So .. it's about this 15 year old boy named Michael Vey and he has electric powers,he has had it his whole life. his mom knows it too so they try to keep it hidden and that is a bit hard for him since he was born with Tourette's Syndrome, and is always picked on. one day a bunch of bullies were hitting him and he got so mad he "pulsed' them and they were terrified of him after that day, the bad thing was someone saw electricity come out of his hands when he did it. it was his crush Taylor the head cheerleader and the prettiest girl in the high school, she saw what had happened.
Wonderfully exciting action that maintains just the right amount of suspense and energy from start to finish. At heart, this is a heist story; it just happens to be set in a universe of wonder: under the adrenaline are fascinating world-building and intriguing characters--of all shapes and sizes, far beyond human. And lurking somewhere in the background are enthralling science fiction considerations that keep simmering into awareness. It's not just action, but intelligent action. With excellently adept, unobtrusive writing. This is a universe I hope to visit again soon.
Er, no, that's not quite right. More like bleak, biting, and darkly satirical.
And far too real.
Though science fiction set in a near future, this is all about living at the lowest levels of the global economy, subject to extremes of imperialism, inequality, ethnocentrism, co-option, and poverty. It's an exploration of the dark sides of economic and cultural power. It's just that in this case it's the humans of Earth who have been colonized.
Thomas wakes up in the lift with no memory except that of his name. He is surrounded by other boys whose memories are also gone. They are in the glade, and it is surrounded by towering stone walls that make an ever-changing and limitless maze. It is the only way out, and no one has ever gone through it alive. But then a girl arrives, the first girl ever, and she carries a terrifying message.
In this futuristic novel, young Andrew Wiggin is singled out from a young age as different. He is a child of great ability; those in charge, as well as jealous peers, notice. Because of this, he is ostracized and targeted -- this hardens young Ender and prepares him for battle in Battle School. Here, he is forced to prove himself against all odds.
Overall, the book was a fast-paced, interesting read. It kept me engaged and was fun and easy to follow, but also had plenty of plot twists.
This is a book of ideas. A slight character story overlaid on a world of big ideas. Amusingly sad; sadly amusing. Consider, for instance, its beginning:
Sexual Responsibility is boring.
It isn't Ms. Brody's fault. She's a good teacher. She switches channels at appropriate moments, tases students who need tasing--zizzz-ZAAPPP!--and she only once got stuck in the garbage can beside her teaching station. She was a teeny bit weepy that day, but no drunker than normal . . .
Fifteen year old Aya has learned to hide from the men who hunt females, then auction off their breeding rights to the highest bidder. She has avoided capture and lived freely with a rag tag group of women in the mountains. But when she is caught by businessmen on a hunting trip, she must learn to fight to survive in a whole new way.
Over the course of two days, Ben and Maggie have met and fallen in love, only to die together countless times. They struggle again and again to resist the pull of their fate and time itself. Every time they come closer to breaking out of the time loop, everything becomes more deeply ingrained and more inescapable. They think up a desperate plan to break free and survive, but what if their only shot at not dying is to live apart?
In Zeroes we were introduced to a group of teens with unusual, mostly subtle superpowers who find themselves in an increasing amount of trouble with both drug dealers and the police, using the very powers that got them into trouble in the first place to get them out again. I liked the novel a lot, so when I found out about the sequel, I was very excited.
One day, brilliant colored spheres showed up, hidden all over the world. No one knows where they came from, but they make you have special abilities. Burn a pair and they make you a little bit better, whether making you an inch taller or better looking. The rarer a sphere, the more expensive it is, and the better improvement. When Sully teams up with Hunter, a girl skilled at finding spheres, they never expected they would find a gold, a color no one has ever seen.
