In the Afterlight Green Prize Pack Giveaway!

I have a very special giveaway today, celebrating the release of "Sparks Rise" and IN THE AFTERLIFE.

Green Prize Pack (Click to see full size)

In The Darkest Minds trilogy by Alexandra Bracken, the green psi power is intelligence.  There are five different prize packs being given away, representing the five colors, so be sure to try to find them all.

Below is more information about the books, and then the giveaway!


 

ABOUT IN THE AFTERLIGHT

Available October 28, 2014

  Ruby can't look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government's attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. Only Ruby can keep their highly dangerous prisoner in check. But with Clancy Gray, there's no guarantee you're fully in control, and everything comes with a price.

When the Children's League disbands, Ruby rises up as a leader and forms an unlikely allegiance with Liam's brother, Cole, who has a volatile secret of his own. There are still thousands of other Psi kids suffering in government "rehabilitation camps" all over the country. Freeing them--revealing the governments unspeakable abuses in the process--is the mission Ruby has claimed since her own escape from Thurmond, the worst camp in the country.

But not everyone is supportive of the plan Ruby and Cole craft to free the camps. As tensions rise, competing ideals threaten the mission to uncover the cause of IANN, the disease that killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others with powers the government will kill to keep contained. With the fate of a generation in their hands, there is no room for error. One wrong move could be the spark that sets the world on fire.

 

ABOUT SPARKS RISE (The Darkest Minds: 2.5 e-Book release)

Available online September 2, 2014

This New eBook Novella connects the last two novels in The Darkest Minds trilogy.

 

Sam didn't think things could get worse at Thurmand rehabilitation camp. Then the Reds arrive. Everyone assumed the kids with firepower had been killed years ago. Instead they were taken away, brainwashed, and returned as terrifyingly effective guards. To her horror, Sam recognizes one of them: Lucas, the one spark of light in Sam's dark childhood. 

Lucas has a deadly secret--he beat the brutal training that turned his fellow Reds into mindless drones. When Sam defends herself against an attack by a vile PSF guard and faces a harrowing punishment, Lucas must risk his everything to save her.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandra Bracken was born and raised in Arizona, but moved east to study at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.  She recently relocated to New York City, where she worked in publishing and lives in a charming apartment overflowing with books. 

 

LEARN MORE

Visit Alexandra online at www.alexandrabracken.com

Follow Alexandra on Twitter

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Visit Hyperion Teens at the Official Site

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Be sure to read my reviews of THE DARKEST MINDS and NEVER FADE.

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Review: Never Fade

Book Two of the Darkest Minds
By Alexandra Bracken
Available now from Disney Hyperion
Review copy
Read my review of The Darkest Minds

If you haven't started this series, no worries.  THE DARKEST MINDS is currently on sale for 99 cents in ebook (and $5.99 in paperback).  Once you reach the end, you'll pick up NEVER FADE immediately because that ending.

NEVER FADE picks up several months after THE DARKEST MINDS and Alexandra Bracken lets the full details of what Ruby's been up to unfold slowly, as she runs into some familiar and unfamiliar faces.  Ruby is with a new group now, one that she hopes will help liberate the camps, but she's not sure how to sway people to her side.  Meanwhile, some people would prefer to just start killing the kids.

I still sometimes have trouble buying into the central premise of this series.  Everything I said about it for the first book stands: plague centralized to the US?  I guess it could be something nefarious, but who knows.  Parents give up their kids willing?  Yeah, it might save their lives, but I don't know a single parent who would go five years or whatever without their kid.  They would be teaming up and busting in.  Where are all the parents?!  But, again, I do go with it, because Bracken is a compelling writer.

If you're hoping that things get happier in NEVER FADE, then you're out of luck.  Bracken does introduce Jude, an optimistic, sunshine character who I instantly fell in love with.  She also introduces Vida, a tough, rough girl.  Yet in some ways she isn't as tough as the kids who have been through the camps.  Since they're grouped with Ruby, you know they're going to be put through the wringer.

Once more it is a trip across a changed United States, running into different factions all with their own agendas.  But Ruby's after a hard drive, one that might be able to bring down the corrupt president and free the kids.  All she has to do is keep from getting herself killed.  She also needs to come to term with her powers and decide where she draws her moral lines.

