Calamity

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson is the third and final book in "The Reckoners Series" and it was a good ending.

The story start out after David, Megan, and the rest of their crew leave what used to be known as New York. Prof has gone crazy and they are trying to decide if they can save him or not. They make their way to what was once Atlanta though the city has changed dramatically. Do to the Epics that reside there, Ildithia moves, but not like you think. The city is made of salt and as one end the the town disintegrates the other rebuilds itself.

Prof has come to Ildithia and has quickly become the High Epic that everyone fears. But David and the Reckoners believe they can save Prof like they were able to save Megan in New York. But not only are they facing Prof and his abilities, but also Calamity, the bright star in the sky that appeared when people started gaining powers. Calamity is an Epic. They know Prof's mission in Ildithia is to somehow take down Calamity, but how are they going to take down the Epic of Epics?

I loved this series since the first one came out. The ideas of Super Heroes being the bad guys was interesting and fresh. Who would have thought to have a city move across country by moving salt?

The characters have always been fantastic, both the bad guys and the good. The world has changed so much from our world to theirs and he takes so many things into account that I hadn't until it was mentioned. But I like most of all the themes throughout all of the stories and weaves quietly in the background: "humans are inherently good." There are some bad eggs out there, but we are more good than we are bad. This was uplifting. There is also the more abrupt theme being that we can all face our fears and we can grow from them. Once we face our fears we can conquer whatever darkness that lies in our hearts or souls.

Again, I really love this series. It is clean; there is little gore; there is great fantasy; there are fantastic characters. And it is a marvelous read.

Firefight

Firefight  is the second of Brandon Sanderson's "Reckoners" series.

After defeating Steelheart in Newcago, they travel to Babilar (once New York City) where another Epic is terrorizing people. Obliteration is an epic who, after bathing in the sun for a while and gaining as much radiation as he needs, can obliterate the entire city. Then he'll teleport over to the next largest city he wants to visit where he'll do the same thing.

Not only is Obliteration there, but Regalia, an Epic who can control water currents, is stationed out there. She has raised the water levels of the Hudson up to the third or fourth floors of the high rises. Needless to say, New York City doesn't look like the Big Apple anymore. The city has plants growing all over it for the people to eat, because of some little-known Epic also in the city. People live on the upper floors of the high rises with rope bridges connecting each building. The spray paint that lines all the walls of the city glows in the dark and illuminates the night, much like the neon had done before Calamity found his place in the sky.

But not only are these powerful Epic in Babliar, but Megan is here. After disappearing after Steelheart was killed, she fled and David is seeking her out--though isn't telling anyone around him (though they already know it). He hopes he can save her, but does she want to be saved?

The characters--old and new to this series, bad and good guys--I think are what make this book. We find we want to know more about Obliteration and his odd biblical style speaking and quoting. Megan, whom we thought we knew, is almost a complete mystery. David is his usual odd, charming self. And now there are new things about Prof that we didn't know before.

I love these character based stories and the new scenery that is completely odd and different and wonderful makes it that much better. It is a great follow up to Steelheart and Brandon pushes the characters in fantastic ways that makes us question humanity and ourselves.

Steelheart

Steelheart is the first book in Brandon Sanderson's "Reckoners" series.

The basic concept is that Super Heroes are all bad. After the sudden appearance of Calamity, a bright star orbiting earth, people suddenly starting having superpowers. The people first thought these Epics would save them from their problems with other countries, but were soon proved wrong as the Epics were far worse than any war that the world had ever had.

In Newcago (what once was Chicago), David, after losing his father because of Steelheart, vows to make Steelheart pay. David knows Steelheart, the High Epic who runs Newcago, has a weakness. He saw the Epic bleed. There is a way to destroy all of these Epics. After years of memorizing different Epics and their powers, David finds the Reckoners, a group rebels whose purpose is to take down Epics. They hesitantly allow him into their ranks where he puts his expertise on Steelheart, their current target, to use.

There are many cool things about this book. Many turns that I didn't see that had me enable to stop turning pages. It was constantly engaging and in very few parts where I would actually want to put the book down. The premous where Superheroes are the bad guys is ingenious, where the whole city of Chicago has been completely turned into steel and it is constantly night. Working as regular people or working to take down the "God" who looms over the city can cause come difficulties that are fun to work with and around.

