science fiction Archives - Page 15 of 16

Yzabel / September 5, 2013

Review: The Mother Of All Viruses

The Mother of All Viruses by John Kovacich

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

“Let the record reflect that this deposition commenced at 9:15 am on December the 3rd, 2004 at the FBI offices in Atlanta, Georgia. Present for this recording are Special Agent Alvin Dirk, the Honorable Judge Ramiro Vasquez, and the witness, Robert O. Blain. This deposition is merely a recording of the events which transpired at Norwood University and is not now nor ever will be part of any trial or prosecution. Go ahead.”

“My name is Bobby Blain. Most people seem to think it all started when Dr. Jennings hired me, and all the computers started getting hacked. It was easy for people to think that, because I have a history and got myself in some trouble when I was younger. I hacked some computers and almost got the president impeached, but it really started before that, when I still worked for Dr. Karlyn.”

“Dr. Karlyn gave me a chance to redeem myself by allowing me to work on his computer for him. Then one day, this scientist I had never seen before comes and gives Dr. Karlyn a device. I was never told what he wanted, but I think he wanted Dr. Karlyn to help him reverse engineer it. I was only asked to build an interface to attach it to the computer. Dr. Karlyn did the rest. I think he figured out how to turn it on, but when he did, strange things started to happen.”

“We didn’t know it then, but it turns out the device was stolen from a government facility. I don’t know where they got it, that is more classified than this deposition. I can tell you with absolute certainty that they didn’t make it themselves. I’d like to tell you more, but I don’t think I’m allowed.”

“Anyway, someone at the university needed to get Dr. Karlyn out of the way and falsely accused him of inappropriate conduct with a student. He could have fought it, the dean believed him, but he decides to leave the school anyway. Before he goes, he gives his computer to Professor Jennings and he gives me a letter of recommendation, so after I help deliver and setup the computer, she agrees to hire me.”

“The first night it is up and running, at least two attempts are made to hack into the computer. I forgot to mention that even before I deliver the computer, this guy tries to break in and steal something from it, but I was there and he didn’t get anything.”

“I can’t divulge any secrets about Professor Jennings’ project here, but my part is to prove that her process would work if she were given enough computer resources, so I re-write her process to work across a network and run on thousands of computers.”

“That’s when things got really crazy. Someone keeps trying to hack into our computer; someone hacks the entire school and the phone company. Professor Jennings’ secretary is kidnapped. The FBI gets involved, but they’re chasing the wrong people for reasons only they can tell you.”

“Then someone plants a virus on our computer and the next thing we know, it’s spread all over the internet, including some very sensitive government computers. Meanwhile, our project continues to gain speed and surpass anyone’s expectations.”

“When the FBI come in and learn that the device that was given to Dr. Karlyn is actually some super cool futuristic computer that is able to grow and build more circuits for itself, they want to disconnect the computer and confiscate it.”

“That’s when computers all over the world go out of control. The pentagon and all the armed forces are helpless. Air traffic is grounded. All the computer problems are traced back to the professor’s computer. The FBI want it dismantled more than ever, but the academics involved want to get the device to relinquish control over the world before they do.”

“And, well, I guess that’s all I’m allowed to say, thank you.”

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ReadIt & Reap 177 in the Shut Up & Read group, in exchange for an honest review.)

A fairly interesting read—perhaps a little heavy on the technical terms and descriptions? I managed to follow, but someone who’s less computer-savvy and not into quantum physics may actually have a hard time putting everything together. I guess this might count as both a good or a bad point, depending on who’s concerned.

The characters weren’t the most developed ever, but they “worked” in their roles in the story, although I admit I wasn’t really thrilled about Dierdre in the beginning (she seemed too laid back about her project, leaving things to chance).

The story goes through a lot of twists, making the reader unsure about what exactly is going to happen, and as such, it’s quite the page-turner. If there’s one thing I’d find fault with, it’d be its pace, which I found uneven—I had expected the whole end-of-the-world aspect to appear sooner, and this may account for my opinion here.

As for the writing, mostly it was good, but I think it would need some editing in places (I spotted some typos), mostly in terms of tense shifts; there were enough occurrences of present tense suddenly thrown in the middle of the narrative (in past tense) for me to be a little annoyed after a while. Alas, I’m not the kind of reader that manages to ignore this aspect.

Regardless, I had a good time reading this book.

