Blog Tour Spotlight: OtherEarth (Last Reality #2) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: October 30, 2018
Authors: Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Length: 320 pages

Return to the series BuzzFeed compared to Ready Player One in the second book in a new fast-paced trilogy from New York Times bestselling authors Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller that's perfect for fans of HBO's Westworld.

Simon would have done anything to save his best friend after a mysterious accident almost killed her--including follow her into a virtual world. And what he and Kat discovered there was more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. Unwitting hospital patients are being forced to test a device that lets VR be experienced with all five senses. The technology is so advanced that it's deadly.

Now the world's biggest tech corporation is hunting Simon and Kat while war rages in Otherworld, the virtual world it created. Determined to destroy the Company, Simon and Kat must join forces with a hacker, a gangster, and a digital entity. But as they battle to save two worlds, they uncover an all-new threat to our world: the Company's latest creation, an augmented-reality game called OtherEarth. Not only does OtherEarth kill, it has the power to erase the line between what's real and what's fantasy.

    

About the Authors:

About Jason:

New York Times bestselling author Jason Segel used to have nightmares just like Charlie, and just like Charlie, he's learned that the things we're most afraid of are the things that can make us strong...if we're brave enough to face them. Jason likes acting, writing, making music, and hanging out with his friends. Sometimes he writes movies. Sometimes he writes songs for movies. Sometimes he stars in those movies and sings those songs. You might know him from The Muppets and Despicable Me. Your parents might know him from other stuff. Nightmares! is his first novel.

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About Kirsten:

I write books.

Some of my books are what librarians call middle grade. (Kiki Strike, Nightmares!)

Some should be kept away from small children and people with weak stomachs. (How to Lead a Life of Crime, The Eternal Ones, Otherworld)

I write some books with Jason Segel.

I've written quite a few books on my own.

I'm an Aquarius.

My favorite food is cauliflower. (No joke.)

I will eat almost anything. And I'm weirdly proud of it.

I believe New York City is the most magical place on earth.

I love Dolly Parton and David Attenborough. Equally.

I cannot sing or play any musical instruments.

I'm obsessed with sewers and sanitation systems.

I once broke into a Mayan temple with my brother, Spike.

Spike is an alias. It's not his real name.

I also have a sister. She prefers to remain anonymous.

We have the same birthday.

Yes, that sucks.

I think that's all you need to know.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway!

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of OTHEREARTH, US Only.

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Book Review: Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)

Release Date: February 27, 2018
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Length: 480 pages
Source: OwlCrate Book/Audible Audiobook

Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.

Ana’s desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he doesn’t care what he’ll sacrifice to keep them.

When everything goes wrong, she and the Ironblood end up as fugitives on the run. Now their entire kingdom is after them—and the coordinates—and not everyone wants them captured alive.

What they find in a lost corner of the universe will change all their lives—and unearth dangerous secrets. But when a darkness from Ana’s past returns, she must face an impossible choice: does she protect a kingdom that wants her dead or save the Metal boy she loves?

    

Review:

Protagonists: This story is told from four, third-person, POVs. We have Ana, the orphan girl raised by a crew of outlaws, Robb, the screw-up son of a noble family with a mission, Di, the Metal boy who's Ana's best friend and medic, and Jax, the best pilot in the galaxy with a tragic past, I quickly came to love most of these characters, though I have to say that I felt we didn't get a lot of time to truly know Di, and while I care for him because Ana and the others care for him, I couldn't really get invested in his character all that much. Ana is a fantastic heroine, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, she's a force to be reckoned with, Robb has a deep sense of loyalty to those who deserve it, and Jax is pretty much the personification of my favorite character trope, the cocky yet damaged character. None of these characters are perfect, they each have their flaws, whether it be poor impulse control or an inability to move on, they're flawed, but each has the potential to grow.

Romances: So, I wasn't a huge fan of one of the biggest romances in this story. See, Ana has feelings for Di, or D09 as he's sometimes referred to as, and whether it was the fact that Ana has these feelings from the beginning of the story, Di's appearance not being very humanoid, the fact that he's a fairly emotionless robot, or some combination of the three, I just couldn't get into their romance. Eventually, it gets to a point where there's hope that I might get invested in their romance, but things happen and the book ends before I can really get invested. The other main romance in this story though, I did really enjoy. Robb, a cocky and rogueish noble, and Jax, the pilot with a dark past, have some really great moments in this story. There's one scene, that kind of reminds me of Star Wars, but their dialogue during that scene was fantastic and I felt there are so many fantastic moments between them in this story, yet not really enough. For what there is, it's fantastic, and it doesn't affect my rating that I want more, I just want more.

