Untimed by Andy Gavin

Untimed was an interesting book.  It had a lot of unique elements to its concept of time travel.  But unfortunately it also had a couple flaws I couldn't get past.

Charlie has gone about life quite unnoticed.  Even his mother can't remember his name, although she still loves him.  His dad is gone on business quite often, so he spends most of his days in solitude.  So when a strange man opens some weird kind of portal, he can't help but let curiosity overcome him and jump through as well.  Which takes him back in time where he discovers he is a time traveler.  But Charlie isn't prepared for the responsibility and accidentally alters time, which has drastic consequences for the world.

Charlie is your average kid personality wise.  He doesn't think with his brain too often and lets his hormones guide him.  So he's pretty realistic in that sense.  Although I do think he's a little too accepting of the situation he's thrust into.  Yvaine is another weird one.  She grew up in a different time but isn't quite as proper as you'd imagine her to be.  She's definitely more of a gutter rat.  And Charlie's dad; well let's just say I don't care for him at all.  He has little redeeming qualities.  The bad guys were clockwork men and so they didn't have any personality at all.  Nor were they really that menacing in my opinion.

I like Gavin's concept of time and travelers through time.  He gives a unique spin on it with the difference between the sexes.  He also writes a good pace through the book and you're never bored with it.  That being said, this book isn't sure what age group it wants to cater to.  The chapter size, text size and pictures all point to this being a young adult to middle school chapter book.  But the content is actually much more mature with sexual themes, cussing, and other heavy topics.  I'd worry that someone would flip through the book, look at the pictures, and give it to their sixth grader without really knowing the content of the book.  Some kind of hint in the description wouldn't go amiss.  I also found it hard to figure out how the logic of one of the time changes worked.  This may be a spoiler but Charlie visits a future in which his mother is barren and has no children.  Shouldn't the immediate consequence of this be that he doesn't exist?  At the very least time could have altered it so that she had a one night stand and gave a baby up for adoption just to give plausibility to Charlie existing in that time loop.  Maybe I'm just not understanding it right, but it bothered me.

An interesting book and beginning to a series.  I can't say I'd seek the next books out with voracious appetite, but I'd read them if I stumbled upon them.

**This book was received as a free advanced reader's copy**

Untimed
Copyright 2012
326 pages

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

Ok, so there's a lot of Young Adult Dystopian themed books out there.  But I heard this one was pretty good, so I decided to give it a try.  I was not so impressed and there's a few things I wish I would have known before reading the book that I know now.

Fever Crumb is the first book in a trilogy.  But it's not actually the first book set in this future world.  Apparently, there's a whole other series that people recommend you read first in order to understand Fever Crumb's world.  But nowhere on the cover or description does it say that, so if you're like me, and start here, you probably won't care much for the series either. 

Fever Crumb is a young girl who's been raised by Engineers.  This means that she was taught absolute logic and no emotions and to help them with their scientific endeavors.  So when she is chosen to go outside their house to help another Engineer do archaeological studies, she is apprehensive, even though that isn't logical.  But everything outside is irrational, and because of her unique looks, the local population believes she is a dreaded Scriven (evolved human that was decimated by regular humans), and they would like nothing better than to eliminate her.  Add to that memories surfacing that make no sense, Fever is not sure how to adjust in her new world.

Fever is hard to like.  Because of all the cold logic she applies she doesn't exactly give you the warm fuzzies or even make you want to care about her.  That's ok, she's supposed to be that way, but it makes for an odd protagonist.  The man who raised her is also quite cold but I did like the Engineer that took her in to help with research.  He may have had selfish motives but he was kind to her.  And the Scriven, well we never really know their motives so I don't think they were developed all that well.  Sure we understand what they did, just not the why of it.

