A review by missprint
The Jupiter Pirates #2: Curse of the Iris by Jason Fry
4.0
Who knew space pirates could be so fun? ("WE DID," say the 11 and 10 year olds in the audience, for whom this book is PERFECT.)
Okay, so I didn't even REALIZE this was a sequel, so my review is basically going to treat it as the first in a series or a stand-alone. This is actually an excellent quality in a series-based book, because despite getting it out of order I didn't feel lost at all. - Okay, slightly, upon reflection. There were moments when they'd talk about particular incidents or characters (all, I realize now, surrounding the Hydra) when I felt a little lost, but mostly I was able to cobble it together.
"Curse of the Iris" follows Tycho and his family (twin sister, older brother, parents and half-cyborg grandfather) and crew and (in the case of Tycho's mother) captain their starship Shadow Comet. Tycho and his siblings are competing for the captaincy of the ship - per family tradition, one child will inherit the ship, while the others move dirtside to the family holdings.
The Hashoone family catches wind of a "cursed" treasure and sets out to find it, following leads that dig up long-dead family history as well as much less dead politics.
Most of all, I loved that this was an exciting, space pirate-y tale that meshed perfectly with family dynamics and strong relationships that categorize good middle grade.
Okay, so I didn't even REALIZE this was a sequel, so my review is basically going to treat it as the first in a series or a stand-alone. This is actually an excellent quality in a series-based book, because despite getting it out of order I didn't feel lost at all. - Okay, slightly, upon reflection. There were moments when they'd talk about particular incidents or characters (all, I realize now, surrounding the Hydra) when I felt a little lost, but mostly I was able to cobble it together.
"Curse of the Iris" follows Tycho and his family (twin sister, older brother, parents and half-cyborg grandfather) and crew and (in the case of Tycho's mother) captain their starship Shadow Comet. Tycho and his siblings are competing for the captaincy of the ship - per family tradition, one child will inherit the ship, while the others move dirtside to the family holdings.
The Hashoone family catches wind of a "cursed" treasure and sets out to find it, following leads that dig up long-dead family history as well as much less dead politics.
Most of all, I loved that this was an exciting, space pirate-y tale that meshed perfectly with family dynamics and strong relationships that categorize good middle grade.