Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Summary:
Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME. (from GoodReads)

Review:
Ah, another trilogy comes to a close. Luckily for these books, Shades of Earth (the last one) was definitely the best. While I enjoyed the other novels, I was drawn into Shades of Earth in a way that I hadn't before. I think it was the fact that the characters were actually on a new planet and that was very interesting.

Whenever I read books that take place on spaceships (which isn't really that many), I always feel super claustrophobic. No matter what was going on on Earth, I probably wouldn't want to escape it to live in Space. However, in Shades of Earth, the characters land on Centauri-Earth and the feeling of claustrophobia disappears. The new planet is pretty similar to Earth and it has to be so that humans can function but there are different plants and animals. It felt like a ghost town in that there was a human colony there previously and they left behind some buildings. So spooky.

Even moreso than the previous novels, Shades of Earth is a mystery, which I loved. Who is systematically killing off members of the crew? What secrets is Amy's dad keeping? Are there humans or aliens on the new planet? I couldn't put the book down because I wanted to know the answers to all these questions. Even so, the twists weren't really that surprising to me - I pretty much guessed all of them, but that usually happens to me.

As always, Elder is the interesting character to read about. Not that I don't love Amy, but as the leader of the ship born people, Elder has a more important role. He has to spar with Amy's dad, who is the military leader of the Cryos and he holds his own as a leader. The relationship between Amy and Elder develops nicely and isn't prone to the instalove that many YA books have.

One thing that annoyed me was Amy saying the first moon landing was in the 1950s. Um, no, it was 1969. Also what happened to the gorgeous colorful covers of the first two books?? I'm seriously disappointed in that change. Regardless, I still enjoyed this trilogy and think Shades of Earth was an amazing conclusion.

Rating: 9 out of 10.
FTC: borrowed from the library.

2013/Razorbill/369 pages.

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Summary:
It's been three months since Amy was awoken from her cryogenically frozen chamber and found herself on the spaceship Godspeed traveling to a new planet. It was tough transitioning to a world where there are always four walls surrounding her, but she had Elder to help her. However, now that Eldest is dead, Elder has become the leader of Godspeed. While he is dealing with imminent rebellion of the crew, Amy is sent on a hunt to unlock the secrets of Godspeed....before it's too late.

Review:
I really enjoyed Across the Universe, the predecessor to A Million Suns, when I first read it. I was very excited to get my hands on the sequel, and I'm happy to say that A Million Suns did not disappoint. The story picks up right where Across the Universe left off, and even though many things were revealed at the end of that novel, there are still more secrets to be uncovered in this book.

I love mysteries, so I liked watching Amy hunt for clues and thought it was a very interesting way for Amy to discover new information about Godspeed. I guessed some of the secrets, but there were still plenty of twists and turns to keep me on my toes. On Elder's side, he is dealing with mutiny from the crew, who want a more equal form of government. While I understood the complaints of the crew, when reading from Elder's point-of-view, it's easy to sympathize with him. Even though he was not voted to be the leader, he still has the citizens' best interests at heart.

Even though A Million Suns was a great continuation of this trilogy, it still suffered a little bit of middle book syndrome. It wasn't quite as awesome as Across the Universe. That being said, I still can't wait to read the conclusion because this book left off with a huge cliffhanger.

Rating: 8 out of 10.
FTC: Flamingnet Book Reviews.
Release Date: January 10, 2012

2012/Razorbill/390 pages.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Summary:

A story of love, murder, and madness aboard an enormous spaceship bound for the future.

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to wake up on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, Amy's cryo chamber is unplugged and she is nearly killed.

Now, Amy is caught inside an inclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But can she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again. (from back cover)

Review:

Across the Universe totally amazed me. I heard so many good things about it, and when I received a review copy in the mail, I was overjoyed. Across the Universe lived up to my expectations and even surpassed them.

In a world of incredible technology (seriously, what will Apple release next?), science fiction seems to be almost a prediction of our future rather than a fantastical imagining of it. In Across the Universe, the United States has the techology to cryogenically freeze humans and send them on a spaceship that will be able to travel for three hundred years. Once there, the humans can be awakened and start inhabiting the planet. However, humans are also needed to man the ship during its voyage, so generations of people are being born over and over again on the ship.

What I loved about the novel, and what kind of freaked me out, was the total claustrophobia of living on Godspeed. It's a huge spaceship, but it still has its boundaries. It's modeled after the earth, but as Amy notes, the air smells different, the sky isn't quite as blue, and there are no stars. As I was sitting in my room, I could almost feel the walls close around me. I would never want to be stuck on a ship, alive or asleep. This novel really made me appreciate even more the beautiful planet we have. Across the Universe definitely stressed the importance of real, not fabricated, nature.

I love mysteries, and the fact that this ship was full of them, made the novel better in my opinion. Someone is trying to murder the frozen people, and the whole time the reader is wondering who it is and why. I kind of guessed who the perpretrator was before the ending, but there were so many twists and turns that it didn't matter. This was definitely a ship built on secrets and lies. By the end, we discover that Eldest has been hiding a lot from Elder and the rest of Godspeed's residents. Everything you thought was true is pretty much false, leaving you feeling like you were the one who had been lied to the entire time.

Across the Universe features two narrators: Amy and Elder. Amy and her parents are some of the cryogenically frozen passengers, but Amy is woken fifty years too early. She is rightly confused and a little shocked at what she discovers on Godspeed, in regards to both technology and practices. Eldest has some unusual methods to control the populace, and it is very creepy, when Amy and Elder discover them. I actually liked Elder as a narrator better; I thought he was much more interesting and a more active character in the story.

Another thing that fascinated me about Across the Universe was the way that Eldest changes Earth's history to suit his agenda. For instance, Elder comments on how Hitler was a strong leader and even reads a revised version of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which is way different than the original. I love history and seeing how easily it can be changed creeped me out.

The only problem I had with Across the Universe was the ending. Not the content so much as the way it was written. With twenty pages left to go, suddenly everything is neatly tied up with a little bow The murderer is caught, out of the way, everyone learns the truth and everyone lives happily ever after. I was a little confused when the author started telling us everything that happened rather than showing us. I wish there was a little more detail as to how everything got accomplished because I'm sure it wasn't as easy as the narrators made it sound like.

Overall, I really enjoyed Across the Universe and thought that Beth Revis's world-building was incredible. I felt as though I was living on Godspeed, and I really think that Revis effectively captured the claustrophobia of the ship. The mystery was engaging, the characters interesting to watch, and the technology was unbelievable. Across the Universe is a gem of science fiction.

Release Date: 1/11/11 (!!)

Rating: 9 out of 10.

FTC: received copy from publisher.

2011/Razor Bill/398 pages.