Category: book review

book review · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

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Young Adult Book Review: Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

This week I was pretty obsessed with finishing the last book in Brandon Sanderson’s Young Adult Reckoners Trilogy. If you haven’t read the review of the first book, Steelheart, you can find it here. Now that I’ve finished the trilogy, I can admit a few things: Steelheart was my favourite book of the Reckoners, I wish I could write as well as Brandon Sanderson, and I’m sad that I never got to go back to Newcago. While the setting of every book was unique and interesting, Newcago was my favourite by far. I would definitely go visit it if I could, if the Reckoners wasn’t a dystopian-Marvel-esque- Fantasy.

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Brandon Sanderson has already announced that his next Young Adult series will be called the Apocolypse Guard and will be set in the same world as Reckoners. I will definitely pick it up. The ending of Calamity definitely left me thinking, and there are still a couple things I’m trying to figure out (like most of Sanderson’s books, I’m not sure I’m supposed to understand everything). You can read more about his next series on his blog if you’re interested.

Calamity of course was  full of action, fairly quick paced (though I thought it dragged slightly more than the other two books, though I would hardly call it dragging). There were lots of laughs and lots of tension.

A solid 4.5/5 Stars.

NOTE: Finishing this book puts me at 16/60 books on my Goodreads goal, 2 books ahead of  schedule!

JEH

book review · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

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The second book in the Young Adult Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson moves the action from a futuristic Chicago (Newcago) to a futuristic, dystopian Manhattan (New Babylon). I loved this second book and I found New Babylon (also called Babilar) to be very interesting, but part of what I loved about the first book, Steelheart, was the setting: a city that had been completely morphed into steel, and I missed that setting in Firefight. Not that I didn’t love Babilar, I just love Newcago more.

The action of the second book, Firefight, is just as fast and heart-pounding as in the first book. The stakes get higher, and we discover more about the world and Epics (the bad guys), in general.

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Like the first book, Firefight is 75% action, 20% romance, and 5% bad metaphors (which are often hilarious). That isn’t an exact breakdown, so don’t quote me on it. The main point is that this book is mostly the kind of action you would see in a Marvel movie.

Loved it.

5/5 Stars

JEH

book review · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: Mitosis by Brandon Sanderson

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In case you missed it, I posted a review of the first book in Brandon Sanderson’s Reckoners Series, Steelheart, last Saturday. I picked up Book 2, Firefight, and began reading but kept coming across this mention of a battle with Mitosis, which sounded familiar, so I checked, and sure enough, Mitosis is a standalone story that falls between Steelheart and Firefight.

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Mitosis was fairly short and I finished reading it in under an hour. It was a good piece of action between the two main novels. I wouldn’t say it’s a must read. I think one could just go from Steelheart to Firefight and not feel like they’re missing much, but it did add a nice bit of backstory during the passage of time between Steelheart and Firefight, which is a few months.

If you’re a Sanderson fan, or just need to read every piece of lore in a universe, then you probably won’t want to skip Mitosis.

4/5 Stars

JEH

book review · I love books · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

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Young Adult Book Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

I’m going to admit that this post might be a little biased because I’m a big Brandon Sanderson fan. I love his epic fantasy, both the Mistborn Trilogy and the Stormlight Saga, but this was the first Young Adult work I’d read by him. This is actually his first young adult series, though he has also published some middle grade stuff that I haven’t read yet. But I’m such a big fan that I plan on reading all if it at some point in time.

About a year ago, I read the prologue for Steelheart and felt a little blah about it, and I put the book down for a good while. I finally picked it up again last week, and began on Chapter One, since I’d already read the prologue a long time ago (though I had forgotten a few details). Beginning from Chapter One, I fell right into the book and loved it, which left me wondering if it really needed the prologue. I mean, the prologue was alright but… Well, maybe it’s just me. Did you read the prologue? Did you like it?

