Alexis DeSousa's Blog, page 2

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester Review

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester – – sci-fi

Gully Foyle is marooned on a destroyed ship in space. Another ship passes him by and he sends out a distress call, only to be ignored. Gully is enraged and vows to enact revenge on the captain who ordered to leave him floating alone in space. With renewed vigor, he gets the ship moving and starts on his own quest for revenge.

The Stars My Destination was very fast paced and a fun read. Gully lives in the future, where people can “jaunte” or teleport, using their minds. I found the idea of jaunting really cool. There were specified locations where people were allowed to jaunte and private residences were obscured so people couldn’t come in unannounced or unwanted. In order for Gully to enact his revenge, he has to get some vital information from some very important and influential people, with a lot of money.

These people have him imprisoned because he won’t reveal the location of his original ship. On the original ship was apparently money and something else, dangerous, that could turn the war that was raging between the inner and outer colonies in space. Gully wants the money to help him with his revenge scheme.

The way Gully’s scheme played out reminded me a little of The Count of Monte Cristo. Man is imprisoned. Man finds treasure. Man assumes the identity of a rich, influential character. Man uses money for revenge. Those were where the similarities ended, though.

The Glittering World by Robert Levy Review

The Glittering World by Robert Levy – – fantasy

Blue and his friends Elisa, Jason, and Gabe, visit his hometown after his grandmother leaves him her house in her will. Blue doesn’t remember much from when he lived there, but what he does find out about the small Nova Scotian town makes his head real. The townsfolk there believe in “The Other Kind” and Blue finds out who he really is and what really happened to him as a boy there.

I liked this book. It was kinda creepy, though. “The Other Kind” mentioned in the story are posited to be fae, or aliens, but I think they were a little of both. They were definitely very creepy. I found that I enjoyed Blue’s perspective in the beginning the most. The book is split in four parts, one for each of the main characters. I think that Jason’s perspective was pointless and I didn’t really like him too much as a character. I think his part of the story could have been told through Gabe.

I wished we would have seen more of the other kind and how they lived. We found out a little about the mysteries of the town and what happened to Blue as a kid that made his mother take him and run away. The townsfolk were all eerie. The other kind weren’t your typical fae, but there were some fantasy fae aspects about them. I did like how it ended, though, everything did seem to fall into place.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente Review

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente – – fantasy

September is 12 years old. She is whisked away by the wind and a flying leopard to Fairyland. There she meets all kinds of fae from witches, to wairwolves, to Wyverns and more. She learns that Fairyland is ruled by the evil Marquess and she does her best to try and right the wrongs that have been occuring here.

I’d call this book a mix of Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia. It reminded me a lot of both of them, though that’s not a bad thing. I really enjoyed the characters and all of the different fae that September comes across. September herself is delightfully charming. She is young, but she is also fiercely independent. Her mother works in a factory and her father is off fighting in Europe during WWII. September has to do a lot of things on her own at home already and she seems to perfectly fit into the Fairyland world.

I wish I had this book when I was a kid, I think I would have appreciated it a lot more. A child’s imagination can be so full of wonder and amazement and I think we lose some of that as we get older. I was thoroughly engaged in September’s adventure, however, from start to finish. This will definitely be one book I read with my kids someday!

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein Review

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein – – sci-fi

Lorenzo Smythe is an actor who thinks his acting is a lot better than it actually is. He is approached by a famous space pilot and offered an acting job, a role of a lifetime. The space pilot wants him to impersonate a politician on Mars. Lorenzo agrees, but was it really a mistake?

I loved Lorenzo. He really was quite the character. He made me chuckle on numerous occasions. He acts tough, but he really is a coward deep down. He always wants to run at the first sign of trouble.

This was a pretty quick read, but a light hearted one. Lorenzo completely commits to his role, so much so that he starts to actually become “Mr. Bonforte”. He ventures into the realm of space politics, meets Martians, etc. He can fool almost anyone. It was scary to see how if you pretend enough to be someone else…you might just convince yourself that you are them.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern Review

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – – fantasy

Celia and Marco embark on a challenge of their magical talents, insisted upon by their teachers, where the circus is their gameboard. The two spend nearly fifteen years making subtle moves against each other in an effort for one to turn out the winner.

I really loved this book. I didn’t want to put it down and I didn’t want it to be over. The circus in this story was painted so beautifully and magically that I wanted to actually go and experience it. The characters were all very interesting and I enjoyed getting to know them and their different talents.

The premise was really cool. I liked the idea of having two magicians, with different thoughts and teachings on magic, go head to head in a sort of competition, where no one knew the rules, how the winner was determined, etc. Celia and Marco are two very complex characters who get roped into a game against their wills.

