Category: Science Fiction
Anthology: At Hell’s Gates by Various Authors
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
When evil overflows from the deepest, fiery pits, the battle will be At Hell’s Gates…Whether you are a zombie aficionado, or you feed on horror, there is something for everyone. We’ve summoned some of the top Zompoc authors, masters in horror, and even some new talent to strike fear into even the most jaded soul. Dare you look, let alone approach, the dreaded gates?
Each skillfully crafted vignette showcases previously created worlds in the individual author’s works. If you’ve ever yearned for more back story or ached to learn what happened to a peripheral character; your wait is over. But, as they say, “Be careful what you wish for”. Once it has been seen, you cannot go back. And once infected; there is no cure.
This collaboration is in honor of the brave men and women in our Armed Services who willingly lay down their lives for our freedom. Words could not possibly express our undying gratitude, so we have banded together, doing what we do best, to show our appreciation. All proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to serve wounded soldiers and their families. This is for you, those who have truly been…At Hell’s Gates.
[Full disclosure: I was contacted by one of the authors and received a free ebook from them in exchange for an honest review.]
I don’t normally post anything on Remembrance Day out of respect, but I thought this was the perfect book to review as all proceeds go to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. You can’t pick out a more worthy cause than that.
As you guys have probably picked up on by now, I’m not a big anthology fan. Usually there’s one or two stories by authors I know and like and the rest aren’t very interesting or are pretty poorly written. There have been a few exceptions, but I generally try to avoid reading anthologies for just those reasons. I was a little skeptical reading this anthology because I’d never even heard of any of the authors, but the blurb intrigued me enough that I decided to give it a go. This isn’t just zombie fiction, after all; it also includes stories with other horror elements like vampires and ghosts.
I have to say that I was just blown away by this anthology. There were so many amazing stories in it that I find it hard to name all of my favourites. And in all honesty, I don’t think I could name a story that I actively disliked. There were some that I felt were ‘meh’ but none that I thought were bad and shouldn’t have been included. All of the stories were well written and well-edited, so much so that I have added several new authors and books to my enormous to-read list. Sharon Stevenson’s story Welcome to Hell and Seth by Jacqueline Druga in particular stood out to me.
At Hell’s Gates is a very well-edited anthology. I think I caught maybe one typo in the whole thing, but it’s more than that. The stories were very well put together so as to make the anthology flow. There was a large variety of stories and the order was rotated so that you didn’t have two intelligent zombie stories one after another or a run of three quasi-military survival group stories. Seeing as I read the whole anthology in one sitting, I particularly appreciated this attention to little details like making sure there was a wide variety of stories and that similar themes were spaced out well.
In this anthology there are intelligent zombies, traditional Voodoo zombies and modern Walking Dead-esque zombies. There’s really something for everyone and even if you don’t like zombies, there are plenty of stories that focus on other horrifying creatures like vampires and ghosts. And you certainly can’t deny that the anthology goes to a good cause.
So go out this Remembrance Day and get some excellent new reading material while supporting our troops.
I give this anthology 5/5 stars.
After the End by Bonnie Dee
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The end of the world is only the beginning.
Zombies are on the loose and the world comes unraveled. A group of strangers on a Manhattan subway are brought together in the name of survival following the lead of Ari Brenner, a young man who represents authority because of his army uniform. Even though Ari doesn’t feel worthy of their trust, he steps up during the crisis as he’s been trained to do.
College student Lila Teske finds her non-violent beliefs tested in the crucible of a zombie attack as she takes her place fighting by Ari’s side. There are other members of the diverse group, but the focus of the story is on Lila and Ari, young people who learn about sacrifice, inner strength and even love during their ordeal.
With infrastructure down and communication with the outside world broken, the survivors head toward the nearest marina to escape New York. When they meet a lab tech who may know the key to defeating the virus, he must be protected at all costs. But the reanimated dead aren’t the only danger that impedes them on their perilous journey.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
It’s actually kind of funny that I found this book on NetGalley because 3-4 years ago I read an excerpt from the original version. The voice of the author was so unique that even though I didn’t have money to buy it at the time, it’s been on my list for a while. So when I saw a chance to read the whole book (a new revised edition, mind you), I leaped at the chance.
First off, Bonnie Dee’s zombies are not your typical zombies. They’re a little smarter and are surprisingly strong, but what really stood out for me was how you kill them. Just disabling their brain doesn’t work; you have to go for their spinal column to get to their so-called ‘primitive’ or reptilian brain that drives them. So having a bunch of guns and some sharpshooters isn’t necessarily going to save your butt this time like in so many zombie books. They’re also a little smarter and some of them are quite strong, so you’ve got the makings of a perfectly terrifying apocalyptic scenario.
So while the zombies and general world-building was good, my relationship with the characters was so-so at best. Ari and Lila were both very good, solid characters with lots of development. Ari has to fit into his unasked for leadership role as the only man with military training around and Lila has to reconcile the new everyday violence with her pacifist tendencies. If they don’t succeed in changing, they’re all going to die. There’s a definite romantic element to the plot as Ari and Lila become close, but it’s not always the main focus. The main focus is survival.
