Review: The Fate of the Tearling

Book three of the Queen of the Tearling trilogy
By Erika Johansen
Available now from Harper (HarperCollins)
Review copy

I am happy I began this trilogy when all three books were out, since this is the sort of series best read at a breathless clip, eager to find out what happens next. I'm certainly happy that I didn't have to stop at THE INVASION OF THE TEARLING, with Kelsea a prisoner.

The first book set up a fascinating world filled with danger in every corner, and the odd reminder every once in awhile that it was not a fantasy world, but a far future version of our world. The second book delved deeper into this by having Kelsea relive memories of Lily, a woman living at the time of the Crossing, the end of a dystopic period that gave rise to the country of the Tearling. I wasn't a fan of this method of revealing secrets of the Tearling's past, because I prefer fantasy to dystopian fiction, and there was a strong theme of reincarnation, which I've also never been a fan of.

THE FATE OF THE TEARLING, unfortunately, takes this thread up and runs with it, introducing even more past characters to reveal the secrets of Kelsea's sapphires, the Fetch, and the man in the fire. I admire how thoroughly Erika Johansen seeded her surreal twist in the story. THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING never hides that it is supposed to be our world, and the mystery of why it had to be set in our world when it didn't seem to fit was one I wanted answered. I simply preferred the more fantastical setting and the characters from the contemporary period of the novel, so I was sad to see the focus shift away from them.

In THE INVASION OF THE TEARLING, Kelsea was teetering on the brink of her worst instincts, her temper and the burgeoning war giving her a chance to indulge in cruelty instead of being the purely altruistic ruler she wanted to be. I found her corruption interesting, and felt that her arc was not entirely satisfying. For a series that focused much on the consequences of the characters' actions, Kelsea gets to sidestep the consequences of her own worst decision. I'm glad that things ended happily, against all hope, but the solution felt more like cheating than the hard-earned triumph Kelsea deserved.

While the ending didn't bring it home for me, I thought this trilogy was an incredibly fun read and it was full of characters I fell in love with. Lazarus, Kelsea's chosen regent and her most trusted man, was a personal favorite. He's a tough, hard-bitten man who couldn't be more obvious about how much he was searching for hope and someone to believe in. And I loved Father Tyler, an old priest who has a good heart and loves books and becomes the possessor of an important MacGuffin in THE FATE OF THE TEARLING.

I can see the populace of the Tearling having lives beyond where they intersect with Kelsea's journey, because Johansen wrote them with such nuance. Even the evil Red Queen, who has had her sympathetic moments from book one, gets to be more than evil even as she's moved into the position of the taunting captor.

I'm excited about whatever Johansen's next venture might be, especially if she decides to go for pure high fantasy. I can appreciate how she experimented with genre, even if the end effect wasn't for me.

Review: Trail of the Dead

Book two of the Killer of Enemies trilogy
By Joseph Bruchac
Available now from Tu Books
Review copy

Lozen and her companions are on the move.  They're all getting better at fighting gemods (genetically modified monsters) and Lozen's abilities are growing, tying them tighter together in unexpected ways.  But Lozen is also getting sick, and a new and powerful enemy has been set on her trail.

Lozen is a member of the Apache and Chiricahua tribes, and the mythology she grew up with informs how she battles monsters and keeps her humanity.  I've always loved stories that blend myth (or legends) into the story, and TRAIL OF THE DEAD is very satisfying on that account.  Her people's history is also very important to her.

In this post-apocalyptic future, few people have access to books or other pop-culture relics.  Lozen travels with the Dreamer, who it turns out has managed to save some books.  It is interesting to see what recovering a bit of written history can do for some people.  Lozen's crush, Hussein, is eager to read the Koran.  Still, oral tradition keeps alive many things that writing has failed.

I wasn't a fan of passages through the point of view of the villain, Luther Little Wound.  I found that they became repetitive as the book went on, because he doesn't have many interests aside from violence.  His point of view also didn't add much that we didn't learn, or couldn't have learned, through Lozen's point of view.

Apart from that quibble, TRAIL OF THE DEAD is a fun adventure story.  It has plenty of action, but still questions the consequences of violence.  It has a diverse cast of characters who are learning that they too might have their own prejudices to overcome.  It also has a tough heroine who has shouldered a heavy burden and is managing the weight.  I look forward to her final adventure.

