Dissolution by Lee S. Hawke

DISSOLUTION was an interesting dystopian novella that had great authentic ideas but lacked in detail and execution. I really liked the idea of corporations owning its employees and seeing them as assets to be traded and sold. However, the world building felt incomplete and the characters underdeveloped.

Madeline has waited her whole life for her Auctioning. After 18 years of waiting, after countless hours of training, she's ready for the next step in her life. In her city of Unilox, five corporations exist: ANRON, MERCE, HARLIN, PERCO, and DRAYTH. As an asset of ANRON, the pharmaceutical company, she hopes to be sold to MERCE where she'll be free to "build and fix things." One of the major problems with the novella is that we don't really know what these corporations do. The author doesn't really go into much detail about the individual companies but has a strong disliking for some. I don't know if the lack of information was done purposely, but either way, it leaves the reader confused.

The story spans only a couple of days and it's interesting to see Madeline go from an elite asset, to a hunted fugitive and then on to a merciless negotiator. I love Madeline's strength and devotion to her parents and boyfriend, but her motivations seem to lack foundation. Her relationship with her parents seems cold and the details about her relationship with her boyfriend Jake is sketchy. The fact that she has to pay to spend time with him is just bizarre, which kind of makes him seem like a escort. As an asset of ANRON, she learns, on what should have been her auctioning day, that she will never be able to be sold and will always remain the property of ANRON. As an experiment of the medical company, she's worth too much to be auctioned, but we never really learn what makes her so special. She seems to have incredible healing abilities and stamina, but the author never goes into details about what makes her so incredible, why she was never told and the details of her origin.

I love the way the author shows us how corporations are considered legal entities yet are uncaring and cold. I guess when you're looking for the ultimate antagonist, corporations are probably one of the best and strongest candidates. They have many of the rights humans have yet are very hard to hurt or kill. When it comes to facing off against ANRON, it's difficult to see how Madeline will succeed.

When it comes to description, it was hard to follow the details of the action. I think the author was trying to be too visual, and failed to give us the necessary information to follow the story. However, some of the descriptions were on par, for example, the use of implants to stay connected to society and the scene which I will simply call the river scene because I want to avoid spoilers.

Overall, the author had great ideas but as a whole, the story lacked information and detail. The characters were underdeveloped, the action was hard to follow, and the world needed more building. Personally, I believed this story would have more potential as a detailed novel, instead of a novella.

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Posted by Tynga at 03:43

 Blind Mirror Publishing, Dystopian, Lee S. Hawke, Review, Science, Xpresso Book Tours  1 Person left their mark

The Selection by Christine Castle and Jayne Faith [Review and Book Tour]

The notion of a selection, where young adults are more or less given away like property, sounds a bit barbaric. We’ve seen it in the Hunger Games, and in another series with the same title as this one by Kiera Cass. All are similar in the sense that the powers that be host a competition. In the Hunger Games, they fight to the death for entertainment with one (supposedly) victor at the end. In Kiera Cass’ series, the winner ends up with prince charming. In this book however, it’s a little of both. The surviving winners ends up in the Lord’s employ while the rest end up…dead. The girl who wins ends up in the Lord’s harem, while the winning boy ends up as a servant for that same lord.

Although it feels as if this story has been told multiple times, I enjoyed this version very much. Not only is it sci-fi, but it does have a magical feel to it, with the prophesies and mystical themes.  I loved the idea of a race humans that abandoned Earth long ago that are now back to reclaim the planet, now called Earthenfell, while fighting an alien race. It took me while to understand the whole concept and the world the characters lived in but I loved how the writers slowly incorporated the necessary details as the story progressed. I thought it was very well written although I wish it could have been even more detailed.

Usually, I dislike female leads that are naive and fragile, but in Maya’s case, I think it was necessary. Her whole life she thought she would be safe from the selection since her community had preselected a girl that would be trained and prepared for the competition, to be the Obligate of Maya’s clan when the time came. However, because this preselected girl dies right before the bi-annual ceremony that would announce her as the next Obligate in the deadly game, Maya is randomly selected instead. Maya has no clue what the selection really entails. As she mourns her fate with her family and friends during her last night on Earthenfell, I believe she comes to terms with her possible fate. “An Obligate entering the competition with no training was walking into almost certain death (loc 215).” However, once in the competition, Maya proves to everyone that she might just have what it takes in order to survive the physical and mind games they are putting her through.

When we first learn of Lord Toric through Maya’s point of view, he’s made out to be an evil and sadistic leader. However, the more we learn, the more we see the humanity in him. He has a dark past which has forged him into the man he is, and we slowly realize that he’s not the real enemy. Actually, he singles out Maya the first time he sees her and she becomes his obvious favourite. I love the rapport they build. It’s simple and modest, and Toric does his best not the intimidate the shy and innocent Maya.

One of my critics would be the length of the book. Not only does the story finish on a cliffhanger,  but I find the book was too short. It’s almost as if the writers purposely cut the story in order to make it fit into a trilogy. The ending makes you want more so if their goal was to leave me wanting more, they certainly achieved it in the most evil of ways. I definitely plan on reading the next book, however the release date has yet to be announced.

