The Giver by Lois Lowry

Title: The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher:

Rating: 3 stars

All these years Jonas believed that he lived in a perfect community. The orders and rules are there for their own benefit; children are assigned to special family who will nurture them, each year they will received similar treatment so there wont be any differences. Jonas believed it was for the best. But when he was assigned into be The Receiver, he discovered the dark truth about his community, and his world never be the same again.

Honestly I would give higher rating if only the story was longer and had clearer ending; I hate cliffhanger. However I have to be honest, this is a good story; albeit too short for my liking. I like how Jonas reacted toward all the new things he learned about his community. The shocking truth behind the orders that he trusted as the best for him and his community. Also the devastation he felt when he couldn't tell the truth to his friends; how his view had changed completely from them.

This is good for people who just start reading dystopian but for dystopian lover like me, it leaves unsatisfied taste in my mouth.

Lynossa

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1)

Author: Patrick Ness

Publisher: Walker Books

Rating: 4 and a half (my maximum score!)

"But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again. "

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee - whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not - stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden - a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought? (from Goodreads.com)

---Warning: Contains lots of spoilers---

Dear Mr. Ness,
When I first decide to read your book, I have no idea what I will encounter. I thought it will be another awesome story with awesome action and awesome characters. And it is true; The Knife of Never Letting Go is an awesome story with awesome action and awesome characters. But apparently it wasn't just that. It didn't stop at being awesome, it went further more beyond awesome, I couldn't even find the right word to describe it. How could you? How could you made me care and abandoned me? how could you made me love and broke my heart? How could you gave me hope and stole it away?

I couldn't even remember when was the last time I felt this way. I've read many great books this year but most of them I could see things coming and I've prepared myself for what will come; but not like this. You've wretched my heart, Mr. Ness.

I always have a thing for loyal non-human sidekick and Manchee was my favorite character and you've made me love him and then you took him away and shattered my heart. You've given me hope when Ben opened his arms and embraced Todd, only to be separated again and also when Todd and Viola finally reached Haven, only to find Aaron on their heels as well.

So thank you Mr. Ness for making me looked like an idiot for shedding tears on the train, for not giving me a warning that this is NOT a train novel, or airport novel, or any public-area novel; that this is the kind of novel that will consume all my mind and attention. And after all that you've done to me, you can guarantee two things for sure, the first one is that I'm going to read The Ask and The Answer PRIVATELY and the second one is you got yourself one devoted fan right here because even after you wretched my heart, just like Todd and Viola, I still have hope.
Though I'm not sure you'll consider yourself lucky or what for that.

Lynossa

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Theories of Flight by Simon Morden

Title: Theories of Flight (Samuil Petrovitch/Metrozone #2)

Author: Simon Morden

Publisher: Orbit Books

Rating: 3 and a half stars


This is the second book of Metrozone/Samuil Petrovitch series. If you haven't read the first book and don't want to be spoiled, I suggest you read it first. You can check my review on the first book of this series, Equations of Life in HERE.

Sam Petrovitch is back on his second adventure! After saving Metrozone from the AI that invaded Metrozone's system, now he's married to Maddy and dedicate his life to work on his theories and inventing anti-gravity. But just like before, people wont leave him alone. Chain showed up and told him that CIA is after those who were active involved in the bloody Long Night and wanted to get a hold on the AI. Not interesting to give up the AI nor letting CIA do whatever they wanted, Sam must put aside his research and once more do something to save the falling Metrozone.

On the second part of the series, we met new enemies; The Outies, the people who weren't allowed to enter Metrozone due to plenty reasons, and CIA, working on behalf of American government who were afraid of the AI capability in destroying Metrozone, thus want to 'keep it save', the term they use though the truth was they wanted to be able to control it.

The CIA managed to kill several people close to Petrovitch and while he still busy dealing with them, The Outies broke into the city and caused destruction everywhere while Petrovitch and Maddy was separated miles away. Dying to save Maddy and as much as people he could, Petrovitch crossed the city with the help of The New Machine Jihad and his friends. Petrovitch wasn't the guy we met in the first book - albeit still happy in spewing curses in Russian, he has more concern about other people, and despite the fact that he killed so many in order to save Metrozone, he's not happy about it and admit that he committed homicide.

Only one word to describe this book: crazy! Yes, that's right, if you think the first book is crazy enough, wait until you read this book. Blood spilled, gun trotted, bodies were piled up everywhere. The pace was even faster that the first book and I just can't stop reading it. If you like the first book, you'll like this as well and if you haven't read the first book (but somehow still ended up reading this review), and like fast-pace science fiction with a lot of action, you'll buy this book.

