Dead Zone by Robison Wells

Series: Blackout (bk. 2, Final Book)

Genera: Near-Future Dystopian Sci-fi/Thriller

Subjects: terrorists, viruses, superpowers, abilities, war, military

Setting: Washington and Oregon, the Cascade Mountains

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Jack and Aubrey, mainly, but also: Krezi, Tabitha, Alec and others

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 373 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Homeland meets Marie Lu’s Legend in the explosive sequel to Blackout, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Ally Condie called “a thrilling combination of Wells’s trademark twists and terror. Fantastic!”

America is at war—and five teens are caught in the crossfire.

It began with a virus. Then a series of attacks erupted across the nation. Now the true invasion has begun, and a handful of teenagers with impossible powers are America’s only defense.

Robison Wells blew readers away with his first novel, Variant, which Publishers Weekly called “a chilling and masterful debut” in a starred review. In Dead Zone, he delivers his most nail-bitingly tense read yet—and an electrifying conclusion to a two-book series that’s perfect for fans of The Maze Runner and I Am Number Four.

Praise for Blackout

“Wells knows how to snare readers’ attention and hold them spellbound.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In a world where terrorism is an increasing threat, this fast-paced book brings it home.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This eerie look at an all-too-possible future is tense and gripping.”—Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of the Gone series”

My Review:  Dead Zone is an awesome sequel, but still not as good as Blackout. I’m fine with that because I really enjoyed both. This 2 book series is filled with action, danger and super-powered teens. It’s a real thrill ride and great for fans of X-Men and the Gone series by Michael Grant. These teens are called Lambda’s by the military. They got their powers from a virus.

I really enjoyed the characters. Aubrey is my favorite. She’s got the ability so go unnoticed by those within a certain radius. It isn’t true invisibility, but it makes her a good spy and assassin, and that’s why the military wants to use her. She’s in love with Jack, who has enhances senses. They have a good romance together. He uses his super hearing to relay what Aubrey is saying when she’s on a mission. There’s Krenzi, who can heat things up and make them explode or light on fire. Rich can understand how any machine work and use it with expertise. Tabitha has telepathy and can talk to people in their minds, but they can’t talk back (she can’t read minds). Alec can implant memories.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as Black Out because the first book introduced us to what was happening and the characters, and this book centers around Russia’s invasion into the US and tracking down a specific Lambda. It’s still an interesting plotline. I really like how the team has to work together and use their skills. Some may not like what they are doing and what they are ordered to do. Teens should not have to kill people. It’s questions the ethics of war and right vs. wrong. The deeper message of this book is do what you think is right. Help save your country, and keep people alive. Don’t let people use you for their own gain.

Dead Zone is the 2^nd and final book in this duology. I hope Robison Wells has something just as awesome for use to read in the future. His other series includes Variant and Feedback. His brother is Dan Wells, author of the Partials series. I recommend this series to fans of: X-Men, The Gone series by Michael Grant, Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi, Reboot by Amy Tintera, The Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Braken, and other sci-fi series that include teens with abilities or that are soldiers and spies.

Cover Art Review: Nice explosion image. The red makes it look scary.

Blackout by Robison Wells

Series: Blackout (bk. 1)

Genera: Near-Future Dystopian Sci-fi/Thriller

Subjects: terrorists, viruses, superpowers, abilities, war, military, Utah

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 424 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Laura and Alec are trained terrorists.

Jack and Aubrey are high school students.

There was no reason for them to ever meet.

But now, a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible powers. And these four are about to find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.”

My Review: This book was so cool! It’s like X-men and Gone by Michael Grant and Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I don’t understand why people gave it bad reviews. It’s written in 3^rd person and some head jumping occurs, which is different from Robison’s previous books, which are written in 1^st person.

