Emperor of the Universe (Emperor of the Universe, 1)

I struggle with fantasy books at the best of times. While I read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe (the book that inspired Lubar to write this series) back in 2002, it made no sense whatsoever to me. I do know many seventh grade boys, however, who are ENORMOUS fans, and deem it to be enlightening and worth memorizing. I am not the target audience for this book; those boys are. It is perfect for them.

The page illustrations (I think by Adam Markum) are often very helpful (I was having trouble envisioning the Craborzi), and add a bit of levity to a rather dark space adventure. This seemed like an odd choice at first, until I remembered some of the illustrated novels that my students have written. Think of John Wilson's essay Exploding Noddy. Violence to a tween is stomping Craborzi and blowing up whole planets without thinking too much about the details. The illustrations capture Nick's youthful experience perfectly, and have that feel of being penned in the back of a math notebook during study hall that will resonate with the target demographic.

There are many chapters in between the action that site back story, and this is a great way to stuff even more amusing nonsense into a book already brimming with odd characters and humorous highjinks. I wasn't quite sure which characters would become important and which wouldn't, which gave this book a distinct feeling of free fall. I'm a librarian. I read books to disect them (like the Craborzi!) and explain them. Middle grade readers read to be inspired and delighted, and will let the seemingly haphazard events and characters wash over them. I've seen other adult reviewers who complain that this isn't well written. It is, in fact, brilliantly written for a specific audience, who will delight in sentences like "smelled like a mixture of candy corn and budget-priced window cleaner" and in the fact that Jeef was produced from a Mennonite farm, so is "Holy Cow".

Now that Nick's phone can pull energy from the universe, he can talk to his gerbil, and the universe isn't going to self destruct right away, he will be able to set out to end all of the pointless the pointless wars. Readers of books like Gratz's League of Seven, O'Donnell's Space Rocks, and Wilson's Me vs. the Multiverse will want to hop back on the nearest friendly spaceship and go along for the frenetic ride.