Burn Out by Kristi Helvig

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: post-apocalyptic, survival, climate change, space

Setting: On Earth 300 years in the future, and in space

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Tora

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 253 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Egmont

Summary/ product description: “A futuristic blend of Beth Revis's Across the Universe and Lenore Appelhans's Level 2, Burn Out will satisfy the growing desire for science fiction with a thrilling story of survival, intrigue, and adventure.

Most people want to save the world; seventeen-year-old Tora Reynolds just wants to get the hell off of it. One of the last survivors in Earth's final years, Tora yearns to escape the wasteland her planet has become after the sun turns "red giant," but discovers her fellow survivors are even more deadly than the hostile environment.

Holed up in an underground shelter, Tora is alone--her brilliant scientist father murdered, her mother and sister burned to death. She dreams of living on a planet with oceans, plants, and animals. Unfortunately, the oceans dried out ages ago, the only plants are giant cacti with deadly spines, and her pet, Trigger, is a gun--one of the bio-energetic weapons her father created for the government before his conscience kicked in.

When family friend, Markus, arrives with mercenaries to take the weapons by force, Tora's fury turns to fear when government ships descend in an attempt to kill them all. She forges an unlikely alliance with Markus and his rag-tag group of raiders, including a smart but quiet soldier named James.

She is shocked when James accidentally fires one of her father's bio-weapons--weapons designed to work only for her. She'd felt a strange pull to James from the start, but the odds of someone sharing her energy vibration are statistically miniscule. Tora must quickly figure out who she can trust, as she must choose between saving herself by giving up the guns or honoring her father's request to save humanity from the most lethal weapons in existence.”

My Review:  I was disappointed that I didn’t enjoy Burn Out as much as I wanted to. With the comparison to the Across the Universe series, I was sure I’d enjoy it. The only thing that I enjoyed was the main character’s voice. The narration was pretty good. Tora is funny and sarcastic.

But the story wasn’t as exciting as I hoped. There was no space travel till the very end. The story moved kind of slow despite the boom only being 253 pages. It took me three and half days to read this book, but that’s probably because I’ve been so busy. It took me about the same amount a time just to read a book that was over 500 pages right before this. Maybe it’s because this is the first book in a series, and it just didn’t have that many crazy things happen.

The book s set on Earth after the sun started burning out. The sun became an orange giant, I’m guessing, after a meteor with dark matter in it crashed into it. It doesn’t sound all that believable, but I know that if the sun grew that Earth would become a desert wasteland. Water would dissipate into gas form or into space. My question is, why couldn’t they just colonize Mars or Jupiter’s moons? And they just so happen to find another planet in another solar system that’s just like Earth.

There was a touch of romance, but it was more of a crush really. Tora really like James when she first met him. When she finally let him know, he had feelings back too, but then he supposedly want to kill her because Kale told him too, and then she hates him. And then she meets some other guy who knows Spanish and has a dog and like him too. Really not then kind of romance that I was hoping for. This book is similar to Black Hole Sun, but also kind of like some other dystopian series. It’s not a book I would recommend, but if you really enjoy books about decimated planets, then give it a shot. I don’t think I’ll read the sequel.

Cover Art Review: Interesting image and the type is large and sci-fi looking.

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner

Series: Starbound (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Space Opera/Romance

Subjects: survival, planets, outer space, love

Setting: In space and on a terraformed planet, in the future

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense. Rotating between Tarver and Lilac.

Age/Grade Level: Teens +

Length: 374 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Hyperion

Summary/ product description: “It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

A timeless love story, THESE BROKEN STARS sets into motion a sweeping science fiction series of companion novels. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.”

My Review: This extra-planetary survival story was utterly romantic and entertaining. I love the two main characters and how their relationship develops. They start off as completely stranger to each other, though they both have their own name to fame. Tarver and Lilac are thrown into a dire situation and come out changed. They’re well developed and pretty much the only characters in the book, with the exception of the characters at the beginning and end of the book. They both are stranded on a mysteriously abandoned terraformed planet and are also the lone survivors of the Icarus crash.

