Tagged: apocalypse
Fairytale Apocalypse by Jacqueline Patricks
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
A ROMANCE OF APOCALYPTIC PROPORTIONS.
Two worlds bound by magic…
Three people joined by destiny…Lord Kagan Donmall rules the Verge, the border that protects the magical Fae Inlands from the mundane mortal world. Recently, the Verge has been failing and he suspects the source of magic is fading. His prayers to Danu have gone unanswered, until now.
The young mortal, Lauren Montgomery, hears the message of Danu and eagerly agrees to be the Lady of the Verge, for she desires more than a mundane life.
But Lauren’s twin sister, Tessa-ever her sister’s protector, challenges the decision. The Verge falls, and the Fae and mortal worlds suffer a double apocalypse.
Now Kagan, Lauren, and Tessa must survive in this new, hostile world and discover a way to repair that which has been destroyed while navigating the bonds of duty, love, and vengeance.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I have a confession to make about this book. When I requested it on NetGalley I expected it to be a shameless romance involving little or no thought. I was looking for guilty pleasure reading that day. So imagine my surprise when not only does Fairytale Apocalypse turn out to be serious, it turns out to be good!
What really surprised me were the characters. Yes, there’s the typical older protective sister dynamic with Tessa (she is the older twin) but there also is a lot of resentment about her role as the protector. Since Tessa and Lauren are essentially the same age, their totally different personalities come into conflict constantly. Tessa is grounded and very mature for her age whereas Lauren…well she’s definitely a dreamer, but she’s also kind of flaky and naive. Lauren is not necessarily the best match for Kagan, the Lord of the Verge, who is very serious, could never be described as naive and old by mortal standards.
I was also pretty impressed when Jacqueline Patricks decided to modify the tropes she was using, rather than being lazy and playing them straight like so many authors. I can’t really reveal all that much without giving away the storyline, but just imagine a double apocalypse (in the Fae world and mortal world) where powerful people like the Fae can’t use their magic any longer. How would they cope? Could they even survive in a mortal post-apocalyptic world, let alone a Fae one? It’s actually very interesting because it makes the plot far less predictable.
The world-building was excellent, no doubt about that. Yes, the Fae world is sort of a typical fairy world: there’s dangerous lurking around every corner and the pretty things are probably what will kill you. But at the same time, Patricks put her own spin on it and included some fascinating new creatures as well as older creatures that are usually neglected in fantasy. All of the fae have swords that communicate with them, something you would think would end up being ridiculous but really didn’t. It was actually quite a fascinating bond and I wish we had learned more about it. There’s always next book, though.
So here we have a fantasy with themes of love vs. duty and sacrifice for the greater good. We also have amazing characters, a really interesting and unpredictable plot as well as some pretty great world-building. I really can’t ask for anything else, other than for Jacqueline Patricks to hurry up with the next book!
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Sins of the Lost by Linda Poitevin
(Cover picture courtesy of the book tour a couple of months ago.)
From the author of Sins of the Angels and Sins of the Son comes the newest novel in the “electric, thrilling and extremely intelligent” (Ex Libris) Grigori Legacy series.
Heaven and Hell are on the brink of war as Lucifer builds his Nephilim army and waits for his new agenda to become a reality — that of having a Nephilimchild of his own bloodline to lead his forces to cataclysmic victory.
With rumors of the pending war rampant on Earth, Alex fights to save humanity from its own panic – leaving little time for her fledgling
relationship with Seth, the man with heavenly origins who has captured her heart. But when Nephilim children begin to disappear, along with Alex’s own vulnerable niece, the inevitable war between Heaven and Hell becomes as personal as sin.Heaven has its own plans to fight the coming apocalypse, but first it needs Seth back. Asked to betray the man she loves, Alex must turn for help to the soulmate she thought she’d given up — the Archangel Aramael, who may be her last chance to save her family and humanity from the ashes of Lucifer’s Armageddon.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy through the blog tour a while back in exchange for an honest review.]
