Ashes by Ilsa J Bick
Just finished reading Ashes by Ilsa J Bick and must say this was a totally gripping, fast paced, edge of the seat type of story. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.
This is a post apocalyptic style of book with a bit of flesh eating canibalism thrown in. The world is devastated by a series of events that change the nature of everything we know, killing most people – and leaving only the young or old alive. There are a few other survivors who, for differing reasons don’t die and become known as the ‘spared’. The young people become known as the ‘changed’. They’ve turned into flesh hunting creatures – I don’t know whether you would call them zombies or not but they are like wild animals, craving human flesh but they are not without intelligence and the ability to adapt and that together with their savagery and speed makes them absolutely terrifying.
At the start of the story, and pre the events that change the world, Alex is on a lone hiking expedition, she is carrying her parents ashes and is looking for closure and answers. Alex has an inoperable brain tumor and has reached the decision to stop with her medication. She doesn’t expect to come back from her trip into the wild but things are set to change dramatically. Whilst in the forest Alex meets an old man and his grand daughter, Ellie, but before they’ve even had a chance to get through their introductions chaos descends. A massive EMP sweeps over the country killing the old man and leaving Alex and Ellie alone.
The pace of the book is brilliant. The story races along and we watch Alex and Ellie stumbling through the forest and quickly coming to the realisation that things have gone drastically wrong. There is so much tension in this first part of the book (don’t know how many times I was reading with my mouth shaped in a perfect ‘O’). The two girls seem to stumble from one horrifying situation to the next until Tom enters the scene at a very opportune moment. Tom was camping with friends when disaster struck and is now the only survivor of that little party. The three then continue through the forest until they come across an abandoned ranger station (I so wanted them to stay there – head in the sand style – although I don’t suppose the book would have been very interesting if they had).
I don’t really want to say too much more about the story because it will spoil the suspense.
This is a dark and gritty tale, quite harrowing in parts and certainly not one for the squeamish. Ilsa Bick is not afraid to call a spade a spade and she doesn’t flinch from telling the gory scenes as they are. We go from one nerve racking event to the next as the three try to survive and come up with a plan.
I really liked the characters. I thought Alex had a great voice, she’s mature for her age but that’s to be expected with the events of her young life. Ellie is quite possibly the most annoying character in the world – but then she’s only eight and you have to cut her some slack as she has just witnessed the death of her only family member. She is totally grating and goes bumbling into things, flouncing through the forest making enough noise to awaken hibernating bears (the least of their worries) and telling everyone she hates them. But in spite of that I couldn’t help but become attached to her and want to look after her. Even after everything she has suffered she still manages to retain some childlike qualities and simple pleasures. Tom is a very likable bloke, firstly he saves their lives, he is mysterious and has his own problems but he is dependable and he knows how to survive. He just feels safe and strong.
Of course there are more twists and turns and a bit of heart wrenching which all ends in suspense but I won’t elaborate further.
The last third of the book has a decidedly different feel and introduces a new bunch of characters – this part doesn’t feel as ‘on the edge of the seat’ as the first two thirds but it’s nonetheless intriguing and, yet again, jaw dropping as the creepy and sinister happenings in the town of Rule start to become clear.
This book just reminds me of so many things and yet it also manages to be original and exciting.
In terms of criticisms the only thing I can really say is that this does end on a cliffhanger – a BIG cliffhanger – and let’s face it there is now a year’s wait before we get book No.2! If you really don’t have the patience you were born with then maybe you should wait a few months before reading and then that way the wait won’t be quite as devastating!
I would definitely recommend this book and can’t wait for the next installment.
Rating A+
Ashes
Bite Club by Rachel Caine (No.10 Morganville Vampires)
2 October 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Bite Club, Morganville Vampires, Rachel Caine
Just finished reading Bite Club, the 10th book in the Morganville Vampire Series. This review may contain spoilers.
Bite Club is quite a dark addition to the series and also gives a few hints that maybe the series is going to come to an end (not sure if it’s true but I understand No.12 will be the final story?) and I am absolutely fascinated as to how RC will manage to end it all! The thing is I’ve become attached to these characters (some more than others) and I can’t see a way out where everybody is spared, at the end of the day the human and vampires in Amelie’s little experiment are not learning to get along as she wished and she is becoming weary with it.
At the start of the story one of Claire’s classmates gets into the worst kind of trouble and in a seemingly unrelated incident Shane joins a new martial arts club – being run by a vampire – where something more sinsiter lurks in the shadows. On top of that we have Glorianna sashaying around and glamming people and vampires and Amelie and Myrnin quite literally at each other’s throats over a difference in opinion over something very sinister.
