William Shakespeare's Star Wars

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily A New Hope
Ian Doescher
Quirk Books, 2013

Oh. Stars.
How do I love thee?

As a Literature major, I'm one of those people who actually likes Shakespeare. In fact, I sort of love him. I love the rhythm of the words, all the turns of phrase he added to the English language, I love the stories themselves. I've also come to terms with the fact that I am, without a doubt, a geek. And I love Star Wars (original theatrical releases of the original trilogy only, thanks!). So when I saw that Quirk Books was publishing Star Wars told a`la Shakespeare? I may have begged to be added to the review list.

How to describe this story, this reading experience ... The text is a play, so it's written with stage directions and pretty bare bones in terms of description and etcetera. There's much dialogue, and not a few monologues (true confession: I loved the monologues). The story is familiar and much loved. Seeing it told in a new way brings new life, new sparkle, to the story. And the characters. Maybe it's just the simple change in language, or maybe it's reading the words instead of watching it play out on screen, but it felt almost like a totally new experience. In truth, it felt as if I were reading any Shakespeare play: I knew what was coming, how it'd end, and who was ultimately the hero -- but I loved the reading of it anyway. Also, we all know I'm a huge Han Solo fan, and Doescher gave him some lines that made my heart. stop. As if Han needed to get any dreamier, give him a Shakespearian accent, and this girl's a goner. Sa-woon.

Book provided by publisher for review.

Liberty

Liberty
Annie Laurie Cechini
Rhemalda, 2013

Dix is a girl with a secret. A big secret. We're talking huge secret. A secret that could cost not only her life, but the lives of all those near to her. She's been hiding it for years, keeping it tucked close, letting only a precious few know the truth. But all that careful planning and dodging and hoping has come to an abrupt end, and Dix finds herself on a desperate race for survival. And, strangely, forced to rely on others - to trust them, to let them into the inner sanctum - even though the stakes are higher than they've ever been.

Liberty is a humdinger of a sci-fi adventure. I loved it, devoured it! Dix is a character with spunk, stubborn and willful defiance - but the very best kind. She's fiercely protective of those around her, her rag-tag "family," and is willing to sacrifice her own freedom - even life - to keep them safe and alive, if that's what it takes. You see, Dix has a vial - the only remaining vial - of Eternigen, the drug that will allow people to travel into Deep Space. This is the secret she's been hiding, and why people are hunting her down. This is what cost her family, and a growing number of people she's come in contact with, their lives. But her best friend is *thisclose* to replicating the formula, which would allow Dix and her motley crew freedom. Only, things are not going as planned. And while Dix can maybe manage to fight their way out of the grasp of Eira Ninge and her cruel tactics, she can't prevent herself from forming more attachments. Strong, powerful attachments.

Well-written and fast-paced, I was drawn into the space-hopping world of Dix and company. Their struggles, especially Dix's, are real. And my imagination was beyond captured by the space-travel concepts. Hoping there's more to come!

eBook provided by publisher for review.

Blog Tour: The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton

Greetings! Welcome to Day 1 of a really cool blog tour, courtesy of Virtual Author Book Tours. For the full schedule, swing by The Official Promo Post, but first, check out my review -- and don't forget to come back tomorrow for a totally fun guest post (with pictures!) and a giveaway.

The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton
Angela Shelton
Quiet Owl Books, 2012

Looking at the cover, you may think The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton is a very different sort of book. You'd be right. But that's not to say that different-ness is a bad thing. I'd go so far as to say it's a good thing, in fact.

Tilda Pinkerton is a happy and beloved mystery to the people of Moodle. She crash landed on their planet of Ooleeoo one night, with a strangely bent antenna-like thing on her head, the magical ability to create hats that make people shine bright, and absolutely no memory. She knows things however, just can't explain why or how she knows them. But this knowing, combined with her strange hat-making gift, and comrades Frank the goldfish and Gladys the toad-cat, seem to be just the thing to help the good people on Ooleeoo combat the strange, unnamed danger that threatens their peaceful existence. While this on-the-ground confusion is growing and expanding, there's an intergalatic war taking place in the skies above -- fought by the forces that Tilda is unknowingly a part of. And boy, do things get intense before everything gets sorted.

