Tag: post apocalyptic

YA

Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Reboot #1

reboot -amy tinteraFive years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

4 Drink Me Potions

Wren Connolly, otherwise known by her branded number as 178, having “rebooted” to life after 178 minutes after dying.

She should have lost more of her humanity than anyone else, but it seems all it needed to surface was a push in the right direction.

I held off reading Reboot for a long time. I’m not really sure why. But oh boy, I’m so glad I finally picked it up. This story follows a beautiful protagonist who truly feels that emotions and other trivial human things are just a part of her ill-spent childhood. I love that Wren is such a complicated character. She feels emotions, but she doesn’t believe she’s really human anymore. Even she believes she can be a monster, mindlessly following even the cruelest of orders coming from HARC. After all, she’s 178, right? How much humanity could have been left in her after being dead for so long?

In a way, this inner conflict against her own personal demons reminded me a lot of Rosamund Hodge’s Crimson Bound. I admired the protagonist for the complexity in which her character couldn’t be defined as strictly good or bad. Although Wren wasn’t as monstrous or as dark of a character (for which I am grateful, ’cause poor me can only handle so much darkness at a time), she definitely went through a similar struggle. She killed people. People who were supposedly bad. And she enjoyed the hunt.

Enter Callum, with his wee number of 22 minutes. You would think that a guy like him, who was barely a Reboot and probably retained most of his humanity, would have nothing in common with someone like Wren, who scared even most of the other Reboots in the facility. But he did. With his contagious smile and hopeful attitude, he showed her that there was still a large piece of humanity in her.

Man, this just makes me want to find a Callum for myself.

The romance was sweet and slow-progressing. Reboot as a whole was an extremely fast read, gobbled up in a few sittings, and the romance still felt like it was written in a nice, even pace. And it wasn’t just the romance, but the pacing of the action sequences was well-done. Things weren’t as normal back in the facility, leading Wren to question her role with HARC for probably the very first time.

The world building and setting was definitely interesting. A new virus caused a major outbreak in the area known as today’s Texas. But it had strange effects. It killed a ton of people, but it also “rebooted” some young people after a range of minutes from death. Hence, a new and stronger species of humans called Reboots started roaming. The world building was familiar, in a sense, but with familiar cities remodelled to fit with this fallen world after the virus. I do wish Tintera let us explore a little more into the world she’s created, so that’s something to look forward to in the sequel.

I’ll keep this review short and sweet, closing off with this. The romance does give a lot of weight to Reboot, probably more so than other novels in this genre, but I think it’s well-placed alongside the fighting and the rebellion against the higher order. It connects us to Wren and to Callum in such a strong way that it’ll have you rooting for their survival way before the end of it.

Overall Recommendation:
For a synopsis that suggests rebellion and loads of action, Reboot also has a fair share of romance, as well as diving into the inner conflict that Wren has to deal with. Is she a monster now that she’s a Reboot, having been dead for so long? Could she find a piece of humanity left in her? All that is explored alongside her growing friendship and attraction for newbie Callum, someone she normally would never give a second thought about. I loved that it explored her character like this to give us a sense of who she really is and to let us connect with her, whether she be a monster or not. That’s not to say the novel isn’t exciting and still full of some ass-kicking. I’d say Reboot has something to offer for everyone.

YA

Review: The Body Electric by Beth Revis

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

the body electric -beth revisThe future world is at peace.

Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift—the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother—to help others relive their happy memories.

But not all is at it seems.

Ella starts seeing impossible things—images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience—and influence—the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love—even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing…

Someone’s altered her memory.

Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.

So who can she trust?

2.5 Drink Me Potions

A potentially corrupt government system that’s apparently always watching through the tiniest lens? Uh, Big Brother, anyone?

The Body Electric has left me with amazingly conflicted feelings by the end of it. This is a story that follows a conspiracy that takes everything to a whole new, futuristic level set in the 22nd century. I liked Beth Revis’ Across the Universe trilogy and was excited to see another standalone book from her. I love the fact that the science fiction doesn’t go all techy and hard to follow. It enhances the experience of this futuristic setting but doesn’t take centre stage and grabs all the attention away from the central plot. For the most part.

But, for the first two-thirds of the book, I was half driven insane by our dear, dear protagonist, Ella. Sometimes I complain about protagonists who are just SO special that only they can save the world. As if no one else is capable of doing the same thing ’cause they just don’t have that intrinsic ability in them.

