Mortal Engines

By Philip Reeve

This is a steam punk industrial revolution sci-fi fantasy story set in a time when the major cities of the world are individual self-contained entities that travel across the barren earth. This is a world eat world time and bigger, stronger cities chase after smaller, weaker cities and towns and devour them, keeping scrap that might be useful and discarding the rest. 

There is your usual scavenger crew, those out to make a quick buck off the misfortune of others who scavenge the discards of cities devoured. 

There is also the typical class systems of upper and lower with the power hungry upper class leaders readily betraying each other to further their own interests – who can really be trusted in this world? 

Tom is a 3^rd class apprentice historian living in the traction city of London in this world. He has been sent to work in the gut of London, which is the bottom station that is currently dealing with the recent acquisition of a small town and needs to filter the material to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. While there, Tom saves his mentor from a seemingly deranged assassin, but then suddenly finds himself outside of London in the mud pit with Hester, the would be killer. 

Weighing his options, Tom decides to follow Hester and their adventures begin as they both try to get back to London, which by now has moved away from them at a rapid pace. Hester and Tom join forces to uncover the truth about what is really happening on London and meet a wide array of friends and foe along the way to the final battle.        

For sci-fi fans who love a detailed story with mini battles, setbacks and triumphs, this is a must read. this is the first in the four book Mortal Engines series.       

Ten Thousand Skies Above You

Ten Thousand Skies Above You

by Claudia Gray

In book 2 of the Firebird Series, Claudia Gray continues the cross-dimensional adventures of Marguerite Caine as she tries to save Paul from the person she now knows to be the real enemy. 

Marguerite and her family are coming to terms with all that has happened in A Thousand Pieces of You, and are learning to deal with the consequences, especially for Theo. In order to help Theo recover, Paul heads off to the multiverse to look for a cure. When he doesn't return as expected, Marguerite is forced to make a deal with Conley to try and save him, one piece at a time. His soul has been splintered and lies scattered across multiple universes leaving him with no memory of Marguerite's Paul, or of Marguerite.

As Margeurite and Theo travel into the multiple dimensions they encounter new, alternate worlds and within them, alternate versions of themselves. As they gather the pieces of Paul, while trying to keep Triad at bay, Marguerite begins to question her belief in destiny and fate as she sees how things aren't as she always believed they would be - no matter what.


This book is as fast paced and action packed as book 1, and leaves you hanging and desperate for book 3 (A Million Worlds With You). Fortunately, all three books are out now, so you don't have to wait!

Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines

By Philip Reeve

Tom Natsworthy is a Third Class Apprentice in the Guild of Historians in a futuristic London.  But this London is like nothing you’ve ever imagined.  It’s one of the great Traction Cities – a city on wheels – that moves about feeding on smaller towns in the Great Hunting Grounds.  No longer does the “civilized world” stay in one place – 1000 years in the future, “Municipal Darwinism” dominates in a “town-eat-town world”. (p.58)

Despite being considered a low-class citizen, Tom believes that London is the greatest city in the world.  But when he is betrayed by his hero, Thaddeus Valentine, Head Historian of London, Tom begins to see the world differently.

Dumped into the Great Hunting Grounds, Tom gets stuck with fellow survivor, Hester Shaw.  As the two of them try to make their way back to London, they are swept up in an all-out war between the Traction Cities and static settlements.

London, it seems, has revived a weapon of mass destruction from ancient times.  With the help of Anna Fang, aviatrix, Hester, and a number of other surprise allies, Tom must battle the city he loves.

Full of dashing heroes, striking landscapes, fierce battles, suspense and tragedy, Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines doesn’t disappoint.  This is the first book in the Mortal Engines quartet.  Make sure you read it before you see the movie!

Feed

Feed

By M.T. Anderson

Titus lives in a future where information no longer comes through a device; rather, it infiltrates the brain directly through a “feed”.  Advertising and entertainment pop right into people’s heads.  People can “chat” each other through the feed and often are not accustomed to speaking out loud.  Titus and his friends are totally surrounded by consumerism, but having grown up with the feed, they cannot imagine a world without it.

