Unremembered (Unremembered #1) by Jessica Brody

June 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Unremembered by Jessica Brody
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy It: Amazon | IndieBound
When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.

Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?

From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.

Review
Another book I picked up because Brody is part of the Fierce Reads Tour this summer and the blurb had me intrigued too. I’ve mentioned before that I’m drawn to stories where memories are lost so this was good! This book looked interesting and I was going to see the author! And there’s a plane crash! How very Lost-esque. Color me intrigued.

So Seraphina is the only survivor of a plane crash — like the synopsis says — but she’s not on the manifest. No one’s reported her missing. There’s not a scratch on her. And she has no memory. After being in the hospital for a few days and determining that she’s underage, the authorities place her with a family through child protective services. There’s nothing else they can do, right? She’s made the news so people are coming forward for her now, but no one can be truly verified. The only thing that identifies her is a locket that she was wearing when they found her. Dun dun dun. But then — as soon as she’s being taken to her temporary family — a boy comes forward and says that he’s going to save her! Does she know him? She doesn’t know. Of course not, she doesn’t have any memories.

That first paragraph basically describes most of the book because any kind of progress that Seraphina makes is moot because she doesn’t really know if it’s relevant or not, what with the whole memory loss issue. And of course there’s the boy, Zen, whom she instantly loves because of course she does. Why wouldn’t she trust her temp-family more than this boy who randomly shows up every now and then (and is usually followed by trouble)? It’s not like they don’t ignore the fact that she’s familiar with cars and refrigerators but has never heard of the internet or cell phones. Not your typical teenage girl, obviously. Then of course there’s this weird barcode-like tattoo on her wrist that isn’t a tattoo at all. But what is it? She has no idea.

I was frustrated through most of the novel because Seraphina is a very, very, VERY weak female character. Sometimes it’s easy to forgive weak characters if they have attitude or gumption or ANYTHING but Seraphina doesn’t have a personality or much of anything. The only decisions she really makes are bad ones that seem to get her into even more trouble with various different people. And the fact that she seems to care so little for those around her, especially her temp-family who took her in when she had no one else. She pretty much runs all over them and gives them nothing in return. So nice, yes?

It doesn’t seem like I enjoyed this story much does it? Well I didn’t see the plot twist coming at all. Maybe because I was too busy grumbling about how annoying Seraphina was but the reason for her memory loss, for her being in the plane crash, EVERYTHING is pretty cool and different from what’s out there right now. It definitely bumped up the story for me. Once I figured out what was going on, the book moved from possible-DNF status to “I gotta see what happens!” status. I’m glad I finished it even though I didn’t like most of it because the last little bit was fun. It is going to be a series and I probably won’t read the rest of the books but this one wasn’t so bad.

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Reboot (Reboot #1) by Amy Tintera

May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Reboot by Amy Tintera
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Digital Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon | IndieBound
Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

Review
I’m not quite sure why I decided to read Reboot but it had just come out and I was looking for something to read before I went to sleep as I had finished the book I was reading earlier in the day. I always have to read before I go to bed. It’s like a soothing mechanism. Anyway, I had just gone on a romance novel spree so this seemed like a good alternative, plus I’m not much for of a “robot” book person. Reading this one right before bed turned out to be a bad idea as I got really into it and ended up staying up until 3 when I had to get up at 6. Oops.


I can’t really regret it, although I was exhausted the next day, because I ended up thoroughly enjoying the book. For Tintera’s debut, I felt that this was really strong and a great concept, and although probably not the most unique, quite a fun read. I know that the market is flooded with dystopians right now and I debated whether or not this would be considered dystopian or sci-fi, but I think it’s truly sci-fi in the end. While it is set in the future with an overbearing government (classic dystopian!) there are such advances in science and technology that it’s impossible to deny that science fiction overrules the general dystopian aspect. So those that fear this is another run of the mill dystopian – think again!

The novel begins when we meet 178 as she’s out on a mission. She’s looking for a human for committing a crime and HARC has given her orders to take him into custody. This is what she does. As a reboot, someone who has come back to life, this is how she lives her life — full of missions provided by HARC, emotionless and following a fairly strict regimen. I’m pretty sure we don’t even learn her real name, Wren, until the second chapter because HARC (the government) is more concerned with the reboots’ numbers than their names. Their numbers are the minutes that they were dead before they rebooted. The longer that they were dead, the less human qualities that they’ve retained in their new state and the easier they are able to take and follow out orders. It’s kind of like the SATs of dying. How long can you stay dead until you come back? The higher the score — the better!


