Tag Archives: YA novels

Review: The Swan Riders by Erin Bow

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the-swan-riders The Swan Riders is the sequel to The Scorpion Rules that I didn’t even know existed until I made a little trip to The Strand last year with a friend.  When I saw it, I knew I had to buy it.  The Scorpion Rules was one of the better books I read in 2015.  It’s yet another dystopian novel but this time with a very sassy AI.  It takes place about   500 years in the future after several devastating natural and non-natural disasters. The biggest problem is a shortage of water that has lead to several violent wars.  So the U.N. decided to appoint the A.I. named Talis to come up with a solution.  His solution was to go all medieval on the world.  Every government must give a child as hostage and if they open war on another nation, the hostage dies and oh, a city is going to be blown up too.  At the end of The Scorpion Rules, our heroine Greta, the crown Princess of the PanPol Confederation that covers Canada to Great Britain, volunteers to become an A.I. not save herself but also save Elian, the hostage from the neighboring country that openly declared war on her nation.  It turns out that turning Greta into an A.I. doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.  The new King of PanPol Confederation refuses to give up a new hostage to replace Greta and soon rebellion starts to take hold.  As for Greta herself, the transition from human to A.I. isn’t an easy process.  In fact no many new A.I.’s survive the first couple of days so it’s a race to get Greta to the home of A.I. across Saskatchewan through an open rebellion.  The thing is the rebellion isn’t from the people Talis thinks it from.  Talis, Greta and two Swan Riders race across the country they are attacked and Talis is gravely injured.  Now they all must figure out why he was attacked before he dies and the city of Halifax is destroyed.  In way they have to convinced an A.I. to be more human and a human to be more A.I to change the world.  I’ll admit that I liked the ending of the first book.  I liked the open ending so when I did see the sequel I wasn’t sure how I felt about it beyond I had to read it.  This wasn’t as good as the original but it was still good.  While The Scorpion Rules was fast paced, this one was at times a little sluggish.  It just didn’t have the same flow.  While the main theme of this one is what makes us human and if we take out our human emotions from solving our problems then when do we cross the line of turning into a monster.  Can you really have peace through terror?  The threat of killing off a hostage or destroying entire cities hasn’t stopped countries from declaring war on another.  Maybe there are less conflicts but I wouldn’t say this world was peaceful by any means.  So while Talis rule may have saved billions people statistically but it hasn’t changed the world for the better and everyone needs help now and then.

Quick Review: Silver Star by Michael Grant

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silver-stars In the second book of Michael Grant’s Soldier Girls series, Rio, Frangie and Rainey have survived their first battle in Africa but the war isn’t over as the focus now turns to Italy.  Each of them have to deal with the reality of what they have done and what they will be asked to do in the future. They all have been asked to do things that they never thought they would have to do even though they knew they would be going into war.  It’s interesting how each of the our three heroines deal with their emotions but also how the adversity makes each of them stronger.  The narrator is still unknown though there are some pretty strong hints a to who it.

This book may take place during World War 2 in an alternative history but it is very much relevant today.  We are still debating the place of women in our Military.  We are still dealing with racism and yes you could even say we are fighting against a potential fascism regime.  Rio, Frangie and Rainey are just normal girls who all signed up for the Army for different reasons but the one thing that they have in common is that when they are needed they step up and do what’s right.  They all fight their own internal prejudices but as the book goes on you can see them all face it and realize how wrong they have been.  It’s not an overnight revelation or anything but you can see the walls coming down.  All three are very brave not just because they are fighting a war or stepping when needed and going above and beyond the call of duty.  They are brave because they are also not shying away from themselves and the sometime uncomfortable truths about themselves. I hope that when people read this, particularly the younger readers get that too.  We all have to be brave enough to face the challenges ahead of us but also in ourselves too.  I’m not sure if this a trilogy or if there are more books to come after the next one.  As of right now, we have made it to 1944, days before the Battle of the Bulge.  World War Two is in it’s final year and I’m very interested to see how our Soldier Girls go from here.

What I’m Reading Now: The Swan Riders by Erin Bow

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While I wait for my copy of March to get here, I’m going read the follow up the Scorpion Rules.  I didn’t even know there was sequel so I’m excited but a little anxious because it had a good ending.  Open ended yes but somehow fitting for the story. I’m not sure it needed a sequel but we shall see.

Quick Review: Crystal Storm by Morgan Rhodes

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crystal-storm There are so many times you can do the whole “I thought you were dead” thing before you know it loses it’s dramatic punch. The first couple of times it worked because this is a series that has not been afraid to kill of characters.  True so far all those killed have been mostly secondary characters but still this series has really high body count but you wouldn’t expect anything less from the “Game of Thrones” of YA now would you?  Crystal Storm is book for in the Falling Kingdoms series and like George R.R. Martin, Morgan Rhodes’ pen is deadly.  (Thankfully she writes faster then George does) It’s full on fantasy with a huge cast of characters in a warring set of nations.  The main characters of Cleo, Magnus, Lucia and Jonas have been through a lot.  They have lost and won, made alliances and broken them, cheated death (for some more then once) and of course fallen in love and out of love and back in love.  You know how it goes.  Kyan the fire god had a temporary set back when Lucia destroyed his corporeal form but he’s not going to go down easy.  Neither is the King of Blood who should have died and yet isn’t.  He married Amara, who is now Empress because she killed the rest of her family, so they are surrounded by enemies and facing a enemy with extraordinary powers.  Like the previous books there are as many twists and turns as there are pages, keeping the reader on their toes.  I’m not sure I agree with all the drama but it is a YA novel so there has to be some teen age angst.  I just hope that in future books characters either die or live.  No more of this, “I thought you were dead” thing.

Quick Review of A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

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study-in-charlotte A Study in Charlotte was a very fun read.  It’s new take on the Sherlock Holmes stories.  This time it’s the descendants of Holmes and John Watson.  In this world, the famed detective and his assistant were real.  Watson chronicled Holmes’ cases and well fictionalized them.  The Holmes family continue to solve crimes and being eccentric, while the Watsons continue to be normal.  Here we catch up with the latest generation of Holmes’ and Watson’s when Jaime Watson starts at a new boarding school. Jaime meets Charlotte Holmes, the girl who is full of mystery as anything else. (For some reason I thought Jaime was a girl and I was a little disappointed to find out that he isn’t but I got over it.) There are little sprinklings of the originally stories throughout the novels and the nastiest parts of the stories like Holmes’ drug use.  Charlotte is just as impossible as the original Holmes or Benedict Cumberbatch’s.  Shortly after Holmes and Watson meet a fellow student is murder in a way that is reminiscent of Holmes’ stories.  Of course, they are the prime suspects.  They have to work together to clear their names. They story goes through many twists and turns that will keep you guessing all through the story.  You don’t have to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes to love this book.  You just have to enjoy a good mystery with interesting characters and you’ll be set.