This book is hurried, with random description and facts thrown in.  It was hard to keep track of things.  Different technology was thrown in and the author acted like you already understood it and proceed to plow ahead with his story.  This might be ok if you had read his other series (and why at the beginning of this review I mentioned that little tidbit) but for anyone just entering in, it does not endear us to Fever's world.  Additionally, things happen to fast to be believable and I think the entire book happens over the course of only a few days.  As Fever would put it, it just isn't logical.  And the whole history of Fever's parents, well that was kind of unbelievable too.  The only thing I did like about the writing was the references to popular culture now.  Sure it was a little cutsie, but it was amusing.

I can't say I have any desire to continue reading this series or the original one that inspired it.  Which is unusual for me, usually I like to finish what I start.  But I just couldn't get into this book at all and was relieved when it was over.

Fever Crumb
Copyright 2009
325 pages

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

So I devoured the first two books in this Infernal Devices trilogy. There's something so compelling about them that it's absolutely impossible for me to put them down without reading them straight through. And this last book held that same allure for me, although it had a few hiccoughs.

If you haven't read the first two books in the series this probably isn't going to be a good book (or review) for you to start. They are meant to be read in order. And a lot happens in those first two books. The establishment of Mortimer and his clockwork robots as bad guys, the love connection between Tessa, Will and Jem, and the appearance of Will's sister at the Institute where the Shadowhunters live. This book takes up after that with Jem and Tessa planning for their wedding, despite him being sick and not having much time left. When Tessa is kidnapped by Mortimer, it escalates things, particularly as the Consul is not willing to help in her rescue and it is up to the few members of the London Institute to save the world and Tessa.

Tessa is usually an endearing character. And I'm not saying she isn't in this book, but I do believe she had a couple of out of character moments that were used to drive the plot where Clare wanted it to go. Particularly, she receives some awful news and then does something that almost smacks of betrayal to someone she loves (and that is as non-specific as I can get so I don't give away spoilers). Will has emotions that are always all over the place and I've never been a big fan of his. I know broody and moody is a huge draw for some women, but having lived with that I can definitely say that I am no longer attracted to the type. I really didn't see what Tessa saw in him. Jem, in contrast, is fabulous. Probably my favorite character of the book. He is always so kind and sacrificing and would do anything for anybody. There are of course a lot of side characters and they all have their place in the story (although a couple of the romantic pairings were extraneous and detracted from the plot).

It actually took me a little bit to get hooked into this book. I think partially it was because it had been awhile since I read the first two (and didn't re-read before diving into this one). But once I was hooked there was no getting out. I had to know what happened and there was enough adventure and unanswered questions that it was exciting the whole way through. I really think that Clare does a good job on her battle scenes and while they are descriptive, they aren't overly long and that moves the plot at a good pace. A comment on the epilogue, I actually enjoyed it and thought it contained some beautiful writing. I may have even shed a tear or two. Over a young adult novel. What is the world coming to? But in all seriousness, I think it showed some real human emotion and that we don't always control our hearts or what we do with them, and that love, in real life, can be fickle. Most of the writing in the rest of the book is good too, although sometimes the way they talk can feel a bit contrived, but it is supposed to be Victorian England so that accounts for a bit of it. I do have to mention that there is a sex scene in this book. It isn't descriptive, but it basically says "hey, these characters are going to go have sex." I was considering giving the series to a pre-teen for her birthday and haven't yet decided if the scene is tame enough to continue to do so (I particularly don't think it will hurt anything, but then again, I'm not a parent). Regardless, I figured potential readers of this young adult series should be warned about it.

I was sad to see the series end but wasn't disappointed. I may have to check out her other series (the one that started it all) and see what I think of Clare's world in the modern times.

PS: This book (and all the others in this series) has beautiful cover art. Truly one of the reasons I don't want to give up physical books.

Clockwork Princess
Copyright 2013
568 pages

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

This is a very bleak steampunk themed look at a dystopian world.  I like dystopian books normally, but I had a lot of trouble connecting with this one.  It had some good premises, but unrelatable characters.

