Book Review: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Title: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Author: Hank Green
Publication date: 25th September 2018
Publisher: Trapeze
Source: Complimentary copy from publisher
Rating: 9/10

Description: The Carls just appeared. 
Roaming through New York City at three am, twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship - like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armour - April and her best friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world - from Beijing to Buenos Aries - and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the centre of an intense international media spotlight. 

Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us. 

My thoughts: This is one of those tricky books to review because there are so many twists, and I really don't want to give anything away and spoil the suspense of other readers uncovering things for themselves. So, I'll start by saying I really loved this book.

It's about a lot of things: fame and its consequences; the fickleness of people; the power of the internet; working together; puzzles; friendship; growing up; personal values; consequences. Hank Green's personal experience as someone who not only became well-known through YouTube but also managed to maintain his online presence over time comes through. There were a lot of points where I felt like you could see his interests and history reflected on the page.

I think it's really well written, and I enjoyed the pacing. Something else I enjoyed about it was that April May as a character has the personal background that the decisions she makes and the way she works to stay in the public eye is believable. This isn't just someone getting really lucky. That accounts for the first incident with her making the viral video. But her experience with marketing and branding gives her a starting point early in the book where you see her and one of her friends sit down and properly work out a strategy of what they are going to do, which I think doesn't happen very often in fiction (at least not the things I've read) and added a really good level of grounding to it, balancing out some of the other things. It was one of those small details in a story that helps sell the less-believable aspects.

I did go into the book thinking it was a standalone, which it is not, so beware of that, but I'm relieved that the sequel will be out soon! Overall I'm giving An Absolutely Remarkable Thing 9 out of 10. I was able to attend the blogger launch party for this book in London, and picked up a free copy there, so although it wasn't specifically a copy for review, it was gifted - thank you Trapeze!

Book Review: From Distant Stars by Sam Peters

Title: From Distant Stars
Author: Sam Peters
Publication date: 19 April 2018
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 8/10
Series: From Darkest Skies #2
Source: Review copy from publisher

Description: Inspector Keon has finally got over the death of his wife Alysha in a terrorist attack five years ago. The illegal AI copy of her - Liss - that he created to help him mourn has vanished, presumed destroyed. His life is back on track. But a deadly shooting in a police-guarded room in a high-security hospital threatens to ruin everything. Who got past the defences? Why did they kill the seemingly unimportant military officer who had been in a coma for weeks? And why did the scanners pick up the deceased man the next day on the other side of the planet, seemingly alive and well?

As Keon digs into the mysteries he begins to realise that the death was connected to a mysterious object, potentially alien, discovered buried in ice under the north pole. Someone has worked out what is hidden there, and what its discovery will mean for mankind. Someone who is willing to kill.

And another player has entered the game. Someone who seems to know more about Keon than is possible.

Someone who might be using Liss's information against him.

Or who might be Alysha, back from the dead.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed the first book in this series, so I was keen to see what happened in the sequel. Author Sam Peters didn't disappoint. Keon is the sort of officer who is determined to get to the truth of an incident. In this book, he gradually realises how big the powers he's trying to disagree with and look into are, and then what the significance of the things he's learning might be. It also seems like there's still more to the story of his wife's death than he uncovered in book one. He's wrestling more with the big question of 'where did we come from' and 'what happened to life on earth to push us out to these planets'. It seems like there might be more to things than what everyone has always been told.

In its simplest view, this book is a police procedural in space, with a tight-knit group at the centre. But From Distant Stars has intricate twists and turns, and needs you to be paying attention. I know that when I read the next book in the series, I'll need to come back to this one first to properly refresh my memory!

It's a really exciting book, and I couldn't put it down. If you love science fiction or crime novels, I think you'll really enjoy this book. Overall, I'm giving it 8/10. Thank you Gollancz for the review copy!

Book Review: Planetfall by Emma Newman

Title: Planetfall
Author: Emma Newman
Publication Date: 22nd February 2018
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy from publisher

Description: Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown. 

More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony's 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi. 

The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart…

My thoughts: This book has been out for a couple of years in the USA, and I've heard good things about it, and that it represents mental illness well. So, I was really pleased to hear that Gollancz were going to publish it in the UK, and I jumped at the chance to review it.

The book switches between what's happening in the present, and flashbacks to both life on earth and to when they were first arriving at the new planet. Although it's science fiction, I felt like the book was really an examining of society, what a society is built on, and what people might choose to do to maintain that society. You get little snippets of what Earth is like, what society and politics have descended to on earth that prompted this group of people to try to build a very idealistic culture on this new planet.

Each of the characters you meet throughout the book has a very distinct personality and different motivations for why they came to the new planet. They were all so well built, and I would have enjoyed getting to hear more about any of them. I think that's a good example of how well written this book is. Although you really don't see much of the planet they're living on, you still get a very clear picture of the area that they are in.

Ren has some anxiety problems, which manifests into certain other behaviours, and she keeps this hidden from the other colonists. Given what I'd heard about Emma Newman's handling of mental health problems in her writing, I was expecting it to be a little more prominent than it is in the story. While aspects of it play a big part, it just didn't come in to Planetfall the way I'd anticipated it might. But that's a good thing, that I was surprised in a lot of places in this story. It really didn't do what I expected from what I'd read on the back, or what I imagined in the early pages of the book.

Planetfall was a really interesting read, and such an interesting look at the consequences of our choices, regardless of what the intentions behind those choices might be. The ending also surprised me a lot, although I was content with it. That said, I'm really keen to read more set on this planet. I'll definitely be looking in to other things which Emma Newman has written. Overall, I'm giving Planetfall 8 out of 10.

Book Review: Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift

Title: Paris Adrift
Author: E. J. Swift
Release date: February 2018
Publisher: Rebellion
Genre: Science-fiction/fantasy
Source: Review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

Description: Determined to escape her old life, misfit and student geologist Hallie packs up her life in England and heads to Paris. She falls in with the eclectic expat community as a bartender at the notorious Millie’s, located next to the Moulin Rouge.

Here she meets Gabriela, a bartender who guides her through this strange nocturnal world, and begins to find a new family. But Millie’s is not all that it seems: a bird warns Hallie to get her feathers in order, a mysterious woman shows up claiming to be a chronometrist, and Gabriela is inexplicably unable to leave Paris.

