Review: A Million Suns

A MILLION SUNS
Beth Revis
Razorbill

Warning: this review contains spoilers for the FIRST book in the Godspeed trilogy, Across The Universe.

With Elder as the new leader of Godspeed, things are different. He's determined to lead his people without the use of Phydus and to face the truth of what's wrong with Godspeed. This is, of course, more complex than it at first seems as it quickly becomes apparent that Godspeed's problems are deeper than he ever imagined and that, without Phydus or the firm leadership of Eldest, the society on Godspeed is falling apart. While some people are depressed, others still take their newfound freedom to new heights, demanding a change in leadership. Meanwhile, food supplies are dwindling and Amy's on her own quest to discover what lies at the end of the mysterious clues Orion left for her as well as struggling with her feelings for Elder.

I am so glad I kept reading this series. In my review of Across The Universe, I stated that it was a book I wanted to like so much more than I actually did, but that the world was complex and interesting enough to keep me interested in the sequel. As it turns out, I was right. A Million Suns is the rare sequel that actually surpasses the first book. It's complex, mysterious, interesting, and all the different plots are woven together so neatly. As in the first book, there's a series of murders, but there's also so much other stuff happening. Dwindling food supplies. Rebellious or depressed citizens. For Amy, there's the threat of Luthor (the man who attempted to rape her in the first book) around citizens of Godspeed who still regard her as a "freak." Elder has to contend with being thrust into a position of power at a young age, and must somehow gain control of the ship's population all while he tries to fix the numerous problems - most of them hidden from everyone else - that are happening. Elder and Amy's storylines fit together perfectly and while I still sometimes had some trouble differentiating between their voices, because everything else was so good it bothered me less this time.

Though I wasn't a fan of the reveal of the murderer near the end of this book (the scene felt a little overwrought to me), the ending itself was fantastic, with the different storylines coming together so nicely and a perfect set up for the last book in the trilogy. Having read this second book in the series I can say that I definitely recommend the Godspeed trilogy for anyone wanting a good, honest sci-fi series. Call it dystopian if you want, but this book (and series) is so solidly sci-fi and I love it for that.

Review: Across the Universe

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Beth Revis

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for months, waiting for the new year to read it. This is the first YA sci-fi I've found and it takes place on, as the cover says, a "spaceship fueled by lies." Amy is a teenage Earth girl who was cryogenically frozen 250 years ago - before the ship took off for it's 300 year journey to a new planet. Elder is the teenage heir to the ship's tyrannical current leader, Eldest. Together, Amy and Elder must not only keep Amy safe aboard a ship where she's labeled as a "freak," but also figure out who keeps unplugging the cyro chambers, killing the people inside of them.

The premise here - murder and lies aboard a spaceship - is fantastic like woah. However, despite the description on the back cover of this book there are lots of little subplots inside that sometimes distract from the main story. Elder's interest in his biological parents is a subplot that doesn't really come in until the very end of the novel and other storylines, such as Harley's story and the character of Luthe, felt either out-of-place or like they should have been bigger than they were. The murder mystery aspect gets forgotten for a time, so much that when it came back into the story I'd almost forgotten about it. However, despite the many storylines the ship's mysteries are incredibly interesting and make this sometimes-slow-moving book a page-turner.

While a few of the characters seemed a little one-dimensional, for the most part they were awesome and realistic as they dealt with life on the ship. The two lead charcters, Amy and Elder, were especially awesome - Amy as she navigated her way through a world where everyone just seems a little bit off and tries to make peace with having to live with these people for the rest of her life, and Elder as he tries to protect Amy and find out what secrets Eldest is hiding from him. Probably the biggest issue I had with these characters was the fact that after a while Amy and Elder's voices (the book is told from their alternate POVs) started to sound very similar and I sometimes had to double-check whose chapter I was reading.

I can't review this book without talking about the setting. OH MY GOODNESS THE SETTING. There is a whole world on board the spaceship called Godspeed, and though it's very obviously a dystopian society it didn't remind me at all of other dystopian books I've read. Here, everything is the same. There is one race, no religion, and most everyone on the ship seems incredibly empty-headed, incapable of believing anything different from what Eldest tells them to believe. The exception here are the "crazy" people in the Ward, including Elder and Harley, who almost seem like real people. The outlooks on art, sex, and individual thought is bizarre to say the very least. 

This book was different from what I was expecting. There were more mysteries, more intrigue, and less romance than I was expecting. And though I didn't totally love it, I did like it quite a lot and now I find that I can't stop thinking about it. Across the Universe is one of those books that I want to like more than I do, that's different from what I expected, and that I'm eager for the sequel to. Yeah, all of that.

*Across the Universe comes out Jan. 11