The characters are colorful and quirky, the writing style easy and fun. And, word geek that I am, I absolutely loved that the story is also a bit of a dictionary: for "big" or "new" words, there are footnoted definitions. Also, most characters have surnames that reflect their personalities. The vocabulary is amazing, and you learn without consciously learning (the best kind). I was sucked into the story, trying to work out the tangles on my own -- piecing together clues, and trying to figure out the bad guys versus the good guys before all was revealed. There's adventure, suspense, a little romance, and a dash of space-y goodness; I look forward to future adventures of Tilda.

Book provided by author for review.

For Darkness Shows the Stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars
Diana Peterfreund
Balzer + Bray, 2012

Oh. My. Word. Seriously, you guys. This book was amazing. This is the Persuasion I always wanted Jane Austen to have written. Set in a world that's dramatically under-technological, generations after an apocalypse-like event that split society into castes (Reduced and Luddites), our story takes place.

The basic premise is Persuasion, with Elliott North (Anne Elliott) left behind on her family farm as Kai (Wentworth) runs away to seek adventure and perchance fortune. And, as the familiar story goes, he waltzes back into her life years later, and she realizes everything she lost in not following her heart and leaving with him. But here's where the story takes a dramatic left-turn from Austen's. Elliott chose to stay on her farm. It was her choice to stay, and try her best to run the farm and protect the Reduced and Posts (children of Reduced parents who were untouched by the developmental limitations). While she wasn't always successful, her heart was in the right place, and even though she aches over the loss of Kai, she knows it was the right decision. When the Post Fleet comes and rents space to build new ships, Elliott's rocked to her core to discover that Kai - now Malakai Wentforth - is a star captain of the Fleet. Meeting Kai again in such startling (and somewhat reversed) circumstances is only the beginning of everything that happens to make Elliott start questioning everything she's ever been taught or believed. The Post Fleet brings with them many wonderful stories and objects - but also more secrets than Elliott would have ever suspected. And through it all, she's forced to face the truth of the tension between herself and Kai.

The story ... the characters ... I wish my reading of Persuasion had been as enjoyable as my reading of For Darkness Shows the Stars. Where Anne Elliott got on my last nerve for being so easily swayed, and having no backbone or apparent mind of her own at all, Elliott North is keenly aware that she has made the choices that cause such aching loneliness and pain. Another wonderful development is that we get to see the history of Kai and Elliott, through the letters they exchanged throughout their childhood - and which Elliott secretly kept, and has reread to the point of memorization. By seeing these letters, interspersed through the story, we can get a sense of who Kai and Elliott were - and how they've become the mature characters they are now. It's a wonderful addition, and really helps build sympathy with both parties: you know that they had a close relationship in the past, and that their separation would have been mutually destructive.

Honestly, my only real complaint is that the story ends so soon. I want more - I want to know what happens next - and can only hope that there's a sequel in the works.

Many, many thanks to the ever-amazing Jen Ryland for sharing this Austenesque find!

Book provided by my personal library.

Cinder

Cinder
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends, 2012

We all know I'm a fairy tale nut, and when I saw this one showing up in the blogosphere a few months ago, I was intrigued. Not hunt-it-down-and-devour-it-curious, but intrigued enough that when my library purchased a copy, I put it on hold.

Marissa Meyer's first installment in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, is the classic story of Cinderella with a sci-fi, dystopian twist...I must say, it's unlike anything I've read before. And quite honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I didn't hate it, but neither did I fall in love. Obviously, going into it, I knew that Cinder (a cyborg) was the Cinderella-figure, and that Prince Kai was supposed to fall in love with her, just like Prince Charming did "back in the day." The whole cyborg-thing was a little weird, in that my basic understanding of robots and etc. didn't identify cyborgs as being able to feel. But apparently, in the world of Cinder, cyborgs are humans who've been injured, or "damaged," somehow and have steel/robotic parts installed. (Sort of like high-tech prostheses, with a slightly creepy twist).