Yzabel / August 30, 2013

Review: Under a Graveyard Sky

Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

A family of survivors who fight back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization.

Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few marines.

When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.

For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived beneath a graveyard sky.

Review:

(I received an ebook ARC of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This is an oddball to review, and I still don’t know what to think of it.

On the one hand, I liked the ideas developed in it. A family already having a plan in case of a zombie apocalypse? Well, why not. They have the right connections to be informed of such things first-hand, and it’s not harder to believe in that than in, say, a family during the early Cold War living in fear of, and preparing for, a potential nuclear war. I found it interesting to see them go from “save ourselves” to “let’s try to save as many people as they can”, with all the problems stemming from organising a whole flotilla: fuel, food, who’s going to give the orders, potential dissenters who could become real trouble… Fortunately, the main characters weren’t stupid, and I appreciated seeing them not giving weapons to just anyone, and remaining just the right shade of paranoid in that regard.

On the other hand, the pacing of the book really puzzled me. I was expecting it to be more about the survival part, but the first half went much more slowly compared to the second one (the one about gathering survivors and organising a new society at sea). Some of the decisions taken by highers up seemed too crazy to be believable (for instance, who they enlisted to help create a vaccine…), and there were moments when things went like a breeze, not giving much sense of urgency. The concert at the end of part one was another mind-boggling element: fun to read on the moment, but not making that much sense in hindsight. And then we switch to part two, without having actually seen the full unfolding of the apocalypse, going from some zombies in the streets to full already-wiped-out civilisation. I guess I’d have liked to see more of that, and earlier in the story. The transition was too abrupt.

Also, the pacing in that second part felt really weird. It was more a slice-of-life (well, slice-of-killing-zombies-spree) kind of story, with lots of switching between the various characters involved, and after a while, this made the book difficult to go on with, in that it lacked smoothness in its transitions. On top of this, Faith above all was a puzzling character. When and where exactly did she get the training that allowed her to kick ass the way she did? How come she didn’t get crazy (there are some bits about that towards the end, but not as well-exploited as they could have been)?

“Under a Graveyard Sky” has a lot of potential, but in the end, it didn’t cut it for me. Too bad, because I wish it had.

Yzabel / August 18, 2013

Review: The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

Review:

Pleasant enough to read, and raising quite an amount of valid points about the wide black-to-white spectrum of human nature. Well, rather black than white in many cases here. It becomes clear enough, and soon enough, too, that whoever those kids encounter, they should be wary of–even their own kind. And yet, if they can’t even trust their kind, then what’s left to them?

Ruby came off as too whiny a lot of times. However, considering her powers, what happened because of them, and how she basically was ripped off from her life at the age of ten, to be thrown in a place where she didn’t exactly have the opportunity to develop other social skills than “must make myself inconspicuous in order to survive”, I could understand that she’d be wary of herself above anyone else. So it kind of made sense.

I’m not rating this book higher, though, because there were also a few things that bothered me. Among other things, the lack of urgency during the travelling parts. We’re told several times about how the Psi Corps (yes, sorry, black + psi letter = Psi Corps forever in my mind), bounty hunters, the League etc. are a danger and are chasing the kids, but the few encounters they have with such groups didn’t give me the thrills, so to speak; there were a couple of opportunities for something bad to happen, the characters were aware of it, you’d expect said bad thing to happen, and… nothing. It made the travelling part of the book less exciting than it could’ve been. Also, some things didn’t make that much sense (Thurmond and other camps could’ve been put to way darker uses way sooner: it would’ve worked pretty well in such a book), and others were a little too easy to predict. The Slip Kid, for instance: Checkhov’s gun—or, in this case, Chekhov’s portrait.

On the other hand, I liked the twist at the end, as well as Ruby’s decision. It was sad, but I feel that it was the only way out, all things considered, and no matter what, it makes me wonder what will happen next. Which means I’ll likely pick the next book when it’s out.

Yzabel / August 14, 2013

Review: When the World was Flat (and we were in love)

When the World was Flat by Ingrid Jonach

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.

Review:

(I received an ebook version of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This being an ARC, I won’t comment on grammar and editing.

I’ve got very, very mixed feelings on that one. On the one hand, the premise of the story was really intriguing; I like such stories of “previous lives”, especially if they’re tied to something else than supernatural causes (the blurb clearly mentioned sci-fi, which for me is yet another different matter). On the other hand, once I was done reading, I felt somewhat “cheated” out of more detailed developments.