This girl? Ella Shepherd? She’s just plain boring and tiresome to follow. Ok, so she may not be entirely unspecial, as she plays an interesting role in the story, but she definitely lacks something.

And that something is courage.

She wavers ALL the time about not starting another war. Not trusting Jack, the guy she supposedly loved but couldn’t remember. Not wanting blood on her hands. She tries my patience to the very extreme. She’s weak and clearly not cut out of the same fabric as heroes with “saving the world” as their destinies. She leads trouble to the very group of people who may be the only thing standing in the way against the government. She’s the liability. And even she knows this.

“My nanobot count, the tracker bots that were inside of me, my abilities…I don’t know if I can’t be trusted because of what I am or because Jack doubts what side I’m on, but at the end of the day — I’m a liability.”

Even when it’s clear the government isn’t what they appear to be, she’s willing to set Jack up for them on a golden platter all like “Oh hey, maybe I can trick some details out of him to give to the person RULING this entire world”. You’re damn right she’s not special. She’s downright cowardly. And I absolutely DETEST following a character like that.

That’s not to say Jack doesn’t annoy me either, with his devil-may-care kinda attitude. His many flippant remarks about just “how devilishly handsome he is” makes me wanna slap him whether or not he was serious or joking. The time and place for those comments weren’t ever appropriate in the context of the situation. I couldn’t take him seriously saying those things.

But for a love interest, for a girl like Ella, he could’ve done SO much better than her. For the most part, he was at least courageous and believed strongly in his cause for fixing up the government’s mistakes. Looking out for the people the government has forgotten. And if his only flaw was calling Ella “love”, then he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Too bad she couldn’t see that and just acted like some petulant child.

“Jack looks up and notices my nervous face. “I don’t bite, love.”
I whip around. “I told you to quit calling me that. I don’t care what kind of person I am in your memory. Because I’m not that person now.”

Clearly, she’s not the easiest person to be around. To be fair, she did have her memory wiped of him, but still.

Anyway, if you can stick it to the last 1/3 of The Body Electric, it does get a little exciting. I could never quite figure out where Revis was going with the plot, or how this whole conspiracy thing was going to end.

I don’t want to ruin anything, but I will say this. It confused the crap out of me. Like, seeing as Revis’ inspiration for “reveries” and Ella’s ability to slip into other people’s dreamscapes was based on Total Recall (if you know what that is), it was hard to determine what was reality or not in the end. However, the overall conclusion was satisfactory and didn’t leave any loose ends hanging. Although the romance never really quite hit it for me, even after Ella started falling for Jack again.

Overall, it really makes one think. With the way science and technology is going, what would the difference really be between an Artificial Intelligent cybernetic android and a human?

A soul, maybe? That’s something to think about.

Overall Recommendation:
The Body Electric presented a really unique futuristic setting on Earth with technology that was believable and concerns that seem quite real with how governments and people would use such technology. If it hadn’t been for a heroine that just seemed more like a liability than a, well, hero, for most of the story, I think I would’ve rated this a lot higher. Unfortunately, Ella doesn’t really mold into her own until far too late, but if the central conspiracy theme has hooked you in from the start, I’d say this novel can still be saved by its very reflective (and slightly confusing) ending.

YA

Review: Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Hunter #1

hunter -mercedes lackeyCenturies ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were slashed open allowing hideous fantastical monsters to wreak havoc; destroying entire cities in their wake. Now, people must live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the evil creatures constantly trying to break in. Only the corps of teen Hunters with lightning reflexes and magical abilities can protect the populace from the daily attacks.

Joyeaux Charmand is a mountain girl from a close knit village who comes to the big city to join the Hunters. Joy thinks she is only there to perform her civic duty and protect the capitol Cits, or civilians, but as cameras follow her every move, she soon learns that the more successful she is in her hunts, the more famous she becomes.

With millions of fans watching her on reality TV, Joy begins to realize that Apex is not all it seems. She is forced to question everything she grew up believing about the legendary Hunters and the very world she lives in. Soon she finds that her fame may be part of a deep conspiracy that threatens to upend the protective structure built to keep dark magic out. The monsters are getting in and it is up to Joy to find out why.

3.5 Drink Me Potions

Thank you Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for this copy in exchange for an honest review

***Hunter comes out on September 1, 2015***

From the start, I could already tell that this was the kind of novel that you either hated or would find oddly interesting.

