The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith

Published July 23, 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

*I received an ARC to review*

Description

From the creator of the Escape from Furnace series, a ferocious epic of supernatural terror, perfect for Stephen King fans

Imagine if one day, without warning, the entire human race turns against you, if every person you know, every person you meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage . . . That’s the horrifying reality for Cal, Brick, and Daisy. Friends, family, even moms and dads, are out to get them. Their world has the Fury. It will not rest until they are dead.

In Alexander Gordon Smith’s adrenaline-fueled saga, Cal and the others must uncover the truth about what is happening before it destroys them all. But survival comes at a cost. In their search for answers, what they discover will launch them into battle with an enemy of unimaginable power.

This was the weirdest book I have read in quite some time. Plus it was really long so it was kind of like a Stephen King book for the YA genre? I don't know how else to explain it. There was something going on constantly, some really freaky stuff happens and there is a lot of death. Really... like, apocalyptic things happen. The book is based in England and mostly centers around a group of kids who, much to their surprise, have to run for their lives because everyone they come in contact with tries to kill them.

I spent most of the book trying to figure out what was going on. Because of the length of the ARC (the published book is 688 pages) I found it difficult to read sometimes. But like I said before so much happens that you want to pick it back up again to find out how it ends. It's the first time I read anything by Alexander Gordon Smith but I think I might check out some of his other stuff. I've heard a little bit about his Furnace series so that might be going on my "to read" list.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 4

Day 4- Favorite Sci-Fi

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Description

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

I think the thing I liked most about this book was the humor. Some Sci-Fi books are just weird, making it hard for me to read. This one combines weird with funny... and apparently that's my thing.

There are parts so weird that you kind of have to laugh at it or you'll shake your head and put the book down to never look at it again. But it fits my sense of humor so I didn't have a problem laughing, even though some head shaking was included. A good read and a classic (or should be considered one if it isn't)!

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Description

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...

I just loved this book... all the feels! I never thought I'd like a book from a zombie's perspective, but this zombie is so freakin' likeable! I really came to like him because I could tell how hard he was trying to change and that he wanted to be different.

A couple of the reviews I read about Warm Bodies before I read it were negative because they said the names were too close to those in Romeo and Juliet (R and Julie for example) but I didn't pick that up when I was reading. I mean, I can't think about Shakespeare when zombies are involved, though I suppose you could draw comparisons if you wanted to put the time in. I really didn't. Another complaint was this "..." but I like ellipsis and there are only so many ways you can show the slow speech patterns. It didn't bother me like some other reviews I read, but I did notice them.

Julie is far more forgiving than one could expect, but I think it's meant to show her willingness to forgive and she seems to have this light in her soul. Sorry, that was cheesy. But I rolled my eyes multiple times over her "bad girl" image she tried to give herself. You are surrounded by zombies, how are you so calm?

I don't want to give away too much, but these zombies love brains, not just the flesh. So when R eats the brain of Julie's boyfriend? Let's just say that that's what starts him on his change. I haven't seen the movie yet but I plan to soon. It's funny and touching and a good zombie love story (these are words I never thought I would say together).

Zoo by James Patterson

 

Description

All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the impending violence becomes terrifyingly clear.

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.

This was one of those books that I couldn't put down. It had an interesting plot, action & tension to keep me interested and some scenes that had me a little scared... I was worried, OK?

Animals all over the world are attacking humans. It isn't normal attacking either. It's this crazy coordinated animal mob kind of attack, pets are turning on their owners and the animals are really smart about the attacks. Then of course there is the political aspect of everything. Oz knows something is up and has been trying to warn people for years, but politics blah blah blah and the world is doomed because nobody will listen and politicians are being ignorant. I feel like Patterson was trying to make a point here, making me think he has an issue with politicians and the way things are run; Ignoring the problem until it can't be ignored anymore.

And then there's the obvious undertones: animals aren't the bad guys, we are for ruining the Earth! We brought this on ourselves! (This may be true but still... not a new concept). A different take on why it's happening though, I'll give him that. Something I thought was a little strange was that half way through the book it jumps ahead 5 years in time. Possibly to show that nature won't make that swift of a change overnight? And maybe that's why people don't notice things that happen gradually unless they're paying attention? Just speculating, here.

What I didn't like was the lack of emotion by the main character, Oz. It's (mostly) narrated in the first person and I was getting so angry that he didn't seem to be emotional at all when people around him died. He would be like, oh no! This person I cared about was killed! Death and stuff... whatevs. And then go back to what he was doing, at one point making a really weak joke. Gah!

