Allegiant

by Veronica Roth
New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2013.

For the earlier books in the series, a ****spoiler**** warning...

And a link to my reviews of Divergent and Insurgent.

Tris and her friends are still at the Erudite compound after the factionless uprising and the showing of the video that many in Abnegation died to protect. Tobias' mother, Evelyn, has essentially established a dictatorship and forcibly dissolved the factions. Tris wants to get out of the city now that she's seen the video. Meanwhile, a group calling themselves Allegiant - allied to the founders' original intent for the city, including the factions - forms in opposition to Evelyn. Tris doesn't entirely agree with them, but could working with them get her the answers she needs?

Between the hype and how much I enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, Allegiant had a lot to live up to. There was a lot I enjoyed: Tris and Tobias talk to each other (I was getting annoyed with the non-communication throughout Insurgent), the pages turn fast, and we get to see into Tobias's head as well as Tris's as the first-person narration moves back and forth between them. Unfortunately, I found the reasoning behind the creation of the city and the factions overly simplistic and less than believable. It didn't quite live up to all I had hoped it would be. That being said, I found the ending fitting and would definitely read the series again as a whole; this one just isn't my favorite.

Since I'm posting this many months after the book has come out (and, in fact, several months after I read it) - for any who have read the book and had thoughts on the ending, I thought I'd point you to Veronica Roth's post about why she make a certain choice about the ending. Whether you loved or hated what happened, what she had to say provided a lot of food for thought.

UnSouled

by Neal Shusterman
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013.

UnSouled is the third book in this series - ***spoiler warning*** for the first two books, Unwind and Unwholly.

Connor and Lev are on the run from the mess that was once the Graveyard. Before he left, Trace had given Connor a bit of information about Proactive Citizenry – the group that seems to be behind quite a lot having to do with unwinding as well as the creators of Camus Comprix, the first person to be made with parts of the unwound – and a mysterious man named Janson Rheinschild. Following that up seems to be all he can think to do, now that Risa is gone who-knows-where. Meanwhile, Cam himself is determined to win Risa's love and trust by demolishing the very organization that made him.

The more I read this series, the more I can believe the premise, that people could get so fed up with “feral” teenagers that they start to think that using them for transplants and saving lives would really be for society's good. In the midst of the future dystopia are real, recent news articles and clippings on related topics, such as black market organ donors and a politician who apparently wrote that he thought there should be a death penalty for rebellious children – not that anyone would use the option, mind you, but that it might scare kids into behaving. This just adds to the believability of what might otherwise sound completely nightmarish and over the top. The various complicated ways in which Proactive Citizenry is working and unwinding has become entrenched in society are further unfolded. I especially enjoyed getting more of Sonia's backstory, that of the woman who first took in Connor and Risa and started them on their way through the safe houses that brought them to the Graveyard. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the series comes together in book four, due to come out next year.

Unwholly

by Neal Shusterman
New York : Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2013 (hardcover pub. 2012).

Unwholly is the second book in a series: this is a ****spoiler warning**** for the first book, Unwind.

Connor, presumed dead by the authorities, is running the Graveyard, a home to the kids still under 17 who are in danger of being “unwound.” Risa works with him as a medic, in a wheelchair because she refused to accept the spine of an unwind – a teen who has been unwound into a “divided” state, with basically all parts used medically for transfusion and transplant. Lev, the former “clapper” who did not clap and detonate the explosives in his blood, has gone through medical treatment to make himself stable and is now feeling stifled, talking to kids in danger of being unwound but unable to speak out against unwinding either.

The book is hard to describe if you haven't read the first book, and would be hard to follow as a standalone as well. The future civilization Shusterman describes has an element of possibility in it: what if really screwed up teenagers were “unwound” to provide organ and other transplants? What if abortion didn't exist, but you could leave an unwanted baby at a doorstep as long as you weren't caught (a practice known as “storking”), with the expectation that the owners of the house would take the child? This series explores the implications of this dystopia, with no easy answers. Unwholly takes up soon after Unwind left off, continuing the multi-perspective switches between Connor, Risa and Lev, and adding some new characters in Starkey, Miracolina, and the “parts pirate” Nelson, who's after runaway unwinds (also known as AWOLs, the kids whose parents have signed the unwind order but who get away before they are picked up to go to “harvest camp”) for the black market. Another new character, Cam, adds another element to the mix as a sort of Frankenstein creation from the parts of unwound kids. Is he merely a conglomeration of all these parts, or is he more? Does he have his own soul? A creepy, fast-paced, and thought-provoking series I'd recommend to a variety readers.

