The Gifting, The Awakening, The Gathering – KE Ganshert
I ended up reading this trilogy for a Carpe Librum swap. I’d had the first on my Kindle app for a couple years, but never read it. I enjoyed it enough thatI bought the next two, and read them in quick succession.
It’s set 20 minutes into the future, where religion is more or less outlawed. The laws of science and common sense prevail, and while you can be Catholic or Buddhist, you have to practice at home, and generally keep it quiet. Tess’s family is not religious, and she herself thinks religion is bunk.
However, she keeps having nightmares, and visions of scary dark shadows during her waking hours. After a problem involving a Ouija board, her parents pack up and move to California, so she can get counseling help from a private company. They don’t want her to turn out like her grandmother afterall.
Once in California, Tess discovers a lot is not like it seems. There’s Luka, the boy next door, who can also see the dark shadowy things, and Dr. Roth, a psychologist that seems unusually interested in her dreams and shadowy visions. The more she gets to know Luka, the more she learns, and the more in danger she becomes.
The trilogy was a decent one. I started wondering partway through book 2 if the author was a Christian author, as there seemed to signs of it. She is, although that doesn’t detract from the story. There’s really no mention of religion. Tess, and the people like her, are more focused on not letting evil overtake the world than they are on religion or which religion is right.
It’s a complicated, ambitious trilogy and the author handles it well. I enjoyed the whole thing, and I think it was well executed. People aren’t just tropes or stereotypes, and there are some real stakes for Tess and the rest.
Royal Captives – Michael Pierce
Second book in the Royal Replicas series. I enjoyed the first one well enough, but didn’t immediately jump on reading the second. It took me a while to get into this one, I ended up starting it over a couple times.
It follows Victoria as she deals with the fallout of being one of several clones created of the Queen’s daughter Amelia, who has a degenerative disease, and cannot rule the country once the queen dies. Victoria has fallen for Prince Byron, and was to be named the new princess Amelia, except the Queen forbid it. Now, Victoria’s trying to piece together a plan to save the other clones and keep things together.
I’m having trouble managing a more coherent summary, because I don’t remember a lot of the book. I remember the ending, as there’s some twists and unexpected things, but I don’t remember the middle 40% of the book. The ending was quite the series of turns, and did compel me to pick up the third book to find out what the hell is happening next.
The Savior’s Champion – Jenna Moreci
The second book from Jenna Moreci, and not related to the first, she calls this one a dark fantasy novel. In the land of Thessan, there is The Savior, a woman who keeps the land fertile and green, the enemies at bay, and ensures prosperity. When she turns 20, a tournament is held in her honour, to find her a husband.
Tobias doesn’t care about the tournament, but he does know the money he earns in it will help his widowed mother, and injured sister. So he enters, is selected, and ends up with more than he bargained for.
I was lucky enough to get the first 5 chapters by pre ordering the book, so I was ready for it on release day. I chewed through the entire thing in a hurry. It’s an enjoyable read, although it’s bloody. Really bloody. 20 men enter the tournament, and 1 is supposed to make it to the end. In the first day, there are 3 deaths. Moreci doesn’t shy away from the blood and guts and fighting in the book, and there are some pretty gory injuries.
Leila, the healer sent to aid the fighters, is an interesting one. She’s complicated, with a fiery temper and sometimes she’s quick to judge. She’s been a member of the palace staff all her life, and views the palace itself as a prison. She’s not free to venture past it’s walls, and that chafes at her. There’s definite chemistry between her and Tobias from the start, which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the torment between them: he’s there for The Savior, not a healer, but his heart isn’t listening.
And He Built a Crooked House – Robert Heinlein
Somehow I ended up reading this thanks to TV tropes, and I don’t even know why. It’s a short story about an architect that creates a house in the shape of a tessaract, or a 4th dimensional shape, and then takes his friend and friend’s wife to see it.
Things go kind of pear shaped when they realize it’s not so easy to just leave the house, and that a house with the shape of a tessaract is not so easy to navigate. Eventually, they get out, but then there’s a new problem.
It’s a fun short story. Feels dated, but it was written in 1940, so that would be why. I had trouble wrapping my head around the tessaract shape, so I looked it up, and then things made more sense. Still, fun short read.
Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut
I loved this, and I swear I’ve read it before. It’s set in 2081, where it’s been deemed everyone must be equal. So, if you’re stronger than average, you carry weights to offset it. Prettier than average? You wear a mask. Intelligent? You wear a device that frequently scrambles your thoughts
Harrison’s parents are watching tv, having forgotten their son was taken from them by the Government because he needed additional handicapping. He’s smarter and stronger than most, and keeps outgrowing the handicaps, so they take him. Suddenly he appears on the television, and lots of things go down.
This is unsettling on many levels, and a great read. The idea of forced equalness is unsettling. I consider myself brighter than the average. I certainly doubt I’m stronger or prettier, but I do think I’m above average in intelligence. The idea of having to wear something that would scramble my thoughts periodically so I’m not smarter than others is unsettling. And the way they treat Harrison when reality ensues, is a sad, but realistic way of handling someone so much above the rest of humanity. The very end, with Mr. and Mrs. Bergeron made me sad. Acceptable, but sad.