Series Week - Let's Talk Sequels!

Both of us have been reading a lot of sequels this year. So as part of our series week, we thought we would combine a few of them into one post.

A Millions Suns by Beth Revis ( Razorbill, January 2012) is the sequel to Across the Universe.  I reviewed that book last year here.  A Million Suns was just as good as the first book. I would say this one was much more YA appropriate, unlike the first book. There is another mystery in this one.  Orion has left Amy clues throughout the ship that will reveal some important secrets about  Godspeed.  I won't give any of them away because it would really ruin it for you.

While trying to help Amy out, Elder is now Eldest and is trying to navigate his way to becoming a leader. Meanwhile, all of the inhabitants of Godspeed are off the drugs that kept them emotionless for so long.  I thought this was really interesting because they are all of a sudden trying to learn how to be a civilized society with only ancient books telling them what to do.  As you can imagine, chaos is rampant!  A Millions Suns ends on another cliffhanger of sorts.  I was pleased that  lot of unanswered questions from the first book are answered here. I look forward to the last in the trilogy, Shades of Earth, that comes out in 2013!

The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts (Penguin, May 2012) is the second in the Boonsboro Inn Trilogy.  I reviewed the first one, The Next Always, earlier this year. While I liked this installment, I'm not sure I liked it was much as the first one.  It moved a bit too slowly for me.  It seemed like it took forever for Owen and Avery to get together.  I know that Owen is a planner, but the way they over analyzed their relationship got a bit boring after a while.

It was nice to see all of the other characters in this one.  The scene with Owen and his mother in the kitchen was just too funny!  I could not stop laughing!  The humor between the brothers was a lot of fun as well.  We learn a bit more about the resident ghost and that story line is turning out really interesting.  The last in the series, The Perfect Hope, comes out in November 2012.

The Serpent's Shadow (Hyperion, May 2012) is the last in the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.  This one was kind of a let down for me. I was hoping it would top the second book, The Red Pyramid,(which I loved) but sadly it fell a bit short.  I thought some of the parts were a bit drawn out. I found myself hoping the audiobook would hurry up and finish already. The idea about shadows was interesting but not enough to keep me fully engaged.

As expected, the brother and sister team save the day with help from their friends.  They also learn some lessons along the way.   While I am a sucker for romance, I felt like the "romances" between Carter and Zia as well as Sadie and Walt/Anubis (that kind of creeped me out a bit) were unnecessary to the story line as a whole.  The books would have been fine with out them and would have made for a better ending. 

I finally got around to reading Insurgent (HarperTeen, 2012) the sequel to Divergent by Veronica Roth.  It was really good, but I didn't feel as emotionally attached to the characters as I did in the first book.  Perhaps it was because too much time passed between reading the two books?  Sometimes I think I should wait until all the books come out before I start reading these trilogies, but then I'm behind the times and I hate that too.  Such a quandary!

In Insurgent Tris and Four are battling the ups and downs of their relationship and I think this was part of my problem.  I just wanted Tris and Four to be happy.  I didn't understand why she couldn't just do what he wanted so they could be happy and normal together.  But they're also waging a battle against the Erudite and trying to get and keep the factionless on their side so all that is putting strain on their relationship. 

Overall, it was a good second book in a trilogy.  Usually, seconds are fairly worthless, but this one wasn't too bad.  I'm ready to read the third, but I'm going to have to wait until sometime next year I guess.  It doesn't even have a title yet...although I've seen some jokes going around saying it was going to be titled Detergent  :)

Across the Universe

Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

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.

This book is the first in a new series by Beth Revis. Amy is a teen who chooses to go into space with her parents; frozen in the hopes that they will reach a new planet in 350 years. When she is woken up too early, she discovers that she is now stuck and will likely not see her parents again. Elder is the boy who will someday lead the people aboard Godspeed. They both work together to find out who woke her up and who is trying to kill the other “frozens” aboard. The answer to which was a bit surprising. I won’t say much more because I don’t want to give away too much of the plot.

I felt that I still had some questions in the end; ones that I am hoping get answered in the subsequent books. I wouldn't really say it was a romance. There is some love interest, but I think it is really one-sided. I didn’t really believe the attraction between Amy and Elder. I thought it was a bit forced. Overall, I did like the book. I found myself wondering what I would do if I was stuck in space forever. The peripheral characters are interesting. Ms. Revis has built a pretty neat world aboard Godspeed

I question the YA label of this book. There are some pretty detailed scenes in this book such as a near rape scene to name one. For parents wondering if it is good for under those YA under 16, I would say to use your own discretion.

--Kari