Glory (The Dust Chronicles, Book Three)

by Maureen McGowan

Skyscape

978-1477817261

312 pp.

Ages 13+

June 2014

Please read this review only if you've already read Deviants and Compliance, Books One and Two respectively, in Maureen McGowan's The Dust Chronicles.  I'd hate for you to miss out on the twists and turns of the plot that have led the way to Glory.

Glory Solis has experienced quite a trajectory from her dismal life in Haven hiding her brother Drake's deviance as well as her own, and believing that their father Hector had murdered their mother before he was expunged to outside Haven, ostensibly to attempt to survive attacks by Shredders.

Glory, her best friend Jayma and Glory's former dating partner Cal have now joined Drake and Hector in Concord, having escaped the clutches of the evil Mrs. Kalin, who uses mind control to manipulate the masses.  But, although Burn, the young Freedom Army (FA) fighter with whom Glory is romantically entangled, has helped them escape, his apprehension about hurting her when his deviance arises is pulling them apart.

A well-orchestrated Shredder attack on Concord, when Rolph and the FA are away, has Glory suspecting Mrs. Kalin, even more so when she taps into the mind of a female Shredder.  This Shredder, who Glory hides away in a concealed cellar to limit her access to Dust, had been a Haven employee before entering Hospital, Mrs. Kalin's domain, and then sent out to

"Find the girl.  Bring the girl.  The President needs the girl." (pg. 77)

While the FA works at forming treaties with another Outside community before launching its ultimate attack on Haven, Glory's focus is on finding her missing father; resolving her attractions to both Burn and Cal; helping the female Shredder, Caroline, get off the Dust; and easing Burn's conviction that he is a monster, having been abandoned by his family for this reason. Add the hostility of the revenge-seeking Zina, a long-lost Shredder relative, Jayma's newly-found Deviance (or gift), and the death of a significant character, and Maureen McGowan has brilliantly composed a spectacular conclusion to The Dust Chronicles. The writing is tight, the subplots intricate, and the resolution gratifying.

But, beyond the story, I think the success of Glory and the entire series is the flawed nature of the characters.  Regardless of any deviances, they are imperfect, making both poor and better choices; conflicted by what they see or hear and what they feel; readily jumping to conclusions, often incorrectly; and continuing to try to resolve situations well. And they don't know in whom to place their trust. Trust is a very fragile commodity.

In a dystopian world in which time is measured relative to the coming of the Dust–BTD represents "before the Dust"–perspective and perceptions are flawed, based on limited communications and movement, as well as wholesale propaganda about the Dust and the ensuing social hierarchy.  It's scary to see how easily a dystopian world arises after a cataclysmic event.  (This is especially frightening when I consider the current climatic evidence of global warming.)  And, even though there are supernatural elements that wouldn't correspond to anything in our world, it is reassuring to know that there are those  who care about the welfare of others, first and foremost, and work towards ameliorating prejudices, addictions, and hierarchies that hide greed and aggression.  The people of Haven, Concord, Houston, and Fort Huron are too realistic to be discounted but Maureen McGowan presents both possibilities (e.g., mind control) and impossibilities (e.g., displaying protective scales) to disquiet and reassure the reader.  Couple that with an ingenious plot and a little romance, and that's a hefty accomplishment.  

New covers for the entire Dust Chronicles

Maureen McGowan will be reading at this year's Eden Mills Writers' Festival. Come out on September 14, 2014 to meet Maureen McGowan and other youngCanLit authors.  It's always a great time!

A Call to Battle: The War of 1812, Alexander MacKay, Upper Canada, 1812

by Gillian Chan
Scholastic Canada
978-1-4431-0006-9
195 pp.
Ages 8-12
September, 2012

When the War of 1812 began, Alexander "Sandy" MacKay was only 13 years old, and helping on the family farm near Ancaster.  As clearly as he hears A Call To Battle, determined to join his father and older brother, Angus, in the militia, Sandy is instructed to stay behind with his mother, three younger siblings and two older sisters.  So begins Sandy's recount as he looks back on the events that have lead him to his current journey to Pennsylvania in 1820.

While 1812 progresses from the president's declaration of war in June through to the victory at Queenston, the loss of General Brock and the Yankees' fear of Tecumseh, Sandy knows little of battle experiences except as recounted to him by those returning home.  When his father is stricken with a debilitating case of gaol's fever, as is Angus but less severely, Sandy is disappointed to hear few details about heroic deeds and the glory of war.  He sees shame in the retreat of the British when the Americans capture York in the spring of 1813 and cowardice in his new brother-in-law, Eric, who does not go to war.  Regardless how his father urges him not to be so quick to judge and to look for vain glory, Sandy pursues opportunities to engage in the War.

As the War of 1812 moves into 1814, Sandy finds himself on the outskirts and then in the midst of battles, and sees the reality of war.  His enlightenment is slow but sure, seeing the death toll and drudgery of moving and burying the dead, and then the horror of death in both the British and American ranks.  He may finally experience the reality of war as he craves but Sandy can see beyond his initial expectations and ...

"cried for shattered dreams of glory and adventure that had ended with a bloody, broken boy in a wood. I cried for oblivion ..." (pg. 152)

A Call to Battle is an exceptional edition in Scholastic Canada's I am Canada series.  In any novel of historical fiction, there is the danger of emphasizing the historically-accurate events and characters rather than the story elements, particularly plot.  Gillian Chan's research and poignant emphasis on Sandy MacKay's perspective of the War of 1812, not the detailed events documented in the history textbooks, takes the book from a dry read of a military action to a compassionate look at how boys and young men may see the glory of war, that is, until experienced first-hand.  By allowing Sandy to experience war by dealing first with the dead and injured, then running errands and finally pressed into assisting the surgeon in amputating limbs, rather than just engaging in combat, Gillian Chan has made the War of 1812 in A Call to Battle more of the setting rather than the plot, enabling the reader to see the commonality of young men seeking glory from all manner of military action, be it war, battle, skirmish or attack, defense or offense.  Alexander MacKay's story could be set during World War I, the Boer War, the Seven Years' War or the War of 1812 because the lessons he learns and incorporates are universal.  Sadly, the lessons learned always seem to come after exposure to the conflict, rather than before it.  I can only hope that there are some young people who, after reading A Call to Battle, are moved to rethink their attitudes about war and weaponry and power, hopefully before first-hand experiences destroy more than just their false impressions.