Then Hallie discovers a time portal located in the keg room. Over the next nine months, irate customers will be the least of her concerns, as she navigates time-faring through the city’s turbulent past and future, falling in love, and coming to terms with her own precarious sense of self. 

My thoughts: I first noticed this book because of the cover, and when I read the description I thought it sounded like the sort of thing I would enjoy. I pictured a fairly typical urban fantasy novel, where a main character discovers there's actually magic of some kind in the world, and with the cool setting of Paris as a bonus. In fact, it's not that sort of story at all. In the opening pages, you learn that this book is about time travel. In the not-too-distant future, the world is ending, and a group of time travellers think they've identified some key points in history where events could be steered a different way, with the help of a young woman who doesn't yet know that she's also a time traveller: Hallie.

Jump back to present day Paris, and Hallie is recently arrived in the city. In many ways, this is a contemporary novel about figuring out who you want to be, and dealing with things from your past. Hallie has basically run away from home instead of starting university. Her job at a popular bar brings her into a friend group of other people who have left something, are looking for something, or just want to have fun and not think about anything for a while. They are racially and culturally diverse, but again and again you see that they have so much in common despite their varied backgrounds.

The other aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed was that it brings in real-world politics. The bar staff in Summer 2018 are discussing the US president, the refugee crisis, racism. As Halliee starts to visit different periods of time, she sees the effects of different political strategies played out: people starving in the wake of the siege of Paris; occupied Paris during the Second World War; 2040 when tensions between a peaceful party and a fascist one are coming to a head. It seeps quietly in to the story, not overpowering it, but becoming a central part of the book.

Paris Adrift is a fun, clever and moving book, and I definitely recommend it. It's particularly good if you don't usually like fantasy. I love that Hallie evolves over the course of the story, as do many of the staff she works with. My one little niggle about the book is that there are some tiny set up details about how the time travel works which seemed like they were going to be bigger in the story - like they're setting up a series, rather than a single book. It makes me wonder if this is the start of a series, although the book very much wrapped up tidily. Overall, I'm giving Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift 8 out of 10.

Book Review: Heart of Granite by James Barclay

Title: Heart of Granite
Author: James Barclay
Publication date: 18 May 2017 (paperback)
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Science-fiction/fantasy
Source: Review copy from publisher

Description: The world has become a battleground in a war which no side is winning. But for those determined to retain power, the prolonged stalemate cannot be tolerated so desperate measures must be taken.

Max Halloran has no idea. He's living the brief and glorious life of a hunter-killer pilot. He's an ace in the air, on his way up through the ranks, in love, and with his family's every need provided for in thanks for his service, Max has everything . . .

. . . right up until he hears something he shouldn't have, and refuses to let it go. Suddenly he's risking his life and the lives of all those he cares about for a secret which could expose corruption at the highest levels, and change the course of the war.

My thoughts: I wasn't sure what to think of this book going in to it: the cover said sci-fi, kind of, and the description puts it on future earth. But my boyfriend insisted I would like it, so eventually I listened... and I really enjoyed it! The set up for the story is that at some point, humans obtained some alien DNA samples from an asteroid or something like that, and reverse engineered it to end up with various giant lizards which can be controlled. There is some debate over where these things are machines, or have some kind of sentience. Max and his fellow pilots live on a giant ship, except the ship is actually an enormous reptile engineered to be filled with human living quarters, storage areas... everything they need. Max is a fighter pilot, but rather than a small aeroplane, he flies a dragon, by sitting inside a pouch on the front of the animal and linking in to its brain.

All this is fed out to the reader in little moments. It took me a bit of time to get used to that and to have a clear picture of what was going on, but it gets better. I think James Barclay was trying to be intriguing at the start and create a sense of 'ooh, what cool thing is happening here?' but for me it didn't work. Thankfully, the politics of the war and their role in it, and the smaller ship-board politics, soon becomes the focus of the story. Max is not a sit-down-quietly sort of guy. He's arrogant and short-tempered, which quickly gets him in trouble, but he cares deeply for his squad and works hard to protect them.

It's a gripping, intense story, with dragons done in a new way. I really can't go in to many more details without spoiling things, but I loved Max's character growth over the story. Many parts of the book made me think of it being Top Gun but with dragons, which was a lot of fun to read! I highly recommend this book - 8 out of 10!

Book review: The Bastard Legion by Gavin Smith

Title: The Bastard Legion

Author: Gavin Smith
Release date: 5th October 2017
Publisher: Gollancz 
Genre: Science Fiction 
Series: The Bastard Legion #1
Source: Review copy from the publisher

Description: Four hundred years in the future, the most dangerous criminals are kept in suspended animation aboard prison ships and "rehabilitated" in a shared virtual reality environment. But Miska Corbin, a thief and hacker with a background in black ops, has stolen one of these ships, the Hangman's Daughter, and made it her own. Controlled by explosive collars and trained in virtual reality by the electronic ghost of a dead marine sergeant, the thieves, gangsters, murderers, and worse are transformed into Miska's own private indentured army: the Bastard Legion. Are the mercenaries just for fun and profit, or does Miska have a hidden purpose connected to her covert past?

My thoughts: I loved the concept of the book as soon as I heard it, and since I'd heard good things about Gavin Smith's writing, I thought it would be a good book to start with. The story starts as Miska is about to take a small group of the prisoners she has been trying up onto an asteroid to take back control of it from a rebel group. It quickly becomes apparent when they arrive that Miska has not been given the full story about the rebels, their capabilities, and any reasons they might have to rebell. The bulk of the story focuses on the campaign to take over the asteroid, with occasional flashbacks to Miska's past: partly as she was securing the job and beginning to train the prisoners and partly looking at the events that led her to steal the prison ship in the first place and the bigger reasons for her taking it.

There aren't too many scientific terms or explanations in the book, but there are a lot of sci-fi weapons, equipment and body modifications. The fights between Miska's team and the rebels, and a few other people, are described in great detail. Personally I didn't need to know the names of each weapon being used at any time, but as Miska has been a marine, I think it makes sense that she (as the narrator) would call things by their proper names, so I adjusted to it after a while.

