Book Review: A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2)

Author: Beth Revis

Pages: 386

Rating: 4/5

This is the second book of Across the Universe. It’s good but not as good as the first installment of the trilogy. In this second book, there are many people who died (I’m not telling who)  and more mysteries and secrets unveiled. They are still in the ship that I can assure you, but in the last few pages they are few minutes away from landing to Centauri Earth. I recommend you to continue reading because the last book is just so frexing amazing (I’ve already started reading it)!

“Michael Angelo  said: Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of teh sculptor to discover it” -Beth Revis, A Million Suns

Book Review: Across the Universe

Author: Beth Revis

Pages: 398

Rating: 5/5

The book cover suggests that it is a love story with heavy romance. It’s a trick! It’s more of sci-fi/ mystery/ suspense/ dystopia genre. Sure it has lil bit of romance but it in this first installment of ATU the story focused in developing the whole scenario, describing how the vessel looks like, how people manage to live there, and all the mysteries involved. So basically in this book, a group people live in a ship (a space vehicle) and they are led by Eldest and Elder. They are the future of the human race. This ship is alleged to be flying for at least 250 years already and it is supposed to land in Centauri-Earth (this is another planet not the same as OUR so called earth) for another 50 years. Sleeping in cryo chambers which are hidden in the ship are people who specializes in particular things necessary for people’s survival when they land in the Centauri-Earth. These frozen people in cryo chambers are supposed to stay there for another 50 years. However, one girl was melted by an unknown person (it will be revealed near the end who woke her up) and from there, it all changed everything.

“I never thought about how important the sky was until I didn’t have one.” -Beth Revis, Across the Universe

Book Review: Warm Bodies

Author: Isaac Marion

Number of pages: 240

Rating: 4.5/5

I read this book just because my friend is so obsessed with the movie. He said even said that it’s better than Twilight. Warm Bodies shows what happens when a zombie and a human fall in love. At first I thought that it is just the typical zombie apocalypse storyline. But it’s totally unique, I assure you. Just like normal zombie world in books and films, the place is infected with plague and zombies are all scattered all over, eating human brains, and there’s an isolated place called the Stadium where humans live. One day, ‘R’, the zombie protagonist, met Julie, a normal human. From then on, R protected Julie from other zombies. He even brought him to their hideout. Somehow or another, R and Julie fell in love and it somehow change R. It’s making him more human. This spark between R and Julie affected the other zombies and somehow the plague is like disappearing. The story goes like that. Just read it. It’s just a very fast read and the manner of writing is so easy to understand.

“We are where we are, however we got here. What matters is where we go next.” -Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

Book Review: Outpost

Author: Ann Aguirre

Number of pages: 320

Rating: 5/5

Deuce, Fade, Stalker, and Tegan are now all in the topside called Salvation. This place seems like paradise for them…. at first. They have their own adoptive families, friends, and new responsibilities. Duece and Fade developed and expressed their feelings for each other. However, it’s difficult for Deuce to learn all the girl things expected from her. She always gets in trouble because of this. The huntress lurking inside of her still boils and becomes alive when she sees Freaks. Deuce and Fade joined the security group where they guard the persons growing the crops from Freaks. But one day, the Freaks stole their fire. And then another more day, they kidnapped Fade. Deuce rescued Fade. What Fade told her from his experience is so chillingly unbelievable. The persons captured by the Freaks are first put into a fenced pen, and before they are eaten they will first be mashed to make them tender and then deboned. Even though most people in Salvation do not like Deuce, it’s all in her hands to save them before history repeats itself.

“People try to make sense of things, and if they don’t know the answers, they make them up,because for some, a wrong answer is better than none.”

Book Review: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

No. of Pages: 374

Rating: 5/5

 

This is a futuristic story being related through the point of view of the protagonist. This story happens in generation where virtual videogames are popular and are widely used. The ideas incorporated by the author are very plausible considering the breakthrough innovations nowadays and the prolific use of computers. The protagonist and his friends all battle inside a videogame amongst other “gunters”, short for “egg hunters”, to win the inheritance left by the maker of OASIS, James Halliday. All of the OASIS users have the chance to be the heir to a billion dollar property of James Halliday. All they have to do is to search for the hidden keys scattered around OASIS, but this is not as easy as it looks because OASIS is composed of hundreds of planets and that the search has been on for so many years already and that many users already gave up thinking that all of it is just a sham. However, one day, the dormant gunters started searching again when the first key was found by a young boy living in the suburbs. That young boy happened to be Wades Owen Watts a.k.a. Parzival a.k.a. W.O.W.

“It’s not over until it’s over. And it’s not over yet.” ~Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

BOOK GIVEAWAYS

As of now, these are the free books I’ve received from various authors. I would like to thank them for all these wonderful reads. (click link to be redirected to my reviews)

• “Exclusive” by Sandra Brown
• “Envy” by Sandra Brown (pending review. I just received it yesterday)
• “The Darkening Dream” by Andy Gavin (maker of the game Crash Bandicoot)
• “Misanthropology” by Reneau R. Reneau
• “Morrigan’s Brood” by Heather Poinsett Dunbar and Christopher Dunbar
• “Seeking Wisdom from God” by Thomas Walker
• “The Echo of Rose Petals” by Khristian E. Kay

I would also like to thank GoodReads and LibraryThing. These are the sited were I enter book giveaways. Keep up the great job. You help many enthusiastic readers and non readers explore the greatness of free books.

