Not a Drop to Drink, by Mindy McGinnis

Lynn has grown up in a world where water is scarce.  She and her mother spend their days defending their home, and their water source.  Outsiders are never to be trusted.  A freak accident changes Lynn's life, and she realizes that there is more than just water to worry about, and that threats come in all shapes and sizes.

This book really caught be off guard, because I did not anticipate how much I would enjoy it.  The setting is sort of a dystopian future, where water is nearly nonexistent, and cholera is killing many people.  That is a pretty grim setting, and is frightening because it could so easily happen.  That is what troubled me the whole time I read the book; it is all so plausible.  With the water shortage, it is almost like the world is reverting to pioneer justice.

I was so intrigued by Lynn as a character.  When we first meet her, she is so hard, and that is the only way of life she knows.  It is kill or be killed.  Slowly we see her soften, and grow, allowing other people into her life, her home, and her heart.  With that vulnerability, there is risk, and she certainly pays the price, but by the end of the book, I truly believe she is glad she did.

The book will appeal to young adult readers.  I especially love that there is a strong, unconventional female protagonist.  All of the female characters in the book are strong, and depicted as being equal to the men.  In fact, the characters are written in a very gender neutral manner, which I found striking; it really enhanced the story, because all the characters were equal in my mind.  

All in all, a solid young adult read.

I received a review copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine program in exchange for my honest review.

The Spiral Arm, by Peter Boland

To say Earth is over crowded is putting it mildly; there is no more space on the planet.  A new planet has been located where humans can live, but a battle is being waged there between humans and an alien race.  Each year new Marine cadets are sent to the new planet, Kepler, to continue the battle.  Wren Harper is about the least likely candidate, yet she finds herself being sent to Kepler, totally unprepared.

I never thought I would be a fan of dystopian fiction, but when it is as well done as this, I really do love it.  The problem with many dystopian writers is that the setting can get a little too bleak.  In this book, the dystopian society is brought about because of abundance; we solve our energy crises, and population skyrockets.  The world is running out of room.  This is a scenario I can actually imagine happening, and therefore I am immediately drawn into the story.  I can imagine what the story world would be like.  I can relate to the characters.

I love that the story focuses on someone most people would consider a loser.  Wren is an underdog, which makes me what to see her succeed.  I think she is a lot stronger than she realizes, and the readers have insight to Wren's power.  I am excited to see where this series will go, and to watch Wren develop as a character.

I liked she short novella format to the book.  It is set up in sort of an episode form.  I think it really translates well.  Young adults will be hooked by the short serial nature, as it mimics many teen dramas on television.  I am a fan of  serial novellas, and am happy to see more of them being written.  I am pretty excited to see where this series will go.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author, in exchange for my honest review.

The Shadow Wars, by Rod Rees

Dystopian life in the Demi-Monde continues, and it continues to degenerate.  Norma Williams is stuck in the Demi-Monde as Aaliz Heydrich replaces her in the real world.  Ella Thomas has slowly become the Messiah, and as her power grows, her baser nature takes over, turning her into a completely different being.  Norma helps lead a resistance movement against Ella.  And it slowly becomes apparent that the Demi-Monde is something much more than just computer simulation.

The action of the first book is ratcheted up a few notches in the second book of the Demi-Monde saga.  So if book one was explosive, this book is Michael Bay-splosive.  Seriously, the word intense does not even begin to cover it.  The Demi-Monde continues to devolve into the very worst aspects of humanity.  I found every minute fascinating.

While I have always been interested in history, I have never actually been a scholar of the subject, so a good many of the real historical characters and concepts are slightly lost on me, which is a real shame; as much admiration as I have for these books, I bet I would have much more if I knew all the references.  However, the writing is incredibly clever and engaging.  I love the many plays on words and the reimagining of many historical figures.

The book is full of action, history, and psychological thrills, so it will appeal to fans of many genres.  Throw in some dystopia and paranormal aspects, and you have appealed to a wide variety of readers.  Personally, I cannot wait to see where this series goes next.

