The Last Star by Rick Yancey

Series: The 5th Wave (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: post-apocalyptic, aliens, survival,

Setting: Ohio, during late winter, early spring. Ohio Caverns. A little bit of Canada too.

POV/Tense: 1st person POV present and past tense, rotating by part between Ringer (Marika), Zombie (Ben) & Cassie (Cassiopeia), and 3rd person of Evan and Sam

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 338 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: Penguin: Putnam

Summary/ product description: “The enemy is Other. The enemy is us.

They’re down here, they’re up there, they’re nowhere. They want the Earth, they want us to have it. They came to wipe us out, they came to save us.

But beneath these riddles lies one truth: Cassie has been betrayed. So has Ringer. Zombie. Nugget. And all 7.5 billion people who used to live on our planet. Betrayed first by the Others, and now by ourselves.

In these last days, Earth’s remaining survivors will need to decide what’s more important: saving themselves…or saving what makes us human.”

My Review:  The Last Star is the highly anticipated finale of the 5^th Wave trilogy. It starts off with a prologue about why Cassie’s father named her Cassiopeia. Then there’s the 3^rd person perspective of a priest who’s a silencer, and goes to Ohio Caverns and kills the people living there. Then at page 21 we finally get to the story.  

Cassie’s pretty angry. Her, Zombie aka Ben, Evan Walker, Dumbo, Sam and Megan are all hiding out. Ringer and Teacup went ahead to some Caverns. Cassie’s mad because of a lot of things, but one thing is that her six-year-old brother Sam forgot his ABCs. Zombie and Dumbo go after Ringer. They run into trouble and stuff happens. There’s only 4 days till the spring equinox when the bombs will drop from the mothership to destroy all cities on earth.

This series seems to use well-known places as settings. At least well known if you ever been to Ohio. In 2004, when I was 11, on my family trip to Ohio, we visited Ohio Caverns. It was a cool cave. I’ve been to 5 other caves, and this one seemed pretty small. Maybe it was just the tour we went on. Anyway, I took pictures. It was beautiful. On that trip we also the air force base’s museum, the space museum in Dayton and also we stayed in Columbus.

Here's Ohio Caverns:

(the girl in the blue jacket is me)

Here's the air force museum:

This series has been pretty good, but some things have really irritated me about it. Maybe the way perspective change and the way chapter begin and end on the same page with very little space much like in the Unwind series. I this final book there are labels when the perspective change. Cassie, Zombie, Ringer, Sam, and Evan Walker. And the perspective changes every few chapter. No having to really a whole part, 100 pages straight, of just one character.

My favorite character’s POV to read is Cassie. She’s funny. Her humor reminds me so much of Maximum Ride. I still wish the whole book was in Cassie’s perspective, but I can see now how that wouldn’t have worked. Maybe if it was limited to Cassie and Zombie. What I don’t understand now if how Cassie’s POV could have been written in a journal the whole time because of the ending.

Let’s talk about that ending. *VAGUE SPOILER AHEAD*

If you read the ending to Allegiant by Veronica Roth, it’s that kind of ending. I hate martyr endings. Also, I feel like too much was left open, like there’s a possibility of a spin-off series. Probably won’t happen, just saying.

Also, in September 2014 I got to meet Rick Yancey. You can click here to see.

Cover Art Review: Not sure if that’s an air force base or water treatment plant on the cover. The cover is pretty good. You can see the owl behind the title this time. It’s a lot more noticeable than the previous covers.

Dove Exiled by Karen Bao

Series: Dove Chronicles (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: moon, space, space colonies, ocean, sea colonies, adventure, war, love

Setting: In Odan, a village on one of the British Isles, floating cities, a moon colony

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Phaet Theta

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 297 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Penguin: Viking

Summary/ product description: “The thrilling follow-up to the groundbreaking debut Dove Arising.

Phaet Theta fled the Moon and has been hiding on Earth with her friend Wes and his family. But Phaet’s past catches up with her when the Lunar Bases attack the community and reveal that Phaet is a fugitive. She’s torn between staying on Earth with Wes—whom she’s just discovered her feelings for—and stowing away on a Moon-bound ship to rescue her siblings from the wrath of the government who killed their mother. But when Phaet makes the agonizing decision to return to the Moon, she finds the rebel movement there has turned her into their “Girl Sage,” a symbol of their struggle. She’s the biggest celebrity on the Moon: half the people worship her, and the other half want her dead.”

My Review:  Dove Exiled is the sequel to Dove Arising. It starts out with Phaet on Earth, in a town called Odan with Wes. Odan is on an island within the Bristish Isles archipelago. The Odans hate technology and chemicals and use only organic stuff. The use bioluminescent bacteria for lights at night. They make their own clothes.