World Building: The world building in this story is fantastic, from the history to the mythology of this world everything was captivating. I don't read too much sci-fi, but this is the sci-fi that I love, space battles, outlaws flying through space, lost royalty, mysteries, I love it all. This story also has major Cinder by Marissa Meyer vibes, mixed with a little Star Wars. This is also an Anastasia story after all and while I think this story did a pretty good job in that area, it was how things diverged from the story being retold that really fascinated me. There are some fantasy elements mixed with the sci-fi in some of the best ways I've ever seen and the royal angle of this story and the secrets hidden in Ana's family history are astounding. There's a lot built out in just this one installment, so much that I'm wondering if this might be a duology.

Predictability: This story is on the predictable side of things, not only with it being a retelling but the foreshadowing was pretty obvious as well. Take, for example, there's something in this story that could have been a truly amazing twist, I mean mind-blowing, but I felt like I got all of the pieces to that puzzle quite a while before it was revealed, there are quite a few twists that went that way, though there were a few times, particularly toward the end where things were more shocking.

Ending: The final climax of this story is fantastic, it's intense and chaotic. There's a lot that goes into setting it up and everything leading to this final mix of scenes was fantastic. As I said earlier, there are a lot of shocking, and some not so shocking, moments in the end and I pretty much raced through this story until the ending because I could hardly stop. There is a bit of a breath after the final climax but still as things unravel and even though there wasn't really a cliffhanger, the ending does feel too soon, and I'm excited to see where things go.

Rating:

Even though I had a few problems with one of the characters and one of the romances, I still really love this story and cannot wait to dive into the next (and final?) installment!

Blog Tour Book Review: LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike #1) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: May 29, 2018
Author: Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Length: 416 pages
Source: Review ARC from Publisher

On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Eve has spent the days since her family's death doing everything she can to keep her grandfather from succumbing to cancer that is slowly killing him. She does this by fighting in the ring of the WarDome, using her machina to take down other robots and earn money for her grandfather's medicine, but when she loses, in turn discovering a power within her, a power people will kill her over, she didn't think she could have a worse day, but coming across a lifelike in the barren wasteland of the Scrap, and coming home to many forces willing to kill her, her friends Lemon and Cricket, and her grandfather, she's set off on a journey of self-discovery, to find out who she truly is. Eve is such a complex character, who goes through a whole gambit of emotions in just this one book. As she voyages on, with Lemon, Cricket, and Ezekiel in tow, she has to face so much more than who she is. This journey forges her into someone, something stronger, and I was completely blown away by how she doesn't so much change, as she finds out who she is, in more than one sense.

Romance: So, fairly early on there were a few red flags when it came to the romance in this book, things that, if another author had written this, I might have had cause to be worried about as some of the tropes in this romance felt almost like narrative shortcuts, something to fast-track the romance, luckily that wasn't the case at all. The romance between Eve and Zeke is fairly layered and very compelling. I will say now though, that there isn't really a focus put on the romance too much, which makes sense with everything else that's going on in this book, but that doesn't mean that the romance wasn't extremely compelling, and it does impact the story in some major ways. It was interesting to see how the author transformed a couple rather tired romance tropes, things that, as I said before, felt like shortcuts and made them very poignant elements to the romance, and in some ways hindered the romance more than helped it.

World Building: If I had one bad thing to say about this book it's that the beginning is a bit hard to get into. This is one of those books that likes to throw you right into the story, into an almost completely new world, built on the near destruction of our own, filled with its own (luckily creative) slang and a history that the reader isn't privy to from the start. It took me a little while to get used to and to fully understand what's going on, but once I did I practically sunk into this world. There are a lot of post-apocalyptic elements to this world, in addition to the more sci-fi elements, and even when the author is describing a barren wasteland, everything still feels so real and so alive, because the author's words truly bring this world to life. Then there's how robots fit in this world, the three cardinal Laws of robots, and how there are some robots that don't follow those rules added so much depth to the story and a great philosophical angle overall. I loved learning about the different types of machines in this world, how some are mindless, only doing what they're programmed to do and nothing else, some are manually controlled by a human, and some have a mind of their own, minds that can be used to help or harm. Finally, there are a few retelling elements sprinkled into this story, one that may be very obvious is Pinocchio, as Cricket is described as Eve's conscience, but there's another one, a bigger one, and one that completely caught me by surprise.

