New group read

[Matt]

Hey, I was just wondering if you guys (well just Gavin on the last one) wanted to do another group read. If so, want to give some suggestions for a book we could all read?

[Gavin]

Hey Matt, I would be interested in doing another group read, but I will not be able to start another fantasy or Sci-Fi book for at least another three weeks. I have some other books I have to read first.

I have a few books in mind and when I decide which one I want to read I will post my choice here.
Hopefully there will be a few more nominations by then!.

Which books are interesting you for the next read?.

[Matt]

I was thinking either I Robot by: Isaac Asimov or Divergent by: Veronica Roth

I agree with you about not starting for a couple of weeks.

What are your suggestions?

[Gavin]

I was thinking about The Way of Shadows or The Summer Tree or The Summoner.

All look like the start of great series!.

But I just bought Divergent by Veronica Roth so I would have no problem reading that either.

[Matt]

I would defiantly read The Way of Shadows or The Summoner.

[Gavin]

I'm happy with The Way of Shadows or The Summoner or Divergent.

I'll let you decide Matt. Since I already own and want to read all three it's no problem for me whichever one you wish to read the most.

[Matt]

I can't start this until probably sometime next week, but I would like to read Divergent first.

I will try to pick the other books up sometime when i'm not busy, and then we can read them.

[Gavin]

No rush I still have a few other books to get through first.

[Matt]

Ok great because I have to finish Elantris and read Poison Study

[Matt]

I am ready to read Divergent whenever now. Just comment when you are ready.

[Gavin]

I'll probably be ready to start Divergent on Wednesday.

How do you want to do it?, thoughts as we go like we did for Way of Kings or thoughts at the end like over at Book Bitten.

[Matt]

I read it about a year ago, but I forgot a lot of it, so let's go with thoughts on the way through. I already know the ending so it's okay if you get ahead.

[Gavin]

I started Divergent today and have read about a quarter of the book.

So far it's been pretty good. At this stage in the book I have not learned much about the world Divergent takes place in, but it has been interesting learning about the different factions.

Beatrice ( hate that name! ) reminds me a little of Katniss from The Hunger Games. I like her but sometimes she can annoy me. I like Christina and Al, I'm not sure what I think about Will and Four yet, and I dislike Peter, Molly and Eric.

Initiation training at the Dauntless has been pretty interesting so far.

Well, that's my first impressions.

[Matt]

I will hopefully get into the book tomorrow.

From what I remember Four is my favourite character.

[Gavin]

*Spoilers ahead*

I have now finished Divergent.

I thought it was a good book. It had an interesting start, introducing us to the world the characters lived in and explaining the faction system that governs them. It soon became apparent that only three of the factions, Dauntless, Erudite, and Abnegation were going to play a pivotal role in the the story. Hopefully the other two factions and especially the factionless will be explored more later in the series.

Beatrice's time spent with her family in the first part of the book gave us a good insight into how life as a member of abnegation was, and her defection to dauntless provided an equally interesting look into that faction. Most of the book foucoused on Tris's time spent as an initiate of the dauntless, not a bad thing!. It really made you sympathize with her plight as she struggled early with the training. It also introduced us to a bunch of interesting characters, enemies as well as friends like Four, Christina, Al, Peter, and Eric. Just like Beatrice, Four( or Tobias ) grew on me more as the story progressed, and the two of them were probably my favorite characters. For some reason I always had the feeling Al was going to come to some sort of tragic end!. I probably hated Peter more than Eric and feel that Jeanine is probably the true villain of the series.

The pace of the story really picked up when the initiation process was over and the true nature of the Erudite revolt was revealed. From that point on the story was full of action, surprises and shocks.
I thought the end was pretty good and even though I don't like him, I'm glad Peter survived, it should be fascinating to see what Tris does about him in the second book.

This book reminded me a little of the Hunger Games. I liked The Hunger Games more, the world of Divergent was just a little to vague, the characters just a little less likable, and most importantly I just did not seem to care as much when someone died in Divergent as much as I did when it happened in The Hunger Gamers.

Other random thougths

-I hate Beatrice as a name, so glad it was shortened to Tris.
-Those hallucination programs always had me picturing Star Trek holodecks.
-Where are they?, and what's happening in the rest of the world!.
-Ugh, tattoos are so revolting!.
-How small a faction are the dauntless if they only accept ten new members a year?.

so what did you think of it Matt?.

Just out of interest if you had to pick a faction to join which one would it be?.

[Matt]

I'm a bit late in starting so I'll tell you my thoughts in a few days sorry.

[Matt]

Great book!

I agree with you on the first part of your review up to when you said it isn't as good as The Hunger Games. I think the books are even.

As for the other random thought...
Defiantly a good thing the name was shortened
I didn't really see the star trek thing I thought it was more like the Matrix in a way
I think something happened to the world and they are all that is left
I don't really care about tattoos
And I think most of the factions only accept a few members per year.

[Gavin]

The Matrix comparison is probably a better fit, don't know why I never thought of it.

I liked the Divergent enough that I'll probably read Insurgent in a few months time.