I liked the characters, particularly Miska who we get to know best. Some of the others are very intriguing as well, and I'll be interested to see how they develop over the trilogy and to learn more about their backgrounds. Overall I enjoyed the book - it's a fun read with a lot of mouthy mercenaries and vivid gunfights, as well as some interesting imaginings of technology and society in the future. I'm giving The Bastard Legion  by Gavin Smith 7/10. And I'm glad to hear that book 2 is also out this month, on ebook! 

From Darkest Skies by Sam Peters

Title: From Darkest Skies
Author: Sam Peters
Release date: 20th April 2017
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Sci-fi
Source: Review copy from publisher

Description: Five years after the murder of his wife and fellow agent Alysha, Keon Rause returns to the distant world of Magenta to resume work with the Intelligence Service.
With him he brings an illegal artificial recreation of his wife, an AI built from every digital trace she left behind.
She has been constructed with one purpose - to discover the truth behind her own death - but Keon's relationship with her has grown into something more. Something frighteningly dependent.
Something that verges on love.
But as he investigates his wife's death, Keon begins to realise that he didn't know everything about Alysha.
And if he couldn't trust his wife, how can he trust her copy?

My thoughts: While I'm a huge sff fan, I stay a lot more on the 'fantasy' end of the scale. When I do dip in to sci-fi, From Darkest Skies is a perfect example of what I like to read. It's fast paced and while the technology is significantly more advanced than our own, the book doesn't get bogged down in trying to explain the science behind everything. In fact, most things just 'are' in the book - when something like a high tech weapon is used, there's enough description of how it's fired and the damage it does that a reader can picture what's happening, but doesn't go into more detail.

From Darkest Skies is a police procedural crime novel, set on a tiny colonised planet sometime in the future. There are glimpses of how humanity came to leave earth, but that's not a big part of the story. Keon Rause has barely returned to Magenta, the planet, when he's pulled into investigating the death of a partying society girl. While it appears she overdosed somehow, the drug in question doesn't normally do any long-term damage. As Rause and his team investigate, the stakes get higher and higher - several someones do not want the truth to come out. Tied around this is Keon Rause's personal investigation into the death of his wife.

I really enjoyed the speed of the novel - Sam Peters has created a tight plot where there is always something happening. I love shows like C.S.I. so reading a book like that with futuristic technology on a colonised world was a lot of fun. Peters has also built a brilliant cast of central characters. The other members of Rause's team have distinctive personalities and a variety of personal backgrounds and issues. My favourite was Rangesh, who certainly doesn't do things by-the-book and had me laughing a lot, even though he irritated me a little at first. I really hope there are other books set around these characters in future so we can continue to see them develop.

The plot moves swiftly but the twists and turns kept me guessing. The capabilities of the AIs were a bit creepy at times, and there's a very 'big brother is watching you' aspect to the world with cameras everywhere. I thought the loopholes people found to work around that were really interesting. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it, both to fans of sci-fi and those (like me) who read it less frequently. A police team solving crimes in space - what's not to like? I'm giving From Darkest Skies 9/10.

Book review: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

Title: Revenger
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Release date: 15th September 2016
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Science Fiction
Source: Review copy from publisher

Blurb: The galaxy has seen great empires rise and fall. Planets have shattered and been remade. Amongst the ruins of alien civilisations, building our own from the rubble, humanity still thrives. And there are vast fortunes to be made, if you know where to find them …

Captain Rackamore and his crew do. It’s their business to find the tiny, enigmatic worlds which have been hidden away, booby-trapped, surrounded with layers of protection – and to crack them open for the ancient relics and barely-remembered technologies inside. But while they ply their risky trade with integrity, not everyone is so scrupulous.

Adrana and Fura Ness are the newest members of Rackamore’s crew, signed on to save their family from bankruptcy. Only Rackamore has enemies, and there might be more waiting for them in space than adventure and fortune: the fabled and feared Bosa Sennen in particular.
My thoughts: I don't read much sci-fi but when I do it's usually space opera and I love it. I was excited to read about Revenger and never having read an Alastair Reynolds book it seemed like a good place to start. Revenger is narrated by Fura Ness, who is on the verge of adulthood when the story begins. I definitely felt like there was a YA turn to this book for the first section but having finished, I think it's a clever reflection of who Fura was then, and her innocence, and gives another way for Alastair Reynolds to show how she changes over the course of the story.

This is not a happy story. To start with, there's some adventure, some tension, but it's still quite fun. Then things get dark, and they stay pretty dark and tense for the whole story. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that something happens with the crew of Rackamore's ship and it sets Fura on a path to seek revenge. She becomes very determined, to the point of being single-minded, in that pursuit. I found that as the book went on, I worried more and more for Fura and who she was becoming, as well as finding her less likeable. 

I agree with what Sarah says about Revenger in her review: a lot happens in the book and I would have liked it to slow down in some places and focus more on some big events. With fitting in so much to the story, some parts felt rushed. 

If I sound negative here, I don't mean to - it was an incredibly action-packed book that I could hardly put down, as my co-workers will attest. I really enjoyed the story and was on the edge of my seat on many occasions, waiting to see if characters would get through the next scrape. The writing was very good, as you'd expect from someone with Alastair Reynolds' experience and I'll definitely be reading more of his work in future. I feel like there might be a sequel down the line as the ending definitely left lots of potential for a continuation of the story but the main conflicts of Revenger did all get wrapped up. This was a nail-biting adventure through space with all the danger and wonder you would hope for in a space opera. I'm giving it 8 out of 10, and I definitely recommend it to sci-fi fans. 

-Ailsa

Book review: Fahrenheit 451

Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Genre: Science Fiction (Traditionally, although today most people would say dystopian)
Publisher: HarperVoyager
Source: Free copy via the publisher

Description: Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic novel of a post-literate future, ‘Fahrenheit 451’ stands alongside Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

My thoughts:
*contains spoilers*

I've wanted to read this for a while, as it's one of those stories everyone references and sounds like it was a significant milestone in the genre. I liked the premise: books are banned and firemen have the job of burning them.

I was pretty disappointed.

From the first page, the writing is overly flowery, using five words where one would do. It turns out Guy Montag, the fireman, is married to an idiot zombie, who is attempting suicide one day and completely dismissing the events the next. He meets a strange girl and starts to question thing, but it quickly becomes clear that he was questioning and acting on those questions before that meeting, after all. He runs away, finds book keepers in the wilderness, then the city is blown up. Yes, Bradbury shows a future which is looking more and more possible every year, with superfast cars, surround television and atomic warfare, but it is the setting that is the interesting part. To me, the story itself was not.

