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We take our freedom and role in the world for granted, but what would you do if humans were no longer the controlling species on earth anymore? One of my biggest fears developed, Icons is the story of an alien invasion and the world that develops around their arrival.
Dol survived the day. The day the Icons came to Earth, they destroyed land and lives in their efforts to swiftly and violently take over the planet. They succeeded. Now, Dol, Ro and the other survivors hide in the lands beyond the grasp of the Lords who provide the Icons with manpower for the work to be done. While being a Lord is certainly an easier life it also means selling your own kind to a life from which they never return. Dol has always been intrigued by electronics and other mysteries from the time before the Icons, but she never thought there was more to her life than hiding.
When Dol and Ro are taken, they are brought to the Embassy Headquarters. It is there that Dol realizes just how different she and Ro really are. Meeting Lucas and Tima leads to one very clear conclusion- they are all unusual and special in a way that humanity has never seen. Dol can control people's emotions. Ro can agitate people. Lucas and Tima have other talents, but Lucas is also the son of the Ambassador. Together, they learn more about the world than they had ever expected, and it isn't promising...
We first met Margaret Stohl with Kami Garcia in their Gothic supernatural story, Beautiful Creatures. When authors collaborate before you have read their independent work, there is always the nagging question of what they would be like without their co-author. I was always very curious about this pair, because some of Creatures was brilliant while other pieces were a struggle (ending much?!). Now that I have read a book from Garcia and a book from Stohl, I have to say I think Garcia is the stronger writer. Not that this was a bad book or uninteresting, although it certainly suffered from some dry, difficult spots. Instead, it just wasn't as good as Garcia's Legion series, which really never had a dull spot.
It's hard to put my finger on what exactly the problem was for me. I liked Dol well enough. She didn't annoy me or anything, but she also wasn't the kind of heroine I wanted to fight for. She was just ok. The only character I truly loved was Tima, and we just don't see enough of her. I guess this book just had too many dull spots that made it difficult to trudge through to the next exciting part, but I am still planning to read the second book. I hope Stohl is able to get her groove back by then!
There are good authors and then there are authors who have made some kind of Faustian deal. Everything they write is brilliant. For me, Rick Yancey is one of those authors. Having followed the Monstrumologist series from its beginning, I couldn't wait to see what Yancey did with The 5th Wave, an entirely different kind of story. All I have to say is, Rick Yancey, you didn't fail me brother!
No one can predict what would happen if an alien race decided to invade earth, but we can pretty much bet they wouldn't travel all that way to just make friends and coexist. The 1st Wave began when they took out all the power. The 2nd Wave took advantage of our tumultuous planet and its fragile fault lines. The 3rd Wave used our own viruses and spread them through a innocuous and beautiful species, our birds, turning them into the carriers of the plague. After the 4th Wave, no one could be trusted. They looked like us, they talked like us, and the Others had fully infiltrated our kind. But the 5th Wave. That was pure genius. Evil genius, of course, but genius nonetheless.
Cassie has lost everything, but only her brother could still be alive. After failing the one truth about this new world (Trust No One), she lost her brother to the Others. Now, she will do anything to get him back, but she has no idea where they took him. She misses the days when her biggest worry was whether or not Ben Parrish, the boy she had a crush on, even noticed her. She never anticipated a world where she would be skulking through the countryside with an M-16 strapped to her back. When she is shot by a Silencer, she assumes her promise to find her brother will be broken, but Evan Walker's miraculous appearance could change the tides for Cassie. But will she break the cardinal rule? Can she trust him?
Meanwhile Zombie is at Camp Haven training to fight the Others with the rest of the kids. The training is brutal, but when you have the fate of the human species riding on your shoulders, you do anything you can. When he is saddled with a really young boy named Nugget, he should think of self-preservation and leave the kid to fend for himself, but there is something about Nugget that makes Zombie want to protect him. He can't fully explain it, but there is also something strange about the camp. Of course, digging too deep might reveal information Zombie wasn't ready to learn.
If I was a lesser person, I would have called into work just to read this book in one sitting. It was that amazing. Despite the length of the book, it read like it was 20 pages. Now, I have read Yancey's Monstrumologist series and loved every minute of it. It was witty and sharp. But this series takes Yancey to a whole new level. I don't throw the word genius around often, but Yancey truly earns that title. He knows how to write dialogue, suspense, human emotion, and everything in between. If you haven't read Yancey's work before, this is the place to start. You won't be sorry.
This world Yancey built is so twisted and so frightening, I couldn't stop reading but was simultaneously terrified to keep going. The Waves of destruction the Others washed down upon the world were so brilliant and horrendous at the same time, you will find yourself praying we never make that first encounter! But the tricky part is that the aliens, while the premise for the story, are really more of a background to the true story: the humans. The people on earth, fighting for their planet and their species, are the true meat to this story. The unflappable nature of people when all hope seems lost to pick themselves up and march on makes for a truly inspiring story. I loved this book, and I know you will too. It would be great for a variety of readers, adult and young adult. It is so exciting and enthralling, and no one's attention would wan from start to finish. So, my dearest Yancey, you are either a brilliant Other, or you are one tricky genius! Keep the stories coming, because brilliance needs to step out into the world!
