Tag: Science Fiction (Page 12 of 38)

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3) by Rick Yancey

June 2, 2016 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3)
by Rick Yancey
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
The enemy is Other. The enemy is us.

They’re down here, they’re up there, they’re nowhere. They want the Earth, they want us to have it. They came to wipe us out, they came to save us.

But beneath these riddles lies one truth: Cassie has been betrayed. So has Ringer. Zombie. Nugget. And all 7.5 billion people who used to live on our planet. Betrayed first by the Others, and now by ourselves.

In these last days, Earth’s remaining survivors will need to decide what’s more important: saving themselves…or saving what makes us human.

Call me Zombie.
Everything hurts. Even blinking hurts. But I’m getting up. That’s what zombies do.
We rise.

Okay so…I’m not guna lie. I had a review that I LOVED written out, but my laptop is acting up again and it shut off before my USB saved it. I was going to recreate it, I was in the process of doing so, but it seems stupid. Those were REAL emotions and they flowed out of me so easily…but that’s what happens when you truly connect with a story. So, seeing as I loved this story, this series, these characters with all my heart, I made a connection so strong, so unyielding that I have a lot to say. Too much to say.

So there you go. You can love the good in us and hate the bad, but the bad is in us, too. Without it, we wouldn’t be us.

So, instead of trying to recreate those raw emotions, this amazing idea I had explaining how beautiful bookends could be (you’d have totally dug it, guyz-as it is, this makes no sense. Had you read my profound thoughts in said erased review, you’d have been all…wow, that makes sense. Obvi), I’m going to go a different direction. Write a wholly different review with another set of raw emotions…because that just proves to you how much this book and series meant to me. A whole review of epic, wonderful, well-thought out things I bared from my soul are gone forever with no ounce of documentation…and I’m barely upset.

I’ll kill until I lose count. I’ll kill until counting doesn’t matter.

Sure, I’m angry, I loved what I did. But, as it is, I could never say everything I’m thinking in one review, so another take on my thoughts couldn’t hurt. It’s just not the same. Anyway. My feels know no bounds. Sorry I rambled. Sorry I’ve been thinking about this since I finished 24 hours ago. Sorry I have re read my quotes over and over and over and over again…and I still break down every time.

It’s more than Zombie can handle. He falls against the side of the barricade, gulping air, his face lifted up to the sky. Lost, found, dead, alive, the cycle repeats; there’s no escape, there’s no reprieve. Zombie closes his eyes and waits for his breath to slow, his heart to steady. A small break before it begins again: the next loss, the next death.

It’s not often I love a whole series from beginning to end. It’s a rarity. Authors start out these series with promising ideas, wonderful, charismatic characters, and the question of what’s to come for everything involved. We wait and we wait and we wait…Because no matter how much we beg and plead and cry for the next book, it’s all a fruitless endeavor, isn’t it? They do what they want anyway, right? Especially those last books…they love to pull those final book extensions because ‘You want it to be what it’s meant to be right? You don’t want it messed up. We’re doing this to give you the best story possible. Don’t you want the perfect end to your beloved series??? You wouldn’t want to ruin that, would you?’ So they tweak and they twist and they turn and they add and delete and edit edit edit and they don’t release it until they are damn well ready to.

She was the mayfly, here for a day, then gone. She was the last star, burning bright in a sea of limitless black.

So…we sit again. We wait. And then it appears on our e-readers or on our doorstep and we immediately download it at midnight and read and read and read and then it’s like…that’s it? This is the end we waited for? Not everyone gets as disappointed, haughty, or judgmental as I, though, apparently, because there have been, like, seven releases this year for finales and I’ve hated 6 out of the 7 while others loved them. It’s been rather…devastating.

I supposed I could turn to Bear. It was always easy to talk to him. We had hours of conversation, good conversation, during those weeks when it was just me and him hiding in the woods. Bear’s an excellent listener. He never yawns or interrupts or walks away. Never disagrees, never plays games, never lies. I go where you go, always, that’s Bear’s jam.
Bear proves that true love doesn’t have to be complicated-or even reciprocated.

