Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Okay—I had to do it.  I love manga and anime, and while this book has no illustrations, any book that involves an ordinary Joe taking on superheroes gone bad, in an anime-style post-apocalyptic setting was bound to interest me.

The Blurb:

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his will.

Nobody fights the Epics . . . nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

My review.

Wow!  Action from page one, right to the end.  Sanderson is back to writing in a way that is fresh and out-there.  You feel like he has fallen in love with writing all over again, and it is awesome.

The protagonist, David is young, hotheaded and naïve. He is smart and too bold for his own good.  He meets people who are justifiably wary of him, and that is when his adventures really begin. David gets put through the wringer and keeps coming back for more.

The Epics are nothing more than common thugs, street-criminals with no class and no conscience.  They abuse their super-powers as much as they can, and they flaunt their power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The more powerful an Epic, the higher they rise within their own ranks. Like most street-gangs they are always jostling within their own ranks for power.

This is not a two dimensional tale of good versus evil. The Reckoners are not without flaws of their own, and that gray area is what make this tale interesting.  There are layers here, and yes, it is a setup for the rest of the series, but I don’t care. I enjoyed the heck out of it, and can’t wait for the next installment!

WOOL by Hugh Howey guest review by Alison DeLuca

Hugh Howey originally released Wool as a series of installments, and I can see why the book soared to the top of the charts on Amazon. As well as having what I call “the elusive compulsion factor,” it is written with a gritty realism that mirrors the subject perfectly.

It’s the story of a post-apocalyptic world, where poisonous winds scour the landscape aboveground on Earth; people live an underground silo that extends down for over one hundred stories. 

Couples must wait for someone’s death for a ticket to try for a child; every few years there is a Cleaning, when someone leaves the Silo to go outside and clean the windows, either voluntarily or under punishment. They never return.

Wool begins with a cleaning, as Holston volunteers to go outside a year after his wife made the same request. This sets into action a series of events that end up affecting every story of the Silo and beyond.

The first section is called Holston, and it is all about his experience. The following parts are named after actions and concepts in knitting: Proper Gauge, Casting Off, Unraveling, and feature other characters. 

First up is Jahns, the Mayor of the silo, and it concentrates on her relationship with Marnes, a police officer, as they go to find a replacement for Holston. Their journey to the bottom of the silo introduces other factions in a nice, geographic outline. I felt as I read Proper Gauge I was descending with Jahns and Marnes to the lower section of the silo, meeting IT and Mechanical along the way.

IT holds Bernard, who is unlikeable from the start. Mechanical is the setting for Juliette, or Jules, and she is extremely likeable. In fact, she’s one of the most original characters I’ve met in science fiction.

All the characters interact in a very original, organic way. As an author, I marveled at Howey’s prowess at herding people from one section to another – this can be a very onerous, exhausting task at times. He manages it without any deus ex machina; as the book progressed, I really felt I was living in the Silo.

The book reminded me of the best of Verne and Wells. The gears and engines are described so perfectly, it’s no surprise to learn that Howey worked as a mechanic on ship, servicing engines that were almost as large as the ones Jules works on in Mechanical.

Meanwhile, there is the rise of Bernard, who acquires more and more power and determines to keep Jules from the upper floors of the Silo. Jules herself is perfect – she’s strong and still feminine, but most of all she is incredibly intelligent. I love the way she negotiates her adventures and challenges in the Silo and out of it.

I read a lot of comments on Goodreads and Amazon that the book shouldn’t have been called Wool. I think there is a definite reason for the title beyond the chapter headings which I won’t mention since it is a major spoiler, but feel free to message me and we can chat about it, if you have read the book.

Finally, Wool appealed to me as a grown-up, neater version of Hunger Games or Divergent. The writing is very simple – and it is in the past tense and third person, hurray! There are no instances of “I go to the mirror and look at my too-big eyes…” – a major turn-off for this reader. 

Not only that, but the plot structure is also very simple – much like the spiral staircase that supports the Silo – simple, but very clever. From that structure, a believable, exciting world blooms and evolves under the ground.

Today's guest reviewer is Alison DeLuca, author of the Crown Phoenix Series of steampunk novels. Alison's review can also be seen on her blog, Fresh Pot of Tea. 