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Posted by Tynga at 01:36

 aliens, Christine Castle, Dystopian, future, giveaway, Jayne Faith, Review, Sapient Salvation, Science Fiction, Self Published, Space, Xpresso Book Tours, young adult  1 Person left their mark

The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan

For some reason, I have a soft spot when it comes to faeries. Probably because when I was younger, I was intrigued by their history, and finding out more about them nearly became an obsession at one point. Now, every time I come across a fiction novel about faeries, and it has an original premise, I jump at the chance to read it. Personally, I think Rachel Morgan has created a wonderful and original faerie world, and THE FAERIE GUARDIAN is a great start to what might be an epic series.

Violet, or Vi to her friends, is training to become a guardian, a sort of police for the faeries. Guarding humans and fae beings alike, a guardian's purpose is to either chase away or kill their mark, although Vi much prefers not to kill anyone. When she is assigned to protect Nate, a young boy, she's surprised he can see past her glamour, something humans are not supposed to be able to do. She breaks the two biggest faerie rules by letting Nate see her, and inadvertently bringing him into Creepy Hollow. The mystery that is Nate, almost becomes an obsession for her, not only because he's good looking, but something curious is unfolding in Nate's life.

What's amazing is how many bad guys we encounter throughout the book. I think it's what's most appealing about THE FAERIE GUARDIAN. You really don't know who the main antagonist is and they keep coming at Vi and Nate for one reason or another. Whether it's a duo kidnapping Nate, a centaur chasing them in faerie Underground,  Nate's supposed mother that attacks Vi for some odd and unknown reason or another duo tracking Nate with a strange eye tattoo on his back, they keep coming at our protagonists, even if they are more or less in the dark about what's really going on. It's the mystery and the intrigue that keeps this book going and the fast pace of the story is definitively an advantage. It's paced so fast, sometime I wish that author might have slowed down a little and described her faerie world, just a little bit more. Sometimes it's those little extra thing that makes a book "exceptional", rather than "very good", and this book lacked a bit of it.

The banter between the characters  is also pretty amazing. Vi is a high-spirited character and when you throw in Nate that is curious about everything and likes to talk, you get some pretty great conversations. I especially liked this one exchange, which came early in the book when Vi and Nate first met.

"You can't be a faerie. You're way too big."

I lower my hands. "Excuse me?" I've been called many things in my seventeen years, but 'big' has never been one of them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Aren't faeries supposed to be, like, really tiny? With wings and a wand and faerie dust?"

"I'm not Tinker Bell!"

A character that I'm not sure what to make of is Ryn. As fellow student guardians, Vi and Ryn are competing to be the best of their graduating class and their feud has them squabble throughout the book. Their rivalry is really fun to read, and you keep wondering if there's something more than feud behind their bickering.

For a self-published book, I'm really satisfied with THE FAERIE GUARDIAN. It doesn't read like a self-published book because it's very well written, well edited and the flow of the book is quite perfect. I haven't read the other two books of the trilogy so I can't speak for the whole series, but if the rest of the books are as stunning as this one, I'm anticipating an epic continuation and conclusion. I really enjoyed reading this introduction to Morgan's faerie world, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. So many things happened in this story that I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

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Posted by Tynga at 02:51

 Creepy Hollow, Faeries, Fey/Faeries, Magic, Paranormal, Rachel Morgan, Review, Self Published, Xpresso Book Tours, young adult  4 People left their mark

Arrow of the Mist by Christina Mercer

First of all, I'd like to apologies to Christina and Giselle of Xpresso Book Tours. This was supposed to go up on July 2 with Christina's "When I'm Not Writing" post but I ended up celebrating Canada Day with a bad case of food poisoning so I didn't have a chance to finish writing my review. I'm posting it now in the spirit of better-late-than-never since it's a story I quite enjoyed and think that you might too.

Overall, I thought ARROW OF THE MIST was a solid young adult fantasy novel. I really liked the protagonist Lia. She kind of reminded me of Merida from Brave with her red hair and unladylike pursuits. And I adored Merida so this is a compliment in my eyes. =) I also liked how Lia has embraced the traditions of her family -- the old ways -- even when they're not exactly popular with the locals or with the royal family. I think it shows her guts and strength of conviction, both of which are tested throughout ARROW OF THE MIST.

Fantasy fans will see many familiar tropes but this doesn't detract from the story. You have your different races, like dwarves and fairies, and some archetypal characters like the sage grandfatherly figure and your Samwise Gamgee-type stalwart traveling companion but everything is well executed so ARROW OF THE MIST doesn't feel like a retread of established ground. Each of the characters has enough personality to help them stand out, though I was most partial to Lia and her grandmother, who is dead but still has a strong presence in the novel thanks to her grimoire. I wasn't terribly keen on all the rhyming going on in the grimoire -- I found it to be a fairly repetitive device -- but I did enjoy watching Lia puzzle out the riddles. Some of the answers seemed a big obvious but Lia acquits herself nicely throughout the story.

I think this book will appeal to fans of Maria V. Snyder's Glass and Healer trilogies, and also Sarah J. Maas' work, since ARROW OF THE MIST features a strong female protagonist in a coming-of-age story. It's an enjoyable YA fantasy and I look forward to seeing what Mercer produces next.

P. S. How gorgeous is this cover? It's one of the most eye-catching covers I've seen -- traditional or indie pubbed -- and I think the artist deserves major kudos. =)

Read an excerpt (scroll down)

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Posted by Tynga at 00:55

 Christina Mercer, Fantasy, Review, Self Published, Xpresso Book Tours, young adult  4 People left their mark