Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

UNDER THE NEVER SKY (Under the Never Sky #1) by Veronica Rossi

Published January 3rd, 2012 by HarperCollins

384 Pages // Hardcover
Received From NetGalley For Honest Review

My Rating: ♥♥♥♥

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Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction. 

As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions. 

They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love - one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY.

 

With all the hype surrounding it, UNDER THE NEVER SKY is not a book you can avoid – for long. After some wariness, I got myself a copy and dove in. Let’s just say that the hype on this one isn’t wrong, at least when it comes to me, a girl notoriously frightened by hype and more often than not surprisingly disappointed. With a strong mix of post-apocalyptic drama (not really fully dystopian in my opinion), awesome science fiction attributes, and mesmerizing adventures, UNDER THE NEVER SKY is a strong debut from an author who will definitely become one to watch for me.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (REVIEW)

WHEN SHE WOKE by Hillary Jordan
Published October 4th, 2011 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
341 Pages // Hardcover
Borrowed from Library
Goodreads
Purchase from Amazon

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love. 

A powerful reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith and love.

I had heard about WHEN SHE WOKE for months before it came out. Even my mother had heard about the book through her book clubs and sources for information. And then what did I do? Well, I might have put off reading it… And put it off… And checked it out from the library… And put it off. Then I picked it up as my due date grew closer and closer. Once I started reading it, there was no stopping. By the end, this book flew onto my favorites shelf and I was desperate to tell the world about the amazingness I had just read.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel (REVIEW)

Zombies, science fiction, steampunk, AND Victorian you say? DEARLY, DEPARTED delivers in some of these areas, but falls short of really delivering on all its promises.

DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel
Published October 18, 2011 by Del Rey
480 Pages
eARC received via NetGalley
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Lia Habel's website

Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

When I saw DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel on NetGalley, it automatically became my first request. Science fiction-meets-steampunk-meets-zombies?! You had me at hello! My own hype for this book became an undeniable and overwhelming force in my head. When I dug into the book and started reading, I found myself growing disappointed. The writing is nice and the plot is very original and unique, but there was just something…missing, I guess you could say. Or maybe it just had way too much to deal with.

Tempest by Julie Cross (REVIEW)

Fans of THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE and JAMES BOND (weird combination, I know) might find a lot to love about this action-packed book - if they can get past some shoddy characterization and slow spots.

TEMPEST by Julie Cross
January 17, 2012 by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Griffin
352 Pages
ARC Received via LibraryThing
Preorder via Amazon

The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

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When I first heard about TEMPEST and the hype surrounded it, I was conflicted. On one hand, I do love a good male POV drama. On the other, I hate hype. I will admit it, I’m such a pessimist that I don’t know what to do with myself. Thanks to LibraryThing I won a copy of TEMPEST and eventually got around to reading it.

I’m still conflicted. Part of me thought that it was awesome and action packed and original, and then the other part of me thinks it wasn’t worth any of the hype surrounding it. The story follows Jackson Meyer, a 19 year old with the power to time travel (a very different sort of time travel than you might expect), as he is forced two years back in time after witnessing the death of his girlfriend, Holly. Jackson is honestly not a character I really liked. I mean, he was a stereotypical teenager guided by his manhood instead of his head, but I never got the impression that he really loved the girl the cover promised us he loved until he just suddenly declared his love. Their relationship seemed much more casual than anything, giving me pause in wondering why he was going through all the hoops to save her. I had a hard time connecting with him and his motivation, or getting past the fact I thought he came off as a huge jerk VERY early in the novel.

So the characterization in the novel is rather flat otherwise. The plausibility factor is also rather low. For example, Jackson’s friend Adam has way too many connections and his knowledge level in stuff like hacking and DNA labs and mathematics is way too high for me to believe him for an instant. Why am I giving this book four stars? What this novel had going for it was action, intrigue, and a science fiction element that made me want to know more. It was very reminiscent of THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE in a sense, and since I love that book so much, I couldn’t help but enjoy TEMPEST’s take on the situation. Cross’s take is definitely different, and for that she definitely gets some kudos.

There were a few points in the book where I got somewhat bored, parts that were reiterations or needless aspects that could have easily been cut, but the book definitely did not suffer from a lack of excitement. From gunfights to time traveling to mystery elements, there is little to keep you bored for long. But action packed stuff only makes up a little of the characterization problems that keep this book from getting what it could have gotten. I wanted more, so the hype for me once again fell sadly flat. I’ll still check out book 2!