Unwind

by Neal Shusterman
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2007.

Sometime in the future, pro-life and pro-choice groups had a war and the outcome was that there would be no more abortions, but parents could choose to "unwind" a child between the ages of 13 and 18. Connor finds out that his parents have signed the order to have him unwound and runs away; Risa is a ward of the state and budget issues mean they just can't afford her any more; Lev is a "tithe" who knew all his life that he was special and meant to be unwound. When these three teens' lives converge, they will never be the same.

Enjoyed is not quite the right word for this book, but I was deeply engrossed from the get-go. The pacing is fast and the scenario so well-imagined and described that while you're reading the book, you believe events could play out like this. The perspectives switch between multiple characters - usually Connor, Risa, and Lev, but some secondary characters too - which helps keep the tension building and allows you to get to know each of them. Exactly what is going on, what unwinding means, and what it this law has done to society, is slowly revealed and builds to the end leaving you breathless.

Etiquette & Espionage

by Gail Carriger
Little, Brown, 2013.

Sophronia has been causing mayhem at home and her mother, at her wit's end, sends her to finishing school. But even before she arrives - when they're attacked by flyawaymen who want a prototype, to be exact - Sophronia discovers that Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality is much more than just your average finishing school. Besides teaching young ladies to curtsy and behave decorously, a werewolf and a vampire are teachers, and lessons include such things as fighting (with knife, umbrella, or parasol) and the finer arts of poisoning.

If you're familiar with Gail Carriger's Soulless series, then you have an idea of what to expect in narrative voice and humor. The only clue that this is intended for young audiences is the age of the protagonists and the absence of sex (well, there's one indirect reference to it). There were parts when the action flagged, but most of the time it was a fun romp as Sophronia and friends wreak havoc and try to save the day by finding the prototype that a fellow schoolmate has hidden.

The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell
New York : Ballantine Books, 2004 (originally published 1996).

On Earth in 2060, Father Emilio Sandoz has returned from a failed mission a broken man; no one knows exactly what went wrong when he and a small group of friends went into space to make contact with aliens. The narrative goes back and forth in flashbacks to the past and the narrative present, as Emilio's Jesuit superiors try to get the full story.

Nothing is simple about this tale. It's about first contact, yes, but it's also about humanity and family and what happens to faith when we're absolutely broken. Even the secondary characters are fully rounded, complex human beings, and I was absolutely drawn in to their stories. This is a stunning, heartbreaking, beautiful book that I can't recommend highly enough.

Under the Never Sky

by Veronica Rossi
New York : HarperCollins, 2012.

Aria lives in the Pods, where the "real" is gray and everyone's hooked up to Smarteyes that allow them to visit the Realms, a sort of immersive Second Life. Peregrine is an Outsider, one of those whom Aria's people believe to be savage and wild, living in a world that they cannot survive in. When Aria loses contact with her mother, she ventures outside the Pods with friends and finds out that everything she knows about the Outside is wrong.

Shifting back and forth between Aria's and Perry's points of view, the reader gets to see each character's preconceptions change as they travel together and learn about each other. Because most of the action takes place on the Outside, we don't really see much of Aria's world except through her memories and the quick glimpses of technology for the portions that take place in the Pods. If you've read a lot of young adult dystopias, you may not find the plot directions all that surprising, but this is a fast-paced story with two characters I couldn't help but root for. I would hand it to teens who are impatient for the next book in the Divergent series.

Among Others

by Jo Walton
New York : Tor, 2011.

Morwenna Phelps Markova ran away from her crazy mother after her sister's death and her own injury, and is now living with the father she never met. Her aunts send her to boarding school, and her diary is filled with what she does at school, what she ran from in the past, and how she deals with her world by reading tons of fantasy and SF in 1979 and 1980.

Though most of the book reads like a standard coming-of-age novel, there are two major differences. One, there are fairies. Two, Morwenna reads a lot of fantasy and SF - I counted around 100 books mentioned - and if you're at all interested in the genre, you will enjoy her discussion of books. The fairies are a bit harder to describe, but I thought it was done with a light touch making this a sort-of fantasy because of the presence of magic. A diary format can be hard to pull off, but this read really naturally as Morwenna's thoughts and recounting of the day to day, and lent itself to only marginally explaining what had happened in the past. In a way, her diary more about the aftermath than the actual happening. I enjoyed the story on a first read, but I think I would have to reread it to better articulate exactly what I thought about it.

Legend

by Marie Lu
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011.

