Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I would probably have given this book 4 stars. Unfortunately, the constant switching between third and first person, with no warning, made this book very hard to read at times.

I thought that the new take on the zombie theme was a really unique one, especially given the link-ins to Brer Rabbit, though I could definitely agree that the name (and title) carried racist connotations, so I was very hesitant to use the actual name.

While it was good to have the opportunity to see the effects on a smaller area of something like that, I did struggle with my suspension of disbelief when it came to the police officer handling things. To be honest, the first several chapters had me assuming it was a satire. While there were more serious aspects later on, I found it very hard to take a bus driver’s refusal to abandon their route, when instructed to by a police officer, seriously.

I really did like the descriptions of the tarbabies, though it was hard to picture how they could have moved around at all, given how sticky they were described as being. One thing I found quite interesting was the fact that, although the majority of them seemed to be driven to ‘go forth and multiply’, there were a few that seemed more harmless. I did, however, feel that a trick was missed when no one attempted to communicate with the creatures through those in the process of being infected.

I did especially like the relationship between Josh and Libby. While I did think Libby was quite physical (even if it was meant to be in a playful, non-threatening way), I enjoyed their interactions and felt they really did care about each other.

One thing I particularly liked was seeing how different people saw the tarbabies. It was good to see that, when faced with the prospect of their own mortality, some people chose to make the transformation… and I couldn’t blame them.

I probably felt the most sympathy for Brandon as a character. While he and his brother seemed to be somewhat lacking in the common sense department, it did seem they really wanted to try to help; and it was pretty awful to see that Brandon was hurt so badly by trying to do the right thing.

I thought it was good to see Libby and Josh have to figure out how to get to her parents, given the roads were blocked. I thought it was good to learn a bit more about the creatures, but I found their supposed weakness to be quite confusing.

I thought it was good to see some semblance of society try to keep going, but I would have liked to see it on a bit of a wider scale. While the ending of the book was a little confusing, it was good and I did find the plot held my attention throughout. I would be interested in reading the next book/s in this series in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Again, though I have read and enjoyed this book before, I liked being able to read it again… even though I remembered who the real bad guy was before I started reading it again.

I have to say, I was really surprised to see that Lucky got away with as much as he did. I felt I would have liked to see him face some more consequences of his actions… at least from his superiors. While there were certain times he did need to act on his own, I felt he didn’t act with a whole lot of maturity, even though I did like his character and seeing his friendship with Bigman, along with his relationship with his uncles. I was left with some confusion about exactly how many people were involved in the Council of Science.

I especially liked seeing Bigman’s loyalty to Lucky, although I felt that he seemed to only have a couple of characteristics that were exaggerated, rather than having the opportunity to get to know him a bit more in depth.

I liked the fact that I saw a bit more emotion from Lucky in this book, though I did feel that he was a bit too good to be true at times. I did like seeing him using his mind and it was good to see he didn’t just trust his safety to his mask all the time. I could really understand his reasoning behind not becoming reliant on it.

It was interesting to see Lucky try to infiltrate the pirates and I did like seeing more of the world in general, as well as learning about things such as the pushguns. It was nice to see that Lucky wasn’t perfect in everything and that he had to use his brain to survive.

There were some good elements of tension, but not as much as I would have liked… even though it was good to see things like the surface of the sun. I felt there was too much talking and I didn’t really get to see much of Lucky’s thought processes as he worked out what was really going on. I felt that Bigman saw more action than Lucky did… even though Lucky did get into a couple of fights.

I did, however, enjoy reading this book and I have the next four books in this series. I definitely intend to read them and see more of Lucky and Bigman and their adventures.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was one book I read originally years ago, but recently decided to re-read the series. And even though there were parts of it that were cliched, it remains one of my favourite science fiction books.

One of my favourite parts of this book was the friendship that formed between David and Bigman. While David did seem like a character who was a bit too good to be true, there were problems he had… and I enjoyed seeing glimpses of his relationship with his honorary uncles, even though the book was really too short to allow me to see much of his history, apart from what was stated in the narration. At the same time, the reflections of David’s past made me feel a lot of sympathy for him as a child.

I thought it was really good to see something of how the food poisoning would affect the residents of Earth, especially considering just how many people were still on Earth. Even though the information about Mars was outdated, I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to picture a lot of what had happened on the planet. I enjoyed seeing the effects of the gravity change and how different the culture on Mars was.

I did think that David could have come up with a better story than he did when he first went to Mars. While it was good to see that there were conflicts between him and many of the Mars workers on the farm he joined, it did seem fairly obvious who the bad guys were… or at least some of them. It would have been good to see a bit more of the world in general, but I did like seeing some of the technology used, both on Earth and Mars. I would have liked a bit more background on the things like emotions being linked to exposing the colourless tattoo, for example.

I really liked the opportunity to see what the real natives of Mars were like and it was also interesting to see how the communication through minds worked. And the Space Ranger itself was a really interesting idea, with an air of mystery added that I really liked seeing.

While I would have liked to see the book expanded upon, I did really enjoy reading it and I’m sure I would read it again in the near future.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I thought this book was quite an intriguing concept, though by the end, to be honest, I didn’t really feel it had lived up to its potential.

I felt it was a good idea to have the book read as if it were non-fiction. There were some aspects that were really quite interesting, particularly when it came to the different accounts given by Julia’s brother, sister and parents about her. I was very intrigued by the way each of them saw her and it was good to get an idea of some of the events that might have shaped her through childhood.

The real problem was that I felt this book didn’t really live up to its potential. While it was clear that Clare was obsessed with Julia, to the point that there were several different versions of her rather than none, I had very little clear detail about Clare herself. Apart from towards the end of the book, there was no focus on the victims of the attack. Even when Julia’s parents mentioned them, there was little in the way of reaction from Clare. And despite the observations she made at the end of the transcripts, I had the impression that Clare herself was just acting as a recording device.

The character I felt the most sympathy for was Amy. Whether she was perhaps unhealthily dependent on her sister wasn’t important so much as the fact she was clearly unstable… and just as clearly, everyone had washed their hands of her. While not a victim in the same way as those killed by Julia, I felt she was still a victim through the way she’d been treated; and the fact she’d been forgotten about didn’t really sit well with me.

Even by the end of the book, I had very little clear idea of Amanda and Laura’s real personalities. Everything about them was coloured by Clare’s perceptions… but as a reader, I was given hardly any chance to see and judge what they were like for myself.

While there was quite a bit of tension throughout the course of the book as it led to a confrontation with Julia, I somehow felt that the events after that fell somehow flat. While I could slightly see her point about words not having any effect, there was no clear resolution; and I felt that Clare’s actions seemed very at odds with how I thought she would have progressed.

There was a lot of potential in this book, but I felt Clare wasn’t well-defined or very sympathetic as a narrator. I felt the book could have been improved by more showing rather than telling. I didn’t feel this book was one I would read again.