Review: Ark - Stephen Baxter

Rating: 2
Husband: Didn't Read
Got it: Second Hand Bookstore
Price: $3.50
Finished it: last month


Synopsys:
Hundreds will live, six billion will die.

Our world ended in 2052, the year the last great flood finally overwhelmed the lands.

A desperate bid for survival began in America, in the years before the end. The project which could be our final act could also be an impossible dream: creating a starship to take a few hundred survivors on an epic journey to a new world.

As the waters rise, as savage wars are fought over the remaining high ground, the work goes on. Those who will live, of the billions who will die, are chosen. Families are torn apart and the resources of our drowning world are marshalled for one last gamble.

Ark is the story of three women, Grace, Venus and Holle, and their part in humanity's struggle to reach a new home. For the few survivors, the day of the launch will be only the beginning of the nightmare

Review:

I was sadly disappointed in this book. I really like the idea, but I had to force myself to read this one. It really should be rated a 1, but I pushed hard to get through because there were some pretty interesting concepts that could have been fully flushed out. Sadly, not many of them did.

The end of the world is here, water is creeping up inch by inch and there is only going to be a few ways that people can survive. This book focuses on the people/children that get sent up into space to re-populate a new planet and carry on the human race.

I don't know where to really begin, but every awesome idea that peeked my interest, was never fully explored. I found the lack of discipline by the chosen/trained survivors to be annoying. WHO would train their whole life to become the first idiot jerk in space and knowingly FUBAR the mission when your lives totally depend on it, not to mention the entire human race? Forget all the science and calculations on how long to get there, resources on ship for the number of people etc.

Also, if we could make faster than light space travel that could sustain life in a vacuum for 45 years, then I think maybe they could have made a floating city that would have been able to manage to keep people on earth alive a little better then a "giant submarine with only 100 people on it".

Anyway, there are enough thought provoking ideas in the book that it’s going to get a 2, but really it should be a 1. I skimmed many a chapter. I cursed at many a chapter. If you like space exploration, coupled with extreme human drama, the second half of this book is for you. If you like post apocalyptic human drama as resources become more and more scarce, then the first half of this book is for you.

Review: The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Stephen King

Rating: 4

Husband: loved it

Found it: SHBS

Price: $1.50

Finished it: early 2012

Synopsys:

It tells the story of the gunslinger, Roland of Gilead, and his quest to catch the man in black, the first of many steps towards his ultimate destination - the Dark Tower.

Review: 

I had read these story when I was much younger and had really forgotten what it was all about and never did complete the series, which I am in the middle of now.  Stephen Kings writing in this is gritty, dirty, and desperate. I can taste the sand between my teeth while reading this.

If the first line in this book doesn't just grab you by the neck and make you want to read more, I don't know what will.

"The man in black fled accross the desert, and the Gunsligner followed".

Fraking beautiful.

Review: Living with the Dead, Year One - Joshua Guess

Rating: 4
Husband: Loved it
Got it: Kindle
Price: $5.99
Finished it: last month

Synopsys:
(Comprised of Book I and Book II already available on Kindle) Living With the Dead - Year One is a serialized story of everyday life at the beginning of and during the zombie apocalypse. Its original format was and is an almost daily blog.

Told in the author's own voice, LWtD is the story of a group of survivors in central Kentucky, working to stay alive amid the violence and chaos of a crumbling civilization. Faced with threats and challenges that tax their endurance and force them to make terrible choices, the story follows the survivors day to day.

From the viewpoint of one man and his friends, the answer to the question of what people will become when the rules no longer apply begins to emerge. For some, it is violent conflict.

For others who only want to live in peace, this is a journey toward understanding that in a world of the dead, the only choice is to truly live.

Review:
This was awesome.  The "book" is done blog style, including typos and all - as the author Joshua Guess explains - to make it seem more real. 

This is also a real time blog, (http://www.livingwiththedead.net/) that you can follow daily as well, so, should you be a dedicated blog reader, you really don't have to buy anything. You can just got and start at post 1 on the blog and go on through. However, I liked the story, I want to support self pub'ed as much as possible, and I LOVE zombie stuff, so we bought it.

I really enjoyed the time lapse, the urgency, and the how the characters adapted and changed through the different circumstances they were challenged with.  I do enjoy reading blogs, and this fit in well with that.  It was snapshots, sometimes cliff-hangers, sometimes long and rambling, but all in all, well thought out for what could possibly happen should there be a zombie outbreak and the world as we know it go bye-bye, and there is still the interwebs to write about it.

