Review: The Body Electric by Beth Revis

First, thanks to Netgalley and Scripturient Books for allowing  me to read an e-galley of this.  It actually got it after the book had been released, but I was very excited to see it.  I am a huge fan of the author, Beth Revis, as I loved her Across the Universe series.  And this one sounded right up my alley as well.  Another science fiction story.

The main character is Ella.  She and her mom work at a Spa type place that offers something only to the extremely rich called Reveries.  Reveries are something where they can hook into your brain and make you experience a really good memory.  It is something Ella's mom came up with, but hasn't wanted to turn it over to the government to make money. She wants to keep it as something nice to help people.  Ella's mother is also dying from a disease that is incurable.  When her mom first got sick, Ella's dad who was working on artificial intelligence, figured out a way to add nanobots that would help her stay healthy longer.  In fact, in this day and age, in part thanks to Ella's father, every person has nanobots that help to keep them from getting sick among other things like that.  Ella's father was killed in a terrorist attack though, and now it is just her and her mom, as well as the main owner of the Spa, Ms. White.  Ella is doing her internship at the spa so that she can be close to her mother. As the nanobots aren't going to keep her mom alive forever.

One day when her mom takes a bit of a turn for the worse, Ella goes for a walk.  To where her father's grave is. Although in this day and age, no one is buried anymore.  Instead they are cremated. But if you are someone rich, or important, like Ella's father, they will do something like plant a tree for them with a monument/gravestone.  And when Ella gets to her father's, she sees a young man standing there, as if he too is talking to her dad the way she plans to.  She doesn't recognized the boy, who says his name is Jack Tyler, but he seems to think they once had a past.  And he leaves her a cryptic message, that when other things besides her mother's sickness start to go wrong, she turns to that message for help.  She has been enlisted by the ruler of their country to use the reverie to try to see inside a Representative's brain.  One who they hear has been approached by a terrorist group.  And they hope Ella can get the information out of his head.

But as I said, things will go wrong.  There are androids/robots in this world, but no one has been able to figure out how to make them think for themselves yet.  Ella's father had been working on that before he died, but all his notes and work were lost in the explosion.  And as more and more goes wrong, Ella begins to wonder just who is really on her side.  Her friend who is on the moon at the military base for her internship seems to be not who she once was. This Jack Tyler may have worked with her father, and she even wonders if her father might not have been the man she thought he was.  She will have to determine if she really wants to help the government, or if the terrorists are really terrorists.

Such a great story.  The love story was okay because she didn't remember him even if he remembered her, so she was able to develop real feelings.  And there was at least one twist at the end that I wasn't expecting, so it was a great ending.  No cliffhanger, or love triangle, I highly recommend this for a great sci-fi read.  Very Isaac Asimov is what I thought as I read it.

Review: Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3) by Beth Revis

I FINALLY picked this one up and read it.  I've actually owned a copy since I purchased it last May at the RT Convention so that I could get it autographed.  Finishing this will also get me an entry in my 2014 Prequels and Sequels Challenge, although I think I have a short story/e-novella to read to actually complete the whole thing.  Here are the links to my reviews of the first two books:  Across the Universe and A Million Suns.  Let me say, this was a great ending.  For awhile I was afraid it might end up with the same kind of disappointment as I had with Allegiant, but instead it ended up more like Into the Still Blue, a realistic, but pretty happy ending.  Obviously if you haven't read the rest of the series, and especially not book 2, you probably should stop reading at the end of this paragraph, knowing that I was very happy with this book, and will definitely recommend it, and the whole series.

