Invisible Sun by David Macginnis Gill (2012)

You don’t want to mess with Durango.
He left his crew behind.
His father is dead.
And he’s going to prove himself to Vienne,
even if he dies trying.
As he races through flood and fire and across a violent and terrifying planet,
there’s a 97% chance he’s going to die trying.
But who’s counting.

I won’t put a full review here because this is a title I read for School Library Journal. I will say that I rarely read science fiction and while those genre elements didn’t detract from my enjoyment, it certainly didn’t turn me on to reading more of the same. The novel relies heavily on dialog a la Joss Whedon, action and very little exposition. You can read reviews from Kirkus and VOYA on the Barnes & Noble site.

This is the second title I’ve read that qualifies for the Magical March challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader.

Top 10 Book Covers of 2011

Confessions of a Bookaholic is hosting a Top 10 of 2011 event. Today, a look back at the top ten book covers of 2011. It is because of their covers (at least in part) that I read these books. Obviously, some these appeal to my feminine sensibilities! Click on the picture to go to my review of the book.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2006)

But the moon wasn’t a half moon anymore. It was tilted and wrong and a three-quarter moon and it got larger, way larger, large like a moon rising on the horizon, only it wasn’t rising. It was smack in the middle of the sky, way too big, way too visible. You could see details on the craters even without the binoculars that before I’d seen with Matt’s telescope (p 19).

At the end of her sophomore year, Miranda is a typical teen with concerns about finding a date, crushing after a celebrity ice skater, and navigating her family conflicts. Then a meteor hits the moon, pushing it closer to the Earth and changing the world forever. With the added gravitation pull, tsunami’s wash away coastlines, earthquakes break the crust, and finally volcanoes explode, burying cities and filling the sky with ash.

Thanks to her mother’s quick and thoughtful planning, Miranda’s family has enough food and water to make it though the winter, if rationed. But with sunlight blocked by ash, how will anyone get any food come spring?

 This is an intense survival story. While Miranda isn’t the most sympathetic character at first, she grows into her role, eventually saving her entire family. Her voice is authentic and the interactions between the family members are believable, effected by their malnutrition, isolation from society and lack of privacy from each other.

Library copy | Harcourt, Inc. | ISBN 978-0152061548 | Ages 12 and up | $6.95

This is the first book in the Last Survivors series. I recommend:

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson (2011)

It was always Kara, Jenna, and me. Or at least it seemed that way. We were only friends for a year and a half before the accident, but for me it was a lifetime. We were instantly bonded. Maybe it was because it came at a turning point in our lives-just the right window where our worlds were all aligned, all needing something, maybe just the same thing, maybe one another. We lifted one another up. Strengthened one another. We held hands. We crossed a line. We made one another braver (p 15).

Two hundred and sixty years in the future, Kara and Locke are given new, illegal bodies by Dr. Gatsbro who is exploiting them for profit. In bodies that will last over four hundred years and in a United States divided along ideological lines and not geographic boundaries, Kara and Locke escape to California in search of their only living acquaintance, Jenna Fox.

But two hundred sixty years inside a digital world has changed Kara. She is unstable and disconnected. When the two are separated on their journey, Locke becomes anxious, certain Kara is seeking revenge. Hunted by Dr. Gatsbro and desperate to reach Jenna before Kara, Locke finds allies in a taxi driver robot with a soul and a windowed revolutionary.

The Fox Inheritance explores several themes: the meaning of humanity, friendship, the role of memory in creating reality, and technology’s role in defining our world but fails to match its predecessor’s readability. Locke’s first person narration is overly explanatory, the pacing uneven, and the world building incomplete. More fascinating aspects of the story, like Dr. Gatsbro’s alterations to Locke’s body, were neglected.

I am grateful Jenna didn’t act like a teenager while Locke was clearly still a teen, mentally. Pearson also successfully captured and projected the despair of isolation and imprisonment. I felt positively claustrophobic at some points.