I really enjoyed the description of the zombie mutation, I liked the twists that it held later on. It kept it more fresh in terms of out-thinking "mindless" zombies.   There were the occational times where I was brought out of the story by some continuity stuff, and a few times I didn't think that the activity matched the time stamp (farming times, etc), but all in all a wonderful entertaining and great peek into the lives of surivors.

If you like blogs and zombies (and who doesn't.... do you hate bacon too?), the give this book a shot.

Review: Divergent - Veronica Roth

Rating: 2.5
Husband: didn't read
Got it: Airport Retail
Price: $15.99
Finished: last month

Synopsys:
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Review:
I was disappointed in this read. The premise was interesting, I liked the division of the society into factions, but it felt like it was done for the sake of making the society interesting, not really adding any value.  Each faction seemed to hate the others. So how did it function then? Where were the lessons learned from pre-apocalypse that would make the factions needed.  Wouldn't each faction appreciate the sacrifices of the others?  It ended up as a distraction to me through the book.

The idea is that everyone HAS TO act a certain way, i.e. that they were born to a faction and must act like that faction seemed silly. Then letting people choose to be something else at 16. Duh, who wouldn't at 16?! I would've gone to live with bears in the forest at 16 to get away from my parents. 

Also, The Divergent was supposed to be special, but to me, every character in the book only "acting" like their chosen factions attributes and not actually like that.  Which could be argued as the point of the book, I suppose. For me, it just clouded into a murky "what the hell".   I found it hard to believe that this society was any more successful then the collapsed one, once again, I suppose that could be the point?  Everyone was "playing" at being like this characteristic, but no one really was. Messy.

I also didn't get a clear picture of what the brave class was all about. What were they defending against. Not once was there any idea to what caused this faction to be needed.  There were some fences, and that was all.  Irritating.

The romance and character development of Tris was solid, and I liked how she worked. She was smart, steady and strong without being a superhuman. She was a great character, in fact she is the only reason that I liked the book, so its getting a 2.5 instead of a 2.

I know this is a series, but I don't have enough interest in book one, to bother to read on.

Review: Maze Runner - James Dashner

Rating: 2
Husband: Didn't finish (but I made him start so that I could get validation on my thoughts, which he did)
Got it: Airport Retail
Price: 14.99
Finished: late 2011 

Synopsys:
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Review:
Hated it.

I really had to force myself to finish. Every new scene made me think "what? why?".  Why why why why why?  and stuff like, "that stupid" and "who would do that?" etc etc ad nausium.  It was a poor mans Hunger Games without the excellent background, characters and well... everything else.

I actually turn my head when I see the sequel in stores. 

This book was a resounding disappointment. None of the characters lived up to their selection for "the maze". The whole thing seems really contrived, disjointed, and unappealing to me.

Teens and kids should be given a better ending then, "its a real life video game to solve the worlds problems".  If you want your kid to read something like that, run out now and get them a copy of Enders Game.  Now that a great boy-centric, solve earths problems kind of book that a tween/teen/YA should read.

Note: I have also read reviews from people that say this is one of their favorite books.  *shrug*.  This is my review, and my opinion. I guess I can't like them all.

Review: Robopocalypse - by Daniel H. Wilson (PhD)

Rating: 5
Husband: Loved it
Where I got it: Second Hand bookstore
Price: $6.99
Finished: Recently

Synopsys:

They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they're coming for you. In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter's menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a 'pacification unit' go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late. When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

My Review:

A friend recommended this book to me, and I had been long looking at it on the shelves reading the back cover over and over, but the price put me off and I always put it back.   I finally found it at the local second hand bookstore for the excellent price of $6.99 and snapped it up!

First off, I'm sad that I waited this long. It was worth the cover price at the bookstore, and it would have been an excellent "airplane read" for me.  I couldn't put it down. I bought it on a Saturday afternoon and I finished it on Monday night at 1:30am.

It is very much in the style of World War Z (one of my favorite books ever!! <3 me some zombie), with shortish chapers focusing on individual stories.  However, these chapters really start to blend together as the individual charaters start to converge later in the book.

The Husband loved it, I loved it.  If you like dystopic/post apocolypse fiction - I say give it a read!