In the future the world's wealth is measured in calories.  Human bings have messed too far and now food is scarce, there are terminator genes in the food, and several mutated diseases and bacteria abound.  There are also new creatures that have been bio-engineered, even people.  Among them there is Anderson, a calorie man who is the Thai realm looking for a seed bank and the treasures it could hold within, to return to the big corporation he works for.  And then there is Emiko, a windup human who was left for trash when the Japanese business man who owned her decided he didn't want her anymore.  She makes her living hiding from the authorities who hate her kind and whoring herself out at a sleazy bar.  Together these two will cause upheaval in the city and start a new future that could be more frightening than the one they are already living in.

Emiko, despite her degrading experiences and unique situations I couldn't really get a feel for.  I felt pity at times, but that's about it.  And I'm not sure if this is the reaction I was supposed to have.  After all, she is a wind-up and considered not a real person by society.  So maybe that was the author's intent.  Anderson was also not that great of a character.  I couldn't really feel out his motives.  Same with pretty much everyone else in this book.  None of them had clear cut thought processes or even inspired sympathy.  And finding a glimmer of hope in them was near impossible.

I liked the different ideas presented in this book.  Certainly messing with the food system is a scary thing and even eerily similar to some of the experiments companies are doing already.  To add in changing the genetic makeup of humans too just seems logical.  But as for the actual telling of this story I was confused on so many things.  There are just so many unanswered questions on how the world got to the place it did in this book.  And then the plot itself is just so rushed around jumping between different characters that it was hard to follow.  I was never quite sure who was on who's side, doing what, and why.  And I should warn that there are a lot of graphic areas of this book involving sex, violence, murder, rape and sickness.  And it is explicit and described in-depth.

Not really too my taste but it had a lot of unique concepts.  I'm sure someone who enjoys science and dystopians would enjoy it very much.  But I need to relate to the characters if I'm going to enjoy a book.

The Windup Girl
Copyright 2009
359 pages

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

*This review is part of the Amazon Vine program*

What's not to like about a dystopian, steampunk, book in feudal Japan? Well, really there's not a whole lot in this book that isn't good, but for some reason, I just had a hard time getting into it. As a side note, my cat is named Arashi, so I got a little smile out of the name used for the griffin in this book.

Yukiko is the daughter of the great hunter for the Shogun (ruler) of their country. In a land filled with toxins produced by the blood lotus, a flower that is a hallucinogen and can be used to make fuel, things have slowly gone from bad to worse. Now, the Shogun has decided he wants an Arashitora (griffin), the only problem is, no one has seen any for hundreds of years. But Yukiko and her father have no choice, they must go hunting for one or risk their lives, and when they do find one, capturing it isn't going to be easy. Through a series of events the griffin and Yukiko must rely on each other and learn more about what kind of world they want to live in.

Yukiko is a good character. She's strong, brave, and manages to get herself into quite a bit of trouble; enough to keep it interesting anyway. But she can also be incredibly naive and wishy-washy. Buruu is a much cooler character. He's a griffin, so that's a little strange, but I really liked his personality. Even the way the author had him "talk" in the book was kind of neat and seemed completely fitting for how a Griffin should speak. I did think the bad guy, while supposed to be menacing, just didn't really make my blood run cold. Some of the side characters did a better job of that because while he talked the talk, he never really did too much where you could read about it. We were just told after of his actions.

The book's pace is kind of slow through the first couple chapters. There's a lot of world building, and while that's important, it made it hard for me to keep with it. Finally, I made myself sit down and really start reading the book and it started getting more and more interesting and the pace improved to where I had to finish it, I couldn't set it down. So at least it ended on a good note. The premise is very unique. While there's all sorts of elements used from other books, they're an odd mix that somehow the author uses very well. I liked how there were fantasy creatures mixed in with steampunk elements. It was unusual. The language was a little strange, not something I'd expect to read for a society set in Japan, it was more American, and slang. And there was even some cursing. I guess I just expected more formal language.

An interesting book, and worth sticking through the slow beginning for. I look forward to the next in the series.

Stormdancer
Copyright 2012
324 pages

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

I enjoyed this second book in the trilogy nearly as much as I did the first one. There were a few things that drove me a bit crazy though and lessened the enjoyment. Regardless, its still a good book. And yes you should read the first book before even attempting this one or you will have no clue what is going on.

