Review: Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow

Title: Broken

Author: Susan Jane Bigelow
Series: Extrahumans #1
Format: eBook
Pages: 340
Genre: Dystopia, Super Hero Fiction
Publication Date: January 25th, 2011 (eBook) / November 22nd, 2011 (paperback)
Publisher: Candlemark & Gleam
Rating: B-

Summary:
From Goodreads: In a post-war future world where First Contact has been made, humans are colonizing the stars, and the nations of Earth have been united under a central government, Extrahumans are required by law to belong to the Union. When a young man with visions of the future sets out on a mission to define the course of human history, he encounters a devastated former hero, a fascist dictatorship bent on world domination, and the realities of living in a society where affiliation is everything.

Broken figured she was done with heroics when she lost the ability to fly and fled the confinement of the Extrahuman Union. But then the world started to fall apart around her, and the mysterious Michael Forward entered her life, dangling the possibility of redemption and rebirth.

Michael Forward can see the future, but all he wants is to escape the destiny he has struggled against all his life. When the moment comes, though, he finds he can't refuse. Now he needs the help of a homeless ex-superhero to save a baby who may be the key to humanity's freedom.

Monica had a good life with her large family, until two strangers and a baby showed up at her door. Now her family is gone, her life is in ruins, and she's on the run from the law.

In a time of spreading darkness, when paranoia and oppression have overtaken the world, can three unlikely allies preserve a small ray of hope for a better, brighter future?

Why did I read this book? I was offered a review copy, and after I read the synopsis, I knew I couldn't pass it up. It's got superheroes!

Source: Review copy from publisher

My Review
When I was approached by new speculative fiction publisher Candlemark & Gleam to review Broken, I knew I had to try it. It's superhero fiction set around one hundred years in the future.

The first thing that really caught my eye about Broken was the raw and clever voice of the author. The story is told in just the right amount of detail without going overboard with what could be an info-dump disaster. I was often smiling at the straightforward and magnetic way the story of Broken is told. Broken, one of the main characters, is a former superhero who's lost her ability to fly and so she lives on the streets, never able to just die because of her other ability, super regeneration. She medicates herself with booze. Eventually a young man named Michael, traveling with a baby, finds her and pleads her for help. He's seen her in his visions of the future and knows she must help him get the baby off Earth to the colony of Valen in order to prevent horrible war.

The plot revolves around getting baby Ian off the planet while Broken and Michael are on the run from the government who is also looking for him. One hundred years in the future is a nasty place run by a corrupt governement. Even the leading superhero, Sky Ranger, is working with them. Everyday people are at risk, especially those associated with the old political party, the UNP. Their adventure is a harsh one, with many consequences, and I was engrossed all the way.

I wish the end didn't come so quick. There are still answers I'm looking for, such as why Broken lost her ability to fly. Is it psychological or is something else going on? How were the Extrahumans created or how did they evolve? What's happened in Earth's past?

Rating: B-
I really enjoyed Broken and would recommend it to those looking for a great superhero story with good world-building. Some say this is a young adult novel (maybe because Michael is around 16 years old), but I never got that feeling. It could be good for young adults or older, but it is definitely a gritty story. I thought the ending was great, especially with the ways Bigelow used Michael's visions as a way to foreshadow and also lead us astray. Even though you see glimpses of the future, I never saw some things coming. There's a sequel coming out called Fly Into Fire which I'd like to read and find out more about this world.

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Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars by Nick James

Title: Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars
Author: Nick James
Series: Skyship Academy #1
Format: ARC
Pages: 380
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction
Publication Date: September 8th, 2011
Publisher: Flux
Rating: A-

Summary:
From Goodreads: A devastated Earth's last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from space and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities. Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers—political dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere—and the corrupt Surface government.

Jesse Fisher, a Skyship slacker, and Cassius Stevenson, a young Surface operative, cross paths when they both venture into forbidden territory in pursuit of Pearls. Their chance encounter triggers an unexpected reaction, endowing each boy with remarkable—and dangerous—abilities that their respective governments would stop at nothing to possess.

Enemies thrust together with a common goal, Jesse and Cassius make their way to the ruins of Seattle to uncover the truth about their new powers, the past they didn't know they shared, and a shocking secret about the Pearls.

Why did I read this book? After reading the premise of this book and finding out it would be available at BEA, I thought I must get myself a copy. I was hoping this to be a young adult dystopia that I could finally be excited about.

Source: Grabbed the ARC at BEA this year.

My Review
Recently I haven't had much luck with the popular young adult dystopias that have been released. It really started to get me down since I wanted to read a good YA dystopia. Then I read The Pearl Wars and that was it.

