Winners' Guide to Essential ISEE/SSAT (Lower) Math Grade 4-5

 Winners' Guide to Essential ISEE/SSAT (Lower) Math Grade 4-5, A Anderson, Independently Published, 2019

For any student in Grades 4-5 who is about to take the ISEE/SSAT test, this book attempts to help by teaching the math portion, starting with the basics.

The topics covered in this book range from place values to geometry and statistics. Along the way, the student will learn how to round off numbers, arithmetic with decimal numbers, square and cube numbers, multiplying and dividing fractions, quadrilaterals, data organization and pie charts. For each concept, there are several pages of examples, along with review questions at the end of the section. 

This book does a very good job of taking the student through each concept, step-by-step. It is very much worth considering for your test preparation. 

Modern Disciples (Volume 3)

Modern Disciples (Volume 3), Ian Anderson, Outskirts Press, 2013

This is the third in a series of novels about several people who learn that they are the offspring of various ancient gods of antiquity. They also have unique abilities to help them fight non-human evil.

Lisa Mikoto (daughter of the Japanese god Izanagi) travels to a Japan in crisis. An unknown force has put a sort of permanent black cloud over the whole country, cutting Japan off from the sun. Electric power plants have been attacked, leaving electricity sporadic over the whole country. The famous Tokyo nightlife is dead. Anyone who can leave Japan, by any route, is doing so. Those who remain do not go out after sunset, because of carnivorous flying creatures looking for a meal.

Lisa's initial task is to look for a young woman from Texas who vanished, without a trace, several years previously. She is rescued from a sex slavery ring, and put on a plane back to America. The other five members of the group fly to Japan, and join Lisa to find the cause of the black cloud. Many evil creatures are thrown in their way to stop them, or, at least, to slow them down.

A Shinto ceremony will encourage Lisa's sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, to bring back the sun. An important part of the ceremony is the use of three very old mirrors, from Japanese folklore. The group has to travel considerable distances to get them. Naturally, the mirrors are not exactly in plain sight, just waiting to be found. This leads to more battles with inhuman creatures, including goblins and a giant spider. A major complication in the ceremony happens when the Shinto priest is murdered by the "bad guy" before he can finish. Does the sun return to Japan? Do all members of the group survive?

It's rare when the first three novels in any series are all excellent, but this author has done it. It has plenty of action, and the reader will learn more than they ever wanted to know about Japanese folklore. The reader will not go wrong with this book.  

Fantastic Voyage: Microcosm

Fantastic Voyage: Microcosm, Kevin J. Anderson, Onyx Books, 2001

This novel is about exploring the body of an alien...from the inside.

During a Soviet military operation in Azerbaijan, an alien ship is shot down. Instead of handing the escape pod, with an alien inside, to the Soviet government, the Deputy Foreign Minister ships it to Project Proteus. It's a Top Secret base located in an isolated part of the California desert. They have found a new method of exploration, by miniaturizing people and machines to microscopic size.

The escape pod resists all scanning attempts (x-ray, MRI, CT scan), so a specially-built vessel, with a four-person crew, is shrunk and sent inside (by drilling a needle-sized hole in the view plate). Once inside, they find lots of nano-machines, who treat the vessel as food, a threat or as raw materials to build whatever they are building. The crew is in the middle of a running battle/chase scene to keep away from the nano-machines. Unknowingly, the crew finds an On switch, which, among other things, opens the escape pod.

On the outside, the nano-machines easily make the jump to the two physicians who are examining the alien's body. Within a few minutes, the nano-machines transform the physicians into aliens. If even one of those nano-machines gets loose, it will create others and they will turn all of humanity into aliens before Earth can mount any sort of defense.

Inside the alien, the crew has been running from the nano-machines for so long that they no longer know where they are. The shrinking effect lasts for only a few hours, so it is very much in their interests to find any sort of escape route. Once they exit the body, they learn what has happened to the tow doctors; the original alien has also woken up. Can they make it out of the sealed room, while staying away from the three aliens, and not let out any of the nano-machines, before returning to normal size?

In my experience, Kevin J. Anderson has always written strong, well-done stories, and this is no exception. A person could question some parts of the story, but, for those who are new to science fiction, or have never read the original Isaac Asimov novel, this book is well worth reading.  

Modern Disciples (Volume 2)

Modern Disciples (Volume 2), Ian Anderson, Outskirts Press, 2013

This is part 2 of a series about a group of average humans who are actually offspring of the gods of antiquity. It is not just Greek gods, but also Norse, Japanese and Aztec gods, who are alive and well, and mating with present-day humans.

In this book, the group of six has been given three different tasks, forcing them to split up. Jane and Ryan head into the Nevada desert, looking for a drug factory that is creating a very powerful and very addictive drug. It happens to look and taste exactly like regular tap water.

