Review: The Forever Ship

The Forever Ship
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

They were born together and they will die together.

One strong Alpha twin and one mutated Omega; the only thing they share is the moment of their death.

The Omegas live in segregation, cast out by their families as soon as their mutation becomes clear. Forced to live apart, they are ruthlessly oppressed by their Alpha counterparts.

The Alphas are the elite. Once their weaker twin has been cast aside, they’re free to live in privilege and safety, their Omega twin far from their thoughts.

Cass and Zach are both perfect on the outside: no missing limbs, no visible Omega mutation. But Cass has a secret: one that Zach will stop at nothing to expose. The power to change the world lies in both their hands. One will have to defeat the other to see their vision of the future come to pass, but if they’re not careful both will die in the struggle for power. 

This review is actually hard for me to write. I loved the first book so much, it sucked me in and I was completely hooked. It was original and brilliantly written and such a great read. The second book lagged a little bit for me, but pulled itself back with the surprising twist at the end that made me reexamine how I looked at the book and the world of the book. 

Now don't get me wrong, as I started to read this I was straight back in to the world of the book. I loved Paloma, she was such an interesting character and had such different experiences from the others, I wanted to know more about her and Elsewhere. Zach is present quite a lot in this book and I actually found him interesting too, as we got to spend more and more time with him it was fascinating to see how he thought and interacted with Cass. There where some brutal betrayals and shock twists that had me gasping and completely blown away. 

I have two problems with this book. The first is that the pace at times is slow, at other times steady and then at others fairly fast. I'd plod through the slower parts and then rejoice at the faster parts. I don't mind a slower pace but the world is pretty bleak and even the happier moments don't really make a dent and with this third book I seriously found myself having to force myself to read it at some points. Yet 50 pages or so later I'd be totally hooked again and invested. Like, this is the third and final book and we spent a lot of time not really doing anything, there wasn't all that much action which I found disappointing as I'd been expecting an explosive finale to match the other two books. The action when it came, riveted me, but I do feel like towards the end of the book things where rushed a little bit. 

My other problem is that as the series went on, I got less and less attached to Cass, less emotionally attached/invested or whatever in her. I loved her in the first book and the second book, but in this book I found myself feeling kind of indifferent to her and not as emotionally attached at all. I was actually more interested in Zach to be honest, and part of me really couldn't blame him for how he felt towards Cass. I saw the Omega's point of view, and I knew Cass's but I also kind of felt for Zach a little bit too. That didn't make what he did right but I could see where he was coming from, something Cass couldn't seem to manage and that bugged me a little bit. That and Zach kept mentioning that Cass never really talked to him about anything, and yet she blames Zach for her eventually being outed. Part of me wonders if Zach would have been different had Cass really spoken and interacted with him. I don't know. 

Anyway, The Forever Ship continued to be atmospheric and vivid. The writing continued to be incredibly well done, I really do love the authors writing, she paints a vivid picture and the battles aren't glorified and neither are the deaths and so on. I just feel like this is the weakest book of the three. I mean the ending was satisfying and it was all wrapped up nicely but I felt no emotional connection to Cass in this book, I don't know why exactly, I don't know if the bleakness of Cass's narrative and the world finally got to me, or if I just wasn't in the right mood or frame of mind. But I found myself a wee bit disappointed all in all. 

Review: The Map Of Bones

The Map of Bones
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher

The Omega resistance has been brutally attacked, its members dead or in hiding. The Alpha Council’s plan for permanently containing the Omegas has begun. 

But all is not entirely lost: the Council’s seer, The Confessor, is dead, killed by her twin’s sacrifice. 

Cass is left haunted by visions of the past, while her brother Zach’s cruelty and obsession pushes her to the edge, and threatens to destroy everything she hopes for. 

As the country moves closer to all-out civil war, Cass will learn that to change the future she will need to uncover the past. But nothing can prepare her for what she discovers: a deeply buried secret that raises the stakes higher than ever before.

The Fire Sermon was one of my best books of 2015 and The Map of Bones was one of my most anticipated for this year! I've been eagerly awaiting getting to read what happens next to Cass and I wasn't at all disappointed! I think it even exceeded my expectations! I managed to read this in a couple of sittings only having to stop because sleep was needed!