Predictability: While there are one or two twists in this book that felt like they got a bit too obvious before they're suddenly revealed, most of the twists in this book caught me completely off guard. Obviously this is the trickiest section to write as it's the closest to spoilers and there isn't a whole lot I can say other than whether the twists in this book hit home, but the final twist, the biggest twist, well I'll just say that while I had a few inklings before the final revelation, they didn't come too early in the book, and the twist still laid me out flat.

Ending: Holy crap, the ending of this book is so freaking intense. I mean, the final climax alone knocked my socks off, but there was still a great deal after that. The final climax is full of tension as our heroes make their stand, there's a great deal of action and emotion all packed into a couple chapters, if that much, then we have a twist, that as I said before completely laid me out flat and that I'm still reeling from, all leading to a game-changing cliffhanger that left me wildly speculating about where the next book will even lead, though I do have a few ideas.

Rating:

Gah! I wanted to give this book 5 stars so bad, but the thing is, as much as this book completely blew me away and will undoubtedly leave me with a major book hangover, the beginning of this story is a bit tricky to get immersed into, but when you do, you're in for one hell of a ride!

About the Author:

Jay Kristoff is a #1 international, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy. He grew up in the second most isolated capital city on earth and fled at his earliest convenience, although he’s been known to trek back for weddings of the particularly nice and funerals of the particularly wealthy. Being the holder of an Arts degree, he has no education to speak of.

His LOTUS WAR trilogy was critically acclaimed in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, nominated for the David Gemmell Morningstar and Legend awards and won the 2014 Aurealis Award. Jay’s new series, the SciFi thriller THE ILLUMINAE FILES, was co-authored with Amie Kaufman. Book 1, ILLUMINAE, became a New York Times and international bestseller, was named among the Kirkus, Amazon and YALSA Best Books of 2015, became a finalist for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award and won the 2016 Aurealis Award and an ABIA Book of the Year award. ILLUMINAE is currently slated to be published in thirty five countries, and film rights have been acquired by Brad Pitt and Plan B Entertainment.

Jay’s new fantasy series, THE NEVERNIGHT CHRONICLE, commenced in 2016. The novel was an international bestseller, won the Aurealis award and earned Kristoff his second Gemmell nomination. Part 2, GODSGRAVE, was published in 2017, and won the series its second Aurealis award. A new YA series, LIFEL1K3 has also been acquired by Knopf/Random House Kids, and commences publication in early 2018. A new series with Amie Kaufman, THE ANDROMEDA CYCLE, begins in 2019 with Knopf/Random House Kids. Jay is as surprised about all this as you are. He is represented by Josh Adams at Adams Literary.

Jay is 6’7 and has approximately 12,000 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell.

He does not believe in happy endings.

Website | Twitter | Facebook |Instagram | Goodreads

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Book Review: Unearthed (Unearthed #1)

Release Date: January 9, 2017
Authors: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 336 pages
Source: Purchased Australian Edition

When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying's advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.

For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study... as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don't loot everything first. Mia and Jules' different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.

In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race's secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race...

    

Review:

Protagonists: Mia and Jules find themselves on Gaia for very different reasons, Jules wants to study the lost civilization of the planet and Mia wants to scavenge it for all it's worth. These two characters collide in a fantastic way that really shows off just how well they work together. As the story moves forward we learn more about each character and why they decided to take a rather illegal trip to a mostly unexplored planet. I loved these characters so much, Mia is a serious firecracker who will put you in your place while Jules is a strict academic who's spent nearly his whole life dreaming of Gaia. These characters are fantastic separate from one another, but it's when they work together that they truly shine.

