The Infinite Sea

I have to admit, it was hard to read The Infinite Sea. I absolutely adored The 5th Wave, and I was so afraid The Infinite Sea would not live up to my expectations. I shouldn't have worried, even though there were things I really wanted that I didn't get. And that's still okay.

Be forewarned...things might get a spoilery ahead.

Still reading? Okay, here's what I didn't like. I was put off that the story basically opened on Ringer's point of view, especially since I considered her a secondary character and I am so. emotionally. invested. in Cassie and Evan. It's not that I dislike Ringer, but I wanted to get right inside the action with Cassie immediately, and that didn't happen. But okay, I can cut some slack, even if Ringer was acting a bit like an automaton and still seemed very distant. But what happens...well, let's say it sets the stage really well for a big, big reveal later on, so all is forgiven.

I also feel let down on the Cassie/Evan front, mostly because my time spent with each was separate and quick. I still got a lot from their interactions, and Evan still managed to make me mad with all his self-sacrificing stuff. Necessary story building, but still frustrating. Plus the constant bickering between Ben and basically everyone felt a bit like filler material. More story building.

BUT...the story really took off mid-way and didn't let me go until I closed the last page (and even now, I'm still thinking about it). I totally love how Cassie has developed over the course of the books, and what happens with Ringer...well, my perseverance paid off big time as what I'd begun to suspect was confirmed. There's so much left unanswered, I know the author will never get it all tied up. But I have faith that he will. Right?

The Infinite Sea is a solid second entry in the series, one that furthers the story while making it murkier still. I'd say that's a confusing statement, but it's not. While it's not the mind-blowing plot that began the series, it still packs a hard punch and offers its own twists and turns. Now I'm just mad that I have to wait another year for the final book.

~taminator40

In a Handful of Dust is the sequel to Not a Drop to Drink, a post-apocalyptic novel I enjoyed greatly. While this one is good, it's not quite as enthralling as the first installment. Let's recap.

In a Handful of Dust focuses on Lucy, not Lynn, and it's obvious that Lucy is still young in many ways, though we learn she's sixteen. Still living in Lynn's house, disaster breaks out when polio hits the small community and many children and adults die or are paralyzed. As the epidemic is studied by Lucy's grandmother, it becomes obvious that the outbreak is centered on either Lucy or her friend Carter as a carrier. Forced to leave the community, Lynn and Lucy trek across the country with a goal of California, which they've heard has desalinization plants for ocean water. Along the way, their path is filled with peril, not least of which arrives in the form of other people, including a horrifying stop in Las Vegas.

This novel seemed to move much more slowly for me than Not a Drop to Drink; there's a lot of action but I just wasn't as engaged for some reason. Not that it's not good by any means; the dangers the women face are real and brutal and there's never an assurance that they will reach anything worth the travel. I suppose I just got tired of Lynn's continuously dour demeanor and Lucy's rather childish actions. The final payoff is quite short and could have stood at least a couple more chapters of explanation and resolution. But overall this is a good book and it continues the story in a mostly satisfying way.

~taminator40

Dust Lands: Raging Star

While I totally loved the first Dust Lands book, and the second was very good, Raging Star started off very slowly for me. I know it's been a while since I read the second book, and maybe I did need a couple of chapters to get back into the unique writing style. Problem with that theory is that the slowness lasted for at least the first third of the book, and I almost started to skim ahead to see how the series ended. I'm glad I didn't, however, because the ending definitely made up for the initial problems.

Raging Star brings Saba and her band to the ultimate showdown against the founder of New Eden, De Malo and the Tonton. But the book opens with the group bringing down a critical bridge and Saba's unease only intensifies when things happen that cause her to wonder if they are fighting the best way possible. There is also something underhanded happening within the group as Nero is feared killed at one point. Saba is forced to the edge of sanity and physicality by her decisions in how to defeat the New Eden people, and the lies she's felt compelled to tell wear her down further. I wanted her to get herself together and I wanted to shake her; the author did an excellent job of showing how Saba was pushed to the wall and still maintained her position as a leader fighting injustice. Once the plot started coming together, the pace picked up nicely and the ultimate showdown is well worth the wait.