I don’t really want to give too much away although as it says on the jacket ‘there’s a new extreme sport being broadcast over the Internet, bare-knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against one another – or, worse, against humans’. This is a little similar to one of the previous stories where one of Eve’s friends went around town placing cameras everywhere and making secret films of all the vampire activity to broadcast outside of Morganville. Bite/Fight Club is a similar idea with people paying to log into the broadcast and then paying to bet on the winner/loser. Very lucrative and of course nobody watching really believes the vampires exist! Or do they.
As we know from previous novels Amelie will go to any length to protect the secrecy of Morganville and so with Oliver at her side she is determined to stamp this out and she doesn’t intend to take prisoners.
I enjoyed this installment and am totally amazed at how RC keeps coming up with more stories for the town. In this story we are given short excerpts from Shane’s point of view and I found this really refreshing – also, I think without this it would be very easy to dislike Shane after some of his actions – at least this way we are given a bit of an explanation about what is happening. And we had plenty of Myrnin in this book which will never fail to please! He is undoubtedly my favourite character, sarcastic, eccentric, scary, brilliant, mad, zany – what is not to like – okay he occasionally bites!
I really enjoy reading the exploits of our little four and I shouldn’t have long to wait for the next addition which I think is due out in November – will there really only be another one after that. Slighly difficult to believe and I have mixed feelings – in one respect I could just carry on reading these stories – they’re light, fun, always have a new plot and are quite original and yet I’m now also really intrigued to see how things will conclude.
Rating -A
Bite Club
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
30 September 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Andrea Cremer, Guardians and Keepers, Nightshade, Werewolves
Just finished reading Nightshade by Andrea Cremer. I have mixed feelings over this book, primarily because I have some areas that are still a mystery some that felt a little too familiar and some a bit unbelievable.
The story revolves around Calla. Calla is the alpha wolf to the Nightshade pack. She is about to come of age and be mated to the alpha wolf of the Bane pack, thereby merging both packs into a new and stronger group. An arrangement that has been in place since the two were born. However, things start to go wrong when Calla rescues a stranger from a bear attack, in doing so she reveals her supernatural self – something which is forbidden and carries a harsh penalty. Of course the situation intensifies when this new stranger becomes the latest new student to join Calla’s highschool and thereby causing anxiety for Calla – and anxiety for her intended wolf, Ren because the new stranger Shay, quite obviously has an obsession with his ‘rescuer’.
Okay, what I really liked first. I thought the story was really original. I liked the idea of Guardians, Keepers, Searchers and the whole twisted history that unfolds through the story. I like the take of the wolves being guardians with a purpose and a rich background.
I liked the characters in the pack and thought the dialogue was entertaining, especially when the two packs melded and there was a level of snarkyness and banter going on. I particularly liked Ansel and Bryne and the way that their story developed and highlighted the outdated restrictions placed upon the pack.
I liked the themes explored for example the status of the different people in the school system so the Keepers are top of the monkey tree, they’re not particularly ‘nice’ people and certainly aren’t above abusing their own power. The Guardians are like the ‘popular’ kids I suppose, the ones who everybody stays away from because they will be rebuked – however, this is a new take, the ‘regular’ humans stay away because they can sense the danger. We also take a look at how people in power manipulate people sometimes to serve them, we look at the theme of subjugation and also explore inequalities.
On a superficial note I like the cover, the font, the fact that the chapters are only short and the way the book is split by pages showing the waxing and waning of the moon.
And, as a debut novel this book really is quite an achievement.
What I found a little unbelievable: I found it hard to believe that this secret world just is out there and nobody has become aware of it. It’s not like the teenage Guardians are great at keeping secrets after all! I found the whole explanation of how the guardians change from human to wolf, fully clothed, was a bit strange and I frankly just couldn’t get my head around it. But the biggest problem I had was believing that the Guardians remained loyal and serving to the Keepers, particuarly, given the abuse that takes place in the book. Also, if the keepers are so powerful and all knowing and can summon up such terrifying wraiths to keep the wolves in check – then why do they even need the Guardians in the first place? The whole Guardians serving the Keepers just seemed as though it would have been more suited in a novel set in an earlier era because it didn’t to an extent fit in the modern age.
What I found a little too familiar: the story has very close parallels to Twilight. I’m not talking about the school setting or the constant canteen setting – I’m thinking more in terms of – we have a supernatural creature who saves a human – risking the exposure of all her kind (Edward rescues Bella from a potentially fatal accident thereby threatening to expose his whole family), we then have the human attending the same school. I can think of another parallel but it would be a BIG spoiler.
