From Goodreads:A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone--one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship--tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.This book is a dystopian sci-fi YA book. In this book, Amy is frozen to go to another planet to help build another earth for humans to live on. Her parents are important to the project so she is allowed as non-essential personel to travel with them. Even though she is frozen she still has consciousness but without a sense of true time. As she is awakened by consequence of another's foul action, she finds herself in a strange monoethnic and dull society. It's not just strange to Amy, but disturbing as well. As the book progresses, she finds a few friends among the "insane". One even being the future leader of the ship.
I really found this an interesting concept for a book. My main criticism is that I thought Amy was too easily lead by her feelings for Elder. Of course, you often get that feeling of a love too easily given in a YA book but, putting that aside, I found the world in this book very dark and foreboding place. Being on a small ship, you understand the need for tighter control than you would have on a whole planet, but the control is taken to the extreme and becomes a world you could have seen someone like Hitler aspiring toward. I wonder where the author could have taken this book if it was written for adults? As dark as it was, I could see this spiraling off into something even darker still. I really would love to read that book.
As a whole, I give this book 3 1/2 stars. I loved the world building on this novel. I received this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program and Razorbill and was not compensated for my review.
I'm really looking forward to reading this book. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteGood balanced review. I think world building can make up for a lot of faults in a book. But not everything of course.
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited to read this one, thanks so much for the review Melissa! I think I've gotten so used to some of the quick, easy-in-love relationships in YA that I've just gotten used to them though I do wish a few more would have the relationships be a bit more realistic. Glad to know the world building is well done:)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds quite different to anything I have read before, thanks for the recommendation.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts on this one Melissa.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered myself if authors are trying to-- I wouldn't say censor their writing-- but be more mindful of the YA audience because of the explosion of the popularity of YA books. As in you might want to write something dark but you have to keep it tame to an extent in order to reach a wider audience.
I love the cover for this one, and because of the hype, I was kind of expecting more from it. It ti easy to see that you enjoyed it, and I love WB, too, but I don't think I'll feel like I'm missing anything if it doesn't make it on my TBR.
Great review. Loved it.
@Missie, I do think they keep the audience in mind quite often. I think a adult book could have explored the darker themes more intensely either because of an adult's experience or because you could go further without huge repercussions. Might be a good subject for discussion. Hmm...
ReplyDeleteI got this one from Library Thing too :) I'm saving it for a 2011 challenge, when I'm done I'll come back and compare notes :)
ReplyDeleteSounds good, dystopian sci-fi, I do like those kinds of books. Too bad it wasn't darker then
ReplyDeleteI so cannot wait to read this book!
ReplyDeleteYour comment re what this book would have been like had it been written for adults touches on the YA/adult divide. Do you think the story's premise would have been given a more satisfying treatment?
ReplyDeleteSatisfying? Hmm... good question. I just think it would have been able to get into deeper as to what was going on in their "world". I think it just could have been really pushed and become more horrific as I would think that world would be if it was real. I can see why the author may not want to go there in a YA book but in an adult book I can see themes really pushed to the edge. Subtleties that may not be recognized in someone without a lot of life experience but more in an adult audience. So, perhaps for adults I think it could have been more satisfying in that way. Hope that was clear. :D
ReplyDeleteYou know I have seen this book around the blogs and such, but I really never paid much attention to it. But it sounds like a really good read. :) Thank for the review!
ReplyDeleteI agree. I can see this one being much darker as well and would love to read it with more grit like that!
ReplyDeleteI must admit... reading novels like this where there is confinement. I easily feel claustrophobic. I would never never want to be in a predicament like such!