There's a lot of tragedy in Raging Star: a lot of heartbreak, a lot of holding on because there's nothing else left to do. But there's also a lot of people stepping up in unexpected ways and a lot of finding inner strength when you believe there's none left. Saba is a wonderful character, truly alive and flawed, and she's surrounded by characters who love her or at least respect her enough to listen to her ideas. If the first part is slow, the wade through is well worth it as the final third is a wild ride that won't let you go until the end. I'm sorry to see this trilogy end, but I do think the author achieved an almost perfect conclusion.

~taminator40

Graduation Day

Graduation Day is the final book in The Testing series, and it wraps everything up rather nicely. While I never felt on the edge of my seat while reading it, I certainly can say I enjoyed the action (even if some of it was hard to swallow).

Basics: Cia is at the University, but she knows The Testing must stop so future generations will not have to undergo the rigorous, brutal conditions she and her fellow students did. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone is watching her, and she's unsure who she can trust, outside of boyfriend Tomas. When she expresses her concerns to the President, she finds herself at the heart of a plan to eliminate several officials. But she knows she can't do it alone.

There is a lot of action in Graduation Day, but also a lot of dithering, and "testing" of others' resolve. Cia always wants to do the right thing, but she takes a long time figuring out what to do, a fact that makes the novel drag at some points. In fact, though overall I liked the novel, there were several times I felt events were way too coincidental; without giving away spoilers, I will say that I doubt young people could move about so freely as Cia does in the beginning, especially when she's being watched for suspicious activity. I also wondered about the confidence the President placed in her, which seemed a little far-fetched, even for a post-apocalyptic novel. And I'm still not sure I'm buying that explanation at the ending, but it was action-filled and interesting. Overall, this is a good ending to the series and actually rates a strong 3.5 stars, so I'm rounding up for general enjoyment.

~taminator40

Connected

After The End is sort of a post-apocalyptic novel, and yet it's not. What it is without a doubt, however, is an excellent read with pages that fly by. If there are flaws, they are minimal, and I'm already waiting for the next book.

So what makes this book so interesting? The writing, pure and simple. When we are introduced to Juneau, she's a young woman of seventeen surviving in the Alaskan wilderness after the devastation of World War III drove them to a remote place on earth. She and her clan know there are others out there--the appearance occasionally of planes overhead confirms that--but they believe the others may be contaminated or perhaps "brigands" ready to take all they have. More striking than all this, though, is the mystery of the Yara, a sort of natural force that the clan can tap and use to Read and Conjure; all the children of the clan bear witness to their connection to the Yara through a bright starburst pupil marking them. When Juneau goes out hunting, she is panicked when she realizes helicopters have invaded her home and taken all the members of her clan, so she goes out past the boundaries set by the Elders in search of her family. What she discovers is that she's been lied to all her life: there never was a World War III and life is going on. Tapping into the Yara, Juneau discovers that a boy named Miles is the key to finding those she loves, and she teams up with him, not realizing his father is also searching for her because apparently she knows something vital.

Well, that's the bare bones of the story, and it comes nowhere near explaining what really works for this book. Juneau's naiveté is quickly overcome as she discovers the desperation of her plight, and Miles's determination to make his mistakes up to his father override a lot of the choices he makes. Their relationship develops slowly, but the danger both are in forces them to re-evaluate all they know. The back-and-forth method of changing points of view works very well as we see what makes each character tick, and the fact that there really aren't too many other characters to actually interact with makes the story focused. If I'm not sure of the magical elements, I can still buy into the humanity of the story and the breathless way Juneau moves to avoid those chasing her. The truth is, I don't know who to believe at this point, and that's part of the appeal. This book merits a strong 4.5 stars and definitely has me thinking about what's coming next.

~taminator40

Damaged

Allegiant brings the Divergent trilogy to a close, and it's full of promise: Tris and Tobias are headed into the outside, toward a new life that they know nothing about. There had been so much action before, culminating in Tris's almost execution; I was glued to the pages while reading the first two books, and was so looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly thrilling ending to a great series.