Review: Shadows of Sherwood

The first Robyn Hoodlum book
By Kekla Magoon
Available now from Bloomsbury
Review copy

I love the concept of a futuristic Robin Hood story, with many of the main roles being women instead of men.  Robyn Loxley is a girl living in the rich sector of Nott City when her parents are disappeared by the Sheriff (also female in this story).  She barely manages to escape, and has to figure out how to live life on the margins with the help of some others who have been managing: Laurel, Scarlet, and Key.

It's right up my alley, but SHADOWS OF SHERWOOD never quite gelled for me.  Robyn's parents apparently followed a moon lore, an old religion that seems like magic.  It's a good way to add a folklore tie to the story, but I felt like the dystopia and fantasy elements didn't mesh very neatly.  The moon lore mostly seemed like a way for convenient things to happen.

There's also use of villainous point of view, which I find is difficult to pull off well.  The Sheriff's passages give some hints about Governor Crown's dastardly deeds but otherwise add little to the story.  Since this is a Robin Hood retelling it is particularly egregious, because everyone knows where the story is going.  Even younger readers can be assumed to know at least one version of the story, if only the Disney movie.

I think the class conflicts were done well, which is important since they are a central part of the legend.  Robyn has been part of the upper class and is now learning how bad everyone else in the city had it.  Rescuing her parents is a top priority, but she's learning that innocent bystanders could get hurt in her activities against the Sheriff - which leads her to question how she can help.

SHADOWS OF SHERWOOD has some nice heist scenes and an appealing cast, but it left me cold.  I'm just not sure the biggest departures from the traditional story worked for me.  It felt like a separate story welded on that didn't quite fit.  Does Robin Hood need a prophecy?  No, not really.

Review: Material Girls

By Elaine Dimopoulos
Available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt BFYR
Review copy

In the future, creative industries like fashion and video game design are staffed by teenagers (hired at thirteen) because everyone knows that young people know what is cool.  Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde both rose to the top of their fields, but now their teens are almost over and their afraid of becoming obsolosers.  When Marla loses her prestigious position and Ivy gets threatened by a new pop starlet, the girls start seeing the downside to their world and getting the gumption to fight back.

I found that MATERIAL GIRLS took awhile to kick into gear.  I think it was a mix of two things.  Elaine Dimopoulos built a dystopian that took a lot of set up to explain and ground the setting, and both girls start out shallow and unquestioning in order to make their journey more satisfying.  I found that the plot didn't really move until Marla and Ivy met each other.

I thought MATERIAL GIRLS was full of good ideas.  The way it mocks trends and commercialism reminds me of Scott Westerfeld's slicker SO YESTERDAY.  I liked the way the girls' revolution came about, and that all the leaders had different ideas about what they wanted to achieve and how.  I liked the messy, slightly ambiguous ending, that doesn't provide the story with unearned resolution.  As the slow start showed, the execution could use some work.

MATERIAL GIRLS is the first novel by Dimopoulos, and I think it proves she has talent.  If I were on a court picking the next big thing, I don't think I'd pass this book on to the next level.  I would, however, encourage the artist to keep submitting ideas and honing her craft.  There's a good foundation here.

Review: Evolution

Third book in the Extraction trilogy
By Stephanie Diaz
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan)
Review copy
Read my reviews of Extraction and Rebellion

Clementine has been to the center of her planet and back.  She expected to find a better life, but instead found corruption and a horrific plan to sacrifice everyone on the Surface to save those in the Core.  She joined a rebellion, but recently discovered a truth that changed everything, and an external threat that just might be more of a danger to her people.

I must admit, I was worried that the aliens would let Commander Charlie and the other officials off the hook.  Invading aliens with advanced technology would be a reason for some to resort to extreme measures.  I think there's never a reason for the kind of medical experimentation that they were doing, but at least it is more of a reason than they were doing it because they're the bad guys and thus do bad things.

I've been looking forward to the arrival of the aliens since the end of EXTRACTION, when their existence was revealed.  REBELLION dealt with the eponymous rebellion instead of picking up that thread. While I was quite satisfied by the alien's appearance in EVOLUTION, I wish Stephanie Diaz had seeded some more information about them earlier in the trilogy.  I was really interested in their past interactions with humans and sad that that was only a fact in this book.