I received a review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.  See the rest of the tour here.

  

The Demi-Monde, by Rod Rees

The Demi-Monde is a sophisticated computer program created by the US Military for training purposes.  In this virtual world, major historical figures, many of them evil, reside in a truncated version of the world, in the worst possible combinations of social, political, and economic conditions.  However, it has been discovered that if a real world person enters the Demi-Monde and dies there, they die in real life as well.  This has recently become a problem, as the daughter of the President of the United States has been lured into the Demi-Monde.  Will the she get saved in time?

This book is, in a word, explosive.  I was intimidated, at first, that this book would be to difficult for me to follow.  I sometimes struggle with technological dramas and action packed stories, because I cannot follow the line of the action.  Not so in this story.  The author has done such a superb job in creating this alternate, virtual reality of the Demi-Monde, including maps laying out the different territories.  The story mostly consists within this virtual world, and it has been brilliantly, and vividly created.  I had absolutely no difficulty imagining it in my mind.

Similarly, the characters in the book, particularly the personalities residing in the Demi-Monde, are frighteningly realistic.  The figures based on real historical figures were most striking to me, particularly the psychopathic "singularities".  There is a tremendous amount of word play involved in the naming of the territories, ethnic groups, religions, and philosophies that make up the Demi-Monde, and it is all wonderfully clever.  

The book is a dense read, full of nonstop action and many plot twists and turns.  There were times it was so intense, I had to walk away for a few moments, yet I found myself pulled back.  While not totally dystopian in nature, it will certainly appeal to fans of that genre, as well as those who enjoy technological thrillers.

I received a review copy of the book courtesy of TLC Book Tours.  See the entire tour off books from this series here.

  

Of Time and Place, by B.R. Freemont

James lives in a future where the country has undergone a major energy crisis, and life is much different from today.  He spends many years working close to Washington policy makers to influence the way the crisis is handled, and spends a significant amount of time searching for meaning in his own life.  He spends time forming a lasting relationship with his former boss, and even more time seeking real love from various women.

Let me start by saying that for readers interested in economics, energy usage, and quasi dystopian futuristic literature, this book is probably a grand slam.  In the parameters of those genres, this book is well written.  And in general, I think that the author's writing style shows real talent and considerable promise.  However, this book just failed to hook me.

At over 500 pages, this book could use some trimming.  For example,  at one point the male protagonist goes on at length, for many pages, reciting a lecture he plans to give to a college class.  I saw absolutely no point to having this lecture, verbatim, in the story.  In fact, I felt that the entire scene did little, if anything, to advance the story.  Similarly, there are a lot of sex scenes in the book that seem unnecessary.  Now, I am no prude, but sex for sex sake does not need to happen in a book of this length.  The sex scenes should, but rarely do, have a significant impact on the story.  Instead, it makes the protagonist seem like a sleaze, and made him very unlikable to me.

I did not care for the main character.  I found him cold, particularly concerning the disappearance of his wife and child.  His story carries out on two timelines simultaneously, and while that method was carried out in a clear manner, I found very little of the action of the one timeline tying into the story of the second timeline in most cases, so it made the transitions seem a little forced, instead of flowing smoothly.

I think that this was an ok book, that has the potential to be a great book, if only some of the subplot was removed and the focus narrowed.  Better yet, get rid of the simultaneous timelines, and make this a series about James' life.  The heart of the story was fine, there was just too much extraneous noise for my taste.  

I received a review copy courtesy of Tribute Book Tours.  See the rest of the tour here.

Shadow Show, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle

Every now and then, an author comes along whose impact is tremendous, whose mark on the face of modern literature is indelible.  Such is the case with Ray Bradbury.  The name alone conjures up iconic images of post Apocalyptic book burnings and rocket ships.  Bradbury's genius touched many, including some writers who are brilliant in their own rights.  This book is a collection of short stories inspired by and celebrating the works of a truly incredible man.

