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Tag Archives: sci-fi

I want to know and I want to know now!

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

book, fiction, sci-fi, science fiction, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner

*Sigh* … You know what’s really helpful when trying to keep to a posting schedule? Actually clicking the Schedule button.

What should have posted on Wednesday:

Those of you who know me are smiling and nodding. You’re used to hearing these words from me. Usually, it is in reference to some present or surprise which is being kept (very rudely I might add) from me.

This is not one of those times.

When I first heard the plot for The Maze Runner, I thought it would be similar to The Hunger Games. Kids in a giant maze/arena fighting to survive and escape. Sometimes the teenagers play nice and sometimes not so much.

I’m only a chapter or two in to The Maze Runner but I still don’t know what’s going on. In The Hunger Games you understood the back story–why the districts had to participate. In The Maze Runner, you’re dropped right into the middle. It’s as if instead of seeing Katniss volunteer to take Prim’s place, you start the book right as the bell sounds and everyone makes a break for it. I’m getting about as frustrated as Thomas that no one is telling me anything!

What about you? Do you want to feel the same confusion and wonder as the main character, or do you want to know everything while you watch them figure it out?

-Eliabeth

Book Review: Mount Dragon by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

21 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth, Reviews

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

book, book review, books, Douglas Preston, drugs, fiction, Lincoln Child, Mount Dragon, mystery, review, reviews, sci-fi, science, science fiction, vaccines

Mount Dragon

by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

genre: mystery, science fiction

Synopsis from Goodreads

Mount Dragon by Douglas Preston and Lincoln ChildMount Dragon: an enigmatic research complex hidden in the vast desert of New Mexico. Guy Carson and Susana Cabeza de Vaca have come to Mount Dragon to work shoulder to shoulder with some of the greatest scientific minds on the planet. Led by visionary genius Brent Scopes, their secret goal is a medical breakthrough that promises to bring incalculable benefits to the human race. But while Scopes believes he is leading the way to a new world order, he may in fact be opening the door to mass human extinction. And when Guy and Susana attempt to stop him they find themselves locked in a frightening battle with Scopes, his henchmen, and the apocalyptic nightmare that science has unleashed.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth, Reviews

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

book, book review, books, Cinder, Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer, review, reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, YA

Cinder

Lunar Chronicles #1

by Marissa Meyer

genre: YA, science fiction

Synopsis from Goodreads

Cinder by Marissa MeyerHumans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth, Reviews

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

book, book review, books, Catching Fire, dystopian, fiction, review, reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, suzanne collins, The Hunger Games, YA, young adult

Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2)

by Suzanne Collins

genre: dystopian, YA, science fiction

Don’t start Catching Fire unless you’re ready to read Mockingjay. I’m sure I looked like a raving lunatic with tears streaming down my cheeks for nearly the whole time I was driving with my audio book this past weekend. You have to get through some rather annoying Peeta-Gale love triangle drama that detracts from the seriousness of the storyline, but after that, everything builds to an incredible peek.

Summary from Goodreads

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before…and surprising readers at every turn.

Continue reading →

Do Half Books Capture Your Attention?

11 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth, Reviews

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

half books, Jason Mott, prequel, sci-fi, science fiction, The Choice

I’m not a fan of short stories. Rarely am I sucked into the story before it’s over, but I read them to pad my Goodreads Challenge list. Goodreads keeps reminding me that I’m 6 books behind where I want to be in order to read 24 books this year. It was with that goal in mind that I downloaded The Choice: A Prequel to ‘The Returned.’

I short 40 min. read, the plot is interesting–people are returning from the dead. How do the loved ones handle their return? Some have moved on with their lives, had more children, fallen in love again, married someone else.

At first, I was drawn in by the plot. “I might have to read the first book,” I thought, mentally spending my Audible credits. However, as the story progressed two things annoyed me. Mild spoilers follow.

Continue reading →

Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Ermisenda, Reviews

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

action, adventure, aliens, army, bear and sammi, ben parish, book reviews, cassie, cassiopeia, evan walker, fifth wave, human extinction, military, new adult, post apocalyptic, rick yancey, romance, sci-fi, the 5th wave, YA, young adult

The 5th Wave

by Rick Yancey

genre: post apocalyptic, action, adventure, aliens, young adult

Aliens, teens with guns, and a world upside down. This story touches on profound themes while also delivering an entertaining story. Find out why I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars!

Summary

the-fifth-wave(Taken from Goodreads)

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Review

I took this audiobook with me on my 12 hour roadtrip to Melbourne. I’m glad I did! I had heard some chatter about this amongst book tubers and decided to check it out when I had the chance.