This debut novel from Nick James really has it all. There's wonderful worldbuilding. About one hundred years in the future, America is unrecognizable. The Surface was devastated by war and now run by a corrupt government while their opposition live in the sky onboard Skyships. Both depend on Pearls, glowing orbs that fall from space and can power a whole city. I mean, doesn't this just sound cool? Not only that, it all makes sense. We find out way more about this future world and where the Pearls come from, which I never saw coming. All the while I was reading this book I just felt like James had thought out and created such a fantastic world that really gave the other dystopias a run for their money.

Other aspects I enjoyed about The Pearl Wars were the main characters. Jesse, a boy attending the Skyship Academy, struggles with self-confidence and his feelings for a girl named Avery. I really liked Jesse even though I thought he was often hard on himself and felt he grew a lot from the beginning to the end of the book. Cassius, on the other hand, has no issue with confidence or self-doubt, but he has his own demons to face. Overall I felt these two were the most fleshed out out of all the characters. In the future books I'd like to see more on Eva, Jesse's kickass friend.

Also, I felt that since this story didn't have such a prominent romance (there's some, but it's not the focus) we really got to experience some great worldbuilding, action and adventure. Not that you can have that along with romance, but it was nice to see a young adult dystopia not entirely focused on a romance.

Rating: A-
Really, this is a great new dystopia along with some great science fiction elements. The ending left me wanting more: more about the characters, the world, and what will happen next. For anyone who's wanted a young adult dystopia with more meat on its bones, this is it. I loved it. I hope that a sequel will be coming out in the near future! 

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Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent #1
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 107/487
Genre: YA, dystopia
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Rating: No Grade

Summary: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

My Review

Why did I read this book? I bought this book due to the many positive reviews I've read and I thought the synopsis looked interesting.

Why it's a DNF: The usual reason I don't finish a book is because I reach a point where I realize that the book just isn't for me. Many people love Divergent, but after reading about a quarter of it, I knew I should call it quits. This is another YA dystopia and I think I've been really burnt out from them. I find I'm harsher on the worldbuilding because there's just so much others to compare it to. I was generally interested in the premise and the set up of the world: how people are divided into factions based on the traits they feel they need to exude in order to keep the world peaceful. However, I just couldn't grasp fully onto this idea and in particular, I thought the Dauntless faction was disappointing (which is the one that's focused on highly). I didn't understand why dangerous stunts and fighting each other (even in unfair fights) was brave. Once I got hints to a romance I decided to put the book aside since I was not feeling the worldbuilding and characters.

Overall Thoughts 

Obviously I'm in the minority, so if you like YA dystopias, there's a good chance you'll like this one. If you're someone like me who will really question the worldbuilding, then perhaps it's not for you.

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Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness
Series: Chaos Walking #1
Format: Paperback
Pages: 479
Genre: Dystopia
Publication Date: May 5th, 2008
Publisher: Walker Children's
Rating: B
Challenge: Calico_Reaction's Book Club - March Challenge

From Goodreads: Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee - whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not - stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden - a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

Gosh, I'm pretty late on this one. I actually finished reading it on time but got sidetracked when trying to write the review.

Anyways, I was really excited to read this book and was happy to see it was chosen for the book club. I have heard great things about it and I really wanted to read a good young adult dystopian after having some trouble with others.

Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. I found The Knife of Never Letting Go an exhilarating experience in a world where men can hear each other's thoughts (these thoughts are called Noise). Todd lives in Prentisstown, where there are no more women left and he's the last boy to grow into a man. Ness presents a very creepy look into the world where susperstition plays a big part in everyone's actions, especially those in Prentisstown. It kind of reminded me of the Lord of the Flies, where a bunch of kids (in this case, adults and kids) get put on an island and left to their own devices. In Prentisstown, the men have created a skewed view of the world and they make some pretty crazy plans.

The story follows Todd as he tries to escape the clutches of the men of Prentisstown. There's a lot of adventure. Todd is always on the run. I find that to be a pro and con to this book, since it means there was a lot of action, but I was really yearning for more interaction with people outside Prentisstown. I wanted to see and experience more of the world through Todd's eyes - not constantly follow him alone into the forests on his journey.

That pretty much sums up my opinion of this book: I really was fascinated by this world and it kept me turning the pages, but I wished I had learned more about it. This is obviously a series since Ness leaves us with a big cliffhanger at the end. I hope in the next book, The Ask and The Answer, he shows us more about the world he's created. B

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Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Series: Chemical Garden #1
Format: ARC
Pages: 137/356
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia
Publication Date: March 22, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Rating: No Grade

From Goodreads: What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

As you can see from the no grade, I didn't finish Wither. There's a lot of positive reviews out there and I found that I wasn't able to get into this book as much as others.