Having not really spent much time with Bradbury's works (a pitiful situation I hope to change soon), I was a bit nervous to read this book.  Would it be all Martians and robots?  Would I fully appreciate the impact of the stories?  In short would I "get it"?  Imagine my surprise when I not only "got it" but felt the desire to immediately read everything Bradbury had ever written.  This book is brilliant, and I desperately want to learn more about the man who inspired such brilliance.

As with any short story collection, some stories were more my style than others.  In a book full of stories by well know writers, the two that stuck out to me were the book's opener, "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury" by the incredible Neil Gaiman, and the beautifully melancholic "Children of the Bedtime Machine" by Robert McCammon.  Something about these two stories, in particular, struck at the very heart of my humanity, at the depths to which I love literature.  

There was not a single bad story in this book.  Bradbury recently passed away, but he knew this collection was being done, and even wrote a short introduction for it.  I cannot imagine the pride with which he is now looking down, seeing the lasting impact he will forever have on American Literature.  I am so thankful to have said yes to this book, and to have a newly sparked appreciation for a truly gifted writer.

I received a review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours.  See the rest of the tour here. 

 

The End of Marking Time, by C.J. West

Michael is a highly skilled man. Skilled at burglary and various crimes. But, eventually, the law catches up with him, all while he lie sleeping. He wakes from a coma to learn that the justice system has completely changed, and his life will never be the same. Their are steps Michael must complete in order to completely re-enter society, and he has a difficult time following the rules. Will he be able to change in time to save his own life?

I found the premise of this book fascinating, and not all that difficult to imagine. I think that a scenario like this, involving a total rehaul of the penal system, is entirely plausible. In Michael, we see a character who really has to go through a rebirth of sorts. Not only has everything changed, but to him (having been in a coma) the change seems as if overnight. While everyone else has had time to adjust, Michael is in do or die mode, and it makes for an interesting internal conflict.

There is not a lot of external action in the book, a few conflicts between Michael and other characters. The story more focuses on that internal conflict, so the book has a much more pensive feel than readers might anticipate. I also think that the potentially prophetic nature of the book can make readers a bit squirmy. However, it will appeal to fans of dystopian fiction, and crime fiction, as it artfully blends the two genres.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

Outside, by Shalini Boland

The world in which Riley lives is one quite different from our own, but it is the only one she has known.  The world is in upheaval, and the only way to insure your safety is to stay within the perimeters.  Riley knows this, yet when her sister is murdered and the suspect is not apprehended, she and her neighbor and love interest Luc leave the perimeter in search of justice.  What Riley finds, instead, is a truth to terrible to comprehend.

This book, in no uncertain terms, messed with my head (in a good way).  The setting of a post-apocalyptic world made me shudder to think that it could really end up being that way.  One just never knows.  I really enjoyed the storyworld that the author created, as well as the backstory to explain how things got so globally screwed up.

I really enjoyed the character development as well.  I enjoyed having two stories running parallel, it forced me to pay closer attention, and honestly I never caught on to how the stories were related.  When the truths are revealed at the end of the book, I was surprised, and impressed with how the author molded them together to form the larger overall plot.

Apparently this is the first in a series, and while I am interested to see where the series goes from here, I can safely say this functions quite well as a stand alone novel as well.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

Shatter Me, by Tahera Mafi

Juliette's touch is lethal, a fact she has learned the hard way.  In a split second, an attempt to help a fallen child has turned her into an instrument of death.  Unable to deal with her, Juliette's parents send her away.  Now she is in a prison, where life is even grimmer that it is outside in a totally destroyed world.  But when Juliette learns the truth about her imprisonment and meets up with a familiar face from her childhood, life takes on a different perspective.

If this book and I were in a facebook relationship, our status would be "it's complicated".  I really liked the concept of the story, as well as the character of Juliette, despite her obvious similarities to Rogue from X-Men.  I really saw a lot of potential in this book, but to get to it you really have to wade through a ton of drama.  So. much. drama.  I felt like I was reading the diary of a 12 year old girl.

