Category Archives: Hard

Title: Awakening
Author: Karen Sandler
Genres: Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic; Science Fiction, Hard
Pages: 400
Publisher: Lee and Low Books/Tu Books
Review Copy: Arc from NetGalley
Availability: April 9, 2013 (on shelves now!)

Summary: Once a Chadi sector GEN girl terrified of her first Assignment, Kayla is now a member of the Kinship, a secret organization of GENs, lowborns, and trueborns. Kayla travels on Kinship business, collecting information to further the cause of GEN freedom.

Despite Kayla’s relative freedom, she is still a slave to the trueborn ruling class. She rarely sees trueborn Devak, and any relationship between them is still strictly forbidden.

Kayla longs to be truly free, but other priorities have gotten in the way. A paradoxically deadly new virus has swept through GEN sectors—a disease only GENs catch. And GEN warrens and warehouses are being bombed, with only a scrawled clue: F.H.E. Freedom, Humanity, Equality.

With the virus and the bombings decimating the GEN community, freedom and love are put on the back burner as Kayla and her friends find a way to stop the killing . . . before it’s too late. Image from Amazon and summary from IndieBound.

Review: Last week in her review of Fragments, Audrey wrote, “Second books in a trilogy are always complicated.” I couldn’t agree more. Middle books often seem to wander a bit merely waiting for the final wrap up in the third. In this case, the first book, Tankborn, left quite a few strings untied and much open for speculation, but this second book raised even more questions and provided very few answers. A completely new storyline is introduced and only a smattering of clues come with it.

Karen Sandler certainly leaves the reader begging for more, since the book ends rather abruptly in the middle of some major action. The author has created characters that the reader can care about, so it can be a bit frustrating for the reader when faced with a cliff-hanger. You may want to wait until the third book is a bit closer to release so you can read them close together. Revolution is slated to be released in the spring of 2014 and that seems like a long time to wait to find out what will happen next.

The benefit of a trilogy though, is that the world is already created, the characters are in place and a lot more development can happen. In Tankborn, Kayla’s physical and emotional strength were demonstrated on many occasions and the reader could get to know her to a certain degree. In Awakening, Sandler takes that next step and  shines more of a light on her inner strength. Kayla has many choices to make and Sandler really takes the opportunity to flesh out who Kayla is and what she truly values.

This book also delves deeper into the caste system and the effects it has on the entire society. The ranking of GENs, lowborns, and trueborns is extremely rigid and even the privileged people who are “helping” still don’t always see how little respect they show those who are lower in the order. As the truth is exposed, characters come face to face with the ugliness in their society and must make the choice to let it remain or take steps to make a change. Fortunately, there is hope for a better future.

One of the cool things about this book is the wildlife on the planet Loka. I found the “pet” seycat to be pretty awesome. Kayla noted that, “Seycats like Nishi might be barely knee-high to the tall GEN boys, but they could slash even a full grown man to ribbons with those claws and teeth” (16). They generally eat rat-snakes (venomous spider creature with a rat-like head and long snake-like body) and sewer toads. Nice.

Once in a while it felt a bit like the vocabulary was forced in and a bit deliberate so the world would seem radically different than Earth, but for the most part it worked. Karen Sandler has a vivid imagination and she uses it to spin a tale complete with deadly meter-high spiders called bhimkays and Genetically Engineered Non-humans who often times appeared more humane than their human “superiors”.

Recommendation: If you cannot take suspense, I would say wait until the final book, Revolution, is closer to release. Otherwise, get it soon along with Tankborn if you haven’t already read it. You would miss a lot — particularly the backstory of Kayla’s relationship with Devak without reading that first. Both books are thought-provoking and entertaining with plenty of action, mystery, and a bit of romance.

Extras:
Booktalk with Karen Sandler Discussing Genetic Engineering and Caste Systems

Sketches from planet Loka (including the above mentioned seycat, bhimkay, and rat-snake)

Karen Sandler Discussing Tankborn

More videos about Tankborn

Title: Fragments
Author: Dan Wells
Genres: Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic; Science Fiction, Hard
Pages: 564
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Copy: Received as a birthday gift
Availability: February 26, 2013 (on shelves now!)