Day has been on the run ever since he failed his Trial. He's a wanted criminal according to the Republic, but he cares for an orphan, Tess, and still checks in on his family in a poor section of Los Angeles. June is a prodigy; she scored a perfect 1500 on the Trial and is the youngest in her class by a few years. She hopes to eventually enter the military like her brother, Metias. When tragedy strikes their lives are unexpectedly brought together.

This teen dystopia has a little bit of everything: adventure, romance, two sympathetic narrators that each get to tell their side of the story. As a reader, you know more than they do, and I've read enough of the genre to pick up on the clues: I was only surprised by one or two revelations. There were a few moments that I had to really suspend disbelief, as they seemed too coincidental or not fully explained. While not a perfect book, it's fast-paced and kept my interest throughout. I can see why it's a popular choice for teen readers looking for something after The Hunger Games, and I'll continue reading when the sequel, Prodigy, comes out in January.

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline
New York : Crown Publishers, 2011.

The year is 2044. The most popular video game: OASIS. It's not just a video game, it's a full-immersion MMOG on a huge scale. Real life has become so wretched that a lot of people find relief playing the game and searching for the "egg." One of these people is Wade Watts, the narrator, whose life dream is winning the game - and, as a result, all of the creator's money.

This was a really entertaining story with a lot of 1980s and other trivia thrown into the mix. The creator of the game, James Halliday, was a pop culture nut and "wanted people to like the same thing he liked," so of course, the solutions to his puzzles often have an answer in 80s movies, songs, and more. As Wade and his friends get closer to his goal, the stakes rise and the plot gains momentum 'til the end. Sure to satisfy your inner geek.

Hexwood

by Diana Wynne Jones
New York : Greenwillow Books, c1994.

All is not well at Hexwood Farm, and Sector Controller Boranus is not happy. The Reigners won't be happy if they realize some underling awoke the Bannus, a machine that can create theta space and cause real people to go through somewhat manufactured events in order to see the best course of action. Meanwhile, on Earth, Ann Stavely has been sick and, the first day she feels better, she enters a wood where she meets Mordion, a strange man who says he has been in stasis for years and Hume, a boy she seems to have some responsibility for. But odd things seem to be happening with time and the sequence of events when she goes in the wood...

If that sounds confusing, well, let's just say this is the sort of complex story that doesn't sound at all right when I try to sum it up without spoilers. Ignore the awful cover art (yes, that really is the book I own). This story has a little bit of everything: complex storyline, sympathetic characters, and a dash of humor. I've been making my way through Diana Wynne Jones' oeuvre, and thought I'd found my favorites already (Howl's Moving Castle and Dark Lord of Derkholm, in case you're wondering), but Hexwood surprised me by turning out to be one of the best.

Insurgent

by Veronica Roth
New York : Katherine Tegen Books, 2012.

**Spoiler warning for the first in the series, Divergent**

On the run from the old Dauntless compound, Tris, Tobias, and the others go to Amity for help. Will the faction that wants peace and accord above all else ally with them against Erudite? While there, Tris discovers that Tobias' father, Marcus, knows something important about why Jeanine attacked Abnegation, and she's determined to find out what's going on.

Ever since a friend had me read Divergent, I've been waiting for the sequel. I was one of the first people to put a hold on the library record (before anyone had the book in). The day it came in, I snagged it immediately and started reading it on my first break. The story picks up exactly where Divergent left off, and I was a little afraid I would lose out because I hadn't reread the first book and couldn't remember who everyone was and what had happened. But Roth does a good job of reintroducing characters and their situations in a natural way, and I was soon speeding along, lost in the story. I liked the development of Tris and Tobias; they each have secrets, and they have to deal with how that affects their relationship. The narrative clips along at a fast pace, taking turns here and there which sometimes surprised me and sometimes didn't, but I was enjoying myself so much I didn't mind when the revelations were not entirely unexpected. The end definitely left me wanting more - I predict I'll do exactly what I did with this one when Book 3 comes out.

On Authors I Said I'd Never Read

11/22/63
by Stephen King
New York: Scribner, 2011.

Once upon a time, I claimed that I would never read a book by Stephen King (except, maybe, his nonfiction). I have a strong aversion to having the pants scared off of me, and I have a weak enough stomach that I make my brother warn me when to avert my eyes for PG-13 movies. But one day I was minding my own business at work, reading reviews, and I happened to come along one for 11/22/63.

