A worthy sequel to the first one! I loved the 'found family' theme throughout and the gruff way that Scarlett shows her love to the group opposed to tA worthy sequel to the first one! I loved the 'found family' theme throughout and the gruff way that Scarlett shows her love to the group opposed to the honest and solemn way Albert does. There is plenty of action, lots of answers to the mysterious past Scarlett keeps so close to her vest, and Stroud's trademark witty writing. There is a lot of heart in the story. And some hope and a really good set up for the third book.
She was a broken jug, pouring out the story. Not just broken. Jagged with sharp edges. She cut herself in the pouring, and she cut him, too.
I absolutely love Scarlett. She has some secrets in her past that have hardened her into the outlaw bank robber she is today, but she still has a softI absolutely love Scarlett. She has some secrets in her past that have hardened her into the outlaw bank robber she is today, but she still has a soft side that allows her to save Browne instead of leaving him behind when they meet. I had fun riding along while Scarlett and Albert unraveled mysteries, ran from the men in suits, avoided the Tainted Ones, and fought for their freedom. Albert is a complete neophyte to life outside the walls of his previous home and Scarlett is world-weary already at her young age, but they make a good team--especially when Albert shows off his abilities.
Content Notes: violence with guns and blades, religious institutions represented as cult-like dictatorial rulers, very mild swearing, tense situations, imprisonment, torture, zombie-like cannibals...more
I liked the first of the series better. This one had similar action and gory violence and they made the same trips up and down the mountains some moreI liked the first of the series better. This one had similar action and gory violence and they made the same trips up and down the mountains some more. (They will all have very good leg muscles after this.) The ending was a bit of a stretch. It had to happen pretty quickly since they spent so much time going up and down the mountain and it was a bit rushed and improbable. Those poor alien rebels...
Content notes: the violence and gore are pretty prevalent, like the first one, some light swearing...more
I overlooked this book quite a few times because the cover didn't really grab me. I thought it was about a summer camp or something. After I read the I overlooked this book quite a few times because the cover didn't really grab me. I thought it was about a summer camp or something. After I read the back, I was immediately interested. I enjoyed the post-apocalyptic society and the science included as part of the story line. I learned some interesting things that I didn't know while reading, so I know a younger reader will as well. There is action and betrayal and family. There are close calls and heroics. It has a kind of slow beginning to get past....more
I read this book because I love zombie books (even though this book deliberately avoids the z word). It is pretty well-paced and kept me turning the pI read this book because I love zombie books (even though this book deliberately avoids the z word). It is pretty well-paced and kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next. I was a little disappointed in the end for two reasons. First, I didn't realize this was the first of a pair of books and there would be a cliffhanger! Second, (view spoiler)[ I wasn't super happy with the intelligent alien invasion and the way the brothers have some sort of fate to be the aliens' Achilles heel. The alien finds him in a tree and tells him all this? I just felt the book went a little too far here. (hide spoiler)]
Content notes: pretty graphic violence against children and against family members--not just zombie killing brain destroying shots, but also violence against children by their parents, imprisonment of children in small cages, children falling off cliffs to their deaths, and children being implanted with alien spawn, light swearing...more
I loved the idea of this book more than the actual book. It was very John Wick with the whole you-stole-my-dog-and-I'm-out-for-vengeance theme, but thI loved the idea of this book more than the actual book. It was very John Wick with the whole you-stole-my-dog-and-I'm-out-for-vengeance theme, but the vengeance was very tame and took a while to come. The writing was journal style without some punctuation that you would leave out in a journal, but it was irritating to read. And the way every single chapter ended with some sort of ominous foreshadowing felt overdone. I was unsure the whole time I was reading if I was loving or hating the book. I think the part with John Dark would have been maddening if I didn't have the knowledge of French needed to unravel what was really being said.
...there may be no law left except what you make it, but if you steal my dog, you can at least expect me to come after you. If we're not loyal to the things we love, what's the point? That's like not having a memory. That's when we stop being human.
Loyalty to his family, including his dog. I can dig it. :)
Better a brain than a fist. A brain can hold anything, from giant things, like distant stars and planets, to tiny things we can't see, like germs. A brain can even hold things that aren't and never were, like hobbits. A brain can hold the whole universe, a fist holds what it can grab. Or hits what it can't.
It's funny. I spent the whole book wanting more butt-kicking and violence because dog stealers deserve it! But then the character explains why that is a ridiculous way to live. Sigh. I've been watching too many revenge movies.