We only get the perspective of four characters: Aubrey, Jack, Laura, and Alec. They’re all pretty different from each other. They seem well developed, especially Aubrey. The characters all have different superpowers, and they’re not invincible. Aubrey can become invisible by affecting the minds around her to see that she not there (like a mind-control illusion). Jack’s ability is revealed over 100 pages in, but it’s mainly about enhanced senses. Laura is super strong and Alec can implant memories. Other superpowers included photographic memory, pheromone control, blasting fire, and controlling rock. The military called the teens with abilities Lambdas. The teens are quarantined and tested for a virus, and if they have it, the military categorizes their abilities, decided how useful they are. Aubrey becomes and spy, which I thought was pretty cool.

This book took what we think of as terrorism to a whole new level. Teens with superpowers destroying important places and killing people. We really did learn why they were doing it yet. I’m sure we’ll learn the big picture in the next book. I want to know how did the virus come to be and who’s the master mind behind this anarchy. They get their mark by some kind of code in a blog called SusieMusie.

There’s a part of the book when they mention that Chicago was destroyed. Why do you have to go and destroy my city in this book, Robison? My brother lives down there. And Chicago is not the 3^rd largest city. It is important though. Most of this book was set in Utah. Utah’s not really the 1^st place you’d think a book like this should be set. I really enjoyed the setting though. Mountains and desert and the Salt Lake City area. I love imagining these kinds of places.

Blackout was a complete thrill ride. It could be easily read in a day, despite its length. I literally didn’t want to put it down once I got really into it. I can’t wait for the sequel. I recommend this book to fans of X-Men and superhero stuff, the shows like Agents of SHEILD and Tomorrow People, and book series like: Variant by Robison Wells, Gone by Michael Grant, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, No Easy Way Out by Dayna Loretz, Quarantine by Lex Thomas, Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi and sci-fi YA in general.

Cover Art Review: I love this cover. It’s very minimal. It looks like an explosion of rocks and gravel. The title looks awesome against it. Under the cover jacket, there’s a gold embossed texture that mimics the cover.

The Darkest Path by Jeff Hirsch

Release Date: September 24, 2013

Series: Standalone

Genera: Dystopia Sci-fi/Action Adventure

Subjects: military, war, dogs, survival

Age/Grade Level: Ages 12 and up/Teen

Length: 320 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Summary/ product description: “USA TODAY bestselling author Jeff Hirsch once again creates a futuristic world with stunning, dramatic realism.

A civil war rages between the Glorious Path--a militant religion based on the teachings of a former US soldier--and what's left of the US government. Fifteen-year-old Callum Roe and his younger brother, James, were captured and forced to convert six years ago. Cal has been working in the Path's dog kennels, and is very close to becoming one of the Path's deadliest secret agents. Then Cal befriends a stray dog named Bear and kills a commander who wants to train him to be a vicious attack dog. This sends Cal and Bear on the run, and sets in motion a series of incredible events that will test Cal's loyalties and end in a fierce battle that the fate of the entire country rests on.”

My Review: This is probably my least favorite of the books written by this author. I did like the dog, but he didn’t play a big enough role later on in the story. This biggest issue with this book, that made it hard to read is that the text was set in a san serif typeface. Not a good thing for a book. I skimmed too much.

I did like the setting, and the fact that Cal traveled through Arizona, and other western states and all the way to the East coast. I love adventure, but most of this book fell flat. I didn’t really care much for the characters. I really wish that James chose to go with Cal. I wish Cal met Nat sooner. It was all very slow. The Eleventh Plague was a lot faster that this book. I also didn’t like the idea of a military religion. I was creative, and kind of like a cult, but didn’t work well. I feel like this was more of a 2^nd civil war kind of book. The Glorious Path states were mostly in the south.

There was a lot of survival stuff, which I love, but nearly as descriptive as I like. I did think that Bear sounded cute. A small, tough dog he was. I really wanted to like this book since I won an ARC of it, but I mostly found myself skimming, hoping for something interesting to happen. I recommend this book to boys 12 and up. I think this is more of a boy book.

Cover Art Review: This cover reminds me of the 11^th Plague’s cover. It is very dystopian looking. I love the back cover more, though. The dog and the destroyed car a awesome. The helicopter and burning house look cool too.