This Shattered World Review

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Title: This Shattered World

Author: Amie Kaufman; Meagan Spooner

Series: Starbound #2

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: December 23, 2014

Genre: Fiction; Futuristic; Science Fiction; Romance

Pages: 390

Format: Hardcover

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Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

These covers SUCK!! The stories are great, but ohmygod the COVERS! Someone needs to take a class or something in the art of covering books. Honestly, it’s lucky I even picked these up.

The story of Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac is classic Romeo and Juliet kind of stuff. With a tad bit more arguing and reluctance, of course. Jubilee is stubborn and untrustworthy of everyone. Flynn is the leader of a rebellion, making him a number one enemy of Jubilee and her troops. After Flynn kidnaps Jubilee in the search for answers, their tumultuous story begins.

With the repetitive use of “star-crossed lovers” and “out-of-this-world romance,” you’d think this novel held nothing but angst and horny declaration of love, all set in outreaching planets of the universe. Thank all of the book gods that this isn’t actually what the Starbound series is about. If anything, I’ve could’ve done with a little bit more romance; it’s just my expectations were raised so high and they weren’t all really met, which made me a little sad.

Tarver and Lavender make a reappearance, and this makes me one superbly happy camper. Their story was better than Jubilee and Flynn’s, but what can do? Sometimes you’ve just got to accept that sequels usually fall short of their predecessors.

Spooner and Kaufman make one hell of a team. I didn’t think you could write a good novel with more than one person, but these two ladies make it possible. They’ve done an impressive job, both with These Broken Stars and This Shattered World. Besides the covers. The covers really do need some work.

Overall, a good job. I was happy with the outcome, and I’m looking forward to the last installment of the Starbound with a mixture of anticipation and sadness that it’s really ending. But, nothing gold can stay, am I right?

Their Fractured Light

December 1, 2015

These Broken Stars Review

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Title: These Broken Stars

Authors: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Series: Starbound #1

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Publication Date: December 10, 2013

Genre: Science Fiction; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 374

Format: Hardback
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It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. 

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help. 

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

I’ve been waiting for a good space science fiction book, and it looks like I finally got what I asked for. When I saw the quote on the front of the book broadcasting that Marie Lu liked it, I thought, by golly, if Marie Lu liked, then I better like it as well. Now that I’ve read it, I have to say Ms. Lu has impeccable taste in books.

Very reminiscent of Beth Revis’s Across the Universe, (you can find her praise on the back cover), this novel blends romance with cut throat survival and an enthralling plot. Lilac LaRoux is a legend’s daughter, untouchable by anyone, no matter their status. Tarver Merendsen (cool name, right? I thought so too…) is a war hero, a not-so-rags-to-riches storybook character. He is invited into the high-class parties, but he is not one of them. When calamity strikes the ship Icarus, it is only with the help of Lilac that they both make it off the doomed ship. Now they are stranded together, two people who don’t get along, and definitely would not be seen in the same room together in other circumstances, let alone helping one another. As their differences subside and mysterious secrets are unraveled, will they even accept the help of the rescuers they so badly wanted in the beginning?

I think the writing is what really sold me These Broken Stars. It is so simply elegant and surreal that you can’t help but love it. Written by two authors, it brings a writing style that is so beautiful and unique that you can’t, just can’t, stop reading it. The amount of time it took for me to finish this book? One and half days. Yeah…it’s that good.

While Lilac could be hopelessly helpless and frustratingly stubborn in the worst way, she grew on me towards the end (and thank god because I was about to hate the book just because of her). And Tarver. Oh my goodness, Tarver. If there’s one thing that Kaufman and Spooner know, it’s how to make a love interest to swoon over. Utterly unrealistic and probably never going to happen, of course, but a girl can dream can’t she?

I commend you Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner for putting on a performance I couldn’t stop watching and I enthusiastically ask for an encore. Bravo! Fablisimo!

This Shattered World

December 23, 2014