So, if you remember at the end of the 2nd book, there was the really big cliffhanger.  They had been finding out that the ship probably wasn't going to last much longer, with what they had left, not to mention the explosion caused damage to the engine, which could cause other problems. And now that they knew the planet they had been traveling towards, Centauri-Earth, was right outside the ship, they had to make the decision to go.  Not everyone on the ship wanted to go to the planet, they felt safe on the ship, the only place that had ever been their home.  So Amy, Elder, about half of the people left on the ship, and all the cryogenically frozen people were in the shuttle and headed towards the planet.  From the information that Orion had left in the clues for Elder and Amy, they knew that there were "monsters" on the planet.  And on their way to land, they did hit something, and it did knock them a bit off course, but they still landed just fine.
But when they first try to leave the ship, they see one of the monsters, and Elder is even attacked by one.  Fortunately Amy is able to grab a gun and shoot it, and then get Elder back in and shut the shuttle back up to be safe.  As this is going on, the people that were frozen have been unfrozen, including Amy's parents.  But there still seems to be a divide between the frozen, or Earthborn, and Elder's people, or shipborn as they are called.  And when Amy's father, Captain Martin, is unfrozen, he finds he is now in charge because of the two that Orion had killed.  And when he takes over, he reminds Elder of Eldest, or even Orion.  And Orion's warnings were that the frozen people would make the shipborn either slaves or soldiers, and it seems as if it may be that way.  Not only that, but it seems Captain Martin may be hiding something.  While Amy's mother and the other scientists are just thrilled with all there is to see and study on the planet, it seems that maybe there was a colony of humans that landed here before them.  Not only that, the monsters may not be the only thing they have to worry about.  What happened to that first colony?  There are signs of a possible alien race, and they may be defending their own planet.

In the end it all comes down to fighting for what the original mission was, fighting against these aliens or whatever is fighting them on the planet, or finding out how they can make this new planet their own.

Again, I just loved this story, and what a great ending to the trilogy!  And below is my picture with the author on the day I got this book!

Why NASA rocks!

I normally prefer not to blog more than one time a day, I feel it might be annoying to my followers, but I completely forgot about the awesome contest author Beth Revis was hosting until today.  And I only have one more day to enter!

If you've read her book series that started with Across the Universe, 2nd was A Million Suns - which had a wicked cliffhanger that I am dying to get my hands on the last book to figure it out, and that 3rd book is Shades of Earth, you know she must be a fan of space and of course so it naturally follows, NASA.

I, too, have been a huge fan of NASA, and it has been ever since I was a little girl.  I think my love of all things to do with space started with my maternal grandfather.  He was really into Astronomy and had a really nice telescope.  When we would go to his house to visit, he would talk about all that stuff, and I'm sure I hung on every word.  I still have the magazines called Odyssey that I read as a kid.  I even had a pen pal from the magazine for the longest time.  And she actually moved to my town when I was probably a teenager, I remember having a sleepover, but then her moving away again.  I think.  That was a long time ago.  I probably still have all my letters from back then too!  The movie Space Camp was out when I was in middle or high school, and I remember Bubblicious Bubble Gum had one of those contests that you had to send in the wrappers and you would be entered to win a trip to the real Space Camp.  I didn't win the trip, but in my first big contest win ever, I won some astronaut food packets!  I probably have those somewhere still too.  I'm a bit of a packrat, not only with books as I've mentioned before, but also with things that are sentimental to me.

Now as a science teacher I have an even greater respect for NASA.  The amount of resources that they provide, completely FREE of charge, for me to use in my classroom is amazing.  And when it seems that the budget keeps getting cut, not to mention how much I feel was taken away with losing the shuttle program.  As I discuss with my students when we study space, NASA and the space program has been responsible for so many things that we take for granted today.  I love having my students see how large the NASA budget is.  But then, showing them the comparison of that to the total amount of money the US spends, they are often amazed at what a small percentage NASA really gets.

Space has always been one of my favorite topics.  I am a science teacher, and love that space is part of my curriculum.  In fact, with the rest of what I teach the year, it is my favorite subject!  I love that with my Honors Class, I get to see some really creative projects with their assignments.  And it is the one time of the year that I have trouble getting through with what my plans are for the day because students have so many questions they want to ask.  And even though it may go away from the specific part of space we're talking about, they're always on topic and so interested!