I give Fahrenheit 451 4 stars out of 10.

Book review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Title: Ancillary Justice
Author: Ann Leckie
Release date: 2013
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: #1 in a trilogy
Source: Borrowed from a friend

Description: On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. 
Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance. 

My thoughts: If you read science fiction and haven't heard of this book yet, I'm not sure where you've been. I only dip an occasional toe into the SF side of SFF but I've been hearing about this book since it came out and started winning awards all over the place. My friend has a copy so I jumped at the chance to read it.

The book follows the starship 'Justice of Torren', an artificial intelligence. The story goes between the past where Justice of Torren was based on a planet, with hundreds of bodies (ancillaries) she controlled simultaneously, each functioning alone and able to function together as one, and the present, where she has been cut down to just one body and is using the name 'Breq'. The past sections paint the events leading up to the betrayal that led to the loss of all her other bodies and eventually the betrayal itself. The present follows Breq as she reaches (she hopes) the end of a twenty year quest for something that will give her vengeance on her betrayers.

The story is in first person from Justice of Torren/Breq's point of view which I think works very well. There were times when it was hard to get my head around how she could be controlling all the bodies at once, performing so many different tasks, having multiple conversations, but generally it was fine. One interesting side-effect of her narrating the story is that because the people who built her have no concept of gender, she refers to everyone as 'she'. Occasionally there are characters who she knows are on their planet male or female but she never actually reveals it in the narration - it's just "I used the correct gender pronoun for the language". I found this interesting but I've heard some people got annoyed with it.

I found the story really interesting, with plenty of 'oh crap now they're really in trouble' moments. It was very interesting to have the story told by an AI (artificial intelligence) and focussed around them and the nature of their ability to choose things, have feelings, express things while still being neutral, a computer built to obey. I'm definitely going to read the rest of the series to find out what happens next.

Overall I'm giving this 8/10.

~Ailsa

Review: The Girl With All The Gifts, by M. R. Carey

Title: The Girl With All The Gifts
Author: M. R. Carey
Publisher: Orbit
Release date: January 2014
Genre: Horror

Description: Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

My thoughts: I wouldn't normally pick up a horror book, particularly something with zombies in, but after hearing Mike Carey read the first chapters of this book at an event, I knew I wanted to read the rest of the story. It starts with Melanie going to her daily classes. She sits in her wheelchair with her neck, arms, and legs strapped to it, so she can only face straight ahead. She knows that the classroom is somewhere far from Beacon, the place where everyone lives now, to stay safe from the Hungries. She knows that when Sergeant Parks wipes off his arm and holds it in front of her classmate, the boy snaps at his arm like a wild creature, and she can smell something wonderful in the room. Sometimes she asks her favourite teacher about how long they will stay in the classroom, or what she'll do when she grows up, but that makes the teacher sad.

Then the Hungries break in to the compound, and Melanie, Sergeant Parks, her teacher, and some others flee. They're heading towards Beacon, but no one has been able to get a radio signal from Beacon for months. So maybe they're creeping through zombie infested English countryside towards nothing. But they have to try.

I found the part of the story set in the classroom really interesting, seeing the life Melanie had, and the sort of thing the humanity of the book was doing to try to find a cure for the zombie plague. When they leave the compound, it becomes a lot creepier. It's a very 'Walking Dead' sort of environment, very quiet, with every little noise putting the characters and me reading on edge. The tension builds as they go from the countryside into first a small town, and then the outskirts of London. M. R. Carey moves between the different characters to tell the story, and by seeing from different stances, you gradually get a clearer picture of what happened with the spread of the plague, and the things the government did to try to fight it. The characters pass big craters in the roads where the government dropped bombs, and cross a swathe of land that's been burnt away to nothing from where they tried using fire to stop it. Everything seems like it could have happened, and even the route of the virus itself is something believable, which I enjoyed.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend 'The Girl With All The Gifts' for fans of zombie stories. It's an interesting look at what lengths some people might go to to 'cure' something, and how we deal with outsiders, people who are different from what we know. Melanie's innocence and intelligence combine to make her an interesting character to tell the story, and her gradual realisation about her background and how she can be more than just the girl in the wheelchair is a journey that sticks with you.

I give M. R. Carey's 'The Girl With All The Gifts' 7 out of 10.

~Ailsa

Matched

Alas it's been so long, I am ashamed!!  I read this book ages ago and am now only getting to review it as I've spent the past week laid up in bed, staring at this book on my book case. So here goes. . .

In a future society, the officials decide everything, from what you eat for breakfast to who you should love. Cassia Reyes, is a normal teenage girl, who through a technical mishap discovers that the officials are not always in control, especially when it comes to who you love.

Matched, similar to the Hunger Games and Delirium, is a break through dystopian young adult series, which has received a huge amount of positive reviews. A well deserved amount in my opinion.

Ally Condie does an exemplar job at building her world - which in some respects has elements of our own. If we use IQ and personality tests to assess people's suitability for certain jobs, who is to say this won't develop further into who we  should love (on-line dating sites are prime example). The point being, that like all exemplar writers in this field, Condie builds a world that is not hugely dissimilar to our own, she takes elements of our world and skews them to an extreme and for this reason the story and moral of Matched has more impact. Definitely in my opinion, world-building is one of the strongest features of this book.

Regarding characters, Cassia was an alright character - she has her flaws and good qualities, however to be honest I didn't really engage with her. Not because of how she was written but just the character herself, which is no reflection on Condie's writing. My favourite characters are Grandfather and Bram as both strike me as free spirits in their own way. For instance, Cassia's eyes needed to be opened through the mismatch, her grandfather's words and Ky's lessons while Bram from the get go seems to always be pushing the barriers in his own small ways. I just found him to be delightful and a touching character especially when it comes to the antiques incident.

My feeling is that although this book centres around a match/mismatch, romance is not the main theme, which is refreshing. Now, there obviously is romance in this book, and it's nice to see both male leads on equal footing (smart, handsome, decent), although you do feel sorry for Xander at times. In some ways, regarding Ky too, I find it sad that it took the mismatch for open Cassia's eyes, but I'm glad this is explored in the book - that it is not taken as a given by the character, that Cassia questions herself regarding her feelings.

