Book Review : The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world

Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

I had read a couple of good reviews for this book on Goodreads and it was a dystopian novel so I was excited when I saw this book at my local bookstore. You would never guess looking at the cover that this is a Post Apocalyptic novel.

This is a world where the Rabies virus has mutated to such an extent that anyone who contracts the virus either dies or is turned into creatures called "Weepers". They are very aggressive creatures who attack and kill their prey, which is the remaining human population.

I did not love this book as much as I did 'Feed' by Mira Grant but this was still a good read. It was a very quick read too. I liked that this was not a typical zombie movie. This was more of a mutation in humans that are still alive. What happens to these people is more scary. They are alive but have lost touch with humanity. And they are not dumb/unthinking like zombies. They retain the intelligence, if not memories, of being human.

The format in which this book is written is really good. A small snippet of Sherry's life before the advent of the virus. This relates to the title of the book too. I was not a huge fan of the insta-love between Sherry and Joshua. I understand her feelings of security when he is around, I mean he did rescue her. But falling in love in the span of a week or so? That just did not do it for me.

SPOILERS

But one of the relationships I did like was the relationship between the siblings. I want to know more about Tyler and about how his and Rachel's relationship will be. When I picked up this book I was not aware that this was a series. Because I usually try and pick up series that are complete or will be complete in a few more months. Now that I do know this is a series I am interested to see what happens in the rest of the books. Especially to see if the Father turns into a weeper.

I would rate this book a 3.5/5.

Book Review : Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I've been coming across Cinder in a lot of people's favorite lists on Goodreads and on blogs. The first time I came across it I liked the premise, though I did not pay much attention to it. As my friends would tell you I tend to like almost everything when it comes to books and especially when it comes to movies. I have also watched a couple of movie adaptations of the classic Cinderella story - Ella Enchanted and Ever After. I loved the former more than the latter. One of the reasons being that in this version she mostly helped herself instead of a mythical Fairy Godmother who waves her magic wand and makes the problems disappear.

So this book has always been at the periphery of my to be read books list. So when there was a major discount on this book online I took it as a sign and bought the book. I loved this book so much that I've already ordered for the 2nd installment in the series, Scarlet.

This was one exciting read. More than anything the best part was Cinder Linh. I LOVED her!! I mean, at least in the movie Ever After, Danielle - played by Drew Barrymore. had a kind of fairy Godmother in the form of DaVinci. But Cinder has no one. Just an android friend named Iko. Not only is she the Step Daughter that the Step Mother loathes, she also has to contend with being a Cyborg.

Whenever I think of a cyborg I think of the Bionic Woman. You know with increased strength and super sense and gadgets. Lots and lots of gadgets. But that is not the case with Cinder. She has to survive with a leg that she was fitted with when she was 11. And even though she is the sole earner (she's a mechanic) in the house hold, being a cyborg, she is the property of her Step Mother.

Cinder is one of the most kick-ass female heroines out there in the book world. She is right beside Dagny Taggart (from Atlas Shrugged) for me. The story has been paced really well. Though there are places in the books that the story is a bit predictable but the classic Cinderella story has been given quite a spin. I mean not only are people on earth suffeeing from a plague to which there is no cure, they face a huge threat from the Lunars. Descendants of humans who set up a colony on the Moon and now have extraordinary powers that lets them manipulate normal Earth humans.

And the Prince is being pressurized to marry the Queen of the Lunars - Queen Levana. So this book is a melting pot of genres and Marissa Meyer has a great recipe. I just hope this continues with Scarlet.

One of the best scenes for me was when Cinder stands up to her Step Mother and the part where she goes to the ball completely soaked from head to toe in a dress that is a had me down of sorts and silk gloves covered in grease. She is a girl that has not known love at all. And all those that have come close to loving her have left her (either voluntarily or involuntarily). She is ostracized but she still has a back bone (though it is reinforced). She still manages to open herself up a little in this book.

I cannot wait to read Scarlet where I'll meet Cinder and Kaito and hopefully Iko again. I'm thinking this will have something to do with Little Red Riding Hood. I hope it gets delivered by next Monday. In the meantime I am reading Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout on audiobook and a physical copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth. I would rate this book a 4.5/5.

I am hoping this counts towards my Dystopia challenge. This will be a read count of 1/6.