The premise intrigued me: Jake, a divorced guy with no kids, a high school teacher in 2011, gets a call from a buddy, who shows him a "rabbit hole" into September, 1958. His friend, who is dying and can't go back in time any longer, convinces Jake that he could change the past by preventing JFK's assassination.

Well, I thought. Time travel and history, that I can do. Then the book came in (much sooner than I expected) from the library, all 860+ pages of it. Which, of course, meant that I had to put everything aside and read it sooner rather than later, since - this being a Stephen King novel, after all - there are over 100 holds on the book in my library system. So, I jumped right in, and before I knew it I was absolutely lost in Jake's story and his trip into the past. I was more interested in some parts than others, which is only to be expected in a book this long.. The descriptions were evocative: I could really picture the dingy apartments where Jake stays, and the streets of Dallas and Derry. I can't say I always agreed with Jake's choices or point of view, but I really cared about him and other characters he meets. I didn't know much about Lee Harvey Oswald and John Kennedy's assassination, but I really want to learn more now.

My lesson is learned. I will "never say never again." I was really impressed with this story, my first foray into Stephen King's work, and (dare I say it?) not my last.

A Long, Long Sleep

by Anna Sheehan
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2011.

Rosalinda Samantha Fitzroy wakes up from stasis to find a boy with his lips on hers. Okay, it's not exactly like Sleeping Beauty because stasis froze her body, and he thought she wasn't breathing. But she's been asleep for over sixty years: her parents are dead, her world has changed, and she is the heiress to an interplanetary company, UniCorp. She has to learn to cope with this world as well as learn what has happened in her absence.

I picked this book up entirely because of the cover. It's mostly white, with a roses and thorns in shades of pink, on the front, back, and even the spine. Very eye-catching and attractive, even when it's on a shelf amongst other books, and it led me to believe this would be a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It's not. Instead, this is Rose's story of coping after waking, and we find out bits and pieces of what happened to her before, and what's changed in the world. In the beginning, it confused me to keep threads of the story straight, as Rose's past and present are my world's future. Other times, like Rose's history class in school, information about what happened after she was put in stasis seemed to be a bit of an information dump. But Rose is a compelling character, and the mystery surrounding her circumstances is a compelling one. Though the story ends satisfactorily, it leaves some possibility open for a sequel, and I do hope that's the case.

Divergent

by Veronica Roth
New York : Katherine Tegen Books, 2011.

In a future society, the five factions - Abnegation, Dauntless, Candor, Amity, and Erudite - have ended war. At the age of sixteen, each of their children is given an aptitude test for the traits that the factions most prize, and choose which faction they wish to join. Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation, but her aptitude test is inconclusive. She is Divergent - a rare person who could choose equally between a few factions. Sound good? The woman giving her the test says it's dangerous, but won't explain why. Beatrice's choice of a faction may be more far-reaching than she can imagine.

Wow, what an adrenaline ride! I started reading this book late last night, intending to only read a little before going to bed. Two hundred pages later, at nearly midnight, I went to bed only to pick up the book again first thing this morning. Beatrice, or Tris, as she renames herself, is a compelling, complex character. She narrates her story as she discovers that the original good intentions, such as the end of war, selflessness, courage, and intelligence, have been manipulated and becomes warped by a capacity for evil that humans can never entirely eradicate. The story ends well - a few loose ends, but no cliff-hangers - but even after 482 pages, I was left wanting more.

Fire Watch

This collection of a dozen short stories is from the earlier part of Connie Willis's career. Most of the stories included were published between 1979 and 1984. Even though all are technically science fiction, they show quite a range for a young author, with their variety of points of view and theme.

I knew very little of what I should expect going into this short story collection. I only knew that the title story had some characters related to the time traveling books that I'd already read, and that St. Paul's Cathedral figured prominently. In fact, St. Paul's was why I read this book now: on my recent trip to London, seeing St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey in particular made me want to read as much fiction and nonfiction about London and England as possible. I'd rather expected most of the stories to be interrelated, but that was not at all the case. As in many short story collections, I liked some and hated others. "All My Darling Daughters" disgusted me and I nearly put down the collection for good there. But I'm glad I continued, because the last story, "Blued Moon," was light and funny and left a smile on my face. Most of the other stories were somewhere in between, making this a decent collection and worth a browse for those interested in '80s science fiction.

To Say Nothing of the Dog

by Connie Willis
New York : Bantam Books, 1998.