The one thing I would have liked would have been a little bit more backstory on their teachers and how this game of theirs came to be. Celia and Marco weren’t the first two students to compete against each other. We do find out a little of the teachers backstory, but not too much. They were veiled in a little bit of mystery. I definitely recommend this book, though, it was great!

The 100 by Kass Morgan Review

The 100 by Kass Morgan – – sci-fi

Earth has been abandoned for hundreds of years. Humans live in orbit around Earth. As a test to see if humans can survive on Earth once again, 100 convicted teenagers are sent down. Their progress is monitored by the humans in space to see if they can return to the ground.

Ehhhhhhhhh. I like the show better. I think I liked some of the characters only because I knew their personalities from the show. Bellamy and Octavia are two of my favorites, and though their story is a little different in the book, I still enjoyed their presence. They seemed to lighten things up when they were on the ground. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure why we were given a perspective of a teenager who remained on the ship; I liked how the show did it better, with having us see the adults perspective after the kids were sent down to Earth.

Also, halfway through nothing had really happened too much. They landed on Earth and made camp, but that was all. It was a perfectly OK book, but, if you’re not a fan of the show, you’re not going to like the book either. I would actuallyr recommend watching the show over reading the book. Much more suspenseful.

California by Edan Lepucki Review

California by Edan Lepucki – – sci-fi

The world has gone to crap. Frida and Cal decide to leave LA to live in the wilderness and try to survive on their own. They find their little piece of the earth to settle. For two years, Frida and Cal live off the land, but eventually they want to find out if there are other people nearby and how they get along in this new world.

Stephen Colbert recommended this book on his show, The Colbert Report, and I decided to read it because the premise intrigued me. I’ve been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction lately, so I figured I would give this one a go.

The book was OK. For me, it wasn’t a page turner. There were some things I didn’t like about the storytelling itself. For example, Frida might be doing something (washing her clothes in the river) and reminiscing about the past for a few pages. Then, there’s a break in her train of thought for one sentence back to the present and then it returns to her reminiscing. Things like that just break me out of the story and felt unnecessary. It made the storytelling a bit uneven.

Also didn’t really like the ending. Guess I needed more.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss Review

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss – – fantasy

Follow Auri as she explores the Underthing, a maze beneath the University from the Kingkiller Chronicles, where she lives.

There’s really not much to say about this book. Relatively little happens. The book is set over the course of one week in Auri’s life. We know from the Kingkiller Chronicles that Auri is odd. We learn in this book that Auri really is cut from a different cloth. The thing about Auri, though, is her genuine sweetness and even though the book is riddled with her OCD (running to and fro throughout the maze to make sure every object is in its rightful place), there are those moments that really strike you about her character and what may have happened to her in the past.

While I didn’t love this book, I loved the writing style. The way Rothfuss writes makes the objects Auri finds come to life in a different way. The objects are the other characters in the story. I wish we had learned a little bit more about Auri’s backstory. I want to know so much more about her. I do love her character and her quirks.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black Review

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black –

In the town of Fairfold fae and human live together. Hazel and her brother Ben have lived in the strange town all their lives. As children, they played in the forest and saw strange things. Eventually, they decided to become a bard and a knight, fighting in the forest to save out of towners from being over taken by the magical beings residing there. Now, as a teenager, Hazel has long given up her knightly ways, but when something happens to threaten her town, she must be prepared to save it.

The Darkest Part of the Forest is a standalone young adult fantasy novel. The book keeps you on your toes throughout the adventures and trials Hazel, her brother, and others face. I liked that the town and the fae had a certain understanding for a long time regarding living harmoniously. I also enjoyed the fae characters in the story; they were all very interesting. I think Jack was my favorite fae character; he had what could have been a really cool expanded story for another time! ;)

The contrast between the magical and the normal was also done really well and everything seemed to flow together nicely. It was a quick read and I definitely recommend it, if you enjoy a good fairy tale.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson Review

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson –

Shai is caught stealing in the imperial palace and is forced to help the empire to restore the current Emperor’s soul after an attempt on his life has left him blank in the brain. Shai is a Forger and has forged and changed her own seals for her own soul. Can she do the same for the emperor?

This novella was really jam packed for a shorter story. I really loved Shai and I want more of her. I didn’t realize that this was part of the Elantris series, though set completely apart, so I am guessing it was ok to read individually. I hope that Sanderson writes more Shai stories, because she is really very interesting.

Shai is a forger and she can make copies of different objects by carving into seals. She makes copies of, and changes, her own soul to suit specific needs she might have. I found this type of magic really remarkable and fun, which is why I wish there was more!