Read other reviews:
A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
Karin’s Book Nook
Tales of the Ravenous Reader

Advance Reader

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (2011)

She took a seat apart from the other passengers, but even so, the ones nearest her moved away, scooting farther down the bench and, in the case of a mother with a toddler in her arms, getting up and going into the next car. Hannah found herself in a kind of magic circle of ignominy. Her first instinct was to try to make herself invisible, but then a sudden defiance rose in her, and she looked directly into the faces of her fellow passengers, these people who felt so repelled by and morally superior to her. Most avoided her gaze, but a few glared back at her, affronted that she’d dared to rest her eyes on them. She wondered how many of them were liars, their outer purity masking the crimes as dark or darker than her own. How many would be Chromes themselves, if the truth in their hearts were revealed (p 172)?

In Jordan’s dystopian, futuristic retelling of Hawthorn’s The Scarlet Letter, Hannah Payne is punished for aborting the fetus begot by her lover, the married and well-respected evangelist Aiden Dale. Roe v. Wade has been overturned and abortion is infanticide. The embroidered scarlet letter is replaced by a chemical skin coloring. (Hannah is turned bright red signifying murder. Sexual assault criminals are colored blue while other offenders may be orange or green or yellow.) The shame and societal repercussions are severe.

Hannah, having refused to name the father, bares the brunt of the punishment alone. Prison is simultaneously solitary and non-private, as video of her experience is broadcasted. When released, she is implanted with a tracking device so authorities and the public can find her at any time. She also receives an implant preventing pregnancy. Her sentence is for sixteen years.

Reviews have been mixed for When She Woke and I admit to having mixed feelings about it. I was mostly impressed by the prose. On a few occasions I thought the narrative expounded unnecessarily and overemotionally. This very fault, however, makes it more accessible to emerging adults in my opinion.

Many individual scenes were poignant (Hannah’s exit from the shelter and her encounter with her pregnant sister and her husband, for example), while some of the overarching themes, especially those about religion, were simultaneously over-simplified and unnecessarily complicated. It’s as if the novel was trying to tackle too many things (the justice system, shame, brutality, forgiveness, redemption, church versus state, feminism, personal belief, black market economies, corruption, hypocrisy, and on and on and on) and it could handle only a handful skillfully.  Some of those issues could have been left for the reader to piece together. Instead, the narrative was, at time, heavy-handed.

On a personal note, I was irked when Hannah visited Aiden for one last perfect memory. Sure, she was a different person, but let’s not forget that Aiden was a religious figure, an authority figure who really took advantage of someone much lower on the power scale. And after all she suffered and learned, she felt the need to go to him? Hum.

Regardless, it is an action-packed book that will surely spark discussion with some adoring it and some… well, some of the opposite. The cover is gorgeous.

Read other reviews:
All American Indian Girl
Kirkus Book Review
Washington Post

Hardcover edition provided by the publisher |Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing | ISBN 978-1565126299 | 341 $24.95

The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout (2011)

Fisher became born in a pod filled with bubbling gel. A plastic umbilical cord snaked from his belly. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw through the clear lid of the pod was destruction (p 1).

Fisher wakes from a pod Kyle XY-style in this futuristic dystopia for middle grade readers. Years after humans have destroyed Earth with their experiments, their climate-altering lifestyles, and their excess, Fisher finds a world overgrown with animals, plants and machines evolved. The Ark in which Fisher was grown has been destroyed. He is the only survivor. His only companion is a Robot named Click who activated Fisher’s pod and loaded the fisher’s personality into him.

Then he stumbles upon the reminants of Stragglers. Their writing leads him to a second Ark in the south. Though the journey is fraught with danger, Fisher knows the survival of the human race depends on his finding and possibly awakening other humans.

This is a fast-paced survival adventure with a nice splash of humor (which really works because of the delivery). It never breaks stride and I didn’t loose interest. As Fuse #8 points out, it helps that the book comes in at a concise 212 pages. A good recommend for those who have enjoyed Malice by Wooding or The Maze Runner by Dashner.

Read other reviews: Becky’s Book Review, Book Smugglers, Fuse #8, and Kirkus.

