The rules have been... ... changed.

I just finished the book Insurgent. The odd part is that the actual title is only brought up once during the book, and towards the end at that. Overall, I liked the story a lot, and if you haven't read the series yet, I recommend that you read it, because I guarantee that if you read it and don't like it, you will not have wasted your time.

Many many posts ago, I talked about unexpected twists and turns in plot, right? I would now like to bring that back to the surface with this book. If you have read Divergent, you know that the giant simulation at the end of the story is a plot twist. Its sequel therefore, could be compared to a winding path, in which you are shrouded in darkness. There are so many places that something expected is left out, or something unexpected just pops up out of nowhere in Insurgent. Here are a few examples:

1. "'Who told me what three factions you had an aptitude for, and what our best chance was to get you to come here, and to but your mother in the last simulation to make it more effective.' She looks through the doorway... and through the haze of drugs, I see him. Caleb." (Roth 357)
2. "...because I just remembered something: Maybe I can't hold a gun. But I have a knife in my back pocket."
3. "'I have a message for the Divergent... This is not a negotiation. It is a warning... Every two days until one of you delivers yourself to the Erudite headquarters, this will happen again.' This.

There is one more potent example of this that will be revealed in the <<<<SPOILER ALERT>>>> at the end of the page. With just these few examples, I doubt that I have given away anything to valuable. If you have read this book, you may know exactly what I mean. If you haven't, read the series... NOW! Otherwise, keep reading, until next time.

<<<<SPOILER ALERT>>>>

Here is the last quote that I would like to share with you. It is housed at the very end of the book. I mean really the very total and complete last page of the book end. Do not read this if you have not read the book, unless you aren't planning to, because I don't want to ruin it for you.

"My name will be Edith Prior," she says. "And there is much I am happy to forget."

If you have read the book, you know the impact of this quote. And I will leave you with that.

A decieving bug...

I know that I have been posting about Behemoth recently, but I kind of finished another book, so that is what I'll post about. The book is called The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson.

 First some explaining. This book is about a girl named Piper, who lives in Scrap town 16, in the meteor fields of Solace. Here is a map depicting solace, and I will reference it along the summary, and recommendation.

Piper, a young girl, has to make a living of of what she finds in the meteor fields. Unfortunately, so does every other "scrapper" as they are called. The meteors often have things in them, which can be put back together. Piper has a special gift, that is later revealed as something much more promising. During one of the meteor storms, Piper leaves the safe zone to find Micah, who is a smaller boy, and snuck out before the storm started. The real trouble happens afterward. Piper finds a girl who survived the meteor storm, but was badly hurt. Somehow she revives the girl (although the dust form the meteors is poisonous, and the girl was out in it probably too long), and finds the mark of the dragonfly. In the book, it says, "The dragonfly tattoos were only given to two groups of people: Aron's advisory council... and those who were under the king's protection." (Johnson 46) This must make the girl very important...

That is only the beginning of the book. If I summarized the entire thing, we would likely have three pages worth of writing, and not a word about my recommendation.

I really liked this book, even though it isn't my typical science fiction type. There was a lot of fast paced action, and much of the book took place on a train, of all places. The lives of the characters are woven together (literally) in a way that I have never seen in any book before. The literally has no meaning until you reach the end of the book, but there are hints dropped earlier, that are hard to pick up on. From the mysterious man, that the girl called "the wolf", to the crew of the 401 (a train running along the track above), this books fast pace, and excellent storyline make for a good read indeed.

Keep reading.

P.S. This is the one and only post on this book. Don't expect anything more on it, unless you want to read it yourself.

It came back!

Last time, I talked about something the two german ships with a certian weapon called a tesla cannon. Well, now our good friends on the leviathan have reached Constantinope, otherwise known as Istanbul. I really would like to post a video, but it has no relevence whatsoever, so I am going to add it as a link at the end of the post.

So now that we are set in the Ottoman Empire, we have found out that the Germans have already basically taken over. We also find out what was in one of the infamous eggs, that have been on the ship since the beginning of the story. The "perspicacious loris" as it is called hatched for Alek (Westerfeld 177). It apparently is very helpful to those who listen, but I can't tell why yet.

Remember those ships I mentioned earlier, they are here too. In fact, they offered themselves as a gift from the Germans to the sultan. This will be hard to beat, but something odd happens at the end of one of the chapters, giveing a very distinct twits to the end...

Will post again soon.

P.S. One of the ironclads is named the Goben. The other remains unnamed.

Tesla^2 Coil^2

I find it funny and ironic using math symbols on an English blog, but that's not important right now. What is important is what has just happened in Behemoth. The Leviathan (whale airship) began the book heading toward the Ottoman Empire, and was over the Mediterranean Sea when two ironclad German ships appeared. And one had a new weapon. The Tesla Cannon.

Many of us know that with a Tesla Coil, it is possible to create lighting without the help of Mother Nature. (Go mankind!) A Tesla Coil may look like this:

The Tesla cannon is displayed in this picture from the book:

 

The result is produced as a Tesla Coil cubed, and made into a devastating weapon. Especially for the WWI time period.

But Marcel, they didn't have this technology at this point in time.

Point taken, but this is steam-punk, a genre that melds futuristic technology with the past. This is only the beginning of the book however, and i think that it is going to become much more intense as the technology becomes better, and we reach Constantinople.

Until then, Keep reading.

Periodic Post of what is going to be Newness

I keep having to adjust the name of this post to accommodate for reasons like not having a book... or the apparent topic of the book. Well, back to the point. The next book that I am going to read is hopefully Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld.

Who knew... another mythical creature is the title of this book. Lets just start with the definition. The dictionary defines 'Behemoth' as "a huge or monstrous creature".

That definition makes this creature in effect, a Behemoth. However, the bible references both the leviathan (sea creature from a couple of posts ago) and the Behemoth, within the same book. I have noticed however, that the Leviathan has a much more solid definition, as it is a sea monster. The Behemoth lies in ambiguity, somewhere between an elephant, and a sauropod. This could have to do with what was going on it the last book, and even what secrets are being spilled


Until next time, I hope to keep reading, and series on!
P.S. Steam-punk is the genre of this book. The melding of the past with the future.