So when I saw this was close to finally being released (DAMN YOU, YOU STUPID 8 (or however many) month set back!) I was blasé about it. What did I even have to look forward to, ya know??? I have hated almost every series end this year and have been living in heartbreak hotel all by my lonesome as each bbf’s story crumbled to ashes. And then this little morsel appeared on my iPad. My hopes were low, I didn’t set the bar too high….but anyone that knows me knows this was a defense mechanism. I have loved this series since it was first released years ago. I have followed Cassie on her journey from the very beginning as she chased after Sammy, held that damnable teddy bear, found a deep bond with an otherworldly sniper, and her teenage crush. She has been through the ringer (HA! That bitch….) and only wants to make a world where her little brother can live and see it as she has gotten to. See the universe’s beauty, the stars, the sky. Birds and rivers and schools and friendship and love. Not devastation, war, battling to wake up each day alive, fighting for each breath earned. Not needing to hold up a gun at every stranger lest they rip you to shreds or shoot your head off before you get a chance to. A world with trust. A world with unity. A world with peace and kindness….a world with hope. A world like before.

And I run on. Through a primordial landscape unscarred by any human thing, the world as it was before trust and cooperation unleashed the beast of progress. The world is circling back now to what it was before we knew it. Paradise lost. Paradise returned.

This. Book. Was. Everything. It was rain clouds and sunshine and laughter and friendship and sacrifice and loyalty. It was every moment. It was every thought. It was your waking breath and your final memory before sleep. It was your dreams and your consciousness and it was….everything.

But the most wonderful thing of all, our highest achievement and the one thing for which I pray we will always be remembered, is stuffing wads of polyester into an anatomically incorrect, cartoonish ideal of one of nature’s most fearsome predators for no other reason than to soothe a child.

I was prepared for x. I was prepared for xx. I was even prepared for xxx….but what I didn’t expect, what I wasn’t ready for…I wasn’t prepared for this. How does an author…do this? I can’t explain it. In no way can it be described. It’s like…you know you’re hungry, but you aren’t sure what you feel like. So you kind of just…chill. Take it all in, decide to go for the ride and see what you feel like in a minute. And then all of a sudden someone hands you something or you see a meal come out in front of you and it just…clicks. That is what you want, and it is exactly what you needed-You just didn’t know it.

Reduce the human population to a sustainable number, then crush the humanity out of it, since trust and cooperation are the real threats to the delicate balance of nature, the unacceptable sins that drove the world to the edge of a cliff.

And that’s this story. This trilogy had integrity from the start. Whether you liked, hated, or loved, no one could say it lacked originality or that it didn’t pique your curiosity. I mean, everyone can agree on that, right? I’m real big on integrity, and I’ve been super upset this year that so many series have lost their…spark, their originality. They have lost the thing that makes them so special and what made them stand out among all the other series, in my mind. But this series…from book one on, I have been nothing but awed. Nothing but impressed. The second book got dark, therefore making me even more of a fan, even as some people dwindled off and lost their love for it. Hey, you can’t win with everyone.

Lying is like murder-after the first one, each one that follows is easier.

But then this was released….and I can’t even explain how perfectly perfect this was wrapped up. And here’s the most beautiful thing about it: It wasn’t wrapped up in a neat little bow. BOOM. I just…YES. Thank you!!! These dystopian authors think that their crumbling world has to be put back together in the end, that the world could so easily be re-made, rebooted, whatever. But no. Fuck that. Life is messy. The world is messy. We are messy. Humanity has been ripped from all these people and we expect it all to be fixed by a few action scenes? I don’t think so. And Yancey didn’t even try to pull that shit. Each scene was a building block and a new layer on an intricately pieced together puzzle, and until that final sentence, that final paragraph, that final moment…nothing fit. And that’s the most amazing, mesmerizing, breath-taking thing to me: It was perfectly imperfect….and therein lies the integrity. Loads and loads of integrity…and I am utterly speechless about it. (Well…)

Why must I always be the isle of crazy alone in an ocean of sensibility? The should to everybody else’s shouldn’t? The I-will to their better-nots?

I couldn’t breathe from beginning to end. My heart was beating faster and faster with each progressing page. My mind was racing at the speed of light, trying it’s fucking hardest to figure out what was going to happen, who would make it (would anyone make it?), how it would end, who was worth keeping and who was worth discarding. And…okay, I’ll fucking admit it, who the hell Cassie would be with, in the end. Sorry. Is what it is-but the best part??? THIS STORY. This story was larger than a girl and a boy and another boy and a slightly mean sniper girl-This series and this end made me proud of the dystopian genre, again. This is how you end a series. This is how it’s done.

