Sci-Fi

A Confusion of Princes By: Garth Nix

a-confusion-of-princes

A Confusion of Princes By: Garth Nix

Plot:

A grand adventure that spans galaxies and lifetimes, A Confusion of Princes is a page-turning thriller, a tender romance, and a powerful exploration of what it means to be human. includes exclusive bonus Garth Nix short story ‘Master Haddad’s Holiday’. I have died three times, and three times been reborn, though I am not yet twenty in the old earth years by which it is still the fashion to measure time. This is the story of my three deaths, and my life between. My name is Khemri. Taken from his parents as a child and equipped with biological and technological improvements, Khemri is now an enhanced human being, trained and prepared for the glory of becoming a Prince of the Empire. Not to mention the ultimate glory: should he die, and be deemed worthy, he will be reborn…Which is just as well, because no sooner has Prince Khemri graduated to full Princehood than he learns the terrible truth behind the Empire: there are ten million princes, and all of them want each other dead.

Review:

It took a while for me to get into this book, mainly because it had a teenage boy as the protagonist. I’m trying to steer clear of books with teenage boys as leads because I seriously cannot relate to them at all, but this was by Garth Nix, I had to read it.

The space setting was really cool and there was a LOT of tech and politics and stuff going on. The world was interesting, though, a bit more hopeless than I like.

Khemri was everything that I hope my children aren’t. Thankfully he grew as a character and that’s what made this book worthwhile. If he’d stayed how he was or only slightly changed it wouldn’t have been worth it, but he did.

Not my favorite Nix book, but it wasn’t bad, it’s also a standalone which feels rare now a days.

3/5

Star Wars: Before the Awakening By: Greg Rucka Illustrator: Phil Noto

Star Wars Before the Awakening

Star Wars: Before the Awakening By: Greg Rucka Illustrator: Phil Noto

Plot:

A companion piece to the “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens” character novels, Star Wars: Before the Awakening is an anthology book that focuses on the lives of Rey, Finn, and Poe before the events of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Review:

The book is broken up into three short stories, one about each of the new Star Wars characters.

I liked Finn’s/FN-2187’s story, though it was the shortest by a lot. It really helped build his character and filled a lot of holes that the movie left. You still don’t know much about his history, how he became a storm trooper, but you find out that he was in the top 1%, that he excelled at everything, and that he was very empathetic. That Captain Phasma picked him out specifically and was watching him. The story ends immediately before the movie.

Rey’s story I didn’t like so much. I ended up skipping some pages of it so I might have missed some stuff, but it was so depressing and from the minute the new characters were introduced you knew they were going to take advantage of her, and they did. I guess the point of the story was to show how she was such a good pilot, she ran simulations, and it showed just how much she wanted to stay on Jakku, though it didn’t give any more details about her family. It didn’t do much to make Rey’s character seem interesting or fun or awesome in any way.

The story you learned the most from was Poe’s. You got his back story and more about the New Republic and the Resistance. It ends right before the movie starts, but you get to see Leia and C3-P0 and there’s lots of space flying. The First Order is even a part of it.

Overall, if you loved the characters and demand to know more, I would recommend reading this. Other than that, though, I really don’t think there’s a reason to.

3/5

Side note: Illustrations were cool to look at

Smiley (New Species #13) By: Laurann Dohner

Smiley

Smiley (New Species #13) By: Laurann Dohner

Plot:

Vanni is furious when her fiancé tricks her into attending a conference where his father’s church is protesting the New Species Organization. She hates everything those vile bigots stand for. Vanni goes to the bar to cool off and ends up seated next to a handsome New Species. Things heat up fast when they are both drugged.

Smiley doesn’t want to believe the sweet human would dose them with the breeding drug. He’s willing to trust her and determined to save her life. He’ll hold her. Protect her. Offer up his body to distract them both from the pain. She is his female, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.

Review:

I really loved Smiley as a character but I did not like this book. First off it started off with the couple getting drugged and if they didn’t have sex they’d be in a lot of pain. There was pretty much no foreplay before the reader was thrown into a lot of explicit sex scenes. Did not like. I ended up skipping a lot of this book.

I liked Smiley but hated Vanni. She was super weak and shy and submissive and just not my type of female lead.

The story was also a lot shorter than a normal new species and I felt like not much happened. They got her to Homeland quickly and she never left. The bad guys were captured behind the scenes and that was pretty much it.

I thought some of the ideas in the book were really good, but they didn’t reach their full potential. They kind of unraveled and became nonsense. I’m also getting tired of all the human males being depicted as horrible. Out of all of the human men in this series I think there might be one nice one. One. Maybe.

I really like the idea behind the New Species series and in the beginning I liked what she was doing with it, but lately there just hasn’t been enough development. The series has kind of stagnated.

3/5

Second Chance (2016-?)

Second Chance

Second Chance (2016-?)

Network:

Fox

Starring:

Robert Kazinsky

Adhir Kalyan

Dilshad Vadsaria

Tim DeKay

Plot:

A billionaire and a bioengineer bring a dead police officer back to life.

Review:

I actually thought I’d already written this review, but apparently not. I’ve seen all the episodes that have aired so far, and my current plan is to finish out the season. The show’s interesting and I like Tim DeKay from White Collar, but to be honest I’m hoping that more develops.

The premise is kind of cool, reminds me of Now and Again from back in the day, but I want more to happen. There is the whole corrupt FBI angle but I guess I want more than that.

Acting is fine, some of the relationships are more interesting that others. You could watch worse.

3/5

Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles #2) By: Ilona Andrews

Sweep in Peace

Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles #2) By: Ilona Andrews

Plot:

Dina DeMille doesn’t run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster, and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina’s door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps on the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the devious Merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn…and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it’s all in the day’s work for an Innkeeper…

Review:

I honestly think what really pushed me to read this series was knowing that some of the characters I liked in the Edge Series made an appearance. George, Jack, and Lark are all grown up and they still very much have their issues.

Still this is Dina’s story and even though I liked the Edge character’s appearance, I preferred her part in everything. She’s like a patch of light in the middle of a lot of darkness, but when she realizes she’s being played she doesn’t pitch a fit or mope she took care of business.

Fair warning, I cried a lot while reading this. A lot. Freaked my family out.

Really hope there’s another book and I probably won’t be able to stop myself from reading it on Andrew’s website.

5/5