But my most favourite aspect of this book and the main theme (imo), is the use of poetry, especially one of my all time favourite poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" , as a catalyst for Cassia. It demonstrates that in the void of Cassia's world, where only 100 poems, novels and songs exist, the timeless impact of certain works remain. That, regulation of the arts and elimination of creative self-expression is the beginning of the end - a regulation on the evocation of emotion and the human spirit. Condie does an exemplar job of showing us how these forbidden poems fester in Cassia's mind, riling up her spirit, in a quiet but deep way and provoking her to questions the society and consequently  to seek out Ky more and more.

My only detraction from the book, is I felt the ending could have been stronger. Ky's disappearance and then Cassias leaving didn't leave me on the edge of my seat. However the last chapter was touching as she associates each word as bringing her closer to Ky, reiterating the importance of self-expression without restraints/monitoring.

Off topic: Sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of trilogies - whether sometimes an extra-long tightly written book would be better than three?

Back on topic, this is definitely one the better Dystopian YA fictions out there, and I recommend fans of dystopian romance to have a gander. I'm giving this 8 out of 10 stars :)

Toodles for now, 

Em.

GLOW by Amy Kathleen Ryan

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book from the publisher.  Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review it even though my review is a 2 months overdue and this book was released back in September.  Oh well, I will still review it.

I've noticed a new trend of young adult novels heading to the regions of space and space travel because the earth has long since died.  At first I wasn't too excited about it but after reading a few (2 out of 3 of them I've read, I've liked) and Glow so far is in that "like" category.

Here is the summary from goodreads.com:

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue? 

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them... 

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth. 

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.


First off, the story line is intriguing.  I couldn't stop thinking about it as I read the book.  What was going to happen next?  How were these characters going to survive all this that they were going through?  Basically, as I read it, it is a very much so thrown-into-the-action-coming-of-age-story.  The characters: Kieran, Waverly and Seth all have so much that they must do to overcome the obstacles that are thrown at them from the very beginning.  From Kieran proposing to Waverly, to Waverly not knowing what she really wants from life aboard the Empryean, to the attack that changes all of their lives for good.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.


The characters are enjoyable to read.  I didn't like so much to read from Kieran's point of view when it came along, I much more enjoyed Waverly's.  She is such a down to earth but strong personality young woman that certain parts of her person were relatable.  It's also much easier to be able to put yourself in a girl's shoes when reading  when you are a girl.


Kieran and Seth were, in my opinion, similar as in they both really wanted to help Waverly, but both opposite ends of the spectrum.  Kieran, the captain to be of the Empryean and Seth, the kid who no one really understands.  The struggle for power and the resistance to each other throughout the ordeal is really what makes this "love triangle" with Waverly more interesting.  I like how the author dealt with Seth as the get things done in order to survive style, even if it means picking on the weak ones to make a point and how Kieran comes to when he is put in charge and even is able to lift that small spark of hope to one that is large and forthcoming.

What was interesting in this book is that it takes place on two identical ships.  The Empryean and the New Horizon.  Both ships heading to a New Earth because our current earth and its resources were depleted and humanity needed to survive.  But the struggle doesn't lie within getting to the new planet.  It's within its people and the ranks and sharing survival skills.  Survival of the fittest really gets a new meaning in Glow.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story.  Each turn took you in a different direction of trust.  Who could you trust?  When?  It's a good story of survival and hope that will keep you guessing to the very end.  Even then, you still don't know who to turn to anymore.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Summary from Goodreads:

Obviously, something went terribly wrong. Genetic mutations have festered, reducing human longevity to twenty-five, even less for most women. To prevent extinction, young girls are kidnapped, mated in polygamous marriages with men eager to procreate. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery, a recent victim of this breeding farm mentality, has vowed to break loose from its fetters; but finding allies and a safe way out is a challenge she can only hope she will survive. A dystopian fantasy series starter with wings. Editor's recommendation.


Wither is the first of The Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano.  And I have to begin by saying if you like Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, I felt like this story went along those lines with Linton and the young Catherine (kind of, not exactly)...it just felt like that.


First thing that caught my attention with Wither is the cover.  Isn't it beautiful?  The way the girls hands are gripping the skirt of the dress in such a frustrated and almost confined way and how the bird in the cage looks connected with the line and circles to those hands?  I love it!  It really defines the story as a whole once you've read it.


Rhine is an orphan along with her brother, Rowan and they try to make the best of things in the house their parents left them after they died.  They make it look like they are poverty stricken so as to not lure other orphans or anyone else not wanted to their door.  They lock away their most precious possessions and items so they aren't stolen.  They even take turns keeping watch each night with a gun to protect themselves and what meager things they have for themselves.  That is until Rhine goes for a job and gets kidnapped by the Gatherers instead and taken to a large mansion somewhere far away from Manhattan and ends up becoming a sister wife with two other girls who were taken, Jenna and Cecily.  


Being married to Linden Ashby couldn't be the worst thing in the world to Jenna and Cecily is in love with it all.  Rhine, however, hates everything about the place, especially Housemaster Vaughn who is frantically working on an antidote to keep his son alive past twenty-five and maybe even try to help the girls to live past twenty.  There's no way out unless you are escorting your husband to a party in the city and even then the way is blocked.  Rhine puts on her facade and grits her teeth through all this living until she can figure out how to get out.


I will say this first, the only bad thing I found is that there is a lot of whining from the all the sister wives.  I wanted to smack Cecily across the back of the head and say, "Chill out okay?  You don't need to be so stuck up and rude to everyone."  To Jenna, "Sorry about your life, but really, quit moping."  And to Rhine I'd say, "Do something about it or just quit whining."  Other than the whining that takes place, I love the characters.


Rhine is a strong willed heroine that determines after being forced into this marriage to Linden Ashby that she will earn his trust to be able to run away.  I love the fact that she can be so determined and it helps her remember everything about her brother and never gives up hope that he may be out looking for her.  I love that she is the favorite of the wives among the servants, they will do anything for her, even if it means they may lose their job, or even maybe, their life.  Even when she starts to believe in her own facade in certain points and ways, she is able to shake it off and remember what her plan is.