I continued to enjoy Clementine and Logan's relationship, as well as the refreshing lack of a love triangle.  There are not many YA dystopians without one.  Both of them are ridiculous about offering to sacrifice themself for the other, but I believed in their connection and their worries. 

I can't say I'll ever be a dystopian fan, but I truly enjoyed the Extraction trilogy.  I think it is because it leaned more towards the science fiction end of things, and really expanded beyond the government versus one special girl.  I look forward to seeing Diaz's next novel, now that her debut trilogy is done.

Stephanie Diaz is half-Latina and has written about what diversity means to her at Latin@s in Kid Lit.

Review: The Hunted

Sequel to The Living
By Matt de la Peña
Available now from Delacorte (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I have wanted to read THE HUNTED since the moment I finished THE LIVING, and hearing Matt de la Peña read the first chapter at a book signing only whetted my appetite.  THE HUNTED starts about a month later, when Shy, Carmen, Marcus, and Shoeshine finally make it to California.

In THE LIVING, they had to mainly survive a fight against nature.  Now, they have to mainly escape people.  A biker gang is killing travelers to keep them from spreading the Romero virus.  And a certain entity wants to kill Shy and his friends because they know too much about the virus.  Their only hope is to hike across a picked-over post-apocalyptic California to Arizona.  It is a brutal journey.

I don't think THE HUNTED can truly be enjoyed without THE LIVING.  De la Peña recaps the bare minimum, particularly when it comes to character relationships.  I certainly don't think the passages involving Addie have much meaning if you haven't read the first book.  Fortunately, both books in the duology are quick reads.  The chapters are short of full of action, which keeps the pages turning.

I felt that Shoeshine was more of a plot mechanism than a character in THE LIVING, so I like that he's a little more fleshed out in THE HUNTED.  A former soldier is still an incredibly lucky person to have by your side in a survival situation, but THE HUNTED gives hints of his hobbies and of his past. 

I'm also truly thankful that rape isn't used as a threat in THE HUNTED.  It is overplayed in dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, like everybody - not just rapists - couldn't resist the urge if civilization collapsed.  People are too busy being awful to each other in other ways.  (To be fair, a virus with a 100% death rate is scary.)

THE HUNTED is a great survival against the odds story.  The protagonist, Shy, is hugely likeable.  I could read many more books featuring him.  I'm happy to leave it at two, although there are some unanswered questions that de la Peña could answer in a third book.  Be sure to read THE LIVING and THE HUNTED if you like quick books about intense journeys and noble causes featuring diverse casts.

Review: Rebellion

Second in a trilogy
By Stephanie Diaz
Available now from
Review copy
Read my review of Extraction

REBELLION starts a week after EXTRACTION ends.  Clementine keeps flashing back to Oliver's death and the other terrible things she's been through.  Her mind is still sharp, but she's not exactly up to taking part in space battles. 

But time is ticking down for the rebels to foil Commander Charlie's plans, and she and her boyfriend Logan go undercover in a work camp while the other rebels infiltrate other places.  Clementine's mission: sow dissent and prevent the workers from being injected with a mind-control serum.  (It all makes sense if you've read the first book.)

Clementine and Logan's relationship was a highlight of REBELLION for me, so I liked getting to see them interact more.  They each make the other feel more safe, but their dedication to each other can be used against them.  However, much of the cast is new as Clementine is sent to a new location.  There are some reoccurring characters, including an antagonist from Clementine's childhood who proves to be more than a senseless bully.

Unfortunately, REBELLION did feel like the middle book in a trilogy.  EXTRACTION promised aliens, but they aren't quite there during the time period of REBELLION.  There's a new setting, but it's pretty similar to the Surface of the first book, and the differences aren't explored in depth.  There's a greater focus on internal conflict until the antagonist shows up.  (Oddly, the conflict remains mostly internal, but for a very external cause.)

I'm excited to see how Stephanie Diaz will finish her debut trilogy.  She knows how to write a fun sci-fi yarn, and she ended REBELLION with one hell of a hook.

Review: Illusive

By Emily Lloyd-Jones
Available now from Little, Brown BFYR (Hachette)
Review copy

Ciere is a great thief, and not just because of her ability to create illusions.  (She's not that good at it really.)  But her last heist of $40,000 put her in trouble with the mob, and her next heist is being eyed by the Feds.  It'll take quick thinking and good friends to get her out of this trouble.