VERDICT: With characterization issues that plague the story and a lack of plausibility at times, TEMPEST has a strong redeeming aspect – great action and a strong mythos – but is not fully redeemed. More of a 3.5/5 than anything.

♥♥♥♥ - FOUR HEARTS

The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski (REVIEW)

Interested in hard science fiction with a college-age twist? Joan Slonczewski's first book in 10 years, THE HIGHEST FRONTIER, might be just what the doctor ordered.

One of the most respected writers of hard SF, it has been more than ten years since Joan Slonczewski's last novel. Now she returns with a spectacular tour de force of the college of the future, in orbit. Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, a girl from a rich and politically influential family (a distant relation descended from the famous Kennedy clan), whose twin brother has died in an accident and left her bereft, is about to enter her freshman year at Frontera College.

Frontera is an exciting school built with media money, and a bit from tribal casinos too, dedicated to educating the best and brightest of this future world. We accompany Jenny as she proceeds through her early days at school, encountering surprises and wonders and some unpleasant problems. The Earth is altered by global warming, and an invasive alien species called ultraphytes threatens the surviving ecosystem. Jenny is being raised for great things, but while she's in school she just wants to do her homework, go on a few dates, and get by. The world that Jenny is living in is one of the most fascinating and creative in contemporary SF, and the problems Jenny faces will involve every reader, young and old.

The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski
Published September 13, 2011 by Tor Books
448 Pages

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It has been ten years since Joan Slonczewski’s THE CHILDREN STAR, but the author is back with a bang with the recently released THE HIGHEST FRONTIER. Delving into a rather new arena with a story focused on the exploits of a girl born to leaders, cloned from leaders, and destined to be a leader as she enters her first year of college in a space habitat orbiting Earth, Slonczewski enters a new frontier for her writing easily, but not without a few hiccups.

I should preface this review by saying that Slonczewski is a microbiology professor by trade, and it does show in her writing. Several of her books have been about sentient microbes. This one, however, is rather tame in setting by comparison. About 100 years in the future, Earth has become decimated by climate change and pollution, and the only safe haven left is a network of space habitats in orbit around the Earth. Religious leaders have proclaimed this the Firmament, God’s territory. Jenny Ramos Kennedy is girl who lost her twin brother and has spent the past few months trying to overcome her mental issues, fears, and inability to speak publicly before coming to Frontera College orbiting high above the Earth. Paired with her story is a Presidential race and the spread of an alien organism called the Ultraphyte which had helped in the decimation of Earth, releasing cyanide and killing thousands.

The one place where Slonczewski never falters is her attention to biological detail, but at the same time, this does have a tendency to draw out the book and slow the pacing down to a crawl. There are even biology classes in the book which could substitute for a real biology class, with such detail that, despite having been a biology major for a year (bad idea), I was confused. Even more so than her previous books, I feel like THE HIGHEST FRONTIER is some love story to biology, possibly making it difficult for those that are not from a scientific background to get into the story.

One thing I loved was the characters. Each one was brilliantly crafted and came to life on the pages. I especially loved Jenny’s love interest Tom, an Amish kid who left the world he grew up in to come to Frontera – for a good reason. I’ll let you read the book and find out more about him. Anouk the French hacker, though, was my favorite. Imagine being banned from Earth for your many attempts at breaking into government computer networks. She’s a genius through and through, but her common sense might be just a little lacking.

While not quite at the level as her 1986 masterpiece A DOOR INTO OCEAN (one of my favorite books of all time, you must read it), Slonczewski puts forward a very welcome new book that is sure to win new fans and put a new spin on the science fiction genre yet again. The creativity that went into this book and the fascinating finale should win this book awards. I would definitely recommend this book, but I suggest having google open at all times, especially if you don’t know Spanish. Which I don’t.

VERDICT: Though complex and full of biological terms that might be offputting, THE HIGHEST FRONTIER is a fascinating speculative look at what the world might be in 100 years. With great characters and an all-too-believable plot, this is a book worth checking out.

