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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Yesssss that ending was EVERYTHING!
I reviewed this book on my podcast! You can find it here https://www.spreaker.com/user/eventideent/the-book-cellar-ep-16
as well as itunes and iHeartRadio! Please leave me some feedback I would love to know your thoughts and opinions of the book!
I reviewed this book on my podcast! You can find it here https://www.spreaker.com/user/eventideent/the-book-cellar-ep-16
as well as itunes and iHeartRadio! Please leave me some feedback I would love to know your thoughts and opinions of the book!
OMG. the ending. why leave it with cliffhanger like that.
Ok so plot: great, characters: pretty good, romance: overdone, could have been better.
Great book overall, im pretty sure i figured out how it happened, but there is a lot of mystery surrounding this book plot.
BUT THAT IS HOW YOU END IT?!?!??? SERIOUSLY???
Great book overall, im pretty sure i figured out how it happened, but there is a lot of mystery surrounding this book plot.
BUT THAT IS HOW YOU END IT?!?!??? SERIOUSLY???
3.75/5
23/04/18
I wasn't too sure about this at first, I was enjoying it but not feeling the need to keep picking it up. I will say though, that I read this in two sessions, just sent the day reading and I really enjoyed those methods. This is definitely, in true Spooner-Kaufman fashion, binge-able.
23/04/18
I wasn't too sure about this at first, I was enjoying it but not feeling the need to keep picking it up. I will say though, that I read this in two sessions, just sent the day reading and I really enjoyed those methods. This is definitely, in true Spooner-Kaufman fashion, binge-able.
So I’ve actually DNFed this. I just am not a fan and no matter how many times I’ve tried to pick it up again and finish it, I just can’t.
So no rating cause I haven’t finished it.
So no rating cause I haven’t finished it.
3 stars
This was an enjoyable read and yet it was missing something for me. I liked the main characters but the plot dragged a bit for me throughout. With that ending, I am curious to see what happens in the final book of the duology.
This was an enjoyable read and yet it was missing something for me. I liked the main characters but the plot dragged a bit for me throughout. With that ending, I am curious to see what happens in the final book of the duology.
Simply being on the planet of Gaia is illegal, the last thing scavenger Amelia Radcliffe, "Mia" to her friends, needs is the interference of a self righteous, and a bit bumbling, academic - namely one Jules Addison. It is with some hesitation and a few secrets that the two team up to reach one of the Temples left behind by the planet's former occupants, The Undying. There are puzzles to solve, and mercenaries to dodge - and everything seems to want to kill the pair. I appreciated the cli-fi and dystopian elements, as well as the continued moral ambiguity in study and exploration for it's own sake, and needing to make giant technological leaps with disregard for the consequences to save a dying planet. As an adult reader found a few of the plot twists a bit predictable. This did not deter me from running head first over the cliffhanger of an ending. This is a fabulous Indiana Jones style adventure, full of twists, and betrayal, and will have all readers screaming to the stars for book two.
Definitely not the worst books that I read.
I think some of the characters actions weren't consistent throughout based on their personalities nor did I buy the romance BUT I liked the plot. Reminded me of Stargate or Star Wars or Firefly or...one of them space shows with portals.
I'll definitely pick up the sequel
I think some of the characters actions weren't consistent throughout based on their personalities nor did I buy the romance BUT I liked the plot. Reminded me of Stargate or Star Wars or Firefly or...one of them space shows with portals.
I'll definitely pick up the sequel
I'm convinced that Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner are two of the few people who make me amenable to sci-fi. This novel is completely compelling; fast and angry and eager, just like the two characters at its' heart. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending and one character development thing, but apart from that, it was great.
Unearthed is a near-future sci-fi, and in this future, the world has gone to hell. Specifically an extreme water shortage. There's also lots of poverty...in North America at least. Other places and languages are referenced, but their fates aren't detailed because who cares about that part of the world? also it isn't that relevant to the story. Anyway, all this creates an atmosphere of desperation. Amelia (or Mia) is desperate for technology to save her sister from bondage. Jules is desperate for answers to the mystery of the Undying, these weird aliens who have broadcast a message across the universe. Their paths cross.
While there is considerable external tension in Unearthed, driven mostly by the key fact of sci fi novels, that even in space, humans can't escape from themselves, the more interesting tension is within. So while Jules and Mia have lots of exhilirating chases and big choices to make and puzzles of the alien and human variety to solve, the stregnth of the story comes from a more familiar trope, where there is a power imbalance between the characters because one is keeping a secret.