Don't get me wrong; there are parts to Allegiant that are good, and even clever. I liked the back story given for Tris's mother; it made sense and gave new layers to what happened. There's some action, and it's generally well-written. The character development is solid, if irritating; there's way too much over-thinking and not enough just going with the flow of emotion. However, Allegiant is overly padded with loooooong segments of talking about what might be going on, what is going on, what will be going on, and almost all of it has to do with genetic damage. I have to admit that my eyes began to glaze on the topic after a while because really...who cares? I never did understand who started damaging the genes to begin with, and how the "repair" was taking place. All of it seemed so secondary to the characters and yet it was the main focus of the story. Meanwhile, things are going down back in Chicago that must be rectified immediately and yet it seems as though there's ambivalence about it. 

My biggest issue with Allegiant, after the overly long segments wherein little seems to happen other than Tris and Tobias fighting and talk of genetic damage, is the dual points of view. I understand why we needed them, but I swear a chapter would change, and with it the point of view, and I would not notice. I'd actually read a few pages into the next chapter before I'd think, "Oh, this is Tris talking now".  It's not good when your characters are so inter-changeable, and not in a good way. The voices were the same, and neither offered much in the way of excitement.

I know a lot of people are upset over the BIG twist, and rightfully so; I do feel let down by how Roth chose to end her story. It just seemed pointless, even if it was in character for the most part. I think I could have lived with it had I felt it was a necessary sacrifice to the overall story but it just felt wrong on so many levels. Instead of being left with a feeling of completion or understanding, I'm just left empty. Sadly, this ending has soured me for the series and definitely made me unexcited about the upcoming motion picture. I'm just left feeling...damaged.

~taminator40

Weird and Wild

Fuse picks up right after Pure left off; Partridge has escaped the Dome and has met up with his sister, Pressia; both have watched their mother and brother die because of Partridge's father. Both are fighting attraction to their respective "friends", Lyda and Bradwell, and unsure what their next step will be. Bradwell has a black box, named Fignan, which is surprisingly human and may hold the key to defeating those in the Dome; El Capitan, with Helmud still on his back, is determined to help Pressia and Bradwell as they attempt to decipher a complex code left behind by Arthur Walrond, one of the Seven; Partridge must decide whether he should leave his love Lyda behind outside the Dome in order to stop the slaughter of Invalids. Once Invalid children begin to disappear and then reappear as Pures, the race to find the formula that will prevent cell degeneration is front and center. in exploding spiders, a wild car ride, an abandoned amusement park, brain surgery, and an air ship, and you pretty much have Fuse.

Of course there's so much going on it would be hard to recap it all here, and I won't even attempt to do so. The chapters move among the different points of view, and while the action is almost constant (in one form or another), it's the characters' depth that truly steals the show here. By the time the last page is read, no one is emotionally where they were at the beginning, and some are so changed it's hard to tell who they once were. I fell in love with El Capitan especially--the devotion to his brother (however enforced) is so deep and his feelings for Pressia are so real that I could forget any physical issues he may have.

Once again, I marvel at the world Ms. Baggott has created; the intricate details make this so much more than just a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic story. It's layered and imaginative; it's dark and resourceful. I'm a willing victim who finds herself absolutely enthralled with these books and is so eager to find out how all this is going to play out in the third book. Bring it on!

~taminator40

The 5th Wave...Go Read This One. Now. What Are You Waiting For?

Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave starts off with a bang, launching us into the life of Cassie Sullivan, who has somehow survived the Arrival of the aliens and their four waves of attack designed to decimate the humans of Earth: Lights Out, Surf's Up, Pestilence, and Silencers. Determined to retrieve her five year old brother Sammy from the hands of those who have taken him for protection, Cassie sidesteps burning cities, carrying her Luger and her M16, knowing her parents and most of those she has known are dead. Her trek to the former Wright-Patterson Air Force base where Sammy is being kept is treacherous, and when she is shot by a Silencer, she knows her time has come to an end. Maybe.

Sorry I can't do justice to this gripping story in so short a summary, but there is so much going on with several twists and turns that it's hard to grasp it all. Cassie's voice is horrifyingly real as we experience her emotions and her determination to get to her brother, the last family she has left; she's a survivor who somehow finds ways to either outsmart or out manuever the aliens who are systematically destroying all humans. I felt her pain and I experienced her thoughts; she's become one of my favorite teenaged protagonists. If she were the only redeeming character in The 5th Wave, I'd have been completely satisfied with the book. But amazingly enough, her point of view is not the only one, nor is it the most riveting.