♥♥♥♥ - FOUR HEARTS

Rippler by Cidney Swanson (REVIEW)

An engaging superpower story, RIPPLER is extremely implausible at times but leads up to a fun, exciting conclusion. The rest of the story, though? Rather meh.

Samantha Ruiz has a freak gene that turns her invisible. She can’t control it, and it’s getting worse. Afraid of becoming a lab-rat, Sam keeps her ability secret, until fellow runner Will Baker sees her vanish into thin air. Will promises secrecy and help, and Sam begins to fall in love.

Together, the two discover there are worse things than being a scientific curiosity. Someone’s been killing people who possess Sam's gene. A mysterious man from France sends letters that offer hope for safety, but also reveal a sinister connection with Nazi experiments.

The more time Sam spends with Will, the less she can imagine life without him. When Sam uncovers secrets from her past, she must choose between keeping Will in her life or keeping Will safe.

RIPPLER by Cidney Swanson is one of those interesting cases in books to me. On one hand, it was boring and implausible. On the other, it was interesting and kept me thinking and waiting for more. Let me preface this review by stating that my rating is skewed up because of circumstances even I don’t understand (actually, I’m feeling nice today), but this book is the type that will split reviewers down the middle between love and hate. I find myself on that fence, leaning one direction or the other depending on the moment.

The story is a first person past tense narrative of Sam, a girl living in California who suffers from a disease that causes her to disappear for a few minutes at a time. Needless to say, this is not convenient, but mysteriously she finds that one of her friends and cross-country teammates is very knowledgeable about her condition. In fact, his sister researched it with a scientist and he knows all about it and how dangerous it can be. Not the disease itself, which is actually REALLY awesome, but the people who are going to want to hunt her down and study her. Dozens of people with the disease have already been murdered, and Sam appears to be next on their hit list.

So you want to know why I was iffy about this story? I’m going to make a list and in making this list, I might start swaying back towards a lower grade.

1.) The disease is one giant superpower with no drawbacks. Slight spoiler, but Rippling is not just turning invisible. Nope. It’s turning invisible, going intangible, super speed, halted aging, and telepathy. And once Sam is shown how to use it, she’s basically an expert overnight. No limits to use, no disappearing fingers or toes. Her hair gets stuck in a wall once but that just blows the wall apart. Not a big drawback.

2.) The characterization. The characters…fall flat. I liked Sam to an extent, and Mickie as well, but Will was just blah. His role in the story was love interest and companion. His personality was just meh.

3.) The writing. Well, not much of an iffy, but it was just okay. There were things I wanted to edit out but luckily the story was otherwise well edited and composed.

So what did I like? I enjoyed the premise, the setting, and the action. I wanted to know more about the villains, but that is what book two is for, right? I will give this book one thing that helped the grade go up. The last 20% of the book was where everything really happened, meaning the last 20% was actually pretty awesome. We meet the villains, there are problems, there is stupidity on the part of the characters. It sets up a second book nicely and really makes up for the 80% of randomness and stodgy pacing. This book would have been rated solidly higher if the last 20% had carried over into the rest of the book.

This book needed a heavy dose of more action and less “OMG this power is AWESOME!” We are told it’s something that people will kill over yet all Sam does is play around with her power and use it recklessly many times, just because. So does the other character we find with this same power. It’s somewhat dull, but I did like the ending.

VERDICT: With a solid and engaging ending, RIPPLER goes into book 2 well situated, but the series begins rather haphazardly with a clunky beginning and lots of implausibility. A good book. 3.5 hearts rounded up.

♥♥♥♥ - FOUR HEARTS

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan (REVIEW)

GLOW undoubtedly has a great cover and a great marketing scheme (the next Hunger Games? Yes please!) but a plot heavy on religious sentiment and unlikable love interests weighs down a good plot and writing.

GLOW by Amy Kathleen Ryan
307 Pages
Published September 27, 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin

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?

GLOW was a book where the cover and synopsis had been hooked. I put other books aside to read it. They say don’t judge a book on its cover, but I did anyway, and this was one of the few cases where I ended up being disappointed. This review has taken me several hours to write, something so unusual for me, because it alternated between being a great book for me and pissing me off.