Wren’s world is shaken when a new batch of reboots comes into her facility and she meets Callum 22. He’s hopeless. He was only dead for 22 minutes. Pennies compared to the incomparable Wren 178. Callum doesn’t mind being a reboot so much as he minds all of the rules that HARC has in place for the reboots. Why does he have to eat what they give him? Why does he have to train and become a soldier? Why why why? He has all these questions that Wren isn’t particularly ready to answer. He also raises some questions that make Wren question herself. Why do they say you don’t have as many emotions? Why are we both reboots but we’re still different? The opinion that she’s had of her life as a reboot for the past 5 years has completely gone out the window by meeting this one person. And that’s all it takes doesn’t it — one person? Either way, Wren is completely blindsided by these personal changes the come about as well as some changes that HARC puts in place. They begin running life threatening tests on the reboots. They aren’t going to risk her, precious 178, but what about the few reboots that she cares about — Callum included? She has to do something!


A lot happens in the novel, plot-wise, that I won’t spoil, but in the end I felt that this was more a coming of age novel than anything else. It was about Wren finding her place in the world — and continuing to do so — outside of an arbitrary number that the government has assigned her. Even as a reboot, she’s still a person with unique thoughts and abilities, right? She shouldn’t be any different from anyone else. It’s the beginning of a revolution that she never saw coming and never really wanted. It’s like being told your whole life you’re a shoe and then waking up one day and realizing you want to be a hat instead.* Overall, Tintera’s writing was intriguing and solid. The characters were engaging and the plot kept me engrossed. I’ll definitely be reading the next in the series and I think Tintera shows great potential as a new author!

*Cupcakes if you get that reference.

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The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

December 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Release Date: December 18, 2012
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a government ′rehabilitation camp′. Ruby might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America′s children, but she and the others had emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now on the run, she is desperate to find East River, the only safe haven left for kids like her, and she joins a group of other runaways who have escaped their own camps. Liam, their brave leader, is falling for Ruby, but she 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 Liam. But there are also 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 – and one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living.

Review
The Darkest Minds follows Ruby, as mentioned above, from her horrible time in Thurmond (of which we only see the beginning and the end) to her mad dash for freedom with three other escapees, Liam, Chubs, and Zu. Thurmond is kind of a legend, one of the first facilities for what Ruby calls Generation Freak, and one that once performed experiments on the children living there. There is only a little mentioned about the virus at first, so I was confused in the beginning, but the children are classified into color groups, like the terror alert scale, and soon, all the upper echelon children*-red, orange, yellow-are dead, whether from the virus or from the camp, I wasn’t sure. Ruby doesn’t trust anyone, and with good reason, as she’s been hiding her true nature for six years at camp. She won’t let anyone touch her or get close to her, and I found myself just completely sympathetic toward her. Her parents shipped her off when she was in fourth grade to what is basically a concentration camp for children. Ruby gets points for being able to hold coherent conversations.

One of the problems with the protag keeping a secret from the other characters is most of the time we, the readers, know the secret already. It can be frustrating watching Ruby jump around and be skittish and secretive, knowing it has to come out at some point, understanding why she’s hiding it, but also wishing she would just grow a backbone a little too. Which is unfair considering where she spent her childhood. She is incredibly good under pressure in the beginning, and she looks out for Zu before anyone else. The problem I found was, after the action of the beginning, the middle is very slow. This is another traveling book, full of kids trying to get from one place to another while adults try to either kill or control them. Dystopian novels are starting to make me sad. Does this mean I’m getting old?

So we spend most of the novel looking for the mythical Slip Kid, who absolutely no one will give any details on for quite some time. It was also kind of nice to have the romantic role reversal, where it’s very obvious Liam is falling for Ruby, while Ruby is oblivious, but also not terribly interested. Granted, her disinterest has more to do with her fear of herself than Liam himself, but it’s nice to not have a female protag following the boy around like a puppy for half the novel. And I started feeling sorry for Liam, because, while he’s got a sunnier disposition than Ruby, he’s damaged goods too. He devised the breakout plan for his camp, and when only a few people escaped and more were killed, he blamed himself. And, because of that, he believes he can’t go find his parents until he “earns it,” until he breaks everyone out of every camp. That’s a lofty goal, and kind of delusional. I want to say, “Liam, don’t be a hero,” because he simply can’t do that on his own. This isn’t fantasy; Liam doesn’t have magic. And the world that Bracken creates with this story is not a kind one. I don’t believe it would ever allow Liam to be a hero in that way, not without putting an expiration date on his life.