But, overall, it was an entertaining read for a lazy day. And (added bonus) if you have a kindle and want to sample the book a little bit before you decide if you actually want to buy it or not, you can get a free preview of the first 23 Chapters!

Updated: I also recently (as of June 2013) listened to the audio book. If you choose to listen to the audio book, beware that the guy that reads the book is bad at Chloe's French accent. I considered fast forwarding the parts where she talked because I was so annoyed.

Congo by Michael Crichton

Description

Deep in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists are mysteriously and brutally killed in a matter of minutes.

Ten thousand miles away, Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies--all motionless except for one moving image--a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.

In San Francisco, primatologist Peter Elliot works with Amy, a gorilla with an extraordinary vocabulary of 620 "signs," the most ever learned by a primate, and she likes to finger paint. But recently her behavior has been erratic and her drawings match, with stunning accuracy, the brittle pages of a Portuguese print dating back to 1642 . . . a drawing of an ancient lost city. A new expedition--along with Amy--is sent into the Congo, where they enter a secret world, and the only way out may be through a horrifying death . . .

I liked this novel despite the technical mumbo-jumbo, of which there was a lot. I am easily distracted and there were quite a few times when descriptions of things went on and on and I started to imagine it sounding like the adults in Peanuts cartoons "woh wah wah woh wah wah wah..." I mean, I'm glad Crichton put so much effort into researching things, but could we get back to the gorillas, please?

Now on to the good stuff. I loved Amy the gorilla (but who wouldn't? She's awesome!). The action scenes were what made me keep coming back and not want to put the book down. Karen Ross often goes between someone I liked and disliked, which worked for me because if you have a character in a book you can't stand you just want them to die a horrible death... or is that just me? Overall it's a book I would recommend people read even with the boring over detailed parts.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Description

In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time. The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world--now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began--and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.

This is one of those books that made me stop and think about life. More specifically, and obviously, about time. Dor was interested in time way back before anyone knew what time was. And, when his wife became ill, wanted to stop time or go back in time in order to be with her. What he got wasn't exactly what he was looking for.

His job later is to find 2 people, one who wants too much time and one who wants too little and to help them. He definitely does that (though it takes until the end of the book to get to it). It's an inspirational read and one that doesn't take very long to get through (always a plus for me).

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway

 Published April 23rd 2013 by Dutton Adult

Description

In Bee Ridgway’s wonderfully imaginative debut novel, a man and a woman travel through time in a quest to bring down a secret society that controls the past and, thus, the future.

“You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life's advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.

In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.

I was sent an advance copy to review and I'm so glad I got to read it! I am a fan of time travel concepts and this book had a really interesting take on the idea. Time is like a river... it flows in one direction. Except it isn't. That's just what the Guild tells people that jump forward in time. The truth behind it is much more complicated.

Nick and Julia's relationship feels more real to me than the obsessive loves I've read in other books (like in A Discovery of Witches, for example). Julia is able to discover what she can do on her own. I was happy to read something with such a strong female character. No, she isn't perfect and made choices that kept her from finding things out earlier, but it was all her. She is independent and strong and pretty awesome for a woman from 1815... no shrinking violets here.

There were pieces of poetry scattered throughout the novel and I was able to pick out a couple of my favorites, though they weren't directly mentioned. It was like an Easter egg placed just for me to find. The main thing that I had a hard time with (and it was only minor) was that the Guild would just give people that much money every year to do whatever they wanted. Certain people would be able to be used by them but it seems a little extravagant.

I hope there will be at least another book coming, because there was so much of the story left to tell! I am going to be suggesting this to family and friends!

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really wasn't impressed by this book. I found many of the characters annoying and whiny. I would probably be whiny in their situation too, but hopefully not to that extent. Jurassic Park is a favorite movie of mine so I was excited to start reading. It started out ok and got a lot better, but by the time I was 3/4 of the way through I was just ready to be done. There was a lot of good action scenes and tension. The thing that I disliked most was the character development. I hated Hammond (& usually Lex) so much that they took away from what I was reading.

Overall, the writing was good and I appreciated a lot of what Ian Malcolm had to say about the resposibility of scientists, but (it pains me to say) I think I like the movie better.




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Mockingjay (Book 3 of the Hunger Games series) by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've used the word "haunting" in the past to describe The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. This book is the most haunting of the 3. The series has effected me in so many ways. It's one of those books that stay with you well after reading it. I actually feel for the characters in a way I haven't before. Their injustice and struggles have had me on the verge of tears (and sometimes actual tears). It made me feel so sad, which, I'm not sure is good or not. However it is such wonderful writing that you can't help but feel.



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