Lynossa

Theories of Flight by Simon Morden

Equations of Life by Simon Morden

Title: Equations of Life

Author: Simon Morden

Publisher: Orbit Books

Rating: 3 and a half stars

He had one more chance. He could turn his back, make good his escape, disappear into the crowd. She could work her own salvation out from here.
Petrovitch reached out a hand, and hers slapped into it, palm against gritty palm.

Samuil Petrovitch is a survivor. He survived the bombs falling on St. Petersburg and made it to the London Metrozone-one of the last free cities. He's lived this long because he's a man of rules and logic. For example, getting involved = a bad idea. But when he stumbles into a kidnapping in progress, he acts without even thinking about it. Before he can stop himself, he's saved the daughter of the richest man in London. And clearly saving the girl = getting involved. Now, the equation of Petrovitch's life is looking increasingly complex. Russian mobsters + Yakuza + something called the New Machine Jihad = one dead Petrovitch. But Petrovitch has a plan-he always has a plan-he's just not sure it's a good one.

A combination between gun-shooting, self-operating car, advanced technology, run-for-your-life across the streets and Russian curses, you got Equations of Life by Simon Morden. This is a fast-paced, page-turning, full-with-action kind of story about a Russian young man who hid himself from his past in Metrozone - formerly known as London - in post-Armaggedon world. Sam Petrovich preferred to lay low and concentrate only on working on his equation and his passion for science, until he saved a girl who happened to be the daughter of a business/mafia tycoon. Suddenly all eyes on him and everywhere he went, he stumbled upon either Japanese tycoon's man, cops, or Ukraine's gangster.

Reading this felt like watching an action movie, the one that somehow Hollywood able to pull it off and not butchered it into a mediocre action-flick. A smart action movie. Petrovitch is a smart and witty guy; sometimes he can be too bold but I guess that's a right formula for action main character. From the outer world's eye he is just a regular student. He's not the typical of your hero, but not exactly anti-hero either. One thing that add more interest to the story is that Petrovitch has heart problem (literary) so on the brick of dying because of heart failure, Petrovitch had nothing to lose to go all out saving Metrozone. Because I have no knowledge on science the way Petrovitch does, I barely understand all the geek talks, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the book. Though there's one thing that bothered me; sometimes Petrovitch talked in Russian and because my ability in understand Russian is lower than mine in understand cat's talk, I pretty much clueless. I read the egalley so I hope they will add the translation in the finished copy.

This book will appeal to sci-fi lovers, action lovers and dystopian lovers, but if you expect something romantic will happen in this book, you will be disappointed. There's a minor romance but really minor, this is a YA that was written by male author so no mooning and love struck, focus of the book is on saving Metrozone and the author stick with it till the end. This is part one of the series. I'm going to read the second book soon (I have the egalley in me) and will review it. I can't wait to read another Sam Petrovitch's adventures!

In this book, Morden didn't give explanation about the Armageddon; if you're curious and want to know more, you can read for free in here: http://www.bookofmorden.co.uk/stories/tkc.html
The book is released on April 1st, so mark your calendar and buy it right away at your favorite bookstore or you can click the link in the title and it will lead you to amazon!

Lynossa

Equations of Life by Simon Morden

Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Sausages (ARC) by Tom Holt AND Giveaway!

Title: Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Sausages

Author: Tom Holt

Publisher: Orbit Books

Publish Date: February 2, 2011

Rate: 4 stars

"Angry; he was furious. A lifetime of rational thought. A lifetime dedicated to the twin goals of reasonable, logical explanation and doing as little work as possible, and now he discovered that there was magic in the world. It was insulting. It was how Columbus would have felt if he'd sailed two days beyond the Azores and found himself falling off the edge."
Polly is a real estate solicitor. She is also losing her mind. Someone keeps drinking her coffee. And talking to her clients. And doing her job. And when she goes to the dry cleaner's to pick up her dress for the party, it's not there. Not the dress - the dry cleaner's. Don is Polly's brother who dedicate his life in making tunes and work as little as possible. And now he has to find Polly's dress or Polly wont let him live in peace. But when he found it, he also found other things as well, and get tangled up in the middle of chaos involving strange pencil sharpener, mysterious dry cleaner, a man without past, missing coffee, chickens (lots of chickens) and a pig.