Add a little romantic chemistry to the mix and you have an exhilirating ride and some characters who have to make friends... OR DIE. (no but seriously). Mia and Jules's unlikely pairing, along with several other enemy encounters in the novel, make this an effective contemplation on the notion of enmity, shared enemies, and teamwork. But Jules and Mia aren't really enemies. They're always working together, and the way that evolves from grudging to vital is done exquisitely. Spooner and Kaufman are mindful of the power differentials, and the smart vulnerable boy with the smart savvy girl makes for an excellent combination (as always). They play with the knowledge gaps and secrets between the two, but the straightforward internal narration from both characters keeps things from getting too melodramatic, and the focus remains the adventure. As the characters become friends, I found myself immensly satisfied emotionally.
You know what I wasn't satisfied by? Firstly, the ending. By the time they entered the ship I basically knew it would be a cliffhanger, and I was kinda pissed tbh, because it was too abrupt. I'm expecting a similar explanation to that in Unearthed, but I also don't really care about any of this, because the plot changed so much with the revelations about the Undying. I knew that things weren't as they seemed, and I wanted to point out to the characters that radiation dating can be botched by radiation. The other thing that troubled me was both character's understandings of violence. Jules decides to kill a man when asked to do so by Amelia, and makes a split second decision. The results of that decision trouble him, but he justifies it because he lives. Amelia *almost* takes someone's life. When Javier does it for her, she is blase 'I was gonna do it' she says uncomfortably. But because that choice was taken out of her hands, we don't know if that is the truth or not. That was an incredibly cowardly narrative choice by Spooner and Kaufman, to rob her of the independence of that choice, and I was immensly disappointed by it. Neither character questions how they ended up in a world, in a place, where having to kill someone, being able to do that, is a source of pride. There's so much that this novel could have said about violence, but it remained quiet, a choice I see across high stakes adventure YA, and am continually frustrated by.
Just as a final note, the audiobook is done really well. Sean West makes a perfect Jules. The producer's attention to detail--for instance, Mia says 'niche' like an American and Jules like an Englishman, which delighted me.
I have never watched Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, the two comparison titles for this novel, but I loved the adventure and space setting of this novel, and the romance is a lot of fun too.
Unearthed is a near-future sci-fi, and in this future, the world has gone to hell. Specifically an extreme water shortage. There's also lots of poverty...in North America at least. Other places and languages are referenced, but their fates aren't detailed because who cares about that part of the world? also it isn't that relevant to the story. Anyway, all this creates an atmosphere of desperation. Amelia (or Mia) is desperate for technology to save her sister from bondage. Jules is desperate for answers to the mystery of the Undying, these weird aliens who have broadcast a message across the universe. Their paths cross.
While there is considerable external tension in Unearthed, driven mostly by the key fact of sci fi novels, that even in space, humans can't escape from themselves, the more interesting tension is within. So while Jules and Mia have lots of exhilirating chases and big choices to make and puzzles of the alien and human variety to solve, the stregnth of the story comes from a more familiar trope, where there is a power imbalance between the characters because one is keeping a secret.
Add a little romantic chemistry to the mix and you have an exhilirating ride and some characters who have to make friends... OR DIE. (no but seriously). Mia and Jules's unlikely pairing, along with several other enemy encounters in the novel, make this an effective contemplation on the notion of enmity, shared enemies, and teamwork. But Jules and Mia aren't really enemies. They're always working together, and the way that evolves from grudging to vital is done exquisitely. Spooner and Kaufman are mindful of the power differentials, and the smart vulnerable boy with the smart savvy girl makes for an excellent combination (as always). They play with the knowledge gaps and secrets between the two, but the straightforward internal narration from both characters keeps things from getting too melodramatic, and the focus remains the adventure. As the characters become friends, I found myself immensly satisfied emotionally.
You know what I wasn't satisfied by?
Just as a final note, the audiobook is done really well. Sean West makes a perfect Jules. The producer's attention to detail--for instance, Mia says 'niche' like an American and Jules like an Englishman, which delighted me.
I have never watched Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, the two comparison titles for this novel, but I loved the adventure and space setting of this novel, and the romance is a lot of fun too.