Basically, the first half of the book (until approximately the 45% mark) deals with classic high school/teenager drama, and this was my first problem with it. It was awfully full of stereotypes: the jocks, the Mean Queen Bee, the not-cool-girls lumped together, the mysterious handsome and three times chiseled new student at school, along with a lot of slut shaming of one of Lillie’s friends (including by her own friends and Lillie herself, in a somewhat underhanded way). This was too much, and lasted way too long. I was on the verge of stopping reading when finally things kicked into the sci-fi part. And here’s the second problem for me: how little the sci-fi aspect actually played in, and how wonky it seemed by comparison. I honestly believe it would have deserved more: more exposure, more explanation, more science. This could have been fascinating, as well as able to enforce the tragic aspect of the revelations that ensued. As it was, though, it left room to a few plot holes as to how exactly things came out to be the way they were: the reasons behind the crash, how the Solution was found, or how far the Circle’s power extends. Those felt overlooked, and science used as an excuse, in favour of the high school drama setting.

There are interesting things in this book, things that are also logical. The suffocating small town syndrome, where everything quickly becomes rumour and is blown out of proportion. How things seem to be doomed to entangle and collide. Lillie’s dreams, what they really mean, and why some people were drawn towards making such choices. The sliding and merging. How the three girls begin as distinct personalities, each with their quirks, defects and redeeming points. The ending, too, I liked a lot; it gave closure to the story, while hinting nonetheless at more possibilities (a sequel, perhaps?). But I can’t shake up the feeling that “When the World was Flat…” could’ve been so much more, and that this “more” got swallowed by too-conventional tropes. To be honest, I would’ve given it 3 stars if not for that—and even 4 if it had dealt with the sci-fi aspect in a better way.

Yzabel / July 30, 2013

Review: Gateway to Reality

Gateway to Reality by Becca J. Campbell

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Talented artists shouldn’t be waiting tables, scraping by, and living mediocre lives. But that’s exactly what art school graduate Wes Teague is doing.

Then he wakes from a bizarre dream, haunted by the sense that his life isn’t real. A harrowing truth presents itself–the real world lies in his dreams, not when he’s wide awake.

The dream world he enters each night is rich and vibrant. Chicago appears the same on the surface, but chaos runs rampant as gravity, physics, and other laws of nature become fluid, changing unexpectedly. There, Wes’s parents, brother, and sister are strangers. His girlfriend Emily doesn’t recognize him. Wes longs to return, to unlearn the truth about his dual reality.

Wes would sacrifice almost anything to get back to blissful ignorance in a false world.

But now he has feelings for the real Emily.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ReadIt & Reap 172 in the Shut Up & Read group, in exchange for an honest review.)

The concept of blurred boundaries, of realities that aren’t what they seem, is something that I’ve always found quite fascinating. So, of course, I couldn’t let this one pass me by. “Gateway to Reality” left me with mixed feelings, though, and it’s not easy for me to give it a proper rating.

The story kept me wanting to read more, and delve deeper into the mystery of what’s supposed to be the “real world”: not the one we know, but one called the Existence, in people simply… exist, and where everything is possible, from building items to rooms to whole pocket-worlds, and more. It gave me a few things to ponder, starting with the necessity of having an “escape world” to go to, and how such a world can turn out to be addictive and dangerous in its own way. Besides, it also questions the human nature itself: would we be truly happy in a place where we can do and be absolutely whatever we want, or do we actually need limits for our own good? Existence and Logiverse clearly represented two extreme visions (total freedom vs. a world defined by rules), and both had their pros and cons. The fact that some people went back time and again to the LV opened a vast array of issues of its own.

The downside for me, however, was that in turn, I found the characters less compelling and defined. Wes seems to accept everything at face value, or almost, when I thought he’d be in more denial at first, or would try and find out more, in more drastic ways than he did. The book had a potential of really blurring reality and virtual existence, but it didn’t quite do the trick. Maybe I was expecting a twist or two at some point, too. A few elements, too, felt like they weren’t exploited. The black holes sucking people in, for instance (although there’s one moment, at the end, where a clue might be provided—but that one was planned, whereas the others seemd random occurrences). Why was Wes so concerned about Emily and not about Wendy, whom he saw vanishing in such a hole (after all, in both cases, those characters weren’t the ones he knew in what he believed at first to be his real world)? In fact, too many (all?) characters accept things as they are, and don’t question what should be a huge question mark hanging above everyone’s heads.