After several days of hiking, they find the drug factory (by being taken prisoner). Among the other prisoners are several women who are used in all sorts of unspeakable ways, and members of a US Army unit who were ambushed while on a training exercise. They are guarded by a number of dark elves, and members of the Army unit who were induced to go over to the "dark side." It is run by Andre Wittenburg, the local crime boss, who knows exactly what Jane and Ryan really are.

To call conditions "brutal" is a huge understatement. Jane and Ryan free the other prisoners, and destroy the camp. They have to fight a mythical creature or two along the way. After a few days to recover, the six are back together and off to their next challenge. The tears of Freya (Norse goddess and Jane's mother) were encased in amber a millennia ago. It is very important that they not fall into the wrong hands. The group heads to a very restricted part of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the Florida Keys. It's the sort of place that no sane ship's captain would ever visit. There they meet another couple of mythical creatures (who really are not so mythical).

Most times, literary sequels are not as good as the previous book. That is not true in this case. If anything, this book is better than Volume 1, because the reader gets more of the back story. This is very much worth reading.  

Modern Disciples (Volume 1)

Modern Disciples (Volume 1), Ian Anderson, Outskirts Press, 2011

In a world where the gods of antiquity take human form and have been mating with present-day humans, one man begins to learn his destiny.

Ryan Hunter has been on his own for most of his life. One night, while accompanying a bounty hunter, Ryan sees some very strange things, and feels his godly "abilities" awakened within him. He soon finds himself, along with five other Disciples, in a hotel conference room in Orlando, Florida. Each are sitting next to their godly parents. It is not just Greek gods who are alive and well, but gods from many other cultures, including Norse, Aztec and Japanese.

The six are given a mission. They must travel into the Everglades, and kill a very special alligator. After several days trudging through the swamps, they find the alligator. Think of a giant, mutant alligator on steroids (that can climb trees). Later, the group finds a small town where they think can rest and recuperate for a few days. Strange things are going on in the town. All the women are dressed in very revealing outfits, and they all have blank looks on their faces. There are separate gatherings for men and women every night. Attendance, even by visitors, is expected. The group has to fight their way out of town.

Back at the same hotel conference room, the group learns of a fancy charity ball happening in the hotel. The organization's official address is an abandoned warehouse, and the people listed as the Board of Directors are all dead (no, they're not zombies). The group infiltrates the ball, and learns that, among other beings, vampires are involved. Do all members of the group survive their tasks? Do any of the group, three men and three women, hookup with each other? Do they stay together, and become the newest group of superheroes?

This book is better than excellent. The author does it the right way from start to finish. It has action, it has weirdness, and it has lots of good writing. I am very interested in reading future books in this series.

The Ashes of Worlds

The Ashes of Worlds, Kevin J. Anderson, Orbit Books, 2008

Last of a seven-book series, this is space opera on a grand scale. Galactic empires clash, and elemental beings wipe out entire star systems.

The Klikiss are an insectoid, hive-mind race who were thought to have been extinct for the past several thousand years. Well, they're not extinct, and they want their old colony planets back. The Klikiss are the sort of beings who don't take No for an answer. They are also in the middle of a major "civil war" to see which hive, or breedex, will dominate. With a death toll in the tens of thousands, new genetic material is needed to replenish the ranks, like from slaughtered human colonists on one planet .

Basil Wenceslas is Chairman of the Terran Hanseatic League (Emperor of Earth). He is increasingly isolated and psychotic. King Peter and Queen Estarra are able to flee Earth for the planet Theroc, where they set up a rival Confederation. Many human colony planets switch their allegiance to the Confederation, so Wenceslas sends the Earth Defense Forces to make an example of several colonies. The Ildiran Empire (another humanoid race) establishes an alliance with the Confederation, reducing the number of the Chairman's allies to near zero. The Chairman kidnaps the Ildiran Mage-Imperator, the Ildiran leader, and takes him to an EDF base on Earth's moon until he reconsiders the alliance. Ildirans have a sort of telepathic connection between all members of the race. If any Ildiran is cut off from that connection for any length of time, permanent insanity is a major concern.

Chairman Wenceslas comes up with the idea for an alliance with the Klikiss. He sends one of his senior Generals to negotiate a treaty. The General does not go out of loyalty; he goes because the Chairman does not think twice about holding hostage family members of his senior officers. The general discovers, to his horror, that the Klikiss have no interest in an alliance with anyone. Later, a Klikiss battle group shows up in Earth orbit, with enough firepower to turn Earth into a burned-out cinder. They want to talk to the Chairman, in person, now. He still thinks that he can get whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

This is what good space opera is all about. There is a helpful summary of the rest of the series, so the reader does not have to read it all to understand this book. But it's a very good idea, because the writing is that good. Separately or together, this is very much recommended.