How many teen dystopian novels with an alien twist do we really need?
I for one am a little over the whole genre.
But this one looks a little different.
An initial quote from Stephen Hawkings...
“If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
Followed by an action packed rollercoaster ride of who to trust, what really happened and what will happen next.
The waves of destruction are well realised (and quite scary) as Cassie gradually tells us her back story. We also learn more about the waves as the story develops and Cassie works things out for herself.
The book looks good, the website looks prety amazing and it started off well. But then I got a little tired of the non-stop action and I found myself skimming my way to the end. The boot camp scenes bored me to tears!
I need more character development, more real tension and dilemma, not just one random thing after another. It's the same problem I had with I Am Number Four. A good idea that morphed into a mindless blowing random stuff up action movie.
But if relentless action, sinister aliens and survival by any means is your kind of thing, then this book has it in spades.
Due for May release.
Update - my husband read this book on our recent holiday and thoroughly enjoyed it. He loved all the action and the twists and turns!
This has been a disappointing story.
The premise is great; the photographs and maps are great, but the writing lets the whole thing down.
I'm not sure if the problem lies with the original storytelling by Harstad or if it's the translation by Tara F Chace. Somewhere, though, it falls flat. The language is boring, the dialogue seems stilted and the overall tone fails to capture one's imagination.
The bits that should have been eerie and scary just made me laugh out loud. And I always knew when someone was about to die because of the sudden flashback to a meaningful childhood moment or a happy time memory in the park with the wife and kids!
Maybe I'm just becoming hard to please or jaded? But I expect more from a book. I expect to be moved, entertained, stimulated, informed but most importantly I expect to be caught up by the magic and mystery of being lost in another world. That's where this book let me down.
And now for the Feature and Follow part of this post.
Even though this book was unsuccessful on many levels, it could be a fabulous movie.
A complete new (vamped up) script, the possibility of amazing location shots in Paris, Japan, Norway, New York and of course, the moon! It could be turned into a really scary, psychological thriller.
The Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace who played The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo could be Mia, Rinko Kikuchi could play Midori and Cyril Mourali could play Antoine.
I
f you enjoyed 'The Hunger Games' "Tomorrow When the War Began' and 'I am Number Four', then I'm sure you will love this too.
Aliens come to earth and wipe out anyone who happens to be outside at the time. That only leaves pockets of survivors who were inside their homes or shops at the time.
The story follows 2 such pockets of survivors. Josh and his Dad are stuck in their home with their trusty dog and a variety of neighbours they can see through their windows.
Megs is on her own in a parking station, until she realises that there are people still alive in the hotel above her, but they're being heavily guarded by the security guys gone mad with power!
Fast-paced, dramatic and tense. I raced through the second half of the book desperate to find out what happens. POD2, thankfully, is in the pipeline!
youtube trailer
Stephen Wallenfels website
After finishing The Hunger Games I thought we would have nothing to fill the gap for a while...but then along comes this little gem. Alien conspiracy, teen angst, road trips and a crazy, devastating battle to conclude the book....but not the series!
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The story occasionally veers off into mushy teen romance and some of the battle descriptions bore me a little (but that's just me...the 13 year old male living with me just loved, loved, loved it). The last half of the book was unputdownable as I raced to find out what happened.
I'm hooked...bring on Number 5.