NEVER FADE is a fascinating, heart wrenching book.  Bracken's X-men meet dystopia series is full of action, romance, wise cracking, and pain.  Once more she ends things with a hook, leading you right into the next book.  (Oh when oh when will I have it in my hands?)  If you're like me, it's also an ending that might make you shed a tear or two.  I'm afraid I might be a wimp.

Review: The Darkest Minds

First in The Darkest Minds series
By Alexandra Bracken
Available now from Disney Hyperion
Review copy
Read my review of BRIGHTLY WOVEN

UNSPOKEN has been supplanted.  I thought it would be the cruelest ending of the year, but at the last minute Alexandra Bracken's THE DARKEST MINDS snuck in.  When THE DARKEST MINDS ends, things are not going the heroes' way.  I cannot wait to read the next book and see how they make it through.

In the world of THE DARKEST MINDS, a plague swept through the US that killed the majority of children between the ages of ten and eighteen.  The ones left behind all had psychic powers.  Ruby is an Orange - she can control the minds of other people.  She managed to survive the purging of the Oranges by convincing the doctor who classified her that she was a harmless Green.  But something happens to reveal her, forcing her to run from the camp before she is killed.

There are two aspects of the premise that I would normally hate.  A plague localized to the US that only affects a certain age group?  Luckily, Bracken doesn't attempt a scientific explanation and there are so many conspiracies that I can assume the plague will be revealed as something nefarious.  The second thing is that the parents willingly give their children up to camps where they are horribly treated.  Bracken tries to justify this - most people are too concerned with the fact the country is broke, everyone thinks the camps are places where the kids are cured, and so on.  There are horrible holes in each of the explanations, but I was enjoying the world Bracken created enough to go with it.

Ruby ends up bonding with three other kids on the run: Liam, Chubs, and Zu.  Liam is one of the best love interests of the year.  One character refers to him as "Pollyanna," which is very accurate.  He has the optimism and idealism needed to inspire Ruby.  She's survived for years when others wouldn't, but she needs to fight if she's ever going to do more than just survive.  But there's no reason to fight if you don't have hope.  I loved the dynamic between the group too.  They really bond into a family, although it takes Ruby awhile to be accepted.  It's a nice blend of realistic and heartwarming.  (THE DARKEST MINDS needs all the scraps of heartwarming it can get.)

THE DARKEST MINDS won't be for everyone.  It can get dark and bleak.  There are few characters worthy of trust.  The deck is stacked against Ruby and the other psychics, and they have few means of bettering their lives despite their powers.  But I believe she and her friends can make it and change the world.  (Once they decide they want to change the world, that is.)  I'll definitely be following this series to see what happens next.

Review: Brightly Woven

By Alexandra Bracken
Available now from Egmont USA; Review copy



One of the hardest things to resist when writing fantasy is the tendency to exoticize fantasy. Because, of course, no matter how strange the society you've created is, it's still full of people acting like people. Alexandra Bracken never forgets this.

Sydelle Mirabel lives in a small village famous for its pottery. Unfortunately, there's been a long drought, so there's no mud, so no one can make the pottery and the village is in bad shape. She dreams of leaving to apprentice herself to a master weaver. Then, one day in the mountains, she comes across Wayland North, a wizard wearing a number of colored cloaks.

Soon he's brought rain to the village and he and Sydelle are moving quickly, though he won't tell her what's really going on and why he needs to drink so much. Then they run into his rival, Reuel Dorwan, and Sydelle realizes that she needs to find out what Wayland's goals are because she's part of them.

Despite being narrated by a girl, I think boys can enjoy BRIGHTLY WOVEN. It moves quickly, with more emphasis on the action than Wayland and Sydelle's budding romance. (Their romance is more the bantering-type than the lovey dovey-type anyway.)

I especially enjoyed how Bracken wove the history of Saldorra and Auster, the two countries almost at war, throughout the text. It makes sense that both countries present similar but opposing narratives. The cultural stuff remains low-key and easy to follow, but contains just enough complexity to remain realistic.

BRIGHTLY WOVEN is a nice, brisk fantasy. Bracken's debut is charming enough to overcome the rough points that are found in the work of all first time authors. I liked Sydelle's voice and enjoyed her surprising adventure.