I was so enthusiastic when I found this ARC in NetGalley, I was practically jumping around. Tom Holt is one of my favorite authors; okay, I have lots of favorite authors but Tom Holt is my champ in Humor SF/Fantasy. He has been a master in combining fantasy with reality for years; not in Harry Potter way, or any other fantasy story way, but in his own way. Approach without expecting anything but laugh is the best way to start reading Tom Holt’s books. Plunge into the world that Holt created is like walking to your office in a mundane day and found a unicorn inside your cubicle but instead of being cute and awesome and tell you that you have a destiny to fulfill, the unicorn scold at you for staring at him too long. He combines the cynical of human regarding fantasy and anything unusual with a quirky magical stuff unlike any other had even presented before and stashes a heavy dose of sarcasm and British slang. LOVE IT!

It was a bit hard to give the usual review. You know the drill, characters, plot, setting, etc. For me the characters were funny and quirky and sometimes can be annoying. They weren't lovable in the way you might love characters that so-you. But you might love them because of their quirkiness. The plot is even more difficult to explain because half way through the book while you've met several characters, you might still unable to see the connection and sometimes in the middle of reading you felt lost because the sequence kinda jumping around. But when you finally able to see the connection, you'll understand the story and you might shout 'Ah! so that's why!'. Well, at least I did that.

While reading this book, I smirked, chuckled, and laughed even in the middle of the train (which resulted with some people stared at me as if I'm losing my mind). It's not the mind-blowing-so-touching-it-almost-rip-your-heart-out story. It's a funny story that will make you laugh; for me its a refreshing detour from the usual The Chosen One or Fullfil Your Destiny's kinda fantasy. Although I must say not everyone will be able to see the fun side of Tom Holt's book. Only those who enjoyed sarcasm and able to understand British slang.

*****

Because I love Tom Holt so much, I contacted Orbit Books and they kindly agreed to giveaway copies of Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Sausages by Tom Holt for dear fellow readers. Now you can experience the fun and quirky world of Tom Holt in printed copy!

How to enter?
1. You must be a follower to enter! submit your entries
2. One entry per person per household.
3. Read our giveaway policy before you enter it!

Extra entries:
+2 leave meaningful comment on this post
+2 tweet about this giveaway
+2 blog post about this giveaway

This giveaway end on midnight Jan 31, GMT

Lynossa

ps: I forgot to tell you this important thing! How stupid am I! The prize will be one copy for international follower and one copy for US follower. Cheers!

Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Sausages (ARC) by Tom Holt AND Giveaway!

The Adoration Of Jenna Fox

Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E. Peason
Pages: 266 pages
Publisher: Square Fish

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Review:

"I used to be Someone. Someone named Jenna Fox."

Jenna is considered to be the miracle baby, Angel of the family. Being the only daughter.
She is smart and pretty. Everyone would wish to be in her shoes. But deep inside her. She doesn't like her role in the family. She if forced to act like their perfect little daughter. Have to have high grades in class.


Until her accident. She woke up after a year of coma from an horrific accident that accured to her. Jenna wonders what happened.
Having no memories of past, herself, parent, friends, Everything. Though she remembers a bit of her unknown past.
She find it hard to believe her self proclaimed parents. And what they are saying. But it give her the feeling that there is more to their story that they are not telling her. And thats what she wants to know. No one ever told her about the day of accident. And being isolated by her parents made her even more eager to know what really happened that day. Through out the story Jenna is having trouble who to trusts. But as she doesn't have any memories. She doesn't have a choice but to believe and follow them.
Questions slowly forming, about her friends, life, past, about herself. And her body.

What really happened in the accident? what kind of accident? Who Am I really? Why cant i walk straight? Where is the scar in my chin? Why is my mom so scared? Why Am I isolated? I dont know.

Jenna eagerly wants to know her past.

The setting is set in the not so distant future.
Infact when you read this. You will come to different question about our modern technology today.
For example. Some scientist/doctor would do everything to prolong our life. But what? We have to pay for it millions if not billions. So what's use? We live to do pay for that? Having so many artificial made. What will happen to our natural things? Is it right to go agains't what nature wants? If you are given a chance to prolong life using technology will you?

The story focuses on her parents love for Jenna. Even though her condition was hopeless like 30/70 chances. Her parents are forced to make a decision in order to have their almost dead daughter back to them. Wanting to be their perfect daughter for them (even though she doesn't want to). So she is forced to live for their sake.

She only got 10 percent of her brain. At least thats the only part of her brain her father could get. And the rest is gone. She became shorter, flawless skin, in short prettier than before but shorter.

I was actually impressed in the fact here. That her father uploaded something is her brain. Like he just programmed her. She already know lessons to grade 1 to 12. Even though she's in her 10th grade. And i was like..."you can do that to a brain?" though it was explain. But im not going to spoil it for you guys.


The ending isn't something I was expecting. I wasn't satisfied. No. I mean..That's not the Ending I am looking for.

Kay-c

The Adoration Of Jenna Fox