[Book Review] Kinetic

Kinetic

(The Luminaries 01)

By S.K. Anthony

September 20, 2013

Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

Links:

Goodreads // Amazon // Barnes & Noble

Being strong is one thing. Being an unlimited source of power is quite another.
Genetically altered by the Organization, Annie Fox takes down criminals CIA-style with her luminary strength. With nothing to mend but her broken heart, she is relentlessly pursued by her boss Derek Lake. Just when Annie is about to give him a chance, her ex-husband unexpectedly comes out of hiding.

A wanted man, Nick Logan is a cold-hearted murderer who is considered enemy number one, and orders are clear: kill on contact. He is more powerful than ever and threatens the lives of those she holds most dear. His plan? Get his hands on Annie and use her Kinetic energy to destroy them all. When Annie finds herself with an opportunity to end him, she pauses, horrified by the scars covering the face she once loved. A split second that will cost her everything…

[Book Review] A Boy and A Girl

A Boy and A Girl

Jamie S. Rich (Author)

Natalie Nourigat (Illustrations)

December 31, 2013

Oni Press

Sci-Fi, Contemporary Romance,

Graphic Novel

Links:

Goodreads // Amazon // Barnes & Noble

Travis and Charley have just met. It's Charley's last night in town, and Travis can't let her leave without getting her to go on a date. In a future where real people are rapidly being supplanted by lifelike androids, sometimes one shot is all you get! Intelligence may be artificial, but the emotion is real in this futuristic romance from the writer of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her and the cartoonist behind Between Gears.

[Book Review] Freak of Nature

Freak of Nature
Author: Julia Crane
Date Published: February 2, 2013
Publisher: Valknut Press
Genre: New Adult, Sci-Fi, Contemporary Romance

Links:

Goodreads // Amazon // Barnes & Noble

Book Info:

Donate Body to Science. Check. 

When seventeen-year-old Kaitlyn checked the box, she never suspected she’d have her life–and her body–stolen from her. She awakens one day in a secret laboratory to discover that her body is now half-robot and is forced to hide her own secret: that she still has human emotions and a human mind. If the scientists who made her find out, they’ll erase what remains of who she was. 

Kaitlyn finds an unlikely ally in Lucas, a handsome, brilliant scientist who can’t get over the guilt he feels knowing she was once a vibrant, beautiful young woman. He never expected a science project to affect him the way she does. As he tries to help her rediscover her past, he finds himself falling for the brave girl struggling to find her place and acceptance between the human and computer worlds.

Rating:

★★★★★

[Book Review - Series] Delirium, Agony, Ecstacy

Debt Collector Series

Author: Susan Kaye Quinn

Genre: Sci-fi, Cyberpunk, Dystopia
Series Set Links:  Amazon // Barnes & Noble

Delirium (Part 1)
Goodreads // Amazon // Barnes & Noble

Book Info:

What's your life worth on the open market? 

A debt collector can tell you precisely. 

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn't what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone--a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again.

Rating:

★★★★★

[Book Review] The Mad Scientist's Daughter

Title: The Mad Scientist's Daughter
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Date Published: January 29, 2013
Publisher: Angry Robot
Source: ARC
Genre: Science Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Rating: ★★★★★




Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble


Book Information:

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter is the heartbreaking story of the journey from childhood to adulthood, with an intriguing science fictional twist.

There’s never been anyone - or anything - quite like Finn. 

He looks, and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task is to tutor Cat. 

When the government grants rights to the ever-increasing robot population, however, Finn struggles to find his place in the world.

Review:
Engrossing, touching, heartbreaking - a story that cements the adage 'Love knows no boundaries'.

I'm not usually one to sound sappy and melodramatic. In real life, I'd be the kind of person in your group of friends that you'd least expect to ever sound emotional. Hysteria and feelings are just not my turf, but this story - oh, this story brought out all the feels in me that I just don't know where to start!

I suppose a fair warning is in order. I feel that whatever words I come up with cannot truly describe just what a gem this story is. This review is a mesh of the many things I felt in this roller coaster of a story. If some things don't make sense, I shoulder all the blame for my insufficiency in describing the many eloquent emotions this story has brought me.

Now then, for the review.

The story starts with an ordinary girl who lives a very extraordinary life. Being the daughter of two very smart scientists gave her an inquisitive mind, and being a child gave her boundless energy. Cat's parents chose not to enroll her in the usual educational facility for her age. This made Cat's early childhood enviable but very different than that of the other children.

