The Obsidian Blade Review

TITLE The Obsidian Blade (The Klaatu Diskos #1)
AUTHOR Pete Hautman
PAGES  320 (PDF format)
PUBLISHED April 10th 2012 by Candlewick Press
READ April 12 - 13, 2012
BUY IT Amazon / Kobo / Chapters.Indigo

SYNOPSIS Kicking off a riveting sci-fi trilogy, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman plunges us into a world where time is a tool - and the question is, who will control it?

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished - only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing - one right on top of the roof - hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he's launched on a time-twisting journey
- from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker's actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman was my first time travel book, I read the synopsis and thought "Well, I LOVED Donnie Darko!" so I gave it a go.  What I read was a good, albeit confusing, piece of literature. I found myself really enjoying the story and caring about Tucker and the rest of the Feye's.  I don't think this book would be so confusing to me if I was a big fan of sci-fi and read within the genre alot more.  I had a hard time wrapping my head around the timing and the concept of the Klaatu in general.

The novel starts off as more of a contemporary story about a boy's life and the disintegration of his family.  Tucker Feye's mom becomes mentally ill and his father basically checks out because he can't deal.  I was sad for Tucker, he was kind of pushed to the side and left to fend for himself.  Dealing with a sick mother is something I know very well and it was hard to watch him cope with his mothers illness.  Halfway through  it becomes sci-fi and we start going with Tucker as he jumps through the diskos.  What really intrigued me during this half of the book was that they went to important historical events.  In one jump we land on top of the twin towers on 9/11 and in another we land on the hill of Golgatha and witness the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Though I cared for Tucker and the situation he was faced with, I didn't really connect with any characters in this book.  They felt very robotic and one dimensional to me.  My favourite would have to have been Curtis (Uncle Kosh) he was a dirty, rough biker with a finesse for cooking.  I felt like he was the only character that had depth for me to latch onto. So it was an interesting story, but not exactly one that drew alot of emotion out of me.

There is alot going on here and while I did enjoy the story overall, it was ALOT to wrap my head around and I just didn't quite get there.  At one point Tucker meets an old woman named Awn and I was sure that she would fill in some of the blanks in my head and connect point A to point B but she just served to confuse me even further!  The being said, as I pointed out this was deifinitely a venture into a new genre for me (trying to expand my horizons a bit) but I did enjoy it, it just hurt my head a bit.  I will be looking for the second book in this series though because we are left with quite the shocking cliffhanger and I simply must know what happens next!