Enter Violet, a girl who seems different from Titus' superficial friends. Violet questions whether there is more to life than the feed, and seeks out information about politics, the environment and the world outside the bubble that has been placed around her.  She even tries to disrupt the feed, shopping and searching for outrageous items but never buying them.  This confuses the marketing system of the big corporations and they can’t quite create a consumer profile for her.

When a crazy hacker/protester disrupts their feeds, Titus, Violet and their friends end up in the hospital with nothing to watch or do.  They are forced to hang out together without any external stimuli.  But it turns out that a feed disruption can have much more serious consequences than boredom; the feed is intricately linked to the brain and humans cannot “disconnect”, even if they want to.  Will Titus ever be able to go back to the carefree lifestyle he once knew?

Feed is set in a not-so-distant future that we can all relate to.  As technology surges forward at an incredible rate, we are all along for the ride.  But what are the consequences of our dependence on the constant flow of information?  Can we operate without it?  More importantly, what does it really mean to be human?

 

Steelheart

By Brandon Sanderson

What can I say: I saw evil superheroes and underground freedom fighters in the description and was instantly sucked in. This could have ended in disappointment and disillusionment. I am pleased to say it didn't. This book was awesome. It was a cautionary tale on absolute corruption following on the heels of absolute power. There were no noble supers like Superman, Thor, and Batman fighting for the powerless. Instead, Sanderson created a completely believable account of what would really happen if an individual or group could do anything or take anything without fear of being stopped. It was a little terrifying.

As a child, David witnessed the rise of the Epics, human beings with remarkable superpowers that set them apart from everyone else, and he continued watching as the Epics descended into terror and cruelty. Then, David's father was murdered in a battle between two Epics, a battle that ended with Steelheart's rise to power over the city. Although he won, the battle exposed Steelheart's weakness: he can bleed. Steelheart believes that he successfully destroyed everyone who witnessed his moment of vulnerability, but David escaped. Years later, David has dedicated his life to discovering the weaknesses of all Epics and finding ways to defeat them, and he is now ready to find and join the shadowy rebel organisation known only as the Reckoners.

There was a lot to like in this book. The first chapter was background, but it didn't read like a history lesson. Instead, it was a fantastic scene full of action and gut-churning disdain for human life on the part of the Epics. It got me angry and invested and it hooked me instantly into the rest of the story. The hero was original and his actions were always situationally understandable and clearly explained, which really cut down on the time I usually spend yelling at random book characters and telling them what to do! The villains were equally believable. They were simply regular people with far too much power and, although horrifying, it was understandable why someone with that much uncontrollable power would start to unravel and how they could end up seeing people without such powers as inferior, even disposable.

This book was easy to pick up and hard to put down. Those who enjoy a good sci-fi or dystopian book will devour this one, but fans of superheroes, action, and fantasy will also find a lot to love in this fast-paced and unique story.

The Court of Fives

By Kate Elliot

As a child of mixed-race, Jessamy is torn between her duty as a Patron and her longing for the freedom of the Commoners. In particular, Jessamy is determined to compete in The Court of Fives, a dangerous multilevel competition. Through the Fives, Jessamy achieves that sense of freedom and begins making friends such as Kai, a highborn Patron boy. Soon outside forces interfere and Jessamy’s secret activities begin to demand a terrible price as choices of loyalty, love, and honor alter the course of her and her family’s lives and lead her to question everything she once believed in.

The Court of Fives is an entertaining and refreshing novel with an exciting plot and an easy style of writing that makes it smooth and relatively quick to read. Kate Elliot has challenged many of the tired clichés we’ve all come to expect from a dystopian teen novel and created a plot-driven Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel where honor and competition take priority over romance, a subtle touch of magic is intertwined with religious elements, and the unlikely heroine is at times thoughtless, selfish, and overly ambitious. I was hooked almost immediately and I found the plot twists to be genuinely unexpected and emotionally charged.

On the negative side, I have seen better world-building. Some places, traditions, and events are described with a confusing amount of detail, while others are barely explained at all. However, I have always cared more about characters than setting, and Elliot’s characters are believable, if not always admirable, so I stayed interested and invested despite skimming through the occasional paragraph. I am also looking forward to seeing how the series might develop as I anticipate that it will pull back a little from Jessamy’s rather narrow world and to begin to address, and even combat, the brokenness and injustice of her society as a whole.