About fifty years in the future, time travel is not only a reality, it's how historians work - by going back into the past and observing events. Note the key word: observing. They cannot create paradoxes by getting involved or taking things forward in time, or the entire space-time continuum might break down. One of these historians, Ned Henry, is overworked and "time lagged" due to Lady Schrapnell's insistence that everything be perfect for the recreation of Coventry Cathedral down to the last detail. In particular, was the bishop's bird stump present when the cathedral was bombed during the blitz? He's so tired he can barely function, so when one of the historians in the Victorian time period takes something forward in time, he's sent back to get his rest in a place Lady Schrapnell can't find him, and repair the damage all in one.

Up until a few years ago, I had almost never read a science fiction book, and I asked a friend and co-worker to recommend a book that is a good introduction to the genre. This was her recommendation for me, and I have to say it was spot on. It's a light, funny story that still has a lot to say when you think about it, with a little bit of chaos theory and theories of history thrown in, as well as more than a few nods to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, to Say Nothing of the Dog. If, like me, you have never read that book, never fear - there's plenty of fun to be had in this story in its own right and those (and other) literary references can go straight over your head. Though it's not quite as much fun to reread, it remains one of my favorite science fiction stories.

Monsters of Men

by Patrick Ness
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, c2010.

**Spoiler warnings for The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer.**

"War makes monsters of men," Ben warns Todd in The Knife of Never Letting Go. Right from the start, we see this play out in the war between the Mayor's people and the Spackle, the indigenous population of New World. Meanwhile, Mistress Coyle tries to get the upper hand by meeting with the newly arrived ship carrying Viola's people to resettle the land. All Todd and Viola want is peace, but at what price will it come?

Carrying on from the questions of motives, choice, and character that The Ask and the Answer put forth, Monsters of Men focuses more exclusively on war and what kind of people desire war over peace. I struggled more with the story because the themes appear to me to have more of an agenda than in the earlier books. While I hesitate to take universals out of a particular story, in science fiction and fantasy especially its hard not to see these as more "universal" ideas and ideals that can be - and sometimes are meant to be - applied to the real world. I don't mean that the author specifically had an agenda in writing this story, just that it was hard for me not to read it that way, and I wasn't sure I always agreed with the conclusions. Once again, the plot generally hums along, keeping you caught up in events and wondering what's going to happen next even while causing you to grapple with the larger themes. A few times, I wasn't sure if I would end up mad with the author's designs for his characters, but all in all I was happy with the way the series wraps up.

The Ask and the Answer

by Patrick Ness
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2009.

**Spoiler warning for The Knife of Never Letting Go.**

Haven was supposed to be their hope, but when Todd and Viola reached it at the end of The Knife of Never Letting Go, Mayor Prentiss of Prentisstown was the only one who showed up to greet them. Taking up the story where it left off, Todd and Viola describe what happens to them after reaching Haven, which agreed to a peaceful take over rather than fight. Now separated for the Mayor's (or President, as he now wishes to be called) manipulative purposes, Todd and Viola have to decide whose side they're on in a coming war in which neither side seems to have a pure motive.

Is there any pure motive in war? What would you do to be "free," or would you compromise to minimize loss of life? What choices would you make, and what kind of person would they make you? These are the questions at the center of The Ask and the Answer, and they're tough ones to come to grips with. Todd and Viola, Mistress Coyle, the former Mayor of Haven, and a healer named Corinne are just some of the characters making these decisions and whether you agree with them or not, you can see the kind of people they are as a result of past and present decisions in a book just as intense as the first. I'm waiting on tenterhooks until the third book comes in from interlibrary loan.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

by Patrick Ness
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2009 (orig. pub. 2008).

Todd is nearly a man - he'll be thirteen thirteen-month years. He is the last boy of the community in Prentisstown, a town of all men who have Noise, a condition which means that all your thoughts are heard by the community, a germ that Todd was told caused all the women to die. But when Todd learns that what he has been told all his life may not be true, he has to re-evaluate everything he has taken for granted for the past thirteen years. How many secrets do the men of Prentisstown keep?

Todd is our first-person narrator - we're in his head, as if we're hearing his Noise clear as day, with all his dialect (words like "yer" and "attenshun") and confusion about what's really going on with Prentisstown. At first, I found it distracting, but I soon became caught up in Todd's plight and flight, and I had difficulty putting the book down. The plot is fast-paced, the details about this science fictional world are rich, the characters are so believable I hurt for them at times. If you're cliff-hanger averse, I recommend having book 2 ready as soon as you finish!

This was meant to be a "book off the shelf" - reading a book of my own, rather than a library book (my goal is to read 20 this year). Unfortunately (?), it looks like as long as I like the remaining books in the series, I will be adding two more to the shelves instead.