Book Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

"For a moment the image before us is frozen: our world, our lives, reduced to a handful broken stars half lost in uncharted space. Then it's gone."

Rating: 4 stars

Initial Thoughts: Different

Read: February 28, 2015

About

A luxury spaceliner suddenly plummets from hyperspace and crashes into the nearest planet. Only two survive, Lilac, a society girl, the daughter of the richest man in the universe and Tarver, a war hero. Lilac anticipates immediate rescue, while Tarver just wants to survive. Unfortunately for them, they have landed on a deserted planet with a mystery of its own.

 Review

This book was essentially a romance in space, with a little bit of sci-fi thrown in for good measure and I loved it.

This story is told in duo point-of-view, which really helped me as the reader to connect with the characters. It is these characters and the character growth that occurs throughout the book which made this book stand out from the other YA dystopia/fantasy that I have been reading lately. The interactions between these two and their reactions to their situation and surroundings was incredibly realistic. This was refreshing when it seems that in ½ of all YA books the female protagonist is secretly a sharp shooter and have unknown survival skills. 

The characters are so entrenched in their views (aka. frustratingly stubborn) that their relationship builds gradually, as they rely on each other to survive. The go from being outright hostile to one another, to trusting each other and eventually romance blossoms (this is a YA folks).

I am interested in reading more from the authors as they have set up an interesting Universe with an interesting history. I know that the next book in the series does not focus on the same characters, but I still want to see where the authors are going to take this series.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

“Survival is insufficient.” 

Read: February 18-23, 2015

Rating: 3 Stars initially, upon review downgraded to 2.5 Stars

Initial Thoughts: Boring

About

Station Eleven tells two stories, woven together following characters impacted by the life and death of Arthur Leander – child actress Kirsten, paparazzo turned EMT Jeevan and ex-wife Miranda.  Arthur was a famous actor, suffers a fatal heart attack during a production of King Lear. Shortly after a terrible flu begins to spread, killing 99% of the population.  Arthur falls in and out of love, Jeevan watches helplessly as the world falls apart and 20 years in the future Kirsten is traveling between settlements with the Traveling Symphony performing Shakespeare for survivors.  

Review

I am writing this book five weeks after reading this book and I am at a loss as to what to write. What I do know is that I am yet again the black sheep amongst my fellow Goodreaders and everyone who I watch on Booktuber. Many raved about this book and their glowing reviews bumped this book to the top of my TBR pile. I don’t understand the buzz. While everyone else has been raving about the hauntingly beautiful writing, for me this book was a struggle to get through and once I finished this book became unmemorable. I could not connect with any of these characters. They don’t really do anything and they are not contributing to a greater plot.  

While the premise of this novel was promising, post-apocalyptic traveling theater group, in this novel the plague is an afterthought. Instead the book focuses on a Hollywood actor and the people who came into his life. I want to know how the plague happened and why it happened, and while I realize that was not the purpose of this book, I still want to know.

Mistborn – The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

“Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope.”  

Read: February 14-16, 2015.

Initial Thoughts: Ocean’s Eleven meets Epic fantasy.

About

The Final Empire is a bleak and cruel place. A thousand years ago the man who was to be the ‘Hero of Ages’, took control of the world after destroying the Deepness, naming himself eternal Lord Ruler. 

Life is hardest for the skaa, who have been enslaved for a thousand years, forced to work until their death for the Lord Ruler and his nobility. The skaa have been forced into slavery because they lacked the ability to manipulate metals to power unique gifts, super strength and emotion manipulation, known as allomancy. The nobility have been granted these powers as a reward for supporting the Lord Ruler. Most nobles are only able to use one metal, but very rarely one is born with the ability to manipulate all the metals; a Mistborn.

Our main protagonist is a skaa girl named Vin, who has survived on the streets as part of a skaa thieving crew, using her “luck” to keep her alive in the criminal underworld of the Final Empire. Vin’s life changes when she meets Kelsier, who had been a legendary crewleader in the underworld until he was caught by the Lord Ruler and sentenced to death in the Pits of Hathsin. Kelsier has escaped and returns to carry out his biggest heist yet - killing the Lord Ruler.   

My Thoughts 

Wow, just wow. This book was FANTASTIC. After having read so many mediocre Young Adult books lately, I enjoyed having to read a complex, well written book that constantly kept me on my toes.

The plot was slow to start. It took me quite a while to make it through the first hundred pages due to the complexity of the world and magic system. Given that this book is the first in a trilogy the pace and thorough explanations of the laws of allomancy were to be expected. Once I made it past the world building I could not put this book down.

I loved the characters. They were well written and each character had their own presence which develops as the novel progresses. Kelsier was probably my favourite. Even though he is on a fools mission, his convictions are so strong that he makes all those around him believe in the missions success.

And we cannot forget about the plot twists. Seriously, that ending! You think you know what is going on and then everything changes out of left field. Once it happens it makes complete sense and you don’t understand why you never saw it coming. I love it.

Seriously, believe the hype. If you have not read this book, pick it up. I cannot wait to read the second book in this trilogy later this spring. 

Overall Rating: 5 Stars