Tag: Jake Parker

Last week Caramel reviewed Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker. This week he reviews the second book in the series, Rescue on Tankium3, published in 2011. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, today we are talking about the second Missile Mouse book. 

Caramel: Yes! I reviewed the first one last week and so this is just the perfect time to talk about the second one. 

S: Yes, agreed. So tell us what our favorite space spy Missile Mouse is up to in this book. 

C: It starts out with him chasing down a person, and he learns that the said person is being mind-controlled, which leads Missile Mouse to a planet called Tankium3. He learns there that all the men were kidnapped, and disappeared.

S: All the men from the planet disappeared?

C: At least all men from the species of people called Tankians.

S: Wow, that is weird. And quite scary. So what is the reason for this? Or is that the main mystery of the book then?

C: No, we learn that there’s an evil king, named Bognarsh, and he has taken all the Tankian men by mind control machines and is making them mine for fuel.

S: Fuel for spaceships and such? 

C: Yeah, and with the fact that the RIP, which I mentioned before in my review of the first book, is fighting the galactic government, fuel is really important.

S: I guess it is kind of like how oil is still so strategically important to today’s world, at least for humans. 

C: Yeah, logistics carry wars.

S: That is a powerful and very sophisticated thing to say for a little bunny like yourself, Caramel. But I do know you read a lot about history and know about many of the important wars of this planet. Where did you hear about this?  

C: I think it must have been in a history textbook about the civil war, it was talking about how the railroads of the North led to victory.

S: Oh that is interesting. I can see what it means. Especially for long wars, you need to sustain your men in the frontier, you need to keep feeding them, trying to keep them healthy, providing them with sufficient ammunition and so on, and all of that involves a lot of logistics. I also found via Uncle Google, the quote “Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars,” attributed to American general John J. Pershing. Kind of the same idea!

C: Great minds think alike! I mean I am assuming Pershing was a great military mind, given how he has a Wikipedia page. Then again a lot of awful people also have Wikipedia pages. Anyways.

S: Yes, anyways, let us get back to the book. So I now know why the fuel is so important. Now tell me a bit about these mind control machines.

C: Well, there is a big central thing and then there are these little pod-like things that are controlled by that central thing. The pod-like units attach to your head and control you, at least that’s what I got.

S: Alright, that makes sense sort of. So then does the Missile Mouse figure out how to remove them from affected people? Or will he turn off the central thing? Or am I again getting too close to asking for spoilers?

C: Yeah, the last one. I am not at liberty to discuss that information at this point.

S: Hmm, okay. Then let us talk about the book in more general terms. Are these books funny? Or do you just like to see the spaceships? I know you really like Jake Parker’s spaceships.

C: There are not that many spaceships that I could study carefully in this book, but the tech is cool anyways, too. The illustrations look very techy and sci fi, and match the setting quite well.

S: So this was a win for you?

C: Yeah, very much so. if there’s more books in the series, I would greatly appreciate reading them.

S: Okay, we can look into that, Caramel. But for now, this seems to be a good time to wrap up your review. 

C: Sure. Why not? 

S: Okay, let’s do that then. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Today Caramel reviews Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher, a fun graphic novel by Jake Parker first published in 2010. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, I can see you have a new graphic novel to talk about today!

Caramel: Yep! I don’t know if you remember that I reviewed Kepler’s Intergalactic Guide to Spaceships? This book is in the same universe.

S: Oh that is interesting! I knew it was the same author / illustrator, but I did not expect the books would be related. 

C: Yes, he also was the person who illustrated Darkstalker: The Graphic Novel. 

S: So you definitely like his drawing style?

C: Yeah, no question.

S: I am glad you got to read another book by him then. So tell me a bit about it. Who is this Missile Mouse? I am guessing he is the main character. 

C: Yeah, it’s sort of obvious as the book is called Missile Mouse, so yes, but this is the beginning of the series based on this guy.

S: The author describes him on his webpage as follows:  “Missile Mouse is a James Bond meets Han Solo for the middle-grade crowd. The cocky, big-eared rodent is a secret agent for the Galactic Security Agency (GSA) who prefers to do things the quick and messy way.” So he is a secret agent for the galaxy and he is kind of arrogant like Han Solo of Star Wars. 

C: Yeah, that’s about right, and it’s a good description of Missile Mouse. So in this story Missile Mouse gets a new partner, Hyde, and they go on a mission to find and rescue this scientist from his kidnappers, the RIP (Rogue Imperium of Planets), which are sort of the bad guys.

S: Hmm, so the Galactic Security Agency is an arm of a galactic empire, and this RIP is their enemy? 

C: Yeah, they are. So the galactic government is a peaceful state, and the RIP are trying to take over the galaxy.

S: Do we know much about the government Missile Mouse is working for other than it is peaceful? 

C: I believe that it’s a democracy, but not much else is really stated. 

S: So if it is anything like Star Wars,maybe there is a senate and so on. Okay, tell us more. 

C: Before Missile Mouse joined the GSA he was a bounty hunter or a mercenary.

S: Really sounds like the Star Wars universe. But the main character is a mouse. Are the other characters all mice too? Or are there other animals? 

C: No, the beings in the universe are a multitude of other animals and aliens that don’t look like animals we know on Earth.

S: Any bunnies? Any humans? Any dragons?

C: None of those showed up in the book.

S: Alright, we are mature enough to enjoy books with no bunnies or dragons. 

C: Sure, I’m totally mature.

S: Yes, for a bunny your age, you are definitely mature. But you reviewed other books about mice. Remember The Mouse and the Motorcycle?

C: I also reviewed several books about Babymouse. And don’t forget Ragweed and Poppy and the others? I read all those books, too. 

S: Yes, true. Marshmallow reviewed Flowers for Algernon, which also had a major mouse character, who did not speak but still. She also reviewed Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. 

C: Yeah. So mice are neat. Anyways Missile Mouse is cool, too, and he is funny and adventurous and brave. And the book is an adventure story and a spy story, and you know I like all those things. 

S: That’s true. You read all the Spy School novels, too. 

C: Yeah, so spies and secret agents are cool. Therefore this book is cool. And there is some cool space stuff, which I also like. 

S: So it is clear you enjoyed reading this book. I think there is at least a second Missile Mouse book. I am assuming you will want to read that too. 

C: Yes, I will. In fact I am planning to dive right in as soon as we are done here. Are we done here?

S: I suppose we are. Would you like to wrap it up with your usual ending statement?

C: Sure! Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!