Cat's world became a little more colorful upon the arrival of Finn, a humanoid robot. He became her tutor and constant companion to the point that Cat never thought of him as being any different from her or her parents.

Through the pages of this book, the reader gradually witnesses Cat's transition into her teenage years and finally, her adulthood. She struggles through life as any normal person do, the main difference is her deep relationship with Finn.

While it's clear at the onset that Cat and Finn had grown very fond of each other, it's also true that a romantic relationship between a human and an android was simply abnormal. It's ridiculous, completely illogical and taboo, especially since androids were treated more as machines. This was something Cat struggled for years, even until she was married. But of course, she couldn't deny the fact that she was head over heels in love with Finn.

Just to bring up a logical perspective into the story, yes, an android is technically a machine. It's made of wires, screws and metal parts. No matter how humane it looks, it will never be a human. It's behavior and actions were all programmed and created by man, so it can never be human. In short, an android can't possibly feel any emotion at all, much less love. But in this story, Finn wasn't just an android. He's so much more!

If I were to describe Finn, I'd say that Finn is an android. He's an android who can lie, an android who can love, and an android who can feel passion.

“There is nothing else like me in the entire world, said Finn. "That's what you wrote. I'm the only one. I can't tell you what it means to be the only one of my kind," he said. "I can't...There is a lack in myself. But your thesis almost filled it in. It was...a start.” - Finn, The Mad Scientist's Daughter

Personally, when I began reading the story, I came to loathe it. I loathed it for the simple fact that at the back of my mind, I knew it was going to make me shed tears. And I was right. It made me cry, and I hate crying. But I couldn't stop reading it despite the fact the I loathed it because I simply have to know the ending to Cat and Finn's love story.

Then came the parts in the story where I felt my heart breaking bit by painful bit. I felt my heart reach out to Cat, but I also couldn't help but mourn for Finn. They are two characters which really hit me straight to the heart! And the odd thing is, if I were to re-live reading the book, I would no doubt, say yes.

Had I known in the first place just how heartbreaking and angsty this story was, I wouldn't have picked it up. But now that I'm through reading it, I'm glad I did. It's definitely a story that I would carry with me in my favorite list for the rest of my life.

Just to set the record straight, this isn't the first story I've read about a human girl and an android. The first one was a manga (Japanese comics) by Yuu Watase entitled Zettai Kareshi and premiered in Japan way back in March 2003. I became such a huge fan of the manga that I also watched the live Japanese series (with subs, of course), and even the Taiwanese live series remake. It would suffice to say that in both the manga and the live remakes, I cried buckets of tears. So I wasn't in the least bit surprised when this story made me tear up, too.

All in all, this story is very engrossing. It's the kind that draws you in with its quiet charm, breaks your heart into pieces, and when everything comes full circle, you'd still love it!

[Book Review] The Uninvited

Title: The Uninvited
Author: Liz Jensen
Date Published: January 8th, 2013
Source: ARC
Genre: Sci-Fi, Suspense, Adult Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

Links:

Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

About the Book:

A seven-year-old girl puts a nail gun to her grandmother's neck and fires. An isolated incident, say the experts. The experts are wrong. Across the world, children are killing their families. Is violence contagious? As chilling murders by children grip the country, anthropologist Hesketh Lock has his own mystery to solve: a bizarre scandal in the Taiwan timber industry.  

Hesketh has never been good at relationships: Asperger's Syndrome has seen to that. But he does have a talent for spotting behavioral patterns and an outsider's fascination with group dynamics. Nothing obvious connects Hesketh's Asian case with the atrocities back home. Or with the increasingly odd behavior of his beloved stepson, Freddy. But when Hesketh's Taiwan contact dies shockingly and more acts of sabotage and child violence sweep the globe, he is forced to acknowledge possibilities that defy the rational principles on which he has staked his life, his career, and, most devastatingly of all, his role as a father.  

Part psychological thriller, part dystopian nightmare, The Uninvited is a powerful and viscerally unsettling portrait of apocalypse in embryo.

Review:

A haunting and spell-binding book that pushes the reader to think and examine the world in a whole new perspective. Hesketh Lock shall seduce you with his awkwardness and amaze you with his origami prowess! (LOL. I've always wanted to say that when I was reading the book. And it actually rhymes!)