Summary: Kira Walker has found the cure for RM, but the battle for the survival of humans and Partials is just beginning. Kira has left East Meadow in a desperate search for clues to who she is. That the Partials themselves hold the cure for RM in their blood cannot be a coincidence—it must be part of a larger plan, a plan that involves Kira, a plan that could save both races. Her companions are Afa Demoux, an unhinged drifter and former employee of ParaGen, and Samm and Heron, the Partials who betrayed her and saved her life, the only ones who know her secret. But can she trust them?

The second installment in the pulse-pounding Partials saga is the story of the eleventh hour of humanity’s time on Earth, a journey deep into places unknown to discover the means—and even more important, a reason—for our survival. —(Summary and image via Goodreads)

Review: Second books in a trilogy are always complicated. They’re rarely satisfactory on their own since their primary purpose seems to be setting everything up for the final book. Even if you do get answers to questions, you’re immediately peppered with more questions.

My feelings about Fragments are equally complicated. On the one hand, yes, Kira finds out who and what she is in this book and what the Trust is—that is awesome. (And this is the point where I highly recommend that you re-read Partials before you launch into Fragments. The science-y plotlines will be much easier to follow if you do.) On the other hand, very little else in this book gets resolved. All the other movements, particularly with the other POVs, seem specifically designed to position all the pieces for book three. As a reader, that’s frustrating, but it also has become standard for the trilogy format. (I had a higher standard for Wells as Mr. Monster was an amazing and satisfying second book, and I’d hoped that magic would extend to Fragments.)

One of the greatest weaknesses of this book is the other points of view. From a story standpoint, these POVs are crucial as they develop plotlines that Kira can’t (since she spends the entirety of the book away from Long Island). However, these other POVs weren’t as “in character” as Kira’s were—most weren’t distinctive enough for me to tell them apart easily. This was particularly disappointing with Marcus as the summary made it sound as if he would have a heftier amount of the book devoted to him. While he had more POVs than anyone other than Kira (and I enjoyed his sense of humor most of the time), I wish we had seen more from him as I felt that the events on Long Island could have merited additional screen-time.

What Wells excels at in this book is the ongoing discussion between Kira and other characters (especially Samm) about morality. What extremes do you go to for survival when the human population has been reduced to 35,000 people and there are 500,000 enemy super-soldiers still around? Fragments spends a lot of time exploring this theme, and it is done superbly. I’d talk about it more, but my favorite conversation involves major spoilers for the book.

I especially enjoyed the wider look at the ruined world. Wells clearly spent a lot of time figuring out what would happen to various cities after twelve years of neglect, and the results were stunning (and a bit terrifying and depressing, honestly). The more we got to know about ParaGen and its creations, the more fascinating (and repulsive) the world got. As a character, Afa also helped widen the scope of the world (and raise the possibility of other humans surviving outside Long Island), though he was emotionally taxing most of the time.

The romance that developed in this book was delightfully un-dramatic, and the action scenes were superb. I have a deep fondness for action scenes that rely on the character’s intelligence (and not necessarily skill) in order to win, and Kira’s smarts are often the key to her survival, especially as she learns to use the link. Give me brainy characters over brawny characters any day. (That said, there were some moments where I thought the characters needed to put the dots together sooner, like what the use of “control” meant. Come on, Marcus, you worked in the hospital. Even I figured it out, and I haven’t had a science class since 2005.)

Recommendation: Get it soon if you’re already invested in the trilogy and are willing to put up with all the frustrations inherent in second books. Wells does an amazing job of expanding the world in many ways, but in the end, the book isn’t as satisfying as Partials was. If you’re not already invested, I’d say wait until book three is out and read the series in one go. I have confidence that Wells will give us a fantastic and satisfying ending, especially now that all of the pieces are in the right place. You’ll just have to wait until next year for that to happen.