That was the really good part of the characterization. The bad part is that for her secondary characters, Bonnie Dee tends to use stereotypes. The pampered model, the cute and helpless kid, the scientist with the cure, the disgruntled teenager, etc. I would have liked her to flesh out her secondary characters a whole lot more, but she never really did. There was so much potential with many of these characters that was never lived up to, so in a way the characterization was rather disappointing when you compare it to that of the two main characters.
However, the plot is incredibly fast-paced. Bonnie Dee grabs you into her story and doesn’t let you go until you’re done reading. There’s a constant undercurrent of tension from the very real threat of the zombies as well as the many interpersonal conflicts that crop up in a diverse group of survivors. She has an excellent writing style that describes things in detail without ever really letting go of the fast pace. Thankfully, there was no middle sag in this book either as Ari’s group got their footing. It’s fast-paced pretty much all the time, which is what you really want in a post-apocalyptic novel.
So overall, I was pretty happy with how After the End turned out. The main characters were good, the zombies were terrifying and new and the plot was insanely fast-paced. The only real letdown was the secondary characters, which could have had so much more depth and added so much more to the story.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.
Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago – surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.
The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous – and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion…by any means necessary.
In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price – now that she has more to lose than ever.
I actually sort of liked the first book, Wither; enough to give it four stars. But unfortunately, Fever didn’t do so well. It suffers from severe Book 2 Syndrome.
I hate to say it after liking the first book, but Fever is just plain boring. Rhine and Gabriel run away and get caught in a creepy brothel-carnival before again escaping into the city to find Rhine’s brother Rowan. There’s a little bit of action in the end and we finally find out what those stupid June Beans from the first book were all about, but that’s it. It’s a slow pace for a book that’s only a little over 300 pages and that’s why it seems like it’s much, much longer. Face it: the plot is just boring and the pacing was too slow.
So let’s talk about characters. Rhine and Gabriel didn’t really change all that much from the first book. Rhine got a tiny bit more cynical, but that’s essentially it. She really has no character development in Fever; she just sort of reacts to events unfolding around her like she pretty much always has. And I hate that in a particularly spoiler-y situation, she still hasn’t learned to keep her mouth shut and stop herself from blurting out the wrong things. Rhine lacks subtlety, as she always has. Gabriel is just sort of your Generic Male Love Interest, there to protect her whenever she needs it and to make out with her but obviously never have sex with her. He looked like he was almost a good character in the first book, but he’s pretty one dimensional in this one.
What about world-building? Well, unfortunately, we learn nothing further about why the genetic modification in children left them with a decreased life expectancy and a horrible new way of life once society realized that. The older generations are still trying to hold it together and the younger generations are essentially contributing to the anarchy of society by not really caring what they do because they’re going to be dead soon anyway. We get to see vague flashes of the people in power, which is fine, but I really would have liked for there to be a little more information about the science of Lauren DeStefano’s world. It doesn’t have to be hard science fiction, but some information would have been nice, even if it were just mentioned in passing.
Essentially, except for the last few pages, Fever was a rather boring disappointment. The next book Sever has potential, but I really wish that DeStefano hadn’t dropped the ball so bad on her second book in the trilogy. It’s a textbook case of Book 2 Syndrome, unfortunately. I’m still probably going to end up reading book 3 despite that, but I am seriously having doubts about this trilogy right now.
I give this book 2/5 stars.
Partials by Dan Wells
(Cover picture courtesy of Dan Wells’ site.)
For fans of The Hunger Games, Battlestar Galactica, and Blade Runner comes the first book in the Partials Sequence, a fast-paced, action-packed, and riveting sci-fi teen series, by acclaimed author Dan Wells.
Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. But sixteen-year-old Kira is determined to find a solution. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that that the survival of both humans and Partials rests in her attempts to answer questions about the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.
Playing on our curiosity of and fascination with the complete collapse of civilization, Partials is, at its heart, a story of survival, one that explores the individual narratives and complex relationships of those left behind, both humans and Partials alike—and of the way in which the concept of what is right and wrong in this world is greatly dependent on one’s own point of view.
I’ve had my eye on Partials ever since it was on NetGalley as an ARC. I couldn’t get it because requests were not open to Canadians, so being the cheapskate that I am I waited until it was out in paperback to actually buy it. So I guess you could say I’ve been greatly anticipating reading this book.
You know what? It’s actually pretty good. For YA, it’s quite science-intensive, even if that science is slightly simplified (particularly the virus talk). I was very impressed when Dan Wells actually took the time to show the long, laborious process of research as Kira tries to discover what’s killing all of the human babies. It’s an interesting dilemma from a science point of view: How are these babies dying in a sterile room? If they really are dying in a sterile room it means that the virus is transmitted to the fetus from the mother. And how on earth does a sixteen-year-old new doctor fix something like that?