Tell me, what do you think of NASA?  Of space even?  Would you be willing to go into space?  I think of writing a novel about such a story, but can't ever get myself started.  Maybe some day.  If I can just finish the other novel I have gotten the farthest on, I can make myself move on and start that one.  But for now, I'm going to just continue enjoying the wonderful stories told by Beth Revis and other awesome authors like her. And if you'd like to get in on the contest in the last few days of the month, follow this link:  The Month of NASA with Beth Revis.

And last but not least, while you're here, you can now follow me with Bloglovin.

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A Million Suns by Beth Revis

I think it was winter of 2010 when I first saw Across the Universe by Beth Revis on a display at the bookstore where I work part time.  The cover was so great, but the title made me think it had something to do with the movie by that same title from a few years ago.  A movie I wasn't a fan of.  But then, the cover kept drawing me back, and finally I picked it up and read what it was about and was hooked.  It seems there isn't much space science fiction for teens other than Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  And I do like that type of science fiction.  Especially the basis of the story.
You may have also noticed several posts from me lately saying that I've been disappointed, or that 2nd books in series just haven't been quite as good as the first.  In A Million Suns' case, that is sooooo not true!  This book was extremely good.  We had a mystery to solve, Orion, an Elder who went crazy and started killing the scientists and other people who were cryo-frozen, is now frozen himself, but has left a mystery for Amy.  Amy has to hide.  Now that Elder, who is now Eldest whether he likes it or not, took all the people on the ship off of the Phydus drug that kept them all calm and peaceful, they distrust Amy and think of her as a cause for all their current problems, lack of food, finding out that they haven't reached, and may not reach Centauri-Earth in their lifetime because of engine problems. 
Elder has a rebellion on his hand, in part led by one of his once best friends, Barti.  In the midst of trying to solve all the problems with this, along with trying to help Amy solve Orion's puzzle, Elder goes outside the spaceship based on one of Orion's clues, and WOW!!!!  What he finds is amazing!  I literally gasped at what he found outside the ship.  I won't spoil it for you, you need to read and be surprised just like I was.  But once again, I say this is a great sequel, doesn't disappoint at all, such a great 2nd installment to a series.  I am so ready to read the 3rd one now!  If only I could some way get the ARC of the 3rd book, that would probably make my year!  I've not read either of the two so far that way, but would love this time. 
Great, great, GREAT! book.  Go out and read A Million Suns as soon as you can!  And if you haven't read the first one, Across the Universe, yet, do that quickly.

Random Acts of Kindness June Wrap-Up

June was a great month for me to participate! Although I had one person I was going to send an ARC to who was too picky to get an ARC, I sent books to two other people, and got two books myself! Personally, I love ARCs. I feel special, because not everyone gets one. I got to read Matched way before it came out because of that. And even though my ARC doesn't have the really cool final cover, it's cool because it's different. I like different. And I'm not going to be picky for being given a book I want to read. Used works for me as well! Hint, to anyone who chooses to send me a book as part of July RAK. :-)

I think my goal for July will be to send to three different people. Although I'm a bit behind at the moment, I'll pick someone this week to get started.

If you don't know about RAK, it is sponsored by Book Soulmates. What you do is sign up and go to their site and post your wish list, or post it on your own blog. Mine is here on Amazon. Then you pick another person to send a book to from the list. The first month I did this I didn't get anything, but sent one book. This month I sent two books and got two back! After you sign up, you need to post on your blog about it so you can get other people involved as well. At the end of the month, do like I'm doing here and post your thank you list.

First I sent a copy of The Goddess Test to Jennifer at The Book Nympho. (I love that name!)

Then I got Across the Universe from Kate at Literary Explorations. So then I sent Kiss Me Kill Me to Becky at Stories & Sweeties.And then Becky sent me Shiver! Such a fun type of challenge to participate in. I encourage anyone to go sign up that enjoys spreading the love of reading!