World War Z by Max Brooks

Genre: Fiction / Survival / Post-apocalyptic

Basically a book with various stories from the perspectives of many people in a war of zombies called World War Z.

Back Cover:

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time?  We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost?  Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the plague years.

What I thought:

I was actually kind of disappointed in this book.  I have previously read The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks and found it amazing, so I thought this one would be too.  In fact, World War Z has been quite a popular read.  I guess that just goes to show that popular isn’t always the best. 

Okay, now you probably think that I really hate this book.  Absolutely not.  I prefer stories driven by characters, where this one is characters driving a story about war.  War books were never really my forte.  I do enjoy some, but the majority of them just aren’t that amazing.  I’m all for the zombie phenomena, but this one left it hard to connect, and hard to relate to.  I couldn’t feel the characters fears, or their emotions.  The stories felt stale to me.  Some of the stories were interesting, but the majority of them felt rather mediocre at best.  This of course is just a matter of opinion. 

Could have been worse, could have been better.

Favorite quotes:

“Who cares who she was, or is?  She was there when I needed her, and for the rest of my life, she’ll always be with me.”

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

Errant Intern by Shawn Keenan

Genre: Dystopian/Medieval/Futuristic/Post-apocalyptic/Sci-Fi/Romance

This is a story about...well sometimes I'm unsure what it's about. Sometimes I felt like it was about being controlled, then fighting for freedom, but later I felt like it was all about love...

In this Dystopian, Medieval, Post-apocalyptic story Kip, a lowly intern goes on an adventure that makes him a champion. He helps lead a riot against the governments monsters: the Subjugators. Along the way he makes a few friends, falls in love and saves people, even those who seem completely unworthy of being saved. With his friends, can they defeat the Subjugators and become free in a world that wants them as slaves?

This books hard to get into. The themes really clash in this book, medieval, dystopian, futuristic, science fiction. I just felt like it didn't work. I was confused between Kip and Kian in the beginning, similar names. I also felt like some 'new' terms would have worked better if they would have been explained right from the git go, as an example: Generex. I tend to get bored if I'm not understanding words or terms. I find that it's best if they are right away defined. I'm not a fan of Kip, at all. Things that seem insignificant to the story get explained a lot more than things that seem important. I didn't realize what Generex even meant until almost near the end, it must have been subtly implied. The story is not very elaborate at times; there's a lot more that should be elaborated on, filler as it were, to make it feel more real; the story felt too rushed. Too many things didn't make sense to me as I read. The two main characters, Kip and Abbey constantly explode in each others faces; these are signs of an obvious emotionally abusive relationship. The ending felt inappropriate in my opinion.

So what did I actually like? The character Alabaster Siberius Winters talks a bit about the Generex history, he also has a really cool name so that doesn't hurt. I do like the card swipe idea, but it sounds like everyone can watch everything you're doing and control where you can go, so in a sense that would suck in reality. On the plus side, this book has some good quotes and I like the idea of the retractable weapons, though it felt a bit too much like lightsabers. The subjugators are interesting bad guys, but I'd like more details about them. Overall this book as potential, but I feel like it could be expanded on more thoroughly.

I leave you with some good quotes from the book, and at the bottom, my rating. This is the first book I've rated so low in a while. I was extremely harsh on this novel, but for what I saw as good reasons.

Quotes:
“If you’re looking to make a little money on the side like I do, you might want to apply somewhere else. You’d have to wax your legs to make this dress work on you." (Abbey to Kip)
- Shawn Keenan, Errant Intern

“It sounds like you aren't used to having something so powerful between your legs," Abbey said. "Maybe you should let me drive.” (Abbey to Kip)
- Shawn Keenan, Errant Intern

“You're going to be too busy being at my beck and call to worry about doing any driving.” (Kip to Abbey)
- Shawn Keenan, Errant Intern

“Don't mind her," Kip said to Nicki. "She's just crabby from the long ride." "Yeah, I've been riding with...I mean on...a horse's ass all day," Abbey quipped.
- Shawn Keenan, Errant Intern

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Genre: Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian/Young Adult

This book is about a crumbling US government that devised a way to control the people with a thing they call The Hunger Games.

Back Cover:
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before--and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.


I was expecting something entirely different than what occurred in this book. That's not to say it wasn't a good book. Reading the back cover had me intrigued. As I read I felt slightly less intrigued, but continued to read knowing that sometimes it takes about 100 pages to get into a book. The more I continued to read the more I found myself feeling for Katniss and all the hardships she must face during The Hunger Games. I felt myself tear up a couple of times. We get to understand Katniss, but I think, she still has a lot to learn. I'm curious to find out what happens in book 2. If you're interested in a corrupt and brutal government, this is the book to read.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: Sci-fi/Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian

The Windup Girl is set in a Steampunk Thailand. The story starts out with a man called Anderson who owns a factory that's failing in many aspects. Later we meet Emiko, our Windup-girl, who is a genetically engineered Japanese girl, who gets mistreated, but finds a renewed reason to live. Cibiscosis and blister rust go around like a plague making everyone deathly sick and food inedible. The world we come to know in this book is one that's very dark and depressing. Everything is genetically engineered from humans, to animals, to food.


Synopsis from goodreads.com:
What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of his award-winning "The Calorie Man" and "Yellow Card Man" in order to address these questions.

First let me say, this book was nothing like I expected. I didn't expect it to be so dark. That's not to say I didn't like this book, but I'm sure it's not a favorite of mine. The book takes place in a Steampunk Thailand which was different than anything I've ever known, so kudos to something unique. Sometimes the book is hard to follow, I guess because it has a lot of filler junk. I felt a bit of happiness when Emiko finds her strength. After getting into the book I guess I really had no expectations for the outcome. I did feel though, that it could have used something more...I'd have liked for the story to have a lot more about Emiko, since she's The Windup Girl as the title suggests. I felt like they should have described the diseases better, though I guess they weren't that important to the storyline. I did like that Emiko developed through the story, however, the ending kinda left me empty. Overall it was an okay book, worth a read if you're into something different and strange. This book is definitely a strange one, but with a unique story.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.