Kira is an interesting main character because her generation has been forced through adulthood very, very quickly. She’s already trained as a doctor and she’s only 16 years old, so she’s fairly mature. At the same time, she feels like every other sixteen year old would when the rumours in the community are that all women will have to be pregnant by 16 now. (Since a certain percentage of adults survived the initial virus eleven years ago, they hope that the more people being born, the greater the chance one of them will be immune.) She rages against it, rebels and eventually commits treason against the Senate, the rather dystopian ruling body of the community. Trust me on this: Kira is no shrinking violet and will do whatever it takes to save humanity.
The plot was both fast-paced and incredibly interesting. For me, it was the characters that I was more interested in, but Dan Wells did an excellent job of creating a believable but unpredictable plot. It twists and turns constantly; I did see the big reveal coming but only because it was used in a few other similar novels and movies. Of course the cliffhanger on the end ensures that I’ll most definitely be reading the next book, but Partials was so good that I wouldn’t have needed such a cliffhanger to keep reading the series.
What surprised me most of all, aside from the fairly heavy science, was the world-building. Eleven years ago, most of humanity was destroyed by a war with the Partials and the virus they supposedly unleashed and now the only remaining humans (as far as they know) are struggling to survive. Everyone scavenges in empty homes, there’s farming but not always enough to live on alone so everyone scavenges old food. Apparently expiration dates in the future will be longer.
There are no pharmaceutical manufacturing companies any longer, so some of the most important missions are scavenging for medicine in old veterinary and medical clinics. It’s a harsh picture of what an apocalypse would really look like, even if there were pockets of survivors: they’d be highly concerned about the basic necessities like medicine and food from scavenging, but also about the remaining energy. Gasoline destabilizes after a few years so humanity has reverted to the good ol’ horse and cart. It’s a very realistic picture of what would probably happen in the event of most of humanity dying out. Most post-apocalyptic YA novels don’t put this much thought into the day-to-day survival needs of their narrators.
So we have realistic and interesting world-building, a pretty cool main character and a reasonably paced plot. Even though I still say this book was over-hyped in the blogging community, I can’t really criticize it. It was a very good read.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky by David Litwack
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
After centuries of religiously motivated war, the world has been split in two. Now the Blessed Lands are ruled by pure faith, while in the Republic, reason is the guiding light—two different realms, kept apart and at peace by a treaty and an ocean.
Children of the Republic, Helena and Jason were inseparable in their youth, until fate sent them down different paths. Grief and duty sidetracked Helena’s plans, and Jason came to detest the hollowness of his ambitions.
These two damaged souls are reunited when a tiny boat from the Blessed Lands crashes onto the rocks near Helena’s home after an impossible journey across the forbidden ocean. On board is a single passenger, a nine-year-old girl named Kailani, who calls herself “the Daughter of the Sea and the Sky.” A new and perilous purpose binds Jason and Helena together again, as they vow to protect the lost innocent from the wrath of the authorities, no matter the risk to their future and freedom.
But is the mysterious child simply a troubled little girl longing to return home? Or is she a powerful prophet sent to unravel the fabric of a godless Republic, as the outlaw leader of an illegal religious sect would have them believe? Whatever the answer, it will change them all forever… and perhaps their world as well.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook as part of the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
What I find interesting is that in David Litwack’s world of religious extremes (blind faith on one hand and clinging to reason on the other hand), one little girl finds a way to bring both together toward a common goal. Both sides clearly are committing atrocities and are scarily dystopian toward their citizens, so by the end of the book there’s still quite a long way to go but things are getting better. And that’s really the beauty of the world-building in this book: it mirrors our own society in a lot of ways, particularly with the current events going on in the Middle East. Finding common ground is a start, both in the real world and in fiction, and David Litwack portrays a slow transition both for society and the main characters in a realistic way.
The characters were quite interesting in their own ways. Helena is dealing with the death of her father alone because her mother ran away to bury her head in the woods at a farm for artists. Jason is struggling because he’s never been given the opportunities of Helena, having worked a job after school for so long to pay for university and get a decent job. Then everything changes when Helena and Jason help a girl whose boat crashed on the reefs and she claims to be the daughter of the sea and the sky who must be forgiven by the wind. The character of Kailani is interesting but I feel like it had a little more potential because of the way the book ended. Maybe a clue or something about whether or not she truly is a prophet.
David Litwack’s writing keeps improving with each book, but the narrative of this one seemed a bit off. His actual writing was nice; lots of descriptions, easy flow, etc. But the story itself felt like it was building up toward something that was changed in the climax, leaving readers a little disappointed. Maybe it’s something personal, but I kind of wanted more at the end of the book. More of an explanation for Kailani, more of the circumstances surrounding her journey explained, etc. I try not to be too thrown by surprise endings, but this one did affect my overall opinion of the rest of the book.
In short, if you’re looking for a good science fiction/fantasy mash-up book, look no further. The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky wasn’t necessarily the book I’m the best suited for but I still found a lot about it to love.
I give this book 4/5 stars.