The phrase ‘action-packed’ is bandied about quite carelessly when it comes to describing books, but let me tell you I’m dead serious when I say that Sins of the Lost is action-packed.
Not only is poor Alex trying to stop the oncoming apocalypse, she’s lost her soulmate and is trying to love another (who just happens to be the possible catalyst for said apocalypse). To say that there’s a lot of drama and tension in this third book in the Grigori Legacy is an understatement. It never gets into soap opera ridiculous drama levels but it really is the kind of book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. That’s why I ended up reading this book until four in the morning when I had to work at 8:00am; I just couldn’t stop no matter how much I tried to exercise my self-control.
Alex is of course my favourite character, just like in the previous two installments. This time she’s dealing with even more psychological scars and although some readers may be frustrated with her I believe her reluctance to join in the fight between Heaven and Hell is more realistic than if she were gung-ho about the whole thing. Let’s face it, she’s gone through a lot and it’s all because of their idiotic war that could have been prevented. While Alex is my favourite character, Seth is the one with the most surprises up his sleeve. His character arc, looking back, is very realistic but at the time you really don’t know where his character is going to go. He’s wonderfully ambiguous which ratchets up the tension even more. As for Aramael, I can’t really say much without giving away some major spoilers but let’s just say that his fans will be pleased.
As for the concept, I believe that some would call it ‘blasphemous’ or ‘heresy’ but I love how Linda Poitevin has arranged her versions of Heaven and Hell. God being a woman doesn’t even touch some of the other unique spins on classic Christian theology. I won’t go much further into it because I don’t want to bring my personal beliefs into things but if you’re reading this series, take it for what it is: fiction. It’s not intended to offend or harm and Linda Poitevin does an amazing job at world-building.
I can’t believe it took me so long to finally get to Sins of the Lost but I’m really glad I did. The only bad thing about it? Because of that insane cliffhanger I’m now desperate for the fourth book to come out. I guess that’s just the mark of a great book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Autumn: Disintegration by David Moody
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Autumn: Disintegration is the penultimate chapter in David Moody’s riveting horror series!
Forty days have passed since the world died. Billions of corpses walk the Earth. Everything is disintegrating. . . .
A group of eleven men and women have survived against the odds. On an almost daily basis, they attack the dead with brutal ferocity, tearing through them with utter contempt.
Somewhere nearby, out of sight and out of earshot, is another group that has adopted a completely different survival strategy. Where the others have used brutality and strength, these people have demonstrated subtlety, planning, and tactics.A series of horrific events force the two groups together. Backed into a corner and surrounded by hundreds of thousands of corpses, they all know that their final battle with the dead is about to begin.
Like I somehow do with most series, I’m not actually reading Autumn in order. I read the first book and the second book and since I couldn’t find the third book when I went shopping the other day I decided to pick up book 4, Disintegration.
Unlike with the previous two books, I wasn’t really all that impressed with Disintegration. Sure, it’s kind of cool to see how two completely different groups are managing to stay alive in such a horrific world, but the formula David Moody uses is getting kind of boring. (SPOILERS) Essentially a bunch of survivors mope around for a while, things get bad, they join another group and bring about its downfall. Sure, he changes the names around a little but they’re basically all the same book at this point. It’s kind of disappointing as someone who appreciates the overall plot arc of the series.
But as a novel on its own merit, Disintegration isn’t all that bad. David Moody is still a master of suspense and he’s good at describing such a horrific world without ever going into descriptions of gore for gore’s sake. Don’t get me wrong, though; this book is still pretty gory. It’s just that it’s not gratuitous. I like how he has his zombies develop abilities even as they deteriorate, which is somehow more terrifying because there’s the possibility they could even become fully human as they rot away to nothing. If that’s not horrific I don’t know what is.
