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When your options are dying in a spaceship that is slowly shutting down or descending to an unknown planet possibly full of monsters, you realize your choice will be life or death either way. Amy and Elder chose the latter, and the new planet might be scary, but in Beth Revis's Shades of Earth, the real fear comes from the things you know rather than the ones you don't know.
The landing is far from smooth, but Amy knows landing means she can finally unfreeze her parents and the rest of the Earthborns. The problem is the shipborns- they don't trust the Earthborns. When they finally unfreeze the group that was meant to make the transition to the new planet safer and more efficient, Elder realizes Orion's prediction may have been correct: the Earthborns were either going to make them slaves or soldiers. But the Earthborns know how to use their weapons, and with crazy pterodactyl-like creatures trying to eat them, guns can come in handy.
But the creatures on the planet aren't the only thing to worry about. When people start going missing, and Phydus (the ship's crowd control drug) is found in the systems of the dead and the creatures, the group begins to realize something fishy is happening on the planet. They find ruins that were clearly made for humans, and Sol-Earth still hasn't contacted them. They fear that the extra 200 years they were trapped in the ship may have made them a lost cause and they are now left to survive on their own. But people keep disappearing and an explosion on the shuttle destroys all their food and weapon reserves. So whether or not Earth can hear them becomes the least of their problems. Instead, the Earthborns and the Shipborns have to come together for one purpose: survival.
This series was one of those runaway successes that just got better and better with each book. The story was interesting on a claustrophobic ship, so with a new planet to explore, it was even better! My one criticism was that I wanted more of the new planet. I wanted more and more creatures! But I suppose I have to be satisfied with what I got, which was still pretty great! The added conflict between the Earthborns and Shipborns just made the story that much more interesting. After all, the idea of who has the upper hand in such a situation is so subjective, you will find yourself rooting for someone different with each turn of a page!
This is a fabulous story for either a science fiction fan or someone who prefers modern novels. The series is gripping enough to hold anyone's interest over the three books. In fact, while the ending was solid, I still wish the story would continue on the new planet. There are some interesting discussions to be had regarding the technology in the book as well. For instance, how fast does technology out-lap itself? Become obsolete? While we don't have 500 years to run an experiment, I am sure showing our students a cell phone from 10 years ago, or better yet, one of those car phones in a bag, will certainly drive the point home! This series is a beautiful expression of technology, human emotion, and basic human instinct all wrapped into one!
Life is about perspective. The idea of spending your entire life stuck in a spaceship (granted a really really big one) can be either a life doomed to claustrophobia and dreams of the outside, or it can feel safe, like the only home you have ever known. Perspective can mean the difference between contentment and a desire to find anyway to change. In Across the Universe, Elder and Amy couldn't be more different if they tried: one born on the ship and meant to lead, and one born centuries earlier on earth and just included to pacify her important parents. But Amy's removal from the frozen state sent everything on ship Godspeed hurtling down a new path. Now, in Beth Revis' sequel A Million Suns, we find out just how far off the beaten path the ship has gone.
After learning about the problems with the ship and the decades of lies that have been passed around, Elder is determined to fin out just how far off course the ship has been blown from finding their new planet. He isn't prepared to learn the ship actually hasn't moved for years. Now that he has removed the sedative from the ship's system, all the citizens of Godspeed are less like zombies, able to think for themselves, and ready to stage a mutiny. Elder wasn't ready to take the leader's position in the first place, but he certainly wasn't ready to be tested so quickly. Now he must find a way to keep the ship together and still find the planet they were supposed to reach decades ago.
Amy knows she may never see her parents again since she was unfrozen and they must stay frozen until the ship lands. She barely survived Orion's crazed attacks, but with him safely frozen, she doesn't have to worry about him anymore... until she finds the messages he left for her that hold the secrets about the layers of deceit and mystery that have seeped into every part of the ship. Now she knows she has to follow Orion's clues and messages to find the truth behind the Godspeed. Unfortunately, even though Orion is safely frozen, that doesn't mean Amy is safe. On a ship where everyone is the same, there is nothing normal about her and thousands of people blame her for everything that has gone wrong since she was unfrozen. Can Amy get to the truth behind the lies before the ship is torn apart one piece at a time?