Book Reviews

Sorry I've been away for so long. My days at the office suddenly became quite hectic, so I've not had the time to even open the blog. But fear not!! I have been able to read quite a few books. I have recently finished reading - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, The Surgeon & The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen, Amnesia Moon by Johnathan Lethem, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu and The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clark.

I had already started on a review of The 5th Wave but had not been able to post it up on the blog. I will do so now and also write what I think of the other books (though the review might not be as elaborate as the one for The 5th Wave)

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The book had me in its sights the minute I saw that the description said it was a little like Ender's Game. I am also a sucker for a good post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel. This was a good book. I am looking forward to the sequel in the series. This is why I read trilogies and quadrilogies or any series for that matter, when they are already done or almost done. Then I do not have that agonizing wait ahead of me waiting for the end of the book and closure. Or at least I hope for closure, sometimes the quality of the story in the books slips, by the time the end is near. But one can always hope right? And that is basically the theme of every post-apocalyptic book for me - Hope.

Movies have conditioned us to think that when aliens finally make first contact, then it will either be to befriend us or to destroy us for our planets resources or to enslave us. This book falls in the "they've come to annihilate us" category. We also think (probably because of our egos and Star Trek) that the aliens will resemble us, in some basic way. Like them being bipeds and having a humanoid form. This book counters those beliefs by making the aliens that attack earth into beings of pure consciousness.

The strategy used by the Others, as Cassie calls them, is, I have to say genius. First they put the people on edge by showing themselves and not doing anything for almost 10 days. Then they knock out everything electronic using an EMP blast. This was the 1st wave. The 2nd wave was literally a wave in the forms of tsunamis and the 3rd wave was a plague that leads to the death of nearly 7 billion people. The 4th wave are the silencers. The Others in the guise of humans. So that humans couldn't trust anyone.

This book had good characters. Most of the book was in Cassie's POV. I like that she was not a born Bad-Ass. Before the arrival she was a normal teenager with a crush on a classmate (Ben Parish). She was pushed to the edge when she lost her mother to the plague, seeing her father killed and her little brother taken from her.

In the beginning of the book we find her just surviving. Her only goal - to stay alive to see the next day. She has learnt not to trust anyone. And because of this, when she meets another person after a long while, she does not trust him, even when he is in need. This pushes her over the edge and finding Sammy becomes her lifeline.

Then she meets Evan Walker. Who rescues her when she is freezing to death after being shot in the leg. he nurses her back to life and maybe that is why she does not immediately mistrust him. It is this very human need in her that makes her want to trust him that I love best. This has been written very well. Even when she finds out that he is one of the Others she still wants to trust him. This is what the Others saw as a weakness. But is also humanity's greatest strength along with the ability to love.  

Moving on to the topic of the Others I love that they did not make them up to be some kind of reptilian like life form. Instead they are pure consciousness. Also the conflict between their own ranks where one faction pushes for total annihilation of the human race the other pushes for coexistence. Also the Others, while on Earth conquering the human race, have to be in human form. They have absorbed their human counterparts. Not completely replaced them. It is this dichotomy that Evan Walker embodies. While the majority of the Others find humans repulsive or not deserving of earth, then there is Eva Walker. He feels a sense of liberation in his human body. He seems more in tune with his human side. This is what makes it so difficult for him. He has his loyalty towards his own kind and also the love the feels towards a girl   whose race him and his kind are determined to kill. I lie that the author didn't make him go cold turkey towards killing just because he fell  in love with Cassie. He just spared her and kept on fulfilling his mission of being a Silencer. I appreciate that the author does not take us readers to be dumb and did not bring about a drastic change in either personalities, be it Cassie or Evan. It was his love for her and also his wish to be rid of the duality within him that he does what he does at Camp Haven. 

Camp Haven being compared to Battle School from Ender's Saga might be a bit of a stretch. It is similar yes. But Battle School  was far more dangerous in my opinion. There all the adults were against you (at least that is what the kids felt). Here  at Camp Haven the kids kinda felt secure with their handlers/guardians. 

All in all this was a good read. I guess I went off on a wide tangent with this review. It has become more of a rant. Well maybe you can think of it as a rant about The 5th Wave instead of a review per se. Now that its been a few days since I finished the book I'd rate it a 3.8 (leaning towards 4).