Book Review: Inside Out (Insider #1)

Inside Out

Author: Maria Snyder

Pages: 315

Rating: 4.5/5

The whole story happened in this place so called Inside. It’s a very big cube divided into 3 rows and 3 columns with 4 floors and assigned as sectors or quadrants. The people living in the upper most floor are called the Uppers, they live in a life of luxury where they are allowed to have a family and a space of their own. The lower level people are called Scrubs. They are called such because their main job is to scrub clean the pipes that sustain their everyday needs, air, water, electricity. The main protagonist is Trella, she is labeled as the Queen of the Pipes because she knows basically all the cris crossing of the pipes and the gaps. One time, her friend Cog introduced her to a prophet who knows something about the Gateway or the way to the Outside. It all started on that and as the story progressed Trella became the hope of everyone both the Scrubs and the Uppers. There where people helping her and with much sacrifice she found the gateway but only to discover that they are currently traversing the outer space and only on the millionth week will they be able to arrive to their final destination, the planet Earth.

“No hope, is worse than fear.” ~Maria Snyder, Inside Out

Book Review: Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1)

Ship Breaker

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Pages: 326

Rating: 5/5

In an isolated island in America’s Gulf Coast Region, Nailer, a light teenage boy with protruding rib cage, works as a ship breaker. One day after a hurricane passed their place, Nailer and Pima, his friend, saw a sunken clipper ship. They decided to scavenge the whole ship but as they searched the area, there was a beautiful girl, Nita, a swank, who was trapped inside the sunken clipper. Nailer chose to save the girl first before breaking the ship apart. The girl turned out to be a real swank who was being chased by his father’s business enemy. Unfortunately, while Nailer and his friends were recuperating, his father, Richard Lopez came and saw them, then for the mean time they were held prisoners. After some days, the men who were looking for Nita arrived in the beach so, Nailer and Nita escaped to go to a place where Nita’s ships could be. After some excruciating events, they arrived the place as planned and after some nights, they saw the ship that could save Nita. When they were about to go to the ship, Nailer saw his father and his half man-crew lurking looking for him and Nita so, they went to their hideout first. That night, Nailer volunteered to check the ship so, he left Nita and went alone. Face to face, he talked to the captain and realized that they truly were loyal to Nita and her family. They decided to go to were Nita was but she was not there, she was taken by the enemies. The captain together with Nailer followed the ship where Nita was and with Nailer’s idea they succeeded in getting Nita out of the enemy’s ship.

At first I was unsure if I will read this book or not because I don’t know anything about ship breaking and so I thought I’ll get bored with it. But that was not the case, I was superbly engrossed in reading this book, it was written in a way a where you could vividly imagine what was happening. And so, I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn and feel what ship breaking is all about, and to those lovers of apocalyptic genre.

“The enemy of your enemy is your friend.” ~Paolo Bacagalupi, Ship Breaker

 

Book Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls

Author: Patrick Ness

Pages: 215

Rating: 5/5

This book is about life but it’s also about death. It’s about people, the act of letting go, the Truth. Every 12:07 midnight, 13 year old Conor was visited by the Monster, a yew tree bearing poisonous berry-like fruits. It made a deal with little Conor, a deal in which the monster will tell three tales and after the third tale, Conor in return will tell the fourth – the Truth. Conor’s mother’s health was deteriorating,  she was already staying in the hospital trying new medical treatments but to no avail these techniques weren’t even making her a bit better. Before the last breathe of her mother, Conor finally realized what he had to do- to face the Truth.

It’s nice how the author used a yew tree to pass stories to Conor because the fact that a yew tree can actually live for about 2000 years, it made sense that the Monster knows a lot since it may be ancient enough to experience the world. Though it is called the ‘Death tree’ because of the poisonous properties of the different parts of the trees, it can also be used to cure cancer, the disease which I think struck Conor’s mother.

You do not write your life with words. You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do. ~Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

 

Book Review: The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3)

The Titan’s Curse

Author: Rick Riordan

Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5

Read at your own risk, this review may contain spoilers.

The book starts with Percy, Thalia, Annabeth, and Grover saving two potential half blood kids, Bianca and Nico di Angelo,  from a private military style school. As they were escaping, they were thwarted by Mr. Thorn, a hideous manticore who was under the direct supervision of the General. The Hunters led by the goddess Artemis arrived and shot arrows towards the monster however, the manticore fell off the cliff together with Annabeth. They all returned to Camp Half Blood including the Hunters but excluding Annabeth and Artemis who was supposed to seek for the rare monster who could destroy Olympus. Artemis haven’t returned yet so the Hunters including Bianca, and Thalia and Grover decided to find Artemis. With no one’s knowledge, Percy followed the group. From his quest, Percy met a cow serpent whom he helped escape from the net and towards the end it turned out that this cow was the monster Artemis was looking for, the monster who could destroy Olympus. After some gruelling events, Percy, Thalia, Grover, and the Hunters met the General who turned out to be Zoe’s (one of the Hunters) father, Atlas, Luke, Artemis, and Annabeth. After the group won in the battle they visited Mt. Olympus then returned back to the Camp. Percy delivered to Nico that her sister Bianca died in their quest, Nico was so angry to Percy. At that same time skeleton monsters suddenly appeared but to Percy’s surprised Nico easily took care of them. He was shocked to know that Bianca and Nico di Angelo were Hades’ children.

Favorite Character: In this third installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, my favorite character is Blackjack, the flying pegasus who helped Percy in his journey in saving Annabeth and Artemis. I think Blackjack is so funny, he was written with the touch of humor. I also like Dionysus or Mr. D for short. Though it looks he doesn’t care about the half bloods and the activities in the camp, in truth, he does. He even saved Percy in his life and death situation. He’s also a bit funny especially when he’s called the wine dude.

“There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it.” ~Rick Riordan, The Titan’s Curse