The writer's style is most certainly unique, and quite powerful when properly harnessed, but oh my word, the metaphors used are just too much.  About 100 pages into the book, I felt like things calmed down a little.  Whether this was due to me just getting used to all the dramatics, or whether this is because the writer's power was more appropriately channeled I honestly cannot say.  All I know is, the first part of the book was a bit exhausting, but once I got into it, I really liked the story, and the romance of the situation.

The whole concept of dystopian fiction has actually grown on me since reading a few books with dystopian or post apocalyptic themes.  And I think this book does dystopia quite well.  Once I got to the part of the book where more action took place, I seemed to like it a lot better.

At the end of the day, I still say I liked the book quite well.  Do I love it?  Not quite, but it was entertaining and provided me with a good night's entertainment.  Still, I am not ready to make our relationship committed, and I will still be looking for better dystopian fiction with which I have more in common.

I received this as part of the Amazon Vine program.

Dearly, Departed, by Lia Habel

Welcome to life in New Victoria.  It is 2195, and the world is not at all what people imagined.  People have settled into new places, adopted neo-Victorian ideals, and are at war with the subversive Punks.  And if that was not bad enough, it turns out the government and military have been covering up the fact that zombies exist.  Nora is on school holiday when she confronts this reality face to undead face, and now is trying to figure out how some of the zombies can be good guys, and some can be bad guys.  And more importantly, can she possibly find herself falling for a zombie?

Futuristic dystopian teenage steampunk zombies in love.  Really?  You say it out loud and it sounds ridiculous.  And yet, I completely loved this book.  Who would have thought?  This is my first foray into anything remotely steampunk, and I am intrigued to say the least.  I love the world that Habel has created in this book, a poetic blend of the future and the past, in terms of ideals and philosophies.  One of my favorite scenes in the book talks about a computer than runs on steam energy.  It seems to me that the book may have started out almost satirical, and somehow took on a life of its own as a legitimate, engaging piece of fiction.

Let's talk about the vivid language and imagery in the book.  I saw this book play in my head like a movie.  I thought it was really clever, and I loved that I was completely transported to this neo-Victorian era.  And character development?  Wow, off the charts.  I can only imagine how hard it is to make zombies sexy, what with all the putrescence and brain chomping.  Yet that is exactly what Habel does.  She breathes new life into the idea of zombies, puts a creative spin on the monster creating a hierarchy of zombiism, and somehow makes the undead antihero of the book really sexy and romantic.  Hard to imagine, and one of the numerous reasons you need to read the book for yourself.

In the realm of monsters, I always fancied myself a vamp fan, with my fandom of weres being secondary, my fandom of zombies tertiary, and my fandom of mummies nonexistent.  But this book could movie zombies up to tie for my number one favorite monster, particularly if its sequel is equally fantastic.     

So, yeah, futuristic dystopian teenage steampunk zombies in love.  It totally worked.

I received a review copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.

Kiss Me, Stranger, by Rob Tanner

No name is ever given for the country in which she resides, nor is her name ever revealed,  but the narrator of this story talks about her life as a mother and wife in a time when it seems the world is going to end.  Turmoil is the state in which they live.  Her husband and son have gone off to fight, but who knows which side they are fighting for, or which side is the right side.  Will this family ever feel normal again?

I have never been one to read much, ok, any, dystopian fiction, so I am not sure if this book is representative of the genre.  What I am sure of is that this book is totally bizarre, and in my opinion defies most rules of writing.  The setting is never really set, the characters are never really developed, and the plot only sort of exists.

The book is described as an illustrated novel, and I find this to be a grave misnomer.  The illustrations look like childish scribbles, and do not really add anything to the experience of the book.  It reads more like a stream of consciousness exercise than an actual novel, though there is at least some resolution at the end of the book.

I think maybe I just did not "get" this book, because it has a lot of great reviews out there.  But to me, it seemed as if this book was just trying too hard to be bold and artistic, to make a statement.  The only statement I got from this book was "you get what you pay for", since I got it as a free download.


This book is from my personal library.