This book was very interesting! I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the next! ( )

Exciting story with interesting characters and a mystery hinted at but not solved in this book; there's a second book. Space cadets on what should be a training mission must battle the enemy. But all is not as it seems.

The Planet Thieves was a fun book. It's absolutely true to the sci-fi genre and I applaud that, as that's not so common for the middle grade crowd. It's action-packed and doesn't really give you time for a breather - not necessarily a bad thing.

I really liked Mason. He's placed in a tenuous situation and the kid, despite being young and inexperienced, dives right in and takes charge. I can totally get down with an MC like that. There is a lot of focus on the friendships and you get a real sense of camaraderie from the characters.

The aliens were pretty badass. I guess I expected them to be less badass, due to this being a MG book, but no. As a matter of fact, in comparison with another alien book I read simultaneously to this one, [b:The 5th Wave|16101128|The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave, #1)|Rick Yancey|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1359853842s/16101128.jpg|19187812], The Planet Thieves was the one to deliver on the alien front.

Despite its merits, it did fall a little short for me. It's definitely a MG read and unlike some of its kind, doesn't cater much to the older crowd. That's not to say that Krokos dumbed it down for the audience, because he didn't, but to me it read much like Shusterman's [b:Everlost|688191|Everlost (Skinjacker, #1)|Neal Shusterman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344390770s/688191.jpg|674547] in that it was an intelligent read with some great ideas, but in the end it's a little too fantastical for the older reader aka the old farts like me.


I definitely recommend this for the age group it's intended for or for older die hard sci-fi MG readers.





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Just like watching a Star Trek episode in your head!
Reviewed @ My Shelf Confessions

The Planet Thieves was a super fun, fast-paced romp filled with action, heroism and a touch of sadness!

Mason is our young protagonist, a cadet spending some time on one of the Earth Space Command’s greatest ships, the Egypt. His sister, Susan just so happens to be an officer on the ship. I loved susan and the relationship that is evident between them. When siblings have a shared crisis in their past, it changes them and the sort of bond they share. I recognized this and it made me wonder if the author had this sort of intimate knowledge or if he just writes that good!

I finished The Planet Thieves in one afternoon. From the time I started I did not want to put it down. It reminded me of my childhood when I would watch episodes of Star Trek. I’ve already pushed the book onto one friend’s son knowing he would love it. Mason is a smart kid but easily bored, and seems to have some issues with authority. Sometimes his mischievousness gets him into the hot seat. I adored some of his insightful inner dialogue.

An example of why I love Mason:

Mason knew what it was like to say things you didn’t mean, to just have them vomit out, and then feel that crushing ache when you realized you could never pull them back. – pg22

Though adults don’t have a lot of front time in The Planet Thieves, the ones that do get some face time are awesome. Mason’s oldest sister Susan is a great person. What’s great about his relationship with her is he actually listens to her and remembers the things she says:

Sometimes, if she was afraid, she’d take all her fear and gather it up and turn it into anger. Anger didn’t paralyze the way fear did. It was the opposite of being helpless. But it was dangerous too, because you could end up being angry all the time. – pg 48

Susan had told him once that bravery was when you wanted to pee your pants, but you kept fighting. – pg 56

Now every good space adventure needs alien villains – and oh boy do we have them here. They are in these crazy suits and you don’t get to see what they look like for awhile. They could not be summed up any better than the crazy rumors that circulate among the kids:

The Tremist were aliens bent on annihilating the human race. The uncertain: They had better technology and, depending on who you talked to, would probably win the war. They were vampyres inside of human-shaped spacesuits that resembled armor worn by ancient knights of Earth. And they wanted to drink your blood. – pg 13

What is all boils down to though is this is a tale of bravery and self sacrifice. Mason is willing to do a lot and give up everything in order to do the right thing and to save those he cares about. No matter how scared he is, he has some awesome morals and these are things that I loved. Plus I just love the slightly military feel to the book. Below are my two absolute favorite quotes from The Planet Thieves. I always know when I’m REALLY loving a book when I’m pulling quotes out left and right to save.