The Odan’s are not sure what to make of Phaet. Wes and her concoct a back-story the she is Fay, and was an engine room slave in Pacifia, a floating city that has a population made primarily of Asian people.  The Odans call Lunars “demons” because their lack of religion, and the Odans a very religious. This is mainly why Phaet could not tell then that she is Lunar.

Wes’s dad discovers her true identity and is not too happy about it. Wes and Phaet are exiled, but decide to help the Odans out and set off for the floating city of Battery Bay to help them because Pacifia is planning to attack Odan. Phaet wants to use Pacifia to get back to Base IV on the moon and save her brother Cygnus who’s being tortured there.

I really thought the idea floating cities was cool. I thought they were going to be just huge ships, but they are actually floating cities. Real cities with roads or cannels, tall towers and homes. One was called Tourmaline, which is this really beautiful long, straight gemstone.

Phaet gets back to the moon, and is a fugitive and trying to save her brother. Phaet get turned into a legend, a symbol of rebellion, kind of like Katniss as the Mockingjay, or even Mare as the Red Queen. They call her the Sage Girl. The rebellion called Dovetail, originally formed by Phaet’s mother, came up with a plan for the council election. Something causes difficulties for their plans.

This sequel was not bad, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book. It was a lot shorter, and also I forgot what happened exactly in the previous book. I think the book begins month later after the first book ended.

I recommend this book series to fans of: Divergent by Veronica Roth, Cinder by Melissa Meyer, The Hunger Games, Matched or Atlantia by Ally Condie, Reboot by Amy Tintera, and other various dystopian series. Also, if you enjoy books set in space, like Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

Cover Art Review: Much better than previous book’s cover. Cool illustrations. Love the city in the background.

Rebel by Amy Tintera

Series: Reboot Duology (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: soldiers, zombies, death, love, action, adventure, survival

Setting: Texas

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, past tense rotating between Wren and Callum

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 340 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover and now in Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Wren Connolly thought she'd left her human side behind when she dies five years ago and came back 178 minutes later as a Reboot. With her new abilities of strength, speed, and healing—along with a lack of emotions—Wren 178 became the perfect soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation). Then Callum 22 came along and changed everything.

Now that they've both escaped, they're ready to start a new life in peace on the Reboot reservation. But Micah 163, the Reboot running the reservation, has darker plans in mind: to wipe out the humans. All of them. Micah has been building a Reboot army for years and is now ready to launch his attack on the cities. Callum wants to stick around and protect the humans. Wren wants nothing more than to leave all the fighting behind them.

With Micah on one side, HARC on the other, and Wren and Callum at odds in the middle, there's only one option left...

It's time for Reboots to become rebels.”

My Review:  Rebel is the sequel-finale to Reboot. It’s full of awesome and told from not just Wren’s perspective, but Callum’s too. I should of not waited a year to read this, and am so happy to have read it now, but sad because there is no 3^rd book. Wren, Callum, Addie and the Reboots from the Austin HARC facility arrive at the Reboot Reservation. It’s ran by a Reboot named Micah. Micah seems like a great guy at first, but it turns out he hates humans and want revenge.

Callum wants to protect the humans in the cities and rescue the Reboot. Wren agrees with him, but she feel like she doesn’t care about the humans and she’d rather just take Callum and run off to some other state. The Reboots at the reservation are amazed with Wren because her 178 is the highest number they’ve ever seen (higher number of minutes dead before rebooting. This means she’s stronger and faster at healing.)

I loved Callum’s POV. Why couldn’t the first book have his perspective too? He’s such a great guy. There’s a bit of a gender role reversal thing going on in this book. Usually female are more emotional and sensitive (supposedly) but Wren’s the tough one who shows no emotion (except when Callum makes her feel something) and Callum’s the charming one who’s full of humor and emotion. Callum is Mr. Optimistic and makes the best of every situation and finds solutions. Wren’s scarred–literally–and was sort of brainwashed by HARC, but falling in love with Callum is changing her perspective of a lot of things. I just love the romance of this book. This has got to be one of my favorite YA couples. Alson, another character I enjoyed was Addie. She’s so hilarious. She’s funnier than Callum even. There’s so much banter between Wren, Callum and Addie. I love it. Then we meet Wren’s old trainer, Riley. He’s a pretty cool guy and knows about Wren’s past with HARC.

This finale brings everything to a memorable close. There’s action and romance and sci-fi stuff. It’s such a great book and I wish there was a third book though it’s unnecessary. I’d call it Return and it would have a black cover with a green barcode over the title and maybe horizontal lines this time. I hope there’s a novella from Addie’s POV someday soon. I recommend this series to everyone who read dystopian book. In case you didn’t know, this is sort of a zombie book, but more like iZombie meets the 5^th Wave. With a romance as great as Fortris (Divergent). Wrenallum? Calwren? Anyways, it’s a great series!

Cover Art Review: The clock like cover is interesting and cool. Minimal, simple.