science fiction

The Phoenix Files by Chris Morphew

/ zackids / Leave a comment

The fifth book in Chris Morphew’s brilliant Phoenix Files series, Fallout, is released in NZ this month.  To celebrate I want to highlight this great series by posting my review of the first book in the series, Arrival, my review of the latest book, Fallout, and an interview that I did with Chris Morphew last year when he came to NZ for the Storylines Family Day.  If you haven’t already discovered this series you should go and grab copies of them now, especially if you’re a fan of Michael Grant’s Gone series.

 

What would you do if you found out there were only 100 days until the end of the world?

When Luke and his mum move to the town of Phoenix, out in the middle of nowhere, Luke knows straight away that something isn’t quite right about the place.  There are no cars, no phones and no internet.  All the houses look the same and the only way to get around the town is to walk or bike.  The town was especially built by the Shackleton Cooperative, the mysterious company that offered Luke’s mum a job, and their security officers roam the streets.  A coded message brings Luke together with Peter and Jordan, and when they decipher the message they realise they’re in serious danger.  Someone is plotting to wipe out the human race in 100 days and Phoenix suddenly becomes the safest and most dangerous place on earth.  When Luke discovers a note in his backpack inviting them to a secret meeting at the Phoenix Airport, they hope that they’ll get some answers.  However, their meeting at the airport gives them more questions than answers and as they hunt for information about Phoenix and the deadly plans, the more dangerous it becomes for them in the town.

Arrival is the first book in the action-packed, heart-stopping Phoenix Files series.  It’s one of those books that you just have to keep reading to find out what happens.  It grabs you from the very first page and doesn’t let you go until the end.  You’re left with lots of unanswered questions about Phoenix and the Shackleton Cooperative, but this just makes you want to go and pick up the next book straight away.  Luckily there are 5 books already released in this 6 book series.  The Phoenix Files are perfect for those who like mystery, adventure and suspense, or books about secret agencies and the end of the world.  If you like Michael Grant’s Gone series, then you’ll love The Phoenix Files.  Recommended for 12+    10 out of 10

Fear by Michael Grant

/ zackids / 1 Comment

Michael Grant is one of my favourite authors because you never quite know what to expect when you start his latest book.    I know for sure that it’s going to be violent, probably disturbing and like no other young adult book around, but I never know what he’s going to throw at me.  Fear is the fifth book in his brilliant Gone series and there were times while reading it that I thought ‘where did that come from?’ or ‘what the hell is going on?’  Some authors may be running out of steam by the fifth book in a series (especially one as full-on as this one) but Michael Grant is still surprising me and making the situation even worse for the kids of the FAYZ.

Night is falling in the FAYZ. Permanently.  The barrier that surrounds the town of Perdido Beach is turning black, blotting out the sun and plunging its inhabitants into perpetual gloom.

And as the shadows deepen, the Darkness stirs.  From its lair beneath the earth, the gaiaphage reaches out for what it needs most – a human body into which it can be reborn…

Michael Grant drops you right back into the FAYZ in Fear and if you’d forgotten how bad things were he quickly reminds you.  Each of the camps are coping in their own ways and things have been relatively trouble-free for a while.  That is until certain characters make a reappearance and a darkness starts creeping up the side of the dome.  As in other books in the series, characters who seemed minor come into their own, especially Penny who totally loses it (her sanity that is).  The storylines of the gaiaphage and Little Pete get even weirder and in some parts I had no idea what was going on.  Michael Grant has an incredibly dark and twisted mind and he keeps coming up with new ways to creep his readers out and inflict torture on the kids of the FAYZ.  Because this book is called Fear Michael makes his characters face their fears, often using Penny as the tool for this.  One of my favourite things about this book was seeing what was going on outside the dome.  I’ve always wondered how the people outside were dealing with the dome and how the families were coping.  We do get a few questions answered about the FAYZ but hopefully the final book, Light, will tie up the loose ends.  It’s hard to believe that, in a year, we’ll be saying goodbye to Sam, Astrid, Edilio, Quinn and all the other kids of the FAYZ.

