Tuesday, September 24, 2013

I need a book.

Quick! Somebody help me! I have no book right now, and I need sugestions. Here is a list of things that I like. Feel free to recomend any thing. Ignore the goodreads widget that tells what I want to read. I need something to read now.

I like:
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Novels with long titles.
  • Series
  • other books that have interesting names.
If you can, please reccomend something by telling the name of the book, author, and giving a short review. Anything goes. You can do this any time. I will be checking this post, and maybe reposting it throughout the year. Keep reading☺.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Androids with a Side of Aliens

Everyone loves some good Science Fiction, no?
My most recent book, Feedback turned out to be as good as I thought it was going to be. So I am now in the mood to give a report on how it turned out. There were parts that I didn't like as much, as there are in most books, but overall, it was a great read.

Robinson Wells crafted this book in a very unique way that continues his first book, Variant. If you haven't read that one, you can't read this one. The story is full of discovery, and Benson and Becky know exactly where to find things out. The little town that they could see from the third floor windows of the Maxfield Academy. The town is filled with people with implants. What?! For those who want to read these books, I'm trying not t reveal too much information about what is in this town. It would ruin the story otherwise ☺.

There is always a way to escape, no one knows it though. The kids with implants can't leave town, and there is seemingly no way out of it either. So when Becky is kidnapped to go back to the academy, Benson leads a head on assault against it. In other words, he goes back and tries to save her, and then tells the rest of the people at the town to get underground where they can't be tracked.

That is the least of his worries when he gets trapped.

I loved this book, but I am warning you, you have to read it's counterpart for it to all make sense. The story seems to hurtle you through a series of events. It's fast paced and exciting. If you want to know just how exciting I think it is, then you will have to read it yourself.


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Periodic Post of Newness/A Series of Several Events

I have recently started the book entitled: Feedback. This book is a sequel to a book called Variant which I have also posted about. I figure: why not combine two posts into one? I am halfway through the book already. Variant left me with a cliffhanger, and I just had to find out. You can read both reviews at these links, but please, read my post first, then try the book for yourself. Feedback Variant .

I had and still have high expectations for this book. Benson Fisher is back in his adventure, and (Spoiler alert: if you don't want to find out the end of Variant, or are reading it now, skip this paragraph) finds out that the androids were conected to humans. How odd. The campfires were actually coming from another compound, parallel to the Maxfield Acadamy. The story continues nicely until he finds out even more about the acadamy, and how it works. People from book one are reintroduced as human, and Becky, Benson's girlfriend is kidnapped by the acadamy to get a dreaded implant... scary music plays in background. What will happen next? I'll have to tell you later cause I'm not finished.

Feedback, being a sequel to another book, has to follow a logical series of events that happens after the events in Varient. Each and every new event has a new twist on the original plot. However, the main theme is still to escape Maxfield into the real world. They seem to be testing new, super-human androids, that can still interact in the real world. But only teenagers. Why teenagers? I guess I'll have to just keep reading. To all of my fellow readers out there: Keep reading, and see what happens.

Monday, September 16, 2013

I Feel For You

It is time to talk about character's feelings. We all know that characters have feelings toward other characters in books, and we also know that that affects the story. Love stories have different feelings in them than books that are all action all of the time. The Warrior Heir does a great job of interweaving the feelings of characters.

Several of the main characters are introduced towards the beginning of the book, each with separate feelings toward each other. The main character, Jack Downey is one of the most fully developed characters. He is followed by his aunt, Linda, Mr. Hastings, the assistant principal at his school, and some other friends, like Will, and Fitch.

Jack's thoughts about each of the other characters reveal traits about them. For instance, when he finds out that his aunt is what is known as an Enchanter, and what her power is, he realizes how manipulative Linda is. That was only one of her many character traits. Mr. Hastings helped Jack train to become the warrior that he was. He was revealed to be a leader/boss. The book even said that he liked to be in control of most situations.

As well as these two, other characters are introduced and characterized throughout the book, creating more people to keep track of as the story progresses.

I really liked the book because of the characters. There are even more things to like about it. You just have to find out for yourself.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

When in doubt, use magical sword.