Romance: It's almost immediately clear from the moment they meet that Mia and Jules are attracted to one another, in fact, if I had to say anything bad about the romance in this book it would be that the attraction between the two was brought up a little too often and felt a bit heavy-handed at times. That doesn't, however, affect their chemistry in any way. These characters fit together in a way that's really hard to describe. While I've shipped my fair share of YA couples, there's something about this couple that sets them apart, a sense of rightness in their relationship, both before and after it becomes romantic. While the attraction between the two is clear from nearly the beginning, this is a rather slow burning romance as the secrets these two characters hide could very well tear them apart.

World Building: So, when I first read that this was comparable to Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft in space, I have to say I was almost instantly hooked. Now I've never really seen an Indiana Jones/Lara Croft style team up before, but if there's another one out there somewhere I'd love to see/read it because it seems so perfect after reading this story. I mean, I can't believe no one's thought about it before (maybe they have and I just don't know about it) because once things get going in this story they don't really stop. The Sci-Fi element to this story is amazing, a dying Earth in need of a miracle and a distant planet that just may hold the key to humanity's survival, it was incredible. I loved learning about the alien race on this planet and seeing how they would test the beings who received their call. These authors do suspense like no one else and there were many times throughout this story where I was genuinely worried about our protagonists and they narrate the freaking story.

Predictability: I feel that the perfect book is one that you can both solve some of the puzzles to while being completely caught off guard by fantastic twists and turns. This is one such story, or at least it was for me. If you know how to pick through foreshadowing, then one of the biggest twists of this book will be very apparent to you, that in no way means you shouldn't read this book, in fact, it's that reveal that even though I figured it out, still sent me reeling. Plus, there are all sorts of other twists this story has to offer. There was one twist in particular that had next to no foreshadowing, but utterly blew me away with how much it made sense once revealed. This book will take you on a wild ride, that's for sure.

Ending: So, going into this I expected a more or less standalone story, thinking that this was similar to the Starbound trilogy by the same authors and that the next installment would be a companion novel following the same threads that this story did. However, this is the first installment in a duology that from everything I can tell will have the same narrators and that completely changes how I went into the end of this story. The final climax is a high adrenaline and suspenseful ride that ends with a cliffhanger so crazy, that it just might make sense.

Rating:

Even with being a little heavy handed with the attraction between our two main characters, this story didn't fail to delight, entertain, and thrill. I can't wait until the next and final installment releases so I can figure out what will happen to these characters.

Blog Tour Book Review: Otherworld (Otherworld #1) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: November 7, 2017
Authors: Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Length: 368 pages
Source: ARC for Tour

The Company says Otherworld is amazing—like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They say it’s addictive—that you’ll want to stay forever. They promise Otherworld will make all your dreams come true.

Simon thought Otherworld was a game. Turns out he knew nothing. Otherworld is the next phase of reality. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted.

And it’s about to change humanity forever.
Welcome to the Otherworld. No one could have seen it coming.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Simon has lived a rather lackluster life. Sure his parents are rich and ever since he was little he's had practically every toy he's ever wanted, but it all seemed like a mask. His friends weren't really his friends, his parents never seemed to care about him, and on the whole, he was extremely lonely. That is until he meets Kat, a girl who lives on the other side of the woods from his house. Years later he's run into some trouble with the law and he hasn't talked to Kat in months. To try and change all that he signs both Kat and himself up to beta test a new virtual reality game that sets off a chain reaction into secrets and lies about this amazing new technology. I actually really liked the character of Simon, I felt that all of his motivations felt incredibly realistic and while his life isn't exactly the most relatable, his overall character and how grounded he is, is very relatable.

Romance: I was a bit cautious when it came to the romance in this story. I wasn't exactly sure if there was even going to be a romance in this story, but after learning about Simon and Kat's history and the things they've each gone through in their lives I was quickly drawn to their romance. Their romance isn't a HUGE part of this story as they're only around each other for maybe 20% of the book at most, but their romance is very easy to root for and the connection between these two characters is almost like nothing I've seen before. Don't get me wrong there are characters that I've rooted for harder than these two, but something about their connection and who they are both as individuals as well as together just establishes a rightness between these two characters.

