“Blackout” by Mira Grant (Orbit, 2012)

The conclusion to the action-packed and riveting Newflesh trilogy, Blackout, does what Feed did in exploding out of the gate with great writing, strong characters, and a story you couldn’t stop reading; as well as what Deadline continued with in ratcheting up the tension and delving out shocking plot twists to keep readers demanding more.  The most important thing about this book is that it remains true to its characters in every way so that if the reader has been paying attention from the first line of the first book, they shouldn’t be too surprised, and yet it’s still satisfying and rewarding to see the events you hoped might happen on the page before you, as well as some great shockers you might not have seen coming.

Spoiler warning: if you haven’t read Feed or Deadline and you don’t want to get spoiled, you should stop reading now.

We last left George apparently somehow alive and well, living the life of a clone in a CDC lab.  She slowly puts things together as time passes, but for every answer there are fifty more questions.  Also is she really Georgia Mason?  She doesn’t have the reservoir condition anymore; she’s a lot thinner that George ever was; and her hair is annoyingly long and bleaching with every shower.  Then she finds out she might have an ally or two on the inside, but she isn’t sure if she can trust them.

Meanwhile, as Shaun continues to talk to Georgia in his head and act all kinds of crazy, he keeps the gang of After the End Times on the move.  After spending some time with Dr. Abbey in her secret lab, as she takes copious daily amounts of his virus-immune blood, he thinks about where the trail is leading next, where he can get more answers, and find out just what this whole conspiracy is all about.  It will involve possibly going on a rescue mission to Florida, which has been designated a zombie-ridden loss for the country; meeting with his parents who he hates, to ask for help; and tracking down the best I.D. counterfeiter in the business to start their new lives.

Mira Grant skillfully switches between the George and Shaun storylines with each chapter, making the characters appear as distinct and complex as they were in the first two books, as she slowly but seamlessly brings them together, building the tension and thrill.  The reader knows the step-siblings are going to meet up again at some point, but will Shaun be able keep his sanity or will he just be pushed over the edge?  Then there’s the question of which clone of Georgia Mason will be there to greet him?

Blackout is the perfect, satiating finish to the trilogy, making the three-book series feel like one long, epic story.  No reader will be disappointed, with a worthwhile ending that will leave him or her sad that the wonderful journey is now over . . . but just like when the end of Harry Potter was reached, or the final page of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, how many of us turned back to the first book and started reading that first page once again.  Having reread the first two books, this trilogy will be one I will continue to reread constantly throughout my lifetime.

Originally written on May 22, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Blackout from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“Blackout” Out Today!

It’s been three years of great writing from Mira Grant, with Feed in 2010, Deadline in 2011, and now in 2012 with the release today of the final book in the trilogy, Blackout.  For those of you who’ve been reading along, you’ll be no doubt zombie-hungry to start reading this last installment, and for anyone who hasn’t tried these fantastic books yet, they’re some of my all time favorites.  Below are my reviews to the first two books, as well as interview links.

  

MIRA GRANT #1     MIRA GRANT #2

Book News: Book Report for the Week of May 20th on Forces of Geek

Writer’s Cramp with Lisa Scottoline
In this fascinating article from the New York Times, readers hear from bestselling mystery author Lisa Scottline, on why she is now writing more to finish more books and bring them out sooner, thanks to the advent of the ebook revolution.

The Next Step for Ereaders
2012 will be remembered as the next step in ereader evolution, as this year is turning out to be all about making the backlit ereader.  While the iPad has it’s own lighting, common ereaders like the Kindle, Nook or Kobo do not and so are not usable in the dark.  This year both Kindle and Nook will be coming out with backlit ereaders, with the other ereader companies likely to follow.

More on Class Action Suit over Ebook Pricing
Seventeen states have now joined the class action law suit over ebook pricing, saying that “Apple and five of the six major U.S. publishers conspired to create the agency model for e-books and thereby fix prices.”

The App for Lazy Book Buyers
You know how when your browsing in a bookstore and all those books have the titles on the spines sideways, and you have to tilt your head and adjust your body to read them?  Well, there’s an Apple app now to help you take care of that, called ShelfLook.

[CONTINUE READING . . .]

What’s the Big Deal About China Mieville? In my Opinion, Nothing!

For some years now, a certain author by the name of China Mieville has been revered as the best thing to come into the world of science fiction and fantasy since the likes of Isaac Asimov or Robert Jordan, seeing him as the pinnacle of what is cutting edge and brilliantly written, to the point where he can do nothing wrong, and every book he publishes is an instant success and wins plenty of awards.

I’ve tried Mieville twice, with The City and the City which I started and soon became bored with after giving it a good fifty pages; and with The Kraken, which I struggled all the way through and was disappointed by the end.  Mieville just comes off as too full of himself, with his prose that often feels purple and overdone to the point of annoyance.  My wife has read and tried Perdido Street Station and Un Lun Dun, and we seem to agree with the same feelings about this author.  He also seems to be ripping of Neil Gaiman a little too much, who does what he does with skill and a resulting enjoyment, while the result with Mieville is something pushed too far.