The Surgeon & The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen 

Let me just start off by saying that I love the Rizzoli & Isles TV series. I really enjoy the dynamics between the 2 main leads. Having said that, it was really disappointing to me that the books did not do for me, what the TV series did. I understand that the TV series is an adaptation and not a carbon copy of the book. But I would not have enjoyed the books even if I had not seen the series on TV. The books just did not capture my continued interest. Rizzoli was such a drag. She hated herself, her family, her colleagues (or at least she did not trust them). She did not even have one friend. I'm sorry to say this but this could be because of her attitude. I mean she doesn't always have to act so tough. She acted like being a woman was the worst thing that could happen to her. She could've leveraged the fact that she was a woman quite a few times, but she didn't do that. Not all female cops have to be rigid as she is. She just went on and on about how it is so difficult to be in the police force. I mean I'm sure it is but all she does is whine about it.

The author has not leveraged the rapport/friendship that could be portrayed between Jane and Maura at all. Maybe that happens in the latter books. I'm still debating whether or not I'll read the rest of the series. I rate both the books 2/5.

Amnesia Moon by Johnathan Lethem

I was going through the posts over at the Book Smugglers when I read about The Angry Robot Publishers. I went to their site and was really psyched about the books showcased there. I read a few blurbs of the books on the site and I was very excited about them. Amnesia Moon was one of them.

I did not know what to expect from this book. The description sounded different and intriguing. I still do not know what to make of the book after having finished reading it. If a book is to be classified as good if it makes you keep coming back for more, then this is a good book. But I kept wanting to go back to the book because I could not understand what was going on in the book. It was weird. I can't say if it was a good/bad weird. I think I liked it. It was a plotline with which a lot more could have been done. A lot more could've been done with the concept of the dream sharing. If this was where the story was going this could've been made in to a novella instead of a Novel. Maybe I just didn't get the book (not just maybe, I just didn't understand a lot of the book). But in my opinion it was still a better read than the first 2 installments of the Rizzoli and Isles series. So this was a 2.5/5 for me. 

The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clark

I really liked this book. A lot of people might say this book reminded them of The Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. But that is not completely accurate. Here Finn, the android, is not looking to 'be' human. He is at peace with the fact that he is a machine. The similarity between this book and Bicentennial Man is that Finn falls in love with Cat & in this book she loves him back. To me this story was reminescent of a small part in teh Asimov book, I, Robot, where a little girl has a robot playmate/nanny. 

This book is not about the fighting for the rights about robots . It is a part of the story but not the core of the story. This is basically a love story in which one of the lovers happens to be an android. And through this book, Cassandra makes us think what being a human really is. I am not saying there was a revelation at the end as to what constitutes humanity. I liked it that it made me think about it, if you know what I mean. It was also made me think of what it would take to love someone for being all that they are and not just what we want to love in a person.

I enjoyed the journey that Cat took in her life. It was a beautiful journey with all the ups & downs. This is the sort of book that you love more once you are finished with it. I really loved this book. I rate it 4.2/5.

The Lives Of Tao by Wesley Chu

Let us get the obvious out of the way. The 5th Wave has a similar setting of an alien being inserted in to the human consciousness. I concede that. But in the case of The Lives of Tao, te alien and the human host co-exist. I mean how great is that? 

This book was not written like a typical Sci - Fi book. It had more of a spy thriller feel for me, that reminded me of the Bourne trilogy. 

Tao liked to call the relationship between him and his host as symbiotic but in my opinion the human did not really have much of a say. He/she had to take part in a war that has been raging for nigh on 500 years between entities that have been stranded on earth for the past 65 million years. There are of course advantages. The human host gets the benefit of all the knowledge accumulated over the lifetime of the alien being - be it Prophus or Genjix.

The writing in this book is quite fast paced. The Prophus who are said to be on te side of humans don't come out smelling of roses in this conflict. But that is the necessity of war. I am unsure of whether this book is a stand alone or a part of a series. I hope it is a series. If it isn't then the ending sucked for me. I would rate this book a 3.7/5.

Book Review: Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike

I recently stumbled upon a great blog called The Book Smugglers. I haven't gone through the whole blog but the book reviews that I've read are great. It was in one of these blog entries (about dystopian novels) that lead me to "Whisper of Death" by Christopher Pike.

I didn't know what I was going into when I started the book. But I'm glad I did. Most dystopian or end of the world novels nowadays are mostly to do with the zombie apocalypse. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good Zombie book but it makes one yearn for a different kind of scenario. And boy did Pike deliver.