The biggest problem I had with Wither was maintaining my suspension of disbelief. DeStefano created a harsh dystopian world that, I think, took backseat to
the romantic story. In her world women die at 20 and men at 25, and it's not very clear whether this was a virus or genetic disease (although the desire for perfect mates made me think it might be genetic). Our heroine, Rhine, is kidnapped from her tragic life with her twin brother and is inserted into this mansion in Florida that also holds two other girls (wives). One thing I didn't understand was, if the world was so full of orphans, why do people have to kidnap girls to marry? Why not take the orphaned girls rather than ones not wanting to go? Also, if the girls are so precious, why kill them so easily?

Rhine is chosen to live (according to her) on her unique trait of having one blue and one brown eye. A lot of the selection of girls was based on appearance, which confused me, because if you were trying to cure this virus/disease, why would you base it on certain looks of the women? Why not use all girls, since who knows who will be the one to have the right traits?

In the end, I thought that the world would have been better explored if not for the huge focus on a love triangle-type romance. Rhine didn't do anything for me. As another reviewer pointed out, if you had four years to live and you were starving to death, why wouldn't you be more interested in living the high life for the last years of your life in a mansion? These questions sat in the back of my mind as I read and finally decided I wasn't interested in the romance and relationship between Rhine and the other characters.

ARC provided by Simon & Schuster.

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Review: Feed by Mira Grant

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant
Pages: 572
Series: Newsflesh #1
Genre: Dystopia, Zombies, Science Fiction
Publication Date: May 1st, 2010
Rating: C
Challenge: Calico Reaction's Book Club - October Challenge

From Goodreads:
The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

I had many small problems with this book a couple bigger ones. The small ones included various inconsistencies which probably didn't matter to a lot of people except me. The book takes place around 25 years in the future and 20 years after two viruses mutated and created zombies and killed 20% of the world's population. I found that a lot of the world pushed my willing suspension of disbelief too far. For example, even if 87% of the population stays indoors because of the threat of the outside world, a lot of things from our world today still exist: Starbucks, campaign rallies, paparazzi and other daily life things. I felt that the world didn't change enough, other than the added zombies which only make a few real appearances.

A major problem for me was the pacing itself. The book was slowed down by a lot of nothing; info dumps, needless scenes and descriptions. I'm definitely someone who loves action and there definitely wasn't enough of it to keep me interested. It didn't help that often a lot of the action that was going on, the main character, Georgia, would halt the scene by inserting things about how good this might be for her blog, etc. It seemed like a very passive experience through the POV of the main character.

There are some redeeming qualities about Feed. The writing itself was good and I felt Grant had some good ideas but was brought down by the enormous amounts of information and blog/political stuff going on. The reasons for the zombie virus emerging was interesting and clever.

Overall, I was disappointed with Feed but perhaps my expectations were too high. It could be a great book for people interested in an original story, but maybe fans of zombies might not like it since zombies don't make a lot of appearances. I may be checking out the sequel to see where Grant takes the story.

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Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 374
Genre: YA Dystopia
Rating: A-

From Goodreads: In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

When a YA novel comes along that has so much hype such as The Hunger Games I become hesitant to read it because I haven't had much luck with the hyped-up YA books. I think it's just because I don't mesh with the things that make those books exciting for others. I put off reading The Hunger Games until I saw it was available at the library so I requested it.

Despite my bias going into it (which I tried really hard to suppress) this book still managed to win me over. There were many things that I liked. Firstly, despite the book's premise being hard to believe, the fact that people would actually watch children kill themselves in an arena for victory, I thought Collins did the best job she could to make it plausible. There was some internal logic that I sensed which made me happy. I like when things make sense. I was able to suspend disbelief and nothing broke that.

This was done through good world-building in the form of a dystopian North America. The characters were real. I thought the portrayal of Katniss as a strong teenaged girl was not over the top or too weak. You really knew her motivations (to take care of her sister) and you could relate to them.

Another great aspect of the story is the fast pace and Collins' ability to create tension. The Games are brutal, exciting and scary. If I was a teenager reading this I'd be freaked out and intrigued. I was even still! Actually, I think I would have loved this book at that age.

There are some areas I thought could be improved on. I would have liked to see more of the outside world. We are limited in what we see due to the first person view of Katniss. I would have liked to see more of the people of the world and what their experiences are like because I believe Collins created something interesting. However, this is a little critism and in general I still thought the book was great.

I recommend this to teens who don't mind some violence and anyone interested in good quality YA fiction. I will be reading the sequel soon. A-

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