I couldn’t quite decide for myself which category I was in until a lot later into the book. The first few chapters were more than enough to cause a lot of readers to doubt their ability to continue on with the story. I swear, all that happens is this inner monologue that just continues on and on in our protagonist’s head. She’s explaining kind of what happened to this world that we’ve dropped into, getting us readers acquainted with the terminology and the events leading up to present day. Yet the author chooses to do this in such an odd manner.

How so, you may ask?

Well, let me tell you, dear reader. Our girl Joy is sitting on a train travelling to the great city Apex where she has been dispatched to serve her duty by orders of her Uncle, a great chief of police of sorts. And while she’s on this long, LONG train ride? She’s basically narrating all these things in her head. There is NO dialogue whatsoever for the most part. The odd sentence exchanged with a train steward checking on her maybe, but that’s the first several chapters. It was a little exhausting.

And it wasn’t just some narration. The author would switch over to second-person writing. Like how I’m writing to you reading this right now. It’s like Joy is telling us specifically, as audience/readers, using the word you to explain things. It was just a bit weird, in my opinion. So here is this whole giant monologue (for the most part) taking up our first impression, with a huge information dump on our heads right from the start. And it wasn’t all made clear immediately what the different terminology meant either. It took a while into the story for certain things to make some sort of sense….Talk about the need for patience.

But if that didn’t deter you, then maybe the slow pacing of the plot after she arrives at Apex and reaches Hunter HQ might. Joy is getting used to the area and it’s all fairly new to her, growing up in the Mountains with her Masters in a Monastery setting. Oh, all these references I just randomly dropped into the previous sentence? Well, get used to it. That’s how the story was written too, until you started piecing together her history, with confirmation in Joy’s monologue a little later.

Anyway, it wasn’t all peaches and cream. I think that’s fairly obvious with a lot of other reviews I’ve seen floating around. I was kinda miffed at all the different present day references Lackey used, and her need to change their spellings into something that sounded the same but just wasn’t. For example, vegan became vaygen. Like. What the heck? And champagne into Sham-pane? And she definitely brought in some references to Christians, calling them Christers in the book. If you can’t tell from reading this, I’m shrugging my shoulders at all this. I find it absolutely unnecessary but oh-kay….Whatever floats her boat.

All right. You may now wonder why this rating is still so high? Why not a 2 star?

That….is a mighty good question. I may have found a lot of things odd in the beginning or just annoying, but I couldn’t quite stop myself from finishing. The world was rather intriguing. All these monsters, otherwise known as Othersiders, were well-described, and related to all sorts of religions and mythologies. Even the odd vampire was featured. And the Hunters’ abilities, as well as their Othersider sidekicks called Hounds were purely fascinating. I loved reading all the Hunts that Joy went on, either solo or with her newfound Hunter friends in the big city.

So even though the beginning was mediocre in execution at best, if you stuck around long enough, I think you’d be drawn into the plot. There’s plenty of action battles described, to the point you can picture it as if it were a movie unfolding before your eyes. Not a whole lot of romance highlighted, but there’s some romantic interest around to satisfy romance lovers. And plenty of intrigue into possible conspiracies and why there’s an increase in sightings of Othersiders where there should be none.

I will say this to conclude. Hunter could’ve been written a little better, especially in the first few chapters where hooking readers in are crucial, but it has a ton of potential and stands on its own with originality in world building. The style of writing is less conversational and more descriptive, reminding me of writers in the past like L.M. Montgomery, which is a huge compliment. It sticks out in the YA genre, and I do like the sense of action being highlighted in this way. There are also so many questions left to be answered going into the next novel, but the ending was more than satisfactory, and might I say, ironically the best scene to have concluded it at.

Overall Recommendation:
There were definitely pros and cons to this book, and it’s not a book for everyone. The pacing can be slow at times without the plot progressing hugely if you look at it in the big picture. The beginning was one huge monologue inside Joy’s head that could kill a lot of readers’ interest, and there are minor irritants like using modern day words but re-spelling them to make it look “cool” and “futuristic”. However, if you can get past that, the world building is superb and the action Hunt scenes are written with such detail that it’s like a movie in your head. Plenty of questions are left unanswered, but enough of the central mystery is touched upon that it still satisfies. I don’t recommend this for people who get bored easily, but Hunter is definitely unique in the YA world.