Jenna is a quiet character.  At first I thought Jenna was stuck up and didn't care about anyone else, but I loved her later on.  She does everything she can to help Rhine leave the mansion and Linden behind without getting caught by their father-in-law, Vaughn.  Cecily, yeah, I hated Cecily through the whole story until the last when I felt more sorry for her than anger.


Vaughn reminded me of Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights for parts of the story.  The unrelentless, merciless being he is and how he creeps all the sister wives out.  I shuddered with every moment Rhine had with Vaughn and even with what he may be hiding in the basement.


Overall, I really liked this story.  It has great character development and is a character driven story.  The imagery is realistic and Lauren weaved a fine new world for us to see and truly believe it may exist.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

If you thought things could get wrong in life here on Earth, try it out in outer space on a spaceship.

Beth Revis' debut novel, Across the Universe, is a captivating mystery that keeps you guessing until the end.

Summary from Goodreads.com:

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Granted, the summary says there is romance in the story.  For me, I saw the tiniest sliver of it.  Mostly from the character, Elder.

For this book, I read it because I had heard a lot of good things about it (usually why I read the books I do), but about halfway through the story I really just wanted the story to be finished.  I was only intrigued by the mystery side of the story and wanted to see how it all turned out.  Luckily for me, it all turned out very different than what I was guessing.  Doesn't mean I will tell you how the book ends.  That would just be plain mean. 

We get the two main character point of views in this story.  Amy--the girl who was frozen with her parents and expecting to wake up on a new Earth-like planet, and Elder--the future leader of the ship Godspeed.  When Amy wakes up fifty years earlier, that was the first thing that caught my attention.  If I was Amy, I'd be angry and upset, as anyone would be.  Now she would be older than her parents when they woke up.  

Beth is an incredible descriptive setting writer.  Every room, every building, every part of the story, including the stars are all beautiful and I feel like I'm on Godspeed walking around.  However, there are aspects of the story that I felt were unnecessary to the story, but may be a major player in the next couple stories that come next.  

Only one character I found to be enlightening and had any real development throughout the whole story.  And that is Elder's best friend on the ship--Harley.  He is the one character that the reader can relate to in the entire story.  I love Harley and he will be a character that really stands out to me for a long time.  Very memorable, very good Harley.

I really can't write much else as a review on this because the only things I like are the descriptions of setting, the mystery and Harley.  This story doesn't do much for me as a reader in entertaining me.  I had a really hard time and pushed myself to the end but if you like science fiction, try this story.  Give it a go.  You may like it more than I did.

Matched by Ally Condie

If you're into the Dystopian genre with Romance thrown in as a major component, then this is the perfect book to fit for both of those genres.

Here is the summary from goodreads.com:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Honestly, as soon as I read this summary, I fell in love with the storyline of a society where you are told what you do and who you love and what you learn and what you wear everyday.  I also fell in love with the cover.  Such a simple, yet compelling idea.

Another truth from me, this book took me a long time to read.  It is pretty slow but Ally Condie's voice and word choices are like good poetry.  It flows well and smoothly and there is major character development throughout the plot.  From everyone, even from the main character's, Cassia, dead grandfather.

Yet again, here is a young adult romance that is destined to have people choosing sides though, Xander or Ky?  Don't ask me because both characters are the embodiment of Prince Charming in disguise and there is no way I could choose at all.  Like I said earlier, every character, every piece of the world is so well described and so well laid out and so well developed that you are captured in all of the technology, no matter how simple it may be and also just the idea of what a world like this would be like to live in.

With all these futuristic stories coming out with possible things that could happen--such as The Hunger Games and even pieces of The Maze Runner--every one of these authors creates a world which it is so believable and so real while you're reading you can almost believe you have entered into that new way of living and go about trying to wrack your own mind of coming out of it and back to reality that it hurts and you need more.  Ally Condie did that with Matched.  With all of Matched.  Her "Society" is so scary real that I almost believe for sure this is what could possibly happen if a "socialistic" society actually took complete control and power over the world.  I came out of reading this story every day I read it and watched the news.  I didn't use to mind watching the news, but Matched made me more aware of what is going on with what our possible futures could be like--now the news is scary to me.

I LOVE the characters.  Cassia, our lovely "go with the flow" kind of girl who is so excited to be "Matched" to the boy she will marry, and to find out it's her best friend is better for her and then a flash of the face of another boy she knows makes her mind wobble away from the "flow" of her life within the Society.  Just her own conflict inside her own being is wonderfully written and told that I wish I could interview her in real life.  And since I like to repeat myself, Ky and Xander are both completely different boys in this story but both carry themselves has Prince Charming's in disguise.  

The plot was slow in this story, but that always goes along with world building and making sure you are sucked into the Society in this story and part of the people that live amongst it.  But it is a strong plot of quiet defiance and of strong wills.  It is very compelling and I love it.

While I was reading this book knowing it was a romance written in first person from Cassia's view, I kind of expected to read something along the lines of the romance heat that presents itself in Twilight.  This book and story are so completely off the rack of Twilight's version of romance that it made me happy to realize that the author, Ally Condie, could in fact actually help us all believe in chivalry again.  You know in the olden days where people were chaperoned while courting?  Where a touch of the hand and a brave young man risks everything--including his own life--because of his love for you?  Ally Condie has recaptured that chivalry through Ky and Xander both.  I have to say thank you to Ally for making this story so innocent in the romance and so compelling in this story that I can't wait to read the next book.

And seriously, I suggest that everyone read this.  It's fabulous writing, irresistible characters and thrilling plot of quiet resistance will make you want it the sequel now.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

I reviewed the first book, The Maze Runner, a while ago and it was an amazing read.  It has also been a while since I read, The Scorch Trials (okay, maybe only a couple weeks but with the holidays in the way, it got really busy).

However, for a sequel to The Maze Runner, this one indulges more into what the scarier looks of the future are for Thomas and the boys that got out of The Maze in the first book.

By the way...there will most likely be SPOILERS in this just because of the way it made me feel when reading it and because of how the story goes.

The Scorch Trials begins right where it left off in The Maze Runner.  Thomas and the boys of the The Maze (that made it out alive) are being taken pretty good care of in a kind of dorm-like facility until one day a man comes to tell them that they have the sickness that the world does called, The Flare, and in order to gain the cure they must cross the Scorch in two weeks to the Safe Haven.  In order to do this, the boys end up putting up a good fight against Cranks (the crazies who have the Flare from start until they are completely gone and lost their minds), a dark tunnel that takes lives, the hot sun, lightning storms and the group of girls that were also in another maze and got out too.