World Building: So, this is a story about virtual reality and how if it gets too real it can get very, very dangerous. This story reminded me a whole lot of both Sword Art Online (an anime) and Spy Kids 3: Game Over (a movie), all three stories deal with the threat of virtual reality but I really enjoyed seeing it in this form. The story takes place in both worlds, reality, and the Otherworld, so while the Otherworld type of stuff felt like adventuring in various locales and felt almost like a fantasy adventure, the stuff that takes place in reality, which eventually seeps into Otherworld, is more of a contemporary thriller, with a technological edge to it. Both worlds have their complexities, which really add to the depths this story goes.

Predictability: This story (and by extension its authors) does a great job of subverting expectations. I think a lot of that has to do with the rather vague synopsis, but that really does help to catch you off guard with the numerous twists and turns this story takes before even getting fully set up. Once the story takes off it does keep you on your toes. As for my reactions to the twists this story has in store, well honestly I didn't see a whole lot of them coming and that made it a rather wild ride. There were things I had vague notions about that were cleared up and cemented but in a way that still managed to make my jaw drop.

Ending: The ending to this story is really great. How the authors decided to tackle the final climax, or should I say climaxes? here was done really well. These characters really shone as the climax went down and I really loved where things left off at the end of it all. As for the epilogue, this story had, well it sort of felt unnecessary, I mean we do get to see some of the fall out from the final climax, but not enough that it couldn't have been in the beginning of the next installment.

Rating:

This story is an addictive and wild ride from start to finish. I can't wait to see where the authors are taking the characters and the story in the next installment!

About the Authors:

New York Times bestselling author Jason Segel used to have nightmares just like Charlie, and just like Charlie, he's learned that the things we're most afraid of are the things that can make us strong...if we're brave enough to face them. Jason likes acting, writing, making music, and hanging out with his friends. Sometimes he writes movies. Sometimes he writes songs for movies. Sometimes he stars in those movies and sings those songs. You might know him from The Muppets and Despicable Me. Your parents might know him from other stuff. Nightmares! is his first novel.

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

I write books.

Some of my books are what librarians call middle grade. (Kiki Strike, Nightmares!)

Some should be kept away from small children and people with weak stomachs. (How to Lead a Life of Crime, The Eternal Ones, Otherworld)

I write some books with Jason Segel.

I've written quite a few books on my own.

I'm an Aquarius.

My favorite food is cauliflower. (No joke.)

I will eat almost anything. And I'm weirdly proud of it.

I believe New York City is the most magical place on earth.

I love Dolly Parton and David Attenborough. Equally.

I cannot sing or play any musical instruments.

I'm obsessed with sewers and sanitation systems.

I once broke into a Mayan temple with my brother, Spike.

Spike is an alias. It's not his real name.

I also have a sister. She prefers to remain anonymous.

We have the same birthday.

Yes, that sucks.

I think that's all you need to know.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway!

3 winners will receive a finished copy of OTHERWORLD, US Only.

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Book Review: Deadzone (Horizon #2)

Release Date: September 12, 2017
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Length: 208 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

The survivors have made it out of the jungle, but they may be sorry they ever left when they stumble upon a whole new ecosystem, populated with entirely new threats.

And the greatest threat of all may come from within. Because one of the kids is changing...

The seven-book series begun by #1 New York Times bestseller Scott Westerfeld only gets bigger and bolder under the frenzied imagination of bestselling, critically acclaimed author Jennifer A. Nielsen!

    

Review:

Protagonists: As our heroes traverse a new ecosystem, more about their pasts come to light. After surviving the Rift's jungle the survivors of a downed Horizon flight have found that somehow they are right where they're supposed to be, just in some sort of Rift in the earth that houses multiple ecosystems and countless terrors. They journey to find the truth of where they are and hope to find a way home. There are still a lot of characters in this book, but by now I think I've gotten a good handle on who they are as characters and this book, while short, does a lot to flesh out these characters and show new sides of them. My favorite character is probably Yoshi, he's heroic and adventurous, but what really draws me to him is just how flawed he is. He's impulsive, selfish, stubborn, a lone wolf, and will lie to get his way, but that doesn't keep him from having some fantastic character development in this book. All of the characters, in some way or another, have similar character development, though it varies in substance.

