What??? ANOTHER book review?
Yes. Hehe. Here is the second book in the Across the Universe trilogy, A Million Suns, by the marvelous Beth Revis. Here is the synopsis provided by Goodreads:
It’s been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. Everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceshipGodspeed.
But there may be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to act on his vision—no more Phydus, no more lies.
But when Elder learns shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a mystery that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier. Their success—or failure—will determine the fate of the 2,298 passengers aboard Godspeed. But with each step, the journey becomes more perilous, the ship more chaotic, and the love between them more impossible to fight.
Beth Revis catapulted readers into the far reaches of space with her New York Times bestselling debut, Across the Universe. In A Million Suns, Beth deepens the mystery with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.
Reference:
I heard about this book from the first book!
Review:
(safe for those who haven't read this book yet)
Without ruining any spoilers from the first book, I'll try to be wary about what I say. In a nutshell, this book was amazing. It was fast paced, starting off at light year speed (hehe see what I did there?) and I can probably only think of two chapters that were sort of slow, but they didn't last long at all.
The relationship between Elder and Amy was so so, in contrast to their discoveries on the Godspeed and I found that while it wasn't dominant part of the book, I wish it was a little more of a conflict. I mean, I feel like Elder's affections didn't grow as much as Amy's. There was one moment where I thought he would grow a little in his love, but the devotion remained consistent since Elder first laid eyes on her in the first book.
My favorite character in this book is Orion. At the end of book 1 we discover yes he's bad, but honestly, he thinks the way he does because that's all he knows. The people on the ship are all he knows, the unknown frightens him. The people in the cyro chambers are alien to him, I would be terrified of them too. Especially the military soldiers, who are more violent than anyone eve is on the Godspeed. So yes, while I see how Amy hates him after wanting to kill her parents, I don't see him as evil as she does. This may be pity, or just an open mind into his very person.
My favorite character in this book is Orion. At the end of book 1 we discover yes he's bad, but honestly, he thinks the way he does because that's all he knows. The people on the ship are all he knows, the unknown frightens him. The people in the cyro chambers are alien to him, I would be terrified of them too. Especially the military soldiers, who are more violent than anyone eve is on the Godspeed. So yes, while I see how Amy hates him after wanting to kill her parents, I don't see him as evil as she does. This may be pity, or just an open mind into his very person.
I liked this book more than the first book because Ms. Revis combined mystery and suspense into this sci-fi almost flawlessly. Like reading an Agatha Christie novel (though on another level), I couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. While the last 40 pages were the most disappointing pages to me, I almost had to deduct half a star. (Discover why in the spoiler section below!)
I give this book 5/5 stars. My favorite book of the series!
Author's Quote:
“He's the only stable thing in the swirling chaos.”
― Beth Revis, A Million Suns
My Goodreads:
Next To Read:
Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
River Song's Spoilers:
(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)
I wasn't a fan of how Elder so easily forgave Bartie. I mean for the majority of the book, he was the problem! And then the explosion happens and all of sudden, he has a change of heart and is concerned for the ship dwellers. I didn't really believe it.
One of my favorite scenes was definitely when Elder went out in space and took his first glance on Centauri-Earth. At first it's such a beautiful moment, he's outside the "world" he's only ever known, taking in the vastness of the universe and how small he truly is. And then he notices how the Godspeed glows and discovers the planet. Oh, I shouldn't have been surprised, but if someone videotaped me, my eyes probably grew large in surprise with my mouth shaping a small "o". I mean, yes I know the last book is called Shades of Earth, they were bound to come upon the planet eventually, but all the same I was still surprised.
If this book ever became a movie, I'd have to say the moment I would probably tear up the most in was when Shelby died. Like, she was just sucked into space. It broke my heart. And the thing is I didn't really form a bond with her character, but when she died it still made me so sad. Not as sad as Harley, but considering I knew her less than him and she wasn't as round a character as him, it was still pretty shocking.
At the end of chapter 69, the very last paragraph, when Elder couldn't "recognize" Amy for the first time since laying eyes on her, was my moment where I was like "yes! he's going to finally doubt her, even if it's just for a page!" Yeaaahh, I didn't know it was literally going to last a page, he like forgot about it by the next chapter or so. No. Me. Gusta. It was in the last 40 pages or so I found Elder and Amy being so bipolar with their feelings, I was starting to get annoyed. And Amy's character was so different, so violent when she was always so helpless throughout the book. I mean, I think this book spanned the time of about a week or two. Probably not that short, but for sure no longer than a month, and she changed in too short a change. This is definitely a science fiction.
It bothered me that Luthor got off so easily. I wanted Elder to defend Amy, but I bet Ms. Revis didn't want to steer the book down the red-brick romantic road so she made it simple by having Luthor killed off so easily. Like it wasn't even a big deal. I mean, Amy built it up, always scared what Luthor might do when she crossed paths with him, but in the end she just discarded his body into space. It was too anti-climatic for me. A good portion of the first and second books were about Luthor terrorizing her and, ugh, I'm not going to go further into how I didn't like how that played out.
This book was perfect until that ending. When Doc was revealed to be the murderer, I wasn't really surprised. At first I thought it was Victria (which wasn't completely off...) but then that turned out to be wrong. However, I felt that the Doc he turned out to be didn't match the Doc throughout the first two books. I mean, he was so much more open to killing Amy and Elder, he had the entire book to do it, why not just do it before or at least try? If he was always going to remain more loyal to Orion, why not just unfreeze him as soon as Elder left the room? And if Doc had such a problem with Elder discovering the planet just beyond the ship's walls, why not just destroy the evidence that led Amy and Elder to discovering it altogether?
What troubles me the most was the end. It was the most anti-climatic part of the story. Ahh, I really didn't like the ending! Orion reveals to Amy, after sending her on a little treasure hunt around the ship that there's a planet, but oh no, that's not the big news: it's dangerous and not habitable for people! Well duh! That was why they brought military soldiers, to form protection for the scientists as they began to try and build a society suitable for Earthians. And Elder's mentality at the end for bringing him with them to Centauri-Earth was stupid. I'm sorry. He deep down, after going through soo much trouble to keep everyone on the ship, wanted to go to Earth as much as Amy and Elder?? I don't think so. When he is awoken in the next book which I'm sure he will be, he'll only be trouble. But hey, a new planet isn't enough of an antagonist apparently.
A question, at the end of the day why was it Amy's choice? Just because she was a native Earthian? If anything her choice would be even more biased above them all! Of course she'd want to get out of a ship she'd been trapped in for 300 years!
Ultimately, my biggest question is how come Harley never saw the planet in the first book, especially since he looked out through the door for many nights? If they could see the planet through the same door they could in the first book, how come it wasn't visible now? I mean, the ship doesn't stay still, I'm sure it rotated at least a little bit, at some point the window would've seen the planet and someone would've seen it.
Honestly, I guessed that when they discovered the planet was not far from the ship, it was going to turn out being just Earth. And for some reason, no one on the planet ever made contact with the Godspeed.
Until Next Time,
Nicole Ciel
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