The prologue immediately threw me back in to the world of the book and refreshed my memory without obviously doing so, if that makes sense. I mean usually you can get a distinct "previously" vibe but this does it all subtly. We're a good few weeks later, after the end of The Fire Sermon and Cass is still dealing with everything that happened, and she and Piper and Zoe are travelling. The Council is still going strong with its manipulations and fear mongering, it's plans are ridiculously intricate! The Resistance is being dismantled by the Council bit by bit and the General has taken over from the Judge. Things aren't really looking good! 

I find the world of the book so fascinating, it's got a fantasy kind of vibe to it, it all feels very old timey and medieval kind of, but there's old building structures, silos, and other machines still dotted about the landscape not to mention the taboo Electric being used by the council. Machines and Electricity are taboo in this world, and are feared and I love this blend of old and new. The world of the book has always made me curious and in this book one of my wishes came true...we learnt a lot more about the Before! I've been so curious about it and how the world of the book came about, I get why everyone is scared of the machines and stuff because it destroyed the world, but I've been so curious about how people survived and what it was like after the blast! In this book we get to learn how the world developed after the blast in to what it is now and it's not pretty. There are some really chilling extracts from memorandums and other documents, that are as fascinating as they are kind of creepy. 

I was hooked on those bits and we get to see a hell of a lot about the Before, and actually get to go to a cool new location that is delightfully creepy, and full of interesting information that can benefit the Omegas. I'm still wanting to know even more, not going to lie! Even though it sends a shiver up my spine thinking about being in that situation! I'd get really claustrophobic I think! There's tonnes more of the taboo stuff in this book, and it was interesting to see the characters various different reactions to it. 

I completely love the authors writing, the descriptions are on another level, they're rich and evocative and it just makes reading the book an experience! "Drowned city of my memories" might just be my favourite! Or at least one of them, I feel like that one's very lyrical! The descriptions for each new setting are vivid and paint a picture, the Deadlands are very bleak, the ARK is very creepy and has a haunted house kind of feel to it, it's ghostly. I particularly liked the eerie sunken city at the coast! I'm always blown away by how well the author describes the settings, and how she manages to evoke a feeling along with the description, or a vibe. It really helps to bring the world to life. 

There's a lot going on in this book, and there's lots of threads in the plot making it nicely complex without over complicating things. I liked how the book followed on from the previous book, it kept up everything I'd loved about the first book and added to it. The world of the book is slowly being built up and having more and more added, our knowledge about the world and the history of it is being added to with each book and I'm excited for the next book because there are some game changing revelations in this book about certain things, and the expansion of the world is going to be epic! It's being set up but it's going to be so epic! I love how the plot builds momentum as you read and has a quiet lull in the beginning before things really kick off and it's all these revelations and all this action. I also like how it keeps me intrigued and on my toes! I also like how the battle scenes aren't glorified, they're very gory and realistic as are the characters feelings about them! 

Our favourite characters from before are back as are the characters we love to hate. I loved how well the characters where brought to life in the first book and that continues in this book. They're complex and each have their own motivations for what they're doing. Cass is still dealing with the aftermath of Kip and everything from the last book and it's shaken her a bit, she isn't her usual self. She feels like people are just wanting to use her at one point, and she kind of wanders through the book at the beginning like a ghost, to quote the book! I liked watching her come to terms with everything it was very realistic, as was her learning to fight and having to deal with fighting and killing. Her last words to her twin also got my interest because I think we're about to see Cass change a little bit more! 

Zoe and Piper I actually really liked, they work so well together, especially when they're fighting it's amazing to read about. Zoe's so sarky and prickly and perceptive and she actually helps Cass a lot I think. Piper is intelligent and very tactical and it was great to get to know them some more and I'm excited to see what they do in the next book, Zoe's already been a massive help! We've obviously met "The Reformer" and he's just as infuriating in this book as he is in the others, but more interestingly we get to meet The Ringmaster. We get really up close and personal with him and while I don't trust him as far as I could throw him.....he surprised me a lot in this book and at least he's honest. It's going to be interesting to see how he's going to handle things when the shock revelation at the end is relayed to him. There's some old faces from the first book as well, and there's a couple of new faces, one of which is very interesting and I'm excited to learn more about them. 