The beginning of the book is gruesome as it paints a young child murdering her own grandmother with a nail gun. There was no motive, no warning and the whole thing was unprecedented. Then, we delve into the story through Hesketh Lock's point of view. 

Hesketh Lock has Asperger's Syndrome, making him a cut above the rest. He's not very good with personal relationships and with social interactions as a whole. The fact that he's attractive and good-looking cannot compensate for his weirdness, but his talent in spotting trends and patterns makes him an asset to the company he works for.

Personally, reading the story through Hesketh's thoughts took some time to get used to, but after a while, I found him adorable. He's awkward, weird and different, but I think that's part of Hesketh's charm as a character. Despite his highly logical nature, he's loyal and caring, especially to Freddy.

I also appreciate how Hesketh was portrayed consistently throughout the book. Some of his comments to other people could seem impolite and improper but they sound completely normal to Hesketh, and this was one of the things that I really found hilarious. (And I admit that this sounds odd because this is a suspenseful book. All I can say is that I have weird taste.)

The truth was, I was expecting some sort of magical explanation about the erratic behavior of children from all over the world. I expected the plot to be something along the lines of Hesketh finally letting go of his overly logical nature and accepting something that science cannot explain. Then he'll do something that could actually reverse what was happening. In the end, though he did realize that he was the last one to accept what was happening and that everything could not be explained by science, he simply remained as another casualty in a war to save the Earth.

Oh, and the best part about this book is how everything fell into place. How everything must succumb to the children and revert back to the old ways in order to save the Earth from man's greed and abuse. I cannot overemphasize how much I enjoyed this book. Not only is it suspenseful and haunting, it also sends an important message about Earth and nature.

[Book Review] The Athena Affect

Title: The Athena Effect
Author: Derrolyn Anderson
Date Published: August 30, 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Romance
Source: ARC from Author
Rating: 4/5

Links:
Goodreads


About the Book:

Country girl Cali has been kept a secret her entire life, raised in isolation by two very troubled people. Despite her parent’s disturbing fits, Cal is perfectly content, living at one with the nature that surrounds her, and finding adventure inside the pages of her beloved books. When an awful tragedy tears her away from her remote cabin in the woods, nothing she’s ever read has prepared her for a world that she knows very little about. 

Girls and motorcycles are what bad-boy Cal’s life is all about. Brought up in a raucous party house by his biker brother, he’s free to do as he pleases, going through the motions on his final days of high school. Aimless, Cal stopped thinking about his future a long time ago. 

Attacked by a gang of thugs while running an errand for his brother, Cal is in serious trouble until a fierce girl appears out of nowhere to intervene. She chases off three grown men, sparing Cal a brutal beating before disappearing into the night like a spirit. He can’t stop thinking about his mysterious rescuer, and when she turns out to be the weird new girl at school who goes out of her way to avoid him, he can’t contain his curiosity.

He’s never met anyone like her before, and the more he learns about the unusual girl who shares his nickname, the more he wants to know. Cal can’t help falling for Cal, but can he keep her from falling victim to a dangerous enemy from her parent’s tragic past?

Review:
Perfectly combines the innocence of first love and the thrill of a sci-fi adventure!

Story-wise, genetically modified children of people who participated in science experiments isn't exactly something new. In fact, this is the same prevailing plot in Stephen King's Firestarter. However, the way The Athena Effect was conveyed made it engrossing, memorable and different.

I really loved the two characters as well. They were very different yet they became friends and soon discovered a person to love with each other. Also, the way their interaction with each other was portrayed was very interesting and heart-warming. Seriously, the way that love bloomed between them made me swoon and smile like an idiot.

Also, I think that Caledonia poses serious competition to Katniss Everdeen in terms of skills in hunting and survival. Come on! The girl fought off a leopard and lived to tell the tale! But seriously, I can find myself relating to Cali because she's an awkward turtle in a high school setting. I love how she could look like a complete dork but could actually kick ass when the situation called for it. I would love to read more about her growth as a character!

As for Calvin, I found him really endearing and lovable because he was literally swimming through life without any direction at all, until he met Cali, and that was the biggest change in him as I read through the story. Although he grew up in a not-so-perfect environment, underneath the bad boy persona, Calvin was a good person, and he can be counted on to do the right thing when given the chance.

All in all, I really enjoyed this story! It's heart-warming but at the same time, it's engaging! And I would love to be able to read the second book in this series! =)