Interspersed with Cassie's tale (told both in the present and also through flashbacks) are the stories of Zombie, Evan, and even Sammy, the five year old brother of Cassie. Every time I moved from one point of view to another, my heart went along just as deeply; I found myself submerged into the head of whomever was telling the story. But it's Sammy who had my soul; when I followed him as he told the story of his departure from Cassie and their father, my heart melted and I wanted to reach inside those pages and hold him close. Kudos, Mr. Yancey; you had this non-crier in tears seeing things through Sammy's eyes.
The 5th Wave is, of course, a post-apocalyptic tale, but it's so much more than that. There's justifiable hatred, despair, determination, stubbornness, heartbreak, brilliance and redemption on almost every page; there's a deep sense of humanity's ability to rally in the face of overwhelming odds. Our main characters aren't perfect but they don't have to be. I'm so far beyond hooked that I'm literally giddy with the thought of more novels to come in this series. Do yourself a favor and go read this one right now. I guarantee that you're gonna find pieces of yourself left inside its pages when you close it. Highly recommended. What are you waiting for?

Seriously, why are you still here? Go get this book.

~taminator40

Reached brings us to the end of Cassia's issues with the Society and her potential Matches, Ky and Xander. Now a member of the Rising, Cassia works undercover as a Trader while she waits to see if the Pilot will come to power. She knows both Ky and Xander are taking risks for the Rising so they cannot be together, but when a Plague epidemic strikes, she knows the time has come. Problem is, those who unleashed the Plague did not anticipation it mutating and placing those they love in great danger. This is where the trio become reunited and a race against time for the cure begins.

While Reached does not give on the edge of your seat excitement, it does move everything along to its ultimate conclusion well. There are lots of scenes where Cassia must interact with those she's either known in the past or has feelings for, and lots of mysteries are explained, though some take a while to get there. What I liked most is that Cassia's feelings for her family were never left out, nor did she put her feelings for Ky ahead of those for family. It's nice to see a heroine acknowledging her longing for her grandfather and the debt she owes to those who have gone before. There are some coincidences in the book, such as the identity of Lei, which probably stretched my imagination more than they should have, and a few times I felt as though some action was thrown in simply to pad the story. I did feel Indie got shortchanged, and I would have liked to have read more about upcoming changes to the communities and if the Otherlands existed. Perhaps that will all be answered in another book or two.

My biggest gripe with Reached, which I found interesting and intriguing overall, was the Pilot himself. He just was. That's it--I did not feel much about him one way or the other. What was the big attraction? How did he personally come into power? He seemed threatening at times and just bewildered at others. Though I could see him as figurehead for the Rising, I was ultimately let down by everything about him, including how he came to know about our trio. I really didn't understand why those three made an impact on him out of thousands, and I felt he treated them shabbily in expecting so much.

Reached isn't without its issues, but it definitely is deep on meaning and relationships, and those components alone kept me involved in the story. I felt Reached was a big improvement over Crossed, and I liked the ultimate resolution. I loved the idea that Cassia could have been part of something she didn't know about for so long, and I loved that these three relied mostly on brains rather than luck. A good solid ending to the trilogy.

~taminator40

Consider this Maze...Unraveled

Where to start on a review of The Maze Runner? First, a short synopsis: Sixteen year old Thomas wakes to find himself inside a box that lifts him into a world where teen boys must work on their own to survive (well, they do get weekly supplies) and run through a Maze in hopes of finding a way to escape. All memories previous to this awakening are erased; the large living community is surrounded by giant walls which close at night to keep out the Grievers--a hybrid mechanical animal with the power to both sting and kill. And these boys who are trapped in this community (the Glade) are angry, and doubly so when Thomas's arrival signals a shift in the routine. Follow that up with the arrival of a girl with the note that says she is the last one ever, and the need for escape intensifies.

Great, great premise. The idea that a moving Maze somehow must be escaped by boys with no adult supervision is genius. Lots of tension and the threat of danger and death that's real...awesome. There's a bit of gore but not much, and lots of unanswered questions, including why is Thomas so different? Why does a girl show up? What happens when a boy is bitten and goes through the Changing? Lots of good stuff there, and there are sparks of brilliance along the way. The chapters often end on cliffhangers that defy you to stop reading, and the idea of a Griever attack is creepy stuff. By the time I was halfway through, I knew i would have to finish the book because I needed to know how they got out of that freaky Maze.