I know I'm tough. And I know I'm stupid. I'm clever too. I'm scared of things. I try to be brave. Mostly I succeed. Sometimes I spend so much time thinking that I don't actually do anything. Sometimes I work so hard I forget to eat. Sometimes I don't plan ahead. I just jump in and do things impulsively, without working out what happens next. I talk too much. I don't always say what I mean. I don't always mean what I say either. I kill things. I make things. I break things. I grow things. I lose myself in stories. I find myself there too.
Content: off-screen rape and threat of it, gruesome animal death (but not dogs)...more
I was looking for manga that were appropriate for middle-schoolers and came across this one about a girl who lives with a giant spider as a roommate oI was looking for manga that were appropriate for middle-schoolers and came across this one about a girl who lives with a giant spider as a roommate of sorts. I was instantly intrigued because who doesn't like giant spiders living with them? :) But this manga ended up being an illustrated cookbook with some slow bits between recipes. I wasn't inspired to read the second in the series, which is lucky since the second of the three books in this series is out of print for some reason and not in any of my libraries....more
My favorite part of zombie movies is when the initial outbreak happens and just after. You know, when the major plot is human vs zombie. Later on in zMy favorite part of zombie movies is when the initial outbreak happens and just after. You know, when the major plot is human vs zombie. Later on in zombie series, it tends to turn into human vs human and becomes political. I was told by the person who recommended this series that the first half of the series was the best. That is when the humans are having skirmishes amongst themselves, but the major plot is the mystery of the aliens. This book was mostly human vs human and political maneuvering. The last book was mostly like that to. I came for aliens! :)
But the story is well-written and moves at a pretty quick pace, so even though I usually dislike political/war novels, this one is good and I am still enjoying the series. I just hope the next book has some sort of alien causing a ruckus, but we'll see.
Kings were always the last to feel the famine. That wasn't just the Belt. That was all of history. The people who'd just been going about their lives were the ones who could speak to the actual cost of war. They paid it first.
Marcos is a terrible person. His awfulness is explained well in Naomi's and Filip's chapters, so we all know how awful he is, but he destroys almost the entire solar system and doesn't seem to care that he is killing his own people. I am supremely glad that he got discorporated. It is just the anti-climactic ending that he deserves. I was hoping he wouldn't get a long monologuey send-off.
...Medina station wasn't a new beginning in history. It was and would be as red in the gutter as everyplace else humanity had set its flags.
This is from earlier in the book. The ending leaves us with a "Yay! Everything's going to be great!" sort of feeling, but as Naomi said. "Something else will happen." Humans are, unfortunately, still going to be humans. Someone will find a way to let greed make them make bad choices for humanity again soon. Our history as a species has always been of the two steps forward/one step back variety.
That's twice, and twice is always.
I love Naomi's blunt way of seeing things. She is smart and knows that a one-off can be something that can be forgiven or that may be an accident. If it happens twice, it is always going to happen. This is what so many people don't realize when they try to change someone or keep lying to themselves that this is the last time. Naomi tells it like it is. She knows that she can't save someone if they don't want to be saved.
We're spending our whole lives together, so we need to be really gentle. ... Maybe, if they could find a way to be gentle, the stars would be better off with them.
Leave it to Anna to end the book on a positive note. So much of the book is war and characters predicting that humans will keep being human and awful. But Anna and her family are the other side of this argument. She has always been the example in the books of humanity at its finest. It was nice to begin and end the book with her to cleanse our palettes of the terrible war in the middle. :) (hide spoiler)]...more
This book felt different from the rest of the series because our team was split up. I'm so used to them solving the galaxy's problems together and it This book felt different from the rest of the series because our team was split up. I'm so used to them solving the galaxy's problems together and it was weird to see them all doing their own things. I liked getting to learn more about Alex, Amos, and especially Naomi. Naomi has been a mystery this whole time, but we already had a short story about Amos's past and Alex has been pretty chatty in the novels. I would recommend reading the short story called The Churn before this novel. And maybe have the next one ready since this one kind of leaves things unresolved and ready for the next one. :)
"There aren't any new starts," Bobbie said. "All the new ones pack the old ones along with them. If we ever really started fresh, it'd mean not having a history anymore.
This is said when two characters are discussing all the new planets out there and all the new starts that people wanted to have on them. But humans are always going to be human. They will always carry the bad parts of humanity with them to these new places and start the same old fights. This may be a cynical view, but I agree.
Thing about civilization, it's what keeps people civil. You get rid of one, you can't count on the other.