I have to say that the author, James Dashner, freaked me out in a couple of spots with his descriptions and the tone in certain places.  There's a spot that is still in my mind because of the way it was described and it's during a lightning storm out in the Scorch where the boys are all running a few miles as fast as they can to gain cover before lightning hits them and one boy does go down right by the hero, Thomas, and just the gory description could possibly triumph Suzanne Collins from The Hunger Games in certain scenes of hers.

Never did I think that a YA author could scare me like he did as well.  I've been jumpy before in scenes from other YA books but none stick to me like the Cranks that Thomas sees in an underground tunnel system in the city he ends up travelling through at one point.  The line, "Rose took my nose I suppose," still scares me with the image of the man with no nose and a limp chasing Thomas through and tracking him to a small room in the underground tunnels.  It's funny too because at one point during this scene, I did take a deep breath (since I can involve myself in my reading so much) and I could swear that I knew the guy would find Thomas in a hidden hole in the wall and grab him until it didn't happen.  I thought, "Oh well, at least the creepy guy is gone for now, maybe they'll run into him later and kill him then."  Oh no no no.  I was wrong.  Even when I thought our hero was safe to come out of hiding, did I jump so high from my comfy reading spot.  I'll leave the rest for you to figure out when you get to this part of the story when you read it.

I did however, push past those two scenes and try to swipe them to go on in the story.  It did help that James Dashner did put calmer scenes here and there within the story, even some parts with a little humor to lighten the mood in this very dark story.  And one thing that keeps me reading as well is that every chapter in The Scorch Trials ends with a cliffhanger.  Some nights I couldn't put the book down until I forced myself too.  Especially after reading the Nose man scene, I pushed myself to read until it calmed down, which it did and then I did too.  Reading something like that in the late evening by myself with just a reading lamp on is just scary!

Anyway, going on with the review, the character building shows more and more until the end.  And even the newer characters that are introduced make it seem like they were always part of this group of kids travelling across the Scorch.  In a story where the characters just travel through with a few eventful turns, I am very happy to see that the character building was shown so much more in every chapter.

The story itself is really good.  Of course as I said earlier, this is a much darker, much scarier story.  I would not like to run into a Crank if something like that ever befell our civilization today.  And it also takes a good wild turn here and there within the story to keep you going, but there were times where I shocked, I jumped, I was scared, grossed out, and really trying to figure out what was going on.  And like the The Maze Runner, I thought I had figured it out until I read the Epilogue which then makes me really want to read the final book, The Death Cure, but sadly, I will have to wait for now--like always in a newer book series.  I really hope that if you read The Maze Runner, that The Scorch Trials will keep you guessing as well.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Okay, okay, I know you'll read lots of reviews for this book.  And I wish I could give you the big spoiler review of it, but I will do my best not to do that.

Suzanne Collins did it again!  A triumph in a novel that breaks your heart when you least expect it to but has you cheering Katniss to victory.

Here's the quick summary for the third and FINAL (yes I mean that, although is it odd to say I want more?)  book of The Hunger Games.

Summary from Goodreads.com

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding. 

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans -- except Katniss. 

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay -- no matter what the personal cost. 

Everything from the beginning gets your head spinning in this book.  Everything about which way Katniss should go and who she should trust, or even if she can trust herself.  It's exactly the same situation as the first two books in the way that Suzanne Collins makes your jaw drop to the floor at moments where you want to cry, but you'll sog up the pages so you don't or your vision gets blurry so you hurry and set it down for a bit to compose yourself.  I felt the same way in the first two books and I got that in this final one as well.

I was thinking to myself about the covers once I began reading Mockingjay.  The first cover is colored with black, the second with red, and now the third with blue.  Now, I know that no author (unless really invited to have a say in it) has no say in the covers at all.  Zip, zilch, nada.  That's the usual case.  Usually the author will hate it or love it.  I'm guessing that since the beginning our amazing author here, has had many, and I mean, many says in what goes into her covers or they wouldn't all be the way they are.  Not in any way like the book which isn't that way once you get yourself immersed into whatever it is going on.  The games, the rebellion, the love triangle between Peeta and Gale.  But when I was thinking about the covers, I realized, they must all go with each book somehow.  The Hunger Games, I believe has the color black on it because of the death that surrounds the games themselves and the darkness of the world of Panem.  Catching Fire is red, for obvious reasons but I'll list it anyway, because of the rebellion that Katniss sparks and the flame catches on in that story.  In Mockingjay, I believe the blue is meant for a sign of freedom from the Capitol's icky, designer claws.  These are just hunches, but I really think that there is a symbolism in the covers themselves.  I could review each of them, but I think this review would take forever to read if I bored you all with what I thought they each were about in detail.

The covers are magnificent, but not as catching as the characters themselves.  We learn so much more about Peeta, Gale, and Katniss in this story and are reminded of things in the past stories.  Everything clicks together in this story.  But even though everything clicks, doesn't mean that the characters do.  I mean, they do in this story.  I love them all.  I wish, personally, to actually meet them all, but the way I imagine them in my head is different from the author's idea of them and even the ideas of everyone who reads these characters is different.  That's what makes these characters so incredibly special.  It is like Suzanne wrote them all for us individually.  There are the Team Peeta's and the Team Gale's.  There are the ones who don't care, but only hope that our own world doesn't fall into the glum place of Panem in the future.  And for me, as long as those words on those pages are still around, I can go back into that dreary world and live with Katniss.  Hunt with Gale.  Fall for Peeta.  Survive the games.

I don't know how Suzanne Collins does it with writing in present tense.  I've tried it myself, and failed.  I always fall back into past tense.  That is my most favorite "technical" writing I skill I wish I could have.  It is hard to write it all as if it were happening now.  But that's what makes these books so real to us.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

For Mockingjay, and I have read some other reviews on this, but I agree with some that the epilogue at the end of the story seemed out of place.  But really, I like how it did sum up everything and show really how the story ended.  Some epilogues don't need to be.  Some do.  This one, I'm indifferent on because of that.  It needs to be, but it doesn't need to be.