Squad 53 is gone, broken apart, dead or missing or dying or running.
RIP, squad 53.

I don’t remember so much humor, this dark comic relief that Cassie Sullivan possessed, and Ben Parish’s humor and determination to keep things light in the face of certain death. And I know I shouldn’t say it, I know it sounds bleak, but I’d be shorting myself if I didn’t say it: This book has one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve ever read. And it’s not what you’d think…but it burns. It burns so good.

The others concluded that the only way to save the world was to annihilate civilization. Not from without, but from within. The only way to annihilate human civilization was to change human nature.

I find it important to note, also, that I literally snarled at my husband because of this book. That’s right. At precisely 12:41 AM on the 25th (or was it technically the 26th?) of May, my hubbs woke up and proceeded to try and be suave and play nice and flirt with me once he saw I was awake and I literally, and I do mean LITERALLY, looked over and bared my teeth at him with a very viscous, aggressive, and otherwise very unattractive snarl-scraggly as I was, this did not help. You know, that tangled hair and tears streaming down my face while battling my choking sobs. I might have even been giving a very valiant effort at pulling my hair out. Silly boy, don’t you know not to interrupt the reader while she’s fully submerged in another reality??

They wanted a mindless, stone-cold killer to let loose on the world. They wanted a zombie. Now they’ve got one.

All the feels. All the stars. I was crushed in a way I wasn’t prepared for. And it’s my own fault, really. Because seriously…I was too busy judging my love for all the characters and my emotional investment in them:

Cassie-Can’t remember how I felt before, but OBSESSED with her now
Evan-Still like but…just not like I used to
Ben Parish-AGHHHHHH more than I even remember possible!! I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER, my Zombie!! Protect me! lol
Ringer-Begrudgingly like, how I’ve pretty much always felt
Nugget-Oh, Nugget, must you hurt your sister’s feelings, so?? But anyway, love his POV now, whereas I never did before

Anyway…my point. How could I forget? Humanity comes first, in the end. I HATE YOU, YOU STUPID BOOK. I lie. I love you so much. Come…come join your friends on the bookshelf…

More quotes I didn’t get to put in (if you wana read them :P):

I stood up. Then I sat back down. There was nowhere to go. Well, I could go to the kitchen and make a sandwich, except there was no bread or deli meat or cheese. I don’t know the particulars, but I’m pretty sure there’s a Subway on every corner in heaven. Also Godiva stores. On our second day here, I found Grace’s stash of forty-six boxes of Godiva chocolates. Not that I counted them.

After Sam hit me on the nose, I burst out of the bathroom, soaking wet, whereupon I smacked into Ben Parish’s chest. Ben was lurking in the hallway as if every little thing that has to do with Sam is his responsibility, the aforesaid little shit screaming obscenities at my back, the only dry part of my body after trying to wash his, and Ben Parish, the living reminder of my father’s favorite saying that it’s better to be lucky than smart, gave me that ridiculous what’s up? look, so stupidly cute that I was tempted to break his nose, thereby making him not so damn Ben Parish-y looking.

Stopping just short of the doorway, I pull out one of the stun grenades. I slip my finger into the pin. My hands are shaking. A dribble of sweat courses down the middle of my back. This is how they get you, this is how they crush the spirit right out of you. Out of the blue the past is rammed down your throat, a gut punch of memories of all the things you took for granted, the things that you lost in the blink of an eye, the stupid, trivial, forgettable things you didn’t know could crush you, things like an old woman’s quivery voice, high-pitched and far away, calling you inside for a plate of warm cookies and a glass of ice-cold milk.

*****************

Wow. I’m…actually speechless. My heart…is that my heart ripped to shreds on the floor?

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to process [all the epic].

I am a walking, talking ZOMBIE and I definitely didn’t sleep last night.

Zombie.

Finally. Finally an author who ends a trilogy the way it should be….and I was highly critical-you bet your ass on that. No free 5 star hand out here. Just….I am without words. Can’t complete full sentences. I am without emotion. Comatose.

Yeah. Just call me Zombie.

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BOOK REVIEW: For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars #1) by Diana Peterfreund

May 18, 2016 / Chelsea / 3 Comments

For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars #1)
by Diana Peterfreund
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
It's been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family's estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot's estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth--an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret--one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she's faced with a choice: cling to what she's been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she's ever loved, even if she's lost him forever.

Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

“People are foolish when it comes to love.”
Elliot hadn’t been. She’d been rational, logical, reasonable, prudent. She’d been cold and cruel and disloyal and distant.
She hadn’t been foolish.
She’d been the most foolish girl on the island.

So look, guys. Here’s the thing. I’m not big on bashing books-especially when a new friend took the time to make a huge list of recs for me. And also because this book wasn’t bad in any way, shape, or form. It had excellent writing, beautiful tension, and a pretty cool and unique plot: It just wasn’t for me.

I don’t mind books that are more build-up than action, I never have, but I guess in my mind I had imagined a big bang of an ending after all the two main characters had been through. And, frankly, I didn’t quite get the world they lived in. *shrugs* And, again, this doesn’t even bother me.

No, what bothers me is that I just didn’t care…and that’s not a good thing. I skimmed more often than not to get to Kai and I kept waiting for all these things to happen and they…I mean…they didn’t. Now, I had seen somewhere in a review that this was a retelling of a Jane Austen novel, or rather that it was based on it or whatever (it’s early and I frankly don’t want to think of a different way of saying it, right or wrong, lol), so, in the back of my mind, I knew not much would go on. But I put up this mental block and imagined how awesome it would be…and sadly, with all the science and stuff, I was bored more often than not.

And that’s the thing-If there had been even a little payoff after I’d wasted my weekend on this, it might have easily been a three. If there had been some action at the end (hell, I KNOW this is my fault, but just saying, to be clear) it might have been a four. But, as it was, I was confused, bored, and always waiting for Kai to steal the show….and he can’t be the only reason I like a book: That would be preposterous.

(^^Even if this has been the case for me, a lot, eeps!) So, ya know, not going to waste any more time talking about how I misinterpreted what this book was going to be about (again, duh on me lol) and how I only highlighted one passage for this review (one!!!!! It’s madness, I tell you!) and instead I’ll move on to something different. As it is, I’m going through a bit of a, hmm, not slump? But I’m struggling to find just what suits my fancy right now. So, ya know, on to like all of your reviews…..better than blabbering on about the same ‘ol things. Maybe some of you will love this (in fact, many of you have) and will be better suited to enjoy it-as for me, I think I’ll forget about it immediately after finishing this review. Toodles.

***********
Well that was…anti-climactic. :/

#Underwhelmed

I’m sorry but…I went through all that scientific crap and waited for the hero and heroine to get to…that???

No me gusta at all.

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BOOK REVIEW – The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) by N.K. Jemisin

May 14, 2016 / Anna

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1)
by N.K. Jemisin
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

What you know for sure is that you’re not a child. You don’t want to know what would happen if you were (this world is nasty). But you walk. Restlessly, you walk. At this point you’re not sure it means something. You go on, though, because you’re intrigued. Orogene, guardian, pirate, commless, you’re part of the humanity anyway (they don’t think you are). You’re no stranger to rules (death awaits if you are) yet life destroys them at times (this is the way the world ends, again). Sometimes you wish info-dumping existed (confusion is you) but not anymore (you just wait, it makes sense).

(Friends do not exist. The fulcrum is not a school. Grits are not children. Orogenes are not people. Weapons have no need of friends.)

They lied, didn’t they? (of course they did) The rage (or is it revenge) threatens to close your throat at any moment but you are strong, so go on, go on, just a little longer.

“Perhaps you think it wrong that I dwell so much on the horrors, the pain, but pain is what shapes us, after all. We are creatures born of heat and pressure and grinding, ceaseless movement. To be still is to be… not alive.”

You’re not sure how it happened but you laugh. It’s a strange thing, that laugh. It takes you by surprise (the tears are never far).

“But this is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
For the last time.”

You understand, finally, and you’re amazed (it hurts, though).

BOOK REVIEW: Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

May 13, 2016 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)
by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: you have me
Mason, E, LT 2nd: until the last star in the galaxy dies
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you have me

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Guyz. This book….this MOTHER FUCKING BOOK. I am sorry. So so sorry, but I don’t even know if I can write a coherent review! I mean…and it’s like…I can’t…ugh just LOOK, okay, my LAPTOP is even working all of a sudden!! If that’s not a fucking sign that my inner fangirl has been dying to be let out, I don’t know WHAT IS.