5 out of 5 stars

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

/ zackids / Leave a comment

One thing I really love about the Young Adult books that are being published at the moment is the amount of great science fiction stories.  Whether it’s the paranormal, like Andrew Hammond’s CRYPT series and Will Hill’s Department 19 or set in outer space, like Beth Revis’ Across the Universe and Philip Webb’s Six Days, these stories grab me and don’t let me go until the very last page.  Johan Harstad’s new book, 172 Hours on the Moon is one of these stories.

Set in 2019, it’s the story of 3 lucky teenagers who are chosen from millions of others around the world to be the first teenagers to travel to the moon.  A worldwide lottery is announced to find the 3 teenagers and it’s Mia from Norway, Antoine from France, and Midori from Japan who are chosen for this once in a lifetime experience.  In the first few chapters we find out who they are and what their life is like in their countries.  Each of them want to escape their lives and the moon mission gives them that chance.  They know that once they return from the moon, they will live very different lives.  Before they leave for their training, each of them experience some strange events that make them questions whether they should be going to the moon.  After their weeks of training they say goodbye to their families and leave for the moon.  You know that things are going to go wrong and sure enough, they do.  From the moment they land on the moon a series of strange events occur, and soon they find themselves fighting for their lives, millions of miles from home.

172 Hours on the Moon had me hooked from the blurb ‘Three of them will go on the trip of a lifetime.  Only one will come back.’  Johan’s story was originally published in his native Norwegian and Tara F. Chace has translated it well, capturing the fear and claustrophobia of the moon perfectly.  You know as soon as you start the story that everything is going to go horribly wrong, but you have to find out how and why.  The suspense keeps you reading and I found it really difficult to put the book down even to make a cup of tea.  The teenage characters were very real and I was really hoping they’d make it home (even though I just knew they wouldn’t).  I loved the way the author held back certain details about the true nature of the mission and revealed these slowly throughout the story.  One of the adult characters would reveal some details, but wouldn’t tell the teenagers the whole truth, which makes you keep reading to find out the truth.  Johan ends the story with a punch to your guts and leaves you catching your breath, marveling at the story you’ve just read.

4 out of 5 stars

172 Hours on the Moon book trailer

/ zackids / Leave a comment

172 Hours on the Moon is a chilling sci-fi thriller by Norwegian author Johan Harstad.  It’s a creepy, fast-paced read and I spent the whole day yesterday totally engrossed in it.  It’s out in NZ on April 1st and my review will follow soon.

BZRK by Michael Grant

/ zackids / 1 Comment

I often find myself reading books that are quite similar to one another.  I go through stages where I might read a lot of dystopian fiction or horror and they can end up blurring into each other.  But every now and again I read something that is completely different from everything I’ve read before.  It’s those books that stick in my mind and I remember years later.  I still remember being completely unsettled by The Speed of the Dark by Alex Shearer, which I read probably 10 years ago.  When Michael Grant made the claim on Twitter that BZRK is ‘unlike anything you’ve read before’ I believed him because he never fails to deliver an original story.

First of all, I’m not going to tell you much about the story as I think part of the experience of BZRK is figuring out what the hell is going on.  The story follows Sadie and Noah as they are recruited by a global organization called BZRK.  They are at war with another organization called the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation or AFGC.  Each side believes that they are right and that they are saving humanity.  The war is being fought where no-one can see – inside the human body.

BZRK is disturbing, creepy, action-packed and totally addictive.  Like the biots in the story, BZRK will get inside your head and you’ll constantly want to get back to reading it (that is if you don’t read it all in one go).  No-one writes quite like Michael Grant.  He’s given us a glance inside his dark and disturbing mind with the Gone series (which is one of my favourite series) but BZRK takes it to another level.  Trust me, you will never look at the human body quite the same again after reading this book.  BZRK has the right mix of action, violence, creepiness, and fast-paced writing that makes it a great guys read.  You should hand this book to any teenage male who is a reluctant reader and I guarantee it will hook them in and make them want to pick up anything by Michael Grant.  I will eagerly await the second book in this new series, but in the mean time, I’ll be reading the 5th book in the Gone series, Fear which is due out in April.