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Anyway, moving on. The main character in Steelheart is 18 year-old David, a regular human in a world that’s been invaded by comic-book type bad guys. I loved that. There are no Supermen or Batmen, just bad guys. And the regular folk have to figure out how to take them out. Needless to say this book is full of action. It is also full of that smart, witty humour I love.

“I was like the guy who had brought the spoiled shrimp cocktail to the party, causing everyone to throw up for a week straight.” Yep, our main character David is really bad at metaphors, which I found to be really entertaining.

Like I said, I might be a bit biased, but I give this book 5/5 Stars.

JEH

book review · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

Books I’ve Read: Extras by Scott Westerfeld

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This is the last book in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. As you’ll see in my review below, I didn’t like Extras as much as I enjoyed Uglies. It wasn’t a true continuation of the series, but contained new characters in a new place in the same world. Also, this handwritten review contains an awesome coffee stain. Lol.

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Have you read this book? What did you think?

JEH

book review · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

Books I’ve Read: Specials by Scott Westerfeld

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Today I’m continuing with my journal postings of the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld. The third book of the main trilogy is Specials, which could be the end if you wanted it to be, but there is one more book. I read this series back in 2010, and you can read my handwritten below, from well before my time of blogging.

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Have you read this book? What did you think?

JEH

book review · I love books · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

Books I’ve Read: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

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Today I’m posting my handwritten review of Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. You’ll see all the books of this four part series blogged about in the next week. You can see from the first review that I read this series back in 2010. That feels like it shouldn’t be that long ago but it was. I’ve always loved Science Fiction and I still feel like there just isn’t enough of it.

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Have you read this book? What did you think?

JEH

book review · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

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Young Adult Book Review: The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I’m a fan of Sarah J. Maas and the Throne of Glass Series. After reading The Assassin’s Blade, I feel like I have a better background to those years Caleana spent in Rifthold. I love Rifthold, it is one of my favourite parts of the TOG world. To me, it is a magical Victorian kind of place with a seedy underbelly. I mean, who wouldn’t love that?

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My favourite book in the series is still Crown of Midnight, The Assassin’s Blade didn’t change that for me. Nor was it a true stand in for the last book in the series, which is currently slated for a 2018 release. As I blogged the other week, the next book in the Throne of Glass Series is the Untitled Chaol book, which I’m excited for, and is due out in September. The Assassin’s Blade was released between Crown of Midnight and Queen of Shadows, but I didn’t read it until after I read Empire of Storms. If you aren’t that far in the series yet, I would recommend reading The Assassin’s Blade before Empire of Storms, because I think it would have added something to Empire for me. I also read the Maas is recommending that The Assassin’s Blade be read before the Chaol book too, so if you aren’t caught up in the TOG series, you have from now until September to do so. And I highly recommend it as a witty, fast paced fantasy series.

4/5 Stars

JEH

 

book review · Young Adult

What I’m Reading: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

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Young Adult Audiobook Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Late last year I listened to the first book in this series on audiobook, and it was fantastic! The second book did not disappoint, but I will say that there were fewer surprises.

Laini Taylor’s world of Eretz, on the other side of the portals from Earth, is full of mystical creatures and angels, and lovely, fun, lively, and sometimes hilarious, characters. Zuzana is the primary comical relief character, and like in the first book, she is my favorite with her sparkling personality. Things grow darker in the second book, and things are more difficult for Karou as the narrative pushes forward.

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My favorite thing about Laini Taylor’s books is her amazing way with language. She fills the page with surprising word pairings and description that brings the world to life. The audiobook, narrated by Khristine Hvam, is also brought to live through her wonderful reading and embellishment of character voices. I love how Hvam performs each character in a subtly different way, though, like in the first book, I don’t like the voice of Razgut, mostly because it creeps me out.

I can’t wait to listen to the third and last book of this trilogy, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, which I’ve already checked out from my local e-library. I highly recommend these ebooks, but be warned, each book clocks in at over fourteen hours of goodness, which for me means an awful lot of time at the gym.

5/5 Stars

JEH