Tag: recommend

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Review of The Serpent’s Shadow: Rick Riordan

I am such a big Rick Riordan fan. Yes he writes for YA and his books are definitely crafted towards that demographic in terms of writing style and theme, however, I just really enjoy his books.

The third in his Kane Chronicles did not disappoint.

It’s a great book and if you read the series, I think you’ll enjoy it.

4 stars and I recommend.

Amazon Summary:

He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sadie Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos. The Kanes’ only hope is an ancient spell that might turn the serpent’s own shadow into a weapon, but the magic has been lost for a millennia. To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent’s shadow . . . or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld.
 
Nothing less than the mortal world is at stake when the Kane family fulfills its destiny in this thrilling conclusion to the Kane Chronicles.
  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; First edition (May 1, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423140575
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Review of Ender’s Shadow: Orson Scott Card

Now this book won’t make any sense unless you read Ender’s Game as this is a book that takes place at the same time as Ender’s Game, but just from another perspective. This is from the perspective of the character Bean who was by far my favorite, even more so than Ender.

LOVED this book! But obviously read Ender’s Game first. 5 stars and recommend.

Amazon lists this as Book 5 in the Ender’s series, but my friend suggested I read this one next. I then went on to read the entire Shadow trilogy as the Ender books after Ender’s game take place about 30 years after the first book. Anyways, good book and I would suggest to read this one right after you read Ender’s Game.

Amazon Summary:
Welcome to Battleschool. 

Growing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets as a child begging for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who wouldn’t hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean has learned anything on the streets, it’s how to survive. And not with fists. He is way too small for that. But with brains.

Bean is a genius with a magician’s ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness.

What better quality for a future general to lead the Earth in a final climactic battle against a hostile alien race, known as Buggers. At Battleschool Bean meets and befriends another future commander – Ender Wiggins – perhaps his only true rival.

Only one problem: for Bean and Ender, the future is now.

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Starscape; 1st edition (May 19, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765342405
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Review of Ender’s Game: Orson Scott Card

So yes, I am WAY behind on some of the big trends. Like I just read Ender’s Game and it was a hit in the 80’s.
Me however? I was born in the 80’s and had never heard of it until my dear friend who was born in the 70’s told me to check it out because they were making a movie of it and it was going to be epic.

So read it I did.

And you know what? It was awesomely popular for a reason! I loved it! I even got my husband to read it.

A lot of people are immediately turned off if a book as anything to do with space and to this I say get over yourself and read this book before the movie comes out!

5 stars and recommend

Amazon Summary:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn’t make the cut–young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. 

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.

  • Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (July 15, 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0812550706
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Review of The Eleventh Plague: Jeff Hirsch

I liked this book.
I thought it was engaging, had good characters and story that kept moving.

I like this genre of books and this book had some higher expectations, but unlike some books with high expectations, this one actually delivered.
My biggest complaint? WAY too short.

I would recommend it.

Amazon Summary:
In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged and two-thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing–and their lives–forever.

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (September 1, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0545290155
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Review of Pandemonium: Lauren Oliver

This was one of those books that once it got going, I didn’t want it to end!
It also has a companion book called Hanna which you can read as an additional little novella.

Anyways, this is a continuation of Delirium which I was just mildly intrigued by, however, this book keeps the story going and I am really looking forward to the third book Requiem.

I give this book 4 stars and recommend it!

Amazon Summary:

I’m pushing aside
the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana
and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and ?ame.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.
  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (February 28, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006197806X