5 out of 5 stars

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

/ zackids / Leave a comment

Beth Revis’ debut book, Across the Universe was one of my favourite books of 2011, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the sequel, A Million Suns.  Being the impatient reader that I am, I couldn’t wait 2 whole months for it to be released in New Zealand so I bought a signed copy from Beth’s local bookstore, Fireside Books and Gifts.  It was definitely worth the wait to find out what happened next on board Godspeed.

I’m not going to say much about the story as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.  At the end of Across the Universe we were left reeling from Elder’s shocking confession and A Million Suns gets straight back into the story.  If you already thought Godspeed was filled with mysteries and lies, then you better think again because everything in Across the Universe was only the tip of the iceberg.  Elder has to take up the leadership of his people and it’s not long before he discovers a terrible truth about the ship.  Amy also uncovers a mystery that Orion left behind for her, a mystery that will give them the answers they need.  If this wasn’t enough to deal with, some of the passengers on the ship start causing trouble and chaos erupts.

I enjoyed A Million Suns even more than Across the Universe.  Beth Revis builds on the world she created in the first book, amps up the action, and deepens the mystery even more.  I really liked the ways that Amy and Elder’s characters developed in this book.  Elder has to deal with the pressure of being the leader of the ship as well as coming to terms with his feelings for Amy, and Amy seems more gutsy.  Elder is determined not to turn into Orion or Eldest, but has to work out how to lead the ship on his terms.  In some ways this series reminds me of Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking Trilogy, particularly in the personalities of Elder and Amy and the development of their characters.  I keep wondering if this is what Viola’s life might have been like before she crashed on New Earth.

There’s plenty of action and mystery in A Million Suns to keep you reading furiously and find out how it ends.  I loved the end of this book and REALLY can’t wait to find out what happens in the final book, Shades of Earth, coming in January 2013.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

/ zackids / 3 Comments

There’s been a bit of a trend in recent years of retelling fairy tales with a modern twist.  Plenty of authors have tried, but few get it right (in my opinion).  So when I read that debut author Marissa Meyer had written a retelling of Cinderella I was a bit skeptical.  However, the more I read about this version of the story, called Cinder, the more I wanted to read it.  In Cinder, Marissa Meyer has taken Cinderella’s story and set it far in the future, years after World War IV, in a world with hover cars, droids, cyborgs, and a devastating plague that is wiping out civilisation.

Cinder is a gifted mechanic in New Beijing.  While she looks like a normal girl, she’s actually a cyborg – part girl, part machine.  She doesn’t remember anything from before her surgery, when she woke up as an eleven year old cyborg.  The only family she knows is the man who adopted her (who died not long afterwards), her cruel step-mother Adri, her step-sisters Peony and Pearl, and her her droid, Iko.  After her ‘father’ died she was left to her step-mother who blames Cinder for his death.  Cinder works all day at her mechanic’s booth in the market, only to pass on anything she makes to her step-mother. It is while she is busy working at her booth one day that the handsome Prince Kai comes to get his droid repaired. Just after the prince leaves, a case of the plague is discovered at the market.  These events lead Cinder’s life to be entwined with Prince Kai’s.

When Cinder’s step-sister, Peony catches the plague and is taken to quarantine, Adri blames Cinder.  She sends her away, against her will, to become part of the cyborg tests to find a cure for the plague.  It is here that she meets Dr Erland, who helps Cinder unlock her past and discover who she really is.  However, the truth is dangerous.  The mysterious Queen Levana of the Lunar People is coming to Earth to meet with Prince Kai, and Dr Erland warns Cinder that Queen Levana must never see her.  But Prince Kai’s droid has revealed secrets to Cinder that she must tell the prince before it is too late.

Marissa Meyer has woven a story that has elements of the original Cinderella fairy tale, while also being unique and breath-taking.  Marissa has introduced us to this plague-stricken world that has risen out of a devastating war.  It is a world filled with androids that are everything from nurses to escorts, humans that have been patched up with mechanical parts to create cyborgs, hover cars that have replaced automobiles, and a race of people that live on the moon and can manipulate humans.

The Lunars were one of the most interesting parts of the story and it seems that they will be central to the other books in the series (Scarlett, Cress, and Winter).  The mystery surrounding them and their bio-electrical powers really hooked me and I want to read the next books in the series to find out more about them.