As mentioned above, Bracken creates a hard, unyielding world for her protagonists, where even a kiss can be deadly, and happiness is elusive. Ruby’s secret keeps her from any more than a few minutes of comfort, of laughter. I don’t like it when teenagers call themselves “monsters” for doing what circumstances dictate must be done. This book kind of destroyed me, but in a good way. I’ve been growing tired of the dystopian genre since earlier this year, maybe even last year when I did my Hunger Games rereads, but this one… Sure, the science is a little sketchy, but if you can suspend your disbelief (something I couldn’t do with books like Delirium and Wither), I think the journey Ruby takes, both in her head and with her friends, is really something to read. So definitely check this one out, buy it, whatever, because it’s the perfect dystoptia for these cloudy winter days. (See my review of Bracken’s previous novel, Brightly Woven, here.)

*I hesitate to call the children by their “colors” or refer to them as Blues or Reds, because that’s exactly how you start dehumanizing fellow people. By referring to groups of children as “Blues,” you only see their designation or what makes them bad or different. That is why in my field (special education), we’re trying to incorporate more people-first language. If you say “autistics” instead of “children with autism,” there’s a whole different set of ideas that arise, not to mention how labels generalize. Ahem. Excuse my tangent.

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Origin by Jessica Khoury

December 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Origin by Jessica Khoury
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Library Copy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy It: Amazon
Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home–and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia’s origin–a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

Review

Origin was a buzz book of 2012. It is YA heaven. This is the story of Pia. Pia’s life is surrounded by a jungle, literally. She was born and raised in the middle of a jungle to be immortal. Pia was created by a group of scientist to be the strong immortal out there, which she is. Her skin cannot pierced, she has heightened hearing, sight, smell and even speed. Pia  however has her weaknesses. She has normal strength and is extremely stubborn, both of which are extremely looked down upon by her ‘family.’ Of course she doesn’t really have a family, she has a group of scientists who have become her family. She calls a woman ‘mother’ and a group of men ‘uncle’. There is nothing wrong with creating your own family, I am all for it. However when it comes down to it, and in a pivotal point of the novel it will, she’ll come to find who is really her family and who isn’t.

Pia is often seen as naive throughout this book by many scientists because she has never left this bubble that is her life. And it’s true until one day her need to know about the outside outweighed her need to stay in the bubble that was her world. She  found a hole in the electrified fence and went through it. Once through that hole Pia realized that the world outside of all that she once knew isn’t that scary. In the outside world, Pia meets Eio, who happens to be a jungle boy. While he is kind and patient with Pia, he sees the danger of her bubble, of Little Cam as it is known. Eio is also honest to a fault and because of this honesty he tells Pia how bad Little Cam is and how dangerous it is to Pia.

Pia of course doesn’t believe Eio because Little Cam, her bubble, is all that she knows.  Yet, even with Eio encouraging her to leave, Pia and Eio slowly fall into love. Eio is quicker to admit to love of Pia than Pia is of Eio because she isn’t confident in what love is. Pia’s world of Little Cam is quickly changing throughout the week that Origin covers. Even though Origin only covers a week, Khoury’s writing is so strong that you don’t even notice the fast pace speed of the book.

All of this being said, this book is a solid 3.5 book. There is nothing wrong with it to me, this book just isn’t my type of book. I highly recommend it, I just couldn’t give it a higher rating because I personally won’t be running out to buy the book.

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A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1) by James Dashner

September 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
When best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste stumble upon the secret of time travel — a hand-held device known as the Infinity Ring — they’re swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. Recruited by the Hystorians, a secret society that dates back to Aristotle, the kids learn that history has gone disastrously off course. Now it’s up to Dak, Sera, and teenage Hystorian-in-training Riq to travel back in time to fix the Great Breaks…and to save Dak’s missing parents while they’re at it. First stop: Spain, 1492, where a sailor named Christopher Columbus is about to be thrown overboard in a deadly mutiny!