I love books about superheroes, so ILLUSIVE had one point in its favor when I started.  I'm not big on dystopias, especially ones based on plague, so that was a point against it.  In the world of ILLUSIVE, a small percentage of people developed powers after being given the vaccine for the plague.  For some reason, the vaccine was outlawed and the formula destroyed instead of everyone trying their hardest to get superpowers.  (I mean, c'mon?  Good health and a chance of superpowers? Go for it.)  Those that are superpowered are mostly snatched up by the government.  The ones that aren't are mostly criminals who hide their abilities.  In a way, it is a similar setup to Holly Black's WHITE CAT.

ILLUSIVE switches between two points of view: Ciere and her fellow crew member Daniel, who has been captured by a very dangerous man.  They're good friends, but circumstances are pitting them against each other.  I really liked and sympathized with both characters.  Honestly, you'd think the plot would be the highlight of a book centered around a superpowered heist, but I adored the character actions.

However, that meant I was let down by the ending.  I think two characters in particular were badly served by their comrades for no reason.  Ciere leaps into danger to save someone she's known for days, while dismissing two friends from her life.  One gets a rather cutting farewell and the other is left to be a virtual slave. Characters I'd gotten to know and care about were shoved aside in favor of the new guy.

That being said, I'll be there with bells on for a sequel.  ILLUSIVE was fun, fast paced, and offered some genuinely thrilling twists.  Plus, superheroes.

Review: Extraction

First in a trilogy
By Stephanie Diaz
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

In the world of Kiel, people from the Surface are tested on their sixteenth birthdays to see whether they are worthy of living in the Core.  Maybe five people are picked per year.  Clementine is determined to make it, and to do well enough to convince the Core people to change their mind about Logan, her brilliant and strong boyfriend who happens to be disabled.  When she does make it to the Core, it is a struggle to fit in and excel.  Especially because the Core sees the Surface as an enemy, still.

I have to give it to Stephanie Diaz.  She does a good job of making the division between the Core, Surface, and other layers seem plausible.  The Surface people did revolt, and lost hard.  They're all killed off before they turn twenty, and a population of mostly children doesn't have much potential military force.  There's an acid rain that plagues the surface and also keeps them from becoming upwardly mobile.

EXTRACTION definitely has some narrative influence from the dystopian trend.  However, it does slot more into the rising science fiction trend as the story goes on.  There is much more to Clementine's world than there initially appears to be.  EXTRACTION also avoids the dreaded love triangle.  Any gestures towards it are mere feints, and the boy who would usually be the other leg of the triangle is not a mysterious bad boy but a petty, cruel villain with the merest shade of sympathetic backstory.

I thoroughly enjoyed EXTRACTION, even with the brutality of life on the Surface and the boot camp in the Core.  The romance between Logan and Clementine is both sweet and strong, two people who love each other deeply and have each other's backs.  I like that their love story was allowed to stand on its own.

And for those who aren't sold, I have one word: aliens.

Review: The Immortal Crown

Book two in the Age of X series
By Richelle Mead
Available now from Dutton (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

Age of X, the newest adult series from Richelle Mead, takes place in a future United States where religion has been outlawed, but now the gods are coming back with a vengeance.  Both heroes, Justin March and Mae Koskinen, are Elect, which basically means they can serve as vessels for gods on Earth.  Justin is all but claimed, and Mae is up for grabs.  However, both of them are indepencent people who would rather follow their own agendas.  In this case, it's taking a trip to neighboring country Arcadia.

I absolutely love the world Mead is shaping in the Age of X.  Her use of mythology is clever, and often allows the reader to be about one step ahead of the characters.  THE IMMORTAL CROWN explores a new country, a future Canada taken over by a fundamentalist religion.  Women are treated particularly badly, which the Gemman (US) ambassadors, since all their bodyguards are female, including Mae.

The romantic tension between Justin and Mae continues, although I hate the continued push and pull as Justin tries to push Mae away without telling her the truth.  GAMEBOARD OF THEIR GODS set up the conundrum of their relationship - if Justin has sex with Mae, then he has to serve the god that's been helping him out.  And it's getting harder and harder for them not to consummate their relationship, especially since Mae doesn't know why he keeps turning into a jerk when they get close to getting it on.