What I found a mystery: I wanted to know more – like is this the only situation in the world where these people exist are or there more. Why were Calla and Ren alphas. There didn’t seem to be any apparent reason – other than it being convenient for the plot because there is a girl and a boy and they’re going to be mated. Also, it was a mystery why Calla, who is an alpha was so subservient and undecided all the time. She started off more spirited but then seemed to quickly fade to a shadow of her former self. I understand that she was starting to have doubts but she just didn’t seem to have much of a backbone and was completely ruled by lust. (Probably understandable since she had spent her entire life as a ‘boy free zone’ so that she could be pure for her philandering and ‘wild oats sowing, if it’s got a pulse I’m going after it’ mate!) So sexist it just made me want to throw the book down!
The other thing that puts the book down for me a little is I wasn’t particularly bothered by either Ren, Calla or Shay. I thought the whole relationship between Calla and Shay was rushed and to be honest I preferred Ren to Shay (even in spite of the above)! And it’s yet another triangle! with a cliff hanger ending!!
All that being said, I did think it was a good idea, well written and even though I didn’t particularly like the main protagonists I did like the other characters. I will also say that I will certainly read the next book because I’m intrigued as to how it will all end.
Rating C+
Nightshade
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
27 September 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Brimstone, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou, Laini Taylor
Just finished reading DoSaB and before I start this book I will firstly say that I loved it. I haven’t read any of Laini Taylor’s other novels before but I will certainly take a look now as her story telling is almost magical. This was one of those novels that was just hard to put down, I was engrossed by the story from the first page, the writing was, quite simply, beautiful, the ideas are original, it’s thought provoking, the settings are gothic and I found that if I had a free minute, even just waiting for somebody, a bus, my tea to cook, the kettle to boil, I had the book in my hand and was hard pressed to close it and focus on anything else. In fact it made be quite rude and belligerent because I quite resented when I did have to put it down.
About the story. The thing with this book is it’s been shrouded with mystery, the jacket gives nothing away at all as does the name or the cover and so I don’t particularly want to do so either. In other words you’ll just have to read it yourself to find out what the story is about – although there are also a number of excellent trailers which give a few clues.
However, we have Karou. What a brilliant character – I loved her voice, her sense of humour, her sarcasm and her blue hair! She is fierce, independent, loyal to her family and friend (yes, friend). She is an artist who draws the strangest images of people and places and she sometimes disappears for days at a time.
We also have an amazing setting. I’m sure I read a review which virtually said ‘why Prague’ but why not Prague? The descriptions were brilliant, dark, eerie, almost vampireish? Winding, narrow streets, old fashioned facades, long shadows and then there’s the café where Karou and her friend, art students, usually spend most of their time after classes. I loved this café filled with gas mask wearing statues, dark corners and the aromoa of goulash. I can easily imagine people reading this and immediately dashing off to Prague – to see the alternative, hidden, dark and secret version.
And, we also have Karou’s strange family. Brimstone is brilliant, working constantly,and almost desperately, in a shop that connects to anywhere in the world. He collects teeth (which is a mystery to Karou who frequently has to go on strange missions to collect his packages). She never knows where the door she leaves from will lead her to and she could literally end up in Marakesh or Paris! I loved the whole idea of these strange portals, just open the door you’ve walked in using and instead of being back out on your old street you’re in an exotic market place on the other side of the world, Such an intriguing idea that puts me in mind of the Labyrinthe and it’s intricate mysteries. Back to the family though. Karou’s family are demons or chimaera and are completely different than anything in the ‘real’ world. Brimstone has large curved horns that curl back over his head like goat horns, he is fierce and won’t be defied. He keeps secrets from Karou and forbids her to enter certain doors. Of course we all know that forbidding something just makes it that much more attractive. The funny thing is that all Karou’s family are made of different parts, part animal and part human and yet LT describes them in such a way that they appear lovely, and normal, like you wouldn’t be surprised to walk into your local newsagents tomorrow and find he had goat’s legs or a snake’s body.
Then moving on, and giving a little bit of the story away, dark hand marks start to appear on the portal doors all over the world and strange and beautiful people who seem both amazing and terrifying and whose shadows don’t match their bodies start to appear.
So, criticisms, I think it’s clear that I love this book. The only niggles (not even really criticisms) are, I don’t particularly like Akira – now I know everyone is probably going to jump on me now like a duck on a June bug but I’m sorry, I really don’t like him. He’s cruel. And I think it will be difficult to get over and forgive some of his actions. Also, at this stage, I’m not loving the romance element (I guess that goes without saying seeing how I don’t like Akira) – but I can see that it’s going to develop, it’s just not the main focus for me. And, finally, I preferred the first two thirds of the book to the end but again, I can understand why that is. The last third had a lot of catching up with historical events to relay and this was well told but I think I was anxious to be back in the ‘here and now’ of the story. That being said the ending has opened us up for so much more adventure.
So, first and foremost, what I really loved about this is the story telling. LT can certainly weave a tale not to mention turn things on their head. We have demons and angels but everything isn’t always as it seems. We have a war but neither side can remember the reason why it started. We have deep rooted hatred and prejudice. Not everything is always as it seems and that definitely comes through strongly in this story.