World Building: A new book means a new environment, and a new environment means new challenges. One of the things that really hooked me about this world was that there's just this random rift in the middle of a tundra and that these kids have to traverse it uncovering secrets along the way. Honestly, other than showing off a completely new environment there isn't all that much in terms of world-building that I can talk about without spoiling things. Honestly, there isn't all that much, don't get me wrong the things learned in this book make up for that, it's just that I felt like I came out with more questions than answers and I'm interested to see how many are answered in the next installment.

Predictability: This book is by far more unpredictable than the previous one. In the first installment we were getting to know these characters and this world while crazy stuff happened, but now that it's easier to understand what's going on and just what might happen, well, it gets intense. I won't say that there are a whole lot of twists and turns in this story because a lot of this story is still about these characters and their interpersonal relationships as they try and escape, and also because this book is so short, but the twists that are in here are the gut-punching, I can't believe that just happened, kind. In terms of things I could predict, there wasn't all that much in fact I never had one of those, "Oh because of this, this, and this, that will happen" kind of moments.

Ending: As this book begins to head toward the final climax, I wasn't sure what would happen. Before I could really ponder it all that long, things... went... down... Now the final climax wasn't the intense action scene I was hoping for, but honestly, I was sort of intense action-ed out and liked that it became more of a game of intense strategy, with just a bit of action. The cooldown period was a bit plateaued, but the last line, that was a bit of a cliffhanger and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Rating:

Despite being a rather short book without all that much world building I really enjoyed this story and a lot of questions were raised and are still up in the air and I can't wait to see and learn more about this world!

Book Review: Horizon (Horizon #1)

Release Date: March 28, 2017
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Length: 241 pages
Source: Purchased Book

When a plane crash-lands in the arctic, eight young survivors step from the wreckage expecting to see nothing but ice and snow. Instead they find themselves lost in a strange jungle with no way to get home and little hope of rescue.

Food is running out. Water is scarce. And the jungle is full of threats unlike anything the survivors have ever seen before -- from razor-beaked shredder birds to carnivorous vines and much, much worse.

With danger at every turn, these eight kids must learn to work together to survive. But cliques and rivalries threaten to tear them apart. And not everyone will make it out of the jungle alive.

    

Review:

Protagonists: There are a LOT of characters in this story. On a crashed flight to Japan, eight teens are the only ones who seemed to have survived the wreckage. If their flight path is right they should be in a much colder climate, however, a quick look around shows that they are instead in a dense and odd jungle and a rescue seems unlikely. My biggest problem with this book wasn't the characters themselves, there's a highly diverse cast of characters who each add a special element to this story and have their own strengths and weaknesses. However, there are eight main characters and while it was easy to get a handle on a few of them, it didn't take too long before I started to mix up names and lose or mix up character descriptions. While it does get a bit better as the story proceeds, I really wish the cast of characters was cut down to a more manageable size.

World Building: I went into this book expecting something a bit more paranormal, however, I was mildly surprised and delighted to find a much more sci-fi book on my hands. The world building in this story is fantastic, as new discoveries are made the tone of the book only gets darker. It's sci-fi for sure but there's an element of a thriller in this story as well. The treats in this book are fantastically terrifying and while this is a bit more character driven, the world is still a bit of a character itself, but without much more than this strange jungle to explore and a rather short book there wasn't much more than terrifying sci-fi jungle cliches to experience for most of the book. The world building does get expanded toward the end, but talking about that would be a spoiler.

Predictability: Looking back over this book, I can't really remember a time when I predicted anything in this book. I don't mean that none of my predictions came true, more than I just never made predictions for this book. There were things I hoped to happen that either did or didn't, but since this is such a short book and there's a wide range of characters that we follow, there wasn't a whole lot of time to make predictions. That being said there were a bunch of twists to this story, with varying levels of shock and excitement from me, don't get me wrong there are some fantastic twists, but there are also moments that seem like twists, but never impacted me in that way.

Ending: As for the ending I never saw it coming and by that I mean I was listening to an audiobook from the library, I often switch if I have both physical/ebook and audiobook, and didn't realize the end was nigh. I could pinpoint a final climax and while it did have its intense moments I was hoping for something a bit more intense to send of this story with. I wanted something that would glue me to the page, or headphones as it was, and keep me captivated until the very last word. While I did enjoy the ending to this story and there is a fantastic and mind-boggling twist at the end of this story, I think I was just hoping for a more intense final action scene.