Meanwhile, Justin's ward Tessa gets her own storyline in which she becomes the intern to a reporter.  Honestly, I think Tessa gets the best storyline plotwise.  The Arcadia plotline has some interesting character development, but it gets wrapped up fast and ends up not being all that important despite the build up at the beginning of THE IMMORTAL CROWN.

THE IMMORTAL CROWN is a decent second book.  It continues to set up the series, the characters grow as people, and there is some action.  Best of all, there is a major twist at the end with some seriously sinister implications.  (Unfortunately, I hate one half of the twist - it is a bit of plot drama Mead draws on too often in her adult books.)  I'll definitely be back for book three to see what happens next in the Age of X.

Review: Reckoning

The first book in the Silver Blackthorne trilogy
By Kerry Wilkinson
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

This UK import reads similarly to Steven dos Santos's The Torch Keeper series.  Kerry Wilkinson imagines a future world of scarcity and recent peace wherein people are sorted into a strict class system based on a test called the Reckoning.  At the same time, thirty young people total, gathered from the four provinces, are sent to the capital as Offerings to the King.  No one knows what happens to the Offerings, but everyone imagines - perhaps important jobs? 

When Silver Blackthorne is chosen, she soon finds out that the Offerings do get jobs, but their main function is to serve as the King's playthings.  Few survive even a single year.  Only two have survived five years.  She doesn't know how to escape, but knows she must.  But escape becomes ever more complicated as she falls in love and makes friends with other Offerings.

I wasn't impressed with the beginning of RECKONING.  The sorting aspects felt derivative and the brutality simply felt grotesque.  At the same time, RECKONING was very effective at showing why Silver felt beat down so soon.  Wilkinson is quite clever at explaining why the Offerings don't fight back or work together.  The plot comes together very neatly, delivering a few surprises, mostly through unexpected character beats.

I thought RECKONING was a fast read that will appeal to fans of darker dystopians.  The romance is a bit more developed than most, with lots of daringly private conversations between Silver and her beau.  Silver's talent with technology did seem a bit too much to me at times, especially since so much of the plot revolves around her special talent.

In the end, I don't really think RECKONING was one for me.  It was lighter on the science fiction than I expected and a touch too depressing.  But it was a quick read and not without its charms.

48HBC Review: Divided

Sequel to DUALED
By Elsie Chapman
Available now from Random House BFYR (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

DIVIDED picks up several months after DUALED ends.  West Grayer has moved on from her life as an assassin, and now teaches weaponry.  But the government has discovered that she used to be a striker, and wants her to kill three teens to protect their children - and they offer her the motivation to go through with it.

I enjoyed DUALED, although I had some issues with it.  The set up of the society made sense if I didn't think about it too long.  Everyone is infertile, and born through genetic engineering.  Everyone has four parents and a twin.  Sometime during the ages of 10 and 20, you become active and kill your twin with the other set of parents, proving that you are more worthy of the city's resources and can join the army.  (Seriously, that's just a way to end up with a seriously psychologically messed up population.)  But if everyone is born through genetic engineering, just select for speed and strength and intelligence or whatever.  I also had issues with the way the heroine's murder-for-hire was presented and the way it never quite gelled with her character.  But I still moved on to the sequel.

DIVIDED does go deeper into the workings of the city of Kersh.  It answers some of my questions about things being nonsensical, but brings up others.  (Finally someone mentions that the surrounding populations must've figured out something to solve the infertile issue too, since it has been several generations and they would all be dead if they couldn't breed.)  But the worldbuilding generally happens in the background of the plot.  West's straightforward job for the government is much more layered than it initially appears.

In many ways, that works for me, because the plot does make sense.  I could understand why the characters were doing what they were doing.  I liked that the bad guy was paranoid, overreactive, and coldly murderous, but still a loving father.  I might not have always agreed with the characters' decisions, but they were based on real human emotion.

Read DUALED and DIVIDED if you're looking for a plot-driven read with a crazily set-up society as the background.  They're not bad, particularly not for dystopian fans, but not quite what I'm looking for in a sci-fi read.

Note: This review took me 25 minutes to write.

Review: The Sowing

Book two of The Torch Keeper
By Steven Dos Santos
Available now from Flux (Llewellyn)
Review copy
Read my review of The Culling

Last year, I enjoyed THE CULLING, a brutal dystopian about Lucian "Lucky" Spark surviving the worst job application process ever in the wake of a bitter betrayal.  When THE SOWING opens, he is quietly rebelling against the government using his power as an insider.  But when things go inevitably awry, he's right back where he used to be - except this time, he has to rely on others to save him.  People who have no reason to want him alive.