Review
I am on a middle-grade roll lately, and this isn’t my last one, either. I’ve been meaning to get my hands on this one ever since I found out that Lisa McMann wrote the third book in the Infinity Ring series. My library doesn’t have this one (my library has NOTHING; I always have to request books through ILL), but luckily Scholastic was still awarding ARCs to bloggers through NetGalley. And? I read this one in a single day. So, Dak and Sera live in a futuristic dystopia ruled by the SQ. Time is collapsing, and people are experiencing “Remnants,” remembering things that never happened. Dak’s parents, scientists, are being monitored by a group called the Hystorians, those working to save the world using a 2000 year old plan by Aristotle. There are funny bits characteristic of middle-grade novels; for example, Dak and Sera go to Benedict Arnold Middle School. They are super cute with their totally platonic junior high friendship. My best friend ever is a guy I met when I was fourteen, so I can relate to Sera. There are also bits and pieces of alternate history that made me chuckle, the how the French still have a monarchy. We find out the Hystorians have been spying on Dak’s parents due to the Infinity Ring, and everything starts to get real after Sera activates it.

And I know that the book is about fixing history, and in this one, they have to keep Christopher Columbus’ crew from mutiny. I was super annoyed that they didn’t know they needed to save Columbus (which is irrational, yes, and probably won’t bother 99% of readers, I am just curmudgeonly), but not enough for it to keep me from enjoying the story. Sera is an awesome little future feminist, so of course I loved that. The adventure doesn’t really kick in until nearly three-quarters of the way through the novel, though. The rest is them discovering the Infinity Ring, learning how to use it, and running from the SQ. I really loved Dashner’s writing style though, which was funny with little asides to the reader. It’s written in third-person, something I wish for more novels. I find I dislike the narrators more when I’m stuck in their heads for 300+ pages. Anyway, Dak and Sera and Riq finally figure out that the famous Amancio brothers are not the ones supposed to find the New World, and this breaks Dak’s poor history-loving heart. I won’t spoil whether or not they actually stop the mutiny though. ;)

This one was a nice break from tradition, and in more ways than one! Did you know this series is being written by six different authors? After Dashner, who writes both the first and last in the series, comes Carrie Ryan, Lisa McMann (!!!), Matt de la Pena, Matthew J. Kirby, and Jennifer A. Nielsen. I love round robin-type stories, so I’m super psyched for the upcoming novels. Yay, middle-grade!

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Starters (Starters #1) by Lissa Price

February 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Starters by Lissa Price
Release Date: March 13, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy It: Amazon
Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined…

Review
I love this cover! I am almost immune to covers featuring girls in pretty dresses, for some reason, so I think this one is awesome. It’s so sci-fi! I liked what I read of the summary on NetGalley, but I have to be real. I don’t understand how the virus/spore/whatever knows someone is 20 as opposed to 19. What if you’re just a few months from 20? Does that matter? Is it bone density? HOW DOES THE VIRUS KNOW? That sounds like shoddy science, but I can move past it for a good dystopia. And the beginning is sufficiently creepy, as we meet the Enders. There is a Hunger Games-esque makeover scene, but I dismissed the team pretty quickly. I would also like to take this moment to wish that, in some dystopia in the future, the badass heroine will have once been interested in clothes. I find it really kind of unbelievable when I read about modern high schoolers not being able to walk in heels, let alone ones who lived in the Valley. I wish Callie wasn’t “trying to pull down [her] dress to cover [her] legs” because I want a heroine who is comfortable in her body and her clothes, be they jeans or heels or a dress. Why are all dystopian heroines Bella Swans when it comes to fashion and clothes?

When we finally get to the plot, Callie is a little slow on the uptake. This is a problem with first person narration, in my opinion. We know something is off, but Callie is ignorant and doesn’t even attempt to make connections. I don’t know if it’s because Price wasn’t ready for Callie to be aware of this Renters’ Resistance Movement, or because Callie doesn’t trust any Enders after the Spore Wars taught her how cruel they can be. If I’m asking the question, it’s probably the first one, right? (I also find myself wishing Callie would forget about Michael, as we all know she’ll forget about him as soon as Blake is introduced, yes?) Around this time I also started wondering why, if Enders live to be 200 years old in this world, are there so many orphaned teenagers? Don’t they have grandparents? Great-grandparents? Like, their parents would have died, sure, but if they had 110 year old great-grandparents, why weren’t the kids going to live with them? Were Ender lives extended after the Spore Wars? How? This is never really explained. And I know I shouldn’t get so annoyed when Callie refused to cooperate later in the novel, but this is a scenario that plays out in every dystopia ever written. It’s like, girl knows something is up, girl finds out what’s up, girl throws a fit and goes into a state of denial. I’m bored with that scenario! Let’s try a new one next time, okay?