This book told the story of Zeb's and Adam's history and furthered the story a bit. Some parts felt a bit slow and repetitive and I kind of wanted to This book told the story of Zeb's and Adam's history and furthered the story a bit. Some parts felt a bit slow and repetitive and I kind of wanted to get to the present-day instead of hearing so much history. I enjoyed the ending and thought everything was wrapped up neatly. ...more
This book put me in the uncomfortable position of nodding along and thinking that a doomsday religious cult had some good ideas. :) I listened to the This book put me in the uncomfortable position of nodding along and thinking that a doomsday religious cult had some good ideas. :) I listened to the audiobook and each section was separated by a sermon from the charismatic Adam One and a song performed by the choir. I enjoyed several of the songs; they sure went all out for this audio production! I was afraid that this book was going to have more graphic scenes of sexual violence, but luckily most of it happened off-screen. This book went nicely with the first book and told the other side of things--the view from outside the compound that we learned about in the first book of the series. It was fun to see the sides of the 'crazy' girls that Jimmy dated in the first book.
This future world is one I can definitely see happening in our future. The world is run by business corporations who treat the people outside their compounds like slaves. There are more species that have gone extinct and people cover the planet. The burger joints serve very questionable protein sources.
One of the characters here is talking about how the high-class sex workers looked down on the other sex workers. This quote struck a chord. I hear my young students talk about each other all the time and they are not great at compassion just yet. :) And many adults I know don't put the work into being compassionate that they should.
We shouldn't have been so scornful. We should have had compassion. But compassion takes work and we were young.
The religious cult was a vegetarian cult, but they recognized that needs must and made sure their members understood survival skills. Their leader said:
Hunger is a powerful reorganizer of the conscience.
It is easy to condemn poachers and people who clear cut forests. But a starving family is not going to voluntarily starve just to make sure an acre of forest is safe or a few more elephants stay alive. The 'boogey man' of this book, Crake, knew this and decided that the world just wasn't going to be saved if humans were still a part of it. He made the decision to get rid of them all. It certainly will restart things, but there are a few of them left, so I'm sure in a few thousand years, the planet will be back to the same thing. Humans, as a race, have no willpower. We keep going and finding the new thing even if it destroys things. I don't have a very positive outlook on the future, I guess. :(
...no matter how much you've been warned, Death always comes without knocking. "Why now?" is the cry, "Why so soon?". It's the cry of a child being called home at dusk. It's the universal protest against time.
Wretched. The whole time I wondered why he kept going. It seemed like he was torturing the boy and himself for no reason. I think I'd have used the buWretched. The whole time I wondered why he kept going. It seemed like he was torturing the boy and himself for no reason. I think I'd have used the bullets on the first chapter. ...more
I was thinking of one of my favorite TV shows from long ago and was lamenting the cliffhanger the series was left with when I discovered that there weI was thinking of one of my favorite TV shows from long ago and was lamenting the cliffhanger the series was left with when I discovered that there were some books set just after the cliffhanger and this one set as a prequel to the series. This prequel was interesting and told the story of Max from after she escaped through the time just before the series started. It was neat seeing how she turned into the cynical badass the show starts with. It was a quick read and full of adventure and a sibling that the show doesn't have....more
I took a while to read this book because I kept dreading what I thought was about to happen and putting it down for a while. I was mostly right about I took a while to read this book because I kept dreading what I thought was about to happen and putting it down for a while. I was mostly right about those things, but they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. :) I thought the suspense was great and the foreshadowing was used well. The book was so very long and I felt like some of it could have been a bit on the shorter side. I don't know most of the music that was referenced, so those parts just left me idly wondering why such old music was being used. Sorry for anyone I just implied was old.
All the ideas and beliefs and attitudes that make you you--we are raised to believe them a set of files stored in the lockbox of the brain. Most people have no idea how much of themselves they store off-site. Your personality is not must a matter of what you know about yourself, but what others know about you. You are one person with your mother, and another with your lover, and yet another with your child.
The whole bright thing was weird, but --considering that fungus is known to communicate over distances in nature--not totally unbelievable. The fire-proof bodies and sentient flames were more on the hard to believe side. But I liked this quote. The character was speaking about how we take parts of loved ones with us when we are separated.
For someone that the story is named for, The Fireman sure didn't see much action. He was out of commission after his first major foray and stayed that way for the rest of the book. I guess I expected more of a leading man hero type and he was definitely not. He was cheeky, but not as lovable or helpful as I'd have liked.