The characters here are individuals. Each one, though there are a few, are easy to tell apart. David, our main character, is funny. His metaphors and similes make no sense and are odd, but he's endearing.  I think the guys in the book are more full and complete as characters than the girls are. Cody has more life than Megan or Tia does. Which is kind of sad, but it is something that I'm willing to look over.

This book is a good one to start new Brandon Sanderson readers on or newbies to Science Fiction/Fantasy books in general. It is a quick read because you get sucked into this world. I'd recommend it to  most anyone. I got my 13 year old nephew to read it when he doesn't like to read anything. It has enough guns, suspense, thrills, and adventure to get almost any young boy into reading. It's a good series for anyone.

Lies of Locke Lamora

The Lies of Locke Lamora seemed like an intriguing book with an interesting premise when I first picked it up. It was a recommendation from Goodreads, but it wasn't to my liking.

I didn't finish this book and, sadly, didn't get too far into it either. It had too much swearing and vulgarity for my taste. I gave it about 30 pages, but then had to put it down. I don't need any more swearing in my head. It's hard enough to get out when people around me are saying it.

So it is a DNF for me.

Setting the stage for the story is one thing, but too much is too much. Setting can be developed in different ways that are more tasteful in my opinion.

Sadly, I was interested in where it was going. :(

Serafina and the Black Cloak

Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty is a junior fiction book that was very well written. It is about a young girl who is never seen by anyone. She is a "creature of the night" and hunts rats in Baltmore Mansion in Virginia in the late 1800's. Serafina is a smart girl and has really never been seen in by the household staff or the Mr. and Miss. who own the manor.

It isn't until one night after her father--the houses machinist--goes to sleep behind the boiler down in the basement (no one knows he lives down there after his duties are done), she sees a mysterious cloaked figure chasing down one of the children of a visitor of the manor. The child becomes enveloped by this cloaked man and disappears. She later finds out that more children have gone missing without a trace. Serafina has to help find them even though no one believes her beside her one new friend and his trusted dog. 

Overall, it is a fair book, written well, with believable characters. There are some instances of cheesy-ness, but I think that may have to do with its originally intended audience (approximately ten year olds). Things get wrapped up neatly and everything is made out fine. Even when her cover is blown and the adults of the house find out she has been living in the house for her whole life, the don't seem to mind... That is a bit bothersome. 

I will say though that unlike many of the other junior fiction I've read, this has a lot more adult conversation and presence than most. Though many of the adults are faceless and they are clumped up together, there is a lot more dialog from them that Serafina overhears. 

Like most younger fiction, the few people she does tell about this black cloaked man don't believe her or don't believe her suspicions about the person she believes he is. She is all on her own to save the day. I, personally, don't really care too much for this. She does get a help from an unexpected source, the the reasoning behind this source was more fantastic (full of fantasy elements) than was hinted at. I think there needed to be a little more foreshadowing on the "creature of the night" that she is instead of the quick wrap up that left me hanging more than I wanted to. We believe these characters talk afterward and more of an explanation is given, but we, the reader, don't get that. Foreshadowing or flashes to another POV or some type of mythology about these "creatures of the night" would have been more helpful and more believable to me. 

Serafina as a character I thought was intriguing, though some of the other characters seemed faceless to me (as well as a lack of description in the setting).  There was a lot of third person narrative from her viewpoint and her thought process which was done well and accurately. 

I probably won't pick it up to read it again. I may recommend it to younger kids, but not very many adults even though it has an interesting concept. 

Red Queen

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is a quick read. It is a Young Adult book that follows the love-triangle/maybe-a-third-person-likes-her-in-a-romantic-way kind of book. Though I felt kind of cheated. Mare is supposed to be torn between two worlds: the Reds (people who don't have super powers and have red blood) and the Silvers (people who do have super powers and, you guessed it, bleed silver), torn between the life she knew of poverty and practically slavery, and finding out that not all Silvers are bad people. She is told that anyone, especially in this political agenda filled noble class, could betray her, but she doesn't get the hint. Mare falls, literally, into a bad situation and in order for the nobility to cover their own skims, make her a princess so they can watch her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. Little do they know, she has already joined the rebels, the Scarlet Guard, and now she's forcefully and accidentally walked into the middle of the political games.

While it was an interesting concept, I felt kind of jipped (though it is a debut novel, so I'll give it some slack). Most of the time there is a running theme in a novel, a small one but something that will want to make the reader better. Something like "trust" or even the cliche "love wins out" or something. The only theme I was able to catch was "watch your back because betrayal is everywhere" which is more than a little disappointing.