Many YA books recently (see my review of DROUGHT by Pam Bachorz) have tackled religion as a key plot point. GLOW’s depiction of Christianity was what almost ruined this book for me. It was almost a fallacy, using Christianity as an excuse for evil actions. The antagonist of this story is the Pastor/leader of the other ship, the New Horizon. They come to the Empyrean, home of our protagonist Waverly, and kidnap all the girls to solve their fertility issues while sabotaging the ship, killing the adults, and leaving the boys to run the ship once the remaining adults sacrifice themselves to prevent a meltdown.

SPOILER WARNING!!!

The logic of the ship states that the religious people were put on one ship and the secular (and Muslims) on the second, yet Kieran, the main male character, becomes a religious leader on the Empyrean at the end. His family was noticeably religious and by the end he has converted the boys in one fell swoop – after one SPEECH – to Christianity and calls his work God’s work, basically mimicking what happened on the New Horizon. The logic here was…not really present.

SPOILER HAS ENDED

There is a love triangle in this book, but not so much instalove – it has been set up that Waverly and Kieran were a couple beforehand, more so out of expectation than true love. At the beginning their relationship is almost refreshing, showing Waverly’s doubts about their relationship but setting up a scenario that is believable. However, Kieran becomes increasingly week and possibly a little unstable (crazy). The other love interest, Seth, is just purely insane. His methods are sadistic and his excuses are lies. He beats, tortures, imprisons, and almost kills people. Of course, it is expected that Waverly will pick one by the end, but I honestly think she shouldn’t based on book one.

What saves this book? The writing. I am honestly not one for frilly, overwrought literature. I like some description and florid enhancement, but I had it beaten over my head by my lit professor that purple prose was Satan’s work. This is my kind of writing – a little lyrical at times, but mostly straightforward, to the point, and eloquent. Ms. Ryan is my type of author for sure. It’s just the plot that falters. Waverly is also a strong protagonist that I enjoyed. She was smart, she was a strong leader, and she knew what she was doing. She risked herself for others and had a mission. I loved her as a character while I quite hated her potential suitors.

This book needed to tone down the religion a great deal. I am not sure if I will read book two based on the fact it implies that religion will be a strong point in the second book. Also, Waverly’s love interests were unlikable.

I could go on about this (and I will on Goodreads – check out my review there for more), but overall, this book was likable, but nowhere near as good as it could have been.

VERDICT: The overuse of religion in this book overran the interesting plot and the good writing from Ms. Ryan. If you are not big on religious bashing and/or preachiness, steer clear of this book

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

Embassytown by China Mieville

Are you into wordy science fiction? Embassytown is just for you!

Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible.


352 Pages
Published by Delray
May 17, 2011

Read June 2011

I'm conflicted about how I feel about this book, whether or not I should have loved it or just been confused out of my mind. In the end, though, I think it will suffice to say that I loved it but I have no clue what I loved. The writing was lovely and florid, but there were times where I didn't understand the plot, side plots, character motivations, turns of events, etc. Sometimes it would be more than a 100 pages before it hit me about something that I had already read. The book also had points where it was slow and tedious. I know from personal experience that sometimes China Mieville's works can take persistence to get through, but The Scar is still one of my favorite books. Will Embassytown be on that list? Probably not.

I fancy myself well read and able with the English language, but there were still times I had to look words up and I then asked myself at one point, "Would Avice really know these extremely obscure words applicable to events that happened on 16th century Earth?" Avice was a smart cookie, but I don't think she was that smart. I had trouble following Avice's progression and how she got to the point where she did at the end. It seemed unlikely, forced, and I'm not really sure how it ended up there at that point. Same with her husband's motivations and his progression as a character. By the time we've reached the ending, I felt as if the final 20 pages were just tacked on. They didn't really fit with the flow of the book at all.

What did this book have going for it? I really don't have any clue. Whatever it was, I was interested and hooked but I'm just not sure on what. Avice was an okay narrator, not my favorite. I liked some of the human characters surrounding her more and found myself wishing I knew more about them. I personally disliked some of them (Bren). At times, I strongly disliked Avice and what she was doing, mostly because I had no clue what she was doing. I felt left in the dark at times, but in the end, I was glad I slogged through. The ending was okay but the journey there was great. The reason why I didn't give this a higher rating was because I had no clue what I was reading 1/2 of the time.

It's worth reading, but not as satisfying as some of China Mieville's other works. And I look forward to finding a detailed plot write up on Wikipedia one day.

♥♥♥/5

Verdict: Read with a big dictionary!