I guess my problem, indeed, is that I would’ve wanted more of those subplots to be tackled here, instead of Wes chasing after Emily the way he did. Their story might have been more enjoyable if it had developed in the second installment (since this looks like a series). I kept hoping for more, that never came. This said, I enjoyed the book nevertheless, for its world and all its yet-to-come possibilities.

Yzabel / July 21, 2013

Review: Foreverland Is Dead

Foreverland is Dead by Tony Bertauski

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Six teenage girls wake with no memories. One of them is in a brick mansion, her blonde hair as shiny as her shoes. The others are in a cabin, their names tagged to the inside of their pants. Their heads, shaved. Slashes mark the cabin wall like someone has been counting.

Hundreds of them.

There’s wilderness all around and one dead adult. The girls discover her body rotting somewhere in the trees. As the weeks pass, they band together to survive the cold, wondering where they are and how they got there. And why.

When an old man arrives with a teenage boy, the girls learn of a faraway island called Foreverland where dreams come true and anything is possible. But Foreverland is dead. In order to escape the wilderness, they’ll have to understand where they are.

More importantly, who they are.

Review:

(I got this book from the author himself, in exchange for a honest review.)

I read The Annihilation of Foreverland about one year ago; as a result, I was easily interested in knowing what happened next, and getting another side of the story. One of the very good sides of this second book is that you don’t have to read the first to understand and be pulled into the plot: since the characters wake up with most of their memories missing, the reader gets to discover everything along with them. On the other hand, if you enjoyed the “first volume”, you may find yourself wanting to read it again. At least, I did.

A warning, though: pay attention to details. No, really. Including names, for starters. This book is packed with little things here and there that aren’t so noticeable at first, but completely make sense once you reach the end. It’s not the kind of story you can afford to keep one eye on while doing something else on the side, because if you do, you’ll miss on something important, sooner or later, and find the plot “confusing”.

“Foreverland Is Dead” was quite the page-turner for me. Even though I knew the basics from the first part, I still enjoyed re-discovering the setting from the girls’ point of view. The relationships between those characters were interesting in more than one way: while apparently simple (the bad girl, the tentative leader, the one who does the cooking…), they actually go deeper than that, and not everything is what it seems. We’re taken into the plot mostly through Cyn’s and Miranda’s eyes, and as secrets unfold, so does the ugliness of human souls, once confronted to a situation threatening to go on for much longer than expected. The girls know they have to stand united in order to survive, yet they’re truly, only human, make mistake, and sometimes their darker side gets the best of them… for some more than for others. However, those who manage to overcome said dark side and fac their fears appear the braver for it.

I give FiD 4 to 4.5 stars. The one thing I wasn’t too sure about was, in fact, the writing style itself, often consisting of short sentences, which in turn sometimes makes it look jambled in places. Overall, it works for such a story, mirroring the girls’ confusion and how the world around them doesn’t make much sense; yet it might have the potential to bother readers who favour a more flowery style.

Yzabel / July 11, 2013

Review: DiSemblance

DiSemblance by Shanae Branham

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Jason Tanner’s life has always been different from the ordinary citizen’s. It started when he was an infant and his parents were only teenagers. A computer science prodigy, Lloyd attended MIT but left a pariah in the eyes of the school’s dean—but a computer physics genius in the eyes of his primary investor. Then his theories and ideas created a holographic machine and their world shrunk as contact with the outside world became less and less frequent. A computer prodigy now himself, Jason is about to learn that the world never waits for you if you have the ability to change it: it will come for you.

Detective Bruce Durante has been handed the case of the Comfort Killer, a serial killer so named because he appears to abduct terminally ill patients before returning their corpses to their families in refrigerated coffins. When he picks up the trail, it leads straight to the home of Lloyd Tanner.

Jason has been living life through the world of Lloyd’s invention and wishing he could carry on a relationship with Boston, the beautiful girl next door. When his father is murdered and framed as the Comfort Killer, he is brought back to reality in a hurry. He is forced to destroy all of the planted evidence—and finds he is being targeted as the killer’s new fall guy. But the secrets of his father’s invention run deep and Jason, his brother Isaac,Boston, the Comfort Killer, and Detective Durante hurtle towards one another on a deadly collision course that leaves everyone’s life hanging in the balance.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #110 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

I’m having a hard time writing this review, because I’d like to rate the book a little higher, but am not sure I should. In all fairness, I’d give the idea and story a solid 4 stars, but I wasn’t too thrilled about the writing itself.

