Sunday, November 30, 2014

Notice of Semi-Hiatus

Hey everyone!
Just letting you know that I'm going to be on holidays in Europe from now until mid-January, so I probably won't be doing much commenting/replying and such.
I've scheduled quite a few posts to go up while I'm away, and I'll reply to all my comments and things as soon as I get back.
Bye for now! :)






Thursday, November 27, 2014

Review: This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Title: This Shattered World (The Starbound Trilogy #2)
Author: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Release Date: December 2014 (Aus)
Source: Allen and Unwin
Goodreads



The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.
Review by Nara

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Sci-Fi Month: First Lines Quiz


In Looking for the Panacea tradition, time for a little quiz! This is going to be a first line quiz; the rules are simple. I give you a first line from a YA Sci-Fi novel, and you must guess what book it's from! Answers are hidden under a spoiler tag, so you can check your answers yourself. Let me know how you go in comments!

All of the books have been mentioned in on of the collaboration posts I did with Kayla @ The Thousand Lives! Check them out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 if you need help.

I've also included some cover hints below, but those are quite obvious, so I'd try complete the quiz without using them first!


Saturday, November 22, 2014

Sci-Fi Month: Want to Dip into Adult Sci-fi and Not Sure Where to Start?


Okay, so admittedly, I haven’t actually read that much adult scifi. I really only started really getting into in this year. Maybe, though, my lack of experience makes me a good source for recommendations! (Or maybe not. Whatever, you’re getting recommendations anyway, people.)

One thing you have to understand about adult scifi (or actually, just adult SFF in general) is that it's often very slow to start. Up to the first quarter might just be about setting up the world and making sure you understand the general rules of the setting. Obviously, this isn't the case with every book, but many of the ones I've read so far have seemed like this.

Anyway, out of the adult scifi reads that I have read, there have definitely been some great ones- hence this post. Onto the recommendations!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1)
Author: Claudia Gray
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Source: HarperTeen via Edelweiss
Goodreads



Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.
Review by Nara

Monday, November 17, 2014

Review: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Title: Love Letters to the Dead
Author: Ava Dellaira
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Five Mile Press
Goodreads



It begins as an assignment for English class: write a letter to a dead person - any dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain - he died young, and so did Laurel's sister May - so maybe he'll understand a bit of what Laurel is going through. Soon Laurel is writing letters to lots of dead people - Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Amelia Earhart... it's like she can't stop. And she'd certainly never dream of handing them in to her teacher. She writes about what it's like going to a new high school, meeting new friends, falling in love for the first time - and how her family has shattered since May died.

But much as Laurel might find writing the letters cathartic, she can't keep real life out forever. The ghosts of her past won't be contained between the lines of a page, and she will have to come to terms with growing up, the agony of losing a beloved sister, and the realisation that only you can shape your destiny. A lyrical, haunting and stunning debut from the protégé of Stephen Chbosky.
Review by Nara

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Sci-Fi Month: Top Sci-fi Reads of 2014


It's the halfway point of the month, so it's time to pull out the top reads of the year list! I read quite a few great scifi books this year- too many to mention them all in this small list. It was pretty tough trying to narrow it down, but mostly I chose the books either because they were just freaking amazing, or because I thought that the books needed more attention.

The list is in no particular order.

2014 refers to books that I read in 2014, by the way! Not 2014 releases.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Review: Catalyst by S.J. Kincaid

Title: Catalyst (Insignia #3)
Author: S.J. Kincaid
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Source: Katherine Tegen Books via Edelweiss
Goodreads



The explosive conclusion to the series reviewers have likened to Ender’s Game and “Hogwarts-in-Space”

This exhilarating, explosive, and heartrending conclusion to the Insignia trilogy brings Tom and his intelligent, passionate, and brave young friends stunning tests and dangerous confrontations and through to an impossible future they could never have predicted.

Tom Raines and his friends are eager to return to the Pentagonal Spire to continue training for the elite Intrasolar Forces, but they soon discover troubling changes: strict new regulations and the revelation that the Spire is under new military control. What begins as an irritating adjustment soon reveals a dangerous shift in reality. Those now in control are aligned with corporate sponsors and their ruthless agendas. And when the military academy begins welcoming new cadets with suspicious neural processors, the first step in a plan with horrifying worldwide ramifications, Tom is desperate to stop it, even if that means keeping secrets from his closest allies.

Then a mysterious figure, the other ghost in the machine, begins fighting against the corporations, but with methods even Tom finds shocking. And when the enemy comes for Tom, how much can Tom endure in the battle to save himself? He must decide if he can still fight when the odds of success seem to be sliding from his grip.
Review by Nara

Monday, November 10, 2014

Sci-Fi Month: Sci-Fi Subgenre Recommendations Part II


Continuing with our adventures in the sci-fi genre, today I'm going to be collaborating with Kayla from The Thousand Lives for Part Two of sci-fi subgenre recommendations! The subgenres we're going to present in this post are:
Space Opera
Steampunk/Alternate History
Time Travel
Dystopian

If you missed Part One, check it out here!

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Sci-Fi Month: Top Sci-fi Anime


So I was looking back on my Sci-Fi Month posts from last year, and realised I had done almost NOTHING about anime/manga. As a massive anime/manga fan, I felt like I should definitely do something on the subject this year- hence this post: some of my recommendations for sci-fi anime.


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Review: In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

Title: In a Handful of Dust (Not a Drop to Drink #2)
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic
Source: Katherine Tegen Books via Edelweiss
Goodreads



The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

In this companion to Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis thrillingly combines the heart-swelling hope of a journey, the challenges of establishing your own place in the world, and the gripping physical danger of nature in a futuristic frontier.
Review by Nara

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Review: Corruption by Jessica Shirvington

Title: Corruption (Disruption #2)
Author: Jessica Shirvington
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Source: HarperCollins Australia
Goodreads


How do you live with yourself
when you’ve deceived the one you love?

How do you move on when the person
you’ve been fighting to save betrays you?

Two years ago, Maggie Stevens began the hunt.

Four weeks ago, Maggie’s world fell apart, when she finally
found what she’d been looking for. And when Quentin,
who had blindly trusted her, unravelled her web of lies.

Now, Maggie lives in the dark. But she’s not about to stay there.
Not when she still has to bring M-Corp down.
Not when there is still a chance she could win him back.

In the exhilarating conclusion to Disruption, Maggie must do
whatever it takes to show the world the truth.
And the price for her quest?

Everything.
Review by Nara

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Sci-Fi Month Has Begun!


It's the first of November, and you know what that means? Sci-Fi Month has begun!
Brief explanation: Sci-Fi November is an annual event first set up last year by Rinn of Rinn Reads, and currently hosted by Rinn and the bloggers at Oh, the Books. It's basically an event to celebrate everything sci-fi: books, movies, TV shows, whatever.