Monday, July 4, 2011

Review: Across the Universe

This book counts towards the Debut challenge.




Amy is told that when her body is frozen, she will go to sleep and wake up again 300 years later, on a new Earth.  But fifty years before the scheduled landing, Amy's pod is unfrozen.  She finds herself trapped inside the Godspeed, the giant space ship carrying hundreds of frozen bodies - including Amy's parents - and the strange world of Eldest.  The ship's living population has never known another world, and they are entirely under the control of the tyrannical and cruel Eldest.  With Elder, his teenaged heir, Amy discovers that the Godspeed holds many secrets.  She doesn't understand the Eldest's world, and she can't stop dreaming of an Earth that is centuries behind her - and her parents, frozen and unaware.  Who can you trust, in a world where you can never belong?

Entertainment:

This book really kept me in suspense - every page, I was dying to know what would happen next!  It was seriously intense.

Plot:

Like I just said, super intense.  It was unique, at times jarring, exciting, and a little creepy.  The ending was amazing - bittersweet, semisweet, I don't know how to describe it, but it was beautiful.

Also, the world-building was incredible.

Characters: 

Amy was okay - at times she came off as a bit bland.  Elder was awesome - I loved his personality, his inner conflicts, the way he matured over the course of the story, and even his slight moral ambiguity.  The villain(s) were interesting, believable, and even a bit understandable and relatable.  Overall, I thought the characterization was great.

Writing:

Quite well-written.

End Result: five stars.  An excellent book.  Read it.

2 comments:

  1. The villain(s) WERE "interesting, believable, and even a bit understandable and relatable." That was, in our opinion, the best part of the book. Thanks for the great write-up!

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  2. I agree, the villains were one of my favorite parts of the books too. And thanks!

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