The Map of Bones has a steady pace, that builds momentum as it goes. The writing is compelling, the descriptions evocative giving you not only a picture of the settings, but a feel for them, helping the world to come to life for you. The characters continue to grow and change and deal with everything as best as they can, and I continue to feel the injustice the Omega's feel every day. The world is fascinating and is expanded upon in this book, and this series is going in a very interesting direction! There's some truly mind blowing revelations in this book and I'm excited to see how they play out in the next book!

The Fire Sermon

The Fire Sermon
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy!
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has been greatly damaged by a nuclear fire, now, humanity lives in a world that's reminiscent of the middle ages, and is very primitive. All technology from the Before, like Electricity, is taboo, not to be used or touched. Most of the animals and the humans died at the time of the fire, and for generations after, babies where born not quite right thanks to the radiation. While it's been many years and the radiation is gone, every person is born with a twin. Each pair of twins is one boy and one girl, one Omega and one Alpha. Alpha's are perfect in every way, whereas Omega's are all born with a deformity of some sort, missing limbs, and so on. Omega's are branded and sent away to live in Omega settlements when they're very young, they're not welcome in Alpha society and are thought of as lesser, as if they're contagious.

The Council are in charge, and they rule over all the Alpha's and Omega's. The Alpha's get everything, the best land, the best resources and so on, and the Omega's get nothing, barely enough to survive on. Alpha's may think they're superior, but there is one catch, one minor detail that means the Alpha's are never quite as free as they'd like to be....if one twin dies....so does the other. Without fail. One feels the pain of the other, the sickness of the other, and there is no way around it. Some high up Alpha's even keep their Omega's in a prison of sorts called the Keeping Rooms. Omega's live in ever worsening conditions, but there is one hope, an Island, an Island for Omega's where they can escape and live in peace, any talk of said Island results in a harsh punishment. Unfortunately it's not real. Or is it?

Things are about to change....

Cass is a very rare Omega, she has no deformity that can be seen, hers is hidden, you see, she's a Seer. As a child she learnt not to cry out when woken in the night by her terrible visions of the past and predictions of the future, a skill that allowed her to start with her parents much longer than usual, but causing a fair bit of resentment from her twin, as their parents tried to work out which was Alpha and which wasn't worth their time. Now her twin, Zach, has gained an awful lot of power on the council, including the new name The Reformer, and when Cass is dragged from her settlement to be locked in the Keeping Rooms, she stumbles across something terrifying in her bid for freedom.

On the run from her brother and the Council, she still wants to believe in equality between the two, and envisioning a world where Alpha's live side by side with Omega's is one reason they're after her. The other? Like I said...Cass is a Seer, not only would she be useful to the Council, but she's started to have some rather interesting visions....visions of an Island of Omega's, an Island that isn't supposed to exist, that's supposed to be a myth, and the Council will do anything to find it and shut it down. But they're not quite expecting the resistance they will meet. Omega's have more power than they realize.

So this book was totally incredible! I'm not really getting the "it's like the Hunger Games" vibe going on, because it's nothing like the Hunger Games, it's in fact, totally different, and that's why I loved it! Because of filming and other commitments, this took me a few days to read, rather than the few hours it should have if I'd been able to sit and read it in one go. Now I'm slightly glad about that because I got to enjoy the book for longer, but at the same time it was SO hard to put down and there was a definite lack of sleep because every time I was like "okay, this is the last chapter" something would happen and I'd be like "....one more! It's only.......2am...uuumm...." but who cares?! I was incredibly bereft when this was over, and I seriously didn't know what to do with myself.

I've been incredibly lucky lately, and I feel so incredibly grateful because a few publishers have sent me some truly incredible books that have everything I love in them and I have found myself with a whole host of new series to love and agonizingly await the next books of, and Fire Sermon is one of them!

I have such a thing about unique books, and you all know it because I always mention it, I should probably start a tag to be honest! But this is another for my list. It's so incredibly unique, it's a breath of fresh air to the genre that's full of wannabe's right now, and books trying to be something else. Fire Sermon has a thought out and complex background, history and politics to it, and it's all explained, and told to you with so much detail so you fully understand everything that's going on, why it's going on and so on, but without dragging the pace and narrative down. Cass's background in particular was inserted incredibly well in to the narrative, so you know time is passing as she's in the Keeping Rooms, but she's flooding you with memories as to how she got to this place, and each time in between the memories you're waiting for the next installment!