I really enjoyed Cassie, the main female protagonist. She was funny, witty, and sarcastic. Some of the things she said made me chuckle. With my partner in the car with me, he also found plenty of what she said to be humorous. Since the setting of the novel is so sinister and desolate, it was nice to have the humor spice things up. Continue reading →

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

19 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth, Reviews

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

book, book review, books, dystopian, ernest cline, fiction, ready player one, review, reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, YA, young adult

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

genre: adventure, science-fiction, YA, dystopian

Ermisenda has already reviewed Ready Player One, but I wanted to throw in my two cents. I’ve had it on my TBR list for over a year and thanks to my new Audible account, I finally got around to reading it. I came in with high expectations and I was not disappointed. Keep reading to see if I agree with Ermisenda and gave Ready Player One a four star review or if I thought it was good enough for five.

Synopsis from Goodreads

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune–and remarkable power–to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved–that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt–among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life–and love–in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

Review

Amazing! I was gripped from the moment it stated, in part because I recognized the narrator. Wil Wheaton. Eureka, Big Bang Theory, Star Trek, Wil Wheaton. I was completely nerding out. I have no idea what Wade Watts looks like, because I had an eighteen year old Wil Wheaton in my head. Even though I grew up in the 90s and I’m not the gamer Ermisenda is, there were plenty of 80s references I knew. I didn’t mind the random tangents that occurred when a reference had to be explained because the plot was well paced and full of action. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but there was one point when I gasped and thought, “s**t just got real.” When billions of dollars at stake, people were not playing around. This was also the first time I’ve used the phrase, “wow, that kid has some balls.”

Ready Player One was a mixed bag of everything, with elements of fantasy, adventure, romance, and murder mystery, all wrapped up in a YA sci-fi package. One of the best books I’ve ever read. It also had some very thought provoking themes, for example:

  • If you only know someone online, how well do you really know them? Are you only seeing what they want you to see, or are you seeing them for who they really are without the prejudices of knowing their ethnicity, age, gender, or sexual orientation?
  • What would you do to win a billion dollars?

5 out of 5 stars.

amazonbutton2 copy-Eliabeth Hawthorne

To see what other books we’ve reviewed, or request a review, see our Book Reviews page.

Nerding Out to Ready Player One

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Eliabeth

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

book, dystopian, ernest cline, ready player one, sci-fi, science fiction

Ermisenda has already reviewed Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, but as she read a paperback, she hasn’t gotten to nerd out on the audio book. What makes the audio book special?

Wil WheatonI have never recognized a narrator before. Perhaps because I’ve never listened to amateur hour, I’ve not been able to appreciate the better narrators. All of them are great, no complaints. I’m sure publishers probably have their favorites, but I think of them as voice actors and treat it as expected that they should be good at their job.

Ready Player One is narrated by Wil Wheaton. I cannot think of anyone better suited to be the voice of (ironically) Wade Watts, a nerdy seventeen year old obsessed with the 1980s in order to win a billion dollars in a video game last will and testament. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he’s a character in Star Trek and Big Bang Theory.

I am now in chapter 15 of the novel and have been listening for almost three straight hours, unable to go to bed. S**t just got read. Despite the somewhat lukewarm review from Ermisenda, I’m in love with this book. I’m in the middle of seven novels right now but this is the one that has me captivated, maybe because I’m a little older than her and grew up on many of the books and films referenced in the book.

A full review will come; I REALLY hope this isn’t like Wallbanger, which started out wonderfully then crashed and burned.

-Eliabeth Hawthorne

 

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Ermisenda, Reviews

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

80s references, action, adventure, book review, books for gamers, dystopian, ernest cline, futuristic, games, geeky books, oasis, ready player one, romance, sci-fi, strong female characters

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

genre: dystopian, action, adventure, gamer, sci-fi, futuristic

Super geeky gamer-style adventure/action novel with copious amounts of 80s references. This is why I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars!

Summary

Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline(Taken from Goodreads)

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune–and remarkable power–to whoever can unlock them.

[…]

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

[…]

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready? Continue reading →

__inspiration: liquid drop art

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Ermilia in Ermisenda

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

art, corrie white, creativity, dutch artists, inspiration, life, liquid drop art, netherlands art, original ideas, sci-fi, water, weird surreal art, writing

Want to be wowed? Check out these amazing liquid drop artworks. Check out more work here by Corrie White from the Netherlands. I’m tempted to use one of these for a Picture it & write on of these weeks (maybe the White Lady?).

I love being amazed by such original ideas. It was near impossible to just select a few great pieces of hers. See the rest of her portfolio or share your favourite piece from down below.

They make me think about some kind of wacky sci-fi world. Otherworldly fungi, tiny water spirits, and the like. What do they remind you of? Does it inspire you at all?

– Ermisenda AlvarezLiquid Drop Art pichomeLiquid-Drop-Art-4 Continue reading →

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Ermisenda and Eliabeth are coauthors blogging about books, life, and everything in between. May Ermilia Blog inspire you today!

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