Library copy | June 21, 2011 | Bloomsbury USA Childrens | 224 pages | ISBN:978-1599905242 | $16.99

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheenan (8/11/2011)

The ocean from my dream returned in the form of a roaring surf, which blocked all sound and stopped my breath. Sixty years. Mom and Daddy, dead. Asa, dead. Xavier… my Xavier.
I think I screamed. The last thing I felt as the shadows overcame my vision completely was Brendan’s strong arms catching me as I fell (p 5).

This is a review of an advance reader copy provided by the publisher, Candlewick Press, via NetGalley.

In this science fiction re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty, sixteen-year-old Rosalinda Fitzroy awakes from a sixty-two year sleep when Brendan finds her stass tube in the basement of his apartment complex. His attempt at mouth-to-mouth, fearing Rose is dead, is something of a kiss.

Rose’s status as heiress to the world’s largest company, UniCorp, causes some distress for the current President, Reggie Guillory. Upon her 18th birthday, Rose will own the company but until then, UniCorp owns her.

Readers are introduced to this new world along side Rose.  Her parents, Mark and Jacqueline, died in a helicopter crash while Rose was still in stasis. Her tube was misplaced or lost. She was assumed dead. After so long in stasis, Rose is suffering from fatigue and will be weak for some time.

The Earth has undergone a transformation since her sleep began. The Dark Times wiped out a large portion of the population. Other planets and moons have been colonized. Everything Rose once knew has changed. Everyone she knew and loved is dead. She cannot bear to learn what has happened to Xander.

At first, Rose appears weak, physically and as a character, until, as her past is revealed, a horrible truth becomes evident. She has been the victim of a most cruel form of abuse and neglect.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Like Phoebe North, I was at first anticipating a limp, pandering science fiction novel starring a vanilla female character and an irresistible male hero. Sheenan almost looses me here, but she will lure in weaker critics. Then she succeeds in surprising both.

Prior to her long stasis, Rose was in love with Xander. A complicated love, as Rose began seven years his senior but, because of intermittent and prolonged stasis sleeps throughout her childhood the two eventually pass their teen years as peers, best friends, and finally lovers. We learn about this past in tender, heartbreaking flashbacks.

Once out of stasis, Rose’s new life begins. As she sorts out this new world, and her place in it – including a new school – she quickly forms an attachment to the handsome Brendon. From awakening her to befriending her at school, Brendan has been the only caring person since she emerged from her cocoon. When she declares her feelings, the novel really takes a turn. Bren’s reaction is so far from expected:

“Coit!” Bren swore. “Look. Rose. Oh, burn it.” He glanced up at the sky as if looking for strength. “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, okay? I wasn’t trying to lead you on. I — I think this is probably my own fault, and there’s probably some kind of… cultural… thing… going on. It’s just that my granddad told me to look after you. I mean, he and Guillory are worried about the company, okay? They just told me to make sure you weren’t… I don’t know. ‘Led astray’ was, I think, the phrase Guillory used (p 136).

In the meanwhile, intermittent passages relate that someone or something is tracking the newly awakened Rose. This proves to be a rather ineffective assassin and Rose’s escapes are a little laughable.

My complaints also run parallel to Phoebe’s. The word substituting (mostly for contemporary curse words) Sheenan uses doesn’t really add too much to the story. I would have rather seen a change in culture reflected in turn of phrases rather than ‘I Comm’ substituting for ‘I know.’

Also, like Phoebe, I found Otto, a blue-toned alien/human hybrid who can transmit thoughts via touch and who befriends Rose, to be one of the most interesting characters (though I kept picturing a Na’vi from James Cameron’s Avatar!).

The relationship between Rose and her parents is the most interesting though, trumping even her romantic relationship with Xander. Here, Sheenan succeeds in creating two of most terrifying and abusive parents in YA literature. Rose is not a vanilla character, she is absolutely damaged. She survives more than one awakening in this novel. To see her, independent and beginning to gain confidence, completes her metamorphoses.

Ultimately, I was surprised to find this a layered story that left me in tears by its oh-so-satisfying end (neither too much nor too little ‘Hollywood’). A sequel may be planned but I find this a satisfying read on its own.