-----Spoilers----

This book is about Roxeanne, an 18 year old girl who gets pregnant. She and her boyfriend decide to abort the pregnancy and on the way back they realize that they are now all alone in the world except for 3 more people in their town. They find all of them have one thing in common - a girl, Betty Sue who had committed suicide a month ago- and start to die one by one. And they die horrible deaths.

The story reminded a little of Carrie by Stephen King. Not in the way that it was a copy but that a few elements were a bit similar. The supernatural phenomenon and the revenge theme was there in both the books but were handled differently. Betty Sue could affect people's lives and thoughts by writing stories about them. Carrie was telekinetic. They both wanted to take revenge on the people who they thought had wronged them. But that is where the similarity ends.

In the case of Carrie at least there was an end to the story. But in the case of WoD the story is more cyclical. As Betty Sue says, she has a million stories to tell. So she can go on torturing those that betrayed her, in innumerable ways. This book will linger with me for quite a while. And to me that is the sign of a great story. It is making me think. To us something that we do might be of the smallest of significance. But the same thing might the greatest affront to someone else. In this case Roxeanne had not really done anything to Betty Sue personally, but she was still used as a pawn in her revenge and had to go through a lot of pain. I know its weird saying this but this is how real life is. A lot of books depict a rosy picture. that no matter what a person does(especially the main protagonist) he/she is usually forgiven or at least moves on and lives a relatively happy life. But that is not the case.    And you don't have to be the bad guy to get the short end of the stick either, like Roxeanne did in WoD.

All in all I really really liked this book. I would rate this a 4 out of 5.

Book Review : Feed by Mira Grant

I have recently started revisiting my obsession of reading books. Over the past 3 years the number of books I've read has dropped. Mostly because I was busy with my MBA and later with work. My Asian drama obsession/addiction might have pushed this other addiction to the backseat but not anymore. I have sorta kinda brought both addictions in balance (if its even possible).

Usually when  read a book I start reading books of the same genre for a while, and if the book has sequels that are out then I tend to read the series continuously. I wanted to finally try reading Steamppunk and read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. This book lead me to Feed by Mira Grant on Goodreads. For one thing I am glad that this is a trilogy that is completed. Secondly, Even though this book falls under the Zombie genre it had very little to to do with Zombies.

There are some people who were unhappy about the book not being too Zombie-centric. But I liked the way it was portrayed. This story was not what I was expecting. I thought it would be all blood and gore but it gave more of an insight into how a presidential campaign would be run and how the protagonists Georgia and Shaun Mason stay true to their journalistic integrity and to the truth. The only spin is that all of this is happening in a world overrun by zombies.

The story behind how the Undead problem came about was something different if not completely unique. Most movies depict the dead waking up from the graves because of a virus(mostly developed as a Bio-terror agent). Here 2 viruses were used separately to cure 2 diseases. One the common cold and the other cancer. The combination of the two is what causes the dead to rise. And in this version, like the virus responsible for the cold, this virus lays dormant and is present in every mammal.

Coming to the characters, I liked the Mason siblings. Of course in this book it was narrated by Georgia for most of the book so her character was to me more fleshed out than the rest. But I got to see through the eyes (or in this case blog) of Shaun and other bloggers and saw the world in their point of view. The characters of Shaun and Georgia, being opposites, that is one is gregarious and throws caution to the wind and the other is cautious and a bit of an introvert, might be done to death. But here, it works. At least for me. What I appreciate is that this did not mean that they were a complete unbeatable duo in the work they chose. They still needed someone else to complete the team.

The classification of bloggers in the field of journalism was a good touch. The Newsies, Irwins and Fictionals. The sum of them was better than the parts which was a nice message saying that though they could do well alone but were the best when all three worked together.

---------Spoiler Ahead-----------

People might say its hard to be relate to the part of Georgia's character that was ready to give her all for her ideals, which was the truth. Maybe they are right. It is difficult for us to believe in such a person existing in present times. But isn't it human nature to hope? Also for me its books like these that inspire us to do better. All of this comes from a place in the human nature that strives to be better. Also when someone asked the protagonist if it was worth it the answer was no. To that person the loss of all the lives of all the people involved was something that should not have happened. Shaun just wants his sister back.

All in all I'd give this book a 4 out of 5. I look forward to reading "Deadline" the second part of the trilogy.