“DiSemblance” is a story that you need to pay attention to. Don’t read it in a packed train, or juggling several things at once. It contains a lot of little details that are easy to miss if you’re not focused, and that are the very ones which help you puzzle everything back together. The author definitely did a good job at blurring the boundaries here, and more than once you’ll find yourself frowing at some plot point, reading back and wondering if there was a mistake… and no, there wasn’t, everything’s working according to plan. There’s a point after which things become clear, and in hindsight what happened in the first part of the book suddenly makes total sense; and yet, even then, you keep on wondering what’s true and what isn’t, what’s part of reality and what’s make-believe. In that, I’ll recommend this book if you like being bounced back from clue to clue without knowing clearly whether you’ve read those the right way or not. It’s got quite an exciting quality.

Unfortunately, I had a harder time with the style and pacing. There’s a lot of short chapters and sentences that give a jumbled feeling to the text as a whole, as well as what I’d deem “telling” about the characters and their actions rather than really showing them, which I found distracting (and as I said right above, this isn’t the kind of story where you can allow to let yourself be distracted). Also, connecting with the characters proved difficult. They’re interesting in their own ways, but with things moving so fast, I felt like we were only grazing at the surface, and as a result, I didn’t empathize with Bruce, Lisa, Jason or Boston as much as I would’ve liked to. Part of this might be related to how limits between reality and virtual world(s) keep shifting—we never know if we’re dealing with the real person or not—but I’m not sure it’s the only, nor the main reason.

In terms of plot, the ideas explored within this novel, as well as how the author manages to carry us from beginning to end, are great. But I think it would benefit from more editing, to make it easier to focus on the story.

Yzabel / June 25, 2013

Review: Diverse Energies

Diverse Energies by Tobias S. Buckell

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

“No one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul.”
—President John F. Kennedy, from a speech at University of California, March 23, 1962

In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful.

In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing cultures, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society’s far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction. Includes stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Daniel H. Wilson, and more.

Review:

I got an ARC of this anthology through NetGalley last year, and have just realised I didn’t post a review back then—I suspect I finished it at a moment I didn’t have time to do so, and then it unfortunately slipped my mind.

Most of the works I read are pretty much Caucasian-centred, and I thought this book would provide me with a nice change, as well as with an opportunity to learn more about some cultures I’m not too familiar with—I’m utterly convinced that learning this way, for someone like me, is a solid bridge to wanting to learn more afterwards, and this han’t proved wrong yet. The different cultural points of view developed in the dystopian stories here turned out interesting, and shed light on some very logical aspects I probably wouldn’t have considered at first, due to my own ignorance.

Of course, as is mostly the case in anthologies, some stories I enjoyed more than others (“Next Door”, “Solitude” and “The Last Day” being my favourite ones), but as a whole, “Diverse Energies” holds its ground with a steady momentum, and doesn’t disappoint. At the same time, I also appreciated that this book didn’t give the impression of being the proverbial stone thrown to get the pond to ripple: it was, all that simply, logical, which is in my opinion a very strong point.

Yzabel / April 19, 2013

Review: Echo

Echo by Alicia Wright Brewster

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

A young adult science fiction adventure novel, this story features a strong, but flawed heroine and complex world building, along with themes of friendship, loss, faith, and tolerance–and the end of the world. With the countdown clock showing 10 days until the end of their planet, everyone has been notified and assigned a duty–but the problem is no one knows for sure how everything will end. Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit, traveling toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans. Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task group, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on something unexpected–Ashara’s death.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #88 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

What attracted me to Echo was the world it depicted—a world on the brink of destruction, more o nthe science-fiction than really dystopian side, with paranormal powers to boot. I liked this world the author wove through her story: close to ours in many aspects, yet with powers based on elements, each practitioner being able to perform feats based on his/her elements (people working with Air can move very fast, those with the power of Metal can bend, extend and control anything containing metal, and so on).

The concept of rewinding time, too, was a nice add-on: while it might seem at first sight that it made things too easy, it has its drawbacks, and it quickly becomes clear that it can’t be used as a good method to prevent the end of the world, only to delay it.

