Fantasy

I'm kind of split on this book. THE BAR CODE TATTOO, originally published 8 years ago (when I was just 20), was one of the few young adults novels I picked up before the upsurge in the market. At the time it had been years since I read any other then the fantasies of Tamora Pierce, but Suzanne Weyn wrote titles in a bunch of Publisher Series I enjoyed and the cover was striking. I really enjoyed it.

Its sequel, THE BAR CODE REBELLION, published in 2006 didn't quite peak my interest as much, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit (though I admit the bird-DNA splicing had me smacking my head a lot). I didn't know Weyn was planning on another book. In fact I only found out at this past Book Expo when I saw it being featured at the Scholastic Booth! I was a bit iffy on it, since other then some ambiguous 'The fight must go on!' vibes I got from the second book I didn't remember it not being tied up pretty well.

I want to say now I purposely didn't go back and re-read the first two books because I wanted to see how much I remembered (good news is I remembered a lot of the more important details).

On one level its vastly interesting to see that Global 1 just can't help itself and continues to be scum-suckers. Its also nice to see how things ended up for Kayla, Mfumbe and the Decode movement. However maybe because I'm older now, I'm kind of looking at this whole thing and saying 'Wait...no wait a second.' Some of the logic doesn't hold up, nor does some of the science and certainly none of the believability.

Weyn jumps from point to point to point at a break-neck speed with little care for transitioning. Which I probably wouldn't have had an issue with if it didn't mean it left a lot to be desired in terms of understanding the plot and characters. Grace is...kind of fleshed out, with Eric getting the runner up position, but everyone else is pretty much dependent on how much the reader either a) remembers from the first two books or b) cares to read between the lines. ( )

First, I must confess I picked this up not realizing it was the 3rd book. It read just fine as a stand alone, but I am wondering if it might have seemed less disjointed to me, if I had read the previous books.

I still don't understand the juxtaposition of science fiction dystopia and prophetic spirituality in this book. It may be that I need to read the other stories to feel the connection.

This would be a good dystopia lite for a reader who wants the genre but not a 400 page novel. ( )

A decent book. I kept looking for more in the series that I wasn't getting though. There was a depth that I was seeking that was missing. But I did enjoy the series and will be looking for more by Weyn. ( )

The Bar Code Prophecy

by Suzanne Weyn

published by Scholastic Inc.

Frightening and amazing at the same time. Frightening because something like this could happen. Amazing because the author did a great job writing this story.

An apocalyptic tale for school age children. The bar code reminded me of the "mark of the devil' foretold in the Book of Revelations. The asteroid/space stations are the perfect answer to Wormwood.

I enjoyed the manner in which the author made the Native Americans a major part of this book. Even now, we are inundated with information from the Hopi about the 'end of days'. The author does a great job of introducing this idea into the story.

I'm not certain we will so easily differentiate between the good and the evil, but our future could be hauntingly similar to the one so skillfully created in this series.

A wonderful series by a fabulous author. ( )