THE SOWING cemented my love of The Torch Keeper series.  I thought THE CULLING was well paced and well developed, but I was put off by the extreme violence (and other bad things).  THE SOWING is no less brutal, but it's just the teeniest bit more optimistic.  Plus, it isn't a mere retread of the first, as the setup seems to promise.  It takes a turn and then never stops turning, revealing so much about Lucky's world that neither he nor I ever contemplated.

By dint of most of the old cast being dead, there had to be new characters.  I thought the new additions were very well done, even if I often got to love them just in time for their horrible death.  (Steven Dos Santos has one sick imagination, and he employs it fully.)  I don't want to give too much away, especially not to people who haven't read the first book, but I think there are characters for almost everyone to identify with.  There's a range of ages, sexualities, and more represented.

THE SOWING is tense, heart-wrenching fun.  I am eager to read the third book and see what trouble Lucky gets into next as he tries to rescue his loved ones and fellow citizens from an awful fate.  This series is the definition of intense.

Review: Red Rising

Book one in a trilogy
By Pierce Brown
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I haven't felt this way about a book in awhile.  Finishing RED RISING left me revved up, ready for more.  I love that I got to read it early, but I loathe it because I have to wait that much longer for more.  I was fully sucked into Darrow's world and didn't want to leave it.

Darrow is a Red on the planet Mars.  He and his people live beneath the surface, mining for the elements necessary to terraform Mars.  Then, after narratively obvious tragedy strikes, Darrow discovers that the Martian surface is already colonized and the upper classes are using the Reds as slaves.  Thus begins his thirst for revenge.

The worldbuilding of RED RISING isn't perfect, but I love how detailed it is.  The book wasn't rushed at all.  It lingers over the details of Darrow's transformation, his infiltration of the Golds, his time at the brutal Institute.  And I love the characters.  The Golds as a whole are awful, but on an individual level they vary quite a bit.  That's something Darrow has to face as he pursues his vengeance.  (Although I did often yell at him to stop going on about how so-and-so was so great because couldn't he see that he was dooming yet another person to poignant death?)

RED RISING is quite grim and violent, but I didn't find it depressing.  In fact, I often found it quite exhilarating.  Darrow's journey is a rough one, but that's what makes it so interesting.  Also, RED RISING is being published as an adult novel, but it reads very similar to YA to me.  Darrow is sixteen and the book is told in first person present tense. 

Now that RED RISING has gotten all the setup out of the way, I can't wait to see where this series is going.  I'll be back for book two with bells on.

Review: Relic

Book One of the Books of Eva
By Heather Terrell
Illustrations by Ricardo Cortes
Available now from Soho Teen
Review copy
Read the prequel "Chronicle"

RELIC begins with a treacherous mountain climb and a betrayal, resulting in the death of Eamon.  I loved this beginning, and was sad that it took a long time to get to what I thought would happen earlier: other characters realizing Eamon was murdered.  The main character, Eva, is Eamon's twin sister.  She decides to take his place in the Testing, even though it isn't very maidenly.

Eva is from the future, living in the Arctic along with the other surviving humans.  She's high class, and does have the right to compete in the deadly Testing for the prize of becoming one of the three rules.  However, the reader can tell that Eva's society isn't quite what she things.  There's the regressive ideas about humans, the way they treat the Boundary folk (how they refer to the Inuit people they stole land from), their bizarre history of the world.  At the same time, there's things about Eva's world that it takes a modern reader a bit to clue in on.

I liked how RELIC combined a survival in the wilderness story with dystopian fiction, with a tiny dash of murder mystery (more to come in future books), and a meditation on how history is told and preserved.  I was cringing at the archeology Eva practices, and I know basically nothing about archeology.  But I can dig it, since her society is supposed to be flawed.

Plus, I really like Eva.  She's got a bit of that not-like-other-girls thing going on, but she's cool in spite of that.  She's willing to listen to people who know more than her, even when she's been told she shouldn't.  She's curious, clever, and determined.  She has empathy, and a powerful imagination.  She has a love triangle, which is unfortunate, but thankfully doesn't take up too much of the book.  There's Jasper, the fellow competitor who she's basically betrothed to, and Lukas, the boy from the wrong side of the frozen wasteland.