I’m still unsure about what to think of Ashara. On the one hand, she often came as whiny, as boasting “I want to save the world” only to run away at the first sight of real danger; on the other hand, considering how she was brought to the Ethereal task force with only ten days to learn to master powers she never knew she had, I don’t think I could blame her for being quite overwhelmed. Other characters, such as Rey or Krin, were more likeable, at least to me. And there was no love triangle. Things between Ashara and Loken were sometimes awkward, sure, but at least their respective relationships were otherwise clearly defined. (I’m no fan of love triangles for the sake of love triangles, if this makes sense; and too often, the YA genre revolves around such devices, as if they had become mandatory. So, kudos to the author, who wisely chose to avoid that.)

What I liked less in this book:
1) There are only 10 days left, but I didn’t really feel a sense of urgency until the last chapters. Also, Ashara’s progress seemed to go to fast past some point, especially if we consider the “quiet” circumstances she was in for most of the story (no spoiling here, but she wasn’t so often on the field, nor in actual training).
2) A few points in the story would have deserved more of an explanation, notably the part about Ashara’s father. I kind of got it, but… something was still lacking in my opinion.
3) The Elders’ decision about Ashara. Somehow, I’d have expected them to be more clever about that whole situation.
4) The temporary shift in points of view near the end, when all the other chapters were from Ashara’s. It would’ve worked better if the story had been told in the third person, and if the technique had been used from the start.

Because of those things that tended to annoy me, I’m giving “only” 3 stars to this book. Nevertheless, it remained an enjoyable read, written in a pleasant style, and I enjoyed the world built here by the author.

Yzabel / December 24, 2012

Review: Halfskin

Halfskin by Tony Bertauski

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease. No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter and prettier.

We become better.

At what point are we no longer human?

Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he’s not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human. Halfskins have no legal rights and will have their biomites shutdown. It’s not called murder, merely deactivation.

Cali Richards has been Nix’s legal guardian since their parents died. She has lost far too many people in her life to let the government take Nix. She is a nanobiometric engineer and will discover how to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And technology can’t cure insanity.

Cali and Nix keep a slippery grip on reality as they elude a maniacal federal agent dedicated to saving humanity from what he calls ‘The Biomite Plague’.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #728 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This book surprised me in more than one way. It wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be at first (I think I expected something like car chases and the usual stuff you see in books/movies when an innocent has to elude the government/FBI/police), but this in itself wasn’t a problem, because what I got instead was just as interesting, if not more.

A few months ago, I read “The Annihilation of Foreverland” by the same author, which was already quite good in my opinion (and I could sense its shadow in the ‘dreamland’, too). In “Halfskin”, his writing is even better, and I had no problem picturing scene after scene. The world depicted by Tony Bertauski here is close enough to our own for a reader to quickly find his/her way in it. The major difference is the importance of widespread biomite technology, a technology that brings a lot of good things to humanity (healing, improved brain abilities…) yet has an underlying ‘dark side’, as biomites themselves behave like cancerous cells and keep on replicating, gradually replacing human tissues, even sane ones. The issues raised by this pervade the story, both through the main characters’ narratives and through the short blog entries and stories of a few other people; while the latter may seem unrelated at first, they do shed light on the pros and cons of biomite technology, in a balanced way that makes it hard to decide quickly “this is good” or “this is bad”. Here lies another side of the book I appreciated: it contains a lot of potential for such questions, but it doesn’t give us the answers, instead leaving us to reflect upon the technology itself and make our own opinion about it.

The characters themselves, especially Cali, Nix and Marcus, are all interesting in their own way, as well as believable. Nix just wants to live, like any other 17-year-old young man wants to, and it is later proved that he’s actually quite generous, going as far as to sustain a lie that is harmful to him in more than one way, in order to avoid harming another person. Cali has already lost too many beloved ones, and her desire to save her brother is very human and understandable. As for Marcus, his position is that of an integrist, yet it isn’t a totally blind one, for it is motivated by genuine concernt about what makes human beings human, and how to ensure that humanity as a whole doesn’t cross a supposed line that would doom it.

I found a few scenes in the last chapters confusing, though, especially the one in the hotel (I had to go backwards and read some things again to fully get what was happening); but I’m partly at fault, because I wasn’t reading in the best conditions either. I’m also not sure yet about the role played by the lagoon, although I think it made an interesting parallel to Cali’s other 5% of brain functions; but I like to think that said lagoon (and Raine) will be important in a potential sequel, and if there is one, I hope that the dreamland, as well as a couple of elements at the very end, will play a part.