Fireseed One, Catherine Stine

 

 

Fireseed One by Catherine Stine  - guest review by Alison DeLuca

 

Fireseed gripped me from the start. Stine introduced the action, the concept, and the characters right away, and I loved all of them. Varik, the son of an agar farmer who has to shoulder responsibilities too large for anyone, let alone an adolescent, is strong and intelligent. More than that - he is REAL. He makes bad decisions and gets crushes, and I thoroughly related to him right away.

Marisa, the girl who breaks into the precious seed discs that keep Varik's agar farm going, is also real. Yes, she is beautiful with long, red hair and a gorgeous figure. yes, she is rich, and she is also brave and intelligent. But she also makes mistakes, and it is those fatal flaws that make her and Varik so human. Marisa has been "seduced" (in every sense of the word) by a political group. This compels much of the action.

No one, except for Varik, realizes how important the seed discs and the agar crop are. When the whole farm nearly is destroyed, it puts the entire world in jeopardy of starvation, since food no longer grows in the "Hot Zone" which is most of the US.

Varik's father developed something called Fireseed years before the action begins, and it is this mysterious plant that Marisa is after. When the farm is nearly shut down, Fireseed becomes the last hope for the human race.

This may sound very serious and grand-scheme, but Stine also focuses on the relationship between Varik and Marisa, which is touching and also very real. The arcs of the story ebb and flow perfectly, like the waves around Varik's farm, and I breathlessly followed all of them.

Add to this Stine's lovely prose, and the book is very compelling. I had to ration it out because I loved reading it so much, but at the end I just couldn't stop.

Beyond that, in this installment Stine has presented a complete adventure. However, at the end, there is a twist that makes me long for the next book. That is a very difficult thing to do, and the writer has pulled it off brilliantly.

I highly recommend Fireseed One.

Today’s guest reviewer is Alison DeLuca, blogger and well known author of the Steampunk ‘Crown Phoenix’ series. Alison can also be found blogging at Fresh Pot of Tea.

 

 

Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series

This week I bring you a guest post by my friend, Jesse Lee Schleich.  I first met Jesse last year during NaNoWriMo.  He was so passionate about the Dark Tower Series, that I invited him to do a guest-post while I am on my November hiatus from blogging.  I hope you enjoy reading his post as much as I have!

The Dark Tower by Stephen King is a book series which I consider truly epic. It spans seven books, and several worlds. We follow Roland Deschain on his quest to reach the Dark Tower. We go through a lot with Roland. At first we know him only as the gunslinger, but then we get to know him a bit more. He slowly opens up to us and the others, much like a rose.

The adventure from start to finish had a bit of everything, and I am pleased to admit I found myself on more than one occasion worrying about what was to come for the characters. Stephen King managed to weave together an easily believable scifi fantasy fiction which included elements from other popular works of fiction such as the Fantastic Four and the Wizard of Oz. Not quite copying them but bringing them into his work as surreal places, and offering moments for the characters to not quite trust their surroundings.

The story manages to have a good variety in the cast of characters while keeping it believable. There was only one time when I didn’t get what was going on, but I digress. The story focuses around Roland, Eddie Dean, Jake Chambers and Susannah.  Also their animal friend Oy, who you will have to learn about for yourself. I’ll have you know the saddest parts of the story revolve around that damn billy bumbler. But again, I digress. They meet pretty interesting people, like the mysterious man in black, as well as Blaine the Mono.

I read the first two books in the series during a pleasant period of unemployment. By the time I got to the third one, I was working at a local golf course, from the early morning, to the early afternoon. A lot of what I did involved riding machinery, so I was able to listen to these books while outside and in the sunshine. After five books these characters were close to me. Their adventures were what I looked forward to all summer. They went through destroyed metropolitan cities and on super-sonic kamikaze train rides. And I believed every minute of it.

By the time the end-game came around, I was as ready as they all were to make it to the Dark Tower. It, from the start, was known to be the end of the line. The final period on the final page. So much tension preceded it. After a last confrontation, Roland makes it to the final door, and calls out the name of all those who helped him along on his quest to the dark tower. Then he enters. I won’t tell you what happens after that.

I will tell you though, that I re-listened to the ending over and over. You’ll have to tell me what you think of it. They’ve recently announced that The Dark Tower is going to be an HBO series. Be sure to read the book before the show comes out. You’ll be able to appreciate it more. If you like a great story, it is right up your alley. You’ll get to know some fascinating things about the King’s world.

Post written by Jesse Lee Schleich.  He can frequently be found blogging on birdwatching at http://gohawkyourself.blogspot.com/?mid=5310209