Ezra Mason: You’re taping this, right?
INTERVIEWER: Audio only. Camera is faulty.
Ezra Mason: Okay, well for the benefit of the sight-impaired, I am now raising my…oh, dear….yes, it’s my middle finger at Mr. Postgrad here.
INTERVIEWER: Mr. Mason…
Ezra Mason: Now I’m wiggling it.
INTERVIEWER: Terminating interview at 13:58 on 03/19/75.
Ezra Mason: Look at it wiggle-
-audio ends-

So this book…okay…how does one explain this complex, earth-shattering, phenomenal, shocking, original, and emotional book? It’s one of those that can’t be simply explained-This book has to be experienced. It’s a series of interviews, IMs, surveillance logs, emails, etc etc etc….It sounds so weird, yeah??

Mason, E, LT 2nd: You know, you’ve REALLY gotta think of a better pet name for me than “idiot.”
Mason, E, LT 2nd: What about “sweetiepuff?”
Mason, E, LT 2nd: “sugarpants?”
Mason, E, LT 2nd: NONO WAIT. “CUDDLEPIE.”
ByteMe: I will hack the Alexander comms system and let them know you prefer to be known as Cuddlepie immediately, my love
Mason, E, LT 2nd: noooooooooooooooooo

And, at first, I think I was in love with Ezra and Kady’s tremulous relationship, but unfocused on all the science terms and the technicalities behind it…and many of you will be, too. In fact, I know MOST of you will-especially my friends. And, ya know, you’ll be questioning not only why I adored it, but why in the world I rec’d it to you. And that’s a complex question, so I’ll answer it twofold:

1) I’m selfish. I want to gush with all my friends and bask in the epicness that is Ezra.
2) THIS BOOK IS FUCKING EPIC AND I NEED YOU GUYS TO READ IT AND SEE WHY
3) EZRA
4) EZRA
5) EZRA
6) EZR-< error >

ByteMe: You do not have a long history of telling the man to go **** himself.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: Could’ve thrown me in the hole for that. Kinda stupid, right?
ByteMe: My kind of idiocy.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: …
Mason, E, LT 2nd: maybe I should do it more often then?

So yeah, those are my reasons, did they convince you? And yeah, I lied. Whoops. Hmmm this review is NOT even close to being a real review…BUT OMG I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY OTHER THAN READ IT READ IT READ IT FOR MEEEE!!

Mason, E, LT 2nd: i miss you, you know
ByteMe: you too
ByteMe: and seriously, things r only going to get more intense. be calm. be smart.
ByteMe: stay safe, shnookums
Mason, E, LT 2nd: see now you’re just being silly

You might hate it. You might not like anything other than Ezra. You might only like Kady. You might not like anything …but you’ll never know until you try. I waited a YEAR to read this, waiting until I was in the mood for it and now here I am-Obsessing, freaking out, begging my friends to read this and embark on the same journey as I. And it was a journey….from beginning to end.

Lock me in the hole. ****, space me. I don’t care anymore. I’ll keep your secrets. Shut my mouth. But I can’t shut my eyes.

Like I was saying above before I got derailed, this book starts out kinda scary. The terms, the lack of continuance, the disjointed feel….I was obsessed with everything Ezra, but when I put the book down, I would remember only him and only their star-crossed love and their struggle to get to one another, to defy the impossible and survive the plague overtaking the Alexander where Ezra was stuck. But then something amazing happened-At a certain point, and I can’t say when because it just became impossible to put down and to separate because it got so unputdownable all at once, this book CAME TOGETHER IN THE MOST AMAZING WAY. Every conversation made sense, every IM became more important, every surveillance video became continuous feed, weaving seamlessly into the messages our star-crossed lovers spoke of and all the captains and officers and controllers secretly emailed about. The slow destruction and spreading of a deadly virus on two ships became the sole purpose of the story…and the desperation of two people who have only each other fighting to find one another and stay alive as their universe came crashing down around them.

ByteMe: what about when you said you loved me? when you said you wanted the best for me? all that was just ****, was it? doesn’t mean anything as soon as there’s something that matters more?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: Kady I DO love you.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: god
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you’re all I think about. Every time I close my eyes, I see you. Every time I dream, you’re there. I think about us and how i messed it up and it’s like someone is tearing my insides out.