After discovering her brother's betrayal and deciding to stay at the Institute with the Nephilim, Tessa finds herself trying to help them as they search for the evil Mortmain who is determined to bring them down. Its so hard to tell who is good and bad though and its not only Tessa who is having that problem. Even the head of the institute, Charlotte has to watch her back as others seek to remove her from office and leave the institute vulnerable during these troubled times. Tessa has more than just that to worry about though. She has been falling for Jem, despite her attraction to Will, and she is confused by her feelings for the two. Her heart is pulling her in two directions and with all the danger lurking about from Mortmain and his automotons she can't focus on it too hard or she may end up in his clutches.

I was a bit put out by Tessa in this novel. I'm a huge fan of Jem's and I found her treatment of him abhorrent. I just don't really see her attraction to the brooding Will, even if he does have a plausible story for his behavior. And speaking of Will, the difference in his character just rang untrue to me. He does have a reason for the switch but its not nearly compelling for how much it is different. Jem is as sweet as ever and I think that I have been reading this series mostly for him I admire him so (although I read because its a good book too). I thought the side characters were a little less as well this time around. They weren't as developed as they were in the first book. And some of the new characters were hardly given any time at all except for some superficial aspects of their personalities.

This book moved much slower than the last one. There was a lot more dialogue and the action scenes were less. I'm not really complaining per say, it was just a noticeable difference. This book was a little more risque too. Not anything near so wild that it dropped out of its realm as a young adult novel, but there was a bit of passion. Since it was mostly dialogue the bad guys weren't nearly as exciting to read about in this book. But I think as the second in the trilogy it does a good job of providing background and providing a middle to what is sure to be an exciting end.

I don't know what I'll do until the third book comes out. Perhaps go visit her other series which is somewhat related. I'm normally not so giddy over a series but I definitely want to know what happens this one.

Clockwork Prince
Copyright 2011
502 pages

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book. It started off kind of blah for me but then I quickly got caught up into it and stayed up way later than I should have reading it. Just couldn't put it down and now I'm about ready to go immediately buy the second one today, which is something I never do.

Tessa travels to London after her aunt dies to be reunited with her brother Nate. But when she arrives, two strange women called the dark sisters kidnap her and tell her they're keeping her brother hostage. They explain to her that she has a unique talent of changing into people and that they will force her to learn how to use it so she can be married to the Magister, a powerful being who runs an exclusive group of people interested in the supernatural,demon,etc. world in London. Tessa is rescued though by a strange boy named Will. He takes her back to the institute where he and other beings known as Nephilim fight the demons that plague London. Because she seems tied in to a very insidious plot, Tessa is able to stay with them and quickly meets and grows fond of some of the other Nephilim. But Will is the one that makes her heart beat a little faster when she sees him.

Tessa is kind of a weird character but I like her. She's entirely too naive and maybe I just missed it but I'm not sure how old she is. My guess would be sixteen or so but she acts much younger sometimes. Will is very broody and moody and everything most girls are attracted too which automatically makes him the worst possible love interest for Tessa, but alas, hearts are foolish sometimes. He does have some pretty terrific battle scenes. I absolutely loved Jem and his kindness, the opposite of broody and moody he of course is the one I had the major crush on. The other characters were interesting too and they all had something to add to the story. Even the bad guys were fairly menacing in this one.

As I said before it started off slow but that didn't last long. Once I got to know the characters I was riveted. I like the idea of the clockwork and slight steampunk elements that were thrown in, but I would call this book largely fantasy. It had all sorts of magic, supernatural beings, and a quest to save the world from evil. But it was told in a very unique way. At least its nothing like anything I've ever read before. There are slight hints of romance, but since this is technically a young adult novel there was nothing too risque in it.

I did love this book and I probably rank it the best I've read this year so far. Which granted its not too far into the year, but still the best. I can't wait to read the second one.

Clockwork Angel
Copyright 2010
476 pages