Category Archives: Post-apocalyptic

February 13, 2017 · 10:59 am

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1) by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: Blood of Eden, #1
Pages: 485
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date: April 24, 2012

Summary:

To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for… again.

Review:

This is my first Julie Kagawa book, but it won’t be my last. I have gotten tired of the entire Young Adult vampire genre and delayed reading this book for years. I thought to myself, been there, done that.

I was so wrong.

Kagawa brings an entirely different plot to the many, many vampire books that have saturated the market. Is there a romance? Yes, but barely and it certainly isn’t the focus of the book. Are there vampires? Yes, of course, but although she has kept many of the standard vampire themes, the world itself is completely different.

No, I’m not going to tell you how. Spoilers are not your friend. You really will have to read it for yourself.

I will share one passage that I got a kick out of. It’s almost a throwaway part, but because I know the traditional vampire tropes, it struck me as funny.

“At one point, I stepped in something soft like mud, and looked up to see the ceiling crawling with what looked like hundreds of winged mice. I didn’t mention this to Zeke as we hurried forward, though for some bizarre reason I felt a strange kinship with the tiny grotesque creatures.”

And no, she can’t turn into a bat and fly away . . . at least not in this book.

I am a high school librarian and I really only read this book so I could discuss it with my students. I never intended to read the sequels. Well, I am now. I have to know what happens to Zeke, Ally, and the rest of the characters. Some of them I want to be sure survive and others I want to make sure DIE!

I am so glad the next two books are already published. I would hate to have to wait to find out.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

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Filed under Paranormal, Post-apocalyptic, Young Adult

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July 21, 2011 · 5:42 pm

The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, #1) by James Dashner

Imagine waking up one day in total darkness, unsure of where you are and unable to remember anything about yourself except your first name. You’re in a bizarre place devoid of adults called the Glade. The Glade is an enclosed structure with a jail, a graveyard, a slaughterhouse, living quarters, and gardens. And no way out. Outside the Glade is the Maze, and every day some of the kids — the Runners — venture into the labyrinth, trying to map the ever-changing pattern of walls in an attempt to find an exit from this hellish place. So far, no one has figured it out. And not all of the Runners return from their daily exertions, victims of the maniacal Grievers, part animal, part mechanical killing machines.

This is the first in what I think is going to be a trilogy.  It is one of the nominees for the 2011-2012 Georgia Peach Award for Teens and one of the best so far.

There were so many things going on in this book that at first I had a hard time keeping track.  That is often the case when an author has to spend time world building.  I stuck with the book and I am glad that I did so.  It really turned out well although the ending is definitely a cliff hanger.

This is a book that I would recommend to readers who like The Hunger Games or The Knife of Never Letting Go series.

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Filed under Dystopian, Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Young Adult

July 11, 2011 · 7:20 am

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson, the author of this book, has a doctorate in robotics from prestigious Carnegie Mellon and his writing credits include the nonfiction How to Survive A Robot Uprising and How to Build a Robot Army. That knowledge alone should activate your senses as you enter Robopocalypse, a realm where robots run free and humans flee skittering in many directions. Told with the unfolding menace of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this novel will keep you up late and your computer unplugged. (from Goodreads)

I have been reading Robert J. Sawyer’s www trilogy which is also about computers/technology becoming self aware.  It is amazing how different the takes are on the subject.  Wilson’s book makes me nervous.  I am already concerned about what our lives would be like if there was an EMB that wiped out the technology I rely on.  How much worse would it be if that technology turned on humanity?

The first chapter of the book takes place during the immediate aftermath of the war between the robots and humans.  It almost made me not read the book.  There was nothing really wrong with it, but it wasn’t what I was in the mood to read.  I put it down for a few days and when I came back to it, I realized the rest of the book was the story of the beginning of the war and its duration.  The chapters alternate between different characters, so I got a variety of perspectives.  I ended up really enjoying the book.

One thing that struck me in the first chapter is the narrator states he is transcribing the records by hand.  He is not trusting them to a digital form.  That is one thing that concerns me about our (my) reliance on computers and the cloud.  Nothing is in hard copy.  What will happen if I no longer have access to computers?  It’s a disturbing thought.

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Filed under Dystopian, Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction

October 31, 2010 · 4:05 pm

The Roar by Emma Clayton

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In a bleak future, humans use terrible chemicals to fight The Animal Plague that causes all of the world’s animals to go rabid and renders most of the planet uninhabitable. The population now cowers in overcrowded walled cities. Mika, 12, and his parents live in London in terrible conditions. His twin, Ellie, supposedly drowned a year earlier, but Mika is convinced that she still lives. He’s right. The story begins with Ellie and a tiny monkey named Puck fleeing a spaceship in a stolen Pod Fighter. Sadly, their attempt to escape is foiled by the evil Mal Gorman, who has a plan to co-opt the entire first generation of children born after the Plague and make them into an army for his own nefarious purposes. And Gorman has special plans for kids like Mika and Ellie, whose mutations give them unique abilities. To save his sister, Mika will have to win a contest involving simulator battle games and many deadly challenges, using abilities he never knew he had. The story starts fast and never slows down. (from School Library Journal)

This book could quite possibly be the next Hunger Games.  There is no romance to it . . . the kids are only twelve years old, but it has all the excitement and suspense of Hunger Games.  Once again, the adults have pretty much destroyed the world and it is up to the kids to save it.  The ending is definitely a setup for a sequel (The Whisper, 2011), but it is not a cliff hanger and very satisfying.  I can’t wait to start recommending this book!

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Filed under Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Young Adult