So basically, we have a Cinderella story set in a world with droids and cyborgs, and other crazy advanced technologies, that still has a major weakness: the inability to cure or even treat The Plague ravaging the country. Not to mention some crazy tension between Earth and the Lunars (a colony of people living on the moon. And I thought the cyborg bit was weird; these people are creepy-devious!). It's a complex little environment, and obviously deals with a lot more issues than "just Cinderella" - but Meyer does a good job of integrating Cinder's story into the bigger picture. Even though I figured out the twist of the story very, very early on in the book, it was an interesting read. I'm nowhere near fangirl-status, but I will pick up the next installment of this four-part series (random: I love the titles for the rest of the series!), and see what happens next.

Book provided by my local library.

Across the Universe

Across the Universe
Beth Revis
RazorBill, 2011

I won this in a pre-release giveaway by PenguinTeen on facebook, and also got to participate in the big launch project. So when I was finally able to hold - and read - my own copy of this beautiful book, I was thrilled! (I know, I gush about the cover ... but how can I not??? It's gorgeous! And actually, if you take the book jacket off, you can reverse it to show another cover ... but you'll have to discover that one on your own. I am in love with the stars).

It's been almost 6 years since my last foray into the world of science fiction - my first (and only) extended visit to the realm was sophomore year of college, when my favorite English professor was offering a special topics course on Science Fiction. When I saw the first 'preview' for Across the Universe (a 'read the first chapter today!' thing online from the publishers), it made me think of a couple of the books I read in that class combined (the few that I actually really, really enjoyed, actually), and I was definitely intrigued. Once my copy came, I had to make myself finish what I was already reading before letting myself start. When it was finally time to lose myself in the Universe? Oh man ...

This story is nothing like I expected and everything I wanted it to be - even without knowing what exactly I wanted. Revis hints and teases throughout the book, making you question your understanding of whats going on, of who is what and what is who. There's mystery, there's struggle, there's discovery, there's growth. It's a picture of what people can be and who they become. It's a sweet romance, without being overtly sappy or preoccupied with lovey-dovey stuff that would be out-of-place. There's a lot of science (or pseudo-science), but not so much that I felt overwhelmed. Logistically, the story is told in alternating chapters/points-of-view: Elder and Amy, and you always know who is 'talking,' which is always a good thing. The story itself is fast-paced and engrossing, and when I finished it - I was happy with the ending. And then I saw where Beth said it's the first book in a trilogy. At which point I got very excited. Because yeah, I was happy with the ending, but I am still curious about what comes next. It wasn't a cliffhanger, but it was still an attention-grabber. Now it's a waiting game. Sigh.

Book provided by my personal library.

Android Karenina

Android Karenina
Leo Tolstoy & Ben Winters
Quirk Classics, 2010

I won this book free through the FirstReads giveaway on Goodreads, and was rather excited about it. Several summers ago, I randomly read Anna Karenina for the heck of it, and loved it. I have since discovered that I have a bit of a weakness for sci-fi, so when I found out that my favorite Russian work was being meshed with robots and uber-technology? Oh yes ... Summer reading extraordinaire!
The story is good, fast-paced and has a lot of twists and turns, some that I definitely was not expe...more I won this book free through the FirstReads giveaway on Goodreads.com, and was rather excited about it. Several summers ago, I randomly read Anna Karenina for the heck of it, and loved it. I have since discovered that I have a bit of a weakness for sci-fi, so when I found out that my favorite Russian work was being meshed with robots and uber-technology? Oh yes ... Summer reading extraordinaire! 

The story is good, fast-paced and has a lot of twists and turns, some that I definitely was not expecting. It's been a while since I read the original, so I kept having to consciously stop myself from trying to remember the "real" story/where the deviations came in (other than the obvious addition of robots). I don't think you need to be familiar with Tolstoy's original to appreciate, or even read this version. Actually, I think it'd be best if you didn't have that background knowledge (yes, I really got that distracted trying to figure out how much the story was deviating.) That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and will definitely recommend it.

Book provided by my personal library.