Lilac is very stubborn and strong-willed. Her father is the richest man in the universe, and the owner of LaRoux Industries. Tarver is a solider and the son of a poet and history teacher. He processes thing internally, so he’s a bit introverted. He’s also chivalrous and ever humorous at times. At times their dialogue and narration seemed like they sounded Australian, like one of the authors, so I wasn’t sure if I should imagine them with what kind of accent. There’s a lot of slow, sweet romance. It’s not insta-love. It’s a realistic love created in their circumstances.

The book started out slow, and felt like it was dragging on the hiking part. But once things started happening, they kept me going. The problem was the type, not the story. I had a hard time reading thing book at a fast pace because the typography is set badly. There are too many words of the pages, which are big, and have small type. It kind of hurt my eyes. I did like how before each chapter there was a page with quotes from Tarver’s interrogation. The chapters weren’t long, but the pages were.

I really though the sci-fi stuff in this book was cool. We got to learn about Terraforming, which is when people intervene with a planet’s climate to make its conditions livable. Trees are planted, and animal brought to breed. It’s way faster than letting a planet evolve on it’s own. Also, there’s strange event occurring on this planet. Ghosts, hallucinations. Lilac keeps hearing whispers. She thinks she’s going crazy. When we find out what the heck is going on, it’s a surprising twist. There’s more to this planet than they thought. Lilac and Tarver must reach the wreckage and find a way to achieve rescue.

This book is being made into a TV show apparently. I don’t know if Syfy will pick it up or what, but I can definitely see it as a show. I recommend this book if you liked: Avalon by Mindee Arnett, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, The 100 by Kass Morgan. The TV shows: Firefly, Stargate, or any other TV shows or movies that take place on other planets.

Cover Art Review: Really beautiful. Love that dress and the text. The models look like the characters.

Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Release Date: 1/21/2014

Series: Avalon (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Space Opera/Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: outer space, space ships, adventure, technology, thieves

Setting: A space ship, outer space, and on various planets and Spaceports

POV/Tense: 3^rd person, male POV (Jeth) and past tense

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 415 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Balzer + Bray

Summary/ product description: “A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy in this fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi adventure from author Mindee Arnett.

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

Avalon is the perfect fit for teens new to sci-fi as well as seasoned sci-fi readers looking for more books in the YA space-and a great match for fans of Joss Whedon's cult hit show Firefly, and Star Treck”

My Review: Avalon could have been a really great book, but it fell a bit flat because the narration wasn’t that great. If it was written in 1^st person, it might have been way better because then we’d get to know what Jeth was thinking. In 3^rd person, it was somewhat boring and I ended up skimming much of it. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood for this book, but I didn’t find it all that thrilling. 

The outerspace stuff seemed cool, but also like it was too similar to Star Treck or other space operas. It was sort of unique that Jeth’s group stole metatech, but it’s kind of cliché that they’re a “ragtag team of teens…blah blah blah”. They’re like teenage space pirates, or part of the space mob. I just had a really hard time getting into it. I read the prequel, Proxy, and was a bit discouraged by the writing style. I loved the author’s book Nightmare Affair. But this book is just so different from the quirky female character Dusty. 

Not everything was boring. I did like the dialogue and banter between characters. I liked Lizzie and kind of wish we’d gotten her POV. Sure, she’s only 13, but if this story had alternating POV, it would really be great to get her perspective. She’s funny and an expert hacker. She loves animals and brought a cat on board the Avalon. I also liked Shady. He was the tough guy and was described a really tall and looking like a lion. He had a great sense of humor. Celeste was okay, but she didn’t seem very warm in personality. There was Hammer, the crime boss who was manipulative and used brain implants to control people. 

There were characters that Jeth met later on. Sierra, Cora and Vince. Sierra was kind of the love interest. To me, it seemed a little fast. He meets a bunch of strangers stranded on a ship, and kisses Sierra only a few days later. I wouldn’t say that there was much romance, though. I really liked Cora. She’s a really interesting character. She’s a little girl and a bit strange, but seems normal. 

I did enjoy some of the plot twists. I kind of predicted one of them, but there were so many revelations toward the end. 

The science and technology and space travel was the most interesting part and I definitely recommend this book to Star Treck, Star Wars, Firefly fans and fans of Beth Revis’s Across the Universe. I think boys would enjoy this book the most. The graphic below provided by EpicReads will help.

Cover Art Review: I have no idea what that stuff is on the cover. I wish there was a space ship instead. I like the layout and the title, just wish the image made sense.