The Fire Sermon gripped me from the beginning, I was fascinated and immediately wanted to know more about the world, and Cass and just what was going on. From then on, it was a real struggle to put down so to be honest I'd recommend clearing your schedule so you don't have to! The world building in particular was so vivid, and I loved it because it sucked you straight in to the world, and you feel like you've visited the world and you have such a clear image, not to mention the atmosphere created, it's intense at times, to say the least, but you can feel the atmosphere, and practically see it oozing off the page, and it totally engulfs you. You really do feel a range of emotions, not only from the atmosphere, but from the events and the characters and so on.

I connected with Cass so easily. So, so easily. I really came to hate Zach, and I seriously wanted to smack him one, but then like Cass, I also felt for him at times as well, and I found myself being conflicted once or twice, but still usually hating him. It's so tricky. He's a villain, he's doing all the horrible things to the Omega's and he does have his reasons, and he seems quite evil at times, but then you can see his point of view, and then he does something like he did at the end and you're like....okay...maybe you're not THAT bad. But then it's like no actually you are. And it's reaaaally hard! You can get why he's like he is, and you can even get why the Confessor is like she is, although I'm still curious as to how and why they ended up working together, I'd have thought Zach would have nothing to do with another Seer, I think it's more than the ambition they both have to be honest. But maybe I'm reading too much in to it!

The plot is complex, there's all the political things going on with Zach and what he's doing and why, and what his ultimate plan is and the electricity and what's really going on under the surface, and then there's Cass on the run and her journey to get to the Island and everything that entails, and then coming back and everything after. It's all woven together perfectly to create a complex, engaging plot, that makes the book hold your attention no matter what, to be honest the nuclear fire from the book could have happened and I wouldn't have noticed until I'd finished reading the book and looked up like "......oh". As the plot  is complex, the solution is also complex it's not as simple as killing Zach off and getting rid of him, because then Cass will die, and it's the same with every Alpha bad guy mentioned in the book, because as Cass reminds us, you're actually killing two people.

The story and plot and narrative and so on, flowed easily, everything happened organically, everything that happened was the next logical step for the story, there was nothing added just for some drama or just there for no reason other than to move the plot along. Everything that happened had a root in the plot and what was truly going on, not just what was happening on the surface.

It's really quite an epic journey, you go from the beginning with the background to the keeping rooms to on the run to New Hobart and so on. You don't see just one small section of the world, you see a vast expanse of it, and can see it very vividly. So much happens, and there's always something going on, like I said, a chapter always ends leaving you wanting more. There are plenty of twists and turns that you don't see coming, some that you maybe have an inkling of but haven't worked it out, but there's none that you can flat out guess in all their detail. Some of them are incredibly sad and heartbreaking, and I wasn't expecting it so I just sat there all shocked, mouth hanging open, totally gobsmacked. I should have guessed about Kip, but I didn't, and it's because it was totally unexpected, but also because you're so engrossed in the story, you don't really have much time to theorize, cos you're turning pages too fast!

There's a smidge of romance, juuuust a smidge. But don't worry, it's not the main focus of the plot, it's woven in very subtly and develops naturally, it's not there for the sake of it. I loved how when you where reading, you felt like you where in the middle ages or a similar time when everything was very basic, but then they'll mention the Before or electricity and machines and you're suddenly jolted in to remembering that, no, this is the future after we've all destroyed the Earth.

I seriously loved this book, and everytime I picked up the book, I was totally absorbed in to the world, and what was going on and was totally obsessed with the book, like when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it and thinking about getting home and reading it some more!

Fire Sermon ends, not on a proper cliffhanger really, but the next book has been subtly set up, and you have a slight idea of what's going to happen, but judging from this book, that will only be a small part of it, or the goal of the characters, there will be so much more going on, and there's a couple of threads left to be picked up in the next book. You're left desperate for the next book, you don't want to leave the world and the characters, and you so badly want to know what happens next, it's going to be torture waiting for the next book!

The Fire Sermon is unique, full of action, and incredibly well thought out and complex, while still being engaging and fast paced. You're thrown in to two times, the future, that is incredibly like the past in moments. I for one am incredibly excited about this book, and the series, it's firmly lodged itself in to my list of favourites, and it's one of those books you read and re-read and keep re-reading until pages are falling out of the binding! And each time you read it, it's going to be like you're reading it for the first time, I  guarantee! Go on....give it a whirl!