I was delighted to recently discover that there are some other people who feel similar with regards to China Mieville: the guys at Penny Arcade.  They recently did a comic about it, as well as an insightful and well-written post about it.

And after reading the summary for Railsea, I know I’ll be passing on it.  Really, talking moles?

“The Death Cure” by James Dashner (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2011)

In the final book of the Maze Runner trilogy, James Dashner brings readers once again to a whole new part of his world, this time a look into an actual city outside of WICKED, where readers finally get to see if what they’ve been told so far is at all true and how harsh this Flare virus really is.  Just as with Maze Runner and Scorch Trials, Dashner continues to delve out one surprise and plot twist after another, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat with sheer excitement.

Thomas is now on the outside with the Gladers that are still alive, having been told by WICKED that the trials are over and the time for lies is no longer; now it’s time to see if all this work was worth it.  But he’s sick of waiting around for something that might or might not happen, and will the help of some others, they flee the WICKED confines for a slice of the real, Flare-ridden world.  It is a harsh place of haves and have nots, where society is crucially divided by those who are infected or not.  Then there are those, like Thomas, who are immune and are hated by some, revered by others.  But as the Gladers memories are given back to them, Thomas starts to remember a lot more than WICKED expected, and knows what he was involved in, which horrifies him, as he finally comprehends what WICKED is truly about.  As things come to a climax and Thomas realizes now what he must do, he must make the ultimate decision.

For the first three quarters of The Death Cure, the surprise and action is going at full steam, and as it approaches the end, things wind down a little and the finale arrives and is revealed.  It seems a little anticlimactic, after this lengthy build-up of three books that may leave some readers wondering: “Wait, why did they go through all this again?”  Nevertheless, for other readers it will feel satisfying and complete.

Originally written on April 24, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Death Cure from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Scorch Trials” by James Dashner (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2010)

In the sequel to the interesting Maze Runner, James Dashner takes readers to a whole new level of his dystopian world, where they get to see what’s going on beyond the “maze,” and what state the world is really in.  The Scorch Trials continues to do what its predecessor did so well: build up moments to big surprises, and continue to do this throughout the book so that the reader has no idea what’s going to happen next.

At the end of the last book, it was revealed that the whole “maze thing” was a grand experiment to find out who of these children would be the possible savior of the human race.  Now everyone thinks the work is done and they can finally go back to having a normal sense of life, especially Thomas; also they might finally find out about their families and their past.  But this doesn’t happen, as the group soon finds themselves left alone once more, and this time they are challenged to travel a great distance in a specific amount of time.  They are running both against the clock and against the other “girl group,” where whoever wins will be allowed to survive and live.  They must now travel across this scorched land, which has been blighted over time by sun flares, while the virus known as the Flare has ravaged the population.  There are also these zombie-like people known as Cranks, at a stage of infection far along with the virus, who present a formidable obstacle to the group.  Now Thomas will have to use what he has learned in the maze, as well as the knowledge he already has to get them all through this alive, somehow.

The Scorch Trials does what a good sequel should do, in ratcheting up the tension and the fear, as readers don’t know who is going to make it to the end, and who will be left dead in the dirt.  It’s a harsh world, and this is supposedly all being done to find the perfect human being who will save them all, at least according to WICKED.  Dashner continues to deliver plot twists and cliffhangers that will have readers gripping the pages to the very end and then anxiously awaiting the conclusion in The Death Cure.

Originally written on April 23, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Scorch Trials from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Maze Runner” by James Dashner (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009)

One of the first books of the dystopian tsunami to come out shortly after The Hunger Games, this first book in the trilogy is an interesting one that does a great job of exploring what a bunch of teenage boys stuck together would be like, how they would act around each other, and what happens to them in dangerous situations.  The Maze Runner is done in the style of Lord of the Flies with a great what if?

Thomas wakes up to find himself in an elevator.  He doesn’t remember anything about his past or how he got where he is; all he remembers is his name.  The elevator reaches its destination and the doors open to reveal a strange world filled with a bunch of teenage boys.  They’ve been here for some time, some at least two years, with no knowledge of how they got there or why.  They have food and shelter provided for them, and each day the mighty gates open up to reveal the maze.  In this society everyone has a job; the runners are the ones who spend their days going around the maze looking for a way out.

It doesn’t take Thomas long to make friends, but also to make enemies, and it’s always a big competition.  Thomas wants to be a runner, but one can’t simply just become one, that is until Thomas makes the decision to help two boys stuck outside at night when the gates close, and there are machines out there and they’re hungry; no one has ever made it back alive overnight.  There’s also the strange fact that a new boy arrives every thirty days, only now for the first time a girl has arrived, and Thomas has a feeling he knows her; he also feels like he’s somehow been to this place before, which just seems impossible.