The other big problem I have with this is why do they actually like her? Because she's a curiosity? Because she's pretty? Because she's witty? I didn't get the feeling from any of the guys--except maybe Kilorn who was a childhood friend and knew her forever--actually had fallen madly in love with her. They have their "oh, cute" scene, but they never actually even complimented her or bantered back and forth or anything. It was a "love at first sight" that I'm not buying. One of the boys is supposed to love her so much that he'd choose her over his father and country, but I saw no reason why he would actually do that. The progression of any love between them was not developed well.

Although I wouldn't call her a damsel in distress because she can be a sneaky thief and can get away from guards and, once she's trained a little, is able to handle lightening pretty well, she still seems like everyone needs to save her. She even comments on it herself in the later end of the book when she does something really stupid thinking it will help and it doesn't--ends up getting someone(s) killed. All she does to help her people, help her friends, only ends up getting people hurt. Again, she comments on this. It could just be that she is in a bad situation and she is really over her head, but still. A girl can get a few things right, whereas Mare seems to get most things wrong. Mare's big emotion motivator seems to be anger. She's angry at everything almost all the time, which is kind of a turn off for me. Anger and "Must. Help. Everyone!" (which she fails at often enough).

The book was also fairly predictable in my opinion. Though I should have gotten the major plot point and twist, but didn't, many of the other little things that happen, I saw coming. (Again, debut novel, I get it.)

And lastly I felt like things went too quickly. We get one lesson of Protocol, one lesson with Julian, one Training session, on dance lesson, brief moments at balls when things go wrong, and quick fight scenes (the final battle at the end was well done though--except I predicted what was going to happen). I feel like Aveyard could have elongated it a little bit to give us more of this world and the people more than just the love interests. I would have loved to get to know the King more. I guess the biggest thing to help this book out would have been to not stick  solely in Mare's mind but venture out to other characters. While we get a good idea about what is going on in their heads because Mar is perceptive, I feel more could have been added that would have helped character development and world/society building that this was lacking.

Over all, I'll probably read the next few that are supposed to come out, this is the first of four, because I am interested in this world and I know there can be a lot of progress in her writing style. I do also like the characters and want to get to know them more. The more you write, the more you learn, the better you become. I will give her other ones a shot.

Six of Crows

The Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is a fantastic read and I can't wait for the next one to come out. But the sad part is, right now, it's fairly fresh off the press.

Right now I love most everything about this book. The world is new and so inventive--though I have found out that there is another series that takes place in this world that Ms. Bardugo has written. This world is about to be thrown into more chaos that it already is because a new wave of super drug is about to be unleashed. It heightens the powers of the Grisha to be able to do the impossible. But it also sucks the Grisha in with a crazy craving that practically consumes life, either driving them crazy if they don't get it or whittling them down to a zombie if they until they die.

The heroes of this story are a bunch of thieves in it for the money. They are contracted to perform a jailbreak to get the maker of this new drug out of possibly deadly hands. Easy enough right? Wrong. The prison they have this scientist in is the most guarded complex in the world. It's easy enough to get in; getting out is the impossible part.

Bardugo takes us through this story in all six characters points of view, though it's nicely in third person. While it can be hard keeping track of all six of these thieves, it is cleanly done. I found a deep love for the characters especially because Bardugo takes the time to explain back stories. While some might find the time jumping disconcerting, I found that it gave so much more to the characters and their roles in the story. We understand where they are coming from even though some of them aren't very likable characters at the beginning. I found a love for all the characters in this book and my heart wrenched when I thought they would die--and it happened on more than a few occasions.

All of the characters seemed real, too. I mean to say that none of the main six were flat through I would like more from the "bad guys." We got a little at the end of a potential bad guy, at least someone who will have to be dealt with, but I would have liked a little more from the other antagonists.

I guess my only other thing that I didn't care too much for, though at the end of the book I didn't mind, was that we simply get thrown into this novel. There are lots of places and sayings and meanings that were completely foreign to me and it felt like I was drowning in this world for the first while. But as you keep reading (or if you've read the previous series--the Grisha series: Shadow of Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising) you might fare better. But so long as you're a good reader and pay attention, you'll get it.

Again, I can't wait for the next book. Kaz, Inej, and Jesper, you've all stolen my heart.

"No mourners."
"No funerals."

Please don't die.