I could go on and on and on, but then I'd spoil the story for you!  No way will I do that.  That would be evil of me to do.  Maybe in the future one of us here on the Book Bundle will do just that. A nice, everything spoiled review of this wonderful, amazing end book to one of the most anticipated trilogies in the past three years.

I hope you will all join me in giving Suzanne Collins a standing ovation for her characters, her story, and her imagination.  This creation is a gift and almost, it seems, a warning to us all.

So, without further comment on this story....

for now anyway...

"May the odds ever be in your favor!"

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

There are three things that could make you pick up this book.

1) You like science fiction.

2) You love The Hunger Games and need a "filler" book while waiting for Mockingjay to be released.

and

3) You like cliffhangers that make you go, "WHAT THE FREAK?  Hold on there for a second." But you don't get an explanation, you just have to wait until the next book comes out.

My biggest reason to pick up this book because it was a book one of my friends on GoodReads.com had read and recommended.

I couldn't say no.  I'm waiting so patiently (please hit that it is hard to write sarcasm) for Mockingjay and I did need a filler story that would pump me up for it.

I was right.  It was a great filler story that pumped me up for the release of the new Hunger Games book, but I was also so stupidly wrong that it would just be that, a "filler" book.

The Maze Runner is a great science fiction book that follows, Thomas, as he shows up in a place he's never been and knows nothing but his first name.  All known details of whatever memories he has are wiped clean.  No faces are remembered, no names.  All he knows is that he is Thomas.

When he shows up in the Box, he is told by the other boys that there is always one boy a month for the past two years sent up through to the Glade.  Supplies are sent the same way, but they survive how best they can with farming their own crops, slaughtering their own animals and living a simple life until they find a way out of the Maze.  Everyone has a job in the Glade and the one Thomas wants more than anything is to be a Runner. He wants to find the way out of the Maze.

He's only there in the Glade for one day when the Box sends up a girl. The only girl in the Glade.  With her comes a mysterious note and warning that scares everyone and really makes Thomas want to get out more than ever before.

This book really gave me the chills in spots, and held my attention through the whole story.  The author, James Dashner, created a new way of speaking, and a new way of community with this set of boys that live in the Glade.  The environment is eerie at best times and darn right scary other times.  I loved the set up of everything in this story and how everything in turn winds its' way through and all connects later on.

Thomas, the main character, is amazingly stubborn, stupid, but also very much a leader in this story.  We join him from the very first sentence when he wakes up in the Box and joins the Gladers in their world and community that is center to the Maze.  He is tortured, attacked, beaten, stung, and just plain old worn out as we watch him learn the ways of the Gladers.  For a main character, I love how he is.  His personality is stubborn, but enduring.  A quality that is good in a hero of a story.

Now, if you like cliffhangers, you won't be disappointed with this book.  It will leave you wanting more and wanting to know where it will lead you on your next journey.  See, I like cliffhangers, just so I can speculate on what may or may not happen next.  It gives me hope that the next story will be better than the first.  Most stories I have had that expectation and they fill that void you can get from thirsting for more from the plot.  I believe that the next book to The Maze Runner will do that for me as well.

The Scorch Trials is the next book coming out October 12, 2010 by James Dashner.  Personally, I already have it on hold at the library.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Hunger Games, I suggest you not read this review.

From the cover:

SPARKS ARE IGNITING.
FLAMES ARE SPREADING.
AND THE CAPITOL WANTS REVENGE.
Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol--a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.
Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her more is that she's not entirely convinced that she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.
In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before...and surprising readers at every turn.
My overall thoughts:
When I received this book in the mail, I was very excited to be able to read it. However, I had to lay off because I knew that if I picked it up, I wouldn't be able to put it down. And that is exactly what happened when I got to reading it.
There are many book series or trilogies that get me hooked. Hooked enough to keep reading the series. But Suzanne Collins has me reeled in with the bait in order for me to see how the third and final book will bring this story to an end. If you are like me and love getting hooked so much much that you can never let go of the story, grab this book and start reading.
The Plot:
Don't get me started to tell you about the plot. I'm not giving anything away. I hate it when that happens and someone tells you the end of the story. I'm not that kind of reviewer. I will give hints most likely in my review, but I will not ruin the plot.
I love the twists and turns that Suzanne pulls us through as if we, the reader, were indeed the main character, Katniss. I don't know how many times I said out loud, "I did not see that coming." Or, "WHAT THE?!?" It was a strange thing for me to do something of the sort during a book. I am usually pretty good at guessing where a plot will run and how it get there, but Suzanne Collins takes a new twist to this story than I couldn't have ever guessed.
The Characters:
All I have wanted to do since reading The Hunger Games, is meet Suzanne and shake her hand and give her a standing ovation for her creations. I love her characters so much. The complexity makes my mind fumble over itself trying to wrap myself around them and what they are going through, in their minds and in their lives. I feel as if I am either Katniss Everdeen or I am such a close friend to her that she is practically my sister. I really felt like I could relate to Katniss at moments in the story. Like I did with The Hunger Games, I tried to keep up with Katniss and be one step ahead of the story. Obviously, it didn't work out so great.
Suzanne takes us even deeper into the romance territory with her male characters, Peeta and Gale. If you wanted a love triangle, you got it. Don't ask me to choose who my favorite guy is of the two and who Katniss should choose because I would tell you, "Both." I have only read of one male character written so self-sacrificing for the woman he loves as well as both these guys are and that was in A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott. I'll review that one later. All I have to say for now on these two boys is, "Move over Edward Cullen and Jacob Black. Here come Peeta and Gale."
Without a doubt, this book makes me feel the emotion, the sweat and the anxiety. I can really become part of it with how it is written in present tense and presented in a first person point of view. This book keeps me thinking about my own life and what I'm doing to keep it from going overboard. I love Suzanne Collins style of writing and will never get it out of my head since I will be reading and re-reading these books until the spine breaks. In that case, I'll just go get another copy.
I recommend, Catching Fire, for those who are not faint at heart. There are disturbing images that may enter your mind (for you vivid imagineers). But for those who have read The Hunger Games and couldn't put it down, just remember, when you pick up Catching Fire, make sure you have all day to yourself. Do what you need to do in order to be all by yourself with no disruptions or distractions as you dive back into the world of Panem.