He’d read in a textbook once a quote by the famous Captain Reynolds: I am not a brave man. But bravery, like most things, can be faked. And sometimes, in rare instances, it will lead to the real thing. – pg 101

A hard soldier is a strong soldier is a living soldier. – pg 105

*A review copy of this book was provided by the Publisher. All opinions are my own. ( )

The Planet Thieves

Author: Dan Korkos
Release Date: May 21, 2013
Publisher: Macmillan, Starscape, Tor/Forge
Source: NetGalley DRC
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction

Review Spoilers: Mild

Don’t let the childish cover or the uninspired title fool you, the Planet Thieves is actually quite a fantastic Middle Grade science fiction story. I don’t blame you for being skeptical. But if you don’t believe me at first, hopefully you will after this review. Or, if you don’t want to take my word for it, how about Warner Bros.? Apparently they optioned the book for film back before it was published so they have a lot of confidence in it. I’m not sure what they’ve got planned for it now. But hey. That’s pretty good, eh?

Anyway, let’s talk about the Planet Thieves.

At first, I was skeptical. Even a good twenty percent of the way through the book I was a little uncertain about what I thought or where the story was going. It starts with a thirteen year old boy named Mason Stark planning to prank his older sister, Susan, while she’s working aboard the Egypt – a ship serving under Earth’s defensive fleet. He’s a cadet working his way up to a command position in a rather similar fashion to Ender’s Game except far less dark and edgy. This Academy seems to raise well adjusted children – even if they also start their training at a young age. (The youngest cadets with Mason’s group were apparently seven years old.) The ultimate goal is to prepare them all to protect Earth from the Tremist who are a humanoid alien species in constant battle with the Humans over a picturesque planet called Nori-Blue.

Unfortunately, what is really just supposed to be a glorified ride along for Mason and the others turns into something much more after a Tremist attack. Suddenly they are forced to fight back against an overpowered and technologically superior force that children should have no hope against. But they aren’t just children. They are soldiers. Mason, his friend Merrin – whose origins turn out to be far more mysterious than anyone had thought, Tom – the captain’s son, and the others band together to try and fight back the Tremist threat that has overrun the Egypt to save not only their families and fellow crew but possibly even Earth itself.

Like I said, at first, I was a little skeptical. I wasn’t sure I really liked Mason much as a character but he grew on me. The plot moves very fast and it unlike lot of books where the main characters are children in extraordinary circumstances I don’t think I ever doubted that these were thirteen year olds. A lot of the time I imagine characters being older but I never had to think of Mason, Merrin, Tom, Stellan, or any of the others as older. The characterizations were written very well and you never really doubted that they were still kids. Yes, they had the sort of training they needed to do these things but in the end they were still kids, they still had their weaknesses, and they were still guided more by emotion at times than anything else.

I could have done without all the stuff with Nori-Blue towards the end because it seemed a little out of place compared to the first part of the book. It was a bit Avatar-esque to me. I hate Avatar. At the same time, though, as a science fiction thriller it works very well. And there are plenty of other moments in this book that just sort of blow you away because they are so fairly shocking. At no point was i ever board. I really appreciated a lot of the choices the author made in telling the story for the most part and I think that anyone who read it will really enjoy it. He also is a very vivid writer, providing really great descriptions of things at times. He was very good at describing the Tremists and their uniforms as well as the ships and everything. There are a few pictures in the book but, honestly, I didn’t see the need for them. Krokos did a really good job leaving it to our imagination to fill in his gaps.

This is one of very few books any more that I’m glad to hear there will be a sequel to because I like Mason Stark. I would like to see him continue to grow and develop as a character.

Final Thoughts:
If you can get past the title and cover to give this book a chance you won’t be disappointed. There are a lot of little mysteries, a lot of ‘WTF’ moments, and plenty of great dynamics that make this a very interesting story. It’s a middle grade book through and through but that doesn’t distract from anything. You’ll enjoy it! ( )