RELIC is a quick read with a gripping opening, an intriguing heroine, a tantalizing mystery, and a memorable setting.  You never forget that Eva is in the Arctic and could die of one wrong move.  I'll definitely be back for the second book, if only to find out who killed Eamon.  (And, of course, to see whether Eva can get out of the predicament she finds herself in at the end of RELIC.)

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: Steelheart

First in a series
By Brandon Sanderson
Available now from Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

The day I read this book I was very, very into reading it.  This is not an unusual occurrence, but  I was notably reluctant to do such things as put down my book and eat food.  (Eating is an activity widely recognized as good for continuing to live.)  This led to the following bit with my dad:

Me: So you know how it's a common premise in stuff for something to happen and people suddenly have superpowers?
Him: Yeah.
Me: What if something happened, and there were just supervillains?
Him: No superheroes?
Me: No superheroes.

Basically, STEELHEART is about the world in which Superman is a bad guy, running the place, and there is no Batman with a Kryptonite-laced plan to stop him.  The only person who has any inkling of how to stop the invulnerable Steelheart is David, an eighteen year old living in Newcago who saw Steelheart bleed on the day he killed David's father ten years ago.  (This happens in the chilling prologue that sets the tone for how impossible it is to put STEELHEART down.) Now David is trying to team up with the Reckoners, the only non-Epics who fight back, to try to stop Steelheart's rule.

STEELHEART is a fantastic book, whether you're into comic book-style stories or not.  It's got great, memorable characters.  Best of all, their physical abilities are second to their smarts.  How else do you take down someone who has superpowers?  David, in particular, is a massive nerd.  And it's up to the nerds to save the world.  The ratio of male to female main characters isn't perfect, but I do love that the love interest Megan is extremely competent and laughs at the hero when he absolutely and totally fails to be smooth.

I loved the plot, which keeps things rolling, but throws several curveballs into the seemingly perfect plan and has enough breathing room for the characters to question what they are doing and why.  In fact, I never thought much about some of their motivations until the book brought it up.  I might've questioned them after finishing, when my brain shifted back to pure analysis, but no need since they're addressed on the page.

Brandon Sanderson is a talented science fiction and fantasy author, and I am quite happy he's writing some YA now as well.  Especially when that YA is as good as STEELHEART!  And let me tell you, I wish I did not have to wait for the next book.  If I had a superpower, it would be to will sequels into existence faster.

Review: Frozen

First book in the Heart of Dread series
By Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston
Available now from Putnam Juvenile (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
Check out my Melissa de la Cruz tag for reviews, interviews, and guest blogs

Melissa de la Cruz was an author I soured on for a bit.  It seemed like she just kept starting new series and then nothing.  The Blue Bloods series hit a few low notes.  But she's finished off a couple recently, and I enjoyed how she finished Blue Bloods.  Thus, I was ready to give a new de la Cruz book a chance.  She co-wrote this one with her husband Michael Johnston, but it doesn't read much differently than her older books.

Natasha Kestel is a black jack dealer in New Vegas, and Ryan Wesson is the mercenary she hires to get her out of the Remaining States of America.  At first it looks like the book will alternate between their points of view, but that's not the case.  Once they're in the same place, FROZEN stops shifting focus.

The premise of FROZEN is pretty cool.  A series of environmental disasters lead to a new ice age, plus the emergence of some mythological creatures.  I enjoyed the setting, particularly the way that the land was coming back to life on the fringes, in spite of humans.  Even if humans die out, other life will find a way to evolve and survive.

It's a harsh world, and one that makes a good background for a road trip.  FROZEN is basically a dystopian road trip novel plus pirates and dragons.  I think the ending was a touch abrupt, and interrupted the flow of the book.  There has to be a lead in to the next book in the Heart of Dread series, of course, but it felt like things ended just as FROZEN was realizing its true potential.

I was unhappy with one moment that I feel violated the rules of magic that the world had set up.  At the same time, there's not much knowledge about how the magic works, so de la Cruz and Johnston do have some wiggle room.  If you've read the book, how did you feel about it?  (I think you know what I'm talking about.)