Read other reviews: GalleySmith, I’ll Read Anything Once, Presenting Lenore

I would recommend this to those who enjoyed:

The Web of Titan: A Galahad Book by Dom Testa (2006)

Galahad had used a combination of ion power engines and solar sails to reach the outer region of the solar system. Now, with the sails withdrawn, the ship began to make its final dive around Saturn. The gravitational slingshot around the giant gas would propel the ship at even greater speed, flinging it out of orbit and on track out of the sun’s planetary system. Eos awaited, four and a half years away (p 63).

The journey to Eos that began in The Comet’s Curse continues for Triana, council leader, and the 250 other teens aboard Galahad, a space craft carrying the hope of the entire human race. As the craft passes Saturn, they are directed by the command center on Earth to pick up a mysterious  metal pod. This pod is all that remains of a space station that was orbiting Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. What will they find if and when they pick up the pod?

After saving Gallahad from a saboteur, the last thing the council needs is another complication. Gap, council member in charge of Engineering, was heartbroken when he oversaw Triana kissing Bon, the introverted and sour-tempered Swede councilman in charge of Agriculture. Can he move on?

Tree still hasn’t confronted Bon about the one moment each let their guard down.

While this book continues the story, it doesn’t take it very far. Personal relationships are slow to develop and the threat isn’t as complex as the one that led to the adventure. But readers who are invested in seeing this story through, will find it a quick, light read. The writing isn’t particularly strong but it isn’t bad. I guess I felt rather lukewarm about this one. I don’t enjoy sci-fi enough to continue the series, but I think it’s a great series to recommend to those who enjoyed Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

The Comet’s Curse: A Galahad Book by Dom Testa (2005)

“I will concede that the word ‘desperate’ applies. Is there anyone in this room  who is not desperate to find a solution to the Bhaktul problem? Every account that I have heard has stated that our planet has five, maybe six years, before almost one hundred percent of the adult population is affected. I would say that leaves us in a desperate spot” (p 27).

A comet passes close to Earth, depositing particles deadly to adults in the atmosphere. For unexplainable reasons, only children are spared. Facing extinction, Dr. Zimmer announces his vision for preserving the human species: train 251 young teens, provide them with a human-like supercomputer (a witty persona nicknamed Roc) to handle navigation, mentoring, and quality control and then send them all into space aboard Galahad to a distant Earth-like planet to start a new life.

Not everyone is thrilled with Zimmer’s vision, particularly not his colleague and friend Tyler Scofield who tries everything possible to disrupt the mission. Soon after departing from the space station, it becomes apparent there is someone on board who shouldn’t be - a saboteur.

Now, it’s up to the council – Gap, Bon, Channy, Lita and their leader, Triana (nicknames Tree) – to discover the identity of the intruder and figure out how to survive an infected adult.

This was an enjoyable, quick-paced read whose back and forth layout was easy to follow. The primary characters are all well developed, and I’m assuming many of the secondary characters will receive more attention later in the series.

The ‘virus’ was a bit contrived. Not only was no one able to figure the little bugger out, it drove some people conveniently insane. It only attacked adults when they hit 18 years. I thought it would have made more sense if it struck after adolescence, although maybe this is the implication. But it effectively puts the spotlight on teens.

I think if you liked Lost, you’d enjoy this series. I like that the cast of characters are from diverse backgrounds with their owns stories. I’m going to pick up the next in the series, The Web of Titan, and see if it continues to entertain.

Pair this one with:

Across the Universe by Beth Revise (March 2011)

I am as silent as death.
Do this: Go to your bedroom. Your nice, safe, warm bedroom that is not a glass coffin behind a morgue door. Lie down on your bed not made of ice. Stick your fingers in your ears. Do you hear that? The pulse of life from your heart, the slow in-and-out from your lungs? Even when you are silent, even when you block out all the noise, your body is still a cacophony of life. Mine is not. It is the silence that drives me mad. The silence that drives the nightmares to me (32).

This is a review of an advance reader copy received by the publisher, Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Group.