The characters were a solid ‘meh’ in this story. None of them really stood out to me unless we’re talking about total jerks that get people killed, like Webb. Yeah I know he’s a hothead kid but he’s the epitome of the Too Stupid to Live trope. While not exactly being brilliant at it, David Moody still did a good job imagining how the group dynamics would be in such a diverse group of people. People are constantly getting on each others’ nerves and pretty much no one agrees on what the solution to the zombie problem is. Essentially, it’s a group of real people and is probably how most people would react in a zombie apocalypse.
So basically this one’s a solid ‘meh’. I hope the fifth book is better.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
Conversations in the Abyss by Michael Brookes
(Cover picture courtesy of The Yellow-Haired Reviewer.)
Stealing Lazarus’s miracle gifted him immortality. Combined with his natural ability of invading and controlling people’s minds this made him one of the most dangerous people on Earth.
But the miracle came with a price. His punishment was to be imprisoned within the walls of an ancient monastery and tormented by an invisible fire that burned his body perpetually. To escape the pain he retreated deep into his own mind.
There he discovers the truth of the universe and that only he can stop the coming Apocalypse.
[Full disclosure: Michael Brookes sent me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
I didn’t really like Conversations in the Abyss as much as I liked the first book in The Third Path trilogy, The Cult of Me. Not because it’s a bad book, but because it’s a completely different tone than the first book. I’d be lying if I said I hated Conversations in the Abyss, but I’m definitely feeling more neutral toward this book.
Part of my problem seems to be, as I said, the change in tone. Whereas the first book focused on the unnamed main character’s journey into evil and his subsequent saving of the world, this second book focuses more on the philosophical aspect of the coming Apocalypse. It seems that the Church’s actions at the end of the first novel may have inadvertently made the Apocalypse come a little sooner, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Michael Brookes is getting very philosophical in Conversations in the Abyss. There’s an interesting origins story of Heaven and Hell and the fall of Lucifer and also some explanation for why God isn’t intervening in the world. All from a Christian perspective, but it doesn’t get preachy. Just philosophical and if you’re someone who likes philosophy like I do, it’s fascinating.
Of course there’s some suspense and some amazing plot twists thrown in at the end, but there just wasn’t the kind of glued to the screen tension I felt in the first book. If you’re someone that doesn’t mind slow but consistent plots, Conversations in the Abyss is great, but if you’re looking for the energy of the first book you may be a little disappointed.
The characters were okay in this installment, but nothing more. From the brief glimpses we got of him, Pierre was a compelling Antichrist. Our unnamed narrator changed a little bit because of his predicament, but there was more focus on the dialogue between himself and the fallen angel Venet than on his characterization.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Strange things are happening: old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) clambering on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz, and Zahler, all that matters is the band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end? Or summon it? Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Peeps, The Last Days is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.
(Summary courtesy of Goodreads.)
Meh. I don’t know what I was really expecting, but I guess I hoped that The Last Days would follow the end of the world more closely. With all the suspense built up at the end of Peeps, I wanted to learn more about the coming worm apocalypse by seeing it through the eyes of someone in the Night Watch on the front lines. However, the group of people we follow in The Last Days knows nothing of peeps or the apocalypse happening around them until the very end, so it was kind of disappointing. This is more my fault than Scott Westerfeld’s because of my preconceived notions, but I definitely would have liked to hear more of how humanity fought the worms rather than just reading a past tense version of it in an epilogue.
Despite the fact it wasn’t what I expected, The Last Days wasn’t a bad book. It took a more serious tone than the first book, but it suited the gritty background very well. The characters were interesting and not exactly what you would expect in a YA novel, so there’s that. Alana Ray was my personal favourite, but I can see where many people would identify with Pearl or Moz. I would have liked the chapters to be a bit longer because at times it felt like head-hopping as each chapter had a different point of view than the previous one. However, that’s more of a personal preference because I like continuity.
In The Last Days I just didn’t feel the same energy or enthusiasm as there was in Peeps. There were some really slow parts where the book dragged on, but other parts were way too fast. My disappointment is partly my own fault for starting to read it with lots of expectations, but I can’t help but feel it didn’t live up to its full potential.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.