When I started this book, I knew a major part of the story was going to be the people, now out of their drug-induced haze, and how they needed to be controlled or reasoned with. But I really didn't want this to be the whole book. Fortunately, Amy's part of the story gave that nice touch of newness and excitement to the story that made Elder's part, controlling the ship's people, still interesting. I liked the fact that the chapters alternated between the two characters as well. Sometimes you finished an Elder chapter and were like, "What? What happened?" and had to rush through an Amy chapter to find out, and vice versa. This made the story really interesting and made me plow through it quickly! It also keeps the story from getting monotonous, especially since each character was dealing with their own situations. The mystery behind the ship is like an onion. Every chapter peels back a layer of lies only to expose another layer beneath. You think you know what is going on with the ship only to find out it was just another web of lies! And when you finally, after so many lies, get to the truth, you won't believe your eyes!
This was a wonderful follow up to the great first book. It ends in a way that will make you furious you have to wait until next January to read the final piece of the trilogy. The ending opens up a third book that is going to be just as exciting, maybe even more so, than the first two. The writing is clear and easy to read, but there are some situations like rape and murder occurring on the ship. The descriptions aren't gratuitous, but the situations are there. I think this was a great second book and am happy a friend recommended this series! Literally Can. Not. Wait. until the third book- it's gonna be legendary!
How far will the world go to save humanity? Will the financial crisis make us go where we have never gone before? Beth Revis's Across the Universe explores just how far our world, in all its messes and disasters, is willing to go to ensure humanity has a second chance at life.
Godspeed is the ship designed to take humanity to the outer reaches of the universe. It will take 300 years for the ship to reach its destination- the new Earth. In order to ensure people with special abilities make it to the new planet, they are frozen cryogenically and another crew of people lives and survives on the ship. It is big enough to be like a speeding city in the sky, but over the course of centuries, a lot can go wrong. When Amy is woken up on the ship before she is supposed to be, her awakening becomes the catalyst that exposes everything wrong with life on the Godspeed.
Amy was awakened accidentally, or so Eldest and Elder and Doc thought. Eldest is the leader of the ship and Elder, 17 years old, is his replacement. Elder learns everything Eldest teaches him, but he knows there are things the old man is keeping from him. As Amy, a girl who remembers her time on Earth so many centuries ago, starts to question the strange, zombie like people that live on the ship. As she becomes the insight of discord, she finds herself on the wrong side of Eldest. But her questioning leads Elder to find out just what it is Eldest has kept from him. As more bodies are thawed from the cryogenic freeze, and a few are murdered, they all suspect Eldest. However, the problems with the ship and the people living on it go deeper than any of them could have imagined.
I know this book has been out for a while, but I just never picked it up until now, despite the recommendation from multiple trustworthy sources. There it sat on my "to be read" shelf, staring at me for months. I wanted to read it at a time when I could sit down and really plow through the story in one fell swoop. What I didn't expect was a gripping story I would finish in essentially one sitting! It was SO exciting and interesting. I could NOT put it down! The idea of being frozen for over 300 years and waking up to a whole new social dynamic is both terrifying and exciting! And the way Eldest and the Eldests that came before him twisted Earth's history to appease the masses and control them was masterful. They actually twisted Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address to illustrate Lincoln's support of separating the races to eliminate the races (difference was the first cause of discord) and send anyone of African heritage back to the African Continent. Amy was the catalyst that blew the top off all their lies and deceit, and boy did it get ugly!
This is a great Science Fiction/Dystopia cross-over that gave the space junkies enough to sink their spaceship teeth into but still enough corruption to make the dystopia addicts happy. It was a great balance of the two and could interest any type of student. The language is fairly simple, and most of the scenes are scary, but pretty mild. There is one near rape scene that was scary, but not particularly graphic. I would suggest this series for a wide range of students, and the great news? The sequel is out in a couple of weeks! Yeah!