This book was sitting on my shelf for a while until a coworker asked, “Have you heard about Across the Universe? The buzz is that this book will do for science fiction what The Hunger Games did for dystopia.” Wow! Big words for a first novel.

The back jacket tauts it as Titanic meets A Brave New World. The author calls it Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in space.

So, I picked it up and dove in. Now, full disclosure. I don’t usually enjoy science fiction. In fact, I can’t even name a YA sci-fi book that I’ve really enjoyed (does When You Reach Me count?). So, here we go.

Amy is seventeen years old and facing a life-changing decision. Does she allow herself to be cryogenically frozen and packed aboard the space ship, Godspeed, with her parents (one a bio-genetic researcher and the other a top-tier military officer) for 300 years so they can colonize a new earth light-years away? Or does she remain on Earth with her aunt and uncle?

When she chooses the first, she expects to be woken upon landing on Centuri-Earth, or the new earth. Elder is a sixteen-year-old boy aboard Godspeed and its future leader when Amy is found awake and trashing for survival inside her water-filled tube, 49 years prior to arriving at Centuri-Earth. Someone unplugged her and left her to die. They would have been successful if Elder hadn’t found her. Three other passengers weren’t so lucky.

The authorities on Godspeed have developed a new system of order since the Plague wiped out much of the human population generations ago. Separated from her still-frozen parents who are essential to the mission, Amy, labeled non-essential cargo, is quickly considered a problem by Eldest, the ship’s current leader.

As Amy comes to understand this new society, its rules and its disturbing practices, she fights for control. Her parents cannot be woken early but someone is sabotaging the cryo level. Can Amy unlock the secrets of Godspeed before her parents become victims or before Eldest decides she’s not worth the risk and disposes of her?

Across the Universe is as much a dystopian novel as it is a science fiction novel. In fact, the more intriguing aspects of the novel involve the dysfunctional society that has developed on this space craft, Godspeed.

Everything mundane about this world involved descriptions of the ship (and Eldest’s uneven gait – I get it already, the man’s crooked/skewed). The diagram on the inside covers were sufficient (I mean, it’s not Middle Earth). And the claustrophobia Revis conveys with Amy running until she hits metal, the recycled air and the odd animals were perfect.

But let’s start at the beginning. I was intrigued by Amy’s dreamlike state while in cryo but most of Elder’s initial chapters were pretty slow. Even Amy’s early experiences on Godspeed predicted a lot of the plot that later unfolded, with only a few twists and complications I didn’t foresee (and some that remain unanswered). And really, how much could she throw into this book? Everything but the kitchen sink, apparently. And while a lot of it worked, the novel slumped in sections.

It was fascinating to contemplate what would happen to a group of humans removed from the rest of society and Earth (like a high-tech adult version of Lord of the Flies)… though I kept asking myself how these people survived without gravity. I couldn’t help myself. I tried to suspend disbelief but Revis took time explaining how the passengers got nutrition, raised life stock, etc. and I wanted more technical explanations for long-term survival in space. (I could see how Revis was influenced by the likes of Jeanne Duprau, Mary Pearson, and Huxley.)

Overall I wasn’t as blown away as others seem to be, but I was entertained, especially after the book hit its stride (around page 125 – the novel hits almost 400 pages). Revis definitely makes you feel the despair of being trapped, limited and in a situation out of your control. Easy one to booktalk, too (though I can already see some objections to the sex within).

The writing was good. Not great. Is it a good YA novel? Yes. Good. Better than a lot, though it is a mashup of several. Will it have adult crossover appeal? Some, but I’m not putting it up there with The Monstrumologist, Octavian Nothing or, in terms of sales, The Hunger Games. But I could be wrong. The marketing is definitely there.

Characters like Harley and the Doc kept me interested. Amy also had her moments. Now, while I haven’t read The Hunger Games, I have read Twilight and I just don’t see this book having that kind of mass market emotional appeal, though I think it will be well received as a crossover sci-fi book.

Read other reviews:

Write About Now

Thoughts on the first chapter:

Good Word Editing

An interview with the author, Beth Revis:

GreenBEanTeenQueen