And there goes the good news.

It was a struggle to finish this book, but I committed myself halfway through and I meant to keep it. But the characters...I really only liked Chuck, and mostly I just felt sorry for him. Thomas was meant, I think, to be a strong, mysterious boy, and yet he was just clueless and frustrating, as were most of the others. I never warmed up to the "leaders" Alby and Newt, and Teresa...well, if I knew who she was, I might've been intrigued but really she was a throwaway character because she neither added to nor helped the storyline. Biggest issues beyond those? Lots of the story was transparent including (spoilers....) the names of the characters and WICKED's signs in the Maze. But mostly it was the style of writing, which was supposedly geared to young adult but in actuality is much more for the younger end of that spectrum (perhaps twelve/thirteen). Thomas was said to be sixteen and yet he acted much younger; I never warmed to him because he just didn't seem to be real. And the substitution of "shanks", "klunk", etc., for the words we *know* they are saying was just odd and irritating and only led to the aura of a younger mind-set.

Worst of all, however, was that non-ending. If the author was trying to ensure that we'd go for the next books, he underestimated his intended audience, because of the five friends I know who have read this book, four of us will not go ahead to the next one simply because of that ending. I won't detail it here, but I will say that the lack of answers and the forced march into The Scorch Trials is a huge turn off.

I initially gave The Maze Runner two stars because I *never* take two weeks to read a book of this size, and for the reasons I mentioned above. However, upon reflection, I decided it warranted 2.5 stars (there are some gems in there, and the excitement, when it's good, works well) so I'm allowing that to round up to 3 stars. Consider yourself gifted, Mr. Dashner.

~taminator40

The Passage

For some bizarre reason, I cannot copy my review from Amazon on here. Dang. Anyway, in light of the fact that the reviewing gods are against me, I'll post a link to it and hope you'll take the time to pop over and take a look.

http://amzn.to/azFTm6

~taminator40

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

It's been almost a year since an asteroid crashed into the Earth's moon, sending it just a bit closer to Earth and causing violent disruptions resulting in flooding, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. Miranda Evans and her family have faced the year of deprivation in their home in Pennsylvania by accepting once weekly food deliveries from what's left of the government and pillaging the abandoned homes nearby. Life goes on, though sometimes it seems hopeless when so many are dying and there is no relief from the constant hunger and lack of electricity. Still, it's the life Miranda, her mother and two brothers have come to know, which is security in itself; then things change yet again when Miranda's brother Matt returns from a fishing trip with a wife and Miranda's father shows up with not only his wife and child, but three more people. How will they cope? How can they share? Will there ever be a return to a sense of normalcy?

This World We Live In is the third and final book in Susan Beth Pfeffer's trilogy about a catastrophe that changes everything. The book pretty much picks up not long after book one (book two being a companion story of Alex and his sister Julie, both of whom are in book three) and many of the same desperate situations still face the Evans family. Though things will never be the same, Miranda does begin to experience her first taste of love when she gets to know Alex, and her concerns are not so different than a normal teen's on many levels. The addition of the new characters to the Evans mix gives life to the idea of going to one of the secret "safe towns" and Miranda and her family have to determine what sort of world they will make out of the ashes of the one long gone.

This book is well told and utterly believable; I could see events transpiring precisely as Ms.Pfeffer depicts, and Miranda's musings are typical of anyone facing serious crisis in family and survival. In fact, I was loving this novel right up until the final three or four chapters when it seemed that the author just didn't know how to get her characters out of the bind they'd found themselves in. The ending just didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me and I just could not buy that characters who had struggled so long would make such life altering decisions when there were other options available. Still, this is a fascinating look at what would likely happen if such a natural disaster took place, and Ms. Pfeffer does give her characters complex emotions amid devastating circumstances. Recommended...with reservations about the final ending.

One last observation that really has nothing to do with the novel but bugs me just the same (and probably shows how shallow I am): Every time I look at the cover of this novel, I see a giant breast, not a moon. It was also the first thing my husband pointed out about the book when he saw me reading it. Am I alone in this observation? If so, that's okay, but I just felt the need to say someone needed to think about the cover art. Just sayin'.

~taminator40