Giveaway: Ann Aguirre's Dred Chronicles

I've decided to come back from blog hibernation with a BANG!

I am a big fan of Ann Aguirre's books, and was very lucky to have a chance to Skype with her some months ago and ask her a whole bunch of random stuff. She is so patient, clever and funny, also a great storyteller,  her writing is full of crafty worlds and unforgettable characters. You can find more about her work here

To celebrate the upcoming publication of 'Breakout' (August 25th) the last installment of the Dred Chronicles (brilliant spin up from the Jax world, a romantic adult sci-fi trilogy), I will be giving away the first two books of the series, Perdition and Havoc:

So, this is your chance to read this great sci-fi adventure!


Here is the blurb of Perdition:

WELCOME TO HELL

The prison ship Perdition, a floating city where the Conglomerate’s most dangerous criminals are confined for life, orbits endlessly around a barren asteroid.

Life inside is even more bleak. Hailed as the Dread Queen, inmate Dresdemona “Dred” Devos controls one of Perdition’s six territories, bordered on both sides by would-be kings eager to challenge her claim. Keeping them at bay requires constant vigilance, as well as a steady influx of new recruits to replace the fallen. Survival is a constant battle, and death is the only escape.

Of the newest convicts, only one is worth Dred’s attention. The mercenary Jael, with his deadly gaze and attitude, may be the most dangerous criminal onboard. His combat skill could give her the edge she needs, if he doesn’t betray her first. Unfortunately, that’s what he does best. Winning Jael’s allegiance will be a challenge, but failure could be worse than death…

---------

Why? Because I want to share the love for Ms. Aguirre's books and I ended up getting two copies of Havoc a few months ago by error.

How? Just enter the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Please spread the word!

Closing a series: Across the Universe. The Universe is a pretty big space!

Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been sobbing uncontrollably for the last 100 pages or so. I will seriously write more once my tears allow me *fetches more tissues*
---
What can I say about this series that has not been said before?

Let me just start appropriately. With the beginning.

The first book, Across the Universe, has a lovely title that makes me sing the Fiona Apple's version every time I think about it.

It was a wonderful book. It took me to space, inside a spaceship: Godspeed, and inside the heads of Amy and Elder. A very complicated situation: a mission through space on a spaceship (duh), that will take 300 years, towards a new planet similar to Earth, Centauri-Earth. This story is full of sociocultural dilemmas, monoethnicity, living in a confined space for a VERY long time, cloning, survival and humanity.

It was a cool refresher for the reader of YA books, who wants a break from vampires (gasp, I know, even I sometimes want a break from them), demons and magic. Sci-fi has been a genre I sometimes fail to seek out more.

Smart man Carl Sagan, when he said: Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. This was my ticket to be happily traveling aboard Godspeed.

Across the Universe has the most real-creeptastic cryo-freezing description I've ever read, experienced firsthand by Amy in the Prologue. It gave me the chills just to think back about it again and re-read it:

There was a click, click, grrr of gears, and I knew the flash freezing would start in mere moments, and then my life would be nothing but a puff of white steam leaking through the cracks of my morgue door.



So Amy wakes up. But, things are far more complicated. And we meet Elder, who is apparently the "mini-me" of the leader of the spaceship, Eldest.[It's been longer than 300 years, the spaceship is messed up, people that live there don't know much about the mission, lots of murders, tears, more murders, mysteries, clues to be found, Elder has been doing bad things.... and wow, they had actually arrived to Centauri-Earth long time ago, but no one told them! The lie that the reactor was slowing down, hence they were behind schedule, made me worry a bit at the beginning of the series. Particularly for the scientific inaccuracy: no gravity = no deceleration. But since it ended up being a LIE - they had already arrived- I was able to relax and enjoy this series, making my physics high-school teacher prowd (hide spoiler)]

It is hard to write this down without many spoilers, but from the title, you can imagine that they arrive to their destiny.

