Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming
I don't know what I was expecting with this book. I think that maybe I was expecting a little too much after reading some rave reviews online and it only just fell short of my expectations. In no ways was it bad, I still couldn't put it down and it did leave me thinking afterwards, however I still felt a niggling sense of dissapointment after reading it.
It is a murder mystery/political statement/romantic/sci-fi. Maybe a little too much to take on, but Revis does do it brilliantly. There is so much going on in the book sometimes I forgot about one storyline until it got mentioned again and I went... "Oh... yeahhhh..."
I must point out that the first chapter is extremely good. It is a little bit decieving because the rest of the book doesn't live up to that first chapter, I felt a little bit cheated, however Revis does manage to keep her writing flowing through the book and I was pleased with how easily the plot fell into place. Every event lead to another, which lead to another and it flowed fantastically to the last page, there was nowhere in the book where I wanted to put it down because there was no slow points. The... erm twist(s) at the end of the book were shocking but I did feel that one of them, Revis sort of just decided right at the end, because it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the book, I mean, how could that be hidden all the way through the book?
The book switches point of view between Amy and Elder. In some ways this is good, because we can see conflicting feelings between them, and we can see the relationship develop from both sides however the point of view switching can be a curse. I found that because we aren't following just one character all the way through, i couldn't really connect and empathise with either Elder or Amy, I would have preferred maybe jusy Amy's narration. But I can see why Revis did use switching, and it does work in most ways.
The romantic aspect is one thing I must say was perfectly written. It wasn't rushed, it develops slowly and sweetly and we can see how Elder is trying to keep her happy, but Amy is way too bitter to want to fall in love, it is a love story that you keep willing on, I absoloutely loved the way the two characters felt, but I couldn't really empthasise with them because of the point of view issue.
All in all, not a bad book, definately worth reading, but not absoloutely perfect. Don't set your expectations too high.
Overall rating: B
*NOTE: There are some scenes about 'mating' and some strategically hidden swearing, this book maybe a little mature for younger readers.*
Stand alone/series: First in a series
Released: March 3rd 2011 (Paperback)
Publisher: Puffin
Pages: 398
Book obtained via: Won!
Re: your note-
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought the whole mating thing (and specifically the scene in the garden) was odd in general, and perhaps too much for the target audience. I mean, I'm not anti-sex-in-YA, but... something about the tone and the way it was handled in this book really threw me for a loop.
I really want to read this book. Sounds amazing. Great review.
ReplyDeleteAmy@adumbrations