I’ll admit though, I like Blake. He never tried to control Callie, never tried to tell her what to do or what to wear, never removed the alternator from her car so she couldn’t visit Jacob, et cetera. He just seemed to genuinely likeher. When Callie finally starts listening to Helena, her Ender, it’s sort of too late, as Prime Destinations has already been moved into the mainstream. We learn PD will stop being so secretive because, with help from a senator, they will be legally hiring teens to rent out their bodies. Before the war, no one under the age of 20 could work due to the number of unemployed Enders, but this senator changes all that. This part involves Callie running around a lot between places Helena wants her to see, so there are a few infodumps here and there. I feel like we, as readers, already knew most of the stuff Callie is learning (Helena tells Callie everything right at the beginning, but Callie is obtuse, as mentioned above). I also feel like the Enders are remarkably cruel and self-involved. All they seem to care about is “looking young again,” which is so weird in a post-apocalyptic environment.

The plot finally speeds up around the three-quarter mark, and it was interesting. It held my attention for the last of it, though I feel like I knew what would happen. There wasn’t much action, just a lot of talking and altering of digital videos. Callie manages to find help wherever she goes, it seems. As for the romance, I normally like it when relationships take a back seat to plot, but this one just feels tacked on. Callie and Michael go nowhere (as expected) and Blake disappears for most of the last third of the book. I did not care at all about who Callie got together with, so I sort of shrugged all that off. What happened at the very end with Blake was super gross though (in my opinion) and almost ruined the whole thing for me!

So, in the end, I’m not sure how different this dystopia is from others, shoddy science included, but it was interesting and entertaining. Callie isn’t too dumb to live, thankfully, and the story is okay. If you like dystopia, this one isn’t boring or slow, so there’s that going for it. I’d check it out when it’s published in a few weeks!

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Cinder by Marissa Meyer

December 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl…Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review
I’ll be real.  When I first opened this book, I was like, “oh no, more steampunk!”  As you know, I am one of those unenlightened souls who just doesn’t get steampunk, even if I think their outfits can look cool.  Clockwork is awesome, what can I say?  This isn’t really like that, though.  It’s sci-fi, my beloved sci-fi that I haven’t touched since I reviewed Genesis back in July.  Cinder is a Cyborg, not a clockwork woman, and she is the best mechanic in New Beijing.  She has a little android friend named Iko, who helps Cinder out and is super cute. We meet Prince Kai in the very beginning as well, and if this re-telling goes in even a vaguely similar direction to the originals, we’ll see a lot more of him later.  There is a plague, well, plaguing people all over this new world, and an antidote has not yet been found.  In order to speed the process, cyborgs are being drafted for testing of the vaccine under the guise of honor and helping the people who treat them like crap.  The plague takes Cinder’s stepsister, Peony, the only friendly human in Cinder’s house.

And then Cinder’s stepmother sells her for plague testing.  She fights, but she does not win.  This part is really sad.  Cinder does not want to volunteer, and fights back.  She, and everyone else in the house, knows that those who volunteer for plague testing do not come back.  She is taken away by force.  The next time we see her, she is in a medical lab being injected with the virus.  The doctor examining her is creepy and weird, but he notices some anomalies in Cinder’s cyborg body.  Cinder is immune to the plague, and perhaps her blood can be used to make an antidote.  It’s all very Claire from Heroes, but I liked it.  It worked.  Cinder is allowed an illusion of freedom as long as she returns without a fuss to allow more tests.

So this book seems serious, but it can be funny as well.  When Prince Kai is interacting with his dying father, he suggests ordering the Emperor an escort droid, and Cinder makes jokes about her operation to Dr. Creepy and Weird.  There are also interesting, and supposedly evil, people from the Lunar society who work magic.  The Lunar Queen supposedly killed not only her husband, but her sister and her sister’s daughter so that no one could take the throne from her.  Rumors swirl that the princess, Selene, is still alive somewhere.  The Earthens do not like the Lunars, despite knowing little to nothing about them, because they do seem to be right about evil Queen Levana.  I liked the Lunars right off, but this is the girl who rooted for Gollum to kill Frodo, so maybe I’m not the best judge of character.