Kady and Ezra had broken up at the beginning of this book, and I think this really added to the story…more heartache, more regrets, more declarations of love. If you’re a sucker for heartbreaking romances and young lovers doing their best to overcome the odds, this book is for you. It’s more than that, though. It’s friendships crumbling all around them and fighting every obstacle to stay alive. It’s defying the odds and getting around every person standing in their way…and it’s about beating something more cunning than you ever imagined humanly possible if you want any chance at surviving.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: More than you deserve?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you deserve every star in the galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair. You deserve someone who’ll run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: You deserve more than I could ever give you, Kady.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: But I’ll give you everything I can if you still want me to.

I had to keep putting this down because I was crying so hard, bawling on every other page because of the impossibility of it all-this book made me more of a lunatic than usual, shaping my Saturday night into a total zombie fest long after I had put this masterpiece down.

Ezra Mason: She asked for something I couldn’t give her.
INTERVIEWER: …I beg your pardon?
Ezra Mason: My girlfriend. Kady. She asked for something I couldn’t give her.
INTERVIEWER: What did she ask you for?
Ezra Mason: Doesn’t really matter now, does it?

I cannot remember a time I have cried this much for a book-I may cry at the end of a story, I may tear up at some heartfelt conversations….but to be so invested in a story that it breaks your very soul?? Your entire being? That’s truly something to behold-And I hadn’t seen it in myself until now. Bravo book….you evil, manipulating bastard. I re-read every single highlight twice, spoiled this whole story to one of my best friends (you know who you are, and I’m sorry, so so sorry, but not that sorry obviously, THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME PURGE THE CRAZY) and have yet to stop looking at the Ezra quotes every single day, shaking my head at the sheer brilliance that is this story. I love you book…and I will keep you. Oh yes, there is a special place on my bookshelf for you, my pretty. Oh yes-My pretty, you’ll be.

AM I NOT MERCIFUL?

***********************
Words simply cannot express how much I-

This book was FUCKING FAN-

I was a complete and utter sobbing me-

Ezra OMG HE WAS SO GD PERFECT OM-

EPIC

< error > RTC < error >

BR with my lovely Laura!!! ♥

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BOOK REVIEW: Calamity (Reckoners #3) by Brandon Sanderson

February 24, 2016 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

Calamity (Reckoners #3)
by Brandon Sanderson
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David’s fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.

David knew Prof’s secret, and kept it even when Prof struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much. Once the Reckoners’ leader, Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He’s disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there’s no turning back...

But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics—Megan proved it. They’re not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying.

The last book in the series.

There will be heroes. Just wait.

I think this is one of those reviews where I’m going to make it quick: This series, these characters, this author are epic. Truly. I have loved every single minute of this series from beginning to end…

Where we’re from, there’s no sun,
Our hometown’s in the dark,
Where we’re from, we’re no one,
Our hometown’s in the dark,
Our hometown’s in the dark
Twenty-one pilots song PERFECT for this series! 😛

and I’m not going to tarnish something I’ve always enjoyed with lots of complaints and rambling about where things went wrong. Because as much as I’ve enjoyed this series, this finale fell completely short….in more ways than one.

Everyone took a turn driving except me. Which was completely unfair. Just because of that one time. Well, and that other time. And the one with the mailbox, but seriously, who remembered that anymore?

Book one and book two were shocking to me in a way that captured me from the bottom of my heart. David was a character that made me laugh, smile, and root for every little thing he did. I thrived on his horrible metaphors/similes

To a drone I’d have a tiny heat signature, like a squirrel or something. A secretly very, very deadly squirrel.

and his primal need to be a part of something that shaped his soul from the moment Steelheart stole his childhood. He’s nerdy, sweet, kind, and loyal in ways that are hard to find in YA fantasy (I mean, he’s the first adorable nerd I’ve found). And his resolute belief that Epics can’t be good was something that shaped him into the adorkable boy we met today-until he met Megan.

“You,” I said, tipping her chin up to look her in the eye, “are a sunrise.”
She cocked her head. “A…sunrise?”
“Yup.”
“Not a potato?”
“Not right now.”
“Not a hippo?”
“No, and…wait, when did I call you a hippo?”
“Last week. You were drowsy.”
Sparks. Didn’t remember that one.