Thus begins the update on the Warrior Heir.

Since the book has begun, the main character, Jack, has done many things. Some inside, and some outside of his town. Lets see what each of these things are, and how they affect the storyline.

  1. Soccer tryouts: Seemingly normal, no? WRONG! After forgetting to take his medicine before school, Jack becomes more powerful than before. He goes to soccer practice, and does very well. Unfortunately, he also looses some sort of power on another character, Garrett Lobeck. This flat character (who was "rolled flat" at tryouts) has come up a couple of times since then.
    2.   Grave Digging: An aunt (Aunt Linda) takes Jack to a town north of where he lives for some genealogy work. Later, a wizard attacks him while digging up a sword called shadowslayer. Somebody has some explaining to do...

    3.   Training with Assistant Principal: Simply as said. Training in magical arts of swordsmanship with the Assistant Principal of the School he goes to. This character also happens to be a wizard.

All of these events are leading up to something big, and I am just waiting to uncover them.
Will update soon.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Periodic Post of Newness

A new invention, courtousy of me, will now allow you to find out what I am reading. Presenting: The periodic post of newness :) .

These posts are only pereodic, and will only be posted when I start a new book. They will also provide a description of what it is like so far.

The new book is: The Warrior Heir. This book is interesting because it features wizards, wariors, and other interesting people. However, it is set in present day time, and is not probably what I think it is going to be. I am reading it anyway. I hope post a review later.

Check it out in the Mason Public Library. Link

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Why Yes, I would like to know where I am...

Some books allow you to find out what the setting is using discreet details that would otherwise make no sense. In the book Divergent, this is what the author does. In other words, you don't know where you actually are until you've been reading for a while. Then it all suddenly makes sense.

Divergent gives you a distinct setting at the very begining of the story. This is an abandoned city, with factions in it. Using details from the text, you can gradually figure out that the city is actually Chicago in the future. You also have to have a background knowledge of Chicago to know that it is the city being described.

As I said before, the setting is revealed using discrete details. There are several of these, but missed the first few, and had to go back and figure out how they came into the story. The first cue that this is set in Chicago: trains that run above the streets. In today's world, they are called els. The second cue is the huge marsh. Things can change over time, and since this book is set in the future, I am predicting that Lake Michigan actually becomes the marsh in this book. Cue numero tres: there is a chasm in which a waterfall is falling into. There are two rivers in Chicago that could be falling into it, fed by the marsh/lake Michigan. The fourth and final cue (which is what I found out the actual setting from) is the John Hancock building, one of the tallest buildings in Chicago. The Willis tower was also hinted at (which I just realized as I was writing this).

Putting all of these details together allowed me to understand where the book was actually stationed, and also to pick up on details that I may have missed later in the book, like Millenium Park, The Bean, and some other great places that I have visited.

You can even compare pictures of the fron cover of the book, and the Chicago skyline to see how similar they actually look.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Twist Behind it All

Today's twist: The internet on my computer is back up unexpectedly:)
This makes me want to talk about plot.

The book Variant has a huge twist at the very end, making you have to read the next book to find out what is really going on within the text.

The book starts when Benson Fisher gets a scholership to the Maxfield Acadamy. The seemingly normal school is in New Mexico, and is surrounded by first, a wall, then a razor-wire fence. Why would a boarding school need this kind of thing? Because they want to keep the students in. For some strange reason, they want all the students, each of whom who has no family or friends, to stay within the school grounds.

The plot quickly blossoms into a full blown mess when Benson figures out that there are no teachers via Becky, the receptionist/leader of orientation. From her, he also finds out that there are cameras and mics in each room, but not outside. There are also doors that automatically lock, and supply elevators that are in each room, filled in the morning with that day's needs. This all seems very fishy.

Throughout the story Benson finds out more and more startling details about the Maxfield Acadamy. One of them being that there are androids among the people there. The school, obviously not wanting anyone else to know, gives him whatever he wants. Still, he eventually shows everyone that there are robots, and very nearly gets sent to the dreaded detention.

Towards the end, he escapes, and then, the final twist...
Here is a book trailer. Enjoy.