Harper seemed to be utterly naïve and made some silly decisions at times. Jakob said he didn't think she was all that smart and he might have been a tad right about that. Though his smarts are called into question as well. I kept telling her not to do things and she did them anyway. Sigh. The ending--booooo! ...more
This post-apocalyptic tale was very close to home--time-wise. It is in a not-so-distant future that still has some parts of society functioning, but cThis post-apocalyptic tale was very close to home--time-wise. It is in a not-so-distant future that still has some parts of society functioning, but corruption and inflation and crime have caused it to start breaking apart. It is an uncomfortable read because one can see this happening with the direction society seems to be heading right now. Our protagonist lives in a gated community of people who all defend and help each other. That is basically the best possible life in this world, but she doesn't believe it can stay like that... and she is right. She takes her new religious ideas on the road and with her and slowly gains a new group. I liked that the overlooked girl was the one who was prepared when the time came. I thought her religious ideas were the most helpful and logical ones I've heard so far. I didn't like the 'sharing' thing that seemed to be spreading through the population. It was strange and not explained very well. I looked into the sequel, but it seems wretched. I think I will leave off here with as much of a happy ending as I can hope for. ...more
This was an interesting take at a dystopian future. Rachel is a scavenger who finds an interesting organism and raises it as kind of a son. The premisThis was an interesting take at a dystopian future. Rachel is a scavenger who finds an interesting organism and raises it as kind of a son. The premise of the book is that a mysterious Company has ruined the world by, among other things, playing with genetic engineering to a horrifying degree. I had a hard time getting past the giant bear. The really giant, three-story bear. The really giant, three-story bear who can apparently fly. Physics-be-damned! Apparently genetic engineering can nullify gravity. The story is really about relationships and the definition of person. (view spoiler)[ The titular character is intelligent and a shape-shifter who absorbs other living things to satisfy hunger and to grow. He knows Rachel disapproves, but he can't stop. I feel for Rachel for loving something that turns out to be a killer. She can't turn off her motherly feelings, but she also can't stay with him. I was a bit confused by the ending and I guess there were a lot of mysteries left over for the rest of the series. I am not interested enough to read the rest of the series to find out though. (hide spoiler)] ...more
Eh. This was like a less-interesting version of the first book of this series. We left off almost a year after the disaster and this book takes us bacEh. This was like a less-interesting version of the first book of this series. We left off almost a year after the disaster and this book takes us back to the night of the asteroid impact to start over again with a less likable family in a different place. The new location is New York-a coastal city that was inundated by the change in tides and tsunamis. The Morales family is far enough inland that they didn't die immediately like a lot of New Yorkers. The mother and father are presumed dead early on and that leaves the 17-year-old Alex with his two sisters, Bri and Julie. I found these three very unsympathetic and stereotypical. The hyper-religiosity and male-dominant themes in the book are irritating to read. Every time Alex was enraged and feeling violent or the girls were made to do all cooking and housework, I cringed a little more. He was not that much older than his sister, Bri, but he made all the decisions without even consulting either of them or telling them about it until they were already doing it. Sheesh. The hot-blooded, full-of-machismo Latino was a bit overplayed. All the major characters are Catholic and the church was a major part of the story. I thought it a bit unreasonable that the siblings didn't check all the other apartments in their building for food or items to trade. They seemed more interested in property rights of dead people than in survival and I just can't feel that is realistic. I felt the whole time like there was not much new information or experience added to this story that the first one didn't already cover. If I were reading the series again, I'd skip from the first to the third.
If God wanted a world filled with saints, He never would have created adolescence.
he he he As a middle school teacher, I concur....more
The third book was more of the same as the first two. We have the protagonists from the first and second books meet and fall blissfully in love in a vThe third book was more of the same as the first two. We have the protagonists from the first and second books meet and fall blissfully in love in a very unrealistic and teenage way. They way Miranda was describing her love for Alex was just gag-inducing- even for YA fiction. Alex was such a crazy control freak and I can't believe that his sister went along with his plans.
An example of the teenage angst:
I kissed him, hoping that the gift of my love could ease his pain.
Third in The Aftermath series. They are still in the snow shelter and they kick out the weirdo in the first few pages. It was a weird scene and is notThird in The Aftermath series. They are still in the snow shelter and they kick out the weirdo in the first few pages. It was a weird scene and is not really believable to me. It is from Cecelia's POV again. The others in the shelter are not real people and other than Renee, they never speak or have opinions on anything. And then the ending is a bit coincidental with the answer to their problems knocking on the door....more
Second in the series that started with The Aftermath. It takes place just after the first one as it ended on a cliffhanger. This book covers Day 13 onSecond in the series that started with The Aftermath. It takes place just after the first one as it ended on a cliffhanger. This book covers Day 13 only. A stranger knocks on the door and acts creepily while telling them that they are selfish and should be rescuing more people. He's right about them, but he is weird about it. More of the teenage romance, but it is from Ryan's POV this time....more
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