My favorite thing about fairytale re-tellings is how versatile they can be.  I can pick out two other Cinderella re-tellings (Ash by Malinda Lo and The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines) that I just love but are worlds apart from this book and from each other.  I watched Disney’s Cinderella so many times I ruined the tape.  I think it might be my favorite of the fairytales.  Adding a sci-fi element is something I’ve seen done with Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, but this is new.  Cinderella is a cyborg!  The Prince has a real name that isn’t Charming!  There’s a big mystery (that I figured out at about 38% but still)!  The only thing that bothered me is what bothers me in all YA novels: the heroine never knows that the hero likes her.  She always makes excuses for why he might be trying to hang out with her.  Cinder is no different, but her reasons are better than most.

Things start happening quickly, and Cinder finds herself playing a role in not only the Letumosis vaccination trials, but also in the political arena.  She and Kai grow a little closer, though she hides her cyborg-ness from him.  The Lunar queen is moving in for the kill, and we find out she can glamour a crowd into calmness and acceptance, even love.  Kai is afraid, and Cinder is told to stay away from the queen.  We find out more about Cinder’s past and some of it is sad, yes, but most of it is shocking.  The jokes dropped by Cinder and Iko throughout the book help lighten the atmosphere and even made me laugh out loud a few times.  The ending is bittersweet, however, so prepare yourself for that.

I liked this one a lot, despite little misgivings that I am pretty sure are unique to me.  Of course, I’m now looking forward to the next one, which I shouldn’t even be thinking about yet!  There’s also a little excerpt of a prequel to Cinder up on Tor’s site.  Check this one out after the holidays.  If you like fairytale re-tellings and/or sci-fi, this one will definitely fit the bill.  You won’t regret it!

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Genesis by Bernard Beckett

July 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Genesis by Bernard Beckett
Release Date: April 20, 2009
Source: Personal Copy
Rating:★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
“What does it mean to be human?” The answer lies within the mystery of Genesis. Set in a postapocalyptic future, the novel takes the form of an examination undergone by young Anaximander as she prepares to enter an enigmatic institution known simply as The Academy. For her subject she has chosen the life of the philosopher-soldier Adam Forde, her long-dead hero. It is through Anax’s presentation and her answers to persistent questioning by her examiners that we learn the history of her island Republic, along with the rules and beliefs of their society. At the completion of the examination, when everything has been laid bare, Anax must confront the Republic’s last great secret, her own surprising link to Adam Forde, and the horrifying truth about her world.

Review
Okay, so this book is for real sci-fi, absolutely no romance, and barely any plot, really.  The three Examiners basically have Anaximander recite The Republic’s (complete with Plato) history as part of her examination.  Basically, The Republic is formed just before the world releases “plagues” on each other.  I’m assuming that’s biological warfare, and how Beckett describes gunners shooting refugees in Republic waters is pretty horrific.  The refugees and ships eventually stop showing up, and we learn more about The Republic’s social structure.  What we’re most worried about are the Soldier and the Philosopher classes.

Anaximander is a young girl, and I gauged her to be about fifteen or sixteen.  She is obsessed with Adam Forde, who is seen as a hero for his deeds.  Adam was a womanizer in a time when men and women lived separately, and he’d gotten into a few scrapes while he was a Soldier.  He’d been reassigned to a remote lighthouse (or something) with another Soldier.  They were still ordered to shoot refugees on sight.  A woman in a raft floats up to the fence marking the Republic’s borders, and instead of shooting her, Adam shoots his partner and saves the girl.

It’s clear from the beginning that Anax considers Adam’s choice romantic, and she sees him as a romantic hero.  This view continues even during her recounting of Adam’s punishment.  He had a trial in which he said he saved the girl by listening to his heart.  Instead of killing him, which would have caused a massive uproar, Adam is placed into a room with a robot.  The robot was built by a guy whose name I can’t remember and Adam, being from the Philosopher class, has some high and mighty ideals regarding the sentient minds of machines.  The robot’s name is Art, he has the face of a gorilla, and he acts a bit like a snotty nine-year-old.  Art and Adam fight, both physically and with words.

Anax is asked to show videos/holograms of Adam’s interactions with Art.  The Examiners are increasingly disturbed by her presentation, and when she begins showing Adam accepting Art’s overtures, the Examiners tell her a few awful things about her hero, Adam.

SPOILERS AHEAD

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