That plot twist in book one was beyond words amazing, making me drop my jaw and gasp into the dark bedroom I was reading in. I mean…I couldn’t believe it. Sanderson is someone that never ceases to amaze me with his writing, his creativity and originality, and utter lack of disregard for those of us who can’t stand to lose our favorite characters. That being said, Megan became a not-so-villain I adored. The way she continually protected David..I can’t even. Don’t get me started on the fangirling! But, as I said above, all this stuff I loved, cherished, lived for and looked forward to?? It was just…it was virtually nonexistent.

I met her eyes and shrugged. “I’m glad you’re not the same Megan. I don’t want you to be the same. My Megan is a sunrise, always changing, but beautiful the entire time.”

David and Megan?? They were great. Honestly-the reason my heart still beat out of my chest for the entirety of the novel. David himself?? Please, I will NEVER forget my boy. The story I’ve come to obsess and fangirl over?? Gone. I’m sorry, but what was this supposed to be? It was good still, I mean, I wouldn’t have rated a four if it didn’t make me happy-but a four in an epic fantasy series by Sanderson? That might as well be a two.

“Well,” Mizzy said, “if only we had access to someone with a freakishly large repository of knowledge about Epics, and who can’t help but tell us about them. Like, all the time.”
“Well, it is my thang.”
“What did I tell you about that word, David?”

It lacked passion, direction, and, most of all, reason. This, to me, felt like a watered down version of what Sanderson can do. I haven’t read all his books, no, but I have read the Mistborn series and it owns a piece of my soul, just like this one does-But in totally different ways. So, my reasoning for disappointment has a fairly simple answer: Sanderson backed out. He was holding something back. That is literally the only thing I can think of. I have to wonder if, in some weird sick way, Sanderson felt like he couldn’t do what needed to be done, in this genre, to make this story unforgettable.

My world was only sounds. Each one horrible, an assault, a scream. I curled up before the barrage, but then the lights attacked. Garish, terrible. Violent. I hated them, though that did nothing. I wept, but this too terrified me; my own body betraying me with an assault from within, to pair with all those from without.

That’s not to say he didn’t do what he wanted. I have no clue…I mean, who am I to say? But I have to wonder why he didn’t make this more perilous, more jaw-dropping, more….just more. You don’t have to kill people off to make a story amazing, you know. He could have put David through the ringer-he and Megan both-but instead made it fairly easy. I don’t know. It just wasn’t what I was picturing while waiting a year for this final installment. And no, for once, this isn’t my fault. I didn’t build it up-I just know how Sanderson writes, and this felt like a completely different style, in the end.

“David…I’m warning you. I can’t control this, even with the secret of the weaknesses.”
“Well,” I said, “we’ll merely have to do the best we can.”
“But-“
“Megan,” I said, lifting her head to look her in the eyes. “I’d rather die than be without you.”

I will always adore this series, especially books one and two, but I will always remember how the third left me needing and wanting an ending that just didn’t exist. I didn’t want my boy to die, at all, but I did want things to be more difficult for him. I mean, his whole life led up to this…wouldn’t you expect a bigger bang to finish the evilest of evil off, once and for all? Well…I certainly did.

I stared into the burning red star known as Calamity, and knew-with no uncertainty-that something inside me had changed.
The depths had claimed me as one of their own. And though I’ve pushed them back, I still bear their hidden scar.
They insist that they will have me again.

Well written and without a doubt still one of my favorite series and authors for life, this story still had it’s moments of beauty that will stay with me forever. The descriptions and world-building still amazed me in ways I could only expect from Sanderson, giving me a few days of fun that boosted my mood from dull to shining bright. I just wish that my smile would have lasted until the epilogue when, inevitably, my dear Anna’s French frown found it’s way onto my face.

My name is David Charleston.
I clicked the button.
And I kill Epics.

**************

Where we’re from, there’s no sun,
Our hometown’s in the dark,
Where we’re from, we’re no one,
Our hometown’s in the dark,
Our hometown’s in the dark

So…I adore this series. I adore the action and the humor and this author. I am OBSESSED with David. But…I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed with this conclusion. Quite frankly? I needed just a little more. I just thought such an epic (haha) series deserved an epic conclusion.

RTC

*******

OMG. It’s fucking gorgeous. I LOVE it. I love it I love it I love it.