Dashner does a great job of starting with an interesting idea and building and building on it, to keep the reader completely hooked and wanting to know what’s going to happen next, right up until the very last page.  He also plays around with the dynamic of a bunch of teenage boys living together and making decisions for each other really well, where fights often break out, as boys will be boys.

Originally written on April 9, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Maze Runner from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

Book News: Book Report for Week of May 13th on Forces of Geek

Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep
With the recent release of Stephen King’s latest book, The Wind Through the Keyhole, a Dark Tower novel, his next book due out some time in 2013 will be a sequel to his bestseller, The Shining.  Themarysue.com discusses some of the recent news and information that came out about the sequel, Dr. Sleep.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Files Chapter 11
The Boston-based education and trade publisher will be filing for Chapter 11 with plans to wipe out debt totaling about $3.1 million.

Free Harry Potter Ebooks
Amazon recently announced that they are adding all seven Harry Potter books to their Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.  Meaning if you are currently a Prime Membership subscriber, or become one, you will be able to enjoy reading the entire Harry Potter series on your Kindle completely free.

[CONTINUE READING . . .]

“Kingdom of Gods” by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit, 2011)

N. K. Jemisin’s final book of her Inheritance Trilogy is a thrilling what if that goes where few think or expect it to go, and then continues on to new and unpredictable destinations.  For two thousand years, the powerful Arameri family has ruled and controlled the gods that created them, but now the gods are free and the Arameri’s power is weakening.  Jemisin brings the series to a building crescendo of a close that is both shocking and fitting for the world, changing it forever.

Readers became familiar with the childishly cute and trickster godling, Sieh, in the Broken Kingdoms.  In Kingdom of Gods, readers get to experience and enjoy this wonderfully detailed and complex world from the viewpoint of this powerful being.  Beginning with a playful introduction as Sieh behaves like the godling he is, playing with children’s minds, satisfying his own whim.  There are two youngsters he fixates on: the beautiful Shahar, next in line to rule, and her twin brother Dekarta, who is young and powerful in his own right.  Then a freak accident occurs as all three join hands and Sieh attempts to use his godling power.

When Sieh awakens, the godling is alive but weak.  Returning to Shahar and Dekarta, he discovers that much time has passed and they are now teenagers.  Also the godling soon notices there is something very wrong with him: he is aging, growing older, like a human.  The gods that conceived him are unable to stop this process and he must confront this new fate, as well as work with Shahar and Dekarta as they face the approaching evil, the Maelstrom, which will consume the entire world.

Kingdom of Gods is a great finale to the trilogy, going down many unpredicted paths and pushing the characters to their very limits.  Readers will be riveted to the page, wondering who will live and who might die and how exactly it will all end.  And will there be a world left after?

Originally written on March 14, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Kingdom of Gods from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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To hear an exclusive interview with N. K. Jemisin, click HERE.

“Throne of the Crescent Moon” by Saladin Ahmed (Daw, 2012)

Saladin Ahmed has been on the writing scene for a little while, publishing stories in the likes of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show and StarshipSofa, as well as receiving praise from the likes of Publisher’s Weekly and Locus.  And now he arrives with his first novel, the surprisingly slim, but action- and detailed-packed Throne of the Crescent Moon, the first in the Crescent Moon Kingdoms series.

Welcome to a world and a land that you might think at first is familiar, but you will soon find is unique and complex and compelling and exciting.  This is the world of the Crescent Moon Kingdoms, where the djenn and ghuls are at play with people’s lives, while the holy warriors and Khalifs vie for control and power and domination.  It is a busy world with many different and unusual people, but Saladin Ahmed skillfully introduces the readers to the necessary few one needs to know.

Our main character and hero, albeit elderly and worn, is one Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, who enjoys his quiet time and his tea in his middle age.  His story and history is that of one of the greatest ghul hunters the great city of Dhamsawaat has known, but he is now being called back for one last time to use his power and magic for good, after the family of a good friend is murdered, and ghuls appear to be involved.  Fortunately, he has the help of young Raseed bas Raseed, his assistant and holy warrior who is extremely skilled with the curved, notched sword, so long as he is delivering God’s justice. And then there is Zami Badawi, a young girl who is now the leader of her people, but also the last of her people and is looking to avenge them.

Ahmed hasn’t only created a complex world with compelling characters, but a magic system that is fresh and captivating.  When Adoulla casts his magic, using passages from the holy writ imbued with his powers, the ghuls are obliterated, but the magic comes at a cost, as he finds himself weakened after the casting each spell.  Then there is the fascinating Zami who has the incredible ability to turn into a terrifying lion.  The three together present a formidable army.

Throne of the Crescent Moons is a delightful fresh fantasy story, featuring a new host of gods and magic that don’t fall under the common western paradigm, set in a fun world that will have readers quickly tearing through the 270-page book and anxious for more.

Originally written on March 14, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Throne of the Crescent Moon from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.