I found a lot to like about FROZEN.  It's pretty predictable, but de la Cruz has a smooth, readable style and her characters are pretty charming.  The romance was rote but sweet.  At the same time, there are some clever, memorable moments, like inventive lining for jackets in a world where supplies are short.  It's a quick, fun read and throwing in some traditional fantasy tropes livens up the dystopian trappings.

Review and Giveaway: The Darwin Elevator

First in the Dire Earth trilogy
By Jason M. Hough
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
Read a free prequel, "Wave of Infection"

Del Rey is so excited about this debut sci-fi trilogy that they're publishing all three books back to back, July-August-September.  That makes me happy, because I am not one for waiting.  Also, the end of THE DARWIN ELEVATOR left me wanting more.  Jason M. Hough already knows how to end a novel with a bit of intrigue.

I was attracted by the premise of THE DARWIN ELEVATOR, which is basically space SF meets zombies.  A mysterious alien race, called Builders, sent an elevator to Earth that extends from Darwin, Australia into space.  It exudes an Aura and is the only place where humans are safe from a strange plague that was also sent by the aliens.  Then there's Skyler Lukien and his crew of scavengers, all immunes.  Their ability to explore might be the only way to save the humans if the aliens return.  Well, their abilities and scientist Tania Sharma's brain.

There's liberal use of villain POV, which made me grit my teeth.  So many greedy, self-satisfied, leering thoughts.  And he's not a particularly interesting villain.  There are people who look like they may be the villain of the piece, but who turn out more ambiguous.  But no, the main villain is a standard no-plan-beyond-power-for-himself, wants-to-rape-the-heroine villain.  It was a real bum note in an exciting, fun novel and THE DARWIN ELEVATOR just kept going back to him.

When it comes to power struggles, actually, the book itself tended to struggle.  So much of the book could be solved if people talked to each other instead of keeping secrets for no particular.  I preferred when people were actually doing things.  Tania and her assistant sciencing, Skylar trying desperately to be a leader, scavenging and fighting off hordes of subhumans.  My two favorite characters, Kelly and Sam, did not get near enough screen-time.  Now there's two women who get things done.

THE DARWIN ELEVATOR is a fun dystopian zombie novel with nifty ideas and a number of interesting characters.  It's got aliens, saboteurs, and approximately one big secret per character.  I think I would've absolutely loved this one if the villain didn't grate on my nerves so much.  But after all, I'm not supposed to like him.

Thanks to Del Rey and TLC Book Tours, I have one copy to give away.  US/Canada only.
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Review: Sylo

First in the Sylo series
By D.J. MacHale
Available now from Razorbill (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

It was before I started blogging, so no one here knows that I was a fan of the Pendragon series.  (Albeit one who was perpetually disappointed it wasn't more Arthurian.  Oh, those initial expectations!)  Thus D.J. MacHale's name was enough to make me pick up a dystopian novel.

However, SYLO isn't much of a dystopian.  There's certainly creepy government control, but it happens here and now.  Jimmy Kimmel is still a thing.  It's more of a thriller with possible aliens.  (No one in the book mentions that it could be aliens until the end, but I am betting on aliens.  Because aliens would be awesome, that's why.)  It takes place on Pemberwick Island, an idyllic tourist destination in Maine.  First, people start dying, possibly due to a strange new performance-enhancing drug.  Second, they get cut off from the mainland by a branch of the US Navy known only as SYLO, led by Captain Granger.

Tucker Pierce and his friends Quinn and Tori Sleeper know something funky is going on.  Given that they're a curious bunch of fourteen year olds, they soon have their noses in everything.  They also keep crossing paths with Kent, an older football superstar, and Olivia, a hot tourist trapped with the townies.  It's not exactly the dream team, but Tori in particular is very capable.  I liked the balance MacHale struck between Tucker being a level-headed kid and wanting a bit of glory.

There's nothing particularly complex about SYLO.  But I enjoyed it quite a bit - MacHale knows how to keep the pages turning.  I'll definitely be back for STORM after the game-changing ending, and I'll have my fingers crossed for aliens.  Why aren't there more aliens in YA right now?  I mean, there's THE 5TH WAVE, but aliens are always great for conspiracies, and battles, and strange regulations.  They go perfectly with the dystopian craze.

Don't expect genius, but do expect an absorbing plot and fun characters.  MacHale's middle grade fans should be fine reading this YA effort, although there are a few deaths younger fans might find upsetting.