !!!!! show less

The Alcatraz series continues with the great humor and cleverness of the previous books, including a great running gag on chapter numbering. The book focuses in on the history and meaning of the Smedry Talents bringing alight some fascinating details. The story also finds Alcatraz and his friends in the middle of war, with all the loss and sacrifice that entails. While humorous and never comes to a point that death seems possible, the book does exposit on the frightening reality of children in war. Finally, Alcatraz makes an unexpected alliance. Another great book in this series, and I look forward to the next and final volume.

In the fourth book of the Alcatraz series, Alcatraz travels to Mokia to aid in the war the Free Kingdomers there are waging against the Evil Librarians. In the process, he'll learn more about the nature of Smedry Talents and the reason for the conflict between his Librarian mother and his father. Of course, silliness abounds as well.

These books continue to serve their purpose as silly and fun, although this book is darker than previous entries. Alcatraz is grappling with serious issues of identity, the ramifications of his Talent, and begins to recognize that the conflict between Librarians and Free Kingdomers is not as black and white as he originally thought it was. I didn't find the running gag of this novel as amusing as previous show more ones (mostly because I love things to be spelled properly). However, I did enjoy the bizarre chapter numbering in this volume (my personal favourite being NCC 1701). The chapter where the characters only speak using dialogue from Hamlet is also pretty amusing, although it may go over the heads of the intended audience a little. And of course, there are jokes about librarians. This time around my favourite passage was the following:

As you have probably noticed, Librarians don't conform to most people's stereotypes. Most of them don't even have stereos. Beyond that, they're not sweet, book-loving scholars; they're maniacal cultists bent on ruling the world. They don't like to shush people. (Unless it means quieting them permanently by sinking them in the bay with their feet tied to an iron shelving cart.) In fact, most Librarians I've seen are quite fond of loud explosions.

A satisfying continuation of the series. show less

This is a book for young boys. Sure a woman like me can enjoy it, but I enjoy it because I get in a tween boy frame of mind.
the Free Kingdoms are a Wonderland and Alcatraz is a boy Alice, believing in six impossible things before breakfast, but unlike Alice he is also a leader and a hero, so he triggers the events instead just flowing with the motions.

I had a pet peeve with the Alcatraz series, because of all the winning and sidetracking that Alcatraz, as the narrator does. But somehow in this book it didn't annoy me as much. Sure I rolled my eyes every time he commented on writing a chapter that didn't exist, or some event that did or didn't happen in the previous books and said to go and read it (or not read it).

This time the childish show more "I like you so I'll hit you" banter between Alcatraz and Bastille was dialed to eleven, to the point of the characters actually stating it.

But in the end this story is unfinished, in a life goes on and what you want is another story kind of way, but still with a looooooooot of loose ends and references to future events that, if Sanderson keeps Alcatraz promise at the end of the book, we'll never see, as this is supposed to be the final book in the series. show less

Alcatraz discovers just what he can do with his breaking talent when he really tries. This installment finds our hero questioning who is really evil and good. He also gets to be king (sort of) and experiences the heavy burden that leadership brings. There are hilarious things going on with chapter numbering, as well as traps for those naughty people who read ahead!

Winter 2020 (January);
Sanderson Syspean Challenge

(I'm playing catchup on around 20-30 books since January started, so this morning's books will likely be a bit of an overview looking back on series from two months ago.)

The Alcatraz series was an adorable romp to get into in December and finish through the beginning of January (which sets me up as ready to read the the 6th book in the series being published this year!!). I do find Alcatraz himself a little much at times, but I love the surrounding cast, and figuring out the Shemdry talents before they are explained. I love Bastille with the power of a million suns. I absolutely felt heart-shot at the spoiler of book five. As well, I always look forward to the 1-2 tongue-in-cheek, wholly show more correct references to/commentary on Harry Potter hidden in each of these books. show less

Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens is the fourth (and currently last) installment of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Brandon Sanderson ramped up the tension while still maintaining the lighthearted, humorous tone of the series. The reoccurring use of the word "stoopid" did get a little bit irritating at times, but each previous book in the series had some element or other designed for that purpose. Definitely hope that Brandon is able to write and publish the fifth book.