Shades of Earth took me completely by surprise. I was not expecting these twists... and the deaths... if you have read her previous novels, I am sure you already know that Beth Revis has no problem killing her characters. Her students (she is a teacher), even beg for her to name some of her characters from their own names, and asked to be killed :)

In Shades of Earh, when the earthborns awake from their freezy state, they add more to the complications the shipborns had and what is happening on the new planet. Ohhhh the events that uncoil are soooo good!

This book was a sob-fest that kept me glued to my chair.

I would definitively recommend this series to the sci-fi fans out there. Yes, it has a romance, but to tell you the truth, I was not very convinced, or moved by it. I was much more interested and intrigued by this wonderful world that Beth Revis plotted.


The universe is a pretty big space. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So, if it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space, right?

Carl Sagan



View all my reviews

Review: Born of Shadows

Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I really enjoy the world in which these stories are set and the inhabitants of these planets. There are many familiar places, people and gadgets; as well as crazy loyalties and the Sentella's wonderful power. This is a world that has spawned wings in my imagination. And for that I truly enjoy reading Kenyon's work. However, don't expect a witty literary masterpiece. If you are, stop right now and search for another author. Kenyon's books are very predictable and share similar storylines between them. The only "hidden" surprises are the people and actions behind all the ploys crafted upon the main characters.

This latest book from the League contains a lighter read and a straight forward romance. The MC are less dark and tortured than the previous 3 installments. But they surely follow the same pattern of relationship building. Yes, this is expected, but why else would you dare to read these books? I found this particular book more involved in the building of the relationship and character's adventures and with only one *gasp* yes, 1 masterfully (Kenyon's style) described sex scene. Wow, I did not see that comming taking into consideration the tally of its predecesors (not that I'm keeping tabs ir anything), and the length of this book (+400 pages). But don't get me wrong. I really did enjoy this book. Specially all the familiar people I have met before.

My biggest dislike is perhaps the assassination plot and how it is unravelled since it really did confused me quite a bit.

I will however continue forward reading the stories of the League. It is simply a great fantasy spacy world to get lost in readerdom :)



View all my reviews

Review: A Million Suns

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



In the spacecraft Godspeed there are many secrets that will destroy carefully crafted assumptions of its inhabitants. Amy and Elder are going to try to understand and solve all that is left after book one: Orion's betrayal, Eldest secrets, Elder's final revelation to Amy of her cryogenic unfreezing and life after Phydus.

This book delivers, while prompting the reader to wonder, unravel and follow up on the choices Amy and Elder make. What will happen next....Specially after all that is discovered ... it was good, simple and merciless.

Do I seriously have to wait until 2013?? Why, oh, why...

For now I will leave you with David Bowie, whose Space Oddity song was playing in my brain all over a series of chapters halfway through:

Ground control to major Tom
Ground control to major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
(Ten) Ground control (Nine) to major Tom (Eight)
(Seven, six) Commencing countdown (Five), engines on (Four)
(Three, two) Check ignition (One) and may gods (Blastoff) love be with you

This is ground control to major Tom, you've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is major Tom to ground control, I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
Here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows
Ground control to major Tom, your circuits dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you...
Here am I sitting in my tin can far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do

Here is the video




View all my reviews

Review: Killbox

Killbox by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Space is beautiful!!! Well... Only if there are no Moguls and an imminent threat of annihilation from their increasing attacks to Conglomerate posts... So yeah, the universe is at the brink of war and Jax is trying to make the best out of it. Training and learning new war tactics and facing the challenges imposed in her new role as the Lieutenant Captain of the newly established Armada - which holds March as its Commander. This books delivers as much adventure, explosions, fights and intrigue as its previous. Battles occur and new losses hit close to home for our lovely Sirantha Jax.

I grinned with the cliffhanger at the end *rubs sweaty palms* and thought: way to go Jax!!!

I Love this series! I can't say this enough. Ann Aguirre has made my interest in sci-fi and adventure take a whole new level. I love the world she created and I find myself intrigued in how slowly but steadily the author delivers such smart and heartbreaking plots. These characters are alive in my imagination and I am grateful to have found them.



View all my reviews