Rating:

Due to a large (although diverse) cast of characters it was a bit hard to really get into this book but when I did it was a fun, action-packed ride, and while I had hoped for a more intense final climax, I'm excited to see where this story will go.

Book Review: Nyxia (The Nyxia Triad #1)

Release Date: September 12, 2017
Author: Scott Reintgen
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Length: 384 pages
Source: Penguin First To Read Program

Every life has a price in this sci-fi thriller that has the nonstop action of The Maze Runner and the high-stakes space setting of Illuminae. This is the first in a new three-book series called the Nyxia Triad that will take a group of broken teens to the far reaches of the universe and force them to decide what they're willing to risk for a lifetime of fortune.

Emmett Atwater isn't just leaving Detroit; he's leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family.

Forever.

Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden--a planet that Babel has kept hidden--where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel's ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won't forever compromise what it means to be human.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Emmett Atwater is given a once in a lifetime opportunity to voyage through space to a newly discovered habitable planet where he will be tasked with mining an ultra-rare and expensive material called Nyxia. First, though, he needs to secure his place while onboard the Genesis 11, against a diverse group of teens with backgrounds and pasts similar to him. Only eight out of ten will land on Eden, and Emmett will do whatever is necessary to be one of them. On the whole, I liked Emmett's character. I did feel like some of his character development wasn't quite earned, though that might be more because the author does jump forward in time quite a bit so while we see defining moments, we don't always see a good aftermath and results of those defining moments. There were also a few quirks that Emmett has during the first part of this story that nearly disappear, only to reappear without any preamble or solid explanation toward the end that really bothered me.

World Building: I love the world building in this book. I've sort of started to become a sucker for sci-fi and this story definitely scratches that itch. The way that Nyxia is introduced and all of the intricacies of the material that are discovered over the course of this story are incredible. The competition aspect of this story is fairly text book, but how the contestants treat it isn't quite as predictable. I did really enjoy all of the aspects to the competition. It isn't just one challenge but many that this group is forced to compete in and each challenge will test their mastery of Nyxia, the environment on Eden, as well as their endurance and strength. Overall, I really enjoyed the world building for this story and while there is an extremely diverse cast of characters, I'm in no position to comment on how well represented they are, I didn't find anything I would think of as misrepresentation or offensive, but again I'm in no position to adequately give feedback.

Predictability and Writing: So, my biggest problem with this story is the writing. I appreciate the author trying to subvert all of these common tropes that he includes in this story, but unfortunately, it felt that how he went about subverting these tropes that ended up shifting the normal story structure. Now, not all story structures are exactly the same, but when you boil the most successful ones down there is a similar pattern of climaxes and cooldowns and where certain elements are introduced, and at least for me that's not something that should be subverted, since I've rarely seen a subverted story structure work out very well. There are sections of the story that I love, but there were moments that should have packed more of a punch where I had a similar feeling to the age old "show don't tell" advice where I know I was shown, but given how the story structure worked out, I felt like I was told. There are also characters in this story that do things that don't quite make sense, things feel forced in order to progress the plot that I never fully understood. As for how predictable this book is, since (and I'm starting to feel like a broken record here) the story structure is so off for me, I wasn't able to predict a majority of the twists but as I said earlier, a lot of them didn't pack the punch I felt they were supposed to.

Ending: So the ending is actually something that I wasn't sure about, but after mulling it over I really liked how everything went down. As the end neared, I didn't really notice that there wasn't a big final climax, I mean there's something that could have been, but since (again broken record) the story structure was off I didn't notice it. Then, right at the end, there's this fantastic scene that I can't talk too much about because it's a really twisted scene and it needs to be experienced fully, but it's so good. There isn't really a cooldown period after, but I also didn't feel a cliffhanger vibe from the ending because it ends right where I expected it too, so since I was waiting for it, it didn't hit me as a cliffhanger would, but I don't mind since I'd rather not wait in agony for the next book.

Rating:

I did really enjoy this book. The world building is phenomenal and there are elements to the story that are incredibly compelling, but I did feel some problems mainly with the story structure and how the author went about subverting some classic tropes. Some moments fell flat when I know they should have had more impact. That being said though, I will be back for Book 2.