Both Cinder and Kai are great characters and you really feel for them and the situations that they are forced into.  I thought Kai was very different from the arrogant, Prince Charming character that we’re used to from other fairy tale books.  He is put under a lot of pressure but doesn’t cave under it.  He’s not afraid of Queen Levana and not afraid to stand up for what he believes in.

There’s something for everyone in Cinder – mystery, suspense, science, robots and romance.  I can’t wait for Scarlett in 2013. Thanks Marissa for a great start to 2012!

5 out of 5 stars

Six Days by Philip Webb

/ zackids / Leave a comment

The recent trend in the publishing world of dystopian fiction is one that I am embracing whole-heartily.  I love the way different authors portray our future society, throwing in a corrupt ruler or organisation, a touch of romance and a mystery that their hero has to solve.  The majority of recent dystopian novels are set in America (or what was once America) so it was refreshing to read about a future Britain in Philip Webb’s Six Days.

Cass, her brother Wilbur, and their dad are Scavvs.  They work day in, day out ransacking what’s left of London, looking for a lost relic that no one has ever seen.  London is one of the only cities in the world left standing after the Quark Wars.  The Vlads have taken over control of the city and have forced those still alive to scavenge London to look for the ‘artifact.’  Cass’ brother, Wilbur, believes he knows where the artifact is and he’s determined to find it.  When Cass has to rescue her brother from what was once Big Ben, they meet a mysterious boy who looks nothing like a scav.  Not only is he not a scav, he’s also not of this world, and he knows the truth about the artifact that everyone is looking for.  This artifact has the power to begin and end life on earth and the Vlads will stop at nothing to get hold of it.

Six Days is an original, exciting mix of action, adventure, mystery and science fiction.  While I was reading it I was reminded of a quote from Shrek, ‘Ogres are like onions,’ because Six Days is also like an onion – there are so many layers to the story.  At first it seems like a dystopian story because you’ve got a future society ruled over by the invading Vlads. Then there’s the mystery of the artifact and the race to find it.  There’s also the story of where the artifact has come from and it’s link to the mysterious boy Cass meets in Big Ben.  All of these different parts come together in one incredible story that rockets along.  Cass is a fantastic narrator and will appeal equally to boys and girls (there’s no gushy romance to put guys off).  Philip Webb makes you really care for the characters and that’s what got me so engrossed in the story.  One of the reasons I like Six Days so much was because it’s not the first book in a trilogy, so Philip has packed so much into one book and you finish it satisfied that the story has come to a conclusion.  I can’t wait to see what Philip Webb writes next!

Divergent by Veronica Roth

/ zackids / Leave a comment

Some of my favourite stories are ones that are set in our world, but in the near future.  Divergent by Veronica Roth is one of those stories.  It is set in a society where everyone is separated into 5 different factions or groups; Erudite the Intelligent, Dauntless the Brave, Amity the Peaceful, Candor the Honest, and Abnegation the Selfless.  The main character, Beatrice, belongs to Abnegation, the faction that focus on others rather than themselves.  When you get to a certain age, you have to take a test to find out which faction is the best one for you to spend the rest of your life in.  You have the choice of staying in the faction you were born into or changing to your best-suited faction.  Beatrice’s results in her test means that she could choose from three different factions.

She chooses Dauntless, the faction of the daring and fearless, leaving behind her family and a faction that she can’t return to.  To become Dauntless, Beatrice (Tris, as she now calls herself) must pass the 3 stages of initiation.  She makes friends and enemies throughout the initiation, including Peter who will do anything to be the top initiate.   As she goes through the stages of initiation, it becomes clear that Tris is able to manipulate the simulations within the challenges and cope better than anyone else.  She discovers that she is Divergent, but what does that mean and why is it dangerous for anyone to find out that she is?

Divergent is full of suspense and I was on the edge of my seat right to the end.  Tris is an incredibly strong character who gets put through some tough challenges.  As I was reading Divergent I was thinking that I wouldn’t be strong enough to make it through the Dauntless initiation.  Veronica Roth has created a society that, at first, seems like it is perfect, but you see cracks slowly start to appear.  If you like stories like Hunger Games, you’ll love Divergent.  Recommended for 12+      10 out of 10