A few minor flaws aside, The Court of Fives is definitely worth a read, especially for die-hard dystopian fans who have been searching for a new favorite since The Hunger Games. This one will still give you that strong, flawed female lead as well as plenty of action and intrigue, but everything else will keep you guessing.

Learning to Swear in America

by Katie Kennedy

An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth, and NASA has amassed a group of scientists to figure out how to stop it before it destroys North America.  Yuri is a 17-year-old Russian physics phenom who NASA has recruited to be part of the team.  Yuri’s colleagues in Russia are used to his youthfulness, and (most of them) don’t make fun of him anymore.  Not so in California, though – he feels alone and awkward, and the other scientists don’t really believe Yuri knows his stuff, especially since he’s advocating using untested theory of antimatter to make the asteroid smaller.

Enter Dovie, wild, pretty and slightly unpredictable, with a crazy but close-knit family, who teaches Yuri what it really means to be alive.  When Yuri discovers that NASA might not let him return to Russia, Dovie and her brother help hatch a plan to help save him.   

Will Yuri and the NASA team be able to stop the asteroid before it makes impact? Will Yuri be able to make it back to Russia?  Read this quirky story to find out!

The House of the Scorpion

By Nancy Farmer

In a future world that feels very "old world", the USA and Azatlán (formerly known as Mexico) have struck a deal to curb illegal immigration. Along the length of the border, a new country named Opium has been established. The thousands of miles of drug fields are owned by a handful of very powerful, corrupt families, and are heavily guarded by security, making crossing the border nearly impossible.

Matteo Alacrán ("scorpion" in Spanish) is a young boy living in Opium, in a small isolated shack among the poppy fields. His caretaker, Celia, is the only family he has ever known. For some reason unbeknownst to him, he is strictly forbidden from ever leaving the shack. Matt's life changes dramatically when his hiding place is discovered by the rich kids playing on the property, and he is brought inside to the mansion. Matt is informed that he is in fact a genetic clone of the most powerful drug lord in the country and patriarch of the Alacrán family, 142-year-old El Patrón.

The problem is, clones are actually despised by humans; seen as nothing more than filthy, unintelligent animals. Upon his introduction into the mansion, Matt is treated with disgust and contempt by everyone around him, with the exception of a couple of special friends and El Patrón himself. Being the clone of a highly respected and feared man, Matt enjoys a certain amount of luxury and protection unheard of for clones. But why exactly is Matt so important to El Patrón, and what will become of him when El Patrón is no longer around? 

This award-winning book was published over ten years ago but it is one of my favourites, and still holds its own in the world of teen dystopian fiction. Don't miss out on this one or its sequel, The Lord of Opium.

Passenger

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

A new YA historical time-travel romance novel where said time travel occurs at the sound of orchestra music and the male protagonist is African-American and our first adventure back in time puts us on a pirate ship in 1776? Was this book written just for me?!

Etta is a seventeen-year-old violin prodigy. She lives with her mom, with whom she has a somewhat strained relationship, and she's never known her dad. Stories of her mother's life before Etta are riddled with inconsistencies, which have in part kept the mother and daughter at a distance.

One evening, while on stage at a violin performance, a strange sound pierces the auditorium, throwing Etta into hysterics and setting an incredible transformation into motion. The only other person who seems to hear the sound and know what is going on is a fellow teen violinist named Sophia. The girls are pushed through a time passage and land on a ship under attack, in the middle of the ocean, in the 18th century. 

How, and why, have Etta and Sophia managed to travel through time? As you might imagine, the answers are complex and span the centuries, as powerful time-travelling families fight to uncover a hidden artifact that could change the course of human history forever.

This book was...more work than I expected. It is long, and it took a while for me to get into it. However, the time travel sequences, the romance with a freed slave, and the treasure hunt leading to a surprise twist ending was enough to keep me going, and in the end I did enjoy it quite a bit. This is first in a series by Alexandra Bracken, who is also the author of the popular The Darkest Minds trilogy.