I can’t wait to see what comes next. I need a necklace of wishes or my own portal so that I can magic the next book here – right now!
Rating A+
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, group read – completion of The Fellowship of the Ring
26 September 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Books Going to Film, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Rings, Tolkien
Finally finished Book No.1. Really enjoying the experience of rereading this, particularly with all the discussion. So, I won’t do a recap because I’m already so late with this post!!
This time the discussion starter points were conjured byAndrea at the Little Red Reviewer. Other discussion posts are at:
Stainless Steel Droppings
Blue Fairy’s Bookshelf
Geeky Daddy
The Written World
Book Den
Sorry if I’ve missed anybody off or if the link is incorrect – let me know if so. Ta!
My responses:
Gandalf and the Balrog, just Wow. Just a short scene, but oh so intense! With their mentor gone, how will the group go on? Even when they do reach Lothlorien, no one seems to know how to get where they are going. They had been dependent on Gandalf making the decisions, and now he is gone.
I really though the whole Balrog scene was brilliant – even though it obviously ends on such a sad note. Gandalf is brilliant – it’s only a short speech but it made my pulse race ‘I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udon. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass’. Couldn’t help that! Back to the point. After Gandalf was gone I felt like the group really floundered. They were full of sorrow and just so unsure of what to do next, even Aragorn seemed at a loss and I felt that continued until Frodo reached his own decision at the end. It’s sort of a sad note to end on really because I like reading about the Fellowship and the rest of the book obviously takes a much darker turn.
Galadriel and her Ring. She knows the Ring of power must be destroyed, but with it’s destruction comes the de-powering (is that a word?) of her Ring as well. The Elves must leave Middle Earth or forget who and what they are. For her, this is a no win situation. Frodo’s success effectively means the banishment of the Elves in Middle Earth. I wonder if that makes him more likely to do everything in his power to succeed, or less?
It’s a tough one. There are no easy choices in this book. Somebody always seems to be at risk but I suppose with the Elves this was never really their true home and though they were sad to an extent I also felt they would be glad to return to their own people. I loved the scene with Galadriel and I’m almost dying to quote my favourite of her lines but best not! Except this one – ‘I pass the test, I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel’. So basically with the destruction of the ‘one’ ring she is losing her power and it was only really her power that was keeping her here? Never thought of it like that before!
Boromir – I didn’t trust from way back at the Council at Rivendell. His conversation with Frodo at the end of Fellowship made him look like a know-it-all with a world view of colonialism and imperialism. Is this Tolkien taking a shot at the old fashioned British world view, or am I reading way, way too much into it?
Mmm, Boromir, what can you say. In one respect I feel sorry for him and in another I could shake him. He’s just too stubborn and blinkered. That being said, his little rant at the end did eventually help to push Frodo into making a decision!
After spending some time in Lothlorien, Sam realizes the Elves aren’t quite as scary or as strange as he first thought. I wonder if when he gets back to the Shire if he’ll realize the Hobbits in the next town aren’t quite as strange as he once thought. I really don’t think this is an overt “message” story, but I do wonder if Tolkien didn’t mind throwing in a little message of “those folks in the next valley aren’t as different as you think”.
I definitely think Tolkien used this to pass on a message and I suppose Sam was a good one to use to do so. He’s a lovely warm character and doesn’t seem to have any mean spiritedness in him at all and yet he has a very small view of the world and is quite old fashioned. But by the end of Book 1 his eyes have been opened and his horizons expanded. (I still think he’ll be very happy to get back home to his garden and his gaffa though!)
I only started reading fantasy a few years ago, and I keep running into this undercurrent of choice. Bilbo has to choose to give up the Ring. Frodo has to choose to take on the quest and be the Ring bearer. Even Boromir is choosing how he feels about the Ring and what it could bring him. In the end, this is all coming down to how we choose to live our lives from moment to moment.
On the face of it it seems really simple – a choice between good and evil – but the eventual choice will have an impact on so many people (such as the elves) and that makes it much more difficult. Personally, I would never be able to decide what to do! Not for the lack of wanting to do the right thing but simply because I would be thinking of the impact on everyone else. In that way I’m terrible at making decisions because I never want to upset anyone!
And the obligatory: what was your favorite part of this section?
This is difficult. I enjoyed the growing friendship between Legolas and Gimli (although I would have liked to have been party to some of their conversations), I love the exchange between Galadriel and Frodo but I think on reflection the mines of Moria are still ‘it’ for me. I love the description of the mines and think the writing in that respect is excellent and I love the tension that increases as you hear the drums starting to beat to the final scene with Gandalf and the Balrog on the bridge.
Thanks for the discussion points 🙂
Books and travelling with Lynn 